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OAP management team presents cheque. (Simon Poitrimolt / McGill Tribune)
a, News

Open Air Pub donates $15,000 to children’s charity

by Bea Britneff on

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Last Friday, the Open Air Pub (OAP) management team donated $15,000 to the President’s Choice Children’s Charity (PCCC), a national organization dedicated to helping disadvantaged kids across Canada. The cheque, composed entirely of profits from OAP Lite this past spring, was presented to Loblaw Companies Limited Senior Vice-President Roch Pilon and Provigo du Parc Store Manager Eric Robillard.

Run entirely by student volunteers from the Faculty of Engineering and organized by the Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS), OAP is held every year in Three Bares Park at the start of September and again for two days in late April under the moniker OAP Lite.

The money raised from last year’s OAP Lite further fortifies the existing relationship between EUS, Provigo, and President’s Choice. According to OAP Head Manager Michael Mizrahi, Provigo began sponsoring the event in 2002, and now supplies food, condiments, napkins, charcoal, as well as a freezer truck for storage.

Mizrahi said the profits from OAP Lite have always been donated to charity. Before 2009, profits went to Centraide, an independent philanthropic organization. Mizrahi explained that OAP decided to shift from Centraide to the PCCC in order to strengthen its relationship with Provigo.

“That decision was what has allowed [OAP] to break revenue records the past few years and grow larger than we could have imagined five years ago,” Mizrahi said. “Provigo has been able to sponsor us to a much larger effect, and in return, we’ve been able to raise much more money for the EUS in the fall and for charity in April.”

Founded in 1989, the PCCC focuses on giving aid to children with disabilities, as well as improving childhood nutrition. The PCCC financially supports other similar organizations such as Breakfast for Learning, which educates and empowers communities to deliver school-based nutrition programs.

All PCCC funds are raised regionally and managed nationally, ensuring that all provinces get a share. Pilon emphasized that Loblaw Companies Limited also assumes all administrative costs, allowing 100 per cent of all contributions received by the PCCC to go towards the charity’s projects and programs.

“Since 2004, [the PCCC] has [given] $10 million to Quebec, and helped over 1,700 families,” Pilon said. “Your entire dollar goes to [children in need] … that’s the beauty of our charity.”

Provigo and President’s Choice representatives were thrilled about the donation.

“I was really impressed tonight,” Pilon said. “Fifteen thousand dollars is not peanuts … it’s going to help a whole bunch of kids.”

Students reacted to the presentation of the cheque with a mixture of surprise and approval.

“I didn’t know that [OAP Lite profits] went to charity,” Will Caron, U3 anatomy and cell biology, said. “I think it’s great.”

(Simon Poitrimolt / McGill Tribune)
(Simon Poitrimolt / McGill Tribune)

“It’s exciting to have been a part of that, and I think that it was a very generous donation,” Kristen Bailey, U2 psychology, said.

Both Mizrahi and Pilon emphasized the importance of creating and maintaining strong, reciprocal relationships between the university and local businesses.

“At the end of the day, you always have to give back to your community,” Pilon said. “Offering a discount [to students] is not enough to show a good partnership … so we participate in [initiatives] like [OAP].”

While no new projects have been planned for the future, the involved parties expressed enthusiasm and commitment towards building on their relationship.

In the future, Mizrahi said that the organizations will be working together again in the spring, with profits from OAP Lite also going to the PCCC.

“I think there’s huge potential for what we could do here,” Robillard said. “We feel like we’re a team, and next year … it’s going to be even bigger.”

a, News

J-Board to hear case on AUS referenda

by Erica Friesen on

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The Judicial Board (J-Board) of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) is preparing to hear the case of Bangs v. Calver and Cheng, regarding the potential invalidation of the 2012 Winter Referendum for the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS).

The petition was filed by Chris Bangs, an U3 economics, urban systems, and political science student who was the chair of the ‘No’ committee for two questions in the Winter Referendum Period. In his petition, Bangs wrote that Jade Calver, then-AUS President, and Victor Cheng, then-Chief Returning Officer of Elections AUS, violated the AUS by-laws during this period, and thereby compromising the results.

According to Bangs, these violations included the failure to properly submit the referenda questions to AUS Council, as too many abstentions at the General Assembly obstructed the vote count; the failure to put notification of date, time, and place of polling in an approved student publication, as this information was only released in the listserv; and the reduction of the campaign period, which ended four days before voting began.

According to Bangs, these alleged violations would justify the J-Board invalidating the results of all six referendum questions. However, Bangs only requested the invalidation of the two questions for which he was chair of the ‘No’ committees—“Online Ratification for the decisions of the AUS General Assembly” and “Amending the Constitution.”

In their response to Bangs’ submission, Calver and Cheng cited Bangs’ challenge of only two referenda questions as “a blatant reflection of [Bangs’] bias in submitting this case,” which they said is also reflected in the incidents he chose to highlight in his report.

“The supposed ‘systematic violations of the by-laws’ are unwarranted and in no way affected the validity of the 2012 AUS Winter Referendum,” Calver and Cheng wrote. “The Respondents believe that the motives of the Petitioner are not those of democracy, but rather are fuelled by the Petitioner’s position on the questions.”

According to Bangs, his request for the invalidation of only two questions was influenced by the AUS by-laws, which allow a referendum question to go forward despite violations as long as campaign committees agree that it can move forward. The remaining four questions did not have campaign committees, and therefore could move on without objection. However, as the chair of the ‘No’ committee, Bangs did not believe that the two questions he was involved with should move forward unchallenged.

Although Bangs suggested that the alleged by-law violations could have affected the results, many of last semester’s referendum questions passed with a wide margin of student support. For the question regarding online ratification, 71.7 per cent of students voted ‘yes,’ while only 20.9 per cent voted ‘no.’ Bangs, however, told the Tribune that the numbers aren’t as important as the fact that the referendum period did not follow a fair electoral process.

“This case is not just about the individual questions at hand, but about a larger belief in the need for accountable student unions,” he said. “AUS members deserve a fair election, regardless of the outcomes.”

Calver and Cheng, however, pointed towards their actions during the election period as proof that concerted efforts were made to respect the AUS by-laws, and said that Bangs was unwilling to find times to meet with them to discuss his concerns.

“[We] are of the opinion that all other measures for mediation were not respected by [Bangs],” they wrote. “Furthermore, [he] was set on resorting to the use of the Judicial Board from early in the process.”

Beni Fisch, a member of the ‘Yes’ committee for the question of online ratification of the General Assembly, agreed  that the outcome of the referendum was not affected by Calver and Cheng’s actions. Fisch said he was in contact with both Calver and Cheng throughout the referendum period.

“All [the Respondents’] actions were fair, unbiased, and in no way compromised the integrity of the referendum or its results,” Fisch said.

Because the J-Board has accepted Fisch’s application for intervener status, he will be present at the hearing as a third-party whose intervention is necessary for a complete solution to the case.

Regardless of the effect on the specific questions of last year’s referenda period, Bangs said the alleged violations of the by-laws are symptomatic of other problems within the AUS.

“Every year that I have been at McGill, there has been at least one major scandal involving the AUS,” Bangs said. “We need to stand up for the integrity of this organization, and encouraging fair, responsible elections is just one step forward.”

Calver declined to comment on the upcoming J-Board case.

 

a, News

McGill to offer new Liberal Arts program

by Ivy Tang on

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A new Liberal Arts program,  approved by the McGill Senate last May, could be offered by McGill in the near future.

According to Associate Dean of Arts (Student Affairs) André Costopoulos, the new bachelor’s degree was created in response to the discontinuation of the Humanistic Studies program in 2009 and the Arts Legacy program in 2011.

“Both programs had real strengths, but also problems,” Costopoulos said. “The Humanistic program gave students very broad training, but didn’t have a depth requirement. The Arts Legacy program gave [first year] students real grounding in the humanities discipline, but the numbers we could accommodate were very small […] because it was an expensive program to run.”

Costopoulos said that the discussion to create a humanities program that emphasized the strengths of both the Humanistic Studies and Arts Legacy programs—while also addressing their drawbacks—started almost three years ago.

An Academic Policy Committee report to the Senate advised that the new program be suited to the needs of a research-intensive university. Prospective students will study a large assortment of cultural texts, learn a new language (English excluded), and take a variety of history, literature, art, ethics, and philosophy courses covering a wide range of historical eras.

Students are also required to take 15 credits of complementary courses in one of four specialized streams: languages and literature; fine arts and histories; ethics and social thought; or history and liberal arts. The program also places high importance on preparation for creative leadership and for public service.

The difficulty of establishing a new program—especially an interdisciplinary one—lies in the matter of commitment and resource sharing.

“Interdisciplinary programs don’t have their own faculty and teaching resources,” Costopoulos explained. “Departments decide how to allocate teaching resources. This means people have to be committed and make the case that this is a worthy investment.”

According to Costopoulos, the program will only be offered once several faculties or departments step forward and offer to teach the interdisciplinary program.

“In some programs, like International Development Studies, departments share the load,” Costopoulos said. “That kind of arrangement hasn’t emerged yet for the Liberal Arts. But I don’t think it should be a hard sell. It went through all the multiple levels of approval, and the staff is happy with it. I think it’s a strong [and] good program.”

Based on preliminary evaluation, Costopoulos said he expects up to 300 students to enroll in the program.

Haley Dinel, Student Society of McGill University (SSMU) Vice-President University Affairs, said that SSMU would be more than willing to listen to student feedback about the program.

“It’s frankly out of our hands,” Dinel said. “It’s been through Senate and gotten the check marks. That being said, when the program starts, and [if] there are lots of issues and students want to talk to us, we will absolutely do something about it.”

Dinel placed emphasis on the importance of student-university communication and student advocates for the program.

“What’s great with having a new program is that it’s so nascent and new,” Dinel said. “If [the university] wanted to identify any problems quickly, all it would take is 40 or 60 [student voices].”

Costopoulos agreed that student support is important for the implementation and development of the Liberal Arts program.

“Students need to go to their departments and say ‘I think this should be one of your priorities’,” he said. “If there are faculty members to form a committee, find the resources, and administer and teach the program, it will happen.”

Chloe Sauder, U2 English literature and previous Arts Legacy student, said the increased capacity of the new Liberal Arts program will benefit students as long as professors and TAs are still able to give them individual attention.

“An interdisciplinary program can enable one to see from a new perspective how his or her discipline is linked to other departments within the faculty,” she said. “The more students who are able to participate in the new program, the better.”

(Simon Poitrimolt / McGill Tribune)
a, News

Fitness centre reopens after summer renovation

by Natasha Fenn on

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This past summer, the McGill fitness centre in the Currie Gym underwent a four-month long renovation. Since its conception in 2008, this project aimed to increase the available workout space in the fitness centre. Renovations were completed in time for the start of the fall semester.

Construction of a new 2,000 square foot mezzanine began in late April. The raised work out space is above where the treadmills and other cardiovascular equipment were previously located.

Angelo Battista, assistant manager of operations and project manager at the McGill Fitness Complex, said the renovation was deemed necessary for several reasons.

“[The centre] needed space for less classical workouts,” Battista said. “We wanted areas dedicated to stretching [and] plyometric workouts … [McGill athletics administration] was not satisfied with just a weight room.”

Although the original project was to extend the old, smaller upstairs area, this plan did not meet building safety regulations. Thus, the project was altered to construct a competely separate, larger mezzanine instead.

According to Battista, the fitness centre remained closed for the entirety of the construction period because its location—the junction between Avenue du Parc and Avenue des Pins—posed quite a challenge for the renovators. Situated below street level, this junction only permitted construction equipment and crews to access the facility through its windows, affecting the mobility and safety of those using the fitness centre.

Margaret Markin, U2 arts and science, said she was disappointed that the construction prevented her from exercising at the fitness centre over the summer months.

“It’s beautifully done—no one can argue that—[but] it was just a huge inconvenience to McGill summer students,” she said. “Especially considering how minor the change was.”

According to Battista, the administration was happy with the result, as the renovations were finished on time—the Centre reopened Sept. 1—and within budget. With money left over, McGill Athletics was able to purchase new, environmentally friendly flat screen televisions, which use one quarter of the energy consumed by the previous ones.

While many students expressed satisfaction with the previous layout of the fitness centre, others said the space was a bit limited in peak seasons. Cameron Dagg, U2 engineering, appreciated the new, spacious work out area.

“It’s really nice not to feel overwhelmed for a change when using the [weight training] equipment,” he said. “I can’t wait to try out the [new] TRX machine!”

The TRX machine is another addition to the mezzanine. These machines employ the manipulation of harnesses, and encourage athletes to use their own body weight to modify their workout regimes. Previously, students could only rent TRX bands, but now the fitness centre has its own apparatus. Furthermore, the centre will also be hosting classes to teach students how to use the machine.

For more information about what the McGill fitness centre has to offer, visit http://www.mcgill.ca/athletics/facilities/fitnesscentre/

a, Opinion

What’s next for the Parti Québécois?

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The Parti Québécois won last week’s election with 54 seats and by a margin of .73 per cent  of the popular vote. Marois is set to be Quebec’s first female premier, and will head a minority government. The party has just announced a plan to reverse the tuition increases of the last administration and expand the purview of Bill 101, the law that governs Quebec’s language policy. As stated in Marois campaign, these changes would close access to English CEGEPs for francophone and allophone Quebeckers.

Despite limited discussion on the student movement during the election itself—the topic of last week’s editorial in the Tribune—the PQ announced last week its plan to throw out the previous government’s tuition increases immediately after its victory. Students who have already paid in accordance with the raise are to be reimbursed by their universities.

Cautious but celebratory steps have been taken within the student movement, particularly by the Fédération Etudiante Universitaire de Québec (FEUQ) and its younger sibling, the  Fédération Etudiante collégiale de Québec (FECQ), declaring the fight “over,” while only the hardline CLASSE remains skeptical of the annoucement. Classes have resumed in Quebec universities and CEGEPs. This seems to be a hasty end to a drawn-out struggle. The Tribune notes that this is not a clear victory for anyone, and the implications for the student movement are particularly hazy.

First, the PQ is only a minority government. Its ability to get the freeze through the National Assembly is affected by the lack of a decisive majority. The easy way out for Marois and the PQ would be to try and push this through by holding a likley unsuccessful vote in the National Assembly. This is a good way to place the responsibility on other parties for failing to resolve the issue without having to deal with the actual difficulties of balancing a budget and finding that money somewhere else.

The PQ can also bolster support for the freeze, by forming a coalition government with the appropriately-named Coalition Avenir Québec (19 seats), headed by François Legault. While a coalition government is unlikely, it would likely require modifications to the original proposal, as compromises are to be expected in coalition-building.

Finally, the less diplomatic route for the PQ is to repeal the tuition hikes through an order-in-council, an executive decree that doesn’t need the consent of the legislature. The PQ has already hinted at this course of action in the past.

This is problematic for the Tribune, in light of the PQ’s minority government, narrow margin of victory in terms of the popular vote, and the overwhelming support for the tuition hikes in the province (64 per cent, according to a poll in La Presse in May 2012). An order-in-council is the option that is the least representative of the opinions of those who voted in the polls last week.

Therefore, it’s unclear whether the tuition freeze will be overturned, or if Charest’s raise will persist. Furthermore, there remains the logistical question of having schools reimburse students for tuition already paid. In an interview with the Gazette last week, Principal Heather Munroe-Blum noted that McGill’s budget for this year was established on the base set by the Quebec government in anticipation of the hike. McGill, in particular, has a different relationship with the government of Quebec than do other schools in the province; this is particularly due in part to its international reputation and student body, its independent sources of financing (research, well-placed alumnae), and its anglophone nature. Although no spokesperson from McGill has said anything to make us think the university won’t comply, its clear repayment will be a contentious issue in the weeks to come.

It seems the Parti Québécois does not really have a plan for students—this is the Tribune’s issue with all of these possible actions. Representatives at Marois’ election-night party had vague, ready-made, and politically safe statements on what was next for the student movement in Quebec: promising to resolve it, to take it seriously, and to stick to their guns. Marois has already teetered towards support for students, then shifted back. It’s clear that the issue is not settled, and the Tribune urges students to remain cautious.

The online edition of this editorial has been edited from the print in order to fix typographical errors.

a, Opinion

Why I remember

by Elisa Muyl on

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Today marks the 11th anniversary of the attacks on September 11th, 2001. On that day, I was a fifth grader in downtown Manhattan. I remember that day, and I remember every September 11th after that. Every year, I’m shocked by the strength of my feelings. Every year, I feel the need to say something, though it seems I don’t have anything new to add.

It still jars me to hear ‘September 11th’ being used  as regular date—to mark the due date of a class assignment or an album release. To me, it should be retired and hung up on the rafters next to Patrick Ewing’s jersey in Madison Square Garden.

But I hear it used often enough to think that the rest of the world is beginning to move on. 9/11 is slipping from immediate tragedy backwards into history. In the generations to come, the bottomless pit-in-stomach feeling will be absent from the narratives of the textbooks that record it. It’s impossible to keep this feeling as fresh as it was when the towers fell, when the numbness abated, and the fires finally died out. Its potency will dilute with time, and I think that is good and normal.

This is important, because I understand now what I couldn’t before: to appreciate the irrational feelings of others that are born of their own traumas. Death happens in such magnitudes, and at what feels like such an accelerating rate, that it’s easy to become desenstized to it. HIV/AIDs claim one hundred times the causalities of 9/11 every year, globally. The recent series of mass shootings in Montreal, Virginia, Norway, and Colorado are both shocking and numbingly familiar.

It’s understandable that 9/11 isn’t as fresh in everyone’s minds as it is for most New Yorkers.  But my own experience with a tragedy of such magnitude has given me a deeper insight into the pain and tragedy of others. I don’t understand, in a profound way, the feelings that compel others to mark the events of the Holocaust or the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  However, because I instinctively, irrationally, quietly—and in my own admission, shamefully—celebrated Osama Bin Laden’s death, I can begin to approach a comprehension of the strong emotions that follow such tragedies, and the terrible acts of revenge that continue fuel more.

But that’s why, one day a year, it’s important for me to give September 11th its due. Remembrance is a human act. We do it to make sense of tragedy, to try against odds to keep history from repeating itself. It’s important to remember this event even though we will end up forgetting the feelings that make it necessary to remember: the shock, the horror, the loss that would prevent it from happening again. This is impossible, because each tragedy will lose its power for those who haven’t lived it. It will happen again, and we’ll get over it again. But it’s these shared feelings in the wake of horror that connect us across the gaps of time, location, identity.

If anything, the act of marking a date is a social signal to the victims of the next horror. That way, we at least live in a world that choses to remember.

It’s the an impossible goal that needs to persist: it’s a constant process of learning, unlearning, and relearning through the dynamic channels of history.

“What do I do?” the dust-covered ghosts asked my mother as they passed her vantage point on a broad downtown avenue that pointed directly towards the black, billowing, smoldering impossible. When in doubt, when the world has ended and you are somehow still standing, remember.

a, Opinion

For whose sake anyway?

by Swathi Sadagopan on

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In his talk at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, Fidel Castro labeled the year the “hottest [one] in recorded history.” This was the very year that I was born. Hotter years have since been recorded; the last six months were the warmest ever. Castro’s speech was one that shone light on an imminent environmental crisis that looms larger with each passing day—20 years and two Earth summits later.

That same year, just as I turned one-week-old, a little known but now infamous part of Canada called Oka stole the limelight. Misguided motives, misplaced trust and missing priorities strained relations between the Mohawk people and the riverside town of Oka.

These two seemingly unrelated events are connected by two words: Plan Nord. Introduced in the Quebec Assembly last summer, Jean Charest’s swan song was pitched as an “economic development strategy” to inject benefits of industrial growth in Northern Quebec. This $80 billion investment has been since mired in controversy. Even among the aboriginal residents, voices of dissent were not heard in unison, as the Inuit and Crees supported the plan.

I side with the environmentalists. The plan is too deeply rooted in the capitalist notion that the aboriginals will lose their land—and the little livelihoods they make off it—to a distant promise of secure jobs. It bodes ill to dwell on hopes of a castle in thin air. Take for instance the claim of ‘developing boreal forests.’ The very idea of developing a forest seems specious. In this case, ‘development’ happens to comprise—amongst other activities—logging. The government’s Plan Nord document  claims that logging in the area would account for 53 per cent of Quebec’s annual wood production while supplying wood to 32 plants—only 11 of which happen to be in the area marked for Plan Nord.

If the irony of those figures don’t hit home, here’s another: $15.9 million has been granted to develop the ports in the region. Freely translated, this means the cost of recovery of this capital will involve a huge influx of foreign tourists into a fragile ecosystem. With an understanding of the impact of ecotourism on the Tibetan Plateau, I can safely vouch for the inefficacy of such a plan.

“Quebec and it’s northern zone are indissociable,” wrote Louis Edmond Hamelin in the government’s Plan Nord action plan. Yet, indissociability doesn’t lie in its geographical boundaries, but in the unity of the people who inhabit them. Design of developmental projects demand a social conscience to augment the numbers. Recent shift in power will, if anything, see faster spurts of “development and growth” driven by higher royalty percentages. The need of the hour is an unassuming mind—engaging in a dialogue—that is not disillusioned by the choices it has to make.

Two decades ago, American president George H.W. Bush declared at the Summit that “the American way of life is non-negotiable.” Today, such snobbery won’t get anyone very far in a planet that is common to all. Sooner rather than later, the shadows of our past will come to haunt us while the solution that lies in our hands today slips away. Pablo Neruda said that “…if we want to establish lands of dignity and integrity, lands where people can live in light and justice, then our guiding stars must be struggle and hope.” So, with stubborn hope, earnest desire, and unshaken patience, I wait.

 

a, Opinion

The numbing absurdity of fact-checks

by Joshua Freedman on

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In a US presidential campaign full of unremitting stupidity, the ‘fact-check’ has claimed the crown of the most tedious journalistic device used during this news cycle. Instead of raising the tone of the presidential debate by defending the truth, the fact-check has become another cudgel to be used in the partisan blame-game.

Originally designed to merely check the accuracy of facts and figures mentioned in speeches, the fact-check has now mutated into a shrill, subjective analysis of what can loosely be called facts, all in an attempt to receive page-views.

While the fact-check has proved its worthlessness for the past few months, the recent Republican and Democratic National Conventions really brought the shallowness of this industry to the forefront. For example, did you know that Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama are liars? They are not even normal liars, but pants-on-fire liars, judged by the number of ‘Pinocchios’ they have received in accordance with ABC’s fact-checking system.

A statement that Paul Ryan made on Mitt Romney’s website last week offers a look at fact-checking at work: “In July of 1980, the unemployment rate was 7.8 per cent. For the past 42 months, it’s been above 8 per cent under Barack Obama’s failed leadership. In 1980, under Jimmy Carter 330,000 businesses filed for bankruptcy. Last year, under President Obama’s failed leadership, 1.4 million businesses filed for bankruptcy.”

This is pretty standard campaign rhetoric, and anyone with less than half a brain can see that Ryan is simply trying to tie Obama to someone commonly thought of as a failed Democratic President. Yet ABC news in all of its wisdom dinged Ryan for failing to mention that when Ronald Reagan was president unemployment was once 9.8 per cent, all but forgetting his accurate statement of what the unemployment rate is under the Obama presidency. ABC further claimed that Ryan fudged his numbers about businesses filing for bankruptcy, because actually 331,264 businesses filed for bankruptcy under Carter, and 1,410,653 filed for bankruptcy under Obama. ABC news is against the practice of rounding. Expect an equally vigourous look into Obama’s claim in his speech last night, that he could create 600 000 jobs—a suspiciously exact number—in the natural gas sector.

Also note that, in fact-checking land, whenever Obama compares the economy under his administration to the economy under Bush, he is omitting the fact that the economy was much worse under FDR; thus, he is a liar for not providing proper context.

Partisan websites can then spin this lacking analysis into ‘gotcha’ headlines. Daily Kos used the ABC article to title a post called ‘Paul Ryan lying again. And again. And again,’ and then claimed that on the basis of these ‘faulty’ numbers that Paul Ryan is a “lying sack of [you-know-what].”

Unfortunately, the above fact-check is not an outlying example. Both campaigns have called the other a liar, using these ‘objective’ facts as evidence of their own chastity and the other side’s wonton neglect of the truth. It’s no surprise that the presidential campaign has morphed into an immature shouting match between two highly polarized sides.

Recently, the Romney campaign said that it would not let fact-checkers dictate the direction of its campaign. To that I say bravo, because what the fact-check websites are checking is nothing you and I would recognize as fact.

Matthias Schoenaerts stuns with a forceful, courageous, breakout performance. (collider.com)
a, Arts & Entertainment

Beast of burden

by Chris Liu on

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If a script can be personified, Bullhead needs but one word: cruel. Not because it mistreats its audience—on the contrary, the film is as beautiful as it is miserable; dazzling as it is horrific. The sheer amount of sadness that writer-director Michael R. Roskam packs into two hours is so penetrating, so concentrated, and so visceral, that the experience is utterly exhausting. But I’m no masochist. So, it should also be said that Bullhead is assuredly one of the most raw, profound films you will see this year.

Set in Belgium, the story centres on a group of individuals involved in the trade and use of illegal growth hormones in the cattle industry—“the hormone mafia underworld,” as one ambitious reporter states. The subject is idiosyncratic, but the treatment is dead serious. A noir-ish atmosphere is maintained throughout, and the film opens with intimidation and murder.

Though a number of characters are involved in the plot, there is only one star of the show: Jacky Vanmarsenille (Matthias Schoenaerts). This is not because secondary characters were underserved by the script, nor because the actors portraying them were unskilled; rather, it is due to the breathtaking performance by Schoenaerts in the lead role. Channelling a mixture of brutality and vulnerability, and eliciting a contradictory combination of fear and concern, Schoenaerts utterly dominates his scenes and the film as a whole. The plot brims with originality and suspense, skillfully interweaving Flemish-Walloon tensions with memorable, dynamic characters. The fact that all this becomes a sideshow to Jacky’s personal narrative is a testament to Schoenaerts’ unbridled virtuosity.

The cattle are not the only ones juicing. Early on, we see Jacky injecting what we later understand as a cocktail of testosterone and various growth hormones. The reason for this is soon revealed via flashback, and in undoubtedly one of the most brutal scenes I’ve witnessed this year. The emotion one feels is nothing less than pure, unadulterated horror. What follows is scene after scene of wrenching pain, as the happiness forever stolen from Jacky is trotted out by the screenplay and paraded in front of his eyes. This is what is meant by the cruelty of the script. What must it feel like to be incomplete, broken, and condemned to perpetual deficiency?

Schoenaerts crafts a character reminiscent of the Minotaur: half-man, half-beast, trapped by circumstance, a creature for which one feels unspeakable dread and endless pity. On more than one occasion, Jacky snatches defeat from the jaws of victory; at these moments, the cosmic injustice permeating his storyline becomes unbearable. Right up until the end, the only happiness Jacky sees is that of others. It is a reflected living, which is not living at all. His is a life wholly devoid of pleasure.

Through Bullhead, Roskam and Schoenaerts gift the world with a modern day mastering of the tragic form. The story of Jacky Vanmarsenille ends as it begins: alone, abandoned, and in the throes of violence and pain. Bullhead paints a vision that is bleak and uncompromising, a dizzying array of sorrow and rage and anguish. At the same time, it is a cinematic triumph, a reminder of the raw emotional potential of the medium—for from suffering comes glory.

—Bullhead opens this Friday, September 14th at Cinema du Parc, 3575 Avenue du Parc.

Riding the boundary between punk and pop, Topanga lives to play. (myspace.com/musicoftopanga)
a, Arts & Entertainment

Topanga, meet world

by Cora Lesure on

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A little under two years ago, four childhood friends started making music in a Toronto basement. They dubbed themselves ‘Topanga’ either after the character on the popular television show Boy Meets World, or a canyon in California—take your pick. They had few expectations and no goals in mind—just a shared love of punk rock. The band produced a four-track EP titled Lionheart in 2011 as a result of this common enthusiasm; though they describe themselves as a “punk band,” a pop influence is hard to deny. However, the band strives to differentiate itself from the whiny, power-chord ridden stereotype of punk rock, using the term “punk-pop” to break away from some of the former genre’s connotations.

“We like to play aggressive music and push the boundaries without losing that catchiness element,” says lead singer Stefan Babcock. “We try to use interesting time signatures and stuff like that, but also [try to] write memorable hooks that people can sing along to.”

For a while, Topanga remained just a group of friends without any concrete musical aim. They were serious about staying together as a band, but largely in order to satisfy their personal desires to play, rather than take their music to the next level. This all changed when producer John Drew—who has worked with the likes of Tokyo Police Club and Fucked Up—came into the picture, and gave the four the push they needed.

“We owe a lot to that guy [John Drew],” Babcock says. “He made us realize, maybe there is something there and we should maybe work a little harder, have a go at music as a career.”

The band sent Drew a few tracks, which he loved, and together, they produced a 7-inch record titled Oceans, released in early 2012.

Only a year and a half old, Topanga plans to re-enter the studio following their current tour and stay in Montreal to record a full length album. They will be collaborating with Dave Schiffman, who has worked with bands like The Bronx—a favourite of the four. The album is expected to debut in the spring of 2013.

As a testament to the group’s dedication, all four have recently quit their jobs. The band is still  fledgling; youthfulness permeates every aspect of their approach. This freshness, which comes out in their recordings, is ingrained in their style as musicians and is palpable in the atmosphere of their live shows.  They admittedly like to jump around, and rowdiness is encouraged at their performances.

“We started out pretty much exclusively playing house parties, so that has informed a lot of how we are on stage,” Babcock explained. “The four of us are best friends and we just try to have the best time ever no matter what we are doing, including playing shows.”

The group plans to play at POP Montreal again this year, performing with bands such as Hollerado and Born Ruffians. They will also be playing on October 16 at Casa del Popolo along with The Pack A.D., a garage punk duo from Vancouver.

Those even mildly interested in rip-roaring, youthful, and catchy punk-esque music will enjoy listening to Topanga’s newest single “Guilt Trip.” The band’s musical future holds a good deal of promise—check them out, and get caught up in the fervor.

Music and tour info are available at musicoftopanga.tumblr.com.

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