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The Feburary blues

by Alex Hamilton & Daniel Sorger on

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There is a point you reach in the middle of the winter when you realize that Montreal is not actually fit for human habitation. Usually it happens when you’re walking back from campus late at night. The wind is blowing, and even that pair of long underwear you’ve got underneath your jeans isn’t enough to stop the cold from reaching through to your flesh. As your eyelashes freeze together, you curse yourself for not having chosen UBC.

But during the winter, people often have to contend with more than just the cold. Getting through the day is not always as simple as having that extra helping of carbs in the morning, like stacking the proverbial logs on the fire to keep your body warm. Especially after two to three months of overcast weather, long hours of darkness, and forced hibernation inside your apartment or the library, it’s probably normal to be feeling a little under the weather.

But if you’re feeling more depressed than usual by the lingering winter weather, it’s possible that you’re also suffering from seasonal affective disorder (aptly abbreviated as SAD). Up to three per cent of Canadians suffer from SAD to the extent that it will affect their day-to-day life, despite not having pre-existing mental health problems. For those already suffering from some mental condition, 11 per cent will also develop symptoms of SAD.

The problem presented by a disorder like SAD is the tendency to dismiss it as an exaggeration. Almost everyone gets the blues in late January and February (usually around the end of Carnival). It’s a condition that people often deal with by self-prescribing medication (whether of the legal or illegal variety), so it tends to be particularly hard to tell whether your inability to get out of bed is the result of depression or just a hangover.

SAD’s symptoms manifest in a number of ways: a desire to avoid socializing, a persistent bad mood, depression, fatigue, oversleeping, and difficulty concentrating. These symptoms generally start to appear as daylight hours decrease in late autumn, and reach their peak by mid-January.

While having all this information is useful, most people probably won’t have to worry about being directly affected by SAD. However, knowing that winter is a real struggle for some people is definitely a way to gain perspective on the situation. Everyone has difficulty staying cheerful and motivated throughout the winter. But while we complain about icy sidewalks and chilly apartments, it’s important to remember that some people are having problems just climbing out of bed in the morning. In fact, some people have this problem year round.

So as McGill dives into midterm season, try not to get too down on yourself. Head outside and take advantage of the wet, snowball-quality powder, the longer hours of daylight and the coming spring. Don’t sulk through the remaining weeks of sleet and slush. Focus on the good things that you’ve got here. After all, you could be living in Kingston, Ontario.

Despite the average snowfall of about seven feet and the millions of dollars spent to clear and remove it from the city, the average low of -13 degrees Celsius and the thousands of winter jackets bought every year by residents trying to keep warm, Montreal could be worse. We’re not living at the North Pole, although it might feel that way sometimes. It won’t be winter here forever.

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Why Palin won’t run

by Jacob Kanter on

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McGill Tribune

Sarah Palin undoubtedly has an idea of the types of things a potential president should be doing, and what one should avoid. Palin’s behaviour is undignified and un-presidential, whether she is attacking her former political aides or starring in a reality TV show. Indeed, ever since Palin entered the national spotlight in 2008, her behaviour has seemed less and less like that of someone who will seek the presidency.

Palin has shunned any experiences that would make her a stronger candidate in the future. Despite specifically accusing Barack Obama of being a spotlight-seeking celeb in 2008, this is exactly what Palin has gleefully become. She is pleased to be a household name and face, with the media hanging on her every Tweet. Understandably, she prefers this to seeking a demanding job that she isn’t capable of performing. Instead, Palin snipes at Obama from the sidelines, makes speeches where the speaking fee and conservative adulation she receives are equally high, and writes books whose intellectual content make Garfield comics look like Dostoyevsky.

Crucially, it’s Palin’s constant 2012-tease-a-thon that permits her to enjoy such celebrity in the first place. It’s to her enormous advantage to continually capitalize on the media and public fascination that comes from her will-she-won’t-she dance. It’s unlikely millions would tune in to her show or buy her books if they didn’t fancy themselves glimpsing a potential president, rather than a washed-up beauty pageant contestant/failed governor/losing vice-presidential candidate who likes to hear herself talk. As long as Palin continues to tease, she’s winning more money, power, and fame.

Palin probably knows she cannot win. Even if she does not personally believe this, any political strategist with an ounce of credibility Palin inevitably consults will have to explain what her honest chances are. In 2010, anywhere from 52 per cent to 71 per cent of Americans viewed Palin as presently unqualified to serve as president. The consultant would also hint that the remedy to this perception lies more in gaining executive experience than in gaining Twitter followers. Sadly, Palin’s omnipresence drives a wedge between sections of the country as she relishes her role as the ultimate divider, slicing the United States into the “Real America,” and everyone else.

Furthermore, the traditional Republican establishment’s underlying opposition to her candidacy should give Palin pause. While many top Republicans are polite when asked to comment on Palin, a growing number are less reserved. It shouldn’t be taken lightly that Barbara Bush suggested Palin “stay in Alaska.”

It’s unlikely Palin is delusional enough to believe she can win in 2012. In the absence of any serious governing experience or accomplishments, Palin is essentially famous for doing nothing, finding herself in the worthy company of Paris Hilton, the cast of Jersey Shore, and that guy on YouTube who can fart out of his ear. Of course, there is the off-chance that Palin truly is illogical and hopes to soon launch a presidential bid. If this is the case, don’t be surprised if you see Barack Obama fist pumping on the White House lawn.

Jacob Kanter is a U2 political science and history student. He can be reached at [email protected].

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Letter to the Editor

by Victoria Bonar on

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RE: “Democracy is not a right”

According to her recent opinion piece, McGill Tribune columnist Vicky Tobianah doesn’t think the events of the past few weeks indicate that Egyptians “want” democracy. Which begs the question, what exactly do Egyptians have to do to show that they “want” democracy? Do they need to do an interpretive dance in Tahrir Square? Do they have to rename the Pyramid of Giza, “Freedom Polyhedron”? Is there some kind of international “desire democracy” smoke signal they have failed to send? I would have thought that 18 days of pro-democracy protests, an ousted dictator, and a couple hundred martyrs for the cause would be sufficient proof that Egyptians “want” democracy. But apparently I am mistaken. Egyptians aren’t really calling for democracy when they call for democracy. They’re calling for lower food prices and an end to corruption. They only value democracy as an instrumental means to those ends.

The problem with this thesis is that democracy is pretty much only valued instrumentally, period. Parliament buildings, political ads, men in suits yelling at each other—these familiar trappings of democracy have very little intrinsic value in and of themselves. Political systems are merely instrumental mechanisms for distributing power and resources fairly. It is only because democracy is unparalleled in this regard that it is held in such high esteem.

The fact that the Egyptian protesters have been making material demands of their government is not a sign of backwardness; rather, it is a sign of civic engagement. Of course it may seem bizarre to privileged Westerners like ourselves that Egyptians view things like food prices as political concerns. But just because Egyptians are calling for food and we are calling for healthcare, does not mean they value or deserve democracy any less then we in North America do.

Tobianah notes near the end of her article that Egypt’s democratic transition is still in its infancy and may well be hijacked by the military. This is true. But let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that the emergence of a new dictator in Egypt would be some kind of phony tragedy. The people of Egypt deserve democracy. They have already proven that.

Victoria Bonar

U0 Political Science

Winter Sports

Gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum

on

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This is some dummy copy. You’re not really supposed to read this dummy copy, it is just a place holder for people who need some type to visualize what the actual copy might look like if it were real content.

If you want to read, I might suggest a good book, perhaps Hemingway or Melville. That’s why they call it, the dummy copy. This, of course, is not the real copy for this entry. Rest assured, the words will expand the concept. With clarity. Conviction. And a little wit.

In today’s competitive market environment, the body copy of your entry must lead the reader through a series of disarmingly simple thoughts.

All your supporting arguments must be communicated with simplicity and charm. And in such a way that the reader will read on. (After all, that’s a reader’s job: to read, isn’t it?) And by the time your readers have reached this point in the finished copy, you will have convinced them that you not only respect their intelligence, but you also understand their needs as consumers.

As a result of which, your entry will repay your efforts. Take your sales; simply put, they will rise. Likewise your credibility. There’s every chance your competitors will wish they’d placed this entry, not you. While your customers will have probably forgotten that your competitors even exist. Which brings us, by a somewhat circuitous route, to another small point, but one which we feel should be raised.

Long copy or short – You decide

As a marketer, you probably don’t even believe in body copy. Let alone long body copy. (Unless you have a long body yourself.) Well, truth is, who‘s to blame you? Fact is, too much long body copy is dotted with such indulgent little phrases like truth is, fact is, and who’s to blame you. Trust us: we guarantee, with a hand over our heart, that no such indulgent rubbish will appear in your entry. That’s why God gave us big blue pencils. So we can expunge every example of witted waffle.

For you, the skies will be blue, the birds will sing, and your copy will be crafted by a dedicated little man whose wife will be sitting at home, knitting, wondering why your entry demands more of her husband‘s time than it should.

But you will know why, won‘t you? You will have given her husband a chance to immortalize himself in print, writing some of the most persuasive prose on behalf of a truly enlightened purveyor of widgets. And so, while your dedicated reader, enslaved to each mellifluous paragraph, clutches his newspaper with increasing interest and intention to purchase, you can count all your increased profits and take pots of money to your bank. Sadly, this is not the real copy for this entry. But it could well be. All you have to do is look at the account executive sitting across your desk (the fellow with the lugubrious face and the calf-like eyes), and say ”Yes! Yes! Yes!“ And anything you want, body copy, dinners, women, will be yours. Couldn’t be fairer than that, could we?

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President Newburgh Takes Students’ Jobbook Questions

by Matt Essert on

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Matt Essert

Students’ Society President Zach Newburgh discussed his controversial involvement with Jobbook.com, a social networking website designed to match students with employers, at SSMU Council on Thursday for first the first time in front of the general public.

Newburgh preceded his prewritten remarks, which lasted about half an hour, by speaking about the “total lack of assumption of goodwill” on his part by many students and much of the campus media following his censure by Council in the early hours of February 4.

“There has been a total and sweeping disregard for my personal character that I think I have displayed over the course of my involvement with SSMU,” he said. “I would even go as far to say that there has been a lack of humanity in this sense.”

During his speech, Newburgh provided a detailed history of his involvement with Jobbook, beginning with his first meeting with Jean de Brabant, the website’s founder, in September. Although relatively few new details emerged from the speech, Newburgh did reveal that, along with Engineering Undergraduate Society Vice-President Communications Josh Redel, another campus political figure, Engineering Senator Simon Liu, was also involved with Jobbook.

Newburgh also stated that he had made two primary errors in judgment: telling members of the Executive Committee that he was in New York during a trip to England to pitch Jobbook in November and using his SSMU email account to contact student union presidents on behalf of Jobbook.

“For this, though,” he said, “I do sincerely apologize.”

Students in the gallery asked a number of questions after Newburgh’s speech, some of them fairly tough. But Newburgh refused to answer any questions that he thought were asked with “malicious intent” or were not related to Jobbook.

When one student in the gallery asked if Newburgh would resign, however, Newburgh’s answer was clear. Only “charges brought against me on reasonable grounds,” he said, would convince him to leave office.

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University of Alberta student wears jeans 330 times over 15 months-without washing them

by Nathaniel Finestone on

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One of the biggest trends in men’s fashion is “raw” or “dry” denim. These are jeans made of material that isn’t pre-washed after the dying process. Because of this, they fade uniquely to the wearer and, according to some, shouldn’t be washed nearly as much as pre-washed denim. At first they’re very stiff, but after a while they’re easy to wear, relatively easy to take care of, and friendly to the environment.

Josh Le, a third-year general studies student at the University of Alberta, decided to see how long he could wear his pair of raw jeans without washing them starting in September 2009. He lasted 15 months. Within this period, Josh wore his jeans, according to his approximation, 330 times while walking, running, biking, sleeping, and generally in his everyday life.

“At first, it’s way stiffer than normal jeans,” Le said. “But then as you wear them, it conforms to your body and fades in ways completely unique to you, so I wanted to see how mine would fade over a long period of time.”

As part of his experiment, Le went to Rachel McQueen, an assistant professor in the university’s ecology department, in order to see whether there would be any bacterial build up on the jeans between an initial test after 13 days and one after 15 months of continuous wear.

McQueen figured she would find some build-up, but the results proved her wrong.

“There wasn’t that much of a difference,” she said. “We found plenty of Coryne bacteria, which is normal and unique to everyone as part of their own micro flora. We checked for pathogenic bacteria and didn’t find any.”

Josh did take some measures to prevent his jeans from smelling too bad. He aired them by hanging them outdoors overnight or in the garage in the winter. He also put them in the freezer occasionally to keep them fresh.

“There’s a general rule of thumb, which is to wash your jeans every six months. But I wanted to see how far I could stretch that,” he said. “I pretty much wore them till they were paper thin and holes were starting to form.”

Le isn’t the only raw denim enthusiast around; he’s part of growing raw denim movement. Le mentioned his plans to go to the Heavyweight Denim Championship of The World, where raw denim enthusiasts come from all over to compete to see which jeans have the best cut and the best fading after 24 months of wear and abuse.

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CEGEPs try to cope with overflowing student population

by Nathaniel Finestone on

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In the last couple of years, overcrowding has become a major problem in Montreal CEGEPs. Simply put, there are more students who have the proper academic credentials than there are spots available.

On January 20, the Gazette reported that the Quebec government is going to wait until after the March 1 deadline to decide how much to commit to Montreal’s overcrowded CEGEPS. The Montreal CEGEPs, however, are already dealing with the effects of being told to take additional students.

Vanier College, for instance, had to turn away a number of top-quality students due to space restrictions in 2010.  Good students were told they would have to take night classes instead of studying full-time.  Vanier was eventually allowed to accept the students it initially designed, but not without a strain.    

“[Between 2005 and 2010], we have grown 14.5 per cent in the number of students in the school, [which] has brought us to 900 over our normal limit,” said Gilbert Heroux, Vanier’s director general.

CEGEPs all across Montreal have had to take more students to accommodate the growing amount of high school graduates.

“[The government] told us we had to take an extra 300 students last year and now they’re telling us to take another 300, so we’re 600 over our normal limits” said Paul Rastelli, coordinator of student services at Dawson College for the last 10 years.

At Dawson, Rastelli said that they had acquired seven new classrooms and two new computer labs from the Pepsi Forum across the street to accommodate new students. But other CEGEPs haven’t been so lucky.

John Abbott College, located in the West Island near the Macdonald campus of McGill, started construction on a new building in August 2010.

“But that won’t be finished until 2014, so it’s still very crowded especially in places where people gather,” said Andrew Shulman, a student at John Abbott in his eighth semester, currently in the creative art, languages, and literature program.

“It’s because more kids are graduating high school and seeing the benefits of going to CEGEP,” he said, “and also older people are coming back in order to either go into professional programs to change careers, or just looking to get an extra degree to be more competitive on the job market.”

Heroux, however, differed on why he thought there were more students.

“It’s just because of a demographic boom we had which is showing now in more high school graduates,” he said. “This is a problem which is going to solve itself in two to four years. We need a strong government initiative temporarily because it is a problem which will solve itself”

Of course, there are some benefits to having a larger student body. Jesse Binstock, recreation technician in charge of campus recreation and league sports at Dawson College said that campus sports participation this year has not been higher since 2001.

“From an athletics standpoint we’ve had the best year ever,” he said. “Every team had to make cuts [after tryouts]. Teams are the best they’ve ever been. We had 150 people try out for two spots on the AAA basketball team this year.”

Although it has been a great year for athletic achievement, Binstock said that an insufficient number of support staff has made running his office difficult. The approval of Bill 100 last summer, designed to reduce debt and return a balanced budget, has made the overcrowding even more logistically challenged.

The bill affects not only CEGEPs but universities such as McGill as well, in stipulating that for every two support staff, there can only be one replacement.  As the staff ranks thin, student populations are exploding.

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Former Concordia student sues university over expulsion

by Eric Mauser on

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thelink.theorem.ca

On January 20, Ashraf Azar, a Concordia University student expelled for plagiarism in 2004, entered the Quebec Superior Court to begin a new lawsuit against Concordia. This lawsuit, unlike the previous one filed in 2007, seeks a court injunction in place of monetary damages.  

“If I really had the opportunity to move on, I would have,” Azar said, describing his battle with Concordia. “But I haven’t been given the opportunity.”

The incident at the centre of the lawsuit occurred in 2004 during what would have been Azar’s last semester at Concordia. Azar was accused of breaking and entering into a professor’s office and stealing academically important material, an accusation Azar vehemently denied. This charge led to an academic hearing where, according to Azar, a university-sponsored advocate advised him to plead guilty for a promise of leniency. Instead, Azar found himself expelled only a few weeks before he would have earned his diploma.

“The strange part about the breaking and entering,” Azar said, “is that there was no police or security report ever filed.”

Concordia University refused to comment on the case.

 “I was found guilty of plagiarism … in a course I was not registered in, in a program I was not in, with a professor I had never seen,” Azar added. “They don’t have any evidence [against me], aside from my testimony.”

Speaking about his confession to the charge and subsequent retraction of it, Azar said, “It’s difficult … for a lot of people to comprehend admitting to a mistake … and then recanting it … the thing is that advocacy has a history with other students of telling them to take the blame for things they did not do.”  

Azar also claimed he would be able to prove his accusations against the advocacy group in court with evidence from other people’s incidents as well. But Azar may not be given the chance. His first lawsuit against the university, in 2007, was thrown out because he waited too long to file suit. The presiding judge, Justice Israel Mass, wrote in his ruling, “this is four years later and we are certainly beyond reasonable delay [in filing suit].”

Azar claims he delayed filing suit because his first move after his expulsion was to try negotiating with Concordia. When Concordia offered him a year’s probation in exchange for a guilty plea, Azar refused because he did not want to have to confess to a crime he did not commit. He then obtained what he describes as “incorrect” legal advice in 2006. This, according to Azar, caused the delay in filing which led to the late lawsuit. Azar initially sued the school for $13.5 million in damages.

Justice Mass claimed he had no evidence that Azar had ever sought legal representation. Azar appealed Mass’s decision in 2009, but his appeal was rejected.

 Azar, who represented himself in his 2007 lawsuit and is now doing the same, maintains that his case was unjustly dismissed.

“Once you enter into the court system,” he said, “you realize justice is a privilege rather than a right.” He said that his experience has been one of what he calls “institutionalized injustice” and hopes that he can rectify this with his suit

When Azar, who is married and is a soon to be father of three, was asked what he would do if, after seven years, if he was finally allowed a new disciplinary hearing, he simply replied, “I’d get my day [in court].”

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Two of five General Assembly motions pass

by Maria Flores on

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Matt Essert

The winter 2011 General Assembly took place last Thursday in a quarter-full Adams Auditorium. Although quorum was reached at several parts of the GA, only two out of four motions debated successfully passed with quorum. Despite efforts made in the previous weeks this semester’s general assembly was sparsely  attended.

“It was the same as all GAs in the past,” said Students’ Society President Zach Newburgh.

“There was quite a lot of advertising from the part of various individuals and groups and we got a standard turnout based on the motions that were submitted.”

 A motion regarding the amendment of the SSMU bylaws to include its investments in corporate shares and government bonds was one of  two that passed with quorum. A resolution in which SSMU which mandated SSMU to determine whether or not bikes are a viable asset on campus also passed.

According to Newburgh, the bylaw regarding investment is a required step in order for a corporation to invest or have shares. “That’s implemented and we are already taking care of that,” he said.

A motion to mandate SSMU to investigate the safety of biking on campus passed. Newburgh explained that he and SSMU Vice-President University Affairs Joshua Abaki will be working together to determine how this will be approached.

A motion to oppose SSMU’s hiring McKinsey and Co. as a consulting firm did not pass with quorum. But according to GA speaker Cathal Rooney-Cespedes it was the resolution that incited the most debate before the GA.

“A lot of people who came out to vote for it were the ones who felt passionate about it,” Rooney-Cespedes said.  

 “If the entire student body was given the chance to vote on something like that, there wouldn’t have been a large majority of people for it.”

 Rooney-Cespedes explained that the opposition to McGill hiring McKinsey was mainly due to what the motion described as the firm’s record of consulting educational institutions from a purely economic perspective, often proposing to lower salaries and increase tuition.

A motion to condemn the McGill administration’s tight control over the use of its name by services, and independent study groups of the Student’s Society was the second one unable to pass with quorum.

“I think a lot of people believe in the motion and think that it is something that we definitely should fight for,” said SSMU VP Clubs and Services Anushay Khan.

These motions will be presented at SSMU Council for approval on Thursday.

“Ultimately, these are recommendations from a consultative body, and I plan to take them into consideration in our future business, regarding both of these motions,” Newburgh said.

A fifth motion called on SSMU to hire a consulting firm to investigate SSMU’s business practices and efficiency. It was ruled out of order because financial decisions on behalf of SSMU cannot be made at a General Assembly.

“It is always disappointing that the GA doesn’t hit quorum,”  Rooney-Cespedes said. “When you are making such large decisions, the fact that it’s less than a hundred students making that decision on behalf of the student body is a bit disproportionate to what people always thought of as democracy.”

At one point in the GA, a member of the audience called out the speaker for addressing the audience in an impolite manner. But Rooney-Cespedes claimed that his obligation was to make sure the event took place within the rules.

“When you are in any general assembly, the best way to go about it is to be as strict as possible with the rules of procedure or else you’ll have total anarchy.”

News

McGill sends students to Antarctica to conduct research

by Eric Mauser on

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ArtsOnEarth.com

Many students have complained about Montreal’s arctic temperatures in the past weeks, but few, if any, have actually had a real Arctic experience. In the coming weeks, that is about to change. A group of McGill students led by Professor Eric Galbraith are heading to Antarctica for a two-week field study program as part of a course offered by the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department at McGill.

Galbraith, who has been to Antarctica six times, described his experiences there as “unlike anywhere else—it’s as close as we can get to visiting another planet.”

It appears there is no other way to describe an experience in which students will be able see penguins, seals, and glaciers as part of their daily course activities. Indeed, it was some of these activities and the uniqueness of the experience that drew several McGill students to the course in the first place.

“The main reason why I chose to go on this study was because it gave me the chance to go to Antarctica,” said Katrina Adams, a U3 Biology major taking part in the trip. “Now, not many field courses take you there, and it is pretty much the adventure of a lifetime.”

The course involved a series of lectures with Galbraith prior to departure. Students will be taking scientific measurements of ocean currents and of the glaciers themselves while in Antarctica. They will also have the opportunity to see many of the concepts they had learned about throughout their studies.

“We’d like to take some useful measurements of how the ocean currents are behaving, which may be important for understanding the response of the Antarctic ice sheet to climate change,” Galbraith said.

Climate change is an important issue for many students taking part in the field study.

“I want to have a different perspective of the climate issue by looking at one of the regions where the impacts of global warming are significant,” said Audrey Yank, a U4 Biosource Engineering major who is taking part in the study.

“Antarctica has a really large impact on global climate, because it acts kind of like a refrigerator for the world, and an aeration pump for the oceans,” Galbraith said. “Because it’s so hard to get to, it is not all that well understood, and there are still lots of scientific mysteries to explore there.”

To get to Antarctica, students flew to Argentina, and then boarded a boat that was scheduled to bring them to Antarctica on Monday. The students will use the boat as the base for their daily studies. Staying on the continent itself would involve living at a research facility, which Galbraith said was not possible.

McGill arranged the two-week-long study in Antarctica through Students on Ice, a non-profit organization specializing in educational events in both the Northern and Southern polar areas. Students on Ice’s mission statement says its goal is to “to provide students, educators and scientists from around the world with inspiring educational opportunities at the ends of the Earth and, in doing so, help them foster a new understanding and respect for the planet.”

McGill students are not the only ones taking part in this field study. Students from Carleton University, the University of Ottawa, and the University of California, Los Angeles are among the half-dozen schools sending students to Antarctica through the same program. The approximate cost per student for the trip is $11,000.

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