Mcgill Daily, Feb. 2009 (read In Fullscreen)

Volume 98, Issue 31

February 2, 2009

McGill THE

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News

The McGill Daily, Monday, February 2, 2009

Biliterate is the new bilingual

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McGill students’ French stagnates in all-anglo environment News Writer

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cGill students seeking to integrate themselves into Quebec culture should strive for biliteracy, not simply bilingualism, according to a recent report released by a Quebec community group that represents the anglo minority in Quebec. The report, Creating Spaces, was commissioned by the Quebec Community Group Network, and called biliteracy “a powerful tool to tackle many multi-faceted barriers English-speakers face in participating fully in Quebec society.” It also declared full biliteracy for Quebec youth as one of its top goals. Bilingualism designates functionality in both languages without specifying the user’s full capacity in either, and biliteracy is best described as full spoken, reading, and written fluency in two languages. According to Gregg Blachford, Director of McGill’s Career Planning Services while functional oral bilingualism is probably most common in the workforce, biliterates have a much broader range of opportunities available to them. But biliteracy is not valued as highly in McGill society as functional or even minimal bilingualism: upon graduation, many students seek careers outside of the province, where standards for English-French

bilingualism are much lower. Blachford noted that McGill may make an English life all too easy for students. Many, even those with backgrounds in French immersion programs, allow their French to stagnate in McGill’s anglo environment. This isn’t always evident, as McGill is located in the centre of one of the world’s most culturally diverse cities; fluency in two languages might seem like a given. “Within the McGill ghetto walls... [students’] confidence and ability in French drops, despite Montreal,” Blachford said. Low confidence in French is a common excuse for settling into an English rut and one of the greatest barriers to biliteracy, according to McGill Psychology professor Fred Genesee, who specializes in bilingual education and psycholinguistics. “It’s a two-way street,” Genesee said. “The more you use [French], the more confident you’ll become.” Students who can improve their French confidence and become functionally bilingual are in good shape. In Genesee’s experience, English to French bilinguals often have little difficulty segueing into biliteracy. Blachford encouraged students to feel confident in their French, even if they perceive it as sub-par. “Don’t giggle; don’t apologize; don’t signal bad confidence in your French,” Blachford said. “Know a few key phrases, some opening chit-chat, and don’t be self-conscious.”

Genesee noticed French students who come to McGill with little or no English background leave comfortable and confident with the language, bolstering both Genesee’s and Blachford’s conclusion that immersion is key. Genesee also urged anglophone students to take full advantage of the opportunities in Montreal for obtaining biliteracy. “[Biliteracy] is where the rest of the world is moving,” Genesee said. “Montreal has a good start; we just need to take advantage of it.”

Sally Lin / The McGill Daily

John Lapsley

Gaza motion sparks constitutional controversy Critics hold SSMU Speaker responsible Ethan Feldman

The McGill Daily

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hursday’s General Assembly (GA) is bound to be electrifying as a highly contentious motion is brought forward to condemn the bombings of educational institutions in the Gaza Strip. Its critics, however, aren’t just riled up because it raises political questions about the Middle East; instead, they think the entire motion is unconstitutional, and are holding SSMU Speaker Jordan Owens responsible. Mushfia Ahmed, U1 Electrical Engineering, felt like this resolution alone may not have a substantive effect on Israel’s policy, but SSMU’s condemnation could be one of many messages of disapproval broadcast by the global community. “If it passes now, it is almost useless, especially after the end of military operations, but each condemnation adds up,” Ahmed said. “If no one speaks out, [Israel] may not reconsider their actions next time. SSMU

is one more voice.... This [should not be] forgotten completely.” Zachary Newburgh, U2 Honours Middle East Studies, criticized the resolution because the preamble states that Israel has deliberately targeted and razed hospitals, United Nations-funded compounds, and educational institutions, without any mention that the buildings may have been used by Hamas militants as bases of operations or as launching pads for weapons. Newburgh, along with a large assortment of McGill students and campus organizations, including Hillel McGill, felt that taking such a political stance would not be productive in an academic environment. “There are students on campus that are considering pursuing legal action, [through the Judicial Board], in order to retract this resolution and ensure that McGill remains a safe place for all students,” Newburgh said. “SSMU, by allowing such a resolution to come before the General Assembly, willfully isolates, marginalizes, and makes students at McGill University feel unwelcome.”

Owens, however, disagreed. She pointed out that SSMU has historically taken stances on external political issues in this manner. “Through the General Assembly, SSMU took a stance on both the Vietnam War and the Iraq War. My reading of the constitution is that there should be free and open dialogue about policy and the General Assembly is the forum for that,” she said. Newburgh also pointed to the unconstitutional nature of the motion. In an email to the Speaker, and CC-ed to SSMU President Kay Turner, The Daily, and other campus publications, Newburgh explained several potential violations, such as Article 22, which states, “SSMU Council will not take a position on external political issues that Council deems to be extremely divisive among students at McGill University.” He attributed the potential violation to Owens’s negligence. “The SSMU Speaker has unequivocally chosen to violate the constitution and thereby infringe upon the rights of all those who fit under SSMU,” said Newburgh. “The job of

the SSMU Speaker is to make sure that all resolutions that are submitted to the General Assembly don’t violate the constitution.” Corey Shefman, SSMU Speaker in 2006-2007, also held Owens responsible. “The Speaker of Council has the authority to reject motions that are not in line with the SSMU Constitution,” he told The Daily in a telephone interview from Wales. “Even here in the UK, I’ve heard about the protests going on at McGill, and with that in mind, it is obviously a divisive issue.” Shefman came under scrutiny at the February 2007 GA when he ruled two blood-drive motions were unconstitutional, thereby refusing to let the issue be discussed. The highly-divided assembly tried to appeal the ruling, but eventually a slim majority voted to uphold the Speaker’s ruling. Owens, however, defended herself, explaining that impartiality is a necessary virtue for a Speaker to possess. “It’s not the role of the Speaker to decide whether or not a discussion should take place. SSMU has no

opinion on the matter right now, and that is for the General Assembly to decide,” she said. VP Clubs & Services Samantha Cook also thought the motions do not violate the Constitution and that neither the Speaker nor SSMU have done any harm to the school environment. “I am familiar with Corey Shefman, but every speaker has a different way of looking at and interpreting the Constitution,” said Cook. “It is a living document, and its interpretation is a product of the times.” Shefman, however, downplayed how representative the GA is in matters of this divisive nature. “Dividing the student body like this is not a good idea, especially not by 600 out of 20,000 students,” said Shefman. “If this is a question that really needs to be asked, ask the whole student body in an online vote.” The GA will be held in the Shatner Cafeteria at 4 p.m. on Thursday. Maximum capacity for the cafeteria, with chairs and tables removed, is around 675 people.

News

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FACULTY OF ARTS TEACHING AWARD H. Noel Fieldhouse Award For Distinguished Teaching

Any student, alumni, or member of the academic staff may submit a nomination. Nomination forms are available on the web, in the Dean’s Secretariat (Arts Building, rm 110), or from departmental chairs. For further information, please consult the web at www.mcgill.ca/arts/awards2/fieldhouse-award or call 398-4216. Send nominations to Susan Sharpe, Arts Bldg., rm 110 Deadline: Monday, February 16, 2009

LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAM

Leadership Skills Development Workshops If you are a student involved in campus activities as an executive, organizer or event planner, you qualify for the Leadership Training Program’s FREE Skills Development Workshops. Develop and build your leadership skills. Attend a minimum of five workshops throughout 08/09 academic year and receive a certificate of completion.

The McGill Daily, Monday, February 2, 2009

Five Alive mid-year SSMU reviews

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Upcoming Workshops:

Passing the Torch: Succession Planning Tuesday, February 3, 5:30-7:30pm Make sure next year’s executives don’t have to start from square one! Plan, prepare and organize yourselves so that next year’s members will be able to learn from your experiences.

Conflict Resolution Monday, February 9, 5:30-7:30pm Conflict happens in all organizations but do you know how to handle it? Learn how to navigate difficult situations without making them worse – or ignoring them when they should be addressed. Registration for workshops: In person, one week in advance, on a first-come, first-served basis, in the First-Year Office. For more info, drop by the First-Year Office in the Brown Building, Suite 2100, or call 514-398-6913

Photos by Shu Jiang / The McGill Daily

News

The McGill Daily, Monday, February 2, 2009

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Kay Turner President

Kay Turner knows she’s nearing the end. She’s looking to change and looking to do it fast. And so, realizing that some of her earlier goals are just too ambitious, Turner has shelved them for new, more realistic ones. Kay had once hoped to revamp Council, with big dreams for a more-informed committees, yet other projects interfered, like the nursery in Shatner for student parents and needing to pick up an extra portfolio. Former VP Finance Tobias Silverstein’s resignation in January

has clogged Turner’s schedule with money matters, distracting her from focusing on presidential tasks. She has managed, though, to check a few to-dos off of her list. The lease for the new nursery in Shatner is almost signed, with that for Café Supreme hopefully following shortly. With one sustainability report under her belt so far and another that includes a five-year plan chocked with small decisions SSMU can make for a better environment, Turner’s proud that SSMU is taking green steps.

Nadya Wilkinson VP University Affairs

Sometimes we can’t help but feel like Nadya Wilkinson is Captain Planet incarnate. Somehow, between battling administrative double-speak and untangling the bureaucracy, she successfully got the Office of Sustainability on its feet, and she’s improving relations between SSMU and the University. Wilkinson has built a strong studentstaffed Senate caucus, which she’s used as a tool to lobby the University on its draconian travel directive - although not to the ends she wanted to see. If that’s not enough, Wilkinson now has the Financial Ethics and Responsibility Committee to

deal with – a VP Finance portfolio she says she’s going to have to rebuild. She’s also trying to track down a new ombudsperson, tackle the issue of room-bookings for student groups across campus, and launch a McGill Food Systems project that explores sustainable options on campus. The list is long, but based on Wilkinson’s enthusiasm and track-record, we’re optimistic that she’ll make a sizeable dent in her workload before her term is up. We only hope that she continues to engage with students in the process, and starts preparing a new student for her position to facilitate the transition.

Devin Alfaro VP External Affairs

Devin Alfaro is struggling, and he’s blaming the dying political spirit of McGill students. But an apathetic student population is not a valid excuse: it’s Alfaro’s job to make sure students stay aware and engaged in the community. Alfaro faltered in his attempt to repopularize Reclaim Your Campus and to improve low student voter turnouts during the Canadian and Quebec elections. We’ve had high expectations for Alfaro, especially because he seems to be one of the SSMUshies with the least going on in other areas; Alfaro didn’t absorb any portfolios with the disintegration of VP Finance.

Luckily, Alfaro may be able to turn his frustration into a couple of new projects before his term wraps up. He’s talking about lobbying trips to Ottawa and Quebec City for increased government funding for education, starting workshops in the Milton-Parc community in conjunction with the Dean of Students Office, and fortifying a table de consultation with other Quebec schools. Alfaro’s got a point when he says that student disinterest makes his job more difficult, but he’s going to need to stoke the fire of McGill’s undergraduates if he ever wants to been seen as a facilitator.

WORK ABROAD with SWAP Working Holidays

Great Britain Ireland France

Samantha Cook VP Clubs & Services VP Clubs & Services Samantha Cook received a few curve balls this year. Yet the emergence of contentious pro-life group Choose Life and the surplus work she inherited from the VP Finance portfolio don’t seem to have ruffled her feathers too much. Cook has handled both incidents well, and she said she’s actually enjoyed taking over Gert’s from Silverstein. Before the end of her term, she’s planning on investigating the future of food kiosks in the Shatner Cafeteria. Their leases expire two years from now, and she’d like to replace them with student initiatives. Cook has abandoned several of

her campaign promises, including fighting opt-outs and for the right of clubs to use the McGill name. She blames the administration and lack of applicability, respectively, for her neglect. With other pressing issues, Cook has only delivered moderate success. She’s made some headway in improving the issue of student space; the administration has granted students use of two more rooms in the Arts building. One of the greatest challenges to her portfolio, Cook said, has been working with students who are only engaged when riled by a negative incident. We hope she can prove the contrary.

Julia Webster VP Internal Julia Webster is partied out, and rightly so. The graduating VP Internal has produced a greener Frosh, a conservatively budgeted SnowAP, a reintroduction of 4Floors, which sold out, and a smattering of other faculty events. She’s got the Varsity Booth up and running for athletes to sell tickets for games, and has kept up events like Francofete, which celebrates French culture, and the self-explanatory Fill the Stadium. Yet she may not have saved SnowAP, and it’s likely that students will be staring at a big white field instead of a big white tent next January if it’s decided the event is too much of a financial

sinkhole. Webster has also struggled with the new SSMU web site launch, as the English version still lacks content and the French translation is nonexistent. Haven Books, mini courses, and the SSMU sponsorship portfolio landed on Webster’s desk when Silverstein ditched, but Webster assured us that they’re all doing well. We beg to differ, though. Haven won’t break even this year, and there is not enough sponsorship funding available to run the year-end concert that Webster promised. With all these projects looming over her head, Webster must also nail down a new beer contract for SSMU by years end.

Germany Austria Australia New Zealand USA Japan China Brazil South Africa Thailand

LIVE t WORK t PLAY ... AN ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME! Want to learn more about living and working abroad. Come to one of our information sessions this winter. Each session will focus a little more on a specific destination, but there will also be an overview of our other SWAP destinations. February 10 : March 12 : April 22 : May 12 :

Europe Destinations Ireland Australia All Destinations

Time :

6 pm

Where : RSVP :

Voyages Campus - 3480 McTavish [email protected]

www.swap.ca SWAP is a not-for-profit program of the Canadian Federation of Students

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Dominic Popowich

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The Daily wants to print your art. Submit to [email protected]

The Office for Students with Disabilities, the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism and the Department of English are pleased to present :

Prof. Lennard J. Davis University of Illinois at Chicago Biocultures: Disability & Disciplinarity Wednesday February 4, 2009 at 5pm Leacock Building, Room 232 855 Sherbrooke St. West McGill University ASL interpretation will be provided & the venue is accessible.

For more info : [email protected] This lecture is made possible by a grant from the Beatty Memorial Lectures Committee

flickr.com/photos/ mcgilldaily.com

News

The McGill Daily, Monday, February 2, 2009

7 Sasha Plotnikova / The McGill Daily

Symposium sensitizes students Event urges McGill to incorporate Disabilities Studies Marc Trussler News Writer

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alls to integrate Disability Studies into McGill’s curriculum will be heard this week at the “Disability on Location” symposium, the first of its kind, running today through Wednesday. The event – organized by a partnership of SSMU, QPIRG, and the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) – will bring together academia, cinema, and comedy in order to draw attention to an area of study which, according to the organizers, is largely overlooked in many university curriculums. “[Academia] hasn’t really studied this...and it’s glaring in its absence,” said Roshaya Rodness, co-organizer of the event and a U3 Cultural Studies student. “These issues have been on the radar since the seventies, but the academy has been a little slow to pick them up.” The event is co-organized by SSMU’s Equity Commissioner Iris Erdile, and held in conjunction with the student society’s Social Justice Days Erdile emphasized that integrating Disability Studies into McGill is crucial to sensitizing society to the daily realities faced by disabled people. “It has to start with [academia],” Erdile said. “People come here to become leaders, so what better place to begin this process?” The event will include a keynote address on Wednesday from Lennard J. Davis, a prominent Disability Studies professor from the University of Illinois. The sym-

posium will also feature lectures from a variety of McGill professors shown in conjunction with disability-themed films. Tuesday night will feature the “sitdown” comedy of Ottawa native Alain Shane, who delivers his routine from his wheelchair. According to organizer Rodness, Shane’s comedy brings a human face to disabled people. “The great thing about having a disabled comedian is that they make you laugh at them, which is in many cases is a cultural taboo. It really makes you think about your own

of disability. The organizers were largely critical of the administration’s current policy toward people with disabilities on campus, and called on McGill to improve transport for disabled students to the inaccessible classrooms on Peel street. However, they praised the work of the OSD in implementing accessibility programs at McGill. According to Rodness, while sympathy for people with disabilities is admirable, programs like those offered by OSD must be expanded.

Exemption added to travel directive

“The great thing about having a disabled comedian is they make you laugh at them, which in Administration listens to Senate on guidelines many cases is a cultural taboo.” Roshaya Rodness Co-organizer of “Disability on Location”

assumptions about disabled people,” she said. In the past, the administration has been largely skeptical of integrating Disability Studies courses at McGill, citing their inability to offer courses in all areas of academia. Rodness, however, compared this attitude to that toward Women’s Studies when it emerged in the 1970s – saying that eventually the University community will feel a responsibility to engage in the issue

“When it comes down to implementation, people’s feelings change, and they have to recognize that part of their willingness to recognize people with disabilities is that process of implementation,” she said. Events at the symposium will be wheelchair accessible and free of charge. American Sign Language translation for Davis’s keynote address and comedian Shane will be provided.

Journal de Montreal locked out Employees reject contract proposal

Samuel Reisler News Writer

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wo-hundred-and-fifty-three employees were locked out of the Journal de Montréal last weekend after they rejected a new contract proposed by Quebecor Media, the conglomerate that owns the publication. The workers are opposed to Quebecor’s failure to amend their contract to include an increase in the work week from 30 hours to 37.5 hours, adding a fifth day to the work week with no extra pay, as well as a 20 per cent reduction in benefits. Workers at the paper also want the management to reassign employees to multimedia work. Their contract expired on December 31. Quebecor has cut and altered its “business model.” These changes

were necessary, the company said, due to the vast expansion of cheap Internet alternatives for news. “Quebec is not immune to the turmoil in the paid-circulation newspaper industry, caused by factors such as the advent of Internet news sites and other free news sources, changing readership habits, the distribution of content in digital formats, the availability of regularly updated real-time information, and falling revenues from advertising and classifieds,” represntatives from Quebecor stated in a press release. But these changes could threaten the quality of the paper and of the reporting, said Raynald Leblanc, president of the Syndicat des travailleurs de l’information du Journal de Montréal to the Montreal Gazette. The popularity of web sites such as Craigslist and Kijiji have diverted much of the Classifieds content, a key source of revenue, away from

newspapers, while blogs and other free new sites have taken away readership. On Sunday, January 25 – the day after the lockout at the Journal – the Montreal Gazette found itself in a similar plight. Their management submitted a new contract that divided advertising against editorial and readers sales within the Montreal Newspaper Guild. According to the Guild’s vice president, Irwin Block, the publisher of the Gazette said the jurisdiction was not good enough. While the disputes within the Journal de Montréal and the Gazette continue to unfold, it is not clear that a solution will be reached anytime soon. The last time a clash occurred between the Journal de Montréal’s management and the union in 2007, an agreement was not reached until 15 months after the lockout.

Jeff Bishku-Aykul The McGill Daily

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tudents will now be able to seek an exemption from McGill’s travel guidelines, which provide University-wide standards on curricular or co-curricular travel to specific countries or regions. The updated version of the guidelines – which include an exemption clause outlining how a student may receive permission to visit prohibited country and clearer language describing rules regarding employment in foreign nations during study abroad – were revealed to the McGill Senate on January 21, at which Senators were invited to give feedback, though not their approval, before a finalized version of the guidelines is released by the end of February. Senate voted to suspend the directive on November 5, demanding that it pass consultation with Senate’s steering committee before being approved, but the adminsitration claimed that the directive did not fall under Senate’s academic purview, and rendered the November vote void. However, a draft of travel guidelines was later sent to select members of the Senate for review over Winter Break. According to Deputy Provost (Student Life & Learning) Morton J. Mendelson, whose office drafted the travel directive in September 2008 and all of its subsequent updates, the number of students requiring exemptions will likely be so low that McGill can grant exemptions on a case-bycase basis. He cited schools such as the University of Saskatchewan and Duke University as having similar policies. “In other universities that have this kind of exemption, the number of requests per year is about a dozen,” Mendelson said. The guidelines follow travel advisories issued by Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) to determine where

students can travel, prohibiting travel to countries or regions with a level-three “avoid all non-essential travel” or level-four “avoid all travel” warning. The exemption will only apply for level-three travel in which a student considers travelling to be essential. According to a clause in the present draft, exemptions must first be approved by the relevant faculty’s dean and department chair before undergoing review by the Deputy Provost, who can set conditions on approval. SSMU VP University Affairs Nadya Wilkinson asserted that the approval process required for travel exemptions contributes toward an unwieldy bureaucracy. “I know that [the deans and Professor Mendelson] are busy people,” Wilkinson said. “And I know that undergraduate travel to dangerous places is not something they want to [look at too quickly]. There will be less [exemptions], as it’s clear to students that their applications aren’t processed with haste.” As some travel cases include examples in which a student would be prevented from travelling to their home country because it’s listed by DFAIT, Mendelson indicated that the exemption system could take this into account. “Students with certain kinds of experience would be in a better position to have exemption than other students in a specific area,” he said. Wilkinson explained that while the guidelines have become more reasonable, their creation was unnecessary. “We do need guidelines that make sure students are informed and safe, but there has to be a much more local decision process that respects autonomy,” Wilkinson said. “My main issue with this is that students also care about safety and have the capacity to make informed decisions.” Mendelson predicted that the finalized guidelines will mostly resemble those sent recently to the Senate for discussion.

AGENDA FOR THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

ORDRE DU JOUR DE L’ASSEMBLÉE GÉNÉRALE

STUDENTS’ SOCIETY OF MCGILL UNIVERSITY

ASSOCIATION ÉTUDIANTE DE L’UNIVERSITÉ MCGILL

February 5th, 4:00 pm – Shatner Cafeteria

le 5 Février à 16h00 – à la cafétéria du Shatner

Students must bring their McGill IDs.

Les étudiants doivent apporter leur identification McGill.

1.0 Call to order 2.0 Adoption of the Agenda 3.0 Announcements 4.0 Report of the Executive Committee 5.0 Old Business 5.1 Motion Re: Student Services 5.2 Motion Re: Catered House Party 5.3 Motion Re: SSMU Support for the Association of McGill Undergraduate Student Employees (AMUSE) 5.4 Motion Re: Military Recruitment 5.5 Motion Re: Administrators Identified as Star Wars Characters 5.6 Motion Re: Military Research 5.7 Motion re: No Pants Fridays 6.0 New Business 6.1 Motion Re: Bottle Water Use On Campus 6.2 Motion Re: SSMU condemnation of bombings of education institutions in Gaza 6.3 Motion Re: GA Reform 7.0 Adjournment

1.0 Ouverture de l’assemblée 2.0 Adoption de l’ordre du jour 3.0 Annonces 4.0 Rapport du comité exécutif 5.0 Affaires Passées 5.1 Motion Concernant: Services alimentaires 5.2 Motion Concernant: Fête chez la principale, repas compris 5.3 Motion Concernant: Soutien à l’Association des Étudiants employés à McGill 5.4 Motion Concernant: Recrutement militaire à l’Université McGill 5.5 Motion Concernant: La désignation des administrateurs d’après les personnages de Star Wars 5.6 Motion Concernant: La recherche militaire à McGill 5.7 Motion Concernant: Les vendredis sans pantalon 6.0 Nouvel ordre 6.1 Motion Concernant: l’usage d’eau en bouteille sur le campus 6.2 Motion Concernant: l’AÉUM condamne le bombardement des établissements d’enseignement de Gaza 6.3 Motion Concernant: la réforme des AG 7.0 Ajournement

Motions of the Regular General Assembly

Motions de l’assemblée générale régulière

Motion Re: Bottled Water Use on campus Be it further resolved that SSMU lobby McGill administration to follow suit and eliminate the sale and distribution of bottled water on the McGill campus; and Be it yet further resolved that SSMU distribute information to all clubs and services, and to the student body on issues pertaining to bottled water; and Be it yet further resolved that SSMU promote the sustainable alternative of already readily available tap water, and other sustainable methods of water distribution such as water coolers, re-usable glasses, etc.

Motion Concernant : L’Usage d’eau en Bouteille sur le Campus Il est résolu que l’AÉUM fasse des progrès vers l’élimination de la distribution et de la vente de l’eau en bouteille dans le bâtiment de l’Association Étudiante ; Il est aussi résolu que l’AÉUM fasse pression sur l’administration de McGill pour faire de même et éliminer la vente et la distribution de l’eau en bouteille sur le campus ; Il est également résolu que l’AÉUM distribue des informations à tous les clubs et services ainsi qu’à l’ensemble des étudiants concernant les problèmes liés à l’eau en bouteille et il est enfin résolu que l’AÉUM encourage la consommation d’eau du robinet et l’utilisation de moyens de distribution d’eau écologique, telles que les fontaines à eau et les verres réutilisables, etc.

Winter 2009 Motion Re: Student Services* Motion Re: Catered House Party* Motion Re: SSMU Support for the Association of McGill Undergraduate Students Employees (AMUSE)* Motion Re: Military Recruitment at McGill University* Motion Re: Administrators to be identified as Star Wars characters* Motion Re: Military Research at McGill* Motion Re: No Pants Fridays* *to read motions in full, please visit: www.ssmu.mcgill.ca/GA

Motion Re: SSMU condemnation of bombings of education institutions in Gaza Be it resolved that the Students’ Society of McGill University condemn the bombing of the educational institutions in Gaza, including the Islamic University in Gaza city and the UNRWA run schools; and Be it further resolved that the Students’ Society of McGill University issues a public statement of condemnation immediately and call on the government of Canada and McGill University’s Principal Heather Munroe-Blum to also condemn the bombings; and Be it further resolved that the Students’ Society of McGill University, undertake public initiative to condemn the bombing and support the right to education of Palestinian students, and that such initiatives may include: campaigns, educational lecture series, forums and/or fundraising initiatives to support students in Gaza. Motion Re: GA Reform Be it resolved that this body recommends that the SSMU legislative council put forward a referenda question to re-write the GA section of the constitution to make SSMU general assemblies an ad hoc rather than a bi-annual body.

*Quorum for a regular or special general assembly is 100 members of the association from at least four different faculties or schools. Qualified Quorum for this general assembly shall be 397 students, or 2% of the undergraduate population of McGill. Questions or comments regarding this agenda may be directed to:

[email protected] • 514-398-6801 • www.ssmu.mcgill.ca/GA

Hiver 2009 Motion Concernant : Services alimentaires* Motion Concernant : Fête chez la principale, repas compris* Motion Concernant : Soutien à l’Association des Étudiants employés à McGill* Motion Concernant : La désignation des administrateurs d’après les personnages de Star Wars* Motion Concernant : Recrutement militaire à l’Université McGill* Motion Concernant : La recherche militaire à McGill* Motion Concernant : Les vendredis sans pantalon* * ces motions sont disponibles à : www.ssmu.mcgill.ca/GA

Motion Concernant : l’AÉUM condamne le bombardement des établissements d’enseignement de Gaza Il est résolu que l’Association Étudiante de l’Université McGill condamne le bombardement des établissements d’enseignement de Gaza, dont l’université islamique de la ville de Gaza et les écoles gérées par UNRWA ; Il est aussi résolu que l’Association Étudiante de l’Université McGill émette immédiatement une déclaration publique de condamnation et appelle le gouvernement canadien et la rectrice de l’Université McGill Heather Munroe-Blum à condamner le bombardement ; I l est aussi résolu que l’Association Étudiante de l’Université McGill entreprenne des initiatives publiques pour condamner le bombardement et soutenir le droit à l’éducation des élèves et étudiants palestiniens, avec des initiatives telles que: des conférences, des forums et/ou des collectes de fonds pour soutenir les étudiants de Gaza. Motion Concernant : La Réforme des AG Il est résolu que cet organisme recommande la présentation par le conseil législatif de l’AÉUM d’une question de référendum visant à réécrire la section de la constitution concernant les AG afin que celles-ci soient convoquées de façon ad hoc plutôt que deux fois par an. * Le quorum pour une assemblée générale régulière ou spéciale est de 100 membres de l’Association provenant d’au moins quatre facultés ou écoles différentes. Le quorum qualifié pour cette assemblée générale est de 397 étudiants, soit 2% de la masse étudiante au 1er cycle de l’Université McGill. Pour toute question concernant cet ordre du jour, contactez les présentateurs de l’AÉUM :

[email protected] • 514-398-6801 • www.ssmu.mcgill.ca/GA

News

The McGill Daily, Monday, February 2, 2009

Omar Khadr remains in prison, despite Obama’s recent decision to close Guantanamo Humera Jabir News Writer

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n the aftermath of President Barack Obama’s decision to close Guantanamo Bay on January 20, experts and supporters are urging Canada to repatriate a Canadian child soldier who has spent six tortured years in the off-shore prison. The U.S. army captured Omar Khadr when he was 15, accusing him of throwing the grenade that killed Sergeant Christopher Spheer in Afghanistan during a fire fight in July 2002. He has been charged with war crimes in military tribunals. In Guantanamo, he was subjected to extreme temperatures, forced nudity, and sexual humiliation. Guards even attached him to shortrange chains for hours until he urinated on himself. They then poured pine-scented cleaning fluid over him and used him as a mop. Amnesty McGill directors Margoth Rico and Silvana Lovera protested with a handful of sympathizers at the Roddick Gates last Tuesday as part of their campaign to demand Khadr’s repatriation. While access to a fair trial is a step in the right direction, Rico believed that justice can only be achieved once Khadr is allowed to return to Canada. “We should not be asking ourselves ‘Why should Omar Khadr be repatriated?’ but ‘Why has he not been repatriated?’” Rico said. “By not taking responsibility of Omar Khadr,

Canada is overlooking the rights that every Canadian citizen should be entitled to.” Hours after accepting the presidency, Obama issued an executive order suspending all military trials, including Khadr’s, which was scheduled for January 26. Judith Rae, a University of Toronto law student and founding member of The Omar Khadr Project, an organization of Canadian law students and young lawyers advocating for Khadr’s repa-

Khadr’s Pentagon-appointed attorney to the case, explained Khadr’s military trial has run out of steam. “I think Omar’s military prosecution is effectively dead and that there are significant obstacles to any future prosecution of Omar Khadr by U.S. authorities,” said Keubler. “The ball is now squarely in the Prime Minister’s court to help President Obama clean up the Guantanamo mess by offering to take Omar back to Canada.” Rae questioned the validity of the

“We are talking about the lack of rule of law in that hellish place. Where are the voices of outrage?” Dennis Edney, Omar Khadr’s Canadian attorney triation, criticized the Harper government for shirking responsibility for Canada’s last remaining detainee. “Stephen Harper’s continued silence is inexcusable. It has always been important to assist a Canadian citizen who is locked away facing an unfair trial abroad,” said Rae. “We know President Obama intends to end these illegal proceedings, which are contrary to the normal rules of human rights,” he said. “The game is over. We would be happy to see Khadr face trial in Canada; there is no reason why he cannot be tried here.” Lieutenant Commander Keubler,

evidence held against Khadr. “The U.S. altered documents dating from around the time of the incident which made reference to another person alive who could have thrown the grenade,” said Rae. “Furthermore, some of the evidence used against him is unreliable, including alleged admissions that date from the time he was subjected to serious mistreatment, quite possibly including torture.” Canada is legally bound by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict to rehabilitate minors like

Omar Khadr and to reintegrate them into society. Canada has widely supported rehabilitation programs for child soldiers from countries such Sierra Leone, Colombia, and Sri Lanka. Ishmael Beah, UNICEF Ambassador and former child soldier captured at age 15, called Canada’s treatment of Khadr a double standard. “If a 15-year-old kid in Sierra Leone, in Congo, in Uganda, in Liberia, if they kill somebody and shoot somebody in the war, it’s fine, but as soon as that kid kills an American soldier... they are no longer a child soldier, they are a terrorist.” It will be many months before Guantanamo is shut down and the files of the detainees facing military trial are reviewed. Having spent six and a half years in pre-trial detainment, many believe Khadr’s ordeal has already continued for far too long. With Obama and Harper due to meet in the coming weeks, the issue of Khadr’s return to Canada is more pressing than ever. Dennis Edney, Khadr’s Canadian attorney was disappointed with the public’s indifference to Khadr’s plight. “Here we have a young boy who is blind in one eye, his other eye damaged, and we can’t even get him protective glasses. What are we doing for him as Canadians? What has McGill done?” Edney asked. “When we talk about Omar Khadr, we are talking about Guantanamo and the lack of rule of law in that hellish place. Where are the voices of outrage?”

Group kicks off franco-anglo integration project John Lapsley

The McGill Daily

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espite decades-old cultural barriers, English and French youth aspire to bridge the gap between “the two solitudes,” according to Creating Spaces, an innovative new report from the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN). “We’re past the language thing,” said Brent Platt, co-chairman of QCGN’s Youth Standing Committee. “Youth are feeling positive about the

language separation, and they don’t fear assimilation.” The Youth Standing Committee spearheaded the 32-page report that lays out a framework for integrating young anglophones and francophones in Quebec. The report opens by citing a 2006 Statistics Canada report that found that over the previous 15 years, the number of 20-34-year-old English-speakers in Quebec dropped by one-fifth, and develops a series of aspirations and solutions designed to remedy the isolation many Englishspeaking youth feel in Quebec. Platt stressed that although the

Liveblogging SSMU Council

The Daily is attempting to bring you coverage of bureaucratic McGill events in a more digestible form, so we decided to liveblog the SSMU Council meeting Thursday, a McGill first. Excerpts edited for length follow; for the entire account with links and to join the conversation on the comment board, visit mcgilldaily.com/blog/1010/entry/17585.

McGill.” I was right; she hasn’t ever been to a Council meeting.

6:40: I think [McGill Executive Director of Student Services Jana] Luker just said SSMU Council is “the most powerful organization at

7:17: VP Internal Julia Webster is speeding through her report. About the new beer contract, the Financial Ethics Review Committee will review

7:02: It’s -6 degrees Celsius; you would think that there would be a more energy-efficient way to cool a room that’s surrounded on two sides by wall-to-ceiling windows than by blasting AC three inches from those windows!

report contains enough statistics and empirical data to resonate with Quebec’s policymakers, this was a youth-managed project run by the same people whose identification with Quebec culture it seeks to remedy. Consequently, Platt has noticed strong positive reactions to Creating Spaces from readers of all ages. The project aims to improve Quebec’s youth community from the inside out: slow the drain of Quebec’s anglophones by integrating the English-speaking and francophone communities. Creating Spaces also seeks to build a strong,

the beer suppliers, the proposals will go out early March, the negotiations will start mid-to-late March, and the signing will happen in May. The corner where I sit applauds what will likely be the fastest SSMU tender, negotiation, and signing process for a contract in its history, bucking the trend of the last few contracts that have taken six to twelve months and are still not finished. 8:36: According to President Turner, people want to change the by-laws that refer to the Green Fee so they

diverse youth network that will in turn attract further culturally diverse youth to Quebec through education, employment, and community life. The project, however, does not end with the report. Platt called it a “gateway document” – a blueprint for future endeavours to unify the English and French youth communities. Even so, Platt and the QCGN recognize that there is no quick fix to issues of cultural isolation in Quebec. “This is something we’ll need to take one baby step at a time,” Platt said. “But we’re very, very optimistic.”

reflect “what the framers intended.” Wow, modesty. This fee is not old enough to have “framers.” Sorry. 8:40: No by-law changes tonight (again!), because Council is one to three seats short of (two-thirds required) quorum. You know, it’d probably be easier to get 15 per cent of students to vote in the referendum/election period in March than get two-thirds of Council to show up to meetings they’re required to attend. Email your crazy ideas to [email protected].

What’s the haps

Canadian child soldier still in limbo

9

Female to Femme Monday, February 3, 7:30 p.m. Shatner, room B29 , 3480 McTavish Divergence Movie Nights in collaboration with Queer McGill Presents: A film exploring femme dyke identities as radical gender practices. The film denaturalizes gender and pushes for an understanding of femininity as multiple rather than singular, constructed rather than natural. FtF features a host of fabulous femmes, including professors, activists, artists, and dancers. The suggested donation is $5. Water privatization Tuesday, February 3, 8 p.m. Arts W-215, 853 Sherbrooke O. Cinema Politica presents Blue Gold: World Water Wars, a documentary about water privatization that explores a dozen countries to make explicit the connection between water and power. Disabilities Studies at McGill Wednesday, February 4, 5 p.m. - 7 p.m. Leacock Building room 232, 855 Sherbrooke O. Listen to Professor Lennard J. Davis on Disability Studies in universities, and what it means that McGill has no such program. The lecture is called Biocultures: Disability and Disciplinarity, and is presented by the Office for Students with Disabilities, the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, and the Department of English. Create New Policies for Canada on Art, Media, and Culture Wednesday, February 4, 5:30 p.m EV 1.631 1515 Ste. Catherine O. Contribute to NDP Concordia’s proposal on subsidies for artists, censorship, fair copyright law, and net neutrality, which will be presented at the upcomming federal party convention in Halifax. World-wide sustainability Thursday, February 5, 6 p.m. New Residence Hall, 3625 Parc. Best-selling author Chris Turner will speak at McGill about his year-long travels around in search of green solutions. He wants to move away from the doom and gloom of maintstream environmental discourse, and focus instead on solving the world’s most urgent environmental challenges. Party at Thomson for a cause Saturday, February 7, 10 p.m. - 3 a.m. Thomson House, 3650 McTavish. Queer McGill’s theme for this year’s installment of its annual Thomson House Party is “Sex-Ed - Let’s Talk About Sex.” Proceeds go to Head & Hands – a non-profit organization aimed at helping bring sexual education to all students. The suggested donation is $5. Send your not-for-profit events to news@mcgilldaily. com with haps as the subject.

Classifieds

To place an ad, via email: [email protected] phone : 514-398-6790 fax : 514-398-8318

Cost : McGill Students & Staff : $6,70/day; $6.20/day for 3 or more days. General public : $8.10/day; $6.95/day for 3 or more days. 150 character limit. There will be a $6.00 charge per contract for any characters over the limit. Prices include taxes. MINIMUM ORDER $40.50/ 5 ads. Categories : Housing, Movers/Storage, Employment, Word Processing/Typing, Services Offered, For Sale, To Give Away, Wanted to Buy, Rides/ Tickets, Lost & Found, Personal, Lessons/Courses, Notices, Volunteers, Musicians, etc. Lost & Found ads are free.

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“LAZY EYE”

Have you had a since childhood? McGill Vision Research is looking for study participants. Please call Dr. Davar Nikneshan at 514-934-1934 ext. 35307 or email [email protected] for further information.

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instructors for : Waterski, Tennis, Rock Wall-Climbing, X-treme In-line Skatepark, Windsurf, Sail, Canoe, Kayak, Football, Basketball, Aerobics, Archery, Arts & Crafts, Pottery, Beads/jewellery, Nursing students (3rd + 4th yr.) to assist camp dr., 1 hr. north of Montreal [email protected]

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GET YOUR CLASSIFIEDS on the web!

Place your classifieds in The McGill Daily and for only 10$ more, we’ll add it to our website for the entire duration of the contract. Visit our classifieds section at www.mcgilldaily.com/classifieds

Interested in a career as Strategic Advisor Human Resources? * Consider the MSc in Administration • advise on recruitment, new employee orientation, employee relations, performance management, workforce analysis and planning.

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Wednesday, February 4, 2009 12:00 p.m. GM 407-1 Thursday, February 12, 2009 5:30 p.m. GM 409-1 Thursday, February 19, 2009 5:30 p.m. GM 725

Science+Technology

The McGill Daily, Monday, February 2, 2009

11

Giving pseudoscience the finger Lost In Transcription Diane Salema

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n article from the January 12 issue of ScienceNow, called “Are You a Moneymaker? Look at Your Hands,” discusses research that looked to draw a relationship between a financial trader’s success and his or her index-to-ring-finger ratio. Whether the researchers’ motives arose from purely scientific curiosity or out of economic incentive is beside the point. They found that the traders with the lowest ratios – meaning a longer ring finger in relation to the index – were the ones who made the most money in a given time period. Now, there was scientific rationale behind the hypothesis: other research has shown that a longer ring finger is a sign of higher exposure to testosterone in the womb, which in turn creates sensitivity to the hormone later in life, which then makes those people more apt to react to things quickly and to take more risks. Got that? Lots of testosterone means you become sensitive to it, this makes you get all risky and dangerous, and to top it off, you get an extra-large ring finger. So, yes, this chain may sound a little unbelievable, and the interesting thing here is that the article demonstrates how much we love finding anatomical patterns that explain

other aspects of ourselves. Breaking away from scientific research, there are tons of myths out there that people believe to varying degrees; whether it’s the famous comparison of a male’s forefinger length to the size of his package or the idea that a man’s height is related to how high he climbs on the business ladder, we absolutely love thinking we can read a certain characteristic as a clue for another. Do our bodies really reveal that kind of information, or is this a human fabrication of fascination? Our preoccupation is definitely not a new one. A popular 19th century discipline was phrenology, the study of a person’s skull and facial features to determine their personality traits. And people took it really seriously – basing decisions like who to marry on the length of a nose, or how a person’s upper lip curved. Of course, the problem with looking for these types of patterns and relationships in a statistical way is that it can get out of hand very easily. Eugenics comes along, and all of a sudden this pseudoscience is a tool to promote stereotypes and racism. Nazism is one historical example, but the trend stretches back to the early 20th century. Early eugenicists twisted Darwin’s ideas of evolution into an idea of racial superiority,

establishing a spectrum of evolution that placed Europeans as the most “highly evolved” people and Africans as more “primitive.” In one famous case, a Congolese man named Ota Benga was brought to the United States in 1904 and exhibited in the World’s Fair and the Bronx Zoo, labelled as a link between primates and humans. He was even caged up with an orangutan so visitors could note similarities in stature and smile. Disturbingly, these “human zoos,” as they were called, were very common. Is there a more productive, less harmful way to relate anatomical patterns to other human characteristics? What if we could observe a person’s favourite colour by the fissures on their skull, or find out something about their study habits by how far apart their eyes are? Would we be able to notice these things without categorizing people or even ostracizing them? Even if these types of relationships existed and we could study them effectively, it would still be a shortcut to getting to know someone, and a pretty limited, black and white assessment at that. Most of us hope for a bit more complexity in our personalities. So you can check your hand right now to see if you should be a top financial trader or if you’ll just have to settle for being very well-endowed, but chances are you probably believe it doesn’t really work that way. Sally Lin / The McGill Daily

Diane’s column will appear every other Friday. To give her the finger, email [email protected]

UNDER THE SCOPE

Fermenting on organic purchases Breaking down the wine-making process and its organic alternative Alissa Stachrowski Sci+Tech Writer

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ou may have noticed a new label on the bottle next to that cheap sludge you usually buy at the SAQ. As students begin to pay the extra few pennies for that jar of organic tomato sauce, organic beverages are gaining their rightful position in the market. Organic wineries are sprouting up all across Canada. According to the Pacific Agricultural Certification Society most of them are situated in British Columbia, although, a few are popping up in Niagara, Ontario and in the Eastern Townships of Quebec.

But what is organic wine, and why should consumers fork over extra cash for a certification sticker? The processes of making organic wine and regular wine are similar, but some minor differences are key. In regular winemaking, the first step is to collect the grapes and cut them up into smaller pieces. Then, all the chopped up grapes are placed into a fermenter where a syrup will eventually form. The mixture is covered and left to ferment for 24-hours, after which chemicals are added to sterilize the mixture. Once wine yeast is added, the new mixture must ferment for about a week. The next step includes removing the pulp from the mixture and siphoning it

into another fermenter. An air lock is attached and filled halfway with water, then the wine is left to ferment for four to six weeks. Finally, once the wine mixture is completely clear, the sediment is siphoned out and the wine is bottled. The difference between regular wine-making and organic winemaking boils down to two practices – those of the vineyard, and those of the winery. Much like any other farming product, grapes from a vineyard are considered organic if they are grown without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides. As far as winery practice is concerned, the details for certification are slightly

more contested. According to John Henning, an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at McGill, organic certification places limits on the amount of sulphates that can be used to help the fermentation process of the grapes. “Some organic winemakers don’t use [sulphates] at all, so the level of sulphite will be much lower, but there will always be some [sulphates] due to the fermentation process,” he said. According to Henning, the purpose of lowering the amount of sulphates is that the sulphites produced through fermentation may present health concerns for consumers. “It

doesn’t present a huge health risk, but some people can have serious reactions [to it],” he said. Aside from the advantages organic wines present for one’s health, connoisseurs argue that the organic wine-making process allows for a purer taste of the grape. For those who enjoy very fruity wines this may be desirable, as the fruit flavour would be more prominent in an organic wine. As far as I’m concerned, the advantages seem to outweigh the cost tremendously. Although it may be tempting to reach for the cheap bottle that will dye your teeth red, consider spending the few extra dollars on organic wine.

12 Features

HOT PANTS “A

nd then I couldn’t stop laughing.” Reg loves the Habs more than he loves his wife and she loves listening to him grunt and shout at the players more than she loves his kiss. Years of smoking du Maurier lights have scratched out his voice. I sometimes imagine a little man in his throat opening and folding up a beer can like an accordion when he speaks to me. When I met his five-year-old daughter, substantial and saucy, I wondered what Reg’s voice sounded like reading from books about the three little pigs or the seven dwarfs.  Reg is bilingual in the way only Montreal can make you. His relaxed French is flawless and weaves in and out of joual, but francophones can always detect that he speaks both. He never stumbles in English, but sometimes reaches for French words: vers, franchement, insupportable. I knew only one other man like Reg. My grade-three French teacher, Monsieur Thibault, had taken a hockey puck to his throat guarding nets for a semi-professional league for over-forties. The blow crushed his vocal chords, filling his French and English with wind. Passing Reg at the doorway to the storeroom, I realize that I still remember how Monsieur Thibault smelled.  His smell was a mystery to me. And all my little heart wanted was to get to the bottom of it. I was sure he

smoked. At nine, I didn’t even know what cigarette smoke smelled like. But then, I also didn’t know what a man smelled like. I selected a sidekick, Tatiana Poplovski, and brought a spiral notebook to school with the sharpied title, “Monsieur Thibault: Smoking Case.”  That morning, Tatiana and I became detectives. We observed and meticulously noted the yellowness of his teeth, the condition of his nails, the frequency of his breaks.  We gave up because our data was inconclusive, but I still couldn’t get his smell out of my nose. When Monsieur Thibault found the book, he called me to his desk. I had never been so close to his smell.  I didn’t rat Tatiana out – that smell was all mine. He asked me why I had spied on him, without ever denying the allegations the book implied, and I couldn’t even answer I was so nervous. I thought about asking him how he smelled that way if he didn’t smoke. Reg is dusting the bottles behind the bar and I’m standing, ass tight in Gap black pants, tits belted into a fuchsia bra. I didn’t eat before coming here – squeezing through the itty bitty spaces between chairs is embarrassing enough without my bloated belly skimming across a diner’s upper back. I hate this restaurant, and I hate this job, everyone who works here, and everyone who eats here. Fuck, I even hate the delivery guys and the night cleaner. But I can’t hate Reg yet.  He reminds me

too much of Monsieur T how much he smokes. I think about the sta through. I can’t stoma they throw together around the kitchen. There is nothing in it the whole thing starts black liquorice jelly b child convinces you w you think: “yeah yeah this black jelly bean o will taste sweetly of gra there’s dirty black liqu around your mouth, an the black saliva all ove tricked you. It’s only u spit the fennel-burger They fired me in ho It’s the mid-afterno rant is dead quiet. Reg ing dirty hip hop loud and cracking me up b raspy voice, he raps, “To the pussy was stankin ers and I started to b wet so my dick slides i like him, how I can onl can’t help but freeze wh teacups to put away or People flood in arou see Reg the whole nig

Thibault.  I can’t believe How good he smells. aff meal I’ll get halfway ach the veggie burger from whatever’s lying It sticks like a brick.  but oil and fennel and to taste like that dirty bean that some nasty will taste of grape; and h, maybe just this once or candy or whatever ape.”  But sure enough, uorice juice swishing all nd you feel like spitting er that nasty child who unfortunate that I can’t back on the chef. ot pants. on lull, and the restauis behind the bar playd on our sound system, by singing along. In his Took the panties off and n’. Pulled off the drawbegin. Now the pussy’s in.” I hate how much I ly smell him up close.  I hen he hands me clean lights my cigarette. und seven, and I hardly ght. We only get to talk

Nadja Popovich / The McGill Daily

The McGill Daily, Monday, February 2, 2009

A story by The Daily’s Shannon Kiely

when I order martinis for my tables from him. If Reg had his way, he’d strike all the fruity liquor off of our drink menu.  “Mrs. Botox wants some vodka with her syrup, eh?” He leans over the bar. “Why doesn’t anyone ever order a cold fucking beer?” Ten tables and 80 tip dollars later, Reg is entertaining me and four other male staff: a busboy, a waiter, the dishwasher, and the bigger boss, Carl. We’re smoking outside, in the front where passers-by can overhear everything they say. They light up while debating the best Father’s Day activity; an Alouettes football game, smoked meat, and a massage parlour are suggested in turn.  Mention of the massage parlour starts Reg reminiscing about a pre-marriage gift. His brother bought him a surprise happy-endings massage or something equally banal. After Reg sat through the entire massage, the masseuse, then topless, asked him to turn over on his back to finish him off with a hand job. I’m trying to listen with restrained feminine interest, but my head is spinning. If I butt out and head back inside, I’m a prude, and if I’m too interested, I’m a slutty horndog, or perhaps better: a lesbian. “I burst out laughing. And then, I couldn’t stop laughing. She was sloshing her tits up there and her nipples were fucking big.” I think about my nipples. I’m the only one who’s got some that are bigger than Canadian quarters.

“That whore’s huge nipples took up about a third of her tits.  And those were pretty fucking huge to begin with.” Reg and the other three laugh and laugh and I hope my smile is enough. Reg looks at me. I know I should shrink away and go polish something.  I know he’s wondering if my un-laughing smile means that my nipples are huge like the masseuse’s. I meet his eyes for a while, appalled and confounded by the knowledge that we are both appraising my nipples. I think about Monsieur Thibault, and I wonder if I even knew I had any then. We catch each other’s eye for a second and I hear it out loud before it crosses my mind. “And I take it your wife’s are so small and so perfect they look like itty bitty mosquito bites?” No one laughs. Their glares make it clear that Reg’s wife has nothing to do with the masseuse story. But once I brought her up, it’s not fun anymore to laugh about saucer-sized nipples. So we all go back inside.  I busy myself by folding napkins, shining glasses, and refilling the peanuts behind the bar. Carl, who has been trying to can my blonde ass ever since I started, approaches Reg, seeing the hatred in his eyes, and asks him how my shift went. “I never want to see her face again.” Carl doesn’t ask any questions and even offers me a cigarette before he fires me by the dumpster out back in hot pants.

13

14 Commentary

The McGill Daily, Monday, February 2, 2009

Finding wisdom in the third stall from the right Life Lines Johanu Botha

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read something on the back of a toilet stall last week that made my Intro to Philosophy class look like playtime in kindergarten. It wasn’t the latest in Chuck Norris-isms; neither was it a telephone number and address left by “Blowin’ Joe.” No, my unknown washroom scribbler etched the following words into the pale green door: “...the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” Now before we even get to the famous author of these words we have to ask ourselves through what perspective did this person write them. Were they using a grand analogy to describe the concentration required to successfully act out the necessary deeds (namely number one and two) in a crowded washroom? Quite possibly. But most of us are capable of doing this, and surely the term “great man” isn’t attributed to us all. To solve this mystery let us look at the original creator of this quote. Ironically, I’ve lately been reading random tidbits of this American philosopher, essayist, and poet. Ralph Waldo Emerson spoke to large crowds in his day and was considered the intellectual leader of the U.S. at the time.

Whether or not he thought his legacy would be continued on bathroom stalls is debatable. But when asked to sum up his years of work, he said that his central doctrine was “the infinitude of the private man.” Ah-ha! Where are we most concerned about our privacy if not at the urinal (for some of us) or on the pot (for all of us)? Now now, don’t get all riled up. I’m not trying to turn exceptional thought into potty humour. What I’m trying to say is that although A does not look or sound anything like Z, it can help you get there. We may not want or need to use our various toilet experiences as tools to live as great men and women – but it can’t hurt. We live in a very busy world where the crowd can pull you every which way. A world racked with possible rights and wrongs, and shook with potential good and bad. Trying to draw the lines according to today’s varying societal psyches can hardly lead to a “perfect sweetness.” Maybe we need to transplant our bathroom skills into the rest of our lives. And by bathroom skills I mean the mere ability to want to remain in “the independence of solitude.” Yes, we need to work together as a society and yes, there is strength in

Ben Peck / The McGill Daily

This is pretty much what the mythical Sean Turner looked like. I heard he ate parrots for brunch. unity, but also yes, we need to allow ourselves to be okay with creating and keeping our own unique selves. Selves that can stand strong alone if need be. When glancing through history, it is often these selves that managed to calm a storm, endorse a freedom, or save a life. Now it could very well be that your

sense of self totally disagrees with all of my philosophical philandering, and that you would like to use this column for your next trip to the washroom. That’s fine, you are obviously already very much in the perfect sweetness of the independence of solitude. As for me, I’m hunting out toilet

stalls to see when the mystery quoter strikes again. Whether its Shakespeare or Voltaire, I’ll be there.

Repugnant and impolite though Wilders’s foolish statements may be, surely we can all agree that his illiberal transgressions are hardly worse than those of this censorious court? John Stuart Mill writes in his seminal essay, “On Liberty,” that when a society restricts free speech it is really the society itself that suffers: “Unless [the received opinion] is suffered to be, and actually is, vigorously and earnestly contested, it will…be held in the manner of a prejudice, with little comprehension or feeling of its rational grounds.” I suppose we can consider that the “received opinion” the Dutch court is trying to protect is religious plurality. Mill goes on: “The meaning of the doctrine itself will be in danger of being lost, or enfeebled, and deprived of its vital effect on the character and conduct: the dogma becoming a mere formal profession, inefficacious for good, but cumbering the ground, and preventing the growth of any real and heartfelt conviction, from reason or personal experience.” We do both disservice and disrespect to Islam when we handle it with

kid gloves; we impeach the integrity of religious plurality when we preserve it in a padded playroom. Of course Geert Wilders is a schmuck. In 2007, he wrote a column in the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant saying that the Koran should be banned. He’s no better. And of course, he provokes just to get a rise out of people, not just Muslims. He knows what he’s doing. Still, nothing changes. Alas, the debate here is not about Islam, but freedom of expression. Banning books is never okay. Neither is prosecuting someone merely for “inciting discrimination.” Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, I’m looking at you. Please don’t rely on my brief introduction to the case. Look it up for yourself, and see how you feel about it. Your reaction will say a lot about the content of your character. To quote Christopher Hitchens, “I don’t ask what people’s politics are. I ask what their principles are.”

Johanu’s column appears every Monday. Do you like potty phisolophy? Send some of your shit to [email protected].

The curious case of Geert Wilders

Piñata diplomacy Ricky Kreitner “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” – Voltaire

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t’s 8:45 a.m. on the morning of November 2, 2004, and the streets are crowded. Nice day out. Suddenly the man in front of you is blindsided by an attacker, shot, and repeatedly stabbed. He is able to crawl across the street in a futile attempt to escape. The attacker, a man in a long robe known as a djelleba, takes out his butcher knife and slits his victim’s throat. He then stabs him again, this time lodging on the victim’s body a note, a part of which reads: “Islam will be victorious through the blood of the martyrs. They will spread its light in every dark corner of this

earth and it will drive evil with the sword if necessary back into its dark hole.” What was the victim’s offence, that he deserved such nasty fate? Well, he made a movie critical of Islam’s treatment of women. But here’s the catch: On what city’s streets do you think this might have happened? Islamabad? Kabul? Tehran? No. Amsterdam. And what did the Queen of the Netherlands do? She skipped the funeral and instead visited a Moroccan community centre, the nationality of the assailant, to express solidarity. Look now, four and a half years later, at Amsterdam, that temple of liberal freedom. Last week, a Dutch

court demanded that Geert Wilders, a controversial member of Parliament, be charged “for inciting hatred and discrimination, based on comments by him in various media on Muslims and their beliefs.” Some background: Wilders made a short film last year called Fitna, which, according to a Turkish newspaper, is Arabic for “disagreement and division among people.” The 16-minute, amusingly low-budget film interspersed scenes of Islam-inspired carnage with rather bellicose and (arguably) cherry-picked verses from the Koran. The film caused a massive international row; the Dutch government supplied its embassies and consulates around the world with evacuation plans in the event of emergency. Afraid of repeating the events that unfolded in the wake of the Danish cartoon controversy, they then told him to shut his mouth. He didn’t shut his mouth. So they’re hauling his ass off to jail. Saith the court: “Mr. Wilders’s views constitute a criminal offence. [He] has insulted Islamic worshippers by attacking the symbols of the Islamic faith.”

Ricky’s column appears Monday. Send schmucks and freedoms to [email protected].

Commentary

The McGill Daily, Monday, February 2, 2009

15

COMMENT

Forgiving a racist state Zionism and Israel’s Arab ghettos Niko Block

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Aquil Virani / The McGill Daily

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Competing identities block the road to peace Daniela Porat

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uch of the debate over the conflict between Israel and Palestine has polarized these pages, with students clinging to antagonisitc beliefs despite their strong tendency to mar the potential for progress. If we are truly interested in a resolution to the conflict, we must recognize that Palestinian and Israeli identities cannot continue to compete for existence. Political science literature suggests that the zero-sum relationship between Israeli and Palestinian identities can only be ameliorated if each side’s survival is not rooted in repudiating the existence of the other. But the campus’s response the recent crisis in Gaza and Israel has been disappointing because it has perpetuated these identity forms. For instance, two weeks ago I received an invitation from Hillel -McGill for a Support Israel Rally, and in McLennan I was also confronted by a display about the humanitarian emergency in Gaza. I believe sending aid to the Palestinians is crucial; however, what I found disconcerting about the display was that as a Jew, I felt I was being attacked with antiIsraeli sentiments. As an intellectual, multi-cultural, and open-minded group of students, we must initiate a process of recognition whereby these contending identities can coexist on a local level. The competing Palestinian and

Israeli narratives of the conflict foster an irrational understanding of it because each side envisions itself as the rightful actor and the other as the malicious enemy. Moral analysis of the conflict links each group’s survival and identity to the core issues of Nationhood, Right of Return and Refugees, and the status of Jerusalem. Living in the diaspora – whether Jewish or Palestinian – offers us an opportunity to remove our sense of survival from the need to deny the existence of the opposing identity by using the resources we have to cooperate in an environment shielded from violence. Harvard Professor and Researcher Herbert C. Kelman wrote an article explaining how the Israeli and Palestinian identities thrive on negative interdependence. Their identities rely on zero-sum relations whereby the existence of one negates the existence of the other; a gain for one side translates into a loss for the other. Author Paul Scham further argues that Palestinians and Israelis must recognize the “contradictions between the two narratives rather than attempting to overcome or ignore them. The logical result of that might well be an Israeli state that would celebrate Israeli Independence on the fifth day of the Hebrew month of Iyar, as it is currently commemorated in Israel, and also acknowledge with sadness Naqba Day on the fifteenth of May, as it is currently mourned among Palestinians.” I implore McGill’s Jewish and

Arab groups to unite their efforts in educating students about the ArabIsraeli Conflict. Not only will this be an experiment in diplomacy, it will be a testament to our potential as students to mend the fractures that divide our community. Additionally, Kelman asserts that “the only way, in which, in the long run, Israelis can survive, feel secure, develop, prosper, and fulfill themselves as a people is for Palestinians to survive, feel secure, develop, prosper, and fulfill themselves, and vice versa.” Wearing the Star of David cannot imply a dismissal of Palestinian rights, just as Arab heritage should not be associated with anti-Semitism. My grandfather was the only person from his family to survive the Holocaust, and following his liberation from Auschwitz he moved to Israel. This personal connection to the hope that Israel inspires should not suggest that I believe that Jews have an absolute right to the State of Israel and that Palestinians do not. We have to move beyond the inferences and assumptions that blemish our relations so that our understandings of each other are not dictated by hate and rather built on a belief that we can learn from past persecutions. We can only separate ourselves from our contentious past if we make a sincere effort to transform our present. Daniela Porat is a U1 Political Science and Art History student, and you can reach her at daniela.porat@ mail.mcgill.ca.

have spent much of my political energy since I began high school fighting for the civil and human rights of Palestinians. Yet I feel drastically misrepresented when anyone refers to me or my views as “proPalestine” or “anti-Israel,” as though I favour one of the two peoples above the other. I am deeply committed to standing in solidarity with both Israelis and Palestinians who have suffered from this conflict, which seems to have gotten incrementally worse, more violent, more heartbreaking and more insurmountable with each passing year since it began. But insofar as I believe in democracy and racial equality, I am an anti-Zionist. The irony is that I often share more common ground with hardline Zionists than North America’s peculiar brand of “liberal Zionists,” who tend to assert that Israel, though a Jewish state, manages to evade the travesty of being a racist state. And, like many right-wing Zionists, I don’t believe that Israel’s annexation of the remainder of Mandate Palestine in 1967 was any less justified than the displacement of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes – often at gunpoint – in 1948. These are notions of Israel’s identity that North Americans are much more uncomfortable with than most Jewish Israelis. When I would raise the point in my protracted and agonising arguments with them that every racist state in history has relied on a certain amount of violence – and has generally incurred violent backlashes in turn – their responses were less a rebuke than an affirmation: that is why we need to win, they would say. Beyond the obvious asymmetries in its immigration policy – the fact that a Canadian-born Jew like myself is actively encouraged to “make aliyah” whilst millions of Palestinian refugees are denied the right to return to their ancestral lands – Israel severely enforces the doctrine of racial hegemony within its own pre-1967 borders. In legal spheres, the debate is less about whether Israel is a racist state than about whether it has that right to be so. One of the most important revelations of my time in Israel-Palestine concerned the plight of Israeli Arabs, who constitute 20 per cent of Israeli citizens, and pay

their taxes like everyone else, yet are treated as second-class citizens by the state. It bears noting that higher birth rates amongst this minority constitute what is commonly referred to as the “demographic threat” in Israeli politics. The most marginalized group among Israeli Arabs are the 160,000 Bedouin living in the Negev desert – a territory which, like the West Bank, has seen segregation carried out to such an extent that walls have been erected around Jewish communities while Arab homes are arbitrarily deemed illegal and are subject to frequent demolition. Effectively, the Negev Bedouin are living under occupation too. Thirty-six of their communities have been denied recognition by the state for years if not decades, and are thus bereft of running water, electricity, and decent schools, while recognized Arab communities are granted control over a paltry three per cent of the territory inside Israel proper. With little access to educational or land-based resources, these communities are among Israel’s poorest. Numerous reports – including some, like the Or and Goldberg Commissions, that were authorized by the Israeli government itself – have concluded that Arab-Israelis’ marginalization is a direct result of their treatment by the state. There are not many of us who favour a one-state solution, but as the prospect of the two-state dwindles, support for an equal and unified Israeli-Palestinian state has timorously begun to grow on both sides of the Green Line. My beef is not with the people of Israel but with the ideology of their state. Tying one’s identity to the sustenance of Israel’s Jewish ethnocracy is convenient for some because it gives them an opportunity to impugn anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism. But being half-Israeli myself, I still have virtually no understanding of how the concept of Jewish hegemony can be reconciled with that of racial equality. Segregation is not an issue that is exclusive to the West Bank, and there will come a time when Israel will have to decide whether it would rather be a nation of equitable democratic exchange or continue down its current path of systematic racial exclusivity and ghettoisation. Niko Block is a U1 Economics student and a Daily staffer. Write him at [email protected].

Opinion-y opinion ‘pinion. Want more? Check out Second Opinion and The Technopolis at mcgilldaily.com/blogs.

16 Commentary

The McGill Daily, Monday, February 2, 2009

Sally Lin / The McGill Daily

COMMENT

One year too late

Tales from a Montrealer’s isolating rez-less experience Shannon Kiely

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he first class I attended at McGill was in a Stuart Bio auditorium. The professor divided the class’s 200 students into small groups to discuss what we thought International Development was. In my group of five, two girls were from Ontario, one from a small town outside of Philadelphia, and one from Victoria. I was the first person they’d met on campus from Montreal. The American girl was nervous. She looked a little shell-shocked, maybe a tinch homesick, and I started to wonder if there was anything I could do to make Montreal less scary

to her. I had just come back from a summer in Europe where a compassionate Londoner had put me up on his couch for three weeks and a French girl in San Sebastian shared her apartment when there wasn’t a free hotel or hostel bed in the city. My hosts showed me where to eat and party, and I felt more safe and oriented in those two cities than any others I visited. I wanted to give back, befriend this freshman so I could take her to the oratory and Old Montreal, to tour little known neighbourhoods, and to sample Tibetan dumplings or Mauritian noodles. I waited until the next week to offer myself up as Montreal-guide-

extraordinaire. This time, she walked into class giggling with two other girls and she sat with them on the other side of the auditorium. It took me almost six months at McGill before someone explained to me what residence was. Then I finally understood that the American girl had no doubt bonded with the giggle girls on her floor, making my services completely unnecessary. The few acquaintances I made at McGill would always run into people en route from McLennan to Leacock, and explain to me that they met in rez. It seemed what residence you spent your first year in was almost as paramount to the McGill experience as what major you studied. Soon, I under-

stood that residence was a friendship goldmine, and that because I went to CEGEP and was a Quebecker, I had completely missed out. See, Montrealers face a cruel and unforgiving dilemma. It’s laughably cheap to come to McGill and relatively easy to get in. One of the best schools in Canada is right at our doorstep, and we can even keep living with our parents! How can we refuse? And trust me, we don’t. With Concordia and Université de Montreal in the mix, I can count on one hand the number of people from my high school graduating class who went away for university. But it’s undeniable that by missing that real first year of school, Quebec

students miss out on a fundamental part of the university experience. My closest friends went to McGill, but every one of them was from Montreal. And no matter how close I became with an out-of-town student, I could never penetrate her rez clique. No matter how willing I was to drop cash on cabs back from the St. Laurent strips or savvy on the metro, the fact I lived at home and out of the Ghetto always seemed to matter in my friendships with non-Quebec students.

University.” This essentially means that the motion in its current format is not in compliance of the by-laws.  Further, the motion’s preamble makes no mention of the destruction of schools by rockets, no mention of Israeli casualties, nor does it mention Hamas. It gives little importance to UN Humanitarian Affairs Chief John Holmes blasting Hamas for its “cynical” use of civilian facilities, such as schools and hospitals, and reports by the UN confirming that Hamas fighters breached some of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency facilities. Clearly, this motion portrays an incredibly complex situation in an utterly simplified way. This motion’s partial perspective is clearly not complying with SSMU’s guidelines for motion writing, which state that motions should be unbiased. One needs just take a look at our campus newspapers to realize how divisive the issue of the conflict in Israel and the Palestinian Territories

is. In particular, the last episode of fighting in Gaza has undoubtedly stirred tensions. Do we really need to add to the divide? The Fall GA failed to reach quorum, but we can reject this motion by showing up this Thursday in the Shater Ballroom. Let’s make sure that we take part in upholding the SSMU Constitution, which states in its preamble that SSMU should “act in the best interests of its membership as a whole.” Our best interest is not to call on SSMU to take sides in a conflict that has no sides. Our best interest is to ensure that we do not leave part of the student body unrepresented by SSMU’s statements. An educational institution like McGill should have none of us feel alienated by the positions of our own Society.

Shannon Kiely is The Daily’s coordinating news editor. You can cheat on your Anglo cliques at news@ mcgilldaily.com.

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Just say no to double standards And don’t let our focus on Gaza distract us from other crises Perle Nicolle

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ver the past week, an overpopulated territory about one third of the size of London has been the scene of heavy fighting. Trapped between two fronts, hundreds of civilian casualties – some of them children killed inside their schools – are reported by international agencies. The UN estimates that about a quarter million more are in immediate danger of death. The local government is refusing any humanitarian ceasefire, and even hindering the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) rescue operations. Its stated goal is

to once and for all “eradicate the rebels.” Does this ring a bell? Probably not – because, really, who has heard about the crisis in Sri Lanka? Have you seen the Sri Lankan flag on the cover of The Daily? The double standards of the passionate compassionates are sometimes troubling. At the SSMU General Assembly (GA) this Thursday, students will be debating a motion brought forth by Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) that calls on the Society to both publicly condemn the military action in Gaza, as well as to support education Palestinian right to education. SPHR suggests that public initiatives could take the form of “campaigns, educational lecture series, forums and/or fundraising initiatives to support students in Gaza.”   While the SSMU constitution empowers Council to “take all action on behalf of the Society,” this motion

would mandate the SSMU Council to “condemn the bombing of the educational institutions in Gaza,” and would engage SSMU to issue “a public statement of condemnation immediately,” calling on McGill to do the same. But one can’t help but wonder whether the GA will debate a motion calling on SSMU to support the students in Mullaitivu, and this causes me some concern. Now, I don’t doubt SPHR’s good intentions in writing the motion, but the resolution is blatantly one-sided, arguably falls outside of SSMU’s bylaws, and perhaps most importantly is dividing our campus further by turning it into an ideological war field. SSMU is not the UN, though it may be just as dysfunctional. Regardless, Article 22 of the SSMU Constitution states, “SSMU Council will not take a position on external political issues that Council deems to be extremely divisive among students at McGill

Perle Nicolle is a U4 Mechanical Engineering student, reachable at [email protected].

Commentary

The McGill Daily, Monday, February 2, 2009

17

HYDE PARK

You call that proof? Mohamed Smaoui

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ilad Ben-Shach did make a good point in his January 22 article “Applying some logic to conflict terminology,” when he said, “I hope The Daily adopts more rigorous editing procedures, so that the situation is properly portrayed.” I couldn’t believe he got his Mathematical “proof” to be published. As a math student, I couldn’t stand seeing my noble field being exploited and misused. A proof he calls it? Let me have the pleasure of rewriting his proof for you. In the math field, whenever someone makes a claim, we never believe it unless we prove it. So let’s start with a claim. “Israel doesn’t occupy or siege Gaza, and Hamas rockets are threatening Israel’s existence.” Just to clarify something for the non-mathematicians, I don’t think I’ll be proving my claim if I follow Gilad’s “logic” by just saying, “Period.” after my claim. I actually need to prove the claim. I need to find some evidence for my claim by actually doing some

research. Here’s what I find: the Guardian says that Israel killed in three weeks around 1,400 people and injured another 5,000, 60 per cent or more were women and children. But this isn’t really helping my proof. I found that a Washington Post article, “Israeli Siege Leaves Gaza Isolated and Desperate,” the Independent, and Amnesty International have numerous similar articles. Please email me if you need links. In math, we call news like these “counterexamples.” If one counterexample is made to a claim, then our claim automatically fails. Here we have three counterexamples; we are in trouble. We conclude that our claim “Israel doesn’t siege Gaza” is false. Given the new evidence, let’s fix our initial claim, “Israel sieges Gaza killing 1,400 and injuring 5,000 but doesn’t occupy it, and Hamas rockets are threatening Israel’s existence.” Further investigation by the New York Times uncovers that Israel admits using white phosphorus in its war on Gaza. Israel doesn’t seem to care. It would’ve used nuclear weapons if it could, but that would be dangerous for its people who live very

close to Gaza. Math is all about logic, yet not all mathematicians get that. If we state the facts, we find that the rockets fired from Gaza killed less than 30 people from 2008 up until today. The rockets cannot travel beyond a 50-kilometre radius. To keep my dignity as a mathematician, I cannot really conclude that Hamas rockets are threatening Israel’s existence. My claim isn’t sound in the mathematical world. I’ll have to change it again to gain acceptance in my logical field. “Israel sieges Gaza killing 1,400 and injuring 5,000 but doesn’t occupy it, and Hamas rockets don’t threaten Israel’s existence.” My claim now has passed the testing phase and is considered valid. The process we walked through is called a “proof.” If Hamas doesn’t threaten Israel’s existence, then why did Israel drench its hands in blood? A question I leave for the other mathematicians to deal with.

Mohamed Smaoui is a U2 Math & Computer Science student. You can contact him at mohamed.smaoui@ mail.mcgill.ca.

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The ABCs of the economic crisis A primer on all the terms you’ve heard but didn’t understand Duong Pham

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is for Asset Backed Commercial Paper (ABCP) – These are investments designed to generate income off of repayment of interest on loans such as mortgages. The market for this was frozen back in 2007 when many Canadian banks realized that a lot of their ABCP were tied to the bursting U.S. housing bubble. Realizing that a lot of these investments are held in pensions, the Canadian government became the guarantor to the tune of $32-billion. Not to be an alarmist but if this hadn’t been done, there was a chance your parents could be fucked into financial oblivion in the future. B is for Bailout – A bailout is an act of giving a loan to a firm to prevent it from falling into financial ruin. When all streams are exhausted, the government is usually the lender of last resort to step in. C is for Credit Default Swap (CDS) – Imagine that you own a home. Imagine that you buy insurance for that home. To do so, someone evaluates the value of said home – say $100,000 and then decides they’ll sell insurance on it if you pay them $10/month. If this home burns down,

the insurer is obligated to give you $100,000. Now imagine a world where instead of buying insurance on your home, you can sell insurance on your own home to someone else. Now when your home burns down you’re on tap to pay the person you sold that insurance to for $100,000. Now imagine that in the same world, your neighbour can sell insurance on your home to someone else and your home burns down; your neighbour now owes someone $100,000 as well. And that is in a nutshell is how a CDS market worked – except that it’s valued at $56-trillion dollars. D is for Depression – The feeling I get when I listen to Arcade Fire – it also describes a severe downturn an economy that will make the act of listening to Arcade Fire feel more euphoric than a couple experiencing simultaneous orgasms. E is for Economy – Something that once resembled a reliable Swiss watch but now resembles a cheap Chinese knock-off labeled “Rollecks” that you can buy on the street for $5. F is for Federal Reserve Bank – An American governmental institution responsible for handling monetary supplies, the regulating financial system and providing financial services to the U.S. government. In recent years, it has also become an institution responsible for bailing out the asses of everyone who makes more than $1-million a year. G is for Golden Parachute – A large sum of money given to a CEO when they leave their job for things ranging from being fired, resigning,

retirement, going to prison or running a company and the pensions of all the employees to work for said company into the ground. Who says we live in a meritocracy? H is for Housing Bubble – A rise in demand for property, in this case fueled by low interest rates and loose lending regulations. Of course, this was nay followed by the housing burst, when people realize that they can’t afford the homes they bought and all the paper assets tied into them become worthless leading us to where we are today. I is for Investment Banking Industry – Once the dream destination of many of the world’s finance majors, like the dodo bird and civilized debates on Israel-Palestine, the investment banking industry no longer exists. J is for Jobs – Or lack thereof. K is for Kondratiev Waves – A non-mainstream theory proposed by a Soviet Economist in the 1910s. The basic gist of the theory is that the economy moves in large 40-50 year cycles with major ups and major downs. If you buy into the theory and its projections, it basically states that we are in the midst of entering the worst recession seen since the 1750s. I actually have nothing snarky to say here because I don’t want karma to bite me in the ass if this scenario comes true. Duong Pham is a U3 Economics student. Stay tuned for L-Z next week, and send optimism to duong.pham@ mail.mcgill.ca.

Evan Newton / The McGill Daily

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Bring on stimulating conservatism Clarke Olsen

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timulus shmimulus! That was about all Andrew Coyne had to say about the Conservatives’ new budget on last Wednesday’s broadcast of CBC’s The National. A London School of Economics alumn and former columnist with the National Post, Coyne has long been a defender of freer markets, lower taxes, and smaller government. Everyone expected that he would strongly denounce the oh-so-stimulating budget as a reckless spending spree, but his criticism went much further than that. Having come so close to seeing Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday, Mr. Coyne believes that conservatism has gone the way of the dodo. He could barely contain his disgust in stating that the Conservatives’ embrace of counter-cyclical spending means the “extinction of conservatism as any kind of coherent political movement or philosophy” in Canada. These are strong words from a man who is often touted around in the media as a prominent right-winger. But we really should give the fiscal conservatives a break – they’ve been so frustrated for so long. Contrary to popular opinion on campus, Stephen Harper has presided over the fastest increase in the size of the federal government in a generation. Even when adjusted for inflation and population growth, his Finance Minister has introduced the largest budgets our nation has ever seen. And that was true before the global financial crisis led to the re-embrace of Keynesian economics. The Prime Minister would likely argue that he’s spent previous billions in a responsible and productive manner, something about fixing a fiscal imbalance, cutting the GST, and buying our army guns to shoot terrorists with. He’d probably argue that the current billions will be spent to build needed infrastructure and help our economy overcome the worst non-violent threat to our lifestyle since the Great Depression. He is an economist after all. Nevertheless, what does it mean for Conservatives to question some tenants of this

thing called “fiscal conservatism?” And without it as a bedrock, what is left to unite Conservatives except for the even less sexy option of “social conservatism?” I would argue that it is healthy for a political party to occasionally question some of its most strongly-held beliefs. All parties are necessarily amorphous to a certain extent, and alter policy based on systemic changes or revised philosophy. It would also be completely irresponsible and, well, just downright unconservative to ignore world events simply because they might question some of your ideas. Liberals and socialists are supposed to be the ones with their heads stuck in the sand waiting for earthly utopias, not good conservatives. And so a confluence of factors has forced our current government to rethink their usual rhetoric about lower taxes and prudent spending. The specter of a global depression has led them to spend billions in the hopes of filling in for a slack in consumer demand. A triad of opposition parties has threatened them with a veritable coup unless they can shovel the money out fast enough. And still, an endless array of interest groups and experts claim that even more red ink should be spilled to drown our economic woes; not to mention the media’s stimulus envy whenever our piddling sums are compared to the girth of the American package. While I respectfully disagree with Mr. Coyne about conservatism’s fate, it is undeniable that a paradigm shift is occurring. Quite frankly, I think it’s about time. The development in Afghanistan is not going fast enough, our economy remains heavily dependent on natural resources, a separatist party holds undue sway in Parliament, too many First Nations people live in rural slums, and global issues of hunger and climate change have been ignored. Conservative politics can offer solutions to all of these. It’s high time my party moved beyond tax cuts. Clarke Olsen is a U3 Political Science and Economics student, and the President of Conservative McGill. You can reach him at clarke.olsen@ mail.mcgill.ca.

18 Photo Essay

The McGill Daily, Monday, February 2, 2009

les questions sans réponses roxy kirshenbaum

Culture

The McGill Daily, Monday, February 2, 2009

19

Stephen Davis / The McGill Daily

Revolution for the free love set Musical at McGill challenges sixties ideals but remains upbeat Ryan MacKellar

The McGill Daily

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eace, love, and drug abuse. Few decades in the 20th century saw such widespread challenges to established social authority and values like the 1960s. With President Barack Obama’s charm and charisma eliciting comparisons to JFK, and America’s engagement in multiple overseas conflicts, the sixties have lost none of their contemporary relevance. Following a group of draftdodging, pot-smoking New York City hippies, the musical HAIR offers an interesting take on what this counter culture movement was all about. HAIR is being performed at Moyse Hall this week, presented by the Arts Undergraduate Theatre Society. The production deals with a variety of social issues important at that time, such as patriotism, drug use, free love, and the draft. Although generally supportive of the hippies and their ideals, the musical is also often critical of their lifestyle of irresponsibility and excess. Throughout the play, they continually consume large amounts of marijuana and engage in impulsive sexual activity, with whomever is present at the moment. One character casually refers to asking her parents for money because she has become pregnant. The musical also challenges American patriotism and

the militaristic tendencies associated with it. This recurring theme is exemplified in a scene in which the hippies march in file chanting “Hell no! We won’t go!” In another scene, a variety of important American political and military figures are satirized onstage – for instance, George Washington lights up a joint. These critiques of American militarism directly relate to the Vietnam War, for which several of the characters have been drafted to fight. The hippies hold a “Be-In,” a symbolic demonstration which has the characters burn their draft cards and take part in an orgy afterward. Yet one character has his doubts, as his parents have repeatedly told him that he needs to grow up and take responsibility for himself, and that joining the army would be an ideal opportunity to do so. Parents such as these, many of whom had fought in WWII and live by a strikingly different set of values than their children, offer a striking generational contrast to the youth of the hippie movement, . Yet while the musical tackles these different issues, it continually maintains a highly energetic and upbeat feel. The singing is also full of energy, and interaction with the audience made it all the more engaging. The depiction of psychedelic drugs in the McGill production is also excellent, with its use of striking colours and imagery. Indeed, HAIR deals with an interesting historical period while challenging our conceptions of that time.

20 Culture

The McGill Daily, Monday, February 2, 2009

Show me more! Quebec strip club film’s flat characters fail to inspire empathy Culture Writer

T

he latest film from Quebecoise filmmaker and Concordia Professor Guylaine Dionne, Waitresses Wanted (Serveuses Demandées, 2008) opens and closes with a passing stream of faces: all young, all beautiful, and all illegal immigrants working as exotic dancers in the trashy strip club L’Elixir in downtown Montreal. Janaina Suaudeau plays Priscilla Paredes, a 22-year-old who left Brazil four years earlier in search of a better life and job in Canada. Yet when her student visa expires, Priscilla’s desire to stay forces her to answer L’Elixir’s call for “Serveuses Demandées” and join this circle of desperate girls with similar stories to her own. It is here she meets and falls for the confident and aggressively sexual Milagro (Clara Furey). While Priscilla is intent on staying in Canada, Milagro wants nothing more than to leave; ironically, her dream is to travel to Brazil. Waitresses Wanted explores the love between the two girls as a means of escape – and then survival – while facing the sex, drugs, and violent oppression that mark their lives. Another Canadian feature about a strip club, Atom Egoyan’s Exotica (1994) revolves around a group of people connected through a Toronto nightclub of the same name. Egoyan and Dionne’s films illustrate the way Canadian filmmakers often employ sexuality to highlight deeper psychological or political issues – that is, nei-

ther Exotica nor Waitresses Wanted is merely about sex, and perhaps each film’s conspicuously low sexual content points to the larger themes at work. It seems Exotica and L’Elixir serve as centres around which characters come together and clash out of desperation. Both films question what – beyond sex – drives people to these situations. Yet while Egoyan brilliantly succeeds in framing his characters’ yearning for connection, Dionne’s lack of character development keeps them at arm’s-length. Perhaps most importantly, the love between Priscilla and Milagro fails to develop beyond the poignant scenes of them dancing together early in the story. Though Suaudeau and Furey’s individual performances merit due recognition, together they do not display a great deal of chemistry, and their relationship is hard to follow in the latter half of the film. In turn, Dionne falls short in sustaining the audience’s empathy for her characters, and the film’s slow progression makes it easy to lose interest. It seems Waitresses Wanted is reaching – trying too hard to be heavy and to convey a depth that does not surface on-screen. Martha Wainwright’s repeated mournful drone in the background feels disjointed and points to the disparity between content and style that endures throughout the film. That Dionne comes from a background in documentary film perhaps explains why she expects the film’s theme to speak for itself, yet the story does not come alive under her direction and its ending feels incomplete.

Kirtstin Li for The McGill Daily

Shea Sinnott

Beyond the evening news Concordia film screenings put a human face on distant conflicts Lucia Sndin

Culture Writer

T

he title of this short film screening couldn’t have been more fitting. It very neatly summed up the feel of the films, as different as they were. I’m talking here of the Images in Time//Images in a Time of War short film screening at Concordia last Friday. Most of the short films were touchingly personal – they were shot in living rooms and in local cafés in Baghdad, at weddings, and even funerals. They showed everyday situations, in which even during wartime people made the effort to retain at least the illusion of calm and peace. I was hooked from the first film. Untitled Part 3 told the story from the viewpoint of a house: the man behind the camera had come back to his old house to find it in ruins. The house tells him what has happened in his

absence. One of the most humbling stories was about a Lebanese security service employee, who was assigned to film an important section of seashore promenade from a van. At the same time every day, he would focus away from the people he was supposed to film and instead fix the lens on the sun descending over the sea. He was found out and fired, but got to keep his sunsets. Another one of my favourite scenes was from Baghdad in No Particular Order, which was a sort of patchwork of stories. This one showed a Mosque prayer leader sitting in his living room singing “She’s a Lady” and other classics to the camera, surrounded by what appeared to be giggling family members. In another portion I got the opportunity to hear the Arabic version of “I Will Always Love You,” blasting from the speakers in a taxi as huge oil trucks passed by. I particularly enjoyed how the

films covered a varied range of places, moments in time, and styles of filming. There was black and white film from the sixties; several of them blended photos and film recordings; some had

bitterness and sadness of this house was palpable. In their own unique ways, each film was effective in delivering the mood of Images in Time// Images in a Times of War and made

Debates over countries’ rights, news channels broadcasting bombing, and devastation – and we only end up with glimpses into the eye of the storm narrators, others didn’t. Some served as windows into regular people’s lives where wartime was implicit, while others were more acutely placed in the context of war. The film where the house was speaking, for example, more overtly addressed the situation, and believe me when I say the

for a broader picture of the everyday lives of people trapped in the middle of never-ending conflicts. With the Israel-Palestine conflict looming over our consciousness, it’s easy to get muddled up by the formal discourse surrounding the issues. Political debates over the rights of

one country against the other, news channels broadcasting bombing and devastation – and what we end up with is really only brief glimpses into the eye of the storm. It’s hard to really get a sense of the places and people involved, because the lens is so explicitly aimed at the dramatic, the kind of events that – however morbid they might be – will attract most viewers. We have, then, an impression of a kind of distant nightmare, not a relatable experience of people who all have their own story to tell. This is exactly the gap that the screening filled for me. There are millions of stories that remain untold, but it did feel like the screening shrank the space between us and the anonymous victims of war, allowing them to become human, and not only mere numbers. I can also safely say that I learned more about the reality of their experiences from this screening than from any news story out there.

Culture

The McGill Daily, Monday, February 2, 2009

Overcast reflections Priam PoultonMcGraw finds symmetry in Brighton and at Trafalgar Square

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FINAL JEOPARDY: This delightful gathering takes place every Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in the basement of the Shatner Building. “...WHAT IS THE CULTURE MEETING!”

Compendium! Lies, half-truths, and candy

The McGill Daily, Monday, February 2, 2009

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Economic crisis keeps getting shittier Announcing here on this page the first-ever Compendium MysterySolving Contest.

New study shows inflation up 50 per cent in last six years Winston Jeffries

town with the same sense of self and reassurance. “I thought that was the worst it would get – and it was, until this year, when stocks went crazy after U.S. banks realized they should stop lending money to people with no way to pay it back including themselves – thus sending up chocolate bar costs to an unprecendented $1.40.” In a DaVinci Code-esque twist, the report concludes that in searching for a caffeine boost late last semester, he stumbled upon a can of killer Coke for $1.50. “Compared to $1, my logical math skills tell me that a 50 per cent increase. So I wrote a blog post about my study’s findings and ask The Daily to cover it.” McRean added that he always realized his general existence might be considered subpar, but this last experience really hit him. “See, when your entire emotional stability rests on the premise that the greatest constant in life is constancy, these changes really get to you.” His report also described the special feeling in one’s tummy rendered by the specific angles that bounce off the walls and halls and reverberate around one’s being in such a way that the star, moons, and sky look at each other and finally disregard the biases they once had and realizing that yes we’re all here in this universe together and yes that’s important but maybe when we’re a fish out of air and need to get fried depending on our feelings at the time because when it comes down to it there’s other fish in the pie.

The McGill Daily

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ith the current economic crisis turning free-marketers all kinds of socialist, one McGill student has released a study analyzing the roots of rising costs for everyday people. It’s well known that the latest reincarnation of the Evil Recession – aka the inevitable part of capitalism that, for lack of a better analogy, no one sends FB invites to – has resulted in hundreds of billions of conditionfree dollars for automakers and Wall Streeters, but it has also added to already soaring inflation rates. U3 Physics student O’Ria Mcrean’s report concludes that such rates have increased by 50 per cent since 2003. “Through all the ups and mostly downs of my childhood, one thing kept constant: the price of chips, pop, and chocolate bars. One dollar each. No matter what,” McRrean said, adding that all he knew to be true in the world shattered when he went to a track meet in Grade ten at a nearby university. “So I go to the vending machines for a post-race delight…and what do I see?” Mcrean said. When asked what he saw, he continued, “Well I see it’s gonna cost me $1.25, and I thought, ‘Excuse me Mr. Vendor but what the fuck, who the hell has an extra quarter is their pocket?’ I mean, come on.” The report details McRean’s recovery from the trauma of realizing nary again would he ride his bike around

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Mystery #1: Why does one hear the sounds of magnificent little birds chirping at the corner of Milton & Aylmer in the morning? Send your responses to compendium@ mcgilldaily.com by Friday, February 6 for your chance to win big.

Spencer Duffy / The McGill Daily

Just look at them cans, thinking about life on the outside. Across 1. Homer, e.g. 5. Aquatic plant 9. Swollen 14. “I’m you!” 15. Difficult 16. “All kidding ...” 17. Swiss canton 18. “... there is no angel but Love”: Shakespeare 19. They may be changed 20. Early biblical judgement 23. Big, fat mouth 24. Cockeyed 25. Rice variety 27. Athletic supporter? 28. Waylay 32. Aces, sometimes 33. Line filler 34. Rust, e.g. 35. First words 38. Loops 40. They may be saved 41. Bad marks 42. Bends 44. Criminal charge 47. Mosaic piece 49. Surround 51. Idled 52. God’s beliefs 56. Make fair again 58. “My bad!” 59. Prefix with graph

60. Allotment 61. Rising locale? 62. Pizazz 63. Corporate department 64. Counter call 65. “ we forget”

39. Continent, sort of 42. Away 43. Idyllic pond 44. Wine and dine 45. Greek marketplace 46. Hairsplitter 48. Borders 50. Motivate 53. “Shake a leg!” 54. Crown 55. “ it Romantic?” 57. “Rocks”

Down 1. Construction machine 2. Anxiety 3. Hit 4. 1,000 kilograms 5. “Beg pardon...” 6. lamp 7. Beam 8. Improvises 9. Soft stones Solution to “Big 10. Today S K I P A 11. Synagogue quota E N H A N G 12. Thought A N A L O E 13. Scorn H E N R Y R U 21. Heisman or Stanly M A L L 22. “I see!” M A C A W S 26. Fiery remedy P A N O N 29. Bygone bird J O E Y M C I 30. Depress, with “out” 31. Handy I R O O L D 33. Winds D E N R E S 34. Black Sea port A D O 35. Kind of show J I M M Y S T 36. A little of this, a little of that A C A I O O 37. Many a state name in D.C. T I P A N S 38. Condiments E L E O N S

men on campus” P E N T

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The McGill Daily, Monday, February 2, 2009

volume 98 number 31

EDITORIAL

editorial 3480 McTavish St., Rm. B-24 Montreal QC, H3A 1X9 phone 514.398.6784 fax 514.398.8318 mcgilldaily.com coordinating editor

Jennifer Markowitz [email protected] coordinating news editor

Shannon Kiely news editors

Erin Hale Nicholas Smith Alison Withers features editor

Claire Caldwell commentary&compendium editor

Max Halparin

coordinating culture editor

Braden Goyette culture editors

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Nadja Popovich photo editor

Stephen Davis graphics editor

Evan Newton production & design editors

Will Vanderbilt Aaron Vansintjan web editor

Ian Beattie copy editor

Jimmy Smith cover design

Evan Newton le délit

Maysa Phares [email protected] Contributors

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The Daily is published on most Mondays and Thursdays by the Daily Publications Society, an autonomous, not-for-profit organization whose membership includes all McGill undergraduates and most graduate students.

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The Daily is proud to be a founding member of the Canadian University Press. All contents © 2009 Daily Publications Society. All rights reserved. The content of this newspaper is the responsibility of The McGill Daily and does not necessarily represent the views of McGill University. Products or companies advertised in this newspaper are not necessarily endorsed by Daily staff. Printed by Imprimerie Transcontinental Transmag. Anjou, Quebec. ISSN 1192-4608.

McGill n’est pas une île If Quebec is a nation within a nation, we can’t help but feel that McGill is a foreign concession. In Montreal, McGill stands for all things anglo; it was founded by an Anglican Scot, the majority of students are anglophone, and besides the French Language and Literature program, every one of the University’s departments runs in English. While many universities function entirely in English though it isn’t the language of their host country – the American University of Paris, or International University of Bremen, to name a few – Quebec’s case is different. Here, language is politics. For centuries, one’s language has said a lot about their socio-economic status and heritage. From the 1960s onward, francophones have fought a hard, and often controversial, battle for recognition of their rights – which twice almost split Canada in two. McGill students arrive in Montreal and are immersed in one of the few remaining unilingual pockets in our city. On campus, in residences, and all over the Ghetto, you can just about get away with speaking little to no French for four years. It’s easy for students to get locked into a small circuit that leaves huge portions of the city unexplored. It’s no wonder that Montrealers sometimes think of loud, drunk McGill students as parasitic. But we wonder whether McGill’s relations with the surrounding community would improve if students could master even a conversational level of French, making it clear that both the institution and its members have taken their head out of the anglo sand and recognized that yes, in Montreal, people speak French. Our student body’s unilingualism can make the University function like a revolving door; students arrive, give Montreal a whirl, and then, diploma in hand, fly right back to where they came from. Patterns in universities perpetuate patterns in the community as a whole. Without knowing the language, there’s no incentive to invest in the community, and it’s next to impossible to start a career here without at least passable French. For starters, we’d like to see Quebec culture better reflected in our academic offerings. The administration and the institutional decisions McGill makes impact how students view their surroundings, even set the tone of student culture. There is only one Quebec history class running this semester, and the demand for French language classes is so high that the University prohibits part-time students from enrolling. Minimal support of French culture sends the green light to students that they too can ignore it. McGill needs to provide more opportunities for anglophone students to integrate with the surrounding community – outside the framework of a three-credit French class. With better publicity and investments in the French program, the University can make French more accessible and popular. The University should start by more prominently advertising French classes in the course calendar for U0 students, and departments like English and Anthropology could easily incorporate a greater emphasis on Quebec culture in their courses. The French as a Second Language department is already overloaded, and students need more than just a class to truly embrace French. We considered whether requiring a French language class before graduation was the solution to McGill’s unilingualism, but realized just one class hardly does enough to introduce students to a culture. Instead, we urge McGill to set up a French homestay program as an alternative to residence. We urge McGill to advertise the federal government’s J’explore program, which funds six weeks of homestay and French classes in small Quebec towns – and to support similar initiatives for nonCanadian students. Although McGill is underfunded, we suspect the provincial government would help; it’s in Quebec’s interest to keep McGill’s graduates here. Whatever route it chooses, McGill must work with the province to provide students with more opportunities to immerse themselves in the language and culture of this province.

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MONTREAL Carrefour de la Pointe Place Bourassa Galeries d’Anjou Place Versailles 5954 Metropolitan Blvd. E 5110 Jean-Talon St. E 4455 Saint-Denis St. 1 De Castelnau St. E, Suite 101 3573 St-Laurent Blvd. 1008 Clark St., Suite 206B Place Ville-Marie 2170 Pierre-Dupuy Ave. 997 St-Antoine St. W Centre Commercial Le Village 2116 Guy St. 2360 Notre-Dame St. W, Suite 102 1201 Greene Ave. Place Alexis-Nihon 5529 Monkland Ave. Centre Montpellier 9012 de l’Acadie Blvd. 5150 Jean-Talon St. W 2100 Marcel-Laurin Blvd. Place Vertu 7020 Ch. de la Côte-de-Liesse 3339L des Sources Blvd. 2814 St-Charles Blvd. 14945 de Pierrefonds Blvd. 950 St-Jean Blvd., Suite 3 ABITIBI-TÉMISCAMINGUE 374 Larivière Ave., Rouyn-Noranda Galeries Val d’Or 252 1re Ave. W, Amos BOUCHERVILLE Promenades Montarville BROSSARD Mail Champlain Place Portobello Quartier DIX30 CARIGNAN 2255 Chambly Rd. CHÂTEAUGUAY 129 St-Jean-Baptiste Blvd. DELSON 28D Marie-Victorin Blvd. DRUMMONDVILLE 965 St-Joseph Blvd. GATINEAU 360 Maloney Blvd. W, Suite 1 GRANBY 583 Boivin Blvd. HULL 442 St-Joseph Blvd. ÎLE-PERROT Carrefour Don-Quichotte JOLIETTE 517 St. Charles-Borromée St. N LAPRAIRIE Place La Citière LAVAL 2142 des Laurentides Blvd. Centre Laval 1888 St-Martin Blvd. W Centre Lépine 241C Samson Blvd. LONGUEUIL Place Désormeaux 1490 Ch. de Chambly, Suite 101 MAGOG 221 Principale St. W MONT-TREMBLANT 507 De Saint-Jovite St. REPENTIGNY 494A Notre-Dame St. Les Galeries Rive-Nord ROSEMÈRE Place Rosemère 135 Curé-Labelle Blvd. SAINT-CONSTANT Méga-Centre St-Constant SAINT-EUSTACHE 360E Arthur-Sauvé Blvd. SAINT-HUBERT Complexe Cousineau SAINT-HYACINTHE Les Galeries St. Hyacinthe SAINT-JEAN-SUR-RICHELIEU Les Halles St-Jean SAINT-JÉRÔME 60 Bélanger St. SALABERRY-DE-VALLEYFIELD 3225 Mrg. Langlois Blvd. SHERBROOKE 2980 King St. W Carrefour de l’Estrie TERREBONNE 1270 Moody Blvd., Suite 10 TROIS-RIVIÈRES 5335 Des Forges Blvd. 5635 Jean-XXIII Blvd. 2 des Ormeaux St., Suite 600 VAUDREUIL-DORION 64 Harwood Blvd., Suite 101

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