Climate Justice Montreal hosted the day-long community forum at Concordia, which included workshops, panel discussions, and brainstorming sessions, among other activities.

Free to the public, the event attracted a wide-ranging crowd, from eco-conscious CEGEP students to members of the Montreal Raging Grannies.

The attendees discussed the Athabasca tar sands, a collection of oil deposits near Fort McMurray, Alberta, which the Environmental Defence organization has called the most destructive project on earth.

The forum revolved around  Line 9, a pipeline that would transport oil from Sarnia, Ontario to Montreal. According to Shona Watt, a professor at Champlain College who attended the forum, the pipeline would complete a series of pipelines flowing eastward from Alberta, giving the crude oil from the tar sands an uninterrupted path to the eastern provinces.

Line 9 was built in 1975 to carry oil eastbound to Quebec, but the flow was reversed in the late 1990s in order to carry imported oil westward. Enbridge Inc., a Canadian energy company, is proposing that the flow be reversed again, to bring Alberta oil to the Quebec market. The company argues that because the pipeline already exists, there will be minimal impact to the environment as a result of the flow switch.

In 2008, Enbridge tried to reverse Line 9 back to its eastbound route as part of their Trailbreaker project. It halted its plans in 2009 due to sub-par economic conditions, and after several years of trying to revive the project, claimed, “the scope and objective of Trailbreaker, as previously contemplated, is no longer being pursued.”

But Watt and other attendees said that the company has broken the project up into smaller pieces in order to get regulatory approval more quickly. Line 9 is one link in the pipeline which carries crude from Alberta to Quebec.

According to Watt, because oil coming from the tar sands is more viscous and corrosive than the kind currently flowing through Line 9, it is more likely to cause pipe cracks, which could lead to dangerous spills.

In addition, Enbridge plans to increase the capacity of oil being pumped from 240,000 barrels a day to 300,000 barrels per day.

Environmental activists say spills, such as the one in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 2010, which also occurred on an Enbridge pipe, cause massive damages to surrounding land and communities. If oil spills out of a pipeline, it sinks into the earth and can often go unnoticed. But Watt pointed out that residents near the Kalamazoo River experienced headaches, nausea, and breathing problems as a result of the leak.

Watt became involved with Climate Justice Montreal after discovering that part of Line 9 is located a little over three miles away from her family cottage.

“It’s something that strikes really close to home for me,” she told The Daily. “It just [seems] that if something happened, I’d be able to see it.”

One pair of students also advocated encouraging universities to divest endowment funds away from big oil companies.

“The university is a kind of beacon for what we want society to look like,” said workshop facilitator and McGill student Lily Schwarzbaum. “We’re creating these centres where people can generate a kind of future that is based on passage of knowledge. The endowment, in a sense, should reflect that.”

Divest McGill plans to present a petition within the next two weeks to McGill’s Board of Governors, specifically, under the Committee to Advise on Matters of Social responsibility (CAMSR).

Vanessa Gray, a youth activist from Aamjiwnaang, a First Nations community in Sarnia, Ontario also made a call against the project.

Having grown up on a reserve beside refineries, Gray explained that even though oil projects may not take place on Native land, they still affect nearby communities by polluting the environment. She has lost many family members to cancer and most of the kids she grew up with use inhalers.

“I’m not afraid to say that I feel this is wrong,” she said at the event. “It’s not whether a company will release something, it’s when.”

Gray mentioned that the Idle No More movement has empowered her community to come together for the first time against many of the issues – such as pollution and the environment – affecting life on their reserve.

At the end of the day people broke out into smaller working groups and brainstormed ways to resist Line 9. Most agreed that a priority should be increasing awareness for the cause and attracting more members.

Gaby Rimok, a student at CEGEP John Abbott College, attended the forum with classmates from the environmental club at her school.

“I think we can all work together. All the people here have the same goals, so if we all show up the next time, then it could work!” she said.

The post Citizens join hands to stop the sands appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The McGill Daily (MD): You’ve said you’re “strongly considering” running to be the leader of the Liberal party. The leadership race is several months away and there are only a couple officially declared candidates and few prospective candidates. Why are you getting such an early start?

David Bertschi (DB): Because I believe in being prepared […] As a trial layer who’s been practicing for over 28 years it’s all about preparation, reorganization, and it’s also all about dedication. You need a clear approach to matters… for the past several months I’ve been traveling across the country, coast to coast to coast, and meeting with Canadians and discussing with Canadians of all political stripes about what they believe is important and what the federal government needs to do to properly address their concerns. And from there once I’ve finished traveling, then I will sit down with my family and the people who frankly approached me to consider running, and then I’ll make my decision.

MD: Was it after the federal election in 2011 that people approached you and asked if you’d think about running?

DB: Yes…I was approached within a span of about a month[…] And you know, we’ve got lots of talented people in the Liberal party of Canada, in Quebec, in Ontario, and across the country. They’re Canadians who believe in a balanced approach to politics, who believe that you have to encourage and have an economic environment that’s healthy, that you encourage entrepreneurship because small businesses really are the backbone of our country. But at the same time you have to take care of the vulnerable. You’ve got to support, care for, and help those who are less fortunate or do no not have the wherewithal to succeed, and that’s the true sign of a healthy society. And frankly the Harper government has failed miserably at looking after First Nations. And I [mean] looking after the issues that everyone is facing. If they’re the First Nations, they’re not addressing them, if they’re the provinces, they don’t speak to them. The Harper government and Mr. Mulcair’s NDP are ideologically driven. Canadians want a reasonable alternative to the Harper government.

MD: And what would your specific alternative be?

DB: My view is that a federation is made up of constituent points. The federal government, the provincial governments, the municipal governments, they all have their respective jurisdictions and at the same time you have to work together as Canadians. There’s no monopoly on good ideas. And I find that the Harper government dismisses any good idea if it’s not from their ideology, as does Mr. Mulcair. If it’s not dealing with a certain stance on an issue they discount it, and that’s wrong. Canada is a very large, very complex country and we have to listen to people and work with them to solve the problems.

MD: With this all in mind, what are your thoughts on the recent results of the Quebec election?

DB: You know, Quebec politics are fascinating. The citizens of Quebec are extremely well-informed and engaged. And as many have written recently, Quebec people have spoken by the way they have voted. It’s been a very unique approach to the governance. Obviously they were disenchanted by certain parties and obviously they weren’t enchanted with anyone to give them a sufficiently large number of seats. I think the Quebec election also bodes well for the Liberal party…Mr. Charest and his government certainly defied the pollsters by getting fifty seats.

MD: You ran in 2011, but you’ve never held office. Without a voting record or something that people can refer to in the way of political experience, how are you going to convince people, say you are to run, that you’d be experienced enough for the job?

DB: […] I’ve run a number of successful multi-million dollar businesses and I’ve created successful businesses […] Plus, as someone who was born in raised initially in Sainte Adèle, Quebec, who was educated in French, I also understand the diversity of our country when it comes to the importance of bilingualism and French culture in the fibre of our country.

MD: I found there was a huge disconnect between students in other provinces and those here. Did you try to help students from opposite ends of the country understand each other?

DB: […] I certainly established and discussed with others across the country the challenges that the students were facing in Quebec. And a lot of those challenges, students were facing elsewhere as well. We have to keep striving to do a better job and to make sure that the economy grows, that there are jobs for students, that education is always not only affordable but very accessible to all. Because that’s one of the primary ways to get people out of circumstances that they find themselves in, into a better situation. Education is critical and I could relate to the concerns of the students across the country when they worry about the debt load they’re facing. The fact that when they graduate they still can’t get a job, let alone a job in their own chosen field. The fact that they’re burdened with debt. The fact that they cannot only not pay them off, but they’re burdened with the thought, “when will I ever be able to afford a house or start a family?” because they want something like I wanted and something better for their children.

This interview has been edited for space and clarity.

The post The Daily talks with prospective LPC leadership candidate appeared first on The McGill Daily.

That day, when she traveled to her local revision office to add her name to the list of electors, she was turned away because she was a student and staffers assumed that she had a permanent residence outside of Quebec.

After reviewing the voting requirements online, Kowanda – originally from Burlington, Ontario – called the same local office, wanting to know why she could not register.

She told The Daily that she had a lengthy discussion with a staff member from the office, who insisted that students are not always eligible.

According to Kowanda, he told her, “You have to understand, a lot of students with strong opinions come here, vote, and leave without living with the outcome of the vote.”

However, he was unable to refer her to a specific portion of the Elections Act that dealt with students or explained why she failed to meet the requirements to vote.

She then called the Directeur général des élections du Québec (DGEQ) and verified that she did in fact have the right to vote. They urged her to call them back if she had more trouble registering.

Kowanda returned to the revision office with her income tax forms from the past two years – filed in Quebec – and documents listing the voting requirements. After being questioned repeatedly about her lack of a Quebec Medicare card, she successfully registered.

To be eligible to vote in Quebec, a student must be 18 years or older on Election Day, a Canadian citizen, a resident of Quebec for six months, and registered on the list of electors. Students whose families live outside Quebec are eligible to vote there if they have lived in the province for at least six months and are registered.

According to Christian Gohel, a returning officer for the Westmount–Saint-Louis riding, the staff members who questioned Kowanda were part of a commission de révision, a committee of three people – two of whom have been nominated by political parties – that adds, updates, and strikes names from the list of electors.

“Concerning the students, it is a special case because the law says that you have to be domicile in Quebec for three to six months,” said Gohel.

He explained that many students come to Montreal from Ontario wanting to vote in both provinces.

“Some people misunderstand the meaning of the six months because it’s not six months of temporary residence, it’s six months of being established for good,” he said.

According to the Civil Code, a person’s domicile is defined as “the place of his principal establishment.”

Kowanda, who has lived in Montreal for three years and files her tax returns in Quebec, said she considers Quebec to be her principal establishment.

When she was first told to leave the revision office, she recounted being devastated and on the verge of tears.

“I was so upset that my vote wouldn’t matter,” she said.

This will be her first time voting in a federal or provincial election.

Kowanda also expressed concerns that the personal opinions of elections staff members may be preventing eligible students like her from voting.

Ilona Dougherty, executive director of Apathy Is Boring (AIS) – a non-partisan organization dedicated to increasing youth voting rates through art and technology –  explained that the Quebec system of voter registration may be a huge deterrent to youth participation.

“The process in Quebec is not obvious,” said Dougherty. “You need to register before Election Day. You have two deadlines, and I know that a lot of people don’t realize that.”

Though Dougherty said she doesn’t blame overzealous elections staff for Quebec’s low youth turnout, she said that accessibility for voters – young and old – is a huge problem.

She also explained that temporary workers who receive a small amount of training often staff elections.

“Whether an individual worker makes a bad choice, that’s definitely something that’s plausible,” said Dougherty.

According to Gohel, this election saw an unprecedented number of people attempting to register to vote, which led to some delays at his revision office.

“It was easy to see that people were very anxious to be put on the list,” he said.

Students who encounter difficulties with registration can report them on the Elections Quebec website.

As for Kowanda, “I urge her to complain,” said Gohel. “Sometimes the process needs to be updated. Sometimes the procedures are too long, too tedious. Unless people complain, things change very slowly.”

The post Students face difficulties in voter registration appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The NFCM is one of ten Native Friendship Centres in Quebec, and has existed for the past 37 years. There are 120 centres across Canada seeking to improve the quality of life for Aboriginal people living in urban areas.

The Montreal Centre offers its visitors health and social services, legal information, education and training, and employment opportunities.

Friendship Centres in Quebec receive funding through two organizations: the National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC), and the Regroupement des centres d’amitié autochtones du Québec (RCAAQ). The NAFC, in partnership with the RCAAQ, administers funds through the Aboriginal Centre Program (AFCP) to all the Centres in the province. The funds come from the Federal government’s Department of Canadian Heritage.

On October 12, 2011, the RCAAQ’s Board of Directors suspended the NFCM’s provincial membership. The Board informed the NFCM of this, by letter, on November 15. As a result, the NFCM’s core funding was officially and indefinitely suspended.

The RCAAQ claims the membership was suspended due to NCFM’s decision not to recognize their Final Special Bilateral Agreement and because of “the limited services being provided” by the Centre. Though the RCAAQ has stated its intentions to continue working with the NFCM to ensure Aboriginal needs are being met in the city, NFCM staff claim that the provincial organization is in fact unwilling to negotiate.

According to staff member Gordon Bird, the Bilateral Agreement was supposed to be a set of financial stipulations between the Centre and the RCAAQ but, instead, outlines the extent to which the RCAAQ can control the Centre’s operation. Bird said that the issue is not that money isn’t available, but that the two groups disagree over the terms by which it is given.

While the Centre considers itself autonomous and intimately familiar with the needs of the community members it serves, the RCAAQ insists it will not provide funding to non-recognized Centres.

“The agreement was intended to bring the Centre back to a safe financial state,” explained Joey Saganash, who works at the NCFM and coordinates its Street Patrol team. “But the Bilateral Agreement ended in July 2010. And by July 2010, the Centre’s financial, social and cultural mandates were being fulfilled. Everything was going right,” he said.

If the two groups can’t come to an agreement, then the NFCM will have no choice but to close its doors in as little as three months.

The closure would affect many Aboriginal Montrealers who rely on the Centre for services like counseling and internet access.

“There’s no other place in Montreal that offers similar services,” said Saganash. “It serviced my mother when I was a child.”

The Centre also regularly hosts community dinners and cultural events such as drum circles.

“We’re here to give support,” said Bird, who is helping to organize petitions for the reinstatement of funding. He called the Centre a “place of knowledge” where First Nations, Métis, and Inuit cultures are all welcome and embraced.

“Everyone loves coming here,” said Katie Ross, who has been visiting the Centre since she was 12 years old.

“We have big monthly suppers at the end of the month… people come to play games or have coffee. If it closes, where is everyone going to go? People have help getting jobs upstairs, and if this place closes, everyone’s going to be kind of lost. I’m really shocked and so is everyone here. I really hope it stays open.”

Ross worried that she might never get the chance to work at the Inter-Tribal Youth Centre (ITYC), a project based in the NFCM’s basement that organizes a variety of activities for Aboriginal youth.

The ITYC announced on Monday that it would be closing on April 1 due to the NCFM’s funding suspension.

However, the RCAAQ has recently announced that it intends to keep the ITYC open.

RCAAQ President Edith Cloutier wrote on the organization’s website, “We are now finalizing scenarios in order to identify an institutional Aboriginal partner that will agree to sponsor the Montreal youth project. The RCAAQ will involve the Inter-Tribal Youth Centre of Montreal in this decision.”

Yet the threat of closure for the NFCM remains real. On Thursday, the Friendship Centre will host a general assembly from 6 to 9 p.m. There, staff and community members plan to brainstorm ways to keep the Centre alive. In the meantime, the NFCM is circulating petitions and orchestrating a campaign for people to send letters to both the NAFC and the RCAAQ.

“We need to mobilize and take it to the next step,” Bird said.

The post Native Friendship Centre faces closure appeared first on The McGill Daily.

First, some background: I run on McGill’s varsity cross-country and track and field teams. I live with other runners, and we chose our apartment because it is exactly 400 metres away from the outdoor track. Approximately one third of the clothes I own are made of spandex, and, come winter, I attach rubber picks to my shoes so I can continue running on the snow and ice.

I’m no stranger to injuries. I’ve had many, from a strained a calf muscle I got doing steeplechasing, blisters whose size would shock most medical professionals, bad ankle sprains, and even a few bruised ribs after tripping over a sidewalk crack (I’m also graceful). I won’t bore you with the details of my current injury, but let’s just say that it was stubborn and persistent. At this time last year, I was limping everywhere and going down stairs backwards so as to avoid bending my knee in a certain way. Needless to say, I couldn’t run.

After moving through the stages of denial, blame, and finally acceptance, I approached the rehabilitative process with a relentless drive that I wish could be channeled towards my GPA or summer job search. X-rays, bone scans, MRIs, sports doctors, and physiotherapists were just the beginning. I bought a road bike and spent hours riding it. Not knowing how to change the tube tires, I would walk like a duck in my plastic clip-in shoes all the way home if I got a flat mid-ride. I swallowed bottles of various anti-inflammatory pills, spread special gel on my knees, and shivered through ice baths. I even had a previous coach of mine videotape and analyze my gait to search for asymmetries.

The people at Moksha yoga have likely never seen such aggressive use of a membership card. “Weren’t you here this morning?” they would ask as I arrived for pilates in the afternoon. I swam laps, and learned to flip turn. In front of the TV, I did strengthening exercises with thera-bands, foam rollers, and other toys.

Then I added a weight-lifting regimen. By the summer, I was doing three forms of exercise a day (cardio, weights, and yoga), working at my job in between sessions, and going to bed at 10 every night. Every few weeks, I would try to run again, but the knee pain always returned. At the height of my lunacy, I wrote a letter to my left knee demanding that it heal itself.

It was while aqua-jogging in McGill’s Memorial Pool one day that I instantly understood why millions of people hate exercising. I hated it too! I hated pools. I hated being inside. I hated every activity because it wasn’t running. Aqua-jogging, or “pool running” as it’s informally called, is a particularly awful form of cross training. It’s also the most recommended, because it’s so low-impact. A pool runner straps a belt to his or her body and runs through the water at a pace that feels like slow-motion.

That day, I fought desperation in the deep end. I pumped my arms faster and faster. Was I crying or were my eyes just stinging from the chlorine? Then, I just stopped moving and unclipped my belt, which floated to the surface as I began to sink. My dignity had been reduced to this diaper, this strip of floatation foam that was – like me – fraying at the ends and stuck in the deep end. I’d had enough.

Walking home, I resented each casual jogger that passed by me. I couldn’t help but think, “Why hadn’t their knees given up on them? Why did I have to suffer and not them?” Once home, I went into my bedroom and shut the door. I then noticed there was something shiny on my bed.

It was a new journal with the first few pages already filled in. “Dear Madeleine,” the first entry began. “It’s me. Your left knee…”

I approached my injury with the conventional formula of rest, cross-training, and strengthening. But the missing ingredient to my rehab – to getting well and moving on – was something I had all along, but often failed to see: the people around me. The knee-letter and journal was a gift from the one roommate I have who is not on the track team. You don’t need to be an athlete to know how hard it is to be kept from doing something you love.

A few weekends later, I stood on the sidelines of a cross-country course in the pouring rain and cheered for my teammates. I saw the pain on their faces as their spikes sunk into the sodden golf course. Their faces were shiny with sweat and rain. Their jerseys were soaked and mud-covered, and they grimaced as they tried to work through the pain.

Being injured for a long period of time forced me to learn how to work through a similar pain. Much like runners do in a race, I began to push the self-pity aside in order to keep going. In the end, it was my friends who helped me do this best. They were the ones who laughed the hardest at my trials and tribulations, and who eventually convinced me to try running again this October.

On November 12, I ran at the national cross-country championship in a blizzard on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City. The race went well, and my season ended in relief and pride. I had my happy ending.

Now my roommates have injuries of their own, and I can see the frustration in their eyes. What I say to them, like they said to me, and what I would say to anyone battling a persistent injury is this: keep on trying. Others do understand. You will heal.

The post Confessions of an injured athlete appeared first on The McGill Daily.

There was the “1 Day” documentary project in August, which stitched together media footage and viewer contributions to produce a portrait of Canadians (young and old, unknown and famous) living their lives on April 30.

There was the Montreal Symphony Orchestra’s performance, with Cirque Éloize, in early September, broadcasted live on CBC’s radio, television, and online programs.

There was even a movie about John A. Macdonald, our first prime minister.

Few Canadians deny that the CBC’s impact on communications in Canada has been huge. Today, CBC.ca gets almost 200 million page views per month, and its programs and hosts – such as Peter Mansbridge and The National – are household names.

Still, this fall we’ve seen the CBC’s relevance and accountability questioned on several fronts. Some Conservative MPs have surveyed their constituents about the CBC’s value and the Federal Government has the broadcaster to cut costs by between 5 and 10 percent. Two parliamentary committees have been investigating the broadcaster’s economic and cultural importance as well as its handling of access-to-information requests and related legal battles with Canada’s Information Commissioner.

But what does this mean for us – as Canadians and university students? Does the CBC still matter to us? And do we matter to them?
On November 4, 1936, two days after the CBC replaced the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission, Chairman Leonard Brockington delivered a speech on air that outlined the new broadcaster’s roles:

“If Canadian radio makes no lasting contribution to a better understanding between the so-called French Canadian and the so-called English Canadian, between the East and the West, between the town and the country, between those of us who are fortunate enough to enjoy the privilege of labour and those of our fellow citizens who through no fault of their own are denied that opportunity, then we should have faltered in our stewardship.”

But Brockington also mentioned the importance of entertaining young audiences. “We will never forget that Canada is a country of youth,” he said. These words ring true, even today, as the baby boomers retire and the country’s population ages. Without TVs or portable radios, most university students get media on their computers. Therefore, the CBC will have to adapt to this reality in order to survive in an evolving digital world. “Any public broadcaster has to change with the changes in technology and with the changes in the audience,” said Ian Morrison, spokesperson for FRIENDS of Canadian Broadcasting.

Much of the the CBC’s special anniversary programming and online features have ties to Canadian history as well as to the history of CBC’s coverage in Canada. Some of this might interest us, but most won’t. Are we thrilled to learn that 1966 was the first year Hockey Night in Canada broadcast its games in colour? This fact might excite our parents, maybe, but our generation? Probably not.

“I would hazard a guess that the CBC is afraid of cuts that the Harper government may be about inflict on it,” Morrison said. “It is trying to use the 75th anniversary as a way of appealing to the voting public in order to cause the government to think twice about zapping public broadcasting.”

Nevertheless, while the anniversary festivities might be geared towards the older voting public, the CBC still understands that appealing to youth might determine whether or not it makes it to that 100th birthday.

In 2008, for example, CBC Radio 2 redesigned its programming schedule, moved classical music from prime time to the 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. timeslot, and introduced online-only stations and concerts on demand. CBC Radio 3 was created in the early 2000s with young people in mind, and through its blogs and other interactive components has evolved into a thriving community of people linked by the love of new independent Canadian music.

Morrison was surprised to see so many young people support FRIENDS’ recent “I Love CBC” campaign, which responded to Conservatives’ threats towards the CBC’s relevance and funding.

Young people might not be celebrating the CBC’s 75th with enthusiasm, but they still think the CBC is relevant, and the feeling is mutual.

The post Happy birthday to me says the CBC appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The CBC received 327 Access to Information requests (ATIs) last year and responded to 257 within the government-mandated time frame. The Information Commissioner reviews complaints about how ATIs are handled.

The CBC is contesting the extent to which Legault can investigate complaints. In 2010, the Federal Court ruled that Legault could examine information herself and decide whether or not the CBC should be required to release it. The CBC disagrees, claiming that, by law, some information is exempt from being released under the Act.

The Conservative government brought the CBC, as well as all other Crown Corporations, under the Act in 2007. The Act’s purpose is primarily to “extend the present laws of Canada to provide a right of access to information in records under the control of a government institution.” However, the CBC has a special exemption; Section 68.1 states that the Act does not apply to the broadcaster’s journalistic, creative, or programming activities.

In a meeting of Parliament’s Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics last Thursday, Konrad von Finckenstein, former Federal Court judge and current chairman of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), said “the easiest way to fix it is to establish by legislation” whether the Information Commissioner can look at the documents or not.

“Unfortunately, the section in dispute here has been drafted in such a way that you have a double exemption: the Act does not apply, except it does apply,” Finckenstein told the committee.

On Tuesday, Legault proposed a “discretionary, injury-based exemption” that would require the CBC to prove that revealing certain information would cause them harm.

Some Canadians are concerned that the court case is a costly way of resolving a dispute between federal institutions, since taxpayers are paying the legal fees for both sides.

“I think that the fastest way to end this battle would be for Parliament to reconsider Section 68.1,” said Dean Del Mastro, a Conservative MP involved in challenging the CBC, in an interview with The Daily.

Del Mastro disagrees with the way the CBC has been using Section 68.1.

“They’re, in fact, using that clause to exempt all of their expenditures, which is not the intent of access to information laws,” he said.

Derek Fildebrandt, the national research director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, agrees that the court battle is a waste of money, but doesn’t think that the legislation has to be changed.

“The spirit of the Act was very clear and the CBC has flat-out refused to acknowledge that it applies to [them],” he said. “You can’t spend $1.13 billion without being accountable for it.”

Fildebrandt has experience filing ATIs, and calls the CBC’s current process “an unmitigated disaster.”

“There are some serious problem spots for access to information right across the federal government, but the CBC stands up as the absolute worst,” he said.

Although public interest groups and other media sources do file ATIs, media conglomerate Quebecor has filed the majority of ATI requests with the CBC. Quebecor has challenged the CBC for refusing to release, among other things, the costs of operating its fleet of vehicles.

The CBC responded to challenges from Quebecor in a statement on its website: “We, and [Legault], are trying to clarify the rules which protect ‘journalistic, programming, and creative activities.’ This is the proper thing to do.” The CBC statement added that it reports to several government bodies, and is, therefore, already being held accountable.

While giving a talk at the University of British Columbia about the future of Canadian broadcasting, CBC President Hubert Lacroix explained that the CBC is fighting to protect its journalistic sources.

Yet, Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau told the Parliamentary committee on Thursday that “of the 16 Access to Information requests that are before the court, not a single one is in any way related to journalistic sources.”

Lacroix will appear before the committee next Tuesday.

The post CBC contests Information Commissioner over disclosure exemption appeared first on The McGill Daily.

As a result of conversations with an office mate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Professor Jérôme Waldispühl had the idea, while doing post doctoral research, of harnessing the power of humans to solve scientific problems in the form of a game. Could a game be created that would allow everyone – even people who don’t know any biology – to contribute their efforts to solving complex biology problems?

Waldispühl returned to the idea after coming to McGill in 2009. He teamed up with Mathieu Blanchette, a comparative genomics specialist and, together, they hired two students – Alex Kawrykow and Gary Roumani – to design such a game over the summer. The culmination of their efforts resulted in Phylo, the game that allows users to contribute to science by aligning genetic sequences. Launched last November, Phylo will soon be available as an app on cellphones and tablets.

Scientists arrange sequences of D.N.A, R.N.A, or protein in order to find similarities and learn more about how genomes have evolved over time. By locating where mutations may have occurred and where parts of genetic code have been conserved, scientists can learn more about the spread of genetic diseases in humans and other species. “To infer which regions of the genome are important, we need to compare them,” explains Waldispühl. Finding similarities in a region helps scientists identify the functional part of a genome. This is the goal of comparative genomics.

While computers can align the sequences, they don’t always succeed in finding the optimal alignment. The process is also time-consuming and very expensive. Humans, however, are better able to solve these visual puzzles, and they do so more efficiently. However looking at raw genetic data can be confusing, even for trained researchers, and would probably be akin to reading ancient Sanskrit scroll for most of us. That’s where Phylo comes in.

The idea behind Phylo is that players align coloured puzzle pieces vertically on a screen, essentially re-arrange regions of genomes. This fun game takes some of the burden away from geneticists. Players are essentially doing the grunt work for these researchers, giving them the data they need to make scientific discoveries.

One of Phylo’s best features is that anybody can play it; there is no scientific knowledge required. This is what sets Phylo apart from games like Foldit, a protein-folding game from the University of Washington that made the news recently after some of its players solved a puzzle that had plagued scientists for years. However, Foldit requires knowledge of some scientific principles, while Phylo does not.

Phylo has more than 16 000 registered users who have worked to solve over 300 000 puzzles. On high-traffic days, the site gets over 15 000 submissions, but on low days, only 300 to 400. Increasing Phylo’s popularity is the next step. Waldispühl and his colleagues hope to use Facebook to find more players and get them playing for longer periods of time. “The success of the project is only valid if we build a large and strong community where everybody participates,” Waldispühl said.

Phylo already has a Facebook group, where players can talk about the puzzles, interact with the developers, and even suggest potential game improvements. Once the game establishes a larger connection with Facebook, users will be able to compete and share puzzles with their friends. “The idea behind that is to integrate and use the social network as a base to grow… step by step we’ll be able to grow the network of people and have a community that communicates around this and continues to work on these puzzles,” Waldispühl said.

There are many groundbreaking principles built into the fundamental concept of Phylo: the transformation of a hard and complex science into a fun game for all, human computing, and most importantly the open and encouraged involvement of the general public in scientific research. Phylo and multiple-alignment sequencing could very well be one of the first of many biology games that lead to important discoveries down the road.

As for the gamers themselves, they’re a diverse bunch. Some play once; others spend hours solving puzzles that are more and more difficult. Phylo’s top user has completed over 6000 levels. “It’s pretty impressive,” Waldispühl laughs.

The post Computer game contributes to science appeared first on The McGill Daily.

By now, she’s probably used to the attention. She’s been named McGill’s athlete of the week for three weeks running and was named the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec’s  university athlete of the week earlier this month. Last year, the University Rugby League named her rookie of the year, and a member of their 2010 all-star team.

She has even represented Canada as a member of the Under 20 (U20) team at the Nations’ Cup this past July in Santa Barbara. Miller gushed, “Oh my God, it was an amazing experience. I met a lot of people from all over Canada… People that love the sport just like me.”

Like all student athletes, Miller divides her time between academics and athletics. She shuttles to and from her downtown physical education classes, home games, and practices at Macdonald Campus, as well as away games throughout Quebec and Ontario, and her home on the West Island. Her life, like those of her teammates, is incredibly busy, but she seems happiest when surrounded by like-minded athletes. Her boyfriend is also a McGill rugby player who competed in the U20 Nations Cup.

While watching her play last Sunday, it became immediately apparent that Miller certainly is talented. Her coach, Vince DeGrandpré says she’s “one of the team’s spark plugs, with the ability to fire up her teammates through her explosive offensive abilities.” He points out that after switching positions – from fullback to fly-half – her vision and decision-making has improved.  Playing as a fly-half on the Canadian team further attested to her success in the position.

After the game, Miller was happy to discuss her start in rugby. She credits her high school gym teacher, Marc Faubert at St. Thomas High School in Pointe Claire, for introducing her to rugby. Her three older brothers also all played at the same school.

Despite the amount of tackling in rugby, she’s been seriously injured only once. She broke her ankle in grade nine, but that didn’t stop her from playing the next year, she announced proudly. Sometimes people question her sport of choice because she’s small (5’5 and slim), but her speed and agility are great assets on the rugby field, and have brought her great achievement in the sport.

This year, Miller and the rest of the Martlets hope to make it to Nationals, which is no easy feat considering that they lost during the Quebec conference semi-finals last year. “Martlet Rugby is in a semi-rebuilding process this year,” explains Coach DeGrandpré. Half of this year’s roster is comprised of rookies. Even so, the Martlets are currently undefeated this season, and, according to Miller rival teams, Laval and Concordia, “don’t know what’s coming for them.”

It’s a sport that requires toughness. You get the ball, you get tackled to the ground, you get back up, and you keep going. Of course, Miller avoids spending too much time on the ground, preferring instead to deke around her opponents and sprint down the field to score tries. Nothing stops her, especially on game day. “When I want to do something, I’ll do it,” she says with a big smile on her face.

The Marlet’s next home game is Saturday October 15 at 1:00 p.m. against Bishop’s at McEwen Field. Get there on the 211 bus heading west from Lionel Groulx Metro.

The post Unstoppable appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The report, compiled by the Ministère du transportation du Québec’s anti-corruption squad, the Unité permanente anticorruption, was first leaked to Radio-Canada and La Presse last Thursday.

“In short,” the report reads, “criminal organizations are taking advantage of legitimate companies, in which they are silent partners, to funnel public funds, controlling the construction world.”

For civil engineering students at McGill, the exposed corruption is especially damaging. “It reflects badly in the public’s eyes on civil engineers,” said Ethan Landy, President of the McGill Civil Engineering Undergraduate Society (CEUS).

Engineers in Quebec are required to be members of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec (OIQ) and to adhere to their code of ethics. The code includes duties and obligations towards the public, clients, and the profession.

“I don’t like it that this is reflecting badly on the profession when the profession is required to uphold such a high code of ethics, in theory,” Landy said.

The report gave an example of the kind of unethical behaviour Quebec construction companies engage in: “An engineer foresees 1,000 loads of contaminated soil when he knows full well that [the removal of] only 100 loads is necessary. By communicating that information to a certain company he can [tip the construction company off] to a savings of 900 loads, which can be advantageous to his offer,” reads the report.

The OIQ code of ethics stipulates that an engineer “must charge and accept fair and reasonable fees,” and that an engineer “shall not resort to dishonest or doubtful practices in the performance of his professional activities.”

The Faculty of Engineering incorporates ethics into their curriculum, requiring that all of its students take two courses that deal with professional engineering practice. Mohamed Meguid, Associate Chair of the McGill Civil Engineering Department, said students will learn “more information about engineering as a profession,” the “expectations from professionals,” and “the obligations that are attached to the profession” from the courses.

Ghyslaine McClure, a professor in the Civil Engineering department, who also acts as a liason between the OIQ and the Engineering Faculty, said that the ethics curriculum at McGill has been recently revised. Students used to take one course in their first year. The course has now been split into one 100-level course and one 400-level course.

“At the end of your program you have a better understanding of what it means to be an engineer and [of] the difficult decisions you have to make from a technical perspective,” she said.

The two courses are replacing MIME 221, Engineering and Professional Practice. Landy, who took the class several years ago, said it was a discussion-based course looking at cases of engineers’ unethical behaviour. Landy said the situation surrounding the Quebec construction industry was not discussed.

“We looked at a lot of different cases, one of which was the Challenger space shuttle, and it had to do with a fault in the [engineering] process,” he said.

“There was a whistleblower, essentially. The person, the whistleblower, suffered consequences because they took a stand against it.”

According to Landy, the class discussed whether engineering ethics encouraged or discouraged whistle-blowing.

“I don’t remember, so maybe it is me, but I didn’t come out with a strong impression, a strong yes-or-no, what’s-right-what’s-wrong, in that respect,” he said. “It would be good to know.”

Landy stressed the importance of educating engineers in the ethical issues that surround their profession.

“It’s really important for a civil engineer – especially for someone who’s going to be graduating soon, moving into the industry – to establish their view on this,” he said.

Alain Azar, now a Masters student in Civil Engineering, thought the one course he took on ethics as an undergraduate was “more than enough,” and that the questions he faced in the class were “really straightforward.”

McClure pointed out that students are educated about ethics long before they arrive at university.

“It has to do with your own values,” she said. “Are you willing to compromise and tell a few lies or not?”

“I always tell the students that the most important thing that you have as a professional, and that you never lose, is your reputation,” she continued.

McClure hasn’t read the report, but from what she has heard, she said its revelations don’t surprise her.

“I know people who have to work in those situations, and this collusion thing,” she said. “It does exist, and I think in a way it must exist in many other professions too.”

The report cites a decline in enrollment in civil engineering programs over the last decade in Quebec as a contributing factor in the corruption scandal engulfing the province’s construction industry. Enrollment in McGill engineering programs, however, has remained steady.

“I’m not sure [the corruption] is a factor that plays a role into directing students or scaring students away from engineering,” said Meguid.

— with files from Henry Gass

The post Quebec corruption report shakes university campuses appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Developer Devimco, along with its partners Group Cholette, the Fonds immobilier de solidarité (FTQ), and the City of Montreal, have invested $745 million in their plan to transform the area.

The first of three phases of construction is currently under way, and will include 1,375 condo units, a hotel, 200,000 square feet of office space, shops, and other businesses. The next two phases will include 1,045 residential units, as well as office and commercial space.

In 2008, Devimco proposed a much larger Projet Griffintown that would have brought, among other things, big box stores and a concert hall to the neighbourhood, but the group altered their proposition after strong community opposition.

Jeffrey Dungen, spokesperson for the Committee for Sustainable Redevelopment of Griffintown, said he was happy the project has been scaled back.

“But the big problem is really that the zoning from Projet Griffintown still exists. That got voted in and hasn’t been repealed,” said Dungen.

Griffintown residents and city officials have also expressed concern over the number of affordable and social housing units included in the developments. With the announcement of Phase One, Devimco promised to offer 206 affordable housing units and 275 social housing units, surpassing the City’s requirement that they comprise 30 per cent of new residential units.

While Devimco President Serge Goulet insisted that the company would honour its promises, community members like Dungen are upset over the placement of these units within a small triangle of land bordered by Ottawa, Murray and de la Montagne streets.

“The whole idea of having social housing is that it’s inclusive,” said Dungen, explaining that a lot of people took huge offense to this triangle becoming a “dumping ground for social housing,” while residents paying full rent in the taller towers will enjoy better views.

Residents have also voiced opposition to the high height allowances that developers have negotiated. Construction on the second phase of development is set to begin in November.

“The best we can do for the future phases is to ensure…that they tailor everything to the changing neighbourhood,” said Dungen. “We’re not going to go and jump in front of bulldozers or anything like that.”

The post Griffintown expansion sparks controversy appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The university has no fine arts programs in playwriting or directing, but according to festival coordinator Dane Stewart, there is no shortage of students willing to become involved in theatre. His call for written submissions to the festival in October yielded 27 plays, and over 100 students came out to audition for them. Stewart suggests that McGill’s lack of programs isn’t as much of a disadvantage as one might assume. “That’s kind of what’s spurred all of the student-run theatre around campus,” he says, adding that McGill has more student-run theatre than most schools. The festival contributes original productions to McGill’s theater secene, as well as the chance for the typical audience member to take in three plays instead of one. With no thematic link between the plays on any given night, the festival-goer’s experience is rather like that of the TV watcher who changes channels every half hour. The possibilities for comparing and contrasting the plays, however, are endless.

The post Culture Brief appeared first on The McGill Daily.

It’s not surprising that leagues and teams have begun to recognize the impact their businesses have on the environment, or that they’ve decided to do something about it. Implementing eco-friendly policies allows companies to cut costs and boast about it – going green has become one of the defining trends of our generation, and professional sports franchises are jumping on the bandwagon.

The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an American organization dedicated to sustainability and combating climate change. With 1.3 million members and activists around the world, NRDC tackles environmental issues of all kinds, including the impact that the professional sports industry has on the environment.

According to their website, the NRDC aims to educate teams and leagues about the effects that they have on the environment, to help them make changes, and to spread awareness on the importance of environmental issues throughout the industry. The NRDC’s first collaboration with professional sports began in 2004 with Major League Baseball. The success of this partnership led other professional leagues to approach the organization. Today, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, the National Football League, and the U.S. Tennis Association have all partnered with NRDC, hoping to “go green.”

Jessica Esposito, a research fellow at the NRDC, defines the “greening” process as, “a colloquial way of saying we are working to reduce an organization’s environmental impacts by reviewing and improving their supply chain and day-to-day operations.” She stresses that discovering a team’s impact is the first step in the process. “When working with teams, leagues, and events,” said Esposito, “we always convey that the first step to improving your operations is identifying your impacts and collecting baseline data on your operations – data on your energy use, water use, waste diversion, purchasing, et cetera – so you can assess your current practices and procurement and develop measurable goals to reduce your impacts.”

Energy audits at facilities can provide a team with the data it needs to start becoming more efficient. MLB has successfully created software that collects and analyzes league-wide data, measuring things such as energy and water consumption, and paper usage. It is the first and only professional league to complete such a project, but other leagues are working to develop similar systems.

Because leagues and teams differ in the number of spectators they cater to, and the ways in which their businesses operate, it’s difficult to create general industry regulations or come up with one policy that works for all. Once a team is aware of its impact, it can then turn to the NRDC Greening Advisor – a customized environmental resource guide, which can be found online. The guide provides stadium operators and team representatives with environmental advice that is tailored to their sport and location, and includes case studies and sample policies.

“Working with sports organizations is a powerful way for the NRDC to mobilize influential cultural forces in our society to promote environmentalism,” said Esposito. “While less than 20 per cent of the population pays attention to science – including the science related to global warming – more than half the population says it regularly pays attention to sports.”

Because of its broad appeal, professional sports teams have a tremendous opportunity: to persuade fans that environmental issues are important, and to encourage fans to make environmentally-conscious decisions at the stadium, at the arena, and at home.

The Vancouver Canucks are the only Canadian team involved with the NRDC, but other teams across the country have made considerable and comparable efforts to reduce their impact on the environment. The Canadiens have been working on an ambitious project – now called The Goal is Green!  – since May 2007, and hope that the initiative will position them at the forefront of the industry’s “greening” efforts.

The Canadiens, working with Société de Transport de Montréal, now offer a shuttle bus service between the Bell Centre and the West Island for each home game. The bus makes only three stops (in Dorval, Pointe Claire, and Fairview) and the cost is normal bus fare – $3.00.

The Bell Centre also now recycles 85 per cent of its residual waste and has met International Organization for Standardization ISO 14001 standards – for planning and carrying out environmental management systems, Ici on Recycle Level 3 recognition from the Quebec government, and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for existing buildings. The latter is a significant achievement considering the Bell Centre had to meet 50 LEED criteria in order to receive this certification. After reducing its carbon gas emissions, installing more efficient toilets, and upgrading its recycling program, the Bell Centre can proudly call itself 35 per cent more efficient than most similarly sized sports facilities.

The Air Canada Centre in Toronto has invested $5 million as part of an environmental initiative that includes waste diversion and a complete re-engineering of the facility’s mechanical and electrical operations.

Another aspect that activists are addressing in sports is the unavoidably frequent travel of any professional athlete. To combat NHL athletes’ high level of carbon emissions, the David Suzuki Foundation has organized the National Hockey League Players’ Association Carbon Neutral Challenge – a competition that encourages players to purchase emission-neutralizing carbon offsets. Robyn Regehr of the Calgary Flames was one of the first NHL players to sign up. Today, he’s joined by over 500 other NHL athletes.

Obviously, some efforts are more long-term and substantive than others. Distributing coupons for the Green Living Show in Toronto during a Maple Leafs home game isn’t going to make a staggering impact. Neither is the Canadiens’ allocation of three prime parking spots at the Bell Centre for hybrid cars. But we’re beginning to see leagues dedicating time and money to address problems of sustainability, and develop programs to deal with these problems.

Esposito is confident that pro sports can play an influential role in the process of saving our environment. “By harnessing the unparalleled visibility of professional sports in the service of ecological progress, we are shifting the debate within the industrial and political sectors away from whether or not global warming and other ecological issues are real threats, and toward implementation of real and effective solutions.”

The post Going green appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Romance of Canada was a collection of 24 plays written by Merrill Dennison and based on Canadian historical events. The plays, performed live on air by professional actors, were a huge success. Just as the CNR took travellers from one end of the country to the other, Romance of Canada took listeners on a similar journey through Canada’s past.

Though customers, especially those traveling from coast to coast, appreciated the entertaining programs, the CNR’s national radio network was created primarily as a means of both promoting the corporation on-board and attracting new passengers. The CNR network controlled Canadian radio for nearly ten years before turning into the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC), eventually becoming the CBC in 1936.

Since its beginnings, radio drama in Canada has been tied to the formation of Canada’s unity and national identity. Radio Train, one of the first serial radio programs for children, was produced by the CNR’s Vancouver station. The program told the fictional stories of a group of travellers on a cross-country train ride, with each episode providing educational tidbits of history, and geography that was relevant to the CNR train route. By connecting transportation with radio, the CNR was able to define itself as a company that represented Canadian landscape, history, and culture.

Although we don’t expect that historical portrayals from the 1930s be as inclusive as those found in history textbooks today, the Romance of Canada series was a wide-ranging collection that presented history in creative ways. “Montcalm,” for example, told the story of the French general, and his defeat at the Plains of Abraham in 1759. The story would have been familiar to its 1930s audience, but refreshing in that it did not focus on the British victory. The radio play ends with all actors shouting, “Long live the King! – Long live Montcalm!”

Canada’s golden age of radio drama was from the mid 1940s until the mid-1950s, when Andrew Allan was supervisor of drama at the CBC. Allan – a proud Canadian – made sure that the CBC presented “plays by Canadians, performed by Canadians, for a Canadian audience.” His dedication and hard work ensured a high quality of output from the CBC and led to a huge increase in listeners across the country.

According to Concordia professor Howard Fink, Allan’s success fit into an early-40s CBC plan to deemphasize regional production “in the interest of a national cultural network.” During Word War II, programming like Nazi Eyes on Canada was used to promote and justify Canada’s war efforts. Nazi Eyes on Canada was about a typical family living in an imagined Nazi-controlled Canada. Throughout the dystopic five-episode series, the family crumbled as rights and freedoms were gradually replaced with fear and fascism. In the 1940s, Archie MacCorkindale of Vancouver wrote and produced a radio play for CBC called You Might Think It Over, which retold the story of Confederation in order to address a need for Canadian unity. To this day, the station’s radio drama still wrestles with some of the most difficult Canadian issues.

The CBC program Afghanada, (which airs Thursdays at 11:30 a.m. and 11 p.m. on CBC Radio 1) is a radio drama that follows a group of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. The award-winning show is now in its fourth season. Greg Nelson, co-creator and former head writer, explains that the nature of radio creates an intimacy not necessarily found in TV and films. “Afghanada is heavily ‘point of view’ storytelling,” he told The Daily. “The fact that we are experiencing everything the way the character ‘hears’ it, and that we are hearing what they are thinking about it all makes us feel very closely connected to the character. We empathize. We care.”

Afghanada’s diverse audience disproves the notion of radio drama as an outdated art form. “Everyone from older listener,s to young guys driving heavy equipment, to mothers driving their kids to school who can’t get out of the car until the episode is over, to military guys – we heard one story of how an entire floor of the Department of National Defense goes quiet when Afghanada is on – they’re all listening,” Nelson said.

Shows like Afghanada are created with the intention of not only entertaining but familiarizing Canadians with national and international issues. Unfortunately for playwrights, the national market for radio dramas today is pretty much limited to the CBC. According to Nelson, there used to be more opportunities. Though he admits that radio drama is somewhat of an “endangered species,” Nelson believes that “Afghanada’s success has proven that drama works on radio and that there is a place for it on CBC.”

Radio-play production is present right here in the McGill community. CKUT and The Yellow Door have combined forces to create The Hidden Gems Project, which is now in its second year. The project matches young writers with elders willing to share stories. The writers then participate in writing workshops and eventually turn the stories they gathered into radio plays.

Radio drama is still a powerful art form in Canada, though its future will depend on the willingness of young listeners and writers to keep it alive. Unlike writing for television, radio writing requires the writer to think visually in order to create vivid scenes for the audience. “If it’s done well, it can be truly exhilarating for the listener,” Nelson said. Shows like CBC’s Afghanada and Wiretap, and CKUT’s The Hidden Gems all show hope for the survival of the genre. Radio dramas are also easier to access today, thanks to the existence of podcasts, which allow fans to archive their favourite episodes and listen to them on their own schedule. Radio drama is far from dead – the only thing needed is for more young listeners, like ourselves, to tune in.

The post Storytelling in stereo appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Established in 2008, Kids Pop has become an increasingly popular part of the festival.  Its mandate, director Jenny Lee Craig said, is “to provide some awesome daytime programming that encourages and supports independent creation for young people.”

All weekend long, Kids Pop will broadcast from Drawn & Quarterly on a low-frequency radio channel, thanks in part to CKUT. On Sunday morning, Heidi Nagtegaal will host “Radio Radio!” – a session that will explore radio history and give kids the opportunity to try their hand at playing DJ. But the fun doesn’t end there.

Youngsters can attend a print-making workshop led by local singer-songwriter Krista Muir, or explore music through a workshop incorporating movement and drawing. Muir will also lead “Songwriting Machine,” a workshop in which kids can create their own original songs using provided instruments.

For those of you who don’t know Fred Penner, he was – and remains – one of Canada’s most beloved children’s entertainers. His TV show, Fred Penner’s Place, aired on the CBC from 1985 until 1997. There may very well be a lot of young adults at his Kids Pop concerts because according to Penner, the 18-and-over university age group is currently his predominant audience. “It seems like the strongest demographic right now really is the university kids, and until they start becoming parents, then that circle will be complete and turn around,” he said, on the phone from his home in Winnipeg.

A few years ago, Penner played in Gert’s to a crowd of eager McGill fans. A video from that night has received over 35,000 hits on YouTube. In it, Penner plays a medley of The Cat Came Back, Hit the Road Jack, and Crabbuckit. That’s right, k-os’s Crabbuckit. 
In an age dominated by electronic entertainment and computer-generated TV characters, events like Kids Pop and performers like Fred Penner try to emphasize the importance of human interaction and the personal connection between the performer and audience. Are attention spans getting lower? “I think children are not given as much credit as they deserve,” Penner said, explaining that so long as you “keep the energy going,” a young audience can be captivated by just one man with a guitar. “When I’m on stage, from the moment I step out until the moment that I am out of sight of the audience, I am aware of that entire audience,” he said, later adding, “That kind of connectivity doesn’t necessarily happen if you’re watching a computer-generated program.”

The Drawn & Quarterly bookstore, run by the influential graphic novel publishing house, will be a small and intimate setting for the Kids Pop workshops. Event organizers are excited about the partnership. As Craig said, “I think it’s important to introduce kids of any age – people of any age for that matter – to smaller and more innovative booksellers as well as independent production and independent creativity.”

On Sunday at the Rialto (5723 Parc), Fred Penner and guests will perform two shows – one for kids at 3 p.m., the other for families (and you!) at 7 p.m. Drawn & Quarterly is located at 211 Bernard Ouest. 
For complete workshop descriptions and times, visit popmontreal.com/kids.

The post Kids Pop appeared first on The McGill Daily.