The Plant
pg3 dawson’s man pg4 canada and us pg11 Kobe Brayant
2 CONTACT: theplantnewspaper@gmail.com
the plant letter from the editor Dawson College 3040 Sherbrooke Street West Westmount, QC, H3Z 1A4 Tel: (514) 931-8731 ext:1115 theplantnewspaper@gmail.com Copyright 2014
Editorial Staff Editor-in-Chief Hannah Gerber Managing Editor Kristiana Alcancia Shaw News Editor Bronwyn Haney International News Edito Nachman Reich Arts & Culture Kaitlin Fitzgibbon Voices Editor Alyssia Rubertucci Sports Editor Jordan Stoopler Comics Aleks Seweryn Cover Art Aya Suspiria
have passed down my Editor in Chief visor to our former My heart is both heavy with voices editor, Alyssia Ruberremorse and light with relief tucci! Jordan Stoopler, forat the acknowledgment of mer Sports editor, will this issue being our last. As I support her as production have mentioned before, manager. I am confident that working with this paper has been the highlight throughout my three semesters at Dawson. I would firstly like to thank my production manager, Kristiana AlcanciaShaw, for going above and beyond to make sure this paper kept rolling every week. I’d like to thank our all of our editorial staff for investing their free time between course loads on their sections, your efforts never went unnoticed. I would also like to welcome our new staff members for The Plant’s Winter 2015 semester! I am pleased to announce that I Dear beloved readers,
table of contents Contributors
news
02
int news arts
04 05
voices
09
life
10
sports comics
11 11
Nathalie Laflamme Sara Capanna Hillel Steinmetz Disha Aggarwal Samuel Arauio Juliana Galbraith Kaitlin Fitzgibbon Veronick Santini-Gervais Shayne Hontiveros Patrick Bazarbachian Jordan Stoopler Justin Silver
our new staff will continue at where it could take you. the strong and serving legacy Thank you readers, inspire of The Plant. I encourage anyone who didn’t get the your friends and neighbors to chance, to contribute and follow your lead, we love you. take part in the rewarding exHannah perience, you’d be surprised
3 EDITOR: Bronwyn Haney
VOL. 43 ISSUE 10 - Thursday, November 13th, 2014
CONTACT: bronwyn.haney@yahoo.ca
Meet Dawson’s Renaissance Man
A profile on the DSU’s Director of Sustainability, who finds passion in all he does ALYSSIA RUBERTUCCI VOICES EDITOR
The life of a young adult can be chaotic and challenging especially when school, work, and extracurricular activities are entangled. But when passion and commitment are involved, those tasks can easily be done. For eighteen year-old Dawson student Matthew Mastrocola, there is balance in his busy life because his responsibilities are achieved whole-heartedly. As a second-year Pure and Applied Sciences student, Mastrocola’s course load is intense and heavy duty. However, in the midst of his academics, he has taken on even more responsibilities, as he is part of the Dawson Student Union (DSU), is an athlete, and a musician. Last year, a classmate of Mastrocola encouraged him to get involved in student life. He immediately jumped on the chance. “I thought it would be something interesting to try out because I’ve never really done anything like this for school,” he said. Mastrocola ran for the position of Director of Sustainability for the 2014-2015 school year. Running completely unopposed, he was elected in April 2014. “It was weird because there was no competition.” A novel position in the DSU, Mastrocola was named the first-ever Director of Sustainability, and in his words he gets to, “Set the bar really high.” As Director of Sustainability, Mastrocola’s job is to ensure that the DSU is acting in a sustainable manner. “Whenever we have events or buy products,” he said, “I have to make sure everything is local, fair trade and recyclable.” He is also required to help promote the water bottle campaign. This campaign encourages Dawson students to refrain from using plastic water bottles and use refillable ones. “It’s my job to help advertise and get the
Matthew Mastrocola, Director of Sustainability
word out that we’re giving out refillable bottles and make people aware of how bad plastic bottles are for the environment.” The subject of sustainability is one worth exploring. For Mastrocola, the matter has been on his mind throughout his whole life. To him, being Director of Sustainability at Dawson allows him to learn more about sustainable practices for his life and to teach others about them as well. According to Mastrocola, a sustainable way of life means making changes, big or small, that will make a difference. Whether it be using public transport, walking, or biking to get to your destinations, or simply using a refillable water bottle, these are sustainable practices. “It doesn’t have to be drastic changes.” Although Mastrocola describes his position as Director of Sustainability as being in its infancy, he sees great potential for the future. “Dawson is beginning to take really big steps towards becoming more sustainable and environmentally friendly,” he
Photo Credits: facebook.com
said. The requirements for every DSU executive is to complete five hours of office work each week. “Whenever I don’t have class I just sit in the office and answer people’s questions,” he said. Mastrocola’s term as the Director of Sustainability officially began in the summer. Since then, the DSU executives and him were able to get a pleasing amount of work done, according to his accounts. One of his individual tasks was to start up a student-run café. The café was launched during this Fall 2014 semester and was made possible by Mastrocola’s efforts. The café is open on Thursdays between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. “People show up and say they really like it so I’m pretty happy with what we’ve been doing so far,” he said in regards to the success of the café. Being apart of the DSU for him has changed his overall experience at Dawson because he is able to be more involved and learn more about the institution itself.
“When I started last fall,” he said, “I didn’t really know much about how the school worked; I would just go to class and then go home.” The DSU has given him the opportunity to get involved more and encounter students and teachers from all over the school. “It’s an eye-opening experience,” he says. Mastrocola’s DSU job isn’t the only thing he devotes hours of time to. His passion carries over into his personal hobbies, two of which are hockey and music. The executive just recently got back into playing hockey after taking a year off to focus on his first year of CEGEP. “After realizing the workload isn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” he said, “I decided to play again because I missed it.” Though he says he missed the boat for the National Hockey League (NHL), he sometimes wonders why he didn’t pursue hockey as a career. He had opportunities lined up such as scholarships in prestigious schools and trainers interested in him. At such a young age, Mastrocola was faced with large decisions, and feared the change in lifestyle, mostly not knowing if he would have to stop going to school altogether. “I wasn’t really sure if that was something I wanted to do,” he admitted. Although it was difficult to turn away from the chance to play professionally, he didn’t want to give up everything else in his life. As hockey has always been a passion for him, he still plays solely for fun and for the love of the game because it is simply one of his favorite things to do. Aside from his athletic focus, Mastrocola is a dedicated guitarist. After starting to play in 2012, it’s safe to say that he acquired adoration for the instrument through hard work and hours of practice on his down time. Ultimately, one of the main reasons he decided to learn was because of the Indie Rock band, The Strokes. Mastrocola explained that at the age of 16, he thought they were the best band ever. “The Strokes really made me want to pick up a guitar and try to play their songs.”
His influence today, though, is My Bloody Valentine, a shoegaze band from Dublin formed in the 90s. Their music and sound is what Mastrocola tries to emulate through his playing. “It sounds super loud but it’s really melodic and peaceful,” he said. Mastrocola experiments with different sounds, as his taste in music has evolved since he began to play the guitar. “I’ve been trying to expand my musical horizon,” he revealed. Music, for him, is an art form that is extremely important. “I think music is a really cool way to express yourself.” Though his guitar playing remains to be a recreational hobby, he doesn’t reject the idea of one day making his music a pursuit. Mastrocola entertains the thought of being in a band, playing shows, and recording music. “It’s definitely something I’m interested in trying out for fun and if it ever becomes something I could pursue, then I would.” No matter what path he chooses to take, Mastrocola knows that his core group will support him, especially his parents. His father and mother are always willing to help him out when he needs it. “My parents understand that I’m still a teenager and it’s a lot to handle.” His top priority is to stay focused and do the best he can in school. “University applications are coming up and next semester is my last semester of CEGEP,” he said, “So it’s definitely time to study and put the extra effort in to get the best marks I possibly [can].” Mastrocola is particularly dedicated to everything he does, as he strives to reach success. Other than juggling his academic career, his job at Dawson, and his hobbies, Mastrocola simply wants to enjoy his youth while it’s still in reach. “I’m eighteen and I have a lot of stuff on my plate,” he said, “But I still want to have fun and hang out with my friends and my girlfriend without worrying too much.”
Lending a Hand to Student Parents Concordia Student Union aims for affordable, flexible daycare with students in mind NATHALIE LAFLAMME THE CONCORDIAN
Back in 2010 a study commissioned by the Concordia University Dean of Students Office and Student Parents Centre outlined a lack of support for student parents at the University. Four years later, the situation has not improved—something the Concordia Student Union (CSU) is trying to change. The study stated that many student parents did not have access to “flexible, affordable childcare that would allow them to attend classes, given that subsidized daycare waiting lists can be up to four years, and that private child care can cost upwards of $30 a day.” Another issue cited in the study, entitled “Student parents and their children: how can we help them?” was that not a lot of childcare is available in the evenings, when many student parents take classes—all this on top of a lack of financial resources. Over the summer, Terry Wilkings, CSU VP Academic & Advocacy, met
with the director of the Concordia Student Parents Centre, where he came across the aforementioned study. “After reading the recommendations and realizing that the university hasn’t taken any concrete steps to support student parents in providing childcare services, the decision was made that the CSU must take action,” said Wilkings. “I believe it’s the role of the CSU to support students in achieving academic success; clearly, a lack of accessible childcare services is a major barrier that contributes to the difficulties student parents face while studying Concordia. Also, student unions at McGill, U de M and Laval already provide these services for their student parents.” Back in September, CSU Council put through funding to determine whether or not opening a daycare would be possible. Wilkings explained that the research looked at “logistical, policy and budgetary needs for grants, subsidies, and government permits to operate.” The research also looked at how many children could be taken per year (there are three different proposals, one with 24
children, one with 50, and one with 80— this will all depend on startup and annual costs, as well as the physical space available); whether it would be possible to support children until they are 12 years old; and what process would have to be followed so that the daycare could qualify as a CPE (centre de la petite enfance— roughly, early childhood centres). The scenarios all included evening care. According to CUSP, about 10 per cent of Concordia’s students are also parents. Malene Bodington, who authored the study, works for the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and is a former student parent at Concordia, was surprised to find out that other students were dealing with the same difficulties she was. “I guess I thought my experiences were unique. To find that they were so common among student parents, and to see that for many it was much worse, was an eye opener,” she said. When Bodington was a student, she and her husband had no family around to help take care of their son, and finding an affordable daycare turned out to be quite the challenge, despite tax deduc-
tions. “It was a mouthful to find $225 every week. It also took a long time to find a spot, so I was home with him for longer than we had anticipated,” she said. The study also pointed out some of the issues with Concordia’s current daycare system. At Les P’tits profs, the Loyola campus’ daycare, only staff, students, and faculty who are at Concordia full-time can apply. The daycare takes 12 to 14 children a year (aged between three months and five years), and the waiting period is about two years. Evening daycare is not offered. This is also the issue at the downtown daycare, the Centre de la Petite Enfance. “Considering the lifecycle of students, and the fact that children require supervision until they are much older than 5, these bureaucratic and practical hurdles are significant issues with Concordia current childcare services,” Wilkings said. The CSU now finds itself at the point where they must discuss this project with the university. Wilkings is also waiting on the student body’s consultation via referendum before any moves are made.
Concordia President Alan Shepard would love to see more daycares for student parents. “I’m thinking about a dropin day care. I’m not talking about a daycare where you can bring in [the children] … while you attend a class or go to the lab and so on. We’re talking about a much more episodic daycare. I think that would keep students, particularly parttime students, accelerate their progress towards their degree. It must be the case that if you have a young kid, or kids, at home, they come first,” Shepard said. On Nov. 25 to 27, undergraduate students will be able to vote on whether or not to approve “the continued prioritization and active support of the establishment of a Daycare Centre as an initiative to improve student space on campus through the student space, accessible education and legal contingency fund.”
CSU logo
Credits: concordialacrosse.ca
the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant
4 VOL. 43 ISSUE 10 - Thursday, November 13th, 2014
EDITOR:Nach Reich CONTACT: reichnachman@yahoo.ca
China & US come to an agreement New decision was made on reducing our carbon footprint by Obama and Xi Jinping (SEPWC) added that it was "a non-binding charade" that would only burden the United States. Obama is constrained to make do without any legislative powers to advance his climate change agenda, given the Republican majority in both the House and Senate. As such, he has to make do with executive orders, which are difficult to legally counteract. Commenting on the environmental agreement, Obama stated that it was legitimate given that it will result in public health improvement, economic growth, job increase, as well as a reduction in the American carbon footprint. Whether the agreement is binding is as
SARA CAPANNA STAFF WRITER On November 5th, President Obama announced that his last two years in power would be focused on fighting climate change. In a milestone agreement, Obama announced that after 9 months of discussion, he had struck a deal with China on carbon emissions. "As the world's two largest economies, energy consumers and emitters of greenhouse gases, we have a special responsibility to lead the global effort against climate change," Obama stated in his announcement. The deal consists of the following promises. China pledges to reduce its carbon emissions by 2030, while the United States aims to reduce its carbon emissions between 26% and 28% by 2025. The environmental group Greenpeace released a report in October that showed that both parties were already making good on their promises. China's coal consumption, which causes extreme pollution, has dropped between 1% and 2% over the first 9 months of this year as compared to last year. The U.S. for its part, has also reduced its consumption of coal. In an auspicious sign, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that many corporations have switched to natural gas. The genesis of the China-U.S. agreement was back in February, at which time Secretary of State John Kerry suggested a bilateral environmental agreement. In the spring, Obama wrote a formal proposal to Chinese President, Xi Jinping. The Chinese leader expressed himself favorable to discussing the environment, and talks be-
China pledges to reduce its carbon emissions by 2030, while the United States aims to reduce its carbon emissions between 26% and 28% by 2025.
Photo credit: SCMP.com
American President Obama and Chinese Leader Xi Jinping shake hands
tween the two countries began. The final agreement, according to Lo Sze Ping, CEO of World Wildlife Fund Beijing, is not as ambitious as was hoped for. Still, he continued, “what's important is that both these two large emitters are taking the responsibility to act and work together
to resolve the problem.” Congress has no authority to validate or deny the decision. Still, Republicans have vowed to legislate to soften the impact of the regulations on the American economy. Many conservatives criticized the deal, with Republican House Speaker
Boehner commenting that the agreement is “yet another sign that the president intends to double down on his job-crushing policies no matter how devastating the impact for America.” Senator James Inhofe, soon-to-be chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
of yet unclear. The Senate never accepted the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, for example. It is also unclear whether other countries will join the United States and China. "Climate negotiations have been fraught for 20 years,” an administration official said. “There are 190-plus countries in these tough negotiations, and it’s not like they will all fall into place in five minutes. But this is a really important step.”
Sao Paulo shaken by awful drought HILLEL STEINMETZ STAFF WRITER The Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, the largest city in South America, is experiencing its worst drought in 80 years. Rainfall levels are 300 to 400 millimeters below the norm, and the Cantareira reservoir system, which delivers most of the city’s water, has reached such low water levels that it might take months of heavy rain for the water levels to return to normal. As a result, residents of Sao Paulo have had to ration their water supplies, in anticipation for even drier months ahead. Sao Paulo is home to about 12 million people, and has a total metropolitan population of 20 million. Its metropolis is home to largest economy in the southern hemisphere, which totals about 180 billion US dollars. Sao Paolo’s economy has developed rapidly, and is expected to surpass New York in population by 2025, at which time economists foresee that it will become the 6th richest city in the world. Clearly then, San Paolo’s loss of productivity has a colossal impact on the millions dependent on its prosperity. Low-income dwellers are most hardhit. As such, frustration is mounting among these, including the residents of Itu. A town located near one of Sao
Paulo’s reservoirs, it has been hit particularly hard, with its residents having to make do with very little water for almost a year. “It's not as bad as this in every community but we've had water rationing here since February,” says resident Soraya. As a result, members of the community have been forced to make daily trips to the emergency well. The causes of the drought are unclear. Many scientists, however, agree that the drought is the result of deforestation, especially of the Amazon rainforest covering much of Brazil. While deforestation is important for raising cattle and logging, its unintended consequence is the drastic changes in the climate that it provokes. “There is a hot dry air mass sitting down here [in Sao Paulo] like an elephant and nothing can move it,” says Antonio Nobre, one of the country’s most respected climatologists. “That's what we have learned - that the forests have an innate ability to import moisture and to cool down and to favour rain… If deforestation in the Amazon continues, Sao Paulo will probably dry up. If we don't act now, we're lost.” Sao Paulo’s drought might be an indicator that a larger environmental problem is on the horizon. If these are not dealt with, all of Brazil’s economic potential might be stunted with mass emigration. A satellite image of the receding waters of the Atibainha Dam
Photo credit: REUTERS/Nacho Doce
the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant
5 EDITOR: Kaitlin Fitzgibbon CONTACT:Kaitlin.fitzgibbon@live.ca
VOL. 43 ISSUE 10 - Thursday, November 13th, 2014
Baba Rampal Maharaj arrested
Violence erupted when the Indian police were met by defenders with petrol bombs DISHA AGGARWAL CONTRIBUTOR Late last Wednesday, self-styled guru Baba Rampal Maharaj was arrested by Indian police in his native state of Birwala. This ended a 10 day standoff between his 15 000 strong followers in the guru’s fortified compound, and the police. M.L. Kaushik, the top civil servant in the Hisar District, said that the authorities had surrounded the monastery and ordered its evacuation about five days ago. When the followers did not come out, the police cut off the compound’s supplies of water and electricity, warning the followers that the officers wouldn’t leave until Rampal was arrested. Tensions mounted as thousands of uniformed police officers gathered outside the steel reinforced walls of Mr. Rampal’s imposing fortress, and it seemed that a clash was imminent. The police finally stormed the fortress last week. Police chief S.N. Vashisht relates that it was a violent encounter, in which policemen were injured by the well-organized group of defenders, who used “petrol bombs, diesel bombs, acid pouches, illegal arms, stones, and sticks as missiles.” He estimates that about 100 police officers and devotees were injured during the confrontation, some by gunshots, and states that 459 people have been arrested. As it stands, the compound is mostly empty of flock and leader. Guru Rampal was born to farmers and worked as a junior engineer in the irrigation department for the government be-
Baba Rampal Maharaj being arrested by the Indian police
fore proclaiming himself as the reincarnation of Kabir, a 15th century mystic poet. After meeting (in his mid-40s) a guru and ascetic named Swami Ramdevanand, he established his first monastery, which attracted, according to
Mr. Kaushik, the top civil servants in the district: “retired government servants and poor people.” These were enchanted with the guru’s magical abilities which, The Daily Telegraph reports, were fraudulent illusions.
Photo credit: New York Times
For example, the guru’s chair was fitted with a hydraulic lift which would emerge from Mr. Rampal’s basement to fool those watching into believing that he was emerging out of nowhere. These illusions attracted people from across India who
visited him, and given his popularity, politicians funded Rampal’s lavish lifestyle in an attempt to get his followers to vote for them. This is not uncommon in India and explains the lavish lifestyles of popular gurus, many of whom have mansions with swimming pools. Rampal also had many enemies, because he went against some traditional Hindu practices. This resulted in bloody clashes between his followers and those of other local gurus like Arya Samaj. These objected to his prohibition on fasting, going on pilgrimages, alcohol, and tobacco, which Rampal stated were a waste of time and could lead to the reincarnation into strange animals. The tensions surrounding this divergence in accepted practice sometimes lead to fatalities, including an incident in 2006 which resulted in murder. After repeatedly ignoring orders to appear before the court on charges of being responsible for it, the police finally stormed his compound. According to one of Mr. Rampal’s followers, Saheb Dass, the police and administration created all the violence. In defense of the guru, he says that, “Mr. Rampal had failed to appear in court on contempt of court charges because he was ill.” The guru, for his part, said that he “regretted” the deaths during the clashes, but denied telling his followers to resist his arrest. The skeptical prosecutor has ordered that Rampal be charged with sedition and waging war against the state, as well as attempted murder and rioting. The guru is jailed in Chandigarh and has been remanded in custody until his November 28th hearing. It will be interesting to note whether justice prevails in this tense period.
Kenya plagued by cycle of violence
death and over 200 arrests. 158 of those arrested are charged with being members of militant groups. Police have not yet commented on what will happen to those arrested. It believes that the mosques were being used as weapons storage and training sites for al-Shabab, a group with known ties to alQaeda. Evidence of this was found by the investigators, who discovered machetes, a grenade, two petrol bombs, and parts for making explosives. Police also found Jihadist literature, and an alShabab flag. "The mosques remain crime scenes and anyone trying to access risks being shot," said Mombasa police commander Robert Kitur. Kenyan police have been heavily cracking down on al-Shabab militants in and outside of Kenya, whom it blames for attacks in Nairobi and along the coastline. A case in point is the Nairobi shopping mall which was targeted and raided by al-Shabab gunmen, who left 67 dead in their rampage. This notwithstanding, the Kenyan police’s raids have been criticized by Muslim clerics and human rights groups, who believe this will only exacerbate the tension between Christian and Muslim Kenyans. The coldblooded murders of civilians this past week demonstrates that violence continues to spiral out of control with no end in sight.
SAMUEL ARAUIO CONTRIBUTOR Twenty-eight Kenyans are dead after approximately 10 armed members of Somali Islamist militant group al-Shabab hijacked a bus in Kenya at the Somali border. The bus was headed to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, when it was hijacked near Mombasa. According to a surviving passenger, the 60 passengers were first separated into Somali and non-Somali groups. The gunmen then ordered the Somalis to read from the Qur’an. Those who failed to do so were shot. The Somalis who asked for non-Somali passengers to be spared were also shot. All the Kenyan passengers were immediately executed for being Christians. An Al-shabab spokesman stated the gunmen did not hurt the Muslims, whom he says his organization is “fighting for.” He claimed the attack was revenge for the raids on Kenyan mosques last week, and for al-Shabab fighters that were killed by Kenyan troops in Somalia. "What happened in Mandera today we did in revenge for what the non-believer government has done to innocent Muslims," spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage told Al Jazeera. He was referring to the police raids on two Kenyan mosques earlier this month, which resulted in one
A police officer displays an al-Shabab flag recovered in one of the raids
Photo credit: AFP
the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant
6 VOL. 43 ISSUE 10 - Thursday, November 13th, 2014
EDITOR: Kaitlin Fitzgibbon CONTACT:Kaitlin.fitzgibbon@live.ca
Ritz Bar welcomes MTL local bands She-Devils,NONI WO and Sean Nicholas Savage take the stage at former Il Motore be performing in association with it until the wrap date, this Sunday November 22nd . She-Devils opened- an eccentric-looking duo (the male keyboardist looked like Andy Warhol with a self-inflicted haircut) delivering synth-heavy melodies, occasionally straying into ambient, sometimes into rockabilly. Although not quite achieving the extraterrestrial sonic effect they may have been going for, the singer maintained an honest energy, keeping the set both emotional and danceable. The meat in the three-band-sandwich was NONI WO (which stands for
JULIANA GALBRAITH STAFF WRITER On Thursday, November 20th, the stillnewly renovated Bar “Le Ritz” PBD (formerly Il Motore, which remains the less irritating way to refer to the no longer scruffy, but ever beloved mile-end venue) opened its doors to three Montreal-native bands: She-Devils, NONI WO, and Sean Nicholas Savage. Although this particular show was not in the cadre of the current M for Montreal festival, all the groups have or will
Photo Credit: brockpapers.com
NONI WO
‘anonymous woman,’ clarified by Rory, the endearingly who-nosed guitar/ vocalist). Their lyrics may be overly earnest in true indie-rock tradition, but the instrumentals are powerful, driven by bluesy rhythms which fuse bizarrely well with the exuberant dance-pop keyboard. They have a new video out, too, for their song “SPECTER”- check it out at tinymixtapes.com. The final performer- the headliner, in fact, was Montreal scenester (a particular icon of local Arbutus Records) and Berlin-active (I found this out only after witnessing him on stage, and goddam did
Sean Nicholas Savage
We’ve Got You Covered If you feel like... Raising Awareness Movember Gala Party this Friday at Rialto. Raise some money and then party with your mustached pals.
Seeing some good music
Artsy
M for Montreal is happening this month. Check out some awesome upcoming local bands.
Van Gogh To Kadinsky
Seeing a Film
Tokyo Police Club tonight at Corona Theatre.
it explain a lot) Sean Nicholas Savage. This albinized Ian Curtis brought the syrupy kitsch of eighties dance music back in such a way that you could almost ignore the millennial zeitgeist present in his lyrics and animalistic grimaces. Savage brings eccentricity, disillusionment, and isolation to the table- and forces you to groove to it. I strongly recommend his work to anyone looking for a new Bowie to be attracted to (now that the original is getting on a bit, making it weird). As the winter, rather than inching its way in, instead kicks open the door and laughs too loudly at its own jokes, the
prospect of hauling oneself out of a warm, residential bed or sofa and into the cold, industrial mile-ex (which is a term now, apparently) is becoming less and less appealing. Il Motore ( in conjunction with event hosts Blue Skies Turn Black), thank God, is consistently host to bands interesting enough to make the trip worth it- despite the somewhat abrasive acoustics (I maintain the best sound is in the girl’s bathroom- no fuzz), the pints are reasonably priced, the vibe always warm in an orange-lighting kind of way, and the crowd hella pretty.
Photo Credit: lookoutpresents.com
The Creative Corner! I wish for Nothing more in the world Right now At this precise moment Than for you To be okay And then maybe you will believe me When I tell you That I wish I knew how to say “I love you” In every language. I would sing it all For you
Warhol Mania Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1! Horrible Bosses 2!
Biennale Montreal
Dillon Francis at New City Gas Nov. 30th.
Bronwyn Haney News Editor -2014
the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant
7 The Glass Castle:a daunting memoir VOL. 43 ISSUE 10 - Thursday, November 13th, 2014
EDITOR: Kaitlin Fitzgibbon CONTACT:Kaitlin.fitzgibbon@live.ca
Jeanette Walls shares her amazing story of a complicated and shocking childhood gifts, at the time we are show one of Rex’s best qualities. The fact that he could turn any disappointment into an adventure is a talent. Even when she is snuggled tightly in a cardboard box with all of her clothes and pets eating margarine and sugar she captures her innocent zest of life which is completely motivating although sad. Her narrative remains judgemental and resilient despite the horrible downfall. She still remains non bitter and it is amazing how one can write so matter-offactly about a depressing and struggling childhood without so much as a sarcastic comment. Her detail and unembellished memories are engaging, captivating and courageous. The story of the Walls children is a dramatic tale of survival and deserves to be read and listened to over and over again.
KAITLIN FITZGIBBON ARTS AND CULTURE EDITOR Jeanette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle is one of my all-time favourite books. It is compelling and emotional and is a story definitely worth reading as well as telling. Walls tells the story of her unconventional childhood growing up in poverty alongside her siblings and extremely dysfunctional parents. Jeanette’s father, Rex Walls, is a deeply intelligent man who teaches his children lots about geology and physics. He encourages and captures their imagination and teaches them how to embrace life. Yet, when he gets to drinking, he is a man of destruction and is deceptive. His drinking enables him from keeping jobs leading the family to move from town to town, ending up in the vile coal mining town where he grew up. Her mother, Rose Mary Walls, on the other hand is a free spirit who could not be bothered with the normalcy of family life. She is a painter and a writer, all too addicted with excitement which encourages a life beyond other children in their surroundings. Her mother is one to believe that children should be left alone to learn on their own which results in many careless accidents. With two emotionally absent and damaged parents, Jeanette, her brother and two sisters, grow up and move to New York one by one along with their parents who decide to remain homeless despite their succeeding children. The memoir offers a wide variety of chilling and horrific incidents the children must face. At just three years old Jeanette burns herself severely from boiling hot dogs. This results in skin graph surgery,
Photo Credit: imgarcade.com
Jeanette, Lori, Brian and Maureen Walls
many scars and a young case of pyromania. Jeanette also fell out of the family’s broken down station wagon and was left in the desert sun waiting for her parents to realize she was missing. She is also molested more than once throughout the novel by a neighbour and even a groping uncle in West Virginia after the family decides to move in with Rex’s family. On one of their other trips to the desert, Jeanette’s younger sister Lori is bitten by a scorpion and put into a fit of convulsions with no follow-up to the hospital. The family cat is hurtled out of the station wagon by Rex after running away from bill collectors and a visit to the zoo ends when Rex encourages his daughter to step into a cheetah’s cage to pet the furry friend. The children are homeschooled and taught how to use their father’s pistol by a very young age.
Their mother teaches them advantages of drinking unpurified ditch water from the vile fecal bacteria filled ditch by their West Virginia home. Although readers are shocked and angered by these emotional rollercoasters and physical mishaps happening one after another, there is something that keeps Rose Mary and Rex’s characters appealing to us. Despite their failings, Jeanette shows us their redeeming qualities as well; she shows the readers how she never doubted for a second that her bizarre parents loved her and her siblings. I believe Walls style is responsible for this as she helps readers see how her family’s turbulent life from her and her sibling’s point of view. In their eyes, their life was one of adventure, excitement and glamour, all thanks to her charismatic and imaginative father. In the beginning of the story there is poverty but there is also hope.
Rex and Rose Mary’s eccentric personalities help the children see magic and humour. However towards the end, Walls writes about how the family’s situation went all downhill as her mother fell into a deeprooted depression and her father’s lack of stability and increasing irresponsibility led to hunger and cold. His abusiveness and her numbness made it much harder to pretend that they would soon live in their glorious palace made of glass promised by their father. It made it that much harder to pretend they were okay and that their life was still one of adventure that other children should be jealous of. For example, when one Christmas Rex brings Jeanette outside and tells her he is giving her the Planet Venus as a gift. This lovely moment is filled with magic and wonder. Although as an adult Jeanette now knows this was because her father could not provide the family with monetary
Rose Mary and Rex Walls Photo Credit: wikispaces.com
Weekend Wanderings 1. Stay in bed and watch every season of Friends. 2. Get down to the Cat Cafe. Our production manager, Kristiana made a visit this week and said it was fantastic. They even have descriptions of each cats personalities.. Warning: you may be tempted to steal the cats, be strong. Here we come Snowball. 3.Get all your Christmas decorations out, blast some cliche Christmas songs and put up those Christmas trees. Hang some mistletoe if you know what I mean (;
Flava In Ya Ear - Craig Mack, LL Cool J, Biggie Smalls Why - Jadakiss The Symphony - Marley Marl Straight Outta Compton - N.W.A Purple - Nas They Reminisce Over You - Pete Rock & C.L Smooth0 Me, Myself and I - De La Soul Soulflexin’ - KMD Shook Ones Part II - Mobb Deep Ain’t No Half Steppin’ - Big Daddy Kane I Know You Got Soul - Rakim Chief Rocka - Lords of Underground Tru-Fu Scnick - Fu Schnickens Check The Rhime - A Tribe Called Quest O.P.P - Naughty By Nature Passin’ Me By - The Pharcyde
the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant
8 EDITOR: Alyssia Rubertucci CONTACT: alyssia_rubertucci@hotmail.com
VOL. 43 ISSUE 10 - Thursday, November 13th, 2014
A window into S.P.A.C.E.: TransVERONICK SANTINI-GERVAIS S.P.A.C.E.
In the Babylonian creation myth Enuma Elish, written roughly in the 18th to 16th century BCE, Marduk, a storm god, tears apart Tiamat, a water goddess, and from her body creates the Earth. Her blood flows and pools in the hollows of her back, her thighs and breasts. Rivulets of the briny life-giving waters cut jagged edges and drop into chasms of the ossifying flesh. In the Judeo-Christian creation myth in Genesis, before there was light, God floats above the waters. In Egyptian mythology, the goddess Nun is reflected in the starry oceans of the sky. And in the field of evolutionary theory, lightning struck the oceans and somewhere in this early embryonic fluid a prokaryotic cell emerged. Humankind throughout time has considered water its birthplace and seen our futures as intrinsically linked with it. Connected by a web of H2O, inhaling the same water vapour, we all share the same building blocks, which are constantly flowing, changing: all of the Earth’s atoms have been recycled and the molecules in our bodies are not the same as they were seven years ago. This principle of unity and change is expressed beautifully in the Suzanne Miller & Allan Paivio Productions performance, Thirst. Thirst was presented by the SPACE initiative here at Dawson on October 16, 2014. I attended with my Introduction to World Religions class, taught by Ivan Freud, and watched enthralled as the performers, Suzanne Miller and Magali Stoll, danced through the three states of water: solid, liquid, and gas. Originally locked together in a tight embrace, the dancers begin as personifying ice, every movement creating a fissure in the hard surface. Moving apart and using props such as plastic sheets, Miller and Stoll created liquid water’s movement. Throughout the performance they used their bodies to become water, ending the performance in the gaseous state. Water retained its molecular formula, however,
as the dancers were unchanging even in their different guises. The nature of the subject, in other words, transcended any change that it was subjected to. Entities that seemed entirely separate proved to be the same or at least moved according to the same principles. An analogy can be made here to religion and science. For thousands of years in South-East Asia, practitioners of Hindu faiths have taught, "Atman is Brahman." To explain this simply, the individual soul is the universal soul. There is no spiritual distinction between you, me and the big blue sea. Or the Red and Black ones for that matter! Similarly, in physics there is the quantum reality. In quantum reality, we are all energy and connected by a field of energy. The separateness we perceive between each other and between ourselves and the planet is an illusion. So what does this insight mean for our relationship with the environment, and more specifically, with water? Let us take a closer look at Thirst first. As a whole the intent of the production is to raise awareness of both the miracle of water and the increasing scarcity of drinking water. A distinct theme in the performance is waste. There is a sequence when Magali Stoll continues her dance on the floor level and Suzanne Miller climbs up a ladder with a filled plastic water bottle. She takes gulps of the liquid, pauses, laughs and sprays it all over the stage from her mouth. The wasteful, drunken-like spectacle continues for several minutes, until the “bottle” (a metaphor for our planet) is emptied and Miller crumples and disposes of it. This scene contrasts with Stoll’s later sequence where she carefully, clinically measures out water with a syringe and offers audience members a portion. These scenes can be interpreted different ways, as can their relationship with each other. Miller’s performance can be interpreted as the present wastefulness in water-affluent countries (like Canada). We are drunk on water and are foolish for wasting such a precious resource. Simultaneously, the performance can speak of humanity’s destructive relationship with plastic. Perhaps Miller is in fact choking on the
VANESSA SIGNORACCI S.P.A.C.E.
plastic, which is now in every water source in the world, including our oceans. (See recent Mission Blue documentary on Netflix.) Stoll’s performance can be the future of those wasteful countries or the present predicament of less fortunate ones where access to water is limited. Neither of these scenarios is ideal, to say the least: the first involves a problematic approach to water that will lead to a global calamity; in the second humanity may treasure water but only out of necessity, because of scarcity. As a whole, humankind must learn the value of all water. The health of the oceans’ ecosystem is tantamount to humans. Here are some statistics to help that sink in: 16% of the world’s population relies on marine life for protein; 61% of the world’s GNP (Gross Domestic Product) comes from coastline areas; 70% of the Earth’s oxygen is produced by phytoplankton. After you get over the fact that that environmentally zealous teacher in high school was wrong about trees producing the world’s oxygen, consider how this affects humanity’s relationship with water. We use water to water our gardens, nourish our livestock, for energy, to breathe and to thrive as a species. 60% of our body composition is water. Anything that we do to water, whether it is the source of Montreal’s drinking water or the Indian Ocean, we ultimately do to ourselves. We are bound together. We are inter-dependent. And we are co-creators of our future.
----Most people spend their Sunday mornings relaxing at home while drinking a coffee, reading the paper or even sleeping in. Mine, on the other hand, are spent seeing my three hung over friends and discussing their crazy Saturday nights over brunch at our usual bistro. Last Sunday, before I could even take a sip of my coffee, my best friend, Amber yelled “That asshole!” She was referring to her boyfriend. The story was that he told her to behave on Saturday night and not do anything stupid. Considering that she was going clubbing and planned to drink, he was concerned that she would kiss another guy given the opportunity. That morning, he asked her if she behaved. She was annoyed. There is no better way to turn a dull brunch into an exciting one than engaging in the subject of a cheating partner. While this weekend was supposed to be closure after surviving a week of midterm exams, sadly topics of my moral knowledge class were echoed in our morning discussion. My initial reaction was that Amber’s boyfriend’s paranoia was driven by the fact that he had cheated on his previous girlfriends and was now worried that the same would be done to him. If anything, she should be worried about his fidelity. Also, he is not very fond of his looks and tends to be a little insecure which only adds fuel to his belief that my friend would cheat on him. The conflict echoes Shakespeare’s Othello, a play wherein the title character is manipulated into thinking that his wife Desdemona is unfaithful to him. Othello, like boyfriend, has insecurities since he is the Moor of Venice and is constantly presented as an other throughout the play. Though boyfriend is no Moor. Furthermore, Iago, a supposed friend of Othello, uses this insecurity as a seed to further plant ideas that his wife’s fidelity is non-existent for the stated purpose of destroying Othello. I am not sure how I fit into Othello -not being Iago here. But the moral of the play is to warn the reader to beware of
lished mishaps fire women up to follow this nasty trend. Most of them see it as a sexy and appealing representation of a modern woman. In addition, the number of famous female personalities—a mother or not—who are willing to expose much of their skin on public is unbelievably growing. Let’s just say we’re talking about booties: well, there’s Beyonce’s flawless ass, J Lo’s butt insured for 27 million dollars, Shakira’s bum that doesn’t lie, and Iggy’s fancy behind. How about Nicki Minaj’s most searched booty? Or Miley’s trying hard twerking ass? Or Lady Gaga’s adorable derriere that was born that way? Or Rihanna’s Barbadian lovely buttocks that’s worth like a diamond? Yes, my list goes on and on and on. Whether they all have the same motive of being sexy and provocative, god knows people construe it more than what they aim for.
It is very appalling to think that many people nowadays define “beauty” as a woman who shows seventy-five percent of her cutis. On top of that, to be considered sexy, a woman should flaunt it in public. It is heartbreakingly degrading—shame on us! Is this what feminism brings to women? Since 1700s, women have been advocating the advocacy of women's social, political and economic rights. Fast forward to 2014, it has gone too far. Bodily integrity, one of which feminists do promote, has been slowly scratched out by lewd actions of women themselves. Women of today’s generation have lost the true essence of it. Again, shame on us! Let’s wake up from this never-ever welcomed nightmare. Let’s stop disgracing our own gender. Let’s become the women the pioneers of feminism want us to be. We should be stronger and wiser. We should prove that we are more than just a piece of meat that men can eat;
Thirst
Picture Credit: Francois Bergeron
the green-eyed monster which is a reference to jealousy. Clearly, her boyfriend’s physical insecurities force him to unintentionally draw the worst conclusions as well as allow jealousy to get the best of him. It also does not help to know that women are generally tagged with the motivation to cheat on their partner should their current relationship lack intimacy, as some psychologists would argue. However, I wondered what actually constitutes as cheating. Is there a concrete definition or is it subjective to an individual? Is it the act of flirting, kissing or actually sleeping with someone who is not your partner, or is it more than that? If nothing else, is it even wrong to cheat? Anthropologists may say that men are asserting a biological right to have sex with many women to spread their seed to help the their own legacy. A ridiculous justification for men to cheat. Audrey, another friend who had been listening quietly at the table, now talks about her take on relationships: "in principal you cannot link kissing another person to cheating." Cheating is a matter of perspective and cannot be defined. Wrongness of cheating lies in how one reacts to their actions. Essentially, you can’t say that kissing is linked to cheating, since another person or another culture might hold the opinion wherein kissing is merely innocent and respectable. While Audrey's idea about cheating was interesting, I could not help but feel for Amber's boyfriend. I too, at one point, in my life felt a little insecure about myself when I was seeing someone and that someone still had close relations with his ex. It made me rather uncomfortable. All these thoughts led Amber to say “Why would I cheat on him? We were intimate the other day, guys. He ate whip cream off my body!” It was clear to assume that she was not paying any attention to our opinions. With that thought in mind, I was at a loss to answer her, but I did feel compelled to rethink my order of crepes with strawberries and my side of whip cream. I also felt bad for the retired couple sitting beside us. Of course, the names above are made up and the details rather fictitious, but you get the point.
Break the nudity not the Internet SHAYNE HONTIVEROS STAFF WRITER
Kim Kardashian attempted to break the Internet by deliberately posing in front of camera. The Paper magazine published photos that have her bare lubricated body showcasing her frontal view and (glazed doughnut like) behind. I feel like her breasts, vagina and ass have choked me at my first sight; my appetite has just been robbed. Boy, her body is magnificent but very sickening—no offense—when you see it unclothed. What is she—a married mother of a one-year old child—actually thinking? I just cannot believe it. And how about Kanye West, her caring husband? —As some of the pictures show. How does he feel knowing that all men, who stared at it over the net or in the mag-
azine, are having a very delightful feast, having her wife’s oiled naked body on the table? I cannot see the reverence for a woman of both individuals here. What a shameful conduct! I remember being an open-minded person prior to debut of Kim’s nude shots on the Internet. Most of the time, I know how to respect everyone’s actions and ideas, especially if it’s tolerable—I’m cool with that. I even read what’s behind the big picture to fully comprehend what the real matter is. However, just like everything, my understanding for this particular issue of obscenity has officially ran out. She did not actually break the Internet, she breaks my heart. Furthermore and as far as I’m concerned, she certainly breaks men’s respect for women. On the other hand, what is more alarming than that is the serious impact it will have on women, especially to young ones. As a matter of fact, certain long-estab-
women are no longer prey. We should show that we’re educated and are too professional to be stripping in public. We are in the modern world where women’s rights are almost equal to those of men. That is to say, in modern times, we can do so much better that being naked and we have so much more to offer than our butts and boobies. Actually, based on my experience, people do compliment me, saying that I’m sexy although they don’t even see half of my skin neither my “curve.” That just proves that being clothed with a good personality, professionalism, and enough apparel—of course—is what really matters most. Let’s not get blinded by the present-day definition of “beautiful” and “sexy” nakedness has given them. Let’s entirely call nudity off !
the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant
9 VOL. 43 ISSUE 10 - Thursday, November 13th, 2014
EDITOR: Maryam Elkahlaoui CONTACT: mb.kahlaoui@gmail.com
Fashionable yet Conservative SHAYNE HONTIVEROS CONTRIBUTOR
Summer Albarcha looks like any other Muslim woman wearing a hijab or a headscarf. However, holding on to her faith of her religion does not limit her from being fashionable. The Americanborn and raised Syrian blogger is the mastermind behind the famous Instagram account, @hipsterhijabis, which targets all kind of women regardless of their religious background, and where she advocates a modest clothing style rather than very revealing trends for women by posting her looks. She disagrees with today’s trend where a lot of women enjoy showing their skin as a form of fashion. The fashion blogger and stylist wants to change this sexual and revealing fashion, especially in the country where she grew up. In fact, she wants to show that women could still dress up fashionably when being conservative and showing their faiths. In other words, they could incorporate both fashion and religion at the same time and do not have to choose one over the other. Five years ago, she had no idea she’ll ever start a fashion page. Only after she found out about fashion accounts on Instagram, on which she sees other girls post their outfits of the day, she wanted to show her enthusiasm for fashion to inspire others, and she created her page on August 2012. Her number of followers grew rapidly as the latters tagged their friends and reposted her pictures. They also send her fan mails and questions related to fashion. In August 2014, she fi-
Summer Albarcha at Fashion Forward Dubai in October 5, 2014.
nally made a website where she started posting her modest looks with more details and giving fashion tips to her viewers. She named these two pages “Hipster Hijabis”. According to her, hipsters are the people who like to dress differently from the crowd, but still are fashionable. Also, the word “hipster” was thrown out the time she made her Instagram account and she finds it cute, so she thinks it will attract a broader audience, and her predictions were right. Last July, she had gone through a controversy together with Mimu Maxi, an Orthodox Jewish clothing company. Some customers raged after the owner of the clothing company posted a photo of
(Photo Credit) : news.yahoo.com
Summer wearing a hijab and a maxi skirt from the company’s collection. These people thought that a photo of a Muslim posted by a Jewish clothing brand in the middle of the blazing conflict between Palestine and Israel had a terrible timing. Summer, who did not comment on the picture, was astonished about this because she believed that she did not do anything wrong. However, after this incident, her motivation increased because of the support and praise she received from other Muslims and also Christian and Jewish communities who liked her attitude towards the issue and also her sense of fashion. All in all, regardless of the negative feedbacks she also earned,
this experience helped her a lot to improve as a person. "It came out that our ideas about wanting modest fashion and promoting it are really similar and something we have in common between our religions, and we should both be working together to embrace this idea and expand it," she said on an interview. Her Syrian parents, who are her number one fans, fully support her. They have known from the start that she loved fashion as she used to draw her outfits of the day on her notebook as a little girl. Her mom, with whom she exchanges clothing items with, claims that Summer got her love for fashion from her. In fact, she even flew out with her daughter to Dubai
to support her as the latter was invited to become part of the panel of the Fashion Forward Dubai and to speak in front of tons of media last month. She entitled her speech “Modest Fashion in Modern Times” where she talked about her views, as someone living in the West and present on social media and finding ways to shop modestly at immodest stores. Considering her age, going to and speaking at Fashion Forward Dubai are a great fate for her. Also, the fact that she was given an opportunity to represent the Muslims from western part of the world where daring trends are strongly supported by a lot of people – “this is an opportunity of a lifetime,” she said. Currently, she is now working with a company in Dubai. However, even though she has tasted fame at an early age, she chose to get her degree (Business Administration at the University of Saint Louis ) before actually working with them until the next years to secure her future career. Down to my last question to her, I asked for some advice she could give to all women who loves fashion but are conservative. She said that women should appear professional in public so they will look nice and more approachable, and that they should not aim to look really attractive but they should have good intentions when getting dressed. Lastly, she added that “If you’re posting your pictures to look attractive online then, that is for the wrong reason but if you are posting them to inspire others or show people that you know, like [Muslim] girls who look professional, nice and approachable in public then that is a different reason”.
A Guide to Responsible Spending In prepaPATRICK BAZARBACHIAN ration for STAFF WRITER the upcoming festive season, we have to finally pick up our courage and evaluate our finances. Soon enough, we will be coerced into selflessness and we will be fooled by this act of kindness that will cost us our education funds. For this, we both love the holidays and hate them; a sadistic form of ambivalence. In avoidance of any unwanted or overpriced obligations, let’s pledge to spend both responsibly and smartly. To do so, here are three key elements which I believe deserve our consideration. 1) Set a Price Range Unless you’re treating yourself with the occasional gift, you’re usually buying presents for others. Also as convenient is the fact that gift giving is mostly done during big occasions amongst many people. Whether you’re taking part in a gift exchange or simply showing a friend or family member a token of your appreciaition, setting a price range decreases deceit and proves once again that the thought is what really matters. 2) Need Over Greed It should be reminded to us that all the relation-
Granny, parents, siblings, friends...so much too give and so little to spend
ships we hold with people didn’t start on the basis of material goods, therefore what we gift shouldn’t be a reflection of the relationship. If anything, gift giving shouldn’t be done for the purpose of reinforcing or paying homage to friendship; it should be an act an-
(Photo Credits) :
swerable to itself. Why gift? Because we want to. On this note, a gift should therefore benefit the daily life of the receiver. Purchases we make for ourselves are rarely intended to satisfy needs; instead, the wants are what guide our consumption habits. In ac-
Advice because I am nice : Don’t binge drink; drugs are more fun. (This is totally not experience talking)
knowledgment of this destructive pattern, let’s do our friends a favour and provide them with things they wouldn’t have otherwise gotten for themselves. 3) Show Restraint Let’s face it. You most likely want to give the world to your parents, a car to your lover and one-way plane tickets to all your teachers. We all have that one person who is worthy of our boundless generosity, but unfortunately, an average student budget can only afford one coffee, half a muffin, and the sociology textbook you bought last semester that just won’t resell. The key to a successful gift is density. The littlest of things contain the most consideration. Look for a an item with a sentimental value, not a hefty price tag. Whether we agree or not, the gift-giving culture is an important one that all consumers have to consider at certain times of the year. As we grow older, my presumption is that the relevence of the practice will fade, but our impressions of others will neverthless count on superficial actions such as this one. After all, we can and have put a price on holiday spirit. However, let this year’s be one which your dignity can afford. Happy Holidays!
the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant
11 EDITOR: Jordan Stoopler CONTACT: jordan.stoopler@gmail.com
VOL. 43 ISSUE 10 - Thursday, November 13th, 2014
Doping in Canadian sports 200 doping tests for up to 11,000 athletes. Is it enough? top 75 to 80 eligible draft picks are tested.”
TIMA HACINI THE FULCRUM
Doping continues to be a threat to the integrity of all kinds of sports, and collegiate athletics in Canada are not free from the potential of performance-enhancing substance use among their ranks. News recently broke that Denver Broncos wide receiver Wes Welker tested positive for MDMA. While the party drug isn’t really considered a performance enhancer, it is on the list of prohibited substances, and its use is considered doping according to the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES). As is usually the case whenever it’s revealed that a major athlete has been doping, it has opened up the conversation about how to prevent performance-enhancing drug use—and what’s even considered performance enhancement to begin with. Every year, Gee-Gees athletes must take a series of “doping control” tests in order to compete in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS). The CCES, on average, provides 200 drug tests a year for more than 11,000 CIS athletes across the country. These tests cost upwards of $1,000 each. So far, the majority of CIS doping scandals have occurred with football players. In 2010, eight players at the University of Waterloo were suspended for anti-doping violations, and a ninth was arrested for possession and trafficking of steroids and HGH. Since then, 14 other Canadian col-
Photo credit: Cupwire.ca
Pills on pills
lege football players have tested positive for banned substances. Generally, there has been a major focus concerning men’s football and men’s hockey. CIS director of operations Tom Huisman said the CCES does not consider athletes in other CIS programs at high risk for doping. “Football is the highest risk, and hockey is considered a higher risk sport as well,” said Huisman. “The CCES administers
the tests. They decide when, where, and who. It’s something that’s independent of us.” Gabriel Tesfaye, a fourth-year Gee-Gees track and field athlete, said it’s probably an unnecessary precaution in sports that aren’t at high risk. “They are really expensive tests,” he said. “To do more than that would put a financial strain on the CIS.” But CIS also invests in testing to some
degree too. Huisman noted testing numbers have been declining, and in a measure to stem the flow of that decline, CIS football programs across the country have agreed to invest $2,500 each working with CCES and CIS to have these 200 tests available. The Canadian Football League (CFL) also provides some support. “This is the fourth year the CFL has provided funding,” said Huisman. “The
While many athletes are well aware of what drugs are banned—anabolic steroids are the most obvious ones—there does exist some grey area in terms of which substances are regulated. With limited research regarding supplements and their safety and effectiveness, they can be used as alternatives to performance-enhancing drugs by mimicking their effect without showing up on tests. Products such as Sline Sane and Anabolic Pump increase endurance, for example. Cell Tech, which is similar to Supeudrol, was not banned by the CCES. Although Speudrol is not prohibited in competition, it is allowed outside competition. If these products are available on the market and are perfectly legal, can one really blame certain athletes for taking advantage? Tesfaye said it’s fair game. “If a competitor is taking it, then let his coach and him decided what would work best for their training,” he said. “If the government body hasn’t seen it as illegal, I think it’s fair based on the rules.” Though the CCES is not overly concerned with the intake of supplements, athletes do have a responsibility to educate themselves about any risks involved in the intake of substances before using them. They have a strict liability when any banned substances are found in their sample.
Habs on top of the hockey world Despite latest loss to Rangers, Canadiens sit atop the NHL standings troubling numbers leave the Canadiens in JORDAN STOOPLER SPORTS EDITOR
Chances are, if you asked even the most diehard Habs fan prior to the start of the NHL season, where their team would rank after two months of action, they would have answered the middle of the pack. However, the Montreal Canadiens are defying skeptics and sit pretty in first place in the NHL (as of Monday November 24). Montreal had a tough test this week, with four games against top teams in the league. The Habs began the week with a 4-0 home ice loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday, before finding their groove again on Thursday night, defeating the St. Louis Blues 4-1. The team had a back-to-back schedule over the weekend on the road, as they handily beat the rival Boston Bruins 2-0 before falling to their playoff nemesis New York Rangers 5-0 Sunday. Despite their .500 record this past week, the Canadiens have a record of 16-6-1, good for 33 points after 23 games. The team record at the quarter mark of the season can be attributed to a multitude of factors, primarily the steady play of goaltender Carey Price and the recent contributions by all four scoring lines. After a shaky start to the season that saw
The Montreal Canadiens have had many chances to salute their faithful fans this season (Photo credit: montreal.ctvnews.ca)
him allow a plethora of goals, Carey Price has steadied his play. In his last 6 games, Price has a record of 6-1-0, a goals against average of 1.43, a save percentage of .949% as well as two shutouts. The Habs have also seen regular contributions on the score sheet by their depth
players, such as Dale Weise and Lars Eller. Their recent scoring streak has taken the pressure off of the star players to their ultimate success. Negatively, the Canadiens have had trouble converting with the main advantage and have displayed little effort in all 6
regulation losses so far this season. Despite the recent acquisition of powerplay specialist Sergei Gonchar, the Canadiens power play continues to struggle. The team has scored only 7 goals in 30 opportunities with the extra skater, to the tune of a 12.7% conversion rate. Those
26th place amongst the 30 teams power play units, ahead of only the Colorado Avalanche, Minnesota Wild, Winnipeg Jets and Buffalo Sabres. Montreal’s compete level on certain nights can also be questioned. All of Montreal’s defeats this year have been by a hefty margin, including being shutout four times by the Edmonton Oilers, Chicago Blackhawks, Pittsburgh Penguins, and by the New York Rangers on Sunday. Their two other losses were by the score of 7-1 and 6-2 to Tampa Bay and Calgary, respectively. However, given the team’s current spot in the standings and overall performances this year, one cannot be too down on their team. There is always room for improvement but nevertheless, the team is on fire and winning hockey games. Montreal will enjoy a small reprieve from game action this week. After a busy sequence of eight games in thirteen nights, in which the Canadiens went 6-2 (!), the team will enjoy four days off before a back-to-back home and away series with the lowly Buffalo Sabres. The Habs had difficulty beating the Sabres earlier this month, needing a shootout to get the better of the last-place Buffalo team, but should be able to get the better of the Sabres team. That is, if they don’t take their opponent too lightly.
the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant
10 VOL. 43 ISSUE 10 - Thursday, November 13th, 2014
sudoku
EDITOR: Aleksandra Seweryn CONTACT: aleks.seweryn@gmail.com
the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant the plant