The Argosy - Nov. 26/15

Self-deprecating (but in a cute way) since 1872

News pg. 2

Arts pg. 5

Mount Allison University’s Independent Student Newspaper

Sports pg. 10

Opinions pg. 12

November 19, 2015 Vol. 145, Iss. 9

Science pg. 14

DIVESTMENT

Mt. A student activists protest fossil fuels in Ottawa Students engage in civil disobedience outside of prime minister’s home

Humour pg. 15

PUBLIC EDITOR

The media and the logic of terrorism Kevin Levangie Public Editor

Photo caption Name/ 0Instution

Non-violent protesters blocked traffic on a downtown Ottawa street during a four-day-long demonstration to demand climate action. Alex Lepianka/Submitted

Taylor McCuaig News Editor A number of Mount Allison University students took part in demonstrations organized by 350.org, an online petition site. The demonstrations took place in Ottawa outside of Prime

Minister Justin Trudeau’s temporary home, Rideau Hall, as well what is intended to be Prime Minister’s official home, 24 Sussex. Students delivered letters and water samples from the Bay of Fundy and Waterfowl Park.

All the students from Mt. A who joined the demonstration are part of Divest Mt. A, a group of student ac-

tivists looking to push the university administration to take interest out of the fossil fuel industry.

The demonstrations spanned from Thursday, Nov. 5 to Sunday, Nov. 8.

Students organized on the principle of civil disobedience without any threat of violence, said Alex Lepianka, thirdyear commerce student and Divest

Mt. A organizer. “Those willing to risk arrest sat in front of 24 Sussex and Rideau Hall to show that they were not leaving and that their voices need to be heard and taken seriously,” said Lepianka.

‘Demonstration’: Pg. 3

FOOTBALL

Mount Allison Mounties fall to St. FX in AUS Loney Bowl Nathan Dix Sports & Health Editor

The football Mounties were in search of their third straight AUS championship on Saturday as they took on St. FX. Unfortunately, the Mounties fell short in a close defensive battle by a score of 14-12. This was a very disap-

pointing result for the Mounties as they had finished in top spot in the AUS standings, giving them homefield advantage for the championship game. In the cold and wet weather, neither offense could gain much momentum throughout the game. The return of star running back Chris Reid was a kind of rallying point for the Mounties, his presence giving them a

lot of confidence going into the game.

With passing yards being hard to come by in the gusty wet conditions, the X-Men were able to focus a lot of effort in stopping Reid and confining him to short gains whenever he carried the ball.

The game started out well for the Mounties as they opened the scoring with Ryan Lambert launching

the kickoff through the end zone for a single point. Before the end of the quarter, the Mounties extended their lead to 3-0 with a great defensive stand deep in the St. FX half, forcing the XMen to concede a safety.

‘Loney Bowl’: Pg. 10

Much of the public discourse of the past week has been concerned with the attack in Paris, with people offering sympathy and condolences to the city after what many have called “senseless violence.” ‘Senseless’ suggests that the attackers had no motivating purpose and that the attack is beyond comprehension. In fact, the purpose of such acts is in large part to sow fear and division in hopes of intensifying conflict. In that sense the attack was highly effective, aided by racist Western demagogues and a history of lazy and inflammatory media reporting.

The limitations of various news media are part of the problem. The presentation of fact without attention to historical background is taken as unbiased journalism, instead of understood as relying on the reader to interpret the events through their own ideological lens.

Instead of examining the political and economic circumstances which drive people to political violence, we will instead label the attacks “senseless” and the perpetrators madmen.

Anything else is ideologically uncomfortable, as we might discover that the actions of Western governments and economic interests have fostered a climate of despair and political and economic exclusion around the world.

The way in which the media reported the bombing in Beirut is illustrative of the problematic role the media play in magnifying certain acts of violence while downplaying others.

‘Media’: Pg. 13

News

Editor: Taylor McCuaig | November 19, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

Cont’d: Mt. A students take part in demonstrations to demand action on climate change “Each day had a different theme,” said Lepianka. “[The themes were] associated [with] gifts, including literature on the impact of climate change and Canada’s role in the damage that fossil fuel extractions are causing [as well as] treaties that have been violated.”

According to climatewelcome[dot] ca, the event’s website, environemtal impact reports were presented on the first day of the demonstration.

The reports ranged from a scientific paper which confirms that 85 per cent of the tar sands are unburnable, to a report by 200 North American academics outlining the necessity of a tar sands moratorium, economic studies on carbon risks and documents identifying the climate impacts of pipelines like Energy East and Keystone XL. There was also a study outlining an increase of fatal diseases associated with the tar sands expansion in downstream indigenous communities.

Emma Jackson, Mt. A alumna and previous Divest Mt. A organizer, attended the second day of the demonstration. Jackson said the day was very youth-focused.

“This is the world that we’re inheriting,” said Jackson, who said the youth involvement in this day was particularly important as it represented youth and youth-led movements.

On Nov. 6, a gift of one million messages was presented from various people across Canada against the tar sands and pipelines.

On Saturday, Nov. 7, the gifts were centered on the theme of water, and the presentation was led by indigenous women. Mt. A’s activists brought water samples from both Waterfowl Park and the Bay of Fundy along with notes from 46 students. The day’s demonstrations were also anti-pipeline focused. “[The pipelines] can’t exist if we actually

Mt. A students join demonstrations in Ottawa to deliver gifts of water samples from Fundy and Waterfowl Park to Trudeau. Alex Lepianka/Submitted want to ensure our waters and lands remain healthy,” said Lepianka.

The demonstration ended on Sunday on a hopeful note, said Lepianka. The prime minister was given a set of solar panels to install at 24 Sussex. Lepianka said the panels were left at Rideau Hall. Leaving

these solar panels was done to show the hopeful transformation from a fossil fuel-dependent society, said Lepianka.

Many have critiqued the demonstrations as Trudeau has just been elected in the office, said Jackson. She agrees that it’s not fair,

but said it was necessary. “Time is of the essence […] when climate change is such a problem,” said Jackson.

The demonstration was also planned before the election and was going to happen regardless of who had been elected, said Lepianka.

“The idea was to let the prime

minister-designate know that there are some serious obligations that need to be understood with respect to actual action on climate change, and leadership in transforming the Canadian energy economy into something that is sustainable.”

ADMINISTRATION

Mt. A asks for feedback on new Integrated Strategic Plan First community consultation session focuses on guiding principles Sylvan Hamburger News Reporter Mount Allison is encouraging students, faculty and staff to give their feedback on the new guiding principle draft statements which will lay out the framework for the university’s current strategic planning process.

The draft mission statement reads, “Students are at the center of everything we do at Mount Allison University. We prepare students to know themselves and the world through the provision of a liberal education in a dynamic, immersive and supportive environment.”

Grant said the mission statement is intended to help the Presidential Advisory Committee on the New Integrated Strategic Plan (PAC)

understand Mt. A’s purpose as an institution.

Throughout the planning process, the PAC will use these guiding principles to develop the university’s new strategic plan. The first community consultation session was held in Tweedie Hall on Nov. 5.

The New Integrated Strategic Plan will focus on academic matters, research, student affairs, university advancement, facilities and infrastructure. The PAC has developed a series of guiding principles that outline a mission statement, a vision statement and six value statements.

Karen Grant, Mt. A provost and vice-president of academics and research, moderated the first consultation session. She outlined the guiding principle draft statements and asked those who were present for any feedback or revisions. “The real

essence here is on what do we do and whom do we serve […] answers to those questions should guide us in all that we do,” said Grant.

A number of the session’s participants, including some students, felt students should not be “the center of everything” at the university, as stated in the mission statement.

Participants felt that groups such as staff, faculty and the Sackville community were also central to what Mt. A should strive to encompass as a university. At the meeting it was concluded that the PAC would discuss a modification of the mission statement’s first sentence to expand on purpose of the university.

The session went on to discuss the draft vision statement. The draft principle states, “Mount Allison University aspires to offer students a transformative educational experience. We will become a leader

in active learning in the humanities, social sciences, sciences, and creative arts, and thus ensure that students acquire skills and sensibilities that will lead to success in their chosen fields.” Grant said the purpose of this statement is to be aspirational.

There was discussion about including a notion of sustainability, local involvement and an inclusion of marginalized groups into the vision statement as well. There was also confusion surrounding the ambiguity of the word “sensibilities” in the draft.

The session concluded with the review of the draft value statements.

The six values are academic excellence, academic integrity, respect, connection, sustainability, and equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Overall, those who were present felt that the draft was not in need of any additional value statements.

The majority of feedback focused

predominantly on the wording of the value statements.

There will be an additional community consultation session held at 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 23 in Tweedie Hall. Grant said the PAC is welcoming feedback on the guiding principles until Nov. 30. The PAC will discuss any feedback generated from these consultation sessions. The committee aims to have concluded the entire planning process by the end of Aug. 2016.

The Argosy | www.argosy.ca

NEWS

TUITION

MASU issues statement against separation of correspondence courses from tuition Naomi Goldberg Politics Reporter This week, the Mount Allison Students’ Union released an official statement in opposition of an independent correspondence course tuition. As of the winter 2016 semester, correspondence courses will no longer be included in Mount Allison full-time student tuition.

Instead, each three-credit course will cost $746.50. The New Brunswick government has imposed a tuition freeze on public universities, which is one of several initiatives intended to reduce student debt in the province.

While charging an extra sum for correspondence courses is not technically an increase in tuition, any full-time student who takes a correspondence course will be paying more per semester.

The MASU’s university ombudsperson Josh Johnson said the university could theoretically lose funding from the provincial government by charging for correspondence outside of tuition fees. Despite the tuition freeze, Mount Saint Vincent University raised tuition and there have been no consequences as of yet.

“This is not a tuition increase.

It is a change in the university’s billing practice with respect to correspondence courses taken during the fall and winter terms effective Jan. 1, 2016,’’ said Karen Grant, Mount Allison provost and vice-president of academics and research.

The MASU issued a statement to The Argosy which stated, “This tuition increase creates a financial barrier for full-time students who want to take correspondence courses.”

The statement also added that “this may lead to fewer students taking correspondence courses, which could give the university reasonable grounds to eliminate or further restrict correspondence course offerings.”

Johnson said the billing change will affect international students most, as they will be paying $1,400 more per correspondence course. International students’ tuition is already much higher than the tuition of Canadian students.

Mt. A’s enrolment has decreased, which has led to cuts to courses, making it difficult for some students to reach course requirements, said Johnson.

The university attempted to cancel certain correspondence courses for the current term but withdrew the decision when the Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA) filed grievances.

In most Canadian universities, the amount of tuition students pay depends on the number of credits taken. Mt. A is one of few to charge a fixed tuition fee for students

3

This Week in the World Compiled by Caity Brawn Attacks in Paris kill 129, injure 352 A series of coordinated attacks in Paris killed at least 129 people and left another 352 injured last Friday, Nov. 13. Three teams of gunmen carried out the attacks, targeting France’s national stadium, a concert hall and a series of cafés. ISIS has taken responsibility for the attacks, commenting that Friday’s attacks were the “first of the storm,” alluding to plans of future attacks.

6.5-magnitude earthquake hits Japan Last Saturday, Nov. 14, a 6.5-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of Kyrushu, a Japanese island. The earthquake triggered a small tsunami, resulting in tsunami advisories being put in place for southern parts of the country. No major injuries from the event have been reported. Nuclear reactors situated in the nearby city of Sendai were within the affected area. Fortunately, no abnormalities were discovered in the reactors after the event. The tsunami warnings were quickly lifted and the earthquake, initially estimated to be of magnitude 7, was lowered 6.5.

Suicide bombs in Baghdad kill 26 ISIS took responsibility for a roadside bomb and suicide blast that killed 26 people and wounded dozens in Baghdad, Iraq last Friday, Nov. 13. The suicide bomb was detonated at a memorial service that was being held for a Shia militia fighter who was killed in a battle against ISIS. The explosion killed 21. Later on Friday, a roadside bomb was detonated at a Shia shrine in Sadr City, killing five people. There have been significant civilian casualties in Baghdad since the emergence of ISIS extremists.

Five Ukrainian soldiers killed during ceasefire Five Ukrainian soldiers were killed in eastern Ukraine over a period of 24 hours starting last Friday. This death toll is the highest since a ceasefire was declared with pro-Russian separatists two months ago. The fighting has declined since early September, however there have been a number of ceasefire violations.

Under the ceasefire deal, both sides are meant to have most of their front line weapons withdrawn as a plan to end the conflict. Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko commented that “all losses are related to the combat clashes with sabotage groups.”

International students may feel the pinch of the change of tuition for correspondnce courses. Patrick Allaby/Argosy taking three or more courses. For this reason, students pay more than $746.50 per course and it is profitable for the university to offer fewer correspondence courses.

However, the MASU states that “the increase in tuition would not make the correspondence courses break even, but rather turn a profit and is designed to balance the university’s budget on the backs of students.”

According to the MASU, the university cites a net loss of $12,000 from the correspondence course program. However, Johnson said the figures used by the university to calculate the cost of the correspondence course program were misleading. Johnson said they count the full stipend, $350, of all part-time professors teaching a correspondence course under the costs of the fall/ winter semester. Some of these professors teach on-campus courses or offer correspondence courses during the spring/summer semesters.

For this reason, the cost of these stipends to the university should be divided by two or three depending on the situation. This is not the case; the full amount is placed as a cost to the fall/winter correspondence course program.

Dr. Geoff Martin, part-time faculty member who has taught correspondence courses at Mt. A for 17 years, said he first heard about the issue in March of this year as a

proposal from Karen Grant.

Martin said the university “will not apply any full-time tuition revenue, or any portion of the government grant, towards the cost of the correspondence program in the fall and winter.

“The problem with the logic is that you could justify shuttering almost any academic unit at Mt. A because revenues come in primarily from both students and government in support of the overall university mission, which is to teach and do research and creative activity, and not particular courses or programs,” continued Martin.

The MASU’s statement said their primary goal is to “convince the administration to reverse their decision to increase and allow fulltime students to take correspondence courses without additional charge.” If this is not possible, the MASU would like “correspondence tuition to be reduced to a value that would make correspondence courses revenue neutral this year.” If correspondence course tuition persists for this year, the MASU says they will continue to work the Budget Advisory Committee to eliminate fees altogether for next year.

A UNIQUE JOB. AN ICONIC LOCATION. AN UNFORGETTABLE SUMMER.

Become a PARLIAMENTARY GUIDE Applications due January 15, 2016 This summer, be part of the action at the Parliament of Canada.

Find out more and apply online at

parl.gc.ca/guides

4

NEWS

Editor: Taylor McCuaig | November 19, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

ALTERATIONS AND RENOVATIONS

New campus signs’ estimated cost $23,000 Building signs are intended to make campus safer and more visitor-friendly Taylor McCuaig News Editor In an effort to make buildings more identifiable and therefore more accessible, new signs have been installed in front of all Mount Allison’s on-campus academic buildings.. The budget for these signs came out of the University’s alterations and renovations budget and cost just under $23,000.

“The main reason we installed the signs,” said Rob MacCormack, Mt. A director of facilities management, “was to identify the buildings in the academic quad which will make our campus more easily navigable for visitors and emergency vehicles.”

MacCormack said these signs were a continuation of the emergency signage used for the north side of campus.

“We had a lot of complaints over the years that visitors and new students and their families had trouble finding some of our buildings,” said MacCormack.

“These signs will make our campus more visitor-friendly.”

New signs are a step to make campus more accessible within a limited facilities budget. Allison Grogan/Argosy The signs are also a step in making the Mt. A campus more accessible, particularly for emergency response vehicles. Emergency vehicles are dispatched to the civic address of the campus building, and with the installation of these new signs the vehicles will be able to read the civic

address when entering campus, said MacCormack. This will ideally make campus more navigable in cases of emergencies.

Olivia Auriat, president of the Association of Chronically Ill and Disabled Students (ACID) and the Mount Allison Students’ Union’s

accessibility affairs coordinator, said the signs were a good start to making the campus more accessible.

“Anything that surrounds safety is a good step […] we can’t expect emergency services to know the entire campus. If this makes it easier, I think that’s great,” said Auriat.

MacCormack said the university is continually looking for opportunities to solve accessibility issues on campus.

“Each year the campus becomes more accessible but we have a way to go,” he said.

The majority of Auriat’s hopes in tackling the accessibility issues on campus primarily surrounds major renovations. “We would like the major residence renovations which will happen three years from now to see accessibility being considered in the planning. That’s already started and I think that’s major step,” said Auriat. Within these major renovations, Auriat said that roll-in showers, especially in Windsor, was a major goal.

Auriat said there is also a need for more handrails in faculty buildings, not just for students but also for faculty who may be disabled.

Auriat said the accessibility issues on campus are about people not considering disability in design and renovations. “It’s no one being antiaccessibility, it’s more that if you’re not disabled, you’re not thinking about it,” she said.

PRESIDENT’S SPEAKERS SERIES

Marine biologist gives second talk of Year of Environment Boris Worm speaks on overfishing, climate change and better ocean management S. Clay Steell Science & Tech Editor Earth’s oceans face a gloomy future, and our limited understanding of them may preclude ensuring their protection. Marine ecologist Boris Worm spoke on this topic on Monday, Nov. 16 in the second President’s Speakers Series event for the Year of the Environment.

Worm outlined how the oceans are critically imperiled by climate change and overfishing, and how we cannot adequately protect them without first better understanding them.

“We are seeing the world as stationary with noise, you assume things will keep going as they are going,” said Worm. “Our hypothesis is that this is wrong, because the environment is changing.”

Worm is a professor in the biology department at Dalhousie University and studies how fisheries and marine life are responding to a changing world. He said that the models we use to decide where and how to catch fish often don’t consider climate change and other ecological variables, such as how fishes’ prey respond to climate and environmental changes.

“It was fascinating to hear in such an interesting format how connected so many industries are,

Worm conducts president’s speakers talk to outline the environmental issues in the ocean. Adrian Kiva/Argosy like fisheries, and how they’re affected by environmental changes and how rapidly we have to adapt to changes,” said Sebastian Carrera, a fourth-year psychology student who attended the talk.

As an introduction to his talk, Worm said that since 1995 we have increased our efforts to catch fish but the amount of fish we have actually caught has declined. This is in spite of

the increased efforts to protect certain fish stocks, which in some cases has caused fishermen to target new and unregulated species like sharks. A sobering fact featured in Worm’s talk was if current practices continue, there may too few fish in the ocean to catch any at all by 2050.

Increasing fishing pressure on marine life is compounded by the effect of climate change on global

oceans. Worm showed how, as Earth’s oceans warm, many fish populations are shifting toward the poles, where fishing regulations may not protect them or where they may not be accounted for in population counts.

“We’ve become very aware now that the fishes we’re managing are moving targets in a spatial sense, so geographically the distribution of

these fish are changing wildly,” said Worm.

Worm said that due to these changes, fish stock assessments are increasingly inaccurate in predicting how many fish we can sustainably catch. The cod fishery in the Gulf of Maine is a recent example Worm provided. Fisheries scientists assumed these cod were well managed, but didn’t account for how the Gulf of Maine was warming faster than 99 per cent of the ocean, which led their population to collapse.

“This is also a form of overfishing, but we call this ‘silent overfishing’ […] it was overfishing because we weren’t aware of the underlying problem in the ecosystem,” said Worm. “When we find out what’s happened to the stock, it’s already too late.”

Irena Kaczmarska, a biology professor and one of the talk’s organizers, said she was pleased to see a President’s Speakers Series talk focused on science.

“I think we should have more [talks on science]. We have a sizeable science student body – they should have these kinds of talks as well,” said Kaczmarska. “The combination of the data with the social interpretation and policy implication could speak to both science students and generally interested people.”

Editor: Daniel Marcotte | November 19, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca FILM

Arts & Culture

‘Grandma’ talks teen pregnancy, feminism and family

Lily Tomlin plays gay grandma full of wit and wisdom

MIXTAPE

Last fall leaves, first Sackville snow Allison Grogan Photo Editor Change your Blundstones for winter Blundstones, for the seasons they are a-changin’.

“Northern Blues” – City and Colour (If I Should Go Before You) November is for appreciating the fresh winter snow before it turns to late-winter hell.

“I Can See Your Tracks” – Laura Veirs (July Flame) Veirs’s fingerpicking and quiet vocals bring the autumn chill to a close.

“Endless Road” – Angel Olsen (Burn Your Fire for No Witness) A song about roaming and finding a place to call home, perfect for this soon-to-be-frozen marshy town.

“Have You Ever” – Brandi Carlile (The Story) A song for walking and wandering before it gets too cold out.

Feminism and relationships between women play a central role in the film. Paul Weitz/Sony Pictures Classics

Allison Grogan Photo Editor A lesbian ex-poet grandmother, a controlling corporate mother, and a newly pregnant teenage daughter: Together they form a family that doesn’t feature in your typical blockbuster. Following last week’s well attended Diary of a Teenage Girl, Grandma has become the second film of this semester’s Sackville Film Society lineup to focus on a nontraditional family unit.

Elle raised her daughter with her partner in a two-mom family. Sage, freshly 16, has a confusing and distant relationship with her mother, much like the one between her mother and grandmother. Because of this peculiar family dynamic, the film is able to comment on mother-daughter relationships in a unique way.

Despite dealing with heavy subject matter, (teen pregnancy, abortion, broken family relationships) the film maintains a sarcastic and lighthearted tone throughout, without dismissing

the the severity of these themes.

From jokes about drip coffee – a redundancy, according to Elle – to snarky granddaughter-grandmother banter, the comedy is perfectly balanced and respectful, never making teen pregnancy, abortion, lesbianism or the elderly the butt of any joke. Grandma spares its audience the overused “old-people jokes” and went straight for the good stuff, using Lily Tomlin’s sharp wit and comedic timing to their fullest potential.

Though the tone and themes of the movie were endearing and overall quite thoughtful, at times the characterization of Elle as a capital-F feminist felt heavy-handed.

Some drawn-out references to The Feminine Mystique and other notable second-wave works felt forced. In her motivations, actions, and the way she defends her granddaughter above all else, Elle’s feminism was evident and rendered those moments unnecessary.

On the other hand, Grandma is equipped with a perfectly suited indie-pop soundtrack, as any good quirky comedy-drama should be.

With end credits rolling to Angus & Julia Stone’s “Bella,” the soundtrack helped set the mood and reflected ups and downs of Elle’s and Sage’s journey.

Another unique element to this film was the fact that the story takes place within a single day. When Sage arrives at her grandmother’s house in the film’s opening, she has already made an appointment at the abortion clinic for 5:45 p.m. that day. Despite its limited temporal scope, the film firmly establishes its characters, the relationships between whom are honest, unapologetic and multifaceted. Though layered with sarcastic wit which perhaps doesn’t feature in the archetypical grandmother-granddaughter duo, this did not hinder the reality and relatability of such a relationship.

From their initial bonding to their rage-filled disagreements and familial reconciliation, the film leaves no shade of their relationship untouched.

With all its quirks and eccentricities, Grandma proves that it “gets” family.

“Anti-Summersong” – The Decemberists (What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World) A pick-me-up and a catchy melody to which you’ll soon find yourself humming.

“Agape” – Bear’s Den (Islands) If autumn was a movie, this song might play during the end credits.

“Isaiah 45:23” – The Mountain Goats (The Life of the World to Come) Fall is sad; winter is sad; the Mountain Goats are sad.

“Stay Gold” – First Aid Kit (Stay Gold) First Aid Kit’s harmonies will lift your spirits as the snow rolls in.

“Over Land and Sea” – Lauren Mann and the Fairly Odd Folk (Over Land and Sea) The changing of the seasons is worth another good folky tune, complete with references to the Canadian landscape.

“Willows” – Vanessa Carlton (Liberman) Yes, Vanessa Carlton wrote songs other than “A Thousand Miles,” and this one is good.

“Chord Left” – Agnes Obel (Aventine) Instrumental piano melodies to accompany the first snowfall.

COCKTAILS

Spirit of the season

Unlock tequila’s unique flavour pairings using grapefruit, pineapple or chocolate Daniel Marcotte Arts & Culture Editor Painstakingly extracted from the piña of the blue agave plant, tequila has gained notoriety for its pungent flavour and is typically associated with utter inebriation (or humiliating your friends with shots of the stuff).

This is often due to the fact that commercially available tequila is often very young, unoaked or even cut with a neutral cane-sugar spirit to help keep the cheap liquor flowing. Fortunately, with the help of mixology and some smart shopping, the skilled bartender can harness tequila’s unique qualities

to create delicious cocktails without breaking the bank.

Due to its distinctive grassy, floral and woody flavours, tequila lends itself to combinations far beyond conventional standards. Coffee, chocolate, grape, cardamom, chili pepper, ginger, cherry and grapefruit are all excellent tequila pairings to which basic grain spirits like gin or whiskey could never do justice. To demonstrate this, try shaking together two parts tequila, one part Disaronno and three parts grapefruit juice—a seemingly strange yet deliciously citrusy showcase of tequila’s versatility. If you’re still skeptical, try mixing up a Mayan: three parts

tequila, one part coffee liqueur and five parts pineapple juice shaken on ice and optionally garnished with a few coffee beans.

When purchasing a bottle, heed caution: “gold” tequila is often harsh blanco tequila merely dyed yellow with artificial colouring, and thus not the same as the higher-quality “reposado,” which has been mellowed in oak casks for at least two months.

Sackville’s liquor store regrettably no longer carries Olmeca or El Jimador, but Cazadores and 1800 Reposado are both relatively economical selections that will hold their own in a variety of cocktails—save the topshelf añejo and mezcal varieties for

enjoying neat.

Tequila’s flavours can also be highlighted as an on-the-rocks sipping drink. Try making an old fashioned – two ounces of base spirit sweetened with a quarter-ounce of simple syrup and topped with a few dashes of bitters – with reposado tequila instead of whiskey. Take this classic cocktail a step further by substituting a half-ounce of amaretto for the syrup, or by muddling a few white grapes or a bit of grapefruit rind in the bottom of your glass. For an extra unique treat, shake three parts tequila with one part cherry brandy and strain into a cocktail glass, then top with shavings of dark, chili-

infused chocolate—it’s like a slice of black forest cake in martini form.

If all else fails, stick to the timeless tequila sunrise, lime margarita, or even the lesser-known el burro—a slight modification of the more common Moscow mule. To make your own, add ice and half an ounce of freshly squeezed lime juice to two ounces of tequila, then top up with ginger beer to taste. Simultaneously warming and refreshing, this simple beverage will make you wonder why you’ve been avoiding the tequila aisle for all these years.

6

Arts & Culture

Editor: Daniel Marcotte | November 19, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

PERFORMANCE

Sara Tilley to offer introduction to clowning Newfoundland-based performer talks masks, improvisation techniques Amanda Cormier Arts & Culture Reporter While giant red shoes and tiny cars are not in the lesson plan, Sara Tilley hopes to give Mount Allison students insight into the art of clown performance.

Tilley, a Newfoundland-based clown and performer, will team up with the drama studies society to present “A Crash Course in Clown.”

Over two days, she will lead students through exercises drawn from the Pochinko clown technique.

“What I’m hoping is that we come up with a basic clown character for everybody through a series of physical exercises,” said Tilley, “[and] to do a fast and really intense little burst of learning how to make a clown character.”

The Pochinko technique, developed by Richard Pochinko in the 1960s, focuses on the process of continuously developing a character over time based on a mask. To accommodate the time constraints of the workshop, Tilley will forgo the full masks, instead providing a simple red clown nose for each student.

“The clown nose in this training is the smallest mask in the world,” said Tilley. “It’s meant to transform the person entirely into a new being.”

The workshop will have an emphasis on physical and emotional expression as well as character work, rather than preparing students for the circus. Tilley noted the importance of improvisation and freedom in clown work.

“It doesn’t come from the brain,” said Tilley. “This is work that comes from the body and the emotions, and lets that stuff take over while the brain is in the background, making

sure you don’t fall down and break your leg or hurt somebody. […] It’s really immediate and it’s a powerful communication of energy, I think.”

Tilley encourages anyone who is interested, regardless of past theatre experience, to sign up for the workshop.

“I’ve taught nurses and pastors for churches, and just random people, and everyone gets something different out of the process,” said Tilley.

“I’m hoping to have a nice mix of people come,” said Tilley. “I think often it’s a really amazing opportunity to overcome some serious fears in a

way you’ll remember forever. And you’ll have a clown nose later to pop on and surprise people.”

When she is not clowning, Tilley is a writer, editor, director, dramaturge and designer of masks, puppets, props and costumes. In 2002, she founded She Said Yes! Theatre, a St. John’sbased feminist theatre company where she continues to work as artistic director.

A “Crash Course in Clown” will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Nov. 28 and 29.

VISUAL ARTS

START hosts themed group exhibition ‘Inter-species’ explores our contradictory relationships with non-human entities Michael Dover Arts & Culture Reporter “Our show’s not about animals,” said Agamemnon Kattis. “It’s about the way you look at animals; it’s about the human gaze.”

Kattis is part of a group of second-year fine arts students who collaborated to create the group show “Inter-species,” which is currently on display at START Gallery.

The show considers the way that we as a society interact with other species, prompting reflections not just on the role animals play in our society, but also on the line society draws between humanity and the animal world. In effect, this contrast forces the viewer to consider what humanity is.

“In the Old Testament of the

“It’s about the way you look at animals; it’s about the human gaze.”

Bible, God created animals for Adam so he wouldn’t be alone,” explained Jeff Mann. “And then he told Adam to name them. So western religion immediately places animals below humans in this finite hierarchy, and our show plays with that notion.”

This idea is exemplified in The Adventures of Dogman, a zine Mann created for the show which chronicles a masked activist who chooses to live as a dog to expose the decadence of consumer society. To those familiar with classical philosophy, the zine pays homage to Diogenes of Sinope, the fifth-century B.C. cynic philosopher who was reputed to have lived in a barrel and to have spurned social interaction. By highlighting our own savage and self-indulgent tendencies, the piece reinforces the idea that humanity is not necessarily better than other species. It suggests that humans are themselves animals and that this is reflected in our

Left to right: Jeff Mann, Evan Furness, Logan Milne and Andreas Fobes all have work featured in “Inter-species” (Agamemnon Kattis is absent from the photo). Adrian Kiva/Argosy actions.

This idea is also reflected in the work of Andreas Fobes, who created a series of drawings which transform the idea of the animal into a near abstraction, depicting the development of a bulbous, loosely structured creature that is intentionally ambiguous. As the creature evolves into a biped, the line between species is further blurred.

When paired with Fobe’s zine A History of Animal Testing, the piece raises unsettling questions about the role animals have played in human history.

“I’m looking at how animals have been used almost as playthings,” said Fobes. “One of the experiments in the zine shows an early scientist removing

a fetus from a dog and branding it just to find out if the mother would show affection toward it, would be capable of mourning her loss.”

While Mann and Fobes explore the often antagonistic relationship we have with animals, Logan Milne and Evan Furness use their art to depict a more sensitive interaction between species, exploring the role of animals as pets while still highlighting the hierarchy such a relationship implies.

For the show, Milne contributed a series of canvases depicting dairy cows as a household pets.

“I was interested in the reverence we have for house pets and how this can be contrasted to our relationship to other animals,” said Milne. “So I decided to turn that relationship on

its head by inserting livestock into household settings.”

The absurdity of the work is played out in the details Milne carefully inserted into the paintings to create a concrete depiction of an entirely new world in which the idea of keeping livestock as pets is commonplace.

For example, in the first canvas, in which a girl is taking her pet cow for a walk, a lamp post in the background is adorned with a poster advertising a lost donkey.

Furness uses his piece Eulogy to both explore the feelings of loss that accompanied the passing of his cat, but also to explore the duality of the role house pets play in our society.

“A lot of people consider pets family, but when they die they clearly

don’t treat their pets in the same way they would treat a person,” said Furness.

Such an observation is so obvious that it generally goes unstated, but when confronted with a physical depiction of this irony, it provokes the viewer to truly reflect on this relationship in a new way. This is where the power of “Inter-species” lies: in its ability to draw attention to the subtle hierarchies that shape our lives but that generally go unstated.

“Inter-species” will be exhibited at START Gallery until Nov. 14.

There will be a closing reception with a performance at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 20. The audience is encouraged to wear black if possible.

Arts & Culture

The Argosy | www.argosy.ca LIVE MUSIC

Bart and Mauno team up at T&L

Mauno returns to Sackville stage with new member and renewed energy

FOOD

7

Unsettling the table Alex Lepianka Food Columnist

Indie group Mauno, featuring their new drummer Adam White, perform on the bowling alley stage to a modest audience. Allison Grogan/Argosy

Caity Brawn Arts & Culture Reporter “We’re gonna play a song,” began Mauno frontman Nick Everett. With this obvious and lighthearted remark, Halifax indie band Mauno kicked off their set alongside Toronto-based Bart last Sunday.

The band looked quite different than when they played at this year’s fall fair. Mauno, originally a threepiece with a guitarist, bass player and drummer, has since gained a new member. They also lacked bassist Eliza Niemi, who unfortunately was not able to make the show. Multitalented Evan Matthews, who normally drums for the band, covered for Niemi for the evening.

Adam White has taken over the drums, and Matthews will now play guitar for the group. Initially this was a little disappointing, as I was excited to hear Matthews’s sharp drumming after his skillful and relaxed set at the fall fair. White’s playing style is definitely different; his drumming felt more deliberate than Matthew’s casual vibe, and added some liveliness to the set.

Lead singer Everett serenaded the audience with his sweet voice.

When the band played their song “Champs,” I felt like I should have been relaxing on a yacht while Everett sang in the background to set the ambiance. The band’s ability to match this rounded style with their playing was impeccable. Mauno contrasted their softer songs by keeping their

set dynamic and ever-changing.

They didn’t hold onto any tempo or volume for very long, frequently incorporating dramatic changes into their songs.

Bart got up close and personal with each other, taking the hilariously small Thunder & Lightning stage next. The Toronto-based five-piece had a dramatic start which was a satisfying contrast to Mauno’s set.

Their first song felt kind of loud and messy. The mix seemed to be a bit off, with the guitars turned up too loud.

Luckily the issue was resolved and the rest of the set was a lot clearer, while still being energetic.

Bart was also great at changing up time in their songs. Their set was full of speeding up and slowing down, and the band also incorporated a handful

of dramatic starts and stops. They did have less of a range in terms of volume in their set. Most of Bart’s set was powerful which was an engaging contrast to Mauno. Bart also played around with vocal harmonies, which added some complexity.

Unfortunately, not many people attended the show. This is common, as well as understandable for a Sunday night event in Sackville. Yet, I still feel inclined to say that anyone who didn’t attend really missed out.

The show featured two technically proficient and enjoyable bands. If you did miss it, don’t worry; rumour has it Mauno may make an appearance at Stereophonic, but you didn’t hear it from me.

Brunton Auditorium, Mount Allison will host the Lemon Bucket Orkestra, the second concert in the Performing Arts Series, stopping in Sackville for another Maritime performance in their current concert tour. They are currently recognized as Canada’s sole “Balkan-Klezmer-Gypsy-PartyPunk-Super Band.” This 12-member ensemble, which began as a quartet busking in Toronto, features a unique mix of sounds. A few notable instruments include numerous violins, trombones and percussion instruments such as a darbouka and savage drum and a sopilka (a wind instrument in the flute family). Their repertoire, which revolves around folk themes, will provide a lively dancelike atmosphere, and is anticipated to be a crowd-pleaser.

The following evening, the third Performing Arts Series concert will also feature folk-inspired repertoire in Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat. Canadian violinist Jasper Wood, along with six of his musical companions, will be the featured performers in this hour-long work.

Music department head and pianist Stephen Runge will also perform a few pieces for piano and violin with Wood. L’Histoire du Soldat revolves around dialogue between the titular soldier and the devil, in a discussion that entails exchanging a violin for a magical book.

Jasper Wood is a frequent performer in eastern Canada.

A significant portion of his performances are done in a chamber ensemble. This will be a great learning

experience for the music students; the music program strives for excellence in chamber performance to coincide with their solo instrumental studies.

On Wednesday, Nov. 25 at 8 p.m. in Brunton Auditorium, Vicki St. Pierre will conduct students in an opera workshop ensemble, presenting an evening full of suspense and drama. As the night unfolds, the performances will explore what happens when supernatural figures communicate with mortal beings.

These performances are not to be missed, as they demonstrate the diverse exposure of musical repertoire featured on campus.

MUSIC

Just a ‘note’ Isaiah Yankech Argosy Contributor In the coming week, a variety of concerts will commence the term’s post-reading-week stretch. These performances will begin with a strong focus on Canadian music.

After indulging and embracing a handful of primarily Canadian talent, the attention will shift to vocal repertoire in the following two performances. On Sunday, Nov. 22 at 3 p.m. in the chapel, the Elliott Chorale and Choral Society will perform works by various members of the Bach family, followed by operatic scenes by Monteverdi, Mozart and Handel later in the week.

On Thursday, Nov. 19 at 8 p.m. in

In my previous treatment of the construction of taste, my hope was to bring to light the bases around which, in a social sense, our cultures of food develop. I will summarize, out of courtesy to the occasional reader.

I referred to a recent attempt at archiving a rich history of culinary writing and presented two points.

First, the development of food culture has material requirements.

For example, only after being able to afford and access coffee in a regular and social sense were European drinkers able to construct a culture around its consumption. Similarly, only after an initial contact with Ethiopian cuisine is one able figure its staple flatbread, injera, into one’s realm of preference.

Secondly, that taste is a cultural process implies the conditioning of food culture by other sociological factors in realms such as social organization, language, income and gender. How we perceive, speak or write about food is dependent upon social texture much in the same way as it is upon individual preference.

Our state of living presupposes a fulfillment of hunger’s demands, made uniformly across humankind.

As the quality of being human marks our constituency in a society of human beings, so does the essentiality of our alimentary need form the backbone of the social characters of food.

My last column grasped at the significance of culture and society in the representations of food in language and text. Of course, the door is wide open for analyses rooted in gender, socio-economy, geography, etc. (as well as intersections thereof.)

That said, the utility of such exercises in scholarship may not be immediately clear. The theses presented through analyses of food cultures seek only to uncover the basis upon which they are lived; consider coffee culture as an example.

The material prerequisites and social nature of connoisseurship are revealed, not through a normative process, but through the reciprocation of observation.

In constructing an understanding of what shapes patterns of nutrition into entire cultures of food, we are locating our own habits of eating on a landscape on which all food cultures are lived. Comparison then becomes an exercise in relation; evaluations of flavour are forcibly subjective, made against our own conceptions of good. As with language, understood differences in cuisine yield no order of worth. Practices and objects of eating which we would consider bizarre or repulsive exist in their own right as products of different social and material arrangements, and to claim their inferiority transgresses the social nature of cuisine, whatever that may be.

8

CWILA COUNT 2014

November 19, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

CWILA releases gender a

Daniel M Arts & Cult For the fourth year running, Canadian Women in the Literary Arts (CWILA) has released their gender audit of Canadian newspapers and publications, their largest one to date. In doing so, the not-forprofit organization has quantitative numbers on what it means to be a gendered writer in Canada’s literary and critical climate.

Based on CWILA’s data, men in 2014 were nearly two-and-a-half times more likely to review a male-authored work than a femaleauthored one, whereas women were only 12-per-cent more likely to review literary works by women compared to men. What’s more, of the 5,866 reviews that CWILA counted from 2014, only 39 per cent reviewed books authored by women, whereas 57 per cent reviewed books authored by men. The data suggests that although Canadian men and women produce a relatively equal number of books, literary works written by men receive a disproportionately higher amount of critical attention.

The data has changed slightly from CWILA’s review of 2013 publications, in which the review split was 37 and 59 per cent for women and men, respectively.

CWILA have focused much of their attention upon larger national papers and publications such as The National Post, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, Quill and Quire, Broken Pencil and rabble.ca. Some of these, such as The Walrus and The Antigonish Review, demonstrated an especially disproportionate margin of gender representation in favour of male reviewers, clocking in at 76 and 83 per cent, respectively.

For CWILA chair Erin Wunker, the data is meant to help facilitate an ongoing awareness of and discussion about Canada’s quantifiably imbalanced critical culture.

“We’re actually trying to shift the conversation,” said Wunker. “The point is to open up conversation and develop new ways of talking about equity in Canadian literary production, of talking about how to make our literary cultures rich, generative, collaborative.”

Wunker said that CWILA was conceived in 2002 by Gillian Jerome and Laura Moss following conversations about gender equity at that year’s V125 Poetry Conference in Vancouver.

“They realized after this conference that gender equity in their own communities and literary communities in Canada was a real issue,” said Wunker. “CWILA founded as an attempt to generate quantitative data to back up the sense that [women] were writing as much, but weren’t getting as much press for what they were writing.”

While CWILA has no official or centralized headquarters, the organization has since expanded in its membership and gained attention in the press, namely for its annual audit of Canadian publications. They now boast members in academic, publishing and creative spheres, as well as board members based in Alberta, Vancouver and Ontario and even Belgium and London.

In order to count 5,866 reviews from 2014 across 32 publications, CWILA enlisted 45 volunteers from their membership, who together committed thousands of hours of unpaid work.

“Everything that CWILA does is run entirely by volunteers,” said

Notes on methodology To parallel CWILA’s 2014 count, the Argosy has conducted a small-scale gender audit of student publications on the Mount Allison campus. Whereas CWILA’s gender audit focuses primarily on books and book reviews, the Argosy’s data was collected from submissions published in 2014 volumes of three literary and visual arts journals at Mount Allison: 7Mondays, Zettel and Joypuke, the latter two being publications of the Underbridge Press. The Argosy also counted reviews and articles published in the arts and culture section of The Argosy in 2014. In many cases – especially in The Argosy – writers have multiple submissions published within the same volume, all of which are counted as separate entries.

Because The Argosy’s publishing year spans from May to April – and often changes multiple members of staff between these periods – its 2014 data has been split into two separate categories by semester.

Data on each authors’ gender was gathered through pronoun use in self-authored biographies, often found in the back matter of each volume. As pronouns are often an unclear or unreliable indicator of gender identity, the Argosy attempted to verify each author’s gender identity through bios on the author’s website, blogs, reviews or by contacting the author directly. The Argosy specifically avoided discerning gender identity based on name or appearance. The Argosy also regrets the absence of data for a few authors, who are grouped within the “Unknown/Not Available for Confirmation” category.

All data and graphs contained in this issue were collected and compiled by the Argosy, and infographics were created using Google’s online spreadsheet software.

Wunker. “The labour that goes in the numbers and producing a re enormous.”

CWILA’s first count was co publications of the 2011 year. Alth counts, Wunker said they have s gender equity in the publications th “We’re also seeing what we’re c said Wunker. “We’re four years in that we have counted for the past fo get closer to equitable.”

Wunker said that in the humani takes at least five years for data to its subject matter. Nevertheless, W of their count has put pressure on review more books by women—an reviewing.

“The numbers were worst in t The Globe and Mail, The National P

“An expansion a the ‘W’ in CWI central things th to d

dismal numbers; they were embarra “It let us know that people in positions of relative power were pa their numbers better,” said Wunke At the same time, however, W is not merely interested in “callin generating a continuing conversa nationwide. One way they do this methodology each year, as reso originally had categories for only m data on nationality, transgender gender co-authors, and French-lan “[In Canada] we have an inc writing—diverse in terms of race identification,” said Wunker. “An e in CWILA is one of the central th Along with their count, CWIL methodology to accompany their d a self-acknowledged “incomplete” Webb-Campbell, their 2014 criti continuing to meta-analyze the or of CWILA’s mandate.

“The ‘W’ in CWILA is always

The Argosy | www.argosy.ca

CWILA COUNT 2014

audit of 2014 publications

9

Marcotte ture Editor

nto gathering the data, crunching eally transparent methodology is

onducted in 2012, reflecting on hough they have released only four since began to see a shift toward hey have assessed. calling now ‘the CWILA effect,’” n, and consistently the publications our years, every year their numbers

ities and social sciences, it generally draw definitive conclusions about Wunker said that the public nature major newspapers and journals to nd to have more women doing the

the major newspapers in Canada: Post, [and] The Walrus had dismal,

and a pushing of LA is one of the hat we’re working do.”

assed,” said Wunker. n editorial positions who are in aying attention, and trying to make er.

Wunker said that the organization ng out” publications, but rather in ation about gender and literature s is by expanding their scope and ources allow. Whereas CWILA men and women, they now collect and non-binary writers, mixednguage publications. credibly diverse group of people e, ethnicity, language and gender expansion and a pushing of the ‘W’ hings that we’re working to do.”

LA annually publishes a detailed data, and their website also features ” manifesto written by Shannon ic-in-residence. Wunker said that rganization is an important aspect

Wunker, referencing a line from the manifesto. “The provisionality is meant to signal that the organization is always trying to be very self-reflexive in how we understand what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.”

In addition to their count, each year CWILA selects, funds and hosts a critic-in-residence to help them generate conversations about gender equity in Canadian literary culture. Their current critic-inresidence is Lucas Crawford, a writer, researcher and transgender man originally from Nova Scotia, now based in Vancouver.

Wunker said that one problem with CWILA’s growing publicity is the potential for non-CWILA members to disengage with the conversation of gender equity, or to expect CWILA to do the work alone and without adequate resources.

“The more work we take on, the less time people spend talking about it when the count numbers are released,” said Wunker. “It’s getting done, so people aren’t constantly talking about it, which ironically is really difficult because it also means that people aren’t giving us the financial support that we need.”

Andrea Beverley, a professor in Mount Allison’s departments of English and Canadian studies, said that CWILA’s essays, statistics and resources often help inform her academic work. Beverley frequently teaches about feminism and Canadian literature, including a course offered next semester entitled “Women in Canada.” Because CWILA engages in current discussions about this subject matter, Beverley says the organization’s work can serve as a contemporary parallel to literary history, academic research and course materials.

“As someone who researches and teaches about Canadian literature, CWILA is interesting to me inherently,” said Beverley. “They’re an organization that are participating in and catalyzing conversations that need to be happening in Canadian literature.”

One of Beverley’s current areas of research is in zine culture and alternative media. Through zines or independent student publications, Beverley said, cultural challenges to gender inequity can emerge and proliferate.

“It’s inherently important to have a multiplicity of voices in our cultural expression, and to hear those voices,” said Beverley. “Those voices might be different from those who are being published as bestsellers.”

Citing examples such as syllabus audits, more diverse speaker series and the “FergusonSyllabus” hashtag started by Marcia Chatelain in response to racialized police violence in the United States, Wunker said that students and educators can play a large part in changing Canada’s literary and critical climate.

“Especially on a campus like Mount Allison’s, student interest and student action has huge traction,” said Wunker. “Students have a really fantastic opportunity and platform for saying: ‘These are the kinds of questions we’re interested in having.’”

s already contested territory,” said

Notes on publications 7Mondays: All content, including literary, photographic and visual arts, are counted as submissions, despite the fact that CWILA focuses specifically on literature and reviews thereof.

Joypuke: Although CWILA’s data accounts for Canadian and non-Canadian nationality, the Argosy’s does not. Because Joypuke’s submissions are not limited to Mount Allison or even Canada, the “Canadian” aspect of CWILA’s methodology is not fully reflected here. Furthermore, the cover art for Joypuke is counted as a submission.

Zettel: As with Joypuke, Zettel accepts submissions from worldwide contributors. As with 7Mondays, all of Zettel’s content is counted, including photography, visual arts, prose, and poetry.

The Argosy: This data is comprised solely of the ‘Arts & Culture’ section and the now-defunct ‘Arts & Literature’ section, which in mid-2014 was combined with the ‘Entertainment’ section and was renamed ‘Arts & Culture.’ Although CWILA focuses on literature and reviews of literature, both of these sections featured a wide variety of content, including but not limited to: film and book reviews; artist profiles; theatre reviews; music reviews; and art exhibition previews and profiles. Furthermore, whereas photography and visual arts submissions are counted for Joypuke, Zettel and 7Mondays, photo content is not included in The Argosy’s count. Finally, a few online-only articles were not available at the time of data collection and are therefore excluded from the count.

Sports & Health

Editor: Nathan Dix | November 19, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

Cont’d: Late St. FX field goal hands Mounties disappointing loss in AUS championship The Mounties continued to extend their lead early in the second quarter after a good drive by the Mounties took them deep into St. FX territory.

The key play of the drive was a 37yard pass from quarterback Brandon Leyh to receiver Josh Hicks. The drive finished with an 18-yard field goal by Lambert to make the Mounties lead 6-0.

Both teams had been struggling to make any big plays and first downs had been very hard to come by at this point in the game—until, with eight minutes left in the second quarter, the X-Men struck with their biggest play of the game. The St. FX quarterback Tivon Cook dropped back and threw a perfect deep ball to his outside receiver Randy Roseway for a 67-yard touchdown. Roseway out-sprinted the Mounties secondary for a touchdown, giving St. FX the lead 7-6. The X-Men extended their lead on their next drive with a field goal, making the score 10-6.

The Mounties needed a spark to regain some momentum, and it came from their defence late in the second quarter. The Mounties defence were able to force the X-Men to fumble the ball twice, leading to the Mounties recovering the ball in St. FX territory.

The Mounties were able to capitalize on a fumble which was forced by defensive back Devante Sampson

Mounties football offensive line prepares to block in AUS Loney Bowl loss on Saturday. Allison Grogan/Argosy and recovered by Nate Rostek. Then, with the help of a penalty on St. FX, the Mounties found themselves with the ball deep in St. FX’s half of the

field. This led to a 30-yard field goal

by Lambert with a minute left in the half, making the score 10-9. The X-Men were able to get a single point

on a missed field goal which sailed through the end zone, making the score 11-9 at halftime.

The Mounties defence came out of the break strong, with Sampson forcing another St. FX fumble on the first drive. Matt Montgomery was there to make the recovery.

Unfortunately, the Mounties were unable to capitalize on the turnover and were forced to punt.

Early in the fourth, after a good return by the Mounties’ Idahosa York which put the ball on the St. FX 24yard line, the Mounties were able to take the lead on another field goal

by Lambert, making the score 1211. The Mounties defence continued to put great pressure on the St. FX quarterback. Jordan Redding sacked the St. FX quarterback, forcing a fumble which was recovered by Shaun Robinson. Again, the Mounties were unable to capitalize and were forced to give the X-Men one more opportunity to take the lead back.

With two minutes remaining, the X-Men were able to drive the ball 30 yards to the Mounties 33-yard line.

This set up a 41-yard field goal into a hard wind by St. FX kicker Jonathan Heidebrecht. The kick was a low-line drive which didn’t look long enough and took a heart-wrenching bounce forward off the crossbar, giving the X-Men three points and granting them a lead of 14-12.

The Mounties got the ball back with 45 seconds remaining in the game and got one first down before a St. FX defensive back was able to intercept Leyh’s pass, sealing the X-Men victory.

Brandon Leyh passed for 137 yards

in his final game for the Mounties and his leadership on the field will be missed next year. Chris Reid ran for 47 yards in a game in which there were few holes to be found to break off any long runs. Josh Hicks led the receivers with three catches for 63 yards. Ryan Lambert was reliable as always, making all three of his fieldgoal attempts and accounting for 10 of the Mounties points. On defence, Devante Sampson had two forced fumbles and Jordan Redding and Matt Montgomery had one each of their own.

This was the end of an upand-down season for the football Mounties. They finished with five wins and four losses. After making the Mitchell bowl in the previous season, this seems like a slight disappointment overall. Some players played their final game for Mt. A and will be greatly missed by next year’s team. Looking forward to next season, there are signs that this team will be near the top of the standings again. The defence emerged as a force with great ability to keep points off the board. All three running backs, Reid, Ambursley and Leblanc, who each had great games when they were called upon, will be back to give the Mounties a great running attack.

Overall, the team is young and players are continuing to develop under what is considered as a great coaching staff.

The future of Mounties football is bright.

Is your favourite sport not being covered? Contribute to the Argosy’s Sports & Health section. Please send articles and ideas to editor Nathan Dix at nwdix@mta.ca. The submission deadline is Sunday at 12 noon prior to the week you’d like to contribute.

SPORTS & HEALTH

The Argosy | www.argosy.ca ROUNDUP

BADMINTON

Other action in Mounties sports

Women’s b-ball with 3 wins, volleyball home opener

Badminton Mounties begin season with commanding tournament victory Nathan Dix Sports & Health Editor

Kayla Vandekemp waits to recieve a serve in their home opener. Allison Grogan/Argosy

Nathan Dix Sports & Health Editor In the past two weeks the women’s hockey team played three road games against Dalhousie, Moncton and Saint Mary’s. Unfortunately the Mounties came up short in all three, dropping their record to three wins and six losses for the season. Goal scorers for the Mounties were Emily van Diepen, Mackenzie Lalonde and Kara Anthony, with Heather Richards with recording two goals.

The Mounties will be in action at home Thursday, Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. and will be on the road to Antigonish, N.S. on Sunday to face off against St. FX. The men’s basketball team played three games over the past two weeks, emerging with one victory over that span. Losses were taken against Crandall University and the University of King’s College. The Mounties victory came against St. Thomas last Sunday by a score of 100-94. A 39-point fourth quarter by the Mounties helped them mount a great come-from-behind victory.

Bradley Fuller led the charge for the Mounties, scoring 41 points with 23 of them coming in the fourth quarter.

The women’s basketball team had a great two weeks as they were able to win all three of their games, remaining undefeated in the young season. They were victorious over University of King’s College by 61-45 in a game led by Kiersten Mangold, who recorded 17 points and nine rebounds. The team then went on to win a close game against the Crandall Chargers 76-60, needing a solid fourth quarter to record the victory.

Kiersten Mangold again recorded 17 points, with Kathleen Morrison also chipping in 16 points and eight rebounds. They rounded out their great two weeks with a 65-52 victory over the St. Thomas Tommies.

Maddyson McDonald and Sarah McGeachy both scored 13 points to lead the team to victory. The men’s and women’s basketball teams will both be travelling to the University of King’s College on Friday to battle the Blue Devils. The men’s team will also be travelling to Truro, N.S. to contest the last-place DAL AC Rams on Sunday.

The women’s volleyball Mounties had a busy stretch in their schedule, with four games in the past two weeks. Unfortunately, the Mounties were able only to come away with one victory. The Mounties lost to UNBSJ in their home opener three sets to one. They fell a week later to the same UNBSJ team when they travelled to Saint John. The Mounties also fell to the always-tough Mount Saint Vincent Mystics three sets to zero.

The Mounties wrapped up the stretch with a victory over the St. Thomas Tommies in Fredericton last Sunday three sets to one. All the sets were closely contested, with none having more than a five-point margin. Lynne Arsenault led the Mounties attack with 18 kills. Sydney Umlah and Rachel Van Gestel contributed six and five kills, respectively. First-year libero Sydney Sacre made 21 digs to help the Mounties to victory. The Mounties are showing improvement and the young team seems to be headed in the right direction as the season progresses. This weekend the Mounties will travel to the Université Sainte-Anne for two games against the Dragons.

11

Mount Allison’s varsity badminton teams began their season last weekend with a tournament at the Université Sainte-Anne.

The Mounties dominated, winning 94 of a possible 100 points. The Mounties won eight of the 10 events played, retaining second place in the other two events.

Mt. A are the defending champions and have won the league for the past several years with outstanding topend skill along with depth with which the other teams cannot compete. In this tournament, the Mounties face off against the University of King’s College, the Dalhousie University Faculty of Agriculture and the Université Sainte-Anne.

The tournament was kicked off on Friday night with singles play. In the ‘A’ category, the Mounties had Hamza Munawar in men’s singles and Olivia Adams in women’s singles. Both players would fall short of winning top spots, losing to players from King’s. Munawar lost his match 21-23 and 16-21 in two sets. The match was very close with many long rallies which saw both players giving everything they had.

Adams lost her match 17-21 and 16-21 to an experienced fourth-year, Maddie Alvarez, who has qualified for nationals every year of her career.

Adams gave her everything she could handle having a 10-point lead in the first set but Alvarez’s experience showed as she fought back to her win. In the ‘B’ singles category, the Mounties were represented by second-year Jaryd Morrissey and first-year Maggie Renouf. The two players breezed through their matches’ relative ease, their results never in peril.

In men’s and women’s doubles, the Mounties won every match. In the men’s ‘A’ doubles, the team of

Michael Miller and Jaryd Morrissey won their first two matches against Sainte-Anne and DAL AC with ease.

In their match against UKC, they were challenged but ultimately won the match with 22-20 and 21-18 sets.

This pair had to use all of their talent and grit to squeeze out a close victory.

In the first they were 20 to 18 before storming back rattle off four straight points to win the match. In men’s ‘B’ doubles, the team of Munawar and Jonathan Lynch won all of their matches, taking top spot. In women’s ‘A’ doubles, the Mounties team of Gillian Tetlow and Olivia Adams took top spot but again UKC gave them their greatest challenge. After splitting the first two sets, Tetlow and Adams showed their superiority, winning 21-14. This being their first tournament as partners they showed great chemistry working through some early struggles. In women’s ‘B’ doubles, the team of Kristyn Visser and Liz Baker captured top spot, winning their matches in convincing fashion.

Mixed doubles had the Mounties sweeping both the ‘A’ and ‘B’ categories. In the ‘A’ flight, the fourth-year pair of Michael Miller and Gillian Tetlow showed their experience in a match against UKC, winning 26-24 in the third set.

Miller and Tetlow got better as the match went on, finally being able to secure the victory with superior shot-making. In the ‘B’ category, Kristyn Visser and Riley Shewan won all three of their matches without significant opposition.

The Mounties again showed that they are by far the best team in the league with this indomitable tournament victory. They will look to continue their winning ways when they travel to DAL AC on Nov. 29.

HEALTH

Vaccinations are an important part of public health

Myths and discredited research shouldn’t deter the public from getting vaccinated regularly Alyssa BeLong Health Intern Over the years there has been a significant amount of controversy regarding the safety of vaccinations.

Vaccines introduce a benign form of a virus into the body which allows the immune system to build a response to it (forming antibodies) without getting sick. This enables the body to readily recognize the virus and fight against it in the future. Various individuals have made claims that vaccinations can cause severe health issues such as autism or sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). These

concerns have largely been disputed by many health professionals. The Public Health Agency of Canada maintains that “vaccines are safe, with huge benefits to children’s health – all throughout their lives.” However, though the majority of rumors surrounding vaccines have been laid to rest in medical circles, many myths still persist among the general public.

As such, the decision not to vaccinate due to persistent, unsubstantiated myths can have a significant impact on public health.

The idea that vaccinations may be linked to autism is still a concern for many new parents, even though the paper which originally suggested

this has been widely discredited.

Expert researchers around the world have further investigated this claim and have found no link between vaccination and autism. In fact, these researchers have yet to find a link between vaccines and any illness.

Many precautions are in place to ensure all available vaccinations are as safe as possible. There is a rigorous, continued research process to maintain the safety and efficacy of all vaccines before making them available to the public.

Of course, it is important to be aware of the potential risks of any medical procedure or treatment.

Some individuals can experience

allergic reactions to various vaccines, though these are extremely rare.

Overall, vaccines are an effective method of preventing many serious illnesses. Infectious diseases such as cholera, hepatitis A and B, shingles, HPV, measles, mumps, whooping cough, rabies, chickenpox, smallpox, influenza and more are now preventable due to vaccinations.

Vaccinations have reduced the prevalence of certain diseases by over 90 per cent.

When making the decision whether or not to vaccinate it is important not only be aware of the potential risks and benefits to our own health, but also to the health of

those around us. Some individuals may not be able to be vaccinated and are therefore susceptible to disease.

Though it is up to every individual to make the choice for themselves, vaccinations have been largely shown to prevent illness with very little risk.

There is great debate as to whether vaccinations should be mandatory in order to prevent dangerous outbreaks of disease within the population.

This ethical issue of individual autonomy versus public beneficence remains a heated topic among many healthcare professionals, government organizations and the general public today.

Opinions

Editor: Katharyn Stevenson | November 19, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

THE ARGOSY

THROUGH STAINED GLASS

Independent Student Newspaper of Mount Allison University Thursday, November 19, 2015 volume 145 issue 9

Town organizes active response to refugee crisis

w w w. a r g o s y. c a

Sackville shows support for refugees

Since 1872 Circulation 1,550

62 York Street W. McCain Student Centre Mount Allison University Sackville, New Brunswick E4L 1H3

506 364 2236

Email argosy@mta.ca

THE ARGOSY is published by Argosy Publications, Inc., a student run, autonomous, apolitical not-for-profit organization operated in accordance with the province of New Brunswick.

THE ARGOSY is a member of the Canadian University Press, a national co-operative of student newspapers.

ISSN 0837-1024

The Underbridge Press is a student-run publishing organization at Mount Allison University.

editorialstaff

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Austin Landry

MANAGING EDITOR Tessa Dixon

NEWS EDITOR Taylor McCuaig

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Daniel Marcotte

SCI/TECH EDITOR S. Clay Steell

COPY EDITOR Cecilia Stuart

­­­

­­­PUBLIC EDITOR

SPORTS & HEALTH EDITOR Nathan Dix

Kevin Levangie HUMOUR EDITORS Brendan Carroll Kael MacQuarrie

OPINIONS EDITOR Katharyn Stevenson

productionstaff PRODUCTION MANAGER Kyle Forbes

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Paul Boon

PHOTO EDITOR Allison Grogan

ONLINE EDITOR Vacant

PHOTOGRAPHER Adrian Kiva

ILLUSTRATOR Patrick Allaby

reportingstaff NEWS REPORTERS Sylvan Hamburger Catherine Turnbull

POLITICS REPORTER Naomi Goldberg SPORTS REPORTER Vacant

ARTS & CULTURE REPORTERS Caity Brawn Amanda Cormier Michael Dover SCI/TECH REPORTER Ninh Khuong

operationsstaff BUSINESS MANAGER Amy Marchbank

AD MANAGER Taylor Hall

OFFICE MANAGER Christopher Arisz

CIRCULATIONS Caity Brawn

In place of the usual commentary from the chaplain, this week’s Through Stained Glass takes the form of a press release from the Sackville Refugee Response Coalition, a group formed of individuals and community representatives seeking to sponsor a refugee family or families.

Various community groups, including Mount Allison University and a partnership of local churches, have come together in support of Syrian refugees and are seeking to raise $30,000 for the refugee application and integration process.

The Sackville Refugee Response Coalition continues to seek to sponsor a Syrian refugee family or families. In light of the crisis unfolding in Syria and across Europe, a concerned group, including members of the Mount Allison University community, local churches, individuals and service organizations, began meeting earlier this fall to discuss what could be done and to determine the best way to respond.

The mandate of the Sackville Refugee Response Coalition is to sponsor and welcome a refugee family or families to Sackville. The coalition, chaired by Rev. John Perkin, chaplain of Mt. A, will work collaboratively amongst key stakeholders to coordinate actions of the refugee sponsorship process.

“We’ve held two public meetings this fall, one with our Member of Parliament in attendance, and have been pleased with the community response,” said Perkin. “The coalition is now seeking to raise funds to

Sponsoring a refugee family is the main goal of Sackville’s Refugee Response Coalition. Wikipedia assist with the refugee application process—approximately $30,000.”

A partnership with local churches – beginning with the Sackville United Church, the Middle Sackville Baptist Church, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, the Anglican Parish of Sackville and Dorchester, and Main Street Baptist Church – has been arranged to assist in this process. Church denominations hold sponsorship agreements with the Canadian government and applications can be submitted through the churches, working on behalf of this larger coalition.

“There is an immediate need is to raise these funds, which are necessary

to support the initial application. This would help settle a family for the first year,” said Perkin. “The application process does not select a family, as that is done by government refugee agents; the first families to be settled are likely to be those most at risk, which would include single mothers with young children.”

To support the Sackville Refugee Response Coalition, donations clearly marked “SRRC” or “refugees” and made out to one of the participating churches in town can be given through the Sackville United Church, Middle Sackville Baptist Church, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, the Anglican Parishes of Sackville and

Dorchester (St. Paul’s Anglican), and Main Street Baptist Church. Tax receipts will be available.

Those wishing to be involved further can email chapel@mta.ca and indicate what skill, resource or ability they bring to the working groups (e.g. can provide transportation, assist with childcare, speak Arabic, provide household items, etc.)

Further information can be found on the group’s Facebook page, Sackville Refugee Response Coalition. Watch for further information updates, public meeting notices, or other opportunities to become involved.

contributors Alyssa BeLong, Rob Burroughs, Margaux Daly, Alex Lepianka, Robin Sommerfeld, Isaiah Yankech

publicationboard Dave Thomas (Chair), Mike Fox, Morgan McGinn, Daniel MacGregor

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Community doors must remain open, welcoming Resisting politics of fear and discrimination is crucial in wake of tragedy

disclaimers and copyright The Argosy is the official independent student journal of news, opinion, and the arts, written, edited and funded by the students of Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of The Argosy’s staff or its Board of Directors. The Argosy is published weekly throughout the academic year by Argosy Publications, Inc. Student contributions in the form of letters, articles, photography, graphic design and comics are welcome. The Argosy reserves the right to edit or refuse all materials deemed sexist, racist, homophobic, or otherwise unfit for print, as determined by the editor-in-chief. Articles or other contributions can be sent to argosy@mta.ca or directly to a section editor. The Argosy will print unsolicited materials at its own discretion. Letters to the editor must be signed, though names may be withheld at the sender’s request and at The Argosy’s discretion. Anonymous letters will not

To those with whom I had discussed visiting Paris last weekend to celebrate my birthday at the FranceGermany soccer match, plans changed and I remained in the south.

Another weekend, another birthday, and I might have had a different story to tell.

In Paris, 129 more souls were added to the list of those caught on the wrong end of a Friday evening’s joy, of those who perished at the hands of murderous, feckless thugs hell-bent on poisoning our minds with fear and suspicion. Yet even before this most jarring of Fridaythe-13ths, the temptation in our

country and community to reject desperate, scared people fleeing one of the darkest precincts of our chaotic world was evident. Why, clearly, would we want to bring their panic and trouble to our little spot, safe and distant from the terrors of the world outside?

We must overcome this feeling, no matter how small. The temptation may be overwhelming, especially in the wake of what happened in Paris over the weekend, but we must stand firm. (I would cite Beirut as well, but the reality of our bubble is that an attack in Beirut is not likely to influence our views on accepting

be printed.

Comments, concerns, or complaints about The Argosy’s content or operations should be first sent to the editor-in-chief at the address above. If the editor-in-chief is unable to resolve a complaint, it may be taken to the Argosy Publications, Inc. Board of Directors. The chairs of the Board of Directors can be reached at the address above.

All materials appearing in The Argosy bear the copyright of Argosy Publications, Inc. Material cannot be reprinted without the permission of the editor-in-chief.

The A rgosy ’s Opinions section is looking for contribuitors!

Submissions are due every Saturday at noon

Send pitches and/or articles to argosy@mta.ca

displaced persons into the refuge that is our community on the Marsh).

Sackville is not a community that closes our doors. We are a community that leaves our porch lights on. We are a community that knocked down the wrought-iron fences which once separated us. We are a community that aspires to influence the national discussion. This is the Sackville that raised me and helped shape the young man I am today.

At a time when the country around us could be tempted to reject our new government’s ambitious plan to provide a new sanctuary for 25,000

refugees out of fear and misguided xenophobia, Sackville’s conviction and resolve to continue being a safe haven at the crossroads of our Maritimes cannot falter.

Now is not the time to close our doors.

Rob Burroughs is a Mount Allison graduate (class of 2013) living and working in France.

To submit a letter to the editor, please email editor-in-chief Austin Landry at argosy@mta.ca

The Argosy | www.argosy.ca

OPINIONS

REMEMBRANCE DAY

13

War should be remembered, not celebrated Wearing the red poppy should consider wars fought for wrong reasons S. Clay Steell Science & Tech Editor

Remembrance Day has come and gone, and with it the iconic red poppies. It is now worth reflecting on the choice to wear the poppy and observe Remembrance Day. The nature of war and our culture around it has changed significantly since Remembrance Day was first celebrated almost a century ago, which warrants consideration of what wearing the red poppy means today.

I write this not because I believe most Canadians wear the red poppy for the wrong reason, but because for the first time since moving to Canada three years ago, I decided to wear the red poppy this year. I encourage the reader to consider their decision to wear the poppy, or not to, with scrutiny. This simple act automatically engages us with a century of militarism and geopolitics, or how states maximize their foreign strategic interests based on geography and international politics.

Remembrance Day is an opportunity for Canadians to recognize the human toll of wars fought in the name of geopolitics and imperialism. From the world wars to ongoing involvement in Middle Eastern and African conflicts, Canada’s military has been a tool of maintaining geopolitical strategies and serving the interests of foreign powers and, increasingly, corporate interests. The popular notion of Canada’s military role as

Being critical of long-established symbols and traditions is important. Wikipedia a “peacekeeper” is illusory, but this makes the human cost of its wars no less tragic. Observing Remembrance Day doesn’t necessarily support Canada’s dark military past and present, and doesn’t conflict with personally opposing Canadian militarism in all forms.

Wearing the red poppy may, however, directly support the Royal Canadian Legion, which distributes them annually. While this organization does use some troublesome language around war and remembrance, their focus appears to be on financially supporting veterans in need. Supporting veterans doesn’t equate to supporting the wars

the fought in, as they didn’t make the decisions leading to conflicts fought for power, money and state interests. The fact that they need support beyond the government at all indicates the severity of the human toll war can take, and reflects where the interests of Canada’s decision makers really lie when it comes to war.

My reservations about wearing the poppy in previous years were due to concerns that it celebrated war, a practice all too common in the United States, where I lived before coming to Canada. I’m mostly convinced that Canadians recognize Remembrance Day more sombrely than most of our

American counterparts on days of remembrance, but this is by no means unchangeable.

It’s no secret that our previous Conservative government was prowar, and that it attempted to promote a culture of Canadian militarism through systemic media campaigns.

I can’t speak to how effective this cultural campaigning was, but the fact that it occurred at all should raise serious concern. The new Liberal government will probably take a less zealous tone around war, but I doubt it will recognize the dark reality of Canada’s military history and confront the implications that lauding it has.

The choice to wear the red poppy should not come down to whether it’s something you’ve always done or whether everyone else is doing it. Consider what you know about Canada’s military history and what you may not be thinking about when you choose to wear it. It’s a symbolic act, but one which can convey a highly personal perspective on war, including one which entirely condemns Canada’s wars and remembers their terrible and ongoing legacy.

Cont’d: Some tendencies in news are responsible for intensifying divisions Kevin Levangie Public Editor

The New York Times wrote a particularly reprehensible headline about the Beirut bombing: “Deadly blasts hit Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut.” In this headline, what is in fact a busy civilian neighborhood becomes defined by its occupation by a paramilitary organization that is also a political party. As the media watchdog FAIR wrote in their article about the coverage, this turns “civilian ISIS victims in Beirut into Hezbollah

human shields.”

The contrast with the reporting on Paris is stark. French lives have been humanized and we hear that Parisians play “Imagine” in the street.

The victims have names and are to be understood as real individuals, not strictly as a part of a body count.

This is in part because violence “over there” is normalized in Western minds, and the ideological content of the news reflects certain attitudes that circulate in the societies that produce the newspaper owners, the journalists and the readers.

It is important to note that the coverage is simultaneously produced by the ideological climate in the West and helps to reproduce it. A bombing in Lebanon does not get the same amount of attention as attacks in Paris because the popular understanding is bombings happen in “the Middle

East” but not in the West. Not only is this a lazy attitude with no insights to offer into the reasons for violence, it is also a poisonous attitude that often brings with it the idea of an innate predisposition for violence in Muslim people.

We need to acknowledge that the violence in Paris was not senseless.

It was planned to create the greatest number of casualties in the most public way possible. They hoped to provoke panic and retrenchment, and to create a climate of fear that sets the “West” against “the Islamic world.”

When news outlets dehumanize victims of violence in one part of the world while mourning them loudly in another they play into the hands of those who would cast these events as a clash of civilization.

Correction In last week’s article “Get to know your campus resources” in our Nov. 5 edition, the Argosy incorrectly stated that psychologists are available out of the Mount Allison Wellness Centre for two and a half hours per week. In fact, psychologists are available at the Wellness Centre two and a half days per week. This mistake was not the fault of the author’s, but instead an editing error which misrepresented an important detail.

The Argosy apologizes for this and any other errors.

Errors requiring correction should be brought to the attention of editor-inchief Austin Landry via email, at argosy@mta.ca.

Science & Tech

Editor: S. Clay Steell | November 19, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

HONOURS PROFILE

Env. science student studies algae blooms in lakes

Margaux Daly analyzes New Brunswick lake sediments to determine blooms through time Ninh Khuong Science & Tech Reporter Algae blooms are one of the biggest environmental concerns in North America, and some New Brunswick lakes are succumbing to their harmful effects. Fourth-year honours student Margaux Daly is researching how algae blooms affect the past and present ecology of New Brunswick lakes under the supervision of Joshua Kurek, an associate professor in the department of geography and environment.

Daly’s research may have implications to the control and management of algae blooms in New Brunswick lakes.

“Algae blooms […] are signals of environmental stress,” said Daly. “So the project is about determining characteristics of lakes that are sensitive to environmental stressors, and that helps us better manage the lakes in the future.”

Algae blooms are massive surface-water growths of blue-green algae. This phenomenon is mainly caused by eutrophication, a process in which a body of water accumulates a high concentration of chemical nutrients. Sewage containing agricultural and industrial waste often leads to stronger and more frequent blooms. Algae blooms produce natural toxins which endanger aquatic organisms and have severe impact on human health. They also deplete oxygen in the water, creating a stressful environment for species living in the area.

Daly is studying the ecological systems of three lakes located throughout New Brunswick: Lac Unique, First Lake and States Lake.

Lac Unique is the only one of these lakes

experiencing algae blooms.

Daly collected sediment samples from their deepest locations, using a sediment core collector from a boat. The sediment samples, which contain layers of minerals and different types of bacteria, provide records of long-term climate changes. From these samples, Daly obtains the fossils of a type of freshwater crustacean called cladocera, also known as the water flea. This organism indicates changes of the lakes’ food webs due to their high sensitivity to various environmental stressors. Daly analyzes and compares the cladoceran population structures across the three lakes. The results from her analysis are used as a proxy to understand and construct climate records of the environmental changes in the lakes.

Daly said the results she has obtained so far indicate the lakes are experiencing a loss of species richness over time, with Lac Unique experiencing the greatest loss. “[T]here is clearly something different about [Lac Unique] that is making it more susceptible to climate change than the reference sites [State Lake and First Lake], likely because it is closer to anthropogenic activities than the other two lakes,” said Daly.

“When intense algae blooms are occurring, species that can withstand these conditions or even thrive in them will become more successful and species that are less suited to those conditions become less abundant or completely die out,” she said.

Daly said she developed her interest in environmental studies from camping and canoe trips.

Daly’s honours research took her to several New Brunswick lakes. Margaux Daly/Submitted “I have a certain appreciation and care for the cool […] how little changes can have such a big environment. I think the science of ecology and impact and how well suited the environment is population structure is really interesting. It is really to changes.”

SCIENCE POINTERS

10 questions to ask a potential honours supervisor in science Robin Sommerfeld Argosy Contributor

It’s that time of year again: open season on honours supervisors. Finding the right partnership can be even more important than finding a research topic that is interesting to you. Here are some good questions to keep in mind when you meet with potential supervisors:

1. What are potential projects that I could take on?

While it will likely be up to you to hammer out the details of your particular study, having a general idea of what you might look at is a major deciding factor for many prospective honours students.

2. On a scale of 1-10, how independent will my work be?

Trying to find the right balance can be hard because every lab and every student is different. It’s critical to know how much you’ll be expected to self-motivate ahead of time.

8. Who else will be working in the lab? Will there be other honours students? Grad students?

Lab technicians?

You’ll be spending a lot of time with these other people, so find a dynamic that works for you!

9. Are there any safety concerns that I should know about?

Some labs carry risks that are best to know from the very beginning.

10. Do you have current or previous students that I could talk to?

It’s a good idea to chat with a few students to get a firsthand account of what it’s like to work in each lab.

Beginning an honours project is incredibly exciting, but take the time to seriously consider the decisions you’re making. Talk to more than one professor and remember that they’ll have questions for you, too! Be honest and clear with your answers so that you’re both on the same page. In the end, if you decide not to work in someone’s lab, be sure to let them know as soon as possible. Happy hunting!

3. What do you expect from me as a student?

An honours project is a two-way partnership, and being clear about expectations from both sides is vital for successful research.

4. How many of your previous students have gone on to a graduate program?

If the goal is medical school, vet school or other graduate programs, having an idea of where previous honours students have landed may give you a good indication of fit.

5. What is the likelihood of publishing the research from my honours work?

Publication can be a stepping stone in your academic career, but not all honours supervisors encourage students to pursue it. Ask your potential supervisors how often their students publish their work, and consider whether this is something you strive for.

6. What is the likelihood of attending conferences during the next year?

If bolstering your resume with these kinds of experiences is important to you, make sure to ask a potential supervisor about these possibilities.

7. What are the hours like in your lab? Can I start in May or in September?

Sometimes lab work has to be done during the evenings, weekends and holidays. Be willing to put in some long days but make sure that you know what to expect ahead of time.

A list of questions for a potential supervisor can help you stand out. Patrick Allaby/Argosy

Editors: Brendan Carroll & Kael MacQuarrie | November 19, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

Humour

How You Feel About Snow Over Time: Day 1: Whoa, Snow. Winter is here and so is my cheer.

Day 20: JINGLE BELLS JINGLE BELLS Day 47: I can’t feel my toes. I have fallen so many times.

Day 78: The Devil’s icy dandruff curses us with its presence.

Day 102: The sun has abandoned us. We cannot be saved.

Day 156: Santa Claus is a false idol.

Day 214: The feeling of warmth has been forgotten to time immemorial.

Day 304: The Wasteland becomes us.

Day 771: Death is the only saving grace of this existence.

By Patrick Allaby

Across:

Down:

1- Totaled; 6- Smacker; 10- Fit to ___; 14- Lost a lap; 15- Quasimodo’s creator; 16- Sled; 17- Tawdry; 18- Press; 19- List-shortening abbr.; 20- Modest; 22- New York’s Giuliani; 23- Raced; 24- Polo Grounds legend; 26- Pride woman; 30- Soft leather; 34- Opinion piece; 35- Choice word; 36- DDE’s bailiwick; 37- Slippery ___ eel; 38- “Socrate” composer Erik; 40- Oscar winner Patricia; 41- Bit of film, to a photog; 42- New Age musician John; 43- Feminist Abzug; 44- Mountain chains; 46- Serves; 48- Reactions to cuteness; 49- Capital on the Dnieper; 50- Richard of “A Summer Place”; 53- Dispute; 59- Gator’s kin; 60- Be tangent to; 61- Utah’s ___ Mountains; 62- Title bestowed upon the wife of a raja; 63- Fountain of jazz; 64- Yellow-fever mosquito; 65- Not new; 66- Ogled; 67- Crucifix;

1- Queue after Q ; 2- ___ impasse; 3- ___ chance!; 4- Small fry; 5- Long journey; 6- Rings bells; 7- Sensational; 8- Dramatic conflict; 9- Ferretlike carnivore; 10- Warns; 11- Ballet skirt; 12- Old oath; 13- Hard to hold; 21- Increases; 25- Peg used on the first in golf; 26- Inclines; 27- Japanese immigrant; 28- Inedible orange; 29- Bert Bobbsey’s twin; 30- Half of MCII; 31- Boat spines; 32- Novelist Calvino; 33- Atari founder Bushnell; 35- Ordinal ending; 38- View of the sea; 39- Pack animal; 40- New Jersey cager; 42- Credit-tracking corp.; 43- Camp; 45- Offensive; 46- Having wit; 47- ___ Lingus (Irish carrier); 49- Coach Rockne; 50- Beige cousin; 51- Fat, in France; 52- First class; 54- Follow; 55- Contender; 56- Opposite of ecto-; 57- Hwys.; 58- Soviet news service;

First Day of Summer: Can’t wait for the snow to come back!

By Brendan Carroll

Crosswords from http//:www.bestcrosswords.com Used with permission.

We’re Hiring!

The Argosy is currently seeking students with an interest in journalism for the positions of sports reporter and advertising manager.

Advertising Manager -Developing relationships with local businesses -Soliciting advertisements and maintaining sales -Assist in marketing the newspaper

Sports Reporter -Attending sport events -Reporting on games, conducting interviews and keeping up to date with scores and team rankings -Live-tweeting games

If you are interested in either position, please email a cover letter and resume to argosy@mta.ca. Please include three pieces of written work in application for the sports reporter position.

Please contact editor-in-chief Austin Landry at argosy@mta.ca for further information, or come by the Argosy office in the Wallace McCain Student Centre, room 386.