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Arts & Entertainment, Music

CD REVIEWS: Mobile, The Creepshow, Oasis

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Mobile. Tales From the City. Local 514-ers Mobile have just released Tales From the City, their second full-length album. Formally known as Moonraker, Mobile has risen to critical success in the past couple of years with their first album, Tomorrow Starts Today, which helped the band win a Juno Award for New Group of the Year. Luckily for their fans, Mobile has stayed true to their original sound. The new album sounds exactly like a Mobile album should-spacey and distorted, with indie rock undertones and pop rock hooks. The first single, “The Killer,” is strong and pop-y, but is dwarfed in comparison to the rhythmic potential in the second single, “Gravity,” which features a chorus that’s sure to get stuck in your head. Another standout track is “Slow Motion Car Crash,” which features reverberating electronic effects and distorted backing vocals built on a solid rock foundation. Tales From the City is a strong sophomore release from this Montreal band, and definitely deserves to be enjoyed from start to finish.– Kyle Carpenter

The Creepshow. Run For Your Life. Most people probably can’t say that they’ve listened to a psychobilly band before. But if you have, then you probably already know about The Creepshow, a female-fronted Toronto-based band that has just released their second album, Run For Your Life. For those who don’t know what psychobilly is, imagine rockabilly (country-based rock n’ roll) on speed. Run For Your Life is a witch’s brew of rockabilly, hard rock, and punk. Standout songs include the title track, “Buried Alive,” and “Demon Lover.” The album marks the debut of lead singer Sarah “Sin” Blackwood, who recently took over vocals from her sister who was featured on the first album. One drawback of the album is its repetitiveness. But if you like one song, chances are you’ll like the rest. Similar to rock godfathers Alice Cooper and Ozzy Osbourne, The Creepshow’s horror persona adds a fun and engrossing element to their music and stage presence, kind of like a bad slasher movie you just can’t stop watching. If you’re up for some fiendish fun this month, then grab a copy of Run For Your Life, just in time for Halloween.-Kyle Carpenter

Oasis. Dig Out Your Soul. Sometimes change is a good thing. Prolific British rock group Oasis’ seventh album, Dig Out Your Soul, offers fans something different from their past albums, and has already gained widespread praise in the music world. Lead vocalist Noel Gallagher proclaimed that he wanted to “throw the kitchen sink at” this album, which has a new sound that’s slightly more aggressive and less acoustic-showing a definite evolution from the band’s hit album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?. The album’s first single, “The Shock of the Lightning” is infectious and memorable, but is eclipsed by several other notable tracks, including “Waiting for the Rapture” and the slower tune “Falling Down.” The group experiments with psychedelic tones à la Magical Mystery Tour with “(Get Off Your) High Horse Lady” and “To Be Where There’s Life”-just one example of the Beatles’ influence that pervades the album. As the album’s title suggests, many of the songs’ lyrics contain a philosophical slant-most notably in “The Nature of Reality”-filling the album with a depth and continuity that carries its energy through to the end. This album confirms Oasis’ status as one of the most significant contributors to the contemporary rock scene. Whether you’re a diehard Oasis fan or have somehow managed to avoid their increasingly pervasive rock influence, Dig Out Your Soul is an album to listen to over and over again in its entirety, in order to feel the strong emotion that the group puts into each track. These Brits continue to build their growing legacy with an album that doesn’t disappoint.-Carolyn Gregoire

News

EDUCATION: University of Toronto moves towards higher tuition fees, fewer undergrad spaces

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On Thursday, members of the University of Toronto’s highest governing body voted overwhelmingly in favour of adopting a long-term policy framework that is closely modeled on research-intensive universities in the United States.

The policy document, entitled ‘”Towards 2030,” was first tabled by U of T President David Naylor. It calls for a boost to commercialized research and a significant reduction of the undergraduate population. Critics of the plan argue that the document readily accepts permanent tuition deregulation for one of Canada’s leading public institutions.

Among the 50 voting members of the Council, only one governor opposed Thursday’s motion. Jeff Peters, a representative of the Association of Part-Time Undergraduate Students, feared that the plan would especially hurt part-time degree students, and lamented the plan’s strong business focus.

“[The administration] want to deregulate tuition and they want to add more continuing education spaces,” Peters said. “They also talk a lot about corporate funding [but] they don’t mention anything about equity.”

Unlike part-time study, Peter aruges that, continuing-education programs do not issue official degrees and are able to achieve a full cost recovery from a financial point-of-view.

While the Governing Council refrained from voting on a specific action plan on Thursday, the motion formally recognized the future priorities of the university, several of which are inspired by prominent American universities. One such goal is to reduce the university’s undergraduate population from 83 per cent of total enrolment to 65 per cent by 2030. Spaces for graduate students would increase by similar margins. This plan mimics enrolment strategies at Harvard, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where undergraduate spaces make up less than 60 per cent of total student enrolment.

Thursday’s motion also called for further “commercialization of university discoveries” as well as an increase in “per-student revenues” which according to the report currently make up less than one-tenth of financial resources at private, research-intensive, American institutions, according to the report.

Ryan Matthew Campbell, a governor representing full-time students in professional degrees such as law and medicine, was among the majority of legislators who voted in favour of Thursday’s motion.

“I do think the framework document from ‘Towards 2030’ is good for both the University of Toronto [and its students]”, Campbell said. He noted that his constituents were largely ambivalent when asked about the plan. “The framework did not take a position on tuition, and it explicitly stated that the top priority for the University of Toronto is advocacy with the Province of Ontario to increase public funding for education.”

Some critics have argued that public funding can do more harm than good if resources are not spent accordingly. Under the new framework, the U of T will continue to advocate for government “investments in research, as well as growth in federally derived student aid and scholarships.” Students fear that public research funding is increasingly being used for commercial interests. Furthermore, it has been argued that simply issuing bursaries and scholarships will not help the university provide affordable education-part of its public mandate.

“On the other hand, international students [who are ineligible for many forms of financial aid] are concerned that their fees will skyrocket,” said Binish Ahmed, former vice-president university affairs for the U of T Students’ Union. Ahmed fears that the university will be looking to capitalize on the earning potential of international tuition fees.

While Thursday’s motion did not contain specific reference to tuition deregulation it did state that the university will continue to ensure that “accessibility is maintained as and when tuitions increase.” Critics of the proposal have argued that the university would rather accommodate tuition fee hikes than lobby the government to keep costs down.

Students’ Society President Kay Turner indentified a similar trend towards privatization at McGill, where greater attention has been paid to graduate student admissions, which bring lucrative research funding and greater prestige for the university.

“It has [also] been made explicitly clear by the principal and other university administrators that a shift should be made towards the deregulation of tuition and a shift [in] focus towards increased private funding,” Turner said.

McGill Principal Heather Munroe-Blum previously served as both a governor on the U of T’s Governing Council and as a vice-president of research and international relations. In addition, McGill and the U of T are the only Canadian members of the Association of American Universities, an invitation-only group of 62 leading North American research universities whose reports are frequently cited in the 2030 framework.

“In a very narrow sense, these changes may be good for [McGill] as an institution, in that it will have more money, more prestige, and be more of an elite university. For students and society as a whole, it will be a step backwards. Less people would be able to attend the university,” Turner said.

Indeed, for the lone member who opposed the measure at Thursday’s vote, this was a rash choice in a Governing Council where only four seats out of 50 represent undergraduate students.

“[It makes] the university even more inaccessible,” Peters said. “It is not the vision I have for U of T moving forward.”

News

CAMPUS: Controversy over travel directive continues

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After working to send McGill student teachers to Indonesia for over a year, professor Fiona Benson was “gobsmacked” to learn that the university’s new travel directive would force the trip’s cancellation less than a month before departure.

“I was given a green light to go to Indonesia by [Faculty of Education Dean Hélène Perrault] and by the administration,” said Benson, who is also the director of the Faculty of Education’s Office of Student Teaching. “This was a project that took months to build with very good minds behind it, and it was pulled very late.”

McGill’s new travel directive prohibits student participation “in any university related activities, be they curricular or co-curricular, in countries with a level-three (avoid non-essential travel) or level-four (avoid all travel) warning.” Indonesia has a level-three travel warning, as issued by Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. In addition, some regions of the country currently have level-four warnings.

Eight undergraduate students were scheduled to leave for Indonesia in the third week of October. They planned to spend nine weeks as teachers in the Program for International Attachment, Global Education, and Training (PIAGET) network of schools. All expenses were going to be paid by their Indonesian hosts. The trip was cancelled shortly before the new travel restrictions were released in a memo on September 25.

Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson identified the trip to Indonesia as the catalyst behind the new travel directive.

“It came to our attention that there were people who were not taking what might be considered appropriate precautions with respect to student travel, and we felt that we had to take control of the situation,” Mendelson said in an interview with the Tribune two weeks ago.

When asked earlier this week to name specific precautions that had been neglected by the planners of the trip to Indonesia, Mendelson declined to engage in “a public conversation” with Benson.

“The trip to Indonesia was cancelled because there was, and remains, a level-3 DFAIT travel warning to the country, plain and simple,” said Mendelson. “DFAIT travel warnings are not new, and McGill has heeded them in the past.”

Mendelson cited the Africa Field Study Semester reshuffling earlier this year, and the suspension of a bilateral exchange agreement with Technion-the Israel Institute of Technology-as examples of McGill heeding DFAIT warnings in the past.

According to Quebec civil law, liability waivers can be rendered invalid in the case of injury or death. Therefore, even students who sign liability waivers could theoretically sue the university if injured while on McGill-sanctioned trips abroad.

Benson maintains that proper precautions to provide for student safety were taken, and that, as adults, the students should have been allowed to determine if the risk was acceptable.

“There was nothing haphazard about this trip,” Benson said. “I went to Indonesia and visited all the schools our students would be working at, and I helped to train the [Indonesian] cooperating teachers who would work with our student teachers. I liked what I saw, and I never felt at risk.”

Kim Grenier, a U3 secondary education student scheduled to go on the trip, said that the trip fell through despite Benson’s hard work.

“Going to Indonesia in the first place was giving us an incredible opportunity to be immersed in another culture and see what their teaching techniques were,” Grenier said. “And it was an international school, so it was providing us with networking opportunities and numerous opportunities to see what the profession is like. Not being able to go … is a huge setback.”

Grenier is currently fulfilling her field work requirement working with special needs children near her home on Montreal’s South Shore. She lamented the short notice of that students were given.

“We didn’t have much time to turn around and try to find another experience that would have been like [studying in Indonesia],” Grenier said.

Benson claimed that some students had given up jobs and leases that are no longer available to them in order to go to Indonesia.

Students’ Society Vice-President University Affairs Nadya Wilkinson said that SSMU, in conjunction with the Arts Undergraduate Society and Post-Graduate Students’ Society, is gathering information to combat the new travel directive. The administration’s revised guidelines are expected to be released by the end of October.

“As soon as the policy and the guidelines come out, then we can get loud with this,” Wilkinson said.

Both Benson and Grenier stressed that while Indonesia is not completely safe, students are exposed to some danger anywhere they study.

“I was asked if I could guarantee the safety of my students, and I said no. But I can’t guarantee their safety in Montreal [either],” said Benson. “I’m not against McGill tightening procedures, but this blanket ban and the last-minute cancellation of this project without really doing due diligence, is not a decision I’m happy with.”

McGill, News

CAMPUS: MUNACA still without contract

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The McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association’s negotiation committee rejected McGill’s latest contract offer last week, informing the administration that they would not lower their salary demands.

MUNACA, a union representing non-academic employees like nurses, librarians, and administrative assistants, wants a 13 per cent salary increase over four years. On Monday, McGill offered a 12 per cent raise.

“Talks have been extremely difficult,” MUNACA President Maria Ruocco said. “We are almost at the end of October, and we’ve reached an impasse.”

In September, MUNACA’s negotiation committee encouraged union members to vote for a 12 per cent wage increase. The offer was rejected by a wide margin.

MUNACA has been without a contract since November 2007. On Thursday, frustrated with uncertainty in the work environment, MUNACA members demonstrated outside the Roddick gates.

“The administration is not negotiating in good faith,” said Robert Selby, a MUNACA member who works at the Schulich Library of Science and Engineering. “I can’t stand the uncertainty.”

Approximately 100 union supporters attended the lunch hour rally. At 1 p.m., MUNACA moved from the Roddick Gates to the James Administration Building, returning to the gates ten minutes later.

According to MUNACA Vice-President (Labour Relations) Linda Lombard, the demonstration showed the union’s strength.

“Today, we’ve achieved a united front in support of our negotiation claims, and our wishes for a fair contract,” she said.

In addition, Lombard said that union members are tired with the fruitless contract negotiations.

“Our members are feeling demoralized over the fact that it’s taking such a long time. They feel like they’re not being treated fairly and their concerns are not being addressed,” she said.

However, negotiations will continue. MUNACA has scheduled conciliator meetings with a conciliator November 6 and 10. Until the administration extends its final offer the union will continue to work.

“When the university makes its final offer, we will bring it to the membership and they will ultimately decide whether or not to accept it,” Ruocco said. “Concerning a strike, I guess we’ll see then.”

It would be the first strike in the union’s history. According to Ruocco, a strike would have a devastating impact on student services.

“Well, students would have no service. Our people are in the offices, in the libraries, in the laboratories. Due to our sheer size, we would have a tremendous impact if we went on strike,” she said.

-With additional reporting by Bernard Rudny

Student Life

Tribune Dating Xtravaganza

by Marie-Hélène Savard & Rhea Wong on

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With all the lonely hearts grumbling about the impending onslaught of sickly sweet Valentine’s schmaltz, ponder this: is romance dead? Before the Valentine’s Grinch that dwells in the recesses of your soul comes out and grabs the nearest bottle of liquor, rest assured that you’re not alone; the dating situation at McGill is more dire than delicious for many.

It seems that the average student does not date in the formal, pick-me-up-at-the-door kind of way. In fact, many students find that dating altogether is a rare occurrence often blamed on members of the opposite sex.

“The only real dates that I have are with people that I’m already seeing. I’m such a goof that I don’t think people are approaching me for real. I assume it’s pretend even though they might really like me, and I’m such flirt that I’ll flirt and think it doesn’t really mean anything,” says Sarah Schroeter, U2 political science and english literature. “I find guys at McGill are either too forward or too scared. If I’m smiling at you and making eye contact, that means I want you to ask me out.”

Laura Hamilton, a U1 education student agrees with the decline of the dating situation.

“I’ve dated one person before, but not here at McGill. I don’t know why, but I’ve noticed in Montreal a severe lack [of dating]. There is less formal dating, and more informal dating where you go out with a large group,” Hamilton comments.

If all of you are so fabulous…

Commonsense would dictate that raging hormones and cold weather is a recipe for romance even under the most crippling courseload. It would seem that the math of it would be simple: one single person plus another single person equals one couple. Yet, the prevalent singledom at McGill is mind-boggling and inquiring minds want to know why.

“Most of the time, I’m very busy. I don’t get to go out that much, just once in a while. I will generally approach [a] person if the person looks attractive or friendly,” says Robert Ratemo U2 engineering. “Most of the time, I approach people to make friends. I make a lot of friends and if it works out, then OK, but if not, you can just be friends.

“You’ll find that a lot of the girls have boyfriends, but outside of McGill. Most of my friends don’t really date. For me, it’s because I’m older. You can’t really go through mind games, but that’s just me,” says Ratemo.

For some, the circumstances are much more straightforward.

“I don’t have much time [for dating]. I just get to the naughty good shit,” grins Dave Castagner, U2 music.

Of course, personal quirks and tastes cannot be underestimated for the dampening of the proverbial mojo. For Chris G, MBA student, dating seems to be in a deep freeze.

“I date about twice a year. I never approach people. Every time I do it, it never works. I never send signals, I don’t dance very well. The atmosphere [for dating] is too cold,” he says.

All is not lost

Before declaring dating at McGill DOA, a blessed handful of students reaffirmed our faith in the existence of dating and love. There are people out there who date and have active love lives—they just may not be you.

“I think there’s a lot of dating which isn’t necessarily the football player dating the cheerleader. At university, there’s more freedom in relationships,” says Sean O’Connor, U1 arts.

For one student, dating is more than just a pastime- it is a philosophy. Despite her now-steady boyfriend, she seems to have cornered the dating market and shares some of her sage advice.

“I used to date every other weekend. People would set me up with different people or it would be people that I would meet,” remarks Shannon Cohen, U1 anthropology and history.

“Signals? Sometimes, mutual eye contact. I’ve had the ‘Don’t I know you from somewhere’ and it just snowballs from there.

“I think people tend to get into long term relationships. Just because they’ve dated someone once, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should be chained to them for life. People should just see each other and date other people before having a relationship. There should be the freedom to say, ‘I’ve gotten to know this person, we’ve gone on a few dates, and I really don’t want to go on anymore’,” advises Cohen.

The international perspective

The McGill International Students’ Network highlights the cultural differences between the amorous playing field of our fair winter hinterland compared with the spicier climes of France, Australia and Brazil.

“I’ll date once in a while, not more than four times a year. I usually take time to get to know the person before I date because God knows what can happen,” comments U2 english student Roberto Rocha of her Latin American home.

“Compared to Brazil, people here are more mature. In Brazil, you can date a girl one night and the next day pretend that you’ve never met her.”

Despite the North American perception of the sensual French, it seems that the average Parisian is much more hands off than Canadians.

“[I date] not too often. I never found the right person, I’m really picky. Canadian guys want more faster. In France, you talk and talk but here they want to kiss you right away,” says Melanie Albiger, grad student at the Genie Industriel Polytechnique.

Australian exchange student Bill Skinner, U2 anthropology, points out that despite cultural differences, we might all be on the same page about what makes a date great.

“Dating, for me, is going out with someone that you like and doing something special like dinner or a movie or something out of the ordinary. Usually, I get approached or it’s a mutual thing and we’ll be thinking the same thing.” opines Skinner.

The last hurrah

The final verdict on dating remains murky, but for some, the key is to take the initiative from your friendly neighborhood cheerleaders and be aggressive.

“We have to go to an auction to get guys! There aren’t enough guys at McGill, the number of men are very few. The boys aren’t really forward enough,” complains Huda Shashaa, a U2 arts student.

This Valentine’s, don’t stay at home twiddling your thumbs. Get on the phone, get on the dance floor, get out your pen and get some numbers. The revival of McGill dating won’t happen on its own.

“I think there’s a lot of casual dating [generally in Montreal] much more than there are actual relationships. [But] university is not conducive to dating,” explains student Maggie Schwalbach, U1 political science. “Usually, the guys that I date are not from McGill. It’s more of a shock than anything if they are from McGill.”

Do you sometimes wonder if you’re the only one despairing over the dating situation at McGill? Well, we did, and we asked 162 McGill students to fill out our ‘Trib date 2001’ survey. Here are some of the most interesting results.

Of those surveyed:

• 58% were single

• 50% of those in a relationship have been in said relationship for over a year

• 31% of those single have been single for over a year while 22% have been single for less than a month.

• 78% have been on an “official date” at least once.

• Men are definitely braver than women: 66% of men said they usually approach the other party, while only 11% of women did the same.

• Still, 65% of those single said they did not “acti
vely date”. Why not? A staggering 60% answered that it just didn’t happen because “nobody asks, I don’t ask”. The “I’m too busy” excuse went out the window, with only 7% answering they didn’t have time to date.

• The “I don’t ask” mentality was confirmed by the 71% who said they would not approach an attractive person in a café. When asked why not, 37% gave “shyness” as the main reason, and only 7% answered that they didn’t want to judge a person by their looks.

• Of the 29% who answered that they would approach an attractive stranger, “curiosity” was the #1 explanation, followed by “why not?”

• Even though an overwhelming majority would not approach a stranger, only 10% said they would not be likely to go out with a fellow student who randomly asked them out, while most contended it depended on the situation.

• Just because we won’t ask anyone out point-blank doesn’t mean we don’t try to indicate our interest more subtly: 85% said that they sent out signals, eye contact being the most popular one. The other 15% don’t send out signals mostly because they’re “too shy”, or they “don’t know how”.

• The signals must not work that well, because only 22% answered that most of their relationships started after being picked up at a party or social event, compared to 75% who said that they were already friends or acquaintances.

• 50% of men thought it was easier for women to pick up, while 55% of women thought it was easier for men.

• 0% answered that most of their relationships started off as blind dates. Blind dates are a strange phenomenon: 60% of those who have never been set up on one said they would be willing to go, but only 28% of those who have been set up on one actually followed through and went.

• 45% of respondents wouldn’t date more than one person at a time (take that, Sex and the City!)

• Finally, the eternal question: how long should you wait before calling? While 45% answered “2 days”, some didn’t hesitate to show their exasperation with comments like “I hate this game bullshit!”

Arts & Entertainment, Theatre

McGill Drama Festival produces a lively selection of student plays

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Presenting student productions for over 10 years, McGill Drama Festival continues the tradition with seven new plays this year. Set in Players’ Theatre, the Festival’s second week of plays runs from March 23 to the 27th. Each night offers a different collection of two to three short plays written, directed, and produced by McGill students – a perfect sample platter of McGill’s theatrical offerings. No two plays are alike, with topics ranging from marital troubles to a girl’s subconscious to mythological student societies. Below are some of the year’s festival participants.

Accompanied by Prolonged Feelings of DreadWritten by Todd Frei. Directed by Johanu Botha.Embracing all that is wacky, Accompanied by Prolonged Feelings of Dread assaults the audience with a whirlwind of crazy, leaving in its wake a dumbfounded feeling of “what?!” But this seems to be the point. The play’s slapstick portrayal of hypochondria – emerging both as hilarious and claustrophobic – causes us to spend half the time laughing and half wondering what’s going on.

The act takes place in the waiting room of Dr. Bill Norwell (Matt Stevens) which is ruled over by Miss Charon (Renee Hodgins), a stern and sinister secretary. Within the first few minutes it becomes apparent that something strange is in the works: the patients have been waiting for days, weeks, and, in some cases, months – but as time slugs by they never see anybody enter or exit Dr. Norwell’s office. Everything quickly dissolves into meaningless fury and we are forced to ask who, exactly, is ill?

All the actors are interesting to watch, but Hodgins plays her Miss Charon with an impressive integrity – aggressive note taking, hysterical pauses in phone calls, and methodical paper ripping contribute to her calm-before-the-storm/evil headmistress vibe. Shireen Shoofi and Brendan Steven play amusing patients in the waiting room – thanks to her timing and his energy, their enjoyable dynamic often steals the spotlight.

A possible point of frustration for some is Miss Persimmon. The character was a little offensive in her references to the physicality and speech caused by certain real and not-so-funny disabilities. The play lagged towards the end when the plot seemed to have exhausted itself, but the energy and persistence of the actors eventually regained the audience’s attention.

– Grace Glowicki

Truth be ToldWritten by Natalie Gershtein. Directed by Tabia Lau.

Truth be Told tells the familiar tale of an unhappy couple, in which a wife struggles to reconnect with her distant and adulterous husband. Though the story is not very inventive, the play’s honesty, rawness, and unexpected plot twist make it utterly captivating.

The plot follows Jimmy (Matthew Rian Steen), who has developed a tireless habit of sleeping with the secretaries at his law firm. He hires them, seduces them, and finally sends them away with a fat pay check to keep everything quiet. His wife Janine (Chloe Texier) desperately tries to save their drowning marriage, but despite her exhaustive efforts, every day seems to end with a cold and sad “goodnight.”

The set is effective and minimal, not taking attention away from the talented actors. The couple’s bed is positioned at centre stage, serving as a nice visual and thematic centrepiece – the place where many romances call home to the highest and lowest points of love.

Matthew Rian Steen perfectly conveys the arrogance needed from a slime-ball of Jimmy’s calibre – he is so convincing that we hate him up until curtain call. Chloe Texier’s performance was also admirable, though more subtle and understated than Steen’s; she effectively portrays the uncomfortable and pathetic position of a woman trying to pull together a hopeless marriage. In one scene, the couple has an explosive fight which sends energetic chills into the audience – it would have been great to see more arguments between the two, as they did it so well.

Truth be Told was a pleasure to watch – it is at times funny and at others sad. This is a MDF must see.

– Grace Glowicki

DentWritten by Daniel St. Germaine. Directed by Max Zidel.

Dent follows 18-year-old Davy White (Fabien Maltais-Bayda) as he recalls the untimely disappearance of Mrs. DiGiovanni, a woman in his hometown, a few years earlier. The play’s flashbacks reveal how the community was scandalized in response to newspaper headlines and neighbours’ gossip. Through the recollection of carefully selected memories from an impressionable time of his life, Davy pieces together a detailed look into the tragic disappearance of Mrs. DiGiovanni. The performers were wonderful, as both actors complemented each other in their dynamic relationship between mother and son. Giddings does a superb job playing up Davy’s gossip-hungry mother, in a hysterical rendition of a figure we’ve all encountered staring back at us from across the kitchen table. The set and lighting were carefully incorporated to add a bit more depth to this performance; with an eerily placed dentist chair, it didn’t take much to rekindle my childhood fears of unwelcome and rather intrusive prying and poking. The theme of the play may have skewed my perception towards one of discomfort, but I suppose a small town, big news and endless prattle have a tendency to overdo things. “Oh how rumours can be so vindicated!”

– Bianca Van Bavel

Crickets By the StreamWritten by Nathalie Selles. Directed by Isaac Robinson,

Crickets By The Stream begins when three separate parts of one girl’s subconscious join together in random thought. In her mind, there are scary things to be had, and too many snippets of lost wonder, joy, and pointless contemplation. I understand that shorter plays and narratives have difficulty maintaining plots in the same way lengthier pieces do, but this particular play didn’t even try to pull one off. There was no attempt to create coherence – it was destined to be a play with a mind of its own. The writing seemed at odds with all sorts of sensations, but as dissatisfying as the lack of plot was, the way it flowed was impeccable. Certainly, this feeling of continuity in a play full of interrupted ideas was in part due to the strength of the individual performances. If there was such a thing as the embodiment of one’s subconscious, all three actors nailed their role to a tee. Each portrayed a slightly different character angle that they accentuated by their delicate movements. Hannah Tharp’s choreographic work flitted across the stage as poetically as each spoken phrase and the overall mindset was one of bliss and magical entrancement. So empty your brain and let your thoughts wander freely – you’ll take more from this performance if you simply let your mind go.

– Bianca Van Bavel

Apollo TyrannusWritten by Julian Silverman, Directed by Isaac Robinson.

Apollo Tyrannus is a light-hearted comedy with lots of laughs. As president of The Student Society of Mythical Oracles, Apollo (Alex Gravenstein) is faced with solving the crisis concerning Oedipus and with the likelihood of self-fulfilling his own prophecy. Determined to show that the “gods” of governing student societies do not control the students’ fate, the play digresses through a series of comical conversations between three members of the society from rather different backgrounds. The witty mix of classic mythology and modern flavour had the audience captivated from the beginning. The charismatic crew of actors really work their magic in a wonderful complementation of each other’s intensity. Deverett has you on edge as he flies around the room in his agitated portrayal of Hermes, while Clohan balances the scene with Dionysus’ carefree party ways. The group’s cu
nning dynamics were irrefutable as each cast member charmed the audience into hysterics. I could have sworn I heard people in the audience join in at one point as the actors digressed into singing, “I got my swim trunks and my flippie-floppies.”

– Bianca Van Bavel

The schedule for the McGill Drama Festival can be found at ssmu.mcgill.ca/players. Tickets are $5 for students and $12 for a festival pass.

Science & Technology

Something in the Air

by Carolyn Yates on

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In this age of greenhouse gasses and smog advisories, air pollution has gotten a pretty bad name, and rightly so. But it still looks pretty trippy.

Air pollution is divided into four categories: criteria air contaminates (which create smog and acid rain), persistent organic pollutants (which travel well and bioaccumulate in body tissues), heavy metals (which enter the food and water supply) and toxins (which will, in one way or another, kill you). These substances are produced by a variety of sources. Transportation, fossil fuels, industrial processes, agriculture and transboundary air movements (which, rather than determining the trajectories of extremely agile kangaroos, deal with pollutants that are widely carried from one area to another) are among an ever-growing list of culprits. Air pollution is also partially derived from natural sources-phenomena such as volcanoes, dust storms, forest fires and sea spray all contribute to particles in the air.

The upshot of all this is that we get spectacular sunsets.

Chemicals change the refraction of light, particularly at sunset, and so all those pollutants result in brilliantly coloured skies. As the sun sets, light scatters. According to George Dissanaike in the 1991 New Scientist article entitled “Painting the Sky Red,” “Larger particles scatter more of the light, and the effect depends on wavelength. The scattering is stronger in the green-yellow parts of the spectrum as well as in the blue.” In urban areas where pollution consists of larger particles in the air, pollutants filter these shades, such that the sunlight that did manage to reach through the pollution appears a deeper shade of red.

And after the sun sets? Look at the sky above nearly any major city and you’ll see an uncanny glow above-the reflections of millions of lights, often referred to as skyglow, a condition that obscures stars in the night sky.

In North America, skyglow is so severe that steps have been taken towards creating what are known as ‘dark sky reserves,’ where energy-efficient, low-sodium lighting is used to both reduce skyglow and facilitate astronomical observations. In Mont-Mégantic National Park, which contains one of Canada’s foremost astronomical observatories, night-sky visibility was so threatened that it has become a dark sky reserve-one of four in Canada, and the only one to exist in a suburban area. This is partially due to the efforts of ASTROLab, a group dedicated to preserving the area and fighting light pollution. Last May, Natural Resources Canada donated $250,000 to help in their efforts. “The goals of the ASTROLab campaign dovetail perfectly with… our intention to develop national standards for lighting efficiency,” says Parliamentary Secretary Jacques Gourde. However, measures will need to be much more wide-spread to prevent fading any view of the stars for good.

Steps may never be taken toward clearer skies and visible stars, but at least toxic chemicals and light refraction will serve all your surrealist needs.

Editorial, Opinion

EDITORIAL: A dollar for the DPS: a worthwhile investment

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No matter how you feel about the Daily Publications Society’s editorial politics, a “yes” vote is the sensible choice on their proposed fee increase.

Newspaper advertising is in the toilet – the Tribune’s advertising revenue has been cut in half in the last two years – and printing costs are steadily increasing. The DPS publishes two editions of the Daily and one of Le Délit – the only French-language newspaper on campus – per week, and is projected to run a deficit this fiscal year. In order to stabilize their finances, the DPS is seeking a $1 increase to their $5-per-semester student fee through a referendum that opened for voting on Friday.

Without a fee hike, Daily editors have claimed that they will have to consider eliminating the Daily’s Thursday edition or instituting strict page limits for future issues. While better page management and more judicious use of colour pages would improve their financial situation, eliminating the Thursday edition would limit the Daily’s efficacy as an outlet for student opinions, reducing the scope and depth of their coverage. The DPS is an important part of campus dialogue as a forum for both campus and international issues. While the Tribune and the DPS often differ in many ways, we complement each other’s coverage, and McGill is better off with three healthy campus newspapers.

DPS editors have also emphasized that the fee increase would be used to fund an expansion of the online presence of the Daily and Le Délit. The media world is changing and student newspapers need to reflect the shift away from the print medium. The Daily far surpasses the Tribune in terms of online content – see the “Unfit to Print” podcast and even their Twitter feed as examples of this – and further expansion in this area will require dedicated multimedia and online content editors.

A move towards an online first model is inevitable due to the current advertising climate; moreover, it is desirable, as it will provide editors with the training they need to work in professional journalism after graduation. McGill does not have a journalism program, a void the DPS and the Tribune fill by providing practical training for aspiring journalists – training that should emphasize the ability to work across multiple media platforms.

However, a significant portion of the Tribune editorial board feels that a $1 fee increase is excessive. The DPS is projected to run a deficit of between $5,000 and $10,000 this year, while the proposed fee increase would bring in roughly $40,000 per year in extra funds. While advertising revenue is declining, that alone does not account for a large portion of the excess funds. Online expansion is a worthwhile, but relatively cheap, undertaking. We’d like to hear some concrete examples of where the rest of the excess money generated by a fee increase will be spent, since we don’t want any more student fees funneled into the DPS’s reserve accounts (which totaled over $200,000 at the end of the 2009 fiscal year).

Much of the Tribune editorial board feels that a 50-cent fee increase, coupled with cost-cutting measures such as page restrictions, would be sufficient for the DPS to consider expansion on a more fiscally responsible scale.

Nevertheless, $12 for around 70 issues of the Daily and Le Délit is a bargain. We strongly believe that the strength and diversity of campus media is worth protecting. The Tribune should be on sound financial footing now that our $3 fee has passed. It is important to ensure that the DPS is in an equally strong position, and it’s hard to argue that a stronger, financially stable, and modern DPS is not worth an extra toonie per year.

Features

Tradition or disaster?

by Brahna Siegelberg on

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The sudden proliferation of gruesome images of adorable seal pups, the fierce debates between the government and animal rights groups, and the manipulative rhetoric used on both sides are some of the events that can be expected around the time of Canada’s annual commercial seal hunt.

This year, Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea announced a 50,000 increase in the total number of seals that can be legally hunted – a decision that has incited visceral reactions from animal rights groups, celebrities, politicians and the European Union, who recently banned Canadian seal products from the European market. In the words of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals representative Danielle Katz, “the Canadian seal slaughter is truly Canada’s shame.”

A brief history

The Canadian commercial seal hunt – the largest slaughter of marine wildlife in the world – takes place each year in late March and early April on the Gulf of St. Lawrence and in northeast Newfoundland, where hundreds of thousands of seals are killed in a matter of days.

The commercial seal hunt, which exists for the purpose of collecting seal fur, should not be confused with the Inuit subsistence hunt – an integral part of Inuit culture and tradition in Nunavut and Northern Canada.

“The Inuit subsistence hunt is for a living and total utilization of the animal,” says Bridget Curran, a spokesperson for the Atlantic Canadian Anti-Sealing Coalition. “The commercial seal hunt is a large industrialized slaughter of marine mammals for their fur.”

Anti-sealing groups and animal welfare organizations are particularly incensed by the commercial seal hunt as a result of the harmful way in which seals are killed and their unique targeting of newborns.

“Sealers routinely hook seals in the eye, cheek, or mouth to avoid harming the fur,” says Katz. “Many times, these babies haven’t even learned how to swim before being slaughtered for something nobody needs.”

The quota hike

In light of unprecedented climate changes, ice melting, and high seal pup mortality rates, animal rights organizations asked the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada to cancel the Gulf phase of the annual hunt as a precautionary measure. Shea declined, however, declaring that the decision would have to be made by the sealers. She later announced that the hunt would go ahead – this time with an increased quota – a decision that did not sit well with anti-sealing groups, who saw the decision as politically motivated.

“It’s a typical pugnacious response from the government thumbing their noses at critics and an empty gesture of support for sealers,” says Curran. “The government is desperate to maintain the Atlantic Canadian votes. They know that if they say to the fishing and sealing industry, a powerful voting lobby, ‘you can’t kill surviving pups,’ they will remember that when they go to the polls.”

The government, however, is remaining resolute in the assertion that this year’s quota had nothing to do with politics, and is merely a scientifically-based number that changes annually according to research and statistics.

“The quota, or the total allowable catch, sets an upper limit of what can be sustainably harvested by the sealers in any given year. It’s set based on a number of factors like science, the health of the population, the ice conditions, weather factors, and migration patterns,” explains Alan Balil, of the DFO. “It says this is how much you can harvest without harming the population in the long term, not how many seals we want them to kill.”

Anti-sealing groups believe that other recent gestures from the government testify to the malicious nature of the hike. From the Governor General’s public snacking on a slain seal’s heart in Nunavut last May to parliament’s overwhelming vote to have members of the Canadian Olympic team wear bits of baby seal on their uniforms, and finally, last week’s Parliament luncheon – which served seal meat as the main course – Curran says that the quota hike is consistent with the government’s larger response to the EU’s banning of seal products last year.

“DFO has a track record of sacrificing conservation in the name of economics,” says Curran. “For example, the polar bear has been listed as endangered since 1975, but Canada opposed the ban on the trade so that they can be killed for trophies. Another case in point is cod. They closed and reopened the gulf so many times and upped the quota, that they fished it to commercial extinction.”

According to the Canadian Press, even veteran sealer Jack Troake has said that given the declining demand for seal pelts and declining price. “To us sealers, [the hike] sounds a little stupid.”

Many organizations also allege that the government is taking advantage of the Inuit hunt in the hopes of blurring the line between the two hunts.

“The Canadian government is using the Inuit, whose hunting is not under threat, to push the commercial seal hunt, which is a hideously cruel massacre,” says Katz. “If anything, the EU’s banning of seal products from commercial hunt, which makes up 97 per cent of seal products, wouldn’t harm the Inuit hunt whereas it might now.”

“The Inuit are being used as pawns by the Canadian government by running a campaign to blur the lines between the two hunts in an effort to fool the public into thinking that the seal hunt is necessary and part of Canadian tradition, which it isn’t,” says Curran.

The government disagrees, asserting that the mention of the Inuit seal hunt is only in reference to the genuine concern that the EU’s ban will threaten Inuit industry.

“The Inuit exemption was written into the ban by the EU,” says Balil. “But it’s not going to be effective in practical terms. The ban will affect the infrastructure that [the Inuit] rely on to sell their products.”

The great sealing debate

If the members of the two camps could at least agree on the facts, then much of the debate could be resolved. While the government insists that there is a thriving industry for seal pelts – there were about $10 million in exports to Russia last year – and that they are looking to expand the export of seal meat to China, anti-sealing groups believe that there are no markets in existence.

“To say that the markets are slumping is optimistic,” says Curran. “The truth is that the markets are dead and they’re not coming back. The government is holding out false hopes to the sealers saying that there are new markets in Asia, but they should realize that it’s over instead of wasting millions of our tax dollars.”

The two sides also disagree fundamentally on whether DFO’s goal is really to preserve the seal population or, in fact, to exterminate the population, which some fishermen believe is responsible for the depletion of lucrative commercial fish stocks.

“Decisions that should be based on marine biologists and climate specialists are being left in the hands of fishermen wielding clubs and rifles – men with a vested interest in bringing seals to the brink of extinction and beyond,” says Curran. “This is not a plan for conservation as DFO claims. It’s a plan for extermination.”

The anti-sealing argument hinges on both the notion that the seal population is in danger and that the commercial seal hunt does not kill the animals in a humane way, with DFO adamantly refuting both claims.

“We have scientists who assess the seal populations throughout the year,” says Balil. “This is an ongoing project, we are always managing the state of the stock. It’s a healthy, thriving population, and we’re doing everything we can to make sure that it stays like that.”

Curran says, however, that seals are among top predators like sharks and polar bears that are crucial to the marine ecosystem – and that have both been over-hunted in the past few years. Even if the population is currently healthy, adds Sheryl Fink from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, it is important to be taking a precaution
ary approach given the vast climate changes.

The most controversial point of disagreement is, of course, whether the seals are at least being killed according to humane stipulations. Balil says the hunt is monitored closely, with fishery officers making sure that the sealers – who he assures have been licensed only after a number of years as apprentices – are following a strictly defined three-step process when killing the seal. Fink disagrees, however, arguing that the rapidity of the hunt renders humane killing processes unfeasible.

“Because of the sheer expediency of the hunt – 300,000 killed in a matter of days or weeks – and the geographic areas over which it occurs, it is difficult to monitor or enforce regulations. There are boats competing to meet the quotas, so they’re trying to get the skins off as many seals as quickly as possible before the ice melts.”

And as for all the ghastly images attesting to the gruesome and wasteful nature of the seal hunt? Balil says the issue has been dramatized and manipulated by animal rights groups.

“Some groups have done very well at pulling at emotional strings using some images of white coats, which cannot be legally harvested in Canada,” he explains. “But they still use those images because they appeal to emotions rather than the facts. Seal hunting is also a particularly emotional issue because it happens in full view. Anyone can request an observer permit – that’s how they get those images.”

Whether the seal population is really endangered, whether animal welfare practices are being followed, and whether there really is a market for seal products, are all questions that need to be resolved before the two parties can agree on how to proceed.

While Katz avows that Canada’s image will be equated with the seal kill until the slaughter is stopped, Balil says, “there’s a lot of misinformation out there. It’s difficult to judge from a distance, but I can tell you that the compliance rate has been quite high.”

Student Life

Perfect pitch: Fight Band looks to fine-tune McGill athletic pride

by Sean Wood on

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The McGill Fight Band doesn’t march. They don’t do halftime shows, they don’t wear Napoleonic uniforms, and they don’t have a dance team. If you’re looking for high-stepping, capes, or colour guards, you’re out of luck. But if you’re looking for spirit, look no further – the growing Fight Band does what fight bands are supposed to do and does it well.

“Every coach comes to my office at least once a week to see if the Fight Band is coming to their game, or to lobby to make sure that they’re coming to their games,” said Jeremiah Gordon, McGill Athletics’s promotions director.

Founded in 2006, the band began with less than a dozen members, but has grown into a robust corps of 40. Boasting woodwinds, brass, and percussion, they’ve become a recognizable presence at varsity games, bringing in bigger crowds and keeping them excited.

Like many great ideas, the band was born at Bar des Pins. Ted Smith, a team manager for the McGill basketball team, had just come back from a summer in Japan.

“Japanese sports fans, and especially baseball ones, are fanatics,” he said. “They organize into a kind of brigade, almost a legion of fans. They bring out bugles and trumpets and small brass instruments and devise fight songs for everybody in the batting lineup to cheer them on. I guess it occurred to me then that it wouldn’t be that hard to do something similar at college.”

When he suggested to his friends at the bar that they should try it, they didn’t take him seriously. The following Monday, he went in to see then-Athletics Director Derek Drummond. Drummond asked him what it would cost and how soon it could happen.

“[I told him], ‘Give me your boardroom to run a couple of informational meetings, give me your photocopier to print off advertisements, and then I’ll need $400 for total expenses,” Smith said.

Drummond agreed. Students were eager to join, but securing practice space proved more challenging: initially, the group practiced late at night in the small music classrooms of a Sherbrooke office building.

“And of course, we had to go get stands,” Smith said. “At around 10, we started gathering up stands from people leaving the practice rooms and hauling them across the street.”

The band played at six games that first year. While some fans were apprehensive about the band’s presence, others enjoyed the injection of spirit, and the band began to grow.

“We started making an impact at games, athletes started to notice us, and then it just kind of grew,” Smith said.

Because members were allowed to drink, Smith admits that the band gained a bit of a reputation for rowdiness.

“Initially, we used to go out and party a lot at the games. At a certain part we had gotten so large that it had potential for a problem,” he said. “We never had any fights or anything like that, but some people questioned the appropriateness of our behaviour as a band [while] wearing McGill uniforms.”

Partly in response to their behavior and partly because of their success, McGill Athletics opted for a closer relationship with the band. The new, more formal arrangement has banned members from drinking during games, but has also given the band more money.

“Their repertoire has improved, their size has gotten better and they’re definitely a great feature that we have now at our varsity sporting events,” said Gordon.

And the band hasn’t completely lost its edge. In addition to playing pep-band standards like “Final Countdown” and “Rock and Roll Part 2” during pauses, the band draws on an impressive arsenal of cheer tactics to pump up the home crowd and annoy the visitors.

“The best games are when we get into other players’ heads,” said Kolya Kowalchuk, U3 music, and also the band’s conductor.

Smith, whose main role in the band’s performances was to get cheers going, recalled some of the ways this worked during his time with the band. For instance, the band might single out a particular player to heckle for an entire game, or play with the other team’s timing.

“When the shot clock was winding down in basketball we would start counting five, four, three, two, one when it hit eight seconds,” Smith said. “I can’t even count the amount of times that worked. Then, once they catch on to that we start, counting from eight [when it hits five seconds], so they’d think they had more time than they did, and that worked, too.”

Band members admit that Fight Band can be a way for ex-high-school-band geeks to relive their glory days, but Smith warned against taking that at face value.

“My impression of band kids has changed considerably since starting this thing,” he said. “When I was in high school I always thought of the band geeks as anti-social and not particularly amusing or skillful … but those kids party hard.”

But the Fight Band is not just a party crew, either.

“What Fight Band has done for a lot of people is create a really comfortable environment, [allowing] them to let loose and make a lot of friends,” Smith said.

Taylor Stocks, U2 political science and the band’s premier, agreed.

“We’re a nice family,” she said. “They’re a group of people you can always count on for stuff, the right combination of nerd and love.”

Though the band’s season is over, they should be back bigger and better next year, and will continue to pump up home crowds and irritate visitors for years to come.

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