The Concordian

theconcordian October 30, November 6,2012 2012

Independent student newspaper at Concordia University. Since 1983.

Volume 30 Issue 11

A majority vote for strike

During a meeting helD this past sunDay, the ConCorDia university part-time faCulty assoCiation voteD for a strike manDate after months of ColleCtive bargaining. photo by maDelayne hajek

Concordia’s part-time faculty approve strike mandate should negotiations fail Kalina Laframboise and Amanda Brin News editor and staff writer

The Concordia University Part-Time Faculty Association voted 95 per cent in favour of an unlimited strike mandate should collective bargaining negotiations fail.

CUPFA held a special general assembly Sunday to discuss options to pres-

sure the administration at Concordia to forego amendments to the collective agreement. The most recent contract expired Aug. 31 and part-time faculty members are not content with the proposal offered by the university.

“I’m urging all members to stand with the union behind the strike mandate,” said Robert Campbell, a part-time professor in accounting at the John Molson School of Business. “When I

saw what they were offering us, I said ‘I can’t believe this’ and it’s just unacceptable.”

In March, the association requested that Concordia issue a protocol in order to agree on how to proceed and sign a new collective agreement. Following nine separate meetings between administration and CUPFA, a protocol was signed on July 8.

Negotiations were supposed to con-

tinue in August, however, Concordia decided to restructure the terms of the current collective agreement much to the dismay of CUPFA. The restructuring was unanimously rejected but the university is still pushing forward with the plan.

“What they want is to rewrite every article in our collective agreement,” said Patrice Blais, vice president of the collective agreement and grievance.

“They want to continue to fix things that aren’t broken.”

Concordia’s deal proposed to isolate and de-link salary rates from other post-secondary institutions like Université de Montréal and Université du Québec à Montréal which means their salaries would not change despite what is happening at sister universities.

Continued on P. 4

In this issue... life

arts

music

sports

opinions

Kazu’s Japanese delights P. 6

We review the film Smashed P. 11

Profiling Ariane Moffatt P. 15

Stingers finish fourth P. 17

The next James Bond? P. 21

We tell your stories. Follow us on Twitter: @TheConcordian

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2

news Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Got a news tip? news@theconcordian.com

City in brief Kalina Laframboise

CAMPuS CiTy

You’re not welcome aboard Female student refused ‘Between Stops’ service for speaking in English

>>Zero tolerance for corruption, collusion and construction In her inaugural speech on Oct. 31, Premier Pauline Marois emphasized the need to end the misconduct plaguing the provincial government with an anti-corruption bill. The following day, the Parti Quebecois tabled a bill that will impose a rigorous screening process for companies vying for contracts. The bill aims to ensure the integrity of potential contractors and keep tabs on them throughout the construction process. Marois emphasized that the first few weeks of her time as Quebec’s premier would be devoted to ending corruption and condemning dishonesty.

>>I’m never eating there again Last week, the neurology clinic at the Jewish General Hospital closed due to an outbreak of the norovirus.

The infection sprouted from the coffee shop, where hundreds of staff members, patients and visitors eat on a daily basis. Approximately 45 people from the hospital fell ill with flu-like symptoms such as diarrhea, cramps, and fever. After several staff members from the neurology clinic became sick, the clinic was closed for half of Thursday and all of Friday.

The coffee shop will remain closed until the specific reason for the outbreak can be determined.

>>Let there be light Most people working in the theatre don’t choose that path to strike it rich. Usually, it’s the exact opposite.

Not for Robert Thomson though. According to CBC, Thomson has been named the recipient of the 2012 Elinore & Lou Siminovitch Prize in Theatre, which is reportedly the largest theatre award of its kind in Canada. In its 12th year, the prize awarded the lucky lighting designer $75,000 and an additional $25,000 for two young designers he works with. Thomson is working on a production of Red at Montreal’s Segal Centre right now, which premieres Nov. 25.

>>But Quebec is where the party’s at New Democratic Party members were split on forming a provincial party for Quebec in a meeting in Montreal this Saturday. Those in favour of the formation argued that it would provide left leaning voters with an alternative to the sovereign parties while other members emphasized the need to focus on dominating the federal election in 2015. The priority for the federal party members is to oust the Conservative Party from power.

Robin Della Corte Assistant news editor Amanda Lenko was scared to walk far unaccompanied in the middle of the night.

Lenko, a third-year graphic design student at Dawson College, says she was refused service by a bus driver for the Société de transport de Montréal when she spoke English to him.

The STM provides a service for women who travel alone at night on buses in Montreal called ‘Between Stops.’ The service is offered on all bus lines, including all-night buses, to allow women who travel alone to ask to be let off in between certain stops.

From Aug. 30 to April 30 the service starts from 7:30 p.m. and from May 1 to Aug. 29 beginning at 9:00 p.m..

In May, Lenko was on the 376

bus travelling alone at 1 a.m. when she asked in English to be let off in between stops. According to Lenko, the bus driver replied in French “No madame, here we speak French,” and refused to listen to her.

“Every time I talk to employees I always speak French,” said Lenko.

“But it was this one time I spoke English and he didn’t listen to me.”

The bus driver dismissed Lenko’s request, letting her off instead at a designated bus stop that was out of her way.

Lenko says she was too shocked and afraid to argue with the employee.

She went on to say that every time she did speak French, she didn’t encounter problems with STM employees and while she didn’t file a complaint to the STM because she felt “it

wasn’t a big deal at the time,” she now admits that she regrets not doing so.

The STM has been under fire recently for a slew of language-related incidents, including one from 23-yearold Mina Barak, who claims she was attacked by an employee at De La Savane métro station. The incident began when an Opus machine accepted Barak’s money but did not issue her transit tickets in return.

In an interview with Global News, Barak said she was told to “go back to your country” and “in Quebec we only speak French” by the employee she approached for help.

Afterwards, Barak called the STM on her phone to file a complaint.

When she spoke with the teller again, Barak claims that the STM worker gave her the middle finger. After Barak told the worker she was going to ensure her dismissal, the employee allegedly left the booth and forced Barak into a headlock.

In early October, a poster taped to the ticket booth at Villa Maria métro station garnered city-wide attention for its slogan that read: “In Quebec, we do things in French.”

In accordance with the Office de la langue française, the agency that administers the provisions of the provincial language law, customers or clients may ask in English for a service but under Bill 101, companies are not allowed to require employees to know a language other than French. While there are exceptions to this law, Montreal’s public transit authority is not required to offer bilingual services.

However due to the violent nature

of Barak’s encounter with an employee, the STM Vice-chair Marvin Rotrand told Global News that “the issue will be discussed at the STM’s board meeting next month.”

For some, unilingual services create an unnecessary divide for residents of Montreal.

Léonard Leprince, a first-year political sciences student at Concordia University, said that it was disappointing that “jobs in the field of customer service aren’t encouraged to have bilingual employees.”

Emma Ronai, a first-year international development and African studies student at McGill University, said that she chooses to speak French Photo

by Madelayne Hajek because “she didn’t want to hear the STM’s drama” and due to the fact she knows English friends who have been harassed.

Furthermore, Ronai emphasized that the Agence métropolitaine de transport also possess language barriers. One line in particular, the DeuxMontagnes train line announces important messages on their intercoms solely in French. Many commuters have complained that they don’t understand what is being said, similar to when the STM announcements are solely issued in French.

“If you’re paying for the service, you should know what is going on.

We’re not talking about learning Chinese, Spanish or Swahili to please a tiny percent of users, we’re talking about an official language, which has been recognized by law,” Ronai said.

With files from Kalina Laframboise

PoLiTiCS

Gérald Tremblay steps down Montreal mayor leaves amid controversy during anti-corruption inquiry Robin Della Corte and Matthew Guité Assistant news editors Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay announced his resignation from office due to ongoing allegations of corruption on Monday evening.

Tremblay held the press conference at 7 p.m. but met with councillors from his party at city hall hours before he officially stepped down.

Tremblay said he dedicated himself to the success of Montreal and he denied allegations of misconduct, specifically those

made recently at the Charbonneau Commission relating to his own party.

“Under these circumstances, I cannot help anymore,” said Tremblay. “The success of the city is much more important than my personal interests.”

Several executives of Union Montreal, the mayor’s party, have been accused of taking kickbacks in exchange for awarding municipal contracts, during testimonies at the Charbonneau Commission.

Tremblay went onto say that he remained skeptical and asked questions over the years but was only ever given documents and memos

after the fact.

He accepted full responsibility for what happened but claimed that every time he was informed of corruption or collusion he gave the information to the proper authorities. Tremblay insisted he was unaware of the dishonesty that is currently rocking Quebec politics.

“In politics, perception matters more than the truth. Especially when it is manipulated by multiple factors and agendas, and when the chance to tell the truth is not stated or believed,” he said. “One day, justice will prevail.”

Tremblay took an extended weekend following a testimony

from Martin Dumont, former organizer of the Union Montreal, that alleged Tremblay was aware of the scandals going within his office and ignored it. Residents and opposition were quick to criticize a budget tabled by council that aimed to raise taxes by three per cent last week before council reconsidered.

There will not be a municipal election since Tremblay resigned after Nov. 3 and instead city council will appoint a temporary mayor.

With files from Kalina Laframboise Photo by Rob Flis

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Follow us on Twitter: @TheConcordian

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Nation in brief Concordia refunds the tuition hike ConUU con

McGill University only issues reimbursements to Quebec residents for now Kalina Laframboise News editor The provincial government issued official directives to post-secondary institutions on the rollback of the tuition fee increase last week.

Quebec university students will be reimbursed the additional money they paid as part of the Charest Liberals provincial budget that sought to lift the freeze on tuition fees. Therefore, full-time Quebec students can expect a full refund or credit of the $127.05 increase per term or total of $254 for the 2012-2013 academic year.

Jean Charest, the former premier of Quebec, slated an increase of $325 a year over a total of five years for a hike of $1,625 sparking a seven-month long student strike movement. While negotiating with student leaders, the government then escalated the original increase from $1,625 to a total of $1,778 over seven years. Students this year were required to pay an additional $8.75 per credit.

Although Premier Pauline Marois announced the cancellation of the hike the day after the Parti Québécois won a minority government in the provincial election Sept. 4, universities were waiting upon official, written directives from the Quebec government before issuing a refund.

Joël Bouchard, the press attaché for Pierre Duchesne, the minister of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, confirmed in an interview with The Concordian that universities could expect instructions from the government in the following days.

>>Cat city

Concordia students were refunded the tuition increase via their My Concordia accounts. Photo from Flickr

McGill University announced on Sunday that its administration would be taking steps to apply the refund to students who pay Quebec tuition rates. Unlike Concordia, international and out-of-province students at McGill will not be reimbursed until the provincial government “renders its final decision” according to the statement.

In comparison, Concordia University released a statement online on Thursday Nov. 1 to inform all students that an adjustment and credit would be made to their fees for next semester. However, if students wish to be reimbursed be-

fore January, they can submit a request through their MyConcordia student portal and the university will comply.

Concordia President Alan Shepard discussed the refund during presidential remarks at Senate on Friday, saying that the downside of reimbursing students is that “it costs money to make those cheques” but that the university would issue them nonetheless.

Not all universities have issued an official notice of the repeal but both Concordia and Université du Québec à Montréal addressed statements to all students.

For Heather Gleason-Beard, a second-year education student at McGill from Toronto, she felt it was unfair that only Quebec residents received a reimbursement.

They did say they are awaiting to hear from the government, … so it may happen,” said Gleason-Beard. “It is pretty frustrating and unfair but I won’t lie, it is something I would expect from McGill.”

The Concordian contacted McGill, but the director of media relations could give no information on the matter.

Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois to appeal verdict He could face fines up to $5,000 and prison time for contempt of court CUP Quebec Bureau Chief

O

n Friday, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, former spokesperson for the Coalition large de l’Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante, announced his decision to appeal the guilty verdict handed down Thursday by Judge Denis Jacques.

Jacques declared him guilty of contempt of court, saying he encouraged students during the student strike last semester to disobey an injunction filed by student Jean-François Morasse against students picketing classes at Université Laval.

The guilty verdict was based off a statement made by NadeauDubois in a television interview in the midst of the student conflict:

>>18 and legal The Saskatchewan Party is considering changing the province’s liquor laws by lowering the legal drinking age from 19 to 18. Members of the party voted in favour of the new drinking age at the party’s annual convention in Saskatoon last weekend. The main arguments rose from issues of fairness where provinces like Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec have a legal drinking age of 18. Saskatchewan Party MLA Donna Harpauer is not a fan of the idea because she believes teen drinking is a problem and because the majority of 18-year-olds are still in high school. This issue still needs to be voted on in the legislature to become law, CBC News reported.

City

Erin Hudson

Robin Della Corte

“We find it legitimate that people take the means necessary to uphold the strike and if that means picketing, we believe that is legitimate to do.”

In a press conference held Friday morning, Nadeau-Dubois told media that his message was for students to continue fighting for accessible education — not anarchy.

“My words last May were not mine — they were the words of the thousands of students who were fighting against the tuition hike,” said Nadeau-Dubois.

He also noted the irony of the situation emphasizing the adoption of Bill 78, or Law 12, only weeks later that cancelled injunctions.

Nadeau-Dubois could face prison time, fines up to $5,000 or community service for his offence.

The sentence is to be handed down next week.

“For me in 2012, in Quebec, [this decision] is a precedent that cannot be allowed to stand. We cannot accept that people still have to defend their political views even if they are expressed by thousands of others,” he said.

Though ASSÉ, CLASSE’s base organization, has announced its “unfailing support” for NadeauDubois, the organization will not be paying his legal fees. Donations will be collected online for Nadeau-Dubois so as not to exhaust the organization’s coffers and free resources for the other students who face legal fees from the student strike.

So far, Nadeau-Dubois has collected $74,000 to offset the costs of legal fees. It was reported that 1,700 people donated to support

Nadeau-Dubois.

In an effort to show their solidarity, about 200 demonstrators marched the streets of downtown Montreal, Thursday night, in protest of the guilty verdict.

Demonstrator Wina Forget views the decision as unjust.

“There are politicians accused of stealing hundreds and hundreds of dollars, getting away with next to nothing,” said Forget. “Whereas a young student who led a noble struggle finds himself in a courtroom with the threat of prison and high fines to pay.”

Forget also cast doubt to the partiality of Jacques.

“We know that in [2004] the judge was a Liberal candidate and we see clearly that [he] has political convictions pour a certain party – completely unacceptable for a judge,” she added.

Toronto’s animal shelters are overcrowded and more cats than ever are roaming the streets of the city due to a warm spring. An estimated 300,000 cats are on Toronto’s streets, Barbara Steinhoff of the Toronto Humane Society told CBC. In a year, there are between 100,00 and 300,000 cats without homes.

This year it’s at its extreme high and although shelters are full, dozens of cats arrive each day. Two Toronto shelters are lowering adoption fees to help encourage giving cats a home.

>>Girl look at this body Sam, a six-year-old lab in Windsor, Ont. shed half of his weight from sticking to a workout regime. Arriving at the Humane Society in January, Sam was overweight at a whopping 174 pounds. A lack of exercise and excessive eating led to Sam’s appearance. Following a vet’s conclusion that there was no medical reason behind his excessive weight gain, Sam was then sent to a foster home where he started an exercise program and ate special food. Sam is now 96 pounds and is active and is able to run and play with other dogs.

>>Halloween horror She made a vow when she put them on and now, she’s made a vow to never take them off. A woman in Nova Scotia said she will never take off her wedding ring again. While Bonnie PickMelanson carved pumpkins with her son, she took off her rings so they wouldn’t get sticky. When they were done, she wrapped up all the newspapers and put them into the garbage, not realizing she was throwing out her rings as well.

When she noticed her jewelry was missing, she called Valley Waste Resource Management Hotline and Dale Roberts, the curbside inspector, was able to contact the driver and stop him in the middle of his route. After many staff members were searching frantically for the rings valued at $15,000, they found it with the description Pick-Melanson gave.

4

theconcordian

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

World in CUPFA dissatisfied with university offer brief Continued from cover

Matthew Guité

>>Worst building ever North Korea’s ‘Hotel of Doom’, the multi-storey hotel that dominates Pyonyang’s skyline, may finally open its doors next year after 25 years of construction. The hotel, which began construction in 1987 and slated for completion in 1989, has been a source of embarrassment for the regime following numerous problems with the building. In 2008 Esquire dubbed it “hideously ugly, even by communist standards.” Despite original plans for more than 3,000 hotel rooms and three revolving restaurants, the hotel is now expected to open for about 150 rooms, all of them on the top floor of the building. The group which will be managing the hotel has also stated it expects to house shops and restaurants on the lower levels.

>>Pin-up coffins A Polish coffin maker has stirred up controversy by putting together a pinup calendar to help sell more coffins.

The calendar features topless models in and around coffins, with one shot featuring a model lounging in a coffin and another with a model pulling out a dead man’s heart. The calendar is intended to highlight “the beauty of Polish girls and the beauty of our coffins” according to Zbigniew Lindner, the owner of the business, who also said that the calendar was his son’s idea.

“We wanted to show that a coffin isn’t a religious symbol. Its a product,” he told Reuters. “Why are people afraid of coffins and not of business suits, cosmetics or jewelry?”

>>Where’s the humour in that?

A pair of newspaper reporters are facing criminal charges in Kyrgyzstan after they kidnapped and threatened to kill a popular television presenter as part of a practical joke. They kidnapped Nazira Aytbekova at gunpoint and drove her out to a wasteland where they forced her to strip to her underwear. According to BBC, Aytbekova was ordered to sing and refused. The men then told her they were going to kill her, and told her to say her last words. They used a mobile phone to record the ordeal before finally revealing themselves as journalists. Aytbekova has described herself as being “shaken and humiliated” by the incident. Both journalists have apologized for their actions and have been fired.

>>The price to pay for not paying A court in Illinois sentenced a man to pay a $1.5-million fine for pirating and torrenting 10 gay porn films, the largest ever fine for such a crime. Kywan Fisher did not defend himself in court, which is believed to be the reason for the steep fine. The studio Flava Works also pursued 14 others for file sharing but the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence. During the trial the lawyer for Flava Works explained that each copy of their movies that is purchased has a secret digital code embedded in it, and that the code in the torrented films all match the codes of the copies purchased on their website.

Furthermore, the university wants to impose restrictions on retirement and leaves, as well as having control over the hiring process of applicants vying for a part-time position, benefits and course evaluations. The university also wants to restructure seniority standing with a point system that would see current senior positions devalued.

One of the concerns emphasized

by CUPFA was the volume of grievances filed by professors during the

last collective agreement. The negotiating team argued that the massive increase in grievances is due to Concordia not respecting aspects of the agreement since 2009.

According to David Douglas, chair of communications, 21 grievances were filed this year so far and he expects as many as 30 complaints to be submitted by the end of 2012.

Douglas believes the time to pressure the university’s collective bargaining committee is now. CUPFA is not willing to head to the bargaining table for an extended period as they

did for their last contract. It took seven years, from 2002 to 2009, for two parties to reach a settlement and sign a contract.

“Our experience has been one of delay with the university. Last time around we were very polite, they asked can we put you off for a period of time and we said yes,” Douglas told The Concordian. “We don’t have faith in the approach that the university is taking.”

If the university and the union are unable to achieve a negotiation in the near future, CUPFA’s mandate to

strike has the potential to paralyze Concordia with over 800 part-time professors teaching at Concordia now. For the time being, however, the impending strike remains a pressure tactic only.

“What we are focusing on is to keep negotiating. CUPFA has every right to take a strike mandate if they want and this does not mean they are on strike,” said university spokesperson Chris Mota. “We want to keep working towards a contract that can be done sooner rather than later and continue to negotiate.”

CuP STRiKE

The cost of the student strike movement Millions of dollars spent during protests

Matthew Guité Assistant news editor The costs of this year’s student strike movement is the centre of attention yet again as the l’Université du Québec à Montréal claims the protests associated with the university amounted to $20 million and the provincial government estimates that overall costs for all post-secondary institutions are at $40 million and counting.

Both claims, made last week by the university’s rector Claude Corbo and Pierre Duchesne, the minister of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, respectively, attracted attention and criticism.

Martine Desjardins, president of the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec, was critical of the figures provided by UQAM and Duchesne.

“We have information that says it’s not 20 or 40 million dollars,” she said in an interview with The Concordian, “But that the strike cost the government over 150 million dollars, because we explain it to include costs for teachers, for assistants, also for people who work in the libraries. There are a lot of

costs involved.”

“Of course the strike has cost a lot,” Desjardins added. “But I doubt UQAM has $20 million only due to the strike, actually I expect it to be more. They’re trying to get more and more money from the government because they’re a little bit shocked that there are no more tuition fee hikes anymore.”

For Concordia University the estimated costs came to a much lower figure of $226,755.39, all for additional security costs according to Chris Mota, university spokesperson.

“I know at other universities there was physical damage and there were other issues but at Concordia it was only the additional security,” she said.

In terms of security, McGill University devoted $275,233.39 of its budget for additional security while UQAM spent $841,414.95 and the Université de Montréal spent the least at $151,043.19 for the winter semester.

Outside of the education sector, other groups bore heavy costs from the protests as well. While the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal refuses to release any estimates of damage without a formal request filed under the Access to Information Act, the overtime pay for SPVM employees from February to June alone cost a hefty $7.3 million according to figures

File photo

obtained by Radio-Canada earlier this year.

Steve Siozios, president of the Crescent Street Merchant’s Association, told The Concordian that they estimate their losses to be an average loss per business of 20 per cent at the height of the protests.

“We lost 20 per cent in April, May and June,” he said. “But it’s also more extensive than that because it kind of killed the whole summer. It had a very negative effect on merchants.”

Siozios also explained how a false perception of violence and danger in the downtown core scared people from outside of the city away from visiting.

“There were incidents, but it wasn’t as bad as they thought it was,” he said. “All of it has led to a very bad year so far. It’s closed down businesses

already and by year end it’s going to close down more.”

Desjardins, meanwhile, believes the blame for costs lie firmly with the Liberal government, which is currently the official opposition in Quebec.

“They should be ashamed. They should be the ones going out and explaining themselves, why did they take so long to sit at the table and negotiate with us?” she said. “It should have been done earlier and I’m pretty sure we could have achieved an agreement at that time, in April, in March, but they waited for a general election and I think they should be ashamed of themselves.”

“They should be in front of the population and answering questions because we have been losing a lot of money over their way of handling this crisis,” added Desjardins.

CAMPuS

A preview of the upcoming CSU byelections VP academic and advocacy position and council spots slated for the ballot Robin Della Corte Assistant news editor After the recent resignation of Lucia Gallardo, the executive position of VP academic and advocacy is open, along with numerous other seats on council, and will be up for grabs in the upcoming Concordia Student Union byelections this month.

Leaving the position vacant was discussed at the regular council meeting Oct. 26 when councillor and former VP external Chad Walcott motioned to put forth the vacant position in the upcoming byelections.

“I proposed the motion to open up the VP academic position because the CSU should have a full executive,” Walcott said. “The job of an executive is often overwhelming, so I figured if we have a chance to reduce some of the pressure by filling the position then

we should take it.”

Due to Gallardo’s resignation because of student status issues, current members of the executives have taken on her various roles and responsibilities. VP external Simon-Pierre Lauzon and VP sustainability Andrew Roberts have split the portfolio. Since Gallardo stepped down, Lauzon has handled academic affairs and Roberts is in control of the advocacy portfolio.

Schubert Laforest, CSU president, was hesitant to leave the position open because he preferred to appoint someone who he thought would be best suited due to their connections and current work with the CSU. “Council felt it was more convenient to leave the seat open. I just hope people who want to run at least get information on what the job entails, what are the requirements and if they have any experience,” Laforest said.

Laforest went on to say that he is also hesitant because of the timing which is something he wants to “minimize.”

“We’re in the middle of mandate, things are intense, with Senate and all, and the idea of having to train again in the middle, it’s not the same as being elected at the beginning,” he said.

Lauzon voiced his reservations during the meeting, stating that it would be difficult to have a new student join their team. He emphasized that it was a “risk” and that an incoming member might not be beneficial in the long run.

The CSU byelection nominations started yesterday and will proceed until Nov. 9 and forms for applicants are available at the CSU offices on the 7th floor of the Hall building.

Although the executive felt it was unnecessary and unwarranted to open

the seat, the motion passed.

Following the resignations of councillors Juliana Ramos and Laura Glover, additional seats on council are fair game to those seeking a spot.

The seats that are open are one Fine Arts seat, two Arts and Science seats, three John Molson School of Business seats, and three independent student seats.

Laforest states that a few students have stopped by to give their nominations but doesn’t recall any Independent student nominations yet, since those students are a lot harder to find.

“I mean, there’s always worry, you don’t know what you’ll get, and if they’ll be dedicated or not. It’s something you can’t control, but I do have faith,” Laforest said. Thus far, no one has expressed interest in the VP academic and advocacy. The polling dates will be Nov. 27, 28 and 29.

life

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

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Write to the editor: life@theconcordian.com HealTH

Side effects not included How to relieve cold and flu symptoms without popping pills

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Christina rowan Contributor

t’s that awful time of year again. As the season changes, so does the strength of our immune system.

School is in session and germs are lingering around every corner. Somewhere between washing our hands and applying hand sanitizer five times a day, the cold and flu bugs still manage to latch onto us.

Some of the most common and inescapable symptoms one gets when coming down with a cold or flu include coughing, sneezing, sore throat, itching, body ache and fatigue, fever and good old nasal congestion.

The fact of the matter is once a virus is caught the only thing that is sure to eliminate it is time. However, there are many ways in which a person can prevent and relieve irritating symptoms.

Commercial ads for big medicine companies such as NyQuil, Robitussin and Advil publicize the idea that just one pill or dose will make a person look and feel completely normal. However, medicines don’t always do the trick.

More and more people today are looking

to natural remedies such as herbs when relieving themselves of cold and flu symptoms as opposed to popping pills every couple of hours.

“Herbs help us feel better because they treat the symptoms as well as the root of the problem, unlike many pharmaceuticals which mask the symptoms,” said Monica Giacomin, a herbalist and native skills professor at Marianopolis College.

“Using herbs as preventative medicine is an even better solution for maintaining optimum health and energy long-term,” she said.

Some tonic herbs she suggests to try when sick are burdock, garlic, stinging nettle, holy basil, medicinal mushrooms, and seaweed.

For those constantly on the go even through sickness, try a cup of tea instead of a morning coffee. Available at David’s Tea, Cold 911 (without caffeine) and Gail’s Cold Remedy (with caffeine) have mint and are said to release pressure in the nose and soothe the throat.

Once you’ve had your tea for the day and are on your way home, check out some rec-

ommended at-home remedies.

Take a hot steam shower. Not only does the hot water feel good, it relieves symptoms of chest congestion and the steam opens your airways, allowing you to breathe easier.

A Neti Pot literally flushes the nose of mucus, bacteria and viruses using a saline solution. Here’s what you have to do to make your own nasal spray at home. Boil eight ounces of water and then allow the water to cool to room temperature. Pour the water into a sterilized jar or Neti Pot. Add a quater of a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of baking soda to the water and you’re ready to go.

You can also try sucking on some Zinc Lozenges. Just like vitamins, they can be consumed after a meal and are said to boost the immune system’s virus-fighting power.

Lastly, try a spoonful of honey or lemon in your tea. It’s a classic for a reason. It tastes great and is said to help relieve coughing.

So, next time you think to grab a bottle of something from the medicine cabinet, try some of these natural remedies instead. You might be better off!

NuTriTioN

No wheat for you, Montreal!

The Concordian explores the city’s gluten-free scene rebecca De Carlo Contributor

I

’ve recently noticed a new trend rising in the food industry: gluten-free products.

From cereal to pasta, there is an ever-increasing supply of gluten-free food appearing on grocery shelves and in restaurants. I didn’t show an interest in eating gluten-free until this past summer when I read the book Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis, a cardiologist in Wisconsin.

The book explains the harmful effects gluten can have on your body, and can even lead to celiac disease, a condition that damages the lining of the small intestine and prevents it from absorbing parts of food that are important for staying healthy.

After reading the book, I decided to try the gluten-free diet myself. While it was, and continues to be, difficult to find gluten-free foods, I feel healthier and more energetic, which according to Wheat Belly, are positive side effects from not eating gluten. While I chose to adopt new eating habits, there are those who are forced to lead a gluten-free lifestyle due to celiac disease and gluten-intolerance.

I had the chance to speak with Louise Pearl who was diagnosed with celiac disease nine years ago, and is the founder and owner of Louise’s Gluten Free Table in Dorval. She decided to open her own gluten-free grocery store and

bakery because she was frustrated at the lack of gluten-free products in her local grocery stores.

“While there is a loss of freedom in the choices of food I can eat, I feel much better,” said Pearl.

Whether you decide to take on a gluten-free diet by choice or not, it is difficult to find good food to accommodate this diet. As for people diagnosed with celiac disease, it isn’t as simple as eating products that are sans gluten. They need to be aware of cross-contamination, which can make it all the more difficult to eat out. Restaurants are sometimes ignorant of the sensitivity level and simply include gluten-free dishes to the menu because of the current trend. So we decided to take on the challenge and help you discover some of Montreal’s best gluten-free, celiac-friendly restaurants.

For fresh and delicious food try La Carreta.

An authentic Salvadorian restaurant. It is a family-owned restaurant in the neighbourhood of Rosemont — La Petite-Patrie. All the enchiladas are gluten-free, and anything else you desire, aside from the chimichangas, can be prepared without gluten ingredients. The best part of this restaurant is that the food is naturally gluten-free from El Salvador!

Another great Montreal place is Zero8, a hypoallergenic restaurant. Its name says it all because it means that their dishes are free of gluten and do not contain eight common allergens such as fish, shellfish, soy, dairy, egg, and nuts. It offers a wide variety of dishes and $5 glasses of rosé wine. Zero8 also makes their own ketchup and has gluten-free soap in their dispensers!

They are extremely accommodating and attentive; a sanctuary for celiacs.

Zero8, one of Montreal’s hypoallergenic restaurants. photo by leslie schachter Ottavio will satisfy your craving for great Italian food, sans gluten! This restaurant is in a great location and you can even bring your own wine. There is a specific gluten-free menu that includes pizza, pasta, and dessert, and there are even dairy-free options as well. On the menu, they inform their customers that they are aware of cross-contamination, serving the gluten-free meals on red plates to ensure there is no confusion.

The more I have looked into Montreal’s glu-

ten-free scene, I have come to realize that there are more options than I thought. More and more restaurants are becoming gluten-free friendly, offering amazing and diverse options on their menus.

Louise’s Gluten Free Table is located on 475 Dumont, suite 109. La Caretta is located on 350 St-Zotique St. E. Zero8 is located on 1735 St-Denis St. Ottavio is located on 6880 Jean-Talon St. E.

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Kazu: an izakaya worth trying

This restaurant is a pleasant surprise olivia Jones Contributor

W

hile there aren’t as many izakayas in Montreal as one would hope, Kazu does fill the void. An izakaya is a Japanese drinkery where the food is just an added bonus to the cheap drinks.

At first glance, Kazu seemed a little dingy, but once you walk in, it was pleasant and intimate. There is a crowded bar, an eating area with individual seating and six tables. While it may be tight, the lack of space creates a friendly vibe among all the customers. Although if it is privacy you want, this may not be the best place.

The decor is quite particular at Kazu. The menus are pieces of coloured paper taped onto the walls and are written with what looks like faded highlighters. The customers are given a sheet of paper in a ripped plastic protector, covered with taped Post-it notes, with different choices of appetizers like eggplant dip, cooked soybeans and fried tofu. Not exactly your typical menu.

When I asked the waitress what the specialties were, she replied, “Anything with seafood!” which consists of about half the menu. There is, however, quite a variety aside from seafood, such as chicken, beef and pork. Like a typical izakaya, they serve sushi, ramen soups and vegetarian meals. Their signature dish is their homemade ice cream and ice cold green tea.

There is a small selection of imported beers, and of course, sake.

I decided to order the tuna and salmon tartar with rice. I have to admit, my skepticism got the best of me when I first walked in, especially when I saw the waitress come with our food on chipped dishes. All my worries vanished after the first bite. I instantly fell in love with the place. Aside from being delicious, all the orders came with a bite-sized appetizer of egg and soya soup or potato and lettuce salad. The portions are extremely generous, and the prices are respectable. A budget of $12 to $20 is plenty for a good meal at Kazu.

For people on the go who enjoy a good Japanese meal, Kazu offers takeout. Perfect for students who want a quick quality lunch.

Although the open-concept kitchen can be quite noisy, it’s always fun to watch chefs at work. Luckily, the selection of soothing piano

music does drown out the noisy kitchen making the atmosphere more relaxing and pleasant.

The service is quick, and the waiters are friendly and accommodating, which is a plus for customer service. It is open from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. for lunch and from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. everyday except for Tuesdays and for lunch on Saturdays.

Considering the restaurant is small and usually very crowded, I would suggest arriving when doors open if you don’t want to wait. The line goes all the way outside and onto the street on busy days, which is something to keep in mind if you are on a tight schedule.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised. If you’re craving Japanese food, I would definitely recommend giving Kazu a try!

Kazu is located downtown, on 1862 Ste-Catherine St. W.

KaZu offers authentic goodies. photo (top) by Madelayne hajeK and flicKr (bottoM)

Bar

Drinking from a mason jar is the only way to go la Distillerie takes the cocktail to a whole new level, while keeping things cool and casual

sara Baron-Goodman Contributor La Distillerie, with its dark, intimate atmosphere and seemingly endless list of cocktails served up in mason jars, is every bit as unpretentious as it is trendy.

Of the three locations, I opted to quench my thirst at the original one.

With a capacity of approximately 56 people the vibe was cozy yet cool, with a spattering of tall wooden bars and low round tables to congregate at. The bar glittered with bottles of every type of alcohol conceivable and blackboards on each wall offered suggested drinks.

In the corner near the door, one of these such blackboards had Distillerie’s golden rules, from encouraging patrons to pose questions to the barman to discouraging hopeful underage drinkers (but kindly inviting them back to celebrate their 18th birthday).

Known for its original drinks, the Distill-

erie menu features everything from your classic mojito, to their twist on a tequila sunrise renamed as the Yariba Yariba, to the old fashioned affectionately dubbed, the Mad Man. The bartenders, or mixologists, can fix you up pretty much anything your heart desires, if somehow you can’t find something to your taste on their extensive menu.

My heart was won, however, when several seconds after taking my seat the server set down a mason jar filled with goldfish crackers in front of me and kept them coming all night.

Distillerie publishes its own magazine, L’Alambic, featuring seasonal specialty drinks as well as their standard cocktail menu. Each season, L’Alambic focuses around a theme, and for this fall it’s burlesque. The stars of the show were concoctions based on Chartreuse, Amarula and whiskey.

I decided to sample the seasonal Winter High Heels, made with Chartreuse, vodka, mint leaves, cranberry juice and apple cider.

It was a perfect blend of herbal and sweet, and maybe went down a little too smoothly. For Distillerie’s mixologists bartending is a craft, and they don’t hold back on filling those mason jars with hefty doses of booze.

The service was attentive and it didn’t take long for our drinks to appear after ordering. With that being said, trying to flag down the server for our bill proved to be a little more difficult.

Even at 5 p.m. on a weekday, the place

Photos by Leslie Schachter

was pleasantly crowded with fellow studenttypes reaping the benefits of happy hour. Every evening from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., Distillerie gives its patrons one more reason to slurp back a few of their cocktails: the larger 14 oz. mason jars are $3 cheaper. Normally the large size jars range from $17 to $19, while the smaller versions are between $8.50 and $10.

Bar-goers gave off a laid back vibe, with small groups immersed in conversation throughout the modestly sized room. The music, an eclectic mix of early 2000s pop, was just loud enough to drown out the voices

of those around you, but not too loud to inhibit conversation around one’s own table.

The sartorial favourite of Distillerie’s patrons seemed to be plaid shirts and jeans, with the occasional appearance of ripped tights or a floral dress. It’s definitely a casual place, so if you’re looking to get dolled up and wear Photo by writer your most highest heels, go elsewhere. However the atmosphere oozes trendiness, making it a haven for hip 20-somethings.

La Distillerie is located on 300 Ontario St. E., 2047 Mont-Royal Ave., and 2656 Masson St.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

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HealTH

While the mind’s away, your thoughts will play How letting your mind wander can work wonders andrew Guilbert staff writer When he was faced with a particularly vexing problem, Albert Einstein had a simple method for coming up with a solution: he would pick up his violin and improvise melodies. Soon enough he’d experience the elusive “eureka” moment, put down his instrument and resume his work.

Though this may seem like the eccentric approach of an unconventional mind, it is actually grounded in science. A new study from the University of California in Santa Barbara claims that it’s actually in your best interest to indulge in the occasional bout of mental meandering. Researchers at the university asked participants to perform an “unusual use task,” in which they had to come up with as many uses for an object as they could, and then split into four groups.

The first group then performed a demanding task, the second an undemanding task, the third took a break and the fourth immediately repeated the “unusual use task.”

What the study showed was that only those who completed the undemanding task showed significant improvement the second time around. The study concluded that “engaging in simple external tasks that allow the mind to wander may facilitate creative problem solving” and the implications of this could be substantial.

“The discovery that under the appropriate circumstances mind-wandering can foster creative processes could eventually lead to

the development of programs and techniques that facilitate creative incubation in professional and pedagogical domains,” said Benjamin Baird, co-author of the study.

He mentioned programs like Google’s ‘20 per cent time’ and 3M’s ‘15 per cent program’, which allow employees to pursue special projects on company time, as evidence that the business world has lost no time in taking advantage of this fact.

They are programs that allow their employees to take a portion of their paid time

to decompress and let their imagination and creative thoughts take over. He thinks that further research like his could provide “the foundation for programs like this to become part of the structure of competitive businesses and other institutions in a society increasingly driven by innovative ideas.”

In her article Rest Is Not Idleness: Implications of the Brain’s Default Mode for Human Development and Education, University of Southern California professor Mary Helen Immordino-Yang argues that the “time off”

our brains take also enables us to make sense of our past as well as prepare for the future.

“Rest isn’t idleness, we are doing something, we’re making meaning out of our experiences, rehashing and formulating them into coherent narratives that we can then make into personal memories we can learn from and move forward with.”

She also suggests that this down time allows our brain to appreciate and imagine hypothetical and future scenarios that allow us to try on sets of events before they happen and get a sense of what the possibilities are for the future.

“We know that these kinds of future oriented mindsets and the ability to imagine hypothetical events in the future is critical for success, especially academic success.”

Though Einstein played the violin in search of answers, keep in mind that Nero fiddled while Rome burned; before you go flitting off into flights of fancy, be aware that your daydreaming is a double-edged sword.

According to one study from researchers at the University of North Carolina, daydreaming can actually be detrimental to whatever task you find yourself escaping from. Allowing the mind to wander “tends to lead to poorer performance on whatever ongoing activities we’re partaking in,” said professor Michael Kane, the author of the study. “In part this seems to be because we do less processing of the external world while mind wandering, and we are less likely to over-ride automatic, ‘auto-pilot’ responses while engaged in task-unrelated thoughts.”

So in short, do feel free to let your mind wander, just make sure that it doesn’t go too far.

HealTH

The biological clock waits for no woman How prolonging childbearing could lead to future disappointments for a new generation of ladies sabrina Giancioppi Contributor You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today. And then one day you find 10 years have got behind you. No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

There is a reason why Meg Jay, clinical psychologist and author of The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter – and How to Make the Most of Them Now begins her book with Pink Floyd’s iconic song “Time.”

Earlier this year, Jay wrote an article for the Huffington Post concerning her book and the “9 Ways Twentysomethings Screw up Their Lives,” highlighting the quarter life crisis that people our age are experiencing. Are we squandering the most transformative and foundational years of our adults lives?

Most of her points are frighteningly valid and can provide any 20-year-old with some introspection. However, she makes a controversial point, that some may find teeters the brink of anti-feminism, when she says women in their 20s are “ignoring their ovaries.”

Being 21, married, and carrying a baby was common for our grandparents, however a cultural shift has occurred within the last generation or so. Women seem more concerned with managing their careers and personal schedules rather than a baby bottle and diaper changes. As user-friendly birth control flooded the market and women began flooding the workplace, Jay argues that “by

the new millennium, only about half of 20 year olds were married and by the age of 30 even fewer had children, making the 20s a time of newfound freedom.”

Women seem constantly bombarded with mixed messages. Not only are they pressured to balance school, work, love and money, but they are now being told that they have to start timing when they want to have babies. Despite marriage and family still being an active and important part of a woman’s future, it seems that women are figuring out their place separate from the mother and wife role.

Celebrities like Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Brooke Shields, and Halle Berry have

helped glamourize childbearing between the ages of 40 and 50. Women feel less pressured to marry and have children early.

Jay argues that, at 35, a woman’s ability to have a baby drops considerably and that women need to inform themselves about fertility in their 20s to avoid the troubles that come with trying to get pregnant in later years.

Laura Diogo, a 22-year-old psychology undergraduate at Concordia, said she agreed with Jay’s points.

“Most 20-somethings are still in university, living on their own, working to pay the rent and don’t have the time or money to support

a new family,” said Diogo. “I think it is important for every woman to be informed about their fertility.”

It seems hard enough to manage a school and work schedule without the ticking sounds of our biological clock. While Jay argues that 30 is not the new 20, she fails to consider alternative reasons why some women are waiting longer to start their families. As much as I want to believe women can ‘have it all’, the fact of the matter is, women today are faced with some very difficult decisions and it pays to get your priorities sorted out sooner rather than later.

Graphic by Jennifer Kwan

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Tuesday, November 6, 2012 resTo

Calling all bakers and cake lovers Montreal’s first ever Cake show and Design Competition comes to Vanier College Nicole Yeba staff writer

O

n Oct. 27 and 28, Montreal had its first Cake Show and Design Competition at the Sports complex of Vanier College. For their first edition, it was surprisingly well organized and all proceeds went to the charitable organization Dans la Rue, which works with at-risk youth.

There were three different sections in separate rooms on the Saturday, and the main room had the cake exposition with more than a dozen vendors.

The second room had the cupcake challenge from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The theme of the cupcakes was the ‘city of Montreal’, which led to original flavours and decorations from the 19 participants.

Alicia Barrett of Leece Design is a Concordia alumni who works in graphic design and bakes in her free time. Her cupcakes were adorable and displayed on plates with a multitude of different frosting colours.

“I would rather do something well than not do it,” said Barrett. “I believe that you have to be passionate and devote your time.”

The third room had baking classes for both children and adults. A space was also arranged for people who wanted to sit and enjoy their treats. Both days had a total of 29 classes, with two classes for children under 11.

Paige McEachren, the event’s executive director, was thrilled with the event and said that next year they might have to move locations, to accommodate an even bigger audience.

Montreal-theMed cupcaKes on display at this year’s caKe show and design coMpetition, held at Vanier college. photo by nicole yeba

ColuMN

Pumpkin cranberry walnut bread a fall-themed treat packed with protein and fruit that promises to satisfy your sweet tooth

Photo by writer

Chelsea singer staff writer Even with Halloween festivities behind us and the falling of the leaves, it seems like everyone is still on the pumpkin-lovin’ train. I’m sure you’ve already had your fair share of pumpkin lattes, studied with the

help of a pumpkin candle, scrounged the stores for pumpkin tea, perhaps capped off your Thanksgiving dinner with too many slices of pumpkin pie.

Whether or not you chose to adorn your front steps with pumpkins, their abundance has without a doubt had you seeing a lot of orange!

With all this exposure to the festive squash, it’s difficult to not find yourself with the sudden unexplained craving. So how about a comforting pumpkin bread that guarantees to satisfy without weighing you down?

Not only does pumpkin smell and taste delicious, but it’s great for you. Besides being low in calories and fat, it also has antiaging benefits due to the high carotenoid content, responsible for that intense orange color also found in carrots and sweet potatoes, which is great for your skin and eyesight.

This super squash’s high vitamin C value may also be just what you need to ward off any unwanted viruses with the start of flu season.

Finally, the high fiber content from the pumpkin and the whole wheat flour promises to keep you full during those early morning classes. Just make sure to buy canned pumpkin purée rather than the pumpkin pie filling! The huge can will yield lots of leftovers.

Great for breakfast, or maybe just as a snack paired with your pumpkin beverage of choice, this bread will surely do the trick.

Ingredients 3 egg whites 1 3 / 4 cups canned pumpkin purée 1 cup sugar (or sweetener of choice) 1 tbsp. maple syrup 2 cups whole wheat flour 1 tsp. baking soda 1 tbsp. ground cinnamon 1 / 4 tsp. ground cloves 1 / 4 tsp. ground ginger 1 cup fresh or dried cranberries 1 / 2 walnuts, chopped (Optional-chocolate chips, raisins, pumpkin seeds, other nuts) Instructions 1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a loaf pan with aluminium foil and spray with cooking spray (for easy removal) or just spray pan directly.

2. Add the wet ingredients and mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix all the dry ingredients. Add the wet to the dry, mixing until fully incorporated.

3. Pour the mixture into your loaf pan, spreading it out evenly to reach all sides and smoothing it out at the top. Bake for 55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Bon appétit!

arts

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

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Write to the editor: arts@theconcordian.com profile

“We are the creators of our own story” founder of performance group 8th Generation, Jacqui Du Toit, tells her story of pain and persistence emilie pirson Contributor Originally from South Africa, Jacqui Du Toit came to Canada to be a Zulu dancer as part of the Amakhosi Circus. But hours of long training and strong determination all came tumbling down when Du Toit tore a ligament during practice — an injury that left her unable to dance again.

Shortly after, the Amakhosi Circus came to an abrupt end, as the shows began drawing fewer spectators and the show eventually went bankrupt.

After this disappointing end, Du Toit had to build a new life, she yearned to discover herself, to earn a living, and to start a family. Her quest to start over brought Du Toit to Ottawa, where she struggled to get by and financially support herself.

The formation of the performance company 8th Generation, and the upcoming performance of Du Toit’s new play Eden, show just how far she has come.

“We want to cross borders and cross this invisible wall between audience and the artists,” she said. Eden sets forward an important message about believing in one’s dreams, and thriving to make them come true.

Du Toit went on to explain that all the artists who contributed to the making of Eden influenced the play and found their own connections.

“I don’t know where I found them,” laughs Du Toit. “I just did.” The group 8th Generation consists of eight different artists and was founded at the beginning of this year. It started off with minor performances in a local art gallery in Ottawa, combining different dance styles, theatre, music and mime, to create a masterwork of art.

The collaboration of 8th Generation is founded on equality, sharing, and a profound love for life through art. “It was magically formed, the perfect timing,” she said.

For Du Toit, this group emerged from a profound determination to create her own work. “I

Multi-talented artists froM the perforMance group 8th generation perforM the play EdEn, directed by group founder Jacqui du toit. never had the guts to do something that speaks in my heart, because I didn’t know what was in my heart at the time,” Du Toit said.

Eden is the powerful, heart wrenching story of a young girl’s personal evolution as she searches for her silver charms, which had been taken away from her by strange creatures from a different world. Her journey takes on a psychological aspect as the various creatures

she encounters on her travels open her eyes to a new way of life and a new way of thinking.

Going beyond the fictional story, this production brings the audience on a journey through one’s self, a quest to understand the reality of human being and the way we work. Du Toit explained that her own adventures metaphorically mirror young Eden’s psychological quest for self discovery.

“We forget that we are the creators of our own story, but we give this power away because of attachments,” Du Toit said.

Eden played on Saturday Nov. 3 as a trial run. Du Toit called it a way for the troupe to “see the vibe in Montreal.” She said 8th Generation hopes to be back in Montreal for the spring, possibly collaborating with Theatre Ste. Catherine.

exHibiT

Creation in progress: Don’t miss HOT MESS

The HiVeMiND Collective unites studio and gallery experience Ariana Trigueros Corbo Contributor

For those of you who find yourselves wandering Concordia’s campus in the coming week, the HOT MESS exhibit at the VAV gallery will definitely lure you in as you pass by the Visual Arts building. Passersby will be stunned by the earth-like tones of color and the sheer size of this mixed media exhibit; a mix of sculpture, painting and drawing that will attract both the art aficionado or the debutant, and that acts like a magnet for sidewalk spectators walking down René-Levesque Blvd.

The HIVEMIND collective is a group of three

fine arts undergraduate students at Concordia: Maya Cardin, Leigh Macrae and Stephanie EM Coleman. They have been collaborating for the better part of the past two years building two select exhibits. The first, Home Paralleled, was shown at the Ctrl Lab art house on St-Laurent blvd. two years ago. Then, earlier this year, they received a grant to use the space at the VAV Gallery for their second exhibit, HOT MESS. The exhibit, unlike most, allows spectators to see the artists build onto their work in the gallery, rather than exhibiting it as a “finished” product.

The point of the exhibit is to really immerse the spectators in the artistic process that would normally occur in a studio.

The trio explained that they wanted people to be able to witness art as a celebration, not see it in a “traditional” or “sterile” way.

The members of HIVEMIND feel the process of working together is mutually fulfilling.

In the gallery it’s impossible to truly differentiate where one artist’s work begins or ends.

In the dynamic workspace that these artists have created, it’s clear that what they are looking to do is create an impact on their audience.

Ultimately what is so impressive about the HOT MESS exhibit is that, because the work of all these artists is so closely correlated, it simply takes on a life of its own. The artists work with neutral objects, like their signature hive stamp, which, being a recurrent symbols in the work becomes a “transition” piece that embeds the diverse parts of the exhibit together. “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts” seems to be the mantra for this particular collaboration.

Check out the video tour of HOT MESS at theconcordian.com. To view samples of HIVEMIND’s work visit their site planetoidruins. tumblr.com.

a painting froM the exhibit at gallery VaV.

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Tuesday, November 6, 2012 show

theconcordian

Shimmy until your garters break The beer won’t be bootleg but the Bang! Bang! cabaret will be ‘the bee’s knees’ Sara Baron-Goodman Contributor If you thought Gatsby threw a good party, he had nothing on what’s expected for Bang! Bang!, a prohibition themed cabaret hosted by Circantique.

The evening will begin at 8 p.m. on Nov. 10 in Bain Mathieu’s event salon and will feature local circus and burlesque acts alongside swingin’ tunes from 11-piece band, The Unsettlers.

“We’re looking for people who aren’t members of Cirque du Soleil,” said Mitchell Bundy, who’s in charge of press for Circantique, emphasizing the underground nature of the event. “A lot of [our performers] are fresh out of circus school, a lot of first-timers.”

Amongst up-and-comers there are also renowned names like burlesque performers BonBon Bombay and Cherry Typhoon, as well as contortionist Petite Pandora.

At around 11 p.m. the theatrics will come

to an end, but the night isn’t over. Audience members are encouraged to stick around for an evening of electro swing hosted by ‘Montreal Speakeasy Electro Swing’ DJs Khalil and Don Mescal.

“Speakeasy Electro Swing normally operates out of Sala Rossa so this is their opportunity to fill up a bigger space,” Bundy said of their partnership for the night.

Up to 500 people are expected to attend the Bang! Bang! afterparty.

Circantique’s aim for the event, which is part one in a series to come, is to specifically highlight different eras under the umbrella of offering unique performances and a night of uninhibited fun.

“This is the second show of Circantique, the first show was called Arena,” explained Bundy.

The 1920s is a perfect backdrop for such extravagant performances and partying the night away. It also helps that this decade seems to be particularly trendy right now, owing in part to the impending release of

the newest film adaptation of The Great Gatsby.

“Montreal has been all over the whole swing movement, the swing revival. Every night you can find a swing dance,” Bundy said. “People don’t look at you funnily if you walk down the street wearing a fedora.“ So fellas, slick your hair back and put on your buckle dancing shoes. Dolls, don that fringe and get your flashiest dress ready.

“Costumes are encouraged and everyone who’s dressed up will get [to pay] $20 at the door, otherwise its $25,” said Bundy.

“There’s definitely enough vintage to go around in Montreal so no excuses!”

The good news is you can pick up your flapper outfit when you go get your ticket in store at Kitsch n’ Swell or Cruella. Tickets are also available online at www.circantique.com.

Bang! Bang! Prohibition Cabaret takes place at 8 p.m. on Nov. 10 at Bain Mathieu, 2915 Ontario St. E.

Bang! Bang! Cabaret performer, Esmeralda.

Review

A foregone conclusion, but a new preface Harlem Duet gives a backstory to Shakespeare’s masterful Othello, set in the post-civil rights era

Actors Lucinda davis and Dave LaPommeray star in Djanet Sear’s Harlem Duet, a dramatic preface to Shakespeare’s timeless Othello, playing until Nov. 11 at the Segal Centre.

Gurjot Bains Contributor

W

illiam Shakespeare’s Othello has often made people uncomfortable. As the only black male lead in all of Shakespeare’s 37 plays, this character is remembered most for the shocking act of murdering his white wife Desdemona. For decades, the part of Othello has been portrayed by white men with charcoaled blue-black faces (a rather unnatural shade, for any human), and eventually by black actors such as Paul Robeson. There is even an inverted version, starring Patrick Stewart as Othello, in an all-black cast. Scholars and citizens alike have struggled with this character, who is both poet and lover as well as an insecure, crazed murderer. How does a man who has earned such a golden reputation, who loves so fully, become completely mad over a missing handkerchief?

Djanet Sears attempts to explain this in her prequel to the Othello story, Harlem Duet, which opened Oct. 24 at the Segal Centre. The

story of Harlem Duet is meant to be the leadup to the plot that takes place in Shakespeare’s Othello, however it takes place in post-civil rights America.

Directed by Mike Payette, Harlem Duet is told from the perspective of Othello’s first wife, Billie, who is black. Othello (Dave LaPommeray) abandons Billie in their apartment, located on the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X Street, in order to move in with, support and marry his white mistress, Mona.

To say that Harlem Duet is multi-layered is an understatement. Sears has written a play that dives into the wild ocean of race and power, and then bursts into the air, revealing even more complexity than when it began.

The intimacy of the Segal Theatre provides ample viewing of the kitchen, stairwell and Othello and Billie’s bedroom. The talented cast further transport the audience into a world of hardship, passionate love, intellectual debate, heartache, and betrayal. Billie, brilliantly played by Lucinda Davis, used her

portrayal of emotions to mesmerize the audience in every scene. Every single character left an impression, but the light-hearted Magi, played by Neema Bickersteth, and the forgivable Canada, played by Jeremiah Sparks, commanded the stage, with what appeared to be an effortless presence.

Why does Othello leave Billie, the wife he loved and cherished for nine years, for Mona?

It is this question that is unravelled through the use of flashback, heated discussions (revealing Billie’s sharp intelligence) and various audio narrations between scene changes.

These narrations included key bits of speeches and feature Martin Luther King Jr.,Morgan Freeman and President Barack Obama.

As we start to see Othello’s need to move to a white identity, in order to be seen as a “real man,” we also see that he is still in love with Billie, making him the most difficult character to digest. It is exactly this lack of ease, combined with explosive bits of humour, that make this play so outstanding. Sears has managed to simultaneously bring forth issues of

the “whitification” of black characters, and the amount of injustices faced by black Americans.

The most fiery and honest discussions occur between Billie and Othello, which beautifully reveal how perfectly these two fit together.

All the while, we are painfully reminded that Othello feels that this type of sincerity does not serve him as man in American society, so he marches on in his plans to marry Mona.

Mixing themes of love, history, ideologies, race and colour, Sears, Payette, and the incredibly skilled actors at the Black Theatre Workshop have forged a genuine crystal of a play.

This multi-faceted jewel will provoke different reflections for each viewer. Whether you have a background in literature, a curiosity about race in North America, or a wish to experience fantastic play writing and performance, Harlem Duet is an exceptional experience that is not to be missed.

Harlem Duet plays until Nov. 11 at the Segal Centre. For showtimes and ticket information visit blacktheatreworkshop.ca

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Follow us on Twitter: @TheConcordian

11

CiNeMA poliTiCA

What does ‘green’ really mean?

Carbon Rush and the corporate illusion of environmental endeavors Ariana Trigueros-Corbo staff writer In light of the impact of Hurricane Sandy, global warming and the environment have once again become trending topics. This is why Cinema Politica’s screening of Carbon Rush, a documentary by Amy Miller, seems incredibly apropos. In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol put in place three market mechanisms in order to help industrialized countries reach their greenhouse gas emission targets. These mechanisms were all derived forms of the carbon credits system, in which major companies were allowed to resell their unused quota of permitted emissions to other, more polluting companies. The documentary delves into the corrupted world of numerous projects that, for years, have been feeding off the revenue created by the “carbon credits market” without necessarily improving their environmental standpoint.

The Vallourec & Mannesmann company in Brazil, for instance, has been receiving funding for it’s “Vallourec Project” since 2006, claiming that it’s using renewable energy from eucalyptus plants, which are used instead of traditional charcoal in the production of steel.

If managed properly, a plantation of this exotic plant is considered sustainable, particularly because it can be endlessly replanted in the

Andria Caputo staff writer

W

same spread of soil. The reality of things is a lot more disheartening. The documentary shows the company moving entire villages out of the fertile fields where they’ve been living for decades in order to plant its eucalyptus. The eucalyptus plants are then harvested in order to be burned, rather than being left in nature to encourage environmental development the way the company has promised.

The plants that are burned are then processed in a fabric and shipped off as the final product to countries abroad. At no point in this process do the company’s endeavors be-

come environmentally viable. The burning of the eucalyptus creates massive amounts of carbon and the company’s endeavors not only ruin local agricultural production and living conditions, but also contradict the idea of their supposed green initiative. The documentary is filled with shockingly corrupt examples such as this one and sheds light on the state of environmental concern on the corporate level, without being overly alarmist.

Carbon Rush screens Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. in Room H-110 at 1455 de Maisonneuve.

I don’t wanna stop at all...or do I? Smashed breaks the addict film mould, taking a clear look at alcoholism sofia Gay Contributor From the story of doomed lovers with a penchant for heroin, (think Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish in Candy) to biopics of individuals who succumb to their addictions (Gia, Factory Girl), substance abuse is the subject that keeps on giving. Depicted through countless filmmakers’ lenses these films have a tendency to glamourize addiction by linking it to a specific locations or by making relationships seem more intense and passionate as a result of the use of drugs and alcohol.

This is why we’re lucky to have films like James Ponsoldt’s Smashed. The film removes the hazy lens of romanticism and instead favours a clear, hard look at Mary elizabeth Winstead and aaron hall play a couple struggling With alcoholisM in their neW filM. the struggle of alcoholism and trying to get sober.

Elementary school teacher Kate, (played Enter her colleague Dave, played by Parks are, despite their starkness, beautiful. Ponsoldt brilliantly by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, whom and Recreation’s Nick Offerman, who takes gives a lot of camera time to faces, especially you’ll recognize from the gory horror film Fi- her to an AA meeting. There she meets Jenny close-ups of Winstead, as if he were trying to nal Destination 3 and borefest Scott Pilgrim vs. (Octavia Spencer, who is criminally underused use the camera as an X-ray machine to show the World), is madly in love with her husband in this film) and seems to be on her way to re- us exactly what they are thinking.

Charlie (portrayed by Aaron Paul, best known covery. yet Kate faces the biggest roadblock in There’s a reason why Smashed turned as Walter White’s sidekick on Breaking Bad.) Charlie, who despises recovery programs. Their heads (and picked up a Special Jury Prize at As much as they love each other, there is a relationship begins to disintegrate as he stub- Sundance this year). There is a tangible sense third partner in their relationship, and its name bornly keeps drinking while she sulks alone and of reality that permeates through the film. is alcohol. sober at home. The turmoil eventually reaches Smashed excels at honestly portraying the stigWhile Charlie is able to drink as much as a peak as Kate and Charlie have a tempestuous ma of alcoholism and showing how resisting he wants and still end up sleeping in his own fight, and it’s both the most memorable and the urge to drink is only the first of the complibed, Kate winds up finding herself in different hair-raising moment in the film. cations that being sober brings. While an exsituations, each one more depressing and danThe strongest vein of Smashed is Win- cellent film, its harshness leaves a bitter taste gerous than the next. She boozes in her car, stead’s performance, which carries the entire in your mouth, not unlike that of the whiskey steals alcohol when the store clerk won’t sell it film. While the other actors are equally en- Kate favours. But sometimes watching or doing to her and unceremoniously throws up in front trenched in their characters, the script does something that feels difficult is a good thing. of her class one morning. But it’s when she not allow for them to be as fully fleshed out as ends up smoking crack with a homeless pros- Kate, which is unfortunate.

Smashed is playing at Cineplex-Odeon titute after leaving the bar one night, that she Visually, it’s stunning. The shots where Forum, check your local listings for movie decides to get sober.

Kate is waking up in parks and under bridges showtimes.

e all have our favourite children’s books and for many of us we have that one book in particular that we loved the most. Whether that book was Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are or Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, children’s books have marked us in a significant way. Although we’ve outgrown the cradle, kids books can still be relevant in our adult lives because they offer a different and a more hopeful perspective on things we seem to lose sight of as we grow older.

Today’s literature is slowly but surely giving classic kids books a run for their money. A great example of this is Kyo Maclear’s Virginia Wolf.

Illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault (who is nominated for a Governor General’s literary award), the book tells the story of two sisters; Vanessa and Virginia, an obvious allusion to writer Virginia Woolf, and painter Vanessa Bell, her sister.

In the book, Vanessa’s sister is feeling “wolfish” and Vanessa, wanting to help her sister, decides to paint a whole mural of her sister’s perfect imaginary place called Bloomsberry. Virginia is instantly cheered up.

The real lives of Virginia and Vanessa are rather melancholic, but Maclear and Arsenault take simple words and stunning illustrations and turn a tale of sisterhood into a beautiful children’s story about overcoming fears and doing something beautiful for someone you love. Virginia Wolf is the perfect example of a children’s story that takes real life adult events and turns them into a more hopeful situation. This is exactly what we need as adults, since our sometimes cynical views tend to overpower the bigger picture.

Judd Palmer’s The Umbrella, also nominated for a Governor General’s award, is about a black umbrella which is a man’s sole companion.

When the umbrella gets ruined, a sinister crow tells the umbrella that the man will no longer love him. However, the man continues to love his umbrella. This story demonstrates the purity of love and how “true love is always returned.”

The crow represents the challenges and people we face that force us to doubt ourselves and the ones we love. Palmer’s metaphors make this book and its message easily relatable to adults.

One thing people tend to forget about kids books is that they are written and illustrated by adults. Even though their target audiences are children under the ages of eight, anyone, whether you’re 18 or 80, can enjoy them.

Chloé Beaudet-Centomo, a second-year political science student at Université de Montréal said she feels that “kids books present the facts of life in a way that a child can easily comprehend.” Although the message in children’s books is somewhat simple, Beaudet-Centomo thinks a simple message is often better, even for adults.

“Kids books use imagery to represent situations we deal with in real life, and most importantly, kids literature is inherently hopeful,” she said.

Katherine Beauséjour, a second-year administration student at Concordia’s John Molson School of Business said she thinks that, although kids books consist mostly of bright and colorful images, they still have significant storylines.

“They convey strong messages,” said Beauséjour. “People should keep reading kids books because they remind you of the small, important stuff in life that one should enjoy.”

Books like Virginia Wolf and The Umbrella, do just that. They have beautiful images and easy to follow, yet entertaining storylines. Children’s literature can still be significant in your adult life, if you’re willing to read between the lines and enjoy a simple, yet meaningful story.

As C.S. Lewis once said, “A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.”

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Tuesday, November 6, 2012

fiCTioN

theconcordian

Tourne au Rouge part 2 of an ongoing fictional story from our staff writer Andy fidel

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

-Leo Tolstoy

“

Get out of my room!”

Anya leaped forward and shoved Todd aside, so hard and fast that he stumbled backwards and hit his head against the bed frame. The loud thud resounded throughout the house. Mary-Anne and Papa quickly appeared. Mary-Anne rushed to Todd but Papa merely stood in the door frame and looked at Anya. She clenched her teeth, not meeting Papa’s eyes, and ran a finger along the jagged edge of the merry-go-round where the horse’s leg had snapped off. Mary-Anne cradled Todd in her arms as he wiped his nose on his sleeve, the broken piece held tightly in his little hand. Rubbing the stubble on his chin, Papa looked pointedly at Anya.

Anya said: “It was an accident.”

Papa held up a warning finger. “I want you to—” “He was in my room again.”

“An—” “He broke it!” said Anya, barely keeping her voice below a shout. “It was Ma’s.”

Papa grabbed her by the arms and shook her, “Anya!” The key at the end of her necklace slipped from her blouse and swung violently.

“That’s not a reason,” said Papa. “I want you to apologize to Todd.”

Their eyes met. Anya gaped at him like a fish out of water, eyes wide and glazed.

With her back against the wall, Anya slouched outside Todd’s bedroom as Mary-Anne read Todd The Three Little Pigs. Papa chuckled in the armchair by the bookcase.

“Little pig, little pig, let me come in.”

Todd put his finger to his nose and frowned.

“Mmm…” He leaned his head back as far as he could, and then shouted, “No!” Mary-Anne said: “Then I’ll huff,” she put the book down on the bedside table. “And I’ll puff,” she raised her hands as if they were claws and loomed over Todd’s head, “And I’ll blow your house down!” Todd burst out laughing, squirming as Mary-Anne pinned him down and blew raspberries on his belly.

“Alright, kiddo,” said Papa, “time for bed.”

Quickly, Anya tiptoed back into bed and pulled the covers up. She shut her eyes and pretended to be asleep as Papa came into her bedroom. He brushed her hair from her face and kissed her goodnight. Anya waited until Papa and Mary-Anne went downstairs and she could hear the faint murmur of the television before taking the music box out from under the sheets. She set it beside her pillow and unclasped her mother’s necklace. Anya pushed the key into the winding hole, and turned it. With her head against the pillow, she hummed along to the cheery tune and watched the horses prance, spinning round n’ round n’ round … and round.

It was dark, but the light of the moon shone into the bedroom. Rain came down in silent sheets, droplets glistened on the window as lightning lit up the sky. A long, reed-like shadow seeped from under the door, filling the air with the burnt smell of caramel. Anya’s nose twitched. The shadow gambolled awkwardly across the bedroom, for its legs wiggled like pa-

per in the wind. Quietly, it looked at the music box on the bed beside Anya. It reached out to touch the jagged edge of the horse’s leg, where was the broken piece? it wondered.

Seeing the table set up for tea, it rubbed its hands in delight and decided it would look for the missing piece later. Swirling up the chair like a ribbon, it took a seat between the stuffed bear and the red-headed doll. It doffed its top hat before pouring itself a cup of tea with a bit of milk and sugar. Leaning back, it swung one leg over the other, raised its long, thin pinkie high, and chomped into the rim of the cup, crumbs gathering at the corners of its round mouth.

The horse’s leg wasn’t in the closet or in a drawer; it wasn’t hidden in the jewellery box or in a pair of socks. The shadow looked around the bedroom once more, when from the corner of its eye it spotted a black bottle on the bedside table and eyed it suspiciously. With the tip of its fingers, it uncorked the perfume bottle and peeked inside— just then the door creaked, startling the shadow who drew back hastily.

“Anya?”

Todd crept past the door frame. Lightning flashed and a loud burst of thunder roared across the sky, startling the little boy. He broke into a sprint and climbed into the bed beside Anya.

“Go away,” she said flinging her pillow at Todd. It missed him by an inch, falling against the tea set. The cups bounced and clinked together. Todd gasped and Anya clasped her hands over his mouth, casting a worried glance at the door.

“I’m sorry I broke the merry-go-round.”

Todd said when the coast was clear, furrowing his brow and reaching out to touch the key necklace. Anya quickly snatched it up and put it around her neck.

Todd whispered: “Can we fix it?”

“No, we can’t,” said Anya. “Now get off or I’ll push you again.”

Todd hopped down. The handles of the dresser drawer rattled as he rummaged through a heap of crayons, sheets of paper and bead bracelets. Todd emptied Anya’s pencil case and hurried back.

“What are you doing?” Anya hissed between her teeth. “you’re going to get me in trouble again!”

Todd held out the horse’s leg and showed her the glue stick in the palm of his hand, but Anya swatted his hand away. “you can’t fix it,” said Anya. “Now go—” All of the sudden, the shadow launched itself from under the bed, snatching the horse’s leg from Todd’s outstretched hand.

“Give it back,” said Todd, but it was too quick. The shadow grinned as it perched itself on top of the wall and gobbled the broken piece up. With a satisfying gulp, it flitted past Todd’s feet and vanished under the door. Todd chased after it.

“Wait!” shouted Anya and she rushed out of the bedroom. She caught a glimpse of Todd’s pajamas as he disappeared up the attic steps.

Anya followed him, but when she reached the attic, it was empty. Todd had disappeared, as if into thin air.

music

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Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Write to the editor: music@theconcordian.com previeW

GAMIQ PREVIEW 2012 Winners of the Quebec indie music awards will be announced Nov. 11

esque sound satisfies, you can catch them in concert at Le National on Dec. 7.

Trial track: “She Wants To Know” Nominated for: Show Of The Year, Song of The Year, and Breakthrough Artist of The Year

Andria Caputo Staff writer

Kandle

T

he Gala alternatif de la musique indépendante du Québec has announced its nominees for 2012. The GAMIQ awards include six categories, which feature a slew of talented anglophone and francophone musicians all based in Quebec. Voting was open to the public and the winners of each category will be announced Nov.11 at Theatre Plaza. Tickets to the gala are $18.

Grimes

Alaclair Ensemble

Singer and guitarist Kandle Osborne is a 21-year-old from Vancouver, now based in Montreal, who, as of yet, remains unsigned to any record label. Her debut EP Kandle has given her a leg up on the Montréal music scene and her promising talent might one day give celebrated musicians Emily Haines and Coeur de pirate a run for their money. Kandle will be opening up for Half Moon Run on Dec. 7 at Le National. Visit her website (kandlemusic.com) to get a free download of her song “Small.”

Trial track: “Know My Name” Nominated for: New Artist With The Most Potential Lisa LeBlanc

Grimes, aka Claire Boucher, is a Vancouver singer-songwriter based in Montreal. Grimes has recently garnered a lot of attention with her latest album, Visions (Arbutus; 2012), which reached 98 on the U.S. Billboard 200.

The album’s signature dream pop and electronica sound has charmed and wowed music lovers from across the globe. Grimes is the sole producer of Visions, which was recorded entirely on Garageband. Her newest single and music video “Oblivion” has already received 3 million YouTube views, giving the talented singer some well-deserved attention.

Trial track: “Genesis” Nominated for: Artist Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Video Of The Year Half Moon Run

Canailles

Canailles is a francophone bluegrass-folk band from Montreal whose eight members released their first EP in 2010. Their latest album, Manger du bois, features the voices of various band members and an old-school mix of banjos, accordions, mandolins and drums.

They have already played Quebec’s Francouvertes and FrancoFolies and will be featured in this year’s M For Montreal and the Festival International de Louisiane.

Trial track: “Parle Moi” Nominated For: Show For The Year and Breakthrough Artist Of The Year.

Kaytradamus

Alaclair Ensemble is a francophone hiphop/rap troupe, whose signature self-described style of “postrigodon” and ‘babouinerie jouale’ has set them apart from other more traditional Quebec hip-hop acts. Mixing their beats with French and English lyrics, their latest album, Le roé c’est moé, will be released Jan. 1, 2013, but you can stream it for free on their bandcamp site. Alaclair Ensemble will be playing at Montreal’s Museum of Contemporary Art on Dec. 7.

Trial track: “Moi chu down” Nominated for: Artist Of The Year, Show Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Video Of The Year.

Avec pas d’casque

Lisa LeBlanc is a francophone AcadianCanadian singer, whose folky sound is eerily reminiscent of La Bolduc and Regina Spektor.

Her self-titled and only album is certified gold in Canada, having already sold more than 40,000 copies. LeBlanc’s talent is indisputable; her songs are refreshing, different and daring.

LeBlanc will be performing her self-described “trash-folk” tunes on tour this fall and winter across Canada, with a stop in Montreal on Jan. 23 at Olympia.

Trial track: “Aujourd’hui, ma vie c’est d’la marde” Nominated for: Artist Of The Year, Show Of The Year, Song Of the Year, and Breakthrough Artist Of The Year Philippe B

Half Moon Run, an indie rock trio made up of Ottawa and B.C. natives has been together for less than two years but has already toured Europe, the U.K. and Canada.

Their debut album, Dark Eyes, featuring their first single “Full Circle” is causing buzz, having earned them a spot at last August’s Osheaga Music Festival. If their Radiohead-

Philippe B is a folk-pop francophone singer from Montreal who released his first album in 2006. Philippe B has already worked with Pierre Lapointe, and opened for Andrew Bird in Montreal last July during Osheaga. The 2011 release of Variations Fantomes, his latest album, is giving this talented singer and guitarist his chance to shine on the Quebec music scene. Philippe B will be in Montreal, at Café Campus on Nov. 17.

Trial track: “Nocturne #632” Nominated for: Artist Of The Year, Show Of The Year, and Video Of The Year.

Kaytradamus, aka Kevin Celestin, is a Haitian born, Montreal based hip-hop/electronica solo musician. Influenced by the likes of Justice and Michael Jackson, Kaytradamus has released and self-produced his newest album entitled Kaytrap. Kaytradamus is unsigned, but you can listen to his music or buy his albums on his bandcamp page.

Trial track: “Sellout” Nominated for: Breakthrough Artist of The Year Ponctuation

Avec pas d’casque is a francophone folkcountry quartet based in Montreal. Their latest album Astronomie was long-listed for this year’s Polaris Music Prize. Their nine-track album, which you can purchase on their bandcamp website, was mixed by Mark Lawson, who has already worked with Timber Timbre and Arcade Fire. Avec pas d’casque are currently on tour and will be playing Montreal’s Sala Rossa on Nov. 22.

Trial track: “La journée qui s’en vient est flambant neuve” Nominated for: Artist Of The Year and Song Of The Year.

Ponctuation, is a garage rock/punk band from Quebec. Their sound can easily be described as the future Franco Sex Pistols of the 21st century. Their 2011 EP Lèche-Vitrine features four songs of pure fun and uncomplicated punk music.

Trial track: “Ta langue sur mes lèvres” Nominated for: New Artist With Most Potential

The

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theconcordian

Tuesday, November 6, 2012 profile

Ariane Moffatt goes electro in new remix album

experimental Quebec songstress launches MA Remix on Nov. 6 Audrey folliot Staff writer

W

hen listening to Quebecoise singer-songwriter Ariane Moffatt, you can feel a certain ease and comfortableness between her and the music. Though her work gives the impression of a life surrounded by music, that was actually not the case.

“I don’t come from a family of musicians or artists of some sort necessarily, but it was kind of an instinctive thing for me to come into places where there were musical instruments,” said Moffatt. “That is the earliest memory I have of me thinking about wanting to just make any kind of sound with anything that could produce music.”

Her passion grew as she started taking piano lessons at a young age. She didn’t fully immerse herself in music until high school, where she had a music teacher who would direct her in several musicals. That was when she first began singing and a love for the art emerged. Moffatt then studied music at the CÉGEP and university levels, and learned to play piano through a combination of lessons and teaching herself how to play her favourite Tori Amos and Ben Harper songs.

“Music was a part of me that was just waiting to come out, it just couldn’t be any other way,” said Moffatt. “I once wanted to become a pediatrician, but I wasn’t passionate about math and science, so here I am.”

Quebec singer-songwriter, AriAne moffAtt, will tour Across frAnce And Quebec in support of MA ReMix. photo by mAude ArsenAult Moffatt has been on Quebec’s music scene moods and emotions. She composed them with as a solo artist since 2001, but she started off as no real deadline in mind, jotting down English a keyboardist and vocalist for Daniel Bélanger, lyrics as they went through her head. a well-established francophone singer. She has As if writing in English wasn’t already enough accumulated awards for her albums at many of a departure for her, Moffatt decided to throw Gala de l’ADISQ, herself into another type of projincluding three ect. She came up with the idea This project was a way to Pop-Rock Album of giving some of her latest songs bring the songs to another from MA a second life by making of the Year Awards level, to go even deeper for her albums electronic versions of them. She into her work.

Aquanaute (2002), - DJ Poirier started working with her good Le coeur dans la friend DJ Poirier on an EP called tête (2005) and MA Remix. She named him arTous les sens (2008), which also won her tistic director and shared ideas of remixes that French Album of the Year at the 2009 she already had and gave him “carte blanche” Juno Awards. as to what the new remixes of the songs would In February of this year, her first bilingual al- sound like. bum, MA, came out and was an instant success.

“This project was a way to bring the songs The songs were more intimate, reflecting her to another level, to go even deeper into her work

“

and make some elements stand out that might not have stood out in some songs in the original album,” said Poirier. “This album wasn’t made in a ‘club music’ perspective, it was more of an album that was also meant to be listened to, but there are some songs that I do play when I DJ.” Poirier was responsible for finding the right people to remix the songs, but also participated in the process and remixed the song “Too Late.”

Moffatt gave it a try herself and remixed “Walls of the World.” Both put a lot of work into this “side project,” as she calls it, starting to work on it even before the original album came out last February.

Moffatt still has a lot going on for her, as she will soon begin to tour in France and around Quebec. She will also be coaching young singers on the Quebec version of the reality television show The Voice.

profile

Clement Jacques on language, passion and life Up-and-coming Quebecois folk singer lives for the challenge veronique Thivierge Staff writer The video for Clement Jacques’ “Femme invisible” was shot on the road from Montreal to Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean, his hometown.

“Maybe I should go back and drive up to the north/Far from all that I’ve been trying to flee […] Came here to find some truth not easy to believe […] I’m afraid it is too late.”

He wrote these lyrics after the move from his native home to Montreal a couple of years ago, uncertain about this shift.

“I wondered at that moment if it would have been better to have stayed in Saguenay and get a normal job,” said Jacques. “I didn’t know if I had made the right choice.”

Apparently he did.

After releasing his first album in English, Consumed and Guilty, the folk singer-songwriter launched Le Maréographe in 2011, his first French record. With this second album, Jacques dipped into the francophone scene

and gained radio airplay. He was also part of the D’une île à l’autre artist series, which was launched in promotion of the French lan-

“

in french, i sing more intellectually. i sing with my heart and guts. it’s not that i don’t do that in english, it’s different.

- Clement Jacques

guage and emerging francophone artists. His decision to shift from English to French was not a conscious one, nor was it something he took the time to think out rationally. It came naturally.

“In French, I sing more intellectually,” said Jacques. “I sing with my heart and guts. It’s not that I don’t do that in English, it’s different.”

Music may be his primary passion, but he also works at a bike shop to make ends meet, and for the diversity.

“I don’t think I’m meant for a steady job.

I love to try my hand at different things,” said Jacques. “It clears my head. I have the impres-

sion of self-accomplishment, of thriving.”

Music gives him the opportunity to communicate differently than in words. Music ‘speaks’ for him, and allows him to reach out and touch people.

Jacques’ main goal is to continue composing music and to be as proud of it as possible, independently of the amount of people it attracts.

“An album is meant to stay for life.

Even when you’re dead, it is something that will stay on earth,” said Jacques.

“It

was recorded in a certain way, you can’t backtrack. Your goal is to be proud of it so you’ll never regret it.”

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Follow us on Twitter: @TheConcordian

15

top 10 at least 62 studio albums, in addition to countless live versions. Written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon for The Beatles’ 1966 album Revolver as a departure from the band’s ‘pop’ aesthetic, this song is powerful because it relates to humanity’s fear of loneliness and death.

Covered songs of the 20th century Compiled by Paul Traunero Staff writer 10. “Moon River” - Henry Mancini & Johnny Mercer “Moon River” first appeared in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, performed as an acoustic version by its star Audrey Hepburn. It went on to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song and a Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1961. Check out The Smiths’ frontman Morrissey’s version of “Moon River.”

9. “Eleanor Rigby” - Paul McCartney & John Lennon Despite its relative obscurity, “Eleanor Rigby” boasts a huge number of covers. It appears on

8. “Imagine” - John Lennon Written by John Lennon in 1971, “Imagine” is the best-selling single of his solo career.

Representing Lennon’s statement about collectivist positivism and inspired by poems from Yoko Ono and the idea of positive prayer, this song has had international success and touched generations. Noteworthy covers by Elton John, Madonna and Neil Young.

7. “Body and Soul” - Johnny Green, Edward Heyman, Robert Sour & Frank Eyton First introduced in the 1930 Broadway musical, Three’s a Crowd, “Body and Soul” has become a jazz standard covered most famously by tenor saxophone legend Coleman Hawkins and recently interpreted by Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse. Though considered relatively challenging, the song allows for quite a bit of improvisational freedom, which has added to its success.

6. “Over the Rainbow” - Harold Arlen & E.Y. Harburg This Academy Award winning ballad, was written in 1939 for The Wizard of Oz, where it was famously sung by actress Judy Garland. The song has received the top spot on many influential lists as “the song of the century.” Many covers have been performed, but none as significant as Hawaii-native Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s ukulele version in 1993.

5. “Yesterday” - Paul McCartney With more than 2,200 covered versions, “Yesterday” is a modern pop masterpiece! Written by Paul McCartney, for The Beatles’ 1965 album, Help!, the lyrics are simple and relatable, lamenting a break-up. This song was covered by an eclectic mix of artists, including Bob Dylan,

Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles and Marvin Gaye.

4. “St. Louis Blues” - W.C. Handy Praised as the first blues songs to succeed as a pop song, “St. Louis Blues” is a fundamental jazz classic, notably performed by Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith and Stevie Wonder.

At the time of his death in 1958, composer W.C. Handy was earning royalties upwards of $25,000 annually for the song.

3. “Greensleeves” - Traditional This traditional English folk song, first registered in 1580, could be a reference to the way grass stains might be seen on a woman’s dress if she had engaged in sexual intercourse outdoors.

It first appeared in print in Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor in 1602. The character Mistress Ford exclaims: “Let the sky rain potatoes! Let it thunder to the tune of ‘Greensleeves’!”

2. “Summertime” - George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin & DuBose Heyward With more than 33,000 covers, this song originally hails from the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess.

Following the style of the African American folk music of the period, American soprano Abbie Mitchell first sang “Summertime.” Since then, the song has been reinterpreted as a jazz standard and famously covered by Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Janis Joplin.

1. “Happy Birthday to You” - The Time-Warner Corporation?

Here’s something to consider next time you gathered around a birthday cake: According to copyright registration, The TimeWarner Corporation has owns the rights to “Happy Birthday to You” since 1935, an ownership that is not set to expire until 2030. Any unauthorized public performances of the song are technically illegal unless royalties are paid to Warner.

In 2008, Warner profited about $5,000 per day ($2 million per year) for the song.

Column

>>>“Don’t blame Yoko!”

In an hour long interview set to air on Al Jazeera English this month, Paul McCartney has finally cleared up something that has been pestering Beatles fans for decades; did Yoko Ono cause the fab four to break up? “She certainly didn’t break the group up, the group was breaking up,” says McCartney, who took the opportunity to offer some praise for Ono’s influence on former bandmate John Lennon. The former Beatle claimed that if it wasn’t for the avant garde outlook she introduced him to, Lennon might never have penned such classic songs as his 1971 hit “Imagine.” “I don’t think he would have done that without Yoko, so I don’t think you can blame her for anything.

When Yoko came along, part of her attraction was her avant-garde side, her view of things, so she showed him another way to be, which was very attractive to him. So it was time for John to leave, he was definitely going to leave [one way or another].”

Though he did admit that he found Ono’s presence during recording vexing, he says the real wedge driver for the group was Allan Klein, the businessman who tried to take over after their manager Brian Epstein died in 1967.

>>>Couldn’t find an actual fan, I guess

Streams of the week Three of our latest musical discoveries, for your earbuds only Michelle Pucci Contributor

Crystal Castles - “Af- Feist - “Graveyard” mu- Snoop Lion - “La La La” fection” - III (2012; Casa- sic video - Metals (2011; music video - ReincarArts and Crafts) nated (2013; Doggystyle) blanca) To make up for pushing the release of their album back by a week, the Ontario-based electronic-duo revealed another song from their third LP, III. “Affection” is unnerving with its changing rhythm and Alice Glass and Ethan Kath’s trippy vocals. Glass’ vocals stand out more on this track than on their previously-released “Plague” and “Wrath of God.” If the song didn’t sound so ghostly, it might be described as short and sweet, but when it comes to Crystal Castles you should expect an expression of synth-heavy melancholy that gives you chills and stirs you up at the same time.

Andrew Guilbert Staff writer

In the spirit of Halloween, Feist released the creepy new video for “Graveyard” off her Polaris Prizewinning album Metals. The video acts like a haunted photograph, with band members appearing and then disappearing from a black and white forest scene. Most of the video is a longshot of the entire ‘photo’ with some close-ups throughout.

The video also features some weird pixelated birds and a butterfly flying over the scene. Someday, maybe, someone can explain what it all means.

When did Snoop Lion get so cute?

Snoop Lion’s latest music video, directed by Eli Roth, features a bunch of smiling kids dressed in a variety of costumes for a strange school play. There’s a lot wrong with that sentence, and the result is no Sesame Street sing-a-long, but rather a reggae-singing Snoop surrounded by his new small friends and some obscene animations of fruit. This probably won’t be the last time the Rastafari Snoop surprises and scandalizes everyone, but it might be the most adorable.

In a new interview with Men’s Health Magazine, Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger related a cringe-inducing story from his band’s early tour days. The anecdote involves a tour stop in Germany, boredom, roughly $375 in cash, genitalia and metal fan blades — the exact combination of which you’d best read straight from the source. “In a back room in the venue where we were playing, there was an old fan with a metal blade. I don’t remember the last time I saw a fan with a metal blade. And we paid the drum tech [...]

Oh god, I forget the exact amount. I think we got the pot up to about 600 deutschmarks.”

That pot, Kroeger goes on to intimate, went towards convincing their unfortunate drum tech to “stick his johnson in the fan,” to the delight of band and crewmembers, who reportedly filmed the incident. “I can still hear the ‘bleh-bleh-blehhhhhhh’ of the blade slowly sputtering to a stop, and this bloodcurdling scream. It was fantastic.”

>>>For sale: one bass, slightly destroyed

Are you a fan of Nirvana? Bass guitars? How about stuff broken by famous people? If you answered yes to all three questions, Christie’s London auction house has the perfect item of music memorabilia for you; Kris Novoselic’s smashed up bass guitar, as seen in the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video. The bass, a Zen-On which was purchased by Novoselic from a pawn shop with the express intent of smashing it on screen, is estimated to sell for between $25,000 and $40,000 at auction in Christie’s entertainment memorabilia sale on Nov. 29. Also up for auction is a personally inscribed copy of Bob Dylan’s High school yearbook and the original whip used in the Indiana Jones movies.

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theconcordian

Tuesday, November 6, 2012 profile

New music Canada: Luke Lalonde

L

Born-again ruffian goes it alone in Rhythmnals Alex Giardini Staff writer

uke Lalonde, frontman of Toronto’s Born Ruffians, released his first proper solo album, Rhythmnals, just last week. Both the recording and creative process was somewhat internal for Lalonde, and lasted two full years at home and in studio. Though he had intentions of completing the project via home demos, Lalonde hooked up with producer Roger Leavens of Boombox Sound and eventually completed the whole album in studio. ‘‘It was really great for me to have a pro like [Leavens] hear my recordings and say ‘No, we’re using all this stuff because it’s great’,” said Lalonde. “The most exciting part was sort of building my confidence and coproducing.”

Working outside of the norm, or doing what a frontman is habitually used to completing with the band, can bring forth unlimited creative control. Lalonde said he did not see too much difference in writing solo material in contrast to writing for the Born Ruffians.

“I think I am able to take limitless creative control with Ruffians stuff, and sometimes I have to,” said Lalonde. ‘‘I don’t think there’s any distinction between lyrics I write for a band song versus a solo song. It’s more influenced or informed by personal relationships and experiences.”

There is sometimes a notion that solo records or projects can be intensely personal or based on experiences that only that artist can

relate to. Rhythymnals consists of 10 tracks, and its theme can be interpreted as grappling with whether or not we exist and our ability to interpret and manipulate it. By the end of the album narratives of gender-confused couples, long distance relationships and rejection are all present — making the album both critical and immensely passionate.

Fans of Born Ruffians will find Rhythymnals more than accessible if they are used to Lalonde’s style of pop songs. ‘‘Rhythymnals is mostly influenced by people close to me and things experienced while at home. I was living in Montreal for all of 2010 and then floating around, spending a month or so in Australia and eventually ending up back in Toronto mid-2011.”

For those who haven’t seen the Born Ruffians live, their shows consist of young audiences prancing around, singing every word heard on the microphone and getting more excited as the show progresses. Besides the obvious cases of albums that grow to become timeless, much solo material can take years to catch on. But Lalonde claims he doesn’t necessarily aim for that response. ‘‘I never envisioned performing these songs for people,” said Lalonde. “Even with band stuff you can’t plan on certain responses from crowd because it will fail in one way or another.’’

Rhythymnals is out now, courtesy of Paper Bag Records.

Quick spins 20 mixtape

Lana Del Rey - Born To Die: Paradise Edition (2012; Interscope)

Taylor Swift - Red (2012; Big Machine)

Chad Valley - Young Hunger (2012; Cascine)

Minnesota - Are You There (2012; Hymn and Holler)

With the voice of a ‘50s singer and the persona of a ‘60s actress, Lana Del Rey continues to capture listeners with her meaningful songs in her upcoming album, Born To Die: Paradise Edition.

Del Rey’s next album is an eight-track extension of her second studio album, Born to Die. A dark tone matched with expressive lyrics, Paradise Edition has Del Rey offering a powerful performance in each song. The howling guitars in “Gods and Monsters,” the ghostly piano in “Bel Air” and the haunting mixture of strings and hard drum beats in “Body Electric” are the darkest of the whole album.

Her first single off the album, “Ride,” indeed takes you on a mellow road trip. The down-tempo piano ballad has the essence of a great classic movie theme. However, if you’re looking for an album full of upbeat songs, you won’t find it here. The album is set for release on Nov. 12.

Best known for her ‘thank you for breaking my heart, I’m gonna go write a song about you now’ attitude, Swift is celebrating the release of her fourth album, Red. The album’s 16 tracks include everything from confessional ballads like “I Almost Do” to ‘dance like an insane person’ tempos as heard in “22.” Tracks also feature collaborations with brit-pop singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran and the lead vocalist of Snow Patrol, Gary Lightbody.

Swift has a multitude of personalities and instead of hiding them, she brings them all out and features a different trait in each of her songs. The tunes are relatable, and that is why she has gathered such a strong fanbase.

“Red” is about the semi-toxic, tumultuous relationships that we go through at one point or another. Whether you’re experiencing intense love or intense confusion, this album — along with some Ben & Jerry’s — is definitely something worth picking up.

Hailing from the United Kingdom, electro-pop artist Chad Valley’s persona is one of retro simplicity, muted rainbows and shiny innocence, all of which are distinctly channeled in Young Hunger.

Intermittent twinkling keyboards punctuate “Up and Down,” a bright track that alternates between sweeping and punchy rhythms. It’s the ideal backdrop to an adventure at dusk in an open field beside a highway.

“Manimals” features vocals reminiscent of an ‘80s high school dance — think “Forever Young” filling a room full of powder blue tuxedos. Luminous undertones quickly morph into a full-bodied lounge beat that evokes warm rain. The same hearty vocals can be found on “Fall 4 U.” This time, irritating high-pitched keyboard notes ring in the background. A characteristic rolling beat makes it pleasant, but the retro keyboard shoots stress levels through the roof.

“I Owe You This,” on the contrary, is an easily digestible sound with a nighttime feel to it.

Peter Himmelman of Sussman Lawrence fame released another solo record, this time under the moniker of Minnesota, entitled Are You There.

Himmelman, a Minnesota native, makes use of a collection of styles from acoustic to rock, folk and blues, presenting listeners with an eclectic experience. This comes as no surprise, as Himmelman is the son-in-law of legendary singersongwriter and ‘60s icon Bob Dylan.

The artist, along with several musical collaborators, plays with the heavy use of dynamics throughout the 13-track record, mixing from loud choruses to soft interludes. Thematically, the album revolves heavily around human emotion, specifically love.

Fans of Americana-styled music will enjoy the new additions to their library, while listeners outside of the genre will find that the album experience contains too many tracks with too many similarities. In addition, the slightly higher price tag of $16 will make for a difficult sell.

trial track: “All too Well”

trial track: “Manimals”

trial track: “Death by snakebite”

trial track: “Ride”

8.8/10

- Sabrina Walker

9.5/10

- Maria Alexia Hinoporos

6/10

-Stephanie Ullman

7.4/10

-A.J. Cordeiro

sports

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

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Write to the editor: sports@theconcordian.com Rugby

Stingers finish fourth at CIS championships The women’s rugby team and five other teams battled to become national champions Kevin Duarte Sports editor After defeating the Laval Rouge et Or to become Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec champions, the Concordia Stingers travelled to Antigonish, N.S. to participate in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport championship. Along with the Stingers, the six team tournament included the hosts St. Francis Xavier X-Women, Alberta Pandas, Guelph Gryphons, Acadia Axewomen and Queen’s Golden Gaels.

The six teams were placed in two equal groups consisting of three teams. Each team played against the other two teams of the group. Concordia was in Group B which featured St. Francis Xavier and Queen’s.

Concordia’s first game of the tournament was on Friday against the Golden Gaels.

The Stingers overpowered their opponents and won the game 29-0. By the end of the first half, Concordia was only up 7-0 from a try by Erika Ikonomopoulos. In the second half, Liza Myers scored an early try for the maroon and gold. Bianca Farella added two more tries to end the game. Jackie Tittley successfully converted three of the four tries and added a penalty goal in the second half. Farella was named Concordia’s Most Valuable Player.

The next day, Concordia faced the XWomen for a spot in the finals. St. Francis Xavier also defeated Queen’s and therefore top spot in the group was up for grabs. Both Concordia and St. FX played each other in non-conference games earlier in the season. The X-Women won every game. They were the number one ranked team in the country.

In this game, St. Francis Xavier shut out

The STingerS made Their way To nova ScoTia To baTTle for The ciS championShipS.

the Stingers 40-0. The home side was up by 23 at halftime and added 17 points in the second half. Despite the loss, Farella was

again named Concordia’s MVP. With a record of one win and one loss, the Stingers qualified for the bronze medal

game. Concordia went up against the Alberta Pandas, who finished Group A with the same record.

The game was played on Sunday right before the gold-medal game. Both Alberta and Concordia each converted a penalty attempt early on in the first half. The Pandas scored a late try before the break to go up seven points. With 20 minutes to play in the second half, the Stingers were within two points. Alberta scored 17 straight points to win the game 34-15 and claim the bronze medal. Farella, Tittley and Chelsea Guthrie ended the game with five points each for the Stingers. Tittley was named MVP. Concordia head coach Graeme McGravie set up objectives for his team coming into the weekend. The team’s goal was to capture at least the bronze medal. In terms of the weekend, McGravie acknowledged how hard it was to win the tournament given the demanding schedule.

“We had the best schedule with day one off,” he said. “You get to see everyone play and let the big occasion sink in, plus you play a team on day two that has already lost a game so psychologically it is an advantage. Rest and hydration are key though.”

After an opening day win, McGravie approached the St. FX game with caution.

“We felt really good and confident that we could win,” he said. “We would have to be perfect against the number one ranked team. Even after the loss we felt confident going up against U of A after what we had seen of them.”

This was Concordia’s first time back in nationals since 2010. In that year, the Stingers made it all the way to the finals and lost to St. FX by one try. In 2009, Concordia finished also finished fourth place.

PRofile

Concordia’s athletes of the month: October

The Concordian and Stingers coaches select our stand out athletes Kevin Duarte Sports editor

Men’s hockey - George Lovatsis The men’s hockey team started the season with two straight wins, but have now lost six straight. The two wins were against McGill and Carleton. Lovatsis finished the month with six points in as many games. Against McGill, the Stingers forward scored two goals, one shorthanded, and added an assist.

Lovatsis was named first star of the game. He was only held off the score sheet in the final two games of the month.

Women’s hockey - Veronique LarameePaquette It hasn’t been an easy start to the season for the women’s hockey team gaining just one win in their first five games. Eight of the

players on the team are rookies. One player who has stood out was sophomore forward Veronique Laramee-Paquette. She had a five game point streak in October, leading the team with three goals while adding three assists to give her six points in just five games.

- David S. Landsman, Staff writer

and was selected as an all-Canadian by the CIS. “[She is a] player that we all relied on in big games,” said coach Graeme McGravie.

“She has been the player to watch in RSEQ rugby this month, leading the team to the championship. She gets better with every game we play.”

Men’s rugby - Joseph Fulginiti The men’s rugby team played three games throughout the month and they were all on the road. The Stingers wrapped up the regular season and secured first place in the league. Fulginiti, who plays centre and is the team’s kicker, led with 40 points this season.

He had 19 points in October and was the MVP against Sherbrooke on Oct. 14.

Men’s soccer - Andrew Bryan Bryan’s performance during the month of October puts him on our list again. He scored three goals in four appearances throughout the month. He ended the regular season with five goals, one behind the league leaders. Bryan was named to RSEQ’s first all-star team as a result. During the year, he was used as the lone striker in coach Lloyd Barker’s formation.

Women’s rugby - Bianca Farella Farella is our choice for the second month in a row. She dominated in the RSEQ Finals against Laval, scoring three tries and was named MVP that game. Farella was named both the CIS and RSEQ Rookie of the Year

Women’s soccer - Jennifer Duff Duff’s great form in September continued throughout October. She ended the regular season with 12 goals, the second best of the league. Duff was the RSEQ and CIS athlete

of the week from Oct. 21 to 27. According to coach Jorge Sanchez, who picked up RSEQ Coach of the Year honours, this was the first time a soccer player from Concordia got this achievement. Duff was also named to RSEQ’s first all-star team.

Cross-Country - Ryan Noel-Hodge He finished third at the provincial championships and second at the Rouge et Or Invitation. He’s in his final year of Anthropology and will run his last race for Concordia at the CIS Championships in London, Ontario on Nov. 10.

- Cross-Country head coach John Lofranco Football - Kris Robertson For a stellar October, Robertson racked up three interceptions, two of which he returned for touchdowns. He had 481 total return yards and 12 total tackles. Robertson solidified his spot as one of RSEQ’s best returners and defensive backs, earning himself a spot on the all-star team.

- Andrew Maggio, Staff writer

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theconcordian

Tuesday, November 6, 2012 HocKey

Concordia finishes the weekend with two losses Women’s hockey team started strong but couldn’t last David S. landsman Staff writer The first big weekend of November resulted with the women’s hockey team collecting a single point out of a possible four. They dropped a 4-1 decision to the Carleton Ravens Saturday evening at Carleton, and lost 4-3 in overtime to the Ottawa Gee-Gees the following afternoon at home.

The Stingers started Saturday evening’s game strong, with the offense getting four shots in the first three minutes against Ravens’ goaltender Eri Kiribuchi. Her counterpart for the Stingers, Carolanne Lavoi-Pilon, was equally up to the task turning aside several in-close chances. Lavoi-Pilon finished the evening with 28 saves.

“It really was a hard game for everyone, nothing seemed to be going right,” explained Lavoi-Pilon. “We kept giving them space, and tonight, we didn’t play as a team.”

Late in the second, with the Ravens leading 3-0, the Stingers’ powerplay went to work.

Despite having difficulties on the advantage early in the season, sophomore forward Audrey Morand tucked one past Kiribuchi to reduce the deficit to 3-1.

“After we scored we seemed to gain momentum,” said Morand following the game.

“But we weren’t capable of putting things together and didn’t play our system.”

Sunday afternoon at Ed Meagher Arena, the Stingers were hungrier. However, their special team woes continued, as they were unable to capitalize on four powerplays in the first period alone.

Miscommunication led to some turnovers, which almost turned costly. Concordia goal-

tender Chelsey Hodges was busy, finishing the afternoon with 38 saves.

The second period seemed to start with a bang. With Gee-Gees defender Genevieve Legault in the box for hooking, the Stingers powerplay went to work. Jayme Shell got the puck and flipped it over Ottawa goaltender Cassie Seguin for her second goal of the season.

Just two minutes later, again deep in the Ottawa zone, Emilie Bocchia stripped the GeeGees defense of the puck and fed a wide open Veronique Laramee-Paquette who made no mistake scoring from a backhand. This gave the Stingers a 2-0 lead just over four minutes into the second frame.

“The way we went into the second was as if we were a completely new team,” said Hodges. “Everyone was amazing and everything was working.”

The Stingers continued a strong period until just after the 13-minute mark. With GeeGees captain Fannie Desforges in the box for hooking, the Stingers powerplay line tried to break out from behind Hodges’ net when a misplay of the puck by led to Gee-Gees’ Alicia Blomberg taking the puck and scoring, reducing the lead to 2-1.

“I think in order to succeed players need to sacrifice themselves,” explained captain Mallory Lawton. “I guess you have to be fearless and know that it’s helping the team.”

Less than five minutes into the third, the Stingers were attacking again. Lawton was in possession, and with the Ottawa goaltender down and out of position, she lifted the puck just enough to increase their lead to 3-1.

Ottawa reduced the lead to 3-2 at 16:22 of the third period when Janie Paquette scored from the slot.

The Stingers took some bad penalties in the minutes that followed. Laramee-Paquette took a delay of game penalty with the team already down one player. Ottawa pulled their goalie to

Photo by Alyssa Tremblay

play a six-on-four battle, which paid dividends when captain Desforges tied the game at three goals apiece with 40 seconds left on the clock.

“It seemed as if we were giving up too many chances,” said Hodges. “It looked as if although we had a lead that we had already lost focus.”

Overtime was a back-and-forth affair with neither side getting many good chances, until the last minute before shootouts. Ottawa’s Desforges got another pass, left alone inside the hash-marks and made no mistake shelfing her second of the afternoon and giving the GeeGees the improbable comeback victory.

“It’s certainly a big disappointment

for everybody; we played stupid and made bonehead plays” said Concordia coach Les Lawton.

“It’s as if we’re afraid to lose, we need to fight harder, but the attitude is negative and we don’t go for the jugular. Keep it simple.”

“I thought we played well, but didn’t play a full 60 minutes,” said captain Lawton. “We took a couple penalties late that were costly.”

The Stingers will hit the ice twice next weekend, with a home game against the Montreal Carabins on Friday, 7:30 p.m. Concordia will then head to McGill to face the number one ranked Martlets on Saturday at 3 p.m.

Follow us on Twitter: @TheConcordian

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

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SocceR

Own goal eliminates Stingers from playoffs Soccer team battled hard against first place laval Rouge et or in RSeQ semi-final Kevin Duarte Sports editor After McGill and Montréal roster issues, the Concordia Stingers men’s soccer team found themselves — unexpectedly — in the RSEQ playoffs. The Stingers only had a few days to prepare for Friday night’s match in Quebec City against the Laval Rouge et Or. Less than a week ago, on Sunday afternoon, both teams met in the final match of the regular season at Concordia Stadium. The Rouge et Or won the encounter 7-2. At the time, Concordia was already mathematically eliminated from playing in the post-season.

Friday night’s playoff match saw a rejuvenated Stingers side. Head coach Lloyd Barker lined his side up in a familiar 4-2-3-1 formation. In terms of the starting lineup, there weren’t any surprises.

The opening seconds of the match were almost too good to be true for the maroon and gold. From the kick off, Concordia worked the ball inside the Laval penalty area. Rouge et Or goalkeeper Vincent Cournoyer had to make a good save to keep the game squared.

In the 10th minute, Laval midfielder Kevin Cossette and Concordia defender Enos Osei collided in the air, just outside the Stingers’ box. Cossette, a former Montreal Impact Academy player, went down and was motionless for 20 minutes after briefly losing consciousness. Fortunately he regained it as he was being stretchered off the pitch and into an ambulance.

Despite the serious injury, the match continued. In the 12th minute of stoppage time, Concordia almost went up after Andrew Bryan’s quick shot from outside the box struck the Laval crossbar.

Three minutes later, the Rouge et Or opened the scoring. A seemingly normal header back pass from a Stingers defender ended up in the back of the goal after a miscommunication with goalkeeper Remo Taraschi. This was the only goal of the eventful first half.

“It was a very difficult moment,” Barker said, referring to the own goal. “We fought like lions and felt our opponents didn’t deserve to be leading us at that point in the match.”

The second half was much quieter than the first half. On the hour mark, Laval should have doubled their lead, but Taraschi made an important save from a shot inside the box.

In the 79th minute, Laval had another opportunity to add the insurance marker. A good combination play on the flank left a Laval striker alone inside the box. Once again, Taraschi was forced to make a kick save to keep his side in the match.

Concordia was unable to find the target in this match, as final score ended 1-0 in favour of the Rouge et Or. “We deserved a better result because we matched Laval in every department,” Barker said. “I’m certain we even surprised them

with our great effort.”

The Stingers played an almost-perfect road match. The team came out strong and stayed aggressive throughout the 90 minutes.

Pressure was relentless and they limited Laval’s opportunities. Barker said the team just lacked conviction when they were attacking.

“We needed someone to provide a moment of individual brilliance,” he said. “But it was not to be on the night. Our effort was not reflected on the scoreboard. I could not be more proud of how they all fought with all they had.”

With the loss, Concordia’s season is officially over. This was ConU’s first playoff game since 2003. That year the team lost to Montréal, 0-1, in the RSEQ finals.

Photo from Flickr

fooTball

A rollercoaster season for Stingers football Team hit rough patch, but ended on high note andrew Maggio Staff writer The Concordia Stingers football team ended their season with a hard-fought loss against the Laval Rouge et Or, 32-19, capping a tumultuous year that saw a rash of inconsistent plays and a controversy that ended the Stingers’ playoff hopes early.

After a solid exhibition win against the University of Toronto, the Stingers escaped their season and home opener against Bishop’s University with a 42-36 win, nearly blowing a big halftime lead. They were then blown

out of the water by the powerful Université de Montréal squad, but bounced back with a win against St. Francis Xavier a week later.

That’s where the good vibes ended, for a little while, anyways.

The Stingers endured a three game losing streak that put them in a precarious position with regards to their playoff standing. At 2-4, they would need a near-miracle to squeak into the playoffs, and then would have had to line up against one of the elite Quebec squads.

Instead, the self-disclosure of an ineligible player on the roster resulted in major sanctions being handed down by the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec and the Canadian Interuniversity Sport, voiding both of Concordia’s regular season wins, dropping them to 0-6 and ending any hopes of making the playoffs.

There is no doubt it was a crushing blow; athletes in all sports spend hours, days, months and years preparing for their sport.

One could argue all time and effort spent preparing for what the Stingers had hoped would be a breakout year suddenly seemed for nought, as if none of it had ever mattered.

The work put in and sacrifices made for those wins were suddenly rendered meaningless by what was deemed an “administrative error.”

Others may have crumbled in that spot, but the Stingers refused to lay down and die.

They bounced back with a 43-40 win against cross-town rival McGill, a game that will no doubt be ingrained in the minds of these players for the rest of their lives. They sent a message to the rest of the league that day: you can knock us down, but you can’t knock us out.

Alas, the spirited effort will go down as

the team’s only win in 2012, but the Stingers showed their mettle in the toughest of situations, not only against McGill, but also in defeats against Sherbrooke and Laval to close out the season.

Nathan Taylor, one of the team’s defensive leaders, who played his final game in a Stingers uniform against Laval, summed up a sentiment that is no doubt shared by his teammates: “It has been an honour playing for the Concordia Stingers,” he said. “This season doesn’t dampen my pride one bit. We had to play through things that most players never even think of, and that builds tremendous character.”

The Stingers finished the 2012 season with a record of one win and eight losses. This is the team’s worst record dating past 1988.

Photo from Flickr

opinions 20

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Write to the editor: opinions@theconcordian.com

EdiTOrial

Part-timers don’t grow on trees Why the university is going to regret not giving professors a fair deal this time around What Concordia needs is a feel good story about an administrator rescuing a group of students from a burning building.

The last thing this university needs is for all of the school’s part-time professors to go on strike. Not only would that put yet another black mark on Concordia’s reputation, but for those who have taken classes here know, it would cripple most programs at the school.

Since the Concordia University Part-Time Faculty Association voted last Sunday in favour of a strike mandate by 95 per cent, discussions taking place at the negotiating table seem to have heated up substantially.

A collective agreement is something this union is entitled to and the fact that, last time

around, it took seven years to negotiate one is not a point of pride for anyone.

There are a lot of part-time professors at this university and if last year’s McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association’s strike is anything to go on, things could get ugly, fast.

There are more than 800 part-time faculty members teaching at Concordia according to CUPFA President Maria Peluso.

We don’t know about the rest of you, but crossing a picket line on the way to class is not the way we like to start the day. In fact, we’d go as far as to say that if CUPFA did decide to strike, Concordia’s other recent mistakes would pale in comparison.

So where do we go from here? Concordia doesn’t have a great record with collective bargaining and now with this majority vote, CUPFA has a powerful bargaining chip.

Currently, the deal that the university is trying to push upon members of CUPFA includes parts about isolating salaries from other universities at Montreal, imposing restrictions on retirement and leaves, and restructuring the seniority system.

We students know that part-time professors already have it pretty rough. When your teacher is holding office hours in a cafe down the street because they don’t have another option, that’s a sign that these people probably deserve more for the work they do.

Part-timers work hard and don’t deserve to be treated like dirt because their contracts leave them vulnerable or exposed. If they feel that the university might not be operating in good faith, then that is a serious concern which they obviously believe is worth striking over.

To the university administration, we say this: swallow your pride and get ready to grin and bear it because we don’t want our professors on the picket line any more than you do.

They are reasonable people and if Concordia can offer them a reasonable deal, then this nightmare can be avoided. Faculty members are more important to this university than the administration likes to believe and if CUPFA isn’t happy, you better believe no one will be.

spOrTs

There’s no place like home The Expos belong in Montreal and we want them back George Menexis Opinions editor Another Major League Baseball season has come to a close, with the San Francisco Giants winning their second World Series in three years after sweeping the Detroit Tigers.

Their manager, Felipe Alou, celebrated with his players as they won the most prestigious title in baseball. What does this mean to Montreal? Well, Felipe Alou was part of the Montreal Expos organization from 1976 to 2001, going from batting coach to team manager in just a few years. This is just another reminder of how much Montrealers miss the Expos.

Our city made a grave mistake. It’s true, the Expos didn’t have the most fans, they never made it to the World Series and they played in a crumbling stadium. It’s no wonder they ended up relocating to Washington. But like any successful business, money needs to be invested in the team; to acquire star players, to fix stadiums and to win seasons. That’s how a good business is run, and that’s how you attract fans. The Expos just needed an enormous push in the right direction, not an unceremonious relocation.

As you walk around the city today, vintage Expos hats and shirts can be seen everywhere worn by old and, especially, young. This tells me one thing: that despite the Expos being long gone they are not forgotten, and they are sorely missed.

Tony Portolese, lifelong Expos fan, said it best when he said “there’s an emptiness” in the summer. No more ball games. No more rooting for the home team. No more Expos.

Montreal needs a baseball team. More precisely, we need the Expos back. In such a diverse, enormous metropolis, the more sports teams, the better.

They bring the city together. Despite having made the move to Washington eight years ago, the past year has seen many rumours about potentially bringing a baseball team back to Montreal.

It all started when Expos legend Gary Carter passed away from brain cancer in February.

Thousands of fans mourned, and a park in Montreal was renamed in his honour.

The hype was back. Even in a province like Quebec, which has many European characteristics compared to the rest of North America, baseball was a sport that helped define our city. We had the Expos in the summer and the Habs in the winter. What do we have now? After 35 years in the MLB, Montrealers haven’t simply forgotten about the sports they loved.

“You have to start somewhere, and what better time to start than now?” former Expo Tim Raines told The Canadian Press. “So hopefully we can get a team back here in the near future.” Raines explained that the city should immediately build a small league team, that can move up to the big leagues in a few years.

Montreal summers need more life. I want to see dads bring their kids to a ball game. I want to see life again in the Olympic stadium.

More importantly, I want to see the Expos

Graphic by Jennifer Kwan

back in Montreal.

There’s no better feeling than watching a baseball soar out of the parc and being the one to catch it in the stands. It’s every kid’s

dream. Watching baseball games was an important part of my childhood, and I don’t want Montreal’s youth to miss out on one of the greatest sports ever created.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Follow us on Twitter: @TheConcordian

21

ciNEMa

The name is Elba... Idris Elba potential black James Bond actor stirs up controversy

Joel ashak staff writer

T

he newest James Bond movie, Skyfall, hasn’t even hit the big screens yet, but predictions for who will be the next James Bond are already making waves, with one name standing out for the controversy it sparked: Idris Elba.

For those who just raised an eyebrow wondering who this guy is, Elba is the talented, charismatic British actor who played, among other roles, Stringer Bell on the The Wire, and Luther in the British detective show of the same name.

Elba is also black. Why the extra description, you ask? Because that detail seems to be of major importance to many James Bond purists.

Created by author Ian Fleming in 1953 as a half-Scottish, half-Swiss character born and educated in England, tradition, they say, dictates that James Bond has to be a white male with a British accent in his forties with some underlying misogynistic penchants.

But here’s a fact for you guys: this is not 15th century Europe we’re talking about.

The United Kingdom is not all white and most people know it by now. Hearing a perfect English accent coming out of the mouth of someone of Indian or Jamaican descent does not seem strange for many people of our generation and we know that an Englishman does not necessarily have to look like Maxwell Sheffield.

Tradition, as critic and film studies professor at Concordia University Matthew Hays said, is not a good enough argument.

“There are all sorts of traditions we have that are just bad ideas. Slavery and child labour were traditions and we decided that

IdrIs Elba, accEptIng a goldEn globE for bEst actor for “thE WIrE.” photo from flIckr they were not good ideas. Limiting what people can do on the base of the color of their skin is another one.”

I am no James Bond movies scholar, but it seems to me that what makes the series so popular throughout generations is that the British secret agent, as well as the adventures he lives through, evolve.

“James Bond is a quite old-school figure,” Hays continued. “He is forever catching up with time and with whatever current trends are happening, trying to look cool.

That’s what the British franchise is trying to do.”

Bond’s success, therefore, resides in his ability to detach himself from the character created in 1953 in order to better represent

the image our society depicts as the coolest secret agent in history.

Instead of being British like most of his successors, Sean Connery was too good of a Bond for the public to hold his Scottish roots against him. Similarly, Daniel Craig had to be much more of a badass than his predecessors in order to answer the rebellious and anti-authority expectations we have of modern heroes (they tortured him by smashing his balls for Christ’s sake).

Much like the character of Batman, it seems that James Bond tends to improve with time and it is we, the audience, who shape him to become the attractive character he is.

But here it is; it seems that many James

Bond fans don’t think being black fits the image. A phenomenon that Hays compared to society’s readiness for a black U.S. president. Something that eventually gets overturned with the help of popular culture.

Elba himself said, and rightly so, that he did not want to be known as “the black James Bond,” on National Public Radio.

By that, he meant that he didn’t want to be categorized in his performance for just the novelty of being black, “just like Daniel Craig wasn’t ‘the blue-eyed James Bond’,” the Prometheus actor said.

At the risk of disagreeing with an actor I greatly admire, perhaps it is, in fact, time to shake things up a bit and not wait another 10 years to make sure the audience is ready for a non-white James Bond. Idris Elba is a perfect Bond precisely because he represents what Great Britain is today; an eclectic country in a multicultural, yet smaller world.

Perhaps whoever will be producing future James Bond movies will want to broaden the series’ audience to more than the typical, old-fashioned, more-or-less repressed macho guy, who wishes he could have the face of an 18th century British colonist that can break women’s hearts with a wink.

And maybe, just maybe, it is time for us to realize that what makes the emblematic secret agent so irresistibly charismatic is neither skin color, origins, age or even sex.

Yes, you read right. It is about time we free ourselves from the sexist, Charlie’s Angels style bouncy butt and generous breasts stuffed in a spandex jumpsuit, female secret agent cliché and realize that James Bond, or whatever name we come up with for the occasion, could very well be an elegant and charming woman.

James Bond mutates according to us.

So, do we have the licence not to be racist and misogynistic when shaping our future James Bonds? I think we do.

ciTy

What exactly am I paying for?

More money, same service, when it comes to Montreal’s public transit robin della corte assistant news editor

Photo from Flickr

It’s our favourite time of year. The leaves are changing colours, midterms have just ended and winter break is in view. Last but not least, it’s time for the increase of public transit prices for Montreal commuters.

The Société de transport de Montréal recently announced the increase of monthly fees from $75.50 to $77.75. From this perspective, a $2.25 increase isn’t a big deal, but when you

consider that this is its 12th time in the past decade that they’ve raised prices, it’s something to question.

Although the prices for regular separate tickets will remain the same, all the other options (which include monthly passes, weeklong passes, etc.) will increase. Here is my concern: why should Montreal commuters pay more if we’re essentially getting the same poor service?

Marvin Rotrand, vice-chair of the STM, told CTV that riders can expect more service on some bus routes, hybrid buses, more bus lanes and “more priority signals where buses go through busy intersections.” Rotrand also said that we should expect more “real-time information” that passengers can access on their smartphones and an increase in capacity from 405 million in 2011 to 540 million in 2020.

The thing is, the STM has been promising things with every increase. Has the majority of that happened yet? No. The STM promised that there would be more buses and especially, buses on time, yet I end up waiting for a bus that never shows up or is 15 minutes late. I do understand that certain changes take time, but after a decade, you shouldn’t make promises if you can’t follow through.

Another good example is the Agence métropolitaine de transport, which I’m particularly familiar with. The Deux-Montagnes train line

Photo from Flickr

I take to school is the busiest train line of all.

That train holds 900 seats, but according to the AMT, during rush hour there are usually more than 1,800 people on board.

Every other train line has double-decker trains, and these lines aren’t even close to being as busy as the Deux-Montagnes line. It’s been years that the AMT has promised doubledecker trains on this line, and none have arrived.

Customer service spokesperson of the AMT, Marianne Racine-Laberge, confirmed that the Deux-Montagnes line is the only one without double-decker trains. Laberge said that it’s because Deux-Montagnes is the only self-propelled electric train whereas the newly purchased double-decker trains can only be used with the new dual-mode (diesel/electric) locomotives.

So, why did they purchase new trains, knowing that the Deux-Montagnes train line wouldn’t be able to use them?

Similar to the STM, the AMT continually increases its fees. When I first started taking the train, my monthly pass was $77, now, less than 10 years later, I pay $118 monthly for the same exact service.

I’m pretty sure the service I get from the AMT doesn’t cost $118. I can’t even begin to count the amount of times my train was late or never showed up, and I always stand because there are never any seats available.

If the STM and the AMT can start living up to their promises, I won’t have a problem with paying my fair share. If problems continue to be neglected and I’m still wondering if my train, metro or bus will ever show up, you better believe I’ll continue to complain.

22

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

politics

theconcordian

Golden Dawn to bring dark days Radical political party is the last thing Greece needs Athena Tacet Contributor

G

reece’s democracy is at risk. With the European Union and the International Monetary Fund imposing austerity measures in return for a bailout loan, the precarious social conditions in which Greeks now live and the implosion of the country’s political system have led many to think that a civil war could become the next reality.

Greece is in a crisis. Their unemployment rate is higher than ever, which was at 25 per cent in July, with 54.2 per cent of youths unemployed. The situation is dire and people know that the government is to blame. This is where the newest party in Greece, Golden Dawn, comes in. They have become a central player in Greek politics.

The Golden Dawn, whose name paradoxically conveys a poetic message, has recently been the most striking case of political unease. Portrayed as Neo-Nazi, this violent, farright political party prefers describing itself as “nationalist.”

“We are not fascists. We are not anti-immigrants. We are Greeks, and we love our country. That’s all,” Golden Dawn’s deputy leader in Montreal, Spiros Macrozonaris, said in a recent interview with the CBC. Far-right parties like this have succeeded in getting voters in the past by creating an uncertainty as to what their agenda really is about, and therein lies the danger.

With an increasing popularity, Golden Dawn has gained 18 seats at the Greek Parliament since the 2012 elections. Golden Dawn parliamentarian Ilias Panagiotaros believes that Golden Dawn will be the top Greek political party “within one, two or three years.”

Panagiotaros is the same person who held a megaphone in an immigrant-filled neighborhood in Athens, screaming that we need to “fight against foreign invaders.” Greek police say they have made almost 3,000 arrests in a recent campaign to hold and deport illegal immigrants. In September, three Golden Dawn lawmakers led supporters on sweeps through markets in two towns, demanding to see the papers of people who weren’t ethnic Greeks. They smashed the stalls of those they deemed to be operating illegally. This radicalism is not what Greece needs. This isn’t the democracy Greece is so proud to be

the father of.

“We have always been a joyful nation,” said Dimitris Manolakis, a Greek student now studying in Germany. “We used to have smiles on our faces no matter what. Times are now dark and sad, but the Golden Dawn is not the solution. The party will not bring

back the hopes that we lost. It’s our responsibility to do so.”

History has shown that resorting to radicalism has never been a wise solution but rather an unnecessary and dangerous evil. Golden Dawn definitely falls into this category.

Photo from Flickr

justice

That’s no way to treat your best friend Animal abuse should be a serious offence in Quebec Tiffany Lafleur Contributor Roo’s body was covered in blood. She had been beaten with a lead pipe, stabbed five times with bits of broken ceramic cutting into her body.

She was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. Doctors didn’t know if she would survive the night. But she did. Her assailant had

been caught, and would be prosecuted and sentenced to six months in jail.

After all, Roo is just a three-year-old pug.

This is the biggest sentence regarding animal cruelty in Quebec’s history. Geoffrey Laberge has been accused with five counts of animal cruelty. According to CTV, the crown and the defence are suggesting a sentence prohibiting Laberge from owning an animal for the next 25 years.

In a recent report published by the Animal Legal Defence Fund, Quebec came in second to last in the ranking of Canadian animal protection laws. According to the ALDF, Quebec

is “one of the best provinces to be an animal abuser.” How heartwarming.

If this isn’t a wake-up call for the government to enforce stricter rules regarding animal abuse, then what is? Animal abuse is a cruel, violent and an absolutely unnecessary form of aggression.

A society can usually be judged by how well they take care of the weak. This includes the elderly and the young but should also include animals.

Animals don’t talk. They can’t go to the police and ask for protection. They can’t just pack their bags and disappear in the middle of the

Photo from Flickr

night. Animals are loyal and are our companions. If Quebec doesn’t adequately defend the weak in our society, then it stands to reason that they do not consider pets to be creatures of value.

Animal abuse is horrible enough on its own.

However, it can also be a warning sign of deeper and darker forms of violence.

In an article published by the Humane Society, it states that the National School Safety Council, the U.S. Department of Education, the American Psychological Association, and the National Crime Prevention Council all agree that animal cruelty is a warning sign for at-risk youth.

The article also mentioned that Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Albert DeSalvo and many other confessed murderers and school shooters had committed acts of animal cruelty in the past.

Montreal’s Luka Magnotta was also suspected to have been abusive towards animals. And we all know what that led to.

I believe cruelty to any innocent creature is morally wrong. If Roo had been a child, Laberge would have been in prison for a lot longer than six months. But since Roo is ‘just’ a dog, her attacker won’t be locked up for longer. If people can convince themselves that this form of violence and cruelty is acceptable in our society, there’s a problem. Part of the problem is that the government is allowing such violence by being so lax with the punishment.

Just because Roo stands on four legs instead of two does not take away from the fact that Laberge beat an innocent creature with a lead pipe before stabbing it five times. Why? Maybe because she was barking too loud. Or maybe she gnawed on the wrong chair leg. But if Laberge was okay with administering such violence on a helpless creature, then what’s to say he, or others who have committed such crimes, wouldn’t inflict such pain on a person?

RETRACTION: In the Oct. 30 issue of The Concordian, we incorrectly credited the Quickspin of Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d city. The review was written by Sabrina Curiale. We regret the error.

Follow us on Twitter: @TheConcordian

White Russian

Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012 Vol. 30 Issue 11 Marilla Steuter-Martin Editor-in-chief editor@theconcordian.com

Georges Menexis Opinions editor

Paula rivaS Managing editor managing@theconcordian.com

Are you sick of the usual vodka orange, rum and coke, and gin tonics? It can get repetitive. Spice your night up by trying something new, and absolutely delicious: the white russian. The epitome of classiness in a cup. The perfect balance between an alcoholic drink and late night coffee.

Mix well. As you can see in the picture, the cream or milk is clearly separated from the coffee liquor. The next step is to find yourself a cozy seat next to a burning fireplace and drink the night away!

SoPhia loffreda production manager production@theconcordian.com

Kalina lafraMboiSe News editor news@theconcordian.com

StePhanie la leggia life editor life@theconcordian.com

2 Oz Of vOdkA 1 Oz Of COffEE lIquOR 1 Oz Of CREAm OR mIlk

aManda l. Shore arts editor arts@theconcordian.com

elizabeth MacKay Music editor music@theconcordian.com

Kevin duarte sports editor sports@theconcordian.com

george MenexiS Opinions editor opinions@theconcordian.com

Madelayne hajeK photo editor photo@theconcordian.com

nataSha taggart alySSa treMblay Online editors online@theconcordian.com

jennifer Kwan Graphics editor graphics@theconcordian.com

robin della corte Matthew guite assistant news editors news@theconcordian.com

Marie-joSee Kelly assistant news photographer photo@theconcordian.com

Tomorrow night is the big night. After three debates, countless ads, and weeks of promotion, the United States may have a new president tomorrow night. The race is tight, and social media outlets have exploded in speculation over the winner.

Here are the best tweets circling around Mitt Romney.

Harry Potter crossword

production assistants

editorial office 7141 sherbrooke st. W. - cc.431 Montreal, Qc H4B 1r6

@gr4sshopp3r: “If Mitt Romney is elected

we can forget any hope of aliens deeming us intelligent life and making contact.”

514.848.2424 x7499

MeliSSa Kate gagnon

Business manager business@theconcordian.com

@YourFavWhiteGuy: “President Romney:

Binders full of women. Bitches love binders.” #PostElectionHeadlines”

brennan neill eMily white cindy loPez ruben baStien tySon lowrie

@ThatBravePotter: “If Romney gets elected

Board of directors directors@theconcordian.com

it’s going to be like when Lord Voldemort took over Hogwarts.” this morning, overheard African-American worker saying “if Romney wins you gonna be tweetin from the cotton field” #wtf”

@OctoberJones: “POLITICAL TWEET:

Here’s my problem with Romney. Every time you say his name, it sounds like you’re doing a ScoobyDoo impression.”

copy editors copy@theconcordian.com

celia Ste-croix bianca david cynthia duPuiS MariSSa Miller

(Editor-in-chie

@RepubGirlProbz: “Got coffee at Dunkin

chriStine beaton Sara King-abadi elizabeth toMaraS

down 1. Most annoying ghost Across

2. Memory storage device

4. City where Harry Potter was written

3. Wizarding bank

5. Dumbledore’s pet

5. Bulgarian wizarding academy

9. Malfoy’s mom

7. Voldemort’s middle name

14 truth potion

8. Wizarding sport

15 Name of Ron’s aunt

10. Ron’s rodent

16 Name of Fleur Delacour’s sister

11. Killer of Neville’s parents

17 Dumbledore’s brother

12. French wizarding academy

19 Hagrid’s brother

13. Greatest wizard of all time

20 Librarian’s name

18. Three-headed dog

Staff writerS and contributorS amanda Brin, rebecca de carlo, Nicole yeba, Olivia Jones, sara Baron-Goodman, christina rowan, sabrina Giancioppi, andrew Guilbert, chelsea singer, andy Fidel, ariana Trigueroscorbo, andria caputo, Emilie pirson, sofia Gay, Gurjot Bains, alex Giardini, Veronique Thivierge, audrey Folliot, Michelle pucci, paul Traunero, david s, landsman, andrew Maggio, athena Tacet, Tiffany lafleur, Joel ashak.

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From our kitchen

Concordia’s weekly, independent student newspaper.

Events of the weeK: Nov. 6 Tuesday +THEATRE - Trench Patterns - 20h - Bain St-Michel +MUSIC - Kaki King - 20h - Le Belmont Wednesday +THEATRE - Harlem Duet - 20h - Segal Centre THURSDAY +CINEMA POLITICA - Carbon Rush - 19h - Hall bldg room-H110 +MUSIC - Yeasayer - 21h - Le cabaret du Mile End Friday +IMPROV - Smackdown Improv - 20h - Montreal Improv Theatre SATURDAY +CABARET - Bang!Bang! - 20h - Bain Mathieu +MUSIC - Matthew Dear - 21h - Il Motore SUNDAY +LITERATURE - Drawn & Quarterly 5th Anniversary - 19h - 5213 Hutchison +MUSIC - Bassnectar - 20h - Metropolis Monday +CINEMA POLITICA - 5 Broken Cameras - 19h - Hall Bldg room-H110 +MUSIC - The Fresh and Onlys - 20h30 - Casa Del Popolo