Volume 98, Issue 28

January 22, 2009

McGill
THE

Celebrating the
Inauguration DAILY
Replicated since 1911
News 3, Commentary 14, Compendium 18, Editors’ note 19
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The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 2009
Calm masses congregate in D.C.
Alison Withers
The McGill Daily
WASHINGTON— As a record-break-
ing sea of people assembled on the
National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Tuesday to witness the inauguration
of Barack Obama, America’s 44th
president, a deep serenity washed
over the crowd.
From all over the world, a pilgrim-
age of supporters calmly waited in
anticipation to witness the historic
ascent of the first black U.S. President,
though their tranquility was perfo-
rated with intense displays of pride,
relief, and jubilation.
The masses, stretching back
from the Capitol Building where
the swearing-in occurred, cheered
appropriately with the entrance of
Congressmen, Senators, and other
dignitaries – which many viewers
watched from the two dozen jumbo-
tron screens erected on the Mall.
A brief display of negativity
occurred with the entrance of out-
going-President George W. Bush.
Some booed, though most remained
respectively silent.
Spectators held their breath for
Obama’s address to the nation, which
soberly and sincerely called on the
American people to commit to a new
Courtney Graham and Emma Goold packed into their crowded campus bar to watch the inauguration.
Obama fans cram into Gert’s
Humera Jabir
News Writer
W
ith applause, standing
ovations, a few salutes,
and even tears, McGill
students packed into a crowded
age of action and responsibility.
“Starting today, we must pick
ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and
begin again the work of remaking
America,” the new president pro-
claimed. “For everywhere we look,
there is work to be done.”
With the official announcement
of Obama’s inauguration, the crowd
once again erupted into cheers, and
furiously waved their freely-distribut-
ed American flags.
A Bermudan man, who had trav-
eled to Washington to witness this
event, captured the spirit of the
crowd well.
“Today is a new day,” he said.
“Now there is hope for change.”
A commercialization of the histor-
ic event was found on the sidewalks:
inauguration paraphernalia t-shirts,
oversized buttons, caps, and posters,
all to commemorate the symbolic
day of change.
The cheering quickly died down,
though, as many began to automati-
cally drift away.
With many recognizing the
President as a sign of change, and
endowed with their full confidence,
the populous sensed their work was
done: America had elected Obama.
They could go home.
Suddenly Washington was faced
with two-million lost people, who
Gert’s bar yesterday morning to
watch as Barack Obama was sworn
in as the 44th President of the
United States.
Standing shoulder to shoulder,
inches from the television screen, the
crowd became silent as the moment
drew near. In Washington, there was
Crowds in D.C. fell silent during Obama’s inauguration speech on Tuesday afternoon.
either could not access transit, or
were impeded by barricades set up
by over 8,000 security personnel on
the northern side of Mall. The smiling
crowds – both cold and tired– moved
Alice Walker for The McGill Daily
prayer, performance, and anxiety as
President Barack Obama stumbled
through the oath.
Visibly moved, Eby Heller from
Chicago was overwhelmed and
happy.
“It means there is a little bit of
hope. He knows he has a long, hard
slowly, with little yelling, chanting, or
pushing. No arrests were made at the
inauguration.
Tuesday’s event was the final of
three days of the inauguration pro-
road ahead of him. I hope that he
respects himself as a human being,
his family, and from there he will do
good work.”
The feeling of hope in the room
was so infectious that Eva-Queen
Ngayap from Toronto couldn’t help
but join Aretha Franklin in a chorus
of “Freedom Ring.”
“I am expecting a breath of
fresh air, a different stance, a new
perspective and attitude,” Ngayap
said.
“This is history and we all know
it. Everyone is cherishing this
moment.”
The Gert’s crowd fell silent as
attention turned toward President
Obama’s inauguration speech.
Obama’s rather solemn words muted
the celebration, as he spoke frankly
to both Americans and the world
about the challenges ahead.
Samantha Perera from Florida
commented, “I feel like we are in
really dark times, not only as a nation
but as a world. Listening to Obama
talk gives me hope that we will pre-
vail, and that America will mean
something in the end.”
There was, however, some skepti-
cism.
“As a European, we’ve detested
Bush from the start. And as much as
we’d like to believe Obama will bring
change, we are a little bit weary. We
will give it a few months before we
believe in Obama like Americans do,”
one student who asked to remain
anonymous said.
If they weren’t already believers,
though, many in the Gert’s crowd
walked away wanting to hope that
the coming presidency will be as sig-
nificant as it is symbolic.
News 3
Arjun Kumar for The McGill Daily
gram. On Sunday, burgeoning crowds
inched toward the Lincoln Memorial
for a patriotic concert featuring per-
formances from international artists,
actors, and actresses.
Nairobi students
celebrate Obama
Ian Martin
News Writer
NAIROBI, Kenya—Nairobi’s store-
fronts were covered in posters with
Obama’s face as the city geared up for
his inauguration on Tuesday.
A Nairobi University professor
explained that students “unilaterally
took a day off school,” opting instead
to watch Obama’s inauguration on
a stage set up by Citizen TV, a local
station. Bands were set to play for a
party afterward.
Students buzzed around with
smiles on their faces, and a few sport-
ed Obama t-shirts.
“I’ve never seen this many people
at the University. It’s so busy!” said
one student.
Nairobians appeared visibly proud
that Obama – whose father is Kenyan
– was taking his oath as the President
of the U.S. For many, this election rep-
resents a new hope, a change mental-
ity within the world’s most powerful
nation and globally. Expectations have
never been higher for one man.
Fred, a third-year student in
Geography who hopes to one day be
involved in politics, was inspired by
Tuesday’s events.
“I’m proud to be a Kenyan. I’m
happy to be an African. But now
I’m proud to be a citizen of human-
ity. I know he will not help me per-
sonally in any way, but I’m proud of
[Obama],” he said.
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The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 2009 News 5
Israel supporters want peace
Hillel McGill rally sought to add Pro-Israel voices to the university forum

Vicky Tobianah
News Writer

T
hree hundred people gathered
in front of the Roddick Gates
Monday afternoon in solidar-
ity with Israel three weeks after the
conflict in Gaza intensified.
Noah Kochman, U2 Political
Science and a representative of
the Canadian Federation of Jewish
Students, kicked off the event with a
speech.
“This is not an American issue,
a European issue, or an Israeli
issue, [but] a universal issue,” said
Kochman.
“And so, I remain proud that the
Canadian government has stood
among the few who have spoken on
behalf of victims of terror wherever
they may be, recognizing that the
residents of southern Israel deserve
the same peace and security as the
residents of Mumbai or Montreal.”
As his speech continued, cars
passing by the group on Sherbrooke
honked in support of the rally, which
prompted students to cheer.
Kochman called upon his fellow
students to “speak for peace and
educate for peace,” as students broke
out into dancing and singing Israeli
songs.
An account of a resident from
Sderot, the Israeli city that has been Roxy Kirshenbaum for the McGill Daily
most bombarded by rockets, was The rally attracted opposition who yelled, “Zionism is racism.”
read by Dana Remer, an Honors
Social Science and Law student at Emanuel Lowi. Rabbi Pupko from the Beth Israel accusatory finger at Israel.” stressed the event was not a protest,
Marianopolis College. Lowi claimed there are many Beth Aaron Congregation of Cote St. Hillel debated whether or not the but a way to communicate to other
In the crowd, one student Israelis who opposed the war, despite Luc stirred the audience by address- rally was necessary, yet ultimately students that Israel wants peace.
remarked, “This is so nice to see. I the fact that polls show 97 per cent of ing those who have questioned concluded that the lack of pro-Isra- Students held signs with slogans
just hope we will achieve peace.” Israelis support this operation. Israel’s actions. el support on campus was a valid such as “Stop preaching hate!” and
But protesting the rally were “All violent regimes will fall even- “Maybe we would have taken you reason for them to demonstrate “Human rights does not equal human
representatives from Independent tually,” Lowi said. seriously had you gathered after ter- and communicate their viewpoints shields,” which they explained was
Jewish Voices (IJV), yelling “Zionism The Consul General of Israel, ror attacks in London, in Madrid,” the safely. a reference to Hamas’s practice
is racism” and “Israel is apartheid.” Yoram Elron, defended Israel’s rabbi said. Yael Smiley, the head of Israeli of launching rockets from civilian
“[We don’t] celebrate war.... We actions at the rally. “You didn’t gather when Affairs at Hillel McGill, said the homes for the past nine years.
think it is crazy that Israel used any “What would you have done? Muslims are killed by Muslims or rally was happening “in the spirit of Hillel McGill partnered with the
excuse it could to bomb innocent We have to quell our threats,” Elron by Christians.... You only care about education, moderation, and peace.” greater Montreal Jewish community
people,” explained IJV representative said. Muslim life when you can point an Unlike the students, though, he to host the rally.

With Israel in conflict, experts urge intervention

International apathy leaves Hamas alone to protect Palestinians: anthropologist

Ethan Feldman ening “this is our land, but you can Halper then used his “doctrine” of the two-state concept and a focus Grey implied Israel’s recent action
News Writer live here too” attitude to nationalist to argue Hamas is the only group on a single-state solution, an option in Gaza has darker Machiavellian
periods seen in Germany, Poland, capable of protecting Palestinians on neither party’s radar. He noted undertones.
Russia. from Israel, concluding that as a Israel has historically come to the “Condemning the invasion is in

J
ulius Grey, civil rights lawyer
and human rights activist and
Israeli-American political activist
and anthropologist Jeff Halper spoke
about the barriers to peace in the
Middle East at McGill last Wednesday.
The event was hosted by Young
Jews for Social Justice (YJSJ) and
Independent Jewish Voices (IJV).
Applause and cheers rang as
Halper stood to speak.
Halper blamed Israeli tribal
nationalism and a belief in exclusive
ownership of land as the reasons
why peace remains so elusive, lik-
“Think of ‘The Motherland, The
Homeland!’ People say Israel is a
Western democracy, but it isn’t,”
Halper said. “Zionism comes out
of Eastern Europe, not Western
Europe.”
Halper also claimed that this
“doctrine of the permanent enemy”
guides Israelis to assume that Arabs
want to kill them, and thus that there
is no political solution.
“Israel is a military state. It is run
by generals and Israel has set up a
set of parameters that make peace
impossible,” Halper said.
result armed resistance is legitimate
according to international law.
Halper stopped once during his
presentation and allowed a question
to be asked by an upset Israeli, which
was met with a raucous response
from the audience – including one
student who tactfully turned around,
shouted, and dramatically mimed
“zip-it-up.”
Halper concluded his presentation
by claiming that the world was forget-
ting Palestinians and turning them
into “surplus humanity” by apathy.
He proposed the abandonment
negotiating table expecting to walk
away with everything.
“I hope my message wasn’t a
‘down’ message, but there cannot be
a win/lose resolution.”
Grey’s discussion preceded
Halper. He felt Canadians have been
far too passive in human rights activ-
ism, explaining that “safe” human
rights activists avoid controversy–
such as language laws and labour
issues in Canada, and the humanitar-
ian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
“Human rights are quite useless if not
accompanied by courage,”Grey said.
the interest of Israel,” added Grey.
He found any real resolution to be
in the hands of Israel’s government,
who he said needs to step away from
policies of hate and war. He then out-
lined how Canadian action can speed
up that process.
Representatives from QPIRG
and IJV claimed McGill tried to
censor the event when it demand-
ed an additional $250 for security
on the day of the talk. The audi-
ence was asked for further dona-
tions to cover the unexpected
cost.
 6 News
“There is no one more helpless than an unborn human being,” said Mary Meehan.
Pro-lifer seeks liberal support
Eugenics sparks debate on abortion rights
Ariel Lefkowitz
News Writer
P
ro-life speaker Mary Meehan
was met with general applause
and a significant number of
boos at her talk on liberal and femi-
nist support for the pro-life cause dur-
ing an event at McGill on Monday.
The question and answer period,
which lasted over an hour, saw many
heated and a few virulent arguments.
The talk, organized by Choose
Life and entitled “Why Liberals and
Feminists Should Defend the Unborn,”
drew almost 100 individuals of vary-
ing opinions on the issue of abortion.
The left side of Leacock 232 attracted
the pro-choice supporters, while the
pro-life supporters and event organiz-
ers opted to sit on the far right.
Meehan criticized the left side’s
current position of “worship[ping] at
the shrine of choice.”
“Some choices really should not
even be considered, because they do
involve harming or taking the lives
of other people,” she said. “Liberals
indeed are anti-choice on many
issues... the death penalty, most wars,
torture, rape, racial discrimination,
and many more. They should add
abortion to the list.”
Speaking at length, Meehan sug-
gested the existence of a “eugenics
influence” in the pro-choice move-
ment. She alleged that abortion is a
new tool used for population control
in the United States and around the
world.
Meehan also cast abortion as a civil
rights issue.
“Early in the 20th century, the
eugenicists in the U.S. used compul-
sory sterilization of poor whites and
poor African-Americans to keep their
numbers down,” Meehan said. “But
eugenicists did not have to use coer-
cion after our Supreme Court legal-
ized abortion in Roe v. Wade.... One
of the ways they do it is by support-
ing public funding of abortion.”
Elise Eisenkraft Klein, U2 Jewish
Studies, objected to what she believed
was Meehan’s conflation of eugenics
and the pro-choice movement.
“Choosing to have an abortion is
not the same as forced sterilization,”
she said.
Charles Pitman, U2 Economics and
Philosophy, argued that support from
eugenicists does not invalidate the
legitimacy of the pro-choice position.
“All sides of the [abortion] issue
have allies that they aren’t proud of.
It’s not like the pro-life side has only
friends that are reputable,” he said.
Meehan argued that abortions
performed after neonatal testing
for disabilities were wrong and that
access to abortions increases pater-
nal irresponsibility.
“Guys have to talk to guys about
walking out [on women]. We need to
reinstate the old stigma against guys
walking out on their children.”
During the question period, Salma
Moolji, U1 International Development
Studies, told her story of becoming
pro-choice while running a school
for abused girls in Nicaragua.
“The day that I decided to be
‘pro-choice’ was the day that I saw
the child [of a] child die of starva-
tion.... If I put myself one generation
Shu Jiang / The McGill Daily
back, I would be in India, where my
grandfather was sold into child slave
labour.... I might have been that girl.”
A few students in attendance were
particularly incensed by Meehan’s
sentiments. One such student,
Elsa Beaulieu, a PhD candidate in
Anthropology, called Meehan “arro-
gant” and “insidious.” At the end of
a detailed and emotional criticism
of Meehan’s points, she pleaded,
“What about addressing the real-
ity of women’s lives? What about the
consequences of illegal abortions on
women’s lives? What about it?”
But derogatory comments from
the audience toward Meehan con-
vinced Raphael Dumas, U1 Civil
Engineering, to reconsider his posi-
tion.
“Those few rude students actually
pushed me in the direction of [the
pro-life stance],” Dumas said.
Meehan insisted that her position
is not hostile to women who have
had abortions.
“I want to say to [those women
who have had abortions] that I’m not
out to make you feel badly or send
you on a guilt trip, but I appeal to
you to take another look at this issue,
because there are more lives at stake
every day. I hope that you will help
save some of them.”
Choose Life, granted interim club
status by SSMU in October 2008,
will be applying for full club status at
the end of this month. According to
Choose Life’s Community Outreach
coordinator Kathryn Sawyer, the
group tries to offer resources to
“women who want an alternative to
abortion” on campus.
The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 2009
Principal defends tuition increase,
travel policy at Council
The majority of inter-
national tuition goes to
provincial government
Erin Hale
The McGill Daily
P
rincipal Heather Monroe-Blum
was the highlight of the first
SSMU Council session of the
semester last Thursday evening. In
her opening remarks, Monroe-Blum
expressed a wish to stay in contact
with Council on a more regular
basis, and her intention to respond
to all councillors’ questions.
When Law Senator Alexandre
Shee asked about tuition increases,
Monroe-Blum tried to explain the
financial logic behind her support
for a form of deregulation of tuition
fees, which she calls “re-regulation,”
and described as deregulation with
principles.
“What you should know is with
our international students...McGill
receives only the Quebec tuition from
your fees. If you pay, say $12,000,
McGill receives $1,750, and the rest
goes into the Quebec system to subsi-
dize students who come in free from
France and from the Francophonie.
I think if you want to look at a fair-
ness issue you should look at that,”
Monroe-Blum said.
Monroe-Blum noted that under
her proposed system, the full amount
charged to international students
would get channelled back to the
postsecondary institution they attend,
and would theoretically benefit all
students. She also defended McGill’s
capital campaign and drive for private
funding.
NEWS
BRIEF
Right to write in French
to be on syllabuses
The right of students to submit
graded assessments in French will
be more widely publicized, thanks to
two amended motions passed at yes-
terday’s Senate meeting.
The first motion clarified the sort
of assignments students are allowed
to submit in French, and the second
required all course outlines to reiter-
ate that students have this right.
Jane Everett, Dean of Students,
introduced the motions on behalf
of the Senate Committee on Student
Affairs (CSA).
“The right has been around since
the eighties, but there is some ques-
tion as to whether or not it exists in
practice,” Everett explained.
She stressed how important it is to
remind students who are more com-
fortable using French than English
“There’s often a question about
[if we are] overly corporatized.... My
experience is not that the private
sector or philanthropists want to tell
us how to do our business,” she said.
“[But the] government tries to tell us
all the time how to do our research.
Government values certain disci-
plines over others...Humanities and
social sciences get short [changed].”
Arts Representative Sebastien
Ronderos-Morgan asked about
McGill’s new travel policy, which
restricts students from travelling to
countries with formal travel warnings
from the Canadian government.
After commenting on the “inter-
national nature of McGill,” Monroe-
Blum stressed how dangerous travel
to insecure areas can be. She men-
tioned that Canadian diplomatic and
federal support pulls out of the coun-
tries that the directive would prevent
travel to.
“I’ve lost three colleagues [in
Afghanistan and Mumbai] in less
than six months. These aren’t casual
concerns about safety,” she said.
SSMU VP External Devin Alfaro
asked why former Quebec Health
Minister Philipe Couillard was
appointed as a Senior Fellow at
McGill’s Law School. Couillard is
under investigation by Quebec’s
lobby commissioner for talks he
held with a private health care com-
pany that was not registered with
the provincial lobby bank and that
hired Couillard two months after he
retired as Health Minister.
“Controversy, in itself, does not
have us shy away if something is
good at McGill. We actually invite a
lot of people to come work in as a dis-
tinguished speaker or a fellow. If the
guy’s corrupted, I think there’s no
record on that,” Munroe-Blum said in
his defence.
that they will not be at an academic
disadvantage at McGill.
“The motion will establish a level
playing ground for any student who
is more familiar in French than in
English. We are trying to accommo-
date that.”
Adding the article to course out-
lines was a contentious move – sev-
eral professors felt that the syllabus
is not the proper medium through
which to communicate students’
rights – and only passed narrowly
after three recounts.
With the second motion, CSA
hoped to clarify the rule on sub-
mitting assignments in French and
proposed changing the description
of work that can be submitted from
“essays, examinations, and theses” to
“written work that is to be graded.” As
before, this allowance does not apply
to language proficiency courses.
The motion passed overwhelm-
ingly.
The two proposals were originally
introduced to Senate in last May, but
procedural errors made their approval
void, postponing their reevaluation.
– Jennifer Markowitz
 Letters
Security: at what expense?
Re: “Tadamon! is no Paragon”
| Commentary | January 12
Yes, “let us not oversimplify.” The
issue in Gaza at the moment is not
one that anyone can even begin to
assess in a weekly column or in a
simple letter. It is an issue involv-
ing a history of charged emotions,
deep-seated biases, and millions of
well- and ill-informed opinions. Do
not mistake me, I am not writing
this in to be the archetypal Arab
advocate of Palestinian human rights
– I’m simply writing this to place
an emphasis on the ill-informed
nature of the debates and discus-
sions taking place on this issue.
Hamas is and has been, for
some time now, launching attacks
on Israel at the expense of Gazan
civilians. And we all know that
number one on the Israeli govern-
ment’s “to do list” is security. I just
write this to prompt the question:
at what expense? Let’s bring up the
old Machiavellian concept, “the end
justifies the means.” Really? Is that
what the world has come down to?
Let me get this straight, Ricky.
“The only way for Israel to win is
to kill Hamas soldiers, but that’s
hard when they hide behind the
horribly literal skirts of Gazan civil-
ians.” Right. So Israel is basically
left with no alternatives. One of
the richest, most powerful nations
in the world is simply out of ideas.
There is no other way to weaken
Hamas. Let’s just aim at Hamas
soldiers, and hey, if a couple of hun-
dred children die in the process,
it’s a price we are willing to pay.
Honestly, no matter who you
are or what side you’re on, I think
we should all agree that that is no
price anyone should be willing
to pay. C’mon, people. I remain
unconvinced. There are other ways
to handle Hamas and weaken its
intelligence and military structures.
Heck yes, let us “never allow
nihilists to use our own moral-
ity against us.” Let us instead
challenge them, question their
every move, and place pressure
on those who claim to be work-
ing toward justifiable “ends” to
come up with new “means.”
Sarah Albanna
U2 International Development
Studies and Sociology
Education is anything
but a commodity
Re: “Education isn’t a right, it’s a com-
modity” | Letters | January 12
Let me begin by saying that what
I have to say it isn’t all bad: one part
is an attack, but I will compensate by
applauding Lofranco on one of his
points as well. But first, the criticism.
I agree, Mr. Lofranco, educa-
tion is not a right. Similarly though,
water is not a right, and food is
not a right either. It is access to
these things which is a right. Now,
perhaps we won’t find “access to
university education” amongst the
rights on the UN declarations, but
I do believe that they are in the
spirit of them. I hate to get bogged
down in syntax, but I think that the
main issue of your point of view,
and in fact that of others depends
on this linguistic misconception.
I will return to this point, but I
wish to make clear that education is
not, nor should it be, a commodity.
Perhaps, Mr. Lofranco, you mean
by commodity that it is something
which is not essential to survival,
and thus callously use this word
instead of privilege or luxury, but
it has much more ingrained sig-
nificance than that. To say that it
is a commodity is to claim that it
should be reserved for those who
can afford it, in a purely monetary
sense, and that we should acquire
it if we feel like it, as an extra little
feather in our cap, so long as we
can foot the bill. The consequences
of this conception of education
are far from desirable, particularly
for a person of your persuasion.
I would like to end by agree-
ing with what you say at the very
end of your letter, about making
universities places for the academic
elite. After all, isn’t that what we
should be striving for? By all means,
raise the fees if it will lead to bet-
ter education, so long as we raise
the standards as well. I would only
suggest that we also invest in stu-
dent aid to ensure that the “best
and the brightest” can still afford
to become part of this elite.
Charles Pitman
U2 Economics and Philosophy
The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 2009
Re: “Smashing one piñata at a time” | Commentary | January 15
Thank you for shedding some humour on such
a dark situation. I only hope nobody will be
silly enough to think you’re being serious here,
as that would be very embarrassing for you.
Mookie Kideckel “Serious or embarrsssing – take your pick”
Does Hamas really want to talk?
Re: “Hamas must be talked to”
| Features | January 15
In his article, Niko Block praises
Hamas for calling Obama to con-
gratulate him on his victory, yet fails
Read before responding to discuss the aid being sent from
Re: “Jews, Muslims, and Arabs should Israel into Gaza, and the extreme
stand together” | Letters | January 15 measures that the Israeli Defense
Forces (IDF) take to prevent the
I typically do not respond to killing of innocent civilians. He
Letters to the Editor, but in the last credits the recent violence to the
edition Isaac Binkovitz implied that “fact that Hamas has found nothing
opinion pieces that I, along with but closed doors in the diplomatic
Ricky Kreitner and Mookie Kideckel, sphere…especially with Israel.”
had written fuelled the supposed Merely taking a look at history since
tensions between Jewish, Muslim, the creation of the State of Israel
and Arab communities in diaspora. forces one to ask the question: at
While I will not deny this claim what point were these doors closed?
about Kreitner and Kideckel – whose In 1937, the Arabs rejected the
opinion pieces were rife with misin- Peel Commission, which would
formation almost directly out of the have served as a compromise divid-
mouths of an Israeli military spokes- ing the land west of the Jordan
person – I politely yet vehemently River into two independent states.
refute this assertion about my piece. In 1947, the United Nations pro-
In it, I am in no way “dehumaniz- posed the Partition Plan, which
ing, stereotyping, or otherwise deni- would have made a Jewish state out
grating innocent civilians and their of merely 15 per cent of the land
diasporic counterparts,” as Binkovitz originally promised to the Jews in
implies. Read my piece carefully; 1917 in the Balfour Declaration.
you will not find one mention of In a quest for peace, mirror-
the words Jew, Muslim, or Arab. ing their decision on the Peel
As for Kreitner and Kideckel, I Commission, the Jews ratified it
am quite sure that their extremist and the Arab world rejected it.
views are negated by the substantial In 1979 at Camp David, Prime
participation of the Jewish commu- Minister Begin aspired to peace
nity in social justice work through- and returned the Sinai Peninsula
out the world. Let us not forget, to Egypt and its president Anwar
the demonstrations in Montreal Sadat as a gesture of good faith. In
over the past few weeks have been 2000, Prime Minister Ehud Barak
equalled by those in Tel Aviv in went back to Camp David and
shock over the continuing Israeli offered Palestinians 97 per cent of
assault on the people of Gaza. the territories, granting the right to
While I’m at it, as is the case return to many refugees, and mili-
with all of my writings, I will gladly tary control over Eastern Jerusalem
provide references for all of the and parts of the Old City. Instead of
facts used in my opinion pieces. My sitting down to talk, Yasser Arafat
pieces are always submitted with waged a war of terror. In 2005,
references included, which the edi- Israel disengaged from Gush Katif,
tors then remove before printing. a settlement in Gaza, only to be
plagued by thousands of rockets.
Nasser Mohieddin Abukhdeir So what have we learned from
PhD IV Chemical Engineering Hamas’ track record? We have
learned that the Palestinians have
yet to uphold their end of the “Land
for Peace” negotiations. We have
seen that while Israel has been will-
ing to compromise, the Palestinians
have not, and maybe, just maybe,
Sasha Plotnikova / The McGill Daily
Hamas doesn’t really want to talk.
Leanne Silberberg
U0 Psychology and Linguistics
The Daily received more letters than it could print this issue, they will appear in the next
possible issue. Send your non-offensive letters to letters@mcgilldaily.com at 300 words or
less, and include your year and program.
7
First step to peace: end violence
Re: “What the World doesn’t know
about Israel” | Letters | January 15
Bravo, well done! Eden Sagman
has successfully regurgitated the
popular mantras professed by
mendacious world “leaders,” ideas
held as common truths drilled into
people’s minds day after day.
Essentially, that the Israeli gov-
ernment has the right to defend
itself, that Hamas is a “terrorist”
organization contributing to the
destruction of Gaza, and finally, that
the Israel Defense Force is making
great efforts to reduce the amount of
civilian casualties. Your words hold
neither credibility nor truth when
one accepts the undeniable fact that
more than 1,300 Palestinians have
been killed in a massacre orchestrat-
ed by one of the most powerful mili-
tary forces on the face of this planet.
The Palestinians have been
living under occupation for over
60 years – a dehumanizing and
degrading situation that you and I
will never be able to grasp. Sagman
audaciously claims that Israel just
wants “peace and quiet.” Well
then I suggest it begins by ending
its indiscriminate use of violent
force against innocent civilians.
Amanie Antar
U3 Education
Serious or embarrass-
ing – take your pick
Re: “Smashing one piñata at a time”
| Commentary | January 15
Ahoy Comrade Ted,
Thanks so much for the delight-
fully tongue-in-cheek article this
week. You so effectively caricatured
the absurd conclusions and out-
of-context half-truths that radical
anti-Israel activists are constantly
spouting. The obvious grammatical
errors only heightened the satire.
Thank you for shedding some
humour on such a dark situa-
tion. I only hope nobody will be
silly enough to think you’re being
serious here, as that would be
very embarrassing for you.
In solidarity,
Mookie Kideckel
U1 Political Science
 Mind&Body The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 2009

The wide
than glorified newsstands peddling cigarettes, forties of Molson
dry, and overpriced groceries despite such minor charms.
Where to buy good beer is the question I’m asked the most.
It seems that people are interested in drinking quality brew but

world of
reluctant to shell out $7 a pint at a bar. But never fear! There are
deps that suit your purpose if you’re after something more than
All hopped up a Molson Ex. Well, actually, some aren’t deps – in fact they may
scoff at the stereotype that beer needs be sold next to bottles of

deps
Joseph Watts Porte d’Enfer. Nevertheless, these four establishments are the
best purveyors of local, craft-brewed beer in the city. Along with

D
epanneurs are peculiar stages for the drama of life. If
you’ve been in one, you’ve been in 20, but everyone has
a favourite. There is a cozy familiarity one has with the
dep closest to their apartment. Maybe the old man behind the
counter smiles when you come in, but it’s a shame that beer in
Montreal is sold almost exclusively in deps, which are little more
a description, each review has the manager’s pick, my own, and
a reason to go more than once.
Find All Hopped Up in the Mind&Body section every other
Thursday. Can’t wait? Send Joe your top ten encounters with
your elderly, smiling dep manager to allhoppedup@gmail.com.

Les Délires du Terroir Épicerie José inc.

6406 St.-Hubert 470 Duluth E.

This small shop in Rosemount is big on beer, as long as it’s from
Quebec. Owner Sylfranc Côté orders beers with age in mind so that
two or three years from now that strong beer will be at its best. Côté
is also passionate about pairing beer with food. They have a fine work-
ing relationship with sausages from Le Queue de Cochon, the artesian
butcher next door.
The “most like a classic dep” dep. You can stop pick up a loaf of
bread or cigarettes on your way home and get lost amid a staggering
beer selection, or roped into one of their weekly beer, cider, or wine
tastings. Épicerie José gets brownie points for having the best prices
of the bunch with lots of deals on 12 packs and 6 packs you can make
yourself.

Selection: 195 styles, all from Quebec Selection: 350 styles total, about 200 from Quebec brewers
Manager’s Pick: La Barbarie – India Pale Ale Manager’s Pick: Les Trois Mousquetaires – Signature Series
All Hopped Up’s Pick: À l’Abri de la Tempête – Corne de Brume an aged All Hopped Up’s Pick: Something from the brand new Brasseurs de
scotch ale Montreal
Reason to come back: When the Saint Reserve beers from Microbrasserie Reason to come back: Tastings. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, from 5-9
Charlevoix arrive, you’ll have a chance to taste what Côté considers to p.m.
be Quebec’s best beer.

Super Marché Rahman Fromagerie Atwater

151 Laurier O. Atwater Market

The ultimate beer dep, “Le Paradis de la Bière” has been a purveyor
of Quebec microbrews for 18 years. Its massive selection places forties
of Black Label next to magnums of nobler stuff, but the shining stars are
the five kinds of house beer. Rahman himself formulated the recipes for
Okay, it’s a cheese shop, but they’re serious about their beer. With 20
new styles in since Christmas, they’re constantly updating their supply
with the freshest, most current offerings from Quebec’s micro brewer-
ies. The best part is that you can shop for the best cheese to pair with
All photos by Joseph Watts / The McGill Daily

the Paradisiac beers – traditional styles brewed with Indian spices, all your beer in the same store. Just ask any of the knowledgeable staff who
bottled at local breweries. will gladly tell you what complements what.

Selection: around 500 styles, 250-300 of which are from Quebec Selection: 125 styles total, 95 from Quebec brewers
Manager’s Pick: Paradisiac Scotch Ale Manager’s Pick: Au Maitre Brasseur – Noire de Fromagerie Atwater
All Hopped Up’s Pick: Paradisiac Cuivrée – a strong, hoppy beer All Hopped Up’s Pick: Buy a bottle of Maudite from Unibroue and a cheese
Reason to come back: Trying a different beer each time you come in will called Le Fêtard which spent its formative years being washed in the
keep you busy for years. aforementioned stuff
Reason to come back: Lots of beer, lots of cheese, lots of tasty combo
possibilities.
The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 2009
Passing the smell test
Romantic love skews heterosexual females’ ability to sniff out potential partners, McGill postdoc’s study finds
Erin O'Callaghan
The McGill Daily
L
ove can skew women’s scent
recognition when it comes to
male body odour, according
to a recent study published in the
December 2008 issue of Hormones
and Behavior.
The study, “Romantic love modu-
lates women’s identification of men’s
body odors,” which was carried out
by McGill postdoc student Johan
Lundström under the supervision of
Professor Marilyn Jones-Gotman,
states that the more in love hetero-
sexual female participants claimed
to be with their male partners, the
worse they were at identifying the
body odour of another potential part-
ner, such as a male friend. However,
the magnitude of love reported had
no effect on the ability to detect the
scent of female friends, because, in
the case of this heterosexual female-
centred study, they were not viewed
as potential romantic partners.
Lundström, who is no longer a
McGill student and is now working
at Monell Chemical Senses Centre
in Philadelphia, wrote in an email
to The Daily that the inspiration
behind the study was based upon
anecdotal observations regarding
body odours combined with his aca-
demic interests.
“You really like smelling your
partner’s body odour, and when real-
ly in love, you don’t particularly like
the body odour emitted by others,”
Lundström said.
“The focus of my research regard-
ing body odours is to determine what
form of social and biological signals
are hiding within [them], and how
are we able to extract and process
these [olfactory] cues,” he added.
The study’s representative sample
consisted of 20 couples, along with
a male and a female friend of each
female partner.
According to Jones-Gotman, a
professor in McGill’s Department
of Neurology and Neurosurgery,
and specialist in the neural corre-
lates of smell and taste, who over-
saw Lundström’s study, only female
partners were evaluated because of
their greater sensitivity to scent rec-
ognition. She stated that the findings
would not be valid if the results from
male and female partners were com-
pared in the same study.
“The ability for scent recogni-
tion is not always the same between
sexes,” Jones-Gotman noted, adding
that women are better at detecting
scents in general.
Mind&Body 9
Jones-Gotman also said that she “This goes to show that even
did not think the results would have such complex emotions such
been much different had a larger as love [are] but a part of a more
sample group been used. However, complex network of emotions and
she noted the need to address the psychobiological processes, and
question of how the use of same- that our sense of smell is capable
sex couples would change the out- of conveying complex informa-
come of such a study, adding that a tion,” he said.
study using same-sex couples is the However, Lundström
logical next step as a continuation of is not suggesting that his
Lundström’s work. study may be a new way
Jones-Gotman also suggested to predict “true love;” the
doing a study of couples in more study merely shows the
short-term relationships, lasting six connection between
months or less, or longer ones, last- emotion, scent,
ing up to seven years. These results and the mys-
could then be compared to those of terious and
Lundström’s more recent study, in intricate
which subject couples had been in a organ that is
relationship for one to three years. the brain.
Lundström has his own plans for
future behavioural studies investigat-
ing the ways our brains process part-
ners’ body odours.
“We have already investigated
how maternal love is manifested in
the brain in [the] lab here at [the
Evan Newton / The McGill Daily
University of Pennsylvania].... This is
a logical extension of [such a] line of
research,” he said.
Beyond his initial personal inter- The nose can be
est in the subject, Lundström also a powerful tool in
argued that his work is important in women’s search for
more concrete ways. compatible partners.
10 Features

Daniel Lametti / The McGill Daily

Out cold
With only grade-school camping experience under his belt,
Daniel Lametti braves a winter’s night in the Adirondacks

W
hen waking at night with a full blad- topic (I hadn’t been camp-
ing since grade school), I
der, a true winter camper will opt to figured that an outdoors
urinate into a bottle and then hug club might be a good place
to start.
the warm vessel of urine against her chest as Sasan Ghinani, a sec-
she drifts back to sleep. You see, precious body ond year Masters student
heat – heat that might stop your fingers and and MOC executive, replied
to my email: In a week’s
toes from freezing as you sleep – will be used time he’d be leading a trip
to keep any urine in your bladder at body tem- to New York’s Adirondack
Mountains, and he had
perature. Nalgenes, with their large volume and saved me a spot. But the
extra-wide lid, work best in these situations. trip, he explained, had a
twist. Apparently, the MOC
has a few longstanding tra-
ditions. One tradition has
I know this because I overheard two mem- members hike up Mount Marcy, the highest
bers of the McGill Outdoors Club (MOC) dis- peak in New York State, with a four-piece band
cussing just such a situation as I sat in the back in tow. Another has canoeists paddle through
of a station wagon en route to the Adirondacks ice on Lake Saranac, shortly after the winter’s
for a weekend of winter camping – zipperless first freeze. And one of the more storied MOC
winter camping. traditions – the trip Ghinani wanted me to
come on – involves winter camping without the

I first contacted the MOC in the middle of

November. I wanted to write a story on wilder-
ness survival and, knowing nothing about the
use of zippers: no tents, no sleeping bags, no
jackets, no fancy Mountain Equipment Co-op
backpacks.

T hree days after receiving Ghinani’s email,
I make my way to a MOC meeting on the
third floor of the Shatner building; I’m there to
get more information on the zipperless trip and
to decide whether I actually want to go. Several
dozen students have shown up and, to my dis-
may, they all look much more equipped to deal
with the outdoors than I do. In contrast to my
boat shoes, everyone seems to be wearing seri-
ous hiking boots. Nalgenes, cargo pants, and
extraordinarily large backpacks also appear
quite popular. In fact, most of the students
seem ready to jump up and go camping that
instant. And as I take a seat in the crowd, I start
to wonder if I’m in over my head. Ghinani’s
opener does not reassure me.
“People have been dropping out like flies,”
he says, referring to the trip. Everyone laughs
but me.
Bring blankets, Ghinani says – “all the blan-
kets you own.” And clothes – “more clothes
than you think you can carry.” And boots –
“winter boots are essential.”
I glance down at my boat shoes. I’d have to
borrow a pair of boots. The trip costs $40. But
The Daily had agreed to pay. My excuses are
running out. Plus, camping without zippers,
how bad could it be? I hand Ghinani two twen-
ties and walk out.
And thus, the following Saturday, having
just learned that I may have to spend the night
with a bottle of urine pressed against my chest,
I step out of a Ford Taurus, and am greeted by
4,000 foot mountains covered in several feet of
snow.
P reparing to camp without zippers had
proven difficult – everything has a fuck-
ing zipper. Even the six MOC members who
had decided to come on the trip had found it
challenging. And waiting beside our cars for
Ghinani to return from the ranger’s hut, in
subzero weather, jacketless, layered in sweat-
ers, and carrying reusable grocery bags stuffed
with blankets, well, we look like a bunch of
amateurs. The park ranger seems to agree.
Ghinani had planned for us to hike Algonquin
Peak – the second highest peak in New York, at
5,114 feet. After the hike, we would build a shel-
ter and a campfire to, presumably, keep us alive
during the night. That was the plan, at least,
until he emerges from the ranger’s hut with a
disappointed look on his face.
The ranger, upon observing our ragtag
apparel and lack of appropriate hiking gear,
was not going to allow us to climb Algonquin
Peak. And in another blow, we’re told that it’s
against state law to build a campfire in the park.
(We later discover that we had mistakenly driv-
en to the wrong campsite. A private facility, five
minutes up the road, allows campfires).
By this point, I’m starting to wonder if going
on the trip was a big mistake. I glance over at
Ghinani, who, surprisingly, doesn’t seem too
worried. In fact, he’s convinced the ranger to
let us climb a smaller, less challenging, peak –
Mount Phelps, a tame 4,161 feet – and he’s ada-
mant that we can survive the night without a
campfire. I’m not as sure.
G hinani, who is built like a tree trunk and
sports a pair of overly large and well-
groomed sideburns, is no stranger to taking
risks in the wild. Once, while paddling in white-
water, he came upon a canoe flipped over,
pinned against a tree.
“Strainers are trees that fall into the river,”
he told me, “and if your canoe hits one, the
pressure of the water and the river pins you
down there. That’s how most canoeists die.”
Assuming the worst, he dove into the freez-
ing water to search for dead bodies. He didn’t
find any, but he decided to stay in the river to
remove both the canoe and the tree. “Nobody
wanted to do the dangerous parts,” he said, “so
I volunteered.” He was in the water for more
than an hour and came out with hypothermia.
“I was delirious,” he said, “I didn’t know my
name.”
Ghinani is the definition of an altruist. I
ran into him once at the gym and, in between
sets on the bench press, he mentioned that
he wasn’t doing cardio that day because he’d
spent the past half hour pushing cars stuck in
the snow up Docteur-Penfield.
So as we depart from the rangers’ station,
en route to our campsite, I’m somewhat reas-
sured by the thought that if anything bad does
happen in the woods, Ghinani will at least be
there to throw me over his shoulder and carry
me to safety.
B y the time we reach the campsite and drop
off our gear, the sun has passed the midway
point in the sky and we have but a few hours
to ascend Mount Phelps and make it back to
camp before dark. With this in mind, we push
ourselves up the icy trail, stopping only briefly
to take in the magnificent views and to gulp
water.
Mount Phelps, located in the northeast of
New York State, is part of 46 mountains that
are collectively known as the Adirondack “High
Peaks.” All but four are greater than 4,000 feet.
To date, more than 6,000 people have climbed
all 46 of the Peaks. Those that achieve this feat
are entitled to membership in the “Adirondack
46ers” and a commemorative badge.
As we approach the top of Mount Phelps,
breathless from a final scramble up a particu-
larly icy slope, the trees give way to a clearing
that provides a panoramic view of the area.
White Face, the site of the alpine events in the
1980 Winter Olympics, is to the North; Mount
Marcy, the highest of the High Peaks, towers
over us to the South; and Algonquin Peak, the
forbidden fruit, the sun setting behind its back,
glares at us from the West.
“A picture is never as good as the real thing,”
Ghinani offers, staring off into the horizon. We
snap a few photos, pass around a granola bar,
and head down the trail, determined to make it
back to camp before dark.
Having just climbed a mountain, the mood
of the group on the way down is noticeably
upbeat. The MOC members joke about differ-
ent techniques for shitting in the woods (the
“friendship lean” involves two people and a
great deal of trust), while I skip along beside
the group, gleefully scribbling notes.
I’m starting to understand why people do
these things – climb mountains, that is. Hiking
a mountain gives one an intense adrenaline
rush. In fact, I’m so wired that as we approach
our campsite, with the sun slipping behind the
mountains and the temperature rapidly drop-
ping, I’ve completely forgotten that the trip is
far from over – we still have to spend a night
outdoors, in subzero weather, without tents,
sleeping bags, or a fire.
H ypothermia progresses in six stages.
Stages one and two are characterized by
a decrease in blood flow to the non-essential
organs, an aching in the fingers and toes, and
uncontrollable contractions in the muscles of
the body, or shivering, in an attempt to gener-
ate heat. In stages three and four blood flow to
the brain is greatly decreased, decision-making
becomes impaired, and fine motor skills are
lost. By stage five, body temperature has typi-
cally dropped by more than seven degrees.
At this point most people lose consciousness.
Stage six is death.
The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 2009
Standing by our campsite, shivering, won-
dering when I would enter stage three, I start
to worry that I might not make it through the
night. My feet, which had gotten wet during the
climb, are especially cold. I ask Ghinani if he
has a backup plan in case things get worse.
“There are ways of keeping warm,” he says.
“Body heat will keep you so warm, and if it
comes down to it, and you’re cold, fuck, get
down and give me ten pushups. It actually helps
a lot.” He pauses. “If your feet are completely
frozen and you think they’re going to fall off,
you take your feet and you put them – I mean,
it sucks for the other person – but you put your
feet inside a person’s jacket, on their stomach.”
Without a fire, Ghinani explains, this is really
the only way to defrost cold feet in the bush.
Unable to imagine myself shoeless, feet
pressed against Ghinani’s burly stomach, I opt
to put on three pairs of socks and run laps
around the campsite.
W hen spending a winter’s night in the bush,
a quinzhee, or hollowed-out mound
of snow, provides the best possible shelter.
Quinzhees are entirely windproof, and with
body heat and a candle the inside can reach
two or three degrees Celcius. The downside
of a quinzhee is
that they take four
or five hours to
construct and are
I’m optimistic about my
typically only big
enough for a cou-
heat situation: I’m wrapped
ple of people.
Winter camping in a fucking sheep. How
with a large group
usually calls for
tents. Or, if you’re
could I get cold?
moronic enough
to go camping
without zippers,
several tarps and a roll of twine can be used
to construct a tent-like shelter. And, as I watch,
this is exactly what Ghinani and first year stu-
dent Marc Kojima proceed to do.
Kojima places a tarp on the snow to form a
ground sheet while Ghinani runs twine between
two adjacent trees. Over the line they drape a
second tarp, stretching it over the ground sheet
and tacking its end into the snow. It looks like a
wedge of cheese. They call it an A-frame. I hope
it will keep me alive that night.
Several camping stoves are lit and dinner is
prepared. The food brings a feeling of warmth
to the group, and the mood, which had fallen
with the disappearance of the sun, lightens. As
we sit in a circle, cradling cups of hot chocolate,
headlamps shining into each others’ eyes, the
survival stories start to come out.
“I’ve done 72 hours with nothing,” says
fourth year student Chloe Dumouchel-Fournier.
“You’re thrown in the woods and you have to
build a shelter. I was unlucky and had pouring
rain for 24 of the 72 hours.”
“Did you ever fast on a solo?” asks third year
student Anya Bernton. Nobody had. Berton had
been on a three-day solo and, given almost no
provisions, she decided to fast for the duration
of the trip. “After you start eating again,” she
explains, “you barf a lot.”
“I did a solo,” Ghinani chimes in, “but
mine was completely different than you guys.”
Dropped off on an island, in the middle of
nowhere, free from society’s watchful eyes,
Ghinani decided to spend 48 hours in the
nude.
“So I’m lying naked on my island,” he con-
tinues, “on a rock, right by the shore, and ran-
domly there was another group of canoeists – I
don’t know, teenage kids. And you could imag-
ine how weird this looks: You’re canoeing in
11
the wilderness for nine days, and on the ninth
day you see a naked guy on an island.” We all
laugh.
Ghinani’s story, although not really about
survival, seems to top them all.
F or the night’s sleep, we’d trucked 22 blan-
kets into the woods. These included a
queen-sized duvet and a sleeping bag that
Ghinani had ceremoniously cut the zippers off
of the night before. Before retiring for the eve-
ning I cocoon myself in three of the blankets.
Underneath, I’m wearing three wool sweaters,
two pairs of fleece pants, three pairs of socks,
two pairs of gloves, and a wool toque. I wrap
another wool sweater around my feet, for good
measure, and worm my way into the middle of
the A-frame. I’m optimistic about my heat situ-
ation: I’m wrapped in a fucking sheep. How
could I get cold?
I wake up three hours later – freezing. An
icicle of drool has formed at the side of my
mouth, and I can’t feel my toes. Stage six imme-
diately comes to mind. I pull my toque over my
face, bring my knees up to my chest and curl
into a fetal position. I don’t move, or sleep, for
another five hours. Thankfully, I never have to
pee.
The next morning we find out that the tem-
perature in the High Peaks had dropped to
-15ºC during the night. In fact, before going to
sleep we’d come across two campers, just down
the trail from us, who had full zippered gear
and a lean-to to sleep in, but had still broken
the rules and made a fire. “We’re fucking cold,”
one complained. They weren’t at their campsite
in the morning. It looked like they had bailed
during the night. I was pretty cold, and I hadn’t
slept very much, but at least I’d stuck it out till
the morning.
T wo weeks later, back in Montreal, I meet up
with Ghinani at Thomson House for a beer.
We start talking about Chris McCandless, a col-
lege grad who wandered into the wilds of Alaska
in an attempt to escape society. After several
months in the bush, he ended up dying of star-
vation. McCandless’s death has since been made
famous by the 1996 Jon Krakauer book Into the
Wild and the 2008 movie of the same name.
“McCandless greatly underestimated
nature,” says Ghinani, “which you should never
do. The idea is romantic – being outside in the
wilderness on your own. I can see eye-to-eye
with him on that for sure. I can see his rea-
soning about wanting to go into the woods to
escape society,” he says. “But in order to do that
you have to be prepared. You have to know
what you’re doing and how to do it.”
And what about our trip, I ask, remembering
the high of the mountain climb and the low of
the sleepless, freezing cold night. How did he
think it went?
“Flawless,” he replies.
For more photos from Dan’s expe-
dition, visit mcgilldaily.com
and click on Features.
12 Commentary
The art of falling far from the tree
The
conversationalist
Rosie Aiello
T
he Banyan tree is known for its
fantastic appearance: a dense
forest of connected branch-
es that prove to be, in fact, a single
tree.  ings, as well as several religious sig-
“The tree’s branches spread them-
selves wide, drop perpendicular
branches, and form new roots wher-
ever these branches land, although
where they land is often quite
far from their  origin,” says Cécile
Rousseau, a transcultural psychiatrist
at McGill.  Specializing in child refu-
gees and war trauma, she sees “the
Banyan tree as a perfect metaphor
for the migrant child.”   ever, the older kids use more tradi-
Like the Banyan tree, whose
anomalous root structure makes it
more biologically sound, the migrant
child who has successfully grown
new roots is often stronger and
more resilient than a child who has
not faced such hardships. Suffering
can be positive and transformative,
according to Rousseau, if psychologi-
cal supports are in place.
Fittingly, Banyan is also the name
of the group of psychiatrists who
help young refugees deal with the
psychological traumas of war or dis-
placement, using art as an avenue for
expression. Rousseau explains that
the group works with preschoolers,
elementary school students, and ado-
lescents, using the notion that retell-
ing a traumatic event is therapeutic.
The preschool students use sand-
HYDE PARK
Tadamon! clears up opportunism for the misinformed
Tadamon! collective
I
n an article published in the
January 12 issue of The Daily,
Tadamon!, a Montreal-based
social justice group active on, among
other things, the issue of Palestine, is
characterized as “opportunistic.” The
author of the article, Ricky Kreitner,
passes this judgment despite admit-
tedly having done “minimal research”
on our group.
The article implies that Tadamon!
is exploiting the recent attack on
occupied Gaza to criticize Israel for
heavily targeting civilians and civilian
infrastructure in Gaza. “One thing
that opportunists do,” the author
states, “is to take undeniably horrible
circumstances and use them to their
own advantage.”
Precisely how and why this char-
acterization of opportunism fits the
content of Tadamon!’s online bulle-
tin – the main object of the author’s
play to tell their story. They are given
a sand tray with colourful figurines
that they use to represent the world:
people, cars, animals, trees, build-
nifiers, such as Hindu gods, Buddha,
and Islamic and Christian symbols.
The children then use these sym-
bols to give meaning to the world.
The sand game allows them to cre-
ate a world of their own, and to
tell a story in this world, which
they then perform for their peers.
The same technique applies to the
elementary school students; how-
tional forms of representation such
as drawing and writing.
Finally, the adolescents concentrate
on experimental political theatre as a
means of expression – a concept that
is based on the techniques of Augusto
Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed.
According to Boal, interactive theatre
creates dialogue, standing in opposi-
tion to the monologue, which exists
as the origin of oppression.   possibility of the coexistence of mul-
“[The technique] is about col-
lective voices and action,” Rousseau
says.
All three programs contain a ver-
bal and a non-verbal component –
visual, musical, tactile.
“Western psychology has placed a
lot of emphasis on verbal expression,
but no emphasis on bodily or non-
verbal expression. In cases of trauma
objections – is unclear and remains
unexplained in the article. This is
undoubtedly because the fit is any-
thing but evident. However, despite
the gratuitousness of the judgment
on Tadamon!, it may be taken at face
value by some readers, and given that
it is meant to damage the image of its
target, it must be addressed.
Let us speak first about the “unde-
niably horrible circumstances” in
Gaza. During the three weeks of
attacks on Gaza, Israel murdered
more than 1,300 Palestinians, spe-
cifically targeting educational insti-
tutions including UN schools, the
Islamic University of Gaza, and the
University Teacher’s Association in
Gaza City.
Israel’s attack on Palestinian civil-
ians in Gaza is well documented
and morally repulsive. Days into the
recent bombardment on Gaza, five
Palestinian sisters were killed while
sleeping through an Israeli air strike
on the Jabalya refugee camp, buried
in their beds as the walls of the fam-
Dr. Cécile Rousseau’s psychiatry group offers support to young refugees through artistic expression.
not everything can be easily said or
even concretized. Words can be too
difficult, and so it is sometimes more
useful to deal in the abstract, in rep-
resentation.”
Rousseau sees many of the world’s
conflicts as stemming in part from
people’s inability to recognize the
tiple truths.
“The absolute is dangerous. The
fact that a community or a group of
people would say ‘we have the truth’
– that is dangerous.” Artistic expres-
sion, however, in its non-verbal incar-
nation, allows for a multiplicity of
meaning, thus fostering moral com-
plexity.
And that’s why it’s especially
ily home collapsed after being hit by
an Israeli missile.
The Palestinian sisters – Tahrir,
17; Ikram, 15; Samar, 12; Dina, eight;
and Jawaher, four – unfortunately
stand as only one horrible example
of the over 300 Palestinian children
killed in Gaza over the past weeks.
Israel’s recent military attack on
Gaza takes place in the context of
a two-year siege on occupied Gaza,
which, among other things, denied
Palestinians the freedom to leave
Gaza, as well as access to sufficient
fuel, adequate food, medical care,
and employment.
By this past December, 200
Palestinians had died because they
could not leave Gaza to receive medi-
cal care, 80 per cent of the popula-
tion was dependent on food relief
from the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency, and the World Food
Program, and unemployment was at
45 per cent.
Based on such circumstances, it
is clear that Israel is heavily targeting
The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 2009
upsetting when, in a single summer,
a government can cut $44.5-million
and over a dozen programs geared
to directly funding and supporting
the arts. Compared to the threat of
war, religious persecution, oppres-
sion based on gender or sexual ori-
entation, fanatic totalitarian leaders,
and an array of natural disasters, the
arts may seem a luxury, as they did to
Stephen Harper not so long ago.
“When ordinary working people
come home, turn on the TV, and see
all sorts of people at a rich gala all
subsidized by the taxpayer, claiming
their subsidies aren’t high enough
when they know they have actually
gone up, I’m not sure that’s some-
thing that resonates with ordinary
civilians, whether during the recent
three-week military assault or during
its prolonged and ongoing siege and
blockade of Gaza, which amounts to
collective punishment.
Yet, even if Kreitner would admit
to the targeting of civilians, it seems
that this strategy would not be a
problem for him. The article con-
tends that Israeli soldiers must mur-
der Palestinians in order to get at
their real target: Hamas. Murdering
Palestinian civilians is justified, the
author contends, because Hamas
uses them as human shields or, in
his terms, as “horribly literal skirts
[behind which Hamas fighters hide].”
What is strikingly – and alarmingly –
literal, however, is the author’s blink-
ered backing and parroting of Israel’s
official spin and rationalizations for
the crimes that the Israeli army and
political leaders committed in occu-
pied Gaza.
Most importantly, the misin-
formed author perhaps does not
realize that the majority of the Gaza
Shu Jiang / The McGill Daily
people. Ordinary people understand
we have to live within a budget,”
Harper rationalizes.
But let us not fall into the “ten-
dency that we have,” according to
Rousseau, “to consider that our soci-
ety is essentially benevolent.” If artis-
tic expression has the transformative
psychological power that Rousseau
and her colleagues have observed,
then cutting funding to the arts is not
the act of a benevolent leader, nor is
it even benign. In fact, it could pose a
serious threat, in and of itself.
Rosie’s column appears every other
Thursday. Send her that funk, that
sweet, that artsy, that gushy stuff to the-
conversationalist@mcgilldailycom.
Strip’s population is Palestinian refu-
gees, expelled from their homes by
Israel in 1948 – Palestinians pushed
aside to “make way” for the Israeli
state. Israel’s foundational injus-
tice as a nation built on land from
which over 750,000 indigenous Arab
Palestinians were expelled, remains
the root of the conflict today.
In the end, if Kreitner truly dis-
likes opportunism and is keen to
expose it, he should examine his
own writing, positions, and the
bases upon which his “own moral-
ity” rests. Because what is opportu-
nistic is to give moral justification to
mass confinement, to massacre and
the destruction of homes, families,
livelihoods, and civilian infrastruc-
ture at the expense of thousands of
Palestinian children and the entirety
of a largely refugee population.
To contact the Tadamon! collective,
visit tadamon.ca or write to tada-
mon@resist.ca.
The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 2009
Evan Newton / The McGill Daily
HYDE PARK
Beyond the
dichotomous
debate
Perle Nicolle
W
ar is a terrible thing. It
comes with tears, deaths,
devastation and raging
fires. It comes with aghast civilians
caught in fighting, dying children,
rubble, shells, rockets, and fear.
Some think there is not enough hor-
ror there and would like to add smear
and lies. In light of the crisis between
Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip,
many of us have stakes and many
would like to simply take a stand.
It should be a stand for dialogue. It
has become crucial when writing
about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
to decrease not the passion but the
tension.
The utterly restrictive and sadly
widespread belief that those express-
ing support for one side must consid-
er the other people as their enemies,
and as such unworthy of their com-
passion, has been propagated on our
own campus by irresponsible medias
and agitated group leaders. This
incredibly divisive argument keeps
the moderate voices in the dark.
Perhaps especially in the context
of the conflict between Israel and
Palestine, words have great mean-
ing and numbers have little bearing.
There is little meaning to consider-
ations on the exact proportion of
Hamas men to civilians in the 1,300
Palestinian deaths in Gaza, and only
pettiness in thinking the exact num-
bers actually matter. It is plain that
too many innocents have died, in
Israel as in Gaza. Yet, as we awake to a
ceasefire and realize the extent of the
devastation caused in Gaza, let us use
some restraint before indulging in
the all-too-usual branding of Israel as
an evil creation of colonialist power.
In a sometimes seemingly sense-
less world, words have power and
sense. It is in no way negating the
suffering of civilians in Gaza to
remark that Israel is far from com-
mitting genocide. Israel is not try-
ing to annihilate the Palestinians, is
not deliberately targeting civilians,
and is not starving an entire people.
Israel is not a fascist state, in fact it
is (arguably with Lebanon) the only
democratic country of this region. It
is in no way denying that Palestinian
civilians have been the primary vic-
tims of this conflict to remind that
some of their suffering has also been
self-inflicted: by the Hamas govern-
ment using its own population as
human shields, rejecting ceasefires,
and Egyptian mediations, and by the
terrorists using schools and homes
as rocket launching bases.
If anything, the use of such
words as genocide – along with slo-
gans that borderline anti-Semitism
in demonstrations, and with words
negating Israel’s right to exist – iso-
late the voices calling for compro-
mise on both sides of the front lines.
They cloud the debate and alienate,
they divide along Manichean lines
a conflict so old and so long that its
complexity is hard to grasp. What’s
more, they insinuate that the suffer-
ing of the population of Gaza is not
great enough, not terrible enough to
be described by words that actually
apply. Have the Gazans really not suf-
fered enough that proper character-
ization would fail to catch the world’s
attention? Or is it just rather that it
failed to arouse enough anger and
calls for revenge?
This ceasefire brings a renewed
opportunity for dialogue. Our cam-
pus leaders would do well to seize it
to appease their own base. An educa-
tional institution is no place for slan-
der and hate, but an ideal environ-
ment for discussion and exchange.
Perle Nicolle is a U4 Mechanical
Engineering student. Get the discus-
sion started at perle.nicolle@mail.
mcgill.ca.
HYDE PARK
Halper should stick to
facts, not calumny
Oliver Moore
I
emerged from Jeff Halper’s
January 14 talk at McGill deeply
disappointed at how acceptable
it has become to distort and misrep-
resent facts when the purpose is to
denigrate Israel. I wasn’t expecting to
agree with much of what was said at
the Halper event, but – call me crazy
– I wasn’t expecting to be subjected
to a barrage of unabashed misrepre-
sentations, either. Let me provide a
few examples of what I mean.
Halper’s address stuck to one con-
sistent and dismally dishonest theme.
His overall approach consisted of
projecting the political positions of
the Israeli right-wing fringe onto the
country as a whole. He presented
the notion of the historical “Land of
Israel” as if there existed an Israeli
consensus in favour of maintaining
control over its entirety. Nothing
could be further from the truth.
Here’s a working estimate: of the
120 representatives in the Israeli
Knesset (Parliament), approximate-
ly nine to 20 stand for ideological
attachment to the concept of the
“Land of Israel.” Some 70 are either
willing or eager to make territorial
concessions, of varying extent. The
remaining number of representa-
tives, perhaps about 35, may or may
not favour territorial concessions,
depending on various contingent
factors. And yet Halper, addressing
an audience who, we must assume,
is less familiar than he with Israeli
politics, depicts the right-wing fringe
as representative of the entire coun-
try. This is the stuff of calumny; it
is simply untrue. The fact – as has
been widely covered in the interna-
tional media – is that Israeli govern-
ments of the left, the right, and the
centre have been negotiating territo-
rial withdrawal with the Palestinians
since 1991 and thus obviously cannot
books on tape <
words on paper
Pitch your potential Hyde Park topics to
commentary@mcgilldaily.com.
Commentary 13
have been guided by the ideological
concept of the “Land of Israel.”
Halper stated that “in Israel we
don’t talk about ‘Palestinians’ –
only about ‘Arabs.’” To call them
Palestinians would legitimize them,
he explained. He was referring to the
Arab citizens of Israel, who indeed
are generally, though not exclusively,
conceived of inside and outside of
Israel as “Israeli Arabs.”
And yet Halper, by leaving his
statement unqualified, blithe-
ly allowed his audience to con-
clude that he was referring to the
Palestinians at large rather than only
to Arab citizens of Israel. The fact is
that just about every part of Israeli
society, even most of the right-wing
fringe with which he would like to
identify Israel as a whole, refers to
the Palestinians, be they in the West
Bank, Gaza, or any other place out-
side of Israel, as “Palestinians.” Yet
Halper chose to imply that Israel is
some sort of strange place, in denial
and disconnection from the world,
where the very term “Palestinian”
does not exist. Once again, especially
when presented to an audience not
likely to have travelled to Israel, this
is the stuff of calumny.
Halper had the effrontery, as
part of a most unenlightening dis-
cussion as to whether or not Israel
is a “Western” country, to say that
Israel appears to be superficially
Western because Israelis are “kinda
white.” Never mind the various loath-
some, illogical, and even nonsensi-
cal aspects of such a statement: it
is about as accurate as saying that
Americans are white. It constitutes
yet another example of the cheesy
attitude evinced by Halper through-
out his talk: he pandered to the low-
est instincts of a hapless audience.
Oliver Moore is a Law IV student.
Send your kinda whiteness to oliver.
moore@mail.mcgill.ca.
Write in The Daily.
 14 Commentary
COMMENT
Obama must Human rights, genocide,
and the children of Hamas
push AIDS reform
Nadja Popovich
T
he Inauguration is just two
days behind us and the next
four years are stretched in
front of us with all of their hopeful
promise still in tact. Everyone is look-
ing to Obama to fix a slew of prob-
lems left after a retrospectively dark
eight years under the Bush adminis-
tration. But with the economy teeter-
ing on the edge of unparalleled crisis
– not to mention the ongoing wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq, the new year’s
Israeli-Palestinian crisis, the $10-tril-
lion U.S. debt, and the onslaught of
climate change – it would be easy to
see how so many of those promises of
change which were the main rhetoric
of Obama’s presidential run, could
fall by the wayside. I, however, would
like to focus on an issue which seems
to be left out of the mainstream dia-
logue: the ongoing international fight
against HIV/AIDS.
It may come as a surprise to many,
but the role of the U.S. in funding
the global HIV/AIDS battle has been
hailed as one of the few shining lights
of the Bush years, by no less than the
New York Times, among others. With
the authorization of the President’s
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
(PEPFAR) in 2003, the U.S. commit-
ted an unprecedented US $15-billion
over five years to fight the HIV/AIDS
pandemic internationally. It has been
hailed as the largest health initiative
directed at a single disease to be initi-
ated by one country – ever.
The successes of PEPFAR are
many; the program more than dou-
bled the number of people receiving
anti-retroviral treatment (ART) in the
most hard-hit countries from 2004
to 2008. Yet, it has also faced its fair
share of problems and criticisms.
PEPFAR has most prominently
been accused of being largely morally
motivated. Of the US $15-billion allot-
ted in 2003, 20 per cent was outlined
to be spent on prevention efforts,
one-third of which was earmarked
to go toward non-scientifically based
“abstinence only” education pro-
grams. These sorts of programs have
been largely dismissed as uncon-
structive both in the U.S. and abroad,
as they provide a narrow educational
lens and leave participants more
vulnerable when they do choose to
engage in sexual relations at a later
time. PEPFAR’s ideological policing
of funding has also required agencies
to sign an anti-prostitution pledge –
requiring an explicit opposition to
sex work – before being eligible for
funding, leaving one of the most stig-
matized and at-risk groups out of a
constructive dialogue of prevention
and care. PEPFAR has also turned a
blind eye to another marginalized
community – intravenous drug-users
– by not supporting clean-needle-
exchange programs.
Other criticisms levied against
PEPFAR include its initial refusal to
use generic drugs, instead requiring
FDA-regulated, name-brands despite
the high costs associated with them.
However, this clause has been
reformed to an extent since 2005,
making generic ARTs at least partially
available.
Due to the ideological short-sight-
edness implicit in PEPFAR’s require-
ments for gaining program funding,
many organizations and govern-
ments have chosen to turn their
backs to this considerable tool in the
fight against HIV/AIDS. For instance,
the BBC media outreach program in
Tanzania and the Brazilian govern-
ment, both at odds with the anti-
prostitution pledge, have refused
PEPFAR sponsored funds.
While the Bush administration
showed positive initiative in its bipar-
tisan and globally oriented proposal
of PEPFAR, the mire of moral bag-
gage that comes along with funding
only weighs down the full potential
such an initiative could offer. PEPFAR
funding can no longer be tied to ide-
ology and unproven science. While
steps have been taken to remove
some specifications from the 2008
PEPFAR reauthorization – such as the
exact percentages of money allot-
ted for prevention and abstinence
programs – the general atmosphere
of moral stringency associated with
the Bush administration’s agenda
remains.
With administration change, how-
ever, comes a new opportunity to set
PEPFAR funding free from previous
moral constraints. Obama’s pledge to
“ensure that best practices – not ide-
ology – [sic] drive funding for HIV/
AIDS programs,” is certainly a firm
step in that direction. But now, upon
officially entering office, Obama must
work toward the structural changes
that can provide a more comprehen-
sive and wide-reaching access to anti-
HIV/AIDS funding from the U.S. for
all of those countries in need.
Now is the time to act on AIDS
worldwide; now that gains are already
being made, we cannot sit idly by and
feel as if our part of the work is fin-
ished. Instead, Bush’s initiative must
be set for a more expansive course. In
hard economic times, it may be easy
to say that a reformation of PEPFAR
may not be at the top of the agenda,
but millions of lives literally depend
upon such reforms. Global as well as
domestic expansion of anti-HIV/AIDS
funding and reforms of existing legis-
lation should be a top priority for the
new administration.
For a full outline of the Obama
administration’s HIV/AIDS initia-
tive pledges, visit change.gov/
agenda/the_obama_biden_ plan_
to_combat_ global_hiv_aids/. Nadja
Popovich is The Daily’s Mind&Body
editor. Send your used condoms to
mindnbody@mcgilldaily.com.
HYDE PARK
Adam Plotkin
T
he memories are etched in my
mind: the unease, the looks
of silent terror. The fear was
palpable, unconvincingly shielded
behind the guise of outward brava-
do. This is the reality of the city of
Sderot, located less than a mile from
Gaza, a city that I visited this past
summer.
Over the past eight years, Sderot
has been bombarded by close to
7,000 Qassam rockets that fall indis-
criminately on streets, houses, hos-
pitals, and schools. I walked through
the streets of Sderot, where every
bus stop has been turned into a
makeshift bomb shelter. I witnessed
a school with overhanging cement
reinforcement covering half of the
building due to the inability to pay
for shelter over the entire structure.
When the Code Red sirens sound
indicating that residents have 15
seconds to reach a bomb shelter,
all of the schoolchildren are forced
to leave their studies and run to the
side of the building that has been
reinforced.
These rockets are the work of
Hamas, and they are the reason
why kindergarten children in Sderot
grow up singing songs to remind
them to run to the shelter when
the sirens sound. While they sing
HYDE PARK
Applying some logic to conflict terminology
Gilad Ben-Shach
A
s a math student, I have come
to appreciate logical reason-
ing. Although I realize that
the real world is not perfect, I am
appalled by the blatant lies and pro-
paganda presented not only in inter-
national newspapers, but in our very
own Daily, which I expect to be well-
researched and fact-checked.
There are no sides to be taken
in the current conflict in the Middle
East, which should be thought of as
conflict-resolution. Instead, there are
eight years of rocket attacks by ter-
rorists on innocent civilians, with a
delayed military response to protect
these citizens. It is time to correct
The Daily’s grievous errors, avoid-
ing the use of emotional appeals and
words of convoluted meaning. Here
we go:
First, there is no occupation in
Gaza. Period. Israel unilaterally with-
drew from Gaza in 2005. In other
words, every Israeli civilian and sol-
dier left the Gaza Strip. Therefore,
the term “occupation” is a misnomer.
Logical conclusion: All references to
an occupation of Gaza are lies and
misrepresentations.
The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 2009
songs that could potentially save
their lives, Gazan children are also
taught to sing about killing Jews and
Americans. This is why I fail to see
how individuals profess to be defend-
ing the human rights of Gazans while
failing to understand Hamas for what
it truly is – a hateful, self-interested,
and genocidal terrorist organization.
Hamas’ violent rhetoric is evi-
dent in the founding principles of its
Charter. The Covenant of the Islamic
Resistance Movement openly states
in its 1988 preface: “Israel will exist
and continue to exist until Islam
will obliterate it, just as it obliterated
others before it.” It explicitly calls
for the genocide of the Jewish peo-
ple, stating in Article 7: “The Day of
Judgement will not come about until
Muslims fight the Jews (killing the
Jews), when the Jew will hide behind
stones and trees. The stones and
trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla,
there is a Jew behind me, come and
kill him.”
In Article 8, Hamas’s Slogan pro-
claims, “Jihad is its path, and death
for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of
its wishes.” As a result, the lives of
civilian men, women, and children
are seen as mere instruments in the
hands of a murderous regime that
would sooner see Palestinian chil-
dren become “martyrs” than doctors,
lawyers, or teachers. They would
rather pour funds into Qassam rock-
Second, there is no Israeli siege
of Gaza. For those who do not know
geography, Gaza is roughly rectangu-
lar. Gaza borders Israel on two sides,
and the Mediterranean Sea on anoth-
er. The fourth side of Gaza borders
Egypt. So, yes, Israel has imposed
a sea-blockade since the beginning
of the crisis – which has prevented
Iran from shipping weapons – and
yes, Israel closed off the land bor-
ders, although humanitarian aid still
passes through. However, this leaves
a fourth side, which Israel does not
control. Logical conclusion: Israel is
not responsible for any siege. Such
claims are, again, lies and misrepre-
sentations.
Lastly, the subtitle of the article
“Hamas must be talked to” refers to
“Israel’s repeated refusal to negotiate
openly with the Palestinian author-
ity.” The entire article speaks about
Hamas. For those who do not know:
Hamas and the Palestinian Authority
(PA) are not the same thing. Hamas
is a terrorist organization that, after
being elected in Gaza in 2006, began
a civil war in the Gaza strip killing
many Palestinians.
For some reason, I don’t recall
protests condemning Hamas for
killing Palestinians, but then again,
ets than agriculture, infrastructure,
and basic human provisions. Rather
than improving their hospitals fol-
lowing Israel’s unilateral withdrawal
from Gaza in 2005, Hamas leaders
chose to construct an underground
lair beneath the Shifa Hospital in
Gaza City, Gaza’s largest hospital,
built by Israel in order to improve the
living conditions of Gaza residents.
Terrorism is not Hamas’s last resort,
but its primary tactic.
The adage goes that democracy
ensures that the people get the gov-
ernment they deserve. In the case of
the civilian residents of Gaza, I find
it difficult to agree. Gazans do not
deserve a government that values
death above life, one that teaches
Palestinian children to hate and kill
their neighbours. Both the children
of Gaza and of Sderot deserve better.
Hamas’s stated goals are clear, includ-
ing the destruction of Israel and the
eradication of the Jewish people.
Golda Meir’s words ring true, a rally-
ing cry for Israeli morality: “We can
forgive you for killing our children,
but we can never forgive you for mak-
ing us kill your children. We will only
have peace when you love your chil-
dren more than you hate ours.”
Adam Plotkin is a U3 Honours
Sociology student. Send your love
to adam.plotkin@mail.mcgill.ca.
there are no protests when Hamas
kills Israelis either. Besides being a
terrorist organization, Hamas’s man-
date calls for the destruction of Israel;
not a friendly stance if Hamas really
wants peace. Hamas also uses civil-
ians as human shields, and hoards
the humanitarian aid sent in to Gaza
by Israel.
The PA is a political organization
– with strong historical ties to terror-
ism, but they beefed up their public
image through dialogue with Israel
and denunciation of Hamas opera-
tives as terrorists – and the PA gov-
erns the West Bank. Israel negotiates
openly with the PA, and Israel’s rela-
tionship with the PA is not the sub-
ject of the article. Logical conclusion:
the editors either never checked the
facts, or, similar to the poor termi-
nology I described earlier, The Daily
has published lies and misrepresen-
tations.
Many more points should be
made. I hope The Daily adopts more
rigorous editing procedures, so that
the situation is properly portrayed.
Gilad Ben-Shach is a U3 Math and
Physics student. Send him fun facts
about rectangles to gilad.ben-
shach@mail.mcgill.ca.
 Culture
Arias for the
silver screen
Local cinemas bring New York’s
Metropolitan Opera to Montreal
Stephanie Lopez
Culture Writer
Who would have thought that in
downtown Montreal we would have
the luxury of witnessing some of
the world’s most impressive operas,
recorded live from the Metropolitan
Opera in New York City? This is the
third season that the Met has collab-
orated with movie theatres around
the world to screen high-definition
(HD) recordings of opera perfor-
mances. Montreal alone already
boasts six participating theatres.
I was lucky enough to attend La
Damnation de Faust by Hector
Berlioz. I finally found a seat in
the crowded room, sat down, and
looked around. For the most part,
the audience consisted of dolled-up
elderly ladies in fancy hats, with a
few middle-aged professionals hid-
den among them. But with tickets
fairly modestly priced
at $25, it was disap-
pointing to see
so few students
in attendance.
The function
began with
Sasha Plotnikova / The McGill Daily
orchestral music playing in the back-
ground, making the audience feel
more like they were sitting in the
Metropolitan Opera itself. Before the
first act, the audience was treated to
a sneak peek backstage. The sing-
ers, Marcello Giordani, John Relyea,
Patrick Carfizzi, and Susan Graham
were interviewed. Graham, the mez-
zo-soprano, nervously drank water,
joked to the interviewer about how
she had to climb up hundreds of
steps to reach the point where she
was to start her performance. Her
interviewer’s sarcastic response was
“don’t break a leg!”
Alexis Hauser, the internationally
renowned conductor of the McGill
Symphony Orchestra, explains that
the behind-the-scenes video clips,
“give audiences a picture of how
many people backstage are working
hard to make events onstage suc-
cessful.” This is one advantage to
watching a filmed opera onscreen.
Viewing an opera live is a completely
different experience. Opera perfor-
mances are so full of action it can be
hard to know where to look, but the
camera’s gaze acts as a guide, reveal-
ing the most important shots to the
audience. “The close-ups and overall
The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 2009
15
visual technology in general give you
a different perspective than being at
the original location,” Hauser com-
ments.
“Because the acting of the sing-
ers can be followed so much in the
foreground,” he adds, “audiences
can be emotionally more involved,
feeling almost part of it, particularly
since the subtitles clarify the story
at every moment.” La Damnation
de Faust was created using relatively
new techniques, in which live actors
interact with digital technology. In
one scene, for example, actors ride
digitally-projected horses.
The impact of seeing the opera
on the big screen is tremendous.
However, Hauser explains, “there
is of course one not-to-be-forgotten
setback: the disadvantage of hearing
the music and singers electronically
rather than naturally.” Taking in an
opera in a movie theatre is, of course,
a more realistic and engaging expe-
rience than watching one on DVD in
one’s own living room. “The size of
the screen and the acoustic environ-
ment are more rewarding,” Hauser
notes. It’s even more rewarding
when “one gets to share the impres-
sion with a huge audience.”
 16 Culture The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 2009

Where words often fail

“A Village United Against the Wall” uses photography to confront the devastation of conflict in the Middle East

Ian Becker photo exhibit will move during the

Culture Writer first week of March to Café Aquin, a
student café at UQÀM and location
with distinct importance.

L
ike most people who have at
least some basic knowledge of
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
I’ve engaged in heated discussions
over the past weeks. I’ve read articles
from writers on all sides of the politi-
cal spectrum, and read the heart-
shattering personal testaments of
both Israelis and Gazans.
These exchanges, however
nuanced and thorough they were,
still left me with the feeling that I
knew relatively nothing. And despite
the constant media exposure, I still
couldn’t help but feel utterly removed
from the situation.
Perhaps I had simply been read-
ing the wrong things. After all, even
the infamous Joe the Plumber trav-
elled to Israel to give an assessment
of the situation. It’s getting infinitely
harder to validate sources, and to cut
through the complexity and bullshit.
But, while difficult, it is absolutely
essential. In fact, if there is one
thing that all of these commentators
would probably agree on, it’s that the
situation is dire, and neutrality has
become unconscionable.
It was not until last week, when
I went with a friend to view a photo
exhibition documenting the lives and
actions of Palestinian civil dissidents
in the village of Bil’in, that I felt that
I had a clear understanding of the
greater conflict. The photo exhibi-
tion, put on jointly by Tadamon! and
ActiveStills – a group of documentary
photographers working out of Israel
and Palestine – displays the lives and
civil resistance of the citizens of the
West Bank town.
The photographs are currently
showing in Café L’Escalier (552 Ste.
Catherine E.) until February 9, and
will be at Bar Populaire (6584 St.
Laurent) from February 13 to 28.
While there’s no particular signifi-
cance to these two locations, the
“The photos will be shown during
the 5th international Israeli Apartheid
Week,” says Aaron Lakoff, a member
of Montreal-based social justice col-
lective Tadamon! “This is significant
because the student movement in
Quebec, largely via the Association
pour une solidarité syndicale étu-
diante (ASSÉ) student union, has
been instrumental in supporting the
Palestinian struggle, especially via the
international campaign of Boycott,
Divestment, and Sanctions.”
In the context of the recently-
escalated conflict between Israel and
Gaza, Lakoff thinks the exhibit has
renewed importance. “This photo
exhibit shows the commitment of the
Palestinian people to stand up against
oppression at all odds. Every Friday
for the last three years, the villagers
of Bil’in have marched peacefully out
to the wall, built on their olive groves,
and every week they have stood down
brutal violence from the Israeli occu-
pation forces, usually in the form of
rubber bullets, tear gas, and beatings.
The fact that they keep going back
shows an unbreakable will on their
part, just as the residents of the Gaza
ghetto have been saying that this
most recent slaughter will not break
their spirits.”
And this comes through in the
exhibit, albeit in a sometimes-bizarre
way. At Café L’Escalier, photos rest
above quaint tables where couples
Evan Newton / The McGill Daily
sip coffee and nibble on baked
goods, seemingly oblivious to the
starving eyes above them. The jar- joined me in attending the exhibit’s more of an obligation to know and explore the Israeli-Palestinian issue
ring contrast brings out the impor- opening. “The Israeli-Palestinian more of an obligation to contemplate in the truest, raw sense.
tance of discussing the situation and conflict becomes immediately more these issues on my own.” When looking at these photos, I
displaying reminders of what’s going human, more personal and more I think what the exhibit really saw more than I expected. In the fear-
on wherever possible. urgent when it infiltrates into your shows – though I say this somewhat ful, tired faces of the citizens of Bil’in I
“The photos encourage the kind daily life. I was not particularly knowl- grudgingly, being a firm believer in also saw the angst of southern Israelis.
of conversation and rational discus- edgeable about the conflict prior to rational discussion – is the ability of I saw my Jewish ancestors that died
sion that such an ethically and moral- seeing the exhibit and I don’t know art to succeed where words often in the Holocaust, and the innocent
ly conflicting issue necessitates,” says if I would say I walked away know- fail. The pictures speak volumes, Palestinians who at this moment con-
Ariel Appel, a U0 Arts student who ing more, but I did walk away feeling and with their startling immediacy, tinue to face incredible adversity.

Politics, faith, and toilet paper

brought their live poetry to cosy Casa
All subjects are Del Popolo, featuring the music of
poetic at the Throw Instant Release, band of fellow poet
Ritalin from Ottawa’s Capital Slam
Slam Collective Poetry Collective.
Throw Slam Collective is dedicat-
ed to creating a stronger spoken word
community in Montreal. Members
Pamela Fillion range from “groups of poets, spo-
Culture Writer ken word artists, multidisciplinary
artists, volunteers, dreamers, and
lovers of linguistic phenomenon,” as
lowing November at Casa Del Popolo.
There, the Throw Slam Collective
Best of 2008 album was recorded
live; members of Throw, with special
guests Moe Clark and Kaie Kellough
along with members of Capital Slam,
spoke of politics, racism, love, faith,
toilet paper, and fleeting time. That
night, I returned home energized
and intellectually riveted, and imme-
diately imported some slam poetry
onto my iTunes.
ple out there who can render their
thoughts musical and whimsical no
matter the topic, and that speakers
and listeners can come together to
stimulate thought in a vibrant, laid-
back setting.
Along with performance ven-
ues, the Throw Slam Collective
offers workshops for poetry and an
organic jam session called The Vibe,
where people can create sounds,
movements, and poetry of all sorts.
vidually among some of Canada’s
best. To hear some of the pieces
they performed at the festival, go
to the Collective’s founder and pod-
caster Michelle Dabrowski’s blog
and look for Episode 15 of her
podcast of Throw Radio. The Throw
Slam Collective is always looking for
new members and will be putting
on more events for those who want
to participate by snapping their fin-
gers, performing, and listening.

O
n Sunday, at Casa del Popolo,
the Throw Slam Collective
launched their first album,
3, 2, 1 Throw!, sponsored by a grant
from the Canada Council for the
Arts. To celebrate the best of their
2008 poetry session, the collective
stated on the group’s web site. I first
heard of the collective in October
when a friend told me about a group
he’d gotten involved in, where peo-
ple worked on and performed their
poems. I was initiated into the world
of the Throw Slam Collective the fol-
For many years, I complained
that I was one of those lonely peo-
ple who thought too much, destined
to end my days writing delirious
tracts on a boat amongst salty water
and tears. I no longer think this,
now that I know there are peo-
Last November, four of the Throw
Slam Collective members went to
the Canadian Festival of Spoken
Word’s National Slam in Alberta.
Rob Hoover, Jay Alexander Brown,
Jason Freure, and Chris Masson per-
formed pieces collectively and indi-
For details on the album and shows,
check out throwcollective.com. You
can also hear podcasts at michelle-
dabrowkski.blogspot.com, or sign up
for Throw Radio on iTunes.
The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 2009
SynesthASIA makes you hear new colours and see new sounds
Thomas Kim
Culture Writer
L
ooking for something differ-
ent to do on a Saturday night?
Interested in an event that com-
bines fashion with Montreal’s great
nightlife scene, all for a good cause?
Then head out to Metropolis to see
SynesthASIA, an Asia-inspired char-
ity fashion show. With an expected
audience of 2,000, this show prom-
ises to be one of the biggest parties
of the year.
A joint effort between McGill’s
Association of North American
Born Asians (Manaba) and McGill
Taiwanese Student’s Association as
well as Concordia’s Canadian-Asian
Society, SynesthASIA strives to be
more than just the stereotypical
cultural fashion show, moving away
from simply showcasing traditional
Asian clothes and music. techno music and your eyes fixed to
While you’re enjoying yourself at
SynesthASIA, you’re also benefitting
orphans in India. Proceeds from the
night will go to the Ashraya Initiative
for Children (AIC), a charity that
aims to provide homes for street kids
Things you can do for
the Culture section:
Cook
Massage
Hug
Shower with praise
Shower
Suggest articles
Edit
Write
Join Culture’s meet-
ings. Tuesdays, 5:30
p.m. in Shatner B-24.`
as well as education and health out-
reach programs in Pune, India. The
timing of the event couldn’t be better
because the AIC is currently attempt-
ing to raise enough money for a per-
manent building to house orphans.
As Sylvia Kim, one of the event
organizers, explained, “The name
SynesthASIA is derived from syn-
ethaesia, a neurological [condition]
in which senses become intercon-
nected, and one sees colours from
sound. Artists used this [idea] to
express their art in a very abstract,
fantastical movement.”
The intersection of Eastern and
Western cultures, and the tradi-
tional with the contemporary is how
SynesthASIA lives up to its name. At
once, SynesthASIA will open your
eyes to the contemporary world of
fashion and design, and your ears to
traditional Asian sounds. The next
moment your ears will be drawn to
intricately embroidered Indian dress-
es from Toronto designers Dulhan.
The diverse ethnic backgrounds
of the show’s male and female mod-
els further exemplify the idea of
synaesthesia. The event also looks
Culture 17
to both the traditional and modern-
Whitney Mallett / The McGill Daily
day elements of Asian culture. In one
scene, aspects of classical Japanese
culture are mixed with the futuristic,
gothic trends of Tokyo’s Harajuku
fashion district.
SynesthASIA puts an array of
up-and-coming Montreal designers
and boutiques on centre stage. One
designer that is sure to impress is
Travis Taddeo, whose recent line
offers a futuristic interpretation of
Ancient Greek and Roman fashions.
Anomal Couture will display their
beautiful evening wear in an assort-
ments of both couture gowns and
cocktail dresses, tapered to reveal
stunning silhouettes, accentuated
with strong necklines and cuts. JUDY
and Yasmin Wasfy of Lustre Boutique
will also present their designs. movement. These theatrical com- importantly, the models and dancers
This is a show that transcends ponents really make SynesthASIA a will be there.
fashion in many regards, placing fashion show.
emphasis on the theatrical compo- Following the event, the catwalk SynesthASIA is scheduled for
nents of the show. The Montreal will turn into a club, with music pro- January 31 at Metropolis, 59 Ste.
Wushu Institute is expected to amaze vided by Tokyo Nightclub regulars Catherine E. Tickets can only be
the audience with their martial arts DJ DeLeon, DJ Jemz, DJ Yao, and purchased this week in Bronfman
tricks, seeing as one of their mem- an up-and-coming group, MTLiens. and on Monday January 26 in
bers was a stunt double for Jet Li. They will be sure to keep you danc- McConnell Engineering. Check
The dance crews promise to wow the ing until the early morning. The bar out the Facebook group and event
audience with their choreographed will stay open all night, and more SynesthASIA for more information.
 Compendium! The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 2009
Lies, half-truths, and handlebars
First-year
Arts student
Danji Buck-
Moore wins
Moustache
Contest!
Inauguration good
but slight bummer
Winston Jeffries
The McGill Daily
M
ore than 400 students
crammed into Gert’s Airport
Campus Bar late Tuesday
morning to watch CNN and feel what
it’s like for Gert’s to be packed.
Coincidentally, Barack Obama also
became the President of the coun-
try they call “The Canada of South”
at noon. Before his epic speech in
which he both promised to harness
the power of the wind, seas, and
soil while also vowing to never give
up the American way of life, several
dozen middle-aged-to-elderly white
folk walked down the red carpet and
sat real high up from the masses who
assembled in D.C.
In the lead-up to the inaugura-
tion, it seemed that Gert’s employees
members were trying their darndest
to plug in the speakers that the bar
is equipped with. However, instead
of volume emanating through the
Sterling Street appears every Thursday. Send Margot your dog tales to margot.nossal@gmail.com.
sound system, students were subject-
ed to a bunch of loud, jarring ‘pop’
noises.
At one point, a SSMU executive
member told students sitting near
the large TV screen to turn up the
volume manually – which was met by
confusion from said students.
“I was like, ‘What? Me? Do the
volume knob thing?’” U3 Political
Science student Ronnie Patrick
exclaimed.
Another highlight of the event was
the repeated requests for students to
“make a path” and to “get away from
the bar.”
U2 Humanistic Studies student
Ezekiel Clayton said that moment
might have rivalled “Woah-Bama’s”
speech.
“We all looked around, realized
there was nowhere to move, and
wondered who the hell this person
was – and poof she vanished,” Clayton
said, adding, “And did you hear about
Obama being the fifth youngest
President ever? That’s huge!”
The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 2009 19
volume 98 EDITORS’ NOTE
number 28

editorial A meeting of minds

3480 McTavish St., Rm. B-24
Montreal QC, H3A 1X9 Meeting with Stephen Harper is near the top of Obama’s to-do
phone 514.398.6784 list in the next few weeks, and media sources have been buzzing
fax 514.398.8318
mcgilldaily.com
with speculations as to which hot-button topics the two should
discuss. Not surprisingly, the issues facing both Canada and the
coordinating editor States are complex, numerous, and impossible to rank in terms
Jennifer Markowitz of importance. We’re having a hard enough time figuring out
coordinating@mcgilldaily.com where we stand – and we’re sure you are too. Use this Obama
coordinating news editor paper doll and his outfits and accessories corresponding to the
Shannon Kiely logging industry, Omar Khadr and Guantanamo Bay, the auto
news editors industry, the oil sands, and, of course, the economy, to help you
Erin Hale decide what you think the new president should bring up with
Nicholas Smith Harper. If you’re feeling especially politically engaged, you can
Alison Withers even colour them in!
features editor
Claire Caldwell
commentary&compendium editor
Max Halparin
coordinating culture editor
Braden Goyette
culture editors
Joshua Frank
Whitney Mallett
science+technology editor
Nikki Bozinoff
mind&body editor
Nadja Popovich
photo editor
Stephen Davis
graphics editor
Evan Newton
production & design editors
Will Vanderbilt
Aaron Vansintjan
web editor
Ian Beattie
copy editor
Edwin Cobain
cover design
Evan Newton
le délit
Maysa Phares
redaction@delitfrancais.com
Contributors
Rosie Aiello, Ian Becker, Gilad Ben-Shach,
Niko Block, Alyssa Favreau, Ethan Feldman,
Pamela Fillion, Hannah Fruman, Myles Gaulin,
Shu Jiang, Humera Jabir, Thomas Kim,
Roxy Kirshenbaum, Arjun Kumar, Ariel Leftkowitz, Guy
Lifshitz, Stephaine Lopez, Derrick Lovell,
Ian Martin, Kate Mason, Oliver Moore, Perle Nicolle,
Erin O’Callaghan, Adam Plotkin, Sasha Plotnikova,
Tadamon! collective, Vicky Tobianah, Mary Tramdacle,
Alice Walker, Joseph Watts

Claire Caldwell and Braden Goyette / The McGill Daily

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organization whose membership includes all McGill
undergraduates and most graduate students.

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The Daily is proud to be a founding member
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All contents © 2009 Daily Publications Society. All rights
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Printed by Imprimerie Transcontinental Transmag. Anjou, Quebec.
ISSN 1192-4608.
Errata
In “Small numbers of loud voic-
es protest Gaza” (News, January
12), The Daily incorrectly wrote
that the protest was organized
by QPIRG Concordia, when in
fact it was called for by Tadamon!
and Solidarity for Palestinian
Human Rights (SPHR). Further,
Laith Marouf is from SPHR and
Aaron Lakoff is from Tadamon!,
neither were representing QPIRG
Concordia at the demonstration.
In “AMUSE puts its chips in”
(News, January 12), The Daily
incorrectly wrote that AMUSE had
collected 50 per cent of under-
graduate workers’ signatures –
the number the Quebec Labour
Relations Board requires in order
to grant union accreditation. In
fact, AMUSE does not know the
exact percentage of signatures it
has acquired but believes it to be
in the 50 per cent range, and is
hoping for the next steps towards
accreditation.
In the subtitle of “Hamas must
be talked to” (Features, January
15), The Daily incorrectly referred
to Hamas as the “Palestinian
authority,” which it is not. Further,
Israel does not refuse to have open
discussions with the Palestinian
Authority.
The title of “Troubled Waters in
Davis Inlet” (Culture, January 15)
was misleading; the article referred
to recent events in Chicoutimi and
only made a passing reference to
Davis Inlet, Labrador. Any compari-
son between the problems Quebec
youth and aboriginal youth face
was not intended by the author.
The title should be changed to
“Trouble Waters in Chicoutimi.”
IN PRINT AND ON THE WALLS:
art sup 2009

This year, The Daily will be hosting an art show to accompany its annual Art
Supplement. So if you want to see your work in print, or hung up alongside
some of the best of McGill’s artists, submit your original works electronically
to dailyartsup@gmail.com.

Deadline for submissions: February 20, 2009.