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h e McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism and the McGill Faculty of Law present:

h e Litvack Lecture: “Celebrating Two Decades of Audacity in the Defence of Human Rights”

Featuring laureate and guest lecturer Asma Jilani Jahangirand panelists Bassem Eid and Irwin Cotler

Tuesday, 24 March 2009Lecture and discussion at 5:00pm

Reception to follow

Moot Court, Faculty of LawMcGill University, 3644 Peel St.

RSVP (by 18 March 2009) to litvacklecture@gmail.com or 514-398-3577

h e Robert S. Litvack Award was created in 1987 to recognize distinguished achievements in the defence of the rule of law and the protection of the individual against arbitrary power. h is year’s recipient, Asma Jilani Jahangir, is co-founder and chair of the Pakistan Human Rights Com-mission and UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief. Ms. Jahangir founded Pakistan’s i rst female law i rm in 1980 and has, at her own personal risk, fought human rights

violations in the courts and in the media for almost 30 years.

Ms. Jahangir’s talk will be followed by a panel discussion on the challenges facing human rights activists, and will include the participation of h e Hon. Irwin Cotler, M.P. and Bassem Eid, a past Litvack recipient and director of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group in East Jerusalem.

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The McGill Daily, Monday, March 16, 2009 3News

Neilson takes presidencyStudents pass QPIRG’s 75-cent fee increase

Around 50 people attended the election results party at Gert’s Thursday evening to witness

Ivan Neilson and Alexandra Brown win the only two contested SSMU executive positions – President and VP Internal.

Neilson won SSMU presidency with 50.8 per cent of votes to 38.2 per cent for Peters, and 11 per cent spoiled. Brown and Brendan Sullivan’s race for VP Internal was closer. Brown won with 50.2 per cent.

Approximately 3631 ballots – less than one-fifth of the undergraduate population – were cast overall. Some

pointed to the low voter turnout as evidence of problems with elections promotion.

SSMU claimed it worked hard to market the elections, sending regular emails reminding people to vote, but outgoing SSMU President Kay Turner suggested that the McGill community may be sinking deeper into apathy.

“This is not the first off-year,” said Turner. “We’re doing just as much as we have in the past in terms of out-reach. Students are just becoming more apathetic.”

Turner hesitated to name any spe-cific cause for student apathy, but said that shifts in student demographics could have an effect. As acceptance to McGill becomes more competi-tive and as the academic standards rise every year, students seem to be more focused academically and less involved in student politics.

“It was interesting that there were no student-initiated referendums,” noted Turner, “but there probably could have been better promotion.”

All SSMU and administrative ref-erendum motions passed, though a motion to raise the QPIRG fee by 75 cents – the first increase since its inception in 1988 – was briefly con-tested because it was unclear if its approval rate of 48.3 per cent for and 46.4 per cent against constituted a simple majority.

The QPIRG issue was initially raised in an online Twitter conversa-tion between McGill graduates Jake Itzkowitz, former SSMU President, Yahel Carmon, former SSMU Council Speaker, and Cole Ryan, former AUS President. Responding from Washington D.C., London, and New York respectively, the trio questioned whether the motion should be over-ruled by a Judicial Board ruling from 1995 which spoke to counting simple majorities.

“[We decided] that the [Judicial

Board] case didn’t apply because in that question, [it had] four options, ‘Yes, no, no response, spoiled.’ It doesn’t apply,” Turner said.

In the case of QPIRG, the SSMU executives decided not to count spoiled ballots as a ‘no,’ and that while a simple majority is required for a referendum item to be approved, Clause 20.2 of the SSMU constitution does not specify “simple majority of what.”

Turner was relieved to have the issue resolved. “I think [Carmon] and [Itzkowitz] should get [lives]. You can quote me on that,” she said.

The executives also decided to interpret the SSMU constitution in favour of the QPIRG. QPIRG mem-ber Leila Pourtavaf said the 75-cent

increase will finally deliver much needed funds to her organization.

“This was the first [fee] increase in 20 years. [It should bring] $30,000, but I don’t know the exact number,” QPIRG member Leila Pourtavaf said, adding that much of it would be used to just cover QPIRG’s debt.

“We had an $18,000 defect this year. A lot of it is just going to be get-ting us where we need to be.”

Turner and other executives also seemed pleased that a motion to reform the General Assembly (GA) passed. The motion approved the removal of requirements for quorum, advertising, and its occurrence each term.

“I was surprised it passed despite the negative press. The Tribune thought it was quite deceptive,” com-mented Julia Webster, current VP Internal of SSMU.

“I think, [though,] that we all know we need GA reform because the process isn’t working. The issues keep coming back in perpetuity.”

When asked how she felt about the GA possibly only occurring once a year – or less – Webster said that a regularly scheduled session would not necessarily guarantee a success-ful event.

“You need an engaging issue to bring people to the GA. You’re not going to come unless something touches you personally,” she said.

Both McGill ancillary fees passed, with the Athletic fee approved 54 per cent to 45.7 per cent, and the student service fee approved 53.7 per cent to 45.5 per cent.

The McGill Undergraduate Students Fee renewal passed with 57.2 per cent to 36.6 per cent, and the Athletic Improvement fund passed 50.7 per cent to 44.3 per cent.

� -with files from Henry Gass

Erin HaleThe McGill Daily

McGill hikes international tuition

International tuition hikes for stu-dents in four faculties were outlined in an email sent late Wednesday to all students that linked to the financial aid web site.

Students Currently enrolled in Science, Engineering, Law, and Management can expect an eight per cent increase by Fall 2009 and a fur-ther 10 per cent increase by Summer 2010, while Arts students will face a five per cent increase by Summer 2010, the first in change in three years, according to the McGill web

site. Students who enroll starting in Fall 2009, however, will experience substantially higher changes to annu-al tuition: Management will jump from $16,200 to $23,000; Law from $15,090 to $20,000; and Science and Engineering from $16,650 to $20,000. These one-year increases amount to 42, 33, and 20 per cent, respectively.

When asked how he felt about the announcement, future Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS) presi-dent Andrew Royle said he support-ed the increase, the second greatest of the announced hikes.

“As a Montrealer, I’m not that opposed to the increase [because Quebec] taxes are fairly substantial. My parents pay for international stu-dents to go to school,” he said, pre-dicting that Quebeckers would likely face an tuition increase in future

years.SSMU VP External Devin Alfaro

was not surprised by the new figures, though he did not support the hike.

“I think this is going the wrong direction for the University. It will limit access,” he said. “The University says [international tuition deregula-tion] means [more funding for] stu-dent aid, but will only grant a 30 per cent [aid increase].”

In the fall, the Quebec Ministry of Education allowed for the deregula-tion of international tuition, giving universities the freedom to set fees, and seek higher revenue margins. The McGill administration has indi-cated in the past that they normally increase international tuition fees by 8 per cent per annum.

– Erin Hale

NEWSBRIEF

Ivan Neilson celebrates his 50.8 per cent victory over Marshall Peters, who recieved 38.2 per cent.

Stephen Davis / The McGill Daily

“This is not the first off-

year. Students are just

becoming more apathetic.”Kay Turner Outgoing SSMU President

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Attention Grads and Post-DocsPGSS 2009 Executive Elections and Referenda

Vote for or against our candidates :

Find campaign statements at pgss.mcgill.ca/ELECTIONS/

Meet the candidates at the PGSS AGM

18h30 on Wednesday, March 18 at Thomson House

Referenda

* Maintain, Improve or Discontinue the PGSS Health and Dental Plan

* Create or Reject a Mandatory Fee for a Library Improvement Fund

* Decide Whether to Increase the Levy for QPIRG

* Approve or Reject an Increase in the Athletics and Recreation Fee

* Approve or Reject an Increase in the Student Services Fee

* Approve or Reject an Increase in Administrative Charges

Vote online at

ovs.pgss.mcgill.ca from 9h00 on Thursday, March 19

to 16h00 on Monday, March 30

PresidentDaniel Simeone

VP InternalCharalampos (Harry) Saitis

VP FinanceEric Pollanen

VP AcademicDahlia ElSha� e

The Plateau approved a 49-step, 15-year plan last week in an effort to help the city transi-

tion from cars to more sustainable alteratives for public transportation, cyclists, and pedestrians.

The Plan de Déplacement Urbain (PDU), the product of three years of research and public consultation, aims to shift often dangerous, fast-moving traffic toward arterial roads such as Parc, St. Laurent, and St. Denis so that side streets are free for slow local traffic, bikes, and pedestri-ans.

“The first step is to slow down the cars in the local network, slowing traf-fic around schools and parks, making green neighbourhoods, making large intersections...[to make a better] trans-port cocktail,” said Michel Labrecque, a Mile End borough Councillor, the new Société de transport de Montréal (STM) chief, and a major proponent of the Plateau PDU.

During and after the public con-sultation process, neighbourhood groups such as the Congestion Committee of the Maison d’Aurore, a citizens’ group, were skeptical that the plan will not effect lasting change.

“There are very few [actions in the PDU] that will lead to a reduction in circulation,” said Isabelle Gaudette, the group’s coordinator, in French. “There need to be measures that reduce the vehicular capacity on the roads at the same time that we’re adding public transportation.”

While Chris Erb, a writer from urban blog Spacing Montreal, also feels the Plateau’s plan will not suf-fice, he sees it as a step in the right direction.

“These local initiatives are a really good first step; they can create the necessary dialogue to create these big changes in the city.”

PDU calls first for lowered speed limits, increased radar coverage, and speed bumps on side streets in the Plateau. Later, more substantial changes will take place, such as wid-

ened sidewalks, more bike and bus lanes, and the replacement of car traffic with pedestrian walkways.

“We have established the first PDU with a 15-year scope, because we don’t have the money,” Labrecque said. “It is not sustainable to tear up and rebuild the streets and sidewalks; it will be an ongoing process.”

During the two-year data collec-tion phase of the plan, researchers studied how people moved within the Plateau. The research revealed that over 60 per cent of Plateau dwell-ers used active or mass transit.

“We are implementing the PDU to build on what we’ve got – to build on the trends around sustainable devel-opment and sustainable transit in the Plateau,” said Labrecque.

Yet just 12 days ago, Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay announced that the city is cutting $40-million from the STM, a move that has been heavily criticized. Labrecque, who now presides over the STM, stressed the City was still able to maintain STM fares and service at current lev-els despite the cuts.

Labrecque and a panel of experts are meeting weekly to look for ways to save money and to monitor ridership.

“Mass transit at this moment is more important than ever,” said Labrecque. “If people lose their jobs, if petrol costs go up, we need to be there full throttle.”

The new Montreal master trans-port plan calls for a PDU to be devel-oped in every borough of Montreal, but the Plateau is the first to develop a PDU.

Erb said that alone, the Plateau’s plan, “will not encourage that many people to get out of their cars. It will just move the traffic out of the Plateau. There has been a push to get more people into transit, more buses in rush hour.

“The current administration in the Plateau seems pretty progres-sive,” Erb said. “But you have dif-ferent levels of government fighting each other for infrastructure proj-ects, which ultimately causes noth-ing to get done. You need to take political risks to get people out of cars.”

The McGill Daily, Monday, March 16, 2009 5News

In an act of civil disobedience, more than 100 Canadians have pooled their money to purchase a

plane ticket for Abousfian Abdelrazik, a Canadian national stranded in Sudan. Abdelrazik was arrested and allegedly tortured by Sudanese offi-cials – before they declared him inno-cent – while visiting Sudan in 2003. Following this, Abdelrazik was des-ignated as a terrorist by the United States, and labelled as an Al-Qaida operative by the United Nations.

At a press conference on Thursday, supporters of Abdelrazik released the names of 115 people who have contributed money to purchase a $997 plane ticket to bring him home to Canada.

“We are doctors. We are lawyers, teachers, artists, activists, mothers, and we have put our money together because we would like [Abdelrazik] to get home as soon as he can,” said Cory Legassic, a Montreal teacher who donated $20 for the ticket.

Under the Al-Qaida and Taliban Regulations of Canada’s United Nations Act, it is a federal offence to knowingly collect or provide funds to be used by “Usama bin Laden or his associates.”

Since Abdelrazik’s name appears on a UN blacklist – known as the UN Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee Consolidated List – he is considered one of these “associates.” Violating the act may lead to a prison sentence of up to ten years, accord-ing to Abdelrazik’s lawyer, Yavar Hameed.

“Those people who have collect-ed the money to purchase this ticket have done so at great peril and per-sonal risk,” Hameed said.

Human rights activist Samaa Elibyar, who contributed $20 for the ticket, said the case of Abdelrazik calls into question the basic free-doms of Canadians.

“When I see that the govern-ment is intimidating us, and saying that we will be penalized if we help Abousfian to return home, I just say no,” she stated.

The flight, on Etihad Airways – an airline based in the United Arab Emirates – is scheduled for April 3, from Khartoum to Toronto via Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Supporters of Abdelrazik attempt-ed to purchase him a ticket to Canada last year, but Passport Canada said in an email to Hameed that they would not issue the travel documents until a paid ticket and itinerary were con-firmed.

Foreign Affairs spokesperson Daniel Barbarie declined to com-ment about whether Passport Canada would issue the necessary travel doc-uments. He also refused to confirm whether Abdelrazik’s supporters would be charged with violating the United Nations Act.

However, Barbarie did state that as a member country of the UN, Canada has “an obligation to imple-ment the declarations of the Security Council,” including regulations that prohibit the financial support of ter-rorists.

These recent developments in Abdelrazik’s ordeal follow the release of classified documents suggesting that Sudanese authorities arrested

him on the recommendation of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Canada’s intelligence agency. Hameed obtained these doc-uments last month under the Privacy Act and the Canada Evidence Act.

CSIS released a document marked “secret,” and “Canadian eyes only,” large portions of which were blacked out says that “Abdelrazik was arrest-ed on September 10, 2003 [blacked out] and recommendation by CSIS, for suspected involvement with ter-rorist elements.”

The document also states that Canadian officials interviewed Abdelrazik after the arrest. Hameed said that the Sudanese authorities tortured Abdelrazik before the inter-view.

“Our understanding of the situ-ation...is that CSIS is the one that actually recommended Abdelrazik be detained in order to facilitate the process of having him as a captive,” Hameed said. “Opportunistically, they capitalized on that [situation] to inter-rogate him.”

Hameed described this practice as Canada “outsourcing torture.”

When asked about Canada’s role in Abdelrazik’s detention, CSIS spokesperson Manon Berube said that an ear-lier statement, pub-lished in a Globe

and Mail article on March 5, still stands: “CSIS does not and has not arranged for

the arrest of Canadian citizens over-seas...In the case of Mr. Abdelrazik, CSIS reiterates that it acted in accor-dance with the CSIS Act, law and policy.”

However, this is cold comfort for Saskatchewan farmer and former Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament David Orchard, who donated $400 towards Abdelrazik’s plane ticket.

“I’m against torture, period. And I’m against the torture of Canadians,” he said. “And I’m against my coun-try asking foreign nations to torture people for us.”

The UN put Abdelrazik on its ter-rorist blacklist in 2006, following the lead of the U.S.. But in a letter dated November 2007, an assistant com-missioner for the National Security Criminal Investigations wing of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said that no “current or substantive evi-dence” supports his continued listing.

David KochThe McGill Daily

Canadians disobey terror law

Sam NeylonThe McGill Daily

Plateau counts steps to effective transport49-step plan aims to increase bike and pedestrian activity in the long term

Talks on racialized violence

Monday, March 16, 7 p.m.

McCord Museum, 690 Sherbrooke O.

Tuesday, March 17, 6 p.m.

Atwater Library, 1200 Atwater Ave

Beverley Jacobs, President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, will speak on the violence inflicted upon aboriginal women and girls in Canada. She will also participate in a panel discus-sion on Tuesday. The events aim to stimulate a broader understanding of and discus-sion about the reasons behind racialized violence in Canada. Free.

Cinema Politica

Tuesday, March 17, 8 p.m.

Arts W-215, 853 Sherbrooke O.

For their last event of the year, Cinema Politica is screening “Be Like Others,” a documen-tary about sex and gender issues in Iran, in particular the young men living on the fringes of life who choose to undergo sex-change surgery.

DPS Annual General Meeting

Tuesday, March 19, 6 p.m.

Leacock 232, 855 Sherbrooke O.

All undergraduate and Law students are invited to attend the Daily Publication Society’s annual meeting to vote for future board members.

A Portrait of Black Transmen

Wednesday, March 18, 6 p.m.

Rutherford Physics Building rm 112,

3600 University Street

Join Queer McGill and the Anti-Racist Coalition for a screening of “STILL BLACK: A

Portrait of Black Transmen,” is an alternative feature-length documentary about the lives of six black transgender men living in the United States. Screening followed by a dis-cussion with the filmmakers.

Future of the Philippines

Friday, March 20, 6:30 p.m.

Shatner Ballroom, 3480 McTavish

Join the McGill University Filipino Asian Students’ Association for a night of singing, dancing, food and fashion. Proceeds go to high school children in the south-ern Philippine province of Mindanao. Tickets are $12 in $12, and $15 at the door. Email mcgill.mufasa@gmail.

com for more info.

Homo Hop

Friday, March 20, 10 p.m.

Just for Laughs, 2111 St. Laurent.

Join Queer McGill for their famous Homo Hop Party, fea-turing DJ PLASTIK PATRIK in Candy Land. $5 donation. Proceeds go to the Montreal Youth Coalition Against Homophobia. Contact social.

qm@gmail.com.

Got a happy hap? Send your

not-for-proft event details to

news@mcgilldaily.com with

“haps” in the subject line.

Include a brief description of

the event, as well as the time,

date, and location.

WH

AT’S

TH

E H

APS

Supporters raise $997 for fellow citizen stranded in Sudan

Sash

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Th

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The McGill Daily, Monday, March 16, 2009 7News

The pursuit of happiness should trump our desire for consump-tion, argued Professor Louis

Chauvin during his Wednesday talk as part of McGill Green Week, host-ed by the Science Undergraduate Society.

Chauvin, a management professor and President of Le Réseau Québécois pour la simplicité volontaire, an orga-nization which promotes simplistic consumption, pointed directly to over-consumption as endangering our planet.

“For the past 14 years, I have asked myself why we are consciously destroying the carrying capacity of the Earth and what is needed for us to stop,” Chauvin told the audience.

Chauvin’s deep interest in con-sumption patterns and the environ-ment inspired him to reach out to stu-dents, and teach them about respon-sible consumption and sustainability.

“I am a firm believer in education

as a transformative process,” Chauvin said.

According to Chauvin, our society suffers from chronic dissatisfaction – a constant need for more – which harms the environment. He noted that many believe happiness is based on how much one consumes, which leads to over-consumption and depletes the world’s resources.

“People seek the high that comes with pleasure and are convinced that this sensation is the same as happi-ness,” explained Chauvin. “Whether it is gambling, excessive shopping, or a meaningless relationship, we give into these addictions and rely on such external factors for happiness.”

Chauvin added that usually as

one consumes more and more, one requires a larger quantity of goods to maintain the excitement. He con-trasted this attitude to pure happi-ness, which is rewarding for longer periods of time and leaves one with a feeling of fullness, without materi-alistic desires.

“The pursuit of happiness is the ultimate goal for humans,” Chauvin said. “We want to be happy and we think certain commodities will make us happy or happier. The reality is, happiness comes from inside and is detached from consumption.”

During the question and answer period, one student asked whether the current economic crisis would act as a catalyst for responsible consumption.

“There is definitely an increased interest in voluntary simplic-ity,” answered Chauvin. “People are

unable to get solutions from econo-mists and politicians. Instead, they are looking for alternative ways to adjust their lifestyles.”

Later, one student asked whether or not a federal framework was needed for a real reduction in consumption.

“Even with federal frameworks, many societal issues, such as racism, are still present,” Chauvin said. “What we need to do is target individuals and promote personal transformations.”

Chauvin concluded with a message of hope and called for a change in life-style to save what is left of the planet.

“Our planet can only handle so much and so, simplicity is inevitable,” added Chauvin. “The question is, will it be voluntary or involuntary?”

Kartiga ThiyagarajahThe McGill Daily

Green Week speaker pushes for simple living

Happiness trumps consumption

McGill students got to know different parts of the Montreal community last

week as part of the Office of Social Equity and Diversity Education (SEDE)’s “Burst Your Bubble 2009.”

Events included walking tours of Parc-Extension and Chinatown, as well as visits to Kanien’kehaka Onkwawén:na Raotitiohkwa Mohawk Language and Cultural Center in Khanawake and the Multi-Ethnic Association for the Integration of Persons with Disabilities (AMEIPH) just south of Little Italy.

“With this weather we can all get stuck in the ‘McGill bubble’: [the area bounded by] Sherbrooke, Pine, University, and Peel. It is so conve-nient to stay in that little square,” said Adama Kaba, SEDE’s Administrative Coordinator. “But as a university stu-dent you need concrete experiences. You can come here and get As, but if you want hands-on experience you need to get involved.”

This year’s campaign included events at Macdonald campus for the first time, and allowed McGill stu-dents to interact with Montreal’s least understood community groups. The trip to the South Shore was especial-ly ambitious.

“People don’t go out to Khanawake,” said Kaba. “There is still a lot of prejudice attached to the First Nations people. But the visit to Khanawake was the first to be com-pletely filled. By going out there and meeting with the organization, we hope students can learn more about the community and how they can be involved.”

SEDE is staffed by a young, diverse, and enthusiastic group that joined students on Thursday evening’s visit to the AMEIPH.

“We wanted people to learn more about the issue and about the specific challenges some disabled people are faced with,” said Kaba. “If you are an immigrant with a disability, and you don’t speak the language, how do you find the services that are avail-able to you?”

Although Thursday’s visit showed low student turnout, Kaba insists that “Burst Your Bubble” is becoming increasingly popular.

“This year’s response has been even stronger and the numbers attending the visits have doubled. We have already received feedback about our walking tours and people really enjoyed them. We also receive feedback from community organiza-tions that let us know when students become involved with them.”

Last year’s “Burst Your Bubble” campaign allowed McGill students

to learn more about Montreal’s past with a visit to Écomusée du fier monde, a museum of industrial and working class history at the corner of Amherst and Ontario. Students also learned to appreciate Montreal’s diversity with visits to the Côte-des-Neiges Black Community Association and Kapit Bisig Filipino Community Centre.

Food appears to be a key incen-tive in drawing support from stu-dents, with community organizations preparing a few dishes for each visit. Students visiting the AMEIPH dis-cussed the organization’s objectives over an elaborate, multi-ethnic meal.

As well, the cafeterias in Bishop Hall, Douglas Hall, and RVC served “finger food from different countries” on March 5.

SEDE will wrap up the multi-week campaign with a “Community Connections” dinner and film screen-ing in partnership with Radio Canada International on March 18, although the RSVP deadline has passed.

Humera JabirNews Writer

McGill bubble burstsCampaign engages students with nearby neighbourhoods

Google Earth raises Darfur-IPR concerns

When Lisa Parks clicks on photos of victims of the Darfur genocide on Google

Earth, she worries that Google’s cor-porate agenda may skew the soft-ware’s potential to revolutionize global awareness.

“Every technology has the poten-tial to be used in really progressive ways and really negative ways, except for the nuclear bomb,” Parks said in an interview with The Daily. “I think Google Earth has the potential to provide anyone around the world with access to technology, the ability to input data and to have a voice in a

global digital database.”Parks, a visiting media and films

study professor from University of California, Santa Barbara, discussed a project initiated by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, in conjunction with Google Earth Outreach pro-gram, to add a Crisis in Darfur layer to the explosively popular Google Earth software, which had been downloaded over 200 million times at the time of the layer’s inclusion.

The Darfur layer provides geo-referencing information for the region with stories, photos, and data aggregated from public domain sources, such as 900-page Amnesty International reports. For example, a photo layer links users to photos of people and events taken at the

exact GPS location corresponding to where their curser lies on the screen, providing geophysical and political context.

Parks hypothesized that if used righteously, the burgeoning “Google Earth Effect” could revolutionize how the global community reacts to foreign events, comparing its poten-tial to how televised news coverage moved the public to oppose the Vietnam War in the 1970s.

“Some say that CNN has played a role in shaping foreign policy at certain historical junctures. Let’s see if, when something happens in the world, instead of turning on CNN, people go to their computers and turn on Google Earth,” she postu-lated. “What would happen then, is

that people could see what is going on directly from the multitude of voices who experience the event, rather than from CNN’s single verdict on the event.”

Although Parks recognized the added value that Google’s service provides, she criticized how Google claims ownership over public infor-mation. She felt its assertion of intel-lectual property over public informa-tion and methods of controlling what information is accessible through Google Earth usurps the potential to demystify our planet’s surface in favour of corporate profit.

“The image may be blurred or undated, but the Google brand is never lost,” she said. “My concern is that because of the intellectual prop-

erty laws and the dominant position of Google in the global digital econo-my, there is a tendency for Google to set the parameters and structures of who can participate in Google Earth as well.”

Parks is visiting McGill between March 3 and 17 as a Beaverbrook Scholar in Residence. She was invited by Media@McGill, which is an aca-demic group comprised of the faculty of McGill’s Department of Art History and Communications Studies along with other prominent Canadian schol-ars of media studies. As part of her time at McGill, Parks has been giving guest lectures, meeting with students about their research, and polishing off her new works regarding Google Earth and the digital TV transition.

“The reality is, happiness

comes from inside and is

detached from consumption.”Louis Chauvin Management professor

Ethan FeldmanThe McGill Daily

Alison Withers / The McGill Daily

To hear the whole Green

Week talk by Professor

Chauvin on consump-

tion and the environment,

go to the multimedia

blog at mcgilldaily.com

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walking tour of Chinatown,

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The McGill Daily, Monday, March 16, 2009Science+Technology

Researchers have found evi-dence that disturbances in regular sleeping and activity

patterns affect the regulation of hor-mones, leading to increased risk of diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. These findings have important impli-cations for the health and well-being of those who undergo chronic mis-alignment of their internal clock due to night shift work.

Disturbing the circadian rhythm – the body’s biological clock – results in a decrease of the regu-latory hormone leptin, according to findings published earlier this month in the Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences. The study used controlled conditions to simulate misalignment of the body’s internal clock: subjects were awake at night, asleep during the day, and ate on an inverted time schedule. The findings affirmed prior studies, but pinpointed disturbances in the circadian rhythm rather than sleep deficiency alone as a cause of the health consequences.

The paper’s lead author, Dr. Frank Scheer, a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School, spoke about the short time interval in which changes were observed.

“What is remarkable is that it only took a few days of misalignment to cause the changes we saw,” Scheer said. Within three days, three of the eight subjects experienced prediabet-ic states (increased insulin tolerance and glucose levels) in response to meals. Increased hunger and appetite

were also observed due to low leptin levels, which in the long term could lead to the development of obesity. In particular, when a person’s inter-nal body clock was misaligned, the level of cortisol, a hormone related to stress, increased waking blood pres-sure and decreased sleep efficiency.

A recent study by Statistics Canada found that in 2005 about 2.3 million Canadians aged 19 to 64 worked rotating shifts (those that change irregularly from days to evenings or to nights) or had irregular schedules. According to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, the increasingly 24/7 nature of the ser-vice industry has lead to increases in shift work among emergency work-ers, health care workers, and security personnel.

Contracted security guards at McGill for example, who may be employed as foot patrollers or dis-patchers, can work night shifts from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. or from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. for an entire month, followed by a month of day shifts.

Bita Eslami, Coordinator of the Immigrant Workers’ Centre in Montreal, pointed to the pervasive-ness of shift work among employed immigrants.

“[For] anyone in factory work, tex-tile work, hard labour, or domestic work, chances are they will have had to do night shifts,” Eslami said.

The study finds that night shift work may also impair cognitive abili-ties.

According to Scheer, cognitive impairment is twice as likely to occur when one wakes up during the bio-logical night as opposed to when one is normally awaken – a key concern

for emergency and health care per-sonnel.

“We rely on [health care workers], that they can make the best judg-ment they can, which is not as good as it could be,” Scheer said.

According to Michelle Dennis, Communication Coordinator for the Canadian Nurses Association, nurses’ work environment is also often not conducive to night shifts.

“Usually there is no place pro-vided for nurses to sleep during their breaks,” Dennis wrote in an email to The Daily. She also noted that understaffing has an impact on nurse fatigue, which may compromise nurs-es’ health and patients’ safety.

Scheer pointed to two additional aspects of shift work that have nega-tive consequences for health.

“Their daily commute, during which they are exposed to sunlight…prevents them from readjusting,” Scheer said. “The other aspect is that on their days off, workers switch to normal sleep – wake to spend time with their friends, family, or go shop-ping, which prevents them from adjusting to their night work.”

What can be done to ease the effects of misalignment due to night shifts? According to Scheer, working under bright lights and keeping to a single daily schedule would help shift the body clock.

“Rotational shifts are most hard to adjust to…. There’s no way for [the] bio clock to adjust, and the whole story repeats each time,” said Scheer.

The study was co-authored by Frank Scheer, Michael Hilton, Christos Mantzoros, and Steven A. Shea.

Subjects with misaligned internal clocks were found to be at increased risk of obesity, heart disease.

“All science, regardless of what science you’re in, begins with observable

phenomena,” asserted Professor Don Donderi of the Department of Psychology last Wednesday, during the second lecture of his four-piece series on unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Entitled “Evidence, Scientific Reaction, and Popular Culture,” the talk, attended by eight students, dis-cussed the growing body of testimo-nials from people claiming to have seen UFOs, as well as scientific evi-dence supporting their existence.

According to Donderi, the first widely publicized UFO sighting occured in 1947. Kenneth Arnold, a private pilot from Idaho, saw what he later described as “bright, saucer-like objects” flying in the air. Arnold tried to approach the government about the incident, but after failing to find a receptive federal agency, he turned his attention to the local press. After news of this incident was published, reports of UFO sightings became more common.

The task of classifying eyewitness accounts was first dealt with by the U.S. Air Force (USAF), beginning in the late forties. The USAF hired J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer, to con-sult on Project Blue Book, a systemat-ic study of UFO sightings. Hynek pro-posed a classification system for the different types of reports. His system divided the accounts into categories such as Daylight Discs, Radar/Visual Reports, or Close Encounters. The Condon report, a USAF-sponsored paper published in 1969, reviewed Project Blue Book data and conclud-ed that there was no scientific knowl-edge to be gained from the study of UFOs.

After Condon was published, the USAF stopped all official investiga-tions into UFOs. Other world gov-ernments, however, have shown less apathy toward the subject. In 1958, the Almirante Saldanha, a Brazilian ship, observed a strange object flying over Trindade Island, in the South Atlantic Ocean. Almiro

Baraúna, a submarine photographer onboard, took pictures of the object, which were then analysed exhaus-tively by the Brazilian Navy’s Aerial Reconnaissance Lab, explained Donderi. “No piece of evidence, like a photograph, is worth anything at all without information about how it was taken,” said Donderi. At the behest of President Juscelino Kubitschek, the navy released an official report on the incident that included the photo-graphic evidence.

As Donderi explained, however, one of the major problems in the study of UFOs is that even if one establishes the reliability of eyewit-ness accounts to form empirical evi-dence, there are limits to what can be explained given our current under-standing of the universe.

Dr. Albert Bregman, Emeritus Professor from McGill Psychology, for example, remarked during the question period at the end of the lec-ture that UFOs defy our notions of Newtonian physics.

“If [UFOs] are solid objects, they violate some fundamental physical laws such as momentum,” Bregman said.

Donderi argued that the inability to explain UFO phenomena using current scientific understanding does not necessarily preclude the problem from having a solution.

“Everyone talks about the speed of light being a limiting factor [in interstellar travel], but how long is it [travel to Earth] for them? It’s not about how long we live, but how long they live,” Donderi said.

After the lecture, Tom Gibbs, U0 Political Science, said that he was sur-prised there were so many scientific considerations in the exploration of UFO sightings.

“What struck me the most was that I had never considered the physics involved in a possible Earth landing. It makes me ponder the for-eignness of extraterrestrial biological make-up, and our possible compara-tively quaint scientific advancement,” Gibbs said.

Donderi’s third lecture, “Close Encounters,” is on March 18 in room N2/2 of the Stewart Biology Building at 4 pm.

Prof talks UFO science

Pamela Willis for The McGill Daily

David Zuluaga CanoSci+Tech Writer

Aleksiina Chapman and Doug Breuer for The McGill Daily

Pinky LangatSci+Tech Writer

Shift workers at riskResearch finds disturbing body clock results in poor health outcomes

Professor Don Donderi points to scientific evidence for UFOs.

Features10

David Carruthers’s father made paper, and so did his grandfather. You could say he must have inherited the profes-

sion. But when I asked him, he couldn’t quite remember what inspired his decision to start Papeterie St-Amand, a small paper-making operation tucked away in a turn-of-the-centu-ry factory basement on the Lachine Canal, 30 years ago. All that he can recall is his desire to work independently.

In an industry dominated by consolidated corporations each owning 15 to 20 wood pulp mills – which exhaust Canadian forests and pol-lute the environment with bleaches and dyes – Carruthers’s business is a refreshing alternative. Ninety-five per cent of the fibres in the industry come from Canadian forests, and the balance is largely waste paper. Papeterie St-Armand, however, is one of the few manufacturers using recycled cloth and natural fibres. And at St-Armand, the only thing that goes down the drain is water.

The sound of running water fills the main room of the factory, lit partly by windows

facing the canal. A handful of workers and old-fashioned machinery occupy one corner, the office area another. The room is mostly fur-nished with piles of paper. Due to the couple inches of water on the floor surrounding the workers, everyone is wearing rubber boots; a half dozen pairs are scattered nearby. One worker fills a mould with pulp, over and over again; another is rinsing off sheets with a hose. Rows of clothespins, stacks of paper, and col-umns of drying racks seem to mimic the repeti-tion of these workers’ tasks. The care and skill involved is evident from their concentration, but so is the serenity of an artisanal trade.

Not all of the products at Papeterie St-Armand are hand-pressed. A small metal ladder leads to an upstairs where Carruthers shows me a pale green machine from 1947, and a silver tub at least 20 feet high, into which the pulp is pumped. The machine isn’t running, but I’m told that there would be water spew-ing everywhere if it were. While the machine was originally steam-powered, it now runs on electricity, allowing it to reach temperatures of about 300ºC. As a result, the paper is dry by the time it runs through the machine. The handmade paper pressed downstairs will take about two days to dry.

Carruthers is a storyteller. Each sheet of paper, each piece of equipment, and even

the building’s cement ceiling induce a thought-ful explanation. The burgundy-coloured board, he tells me, comes from a pulp mixture of blue denim, black denim, and red t-shirt. He achieves an impressive range and vibrancy of colours without using dyes; simply by com-bining different colours of cloth he can make pinks, greens, yellows, oranges, blacks, blues, and reds. The paper’s texture is determined by the materials used – for instance, linen makes a slicker paper than cotton – and also by the pressing and drying process. The paper is pat-terned by the intricate grid from the wire in the mould, and it is dried on different felts, which can give the paper a range of surfaces.

Bundles of cloth scrap and bales of hay crowd the back corner of the factory. The cloth is separated by colour and made up of tightly bound patches close to the size of a greeting card. One bale of white cotton reaches almost to my head and weighs about 1,500 pounds. Carruthers estimates that this will make about 7,000 large sheets (55.5 by 76 cm). When he started the business in 1979, cotton and linen scraps were easily bought from local manufac-turers, but the textile industry, once dominant in the Lachine area, has been mostly exported to countries like Guatemala, Panama, and the Dominican Republic. “It’s a little difficult to jus-tify staying here,” says Carruthers in light of the changes. His cloth scrap is now shipped from Los Angeles – mainly from American Apparel, one of the few retailers that still manufactures its clothing in North America.

The route I took to the papeterie reveals the very changes to which Carruthers refers. New condos stand across the canal, and down the street a building similar to the one occupied by Papeterie St-Armand advertises loft space. What was once a heavy industrial area has become increasingly residential and commer-cial over the past 20 years. Carruthers notes that the changing face of the Lachine area is one of the threats to his business. “This build-ing will probably be turned into some sort of loft eventually,” he speculates.

Carruthers tests me on the composition of each different paper before disclosing the

surprising answers. The first one turns out to be made from Alberta flax. Its coarse texture gives it strength, but Carruthers explains that this sort of hay can also be used to make finer paper. A decordicator combs out the straw, leav-ing a soft fibre. The more the hay is processed this way, the smoother the paper. Carruthers

imports the softest fibres from France, but also receives hay shipped from the prairies, and even grows some on the few acres he has near Montreal. In other parts of the world, agricul-tural materials are being tested to make paper where there are substantially fewer trees than Canada, but Carruthers is the only manufac-turer he knows of who uses them currently in the country.

Sisal is another natural fibre used at the papeterie. Carruthers shows me the coffee bags that he turns into pulp. The paper produced is crisper, and lacks the strength of other materi-als, but it is cheap and beautiful. “There are lots of leftover coffee bags, with all the kids hang-ing around the coffee houses,” he notes. Sisal makes a very attractive paper when mixed with cloth – the fibres stand out as golden wisps against the colour of the paper.

Regardless of the material used, the paper is always made by the same process, one used commonly in the paper industry up until the mid-1800s, when the advent of wood pulp brought major production changes. Scraps are thrown into a Hollander beater, which churns the pulp for about eight hours. When I vis-ited the mill, the beater was about half-full of what were once white t-shirts that had come to resemble a giant bowl of porridge.

Papeterie St-Armand’s specialty paper is largely made for artists. St-Armand’s pro-

duces high-quality watercolour board, and bound sketchbooks with coloured covers made from mixtures of cloth and either flax or sisal. Carruthers explains that one of the biggest sell-ers is paper with wildflower seeds, which can be planted to yield flower, whose popularity he attributes to people’s sentimentality and stupid-ity. One of Papeterie St-Armand’s most unique products is a book resembling a sandwich: two pieces of paper bread, pulled apart to reveal an accordion of lettuce-green pages, and remov-able slices of paper salami and cheese. Food proverbs are written in French on the lettuce pages, and the paper bag it’s sold in reads: cent

pour cent fibres, sans gras. Carruthers gestures to a stack of paper,

an inconspicuous pile of white sheets like any of the thousands that fill the factory, and explains that it comes from a bankrupt mill

that used to print Canadian currency. “First of all the dollar became a coin, then the two-dollars became a coin, and then the need for greater and greater security features meant that this mill wasn’t able to adjust,” Carruthers tells me, adding that Canadian currency is now printed in Germany, and our stamps are made in Scotland.

When I ask if the economic downtown has affected paper mills, Carruthers replies, “Oh goodness, yes.” According to the Natural Resources Canada web site, the Canadian pulp and paper industry has seen pessimistic trends over the past five years. Don Roberts, CIBC Managing Director World Markets, attributes this to the rapidly expanding pulp and paper industry in China. Innovations in the industry are essential if the Canadian sector is to sur-vive, Roberts cautions.

Digital technology has made it so that paper is no longer needed to store archives of infor-mation. “For so long Canada’s industry has been serving international markets with a few products,” Carruthers says. He suggests this shift could diversify the industry, creating a move toward more independent manufactur-ers and speciality papers: “I can’t predict the future; I can’t say what the next 20 years will bring in terms of the Canadian paper industry, but my feeling is that we will see smaller mills dealing with local markets,” he says. Ironically, Carruthers’s mill’s pre-industrial methods and equipment may look more like the future of the Canadian paper industry than modern com-mercial factories.

“I’d say paper’s an endangered species,” says Carruthers, “but, I think there’s more hope for these sorts of papers than those that are flat and have no tactile pleasure.” During my visit to the papeterie, Carruthers encouraged a hands-on approach, urging me to feel the paper’s weight and texture, to break apart the flax into fibre, and to sift through the pulp with my fin-gers. Carruthers’s papers beg to be touched. And even in our increasingly digital world, there remains a desire to make meaningful and material connections with our surround-ings. Whether it’s dirtying our fingers with newsprint, smelling a new book, or painting on watercolour board, paper still holds a relevant place in our lives.

(clockwise from top) 1. David Carruthers, owner of Papeterie St-Amand. 2. A pape-

terie employee shows off a paper mould. 3. Although paper demand is declining, the

market for handmade speciality products is still strong. 4. The papeterie makes paper

out of everything from flax to old t-shirts.

Your daily pulp and fibreThe Daily’s Whitney Mallett gets her feet wet at Papeterie

St-Armand, an alternative paper mill in Lachine

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All photos by Dominic Popowich / The McGill Daily

The McGill Daily, Monday, March 16, 2009 13Commentary

From the SSMU General Assembly to Israeli Apartheid Week, campus life has been

consumed by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the past few weeks. Can we change topics? We South Asians on campus are feeling a little left out; we have our own enduring, ancient conflict that ought to be discussed.

The Indian-Pakistani conflict began in 1947 with the partition of British India into two nations. Pakistan was conceived of as a home-land for the Muslims, while India was founded as a secular but Hindu-majority nation. Upon their indepen-dence, a mass exodus – marked by incidents of violence – took place as Hindus and Sikhs migrated to India and Muslims migrated to Pakistan, sowing distrust for decades to come. And India and Pakistan soon went to war over the territory of Jammu and Kashmir, a princely state to which both lay claim.

Recently, former Pakistani presi-dent Pervez Musharraf told an audi-ence in New Delhi that “We should try for peace now.” But with such heavy historical baggage, is peace possible between these two nuclear-armed rivals? Pakistan is at war with itself, battling an insurgency in its North West Frontier Province while its deeply unpopular yet democratic government crumbles. It could use

another ally and divert its military resources away from its border with India to its frontier with Afghanistan. India, as the heinous Mumbai terror attacks revealed, has an interest in building a strong relationship with Pakistan to defeat terrorism. Their interests are surely aligned, but what is impeding the peace process?

Jammu and Kashmir have been the focal points of the Indian-Pakistani conflict, spawning official wars in 1948 and 1965 as well as sev-eral border skirmishes. The territory is important to India and Pakistan not only because of its beauty and key water resources, but also because it represents to each nation its rai-

son d’être. For India, the existence of a Muslim-majority Indian state fur-thers its claim that it is a true secular, plural democracy.

Pakistan, on the other hand, sees in Kashmir the ideological basis for its existence: if Pakistan was created out of India’s Muslim-majority areas, then Kashmir must be part of Muslim Pakistan. So the two nations continue to amass a considerable nuclear arse-nal and build up conventional arms, with the consequence that needed resources are diverted away from poverty alleviation, health, etc.

In their desire for power, Indian and Pakistani intelligence agencies have also been engaged in a covert war, trying to destabilize each other’s countries by supporting separatist movements. The attacks in Mumbai,

which were carried out by Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, were the direct consequence of a decades-old, misguided Pakistani policy.

At the risk of sounding Bush-esque, I think we can all agree that terrorists do not respect national boundaries. Although the status of Kashmir is without a doubt an intrac-table issue, the two nations can no longer let it define their relations as they confront extremism and under-development. Indians, Pakistanis, and members of the international community must convince the two governments to strengthen their intelligence cooperation and to build trade and cultural relations.

It’s time the leaders and citizens of both countries recognize the dan-gers of terrorism and rebuke decades of irresponsible foreign policy, and for students to get involved with the process.

Now, a cheer for peace: Jai Ho!

I know a good piñata when I see one, and this one deserves to be smashed again. “The war has been one of the most

extraordinary chapters of the service in the history of our nation,” said Barack Obama in front of U.S. sol-diers on February 27. In his February 16 article, Ricky Kreitner argued that “the Iraq War is well on the way to being a success.” Kreitner must be elated that his assertion was imme-diately backed by the most powerful man on earth, whom many consider an opponent of the war in Iraq.

Kreitner prides himself on being able to admit his mistake. I hope after reading this piece he can admit that he is indeed wrong again in his recent conclusion that the Iraq War has been a success and is thus justi-fied.

Facts about the Iraq War are abun-dant. However, facts do not choose themselves. A conclusion is arrived at by assembling facts through a certain way of viewing the world. I am not going to dispute the fact that there is now a relative peace in Iraq. However, to simply look at this brief period and declare that the U.S. invasion to Iraq is justified is a sign of Kreitner’s inability to see things in connection to each other.

This recent period of relative peace in Iraq is only a prelude to another, larger conflict as long as the main contradiction in Iraq has not been fundamentally solved. How many times has the Bush administra-tion hastily declared such successes

only be faced again with an upsurge of violence and conflict?

The same can be said of nearly all conflicts that sometimes subside only to explode again. In 60 years, we have heard time and time again that peace has arrived in the Israel-Palestine conflict through Madrid, Oslo, Camp David, Wye River, Sharm al-Sheikh, and Annapolis talks. Everyone rejoiced, only to learn that these talks were brief periods of relief before another, harsher blow was dealt to the Palestinian popula-tion.

How many times have we been told – especially during a period of prosperity – that capitalism will only become stronger, only later to find ourselves out of work due to a reces-sion? Not long ago, we were told that capitalism had escaped its cycle of boom and bust. The likes of Kreitner naïvely popped the champagne in celebration, unable to see that the brief period of prosperity treaded on very fragile ground (credit and ficti-tious capital), much like this “suc-cess” in Iraq, which is only based on wishful thinking.

We can either accept that this unending cycle of peace and conflict is our final destiny as humanity, or we can question it and seek to solve the problems at its root. But before we do that, we ought to break away from our common-sense way of viewing the world and see things as connected and changing, not as com-partmentalized and static.

Faiz Lalani is a U3 History and Economics student, and a member of the Indo-Pak initiative. He can be reached at faiz.lalani@mail.mcgill.

ca.

The Indo-Pak Peace Conference, fea-turing leading thinkers from India and Pakistan discussing these issues, will be held on campus on March 27 and 28. More info can be found at indopakinitiative.org.

Focusing our energies on

another two-state conflict

HYDE PARK

Faiz Lalani

Relative peace doesn’t

mean long-term success

HYDE PARK

Ted Sprague

Ted Sprague is a Master’s II Chemistry student. Write to him at ted_sprague@yahoo.com.

Sasha Plotnikova / The McGill Daily

War getting you down?

Write a Hyde Park!

There’s only five issues left.

Send submissions to

commentary@mcgilldaily.com.

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The McGill Daily, Monday, March 16, 2009Culture

Since 1994, Studio 303 has orga-nized The Edgy Women Festival with the aim of nurturing cre-

ativity, critical thought, and commu-nity for “women working outside tra-ditional venues and disciplines.” The lineup is certainly non-traditional if compared to the televangelist 700 Club, but in Montreal it seems to fit well into the wonderfully experimen-tal art scene.

There are over 30 artists coming in from across Canada, New York, and even the Mojave Desert to per-form, but the event is primarily an excuse to get together, meet other artists, and exchange ideas. This year’s event differs from those of past years, particularly in its empha-sis on what communications coordi-nator Marie-Eve Morin calls “satel-lite social events” at neighbourhood venues like Dépanneur, le Pick-Up, Les Pas Sages, and Cagibi – aimed at providing vital time and space for conversation.

The Edgy Women Festival began on Saturday with the Meow Mix opening party at Eastern Bloc. D.R.E.D., or “Daring Reality Every Day,” a performance by New Yorker Mildred “DRED” Gerestant, opened the night, mapping the spectrum of black male stereotypes ranging from “mack daddy with an atomic fro to a pimp decked out in shabby ghetto flash.” By portraying “travesties of male icons,” such as Shaft, P. Diddy,

Superfly, Sly Stone, and others, her performance emphasized the ridicu-lous and sometimes disappointing cast of role models available to young men.

When Gerestant put her wigs

and atomic fro away, the audience was treated to burlesque shows, one presented by Jenny McGowan, a prominent figure in the New York burlesque and vaudeville scene.

Hula Hell is Miss Saturn

combined burlesque with 40 hula hoops, “booty shaking music,” more wigs and glittery costumes – all put together by a farm girl who “was raised in Tennessee with goats and an outhouse.” For those interested

in learning hula hoop technique, Miss Saturn herself will be hold-ing classes from later this month at Studio 303. Visit studio303.ca for details.

Truly, audience interaction is an essential part of the festi-val, especially during the “Edgy Challenge” on March 15, in which seven artists present short works and host an interactive quiz. You can probably also expect all the events of the festival to be great socializing events.

PIG by Kristine Nutting has been described as a “horror/com-edy/rock opera” about the Robert Pickton murders. Following the performance on March 20, Nutting will discuss the challenges she encountered during the produc-tion process.

These efforts to connect arts and community development are essential, especially in light of Steven Harper’s claim that “ordinary people” don’t care about the arts and funding cuts, which have hit fringe communities hard. Marie-Eve Morin’s sentiment that “it’s no fun being an outsider if you are totally alone” emphasizes the value of a festival that encourages community support, something that these groups rely on now more than ever.

Outsiders unite!The Edgy Women Festival uses performance art to foster dialogue on fringe culture

Campus Eye

Nicolas Van BeekThe McGill Daily

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Students strut the catwalk at Montréal arts

interculturels during ECOuture, a non-profit

fashion show organized by McGill students

seeking to champion eco-friendly style in

Montreal. The clothing industry creates an

enormous amount of waste, and exploring

alternative methods of production is essen-

tial to reducing environmental degradation.

The event was a part of the McGill Science

Undergraduate Society’s annual GreenWeek,

which boasted an array of environmentally-

focused activities, from talks on climate

change and nuclear energy to workshops on

vegan cooking and plant-potting. Roxy Kirshenbaum for The McGill Daily

Events continue until March 21. For further information, and a roster of the other performances and hap-penings throughout the festival, visit edgywomen.ca.All events begin at 7:30 p.m. and cost $10 for students.

The McGill Daily, Monday, March 16, 2009 17Culture

The Internet – with its wires and illuminated screens, connect-ing us to virtually all of human-

ity – is hard to ignore. Contemporary fiction has begun to grapple with its effect on the individual, as it is the obvious next frontier of expres-sion and the human experience. My 18-year-old self is hard-pressed to imagine a time before the world was connected by the Internet, cell-phones, et al., and the literature of our generation and the next is bound to register the impact these technol-ogies have on our lives.

David Fiore’s Chimera Lucida: A

Technodiegetic Romance attempts to unfurl the banner of Internet liter-ature. At 72 pages, it follows the story of Roberta Flackjacket and her adren-aline-infused ups and downs, as told through flashbacks primarily voiced by members of an online message board. These sources demonstrate how rowdy and caustic Flackjacket is, going to pains to form a one-dimen-sional character, one who acts outra-geously without applied purpose.

Flackjacket is a punk rock singer for a band called Schmeiss Queen, and at the beginning of the novella she “drops the tools of her tirade in favour of an automatic weapon.” So begins a multitude of masturbatory puns and rhymes – the reader is driv-en away from any content, directed to only appreciate form.

Fiore seems convinced he is doing something innovative by employing puns, shifting between poetry and prose, and by using the Internet as the platform for Chimera’s plot. This righteous self-consciousness is consistent throughout the novella. A conver-sation between Flackjacket and the administrator of the site:

“Good! We oughtta be on the same page – present a united front.”

“To whom?”“To whom it may concern.”“God Damn!”“Aw’d’I go n’ leave you out on an

iamb?”“Go ahead and leave me there.

Let’s talk about you.” Yes, for Christ’s sake, let’s talk

about you. Flackjacket’s character is the type to push people away from the content of her life, per-haps as a defense mechanism to escape from general vacuity. However, Fiore’s tireless presen-tation of diversionary puns and over-charged hysterical realism that stems from the postmodern tradition (one is tipped off by the Pynchon-esque character names), does not operate on this further level of irony, which we can justly title as (god-forbid) seriousness. If the text was designed to be entirely void of meaningful con-tent, entirely concerned with form, we may begin to accept this as an accurate parallel with the reality of Flackjacket’s character: no sub-stance, only image. But, Fiore does legitimately attempt to define the

roots of the protagonist’s behav-iour using the voices of friends, family, and peers – still, they all end up with commonplace con-clusions wrapped in hipster dis-content or mundane sentimental-ity, like “there was such a thrill in being crazy there together.”

Chimera Lucida is yet another example of the pandemic of our day’s literature to misinterpret the contem-porary consciousness as vapid, and as a result, content is unnecessarily subservient to form: an error seen in both the novella’s characters and its narrative style. Authors are not afraid of making exactly what they are doing, their thoughts and theories, obvious to the reader. But presented with works that consist of English lit inside jokes and watered-down ver-sions of Ulysses or The Crying of Lot

49, contemporary readers have to step aside and murmur, “remember when there was feeling?”

If there is anything entirely absent from Chimera Lucida, it is feeling. One reads the entire text as a playful exercise in literary theory, with cute manipulations of the English language. In Fiore’s defense, he seems to have found a way to convey the contemporary consciousness, with the Internet looming around, in the modes of hysterical realism – even if his out-look evokes a Foucault piece.

Curiously enough, contemporary fiction often inspires comparison to the eighteenth century, which was obsessed with specific rules for writ-ing: proper literary conventions like iambic pentameter. What emerged from such rigourous formal disci-pline was a general vapidity of feeling; The Rape of the Lock and Gulliver’s

Travels, the two towering works of the age, were satirical and designed to make us think critically, not feel passionately. Ironically, contempo-rary fiction, in its determination to break down rules, has accomplished comparable results, consulting loftier theories that can ultimately issue only shallow critiques of society.

The Romantics responded to the neoclassicism of the eighteenth cen-tury, countering the dry culmination of neat little satires with gushing, overwhelming emotion. Today, we must enact a similar response; we cannot present ourselves solely as subjects of the impenetrable systems detailed in Cultural Studies courses. Forgetting what we cannot change is partially necessary if we are to main-tain an accurate and seething depic-tion of emotion, direly needed with the introduction of the Internet. The Internet in its magnitude can easily make us feel meaningless and insig-nificant in comparison. Yet, we must not forget that our blood keeps flow-ing, that our heads will still laugh, that what we feel is foreign to theory.

At the end of Chimera Lucida, Fiore mimics an Internet hallmark: “Click HERE to begin again.” With force and replenished vigour, writ-ers must begin again – not through refreshing this tired web page, but rather, by clicking on an entirely dif-ferent link.

With such a lofty legacy to live up to, it’s a bit unfair to judge a film like Watchmen

against the Alan Moore comic on which it was based. It’s two different takes on the same story – told in such completely different mediums that it’d be like trying to compare a steak dinner to an acid trip.

That said, Watchmen as a film is a mixed bag. There are some great performances, notably Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach. There’s the occasional great scene, and some of the dialogue resonates pretty well. But these flashes of brilliance are overshadowed by the rough execu-tion of the plot.

The opening of the film ruins the murder mystery that is the central focus of three-quarters of the plot. The murderer is practically revealed from the start, with a silhouette of his unique body frame in view as he com-mits the act. To beat the point into our heads even further, the character spends the rest of the movie falling

into every possible Hollywood villain trope imaginable – yet the revelation that he’s the villain is treated like an unexpected plot twist when it finally arrives.

The fight scenes are standard fare for an action film: over-the-top with excessive use of slow motion. With two exceptions, Watchmen’s charac-ters are all portrayed as humans until it’s time for them to fight, and then they turn into – well, superheroes. This wouldn’t be a problem if the film gave us any prior indication that these characters are imbued with special abilities. As he breaks a man’s bones through his forearm with a flick of the wrist, Dan Drieberg, for instance, goes from a mild-mannered man in the midst of mid-life crisis to Batman on steroids in a single scene.

Ultimately, Watchmen tries to stay too true to a story that was written specifically to highlight the strength of the comic medium. Certain lines that work in comics come off as too expository and unwieldy on film. The second half of the movie feels too compressed as it explores the origins of the main characters, builds toward the climax, and ties up some

of the subplots, dampening each of the respective plot elements.

The original 1986-1987 Watchmen series was seen as a revolutionary work of literature that advanced the comic medium and transformed the superhero genre. Expecting the film to do the same for superhero films was a bit too much to ask.

The Dark Knight already proved that you could tell a serious super-hero story in the film medium – what makes the movie work so well is that it’s an original story that is designed to highlight the strength of film. Watchmen, on the other hand, tries too hard to trans-late a comic story onto the silver screen. The result is a passionate but unwieldy product that doesn’t always quite work out.

Maybe Alan Moore was right when he said that some stories are only meant for the medium in which they were originally told. Still, I’ll give director Zack Snyder some credit for bringing one of my favourite stories to life in a workable fashion. I just wish he had employed as much cre-ativity in the plot as he did for the opening credits.

Sasha Plotnikova / The McGill Daily

Bam! Pow! Flop!Film adaptation of seminal comic book, Watchmen, disappoints

Duong PhamThe McGill Daily

Ryan HealeyCulture Writer

Spell ‘n strip

This Saturday, The Honeysuckle Strip Spelling Bee, hosted by Billy Mavreas, is coming to the Mainline Theatre (3997 St. Laurent). A Strip Spelling Bee is like Strip Poker. Only it’s a spelling bee. And it’s played in front of a live audience of hooters, hollerers, and hecklers who want to see some smart and sexy skin.

Here’s how it’s played: one by one, participants are asked to spell a

word. If they get it right, they make it through to the next round. If they get it wrong, they must striptease an item of clothing off, and that’s con-sidered their first “strike.” When they misspell a second word, that is their second strike and they must strip-tease two items off. A third and final strike requires the striptease of three items.

After three strikes, a participant is out of the competition. However, at this time, they may choose to “save” themselves and remain in competi-tion by taking one additional item off. From there on in, any misspelled words requires the removal of only one item.

Once a participant is completely naked, they are well and truly out of

the competition. The winner of the Bee takes home $50. All striptease spellers get a free drink. Anyone, at any time, can drop out of the compe-tition, at any stage of undress.

But they should take heart – because while they may have lost, the audience has, almost certainly, won.

This event is queer and gender-trans-friendly. Our goal is to create a safe and welcoming space for every-body to spell and strip. Doors are at 10 p.m., sign up is at 10:30 p.m. sharp (there is a cap of 25 spellers), and the bee will begin at 11 p.m.. For more information, contact inconsolable-

cat@hotmail.com.

— Sherwin Tjia

CULTUREBRIEF

The Internet, in iambsDavid Fiore’s novella comes off stilted and sterile

Across

1. Good server5. Take the sum10. Slash mark?14. “The of my existence”15. “Silly” birds16. Sacred17. Get the pot going18. Color of honey19. Rod for a hot rod20. With 28-across, where you might see 45, 48 and 58 across23. Made of dirt24. Cut27. -do-well28. See 20 across32. Cabernet, e.g.34. Animal house35. Communicate silently36. Cry loudly39. Miscellaneous things42. Butterfly catcher43. “Planet of the ___”45. A pint, maybe46. Record store section48. The popes, e.g.51. Miles per hour, e.g.54. Astute55. Sores58. Green T-shirt slogan62. Double64. Brownish gray65. Assortment

66. First-rate67. It may get you to first base68. Sensed69. Threads70. Showy flower71. At liberty

Down

1. Demean2. Abraham’s land3. Aggregate4. Come back in5. Open-mouthed6. Requirement7. Balance sheet item8. -friendly9. Prefix with scope or meter10. Bygone religious group11. Rowing captain12. “Is that ?”13. “The Catcher in the ”21. Cast22. When doubled, a dance25. Halftime lead, e.g.26. Mar, in a way29. Montezuma, e.g.30. “Silent Night” adjective31. “D”33. Indian bean36. Pouches37. Brightly colored fish38. Causing to go40. “Aladdin” prince

41. Ankle bones44. Temples47. Go by two’s49. Photo (media events)50. Loafer, e.g.52. Worker53. Store, as corn56. Manicurist’s board57. Young pig59. Put one’s foot down60. Stallion’s mate61. Continental currency62. Tit for 63. Go a-courting

The McGill Daily, Monday, March 16, 2009Compendium!Lies, half truths, and cheap shots

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C H I M P K O H L B L O W

R E V E L E T U I R O M E

T R A L A P I N T O U S T

A N D Y D I C K C L A R K

S E W S H E D

M E N R E T E I N J O K E

A L I T L A M B T U N E R

R A C H E L R A Y R O M A N O

S T E E D S I T E P I N S

H E R M E S L E V I R Y E

E M U S U S A

S J P A R K E R P O S E Y

S T O A G U R U B I G O T

O Y E R E L S E A D A G E

D E S K S L E D R E D I D

Solution to

“Celebrity before-and-after”

A timely crosswordArnie Foreman

Corpus Christi

Mr. President

and Wulia

“Ghettofab”

Jebster get

close. Bush-and-

McCain-close.

Pinching or

picking?

After winning

next year’s VP

Internal position,

Alexandra Brown

breathes fire.

Last year, this

space packed

to the brim with

students eagerly

awaiting the

results. Here it

is Thursday, free

from Powerpoint

and interest.Ben P

eck /

Th

e M

cG

ill D

aily

Dan Hawkins / The McGill Daily

This originally appeared on yourcorpuschristi.blogspot.com.

Art Essay The McGill Daily, Monday, March 16, 200920

transforming spacesmichelle kwok