The Concordian

theconcordian Tuesday, March 1, 2011

life Val’s bites takes on comfort food P. 6-7

music Montreal artist keeps her head held high in a struggling blues scene P. 18

opinions Quebecers split over royal visit P. 22

arts sports

Get your arts on at the Art Matters festival this week P.13

Women’s hockey eliminated from postseason play P.19

ASFA’s Time to do battle CEO focusing Concordia student brings Battle of the on election Bands to Montreal P. 14 positives Evan LePage News editor

The results of the Arts and Science Federation of Associations elections were released the Thursday before reading week and, while voter turnout decreased from a year earlier, there are many positives to be found, according to chief electoral officer Nick Cuillerier.

This year, the highest vote tally reached 888 according to the preliminary count, a decrease of approximately 33 per cent from last year which saw 1,317 students vote in the general elections. This year’s turnout represents roughly six per cent of the electorate and, while he was hoping for 10 per cent, Cuillerier said the smaller number of candidates, 12 to last year’s 28, should be taken into consideration when looking at the numbers.

“When you look at the amount of candidates running compared to last year, you’d think that we would have a lower voter turnout than actually occurred,” he said, explaining that each candidate’s campaign plays a big role in attracting voters.

The quorum of 375 voters, equivalent to 2.5 per cent of ASFA students, was also met on the first day, Cuillerier said, adding: “The

See “Despite lower...” on p.5

Lowy moves toward transparency with online contract Jacques Gallant Assistant news editor

The decision of Concordia interim president Frederick Lowy to post his contract online shortly after taking office last month has put him on the same level of transparency as his UdeM counterpart, and a step above McGill’s principal, whose contract remains relatively hidden from public view.

In keeping with his promise of a “new era of openness,” Lowy asked that his contract be placed on the official website of the president in early February. The 10-page document, signed by Lowy and Board of Governors chair Peter Kruyt on Feb. 2, reveals that the interim president’s salary of $350,000 is the same as his predecessor Judith Woodsworth’s. Other perks that come with the job, which is set to last from 12 to 18

See “Concordia pre...” on p.3 Volume 28 Issue 22

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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

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City in brief Jacques Gallant

Journal de Montréal lockout over

The two-year long Journal de Montréal lockout ended last Saturday when 64.1 per cent of journalists and support staff from the French-language tabloid voted in favour of a settlement that will see only 62 of the 227 locked-out workers return to work. The rest of the employees will receive severance packages averaging $100,000 each. An original settlement voted down last October would have seen 50 workers head back to the paper. It still remains unclear which workers will be returning, but Quebecor, which owns Le Journal de Montréal, has stated that seniority will probably be taken into account.

The 62 jobs include 24 reporters, 18 photographers and other journalists, and 20 support staff. Some locked-out employees have said they will not return to Le Journal if they are offered a position.

ConU prof is GG winner

Photographer and Concordia fine arts professor Geneviève Cadieux is one of eight Canadians honoured this year with a 2011 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts. She is also the sole Quebec recipient and one of the youngest to win the award.

Cadieux has participated in numerous international exhibitions, including at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Her most recent work, titled La Voix lactée, is a glass mosaic currently perched on the roof of the Musée d’art contemporain and will be recreated to hang in the Saint-Lazare metro station in Paris.

Egyptian PM is McGill grad

Before introducing better digital technologies to Egyptians, becoming prime minister of the country and ultimately being sacked on Jan. 29 by an embattled Hosni Mubarak, Ahmed Nazif was a PhD student at McGill University. A Feb. 23 Montreal Gazette article credited his success as minister of communications and information technology as eventually leading to the “Facebook Revolution” which helped to ignite the Egyptian protests earlier this year. Now many high-ranking officials in the Mubarak regime, including the prime minister, have been banned from leaving Egypt and are under investigation for financial conduct and abuse of power.

Jackie Robinson honoured

Hailed as a baseball legend and civilrights hero, Jackie Robinson was honoured yesterday when the U.S. government unveiled a plaque at his former Montreal home in the Villeray district. Robinson lived there during the summer of 1946 before successfully breaking baseball’s colour barrier as a member of the minor-league Montreal Royals for one season. From there, he went on to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers the following year in the major league. Yesterday’s event, which was organized to coincide with Black History Month, was attended by various dignitaries including American ambassador David Jacobson and Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay. In an interview last week with the Canadian Press, Robinson’s widow Rachel indicated how she and her husband had cherished their time in Montreal, for they felt they had finally managed to escape the racist attitudes that plagued the American Deep South at the time.

Campus

Faubourg the most realistic, affordable student centre option: student, university reps

CSU execs and administrators discuss benefits of Faubourg, including renovation potential Evan LePage News editor

After much speculation, both university and Concordia Student Union representatives confirmed last week that the Faubourg was by far the leading candidate for the student centre.

“The university has an interest in that facility. My personal view is that it would be a great facility for a student centre,” said Concordia’s VP Services Roger Côté, explaining that the university could use the facility for a variety of purposes, including alleviating academic space needs. “But between the various possibilities, and there are different possibilities, one which I think we would like to single out as being a very prominent one would be to put a student centre in that facility. That’s something that the students will have to accept and move forward with as well.”

CSU president Heather Lucas agreed that the Faubourg is the frontrunner for the student center.

“It’s the most realistic, it’s the most affordable, it meets our needs in the sense that the students would actually get to see this within their time,” she said, noting that some of the students who voted against raising the student fee-levy took issue with the fact that they would never see the student centre during their time at Concordia.

Côté and Lucas were speaking at a special meeting with student media

Photo courtesy of Flickr

organized during reading week to address the current status of the student centre project, and where it’s headed.

Also present were Concordia’s associate VP of facilities management Peter Bolla, CSU VP external and projects Adrien Severyns and the university’s director of media relations Chris Mota, all of whom expressed their support for the Faubourg as a great candidate for a student centre facility.

The goal of those involved, Côté emphasized, was to get the project completed at the earliest opportunity, and that the Faubourg is probably the best facility for the accomplishment of that goal. “If there was an opportunity to move within a year or two to see some benefits given to the students that would be very good,” he said. “But we’ll have to look and listen carefully at what the needs are, and the expectations, and the capacity and the opportunities and try to align all those stars so at the earliest the students can benefit from such a facility.”

Of the many benefits they listed for the Faubourg, Côté noted that,

with the newly updated Grey Nuns facility increasing in use, the Faubourg would be located in the “epicentre of the downtown campus.”

Lucas also said that a tunnel could potentially be constructed to bridge the Faubourg to the EV building and thus to the existing tunnel to the Hall building. “I think that would have been really convenient for the students to have that,” she said. “It makes sense; it’s part of Concordia.”

Not everyone is as fond of the building however. Sibona MaDewa, one of the central organizers for the movement against the student centre fee-levy increase last fall, said that she believed “the students were very clear in their rejection of the Faubourg” during that referendum, when rumours about it being the locale of choice were already rampant.

MaDewa also said “I think it requires a lot of work and I just don’t see many students making their way to it, it’s rather a depressing place.”

The meeting last week served to highlight some of the renovations that would be made to the building.

Bolla said that many renovations would be needed to convert the Faubourg from its current status as a shopping center to a student centre.

He said this would involve the construction of a multi-purpose room on the lower level where there are currently classrooms, the construction of offices for the CSU, the reorganization of retail and spaces to meet the foot traffic, and much more. Additionally, he acknowledged that there was the potential for expanding the already 19,000 square meter building, either horizontally or vertically.

Bolla explained that the working group is currently dealing with adjusting the generic numbers of the initial agreement for this specific site, though it wouldn’t likely involve much change. “It still requires purchasing property and renovating it.

Renovations would be in the order of $20 million. It would still come to the order of what was being requested, the $4.50 from students,” he said, referring to the amount per credit proposed in the failed fall fee-levy increase.

Despite these difficulties, both parties say they will be working to adjust to get this project moving as soon as possible. “So as we deal with issues of referendums and questions and funding and so forth, these are issues that will always need to be dealt with, notwithstanding the scope of a project,” Côté said. “We need to adapt along the way in terms of how we adjust our expectations, all with a view of delivering it and hopefully in the short term.”

A working group of both university and student union representatives, which is responsible for the formulation of the management agreement and research that has taken place in regards to the student center over the last few years, will be reconvening likely this week. Severyns said that on the agenda for that meeting will be alternative financial plans, as well as alternative building sites.

LegaL

Legal clinic extends services to graduate students and hours for undergrads New initiative fills “void” in legal services available to Concordia graduate students Jacqueline Di Bartolomeo Assistant arts editor The CSU Legal Information Clinic, which since its inception in 2007 has only officially served undergraduates, will be opening its doors to graduate students and could be doing so as early as next week if all goes as planned.

While LIC co-ordinator Walter

Tom said the clinic did originally accommodate graduate students, “there was no formal structure for them.”

According to Tom, “it quickly became evident that graduate students had an immediate need for services and so that took a toll on the overall quality of services [...] We only have a limited amount of resources.”

After Concordia’s Counselling and Development closed its similar Legal Information Services in 2009, graduate students in need of legal information had few options. “There was a void,” said Graduate Student Association Advocacy Manager Roddy Doucet, who picked up the portfolio last year. At that point, with no comparable services to offer, Doucet and the GSA dealt with their constituency’s legal issues on an ad-hoc basis, often reaching out to people within their own network.

The clinic will now be open Wednesday mornings from 9 to 11 a.m. for graduate students. However, as Tom was quick to point out, the project is in its test stages. “It’s not a permanent basis, so we’ll see how it goes,” he said.

The continuation of the service is contingent on two factors: its ability to attract graduate students and the need for “permanent financing for the services,” either from the GSA or the Concordia Council on Student Life. At this point, the CCSL is providing the funding for the graduate hours, while services offered to undergraduates are financed by the CSU. Moreover, while financing at this time is dedicated to immigration law, consumer protection and discrimination, graduate students find themselves dealing with finance,

employment and family and matrimonial issues, Tom said.

Undergraduates will also benefit from added hours at the clinic as of next week as a result of the high demand for their services: Those new hours will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

With only two paid employees, the clinic runs mostly on the work of its 16 volunteer law students.

Tom said there is a possibility they will bring on more volunteer law students and a second administrative assistant to help manage the new hours.

Students wishing to make use of the clinic’s services must make an appointment to do so, either online at legalclinic@csu.qc.ca or by phone at extension 7935.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/theconcordian Continued from cover ...

Concordia president follows UdeM’s lead; McGill requires Access to information request months, include a $3,000 monthly housing allowance, a $1,200 monthly car allowance, and fees for membership in two clubs.

But the contract does not include a severance clause or the possibility of a paid sabbatical when he leaves. The document makes clear that the Board of Governors can terminate Lowy’s position at any time.

The contract also contains a special housing arrangement which will see Concordia purchase Lowy’s condominium for an unspecified amount. Lowy will then rent back the condo from the university. Concordia has explained that this agreement was necessary because Lowy was planning on selling his condo and leaving Montreal when he was asked to come out of retirement to take up the reins at the university. The university will

sell the property after Lowy completes his term.

Lowy’s decision to make his contract public follows that of UdeM rector Guy Breton, who asked that his hiring contract be posted online upon taking office last June. The document indicates that Breton, whose term expires in 2015, makes $365,000 a year to manage a university with 55,000 students. Additional benefits include a club membership and a car allowance carrying a maximum of $10,000 a year.

At Université du Québec à Montreal, no actual contract has been placed online because rector Claude Corbo was not hired by the university’s board of governors, but rather by government decree, indicated UQAM spokeswoman Jenny Desrochers.

“Because UQAM is a member of

the Université du Québec network, which is regulated by the government, the rector’s salary is available to the public,” said Desrochers, who confirmed that Corbo’s salary for running a university of 32,000 students was $181,310 as of April 1, 2010. Many of the benefits and conditions related to Corbo’s position are online however, as they are included in the Université du Québec’s “Protocole des cadres supérieurs.”

But things remain far different at McGill, where the contract and even salary for principal Heather MunroeBlum remains partially shrouded in mystery.

“The contract has never been online, but we will make it available when it has been requested through the proper channels,” indicated McGill spokeswoman Julie Fortier. To be

clear, ‘proper channels’ means making an Access to Information request.

According to an article published in 2009 in Le Journal de Montréal, Munroe-Blum’s base salary at the time was $358,000 for leading a university of more than 30,000 students. But add on to that a bevy of other benefits, including housing and car allowances, and that salary suddenly inflates to $587,000, or as the article points out, three times the salary of Quebec premier Jean Charest.

The documents attained by Le Journal de Montréal also indicate that between Jan. 2008 and Sept.

2009, Munroe-Blum was reimbursed $160,000 for various reasons, including $132,000 for travel alone. But McGill chose not to reveal the exact nature of the trips to the newspaper, claiming it had revealed all that it was required to under the law.

governanCe

BoG votes to approve review committee

Governance review group will include three external members Sarah Deshaies Editor-in-chief

A handful people from outside Concordia University will soon have a chance to independently examine how the university is governed. Concordia’s Board of Governors unanimously passed a motion at its monthly meeting on Feb. 17 to create and support a special review committee set up to evaluate university governance.

The motion was drafted in response to a call by senate members at their January meeting to set up such an external committee to examine “governance structure” in the aftermath of the reported dismissal of president Judith Woodsworth.

BoG members appointed interim president Frederick Lowy, who began his term at the beginning of the month, to work with senate to draft the committee’s mandate. Lowy and the senate steering committee will also make recommendations as to who will sit on the committee. While the BoG motion did not list the number of

potential members, Lowy suggested it would be two to three people.

A day later, Concordia’s Senate passed nearly the same motion, approving the establishment of an external governance review committee. The motion in Senate, introduced

by Lowy, did undergo a few amendments during the discussion period, however. First, it was amended to specify that the committee be of “at least three members.” Additionally, the Senate steering committee was put in charge of setting, rather than drafting, the mandate and approving, rather than recommending, the membership of said committee. Finally, senators inserted into the motion that at least one of the committee members must be a “current or former faculty member” external to Concordia.

Lowy motivated for the motion in Senate saying “of the issues that have been brought forward, from senate and elsewhere, it seems to me that the most important one, and the one that has engaged so many people in this room, is the issue of governance, and governance in the larger sense including the relationship among the different constituencies, most particularly between the Board of Governors and [...] the broader internal community. “ Most of the discussion from senators focused on the actual wording, and as to whether the group of experts

should be called a commission or a committee based on the power each word conveys. Ultimately, Lowy said the wording didn’t matter because the committee would not be given a mandate beyond what Senate expected of them. The title made no difference because the university would retain all the power to implement, or not implement recommendations. He said that they were not looking for a group “to tell us how to run the university, but give advice with which they’re free to take or not to take within our existing channels,” and that even if they cannot force action, he expects “their work will have major moral suasion.”

BoG chair Peter Kruyt was not present at the Thursday meeting, and was replaced by vice-chair Jonathan Wener. Lowy addressed some of the criticism that has been levelled at Kruyt in recent months in his first president’s report to the BoG. “There’s a general feeling of victimization; a sense that something bad is being done to us, and this, surprisingly, goes across the board, from the Board of Governors and its members, on the one hand, to just about every academic sector, including students.”

And the blame, said Lowy, has come to rest with the chair. “Peter becomes almost a scapegoat, in the symbolic fashion. This maybe the current situation, at least that’s the way

I’ve come to see it, but it’s clearly not an answer to any basic problems that we have in governance.” These problems, he added, have to be examined “very well.”

Later on in the meeting, Jean Freed, an observer on behalf of the Concordia University Part-Time Faculty Association, decried the apparent assigning of blame to Kruyt and appeared to chastise BoG members who claimed that they were unaware of the decision to replace Woodsworth.

“Every board member in this room knew what was going before Dec. 23.

Every constituency was represented.

Everyone of us had the chance to voice our opinions and to be heard. We cannot lay this just on the leadership.”

While the discussion might not have happened at the level of the BoG, she said, it happened in other meetings.

“I’m very tired of people pretending they didn’t know. [...] If [Kruyt] didn’t have the support of the majority of the board, none of this would have happened.”

Lowy repeated comments he had made previously about needing to repair the rifts in the university in order to move on, but he suggested that Concordia could falter if this does not happen. “We don’t want to [be] one of these institutions that shoots itself in the foot just because that’s the tradition.”

Housing

Students yet to voice housing complaints to Quebec Human Rights Commission International student tenants still victim of discriminatory practices

Jacqueline Di Bartolomeo Assistant arts editor International students who are victims of illegal housing practices remain silent instead of voicing their complaints, according to the Concordia Student Union Off-Campus Housing & Job Bank co-ordinator Leanne Ashworth. However, Ashworth as well as CSU Legal Information Clinic co-ordinator Walter Tom are now

encouraging students to take their case to the Quebec Human Rights Commission, according to a press release from the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations.

The release said that the commission “is still waiting for students to come forward.”

“What [the commission] informed us of was that they would be looking only at individual cases [...] so we’re still currently working with students to see if they want to do that,” said Ashworth. “However, many students are too worried to do that on their own.”

That’s why last September HOJO and the legal clinic teamed up with CRARR, who are willing to represent students if they choose to take their complaints to the Commission.

The problems that plague international students remain largely

unchanged; according to 30-year-old mature student Alia, who preferred not to give her last name, landlords take advantage of three factors with international student tenants. “It’s the time issue - because we can’t stay in hotels forever, it costs money,” she said. “The other thing is our ignorance, because we don’t know, and the third thing is we’re very easily fooled. If something looks decent we just think it’s decent.”

After moving to Montreal last year, Alia stayed at a hotel before signing a two-year contract at a building accross the street. The landlords asked for her social insurance number, made her pay a $4,000 deposit up front - enough for four months’ rent - and refused to fix the windows in her 30-year-old, unrenovated apartment.

Finally, Alia went to HOJO, where an employee took the time to explain

the right way to deal with her landlords. She didn’t need to take her case to the Quebec Human Rights Commission since, once she made it clear she was aware of her rights, her landlords gave her no more grief.

However, she says she couldn’t have done it without the help of that employee at HOJO. “When we’re new in the country, the silliest, easiest things [...] just seem very complicated to us. For some reason we have blocks towards that because we’re just new and we’re kind of scared,” she explained.

Ashworth acknowledged the sentiment, but also called out to the students to come forward: “If they have any questions, if they’re not happy where they’re renting, if they’re having problems with their landlords, [students] should come to talk to us.”

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Nation in brief Evan LePage

Anti-abortionists sue Carleton University

An anti-abortion group at Carleton University has filed a lawsuit against their school over an incident in which five students were arrested last fall for displaying signs of bloody aborted fetuses on campus. The students’ lawyer said the school’s actions represented both censorship, through the suppression of freedom of expression, and discrimination, the National Post reported. The group, Carleton Lifeline, also alleges that the university administration violated their own human rights and academic freedom codes in the incident, which saw Ottawa police arrest the five students for trespassing. Only two of those five are plaintiffs in this suit, which reportedly demands $200,000 in compensation for damages to reputation, damages for wrongful arrest and breach of the school’s fiduciary duties.

Chicken, coming to a TV near you

Two professors at the University of Ottawa say that the federal government has targeted them because of their propensity for criticizing the Conservatives.

Professors Errol Mendes and Amir Attaran were the subject of two enormous freedom-of-information requests at the university which they believe is part of an intimidation tactic and effort to use their information against them, the Toronto Star reported. These requests are done anonymously in Ontario but the professors believe that this is another example of the Conservatives’ effort to silence critical voices in academia. To try and prove it, they’ve offered to release all information if the person who made the request reveals himself or herself. Employment details, expenses and teaching records were requested but Mendes said the university will not release much of the information which is private or personal in nature, and therefore legally protected from release.

A Conservative spokesman said the requests were not made by the party.

Part-time Toronto students may face transit hikes

Toronto’s Transit Commission is considering putting a halt to discounted Metropasses for part-time post-secondary students as a way to allay budget issues, the CBC reported. The recommendation came from TTC staff who suggested that budget pressures could be eased if only full-time students were allowed to benefit from the reduced $99 monthly fare. Last December the student discount was extended to students at private career colleges, a move which has reportedly cost the TTC $400,000 per year in revenues lost. This new policy would serve to overcome those losses. If passed, the approximately 49,000 parttime students who currently use the student pass would instead be forced to buy the adult Metropass for $121, a price increase of over 20 per cent. Estimates show that the TTC could save in the area of $1.4 million with these changes, which would take effect July 31. The proposal will be voted on at a meeting of the TTC board today.

Seal (not the recording artist) hits the road

A lost seal strayed from his habitat and onto a waterfront road in Charlottetown, P.E.I. last week, creating an interesting challenge for local law enforcement who didn’t want it to be run over. After police officers failed to convince or coax the seal back into the ocean, personnel from the Fisheries and Ocean Department needed to be called onto the scene, QMI reported.

Those officials were able to successfully relocate the seal back into the water.

Only in P.E.I.

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theconcordian

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

World in brief Evan LePage

Texas university official against guns on campus

A chancellor from the University of Texas publicly expressed his concerns last week over bills on the verge of being passed in the state’s legislature.

The proposed legislation would allow anyone with a concealed handgun license to have a weapon on school campuses. Francisco Cigarroa, system chancellor at the university, sent a letter to both the governor and lieutenant governor, as well as other members of the legislature last Thursday, in which he said he’s worried these bills would only make the schools more dangerous. Cigarroa cited concerns he had received from faculty, students, law enforcement officials and the university’s mental health professionals. The latter reportedly expressed concerns that the increased gun presence would lead to increased suicides on campus, the second leading cause of death among college students. Supporters of the bill reasoned that allowing guns on campus would act as a form of defence against school shootings and other crimes on campus. Over 450,000 people had concealed handgun licenses in Texas by the end of last year.

Shanghai to impose one-dog limit

The chinese city of Shanghai has been widely scrutinized for its policy of one child per household. Now, in response to a reported 140,000 complaints about being bitten by unlicensed dogs in 2010, the city is primed to introduce a similar one-dog policy starting in May, the BBC reported. After much debate, city lawmakers decided to impose a new rule which will force owners to give away unlicensed dogs, and prevent owners who already have two licensed dogs from applying for any more licenses.

Certain breeds which fall under their category of “attack dogs” will also be banned. Estimates place the number of unlicensed dogs in Shanghai at over 600,000, four times the number of licensed canines.

Spain lowers speed limit, hopefully lowers oil use

HNot so fast, consumption. The Spanish government has lowered the speed limit on all of the nation’s highways by 10 kilometres in an effort to lower automotive fuel consumption and, in turn, the country’s expenditures. The change, announced last week, will see speed limits fall from 120 to 110 km/h.

This reduction in speed, if followed, could reduce an engine’s consumption of fuel by up to 15 per cent. Spanish officials reportedly pushed the change to respond to rising oil prices as a result of conflict in Libya. An increase of 10 Euros per barrel could mean 500 million Euros more in expenditures for the nation, the CBC reported. In addition to the change of speed, the government will be reducing certain train fares and increasing biofuel requirements.

Egyptian newborn named “Facebook”

Because of the integral role played by Facebook in organizing the protests and ultimate revolution in Egypt last month, a man has decided to name his daughter after the social networking site, CNN reported. Gamal Ibrahim, a man in his 20s, named his newborn girl Facebook, telling one of the country’s popular newspapers, Al-Ahram, that it was to express his happiness “at the achievements made by the Jan. 25 youth,” referring to the date that protests began. Sadly, this little girl will probably never be able to successfully find herself in a Google search.

worLd

Ottawa protesters march in solidarity with Arab world Worldwide protests support Libya and Yemen Trevor Smith Chief copy editor Upwards of 250 demonstrators gathered at the steps of Parliament Hill last Saturday to call on the Canadian government to do more to support the people’s uprisings in Libya and Yemen.

Last weekend’s protest in Ottawa coincided with several others held throughout Canada as well as across the U.S. and Europe. The crowd brandished signs depicting dead Libyans and Yemenis while chanting out “Silence no more, Saleh out the door!” and “Canada, Canada be the guide, we are witnessing genocide!”

Both Libyan and Yemeni protesters have flooded the streets of their nations’ major cities in the hopes of ousting dictators Moammar Gadhafi and Ali Abdullah Saleh from power, only to be met with violence from government supporters. It is estimated that over a thousand have died in Libya as a result of Gadhafi using his nation’s air force and

Demonstrators crowded the steps of Parliament Hill. Photo by Navnnet Pall mercenaries in attempts to quell the protests. In Yemen, Saleh has also authorized the use of deadly force to put down the unrest as troops fired on protesters in the Port of Aden last Friday, reportedly killing four and wounding over 40 others.

Among the those who spoke at the protest was Dr. Mohamed Elmasry, a professor at the University of Waterloo and editor of news website the Canadian Charger. Elmasry

was in Cairo at the time of the Egyptian revolution and even submitted footage which aired on CBC, CNN and on the New York Times website.

He hoped that Canadians would not see the revolutions taking place in the Middle East and North Africa as being religiously aligned. “It was not an Islamic revolution, in the case of Tunisia, Egypt and now in Libya and Yemen; it’s a popular revolution which is pro democracy,” said El-

masry. “They were and are peaceful and deserve Canadian support.”

NDP member of Parliament Paul Dewar, who represents the Ottawa centre riding, also spoke to the crowd outside Parliament asking that Gadhafi be brought to justice. He called for a no-fly-zone to prevent further bombings of Libyan people as well as to prevent Gadhafi from moving his mercenary troops. Dewar asked that the dictator’s assets be frozen and for Prime Minister Harper to “push the United Nations to refer Gadhafi and all of his cronies to the ICC to be held accountable. Blood on his hands is blood that needs to be held to account.”

Abdul Aghliw, a Canadian-Libyan whose family is back in Libya, came out to support the Libyan protesters. “All that we ask for is for the dictator to leave,” he said. “And it doesn’t look like he is going to leave anytime soon and he is killing us. He is killing us.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper spoke with U.S. President Barack Obama over the phone on Monday about joint efforts to provide humanitarian aid to Libya, reported the Washington Post. Both Canada and the U.S. have imposed financial sanctions against the Gadhafi family and the Libyan government.

reLigion

ConU ambiguous on wearing of kirpan Student association hails Concordia as “model of the future” Jacques Gallant Assistant news editor While the debate over wearing a kirpan in public has heated up since Quebec’s National Assembly unanimously voted to ban it from its premises last month, the dagger worn by Sikhs as a religious object is welcome on campus at Concordia, at least for now.

Although the university has a

policy that bans “all weapons” from campus, this clause does not specifically include the kirpan, wrote media relations advisor Fiona Downey in an email, which further indicated that Concordia has no intention of implementing a kirpan ban in the near future.

“Given that the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that a ban on a kirpan at a high school was invalid and infringed on freedom of religion and given that Concordia has never had an incident involving a kirpan, Concordia does not consider the kirpan worn for religious purposes to be a ‘weapon,’” said Downey.

However, should an incident with the religious object arise, Downey indicated that the relevant provisions of the university’s Code of Rights and

Responsibilities would apply.

On Feb. 9, the National Assembly voted unanimously in support of a Parti quebecois motion banning the wearing of the kirpan on its premises.

The vote came after a group of Sikhs were turned away from the legislature for refusing to turn over their kirpans to security three weeks earlier. The decision attracted even more controversy when PQ secularism critic Louise Beaudoin said that while multiculturalism may be a value for Canada, it is not for Quebec.

In a press release issued last month, the president of the Concordia Sikh Students Association, Mukhbir Singh, expressed his association’s disappointment at the National Assembly’s decision, but praised Concordia for representing “what Canadian

culture is truly about.”

“We don’t hear of any issues of racism at Concordia because there rarely ever exist any; we are a model of the future of this city,” read the statement.

Several legislatures and courts have indeed ruled that the kirpan should not be viewed as a weapon, and as such it is permitted on the premises of institutions such as the Canadian Parliament.

In the press release, the CSSA indicated that the National Assembly’s vote “represented a turn away from the values of tolerance and multiculturalism,” and asked if the debate is now more about the inclusion of minorities in Quebec.

City

Citizens demand moratorium on UdeM’s Outremont campus project approval Protestors feel public wasn’t consulted, but ciity rejects call for moratorium Sarah McMahon-Sperber Contributor Both community organizers and regular citizens braved freezing temperatures last week to protest the city of Montreal’s decision to discreetly approve the Université de Montréal’s campus expansion project.

“If we’re going to be injecting $1.5 billion of public money into this project, we deserve a full public consultation,” protester Holly Nazar yelled to the crowd occupying the front steps of Montreal’s city hall building. “So we’re demanding a

moratorium on any decisions until the consultation process is complete.”

The new additions to the campus are to be built on the grounds of Montreal’s former Marshalling yards, the biggest vacant land the city currently has to offer. Located between l’Acadie and Outremont metros, the former Canadian Pacific site was purchased by the University in 2006 and is poised at the junction of Outremont and Parc-Extension — two boroughs deeply divided by polarized socio-economic, cultural and ethnic realities.

The plan, designed by Groupe Cardinal-Hardy, has been repeatedly praised for its sustainable nature and has received countless accolades including the 2007 award for Urban Planning by the Canadian Institute of Planners.

“But the project in its present form is just not working for us,” said community organizer and leader of the Parc-Extension Citizen Committee, Giuliana Fumagalli.

“Not only are there things that need to be improved in the current plan, but people need to be informed.

Most citizens in the area have almost no information about how the Campus Project is going to pan out. It’s completely appalling.”

Along with demands for transparency, social housing, gentrification protection and job security; concerned protesters made requests for a development project that would help solve longtime problems with isolation in Parc-Extension.

Currently cut off from neighbouring boroughs by train tracks, busy boulevards or, in the case of Town of Mont-Royal, locked fences, Parc-Extension representatives are calling for a project that would open up the borough and offer its citizens access to the green spaces and urban luxuries provided by the Outremont Campus infrastructures.

As protesters made their feelings known outside, indoors executive committee member Richard Des-

champs sternly responded to public inquiries voiced during the question period of the City’s council session.

“We have been consulting publicly with everyone involved for over six years now, it is our privilege and duty to make decisions in these instances and we have. From here on, all will be welcome to voice their concerns during the public consultations related to the projects [programmes particuliers d’urbanisme].” According to organizers however, in the case of the campus project these consultations were insufficient and purely symbolic.

Despite their efforts, the protests on this occasion were to no avail.

The requests for a moratorium were rejected.

“What’s next?” asked Fumagalli rhetorically as she led the group of noisemakers out of City Hall. “We head back to our citizens and let them know what was done and said here tonight. They’ll be the ones to tell us what they’d like to do next.”

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

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5

eLeCtions

ASFA elections a mix of competitive and nonexistent races

While many candidates slid in unopposed, two others won by less than 3 per cent Evan LePage News editor

With very few people running, some candidates had little to worry about during last month’s Arts and Science Federation of Associations general elections. As the only candidate for president, for example, Alex Gordon was easily elected with 662 votes, representing 77.4 per cent of the total.

“I knew it was coming, so it wasn’t like it was a shock to me,” he said with a laugh. “But it was still a relief to know the elections were over and I could go back to not campaigning.”

Both the new VP social, Colman George Aucoin, and the new VP external and sustainability, Asma

Omar, ran unopposed as well and were elected with around 70 per cent of the vote each.

But two of the other executive contests offered very tight races.

The competition among VP internal affairs and VP academic and Loyola affairs candidates finished so closely that they will be subject to a mandatory recount this week, according to ASFA’s chief electoral officer Nick Cuillerier. As it stands, the victors of those races are Schubert Laforest and Christina Gentile, who beat out their competitors by only 11 and 25 votes respectively.

The recounts were put on hold during reading week because the CEO wanted both candidates present.

Additionally, candidates have until March 8 to file contestations, though Cuillerier said he does not expect to receive any.

Among the remaining positions, Laura Gomez was elected as VP finance by a comfortable 16.7 per cent margin over her nearest competitor in the three-candidate race, and both Rachel Feldman and Madeline Griffin were elected as independent councillors, running without competition.

A byelection will be required next fall to elect a VP communications as well as third independent councillor in order to fill those vacancies.

Despite the end of elections coinciding with the beginning of reading week, president-elect Gordon says he has spoken to most of the members

of his executive individually and that they will be meeting as a group soon.

He will immediately be taking steps to strengthen next year’s ASFA by encouraging students who want to get involved to run for their member associations. “[I want] to fill the member

associations with people who really want to do good and who want to be involved,” Gordon said. “ASFA can’t function without the MAs and MAs can’t function without the students.

So getting the member associations filled with good people is the next step.”

Alex Gordon was elected president of ASFA with 662 votes in an election that saw a few tight races. Photo by writer

Continued from cover ...

Despite lower turnout, CEO happy with fewer contestations and high executive summary use votes per candidate were [almost] double what they were last year. So I think that’s an encouraging sign.”

This year two candidates received more than 600 votes, and a third was only 11 votes away from that number. In contrast, only two candidates surpassed 400 votes in 2010, but in those contests all votes were split between at least three candidates.

One of the other major positives the CEO has taken from the election period is the massive 90 per cent decrease in contestations, from 80 in 2010 to only four this year, only two of which resulted in sanctions.

This is something Cuillerier credits to the removal of slates. “I was rather impressed with the candidate behaviour,” he said. “They filed

contestations when they felt something was wrong, and sometimes indeed things were wrong. But in general the ‘individual slate system’ definitely removed a lot of the animosity that did occur last year in the elections.”

On that note, he also added that he believed this group of candidates was “focused on their own campaigns and not destroying other campaigns.”

More good signs to be found in this campaign according to Cuillerier were both the success of the Vanier Library lobby as a new polling station and the success of the executive summaries.

The VL lobby on the Loyola campus was the second most popular voting location out of the

five ASFA set up this year, a 300 per cent increase compared to the votes garnered last year at the poll’s former location in the Administration building. “On the first day and halfway through the second day it was actually outpacing the Hall lobby which is the most popular voting station,” Cuillerier said.

As for the executive summaries, 75 per cent of voters at Loyola consulted the short candidate profiles, as did 40 per cent downtown, according to polling clerk tabulation.

This amounted to approximately 500 people referring to the document at polling stations according to Cuillerier.

“The executive summary was by far one of the biggest successes in this election,” he said. “There

was a lot of good feedback on it. I had a lot of people who came to the polling station and voted because they had those summaries there and they would have walked away if we didn’t have them.”

At the next ASFA council meeting, Cuillerier will be presenting his report on the elections. He said he will focus on three areas of possible improvement: The first will be a re-examination of the slate system, on which he will offer a recommendation as to how the lack of slates worked out; secondly, he will be advising the organization to adopt a social media policy into their annexes since “it’s not clear enough as to what candidates can and cannot do and this really hinders them in being creative [online].”

Lastly, he will be examining “how to increase student participation while maintaining fairness.”

While voting totals didn’t turn out the way he hoped, and he would have liked to have seen more candidates, with all the changes made this past year Cuillerier said that they did achieve progress.

“These are things that can continually be improved,” he explained.

“The ultimate goal here is to get the average student interested in the voting process and I felt we started that foundation really solidly for years to come with this election.”

FinanCe

ConU to spend $3 million on tuition waivers for international PhD, MFA students

Senators express support, but Provost raises concerns about project’s effect on budget Evan LePage News Editor

Over the next three years Concordia will be spending $3 million on a pilot project to provide full tuition waivers to international students entering PhD and MFA programs at the university.

The object of the project, according to School of Graduate Studies dean Graham Carr, is to hopefully improve the quality and increase the number of internation-

al graduate students the university is attracting.

“Most other Quebec universities currently offer tuition waivers to international students at the PhD level and so clearly we have been in an uncompetitive situation or a less than ideally competitive situation in the past,” Carr told those in attendance at a Senate meeting on Feb. 18. “This is a very significant step forward, I think, in addressing that.”

The funds will be implemented in a staggered fashion: $500,000 this year, $1 million the following year, and $1.5 million the third year.

President Frederick Lowy approved the project only a few days into his term in office.

The funds “will allow us to bring in approximately 35 new international students per year with the full tuition waiver,” Carr said. “This effectively doubles the

number of international tuition waivers that the university has at its disposal when combined with existing waivers.”

Despite acknowledging the positive step forward for the university, Provost and VP academic affairs David Graham raised some concerns at the meeting that the inaccuracy of certain budget projections, made based on expected enrolment growth figures that have not been met, has taken a toll on how much they have to spend. “I don’t want to sound like the Grinch in this,” Graham said. “What that means, in practical terms, is that at the moment we are not projecting enough revenue to cover the totality of the expenditures that the [chief financial officer] projected, including that very significant incremental graduate support.”

Graham then advised senators that there was a difficult decision

to make as to whether they want to retain lower enrolment projections and thus force the CFO to reduce projected expenditures, or to raise the enrolment projections to match the original budget projections.

Instead of influencing their opinion of the tuition waiver project however, this seemed to heighten the senators’ criticism of the Senate’s financial processes.

In fact, arts and science faculty member June Chaikelson, who chairs the senate’s finance committee, responded to Graham’s comment, saying “There’s a third choice and that’s change some of our other priorities in the university.”

Graham said that he agreed on that point. “When I talked of reducing expenditures, that was precisely what I meant. That’s what reducing expenditures is about, is deciding what our priorities are.”

Of the new tuition waivers,

Graduate Student Association Advocacy Manager Roddy Doucet said “We don’t necessarily think that this particular announcement goes towards alleviating on the ground problem of current students at Concordia who are already victims of the international tuition increase and the fee restructuring.”

“So, while we’re fully behind the initiative and we’re happy Concordia’s taking steps to attract better talent, you know it will only contribute to the richness of Concordia’s academic community, we encourage them to look for on the ground solutions for current students.”

A representative from the Concordia International Students Association could not be reached by print time.

life

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

6

Write to the editor: life@theconcordian.com Food

Val’s Bites: Guilt-free comfort food

Kimchi, pizza and hummus: three cuisines worth indulging in Valeria Nekhim Staff writer

Comfort food. The quest for it is just about the only thing that keeps me from retreating into my bed at the onset of winter and seeking refuge until the first signs of spring.

Surprisingly, not everyone is like me and it is a true albeit mystifying fact that some people actually enjoy the winter. However, I am sure these individuals, or better yet — aber-

rations — also like comfort food. Here’s the big shocker though: comfort food does not have to be synonymous with artery clogging fare, it can be healthy or at least moderately nutritious.

The trifecta of restaurants below may not necessarily scream “comfort,” but I challenge you to feel anything but warm fuzzy goodness after sampling them. That said, get out of bed and start eating.

Hwang Kum 5908 Sherbrooke W. (at Clifton Ave.), 514487-1712, major cards accepted.

“There is good food in NDG,” exclaimed my friend during a meal at Hwang Kum, a comment she followed up with “do they do takeout?” The answer is “yes,” and the grin on her face reeked of unadulterated satisfaction. Trust me, odds are you would feel similarly if you tried one of the myriad dishes listed on the Korean restaurant’s vast menu.

Let’s start with my favourite (this was not an easy decision): the kimchi pancake. Kimchi is an umbrella term for Korean-style pickled vegetables, the most popular being Napa cabbage fermented in a brine of ginger, garlic, scallions and chili peppers. Varieties of kimchi accompany main courses at most Korean eateries

and it is a key item in a plethora of national dishes like the aforementioned pancake.

Though the waiter was hesitant to divulge the complete list of ingredients comprising this fluffy, pizza-shaped delight, kimchi pancakes typically consist of flour, potato starch, eggs, scallions, garlic, cabbage kimchi, vegetable oil, kimchi juice and a bevy of spices fried together in a pan. Hwang Kum’s also has carrots — this I squeezed out of him — and come with a light yet tangy dipping sauce.

The combination of warm crispy crust and gooey spicy vegetables was the perfect antidote to a cold winter day. Yum. For second place, it was a battle between the cold black noodles dressed with kimchi cabbage, a hard-boiled egg, scallions, zucchini and hot sauce, and the strips of barbequedmarinated beef. The cool, spicy noodles slithered down my throat, producing a frisson of euphoria with each bite. Meanwhile, the succulent beef with its velvety texture threw me totally off guard, as Montreal’s Korean food scene is still in its nascent stage. Unfortunately, the hot barbequed chicken elicited less glee due to a slightly cloying sauce. But then came the paper-thin pork dumplings, and all was right again.

Hwang Kum’s food is not a lesson in ingenuity, but rather an example of classic, simple, and generally healthy Korean recipes

Bibimbap, a traditional Korean dish of ground beef, rice, veggies and a fried egg served in a stone bowl.

Hwang Kum’s paper-thin pork dumplings were another delicious dish.

Photos by writer

The kimchi pancake was the star of the night with carrots as a bonus ingredient.

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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

One of Magpie’s eight pizza’s topped with artichokes, spinach fontina and parmesan is “better than sex.”

that work wonders on the palate. And did I mention they whip up a mean lunch special and the portion sizes practically guarantee you will have leftovers?

Mains: $14-21 (plus tax)

Kaza Maza 4629 Parc Ave., 514-844-6292, major cards accepted.

Before I lavish well-deserved praise upon Kaza Maza’s refined Syrian and Lebanese cuisine, allow me to get a grievance out of the way: the service, or lack thereof, is bad, verging on very bad. The first time I went it was dead, but the waiter, who was probably rehearsing for a role in The Illusionist, was nowhere to be found. When he miraculously appeared, he seemed unhappy by our presence.

Given the abundance of restaurants/servers in this city who work inexorably hard to retain customers, I felt guilty about returning. But alas, I was powerless before their signature hot and cold mezzes (small plates), especially the sweet mutabbal, a puree of roasted beets with tahini, lemon, garlic, parsley and olive oil. A thick, cold spread of Aleppo peppers, pomegranate syrup, nuts and spices, the fragrant muhammara did not help matters either.

On my second visit, Kaza Maza was packed, but the same lone waiter was left holding down the fort. Unable to flag him down throughout the meal, when he finally came to clear our table, he inquired as to why the baba ganoush was not finished. I responded that it was simply too smoky for my taste. The waiter informed me this was probably because I’m accustomed to eating the dish when it is prepared with frozen

eggplant, but at Kaza Maza the vegetable is roasted. After a short back and forth where I assured him I had eaten fresh baba ganoush before but theirs was just not to my liking, it was removed from the bill and replaced with a complimentary hummus. With a texture so creamy and a taste so nuanced, Kaza Maza successfully revitalized the ubiquitous Middle Eastern spread. Impressive.

Other highlights included the mouthmelting lamb shank “friki” accompanied by bulgur, grilled nuts and a yogurt sauce infused with cucumber and mint, as well as the fried cheese cigars. Just don’t ask the waiter what kind of cheese is inside. I did, and after what seemed like an eternity I was informed it was “cow cheese.” How helpful. But service notwithstanding, Kaza Maza’s food rivals that of its competitors, and given the quality, it’s a bargain. Come here for dinner or weekend brunch (they do omelettes!) and see for yourself.

Mains: $9-19 (plus tax)

prices, and pizza from a wood burning oven that is — I cannot believe I am writing this — just as good, if not better, than sex.

For starters, the flour hails from Italy, and the tomato sauce is made from San Marzano tomatoes, a variety of plum tomatoes grown in the volcanic soil below Mount Vesuvius, near Naples, and reputed to be the world’s best sauce tomatoes. Further, the menu is limited to eight pizzas, allowing the chef ample time to hone his technique and focus on quality ingredients. This was instantly obvious when, while moaning over a slice of artichoke and spinach pizza with Fontina and Parmesan, the first word that sprang to mind was: freshness. What’s more, the ingredients blended together harmoniously while retaining their deliciously distinct flavours — an

unlikely feat. And oh, how I love me a thin pizza with a puffed-out crust that screams doughy deliciousness. The caramelized onion pizza with black olives, ricotta and oregano was another hit, and additional proof the owners do not skimp on quality to keep prices reasonable. Magpie also boasts a glassencased meat locker displaying house-cured meats that diners can try via the charcuterie platter, or by ordering items like the prosciutto pizza topped with arugula, cherry tomatoes and bocconcini. For a complete hedonistic experience — the massive $4 cookie of the day is guaranteed to send you over the edge.

Pizza: $12-18 (taxes included)

Pizzeria Magpie 16 Maguire St., 514-507-2900, major cards accepted.

“Pizza is a lot like sex. When it’s good, it’s really good. When it’s bad, it’s still pretty good.” I read this quote on a retro-style magnet while shopping in Toronto this summer and who can argue with that? But — and of course there is a but — in an epicurean city like Montreal, we should not have to settle for “pretty good.” Enter Pizzeria Magpie: a quadruple threat offering a cosy, but decidedly cool atmosphere, friendly service, affordable

Kaza Maza’s lambshank “friki” with grilled nuts and yogurt sauce was tender and delicious.

The sweet mutaball, a roasted beets purée, was a perfect beginning to the meal at Kaza Maza.

Pomegranate seeds are added to Kaza Maza’s fattoush, a Middle Eastern salad.

theconcordian

8 FASHIoN

An editorial look with a mix of brands and prices How a new boutique in downtown Montreal is standing up to the big name competition Natacha Medeiros Contributor Unique brands, slouchy tees and great denim are just some of the things that make up Editorial, a trendy new boutique in the heart of the city, which opened only six weeks ago.

The store, located at 1455 Stanley St., seamlessly mixes price points with items starting at $18 and ranging all the way up to $1,000. Its concept of brands and prices lends well to the store’s name and the meaning behind why it was chosen.

“My partner Winnie [Wong] came up with [the name] and the reason is because of the way she does the buying, in a very editorial way,” said owner Yaniv Moyal, who is one of several business partners at the store. “You know, when you look at the magazine editorials, the girls are wearing a $10 shirt with $20 running shoes and a $3,000 leather jacket, so that’s a little bit the concept of the store.”

Moyal explained that they do not buy according to price but rather based on what they like regardless of its cost. However, he strongly emphasized that just like anything in the store, the more inexpensive pieces are very carefully chosen for style and fit. Only the best make the cut.

“The whole concept of the store is styling,” said co-owner Winnie. “Two girls can come in with two completely different price

Editorial owners Setvie B. Hamron, Winnie Wong and Yaniv Moyal. Photo by Navnnett Pall points and come out with something.” You can find jeans for $98 or $300 and dresses starting at $50 and going up to $600.

Editorial boasts an impressive list of exclusive brands that you won’t find anywhere else in Montreal. Laugh Cry Repeat, Levi’s Made and Crafted, Boyfriend/Girlfriend, UNIF and Vintage Frames by Corey Shapiro are just some from the ongoing list. Perfect layering and flirty tees from Laugh Cry Repeat compliment Levi’s Made and Crafted denim, which is made and washed in Italy and shipped direct from London. Shapiro, a Montreal native, created Vintage Frames Co., a company specializing in tracking down sunglasses dating back from the ’50s onwards. Some of his finds have been featured on the most famous of celebrity faces, such as those of Katy Perry, Rihanna and Pharrell Williams, just to name a few.

Most of Editorial’s brands are Los Angeles-

based, underground and make for a fun, eclectic mix of fashion. “We basically pick brands that we know and that we like. We mostly like up-and-coming brands, [ones] that are just starting,” said Moyal. They stock Montreal-based Luv U Always, a leggings brand quickly making its mark on the Montreal fashion scene. Their leggings retail for around $85 and up and specialize in a longer cut with zippered hems. Founders and twin sisters Tara and Gabrielle Garbarino work at the boutique, too.

Moyal, who has a strong background in wholesale, founded the jean company Guido and Mary with Editorial partner Winnie Wong. He said he was born into the fashion industry so opening Editorial came naturally for him and the group, which also includes Winnie’s sister Jackie and Stevie B Hamron.

“Really, how we opened, it wasn’t planned. [We find] shopping in Montreal has

declined a little bit with all those mega chain stores. There wasn’t a boutique downtown.

And that’s why we opened,” he said. “And we fell in love with this location, we fell in love with the solarium, we fell in love with the street.”

The store has had a very successful six weeks, considering it opened in early January, the week known in the retail world business as the post-holiday slump. Not to mention the competition is fierce, with bigger chain stores like H&M and Forever 21 just around the corner.

This doesn’t phase Moyal in the least.

“We can’t really compete with them so we don’t consider them a competition. Where we stand out compared to them is we offer more focused buying,” he explained. “[The chain stores] carry everything. So we are more picky in our buying, we’re a smaller boutique, and we really have the time to do that compared to them where they just have to generate more money as opposed to us.”

It would seem that Editorial has a bright future ahead. Great owners that double as a killer buying team with a knack for what’s fashionable is what keeps their shelves stocked with the hottest, most exclusive brands in the city.

Editorial is easily accessible by Peel metro and is only a short walk from Concordia’s downtown campus. In the words of Moyal himself, they “love Concordia!”

Editorial has a transitional sale taking place now, with racks at $10, $20 and $30.

Editorial is located at 1455 Stanley St. between De Maisonneuve and St. Catherine St. W. Open from 11 a.m. Monday-Friday, Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday noon to 5 p.m.

Q&A

Days before the event, CEO of GeekFest Montreal tells all Frédéric Harper explains the difference between geeks and nerds, admits he is “more of a Star Wars guy” Chris Hanna Opinions editor Last year’s first annual GeekFest Montreal event drew in about 500 of the city’s geekiest, through a mostly online marketing campaign.

While these numbers do not measure up to the over 8,000 that were at Montreal’s last Comic-Con, the itinerary is still impressive.

Between JeoparGeek, Introduction to Klingon 101 and a concert orchestra whose members use only musical apps on their iPods and iPads, there is something for everyone at GeekFest Montreal. The festival’s CEO Frédéric Harper expects 800 to 1,000 attendees at this year’s event and promises that even nongeeks can enjoy themselves while becoming versed in geek culture.

The Concordian: What makes someone a geek?

Frédéric Harper: It’s someone that is really passionate about something; most of the time they are associated with computers, video games or board games, but in my opinion a geek can be associated with everything. So you can be a geek of trucks or cars. Sometimes they are not happy when we talk about a geek that is not a computer or video game geek, but I think a person that is passionate about something is a geek.

How are geeks different than nerds?

A geek is more open, maybe more social.

They’re willing to meet people, and go to an event like [GeekFest] and talk to other geeks and find other styles of geeks. It was not always a positive term, but I think for the last two or three years, there has been a kind of geek pride in Montreal and in the world, too.

We have had similar kinds of festivals come into the city recently. What makes GeekFest different?

The goal of GeekFest is not to be THE event for geeks, or to replace other events.

There is no focus on one type of geek. It has many types in the same place in a big preview of all or most kinds [of geeks] in Montreal and in Quebec.

What’s in it for the nongeeks, or the people who won’t admit they are a geek?

The goal of the GeekFest is to put all kinds of geeks in the same place and promote the geek lifestyle. So I think that for people like my mother, or people who are not sure about the term geek, or people who are geeks but don’t know it, it is a good place to have a preview of many kinds of passions.

So when you go to an event that is really focused on one type of geek, for example Otakuthon, for cosplay players [costume play], it’s a really great event, it’s a really big event, but it could be intimidating for people who just want to have a look and see what a cosplay player is. So at GeekFest, you have a little preview of each kind of geek and why people are doing this and why they really love this. It’s a place where people are committed to sharing their passion with geeks and nongeeks.

How has geek culture been affected by the Internet?

[It] lets us communicate with a lot of people easily, with almost no cost. So it was perfect for us because we are only at our second event, so we don’t have much money to publicize and talk to people and the Internet has been really great for promoting the event.

It is really great for the geek community too, because we can talk about our passion, we can meet people locally and from around the world and just share our passion. It also helps to make [the community] bigger and better.

One of the events being held at Geek Fest is a Star Trek vs. Star Wars debate.

Where do you stand on the issue, and why?

I think it will be an epic conversation, because it’s like a discussion that goes on for

years and years. For me, I’m more of a Star Wars guy. I think most people are like me.

[They’re asked] “You prefer Star Wars? Why?” Uhhh, well, because! I think I love mostly the story [...], I love the story with Darth Vader, I’m a fan of Yoda, and so it’s things like that that you don’t really have in Star Trek.

GeekFest Montreal is taking place on March 5 and 6 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at UQAM’s Coeur des Sciences, 200 Sherbrooke St. W. Tickets for the entire weekend are $20 or $12 for one day. For more information and a full itinerary visit www.geekfestmtl.com

Submit your bucket list idea As the end of semester approaches, let @ ConcordianLife what’s on your #conubucketlist.

Maybe it is eating at the Loyola Luncheon, or walking from one campus to the next; either way, we want to know. Send us a pic and a few lines telling students what they need to do before graduation.

You can share... on Twitter: write us a message @ConcordianLife and use the #conubucketlist hashtag via Facebook: search the Concordian and post to the page by email: send us an email to life@theconcordian.com or by scanning this QR code

Buying contraband cigarettes costs more than you think. It fuels other criminal activities, such as the trafficking of drugs and guns. Individuals caught in possession of contraband cigarettes face serious consequences ranging from a fine to jail time.

contrabandconsequences.gc.ca L’achat de cigarettes de contrebande coûte plus cher qu’on le pense : il alimente d’autres activités criminelles comme le trafic d’armes et de drogues. Les individus pris en possession de cigarettes de contrebande s’exposent à de graves conséquences, allant de l’amende jusqu’à l’emprisonnement.

consequencesdelacontrebande.gc.ca

arts

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

10

Write to the editor: arts@theconcordian.com FILM

Sex, song and segregation

Canadian filmmaker puts the spotlight on apartheid Valerie Cardinal Arts editor

John Greyson has seen a lot of conflict over the past 25 years, and he hasn’t been afraid to comment on it. The Canadian video and filmmaker came to Concordia on Monday to present a selection of short films and excerpts from throughout his career. Greyson’s films broach subjects including gay rights, access to AIDS medication, apartheid in South Africa and Israel-Palestine; they range from Fig Trees, an opera documentary about South African AIDS activist Zackie Achmat to Vuvuzela, a short film combining the 2010 soccer World Cup with a call to musicians to boycott performances in Israel.

The Concordian: How did you become involved in so many political issues?

John Greyson: It really had a lot to do with moving to Toronto in the late ’70s and wanting to be both an artist, and also coming out as a gay guy and becoming very active in the gay movement. And the gay movement of the time was very focused on social justice issues, and so it led from gay issues and activism against

the police in particular to peace movements in Central America and it’s just continued from then on. And the relationship with art and activism have always been intertwined. It seems to me that we as citizens all have responsibility to speak up and take a stand around social justice issues, and some people can do that by joining a march, some people can do that by making a speech, and I’ve got this privilege of being able to work in film video, so it seems like that’s a way of contributing to a dialogue.

How did you start making films about Israel and Palestine?

I was involved in ’85 with the boycott movement against South African apartheid and very excited by doing queer activism in relationship to solidarity with South Africa. And then about five years ago I became involved in looking at Palestinians. And particularly when Israel very aggressively started to use gay rights as its excuse. It was one of its excuses for what we call pinkwashing. Saying, “don’t criticize us, don’t beat up on us because we’re good on gay rights,” and a lot of us feel, well, you can’t hide behind gay rights. Humans rights aren’t divisible.

You can’t say “we’re good on gays but bad on Palestinians,” or “good on homophobia but bad on racism.” You can’t divide it up like that.

A lot of your videos target musicians who aren’t cancelling their shows in Israel. Do you think artists like Elton John have seen your

videos?

I like to think they’ve all seen the videos and that they’ve completely changed their minds as a result and now they’re on side.[laughs]I think, Justin Bieber – that’s the latest one I’ve done he’s got so many spoof videos already to plow through, and more made everyday. I don’t know if he has the chance to keep up. But the interest for me is on the one hand there’s the direct appeal to the artist, like Elton John, like Bieber, but on the other hand, they’re also trying to educate the fans, trying to use music and humour and the cheekiness of rewriting the lyric […] and try and contribute to a dialogue around what’s going on with Israel-Palestine and the Middle East peace process, what can a boycott movement contribute. I’m a firm believer that boycott is the right thing to do. A lot of people are resistant, especially in the arts because boycott often gets confused with issues of censorship. And so there’s that crucial education and dialogue part of this initiative which is trying to make people realize boycott isn’t about censorship, boycott’s about trying as consumers, as citizens to take a stand and say enough is enough and things have got to change.

Do you think your films have had an impact on the issues they focus on?

I think the important thing is seeing them as part of a conversation, as part of a dialogue. I’ve done over many years a lot of work around AIDS and AIDS activism, and you can see where it’s

contributed to real change on the ground and people’s lives, whether it’s at the level of people in small towns writing to me and saying “your films made me laugh, make me feel like I should keep going and fight back as opposed to just throw in the towel.” One person at a time, film makes a difference in people’s lives. And I think for me, what’s most important is film in those ways builds community and so it’s not just something we consume or something that entertains us. No matter what film we see, the latest Coen brothers, whatever, we come out of the theatre, we talk to each other about it. We find out who we are based on talking – through film, we find out who each other are. So those things about film excite me.

And then seeing film bridge categories of fiction and documentary and experimental, bridge categories of entertainment and education. I’m excited about that too, because I think film can reach people in ways that a lecture can’t, in ways that an essay can’t, or a magazine article. So there’s one thing I think you’ve seen in the work, is an interest in music, an interest in humour, and I think that sort of strategy is a way of coming at people from a different direction. Israel-Palestine is one of the most divisive issues in the world today. You want to clear a room, that’s the topic to bring up. But if through music, through humour we can keep people in the room and we can keep people talking to each other, keep people listening to me and me listening to them, I think we’re making progress.

Write to the editor: arts@theconcordian.com

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

11

books

There’s a new monster in town Concordia prof introduces readers to The Death Fairy Samantha Mastromonaco Contributor Forget about the recent vampire and werewolf craze. Concordia English professor Laird Stevens’ The Death Fairy brings to life a new breed of monster whose horror lies not in its physical threat but in the threat it poses on its victim’s mentality. Though she pushes her

victim to the brink of suicide through nightmares, the death fairy is not only a girl’s worst enemy; she is also her mother who shares stories of her life through her daughter’s dreams.

How about that for a dysfunctional family?

Asia’s mother committed suicide when she was just a little girl. Still, Asia considers her mother to be her best friend because she sees her almost every day in her dreams.

When her father passes away years later, Asia is thrown into a depression where nightmares seize her and lead her to attempt suicide. Her only saving grace is her daughter, but Asia soon finds out that she may be a danger to her own child.

The Death Fairy’s plot seems to promise an interesting read and though the details

of the story are captivating, the writing style confuses the reader. The majority of the novel is written in dialogue form and it is easy to get lost in the conversations. With such a great amount of dialogue coming from The Death Fairy’s main character, it begs the question why the book was not written from a first person point of view. Instead, Asia’s thoughts are stated aloud to whomever she is conversing with, making the dialogue seem artificial and without substance.

While the book is an easy read and a mere 181 pages, certain aspects of its narrative appear contrived. The fact that Asia visits a psychologist who turns out to have been her mother’s lover before she killed herself is hard for the reader to believe, as it is also

too perfect that Asia’s friend from college has almost the exact same dream experiences as her. These situations come across like a forced strain on probability and though The Death Fairy’s main premise is itself improbable, the details surrounding the existence of the death fairy should not also feel forced.

The Death Fairy is nonetheless a pageturner. Stevens’ elaborate and chilling world of the death fairy piques the reader’s curiosity from the first page until its unraveling in the last few chapters. Stevens keeps the reader at arm’s length, divulging very little, until he finally lets them in on the secret world of the death fairy. For an easy read with a Twilightesque feel, pick up a copy of The Death Fairy at the Concordia University Bookstore.

FEsTIVAL

In Seeking the Current, film makers Nicolas Boisclair and Alexis de Gheldere take a canoe trip down the Romaine river with two environmentalists to document the ecosystem.

Montreal rolls out the green carpet for environmentalist filmmakers This year’s FFEM tackles clean water, shale gas and Hydro-Quebec Elizabeth Tomaras Contributor This award season, you don’t have to be green with envy of those in Los Angeles getting in on all the action. If you prefer the green carpet over the infamous red one, there’s something a little closer to home.

2011 marks the third edition of the Montreal Film Festival on the Environment, which showcases both homegrown and international cinematic talent on a variety of issues dealing with the environment, including sustainable

development and ecology. Modern times mean modern concerns, and this year’s focus will be “Water: Challenge of The Century.”

Clean water has become somewhat of a luxury as nearly one-third of the world’s population lacks what North Americans take for granted. “Our seas, lakes and rivers are weighed down by a process of urbanization and industrialization that has run amok. How can we preserve this life-giving resource in the 21st century?” reads the website for the festival’s venue, Cinema du Parc.

Roger Rashi, organizer and co-founder of the FFEM, said he looks forward to new features this year. “Showing a great fiction film, Even the Rain, on the opening night of the festival has me very excited,” he said. “It is a new departure for us as we hope to mix in more fiction films in the festival’s program in coming years.”

The Spanish drama is a retelling of Boliv-

ian protests in 2000 over government plans to privatize their water supply. The film straddles both this year’s theme, the life-sustaining liquid known as water, as well its side-focus on issues facing Latin America.

In that vein, Peruvian mining expose The Devil Operation and Waste Land, about recycling pickers at the world’s biggest garbage dump in Brazil, are also screening.

Rashi thinks that holding the FFEM makes sense for Montreal. “There are great environmental films being produced around the world and there are some great environmental festivals in Paris, Torino, Toronto, Washington, so why not in Montreal?” But according to him, what makes this particular festival so unique is how “we focus not on jury selection and prizes but on exchange with the public through panel discussions and Q & A sessions.”

A discussion will accompany the high-

light of the 2011 FFEM, Quebec vedette Roy Dupuis’s Chercher le Courant’s. Debuting in English as Seeking the Current, Dupuis’s acclaimed documentary looks at the effects of Hydro-Québec, as well as the government’s negligence when it comes to alternative renewable resources. “This movie has had great critical and commercial success, a rare feat for a documentary, especially if it takes on Hydro-Québec,” affirmed Rashi, who labelled the organization “a sacred cow.”

In addition to film screenings, there will be a series of conferences covering different topics, including one with Dupuis. The green carpet doesn’t bring with it glitz and glamour, but it does promises Montrealers grit and grand debate.

The third FFEM will take place March 4 to the 10 at Cinéma du Parc. For more information, check out www.cinemaduparc. com.

theconcordian

12 THEATRE

Two small bugs make a big impact Bedbugs looks at human relationships through bloodsucking pests Valerie Cardinal Arts editor Bedbugs isn’t just about the unpleasant creatures frequenting apartments around the city. According to director Deanna Dobie, it’s about human relationships. The Concordia Association of Students in English’s production shows what happens when a male bedbug becomes dangerously obsessed with a human female, changing the relationship dynamic between all the characters.

The show was written by Rachael Picard, who won a CASE competition that allowed her play a short run. However, Dobie only stepped in over the winter break, when the previous codirectors left the project. “Coming on late, it really took all the energy and the focus because it was already cast when I came on board,” explained the theatre development student. “In order to do justice and give all my energy to the play, I actually dropped my three credits that would have allowed me to have graduated.”

Dobie also had to make do without a stage manager, stating that the person she picked was involved in two other shows. “For various other reasons it just didn’t work out. The person that came on board was so overworked that I couldn’t in good faith keep him although he was fabulous,” she said.

Therefore, Dobie was left to make all the creative and planning decisions herself. “It meant quite a few late nights,” she shared. Even though rehearsals only started in mid-January, she stated that the lack of time was made up for by the cast’s motivation. “We’ve had minimal rehearsal, but everyone’s totally on board so it’s going to be a great show,” she said.

Despite difficulties on the planning side,

Matthew Xhignesse and Heather Caplap star as the bedbugs Rex and Doreen. Their relationship falls apart when Rex falls for human Julie.

Dobie managed to fulfill her vision on a creative level, with some help from her costume designer, Deborah Sullivan, and musician Yianis Mvoula.

“With reading the script that Rachael Picard wrote, I got really, really excited and the theatrics started to come out, the visuals started to come out in my head,” said Dobie. What she imagined was a sexy tango between one of the bedbugs, Rex, who takes an interest in the human Julie.

Luckily, choreographer Jenn Doan and Mvoula were up to the job. “You can’t teach somebody to be intuitive,” stated Dobie about Mvoula’s guitar work.

Working at the Freestanding Room came

Strange Brew Daniel Spinali Staff writer The American movie machine has had far too much control over this column. How ‘bout some Canadiana, eh?

Bob and Doug McKenzie are losers. There is no doubt about that. Their idea of a good day is to sit around and drink beer, cook back bacon and smoke, on top of perpetually calling each other names.

Having spent their dad’s beer money (not on beer, of course) the brothers are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They just drank the last three beers in the house (they gave the third to their dog Hosehead) and are charged by their dad to get him a fresh case of Elsinore beer. They come up with the plan of stuffing a mouse into a beer bottle in order to get a free case from the beer store.

Their plan begins to fall apart the second they reach the counter at the beer store. The clerk refuses to give them free beer and insists that they take up their complaint with the brewery. When they arrive at the brewery, they manage to save the daughter of the recently deceased owner, Pam Elsinore, from injury when her car becomes stuck in the electrified front gate. Once inside the brewery, they find out that since the owner’s death, the brewmaster, known as Brewmaster Smith, and Pam’s uncle, Claude Elsinore, have fired

virtually all the employees in an effort to automate the entire brewery. Irritated by this fact (and by the mouse in the bottle) Pam hires Bob and Doug to work in quality control on the bottling line.

While at work, the brothers encounter Jean “Rosie” LeRose, a former hockey player who had a career-ending nervous breakdown and ended up working at the brewery. He, like many others, has fallen under the control of Brewmaster Smith, who in reality is a doctor at the Royal Canadian Institute for the Mentally Insane. Using his knowledge of drugs, Smith concocts a beer with a mind control serum that makes people react to certain sounds. His plan is to release the beer to the unsuspecting public at the annual Oktoberfest celebrations in Kitchener, Ont. It’s a first step towards eventual world domination.

This movie is, without a doubt, as Canadian as Canadian can be. It takes place in Ontario, the main characters always have toques on, beer is a major plot device and every sentence ends with “eh?” or “hoser.”

Is there a problem with that? I don’t think so, eh!

Strange Brew Directed by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, 1983 Starring Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas and Max von Sydow

with its own set of benefits and challenges. “I eventually got to this place which actually suits the bedbugs because it’s like a large, large apartment,” explained Dobie. Since the Freestanding Room is so small, using complicated lighting and costume changes were out of the question.

Therefore, music is used to indicate the switch between bedbugs and humans.

As for the costumes, Dobie’s vision clicked right away with Sullivan’s, and they made the decision to have the actors gradually add layers of red on top of shimmery, see-through material.

“Even though it’s a short play, there’s a lot of scenes and a lot of costume changes, particularly

for the bedbugs. The choice to just keep layering the bedbugs was partly born out of need and also because the bedbugs grow as they feed and they change colour.”

Now that opening night is creeping nearer, Dobie is excited by the pressure that seems to be energizing her cast. “If anything, I’ve got to calm it down more, which is a lot easier than having to pick up people,” she said. “Both bedbugs, they’ve got enough energy for all of us!”

Bedbugs runs from March 3 to 5 at The Freestanding Room, 4324 St Laurent Blvd.

Tickets are $10, $8 for students.

Write to the editor: arts@theconcordian.com

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

13

FEsTIVAL

Art Matters coming to a gallery near you Get your art fix from 200 artists and 16 exhibits Alyssa De Rosa Staff writer The Art Matters Festival is the first and only non-profit, student-run festival in North America.

It enters a new decade this year as it presents its most professional edition yet.

Showcasing works in galleries across Montreal for more than two weeks is a lot of work, but the 11th edition of Art Matters wants its viewers to look beyond just the art. “All of the shows this year will really question our notions and our understandings of what art is and what it can do,” co-producer Stephanie Laoun explained.

According to festival co-producer Helen Adilia Arceyut-Frixione, this year the festival aims at achieving global greatness. “We want to expand and eventually include collaborations with other universities. There’s a whole world outside Concordia and we want to bridge some of those connections.” Other universities have started taking notice of their work and Art Matters has created great relationships with many galleries.

What started out as a 25th anniversary show for the Fine Arts department has become one of the biggest celebrations of student art in the world. This year, a tight 123-page retrospective publication was created featuring works, quotes, and reactions from the last 10 years.

With 400 artist applications from students in Fine Arts and every other program, cutting the talent down to 200 wasn’t easy. “We feel we have the best of the best this year,” explained ArceyutFrixione. “If an artist’s work wasn’t chosen, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t good enough, it just didn’t fit a certain theme,” she said. With 16 different shows planned for this year, there wasn’t enough room for every artist’s sculpture or painting.

Carla Sifoni, a curator for the show The New Abstraction: The Rebirth of Abstract Painting in Contemporary Art, explained that painting has become underrated. “You will be absorbed by the movements and colour,” Sifoni explained. “Visitors will experience a variety of feelings induced by this sublime element,” explained co-curator Eliana Stratica.

Evan Stanfield, a fine arts student originally from Vancouver, was accepted as part of The New Abstraction. Stanfield’s pieces are acrylic paintings of found vintage fabrics. Colourful and large in size, “it’s difficult to tell what’s been painted, and what the fabric is” in his paintings, he explained.

Laoun mentioned that this is the first professional experience for many of the artists. “These emerging artists are the big artists of tomorrow,” she said. This is the case for first-time participant fine arts student Annie Burgess. While Stanfield’s paintings are calculated, Burgess’s are not. “My artwork is very spontaneous. It’s reflective of the process and pleasure of the act of painting,” Burgess said.

Beyond the hard work is the partying. This year, a special Nuit Blanche event took place

Above: two paintings by Annie Burgess. Below: One of the paintings Evan Stanfield will be showing in The New Abstraction. shortly before the launch party in order to make this 11th edition a memorable one. The official launch party takes place March 4 at l’Espace Reunion. A live concert with five bands, two DJ sets and free alcohol is enough to get anyone into the art scene.

If paintings are not your thing, don’t worry.

From theatre acts and music to dance and experimental works, the festival has something for everyone. Not only does the art challenge the viewer, but the spaces where it will be displayed

have been chosen to compliment the message of the works. As Arceyut-Frixione explained, “there is something about seeing art first hand. [You’re] close enough to touch it, and you know you can’t.”

Art Matters runs from March 1 to 19 in venues such as Articule, Les Territoires and

Eastern Bloc. The launch party takes place March 4 at l’Espace Reunion, 6600 Hutchinson St. Student tickets are $5 and are on sale in the FOFA atrium in the EV March 1 and 2. For more info, check out www.artmattersfestival. com.

music Write to the editor: music@theconcordian.com

ConCert

Third annual Battle of the Bands competition gets bigger each year Concordia student wants to help unknown bands find record deals and new fans by developing and expanding promotional company

Katelyn Spidle Music editor If you’ve never been to a Battle of the Bands competition, you would probably assume that the experience is much more epic for the bands who are competing than it is for the judges and regular onlookers who make up the audience.

Unless, of course, you’re in attendance because you’re acting as an extra on the set of School of Rock or some other movie that involves a Battle of the Bands competition, or bearing witness to your darling child’s debut on the big stage. But as much as a Battle of the Bands competition is a fun opportunity for unsigned groups to get noticed, discovering the hidden gems in their local music scene can be equally as fun for both industry people and curious music lovers.

On Feb. 20, Landmark Events’ third annual Showcase Competition welcomed 19 local acts to Club Soda to rock out in what was definitely the snazziest venue that these bands have ever had the opportunity to play in over the course of their barely-budded musical careers.

Before this year, the event had been known as LME Battle of the Bands. But after the company’s founder, Concordia student and solo artist Arthur Kalimidis, began receiving threatening letters from lawyers representing Supernova Entertainment — another promotional company who, believe it or not, owns the Canadian rights to the term “Battle of the Bands” — he decided to simply change the name rather than deal with the burden of refuting it.

Kalimidis started Landmark Events as a promotional company in 2009. In its first year, they orchestrated a one-night-only Battle of the Bands competition in Montreal. Since then, the company has not only expanded into Toronto and Ottawa to hold similar competitions, but the event itself has developed from a one-night gig into a full-on festival — comprised of three preliminary rounds and a final round that take place over the course of a few months. Kalimidis is also looking to take the company into Quebec City and Kingston in the near future.

“I’m always trying to increase the company not only in scale but in scope,” he said. “I’m all about longevity and looking into the future, and I think that so far it’s been working because I’ve been getting a lot of applications.” LME received 120 applications this year alone, and about half went on to compete in the preliminary rounds.

From there, only one-third proceeded to the final round at Club Soda.

Falling in line with the usual Battle of the Bands stereotype, many of the contestants were young, metal headbangers. However, a more unlikely act was the one that took the cake at the end of the 12-hour day.

Happenstance, a trio whose middle-aged members are based in Hudson, Que., played some well-crafted songs that mixed Celtic beats with folk guitars and country wailing. Even the judges — Indica Records president Franz Schuller, music publicist John Asher and Josh Trager of the Sam Roberts Band — were caught off guard at the level of professional showmanship and musical agility that the band displayed compared

Above: Crowdsurfing during punk rock quartet Running Facedown’s set. Bottom: Vocalist and guitarist Michael Wexler of Inlet Sound. Photos by Faiz Imam to the other acts.

“They’ve been okay,” Asher chuckled when asked to comment on the night’s performances.

“They all have their strengths and their weaknesses.” But when the discussion turned to Happenstance, he happily exclaimed, “I did not expect that, and it blew my mind!”

Though participating in a Battle of the Bands competition may be nothing to brag about in the bigger picture of music industry success, winning first, second or third prize at the LME Showcase competition can certainly be considered a stepping stone.

“At this level [the bands] are just trying to get up the ladder,” Asher pointed out. “These kind of things help you get up the ladder.”

Kalimidis is well aware that in order to help these bands, LME needs to offer artists the appropriate tools. “What I want to do is to get [bands] out there and, if I can, get them signed,” he assured. Being a musician himself, “I felt that I really knew what bands wanted. So I designed something from the ground up based on what I thought would be useful, as an artist.” Consequently, “The competition is something for bands that have the potential to get signed, [and] all the prizes are geared toward bands that want to do music as a career,” he said.

In terms of prizes, winners were offered up to 30 hours of free recording time, as well a mastering session, at Toronto’s Phase One Studios with big-shot producer Glen Robinson. On top of that, the top three acts received press kits and global distribution through Noisy Planet. First place winners also get an all-expenses paid showcase at next year’s final round in Montreal.

Asher feels that the out of town showcase is a particularly good way for inexperienced bands to gain some self-confidence, build a wider fan base and meet important industry people. “It’s a good opportunity for the bands to network and meet the people that they have to meet if they want to forward their career and they’re serious about playing music,” he said.

This year’s showcases featured Ottawa’s Fire and Neon, Montreal’s Voodoo Monx and Toronto’s Inlet Sound. The latter, which in its

initial phase had been a two-man acoustic show, only became a full band after the original pair — guitarist, vocalist and Montreal native Michael Wexler and keyboardist Sean Hardy — invited a few friends to perform with them at the Toronto LME Showcase Competition last August. After winning first prize, Inlet Sound adopted Steven Gore to contribute violin, mandolin and backup vocals, Ian Russell to contribute guitar and bass and Matt Cramp to contribute percussion.

“I think the one thing we knew that we were missing from our music initially was a low-end to the sound,” said Hardy. “Now we have some bass, and it makes it sound a lot more complete.

We have some mandolin and some violin and that has definitely sweetened it up. It’s actually a band now as opposed to fun times in my attic.”

Since winning last year’s competition, the group has re-recorded all of the songs from 2010’s The Inlet Sound EP—this time featuring the full lineup—and has started to write some new material. A new version of the song “The Peculiar Disappearance of Marion Bojangles” will be released in late March, along with a music video that they shot last month. “The songs sound completely different,” Wexler hinted. “[They’re] sort of dreamy, ambient folk, with slightly electronic sounds in the back.”

Although Inlet Sound didn’t manage to snag a record deal as a result of their big win at LME Showcase Competition, Kalimidis vouches that two bands have in fact garnered some industry attention. Montreal death-metal group Set To Kill got a management deal after competing in 2009, while local progressive-rock trio Chemical Harvest caught the interest of Indica Records after performing in 2010.

“For some bands, the dream has come true,” he boasted. “They’ve signed a record deal, they’ve gotten management and they’re on their way to turning their band [and] their music into a career. I’m really happy about that because that’s the essential goal.”

But not every band, according to Asher, is mature enough yet to garner to attention of industry representatives. Of course, “Age has nothing to do with it,” he said. “It’s the way that they have

taken control of their band and showcased it in their local scene. It’s even how they speak to you and get things done.” Therefore, Asher strongly encourages bands to remain active and professional with regard to their music. “In the industry, bands need to know that if you don’t think you’re being watched, you are being watched.”

“The market is so saturated,” he continued.

“I think a lot of us are bored, just as music listeners, and we want to find something new.” And this, Asher emphasizes, is the whole point of getting involved in this sort of competition: “This is for fun and discovery.”

To see a full slideshow from the LME Showcase Competition 2011, follow this link: flic.kr/p/9kJK4K For a full list of last Sunday’s winners, check out this video: youtube.com/user/HappenstanceTrio Stream The Inlet Sound EP for free here: inlet-sound.bandcamp.com

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Write to the editor: music@theconcordian.com

15

LoCaL Pierre Frappier (far left) carried an urn containing his adopted son’s ashes into St. Zotique Church, in St. Henri, for his funeral on Feb. 21.

Paul Frappier, who was otherwise known by his stage name Bad News Brown, was found beaten and shot to death on Feb. 12 at the corner of Richmond and William Streets, in an industrial area of Little Burgundy. He left behind his two-year-old son Izaiah, girlfriend Natasha, three biological siblings and adoptive parents Pierre and Jocelyne. He was 33.

Hundreds of friends, family and fans attended the two-hour funeral service. Local musicians Emily Lamarche and Eric Speed performed as a tribute to the fallen hip-hop artist. Frappier’s sister also sang in his honour but, according to the CBC, she broke out into tears before she could finish the hymn.

Frappier’s manager and friend HenryFrancois Gelot described him as a “shining star on the international music scene, a humble character, a serial joker and a generous human being,” the Gazette reported.

According to various family members and friends, the local musician had no known enemies. Police have confirmed that the crime was a homicide, but so far, no arrests have been made. Frappier started his career as a busker, performing his characteristic harmonicainfused hip-hop beats around Montreal’s streets and metro stations. He released one studio album, 2009’s Born 2 Sin, under his record label Trilateral Entertainment Inc. In a eulogy given at the funeral, producer and friend Michael Suski said, “It is our duty as a city to keep Bad News Brown’s name and legacy alive – forever.” Photo by Cindy Lopez

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theconcordian

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

MIXtaPe

Covers

By Shannon H. Myers Staff writer

I have two simple rules when it comes to covers: it must be different or it must be better. Why redo a classic if only to hear it done by you? They have a word for that, and it’s “narcissistic.” These musicians know better, and have provided some pretty unique takes on others’ songs.

To listen, visit: 8tracks.com/the_concordian/covers

SIDE A: 1. “Bitches Ain’t Shit” (Dr. Dre cover) - Ben Folds - Songs for Silverman (LP) - 2005 2. “Superstition” (Stevie Wonder cover) - Stevie Ray Vaughan - The Essential Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble - 2002 3. “The Passenger” (Iggy Pop cover) - Siouxsie and the Banshees - Through the Looking Glass - 1987 4. “Hurt” (Nine Inch Nails cover) - Johnny Cash - American IV: The Man Comes Around - 2002 5. “Such Great Heights” (Postal Service cover) - Iron & Wine - Around the Well - 2009 6. “Sexual Healing” (Marvin Gaye cover) - Ben Harper - Live From Mars 2001 7. “Hot In Herre” (Nelly cover) - Jenny Owens Youngs - The Take Off All Your Clothes EP - 2007 8. “Wonderwall [BBC Radio 1 Session]” (Oasis cover) - Cat Power - 19981999 9. “My Love [BBC Radio 1 Session]” (Justin Timberlake cover) - Klaxxons 2007 10. “Rock Lobster” (B-52s cover) - Botch - 061502 (concert DVD) - 2006 SIDE B: 11. “Young Folks” (Peter, Bjorn and John cover) - The Kooks - War Child Compilation - 2009 12. “Naive” (Kooks cover) - Lily Allen - Alright Still - 2006 13. “Just” (Radiohead cover) - Mark Ronson featuring Alex Greenwald Single - 2006 14. “Wish You Were Here” (Pink Floyd cover) - Sparklehorse featuring Thom Yorke - Lords of Dogtown: Music from the Motion Picture - 2005 15. “Seven Nation Army” (White Stripes cover) - Nostalgia 77 featuring Alice Russell - The Garden - 2005 16. “Walking with A Ghost” (Tegan and Sara cover) - The White Stripes Walking with a Ghost EP - 2005 17. “Turnaround” (Devo cover) - Nirvana - Incesticide - 1992 18. “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (Rolling Stones cover) - Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! - 1978 19. “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” (Bob Dylan cover)” - Antony and the Johnsons - I’m Not There (Soundtrack) - 2007 20. “Mississippi [Version #2]” (Sheryl Crow cover) - Bob Dylan - The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs - Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006 [Deluxe Edition] 1989-2006

Quick Spins

Retro review

Adele - 21 (Columbia; 2011)

Monogrenade- Tentale (Bonsound; 2011)

Dinosaur Bones- My Divider (Dine Alone Records; 2011)

Everclear- So Much for the Afterglow (Capitol Records; 1997)

With her porcelain-like visage and long lashes, London-bred singer and songwriter Adele Adkins looks flawless on the black and white front cover of her sophomore album, 21. And she sounds flawless in it, too.

The album kicks off with the vicious and gospel bluesy single “Rolling In The Deep.”

The second track, “Rumor Has It,” has a relatively simple arrangement compared to the rest of the album. But the arrogant attitude in the lyrics combined with a bluesy and pop-ish melody makes this song gutsy and entertaining. “Set Fire To The Rain” is a piano ballad that is powerful and gorgeous.

When Adele hits the high note in the chorus you cannot help but feel the pain she felt when she wrote the lyrics. Each track is different, but they all express feelings of joy, sadness, pain and even revenge.

Tentale starts off with an introductory track that fits the album well. “Intro,” as its porteparole, is an overall calm, meticulous and mysterious song due to the synthesized echoes and sounds. The record leads the listener into a hybrid ‘ambience music’ world à la Gotan Project or St. Germain with the blending of electronic elements and more traditional instruments.

Most songs on the album have a low-key vibe, and the layering of echo-ey voices have slow and cloudy melodies that blend surprisingly well with the more clean piano or guitar. The record may not be musical genius, but it is refreshing as far as musical innovation is concerned.

The breath-like voices singing lyrical French words over folksy guitars or a romantic slow piano, topped with musical effects like clapping, electro sounds and synthesized violins make quite the interesting combination.

After becoming favourites in the Canadian indie scene, Dinosaur Bones have finally released their first full-length album. Continuing to walk the fine line between alternative and Coldplayesque pop, My Divider is a mix of live favourites with a few new tracks. Featuring singer Ben Fox’s soulful crooning over their signature reverb-laden instrumentals, My Divider successfully strays from overproduction by staying true to the group’s live sound. With rousing choruses in songs like “Hunters,” along with delicately built tracks like “Ice Hotels,” this debut is catchy with only a touch of saccharine sentimentality.

Yet My Divider does fail in capturing the band’s live energy. The inability to convey the group’s charismatic presence makes many of the tracks seem a little generic. In despite of this, My Divider still remains a solid debut effort from a promising Canadian band.

Now having been relegated to the annals of history, for a brief time in the late ‘90s, the members of Everclear were the kings of alternative rock. Hailing from Portland, Ore., the band began by joining the post-grunge movement that followed Kurt Cobain’s death in 1994. Having garnered moderate success with their first two albums, the group hit the big time with their third release So Much for the Afterglow. Featuring a dramatic departure from their signature sound, Afterglow became the blueprint for light and catchy alternative rock. With songs like “Everything to Everyone” and “I Will Buy You A New Life,” Everclear candidly explored drug addiction and poverty by using its own experiences growing up on the West Coast. Even though this album proved to be its biggest hit, Everclear should be remembered as the band who helped usher in the likes of the Offspring and Blink-182 by allowing them to leave their punk roots and embrace the money-making properties of mainstream rock.

Trial Track: “Rolling in the Deep”

Trial Track : “Escapade”

Trial Track: “Ice Hotels”

Trial Track: “Everything to Everyone”

8.0/10

7.0/10

6.5/10

-Brenda Raftlova

- Lea Choukroun

- Cora Ballou

- Cora Ballou

Write to the editor: music@theconcordian.com

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

17

ProfILe

HONHEEHONHEE sweetens local music scene with genuine pop tunes Andrew Guilbert Staff writer

Surgeons of the Stone Age In an interview with fasterlouder.com, Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen revealed that his band had once dabbled in surgery. “There was one time when we performed an appendectomy, backstage in Munich. We forgot the anesthesia. I do know how to perform these operations, but I’d had too much to drink that day. But she’s OK.” When asked to elaborate, Van Leeuwen claimed that it was, “a medical/legal matter and I can’t say much more than that.”

The Arcade Fires back Arcade Fire manager Scott Rodger has responded to allegations concerning his band’s supposed awareness of their Grammy win ahead of time. In a now infamous open letter in the New York Times to the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, media mogul Steven Stoute wrote: “As the show was coming to a close and just prior to presenting the award for Album of the Year, the band Arcade Fire performed “Month of May” — only to surprise - win the category and, in a moment of sheer coincidence, happened to be prepared to perform.” Rodger denied the band knew of their win, explaining they performed in that slot because “the ratings are low at the end of the broadcast. It really is that simple. We were one of the least-known acts on the bill for a network audience. Don’t you think I wanted a better slot for the band?”

Kinks, bullets and blood clots Legendary Kinks frontman Ray Davies revealed that he was hospitalized late last year when bullet residue from his 2004 run-in with a purse thief formed a blood clot in his leg. The 66-year-old rocker was forced to cancel a string of shows in New York as a result, based on the recommendations of his doctors. Davies blames the residual effects of the injury on the way it was treated. “To put it politely, I don’t think it was handled very well at the time, partly because the hospital was busy, and partly due to the nature of the gunshot wound. It was a zigzag bullet.”

If anyone should sue, it’s Groucho Marx Britney Spears’ new single, “Hold It Against Me,” has gotten ‘70s country pop duo The Bellamy Brothers considering legal action. They claim that the song’s lyrics are “ripping off” their 1979 ballad “If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me?” A statement released by the band’s attorney explained the reasoning behind the potential lawsuit, claiming “it is not necessarily the similarity of the titles that is of legal concern. This would be more of a trademark issue. Rather, the issue is whether or not the exact lyrics ‘would you hold it against me’ are used in the same way in the hook of the song.”

Montreal-based indiepop band to release debut full-length album in June Sruti Islam Contributor HONHEEHONHEE is eager to grab your attention. From the curious spelling of their band name to the active cries on their synthesizerladen sheets, this is a local five-piece that wants to convince you it’s genuine.

It seems safe to position HONHEEHONHEE within the ever-widening arms of indie pop, as they yelp out those addictive and catchy “woah-oh’s” against the backdrop of smashing drums and raucous guitars. Singer and guitarist Greg Halpin reluctantly claimed, “We try not to take ourselves too seriously, so in that sense I guess we could be considered more on the pop side of things.”

However, when asked to pick out a token indie pop ingredient - like synth solo versus catchy verse - bassist, guitarist and vocalist Matt Raudsepp thoughtfully opted for, “a catchy verse part doubled by a synth. Variety is key.” This, in turn, seems to ultimately hint at what to look forward to in their forthcoming record, Shouts, which is set to be released in June.

Here is a local act to catch at its most exciting time: in its early bloom. HONHEEHONHEE is proudly conscious of an ever-growing musical culture in Montreal, and its members are in turn happy to find themselves within such a tradition. “We are very appreciative of Montreal’s music culture,” said guitarist, bassist and vocalist Stefan Gow. “Our favorite bands come from here, and there are so many great venues for independent artists. It’s an awesome scene and we’re grateful to be a part of it.”

As an active member in Montreal’s underground music culture, HONHEEHONHEE is more than happy to encourage its audience to check out local music and all it has to offer.

“We’ve been including some of the local acts that we’ve come to love on our Heehonmixes, which you can download for free on our [web]site,” says Gow. The band is aiming to develop a sound that is fun, but not particularly familiar. “To be honest, I don’t really know what indie pop or indie rock is, so I probably shouldn’t even be talking about it,” said Halpin. “Sometimes I use those categories to describe our music but it’s a risk. I’m always scared someone will know what I’m talking about. I guess that means we’re - or at least I’m - not conscious about it. We mainly just try to rock out and have a good time.”

The concluding swells of “so let us, so let us sing,” on the track “We Only Go” seem to

HONHEEHONHEE have as much fun during their shows as the audience does. Photo courtesy of artist reinforce this claim. And not to mention the thought of seeing keyboardist and vocalist Erin Halpin bust out a glockenspiel on stage.

Yes, a glock-en-spiel.

The band happily emphasizes the esthetic importance of a live performance. It’s one thing to hear a recording on that mixtape your friend made you, and another to visibly see the gushing energy of each track reflected in the bandmates’ sweaty tees and honest cries.

According to Raudsepp, two words that the bandmembers always shout at each other are ‘ENERGY!’ and ‘FUN!.’” A HONHEEHONHEE show - which he described as being a game of “naked Frisbee” - aims to be a freefor-all. In other words, everyone is welcome to play with them as long as they are willing to give it all they’ve got – because that’s exactly what the band is sweating for. “Audiences want to have a good time at a show, and the best way to ensure that is if we, the band, are having a good time,” said Raudsepp.

HONHEEHONHEE will play at Divan Orange on March 4. See a sneak peak of HONHEEHONHEE’s upcoming album Shouts here: youtube.com/watch?v=fJrYiYV6yw and catch the video for their “A. is for Animal” single at http://bit.ly/gCNe6X.

“

We try not to take ourselves too seriously, so in that sense I guess we could be considered more on the pop side of things - Greg Halpi, HonHeeHonHee guitarist

Daft Coke As if partnering with Disney for Tron: Legacy wasn’t saccharine enough, Daft Punk, in conjunction with Coca-Cola, will soon be introducing their new “Club Coke” to the soft-drink market. The two distinctive bottles, coloured either gold or silver to represent the French House duo’s famous robot helmets, will see a limited production run beginning in March.

Akhough the Montreal-based five-piece has only been a band for a few months, they will be releasing their debut album in June. Photo by Nik Yakohosky

18

theconcordian

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

ProfILe

Former Concordia student helps keep the blues alive in the city Artists are facing diminished opportunities in Montreal’s vibrant yet overlooked blues scene Morgan Lowrie Copy editor Dawn Tyler Watson’s first big moment as a blues singer came when she was invited to take the stage at the Montreal Jazz Fest in 1998. Watson, who finished a Concordia music degree just four years earlier, walked out on to the Labatt Blues stage in front of 8,000 screaming fans and remembers thinking: “This is crazy. I’m not even a blues singer!”

Now, 13 years, hundreds of shows and countless awards later, Watson still emphatically believes that she didn’t choose the blues: the blues chose her.

“I never decided to become a blues singer, but hey – they didn’t have a school of rock at Concordia!” Watson said with a laugh.

She enrolled in the music program, studying theatre as well as music. Watson was still interested in jazz, hip hop and R&B when she completed her degree in 1994, but soon after graduation she was approached to take part in a blues compilation album. The budding musician decided to try her hand at writing a couple of songs. To her surprise, they became big successes, and a blues career was born.

On Saturday night, Watson danced, twirled and sang her way through several sets of music at the House of Jazz in the McGill Ghetto, clearly enjoying every moment, and making it clear that she has no qualms about the path her life has taken. The smiling Watson was dressed in black with plenty of bling, and her crystal ball earrings bounced as she easily worked the crowd. “You want to hear a joke?” she asked at one point. “The Maple Leafs winning the cup!” She broke into infectious laughter before smoothly leading into the next song.

Watson is a successful product of Montreal’s moderately-sized but vibrant blues scene. She has won over 10 major blues awards - including six consecutive Quebec Lys Blues awards - starred in the 2004 film Jack Paradise alongside Roy Dupuis and toured the world. In two weeks, her music will take her to the North Pole, where she will entertain the Canadian Forces. As can be seen, the blues have been good to Watson.

The Montreal blues scene, however, has been suffering in the last two years. Watson said that it’s harder for many musicians to book gigs, and funding has fallen off a little.

“It doesn’t seem as easy,” she said.

Her manager Brian Slack, who runs Zeb Productions, confirms that the blues scene has fallen on hard times lately. He blames the tanking U.S. economy, which has caused sponsors to withdraw from the blues festivals which are integral to artist exposure. He says that bars, which he calls “the schooling ground for blues bands,” have also been struggling. All of this adds up to less places for artists to play and make money. Currently, he is booking acts for one of the major blues festivals this summer. He has had over 1,000 submissions for 75 spots.

Still, Slack insists that despite diminished opportunities, the genre is still alive and well.

“The scene is inundated with good blues acts,” he said. And he insists that, if given half a chance by the media, blues music would be popular. “So many people see blues at the festivals and absolutely fall in love with the artists,” he says. “But after the summer they go home and forget about it, because the radio won’t play the blues. Getting media attention is the hardest part.”

Slack is working hard to keep the blues in people’s minds after festival season finishes, and he is not alone. A network of groups exist all over the country, including the 150-member Montreal Blues Society, led by President

Dawn Tyler Watson sang at The House of Jazz on Saturday night with her band The Dawn Tyler Watson Jazz Project. Photos by Navnnett Pall Irene Ippersiel. Her society runs a website and a newsletter dedicated to promoting local artists, as well as helping artists to sell CDs and helping to organize blues series and festivals.

She shares Slack’s frustration that blues artists aren’t given the attention she believes they deserve. “It is amazing the talent we have on our doorstep,” she said. “And nobody knows about it.”

Watson believes that the scene in Montreal has a unique feel to it. “I think Quebec people have a real affinity for the blues,” she said. “Maybe its their history, the feelings of conflict and exploitation - I don’t know exactly what it is.”

Slack agrees that this city is a great one for blues music. He describes Montreal music as a little more rock-inspired than the traditional, swing-based blues often heard in Ontario.

He says that Montreal is also unique for the amount of money it is willing to put into the arts. “Blues musicians here play in theatres, not just in bars,” he explains. “They can actually get grant money.”

Watson believes that there is no other city where she’d rather play. She has lived in Montreal ever since coming to study at Concordia. “I fell in love with the city, and it’s been good to me,” she says. She is amazed by the warm reception she gets, especially from francophones. Although she is beginning to perform a french song or two, she still writes in English. “Being an anglo, I sing to people who don’t understand the words,” she said.

“But they understand the music, they get it.”

The next step for promoters like Slack and Ippersiel and for artists like Watson is to raise the profile of blues music in Montreal and beyond.

“The agents and buyers still think of the blues as bar music,” Slack said. “That is something I am trying to change.”

Watson has encountered the same attitude. “Sometimes I’ll play a gig and people will come up and ask me, ‘What are you doing here? You’re so good,’” she said, shaking her head in annoyance. “They’ll come up to me and say, ‘I hope you make it some day,’” she continued, incredulous. “I am making a living with my art. I have made it.”

Slack agrees that he wouldn’t trade in the blues for anything. “There are tons of

possibilities in the blues scene,” he said, “but it’s not glamorous like the rock star Canadian Idol crap.” He says too many other genres of music are run by “business people, not music people.” Unlike blues labels and promoters, too many other genres try to find the next big overnight sensation. “They buy into the American Idol mentality, just throwing up an artist to see if they stick. And when they fall, they throw another one up there.”

Slack will stick to the blues scene, where

artists may have to spend time paying their dues on the bar circuit, but will be given time to develop, and have a slightly less lucrative, but also less risky career. “This is probably the best music in the world,” he said emphatically. “And it will always bounce back, always be around. It may make less money, but it’s sure[ly]more fun.”

Watch Dawn Tyler Watson sing the blues here: dawntylerwatson.com/music.html

This Montreal artist has won several blues awards since she graduated in 1994.

sports

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

19

Write to the editor: sports@theconcordian.com hockey

Playoff run comes to an end for women’s hockey team Two late-game goals not enough to beat Montréal Domenic Del Vecchio Contributor Despite a hard-fought display of grit and resilience, the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team’s season unfortunately came to a close on Friday evening at Ed Meagher Arena, after the team lost a 4-2 decision at the hands of conference rival Université de Montréal Carabins.

The Stingers dropped the first game in the best-of-three series last Wednesday night in a 4-1 decision at CEPSUM. The game’s first goal, scored by forward Josée-Ann Deschênes, came off of a bizarre and controversial call by the referees. The Montréal forward’s shot appeared to have hit the post and play continued on but the goal light came on. After a lengthy huddle, the referees awarded Montreal with the game’s first goal.

The strange call was an obvious momentum shifter as, soon after, Montreal netted their second goal after a giveaway along the boards by Concordia led to a quick pass in front and goal by Carabin Fabienne Marcotte.

After the game, Stingers coach Les Lawton commented on the first goal by saying that, with his good angle on the shot, he thought that “everyone in the arena saw it go off the post,” adding that the referees were perhaps a little “trigger-happy.”

After a rather lacklustre first period in which the Carabins opened up an early 2-0 lead, the Stingers picked up the pace in the second period. With the help of a strong forecheck up front and good defensive pinching at the point, it began to look as though the Stingers were going to fight their way back.

However, as the momentum was starting to shift in the Stingers’ favour, a brutal giveaway from behind Concordia’s goal right in front to the stick of Montréal’s Cassandra Dupuis led to a top-corner goal, giving Mon-

Stingers centre Moira Frier (90) chases after a bouncing puck. She had an assist on the Stingers’ final goal of the season. Photo by Almudena Romero tréal a three-goal lead.

The third period saw a continuous forechecking presence in the offensive zone by the Stingers. Despite the strong display by offence and volume of shots being fired on the Montréal goal, it was again the Carabins who found the back of the net for a fourth time with a shot that deflected off a skate in front and went in.

While things were looking bleak, the Stingers continued to pressure on, finally catching a break at 14:27 in the third when Jaymee Shell scored Concordia’s first goal to break the shutout bid.

Thirty seconds later, Stinger defender Veronica Lang scored another quick goal, cutting the lead down to 4-2 and inspiring hope for a Stingers comeback. However, their effort fell

hockey The men’s hockey team forced a third game in their best-of-three quarterfinal series but suffered an opening round exit from the Ontario University Athletics playoffs last weekend.

Game one was Feb. 16 at the Colisée de Trois-Rivières. Raffaele D’Orso made 31 saves on 36 shots, but the Stingers fell to the Patriotes 5-2.

Michael Blundon opened the scoring for the Stingers 53 seconds into the game, but Pierre-Alexandre Joncas tied it up at 5:33 of the first.

Concordia scored the only goal of the second. The Patriotes scored four unanswered goals in the third period to take the lead and the win.

On Feb.19, the two teams met again at Ed Meagher Arena and the Stingers kept their playoff hopes alive after they won 5-3.

Goals by Dominic Martel and Mike Stinziani gave the Stingers an early 2-0 lead, but the Patriotes tied it up before the period ended.

Kiefer Orsini scored what proved to be the winning goal with four minutes left in the second period. Goals by Eric Begin and another by Stinziani rounded out Concordia’s goal-scoring.

The final game in the series was in Trois-Rivières the following day. Stinziani had a three-point game and Maxime Joyal made 27 saves, but the Stingers couldn’t pull off a come-from-behind win and lost 5-3.

The Stingers were never able to beat the Patriotes in Trois-Rivières this season. Both of their wins against UQTR came on the ice at Ed Meagher Arena.

UQTR is now trailing the Carleton Ravens in the semifinals after dropping the first game 4-1. Photo by Cindy Lopez

short, as a costly Stingers penalty chewed precious time off the clock, leading the Carabins to a victory.

Although the Stingers’ season fell short of a finals appearance, coach Lawton, in his 29th season with the team, celebrated his goaltender’s solid performance during the game despite allowing four goals in a loss. Lawton said that goaltender Audrey Doyon-Lessard “has been outstanding for us all year long and once again gave us a chance to battle back in this game.”

The game proved to be a disappointment for Concordia, who outshot the Carabins 37-28. Montréal capitalized on the Concordia giveaways while the Stingers could not find the back of the net until the end of the game.

Coach Lawton believed his young team

played with a lot of heart and understood that his players were nervous in such a big game, which ultimately led to the turnovers.

The Stingers coach also added that his team has a “bright future and this game should hopefully be looked at as a stepping stone for next season.”

Concordia assistant captain Maggie MacNeil also expressed her thoughts on the disappointing end to the team’s season.

MacNeil thought that the team came a long way and showed much character throughout this season.

MacNeil said that with the experience brought on by playing at a high level of CIS hockey, they will “definitely be hungry and better prepared next year.”

20

theconcordian

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

BASkeTBALL

Concordia men end regular season in style The Stingers defeat the Bishop’s Gaiters on route to their sixth consecutive victory Michael Downs Staff writer The Concordia Stingers pulled off an 89-85 victory over the Bishop’s Gaiters at home last Saturday evening.

Last season, the Stingers were the bottom dwellers of the division, coming in dead last with a disappointing 4-12 record. What a difference a year makes.

With the victory, the Stingers ended the season with a 12-4 record and clinched the RSEQ

division.

The team was lead by guard Decee Krah, who drained four three-pointers on his way to a 20-point night.

“I’ve said before that Decee is one of the best shooters in the country,” said Stingers head coach John Dore. “Every time he shoots the ball it has a chance to go in. In fact, he’s a guy we beg to shoot the ball. He’s made some big shots for us all year long.”

Stingers guard Kyle Desmarais and forwards Evens Laroche and Zach Brisebois also made a significant impact on the game.

Laroche chipped in with 12 points and 10 boards and Brisebois added 17 and grabbed eight rebounds of his own. Desmarais contributed 16 points, five rebounds, six assists and two steals.

The Stingers looked good in spurts in the game’s first half. They were aggressive on both ends of the floor in first quarter, pouncing on the visitors and taking an early 23-14 lead.

However, in the second quarter, the Stingers’ defensive intensity dropped significantly as they gave up 29 points, more than double the points they had allowed in the first. This allowed the Gaiters to cut the Stingers’ lead to 46-43 at halftime.

In the second half, the Stingers tried to regain control of the game and were successful early on but their intensity gave away again, as Bishop’s was able to out-rebound them and consistently knock down open threes.

Concordia failed to properly close out on Gaiters shooters, allowing them to shoot nine-for18 from three-point land, good for 50 per cent.

Considering the Gaiters usually only make 30.1 per cent of those very shots, that was somewhat significant.

Fortunately, the Stingers were able to weather the storm in the game’s final minutes and came away with a four-point victory.

Concordia heads into the provincial playoffs

as the 10th ranked team in the nation.

Dore attributes the drastic turnaround to an overall gain in experience and improved personnel.

“We’re a year older, we’re more mature and we’re more experienced,” he said. “We got rid of some players that didn’t fit into with what we trying to do this year and we added players such as Zach Brisebois and Kyle Desmarais on top of the players we already had such as Decee Krah, Evens Laroche and James Clark.”

On another positive note, Desmarais was named to the RSEQ First All-Star Team as well as being voted league co-MVP. Jérôme TurcotteRouthier from Laval shared the MVP honours with him.

The Stingers take on the UQAM Citadins in the playoff semifinals at home tonight at 7 p.m.

BASkeTBALL

Women’s basketball team cap off regular season with scrappy win Despite a sub-par performance, the Stingers sweep the season series over the Bishop’s Gaiters Michael Downs Staff writer The Concordia Stingers pulled off a 52-46 victory ver the visiting Bishop’s University Gaiters in an ugly, physical and low-scoring game that was utterly meaningless to either team.

“The game didn’t mean anything,” said Stingers head coach Keith Pruden.

“Bishop’s was already out the playoffs, we were already in third because UQAM had already clinched second place when they beat McGill on Friday, so basically you had two teams trying to find something to be motivated to play for. We wanted to finish on a win and Bishop’s didn’t want to get swept out by us,” he said. “So it was nasty. That’s the nastiest game we’ve played against them. It was real physical, they weren’t happy to be there, and we weren’t happy to be there either. The end result was a not very pretty basketball game to watch.”

The game was indeed far from pretty. It was an extremely messy affair that saw both teams combine for a whopping 51 turnovers.

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The Stingers controlled the opening quarter quite easily, as the Gaiters shooting was abysmal.

Concordia’s shooting wasn’t much better, but they converted some a few easy baskets and had 13 points to show for it while UQAM could only muster five.

The second quarter was characterized by more sloppy physical play, but the Stingers remained firmly in control and took a 25-16 lead into halftime.

In similar fashion to the last time these two teams met, the Gaiters started to press late into the third quarter and most of the fourth.

However, the Stingers successfully held them at bay, allowing Bishop’s to tie the game, but never relinquished their lead.

They would go on to win by a score of 52-46.

Though he wasn’t blown away by his team’s performance, Pruden was impressed with the Stingers’ effort given the circumstances, seeing it as a promising sign heading into the playoffs.

“I would have been concerned had we lost, so I am happy with the win despite the circumstances. As close as the score was, we were pretty much in control of that game from the get-go.

They never had a lead. It was a hard game to get up for, which a playoff game won’t be, so if we can get the job done in a game that doesn’t mean anything, to me that’s a great sign heading into the post-season.”

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The Stingers will take a trip to the Centre sportif UQAM to square off with the Citadins March 1 at 7 p.m.

WReSTLING

The men’s wrestling team took top spot this past weekend at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport wrestling championships hosted by Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ont. The Stingers accumulated a total 55 points, just edging out the University of New Brunswick, which had 52 points, and the University of Regina with 49 points.

David Tremblay and David Zilberman both won the gold medal matches in their weight categories, while Stephen De Layen, Scott Schiller and Matt Miller won their bronze medal matches.

The women finished in seventh place with 24 points.

Nikita Chicoine defeated Larissa D’Alleva from the University of Western Ontario to earn her third first-place finish of the year.

Chicoine came in first in her weight category (63 kg) in both the UNB Invitational and the Quebec qualifying earlier this year.

Concordia sent one of its largest teams ever to the tournament; 12 Stingers took part in the tournament and nine took home medals.

The team’s head coach Victor Zilberman was named coach of the year.

It wasn’t the first accolade Zilberman collected this season; in November, he was one of 43 coaches from across Canada who was presented with the Petro-Canada Coaching Excellence Award.

It was his 10th time receiving the honour, and this is his 34th year as head coach of Concordia’s wrestling program.

Photo courtesy Lakehead Athletics

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opinions

21

Write to the editor: opinions@theconcordian.com

Who will find out what’s wrong with ConU? Lowy is looking for a few good men and women to clean house

After much assigning of blame and hemming and hawing as to how to go about fixing the problems that plague Concordia’s administration, a minor solution was presented two weeks ago in order to try and stem the flow of problems.

By now, you can probably run off the laundry list of issues at Concordia in your sleep: major VPs have jumped ship for better jobs or ‘personal reasons,’ the president evaporated in a mysterious cloud of controversy right before the winter holidays and students, profs, staff and alumni are largely up in arms against the Board of Governors and its chair, Peter Kruyt.

Woodsworth’s interim replacement, Frederick Lowy, stepping into his old job, promised to listen to the complaints and grievances shared by students, staff and faculty. And listen he did, at senate meetings and likely several backroom, steering and casual meetings. But it’s clear he’s reached the end of his rope: at the last Board of Governors meeting, Lowy said a culture of victimization seems to be perpetuating itself at every level at the university. The time has come, he said, to talk of other things and stop blaming Peter Kruyt for all the problems at school.

So, last week, shortly before students went off on spring break (ahem, we mean reading

week) Lowy proposed the creation of a committee based on a January Senate motion to create an external revenue committee. After some debate, the Board of Governors voted to approve such a committee, whose job will be to evaluate the university’s governance.

While we agree with some senators, including graduate representative Robert Sonin, that we won’t be able to fully move on until we know all the details about Woodsworth’s dismissal and what contrived to bring her down, we’re in support of a motion that can finally start to put this business to rest.

This committee’s powers and parametres are not yet fully sketched out; they will be decided at an upcoming steering committee meeting. The deadline for their evaluation and eventual report and whether their recommendations be binding have yet to be decided.

The number of members is but a handful; we’re looking for three people. Ideally, the members, according to Lowy, will include the

following: someone with experience working in university administration, an expert in the not-for-profit sector and an outside faculty member. Just where he’ll find his ideal candidates, we’re not too sure. We hope he’ll also add to the qualifications list an ability to hear both sides of the story, co-operative teamwork.

While the prospect of having people with zero connection to Concordia coming in, observing and evaluating the governance scheme seems like a dicey proposition, this kind of arm’s length for observers should prove the best method to fixing Concordia’s long-running problems. The Board of Governors itself has many external Graphic by Katie Brioux members from the larger community; the goal is to ensure that they will provide an outside, independent voice and reasoning to the insular workings of the university. But, as evidenced by the members who have spent years over their terms on the BoG, these good intentions have likely been warped as members became entrenched in school politics and have not budged from their spots. And so, perhaps some fresh out-

side voices will provide some much-needed perspective to the stodgy BoG. We hope that the search process goes smoothly; let Lowy know if you think you’ve found someone who might make a perfect fit for the committee. Do you have a friend who’s working for a non-profit? Someone who knows universities inside and out? A professor from your last school? Send Lowy an email with your suggestions at president@concordia.ca. After all, this is the group that will supposedly be going through your university with a fine tooth comb.

But one clear problem that needs fixing remains: the continued presence of Peter Kruyt as chair of the Board of Governors. If it’s true, as Lowy and BoG part-time faculty observer Jean Freed commented at the Feb. 17 meeting, that people are just throwing the blame at Kruyt’s feet, then instead of asking people to stop doing so, why not just have him leave?

The chair should be independent from the whims of university structures, but it’s clear that at this point, not many people seem to want him there and that’s not helping anyone.

While his Board appears to be in crisis, Kruyt himself was not even present at the last BoG meeting. If you’re going to be the chair of a Board that controls a huge educational institution, you’d think you could clear your calendar for a monthly meeting. The fact that he was not present at this meeting shows that he is either reluctant to appear in front of his BoG, or that he does not care enough about the university to show up.

Culture

Religious symbols are an emblem of Canadian multiculturalism Quebec should not follow the French model of banning articles of faith Michael Bramadat-Wilcock Contributor In Canada we like to see ourselves as a multicultural society. At Concordia, synagogues, churches and mosques can all be found on campus, often in close proximity to one another.

Many see visible diversity as a defining part of what it is to be Canadian and our Charter of Rights and Freedoms outlines the right to express our individual religious beliefs.

Not everyone is a fan of this worldview and authors like Neil Bissoondath have criticized Canada’s “cult of multiculturalism.”

Bissoondath argues the 1971 Multiculturalism Act, which was enacted with stated intention of promoting tolerance, in fact backfired because it encouraged Canadians to focus on what keeps us apart rather than what we have in common.

Bissoondath has called for Canadians to follow the American model, and to assimilate into the melting pot for the good of society as a whole.

The author may get his way in Quebec as Louise Beaudoin, an advocate for secularism in the PQ stressed that multiculturalism is not a value in Quebec, even if it is seen as important in Canada.

Beaudoin spoke of interculturalism, and

put forward a model similar to Bissoondath’s, noting that Quebec never signed the Canadian constitution and therefore is not bound by its multiculturalism act.

The debate over what is called “reasonable accommodation” flared up recently when several Sikhs carrying their kirpans, a traditional knife-shaped religious symbol, were denied entry to the National Assembly.

The PQ subsequently proposed adding the kirpan to a list of items you can’t wear at the Quebec legislature, in an effort to enforce a dress code that is more homogeneous.

It didn’t end there. Soon after the kirpan fiasco, a Montreal taxi driver named Arieh Perecowicz was ordered by a municipal court to pay a fine in the area of $1,400 for having various items with him in his taxi.

Among the offending items were a mezuzah (a Jewish prayer contained in a small casing) and a Canadian flag.

The Sikh men who instigated this new chapter in the multicultural versus intercultural debate were at the legislature in order to voice their opposition to the proposed Bill 94, which would ban Muslim women who wear the face-covering niqab from entering government buildings.

Put the three together and the big picture begins to unfold. The Quebec government is cracking down on open displays of religious belief in public.

This has led many to the conclusion that Quebec wants to follow the French model of complete separation between religious and public spheres.

If we look more closely at the proposed bill, it is easy to see potential for serious consequences.

These policies set a precedent for the eventual limitation of the right to wear any re-

ligious symbols in public institutions, including hospitals, schools, government buildings and (that’s right, kids) Concordia University.

This is how it works in France: schools and government buildings forbid the display of any kind of religious symbol.

The French model is difficult to impose in Canada because we are faced with a population growth that depends on immigration from countries with different religious demographics.

We are a nation of diverse origins and Canadians who are not members of First Nations

tribes do not usually trace their heritage to the land we now occupy. We tend to identify, for better or worse, with our nation of origin.

By making it difficult for religious items like the kirpan, the mezuzah or the niqab to be shown in public spaces, Quebec is effectively barring certain religious minorities from functioning in the public sphere.

That is, unless they agree to compromise their traditions and participate in the intercultural model put forward by Bissoondath and Beaudoin.

Graphic by Katie Brioux

theconcordian

Concordia’s weekly, independent student newspaper.

Tuesday, Mar. 1, 2011 Volume 28 Issue 22.

Sarah Deshaies Editor-in-chief editor@theconcordian.com Brennan Neill Managing editor managing@theconcordian. com Evan LePage News editor news@theconcordian.com Jacques Gallant Assistant news editor Emily White Life editor life@theconcordian.com Savannah Sher Assistant life editor Valerie Cardinal Arts editor arts@theconcordian.com Jacqueline Di Bartelomeo Assistant arts editor Katelyn Spidle Music editor music@theconcordian.com Kamila Hinkson Sports editor sports@theconcordian.com Chris Hanna Opinions editor opinions@theconcordian.com Owen Nagels Assistant opinions editor Chris Kahn Online editor online@theconcordian.com Tiffany Blaise Photo editor photo@theconcordian.com Katie Brioux Graphics editor graphics@theconcordian. com Trevor Smith Chief copy editor copy@theconcordian.com Morgan Lowrie Sofia Gay Copy editors Jill Fowler Production manager production@theconcordian. com Jennifer Barkun Francois Descoteaux Lindsay Sykes Production Assistants Board of Directors Tobi Elliott Richard Tardif Ben Ngai directors@theconcordian.com Editorial 7141 Sherbrooke St. W. CC.431 Montreal, QC H4B 1R6 514.848.2424 x7458 (Newsroom) 514.848.2424 x7499 (Editors) 514.848.2424 x7404 (Production) Francesco Sacco Business Manager business@theconcordian. com Marshall Johnston Advertising advertising@theconcordian.com Business and Advertising: 1455 de Maisonneuve W. H.733-4 Montreal, QC H3G 1M8 514.848.2424 x7420 (Office) 514.848.7427 (Fax)

STAFF WRITERS AND CONTRIBUTORS: Sarah McMahon-Sperber, Valeria Nekhim, Natacha Medeiros, Alyssa de Rosa, Samantha Mastromonaco, Elizabeth Tomaras, Daniel Spinali, Sruti Islam, Andrew Guilbert, Shannon H. Myers, Brenda Raftlova, Lea Choukroun, Cora Ballou, Morgan Lowrie, Michael Downs, Domenic Del Vecchio, Michael Bramadat-Willcock, Eva Kratochvil, Alex Woznica, Shelley Melanson, Cameron Fenton, David Vilder, Faiz Imam, Cindy Lopez, Camille Nerant, Sean Kershaw, Phil Waheed, Arnaud Pages

theconcordian

quebeC

New political group suggests shift in Quebec nationalism Old sovereigntist group losing sight of what is important Alex Woznica Staff writer Recent developments have created a chance to highlight two very different approaches to the cause of Quebec nationalism. The first was the announcement of plans to protest the July visit of Prince William and his new bride Kate Middleton by certain Quebec nationalist groups. The second was the announcement of the formation of a new political coalition in Quebec that promises to eschew the cause of sovereignty, and instead focus on matters relating to Quebec’s future prosperity. These developments, which can both be seen as manifestations of Quebec’s nationalist movement, represent what is very much the past of that movement, and what seems likely to be its future.

The Réseau de résistance du Québec (RRQ) has promised to make the royal visit as “unpleasant as possible.” The RRQ is the same group whose threats of violent intervention forced the cancellation of the re-enactment of the battle of the Plains of Abraham in 2008. Their list of grievances against the British monarchy include the assimilation of francophones and the deportation of the Acadians in 1775.

More related to contemporary Quebec politics was last month’s announcement of the formation of a new political coalition: the Coalition pour l’avenir du Québec. Its leader is Francois Legault, a former Parti Québécois minister. He claims that sovereignty has become a dead end in Quebec, and that nationalists must move on and tackle real issues affecting Quebec’s population, such as the province’s future prosperity and its ability to remain competitve economically. As such, the group is calling for better pay and a more effective evaluation process for the province’s educators, tuition hikes and increased funding to deal with the chronic underfunding of the province’s universities, and a re-evaluation of taxation to encourage private investment in the province.

While not an official political party, Legault has stated that the Coalition could turn into one if its suggestions are not adopted by any of Quebec’s current mainstream

Graphic by Sean Kershaw

parties.

These two recent developments within Quebec nationalism very much epitomize both the past and the future of that movement. Groups such as the RRQ, who seem intent on focusing their energies on protesting against the visit of two 20-somethings to Quebec, have clearly lost sight of both the interests of the province and the interests of Quebec’s nationalist movement. While their protest will surely be carried out in the name of Quebec and Quebecois nationalism, it is very hard to see how protesting the royal visit will further the cause of either one.

In contrast, the Coalition pour l’avenir du Québec seems to have it right. The cause of independence or even increased sovereignty for the province of Quebec is simply not that popular anymore, nor is rabid anti-royalism.

The Coalition has instead, and rather wisely, chosen to further both the interests of Quebec and of nationalism by working towards specific goals that are actually in Quebec’s “national” interests.

In an era where political sovereignty is becoming increasingly less important, and when the ability to compete economically is becoming ever more of a priority, it makes perfect sense that the goal of working towards Quebec’s economic prosperity would surpass it’s goal of political independence, and of harping on about centuries-old wrongs as the main focus of nationalism in the province. In that sense, it seems likely that groups such as the RRQ represent the past of Quebec’s nationalist movement, while practical-minded groups such as the Coalition represent its future.

eduCation

What would you do with a billion dollars?

Government is giving money to oil companies when it could be investing in education Shelley Melanson and Cameron Fenton Contributors If I had a billion dollars, would I give it to the richest oil companies in the world?

Obviously not. Unless I was a member of the current Canadian government that is...

Each year the federal government gifts $1.4 billion in subsidies to the oil industry.

That is $1.4 billion a year that is not going towards creating good, green jobs. It is $1.4 billion taken out of public services like health care, education or immigrant settlement, and $1.4 billion that is not going into making postsecondary education affordable.

These companies certainly don’t need the money. Take British Petroleum, currently involved in tar sands production, for example.

Despite losing approximately $17 billion due to the disastrous Gulf Oil spill last summer, BP still turned a $1.7 billion profit in the third quarter of 2010.

Oil companies are doing just fine on their own.

On the other hand, skyrocketing tuition fees are both forcing students and their families to take on crippling student debt, and preventing many from pursuing post-secondary education. Collective student debt in Canada has now reached $15 billion with the average student borrowing just over $4,500 in student loans every year. If the $1.4 billion currently going to oil companies was instead converted to student grants, two-thirds of all student loans taken out last year and the subsequent debt could be eliminated.

Why is the government putting our money into the pockets of wealthy oil companies when they could be making post-secondary education affordable and accessible? There are so many ways in which this money could

be better spent, and this is just one of them.

A recent poll conducted by Leger Marketing for Climate Action Network Canada showed that 70 per cent of Canadians would support reducing these subsidies. On top of that, Canada has already committed internationally to eliminate these subsidies. During the 2009 G20 meeting in Pittsburgh, world leaders, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, promised to begin phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, a promise he has so far failed to live up to.

In November 2010, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty warned Canadians that he would be tightening the purse strings in this year’s budget, and looking to reduce spending. What better place to start than tax breaks to the oil industry? It certainly makes more sense than cutting essential social services like health care and education.

Shelley Melanson is the deputy chair for the Canadian Federation of Students.

Cameron Fenton is a former staff writer at the Concordian and is currently serving as the national director for the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition.

23

theconcordian

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

The Etcetera Page

That Charlie Sheen can’t catch a break, huh? Not that he deserves one.

After doing who-knows-what with who-knows-how-many hookers or porn stars and his lowest common denominator of a show getting the axe for the rest of the season, he just won’t shut up about how he does not have a problem. Isn’t that what people who have problems say? Luckily, the Twitterverse is not holding back with how they feel about Sheen. Follow us on Twitter at @TheConcordian.

With six weeks left in the semester, how are you going to manage the workload?

Jack Swiercz - second-year accounting “Pretty much just time management. It’s really about putting other stuff aside, like hockey. Maybe not today, but starting tomorrow. It’s just going to be about focusing on school work.”

- “If I hung out w 20 year old porn stars all the time I’d think I was a genius too #Sheenius” - Sarah Silverman (@ SarahKSilverman) - “I pray that someone can help Charlie Sheen before he becomes more successful, richer and happier.” - Norm MacDonald (@normmacdonald)

Mike Carrozza - first-year English literature

- “CBS could tolerate Charlie Sheen wife-choking or hookerterrorizing; but insulting the execproducer crossed a line, man.”

- John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang)

“I’m more concerned about my acting and music career to be honest. When it comes to school, I guess I just do what I can and hope for the best.”

Stav Nitka - second-year political science

Compiled by Eva Kratochvil

“The thing about it is once you have the last six weeks of school ahead, that’s when you start actually trying. I’ve been slacking for the last two months, so I plan on actually catching up on my readings now and giving in my assignments on time and not asking for an extension. The key is pretty much to keep up with the readings.”

Man holds Libyan and Turkish flag high at Libyan protest last weekend. Photo

by David Vilder

Horoscopes Aries - March 21 to April 20 Don’t let a little negativity slow you down.

You’re better than that. People are just going to find ways to bring you down.

Taurus - April 21 to May 21 Don’t sweat the small stuff, and pick your battles. You don’t have to argue with everyone about everything. You’ll start to be seen as difficult to please, and you’re really not.

Gemini - May 22 to June 21 Say yes a little more this week. No, no, no.

Is that the only word you know? Accept invitations out, and let loose. Get out of your shell.

Cancer - June 22 to July 23 Work has been rough lately, but you know that what you have is a pretty good gig.

Sometimes you have to suffer a little, but it’s all worth it.

Leo - July 24 to August 23 Things are looking up for you, Leo. You’re coming off a rough week, but make time to get enough sleep, and you’ll be surprised at how quickly your mood will change.

Virgo - August 24 to September 23 Shopping sprees are probably not a good idea this week. Remember that big investment you made last month? You’re still trying to pay it off, aren’t you?

Libra - September 24 to October 23 You have a big weekend ahead of you, so make sure not to lag on school work. Focus and make sure to finish things early.

Scorpio - October 24 to November 23 New things start by giving up old ones.

Sometimes it means saying goodbye, other times it means just finding a replacement.

Sagittarius - November 24 to December 21 Who knows how you feel about anything?

No one. Don’t be afraid to share your feelings with people. They care about you and want to be someone you can confide in.

Just trust.

Capricorn - December 22 to January 20 Don’t you worry about a thing! Things are going especially well and according to plan.

Just stay organized and you’ll be ready to tackle those last-minute surprises.

Aquarius - January 21 to February 19 Looks can be deceiving. Someone will shock you with a revelation you did not expect. Just control your facial expressions and be respectful.

Pisces - February 20 to March 20 Sometimes you wonder what you got your-

self into, but all you did was bite off more than you can chew. Take a deep breath.

Start again.

You share a birthday with...

March 1: Justin Bieber, Javier Bardem, Alan Thicke March 2: Chris Martin, Jon Bon Jovi, Dr. Seuss March 3: Jessica Biel, Ira Glass, Alexander Graham Bell March 4: Garrett Morgan, Antonio Vivaldi, Patricia Heaton March 5: Eva Mendes, Teena Marie, Rex Harrison March 6: Michelangelo Buonarroti, Rob Reiner, Shaquille O’Neal March 7: Jenna Fischer, Rachel Weisz, Luther Burbank

*

EVENTS AT A GLANCE HELP PROMOTE CONCORDIA EVENTS! ALL EVENT LISTINGS ARE ADVERTISED FOR FREE SEND YOUR IDEAS TO EVENTS@THECONCORDIAN.COM PLEASE LIST NAME OF EVENT, LOCATION, AND TIME Concordia Gym Metropolis Grand Foyer Culturel de la Place des Arts Segal Centre (ongoing until Mar 6) H-110

19h00 22h00 11h00 20h00 19h00 19h00 19h00 - 23h00

+MUSIC +CONFERENCE +THEATRE

Revolver + The Beets La soirée des Jutra Dutchman

Centre sportif UQAM The Hive Casa Del Popolo Maison Radio-Canada Nouveau Théâtre Ste-Catherine (ongoing until March 6)

THURS 03

+TALK +CONFERENCE +VISUAL ART +MUSIC +THEATRE +FESTIVAL

LB-646 Urban Disasters and the North American Progressive State 3480 University Street room 13 Will to Intervene: Democratic Republic of Congo Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery - ongoing until April 16 Kent Monkman: My Treaty Is With the Crown Il Motore Yukon Blonde + The Paint Movement The Freestanding Room Bedbugs Cinémathèque Québécoise Amérasia Film Festival opening gala

16h00 18h00 17h30 22h00 20h00 17h30

FRI 04

+CONCORDIA +TALK +MUSIC +THEATRE +FESTIVAL

Open to Question w/ Provost David Graham The 2011 Reader's Digest Lecture "Why Write Now?" w/ Adam Gopnik The Liptonians + Sunfields Bedbugs FFEM presents Tambien la Lluvia

H-435 MB 1.210 Le Divan Orange The Freestanding Room Cinéma du Parc

15h00 19h30 20h00 20h00 20h00

SAT 05

+MUSIC +THEATRE +VISUAL ART +VISUAL ART +MOVIE +FESTIVAL

The Souljazz Orchestra Bedbugs The Domestic Queens Project SYMPOSIUM

Le Divan Orange The Freestanding Room FOFA Gallery FOFA Gallery Cinéma du Parc Cinéma du Parc

20h00 20h00 13h00 17h00 14h00 15h45

SUN 06

+MUSIC +FILM +VISUAL ART +MOVIE +FESTIVAL +MOVIE

Sarah MK Suite Suite Chinatown The Domestic Queens Project Life for Sale Panel on freedom and social justice in Latin America Wasteland

Restaurant Kalalu - 4331 Rue Saint-Denis J.A. de Sève Cinema FOFA Gallery Cinéma du Parc Cinéma du Parc Cinéma du Parc

18h00 17h00 11h00 17h00 15h45 19h00

MON 07

+MUSIC +MUSIC +MUSIC +MOVIE

Current Swell + Kim Churchill Telekinesis + Pepper Rabbit + Panache Marnie Stern + Tera Melos + Crabe Full Signal

Le Divan Orange Casa Del Popolo Il Motore Cinéma du Parc

22h00 22h00 20h00 20h00

+STINGERS +MUSIC +FILM +THEATRE +CINEMA POLITICA

Men's basketball Quebec semifinal vs UQAM Girl Talk + Max Tundra + Junk Culture Le Festival International du Film sur l'Art presents Zon'Ar Bill Bishop Goes to War Petropolis + Crude Sacrifice

WED 02

+STINGERS +PARTY!

Women's basketball Quebec semifinal @ UQAM ASFA & CSU Caribbean Cultural Night - 7$ Rhum & Roti

TUES 01

The Domestic Queens Project VERNISSAGE Gasland Panel on gas drilling and green energy

22h00 10h00 20h00

Do you love the smell of print in the morning?

The Concordian is holding elections for next year’s masthead.

We’re looking for section editors: * News * Music * Life * Sports * Arts * Opinions

As well as the following technical positions: * Photography editor * Graphics editor * Online editor

If you’re interested in joining our team send in an application (CV, relevant clippings, and a short paragraph about yourself) to elections@theconcordian.com by 4:00 p.m. March 18. We’ll be holding the elections in our Loyola office March 20 at 2:00 p.m.

Get involved and you’ll have enough print to last you a year.

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