On October 17, Prime Minis-ter Stephen Harper appointed U of T alumni Andromache Kara-katsanis and Michael Moldaver as replacements for Supreme Court of Canada Justices Ian Bin-nie and Louise Charron. How-ever it was six months ago when Justices Binnie and Charron first announced their intention to retire from the Supreme Court, and for most of that time no clear process was established to fill those vacancies. For at least 25 years numerous efforts have been made to create a balanced, reliable method for the appoint-ment of new justices, and yet none has succeeded.

“Often the power of the fed-eral government to follow its own preferences when select-

ing new judges for the Supreme Court has been abused,” says Ja-cob Ziegel, professor emeritus in the faculty of law at U of T. “The incumbent federal government continues to choose the people it feels comfortable with and who are expected to reflect its political philosophy.”

The process by which judges are appointed to the Supreme Court is an often impromptu construction. When vacancies arise, it falls to the current fed-eral government to determine how to fill them as necessity dic-tates. Bearing this in mind, it is easier to understand why Kara-katsanis and Moldaver were chosen than it is to understand how they were chosen.

“The federal government compiled a list of potential can-didates from a variety of sourc-

The University of Toronto’s Independent Weekly Since 1978 VOL XXXIV Issue 8 • October 27, 2011

the newspaper

Protesters and supporters met and rallied outside Queen’s Park on Tuesday to demonstrate their solidarity with Michael Schmidt, an Ontario dairy farm-er whose ongoing fight for the right to produce and distribute raw milk has launched a criti-cal national conversation about the control and regulation of lo-cal food. Currently, it is illegal to distribute raw, (unpasteurized) milk in Canada. In a powerful move to call attention to issues around access to raw milk and other food-access rights, on Oc-tober 1, 2011, Schmidt began a highly publicized hunger strike.

Schmidt is the owner of Glen-colton Farms, in Durham On-tario, and has been producing and distributing raw milk for over 17 years. Originally from Germany, Schmidt holds a Mas-

ter’s degree in agriculture, and was trained in the tradition of

biodynamic farming, a holistic and highly sustainable method of organic agriculture that treats farms as ‘closed’ organisms. A strong advocate for small-scale farming and cow-sharing pro-grams, Schmidt has actively lob-bied the provincial government for years to legalize raw milk and to enhance people’s ability to choose what, and how they

want to eat. He has proposed his farm as a pilot project for small-scale farming models, and has offered to teach and train others in how to run a sustainable, or-ganic enterprise.

However, the Ontario provin-cial government has rejected Schmidt’s proposals outright, and has refused to open up dia-logue regarding the issue of raw milk and the right to access local food. Schmidt’s farm has been raided twice, once in the early nineties and again in 2006. He was subsequently charged with illegal distribution of unpas-teurized milk. His acquittal on all counts was appealed by the government, and the earlier ac-quittal overturned.

Beverley Viljakainen, a close friend, supporter and self-de-scribed “grass-roots healthcare advocate” was at Glencolton Farms during the 2006 raid. “More than 20 armed men

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Got (raw) milk?Ontario dairy farmer protests ban on raw milk, fights for food access rights

by Talia Gordon

“If people let govern-ment decide what foods they eat and what medi-cines they take, their bod-ies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyr-anny.”

- Thomas Jefferson (1762 – 1826)

Families gather in Queen’s Park to demand access to local food Inside this issue...

Does the prime minister have too much power? Page 3^̂

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by Andrew Walt

U of T prof criticizes Supreme Court appointment process

Supreme oversight

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2 October 27, 2011 THE NEWS

the newspaper

the newspaper1 Spadina Crescent Suite 245Toronto, ON M5S 1A1

Editorial: 416-593-1552thenewspaper@gmail.comwww.thenewspaper.ca

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the newspaper is the University of Toronto’s independent weekly paper, published since 1978.

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U of T prof sequences cannabis genomeAnswers question, “What are you smoking?”

Genetic research on the can-nabis plant may have a high impact on hemp cultivation. A group of Canadian research-ers have sequenced the genome of Cannabis sativa, the plant’s technical term for the scientists and stoners among us. Through this process, researchers discov-ered the properties that distin-guish hemp from its dissolute alter ego, marijuana.

University of Toronto Profes-sor Tim Hughes co-led the re-search project. He explains that they were comparing the plants cultivated as hemp, which is of-ten grown for food or to produce textiles, and marijuana, which is smoked for its medicinal prop-erties or to listen to Frank Zappa.

“We wanted to get the se-quence of the genome of Can-nabis sativa which is both hemp and marijuana, and at the same time we wanted to understand the differences,” Hughes said at the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research.

The researchers found that hemp lacks a certain enzyme that marijuana has, and there-fore does not produce THC, the psychoactive ingredient in mar-

ijuana. “That’s why if you smoke hemp you don’t get high as it doesn’t have the enzyme that is required to make THC,” Hughes explained.

This discovery could lead to advantages for current hemp growers. Right now you need a licence through Health Canada to grow hemp because it con-tains a small amount of THC, which immediately evokes comparisons to its psychedelic counterpart. Professor Hughes thinks it should be possible to get rid of the THC altogether.

“[What] you can do is targeted breeding ... breed and measure DNA sequences... then you can screen for the variants of hemp that don’t make THC,” Hughes said. “People can now genotype their strains and we can assume it will be possible to breed them in a certain way.” These altera-tions would allow hemp to be grown legally in Canada.

These potential changes to the way hemp is produced could impact Toronto hemp culture. Stores in Toronto sell merchan-dise such as herbal products, books, fabric, food, and clothing. As it is often a misunderstood plant and culture, the poten-tial alterations in breeding may change the way people view

these practices. However, this research may

not be good news for some. Giv-en the recent availability of the sequenced genome, it is possible to apply the same sort of foren-sics that is used with human DNA. The results that Professor Hughes and his team came to could enable the law enforce-ment to use DNA to trace the origins of the plant material.

“[Law enforcement agencies] could make a database and gen-otype the marijuana and prob-ably figure out where people got it from. I don’t know how well that would work, but with the same principals it is possible,” Hughes remarked.

This sequencing of the Canna-bis sativa genome by Professor Hughes and his team will open up more information into the biology of the cannabis plant. While the findings may be a buzz kill for some recreational users, the various functions of the plant, such as the making of fabric and food could be further enhanced, in addition to chang-es in the plant’s regulation. “We have another plant genome se-quenced and we can all look at it and analyse it,” said Professor Hughes.

by Robby Muff

Master of Management& Professional AccountingMMPA

day, ber , 20 11: 0 am – 1: 0 pm

T sday, ber , 20 11: 0 am – 1: 0 pm

Wednesday, , 20 11: 0 am – 1: 0 pm

www.utoronto.ca/mmpa

descended on the farm like gang-busters,” she says. “They confiscated dairy equipment, computers, files and all of the milk, which was later dumped in the toxic substance area of the local landfill.” While it sounds almost theatrical, these kinds of raids happen regularly to local farmers all over Canada and the United States.

In a recent New York Times Magazine feature, food-guru Michael Pollan addressed the raw milk controversy south of the border. He writes, “How is it that cigarettes are legal in this country while, in most cases, raw milk can’t be sold in stores?” Pollan asks why governments direct so much energy into shutting down this “teeny-tiny industry”, when factory farms pose many more serious threats to food safety.

Viljakainen echoes Pollan in expressing similar frustra-tion and confusion. “They raid chicken farms and egg ladies while Maple Leaf regularly has to pull products off the shelf.

But they don’t get shut down.” Interestingly, as Pollan points out, the majority of dairy-related illnesses come from pasteurized products.

It is because of these issues that Schmidt has taken such a strong stance and extreme measures to bring the raw milk debate to the table. Well into the fourth week of his hunger strike, Schmidt shows no sign of backing down. According to Vil-jakainen, he will only break his fast when the Ontario govern-ment agrees to discuss ways to legalize and regulate farm-fresh milk.

As Viljakainen explains, “It’s a constitutional matter now, since consumers should be able to contract with their local farmers and are being prevented from doing so.” She points out that for Schmidt, it’s not just about the milk, but is a matter of people’s rights to make informed deci-sions about the foods they eat. “We’re fast losing our right to be able to even have whole foods, and what is more basic than

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that?” asks Viljakainen.Schmidt’s campaign has

been met with overwhelming solidarity and support across Canada, the United States, Eu-rope, Britain, Australia and New Zealand. For many, access to lo-cal and non-industrial produce represents more than simply a nutritional preference.

In an open letter on The Bo-vine website, Indianna dairy farmer Mark Grieshop writes that “[Schmidt’s] hunger strike reasserts the primacy of the individual’s natural right to feed themselves however they choose, and proves that nour-ishment is not a function of the state that can be mandated or re-voked at will.”

The goals of the raw milk crusade are manifold, and are encompassed by a greater push for libertarian freedom when it comes to food access and ul-timately, having the choice to assert control over one’s own health.

“Got (raw) milk?” from page 1

www.thenewspaper.ca 3 THE NEWS

es,” explains Ziegel. “This was done for the benefit of a selection panel of five members from the House of Commons, consisting of three Conservative MPs, and one MP each from both the Liberal and the NDP. The panel was asked to choose six names and the shortlist was submit-ted to the Prime Minister who made the final choice of two.”

Like many other observ-ers (including Sébastien Grammond of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa and fellow profes-sor emeritus in the U of T Department of Political Science Peter H. Russell), Ziegel has been openly critical of the lack of trans-parency and accountabili-ty in the filling of Supreme Court vacancies for many years. He has expressed these criticisms in a num-ber of publications, includ-ing the National Post and The Globe and Mail. In one of his commentaries pub-lished September 27 on the U of T Faculty of Law blog, he refers to the de-lays in Supreme Court ap-pointments as “unaccept-able,” describes the process of selection proposed by the federal government as

“tortuous,” and describes the lack of legislation pre-scribing the procedure as being of “even greater con-cern.”

“The new procedures have two manifest weak-nesses,” Ziegel writes in his commentary, The right way to pick Supreme Court judges, published August 19 in the National Post. “The first is that the members of the selection panel will not be free to select the candidates they wish to consider and to recommend their appoint-ment. The second and still more serious objection is that it misconceives the status and role of the Su-preme Court of Canada in Canada’s constitutional structure. The Supreme Court is an independent institution and is not ac-countable to Parliament for its decisions or to the incumbent government. It is the guardian of Canada’s constitution and of the basic values enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

When asked about the criticisms levelled against Justice Karakatsanis for her limited experience as a member of the Ontario Court of Appeal and of Justice Moldaver for being unable to speak French, Ziegel responded that he doesn’t question their qualifications, but rather

laments a missed oppor-tunity. “I’ve said publicly that I believe that one of the two judges that should have been appointed was Justice Robert Sharpe of the Ontario Court of Appeal. He’s a superb scholar and judge, very fair-minded, writes beau-tifully, renders his judge-ments quickly, and speaks French fluently. He has all the desirable qualities of a Supreme Court Justice and I think it’s extremely un-fortunate that he was not selected.”

Ziegel cautions against a justice system that allows for deep divisions amongst judges based on their own philosophical beliefs and the unconstrained execu-tive power which makes it possible. While the po-tential for bias is widely acknowledged, there is no effective mechanism in place to address it.

“It was fairly predict-able that the candidates that were actually chosen would appear to have a conservative bias,” con-cludes Ziegel. “It doesn’t mean that they’re bad choices - quite the con-trary, each of them has very considerable merits - but it does mean that they were chosen to reflect the philosophy of the govern-ment in power and not on the basis of the best avail-able candidates.”

Few Canadian prime minis-ters were spared in the latest History War held at the Royal Ontario Museum. Andrew Coyne, the national editor of Maclean’s, argued for the mo-tion, “Power corrupts Canadian prime ministers,” taking aim at almost every Canadian PM since Macdonald. The Rt. Hon. Sheila Copps, a Liberal MP from 1984 to 2004 and deputy prime minister under Jean Chrétien, was tasked with defending the integrity of the Canadian head of government. Canadian his-torian Jack Granatstein moder-ated the debate.

Coyne had no difficulty find-ing examples of corruption in Canada’s highest office, from John A. Macdonald, who noto-riously solicited funds from a wealthy industrialist to bribe voters before the 1872 election (and later awarded him the contract to build the Canadian Pacific Railway), to Brian Mul-

roney, who appointed his wife’s hairdresser to the Federal Busi-ness Development Bank. The ap-petite for power grows with the eating, Coyne argued. The PM’s office attracts bright and ambi-tious people, who are naturally inclined to abuse their power as much and as often as they can. “Power without abuse loses its charm,” Coyne said quoting the French poet, Paul Valéry.

To make matters worse, the prime minister’s power is al-ready very extensive, Coyne claimed. The PM sets election dates, decides when Parliament meets and adjourns, and sets the Cabinet’s agenda. He also appoints important officials, in-cluding Supreme Court justices, ambassadors, senators, and ex-ecutives of Crown Corporations (which have become “patronage sinkholes,” according to Coyne).

Traditional checks on the prime minister’s power have waned in significance, he ar-gued. The Cabinet has become little more than a “focus group”

for the PM. Parliament, especial-ly in the event of a majority gov-ernment, is just a rubber stamp. And Question Period? “Don’t make me laugh.”

Sheila Copps, known as a member of the “Rat Pack,” the effective Liberal parliamentary opposition to Mulroney, came to the defense of Canadian prime ministers. Politicians don’t de-serve their bad rap, she said. “Are prime ministers more cor-ruptible than their counterparts in other means of endeavour? Do the CEOs of Enron cast a pall over all other corporate execu-tives?” One bad prime minister, or even many, doesn’t spoil the bunch.

The “cynical reporting” of 24/7 news networks is largely responsible for the public’s un-founded distrust of politicians, Copps added. Balanced report-ing, “perhaps even in Maclean’s,” she said in a swipe at Coyne, would help politicians’ im-age. Public service, said Copps speaking from experience, “is

the highest form of sacrifice for the community… The PM’s mes-sage is not one of corruption but of redemption. Vive le Canada!”

“I fear that my distinguished opponent may have wandered into the wrong debate,” Coyne countered. He agreed that poli-ticians aren’t inherently bad people. “Politicians are no more corrupt and no more corrupti-ble than anyone else,” he said. “The problem is that politicians get way too into the game and forget about the rules.”

After each speaker had made their opening statement and had a chance for rebuttal, they took turns answering questions from the audience. One person asked if it was better to give ex-tensive powers to the executive branch rather than suffer po-litical gridlock as in the United States. “It is possible to have too much of a good thing,” Coyne responded. “The US system is overly burdened and complex… [but] Canada is at the opposite extreme.”

At the end of the debate, mod-erator Jack Granatstein took a straw poll of the audience on the motion that power corrupts Canadian prime ministers. A clear majority agreed. Speaking to the newspaper, Granatstein said he found it interesting that most people in the audience were skeptical of prime ministe-rial power. “If I was a politician, that would worry me. Happily, I’m not a politician.”

So is there any hope for Ca-nadian democracy? The system needs electoral reform, said Coyne - and soon. “The fact that we still have appointed senators is outrageous,” he said. How-ever, he added that “a little crea-tive chaos” will be necessary to bring about reform.

The next debate, “Tommy Doug-las Put Healthcare on the Wrong Path,” will be held January 25. See the full History Wars program on the Royal Ontario Museum web-site: rom.on.cat

by Geoff Vendeville

Are prime ministers corrupt?Former MP Sheila Copps and Maclean’s editor debate PM’s power

“Supreme Oversight” from page 1

4 October 27, 2011 THE INSIDE

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A Dam Good Read

Few things draw attention like a tall, cigar-chomping bea-ver wearing a tophat. For Lau-rent Noonan, former editor of the newspaper and U of T im-prov artist, that’s exactly the point.

Occasionally spotted in cos-tume around Robarts and Sid Smith, Noonan is Editor-in-Chief of The Beaverton, a bur-geoning news satire publication in the same vein as The Onion.

After he distributed numer-ous copies of The Beaverton to a receptive stream of pedestrians this past Monday evening, we sat down with him to discuss the production and possibilities of a Canadian news satire pub-lication.

the newspaper: What pre-pared you for the challenge of creating a news satire pub-lication?

Laurent Noonan: I studied

literature and English satire fo-cusing on 18th century works by Swift and Pope, which moti-vated me a lot. I already had a lot of respect for satire, but af-ter studying it at the university level I felt more at ease with the idea of throwing myself into a project like this. A lot of what we do is silly, but you have to be witty to make it work. As for my experience at the newspa-per, what helped me there was building their website. The ex-perience I had designing and maintaining it was what gave me the confidence to start this project. I knew that if I want-ed to get this project off the ground, there needed to be a major website in place.

tn: How much of a connec-tion is there between U of T and The Beaverton?

LN: I started networking and using the U of T Career Centre, so a majority of our writers and editors are from U of T, especial-

ly UTM because of their writing program. Right now there’s def-initely a big U of T connection, but it’s mostly by coincidence. It just so happens that there’s a lot of good, funny writers com-ing out of U of T.

tn: How does The Beaver-ton develop its content?

LN: Our content is very much a collaborative process, since we pitch ideas to each other and make a lot of decisions on what to produce as a group. A major focus of ours is Canadian con-tent. We had a few articles about Toronto in this issue, and obvi-ously we’re going to focus a lot on Canada. Also, because we’re still trying to build up a reader-ship, jokes that are going to be funny years from now are also very good. It’s just not a good strategy to spend a lot of time working on something that los-es its relevance in a month.

tn: Can you talk about the presentation of The Beaver-

ton?LN: “The idea is to make The

Beaverton look really profes-sional. I think some people would expect a joke publication to look weird and goofy. What you really want is for it to look like a real newspaper, using a news format and deadpan style, which is counter-intuititve be-cause you’re almost trying not to be funny. Everything is de-signed to make The Beaverton seem real, but the story lines and premises are all outrageous. After all, part of the satire is how it plays itself completely straight. In fact we’ve had com-ments about people reading ar-ticles and not knowing that it was fake until a few paragraphs in.

tn: What’s the future look like for The Beaverton?

LN: Right now, we’re trying to get readers across Canada to visit our website. With future prints we’ll look to expand and

distribute in cities near Toron-to. We’d like to print once per month, but it all depends on whether we can organize dis-tribution, which is something that’s very hard right now. Next to that, we also called The Beaverton “North America’s trusted source of news” since it could branch out and do more US parody and satire, and we didn’t want to limit ourselves to just one market. So though we focus on Toronto and Canada, we also feature generic articles which are pretty funny whether you’re a Canadian or an Ameri-can, such as the “Comedians make better lovers: study” arti-cle, which would still be funny to someone in the US as well.

The Beaverton regularly updates online at www.thebeaverton.com, and print issues can be found with the cigar smoking beaver occasion-ally appearing near Sid Smith and Robarts. You can find our full inter-view with Laurent Noonan online.

by Andrew Walt

Recent U of T grads’ upstart publication, The Beaverton, creates new satire for Canadians

Editor-in-chief of the Beaverton, Laurent Noonan (costumed), and Staff Editor Keith Cochrane (far right) bring the Beaverton to the St. George street crowds.

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www.thenewspaper.ca 5 THE INSIDE

THE LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Zombies Occupy Toronto

1. “Twins, eh?”“I swear they were hot last night.”2. The best brain food: brains.3. It’s the time of the season.4. “Til life-after-death do us part...”5. Better than Robarts.

Photos by Bodi Bold

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Army of Darkness invades Trinity Bellwoods Park

6 October 27, 2011 THE ARTS

You’re better off finding a normal activity this Halloween.

Often, movie trilogies are de-signed to be (and expected to be) formulaic. However, to call Par-anormal Activity 3 formulaic is an insult to formula. Likewise, it just seems ridiculous to call the Paranormal Activity films a trilogy. On television, shows like House and Law and Order have used widely varying char-acters and scenarios to spin gold week in, and week out. Paranor-mal Activity fails in this regard.

Not only is the comparison to proper film trilogies (The Bourne movies, Back to the Fu-ture, or Star Wars, to name a few) laughable, but considering conventional studio logic, box office success (say hello to your

#1 movie, Canada), not to men-tion the history of horror movie sequels, it’s doubtful that this is the last of the Paranormal Activ-ity we’ll see.

In the first two Paranor-mal films, main character Ka-tie (Katie Featherston, Chloe Csengery) and her sister Kristi (Sprague Grayden, Jessica Ty-ler Brown), were the possessed subjects. The third film brings these two characters together under the same roof as haunted children of the eighties. Daniel (played by Brian Boland), the step-father of the young sisters, is a trained videographer who has an obsession with home taping. Thus, the film main-tains the home-movie-footage

guise donned in previous films, however the plausibility of this device has lost all manner of in-genuity. Unfortunately, Daniel’s home movie antics spark an in-terest from the ghosts living in his home.

The girls’ mother Julie (Lau-ren Bittner) does little of any-thing productive (for the family or the film), save for dragging her heels and getting upset when Daniel brings up the pos-sibility of spirits or gets Kristi talking about her (question-ably) imaginary friend Toby. Ah, if only there were more to say about these characters...but there isn’t. Sadly, all we are pre-sented with is a diluted version of the couple we met in the two

previous films. One gets the feeling that once

Paramount generated the bright idea to make a third installment in this dynasty, in order to main-tain its low-budget feel they took an unused draft of the sec-ond film and repurposed it for the present shooting script. The most palpable difference be-tween this and the other films, beyond the obvious age-of or ab-sence-of children (depending on the film), is the nature of what lies beneath. However, the sug-gestions for why the characters are being haunted are so vague and obscure that connecting the tenuous supernatural dots about the film (or, God forbid, between the films) seems like a

hideously thankless task.Sadly, the film has difficulty

even delivering the thrills and chills that it promises. The sud-den, music-free surprises and camera tricks coupled with the fly-on-the-wall aesthetic intend-ed to make them effective are so familiar at this point that it is an uphill struggle for them to achieve the potency they did in the past.

So, unless you’re fourteen years old and going on a date (in which case this is the movie for you), perhaps just see if your roommate will drape a sheet over themselves and hide be-hind a door just when you least expect it. Or you can hold out to see if they can pull the rabbit

by Dan Christensen

Paranormal Activity,so bad it’s scary

»

uOttawa GRADUATE STUDIES OPEN HOUSE Thursday, November 3, 2011, in the University Centre

LEARN MORE ABOUT: » Master’s and PhD programs » Admission criteria » Scholarships and funding

Travel subsidies of up to $85 are available for students coming to uOttawa for this event from out of town. Please register at discoveruOttawa.ca/openhouse.

Speak with representatives from our faculties and services at the information fair.

University of Ottawa

www.thenewspaper.ca 7 THE ARTS

Across

1. Play division4. Excessively warm7. Taxi

31. Synonym of 69 across34. Merit35. Promised38. Equipped40. Not quite a strike41. Glum42. Accomplished44. Label46. Past tense of 4. down49. Vegetarian starter53. Takes a break57. Math60. Baccarat box61. Informal word of agreement62. Woodland mammal63. Camping shelter64. Cruel67. Second person pronoun69. Synonym of 31 across71. Aristocrat75. Got out of bed79. Possess80. Exercise with purpose81. Team foot race82. Marry83. Liberal colour84. Coloured pigment

Down

1. Circle segment2. It’s better than a bike3. Male formal-wear accessory4. Owns5. Raw mineral6. Sawbuck7. Kings’ homes8. Time of life9. Cardboard container11. Acquired knowledge

10. Pool table perimeters13. Vicinities16. Ontario gallery17. Tiny stream18. Touch or taste

19. Gender20. Oxygen22. Held24. Rip27. Possible

12. Snowboard alternative14. Inquire15. Behold!21. Bit of old cloth23. Round of applause; ___ on the back24. Coffee alternative25. Aural organ26. Weapon28. Public transport vehicle29. Once around the track30. Epoch32. The Caspian one is actually a lake33. Strange36. Skill37. Close by39. Gossip43. Beaver base45. Body movement46. “___ is for horses...”47. “Who do you think you ___?”48. Precious carbon50. Guided51. Consumed52. Be killed54. Feminine pronoun55. Great weight, to an American56. “Game, ___, match”58. Definite article59. Weep65. Industrious insect66. Neither... ___...68. Paddle69. Lug behind70. Be in debt72. Drinking establishment73. Fib74. Conclude76. Getting on in years77. Speak78. Centre of a storm

by Andrew Walt

Arriving at the Canzine Festi-val on Sunday, the sheer quan-tity of self-published material was immediately overwhelm-ing. Part crafts fair, part farmer’s market, and part art extravagan-za, 918 Bathurst Street had been transformed into a playground for the zine-o-phile.

Organized by Canadian inde-pendent arts magazine, Broken Pencil, this year’s 16th annual Canzine Festival was the big-gest yet. With over 190 vendors, it had all the appearances of an underground community come to life. “Toronto is a hub for this kind of thing,” said Lindsay Gibb, editor of Broken Pencil.

“People who are making zines don’t generally have an inten-tion of making money off their enterprise, they just want a way to express themselves,” said Gibb. And express themselves they do. Zinesters engage in one of the few remaining outlets of genuine self-expression and unregulated, uncensored crea-tivity, and are generally uninter-ested in making their creations “mainstream.”

As Jacob Railnger of Am-persand Publications, puts it, “When you open a zine, it’s kind of like talking to that crazed madman on the TTC; you’re just exposed to all these thoughts that maybe people shouldn’t be putting into a twelve page chap

book, but they are, and it’s a fas-cinating window into society.”

The Canzine festival, unsur-prisingly, places heavy empha-sis on art zines and independ-ent artists, with the politically subversive and more outwardly counterculture publications (such as Shameless or Mass Or-nament) scattered throughout. Dan Barclay, a comic book art-ist, has been attending Canzine as a vendor for about ten years. He notes that the “People pro-ducing the material have re-ally diversified,” not only in the range of publications, but in the surprising amount of non-zine merchandise for sale, including clothing items and hand-crafted knick-knacks.

Despite the strong sense of community, adamant coun-terculture and DIY attitudes, zinesters are avowedly not a cult. And, while most are dedi-cated and passionate about the power of the zine, some ex-press a sense of humility and realism about their endeavours. Railinger, who also works with the podcast NerdHurdles, had a candid approach to the scene.

“I started as a way to meet peo-ple, which worked disastrously. It’s a good way to really isolate yourself from society, and then sit at a table at a zine fair for eight hours.” So why do it? “I recognize how ridiculous it is, but at the same time, I think that it’s really important to do,

and really important for every-one in this room to be doing it,” he explained.

The Canzine festival atmos-phere was one of community: the friendly and talented ven-dors, organizers, and attendees represent people from all walks of life who together and in their own right, have created a form of media that truly expresses themselves and their values. No matter your particular interest, there is most likely a zine, chap-book, journal, or alternate alter-native media form for you. And if there isn’t, zine philosophy says it’s up to you to make your own.

Ama-zine!Broken Pencil’s Canzine Festival Not Just for Hipsters

by Vanessa Purdy

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Survival horror games have undergone a curious metamor-phosis over the years. Most notably, they’re now forgoing frugal design principals en-hancing atmosphere in favour of bloody gore fests highlight-ing action. And while technol-ogy and gameplay certainly improve over time, cultivating scenarios of dread and terror have fallen out of fashion as fluid high resolution dismem-berment began to take centre stage. Dead Space and Resident Evil are the reigning kings of survival horror, which is quite ironic considering there’s ab-solutely nothing scary about them.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent is an independent survival hor-ror game by Swedish developer Frictional Games, which is a rare entry in its particular gen-re in that it’s genuinely terrify-ing. Cast as the amnesic Daniel wandering the crumbling halls

of the Prussian Brennenburg Castle in 1839, players must evade the malevolence hunt-ing them as they attempt to find and kill a man named Al-exander.

Whereas most survival hor-ror games offer the player a means of defence from its threats, Amnesia is unique in that the player is afforded no means of recourse against the horrors contained within. When faced with a grotesque menace, the only way to sur-vive is to hide and pray that it leaves you alone. There’s no means to fight back, and con-frontation only ends with a blood spattered demise.

Of course effective evasion most often leads into shadowy areas, where the results of the darkness take a toll on Daniel’s sanity, distorting his vision and compromising his movement. Although this mechanic of san-ity isn’t anything new or even played to its most extreme ends (2002’s Eternal Darkness:

Sanity’s Requeim often broke the fourth wall with fake tech-nical errors using the same technique), it’s nevertheless supremely effective in cultivat-ing an extraordinarily tense at-mosphere.

In fact it’s atmosphere where Amnesia most excels. Friction-al Games understands that the best horror is often psychologi-

cal and left to a person’s im-agination. Horrors are merely glimpsed through the shadows and fog, and their presence is of-ten a suggestion that never ma-terializes among all the creaks, wails, and dreadful noises. It’s all very suspenseful and well assembled, and the optional de-veloper commentary reveals a meticulous process behind the

excellent design.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a tense and terrifying experience in the best possible way. Play this game in a darkened room with cranked headphones and fully devoted attention, and it’ll be the scariest thing you do this Hallow-een.

The scariest game you’ve never played

If you see this, you’re already dead.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent proves that imagined hor-rors are far more menacing than real ones

by Andrew Walt

Mackenzie King sees dead peopleIn Conversation with Richard Alan Campbell of Video Cabaret

In recent years, Mackenzie King’s interest in spiritualism has become somewhat notori-ous. Theatre group Video Caba-ret’s show, The Life and Times of Mackenzie King follows events in Canadian history between the First and Second World Wars, and creates what par-ticipating actor Richard Alan Campbell calls an “irreverent black comedy version of Cana-dian history” with “characters larger than life.” It is a part of a cycle of Canadian history plays written by Michael Hollings-worth.

The show depicts true events, but Campbell notes that de-constructing the heroic edifice built up around Mackenzie

King is part of its ambition. “King wasn’t necessarily a great guy. At the very least, he was a super-bizarre man,” says Camp-bell. The stranger aspects of King’s personality -- like using fortune-tellers and séances to connect with the spirits of his dead mother and various pet dogs for policy advice --were al-most entirely unknown during his time as prime minister.

Video Cabaret also tries to connect history to the present. Much of the play takes place during the Great Depression, which brings up problems and issues that resonate with con-temporary audiences. Camp-bell recalls the the timeliness of several other productions. “Last year was our play about the Great War, and Afghanistan

was happening; when we did the Saskatchewan Rebellion some First Nations issues were happening; and the Canadian Pacific Scandal play was at the same time as AdScam.”

Another interesting element of the troupe is their style of presentation. Taking cues from the European theatre style known as “black box,” perform-ers act on a completely black stage, in a theatre that is dark except for spotlights on the per-formers. White face makeup, specially designed costumes, and what Campbell refers to as “lightning fast” changes (six actors play almost forty roles) in costume and scene give the illusion of watching a film, though no video media is used in production. For performers,

the method creates a very hec-tic backstage experience but for the viewer, the effect is “indis-tinguishable from magic.” says Campbell.

The Life and Times of Mac-kenzie King begins its run on Nov. 10 at Cameron House at Queen and Spadina.

by Aberdeen Berry