All for one and one fore all The hilarious comedy, The Ladies Foursome, opened at The Grand Theatre this past weekend. >> Pg. 4
thegazette
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Controlling a puppet state since 1906
TUESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2015
WESTERN UNIVERSITY • CANADA’S ONLY DAILY STUDENT NEWSPAPER • FOUNDED 1906
TOMORROW high -4 low -13 VOLUME 108, ISSUE 63
Western students among the Next 36 Olivia Zollino NEWS EDITOR @OliviaAtGazette
Taylor Lasota • GAZETTE
Black talks capitalism and controversy Megan Devlin ASSOCIATE EDITOR @MegAtGazette
The Social Science Students’ Council’s keynote speaker for their Capitalism in Today’s Society conference was Conrad Black. The Gazette spoke to Black before his speech. This interview has been edited for brevity. GAZETTE: The theme of this weekend’s conference is Capitalism in Today’s Society, and [Saturday] we explored the darker underbelly of capitalism — some of the speakers discussed the gross social inequality they believe is caused by capitalism. What aspect of capitalism will you be talking about tonight? CONRAD BLACK: It’s the only system that has any chance of working because it conforms to the universal human desire for more. It is a myth entertained by people like my dear friend Maude Barlow that people fundamentally want to share — of course they don’t.
The issue is: how do we make it work better? I propose some suggestions for that. G: Can you elaborate? B: We should lead the world back to hard currencies. We need to back the currency with something. All these currencies are being inflated together, and that’s why the price of things goes up all the time. I don’t suggest a gold standard but a blended standard of gold, oil and a consumer package. We should increase taxes on elective expenses that are non-essential. That leaves out, say, groceries or housing or children’s clothing. You could reduce income taxes, especially at lower levels — personal and corporate.… I suggest a wealth tax that is self-eliminating as the percentage of people living in a designated state of poverty declines. How the tax would work is: people with over $5 million of net worth would pay a one per cent tax,
but they wouldn’t pay it to the government. They would invest it in a poverty-reducing scheme that they would design themselves. That way you give the higher wealth people the incentive to get rid of poverty and you get the most capable financial minds in society working on it, instead of just these, generally rather inadequate, bureaucrats in our welfare system that haven’t got the faintest idea how to do anything except raise their own income. G: Your visit to campus has caused a lot of buzz among students. However, one panel professor yesterday dropped out in protest of you giving the keynote. How does it feel to be such a polarizing figure? B: I’m not aware that I am particularly polarizing, so I don’t take such protests seriously. She dropped out because, she said, there’s a difference between a controversial speaker and, I quote, “a speaker who’s been convicted of a crime.” Do you think this is a
relevant criticism, considering the fundamental aspect of the justice system is that once you’ve completed your sentence, you’re within rights to re-integrate? Bear in mind that I started with 17 charges against me – five were abandoned, nine were rejected by jurors and the rest were unanimously vacated by the Supreme Court of the US. In the perversity of the American system, having vacated these counts, they remanded them back to lower courts that they just excoriated and told them to assess the gravity of their own errors. That doesn’t qualify as a conviction, it’s not a process that would work in this country. If she doesn’t like me, that’s fine. But to claim that I am a criminal is just rubbish and not a semi-informed half-wit on the subject would make such a claim. Read the full interview online at www.westerngazette.ca
Four Western University students are working towards being Canada’s next great entrepreneurs through admittance into the Next 36 program. The seven-month program at the University of Toronto is designed to closely mentor 36 recent graduates and students by some of Canada’s most influential businesspeople. Evan Ferguson, engineering student and one of the finalists, said he was excited to have access to resources for start-up businesses through the program. “There are few opportunities to be surrounded by such accomplished mentors and motivated peers,” he said. There were 630 applicants from 45 post-secondary institutions across Canada and the United States. Thirty-eight were chosen to compete in the program’s “Natural Selection” weekend for the final 36 slots. “The weekend was intense but very enjoyable!” Ferguson said. “I met many accomplished entrepreneurs as well as like minded students and I feel those connections are the most valuable take away.” Among this year’s large mentorship group include Andrea Matheson, CEO of Sapphire Digital Health and Michael McCarthy, General Manager of Dealertrack Technologies Canada. Applicants will spend the next seven months in residence at the University of Toronto, where they will attempt to create a venture from the ground up.