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Off the Board, Opinion

Leave Your Lulus Behind

by Shannon Kimball on

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According to the Rock ‘n’ Roll racing series—which is slowly taking over every distance race in the U.S.—to be a successful runner one must eat P.F. Chang’s Chinese food, drink light beer, and wear $200 worth of Brook’s running gear. Don’t forget the $350 Garmin watch that has GPS, a calorie counter, and is waterproof up to 50 metres. Then, in case you get drunk and start drowning in a triathlon, at least you’ll know whether you burned off all of that P.F. Chang’s. Chafed nipples? Vaseline won’t do the trick—you’ll need some Mission Skincare High Performance Anti-friction cream at $20 per tube.  

Running is the simplest sport there is, and it really should be the cheapest. All that’s needed is a good pair of shoes, and many elite African runners would even argue against that requirement. Older runners are still rocking their ratty 1980s neon workout gear. Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile in history in hand-stitched leather racing flats, and he never complained about nipple chafing.

Running isn’t the only sport that has raised its entry fee. Air Jordans have replaced high-topped Converses in basketball, a decent sports-bra costs at least $50, and no peewee hockey player leaves for practice without several hundred dollars’ worth of hockey gear.

The yoga apparel brand Lululemon Athletica is the primary culprit in the casual exercise world. Vancouver housewives needed to look cute while toning their abs, and thus the $100 yoga pant was born. These days a woman can’t go to the gym—or assume the upward dog pose in her own home—without wearing a small fortune’s worth of Lululemon’s colorful spandex.

Setting a price floor on exercise gear and apparel creates the impression that trying to stay healthy is expensive. In a society where one in three children is likely to become obese, we can’t afford to make a trip to the gym a status symbol. The lower a person’s socioeconomic status, the more likely they are to indulge in cheap fast food and forego staying fit.

These unnecessary and outrageously priced products are a barrier to health.  Everyone from inner-city kids to yuppie joggers have to associate an active lifestyle with brands rather than its proven benefits (adrenaline rushes in the short run, and longer lifespans in the long run). Inner-city kids shouldn’t have to avoid joining a team just because they can’t afford a snazzy new pair of sneakers, and their parents shouldn’t have to pay $150 to run a marathon, plus $300 in training gear.

Active lifestyles are seen as trendy, rather than a necessity for longevity. Consumer culture will never disappear, but it shouldn’t encroach on something as important as health. These products do little to keep people healthy once the excitement over a new gadget wears off. Completing a marathon or sticking to an exercise regimen requires dedication and intrinsic motivation, not a credit card.

Montreal, News

Bixi popularity helping small business owners despite concerns

by Noah Caldwell-Rafferty on

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Just around the bend from La Bicycletterie J.R., on Rachel Street, is a Bixi stand.  But the public bike service now known around the world doesn’t threaten owner Jaime Rosenbluth’s business.  

“It’s good for business,” Rosenbluth said. “With Bixi, people discover the joy of biking, they buy a bike, and then I fix it. I have competitive rates, so I’m not too worried.”

Other shops around town echoed this attitude, suggesting that regardless of Bixis’ popularity, the service can coexist with established local bike shops.  

“Our shop hasn’t been hurt at all,” said Marissa Plamondon-Lu, who works at Bikurious Montreal on Amherst Street. “There is a raised awareness, making it more accessible for people who wouldn’t want to buy a bike.”

Steven Dennis, manager of the Martin Swiss bike shop in Westmount, has even noticed an upswing in business since the arrival of the Bixis: “We’ve seen an increase in both repairs and sales. Fantastic.”  

Despite these assertions, however, others have raised concerns about Bixis’ impact on the business of small, local bike shops.  An article writen earlier this week by Sophie-Helene Labeouf for Radio Canada cited numerous shop owners who have seen Bixis as a threat to business. Complaints have focused on the fact that small shops cannot provide 24-hour service, bike equipment sales have gone down, and short-term rentals have decreased. The cautionary tone is expected, given how popular  Bixis have become in less than two years.

Bike shops may also feel threatened by Bixis’ immense scope and funding. 24-hour rentals are offered May though November, and the service is not directly run by the City of Montreal, but rather by the Public Bike System Company (PBSC), an appendage of the Montreal Transit Corporation (STM).  The plan was unveiled in 2008, and when it was put into motion on the streets the following spring, it became the first public bike system in North America.  

Helped by a $33 million loan from STM, the service soared in popularity.  By the end of the first summer, Bixi had expanded to Melbourne, London, and Boston, among other cities.  To top it all off, Time Magazine recognized it as the 19th-best invention of 2008.  

In Montreal, though, there have been a number of complaints—both official and unofficial—that the large-scale municipal Bixi project was implemented with little regard for the local bike culture already established in the city. But many issues seem to have been resolved over time or by Bixi’s willingness to cooperate.

“[Bixi] has helped sometimes,” Rosenbluth said. “Someone will come here to drop off a bike to get repaired, they take a Bixi downtown to work. They come back at 5:30 to get their bike.”

“We have this BIXI stand on the corner,” he added. “If you look on the side of it, you will see a sticker for my shop, saying that for longer trips it is cheaper to rent from me.  People weren’t following directions and were taking Bixis for long days and getting huge bills.”  

The sticker, however, was not there from the start.

“This [advertisment] was partly because of complaints from bike shops,” Rosenbluth said. “But to me, it’s a nice sign of goodwill.”

The fact that many local bike shops have not seen a downturn in business may be due to this co-operation, mixed with a broader phenomenon brought on by Bixi’s presence—more people are using more bikes in more parts of the city.  The efficiency of Bixi allows for its widespread use by Montrealers heading to work or school, who might normally rely on other forms of public transportation.

“It’s getting people on bikes [who] wouldn’t be on bikes before,” Plamondon-Lu said. “And perhaps they realize they could get used to it.”

Montreal, News

Landlord abuse prevalent

by Maria Flores on

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Demands for illegal deposits, unlawful refusals of leases, collection of private information, and harassment and intimidation are among the many complaints that university housing offices have been receiving from international students in Montreal. In response, Concordia’s Student Union is urging the Quebec’s Human Rights Commission to look into the allegations.

“Abusive practices by landlords [are] an ongoing problem we have been dealing with for many years,” said Leanne Ashworth, off-campus co-ordinator of housing and bank job of CSU, in an email to the Tribune. “We are calling for the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission to launch an investigation into the situation involving international students being subjected to abusive, discriminatory, and illegal apartment rental practices.”

CSU President Heather Lucas,  said the student union is working on informing all students of their rights as tenants. “We are constantly looking for ways to reach these international students because we understand that they are in a vulnerable situation that allows landlords to take advantage of them.”

When complaints are received, she said, the landlords are investigated and banned from their housing website. “We want students to know they are not alone in this,” she added, “and that if they come forth we will advocate for them.”

Ashworth hopes that submitting information on abusive landlords to this inquiry will be the first step toward systemic change.

“We want these cases to be dealt with as discrimination at both the Regie de Logement and at the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commision,” she said.

Pamela Chiniah, customer service co-ordinator at McGill’s off-campus housing office, said she witnesses similar landlord abuse regularly at McGill.

“I have seen many students that landlords refuse either for not having a guarantor from Canada or because they cannot pay the first and last month of rent right away,” she said.

According to Chiniah, the Consumer Protection Office affirms that new arrivals to Quebec must come to a reasonable agreement with their landlord due to their lack of credit history. “But there is such a big grey area in that ‘reasonable agreement,'” she said. “What is it? One month’s rent? Two months’ rent?”

McGill is home to over 6,000 international students, many of whom lack co-signers or credit history in Canada, a circumstance that may be advantageous to landlords.

“International students are arriving right now, and are desperate to find a room or apartment and get set up in time for the beginning of the semester,” Lucas said. “Their search is time-sensitive and landlords know this.”

However, Chiniah noted  some landlords may not be aware that in order for international students to receive their student visa, they must prove to both the government and the university that they have enough funds to cover their expenses.

“In the past we provided letters to landlords explaining this process, and I had many landlords calling me asking, ‘Do you want to be the co-signer?'” she said.

Since the CPO does not provide concrete examples of what they define as a “reasonable agreement,” it is more difficult for housing offices to approach landlords and call their practices illegal. Chiniah advises students to know their rights and responsibilities before approaching a landlord.

International students, Chiniah said, are sometimes afraid of giving their landlord’s name because of their immigration status.

“But in Canada [landlords] cannot contact immigration officers and tell them to kick you out,” Chiniah added. “It’s your right as a tenant. It’s your responsibility as a tenant.”

While landlord abuse is mainly directed at international students, Ashworth recognized that Canadian students often face difficulties when renting apartments as well. Their situation is usually better since they are able to have a co-signer, “often a parent with credit in Canada,” she said.

“Having a support system when looking at apartments can sometimes help to keep a landlord honest, and it is a luxury that many international students cannot afford,” Ashworth said. “They arrive often alone, and don’t know anyone in Canada who can give them information on Quebec housing laws.”

While a handful of landlords do seem to take advantage of international students, many landlords are much more receptive to such students.

“There are so many other landlords out there that are very flexible,” Chiniah said. “They have apartments around the university and they know who they are facing: students with no credit history, students with no income.”

McGill, News

Libraries to have extended hours

by Maria Flores on

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McLennan Library will begin offering 24-hour access as early as October 4 this year, after the Students’ Society’s decision to allocate an additional $80,000 towards extending the library’s hours..

The Students Society’s Library Improvement Fund Committee will be allocating roughly $200,000 towards extended hours, as compared to $120,000 allocated last year. Data collected by the LIFC showed that keeping the libraries open longer was a priority for students. Additional McGill libraries will also be holding extended hours earlier in the term than in previous years.

“We started 24-hour access much sooner because students need to study for midterms, especially in science where they have more than one,” said Lexi Pace, former  SSMU LIFC coordinator. “[Extended Hours] were not something that the university decided to do; it was something students asked for.”

Increasing library access was the basis of the LIFC’s campaign to obtain renewal, which occurs every five years. Students generate half of the fund, and their contribution is matched by alumni. Every year, approximately $500,000 is raised and allocated among student employment in the libraries, facility improvements, and extended hours, based on student feedback.

“By and large, most students wanted to see the libraries kept open for longer,” said Joshua Abaki, SSMU’s Vice-President University Affairs and  the chair of the LIFC. “When I was campaigning, of course, I made that one of my priorities, and it was one of the things that I pushed for sitting in the LIFC.”

Round-the-clock study space has been one of the LIFC’s projects since it was created in 1996. Pace explained that the level of funding has decreased over the years since it is, after all, a fee paid by students, but due to their petitition, funding has now been re-extended.

“The rationale is that students need a safe place on campus where they can study when other buildings close,” she said.

That change will not necessarily be permanent, though. Instead, this year will serve as a trial to obtain data to use in the future.          “We are going to evaluate the usage of the hours, but what we want to see in the committee is McGill taking responsibility for the extended hours,” Abaki said. “We shouldn’t be using the money from the LIFC to fund a huge portion of the extended hours.”

Abaki made it clear that the additional $80,000 SSMU is allocating this year will not be an annual contribution. The goal, he said, is to demonstrate that there is an actual need for extended hours.

“Once we demonstrate the need, the argument is that the university and the libraries will make that a priority and they’ll take care of that particular cost,” he said.

Diane Koen, director of libraries, said she was happy with the LIFC’s decision.

“We’re thrilled that they committed to providing that service,” she said. However, Koen further explained that the committee’s intention to have the administration assume future costs will not be easy to achieve.

“We’re going to have to work very carefully when we prepare our budget for the academic year 2011-2012 to see how that level of opening can be supported, and it’s going to be hard, I can tell you,” she said.

McGill Libraries periodically meets with SSMU to determine how LIFC money should be spent. “Whenever possible, we try to accommodate what they want,” Koen said.

In addition to the early 24-hour access to McLennan, the Schulich Library will remain open until 3 a.m. beginning the third week of the semester. Starting October 9, the Nahum Gelber Law Library will open two hours earlier on weekends and remain open until 2 a.m.

“They’re just phenomenal in their contribution,” Koen said, referring to SSMU. “SSMU money is going towards renovations in almost every branch.”

Pace said that in the past, the LIFC has maintained that extended hours need to be part of the administration’s budget, but she also recognizes that the university’s funds are limited and that the Provost designs the budget. Further funding decisions will be made once data from this year is analyzed.

“Everyone wants the libraries open more,” she said. “Everyone agrees this is a good thing, but like everything else, it costs money.”

News

Speaker discusses nebulous state of copyright law

by Matt Essert on

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On Friday, Roberto Caso, an associate professor of comparative private law at the University of Trento in Italy, addressed a small but full room of law students and faculty at Chancellor Day Hall, discussing copyright law and technology across various contexts.

In his presentation, Caso explained that there is a “need to increase the study about the interaction between the different tools of information control.” Caso covered a wide range of topics, including music, printed word, and movies,  as well as their various standards for plagiarism and the complications that arise when trying to compare them in either a formal, legal sense or an informal, social sense.

One theme that appeared numerous times throughout Caso’s presentation was our natural ability to know when something is plagiarized. On the one hand, Caso used the example of comparing Michael Jackson’s “Will You Be There” with the Italian songwriter Al Bano’s “I Cigni di Balaka” (“The Swans of Balaka”) to demonstrate how we are often able to recognize similarities in songs and point out plagiarism. On the other hand, Caso compared a scene from “2001: A Space Odyssey” to a parody from “History of the World Part I” to demonstrate how parodies are generally not considered plagiarism.

Caso noted that there are a number of social norms in different types of media that are often obvious to people, but can be quite difficult to formally capture in the law.

“Overall, in this age it is impossible to think that there exists one solution for all problems,” Caso said. “Each community has its own rules. All that we can do is study these kinds of rules and understand [these relationships]. The variety of the rules is a very good thing.”

David Lametti, associate dean (academic) and associate professor of Law at McGill, is the director of the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy, which sponsored Caso’s seminar.

“The CIPP invites scholars such as Professor Caso to speak on the topic because there is a specific interest, and because of the work and reputation of the speaker,” Lametti said.

This was the second time Caso presented his argument in a public forum and he admitted that it is a “work in progress.” Based on input from colleagues and listeners, he plans to revise his work and finish writing an article that he hopes to publish within the next few months.

Caso will likely have a lot of comments to work with, as attendees spent roughly 35 minutes after the presentation asking questions or offering comments and reactions to the talk.

Olivier Cournoyer Boutin, a fourth-year law student at McGill, found the talk to be very informative.

“It was really interesting,” he said. “I was here because I am thinking about doing a paper on the field of natural property. I found that it was a good summary of all the issues, and it showed me how this field is quite complicated.”

In an age of high-tech information sharing, plagiarism has become a serious issue, especially in the demanding world of high-level academia.

Issues concerning the difference between plagiarism for academic use as compared to that for business use were raised in the seminar. Also, with an increase in the amount of available material online, a need has developed for technologies to track plagiarism, such as turnitin.com and plagiarismdetect.com.

“In the university community, we’re trying to teach people to think, we’re trying to foster thinking, we’re trying to get people to move ideas forward,” said Lametti, who also acts as a disciplinary officer who must enforce the rules of plagiarism. “We’re trying to get people to acknowledge their sources and say, ‘Here’s where I want to push it.’ [But] you don’t want people to take ideas from other people without saying [so].”

“You can find some articles about the intersection between social norms and copyright law, but we are at the beginning of this study,” Caso said. “I think this is a very promising line of thinking.”

Off the Board, Opinion

Bilingualism: a plus

by Elisa Muyl on

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According to a recent study, Canadians who speak both English and French are likely to have higher incomes than their unilingual peers. Louis Christofides and Robert Swidinsky of the University of Guelph found that a basic knowledge of a second language could positively affect one’s income.

Using data from the 2001 Canadian Census and adjusting for variables such as industry and education, Christofides and Swidinsky discovered that outside Quebec, women who can speak French earn 6.6 per cent more than women who cannot, and men earn 3.8 per cent more than men in the rest of Canada who cannot. Within Quebec, male Francophones with the ability to speak English make 7 per cent more, while women earn 8 per cent more than their unilingual colleagues.  

Christofides and Swidinsky said they were not surprised by these findings. There have been similar studies in the past, however Swidinsky noted that these “dealt only with the knowledge of, and not with use of language.”

For their study, Christofides and Swidinsky were interested in what they call “ability” bias. The study “tries to determine how much of the higher earning applies to those who actually use [the second language].”

The 2001 census was the first  with a section that asks if the responder is bilingual and if the second language is spoken at their place of work. Using this data, Christofides and Swidinsky found that within Quebec, English-speaking men can earn up to 21 per cent more than French-only colleagues, and women up to 15 per cent more. In the rest of Canada, however, such a discrepancy does not exist.

By separating language knowledge and use the study aimed to understand why an employer would pay a bilingual employee more.

Swidinsky suggests that some may believe that the ability to speak a second language comes with traits like sophistication, culture, and intelligence. The profitability of the use of English in Quebec, he says, is indicative of its large demand for English-language skills. On the other hand, Quebec operates in an international field, which generally requires multilingual abilities.

The McGill Career Planning Service, which helps McGill students find jobs, is aware of the positives of being bilingual. Director Gregg Blachford said that being a unilingual in Montreal could seriously hurt a prospective employee’s attractiveness.

Students who speak both languages, however, are “sought-after and have more opportunities,” Blachford said. “Unless you find a niche sector [such as the cultural or telemarketing industries], you need French to do well.”

Opinion

The Case for “Tough-on-Crime”

by Brendan Stevens on

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Our justice system is meant to be a principled and morally upstanding approach to crimes committed against our fellow human beings. Being tough-on-crime isn’t just a game of political pandering, and criminal justice isn’t a game of bureaucratic tinkering to reduce costs.

The media, the Liberals, and the NDP have not been kind to the government’s tough-on-crime policies. The Toronto Star editorial board referred to the entire affair as “conduct-no-research” policy making. Several members of the Canadian Bar Association recently grilled Justice Minister Rob Nicholson on the topic, and Liberal MP Geoff Regan had the gall to suggest in Parliament that, “When we hear the Conservatives talk about young people, most of the time it is about putting them in jail.”

This unprincipled approach to the debate from the opposition is shocking. They make technical arguments about the increased cost of prisons or supposedly declining crime rates. In reality, crime in Canada skyrocketed between 1962—when crime statistics began to be compiled—and the 1990s. Only since then has crime begun to see a modest decline, but one that still brings it nowhere near historical lows.

The real argument for tough-on-crime is one of principle: victims deserve real justice and Canadians deserve a justice system that harshly punishes our country’s most terrible crimes.

An unnamed man in Calgary was sentenced on September 2 for rape and sexual abuse. He abused his victim horribly for two and a half years while she was between the ages of 3 and 5, while he was between the ages of 14 and 17. Under the federal Youth Criminal Justice Act, what was his sentence? 100 days in custody, 50 days of supervision, and a 19-month probation. An innocent human being has her life scarred, and the criminal walks away with a slap on the wrists. How can we call this a moral approach?

In another recent case from Calgary, Paul Villecourt was sentenced to 12 months in jail for accessing child pornography online. Considering the serious and pervasive problem posed by that industry, I find this punishment light. New legislation in Parliament now demands that Internet providers reveal the identities of those who publish such images online, making it much easier to stop these crimes.

Political parties happily banded together on the issue of crime when the media discovered that Karla Homolka was approaching eligibility for pardon. Terrifyingly, the National Parole Board had little power to reject applications for pardon before the passage of a new portion of Bill C-23. Only around 1 per cent of applications were rejected. C-23 expands the power of the NPB to reject parole claims. In the case of those who have committed three serious offenses, it makes them ineligible.

It is cases like these that make tough-on-crime such a morally defensible platform. Canadians deserve a justice system that emphasizes fair punishment for criminals and peace for victims. What we don’t deserve is a system that projects the signal to offenders: do what you want, because we can’t stop you.

Ottawa has now allocated $105 million to build three new prisons in order to accommodate the estimated 2,700 new inmates these new measures will produce. It’s worth every penny. Now 2,700 people who would have previously escaped the system can be kept away from Canadian streets and the people whose lives they’ve ruined.

Joke

Self-Report

by Marko Djurdjic on

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I take off my shirt and it smells. I sniff my armpits, first the left, then the right, and they both smell. I stand in front of the mirror, shirtless, sweat and rain pouring down my face, ricocheting off me, and falling into the porcelain bowl, and I look at myself.

I am fat.

Not actually, but I feel fat. It might be the large bowl of rosé noodles with chunks of pork sausage. It might also be the beer: three very large, dark beers, all full bodied.

Which is exactly how I feel now: full, and thus fat, bloated, and uncomfortable.

My arms, however, feel strong, capable, and trustworthy, and I slowly flex my right arm and it feels tight, then my left and it feels the same. I make one, two, three circles around my belly button, and pull at the hair around it, causing it to expand beyond my pronounced belly. I rub my wet thighs and calves and they feel tired but stronger than my arms. They are two-toned because of the time spent outside this summer, always wearing the same size shorts. The upper thighs are pale and disappointing, while the lower portion are tanned. There is also a perfect sock tan. Men’s toes should never be seen outside of the shower anyway.

Finally, I unbutton my jeans, now cutting into my waist, and slide the zipper down its short path. I stretch the waistband of my black underwear after dropping the jeans to my ankles and stepping out of them, and look at my flaccid, hanging dick and the surrounding area. I need to pee, but realize that first I need to manscape. I also realize I fucking hate that word and immediately promise myself never to use it again.

My shoulders sag and it’s hot. I turn the cold tap, and watch the water quickly overflow my cupped hands, bringing it up forcefully into my face. I look at myself in the mirror, droplets trickling through a slight beard, dangling from my lips and the tip of my nose, diving off my eyelashes. I turn the tap off and wipe my hands on my underwear, forgoing the towels hanging by the door. I bend down, pick up my pants, walk over and flush the unused toilet, and flick the light in the bathroom off as I exit into the hall.  

Back in my room, I sit in front of my computer, a blank Word document bluing my features, glowing cold and sterile. My fingers stretch towards the keyboard, retreat, pick up a glass of water long since warmed by the heat coming in through the window, bring it to my mouth; I drink, place it back down, and begin to type.

And out comes something seemingly banal, that then blossoms into something greater: me. What you will get when you read my column is exactly what you see above. Yes, that happened: it rained, and I ran, and was full of food and slightly drunk and I checked myself out in the mirror and I thought about manscaping and, yes, I really fucking hate that word. But what’s most important is that I recalled this but didn’t censor any of my self-report, not from my vain, shallow going-over, all the way down to my flaccidity. I want to be truthful, to make you laugh, make you angry, make you want to meet me and either shake my hand or punch me in the face. Perhaps you will buy me poutine.

But for now I hope you’ve enjoyed my simple adventure.

Just don’t think about my crotch too much.

Opinion

A Plea for Diversity

by Vicky Tobianah on

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In my high school creative writing class, we were taught the difference between prose and verse. These two main literary techniques have very different purposes. Prose is considered the “straightforward” form of language, while verse can be complicated and harder to understand.

Since high school I’ve repeatedly returned to this difference and wondered how we can value such different ideas. Some people consider the point of prose to be clear, and the point of verse to be everything but. Works of the former are generally long; the latter short. Yet somehow, we spend days, months, even years debating the meaning of verse in poetry (Milton’s Paradise Lost and T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland are two poems with hundreds of different interpretations) and spend an equal amount of time treasuring shorter, apparently “simpler” novels. Prose and verse each have their own distinctive merits.

When I first arrived here at McGill three years ago, the one thing that struck me was that there were so many different opinions and ideas I had never encountered before. My childhood bubble was gone. I entered the “real world,” nervous and excited to learn from other people. Some of that learning happened in my classrooms and conferences, but it also happened through interacting with students from all over the world, attending controversial General Assembly meetings, and reading the McGill newspapers.

Last year, I didn’t feel that I learned enough or experienced enough diversity at McGill. It seemed like everyone was saying basically the same thing, and frankly it was pretty boring. I spent a semester abroad in order to expose myself to more people and ideas, but it wasn’t as successful as planned. Although I valued my time abroad, my program consisted mainly of Americans with similar educations, backgrounds, and, most importantly, worldviews.

Entering my final year at McGill, I wonder what the class of 2011 has learned. Did all our opinions merge into one because we spent four important years of our lives together? Are we too afraid to express our real views? Or has apathy simply become the new norm? Where are the aggravated readers sending letters in rage to the Tribune? Where are my peers who helped me in the beginning to step out of my bubble?

When I found out I would be writing a column for the Tribune this year, I was excited by the thought of expressing my views—and representing some of yours—on issues we all care about. I want this column to provide a space for those hidden voices to be heard, for readers to be exposed to all kinds of views, whether or not I agree or disagree with them. We all deserve to be heard, and I want to hear your voices. I hope to provide you with some additional perspectives from which you might not ordinarily look at things. Agree or disagree with me—just find your perspective and share it.

Editorial, Opinion

Editorial: McGill was wrong to close Architecture Cafe

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Almost exactly three years after the Architecture Café lost its independence, McGill students looking for a cheap sandwich or coffee found its doors locked last week. The closure of the café is disconcerting both because of the loss of a popular, reasonably priced, and student-managed venture offering some of the only alternatives to Aramark food on campus, and also because of the secretive way in which it was done.

Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson has said that the administration and McGill Food Services decided to close the cafe due to a lack of revenue. The café was not perfectly run, and there was certainly room for financial improvement. Even if the prices had been raised, it still would have been cheaper than many other establishments on campus. While we agree that McGill should not be in the business of “providing students with subsidized lunches,” they at least should have given the Architecture Students Association more than a paltry two years to develop a sustainable business model. It seems doubtful that the administration ever intended to give the café any opportunity to survive.

McGill’s downtown campus offers very few spaces to eat. With the Architecture Café gone, even students who usually eat their lunch elsewhere will feel the impact as those who used to line the hallways outside of the café begin to squeeze into already-packed places like the McLennan Library basement. Unlike the Architecture Café, these cafeterias don’t exactly provide the most comfortable or generally friendly atmosphere, and they certainly don’t offer students the chance to display their artwork, as the Architecture Café did. The space is much more valuable to McGill students as a place to eat than as a place to study, the eventual result of the planned redesign.

The Tribune is also disappointed with the process which led to the ultimate decision. Even by McGill standards, the administration has demonstrated remarkably little regard for students’ opinions on this matter. Given the protests, debate, and resistance that surrounded the attempted closure of the café three years ago, the university should have remembered that the café was a space cherished by students. However, instead of providing students with a forum to voice their opinions, the decision was made in the typical McGill way: during the summer, so that by the time students returned to class in September, there would be little to nothing they could do about it. If McGill had thought that saving the café was nearly as important as students do, they would have given them time to rally around the cause, raise money, or at the very least voice discontent, at no cost whatsoever to the university.

In losing the Architecture Café, students have lost one of the few on-campus food alternatives, one that was also arguably something of a McGill institution. However, the university itself has also lost an opportunity. Successful student-run businesses are something McGill should want to encourage, and promote itself as encouraging. McGill has missed an opporunity to advertise itself as an atmosphere which fosters student creativity and ingenuity. For this and many other reasons, the Architecture Café should at least have been given a fair chance.

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