Volume 46 Issue 18

Volume 46

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Issue 18

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February 13, 2012

Cooking with the Spoon Black History Month What, if anything, does it mean for you?

By Cornel Grey

It’s the month of February and apart from hosting Valentine’s Day, Groundhog Day, and several days of independence for countries all over the world, it is known by us in the western world as Black History Month. This year is particularly significant as noted by the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, the honorable Jason Kenney.

He acknowledged February 2012 as the 200 anniversary of the War of 1812 in which “a 68-year-old former slave named Richard Pierpoint, serving with an all-black company of soldiers…served with distinction at Queenston Heights and in other decisive battles”.

Arthur sought out the Trent African Caribbean Student Union to see what they had planned for the month to reflect on their history and to promote the achievements of black individuals both in the past and present. Arthur was able to get in touch with TACSU’s secretary, Tiffany Benjamin, who said that as an organization their primary aim is to produce events that serve to celebrate both the African and Caribbean culture. Through these events, it is hoped that an appreciation and understanding of the rich culture from which African and Caribbean students come will be derived by students at Trent and the Peterborough community as a whole.

“Black History Month is of great significance to the club at this time since we have an added opportunity to educate and showcase our African and Caribbean culture. Not only is it a time for celebration for the advancements we have made as a race to the world, but also a time for reflection for what our forefathers have gone through to bring us to this point,” Benjamin stated. She also provided us with a calendar of events, highlighting all that TACSU has planned for the month of February:

February 2: Movie night (featured movie: Chris Rock’s documentary Good Hair)

By Anthony P. Gulston

Thanks to a generous grant from the TCSA and Trent Active Minds, the Seasoned Spoon is able to host a weekly cooking class on Mondays at 6:30pm until March 5.

Arthur was able to eat with one the Spoon’s bakers, Kristen LaRocque, during the first of the 3 hour cooking classes geared towards first year students leaving residence, as well as “new to the kitchen students.” Kristen emphasized that nutritional needs can be met while still getting a chance to be highly creative. During the class there was lots of great conversation (food and otherwise), lots of great tips, and “lots of eating!” Each class is only $5 or PWYC. Danni Dickson showed the participants how to make a quiche with a golden delicious crust that was jam packed full of spinach but still tasted like egg. Then Kris showed everybody how to make moist and delicious morning glory muffins and gluten-free chocolate quinoa cake.

Baking and cooking nutritional food can seem like a daunting task that only the most skilled of matriarch artisans can accomplish, but with a little encouragement and some simple recipes it starts to become an easy way to make lots of tasty food stuffs for the week. Students get a bad reputation for eating cheap, calorie and starch rich foods. But with little help from your student food co-operative, the mac and cheese can be deep dish quiche in no time.

February 12: Xquisite Kinks hair show at the Champlain Great Hall at 4 pm. The show is primarily to bring awareness for the versatility of black hair.

February 12-18: TACSU will be having a window display at the Biko Library* which will showcase the plight from pre-slavery through slavery to emancipation.

February 15: TACSU will be having its open mic night and general meeting at the Kubo Lounge from 7- 10 pm. The stage will be open for all interested individuals who may wish to perform spoken word, a poem, a song, or even free styling. It would be an opportunity for you to express yourself.

article continued on page 4

in the paper this week

centre: Trent professors “respond”(?) to the Academic Plan p. 3 - Letters galore • p. 4 - Have You Seen... Shoppers Drug Mart? p. 5 - Educational controversies • p. 8 - Drama review: Helen p. 9 - “Spiffing chaps” play hockey • p.10 - Trent Film Society presents...

spending money

Volume 46 | Issue 18 | February 13, 2012

Masthead by Jackson Creek Press 751 George Street • Suite 104 Peterborough, ON • K9H 7P5

editorial

tel: 705-745-3535 editors@trentarthur.ca • www.trentarthur.ca

and other ways Trent could be better

Editor in Chief Business Manager Miranda Rigby

Tyson Shennett

Production News Reporters Assistant Matt Jarvis Heather Scully

Anthony Gulston

Copy Editor

Carmen Meyette

Chelsea Rodrigues

Sara Ostrowska

Proofreader

Cornel Grey

Pat Reddick

Distribution Teigan Sparkes

Ayesha Asghar Elisha May Rubacha Mitchell Powers

Photography Andrew Tan

Board of Directors Chair • Ki Alleyne Secretary • Not yet named, Treasurer • Not yet named Members at Large • Caitlin Currie, Hazel Wheeler, Jacob Bogaard, Jenna Cameron, Maxim Gertler-Jaffe

Contributors Caileigh Morrison • Troy Bordun • Tyler Prozeniuk • Brian Lukaszewicz • Christian Metaxas • Zach Ruiter

Submission guidelines Articles Articles should be submitted via email to editors@ trentarthur.ca, in the body of the message, or as an *.rtf, *.doc, or *.txt attachment. The body should be approximately 800 words. Listings, announcements, or briefs should not exceed 100 words. Feature pieces can be up to 1500, but must be arranged in advance with the editors.

By Miranda Rigby

Have you ever heard the saying “you’ve got to spend money to make money?” This is the situation Trent University is continuously finding itself in.

Ever since Trent made the move to sell the downtown colleges this has been an ongoing issue. Transactions such as that one have become “fast money” scenarios whereby a company is willing to pay money for something Trent University owns, and Trent gets an immediate profit instead of a long term investment.

Trent University seems to not care about the long term investments that they do hold. Local news channels reported on poor maintenance in on-campus housing last year. They were guided by students who lived on campus and were tired of paying so much money for a landlord who was too cheap to fix their faucets.

Trent University outsources their food services. For a small amount of profit, Aramark replaced the cafeterias of yesteryear.

The company brings in their own (poorly made) product – mass produced, bland, overpriced – Trent sells them the space to do so and gives them an monopoly of food services on campus.

The inability Trent University has to hire professors (or rather, it’s refusal to hire new ones) speaks again to the lack of investment in the future of their school, their product, and/or their educational value.

With this mounting list of all the things Trent University has not been doing, it should not come as a surprise that there has been an uproar of students who continue to be unhappy about the privately owned residences that Trent has outsourced to be built. According to one leaked source, Trent University collects an initial $1,779,200 in land lease payments at the beginning of their deal and 5% gross revenue for each year after the first 20 years of the lease.

New students and students interested in Trent University will not be aware of the lack of interest Trent has in it’s own future.

With lofty documents such as the “Academic Plan” creating the illusion of administrative integrity, the majority of the incoming student population have no concerns for what they are supporting by living in a near-but-off-campus pile of bricks. This residence will be more well maintained than the on-residence campus (if we take into account the mentality of “it can’t be any worse”). Why would they worry?

However, it is this editor’s belief that these are the first signs of a failing school. One day if you are like me and are starring at a $25,000 invoice from the Ontario and Federal governments, you will want that degree to matter. The school you attend should continue to exist because, even if you regret coming here, your education would become devalued if you came to a school which could no longer function.

So when you point out to me on the streets next week that Trent University spent millions on creating and updating their gym facilities, make sure to weigh first whether that purchase was truly important in getting students to come to Trent. Sports scholarships are more apt to exist in our southern neighbours’ education system, and if you were to come to Trent and notice it falling apart would fancy gym equipment sway you to stay? I don’t think so.

Editor’s Note: So my words are fine, but you ask why did I make the editorial decision to publish that ad for the new privately funded residences last week? The ad space paid Arthur $450. That’s it.

It is wholly unprofessional to drag down the company who pays you the week they advertise, so we wait a week and we fight these battles together.

Images Hard copies (photographs, original artwork, etc.) should be brought into the office (751 George Street, Suite 104) to be scanned. If submitting files electronically, please save as *.tif, with a dpi of no less than 300 pixels.

Letters

Fuck Ups need to recycle

Letters Limit letters to the editors to 250 words. Letters longer than 250 words may be published but Arthur reserves the right to edit for length and clarity (but not content).

Conributors are encouraged to attend the weekly story meeting on Tuesday at 1pm in our office in Sadlier House, or to contact the editors if considering submitting to an upcoming issue.

Dear Fuck Ups, Yet again I get to call you out on your deplorable actions.

Please note AND PRINT the attached pictures as they demonstrate even further your lack of regard for interest in the environment. An issue I’m sure you trumpet on a regular basis.

In the pictures you see that on two occasions Arthur Magazine or someone representing the magazine has proceeded to put recyclable newspapers in a dumpster behind housing that is currently being used as housing for Trent Students.

Not in the recycling box but in a plain old dumpster!

Now what the fuck is this, why is it happening and when the fuck am I going to get an explanation for this shitty behaviour?

Oh wait I’ll hold my breath and not bother to count on it.

Fuck you yet again, Arthur!

Your shitty friend, R. Veale

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of Arthur staff, volunteers or its Board of Directors. Contributors are encouraged to attend the story meetings Tuesday at 1pm or contact the Editors to discuss story ideas. All article submissions are due Monday at noon. Letters, Listings, Classifieds, and Events are due Thursday at 9am and should be sent to listings@trentarthur. ca. Advertisers are encouraged to contact advertising@ trentarthur.ca for ad rates and contracts.

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Our friend, R. Veale, has a point. After receiving this letter to the editor I personally contacted the distribution manager to assure that our extra newspapers do not end up in the trash behind student housing, but rather are left at the office and recycled as needed. Thank you for your letter, Mr. Veale, your message has been duly noted.

Letters continued

Savage Arms needlessly offensive I just returned from the career fair today, and I am absolutely appalled that Trent University would provide space for a gun company called Savage Arms. It is bad enough that our university would provide the space for a weapons company to promote itself in an educational environment, but it is absolutely unacceptable that a company clearly using racist imagery would be permitted to advertise on our campus.

Though the company is named after a man named Arthur Savage, who is incidentally heralded for helping to conquer the Aborigine wilderness‚of Australia, the Indian head logo‚ (complete with a full feather headdress) very distinctly implies a connection between Indigenous Peoples and savagery, perpetuating one of the oldest racist stereotypes about the First Nations of this land.

As Indigenous persons within Canada, especially women, continue to face violence at a disproportionate rate, Trent should not be hosting an arms dealer at our school.

I sincerely hope that the next career fair does not include companies proud of their colonizing history, especially those using racist imagery to sell guns.

Matthew Davidson

The Anti-Hipster Manifesto Society used to call hipsters “posers.” I don’t know why they stopped. That is what they are. Hipsters do what they do and act the way they do because they don’t know how else to express themselves. Maybe they are like Charles Dickens’ holiday hating character Scrooge; if they actually ever felt anything they would blame it on indigestion.

It would helpful if I first explain the evolution of the modern hipster. Just in case there is any doubt in this piece so far. First there were hippies. Hippies really have nothing to do with the new hipsters because they actually believed in something. Like one of their mentors Martin Luther King Jr. they had a dream. Of course like most dreams you have to wake up. They dealt with war and human rights. And they were good for the most part. They didn’t care about image. It was about the issues. Yes there were drugs. But unfortunately, there are always drugs. But somehow their clothing ended up becoming a uniform. Fashion critics took a look at the hippies and then their looks ended up on runways. And that is when the Yippies popped up. Yippies were people that had money and stole hippie fashion. Like the hipsters they had no real idea about who they were or who they wanted to be so they became bohemian. They didn’t understand the point of protests. So the Yippies grew and grew and some became the Yuppies. They cared about money and their lives were empty without luxuries. And those yuppies spawned children.

And these children are hipsters. Or most, anyway.

So the hipsters pretend to be interested in The Smiths or The Cranberries in 2012.

They wear ironic t-shirts with quotes on them, or characters from 1980s or 1990s television shows. On Facebook they clog up their friends feeds with digital photographs of themselves in front of mirrors or with like-minded friends or acquaintances with sunglasses over their eyes and organic beer in their hands.

Organic is an important thing to hipsters. It is the trend of the week for them and they have decided to covet it to use it as a conversational piece. They like to say that they “shop local.” And they are able to shop local of course because their mecca is urbane cities or big towns where shopping locally is a possibility. If you live in a small town and you try to be a hipster you are lacking one of their fundamentals, the ability to look smug carrying dirty recycled bags filled with turnips and soy extract. In a small town the hipsters just have to be content with drinking their Coca-Cola out of old Smuckers’ jam jars or their mothers’ old mason jars. They do this because they believe they are protecting the Earth by recycling. They fail to see of course that aluminum cans are also blue box worthy and drinking from one does not make you a bad person. Plus they use (and waste) more soap and water on the jars that they happily use over and over again.

Some also have the wrong inclination that they invented vinyl records. So they also go around the music stores buying records that are imported from Japan or the U.K. listening to the bands of yesteryear. Does anyone really need an imported first album by Booker T and the M.G.s? My favourite is when the bands that come out now know that they can market to hipsters so along with selling their music for MP3 downloads or on disc, they go out of their way to make an album like it is 1974 again. It is pathetic and I go out of my way not to buy their music because they are catering to the people who don’t understand their work. They have sold out any creativity and integrity that they ever had when they make their music vinyl when it wasn’t recorded on vinyl. It is like films that are not recorded in 3D but then they are marketed as 3D and altered. The film becomes a fabrication and a farce. All artistic integrity leaves the project like a dieter leaves the dinner table.

I am also offended by the hipster’s belief that they are original and trendsetters. The fact is that what they are interested in is usually older than they are. They look smug in their cat-eye or Buddy Holly glasses. Both styles made famous in the 1960’s by secretaries and a dead singer gone-too-soon respectively. And they are usually wearing glasses that they don’t need. That is what makes you really a poser, when you start wearing glasses not because you need them, but because they are a fashion statement.

We are here to learn at this school. And a lot of what we pick up is the societal cues of our fellow students. So this mock commentary is not about making fun of people it is about making fun of an on-going sad trend. And it is to get to the bottom of why people decide to act the way they do. Maybe people decide to pose because they are not comfortable being themselves. But this is a good time and a good place to realize who we are and to gain perspective and insight into the people who we want to become.

Now is the time to stop posing and acting. Now is the time to just be yourself.

Anonymous

? d r a e h n o i n i p o r u r o o y t i e d v e a e h want to your letter to th r send nto your pape ur.ca i h t r a t n e r t @ s r e d it o

Re: Model UN and Canadian Mining Awareness Two articles published in the Feb 6th edition of Arthur demonstrate an alarming lack of critical and theoretical awareness on the subject matter at hand.

Chanel Christophe’s article on Trent’s participation at a Model UN conference congratulates students for appropriating the ability of entire nations to speak on their own behalf. While I hold no doubt TCSA president Sheldon Willerton is worthy of an honourable mention for his participation in the Joint Triple Crisis on Libya Committee, are his efforts best served by representing the State of Qatar? Instead of working towards illusory resolutions for Libya, might I suggest President Willerton and Chanel Christophe for that matter, investigate how multiple corporate ties implicate Trent University to injustice in Libya? Immediately after Libya’s Col. Gadaffi was toppled, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, John Baird, led a trade mission to Libya along with the Montreal military and industrial engineering firm SNC-Lavalin, and Alberta oil giant Suncor. Both SNC Lavalin and Suncor have a history of donations to Trent University. In fact, through his association with the “Trent University and Foothills Research Institute Grizzly Bear Research Program”, Trent’s President Steven Franklin demonstrates long standing financial ties to Suncor and other petrochemical companies. SNC Lavalin, a past sponsor of the Trent President’s Golf Tournament, has spent the past 15 years in Libya constructing mega-prisons for Gadaffi to house dissidents, as well as constructing the world’s largest water pipe-line project known as the “Great Man-Made River”.

This brings me to Natalie Guttormsson’s “Canadians for Mining Awareness” column that suggests documentary films featuring ‘adventure travelling’, ‘breathtaking scenery and stark facts’ are ‘far more effective than talking’ in their ability to ‘convince everyone that pipelines are dangerous…’. As a documentary filmmaker I could not disagree more with Guttormsson’s ‘listen more and watch more documentaries’ prescription for the next year. I say make documentaries! Turn on the lights and force the divestment of tar-sands financing from public institutions! The author is painfully unaware that advocating an altruistic duty to consume documentaries - in an of itself - represents the caring cultural capitalism that is itself the problem. If Guttormsson and others remain committed to a strategy of listening, watching, and mining awareness, then I have no doubt they will one-day watch an award-winning doc on how the glorious Tar-Sands pipeline went off without a hitch.

Zach Ruiter

Arthur Makes Space for the Private Residence

I am at it again! I really didn’t want to write a letter to the editors for a third week in a row!

However Arthur surpasses itself on a weekly basis. What now you ask? Arthur has made space for the private residence at Trent, in their pages, in a positive light!

The TCSA, college cabinets, community groups, downtown businesses, and practically everyone (with some notable exceptions) stood in opposition to this mistake of a development. The motivation of our opposition to this private residence has varied enormously, some because it undermines the college system, others because it is an example of privatization, and quite a few who fear of the effect on downtown with another 400 students less. Arthur, was once the strongest in opposition, printing materials that were snuck off the Board of Governors desk in an effort to make the plans public. Issue 17 changed all this.

Arthur now prints materials that speak in favour, for the private residence, which is operating under the name of “London Property Corporation”. All summer, Arthur covered the City Hall proceedings in their online blog, often denouncing the development. Cabinet representatives, TCSA, myself amongst others, spoke as part of 24 who opposed the development (there were four in favour: the developers, Steven Franklin, and two students).

When I tell the administration that they ought not to provide space on the Trent website to the private residence, they frequently reject my proposal. Seeing as the student press is now publishing advertising for the same private residence, I suspect my pushes will be in vain.

P.S. Why were all those students, on the front cover of Issue 16, protesting?

Brea Hutchinson

Volume 46 | Issue 18 | February 13, 2012

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letters continued

Shoppers Drug Mart Expansion Could Hurt Downtown Core I’m writing about a proposed development in downtown Peterborough. Shoppers Drug Mart is seeking to abandon their existing store at Charlotte & Aylmer and move to a new larger site kitty corner from where they are now. The new site, if approved, will demolish all of the buildings on the north side of Charlotte, between Bethune and Aylmer (from the paint store to Jim’s Pizzeria/Have you Seen). The corner of Charlotte and Aylmer will be a 37 car parking lot, with the new Shoppers building occupying the rest of the block (& loading docks fronting on Bethune). In urban design terms, it’s an unmitigated disaster to create a building for no other purpose than to fit the brand image of Shoppers Drug Mart.

For those with more time on their hands, I’ve written up more on the backstory and posted it to this blog site: SaveCharlotteStreet.blogspot.com. I’d welcome comments or additional information if you have any.

The whole idea of destroying a vibrant street to build this seems beyond comprehension. Regardless, some city councillors think it’s a good idea. I am fairly confident that a concerted effort by a group of citizens can help change their minds (go Margaret Mead!), to ensure the development either doesn’t happen or happens in a manner that will result in a building of enduring value.

If you’d like to do something, please spread the word and take the time to write or call your Councillor, the Mayor and/or the City’s Director of Planning. Their contact information is available by clicking here. There also needs to be people willing to speak articulately against this at the Planning Committee when this development is being considered.

Professor Stephen Hill Environmental and Resource Studies

Correction: In Volume 18 the article entitled Gzowski College Keeps Have You Seen dream alive Melanie Buddle is the Principal of Peter Gzowski College (and is not Melanie Bundle), Jordann Pool was spelt incorrectly, Charles Foran is President of PEN Canada, not Pen and Ink Canada and while Jordann set a goal of $1000, the project raised close to (an amazing!) $10,000.

Congratulations, all!

campus

Black History Month Continued

continued from page 1 While we acknowledge the importance of paying tribute to the past, not everyone sees Black History Month as necessary in a contemporary context. Is BHM merely another commercialized product that businesses have come to exploit? What place, if any, does it have in the lives of those with African ancestry? And for those that see it as a significant element in how we as black people come to terms with our self-identity, what more can be done?

Arthur asked some of our students these questions and more, the following are their responses:

What does Black History Month mean to you and what more can be done in the Peterborough community to assist in this?

Lucie Kawiche: On my island of St. Lucia, Black History Month is something that is generally associated with the US culture, and as such, there are rare opportunities that I have been able to find significance in such a holiday. I believe that people of Black/African decedent should find pride in their history and if there is a need to make February the time for us as people to recognize these important events that have changed the course of history then we should make sure that we make time for it. In Peterborough, more specifically Trent, there is a continued effort to make the people who are part of these communities to feel educated

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about their struggles. But there should be more emphasis on minority power throughout the year.

Chris Cyrus: Black History Month, doesn’t mean much to me because, as it is history, it has no validity in the future.

We are no longer in need of a whole month to celebrate our freedoms; it should be part of our daily lives.

Riche Sands: Black History Month is a time period used to reflect on what black individuals in the past had to endure and go through in order to get to where they are at now.

Torri Weapenicappo: It’s a month to raise awareness on black history and the amazing culture that has come out of it.

Sam: To assist in Black History Month in Peterborough, I believe that Maya Angelou should come to Peterborough to showcase some of her extraordinary work.

Aneka: Black History Month is a whole month dedicated to remembering the wonderful things that black people have done in the past. It ensures that people don’t forget and encourage the black youth to strive for greatness because it is attainable and show pride in their culture and background in a world filled with racism and bigotry.

What could people do to promote it?

Have workshops and information centres in community centres and libraries to help inform people about the different black ‘heroes’ if you will, like inventors and

scholars and liberators. People don’t know a lot about them.

Creating clubs in schools so black students have a place to turn to getting in touch with the outreach programs involved in helping black youth like the NAACP. Patreka Roach: To me, Black History Month is more geared towards American history on the struggles and accomplishments of Black persons that made an impact back in the day. I think it’s good to raise awareness on the accomplishments that persons of color have made (given our history of slavery, oppression etc) but then again I feel as if some persons use this as an opportunity to associate the colour of skin with being able to accomplish certain things which I do not agree with.

*

The Bata name became unpopular with many at Trent beginning in the 1980s after it emerged that the Bata Shoe Corporation was maintaining large manufacturing operations in South Africa at a time when other countries were under heavy pressure to boycott the oppressive South African government. Subsequently a longstanding tradition at Trent began that has many students referring to the building as the Stephen Biko Memorial Library, in honour of South African anti-apartheid activist Stephen Biko.

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national

EducationisaRight WestofwhatUniversity?

UWO unofficially changes name to Western University

By Anthony P. Gulston

Photo by Andrew Tan

By Carmen Meyette

Education is a central issue in Canada today. With many highly respectable colleges and universities spread across the country one might assume our population had awesome access to the post-secondary education that should make the difference between getting by and living well. The problem though, is that with tuition going up at a faster rate than wages, equal access isn’t actually the case.

Not to mention, once post-secondary education is completed, the debt mounted up paying for it means that a lot of students spend more time just getting by than they intended. This fact is only made more poignant by the increasing difficulty for college and university graduates to find jobs.

So how are Canadian students reacting to this combination of bleak facts? They’re telling the Government that “Education is a Right” and they’re sick of being buried in absurd amounts of debt just to get their undergraduate degree.

The Canadian Student Federation organized and campaigned for February 1, 2012 to be a Student Day of Action.

Students across the country took up the call to action. They rallied and marched, baring signs, chants and facts to let their local government representatives know how they felt.

On a local scale, Ontario students also

note that tuition here is the highest in Canada.

In Peterborough around 200 students gathered in front of City Hall and marched down George Street, while chanting and cheering, all the way to Jeff Leal’s constituency office. He was presented with an “All Out Feb 1st” tee shirt and 24 cupcakes decorated to represent the percentage of students receiving the 30% tuition rebate relative to those who would be feeling short for tuition next year (Guess which percentage is higher? That’s right, there’s more students not receiving that rebate than those who do).

More importantly than the pleasantries though, he was also given a document outlining what exactly we want to happen with our tuition and fees and explaining that we want the price lowered for all students, not just some.

Remaining calm and polite Leal spoke to the 30% tuition rebate, stressing that he supported making education more accessible for all and would take the concerns raised to him to his cohorts.

He clearly recognized that while the Government is actively making things better for some, more needs to be done for all.

The Trent group was also reminded to watch for emails and advertisements regarding a forum which will take place to discuss next steps.

The University of Western Ontario is not truly Western University.

The decision to change “the brand” of the university came from a seven month long consulting project from the school’s Communications and Public Affairs Department as well as Toronto based design firm Hahn Smith Design.

The process went on from June to December 2011 and involved faculty, staff, students and alumni in a discussion about Western’s visual identity. According to Western they conducted online and in-person surveys, workshops and individual interviews with close to 5,000 alumni, donors and friends, more than 3,700 students, and approximately 2,000 faculty and staff members.

The reason stated for this $200,000 rebranding process was that the “visual identity” of Western is too confusing due to an over saturation of clubs, groups, departments, and teams having their own logo and visual aesthetic. So, in order to maintain control of their brand, the administration added another, more authoritative and encompassing, logo to the mix.

The new logo encompasses what they gathered to be the identifying features of the University of Western Ontario. The school’s original coat of arms has been brought back, on it the rising sun, a book with the date of the schools founding, and a maple leaf at the bottom. Like Trent, Western has borrowed a visual cue from the city in which it is located.

A stag on the new Western logo is from the City of London’s coat of arms. A demi-lion is there to represent the founding story of the university.

Hahn Smith Design is also known for their design and rebranding campaigns for other institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art, The Art Gallery of Ontario, and Harvard University. Western University President Amit Chakma seems excited to be added to Hahn Smith Design client list. “Harvard isn’t just Harvard,” Chakma said. “It’s Harvard University. But you don’t have to say university. How long will it take Western to get there, I don’t know. Our goal is to become such a recognized brand that just Western means us.”

Reactions from students have been mixed. Student Yvonne Mbinda pointed out that the rebranding is a bit awkward because there is already a Western University in the Republic of Azerbaijan. It takes its name from being west of Asia, but in the far east of Europe.

This gives Western University [the real one] the unique opportunity to have students and professors studying from all around Asia and Europe. This Western University also has an interesting logo design.

The other awkward bit of confusion for graduates is what the name of the school is on their degree. Western University is not the official name of the school, so on all official documents students still are attending and did attend the University of Western Ontario.

Volume 46 | Issue 18 | February 13, 2012

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campus

Open question to the staff and students of Trent University

To whom it may concern, As a part of a new initiative which is being run by Arthur Newspaper's staff collective we ask your consideration in responding to the following question. Please reply with a maximum of 400 words by Monday, February 6 at 5:00 P.M. to editors@trentarthur.ca:

“In your personal view, what are the positive and negative implications of the academic plan for your department, and if you received the academic plan as an assignment from one of your students how would you grade it? (Please provide grade with comments).”

Conversely, if you prefer, we can set up a time to hold an interview over the phone at your earliest convenience, or you may feel free to forward this email to another member of your department who may be better suited to answer this question by the given deadline.

Sen

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Wedne t Februa sday ry 1

Miranda Rigby Editor-in-Chief Arthur Newspaper

Those who have yet to respond to the email: Dave Newhouse, Zailig Pollock, Victoria DeZwaan, Neal McLeod, Ray Dart, Haroon Akram Lodhi, Brian G. Patrick, Joan Sangster and Hugh Elton.

If you are one of the names on the above list please consider taking time to send a response. Any other Trent staff, students, or community members are welcome to send in their opinions to: editors@trentarthur.ca

Hi:

Thank you very much for your email.

Please note that because of the sheer volume of correspondence received in the Provost's office, it may be a few days before I (or my confidential Executive Assistant) are able to respond. Thank you for your understanding.

Gary Boire Provost

I think it would help your readers if there was a reference point to evaluate Academic Plans. It is hard to give a relative grade to just one. I am attaching a recent one from Queen’s. I would grade this plan as A+. It was developed by distinguished scholars at a prestigious Ontario University. It is well written and lays out a coherent plan for the future of that Institution.

Brad White Chair and Professor of Biology, Trent University

community

O.P.P.SeeksSupremeCourtAppealoverViolationofPolice ServicesActintheCasesofLeviSchaefferandDouglasMinty

By Zach Ruiter

Toronto lawyers Julian Falconer and Sunil Mathai are representing two families of men shot in separate incidents by police. On June 24, 2009, Levi Schaeffer was fatally shot during an attempted arrest by Pickle Lake O.P.P. Constable Kris Wood while investigating a stolen boat. Douglas Minty was shot five times outside his mother’s home in Elmvale Ontario by OPP Constable Graham Seguin. The same police lawyer involved in both cases, Andrew MacKay counseled all the officers involved in each incident.

Falconer and Mathai sought a declaratory judgment that police officers involved in the shooting deaths violated the Police Services Act which states, “a police officer involved in the incident shall not communicate with any other police officer involved in the incident concerning their involvement in the incident until after the SIU has completed its interviews”.

Initially the Schaeffer and Minty application for declaratory judgment against the OPP was rejected by a lower court on the grounds that the actions of the police officers were moot and that the applicant families had “no practical interest and no legal interest” in the matter.

In what Julian Falconer argues was an act of “police intimidation” the Ontario Police Association and former O.P.P. Comissioner Julian Fantino then sought $92,000 in legal costs from the families of Schaeffer and Minty.

The Schaeffer and Minty families appealed and on Nov.

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15, 2011, the Ontario Court of Appeal the O.P.P. officers in question did not have the right to have their lawyer corroborate their stories and counsel them on writing notes. This allowed the officers to align their versions of the event before submitting the reports to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU). The Ontario Police are now appealing the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Justice for Levi is a coalition seeking to connect these cases “with the hundreds and thousands of others that relate to police impunity, brutality, profiling, intimidation, corruption and the people’s struggle to ensure accountability to those who are policed”.

The Appeal Court found that “the use of legal counsel to advise or assist in preparation of notes would be inconsistent with the purpose of police notices and with the duty imposed on police officers to prepare them”.

Both Levi Schaeffer and Douglas Minty lived with mental health challenges, and in both cases police involved claim the men attempted to attack the officers with a knife.

On Jan. 31 at the Peterborough Public Library, Justice for Levi hosted a public screening of a newly produced 15-minute video that details the events in the legal proceedings against police.

According to a Justice for Levi spokesperson, Kenny Hone “the 3000 person strong OPP with millions of dollars at their disposal are trying to crush poor families who are only seeking justice.”

Rachelle Sauve, an organizer with Justice for Levi who spoke at the event, suggested that “not knowing what the

heck happened” adds to the grief suffered by the families of those killed by police in Ontario. “Families, after losing someone because police are involved, are nearly criminalized themselves, or to say the least not given the finer touches of victim services.”

“The police killed my son and then treated me with the most incredible cruelty,” said Levi’s mother, Ruth Schaeffer, to the gathering of about 50 people.

Schaeffer remained calm and composed as she recounted how she “wasn’t allowed to get his body back until he was decomposing.”

Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin released a report in December entitled Oversight, Undermined which names the Levi case as just one example of a systemic police disregard for the rights and interests of the public. Marin found that of 658 cases investigated by the SIU over three years that police did not fully cooperate in 227 of those. Marin argued, “the time is long overdue for the SIU to have its own constituting legislation providing it with the authority it requires to operate independently and effectively.”

According to Marin both the Ministry of the Attorney General and the OPP treated the SIU as a “toothless tiger” that was “impotent” in its capacity to investigate civilian deaths involving police.

Ruth recalled “they sent me his last meal packed in a box with his clothing, so by the time I opened it, it was crawling, I still don’t have his I.D. back” adding, “as his mother I can’t bear the idea of anything he owned still in their possession.”

The Johnstones

By Matt Jarvis

*Trigger Warning – What follows is a hazy overview of a beloved genre of music. Music nerds beware.

Ska music was originally conceived of in Jamaica, which is an island in the Caribbean (duh.). In first deciding to write this article, I had dreams of my wit and wisdom being able to transmit some of that tropical climate through words and music whilst we endure our frozen wasteland in the coldest part of the season. However, it seems that the scientists were right after all and all our pollution has done us the good service of removing any semblance of Peterborough winter from

The Practice

By Christian Metaxas

I was one too many in and fading fast. It had been a long night; it was the fourth party we had crashed that night. I leaned myself on the wall by the keg and closed my eyes as I listened to two guys argue about who had the harder classes that semester. Ally was mingling with some girls downstairs whom she had taken a shining to; she left me by the watering hole and told me to come find her when I felt like leaving.

I glanced down the hall toward the stairs anxiously, not sure of what I wanted to happen exactly, anything to break up this inane debate I was listening to. Some other boys were bounding up the stairs; they looked like they were in search of more booze.

“Yo, tap me up man!” the boy with the fitted polo and tilted baseball cap demanded, shoving his cup in my face.

“Yo, do it yourself ”, I replied as I unenthusiastically, shoving the cup back towards him.

“What did you say to me?” he shouted, shoving me hard into the wall. We scuffled for a little, shuffling down the hall towards the stairs as we threw punches and pushed each other back and forth. All I could hear was the muffled tugging and the dull thuds of fists finding their marks. People were shouting, but nothing was discernable in the heat of our dance. The douche landed a hard haymaker to my jaw; I heard something crunch but I didn’t relent, throwing all my weight onto to him and wrestling him to the ground just over the top stair. I started to wail on him, only to be dragged off seconds later. The shouting died down while who I assumed was Ally shouldered me down the stairs and onto a couch. It wasn’t Ally.

My vision was still a little distorted from the fight. I looked over the mantle at what looked like a clock, it was quarter past something but I couldn’t tell what. I pulled my phone out of my jeans pocket to read the digital face, but still couldn’t make it out. I turned and faced the person who pulled me out of the fray upstairs. I couldn’t quite place him, but he was strikingly familiar to me, like an old friend who I hadn’t seen in a while. I could taste the blood in the corner of my tingling mouth.

the table. I have mixed feelings about that, but nonetheless it ruins my plans for this piece. And maybe it’s for the best, for as we shall discover, the particular Ska in question is far removed from its stylistic grandpappy.

Around the time Jamaica was attaining its independence (early 60’s) its musical culture was also undergoing rapid change. This was influenced by many factors, not the least being American occupation providing constant access to military radio broadcasts of American music and a subsequent influx of American records.

Amongst the genres popular on the island, jump blues and R&B stand out as essential building blocks for what was to come, which is interesting as the two genres were also integral steps towards the rock and roll revolution in the U.S. When American supply of the styles began to dwindle, Jamaican entrepreneurs formed production companies to recreate popular sounds locally.

This was the beginning of Ska. The heavy rhythm of R&B took influence from a popular local form called “Mento”, in which chords are played on the offbeat. Widely known examples of this period include “The Skatalites” as well as early Bob Marley and the Wailers. During the mid to late 60’s Ska was lost in evolution to the more relaxed forms of Rocksteady and Reggae.

More than a decade later these early Ska records were discovered by British youth who adapted the quick and infectious rhythms with some early punk rock sensibilities, creating a more aggressive version.

The revolution of racial attitudes was a central theme coming out of the period, many of the bands being multiracial in spite of tensions growing between the populations.

Widely known examples of this period include “Madness” and “The Specials”.

Again, a decade later we see a resurfacing of the Ska aesthetic as an Americanized “Ska Punk” genre. This style is faster with more distortion on the guitars. Typical examples from this period include Operation Ivy (pre-Rancid), the

“So what was up with that?” He asked me, sipping his drink. “He clocked you pretty hard, you sure you’re alright?”

“I’m fine, he was just a dick.”

“Yeah but you snapped pretty fast man, you’re usually such a smooth operator.”

“I’m just pissed off is all, what do you care anyway?”

“It takes more than a drunk at a house party to set you off.

What have you been hittin’ lately?”

“Why do you care man” I asked him. First he pulled me off a guy who I was about to destroy and now all the questions?

This guy was beginning to annoy me.

“Just looking out for you man. Shame about Zeke though, I’m real sorry to hear that. Do you think there was any foul play? People were saying some shenanigans were happening upstairs with him and Angelo.” He didn’t sound sorry; it sounded more reflexive and mechanical than sincere.

“It’s a real shame man, what can I say, the dude was like my brother. What’s with all the questions?”

“I’m just curious as to why a guy who finally got with the girl he’s been chasing for as long as I can remember, is running around gettin’ bent like he wants to die.”

“What are you some kind of stand-up comedian, observational humour is that it?” I chuckled nervously.

“I see a self-conscious young boy who’s scared and doesn’t know what he wants.” His tone wasn’t casual anymore, it was sober and serious. “How many parties have you even been kicked out of tonight?”

“You don’t know me, I snapped. Who the fuck are you anyway?”

“That’s easy, I’m you.”

I gasped awake, taking a number of deep breaths. My hands felt clammy and wet, the cold of the tiles chilled me to my core. The kitchen was bright now, and smelled like warm copper. It was then that I realized I was bleeding from my forehead. I peered up, my sight extremely out of focus, only to find a number of faces peering right down back at me, two of which belonging to Zeke and Ally. I opened my mouth to ask Bonnie and Clyde a question when Zeke piped up.

“Are you alright dude? You hit your head pretty hard” “Yeah, I think, why what happened?”

arts Mighty Mighty Bosstones, No Doubt, The Slackers, and Sublime. While this was happening in the States, 1994 saw the founding of Stomp Records in Montreal by members of The Planet Smashers and The Kingpins, two notable Canadian examples of the genre.

Stomp records (now the Union Label Group) have been essential to the distribution and endurance of Ska and Ska Punk in Canada, with many if not most talented acts eventually making their way onto their roster. Examples include Subb and Bedouin Soundclash. And, finally, The Johnstones.

The Johnstones are playing at the Red Dog on Thursday February 16. Are they a ska band? Yes. Sort of. I will say yes. BUT, they are also kind of a pop rock band from Ajax, Ontario with a fierce Jackass/Tom Green aesthetic. I mean, the beginning of their 80’s tribute anthem “Let’s Get Fucked Up” contains the lyrics “It’s a night for me and you, and I’m gonna end up naked, if it’s the last fucking thing I do.” Poetry. Members Ryan Long and Jarek Hardy have a well received show on YouTube (like, 800 hits) called “Pineapple Chats” where they talk about important issues alongside this middle aged longhair named Gary who, as far as I can tell, is only there to be verbally abused by the other two. Some of their wisdom has included “A tit is ALWAYS better then a tat, think about that, think about that.” and “Drugs are a gateway drug” (viewers beware the dick jokes and ostensibly satirical misogyny).

The music is completely predictable and lead vocalist Long sounds like Sylvester the Cat on crystal meth. BUT, Peterborough doesn’t get much Ska (punk), and they have a horn section, and I can’t help but think that their lifetime ban from Disneyland could somehow translate into a worthwhile live performance. So, if you have been fighting the urge to don some checked pants and dance around getting catastrophically intoxicated, I think your hour has finally come.

The Johnstones will be at the Red Dog as a part of their “Yellow Snow Tour 2” on Thursday February 16 supported by fellow Ontarians Mean Tangerine and Hello Beautiful.

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“You stood up and smacked your head on the edge of the counter” Ally said, looking genuinely concerned. “We wanted to call an ambulance when you didn’t wake up right away, but we didn’t want everyone to get arrested, so Zeke made sure you were breathing while I warned everyone.” How considerate, I thought to myself, trying to stand up only to groggily fall back onto my ass. “We called 991 though and they’re on there way”.

“You hear that man, everything’s alright” Zeke grinned.

“But you guys,” I flailed around my eyes desperately trying to place reality, “you two were smoking crack!”

“You can’t smoke crack out of a plastic bottle you dumbshit, it’s a gravity bong. You sure you’re alright?” Ally tilted her head quizzically.

“Yeah, you haven’t seemed too hot lately, maybe you need to get some help or something man” Zeke added, taking a long drag from one of his cigarettes.

“Buh-buh-buh-but” I spluttered, “the the the the the funeral! I was at your funeral”.

“Dude, the only thing you’ve been doing all week is been getting shitfaced, with me! Your not doing as well as I thought man. Zeke placed his hand on my lap in a reassuring way as he turned toward the building crowd behind him. “Someone wanna check on that ambulance?” He hollered.

“NO!” I yelled as I got up and barreled my way through the crowd. I flew out the front door and down the steps; as I hit the curb of the street, I slipped on a sheet of ice and hit the ground hard. My head was screaming, I could hear people from the doorway and the siren from down the street. The blue and white strobes pierced the night as two paramedics ran over, one to me and the other up to the house. The one that ran up to the house seemed to 180 about half-way up the steps, and quickly made his way back to his partner and I in the street.

“Young man”, the one kneeling over me said “you’re going to be alright. I need you to tell me your name and exactly what happened.” I looked up, trying my best to look innocent.

Want more: christianmetaxas.wordpress.com

Volume 46 | Issue 18 | February 13, 2012

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FolkyReggaePartyattheSpill

By Anthony P. Gulston

The full moon guided me to the Spill last night. I was greeted by the sound of a Sustainability Studies grad student wailing sweet soulful 90’s pop covers on her guitar in her stocking covered feet. Next I found myself signing a petition not to stop the Northern Gateway Pipeline but to urge Canada to simply take a non-positive, neutral stance. I knew I had arrived at the folky reggae party and when the real ska sound began to play from the crackly PA, I knew that Elk the Moose would be on soon.

Gnarly shredders, folkies, hippy chicks, skankin’ scenesters, and antlers lined the long, bouncing acoustics of the skinny room. With a flick of his wrist, a skiff of the riff, front man Kyle Chivers grounded the scene by playing the more eerie than irie dub jam “Into the Wallows.” “Here’s hopin’ that Babylon will fall right down to the ground,” he cries out, the call ringing down the hall like a loon on a lake.

Chivers is like a Cree Bob Marley, with his guitar strap adorned with a medicine wheel and held together with a

pan-African shoelace, he tells us that “humility is key.” The humble will never stumble, so it is unlikely that you’ll catch Kyle talking about his Presidential role within TUNA (Trent University Native Association), or his hour and a half of uniquely blissed out selections on his weekly Trent Radio program The One Drop (Fridays at 7pm on 92.7fm), named after the most famous of Carlton Barrett (of the Wailers) rim shot based reggae drum beats. It has got to be difficult when you have ladies yelling “Go Kyle!” at you.

The Bob Marley influence became more than a subtle layer to the show when they played the refreshingly rare “She’s Gone” from the man’s songbook to honour his birth.

After the band shredded the selection, Kyle gave a sweet little “thanks” to Bob in the end.

After a drum and bass interlude with some funky ‘wikka wikka wik’ guitar stylings, the reverb was turned up for the scorchin’ “Something I Recognize.” Elk the Moose have material for many moods though: the rhythmic ruminations and gentle guitar licks bring it back down to foreground Kyle’s self reflexive ballads of beauty, pain, sorrow, and

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sweetness. “There’s a lot of pain to take in this life,” he sings from his heart, not his diaphragm. Within some of these deeply personal songs we find equally deep truths about politics, race, class, colonization, and identity: “Not just a Cree man, not just a white man, not just a Canadian... it’s about the love in my heart.”

At this point the cut on his finger he got chopping veggies at the Spoon is starting to annoy him so he says “I guess I’ll pick it up a little bit.” He looks like a mighty lion when he wails out “Rebel’s Cry,” and “Rainbow Crow” got everyone who wasn’t already chair groovin’, full on out onto the floor shufflin’, skankin’, weepin’, and a-wailin’ along to the very singable harmonies. The encore needed to mellow everyone out again, so Kyle played a selection from one of his heroes: Mason Jennings.

Be sure to keep an eye out for the next Elk the Moose show, and their forthcoming EP. You can listen to the concert on Trent Radio during the Anth co dub-Station, Friday February 17 at 4:00pm.

TheFaceThatLaunchedaSingleShip

The Classics Drama Group’s Helen

By Elisha May Rubacha

Helen of Troy, the “most beautiful woman who ever lived,” you know how her story goes. Helen runs off to Troy with Paris, her lover, abandoning her husband Menelaus.

He comes after her with his thousand ships and Troy is left in ruins.

Euripides’ Helen is a brilliant variation.

In his version it is not Helen that runs away with Paris, but a phantasm created by the indignant Hera in Helen’s image. The real Helen is hidden in Egypt, having been whisked away by Hermes on Zeus’ orders.

Helen carries the burden of the Trojan War, her name is reviled, but she herself has done nothing wrong. On the contrary, she struggles to fend off the advances of Theoclymenos, King of Egypt, who wants her for a wife. But loyal Helen is saving herself for Menelaus, who washes up on the shores of Egypt and, by chance, finds his way to the palace where she is living. The main action of the play is the plotting and execution of their escape from Theoclymenos’ kingdom on one of his own ships.

There is an ongoing dispute in academic circles as to whether the play is a comedy

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or a tragedy. By Aristotelian standards, it is, most certainly, a tragedy. It has a reversal, the Helen history knows is not the original Helen; a Recognition, the scene when Menelaus and Helen are both finally convinced of the other’s identity; and a Suffering, the losses of the Trojan War, which are felt at the beginning, rather than the end.

There is, throughout the play, a sense that the “countless toils have all been toiled in vain.” In this way it addresses the meaninglessness of war. But the play, for the most part, is distinctly comedic. This blend of tragedy and comedy lends itself best to the classification of a “problem play.”

Beth Needham, the director of the Classics Drama Group’s Helen, made a valiant attempt at striking this balance.

Tragedy is hard. The moments of seriousness in this production largely felt hollow. Helen’s performance was artificial, her lines recited and not spoken as though they were her own. Steven H. Smith’s Sailor was the exception. While Helen and Menelaus are caught up in their reunion the Sailor comes to understand the

implications: the Helen he fought to return to his King was not the right Helen at all.

“For all the striving that [Menelaus] strove, he got him naught; while now, without an effort made, every blessing fortune boasts is his.” This crushing moment of the absurd was beautifully delivered, but its resonance could have been carried throughout the play to give a dark edge to the comedy.

Needham’s use of the Chorus was uninspired, save for the moment when Menelaus first spots Helen and hastily approaches her. The ladies of the Chorus run to surround Helen and protect her from the threat. Aside from that brief but humorous bit of blocking they switch predictably and repeatedly between three simple formations.

This is a shame. So much fun can be had with a Chorus. To see what I mean watch Woody Allen’s Mighty Aphrodite. He revives the Classical tradition and mixes it with classic Allen comedy. Needham’s treatment is tedious and amateurish in comparison.

The comedic moments, in contrast to the serious, were absolutely wonderful. Nate Axcell’s Menelaus was warm, funny, and barefoot. Even his forehead was expressive.

The interaction between Menelaus and Steven H. Smith’s Porter was a welcome wealth of laughs after the stale opening with Helen and Teucros.

Jocelyn Ruano de la Haza’s scene as the Egyptian Messenger was, perhaps, the highlight of the entire play. She delivered a long, wildly funny monologue detailing the escape of Helen and Menelaus and the Egyptians’ failure to prevent it. Only Jordan Kripp’s Theoclymenos rivalled her performance. “My words are too weak for the reality. “Every line was crisp, and he maintained an awareness of the audience, pausing just long enough for laughter. He was exactly the right amount of over-thetop for a fool villain. Kripp even listened well.

I am always most impressed by actors who know how to be silent and really take in what other characters are saying. In a comedic setting, Kripp has mastered this skill. This is his fifth year with the company.

Despite its shortcomings, CDG’s Helen held up the proud standard set by Martin Boyne in 1994 when he presented the group’s first production, Euripides’ Hippolytos.

by Brian Lukaszewicz

You know, I don’t think I would have been able to watch this movie – this silent, black and white movie – if not for the fact that the theatre I was watching it in was showing it in digital. Nothing authenticates the black and white experience quite like crystal clear digital projection. Now if only they could have shot it in 3D...

Yes, it’s another Oscar pick this week and, despite my sarcastic opener, I did like it. The Artist is something of a feel good story even before you enter the theatre. The sheer will it must have taken to get a silent film made in this day and age could probably make a good movie onto itself. And yet somehow it doesn’t surprise me that The Artist’s whirlwind ride has ended with it being nominated for Best Picture.

If you’re going to shell out the cash for a movie that 90% of the viewing public will dismiss without even thinking, you’ve got to have some belief that it’s a story worth telling. And let’s be honest, the concept screams Oscar bait.

The Artist revolves around George Valentin (Jean Dujardin), a silent film actor in the height of the 1920s.

Crowds can’t get enough of him, the press adore him, and every movie he makes is a hit. After yet another successful premiere he has a chance encounter with a young aspiring actress named Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), and because of his fondness towards

her, takes her under his wing and mentors her into stardom. Unfortunately, as any tenth grade history text book would tell us, the “talkies” and a pretty severe stock market crash are just over the horizon, and George finds himself a relic in a new age of filmmaking.

The story is somewhat like the black and white version of a romantic comedy, but there’s a lot of charm to this movie that’s hard to define.

The acting is superb, evident by Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress nominations for Dujardin and Bejo (who you might remember from A Knight’s Tale, possibly the best movie about medieval jousting ever set to the music of Queen). And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Uggie, one of the best canine actors I’ve seen since Eddie on Frasier (Eddie was actually played by two dogs, but damn it if they both weren’t fantastic).

It’s funny, but it’s far from a pure comedy. Dramatic, yet never so dark as to lose that 1920s feel. There’s just something, ironically enough, fresh about watching a period movie in the style of a film from that period.

The great visual metaphors so indicative of the genre seem to capture the nostalgia perfectly and adds tremendous amount of depth to the film’s otherwise inaudible characters. And little details – like how the film is just a tiny bit sped up to mimic the hand cranked style of the originals – further enhance the

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The Artist Rediscovers the Silent Era

3.5/5

trip down memory lane (or you know, 60 years before you were born lane).

But I do have to give fair warning – while I liked The Artist, liked what it was trying to do, I wouldn’t want to see it again anytime soon. It can be a slog to get through. I’m very happy I saw it, but its silent aspect, while charming, definitely wears on you. If you don’t think you can handle 100 minutes without dialogue I doubt this movie will convince you otherwise. But if you’re open to something different, or you just want to be the only informed member of your Oscar pool, I’d suggest going to see it. Who knows, a break from the talkies might do you some good.

sports

Trent hockey team upset in shootout loss

By Mitchell Powers

When I set out to report on this game, I was under the impression I was going to watch a game of field hockey. I thought this would be a nice courteous sport played by a bunch of spiffing chaps. However, I soon realised that this game had exchanged a nice patch of shrubbery for a large icy puddle and a bunch of impulsive and hot-blooded Canadians. This wasn’t any kind of hockey, this was “Ice Hockey.”

The first match was played against Boreal.

In the first period Trent University’s Men’s Intramural team skated about like a pack of wild dogs. Each player was alternating on and off the field of play and then quickly snapped back on their leads by ice hockey coaches/dog handlers Patrick Shearer and Terry Kirkham.

I missed the first goal because my eyes were taking some time adjusting to the speed of the game and the intense arctic conditions had frozen my eyeballs stiff. I managed to defrost just in time to see one captain fantastic, Ryan Minicola, storm down the right wing, give a quick give-and-go and then precede to pummel the puck into the back of the goal; taking the score line to 2-0 in favour of Trent.

In the second period goalie Jack Barry, having stood motionless for the majority of time, quickly snapped up and played a key role by saving two penalties in a rather calm and precise fashion.

Out of all the games, this was the most brutal. Drew Hampel and Ryan Minicola spent a large amount of the third period becoming familiar with the penalty box – guilty, so I’m told, of checking, hooking and just generally being mean. The game ended a resounding 5-0 to Trent University – bravo!

The next game was played against Seneca Newnham. This game appeared to me to be a much more open and fast paced game of hockey. The first period ended 0-0. In contrast, the second period was far more one-sided as Trent University demonstrated their more superior staking and passing abilities. Trent secured two comfortable goals, but the latter end of the period took a dramatic twist when

the opposition held a two-man advantage over Trent. It turned from a war of movement into a war of position and if it wasn’t for Trevor Green’s boisterous play in front of goal, and some resolute defending from Cory Hazael, Dylan Withers, and Lucas White the match could have taken a dramatic twist. The third period was equally as entertaining.

The pace picked up and Trent were fighting it out in every corner. Tactically Trent appeared to attack the opposition’s corners and play a diagonal pass back in the hope of a late arrival to slap shot it into the roof of the net. At one stage Josh Peters read the move perfectly but his shot was unlucky enough to rebound off the cross-bar. Strangely, however, he opened out into a fit of rage and began to break his own hockey stick in half.

Trent University were unlucky not to make it beyond the semi-finals of the tournament.

Trent outplayed their opponents but they lost in a penalty shootout in which the opposition had metaphorically parked their school bus, a.k.a. extremely large goalkeeper, in front of the goal.

I would argue that player of the tournament is a toss up between Josh Brault and Lucas White. Josh appeared to be all over the rink, was an excellent tackler, distributer of the puck, and also scored an impressive slap shot. Lucas passed, shot, and defended extremely well all throughout the tournament; and I’m told has “excellent lateral movement.”

Overall, I found the whole day out extremely enjoyable and I would recommend getting yourself involved if you too have excellent lateral movement and also possess a healthy record of anti-social behaviour. Next year’s tryouts will be held in September and I suggest contacting Campus Rec in advance. If you want to pop down and watch the guys, then they will be playing the Fleming Lindsay Tournament on Friday February 17 and then the Georgian Barrie Tournament on Thursday March 8 in preparation to qualify for the Challenge Cup finals in March. So get along and support!

Volume 46 | Issue 18 | February 13, 2012

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column

Trent Film Society Presents

By Troy Bordun and Tyler Prozeniuk

We’ve been absent from Arthur for a few weeks, but a lot has been happening. Here are the details on our upcoming screenings, this week and next.

Made In U.S.A.: Crime’s Reflection

We’ll conclude our series of crime films with a film that takes an entirely detached and self-reflexive position in relation to the conventions of the genre that it employs.

Godard’s rarely-seen 1964 film Made in U.S.A. is, expressly, a political film, a labyrinthine mystery about the death of a leftist radical – the lover of Paula Nelson (Anna Karina), who takes on the persona of a private detective in her search for the truth of his death.

Godard constantly plays with cinematic conventions,

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diverting our attention away from the plot by treating it as a medium for reflection rather than as something to immerse oneself in. Narrative tension and drama are eschewed in favour of active reflection on the part of the viewer – Brechtian distancing effects abound – and the film becomes less a detective story and more a reflection on the nature of the detective story. Later in his career Godard would speak of cinema as “une forme qui pense” – a form for thought, a form that thinks – and this film from Godard’s earliest period shows that Godard was already trying to realize what he saw as cinema’s ultimate potential.

Godard’s film is radically different from the two preceding crime films in our series, which are in turn widely divergent from one another. Hitchcock’s Rope is a filmic experiment and morality play which deconstructs the logic of the sophisticated criminal with the privilege of taking life. Melville’s Le Samourai grasps at the

aesthetic perfectibility of crime, both in its lead character and in the film’s formal execution. Godard’s film uses cinematic aesthetics to make its audience reflect on our ordinary engagement with cinematic aesthetics, and in doing so it confounds all notions of what a film can and should be. But while it is a somewhat heady film, it plays at being the opposite: a Cinemascope, Technicolour extravaganza with big stars and bright colours.

The Young and the Damned: Luis Buñuel in Mexico Luis Buñuel’s Los Olvidados (aka The Young and the Damned, 1950) is driven by an exhibition of the lower depths of society, on par with Maxim Gorky’s play and Akira Kurosawa’s adaptation of it. We see in Los Olvidados a group of Mexican youth forced into crime by their abject poverty, centering on Pedrito and Jaibo (the crab). Pedrito, unknown to him at the time, leads a young man to Jaibo so he can settle a score. The vicious Jaibo assaults and kills the young man while Pedrito stands a helpless witness. Jaibo then blackmails Pedrito, saying horrible things will happen if the crime is revealed to the authorities. The rest of the film then follows the innocent Pedrito and the indignities Jaibo inflicts upon him and his family.

With a glimpse of “anguish and despair” in the slums of Mexico City, Buñuel does not present viewers any sense of hope. Los Olvidados was filmed with hints of Italian neorealism and much like Nagisa Oshima’s Boy, screened earlier in the year, a cold, cruel amorality in regards to crime, class division, and exploitation. “[A]bove all and more noticeable than anything else,” notes J. Rubia Barcia, “is the absolute absence from the film of reason, of moral feeling, of true religion, as if the two thousand years of Christianity had not existed at all, even in its formal aspects.”

So shocking was this production that the tragic ending needed to be reshot as a happy one, and further, Buñuel was scrutinized as a foreigner for painting Mexican life falsely, i.e., in its squalor and wretchedness, or so Mexican censor boards said.

“Los Olvidados is without a doubt the best of Buñuel’s pictures and only the future can say whether or not it is also one of the best of our time. For the general public, to see it once will be more than enough. The catharsis in this film can hardly be endured; it will remain a long time in the memory, like a nightmare.”

J. Rubia Barcia wrote these words in 1953. A screening in 2012 secures Los Olvidados a spot amongst the best in the history of cinema.

Trent Film Society presents Jean-Luc Godard’s Made in U.S.A. on Wednesday, February 15, and Luis Buñuel’s Los Olvidados on Wednesday, February 22, both at 8pm at Artspace, 378 Aylmer St. N. Admission is free.

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“There are kids and dogs and interesting people!”

A Programmer Profile of Jenna Cameron

Monday February 13:

1:30-3:30pm Lip Service: Communication as Lubrication Sadleir House SCR 4-5pm Fabulous and Fierce Dance Workshop Trent A/C Multipurpose Room 1 8-9:30pm Alternative Femininities - Open Discussion Sadleir House Rm. 202

Tuesday February 14:

2:30pm TQC Hosts Happy Hour at The Ceilie 7-9pm Coming Out Workshop Sadleir House hosted by RSO, PARN & FAQS2 7pm Self Love Circus Jam Sadleir House Dining Hall

Wednesday February 15: Caileigh Morrison: Okay. What is your programme called and when is it?

Jenna Cameron: My programme’s called “Songs You Don’t Hear on the Radio” and it’s from 10-11 on Thursday mornings.

CM: Nice, and what is it about?

JC: Our programme is...well, the title’s pretty self-explanatory. It’s songs that – like most music on Trent Radio – don’t get played on mainstream radio. Each week we pick a different theme and organize the songs around that. For example we’ve had whistle week – songs with whistling in them – and we’ve done a couple of cross-Canada tours with songs from each province. Today was entirely Indigenous music.

CM: Cool. Have you just been doing this programme this year?

JC: Yep, since September.

CM: And you have a co-host?

JC: Yes. I have a co-host named Derek. He’s not much of a talker. He mostly comes in and plays with Jill [Staveley, Production Manager]’s daughter Charlie and offers a few yes and no’s [laughing].

CM: Well, that’s an important role.

JC: Yeah, it’s fun. And then we often have our friends come in and discuss their specialties.

CM: Outside of your programme, what else do you do at Trent Radio?

JC: I do Smooth Operator from 11-11:30am on Thursday, so I’m here for a solid hour and a half.

CM: What drew you to Trent Radio?

JC: I was involved in a participatory radio station like Trent Radio when I was in Ecuador last year, and I wanted to see how much more fun it would be in my own language, rather than Spanish. And when I first came in to inquire about a show, it seemed like a pretty fun place.

CM: Which program did you go to Ecuador with?

JC: Trent in Ecuador.

CM: I see. So you’re an IDS student?

JC: IDS and Indigenous Studies.

CM: Very exciting. Tell me about radio in Ecuador. What did you do there and what was it like?

JC: I hung out in the office – so kind of similar to what I do at Trent Radio – just drinking coffee and talking to people as they came and went. I did the sound board for the new shows at noon too. It was only a town of 3000 people, and the radio station was also the post office so I was also the mail lady some days [laughing].

CM: That’s really awesome. Is radio used differently in Ecuador than it is in Canada?

JC: Where I was it was really similar to Trent Radio because it was used to get the word out and to educate people about a diverse range of topics including social justice issues and just basic education. I was in a rural community so a lot of people listened to it when they were out in the fields or driving around or working all day. A lot of people didn’t have televisions and weren’t big readers, so the radio was important. The early morning shows, which I should’ve gone to more but didn’t, were really important because they were for people who got up at four or five in the morning to get ready to do agricultural work and were mostly in Quechua, which is the Indigenous language there. That was all really fascinating for me and it turned me onto producer-oriented radio.

CM: Very nice. Do you do anything outside of Trent Radio, other than going to school?

JC: I do a few things. The Arthur Board....I guess you can see that on the front of the paper.

I’m involved with another media project called Red Alliances Media, which I’m going to plug for: www.redalliances.com. It’s a site for Indigenous- and ally-produced media that I started in September with a bunch of other Trent Students. So I do that and I run. All the time.

CM: What do you like about Trent Radio? What keeps you in the kitchen drinking coffee all the time?

JC: I like that it’s producer-oriented, so everyone feels comfortable enough to come in and do what they want. Everyone at Trent Radio is concerned about the programmers and the operators and from day one you just feel that everyone is focused on your well-being and making you feel safe and comfortable and happy doing your shows rather than worrying about who’s listening. I think that’s really cool and actually makes for radio that more people would want to listen to, which is the opposite of what you might expect. And it’s just fun to come and hang out here. There are kids and dogs and interesting people!

CM: Very true.

4:30pm “A Romantic Evening for One” hosted by The Seasoned Spoon and Sustainable Trent 7-9pm “Paris is Burning” Film Screening at Kawartha Endodontics Clinic (425 Water St. between Brock St. & Hunter St.)

Thursday February 16:

4-6:30pm DAM (Discussing Alternative Masculinity) Sadlier House SCR 6:30–8:30pm Radical Self Care/Self Care for Radicals Sadleir House Rm 202 9:30-Midnight Popcorn, Porn and a Pub Night Sadleir House Hobbs Library

Friday February 17:

2-3:30pm Massage Workshop w/ Erin Ladd RMT Hobbs Library 8:30pm-1:30am Sizzlin’ Self Love Showcase & Dance Party ARTSPACE (378 Aylmer St. N)

Saturday February 18:

Noon-1:30pm Sex and Disability Sadleir House Lecture Hall 2-4pm DIY BDSM Sadleir House Lecture Hall

Volume 46 | Issue 18 | February 13, 2012

11

Listings Work Shops this Week from the Career Centre Prepare yourself for the world out there by attending our workshops! This week we have Develop your Network - Personal Contacts, Social Media and Other Strategies on Wednesday the 15 at 10 am and Résumés and Effective Letters on Wednesday the 15 at 3 pm. Visit www. trentu.ca/careers for more information or to register for these workshops. See you there!

Robyn Cunningham and special guest Dave Bidini Feb 15 Wire Wednesdays “Indie Music’ Showcase 9PM till 11PM at the Red Dog “After the Ball is over—a post Valentine’s Gay Nineties Feast” -gourmet beef tenderloin dinner at St Andrew’s United Church, 441 Rubidge St, Peterborough, 705-745-2722, Saturday February 18, 2012, 6pm, Guest soloist is Bonnie Pegler, with a sing-a-long. Tickets are $25 each, or $30 with a glass of wine.

The Havelock TEACH Centre is hosting its 4th annual Soup And Dessert Competition on Family Day, February 20, 2012 at the Havelock Community Centre. The event will begin at 1pm with FREE skating, followed with a soup and dessert competition and dessert auction. Chefs, both restaurant and hometown, are invited to enter a soup and/or dessert. For more information please call the Havelock TEACH Centre at (705) 778-7873 or email at brookewrightly@gmail.com Peterborough NDP Riding Association AGM Tuesday, February 28, 2012, 5-7pm Lions’ Centre, 347 Burnham Street (just off Hunter Street East) Our annual general meeting and 2012 Executive Election. If you are interested in running for an Executive position please contact Alissa Paxton (alissa.paxton@gmail.com) or Mike Epp (michaelepp@yahoo.com) for more details. The meeting will be followed by a meet & greet with federal leadership candidates.

NDP Federal Leadership Candidate Meet & Greet Tuesday, February 28, 2012, 7-9pm

Lions’ Centre, 347 Burnham Street (just off Hunter Street East) Come out to meet candidates for the NDP Federal Leadership. Everyone welcome! This event will be preceded by the Peterborough Riding Association AGM 5-7pm.

Relay for Life is a 12-hour charity even to raise money for cancer research. The event begins at 7 pm and runs all night until 7 am. Relay for Life is more than just a fundraiser. It is an opportunity to get together with family and friends to celebrate cancer survivors, remember loved ones, and fight back against cancer. Trent University will be running our very own Relay for life on March 23 in the Athletics Complex. For more information about Relay for Life please contact the Relay for Life chair Holly Ottenhof at hollyottenhof@trentu.ca or myself the Survivor chair Brittany Williams at brittanywilliams@trentu.ca. Also, feel free to stop by at our information booth outside of Wenjack Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays leading up to the event.

We can do it! Everyone is welcome to join and participate in Occupy Peterborough at our General Assembly every Saturday from 2pm-4pm at Sadleir House. Facebook: OccupyPtbo | Twitter: @OccupyPtbo | Email: occupyptbo@gmail.com. Let’s build a better world through consensus!

Tuesday Circus Art Jams: Come run away with the circus one night a week. Bring some circus toys or acts: hulahoop, poi, juggling, clown, dance, etc and come practice, share, and learn new circus skills. Don’t have any skills? Come anyways! There are always extra toys and willing teachers. Takes place at the Sadlier House Dinning Room Tuesdays 7pm10pm. PWYC Donation. So come and enjoy the fun!

Dance your Bones: Move freely to music from around the world. Every Thursday 6pm-8pm at All Saints Anglican Church Hall, 235 Rubidge St. Peterborough. The cost is $10 ( sliding down to $5). For more information please contact (705)

750-0411 Students - St John Ambulance is Canada’s leader in first aid training - We offer courses every weekend and many weekdays and weeknights. Renew your CPR in 1 evening - most courses include a student discount. If you need to renew your first aid certificate or take a course for the first time contact St John Ambulance 705 745-0331 sjapeterborough@bellnet.ca sja. ca 30 Crafts Market: a nonprofit initiative to support handcrafting and the connection between artisans/craftspersons and the general public in the Kawarthas.

This event is still open to crafters/ artisans who would like to sell their goods. The market will be held May 12, 2012 in Peterborough Ontario. Booths are 15 dollars. To apply, visit 30craftsmarket.webs.com.

Need a Mid-Year Academic Skills Intervention? Feeling a little discouraged by your mid-year marks but not sure what to do about it? Satisfied with your marks but wanting to achieve the next level?

February is a good time to make a one-onone appointment with an academic skills instructor to brush up on the necessary skills for success at university. Discuss ways to manage your time better, or techniques to improve your listening, note taking, reading, writing and math skills.

Bring an essay or lab you are working on for tips to improve it. Call 705-748-1720 to book your appointment or series of appointments.

Mock Interview: Participate in a Mock Interview! Get interview experience, get valuable feedback, network and meet professionals in a range of fields have your resume reviewed and targeted. Your first step is to attend one of our interview workshops happening on 3pm, February 14 at 10am, or March 8 at 10am. Go to www. trentu.ca/careers to register for the workshops.

The Kawartha Sexual Assault Centre is looking for dedicated volunteers to pro-

vide Peer Support for the women and men calling our 24-Hour Crisis Line. Free Crisis Intervention Training will be held in February! For more information please call the Volunteer Service Coordinator 705-748-5901 or ksacvolunteers@nexicom. net.

HU Song Contemplation Regardless of your beliefs or religion, you can sing HU to become happier and more secure in God’s love. Join us for a 20-30 minute contemplation, every 1st Monday of the month, 7:30pm Sadleir House, 751 George St. N. No charge.

Need $ for your theatre activity? Theatre Trent’s funding proposal deadline this month! Apply @ www.theatretrent.ca.

We are welcoming new executive members to write cheques for theatre-makers and gain non-profit Board experience: you are needed.You are welcome to borrow props and costumes from the storage space at Sadleir House - email theatretrent@trentu.ca Students Helping Students: Are you a outstanding academic student? Are you looking for a meaningful volunteer experience? Are you hoping to build experience and demonstrate skills in leadership and supportive communication? Then look no further, the Peer Mentoring Program hopes that you will become a peer mentor. Check out www.trentu.ca/peermentoring or email peermentor@trent.ca for more information.

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