November 22 2007

Vol. XXX No. XIthe newspapertoronto’s student community paper www.thenewspaper.cawww.thenewspaper.ca

January 24 2008

Vol. XXX No. XVI

See Caucus cont. pg. 3

See Suzuki cont. pg. 2

By Steven Borowiec

By Sean Liliani

By Evan Jordan

David Suzuki Explains

How We Got Here And How

To Get Back To Green

How Did We Get Here?Whitehouse Speachwriter

Takes To The Podium

I Keep Getting My Caucus Stuck In My Primary

Shortly before his lecture “Biosphere Crisis: How Did We Get Here and Where Are We Going?” David Suzuki gave a press conference in the dark re-cesses of Convocation Hall. Su-zuki is may-be Canada’s best known climate sci-entist. His expertise is needed now more than ever as en-vironmental issues be-come more serious with each passing day. Ques-tions from the press revolved around various aspects of climate change and sustainability.

A ques-tion asked to scientists like Suzuki in al-most every climate change d i s c u s s i o n

is how to balance economic growth with environmental responsibility. Even though the current global system is dependent on exploit-ing the environment to fuel the global economy, Suzuki fi rmly believes that “If

you don’t have clean air, clean water and clean food then it doesn’t matter how rich you are. Whenever there’s a crisis in some area, it’s nature that ends up paying for it.”

Suzuki be-lieves that this way of han-dling the natu-

ral world has to be stopped. Many scientists are plead-

ing with governments and the private sector

to make the natural world a greater

priority. The

How She Move?

the newspaper Tells You

Frum Speaks For Himself

With the looming election of the quote-unquote leader of the free world, I thought it would be appropriate to give everyone a breakdown of the delegate system for electing presidential candidates. Though confusing at fi rst, the idea is simple: in-stead of cronyism, i.e. allowing political parties to choose their own leaders (anyone remember Kim Campbell?), Americans democratically elect their presi-dential candidates. In the two-party American politic both the Democratic and Republican parties, have a National Con-vention when publicly elected

delegates vote for presidential candidates. The caucuses and primaries are the two types of voting procedures used by states to decide which Repub-lican and Democratic delegates support which candidates.

We’ll start with the caucus, which is essentially just an old-fashioned public debate and rally. All registered voters can participate by just showing up. Once the meeting has gathered everybody in attendance splits off into groups that either sup-port their candidate or group with the cluster of undecided voters. After that everyone takes turns speaking about their choice and the benefi ts of

them as a leader, and then there is either a vote by secret ballot, a raising of arms, or coolest of all, the winner is chosen by literally counting heads in the different factions.

So, at the Iowa caucuses where Obama won, what ac-tually happened was the larg-est group of supporters in the crowd – after voters got a chance to speak about their choice, and Barack, Hilary and the other contenders gave speeches – chose a delegate who will go to the Democratic convention this Summer and vote for Obama, and thus, a single of the fi fty-two states had chosen their Demo-

“It’s those brown,

yellow and black

people that are

breeding like ! ies.

But, if you look at

rates of consumption,

it’s the industrialized

world that’s

overpopulated.”

American Politics 101

In excess of capacity, the patrons of the Hart House library were nearly brought to a boil yester-day. This heated atmosphere however, had more to do with stifl ing temperatures than with the presence of conservative icon David Frum. While, the former Bush speech writer –who reputedly coined the phrase “axis of evil”– brought in a full house, his

relaxed lecture did little to incite a crowd that may have expected a more incendiary rhetoric. Promoting his new book, Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again, Frum discussed why the pendulum of public opinion is now shifting against the Republican Party. Blaming both Bush’s decisions on for-eign and domestic policy, Frum cited his own recommendation to involve Democrats in foreign policy post 9/11, as something

Bush could have done differ-ently.

“The problem is” Frum told the audience, “when you run the war on a one party basis, it means you’d better be success-ful.” While many audience mem-bers used the Q&A to grill Frum on American imperialism, hos-tilities were largely dampened by Frum’s own critiques of the Bush Administration.

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2 the newspaper 24 January 2008

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the newspaperEditor-in-Chief

Joe Zabukovec

Managing Editor

Sean Liliani

News Editor

Steven Borowiec

Arts Editor

Niya Bajaj

Associate Editor

Timothy Ryan

Art Director

Brendan Keen

Copy Editor

Rehaana Manek

Contributors

Liz Went, Alan Osadetz, Thom Saczkowski,

Matthew Pope, Tia Maryanne Kim, Liz Hillborn

1 Spadina Crescent,

Suite 245

Toronto, Ontario,

M5S 1A1

editorial:(416) 593-1552

fax: (416) 593-0552

www.thenewspaper.ca

Photo Editor

Evan Jordan

Thursday night, the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery at Hart House welcomed Fauxreel -aka Dan Bergeron- for Resistance in the City, an event presented in association with the exhibition Signals in the Dark: Art in the Shadow of War. An interdisciplinary project exploring contemporary art’s relationship to war and its representations, the exhibition is on display until March 2nd, 2008.

The event focused on ways in which the city can become a site of political resistance, particularly through culture jamming and street art. Both of these activities are inherently political as they demonstrate how people are claiming —or reclaiming— the city as their own.

Fauxreel spoke about his life as an artist and his initial involvement in street art through photography. He showed examples of his first series, “Pedestrian”, which featured photocopies of photographs of

his friends and acquaintanc-es, blown up to life size and postered on walls and billboards. He then discussed his desire to have his work deliver a stron-ger message. His first series had sometimes been mistaken for ad-vertisement, leading him to re-paint billboards until they made a culturally relevant message.

Fauxreel noted that unlike cities like New York, whose residents seem to value and take interest in street art Toronto-nians seem to have an apathetic view of the work. When asked how Toronto could cultivate the same culture of street art as in other cities, Fauxreel replied that the art community, and galleries within it, needs to become involved and take pride in the great work that Toronto artists are creating. Not only does this statement emphasizes the importance of events such as this at galleries across Toronto, but the importance of a collec-tive approach between gallery artist and street artist alike.

By Liz Went

Fauxreel For RealSignals in the Dark: Art in the Shadow of War

Suzuki cont. from pg. 1

political will for such mea-sures still doesn’t exist, as Suzuki mentioned when asked about the recent climate change summit in Bali, Indonesia. “The accord that came out of Bali was weaker than the original Kyoto accord.”

In Bali, Cana-dian representatives disappointed many observers by insisting on tougher measures for emerging economies like China before they would accept stricter limits on their own emissions. Su-zuki sees this as unhelp-ful.

“The industrial-ized world created the problem then pledged to follow a very modest program of reduc-tion [the Kyoto Protocol]. Canada has now basically renounced Kyoto. If Can-ada, as one of the richest countries in the world, doesn’t do anything about this, then why should anyone else? It’s us in the industrialized world who are going to have to make the sacrifices.”

The topic of popu-lation growth was then raised. “It’s those brown, yellow and black people that are breeding like flies. But, if you look at rates of consumption, it’s the in-dustrialized world that’s overpopulated.”

Suzuki quoted statis-tics which stated that at the rates of resource con-sumption of the rich parts of the world, this planet can only support around two billion people. If the less developed parts of the world increase their resource consumption to anything near the rates of the developed world, the effects would be cata-strophic.

“From a moral stand-point, we have no au-thority at all. Our gov-ernment is being held hostage by an old way of thinking. They think that demand will continue to rise forever, but it won’t. We need legally binding targets. We need to begin reducing our footprint now.”

“If Canada, as one of the

richest countries in the

world, doesn’t do

anything about this,

then why should

anyone else?”

the newspaper 324 January 2008

Illu

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by

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the jock talk by Alan Osadetz

Dealing with Disappointment

At this point in the school year you should be well settled in to your usual student lifestyle: watching pirated TV programs/movies, drink-ing whiskey and black-ing out (on weeknights), ordering Chinese food at midnight, getting tested for (or transmitting) STIs, all the while complain-ing to everyone about all the school w o r k you’re not doing, as t h o u g h your la-ziness is some un-fathomable e x t e r n a l b u r d e n b e i n g magically b e a m e d into your head by the Taliban. Yes, that sentence was 74 words long. Don’t get a big black boner about it.

In the preceding week you were sancti-fied with the disclosure of your final marks from last semester. This edition of Jock Talk is about dealing with that common feeling when we get our marks back: disappointment. This is a difficult sensa-tion to deal with and it can happen in varying degrees.

For example, a minor setback I experienced this week was weighing in at 184.4 lbs when I weighed in at 185.5 lbs the previ-ous day. I was quick to act by consuming three protein shakes instead of two, and ripping off two extra sets on the military press. Problem solved.

The most disappoint-

ing moment in my life, however, was nothing short of devastating. In 2002, I lost the Peel Region High School Bench Press Championship to Joe Zabukovec. I remember it like it was yesterday. He was shredded like a beast, yet powerfully lean – he wasn’t even supposed to be in the same weight category but he had lost

8 pounds d u r i n g the week l e a d i n g up to the competi -tion! The loss sent me into a down-ward spi-ral of self- d e s t r u c -tion last-ing nearly

three days. I almost went as far as canceling my gym membership and re-fraining from telling girls at the bar that I was a de-tective. In the end I was able to persevere, as you can tell from my success at everything.

The quickest way to get over a disappoint-ing occurrence depends on the situation itself. In all cases, it’s always im-portant to find a positive way of thinking about the situation at hand. Have you recently experienced a bad break up? Just think about all the extra time you’ll have to bone strangers and work out your lats! Did that babe you boned in Thailand turn out to be originally a man? Now you have an emotionally disturbing, yet entertaining, reason to appear on Dr. Phil!

NOTICE TO MEMBERS SPRING 2008 ELECTIONS

U.T.S.U., YOUR STUDENTS’ UNION

LOCAL 98, CANADIAN FEDERATION OF STUDENTS

The University of Toronto Students’ Union is holding its Spring 2008

Elections to fi ll the following positions:

Position Seat(s)

Division I

Victoria College 2

University College 2

Innis College 1

Saint Michael’s College 2

New College 2

Trinity College 1

Woodsworth College 3

Toronto School of Theology 1

At-Large Arts and Science Rep. 2

Division II

Faculty of Music 1

Faculty of Dentistry 1

Faculty of Nursing 1

Faculty of Medicine 1

Faculty of Pharmacy 1

Faculty of Law 1

Faculty of Engineering 3

Faculty of Physical Education 1

At-Large Faculty Representative 2

Executive

President 1

Vice-President Internal and Services 1

Vice-President Equity 1

Vice-President External 1

Vice-President University Affairs 1

Dates

Election Nominations (All Positions)

Monday, January 28, 2008, 9am to Friday, February 8, 2008, 12pm.

Election Campaign Period Monday, February 25, 2008, 12pm to Thursday, March 6, 2008, 6pm.

Election Voting Period Tuesday, March 4, 2008, 9am to Thursday, March 6, 2008, 6pm.

Election Results Monday, March 10, 2008.

Referenda ApplicationMonday, January 28, 2008, 9am to Friday, February 8, 2008, 12pm.

Referenda Campaigning Monday, February 25, 2008, 12pm to Thursday, March 6, 2008, 6pm.

Referenda Voting Tuesday, March 4, 2008, 9am to Thursday, March 6, 2008, 6pm.

Referenda Results Monday, March 10, 2008.

To run for a position, pick up a nomination package during

the nomination period at one of the U.T.S.U. offi ces. Please keep

in mind the dates and deadlines.

For more information, visit our students’ union website at

www.utsu.ca or contact the Chief Returning Offi cer at

cro@utsu.ca.

U.T.S.U. St. George offi ce: 12 Hart House Circle

Hours: Monday to Friday 9 am to 5pm

U.T.S.U. Mississauga offi ce: Student Centre, Room 115

Hours: Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm

Please note that, at the time of this publication, “University of Toronto Students’

Union” and/or “U.T.S.U.” refers to the Students’ Administrative Council of the

University of Toronto, Inc. (“SAC”).

“The loss sent me

into a downward

spiral of

self-destruction....

I almost went as

far as canceling

my gym

membership ”

cratic representative (i.e. delegate). Meaning, noth-ing has been settled thus far, the race is actually just getting under way.

The second type of delegate selection system is the primary. This is a newer process than the caucus and is essentially a popular secret ballot vote that comes in a few varieties. All American voters have to register ei-ther with a party or as an independent. In a closed primary Republicans can vote in the Republican primary but not the Dem-ocratic, and vice versa, while independents are left out in the cold.

In an open primary, any registered voter can vote for either the Repub-lican or Democratic del-egate, but voters cannot vote in both primaries in their state. So, in a state with an open primary, like Virginia, a registered Republican voter could hypothetically participate in the Democratic pri-mary and vote for John Edwards because they hate the idea of Clinton or Obama running for President. However, they would then forego their vote in the Republican primary.

Another variation is the ‘winnner-take-all’ versus the proportional primary. I didn’t want to mess with you earlier but now is when I admit the further confusion that not all states have the same number of delegates. The Republicans have a sys-tem, where the majority winner of a primary gets all of a state’s delegates, whereas the Democrats use a proportional meth-od.

So, if Hilary got 25% of the Nevada Democrat primary vote and they have 20 state delegates, she would have 5 Nevada delegates voting for her. I’m sure this has just con-founded things further, but at least now you have a rough understanding of why Americans are more democratic than us and have a full year to learn about and choose their Presidential candidates.

Caucus cont. from pg. 1

Donkey And Elephant Races

4 the newspaper 24 January 2008

the newspaper

Interviews the

Director of

Cul De Sac,

Jessica Rose

The Trinity College Drama Society is presenting Daniel Ma-cIvor’s Cul De Sac at the George Ignatieff Theatre. Jessica Rose’s production of the Governor General’s Award nominated play has been strenuously reworked into an active performance piece that engages both the actors and the audience. the newspaper had a chance to talk to Jessica in between classes.

the newspaper: Why did you pick Daniel MacIvor’s work? Jessica Rose: What made me pull a Daniel MacIvor play off the shelf as opposed to someone else’s work was honestly his brilliance. He has done quite a few shows that are essentially just him by himself talking to the audience, and I find that style really appealing. It taps into a dynamic unique to theatre that implicates the audience in the creation of the art, because it involves them in it by speaking directly to them.

tn: What has been the most challenging thing about directing this work?JR: The major task behind creating this show was refiguring it to function as an ensemble piece as opposed to a one-man show, which it originally was. Fortunately for me,

it was divided into characters already, so that part was done. What we had to try to do was find a balance between allow-ing each actor to take his/her character where he/she wanted to go, and retaining the cohesion created by the “one-man-ness” of the original show. We had to figure out how we wanted the interactive mo-ments to play out, which was almost like creating an entirely new storyline to add to the one we were already telling.

tn: What is the one thing you want your audiences to take from the performance?JR: I hope that the way we’ve created the show individualiz-es that question, leaving it open for each person that walks into our theatre. For me, it empha-sizes the similarities between interactions between people, we all remember meeting some-one like the character Bick, and we’ve all had to deal with a Virginia. It also highlights how little control people have over how they are perceived, which, after you die, is pretty much all that’s left of you on this planet. That sounds depressing, but I don’t think the show is. For what it’s worth, I think the ending rebels against that last point.

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Joe Strummer is a 20th century music icon but most people know little about the highly in-fluential musician beyond The Clash. Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten aims to change that. The film is a veritable col-lage of Strummer sounds and imagery, giving a wide-angle perspective of the former Clash frontman. However, as a docu-mentary the film falls short of the mark giving a rather dis-jointed perspective of Strum-mer’s life. The movie conveys what it must have been like to be a part of Joe’s life. The film is packed with a synergetic array of clips

from sources such as Animal

Farm and 1984, to rare inter-views and home movies of the man himself. The soundtrack is an eclectic mix from a variety of genres and times that reflect Strummer’s tastes and what he lived through. The movie lacks a cohesive theme. It covers a lot of ground, but doesn’t do it well. There were funny moments but half of them were the seemingly random celebrity interviews with people like Flea, John Cu-sack and Bono who never actu-ally knew Strummer (I did not laugh alone). It also felt like there was a cut every two sec-onds, which had a rather dis-

orienting effect. The most powerful moments of the film are courtesy of the interviews with Joe’s friends and colleagues, and the sound-clips of his London Calling BBC radio show. The film felt like a long, over-edited music video but the essence of Strummer’s life shines through and the search for purpose after the dissolve of The Clash is effec-tively illustrated. In the end it is the people he tried to make a difference for. According to Strummer “Without people, you’re nothing” and as much as that is true, the movie shows us how little so many would have been without him.

Directed By:

Julien Temple

Rock Bio Pic

of 20th century

music icon,Strikes a Chord

But Still a Bit Flat.

By Matthew Pope

By Niya Bajaj

The Future Is Unwritten

Joe Strummer:

the newspaper 524 January 2008

By Thom Saczkowski

Six Imprisoned Researchers Released From Death Row

the science by Timothy Ryan

Imagine this: you are a medical researcher at one of the premier universities in the world. You study HIV and are research-ing its manner of replication and attempting to harness its spread in Libya. The hospital you work in has poor hygiene and lacks the most basic of sup-plies, such as plastic containers to safely dispose of syringes, latex gloves and autoclaves (au-toclaves – a pressure cooker for ensuring sterilized and safe mi-crobiological technique).

Before you arrive to begin your work on the HIV virus, under these unfortunate cir-cumstances, there is an AIDS outbreak in the children’s hos-pital you work in. Almost 400 children are infected with the virus. You are doing everything you can to slow the progression of the virus when the Libyan authorities come in and arrest you for intentionally spreading the virus to the children.

That is what happened in

1999, at the al-Fateh Children’s Hospital in the Libyan city of Benghazi. The Libyan parents wanted answers and they want-ed blood for the death sentenc-es imposed on their children. So six of the foreign researchers were detained and put through medieval torture sessions to extract a confession of guilt. The researchers were drugged, beaten, electrocuted and raped. The six detained international scientists gave in and confessed to charges of bioterrorism and were sentenced to death by fir-ing squad. They rotted on death row up until recently.

A team of researchers from the University of Oxford was sent in to investigate and found that the outbreak had begun before the six workers had ar-rived there. They did this by analyzing the DNA sequences of the viruses in the blood of the infected children. Using the genetic data as molecular clock they determined the outbreak

occurred prior to the arrival of the workers. Proving their innocence was the easy part. The hard part was convincing Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi to “do the responsible thing” and release the scientists.

Al-Qaddafi saw this as an opportunity to modernize Libya’s scientific resources. He released the scientists only af-ter attaining millions of dollars from the international commu-nity to treat the infected Libyan children. In addition, he has begun a program to protect Libya’s archeological sites and coastal ecology for which he has attained international col-laborating scientists to assist him. There was a price to pay for the removal of the scientists off death row, but it is as happy an ending as you are going to get.

Artist Pro!le: Au Revoir Simone

On January 16th the band Au Revoir Simone put on a stunning performance at Lees Palace. The all-female band from Brooklyn, New York consists of Erika Forster, Annie Hart, and Heather D’Angelo. This is the final tour before their writing hiatus to create their second album entitled The Bird of Music. I sat down with the band a couple hours before their show to ask them some questions about their recent activities and future plans.

They arrived one by one, and were delighted to be in Toronto, especially Annie, who said that her memory of the last show they played here was “one of their best” because the audience was so energetic and receptive to their music. She still has memories of “people putting post-it notes on the stage”.

The Toronto show is the first of their brief January tour. I asked them if there was any special reason for doing this tour. They replied with a chuckle, they are touring because their agent asked them to.

They have a “glimmer of ideas” for their next album and have perfected one new song. In the middle of the set the girls said that they were going to play a song that they had never played live before. They seemed slightly nervous but the beautiful piano work by Erika made it one of the most intriguing songs of the night, so hopefully this is what we can expect from their upcoming album.

The girls are currently trying to learn some new instruments and said that they have been listening to folk music for inspiration. Heather said “it will be different from their other two albums but it will definitely

keep their f a n s

happy”. I asked the

trio if they had any collaborations

scheduled for their new

album, and the girls replied that they have nothing scheduled but would really like to try something like that for their upcoming album.

Au Revoir Simone’s stage presence could be described as original. I was amazed at how much dancing they were all doing despite being constricted to their keyboards most of the time. The different personalities of the girls are quite evident while they are on stage, their focus and passion for their music provides a great experience and it also encourages interaction from the audience. During the encore the girls played a cover of ‘Oh Pretty Things’ by David Bowie, which was their first attempt at playing the song live. The band was going for a “lullaby dream sequence” sound and it is currently in the final mixing stage so fans can expect it to be released soon.

Although they were nervous that they would not be able to make it through the song, once they completed it the crowd’s reaction indicated that the tune was well received. After the second song in the encore the band humbly proceeded off the stage. Though I felt as if their set was slightly short, I may have just been left wanting more.

A Lullaby Dream SequenceWhere the Fuck is This?

Photo by... we can’t even tell you!

You’ve seen it before, but you just can’t put your finger on it...If you can, e-mail the newspaper at thenewspaper@gmail.com. First correct answer gets a prize.

6 the newspaper 24 January 2008

How She MoveDirected by: Ian Iqbal Rashid

Starring: Rutina Wesley,

Brennan Gademans,

Cle Bennett, Tre Armstrong,

Kevin Duhaney, Shawn DesmanHow She Move is like laying a huge log on the photocopier at work. It’s hilarious, but disgusting and uncalled for at the same time.-Jock Talk

I’d like to show some love to the struggling Canadian fi lm industry and say something nice about this movie, but my allegiance to honest criticism is stronger than any sense of patriotism. I will be polite though: this movie isn’t very good. I didn’t enjoy watching it.-Steven Borowiec

A little hollow emotionally, but if you like dance-offs, math-offs, or Shawn Desman, then

this movie is for you.

-Liz Hillborn

Shawn Desman stole every scene he was in... that is to say I want my two hours back. -Brendan Keen

It’s tough because you have to compare it to other dance movies, which means you have to have seen other dance movies. That’s like admitting you don’t respect yourself.-Joe Zabukovec

The highlight of the fi lm had to be when things came to blows between the two lead female characters, yet instead of a fi stfi ght they had a “step-off”...only to be followed by a fi st-fi ght.-Timothy Ryan

Make the right move

Join the newspaper

Bobby would Have Wanted it

That Waynewspaper@gmail.com

8 the newspaper 24 January 2008 BACKPAGE

Toothpaste for DinnerLast Weeks Solution

This Weeks Problem

BY DREW

t h e c o m i c s

Bob the Angry Flower By Stephen Notley

I’ll Sudoku YOU

As much as I love old-school Backstreet Boys and the 679 hor-rifying bopper-bands that fol-lowed, luckily, The Worst Pop Band Ever isn’t number 680 in this prestigious group.

In fact, WPBE, composed of Dafydd Hughes, Tim Shia, Chris Gale, and Drew Birston, has nothing to do with spiky hair and generic “ooh baby I love you/ baby I need you”

lyrics. On the contrary, they’ve branded themselves a “nu-jazz” band, preserving the feel-good soul of that genre while throw-ing sprinkles of synthetic pop sounds on top. It’s a funky com-bination that seems puzzling at first, but it’s a unique style that just works.

The group put on an amaz-ing concert at Hart House last Friday, impressing even the most critical jazz fans….aka myself.

Their first number, a cover of “Ida Lupino”, started off with a dreamy, romantic tenor sax-based groove; it sounded like ideal Valentine’s Day girl-friend-seducing music.

The drums then began to boom louder into an upbeat tune, showcasing the unique pop fusion within the jazz; strange snippets of digitalized “alien-ish” sounds that some-how came together in perfect rhythm with the staccato bass

lines. It wasn’t some dopey,

bland performance either.Tenor saxophonist Chris

Gale brought out an awesome energy that enraptured the room. Drummer Tim Shia was like a jazz junkie, lost in the melody and fiend-ing for the music- not heroin, thank god!

And the surprise highlight of the night? A beautiful rendi-tion of Radiohead’s ‘High and Dry’. It was just sweet. Who

would have thought whipping up some jazz, Radiohead, and synthesized pop would make for such great music?

You have to check out WPBE’s shows to really get it. They’re playing on January 25th at the Drake at 8 pm, and at Chalker’s on February 3. It’s a concert must for the die-hard jazz fan and anyone craving some cool music.

By Tia Maryanne Kim

World’s Worst Pop Band ...Not So Bad After All