Opinion

James Formosa — The Cord (Wilfrid Laurier University)

WATERLOO (CUP) — Alan Turing, an English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst and computer scientist, is considered by many to be the father of computer science and artificial intelligence. Turing has been credited for his substantial contributions during the Second World War, when he was instrumental in deciphering the Enigma Code for the Allied forces.

He was also largely responsible for the development of the first reprogrammable computer. Yet many of Turing’s achievements remained classified until after his death due to their pivotal tactical role during the war; that he never got the acclaim he deserved in life only makes the way he was treated in 1952 more tragic.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of his conviction of “gross indecency.” Turing had a homosexual relationship at a time when a draconian legislation dating back to 1885 still applied in Britain. Turing was faced with the options of imprisonment or “hormone therapy” that amounted to chemical castration.

Turing opted for the latter and, in 1954, he was discovered dead at home, having ingested cyanide. Turing’s genius in the emerging field of computer science was well understood by his colleagues; at 41 years of age, a career with unimaginable potential was cut short. The greater tragedy of course, is that this man was denied his humanity.

In 2009, Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a formal apology to Turing following a large public outcry and massive online support for a petition to this effect. Despite expressing deep regret and an acknowledging the unjust manner in which Turing was treated, Brown never announced an official government pardon for Turing.

In recognition of Turing’s centenary, a petition is calling for this pardon; online it already carries nearly 30,000 signatures. The motion for this pardon was recently considered, and rejected, by the British government. Aside from the potential for homophobic prejudice still existing within the government, there are other, more disturbing possibilities as to why this happened.

Perhaps their concern sits with the precedent that this case will set. Legislators are supposedly worried about having to give the same sort of pardon to thousands of elderly victims of this archaic law, as well they should.

Some argue that Turing rationally chose to break the law, and offering his pardon would lend credence to a “civil disobedience” can of worms for any other current laws which society at large deems unjust.

Instead of focusing on righting past wrongs, the government is worried about the current consequences of raising public awareness about their own fallibility. Yet fallible it is: it once expected many of its citizens to deny an integral part of their beings. To be expected to forsake one’s humanity; to be forcibly separated from forming a bond with another person was the crime in this case.

Another caveat made by opponents of the Turing pardon has been the very nature of pardon-grants in Britain. They are typically reserved for cases where the act was committed, but the persons involved are “morally innocent.” This clause of moral innocence was used to posthumously pardon soldiers who were shot for cowardice in the First World War, for example.

I do not see a distinction here between the “moral innocence” of those who refuse to take another human life and those who choose to act on their love for another human being. This was not a case of Turing making a rational choice to break the law; the law was a broken one to begin with.

Granting Turing this pardon would recognize that he was a morally innocent victim of an unjust law, as were the thousands of other men and women faced with imprisonment or chemical castration by virtue of an essential quality of their being.

As a pioneer of computer science and hero of the Second World War, the tragedy of Turing’s final years has finally entered the public consciousness; thousands are demanding that governments admit they are not infallible and atone for their transgressions. Hopefully, with mounting public disapproval for the government’s handling of the Turing case, justice will be served for this man and for every victim still living with the consequences of prejudiced legislation.

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Français

Charlotte Biron - Quartier Libre (Université de Montréal)

MONTRÉAL (PUC) — Ce n’est ni beau ni laid, ce sont des idées. «Art as idea as idea» (l’art comme idée en tant qu’idée), la formule de l’artiste américain Joseph Kosuth, résume bien l’art conceptuel, l’un des mouvements les plus déterminants de la fin du XXe siècle. Jusqu’à tout récemment peu documenté, l’art conceptuel canadien fait l’objet d’une exposition massive d’un océan à l’autre. Trafic présente les œuvres des centres urbains canadiens. Première partie: Montréal, Toronto, London et Guelph.

À l’entrée de la Galerie Leonard & Bina Ellen de l’Université Concordia défilent quinze photos quadrillées d’un même monsieur cravaté serrant des mains. Robert Walker est l’auteur de «Is Political Art?», une série de clichés le représentant avec des individus importants du milieu artistique, milieu qu’il cherche à critiquer mais dont il dépend pour vivre.

Vidéo d’ongle arraché, l’ordre «Get hold of this space» encadré dans un mur, élévation de la rue Saint-Laurent et tracés géographiques émaillent l’exposition. L’art conceptuel met de l’avant le langage, les télécommunications, les technologies, le corps et la géographie.

S’il est surtout mouvement d’interrogation formelle, la réflexion sur la langue que suscite l’art conceptuel chez les artistes montréalais rappelle directement les troubles politiques, linguistiques, culturels des années 1960 et 1970. «Au Québec, la réflexion sur la langue est avant tout politique. La parole dans le contexte québécois joue beaucoup sur le tableau identitaire et relève du débat linguistique», raconte la co-commissaire de l’exposition, Michèle Thériault.

Au centre de l’exposition, l’œuvre vidéo Pierre Vallières de la Toron toise Joyce Wieland rappelle immanquablement et inlassablement les tensions qui déchirent le Québec et qui traversent les arts. La vidéo diffuse en gros plan les lèvres de ce souverainiste bien connu qui décrie bruyamment les conditions socio-économiques des Québécois. Bien que généralement en anglais, les documents, les revues (Parti pris, Parachute, Médiart), les catalogues et les oeuvres des Québécois francophones ont aussi une place de choix dans l’exposition. Les voir dans le paysage canadien offre une perspective intrigante.

Ambitieuse exposition

Dans le cadre canadien, Trafic relève un défi colossal selon Eduardo Ralickas, chargé de cours en histoire de l’art à l’Université de Montréal. «C’est carrément écrire ou réécrire l’histoire de l’art conceptuel au Canada», explique-t-il. Et à ceux qui auraient encore quelques réticences devant des œuvres peu ou pas matérialisées, il répond: «Ce n’est pas n’importe quoi. Mais il faut laisser de côté la notion d’appréciation de l’objet artistique. Les artistes se concentrent sur des idées et des concepts pour dévoiler comment fonctionne le système de l’art». Pour la suite de Trafic en mars et avril, Michèle Thériault explique qu’elle illustrera tout le prestige des centres artistiques d’importance, comme Halifax et Vancouver, et les contrastes entre ces deux extrémités du pays. La somme de documents, d’œuvres, d’«idées» rassemblés paraît vertigineuse pour l’espace relativement exigu de la galerie. «L’art conceptuel n’est pas pensé pour être contemplé, vous savez», lance-t-elle.

L’art conceptuel, l’art de l’idée

L’art conceptuel naît à New York dans les années 1960. Eduardo Ralickas, chargé de cours à l’Université de Montréal, explique que les artistes qui se revendiquent de ce mouvement refusent de créer pour fournir le milieu en marchandises qu’on échangerait comme des patates ou des automobiles.

«Ils faisaient par exemple des expositions dont les œuvres étaient uniquement présentées en catalogue, dans des galeries vides. Des objets pensés, mais jamais réalisés, jamais matérialisés.» L’art conceptuel, ce n’est pas tant des concepts que l’art comme concept. Les artistes étudient l’œuvre pour mieux révéler le système qui la produit.

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Retrouvez l'article original sur le site du Quartier Libre.

Sports

Nick Murray — The Brunswickan (University of New Brunswick)

FREDERICTON (CUP) — UNB Varsity Reds’ hockey head coach Gardiner MacDougall has been named Canada’s head coach for the 2013 Winter Universiade, in Maribor, Slovenia.

This will be MacDougall’s second trip to the International University Sports Federation (FISU) University Games. In 2007, he won a gold medal as an assistant coach under Saint Mary’s Huskies head coach Trevor Steinburg.

Since the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) conferences began rotating representation duties in 1997, Atlantic University Sport (AUS) is the only conference to win gold.

The 11-day tournament is scheduled to start Jan. 30 next year, and although star AUS players will be required to answer the call for their country, play will resume as normal throughout the conference.

UPEI head coach Forbes MacPherson, and StFX head coach Brad Peddle will join MacDougall, and while these coaches are used to competing against each other, MacDougall says any competitive tension has to be put aside.

“Last time, we all met at the airport in Halifax and all three [coaches] had lost their last game before leaving for Torino,” MacDougall said. “You have to shake that off though because now you’re on the Canadian team.”

When picking players for the team, MacDougall says that any player in the AUS is fair game. He said there will be a lot of input from every coach around the AUS, because when selecting a team, it’s not just based on skill and stats.

“There’s a skill level and there’s a performance level,” MacDougall said, “but there’s also the intangibles of putting the right people in the right roles. When you put a group together, it’s not just finding the 12 top-skilled forwards. It’s [about] 12 forwards that are going to be able to play significant roles for our team.”

MacDougall has had some international experience other than the 2007 Universiade. He also represented Canada for Team Western at the under-17 Canadian Amateur Hockey Association World Championships.

A native of Bedeque, PEI, MacDougall originally got involved with coaching back in 1986 as a coach at Frontier College Residential School in Cranberry Portage, Manitoba, roughly nine hours north-west of Winnipeg.

“It was part-time coaching and part-time teaching,” MacDougall recalled. “I ended up coaching five teams that winter and got totally immersed in the game. I didn’t really know anybody in Manitoba but I was fortunate to get in the inner circle in Winnipeg.”

MacDougall remembered many “top quality” coaches, which he befriended and got into that inner circle of the hockey community in Manitoba.

“I was fortunate to get to know people like Mike Sirant [current head coach at the University of Manitoba] and Andy Murray [former L.A. Kings and St. Louis Blues coach] and become part of a circle. Doug MacLean [Florida Panthers president/general manager] was also a mentor to me, being from the Island working at his hockey camps. So it really started in those roots.”

MacDougall went on to a number of different coaching positions including the Flin Flon Bombers and the Lebret Eagles of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.

This is MacDougall's 12th season coaching the Varsity Reds and he’s the most successful coach in the AUS. Since coming to the team in 2000, MacDougall has led UNB to three CIS championships and won CIS coach of the year in 2010.

He is also the coach to have the most wins in UNB history, but his impact on his players far exceeds what they accomplish on the ice. He said success doesn’t come from one person but rather the group as a whole.

“It’s like anything in life, it’s about meeting good people and having good friends and good contacts,” MacDougall said. “That’s what makes successful coaches is good people. Our motto here at UNB is to ‘make a significant difference,’ that’s my goal every day I come to the rink is to make a significant difference. Hopefully at least one person a day. Sometimes it’s with our own team, sometimes it’s with a youth team, and sometimes it’s with going to school visits.”

Having bachelor degrees in both education and physical education, MacDougall stresses the importance of academics.

Last semester alone, 14 players on the team achieved GPAs above 3.3, making them eligible to be Academic All-Canadians.

Last semester, UNB's Luke Gallant spoke about his experiences at UNB, and said one of the most important things he’s learned from coach MacDougall.

“You’re a person for a lot longer than you are a hockey player.”

MacDougall said the performance part of the team’s success is incredibly gratifying, but there’s also the developmental part of being a coach he finds truly rewarding at UNB.

“UNB to me is my NHL. I thoroughly enjoy each and every day and there are enough challenges as a coach to get better and to be successful. But getting calls from past players as to how they’re doing is great. I got a call from Jesse Furguson who said ‘coach I just got my second gold medal.’ He won a national championship here then when he got his chartered accountancy he considered that his second gold medal. So to see players come out of this program and do so well in the private world is really special,” he said.

As a result of his dedication to coaching and the success he’s brought with it, MacDougall was honoured in 2009 with UNB’s president’s medal, UNB’s most prestigious honour. He is the only coach to ever be awarded the medal.

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Opinion

Andrew Terefenko — The Silhouette (McMaster University)

HAMILTON (CUP) — “So long, and thanks for all the breaths.” Canadians, get used to adding this phrase to your daily diction in a decade — unless Environment Canada's recent dastardly decision is dismantled.

Environment Canada (EC) is pulling scientists away from monitoring the air pollution in various regions of Canada. They claim it is to assign them to “other priorities,” which are unnamed, but given that last year EC feared that as many as 700 jobs would be affected by budget cuts, those other priorities are likely more financially suitable for the organization. But should there be any priorities higher than that of clean, breathable air?

Many global environment research leaders strongly discouraged EC from going forward with this plan, but to no avail. This move might very well knock Canada off its perch as a forerunner in environmental research, given our country’s diverse ecology and relatively low levels of smog among major world capitals.

In addition to losing valuable smog-fighting manpower, EC has also shut down five of six total light detection and ranging observation stations across Canada. These stations shoot light into the atmosphere and measure how much bounces back due to pollution. They have been integral to evaluating the damage done by airborne fossil fuel emissions. It is outrageous to think that facilities that exist solely to further the greater health of the Canadian populace are lying dormant across Canada, with easily operated equipment gathering dust at the cost of our successors’ livelihoods.

If you want a window into tomorrow’s Canada in this grey new world, look no further than the media’s smog staple, Beijing. Just under a year ago, Beijing air pollution was far above standard measurable levels, and citizens were urged to stay indoors, as even an hour outside would be a severe health risk. It is an example of a city that decided to fight air pollution only once it was a readily visible problem, and given that the city boasts an average of two days a week of blue skies, the fight was started a little too late.

This is the dilemma that I believe our nation is facing. We are de-prioritizing the problem of pollution because it is not in our faces or screwing with our 2012 daily routine, which seems to be a requirement for meaningful popular support.

Worse yet, we do not know what EC’s plan is moving forward. We have yet to hear what these “other priorities” are, which might help EC in defending its detestable decision. EC's spokesman has also come forward to assure the world that EC will “still [provide] world-class analysis,” which seems like a tall order for a recently downsized organization with less manpower in the field.

What is truly incomprehensible is the theory that these scientists have been relocated to the oil sands and other potential fuel-bearing regions to bolster Canada’s export economy by evaluating the risk of environmental damage caused by new drilling maneuvers. Would that not be contributing to the problem instead of remedying it?

We have more immediate problems; that much I can comprehend. There is a global financial crisis that we are obligated to tread about carefully. But there will always be other problems. Now is not the time to shelve the importance of our gaseous lifeline.

We breathe what we sow, and at the moment the seeds we are spreading are awfully grey.

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Français

Didier Charette - Quartier Libre (Université de Montréal)

MONTRÉAL (PUC) — Exit les chapeaux fleurdelisés et les propos revendicateurs à la Loco Locass, le rap québécois accueille maintenant Ogden, bête de scène du groupe natif de Québec, Alaclair Ensemble. Armé de sa poésie abstraite, de ses références culturelles sombres et de son drapeau du Bas- Canada, il s’approprie le discours nationaliste.

Revendiquer l’indépendance du Bas-Canada en 2012 témoignerait d’une absurdité pour plusieurs. Pour Ogden Ridjanovic, né au Québec de parents bosniaques, c’est une façon de faire un retour sur l’histoire du Québec.

«Pèlerinage à Côte-Nord à ch’val / M’en va checker l’aut’bord s’ils y ont pas des sages-femmes», «Il nous reste un bon Jack, mais il est pogné contre la bunch», «Plein l’casque du baratin fédéral», scande-t-il avec un flow assuré sur sa chanson «Le magicien», pièce maîtresse de son jeune répertoire. «Je n’ai pas envie de répéter le discours qui existe déjà sur l’identité culturelle québécoise», avoue l’ex-étudiant en études françaises à l’Université McGill.

En effectuant des recherches sur les Patriotes, Ogden est tombé sur la biographie de Robert Nelson, un patriote anglophone souvent oublié de l’histoire, mais qui a rédigé la Déclaration d’indépendance du Bas-Canada en 1838. «Le premier à l’écarter de notre histoire a été le clergé catholique parce que Nelson prônait une séparation claire entre l’Église et l’État», affirme le rappeur.

Tout de suite, il s’est reconnu en lui. «Robert Nelson voulait que le Bas-Canada ait sa propre identité, une identité qui ne serait pas basée sur une langue ou une ethnie, mais plutôt sur une série de valeurs et de réalités communes.» Malgré les apparences, Ogden refuse l’étiquette d’artiste engagé. «Dire qu’il y a des artistes engagés serait affirmer qu’il y en a qui ne le sont pas, affirme-t-il. Je ne crois pas à ça. Nous sommes tous les produits d’une société qui nous entoure.»

Pour imager son propos, il donne l’exemple du rappeur américain 50 Cent. «La plupart des gens diraient que ce qu’il fait n’est pas engagé. Pourtant, le message qu’il véhicule à travers sa musique vient de sa réalité et est présent dans notre société.»

Selon Ogden, classifier l’art, c’est se tirer dans le pied. L’exemple classique de chez nous serait Loco Locass, selon lui. «Si le groupe sortait une chanson n’ayant aucun rapport avec la politique ou l’identité québécoise, on le leur mettrait assez vite sous le nez». Il préfère se définir de façon authentique, comme un artiste avec des intérêts sociaux.

Ogden ne refuse pas seulement l’étiquette d’artiste engagé, il refuse aussi d’être engagé par une maison de disques. Alaclair Ensemble, le collectif dont il fait partie, compte maintenant quatre albums, tous offerts gratuitement sur son Bandcamp. «Nous ne sommes pas intéressés à avoir les obligations d’une compagnie, précise Ogden. À mon sens, sortir un album en magasin pourrait limiter le nombre d’auditeurs.»

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Retrouvez l'article original sur le site du Quartier Libre.

Humour

BestCrosswords.com

(CUP) — Puzzles provided by BestCrosswords.com. Used with permission. Please print the above statement with the puzzle.

Across

1- I smell _ !; 5- Draft org.; 8- Glacial epoch; 14- Nonsense; 15- Choose; 16- Norwegian arctic explorer; 17- Good digestion; 19- Winter vehicle; 20- Conventional; 22- Part of ETA; 23- Belief; 24- Obscuration of light; 26- Warned; 29- Blue; 32- Come with; 33- Influential person; 37- Make a trade?; 40- Start of a Dickens title; 41- Anklebone; 42- _ the season...; 43- Kenyan, Nigerian, or Congolese; 45- Heavy napped woolen fabric; 48- Assembly rooms; 53- Nabokov novel; 54- Annoyance; 58- Distant; 60- Green visor for an accountant, perhaps; 61- Cricket team; 62- Convened; 63- Draft classification; 64- A place for vacationers; 65- Howe'er; 66- Subsided;

Down

1- Bikini blast; 2- Path; 3- Colorado resort; 4- Twice, a comforting comment; 5- Fair; 6- Roasting rod; 7- Hang around; 8- Invertebrate creature; 9- Church festival of Feb. 2; 10- Brian of Roxy Music; 11- Songwriters' org.; 12- Toothed wheels; 13- _ nous; 18- Domestic animal; 21- Arbor; 25- Billy _ had a hit song with "White Wedding"; 26- Horace's " _ Poetica"; 27- An item in a series; 28- Early computer; 29- Health haven; 30- Gallery display; 31- 1950 film noir classic; 32- Yeoman of the guard; 34- Obtain, slangily; 35- Israeli submachine gun; 36- Bandleader Brown; 38- Planar; 39- Convent dweller; 44- Governor; 45- Less common; 46- "Die Fledermaus" maid; 47- Domesticates; 48- Gives birth to; 49- A Musketeer; 50- Woody vine; 51- Water-repellent cloth; 52- Move stealthily; 55- Break; 56- Indian nursemaid; 57- Rejection power; 59- Egg head?;

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News

Henry Gass — The McGill Daily (McGill University)

MONTREAL (CUP) — The research work of professor John Corbett McDonald, an emeritus professor in the department of epidemiology, biostatistics and occupational health at McGill, is now under review after allegations of research misconduct.

McDonald retired from McGill in September 1988, after more than two decades as a McGill epidemiology professor. According to a recent episode of CBC’s The National, McDonald received at least $1 million between 1966 and 1972 for research into the health effects of chrysotile asbestos from the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association, which received a large portion of its funding from the asbestos mining giant Johns-Manville.

McGill’s review is being lead by Rebecca Fuhrer, chair of McGill’s department of epidemiology, biostatistics, and occupational health. A group of academics and health experts published a letter earlier this month calling for an external review of McDonald’s research. McDonald’s research holds that chrysotile asbestos is less harmful than other forms of asbestos, and only deadly when a person is exposed to large quantities of it.

“Hardly anybody else but the McGill team believed that,” said lead signatory of the letter and professor emeritus of public health and preventive medicine at the Université Laval Fernand Turcotte. “The rest of the world was really arrested by this,” he continued.

In a statement released Feb. 9, McGill dean of medicine and vice-principal of health affairs David Eidelman said, “Holding scientific views that are different from those of the majority does not constitute research misconduct.”

Imperial Tobacco is also believed to have paid McDonald to review a paper on the health effects of tobacco. An October 1988 letter from McDonald to Imperial Tobacco states: “As agreed, our fee for this work is $10,000.”

A postscript to the letter adds, “I would wish to emphasize that there must be no publication of any part of this review under [my] name.”

Turcotte worked with McDonald early in his career, and described him as “one of the superstars of public health in this country” at the time. This fact, Turcotte continued, jeopardizes the impartiality of Fuhrer’s review.

“Because I have worked with Corbett McDonald in the past, I would have refused that kind of mission, and God knows that I have worked [with him] much less than his immediate colleagues in the departments,” he said.

“When I got the documents that proved that he worked secretly for the tobacco industry, it took me months to overcome my depression,” said Turcotte.

Politicians at the federal and provincial level have called for an end to the Canadian production and exportation of asbestos, a policy long defended through McDonald’s research. Westmount-based company Balcorp Ltd. is also seeking a $58-million loan from the Quebec government to re-open the Jeffrey Mine in Asbestos, Que.

Roshi Chadha, a member of McGill’s Board of Governors and director of the export company Seja Trade Ltd., took a leave of absence from McGill two weeks ago. Seja Trade, which exported asbestos — primarily to India — from the Jeffrey Mine for 16 years before the mine closed operations last fall, is a subsidiary of Balcorp.

Kathleen Ruff, senior human rights adviser for the Ottawa-based Rideau Institute, told The Daily that McGill’s review was coming at a “critical moment” for the Quebec and Canadian asbestos industry.

“The global asbestos industry has used McDonald’s research constantly, and still today uses it to deny the harm caused by chrysotile asbestos,” said Ruff. “This is not an issue from the past.”

Another signatory to the letter criticizing McGill’s preliminary review, Edward Keyserlingk is a McGill professor emeritus of medical ethics & health law in the faculty of medicine. Keyserlingk lost his brother, Robert, to mesothelioma in December 2008. Robert’s widow, Michaela Keyserlingk, said he was exposed to asbestos on naval ships in the early 1950s.

“Forty years later, they suddenly found that he had fluid on his lungs,” she said.

“It’s a horrible death. They are really suffocating. And if you think we have all the morphine and all the opiates available to modern medicine to mask all these horrible symptoms, and nobody in India has that and these people must be dying the most excruciating death I can possibly imagine,” she said.

“I think McGill would do well choosing people outside of their own community. I think this is much too serious to have your own people investigating your own people,” Keyserlingk added.

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Sports

Cashlyn Teggart — The Ryersonian (Ryerson University)

TORONTO (CUP) — Kristen Wavryk isn’t your typical student athlete.

A first-year biology student, Wavryk rides on Ryerson University's equestrian club team, fences on Ryerson’s fencing team, commutes to Ryerson from Scarborough, Ont. — about 25 minutes from Ryerson's downtown Toronto location — and maintains a part-time job.

“Honestly, I don’t know how I do it all. I just kind of do,” Wavryk said.

The 18-year-old has been riding horses for 10 years and fencing for five, but balancing these two activities has not always come so naturally.

In high school, Wavryk immersed herself in fencing. For three years, she fenced competitively in both Canada and the U.S. During this time, she took a break from equestrian riding.

“I stopped riding for a while because fencing just took so much time, especially with travelling to the States. I knew I couldn’t do them both,” she said.

When she arrived at Ryerson, she decided to find a way to make it work while going to school too.

Warvyk made the decision to cut back on competitive fencing and she now only competes on the Ontario university circuit. This means she practises one or two times per week, instead of three or four. Not travelling to the U.S. to compete has also saved her time.

Wavryk has used this new-found time to get back onto the saddle. Andrea Robinson, co-founder and club supervisor of Ryerson’s equestrian team, is glad to have her.

“Kristen has been a wonderful addition to our team this year,” Robinson said. “She’s a strong rider and her love for horses and passion for the sport is shown every day. She’s also always there to help out with whatever the club needs.”

Wavryk primarily rides in Orangeville, Ont. while the Ryerson team practices and competes in Stouffville, Ont., meaning even more travel. Joining Ryerson’s equestrian team has helped Wavryk rekindle her love of the sport.

“I used to be more into fencing, but now I’m more into equestrian,” Wavryk said. “I love riding. I’d give up a lot for riding.”

And, sometimes, she has to.

“It’s a task,” Wavryk said. “Sometimes I have to give away a shift at work or skip a practice. There are a lot of late nights. Sometimes you just have to make sacrifices.”

Wavryk admits that taking on so many things has been a challenge, especially while making the adjustment to university life. This challenge has led her to find creative ways to manage her passions.

Wavryk takes advantage of the long commute from Scarborough to do readings for class. She purposely gets going early in the morning and comes to school. This gives her the opportunity and incentive to get things done.

But incentive to succeed in both sports and school comes from other places as well.

“It’s really the people I’ve met who have kept me in (both sports),” she said. “That’s what has kept me going.”

That, and a healthy dose of determination.

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Français

Ben Maréga - Le Réveil (Université de Saint-Boniface) and Aboubakar Toné - Le Réveil (Université de Saint-Boniface)

WINNIPEG (PUC) — Le 1er Février 2012, les étudiants du Manitoba, membres de la fédération canadienne des étudiantes et étudiants, ont participé à la marche annuelle organisée par la Fédération canadienne des étudiantes et étudiants (FCEE). Au total, 600 000 membres de la FCEE et 80 syndicats sont partis à pied ou en bus de leur université respective, les différents cortèges d’étudiants ont convergé vers le palais législatif pour extérioriser leurs attentes et leurs revendications. Ils ont bravé le froid pour scander en chœur: «l’éducation est un droit! On n’arrête pas le combat!».

Les étudiants de l’Université de Saint-Boniface, de l’Université de Winnipeg et de l’Université du Manitoba ont d’abord convergé vers le parc Mémorial à partir duquel ils se sont ensuite mêler pour marcher sur le palais législatif.

Cette année, la campagne avait pour thème «un système public pour la population». La plateforme revendicative est axée sur cinq demandes majeures: réduire les frais de scolarité et augmenter le financement, réduire la dette étudiante, améliorer l’accès des étudiants autochtones, rétablir la démocratie et l’autonomie dans les campus et prôner l’égalité pour les étudiants internationaux.

Les présidents des associations étudiantes de l’Université de Winnipeg, de l’Université de Saint-Boniface et de l’Université de Manitoba ont chacun abordé un thème après une introduction du président provincial de la FCEE, Marakary Bayo.

Étaient présents aussi des professeurs et des média tant anglophones que francophones. Les professeurs de l’Université de Saint-Boniface et de l’Université de Winnipeg ont ensuite tenu à marcher côte à côte avec les étudiants qui se sont mis à scander «So...So... So... Solidarité!» à la vue de leurs partenaires inconditionnels. Les professeurs qui n’ont pas pu participer ont quand même permis aux étudiants qui le désiraient d’aller marcher. La manifestation a pris fin dans le calme mais la motivation des étudiants reste intacte, tout comme les problèmes soulevés à l’occasion de cette marche annuelle restent actuels.

Pourquoi les étudiants manifestent?

Le gouvernement a explosé le plafond de la dette étudiante spécifiant ainsi qu’il n’y a plus de limite à l’endettement. Cette loi aux allures de «cadeau» inciterait les étudiants canadiens et résidents permanents à s’endetter davantage. «Les étudiantes et étudiants doivent collectivement avec les nouveaux diplômés et diplômées plus de 15 milliards de dollars en prêts du gouvernement» peut-on lire sur certains prospectus distribués dans les universités pour mobiliser les étudiants à manifester en nombre le 1er Février dernier.

Chaque jour, la dette étudiante canadienne augmenterait de 1 million de dollars, les étudiants aboutissant avec une dette moyenne de 37 000$ dès la fin de leurs études, sans oublier les étudiants internationaux qui dépensent trois à quatre fois plus que les nationaux en frais de scolarité. La situation pourrait bien empirer avec une dette étudiante qui flambe à un taux plus élevé que l’inflation et qui s’ajoute à l’augmentation du prix des transports en commun, de la nourriture, du loyer et surtout des frais de scolarité qui ont quadruplé depuis les vingt dernières années.

Le financement aux provinces a augmenté de 30% depuis l’arrivée des conservateurs en 2006, soit 12,7 milliards de dollars canadiens. Par ailleurs, suite à l’adoption du projet de loi fédéral C-10 sur la criminalité, les coûts des institutions carcérales sont également en passe d’augmenter. Si le Ministre de la Justice, Rob Nicholson a affirmé récemment que Ottawa allait «continuer à donner plus de financement aux provinces comme chaque année», il prévient également que les coûts supplémentaires engendrés par cette nouvelle loi devront être supportés par les provinces qui devront puiser dans les fonds de leurs programmes sociaux, de santé ou d’éducation postsecondaire.

«Ouvrez une école, vous fermerez une prison», professait Victor Hugo en son temps. Aujourd’hui, «nos dirigeants préfèrent dépenser des millions pour construire de nouvelles prisons et ne donnent rien pour l’éducation postsecondaire» s’est indigné David Harper, Président de la John Howard Society, lors de la conférence de presse organisée au centre étudiant de l’Université de Saint- Boniface par la FCEE.

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Opinion

Brian Platt — The Ubyssey (University of British Columbia)

VANCOUVER (CUP) — The University of British Columbia's Alma Mater Society (AMS) has made national headlines over the past few weeks, including stories in the Toronto Star, The Huffington Post and The Province. Considering the AMS’s history, this would normally mean I’d be writing a column that recaps a hilarious and embarrassing scandal that has swamped the student union.

But this time the buzz is good: the AMS is planning a microbrewery for the new Student Union Building (SUB). According to president Jeremy McElroy and vice-president finance Elin Tayyar, it would be the first brewery operated by a student union anywhere in the world.

If we are to believe the feasibility report that the AMS commissioned, the brewery would potentially make an annual profit of between $500,000 and $1 million. It would also provide students with a cheaper source of alcohol at the AMS’s bars and possibly give beer gardens a local source for their kegs.

This all seems too good to be true, and to a certain extent, it probably is. I’ll be surprised if the brewery ever makes that much profit. But when examined within the larger context of the AMS’s ambitions, it doesn’t really matter whether the brewery makes wads of cash, breaks even or is a modest money-loser.

The AMS plans to form a company to manage all of the society’s business operations. That company would have a more stable and knowledgeable (but still student-controlled) board of directors, and would focus on making the AMS’s businesses as efficient and profitable as possible. Those profits would then flow back to the AMS to be put into student services.

The main reasons for this plan are practical. The AMS’s business profits have been falling for years, and the society has also received unwelcome attention from the Canada Revenue Agency for being a non-profit society with high levels of business income.

But think for a moment about the path the AMS is embarking on. In a few years, it will have a brand new $103-million building: that means new facilities for all of its businesses. Its bars, which currently sit empty on most nights, will likely be much fuller and will now be selling pitcher after pitcher of AMS-produced beer. This is growing into quite the commercial empire.

A decade from now, when these business profits are combined with the interest produced from the AMS’s endowment fund, a substantial portion of the AMS budget will be independent from student fees. The AMS will be able to keep its student fees among the lowest in Canada while increasing student service levels. It’s brilliant.

The real question is: why are no other student unions doing this? One reason is that they tend to be suspicious of relinquishing control over their business operations; the result is that student politicians with little business sense maintain their food outlets as poorly-run money pits. The AMS has always been smartly focused on giving elected students the final word on business operations, but mostly letting professional staff take care of the details.

The other reason, though, is that other student unions simply haven’t dreamt as ambitiously about what they’re capable of with a bit of long-term planning. For this, the AMS deserves a lot of credit.

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News

Sarah Deshaies — CUP Quebec Bureau Chief

MONTREAL (CUP) — Quebec students stepped up the fight against tuition hikes this week, with tactics ranging from vandalizing a CEGEP, declaring unlimited strikes, blocking the Montreal Stock Exchange and preparing a petition for the National Assembly. More protests are scheduled for the upcoming weeks, say student representatives.

Tuition hikes are destined to begin in fall 2012, with a total increase of $1,625 over five years.

Province-wide petition

Critics of the tuition hikes can now head online to sign a province-wide petition to oppose them.

MNA Jean-Martin Aussant filed a petition Feb. 17 at the National Assembly to call on the government to back down from the tuition hikes. As of Friday afternoon, over 4,100 signatories had added their names.

The Table de concertation étudiante du Québec (TaCEQ), a student lobby group that is not recognized by the province, asked Aussant, MNA for Nicolet-Yamaska, to support the petition during one of his cross-province tours.

"Opening a dialogue with the government would be a good first step," said TaCEQ secretary-general Simon Gosselin. "We've seen in the past that when there's a lot of pressure from students, the government was obligated to negotiate with students."

The petition asks that the government reconsider the hikes, considering that tuition has been increasing annually since 2007.

TaCEQ, founded in 2009, represents 65,000 students at three different schools — one school shy of being recogznized as an official student group by the province — including McGill University undergraduates, graduate students at Université de Sherbrooke and students of all levels at Université de Laval.

Aussant, a former Parti Québécois member who split from the party in June 2011, now serves as the sole representative of the party he founded, Option nationale. He said he supports free education, from kindergarten to PhD.

"There are plenty of countries in the world doing this," said Aussant, pointing to Norway, Finland and Germany. "It wouldn't be a Quebec revolution."

Aussant disagrees with the provincial government that students must consider their education an investment in their future.

"It's an investment in society, not an expense," said Aussant in a phone interview on Feb. 16. "You simply need the political courage and an economic vision beyond the annual budget."

The petition will be available online until May 16. If there are enough signatures, the issue can be brought up for debate in the National Assembly.

Sheraton Hotel

About 100 people protested outside the Sheraton Hotel midday on Feb. 17, during a lunch where Education Minister Line Beauchamp spoke at a Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal talk about school dropout rates. Students were joined by locked-out Rio Tinto Alcan workers, who travelled from Alma, Que. They believed the company's CEO was attending the lunch.

Cegep du Vieux-Montreal

Thirty-seven people were arrested on the morning of Feb. 17 when a group broke into and vandalized the CEGEP du Vieux-Montreal.

Police spokesperson Anie Lemieux said that police were alerted to the students' actions at 8 p.m. on Feb. 16, and that by 6 a.m. the next day, the protest was over.

The arrested, eight of whom are minors, may be charged with armed aggression towards police officers, mischief and assault. Lemieux said that some protesters were throwing fire extinguishers and bottles at police officers.

On Friday, the individuals arrested were still in custody as police continued an investigation.

Montreal Stock Exchange

The CEGEP protest followed a major anti-government protest at Victoria Square that had happened just hours earlier on Feb. 16.

Police estimated that about two hundred protesters blocked the entry to the Montreal Stock Exchange and the nearby Delta Hotel. The site is near Square-Victoria park, where Montreal's Occupy movement camp took hold for several weeks last fall.

Students joined the Coalition opposée à la tarification et à la privatisation des services publics in protesting increases to government user fees. Police cleared the crowd using pepper spray, and four were arrested in the melee. Police could not say whether the arrested were students. They were likely given a ticket for not collaborating with police, said Lemieux.

Unlimited strikes begin

On Feb. 13 and 14, 11,000 students at several unions at the Université de Québec à Montréal and Université de Laval voted to go on unlimited strike. Several hundred led a march from UQAM to Place-des-Arts metro station to McGill's campus through downtown Montreal to show continued dissatisfaction with the province's decision to not back down on tuition increases.

The Coalition large de l'association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante, also known as CLASSE, is a newly-formed group formed out of lobby group ASSÉ. They have promised weekly protests.

"Starting now, we'll be in action every week in order to put more pressure on the liberal government," said spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois in a press release.

On Feb. 12, protesters came out to picket outside a community centre in the north of Montreal, where Beauchamp helped announce new anti-bullying measures with Premier Jean Charest. Inside, Beauchamp declined to comment on anything unrelated to bullying.

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Français

Nuru Abhazim - Le Réveil (Université de Saint-Boniface)

WINNIPEG (PUC) — Malgré le fait que le Canada se déclare un pays officiellement bilingue, la Loi sur les langues officielles dit que la seule province officiellement bilingue du pays est le Nouveau-Brunswick. Au Québec, la seule langue officielle est le français. Et au Manitoba, quelle est la situation linguistique?

En dehors du quartier de Saint- Boniface, la ville de Winnipeg ne semble pas être bilingue. Plus on s’éloigne de la ville, plus la province semble unilingue. Dans certaines parties de la province, on est même frappé par l’absence de panneaux écrits en français, surtout au Nord. Une réalité qui montre aussi les limites de la présence française au Manitoba.

«On prétend être bilingue, mais dès qu’on sort du quartier de Saint-Boniface, c’est l’anglais qui prime. Par exemple lorsque l’on se rend dans un magasin, le caissier parle en anglais et rarement en français», fait remarquer une étudiante interrogée dans les couloirs de l’Université de Saint-Boniface (USB). Une autre étudiante ajoute qu'en dehors de l’USB, elle n’a pas l’occasion de parler français quotidiennement.

Le nombre total de francophones au Manitoba n’excède pas 100 000 personnes, soit environ 10% de la population. Partout dans la ville, à l’exception du quartier de Saint-Boniface, on ne voit presque aucune présence française dans la ville. Même ici à l’USB, on entend parler une grande variété de langues autre que le français, incluant la langue de Shakespeare.

Malgré cette omniprésence anglaise, le français a encore un statut important dans la province. Plusieurs diplômés de l’immersion française, anglophones pour la plupart, viennent étudier à l’USB et l’éducation en français en situation «minoritaire» est protégée par la loi sur les langues officielles. «Au Manitoba, il y a de fortes communautés francophones, surtout à Saint-Boniface et aux périphéries de Winnipeg, tel que Sainte-Anne, par exemple», estime un étudiant.

On peut remarquer différents groupes linguistiques dans l’Université, tels que les allophones, les anglophones et les différents sous-groupes francophones. «Mais, les différents groupes à l’USB sont plutôt liés à la culture qu’à la langue», observe une étudiante.

Alors, comment faire pour que le français s’épanouisse au Manitoba? Peut-être pourrions-nous commencer par montrer le rôle positif du français. Étudiante anglophone, Isa croit qu’il faut encourager les parents à inscrire leurs enfants dans les écoles offrant le programme d’immersion française, qu’elles soient un «milieu» (1) ou une école à double voie (2). «De cette manière, si le programme ne convient pas à l’enfant, il peut changer à la voie anglaise.»

En anglais, on dit qu’une école d’immersion dite «milieu» est une école où l’on n’y trouve que le programme d’immersion et aucun autre programme dans l’école. Une école à double voie est école qui dans laquelle co-existent plusieurs programmes scolaires en plus d’un programme d’immersion.

Hibbo, une étudiante en deuxième année, dit pourtant qu’on n’a pas permis a son frère de continuer dans le programme d’immersion, car on a prétendu qu’il n’avait ni la confiance ni les capacités d’étudier en français. Ce cas n’est pas rare. Selon un article paru dans le Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers (Volume 31, No. 3, Fall 2009), certains professeurs n’encourageraient pas les immigrés à inscrire leurs enfants en immersion car «il faut d’abord apprendre l’anglais».

Lorsque le Manitoba est entré dans la Confédération canadienne en 1870, 50% de la population manitobaine était francophone. Le gouvernement a même adopté une loi appelée La loi sur le Manitoba, laquelle assurait la dualité linguistique qui se perpétuait au Manitoba. En 1890, l’assemblée législative a adopté The Official Languages Act (Loi sur les langues officielles), qui abolit l’usage du français au sein des institutions législatives et judiciaires et le français perd son statut officiel. La Loi a aussi aboli les écoles confessionnelles subventionnées par l’État et a crée un réseau scolaire où l’anglais devient la seule langue d’enseignement. En 1896, le gouvernement fédéral a essayé de négocier un accord appelé le Compromis Laurier-Greenway, ce qui autorisait l’enseignement bilingue et l’enseignement religieux en dehors des heures normales de l’école. Malgré ces négociations, le gouvernement provincial a rejeté le compromis et l’abolition des écoles françaises demeurait définitive jusqu’aux années 1960, où le Canada adopte le français et l’anglais comme les deux langues officielles du pays.

Aujourd’hui, on trouve 50 000 francophones qui habitent la province, environ 5% de la population totale. Le nombre total de locuteurs du français, incluant les franco-manitobains, est 100 000 personnes, environ 10% de la population totale du Manitoba.

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Opinion

David Swanson — The Link (B.C. Institute of Technology)

BURNABY, B.C. (CUP) — In recent years, the conversation surrounding sex work has changed. Many people have realized Canada's laws surrounding the procurement of sex have not been successful in its prevention. Currently, the sale of sexual services for money is legal, but many of the attendant activities (advertising it, setting up brothels etc.) are not. Sex work has cemented its reputation as “society’s oldest profession” and, for those pursuing its legalization, that’s a justification for ending its prohibition.

They believe the sex trade will exist regardless of its lawfulness and should therefore be made legal, as regulation will bring it within government control, helping to minimize the negative effects of sex work like exploitation, drug addiction and physical abuse.

In most circumstances, this logic is sound. If the illegality of something does not curb behaviour, the effective harm reduction strategy may be to integrate that behaviour into the legal system. However, with regards to sex work, this could produce more harm than good.

Alexandra Mackenzie, a Vancouver advocate for the abolition of prostitution and co-founder of the organization Our Lives To Fight For, produced a powerful documentary outlining the pitfalls of legalized prostitution. In order to get a more complete understanding of the issue, Mackenzie interviewed academics, concerned community members and former prostitutes.

In doing so, she discovered that “no country has successfully legalized prostitution without substantial growth of human trafficking, organized crime, and underage prostitution.” She writes on Simon Fraser University's Journalists for Human Rights blog that, “In 2007, the mayor of Amsterdam called the legalization of prostitution an 'abysmal failure' due to a significant increases in organized crime, human trafficking, and drug trafficking.” She adds that, a year later, the National Dutch Police estimated that between 50–90 per cent of women in the legal brothels in Holland were "working involuntarily."

The sex trade is a very lucrative industry that perpetuates gender inequalities that will not be solved if prostitution is legalized. The sex trade will not become safer or easier to regulate. Legalization will only validate women (primarily) as commodities, which dehumanizes sexual interactions.

Furthermore, legalization could perpetuate socioeconomic inequalities. For example, people applying for welfare are usually expected to complete an in-depth job search before they will be awarded government aid. In 2002, the German government legalized prostitution as a legitimate profession; in 2005, The Telegraph reported that women applying for welfare in Germany who were having difficulty finding work in traditional industries were being advised to apply to brothels. If they refused, benefits could be denied.

In this circumstance, legalized prostitution could actually result in an influx of impoverished women participating in the sex trade. Of course, this would be contrary to the legalization objective, which is to minimize women’s non-consensual participation in the industry. Sadly, the probability that financially disadvantaged women will be forced to sell sex as a means for providing for themselves and their families will likely increase.

So what is the solution? If prostitution isn’t legalized and regulated, then sex trade workers will be more susceptible to violence, disease and drug addiction. If it is, the government is responsible for propagating inequity with little evidence the policy will be socially beneficial.

Fortunately, there is a third option: the Nordic model. The Nordic model decriminalizes the sale of sex but criminalizes the act of buying sex. Across Scandinavia, countries including Sweden, Norway and Iceland have implemented this policy and seen positive results. By making the demand for paid sex illegal without punishing sex workers, the law recognizes prostitution as a form of exploitation and places the participation risk of hefty fines, incarceration and public shame on the buyer, not the seller, of sex. This legislation, in tandem with subsidized housing, job training programs and drug rehabilitation, has helped many women exit the industry.

Mackenzie writes, “Since the law was implemented in 1999, street prostitution [in Sweden] has decreased by 50 per cent with no increase in indoor prostitution." She adds that there's been a "considerable decline of human trafficking into Sweden.”

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Français

Pascal Dumont - Quartier Libre (Université de Montréal)

MONTRÉAL (PUC) — Plus de 200 étudiants, cégépiens et universitaires, dont près d’une centaine de l’Université de Montréal (UdeM), ont profité du caucus libéral pour scander leur mécontentement face à la hausse des frais de scolarité. Les étudiants de l’UdeM accompagnés des membres du bureau exécutif de leur association étudiante, la FAÉCUM, se sont rendus jusqu’à Victoriaville où se déroulait le caucus.

La manifestation s’est déroulée sans débordement. Sur place, la sureté du Québec qui s’était massivement déployée, a assuré la sécurité. Martine Desjardins, présidente de la Fédération des étudiants universitaires du Québec (FEUQ), a profité de l’occasion pour rappeler à la ministre Line Beauchamps, ministre de l’Éducation, du loisir et du sport, que «les étudiants n’abandonneront pas et que des associations étudiantes partout à travers le Québec ont amorcé des consultations sur le déclenchement d’une grève générale illimitée».

Plancher atteint pour l’ASSÉ

Le plancher, à savoir 20 000 étudiants sur cinq campus à travers le Québec, que s’était fixé l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ) a été atteint le jeudi 9 février. À ce jour, près de 21 000 étudiants de 18 associations sur cinq campus du Québec ont voté en faveur d’une grève. La date d’entrée en grève des associations membres de l’ASSÉ devrait être annoncée sous peu.

Depuis déjà plusieurs mois, les diverses associations et fédérations étudiantes du Québec se mobilisent à talonner et rappeler leurs présences au premier ministre Jean Charest et son gouvernement. Une journée de manifestation nationale, organisée par les Fédérations étudiantes universitaires et collégiales, est prévue pour le 22 mars prochain.

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Retrouvez l'article original sur le site du Quartier Libre.

News

Lee Richardson — CUP Ontario Bureau Chief

TORONTO (CUP) — The person behind the hacking of a Western University student union voting website has came forward, and now likely faces a criminal charge.

Keith Horwood tweeted a YouTube video to Western’s University Student's Council (USC) president Andrew Forgione Feb. 17, explaining his motivations and offering an apology.

“None of you guys deserved to be put through any of this grief,” said Horwood in the almost ten-minute long video. “I know it doesn't mean much, but there it is.”

During the hack, elements of the USC elections website were altered and replaced with references to Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez.

While the case was originally handled by Western’s campus police, it has now been passed to London police, who are considering criminal charges.

“It's kind of gone beyond our bounds now,” said Keith Marnoch, Western's director of media relations. “I don't know how they're proceeding with the evidence we've compiled.”

The video was released by Horwood after police began to consider more than one person as a suspect. During the video, Horwood — a Western alumnus with a double major in biology and biochemistry — explained how he carried out the hacking to highlight a security flaw in the website’s design.

“What I did was not from a technical standpoint representative of… a mastery of computers by any sense,” Horwood said in the video, adding that his actions involved more “luck” and “chance.”

After a decision by the elections committee and the presidential candidates, votes cast for the new Western USC president during the period of Feb. 14 and 15 are now considered invalid, and a re-vote will be held.

“It was one of the hardest decisions I have had to make,” said Forgione, current USC president, in an email. “Being through the process personally, it was especially difficult.”

During the two-day voting period, over 10,000 students cast votes.

“We’ve never had that kind of voter turnout before,” said Claire McArthur, a candidate running for USC president. “But there’s not much we can do now.”

Students will be able to vote again — on the last day of February and the first day of March — following a brief campaigning period, according to USC communications officer Eliot Hong. A media blackout that will last a week has been called into effect to give candidates a break before the new election.

“It was really difficult for all of us to decide that we had to do this, but it was something that had to be done to keep the fairness of the election process,” said Hong.

Since the video has been released, differences of opinion in the Western community have grown in regard to the potential criminal charges Horwood could face.

“I respect Keith for coming forward into the public eye and for being honest,” said Forgione, adding that Horwood might have misunderstood the implications of rewriting elements of the site. “I'm not sure if it appeased students though, who lost money and time throughout the entire elections process.”

“I feel bad for him,” said McArthur. “I think an investigation is needed but it seems like… he really did seem genuine and he explained it in such a way that I understood where he was coming from.”

An interview request sent to Horwood did not get a reply.

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Français

Andréanne Chevalier - Quartier Libre (Université de Montréal)

MONTRÉAL (PUC) — Travailler et étudier a ses limites. Le temps que consacrent les étudiants à leur emploi rémunéré progresse de façon inquiétante, révèle une étude de la Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ). Études et job cumulées, les étudiants travailleraient plus de neuf heures par jour, sept jours sur sept. Une réalité qui a des conséquences sur les résultats scolaires, l’allongement des études, le décrochage, l’endettement, et que l’augmentation des frais de scolarité risque d’aggraver.

«L’étudiant devient un travailleur, s’inquiète Martine Desjardins, présidente de la FEUQ. Il faut s’assurer qu’il reste un étudiant avant tout.» Selon l’étude parue le 18 janvier, les étudiants à temps plein ont consacré en moyenne 19 heures par semaine à un travail rémunéré au cours du trimestre d’automne 2009. Près de 42 % de ceux qui sont inscrits à temps plein travailleraient plus de 20 heures par semaine. Il s’agirait d’une hausse de 30 % du taux d’emploi en cours d’année scolaire depuis la fin des années 1970. Additionnées au temps qu’ils doivent consacrer à leurs cours et à leurs travaux, les 19 heures de travail rémunéré hebdomadaire portent à 64 heures par semaine la période d’activité des étudiants.

Face à cette réalité, «c’est surtout la gestion du temps qui pose problème, affirme Diana Ramirez, coordonnatrice du secteur Soutien à l’apprentissage au Centre étudiant de soutien à la réussite (CÉSAR) de l’Université. Une semaine de productivité normale, c’est 40 heures de travail. Au-delà, l’étudiant doit couper quelque part, dans le sommeil, les loisirs, les sports. Cela entraîne un déséquilibre.» Mme Ramirez ajoute que «le stress et l’anxiété peuvent augmenter à cause du manque de temps et de la fatigue».

Des structures à réformer

L’étude de la FEUQ recommande de modifier le programme de l’Aide financière aux études, qui ne correspond plus à la réalité. Par exemple, le revenu que les étudiants peuvent gagner sans voir diminuer leur aide financière demeure inchangé depuis 2004. D’un montant qui représentait alors 15 semaines de travail au salaire minimum, il ne correspond plus qu’à 11 semaines maintenant.

«On se trouve dans un cul-de-sac à cause de l’augmentation des frais», signale Martine Desjardins, présidente de la FEUQ. La hausse des frais de scolarité exigerait à elle seule cinq semaines de travail de plus par année. «On pousse les étudiants à travailler plus pour combler leurs besoins de base, à savoir le logement, la nourriture, les vêtements, les frais de scolarité. L’étudiant ne va pas se payer du luxe», précise la présidente de la Fédération.

Selon Esther Chouinard, attachée de presse du ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport, «le gouvernement doit vérifier si les recommandations faites dans l’étude de la FEUQ correspondent aux bonifications prévues au programme de l’AFE annoncées à l’automne».

Pour Éric Martin, chercheur à l ’Institut de recherche et d’informations socio-économiques (IRIS), «il n’y a aucun bon côté à travailler pendant ses études. Ça nuit à la capacité de faire les travaux et ça mine les conditions d’étude». Le chercheur est persuadé que ce fardeau dissuade les étudiants de choisir le programme qu’ils désirent suivre, au profit de programmes plus rentables. «On assiste à l’arrimage des institutions d’enseignement aux entreprises et à l’économie. On s’en va vers une université commerciale. Il faut résister à ça. Il faut s’opposer à la hausse des frais de scolarité», conclut-il.

Étudiants menés au surmenage

Josée, 24 ans, baccalauréat par cumul de certificats en relations publiques, publicité et journalisme:

Aux études à temps plein, Josée s’ajoutaient des semaines de 40 heures de travail rémunéré. «Je voulais terminer mes études le plus rapidement possible, pour arriver sur le marché du travail. Je dormais entre quatre à six heures par nuit. J’ai dû me mettre énormément de côté. J’ai pris 10 livres, parce que je ne faisais rien d’autre qu’être assise et travailler. Je ne m’alimentais pas bien, puisque je n’étais jamais chez moi.»

Gabrielle, 25 ans, baccalauréat en histoire de l’art:

Durant ses études, Gabrielle a travaillé comme serveuse 30 heures par semaine en moyenne. «Si je n’avais pas travaillé, j’aurais été obligée d’avoir des prêts et bourses. J’aurais eu 15 000 $ de dettes. Ça ne te tente pas d’avoir 15 000 $ de dettes avec un baccalauréat en histoire de l’art.» Avec une charge de cours à temps plein, il ne reste pas beaucoup de temps. «Au moins, mon travail, c’était comme une activité sociale. Je n’avais pas besoin de sortir.» Autres bons côtés du travail? «Ça m’organisait. Je ne pouvais pas procrastiner.»

Marie-Christine, 21 ans, étudiante en enseignement en adaptation scolaire:

«Je ne travaille pas cette session-ci, mais j’ai commencé à travailler au cinquième secondaire, jusqu’à mes deux premières années de baccalauréat. J’étais serveuse.» Au cégep, Marie-Christine était inscrite en sciences de la nature. «Travailler pendant mes études a eu un effet sur mon rendement scolaire. Ma cote R n’était pas très bonne parce que je n’avais pas assez de temps pour étudier. Si j’avais voulu poursuivre à l’université en santé, je n’aurais pas pu.» Depuis qu’elle ne travaille plus pendant ses études, Marie-Christine a vu sa qualité de vie s’améliorer. «Je vois plus mes amis. Je peux aussi faire mon ménage!»

Émilie, 27 ans, étudiante à la maîtrise en anthropologie:

Émilie travaille comme serveuse entre 15 et 20 heures par semaine. «Quand j’étais au baccalauréat à temps plein, je travaillais de 20 à 25 heures par semaine. C’est un de mes profs qui m’a fait prendre conscience que je travaillais trop, raconte-t-elle. Je n’étudiais pas plus que ce qu’il fallait. Je passais plus de temps à travailler qu’à faire mes devoirs. Des fois, je dormais dans mes cours. J’ai eu une moyenne «moyenne», juste assez pour entrer à la maîtrise.» Émilie croit qu’elle n’aurait pas pu faire autrement. «Mes parents ne pouvaient pas m’aider financièrement et je n’ai jamais eu de bourse. J’avais le minimum de prêts, juste assez pour payer mes frais de scolarité. Malgré toutes ces heures travaillées, je me suis quand même endettée.»

Louis-Bernard, 22 ans, étudiant en enseignement au secondaire:

Louis-Bernard cumule ses études à temps plein à un emploi de commis dans une fromagerie. Il y travaille 16 heures par semaine. «C’est vraiment le maximum d’heures de travail que je peux faire.» Il avoue couper dans ses heures de sommeil, surtout la fin de semaine où il devrait récupérer. Il ne croit pas cependant que son travail nuit beaucoup à ses études. «Ça me force à étudier la semaine. Si je ne travaillais pas, je consacrerais le même temps à mes études.» Un peu plus de temps libre lui permettrait d’être plus actif dans la société. «Ce que je trouve dommage en travaillant, c’est que je ne peux pas m’impliquer dans la vie étudiante. Je le ferais si j’avais plus de temps.»

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Retrouvez l'article original sur le site du Quartier Libre.

Opinion

Tomi Gbeleyi — The Brunswickan (University of New Brunswick)

FREDERICTON (CUP) — Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and Malcom X are historical figures well known to many university students as leaders who fought against inequality and racism.

Names like Marie-Joseph Angélique or Olivier Le Jeune, however, will likely not ring a bell. These two people were slaves in Canada and are part of Canada's multi-faceted black history. Marie-Joseph Angelique was a female black slave who burned half of what was known as Old Montreal, and Olivier Le Jeune was a boy younger than eight years old who came into Canada from Madagascar as a slave but died a free man.

Award-winning author Lawrence Hill recently told the Montreal Gazette that he believes Canadian knowledge of black history in Canada is incomprehensively focused on the Underground Railroad because of Canadians' “unconscious resistance” towards examining their own history.

“It’s convenient to know about that, and if a Canadian does know a tiny bit about black history in Canada, they’re likely to trumpet the Underground Railroad,” Hill said in the interview.

Many are unaware that Canada also bears the shame of participating in slave trade. Both slaves and free blacks had to continuously fight against extreme discrimination and racism while living in Canada. Some were lynched for suspected theft, and others were deceived into a life of domestic work that was little more than slavery.

The Maritime provinces have particular significance to Black History Month in Canada. The first major influx of blacks to Canada occurred in Halifax after the American Revolutionary war in 1783. Black Loyalists came with other Loyalists to the Maritimes, but ultimately left to create the city Freetown in Sierra Leone due to the extent of racial discrimination they faced in Canada.

Very few attempts have been made to provide an impartial account of Loyalists in Canada. The approach taken is often patriotic or genealogical; thus, there is little information on the maltreatment they meted out to blacks, both slave and free.

As opposed to focusing on the history of African-Americans, which is important, educators and students in the Maritimes should be aware of the history of their own country and province. Many are unaware of major events in Canada, including the major exodus to Sierra Leone in 1792 and the creation of a small community in the city of Halifax called Africville, which was populated almost entirely by African Nova Scotians and subsequently destroyed by the Halifax government in the 1960s. Africville inhabitants continued to protest the demolition of their community in the 1980s and 1990s.

The municipal government of Halifax has since apologized for the destruction of Africville, and the government of Canada established a $250,000 Africville Heritage Trust in 2010 to preserve the history of the community. Now, the rest of the country just needs to get on board and learn about black history in Canada.

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News

April Hudson — The Gateway (University of Alberta)

EDMONTON (CUP) — The University of Alberta has sparked controversy with its recent decision to award three individuals honorary degrees for their groundbreaking work in the field of water research.

Among the three awarded is Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman and former CEO of the Nestlé corporation, a company which has played a controversial role in global resource management.

“The Honorary Degrees Committee elected to confer an honorary degree on Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, along with Steve Hrudey and Sunita Narain,” wrote university President Indira Samarasekera in the U of A’s blog Feb. 9.

“All three recipients have provided extraordinary leadership in sparking dialogue, conducting research, and pushing for major policy change in addressing critical challenges relating to the management and safety of water.”

Samarasekera added that Brabeck-Letmathe was chosen in recognition of his growing role as a global leader in water resource management.

“His recent advocacy and leadership calling attention to water issues worldwide is challenging industry and government to take quick action,” she wrote.

Brabeck-Letmathe leads a worldwide project on water resources as a member of the Foundational Board of the World Economic Forum, and has co-authored a report on charting the future of water. He has also used his position as chairman of Nestlé to engage government and business leaders on issues surrounding water resource scarcity and security.

His company was awarded the Stockholm Industry Water Award in August 2011.

“The company received this award for implementation of water management strategies put in place that include providing expert training for 300,000 farmers, resulting in a 30 percent reduction in water use and greater crop yields,” Samarasekera wrote.

However, because of his ties to Nestlé, Brabeck-Letmathe has come under fire in the past for his company’s advocacy of water privatization, as well as its methods of marketing products to third-world countries.

“It’s not unusual for universities to occasionally run into some controversy concerning some speakers on campus,” said Debra Pozega Osburn, vice-president of university relations at the U of A.

“That doesn’t mean we seek out controversy — but we are a community of diverse people, voices, and opinions. You’ll never see the day everybody at the university agrees on the same thing.”

Honorary degree recipients are chosen by the university Senate’s Honorary Degree Committee, and Pozega Osburn said that in the search for honorary degree candidates, the university typically looks for an individual with a certain level of achievement, accomplishment or impact.

Various U of A professors have voiced their complaints to the Edmonton Journal, as well as on the U of A’s blog and on social media outlets.

David Zakus, director of the global health centre in the U of A medical school, told the Journal he’s concerned the award could tarnish the U of A’s international reputation.

“Everyone is aware of the role Nestlé plays in privatization of water and baby formula, and it will reflect back on the university,” he told the Journal.

“The reason any candidate will be chosen for a degree typically has to do with their level of impact in the world,” Pozega Osburn said.

“In this case, we have one person who was chosen for his academic accomplishments, and that is Steven Hrudey. We have Sunita Narain, who works for a non-governmental organization, and then we have Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, who specifically was chosen for his own achievements in a field in which he as an individual is expert in.”

Since Brabeck-Letmathe is the CEO of Nestlé, Pozega Osburn said the university has received criticism based on concerns about Nestlé as a corporation instead of Brabeck-Letmathe as an individual.

“That’s one side of the criticism we’re getting, and I think that’s the most common one,” Pozega Osburn said. “Again, we’re giving the degree to Mr. Brabeck-Letmathe, not to the corporation. But you can understand how people can look at one and connect him with the other because of his role in the organization.”

She added that it is not unheard of for a university as large as the U of A to experience some controversy in relations to honorary degree recipients.

“Whether or not you agree with the choice is just going to depend on what your opinions are on issues related to water and water distribution,” Pozega Osburn said. “In some cases, this seems to be people’s opinions on Nestlé, and the way they’ve operated on the global stage, and in third world countries.”

Pozega Osburn also dismissed fears that the choice to award Brabeck-Letmathe may harm the U of A’s international reputation.

“International reputations for post-secondary institutions are built over a long period of time,” Pozega Osburn said. “And over time, the U of A’s reputation has been built very solidly on the contributions of our faculty, our staff, our students and our alumni in the global markets where they live and work.”

“He is a global thinker, and he is having an impact in this area,” Pozega Osburn added.

“Certainly, not everybody agrees with what he says. But the important thing is, he’s having an impact and he’s changing the conversation. ... It’s clear that he has achieved a great deal.”

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Science & Technology

Marc Lagace — The Manitoban (University of Manitoba) and Fraser Nelund — The Manitoban (University of Manitoba)

WINNIPEG (CUP) — Programmers working at the Autonomous Agents Laboratory at the University of Manitoba may have developed the world’s first humanoid-robot ice-hockey player.

Chris Iverach-Brereton, a computer science graduate student at the U of M, has been programming Jennifer — a DARwin open platform named after Canadian hockey player Jennifer Botterill — for less than a month.

Thus far the robot is capable of taking a shot, stick handling and taking rudimentary strides on some makeshift skates. She makes her moves with a miniature Bison hockey stick.

Jacky Baltes, professor in the department of computer science and Iverach-Brereton’s supervisor, got his student working on programming the multi-sport capable robot to take on Canada’s game mere weeks ago.

Jennifer doesn’t have her own skates yet. Iverach-Brereton told the Manitoban that a customized set of blades was on the way, but had been delayed by a few days.

Jennifer has six motors in each leg and three in each arm. Iverach-Brereton is looking forward to the addition of new motors in the robot’s arms, which will serve to increase range of motion.

Her practice arena is the Duckworth Quadrangle. She, Baltes and Iverach-Brereton have prepared a video entry to the 2012 DARwin-OP Humanoid Appliance Challenge, a competition to reward the most innovative uses of the platform.

“We don’t know anyone else that has tried doing it," said Iverach-Brereton. "There [are] other people who’ve worked on aspects of hockey. There [are] robots that make slapshots and stuff. I haven’t actually seen a humanoid robot try to do all of it... Go Canada!”

For video of Jennifer, see: http://www.themanitoban.com/2012/02/u-of-m-home-to-hockey-robot-2/9144/

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Français

Geneviève Payette - Le Délit (Université McGill)

MONTRÉAL (PUC) — En juillet dernier, le Règlement sur le contrôle de l’identité dans les aéroports a été modifié une fois de plus. Selon la codification canadienne, il serait maintenant «interdit au transporteur aérien de prendre en charge un passager dans les cas suivants: 5.2.1 c) il ne semble pas être du sexe indiqué sur la pièce d’identité qu’il présente; d) il présente plus d’un moyen d’identification et il y a une divergence importante entre ceux-ci».

Suite à ce nouveau règlement, la population transsexuelle et transgenre du Canada se sent offusquée. Un dilemme s’impose: que vient en premier, les droits et libertés ou la sécurité des passagers?

Des groupes militants pour les droits et libertés des transsexuels et transgenres croient qu’il ne leur sera désormais plus possible de prendre l’avion. Les pétitions sont nombreuses et les défenseurs des offensés se multiplient. Madame Sandrine Marquis, vice-présidente de l’organisme Aide aux transsexuels et transsexuelles du Québec informe les gens et aide les transsexuels dans la recherche de leur identité. Elle déclare qu’il s’agit là d’un sujet épineux et ambigu, car plusieurs problèmes en découlent. «Il en ressort que les employés des compagnies aériennes sont dans l’obligation de vérifier l’identité de chaque passager/ère, évaluer son genre et le comparer avec celui qu’ils lui attribuent à la mention du sexe figurant sur ses pièces d’identité. Si, selon le transporteur aérien, le genre apparent du passager ne concorde pas avec les pièces d’identité, le transporteur se doit de refuser le ou la passager/ère».

Pourquoi ne pas simplement changer le sexe sur les pièces d’identité? Madame Marquis déclare que «la plupart des provinces canadiennes exigent l’amendement de l’Acte de naissance avant de permettre le changement des pièces d’identité. Pour ce faire, elles exigent que la personne concernée ait subi une chirurgie de «réassignation sexuelle», visant par le fait même la stérilisation. Par contre, de nombreuses personnes transsexuelles ne veulent pas d’une telle chirurgie, ou ne peuvent pas subir l’intervention chirurgicale pour des raisons médicales ou parce qu’ils sont trop jeunes. Même pour une personne pouvant avoir recours au changement légal de la mention de sexe, le processus est long et onéreux.»

Évidemment, les transsexuels et transgenres clament leurs droits. Dans la Charte canadienne des Droits et Libertés, il y est clairement inscrit à l’article 6.1 que «tout citoyen canadien a le droit de demeurer au Canada, d’y entrer ou d’en sortir». Le ministre Denis Lebel se défend en déclarant qu’il s’agit d’une simple mesure de sécurité et qu’il n’est aucunement question des droits de la personne.

Néanmoins, tous les pays n’adoptent pas un règlement aussi draconien. Dans certains pays tels que l’Australie et la Nouvelle-Zélande, une solution ingénieuse a été adoptée. En effet, on retrouve maintenant sur les passeports l’option F (femme), H (homme) et l’option X (indéterminé). Les transsexuels désirant obtenir ce nouveau droit doivent donc présenter une lettre certifiée de leur médecin, pour ensuite obtenir les documents pour le sexe auquel ils préfèrent s’identifier, et ce, sans exiger la chirurgie. Un problème est bel et bien réglé, le sexe ne peut être falsifié, on assure ainsi la sécurité des passagers et chaque individu a la possibilité d’indiquer, sous quelques réserves, le sexe auquel il s’identifie le mieux.

Pourquoi n’en est-il pas de même au Canada? Dans le Règlement sur le contrôle de l’identité, il est inscrit à l’article 5.2.2 a) que le transporteur peut prendre en charge un passager si «l’apparence du passager a changé pour des raisons médicales après la prise de la photo et que celui-ci présente au transporteur aérien un document qui est signé par un professionnel de la santé qui en fait foi». Toutefois, nous ne retrouvons nullement de telles affirmations en ce qui concerne le sexe de la personne. Donc, certaines personnes comme madame Marquis, pour qui la photo concorde sur le passeport, mais pas le sexe, se voient malheureusement refuser le droit de passage, une lettre de médecin ne servant à rien dans ce contexte.

Selon elle, on progresse tout de même pour les droits des transsexuels, la chirurgie de changement de sexe étant maintenant couverte par la Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec, par exemple. La lutte n’est toutefois pas encore gagnée entre le gouvernement et les transsexuels et transgenres au Canada.

Madame Marquis rappelle en conclusion que le sexe auquel on appartient est une manière d’être et de se sentir, à défaut d’un morceau de peau et d’organes, et qu’il serait nécessaire de porter attention à ces considérations avant de porter des jugements trop souvent infondés.

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Retrouvez l'article original sur le site du Délit.

Opinion

Mike Davies — The Omega (Thompson Rivers University)

KAMLOOPS, B.C. (CUP) — It always saddens me to hear that a young person has taken his or her own life.

But for some reason, it always makes me less sad than angry.

I decided to explore why that is — why sorrow isn’t the primary emotion I feel when I hear that another child has taken their own life, and anger fills me instead.

I think maybe it’s because when I hear that a child couldn’t take any more taunting, harassment, physical or emotional attacks or other form of abuse, the blame is always misplaced.

We blame a concept.

“Bullying” is to blame for this, we say. But we don’t go back further and explore why the bullying is happening in the first place. Instead we shake our fists in the air and cry, “Stop the bullying!” and mourn the loss of another child.

The bullying is happening because people are raising shitty children. And these shitty children are killing their peers with hate and ignorance that they receive directly from (or at the very least are not dissuaded from by) their parents.

The so-called justice system isn’t helping things, either. Not all instances of youth bullying end in death, but they still need to be taken seriously.

Consider this line from a Feb. 11 article in the Vancouver Sun: “A youth who videotaped a teenager’s sexual assault at a Pitt Meadows rave was sentenced to 12 months’ probation in Port Coquitlam Provincial Court Friday.”

Yes. You can videotape a gang rape at a party and your punishment is “you can’t do anything bad for a year, okay?”

Oh, but that’s not all. He also has to write a 1,500 word essay on reputation and integrity, which concludes with an apology to the victim.

Not only is this punishment laughable: it’s misplaced.

We cry, “Stop the bullying!” and point our fingers at this kid. What we should be crying is, “Stop raising shitty people!” and pointing our fingers at this child’s role models and teachers.

And I’m not talking about the teachers in the school system that people rely on to raise their children because they can’t be bothered.

And I’m not talking about the teachers we supply our children with when we prop them up in front of the television, or plug them in to a video game that we then look at and complain about because it’s teaching our kids violence — or whatever we’re blaming technology for nowadays.

And I’m not talking about these so-called “role models” that we put on pedestals for a while and then complain about when they don’t live up to our expectations for them, like athletes and spoiled-ass celebrities.

I’m talking about the people who are supposed to be children’s teachers and role models.

The people who brought them into the world and are supposed to be responsible for them. In the case of the youth in Port Coquitlam, the parents should be punished for raising someone who not only stands by while a girl gets gang raped, but also videotapes it and shares it with people.

I think next time I hear of a child who killed themselves because they couldn’t take living in a world that treated them so badly, I’ll make a concerted effort to feel sad instead of angry.

If I’m successful, it will be because I’ve managed to feel sorry for those much-maligned children who were treating their peers with such disregard.

I’ll feel sorry for them because it’s not their fault that they’re shitty people, really. It’s because no one held their parents accountable for sucking at their most important job in life. Heck, maybe it’s because no one held their parents’ parents responsible for being shitty people. Who knows how far back the ignorance began?

I don’t like being angry.

Maybe disappointed in humanity will feel better.

Somehow I don’t think I’ll manage it, but I think I’ll give it a try.

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News

Hilary Paige Smith — The Brunswickan (University of New Brunswick)

FREDERICTON (CUP) — Live for today.

The words are etched on Stefanie Boucher-Bouchard’s left wrist in black cursive. Above them, her forearm is striped with thin, white lines. The scars left from years of self-injury.

Self-harm — often referred to as cutting — is the intentional injuring of one’s own body. It is usually done without suicidal intentions and can become an addiction.

Counselling Services at UNB has noticed a high number of students coming in who report self-injury. Ninety-one of 260 students who have sought services on campus since January reported the behaviour during their intake questionnaire. That’s just over one-third of their visitors.

Nancy Buzzell, psychologist with Counselling Services, did not wish to comment on those numbers. She says a month’s worth of numbers is “not strong enough to stand on its own.”

Despite this, self-injuring is still a reality for many university students across the country.

Buzzell says there have been eight studies on self-harm in university students, the majority of which report 30 per cent of students have engaged in some form of self-injuring, whether it be cutting, scratching or burning.

For Stefanie, now in her third year at St. Thomas University, this behaviour began when she was 11. She was sexually abused by a family member at an early age and started suffering from anorexia when she was just eight years old.

She started off picking scabs, enough that they didn’t heal for weeks. She also started scratching her wrists and arms.

“I wasn’t seeking out directly with a blade to harm myself, just picking at my skin — things that would cause injury, but would be easier to explain away,” she says.

This kind of self-harm, and eventually cutting, lasted almost every day until she was 19.

Stefanie was also raped in high school. Cutting became a distraction for her — a way to displace the pain of sexual assault with something else.

“I used it as a way to distract myself from the thoughts and memories of the assault and the pain would bring me back. It would bring me back right away from the memories,” she said.

Now 20, it’s been a year since Stefanie last self-injured. She stopped when she entered a serious relationship, though admits she has occasionally relapsed.

“It’s hard to hide something like that from someone you’re with every day and to have to put someone who willingly chooses to be in your life through that,” she said.

Explaining self-harm to loved ones is often one of the most difficult things a person has to deal with, Buzzell says. There’s a stigma attached to self-injuring.

“The worst sort of generalization is that they self-injure because they need help. They want someone to know they’re very upset and yet the first thing they hear from someone sometimes is that they’re just doing it for attention,” she said.

Buzzell noted there is an incredibly small minority who self-injure for attention.

“By and large, a far greater number don’t tell anyone about it. They are ashamed that they do it and try to hide it.”

Self-injuring is a temporary fix, with lasting consequences. Buzzell explained it begins that way, to distract from emotional pain, but it can escalate.

“It has an addiction piece. It’s a complicated relationship between what happens in a person’s mind and their body — the endorphin thing that happens when people self-injure,” she said.

People often feel a release or a sense of control while they self-injure. After, the rush is replaced with shame and guilt.

“Research says that relief is temporary and followed by a lot of things that aren’t so good and people have to do more of it," said Buzzell. "They have to self-harm more.”

If self-injuring goes untreated, people may get the urge to do it more frequently or inflict deeper harm. They run the risk of infection or blood poisoning. It can also create tensions with loved ones.

Self-injuring while drinking or using drugs also creates an additional risk because people aren’t as careful, both while injuring or patching their injuries up.

Buzzell said there are coping mechanisms people can use to prevent self-injuring. The longer they wait, the less likely they are to hurt themselves.

She suggested Ericksonian techniques. People with the urge to self-harm should take a deep breath and focus on five sights around them. Then, take another breath and focus on five sounds they can hear. Lastly, they should focus on five sensations, such as the feeling of their feet on the ground, with another deep breath.

“By the time they do that whole thing — it takes about five minutes — they will be calmed down and it’s less likely that they will do it. It’s a way of reducing the urge,” she says.

Both Buzzell and Stefanie suggest reaching out for help, whether it’s a friend, family member or a counsellor.

“I still struggle. It’s like any addiction, my eating disorder, my self-injuring, it’s not going to go away overnight and I don’t think it’s ever going to go away, but I know I have the support of the people around me,” Stefanie said.

Now, her scars are the only visible reminder of her past with self-injuring. She’s upbeat, twirling fettuccini pasta melted with brie on a fork. On her left hand, a silver engagement ring catches the light. She got engaged to her girlfriend on the weekend and her smile is unwavering.

She isn’t afraid to show her scars, but cautions everyone against self-harm.

“It wasn’t great. It releases endorphins, but the relief you get from it is only temporary. The shame and the guilt and the pain you’ll feel from those injuries years later is something you’re going to have to deal with for the rest of your life.”

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Opinion

Kimberly Hartwig — The Sheaf (University of Saskatchewan)

SASKATOON (CUP) — I have never been one for commitment. I can spend hours mulling over a simple decision before finally making a choice and (maybe) sticking to it. It shouldn’t come as any surprise, then, that I can’t commit to a significant other.

My lack of commitment has never fazed me, but lately it seems that all I see is people jumping into relationships. This isn’t helped by the fact that I work at a bridal salon. Nothing is a better reminder of life-long commitment than being surrounded by pouffy white dresses all day long. But rather than making me long for Prince Charming/Ryan Gosling, the constant barrage of happily-ever-afters only makes me say “I do” to singleness.

The single person has the ability to be absolutely, unapologetically selfish. Being single means no compromising your taste in music, your taste in movies or your taste in books. And you never have to pretend to like something you secretly hate. It means no sharing the couch, the bed or the covers — especially important at this time of year, when every square inch of material counts.

Being single also means being slutty without feeling guilty. There’s absolutely no problem with showing your affection for multiple people as long as you’re unattached and safe about it. Being single means no guilty morning-afters frantically trying to piece together the memories of last night’s drunken escapades and never having to apologize for any indiscretions you may have committed.

When you’re single, there’s no one to impress. There’s no need to pretend to be some suave, mysterious femme fatale or Casanova. You can bust out your “best” moves on the dance floor without fear of being reprimanded, and you can be your regular old sweatpants-wearing, Justin Bieber-loving, macaroni-eating self with no risk of completely turning someone off.

Being single also means not having to settle. It means not having to date someone who isn’t your type, someone who likes cats when you like dogs or someone who wears bad shoes. Being single gives you the freedom to be picky and shallow. You can say no to anyone for the pettiest of reasons (but good taste in shoes is never petty).

Couples often settle into a routine: Wednesday is date night, tomorrow is pancake Thursday, yesterday was taco Tuesday. Singles, on the other hand, have the ability to shake things up. Ever realize how many great stories come from single people? Whether they're about breakups, hookups or blind dates gone horribly awry, singles' stories are a lot more saucy.

Most of us want to wind up with someone in the end, but the road to that someone is part of the fun. It should be a little crazy, at times discouraging and always interesting. Being a single person means paying your dues to make that final walk all the more worth it.

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Arts

Nikola Grozdanovic — The Link (Concordia University)

MONTREAL (CUP) — Cinema du Parc is currently showcasing the filmography of one of the most (to many, the number one) internationally renowned Quebecois directors, Denys Arcand. With three Oscar nominations to his name, he is arguably mostly known for directing the 2003 Oscar-winning film Les Invasions Barbares. Many, however, believe that his international fame got kick-started by the 1986 film that got the first Oscar nomination, The Decline of the American Empire.

You hear that title and I bet sex is the last thing on your mind. Not so for Arcand. It’s one of those conversational films where dialogue is the core strength of the whole piece. However, there are splurges of brilliance apart from the raunchy, crisp and cutting-edge dialogue in which characters find themselves. For example, the opening credit sequence features a long steady-cam shot in the bowels of a university building while a theme by Handel roars through the speakers. It’s a sequence Kubrick would have agreed with.

But it is Arcand’s script that holds the key here. The film is divided into three parts: before, during and after a dinner. A group of university professors gather to discuss intellectual subjects for dinner but the meat of the film, the before part, shows the women at the gym and the men preparing the meal, an ingeniously flipped stereotype if there ever was one.

Sex is the only thing on these people’s minds when not confronted by their respective spouse, partner or opposite sex counterpart. The cast of characters is as colorful as you’d expect this type of film to have in order to keep our attention: Louise the faithful wife, Dominique the older of the femme fatales, Diane the younger of the two and Danielle the innocent girlfriend, in the gym. For the men: Pierre the middle-aged boyfriend, Remy the unfaithful husband, Claude the homosexual and Alain the teenage novice, preparing the meal.

There is no real plot to grab on to and follow here. From start to end we are engaged in the conversations of these characters and the wit of Arcand’s pen. “Age leads to vice” is one of the many quotable quips from Pierre and the rest of the boys and girls, and could also stand as a tag line for the whole movie. This is essentially a film about middle-aged intellectuals whose youth has flown by leaving them starving for lust, desire and passion in their lives.

At one point Remy proudly says, “I may cheat on Louise, but I know she’s the one for me” and laughs. It’s hard to sympathize with someone like that, which leads to the biggest problem here: you can’t really sympathize with anybody in this film. Everyone’s true colors are shown as depraved humans devoid of real emotions, while the most innocent characters (Louise and Danielle) are either too blind or indifferent to the goings on around them.

But maybe Arcand did not want to us to sympathize with these adults. It is after all how he ties in the whole theme of perversion and lust to the decline of a country’s empire. The epilogue has a narrator tell us that the youth is doomed for having “no models to live by. Our own existence is being eroded.” With men talking about STDs like they can’t wait to get them and hide them from their wives, and women giving relationship advice to their girlfriends while sleeping with their husbands on the side, you kind of get what Arcand is saying.

The Decline of the American Empire is a very clever and entertaining exposure of a specific version of adulthood. A little cold and detached, with some characters being quite detestable apart from their sense of humor, it’s a film that many won’t be able to relate to completely; those who still believe in the sanctity of marriage, for example. But as the empire continues its steady decline, this deliciously decadent tale feels as contemporary as ever. And that’s the biggest turn-on here.

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Français

Mathieu Plourde Turcotte - Le Front (Université de Moncton)

MONCTON (PUC) — Le jeudi 9 février aura lieu, dans le cadre des festivités de la Semaine internationale, une table ronde discutant des principaux dossiers touchant à l’immigration. Marie-Linda Lord, vice-rectrice aux affaires étudiantes et internationales de l’Université de Moncton, et Benoit André, directeur général du Centre d’accueil et d’accompagnement des immigrants du Sud-Est du Nouveau-Brunswick, ont bien voulu livrer quelques commentaires.

L’augmentation de la quantité d’immigrants améliore leur intégration

Les deux intervenants tiennent tout d'abord à faire la distinction entre l’immigrant étudiant et l’immigrant qui s’apprête directement à entrer sur le marché du travail. Le premier, dit Benoit André, a l’opportunité d’entrer en contact avec un réseau important au sein de la communauté et qui pourra lui être utile dans une carrière future, contrairement à celui sans diplôme canadien. Benoit André et Marie Linda Lord disent de l’étudiant international qu’il est l’immigrant idéal puisqu’il arrive sur le marché du travail plus intégré à la société. Toutefois, ajoute Benoit André, le campus est une bulle qui isole de la vie courante. Il admet que la vie en communauté de personnes du même pays –ce qui se produit presque inévitablement– a ses désavantages, car ce n’est pas vraiment vivre à Moncton que de toujours rester sur le campus avec les étudiants de mêmes nationalités. Pourtant, étant donné qu’il a été observé que l’augmentation de la quantité d’immigrants améliore l’intégration, il y a plus d’avantages que d'inconvénients à ce qu’il y ait des communautés immigrantes.

Benoit André explique que si les immigrants se plaisent –et c’est souvent le cas lorsque leur séjour est accompagné par beaucoup de gens de leur nationalité– il y a plus de chance qu’ils rallongent leur séjour dans la ville et qu’ainsi, un jour, la curiosité les pousse à sortir de la bulle universitaire, ou de leur propre communauté, pour devenir de véritables citoyens intégrés à l’ensemble de Moncton. Par le passé, ajoute-t-il, il y avait alors beaucoup moins d’étudiants internationaux et d’immigrants, et donc l’intégration s’avérait souvent plus compliquée puisque les immigrants se retrouvaient souvent seuls ou peu nombreux, et la peur de l’étranger chez la population locale due à la méconnaissance naturelle pouvait se traduire chez l’immigrant en ennui et en volonté de retourner dans son pays natal ou ailleurs. Bref, le nombre attire le nombre et c’est pour cette raison, explique Benoit André, que Montréal –endroit précurseur dans la francophonie nord-américaine en termes d’immigration– est aussi attirante pour les immigrants.

Le détail des raisons de la venue des immigrants à Moncton

Parmi les deux catégories de nouveaux arrivants, étudiants internationaux et immigrants entrant directement sur le marché du travail, les raisons de leurs venues respectives sont somme toute différentes. D’un côté, les étudiants internationaux ont tendance à choisir Moncton pour trois raisons. Moncton est une ville d’assez grande taille, sans que ce soit démesuré; d'ailleurs une partie des immigrants, ajoute Marie-Linda Lord, proviennent d’un milieu rural et ne souhaitent donc pas ajouter l’adaptation à la vie de grande métropole à l’inévitable intégration à une nouvelle culture. Moncton est aussi une ville rassurante et sécuritaire en opposition aux métropoles nord-américaines possédant un taux élevé de criminalité. Finalement, le bilinguisme de la ville attire les immigrants qui viennent dans l’espoir d'apprendre aussi l'anglais.

Les immigrants qui ne sont pas étudiants ont plus tendance à venir pour le coût de la vie peu élevé et pour la qualité de vie. À ce titre, Benoit André utilise son expérience personnelle comme exemple. Né en Belgique, il avait d’abord immigré en Colombie-Britannique pour se rendre compte que le français était peu parlé et que le coût de la vie était élevé. L’autre facteur qui rend d’abord le diplôme d’une université canadienne parfois plus attrayant est la reconnaissance des diplômes. Le permis de travail rend également plus abordables les études. C’est certes une des manières que le gouvernement a trouvée pour que les étudiants internationaux restent au Nouveau-Brunswick.

Marie-Linda Lord renchérit sur la rétention des étudiants internationaux puisque la principale difficulté n’est pas de les attirer à l’Université de Moncton, mais bien de les garder dans la région pour la suite de leur carrière. Non pas que le retour vers leur pays soit nécessairement un signe négatif, affirme-t-elle, car ils peuvent aussi faire rayonner l’Acadie à l’extérieur de ses frontières, amenant peut-être d'autres étudiants à vouloir venir étudier à Moncton. Attirer les étudiants internationaux à Moncton est devenu une tâche moins difficile: l’Université de Moncton se permet d’exiger un rendement académique plus élevé. Selon Madame Lord, plus le rendement académique est élevé, mieux les étudiants s’adaptent à l’environnement dans lequel ils émigrent.

Un quota d’immigrants francophones est demandé pour le Nouveau-Brunswick

Madame Lord aimerait que le Nouveau-Brunswick prenne en exemple la politique d’immigration manitobaine qui impose un quota d’immigrants francophones dans la province. L’exemple est d’autant plus applicable puisque, ajoute Marie-Linda Lord, le Manitoba est la province –parmi les deux provinces qui imposent cette manière de faire– qui ressemble le plus, en termes de population et de situation minoritaire francophone, au Nouveau-Brunswick. Lorsque questionnée sur ce que l’élite anglophone de la province a à gagner dans la mise en place d’une telle structure pour les francophones, Marie-Linda Lord hésite pour finalement affirmer: «Avoir des immigrants francophones qui viennent habiter ou étudier ici, c’est une façon de créer des contacts à l’étranger. Dans le monde, il n’y a pas que le B.R.I.C. (Brésil, Russie, Inde, Chine) qui est intéressant sur le plan des affaires. Les occasions de partenariats d’affaires avec un grand nombre de pays francophones sont aussi intéressantes et ne sont pas à dédaigner.»

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Retrouvez l'article original sur le site du Front.

Science & Technology

Tim O'Brien — The Muse (Memorial University)

ST JOHN'S (CUP) — Late last month, Google announced its plans to amalgamate their many privacy policies into one unified document starting March 1. The new policy changes are presented as a take-it-or-leave-it option from Google.

“If you continue to use Google services after March 1, you’ll be doing so under the new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. If you’d prefer to close your Google Account, you can follow the instructions in our help center,” reads Google’s FAQ page.

The new policy will replace 60 existing product-specifying privacy documents for Google services such as Gmail, YouTube and Docs. According to Google, the terms of the new policy will provide better search results and ads that are more likely to be of interest to users.

Google will have more data to work with by combining users’ history across all Google products.

Previously, and until March 1, data that Google collects about you when you use YouTube, for instance, is separated from other Google products you use. Google could use the data collected from YouTube to improve users’ YouTube experience, but couldn’t use the data to improve and customize user experience on other Google products.

Similarly, Google search data had been kept separate from other products. The corporation has previously promised not to share information gathered about users’ search history when customizing their other products.

The new policy removes the present separation between YouTube, Google products, and its search engine.

“The new policy reflects our efforts to create one beautifully simple, intuitive user experience across Google. It makes clear that, if you have a Google Account and are signed in, we may combine information you’ve provided from one service with information from other services. In short, we can treat you as a single user across all our products,” reads Google’s FAQ page.

The new policy, however, doesn’t eliminate users’ ability to set up different accounts under different names.

“We may use the name you provide for your Google Profile across all of the services we offer that require a Google Account. In addition, we may replace past names associated with your Google Account so that you are represented consistently across all our services,” according to Google.

A Google+ account requires a real name from its users, while a YouTube account does not. As of March 1, your real name could appear across all Google’s products.

To see what information Google has about you, login to Google, go to “Account Settings,” select “Products,” and then “Login to Dashboard.” There you will find a list of Google products you use and your most recent activity for each.

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News

Ishmael N. Daro and Daryl Hofmann — The Sheaf (University of Saskatchewan)

SASKATOON (CUP) — “A lot of the people that I graduated with, in the same program or in the same year as me, went to Calgary,” said Christine Stadnyk, talking by phone from Vancouver.

Stadnyk earned a masters degree in soil science from the University of Saskatchewan in 2010. After scouring the job market at home for several months, she packed up and left for the coast of British Columbia.

She said she could have stayed in the province and worked in forestry, but Vancouver had a greater range of jobs in the environmental sector. Now, she works for a groundwater and soil consulting firm.

But it was also a feeling that life in Saskatoon was becoming too predictable, Stadnyk said.

“I wanted to be somewhere that had a little more diversity in a concentrated area than what Saskatoon had.”

Her story isn’t new, but it’s becoming less common.

Reversing a longstanding trend, the last five years has seen more people move to Saskatchewan than leave, according to new census data that show the province making a sharp turnaround in growth after years of decline.

For the first time since 1986, there are more than one million residents living in the province.

The rise in population, Statistics Canada says, is mainly the result of a wave of immigration and a spike in interprovincial migration, both groups likely drawn to the province’s red-hot economy and the high likelihood of landing a job.

In releasing the first batch of census numbers, Statistics Canada pointed to “the natural resources and energy sectors [generating] economic growth in various regions of this prairie province, which also had one of Canada’s lowest unemployment rates.”

From 2006 to 2011, Saskatchewan saw a 6.7 per cent jump in its population, compared to back-to-back losses of 1.1 per cent in each of the previous two census periods. The comeback makes Saskatchewan the third-fastest growing province in the country, trailing only British Columbia and Alberta.

In a Feb. 9 interview with the StarPhoenix, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall noted that the province is living up to its motto of “from many peoples, strength.”

“They’re coming to this province from 192 countries around the world. From every other province in the country, they are coming to Saskatchewan and finding opportunity and bringing their families here and they’re helping us live out our credo,” he said.

In addition to attracting people, the province may also be retaining more residents. This is particularly significant when university graduates decide whether to stay in Saskatchewan or move elsewhere.

“Given the strength of our provincial economy now, there really are more opportunities for graduates to make their careers here,” said Jason Aebig, president of the University of Saskatchewan's alumni association, who graduated from the university with a political science degree in 1999.

“In the late ’90s, I think it’s fair to say that there was an overall exodus of young professionals from the province — not necessarily because they didn’t want to make a life and a career here, but frankly there just weren’t the opportunities.”

The U of S, which keeps updated statistics on graduates, provided the Sheaf with data that seemed to show a long-term trend of people increasingly choosing to stay in the province after getting their degrees. Only about 55 per cent of graduates from the 1980s remain in the province, based on the current addresses the U of S has for them. The percentage of grads who ended up settling elsewhere in Canada hovers around 40 per cent for the same decade.

This trend starts to reverse in the 1990s and early 2000s, with more than 60 per cent of grads settling in Saskatchewan while those leaving for other parts of Canada drops to the low 30s. Finally, the numbers from the last several years show as many as three quarters of U of S grads with Saskatchewan addresses and only about a fifth with addresses elsewhere in the country.

Using current addresses of former students is an imperfect way to measure where U of S students go with their degrees, and as one goes further back, the number of grads whose current whereabouts the university simply doesn’t know increases significantly. However, of the grads the school still has contact with, there is a trend showing more of them sticking around in the last decade, suggesting that the need or desire to move after graduating has greatly diminished along with the boom in the provincial economy.

“Well that’s most certainly the case,” agreed Aebig, who is a big booster of his home province and even has a photo of him and his wife proudly displaying a Saskatchewan Roughriders flag in front of the Great Pyramid in Giza.

“Both my wife and I are graduates of the U of S. We actually met on campus and graduated at the same time. I think it’s fair to say we considered ourselves really lucky to have found career-track jobs in Saskatchewan when we did because the bulk of our family and friends who were at the same stage in life had already made the decision to move on,” said Aebig. “What’s really remarkable over the last 10 years is that we have seen quite a few of those people return.”

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Français

Antoine Trépanier - La Rotonde (Université d'Ottawa)

OTTAWA (PUC) — Une énième grève sera déclenchée sous peu au Québec. Pendant ce temps, l’Université d’Ottawa attend toujours d’en vivre une première depuis celle de 1889. Si les débats virils en politique étudiante ont été nombreux au fil de l’histoire, disons que les sujets débattus sont limités.

«Quand je fais la chronologie historique de l’Université, le mot grève n’apparaît qu’une fois. C’est la preuve qu’on n’a pas été un campus où les étudiants ont été revendicateurs jusqu’au point de paralyser le campus.» Ces mots, ce sont ceux de l’archiviste en chef de l’Université canadienne, Michel Prévost. Bien assis à son bureau des archives, l’homme cherche les conflits étudiants. «La seule grève, c’est celle de 1889. Les étudiants protestaient contre la qualité de la nourriture», laisse-t-il tombé, après quelques recherches.

Malgré ses 163 années bien comptées, l’Université d’Ottawa a évidemment vécu des périodes troubles. Comme au Québec, la fin des années 1960 a été une période de grande turbulence où les débats entre étudiants ont pris de l’ampleur. Parlez-en au maire de Montréal, Gérald Tremblay. Ce dernier a vécu cette zone d’inconfort aux premières loges.

Alors président de la Société Justinien, l’équivalent de l’actuelle association étudiante de la Section de droit civil, M. Tremblay maîtrisait déjà l’art de la politique. «Il y avait un potentiel de grève à la Faculté de droit civil quand j’étais là. J’ai complètement refusé, j’ai dit qu’il fallait privilégier le dialogue avec les professeurs, le doyen et les autorités. On n’a pas eu de grève à la Faculté», raconte-t-il en entrevue téléphonique. Il précise d’ailleurs que les étudiants des sciences sociales occupaient leur faculté pour avoir une représentation paritaire aux conseils facultaire et départemental.

Querelles entre alliés

À ce moment, les querelles ne sont pas seulement entre étudiants et administrateurs, mais également entre membres des associations étudiantes. «En 1967, on se chicanait pour la démocratie de l’association étudiante de l’Université d’Ottawa. J’avais une citation dans La Rotonde, “on n’est pas en pays communiste ici!” raconte-t-il en riant. C’était juste une question de démocratie d’élire les représentants et, deuxièmement, les allocations que ces personnes-là pouvaient se payer pour faire des activités étudiantes que je qualifiais de bénévoles. Je l’ai perdue, celle-là.» Il relate d’ailleurs que certains étudiants de l’association étudiante, aujourd’hui la Fédération étudiante, «se payaient des salaires»!

Pour M. Prévost, les querelles intestines ont toujours existé. «J’imagine qu’il y a toujours eu, au fil du temps, des petites luttes entre la Fédération et les associations étudiantes, qui aimeraient bien avoir plus d’autonomie et ne pas avoir un organisme comme ça qui les chapeaute», avance-t-il.

Et comment! En mai 1969, l’actuel recteur de l’Université d’Ottawa, Allan Rock, prend les rênes de l’Assemblée générale étudiante (AGEUO). À ses côtés, Hugh Segal, maintenant sénateur conservateur. Les deux hommes vivent des moments difficiles, comme en novembre 1969, lorsqu’ils doivent passer un vote de confiance.

Le 13 novembre, M. Segal propose une motion pour accorder aux étudiants le droit de se séparer de l’AGEUO. En fait, il propose «que tous les membres qui se confirment avec les exigences constitutionnelles soient, avant le 1er janvier 1970, permis de se retirer de l’AGEUO et que ses frais lui soient remis au pro-rata» (sic), peut-on lire dans le procès verbal.

Le 20 novembre, un comité dépose le rapport sur la remise des argents aux membres voulant délaisser l’assemblée étudiante. On peut notamment y lire que «le pourcentage s’applique seulement aux frais d’association, en tout ou en partie, que l’Université a déjà perçus pour l’AGEUO». Les étudiants désirant se retirer de la fédération étudiante de l’époque pouvaient le faire tout en étant remboursés au prorata. MM. Segal et Rock n’ont pas répondu à nos demandes d’entrevue.

Puis, L’ÉVÉNEMENT!

En février 1970, les étudiants occupent encore une fois la Faculté des sciences sociales. La lutte linguistique bat son plein. Une vingtaine de contestataires réclament la francisation de la Faculté en plus d’exiger une université française. À ce moment, les francophones sont majoritaires, constituant 56 % de la population étudiante. Les manifestants sont rapidement arrêtés par la police dans une scène très courte, mais très médiatisée dans la région!

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Retrouvez l'article original sur le site de La Rotonde.

Opinion

Stephen F. Power — The Muse (Memorial University of Newfoundland)

ST. JOHN'S (CUP) — Last December, Indonesian police officers in the province of Aceh clamped down on a benefit concert. Just before the bands went onstage, police shut down the event and arrested 65 people. Most of these were youths in their teens or early twenties.

Their crime? They were punks: adherents of a lifestyle that local governing authorities had deemed to be in contravention of Islamic Sharia law. Despite the fact that none of those arrested were ever charged with a crime, all 65 people were sentenced shortly after their detainment to 10 days of “re-education” in a police-run camp in the mountains.

The police chief of the region said shortly after the raid that the detained youth were to be subjected to moral, martial and religious training to divert them away from their current lifestyles and back onto the “moral path.”

Upon arrival at the camp, the camp employees either shaved or cropped — depending on the sex of the detainee — the youths' hair, confiscated their belongings, and even tossed the kids into a pool of water for cleansing. Later, pictures of the 65 show them in military uniform, singing songs and performing military drills.

Although the Jakarta Globe has reported that few of the 65 have been successfully reformed, Aceh authorities remain steadfast in their support of the bizarre treatment. The police chief of Aceh has tried to downplay it, comparing it, oddly, to hazing rituals he went through as a police officer.

To top it all off, the chief went on to deny that the human rights of the punks were violated at all. “If we are considered as violating human rights because they are not as free as they are on the street, whose human rights formulation is that?” he said to the Globe.

Just to recount, no one arrested at the show was ever charged with a crime or saw a single day before a judge, denying the 65 their right to due process of law. All were arrested and sent to government-run re-education camps because they chose to identify as punks, denying them their right to freedom of expression.

I can’t get into the head of the police chief in Aceh — nor do I really want to — but it seems to me that these punks were stripped of their rights by people who had deemed them enthusiasts of a “social disease.”

Although the 65 were released upon completion of their re-education, this story continues: the police chief has said that local authorities still have orders to arrest any punks they see while on patrol. Meanwhile, local human rights organizations have picked up the case of the 65, and the incident has thrust the Indonesian punk community into the international spotlight, with much of that attention bearing down on the provincial government of Aceh.

Most importantly, the punks of Aceh remain defiant. Many who went through the re-education camp have said that they will continue to live as they had prior to their arrest, and have challenged the religious authorities to point out which parts of Sharia prohibits their chosen lifestyle.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Trying to impose a specific religious ethos on an entire society is not only morally repugnant, it is also a recipe for failure. We’re a very diverse species, and we’re always going to want to express this diversity — history has shown that attempting to extinguish diversity creates situations both inflammatory and terrifying.

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Français

Yannick Gaulin - Le Collectif (Université de Sherbrooke) and Valérie Morin - Le Collectif (Université de Sherbrooke)

SHERBROOKE (PUC) —

CONTRE la hausse Valérie Morin, étudiante en adaptation scolaire et sociale

Ce dossier que représente la hausse de 1625 $ des frais de scolarité me touche tout particulièrement, et pas seulement parce que mon porte-feuille est le principal visé dans cette histoire, mais parce que j’ai une pensée pour les générations futures qui essaieront d’entrer aux études supérieures pour apprendre un métier qui les passionne, mais qui seront contraints d’abandonner soit par manque de fonds et/ou par épuisement (franchement, il y a une limite à faire des heures supplémentaires pour tenter de joindre les deux bouts).

L’éducation est un droit et je n’arrive pas à concevoir le fait que ce droit devienne un privilège, favorisant ainsi une élite financière. Selon moi, ce ne devrait pas être notre solde bancaire qui détermine ce que nous voulons faire ou être. J’étudie à la faculté d’éducation; je serai donc une future enseignante et je me destine à passer ma vie dans les écoles secondaires, à voir les jeunes grandir et devoir faire des choix pour leur avenir. Je m’indigne devant le fait d’imaginer les conseillers d’orientation dire aux jeunes: «tu aurais les notes pour entrer dans tel ou tel programme, mais ça coûte bien trop cher, je ne pense pas que tes parents puissent en faire assez pour te permettre d’étudier». Les parents qui ont à cœur d’aider leurs enfants font partie eux aussi des contribuables qui sont touchés par la HFS (enfin, ceux qui le veulent, car la contribution parentale n’est pas une chance que tout le monde connaît).

Le gouvernement essaie de faire croire à qui veut bien l’entendre que la hausse ne sera pas «si pire que ça», qu’elle est une «solution» et que les montants octroyés par l’aide financière aux études seront ajustés en conséquence… Êtes-vous surpris si je vous dis: «pantoute»? L’aide financière aux études a bien beau annoncer une augmentation de 118 millions de dollars pour le programme de prêts et bourses suite à la hausse des frais, mais il est important de savoir que de ce 118 M, 98 % proviendrait directement de notre poche! Non-sens, vous vous dites? Bienvenue dans le club!

Quand on sait que du 1625 $ de hausse annoncé, 10 % seront utilisés pour l’amélioration de l’administration et de la gestion, 20 % pour la qualité de la recherche et 15 % pour le positionnement concurrentiel des établissements universitaires (en français, c’est un synonyme de publicité), je crois que nous sommes en droit de nous demander si la hausse améliorera la qualité de l’enseignement donné…

Aller à l’école, c’est vivre en mini-société. Par les situations que l’on vit, par les dilemmes qu’on rencontre, on devient adulte, on est formés pour devenir des citoyens responsables. Étudier, c’est en quelque sorte une façon de se préparer à son avenir. Mais comment voulez-vous entrevoir la société de demain si on empêche sa matière première, la jeunesse, dans toute sa diversité, d’y contribuer?

Je termine sur deux phrases que j’ai pu lire sur le site de notre chère université [de Sherbrooke]: «C'est bien connu, les problèmes financiers constituent un frein majeur à la poursuite d'études universitaires. Ils sont l'une des causes les plus souvent mentionnées de l'abandon des études». Je ne sais pas pour vous, mais dans mon livre à moi, une hausse de frais de scolarité deviendra pour plusieurs d’entre nous un «problème financier».

C’est bien la première fois que je vois les termes «solution» et «problème» pour décrire une même situation...

POUR la hausse Yannick Gaulin, étudiant en sciences politiques et en administration des affaires

L’argumentaire de ceux qui sont contre la hausse des frais de scolarité est fort simple: soit les universités ne sont pas sous-financées ou elles sont mal financées… ou encore, le classique: «l’éducation est un droit, pas un privilège».

Premièrement, le sous-financement de l’éducation supérieure entraîne inévitablement une chute de la qualité de l’éducation. On remarquera notamment cette chute de qualité dans les ressources informatiques et dans nos bibliothèques, qui sont désuètes. À titre d’exemple, grand nombre d’étudiants vont à la bibliothèque municipale (Éva-Senécal) pour s’approvisionner en documentation récente ou se contentent simplement de la recherche Internet.

Deuxièmement, le sous-financement des universités réduit fortement la capacité de celle-ci à recruter et à retenir des professeurs de calibre international. À titre d’exemple, nous pouvons souligner la perte du professeur Stéphane Paquin, de l’École de politique appliquée, au profit de l’ÉNAP, et ce, pour des motifs de manque de financement pour ses recherches.

Les associations répondront qu’il y a un mal-financement et que la vaste majorité des fonds vont en recherche dans le domaine scientifique… et c’est vrai. Cependant, ce qu’ils omettent de dire, c’est qu’une grande partie de ce financement provient du privé, qui fait des dons à des facultés spécifiques ou encore qui fait des partenariats de recherche avec celles-ci. Il devient alors impossible de modifier cette répartition! L’éducation supérieure est un investissement en capital humain, investissement qui s’avère très rentable.

Une plus grande responsabilité de la part des étudiants, une meilleure perception du vrai coût de leurs études et une plus grande flexibilité pour les universités peuvent mener à une meilleure allocation des ressources. Cela permettra de maintenir et de consolider un système universitaire de qualité sans nuire à l’accessibilité.

Il faut arrêter de voir le droit à l’éducation comme un droit à l’éducation gratuite! L’éducation est certes un droit, mais les étudiants doivent faire leur juste part. Il faut arrêter de payer notre éducation avec la dette du Québec, il faut arrêter de se regarder le nombril, il faut avoir une approche globalisante et responsable. L’éducation est un service, on peut l’appeler différemment, mais elle reste et sera toujours un service, et ce, même si c’est un service essentiel. Si vous trouvez que l’éducation coûte cher, essayez l’ignorance! (Abraham Lincoln)

L’éducation doit être vue comme un investissement, un investissement en capital humain, en capital intellectuel, probablement le plus important et le plus rentable de votre existence. Certains diront qu’effectivement il s’agit d’un investissement, mais qui rapporte plus à la société qu’à l’individu et que ce dernier remboursera ces études par le biais de ses taxes et impôts!

Qu’ils demandent à nos éminents spécialistes en génie en Chine, qu’ils demandent à nos excellents médecins aux États-Unis, qu’ils demandent à nos meilleurs de rembourser leurs dus et tous répondront absent. Il faut se rendre à l’évidence, l’économie québécoise est loin d’offrir les meilleurs salaires, surtout dans le secteur public et scientifique, c’est pourquoi beaucoup de nos plus brillants diplômés partent exercer à l’étranger.

Nonobstant les étudiants partant à l’étranger, l’étudiant est le plus grand gagnant de sa formation, car elle lui procurera un salaire nettement supérieur à la moyenne des travailleurs sans études supérieures.

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Retrouvez la lettre originale de Valérie Morin sur le site du Collectif. Retrouvez la lettre originale de Yannick Gaulin sur le site du Collectif.

Sports

David Kaufmann — The Link (Concordia University)

MONTREAL (CUP) — A crowd filled the Indigo bookstore in Place Montréal Trust Feb. 2 to hear former Montreal Canadiens goaltender and politician Ken Dryden talk about his book, The Game, and weigh in on the concussion crisis currently rocking the hockey world.

The event was put on as part of Canada Reads, a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation-run endeavour to choose and promote Canada’s best books. The Game, released in 1983, recounts Dryden’s memories of the pressures of being a goaltender in the National Hockey League. It also takes an in-depth look at the Montreal squad that took home the Stanley Cup in 1979.

Dryden went from speaking of his earliest moments playing the sport to discussing the speed and intensity of how it is played today.

The 64-year-old multi-Vezina Award-winner spoke about the drastic change in speed in the game now compared to when he donned the Habs jersey 33 years ago.

“If you look at a full game from the 1950s, one from the ’70s and one from today, you’d think, ‘Oh my God, that game is unbelievably slow,’” he said. Dryden recalled there was no phrase like "finishing your checks" back then because the other player would be too far away.

“If you did [finish your check and hit somebody], you would have had to go 10 or 15 more feet,” he said. “[It] was so obviously interference that it didn’t happen.”

Dryden felt that players’ improved conditioning and increased size were factors that have changed the game significantly.

“It’s the combination of a game that goes a whole lot faster, and players that would be an average of 25 pounds heavier now, and in very good condition, so the force of collisions is that much greater,” said Dryden.

In light of this, he believes that 50 years from now, people are going to be looking back, wondering how irresponsible the athletes of today could be. “Do you know what happens with a brain inside of a skull, with collisions? It’s similar to throwing a Super-Ball on a squash court,” he said

Dryden tended goal for the Canadiens between 1970 and 1979, winning six Stanley Cups and five Vezina Trophies in that period as the league’s best net-minder before retiring from hockey at the age of 31.

Dryden pursued a number of different fields after his NHL career, publishing several books, working as an executive for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and serving as a MP for the Liberal Party from 2004 to 2011.

Dryden’s not the only one who’s worried about the state of the game, however. Gordon Bloom, associate professor of sport psychology at McGill University, joined Dryden at the talk and noted that all this hitting in the NHL is having an impact on children as well.

“If professionals are showing a lack of respect by not playing the game the way it used to be played, it carries down, and I’ve seen it in minor hockey,” said Bloom.

In fact, Lisa-Marie Breton, who plays for the Montreal Stars of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, has kept away from watching men’s hockey because of this intensity.

“I don’t watch the NHL because I find there’s not enough passes or nice plays. The guys are just smashing into the boards,” said Breton, who also works as a fitness trainer for Concordia University. “In women’s hockey we don’t have body checks; we have contact which is only along the boards, in the same direction.”

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News

Tannara Yelland — CUP Prairies & Northern Bureau Chief

SASKATOON (CUP) — University of Saskatchewan professor Lee Barbour has been granted a five-year Industrial Research Chair through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to study water flow in reclaimed former oil sands mine sites.

The IRC program is a partnership between academics and industry; in Barbour’s case, oil giant Syncrude will provide half the funding for the $2.6-million project, and NSERC will put up the other half.

Barbour, a civil and geological engineer with more than a decade of experience in oilsands research, will head a team of six masters students, two PhD candidates, two summer undergraduates and two post-doctoral fellows.

The official title of the research chair, which Barbour admitted “can be a bit obtuse,” is Hydrogeological Characterization of Oilsands Mine Closure Landforms. Barbour and his team will examine water flow through reclaimed and soon-to-be reclaimed land masses on mine sites in the hope of developing tools to predict water flow and contamination levels.

When excavation of a mine site begins, the soil and up to 80 metres of other ground layers, such as clay shale, are scraped off and heaped in large piles and hills nearby. The sand left over after the bitumen and oil have been extracted is also often dumped on these hills, leaving masses of land that can contain unsafe chemicals in danger of leeching into groundwater.

Oil companies are required to put in substantial efforts to make the land they mine from environmentally sustainable and safe after they finish their work, and this is what Barbour and his team will be studying.

“Eventually we’d like to be able to predict or estimate any kind of contaminant loads that might be coming out of these uplands into adjacent wetlands or streams, ponds, that sort of thing,” Barbour said.

The team will research primarily at Syncrude’s Mildred Lake mine near Fort McMurray, Alta. Opened in the late ’70s, Mildred Lake is expected to close down completely within a few decades. Syncrude has already begun reclaiming parts of the mine that are no longer in use, as per industry standard, according to Barbour.

“They really need to make sure that as they move toward designing the final [reclaimed] landscape that they don’t have too many surprises, that they’re able to deal with any particular contaminant loadings coming out of [disturbed land]," Barbour said.

Barbour’s work will have larger implications than simply helping one company clean up one mine site, though. He says the industry shares environmental research freely, so that the work Barbour does here will almost immediately be shared across the oil sands industry, allowing other companies access to improved reclamation methods.

Reclamation is something all mining companies have to deal with, but oilsands mine reclamation is a new and especially troublesome beast. Mining less conventional and more expensive oil resources only became economically viable in the mid- to late-’70s, and oilsands mines have a much longer lifespan than most other mines.

“You’re looking at one mine site with a lifespan of 30 to 40 years,” Barbour said. “Most metal mines — for example, if you went to a uranium mine or a coal mine or so on, you’d find that [they’d be] maybe in the range of a decade or two... Just the size of these mines and the size of the reserve, they definitely are moving us into a whole different time scale.”

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News

Piper Whelan — The Gateway (University of Alberta)

EDMONTON (CUP) — Have you ever read a chapter from your textbook and been unable to remember a single thing? A University of Alberta researcher may be able to tell you why.

George Georgiou, director of the U of A’s Reading Research Lab, has identified cognitive development issues that cause some students to struggle with reading comprehension — though their ability to read may be perfectly fine.

By studying a sample of roughly 500 U of A students, Georgiou found that a small percentage had an undetected reading difficulty known as a specific reading comprehension deficit. This deficit occurs when working memory doesn’t allow for full comprehension of a text, even if a student can easily read it.

“These students do not have a problem reading accurately and fluently. The problem is how to understand what they are reading,” Georgiou said.

Georgiou began the study in 2011 to see if the estimated rate of three to five per cent who deal with this reading comprehension deficit could be found in a sample of university students.

The other goal of the study was to identify the causes of this reading difficulty. Georgiou noted that when it comes to research on reading difficulties, experts tend to focus on the early years of education.

“We know much more about reading difficulties in younger children, and not as much about reading difficulties in older students.”

After receiving a Cornerstone Grant from the Killam Research Fund, which supports innovations that advance scholarship, Georgiou and colleague J.P. Das tested students in large classes on two adult-appropriate reading comprehension tasks.

They contacted the students who showed signs of a reading comprehension difficulty to come in to the Reading Research Lab for further testing on other areas of reading ability, before focusing on comprehension.

About three to five per cent of the total sample of students showed signs of this specific reading comprehension deficit, matching up with the rate going into the study.

The cause of this deficit, Georgiou said, lies in cognitive development. These students lack the working memory to process, store and understand what they read, particularly if the text is long and contains complex ideas.

“We administered measures of working memory, simultaneous and successive processing, planning and attention,” Georgiou explained. “Out of all these measures, working memory stands out as a very important factor.”

The reason this deficit often goes undetected is that strategies to identify reading difficulties prior to post-secondary education deal mostly with areas of reading ability rather than comprehension.

The study is ongoing, and the next step is to help the students in the study deal with their reading comprehension difficulty through a number of simple strategies.

“There are no easy solutions, but there are some steps we can take to help them improve their reading comprehension,” Georgiou said.

“You will see that when some of these students were completing these comprehension tasks, they would highlight the whole text, which is a very poor strategy.”

Georgiou suggests tackling the text paragraph by paragraph, finding the main ideas before moving on to the next, and making connections between paragraphs.

Creating a concept map of the text’s main themes and making summarizing notes in the margins are also useful strategies for working to understand what you’re reading.

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News

Karissa Donkin — The Aquinian (St. Thomas University)

FREDERICTON (CUP) — University of New Brunswick Counselling Services wants to gain a clearer picture of alcohol use on the UNB and St. Thomas University campuses.

UNB Counselling director Rice Fuller said he hopes to send out an alcohol-use survey via email for students on both campuses.

There’s a lack of local data about drinking habits on campus, Fuller said, and in light of the death of STU student Andrew Bartlett in 2010, he thinks the data could be useful.

Bartlett, a fourth-year student, died after a heavy night of drinking at a rookie party for the men’s volleyball team.

Fuller said the death of Jonathan Andrews is another reason to look for more detailed statistics on campus drinking at STU and UNB. Andrews was a first-year student at Acadia University. Last September, Andrews was found unresponsive in his dorm room after a night of drinking. He later died in hospital.

“Often, people have the idea that students that have alcohol problems in university — that those will just kind of end once they stop university. That’s not the case,” Fuller said.

“A significant portion of people that have problems with alcohol in university continue to have them after they’ve graduated.”

Fuller said students coming to UNB Counselling for problems with alcohol tend to have other health problems, including impaired academic functioning and mental health issues.

Last year, 924 different people visited UNB Counselling. A little more than 22 per cent of those visitors were STU students.

Per capita, more STU students on average use UNB Counselling than UNB students, Fuller said.

Statistics show rates of binge drinking are higher in the Maritime provinces than in the rest of Canada.

The Canadian Campus Survey, conducted in 2004 by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, found 24.5 per cent of students surveyed in Atlantic Canada reported “heavy-frequent drinking.”

This is higher than any other region in Canada, with Ontario the closest, at 18.8 per cent of students who reported heavy-frequent drinking.

“With the profile of the issues raised with the [deaths of Bartlett and Andrews], we just want to make sure we’re doing what we should be doing to try and address the alcohol problems, try and help people to moderate their drinking,” Fuller said.

UNB has yet to approve the survey. When they do, Fuller will approach STU to see if it would like to participate.

Since January, UNB Counselling has also been collecting data about students’ drug and alcohol problems from an electronic form students fill out when visiting the clinic.

The form also includes questions about previous mental health issues, suicide, financial stress, self-harm and relationship problems.

The information helps UNB Counselling tailor its services to students, Fuller said.

Last week, CBC reported 260 people have asked for counselling since the new questions were added in January.

Thirty-five per cent of those people have reported harming themselves, which can include cutting, burning and scratching.

Fuller wasn’t surprised by the numbers because the number of people self-harming has been on the rise for the last 15 to 20 years.

Often people self-harm to relieve pain or stress, he said.

But he cautioned using the numbers to make an assumption about university students as a whole.

“I wouldn’t consider them reflective of the overall campus population. That just says something about the people coming to counselling services.”

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Arts

Vanessa Annand — The Martlet (University of Victoria)

VICTORIA (CUP) — If you saw a horseman decked out in his finest apocalyptic duds in your hometown, what would you do? Give the Book of Revelations a close reading, perhaps. If you've paid any attention to the proposed pipeline projects that have divided this country for months (Keystone, Northern Gateway) and you're wondering what lies ahead, what should you do? Watch The Pipe at the Victoria Film Festival (VFF).

No film at the VFF will resonate so soundly with the collective coastal consciousness as this documentary about Shell's controversial Corrib Gas Pipeline in Ireland. In 2004, Shell started building a pipeline from a sub-sea natural gas reserve through Broadhaven Bay. The pipe was meant to cross over land and through the village of Rossport to an on-shore processing facility, but local resistance stalled its development. “Resistance” isn't quite the word though — it could easily apply to a child who wraps his legs around his chair, refusing to leave the dinner table when asked. These people aren't petulant. They're willing to go on hunger strike, to prison, to court and out to the fields and the shore with their Border Collies to remind themselves why they're fighting an energy monolith.

The film opens with sweeping helicopter shots of the landscape around Broadhaven Bay. These are juxtaposed with jolting, hand-held camera shots of protesting Rossport villagers being roughed up by police. We've seen these images before — hundreds of times in sundry documentaries. What we haven't seen is old, toothless farmers digging for crabs in their gumboots, telling us what will get to you in the end is the sadness.

We've seen images of fishermen on their boats with peeling paint before, too. But we haven't seen their crates full of crabs used as a metaphor for humans' ruthlessness towards one another. The fishermen clip the muscles in the crabs' claws so that the crustaceans won't kill each other when in close quarters. Who will clip the far-reaching pincers of Shell that are choking the community? Certainly not the government, which allows the company onto farmers' land and permits the pipeline to proceed apace without consultation. Certainly not the police, the reflective vest-clad Garda who beat protesters and board fishermen's vessels.

It's the age of the protesting villagers that is most affecting. These aren't dissatisfied youths (though there are a few young faces in the sign-bearing crowds). These are men gone soft round the middle and women with drawn faces and cable-knit sweaters. These are people who, during the winter, stand with their signs but still take a moment to straighten their husbands' collars or cup their wives' faces. These small, warm gestures, more than the shrieking at town hall meetings or at protests, are the moments you will realize that everything — from the smallest hand-squeeze to the largest farm in the county — is at stake.

The only question that remains is how long it will take us to rouse ourselves to a similar state of ire and action. It's called The Pipe, singular, but you will leave thinking of The Pipes, plural.

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Opinion

Hilary Sinclair — The Link (Concordia University)

MONTREAL (CUP) — In 1959, Canada welcomed 461,703 little bundles of joy into the world. This was our country’s biggest baby boom and, given declining birth rates, will probably hold its place in the record books until the end of time. In 2024, those babies will turn 65 — the age at which the government has traditionally said that people have worked long enough and should enter into retirement.

And we are screwed.

Recently, Prime Minister Stephen Harper infuriated old-timers and soon-to-be-old-timers across the nation when he suggested there’s a need to reform Old Age Security, which is a government program that provides seniors with a monthly cheque of $540 or less, depending on income.

Unlike the CPP, where the payout is based on how much you’ve contributed over a lifetime, you only have to have lived in Canada for 10 years to collect OAS.

Many are speculating that Harper may raise the eligibility age of OAS from 65 to 67. But why should the youth of Canada care? According to Jim Flaherty, changes to OAS won’t be implemented until 2020; if it takes much longer than that, we could be in trouble.

For the most part, we cannot picture a time when the endless beer pong tournaments and blatant disregard for sunscreen will actually be visible on our faces. We can’t imagine a time when motorized scooters will become our reality … but neither did the acid-dropping baby boomers of 1959, and they’re a paltry 12 years from retirement.

It will happen. We will get old and sleepy and we won’t want to work anymore. But if pressure groups can stop OAS reform from happening, our generation will lose the ability to complain about technology and "those damn kids" from the comfort of our living rooms. We’ll still be working to support the last generation of retirees.

So while organizations like the Canadian Association of Retired Persons have got a pretty aggressive bee in their bonnets about the two-year increase, they are selfishly throwing the very people they struggled to support under the bus.

I don’t have a vendetta against the elderly; they have raised and nurtured us and worked hard to do so. It is the elected government up to this point that has gotten us into a debacle.

Here’s what is going to happen in 12 years: mass retirement, huge gaps in the workforce, a crazy reduction in taxable income (less money, more problems), and a lot more people to support.

At this rate, we’re going to see a drastic reduction in benefits for our generation — if we get anything at all — and we may not be getting any of the OAS that we’re paying into right now.

But we also aren’t entering the workforce as early as the baby boomers did. Our generation takes its sweet-ass time dawdling, married to ideas like “doing something we love” and “being happy,” which is not necessarily a bad thing — but means that we often don’t start really working until our mid-20s. This leads to less money in the current system and less contributed to our pensions.

Now, the program is costing taxpayers $36 billion and will skyrocket to $108 billion in 2030. Canada’s entire federal budget this year is $235.6 billion, and there are no planned tax increases. We’re heading towards trouble that cannot be staved off unless the OAS is reformed.

It’s not like our government is actually saving the money that we are contributing to things like OAS and the Canadian Pension Plan in a special savings account that it is forbidden to withdraw from. The government is spending it. It is overspending it — to the tune of $29.6 billion, also known as the 2011 Canadian deficit.

Harper is spending money like a west-coast rapper on things like jets and jails set to be filled with the victims of legislative warfare.

So what does two years really mean?

Two years will allow more people to replace the giant group of individuals that will stampede out of office buildings everywhere in a dozen years. Two more years of solid contributions to retirement programs could make a huge difference.

In a Jan. 31 article in The Globe and Mail, Brian Lee Crowley said that pushing the retirement age to 70 would be a more realistic policy for a population that has increasingly high life expectancy. It would also alleviate the burden for us youngsters.

We are the ones who are going to have to pay for these policy decisions out of the pockets of our skinny jeans.

And it seems counter-intuitive that, just when we’re figuring out how to get a job, we also need to be considering how — and when — we’ll be getting out of having a job.

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Français

Elsa Ferreira - Quartier Libre (Université de Montréal)

MONTRÉAL (PUC) — Le traitement du cancer doit être repensé, affirme Christian Boukaram, professeur au Département de médecine de l’Université de Montréal et radio-oncologue à l’Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont (HMR). Sa philosophie: associer le corps et l’esprit dans les thérapies. Elle est mise en œuvre grâce à son fonds CROIRE, dont les activités démarrent doucement. Christian Boukaram a aussi publié le livre Le pouvoir anticancer des émotions pour expliquer ses méthodes. Radiographie d’une initiative médicale d’avant-garde.

«Les pensées, les émotions, la personnalité et l’ego sont des facteurs très importants à considérer dans l’apparition et la gravité du cancer», soutient le docteur Boukaram. Selon lui, il faut repenser notre vision du traitement de cette maladie. «Considérant que les taux de cancer n’ont jamais diminué, et ont peut-être même augmenté, il faut être réaliste et se demander pourquoi. Est-ce que les croyances sur lesquelles on s’appuie peuvent être modifiées?», questionne-t-il. Il a donc pris le virage de la médecine dite «intégrative», qui associe le corps et l’esprit, la prévention et le traitement.

L’idée de l’interaction entre le corps et l’esprit est depuis longtemps présente dans la littérature scientifique. Les chercheurs se heurtaient pourtant à la difficulté de donner une base scientifique à cette relation. Les développements récents de l’épigénétique –la science qui étudie comment le contexte et l’histoire individuelle influent sur l’expression des gènes– ont jeté ce pont. L’épigénétique révèle que les gènes défectueux peuvent être activés, ou au contraire désactivés, par des facteurs environnementaux agissant comme des interrupteurs. «Récemment, on a découvert que l’adrénaline [induite par le stress] peut doubler, voire tripler la vitesse de propagation de cellules cancéreuses», illustre M. Boukaram. Autre exemple, une étude effectuée auprès de 10 000 femmes a démontré que celles qui vivaient un deuil non résolu doublaient leur risque de développer un cancer.

«Si l’on imagine le cancer comme une plante, explique M. Boukaram, l’oncologie intégrative s’intéresse aussi bien à la graine [les cellules cancéreuses] qu’au terrain dans lequel la plante pousse [le contexte social et environnemental de chaque individu]. Certains facteurs agissent comme un engrais, le régime alimentaire par exemple, qui favorise la croissance de la plante.» L’oncologie intégrative allie traitement traditionnel –chimiothérapie, radiothérapie– à thérapies complémentaires comme l’acupuncture, la musicothérapie ou le yoga. «Il est préférable d’aborder la santé avec une approche qui permet de soigner une personne sous toutes ses facettes», estime M. Boukaram. S’il vante les avantages des thérapies complémentaires, il nuance aussi leur portée. «Ces traitements agissent sur la capacité d’autoguérison du corps, ils peuvent favoriser les traitements. Mais dans les traitements du cancer, on ne fait jamais de promesses», précise-t-il.

20 000 $ en dons

C’est dans le but d’instaurer cette vision intégrative de l’oncologie à l’HMR que le docteur Boukaram a cofondé le fonds CROIRE il y a un an avec deux de ses collègues, les docteurs Peter Vavassis et Michael Yassa. En quelques mois, les caisses du fonds CROIRE ont atteint environ 20 000 $. Une somme encore modeste en regard des sept millions de dollars récoltés en 2011 par la Fondation de l’HMR. Cela reste insuffisant, selon M. Boukaram. «Nous sommes très limités, nous n’avons pas de ressources. Pour l’instant, le fonds fonctionne grâce aux dons du public, mais il faudrait que le gouvernement emboîte le pas», déplore-t-il.

En attendant, ce sont les radio-oncologues de l’HMR qui ont mis la main au portefeuille en donnant 10 000 $ au fonds CROIRE. Le docteur Boukaram a publié son livre Le pouvoir anticancer des émotions et reverse au fonds la moitié des bénéfices issus de la vente.

Le comité administratif de CROIRE se réunira ce mois-ci pour décider des nouveaux projets à mettre en place et organiser une collecte de fonds. Les organisateurs ne sont pas en manque d’idées. «Il faudra prioriser», conclut le docteur Boukaram.

Un îlot de sérénité

Clarisse Defer, psychologue à l’HMR, donne bénévolement des ateliers de relaxation et d’autohypnose dans le cadre de CROIRE et du programme d’oncologie de l’HMR. Le but est d’amener les patients à un état de bien-être de manière autonome. «Les patients sont actifs dans leur traitement, ça leur donne le pouvoir de s’apaiser, explique-t-elle. Certains patients ne suivraient pas leurs traitements médicaux s’il n’y avait pas cet accompagnement, par manque de motivation ou par peur. La condition psychologique peut être un obstacle à la poursuite des traitements recommandés, qui sont des traitements lourds.»

Dans une salle de réunion de radio-oncologie, Mme Defer accueille une fois par semaine la quinzaine de patients inscrits aux ateliers, qui durent un mois. En guise d’introduction, Mme Defer propose aux patients des exercices simples de relaxation, prendre conscience de leur respiration ou visualiser leurs tensions musculaires, par exemple. Certains connaissent déjà bien le sujet. Pour d’autres, ce sont les gestes de base qu’il faut réapprendre, comme pour cette dame qui confie ne pas respirer suffisamment. Voilà tout l’intérêt du travail de groupe, estime Clarisse Defer, qui croit que le partage des expériences est un processus important pour les patients, parfois isolés.

Tout comme le docteur Boukaram, Clarisse Defer nuance les résultats de ces séances et prévient qu’il n’y a pas de solutions miracles. Il s’agit simplement d’atteindre un sentiment de bien-être, même momentané. Une vision que partage Pierre Roy, un patient qui attribue son cancer en grande partie à sa personnalité stressée. Chaque matin, il pratique la méditation pendant une demi-heure. «Dans la maladie, on est souvent mal outillé face au stress. Avec de meilleurs réflexes, on peut retarder l’échéance, et ce temps gagné est du bon temps», estime Pierre Roy, qui se décrit dorénavant comme serein face à son cancer. «Il faut accepter la maladie, la combattre, mais surtout faire des choses pour soi, pour pouvoir dire qu’on est bien avec soi-même», explique-t-il. Et c’est bien là l’intention du docteur Boukaram.

Un nouveau chapitre dans le traitement du cancer

Dans son livre Le pouvoir anticancer des émotions, le docteur Christian Boukaram aborde l’influence des émotions sur le développement du cancer. «Galien, un médecin grec, rapporte un lien entre les émotions et le cancer du sein dans son manuscrit sur la dépression. Socrate dit même qu’ignorer ce lien serait faillir à son rôle de médecin», écrit-il à propos de cette ancienne théorie à laquelle on a trouvé depuis des fondements scientifiques.

«Il faut que les gens commencent à accorder plus d’importance à leurs émotions. C’est quelque chose qui nous habite, qui fait partie de nous», considère-t-il.

C’est par le biais de sujets tels que la spiritualité, nos sens trompeurs ou encore notre ego que le docteur Boukaram livre son message.

Christian Boukaram dresse un catalogue (non exhaustif) des émotions afin d’aider le lecteur à les identifier, et propose une série de thérapies et d’exercices pour mieux les gérer, comme l’art, le yoga ou plus simplement le rire. Malgré les nombreuses études qui y sont citées, le livre du docteur Boukaram laissera sur leur faim les lecteurs à la recherche d’une solide argumentation scientifique.

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Retrouvez l'article original sur le site du Quartier Libre.

Français

Katherine Sullivan - La Rotonde (Université d'Ottawa)

OTTAWA (PUC) — Les nouvelles courent vite ces jours-ci grâce aux médias sociaux comme Twitter et Facebook. On répète les mêmes phrases, on gazouille les mêmes nouvelles jusqu’à plus soif. D’autres préfèrent mêler art et nouvelles afin de créer un nouveau genre dans le monde de la bande dessinée: le bédéjournalisme. À la découverte du bédé-reportage avec les créateurs de Pour en finir avec novembre.

André St-Georges et Sylvain Lemay, qui ont tous deux étudié dans le domaine de la bédé et des arts visuels, ont créé une bédé relatant les événements d’octobre 1970, où quatre jeunes hommes avaient décidé de se lancer dans l’action terroriste. L’histoire se déroule surtout en Outaouais, des années 1970 jusqu’au lendemain du second référendum pour la souveraineté du Québec.

Au carrefour du reportage et de la fiction

André a fait quelques essais dans la bédé journalistique. Le but de son premier produit «publiable» était de «relater les faits de cet épisode, de l’expliquer et de faire comprendre l’impact qu’il a pu avoir sur les gens concernés».

Avec l’aide de Sylvain Lemay, professeur à l’Université du Québec en Outaouais, il a publié, en novembre 2010, Pour en finir avec novembre aux éditions Les 400 coups. L’histoire en tant que telle est une œuvre de fiction, mais elle se déroule dans un contexte réel, en Outaouais pendant la crise d’octobre 1970. Lemay précise d’ailleurs que «cet ouvrage a nécessité beaucoup de recherche pour éviter les anachronismes et relater le plus fidèlement possible l’évolution de Hull dans les décennies qui ont suivi 1970».

Les artistes ont donc pris un art visuel et y ont ajouté une touche historique. La bédé de St-Georges lui a pris trois ans à illustrer, en raison de la recherche ardue exigée. «Le travail de recherche et de préparation derrière une bande dessinée s’apparente un peu à celui d’un journaliste, dans le sens qu’avant d’écrire l’article ou le reportage, le journaliste doit lui aussi fouiller, décortiquer, analyser, se documenter. La bande dessinée me permet de faire cela, sans la contrainte de la réalité.»

Bédéistes engagés

Les bédéjournalistes adoptent des styles variés. Certains préfèrent les chroniques, exposant leur réalité en présentant des faits vécus ou historiques. Le seul bédéiste à avoir remporté un prix Pulitzer est Art Spielgelman, avec Maus. Ce dernier a commencé sa carrière dans les années 1970 avec des œuvres éclatées, presque psychédéliques. Il a ajusté son tir lorsqu’il a voulu raconter l’histoire de son père, qui avait survécu à l’Holocauste. D’autres, comme Guy Delisle, Québécois vivant à Paris et auteur des Chroniques de Jérusalem, ont préféré chroniquer leurs expériences personnelles de voyage dans leurs bébés.

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Retrouvez l'article original sur le site de La Rotonde.

Arts

Lela Savic — The McGill Daily (McGill University)

MONTREAL (CUP) — It was at the AMC theatre that I gathered the courage to watch Angelina Jolie’s new film, In the Land of Blood and Honey.

Let’s all be honest here: Angelina Jolie makes a film about the Bosnian war? Now we’ve heard it all. During the shooting, a great deal of controversy surfaced based on the rumoured plot. I had read in an article in February of last year, that stated that Jolie wanted to make a film about a Bosnian woman who falls in love with her Serbian rapist. I could not believe that someone could be so insensitive. Being from the former Yugoslavia, I felt that this would do nothing but serve as an insult, both to those involved in the conflict, as well as to any rape survivor.

“Does Angelina Jolie think that by giving some nonsense portrayal of what happened in this war from her ignorant perspective, we should feel thankful for adding the war in Bosnia to her list of philanthropic efforts?” observed one of my Bosnian friends, when she found out about the film.

I wasn’t too excited about the film, even before walking into the theatre. I felt as though she made this film without thinking about the effect it would have on the locals. I was not wrong.

Yet it seems she did revisit the plot to an extent. While the film was marketed as a love story between a Serbian army officer and a Bosnian prisoner who knew each other before the war, I personally did not see how this could be the case. The film is rather about the tense relationship between a captor, a Serbian army officer responsible for rounding up Muslims in Bosnia, and a female prisoner, a woman he was interested in prior to the war and who he is now able to exploit while simultaneously protecting as his “personal property.”

Ajla, the Bosnian woman is not really depicted as having feelings for her captor. Rather, it seems that she feels abused and responds to his “love” out of fear rather than romantic feelings. Danijel, the Serbian army officer, is portrayed as a caricature — a very aggressive, self-centered man, with no remorse except for the very little he shows to Ajla.

The film could have done more had we seen the two characters share passion, and in doing so, subvert discrimination, especially in Danijel’s case. But his abusive character and his violent response to her confrontations destroy this possibility. At the end of the film, I wished I could have seen more remorse — a more nuanced portrayal of Serbians. A balance between nationalists and non-nationalists would have been more fair and would have had a positive effect on the relationships between the people of the former Yugoslavia.

Being from the region, I was particularly concerned about the consequences of such a film for all the people in the former Yugoslavia. I must admit that the film was very well shot, the actors were great, and I particularly appreciated that it was filmed in the local language. What was portrayed in the film was true. During the war, ethnic cleansing and mass rape were common, and many people were killed.

My issues with the film do not stem from any feelings of Serbian nationalism. I am not a Serbian nationalist, as are some who want to deny what happened and call war criminals heroes. Being from Serbia, I am actually very much against Serbian nationalism and dream of days when we could all go back to being the same in the beautiful country of Yugoslavia. Some Bosnian women I spoke to after the film agreed with me — they, too, lamented that the country had, at one point, been together, and had to descend to that point. But they seemed happy with the film, and felt more comfortable that an outsider made such a film (instead of a person who had been a part of the conflict).

I agree with their point of view. But, while Jolie said in an interview that she thinks this film will help people in the region to move into transition, I think it will do exactly the opposite. A film that focuses on a conflict’s atrocious events, with only a shallow historical background does not help people move into a transition, nor does it help the rest of the world understand what happened. Like one of my friends from Sarajevo said, “Westerners have to understand why these types of movies annoy us locals. There is rarely any historical background provided as to why any similar events would’ve taken place. Then there are always some dramatic scenes to make it look better. They just always show a black and white story.”

Today, I still see some anti-Bosnian, anti-Croatian, and anti-Serbian comments on many social media outlets from all regions of the former Yugoslavia, particularly in the trailer of the film on YouTube. The tension is still there. And the worst part of it is that these nationalist sentiments are often advocated by youth, which did not live in the Yugoslav era and don’t know what happened. They represent our future. The future who will decide if we will unite and make peace or keep fighting and make more wars. It’s very unfortunate that a person such as Jolie, who commands so much of the international media’s attention, and is often seen as a role model, did not think about the consequences of her film on — I dare say — the present and past of those who live in the former Yugoslavia. With her film, Jolie only nourished the conflict. She could have done a lot of good for today’s political situation in all parts of former Yugoslavia had she just shown a little bit more nuance. Had she portrayed some characters in the film with Yugoslavian values, she could have reached the hearts of many more. Today, we need to re-establish those values so that we can avoid another war, another massacre, another tragedy.

People today are in post-war transition and are slowly trying to get past their differences so that conflicts do not re-surface. Hence, creating a graphic reminder of the events without providing appropriate context can only aggravate the situation. When making a film about a political conflict, one factor that many directors disregard is the consequences their film will have on the people who actually lived it. Though her film represents a harsh reality of what happened in Bosnia, Jolie — like many other directors who are strangers to the conflicts they portray — failed to consider this too.

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Humour

BestCrosswords.com

(CUP) — Puzzles provided by BestCrosswords.com. Used with permission. Please print the above statement with the puzzle.

Across

1- Barbershop request; 5- Aromatic wood; 10- Tooth; 14- Hokkaido native; 15- Small egg; 16- Collar type; 17- Temperance; 19- Gaucho's weapon; 20- Standards of perfection; 21- Regent; 23- Rare-earth metallic element; 25- Eagle's home; 26- Truman's Missouri birthplace; 28- Falls-jumping fish; 31- Animate existence; 34- Children's author Blyton; 36- Handle; 37- "Much _ About Nothing", play by Shakespeare; 38- Building; 40- _ de guerre; 41- Intrinsically; 43- Pond organism; 44- Fit to _ ; 45- Spanish rice dish; 47- Bird that gets you down; 49- Oozes; 51- Large New Zealand reptile; 55- Wingless; 58- Faultfinder; 59- Pole, for one; 60- Sedative; 62- Trick; 63- Farewell; 64- " _ sprach Zarathustra"; 65- Electric fish; 66- Makes a loan; 67- Not e'en once;

Down

1- Implied; 2- _ Janeiro; 3- Type of sanctum; 4- Chameleonlike; 5- Ate; 6- Holiday start; 7- Manure; 8- Foil maker; 9- "Speed" star; 10- Feverish; 11- Reconciliation; 12- _ contendere; 13- Growl; 18- Bones found in the hip; 22- Clear the board; 24- Craze; 27- Long arm; 29- Plains native; 30- Iditarod terminus; 31- Scandinavian; 32- Brain wave; 33- Anticipate; 35- Toe or finger; 38- Conger catcher; 39- Winged staff carried by Mercury; 42- Arm coverings; 44- Craftsperson; 46- Having no distinct feet; 48- "…countrymen, lend me your _ "; 50- Jacket material; 52- Start of a Dickens title; 53- Wash lightly; 54- Bogie, e.g.; 55- Even _ speak...; 56- Ballet bend; 57- Whirl; 61- Roulette bet;

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Sports

Kevin Campbell — The Cord (Wilfrid Laurier University)

WATERLOO (CUP) — Laura Crocker is no stranger to leadership.

Playing the skip position for Wilfrid Laurier’s women’s curling team for the second straight year, Crocker’s experience on foreign soil helped ease her teammates into a successful showing at the Karuizawa International Curling Championships as they claimed gold for the red and white.

As the defending Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) champions from 2011, Team Laurier became Team Canada for a couple weeks.

“I’ve been to the world juniors but as the five of us, this is the first time any of us have competed internationally together,” said a jet lag-recovered Crocker at the newly decorated Kitchener-Waterloo Granite Club last Monday.

Press clippings, pulled pork buffets and Canadian flags adorned the local curling rink to welcome home the victorious five.

Crocker led her lead Pam Feldkamp, second Jenny Gates, vice Sarah Wilkes, and fifth Cheryl Kreviazuk through a pressure-intensive 9-8 gold medal win against Team Switzerland whose members were aged in their late 20s and early 30s.

In fact, most of their competition had already experienced numerous world championships; a fact that didn’t faze Crocker.

“There’s not too much difference,” said Crocker of the level of play. “Everyone in Canada is really good at curling and so is the rest of the world, but there were lots of new things we had to deal with, like travelling overseas, and jet lag and the different air pressure.”

To fly home with the hardware around their necks, the girls pulled out a stunning come-from-behind extra-ends victory over the Swiss.

Losing 4-2 and 8-5 at points in the contest, the team earned three points in the tenth and final end and snuck away with one point in the 11th as Switzerland’s shot failed to hit its target. It was revenge for the Canadians as the Swiss had beaten them in the tournament-opening match 5-4; one of only two losses sustained by the team.

”We found ourselves in a situation where, nine times out of ten, any team in our situation — including us, probably — wouldn’t have won the game. We just persevered and in the last end, we made all our shots and we got lucky with a couple misses by [Switzerland] and we found ourselves with the gold medals around our neck,” said Crocker.

Laurier also defeated a very experienced Chinese team 10-8 in the semi-finals just an hour earlier.

The squad beat Team Japan, a different Japanese selection team, a Nagano selection team, Team China twice, and Team Denmark. The team fell to Switzerland and Korea in the round robin.

“It’s pretty surreal being there, wearing the maple leaf,” said Gates. “Dealing with the pressure [was the biggest adjustment]. Ignoring those big expectations and making our shots was important.”

In addition to flying home with the gold, the team took time to visit Karuizawa and Tokyo.

“It was kind of a ski resort town; different from Tokyo,” said Crocker of the host town. “The people were unbelievably nice and respectful and just treated us like royalty the entire time.”

”We were kind of stared at a lot because we looked pretty different,” chuckled Gates. “But it was a really cool experience.”

Among shopping around the strip malls and eating the unique cuisine, the team visited the Canadian embassy, and was shown a tour of the facility by the staff.

The team even ran into a few life-sized Pokemon characters as documented in Crocker’s blog.

“Yup, a lot of Pikachus,” said Gates.

Crocker and the team took time to thank Laurier for the opportunities they receive while playing.

“A lot of universities in Canada don’t do anything for their curling teams. We get everything,” said the gracious skip.

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Opinion

Sadiah Waziri — Ryerson Free Press (Ryerson University)

TORONTO (CUP) — Immigration Minister Jason Kenney — (dis)reputable for his support of deportation policies — is in the spotlight once again. This time, it’s for his recent implementation of the niqab ban at Canadian citizenship ceremonies. Coincidentally, Kenney made this an issue last December, when the Supreme Court of Canada was hearing arguments in the case of a woman who wanted to testify in court while wearing the niqab.

Kenney stated that the veil “reflects a certain view about women that we don’t accept in Canada. We want women to be full and equal members of Canadian society ... certainly when they’re taking the citizenship oath, that’s the right place to start.’’ Right place? Is Kenney going to determine a woman’s place by violating her right to wear what she wants? This isn’t just about the citizenship oath: Kenney is also a strong supporter of the proposed Bill 94 in Quebec. If implemented, the bill would seek to deny women who wear the niqab essential services.

Aneesa, a vibrant and educated South Asian woman, has been wearing the niqab for 15 years. She was born and raised in Toronto, where she attended the University of Toronto and obtained a degree in Near Eastern Studies at the St. George campus. She is now a married mother of two and a small business owner. Aneesa is also treasurer and secretary for the largest home schooling organization in Canada, as well as head of a magazine dedicated to topics concerning Muslim women.

“I have grown up seeing women wear niqab for thirty years in this country. Why are they being harassed and targeted now?” she says. “One of the beauties of living in Canada was the strong commitment to tolerance. That acceptance is what made Canada beautiful — that it was okay to be you, that it was okay to disagree.”

Aneesa says her neighbours have no problem with her dress, and it doesn’t cause anyone else harm. “I am a law-abiding citizen. I respect the existing laws of this land. I am a proud Canadian. My niqab does not cause any citizen harm. They should be discussing more pressing topics affecting this country such as issues pertaining to the gun registry, joblessness, food price hikes. Not a ban that fuels misunderstandings.”

Aneesa also condemns the hypocrisy of those within the Muslim community who did not support the rights and freedoms of women who wear the niqab. “Had the community been stronger and more tolerant within,” she says, “a ban would not have effectively been implemented. How is it anyone’s business how I choose to dress, especially Muslims who oppose it? I’m not forcing anyone to wear it.”

Elizabeth Strout teaches English in Egypt, but was born in Quebec to Protestant parents. She converted to Islam in 2010 and wears the niqab. As a child, she always admired the veil in spite of having no understanding of Islam or veiling.

“It’s absurd that secular, western governments have taken it upon themselves to dictate to Muslims what their own religion does or does not require of them,” Strout says. “By banning the veil, even if it’s only in certain situations, the government is effectively saying that the veil is in some way harmful to the citizens of this country.”

Strout also renounces the idea of women being oppressed by the veil. Male relatives in her family, including her husband, have no say in what she does or doesn’t wear.

I am someone who wears the hijab, the more common head-covering worn by Muslim women, and as a Canadian citizen, I am deeply concerned about the implications of this ban. It goes against the observance of religious freedoms that is outlined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Rarely will you come across a niqab-wearer who isn’t willing to cooperate with basic security measures. The ban in practice does not ensure that everyone is reciting the oath during citizenship ceremonies, as is its stated purpose. It is only a deliberate attempt to target and attack women who wear niqab, a gesture of intolerance and discouragement for those who seek to live in Canada. Hate the niqab, disagree with it, but do not ban a woman’s right to wear it.

Kenney made it clear that the citizenship oath ceremony was the “right place to start.” The real question is, where will it end?

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Français

Margaux Meurisse - Le Délit (Université McGill)

MONTRÉAL (PUC) — Faut-il se résoudre à dire adieu au bon vieux photojournalisme?

Le scoop prime sur la qualité, le flash actu d’une page assomme les longs reportages pour aboutir à quoi finalement? Des médias surchargés d’images médiocres prises par monsieur tout le monde et utilisées gratuitement à tout bout de champ: plutôt alléchant!

Avez-vous entendu parler de l’article qui a fait scandale en décembre dernier «Sale temps pour les photographes de presse»? Publié sur le web, il relate le licenciement injuste et inattendu de douze photographes travaillant pour la chaîne américaine CNN. Leur patron ne trouvant que ces mots pour justifier son acte: «Nous avons passé beaucoup de temps à analyser la façon dont nous utilisons et nous déployons nos photojournalistes dans le pays. […] Les technologies grand public sont plus simples et plus abordables. De petits appareils photo sont maintenant de haute qualité. Cette technologie est dans les mains de plus de personnes.»

Après cette analyse, CNN a décidé que quelques photojournalistes doivent quitter la société. Et ce n’est que le signe avant-coureur d’une épidémie qui ne cesse de croître! En France, au Québec et partout ailleurs, les rédacteurs en chef des magazines préfèrent publier à bas prix des photographies qui ne payent pas de mine plutôt que de consacrer une plus grande part de leur budget à des clichés de qualité. Si on est pour se faire bombarder d’images, autant que ça en vaille le coup pour nos mirettes!

Heureusement, des contre-attaques ont vu le jour afin de faire face à cette paupérisation de l’image. On compte parmi elles les magazines indépendants, les festivals et les remises de prix ainsi que les galeries d’art en ligne, en particulier photoartsize. Nouveau quartier général des photojournalistes émergents, cette galerie numérique s’adresse aux particuliers qui souhaitent satisfaire leur désir d’évasion ou décorer leur salon ainsi qu’aux entreprises qui utilisent de plus en plus l’art pour communiquer. Le spectateur a ainsi accès à des reportages de qualité sélectionnés par un jury. Ce site promeut la valeur artistique des photographies de reportage en se spécialisant dans le photojournalisme d’art ou le «décojournalisme». Ces concepts aux intitulés barbares sont nés pour se différencier des photographies de presse souvent choisies pour l’impact de leur message au détriment de l’œil aiguisé du photographe professionnel. Avec photoartsize, on peut commander ses photos en ligne en choisissant le format, l’encadrement et la finition.

Un des derniers reportages marquants présenté dans cette galerie est celui sur le Ghana qui se transforme en «terre d’accueil de nos déchets numériques», en véritable dépotoir à ordures informatiques. Il est seulement triste que ces photos restent cataloguées dans ces galeries numériques plutôt que de circuler dans la presse quotidienne! À nous de continuellement faire l’effort de partir à la recherche de cette qualité photographique devenue de plus en plus rare plutôt que d’attendre qu’elle nous tombe entre les mains!

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Retrouvez l'article original sur le site du Délit.

Arts

Josh Kolm — The Lance (University of Windsor)

WINDSOR — Ron Sexsmith has never had any artistic qualms about his desire for success.

“I never wanted to be famous: it’s just about wanting your music to be heard.”

The singer-songwriter — who has 25 years of experience, 12 full-length albums, a Juno award and documented acclaim from Elvis Costello, Steve Earle and Paul McCartney — has never been a household name like his heroes.

“I’ve always tried to have mainstream success. I never set out to be a cult artist,” Sexsmith said. “All my heroes were people who made great albums, and also had hits off them. When I was growing up, someone like Joni Mitchell or Neil Young could actually have a hit on the radio. That’s a career I always wanted to have, but I realized it’s a whole different world out there today.”

This week, Sexsmith brings the closing leg of his tour to Windsor before finishing the follow-up to last year’s Long Player, Late Bloomer. Wrapping up a tour of the UK, Sexsmith is making a point to do a “thorough job” of Canada, and hit places he missed the first time.

“A lot of people are coming out to see the show because it’s the thing going on,” Sexsmith said about playing in smaller cities. “Bigger cities, all the people that are interested in my music will come to the show and know my records. With the smaller town, you’re pulling in people that say, ‘Oh, I heard that Ron Sexsmith guy is good.’”

Even though it was never his intention to be the under-appreciated elder statesman of Canadian folk, it’s a role that he is able to live with.

“I’ve always had a cult following, and I’ve been fine with that. Retriever [released in 2004] was one of the first albums that did pretty well [in Canada]. Sometimes I’ll make a record that has higher profile than others, but I can usually fill a room with people that are really into my music, even though it’s not something the average person will have heard about.”

That sentiment seems to be Sexsmith’s career in a sound byte. He’s an artist who has never seen album sales that match his numerous critical accolades or ability to draw a crowd. The stagnating level of his success after so long in the game put Sexsmith into a slump.

“With the last bunch of records that I made before Long Player, I felt like my career was slipping away, and I was trying to stand up for myself.”

Long Player, Late Bloomer was produced by Bob Rock, who has worked with artists like Metallica, Motley Crue and the Cult. Despite the possible genre-mismatch, Sexsmith was eager to try something to get out of his slump.

“It was actually Michael Bublé who told me I should work with Bob, because Bob had produced his record. That was news to me because I thought Bob only did hard rock music,” Sexsmith said. “It seemed like a crazy idea, so my management sent out an e-mail to [Bob] just to see if there was any interest. They got back to us the same day and said they were really interested. The dilemma was trying to raise the money to do it because obviously I don’t have the kind of money Michael Bublé does.”

The making of Long Player, Late Bloomer was the subject of a documentary called Love Shines in 2010. The film covers the writing and recording process of the album, during which Sexsmith spends a lot of time trying to crack the code to breaking out of the niche he has held since the early 1990s.

“I was frustrated with my career because I felt like it didn’t have any momentum,” Sexsmith said of his mindset, as documented in Love Shines. “I think the movie was a little bit over-dramatic; the director was trying to make a movie where I was in a depression. And I was, but not 24 hours a day. I’m up and down like everyone else.”

Even though it’s a constant motivator, Sexsmith has never had any conflicts of artistic integrity in his pursuit of success because that has always been exactly the kind of music he’s wanted to create.

“I’m just a fan of pop music,” Sexsmith said. “Whatever you’re working on, you’re just trying to get what you hear in your head onto the tape, and it sounds like a hit in my head. Sometimes it changes and goes in unexpected ways; you go with it. But I’m not sitting there thinking, ‘It doesn’t sound like a hit, we better put a different guitar solo on there.’”

Now nearly a year old, Long Player, Late Bloomer has reached levels of success that rival anything Sexsmith has done thus far. It reached No. 1 in the UK and charted with Billboard in the United States. For the first time, one of his albums debuted in the Canadian Top 10, and was on the shortlist for the Polaris Music Prize last summer.

“It’s not like it did as well as Rihanna, but for my little world it was great,” Sexsmith said. He began to notice that the sales of the album had an effect on the tour. “In attendance, it was probably the best tour I ever had. It’s kind of bizarre, because I didn’t expect that to happen at this late stage of my career.”

The success of the album has given Sexsmith a tangible confirmation that his work is resulting in something.

“There were points in the past where I felt like a rock star, when you’re able to tour with your band and good things are happening. I got to experience that tail end of the record industry where you record in New York and they fly you to L.A. for mastering, and there’s tour buses and everything. It had been a long time since I’d felt like that.

“It’s kind of silly, but it really does have an effect on your self-esteem, to feel like things are happening. People are waiting outside a venue, wanting to say, ‘Hi.’ All these things sound sort of frivolous, but they’re the things you dream about when you’re a little boy.”

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Features

Jenny Aitken — The Martlet (University of Victoria)

VICTORIA (CUP) — "You are suffering from overhydration,” Dr. Wayne Smith said, running a hand through his greying hair. “You are drinking so much water that it is becoming like a poison in your body.”

I stared at him in disbelief. Beside me sat my metal water bottle, its flower pattern chipping from overuse. My tongue felt like sandpaper and I wanted nothing more than to take a gulp from it. But, from that moment on, it was no longer an option.

Overhydration occurs when there is a disruption of electrolyte levels in the body due to overconsumption of water. In today’s society, with most new diets and weight loss plans recommending drinking large amounts of water, more and more people, like myself, are unknowingly putting themselves in risk of water poisoning.

Dr. Smith went on to explain that as a result of all the water I had been drinking, I had developed an extremely low sodium level, and my kidneys were essentially drowning with fluid. Tears pricked my eyes as he listed off my transgressions until, in self-defense, I exclaimed, “But I thought drinking water was healthy!”

Full of nothing

I had always believed that water was the best thing to be drinking, because it has no sugar or calories and is often linked with healthy weight loss.

Although the Canadian Food Guide does not specify a certain quantity, it does recommend water to help with metabolism, stating that it can help ease food cravings. The reason they do not recommend a specific amount is that the fluid needs of each individual are different.

Fitness magazines and speed diets often promote water as a crucial factor in weight loss. As both a fitness enthusiast and an insecure university student, I clung to this idea that water would help me avoid weight gain. It’s not as if I forced myself to drink obscene amounts of water, but I conscientiously tried to stay hydrated throughout the day. Apparently, I had been trying too hard.

Leaving Dr. Smith’s office, I walked to the bathroom at the end of the hall with stiff legs, as if trying to stall myself. Finally, I reached the sink and poured out my entire water bottle. I looked at myself in the mirror, my skin pale and free of makeup. I stared at my reflection, wondering how I could have been so foolish, how I could have let this happen. It was there that I finally let myself cry.

Boiling the problem away

I had been given direct orders: I was only allowed to drink 500 mililitres of water a day, which included any coffee or tea. Everything else had to have salt in it, but I was mainly to drink Gatorade to replenish my electrolytes.

With my limited background in biology, I had nodded my way through my doctor’s appointment, while he threw around words like “osmosis” and “concentration gradient.” It was only later, once I had time to digest the information, that I felt ready to learn more.

According to Dr. Brian Christie, an associate professor of medical sciences at UVic, drinking too much water causes the fluid outside of the cells to be very low in sodium and electrolytes. When this happens, it causes the water to shift into the cell, causing the cell to swell. Christie says, “Like a balloon, if the cell continues to swell it will just pop.” This results in a leaking or damaged cell. Although this is bad for any organ, it can be particularly detrimental to the brain, because the swelling causes a buildup of intracranial pressure.

During the doctor’s appointment that day, Dr. Smith had asked me if I ever got headaches. “Do you get light headed or often feel confused?”

I nodded. “All the time.”

Apparently, these were some of the minor symptoms of overhydration. It could also cause muscle weakness, intense thirst, fatigue and changes in behaviour. It seemed like everything I had simply attributed to school stress or PMS had actually been warning flags of an unexpected and dangerous condition.

People always told me it was strange how much water I drank. Once when I met up with my brother Eric for lunch he asked, “Why do you drink so much? It doesn’t even taste like anything!” I tried to explain that I liked water. How I felt like I was always thirsty and that nothing else would work. He said it wasn’t normal to “pound back” three or four glasses of water during one meal. He was right.

While reading up on overhydration, I discovered a long list of cases of people who had died from drinking too much water. I felt connected to the victims, and couldn’t help feeling that it could have been me.

Jacqueline Henson’s death in 2008 hit particularly close to home. She was a 40-year-old woman, who was trying to lose weight using the Lighter Life Diet Plan. The diet suggested drinking four litres of water throughout the day. Jacqueline drank that entire allotment during less than two hours, while she sat watching TV. A healthy kidney can excrete a maximum of one litre of water a day. Since her body was unable to excrete the fluid, it led to a build up of intracranial pressure. She died the next day of internal bleeding.

Jacqueline’s terrifying experience reminded me of what Dr. Smith had told me about my own condition. We had been poring over my blood work results, and he had pointed out my low sodium levels. I asked him how serious it was.

“Well,” he said, “If you were sixty years old instead of young and resilient, you would probably have already lost cognitive brain function.”

Athletes are also highly susceptible to overhydration, because the combination of prolonged strenuous exercise and excessive fluid can create a life-threatening situation. This was the case for Cynthia Lucero, a runner who collapsed during the 2002 Boston Marathon. Cynthia’s overhydration caused swelling in her brain, and she died shortly after.

There have also been several noted cases of overhydration in ecstasy users. Leah Betts was 18 when she died in 1995. After consuming ecstasy with some friends, Leah started to feel anxiety and panic. Concerned that something had gone wrong she started drinking large amounts of water. In less than three hours she consumed seven litres of water, which caused a build up of pressure in her brain. By the time Leah reached the hospital she had suffered irreversible brain damage.

Even before seeing the doctor, I had known that something was wrong. My skin was pale and lifeless, and I was losing weight without trying to. I was constantly thirsty, and often had to go to the bathroom four or even five times a night. When I told my Mom on the phone I could hear her concern, could picture her eyebrows furrowing. Not wanting to worry her, and because I didn’t want to deal with it myself, I procrastinated on making a doctor’s appointment for as long as possible.

Leaving the doctor that day, I focused mainly on the short-term ramifications. It was New Year’s Eve, and after a night of partying I would not be allowed to drink any water. Visions of the hangover from hell consumed my mind, and let me temporarily avoid reality.

The next day, I stared at the lacklustre contents of my fridge and realized a trip to the grocery store was in order. Half a one-litre carton of milk wouldn’t sustain me for long. At the store I scoured the shelves, picking up grapefruit juice, mango juice, banana kiwi, anything but the apple and orange I had grown tired of as a child. At the checkout, I carefully loaded up the juices, along with twenty bottles of blueberry pomegranate Gatorade.

The cashier, a middle-aged woman with a bob and a sharp nose, gave me a quizzical look. “Are you some kind of competitive athlete or something?” she asked. I nodded, not wanting to delve in to why I was spending $57 on juices and sports drinks.

In the weeks following the diagnosis, I fell into a routine. Every morning I would have one cup of tea with breakfast, and one glass of water with dinner. Apart from that I mainly relied on Gatorade to get me by.

Most of my friends found the whole water thing to be funny, and for my mother it became a conversation starter. “The MacDougalls cannot believe that you can’t drink any water. I told Kim at work, and she can’t believe it either,” she recounted on the phone one night. I could understand why people felt that way — I had hardly believed it myself. Still, the shocked reaction made me self-conscious, and no one seemed to grasp that it was actually hard to deal with. I have always been someone who commits to things to an extreme. The results had always been harmless; cue the time I watched the entire six seasons of Dawson’s Creek in less than a month. Countless online quizzes have categorized me as having an addictive personality, but I never paid it much thought. That personality trait is probably what led to my overhydration — I thought the more water I drank the healthier I would be. Now that I am trying to recover, I see how important it is to have self-control.

In the past month, my sodium levels have slowly started to climb. I no longer find myself sprinting to the washroom at all hours of the night, and I no longer feel the need to chug water. I still need reminders though — stuck above the kitchen sink is a post-it note reading, “Just say no to H₂0!” I will be monitoring my water intake and getting regular blood work done for the next several months, at least.

Good in moderation

My experience with water is far from the norm; in fact, most Canadians do not drink enough water. Water is crucial for carrying oxygen and nutrients to the cells through blood, and plays a large part in digestion and metabolism. According to Christie, moderation is key when it comes to water intake, “You do need water, just don’t go pounding back 8-ounce glasses every hour of the day,” he says.

When I was leaving the appointment, Dr. Smith, afraid I had gotten the wrong impression, assured me, “Water is good for you, and your body does need it. Just remember that with water, like anything, there can still be too much of a good thing.”

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Sports

Fraser Caldwell — The Silhouette (McMaster University)

HAMILTON (CUP) — McMaster Marauder teams will be sporting the swoosh for the next five years, after the university's department of athletics and recreation announced a long-term exclusivity deal with the world’s largest sports apparel manufacturer on Feb. 6.

The agreement represents the first such commitment for Nike in Canada, although such exclusive apparel deals are common currency in the NCAA, where schools are often identified by the brand their athletes wear.

Under the terms of the deal, McMaster’s football, basketball, soccer, cross-country and track teams will sport Nike apparel and the number of participating squads is subject to change in future years.

Perhaps most notably, the Marauder basketball teams will wear Jordan brand gear next year, and the merchandise from Nike’s flagship specialty offshoot — inspired by the legendary Michael Jordan — will be available for purchase on campus.

Access to the Jordan brand puts McMaster in elite sporting company, as only five schools in North America sport the iconic merchandise.

Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but it is widely believed that the agreement represents the most lucrative apparel contract signed by a Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) school.

McMaster’s director of athletics and recreation Jeff Giles explained that negotiations between the university and its new partner began after the release of a request for proposal by McMaster in September.

According to Giles, several companies were impressed with the vision for the future presented by the university, and the Nike proposal that was eventually accepted was only one of a number of such offers.

“We told everyone that we weren’t looking for a typical, cookie-cutter deal,” said Giles. “We wanted a partner that was prepared to work with us through our brand and theirs to promote this university and the things that we do here. Part of that pitch was the way in which — for lack of a better word — we’re trying to reinvent the role of athletics and recreation at the university level.

“Nike and their Canadian distributor T. Litzen could see that we had some ideas and were going to do some amazing things in the next few years," he continued. "We got some very encouraging bids for our package. And at the end of the day, Nike won because they said that they would work with us in terms of branding up here. It was a vote of confidence from Nike and T. Litzen in everything we’re doing here.”

The resulting deal is one that resembles in many ways the exclusivity agreements common to Division I programs in the United States’ NCAA. For his part however, Giles draws the comparison between this most recent deal and those he negotiated in his previous capacity as the president of the CFL for seven years.

“Everyone looks at apparel as a cost, but nobody looks at it as a licensing opportunity,” he said. “Fans want to buy a licensed product — they want to buy wear the athletes are wearing. We did the same thing in the CFL. We consolidated everything — first with Starter, then Adidas and then Reebok. We grew it to the point where licensing in the CFL is now worth $10 million per year – from almost nothing.

“I came into McMaster and said that we should be able to do the same thing here. We should be able to take all of this apparel and everything we do to outfit our teams and create a licensing opportunity. That’s what the Maroon Shop is all about.”

Whatever comparison one wants to draw, there is no doubting the importance of the deal, and Giles believes that his department’s agreement with Nike has opened eyes across the North American collegiate landscape.

“I think we’ve created some waves,” conceded Giles. “I can imagine there are some big time American schools that want to know why they aren’t Jordan schools. I can’t answer that question and I didn’t want to cause problems down there, but maybe we have.”

While the agreement presents McMaster with a definite financial boon, the athletic director stressed that the purpose of the school’s move to exclusivity was not profit, but rather the expansion of the athletic department’s efforts.

“It’s not about the money,” said Giles of the deal. “It’s about giving our students the best possible experience while they’re here, to provide the programs and services they need to have a tremendous experience. Doing that costs money. This deal works to help us expand those programs and services.

“Many of the athletic departments across Ontario are conducting sport reviews and taking a look to see what they need to cut while they feel tremendous financial pressures," he added. "We’re taking a different approach and asking how we can expand our services and do more for our students and staff. This just allows us to do that.”

For teams looking to attract new athletes, the allure of top-tier apparel could be a deal-maker. However, Giles was quick to voice his hope that merchandise alone would not motivate potential Marauders to relocate to the Hamilton campus.

“It can’t hurt,” said the athletic director of the deal’s impact on recruiting. “All that I can judge by is the excitement of our two basketball teams — how excited our players are and tell me that our recruits are. I hope it helps, but I also hope that kids aren’t coming here because they get to wear a Jordan basketball uniform.

“If that’s the icing on the cake, then great. We’re looking for dedicated student athletes and if this means that those athletes choose McMaster, then so be it.”

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News

Erin Hudson — The McGill Daily (McGill University)

MONTREAL (CUP) — Nine students who had occupied McGill deputy provost Morton Mendelson’s office since Feb. 7 were peacefully evicted Sunday morning, Feb. 12.

The group had been occupying the office space to protest the administration's decision to invalidate the results of an existence referendum that sought to continue support for the campus radio station and the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG).

At 8:57 a.m., one of the occupiers yelled from the sixth floor window to three students sleeping outside the James Administration building that police were going to evict the students.

Initially, 23 students entered Mendelson’s office, but left at various points during the week. The last student to leave before the eviction exited the building at 4 a.m. on Sunday morning.

In an email sent to all McGill students and staff shortly after the eviction, vice-principal of administration and finance Michael Di Grappa stated that the occupiers were read a formal eviction notice. Occupiers were informed that police could charge them with resisting arrest if they had to be physically removed.

According to Di Grappa’s email, the students were given five minutes to gather all belongings and leave the building.

As to why Sunday morning was chosen for the eviction, Di Grappa wrote, “It became unfeasible to enter another week without use of the building to conduct the work of the university. Members of the senior administration decided that activities at the James Building should resume Monday morning, and that a full day would be needed to clean the building in preparation for McGill employees to return to work.”

Seven police vans entered campus during the eviction. According to one police officer on the scene, two police divisions were present — one to conduct the eviction, and the other to secure the exterior.

The officer said about six officers from the Post de quartier 20, Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal’s (SPVM) neighbourhood police division, carried out the eviction.

The students who were sleeping outside packed up a tent and supplies that had been amassed there since Feb. 7. McGill security agents and police remained on the scene until all of the students had left, at about 10 a.m.

One officer on the scene said that the SPVM were aware of the occupation for several days. “It was this morning that McGill decided to end it, at 8:30 a.m.,” he said.

Di Grappa’s email stated that occupiers were offered first aid, food, and contact for counseling services. He also noted that upon the students’ exit from the James building, students presented security agents with a letter of apology.

The occupiers, collectively known as #6party, issued a brief statement in response to Di Grappa.

“We will prepare a longer statement after we have a warm meal, but we do want to respond quickly to DiGrappa’s MRO [email]; we were not offered food or counselling services. Our friends partying downstairs, however, have arranged for both,” it read.

As of press time, none of the sixth floor students were yet available for comment.

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News

Lee Richardson — CUP Ontario Bureau Chief

TORONTO (CUP) — Accelerated three-year degrees could eventually be seen at the University of Guelph, as a working group is currently in the early stages of studying their feasibility.

The potential three-year bachelor degrees would be equivalent to the current four-year degree, with an added possibility of adding another year to gain a Master’s degree in four years. The research group looking into the idea, made up of members of faculty, students and administration, will study into the practicality of bringing the three-year degrees to U of G.

“It’s really exploratory at this stage,” said U of G provost and vice-president academic, Maureen Mancuso. “But there’s a lot of interest with what’s happening in Europe, the United States and Australia with respect to the possibility of three-year degrees, or accelerated degrees.”

As well as considering the shortened degrees, the group will study the provincial transfer credit system, with a goal of streamlining the process for incoming students who have graduated from college.

“It’s not very easy for a student to move between institutions, either way, from college to university or university to college, or even between jurisdictions,” said Mancuso. “There’s a lot of difficulties in making those transitions or those moves, so I think we need to help the students in trying to make it as easy for them as we can.”

Over the past couple of years, there has been discussion in regards to reforming both the transfer credit process in Ontario — which has led to colleges forming their own four-year degree programs — and whether bachelor degrees should have to be four years long. While the Ontario government set up the Pathways Initiative in 2009 to streamline elements of the transfer credit process, there are still students who find that they have to repeat similar courses to ones they have already taken, or have to take more than the usual number of electives to fill out a program.

“It should be tied to your status. I think mature students shouldn’t be forced to take a number of electives,” said Colin Mitchell, who transferred into McMaster University with six credits, or three classes, after his graduation from Mohawk College in Hamilton. “They could totally give you more transfer credits and let you bypass that stage.”

In terms of the research being carried out at U of G, which has already been involved with the Pathways Initiative, there is no set date for research findings being announced.

“There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes operational stuff that needs to be worked out if we’re going to make this work,” said Mancuso. “I would like to see some significant progress by the end of this semester.”

Three-year degrees are widely accepted in many other countries, including the United States, where universities like Georgia Southwestern State University, Arcadia University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro all have established three-year degrees, and a growing number of universities are introducing the accelerated programs. They are also common in European countries, which agreed to harmonize their education policies under the Bologna Process. In the United Kingdom, there has been discussion by Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, in regard to switching to a two-year bachelor degree system in order to save the state money. In Canada, though, outside of select universities like Athabasca, those shortened three-year degrees are virtually unknown.

“It's an interesting idea. I certainly think there [are] people who believe that we could be better off if we get down to three [years],” said University of Toronto economics professor Philip Oreopoulos. “I’m not aware of any evidence that says one way or the other that it matters. If it doesn’t make any difference to labour market outcomes, and knowledge and lifetime socioeconomic outcomes, that’s great — let’s all go down to three.”

But there is debate over what effect cutting a year from a bachelor’s degree would have.

“One thing to consider is that a lot of graduate programs expect the bachelor degree to be a four-year degree,” said associate professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), Barrie Bennett. “At [OISE], our graduate applicants must have a four year degree or have something that really sets them apart, so if the undergrad expects to do graduate work, they may put themselves into difficult spot.

“That said, if that three year program is going to be an incredible program; then three years of incredible beats four years of mediocre," Bennett added. "Of course, as a parent, I would rather have four years of incredible."

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News

Sarah Deshaies — CUP Quebec Bureau Chief

MONTREAL (CUP) — Women stand to lose out with upcoming provincial tuition increases, warned academics at Concordia University’s Simone de Beauvoir Institute (SDBI) this week.

Quebec undergraduates, who currently pay the least of all Canadian students, will see an extra $1,625 added to their tuition fees over the next five years as increases are slated to start in fall 2012.

The Quebec government has had a consistent message for students: consider your education an investment that you will pay off later. But an SDBI student said that this will be tough for women.

“This amount of money will be more expensive for a woman than for her male colleagues,” because women on average still earn 71 cents to a man’s dollar, suggested Gabrielle Bouchard, a student at the institute. “So whether you want to reimburse your loans or [pay] your tuition, it’s going to take you longer.”

The increases will “solidify” the challenges facing women, said Bouchard, who spoke at a press conference on Feb. 8.

Martine Desjardins, president of the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec, said she agrees with the statement. Women will be the first to pay for these increases, she said, especially those with children.

Bouchard, who is also a single mother and a representative of the Women’s Studies Students’ Association at Concordia, stressed that the increase will make it more difficult for single mothers. “A single-parent family will spend 18 per cent of annual income on paying for children’s studies, while a two-parent family pays 10 per cent. So the cumulative effects on women’s lives will be extremely important.”

Not only do single moms outnumber single fathers, but the former, on average, have less than a third the median net worth of the latter.

In Canada, women now outnumber men in post-secondary education, with women filling slightly more than half of spots in college, undergraduate and master’s programs.

A 2008 survey by Statistics Canada shows that women stand to triple their earnings if they have a university degree, while men are likely to double their salary. A woman with less than a grade 9 education can earn $20,800, but make triple that if she has a degree. But interestingly, men will still earn more: a man with less than grade 9 can earn $40,400, but make $91,800 with a degree.

The SBDI, Concordia’s home for women’s studies, takes public positions on contentious policy issues that affect women, like Quebec’s debate on reasonable accommodation and a 2010 ruling on prostitution.

Professor Viviane Namaste said that educators are concerned about classroom diversity, which is “central” to education. “We see that this kind of social policy will have actually really negative effects in terms of the diversity,” she said, citing statistics that visible minority women in Canada are more likely to have lower incomes, and First Nations women are less likely to have university degrees.

“The more expensive it costs for students to enroll in post-secondary education, the less diversity there will be in the classroom, and the more impoverished our learning environment will be,” she said.

Carrie Rentschler, a professor and director of McGill’s Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies, agreed with Namaste.

“It has this really detrimental effect on who is able to actually get a university education,” confirmed Rentschler, who recalled seeing a "dramatic change" in the ethnic and economic makeup of her classes in an American institutions that had undergone "drastic" increases.

Rentschler also agreed with Namaste’s suggestion that funding for education is available in places other than students’ pockets, including party Quebec Solidaire’s proposal that the government could fund education through licensing fees on mining and industrial maufacturing companies.

"The way this debate tends to be framed is that the province doesn't have the resources they need, and universities are struggling to offer the best education as they can with the kind of resources that they have," said Rentschler. But the idea that the education system is in financial crisis is a “false debate,” according to Bouchard.

At one point, the heads of both English universities in Quebec were women: McGill principal Heather Munroe-Blum and Concordia's former president Judith Woodsworth both asked the government to raise tuition fees. Line Beauchamp, the current education minister, is also a woman. Does this show a lack of empathy from Quebec women in power?

“I don’t think we can expect women in those positions to have a feminist framework,” said Rentschler. “I think that they are not necessarily feminists, and they are essentially executives, and it’s their job to bring money into the university, and do that above anything else. Perhaps they are invested in the kind of neo-liberal frameworks that say we should turn to individuals and corporations and not the government to fund education more thoroughly.”

The students' association at SDBI plans to hold a general strike vote within a week. Like McGill’s IGSF, the Institut de recherches et d’études féministes at the Université de Québec à Montréal does not issue statements on public policy. But director Sylvia Paré said they will respect students’ decisions to go on strike: "We have to be aware of the added financial pressure that may be affecting many of our students.”

Namaste called for a “real debate” on Quebec’s political priorities, though she declined to suggest an actual time or place for such a discussion.

But the education ministry maintains that it supports students who need financial help. Both female and male students in need can apply for aid, said Esther Chouinard, a spokesperson for the education ministry, in an email. For the 2009-2010 school year, added Chouinard, $154 million of aid was offered to students with family obligations, like extra funds for single-parent families and subsidies for public daycare spaces.

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News

Erin Hudson — The McGill Daily (McGill University)

MONTREAL (CUP) — Three days into the “surprise resignation party” in the office of McGill University deputy provost Morton Mendelson, 11 students remain on the sixth floor. The group is protesting the administration’s decision to invalidate the results of the fall 2011 existence referenda for McGill campus radio station CKUT and the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG).

On the morning of Feb. 9, vice-principal of administration and finance Michael Di Grappa announced in a mass email to students and staff that the James Administration building would remain closed for the day. The building was closed on Feb. 8 as well.

In a statement released by the students on the sixth floor on the afternoon of Feb. 8, the group stated that they had not been in contact with Mendelson in 48 hours.

“Hence we are pleased to announce Morton J. Mendelson’s resignation from the position of Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) of McGill University. One of two demands of the sixth-floor partiers has been met,” the statement read.

The students on the sixth floor have demanded since the start of their action for the resignation of Mendelson and the validation of the results from the fall 2011 QPIRG and CKUT existence referenda.

The last round of negotiations between students and McGill took place Feb. 8 at 5 p.m. with associate vice-principal of university services Jim Nicell. The negotiations — in which no progress was made between Nicell and students — concluded when the students’ negotiating team refused to leave the designated negotiating room on the sixth floor. Students are now occupying the room, which allows them access to a window.

Students and faculty have attempted to deliver food to the students on the sixth floor since last night, when reports were released stating that food supplies were dwindling.

At 1:15 p.m. on Feb. 9, a group of six professors asked security agents stationed around the building to permit them to deliver food to students on the sixth floor.

“We went up to the front door and we identified ourselves as professors and we said that we were concerned about the students not having had food,” said East Asian studies professor Adrienne Hurley.

Associate professor of Islamic studies Michelle Hartman, who participated in the effort, said that professors were told, “The building was closed and that no one was allowed to go in or bring anything in… We tried to figure out what regulation or what kind of policy led to the whole building being closed.”

Hartman said professors were told to get in touch with provost Anthony Masi for an explanation regarding the closure of the building.

“We thought it was a cruel response to deny people access to food,” she added.

Around 2:30 p.m. oranges were successfully thrown to students on the sixth floor by a group of students and staff, who have gathered outside the window on the building’s east side.

Two students slept outside by the building’s east side on the Wednesday night.

Student Patricia Lahoud, who was outside the building and participated in the occupation of the James lobby on Tuesday night, said that students are “trying to find out different ways to get food to them.”

“There are a few plans in action,” she added, but would not elaborate on details.

One student left the sixth floor at 2:45 p.m. due to a virus, which had worsened after the group ran out of medication. When the news spread on Twitter, McGill sent a doctor in to check on the remaining students.

Di Grappa’s email on Thursday morning detailed the administration’s stance on negotiating with the students on the sixth floor. The email stated McGill will not negotiate regarding the two demands made by the students.

“We will not negotiate with anyone disrupting university activities in this manner. We are interested only in talking about a safe, peaceful end to the occupation. In addition, we do not feel that these individuals have a mandate to represent students,” wrote Di Grappa.

Di Grappa also noted that McGill has been in discussions with CKUT and QPIRG in regards to the fall 2011 referenda questions since before the students entered the James building. He added, “We intend to continue our discussions.”

Both CKUT and QPIRG have confirmed to The Daily that the organizations were not aware of students’ plans to occupy the James building prior to Tuesday when the action began.

At 5 p.m. Feb. 9, reports from the sixth floor stated that power had been cut off. Security told students outside the cause of the power outage is a blown fuse. Power was visibly on in other parts of the building. Internet in the building was cut off Tuesday night.

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