The newspaper has invited readership, criticism, and participation for nearly a century. That’s a lot of years, a lot of students, a lot of opportunities. It has become an institution, one that is valuable for its contributors, readers, and critics. For just a dollar more and for the impact it provides, The Daily is something worth keeping around.

Jennifer Markowitz was a Daily News editor, 2007-2008, and Coordinating editor, 2008-2009.

Read more alumni letters here.

The post “This is what I remember when I remember McGill.” appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The three-hour occupation of the office of Gerry Sklavounos, also the Liberal MNA for for Laurier-Dorion, was part of a day of economic disruption organized by the radical student group Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ).

The day’s actions, which also included a demonstration at the Economic Institute of Montreal (IEDM) and a Bank of Montreal, sought to pressure institutions and companies, which ASSÉ says have an increasing financial hold over postsecondary education.

“ASSÉ considers that the only way for companies to participate in education is to pay their fair share in taxes,” ASSÉ spokesperson Hubert Gendron-Blais wrote in French in a press release.

“We are showing where the money is and putting pressure in those areas,” said one student before the march began.

After the demonstration made brief stops at the IEDM and a Bank of Montreal, the students headed to Sklavounos’s office at 7665 St. Laurent around 11:00 a.m., where they staged a sit-in.

Despite a significant police presence, the occupation lasted three hours and concluded with a meeting between Sklavounos and two representatives from ASSÉ, whom the group had elected at the beginning of their occupation. The students eventually left peacefully.

The demonstration was timed to coincide with last week’s resumption of classes for UQAM and many Montreal CEGEPs after the winter holidays. ASSÉ is also mobilizing support for an unlimited strike for free education this semester, in response to the Quebec government’s lifting of the freeze on provincial tuition freeze.

“We didn’t have an economic disturbance, but we did inform the media about the lack of finance and the effect on institutions,” said Marc-André Faucher, the information secretary for ASSÉ. “This is just a small step.”

Ordering in

Just three minutes into the sit-in, seven police officers arrived and over five police cars sat outside. By the time the occupiers left the building, nearly 15 officers lined the building’s stairs and guarded the street entrance.

Because Sklavounos’s office is considered a public space, students were allowed to remain, but the police stipulated that anyone who left the building would not be permitted to re-enter. Sklavounos invited the demonstrators to sit on the floor before moving to a private room.

Snacking on granola bars, water, and trail mix, the students perched on desks and office chairs, exploring an open room and peering into drawers. Several inscribed a message on a whiteboard to hang in the window, which overlooked a four-lane street. Others constructed a banner out of sheets of paper and taped those to the window as well.

Shortly after the students arrived, an officer requested to meet with a representative from ASSÉ for negotiations at 2:00 p.m. The students then held their first of many impromptu votes to approve the negotiation time and to elect two representatives.

The student occupiers even ordered pizza shortly after arriving. But when the pizza arrived, the police did not allow the deliverer to drop it off. Upon learning of the situation, the deliverer, who was familiar with ASSÉ, left the students a calendar as a symbol of his support.

At one point, the police offered to allow the pizza into the building in exchange for the negotiation meeting to begin 30 minutes earlier at 1:30 p.m., but the students refused. Throughout the sit-in, police continually offered different times and terms for negotiation, which prompted the students to repeatedly call meetings.

Just after 1:00 p.m. the police claimed that an eviction notice was imminent. Although several students left, the remaining protesters then held their final and longest meeting, debating whether to wait for the eviction or to leave on their own terms and sacrifice the opportunity for a meeting with Sklavounos.

“We didn’t come here to order pizza,” one student, who supported staying, said in French.

With overwhelming support to wait for eviction, the students then voted to discuss ASSÉ’s general platform with Sklavounos, rather than focus solely on free education. Sklavounos spoke with the two elected representatives, who presented him with ASSÉ’s platform.

After approximately three hours, the students left the building chanting.

“We’re actually a little disappointed with the turnout,” Faucher said. “But we’re happy today didn’t end on a street corner.”

“Our goal is to get the word out, to disturb peace.”

Earlier in the day, a small group of demonstrators blocked the entrance to the IEDM and were dispersed by police after 10 minutes. Others proceeded to a Bank of Montreal in Plaza St. Hubert, slapping stickers and spraying graffiti on the entrance.

The post Students occupy government office appeared first on The McGill Daily.

More enriching than any lecture I have attended at McGill, The Daily has been my classroom. Contributing to the newspaper has defined my experience. The Daily’s Statement of Principles has shaped my outlook. When speaking with some of the many students who have made The Daily possible, each says the same: that The Daily has had a tremendous impact in the way they think.

Where does this power come from? Proud as we are of our hard-fought independence, The Daily’s catering to its McGill readers exclusively cannot account for it alone. I suspect it has more to do with The Daily’s relationship than with the development and dissemination of an idea. We are, above all else, a group of diverse individuals who are inspired by the opportunity to bring any idea into the public forum without worrying that it is unconventional, unprofitable, or unacceptable to some authority. The power stems from the ability to turn an idea into a tangible issue. It comes from the frenzy of ideas, the circulation of questions, from the vigour with which editors, readers, and writers alike consider The Daily and contribute to its vivacity.

The strongest aspects of The Daily are not the articles that contributors produce, but the letters, comments, and opinion pieces that readers share with the paper. This year when students wanted to talk about Gaza and Israel, they turned to The Daily. When SSMU welcomed Choose Life, students debated the morality of the decision in The Daily’s pages. These exchanges are what make the paper unique and alive; these are what have sustained it for 98 years.

The Daily is no stranger to criticism. While each remark stings, we value condemnation as much as the praise that we receive. Welcoming both speaks to The Daily’s original purpose as a forum of ideas as much as it does the power of journalism and the involvement of students. Continued engagement and respect from The Daily’s readers are vital to sustain the quality of the publication.

As coordinating editor, I often feel that I am merely managing other’s ideas. The Daily is not my paper. Nor does it belong to the 17 editors, or even solely to the writers. It’s yours; it’s ours. The ideas are everyone’s.

Thank you for reading, writing, and debating, for sharing ideas and responding to ours.

Jennifer Markowitz was a news editor in 2007/2008, and our coordinating editor this year. Just don’t ask her to coordinate not saying “poop.”

The post Why I like The Daily appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Following the demonstration, a distraught law student sent a letter to National Post commentator Jonathan Kay. The letter sparked claims of human rights violations at the University and a heated debate about the statements posted.

That a group of non-law students peacefully demonstrating in the atrium of the law building alongside a display hosted by the organizers of Palestinian Human Rights Week (PHRW) were kicked out of the building was troubling and a violation of freedom of expression, the letter stated.

“They did not attempt to obscure the visibility of these exhibits,” wrote the first letter writer. “Rather, by standing between them and holding their own posters, they were offering a visual rebuttal to the official faculty-approved message.”

Arieh Bloom, U3 Commerce, and President of Republicans Abroad at McGill, organized the counter demonstration, which was intended to present a balanced and alternative, yet peaceful perspective to the pro-Palestinian display.

“We were kicked out on [the] ground that the demonstration would prevent freedom of dialogue,” Bloom said. “That should have meant that we were doing something egregious and terribly unacceptable.”

Halfway through the planned two-hour demonstration Lametti requested that the 14 undergraduates leave on the basis that they were creating a hostile environment and were not law students, among other offences.

The first letter Kay posted describes one photo as depicting two dead Palestinian children killed in an Israeli Defense Forces operation, with excerpts from the Geneva Convention and short articles deploring the plight of Palestinians hung next to many of the photos.

The display was one of many campus events that contributed to an unbalanced treatment of Gaza, Bloom said. He said that there has been a failure in dialogue and that some groups – he cited those with both Arab and Jewish affiliations – were attacking Israel.

Bloom, who had consulted a lawyer before the counter demonstration, was certain that none of the signs he was showing were hateful. While he described the signs as teaching peace, love and toleration, some did portray violence.

One placard depicted a child dressed in green Hamas gear holding a machine gun. Beside the baby sat the slogan: “Teach love, peace, and toleration – not war.”

The idea, he stressed, was that passersby would see the pictures from both causes and be able to make an informed and balanced judgment.

“It would have taken away all legitimacy of our protest if we were trying to censor. We would have been hypocrites and it was totally against what we stand for,” Bloom said.

Bloom is now seeking amicable remedy with the dean on the account that their right to assemble was violated.

“I don’t think [Associate Dean Lametti] did what he did because of anti-Semitism. I think it was just poor judgment,” said Bloom. “What I most don’t understand is how does a law school – meant to be the paradigm of human rights – how do they not even respect the free rights of students who want to foster dialogue of human rights on campus?

“The contradiction of human rights is appalling.”

The associate dean and organizers of PHRW were unavailable for comment.

The post National Post judges freedom of expression at McGill appeared first on The McGill Daily.

For many, the 60-plus set exists as a group separate from the rest of society. They’re seen as fragile; they walk slower, their clothes are different, and they don’t keep up with hip things that younger generations know. This attitude can be attributed to the priorities of capitalist societies that evaluate their members according to their productivity, says Rose Marie Whalley, a founding member of CKUT’s Older Women Live (OWL), a collective that broadcasts monthly across Montreal. “In other societies [outside of North America], old people guide the young and pass down the culture, but in capitalist, or post-capitalist societies like ours, the status of old people is very low because we’re not productive. We are pushed to the margins of society. The culture of youth is the one that dominates.”

Whalley wants to challenge the ideals of an exclusionary culture that neglects old people, and let society – especially youth – know that the elderly still have a voice. With OWL, she and six other women from Montreal introduce society to someone she thinks it does not know: the active older woman. “I want to reclaim the word old,” she says. “I am not a senior.”

Most topics discussed on the show do not exclusively appeal to or describe an older demographic. The owls, as the women call themselves, avoid featuring stereotypical “old lady” topics like knitting, grandchildren, bridge, and the old days. Instead, they focus on stories with more expansive political or social appeal.

WEACT (Women Elders in Action), a similar radio program broadcast from Vancouver, also seeks to give a voice to older women. With an approach similar to OWL’s, WEACT works to integrate the social and economic issues facing older women into common discourse. Like OWL, WEACT focuses on topics that are political and topical – housing issues, security, local politics. “Our show is far more a political and a propos to the times than most students’ shows are,” says Jan Westlund, coordinator of WEACT. “Maybe it’s because we’re more connected to the community, or maybe it’s our breadth of experience.”

“Many older women, and [the women producing WE*ACT] are busy; they volunteer, they’re active, and it’s hard to keep them at home. Just because midlife and senior women appear to be somewhat invisible does not mean they’re not active. It just means society is not set up to acknowledge them and credit them,” Westlund says. Through showing that older women play a part in issues that affect everyone’s lives, both radio programs strive to break the stereotype of older women as useless, sexless, or burdensome to society.

In familiarizing their communities with older women, the members of OWL and WE*ACT also familiarize themselves with a part of contemporary culture that they grew up without – technology. For much of society, technological competency is an assumed luxury, but for older generations it’s often a mystery, and their illiteracy and lack of tech intuition is leaving them behind. “It’s a way of thinking, a mental process. It’s not just a matter of pressing buttons,” Whalley says.

For Westlund’s volunteers, mastery of the technical side of the radio programming has been slow. “I would say only a few of the women have really taken up the technical side of it seriously, and it’s really important when they do. It’s huge for seniors who do because they stimulate the brain.” Still, she says that half of the women involved, many of whom are in their eighties, have email and computers in their homes. OWL’s members communicate via email – all but one is hooked up.

WE*ACT has taken their initiative beyond radio broadcast. With a program called Lessons Learned, older women solicit and record stories of marginalized women in their communities. One of the project’s mandates is to stimulate and engage women who were facing the threat of isolation.

Mastery of technology is not important only in the tangible sense, but can communicate, according to Whalley, a tremendous symbolic significance. “As a generation, we have internalized the fact that we’re useless. Technology now has brought that home big time. The inability with technology is infused with a sort of stupidity and ignorance. What do we have to contribute? It adds to a general lack of self esteem in old people and does not help how we are seen in society – as unproductive,” Whalley says. “We need a voice of technology and we’re not getting that as a group.”

Programs like OWL and WE*ACT bring older women’s voices to places and audiences they could not travel to alone, giving them a voice they don’t feel they have, and a purpose they feel they’re not entitled to. “Not only do [older women] have a low status, but there is no way for us to say, ‘Hey, we’re here.’ Our voices are silent. We have internalized this, and if we continue to sit at home removed from the world progressing around us, we’re just going to become more and more invisible,” Whalley says.

Whalley believes radio may prove to be the only means to keep older people accessible to younger generations.

“We get into living rooms through radio,” Whalley says. The non-discriminatory nature of radio allows OWL to reach all audiences and welcomes anyone to participate. “Someone can be lying in bed and still hold a mic,” Whalley says. That’s what happened on OWL’s January show. The topic was access to healthcare under a Conservative government, and featured an interview with one of OWL’s collective members, an 85-year-old woman recovering from a knee replacement. She was in her bed at Lindsay Rehab centre in Côte-des-Neiges when Whalley conducted the interview.

OWL and WE*ACT stand up against the assumption that old people, and old women especially, do not work or perform physical activity. The idea of total retirement, not only professionally but in every aspect of one’s life, is unrealistic. At a time when an increasing number of people is staying healthier longer, older women are finding ways to not only be part of society, but to be an active part. “[Our members] are seniors who are not ready to dive into old age and still want to remain active in their communities,” Westlund says.

She notes that in old age, many find themselves with more free time and a renewed desire to contribute to and remain part of society. Having lived through the radical sixties and seventies, members of both programs are former activists – part of labour unions, social justice, and feminist movements. “Our generation was an activist generation. We certainly did women’s rights stuff, and civil rights stuff. We were very active in social experiments,” Whalley says, citing the Day Care Movement, when mothers in the seventies lobbied for cheap daycare services, and the Back-to-the-Land movement. “Doing all of this, it established a way of being, a way of life.”

Radio has become the new medium through which the activist generation can continue to demonstrate. “The women have been activists their whole lives and they have interest in lots of social justice issues. You do that for 30 or 50 years and you’re not stopping because your body is slowing down or because you’re tired. If anything, you have more time to devote to issues,” Westlund says.

Growing older doesn’t change the essence of a person and does not mean that they should sacrifice themselves. “You have no idea how active women in their sixties are,” Westlund says – and how relevant they are in our society.

The post Seniors: Late life on air appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Smith is now the manager of the ambulatory services department, part of the psychosis program, so her expertise refers most accurately to patients receiving care for psychosis, particularly schizophrenia. Post-treatment services focus on reintegrating patients back into their communities and focus on psycho-social issues, and more logistical matters: balancing a budget, finding housing, and ensuring that patients take medication. The Daily quizzed Smith last week, curious about a growing trend of shorter hospitalization stays for the mentally ill and obstacles former patients face when transitioning from in-patient care to independent living.

McGill Daily: Have you noticed that patients are being discharged earlier than they have been in past years, that they’re staying for shorter times?

Evangeline Smith: They are staying for shorter times. That is definitely the case. It is a progressive trend. It is a trend that destigmatizes. We feel that that person can be treated for the more acute stage of an illness in the hospital, and then be discharged very quickly in order to reintegrate back into community living. It makes the transition easier than [staying for a long period of time does]…. Patients were hospitalized for many months in the past partly because we did not have resources in place to accommodate their return back to the community. Those resources are something that we are now more sensitive to. There are a lot more housing alternatives, and a lot more community resources; we have many more partnerships with the community organizations, and they step in and collaborate with outsource teams.

MD: What criteria are used to decide when a patient should be released?

ES: We have traditionally been very hospital-centred and we always feel that a hospital is the best environment in which to treat a patient. If you look at methods in other countries, hospitalization is a lot shorter. But patients can be treated in the community; they do not need institutionalization to get better or in order to continue treatment…. We’re good at providing that. We now have so many different levels of case management and such strong team support with exactly that mandate: to support transition into the community.

MD: What sort of living situations can patients enter when they return to the community from treatment?

ES: It depends very much on the level of care that patients need and their desires. We have numerous types of housing alternatives, so a client may go to a family care home if they need a kind of structure where they can have meals offered to them and have care 24 hours a day. Some will go to their own apartments and will then need some support in terms of daily living skills – their capacity to shop and cook and clean. Some will go to group homes. We certainly want to encourage autonomy as much as possible. It is something that we promote and encourage in order to empower the patients to make a transition not just into the community, but into society.

MD: Do you think there is something particularly risky about returning, say to the apartment that a patient was living in beforehand. Could something like the environment trigger a relapse?

ES: This would have been evaluated before the patient returns to that setting…but there is the issue of stigmatization. There can be issues of going back to an apartment building where your neighbours or your landlord know that you were recently hospitalized, when already you are feeling insecure and feeling that other people are perhaps judging you, or you are feeling suspicious of other people – the way they look at you or if they’re whispering, you think they’re saying things about you. There is also an isolation issue, although that is getting better. We try to link [patients] to different social organizations and activities…. There are programs in place but sometimes it’s not always that easy to reintegrate. Budgeting is also very difficult. They have a very minimal amount of money, because they’re on welfare and receive only about $850 a month.

MD: Have you observed any variation in a patient’s recovery process in relation to the length of in-patient care they received?

ES: There are certainly a lot of patients who don’t want to stay in the hospital very long. They have perhaps a healthier attitude about returning to the community. We do also have a lot of patients who have become very comfortable over the years, very comfortable with being inside the hospital and being looked after. They have a very secure feeling about being connected to the hospital…. It’s mostly our older patients who are undergoing feelings of dependency and insecurity, and so on. With them it’s a little bit harder [to leave], and I suppose that’s the system’s fault.

We have been very protective and maternalistic, and we recognize that in the long run that may not have been the most healthy way to help our patients. We’ve fed dependency to some degree – and as I said that is more with our older patients – and now with our younger patients we’re trying to let them see that they have a role in society and that they can have a good quality of life, and a stable life in the community, despite their limitations. There is a gradual trend in the recovery, where we like to promote their autonomy, give them choices, allow them to explore what they want in terms of their goals and their life. Sometimes those choices come with risks – the same way that these choices come with risks for everybody in society. We allow them to go through these choices, but at the same time help them make decisions that are more healthy.

The post Douglas Hospital’s care reaches beyond its doors appeared first on The McGill Daily.

It was only after she was diagnosed with acute myloid luekemia (AML) in July that Quebec’s system for bone marrow donation became central to her fight for life. In her search for a donor, the stigmas and misconceptions associated with bone marrow donation have became clear to her, and she wants to dispel myths surrounding the process.

“I want people to know about it. I want to tell people that it is so incredibly simple,” she said.

Leblond-Murphy stressed that the act of registering to be a potential donor requires nothing more than giving a blood sample. It is no more complicated or invasive than blood donation or organ registry, yet bone marrow donations remain much less popular. While eight blood drives occur in Quebec every day, and people become organ donors by simply checking a box on the back of one’s driver’s license, there are no comparable donation drives for bone marrow stem-cell registration in Quebec.

Because members of Leblond-Murphy’s immediate family are not adequate matches for her transplant, she must seek a match through Hema-Quebec’s stem cell donation registry, a database that links with other registries across Canada and internationally, allowing patients access to 13-million possible donors.

Health professionals working with stem cell transplants said potential donors hesitate to get tested because the transplant procedure is misunderstood. Most, they said, are inspired to donate only when they know someone who needs a transplant.

“It’s the word – transplant. In itself, it is kind of a scary word,” Leblond-Murphy said. “It is usually associated, I think, with organ donations, with going in and doing surgery, with general aesthetics, weeks-long recovery. This is so far from what [a marrow donation] is. It is so much more minor.” But down the line, bone marrow donors do offer more of a commitment than do those who donate blood.

“I can understand why there is more publicity [for blood donations]. They are used so much more often and in so many more contexts, but people are aware of organ donations, too…. It’s probably a question of funding. I think that Hema-Quebec, or any other organization that does this, probably focuses more energy on more immediate problems. They want to have lots of blood donated because it is needed more urgently across the board,” Leblond-Murphy said.

“Blood transfusions have saved my life – on different scale,” she added.

Indications of a problem began with pain in her lower back, Leblond-Murphy said. She thought that it was only an athletic injury, and many doctors confirmed this early self-diagnosis, but the pain escalated with curious rapidity, and when Sabrina sought consultation at the Jewish General Hospital on July 8, doctors diagnosed her with AML, the most common form of myloid leukemia in adults.

Without a transplant, Leblond-Murphy has a 15 to 25 per cent chance of survival.

Siblings are usually the best matches because genetic and racial similarities provide the best basis for a successful transplant. Matching donors to transplant candidates is so sensitive that doctors and Hema-Quebec only test siblings for individual cases, explained Nancy Hutchison, a registered nurse working in Royal Victoria Hospital’s hematology centre.

“Even if you are a second cousin, the chance of you being a match is usually just as good as someone who lives down the street is,” Hutchison said.

Testing for individual patients only occurs in cases that require very specific racial matches. Because of their rarity, donors of a racial minority are in highest demand; organizations in the U.S. campaign actively for more.

Hereditary or acquired disorders, such as leukemia, cause abnormal blood cell production. A transplant of healthy bone marrow may correct these problems, restoring production of white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets.

Donors receive an injection that increases the production of stem cells in bone marrow, so they can be collected via the bloodstream.

But, as Hutchison pointed out, not all bone marrow transplants are successful.

“Often times it is the complete opposite. It has hard extremes and there is no guarantee that it will be a cure or that it will be easy for patients. But sometimes the likelihood is good and it is the only option,” Hutchison said.

The population of the registry is older – a problem because donations from young adults are most desirable. Hema-Quebec’s recruiting efforts have mostly turned to targeting young adults because transplants using young stem cells are less risky.

“The transplant is essentially giving your immune system to a patient,” Hutchison said. “The more exposure it has had to different things, the more likely there will be some complication within patient, and the older you are, there is a greater likelihood that you have been exposed to infectious diseases could be transmitted to the patient.”

Every year, doctors recommend between 85 and 100 Quebec patients for bone marrow transplants, though many of them are never completed. According to Diane Roy, director of Hema-Quebec’s stem cell donor registry, only 70 to 80 per cent of patients find donors.

Roy said that the 2,500 donors Hema-Quebec receives yearly sufficiently serves the medical need for stem cells, adding that any more volunteers would strain the organization’s testing and registration resources.

But the international registry benefits from a high number of donors, and will need more donors in the future.

“We’ll need more [donors] down the road because as family sizes shrink, it is less likely that someone will find a match with siblings, and they’ll have to go to unrelated transplant,” Hutchison said.

Hema-Quebec still does not hold marrow drives at universities and colleges despite the desirability of young stem cells. Roy said that even in the absence of drives, bone marrow donations are adequately publicized. He maintained that nurses at blood donation clinics on university campuses inform donors about bone marrow transplants.

Leblond-Murphy said that immediate accessibility is key to increasing donation rates.

“People are much more likely to register when they’re directly handed a form and can automatically make a choice,” she said.

The perfect match

Leblond-Murphy now has several leads on potential donors. Doctors have told her that she can expect to receive either a bone marrow or core blood transplant within a few months. But she remains committed to making the registry more accessible and attracting new donors.

“For me this is the difference between achieving a full cure or not. My statistics [for recovery] increase dramatically with a bone marrow transplant, and it’s sort of cliché, but for me, it’s difference between life and death,” Leblond-Murphy said

“It’s important to do it soon. Someone can join the registry tomorrow and be a more compatible match for me or someone else, and we want that. We’re looking for highest match,” Leblond Muphy said.

In the meantime Leblond-Murphy is working freelance and undergoing periodic chemotherapy sessions to keep her leukemia in remission.

“I’m not preoccupied by it daily,” she said. “Maybe I should be. It’s definitely present, but it doesn’t stop me from living normally.”

Siblings are usually the best matches because genetic and racial similarities provide the best basis for a successful transplant. Matching donors to transplant candidates is so sensitive that doctors and Hema-Quebec only test siblings for individual cases, explained Nancy Hutchison, a registered nurse working in the hematology centre at Royal Victoria Hospital.

“Even if you are a second cousin, the chance of you being a match is usually just as good as someone who lives down the street,” Hutchison said.

Testing for individual patients only occurs in cases that require very specific racial matches. Because of their rarity, donors of a racial minority are in highest demand; organizations in the U.S. campaign actively for more.

Hereditary or acquired disorders, such as leukemia, cause abnormal blood cell production. A transplant of healthy bone marrow may correct these problems, restoring production of white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets.

Donors receive an injection that increases the production of stem cells in bone marrow, so they can be collected via the bloodstream.

Hutchison pointed out that while curative, not all bone marrow transplants are successful.

“Often times it is the complete opposite. It has hard extremes and there is no guarantee that it will be a cure or that it will be easy for patients. But sometimes the likelihood is good and it is the only option,” Hutchison said.

The population dominating the registry is older – a problem because donations from young adults are most desirable. Hema-Quebec’s recruiting efforts have mostly turned to targeting young adults because transplants using young stem cells are less risky.

“The transplant is essentially giving your immune system to a patient,” Hutchison said. “The more exposure it has had to different things, the more likely there will be some complication within [the] patient, and the older you are, there is a greater likelihood that you have been exposed to infectious diseases [that] could be transmitted to the patient.”

Every year, doctors recommend between 85 and 100 Quebec patients for bone marrow transplants, though many of them are never completed. According to Diane Roy, director of Héma-Quebec’s stem cell donor registry, only 70 to 80 per cent of patients find donors.

Roy said that the 2,500 donors Héma-Quebec receives yearly sufficiently serves the medical need for stem cells, adding that any more volunteers would strain the organization’s testing and registration resources.

But the international registry benefits from a high number of donors, though it will need more in the future.

“We’ll need more [donors] down the road because as family sizes shrink, it is less likely that someone will find a match with siblings, and they’ll have to go to unrelated transplant,” Hutchison said.

Despite the desirability of young stem cells, Héma-Quebec does not hold marrow drives at universities and colleges. Roy said that even in the absence of drives, bone marrow donations are adequately publicized. He maintained that nurses at blood donation clinics on university campuses inform donors about bone marrow transplants.

Such immediate accessibility, Leblond-Murphy said, is key to increasing donation rates.

“People are much more likely to register when they’re directly handed a form and can automatically make a choice,” she said.

Leblond-Murphy now has several leads on potential donors. Doctors have told her that she can expect to receive either a bone marrow or core blood transplant within a few months. But she remains committed to making the registry more accessible and attracting new donors.

“My statistics [for recovery] increase dramatically with a bone marrow transplant, and it’s sort of cliché, but for me, it’s a difference between life and death,” Leblond-Murphy said.

“It’s important to [register] soon. Someone can join the registry tomorrow and be a more compatible match for me or someone else, and we want that. We’re looking for the highest match,” she added.

In the meantime, Leblond-Murphy is working freelance and undergoing periodic chemotherapy sessions to keep her leukemia in remission.

“I’m not preoccupied by it daily,” she said. “Maybe I should be. It’s definitely present, but it doesn’t stop me from living normally.”

…………………………..

What is bone marrow?

A soft material found in the centre of bones that produces stem cells.

Stem cells are parent cells from which all other blood cells – red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets – develop.

It produces red and white blood cells that are essential for immunity and circulation. Anemia, leukemia, and lymphoma cancers compromise the resilience of bone marrow, making bone marrow transplants a growing treatment for such cases.

What is cord blood?

Blood in umbilical cords that provides stem cells.

3% population who donates blood
50 – 70% number of people who find bone marrow or core blood matches
25% chance that a patient will find donor within family
34,500 people listed in Quebec’s Stem Cell Donor Registry
21.3% survival rate for AML (1996 – 2004)
2,500 potential donors in Quebec each year
7 Quebec hospitals that freeze core blood to save stem cells

How to help out

To join the bone marrow donor registry, go to the Héma-Quebec web site (hema-quebec.qc.ca), click on “stem cells,” follow instructions, and fill out the consent form. Héma-Quebec will call the potential donor to set up an appointment to take a blood test and determine HLA complex, a combination of genetic markers. A potential donor will only be notified if they are compatible with someone who needs a donor. Donors must be between 18 and 50-years-old. There is a particular need for donors belonging to ethnic minorities.

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The McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association (MUNACA) executive asked its members to evaluate the University’s most recent contract proposal. If rejected, the staff were then prepared to vote to give the executive the authority to strike or to use other pressure tactics if an alternative agreement with the University was not reached before September 1.

MUNACA, or McGill’s largest non-academic staff union and represents about 1,800 library workers, technicians, nurses, and clerical workers, has been negotiating a new contract with the University since December.

McGill security guards barred at least 100 MUNACA members from entering Leacock 132 – filled to its 682 person capacity – in accordance with fire codes.

The meeting began late after an overwhelming vote to proceed with the agenda, despite the absence of those denied access to the room, most of whom were from Macdonald Campus, and had arrived late on a shuttle.

Members inside the meeting said that the executive had hardly introduced the University’s proposal before the fire alarm sounded, forcing an evacuation.

Huddled in the Leacock lobby, many blocked from entering resented that they would not be able to vote. Others members assured them that the executive was planning to integrate all members’ ballots into the strike vote.

According to Jamie Troini, a MUNACA member who sits on the union’s Mac-Council, a group of McGill security officers were waiting outside Leacock 132 “from the get-go.” Many speculated that the security guards’ presence was an administrative tactic meant to delay the meeting and prevent the union from reaching a strike vote.

The loss of ballots from shutout members was not expected to impact the outcome of the vote on the University’s proposal. MUNACA needed 500 votes to reach quorum on the proposal largely assumed to be rejected.

“It’s not exactly a generous offer to say the least,” Troini said of the contract proposal.

In public bulletins, the MUNACA executive said they compromised with the University on most non-monetary issues, but were still dissatisfied with the University’s offers on salary, summer Fridays, shift premiums, and employment security. Prior to the assembly, they had urged members to reject it.

Troini, who had climbed one of the benches lining the Leacock lobby, was trying to appease the group of denied workers as the alarm sounded, converting their complaints into cheers and laughs.

Security members pushed people outdoors. MUNACA members speculated that the fire alarm was “a big joke,” calling the situation hilarious.

“It makes sense that someone pulled the fire alarm,” one said.

“It was triggered on purpose, before the voting occurred,” said another, who suggested someone affiliated with the administration was responsible for the interruption. “[The administration] has done everything in their power to prevent this vote,” she added.

Outside, MUNACA president Maria Ruocco officially postponed the meeting, assuring members that the executive would search for a larger room when they rescheduled. She cited orientation activities for first-year students as one of the reasons preventing the union from booking adequate space.

“We will regroup and do what we have to do,” Ruocco announced, promising to send an email that afternoon with a rescheduled meeting date.

The crowd responded with an applause, but many remained suspicious, concerned that MUNACA would still be unable to find space large enough to accommodate all its members.

Others were disappointed and thought that the impact of their strike would be weakened by postponing it.

The post Fire alarm prevents MUNACA strike vote appeared first on The McGill Daily.

“We didn’t want this to happen, but we were pushed to make this
decision,” said Nasser Al-Jundi, Information Research Officer for the
Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM).

“McGill closed all of the doors. They’re not serious in their
negotiations, and it’s time to send the message that we are serious,”
Al-Jundi added.

TAs are protesting the University’s failure to accommodate the union’s
demands for a new collective agreement, which expired in June.

Negotiations have been ongoing since October.

Taxi cabs, bikers, and mail trucks passing the 30 TAs congregated at
the Roddick Gates Tuesday afternoon honked and cheered in support of
the workers’ strike. The TAs – who are planning a day of action for
Thursday – carried posters that read “McGill works because we do” and
“McGill TAs on strike.”

“There is a great spirit,” said AGSEM president Salim Ali, noting the
abundance of emails AGSEM has received from undergraduates and
professors.

AGSEM’s last formal agreement with the University took over two years to negotiate, and was highlighted by a strike in 2003

AGSEM and the University met for over six hours on Saturday and five
on Monday, during which the union unsuccessfully revisited their
demands for changes in the contract regarding wages, class sizes, and
training. According to Ali, AGSEM approached the meetings in good
faith and attempted to explore different options, but the University
refused to meet proposals in terms of their monetary demands.

“The University says AGSEM needs another proposal for money. We’ve
explored options and we thought they’d consider our demands,” he said.

McGill’s TAs currently earn $22.24 per hour, but are requesting an
increase that would make their wages on par with the average
anglophone G-13 schools.

The administration is offering a two per cent raise per year,
asserting that McGill’s TAs receive the highest wages in the province,
according to Deputy Provost (Student Life & Learning) Morton
Mendelson.

Despite the presence of a conciliator at negotiations, AGSEM accuses
the administration of refusing to compromise. They argued that the
University does not recognize the importance of TAs at McGill and
neglected to prevent a strike.

“The University is trying to avert a strike. They’re busy trying to
reduce the effect and make people scared of a strike,” Ali said.

Hours after AGSEM’s announcement, Mendelson distributed an email to
undergraduates clarifying that the University will remain open and
will function according to regular procedures despite the strike.

Yet confusion persists. Today, one department head told TAs they had
one week to complete their outstanding work, and students still do not
understand if they must complete assignments.

All TAs are prohibited from working during a strike.

The two parties are not scheduled to meet until next week, but
Al-Jundi said that AGSEM is more open to negotiations than ever.

The administration mirrored their sentiments. “We still hope that
negotiations will prove fruitful…. We want to resolve the dispute as
amicably as possible,” Mendelson said. “TAs are employees, but TAs are
also students. We are fully cognizant of that.”

The post McGill Teaching Assistants on strike appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Members of the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM), the union representing McGill’s 2,000 TAs, argued that the University does not recognize the importance of TAs at McGill.

According to AGSEM President Salim Ali, the University has failed to address the union’s concerns.

“At this point we require more than a promise. We need actual proposals. We need something concrete to give our members,” Ali said.

Seventy-nine per cent of the 300-plus members present at last week’s meeting voted to allow the AGSEM executive to call an unlimited general strike at the “most opportune time.”

AGSEM’s last formal agreement with the University took over two years to negotiate, and culminated in a strike in 2003.

According to TAs present at the voting session, AGSEM’s bargaining team stressed the necessity to strike during the exam period.

“A strike is employees withholding work. If it happens, it has to happen while people are working,” AGSEM VP External Natalie Kouri-Towe said.

But Morton Mendelson, McGill Deputy Provost (Student Life & Learning), said the University would hold its regular course during negotiations, and would not act to prevent a strike.

“Preventing the strike means caving into what the University thinks are unrealistic demands,” Mendelson said.

A demanding negotiation

Since the expiration last June of AGSEM’s collective agreement with the University, the union has sought changes in the contract regarding wages, class sizes, and training, in line with results from a survey of AGSEM members last year.

Negotiations have not been totally fruitless: AGSEM has succeeded in gaining intellectual property rights equivalent to professors and clarification on policies on sexual harassment.

But the University has made no other concessions, and negotiators fault administrators for moving slowly through negotiations, claiming they have cancelled several meetings and come unprepared to others.

The union’s lobby for increased wages has been one of the most contentious at the bargaining table.

In early March, AGSEM submitted a salary proposal comparing McGill to the average anglophone G-13 schools. The plan would result in TA salaries being raised to between $27 and $28 at the end of three years – an increase only translates to a 0.1 per cent change in McGill’s operating expenses.

McGill’s TAs currently earn $22.24 per hour, and their salaries are only 0.6 per cent of the University’s operating expenses.

According to AGSEM executives, the University has money to invest in TAs’ salaries – but is refusing to budge.

“They won’t even discuss it. We’re open to alternatives, but they’re not offering any,” said Kouri-Towe.

McGill instead offered a two per cent wage increase, reflecting the Quebec market and consistent with salary increases offered to the University’s other employees.

“For unions to say that we have the money means we either have to go more in debt than usual or take the money away from something else,” Mendelson said.

He also ironically suggested that raising undergraduate tuition fees is a possible strategy to gain revenue to accommodate TA’s demands.

“It’s a question of who is going to pay,” he said.

AGSEM is also pushing for more training and department-specific instruction. McGill has so far offered a TA Day, organized through Teaching and Learning Services, but union leaders said this will not prepare TAs to provide proper feedback to students.

“It doesn’t have to cost McGill money to prepare their instructors,” Kouri-Towe said.

Think of the undergrads

According to SSMU VP External Affairs Max Silverman, AGSEM’s demands for training will enhance the quality of undergraduate students’ academic experience at McGill. He claimed that the University’s resistance reflects a problem more disconcerting than McGill’s tight wallet.

“Training for a thousand TAs, a couple of sessions – these are drops in the bucket of McGill’s budget, but this would go far to improve McGill’s quality of education,” Silverman said.

Many undergraduates argue that the University should have acted to prevent a scenario that may hurt professors and students.

“I’m not a fan of strikes, but it is frustrating that the University is not putting its interests in students. A lot of people feel that McGill does not put our needs first,” said Markian Kuzmowycz, U3 Economics.

Silverman and the SSMU executive have been collaborating with AGSEM throughout their negotiations to inform undergraduates and rally their support.

On Wednesday, SSMU sent a listserv email to all undergraduates with information about the TAs’ mandate and negotiation history, urging students to send emails to the senior administration. By noon on Friday at least 130 emails had been sent to Mendelson, and Silverman defended students’ actions.

Mendelson said that while he appreciated students’ concern, the emails were a hindrance to negotiations.

“I received enough email that it was an irritation. I didn’t find it funny or helpful and I told the SSMU executive that their emails bordered on harassment,” Mendelson said.

He claimed that SSMU’s email included “factual errors and editorializing.” “They misinformed thousands of students. Where is the sense in that?”

Silverman defended students’ rights to express their discontent.

“Morton Mendelson is the spokesperson for the University, and more specifically for undergraduates, so it is more than legitimate for undergraduates to email him with concerns, and it is more than appropriate for SSMU to encourage them to do so,” he said.

Preparing for the worst

Since last week’s vote for a strike mandate, professors and staff have begun circulating information throughout campus about how to react to a strike.

Professors received an email Friday morning from the administration outlining how to respond to a TA strike, including recommendations for how to respond in situations not covered under legal provisions.

The documents urged professors to discourage TAs from addressing the class about AGSEM’s labour dispute, and stressed that professors should correct any misinformation that TAs deliver.

Further, department advisors and administrators have been urging professors to obtain all student work TAs currently possess, according to other emails obtained by The Daily.

AGSEM and the University seem to be interpreting the labour code differently. According to AGSEM, professors may not do work mandated in a TA’s work agreement, and is threatening to pursue legal action against any professors that do.

But the University has prepared thorough instructions for professors and students about the ramifications of a work stoppage, with particular emphasis on examination and grading procedures.

“Our main concern in this whole effort is to make sure that teaching continues and that undergraduates do not have to worry about their academic year,” Mendelson said, adding that McGill will prioritize the needs of students scheduled to graduate.

Against the strike

Those voting against the strike feared that a strike would be a misplacement of their concerns onto professors’ and students’ backs.

“We’re holding professors and students hostage to pressure McGill to meet our demands,” said Daniel Lametti, a Daily contributor, TA, and first year PhD candidate in Psychology. He was one of 62 to vote against the mandate.

Lametti faulted AGSEM for failing to communicate its grievances to undergraduates.

“I couldn’t wholeheartedly vote for a strike knowing that undergraduates don’t know as much as they should,” Lametti said.

Negotiations between AGSEM and the University continued over the weekend and into today.

Kouri-Towe stressed that even though the mandate has been approved, a strike is not certain.

“[The strike mandate] is a pressure tactic, so if the University wants us to…work, they’ll need to move at the negotiation table so we can resolve things quickly,” she said.

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The presentation is a Canadian version of the one featured in former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. The Climate Project (TCP)-Canada, a non-profit organization, will manage and coordinate the session.

TCP-Canada conducted some of the research included in the refurbished slideshow, which according to Liz Singh, office manager of TCP-Canada, focuses on Canada’s shortcomings and offers suggestions for improvement.

Canadians often consider their habits as more sustainable than the U.S.’s, Singh explained, pointing to Canada’s signed commitment to the Kyoto Protocol. The slideshow challenges Canada’s actions, and will reveal to Canadians how their country has failed to meet assigned goals.

“Considering that Canada is next to the U.S., it is easy for us to say that what the [U.S.] is doing is worse. But the fact of the matter is, when you look at it per capita, [Canadians] are still pretty bad and there’s no excuse to destroy the planet relatively less than the other guy is,” Singh said.

As part of his Climate Project commitment, Gore launched an initiative in the U.S. in 2006 that trained 1,000 Americans to deliver localized versions of An Inconvenient Truth’s slideshow. TCP-Canada selected volunteers with connections to alternative networks, seeking to reach “unusual suspects.”

Following a day and a half of training from Gore, the volunteers receive instruction specific to teaching the public in their respective areas.

Volunteers sign a contract pledging to administer the presentation 10 times within the year.

Marie-Marguerite Sabongui, a U3 Cultural Studies student and elected volunteer who will present to Montreal’s acting community and university and high school students, explained that in addition to presenting the slideshow, volunteers should encourage their audiences to adopt practices that will counter climate change.

One of her goals is to propose the creation of greener stage sets to Montreal’s acting communities.

“This a vehicle with which to spark people’s attention,” Sabongui said. “Once you’ve got [people’s] attention, you can target them for more specific ways to solve climate change. That’s really the goal.”

Two hundred and thirty Canadians – lawyers, politicians, doctors, people in the entertainment industry, and other qualified individuals – were invited or accepted to work with Gore, who will conduct the sessions early next month.

Singh said that more people may be trained in the future. Based in Montreal, TCP-Canada will also offer follow-up support and activities for presenters.

Similar sessions have been held in Australia, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

On April 5, Russell Peters is hosting a Comedy Gala at Place-des-Arts to raise money for TCP-Canada.

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Most union members – over 2,000 teaching assistants (TAs) – have agreed that a strike is the only viable response to the University’s refusal to compromise in negotiations, said AGSEM president Salim Ali.

“The University is compelling us to strike. The timeline is not ideal, but there are no other options left,” Ali said.

AGSEM’s contract with the University expired in June, and the union has been negotiating the terms of a new agreement since October.

AGSEM is demanding that its new contract reflect the importance of TAs in undergraduate education. Their bargaining points include higher wages, formal training, adequate office space, and the introduction of a uniform workload form.

Ali hopes that the pressure of a strike vote will shift the course of negotiations and preempt a strike.

“It’s our last option. If the vote passes, then maybe McGill will come back with a better proposal,” Ali said, noting that the University has been “relentless,” particularly in its refusal to compromise on the monetary demands.

However, the University’s negotiating team insists that the negotiations are going well.

According to Associate Vice Principal of Human Resources Lynne B. Gervais, who has been involved in the regular meetings with AGSEM, strikes are routine during contract negotiations.

“The reason why [AGSEM is] having a GA and asking their membership to vote on a strike mandate is due process. It’s part of negotiations and they are absolutely entitled and in the right to do so,” Gervais said, adding that she does not foresee a strike influencing the status of negotiations.

“We don’t plan on their having a strike and I don’t think [AGSEM’s] membership does either. But I don’t think that it will speed up or slowdown the negotiations,” she added.

Representatives from AGSEM and members of McGill’s Human Resources Department have been meeting regularly – once per week for several hours. While both parties are eager to settle, negotiations should continue throughout the summer if an agreement is not reached.

Historically, the University has not treated AGSEM well, Ali said, recalling the union’s last negotiations with McGill, which took two years to complete and culminated in a strike.

“McGill is…still not coming forward with a good proposal,” Ali said. “It looks like they don’t want to work with us. They’re bargaining in a traditional way.”

The semester’s looming end presents a potential complication in AGSEM’s negotiations. The union usually holds elections for its executive members in March, but postponed them this year so as not to interfere with negotiations.

In classroom announcements this week, AGSEM members have said that a new executive could disrupt the flow of negotiations.

However, Gervais does not foresee complications.

“As long as they come to the table, negotiations will continue,” she said.

In addition, TAs serve a particularly vital role in undergraduate classes at the end of the semester and faculties have drawn up contingency plans in the event of a TA strike.

The absence of TAs at such an inconvenient time may make a strike more effective, said Derek Nystrom, the TA coordinator for the English Department.

“Since the University relies on [TAs] to perform a great deal of its teaching, a TA strike would most definitely demonstrate precisely this – that the TAs are an essential part of the University’s teaching efforts, and they should be treated and compensated accordingly,” Nystrom wrote in an email to The Daily.

Nystrom also noted that a contract favouring AGSEM’s demands would provide TAs with more time and resources to devote to their teaching duties.

“Based on what I know about the TAs’ demands, I would say that if the TAs win, so will undergraduates and professors,” he wrote.

To pass, a majority of TAs present must vote “Yes.” Ali expects 500 TAs to attend.

“The ball is in their hands. If [McGill] wants to have more sessions they can. It’s just a willingness to work with the union.”

The post TAs to vote on strike motion appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Newhook claimed his resignation was motivated by personal issues.

“I was learning fast, and I felt ready [for the position], but it didn’t make sense for me to delay [graduating for] a whole year,” Newhook said.

Setting election dates normally calls for a vote of Council, but since Council was not scheduled to meet until next week, on Monday executives used their power to call for a by-election. Every executive save VP University Affairs Adrian Angus, who disagreed with the others’ interpretation of the SSMU by-laws, voted in favour of a by-election.

This year’s SSMU elections were marked by several candidate dropouts – including that of fellow Finance & Operations candidate Rushil Mistry, who rescinded his candidacy on March 4 – but the resignation of an executive so quickly after the election brings the Students’ Society into unprecedented territory.

“Executives don’t normally resign, so this isn’t a situation we’ve dealt with before,” said Corey Shefman, Elections McGill’s Chief Electoral Officer.

Nominations for the position opened on Monday and will last until April 1. While no candidacies have been confirmed yet, several students have expressed interest.

Yahel Carmon, a U2 Political Science and Economics student and the SSMU Speaker, worked closely with Newhook during his campaign and is now considering candidacy.

“Simply, I need to talk to my family and see if it is the right place for me at the moment…. I want to be confident that if I don’t run there is a candidate who can do the job,” Carmon said, noting that he will decide after seeing who else is running.

A newbie to student politics, U2 Accounting and Finance student Tobias Silverstein has also expressed interest.

Campaigning for the by-election begins April 2 and continues until April 8. Polling runs from April 7-11.

The last resignation from a SSMU executive position was four years ago, when President Alam Ali stepped down that September. SSMU did not hold a by-election, and the VP University Affairs assumed the President’s role.

Last year saw SSMU’s most recent by-election, when Presidential candidate Floh Herra-Vega contested Elections McGill’s enforcement of electoral rules, causing the original election to be invalidated.

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