The Argosy February 12, 2015

Council restructure approved, pg. 2

ARGOSY

THE

Trying to hook up on Yik Yak since 1872

News pg. 2

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Opinions pg. 5

CHEMISTRY

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Tintamarre presents comedy and song, pg.10

Mount Allison University’s Independent Student Newspaper

Sports pg. 7

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Arts pg. 10

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February 12, 2015 Vol. 144, Iss. 16

Science pg. 12

Prof ’s research contributes to chemical bond discovery

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Humour pg. 14

DIVESTMENT

Global divestment day urges action at Mt. A Emma Jackson

New chemical bond discovered related to Mount Allison chemistry professor’s earlier experiments. Chris Donovan/ Argosy.

Clay Steell Science Reporter The way the universe holds itself together is more dynamic than we thought, according to a new study.

Researchers led by Donald Fleming, a University of British Columbia chemist, have confirmed the existence of a new type of chemical bond, the

force that holds together atoms to make everything from molecules to people to planets. Mount Allison chemistry professor Kashayar Ghandi laid the foundation for this discovery, known as vibrational bonding.

“This basically proves that our work was good,” Ghandi said. Ghandi led an experiment that discovered the vibrational bond in 2006; Flemming was a co-author. This

experiment was replicated in 2008 and again in 2012. The data from 2012 replication was reanalyzed with the strongest calculations to date on the phenomenon, and was published last December in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, a German publication that translates to “Applied Chemistry” in English.

“It’s the same thing we predicted, except that it has much higher

and more sophisticated level of calculation,” said Ghandi. “It’s a bond because of a dance of the molecules.”

Ghandi was not involved with the most recent paper on the subject, but he was pleased to see the new research.

“Our experiment was the seed of dynamic bonds. We planted that,” he said.

‘New bonds’: pg. 12

MASU ELECTION

Wooley-Berry to stand in run-off election Following election confusion, candidate to face yes/no vote Willa McCaffery-Noviss Politics Reporter The Mount Allison student body is headed back to the polls. A run-off election featuring a yes/no ballot to elect Dylan Wooley-Berry as MASU president was approved by the student’s administrative council.

The campaigning began Feb. 6 with voting to be held on Feb. 13 and 14.

The run-off election was prompted

by a complaint filed to MASU’s ombudsperson on Jan. 28.

The complaint concerned an error in the online voting system that left the results of the presidential election up in the air. MASU’s operating procedures call for an optional preferential voting system. Under the union’s election rules, students should be able to either vote for just one candidate, list any number of candidates in preferential order or abstain. The Jan. 26 and 27 election conducted through an online

service allowed for students to list the candidates in their prefered order or abstain, but did not allow voters to vote for only one candidate. This made the preferential voting mandatory rather than optional.

The discrepancy would not have affected the results if one of the presidential candidates got the 50 per cent plus one of all votes necessary to elect a MASU executive in the first round, but an abstention rate of 19 per cent left neither candidate with an

initial majority. In the second round of voting, Wooley-Berry received a majority, because every vote for Riley Thompson was transferred to him.

Since students were unable to vote for just one of the presidential candidates, it is not clear if Wooley-Berry would have received a majority without the glitch.

‘Election’: pg. 4

In September, seven Mount Allison students, including myself, joined 400,000 other divestment supporters in New York City to demand action on climate change. We were seven students among 50,000, marching under a banner that read, “Our Future.

Our Choice.”

In reality, taking action on climate change at the institutional level isn’t our choice, at least not yet. As our generation is confronted with the greatest challenge that the world has arguably ever faced, Mt. A continues to stand on the sidelines, refusing to take the bold action required to prevent catastrophic climate change.

In keeping our endowment fund invested in the fossil fuel industry, Mt. A is directly supporting an industry whose business model is incompatible with a livable future on this planet.

Divestment therefore stands not only as a product of moral imperative, but also as a future-oriented financial decision. In a low-carbon future, the top 200 oil, gas and coal firms will be unable to bring two-thirds of their proven reserves to market. Mt. A is locking us into a future that presents costs we cannot afford to bear.

This Friday, on global divestment day, we, as students, faculty and community members, will stand together to send a clear message that this is unacceptable. Together, we’ll make it known that we are positioning ourselves on the right side of history, and that we won’t stand down until Mt. A does the same.

The task at hand isn’t easy. In fact, it’s really, really hard but complacency is no longer an option. Each day we stand by watching Mt. A uphold the status quo, listening to the oft-cited excuses of ‘fiduciary responsibility’ and ‘political neutrality,’ is another day of emissions, another day of building infrastructure for a fossil

‘Divestment’: pg. 6

News

Editors: Cameron McIntyre & Kevin Levangie | February 12, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

MASU

Council to shrink from 27 to 19 Resize passes with only a single vote against Jean-Sébastien Comeau News Reporter Following this spring’s election, council will consist of six executive members, six senators, one board of regents’ representative, one first-year representative and five councillors at large. Currently, council boasts six executive members, six senators, six on-campus (three north, three south), one board of regents representative and six off-campus councillors.

This motion is the latest in a series of structural changes implemented by council. In 2013, council went from having a councillor in each residence to the current model of three north side and three south side councillors.

It also cut three off-campus councillor positions, going from nine to the current six councillors.

The motion passed during Feb. 9’s council meeting with little opposition. Councillors had already voiced their opinions in a previous meeting, held on Jan. 26, where vice-president finance and operations Josh Outerbridge presented the initial motion. Council approved the motion, thus giving Outerbridge a mandate to draft bylaw amendments.

Off-campus councillor Alex

Economou was the only councillor to vote against both motions.

“I was given a mandate to do a general review of the MASU: how we work, what we do well, what don’t we do so well,” said Outerbridge.

The process, according to president Heather Webster, began in January 2013. Consultation sessions with students were held and a review committee was struck to examine the situation. The committee, chaired by Outerbridge, consisted of Webster, Cole Murphy, Ryan Lebreton, and Eilish Elliott, who at the time was the MASU’s chairperson. Murphy and Lebreton did not sit on council.

The consultations held at the time saw low attendance.

The committee recommended downsizing council, removing onand off-campus councillors, and replacing the twelve positions with six councillors at-large.

“By shrinking council, it’s not necessarily getting rid of the workforce, it’s mostly just funneling down the resources we have to committees, which is really what does the work,” said Lebreton.

After the changes, councillors will still have to sit on at least two committees.

“If [students] really wanted to be involved with the MASU, they’ll then sit on those committees not as

councillors, but as students-at-large.”

Outerbridge presented the bylaw amendments at Feb. 9’s meeting.

“The optimal-decision making group is between six and twelve people,” said Outerbridge. “There is such a thing as too many voices in the room.”

“When there’s a big issue that year, [the distinction between on and off-campus councillors] doesn’t tie people down,” said Outerbridge.

“In doing this, we are going to have a more autonomous council from the university, because in the current structure, it assumes that half of our members live on-campus and half live off-campus. It also assumes that the university will never shut down south side [residences], but next year, they could come and shut down south side,” said Webster.

“We work to try and be an autonomous organization from the university and I think it’s ridiculous that our board structure is completely dependent on the university’s decisions.”

Economou was one of the few councillors to vote against the initial motion, passed on Jan. 26.

“I don’t see how reducing the size of council will make it more productive. I just look at it as a loss of human resources,” said Economou.

“If there are any misgivings it would

be the apathy towards council, and I think that’s a much bigger issue than efficiency. I just don’t see that as a problem.”

Other U4 schools, the alliance of primarily undergraduate universities comprised of Mt. A, Acadia, St. Francis Xavier and Bishop’s, have much smaller councils, said newly elected vice-president academic affairs Mary Emma MacNeil.

“Currently, we have one of the highest ratios of councillors to

students.”

“With less people, each person’s voice and the voice that they represent will be heard more often and it will taken more into consideration,” said MacNeil.

“Now that we have a smaller group of people, they are going to be more committed and they’re going to be forced to do their jobs, because otherwise, the [MASU] will fall apart,” said Webster.

Graphics: MASU’s Students’ Administrative Council has changed its structure three times in the last four years. It shrunk from 31 to 27 after the 2012-2013 year, but then remained at 27 up until this year. Kyle Forbes/Argosy.

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NEWS

TOWN COUNCIL

Town supports highway bridge

THIS WEEK IN THE WORLD Compiled by Mike Roy

Council supports ‘principle’ of walking bridge

Retrial set for Egyptian-Canadian journalist imprisoned in Egypt

Tyler Stuart News Reporter Town council voted to support in principle the construction of a pedway over the Trans-Canada Highway connecting Waterfowl Park to the Wetlands Centre.

The Sackville Pedway Project, consisting of a group of local volunteers, has been pushing the idea of a pedway since 1999. Now they have the town’s support.

“In order for them to progress their agenda, they have told us that it would be very helpful if the town council supported it in principle,” said Margaret Tusz-King, a town councillor.

It gives them much more ability to talk to others potential partners and interested stakeholders.

“With an in-principle support, it gives them much more ability to talk to other potential partners and funders and interested stakeholders,” Tusz-King said.

The bridge would cross the Trans Canada Highway and connect Waterfowl and Wetlands Centre. Christina DeHaas/Sackville Pedway Project.

The motion, which passed unanimously on Monday, came a week after Christina DeHaas presented to council last Tuesday.

DeHaas, who represented the Sackville Pedway Project, provided a brief history of the idea and said that it was a matter of safety.

“Presently, many choose to cross the highway between vehicle traffic, rather than follow the town’s suggested detour which is both unmarked and lacks bicycle lanes,” reads the project’s website. A petition in support of the pedway’s

construction has garnered 523 signatures.

Before council voted on the motion, councillor Bill Evans clarified that the motion supports the project in principle only, and does not promise any financial support.

“We are not making a commitment.

We have not changed our priorities,” said Bill Evans, a town councillor.

“But we are enabling a group to proceed with their own generation of support and funds.”

But if the group wants money from the town, they’ll have to ask again.

MENTAL HEALTH

Report looks at 13 mental health indicators for students

KAMLOOPS, B.C. (CUP) — Mental health professionals are alarmed over self-harm on campus after a recent report revealed 6.6 per cent of postsecondary students had intentionally hurt themselves in the last year and up to 20 per cent had done so at some point in their lives.

“The statistic is unsettling,” said Cliff Robinson, head of counselling at Thompson Rivers University.

“But the thing that’s most sad for me is that for some people it’s easier to cut than it is to talk about their own mental health condition, and that speaks to stigma about mental health and mental illness.”

Self-harm among post-secondary students was one of four indicators marked red for “significant concerns.”

Another eight came in yellow for “some concerns” or uncertain results.

Only one indicator measured in the green. Released by the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) last week, the report measured 13 indicators of Canadian mental health, including self-harm among college students. Other indicators include suicide rates, anxiety among

Saudi Arabian blogger escapes flogging for fourth week in ‘1,000 lash’ sentence Blogger Raif Badawi was not flogged on Feb. 6 as part of his sentencing announced in May 2014 according to his wife Ensaf Haidar. Badawi was sentenced to 1,000 lashes to be carried out in 20 sessions in front of a mosque, as well as 10 years in jail, USD $266,000 in fines, a 10-year ban on overseas travel and a 10-year ban on participating in visual, electronic and written media. The blogger was an activist and co-founder of the “Free Saudi Liberals” website in 2008, which criticized practitioners of the Islamic school of religion known as Wahhabism. On Jan. 9, Badawi received his first set of 50 lashes outside al-Jafali Mosque in Jeddah, but the floggings have since been delayed each subsequent week on the grounds of health concerns. Many human rights activists have been outspoken against the Saudi Arabian government against this case, citing the punishments as inhumane.

B.C. village evacuated after record snowfall strikes community

Study says over 6 per cent of postsecondary students self-harm Alexis Stockford The Omega

Mohamed Fahmy will begin a retrial in Egyptian courts on Feb. 12, according to sources close to the journalist. After being imprisoned since Dec. 2013 on charges connected to spreading lies and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, Fahmy was sentenced to a seven to ten-year term alongside his Al-Jazeera colleagues, Australian journalist Peter Greste and Egyptian journalist Baher Mohamed. Greste was released from prison on Feb. 1, while Baher remains imprisoned with Fahmy in Cairo. International human rights lawyer Amal Clooney requested a meeting with President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi and Foreign Affairs Minister Sameh Shoukry to speak on Fahmy’s behalf for his hopeful release. The Canadian government released a statement on Feb. 8 that calls for the immediate release for Fahmy, although family members of the journalist believe that the government should intervene further after Fahmy was forced to drop his Egyptian citizenship in exchange for a possible release.

school-aged youth, anxiety or mood disorders in seniors and hospital readmissions within 30 days due to mental illness.

The report is part one of what the MHCC calls the “most comprehensive set of indicators for mental health illness in Canada,” measuring 63 different indicators of mental illness. Results on the other 50 indicators will be released in April.

According to Robinson, only a small percentage of self-harm cases are actually suicidal. People may also self-harm as a way to deal with personal upheaval, anxiety,

The thing that’s most sad for me is that for some people it’s easier to cut than it is to talk about their own mental health. depression or as a coping mechanism for emotional distress. He also said not everyone who admits to selfharm is hospitalized.

“We’re not going to overreact on your behalf,” Robinson said. “Our job is to figure out what it’s going to take

for you to deal with whatever mental health thing you’ve got going on, and in a vast majority of cases, you’re going to come in and talk to us and [the rest of the time] it’s business as usual.”

“They may have self-harming behaviours, but you need to have a much fuller understanding of what might be driving those behaviours and then refer them properly,” McLean said.

Robinson said he is excited to read the full report come April, but knows it will highlight how much work is ahead for mental health professionals like him.

“We will no longer have the excuse of ‘we didn’t know,’ or that excuse that I often use, which is ‘I can only speak to my own clients,’” he said.

“Now I kind of know what my clients are saying in the context of people in general, and we’ve got to put some money and resources and strategic planning into where the problems are.”

Mount Allison University offers mental health services through the Wellness Centre located in the Wallace McCain Student Centre.

These services include weekly visits by a psychologist.

Officials ordered the evacuation of Kitamat Village in British Columbia’s Haisla First Nation after a snowfall of approximately 180 cm that fell between Feb. 3 and Feb. 7. Power outages, fallen hydro poles and continued snow accumulation created obstacles for transportation of the 800 residents within the village. Most of the residents were able to evacuate and move themselves to the Kitimat Riverlodge Leisure Centre about 15 kilometres north in the town of Kitimat, while others have retreated to the safety of family and friends.

Robot prototype proposed by London researchers promotes autonomy, independence and care among elderly Researchers at the University of Hertfordshire in Britain have developed a social robot prototype designed to work in tandem with relatives and caretakers of people in elderly communities.

The robot has been created to help combat loneliness and isolation among elderly people, as it possesses the tools to speak and interact with emotion, as well as to remember people and faces. Farshid Amirabdollahian completed the prototype with a team of nine partner institutions across Europe in a project called Acceptable Robotics Companions for Ageing Years over the past three years.

Though studies are still being conducted, formal and informal care centres for the elderly across France, the Netherlands and Britain are expected to examine the project.

Required screenings and vaccinations at University of California upon measles outbreak The University of California released a new health plan on Feb. 6 requiring incoming students at all 10 campuses to be screened for tuberculosis and vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella and other diseases before being admitted to the institution. The policy change extends beyond the required hepatitis B shots currently in effect for the 233,000 students and has also surfaced in the wake of a measles outbreak of more than 100 people in the state since December. The resurgence of the disease, which was believed dormant since 2000 before the recent diagnoses, has spurred debate among U.S. legislators on enforced vaccination amidst the outcry of anti-inoculation supporters.

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NEWS

Editors: Cameron McIntyre & Kevin Levangie | February 12, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

VOLUNTEER TRIPS

CIS panel on volunteer trips fills M14

Global brigades welcomes criticism, sends the entirety of the Mt. A chapter to attend

Panel discussion focused on criticism of international volunteer trips. Chris Donovan/Argosy.

Tyler Stuart News Reporter A panel sparked hosted by the Centre for International Studies (CIS) and Mount Allison’s chapter of Global Brigades sparked a passionate discussion about the problems with international volunteer trips. After a brief period of opening remarks, the panel answered questions from an audience of more than 150 people for the remaining time.

“I thought it was really good,” said Tim Reiffenstein, a Mt. A geography professor who sat in the audience.

“It’s rare you get this many students out. It’s rare you have this much audience participation, and most of it

was given to audience participation.”

Many of the people in the audience were members of Global Brigades who were required by the organization to attend the event. An estimated 60 Global Brigades students showed up, including Chris Arsenault, a thirdyear biochemistry student.

“For me it was really useful,” he said. “I got to hear a lot of things that I hadn’t heard first-hand, and it was also just a really great discussion from a lot of different perspectives.”

The rest of the audience members were other students and professors from a variety of faculties.

“Geography and environment, commerce, IR all sort of have stakes in it,” said Zoe Walker, a fourth-year geography student who is writing her

thesis on voluntourism. “I was really interested to see so many students have such a passionate interest in it. The questions were by no means neutral.”

The questions and the discussion focused largely on the limitations of international volunteering, and that of Global Brigades in particular, an organization that claims to provide sustainable development. Students and professors voiced their concerns to experts on and proponents of volunteer trips.

“I thought that it was a very important conversation to have at Mount Allison,” said Zoe Luba, a CIS coordinator. “The only way we are going to change the system that I do believe is detrimental to a lot

of people in this world is if we keep talking about it.”

One of the four panelists was Robert Huish, a professor of international development studies at Dalhousie University. He said that the because of the priorities of volunteer trips, they do to not target larger problems impoverished communities face.

“The way that these trips are constructed now, they are entirely focused on learning experience for students,” Huish said. “The material needs of the communities come second. The political needs come third.”

Huish and members of the audience stressed the importance of recognizing socio-political and

economic contexts.

Maritza Fariña, a Spanish professor at Mt. A who participates in Global Brigades, spoke passionately during the discussion.

“The guys and the girls work hard, and all my respect to that, all my respect. But you need to know more,” she said.

Proponents and members of Global Brigades welcomed the criticism including Alex Whynot, a board member of Global Brigades Canada and a Mt. A alumnus.

“We try to be our biggest critics, and we can only be as critical as we can be,” said Whynot, who sat on the panel. “So having the opportunity to speak to other people who are critical is wonderful.”

Tess Robart, the president of Mt. A’s chapter of Global Brigades, said that more time to discuss the issues would have been helpful.

“I think sometimes we can be even more critical of the things we are doing than maybe was covered tonight,” she said. “I think we could have gone even more in depth.”

Even though the panel was meant to discuss volunteer trips in general, the discussion tended to focus on Global Brigades.

“It would have been interesting to see how the conversation would have been different if it had been voluntourism as a whole instead of so much focus on GB,” Walker said, “but I think it was a really important conversation.”

But audience members and panelists did not just question the methods of volunteer organizations like Global Brigades. They challenged the entire model of volunteer trips.

Some suggested activism as a better alternative to travel.

“There is an enormous potential for students to find the ability to get politicized and to become active, to address these systemic levels,” Huish said. “I don’t think that a three-week trip to a developing country is going to be that mechanism.”

‘Election’: Wooley-Berry’s disqualification overturned after emergency council meetings “The ballot not being set up properly was a massive oversight on the part of the CRO,” said WooleyBerry.

The purpose of the run-off election this week is to see if over 50 per cent of voters will support Wooley-Berry for president.

“I was very aware of the possibility for a yes/no vote before I was elected the first time,” said Wooley Berry. He said the concern about the inability to abstain in the second round of voting was brought to council the day before polls closed. “I recalled even when I was voting myself ‘this isn’t right.’”

Another complaint, filed on Jan. 30, contained photo evidence of Wooley-Berry’s consumption of alcohol at an improv comedy event at the Pond on Jan. 14. Chief Returning Officer Rayan Bouhlel interpreted this as a violation of an

election rule restricting alcohol use at campaign events, and retroactively disqualified Wooley-Berry. Bouhlel had approved Wooley-Berry’s and Riley Thompson’s participation in the event on the condition that they abstain from consuming alcohol.

MASU issued a press release on Feb. 9, revealing decisions made behind closed doors during a Feb. 5 emergency council meeting. The press release included the following statement from president Heather Webster: “On the issue of alcohol, the improv event is not organized by a candidate and is at least arguably not a ‘campaign event.’”

Operating Procedure V – Elections provides that campaign events ‘shall not involve alcohol.’ It does not say that candidates cannot drink, or attend events where alcohol is being served. The CRO’s authority is

limited to enforcement of regulations in accordance with Bylaw III and the Operating Procedure V – Elections policy. There is no authority in the CRO to disqualify a candidate because they are seen consuming alcohol.”

Section 8.9 reads, “Campaign related events shall not involve alcohol.” The penalty for violating section 8.9 is “disqualification pending investigation,” as outlined in section 9.2 iv.

Prior to the in-camera portion of the Feb. 5 meeting, Bouhlel’s disqualification of Wooley-Berry would have resulted in reopening the presidential position for new candidates to run and having a whole new election. Following this, an email circulated to councillors calling for council to “unappoint” Bouhlel, but council has not discussed this further

Wooley-Berry’s campaigning period began Feb. 6. Chris Donovan/Argosy. in the following two meetings.

Bouhlel gave a brief report in the public portion of the emergency meeting. “[Elections] were great,” Bouhlel said. “We had a wonderful turnout.”

Council then asked guests to leave while they discussed the ombudsperson reports. After the meeting it was announced that Wooley-Berry would have a yes/no vote and was no longer disqualified.

Opinions

Editor: Tessa Dixon | February 12, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

SOCIAL MEDIA

THE ARGOSY

The battle between Yik Yak and Twitter

Independent Student Newspaper of Mount Allison University Thursday, February 12, 2015 volume 144 issue 16

Twitter reigns supreme Kyle Forbes

Nowadays, there are countless ways to broadcast your musings to the masses. Anyone with a smartphone and a Wi-Fi connection knows just how many social media apps there are. Arguably, you can share your thoughts and feelings on too many social platforms. There are currently two apps that are reigning supreme in the social microcosm that is Sackville.

The first is the tried-and-true Twitter. Twitter has been around for a long time now, and we all know and love it. It’s a great way to find out what

your friends are up to, or how they felt about a midterm they literally just took. It is also handy for following your crush or living vicariously through your favourite celebrity’s Twitter feed. In just a hundred and forty characters you can tweet out every meaningful or meaningless thought that floats through that coffee-soaked brain of yours. You can measure your self-worth in number of favourites and retweets you get. A real measure of an important person is their follower to following ratio.

People follow you on Twitter because they like what you have to say. What if you want everyone in your immediate area to know what you have to say? You could stand on the nearest table and shout your proclamations to what is sure to be a crowd of confused onlookers. But then there is the problem of those onlookers knowing who you are and

what kinds of fucked-up opinions you have.

For those kinds of people, there is the other contender in this totally made-up app war, Yik Yak. For those who aren’t familiar with it, Yik Yak is a microblogging app where your messages are shown to everyone within a mile and half radius. Posts, or “yaks” as they are referred to in the app, can be voted up or down. Users can also comment on yaks and these comments can also be voted on. The real selling point for a lot of people is the lack of any kind of login system.

Every post you make on Yik Yak is completely anonymous; there are no user names attached to any yak.

This is where things get messy. As we have seen in internet cesspools like 4chan, and the negative comments on MASU candidates, athletes and black activists more locally, anonymity can be a very scary thing. Under the

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

veil of the internet, people will say all kinds of crazy shit to people they would never say in real life. But posts like those are among the minority.

Most yaks are trivial, sometimes they are funny and they are almost always harmless. But the problem with Yik Yak is it allows anyone with dumb opinions and an internet connection to spew their toxic bullshit to the world with no repercussions for them at all.

It is for this fatal flaw that I dub Twitter the winner of this ridiculous debate. Having your name attached to whatever you write adds accountability and credibility. While it doesn’t guarantee there won’t be any mean people saying mean things, it does add an amount of quality control to the millions of voices all shouting into the digital void.

Kyle Forbes is the production manager at the Argosy.

GLOBAL BRIGADES

‘Voluntourism’ is ethically concerning CIS and Global brigades host panel on global volunteer trips

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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.

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editorialstaff EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Richard Kent

OPINIONS EDITOR Tessa Dixon

MANAGING EDITOR Allison O’Reilly

SPORTS EDITOR Alex Bates

SENIOR NEWS EDITOR Cameron McIntyre

HUMOUR EDITOR Taylor Losier

­­­NEWS EDITOR

ONLINE EDITOR Sam Moore

Kevin Levangie ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Daniel Marcotte

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PRODUCTION MANAGER Kyle Forbes PHOTO EDITOR Sarah Richardson COPY EDITORS Austin Landry Tina Oh Rachelle Ann Tan

reportingstaff Naomi Goldberg

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SCIENCE EDITOR Tyler Pitre

PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS Chris Donovan PHOTOGRAPHERS Chris Donovan Adrian Kiva ILLUSTRATOR Anna Farrell

NEWS REPORTERS Jean-Sébastien Comeau Tyler Stuart

ARTS REPORTERS Amanda Cormier Michael Dover

POLITICS REPORTER Willa McCaffrey-Noviss

SCIENCE REPORTER Clay Steell

SPORTS REPORTER Benjamin Foster

operationsstaff

Last Thursday, the Centre for International Studies (CIS) and Global Brigades co-hosted a panel discussion on the efficacy of global volunteer trips. As it has become commonly known, voluntourism is a term that refers to the growing trend of humanitarian volunteer trips taking place in “developing’’ or “underdeveloped’’ countries. These trips are organized through a nongovernmental organization which often works in conjunction with an organizer from a school. One of the participants at the panel mentioned that these trips have recently become so popular that they are basically prerequisites for admission into certain graduate programs.

There are a number of serious problems related to these so-called humanitarian trips, many of which were discussed at the panel. The most important problem lies in the paternalistic feeling which accompanies students before, during and possibly after the trip.

In the common narrative, developed countries are rich, developing countries are poor and by visiting any developing country for a week, volunteers from wealthy countries are going to help save the children and bring the adorable villages water. In short, we are being kind and generous by volunteering to solve their problems, because we know better than they do with regards to how they should “develop.”

BUSINESS MANAGER Gil Murdock

IT MANAGER Vacant

OFFICE MANAGER Alex Lepianka

CIRCULATIONS Vacant

contributors Naomi Goldberg, john perkin, emma jackson, madalon burnett, patrick allaby, Mike Roy, Gary Manning

publicationboard Panel speakers on the efficacy of global volunteer trips, hosted by CIS and Global Brigades. Chris Donovan/Argosy.

Dave Thomas (Chair), Mike Fox, Charlotte Henderson, John Trafford (Ombudsperson)

This feeling of superiority is dangerous for a number of different reasons. Most developed countries constructed a pattern of development that is virtually impossible for today’s “developing world’’ to replicate.

Countries like the United States imposed protectionist measures which allowed them to build up their economies. Once they were strong, they opened up to trade. Latin American and African countries were not allowed to do this, because the major superpowers of the world, which by that point had already “developed,’’ wouldn’t allow it.

The volunteers tend to be students between 16 and 22 years old, and have little to no training in the field.

We don’t know how to build a school and we don’t know if a school is really what the village needs. Being from Canada, or any industrialized country, does not qualify us in any way to solve a Nicaraguan or Guinean problem, whatever that problem may be. Nicaraguans or Guineans, on the other hand, know a great deal about their own needs and probably know more about building the infrastructure they might need than

disclaimers and copyright

high school or university students.

Yes, they may need funds. Sure, they might benefit from foreign experts’ help. But 16 to 22 year olds are quite the opposite of experts and also don’t have many funds for long-term support or continuous development projects.

These trips often benefit us Canadians much more than Colombians or Kenyans. As mentioned by one of the panelists, if you come back from a trip like this and do not want to change something about your life, or about the way the world or your country works, then the trip was a complete waste. The experience has value if it does indeed reveal a different world from which you’ve known.

This experience should not simply be discussed in terms of “experiencing poverty,’’ because no culture is limited to “being poor.’’ In this lies the most valuable lesson of cultural exchange trips: learning to rethink previouslyheld notions of poverty, development and superiority. You realize that each country is different, each country has its own problems and each country has something to offer.

It is next to impossible to get this kind of life-changing experience in one week, especially if you don’t live with a family while you are in the country. Even more so, as Maritza Fariña, a Spanish professor here at Mount Allison pointed out during the panel, if you don’t speak the language.

Seeking to help our fellow human beings is a powerful and amazing thing. But in order to help make a difference, you first have to understand their lives. For this reason, cultural exchange should be emphasized more than humanitarian trips for people who have never experienced life in the country they wish to “help,” who have no training and who probably will be gaining much more than those they seek to “help.” In some cases, this might simply mean rephrasing the goal of the trip. In others, it might mean rethinking the length, the activities and the places students live. Learning is good and cultural exchange is beautiful. Both are a necessary pre-conditions for helping to make a difference.

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 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 consent of the Editor-in-Chief.

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February 12, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

OPINONS

FOOTBALL

Football team can do and be better Dakota Brush I would like to start by apologizing for the offensive words, actions and behaviors by some student-athletes and by the varsity football team in particular.

The events and allegations of racism and sexism among student athletes has simply gone too far. As a student-athlete myself, it is hard to deny the fact that the closed group mentality does not exist with sports teams. Therefore, I won’t.

But since Halloween, when a few football players wore blackface as part of their costume, the entire football team has been called racist and sexist on Yik Yak. People are clearly upset about what happened, and I want to apologize. It has gotten to the point that the topic has been brought up by the CBC. I have recently sat and watched a fellow teammate and student-athlete argue the moral ethics and values of which our team possesses through the infamous app, Yik Yak. I want to again apologize.

Acts of few should not create an image for all.

I do not believe that the actions, words and behavior by members of the football team were gestures of hate towards any group of individuals.

I truly feel that it is a lack of respect. for the comfort and feelings of those who surround us. The cult-like atmosphere that is created around student-athletes is not to push out individuals out of dislike or hate. It is truly like the friendships that you have created for yourselves, a group of like-minded individuals with similar beliefs, interests and hobbies.

We as a group have failed ourselves as young men. The uncomfortable place that we have put people in by the Halloween costumes we chose, the use of racial slurs, and disrespect we put forward toward other students have been realized and recognized.

I understand the discomfort under which others have been placed when you are surrounded by these actions, words and behaviors.

University is about building yourself and making decisions, and there are a lot of student-athletes that are being labelled for something they have absolutely no role in. Mistakes have been made by student-athletes, especially by our football team. We have accepted our mistakes and are working to improve, both as individuals and as a team.

I would like to offer this letter as an official apology to those who are uncomfortable and have been affected by this situation and to rally together to take the final step in an attempt to make Mount Allison a safe and comfortable space for all.

‘Divestment’: a call to action for Mt. A students, faculty and administration fuel-based economy and another day that places our future at further risk.

So here’s our call to action.

To our professors: On Dec. 5., 2014, you voted unanimously in favour of a Mount Allison Faculty Association motion to support fossil fuel divestment at this institution. In doing so, you positioned yourselves as active allies of this cause. You sent us a clear message that you not only listened to our concerns, but that you saw value in demonstrating what you have taught us: the importance of thinking critically, of recognizing our privilege, and of doing whatever we can, within our power, to build a future that we will be proud of. But a motion of support only goes so far unless it is backed by action. Tomorrow, show us that you not only believe in the education you have provided us with, but that you are actively working to ensure that we have every chance of putting those lessons to use.

To our fellow students: We know that climate change is the issue of our generation and that no university degree, no matter how prestigious, will insulate us from its effects. As First Nations communities and other marginalized groups occupy the frontlines of climate change, the fossil fuel industry continues to bet on international inaction. This industry is betting on our collective failure to act on the greatest challenge we have ever faced.

And until now, the odds have fallen in their favour. But we’re better than this. We will rise to the challenge of

Seven Mt.A students attended a climate march in New York City in September. Eleanor Hannon/Submitted. climate change, and we will begin building a world that isn’t predicated on social injustice. Only we can’t get there alone. We deserve action from those in power. Our generation, and those that follow, deserve to graduate from Mt. A knowing that this institution is doing everything it can to ensure its students are positioned for long-term success.

To Dr. Campbell: There is little left to be said that hasn’t been said before, so instead I’ll leave you with a suggestion for what Mt. A can say when it decides to

divest from fossil fuels: “Mount Allison University prides itself on being not only a place of learning, but also a place of action.

It is an institution that encourages students to think critically and to engage with the world’s most pressing issues. It is for this reason that Mount Allison University has chosen to divest its endowment fund from the fossil fuel industry, understanding that it is time for higher education to take a stand on climate change. As Canada’s top undergraduate university, every year,

Mount Allison graduates students with the utmost confidence that they are prepared to take on the world’s greatest challenges. For this reason, we no longer believe that it is morally tenable for this institution to invest in an industry that undermines the future success of our students.

Instead, we are choosing to lead by action and to invest in a world that we feel proud to graduate Allisonians into.”

THROUGH STAINED GLASS

Debate and discussion among theologians

Active listening and open-mindedness necessary to scholarship Rev. John C. Perkin This semester, I am teaching a fourthyear seminar course for Religious Studies that explores the quest for the historical Jesus. Little can be known about the actual historical figure of Jesus. Much more can be known about the scholarship of the socalled quests, moving from the first quest of the nineteenth century to the third quest of the last generation, which has recently exhausted itself with various competing and different images of the person of Jesus.

One scholar who entered into this quest over the last thirty years was Marcus Borg, who passed during the third week of class at 72 years old.

While Borg is not exactly a household name – how many theologians are except for the wrong reasons? – he was a liberal’s liberal, thinking and writing out of a modernist tradition, wanting to enter into a solid academic and scholarly quest to find and identify the Jesus of history, without dismantling the Christ of the church tradition.

A graduate of Oxford University, Borg taught for many years at Oregon

State University. He served as Canon Theologian at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon. Borg was chair of the Historical Jesus Section of the Society of Biblical Literature and a Fellow of the Jesus Seminar. As a member of the Jesus Seminar, Borg was one of those scholars who, in the 1980s, attempted to bring the historical Jesus quest to the realm of popular culture and to get people beyond the liberal Protestant church thinking about the figure of Jesus from both historical and faith perspectives. The Jesus Seminar generated much criticism for attempts to separate out the mythology of Jesus developed by the early church tradition from historical fact. Further criticism came forth because of this group’s methodology of determining the authenticity of Jesus’ sayings by voting and for its attempts to disseminate to a larger audience its findings and conclusions.

Borg cannot be faulted for his very real, authentic and passionate attempts to reconcile the Jesus of history with the Christ of faith to make both relevant and meaningful to the modern world.

Author of more than twenty books on faith, the Bible and Jesus, Borg

never faltered in his passion and love for the mysteries of faith, the life of faith, church and his own faith in God. While he demanded that faith and especially scripture be approached with the critical perspective born of the modern age, he refused to abandon his faith. Instead, in his writings, he sought to bring the latest critical findings to bear on the faith, in the assurance that it would grow, be changed, but still survive. Following the scholarly evidence where he thought it led, he painted a picture of Jesus as a man of the Spirit, entering into a unique relationship with God and inviting others to do the same.

His contributions to theological and biblical issues have shaped church discussions on a wide range of issues and have prompted many ministers, lay people and congregations to start to re-think the way in which Jesus is understood.

Borg’s image of Jesus was rooted in Jesus’ Jewishness, but stripped of messianic claims. He argued that as a prophet, Jesus wanted to replace Jewish holiness codes with an ethic of compassion and love. Jesus was the quintessential man of the spirit, for whom the Spirit of God was an experiential reality. As a result,

Jesus was “a mediator of the sacred,” offering an alternative vision of God and reality. Non-dogmatic in his assertions, Borg was open to debate and discussion with those of different perspectives. As the evangelical journal Christianity Today noted of Borg at his passing: “He patiently listened to all sides of the debates and knew the strengths of evangelicalism and historic orthodoxy, even if he pointed more often to weaknesses.

Borg was the kind of progressive/ liberal theologian who welcomed evangelicals to the table–as long as they would listen, as well.” During one notable question-and-answer period following a presentation of his perspective of Jesus, someone asked Borg, “But how do you know that you’re right?” Borg famously paused and responded: “I don’t know. I don’t know that I’m right.”

I suspect we could do with more scholars like Borg, who are open and thoughtful, and who can both challenge our minds and nurture our souls. May he now rest in peace from his labours, knowing the words of the Bible he loved so well: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

John Perkin is Chaplain of Mount Allison University.

Sports

The Argosy | www.argosy.ca MEN’S BASKETBALL

Men bring the house down on McCormack

VARSITY SWIMMING

7

Rookie Mounties standout at final meet Mounties send just one swimmer to the CIS Championships

Alex Bates Sports Editor

It was a wonder that the Athletics Department didn’t have to replace all of the lights in McCormack Gymnasium after the Men’s Basketball team played the Crandall University Chargers on Saturday, Feb. 7. After losing to Crandall in their previous match-up a week before, the Men’s Basketball Mounties had revenge in their eyes.

The Mounties shot the lights out of McCormack, shooting 50.9% from inside the three-point line, and an astounding 62.5% from beyond the arc. To put those shooting numbers in perspective, Crandall shot 4-27 from beyond the three-point line in the match, or roughly 14.8%, almost 50% worse than the Mounties, who were 10/16.

Mt. A, who came off an 89-73 loss to Crandall just nine days before, only trailed in the game for just 16 seconds in the entire match, opened a nine point lead by half-time, and never looked back. The Mounties overpowered the visiting Chargers, and won the game by a final score of 82-66.

The game was dominated by the play of Alex Chisholm. The forward hit nearly every shot he took Saturday afternoon, shooting 66.7% from both the field and from the three-point line, as well as hitting two of his four free throw attempts. His performance from the three-point line was so impressive that after hitting one of his attempts, the entire gymnasium, including the Mounties bench, jumped to their feet and erupted in cheers for the 6’4” sophomore.

Chisholm’s performance was topped off by Kaleefah Henry, who collected his fourth double-double of the season, with 15 points, 10 rebounds as well as adding 6 assists.

On Sunday, Feb. 8, The Mounties faced off against the University of New Brunswick Saint John Seawolves. After trailing for much of the first quarter, the Mounties were able to pull ahead after a Michael Otoo three-pointer with 2:16 left in the first quarter. The team never looked back, opening a sixteen point lead over the Seawolves, and collected their tenth win of the season, 81-66.

Chisholm once again led the way, scoring a team-high twenty points for the Mounties.

The Mounties’ two wins pushes their record in 2014-15 to 10-4, which is good enough for second place in the ACAA standings. The Mounties only trail undefeated Holland College (14-0).

Mt. A will welcome STU to McCormack on Sunday, Feb. 15. The game will tip-off at 4:30 pm.

Laurel White attempts to qualify for the 50-metre breaststroke at the AUS Championships in Dalhousie. Gary Manning/Submitted.

Alex Bates Sports Editor From February 6 to 8, the Mount Allison varsity swim team competed at the Atlantic University Sports Swimming Championship at Dalhousie University. The winners were once again the Dalhousie Tigers.

Other teams in attendance were Memorial, UPEI, UNB Fredericton and Acadia.

“It was a very emotional weekend,” said Coach John Peters. “I was very proud of the team, there were a lot of good swims. From our graduates, I’ve seen a lot of continued dedication and hard work over the past four years.

With AUS behind us, I’m looking forward to CIS and next year.”

Rookie Olivia Feschuk, who had

previously qualified for CIS, came third in the 200-metre individual medley and second in the 100-metre fly. She also finished fourth in the 100-metre back fifth in the 200-metre back.

Laurel White earned a bronze in the 50-metre breast, while Allison Loewen won silver in the 50-metre free, came fifth in the 50-metre fly and sixth in the 50-metre back. Zoe Leblanc came fifth in the 200-metre individual medley, and the 50-metre and 200-mettre breast. Woman’s captain Marya Peters came fifth in the 50-metre back, and sixth in the 200-metre back and 50-metre free.

“The meet went well,” said Feschuk. “I was pleased with my races, and the team really came together and supported each other.

I’m really looking forward to CIS, and am hoping to improve on my

times.”

As for the women’s relays, the team of Loewen, Feschuk, White and Peters earned bronze in both the 4 by 100-metre freestyle relay and 4 by 200-metre freestyle. The team of Peters, Leblanc, Feschuk and Loewen came fourth in the 4 by 100-metre medley relay.

On the men’s side, rookie Geraint Berger earned a bronze in the 100-metre free, and a silver in the 200-metre free, as well as fourth in the 50-metre free and 100-metre back.

Fellow first year Martin Peters earned bronze in the 100-metre fly and came fourth in the 200-metre fly and fifth in the 50-metre fly.

Men’s captain Andrew Reeder came fifth in the 50-metre back, sixth in the 100-metre free and back, while Eric Lane came sixth in the

200-metre fly.

For the men’s relays, the team of Berger, Jeff Loewen, Peters and Reeder came fourth in the 4 by 100-metre freestyle relay, and fifth in the 4 by 100-metre medley relay.

Meanwhile, Reeder, Berger, Loewen and Nic Sunderland-Baker came fourth in the 4 by 200 freestyle relay. “[Swimming] has a lot to do with your mood when you’re on deck,” said third-year swimmer SunderlandBaker, who swam best times in both prelims and finals. “It’s so easy to fall into a hole at a swim meet, and the way to get around that is to have fun with the people on your team. And that’s what’s great about the Mount Allison team.”

With files from Taylor Losier.

BETTER KNOW A MOUNTIE

Sitting down with the Women’s Volleyball Captain

Caroline Tremaine is not just a one-sport athlete, Benjamin Foster finds Benjamin Foster Sports Reporter

Growing up, captain of the women’s volleyball team Caroline Tremaine focused her efforts in tennis and basketball before playing her first volleyball match in the seventh grade.

The middle hitter started playing another sport without a time clock at the age of six: tennis.

“It started off recreational for fun, but then I started playing winter tennis and it just picked up from there. I was playing almost every day, getting up at five in the morning to play,” said Tremaine.

The Halifax native quickly experienced success in tennis and ended up advancing to 11 national tournaments in the sport.

“One of the bonuses of it was it involved a lot of travel, so we would play Atlantics around here then go

to Nationals,” said Tremaine. “In the Atlantic provinces there weren’t that many girls that played. We went to Nationals anyway because it was fun and a good experience.”

In her grade twelve year, Tremaine decided to get more serious about sports, playing both her first year of club volleyball for the Dalhousie Tigers and playing varsity basketball at Citadel.

“Before grade twelve I was basically decided on Mt. A at this point, I pretty much cut out going to the United States. I did think about it but a lot of the people I know didn’t love their experience and decided to come back anyway,” said Tremane.

“I was basically set on Mt. A because I knew I wanted to play volleyball or basketball and I knew I couldn’t play AUS for either.”

Tremaine was very successful with both teams, attending provincial championships in both.

Unfortunately, Citadel lost in the

provincial final in volleyball and basketball that year but her club team accomplished what they were aiming for.

“We went to Nationals. We won provincials, but in nationals we didn’t do that good. It was good experience and fun to be there.”

Tremaine came to Mt. A with the difficult decision of choosing between basketball and volleyball.

“In my first year I looked at both teams and I thought I had a lot more chance to actually be on the court in volleyball.”

She hasn’t regretted that decision since, starting all four years for the Mounties.

“My first year was probably the year we did the best. I really enjoyed my first year, I was a middle and they only had two middles. I didn’t play for the first month but then [Coach Kennedy] started giving me a try. In the end I ended up starting.”

Tremaine had very similar statistics

in her second and third years and is currently in the middle of her most successful season of her ACAA career. She has eighty-kills and is the captain of this year’s squad.

“I definitely had to step up my leadership skills this year, especially because I’m the only fourth year,” said Tremaine.

2014-15 will be Tremaine’s last chance at an ACAA Championship.

“To win an ACAA Championship?

That’s the dream. Anyone in the league could take it. At our best, I think we could beat any of these teams,” said Tremaine.

Once she graduates in May, her goal is to become a physiotherapist.

She will graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree.

Better Know a Mountie is sponsored

by Scotia McLeod and the Connors Group.

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NAVIGATING HEALTHCARE

January 15, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

New Brunswick

Many black Loyalists, who fought for the British in the American War for Independence, did so in exchange for promises of their freedom. They later moved to Atlantic Canada after the British lost the war.

Important Figures Walter “Bubbles” Peters 1937-2013 Graduated in 1958. Was running back on the Mount Allison football team. He later joined the army where he was the first black Canadian to fly a Snow-bird.

First Black Students Jennifer Harris notes at least one case of a white passing student attended the woman's college from Bermuda. Milton Gray is the first recorded Black student to attend Mount Allison at the Mount Allison Academy in 1941. He went on to go to university with his brother Danny Gray. Livingston Johnson was the first graduate in 1951.

In the 1972 foreword to W.A. Spray’s The Blacks of New Brunswick, Joseph Drummond declared: “What this society has done is to tell black people ‘you are nothing’ ... while at the same time trying to hide its own attitudes toward Blacks, which have remained unchanged until today.” Some would argue that his words still ring true today. Jennifer Harris, a former English professor at Mount Allison, agrees. “I think there’s been a tendency to overlook historic black populations and contributions in Canada,” said Harris.

In pre-19th century New Brunswick, the black population was similarly diverse to today’s. Historically, the population consisted of migrants who were free loyalists, slaves of loyalists and esca ped refugees. Today, their descendants are joined by black immigrants from around the world.

Despite the diversity of the group, they shared the common experience of exclusion.

While many Canadians associate the enslavement of black people with the United States, Canada has its own legacy of slavery to contend with. Spray and Harris both mention many people who attempted to escape enslavement.

In 1775, Titus Knapp, a slave owner who lived in Westmorland County, New Brunswick, placed a notice in a local newspaper asking the whereabouts of Nero, an escaped slave. This was just one of many similar occurrences. Historians have studied these inquiries and others advertisements selling slaves to learn about the conditions of enslaved black people at the time. Other sources include court records and oral histories detailing the more personal aspects of the black experience in New Brunswick.

Owning slaves was not completely accepted practice in society at the time.

For example, a 1783 Quakers settlement agreement in Charlotte County, New Brunswick banned slave ownership, declaring, “No Slave Masters Allowed.”

During the early 19th century, there were many legal battles. According to Spray, these were presided over by judges who were against slavery and often ruled in favour of slaves. Spray traced numerous court proceedings in the years leading up to the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 by the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

All the same, widespread racism persisted in Canada and was part of the experience for black people who were free. For example, the Mount Allison University archives contain a recording of the minstrel “Hottest coon in Dixie” by L.E Gideon performed at the Sackville Opera House in July of 1907.

Many of the black people that did settle in New Brunswick faced exclusion leading to emigration from the province. Sgt. Thomas Peters, a veteran of the British army and an escaped slave from North Carolina, became a leader of the black community in New Brunswick. Peters went so far as to travel to the UK where he advocated for the relocation of the black inhabitants of Nova Scotia to a new British colony in Sierra Leone. These events were recounted in The Blacks of New Brunswick, which also noted that many black people would have preferred to stay in New Brunswick and had even requested to use half the money spent on the migration to improve their situation in the province.

There were numerous petitions on behalf of the black community demanding fair treatment. Petitions were made for grants of land, for the formation of schools for black children and for better treatment in general. Two petitions from the

The Argosy | www.argosy.ca

NAVIGATING HEALTHCARE

k’s Black History

3

Despite many barriers, black students have been active in Mt. A student politics throughout the years

black community requesting schools for black children were ignored before lieutenant-governor Governor Stracy Smyth decided to take on cost of opening a black school.

These forms of racism in New Brunswick persisted into the 20th century.

The black people who did remain in New Brunswick were barred from living in predominantly white areas by realtors who refused to sell to them, and landlords who refused to rent to them. These practices continued into the 1970s when Spray wrote his book. In Westmorland county, Harris writes about a “gentleman’s agreement” to barring certain groups from living in the area. Black people in the province did not have fishing rights until the 1840s, despite a 1795 petition requesting these rights. Many employers in cities such Saint John and Fredericton did not allow black people to get well paying jobs both through legislation and through hiring practices.

At the time of Saint John’s legal incorporation in 1785, freed slaves were not issued permits to practice trades in Saint John because they were not considered “free men of the city.” The mayor could issue special permits to those he deemed “decent” men. In Fredericton and around the Maritimes, most black people were typically confined to jobs that required manual labor due to racist hiring practices.

There was segregation in churches and schools. When black children did go to school with white students, they were often made to sit at the back of the class.

Mount Allison’s current archivist, David Mawhinney, recalls a story by Seth Greenwald about how the colour barrier was broken when he shared a room with Walter “Bubbles” Peters. Mawhinney said that segregation existed unofficially between students living on residence into the 1950s. Greenwald, a white Jewish student, offered to room with Peters, who did not have a black roommate.

“I think it would have been challenging,” said Mawhinney. Another black student, Daniel Gray, told Mawhinney that he could not get his hair cut anywhere in town and had to travel to Amherst, N.S. Mawhinney also said that he suspects that the arrival of black students at Mount Allison had a lot to do with the first female registrar, J.K. MacInnes, who admitted applicants from diverse backgrounds, including Greenwald and numerous black students from the Caribbean. The arrival of the first black professor came in 1987 with the hiring of Sada Niang in the French department. Mawhinney suspects that the comparatively long time it took to hire a black faculty member was because of the greater stakes involved in moving to New Brunswick and not just briefly studying here.

Mt. A has recently come under scrutiny because of racist incidents on campus.

Maureen Adegbidi is a member of the Mt. A group Black Students for Advocacy, Awareness Togetherness and grew up in New Brunswick. BSAAT played a big role in bringing attention to issues of racism on campus.

Adegbidi spoke about her experiences growing up as a black person in the province. She said, “We literally had one page about black history in one of our history books.”

Adegbidi said she would have liked to have had a better knowledge of black history because it would provide her with a “sense of belonging”.

Important Figures Sergeant Thomas Peters 1739-1792 Was a leader in the New Brunswick black community. He escaped from slavery, then served in the army. He was with a group of black loyalists who left Nova Scotia after facing exclusion. In New Brunswick, Peters was active in the fight for equal treatment of black people in the area. He lead migrations to Sierra Leone, where he briefly served on the government there.

Frederick Hodges 1918-1999 Hodges was an activist committed to fighting racism and improving labour relations in the province. He was a founding member of the New Brunswick Association for the Advancement of Colored People . He was also the first black officer in New Brunswick Federation of Labour. Hodges had many other accomplishments, including being the first visible minority to sit at the Saint John City Council.

Many of Mount Allison’s black students, including Livingston B. Johnson, have historically come from the Caribbean.

Arts & Culture VISUAL ARTS

Editor: Daniel Marcotte | February 12, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

LITERATURE

Gallery Underbridge to launch second literary journal fundraiser ‘Joypuke II’ set to release during improv event at the Pond Cormier features Amanda Arts & Culture Reporter local artists Michael Dover Arts & Culture Reporter This Valentine’s Day, Sweetest Little Thing will celebrate its sweet sixteen at The Owens Art Gallery. Over the years, the annual event has become a Sackville staple that raises money to support programming at both the Owens and Struts galleries.

“It has an incredible legacy,” said Ryan Suter, who coordinates new media at Faucet Media Arts Centre.

The fundraiser includes a photo booth, cake walk, and raffle, but the highlight of the night is the art auction, which will include over 90 different art pieces submitted by Struts Gallery members and supporters from across the country.

“You have to have some connection to the galleries in order to be included, so we have a lot of contributors who have completed residencies or exhibited at Struts or the Owens in the past,” said Suter.

This year’s list of artists includes many names that supporters of the Sackville arts scene will recognize, such as Mitchell Wiebe, whose work was included in “Meeting Places,” a group show exhibited at the Owens last year.

“We’re always getting new artists who want to contribute,” said Suter.

“Artists come from across the country to complete residencies in Sackville, and most of them really enjoy the experience and want to give back.”

Micah Lexier is another wellknown artist who has contributed to this year’s auction. Earlier in the year, his work was included in the both the “Oh, Canada” and “Reading Room” exhibitions at The Owens.

At Sweetest Little Thing, Lexier’s piece will be joining those of other “Oh, Canada” veterans from across the country, such as Hadley+Maxwell, Michael Fernandes, and Michel de Broin.

“There’s a core of local artists who generally contribute every year,” said Suter. Local artists who will be represented at the auction include: Graeme Patterson, Jon Claytor, Angela Thibodeau, Erika Sullivan, Adriana Kuiper, and Andrea Mortson.

“There’s a really diverse range of talent from all sorts of different backgrounds,” said Suter.

All the pieces included in the auction will be exhibited at the Owens on Thursday and Friday, providing students and community members with a chance to preview the artwork before it is auctioned off.

Tickets to Sweetest Little Thing can be purchased for $5 at Struts, Thunder & Lightning, and the Owens. Tickets will also be sold at the door when the venue opens at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 14.

The Underbridge Press is known for publishing a wide variety of works from a wide variety of writers and artists, and their upcoming Joypuke II is no exception.

The second volume of the annual journal is set for release on Feb. 18, and The Underbridge Press will host a release event in collaboration with Presents: The Improv. “[It] will have a special Joypuke theme,” said Underbridge Press founder and director Elijah Teitelbaum. “It will also feature readings from Mount Allison students who have been published in

Joypuke.”

Teitelbaum said that the goal of collaborating with the improv group is to extend promotion of the journal to students who might not necessarily be part of the literary community at Mt. A. “It’s about the people outside of that community,” Teitelbaum added.

“People who might not come to readings, people who might still enjoy this type of material and literature, who are there but might not be reached at this moment.”

Joypuke features fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry, as well as an artistic cover design by Rachel Thornton. Unlike other Underbridge publications like Zettel Magazine which have independent production and editorial teams, Joypuke is edited

and designed solely by Mt. A students who work with the Underbridge Press.

The journal offers writers of all ages and experience levels an opportunity to have their work published, with submissions being evaluated solely on the quality of writing. Teitelbaum noted the journal’s lack of an annual theme and the emphasis on a variety of styles.

“It has writing that is funny, writing that is poignant, writing that is cynical,” Teitelbaum added. “It really runs the whole gamut.”

Joypuke features writing from Mt. A students, as well as writers from across Canada and around the world.

Writers featured in Joypuke II reside in the U.K., Morocco, and Japan – just to name a few.

In fact, Mt. A students make up a minority of this year’s featured writers. Of the twenty-six contributors, only seven are Mt. A students or alumni.

Teitelbaum said that the journal is unique in that the works of Mt. A students and other published writers are placed side by side.

“To have that mosaic of quality really makes it special,” said Teitelbaum. “The breadth of ages and perspectives within [Joypuke] really brings something special to this journal.”

After its release, Joypuke II will be available for purchase online on The Underbridge Press website, as well as at various Sackville locations.

The journal costs $8, with additional shipping fees for online purchases.

THEATRE

Détours takes environmental turn Bilingual production offers vibrant set, vivacious characters

Tintamarre’s latest production featured vibrant lighting and a colourful set that filled the stage space of the Motyer-Fancy Theatre. Adrian Kiva/Argosy.

Michael Dover Arts & Culture Reporter With talking flowers, a mischievous seagull, music, clowning, puns and a healthy dose of social commentary, Tintamarre’s production of Détours was a refreshing and unique take on children’s theatre.

Every year, Alex Fancy, founder and director of Mount Allison’s bilingual theatre troupe, Tintamarre, takes on an invariably daunting task: Tintamarre accepts all students who join, regardless of their acting experience or knowledge of French or English. All members are guaranteed a role in the club’s final production.

This open-door policy routinely results in some of the largest casts in Motyer-Fancy’s first season. This year’s production of Détours was

evidence of this, as it featured twentyfour dedicated actors.

The script, which combines both French and English dialogue, strives to be comprehensible to speakers of both languages, and must be versatile enough to entertain local elementary school children, as well as an adult audience at Mount Allison. Given these unique challenges, Fancy’s heart-warming production of Détours is worthy of acclaim.

Détours is set in l’École Détours, a decidedly New Age school for troubled children that emphasises the healing power of art and nature. The school was founded by Rose Fleur, an erstwhile alternative educator who disappeared into the woods while on a class trip. The mystery of Fleur prompts two bumbling journalists, played by Mitchell Gunn and Joanna Perkin, to make the pilgrimage out to the school.

But they are quickly chased off by a seagull and are replaced by various talking plants, good-natured local punks, an anthropomorphic tree stump, and the assorted children who have come to l’École Détours to work through their personal issues.

While the sheer number of different characters who appear in this play can at times be overwhelming, Fancy proved to be a deft hand with choreography, and ensured that the movement of his oversized cast always seemed natural and organized.

In some ways, the size of the cast is one of the production’s greatest assets, allowing for charming segues into song that helped bring life to the script. The cast also deserves praise for the well-rehearsed examples of speaking in unison, which allowed Fancy to emphasise the play’s environmental morals.

However, at times these morals

did feel slightly contrived, and there was a general lack of conflict driving the plot development. While the play could certainly be enjoyed by audiences of all ages, it felt as if the script was more tailored toward young children.

The set, designed by Decima Mitchell, was a tour de force.

The bright green backdrops and otherworldly trees were highlighted by a bold lighting scheme developed

by Paul Del Motte. The setting, part Dr. Seuss and part boreal forest, fostered a sense of intrigue that complemented the play’s emphasis on the power of the natural world.

Détours was a magical play that is sure to delight elementary and middle school children across the province when it goes on tour at the end of the semester.

The Argosy | www.argosy.ca

Arts & Culture

MUSIC

11

Local ensemble revives Renaissance music

Faculty-led Sacabuche and guests showcase previously unperformed repertoire Lily Mackie Arts & Culture Reporter At their most recent concert, Sackville-based ensemble Sacabuche presented a series of never-beforeperformed compositions. Unearthed from Linda Pearse’s research on the Renaissance and Baroque periods, the ensemble collaborated with other talented musicians to perform previously unheard Italian motets.

“Tonight’s performance mounts the first full performance of the works from my publication and brings these unknown yet worthy works to our audience,” said artistic director and baroque trombonist Linda Pearse.

And indeed, the audience had the privilege of being witness to both a piece of history and history in the making.

A motet is a highly varied choral musical composition. The motet was one of the pre-eminent forms of Renaissance music, but the concert mostly featured pieces from domestic sacred chamber music from the baroque era. The performances consisted mainly of pieces for 1 or 2 solo voices, 1 or 2 solo instruments, and an organ.

Two performers from Sacabuche accompany vocalists on violin and theorbo. Chris Donovan/Argosy.

The ensemble performed beautiful and lesser-known repertoire for sackbut (a type of baroque trombone), organ and voice, periodically joined by violin, theorbo and a wooden flute. “[Tonight’s performance] is of great personal as well as musical value,” said Pearse. “Since 1977, I have located and collected 17th century

Italian sacred motets with specified trombone parts.”

The complex and interwoven parts, which were each exquisitely delivered, made for a deeply expressive and emotional performance. The trombones’ soft and flexible sounds complimented the vocals. There was a delicate interplay between

Black History Month Commemorate. Educate. Celebrate.

To mark Black History Month at Mount Allison, International & Student Affairs will be running a series of articles in the Argosy which draw attention to important people and events in Canadian and Black history. This is the second of three articles.

Black History Month is observed annually across Canada, the United States and Great Britain. It serves to bear testimony to the struggles and achievements that make up the collective history of the African diaspora in these countries and beyond. While its origins date back nearly 90 years, it did not become officially recognized in the United States until the 1970s. Canada moved to do likewise in 1995.

Viola (Davis) Desmond was a Halifax Business Woman, Beautician, Teacher and Entrepreneur who awakened Nova Scotia to Human Rights in 1946.

The Davis family played an active part of Halifax Black society and, being born into that family in 1914, Viola saw something that Black women wanted and needed in Nova Scotia.

She observed the lack of professional hair and skin care for Blacks. That was an entrepreneurial opportunity gap that she was determined to fill.

To do this, she ventured to New York’s Lalia College which had grown out of Madam C.J. Walker’s beauty business. Viola understood Walker’s business model – don’t just build a business, build an industry. Today we would recognize that as “vertical integration”.

By 1946 she was proving the value of her formula and business was good. The Desmond Studio of Beauty Culture and the Desmond School of Beauty Culture were going strong and her network was expanding as she built an industry with her graduates. She created a provincewide Black Beauty Culture industry.

Viola Desmond was a leader in many ways. Her eager graduates began their own careers and joined the distribution network for Viola Desmond’s brand of beauty products.

So it was on November 8, 1946 that she was on the road delivering product to out of town studios. Car trouble forced her to have idle time in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia so she took in a movie. The Roseland Theater that she entered had a racist practice restricting Blacks to sit in the balcony. Viola sat down stairs and when asked to move refused to go to the balcony.

For that refusal, she was ejected from the theater, arrested by the New Glasgow police, locked overnight in the New Glasgow jail, charged, found guilty and sentenced in the New Glasgow court. She was found guilty of defrauding the government of the 1 cent difference in the 3 cent tax in a downstairs ticket and the 2 cents tax in a balcony ticket. She paid the fine plus costs and left New Glasgow.

When she returned to Halifax, the newly formed Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Colored People encouraged her to fight to overturn that

malicious conviction. Unfortunately, the appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was unsuccessful. The 1946 conviction remained on her record.

Viola Desmond had been denied the protection that one expects from the police, the prosecutors, the judges and the courts. Eventually, she left her business, left Nova Scotia and left Canada. Her 1965 death occurred in New York City.

In 2010, sixty-four years after the fact, the government of Nova Scotia apologized to Viola Desmond’s remaining family and acknowledged the integrity, strength and bravery of her action defending human rights. In 2012, Canada Post issued a Canadian postage stamp commemorating her stand for justice.

This article was reproduced with permission of the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia and can be found in its entirety at http://www.bccns.com/ news/2012/2012_viola.php.

instruments and voice, which accompanied one another while simultaneously melding into one larger harmonic surge of sound.

The overall impression was one of a patchwork of voices and sounds as it became difficult to distinguish sung parts from other instrumentation.

The level of collaboration

demanded by the performance was worth commending. The lack of a conductor meant that each performer had to rely on one another for cues, tone, rhythm and pace, without any verbal communication. Soaring vocals were at times independent from one another, while at other times, they harmonized and built upon a larger sound.

The beautifully arranged pieces involved melody lines which were passed from one instrument to another, giving the part a new voice while simultaneously tying the whole sound together. Meanwhile, other instruments added support, emphasis or dimension, blending all the sounds together to create one interwoven sound. This was maintained until the last wavering note which left a chill in the air, and resulted in a welldeserved standing ovation from the audience.

Pearse, who is the brass instructor at Mount Allison, maintains an active performance career with her brass ensemble Atlantic Brass, and appears regularly as a soloist.

Pearse is currently working to record the compositions performed by Sacabuche.

LITERATURE

Foster gives voice to immigration, diaspora Lily Mackie Arts & Culture Reporter Perfectly timed to kick off Black History Month, Barbados-born writer Cecil Foster recently spoke at Mount Allison and read from his newest novel.

Independence, titled for the 1966 Act that guaranteed Barbados’ independence from the United Kingdom, is a story about hope, multiculturalism and freedom.

Foster emigrated to Canada in 1979, where he began writing for the Toronto Star. Foster has released 11 other works of fiction and nonfiction, and he currently works a professor of sociology at the University of Guelph.

Much of Foster’s work depicts experiences with immigration and the Caribbean diaspora, presenting perspectives which challenge or complicate ideas of citizenship and nationhood. Foster reprises these themes in Independence, which is set in a small village in Barbados shortly after the Caribbean nation achieved independence. There, fourteen-yearold neighbours Christopher Lucas and Stephanie King live with their grandmothers and wait patiently to hear from their mothers who left the country in search of work.

“It’s about the relationship between the two left behind,” said Foster, regarding the novel’s plot. The book

delves into the lives of two characters who are struggling with their own self-actualization while those around them are forced to make difficult decisions in pursuit of a better life.

The idea of tomorrow resonates prominently in Foster’s work. He explained how much of his writing focuses on groups of people working together towards a better future.

“Tomorrow was always the main focus of independence; each generation should have its own tomorrow to work towards,” said Foster during the talk.

Foster’s work examines the fluid nature of Canadian and Barbadian identity, delving into the many factors that shape individuals and nationhood. With Independence, Foster examines the precarious relationship between those who leave their home country, and those who remain behind. Foster takes this idea and applies it specifically to a Canadian context. By looking at the factors that shape and define each character’s identity, including their sense of place, Foster’s novel examines the idea of “home” and its relation to one’s belonging and selfactualization.

Foster spoke at The Owens Art Gallery on Feb. 3. The talk was sponsored and organized by the Centre for Canadian Studies at Mt. A, and was the second event of their winter lineup.

Science

Editor: Tyler Pitre | February 12, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

WINE

Moderate consumption of wine may be beneficial New study suggest a moderate consumption of dark grapes may help burn fat Tyler Pitre Science Editor Want another reason to have that glass of wine at dinner? New research may be your talking point, as researchers have uncovered an indirect link between moderate wine consumption and fat burning.

The research study was done by the Oregon State University and results published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry under the title “Ellagic acid modulates lipid accumulation in primary human adipocytes and human hepatoma Huh7 cells via discrete mechanisms.”

The research centered not on wine in particular but on dark coloured grapes. Researchers found that consuming dark coloured grapes or products made from these grapes is correlated to weight loss and in paprticular, in our body’s ability to burn fat. They also found that it helped prevent or manage metabolic disorders.

One of the co-researchers, biochemist Neil Shay, used Muscadine grapes to extract its natural chemicals and then expose them to human liver and fat cells found in humans. Ellagic acid was found to be particularly powerful in

terms of fat burning. It slowed the growth of preexisting fat cells and halted the growth of new ones. The idea is that these chemicals will have a significant metabolic effect on those who have other metabolic disorders.

Therefore, it is not a method of losing weight in and of itself, but may help speed up a person’s metabolism.

This research is related to a previous study done by Shay and his graduate students at Oregon State University’s laboratory. They set up an experiment with obese rats to test whether or not dietary substitutes with grapes would cause any significant results. In the experimental group, he used a set

of mice which had a 60 per cent fat content diet. He used a control group of a set of mice which had only 10 per cent of fat content. Some of the rats received a portion of grapes in their diet, which would be equivalent to about one and half cups of grapes per day for an adult human being.

After a 10-week period, the mice that were fed the fatty diet were found to have many problems associated with obese patients such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and liver disease. The mice that were fed the high fat diet and the supplement of grapes were found to have less fat on their liver and lower blood sugar,

almost the same levels as the mice that were fed the 10 per cent fat diet.

Shay and his colleagues’ goal is to help make people better understand which foods contribute to a healthier life. They hope that his research will help us combine this finding in dietary habits and form healthier paths.

His study is not meant to dissuade people from using medications but rather point the way to what could be more beneficial eating habits.

“We are trying to validate the specific contributions of certain foods for health benefits,” said Shay.

‘New bond’: MTA chemistry professor involved in gathering first evidence for new bond “To see that plant growing, that’s all that I want to see.”

Vibrational bonding is now the fifth known way that atoms can hold together. Theoreticians predicted the existence of vibrational bonding in the 1990s after an anomalous experiment in 1989 in which the rate of a certain chemical reaction slowed down as its temperature was increased. Chemical reaction rates usually increase with temperature, and a new type of chemical bond was one of the proposed explanations for this observation. Ghandi and his team were the first to find evidence for this explanation.

In a chemical reaction, a set of atoms or molecules, known as the reactants, interact to form another, different product. They may create intermediary forms in the process that are unstable and only exist in transition. The molecule in which vibrational bonds were discovered should have been one of these intermediary forms, but exists stably on its own. In other words, the intermediate form which is usually unstable and transient is the stable form for these kinds of molecules with vibrational bonds.

Ghandi said chemical reactions are like a hiking trip up and down a mountain. The goal is to go from one side of the mountain, the reactants to the other side, the products. The height of the mountain represents how much energy is required to get to the other side. The top of the mountain represents an intermediate form of the reaction and is usually less stable than the bottom because there’s a greater risk of falling.

In the context of vibrational bonds, Ghandi said to imagine an earthquake on this “mountain.” “The earthquake would be very strong at the bottom, but not at the top,” he said. “This earthquake would push you back and forth to the top, and at the top you would be more stable.”

Ghandi said that this “earthquake” is an analogy to the wave character of atoms, an effect of quantum physics.

All particles of matter display some characteristics of energy waves, which lead to this wave character.

In all of the experiments that led

#

Ghandi was involved with first finding of evidence for a new chemical bond. Chris Donovan/Argosy. to the discovery of the vibrational bond, two atoms of Bromine, a heavy element, bonded to a light Muonium atom, a Hydrogen isotope, or one of several atomic forms an element can take. “This should never happen,” said Ghandi. “It should take the bond apart and shatter the whole system.”

Ghandi also said that the movement of the Muonium atom caused by its quantum wave characters brings the Bromine atoms together, which explains why a compound that should be less stable than its beginning and end products are in fact more stable.

The effect is pronounced in an atom like Muonium, which is one-ninth the weight of a regular Hydrogen atom and composed of a single electron and a single antimuon, a kind of antimatter.

While the 1989 experiment that

lead to this new discovery involved an increase in temperature, vibrational bonds do not need heat to form.

They depend on the energy of the atoms when they are at zero degrees Kelvin and on the energy of the atoms’ electrons. These qualities vary depending on the type of atom, and in turn affect the atom’s quantum wave character.

While the recently published paper calls the bond vibrational, Ghandi said that the bond may be doing more than just vibrating. “They call it a vibrational bond. I don’t argue with that,” he said. “I called it in my paper a dynamic bond. They never focused on how it happens.”

According to Ghandi, this dynamic bond includes the energy of the Muonium atom inserting itself between the two Bromine atoms, a

factor not accounted for in the most recent study.

Ghandi wasn’t involved with the most recent vibrational bond experiment because he said he was occupied with other work.

“We are getting lots of groundbreaker results in other experiments that will be even higher than this that we have to publish,” he said.

Vibrational bonds have only been observed in an experimental setting, but they may be important in the natural world. Ghandi said he suspects that vibrational bonding plays a role in the structure of DNA, where a Hydrogen atom resides between two Oxygen atoms. However, running an experiment with Oxygen would be difficult, and Ghandi said he doesn’t plan on doing it himself.

Ghandi and his colleagues wanted to run their original experiment at the TRIUMF Institute in Vancouver, B.C., one of four places in the world that can generate the antimatter needed in its design. When their application to TRIUMF was declined, they ran the experiment at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, England instead.

A new type chemical bond has not been discovered since the early twentieth century. “The last time a new type of bond was discovered was in 1931 by Linus Pauling, a discovery for which he won two Nobel Prizes.

“The comment that [TRIUMF] gave me when I proposed this experiment in 2004 was ‘after all, how often do we discover a new type of chemical bond?’,” said Ghandi, “but we did it.”

The Argosy | www.argosy.ca

SCIENCE

CANCER

13

Pancreatic cancer avoids chemotherapy

New study explains why pancreatic cancer may be able to avoid the effects of chemotherapy and provides hope for new treatment in the future. Nephron/Wikipedia.org.

Tyler Pitre Science Editor All cancers are uphill battles, but statistically, pancreatic cancer is the toughest one statistically for anyone.

New research has finally uncovered how pancreatic cancer cells have been able to evade the effects of chemotherapy. The research was led by Timothy Yen, a biochemist at the Fox Chase Research Center in Philadelphia and have published their results in the journal Cell Cycle.

Researchers have uncovered a perplexing puzzle about cancer: how do pancreatic cells avoid destruction?

The question is not easy to answer nor

is it easy to really begin answering.

However, it seemed that either the drugs used were not well-understood in the context of pancreatic cancer or that the cancer was able to do something to stop the drugs.

“More likely, cancer cells have found a way to avoid DNA-damaging drugs,” said Yen. Yen’s approach was trial by elimination. His objective was to slowly knock out each gene in the cell, and then expose the cell to chemotherapy. The cells with the greatest death rate give researchers a clue to which genes cancer cells are utilizing. Yen and his research team took out each gene found in pancreatic cells, totalling

approximately 2,400. They then used a common pancreatic cancer chemotherapy drug, gemcitabine, to see which removed genes would cause a greater effect. In other words, which removed gene would allow the drug to kill the cells most efficiently.

Although this approach yields many results which may indicate why pancreatic cells avoid destruction, one gene stood out amongst them. A gene that binds to vitamin D, which is important for bone maintenance was found to cause the most death in the exposed cells after removal.

“When we inactivated this vitamin D receptor in cancer cells and added gemcitabine, almost all of them died,” said Yen.

The nature of the cells’ usage of this vitamin D receptor is not clear. In other words, this study gave no clue to how the cancer cell was using this gene, but hypothesized it is a factor.

Researchers now hope they can find a way to inactivate the vitamin D receptor in cancer cells and then use pancreatic chemotherapeutic agents to kill those cells.

Cancer is a class of diseases that icludes more than 100 different types.

Pancreatic cancer and lung cancer have the highest death rate in Canada.

According the Canadian Cancer Society, 2,400 men will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and 2,200 will die from it, and 2,300 women will be diagnosed with the disease and 2,200

will die from it.

Usually, people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer do not have many treatment options. First, the cancer is usually detected in the late stage of the disease. Second, the cancer spreads very rapidly, and third, the drugs currently used are not very effective.

The hope is that this research will help double the survival rate of pancreatic cancer patients by 2020.

Do you love science as much as we do?

Argosy Science is looking for contributors!

To get involved, come to a contributors’ meeting Tuesdays at 5:30 in The Argosy’s office or email argosy@mta.ca

Humour Crossword Puzzle

Editor: Taylor Losier | January 15, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

Ship’s Log EVENTS

Stanley Lecture in Canadian Studies

Februar y 12, 4:30-6pm Motyer-Fanc y Theatre D r. M e a g h a n B e a t o n , w i t h the Centre for Canadian Studies will discuss her current research on Nina Cohen, a prominent social activist and community leader from Cape Breton.

Va g i n a M o n o l o g u e s

Februar y 12-14, 7:30-9pm Purdy Crawford Centre for the Arts Foyer Tickets are $5 for students, $10 for non-students. Tickets will be available at the MASU Office or at meal-time sales in the Student Centre or Jennings Dining Hall duri n g t h e w e e k o f t h e s h o w.

Entre Amis

Februar y 12, 8-10pm Br unton Auditorium Featuring student performers from Mount Allison and l’Université de Moncton. Admission is free, all are welcome to attend.

Demystifying the Te a c h i n g P o r t f o l i o (CUP) - Puzzles provided by BestCrosswords.com. Used with permission.

Across 1- Sour; 6- ___ worse than death; 11- Cock and bull; 14- Feudal estate; 15- Word after Anglo; 16- This was produced by Van Gogh, for example; 17- Lowest layer of the atmosphere; 19- Sprechen ___ Deutsch?; 20- Chosen; 21- Daze; 23- ___ anglais (English horn); 24- Pert. to the fingers; 25- Capital of Russia; 29- Cuplike organ; 30- Model; 31- Coil; 32- ___ Cruces; 35- In spite of; 39- Apr. addressee; 40- Contented sighs; 41- Praying figure; 42- Make a god of; 44- Hardens; 45- To achieve by deceitful methods; 48- Dawn goddess; 49- Does penance; 50- Constituent; 55- Colo. clock setting; 56- Spontaneous activity; 58- Funnyman Philips; 59- Hint; 60- Visionaries; 61- Thieves’ place; 62- Twisted expression?; 63- Bert’s buddy; Down 1- Tsp. and tbsp.; 2- Concern;

3- Hydroxyl compound; 4- Thick cord; 5- Green flower vegetable; 6- According to; 7- Saudi king; 8- Lumberjack’s tool; 9- Flat flour or corn bread; 10- Vigor; 11- Lacks; 12- Writer Jong; 13- Alloy of iron and carbon; 18- Pack away; 22- ___-en-Provence; 24- Pub pastime; 25- Prefix for small; 26- Smell or fragrance; 27- Complete collections; 28- Crow call; 29- Soft and comfortable; 31- Abrade;

32- Prevaricator; 33- Actress Heche; 34- Cpls.’ superiors; 36- Sudden collapse into failure; 37- Malarkey; 38- Actress Joanne; 42- Rockers Steely ___; 43- Discharges; 44- Very small quantity; 45- Well-known; 46- “Who’s there?” response; 47- ___ your life!; 48- Keyboard key; 50- “Splendor in the Grass” screenwriter; 51- Will of “The Waltons”; 52- Nothing, in Nantes; 53- Longfellow’s bell town; 54- Dissolve, as cells; 57- Single unit.

Last issue’s solutions:

Februar y 13, 2:30-4pm Av a r d D i x o n R o o m 1 2 0 D e m y s t i f y i n g t h e Te a c h ing Por tfoli o is a thre epart workshop series that will guide you through the creation of your teaching portfolio for job search or career enhancement.

Ju keb ox at Jennings

Februar y 13, 11:30am2pm Jennings Meal Hall Celebrate the day before Va l e n t i n e s D a y w i t h l i v e music in Meal Hall. The band will take requests and announce dedications.

Duo Milot Bareli

Februar y 13, 8-10pm Br unton Auditorium Prize-winning performers in their own right, h a r p i s t Va l é r i e M i l o t a n d violinist Antoine Bareil have been seducing audiences with their crowdpleasing arrangements for this elegant combination, car ving a reputation for themselves nationwide.

The Sweetest Little Thing

Februar y 14, 7:30-11pm Owens Art Gallery The Sweetest Little Thing combines a contemporary art auction with a cake w a l k a n d d a n c e o n Va l e n t i n e ’s D a y. T h e f u n d s raised go directly to the ongoing programming of the Owens Art Gallery and Struts Galler y & Faucet Media Arts Centre.

Admission is $5.

O p e r a Wo r k s h o p

Februar y 15, 3-5pm Br unton Auditorium Mount Allison Opera Wo r k s h o p d i r e c t e d b y C olleen Skull. Admission is free, all are welcome to attend.

Effective Allyship Panel Discussion

Februar y 16, 6:30-9pm Barclay Room 021 Panel Discussion on Effective Allyship and How to Address Problematic Speech in Conversation

Senate

Februar y 17, 1-6:30pm W M S C Tw e e d i e H a l l

C ollegium Musicum

Februar y 18, 4-5pm Br unton Auditorium Performanc es by the students of the Department of Music.

Exploring Interdisciplinarity Panel Februar y 18, 4-5:30pm Av a r d D i x o n R o o m G 1 0 Interdisciplinarity has been hailed as a way to solve familiar problems in innovative ways, by making new connections and sharing new perspectives. Can we harness the power of interdisciplinary partnerships to enhance teaching and learning at Mount Allison?

Legion Luncheon

Februar y 20, 11am-1pm Sackville Legion Menu: Meat Pies, potatoes, vegetables and gravy with cupcakes for desert and Coffee and Te a . C o s t i s $ 1 0 . 0 0 p e r plate.

Live Bait: The Roy O r b i s o n Tr i b u t e Show

Februar y 21, 7:30pm Vo g u e C i n e m a Highlighting the histor y of one of the most popular and beloved singer-song writers, including many of his fan favorites. Tickets are $20.00 and are available at the Tidewat e r B o o k s , Vo g u e C i n e m a , and Live Bait office.

PFL AG Me eting

Februar y 23, 7:30-9pm downstairs hall at St. A n d r e w ’s P r e s b y t e r i a n Church, 36 Bridge Street.

Same sex couple will share their stor y of parenting and co-parenting in a world that does not always respect them as parents.

The Argosy | www.argosy.ca

HUMOUR

3

How to get a date this Valentine’s Day Taylor Losier Humour Editor

It’s that time of year again: everyone’s scrambling about like chickens with their heads cut off, desperate to not be dateless on Valentine’s Day. Some choose to ignore the holiday (“You go! Work that independence!”) while some already have a date. (“Congrats! All the single people on campus thoroughly dislike you.”)

For those wishing to not be alone, we have some advice which should prove helpful in snagging you a “special friend” for the festivities.

1. Look for people crying in the library on a Friday night. Odds are, they’re single and ready to mingle!

Approach cautiously with chocolate and tissues.

2. Go to a date auction and buy a date. Someone has been paid to hang out with you, for a far better deal (and a better cause) than through, say, an escort service.

Patrick Allaby

3. Go to a date auction and put yourself up as a date. It can work out both ways!

4. Try the Drew Nursing Home.

There are some lovely ladies and gentlemen down there that I’m sure are looking for a good time. You’ll get a senior discount at most places and you know they’ll have you home nice and early.

5. Find an attractive cousin, take them out and pretend you’re not related. It might not be a “real” date but your friends don’t need to know that.

6. Grow a pair. Ask out that person you’ve been crushing – creeping – on all year long. Just do it.

7. Ice cream. Especially if number six fails, I know two great guys who are always up for a good time: Ben and Jerry. You can find them hanging out at the SaveEasy.

8. Buy a cat. Fluffy friends are the best. And you might as well get started on your crazy-cat-person future early, am I right?

9. Hide. All you have to do is stay indoors, pretend to be extremely sick, call your imaginary date and cancel, then call up your real date: Netflix.

10. Call Mom. Because when all else fails, at least you know your mom still loves you.

The upside to February 14th Taylor Losier Humour Editor

Taylor Losier Humour Editor

The most commercialized day of the year (right behind Halloween, Easter, Christmas and the Fourth of July), for years Valentine’s Day has drawn the ire and disgust of people everywhere.

You literally have people sobbing in dread in the weeks leading up to it, and people determined to ignore it once the day finally arrives. Nearly everyone, at some point in their lives, has hated Valentine’s Day. But I don’t.

I won’t lie, I did at one point. What child hasn’t suffered the intense trauma brought about by handing out Valentines to classmates? It was an exercise in extreme tactics, assigning Valentines so I didn’t accidentally give one proclaiming “I love you!” or, even worse, “Be Mine!” to the cootie-infested boys of my class. No, they had the “You’re cool!” or, even better, the pithy “Happy Valentine’s Day!” cards reserved for them.

What then, you may wonder, has changed my mind? Is it perhaps because of the various incarnations of the original saint named Valentine, a ridiculously badass man who supposedly died in martyrdom on this day? Death by tigers or fire (depending on which version of the

myth you’re going with) is the way to make a statement. But no, it’s not that.

It’s also not because of the hypothesis that the heart shape we commonly see today was based on butts, and I derive immense entertainment from the idea that people everywhere are dotting their “i”s and writing love letters covered in tiny butts.

But (hehe, butts…) no. I do not equate Valentine’s Day with hell’s stinking, sweaty armpit for one and only one reason: chocolate.

Chocolate. The greatest gift ever to come out of the Americas. It’s delicious, it keeps away dementors, and on Valentine’s Day, it’s everywhere! Stores are stocked full, it’s considered acceptable to eat it at every meal and people even hand it out for free!

If you don’t have a date, even better! That’s only an excuse to buy more chocolate! And unlike Christmas, there’s no expectation you have to give any in return. It’s all yours for the keeping.

Once the day is over, the heart/ butt decorations fade, cupid hangs up his arrows and the chocolate goes on sale. It’s like a less violent, much more delicious Boxing Day. Yup, Valentine’s is the day that just keeps on giving.

So this February 14, don’t cry in your room alone. Cry in your room with chocolate. And by cry, I mean smile. Because chocolate.