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Arts & Entertainment, Music

CD REVIEW: Boxer the Horse – Would You Please

by Bianca Van Bavel on

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Comprised of lead singer and guitarist Jeremy Gaudet, drummer Andrew Woods, Isaac Neily on keyboard and Richard MacLeod on bass, Boxer the Horse is a home-grown Canadian band with lots of kick. The boys hail from Charlottetown, where the music is crude and the coastal vibe is real.

After the release of their self-titled demo shortly followed by their EP, “The Late Show,” the band gained a strong following in the Maritimes. With the national release of their first full-length album, Would You Please, the band is slowly moving west and making waves beyond their island home.

The band’s ability to shoot straight and maintain a clearly defined sound should never be underrated. There is never too much going on at one time, making it easy to focus on the distinct components of each song. Loud and clear, they master their own sound, and give a kind shout out to Montreal between the up-beat blasts in “Pot Valiant.”

These boys are fresh and hold lots of potential. Would You Please is fun to listen to, and the band’s honest sound is a fresh addition to the indie rock scene. Contrary to the title of their first track, I’m finding it hard to see any “Bad Apples” in this bunch.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

CD REVIEW: Snoop Dogg – The West Coast Blueprint

by Nicholas Petrillo on

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In celebration of Priority Records’ 25th anniversary, hip-hop legend Snoop Dogg runs through his catalogue of West Coast favourites in The West Coast Blueprint. With a few well-placed interludes, Snoop guides the album along like a radio DJ, providing insight and commentary on California hip-hop’s golden age. Blueprint has tracks that any casual hip-hop fan will recognize and also includes some forgotten gems. Tracks like “Pay Ya Dues” by Low Profile and “Playaz Club” by Rappin’ 4-Tay have bass and G-Funk vibes, but they failed to earn the universal respect that “Eazy-Duz-It” and “Alwayz Into Somethin” achieved.

It’s clear that Snoop Dogg put some thought into selecting these tracks, but it’s hardly as comprehensive a tribute as he’d like you to think. Sure, gangsta rap was at its peak from the birth of N.W.A. to the death of Tupac, but since he ignored the 2000s, the album comes off as incomplete and, to be honest, a little lazy. Snoop also filled the album with his own material. Six tracks on the album credit him: three are interludes, two are his own material, and one features his hip-hop posse The Dogg Pound. But then again, what is hip-hop without blatant self-promotion? The rest of the tracks are all well selected. The classics are here, but it’s the unknown songs that make the album shine. Regardless of how much you like hip-hop, The West Coast Blueprint should at least give you a track or two to add to your iPod’s pre-drink playlist.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

CD REVIEW: Luke Doucet and the White Falcon – Steel City Trawler

by Manisha Aggarwal-Schifellite on

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The eighth studio album from Luke Doucet, and the second to feature The White Falcon, Steel City Trawler is an unabashed portrait of the magic in the everyday. The album’s straightforward guitar riffs and upbeat melodies, combined with Doucet’s earnest lyrics, form an enjoyable and thoughtful record.

From start to finish, Doucet coasts through a journey of observations about life, love, and the world around him, presenting his findings earnestly and sometimes ironically. The title of the album pays homage to Doucet’s new home of Hamilton, Ontario. The city’s blue-collar roots are represented in his lyrics, particularly in the song “Thinking People.”

On other tracks like “Dusted” and “The Ballad of Ian Curtis,” Doucet tackles heavier issues: suicide, existential crises, and the creative legacy one leaves behind. But the album is also fun, and Doucet’s humour shines through on “Love and a Steady Hand” and “Dirty Dirty Blonde.” Lyrically, the combination of heavy and light subject matter balances the album, and the themes of introspection and reflection tie the songs together. If you’re looking for an upbeat but grounded album for the onset of cold nights and turning colours, this is the record for you.

Arts & Entertainment

POP RHETORIC: Outlive, Outplay, Outlast

by Alex Knoll on

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Thailand. Guatemala. Panama. Fiji. Micronesia. The list goes on. Any television show filmed in these places is automatically cool in my books. Of course I’m talking about Survivor, the best show on television. I usually get the same reaction when I talk about the show; “You still watch that?” Or eve; “That’s still on?” Yes, Survivor is still on and I still watch it. It’s been 10 years, 20 seasons, and Survivor is still just as awesome as it was when it first aired. No one can convince me otherwise.

Reality TV is now just as commonplace as weeknight sitcoms. But Survivor, which first aired in 2000, is what sparked the reality TV revolution. And nothing compares to it. Though the show doesn’t really require people to survive in the most literal sense, Survivor lives up to its name. At its core, Survivor is really a social game that asks the question: “How far will people go for money?” Being stranded on an island and left to fend for themselves really does get to the players.

The show does a great job of picking a diverse group of people with different personalities, and it’s interesting to watch how each of the players progresses throughout the game. Civilization decorates and materializes people to the maximum, but throwing complete strangers on a remote island is the perfect way to reveal our species’ true primitive nature.

A lot of people hate Survivor for different reasons. First, I’ve heard people say it’s repetitive. The show hasn’t changed very much since its inception, but this is what makes it so great. It doesn’t try to be something it isn’t; the show remains a game that is meant to showcase the contestants, which is exactly what reality TV should be about. Every season of Survivor gets a whole new cast of people, and this is what makes each season unique.

Second, I’ve heard people say it’s fake. Wrong. Survivor is real. Of course we don’t see everything that goes on behind the scenes. And yes, there are producers, camera people, and medics always on site. If they have to get somewhere miles away they will be transported. But all aspects of the show that make it Survivor are still real. They really do sleep in homemade shelters on the ground, find and make their own food, compete in intense challenges on essentially empty stomachs, form alliances, and vote people out. It’s all real. How do I know this? I just do, OK?

Also, it’s been 10 years, and Jeff Probst is still hot! But of course that’s just a minor detail. The point is this: Survivor is a remarkable part of our generation’s culture, and everyone should recognize it. Survivor: Nicaragua premiers on September 15, and will feature a battle of the ages (the teams are separated into old and young). I urge you to join me and watch!

Editorial, Opinion

DISSENT: Province Should Explore Other Possibilities First

by Mookie Kideckel on

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As an Ontario student, I have no special love for the preferential rates Quebec gives its students. But if Quebec gives its students a bargain, my resentment is as much towards Ontario for not doing the same for me. In that light, I cannot support a tuition hike. Raising Quebec rates-even to parity with the rest of the country-is a big move, and one that seems far too easy of a solution for a problem tied to issues far beyond university education.

The problem is certainly grave. McGill’s budget deficit is real, and the school’s efforts to ease it without tuition increases have led to larger class sizes, deferred maintenance procedures, and salary freezes for staff. Tuition does not provide enough money, and somewhere between federal and provincial government transfers the shortfall is not being made up. This dissent fully grasps the gravity of McGill’s financial situation. It believes, though, that tuition rates are only one variable affecting it, and not necessarily the most important to address.

Part of this comes from skepticism of anything too politically expedient. It is true that Quebec governments have tended to support tuition freezes. But governments around North America have struggled with low tuition over the past couple decades, and now filling funding gaps with higher user fees appears to be an attractive option even in Quebec. Those fees will mainly affect the younger, poorer demographic that has little political power and notoriously low levels of participation. It seems unlikely that Jean Charest and company fear dissatisfied undergraduates as much as, say, corporate powers that would vigorously fight a tax increase. This does not in itself mean that raising tuition is wrong. It does, however, make it seem unlikely that the politicians in favour of tuition increases have seriously considered more difficult alternatives.

Alternatives to tuition increases are abundant. Money could be raised through reshuffling government spending, raising income or corporate taxes, increasing federal education contributions, inviting more corporate money for infrastructure projects, or even more creative ways of which it is difficult for a non-expert to conceive. I do not mean to say that I endorse any or all of these options. But options are there, and therefore the problem is not lacking the means to fund education, it is failing to prioritize it. High school and health care were also once thought to be too expensive to fund. Societies who now prize these as indispensable public goods would be aghast at suggestions to stop providing them.

What price to place on education, and whether or not it is a right, are issues that tend to offer more questions than answers. I intend to keep asking them. But without a thorough exploration by the government of all possible solutions, and an explanation of why tuition increases are still absolutely necessary, when it comes to a higher price for education I’m not sold.

Letters to the Editor, Opinion

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: The Tone of the Trib Editorial

by Sebastian Ronderos-Morgan on

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If the Tribune’s editors had a point in last week’s editorial, entitled “Tribal Frosh and the tone of campus debate”, it was certainly lost on me-and surely most other smart McGillians-when it plunged into an utterly juvenile lambasting of the, so -called, “anti-MUS campaign” (sic). The editorial used a condescending, outrageous and offensive tone in its criticism of the “tone of campus debate,” and, more specifically, the tone of the “anti-MUS campaign.”

Did this “anti-MUS campaign” actually seek to “hammer the opposition over the head until the latter submit[ed] to their overpowering will” or “bludgeon others into compliance?” Moreover, I’d like to know how the “tone of campus debate” was improved when the mudslinging Tribune editors accused student activists of engaging in a “university-level version of bullying,” or when the Tribune editors demeaned student engagement in campus affairs by calling it a “screeching temper tantrum.” Do any of the above quotes, pulled from last week’s editorial, display a commitment to the “atmosphere of moral and intellectual education” ostensibly sought after by the Tribune editors? Did the tone of the editorial’s argument completely undermine the very argument it was trying to make? I would like the Tribune “to consider these questions,” too, before writing their next editorial.

Also, don’t misrepresent what happened at the Choose Life protests last year. There was no “physical sort” of “bullying” committed; I saw the whole thing. That’s just bad reporting and I expect more out of the Tribune.

McGill, News

McGill Name No Longer to be Used by Certain Clubs

by Kyla Mandel on

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Holly Stewart

Student-run clubs at the university with the word “McGill” in their names have faced increasing difficulties this academic year after fears of liability issues arose within the administration.

When the McGill name is used in a club title, the administration has argued, it implies that the university-and not the students who run the club-are providing the service.

In order to preempt any future liability issues, the administration has asked that student clubs change their names so that it is clear that their services are provided by the students and not the university.

In a meeting between Deputy Provost (Student Life & Learning) Morton Mendelson and the McGill First Aid Service (MFAS), Mendelson asserted that this new policy was non-negotiable.

“The university really has to control the use of its name, [our] main issue is to ensure the integrity of the name and the logo,” said Mendelson.

According to Student’s Society Vice-President Clubs and Services Anushay Khan, however, student clubs are all under SSMU’s umbrella. If a liability issue arose, she said, SSMU, not the university, would be held accountable.

The concern over the use of the McGill name in club titles has been a recurring issue on campus for years. In the past, a selection process was used in order to determine which clubs were allowed to use the McGill name.

“One of the things that has happened over the years is that there are a number of groups that have used the McGill name in such a way that can create confusion in the public about whether or not it is a student group offering a service, or the university,” said Mendelson.

According to SSMU President Zach Newburgh, however, the criteria by which the administration judges whether or not a club can use the McGill name has not been made public.

“This is one of the many things that hurts the relationship [and] creates tension between the administration and the students of the university,” Newburgh said.

“Often the administration makes a distinction between the university and [the] students,” Khan added. “But aren’t the students part of the university? Don’t they actually make up the university? Because without students there would be no university.”

Khan believes that the sense of community that students should feel towards their university is being taken away with this new policy.

“I understand [McGill’s] concern,” she said. “[But] if you are going to use ‘student’ and ‘liability’ in the same sentence, I think that’s a problem.”

Mendelson said that the problem will not arise in certain cases like the McGill Debating Club, since “everyone knows that it is students from the university.” But it could create confusion in other clubs if it is not clear that it is student-run.

“There’s a certain amount of clarity we are asking for,” he added.

Khan claimed that some of the services provided by clubs have been beneficial for the university community.

“The reason why SSMU services are so important is because we are filling a gap that student services at McGill do not provide, like a sexual assault center, first aid, Walksafe, and DriveSafe,” said Khan.

This point is well illustrated by MFAS, which the administration recently instructed to change its name. When there is a problem on campus, Khan said, MFAS responds immediately, sometimes faster than McGill Security.

“MFAS is the largest provider of English-language first aid courses in Montreal,” said MFAS director Nicole Edwards. If MFAS does not cooperate with this new policy, however, they may not be able to expand their services.

“It is really frustrating because we have been trying to go campus-wide, and this is the one thing that’s preventing us,” she said. “If it would make our lives easier I would change our name and move forward, but [this situation is] bigger than us.”

At the moment, SSMU is in the process of renegotiating their memorandum of agreement with McGill. Until that is finished, student clubs are at a standstill.

“If we did have to change our name, it would cost a lot of money to change our uniforms and our equipment,” said Edwards. “We have a contract with the Red Cross [that] we would have to change because we teach courses for them.”

MFAS and TVMcGill are among the clubs affected by the new policy change. Newburgh believes clubs that are “often in the public eye” will be most affected by the change.

“Together with the students that are going to be impacted by this, we can stand together and tell the administration, ‘No, this is not acceptable'” said Newburgh. “The students are what make this school what it is.”

Editorial, Opinion

EDITORIAL: Raising Quebec tuition – the least bad option

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Last week, McGill Principal Heather Munroe-Blum travelled to Quebec City to report to the provincial government on the ups and downs the university has faced in the past three years. In her speech, Munroe-Blum repeated many of the standard talking points: she touted the university’s research, emphasized McGill’s international stature, and cheered the university’s intellectual contributions to Quebec.

But most importantly, Munroe-Blum once again lobbied Quebec to allow McGill to increase the amount of undergraduate tuition it can charge. That’s a position the Tribune ultimately supports.

Aside from specific grants from the federal government (such as Canada Research Chairs) and private philanthropy, McGill is funded by two main sources: tuition revenue and money from Quebec City. Unlike private universities in the United States, our university’s endowment provides only a tiny proportion of its operating budget.

Quebec’s monetary contributions to universities, however, have been declining for years, leaving McGill and other schools in the province underfunded and deeply in debt. McGill’s lack of money has kept classes large, created a paucity of student jobs on campus, and resulted in a huge backlog of maintenance projects, despite recent stimulus contributions from the federal and provincial governments.

No one, of course, wants to pay more tuition. But with Quebec City unwilling to increase its financial commitment to the province’s universities, the Tribune doesn’t see another practical option for addressing McGill’s financial problems.

Fortunately, Quebec students are better able than those of other provinces to absorb a modest increase in tuition fees, because they pay much less than students in most of Canada. The typical undergraduate in Quebec, according to Statistics Canada, paid just $2,316 in tuition last year. In comparison, undergraduates in Ontario, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia pay more than $7,500 per year.

Moreover, only Quebec charges in-province students a significantly lower tuition rate than it charges those from the rest of the country. A Quebecer at Queen’s University pays the same price as a student from Ontario, whereas an Ontarian at McGill pays more than double what Quebecers pay. Canadians at McGill from outside Quebec-who make up more than a quarter of the undergraduate student body-paid about $7,100 in tuition and ancillary fees last year. Their fellow students from Quebec paid about $3,500.

Faced with these numbers, the Tribune is endorsing a modest increase in tuition fees for Quebec students attending McGill. Because Quebecers pay more in taxes than the average Canadian, tuition should not necessarily rise to the amount students pay in other provinces. The government has a duty to shoulder a greater share of the education burden than, say, Nova Scotia does for its students. McGill may also want to consider increasing tuition for international students, for many of whom, especially Americans, the university is still a relative bargain.

The Tribune insists that a significant portion of the revenue generated by any tuition increases must be set aside for those McGill students for whom the rise in fees would be genuinely unaffordable. Furthermore, such aid should be provided on an equitable basis, taking care not to let students whose families earn middling wages fall through the cracks. The university should also dedicate a substantial portion of the additional income to expanding student employment on campus, enabling students to offset the cost of books and increasing general living expenses.

Though we recognize it is not the most popular position on campus, the Tribune believes that modest increases combined with better financial aid is the most practical solution to the university’s difficult fiscal situation.

Recipes, Student Life

Mojitos

by Tori Crawford on

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The mojito, a traditional Cuban cocktail, is not only one of the most refreshing drinks I’ve ever tried, but also one of the most versatile. The simple ingredients in the traditional version-rum, sugar, lime, soda, and mint-make it an excellent canvass for adding any variety of flavours. The blackberry mojito, however, is my favourite. The flavour in this drink comes not only from the fresh berries, but also from the crème de cassis, a blackberry flavoured liqueur. This drink is so delicious and easy to swallow that before you know it you will be on your fourth glass. Be warned, however, that each glass contains three shots of alcohol.

Ingredients •6 fresh mint leaves•Fresh blackberries•1/2 cup simple syrup•1 ounce fresh lime juice•2 ounces white rum•1 ounce crème de cassis•Club soda

Preparation

1. Muddle mint leaves, blackberries and simple syrup in a glass. For the simple syrup, boil equal parts sugar and water.

2. Add lime, rum, and crème de cassis, and stir.

3. Fill glass with ice. Top it off with club soda, and stir one final time.

4. Garnish with a sprig of mint or a few blackberries on a toothpick.

Opinion

COMMENTARY: Equity and Social Justice on Campus

by Emily Clare on

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As the Students’ Society of McGill University’s Equity Commissioner, I will undertake multiple roles this year in order to fulfill my mandate as a resource person for students on their rights and responsibilities under SSMU’s equity policy. This document aims to “create a safe, discrimination-free environment.” My primary role will be to chair the Equity Board, a body composed of McGill undergraduate students and SSMU executives. We will work together to actively engage in student outreach and to stimulate dialogue and equity across campus. One of our main focuses will be establishing how Frosh and equity can coincide.

I will also serve as an equity officer, investigating complaints should they arise. Some of you may be aware of how the Equity Board was involved with a complaint against the campus club Choose Life last year. The Equity Board worked closely with the group to guarantee that their future actions fell in line with SSMU’s equity policy, while still allowing room for discussion on the topic.

In my three years at McGill, I have learned how diversity presents itself in both subtle and overt ways. While it is enriching to engage with people from varied backgrounds, it is important to acknowledge how these differences can disadvantage and privilege certain groups. Being a student at McGill isn’t only about academics; it is just as much about what we learn from the people with whom we socialize. This university is a unique microcosm of the world around us. SSMU has the ability to actively ensure that its members can espouse their own views and engage in dialogue without fear of discrimination or harassment.

There are extremely important resources already in place at McGill for students and staff members alike. Groups and services such as the Social Equity and Diversity Education Office and Quebec Public Interest Research Ggroup have a well-established history of engaging students and the greater Montreal community in dialogue about difference. I aim to establish healthy relationships with these groups and services. For the next couple of weeks, I will continue meeting with different clubs and services on campus to see how my predecessors have been involved with them, and to chart how we will establish an important working relationship.

Lynsey Grosfield, this year’s Social Justice Days Co-ordinator, will be working alongside me. She will be an integral part of our outreach to students. In addition to helping host events throughout the year, she is the primary organizer for McGill Social Justice Days, a week of events early in the winter semester. These events are committed to the discussion and deconstruction of equity issues and alternative political culture in an accessible setting. The tentative theme is social media and its role and influence in social justice.

University is a great learning experience, and, ideally, McGill should be a place that cultivates a mentality of understanding and respect throughout our time here.

Emily Clare is SSMU’s Equity Commissioner, and can be contacted at equity.com@ssmu.mcgill.ca. Lynsey Grosfield is SSMU’s Social Justice Days Co-ordinator, and can be contacted at sjd@ssmu.mcgill.ca.

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