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THE POP INVADES MONTREAL• PAGE 14

C’est full cool

The double-cup dilemma: sustainability and Tim Hortons • News page 3

Concordia grad wins big at art competition • Fringe Arts page 13

Will the cities of the future have sidewalks? • Literary Arts page 19

concordia’s independent newspapermy pants go THUD since 1980

NEWS 03THE LINK • SEPTEMBER 30, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/NEWS

• TERRINE FRIDAY

It was the first time that a Canadian university barred acandidate in the federal elections from campaigning on-cam-pus, says David Rovins, independent candidate for theWestmount-Ville Marie riding.

Rovins, a graduate of McGill University, was campaigningacross the McGill campus last week when he was asked toleave, he said. He said he was campaigning in McGill’sMcIntyre Medical Sciences Building when security got thecall to usher him out.

McGill’s associate vice-principal, Jim Nicell, said theUniversity was justified in asking him Rovins to leave becausehe was disruptive and violated protocol by entering campuswithout permission or notifying administration.

McGill requires that candidates show proof of registrationand details of their intentions—steps Nicell claims Rovinsskipped before campaigning on campus.

“All we’re asking is for people to follow our process,” said Nicell.

Rovins confirms that he tried to campaign inside class-rooms in the law, science and medicine complexes, but wasprevented by campus security.

“It is sad [that] a university does not allow free speech,”Rovins said. “One security guard said ‘I agree’.”

However Rovins argues he had the legal right to campaignon campus. He claims he was “told on the phone by one of themost senior officials at elections Canada that this is not thefirst time the law has been violated, but it is the first time auniversity has broken the law.”

Rovins made headlines recently when he wrote a letter tothe Queen of England denouncing the prime minister’s deci-sion to cancel the federal by-elections.

“Mister [Stephen] Harper is equal to every other citizenand does not have the power to destroy people’s right tovote,” Rovins wrote to the monarch, unhappy to see the by-elections for the Westmount-Ville Marie riding cancelled.

Rovins is still awaiting a response from the Queen.

—with files from Mookie Kideckel, The McGill Daily

Independent candidate gets the boot

• CLARE RASPOPOW

The Concordia EntrepreneurshipManagement Association found itself atthe centre of a shit storm this week afterthe launch of their latest philanthropicventure—a calendar whose proceeds aremeant to benefit the Montreal AutismCentre.

You may have seen their promotion-al posters around campus last Tuesday.Featuring a sexy co-ed female with thewords, “This may be the girl sitting nextto you in financial accounting,” theposters and their wooden easels disap-peared the next day as the launch of thecalendar was postponed.

“It was the logo that we used thatcaused problems,” explainedChristopher Calkins Jr., the CEMAmember assigned as project managerfor the calendar. The John MolsonSchool of Business had objected to theuse of their logo on the posters as theyare in no way associated with the proj-ect. “This is completely a CEMA proj-ect,” Calkins Jr. clarified.

But the delays caused by the logomix-up were only the beginning ofCEMA’s problems. The future of the cal-endar was called into question when theMAC learned of the content of the cal-endar this Monday.

“I’m shocked,” said Erwin Neumark,a member of the board of directors forthe MAC, of the intended “ConcordiaIllustrated” theme, an obvious allusionto the Sports Illustrated magazine.

The last time anyone at the MAC hadheard from CEMA concerning the cal-endar was in May of this year.

“I wouldn’t have wanted this,”Neumark continued. “We were just toldthey were going to raise money.”

The MAC, a non-profit organization,strives to help autistic children inte-grate into society through family-focused intervention. In order to pro-tect the privacy of the families who use

their services, the centre can’t fundraisein a traditional manner—which canmake things pretty tight financially.

“Because we don’t ever turn childrenaway, we’re constantly in the red,”explained Neumark.

Though less than happy with thesubject matter of the calendar, mem-bers of the MAC decided not to inter-vene in the publication of the calendaras long as CEMA made it clear that theMAC was in no way responsible for thecontent.

“We never wanted to represent animage of the Autism Centre,” explainedCalkins Jr. “This was just supposed tobe a fun project to raise money and

maybe publicize the centre a little.”Many of the posters mounted in the

school had been defaced or coveredwith anti-abortion posters in the courseof the day that they were on display.

“It was never our purpose to offendanyone,” defended Calkins Jr., directinghis comments not only to the MAC butto the Concordia community-at-large.

“We realize that not everyone willlike [the calendar],” he said. “But wehope that if you have a problem withwhat we do, that you’ll come talk to usabout it.”

The calendar will launch later this week with all proceeds going to the MAC.

Bittersweet charityControversial calendar causes problems for CEMA

• JOSE ESPINOZA

There are 2,851 Tim Hortons coffee shops operatingacross Canada. Only one of these, located in OwenSound, Ontario, has a recycling station for the papercups and lids.

Loretta Lau and Jacqueline Leung observed the dailywaste that the chain was producing at their downtownstores on the corner of University and Sherbrooke threeyears ago. They started a petition to limit the use of dou-ble cups on Nov. 15, 2005 and aimed to get 10,000 sig-natories by their Nov. 13, 2008 deadline. Their cut-offdate is just over six weeks away and the petition standsat 2,249 names—a long way from the required 10,000goal.

“The paper cup is not sustainable,” said Leung. “Weneed to eliminate [it].”

The paper cup became a central focus of Leung andLau’s study because Tim Hortons had a policy of dou-bling cups for tea. Apart from the waste generatedthrough this practice, very few students are aware thatthe paper cup is not recyclable in Quebec.

According to Leung, lack of environmental aware-ness is a part of a larger problem: lack of sustainabilityeducation. Change should start with the youth, Leungsaid, more specifically at the university and college level.

Double-cupping is common at Tim Hortons.Recyclable paper sleeves are not used because they aretoo “trendy,” said Greg Skinner, manager of corporatecommunications for Tim Hortons Canada, in an inter-view with Lau and Leung. He said that the corporationdoes not have a double-cupping policy and that it is upto the customer to decide if they would like a second cupto protect their hands form being burned.

Currently, Tim Hortons offers a 10-cent discount foranyone who wants their coffee in a travel mug. This isnot enough for Leung, who says giving money back toindividuals who bring a travel mug is not the rightincentive.

The fight for sustainable cups may be a losing battleand Jacqueline concedes that she has not achieved thegoal that this petition had envisioned. She does, howev-er, admit that although she has not been activelyinvolved, she has done her part to spread the word onsustainability through the petition and her everydayhabits.

To find out more about the petition, or to sign it, pleasevisit: thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/232854687.

—with files from Lauryn Kronick

Tim Hortonspetition runningout of timeThree-year deadline coming to a close

CEMA finds themselves in hot water for printing a racy calendar.

Jacqueline Leung hopes to stop the production of thenon-recyclable coffee cups. PHOTO JONATHAN DEMPSEY

NEWS 05THE LINK • SEPTEMBER 30, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/NEWS

• SARAH TOOTH

Enjoy that bottle of waterbecause it could be your last, ifmembers of Tap Thirst havetheir way.

Affiliate of the Quebec PublicInterest Research Group, TapThirst, a student-run workgroup, lobbies against the distri-bution and consumption of bot-tled water. With bases through-out downtown Montreal,Concordia and McGill universi-ties, Tap Thirst’s initiative focus-es on spreading awareness aboutthe negative affects of buying theseemingly harmless beverage.

Tap Thirst co-founder andConcordia student Laura Beachsaid the inflated costs of bottledwater are not even the most con-cerning aspect of buying the bev-erage.

“There is an incredible envi-ronmental impact of buying bot-tled water,” Beach said. “Most ofthe plastic bottles end up sittingand decomposing in landfills […]only a small percentage make itto recycling facilities.”

Beach said that while wasteproduced by the bottles is amajor concern of the group, theinefficient process of bottlingwater and concerns about thepurification process that manu-facturers put the water throughare even more troubling. Theprocess, which requires two gal-lons of water, only yields a singlegallon of water to be sold.

“So basically while you are only drinking one bottle ofwater, you are consuming three,”

said Beach.Dana Holtby, Tap Thirst coor-

dinator at McGill, said the groupis not so much against bottledwater, but pro-information of theeffects bottling water produces.

“It’s more about informingpeople, about education,” saidHoltby, a second-year environ-mental development major.“We’d like people to understandwhy bottled water is detrimentalto the environment.”

Holtby says many of the peo-ple who buy bottled water do notrealize the harmful factorsbehind it.

“[Tap Thirst] is about helpingpeople understand why buying[bottled water] is bad. And when bottled water can be any-where between 240 to 10,000times more expensive than tapwater, we think it’s really bad!”

she says.In an effort to reduce the con-

sumption of bottled water, TapThirst has begun a BottledWater-Free Zone campaignwherein joining associationspledge to not distribute bottledwater at any affiliated events oroffices.

Associations throughoutConcordia which have joined theBottled Water-Free Zone move-ment include SustainableConcordia and The QuebecPublic Interest Research Groupat Concordia.

For more info on Tap Thirst andwater resources, please visit inside-thebottle.org. Tap Thirst will be havingtheir next meeting Oct. 7 from 5 to 6 p.m. at the QPIRG Concordia meet-ing room, 1500 de Maisonneuve,suite 204.

Here today, hopefullygone tomorrowStudent-run organization informs Con U ofthe dangers of drinking bottled water

• PALOMA FRIEDMAN

Vacuum-powered garbagebins may soon render traditionaltrash cans obsolete in Montreal.

The city has inked a deal withEnvac, a Swedish waste manage-ment firm, to install a pneumaticwaste-disposal system in thearea around Place des Arts,which has been tapped for rede-velopment and dubbed ‘leQuartier des spectacles.’

The new system’s receptaclesempty automatically as they’refilled with waste, which is thensucked through an undergroundnetwork of tubes to a collectionsite at speeds of up to 70 km/h.

An underground network thatis easily accessible raises safetyconcerns, however. Some majorEuropean cities have removedtrash bins from public places forfear that bombs can be discreetlyplaced inside them. City ofMontreal spokesperson IsabellePoulin said there are no suchconcerns here.

“This system is in place allacross Europe, where it has cer-tainly been tested against this

sort of thing,” Poulin said. The city touts the system as

sustainable and safe. Separateopenings will sort waste intorecyclables, organic matter andtrash. And by having the garbageremoved at the source, the needfor garbage trucks will be cut,resulting in less traffic for anarea that is often crowded. Thecity estimates that the system,which runs on electricity, willsave 100 tonnes of fossil fuelemissions per year. However, thetubes can’t accommodate largeritems like furniture, so garbagetrucks won’t be eliminated alto-gether.

The upgrade comes at a costof $8.2 million, and will cost$300,000 annually to operate.The project will begin in 2009while roads in the area are openfor work on the aging sewer sys-tem, and is due to be completedin 2010.

Envac has systems in placeacross Europe in Sweden,London and Barcelona, as well asin Disney World, Florida. Thecity of Toronto has plans for asimilar system in the works.

Montreal talks trashCity unveils high-tech garbage disposal plan

• R. BRIAN HASTIE

A message of hope for the state of mentalhealth in Canada was offered by mentalhealth advocate Michael Kirby in the cadre ofa talk given on Thursday night at the OscarPeterson Concert Hall.

Co-sponsored by AmiQuebec and theConcordia Psychology Department, the talk,called Blood, Sweat and Tears, found Kirbyoutlining the genesis of a plan that wouldbring issues associated with mental health tothe national forefront.

“We need to develop a national mentalhealth strategy,” said Kirby who took to thepodium and explained his alternative plan,

which is due to be rolled out next spring.“We’re the only nation in the G8 not to haveone right now.”

Kirby, a former politician and who served22 years as a Liberal senator, has been chairof the Mental Health Commission of Canadasince 2006. Kirby retired from the Senate twoyears ago to implement one of his key recom-mendations, the creation of the Commission.

A major problem facing the current healthsystem is the lack of funds for peer-to-peercounseling exclusive to people with mentalhealth issues, Kirby explained. He stated thatpeople within the health system would like tohave that service in place because it helpsthem step out of isolation.

According to Kirby, another major compo-nent missing from current treatment tech-niques is getting help from a spiritual adviser.

“We are using the streets and jails as theinsane asylums of the 21st century,” opinedKirby. “We need to offer change, and hope.Locking people up and ignoring the problemis not how we solve this problem.”

Kirby urged his audience to get involvedand stated, “mental illness affects almosteveryone, but there’s a lack of public aware-ness.” He is hoping to launch fundraising ini-tiatives as well as mobilize an “army of willingvolunteers” to get the word out and open up apublic discourse about a subject that has beenignored in the public arena for far too long.

A need for a national mental health strategyPolitician-cum-mental health advocate speaks about the problems facing Canada

38Percentage of parents surveyedwho said that if their child hada mental illness, they wouldnot seek help nor tell anyoneabout it.

33Amount, in billions of dollars,that Canadian companies lostin revenue due to time takenoff for health reasons in 2002.

Tap water may prove to be less harmful than bottled water. PHOTO ELSA JABRE

Overflowing garbage bins in Montreal are the target for the city’s new actionplan. PHOTO ELSA JABRE

06 NEWS THE LINK • SEPTEMBER 30, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/NEWS

• R. BRIAN HASTIE

“Give yourselves a round ofapplause.”

Those were the words Chuck Dchose to open up his talk to a near-capacity audience inside of the HallBuilding auditorium last Tuesday.

The talk, entitled “Rap, Race,Reality and Technology,” found thepolitically conscious rapper-cum-lecturer discussing things like theupcoming American elections, thecurrent American economic crisis, aswell as the need for collegiate stu-dents to continue onwards in theirscholarly pursuits. The applause, Dexplained, was a congratulatory paton the back given to those in theaudience for being able to stay inschool and pursue academic dreams.

Chuck D, née Carlton DouglasRidenhour, began his talk with a fewpersonal anecdotes about visitingMontreal as a child with his family,as well as other Canadian adventuresbefore formally beginning the mainportion of his talk.

The rapper was quick to point outthat the American media were takinga typically dry debate and turning itinto what could be considered thegreatest reality television show of theyear: the race leading up to the Nov.4 American elections.

“I’m voting for Obama for all theright and wrong reasons,” D said.“He’s entering a lose-lose situationand if elected, 60 to 70 per cent of his

decisions will make people pauseand [scratch their heads]. A lot ofpeople won’t be happy because he’llhave to make choices that won’tplease a lot of people who electedhim to office.”

He further explained that electingrepublican nominee John McCainfor president would be like further-ing an agenda that began eight yearsago and stagnate any possiblechance of change.

D challenged the current admin-istration’s plans, calling presidentGeorge W. Bush a “village idiot” andasking, “How do we fight a waragainst terrorism? That’s like fight-ing a war against judo!”

D seguewayed into the currenteconomic crisis.

“Water will be the new oil,” helamented. “But right now, oil is oiland we’re still paying for it.”

The importance of having adegree was the next item on theagenda. He linked the rise of gunculture to the stagnation of a systemwhere schools have failed the young, stating, “guns suppress logic.”

“I graduated with a degree inDesign and Communication, tryingto merge things,” D said. “Peoplehave asked me about my greatestachievement, and usually theyexpect me to say the album sales orthe sold-out stadiums, but I’m ableto look at my diploma and say‘There it is’.”

He finally brought the topicaround to the record industry.

“The music industry is alive andwell, but the record industry, on theother hand, is suffering. Artists havea lot more resources available tothem: MySpace, Facebook, iTunes.A lot of venues.”

D eschewed critics who call himout of touch.

“How do I stay relevant to a 16-year-old? I can’t. I can, on the otherhand, stay relevant to the world.And I feel like every Public Enemyalbum still has something to say,making it relevant.”

D advocated the necessity forresponsibility and conscientious-ness in rap music, especially since ithas become mainstream.

“Rap was once considered theblack CNN, but it has grown into aworldwide phenomenon, and stillshould be accountable to itself.”Hthat artists like Soulja Boy, whosemessage is very materialistic andbasic in nature, might appeal to “12-or 13-year-olds” but that “if you’re29 and still listening to [Soulja Boy],then we got a problem.”

Still fighting the powerPublic Enemy figurehead continues to inspire at Concordia lecture

On the record industry“The album has had its place.

When [Public Enemy] first startedthrowing up mp3s a decade ago, weknew what we were doing.

Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, analbum was a statement. When youput a record out, you’re trying to pro-mote an idea. The record industry isquickly changing […] How is it thatbaseball can remain the same nine-inning game for a hundred years butthe record industry can change soquickly?

I mean, a baseball game in 1921and a baseball game these days arevastly different things, but the basicsare still the same. The record industryis definitely a different animal.”

On the prospect of a new PublicEnemy Album

“Well, an album to me is fivetracks, you know? Public Enemy willprobably be doing singles, not somuch an album. You know, three sin-gles over a 1.5-year period. But therewon’t be any music before 2010, atleast […] I don’t get writer’s block,but I stepped away from writing forsix or seven months to get my headclear, come back from a different per-spective.”

On appearing on Nelly’s newalbum, Brass Knuckles, despite D’sopposition to materialistic rappers

“Nelly is a 30-year-old black man.He’s a lot more than just the ‘Hot InHerre’ guy, you know? I looked him inthe eye and asked him to be moreaccountable, to be able to be moreresponsible for his actions and tokeep that in mind, and he said hewould be. And that’s all I ask.”

The inevitable question about D’s Public Enemy counterpart Flava Flav

“We’re all differently-orientatedpeople. Flava’s my brother. The way heis on TV that’s the way he always is,and always has been since minuteone. People sometimes think that he’s putting on an act, but he reallyisn’t. Flava’s always been that crazyand original.”

Heather Anderson, Annabelle Blais, Josh Brown, MadelineColeman, Vincent Destouches, Ion Etxebarria, Matthew

Fiorentino, Jose Espinzoa, Carly Fridhandler, Cody Hicks,Elsa Jabre, Dominique Jarry-Shore, David Kaufmann, Ian

Lawrence, Pascale Rose Licinio, Julien Mcevoy, Ketan Patel,Barbara Pavone, Sinbad Richardson, Max Rosenstein,Michael Sabelli, Shawna Satz, Molly Sowiak, Rachel

Tetrault, Kristen Theodore, Sarah Tooth, Giuseppe Valiante,Bonnie Zehavi

The Link is published everyTuesday during the academic yearby the Link Publication Society Inc.Content is independent of theUniversity and student associations(ECA, CASA, ASFA, FASA, CSU).Editorial policy is set by an electedboard as provided for in The Link’sconstitution. Any student is wel-come to work on The Link andbecome a voting staff member. TheLink is a member of CanadianUniversity Press and PresseUniversitaire Indépendante duQuébec. Material appearing in The Link may not be reproducedwithout prior written permissionfrom The Link.

Letters to the editor are welcome.All letters 400 words or less will beprinted, space permitting. Lettersdeadline is Friday at 4 p.m. TheLink reserves the right to edit lettersfor clarity and length and refusethose deemed racist, sexist, homo-phobic, xenophobic, libelous, or oth-erwise contrary to The Link’s state-ment of principles.Board of Directors 2008-2009:

Chris Schwartz, Giuseppe Valiante,Matthew Fiorentino, Ellis Steinberg,Paul Erlichman, Shawna Satz; non-voting members: Rachel Boucher,Johnny North. Typesetting by The Link. Printing

by Transcontinental.

Volume 29, Number 7Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Concordia UniversityHall Building, Room H-649

1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W.Montreal, Quebec H3G 1M8

editorial: (514) 848-2424 ext. 7405 arts: (514) 848-2424 ext. 5813 advertising: (514) 848-2424 ext. 8682fax: (514) 848-4540business: (514) 848-7406

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Cover art by Amy Smith Cover illustration by Molly Sowiak

CONTRIBUTORS

“Water will be the newoil, but right now, oil is oil and we’re stillpaying for it.”

—Chuck D

Gender-neutral washrooms are on thehorizon. Contract negotiations are stillbeing “passed back and forth,” but soonenough Concordia will be home to wash-rooms designated to neither men norwomen.

Canada Haiti Action will look into theimpact of recent hurricanes in Haiti. YvesEngler, Haiti Action Montreal activist andlocal author, as well as a representative ofPartners in Health, a health organizationdoing hurricane relief work in Haiti, willspeak. Video of the devastation inGonaives will be shown as well. It takesplace today, Sept. 30, at 7 p.m. in the SCPAbuilding, at 2149 Mackay Street.

The Latin American StudentOrganization is also trying to raise aware-ness to the need for hurricane relief inCentral America. They’re campaigning forclothing, food, and other donations to helpwith the devastation of Hurricane Gustav.For more information, visit them at 2010Mackay, Q-203.

Deadlines for tuition payment and schol-arship applications are fast approaching.The tuition payment deadline is today,Sept. 30, and the scholarship and bursaryapplications deadline is Oct. 17. Over$250,000 in awards are available, but sofar only 150 applications have beenreceived. Bursaries range from $500 to$1000. For more information, visit theFinancial Aid and Awards website atweb2.concordia.ca/financialaid.

Concordia is launching the CanadianWomen’s Artists History Initiative early nextmonth. It’s an online database that willprovide information, media and links forover 750 female Canadian artists. Similarprojects exist in the United States and theUnited Kingdom. For more information,visit cwahi.concordia.ca.

Venture capitalist Jean Fahmy will bespeaking to students about his experiencesbuilding and selling I.T. businesses in alecture hosted by the John Molson PrivateEquity and Venture Capital Society. Thelecture, called Venture Capital 101, is Oct.1 at 6 p.m. Those who want more informa-tion must R.S.V.P. on Facebook.

Canada and the United States aren’t theonly places in the world dealing with pre-election frenzy. Elections are also comingup for South Africa, Azerbaijan, Zambia,and Ghana.

—compiled by Jesara Sinclair

Did youknow?

Chuck D gives his take on beats and bites as a part of the CSU lecture series. PHOTO IAN LAWRENCE

NEWS 07THE LINK • SEPTEMBER 30, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/NEWS

• LIZ MCARTHUR, NEXUS

(CAMOSUN COLLEGE)

VICTORIA (CUP) – Studentsand food banks are starting to feelthe burden of rising food prices inCanada.

Freak weather is a factor is soar-ing food prices. But so are dramaticchanges in the global economy,including higher oil prices, lowerfood reserves, and growing con-sumer demand in China and India.

“We’ve decided to bake our ownbread and pies this year. We aregoing to make everything fromscratch and we’ve been picking a lotof food like berries and mush-rooms,” said Niki Brockway, a sci-ence student at Camosun College inVictoria, B.C.

“But somehow we still managedto spend $200 grocery shoppingyesterday,” added Brockway’sroommate, Matt Rosenthal.Rosenthal adds that the haul willlast them about 11 days.

Lynn Galligos, a student of FirstNations community studies, saysthe higher cost of food has made herthink more about her diet.

“I’m definitely changing what Iam cooking and buying,” she said.“I’m trying to make it stretch.”

Brent Palmer, director ofVictoria’s Mustard Seed Food Bank,says he has seen a marked differ-ence in the food bank thisSeptember compared to last year.

Fewer donations and increasingnumbers of needy people raise con-cerns for what the food bank willface this winter.

“Anyone on any type of fixedincome, including students, wouldfeel a definite strain on their foodbudget and would need to seek extrahelp to subsidize it,” said Palmer.

Joanne Cumberland, CamosunCollege’s senior financial aid advi-sor, sees the benefits of the foodbank, but stresses budgeting inevery way possible, especially whenshopping for food.

“Budgeting makes a huge differ-ence, but it’s hard. I’m not going tosay it’s not hard,” she said.

Cumberland, a former Camosunstudent, says picking the right storemakes a difference and recom-mends looking at flyers that can befound online.

“Some stores make me want tocry they’re so expensive,” she said.“Read the labels and compareprices. It’s common sense, but people run out of time and then it’s hard to compare and check everything.”

High foodprices forcestudents intounwanteddiets

• JULIEN MCEVOY

With a platform centered onsustainability, peace and socialjustice, the Green Party ofCanada contends that they’rethe only ones concerned aboutenvironmental preservation.

Claude Genest, deputy leaderof the party, says that it’s morethan just an issue of syntax.

“We are the realConservatives,” Genest said. TheGreen candidate in theWestmount-Ville Marie riding,Genest says the party is “theonly party addressing the bigpink elephant in the room […]Who the hell else is talkingabout conserving?”

Green Party leader ElizabethMay put words into action bykicking off her campaign with atrans-Canada journey. Mayblogged her way across Canadaon her Cross-Country WhistleStop Tour, making the 5000-plus kilometer chug in just sixdays. Prior to her Vancouverdeparture May wrote, “Not sinceDiefenbaker has a federal leadercampaigned by train from coastto coast.”

May’s tour made its way to

Montreal last Thursday wheresupporters and the undecidedalike had the chance to meet andgreet the party leader.

“I am the only party leaderwho’s experiencing a countrytour that’s actually fun,” shesaid. May described how some40 supporters had been waitingfor her train at 4 a.m. inMelville, Saskatchewan. “Wehave had rallies in places I never

expected,” she said. For students like Florent

Couture, May still remains anunknown figure.

“I heard her name for the firsttime at the beginning of thecampaign,” said Couture, a 25-year-old student at Concordia’sJohn Molson School ofBusiness.

“Apart from the fact thatshe’s the Green leader, I still

don’t know anything about her,”echoed Pierre-Antoine Girardin,25.

May’s train pit stop inMontreal comes less than a weekbefore Canadian party leaders’English debate, set for Oct. 2.“We are ready for a break-through,” May said. “We knowwe will send MPs to the House ofCommons on Oct. 15 […] Forgetpolitics and vote Green.”

Will the real conservatives please stand up?Green party talks and walks conservation

• CHRISTOPHER OLSON

Abdelkader Belaouni is a special guestat St. Gabriel’s Presbytery, where he hastaken up temporary—although some-times it seems perpetual—residence toavoid deportation to his native Algeria.

This week he passed an importantthreshold: 1,000 days spent without legalresidence in Canada. He was first grant-ed asylum on January 1, 2006.

Not everyone is celebrating. Once a prominent civil servant,

Belaouni has become the “symbol of theimmigration movement” in Montreal,according to friend and supporterMostafa Henaway of Solidarity AcrossBorders.

And how does Belaouni feel about thesupport he’s received from the communi-ty?

“I have the best friends in the world,”he says. “I never complain. I can’t hidemy smile.”

1k for Kader

Green Party leader Elizabeth May chats it up with supporters in Montreal Thursday. PHOTO DOMINIQUE JARRY-SHORE

PHOTO ION ETXEBARRIA

NEWS 09THE LINK • SEPTEMBER 30, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/NEWS

• VINCENT DESTOUCHES

For some Palestinians, LeilaKhaled is a freedom fighter. Forthe rest of the world, she is a ter-rorist.

The plights of Khaled, the firstwoman to hijack an airplane, arebrought to the screen in the doc-umentary Leila Khaled, Hijacker,the brainchild of director LinaMakboul.

Among the Palestinian com-munity, Khaled still has credenceand remains the Che Guevara ofthe Popular Front for theLiberation of Palestine.

“She was my teenage idol,”Makboul said. “She was braveand beautiful. And she wasPalestinian. And we both wantedthe same thing. A free Palestine.”

Against this backdrop ofMiddle East tension, Makbouldraws the portrait of a young andattractive woman who gave a faceto a fight and to a rebellion, in aworld dominated by men. Butmore than a portrait or a philo-sophical reflection, Leila Khaled,Hijacker transports us into thedirector’s intimate struggle withthe means used by Khaled, heryouth idol, to defend her cause.

In a series of interviews,Makboul confronts Khaled aboutdecisions she made over 35 yearsago and tries to find remorse inher. Khaled, now 64, still hasstrong political beliefs, but theimages of the working mothershe has become contrast with herportrayal as a rebel freedomfighter.

Born in Haïfa, Israel in 1944,Khaled was forced to move toLebanon, along with her family,during the 1948 Palestine war.Ever since that day, Khaled has

been trying to return home.Home, because in 1944, Haïfawas in Palestine, a land she wasready to give her life for.

On August 29, 1969, Khaledand a PFLP team hijacked TWAFlight 840, which was supposedto transport its passengers fromRome to Athens. After makingthe plane fly over Israel to seeHaïfa from above, Khaled andher team landed in Damascus,Syria. There were no casualties orvictims, which was a strict rule.The purpose of the hijacking wasto make a statement.

Khaled contends that shehoped “the world would under-stand our cause […] We capturedthe planes to ask the world aquestion. Who are thePalestinians?”

A year later, Khaled hijackedanother plane on its way fromAmsterdam to New York, as partof a larger PFLP operation butfailed and was captured byBritish authorities. She was soonafter released in exchange forBritish hostages.

Khaled currently lives inAmman, Jordan with her hus-band and their two sons.

Leila Khaled, Hijacker will beplaying at Concordia University inH-110 on Oct. 6 at 7:30 pm. Tofind out more about the event,please visit cinemapolitica.org

A portrait of Khaled

• ION ETXEBARRIA

At least 5,000 people demonstrated against Bill C-484as part of the Pan-Canadian Day of Action for AbortionRights.

Bill C-484, also known as the “Unborn Victims of CrimeAct,” would treat the foetus as a separate victim and allowseparate homicide charges to be laid in the case when apregnant woman is subject to a criminal attack and thefoetus dies.

Feminist collectives believe that giving the foetus a par-ticular juridical status would open a door to challengeabortion rights in Canada and does not really protectwomen against violence.

Bill C-484 was introduced by Conservative MP Ken Eppfrom Edmonton and passed second reading on Mar. 5 inthe House of Commons. All but four Conservative MPsand 27 Liberal MPs supported the bill, but it was retired bythe Conservative Party due to upcoming federal elections.

The organizers of the demonstration, the QuebecWomen’s Federation and the Federation of Quebec FamilyPlanning, did not endorse any political parties. MicheleAsselin, president of the FFQ, called on Canadians “todefeat the Conservatives and not to give any votes to can-didates that threaten to reverse women’s advancementsand autonomy.”

Pro-choice show where they stand

• TERRINE FRIDAY

The Concordia CommunityHIV/AIDS Project will jump-start its year-long awarenesscampaign with a lecture byVancouver’s safe injection sitecounselor, Gillian Maxwell.

A trained counsellor in media-tion and intervention, Maxwellhopes to bring to the foregroundthe need for education aboutdrug use and its misconceptions.

“In most urban centres,there’s a great need [for a safeinjection site],” Maxwell said,and stressed the importance ofhaving a safe place to shoot up inmajor Canadian cities.

According to Maxwell, mar-ginalized populations, like peo-ple with HIV and AIDS, need acommunity-based support centreto use drugs because they “wouldprobably be injecting in thestreets,” where sharing needles iscommonplace.

In the face of a federal elec-tion, her safe injection site,called Insite, has evaded the gov-ernment’s chopping block.

“It was difficult enough to getit running with the previous[federal Liberal] government,”Maxwell started, “and now thecurrent [Conservative] govern-ment just wants to shut it down.”

Insite, started in 1997, was thefirst Canadian partially govern-ment-funded safe injection site.

It was borne in the wake of asweeping crisis on Canada’s westcoast. The health authoritydeclared the area an emer-

gency—an estimated 40 per centof residents living in Vancouver’slower east side, an area that hasbeen socially shunned as deviantfor over 200 years, were found tohave HIV/AIDS, and 95 per centhad Hepatitis C. Ten years ago, itwas the highest recorded infec-tion rate outside of Africa.

“Those are staggering num-bers,” Maxwell said, noting thatan overwhelming number ofinfected users are “people whoare not well to begin with, whodon’t eat particularly good food,and a lot of them have mental ill-ness.”

Montreal has its own safeinjection site, Cactus Montreal,which is a non-profit independ-ent organization that offered thefirst needle exchange program inNorth America almost 20 yearsago. It also provides services topeople who use intravenousdrugs and who practice “poten-tially risky sexual behaviour.”

“These facilities actually pre-vent people from contractingHIV,” said Emily Brossard, ahuman relations and sexualitystudent at Concordia and coordi-nator for the HIV/AIDS lectureseries. Brossard argues that serv-ices like Cactus and Insite are thefirst step in helping drug users“get out of the vicious cycle.”

“Outcasting the individualjust makes it worse,” Brossardsaid. “It doesn’t offer a solutionat all.”

Darlene Palmer, director ofCactus, will introduce Maxwellon Thursday.

Insite: the right to healthcare forinjection drug users will be held in H-110 on Oct. 2.

For more info on the HIV/AIDSCommunity Lecture Series, pleasevisit aids.concordia.ca,

For more info on Cactus Montrealand safe injection, please visit cactusmontreal.org

Breaking the cycleSupport centres working together on campaign to combat HIV/AIDS

PHOTO ION ETXEBARRIA

“We captured theplanes to ask theworld a question.Who are thePalestinians?”

—Leila Khaled

THE LINK • SEPTEMBER 30, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/FEATURES10 FEATURES

• TYLER HARPER

(RYERSON UNIVERSITY)

It’s a Thursday night at Zanzibarin Toronto and her name isJasmine. At least I think it is any-way. It’s a little hard to concentrate.

“I knew you didn’t have to beID’d,” she says in a French accent.“You have a young face, but you’renot 19.”

“How old do you think I am?”She eyes me up and down.

“Twenty-seven. 28.”“I’m 26. How old are you?”“Twenty-eight,” she says and we

both laugh. We both know she’solder than that. “I always say I’m28. If you feel an age you willalways be that age.”

“Would you like a Frenchdance?” she asks, grinning.

I contemplate what exactlywould make the dance French, thenremember I have a girlfriend wait-ing for me at home.

“Maybe next time. I think I’lljust drink my beer,” I respond.

She gets up to leave, keeping aneye on me as she walks away. A sec-tion of the stage rises and thedancer gyrates with the bass. Amiddle-aged man sitting alone infront of me claps. I finish my beerand get up to leave.

It’s hard to find a decent peeleron Toronto’s Yonge Street thesedays. There are only three stripclubs, one porn cinema, and ahandful of sex accessory shops.

But in the 1970s, Yonge was thedirtiest street in Canada. Body-rubparlours, porno vendors, cinemas,and clubs lined the south strip.There was music on the street.Tourists visited Yonge for theatmosphere and not the EatonCentre shopping mall.

Valerie Scott worked in the

body-rub parlours on Yonge duringthe ’70s. She doesn’t remember thestrip as a black hole into which allgood men’s souls were sucked, butrather she remembers the peopleshe worked with.

“What I liked about it was thecomradery between the women.We would look out for each other,”said Scott.

“There wasn’t a lot of violence,hardly any. I never even cameacross any at all, all the times Iworked in the massage parlours,”she recalls. “I think because weworked together, there were alwaystwo or three or four of us workingin a place. And it was just nice tohang out with the other women inbetween clients.”

The first body-rub parlouropened in the spring of 1971. Theygrew in tandem with the YongeStreet Mall, an annual festival heldbetween 1971 and 1973. Parts ofYonge were closed to traffic andvendors moved into the street forthe festival.

The sex industry thrived on theincrease in street business the mallprovided. The body-rub parloursalso filled an economic niche on thestreet and kept Yonge going, takingadvantage of real estate that otherbusinesses didn’t want.

“It filled a vacuum,” said RonSoskolne, Toronto’s chief plannerin the ‘70s. “The stores were there,it was the centre of the city.Landlords were pretty desperatebecause they couldn’t get seriousretailers to go there.”

The increase in people attractedby the mall, however, meant anincrease in crime. Businesses com-plained they were losing money justas the parlours were flourishing. Inthe summer of 1973 the mallbecame a financial liability for thecity and was shut down.

The parlours, however,remained. In just four years, therewere more than 100 of them.

But the party ended in 1977. OnJuly 28, four men lured 12-year-oldEmanuel Jaques, who worked onYonge Street shining shoes, into anapartment above Charlie’s Angels,a body-rub parlour across from thejust-opened Eaton Centre.

Jaques was restrained and sexu-ally assaulted for over 12 hours,

strangled and then drowned. The murder shocked the public

and provided the city and localbusinesses with a moral martyr torally behind. Many of the sex busi-nesses threw in the towel ratherthan endure the legal shitstorm.Some were closed down by thebawdy-house law, which gaveauthorities the legal right to closedown any establishment in whichprostitution occurs.

Whether or not prostitution wasindeed happening was beside thepoint. None of the businesses couldafford to fight both the governmentand the public. At the time ofJaques’ murder, there were 40 par-lours on Yonge.

In November there were four.And by December the last oneclosed its doors.

The body-rub era was over.By the early ’80s, Scott found

herself dancing at the Zanzibar. “The Zanzibar was a happening

place,” she said. “They had goodquality shows. This is before tableand lap dancing. It was far moreburlesque. You didn’t have any-thing on the stage like showers orpoles. The stage was nice.”

As the ‘80s progressed the stripclubs continued to do well, butYonge Street decayed.

“It just got worse,” saidSoskolne. “Some new fast-foodrestaurants went in, likeMcDonald’s or Burger King. andCheque-cashing places.Predominately a lot of vacancy.

The buildings were even more

deteriorated because the landlorddidn’t want to put money into anybuilding that he couldn’t get rev-enue from,” he continued. “Thestores that were rented were rentedon a short-term basis. Then dollarstores started to proliferate. By thetime we started the regenerationprogram in 1994 we counted 29dollar and discount stores betweenCollege [Street] and King [Street].”

Crime and drug use on Yongewere on the rise, and by 1994, theeconomy bottomed out.

“You could look out QueenStreet from the mayor’s office andthere would be no traffic. It wasthat bad,” recalled Kyle Rae, thearea’s city councillor, first electedin 1991. “You probably can’t imag-ine. The traffic on Queen collapsed.Transit use went down, because of

the failure of the office towers andthat created a crisis for the businessowners.”

On a wet night in 1994 Rae tooka walk with members of council toshow them the state of decay alongthe street. With the help of theYonge Street Business andResidents Association, the citybegan planning to build a squareand a new mall at Yonge andDundas Street to revitalize thearea.

After nearly 15 years of plan-ning, Toronto Life Square finallyopened last year. Yonge hasbecome an epileptic’s nightmare—neon signs advertising the latestcellphone plans flash electric kool-aid over newly erected condos.

It’s a 21st century circus fit foranyone with cash to spend.

“I think it’s a huge success,” saidSoskolne. “I think having a film fes-tival there is an example of whatthe possibilities are now and thatnever would have been possible 10,20 years ago.”

The sex industry is still there,but it’s only a shadow of its formerself. The Zanzibar, the Brass Rail,and Remington’s are the only stripclubs left. A porn cinema com-mands a second-floor perch on theeast side of Yonge. Only a few sexshops remain.

For her part, Scott isn’t veryimpressed with the new YongeStreet.

“It’s boring, for the most part.The Eaton Centre is hostile. Thearchitecture is hostile to thestreetscape. The stores are tawdry.The buildings really need somerenovations. I’m beginning tobecome fond of [Toronto Life]Square, but for the most part,there’s just not a lot of soul toYonge Street.”

Love for sale

The rise and fall of Yonge Street’s sex industry

The murder shocked the public and provided the city and localbusinesses with a moral martyr to rally behind. Many of the sexbusinesses threw in the towel rather than endure the legal shitstorm.

Yonge Street in 1972

THE LINK • SEPTEMBER 30, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/FEATURES FEATURES 11

• KRISTEN THEODORE

Sometimes, just the thought of crackingopen your all-too cumbersome textbook topage 174, and reading several more chapterscan seem utterly unbearable.

With midterms looming on the horizon,and grades at stake, many Concordia stu-dents are turning to the power of prescrip-tion pills in order to stay regulated, focusedand ahead of the game throughout thesestressful times.

However, as use becomes more promi-nent some people wonder if popping a pill isan easy-way out, a time-management fix, orif taking prescription pills is something thatwill become more legitimate with time.

It’s not uncommon for students tobecome overwhelmed in the academic envi-ronment. Once the pressure is on, copingbecomes harder and harder.

“I’m a huge procrastinator,” saysChristina*, a McGill student in the secondyear of her MA. “I tend to leave big projectsuntil the night before the due date, whichmeans I’m under pressure to do a lot ofwork in a short time.”

Christina, not unlike other students, hasfaced unforgiving mountains of homeworkand very limited timeframes. And whetherself-inflicted or not, the work always has toget done.

Red Bull and Monster Energy drinksweren’t always the most effective means ofstaying focused, as they have the tendencyto wear off only after a few hours or notwork altogether. In order to cope with hernever-ending papers and other importantprojects, Christina turned to Ritalin andProvigil (Modafinil), two over-the-counterdrugs.

Ritalin, a drug normally prescribed tothose who have a difficult time concentrat-ing, or individuals plagued with hyperactiv-ity, helped Christina to focus on her studies.As a result, she was able to get more workdone. “[Ritalin] made me super focused so Ijust steamed ahead with work and did noth-ing else,” says Christina, who, in the end,was able to work at an unrelenting pace.

Those who have taken the prescription,such as Christina, have reported a height-ened sense of focus, which helped rendertheir studying altogether less tedious andenabled them to get the job done more effi-ciently.

Provigil is a drug often given to thosewho suffer from serious bouts of narcolepsy,obstructive sleep apnea, and shift worksleep disorder—individuals whose workshifts are so disorderly, their sleep sched-ules are seriously affected. Though notintended for casual use, the results ofChristina’s experiences were, in the end,overall positive.

“[Provigil] kept me awake much longerthan caffeine,” she says. While side effects ofthe drug are said to include headaches, nau-sea and stuffy noses, Christina experienced

none of these symptoms. Instead, a hardnight’s studying was made easier. “Whenyou’re in a panic, they seem like a reallygood solution like, hey, pop this pill, andyou can stay up all night, no problem.” Andwhile, like most other students, Christinahas dabbled in other recreational drugs,such as marijuana and alcohol, she says heruse of prescription pills were only for thebenefit of her academic productivity.

Christina isn’t alone in turning to pre-scription drugs to pull herself out of toughsituations. In recent years, the use of phar-maceuticals as self-prescribed study-aids isbecoming altogether frequent. In a 2003survey conducted by Ontario Student DrugUse, 2.9 per cent of high school studentshad access to Ritalin and had been using itas a “focus-aid.”

By Grade 11, that number only increasedto five per cent as the students climbed theacademic ladder higher and higher.According to Statistics Canada, that numberhas remained relatively high in boys, andsomewhat lower in girls. Similarly, inAtlantic Canada, a survey by the CanadianMedical Association Journal in 2001 figuredthat of almost 14, 000 randomly selectedstudents, 700 had been taking Ritalin andother drugs, such as Dexedrine andBenzedrine in non-medical use.

From 1985 to 2002, requests for Ritalinprescriptions alone spiked 600 per cent inCanada. And as the use among campus stu-dents is becoming more and more wide-spread, the rampant accessibility of thesemedications is being questioned. How dostudents get a hold of prescriptions whenthey don’t actually have attention deficitdisorder?

According to Amy*, a second-yearMcGill student, getting drugs is not all thatdifficult. Pills, it seems, are becomingincreasingly available to the people who sowillingly seek them out.

Amy, formerly a marijuana smoker, hasdeveloped an affinity for prescription pills.“I just go to a walk-in clinic, give them a listof symptoms and they prescribe to mewhatever I need,” she says. In such a heav-ily medicated society, it seems almost a lit-tle too easy for just about anyone to get hisor her paws on a prescription. Effortlessjourneys such as these often result in theeasy acquisition of sleeping pills, stay-awake pills, or even anti-depressants.

A simple Google search can conjure up alist of the symptoms needed to soundbelievable to an on-the-clock doctor. “Youjust need to go to different clinics wherethey don’t have a file on you,” and willtherefore prescribe you any sort of medica-

tion you crave, on the spot. Although, sheadds, she has never used drugs to study andsimply finds it easier to use them for ahigh—crushing Ritalin and snorting itincreases the effects of the amphetamines itcontains.

But if that expedition seems time-con-suming, students on campuses all acrossNorth America have found that there areconsiderably less complicated means toaccess prescription pills. Some re-use andrecycle old prescriptions they’ve had forRitalin or Adderall in the past. Others neednot go further then their own campus.

Pills can be acquired so long as studentsknow where to look—purchased from yourfriendly small-time dealer, often a fellowstudent, for about three to five dollars apop. Websites all over the net advertise a“cheap, anonymous” way of obtaining“medication online,” in user-friendly fash-ion. All that is required is a credit card.

Most of the time, students turn to pre-scription pills as a way to find some sort ofbalance in their fast-paced lives. Enteringa new university can be an exciting experi-ence. Studying just doesn’t seem as muchfun as going out with new friends anddrinking in dormitories does. Often, theyfind themselves overwhelmed by jugglingseveral priorities at once.

A former McGill-cum-Concordia stu-dent, Angela*, often fell behind in herschoolwork. Once she got involved with asports team, she found it difficult to bal-ance doing her homework as well as doing

sports and maintaining a healthy sociallife. So, she turned to prescription drugs tohelp her balance her time.

“During the season, I would do sports,see my friends and usually school wouldcome last,” she says. After trying Ritalin,she was able to sit still and focus on herstudies instead of drifting off.

Acquiring the drugs was almost a non-issue. “At McGill, my dealer was just walk-ing up and down the hallways of thelibrary, making deals,” she recalls, butadmits that prescription drug use seems alittle more low-key at her new school. “[AtConcordia] I’ve heard a couple of peopletalk about it on campus but it’s still a littlemore quiet.”

Angela says she noticed an immediatedifferent when taking the pills, though sheadmits it might have been due to a placeboeffect. “I completely noticed it, although itcould have been psychosomatic.Psychosomatic symptoms are very real,”she says. Regardless, Angela was able to dothings she thought impossible; “I couldread a 500-page philosophy book in fivedays time. I could write papers.”

It’s the kind of thing that makes stu-dents wonder. Despite some of the risksand side effects of taking these pills, theirprominence on campuses is becomingmore and more obvious. Those studentswho have turned to pharmaceuticals as ananswer or a fix may acknowledge that theiractivities aren’t exactly safe, but noneseem to feel particularly inclined to givethem up. The prescription label and indus-try stamp do a lot to allay fears and to mostthe benefits outweigh the risks.

“If you’re desperate, they’re a prettygood last resort,” admits Christina.

*names have been altered.

“I just go to a walk-in clinic, give them a list of symptomsand they prescribe to me whatever I need.”

—Amy, second-year McGill student

Which are good, which are bad?

GRAPHIC: CARLY FRIDHANDLER

Drugs, drugs, drugs

FRINGE ARTS 13THE LINK • SEPTEMBER 30, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/FRINGE

Young and going placesConcordia grad wins regional Student Art Competition with series on aging

• CHRISTOPHER OLSON

“To be 23 and to have your work featuredin the Museum of Contemporary CanadianArt, where my professor was featured onlylast May, is something a student can onlydream of.”

Those were the words of photographerKeren Epstein, who graduated fromConcordia University this past year, uponlearning that her work had been selected asthe regional champion of the inauguralBank of Montreal Art! Invitational StudentArt Competition, the only national graduat-ing artist competition in Canada.

To win the award, Epstein had to beatout 162 submissions from other up-and-coming Canadian artists, of which onlythree were selected for nomination fromeach post-secondary school across the coun-try.

This October, her work will be shownalongside 12 other regional champions, aswell as the national champion, at theMuseum of Contemporary Canadian Art inToronto. As part of the prize, her work willalso be featured in Canadian Art magazine.

Being a professional photographer is “anumbers game,” says Epstein. “The moreplaces you submit [your work], the better.”But when a supportive teacher convincedher to sign an application for the competi-tion, Epstein had no idea she’d end up beingthe regional winner.

“It’s the best thing that could have hap-pened to a student just coming out ofUniversity,” she says.

Working mostly from job to job, Epsteinadmits that she didn’t always believe thatsuccess would be in her sights. “I was doinga lot of second guessing of myself, but win-ning only reinvigorated and confirmed mysense of self worth.”

Epstein, whose parents are Israeli, wasdoing volunteer work helping integrate dis-placed Ethiopian Jews settle in Israel byteaching them English, when news

of her win reached her.Although most of the $2,500 prize

money went directly into her savingsaccount, Epstein says at least some of itwent to offset the costs of her volunteerwork—mainly consisting of travel costs.

Some of her previous work, a series of

photographs about Montreal’s immigrantcommunity, was featured in the Torontometro system.

“Art can be very exclusive,” complainsEpstein. “My goal is to bring art to themasses.”

The work that won her the BMO prizewas derived from her final class project,entitled the “Ema series,” which places ascrutinizing lens on the lifestyles of the eld-erly, including Epstein’s own grandmother.What the photographs reveal about old age,a time in one’s life in which lifelongcare-

givers become the recipient of care them-selves, says Epstein, “is sad, and weird, andalmost absurd. But there’s also a dignity inthe truth of what’s happening.”

As an artist, Epstein has had to fall backon the care of others a little earlier thanexpected, after leaving school she movedback into residence with her old caregivers.“In some ways, I’m the cliché of the poorartist living with my parents.”

But for someone who still has manyyears left to pursue her craft, old age is theleast of Epstein’s concerns. Fortunately,she already has some tips to share with therest of us.

“My advice to Concordia students wouldbe to make as many connections at schoolas possible. If you’re interested in photo-journalism, apply to one of the schoolnewspapers.”

Remember folks: she said it, not us.

Epstein’s winning submission will be fea-tured at the Museum of Contemporary CanadianArt, 952 Queen Street West, Toronto, from Oct.8 to 26. Open hours are from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.The vernissage is set for Oct. 7, invitation only.

“In some ways, I’m the cliché of the poor artist living with my parents.”

—Keren Epstein, Con U grad

The award-winning photo on aging that won Keren Epstein the BMO Art! Invitational Student Art Competition. Epstein beat out 162 artists to win the award.

THE LINK • SEPTEMBER 30, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/FRINGE14 FRINGE ARTS

Artists + musicians =POP Matters

Side-project makes it bigReturning member of Halifax band Wintersleep happy to be back withindie rock success story • JOHNNY NORTH

“It didn’t seem like a friend’sband—it felt more like a profes-sional band […] the productionhad this kind of warm and dryfeel that I enjoy.”

Once Michael Bigelow heardwhat Wintersleep had beenworking on he knew he wanted inon it. Bigelow, who was first inthe band playing keyboards, hasreturned to replace Judd Haynes.Haynes left the band after therecording of their latest albumWelcome To The Night Sky lastyear.

What started out as a sideproject in 2001 has grown into anindie rock band with three fullalbums and a 2008 Juno awardwin for New Group of the Year—even though they aren’t new.Bigelow didn’t contribute to thelast album, but is glad to be writ-ing new music again with oldfriends.

“It’s very comfortable eventhough it’s been a long time,”said Bigelow, who played firstwith Wintersleep from 2005until 2006. “It’s fun to play oldsongs and making them freshagain.”

Bigelow, along with drum-mer Loel Campbell, also performs together in the bandHoly Fuck. Bigelow finds both bands are fun to play in,

however when it comes to song-writing, Wintersleep has moredepth.

“I like the way someone willwrite a song and pass it aroundlike Sonic Youth,” he said. “I wanted to play for concentrat-ed writing.”

Even without a new albumthis year, the band is constantlywriting new material. Bigelowsays he would not be surprised ifa new song pops up from them byspring. Bigelow can see howbands don’t tour as much whenthey get on in years, but at this

moment he thinks thatWintersleep is “enjoying seeingthe world right now.”

Wintersleep will be performing at POP Montreal this Friday at 8p.m. at Le National. More details onwintersleep.com.

Con U heavily represented at collaboration video/musicPOP Montreal event • JOHNNY NORTH

Wacky combinations ofmusic and visual art brought bysome of the most creativeConcordia students past andpresent will be showcased atPOP Montreal’s and ArtMatters’ collaborative event:POP Matters.

Talks between the twoorganizations began in thesummer. Both found that com-bining their talents was a natu-ral fit since they both focus on asimilar youth demographic.

“The idea was to take ourstrength, which is presenting

artists to the public and POP’s,which is presenting musicians,and then combining them,” saidMatt Goerzen, co-producer ofthe Art Matters festival andCon U student. “Five groups ofartists working with five differ-ent musical acts. It’s randomand really creative.”

Grunge French rock from theband Chocolat, folk rock fromThe Winks, and Con U studentJackson MacIntosh’s rockopera are just a few of the dif-ferent genres being showcased.

“All of the artists areConcordia students,” saidGoerzen. “Chocolat is the only

band with no Concordia con-nection.”

Chocolat will be performinga new wave collaboration withformer Con U students, SinbadRichardson and Valérie Boxer, two grads fromIntermedia/Cyberarts.

“The idea for the video came from Chocolat and listening to their music,” saidBoxer. “We let ourselves beinspired by them. It has a beau-tiful homemade familymovie/Montreal postcard feelto it. It’s basically one longbicycle run.”

Third-year Intermedia/

Cyberarts Con U student JasonHarvey will tragically andpyrotechnically reliveWoodstock ’99, that had twodeaths, over 40 arrests, over3,000 injuries, reported rapeand accounts of sexual assault.

“It’s really abstract,” saidHarvey. “It’s a bunch of crapeverywhere, music gets harshand the costumes are freaky.It’s pretty short, only nine min-utes.”

POP Matters will be held thisThursday at Les Saints, 30 Ste-Catherine Street W. Tickets are $6.Doors open at 8:30 p.m.

What’sEvents listing for the week Sept. 30-Oct. 6

FashionPuces Pop Official Launch Party andFashion ShowThursday, 6 p.m.Coda, 4119 blvd. St. Laurentpuces.popmontreal.com

MusicLi’l Andy and Ideal LoversThursday, 11 p.m.4015 St-Laurent Tickets $10

Boats!Saturday, 8 p.m.3699 blvd. St. Laurentpopmontreal.com

OperaLiederwölfe: Opera UndressedFriday, 10 p.m.30 Ste. Catherine Street W.Pay what you canwww.liederwolfe.com

ShadFriday, 11:15 p.m.3874, St. LaurentTickets $7

OtherSymposium, music conferenceWednesday—Sunday, times vary5390 blvd. St. Laurentpopmontreal.com

Discussion: “Women in Politics, Women inHip Hop”Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.1225 St-Laurentpopmontreal.com

TheatreTranshumainWednesday to Saturday, 8 p.m., Sunday 2p.m.Théâtre Ste-Catherine264, Ste-Catherine Estwww.transhumain.net

Not @ POP MontrealExhibitsSignals in the Dark: Art in the Shadow of WarNow until Oct. 11Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery1400, Blvd. de Maisonneuve W., GroundFloor J.W. McConnellLibrary Building, Metro Guy-Concordia

—compiled by Johnny North

going on

Wintersleep will be performing at POP Montreal this Friday at Le National.

THE LINK • SEPTEMBER 30, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/FRINGE FRINGE ARTS 15

Weird Punk at POPPunk bands come together for a week of drunken madness• CODY HICKS

How the hell am I supposed to start anarticle about a genre as far reaching, inclu-sive and altogether arbitrarily titled as“weird punk”? Everyone from Exclaim to TheMcGill Daily to your granny on her blog hascovered it.

So rather than waste ink, I’ll direct youover to weirdpunk.com. Go educate yourselfon the genre that made this jaded writerbelieve in new music.

What I’m really here to talk about is theupcoming five-night takeover of DivanOrange during Pop Montreal by the local defacto preachers of the weird punk gospel.

I met with Shaun Anderson of the infa-mous Pirates of the Lachine Canal and AndreGuerette of the dynamic Blue Skies TurnBlack for an impromptu drunken afternoonpress conference at Copacabana to makesense of their upcoming mini-festivalblowout and to nerd-out over the significanceof this whole “weird punk” phenomenon.

Weird Punk Montreal 2008 is describedby Guerette as “an after-party for the punks”and by Anderson as a way to see all hisfavourite bands.

And if late night marathon isn’t a feat initself, BSTB/PLC has joined forces withsizeemup, another gang of local promoters,to put on a series of afternoon Weird BBQson Saturday and Sunday at DIY sanctuary,The Friendship Cove.

This cruel sleep deprivation experimentwill give people a reason to shake their PopMontreal hangovers and give some fresh ‘n’weird talent a chance to blow minds whilepeople chow down on communal grub.

Out of the four Pop Montreal shows thatPLC curated last year the most successful wasthe Jay Reatard show promoted in conjunc-tion with BSTB. It was only natural for themto join forces on a maniacal plot to foster a“weird punk” take-over.

The unholy union of PLC/BSTB is power-ful and uncompromising. By taking all cura-torial matters into their own hands they have

asserted total creative control over WeirdPunk Montreal 2008, free from the unwant-ed insertion of having any less-than-weirdbands into their line-ups.

“There are so many bands that apply forthe festival that bands have to be pluggedinto line-ups for festivals,” says Andersonthrough a sly smirk. “When we started tocurate the weird Punk series we figured we’dinvite so many bands that we’d need to havecomplete control.”

“The definition of punk rock has becomeso blurred that it means something totallydifferent to everyone,” says Anderson.

Weird Punk revisits the days of CBGBswhen punk was about freedom to create in acommunity and not about rigid rules anduniforms. Like those early punk bands, theweird punk community is comprised ofgroups that really have little in common sty-listically despite an aversion to the main-stream.

“It’s a small scene, everyone knows eachother,” says Anderson, who believes it all felltogether naturally and that the common bindbetween these bands is ideological.

“Brutal Knights seem like a pretty regularhardcore band,” says Anderson.

“But, they are punk in the truest sense of

the word,” chimes in Guerette, “they’re doingsomething extreme and anti-standard.”

Although traditional in sound, BrutalKnights’ are fronted by comedian NickFlanagan who sings the smartest dumb lyricsI’ve ever heard. They recently played a showin Montreal where they had stand-up come-dians as openers.

Whereas traditional “hardcore” bandswere strict about who they associated with,Weird Punk bands are open to play any kindof shows.

“It’s all about throwing genres away.Brutal Knights are just as comfortable play-ing with AIDS Wolf as they would be with theCro-Mags,” Anderson said.

As the beer continued to flow, Andersonand I climbed to uncharted heights of musicnerdery in an effort to give succinct descrip-tions of each and every band of the show. Theworld of weird punk can get confusing some-times, so let us hold your hand and walk youthrough.

Weird Punk 08 at Divan Orange, 4234 St.Laurent. BBQs at Friendship Cove, 215A Murray St.Night shows are all $12. BBQs are pay what youcan (As much as you can. Touring bands gotta eat.)More info can be found at thelinknewspaper.ca.

Weird PunkeventsDay One: Wednesday, Oct.1:SILTBREEZE SHOWCASE

10 p.m. – U.S.Girls

11 p.m. – Sic Alps

12 a.m. – Pink Reason

1 a.m. – Blues Control

2 a.m. – Psychedelic Horseshit

Day Two: Thursday, Oct. 211 p.m. – Microwaves

Midnight – These Are Powers

1 a.m. – DD/MM/YY

2 a.m. – The Chinese Stars

Day Three: Friday, Oct. 310 p.m.: Double Dip

11 p.m.: Japanther

Midnight: Career Suicide

1 a.m.: Brutal Knights

2 a.m.: An Albatross

Day Four: Saturday, Oct. 48:30 p.m. – Arab on Radar DVD

10 p.m. – Chrome Jackson

11 p.m. – Shearing Pinx

Midnight – Made in Mexico

1 a.m. – Neptune

2 a.m. – AIDS Wolf

12:30 p.m. – Adult Crash

1:15 p.m. – Lose your Fucking Shit

2 p.m. – Golden Error

3 p.m. – TV Ghost

4 p.m. – Teenanger

5 p.m.– Career Suicide

Day Five: Sunday, Oct. 512:30 p.m. – Many Mental Mistakes

1:15 p.m. – The Pink Noise

2 p.m. – Black Feelings

3 p.m.– Double Dagger

4 p.m. – AIDS Wolf

5 p.m. – TYVEK

—compiled by Cody Hicks

Mashing it up at POPDJ Mike Relm brings his mind-melting performance to the festival• JOHNNY NORTH

Mike Relm is sick of the tired routine of playing thetop hits at parties, and his debut studio album Spectacleis a direct response, a change that is needed.

“A lot of people don’t listen to whole records any-more,” he says. Relm wanted his album “to be as closelyformatted to a mix tape as possible. I just want it to makeit that people weren’t just going through the same type oftracks. I wanted it to sound pretty random. There’s defi-nitely some sounds in there that pertain to what’s goingon musically. The songs feel all different, I needed some-thing to bridge it all together.”

The turntablist’s unique blend of film sounds andmusic has gotten him into gigs alongside artists The BlueMan Group, Jurassic 5 and the Wu-Tang Clan. Relm hasremixed almost everything—from Bob Dylan to RageAgainst The Machine, there’s not a genre he isn’t willingto explore in order to give fans something new.

“I think people value that, especially at festivals that

can be 12 hours [in length],” he says. “If it’s the samething over and over it’s boring. I think people are gettingwise to that.”

Relm prefers keeping his electronic pop different since“living the band life” is not a venture he cares to pursue.

“I think I would blow my brains out, playing the sameshow all the time with the same record. As an artist youhave to grow or you’re really boring.”

With the growth of music resources on the Internet,Relm finds DJing is now even more important as fans arealways craving something new.

“With the Internet, people have access to everything,”he said. “Now it’s all about creating a vibe. People are alittle bit more picky music-wise. Before at parties it waslike ‘lets throw on the latest Jay-Z’ now it’s show mesomething else. You can’t show them a Top 40 anymore.”

Relm is hoping his return to Montreal will be the first time it won’t rain on his trip. He finds Montreal has “a great music scene, it’s not a picky audience, but asmart audience.”

Relm will be performing at POP Montreal on Sunday at 9 p.m.at Le National with Dirty On Purpose and Thomas Function.

Weird Punk starts this Wednesday and runs until Sunday. GRAPHIC KETAN PATEL

Mike Relm will be performing Sunday at Le National.

16 FRINGE ARTS THE LINK • SEPTEMBER 30, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/FRINGE

Terrorism of a mercantile nature

• HEATHER ANDERSON

What does a cash register have incommon with a political activist?They both make change. CHANGE,a temporary boutique of politicalprotest paraphernalia, which is thelatest intervention by ActionTerroriste Socialement Acceptable.

Founded by Montreal artistsAnnie Roy and Pierre Allard, ATSAcelebrates its 10th year of socialprotest through an unlikely publicintervention—a clever capitalistendeavour. ATSA first surfaced inMontreal with a sock bank, a mockfinancial institution that reversedthe hierarchy of wealth by distribut-ing warm socks to the homeless.Since then, ATSA has staged over 20 interven-tions in Montreal, New York, Paris and Toronto.

If ATSA’s long list of anarchistprojects can be said to evince a com-mon style, CHANGE stands out.Roy explains that, “A store is a pub-lic space for artists to explore […]there is an exchange, but its moresharing.”

Starting this Thursday,CHANGE will be open to the publicat 4351 St. Laurent until the end ofDecember. Goods sold at the store,such as artifacts and photos, will beinspired by or constructed frommaterials from ATSAs past inter-ventions. Roy explains that this is away to “revisit and give [each inter-vention] another life through theobject so that the discussion startsagain. It’s a tool.”

But is this just a financial endeav-our masquerading as art, or worse,an act of social conscience?

Roy argues that, “It’s a family

store. When you compare it to bigtrademarks without creativity, itstotally different. Opening a store isactually a very creative process…likeopening your home.”

In essence, ATSA offers a prod-uct that critiques the traditionalnotion of commercialism because,“there are a lot of [products] thatdon’t have any soul in them. [Thisis] a brand that goes beyond image,a way to propel a message.”

Customers will be asked to throw

their spare change on the floor,because according to ATSA, “wewould just spend it on consumeristcandy otherwise.” There will also befestivities in the Parc du portugais,including popcorn, beer and carni-val games.

Next StepsATSA is planning to host a

competition for a creative inter-vention to which they will assigntheir signature. Roy looks forward

to sharing the credit for future actsof socially acceptable urban ter-rorism, “It’s fun for other people todo something. You generate anélan.”

CHANGE opens up this Thursdayat 6 p.m. along with an evening fairright in front of the store at 4351St. Laurent, corner of Marie Ann. Incase of rain, events will be heldacross the street, at the bar LesBobards, 4328 Saint-Laurent.

Two Hours TrafficLittle JabsBurnstead Records

The first two tracks met most of my qualifica-tions for music I like—a nice pace, catchy,good guitar riffs and a reasonably prominentkick bass. My head bobbed. My foot tappedthrough no effort of my own. But then, asquickly as they had me, they lost me. It wasalmost as though the album had given up andwas hoping I would stick around on thestrength of its earlier accomplishments.Four tracks in, Little Jabs veers tragically off-course. From that point on most of the songssound like something that should be playingquietly behind a sentimental montage in amid-budget movie about 20-somethings living,loving and finding themselves. The album rallies a little at “BackseatSweetheart,” but quickly gets sucked back intothe whirling vortex of smaltz. I have a sneakingsuspicion that while the band was recordingthis album the lead singer started dating some“awesome girl,” wrote some “great songs” inher honour, and the rest of the band decided togo with it.

2.5/5—Clare Raspopow

CaribouAndorraMerge Records

Somewhere between a 1960s slow-dance song,and space-aged indie rock lands Caribou. Withsoft, sweet vocals, this album evokes a dreamyand rather pleasant feeling. Some songs feel

free to veer off on spacey instrumental tan-gents, but they all sound beautiful. With mostof the tracks on this album being about love orlost love, at times it all feels a bit too sweet andinnocent. With that in mind and the sheer qual-ity of the record, all is excused and all is enjoy-able.

4.5/5—Sebastien Cadieux

Black MountainIn The FutureJagjaguwar

Black Mountain’s In The Future is a step upfrom its self-titled debut in every aspect imag-inable; the blues are bluer, the nebulousSabbath-esque rock jams are lengthier and theweird synth parts are weirder. But beyond that,the band’s ability to marry atmosphere andpure songwriting abilities makes this a superi-or effort. The midsection in ‘Bright Lights’, a 161/2-minute jam reveals this ability deftly. Thequiet, eerie interlude at the 8-minute markbuilds into an ascending, frenzied finish thatevokes the best of dirty, primitive rock and rollwith a metal tinge. The effortless transitionfrom one to the other in one marathon-lengthstretch is pure bliss.

4/5—R. Brian Hastie

Shad The Old PrinceBlack Box Recordings

To say that Shad has a way with words is likesaying the sky is high. The London, Ontario rap-per’s ability to string words together is remark-able. Though his flow is far from unique, it’s thequality of what’s being said that counts in thiscase. Lead single “The Old Prince Still Lives AtHome” is perhaps one of the more humourouscuts, but he also manages to vividly paint a

series of self-deprecating portraits that putother rappers to shame. Songs like this are typ-ical of The Old Prince a masterpiece whosemellow, soulful samples evoke the best of theNative Tongues clique at the top of their game.His prose, florid and imaginative, sets a tonethat few can match.

4.5/5—R. Brian Hastie

Holy Fuck LPBlackbox Entertainment

The genre-fucking adventure known as HolyFuck’s first album takes the listener on manydifferent tangents; at times it’s reminiscent oflistening to a children’s television theme, andthen three minutes later the music takes adecidedly more adult approach with beats thatwould fit well within a club setting. The mar-riage of live instrumentation (four of the ninecuts for the album were recorded live) and pro-grammed beats offers a strange marriage ofsonic proportions that appeals to a wide rangeof people. Most people can find at least onesection of the album that they would enjoy lis-tening to, and the album’s greatest strength isits ability to cater to multiple audiences with-out having to pair down their artistic vision.

4.2/5—R. Brian Hastie

The WeakerthansReunion TourHopeless/Subcity Records

The Weakerthans combine folky type rock witha heavier brand of rock to produce an interest-ingly unique style that results in exceptionallyengaging music. The album gives the overallimpression of being a deep, captivating con-versation. “The Elegy for Gump Worsley” in themiddle of the album broke the flow, but addedto this sentiment of genuine song writing.

Commonplace references to commuters bitingoff their mitts to show transfers or the drawingof a 50/50 at a sports game lead into complexmetaphors. The way these routine lyrics weaveinto images and expressions is an art TheWeakerthans have mastered and made thealbum almost inexplicably enjoyable.

4/5—Mathieu Biard

StarsIn Our Bedroom After the WarArts & Crafts

All of these songs are love songs, and this is alove album, so much so that most tracks willhave you looking longingly at that cute boy orgirl on the bus. The album starts off with thepleasingly hypnotic and rhythmic “TheBeginning After the End” to the energetic rockof “Bitches in Tokyo.” While In Our BedroomAfter the War is mostly rock, some tracks like“The Night Starts Here” will remind long-timefans of the band’s more electronic origins.Stars have grown yet again in their skill andstyle with this album and have delivered analbum beyond expectations.

4.5/5—Mathieu Biard

Basil BulatOh, My DarlingHardwood Records

Maybe it was the title that threw me off, maybe I was expecting something with shades of Huckleberry Hound, but “Oh, My Darling” knocked me right off my seat. To say that Basil Bulat sounds like Norah Jones would be oxymoronic. To compare one carefree, one-of-a-kind artist to another is like comparing seashells on a beach; no two are like, but they’re alike in how they are unique. That being

said, few of the songs stick out, with the exception of “Snakes and Ladders.” My initial enthusiasm withstanding, this 24 year old artist still has ways to go before she becomes deserving ofPolaris.

4/5—Christopher Olson

Plants and AnimalsParc AvenueSecret City Records

With relaxed jams and engaging lyrics, Plantsand Animals have put together an enjoyableand well-rounded album. “A Lorée Des Bois” inparticular is the best encapsulation ofMontreal, making the taste of a cold beer andthe feeling of the hot sticky air come rushingback to me. None of the tracks are particularlybad, but a few of them are somewhat forget-table. It’s a strong album overall, but clockingin at nearly an hour it probably could have losta couple tracks to make for a more conciserecord.

4/5—Sebastien Cadieux

Kathleen EdwardsAsking For FlowersMapleMusic Recordings

When Kathleen Edwards said the words,“You’re the Great One and I’m Marty McSorley”in “I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory,” Idecided I liked this album. Edwards’ sound iscountryish, with strong vocals and evenstronger songwriting. I kept going back con-stantly to lyrics that caught my attention.Edwards’ no bullshit style and genuine, heart-felt lyrics combine to make a powerful albumthat anyone who enjoys the style should checkout.

3.5/5—Mathieu Biard

ATSA to open up store that criticizescommercialism

Annie Roy and Pierre Allard, founders of Action Terroriste Socialement Acceptable.

Despite Caribou’spredictable win,The Link decidedto review all thealbums nominat-ed for the 2008...

spins

FRINGE ARTS 17THE LINK • SEPTEMBER 30, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/FRINGE

Go-Go GranniesA generation of feminists enlists in the fight against HIV• CHRISTOPHER OLSON

American feminist GloriaSteinam once said, “An army ofgrey-haired old women may quiet-ly take over the world.”

Brenda Rooney, co-producerand narrator of the film The GreatGranny Revolution, serves asboth general and platoon in thisdocumentary film about Canada’scontribution to the war againstAIDS (considered a worldwidewar), but with Africa currently suf-fering the worst of it.

With every indication of beingproduced on an independentbudget, The Great GrannyRevolution documents the work ofa group of grandmothers fromWakefield, Quebec as they teamup with the Alexandra Gogos, agroup of grandmothers in Africa—gogo being the local term forgrandmother.

Already having suffered theunbearable loss of burying theirchildren, these grandmothersmust once again contend with theunthinkable: that they might haveto bury their grandchildren aswell.

Combating ignorance andsuperstition is a large part of theWakefield Grannies’ mission.“Hiding is a disease,” says one ofthe gogos interviewed by Rooney,after recounting a tale of theshame that befell her family whenone of them contracted the dis-ease. “The stigma,” rather than thedisease, “was killing us.”

It’s a tradition in Alexandrathat a widow must shave her headand forsake all joyful activitiessuch as singing and dancing, oreven leaving the house, for a peri-od of time to be decided by thehusband’s family.

It’s gratifying to know, then,that a staple of the Alexandra

Gogos’ gatherings include publicrecitals of song and dance, andopen expressions of joy.

Aside from the financial contri-butions made to the EastbankClinic in Alexandra, totalling$8,000 so far, counselling andemotional support are one of theWakefield Grannies’ chief exports.A better example than this could-n’t be found than when a residentof Wakefield must inform her fel-low gogo in Alexandra that hergrandchild has been diagnosed asterminally ill.

The Great Granny Revolutionis as much a film about empower-ing women as it is an advocate forAIDS organizations like theStephen Lewis foundation, whichhosts one hundred autonomousGranny organizations acrossCanada.

Rooney credits the contracep-tive craze of the 1960s for givingCanadians “the good fortune tohave families when we wantthem,” and points to the lack ofreproductive rights in Africa as thecause of so much of its suffering.

A climactic moment in the film

comes when one of the AlexandraGogos speaks at a Wakefieldchurch, having flown in for a spe-cial gathering. “I’ve never seen acommunity so united,” she says toa crowd of Wakefield residents.“And I’m just wondering: why dowe have to come all the way to getthe love?”

“The experience of being aWakefield Granny has been uplift-ing, life enhancing and empower-ing for all of the WakefieldGrannies,” says Rooney, whosefollow up effort will be a film aboutthe next generation of Africanchildren. “It turns out that withanti-retrovials, children are nolonger dying of HIV/AIDS. Givenproper care and a healthy diet theycan live happy and productivelives.”

The Great Granny Revolution willbe shown this Thursday, 7:30 p.m.at Centre Greene, 1090 GreeneAvenue, Westmount. Tickets can bepurchased at the door for $10. Info:(514) 931-6202. A Q&A withBrenda Rooney will take place afterthe film.

Ship TalkPunk rockers The Flatliners find surprising success with their latestrecord and tour• BARBARA PAVONE

A relentless ferry attendantdidn’t stop singer Chris Cresswellof the The Flatliners from taking afew minutes to talk about the ori-gin of the Toronto-based band,while he and the guys boarded aCanadian-bound ferry inWashington, D.C.

The self-proclaimed music nerd“just wanted to write [...] there wasno real grand plan,” explainsCresswell. Along with bass playerJon Darbey, Cresswell grew up onthe same street and met guitaristScott Brigham when they were justfive years old. Drummer PaulRamirez joined them in gradenine.

When coming up with a bandname, they went the unconven-tional route and picked the title ofa movie none of them, to this day,have ever seen. “If the Misfits canname their band after a moviethat’s probably horrible then [we]can do the same,” says Cresswell.

Once their latest album TheGreat Awake was written herevised it with “a fine-toothedcomb [and] realized it’s a really

dark record.” The tracks deal withall forms of death from familymembers and friends to feelingsand relationships but, “there [is]still that beam of hope at the end.[There’s] an optimistic feeling youstill can get from listening to aheavy and darker record.”

For the past month the grouphas been forced to tour withoutBrigham, who stayed at homethanks to “a big gash in the handhe strums his guitar with.” Fillingin has been Patrick Mathers fromHostage Life. If healing goes wellBrigham should be back on theroad sometime in October.

Deciding to go with what hecalls “the cheesy route,” Cresswellwas impressed with the amount ofreaction they’re gotten touringnew locations. “The first time wecome to a new city and there’s peo-ple waiting for us, it’s really shock-ing in the best possible way.”

The Flatliners play Metropolis (59Sainte-Catherine Street East), open-ing for NOFX on October 10th and12th. Tickets cost $22 in advanceand $25 at the door and are availableat ww1.ticketpro.ca (search NOFX).

Bombay culture clashesIndian struggle marks Bollywood Film Festival's penultimate screening• CHRISTOPHER OLSON

Ethnic divisions that had alreadybeen simmering for a century finallyboiled into a froth of violence, shak-ing the very foundations of BombayIndia on Jan. 5, 1993.

Bombay (1995), director ManiRatnam’s cinematic treatment ofthe 1993 riots, filmed scarcely twoyears after the fact, will be thepenultimate feature presentation atCinéma du Parc this Wednesday, aspart of its Bollywood Film Festival.

With over 800 films producedevery year, the seven films selected

for the festival represent the creamof Bollywood’s cinematic crop.

Director Mani Ratnam’sBombay bares resemblance toShakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, withshades of West Side Story thrownin. Like that film, Bombay avoidsthe tragic but integral ending ofRomeo & Juliet. That is, thepoignant sacrifice made by the lat-ter’s titular star-crossed lovers, bywhose deaths a peaceful but mourn-ful end to the violence is achieved.

Based as it is on historical events,Bombay can’t exactly gloss over thetremendous loss of life between

both Hindu and Muslim communi-ties.

Ratnam lays on the symbolism alittle thickly. In one of Bombay’sbeautifully filmed and choreo-graphed musical sequences, Shaila’sveil attaches itself to an anchorwhile rushing to embrace her Hindulover, forcing her to remove the gar-ment and throw it, and caution, tothe wind.

Bombay presents a highly secu-lar view of religion, depicting Islamand Hinduism as nothing more thandiverging paths on the same spiritu-al journey. But also represents a

move towards a reconciliation ofIndia’s two largest ethnic groups.

Shekhar makes the film’s defin-ing statement when confronted byan armed gang that demands toknow what community he hailsfrom.

“We don’t belong to either community,” says Shekar. “We’re

all Indians.”Bombay will be screened in Tamil,

Hindi and Telugu with English subti-tles this Wednesday at 8:00 p.m., atCinéma du Parc, 3575, av. duParc.The closing film of the festivalwill be Om Shanti Om, directed byFarah Khan, which will be screenedon Thursday at 8:00 p.m.

The Flatliners coming to Montreal on Oct.10.

Grannies fighting against AIDS. GRAPHIC KETAN PATEL

Bombay will be screened this Wednesday at Cinéma du Parc.

LITERARY ARTS 19THE LINK • SEPTEMBER 30, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/LIT

• MICHAEL SABELLI

I rode my bike up to Drawn & Quarterly,just east of Parc, to check out a double booklaunch by two Canadian authors last Friday.

What I found was a quaint little shop filledto the brim with friendly and interesting peo-ple; and on second thought, perhaps it was alittle too crowded. It was the launch of MarySoderstrom’s The Walkable City and AnikSee’s Saudade: The Possibility City, pub-lished by Véhicule Press.

I asked See what inspires her, and seem-ingly without doing much of it herself, shereplied, “thoughtfulness.” I just happened tocatch her at a bad time, I guess, as by then theplace was bustling with conversation.

Cutting through that thick screen of noise,I finally managed a private audience with See.

The title of her book, Saudade, is aPortuguese word for something that you can’tas of yet and might never again be able torecapture. This would foreshadow a line inher chapter on a suburban town inAmsterdam, “A wind like this doesn’t helppeople think twice.” If you know you know,and if you don’t care, that probably won’t helpyou understand.

See says she had a hard time labeling hercollection of essays a “travel book.” But afterrealizing that each of her essays took place indifferent parts of the world, she concludedthat reading the book constitutes a form of

“travel” for the reader.Though it may be considered travel writ-

ing, See says she doesn’t go to destinationswith the expectation of finding great materialfor stories. Instead, she records her impres-sions when she is far removed from the scene

and can afford some quality time to reflect onher overseas journeys.

See abstains from cell phone use, and evenas she keeps close contact with her editors bye-mail, she does all her writing by freehand.Her opening chapter is a letter to a friend

back home who is stuck with the unenviableposition of caring for a parent dying fromcancer.

On the other side of city life, MarySoderstrom’s The Walkable City is a thesis-driven nonfiction that explores how a city’sinfrastructure affects its denizen’s mobility.Though express lanes and metro tunnelsmake city life possible, it’s obvious thatSoderstrom is a fan first most of muscle-pow-ered mobility. Observing trends in urbanplanning and development, she concludesthat cities might one day become, for lack of abetter word, unwalkable. What cities shouldbe providing is more green space, or the“green stuff,” says Soderstrom.

But if her expansive bibliography is anyindication, I might yet have a chance to learnher opinion on the subject.

After all, this isn’t her first foray into thesubject of city infrastructure. Her last book,Green City, was included in the Globe andMail’s 100 best books of 2007.

Cutting her reading short, Soderstrommerely laughed and encouraged us to readthe rest ourselves.

I left Drawn & Quarterly with my fill ofwine, feeling quite satisfied with my experi-ence. A feeling of nostalgia swept over me as I unlocked my bike and rode off, with the words of Anik See stuck firmly in mymind: “Homesickness not for a place, butopen space.”

The Walkable City and other possiblitiesOr why I brought my bike to Drawn & Quarterly

Will the cities of tomorrow be unfriendly to those on foot? GRAPHIC MAX ROSENSTEIN

• PASCALE ROSE LINCINO

“I was often told that nothing scaresa horse more than a moose,” says FredStenson, native Albertan and prolificauthor of historical fiction. “Becausefor a horse, a moose really looks like anightmare horse.”

From the Albertan Prairies to theSouth African desert of the GreatKaroo, Stenson’s latest historical novelis the story of a young Canadian cow-boy named Frank Adams, who leaveshis Albertan home for the first time tofight for the British Empire in whatwould later be called the Second BoerWar.

Adam’s first exposure to the GreatKaroo, a “desert like no other,” accord-ing to Stenson, is like an AlbertanPrairie stretching for miles withoutfences.

Stenson visited that vast desert forthe first time while conductingresearch for the setting and characters.“The ground looks like a broken pave-ment,” says Stenson. “When it rains,flowers grow through it in separateround bouquets, as if someone hadplanted brides’ bouquets.”

Adams, Stenson’s contemporarywithin the novel, fights in the name ofan empire he does not really feel a partof, against an enemy that he finds diffi-cult to hate. He has difficulty adaptingto the constraints of military life. He

also discovers a new kind of violence,produced by the organized brutality ofthe army and the routine cruelty ofmen.

He builds a strong but bashfulfriendship with two soldiers from hishome region, Ovide Smith, a taciturnFrench cowboy, and Jefferson Davis, amysterious “half-breed.”

The Great Karoo paints a vivid pic-ture of wartime through the eyes of adown-to-earth Canadian soldier. It is afrank, precise, vibrant and meticulousaccount, but not for those looking foran openly introspective prose aboutinitiatory journeys.

Emotions are often discreet, hiddenor left for us to figure out. Yet, Stensontransports us where we never imaginedthat we would linger–one century ago,in the most inhospitable desert, in themiddle of a fierce war, under the tentsof plain and rough soldiers.

Stenson is best known for his award-winning novel The Trade, about the lastdays of the fur trade in the CanadianWest. He has written fiction and non-fiction, including contemporary andhistorical novels. He’s also a prolificdocumentary film writer and writes ahumour column for Alberta Viewsmagazine.

Stenson says that with The GreatKaroo, he wanted to illustrate a turningpoint in the history of how war is man-aged. With the Second Boer War, the

20th century entered a stage where “itbecame possible to shoot an enemythat you could not see,” says Stenson.“It was the beginning of the machineage, and from that moment on, it hasonly got worse and worse.”

The more Stenson researched theBoer War, the more it began to remindhim of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“There are tremendous parallels,”he stated. “The British went to South-Africa saying that they were there forreasons of democracy when, obviously,it was for resources–gold. And just likethe U.S. now, Britain at the end of the19th century is a country that has beenextremely powerful for a long time.” heexplained.

“It is [a country that is] starting tobecome self-conscious, not sure ofitself anymore, and it still feels that ithas to get involved in things all over theplanet. It also thinks that it can easilywin all those wars, no matter how manytimes it has failed before. People say:‘This time, we will win that war in amonth’.”

The Great KarooFred StensonDoubleday CanadaSeptember 2008496 pp$32.95

Great Karoo, and Prairies tooFrom the Albertan Prairies to the South African desert

• CHRISTOPHER OLSON

The McConnell Building was host to the 25thanniversary of the Antiquarian Book Fair Saturdayand Sunday, the 27th and 28th of September.

“The fair was a huge success,” reported AdrianKing-Edwards of the Word Book Store, who organ-ized this year's events.

With 10,000 books, some ranging from $25 to$25,000, and over 30 dealers from Quebec andOntario, the Antiquarian Book Fair is by far thelargest book fair in the province.

Author Roch Carrier was on hand to hand out freesignatured copies of a chapbook about his adventuresas a book collector in Istanbul.

Book Fair bringsnew meaning to classics

Roch Carrier signs autographs. PHOTO RACHEL TETRAULT

THE LINK • SEPTEMBER 30, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/LIT20 LITERARY ARTS

Lit Writ• PASCALE ROSE LICINIO

I could sleep all day long. All Ineed is a place where I can liedown safely. I wouldn't want togive people the opportunity to dome harm. Because there are somecrazy people out there. Crazy.

The other day after school, Ispoke with Nicolas in front of thepost office. He is always sittingthere, on the stairs, waiting forsomeone to give him cigarettes orto have a conversation with him. Igave him my pack of cigarettes.The entire pack. I had just decidedto quit. That I had been able tomake up my mind while I still hada full pack to blow reallyimpressed him. It showed forti-tude—that's the word he used.

I asked how he was doing. Hedidn't warn me. He rolled up hispants. Just like that. Pink andswollen flesh. I thought that I wasgoing to be sick. I could barelyhear him. He explained that somepeople had burned his ankles witha lighter while he was sleeping ona bench.

“Didn't you wake up?” I cried.He had been too drunk to feel

anything while it happened, hesaid.

“But when I woke up, oh whenI woke up… And now…” he said.

He made a face and shook hishead. I crossed the street andbought him a croissant at thebaker's. I could feel my heart beat-ing hard in my head. Why had Igiven him a full pack of cigarettes?And would he lend me one of his?

There I am, sitting at my deskand staring at the pages of my text-book. I like complex numbers. Iam glad that they exist. They areneither simple, nor complicated.They're complex. Just like life.And they are twisted too. For yearsand years, you learn that squarenumbers can never be negative.You take it for granted. Enters iand i_= -1.

I picture aloof characters, neverafraid to do what it takes to pushlimits and never judging thosewho aren't brave or skilled enoughto do so. I hear them telling me toplay with the rules. “Give it a try,”they seem to say. “Give it a try.” Ifollow the curve with my finger;that's the furthest I can go on theirpath.

I am sitting at my desk. My eyesslowly close. I can hear the hum-ming of a large truck that washesthe pavement under my window.

I can hear my clock ticking. Asimple task, that one. Just ticking.Sometimes you think it's going tostop. After that tick maybe, or the

next one. But it doesn't stop. Andwhen the clock is finally out of bat-teries, it's always at night whenyou sleep. You never quite noticethe moment when it hesitates, andfinally stops.

Flesh. Nicolas also told me thatone night some people took himand threw him into the river. Itwas summer but the water was socold that he nearly died of shock.He was taken to a hospital. Theycalled his brother, who gave himten euros and then left. He told methat he had done some terriblethings to his family and that theyno longer cared about his being onthe street. He didn't say what he

had done, and I'm still not surethat I want to know.

The biology teacher is talkingabout DNA. A part of me thinksthat that is fascinating and wantsto know everything about it. Theother part is struggling againstsleep and praying for the bell toring. When it finally rings, I feelexhausted. I stand for ages in thecorridor, looking in one direction,then the other. I don't even pre-tend to do something. I breathe atthe rhythm of the blood beating inmy head. Finally, I grab my back-pack and I leave school.

Nicolas is in front of the postoffice, as usual. I say hello and askif he needs anything. But he does-n't notice me. He's too drunk tonotice anything. I slip my handinside his front coat pocket, andextract a pack of cigarettes. A fullpack. I'll give him something nexttime, I tell myself.

The beating in my head getslouder and louder. Maybe it'sgoing to stop after that beat, or theone after. Or the one after that?

The apartment is empty.Everybody is at work or at school,doing what they are supposed tobe doing. I go straight to bed.Maybe the beating will stop while Isleep.

To submit your fiction or poetryto the Lit Writ column, e-mail themtolit@thelink.concordia.ca

Batteries

• BONNIE ZEHAVI

Delia Chinn is a beautifuldancehall vixen. Ryan Wright is ahumble high school historyteacher. Although both first gener-ation Caribbean-Canadians, theycome from dissimilar backgroundsand in many ways couldn’t bemore different.

Stacey Marie Robinson’s VideoLight, her first published work andthe first novel in her UrbanToronto Tales series, is the storyof Ryan and Delia, two unlikelylovers brought together on oneCaribana weekend.

The novel chronicles their briefcourtship and the resistance theyface from loved ones—as well asfrom each other—as they grow tounderstand one another in awhirlwind romance.

Much more than a love story,however, Video Light and theUrban Toronto Tales are in manyways, according to the author, a

“social mission” to educate andbroaden the knowledge ofCanadian readership about the“urban” experience.

One of the most remarkablequalities of Robinson’s writing ishow she employs a Caribbean-Canadian vernacular throughout.It’s an absolute joy to read for any-one familiar with the distinctlymusical and humorous propertiesof Caribbean speech when trans-muted through a Canadian identi-ty.

Robinson acknowledges thatwhile the dialogue might initiallylimit an external audience fromthe story, for readers less familiar,Video Light provides entry into a“lifestyle and experience theymight not otherwise encounter,”thereby simultaneously educatingand entertaining readers.

The novel is also rich in cultur-al signifiers that enhance the real-ism of the story, the depth of thecharacters and provide further

enjoyment for readers particularlyof Ryan and Delia’s generation.

“I am committed to document-ing the specific experience of‘urban’ Canadians and details suchas clothing, language and activitiesare what make the story personal,”maintains Robinson. “I want tomake sure that my stories areauthentically Canadian.”

Readers already familiar withRobinson’s previously disseminat-ed works—printed at the author’sown expense and distributedfreely—commonly respond to heruse of real places and events, andof believable characters that couldeasily be people they know.

“While many can relate toAfrican-American or Caribbean-African tales, there is somethingpriceless about the urban experi-ence in Canada that needs to beacknowledged and consumed,”says Robinson. “It is very rare topick up a novel and hear about the401, particular malls and restau-

rants, and even events likeCaribana,” she explains.

While contemporary Canadianliterature in many ways success-fully reflects the diversity of expe-rience in this country, Video Lighteffortlessly punctuates where rep-resentations of that diversity havepreviously fallen short in pub-lished fiction.

“Naturally, publishers are look-ing to find authors and literaturethat will generate sales, and appealto a large audience. Unfortunately,at a glance ‘urban’ Canadian fic-tion may not appear to have thattype of power,” concedesRobinson.

That is why she chose to releaseVideo Light through her own pub-lishing company, Kya Publishing,to make sure that characters likeRyan and Delia have a place inCanadian fiction, “even if they arenot accepted by the mainstreamand powerful publishing houses.”

“I hope to document and cele-

brate the lives of urban Canadiansand ensure that we are written inhistory, acknowledged for ourexperiences, and that our depic-tions in society exist beyond nega-tive news reports and public mis-conceptions,” says Robinson.

“The Urban Toronto Tales aremy attempt at promoting thelifestyle and showing a balancedpicture of our current experiencein Canada.”

To order Video Light, log on to kyapublishing.com

Video Light:Urban TorontoTalesStacey MarieRobinsonKyaPublishingSeptember2008130 pp$14.95

Video Light is no poppyshow, for realCaribbean-Canadians get a good word in

A pack of cigarettes. A full pack. GRAPHIC MADELINE COLEMAN

THE LINK • SEPTEMBER 30, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/SPORTS SPORTS 21

Back on trackConcordia’s baseball squad puts pitching problems behind them with crucial 9-5 victory over McGill• DAVID KAUFMANN

Concordia 9McGill 5

Pierre-Marc Lebel pitched a no-hitterinto the fifth inning last Tuesday, as theConcordia Stingers cruised to a 9-5 victoryover the McGill Redmen at Trudeau Park.

The Stingers came into this game with a4-6 record thanks to recurring problemswith their bullpen. Stingers shortstopMarco Masciotra suggested this was due tothe fact that the team was missing players.

“At the beginning of the season, weweren’t quite full. We had a couple of guysout, and now that we have a full staff it’slooking a lot better,” said Masciotra.

The Stingers’ pitching woes looked tocontinue at first as Lebel walked a coupleof players to start. Once the second inningcame around, few opposing players got onbase until the sixth inning.

The Redbirds were having pitchingissues of their own early on. In the bottomof the first inning, McGill pitcher LJAguinaga walked four players, allowingCon U to score the first two runs of thegame. Stingers hitter Martin Chasles tookadvantage of Aguinaga’s poor pitching andscored a double to end off the inning lead-ing 4-0.

In the second and third innings, bothteams got on base, but none managed toscore. The Redbirds made a pitchingchange in the fourth inning, pullingAguinaga in favour of reliever JacobGallinger.

Unfortunately for the visitors, he didn’tfare any better. Gallinger loaded up thebases twice in the inning.

Stingers hitter Edward Evans cashed ina run with an RBI single, then EmilioPampena added a double to score twomore and give the Stingers a comfortable7-0 lead.

The Stingers added two more runs totheir lead in the fifth inning, as AndrewDiorio and Mark Nadler crossed homeplate to nearly put the game out of reach.

However, Lebel appeared to run out ofgas. McGill centre-fielder Adam Gordonhit a double, and catcher Justin Cloutieradded a single to score the first run of thegame for the Redbirds.

At the top of the seventh inning,Gordon hit an RBI double to score two

more runners, but the Stingers bullpenheld the fort for the victory.

“Tonight I think we put in a pretty goodeffort,” said Stingers captain Jason Katz.Stingers head coach Howie Schwartzagreed, saying that until Tuesday nightthey hadn’t had a better game all year.

“I think this was our best game of theyear,” said Schwartz.

Given the team’s concern about itspitching depth, the team was particularlythrilled with how this night went. “[Lebel]pitched a gem. He had a no-hitter goinginto the sixth inning, so how could youcomplain about that?” asked Schwartz.“He could’ve gone another three or four

innings, he was dynamite tonight.”“I think we’ve been a little more

patient,” said Katz describing the team’simproved hitting. At the beginning of theseason, Katz suggested that the team wasswinging too early, and not waiting for theright pitch. “We’re making the pitcherswork a little more, being more selective,and looking for our pitch.”

The Stingers won three of their four gamesover the weekend and now have a record of 9-7.Their playoff opponent is yet to be determinedas other teams in their division have yet to finish their regular season schedule.

“[Lebel] pitched a gem. Hehad a no hitter going into thesixth inning, how could youcomplain about that?”

—Howard Schwartz,Stingers coach

Stingers baseball coach Howard Schwartz. PHOTO ION ETXABARRIA

We’re looking for a Fringe Arts Editor!For more information on the position please

contact fringe@thelink.concordia.ca or call us at 514-848-2424 ext.5813.

thelinknewspaper.ca

On the road againWomen’s hockey squad takes two out of three in pre-season tourney• DAVID S. LANDSMAN

Concordia 1Markham 0

Looking to continue their pre-season winning streak, theStingers headed into the MarionHilliard Tournament with confi-dence and poise which helpedthem to the victory via shutout.This young team appears to bethe real deal.

“Overall it was a really goodweekend,” said Stingers rookieMallory Lawton. “We did a lot ofreally good things this weekendand I was really proud of the waywe played.”

The game was tight for most ofthe 60 minutes of action. Rookiegoaltender Stephanie Peckrecorded her first career shutout,and third year forward DevonRich scored the lone goal of thegame.

Concordia 2Toronto 0

On Saturday, with the teamgiven the day off from practice torest and recover, they stepped onthe ice hoping to extend theirthree game winning streak.Stingers’ coach opted to start Audrey Doyon-Lessard ingoal, and she kept their shutout streak alive at the tour-ney.

Concordia came out strongagainst the Toronto VarsityBlues both offensively and defen-sively. Stingers forward DonnaRingrose potted her first goal ofthe new campaign, while KellyFeehan notched her second goalin four games.

Concordia 0Durham 3

Hoping to cap off the impres-sive feat of winning both of theiropening tournaments, theStingers showed signs of fatigueafter their third game in as manydays, and the overall lack of focus led to the end of the Stingers’ four game winning streak.

Concordia’s coach opted to gowith the more experiencedDoyon-Lessard between the

pipes on less than 24 hours ofrest. She still played a stronggame despite the 3-0 final score.

“Obviously, it would havebeen nice to go 3-0, but therewere a lot of positives through-out the first three games,” saidthird year defenseman KristenClements. “We really wanted tomake a statement to the league about what kind of team

we are this year.Clearly, the team was full of

optimism despite the loss in thefinal game of the tournament.“It’s still very early in the season,but we’re improving steadilyevery time we’re on the ice, andwe have the determination anddiscipline to take it toNationals,” said Clements. “Thisis our year!”

Stingers forward Mary Jane O’Shea battles for puck. PHOTO ION ETXABARRIA

“We really wanted tomake a statement tothe league about whatkind of team we are.”

—Kristen Clements,Stingers defenseman

Home Awayscoreboard

Montreal 7Laval 4

Montreal 6Laval 1

McGill 31

Ottawa 3

Carleton 2Carleton 0

Concordia 12

Record

0-6-0

0-5-1

0-3-0

3-1-0

8-6-0

3-1-0-0(pre-season)

2-2-0

Women’s soccer

Men’s soccer

Men’s rugby

Women’s rugby

Baseball

Men’s football

Concordia 9

Concordia 7

Markham 0Toronto 0Women’s

hockey

@Bishop’s

@ Bishop’s

@Montreal

vs. Montreal@ Bishop’s

vs. Montreal

Friday, 8 p.m

Friday, 6 p.m

Saturday, 1 p.m

Friday, 6 p.m.Sunday, 1 p.m

Friday, 8 p.m.

Who Whenschedule

thelinknewspaper.ca/sports

Men’s rugby

Women’s rugby

Football

Women’s soccer

Men’s soccer

Durham 3

Concordia 0

Concordia 0Concordia 1

Concordia 0

Concordia 5

Concordia 42

McGill 5Concordia 5Concordia 2

Ottawa 0

Laval 21

Concordia 0Concordia 2Concordia 1

22 SPORTS THE LINK • SEPTEMBER 30, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/SPORTS

SPORTS 23THE LINK • SEPTEMBER 30, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/SPORTS

The search continuesConcordia’s soccer teams still can’t find a win• DIEGO PELAEZ-GAETZ

Concordia 0Montreal 7

Concordia’s women’s soccerteam couldn’t find an answer forthe Université de MontrealCarabins Friday night, as theywere dismantled 7-0 on the roadby the top-ranked team in thecountry.

Despite the final score, theStingers showed some mettleagainst their formidable oppo-nent early in the match. The firstmajor scoring chance came with alittle more than 29 minutesremaining in the first half, whenCarabins forward Eva Thouvenot-Heber took advantage of a miscuedefensively by the Stingers to givethe home side a 1-0 lead.

For the rest of the first half,the Stingers managed to preventthe Carabins from running awayfrom them.

Stingers keeper Jessie Davisplayed aggressively early on—shecame out of the net on severaloccasions to challenge Carabinsforwards and cut off dangerouspasses through the box.

However, the game started toturn at the 17 minute mark, whenUdeM midfielder VeroniqueMiranda raced past the Stingersdefence and received a perfectpass from forward VeroniqueLaverdiere that she calmly con-verted to give the Carabins a twogoal cushion.

The floodgates opened fromthat point on, as Concordiaseemed to be a step slow for therest of the match. Three shortminutes later, Carabins forwardIsabelle Dumais pounced on aloose ball after a scramble infront of the Stingers’ net andblasted it by Davis to make thescore 3-0.

Things went from bad to worsefor the Stingers when forwardMonica White was forced to leavethe game with an apparent ankleinjury. However, there was stillhope.

“We were feeling good afterthe first half,” said Stingers for-ward Karen Stewart. “We wereplaying well together and we wereupbeat at the half for one of thefirst times all year. It just didn’twork out.”

Their enthusiasm was damp-ened almost immediately oncethe teams retook the field. Anoutstanding cross from Dumaiswas punched into the low left cor-ner by Laverdiere to put the gamefarther out of reach.

Leaving the Stingers no time to

regroup, UdeM struck again twoshort minutes later, as Carabinsforward Catherine Parizeau-Lamoureux scored with an ele-gant flick over the head of acharging Davis to stretch the leadto five.

The onslaught didn’t stopthere, as the Stingers narrowlymissed giving up another goalwhen Laverdiere got behind thedefence yet again and just missedon a shot from close range.

Davis did her best to keep theStingers close—she made a bril-liant, diving one handed save on adeflection by Laverdiere. She cutoff Laverdiere again a few min-utes later on a breakaway, as sheattacked the Carabins forwardaggressive and dove in to steal theball away.

Though the Stingers managedto stem the bleeding for morethan 30 minutes of action, theCarabins threw salt in the woundwith Parizeau-Lamoureux’s sec-ond goal of the match off of yetanother giveaway by the Stingers.

With minutes remaining in thegame, Parizeau-Lamoureux tooka clever pass from forwardMarylise Monchalin and complet-ed her hat trick to add insult toinjury for the Stingers.

“This was probably the hardestloss in my seven years atConcordia,” said Stingers coachJorge Sanchez after the match.“It’s frustrating that we know thatwe aren’t maximizing our poten-tial.”

The team seemed somber afterthe game, and visibly shakenStingers captain Allison Burgesssummed up her coach’s feelings.“I’m so disappointed in oureffort,” said Burgess, as the teamtried to deal with the prospect ofa winless season.

“We have half of our teamchanging every year,” saidSanchez. “It’s hard to build inthat situation.”

Concordia 0Montreal 6

The second half of the double-header on Friday night was eeri-ly reminiscent of the first game,as the men’s team started outstrong but were ultimately badlyoutclassed by the Université deMontreal Carabins in a disheart-

ening 6-0 loss.Despite the difference in

ranking between the teams (theCarabins are ranked fifth in thecountry while the Stingers haveyet to win a game), the Stingerskept things interesting early onand seemed to play with a confi-dence and purpose that onewouldn’t expect from a winlessteam.

“We played hard for the first15 minutes,” said Stingers mid-fielder Mauricio Soto.

However, Lady Luck smiledon the Carabins with 30 minutesremaining in the first half:Carabins forward GuillaumeCouturier could hardly believe itwhen the ball landed at his feetafter a shot had bounced off ofthe left post. He handily beatsprawled Stingers goalkeeperKyle Prillo-Guiani to giveUniversite de Montreal a 1-0lead.

Despite the early deficit, theStingers actually managed tocontrol much of the action in thefirst half. The midfield was morein synch than in weeks past, andthe Stingers avoided mentallapses on defense that haveplagued them throughout theyear.

Just as it seemed the Stingerswould escape to halftime downonly 1-0, Carabins midfielderBlaise Woodler-Elie scored on aheader off of a cross from mid-fielder Demarcy Mael that snuckunder a diving Prillo-Guiani withonly seconds remaining in thehalf.

The Carabins came out swing-ing to start the second half, tak-ing only three minutes to add totheir lead.

However, on the goal, aConcordia player struck his headon the goal post and becameentangled in the net. The ensuinginjury timeout lasted a consider-able period of time, as itappeared that trainers wereafraid to move the injuredStingers player. Play wasstopped for over half an hour asofficials waited for an ambulanceto arrive to field to cart off theinjured player.

The Stingers managed to keepthe score close with some heroicdefensive efforts, including aremarkable header by Stingersdefender Kouyabe Ignegongbathat prevented a goal.

Concordia finally managed toput some pressure on their oppo-nents with 35 minutes remainingin the second half, as Stingersforward Alfred Gordon Moodynarrowly missed on a close range

opportunity, the first seriousscoring chance of the game forCon U.

Their hopes were quicklydashed as Carabins midfielderAnasse Brouk took advantage ofa free kick opportunity and blast-ed the shot right into the rightside of the net to give the homesquad a 4-0 lead.

With a few minutes remainingin the game, Mael managed tosneak behind the Con U defenseyet again, and took a perfect feed from Brouk to finish off the scoring and give the Carabins a 6-0 lead.

The loss drops the Stingers to

0-5 on the season; both soccerprograms are still desperatelyseeking their first win. “We real-ly need to step it up,” said goal-keeper David De Palma, whoreplaced Prillo-Guiani in nets forthe Stingers in the second half.“Our team just has to staypatient.”

The Men’s and Women’s soccerteams play this Friday at homeagainst the Universite de MontrealCarabins. The Women’s team alsoplays on Sunday on the road atBishop’s at 1 p.m

—with files from David S. Landsman

Stingers midfielder Mike Al-Tork hones in. PHOTO CAT TARRANTS

“This was probably myhardest loss in myseven years atConcordia.”

—Jorge Sanchez,Stingers coach

OPINIONS 25THE LINK • SEPTEMBER 30, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/OPINIONS

Word in the Herd

“I haven't heard of the provincial de-regulation but I don't think I would beaffected since I pay my fees directly to myprivate school in France. For this year, Ihad to pay 5,000 Euros [$7,555 CAD].”

—Caroline DesplanquesComputer engineering

France

“I am an independent student and withthe special agreement between Franceand Quebec, I pay the same fees asQuebec students.”

—Maxime RohrJMSB

France

“I signed a petition against the de-reg-ulation and the international studenttuition increase. When I applied toConcordia, the fees were about $3,300 persemester, but when I got here it changedto $4,300. I get a small scholarship but Ihave to finance most of the fees myself.”

—Ali Sefidpour Computer engineering

Iran

“I haven't heard of any increase or de-regulation. I pay $6,000 per semester andI haven't got a scholarship, but my familyhelps.”

—Xin GuEconomics

China

“I haven't heard of the provincial de-regulation, but France has a special agree-ment with Quebec and I pay the same feesas any Quebecer does.”

—Stephanie MoisanFine Arts

France

“I was informed by email of the provin-cial de-regulation and international tuitionincrease. I think it's unfair but what can Ido? I have to pay $15,000 for my diploma.I get a scholarship from the Rotary Club. Itmakes no sense that I have to pay more...theeducation is the same.”

—Christiane Miethge Journalism

Germany

International students, how concerned areyou about international tuition hikes?

—Compiled by Annabelle Blais and Johnny NorthGRAPHIC HADLEY GRAHAM

Dear your pseudonym is tacky,

[Re:Reggie’s Report: September 23, 2008] I am truly sorry forspicing up your seemingly boring existence by making a cameo atReggie’s. Clearly you are a person whose judgmental tendenciesleaves no room for us ghastly girls and Kris Kross enthusiasts. Nexttime I will spare you, but in the meantime please take my well-intended advice and remove your bitch-tinted glasses

All The Best, —Mrs. Obsessive Compulsive Liar

A question in conflict

Contrary to last week’s letter, “On Fair Journalism” by DmitijsFeoktistovs, I would like to congratulate The Link on publishingadvertisements for events like “Artists Against Apartheid IV.”

Unlike well-known media across the country, The Link acknowl-edges events that are promoting awareness and justice in a con-flict that has been going on for 60 years that the internationalcommunity is afraid to criticize.

But what is really going on in Israel/Palestine that brings upthe question of whether or not it is “xenophobic,” “bias” or appro-priate to call Israel an apartheid state?

Jeff Halper, a well-known Israeli activist recently said,“apartheid comprises two elements; the separation of popula-tions according to race, religion or nationality and the subsequentdomination of one privileged people over others institutionalizedinto a permanent system supported by law.”

Apartheid is an Afrikaner word meaning separation.

According to Halper, not only does this description defineIsrael’s actions towards Palestinians but also the Israeli govern-ment itself refers to the system as hafrada, which means sepa-ration in English.

Halper has also interviewed many well-known South Africans,including John Dugard, a prominent South African Judge wholived during South African apartheid.

Dugard says that the, “many aspects of Israel’s occupationsurpass those of the apartheid regime. Israel’s large-scaledestruction of Palestinian homes—18,000 homes since 1967—leveling of agricultural lands, military incursions and targetedassassinations of Palestinians far exceed any similar practices inapartheid South Africa. No wall was ever built in South Africa toseparate blacks and whites.”

Nozizwe Madlala-Routlege, a former South African deputy min-ister of defense and current member of parliament said on arecent visit to the West Bank, “the lack of freedom of movement,the Israeli army presence everywhere, the total separationbetween Jews and Palestinians and the extensive destruction wesaw…what I see here is worse then what we experienced in SouthAfrica.”

It is our responsibility as students to investigate and get to thetruth of controversial matters. We shouldn’t shy away becausethere are “two views” of a certain issue. Apartheid South Africaalso had its defenders and there were “two views” there as wellbut there were enough people who spoke out against the injusticeand it ended.

—Leah Van Meer MassSociology

Letters@thelink.concordia.ca

The Link’s letters and opinions policy: The deadline for letters is 4 p.m. on Friday before the issue prints. The Linkreserves the right to verify your identity via telephone or email. We reserve the right to refuse letters that are libelous,sexist, homophobic, racist or xenophobic. The limit is 400 words. If your letter is longer, it won’t appear in the paper.Please include your full name, weekend phone number, student ID number and program of study. The comments in theletters and opinions section do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial board. And maybe that’s the whole point.

• JESARA SINCLAIR

While I appreciate my right to cast a vote inthe upcoming election, where is my right tovote for “none of the above”?

While my ballot may be my direct link todemocracy, it belongs to the government ofCanada from printing to destruction.

And the federal government takes issuewith defacing ballots.

The problem stems from my riding ofLaurier-Sainte-Marie, a Bloc stronghold. Sostrong, in fact, that Mr. Duceppe himself isour member of parliament.

So, in the quirky way that “democracy”tends to work, the rest of the parties toss in aweak candidate as a pathetic alternative, andno one is surprised with the results.

I don’t want to cast my vote for a “lesserevil.” I want to protest the fact that I don’tparticularly want any of the candidates to rep-resent me in Ottawa.

“I’m going to spoil my ballot,” I told myroommate.

There is something incredibly satisfying at

the thought of walking into a polling station ata busy time of day, taking the ballot to themiddle of the room and ripping it loudlybetween my teeth.

I suppose I could do just that. But thepenalty is 3 months in jail or a $500 fine.Neither of which are worth the brief momentof glee.

I’m a little disconcerted at the choices Iface. I could hang around the Big House untilJanuary, missing two semesters of school. Icould vote for an alternate candidate just totake one vote away from the Bloc. I couldleave my ballot unmarked and unnoticed, or Icould join the ranks of the apathetic and stayhome.

The vote should be our chance to be heard,but I’ve never felt more insignificant.

Don’t eat your ballot

“No person shall willfully alter,deface or destroy a ballot.”

—Section 167, subsection 2, line a, Canada Elections Act.

THE LINK • SEPTEMBER 30, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/OPINIONS26 OPINIONS

WEEKLY QUAGMIREQuagmire - noun: a situation from which extrication is very difficult

The recent coverage given to CENR’s LHC led The Link to write a Weekly Q on the subject.Each article was given 400 words to defend a point of view.

The Large Hadron Collider

CERN is a deadlythreat to scientifc

illiteracy

—Christopher OlsonLiterary Arts Editor

Why is it that the only thing nowadaysthat galvanizes public interest in the sci-ences is when some new technology posesa deadly threat to the existence ofmankind?

Forget that the Large Hadron Colliderbuilt by CERN (which stands forOrganisation Européenne pour laRecherche Nucléaire) is safe beyond allreasonable doubt.

Fears that it will produce a black holethat’ll consume the Earth are nothing butan egregious example of scientific illitera-cy, or worse, the kind of literature thatpasses for science fiction these days.

Really, what greater evidence do weneed that something’s not true than thefact that Dan Brown has already written adetective novel claiming that it is?

Whereas evolution posed an immediateand obvious threat to creationism when itwas first announced, the only vague threatthat could be condensed from CERN wasthat enough antimatter could be producedto create a bomb to destroy the Vatican, asfigures heavily in the plot of Dan Brown’sAngels & Demons.

In reality, it would take a billion years toproduce enough hazardous material atCERN to create a weapon that could equalone hydrogen bomb, of which we alreadyhave roughly 10,000.

But don’t get me wrong, CERN reallyshould be a top news story, whether or notit produces the cataclysmic effects yearnedby so many Hollywood producers withtheir visions of a blockbuster script.

We live in a world where discoveriesabout the very structure of the world itselfare relegated to top news story statusalongside “Kid gets stuck in a candymachine,” and “Dog rides skateboard: theOprah interview.”

Rather than hiding under our beds infear that the apocalypse will happen notwith a bang, but with the Large HadronCollider, why don’t we all cross our fingersand hope that the tests actually confirm theexistence of the Higgs boson, the theoreti-cal particle which would finally explainhow particles gain mass?

With all this talk about black holes andantimatter, did anyone bother to learnwhat the intention of building the LargeHadron Collider was in the first place?

It’s probably just natural that with everyscientific discovery some great taboo mustbe broken. But with all the great taboosalready in tatters, it’s no wonder that fearfor fear’s sake has risen to play the time-honoured tradition of devil’s advocate.

The audacity andwaste of CERN’s

science

—Justin GiovannettiOpinions Editor

The work of nearly 8,000 scientists andengineers, representing 80 countries, hasmaterialized in a northwest suburb ofGeneva; at 27 kilometres in circumference,the Large Hadron Collider is the most expen-sive scientific experiment in history.

A product of CERN, the EuropeanOrganization for Nuclear Research, theLHC’s stated goal is to collide two opposingbeams of protons into each other at 99.99 percent of the speed of light, the result of whichis a $9.6 billion best guess.

At a time when the European Union iswagging its haughty finger at the world overclimate change, population growth andpoverty in Africa, its highest scientific priori-ty has been to determine the existence of theHiggs boson.

As should be expected from the largest,and some might say most dangerous, high-power particle physics experiment in history,scientists from around the world have raisedconcerns about the safety of the experimentsto be conducted at the collider.

Doomsday scenarios forecasting the pro-duction of stable micro black holes and thecreation of dangerous hypothetical particlescalled strangelets have yielded a strong replyfrom CERN.

A panel of physicists commissioned by theEuropean institution ruled that the LHC’srisk is minimal due to a theory about blackhole evaporation, segments of the Hawkingradiation theory and a fundamental misread-ing of superstring theory. Humanity could behanging in the balance, but not to worry, atheory about a theory, when understoodthrough another theory, says that possibleblack holes should collapse on themselves.

Relieved?The problem at hand is not one about sci-

entific discovery or the rate of progress; it isabout massive waste of finite resource in atime when problems on Earth are demand-ing a rethinking and retooling of civilization.

The audacity of the 8,000 scientists atCERN is unbelievable, although they under-stand that the LHC poses a danger, they areprepared to go ahead. A picture of the Higgsboson is simply not worth putting humanity’sexistence at risk.

Since the cancellation of the UnitedStates’ Superconducting Super Colldier in1994, planned to be a much bigger and muchmore powerful particle accelerator, CERN’sLHC is the world’s sole functioning high-power particle accelerator.

For the moment, humanity is safe fromthe LHC as the failure of one of the supercon-ducting quadruple electromagnets haspushed experiments back to spring 2009.

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THE LINK • SEPTEMBER 30, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/OPINIONS OPINIONS 27

Across

1. US policy against communism until 1980 4. UN body where great powers exercise veto 7. Britain’s Middle East mandate created a nation forthis group9. name given to US peace process in Middle East10. theory in which you can actually win a nuclearwar11. previous UN Secretary General14. seat of Soviet defense alliance17. city where UN Charter was signed19. city after which the modern state system isnamed20. western military alliance

24. first arms control agreement between US andUSSR25. a nuclear capability afforded by submarines 27. an innovation to trump missile defense systems28. the central organization of the international system30. UN agency that is busy every October, near the end31. Reagan’s policy with communism34. what missions, like that in Afghanistan, are nowcalled 40. nations given veto41. the Roosevelt whose UN is finally coming true42. seat of UN43. Reagan wanted to put what in space?

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1. Caribbean nation with central place in Cold War2. the main theory of nuclear war during the Cold War3. Canadian PM with a Nobel Peace Prize5. growth pattern advocated by UN HABITAT6. thinker responsible for starting Idealists stream8. group of nations free of superpowers during Cold War9. theory where life is ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish andshort’12. George H.W. Bush announced a ____ in theabsence of the USSR13. these were so violated in WWII, that they are a cen-tral component of the UN15. program that distributes more than $1 billion offood aid16. British war in Southern Africa was against this

group17. to punish a nation by economic or diplomaticmeans18. his “points” led to the League of Nations22. central component of relations among nations23. number of points proposed by Wilson26. British PM with iron will who defended islands29. ICMBs, bombers and _____ are the nuclear troika32. no more biological weapons33. arena of conflict between superpowers for fiftyyears35. the UN is one of these36. second war allowed by UN resolution37. WWII conference in Africa, named Sextant 38. the central player in the international system39. realist thinker who wrote on use of force

Coalition fights back against GSTon books

With the second anniversary ofthe Goods and Services Tax withinsight, the full impact of the tax wasbecoming obvious to Canadians asstudents realized they were hardesthit.

One of the most controversialitems to be taxed were books. “Theaddition of a 13 per cent GST haslead to a drop of 20 per cent in booksales and as much as a 50 per centdrop in magazine and newspapersales,” reasoned David Hunt.

Hunt was responsible for formingthe “Don’t Tax Reading Coalition,” agroup committed to carrying out amail campaign against MPs whovoted in favour of GST.

According to Judy Mappin ofMontreal’s Double Hook CanadianBooks, “books are normally reces-sion-proof, but the GST has hadquite an effect on them.”

Many students were caught offguard by the tax. When students hadleft Concordia during the summersemester, there was no GST onbooks, when they returned in the fallall books and course packs were 13per cent more expensive.

Prime Minister Brian Mulroneyhad promised to review taxed itemson October 4, leading many people tothink the tax would be rescinded.Sixteen years later it is still here.

—Justin Giovannetti

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THIS WEEK IN HISTORY SEPTEMBER 25, 1992

editorial

The city of Montreal has toyed with the idea of hosting the second safe-injection site in North America, and the proposal gained steam after anannouncement by former Quebec Health Minister Philippe Couillard last June.Unfortunately his replacement, Yves Bolduc, has delayed plans with vagueexcuses calling for more information and studies.

Insite, operating in Vancouver for the past five years, is currently the onlysafe injection site in North America.

Safe injection sites do more than provide shelter for drug users, they turnthe drug debate on its head. By shifting the emphasis to health care and med-ical services, safe injection sites create an important paradigm shift: intra-venous drug users are not ingrates or criminals, they are sick.

Drug users are dealing with an illness that is extremely difficult to treatwithout a proper support network. These are people whose lifestyles fall so farfrom acceptable societal norms that they fall victim to judgments that excludethem from rights and privileges that most people take for granted.

What do the words “drug addict” normally bring to mind? The unwashed,unshaven man sitting on a street corner yelling incomprehensible babble to noone in particular may be the most visible sign, but he is not the only drugaddict in our community.

People suffering from prescription drug addictions are provided with hospi-talization, treatment facilities, counseling and sympathy. In a word: dignity.

Whether they live in glass towers, behind white picket fences or in dumps,people from all socio-economic backgrounds abuse illegal drugs—some justhave the money to cover up their dirty little habit.

Insite describes those using the centre as “men and women who use morethan one drug; people who experience both addiction and mental illness; peo-ple with a history of trauma; people who are homeless, live in shelters or livein substandard housing; men and women of Aboriginal descent; and peoplewho have tried unsuccessfully in the past to beat their drug addiction.”

Injection site users are also the most marginalized and most vulnerablemembers of society, unable to support their addictions safely, they are in noposition to provide a safe place to inject their drugs themselves.

A safe-injection site doesn’t provide a direct route to rehabilitation—thathas yet to me discovered—but it is, as proponents argue, a point of entry intoseeking other medical services.

Who can blame disadvantaged drug users? A distrust of the society that’smarginalizing you is only natural, so in providing a judgment-free facilitywhere those in need can use the services they need, a trust for medical treat-ment can be fostered.

A safe injection site is a step further than a needle exchange. Users are per-mitted to bring in their own drugs to inject, with no legal implications for thepossession of these drugs. Nurses are on staff to supervise and prevent com-plications or death by overdose. Counseling and rehabilitation services aremade available to those seeking them, but those who aren’t ready to accepthelp are still protected from doing themselves serious and further harm.

You can’t legislate morality. You can’t stop people from taking drugs, but youcan offer them an alternative to shooting up in the park where you walk yourdog, or the bathroom of the pizza joint down the street.

This isn’t an attempt to remove personal accountability for drug addiction,but civic ideals are no reason to turn a blind eye to people who have let theirdrug addictions reach a point of unmanageability. Heroin, cocaine and mor-phine addictions take more than good resolution and civic pride to shake.

As the problem grows worse in our inner cities and our suburbs, the federalgovernment is providing cheap excuses to keep safe injection sites out.

Federal Health Minister Tony Clement called safe injection sites “palliativecare,” saying that medical professionals should be working to help addictswith their problem, rather than to perpetuate it.

But Clement never offers a solution to the problem of addiction. By denyingthe need for safe injection sites without offering an alternative, he appears tobe trying to turn a blind eye to addicts in back alleys, ignoring the fact thatcurrent rehabilitation programs aren’t an all-encompassing solution, as theyexclude those without the incredible amount of strength and willpower that’sneeded to conquer an addiction.

The majority of government spending on illegal substances is on lawenforcement, with less than 10 per cent left for rehabilitation programs. That’sjust placing addicts in prisons, further alienating them and their trust in “thesystem.”

Hopefully, with continued advocacy of safe-injection sites, like the upcom-ing lecture dealing with advocating, “the right to healthcare for injection drugusers,” by Gillian Maxwell at Concordia next Thursday, the Quebec governmentwill come around to recognizing the benefits of providing the Montreal com-munity with one of their own.

—Jesara SinclairStudent Press Liaison

crswrdpzzlol• JUSTIN GIOVANNETTI Dignity for drug users

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