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concordia’s independent newspaper<br />
love is sweeter with black eyes since 1980<br />
Ballin’<br />
STINGERS RISE ABOVE UQAM TO TAKE<br />
QUEBEC FINAL • SPORTS PAGE 22<br />
volume <strong>29</strong>, issue <strong>25</strong> • Tuesday, March 10, 2009 • thelinknewspaper.ca<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Link</strong>’s annual women’s issue • Special insert<br />
Poster Night: the slates, the promises, the posters • News page 9<br />
Czechs get trapped in the middle of a U.S./Russia power struggle • Features page 12
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/NEWS<br />
NEWS 03<br />
Full-time professors<br />
negotiate new contract<br />
Agreement in principle reached, bargaining still ongoing<br />
• JENNIFER FREITAS<br />
Concordia University and its full-time<br />
faculty are close to signing a new collective<br />
agreement which will last until 2012,<br />
said union president Charles Draimin.<br />
“We announced to our membership<br />
that we have reached an agreement in<br />
principle with the administration,” said<br />
Draimin, president of the Concordia<br />
University Faculty Association, which<br />
represents over 900 full-time faculty.<br />
Draimin wouldn’t release any details<br />
of Concordia’s new proposal, but the university<br />
posted a version of their proposal<br />
on the school’s website on March 5, which<br />
irritated CUFA.<br />
<strong>The</strong> proposal cited salary increases of<br />
two per cent for all members as well as up<br />
to $2,000 each of retroactive pay.<br />
Draimin said it was inappropriate for<br />
the university to make their contract offer<br />
public but added, “as far as we are concerned,<br />
there are improvements to their<br />
proposal [which they posted online].” He<br />
said that the full details of the changed<br />
contract proposal were not yet addressed<br />
to CUFA’s members.<br />
Initially, Draimin was not pleased with<br />
what the university had to offer because it<br />
did not account for inflation.<br />
Concordia University fulltime<br />
associate professors’<br />
average salaries were the<br />
second lowest on the island<br />
of Montreal and fifth lowest<br />
in the province. Quebec has<br />
17 universities.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Bank of Canada’s Consumer Price<br />
Index, which provides a broad measure of<br />
the cost of living in Canada, was at 112.2<br />
in January—an inflation of 2.3 from the<br />
time CUFA’s last contract expired.<br />
“Our concern is that this two per cent<br />
increase is very low compared to the cost<br />
of living,” said Draimin.<br />
David Graham, Concordia’s provost<br />
and vice-president of academic affairs,<br />
says that employers do recognize the need<br />
to provide salary increases to help<br />
employees adjust to the cost of living, but<br />
that keeping up with inflation isn’t always<br />
the case.<br />
“I don’t think you would find many<br />
employers who would agree that salaries<br />
should necessarily track the cost of living,”<br />
said Graham.<br />
Aside from inflation, Draimin said<br />
salaries for full-time Concordia teachers<br />
are behind their colleagues at other universities<br />
across the country.<br />
According to a 2007 Statistics Canada<br />
report scaling the salaries of full-time<br />
teaching staff at Canadian universities,<br />
Concordia University full-time associate<br />
professors’ average salaries were the second<br />
lowest on the island of Montreal and<br />
fifth lowest in the province. Quebec has 17<br />
universities.<br />
CUFA members have been working on<br />
an expired contract since June 1, 2007.<br />
Graham says both negotiating teams<br />
will be meeting later this week to work out<br />
a number of details.<br />
$101,089<br />
the average salary of full-time professors at<br />
UQAM.<br />
$112,084<br />
the average salary of McGill professors.<br />
$78,733<br />
the floor salary for Con U professors.<br />
June 1, ‘07<br />
the date CUFA’s contract expired.<br />
Toronto Stock Exchange caught in $1 billion lawsuit<br />
Complicit in aggressive tactics to coerce Ecuadorian mining operation<br />
• CHRISTOPHER OLSON<br />
A billion dollar lawsuit filed against the<br />
Toronto Stock Exchange was the inspiration<br />
for a documentary film by Toronto<br />
filmmaker Malcolm Rogge.<br />
<strong>The</strong> lawsuit against the TSX, filed by<br />
Marcia Ramírez, Israel Pérez and Polibio<br />
Pérez on behalf of the residents of Intag,<br />
Ecuador, claimed aggressive coercion tactics<br />
in acquiring the natural resources of<br />
the village by Copper Mesa Mining<br />
Corporation—formerly known as<br />
Ascendent Copper.<br />
“Once I had heard that the company had<br />
actually resorted to using paramilitaries, I<br />
went to Ecuador right away,” said Rogge,<br />
who has a Masters in Environmental<br />
Studies and Law from York University.<br />
Rogge has studied transnational corporations<br />
and transnational tort, as well as negligence<br />
law applied to the transnational<br />
context.<br />
Rogge met with the inhabitants of Intag<br />
and was provided with footage taken by the<br />
residents themselves that showed Copper<br />
Mesa employees firing handguns into the<br />
air to ward off peaceful demonstrators.<br />
That footage was incorporated into his<br />
2008 film, Under Rich Earth, which<br />
screened at Concordia University’s Cinema<br />
Politica film series on Feb. 23, where Rogge<br />
fielded questions from Concordia students.<br />
Copper Mesa, on the other hand,<br />
refused to communicate with Rogge oncamera.<br />
“[<strong>The</strong> Chair of the Board] was very<br />
apologetic,” said Rogge. “[He] said it was<br />
too much of a risk. Obviously, events had<br />
not unfolded the way that they had hoped.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> events of Dec. 2, 2006 ignited a<br />
national discussion on the “issue of mining,<br />
and the balance between economic<br />
development and ecological impact,” said<br />
Rogge.<br />
An earlier environmental impact assessment<br />
endorsed by Bishi Metals in 1996<br />
concluded that large-scale open-pit mining<br />
in Intag mining would result in a gradual<br />
desertification of the valley of Intag.<br />
<strong>The</strong> lawsuit claims that the TSX, which<br />
financed Copper Mesa’s open-pit mining<br />
project in Intag in 2006, is complicit in<br />
Copper Mesa’s use of aggressive tactics,<br />
including the hiring of an “armed military<br />
brigade” to intimidate residents. In the<br />
document, Ramírez also cited death threats<br />
against her for leading the effort to have<br />
the company’s mining claim withdrawn.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> TSX’s stock market listing of<br />
Copper Mesa [...] allowed the company to<br />
obtain over $<strong>25</strong> million in capital funds,<br />
some of which paid for the armed attackers<br />
who injured Marcia and Israel on<br />
December 2, 2006,” according to a legal<br />
summary released March 3.<br />
At one point, Copper Mesa announced<br />
to Rogge that they would be making their<br />
own documentary film about the positive<br />
Armed attackers are shown here in Under Rich Earth.<br />
work they are doing for the residents of<br />
Intag. Although Rogge was given a private<br />
viewing of elements of the documentary<br />
they were producing, the film was never<br />
completed. “At that point it probably<br />
wouldn’t serve their interests to draw more<br />
attention to those conflicts,” Rogge said.<br />
Under Rich Earth received an endorsement<br />
from <strong>The</strong> Northern Miner, one of the<br />
leading mining newspapers in Canada, saying<br />
that it serves as a classic example for<br />
Canadian companies on how not to handle<br />
community relations. “And that’s from a<br />
pro-industry newspaper,” Rogge said.<br />
Rogge said the actions of Copper Mesa<br />
struck a nerve with him, since he’s a<br />
Toronto filmmaker.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> project was financed through the<br />
Toronto Stock Exchange, which is governed<br />
by Ontario law—the Ontario<br />
Securities Act—which is administered by<br />
the Ontario government, which is based in<br />
Toronto, which is where I live. So the connection<br />
is very close to home.”<br />
To review the lawsuit filed against the<br />
Toronto Stock Exchange, please visit<br />
ramirezversuscoppermesa.com.
04 NEWS<br />
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/NEWS<br />
eConcordia headliner cancels for ABC primetime show<br />
Summit rescheduled, almost $28,000 lost<br />
GRAPHIC<br />
GINGER COONS<br />
• CLARE RASPOPOW<br />
<strong>The</strong> prestigious eConcordia<br />
Summit has been pushed back<br />
until Sept. 10 because keynote<br />
speaker Steve Wozniak signed up<br />
for another gig: Dancing with the<br />
Stars.<br />
According to Dalia Bosis,<br />
eConcordia’s special projects<br />
coordinator, the co-founder of<br />
Apple Computer didn’t speak up<br />
about his TV show committments<br />
until around Feb. 12. <strong>The</strong> Summit<br />
was scheduled for March 12.<br />
“[Wozniak] only notified us<br />
about a month before the summit,”<br />
Bosis said. “He told us that<br />
with the intensity of his dancing<br />
schedule he would be unable to<br />
take the time off.”<br />
“We knew he had signed a<br />
contract with ABC to do something<br />
[after he had agreed to<br />
appear at the Summit],” Bosis<br />
continued, “but we only just<br />
found out it was Dancing with the<br />
Stars.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Summit’s unexpected<br />
change of date will cost<br />
eConcordia close to $28,000 in<br />
registration fees alone.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re will still be 400 people,<br />
but we have dropped the price of<br />
the [Sept. 10] Summit to $350<br />
[from the original $420],” said<br />
Bosis.<br />
<strong>The</strong> eConcordia Summit is<br />
billed on its website as “a unique<br />
event designed to offer academics,<br />
professionals and key decision<br />
makers a better understanding<br />
of the cultural paradigm of<br />
technology and learning.”<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are currently nine<br />
speakers, including Wozniak and<br />
eConcordia president Andrew<br />
McAusland, scheduled to speak<br />
at the Sept. 10 Summit.<br />
Despite the fact that only one<br />
out of the eight speakers was<br />
unable to attend the original<br />
March 12 date and that<br />
eConcordia would be incurring<br />
financial losses, Bosis did not<br />
entertain cutting Wozniak from<br />
the speakers list.<br />
“Steve Wozniak is the draw,”<br />
said Bosis. “A lot of people signed<br />
up just to see Steve Wozniak.”<br />
Due to the date change, there<br />
could be cancellations from other<br />
scheduled speakers.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> speakers list is changing,”<br />
Bosis said. “We may have<br />
new [ones].”<br />
Con U engineering students at high velocity<br />
You ‘don’t have to get shit-faced’ to learn and have fun<br />
• JOHNNY NORTH<br />
It took the Engineering & Computer<br />
Science Association three days to put up their<br />
greatest accomplishment during National<br />
Engineering Week: a 42-foot-tall Eiffel Tower<br />
model that stands in the atrium of the EV<br />
Building.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> best [event] by far was the Eiffel<br />
Tower because of where it is located in the EV<br />
building,” said Anthony Tanzer, a second-year<br />
Engineering student who helped build the<br />
tower, while CTV, Global and TVA were filming.<br />
“So many people, Concordia students,<br />
Concordia faculty, or just people walking<br />
through going to the metro, […] get to see it<br />
and see how Concordia engineering does cool<br />
projects like that.”<br />
For seven days, the ECA hosted over 10<br />
events that included a speaker series, a game<br />
night, a movie night, ‘lunch & learns’ and<br />
much more.<br />
Alex Brovkin, president of the ECA, said<br />
the engineering program is “very diversified.<br />
You have to cater to different cultures, different<br />
values and different interests. I think we<br />
had a better turnout. I think by adding new<br />
topics every year, we’ll continue to make it<br />
exciting for students.”<br />
“As much as we are university students,<br />
not everything is alcohol-related,” said<br />
Concordia’s engineering students crafted this Eiffel tower re-make. PHOTO JOHNNY NORTH<br />
Tanzer. “<strong>The</strong>re are many events you don’t<br />
have to get shit-faced at.”<br />
This year National Engineering Week was<br />
centred on the theme of entrepreneurship.<br />
Brovkin wanted to give engineering students<br />
something that wasn’t just “pure engineering.”<br />
Speaker Raymond Luk, founder of consulting<br />
firm Flow Ventures, addressed around<br />
70 students with his talk on entrepreneurship<br />
on March 9.<br />
“People were really excited about it,” said<br />
Brovkin. “People stayed afterwards and talked<br />
to him. <strong>The</strong>re was a lot of energy in there.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> week ended with the annual bridge<br />
building competition that saw around 300<br />
people get involved—the most of any event<br />
during the week. Twenty-nine teams from<br />
across Canada and the United States competed.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>y had to build a bridge out of sticks<br />
and dental floss,” said Marc Lindstrom, VP<br />
External of the ECA. “<strong>The</strong>y were rated on originality,<br />
on the niceness of the bridge and on<br />
how much weight the bridge can hold.”<br />
CEGEP de Chicoutimi’s “Les impontdérables”<br />
placed first, despite the fact that the<br />
school had only one team competing.<br />
Concordia’s “Bridgesickles” placed fourth,<br />
which was the highest finish of the three<br />
Concordia teams.<br />
Lindstrom was pleased with how smoothly<br />
the week went after all the hard work of the<br />
ECA.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> last activity, when it was done, I was<br />
like, ‘Finally it’s done!’ It was a long week, I<br />
didn’t get too sleep much. ”<br />
For the full results of the <strong>25</strong>th<br />
Bridge Building Competition, please visit<br />
csce.ecaconcordia.ca.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Link</strong><br />
CONCORDIA’S INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER<br />
<strong>Volume</strong> <strong>29</strong>, Number <strong>25</strong><br />
Tuesday, March 10, 2009<br />
Concordia University<br />
Hall Building, Room H-649<br />
1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W.<br />
Montreal, Quebec H3G 1M8<br />
editorial: (514) 848-2424 ext. 7405<br />
arts: (514) 848-2424 ext. 5813<br />
advertising: (514) 848-2424 ext. 8682<br />
fax: (514) 848-4540<br />
business: (514) 848-7406<br />
editor@thelink.concordia.ca<br />
http://thelinknewspaper.ca<br />
editor-in-chief<br />
SEBASTIEN CADIEUX<br />
news editor<br />
TERRINE FRIDAY<br />
features editor<br />
CLARE RASPOPOW<br />
fringe arts editor<br />
JOELLE LEMIEUX<br />
literary arts editor<br />
CHRISTOPHER OLSON<br />
sports editor<br />
DIEGO PELAEZ-GAETZ<br />
opinions editor<br />
JUSTIN GIOVANNETTI<br />
copy editor<br />
R. BRIAN HASTIE<br />
student press liaison<br />
OPEN<br />
photo editor<br />
JONATHAN DEMPSEY<br />
graphics editor<br />
GINGER COONS<br />
managing editor<br />
JOHNNY NORTH<br />
layout manager<br />
MATHIEU BIARD<br />
web editor<br />
BRUNO DE ROSA<br />
business manager<br />
RACHEL BOUCHER<br />
business assistant<br />
JACQUELIN CHIN<br />
ad designer<br />
CHRIS BOURNE<br />
distribution<br />
ROBERT DESMARAIS<br />
DAVID KAUFMANN<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Link</strong> is published every<br />
Tuesday during the academic year<br />
by the <strong>Link</strong> Publication Society<br />
Inc. Content is independent of the<br />
University and student associations<br />
(ECA, CASA, ASFA, FASA,<br />
CSU). Editorial policy is set by an<br />
elected board as provided for in<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Link</strong>’s constitution. Any student<br />
is welcome to work on <strong>The</strong><br />
<strong>Link</strong> and become a voting staff<br />
member. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Link</strong> is a member of<br />
Canadian University Press and<br />
Presse<br />
Universitaire<br />
Indépendante du Québec.<br />
Material appearing in<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Link</strong> may not be reproduced<br />
without prior written permission<br />
from <strong>The</strong> <strong>Link</strong>.<br />
Letters to the editor are welcome.<br />
All letters 400 words or<br />
less will be printed, space permitting.<br />
Letters deadline is Friday at<br />
4 p.m. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Link</strong> reserves the right<br />
to edit letters for clarity and<br />
length and refuse those deemed<br />
racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic,<br />
libelous, or otherwise<br />
contrary to <strong>The</strong> <strong>Link</strong>’s statement<br />
of principles.<br />
Board of Directors 2008-2009:<br />
Giuseppe Valiante, Ellis<br />
Steinberg, Matthew Gore,<br />
Jonathan Metcalfe; non-voting<br />
members: Rachel Boucher,<br />
Sebastien Cadieux.<br />
Typesetting by <strong>The</strong> <strong>Link</strong>. Printing<br />
by Transcontinental.<br />
CONTRIBUTORS<br />
Deni Abdullah, Sima Aprahamian, Esinam Beckley, Laura<br />
Beeston, Annabelle Blais, Matthew Brett, Raffy Boudjikanian,<br />
Justin Bromberg, Madeline Coleman, Cynthia D’Cruz, Lee<br />
Eks, Ion Etxebarria, Matthew Fiorentino, Jennifer Freitas,<br />
Chris Gates, Toya Gratton, Owain Harris, Cody Hicks, Kamila<br />
Hinkson, Vincent Hopkins, Elsa Jabre, Aaron Lakoff, Tristan<br />
Lapointe, Les Honywill, Ian Lawrence, Evan LePage, Vivien<br />
Leung, Madelyn Lipszyc, Charlene Lusikila, Jackson<br />
MacIntosh, Alex Manley, Elgin-Skye McLaren, Marlee<br />
McMillian, Andre Pare, Barbara Pavone, Sinbad Richardson,<br />
Stephanie Stevenson, Cat Tarrants, Rachel Tetrault, Kristen<br />
<strong>The</strong>odore, Giuseppe Valiante, Jessica Vriend, Natasha Young<br />
cover photo by Jonathan Dempsey<br />
inside graphic cover by Gaïa Orain
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/NEWS<br />
NEWS 05<br />
Canadian Federation of<br />
Students hopeful interferes<br />
in Concordia election<br />
Quebec representative caught on film violating election rules<br />
1 2<br />
1. Stewart-Ornstein takes down the<br />
first poster...<br />
2. ...and walks away...<br />
3 4<br />
2. ...then returns to the poster<br />
boards...<br />
4. ...and leaves with seven posters<br />
in total.<br />
• JUSTIN GIOVANNETTI<br />
Newly-elected Deputy Chair of the<br />
Canadian Federation of Students, Noah<br />
Stewart-Ornstein, violated Concordia election<br />
rules on Feb. 8 by tearing down seven<br />
campaign posters during the Arts and Science<br />
Federation of Associations’ general election<br />
campaign.<br />
Stewart-Ornstein—former<br />
VP<br />
Communications of the Concordia Student<br />
Union—is currently employed as spokesperson<br />
for the Quebec wing of the CFS, a lobby<br />
group that Concordia students pay money to.<br />
Stewart-Ornstein was caught on security<br />
cameras tearing down all the posters belonging<br />
to the ASFA president-elect and her running-mates<br />
in the Hall building corridor leading<br />
to the Mackay street exit.<br />
When first asked by <strong>The</strong> <strong>Link</strong> if he had<br />
torn down posters during the ASFA campaign,<br />
Stewart-Ornstein denied the allegations.<br />
Moments later he conceded, “after the<br />
election I took some down to help clean up<br />
and I took one down to have.”<br />
When Stewart-Ornstein was then told of<br />
security footage showing him tearing down<br />
seven posters before the Feb. 17-19 ASFA<br />
election, he replied, “I took a couple to have,<br />
but why would I steal anyone’s posters? It’s<br />
fun to have to look at them. Weird posters,<br />
though. Not very nice looking.”<br />
Two minutes later Stewart-Ornstein said,<br />
“I remember grabbing a couple of posters, but<br />
I don’t remember if it was before or after the<br />
election.”<br />
Leah Del Vecchio, the president-elect of<br />
ASFA—whose slate’s posters were torn<br />
down—worked alongside Stewart-Ornstein<br />
during the 2007-2008 academic year as the<br />
CSU’s VP Student Life.<br />
“I was shocked. I had received a text message<br />
from [Stewart-Ornstein] a day earlier<br />
[Feb. 7], adamantly suggesting that he was<br />
not going to get involved in this year’s election,”<br />
Del Vecchio said. “This was not only<br />
personally insulting, because we shared an<br />
office last year, but it was professionally<br />
insulting because he denied getting involved<br />
in the election.”<br />
Del Vecchio did not believe Stewart-<br />
Ornstein’s argument that he took down the<br />
posters for posterity.<br />
“As you notice in the video, [Stewart-<br />
Ornstein] doesn’t take them down and fold<br />
them, he crumples them.”<br />
This was not the first controversy surrounding<br />
posters during the ASFA electoral<br />
campaign. Del Vecchio’s slate also had most<br />
of its posters across campus torn down during<br />
the first weekend their posters were put<br />
up.<br />
“On Friday morning [Feb. 6] at 8 a.m. we<br />
were allowed to poster, the other team didn’t<br />
poster at all. I had a hunch all our posters<br />
would be torn down, I’ve been around for a<br />
few years and I know how it works. And, lo<br />
and behold, coming in on Monday morning<br />
[Feb. 9], every single one of my posters were<br />
torn down,” said Del Vecchio.<br />
In ASFA Standing Regulations, Item 14 of<br />
Part 2, Section 4 states, “<strong>The</strong> CEO shall<br />
ensure that the election is properly conducted.”<br />
Section 4, line 188 of the CSU’s standing<br />
regulations states, “Candidates shall campaign<br />
in accordance with the rules of fair play.<br />
Breaking the rules of fair play include, but are<br />
not limited to, breaching generally accepted<br />
community standards, libel, slander, general<br />
sabotage of the campaigns of other candidates,<br />
and misrepresentation of facts.”<br />
Because Stewart-Ornstein was not a candidate<br />
but rather an employee of Quebec’s<br />
chapter of the CFS, the CEO could not take<br />
any corrective measures. But Del Vecchio<br />
does not think Stewart-Ornstein’s actions are<br />
without consequence.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> CFS has long had problems with local<br />
sovereignty and representatives getting<br />
involved in local elections. It is not allowed,<br />
by any means, for individuals employed by<br />
CFS to get involved in school elections,” said<br />
Del Vecchio.<br />
“For getting involved, he should be reprimanded.<br />
As the new deputy chairperson of<br />
CFS he is a figurehead, making this more<br />
shameful.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> CFS was not available for comment by<br />
press time.
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/NEWS<br />
NEWS 07<br />
Something academic<br />
Dissenting views: trying to keep the history of a people alive<br />
• SIMA APRAHAMIAN<br />
Dr. Sima Aprahamian is a sociology and anthropology<br />
professor at Concordia University.<br />
Aprahamian, a graduate of McGill University, specializes<br />
in gender and contemporary issues within the study<br />
of anthropology. She has coordinated panel discussions<br />
for the Canadian Federation of Humanities and Social<br />
Sciences Congress.<br />
“Can we escape the past which does not pass?”<br />
—Nellie Hoghikyan, 2005<br />
Can genocide denial be given a place in academia in the<br />
name of freedom of expression?<br />
A recent such denialist lecture in Montreal had recently<br />
prompted an outrage among Montreal Armenian<br />
Students.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> neo-Nazi or the denier of the Holocaust and the<br />
Armenian, Rwandan and Cambodian genocides has now<br />
an academic environment to host their lectures in Canada.<br />
On Friday the 20th of February 2009 [sic], McGill<br />
University decided that its campus was an appropriate<br />
scene to allow the Turkish professor T. Ataov to deny the<br />
Armenian genocide of 1915, during which 1.5 million<br />
Armenians were massacred by the Turks,” wrote Ara<br />
Hagopian, Université de Montréal’s president of the<br />
Armenian Students’ Association.<br />
Recently, Armenians have been faced with political<br />
pressure to stop asking for the recognition of the Genocide<br />
of 1915 and are being asked to engage in normalizing relations<br />
with Turkey.<br />
Can there be normalization when Turkey has collective<br />
amnesia when it comes to 1915 or has a twisted way of representing<br />
the events of 1915?<br />
Extermination in dissent<br />
<strong>The</strong> Turkish version is that Armenians killed Turks in<br />
spite of the massive evidence that Ottoman Turkey<br />
engaged in a pre-determined extermination plan of its<br />
Armenian citizens.<br />
As Hagopian states in his letter, “<strong>The</strong> Armenian genocide<br />
is officially recognized by the Council of Europe, the<br />
European Parliament, the Human Rights Council of the<br />
United Nations and 20 countries including Canada,<br />
France, Russia, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany.<br />
<strong>The</strong> International Association of Genocide Scholars, representing<br />
the majority of historians from Europe and North<br />
America, published an open letter to the Turkish Prime<br />
Minister on June 13, 2005, in order to remind him that it<br />
was not only the Armenian community, but hundreds of<br />
historians of different nationalities, independent of any<br />
government, who had studied and established the reality<br />
of the Armenian Genocide.”<br />
Barbara Coloroso, a former nun and author of <strong>The</strong><br />
Bully, <strong>The</strong> Bullied, and the Bystander, approached genocide<br />
as an educator, parent, and former nun. Her book<br />
Extraordinary Evil: A Brief History of Genocide … And<br />
Why It Matters is based on work with orphan-survivors of<br />
the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. For her it is a short walk<br />
from bullying to hate crimes to genocide.<br />
In Coloroso’s book tour, which included an event in<br />
Montreal, she recounted the stories of Rwandan genocide<br />
survivors who’d begun identifying the various bully and<br />
bystander roles that were played out in 1994. It is at that<br />
moment that for her “it became apparent that the walk was<br />
even shorter” from bullying to extermination than she had<br />
thought and that “it was true that genocide had its roots in<br />
utter contempt for another human being. Genocide is not<br />
an unimaginable horror. Every genocide throughout history<br />
has been thoroughly imagined, meticulously planned,<br />
and brutally executed.”<br />
Through an examination of three clearly defined genocides—of<br />
the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire; the Jews,<br />
Roma, and Sinti in Europe; and the Tutsi in Rwanda—<br />
Barbrara Coloroso attempts to deconstruct the causes of<br />
genocide and its consequences, and proposes conditions<br />
that have to exist in order to make the commitment of<br />
“Never Again.”<br />
To recognize the beginning is step one in eradicating<br />
this horror.<br />
Conflict vs. Genocide<br />
<strong>The</strong> textbook definition of conflict is a situation in<br />
which two or more goals, values, or events are incompatible<br />
or mutually exclusive. It sometimes arises out of a<br />
small insignificant event, which does not describe genocide.<br />
Claudia Card, a social activist and well-respected professor<br />
of Philosophy, Jewish Studies and Women’s Studies<br />
at the University of Wisconsin, states that genocide “targets<br />
people on the basis of who they are rather than on the<br />
basis of what they have done, what they might do, even<br />
what they are capable of doing.”<br />
What sets genocide apart from other forms of atrocities<br />
and mass killings is what Card rightly stresses: “the harm<br />
inflicted on its victims’ social vitality.” Indeed what happens<br />
after a genocidal killing is that the “survivors lose<br />
their cultural heritage and may even lose their intergenerational<br />
connections. To use Orlando Patterson’s terminology,<br />
in that event, they may become ‘socially dead’ and<br />
their descendants ‘natally alienated,’ no longer able to pass<br />
along and build upon the traditions, cultural developments<br />
(including languages), and projects of earlier generations.”<br />
A language of conflict resolution, needless to say, cannot<br />
lead to reconciliation when effective post-conflict<br />
phase commissions have not been set. In the Armenian<br />
case, the 1919 Turkish military tribunal did set to establish<br />
the truth and punish the perpetrators. However, the 1923<br />
newly established Republic that replaced the Ottoman<br />
Turkish Empire introduced a complete rupture with the<br />
past.<br />
Armenians everywhere faced with the denial are continuously<br />
in need to remember and study the genocide.<br />
<strong>The</strong> next generation<br />
Over 90 years have passed since the 1915 genocide of<br />
the Armenian people yet, in spite of unanimity in research<br />
and documentation, there continues to be an active denial.<br />
<strong>The</strong> healing process has been long. As academics<br />
Katherine Bischoping and Natalie Fingerhut have pointed<br />
out in Border Lines: Indigenous Peoples in Genocide<br />
Studies, survivors of genocide typically document psychological<br />
and physical symptoms that could be characterized<br />
as post-traumatic stress syndrome. Studies of Armenian<br />
and Jewish survivors indicate that active remembering is<br />
perceived positively as a way to honour the dead.<br />
Efforts by the Turkish government to obliterate evidence<br />
of the Armenian genocide, and the same mission of<br />
Holocaust deniers, are believed to hinder the healing of<br />
survivors.<br />
As Lorne Shirinian has aptly pointed out, in his<br />
Survivor Memoirs of the Armenian Genocide, “the literature<br />
of the generations since the end of World War I has<br />
seen the unfortunate rise of a new genre; namely, the literature<br />
of testimony, specifically survivor memoirs.”<br />
Survival as a witness and writer has led to reflections<br />
on testimony as literary form. Recent years have seen a rise<br />
in fictionalized literary works along the publication and republication<br />
of eyewitness accounts and memoirs. In the<br />
subsequent generations, the Armenian genocide is<br />
recounted such that it takes on the characteristics of a<br />
story-like narrative.<br />
Armenians are also still traumatized at the face of the<br />
continuous denial of the calamity. As Bamberger said:<br />
“Until that moment when Turkey finally admits to its culpability,<br />
this generation of grandchildren, finding its inspiration<br />
in the terrible experiences of the survivors, will continue<br />
to write and speak out about unspeakable events.”<br />
Women’s rights<br />
are human rights<br />
• TERRINE FRIDAY<br />
Members of Montreal's March 8<br />
Committee of Women of Diverse Origins took<br />
to the streets on Sunday to celebrate<br />
International Women's Day 2009 and<br />
demand rights to security of the person.<br />
<strong>The</strong> demonstration, which started at Cabot<br />
Square and made its way east, compared the<br />
situation of women with the critique of social<br />
issues “from Barriere Lake to Palestine to<br />
Afghanistan, from the field to the factory and<br />
the kitchen table, from the local park to the<br />
jail cells to the battlefield.”<br />
PHOTO ION ETXEBARRIA
08 NEWS THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/NEWS<br />
Missing women panel<br />
• JOELLE LEMIEUX<br />
QPIRG Concordia, the 2110<br />
Centre, the Simone de Beauvoir<br />
Institute and the Women's Studies<br />
Students' Association will be holding<br />
a speakers series called 510<br />
Missing & Murdered Native<br />
Women Since 1980 on March 16<br />
and 17.<br />
According to a 2008 federallyfunded<br />
report by the Native<br />
Women's Association of Canada,<br />
510 native women have gone missing<br />
in the past 30 years, though<br />
some estimate the actual number<br />
to be much higher.<br />
Speakers include Ellen Gabriel<br />
of the Quebec Native Women's<br />
Association and Beverly Jacobs, an<br />
Aboriginal rights lawyer and president<br />
of the Native Women's<br />
Association of Canada.<br />
<strong>The</strong> panel discussion on March 16<br />
will take place at the McCord<br />
Museum, 690 Sherbrooke Street W,<br />
at 7 p.m. <strong>The</strong> discussion on March 17<br />
will take place at the Atwater Library,<br />
1200 Atwater Avenue, at 6 p.m.<br />
Trashy audit<br />
• TRISTAN LAPOINTE<br />
Sustainable Concordia and<br />
Environmental group R4 are<br />
teaming up this week for their<br />
annual waste audit. Student volunteers<br />
will be sifting through piles<br />
of rubbish from around campus in<br />
hopes of determining just how<br />
much of our waste could be recycled<br />
rather than simply tossed out.<br />
In the 2003-2004 academic<br />
year, the university spent over<br />
$63,000 on removing 746 tonnes<br />
of waste, most of it ending up in<br />
the Lachenaie landfill.<br />
For more info, please visit sustainable.concordia.ca.<br />
Former P.O.W. calls for solidarity with Palestine<br />
Imprisonment an honour, says freedom fighter<br />
• GIUSEPPE VALIANTE, CUP<br />
QUEBEC BUREAU CHIEF<br />
Soha Bechara has never been to<br />
Israel. Nor have her toes felt the<br />
sand lining Gaza’s beaches. She<br />
has never seen Jerusalem. Yet this<br />
timid-looking, middle-aged mother<br />
of two commands immense<br />
respect internationally as a symbol<br />
of resistance to occupation, especially<br />
for Palestinians.<br />
When Bechara took the stage<br />
the evening of March 3 in<br />
Montreal’s north end to give a<br />
speech called “Prisoners of<br />
Occupation,” the 200-plus crowd<br />
rose in unison and clapped with<br />
respect and admiration.<br />
<strong>The</strong> respect comes from the 10<br />
years Bechara spent in the notorious<br />
Khiam prison inside Israelicontrolled<br />
southern Lebanon. She<br />
was captured for the attempted<br />
assassination of Antoine Lahd,<br />
leader of the South Lebanon<br />
Army, during Israel’s 18-year<br />
occupation of Lebanon. <strong>The</strong> SLA<br />
was a Shiite militia force supported<br />
by the Israeli forces. Bechara<br />
was beaten, electrocuted, and<br />
endured other tortures at the<br />
hands of the SLA. She was<br />
released from prison in 1998.<br />
Bechara, invited to speak as<br />
part of Israeli Apartheid Week,<br />
called on the audience to take their<br />
Bechara calls her stay in prison a test of survival. PHOTO GIUSEPPE VALIANTE<br />
Canadian passports and visit the<br />
Palestinian territories and come<br />
back to Canada to testify about<br />
what they have seen.<br />
“It’s not because I’m Arab, it’s<br />
because I’m human that I say we<br />
must do something,” said Bechara,<br />
who was born in Lebanon.<br />
<strong>The</strong> weeklong conferences,<br />
held in over <strong>25</strong> cities around the<br />
world, aimed to highlight what<br />
organizers see as Israel’s discriminatory<br />
policies towards the<br />
Palestinians and to grow support<br />
for the international Boycott,<br />
Divestment and Sanctions movement<br />
against Israel. Activist group<br />
Tadamon! hosted Montreal’s conference.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> occupation has strangled<br />
the leadership,” Bechara said.<br />
“When at 14 years old you find<br />
yourself in prison, […] this is a<br />
society that can no longer produce<br />
leaders.”<br />
Bechara said the movement to<br />
impose sanctions on Israel is<br />
important because only the collective<br />
international community can<br />
make a difference in the lives of<br />
Palestinians.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Palestinians should not be<br />
negotiating for peace, she said.<br />
“I know my position is more<br />
militant than [that of Gaza’s governing]<br />
Hamas. No negotiations<br />
[…] <strong>The</strong> occupied doesn’t negotiate<br />
with an occupier. You negotiate<br />
with someone when you are on<br />
an equal level. <strong>The</strong> Palestinians<br />
are very far from this.”<br />
She said all the Palestinians can<br />
do is resist and it is the world that<br />
must act on their behalf.<br />
“Its not an Arab or Israeli question.<br />
It’s a fundamental question<br />
for humanity,” she said.<br />
And on the subject of her torture<br />
and imprisonment for 10<br />
years, Bechara said it doesn’t<br />
affect her life negatively. She has<br />
mothered two children since her<br />
release, wrote an autobiography<br />
and teaches mathematics at home<br />
in Switzerland.<br />
“[My imprisonment] was an<br />
honour. It was a moment very<br />
important for me,” she said. “That<br />
I could resist it until the end […] It<br />
brings nothing but pride to have<br />
passed this test without failing.”<br />
Former South African Congressman on Israeli Apartheid<br />
Con U talks carbon<br />
• TRISTAN LAPOINTE<br />
<strong>The</strong> recent rejection of a proposed<br />
Liberal carbon tax, combined<br />
with the election of an<br />
American president who claims to<br />
have an environmentally friendly<br />
platform, has prompted a panel<br />
discussion hosted by Concordia's<br />
School of Community and Public<br />
affairs.<br />
<strong>The</strong> panel on carbon credits,<br />
carbon neutrality, and worldwide<br />
emissions trading will feature several<br />
guest speakers including<br />
Quebec Green Party founder<br />
Daniel Breton.<br />
Carbon credits are a system of<br />
reimbursements available for<br />
companies and individuals to offset-or<br />
in some cases legally<br />
enlarge-their carbon footprint.<br />
<strong>The</strong> talk will take place at 2149<br />
Mackay on March 10 at 6 p.m..<br />
• RACHEL TETRAULT<br />
Ronnie Kasrils, a former member of the<br />
African National Congress and Minister for<br />
Intelligence Services for the South African<br />
government, spoke at McGill University on<br />
March 4 as part of Israeli Apartheid Week.<br />
Kasrils addressed the apartheid in Israel<br />
and the growing Boycotts, Divestment and<br />
PHOTO RACHEL TETRAULT<br />
Sanctions global movement as a method to<br />
stop human rights violations.<br />
Kasrils frequently equated Israel’s policies<br />
to South African apartheid.<br />
PHOTO RACHEL TETRAULT
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/NEWS ELECTIONS 09<br />
Democracy’s alive!<br />
Political pros, newbies duke it out during poster night<br />
• LAURA BEESTON<br />
& R. BRIAN HASTIE<br />
Ideals of substance versus flash<br />
came to the surface during last<br />
night’s poster night as the two most<br />
visible teams, Change and Vision,<br />
postered up the Hall and Library<br />
buildings of the Sir George<br />
Williams campus.<br />
Memories of last year’s dismal<br />
poster night turn-out were quickly<br />
forgotten as a large throng of hopeful<br />
politicos, adorned in costumes<br />
and war paint, waited anxiously to<br />
cover our university from head to<br />
toe in campaign slogans.<br />
Last year’s “two-party” race<br />
(which was easily won by the current<br />
administration as postering<br />
unofficially ended at a record-setting<br />
12:07 a.m.) was a distant<br />
thought as four slates, one referendum<br />
question, two independent<br />
councillors and a mysterious “Pay<br />
Attention” campaign vied for the<br />
reserved space.<br />
<strong>The</strong> prevailing slates, Change<br />
and Vision, offered up posters that<br />
were not unlike the ones seen in<br />
recent years, with promises of battling<br />
tuition freezes and “complete<br />
transparency.” <strong>The</strong>ir similar<br />
posters are differentiated only by<br />
the names of the slates, the<br />
colours—Change’s green to Vision’s<br />
purple—and slight variance in<br />
stances.<br />
<strong>The</strong> other interested parties<br />
vying for poster space, such as the<br />
People’s Potato, the New Union,<br />
“Pay Attention” and independent<br />
councillors Adam Slater and<br />
Stefan Lefebvre, wouldn’t allow<br />
their concerns to be lost in the<br />
mayhem and hoopla of this midnight<br />
campaign sensationalism.<br />
All three multi-candidate parties<br />
that were present called each other<br />
out on petty postering infractions<br />
all over the school: postering on<br />
spaces reserved for school events,<br />
having too many of the same poster<br />
in the same space and covering<br />
other candidates’ posters.<br />
Unfortunately, the People's<br />
Potato has to contend with the fact<br />
that they are sharing space with the<br />
electoral candidates even though<br />
they are running a referendum<br />
campaign separate from the elections<br />
of individuals to Council.<br />
Many members were dismayed at<br />
this fact, leading one member of the<br />
collective to declare that the “fighting<br />
for poster space is ridiculous.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is plenty of room for everyone.”<br />
Another member mentioned<br />
that referendum questions should<br />
have their own space reserved for<br />
them so as to not have to fight with<br />
the other candidates.<br />
In a similar vein, the sole New<br />
Union representative present at<br />
poster night was VP Internal candidate<br />
Spencer Bailey, who said he<br />
was elected to take on the postering<br />
challenge without the pretence.<br />
“My party is committed to student<br />
union responsibility; we have<br />
a comprehensive plan to restructure<br />
the student union, rewrite the<br />
bylaws to create 'true' transparency,<br />
and open meeting initiatives to<br />
generate accountability,” said<br />
Bailey, who travelled the campus<br />
with only a computer bag of<br />
posters and a stapler. “I'm [alone]<br />
here and I have the smallest<br />
poster, but it's the most different<br />
and I managed to poster everywhere<br />
I wanted to. Talk is cheap.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Fresh party made the best of<br />
their evening as six candidates—the<br />
executive slate and one councillor—<br />
trying their best to steal away whatever<br />
space hadn’t been claimed by<br />
either Change or Vision.<br />
“We’re first-time runners, we<br />
were here to show students we<br />
could put together a team, despite<br />
being the underdogs here. This year<br />
has been very intense, the rules<br />
have changed and we’ve only been<br />
formed for the last three weeks,”<br />
said Allan Guindi, Fresh’s candidate<br />
for VP finance. “We’re here to<br />
get more people engaged, involved<br />
and voting; we’ve hung out at<br />
Reggie’s and the bike shop. We feel<br />
like the other teams are lacking the<br />
personal touch.<br />
“Last year only 10 per cent of the<br />
student population came out to<br />
vote. We’re 30,000 students at<br />
Concordia, and I was guilty as<br />
charged [as far as not voting goes],<br />
because I wasn’t involved and didn’t<br />
know the issues.”<br />
Team Change decided to go the<br />
flashy, short-term route, hoping to<br />
win votes by playing to the voters’<br />
love of hockey. <strong>The</strong>ir Habs-themed<br />
poster, declaring “Road trips to<br />
Habs away games in Boston and<br />
Ottawa!” as well as a Canadiens<br />
team speaker series and the chance<br />
to win tickets to both games and<br />
practices, was a cheap grab in a city<br />
united by the NHL.<br />
Elie Chivi, current VP communications,<br />
mentioned that the<br />
ambiguous “Pay Attention” posters<br />
were meant as placeholders that<br />
would be replaced at a later time.<br />
<strong>The</strong> same can be said for the<br />
reversed Vision posters, which will<br />
be substituted in the following days.<br />
‘Calm and sedate … just what we wanted’<br />
Midnight on poster night through the eyes of the man in charge<br />
• JUSTIN GIOVANNETTI<br />
If Tuesday morning’s pint-sized<br />
poster night was the most docile in<br />
nearly a decade, the man standing<br />
at the centre of the event will claim<br />
credit with glee.<br />
Oliver Cohen, dressed in a<br />
white shirt and jeans and armed<br />
with a bullhorn, a Blackberry and<br />
driven demeanour, is the<br />
Concordia Student Union’s new<br />
Chief Electoral Officer.<br />
Cohen’s introduction to<br />
Concordia politics was swift as he<br />
stood for nearly three hours<br />
among an undersized crowd of<br />
warpaint splashed politicos. But<br />
with ample security and a thin yellow<br />
rope, Cohen and three<br />
deputies on hand kept order and<br />
dealt with groups of students, one<br />
Oliver Cohen (centre) with volunteer Josh Rabinovitch. PHOTO CLARE RASPOPOW<br />
by one.<br />
Just before midnight the new<br />
CEO stood at the top of the first<br />
flight of the Hall building’s escalators,<br />
looking down on the event’s<br />
small crowd; banning the large<br />
crowds of the past by limiting the<br />
participants to candidates was<br />
Cohen’s most obvious contribution<br />
to the evening, and it set the tone.<br />
Standing at the edge of the second<br />
floor mezzanine, Cohen called<br />
PHOTO JONATHAN DEMPSEY<br />
PHOTO PIERRETTE MASIMANGO<br />
“for a fair and clean poster night.”<br />
Moments later a crowd of yelling,<br />
poster-bearing hopefuls thundered<br />
past while Cohen backed<br />
into a newspaper box of <strong>The</strong> <strong>Link</strong><br />
to avoid the rush.<br />
After catching his breath, the<br />
CEO took to the footprints of the<br />
herd. Walking among hundreds of<br />
tacks that had fallen from<br />
unsteady hands, his face bore a<br />
small smile. “This evening is calm<br />
and sedate; this is just what we<br />
wanted,” he beamed.<br />
As the school descended into<br />
mayhem with students running<br />
back and forth, yelling “where are<br />
the tacks? I need posters!” Cohen<br />
simply paced the floor. “So far so<br />
good,” he said as he waited, occasionally<br />
turning to his Blackberry<br />
for updates.<br />
PHOTO JONATHAN DEMPSEY<br />
Clockwise from top: students dash to<br />
poster boards in the Hall building; waiting<br />
in line for security to check ID;<br />
slates tape their cmpaign posters<br />
together; a Change campaigner reconsiders<br />
her choice of bandeau; and students<br />
dash up the stationary escalator.<br />
PHOTO IAN LAWRENCE<br />
PHOTO CLARE RASPOPOW<br />
<strong>The</strong> monotony of the evening<br />
soon set in for the CEO, but the<br />
yelling continued. Cohen spent<br />
nearly an hour walking from<br />
poster board to poster board,<br />
telling slates to move posters an<br />
inch and remove offending sheets,<br />
managing the minutiae of electoral<br />
propaganda.<br />
Each new board was greeted<br />
with a scream: “I need a [insert<br />
slate name here] representative.”<br />
As the evening wore on, the<br />
CEO continued to joke with his<br />
deputies. “Why are we having so<br />
much trouble with those [bulletin<br />
boards]?” Cohen asked one.<br />
“Maybe they need to ‘Change’,” the<br />
unknown deputy, who refused to<br />
give his name, answered. Cohen<br />
laughed and boarded the escalator<br />
for another floor.
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/NEWS<br />
Pay attention! A fresh vision<br />
for change ...and a new union<br />
• COMMENTARY BY R. BRIAN HASTIE & MATTHEW FIORENTINO<br />
ELECTIONS 11<br />
Former<br />
electoral<br />
officer turns<br />
videographer<br />
Another year, another poster night. What a terrible adage, but unfortunately it’s true. We’re starting to suspect that:<br />
CHANGE<br />
• True to their name, the candidates took a long, hard look at Evolution’s<br />
2005-2006 series of posters and decided to move their hands from their hips<br />
into a bold cross-armed position. This year’s posters also introduced a daring<br />
hands-covering-crotch stance, as evidenced by Boue’s daring new pose.<br />
• Hey you! Flock of Seagulls: Get a new haircut. Post-new-wave grunge has<br />
already come and gone.<br />
• No poster is complete without the classic “rising sun” gradient, indicating a<br />
real “change” in leadership. Funny how it kinda looks like last year’s Unity<br />
posters.<br />
VISION<br />
• <strong>The</strong>y kept their hands on their hips in defiance of the standard pose.<br />
• In a true sign of “our bad,” placeholder posters made with cheap paper and<br />
felt markers were mounted in strategic points across the university. Politico<br />
fairies will be putting up the real posters over the course of the next week.<br />
• <strong>The</strong> hands-down best use of cardigans in candidate photos. Cardigans are a<br />
tasteful addition to any wardrobe and indicate a “smart yet sassy” attitude.<br />
TEAM FRESH<br />
• <strong>The</strong> thing about trying to emulate the look of Warhol’s Debbie Harry posters<br />
is that you all end up looking like you’re wearing too much lipstick, regardless of<br />
self-identified gender.<br />
• Slogans written in bad street lingo might work in Montreal, but don’t ever<br />
plan a day trip to Baltimore.<br />
• Braggadocio: when you absolutely, positively want to use Sand font but realize<br />
it’s a stupid move. Accept no substitutes.<br />
PAY ATTENTION<br />
• To our adeptness at waving a can of spray paint over a stencil?<br />
NEW UNION<br />
• Huey Newton (R.I.P.) is certainly not impressed by your use of the Black<br />
Power Fist. <strong>The</strong> Supreme Commander will strike your asses down from beyond<br />
the grave, if Assata Shakur has anything to say about it. Has anyone on this slate<br />
even read Soul On Ice? I give up. If you need me, I’ll be in my log cabin.<br />
• Also, the fist is already used on campus by CUPFA, and has been for a good<br />
amount of time. <strong>The</strong>y called it first, guys. Play fair. <strong>The</strong> devil horns, for example,<br />
are fair game. Way to engage the proletariat, comrade.<br />
• It seems that every Council meeting will be a defacto family reunion, as<br />
would-be president Robert Sonin and daughter Donia are running side-by-side.<br />
Potential hazards of this sort of relationship include point 1.1 of the next executive<br />
meeting agenda being “Can I have a car dad?”<br />
Beisan Zubi. PHOTO CLARE RASPOPOW<br />
Zubi calls 2009<br />
campaign a ‘very<br />
important election’<br />
• CLARE RASPOPOW<br />
Video cameras were rolling as<br />
political hopefuls nearly trampled<br />
each other last night for a piece of<br />
prime bulletin board real estate.<br />
<strong>The</strong> cameras were at poster night<br />
as part of a documentary being<br />
filmed about this year’s elections.<br />
First-time video director Beisan<br />
Zubi, a former Chief Electoral<br />
Officer of the Concordia Student<br />
Union, is known to many on campus<br />
for her involvement in—and<br />
vocal criticism of—Concordia politics.<br />
This project represents the<br />
newest incarnation of her political<br />
activism.<br />
“I didn’t know what else to do,”<br />
said Zubi. “[<strong>The</strong> documentary] lets<br />
me get involved in a new way.”<br />
Zubi is currently taking POLI<br />
368, a class that explores how the<br />
media affects politics. She’s making<br />
this film to document what she<br />
believes will be “a very important<br />
election” for Concordia.<br />
“Unity cut its leg off and [tried<br />
to start] walking,” said Zubi, referring<br />
to the fragmentation within<br />
the current Unity executive. Over<br />
the past year, two opposing slates<br />
spawned from Unity’s political<br />
breakdown: Change and Vision.<br />
Until this year, there had been a<br />
steady reincarnation of the executive<br />
slate each election: Evolution<br />
not Revolution (2003), New<br />
Evolution (2004), Evolution<br />
(2005), Experience (2006), Unity<br />
(2007) and then Unity (2008).<br />
Zubi has promised that she and<br />
her documentary crew will be filming<br />
for the entire campaign period<br />
to observe the candidates in<br />
action. <strong>The</strong> only problems, she<br />
said, are knowing where the action<br />
is and navigating the security on<br />
campus.<br />
“We don’t know where we<br />
have to be [or] where we’re going<br />
to be filming. So when the security<br />
guards ask to know where<br />
exactly you’re going to be, there’s<br />
a problem.”
12 FEATURES THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/FEATURES<br />
A price<br />
too high<br />
• RAFFY BOUDJIKANIAN<br />
ROZMITÁL POD TREMSINEM—<br />
About 88 kilometres southwest of Prague,<br />
the Czech capital, a military area lies in an<br />
evergreen forest, shielded from public view.<br />
Barriers block off trails leading toward it,<br />
signposts stuck to trees warning against trespassing.<br />
<strong>The</strong> words “U.S.A. NO” have been<br />
spray-painted in Czech over the signs.<br />
Treaties signed by the U.S. and Czech governments<br />
(but yet to be ratified through the<br />
Czech Chamber of Deputies) would have the<br />
site host a military radar base. In conjunction<br />
with missile interceptors in Poland, the<br />
base would be part of the U.S. missile<br />
defence system. While ostensibly aimed at<br />
protecting Europe from Iranian or North<br />
Korean missiles, the Russian government in<br />
Moscow perceives the project as aggression<br />
aimed at Russia.<br />
For many Czechs, the memory of Nazis<br />
marching through their streets in World War<br />
II and the Soviets doing the same in 1968,<br />
has had a lasting impact. <strong>The</strong> thought of<br />
more foreign troops still raises alarm today.<br />
Activist Jan Tamás—who is also chair of the<br />
federal Humanist Party, which has no elected<br />
representatives—has been at the forefront<br />
of anti-missile radar protests with a group<br />
called the Non-Violence Movement since<br />
2006. He recalls high school years during the<br />
height of nuclear hysteria under the Czech<br />
Communist regime in the late 1980s.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> bell started ringing in a certain fashion,<br />
and we all knew it was a [nuclear safety]<br />
drill,” Tamás said with a measured voice that<br />
did not betray the emotion of recollecting<br />
those intense moments. “<strong>The</strong>re were masks,<br />
and we had to put them on.”<br />
He and his classmates were then rushed<br />
to an old building near the school serving as<br />
a makeshift nuclear shelter and had to stay<br />
there, perfectly still.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se are the kinds of memories Tamás<br />
draws on in his struggle against the radar<br />
project, going so far as staging a 21-day<br />
hunger strike with a colleague in May and<br />
June 2008.<br />
“I want to have a clear conscience when<br />
my children grow up and perhaps ask me one<br />
day ‘daddy, what did you do when this plan<br />
was going on? Did you try to stop it?’”<br />
explained Tamás, who is married but does<br />
not have any children.<br />
In 2002, the Bush<br />
administration mandated the<br />
U.S. Missile Defense Agency<br />
to kick-start a defence shield<br />
against ballistic missiles.<br />
North Korea and Iran were<br />
named as two key threats<br />
to the security of the U.S.<br />
and its allies.<br />
This past December, he helped coordinate<br />
30 local mayors in the region surrounding<br />
the military site, who signed and sent a letter<br />
to the U.S.’s then-President-Elect Barack<br />
Obama asking him to “re-assess the attitude<br />
of the U.S. government [and] put a stop to<br />
this very dangerous project,” citing fears it<br />
could plunge Europe into the centre of a new<br />
“potential international conflict” where “the<br />
Czech Republic would be, due to the radar,<br />
the target of a first attack.”<br />
Speculation runs high on what Obama’s<br />
administration will decide. “Our concerns<br />
about missile defence are primarily technical,”<br />
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton<br />
said at a press conference in Washington<br />
D.C. on Feb. 10 after meeting with Czech<br />
Foreign Affairs Minister Karl<br />
Schwarzenberg. “We expect any system we<br />
deploy to be able to operate effectively to<br />
achieve the goals that were set.” She also<br />
added the plans for the system could be<br />
revised if Iran backed away from its nuclear<br />
ambitions, but that there is little evidence to<br />
suggest the Islamic Republic was doing so.<br />
However, the U.S. government may soon<br />
have to clarify its ambiguous position. A few<br />
weeks ago, an anonymous Russian insider<br />
leaked that Moscow might slow down the<br />
planned instalment of new missile bases in<br />
Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave located north<br />
of Poland, if Washington did not immediately<br />
push through with its own initiative.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> plans have been suspended<br />
[because] the new U.S. administration is not<br />
speeding up its plans,” the military official<br />
was quoted as saying to the Russian news<br />
agency Interfax. <strong>The</strong> Russian government<br />
had originally announced the Kaliningrad<br />
project as a counter to the U.S. missile<br />
defence sites in Poland.<br />
In 2002, the Bush administration mandated<br />
the U.S. Missile Defense Agency to<br />
kick-start a defence shield against ballistic<br />
missiles. North Korea and Iran were named<br />
as two key threats to the security of the U.S.<br />
and its allies. <strong>The</strong> Russian government<br />
protested the presence of the missile defence<br />
base, particularly after 2006 when<br />
Washington came to an agreement with<br />
Poland and the Czech Republic.<br />
Professor Jiri Pehe, a political analyst and<br />
director of a Prague branch of New York<br />
University, said that for the Czech government,<br />
the radar represented an important<br />
symbol of friendship to the world’s only<br />
remaining superpower, the U.S., as well as a<br />
potential defensive measure for Central<br />
Europe.<br />
“If you lived in a neighbourhood that was<br />
unsafe, constantly under threat,” he said,<br />
“you would want to have an alarm system.”<br />
However, even Pehe agreed the radar was<br />
a hard sell. “I am not happy with the project<br />
as a bilateral project,” he said. “I really think<br />
it should be a NATO project.”<br />
Pehe did not want to speculate on what<br />
the Obama administration may finally<br />
decide. Should it want to go ahead with the<br />
project, it would have to work hard on convincing<br />
the federal Green and Social<br />
Democrat parties of its worth, he said.<br />
Currently against the radar, the two progressive<br />
parties would be able to block a<br />
parliamentary ratification process with<br />
their elected representatives due to the<br />
governing Civic Democratic Party’s<br />
minority status, he said.<br />
Meanwhile, a recent national poll by<br />
the state-funded CVVM polling institute<br />
suggests two thirds of the Czech population<br />
are opposed to the base.<br />
For many Czechs, the<br />
memory of Nazis marching<br />
through their streets in<br />
World War II and the<br />
Soviets doing the same in<br />
1968, has had a lasting<br />
impact. <strong>The</strong> thought of<br />
more foreign troops still<br />
raises alarm today.<br />
At the small headquarters of the Non-<br />
Violence Movement near downtown<br />
Prague, Tamás remained sceptical of<br />
Iranian threats. “It would be suicide for<br />
Iran to attack the U.S.,” he said, thinking<br />
instead this is a move by America to gain<br />
the upper hand on Russia.<br />
However, Steven Pifer, a long-time<br />
U.S. foreign services officer and current<br />
expert on missile defence at the progressive<br />
Brookings Institution think tank,<br />
disagreed during a telephone interview<br />
from Washington, D.C. “I don’t think<br />
that it’s about Russia,” he said, arguing<br />
the geographical placement of the U.S.<br />
missile shield would make it ineffective<br />
against attacks from Moscow.<br />
Since Iran and North Korea are<br />
further south than Russia, he added,<br />
missiles from those two countries<br />
could be potentially thwarted by the
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/FEATURES FEATURES 13<br />
Czech protesters fear<br />
being part of the<br />
American missile<br />
defence shield will<br />
make them the target<br />
of Russian bombs<br />
missile shield.<br />
While a vote in the Chamber of<br />
Deputies has been postponed beyond<br />
mid-March, the 30 mayors who signed<br />
the letter recently traveled to Brussels in<br />
order to state their case against the radar<br />
at the EU Parliament, where the Czech<br />
Republic currently holds presidency.<br />
“Surely nothing good will come of the<br />
radar,” said Josef Vondrásek, mayor of<br />
Rozmitál and one of the signatories. “On<br />
the contrary, it might even prevent some<br />
tourism in the region.”<br />
Jan Neoral, his mayoral counterpart<br />
in Trokavec, a village of just 90 inhabitants<br />
a stone’s throw from the base, was<br />
equally displeased. “<strong>The</strong> Czech government<br />
tried to push this through without<br />
public consultation,” he said, a claim<br />
vigorously denied by the Ministry of<br />
Foreign Affairs.<br />
Meanwhile, all those involved wait to<br />
see how the Obama team will address<br />
this issue. “He could say, ‘No it doesn’t<br />
work, so I’m cancelling it,’” Tamás said,<br />
but conceded that the ambiguous statements<br />
released so far could mean the<br />
opposite as well.<br />
Pifer said it is too soon to figure out<br />
what the president will do. “He’s protecting<br />
his options,” he said, adding,<br />
“missile defence isn’t cheap.” He suggested<br />
Obama would have so many<br />
urgent matters to deal with that he may<br />
very well decide to delay the radar project.<br />
In the event of such a delay, which<br />
would push the base’s operational date<br />
beyond 2012, Pifer hopes talks can<br />
resume between American and<br />
Russian leaders. “That would defuse<br />
the issue on the U.S.-Russia agenda<br />
and give some time to work the missile<br />
defence issue further, perhaps to see if<br />
a more co-operative approach could be<br />
found,” he said.<br />
GRAPHIC ALEX MANLEY
14 LITERARY ARTS<br />
Dealing with Quebec’s history of slavery<br />
Quebec historian, on the history of Montreal’s black community<br />
• JUSTIN BROMBERG<br />
When historian and author Dorothy<br />
Williams speaks about the history of slavery in<br />
Quebec, her message is clear and consise.<br />
“What my writings try to project is that this<br />
is the present, but we need to understand the<br />
past,” she said, emphasizing the need for comprehensive<br />
black history education in both<br />
Canadian and Quebec curriculum.<br />
Today, Williams is quite possibly the<br />
province's foremost researcher of black communities<br />
in Montreal. In addition to being a<br />
regular lecturer and community figure, she<br />
has penned two books: a demographic study<br />
entitled Blacks in Montreal: 1628-1986—<br />
which has also been translated to French—and<br />
a narrative, <strong>The</strong> Road to Now: A History of<br />
Blacks in Montreal.<br />
Naturally, as she explains, the historian<br />
came first—her road to authorship began in<br />
1989, when the Quebec Human Rights<br />
Commission asked her assistance in preparing<br />
a study. <strong>The</strong> study, which eventually became<br />
her aforementioned first book, was instigated<br />
after the QHRC “realized [the discrimination<br />
of blacks in the housing market] wasn't a<br />
series of isolated incidents.”<br />
“<strong>The</strong> people at the commission—like everyone<br />
else—didn’t have a clue,” she recalled.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> study was supposed to be an internal<br />
document, and a current document. But I'm a<br />
historian, I’m not just going to write about<br />
what happened in 1984, or 1985. I'm going to<br />
do the whole thing.”<br />
Her lecture, part of the Atwater Library’s<br />
Lunchtime Series, combined readings of her<br />
books with a discussion of the current state of<br />
black history education. Among several topics,<br />
Williams highlighted the Canadian government's<br />
domestic workers’ scheme of the 1950s<br />
and 60s, which required and maintained itself<br />
with the immigration of many West Indian<br />
women to Canada (and, at the time,<br />
Montreal).<br />
“Many families in Canada started as a<br />
result of the program,” she explained, noting<br />
the existence of an already well-established<br />
black community in Montreal at the time.<br />
Historically, most families were concentrated<br />
along St-Antoine Street, southwest of downtown;<br />
from 1968 to 1977, both the domestic<br />
scheme and the relocation of other residents<br />
established new demographic trends: the predominantly<br />
anglophone West Indian community<br />
moved into areas like NDG and Cote-des-<br />
Neiges.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>y did not readily accept the poor housing<br />
conditions on eastern St-Antoine,” while a<br />
more recent francophone Haitian community<br />
“moved north and east of the St-Laurent corridor<br />
within a generation.”<br />
While Williams’ words emphasized the<br />
long-standing roots, and diversity, of the city's<br />
black communities, they were equally reflective<br />
of the ever-present need for recognition.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re’s an assumption that blacks are the<br />
newest immigrants,” she said. “Generation<br />
after generation, one’s ‘blackness’ is a sign [of<br />
his ‘newness’].”<br />
Dorothy Williams takes center stage at Atwater Library. PHOTO JUSTIN BROMBERG<br />
As an educator, Williams’ research has<br />
brought her to local schools, colleges, and universities.<br />
Most notable, she recounted, is the<br />
post-secondary students’ lack of knowledge of<br />
Canadian black history: “It’s not a part of the<br />
curriculum. Our children are still leaving<br />
school without any knowledge of this, at all.”<br />
Though she’s been asked by Quebec's education<br />
ministry to look at their material, and to<br />
contribute in part, she hasn’t been formally<br />
asked to prepare any of her own. Yet the historian<br />
also readily acknowledges that culture<br />
and historical myths have played an integral<br />
part in preventing the fruition of black education<br />
in the province.<br />
Quebec historians, notably including<br />
Marcel Trudel, quite often faced internal criticism<br />
for countering the traditional notions of<br />
black history and the role slavery played in<br />
New France. In fact, reminded Williams, the<br />
first underground railroad between Canada<br />
and the U.S. was actually to free slaves living<br />
north of the border.<br />
“It’s taken Quebec a long time to live<br />
up to its history, and understand its roots<br />
in slavery.”<br />
Eighth Wonder of the World<br />
André <strong>The</strong> Giant masked his physical pain in the ring<br />
• JOHNNY NORTH<br />
One would have had to have been be<br />
blind to not notice André Roussimoff—<br />
he was a 7”3’, 500-pound man who<br />
would ask a waitress to fill up a trash<br />
can with beer.<br />
Roussimoff travelled the world as a<br />
professional wrestler known as André<br />
<strong>The</strong> Giant. His career started in 1964,<br />
but it was only when he was recruited by<br />
Vincent McMahon Sr. that North<br />
American audiences truly appreciated<br />
the larger-than-life athlete.<br />
In André <strong>The</strong> Giant: A Legendary<br />
Life, author Michael Krugman takes<br />
readers on a trip through Roussimoff’s<br />
near three decades in professional<br />
wrestling with descriptive match details<br />
on some of his most famous battles.<br />
With the aid of Roussimoff’s friends<br />
in the wrestling business, the type of<br />
party animal, prankster and gentle giant<br />
Roussimoff was is illuminated. A trend<br />
pops up throughout the book—“If he<br />
liked you he called you ‘boss,’ but if he<br />
didn’t like you he wouldn’t mind imitating<br />
you.”<br />
His size protected him in the ring and<br />
allowed him to become one of the most<br />
well known wrestlers of all time, earning<br />
him the moniker “Eighth Wonder of the<br />
“Every day I’d get on the<br />
bus and he’d say, ‘You<br />
wanna watch [<strong>The</strong><br />
Princess Bride]?’”<br />
—Terry Funk, fellow wrestler<br />
World.” However his size was also his<br />
curse—he suffered from acromegaly, a<br />
disease of excessive growth hormones<br />
that produces a tumor.<br />
Regardless of his deteriorating<br />
health, he continued to enjoy life to its<br />
fullest, drinking as much wine as possible<br />
and travelling to Japan and North<br />
America for his wrestling bookings.<br />
His size continued to get him noticed<br />
in other forms of entertainment, as he<br />
appeared on the TV show “<strong>The</strong> Six<br />
Million Dollar Man” and performed in<br />
the film <strong>The</strong> Princess Bride, something<br />
he was consistently proud of despite<br />
being in constant pain during the making<br />
of the film.<br />
“We were in Japan together, and<br />
every day I’d get on the bus and he’d<br />
say, ‘You wanna watch the movie?’”<br />
remembers Terry Funk, a fellow<br />
wrestler. “Next day, ‘You wanna watch<br />
Princess Bride again?’”<br />
Unfortunately, A Legendary Life is<br />
focused heavily on his wrestling<br />
career. His humble beginnings are<br />
kept short and vague at the<br />
beginning of the book. His<br />
work on <strong>The</strong> Princess<br />
Bride is only mentioned<br />
sparingly in a few paragraphs<br />
with no details on<br />
what went down on the<br />
set. Keeping the references<br />
mainly to his<br />
friends in wrestling<br />
paints a one-sided picture<br />
that gives you the<br />
idea that all he had for<br />
family and friends were<br />
wrestlers and their families.<br />
You get all the details of<br />
Roussimoff’s career inside of the<br />
ring, but outside of the ring<br />
you’re left wanting more.<br />
André <strong>The</strong><br />
Giant: A<br />
Legendary Life<br />
Michael Krugman<br />
World Wrestling<br />
Entertainment<br />
January 2009<br />
352 pp<br />
$16.00<br />
GRAPHIC GINGER COONS
concordia’s independent newspaper<br />
this special issue is late since 1980<br />
volume <strong>29</strong>, issue <strong>25</strong> • Tuesday, March 10, 2009 • thelinknewspaper.ca<br />
Canada’s first female astronaut chats with <strong>The</strong> <strong>Link</strong> • page 4<br />
Concordia students pay the rent using chat rooms • page 8<br />
Edgy women take over March with festival • page 13
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/WOMEN WOMEN 03<br />
Welcome to <strong>The</strong> <strong>Link</strong>’s 30th<br />
Women’s special issue<br />
In years past, <strong>The</strong> <strong>Link</strong>’s annual<br />
Women’s <strong>Iss</strong>ue was edited entirely by<br />
women and all male staff were temporarily<br />
relieved from the office.<br />
But 30 Women’s <strong>Iss</strong>ues later, it is being<br />
coordinated and edited by a man. Does<br />
this speak of progress, that men are now<br />
valued partners in the struggle for<br />
women’s equality and freedom of expression?<br />
Does it reflect waning support for<br />
feminism by the very women who have<br />
been the greatest benefactors of their hard<br />
work? Was I simply the right man—or person—for<br />
the job?<br />
Any or all of those explanations seem<br />
insufficient. For better or for worse, a man<br />
is editing <strong>The</strong> <strong>Link</strong>’s 30th Women’s <strong>Iss</strong>ue.<br />
But this is not about me.<br />
An editor’s job isn’t to impose his views<br />
on a paper but to facilitate the voices of<br />
his or her writers.<br />
This year’s special issue contains a<br />
plethora of women’s voices, as told by<br />
women—and sometimes men—about<br />
women.<br />
Some of the stories contained in this<br />
issue deal with women who have made a<br />
difference, either in expanding our knowledge<br />
of the universe, or ensuring the education<br />
of women who might not otherwise<br />
be able to learn of their achievements.<br />
Analyses of the media’s continuing<br />
objectification of women is coupled with<br />
stories about women who are establishing<br />
their own identities—thigh-high boots<br />
included.<br />
<strong>The</strong> writers of this issue are owed a<br />
debt of gratitude for exercising their freedom<br />
of speech and for lending their voices<br />
to women in disadvantaged positions<br />
everywhere.<br />
—Christopher Olson,<br />
Women’s <strong>Iss</strong>ue Coordinator<br />
Women’s <strong>Iss</strong>ues<br />
March 6, 1981<br />
Check out thelinknewspaper.ca for a pdf<br />
version of the original.<br />
THIS WEEK IN HERSTORY MARCH 3, 1980 TO MARCH 7, 2006<br />
• COMPILED BY SEBASTIEN CADIEUX<br />
1980- Constitutional equality<br />
Question: What will the proposed<br />
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms<br />
mean for Canadian women?<br />
Answer: “…an end to all forms of discrimination<br />
against women, that is if the<br />
Constitution Committee accepts our proposals,”<br />
said Hellie Wilson, vice-president<br />
of the Canadian Advisory Council on the<br />
status of women.<br />
In light of the failure of the current<br />
Canadian Bill of Rights to provide equality<br />
to women, the council has come up with<br />
several changes to the new Charter of<br />
Rights and Freedoms proposed by the government's<br />
constitution committee.<br />
<strong>The</strong> purpose is to protect women and<br />
other minorities from discriminitory laws<br />
already on the books. <strong>The</strong> current bill of<br />
rights provides for “equality in the administration<br />
of the law” as interpreted by the<br />
courts.<br />
A prime example of the inadequacy of<br />
this interpretation is the fate of Native<br />
women who marry non-natives and subsequently<br />
lose all of their rights as natives for<br />
themselves as well as their children. This<br />
penalty does not apply to native men who<br />
marry non-native women.<br />
Clearly a law that discriminates on the<br />
basis of sex, this has been tolerated by the<br />
courts because minorities have not been<br />
given equal protection and benefit of the<br />
law.<br />
1985- Feminist-Man<br />
Is it possible to be both a man and a<br />
feminist? What's the difference between a<br />
feminist and a pro-feminist man? If one<br />
defines feminists as people who affirm the<br />
right of girls and women to lead lives of our<br />
own choosing, then yes, in theory at least,<br />
men can be feminists.<br />
However, many feminist women and<br />
men supportive of feminism are unwilling<br />
to define any men as feminists. We prefer<br />
terms such as pro-feminist or anti-patriarchal.<br />
Why the distinction between feminists<br />
and pro-feminist men? Women and men<br />
have a different relationship to feminism.<br />
Someone who hasn't experienced racial<br />
discrimination doesn't have the same relationship<br />
to racism as someone who has.<br />
Similarly, men haven't gone through the<br />
sexism that women face. Men can play an<br />
important part in encouraging the creation<br />
of a feminist society: most of all, they can<br />
work to alter the anti-women attitudes to<br />
define our needs and goals. But it is up to<br />
women to define our needs and goals. A<br />
pro-feminist man's one supportive of our<br />
efforts.<br />
1994- Montreal profs try to<br />
define women’s history<br />
“Women's history has been neglected by<br />
mainstream historians for so long. It's time to<br />
address the balance,” said McGill professor<br />
Andrée Lévesque who believes the subject<br />
must be taught from a feminist perspective.<br />
Simply highlighting the women in history<br />
doesn't do justice to the contributions of<br />
women throughout history.<br />
“We have to look at how many women's<br />
actions may have contributed to making<br />
these events happen and not always assume<br />
that women are passive and affected by history,<br />
because we shape it too,” said Diana<br />
Pederson of Concordia's history department.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re was a lot of optimism in the late<br />
‘70s that we just had to do the research and<br />
produce all these new studies and the change<br />
in the traditional narrative would just<br />
change, but it didn't,” said Pederson. <strong>The</strong><br />
only solution is truly to re-write the history<br />
books from the ground up to include the<br />
impact of women in history.<br />
2000- Montreal shelter helps<br />
immigrant women gain independece<br />
Imagine the following scenario: you are<br />
a young woman from Eastern Europe waiting<br />
for the Canadian government to accept<br />
your application for permanent resident<br />
status. In the meantime, you hope that you<br />
or your husband will find a job to support<br />
yourselves and your daughter. But this is<br />
difficult because of your limited French<br />
and English and the fact that you did not<br />
finish your post-secondary education. You<br />
stay in a one-bedroom apartment, sleeping<br />
in the living room so your daughter can<br />
have her own room.<br />
Women from different cultures face<br />
some trouble integrating into Canadian<br />
society, Milena* for example had to deal<br />
with the language barrier. From giving<br />
directions to something as difficult as<br />
explaining a domestic abuse case to a francophone<br />
police officer.<br />
Milena ultimately got a job paying $7.<strong>25</strong><br />
per hour. <strong>The</strong>n she had to deal with her<br />
husband, who was still unemployed and<br />
jealous of Milena for having work, and<br />
financial independence. Free services such<br />
as the CLSC, religious institutions, or<br />
L'Hirondelle—an organization dedicated to<br />
helping immigrants get integrated into<br />
Canadian society, specifically women.<br />
2006- Women’s health a joke<br />
in Quebec<br />
Pharmacists in this province can refuse<br />
women access to the morning-after pill<br />
based on their own moral objections. This<br />
denial of access to a drug that requires<br />
timely usage suggests that there may be<br />
more to the problem than meets the eye.<br />
Why would Quebec health professionals<br />
want to restrict women's reproductive<br />
rights—particularly since this is the<br />
province where abortion rights were first<br />
legalized?<br />
“Quebec's government is concerned<br />
with increasing the population, so the very<br />
fact that birth control is available is<br />
astounding to me. Nobody I've spoken to<br />
thinks I'm capable of deciding, at the age of<br />
27, to get a tubal ligation, which makes me<br />
feel as though I'm seen as some sort of baby<br />
factory,” says Virginia*, a Concordia<br />
employee. Her own treatment has involved<br />
repeated misdiagnoses of yeast infections,<br />
the advice that her cramps would “go away<br />
after [she] has a baby” and the apparent<br />
unwillingness of gynecologists to take her<br />
complaints seriously.<br />
Women should not have to submit to<br />
interrogation in the doctor's office as<br />
though they are criminals, nor should they<br />
be treated as though they are children who<br />
are unable to make up their own minds<br />
regarding reproductive health. <strong>The</strong>ir complaints<br />
must be taken seriously and without<br />
judgment, and any health practitioner<br />
who violates this doctor-patient trust<br />
should be found guilty of malpractice and<br />
disbarred. After all, if you haven't got your<br />
health, you haven't got anything.<br />
* Names have been changed
04 WOMEN THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/WOMEN<br />
Suspended above a turquoise<br />
bubble<br />
Dr. Roberta Bondar speaks with <strong>The</strong> <strong>Link</strong><br />
about being Canada's first woman astronaut<br />
• CHRISTOPHER OLSON<br />
Chances are you heard of her exploits in<br />
primary school, or memorized her name<br />
alongside other space pioneers, like Buzz<br />
Aldrin, in science class.<br />
Last week, Concordia honoured Dr.<br />
Roberta Bondar with the Loyola Medal, recognizing<br />
her achievements as an astronaut,<br />
neurologist, advocate for the environment<br />
and her historic 1992 trip into space.<br />
Bondar spoke with <strong>The</strong> <strong>Link</strong> about the<br />
privilege of experiencing what only 500 others<br />
have in human history.<br />
Role model for women everywhere<br />
Bondar holds the honour of being the first<br />
Canadian woman, as well as difficult the<br />
world’s first neurologist in space. But deciding<br />
which comes first is difficult at times<br />
says Bondar.<br />
“I have a background in so many things,<br />
one minute it’s one thing; if someone's choking<br />
to death I go into my doctor mode. I<br />
know others look at me as being a role<br />
model, but I look at myself as being a cheerleader.<br />
I’d like to make people excited about<br />
learning.<br />
“When I was growing up in Sault Ste-<br />
Marie, I really identified with the original<br />
seven astronauts, and to tell you the truth, I<br />
didn’t even realize that none of them was a<br />
woman. I didn’t even think about that. It didn’t<br />
even occur to me. It just occurred to me<br />
that they were people.”<br />
To date, 10 per cent of the astronauts<br />
who’ve flown in the American space program<br />
have been female.<br />
“In Canada we have only one woman in<br />
the program now and we only had two when<br />
I was there,” says Bondar.<br />
“When you look at the countries who have<br />
flown women in space, you could probably<br />
count them on [two hands]. <strong>The</strong>re are not a<br />
lot of them around, but there are a lot of support<br />
staff who are women and there are a lot<br />
of women scientists doing incredible, incredible<br />
things.”<br />
Bondar hopes that men take notice of the<br />
accomplishments of female astronauts and<br />
engineers.<br />
“I hope to inspire men to know that<br />
women can do this stuff, can be good team<br />
members and have a sense of responsibility<br />
and discipline that people can count on.<br />
We’re there as equal partners and it’s sort of<br />
hard removing biology from some of these<br />
equations.<br />
“I think it’s always important to show that<br />
if one woman can do it, that means other<br />
women can do it.”<br />
Canada's space legacy<br />
“I was reading the list of very impressive<br />
people who have gone on before me,” says<br />
Bondar, on receiving the Loyola Medal. “I<br />
think it’s not so much honouring me, it's<br />
honouring tradition<br />
and honouring<br />
what legends we<br />
have in this country. I<br />
often don’t personalize<br />
these things. <strong>The</strong> very fact that<br />
there’s a community in Canada that<br />
will honour people that have accomplished<br />
things for their country is wonderful.”<br />
People need a reason to be proud of their<br />
country, says Bondar.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>y need a touchstone. <strong>The</strong>y need to<br />
know that their country is as good as any<br />
other country. We’re a small player when it<br />
comes to the human space program, that’s<br />
why there hasn’t been so many of us who’ve<br />
flown when you look at all the other countries<br />
of the world, except for the United<br />
States and Russia, of course. I mean, let’s<br />
face it, the Russians did such great work.<br />
Most of the craters on the far side of the<br />
moon are all named after Russians.”<br />
Bondar knew she had been sent into<br />
space for a reason—not by God, but on behalf<br />
of taxpayers.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re was a position open and I had the<br />
credentials,” says Bondar. “I think that I<br />
would look at it as a sacred trust, as a responsibility.<br />
We’re not going up just for the view,<br />
or just to snap pictures of the Earth. We’re<br />
doing work on behalf of scientists who are<br />
left back on the ground whose experiments<br />
are in the hands of people in space who we<br />
hope have the right stuff. I hate to use that<br />
expression, but that's really what it is.<br />
During her eight-day mission, Bondar<br />
had little time to stop and wax poetic.<br />
“To tell you the truth, because our flight<br />
was so complex—we had two 12-hour<br />
shifts—that it probably wasn’t until day three<br />
that I even had time to look out the window,<br />
and that was the window in the bathroom in<br />
one of the portholes. We had one tiny window<br />
in the space lab. <strong>The</strong> rest of the windows<br />
are up in the flight deck and the galley. <strong>The</strong><br />
bathroom, the sleep<br />
cabinets are all downstairs<br />
where there are no<br />
windows. <strong>The</strong>re just weren’t enough<br />
windows to look out of, so for me to grasp<br />
that kind of epiphany, I had to force myself<br />
to take the time to get to the window, as tired<br />
as I might have been, with the commander<br />
yelling at me to get to bed, just to try to get a<br />
look at the Earth.”<br />
Now that she’s come back down to Earth,<br />
Bondar sees her mission as one of an educator.<br />
“I would look at is as not just going up<br />
there to do a job, but coming back and trying<br />
to explain to other people who will never go<br />
up there what it’s like and what things we<br />
can learn, to try to pass it on.”<br />
A turquoise crystal ball<br />
GRAPHIC GINGER COONS<br />
In recent years, Bondar has been known<br />
for her outspokenness on the environment, a<br />
lifelong fascination that was only made<br />
stronger by her trip into space.<br />
“When I was nine years old, I enjoyed<br />
looking up at the night sky at Lake Superior.<br />
It’s impossible for me to think that someone<br />
could look up in the night sky and not be<br />
amazed and totally awestruck by it,” says<br />
Bondar.<br />
“When I was in the Girl Guides I was collecting<br />
leaves all the time. I was just<br />
absolutely imbued with the natural world<br />
and so were my parents. In space you don't<br />
see any of that stuff. It’s sheets of land with<br />
pastel colours, and mountains look like little<br />
blobs of whip cream. To understand the fabric<br />
of what makes up the beautiful rug we see<br />
up in space, we have to be on the surface of<br />
the planet. Talk about the privilege of going<br />
into space, the privilege is coming back<br />
knowing that we're on a planet and exploring<br />
it down here, I mean that's the privilege.”<br />
So how much of her perspective has<br />
changed since going into space?<br />
“I look at the world probably through a<br />
different—and I don’t mean to use this<br />
expression lightly because I’m a photographer—but<br />
through a different lens. I think<br />
stepping off of it made me realize how much<br />
of a planet it is. <strong>The</strong> majority of space is black<br />
with stars that don’t twinkle. It’s almost restful<br />
to look at the Earth, and it’s exciting<br />
because it’s almost like looking at a crystal<br />
ball that's huge and has a vibrating,<br />
turquoise cover to it. People sometimes sell<br />
our planet short, I mean we have life all over<br />
this planet, and we’re trying to find life elsewhere<br />
and to study it. But we have tons of it<br />
here.”<br />
Future of womanned space flight<br />
Bondar would rather be optimistic about<br />
the economy right now than the future of<br />
space flight.<br />
“I think there’s important consideration of<br />
whether it's really ethical at the moment to<br />
use funds to do those kinds of things when<br />
there are people dying here on Earth from<br />
diseases that we could solve if we put a bit<br />
more money in.”<br />
Howeer, as a doctor, Bondar believes the<br />
benefits to medical knowledge through the<br />
space program are priceless.<br />
“We’re unravelling great secrets of the<br />
body just by going into space. I’m interested<br />
in space medicine and how the human body<br />
changes, so we can look at theories we have<br />
on the Earth and we can test them in space<br />
and find out that, oh gosh, it’s more than<br />
gravity that explains how the blood is being<br />
distributed in the body, or why immature red<br />
cells coming out of the bone marrow or<br />
immature white blood cells are coming out of<br />
the bone marrow in space, but not here.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re are very poorly understood mechanisms.<br />
It’s not easy going into space. All the<br />
fluids float and you end up with almost borderline<br />
congestive heart failure every time<br />
you pop up there.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re are things that we can use in space<br />
flight to help us here on Earth, so we don’t<br />
want to stop the space program. It’s like going<br />
to the moon. By cancelling the Apollo program,<br />
the Americans really lost all that corporate<br />
knowledge, they lost that momentum. To<br />
build that stuff back up again is very difficult<br />
and even more costly. I do think that we will<br />
persist in having human beings in space,<br />
whether or not we are ever able to protect<br />
people against radiation and bone loss in<br />
space flight.”<br />
As far as space goes, says Bondar, “it’s<br />
always going to be out there, and I think<br />
Canada is always going to be able to participate.<br />
Whether or not our human endeavours<br />
are going to be as notable in the long<br />
run, I don’t know.”
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/WOMEN<br />
WOMEN 05<br />
Teen magazines: yay or nay?<br />
Looking pretty is the least of women’s problems<br />
GRAPHIC MADELINE COLEMAN<br />
• MADELINE COLEMAN<br />
Seventeen magazine once published a letter<br />
from a girl asking what to do about a fat<br />
crotch.<br />
“Dear Seventeen,” she had written fervently<br />
from her bedroom in Michigan, Arkansas or<br />
any other similar U.S. state. “My crotch is fat.”<br />
I was 13 when I read this and my own body<br />
image was predictably bad, but even to me<br />
crotch fat seemed like a non-issue. Seventeen<br />
disagreed; crotch fat was addressed as a problem,<br />
and possible solutions were offered.<br />
“Yes!” trumpeted the advice columnists<br />
from the glossy pages of the magazine. “You,<br />
too, can join the ranks of the slim-crotched!”<br />
While the owner of the fat crotch must have<br />
been soothed, we the good reader of<br />
Seventeen magazine had just been alerted to<br />
something we never knew we might need to<br />
fix.<br />
Herein lies the contradiction of the North<br />
American teen magazine.<br />
Seventeen, YM, CosmoGirl, Teen Vogue:<br />
mainstream teen magazines are not created<br />
equal, but the basic formula remains the<br />
same. <strong>The</strong>y are each veritable bastions of<br />
advice, with a smattering of cute boys and a<br />
thick gratin of shopping to seal the deal. <strong>The</strong><br />
attitude is always upbeat; the tampon advertisements,<br />
omnipresent.<br />
<strong>The</strong> commonalities sounds inane, but teen<br />
magazines are, arguably, an invaluable<br />
resource for the young and hormonal. If I'm<br />
knowledgeable about the symptoms of toxic<br />
shock syndrome, it is certainly a magazine to<br />
which I am indebted. I can only imagine how<br />
many CosmoGirl readers in abstinencepreaching<br />
communities managed, with the<br />
help of a magazine, to avoid unwanted pregnancy.<br />
Seventeen publishes reams of information<br />
about handling college applications.<br />
Knowledge is, as they say, power.<br />
But something is rotten in the state of the<br />
teen magazine.<br />
<strong>The</strong> publications I grew up reading are rife<br />
with hypocrisy and major purveyors of insecurity,<br />
adding to the worries of teenage girls as<br />
they try to assuage them. Teen Vogue publishes<br />
10 photographs of impossibly lanky models<br />
to every article about anorexia. One page<br />
would reassure me I didn't need a boyfriend to<br />
be happy, but the next would offer a master<br />
class in flirting. Back and forth, back and<br />
forth: I would repeatedly find myself dragged<br />
between self-acceptance and anxiety with<br />
every turn of the page.<br />
Contemporary teen magazines find themselves<br />
at an impasse between a kind of third<br />
wave feminism and their own long tradition of<br />
monetized adolescence. <strong>The</strong> contradictions<br />
arise when they try to have it both ways.<br />
Seventeen and its ilk struggle to find balance<br />
while also addressing one of the most delicate<br />
and impressionable audiences a publication<br />
could have: teenage girls.<br />
On one hand, a girl with a visible moustache<br />
in suburban Toronto is likely to be<br />
grateful for an article explaining how to<br />
remove it, and the magazine is acknowledging<br />
the reality that feminine facial hair is considered<br />
undesirable and helpfully providing a<br />
way out. <strong>The</strong> newly moustache-free citizen of<br />
the GTA may now find herself more confident.<br />
However, said magazine will also happily contribute<br />
to the culture that made her feel bad in<br />
the first place with language designed to hammer<br />
beauty ideals deep into the psyche. “Get<br />
pretty!” trumpets the cover of Seventeen. <strong>The</strong><br />
qualifier “because you aren't right now”<br />
remains unpublished and implicit.<br />
My own interaction with teen magazines,<br />
especially as a preteen unhip to the ways of<br />
the world, always came with a heavy dose of<br />
newfound insecurities culled from the pages. I<br />
have never had particularly prominent facial<br />
hair, but reading an article about how to eliminate<br />
it was enough to convince me I did. YM<br />
dedicated as much space to frizzy hair as it did<br />
to eating disorders and consequently came off<br />
as just a serious a problem. While I laughed at<br />
the letter about the fat-crotched girl, the fact<br />
that Seventeen had considered the problem<br />
common enough to publish legitimized it as a<br />
threat to one's beauty.<br />
It's time for teen magazines to take the next<br />
step and plunge wholeheartedly into an<br />
endorsement of self-acceptance. Is it unrealistic<br />
to hope ad-driven corporate entities will<br />
ever truly dedicate themselves to the self-fulfilment<br />
of their readers? Maybe so. But as teen<br />
publications continue to move forward, I hope<br />
they will acknowledge that prettiness is the<br />
least of our problems.<br />
MILFS, GILFS and cougars<br />
<strong>The</strong> paradox of older women in advertising<br />
• LAURA BEESTON<br />
Increasingly, you can find them on television, on billboards<br />
and in all the American Pie movies. MILFs,<br />
GILFs and Cougars: advertisings new angle of older<br />
women.<br />
This contemporary trend has seen older women<br />
occupy an increasing amount of visual and sexual space<br />
in the media, which has raised a debate: is this a breakthrough<br />
or a backlash? Is this empowerment or another<br />
age of sexism in our generation?<br />
In a quest for answers, I picked the brain of Pulitzer<br />
Prize winner Linda Kay, Professor of Gender and<br />
Journalism of Concordia’s Journalism Department, to<br />
gain some insight.<br />
“Personally I think that it is great,” said Kay. “[What<br />
is] quite interesting is how my students look at it and<br />
how I look at it. I see it as recognition of older women<br />
and as a sign we are getting away from this stereotype<br />
that everyone has to be young, or that youth has to be<br />
venerated. My students, however, saw it as a very clever<br />
marketing ploy.”<br />
Speaking predominantly about the Dove “Campaign<br />
for Real Beauty” that launched in 2004, Kay discussed<br />
the representation of “Pro-Age” as an alternative to the<br />
traditional beauty ads that came before.<br />
“I think that [there are] very clever people behind the<br />
campaigns, but I also think that it does open up space for<br />
older women, which is positive. What do we make of<br />
that? This is the continual paradox for women, even if<br />
we are in 2009.”<br />
Although Kay mused that perhaps this was a sign of<br />
empowerment for women in visual and commercial<br />
media, she wasn’t sure what the solution was for the sexist<br />
backlash.<br />
It is difficult to flat-out condemn an ad campaign<br />
which deviates from the skinny-youth norm, since representations<br />
of ‘real’ women, ‘real’ bodies and an<br />
expanded sense of what qualifies as ‘sexy’ in media<br />
seems long overdue; however isn't sexualizing older<br />
women just applying tired beauty preoccupations on<br />
another demographic? Are milfs, gilfs and cougars the<br />
sign that our society is finally catching-up, embracing,<br />
and celebrating women’s identity and sexuality at whatever<br />
age it may be? Or is it a calculated attempt to strategically<br />
market the baby boomer consumer?<br />
Visit Laura Beeston’s blog at, manstreammedia.blogspot.com<br />
GRAPHIC KALI MALINKA
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/WOMEN WOMEN 07<br />
What wave are we, anyway?<br />
Fourth wave feminism: is it already dead?<br />
• ANALYSIS BY LAURA BEESTON<br />
Alas, a neat little description of what it<br />
means to be a “feminist” in these modern,<br />
North American times does not formally<br />
exist. Feminism is an elusive term<br />
that means many things to many people.<br />
Like the suffragists, mystiques and Riot<br />
Grrrls that came before us, feminists<br />
have an identity problem that is<br />
difficult to pin: Who are we?<br />
Where are we? And what<br />
wave are we, anyways?<br />
An extremely flexible feminist<br />
space can be both liberating<br />
and problematic for the<br />
modern feminist trying to<br />
navigate her or his way<br />
though history, theory and<br />
identity. It also doesn’t help<br />
much that Ally McBeal,<br />
amongst others, have<br />
declared feminism dead for<br />
over a decade.<br />
Feminism died?<br />
Many theorists and<br />
activists agree that this<br />
death sentence is premature<br />
and Western-centric<br />
at best, considering the<br />
practice and signification<br />
of variants of feminism<br />
continue to radiate across<br />
cultures, symbols and languages.<br />
You don’t have to look very far to<br />
find feminist forms in music, art and<br />
action, in written and spoken word and in<br />
other forms and guises. <strong>The</strong>se things are a<br />
direct result of the feminists who came<br />
before us, indicating that feminism is<br />
alive and well, and that it has a pulse.<br />
For contemporary feminist organizations,<br />
such as Concordia's very own 2110<br />
Centre for Gender Advocacy, the postfeminist<br />
movement is seen as “working in<br />
support and solidarity with broader social<br />
movements built on the principles of feminism,<br />
anti-racism, anti-colonialism and<br />
gender self-determination,” according to<br />
outreach co-ordinator Bianca Mugyenyi.<br />
“Feminism, like all movements for<br />
social justice is always changing its priorities<br />
[as it] ebbs and flows, becoming<br />
more self-reflexive with an aim to leave no<br />
one behind.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> closest historical touchstone for<br />
the feminist movement today is the<br />
ambiguous and highly debatable “third<br />
wave” of the late ‘80s and ‘90s. This time<br />
was unique in establishing that feminism<br />
does not exist in a vacuum. It was also at<br />
this point in history that feminism pluralized<br />
itself to account for a relational and<br />
generational crisis occurring between a<br />
neo-plethora of waves and types of<br />
women’s lib.<br />
As differing strains of feminism broke<br />
down into a variety of subcultures and<br />
factions, anti-universal ideas of the movement<br />
were advocated: the Riot Grrrls, Girl<br />
Power girls, anti-porn movements, prosex<br />
movements, the pro-choicers, the<br />
What wave are you? GRAPHIC VIVIEN LEUNG<br />
post-modern, the post-colonial, Third<br />
World, standpoint, liberal, radical, materialist,<br />
lesbian, queer, Marxist, socialist,<br />
post-structural, et al; the list just goes<br />
on… ending, dramatically, with “postfeminism.”<br />
By 1998-before many of us<br />
were old enough to appreciate that the<br />
battle of the sexes had been won–it<br />
appeared that the third wave of western<br />
feminism rose and fell.<br />
Luckily, feminism forms didn’t waste<br />
time mourning the untimely death of the<br />
third wave and this is likely because it<br />
shares a commonality with the waves that<br />
preceded it: the unmistakable stench of a<br />
backlash.<br />
Buying the backlash<br />
It is necessary to understand a couple<br />
interesting things about feminist backlash.<br />
First of all, the backlash is about as<br />
old as feminism itself. Secondly, the representation<br />
of feminism in the media is<br />
detrimental to the movement itself.<br />
For starters, suffragist sisters were portrayed<br />
either as men trapped in women’s<br />
bodies, or as frigid harpies. In the realm<br />
of media, the “pink ghetto” of women’s<br />
participation was a place of paradox:<br />
opening up a space for women's visual and<br />
political presence, while simultaneously<br />
prescribing many social mores of the<br />
newly industrialized culture. In response<br />
to women's increasing presence in the<br />
urban and public landscapes (also known<br />
“Feminism, like all movements for social justice is always<br />
changing its priorities [as it] ebbs and flows, becoming more<br />
self-reflexive with an aim to leave no one behind.”<br />
—Bianca Mugyenyi,<br />
2110 Centre for Gendre Advocacy outreach coordinator<br />
as a massive male inferiority complex),<br />
advertisements began to endorse the<br />
dichotomized “nature” of 20th century<br />
womanhood as being “virgins” or<br />
“vamps.”<br />
For the second wave, media was used<br />
as a publicity tool. Alongside the other<br />
social movements of the era, the women's<br />
movement staged elaborate happenings<br />
and protests to raise consciousness.<br />
In response to this, two things happened<br />
in terms of mass feminist presentation:<br />
the birth of the hairy, bra-burning,<br />
man-hating, f-word stereotype reared her<br />
radical head, and the phenomena which<br />
has come to be known as “commodity<br />
feminism.”<br />
In a nutshell, commodity feminism<br />
describes the ways in which media incorporates<br />
the cultural power and energy of<br />
feminism while neutralizing the force of<br />
its social and political critique.<br />
A shift from objectification of women<br />
to commodity feminism is evidenced by<br />
such classics as the Virginia Slims “You've<br />
Come a Long Way, Baby” ad campaign.<br />
Though far too dated, white and middle<br />
class for the non-essentialist model<br />
of modern feminism, these ads bare an<br />
eerie and annoying likeness to modern<br />
ads for birth control, firming<br />
lotion, or any other commercials<br />
that equate freedom with product.<br />
By associating buying with<br />
“empowerment,” capitalism<br />
has co-opted feminist<br />
rhetoric and symbolism<br />
and this could very<br />
well be the reason<br />
why Sex and the<br />
City is so damned<br />
popular.<br />
When asked<br />
about this<br />
materialist<br />
culture in<br />
the form of<br />
backlash,<br />
Mugyenyi<br />
agreed: “rampant<br />
consumerism<br />
pushes us to be more concerned<br />
about 'stuff' than<br />
social justice, political<br />
rights, or equality.”<br />
Media commoditization of feminism<br />
(and blackness, and queerness, if you<br />
want to go there) drives a cultural illusion<br />
that the political battles have been won.<br />
This type of attitude diverts and distracts<br />
the movement away from its power of<br />
resistance, but perhaps it is in this shift<br />
that a fourth wave can figure out the feminist<br />
post-mortem and re-emerge.<br />
Is it wave time?<br />
Epic third wave feminist Bell Hooks has<br />
a perfect term for what ails the potential of<br />
a fourth wave today; she calls it “lifestyle<br />
feminism.” In her explanation, Hooks<br />
accounts for the growing disinterest in<br />
feminism as a political action among<br />
women as directly linked to the romantic<br />
notions of personal freedom found in popular<br />
culture.<br />
From this, perhaps the only way variants<br />
of feminism of the future will get back<br />
into a wave formation is when a radical<br />
consumer-power-as-action is realized.<br />
How we buy, where we buy and what we<br />
buy might be the difference between feminism<br />
that is “worn” and feminism that is<br />
“done.” Perhaps a fourth wave will come<br />
around in the awareness that, just as feminism<br />
is not passive, neither is being a<br />
female consumer.
06 WOMEN THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/WOMEN<br />
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08 WOMEN THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/WOMEN<br />
A chat hostess<br />
is smarter than you think<br />
Concordia students pay bills through Internet thrills<br />
• ESINAM BECKLEY<br />
A chat hostess has to be able to do whatever they think will get their customer to pay up, including taking it all off. PHOTO JONATHAN DEMPSEY<br />
What is it like being a woman<br />
who attends Concordia by day, but<br />
is a “chat hostess” by night?<br />
A chat hostess is someone who<br />
has a camera set up to a web site<br />
that hosts however many girls,<br />
guys or both online at one time.<br />
Ladies and gentlemen can choose<br />
the room of the girl or guy they<br />
desire with one click of a mouse,<br />
where they will be presented with<br />
live video feed of their chosen host<br />
or hostess.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are two forms of chatting:<br />
free chat, and paid chat. Paid<br />
chat is how the host or hostess<br />
makes his or her money. Once in<br />
paid chat, the user will usually ask<br />
to see a little more of their hostess.<br />
A hostess has to be hot, sexy,<br />
charismatic, witty, or whatever<br />
they think will get customers to<br />
pay up. Nudity is almost always<br />
involved, but there is the occasional<br />
user that will pay for some oneon-one<br />
companionship, or who is<br />
just interested in striking up a conversation.<br />
I sat down with Catherine*, a<br />
Concordia Fine Arts student and<br />
chat hostess. I was curious to know<br />
what she thinks about her own privacy.<br />
Catherine moved to Montreal<br />
because she needed a job, but she<br />
didn't speak French. Catherine<br />
had lost her virginity that year and<br />
said she wanted to make up for<br />
lost time while learning a thing or<br />
two about sexuality.<br />
Learn a thing or two she did.<br />
Catherine had her first clitoral<br />
orgasm on camera using a vibrator,<br />
which she was introduced to<br />
for the first time at her new job.<br />
Catherine felt the concept of<br />
taking off her clothes was not really<br />
a big issue. In fact, she was more<br />
worried about her figure and actually<br />
drawing in an audience.<br />
“[At first, I thought], ‘Dear God,<br />
how is anyone ever going to pay to<br />
see this, [I’m] all skin and bones.<br />
‘But then I quickly realized that it’s<br />
much more about who you are<br />
than what you look like.”<br />
Catherine claims she's not an<br />
exhibitionist, but considers herself<br />
much more of a companion and an<br />
entertainer to her clients. She's<br />
only an “actress” when she's roleplaying<br />
with one of her clients.<br />
I asked Catherine if there was<br />
any particular freedom or independence<br />
the job offers.<br />
“Above all else,” said Catherine,<br />
“the fact that I can do this from<br />
anywhere in the world—so long as<br />
I’m connected to the internet.”<br />
“I get to sit in this<br />
room by myself,<br />
practicing the safest<br />
sex possible, and<br />
people want to pay to<br />
see me?”<br />
—Catherine,<br />
Concordia chat hostess<br />
<strong>The</strong>re’s no way she could be<br />
making this kind of money working<br />
minimum wage, says<br />
Catherine.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> job also requires a lot of<br />
your attention, so the less you put<br />
in the less you get out of it, naturally.”<br />
So are people starting to change<br />
their views on women and sex?<br />
Catherine isn’t so sure, but in<br />
the “cam world” it’s not enough to<br />
just sit there looking pretty.<br />
That's not what Catherine’s<br />
clients come back for.<br />
In a world where tits and ass<br />
are freely available nearly everywhere,<br />
and where ways of communicating<br />
are rapidly increasing,<br />
you need brains to keep with the<br />
demands of stimulation, be they<br />
sexual, emotional or intellectual,<br />
says Catherine.<br />
Devon* is a student at<br />
Concordia studying Sociology, and<br />
got into the “chat hostess” profession<br />
after seeing an ad in a local<br />
paper. She had come across the ad<br />
several times before, but the idea<br />
of nudity always scared her off.<br />
One day Devon decided to go<br />
for it. She went to the office and<br />
got the job.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> first day was extremely<br />
liberating,” says Devon, who says<br />
she always had a love for the art of<br />
masturbation. She couldn’t believe<br />
that people would pay to see her<br />
pleasuring herself.<br />
“It’s something I do every<br />
night, sometimes three or four<br />
times a night. I get to sit in this<br />
room by myself, practicing the<br />
safest sex possible, and people<br />
want to pay to see me?”<br />
Devon had issues with her body<br />
image growing up as a teen and<br />
says the compliments of the customers<br />
have done a lot to boost her<br />
self-esteem.<br />
“Many people think that the<br />
main customers to these sites are<br />
sleazy guys who can't get laid,”<br />
says Devon. “People don’t think of<br />
problems such as disability, or not<br />
having time to go out and meet<br />
someone because you work 24<br />
hours a day.”<br />
She also said that she loves the<br />
array of different sexual fetishes<br />
she encounters, from cross dressing<br />
males, to getting to be a dominatrix<br />
for a day.<br />
Unlike Catherine, however, she<br />
says she has a hard time telling<br />
people what she does to make her<br />
money.<br />
“I shouldn’t be ashamed,<br />
because I’m a very smart woman. I<br />
go to school, I'm an intellectual,<br />
some may even say a nerd, but I do<br />
come across people I just know I<br />
can't tell. Ironically, I wouldn’t<br />
want to be friends with someone<br />
who judges me based on this issue,<br />
but I’m not about to go running in<br />
the streets screaming ‘I take my<br />
clothes off and masturbate for a<br />
living.’”<br />
Devon says that there’s a strong<br />
sense of camaraderie between chat<br />
hostesses. Many of them are young<br />
and in school, and there’s little<br />
competition, since each girl is<br />
online in her own room.<br />
People have a preconceived<br />
notion that if you work with your<br />
body, you lack intelligence, says<br />
Devon, who admits to her own<br />
preconceived notions, however<br />
positively.<br />
“To me a woman who has the<br />
guts to take her clothes off is someone<br />
I want to learn about and<br />
could potentially be someone I<br />
admire. I like people that go<br />
against the grain, you know? I'd<br />
rather be in a room full of people<br />
willing to do something different<br />
despite people’s views rather than<br />
a room full of androids—unless<br />
that's your fetish!”<br />
* Names have been changed
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/WOMEN<br />
WOMEN 09<br />
Women on the edge<br />
Art festival takes over Montreal in March<br />
• ANDREA PARE<br />
If, as the saying goes, March comes in like<br />
a lion, the fierce lioness takes over by midmonth<br />
with the opening of Edgy Women, a<br />
contemporary feminist festival which showcases<br />
performances by female multidisciplinary<br />
artists from here and all over the world.<br />
<strong>The</strong> festival is a production of Studio 303,<br />
which is itself a gathering place for independent<br />
performance artists in Montreal. Festival<br />
co-ordinator Miriam Ginestier, who is also the<br />
artistic director of Studio 303, has been organizing<br />
and choosing talent for the festival for<br />
the last sixteen years.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> birth of the festival was pretty accidental<br />
really, but is has evolved into a fun<br />
space for exchange and experimentation,” she<br />
says.<br />
“I kind of take feminism for granted, but<br />
it's still a dirty word in many circles for many<br />
reasons. While much of the work doesn't<br />
directly or consciously address feminist<br />
issues, I consider edgy artists to be feminist<br />
role models.”<br />
Among the artists featured this year is drag<br />
king performer Mildred Gerestant, a<br />
Brooklyn-based drag king performer who has<br />
brought her drag show Dred: Daring Reality<br />
Every Day to stages across the world. She has<br />
also performed in and out of drag in theatre<br />
productions and onscreen, most notably in<br />
Venus Boyz, a documentary about the female<br />
masculinity that was shown at the Sundance<br />
film festival. She says that Miriam had asked<br />
her to perform at the Edgy Women Festival<br />
before, but that this year everything finally<br />
came together.<br />
“I’m excited and glad that they wanted me<br />
to be a part of it. It’s going to be a lot of fun, my<br />
show is funny so be prepared to laugh, be prepared<br />
to be surprised and be prepared to have<br />
your boundaries pushed and learn all at the<br />
same time.”<br />
Gerestant describes her show as “a mix of<br />
ValDesjardins in “pure laine,” a multidisciplinary performance. PHOTO DANIEL F. HABER<br />
poetry monologue, storytelling, dancing, and<br />
lip-synching.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> performance will feature her character<br />
Dred as Shaft, P Diddy, and P Diddy, as a drag<br />
queen, she says.<br />
“Dred is the man born out of my woman<br />
self,” she says. “It’s an extension of me, it’s a<br />
part of who I am. At the end of my shows I like<br />
to strip into being a woman, I like to show people<br />
that they just finished watching a woman.”<br />
Although the show is dealing with gender<br />
perception, Gerestant says the show is meant<br />
to be enjoyed by all.<br />
“I do the show, not just for gay people or for<br />
straight people or for women or men, but for<br />
everybody, so we can live in a world where<br />
everybody has the freedom to express their<br />
gender in a way they choose and not be<br />
oppressed by it.”<br />
Also taking the stage is Montreal native Val<br />
Desjardins, who will be premiering her<br />
dynamic performance piece Peur Laine at the<br />
Edgy Women Festival.<br />
Desjardins came up with the concept of<br />
“Peur Laine” (a play on words of “pure laine,”<br />
an expression that refers to being of pure francophone<br />
heritage in Quebec) during the<br />
Bouchard-Taylor Commission, a cultural<br />
accommodation inquiry that took place this<br />
past summer all across Quebec. She says she<br />
felt the commission was homophobic in addition<br />
to being racist and decided to create a<br />
show around this idea. She says the show is<br />
her experience growing up as a queer woman<br />
in the context of being French Canadian with<br />
the backdrop of Quebec “pure laine” culture.<br />
“It’s linking Quebec history but then<br />
also talking about my personal experience,”<br />
she says.<br />
With actress and Studio 303 artist Nathalie<br />
Claude by her side as her mentor, Desjardins<br />
has been hard at work on Peur Laine, which<br />
she describes as a combination of “live recorded<br />
sound, photography, video and live performance.”<br />
It will even feature rollerskating, as<br />
Desjardins is also a skater in Montreal's roller<br />
derby league. Even though it isn’t acting per<br />
say, she says she will express different parts of<br />
herself. In one part of the performance, she<br />
rollerskates in a big prom-like dress and dons<br />
a blonde wig. She describes this look as sort of<br />
like “a girl in a music box… you can tell it’s ‘off’,<br />
its not pretty. You can tell there is something<br />
going on, it’s not pristine, it’s not Barbie, but<br />
it’s referencing that, that we all wanted to grow<br />
up a certain way.”<br />
She agrees that performance art can be<br />
very therapeutic, although she seems to cringe<br />
at the word, asking, “Can we invent a new<br />
one?”<br />
“It’s work that's very personal, so it<br />
becomes a way to laugh at things you’ve lived,<br />
and just to connect with the audience too, with<br />
your experience, we've all been there, there is<br />
a lot of common threads that everyone can<br />
identify with.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Edgy Women Festival takes place March<br />
14-21 at different theatres and venues in<br />
Montreal. Check the Edgy Women website,<br />
edgywomen.ca, for more information.<br />
Mildred “Dred” Gerestant performs at the<br />
opening show at <strong>The</strong> Eastern Bloc on March 14,<br />
at 9 p.m.<br />
For more information about Dred, email<br />
her at mildred_gerestant@yahoo.com or<br />
check her out on Facebook. Val Desjardins<br />
performs on March 20 at 7:30 p.m. at<br />
<strong>The</strong>atre Tangente. Check out Val Desjardins’<br />
page at valdesjardins.com.<br />
Pour la suite du monde<br />
Polyechnique does justice to 1989 shooting<br />
• ANNABELLE BLAIS<br />
Polytechnique is not a film that can be<br />
watched without considering its historical<br />
context. <strong>The</strong> events that took place at Ecole<br />
Polytechnique on Dec, 6, 1989 still live on in<br />
the minds of many Montrealers.<br />
<strong>The</strong> debates that followed the shooting<br />
could have posed some serious risks for director<br />
Denis Villeneuve. For instance, he could<br />
have gotten lost in the endless debates about<br />
who or what was responsible for turning Marc<br />
Lépine into a killer.<br />
Some argued that every man has the<br />
potential to be a murderer, like Lépine, or<br />
that the massacre had something to do with<br />
the fact that he was a son of a Muslim<br />
Algerian—his real name was Gamil Gharbi.<br />
Luckily, Villeneuve avoids those possible<br />
explanations, neither of which he would have<br />
been able to satisfy inquiry.<br />
However, it’s impossible to ignore the fact<br />
that Lépine claimed, in a suicide note, that he<br />
was fighting feminism. But at what point<br />
could such an extreme action be considered a<br />
political statement rather than an act of madness?<br />
Should a society feel responsible for the<br />
actions of one man? <strong>The</strong> film doesn't provide<br />
answers and this is not its goal.<br />
Villeneuve and Jacques Davidts, the<br />
scriptwriters, wisely chose to focus on the<br />
shooting itself. It is an interpretation of what<br />
happened, but one based on interviews done<br />
with the victims themselves.<br />
<strong>The</strong> movie does tackle one issue that was<br />
lobbied at survivors, namely, why didn’t the<br />
men attending Ecole Polytechnique intervene?<br />
<strong>The</strong> movie illustrates that few could<br />
have known, expected or reacted the way that<br />
society usually dictates in these circumstances.<br />
<strong>The</strong> movie isn’t guilty of overarching acts<br />
of voyeurism, as some originally feared.<br />
Where Villeneuve masters his art is by using<br />
sound instead of shocking images. <strong>The</strong> cinematography<br />
is successful in illustrating the<br />
suddenness of the event. Steady camera shots<br />
are used to depict the calmness, the everyday<br />
life. <strong>The</strong>y are contrasted by a shaky camera<br />
and extreme close ups to illustrate the confusion<br />
and the fear as the massacre begins. But<br />
this is not an action movie, and neither is it<br />
insensitive or sensationalist with its subject<br />
matter.<br />
Villeneuve cautiously breaks the rhythm<br />
so the viewers can breathe, and better understand<br />
the human trauma that affects the survivors.<br />
Just little over an hour in length,<br />
Polytechnique is a brief, if not intense, experience.<br />
True, it could awake bad memories in<br />
more than a few Montrealers, especially those<br />
who witnessed the events first-hand, or<br />
through relatives who were there.<br />
But as a poster in one of the victim’s<br />
rooms suggests—a reference to a Pierre<br />
Perrault and Michel Brault film—this movie<br />
was perhaps needed pour la suite du monde.<br />
For the people to come.<br />
Movie poster for Polytechnique.
10 WOMEN THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/WOMEN<br />
If this<br />
twat<br />
couldtalk<br />
Going deep with <strong>The</strong> Vagina<br />
Monologues at Concordia<br />
• KRISTEN THEODORE<br />
You may have heard it<br />
referred to, or have heard it<br />
called a cunt, vag, pussycat,<br />
monkeybox, cooter and twat.<br />
But make no mistake, it's actually<br />
your vagina.<br />
<strong>The</strong> word “vagina” is terminology<br />
you might be otherwise<br />
too embarrassed or insecure to<br />
use as promiscuously as any of<br />
your other body parts. And guess<br />
what? You aren't alone.<br />
“I bet you're worried,” muses the<br />
opening line of <strong>The</strong> Vagina<br />
Monologues. Worried? Sure. Who<br />
knows what else these bold, young<br />
actresses are going to say next? That<br />
unsettling feeling is normal, expected<br />
even. Once it passes, though, you will<br />
be filled with a sense of astonishment,<br />
awe and even something that resembles<br />
assurance.<br />
Coming to Concordia courtesy of <strong>The</strong><br />
Association of Alms, <strong>The</strong> Vagina<br />
Monologues is one of the most raunchy<br />
plays to grace the stage in recent times. <strong>The</strong><br />
Concordia version promises to be every bit<br />
as unconventional and no less shocking as<br />
one might come to expect a vagina-centric<br />
production to be.<br />
Featuring a Concordia-only cast and<br />
crew, this is the first time the Monologues<br />
will be performed on campus since 2005.<br />
<strong>The</strong> play is a series of monologues, originally<br />
crafted by Eve Ensler. While all parts<br />
of the play discuss the vagina in various<br />
lights, from the funny—like a dialogue<br />
about a woman feeling empowered by her<br />
pubic hair—to the serious, such as rape<br />
and insecurity, it is nothing short of, well,<br />
graphic. This year’s version will also feature<br />
a role about violence against women<br />
in the Congo.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Association of Alms, a non-profit<br />
organization, is all about charity work and<br />
how best to serve the community. After<br />
having felt inspired by a production of the<br />
Monologues, president of the Association<br />
Eileen Wong saw it as ample opportunity<br />
to spread awareness for International<br />
Women’s Day and decided to put together<br />
a production.<br />
Since the play hadn’t been done in<br />
a while on campus, she felt Concordia<br />
was about due. It was through V-Day,<br />
a global organization, that Wong was<br />
able to follow through with this initiative.<br />
This particular event's proceeds will<br />
benefit the violence against women in<br />
Congo, supported by none other than<br />
V-Day operations.<br />
V-Day offers willing<br />
volunteers the chance to<br />
put together their own<br />
version of the play.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>y have this special<br />
campaign that sends you the<br />
script, the guidelines to putting<br />
together <strong>The</strong> Vagina<br />
Monologues,” says Wong. “It was<br />
just something I wanted to do, it<br />
was sort of a personal thing for me.”<br />
After holding auditions some two<br />
months, five young actresses were chosen<br />
to be the leading ladies of the production.<br />
<strong>The</strong> stars all have—you guessed<br />
it—vaginas. <strong>The</strong>y hope audiences will<br />
open up to the idea of a play about genitalia<br />
and they themselves aren't afraid to<br />
talk about what kind of reaction the word<br />
inevitably invokes.<br />
Generally, today’s society plays up the<br />
taboo nature of using the word “vagina,”<br />
however that stigma changes after popping<br />
your Monologues cherry: “You’ll<br />
walk out desensitized to the word vagina,”<br />
advises Allie Uhrig, one of the actors.<br />
Pretty much everyone can agree.<br />
Throwing the word “vagina” around tends<br />
to be a touchy subject, more so than when<br />
discussing male genetialia. <strong>The</strong> stars of<br />
the Monologues hope to erase the stigmatic<br />
label associated with the word. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
warn that the audience might feel the subject<br />
at hand is important to discuss.<br />
“I was pretty uncomfortable with<br />
talking about the smell and<br />
crustiness of some areas. [...] I<br />
thought, how am I supposed to say it<br />
in a room full of strangers?”<br />
Though graphic in content, ultimately<br />
the message is strong.<br />
“I was pretty uncomfortable with talking<br />
about the smell and crustiness of some<br />
areas,” says Erin Brahm, another actress<br />
in the play. “I can’t say this to myself. I<br />
thought, how am I supposed to say it in a<br />
room full of strangers?”<br />
But, with time and practise, soon the<br />
fear subsided and for the most part, the<br />
word “power” and “vagina” becomes all<br />
the more synonymous. <strong>The</strong> play also abolishes<br />
many of the myths attached to the<br />
vagina, instead bringing power to terms<br />
that were once, and may still be, considered<br />
derogatory to most women. Adds<br />
Brahm, “I always thought ‘pussy’ was a<br />
bad word, but it’s not a negative thing, it's<br />
a positive thing. It’s empowering.”<br />
Although it is not specifically targeted<br />
at the female demographic, there are persistent<br />
concerns among the cast members<br />
that too many men won’t consider coming<br />
because the general assumption is that<br />
<strong>The</strong> Vagina Monologues is meant to hate<br />
on the opposite sex. Wong invites men to<br />
come, insisting that there is much to be<br />
learned about women through the play's<br />
variety of monologues.<br />
“I would really like to see a lot of men,”<br />
says Wong, adding that the play is not a<br />
means to rage against dudes, but rather a<br />
learning tool: “It’s fun, it’s a comedy in<br />
some ways and it’s also to create awareness.<br />
Like, if people want to laugh, they<br />
can come. If people want to learn, they can<br />
come.” She pauses. “So it's not exactly<br />
feminism. It's more about femininity.”<br />
For those reluctant males, the director<br />
of the production, Will MacGregor, also<br />
dismisses the belief that the play is<br />
strictly geared for women.<br />
“Speaking from the penis perspective,<br />
I’ve seen the play before,<br />
and it’s such an interesting play.<br />
It’s just such a unique piece. I<br />
remember seeing it for the<br />
first time and saying, man,<br />
how come there aren't<br />
—Erin Brahm,<br />
actress<br />
GRAPHIC GINGER COONS<br />
penis monologues?”<br />
Asked to join the production<br />
when he and<br />
Wong were brought<br />
together through a<br />
mutual friend,<br />
MacGregor feels that<br />
the experience has<br />
been nothing short of<br />
rewarding.<br />
“It’s this piece about<br />
sexual identity and how you<br />
relate to your body. Of course,<br />
not having the requisite equipment<br />
is a bit of a barrier, but that means<br />
you have to work hard to kind of relate to<br />
it.”<br />
In addition to a great soiree of entertaining<br />
monologues, the Association of<br />
Alms will provide snacks, conveniently<br />
enough in the shape of vaginas, for the<br />
weary wanderers and hungry audience<br />
members. While <strong>The</strong> Vagina Monologues<br />
may not seem like your standard<br />
Wednesday or Thursday night, the cast<br />
invites you to take a chance on something<br />
new.<br />
This play is anything but generic,<br />
and from its reputation, <strong>The</strong> Vagina<br />
Monologues doesn't plan to hold<br />
anything back. Uhrig sums it up<br />
best: “We’re saying all the things<br />
that everyone thinks but are too scared<br />
to say.”
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/WOMEN<br />
WOMEN 11<br />
60 million strong<br />
Montreal foundation reaches out to women without access to education<br />
• KAMILA HINKSON<br />
While studying for your fourth<br />
midterm in as many weeks, with<br />
your social life in shambles and your<br />
coffee addiction at its zenith, have<br />
you ever sat back and thought:<br />
“Wow, I’m fortunate to be in this situation”?<br />
Chances are that if you attend<br />
Concordia University, then at some<br />
point in your life you have also sat in<br />
a desk at a CEGEP, a high school<br />
and an elementary school. Though<br />
getting an education is a universal<br />
human right, things don't always<br />
play out the way that they should.<br />
Wanda Bedard, who made a stop<br />
at the Atwater Library and<br />
Computer Centre on March 5 for<br />
International Women’s Day, founded<br />
the 60 Million Girls foundation<br />
in 2006. <strong>The</strong> foundation, which is<br />
based in Montreal, is dedicated to<br />
giving the sixty million girls in<br />
developing countries around the<br />
world access to education.<br />
Bedard says most parents want<br />
to send both their children to<br />
school, but it’s a better investment<br />
to send boys to school, and so girls<br />
stay at home.<br />
Nine years ago, Bedard kept seeing<br />
newspaper articles about<br />
women in Afghanistan and their<br />
struggles under the Taliban regime.<br />
“I couldn't believe there were<br />
women still on the planet with no<br />
rights at all,” she explains. Bedard<br />
continued to inform herself about<br />
their plights and was amazed by<br />
Wanda Bedard, the founder of 60 Million Girls, during a trip to Kenya in<br />
2004. PHOTO 60 MILLION GIRLS<br />
how she, a successful businesswoman,<br />
has “been able to do anything<br />
I wanted,” while women elsewhere<br />
were suffering.<br />
UNICEF puts the current estimate<br />
of children with no access to a<br />
formal education at 93 million.<br />
Close to 80 per cent of these children<br />
live in sub-Saharan Africa and<br />
South Asia. According to the<br />
Canadian<br />
International<br />
Development Agency, one third of<br />
children who start school will drop<br />
out before grade five. Of the children<br />
with no access, two thirds—<br />
about 62 million—are girls. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
make up most of the students who<br />
drop out as well.<br />
One day, the oldest of Bedard’s<br />
two daughters turned to her and<br />
asked, “‘Mom, what are you going to<br />
do about it?’ It was great to read<br />
about these problems and complain<br />
about them but if you don't take<br />
action, nothing ever happens.”<br />
Soon after, Bedard began volunteering<br />
at UNICEF Quebec. <strong>The</strong>re,<br />
she was involved in the construction<br />
of a satellite school in Burkina<br />
Faso, West Africa. Satellite schools<br />
are built in places where access to<br />
other schools is difficult. According<br />
to UNICEF, their two main purposes<br />
“are to increase access to primary<br />
school, especially for girls,<br />
and to link children’s education to<br />
their cultural context.” <strong>The</strong>se<br />
schools are used to educate children<br />
until they’re old enough to<br />
walk to “classic” schools.<br />
Bedard was named UNICEF’s<br />
Volunteer of the Year for Quebec in<br />
2004. <strong>The</strong> success of her ventures<br />
with UNICEF encouraged Bedard to<br />
create her own initiative.<br />
But sending a girl to school is<br />
actually a better investment than<br />
most think. An educated girl has<br />
positive impact on society, says<br />
Bedard. <strong>The</strong>se girls are better able<br />
to take care of themselves. An educated<br />
mother is more likely to send<br />
her own children to school.<br />
UNESCO lists improved health and<br />
family planning, poverty reduction,<br />
and better overall economic performance<br />
as some benefits to girls’<br />
education. “We want to make sure<br />
no girls are left out,” Bedard stresses.<br />
In the past five years, 60 Million<br />
Girls has funded projects in Zambia,<br />
Kenya and African refugee camps.<br />
Projects are selected based on proposals<br />
from different NGOs. 90 to<br />
95 per cent of their funds come from<br />
donations and because the foundation<br />
is run by volunteers, 100 per<br />
cent of those donations go towards<br />
funding the projects. Each project<br />
receives 100,000 dollars.<br />
In 2008, the foundation doubled<br />
their fundraising target in order to<br />
begin supporting two projects a<br />
year. This year, the Zimbabwe Girl<br />
Child Network and an indigenous<br />
tribe in rural Honduras will be the<br />
recipients of funding from 60<br />
Million Girls.<br />
<strong>The</strong> factors preventing girls from<br />
attending school vary depending on<br />
which country you look at, but<br />
Bedard says poverty is the number<br />
one hurdle. According to the United<br />
Nations Girls’ Education Initiative<br />
website, only 18 per cent of girls are<br />
literate, compared to 50 per cent of<br />
boys.<br />
Afghan girls are faced with a lack<br />
of accessibility, security, basic<br />
school infrastructure and female<br />
teachers. Bedard says one of her<br />
dreams was to do a project in<br />
Afghanistan, which was realized in<br />
2008 when 60 Million Girls funded<br />
community schools in Afghanistan.<br />
<strong>The</strong> money went towards the<br />
“establishment and support of 37<br />
community—based schools and the<br />
training of 80 female teachers in a<br />
child—centred and gender-sensitive<br />
new curriculum,” according to their<br />
website.<br />
Bedard spends a lot of time<br />
speaking to students in Montrealarea<br />
schools. Her message to them<br />
is that making a change in the world<br />
isn't all that difficult.<br />
“I’m just an ordinary person, not<br />
the head of a country or a diplomat<br />
of something like that, [but] it only<br />
takes one person in a community to<br />
make a change.”<br />
To find out how to volunteer at 60<br />
Million Girls, visit their website at<br />
www.60millionsdefilles.org.<br />
For more information about girls'<br />
education, start with:<br />
www.unicef.org/girlseducation/,<br />
www.ungei.org, www.unesco.org<br />
A woman’s wish for her son<br />
Migrant workers: the story of Melca Salvador<br />
• TERRINE FRIDAY<br />
Melca Salvador came to Canada in 1995<br />
as part of the federal government's Live-in<br />
Caregiver Program.<br />
Salvador, a native of the Philippines, was<br />
fired two months later after it was discovered<br />
she was pregnant.<br />
A few years later, in 2000, Salvador was<br />
ordered by the Canadian government to<br />
leave the country because she had not fulfilled<br />
the LCP requirements: two years of<br />
domestic work within three years of landing<br />
in Canada.<br />
“All I want is to stay legal and raise my<br />
Canadian son,” Salvador said in her feature<br />
documentary, Standing Ground: <strong>The</strong> Melca<br />
Salvador Story. “What’s wrong with that?”<br />
Salvador’s story is only one of many that<br />
highlight the injustices towards women—<br />
especially migrant women, said Tess<br />
Tessalona, spokesperson for the Immigrant<br />
Workers’ Centre in Montreal.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> working class has been exploited<br />
and oppressed on a global scale,” Tessalona<br />
said on Feb. 28 at “Women Demand a New<br />
World Order,” a series of discussions about<br />
imperialism, occupation, war, exploitation,<br />
and repression. “No one should be illegal,”<br />
continued Tessalona, who attributes the<br />
crippled economies of developing countries<br />
to debt-driven consumption on a global<br />
scale.<br />
Tessalona, who came to Canada as a<br />
migrant worker in 1988, defended the expatriot<br />
mass move away from the developing<br />
world as the search for “a means to survive.”<br />
“<strong>The</strong>y have no rights or less rights,”<br />
Tessalona continued, noting most migrant<br />
workers pick up the “3D” jobs nobody else<br />
wants to do: “they’re dirty, difficult and dangerous,”<br />
she explained.<br />
According to Statistics Canada, over<br />
300,000 Filipinos were living in Canada by<br />
2006. Two-thirds of them arrived after 1991,<br />
during the authoritarian regime of then-<br />
President Fidel Ramos.<br />
Connie Bragas-Regalado, founder of<br />
Migrante International, estimated over one<br />
hundred Filipinos leave the Philippines<br />
every hour. Most are in search of work outside<br />
the country.<br />
“If there were an anti-Christ, Gloria<br />
Tess Tessalona (centre) shares the stage with Richard (right), son of migrant worker Melca Salvador.<br />
PHOTO TERRINE FRIDAY<br />
[Macapagal-Arroyo, president of the<br />
Philippines,] would be the ultimate antifeminist.”<br />
Arroyo, accused of committing electoral<br />
fraud to win the 2004 Philippines presidential<br />
election, has been criticized for her economic<br />
reforms.<br />
Salvador—who actively campaigned for a<br />
year and eventually went into hiding—was<br />
finally granted residency in 2001, allowing<br />
her to stay in Canada with her son Richard.<br />
<strong>The</strong> grounds were “humanitarian and compassionate,”<br />
as per the Immigration and<br />
Refugee Protection Act. During her time<br />
away from the LCP, she rallied with the<br />
Filipino Women's Association in Quebec for<br />
human rights.<br />
“If I need to die, I’ll do it, but I’ll fight for<br />
Richard’s rights,” Salvador said.<br />
Salvador died of breast cancer in 2004.
12 WOMEN THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/WOMEN<br />
<strong>The</strong> Cirque de boudoir<br />
From the fetish scene to the circus, Bunnyguts bears all<br />
• ESINAM BECKLEY<br />
Ms. Bunnyguts is the kind of woman<br />
we can look up to in this day and age.<br />
Bunnyguts, along with her boyfriend<br />
and financial partner Davide, is the<br />
founder of Cirque de boudoir, an environment<br />
of liberation: sexually, mentally and<br />
physically.<br />
For her it is a creative baby matured<br />
into a chance to explore weird aspects of<br />
sexuality, a “kinky community organization”<br />
as she puts it.<br />
CDB will be three years old in October,<br />
and it gets bigger with every passing<br />
event. CDB hosts parties that are full of<br />
fun, costumes, performance art, dancing<br />
and silliness.<br />
What should you expect at a CDB<br />
party? A broad range of people, that’s for<br />
sure. Straight, vanilla types wearing just<br />
lingerie, drag queens, trannies, people<br />
from the gay scene, club kids, swingers,<br />
people hard into the fetish scene, from all<br />
kinds of sub cultures, goth, punk, etc.. All<br />
of them fit right in.<br />
Bunnyguts started doing burlesque in<br />
Halifax for about 4 to 6 years. Even back<br />
then, she says, Halifax had a thriving art<br />
scene that wasn’t afraid to explore weird<br />
and new concepts.<br />
“[It was] a real kind of variety show,”<br />
says Bunnyguts. “Really creative, really<br />
crazy.”<br />
It was a cohesive catering to one theme<br />
or one group of people but at the same<br />
time everyone was really doing their own<br />
thing or had their own creative ideas, she<br />
says.<br />
When Bunnyguts arrived in Montreal<br />
she realized there wasn’t anything like<br />
that here. She knew she wanted to do<br />
something avant-garde futuristic and less<br />
‘50s retro pinup, which she thought had<br />
already been done to death.<br />
She met her partner Davide—the other<br />
half of CDB—through his work as a DJ.<br />
After going to so many fetish and electro<br />
parties, they began to ask themselves why<br />
they always had to listen to the same<br />
music at the fetish parties, and why they<br />
stood out so much during the electro parties.<br />
“When I do something I like to be the<br />
best at it,” says Bunnyguts. “I love the<br />
fetish scene but they don’t necessarily<br />
want to innovate.”<br />
Bunnyguts felt their needs just weren’t<br />
being addressed in the kinky community<br />
and felt that they could not be the only<br />
ones missing this.<br />
“How many other people are kinky or<br />
curious, or afraid to go to a fetish party?”<br />
asks Bunnyguts. “But, they want to go and<br />
meet new people that are sexy and fun, but<br />
at the same time they don’t want to go to a<br />
swinger’s party. How can we reach those<br />
people?''<br />
Most of Bunnyguts’ outfits are handmade<br />
and you don’t have to spend $5,000<br />
on a latex outfit. “For your outfit to look<br />
A day at the gym, or an average night at the Cirque? PHOTO CIRQUE DE BOUDOIR<br />
totally kinky, totally fun, totally sexy, that<br />
you’ll look good in, you can do it yourself.''<br />
“[Society]'s starting to be more acceptable<br />
but still not at the level I think it<br />
should be,” she said. “<strong>The</strong>re’s still many<br />
people that are totally afraid. It’s such a<br />
taboo subject, and I don’t think that’s really<br />
necessary because it’s natural.”<br />
Bunnyguts finds the fetish scene<br />
empowering, but with the Cirque, she<br />
notices that more women are actually<br />
becoming empowered because of the parties.<br />
Women are realizing that, “Hey, I can<br />
ask for things and I'm not a bitch. If I want<br />
somebody to dress up in a dog costume<br />
and follow me around all night it doesn’t<br />
mean I’m a bitch, it just means that’s what<br />
I want.”<br />
Once, while wearing nipple pasties at<br />
“A woman should have the right if she wants to wear thigh-high<br />
boots and not be considered a prostitute.”<br />
—Bunnyguts,<br />
founder of the Cirque de boudoir<br />
after-hours club like Circus , Bunnyguts had<br />
20 guys grabbing at her breasts.<br />
“A woman should have the right if she<br />
wants to wear thigh-high boots and not be<br />
considered a prostitute,” says Bunnyguts.<br />
“And what if she really likes the way they<br />
look? And right now they are actually in<br />
fashion! So what if you’re very fashion forward<br />
and you want to wear thigh-high<br />
boots? You shouldn’t be made to feel like<br />
you’re a slut or a prostitute, or that a man<br />
has the right to grab your ass.”<br />
In the fetish scene that is not often the<br />
case, since most everyone knows the rules<br />
and abides by them.<br />
“Women need to learn that they have<br />
to stand up to men. If men think that it’s<br />
OK to grab a woman and you just let<br />
it slide they’ll never learn that’s not<br />
OK,” says Bunnyguts.<br />
“Too many women just don’t realize they<br />
have power over their own bodies. <strong>The</strong>y feel<br />
powerless when a man is trying to take control.<br />
No, you can control that. But you have<br />
to stand up for yourself. You don’t have to<br />
be afraid of a man. Too many women feel<br />
that they have to be subjugated and subservient<br />
to a man.”<br />
Within the Cirque she has seen women<br />
stand up to newcomers or misbehavers, laying<br />
down the law and reinforcing the mentality<br />
of being in charge of your own sexuality,<br />
your own environment. Being a strong<br />
woman while at the same time making sure<br />
others realize that you have the right to do<br />
just that. “It’s up to women to take that control<br />
and that power.”<br />
Growing up in Halifax, Bunnyguts had a<br />
very supportive and creative environment.<br />
Her parents never gave her the option of<br />
having to rebel. She did her own thing and<br />
they accepted it. When her photo appeared<br />
in the paper for a story covering her burlesque<br />
performance, her mom made a point<br />
of showing it to all her friends.<br />
“I think whatever someone wants to<br />
choose as long as its consensual and not<br />
harming anyone, I don’t care.”<br />
While Bunnyguts believes in equal<br />
rights for men and women, she does not<br />
think you have to be a feminist to try and<br />
fight for equality. However, elements from<br />
feminism, such as the idea of taking control<br />
of her own body and not needing a<br />
man to live a happy life, were definitely<br />
something she could identify with.<br />
When she isn’t taking care of the Cirque<br />
she's running her own business, which<br />
deals with website construction and e-<br />
commerce, but her and Davide are now<br />
starting to bring more Cirque projects into<br />
their regular line of work. <strong>The</strong>y have more<br />
companies asking for design work that are<br />
sex toy providers, latex clothing providers<br />
and people who are throwing events.<br />
At a certain point Bunnyguts and<br />
Davide just asked themselves why they<br />
should be doing boring business in the<br />
day, when at night their passion is the<br />
Cirque?<br />
A few months ago, she asked Davide,<br />
“Why can’t I spend my whole day just<br />
designing icons of dildos?”<br />
Bunnyguts started learning how to<br />
build websites when she was only 15. Her<br />
mother works for the Department of<br />
Defence as a computer technician. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
always had fast new computers around the<br />
Bunnyguts household growing up, and her<br />
mom was always beta testing.<br />
“Some people started hacking, I started<br />
building websites,” says Bunnyguts.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Cirque is planning their next event,<br />
BodySlam, which will be opening on<br />
March 28 at the Just for Laughs Museum.<br />
<strong>The</strong> party will feature a full-size wrestling<br />
ring as a stage, a Jello wrestling competition<br />
and a series of performances inspired<br />
by boxing. Remember to dress up because<br />
no effort = no entry.
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/WOMEN<br />
WOMEN 13<br />
<strong>The</strong> woman in black<br />
<strong>The</strong> truth about Islam isn’t<br />
what you see on TV<br />
• DENI ABDULLAH<br />
Growing up being Muslim meant<br />
that I was different due to an unusual<br />
last name or because pork was not<br />
part of my daily diet. Recently,<br />
Muslims have been subject of negative<br />
attention as portrayed through<br />
the mass media and there has been<br />
an emphasis on the treatment of<br />
women in Islam.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Middle East has been in the<br />
public spotlight for decades, but in<br />
the last few years it’s been the go-to<br />
site for news reporters on developing<br />
diplomacy. A particular target of<br />
the media has been Islam .<br />
This exposure has led to questions<br />
and doubts about what some<br />
have called “gender apartheid,” the<br />
notion that Muslim women living in<br />
Islamic nations have limited rights,<br />
if any at all.<br />
Being born in an Islamic country<br />
myself, I know for a fact that Islam<br />
does not limit women from achieving<br />
their goals, nor does it condone<br />
gender inequality. All the women in<br />
my family are working individuals<br />
while they all sustain a family life at<br />
the same time. Islam encourages<br />
women to obtain an education and<br />
working Muslim women are far<br />
from being a rarity.<br />
<strong>The</strong> status of women in these<br />
countries has been overwhelmingly<br />
negative, and based almost entirely<br />
on preconceived notions that<br />
women are regarded as second-class<br />
citizens in Muslim countries.<br />
However in most cases, men and<br />
women living in Muslim countries<br />
are treated equally and are seen as<br />
equal in the Qu’ran.<br />
We have all seen images of<br />
Muslim women wearing the veil or<br />
the burqa. Many see this religious<br />
undertaking as an act of submission<br />
to the opposite sex. In actuality, the<br />
head scarf is a religious duty for<br />
women in Islam but the decision of<br />
covering the head is one a Muslim<br />
woman makes based on her relationship<br />
with God. If she ultimately<br />
decides to cover her head or her<br />
entire body for that matter, she does<br />
it as an act of submission to God,<br />
and not as an act of subordination to<br />
a man. Ultimately, the veil is used as<br />
a tool for piety and modesty, and is<br />
far from a reflection of the lower<br />
stature of women in Muslim communities.<br />
It is very easy to assume that<br />
Muslim women are the subject of<br />
inequality when we consider the<br />
many patriarchal societies in which<br />
Islam is the religion of the majority<br />
of citizens. In Saudi<br />
Arabia for example, women are<br />
not given the right to vote in municipal<br />
elections. However in<br />
Indonesia, the most populous<br />
Muslim country in the world has<br />
already had a female president,<br />
something which few countries can<br />
make claim to even in largely secular<br />
or non-Islamic countries in the west.<br />
Islam is sometimes used as a<br />
scapegoat for those patriarchal governments<br />
that seek to limit female<br />
rights. But Islam does not impede<br />
women from achieving higher status<br />
in society. It’s powerful men who<br />
hold women back.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re has also been a lot of criticism<br />
of Muslim countries where<br />
women are not equally represented<br />
in the work force. But this is an issue<br />
that doesn’t limit itself to the Middle<br />
East. Women in western countries<br />
are struggling just as hard to compete<br />
against their male counterparts<br />
for salary equity and most are still<br />
unable to break though the infamous<br />
“glass ceiling.”<br />
Muslim women have unfairly<br />
been made poster girls for sexual<br />
GRAPHIC SYLVIA<br />
discrimination, when the real identifiers<br />
of sexual discrimination in<br />
today's society are far subtler and<br />
run deeper than simply looking at<br />
what a woman wears.<br />
<strong>The</strong> next time you watch the<br />
news or read the newspapers and<br />
see the eyes of a fully clothed<br />
Muslim woman, keep in mind that<br />
her garments do not define who<br />
she is and where she stands in societal<br />
hierarchy.<br />
¡Hola guapa!<br />
A guide to the matings calls of the Medterranean misogynist<br />
• BARBARA PAVONE<br />
We all know that Mediterranean men are,<br />
stereotypically, very upfront and always<br />
ready to offer hoots and hollers. I was very<br />
aware of this fact upon my departure for<br />
Barcelona but I was definitely not prepared<br />
for what I would find.<br />
Until you spend several months living in<br />
one of these seaside villages, it is hard to<br />
grasp the normality of this somewhat primitive<br />
habit.<br />
Although it must be said that it is in no<br />
way harmful, from my experiences, it can get<br />
bothersome and old quickly. This is why I’m<br />
here to help you all out, my fellow globe trotting<br />
ladies, in case you one day decide to set<br />
foot into the perils of the Mediterranean jungle.<br />
Here you will find a list, in order of<br />
pompousness, of the four breeds of outspoken<br />
men you may encounter and, more<br />
importantly, advice on how to proceed.<br />
1) <strong>The</strong> Yeller/Whistler<br />
<strong>The</strong> most insecure of the bunch, <strong>The</strong><br />
Yeller/Whistler will keep it short and sweet.<br />
He'll let you know he thinks you’re “guapa”<br />
but will not intrude your personal space. He<br />
is the least pushy and frankly, the most likely<br />
to succeed.<br />
What to do: It’s really up to you. Walk on<br />
by or stop and say “¡Hola!”<br />
2) <strong>The</strong> Walker<br />
More intrusive than <strong>The</strong> Yeller, <strong>The</strong><br />
Walker does not give up easily. He will begin<br />
to walk by your side, no matter where you are<br />
going, and try to engage in a full-blown conversation<br />
with all the rusty English skills he<br />
has. <strong>The</strong> Walker’s secret weapon? No matter<br />
how well you try to blend in to the Spanish<br />
crowd he’ll always be able to find you and all<br />
your English friends.<br />
What to do: Regardless of how inclined<br />
you are to be polite, if you're not interested,<br />
keep walking. I suggest with more pep in your<br />
step than before and remember; no eye contact<br />
is the key.<br />
3) <strong>The</strong> Singer<br />
<strong>The</strong> entertainer of the bunch, <strong>The</strong> Singer<br />
will join you in bars, or in front of them with<br />
a little too much alcohol in his system. He<br />
begins with <strong>The</strong> Walker’s tactic of engaging<br />
in a semi-English conversation (even if your<br />
Spanish is perfectly fluent) and will compliment<br />
everything you say. If you're asked<br />
what country you’re from, answer “Canada”<br />
at your own risk. Across the ocean and very<br />
exotic, this will cause him to intensify his<br />
show. He may just tell you he's a DJ and<br />
begin singing his “Hot new remix 2009”<br />
filled with up-to-the-minute tunes like “Hit<br />
Me Baby One More Time” and “Everybody:<br />
Backstreet’s Back.” At which point, he’ll<br />
surely take out his phone to show you a picture<br />
of him and his Lamborghini. Can anyone<br />
say Photoshop?<br />
What to do: Enjoy. <strong>The</strong> Singer will not<br />
get offended if you laugh, after all that is his<br />
intention. But once you are done be sure to<br />
point out a new gang of girls who happen to<br />
be walking by. <strong>The</strong> Singer’s weakness is that<br />
he's distracted by girls he has yet to impress,<br />
just like birds are by shiny objects.<br />
4) <strong>The</strong> Foreigner<br />
<strong>The</strong> worst of the bunch by a landslide.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Foreigner has no real excuse to hoot as<br />
he is not Mediterranean. It’s not in his culture,<br />
but something inexplicable occurs<br />
when he touches down at the airport and the<br />
“Let’s try to get girls like the Spaniards do”<br />
switch goes on. <strong>The</strong> Foreigner does not realize<br />
that speaking perfect English while using<br />
the aforementioned tactics is more creepy<br />
than flattering. Besides, “Damn girl, those<br />
are some glasses'” will not work in any of the<br />
195 countries on this planet. Jupiter?<br />
Maybe.<br />
What to do: Roll your eyes and walk<br />
away. Or if you're up for some fun, tell him<br />
off in your flawless English and laugh at his<br />
stunned look. Didn't think I'd fully understand<br />
did ya?<br />
And there you have it ladies; you've been<br />
warned and prepared. You can now book<br />
your tickets to Barça with peace of mind.<br />
You’re welcome.<br />
Get used to the cat calls in Barcelona.<br />
GRAPHIC VIVIEN LEUNG
14 WOMEN THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/WOMEN<br />
In their own voice<br />
Women’s empowerment is the key to ending poverty in Africa<br />
• CHRISTOPHER OLSON<br />
In today’s tough economic climate, many<br />
charity organizations are having difficulties<br />
fundraising. But something that shouldn’t be<br />
ignored is the continuing education of African<br />
women, according to the Campaign for<br />
Female Education.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re were a lot of people in the ‘90s saying<br />
that educating girls had all of these benefits,”<br />
says Brooke Hutchinson, the director of<br />
Camfed USA in San Francisco, which targets<br />
needy women in African countries for outreach.<br />
“But once people like Laurence Summers<br />
[the former head of the World Bank] started<br />
to say that the economic benefits of educating<br />
girls is huge, it really started to move up on<br />
people’s agendas.”<br />
Camfed started in Zimbabwe and has since<br />
branched out to Ghana, Zambia, Tanzania and<br />
soon Malawi, and works with the Ministries of<br />
Education in those countries to improve<br />
school curriculums.<br />
“We started in Zimbabwe because our<br />
founder, Anne Cotton, travelled to Zimbabwe<br />
to do research about women's exclusion from<br />
secondary schools, because at the time there<br />
was this perceived wisdom that it was culture<br />
that was keeping girls out of school,” says<br />
Hutchinson.<br />
Cotton spoke to community leaders and<br />
parents, “and the message that she was getting<br />
was that it was about poverty, and it was actually<br />
an economic choice by parents because<br />
they didn't have money to send all of their<br />
children to school. <strong>The</strong>ir sons are more likely<br />
to gain paid work after school. So they were<br />
having to make this difficult decision to pull<br />
their girls out of school and continue to educate<br />
their sons,” says Hutchinson.<br />
“Sometimes you might go into a school and<br />
ask boys and girls what they might achieve,<br />
and you might find that the boys are more<br />
inspirational than the girls in some cases, and<br />
the boys also might think that the girls can't<br />
achieve as much as they can.” But studies<br />
show that women invest a larger portion of<br />
their income back into their families than<br />
men, says Hutchinson.<br />
“What we’re also finding is that women are<br />
then supporting children outside of their own<br />
immediate families. Eventually, we see that<br />
surpassing anything we can do directly.”<br />
Giving women a voice of their own<br />
In Zamfia, which is located in the nation of<br />
Zambia, the Bimba tradition discourages<br />
women from speaking their minds in front of<br />
their husbands.<br />
“What Camfed does is to create those kinds<br />
of forums for people to talk about these<br />
issues,” says Hutchinson. “We’re giving girls<br />
and women a voice of their own, to speak on<br />
their own behalf rather than Camfed speaking<br />
for them. But we're also trying to work with<br />
men.”<br />
Men are some of Camfed's key allies and<br />
advocates, says Hutchinson. “It’s just as<br />
important to bring men, and frankly, people<br />
who have authority—whether it’s in the school<br />
system or in the community, to bring together<br />
people in these discussions.” One of Camfed’s<br />
initiatives was a filmmaking course in the<br />
Mikolina Mgola in Mgama Primary School. PHOTO MARK READ/CAMFED<br />
83<br />
per cent of sub-Saharan Africa do not<br />
attend secondary school.<br />
town of Zamfia, located in the nation of<br />
Zambia.<br />
Although only a small group of women<br />
took part in the filmmaking course, the resulting<br />
film, <strong>The</strong> Way Back, which deals with<br />
issues including HIV/AIDS and prostitution,<br />
has a much wider impact on public discourse<br />
and the dissemination of public health information,<br />
says Hutchinson.<br />
“Film just has an ability to unlock something<br />
in people to get them to talk about something<br />
they might otherwise not. Things that<br />
just normally wouldn't be openly discussed.”<br />
Even though many of the women filmmakers<br />
had similar struggles growing up, “they<br />
hadn't shared those experiences with each<br />
other,” says Hutchinson. “<strong>The</strong>y’re isolated,<br />
despite being surrounded by people in their<br />
communities who had gone through the same<br />
things.”<br />
Where the water meets the sky<br />
<strong>The</strong> making of <strong>The</strong> Way Back was documented<br />
by filmmaker David Eberts, in Where<br />
the Water Meets the Sky, which has been an<br />
effective tool for raising donations.<br />
“Looking back on it,” says Eberts, “I<br />
wish we could have spent a little more time<br />
just delving into how male-dominated this<br />
society is.”<br />
<strong>The</strong>re were no overt hostilities from the<br />
men in the village of Zamfia, says Eberts, but<br />
that doesn’t rule out what might take place<br />
when the cameras aren’t rolling.<br />
“No woman wants to make her husband<br />
look bad on camera. We got a few people who<br />
said it's very hard for women to be able to<br />
speak out, and not because they were fearful,<br />
but because people generally don't want to<br />
criticize their own culture.”<br />
One of the many problems facing women<br />
in Zamfia, and children in particular, is the<br />
phenomenon of property snatching.<br />
“That happens in many, many African<br />
countries,” says Eberts. “It’s a tradition that<br />
has become distorted. <strong>The</strong> original tradition<br />
was if a husband dies, their brother, if he’s<br />
unmarried, will marry the widow as a gesture<br />
to take in that family and try to support them.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> tradition remains, says Eberts, but<br />
without the support.<br />
“What rural Africa is seeing is a real deterioration<br />
of the family networks that used to<br />
exist because AIDS is having such a devastating<br />
impact,” says Hutchinson. “So where there<br />
used to be that safety net where this extended<br />
family would take care of the children, that’s<br />
falling apart, in many cases because so many<br />
parents of this generation are passing away.”<br />
Poverty is the problem<br />
During a screening of Where the Water<br />
Meets the Sky in Concordia’s Hall Building<br />
last week, one audience member took issue<br />
with the film’s suggestion that the women of<br />
Zamfia were living in poverty—an entirely<br />
Western perception, he argued.<br />
Catherine Boyce, the head of Enterprise<br />
and Leadership and leader of the Goldman<br />
Sachs 10,000 Women Initiative, which trains<br />
women to develop careers of their own, disagrees<br />
wholeheartedly.<br />
“Absolutely, these women are living in<br />
tremendous poverty,” says Boyce. “Imagine<br />
such poverty that you couldn’t afford to buy a<br />
pair of shoes. If you can’t go to school because<br />
you can’t afford a pair of shoes that’s tremendous<br />
poverty in my mind.”<br />
Even a subsistence economy is becoming<br />
“less and less secure,” says Boyce, due to overfishing<br />
in Zamfia’s local river, whose name<br />
“where the water meets the sky,” became the<br />
title of Ebert’s film.<br />
A business education is what impoverished<br />
women really need, said Boyce.<br />
“Traditionally, women may not be allowed<br />
to manage the money in the household,” says<br />
Hutchinson. “And if they’re successful with<br />
their small businesses, male relatives might<br />
try to co-opt their profits. By building a network<br />
of support around young women, we<br />
help them to address those challenges. If that<br />
young woman is being mentored by a community<br />
member that Camfed is working with, he<br />
can go to the family and say this is how the<br />
program is running, she's earning her own<br />
money.”<br />
“<strong>The</strong> Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women<br />
Initiative is about helping young women<br />
become leaders so that they can become<br />
change makers within their communities, and<br />
identify opportunities, where perhaps they<br />
had previously seen only seen challenges,”<br />
says Boyce.<br />
“What’s happening now, is that the students<br />
have gone out and set up and run projects<br />
of their choice,” says Boyce. “We didn’t<br />
give them a list, they actually identified whatever<br />
projects they wished to pursue, created a<br />
business plan and some of them developed<br />
actual commercial ventures designed to make<br />
profit.”<br />
Exponential impact<br />
<strong>The</strong> women helped by Camfed go on to<br />
become not only “more successful themselves,<br />
but they become philanthropists<br />
within their communities,” says Boyce.<br />
Nwa Nagla had to drop out of school<br />
when her father died. After she received support<br />
from Camfed, she was able to build her<br />
mother a house. “She did this when she was<br />
22 years old,” says Boyce, and now Nwa<br />
Nagla is a member of the Camfed team as a<br />
Seed Money Scheme Administrator, who<br />
oversees schemes to provide business advice<br />
and small grants to members of the Cama<br />
network—Camfed’s alumni.<br />
Starting literally with a class of 32 girls in<br />
1993, the number of women and children<br />
who have benefited from Camfed is now<br />
645,000.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> effect of intervening and supporting<br />
one girl, however, is multiplied many, many<br />
times over because those women who are<br />
supported go on to have that strong commitment<br />
to give something back to their community,<br />
and to support many more girls or<br />
boys within their communities,” says Boyce.<br />
“You help one girl, and then she in turn<br />
goes on to help many people around her.”
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/WOMEN<br />
WOMEN 15<br />
A social history<br />
of menstruation<br />
1<br />
2<br />
3 4 5<br />
GRAPHICS<br />
ALEX MANLEY<br />
6<br />
Menstrual huts<br />
1. During a woman’s period,<br />
she would be sequestered in a<br />
residential area reserved for that<br />
exclusive purpose until the end<br />
of her menstrual period.<br />
Menstrual dance<br />
2. In the Wasco Indian tradition<br />
after a woman reached puberty<br />
she was expected to perform a<br />
menstrual dance in order to see<br />
her individual guardian spirit.<br />
Extreme daintiness<br />
3. For a long period, women in<br />
western societies did not talk<br />
about their periods, or menstrual<br />
cycles. Period.<br />
Menstrual segregation<br />
4. During a woman’s menstrual<br />
cycle, it was often instructed<br />
that she stand in a river in order<br />
to be washed clean.<br />
Menstrual superstition<br />
5. Approaching a woman’s menstrual<br />
cycle, it was believed that<br />
garden plants would parch up<br />
and fruit would fall from the<br />
tree.<br />
<strong>The</strong> pill<br />
6. Women can finally be open<br />
about their sexuality, and what<br />
birth control they use. At least<br />
in some parts of the world.<br />
—compiled by Christopher Olson
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/LIT LITERARY ARTS 16<br />
Forget what you just heard<br />
Montreal’s Zen Poetry Festival questions the efficacy of words<br />
• JACKSON MACINTOSH<br />
<strong>The</strong> slogan found on the advertisements for the<br />
Montreal Zen Poetry Festival, which ran from the March 6<br />
to 8, was “Forget the Words!”—a provocative sentiment<br />
for a poetry festival, to be sure. What would a school of<br />
poetry that eschews the primacy of the words themselves<br />
even look like? Isn’t a primary pleasure of poetry the<br />
sound of words knocking up against one another and mysteriously<br />
making meaning?<br />
True to the slogan of the festival, the poetry reading at<br />
a multi-book launch on March 7 reminded the audience of<br />
the Zen belief that words fail to access absolute truth.<br />
“Once you’ve got the meaning, you can forget the<br />
words,” reads a poem by Chaung Tzu posted on the festival’s<br />
website. A philosophy of poetry that finds language<br />
ineffective at communicating meaning seems self-defeating—it<br />
limits your subject matter a lot, clearly.<br />
I spoke to one of the festival organizers, Matrix reviews<br />
editor Darren Bifford, who confirmed that the Centre Zen<br />
de la Main, which organized the festival, decided to limit<br />
the program to poets who practice Rinzai Zen. This included<br />
renowned translator and poet David Hinton, Peter<br />
Levitt, and Red Pine. Other<br />
elements of the festival<br />
included morning<br />
Zazen meditation,<br />
seminars on translation<br />
and calligraphy,<br />
and a fundraising<br />
event organized in collaboration<br />
with Matrix magazine.<br />
Happily, not everything read<br />
dealt with the conundrum of language.<br />
<strong>The</strong> poetry also dealt with life<br />
experience, meditations on life and<br />
aging, and even a poem about sex and<br />
love. <strong>The</strong> reading took place at Alred<br />
Dallaire Memoria, a funeral parlor on St-<br />
Laurent Blvd, which lent the proceedings a<br />
somber air despite the optimistic, buoyant<br />
tone of many of the poems. Nonetheless, a selfconsciousness<br />
about language remained prominent,<br />
and made you question whether this gathering<br />
was more concerned with Zen or with poetry,<br />
and if the two could be reconciled.<br />
GRAPHIC MONTREAL ZEN POETRY FESTIVAL<br />
Lit Writ<br />
Of A Broken Heart<br />
• LEE EKS<br />
<strong>The</strong> little invisible bacteria crawled<br />
through the needle into her bloodstream,<br />
pumped into her heart, and settled on a<br />
valve. And grew. <strong>The</strong> bacteria had vegetated,<br />
the doctors said. “A healthy heart has<br />
four valves, which pump blood through the<br />
heart in a coordinated way. Endocarditis<br />
causes a heart valve to become infected, the<br />
bacteria vegetates on the valve and blood<br />
doesn’t pump through the heart the way it<br />
should.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> infection caused fevers of 106<br />
degrees Fahrenheit that pushed her body<br />
into febrile convulsions. Her lungs filled<br />
with fluid so she couldn’t breathe. Her<br />
joints and muscles ached so she could<br />
barely walk.<br />
But she got to the hospital too late. <strong>The</strong><br />
infection won over antibiotics, like a joke.<br />
She could hear the infection laughing,<br />
spreading. <strong>The</strong>y had to stop it. I wasn't<br />
there when they pumped her full of morphine<br />
and broke open her chest, the breastbone<br />
cracking wide to reveal the heart. I<br />
was thinking of her when the surgeon cut<br />
out the diseased valve, placed it in a steel<br />
dish, bloody, and replaced it with a pig's<br />
valve. She could never eat pork again.<br />
Out of the hospital and back in her parents’<br />
home, I went to her. Three thousand<br />
miles from my home I lay in her bed, kicking<br />
and sweating. She lifted her shirt to<br />
show me her scar—thick, sinewy, purple—<br />
and called it ugly. I traced it with my finger<br />
and touched the plastic tube that stuck out<br />
of her left upper arm: an open line that<br />
went straight to her heart. It was for the<br />
intravenous antibiotics she sucked in for<br />
four hours every day. I fell asleep listening<br />
to her explanations of how she hooked herself<br />
up to the intravenous machine.<br />
I woke up alone. She walked into the<br />
room and started to hit me. I was soaked<br />
through with sweat. Dope sick. I cried,<br />
apologized, for arriving in this state. She<br />
shook her head, began to tie her shoes and<br />
I began to pray.<br />
On my knees I begged her not to, we<br />
couldn't, she wouldn’t, her precious heart,<br />
had to keep it clean. She was clean for a<br />
few months. Had to, doctors said, but I<br />
was afraid. I felt like I was the one who<br />
would be responsible if she died, a murderer.<br />
But the anticipation of dopey relief<br />
overcame: the feeling raw, getting it hot,<br />
turned on, hard on.<br />
<strong>The</strong> next thing I knew we were in her<br />
car on the highway, bumper-to-bumper<br />
traffic, the destination, downtown L.A.<br />
Destination cheeba.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n an hour later back in her bedroom,<br />
the black tar dirty, smelly and<br />
brown in the barrel, like the barrel of a<br />
gun. But warm, a warm gun, soon to be<br />
shot, lemon juice, cook it hot. We had<br />
brand new rigs, but the dirty dope seemingly<br />
ruined their sterile appearance. Don’t<br />
use your open line, I whisper. She hesitates,<br />
and then the thin needle pierces her<br />
hand. I pierce my inner elbow, my veins are<br />
good, don’t even need to tie up my arm.<br />
My muscles relax, head back, mouth<br />
open slack. But her lips turn purple and she<br />
falls, slides off her chair. I realize she’s<br />
dead on the floor. I turn up the music on<br />
her little stereo, don't want her parents to<br />
think something is wrong, Nirvana blasts,<br />
so cliché. I breathe deep into her mouth,<br />
slap her face, scream in her ear, shake her.<br />
Can’t compress her chest, because her ribs<br />
are still healing. If I pushed down on them<br />
they would snap and crush her lungs and<br />
heart, puncture all the organs.<br />
I throw a glass of water on her face.<br />
Glass and all, and a second later she rises<br />
from the dead, and the pink colour, the<br />
fleshy vessels, return to her face. <strong>The</strong> gray<br />
and blue complexion fades. I sigh with<br />
relief.<br />
But that day the bacteria had crawled<br />
into her vein again, another army with<br />
knives, and the blood holding it pumped,<br />
GRAPHIC SEBASTIEN CADIEUX<br />
pumped back into her heart, shredding,<br />
destroying, eating away.<br />
And I was back in Montreal when her<br />
illness returned.<br />
She telephoned me, she sounded sick,<br />
she was back in the hospital. I didn’t,<br />
couldn’t do it anymore. I said goodbye. Her<br />
heart broke. I don't know if it was ever<br />
fixed.<br />
To submit your fiction or poetry to<br />
the Lit Writ column, email them to<br />
lit@thelink.concordia.ca.
17 LITERARY ARTS<br />
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/LIT<br />
Meet the Flanaghans<br />
Author Elizabeth Kelly offers no apologies for new book<br />
• PASCALE ROSE LICINIO<br />
Meet the Flanaghan family: “Pop was a<br />
stray, a drinker, and a womanizer, professionally<br />
Irish, a guy of mixed pedigree<br />
that Ma plucked off the streets because<br />
she was mad for his hair colour, the same<br />
shade as a ruby red King Charles spaniel,”<br />
says Collie, their elder son and narrator of<br />
Apologize, Apologize!<br />
“A lot of families are crazy<br />
and unconventional. Yet,<br />
somehow, they work.”<br />
—Elizabeth Kelly,<br />
author of Apologize, Apologize!<br />
<strong>The</strong> novel is mainly set in<br />
Massachusetts, during the 1960s and ‘70s,<br />
and tells the story of Collie and his<br />
immensely rich yet bohemian family.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>y are terrible,” admits author<br />
Elizabeth Kelly. “But you can encounter<br />
people like them.”<br />
Collie’s father is certainly no role<br />
model. On the train or at home, he spends<br />
a lot of time passed out. His brother,<br />
Uncle Tom, who ended up in charge of the<br />
household, is better at breeding racing<br />
pigeons than parenting the family’s two<br />
sons.<br />
As for the mother, there’s very little of<br />
the maternal in her approach to parenting.<br />
“She is evil,” said Kelly with a large<br />
smile. “I really wanted her to be awful.”<br />
She hates her cold, hyper-capitalist father<br />
so much that she has developed an obsession<br />
for Marxist causes that she finances<br />
all around the world with money she gets<br />
from him. She has a passion for her<br />
younger son but cares much more for the<br />
dozens of dogs that she has gather into<br />
her house than for her elder son.<br />
“Actually, a lot of families are crazy and<br />
unconventional,” said Kelly. “Yet, somehow,<br />
they work.” <strong>The</strong> Flanaghans are<br />
endearing in their own brutal, extravagant<br />
kind of way. “<strong>The</strong>y are everything at<br />
once,” said Kelly, “but they have their own<br />
harmony.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Flanaghans’ eccentric lifestyle may<br />
catch you off guard in the first chapters.<br />
But read on. You will find out that<br />
Apologize, Apologize! is not another easy<br />
parody about a rich, dysfunctional<br />
American family. <strong>The</strong> book is dense but<br />
you will soon be able to enjoy the casual<br />
craziness of the characters and the sensitivity<br />
of the smart, sweet and rational narrator.<br />
“Collie is not a neurotic, not a performer.<br />
He’s just a nice person,” explains<br />
Kelly. Collie is the only responsible family<br />
member but passes for a conservative<br />
among them. He seems typical of the generation<br />
that was born in the 60s and had<br />
to compensate for the parents’ refusal to<br />
conformism. His position is extreme,<br />
however, because his family has the<br />
means to indulge in an unrestrained way<br />
of life.<br />
He is the only one who openly shows<br />
his affection in a family where everyone<br />
masks their real feelings. It is his love for<br />
his family that really makes it hard to<br />
resist their unusual charms. <strong>The</strong> book<br />
reads like a tribute from him to his<br />
younger brother and to the full-blown<br />
humanity of his family. It reads like a love<br />
letter to all his relatives—the ones he has<br />
suffered because of, the ones he keeps trying<br />
to connect with, and the ones he lost.<br />
“We also love people for their weaknesses,”<br />
commented Kelly. By illustrating<br />
this, despite the peculiarity of the family<br />
she describes, she managed to write a<br />
novel that speaks to everyone, because,<br />
whether we are aware of it or not, we all<br />
have distinctive family cultures. Also,<br />
almost everyone has experienced family<br />
tragedies, and the novel addresses the<br />
delicate issue in a way that can resonate<br />
with all of us.<br />
Apologize, Apologize! is Kelly’s first<br />
novel, but the Ontario-based magazine<br />
editor and award-winning journalist is<br />
currently working on a film script based<br />
on the book, for the same production<br />
company that produced <strong>The</strong> Cider House<br />
Rules and <strong>The</strong> Bourne Identity.<br />
Apologize, Apologize!<br />
Elizabeth Kelly<br />
Knopf Canada<br />
February 2009<br />
336 pp<br />
$<strong>29</strong>.95<br />
GRAPHIC<br />
GINGER COONS
16 LITERARY ARTS<br />
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/LIT<br />
Meet the Flanaghhans<br />
Author Elizabeth Kelly offers no apologies for new book<br />
• PASCALE ROSE LICINIO<br />
Meet the Flanaghan family: “Pop was a<br />
stray, a drinker, and a womanizer, professionally<br />
Irish, a guy of mixed pedigree<br />
that Ma plucked off the streets because<br />
she was mad for his hair colour, the same<br />
shade as a ruby red King Charles spaniel,”<br />
says Collie, their elder son and narrator of<br />
Apologize, Apologize!<br />
“A lot of families are crazy<br />
and unconventional. Yet,<br />
somehow, they work.”<br />
—Elizabeth Kelly,<br />
author of Apologize, Apologize!<br />
<strong>The</strong> novel is mainly set in<br />
Massachusetts, during the 1960s and ‘70s,<br />
and tells the story of Collie and his<br />
immensely rich yet bohemian family.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>y are terrible,” admits author<br />
Elizabeth Kelly. “But you can encounter<br />
people like them.”<br />
Collie’s father is certainly no role<br />
model. On the train or at home, he spends<br />
a lot of time passed out. His brother,<br />
Uncle Tom, who ended up in charge of the<br />
household, is better at breeding racing<br />
pigeons than parenting the family’s two<br />
sons.<br />
As for the mother, there’s very little of<br />
the maternal in her approach to parenting.<br />
“She is evil,” said Kelly with a large<br />
smile. “I really wanted her to be awful.”<br />
She hates her cold, hyper-capitalist father<br />
so much that she has developed an obsession<br />
for Marxist causes that she finances<br />
all around the world with money she gets<br />
from him. She has a passion for her<br />
younger son but cares much more for the<br />
dozens of dogs that she has gather into<br />
her house than for her elder son.<br />
“Actually, a lot of families are crazy and<br />
unconventional,” said Kelly. “Yet, somehow,<br />
they work.” <strong>The</strong> Flanaghans are<br />
endearing in their own brutal, extravagant<br />
kind of way. “<strong>The</strong>y are everything at<br />
once,” said Kelly, “but they have their own<br />
harmony.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Flanaghans’ eccentric lifestyle may<br />
catch you off guard in the first chapters.<br />
But read on. You will find out that<br />
Apologize, Apologize! is not another easy<br />
parody about a rich, dysfunctional<br />
American family. <strong>The</strong> book is dense but<br />
you will soon be able to enjoy the casual<br />
craziness of the characters and the sensitivity<br />
of the smart, sweet and rational narrator.<br />
“Collie is not a neurotic, not a performer.<br />
He’s just a nice person,” explains<br />
Kelly. Collie is the only responsible family<br />
member but passes for a conservative<br />
among them. He seems typical of the generation<br />
that was born in the 60s and had<br />
to compensate for the parents’ refusal to<br />
conformism. His position is extreme,<br />
however, because his family has the<br />
means to indulge in an unrestrained way<br />
of life.<br />
He is the only one who openly shows<br />
his affection in a family where everyone<br />
masks their real feelings. It is his love for<br />
his family that really makes it hard to<br />
resist their unusual charms. <strong>The</strong> book<br />
reads like a tribute from him to his<br />
younger brother and to the full-blown<br />
humanity of his family. It reads like a love<br />
letter to all his relatives—the ones he has<br />
suffered because of, the ones he keeps trying<br />
to connect with, and the ones he lost.<br />
“We also love people for their weaknesses,”<br />
commented Kelly. By illustrating<br />
this, despite the peculiarity of the family<br />
she describes, she managed to write a<br />
novel that speaks to everyone, because,<br />
whether we are aware of it or not, we all<br />
have distinctive family cultures. Also,<br />
almost everyone has experienced family<br />
tragedies, and the novel addresses the<br />
delicate issue in a way that can resonate<br />
with all of us.<br />
Apologize, Apologize! is Kelly’s first<br />
novel, but the Ontario-based magazine<br />
editor and award-winning journalist is<br />
currently working on a film script based<br />
on the book, for the same production<br />
company that produced <strong>The</strong> Cider House<br />
Rules and <strong>The</strong> Bourne Identity.<br />
Apologize, Apologize!<br />
Elizabeth Kelly<br />
Knopf Canada<br />
February 2009<br />
336 pp<br />
$<strong>29</strong>.95<br />
GRAPHIC<br />
GINGER COONS
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/FRINGE<br />
FRINGE ARTS 17<br />
Steal this film<br />
Concordia grad wants you to tear his film to shreds and then make it better<br />
• CHRISTOPHER OLSON<br />
Originality is when you mix two<br />
things that have never been mixed<br />
before, claims filmmaker Brett<br />
Gaylor, a Concordia graduate who<br />
has spent the last six years, or most<br />
of his adult life, exploring copyright<br />
law.<br />
<strong>The</strong> result is a documentary film,<br />
RiP: A Remix Manifesto, to be<br />
screened at Cinema Politica next<br />
week.<br />
“That’s the originality that we<br />
have to think about in the 21st century,”<br />
says Gaylor. “In this day and<br />
age it’s pretty hard to say that a certain<br />
chord progression hasn’t been<br />
done before, especially in rock ‘n’<br />
roll. <strong>The</strong>re’s only so many notes on a<br />
guitar and only so many ways you<br />
can combine them.<br />
“It’s funny that all these people<br />
that owe this huge debt to the performers<br />
that came before them feel<br />
this need to sue anyone who is<br />
encroaching on their originality.”<br />
Gaylor credits his knowledge of<br />
filmmaking to his time in both<br />
Concordia’s Fine Arts program and<br />
Communication Studies program.<br />
“All of my career is because of<br />
Concordia. Professionally for sure,<br />
but artistically too, because to have a<br />
grounding in Fine Arts helps you<br />
create a certain kind of film. It’s<br />
based more in arts practice than in<br />
commercial practice, which I think<br />
helps you in the long run, because it<br />
gives you a vision.”<br />
It was during his time at<br />
Concordia that Napster, the first<br />
peer-to-peer filesharing network,<br />
took off. “I could already tell that it<br />
was going to upend the music industry,<br />
but it took a little thinking to<br />
realize that this would affect all<br />
aspects of an information society,”<br />
says Gaylor.<br />
“When I started making the film,<br />
it felt like such an underground<br />
film,” but then internet hot spots<br />
like YouTube and Facebook were<br />
born, says Gaylor. “Now we’re opening<br />
at the AMC, and it’s become this<br />
really relevant populist issue.”<br />
Just last year, a documentary<br />
film called Expelled: No Intelligence<br />
Allowed was sued for copyright<br />
infringement for its use of the song<br />
“Imagine” by John Lennon, which<br />
also appears in Gaylor’s film.<br />
“I don’t think Yoko would sue my<br />
film,” says Gaylor, where “Imagine”<br />
is sung by former President George<br />
W. Bush using excerpts from some<br />
of his speeches. Expelled, a creationist<br />
film that denies evolution, however,<br />
uses original song samples in<br />
order to criticize it.<br />
“On the one hand I was like, ‘Oh<br />
God, poor Yoko, here she’s trying to<br />
defend John.’ But on the other<br />
hand, you know Yoko, you can’t<br />
have that level of control over John<br />
anymore, he’s really in the public<br />
domain now, whether the law says<br />
so or not.”<br />
Gaylor says he knows where<br />
filmmakers who make changes to<br />
their films—sometimes decades<br />
after their original releases—are<br />
coming from.<br />
“Filmmakers are the ultimate<br />
control freaks. Since the premiere of<br />
the film, I’ve had a chance to change<br />
it based on scenes that the audience<br />
felt dragged or felt didn’t get right,<br />
so I can appreciate how 20 years<br />
Brett Gaylor, the director of RiP: A Remix Manifesto, is a Con U graduate and supports the creative commons license.<br />
later someone like George Lucas can<br />
be like, ‘I didn’t get that scene right.<br />
Han should have talked to Jabba the<br />
Hutt outside of the Cantina.’”<br />
At the same time, he says, “It’s<br />
funny that George Lucas wants to<br />
take another stab at Star Wars, but<br />
when someone removes Jar Jar<br />
Binks from <strong>The</strong> Phantom Menace,<br />
the lawyers are sent out. Directors<br />
need to learn that the era where<br />
audiences are just consumers of<br />
their works is over.”<br />
Gaylor is helping speed things<br />
along with opensourcecinema.org, a<br />
newly launched website where RiP<br />
will be available in all its alterable<br />
glory.<br />
“That’s a big focus of my work<br />
now,” says Gaylor. “We made it so<br />
that there’s actually editing software<br />
built into the website, so you don’t<br />
need to have a Final Cut Pro Studio,<br />
you can actually do it with really<br />
easy tools that we give you right on<br />
the website itself.”<br />
With Open Source Cinema, says<br />
Gaylor, “anyone could take this<br />
approach to filmmaking, so that it’s<br />
a collaborative conversation with<br />
the audience instead of this real separation<br />
between creators and users.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> film is licensed under the<br />
creative commons license, “which<br />
means, ‘I grant you the freedom to<br />
remix it and share it, but if you want<br />
to sell it to a TV station, you have to<br />
ask my permission first,’” says<br />
Gaylor.<br />
“If everybody licensed their films<br />
under creative commons license,<br />
the film wouldn’t be as necessary as<br />
it is. <strong>The</strong> creative commons motto is<br />
some rights reserved, not all rights<br />
reserved.”<br />
RiP: A Remix Manifesto will be<br />
screened on Monday, March 16 at<br />
7:30 p.m. in Room H-110, 1455 de<br />
Maisonneuve Blvd. Visit opensourcecinema.org<br />
to help remix the<br />
movie, and have the chance to see<br />
your work in a future release.<br />
Life outside of the womb<br />
Weirder, noisier, and drenched in reverb<br />
• CODY HICKS<br />
With all this talk of recession<br />
and everyone losing their jobs,<br />
I’m a little concerned that my<br />
degree will end up about as useful<br />
as a rolled-up Garfield comic. So<br />
it’s especially refreshing to hear<br />
the perspective of Matt Perri, an<br />
artist who lives on a dime and<br />
couldn’t be happier about it.<br />
“This is the only thing I wanna<br />
do now. It’s the only thing I can<br />
do,” he says. “You’re only young<br />
once so why not just scrape by.<br />
Sooner or later everyone’s gonna<br />
get a job, get fat and not wanna<br />
get drunk and play songs all the<br />
time.”<br />
Perri is an unassuming young<br />
man who lives in a shoebox apartment<br />
and plays what I can only<br />
describe as dreamy ghost-rock—<br />
which is fitting because he writes<br />
all his music in bed as soon as he<br />
gets up.<br />
This is party rock for the<br />
ghosts in the graveyard who are<br />
blind drunk on mulled wine. His<br />
quavering vocals are infectious<br />
and he has managed to come<br />
across one of the most gloriously<br />
creepy guitar tones I’ve heard in a<br />
while. Every song is strangely<br />
familiar but weird enough to<br />
sound totally unique, probably<br />
because he claims to have no<br />
influences other than “life, wine<br />
and jerking off.”<br />
Perri is as DIY as they come,<br />
as evidenced by his last release<br />
<strong>The</strong> Moon, which came in individually<br />
stapled and painted covers.<br />
After listening to that record,<br />
I was frustrated that this kid<br />
doesn’t have a major record deal.<br />
Perri is notoriously anti-promotion<br />
and frustratingly nonchalant<br />
about his music. <strong>The</strong>re were<br />
times during the interview where<br />
I wanted to smack some sense<br />
into the kid and tell him, “You<br />
could be huge!”<br />
Although he’s been living in<br />
Montreal since September he has<br />
only played one show, a fact that<br />
he casually shrugs off. He is a<br />
man of simple pleasures and<br />
alternative ambitions.<br />
“I never went to school, and I<br />
couldn’t be happier about it,”<br />
says Perri. “While everyone else<br />
is going crazy studying for<br />
midterms I’m drinking cheap<br />
wine, jerking off and writing<br />
songs.”<br />
Paradoxically, his live show<br />
can get pretty fierce. “I like to<br />
rock out on stage,” he says. “Who<br />
the hell wants to go see someone<br />
Every song is strangely familiar but weird<br />
enough to sound totally unique, probably<br />
because he claims to have no influences other<br />
than “life, wine and jerking off.”<br />
stand there and play all his songs<br />
note for note.”<br />
When I saw him play a show<br />
in Edmonton over the break he<br />
rocked hard enough to inspire a<br />
tender, skinny-boy mosh pit.<br />
Well, it was more of a flail pit, as<br />
everyone was doing a variation of<br />
some kind of no bones octopus<br />
dance.<br />
<strong>The</strong> prolific Perri is putting<br />
the finishing touches on his third<br />
record in two years, called Girls,<br />
a concept album about the “easiest<br />
subject to write songs about.”<br />
He promises the new one will be<br />
weirder, noisier and drenched in<br />
reverb.<br />
Shoot over to<br />
myspace.com/mattperri and<br />
feast your eyes on the painfully<br />
cute DIY music video for “I Want<br />
You” and his frustratingly gorgeous<br />
cover of “Dreams” by<br />
Fleetwood Mac that will wipe<br />
Stevie Nicks’ vocals clear from<br />
your mind.<br />
You can catch him in the flesh<br />
on March 14 at Galerie Artefacto<br />
for the Art Matters Closing Party<br />
I alluded to in last week’s column,<br />
8 p.m. at 661 Rose-de-Lima<br />
Street. If you’re foolish enough<br />
to miss the Art Matters party you<br />
can catch him at Le Cagibi, 5490<br />
St-Laurent Blvd. on March 18.
18 FRINGE ARTS THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/FRINGE<br />
Super stressfest<br />
Psyopus guitarist Christopher Arp sympathizes with you<br />
if you’re stuck at the border or looking to replace your bassist<br />
• JOHNNY NORTH<br />
“When you show up in another<br />
country and they treat you like the<br />
second coming of Jesus fucking<br />
Christ, it’s an awesome vibe for<br />
sure,” said Christopher Arp, guitarist<br />
for technical metal band<br />
Psyopus.<br />
“At the 2005 [edition of] Hellfest<br />
[we got an encore]. That was when<br />
the band first started, we were all<br />
super hungry, we’re going that big<br />
festival and you don’t get encores at<br />
stuff like that. That was fucking<br />
awesome. Russia was pretty cool.<br />
<strong>The</strong> people were so overwhelmingly<br />
excited to have us there.”<br />
But it isn’t all fun and games for<br />
the tech metal quartet. <strong>The</strong> recently<br />
released Psyopus album, Odd<br />
Senses, took a lot of time and energy<br />
to produce—especially with the<br />
need to get a new bassist for their<br />
2009 tours.<br />
“It’s like, ‘oh shit, we got three<br />
tours scheduled for the next three<br />
months, and we have a new album<br />
coming out and there’s press<br />
involved.’ Losing a band member<br />
puts a lot of pressure on us,” said<br />
Arp. “We couldn’t just get someone<br />
who could play a couple of Nirvana<br />
tunes, we needed someone who<br />
could play [tech metal].”<br />
Despite initial problems, new<br />
bassist Brent Glover is a great fit.<br />
“It’s working out, but we need to get<br />
him some better gear. He had just<br />
moved before joining the band and<br />
he had to sell his gear for the move.<br />
He came into the situation with<br />
only so much money.”<br />
<strong>The</strong>y also had to go looking for a<br />
new vocalist after problems with<br />
Adam Frappolli, member of the<br />
band since 2002, forced the band to<br />
pick up Brian Woodruff.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> first album was very well<br />
received, the only negative thing<br />
that got brought up was people didn’t<br />
like the vocals. I can see where<br />
they’re kind of monotone. For Ideas<br />
of Reference, I spent a lot of time to<br />
do the best we could with<br />
[Frappolli]. I had all the lyrics written,<br />
I coached him through everything.<br />
I think Ideas of Reference<br />
was leaps and bounds better—<br />
much more expression and well<br />
thought out. As far as the new<br />
album, I would say we really<br />
worked hard to the deadline to get<br />
the album done.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re were a number of songs,<br />
where I was coming home from the<br />
studio and passing out at 7 p.m.,<br />
waking up at three in the morning,<br />
downing a bunch of Red Bulls, and<br />
writing the lyrics for the song we<br />
were going to do that day.<br />
[Woodruff] did a pretty good job,<br />
making us sound good. We hope to<br />
take advantage in the studio the<br />
versatility that Brian has. Adam<br />
had a very limited range—it was<br />
<strong>The</strong>y may not look like the second coming of christ, but the fans can’t get enough of this mathcore metal band.<br />
him doing the mid- to high-range<br />
grindcore screams and the best you<br />
could do is coach him through each<br />
part to bring some emotion.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> song “Ms. Shyflower” is one<br />
song off the new album Arp is<br />
pleased with. “It’s not as flashy, it’s<br />
not as intense as some of the other<br />
material is. It’s just a different trip,<br />
it came from me realizing how miserable<br />
I was. With that song [came<br />
an opportunity to] express myself<br />
in ways that other bands that aren’t<br />
necessarily tech metal appreciate.<br />
Like Tool, it can go to some dark<br />
places—it’s about being buried<br />
alive.”<br />
Psyopus also delivers a change<br />
of their usual grindcore with “<strong>The</strong><br />
Burning Halo.” Arp finds the harmonic<br />
riff in it “really stands out,”<br />
but has received some harsh criticism<br />
for their change of style.<br />
“Some of the more traditional<br />
grind kids don’t like that song<br />
because it’s heavier and has more<br />
low tones. But you know what? It is<br />
what it is, I felt we haven’t done it<br />
before and if anyone has a problem<br />
with it they can kiss my ass.”<br />
This April will mark the first<br />
time Psyopus will be coming to<br />
Canada.<br />
Psyopus will be coming to<br />
Montreal on April 16 at Underworld,<br />
<strong>25</strong>1 Ste-Catherine Street E. For<br />
more info call 514-660-2372 or<br />
514-284-0667.<br />
Part-time band<br />
Radiohead reminiscent Holler, Wild Rose! plays Montreal with first EP in two years<br />
• JOELLE LEMIEUX<br />
What keeps a band who hasn’t released an<br />
album in two years relevant?<br />
If you’re Holler, Wild Rose! it’s an unending<br />
series of gigs, and a Radiohead-reminiscent<br />
appeal that still feels new.<br />
In 2007, Holler, Wild Rose! released Our<br />
Little Hymnal, their most recent LP. Toted as<br />
one of the year’s best albums, it’s hard not to<br />
wonder why there hasn’t been a follow-up.<br />
Lead singer John Mosloskie cites full-time<br />
employment as a reason, but promises a next<br />
album to be “record[ed] towards the end of<br />
this year” with most of it already written. “I<br />
would love to be able to record and create,” he<br />
says. At this point, it’s more “logistics” than<br />
lack of desire.<br />
For Holler, Wild Rose! time away from the<br />
studio has been a chance to get their name<br />
out into the ears of the public, “hitting blogs<br />
[and] online publications.”<br />
What was originally a foursome<br />
(Mosloskie, drummer Ryan Smyth, bassist<br />
Scott Vangenderen, and guitarist Ryan<br />
Cheresnick) has become, over the years,<br />
seven with the addition of Mosloskie’s sister<br />
Morgan as keyboardist, as well as rhythm<br />
guitarist Lou D’Elia and newest member<br />
Steve Oyola on guitar.<br />
Fresh out of Jersey, Mosloskie says the<br />
band often comes up against some “unfair<br />
media stereotypes” borne of TV shows like<br />
“<strong>The</strong> Sopranos,” but stays true to his Jersey<br />
roots. “What our music will do is give us a little<br />
cred,” he assures me. Besides, Jersey’s not<br />
all bad, “there are mountains and oceans and<br />
it’s good here,” he says, so I accuse him of<br />
sounding like a travel brochure.<br />
He laughs, and in that moment I realize<br />
that he is the voice behind the band. “I’m just<br />
getting over a cold,” he says defensively,<br />
“Although, I did say I would be honest. This is<br />
pretty much what I sound like normally.”<br />
So, what’s the significance of Holler, Wild<br />
Rose! and where did all the punctuation<br />
come from? Like all bands there came a time<br />
when things had to change. <strong>The</strong> band, then<br />
called A Dive, “were at this show, supposed to<br />
play at 11.” Mosloskie remembers, “the time<br />
just kept getting pushed back, we all got really<br />
frustrated [and] started taking it out on<br />
each other.<br />
“It got pretty heated,” he admits. “We all<br />
Holler, Wild Rose! play Montreal this Saturday.<br />
believed in the music,” and in the end, it<br />
“opened our eyes to the need. [...] It was just<br />
that song [Holler, Wild Rose!], the direction<br />
of the music, something we had to pursue.”<br />
<strong>The</strong>y changed the name, and they didn’t look<br />
back. To this day, they close all shows with<br />
Holler, Wild Rose! and it’s Mosloskie’s<br />
favourite song to perform.<br />
This week, they’ll be coming to Canada for<br />
a second time since their inaugural trek in<br />
2007. This time, the band will be touring with<br />
a new four song EP, <strong>The</strong> Yarn, which includes<br />
a live song and a previously unreleased<br />
instrumental. “Montreal was a great show,”<br />
he remembers, and when asked to describe<br />
his band’s live show, had only one thing to<br />
say: “a wall of sound.” I know Mosloskie’s<br />
“excited to come back,” so you should get<br />
excited to see them.<br />
Holler, Wild Rose! are playing Saturday,<br />
March 14 with Broadcast Radio and Urban<br />
Aesthetics at Le Divan Orange, 4234 St-Laurent<br />
Blvd. at 8 p.m. Pay what you can.
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/FRINGE FRINGE ARTS 19<br />
Put another dime<br />
in the jukebox<br />
Toronto’s Dean Lickyer bring rock ‘n’ roll<br />
to a Canadian venue near you<br />
Fuschia Epieceri Fleur owner, Binky Holleran, successfully combines her<br />
two passions (food and flowers) at this unique vegetarian alternative.<br />
PHOTO GINGER COONS<br />
Would you like<br />
<strong>The</strong> journey to Dean Lickyer’s success began back in Hamilton, Ontario where the rock ’n’ rollers to be met in high<br />
school.<br />
• STEPHANIE STEVENSON<br />
It appears as though no one<br />
was quite ready for such a brilliant<br />
performance from a gang of 19-<br />
year-olds who live, eat, breathe<br />
and sleep classic rock.<br />
“Whatever makes you happy,<br />
I’m doing all right!” howled Josh<br />
Alvernia into the microphone during<br />
a recent performance on<br />
MuchMusic. His band, Dean<br />
Lickyer, received unprecedented<br />
acclaim from the judges who<br />
reviewed their performance on a<br />
new MuchMusic TV show called<br />
Disband.<br />
With Alvernia on vocals, Sean<br />
Royle on guitar, Justin Bozzo on<br />
bass and Eric Martin on drums,<br />
the band has played more than 1<strong>25</strong><br />
shows to date despite the fact that<br />
they’ve only been around as a<br />
band for a year—hardly a small<br />
feat for a young group of friends<br />
barely out of high school.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y may be young, but they<br />
aren’t wasting any time.<br />
At the Rogers Spring Music<br />
Festival, they won Best of Fest out<br />
of the 60 bands that played, and<br />
won over $10,000 in recording<br />
and prizes as a result. <strong>The</strong> prizes<br />
included six songs to be recorded,<br />
mixed and mastered at<br />
Mastermind Studio, and the band<br />
decided to take the opportunity to<br />
record their entire EP at that same<br />
time. However, this meant that<br />
they had a matter of weeks to write<br />
the remainder of the songs for the<br />
album and record all the tracks.<br />
“It was kind of a patchwork<br />
job,” said Alvernia. “Most of the<br />
vocals were done in one take,<br />
which can be risky. But the reactions<br />
to the record were very good<br />
so, we’re happy.”<br />
In fact, reactions in general to<br />
both the EP and the band’s live<br />
performances have been fantastic.<br />
Songs such as “Witching Hour<br />
Moon,” “Get Your Own” and<br />
“Never let You Go” have<br />
impressed industry professionals<br />
like Tommy Brunett, CEO of<br />
Universal Buzz NYC: “<strong>The</strong>se guys<br />
are fucking rockstars. <strong>The</strong>ir CMJ<br />
showcase was the best set I saw all<br />
week!”<br />
<strong>The</strong> journey to Dean Lickyer’s<br />
success began back in Hamilton,<br />
Ontario, where the guys met at<br />
Bishop Ryan High School and<br />
began listening to classic rock<br />
bands such as <strong>The</strong> Rolling Stones,<br />
Led Zeppelin and <strong>The</strong> Who.<br />
Growing up, Royle had been<br />
influenced by the musical tastes of<br />
his father’s friend, Dean Lickyer,<br />
who was, as Alvernia explains,<br />
“that kid who always had the<br />
underground records.” Lickyer<br />
passed away in 1995, around the<br />
time classic rock died out in the<br />
mainstream, so the band took on<br />
his name to “signify the rebirth of<br />
rock ‘n’ roll,” as Alvernia puts it.<br />
Since the band’s formation,<br />
they’ve employed some rather<br />
unusual methods to promote<br />
themselves. For instance, busking<br />
is an old trick of theirs.<br />
“We do it all the time,” said<br />
Alvernia. “It helps us make extra<br />
money and pay the bills when<br />
we’re on the road.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> guys also drilled a hole<br />
through the roof of their van in<br />
order to blare their songs through<br />
it and into the ears of random<br />
passersby. By all accounts, their<br />
strategies have been working, as<br />
their friend count on MySpace<br />
continues to grow exponentially,<br />
as do the crowds at their shows.<br />
This year, the band aims to play<br />
more than 200 shows and release<br />
an album or EP. When it comes to<br />
long-term objectives, though,<br />
Alvernia says, “I would love for us<br />
to play headlining tours at big venues.<br />
We want to make a living<br />
playing rock ‘n’ roll.”<br />
Dean Lickyer play Toronto’s<br />
Canadian Music Festival March 10<br />
and 12 at the Horseshoe Tavern. In<br />
addition, look to see a Montreal date<br />
added to their MySpace page in the<br />
coming month.<br />
flowers with that?<br />
Fuchsia Epicerie Fleur offers<br />
dinner and dessert for the<br />
green thumb in all of us<br />
• TOYA GRATTON<br />
Having a meal at Fuchsia is<br />
kind of like going to grandma’s<br />
for dinner—that is, if David<br />
Suzuki were your grandma.<br />
Owner Binky Holleran<br />
opened the café with the goal of<br />
combining her two favourite<br />
things: food and flowers.<br />
Everything is made in-house<br />
with seasonal, local ingredients<br />
and accented with edible flowers.<br />
<strong>The</strong> food is always vegetarian<br />
and usually gluten-free.<br />
<strong>The</strong> setting is cozy and<br />
serene, with mismatched<br />
chairs, communal tables and<br />
Ella Fitzgerald crooning in the<br />
background. After sitting on<br />
the chair cushions and taking a<br />
look at the menu board, one<br />
feels immediately relaxed and<br />
excited for the culinary adventure<br />
to come.<br />
<strong>The</strong> menu is set daily and<br />
served from lunchtime through<br />
to the evening. It always<br />
includes a beverage of the day,<br />
main course and dessert.<br />
On my visit, the menu is<br />
cheerfully called ‘La Tartiflette!’<br />
and consists of jasmine tea, an<br />
oven-baked potato casserole<br />
with smoked gouda, salad and<br />
strawberries with cream.<br />
First comes the tea, served in<br />
mason jars and teapots and<br />
sweetened (if you like) with the<br />
chunky unrefined sugar that<br />
waits at each table.<br />
<strong>The</strong> casserole comes next,<br />
perfectly cooked and enhanced<br />
by the smoky gouda. With a<br />
sprinkle of coarse black pepper<br />
and cumin-seed sea salt, the<br />
dish is excellent.<br />
Paired with mixed greens<br />
and an edible flower, the salad<br />
is topped with a delicious, light<br />
vinaigrette. I hesitate to bite<br />
into the flower, but when I do<br />
I’m pleasantly surprised by the<br />
soft, almost buttery flavour it<br />
holds.<br />
Dessert is a subtle, yet<br />
savoury parfait of fresh strawberries<br />
covered with whipped<br />
cream and basil syrup.<br />
It was the perfect end to a<br />
perfect meal, but I couldn’t help<br />
but be tempted by another cup<br />
of tea.<br />
Fuchsia Epicerie Fleur is located<br />
at 4050 Coloniale, Tuesday and<br />
Wednesday 12-5 p.m., Thursday<br />
and Friday 12-9 p.m. and<br />
Saturday 12-7 p.m. <strong>The</strong>y also sell<br />
many take-home products and<br />
offer catering services at<br />
epiceriefleur.com
20 FRINGE ARTS THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/FRINGE<br />
<strong>The</strong><br />
DOWN-LOW<br />
Events listings<br />
Mar. 10-Mar. 16<br />
MUSIC<br />
Greater Minds<br />
With Gabrielle Papillon and open mic<br />
Friday, 8:30 p.m.<br />
Yellow Door<br />
36<strong>25</strong> Aylmer Street<br />
Tickets: $8, $5 for students<br />
A.C. Newman<br />
With Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele<br />
Thursday, 8:30 p.m.<br />
Il Motore<br />
179 Jean-Talon Blvd. O.<br />
Tickets: $12<br />
Charles Spearin’s “<strong>The</strong> Happiness<br />
Project”<br />
With Andrew Whiteman (Apostle of<br />
Hustle)<br />
Friday, 8:30 p.m.<br />
Il Motore<br />
179 Jean-Talon Blvd. O.<br />
Tickets: $18<br />
Edgy Meow Mix<br />
Edgy Women Festival, Opening Party with<br />
performances by DRED: Daring Reality<br />
Every Day (Mildred Gerestant from New<br />
York), Coral Short, Pinkie Special<br />
(NY/Lyon), Miss Saturn (NY), Mimi and<br />
guest DJs<br />
Saturday, 9 p.m.<br />
Eastern Bloc<br />
7420 Clark Street<br />
ART<br />
You’re Too Close: Body Politics, Spatial<br />
Relations<br />
Curated by Sara Lawlor and Robert<br />
Vitulano. This mixed-media show depicts<br />
art concerned with representations of<br />
body politics as it relates to surrounding<br />
space, encompassing themes relating to<br />
sexuality, drugs, race/ethnicity, and public<br />
space. You’re Too Close challenges<br />
dominant thought of the normal self.<br />
Today until March 14, vernissage March<br />
12, 5-8 p.m.<br />
Art Mur<br />
5826 St-Hubert Street<br />
Recent Works<br />
Galerie l’Envol presents recent works by<br />
members of l’Association indépendante<br />
de l’art.<br />
Wednesday until April <strong>25</strong><br />
Galerie l’Envol<br />
372 Ste-Catherine Street O. #522<br />
For info (514) 489-0356<br />
FILM<br />
<strong>The</strong> Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni<br />
Riefenstahl<br />
<strong>The</strong> Goethe Institut presents the last film<br />
in their Carte Blanche to Marie Brassard,<br />
<strong>The</strong> Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni<br />
Riefenstahl by Ray Müller on the controversial<br />
but highly talented filmmaker<br />
who made <strong>The</strong> Triumph of the Will and<br />
Olympia<br />
Thursday and Friday, 7 p.m.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Goethe Institut<br />
418 Sherbrooke Street E.<br />
—compiled by Joelle Lemieux<br />
My, What Big Teeth You Have<br />
Solo act turned band talks EP and taking on more than you can chew<br />
• NATASHA YOUNG<br />
“A wise man once told me that a<br />
good song should be able to be<br />
played with just one guy and a guitar,”<br />
muses Jonathan Chandler, the<br />
man and voice behind Ottawa’s<br />
Amos the Transparent.<br />
<strong>The</strong> band’s name, says Chandler,<br />
comes from a musical. But when<br />
asked which musical, the<br />
singer/songwriter will be hard<br />
pressed to give it away. “Some people<br />
have gotten it right,” he says,<br />
with playful mystique.<br />
Other than the curious title of the<br />
project, Amos the Transparent isn’t<br />
too difficult to figure out. “I like to<br />
keep the songs kind of minimal so<br />
you can play with the range,” says<br />
Chandler. “It’s good to keep it<br />
straightforward to begin with.”<br />
Chandler began the project solo,<br />
about as simple as a musician can<br />
get. “I was playing with a couple of<br />
other bands, and the music I was<br />
writing didn’t really fit either of<br />
them,” he says, explaining his decision<br />
to branch out and begin Amos<br />
spins<br />
Robyn Hayle<br />
Arms Full Of Roses<br />
Independent<br />
Some people have just got it. A voice that grips<br />
you from the first note and imprints itself in<br />
your memory. Montrealer Robyn Hayle has definitely<br />
got it, showcasing it beautifully on her<br />
debut album Arms Full of Roses. Tracks are<br />
delivered effortlessly in a voice that is as<br />
smooth as butter. <strong>The</strong>re are some great new<br />
takes on classics like “Look of Love” and<br />
“Can’t Take My Eyes off You.” However, they<br />
are not the stars of this debut gem. As it turns<br />
out, Robyn’s song writing skills are just as<br />
impressive as her voice. A blend of jazz,<br />
cabaret and Broadway tracks like “Crazy<br />
Melody” and the title track “Arms Full of<br />
Roses” are sure to seduce you into a mellow<br />
trance of romanticism. “Tomatoes,” one of my<br />
favourites, takes you on a bluesy country<br />
detour offering up some banjo and fun with<br />
nonsensical lyrics like “I got my red shoes on<br />
and my alligator hat and tomatoes.” Arms Full<br />
Of Roses is a well-rounded collection of 11<br />
strong, wonderfully sung songs—a damn<br />
good debut.<br />
4/5<br />
—Barbara Pavone<br />
<strong>The</strong> Monster Show<br />
And In Our Final Days<br />
As Archipelago<br />
Independent<br />
Ontario’s <strong>The</strong> Monster Show delivers a<br />
painfully overdone effort at “originality” in<br />
their album And In Our Final Days As<br />
Archipelago. <strong>The</strong> album peaks about 45-seconds<br />
in, after an impressive instrumental<br />
intro to the first song. Musically, the album<br />
has its moments but they’re overshadowed<br />
the Transparent.<br />
“This wasn’t really supposed to<br />
be a band,” he says. “It was really an<br />
outlet for me to write. I had a lot of<br />
guest musicians come in and play,<br />
but there really wasn’t a band for the<br />
first record.”<br />
Things are different now—<br />
Chandler has picked up a few fine<br />
musicians to supplement his songs.<br />
<strong>The</strong> full band’s first EP, My, What<br />
Big Teeth You Have, is soon to be<br />
launched and sold at their shows.<br />
“For this EP,” Chandler says,<br />
“[the band] arranged songs with me,<br />
which for me is cool... I’ll still write<br />
the words, and I’ll present the band<br />
with ideas for musical parts, but<br />
whether they keep them or not is<br />
totally up to them. When we made<br />
the first EP, I constantly had an<br />
instrument in front of me. I played<br />
countless different instruments. It’s<br />
kind of nice [having other musicians].”<br />
It seems Amos the Transparent<br />
has taken on too much for one man<br />
to maintain alone. Besides their new<br />
EP, Chandler says, “we started our<br />
by less-than-mediocre vocals. Frequent<br />
“attempts” at falsettos and vibratos don’t<br />
work with the simple, indie feel of the music.<br />
Even the use of many instruments (from dulcimer<br />
to accordion, trumpet to violin) can’t<br />
make up for a vocalist who tries way too hard<br />
to sound good at singing.<br />
<strong>The</strong> lyrics seem corny at best, as if the lyricist<br />
wanted to sound artsy and edgy at the same<br />
time. A perfect example is the sixth track,<br />
“Roadwork,” where the listener is offered<br />
“orange vest, hardhat, tar fumes, aphrodisiac.<br />
Josie’s got sweet tits and cutoff shorts.”<br />
What?<br />
Highlight of the album is the bluegrass feel<br />
of “We could Make Dinner at Your Place” with<br />
simple, layered vocals and a banjo in the<br />
background. Overall, this album is too slowpaced<br />
to keep me entertained. If soft rock<br />
with a tint of country music sounds appealing,<br />
<strong>The</strong> Monster Show might be worth a listen;<br />
a few too many handclaps for my liking.<br />
2/5<br />
—Evan LePage<br />
Psyopus<br />
Odd Senses<br />
Metal Blade Records<br />
Spazzmetaltastic is definitely the keyword<br />
when it comes to Odd Senses, Psyopus’ third<br />
album. <strong>The</strong> Rochester, New York’s strange<br />
(yet enjoyable) mix of crazy guitar noodling,<br />
drumming in odd time signatures and incoherent<br />
yells, yelps and other noises make this<br />
an interesting album containing many<br />
unforeseen twists and turns. Odd Senses is<br />
sort of like Mr. Bungle’s metallic, bastard<br />
child without the vocal talents of Mike<br />
Patton. Yelper/screamer Brian Woodruff does<br />
a fine job, but rarely breaks out to try something<br />
beyond his throat-gurgling scream. <strong>The</strong><br />
band loves to eschew the standard song<br />
structure, deciding instead to take things on<br />
Onstage, Amos the transparent is anything but.<br />
own label, so it’s totally self-produced.”<br />
<strong>The</strong>ir first music video is<br />
due this summer, which, Chandler<br />
lets on, will be a fully animated cartoon.<br />
Chandler and his band have a<br />
busy schedule ahead of them, but he<br />
doesn’t seem to mind. This new venture<br />
is “a big departure” from the<br />
first EP, he says, but he’s proud of it.<br />
“I’d rather say, ‘sweet, that worked.<br />
the fly, incorporating abrupt changes in<br />
tempo and style, sometimes resulting in a<br />
messy cacophony of sounds (“Medusa”, “X<br />
and Y”), but sometimes hitting the mark, as<br />
evidenced in the musical peaks and valleys<br />
of “Boogeyman” and the so-annoying-itgets-funny-then-annoying-then-funny-again<br />
vocal sampling contained within album<br />
stand-out “Choker Chain.” <strong>The</strong> last,<br />
unnamed track is a 20-minute narrative (one<br />
that starts off as a conversation between two<br />
dorky guys at band practice, hoping to get<br />
signed to Metal Blade before going onwards<br />
and upwards) that almost undermines the<br />
rest of the album, but given the band’s odd<br />
sense of humour, it actually kind-of works.<br />
Music to keep you on your toes.<br />
3.75/5<br />
—R. Brian Hastie<br />
<strong>The</strong> Prodigy<br />
Invaders Must Die<br />
Take Me To <strong>The</strong> Hospital<br />
Reuniting for the first time (on record, at<br />
least) in a decade, the three members that<br />
made <strong>The</strong> Prodigy the world’s premier electropunk<br />
act throw down and display a more<br />
dance-oriented side that harkens back to the<br />
band’s earlier output, marrying the nascent<br />
sounds found on <strong>The</strong> Prodigy Experience with<br />
the hardcore edge that made Fat Of <strong>The</strong> Land<br />
a landmark in hardcore techno. <strong>The</strong> opening<br />
title track starts off with a shimmering bass<br />
line before kicking into a dance floor stomper<br />
with a one-two kick, as an electronic voice<br />
announces, “invaders must die.” <strong>The</strong> fun<br />
doesn’t stop there, as second single “Omen”<br />
offers up a high-octane stroll through Techno<br />
Park. <strong>The</strong> entire album teeters between fullon<br />
dance party and Atari Teenage Riot-lite, a<br />
continuation of the sound found on the 2002<br />
stand-alone single “Baby’s Got A Temper.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> record itself is a cohesive collection of<br />
Now, let’s try something new.’”<br />
It’s that drive to create that<br />
promises longevity in the indie rock<br />
world, and Amos the Transparent<br />
isn’t stopping any time soon.<br />
Amos the Transparent will be playing<br />
Jupiter Room 3874 St-Laurent<br />
Blvd. with <strong>The</strong> High Dials, First You<br />
Get the Sugar, and Michou. Tickets<br />
$7 in advance, doors at 8 p.m.<br />
tunes—something 2004’s Always<br />
Outnumbered, Never Outgunned could not<br />
claim to be.<br />
Where AONO had a bevy of special guests, the<br />
only guest of note on this record is Dave<br />
Grohl, who sits on the stool for two tracks<br />
(“Take Me To <strong>The</strong> Hospital”, which definitely<br />
sounds like a FOTL out-take and “Stand Up,”<br />
a big beat tune that ends the album),<br />
although his inclusion sounds as if it<br />
could’ve come from a sequencer and some<br />
drum samples. Invaders Must Die is a<br />
marked improvement over AONO, and a definite<br />
welcome back into the recording world, a<br />
long-overdue record that hopefully sparks<br />
more like it in the future.<br />
4.5/5<br />
—R. Brian Hastie<br />
Auresia<br />
Auresia<br />
Moonsplash Records<br />
I must admit that I have never followed the<br />
world of Reggae music and, other than Bob<br />
Marley, could not name a famous artist from<br />
the genre. Reviews of Edmonton-born<br />
Auresia, rave about the debut’s ingenuity and<br />
I approached it with high expectations—<br />
maybe too high. <strong>The</strong> beats are catchy and<br />
strong but the vocals fall short, with the tendency<br />
to become overly high pitched and at<br />
times shaky, making for uncomfortable listening<br />
especially on ¨Nice Day¨ and “Jah Make<br />
It Right.” What’s more, they often seem separated<br />
from the melodies. On “Hot Spot” and<br />
“Give a Little Time” there are occasions<br />
where it sounds as if she missed her cue and<br />
wants to catch up. While “(Nearly) Genuine<br />
Smile” is well written and witty, tracks like<br />
“Jah Goddess” seem repetitive and uninspired.<br />
2/5<br />
—Barbara Pavone
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/SPORTS<br />
SPORTS 21<br />
McGill wins battle of Montreal<br />
Concordia women’s hockey team cannot match<br />
McGill’s speed, skill and stamina in best-of-three semi-final playoff games<br />
• JOHNNY NORTH<br />
<strong>The</strong> powerplay led the way for<br />
the undefeated defending champions<br />
McGill Martlets as they<br />
easily defeated the Concordia<br />
Stingers women’s hockey team in<br />
their first round playoff series.<br />
Concordia 2<br />
McGill 11<br />
In game one last Wednesday<br />
at McGill’s McConnell Arena,<br />
Concordia got their only lead<br />
against McGill this season a little<br />
over three minutes in—Stingers<br />
rearguard Catherine Desjardins<br />
scored on the powerplay.<br />
However, four straight goals<br />
by McGill quickly ended any<br />
hopes of Con U pulling off an<br />
upset. Rookie forward Mallory<br />
Lawton, daughter of Stingers<br />
head coach Les Lawton, was able<br />
to score late in the first period to<br />
make it 4-2.<br />
Ann-Sophie Bettez and Marie-<br />
Andrée Leclerc-Auger of McGill<br />
both registered hat-tricks in the<br />
rout.<br />
Concordia 1<br />
McGill 4<br />
In their 28th consecutive victory,<br />
McGill was far from a dominant<br />
powerhouse, but their powerplay<br />
went three-for-eight in a 4-1 win at<br />
Concordia’s Ed Meagher Arena last<br />
Friday.<br />
McGill scored once when<br />
Stingers forwards Devon Rich and<br />
Keely Covo both went to the penalty<br />
box for high-sticking around the<br />
five-minute mark of the first period.<br />
McGill’s Vanessa Davidson<br />
scored when she tipped a point<br />
shot past Stingers goalie Audrey<br />
Doyon-Lessard.<br />
“I saw it was tipped, but I was a<br />
little too deep into my net,” said<br />
Doyon-Lessard.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>ir powerplay is almost<br />
unstoppable,” said coach Lawton.<br />
Despite the goal, McGill could<br />
have been up by more if it wasn’t<br />
for Doyon-Lessard making countless<br />
saves and McGill missing several<br />
opportunities close to the<br />
Stingers net. McGill looked like<br />
they scored late in the first period,<br />
but the puck was kicked in and the<br />
goal waved off.<br />
“Our attention to detail was off,”<br />
admits Peter Smith, head coach of<br />
the Martlets. “<strong>The</strong>re was no sense<br />
of urgency in the first period.”<br />
“<strong>The</strong>ir weakness is they don’t<br />
always read their passes,”<br />
said Doyon-Lessard. “<strong>The</strong>y just<br />
want the perfect play. I chipped<br />
some passes, but they missed a<br />
lot of chances.”<br />
Stingers forward Donna Ringrose tries to fight way out of corner. PHOTO JONATHAN DEMPSEY<br />
McGill’s Alessandra Lind-<br />
Kenny received a pass right in<br />
front of Doyon-Lessard on the<br />
powerplay to put McGill up 2-0 a<br />
few minutes into the second period.<br />
A little more than three minutes<br />
later, the persistence of Con U’s<br />
offence paid off on the powerplay—a<br />
point shot was saved by<br />
McGill goalie Charline Labonte,<br />
but the rebound went right to<br />
Stingers forward Donna Ringrose.<br />
Ringrose, while falling, put the<br />
puck past a sprawling Labonte.<br />
“I didn’t want to give them the<br />
shutout,” said coach Lawton. “I<br />
didn’t want to give them that satisfaction.<br />
I’m sure Charline was<br />
pissed.”<br />
A three-on-one opportunity<br />
and another wild scramble in front<br />
of Doyon-Lessard a few minutes<br />
later quickly put an end to<br />
Concordia’s attempted comeback.<br />
Facing a 4-1 deficit, the Stingers<br />
were not able to generate enough<br />
chances to put themselves back on<br />
track.<br />
“We made some costly<br />
turnovers and some poor passes,”<br />
said coach Lawton. “It has a lot to<br />
do with the youth of our team. We<br />
have a small roster and I think<br />
some teams take us for granted.”<br />
Despite the slow start McGill<br />
“We have a number of young<br />
players with a lot of pride going<br />
through some growing pains.”<br />
wasn’t too concerned of sweeping<br />
the series as they outshot Con<br />
U 38-19.<br />
“I would be concerned if we<br />
didn’t have the opportunities,<br />
but we did,” said Smith.<br />
Concordia ended the season<br />
with a 3-13-2 record, finishing<br />
fourth in their division. “We didn’t<br />
get the results in our league,”<br />
said coach Lawton. “We played a<br />
really tough division, with really<br />
tight games. Because of our lack<br />
of experience sometimes it’s better<br />
to lose before you win.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Stingers will be looking to<br />
build up their size and talent<br />
next year with the addition of<br />
—Les Lawton,<br />
Con U women’s hockey head coach<br />
Erin Lally, a former captain of<br />
her women’s midget AAA club in<br />
Calgary and Emilie Bocchia, a<br />
top ten scorer with Dawson<br />
College. <strong>The</strong> majority of the team<br />
are expected to return next year.<br />
“We have a number of young<br />
players with a lot of pride going<br />
through some growing pains,”<br />
said coach Lawton.<br />
Coach Lawton expects Doyon-<br />
Lessard to have a big year next<br />
year, as she will be looking to<br />
make the most of her last season.<br />
“I think we’re going to be better,”<br />
said Doyon-Lessard. “It’s<br />
going to be a new team, it’s going<br />
to be different.”
22 SPORTS THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/SPORTS<br />
Concordia point guard and Quebec player of the year Damian Buckley navigates his way through UQAM defence. PHOTO JONATHAN DEMPSEY<br />
On the way to Ottawa<br />
Stingers survive early barrage, advance to national championships<br />
• DIEGO PELAEZ GAETZ<br />
Concordia 79<br />
UQAM 76<br />
Concordia’s men’s basketball<br />
team rebounded from a poor start<br />
with a thrilling comeback to keep<br />
their dream season alive in a hardfought<br />
79-76 defeat over the<br />
UQAM Citadins in the QSSF final<br />
at the Loyola Sports Complex on<br />
Thursday night.<br />
<strong>The</strong> favoured Stingers came out<br />
of the gate flat despite a raucous<br />
sold-out home crowd. Despite<br />
having eight rookies on the roster,<br />
UQAM wasn’t intimidated playing<br />
in a hostile environment. Citadins<br />
forward Souleymane Diagne’s<br />
three-pointer pushed their lead to<br />
18-7 and forced the flustered<br />
Stingers to call a timeout.<br />
Stingers star guard and QSSF<br />
player of the year Damian Buckley<br />
managed to keep the Stingers<br />
close for the rest of the half, knifing<br />
through the defence and either<br />
finishing or drawing the foul.<br />
However, the young Citadins<br />
would not back down, as guard<br />
Adil El-Makssoud continually<br />
used his size advantage over Con<br />
U’s guards to get easy shots near<br />
“Five years of hard work… are you gonna let that<br />
go down the drain, or are you gonna step up and<br />
make something happen?”<br />
the basket to guide UQAM to a<br />
ten-point halftime lead. El-<br />
Makssoud finished with 17 points<br />
and five rebounds.<br />
Despite the deficit, Con U’s veteran<br />
leaders were up to the task of<br />
keeping the team focused. “I told<br />
the guys that we weren’t losing<br />
this game, that this wouldn’t be<br />
my last game,” said Stingers guard<br />
and spiritual leader Dwayne<br />
Buckley.<br />
Senior centre Jamal Gallier had<br />
a similar message; “Five years of<br />
hard work… are you gonna let that<br />
go down the drain, or are you<br />
gonna step up and make something<br />
happen?”<br />
Stingers coach John Dore was<br />
less animated in his address to the<br />
team. “I just told the guys we have<br />
lots of time left, let’s get some<br />
stops on D,” said Dore. “<strong>The</strong>y shot<br />
55% in the first half, which is<br />
unusually high. <strong>The</strong>y had a good<br />
half, we didn’t.”<br />
—Jamal Gallier,<br />
Stingers centre<br />
<strong>The</strong> Stingers responded right<br />
away to the challenge when the<br />
teams took the floor for the second<br />
half. Con U rookie forward Evens<br />
Laroche came out like a man possessed,<br />
using his athleticism and<br />
energy to create havoc offensively.<br />
“We weren’t tough enough<br />
early on,” said Laroche. “Coach<br />
always tells us toughness wins<br />
games. It’s about working harder,<br />
and we went out and did that.”<br />
Laroche scored inside and out,<br />
using his incredible leaping ability<br />
to finish inside, and his soft outside<br />
touch to punish UQAM for<br />
backing too far off of him. He finished<br />
with a team-high 28 points<br />
and six rebounds while shooting<br />
an incredible 11 of 12 from the<br />
floor.<br />
Diagne tried his best to stem<br />
the bleeding for the Citadins, but<br />
he couldn’t prevent the Stingers<br />
from coming all the way back to<br />
tie the game with just over three<br />
minutes left in the third quarter.<br />
“We came out a bit flat in the second<br />
half,” said Diagne, who led<br />
UQAM with 30 points. “[Laroche,<br />
#]23 was the difference for them,<br />
he came out and got a lot of<br />
rebounds and just played with<br />
more energy than us.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> final quarter turned into an<br />
absolute dogfight, as the lead<br />
changed hands on what felt like<br />
every possession.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> biggest thing for us was<br />
our veteran leadership,” said<br />
Damian. “Even when we were<br />
down ten, I knew in my heart that<br />
we were going to nationals.”<br />
Damian seemed to be at the<br />
centre of every play for the<br />
Stingers in the fourth quarter. He<br />
started with a well-placed alleyoop<br />
to Laroche to start the frame,<br />
and continued to lead the team<br />
with his unselfish play and incredible<br />
passing ability. He finished<br />
the game with a double-double of<br />
21 points and 11 assists.<br />
“I told him he should be player<br />
of the year nationally,” said UQAM<br />
coach Olga Hrycak after the game.<br />
“He took leadership of the team<br />
and showed them the way.”<br />
Despite Damian’s heroics, the<br />
game was up for grabs with under<br />
a minute remaining. Up by one<br />
point, centre Jamal Gallier<br />
missed a shot from in close, only<br />
to have Laroche barrel in for the<br />
rebound and get fouled in the<br />
process. Laroche hit both free<br />
throws to ice the victory with<br />
under five seconds remaining.<br />
“Evens seemed to take [the<br />
early deficit] personally, which is<br />
nice to see,” said Hrycak. “<strong>The</strong><br />
experience that Damian brings,<br />
that Dwayne brings, that Jamal<br />
brings… Evens fed off that. We<br />
were often playing with four<br />
rookies on the floor, so we didn’t<br />
have that [experience.]”<br />
“<strong>The</strong> older guys here have<br />
helped me a lot to mature and I<br />
thank them for that,” said<br />
Laroche after the game, fresh<br />
from parading around the floor<br />
with the provincial championship<br />
banner slung over his back like a<br />
cape.<br />
For the seniors on the team,<br />
this is their last chance to accomplish<br />
something special with a<br />
special group of players. “We’ve<br />
gotta refocus now,” said Dwayne.<br />
“If we do what we do, we can take<br />
home the big prize.”
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/SPORTS SPORTS 23<br />
Wrestlers capture<br />
third-place at Nationals<br />
Zilbermans blame wrestling politics for costing former Olympian gold<br />
at World Championships<br />
• JOHNNY NORTH<br />
Rookie wrestler David<br />
Tremblay dominated his competition<br />
en route to a gold medal performance<br />
two weeks ago at the<br />
Canadian Interuniversity Sport<br />
Wrestling Championships held in<br />
Calgary, Alberta.<br />
In the final 61 kilos category<br />
match, Tremblay, a Leisure<br />
Science student, outscored his<br />
opponent Raj Virdi, a 2006 gold<br />
medallist from Simon Fraser<br />
University, by a score of 6-1.<br />
Tremblay was named the outstanding<br />
male competitor of the<br />
tournament, the first time a<br />
Stinger has won the award since<br />
1996. He also had to defeat CJ<br />
Hudson, the defending 2008<br />
champion from Brock University,<br />
in the preliminaries.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Concordia men’s team<br />
ended the two-day championship<br />
tourney with 56 points, two behind<br />
Brock and 24 points behind Simon<br />
Fraser.<br />
In the 90 kilos category, Alex<br />
Dyas, a second-year Leisure<br />
Science student, won the gold<br />
medal in his category. In his final<br />
days with Con U, Steve Rennalls, a<br />
fifth-year Master of Science<br />
Administration student, captured<br />
the silver medal in the 68 kilos category.<br />
Con U’s Olympian David<br />
Zilberman won the bronze medal<br />
in the 130 kilos class. He came in<br />
with an injured left pectoral and it<br />
was the first time he has competed<br />
in university wrestling in two<br />
years.<br />
“I’m a little disappointed with<br />
the third-place finish,” said<br />
Zilberman. “<strong>The</strong>re was something<br />
that happened that was out of my<br />
control. I don’t understand what<br />
happened.”<br />
Zilberman won the match<br />
against Arjan Bhullar from<br />
Simon Fraser originally, but it<br />
was protested and the decision<br />
was reversed.<br />
“I don’t truly understand why<br />
he won the match,” said<br />
Zilberman. “According to the rules<br />
I won the match, but there’s politics<br />
involved and the call was<br />
reversed.”<br />
Simon Fraser officials believed<br />
the winning point Zilberman<br />
scored where he pushed his opponent<br />
out of the wrestling mat<br />
shouldn’t have been scored.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> head referee said if it was<br />
international rules that David<br />
would have won,” said Victor<br />
Zilberman, head coach of the<br />
Stingers and David’s father. “It’s<br />
all politics.”<br />
Coach Zilberman believes his<br />
son will learn not to leave his<br />
matches in the officials’ hands.<br />
“He’s capable of doing better, but<br />
he had a severe injury before the<br />
Olympics and he wrestled [in a<br />
higher] weight class.”<br />
On the women’s side, Nikita<br />
Chicoine, a second-year Athletic<br />
<strong>The</strong>rapy student, took home the 67<br />
kilos bronze medal.<br />
Filling a roster was difficult for<br />
the Stingers. <strong>The</strong>y can barely fill<br />
up the minimum roster requirement<br />
of 10 active wrestlers when<br />
everyone is healthy and passing<br />
their courses.<br />
“It’s one person out and that’s<br />
it [out of the tournament],” said<br />
coach Zilberman. “We have top<br />
individuals, world-class athletes,<br />
but the numbers have been a problem.”<br />
Next year, coach Zilberman<br />
isn’t confident about who will<br />
show up to compete for the men’s<br />
and women’s wrestling teams. He<br />
believes times have changed since<br />
he first started with Concordia in<br />
the ‘80s.<br />
“I used to be able to predict how<br />
things would go, but athletes and<br />
the league have changed,” said<br />
coach Zilberman. “It’s impossible<br />
to predict. <strong>The</strong>re’s too much politics<br />
in this sport.”<br />
“According to the<br />
rules I won the match,<br />
but there’s politics<br />
involved and the call<br />
was reversed.”<br />
—David Zilberman,<br />
Concordia wrestler<br />
Wrestling coach Victor Zilberman imparts some advice to his son, David Zilberman, during training. PHOTO DAN PLOUFFE<br />
scoreboard<br />
Home<br />
Away<br />
Record<br />
Men’s Basketball<br />
Women’s Hockey<br />
Concordia 79 VS UQAM 76<br />
McGill 11 VS Concordia 2<br />
Concordia 1<br />
VS McGill 4<br />
12-4-0<br />
3-13-0<br />
schedule<br />
Who<br />
When<br />
Men’s Basketball<br />
VS.<br />
Calgary<br />
Friday, 12:30 p.m.<br />
Nationals<br />
thelinknewspaper.ca
24 OPINIONS THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/OPINIONS<br />
York is burning<br />
Concordia takes notice as a mob of students surround Hillel’s office<br />
GRAPHIC VIVIEN LEUNG<br />
• MITCH SOHMER<br />
On Feb. 11, 2009, months of tension between Hillel and<br />
the York Federation of Students exploded in a shocking display<br />
of racial intolerance and hooliganism that saw Jewish<br />
students barricade themselves in their office to escape a<br />
rowdy mob.<br />
Leading up to the events of Feb. 11, Jewish students at<br />
York University had been uncomfortable on their own campus.<br />
For four years, Students Against Israeli Apartheid had<br />
been extremely active at York. Graphic displays demonizing<br />
Israel as a Nazi regime, with flags of Israel emblazoned<br />
with swastikas were erected on a regular basis. Some of<br />
those graphics featured the names and photographs of<br />
Jewish York students who had voiced their objection to the<br />
exhibitions.<br />
Many students claim they have been afraid to openly<br />
identify themselves as Jewish. Thanks to SAIA, York is a<br />
campus where wearing a Star of David or a yarmulke often<br />
leads to dirty looks and harassment.<br />
Because of the York student government’s overwhelming<br />
support of SAIA’s harmful campaign and targeting of<br />
Jewish students, Hillel had to intervene. It is clear to me<br />
that the YFS was not interested in representing the Jewish<br />
student body or in maintaining a safe learning environment<br />
on campus.<br />
When he opened the door,<br />
he was bombarded with cries of<br />
“dirty Jew,” “fucking Jew” and<br />
“die bitch, go back to Israel.”<br />
Hillel began to organize a recall of the YFS.<br />
By Feb. 11, Hillel students at York had collected the<br />
5,000 signatures required to force a recall election. <strong>The</strong> YFS<br />
argued that the recall signatures were gathered due to the<br />
student government’s public criticism of Israel and its military<br />
incursion into Gaza. But York Hillel President Dan<br />
Ferman countered, “this campaign was about making student<br />
government accountable.”<br />
Hillel held a public press conference to announce the<br />
petition. With over 40 people cramming into the 30-person<br />
room, the organizers had to turn people away. When YFS<br />
supporters showed up and were denied access to the room<br />
they began to chant, “let us in, let us in.”<br />
After only a few minutes, the shouting outside the room<br />
grew so disruptive that the “Drop YFS” students cancelled<br />
the press conference, gathered their belongings, and headed<br />
back to the Hillel office. A 100-strong pro-YFS crowd followed<br />
in pursuit. <strong>The</strong> “Drop YFS” campaign hurried into<br />
their small room and locked the door behind them. As they<br />
hid in their office, the angry buzz outside intensified into a<br />
furious roar.<br />
Inside Hillel’s office, Jewish and non-Jewish students<br />
paced the room. Students leaned forward on the edge of<br />
their chairs, stunned at the wild scene that was erupting just<br />
outside the door. Most were terrified. <strong>The</strong> chants of<br />
“Zionism is racism” and “shame on Hillel” grew louder. <strong>The</strong><br />
rage outside the door boiled into a fever pitch. At least one<br />
cry of “let’s break the glass and drag them out” was heard.<br />
Ferman decided to face the crowd. When he opened the<br />
door, he was bombarded with cries of “dirty Jew,” “fucking<br />
Jew” and “die bitch, go back to Israel.” Ferman ducked<br />
back inside and the police were called.<br />
Under a police escort, the students left their office in single-file<br />
with their heads down, surrounded by a jeering mob.<br />
In 2002, Concordia’s Jewish students were given similar<br />
treatment when Hillel invited Israeli PM Benjamin<br />
Netanyahu to speak on campus. Jews who tried to attend<br />
the event were bullied by a massive mob of students and had<br />
their kippahs pulled off their heads and thrown to the<br />
ground. Others were spat on or shouted down as they<br />
draped themselves in Israeli flags and sang Hebrew songs.<br />
<strong>The</strong> demonization of Israel and the targeting of those<br />
who support it had manifested itself in acts of intimidation,<br />
hatred and vandalism. At a school with a tremendous<br />
amount of history, this was one of Concordia’s darkest days.<br />
In 2009, the mindless Israel-bashing continues. Over<br />
the past several days, Concordians have been subjected to<br />
another round of the so-called Israel Apartheid Week. This<br />
year’s version at Concordia has been surprisingly low-key<br />
and insignificant, with a few minor events and an absurdly<br />
one-sided display on the seventh floor.<br />
Despite the relative quiet at Concordia, the incident at<br />
York should remind us that unabashed hate-speech about<br />
Israel cannot go unaddressed.<br />
“Isreali Apartheid Week goes beyond reasonable criticism<br />
into demonization. It leaves Jewish and Israeli students<br />
wary of expressing their opinions, for fear of intimidation.”<br />
This came not from a Jewish leader or Hillel member,<br />
but Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff.<br />
Freedom of speech and healthy debate are the cornerstones<br />
of any vibrant university campus. With that openness<br />
comes the responsibility to avoid preaching hatred and<br />
inciting violence. This is a reality that those at York and<br />
Concordia who mindlessly blame Israel for all the woes of<br />
the Middle East must understand.<br />
Freedom of speech as a principle was not meant to legitimize<br />
the silly ranting of the wilfully ignorant.<br />
“Isreali Apartheid Week goes beyond<br />
reasonable criticism into demonization.<br />
It leaves Jewish and Israeli students<br />
wary of expressing their opinions,<br />
for fear of intimidation.”<br />
—Michael Ignatieff<br />
Criticism of Israel is not inherently anti-Semitic. Too<br />
often though, the so-called “criticism” is so absolute, so constant<br />
and so damning that it sends Jewish students who<br />
might otherwise disagree with some Israel policy into survival<br />
mode, making a healthy dialogue on the issue nearly<br />
impossible.<br />
As we have learned at York, if the Jewish state is exclusively,<br />
disproportionately, and maliciously singled out on a<br />
constant basis, a calm campus environment can quickly<br />
descend into a mire of hatred and intolerance.<br />
Concordia’s more fervent detractors of Israel and those<br />
who are charged with monitoring them would be wise to<br />
learn from the lessons of York. <strong>The</strong> time has come for them<br />
to consider the potential consequences of their inflammatory<br />
actions, and to reflect on whether their efforts, as they are<br />
currently fashioned, do more harm than good.
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/OPINIONS OPINIONS <strong>25</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> STM’s OPUS card<br />
is unsafe and unsound<br />
One cent of aluminium foils the $217 million OPUS system<br />
One penny can keep identity tHieves from making away with your personal information and where you have been on the island of Montreal. GRAPHIC GINGER COONS<br />
• GINGER COONS<br />
Here’s an experiment: take your OPUS<br />
card, take some aluminium foil and wrap the<br />
foil around your OPUS card covering it completely.<br />
Now, find a metro turnstile and try<br />
swiping your OPUS card. What happens?<br />
Absolutely nothing.<br />
An OPUS card wrapped in aluminium foil<br />
is completely useless and unreadable.<br />
Your OPUS card has a special component<br />
called a Radio Frequency Identification tag.<br />
That means that there is an integrated circuit<br />
and antenna inside every OPUS card—and in<br />
the wallets or pockets of nearly every student<br />
in this city.<br />
RFID tags are used to transmit information<br />
through the air using radio waves. <strong>The</strong><br />
OPUS card uses a passive tag, meaning that<br />
your metro card doesn’t transmit on its own<br />
but replies to signals emanating from RFID<br />
readers—the turnstile you pass through in<br />
the metro station.<br />
RFID tags have a lot of uses: they track<br />
inventory, livestock and people; they are also<br />
used to time races more accurately, store<br />
personal information on passports and even<br />
bill users of toll highways. Whenever you<br />
wave a card to get through a locked door,<br />
that’s RFID in action. <strong>The</strong> same goes for contactless<br />
credit cards.<br />
As the price of RFID technology has gone<br />
down, their adoption has skyrocketed.<br />
Mifare<br />
What we call the OPUS card is actually<br />
based on the Mifare chip. Sold by the Dutch<br />
company NXP Semiconductors, Mifare is the<br />
most widely used contactless smart card in the<br />
world—over one billion Mifare cards exist.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re exists one major problem with<br />
Mifare. <strong>The</strong> most widely adopted version,<br />
Mifare Classic, isn’t safe. It was cracked in<br />
March 2008 by a team of Dutch researchers at<br />
Radboud University Nijmegen—it was<br />
cracked even before the Société de transport<br />
de Montréal decided to buy it.<br />
A hobbyist with about $100,<br />
an internet connection, and a<br />
little technical knowledge can<br />
collect and decipher the data<br />
kept on Mifare Classic cards.<br />
After the researchers broke the encryption<br />
on the chips, they brought an RFID reader to<br />
a subway station and began to read data from<br />
the cards kept in the pockets of transit users.<br />
<strong>The</strong> researchers went on to publish a paper on<br />
the subject. You can read it on their website.<br />
Now, a hobbyist with about $100, an internet<br />
connection, and a little technical knowledge<br />
can collect and decipher the data kept on<br />
Mifare Classic cards.<br />
Mifare Classic chips can be hacked,<br />
cracked and cloned.<br />
A hack to not pay fare for the Charlie Card<br />
in Boston was published by a group of MIT<br />
students. For a class project, the students<br />
identified several security problems in the<br />
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority<br />
smartcard system. <strong>The</strong> vulnerabilities they<br />
documented were accompanied by instructions<br />
for cloning and overwriting Charlie<br />
Cards.<br />
Lessons from London<br />
One of the most well documented uses<br />
of Mifare chips is the Oyster card in<br />
London, England. It’s a case of security<br />
gone wrong. <strong>The</strong> Oyster card used on<br />
London’s transit system works like OPUS,<br />
but with more sophistication. Oyster<br />
cards can be charged online, over the<br />
phone, in machines or in ticket offices.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y’re swiped on the way into the<br />
Underground, but unlike Montreal they<br />
are also swiped on the way out. That’s<br />
important. It means that Transit for<br />
London, the organization controlling<br />
Oyster cards, knows where a given customer<br />
has come from and gone to, as well<br />
as their name and personal information.<br />
That data is stored for eight weeks.<br />
It gets worse. Over the course of two<br />
years, TfL received 436 requests from<br />
police for information on people’s movements<br />
in the system. Of those requests,<br />
409 were granted, with no warrant<br />
required.<br />
Oyster cards are also based on the<br />
Mifare chip.<br />
Why OPUS?<br />
<strong>The</strong> STM has spent $217 million implementing<br />
the OPUS card. OPUS is currently<br />
used on STM buses, subways, AMT<br />
trains and Laval, Longueuil and Quebec<br />
City’s transit system. By July 1, 2008,<br />
16,490 OPUS cards were in use in<br />
Montreal’s system—a shadow of the 219<br />
million who use the system annually.<br />
<strong>The</strong> OPUS card is meant to save the<br />
STM $20 million dollars a year by preventing<br />
fraud. If it works as planned, the<br />
system’s cost could be recouped in 11<br />
years.<br />
Does the OPUS card prevent fraud?<br />
Let’s just say that on my way to school<br />
today, I watched three teenage boys jump<br />
the turnstiles without attracting the attention<br />
of the STM agent on duty.<br />
Why aluminium foil?<br />
For as little as a $100 and with readily<br />
available materials, it’s possible to build an<br />
RFID reader. That may not seem like a problem<br />
to regular users of the OPUS card, used<br />
to pressing it against the turnstile. If all<br />
RFID readers were as weak as the ones<br />
owned by the STM, potential identity thieves<br />
would have to get pretty cosy with their victims.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re’s a problem with that assumption.<br />
Not all RFID readers are as weak as the ones<br />
in metro stations. A good reader can read an<br />
RFID tag from 10 metres away.<br />
Different RFID tags work on different frequencies.<br />
OPUS cards have high frequency<br />
RFID tags. <strong>The</strong>y use radio frequencies<br />
between three and 30 MHz. <strong>The</strong>se frequencies<br />
become very difficult to read when<br />
they’re shielded by metal. By wrapping your<br />
OPUS card in aluminium foil, you prevent<br />
RFID readers from querying it. <strong>The</strong> radio<br />
waves just don’t make it through.<br />
Should you really wrap your OPUS card in<br />
aluminium foil? It’s a little impractical.<br />
You’d need to unwrap it every time you<br />
wanted to use the metro. That’s a personal<br />
decision.<br />
Should you be worried? Maybe. We don’t<br />
yet know how much information the STM<br />
keeps about ride history and personal<br />
details. We don’t know whether that information<br />
is stored on your card or in a central<br />
database—and that’s the problem. Until we<br />
know more about what the STM is doing to<br />
protect its users, it’s worth being cautious<br />
and vocal.<br />
Until I know just what they’ve got on me,<br />
I will refuse to buy an OPUS card and will<br />
pay more for an adult magnetic swipe card.<br />
Too much is at stake.
26 OPINIONS THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/OPINIONS<br />
Green<br />
space<br />
WANTED: Heroes.<br />
Billions of positions available.<br />
• BETTINA GRASSMANN<br />
In 2002, I followed courageous activists to a small town in India to protest<br />
a large-scale hydro dam on the Narmada River. <strong>The</strong> dam was threatening the<br />
environment and lifestyles of tribal Indians in Maharashtra and Madhya<br />
Pradesh.<br />
We wandered about the town, raising awareness and recruiting protesters.<br />
While I was trying—unsuccessfully—to make chapattis, the press showed<br />
up. <strong>The</strong>y interviewed the activists, who spoke extensively about the issues.<br />
But the article that appeared in the paper the next day had less to say about<br />
the protest than it did about a white girl making crippled chapattis.<br />
I was annoyed that the reporter had such a poor sense of priorities.<br />
I could speak almost no Marathi, the local language, and didn’t have much<br />
to contribute to the campaign. <strong>The</strong>n I realized that my presence attracted<br />
locals to the protest. As I listened to one of the activists deliver a rousing<br />
speech in words I couldn’t understand, I started realizing something important<br />
about the human psyche.<br />
People don’t rally around issues. <strong>Iss</strong>ues are abstract. People rally around<br />
people. So I am not going to talk about environmental issues, I am going to<br />
talk about people, specifically about women.<br />
Medha Patkar<br />
<strong>The</strong> orator I mentioned earlier was Medha Patkar, who founded Narmada<br />
Bachao Andolan, an organization that protested the Narmada dam. Patkar<br />
opposed the dam through hunger-strikes, sit-ins and other non-violent methods.<br />
Although Patkar was unsuccessful, her efforts became the impetus behind<br />
several renewable energy projects in the area. <strong>The</strong>se included solar energy,<br />
lights powered by stationary bicycles and a low impact micro-hydro dam—<br />
all designed to provide electricity to villagers.<br />
Sheila Watt-Cloutier<br />
When a CBC interviewer referred to the arctic as “inhospitable,” Sheila<br />
Watt-Cloutier replied that it was “nurturing.” Watt-Cloutier was not being<br />
metaphorical. As an Inuit growing up in Kuujjuaq, Quebec, she knows intimately<br />
how dependent her people are on their climate.<br />
Over the years, Watt-Cloutier has watched glaciers, polar bears and caribou<br />
disappear as a result of climate change. She knows that global warming may<br />
very well displace the Inuit and melt away their hunting culture. From 2002 to<br />
2006, Watt-Cloutier was the chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, a federation<br />
of Native nations in Canada, Greenland, Russia and the U.S.<br />
In 2005, following the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, she filed a petition<br />
with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, stating that<br />
human-induced climate change violated Inuit cultural and environmental<br />
human rights.<br />
Claire Morissette<br />
Hers may not be a household name, but if you’ve ever cycled in downtown<br />
Montreal, you’ve probably seen the name—the de Maisonneuve Blvd bicycle<br />
path is named after this influential cycling advocate.<br />
Thirty years ago, Morissette founded the cycling lobby organization, Le<br />
Monde à bicyclette, with “Bicycle Bob” Silverman. <strong>The</strong> group staged the first<br />
“Die-in” to raise awareness about bicycle accidents. To this day, activists<br />
organize the same event, scattering mangled bicycles and cyclists covered in<br />
ketchup across the streets of Montreal.<br />
It is largely thanks to Morissette that we can bring bikes onto the metro.<br />
Silverman and Morissette protested the no-bicycle rule by cramming into<br />
metro trains with everything from ladders to canoes to cardboard elephants.<br />
Morissette was also instrumental in bringing the car-sharing organization<br />
Communauto to Montreal. In 1999, she founded Cyclo Nord-Sud, a non-profit<br />
organization that has collected over 23,000 bicycles and sent them to the<br />
developing world.<br />
If environmental action is ever to transform from a trickle to a tidal wave,<br />
then it is to inspiring, charismatic leaders like these that we must turn.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se women were not just environmental activists, but they were also<br />
social justice activists. This should not surprise us. Environmental issues are<br />
human issues. This may seem like a formidable task, and it is. But these<br />
women have shown us how much someone can accomplish with no more<br />
than a discerning mind, an outspoken voice—and passion.<br />
Letters @thelink.concordia.ca<br />
_______ for president<br />
Today, after an excellent People’s Potato lunch, I was talking<br />
to an MBA student as a woman approached us. She said she<br />
was collecting signatures for someone and that it was just for<br />
nomination purposes and “you did not have to vote for them.”<br />
She mentioned she had to collect extra signatures as some<br />
students had not put their IDs on the nomination paper and so<br />
they would not be counted. I said I was an independent student<br />
and some nominations I am eligible to sign and others I am not.<br />
She said I could sign this.<br />
As I went to sign I noticed there was no name on the nomination<br />
paper. When I pointed this out to her she again repeated you<br />
do not have to vote for this person as it is just for nomination<br />
purposes. I said I could not sign something without a name on<br />
it. For a number of minutes the graduate student and I discussed<br />
this matter and I told him, “in all my years of signing<br />
petitions for causes or for people I had never seen a blank nomination<br />
paper.”<br />
I went to the CSU office to see if the returning officer was in.<br />
<strong>The</strong> receptionist said the person was not but she would tell the<br />
returning officer.<br />
David S. Rovins,<br />
—Independent<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Link</strong>’s letters and opinions policy: <strong>The</strong> deadline for letters is 4 p.m.<br />
on Friday before the issue prints. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Link</strong> reserves the right to verify<br />
your identity via telephone or email. We reserve the right to refuse letters<br />
that are libelous, sexist, homophobic, racist or xenophobic. <strong>The</strong><br />
limit is 400 words. If your letter is longer, it won’t appear in the paper.<br />
Please include your full name, weekend phone number, student ID number<br />
and program of study. <strong>The</strong> comments in the letters and opinions<br />
section do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial board.<br />
Do we actually need university?<br />
My education has become an essential bullet point on my<br />
resume rather than a heartfelt commitment to higher learning<br />
• MALLORY RICHARD,<br />
THE MANITOBAN<br />
(UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA)<br />
WINNIPEG (CUP) – Since when<br />
do institutions devoted to the pursuit<br />
of knowledge advertise on buses?<br />
My university is not alone in this<br />
trend.<br />
<strong>The</strong> problem is Canada-wide.<br />
Universities have grown so large that<br />
they resemble businesses that dispense<br />
a service to an ever-growing client base<br />
instead of havens for students who<br />
appreciate the inherent value of knowledge.<br />
Many students attend university<br />
because, like young people everywhere<br />
in Canada, they harbour the impression<br />
they would not find success by any<br />
other path.<br />
As Mark Kingwell, a professor of<br />
philosophy at the University Toronto,<br />
noted: “Students go [to university]<br />
because their peers do, or because it’s<br />
the logical extension of high school, or<br />
because their parents did. <strong>The</strong>y go<br />
because there is the prospect of a lively<br />
social life, with plenty of beer, chat,<br />
and sex. <strong>The</strong>y go, most often, because<br />
they believe it is the best route to better<br />
financial prospects in life.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> last point is particularly<br />
poignant. As an arts student, I<br />
encounter countless engineering students<br />
who feel compelled to justify<br />
their choice of major by conveying<br />
their disbelief that I have chosen to<br />
study something which, by their standards,<br />
has no real prospect of making<br />
me wealthy.<br />
<strong>The</strong> popular misconception that a<br />
university education is something<br />
everyone needs, whether they enjoy<br />
and learn from it or not, leads to a dispassionate<br />
student body with an indifferent<br />
approach to their coursework.<br />
Have we forgotten that<br />
reading, travel,<br />
socialization and poverty<br />
were once available<br />
outside of the university<br />
experience?<br />
To illustrate how our institution has<br />
become an expensive holding tank for<br />
young people twiddling their thumbs<br />
while waiting to enter the so-called real<br />
world, I beg you to consider what<br />
attending university used to mean.<br />
Though they received no accreditation<br />
for doing so, hundreds of students<br />
at the Collège de France used to attend<br />
Michel Foucault’s lectures, keeping<br />
such thorough notes and cassettes that<br />
scholars were able to re-create the lectures<br />
in book form decades later.<br />
This is especially impressive considering<br />
I have it on good authority that<br />
Foucault did not post Power Point presentations<br />
on WebCT.<br />
Perhaps student issues would be<br />
championed more zealously if students<br />
viewed their universities as worthwhile<br />
COMIC SINBAD RICARDSON<br />
institutions whose integrity must be<br />
maintained for future generations.<br />
Instead, they are often conceived of<br />
as degree mills where students put in<br />
their four to seven years before gaining<br />
the qualifications necessary for moving<br />
on to the next stage of life.<br />
Kingwell suggests universities are<br />
propagating this characterization of<br />
their function, encouraging prospective<br />
students to believe that their service<br />
is as essential as groceries and<br />
housing—indeed, the three form a<br />
triad bent on keeping down my<br />
account balance—and that the intelligent<br />
consumer will demand more<br />
choice, quality, and prospects.<br />
But why is it a given that we need to<br />
consume post-secondary education? If<br />
we can’t relish the prospect of discovery,<br />
encountering new ideas and making<br />
our own contributions to the larger<br />
body of knowledge, are the financial<br />
costs and all-nighters worth it?<br />
Have we forgotten that reading,<br />
travel, socialization, and poverty were<br />
once available outside of the university<br />
experience?<br />
What’s wrong with the university<br />
system is that it has become so big that<br />
it has turned learning into a product<br />
that you can put a price on, and too<br />
many of us are paying that price for a<br />
product we may not even want.<br />
Canadian universities want to<br />
give you more, but more of what?<br />
And are you sure this is the only way<br />
of getting it?
THE LINK • MARCH 10, 2009 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/OPINIONS<br />
crswrdpzzlol<br />
THE BROMANCE EDITION • R. “I LOVE YA, MAN” HASTIE & BRUNO “I LOVE YOU TOO, BRO” DE ROSA<br />
ACROSS<br />
3. Place where bros can enjoy watching two<br />
teams playing a game, also an excuse to drink<br />
surprising amounts of booze and walk around<br />
with your belt undone<br />
6. <strong>The</strong> finest of liquors, meant to be consumed<br />
during a peaceful night out with your best bro.<br />
Also a variety of adhesive tape<br />
10. Restaurant where large slabs of expensive<br />
meat are served. Take your bro here if you want<br />
to display a serious commitment to friendship<br />
12. Best form of shelter when rain strikes, just<br />
make sure it isn’t inhabited by a bear. <strong>The</strong> place<br />
for bro encounters at the dawn of man<br />
14. Spinning rims and revving motors can be<br />
done here, considered to be the prime spot for<br />
showing off cars and drinking hooch<br />
15. Unlike baseball, this sport wants as many<br />
strikes as possible and occasionally more splits<br />
than a typical acrobatics display. One can reenact<br />
scenes from <strong>The</strong> Big Lebowski if so<br />
desired<br />
18. If the lawnmower isn’t moving, it needs to be<br />
hammered. If the faucet isn’t working, it needs<br />
to be replaced. It’s all a bromantic job<br />
20. Even lost in the middle of “scarytown,” you<br />
and your bros don’t want to ask for these<br />
21. Useful farming vehicle, or the way to beat all<br />
your bros in a game of vehicular tug of war<br />
22. This man has arms the size of most men’s<br />
legs. Green paint for so long will do that to a<br />
man. Still considered one of the ultimate bros<br />
23. <strong>The</strong> preferred pre-electricity mode of longdistance<br />
bro communication<br />
24. <strong>The</strong>se are the activities that bros engage in.<br />
Like regular dates, but more manly<br />
DOWN<br />
1. It’s like smoking five cigarettes at once<br />
2. Beard, ‘stache, goatee. As long as it’s on your<br />
face, it’ll make you look tough<br />
4. A place to bring your bro to “relax,” especially<br />
before his wedding<br />
5. <strong>The</strong>y’re like normal cars, but with “monster”<br />
chassis and with bigger wheels… and they can<br />
crush other cars<br />
7. Wild animals are the targets. Extreme mode<br />
does not lead to extra points. It just leads to<br />
breaking the law<br />
8. Modern lumberjack’s weapon of choice, or the<br />
most awesome instrument to duel your bro<br />
11. What you do to any liquid that you wish to<br />
“Education lost in fog”<br />
• JUSTIN GIOVANNETTI<br />
<strong>The</strong> 1980s were a bad time for universities<br />
in Quebec, and if a report from<br />
the Future Options Group at McGill<br />
was right, it was only going to get worse.<br />
Released the same week as Quebec<br />
education minister Claude Ryan’s<br />
announcement of a 10 to 12 per cent<br />
increase in tuition, the 1986 report by<br />
20 professors at McGill painted a bleak<br />
picture of the university system 20<br />
years later, in 2006:<br />
“At this private, or semi-private<br />
institution tuition fees will range from<br />
$10,000 to $15,000, ‘A’ grades will be<br />
rare and the sons and daughters of<br />
alumni will get special attention for<br />
admissions,” the report continued. “At<br />
this university of the future, undergraduate<br />
students will prepare for life with<br />
joint degrees in the arts and in science.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> report was “harkening back to<br />
ingest. Most bros choose something alcohol<br />
related<br />
13. Aerial bro greeting, must be one-handed<br />
14. No bro was born with washboard abs and<br />
toned thighs. Go to the gym and do this until<br />
you look and feel like a superhero. Also, the<br />
title of a movie by a certain state governator<br />
16. Handshakes? Fine. Hugs? That’s okay too,<br />
at times. Placing your hands all over a bro’s<br />
back to help with relaxing? That’s going to<br />
lead to questions<br />
17. With this mode of communication, you can<br />
play your favourite sportscast in the background<br />
and pretend to bro talking bro<br />
19. <strong>The</strong> non-aerial bro greeting. Fellow<br />
bystanders will believe you are attempting to<br />
punch one another, leading to a stalemate<br />
with knuckles touching. But you and your bro<br />
know what you are doing<br />
1<br />
3 4 5<br />
15<br />
22<br />
8 9<br />
11<br />
13 14<br />
17 18 19<br />
20 21<br />
principals and practices of the good old<br />
university days before the 1960s,”<br />
wrote <strong>The</strong> <strong>Link</strong> reporter, Catherine<br />
Bainbridge.<br />
McGill professor Storrs McCall was<br />
on the FOG committee at McGill, “[this<br />
report] was released to save the university<br />
before its present state of mediocrity<br />
sets in for good,” McCall said.<br />
<strong>The</strong> FOG report called for a 100 per<br />
cent increase in tuition so that universities<br />
could be financially independent of<br />
the government.<br />
“It really comes down to dollars and<br />
cents,” McCall told <strong>The</strong> <strong>Link</strong>, arguing<br />
that a preferential system for alumni<br />
would also result in much more generous<br />
financial support.<br />
McCall made reference to the notorious<br />
Indian Civil Service exams of the<br />
late 19th century to explain the need for<br />
joint degrees in the arts and science.<br />
Written by Cambridge and Oxford<br />
graduates, the ICS exams required a<br />
24<br />
10<br />
2<br />
23<br />
12<br />
issue 24<br />
solutionz<br />
6 7<br />
1 2 3<br />
C H A R A D E S H<br />
4<br />
O U H<br />
5<br />
P I C T I O N A R Y N E<br />
K G A<br />
6 7<br />
B E U C H R E D<br />
A E Y B<br />
8 9<br />
L A N P A R<br />
10<br />
T Y<br />
11<br />
P I N T H E T A I L<br />
D L W T U N<br />
L I U N D<br />
12<br />
D U N<br />
13<br />
G E O N S A N D D R A G O N S<br />
O U T Y R<br />
T E<br />
14<br />
M Y<br />
15<br />
E D W A R D F O R T Y H A N D S<br />
A N I<br />
16<br />
N R O P<br />
O P<br />
17<br />
P I N A T A<br />
18<br />
I N T E R V E N T I O N O<br />
H L<br />
19<br />
R I S K<br />
I<br />
20<br />
P A R T Y<br />
N<br />
21<br />
G R A V E Y A R D<br />
* solve the crswrdpzzlol and tickets to Ilove you, man. email<br />
opinions@thelink.concordia.ca for more info.<br />
THIS WEEK IN HISTORY MARCH 7, 1986<br />
deep knowledge of the literary and visual<br />
arts as well as an exceptional grasp of<br />
all the sciences to pass.<br />
<strong>The</strong> proper school for the 21st<br />
century was, according to the FOG,<br />
based on the dying traditions of the<br />
British Empire’s colonialism nearly<br />
200 years earlier.<br />
16<br />
OPINIONS 27<br />
editorial<br />
Why we can’t vote online ConU<br />
Thanks to technology, students can avoid long lines and<br />
manage their academic lives, even under the pressure of difficult<br />
schedules. <strong>The</strong>y can also register for classes, buy<br />
books, pay student fees and take courses without leaving the<br />
comfort of their homes.<br />
With the Concordia Student Union electoral season upon<br />
us, the argument could be made to extend this digital convenience<br />
to student elections.<br />
This would be sorely needed.<br />
Only 11 per cent of Concordia undergraduate students<br />
voted in last year’s election, a turnout the CSU executive<br />
proudly proclaimed as “high.”<br />
With only an 11 per cent participation rate, the state of<br />
democracy at our school is dismal.<br />
When other Canadian schools like the University of<br />
Ottawa—a school with nearly as many students as<br />
Concordia—have moved their elections online, they have<br />
seen turnout records shattered. <strong>The</strong> University of Victoria<br />
has even seen campaigning go paper-free, by moving to the<br />
web in an effort to become more sustainable.<br />
<strong>The</strong> unfortunate truth, however, is that this is a bad idea<br />
for Concordia. In the past few weeks alone, CSU councillors’<br />
email accounts have been hacked and sensitive documents<br />
have been leaked.<br />
During one of the two Council meetings held on March 5,<br />
a motion was passed to “rectify weakness within the electoral<br />
process,” adding additional security for the transportation<br />
and tallying of ballots.<br />
We need to see more than one consecutive year of student<br />
politics that isn’t riddled with backdoor dealings, shady<br />
coalitions and broken promises of transparency before we<br />
can enjoy the convenience of e-voting. Until then, three days<br />
with limited hours and high voter apathy is all that<br />
Concordia students will, and can, get at the polling booth.<br />
Sebastien Cadieux,<br />
—Editor-in-chief<br />
Mayor Tremblay is an idiot<br />
For the past two years the Société de transport de<br />
Montreal seemed to be turning itself around: service is<br />
increasing, broken escalators are being replaced and new<br />
STM chief Michel Labrecque—a metro riding, public transit<br />
expert—is a breath of fresh air.<br />
That was until March 4 and Mayor Tremblay’s newest<br />
attempt to balance the city’s books.<br />
Now $40 million is gone from the STM’s budget—in what<br />
seems like a move motivated more by panic than actual<br />
planning—and the city’s entire public transit system has<br />
been thrown into doubt.<br />
With four per cent of its budget gone, the STM is now in<br />
an impossible situation: with all its money allocated, the<br />
transit system must cut four per cent of its spending without<br />
increasing fares, decreasing service or altering its highly<br />
unionized labour force.<br />
Mayor Tremblay has now shown his true cards. Despite<br />
years of making grandiose statements about the importance<br />
of public transit, the mayor has turned his back on the STM<br />
when they needed him the most.<br />
Betraying the yellow-bellied bean counter he is at heart,<br />
Trembley has passed on the responsibility for maintaining<br />
public transit to Quebec City, to the federal government, to<br />
the cash-strapped suburbs, and to the STM itself.<br />
Whatever happens to public transit in this city, it will not<br />
be the mayor’s fault anymore. Or so he hopes.<br />
Tremblay could fight the cuts. He could go to Quebec City<br />
and tell Premier Charest that the anti-deficit law forcing<br />
cities to cut essential services is dangerous. <strong>The</strong> mayor<br />
should also look at his budget and see that his business-asusual<br />
shrug of the shoulders isn’t working, $455 million has<br />
been cut from the city budget over the past four years—a new<br />
approach is needed.<br />
One thing is sure, Mayor Tremblay, if the STM changes<br />
its ad campaign to “on va se voir moins souvent” next year, I<br />
wont blame them, I will blame you.<br />
Justin Giovannetti,<br />
—Opinions Editor