Le lundi 29 novembre 2010 - Volume 100 Numéro12 Volume 100, Issue 23

Le seul journal francophone de l’Université McGill November 29, 2010

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Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily 29.11.2010 Table des matières
Table of contents

Foi
Faith 5 Éditorial
Une édition bilingue
A bilingual issue News | Nouvelles
10 Students talk about
the Middle East
11 La démocratie-chrétienne
Commentaire | Commentary
13 La foi à temps partiel
14 Faith and Marxism
Feature
20 The transformation
of Brother André

Plus: Arch Arts & Culture

Café emails 26 Souvenirs d’Auschwitz
released 27 A saint for Kahnawake?
8 Life | Société
30 La radio de Jésus?
31 Tolérance et foi
en terre brûlée
33 Sports as faith
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www.mcgill.ca/StudentHealth/BOUTIQUE The Daily returns on Jan 10, 2011
Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily 29.11.2010
La foi en héritage
Montréal est connue pour être «la ville aux cent clochers». Cependant, depuis
les dernières années, la métropole québécoise se voit graduellement dépouil-
lée de ses églises, celles-ci étant démolies ou se réincarnant dans des complexes
d’habitation. Vous direz que ce changement dans le paysage urbain est raison-
nable, que ces lieux de culte sont de toute façon de moins en moins fréquentés,
que la vocation d’être prêtre ou sœur n’est plus aussi répandue et que l’argent
serait mieux investi ailleurs – dans l’éducation, notamment, bien sûr. Notre pat-
rimoine religieux n’est-il aujourd’hui qu’un ramassis de vieux édifices délaissés,
reniés, oubliés? N’y a-t-il pas sous cette architecture surannée et au-delà de ses
lourdes portes, un monde qui nous appartient? Lequel, posez-vous? Le passé.
Lorsqu’on la pose la question de ce qu’est la foi, on pense inévitablement au sacré,
à la religion, à Dieu. Cependant, avant tout culte et toute divinité, la foi est croyance,
«avoir foi en quelque chose», «avoir la foi». C’est d’abord un sentiment de confiance,
d’assurance, d’adhésion. Les deux racines latines de «religion», religare (relier) et relige-
re (relire), expriment bien l’intention première de ces récits mythiques et mystiques. La
religion était sensée relier les êtres humains et relire la vie –personnelle et collective,
créer un sens aux événements fortuits. La religion était une histoire qui se transmet-
tait de génération en génération, transmission de péripéties et de valeurs. Seulement,
l’être humain s’est vu instrumentalisé au service de textes lus au pied de la lettre, d’un
sens élevé à une vérité absolue et proférée par une entité divine. La mort s’est substi-
tuée à la vie, et la liberté de l’homme est écrasée sous la force d’une idole inhumaine.
Certains diront que la foi religieuse n’a été qu’une immense source de vio-
lence et que le monde se porterait mieux sans religion. Et les événements ne
manquent pas de confirmer cette proposition. Toutefois, en temps de crise, la
foi a également été indispensable pour la survie, intimement liée à des gestes
de solidarité, de compassion et d’espoir. Ce mandat premier de la foi, d’union,
se voit trop souvent écarté des décisions qui ont trait au patrimoine religieux.
Comme si la réalité quotidienne ne se poursuivait pas dans ces espaces de culte,
alors qu’autrefois ceux-ci pouvaient mieux éclairer le monde. Cette concep-
tion a créé une séparation entre la foi pour le futur et la foi en l’Homme.
La religion est enchâssée dans l’histoire et répond à des doutes et des attentes.
Voltaire lui-même a dit: «Si Dieu n’existait pas, il faudrait l’inventer.» La société mod-
erne est beaucoup plus laïque qu’autrefois, sans aucun doute, mais avec la disparition
de ces lieux de foi, un certain sentiment d’appartenance s’est aussi éteint. Ce n’est
pas pour rien si on remarque plusieurs personnes se rassemblant pour sauver l’église
Très-Saint-Nom-de-Jésus et ses orgues, célébrant la canonisation de Frère André,
ou participant au documentaire web interactif Sacrée montagne produit à l’ONF.
Ainsi, cette publication commune des journaux Le Délit et The McGill Daily sur
le thème de la foi et ses différents rôles dans notre monde contemporain est, d’une
certaine façon, symbole de deux solitudes moins marquées, d’une communion. !
—Mai Anh Tran-Ho
Éditorial
Faith as change in Haiti
Yesterday, Haitians voted in their first elections since January’s earthquake,
which killed over 200,000 people and decimated the country’s infrastructure.
Though voting was held under the UN’s watch, the elections were far from fair.
Most notably, former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his liberation the-
ology-inspired party Fanmi Lavalas were excluded. As this joint issue of The
Daily and Le Délit looks into the many roles that faith plays in the contemporary
world, we should consider the crucial part that a particular kind of faith, libera-
tion theology, has played in Aristide’s – and Haiti’s – recent political history.
Aristide had long opposed the wholesale privatization and deregulation of the
Haitian economy. A former priest, Aristide put forward a political platform – includ-
ing the establishment of social programs like health care and education for the
greatly impoverished Haitian population – that draws its inspiration from liberation
theology. After decades of repressive dictatorship, these policies represented serious
democratic progress in Haiti, still the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.
Liberation theology is a radical strand of Roman Catholicism that emerged
in the sixties at the same time that large-scale decolonization movements were
gaining strength. In contrast to the Vatican’s official stances, this movement
focused on issues of social justice, directly advocating for better material condi-
tions for oppressed communities, especially poor people in Latin America and
across the Global South. Leaders inspired by liberation theology, many of them
clergy members, formed some of the staunchest opposition to Western-backed
military regimes in countries like El Salvador, Argentina, and Nicaragua.
Since the 1980s, liberation theology has been under attack. An aggressive cam-
paign led by the then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
Joseph Ratzinger – now Pope Benedict XVI – sought to ostracize it from the Catholic
mainstream. At the same time, its objectives and stated opposition to free-market
capitalism drew the ire of Western commercial interests and international bodies like
the IMF and World Bank, whose programs have severely weakened its strength.
Aristide’s Fanmi Lavalas party has suffered from this backlash. First elected in 1990
in the country’s first democratic elections, Aristide served two terms as the president
of Haiti. His initial term was cut short by a 1991 coup, though he eventually received
conditional support from the Clinton administration and was reinstated in 1994.
However, during his second term, beginning in 2001, Aristide’s relationship with
the U.S. and its allies had evidently deteriorated in the face of planned nationalization
of key industries. In 2004, Aristide resigned the presidency under extreme pressure
from the U.S., Canada, and France, among other countries, who lent their support
to an armed insurrection against his administration. Aristide has repeatedly claimed
that he was forced to resign after being detained at gunpoint by the U.S. military. Ever
since his exile, Haiti has seen repeated demonstrations demanding his repatriation.
As Aristide remains in forced exile in South Africa, unlikely to return to Haiti any
time soon, yesterday’s election in Haiti was anything but democratic. These unjust
elections and Haiti’s continued deep poverty demonstrate the need for an alternative
ideology. Aristide and Lavalas, with their unabated popularity, could provide just that.

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Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily 29.11.2010 Nouvelles | News

Homeless festival funding cut

Heritage Canada decision may spell the end for event
Sam Appel for this festival, as no previous
News Writer funding was announced for this
year's event. As stated in our
application guidelines, there is
“We’re not mad at Canadian
Heritage. We try to understand. But
they’re putting us in a bad situa-
tion. … We want everyone to know

F
ourteen days before the
État d’urgence, a four-day,
five-night homelessness fes-
tival in downtown Montreal, the
Department of Canadian Heritage
decided to drop their share of the
funding for this year’s event. The
decision has left ATSA (Action ter-
roriste socialement acceptable),
the organizer of the event, with
a $43,000 deficit, and effectively
rules out the possibility of a festi-
val next year.
The État d’urgence – French
for State of Emergency – which
was inaugurated in 1998, ran
from Thursday through Sunday
in Place Émile-Gamelin last week.
The event provided free food,
clothing, and medical services for
the homeless, and featured art
exhibits addressing discourses on
homelessness and social exclu-
sion.
When asked why Canadian
Heritage, the ministry in charge of
federal culture grants, cut funding
for the festival this year, ATSA co-
founder and event organizer Annie
Roy responded, “I don’t think there
is a reason for it, that’s the problem.”
In an email to The Daily, Canadian
Heritage’s press service representa-
tive Geneviève Myre noted that the
ministry made no promises to ATSA
this year with regard to funding, and
thus had committed no error.
“Funding was not withdrawn
no guarantee of funding for appli-
cants from one year to another,”
wrote Myre.
Despite the promoter’s finan-
cial woes, the atmosphere at the
festival on Thursday was upbeat.
Evidently homeless men lit up at
the sight of old friends as they
mingled under the massive “pro-
test” photographs by Argentine
artist Leonel Luna.
Jean Yves, a 57 year-old
Montrealer, homeless for 12 years,
explained, “It’s good for food,
warmth, clothes, for people to get
together. People come for the atmo-
sphere.” In the middle of talking he
introduced an elderly man he had
not seen, he said, since the man
went to jail a few months before.
“It’s good to see him back here.”
One homeless man, who intro-
duced himself as Ralph, said he
planned on staying in the park
for the whole four days, sleeping
in the square with other festival-
goers. “I’m here for the festival
just to have fun. I like to meet
new personalities, that’s what I
like to see,” he said.
Most of the visitors at the festi-
val on Thursday did not know that
the event had lost its government
funding two weeks before. Jean-
Matthieu, press coordinator for
the ATSA, says the organization
does not want to seem like it is
complaining.
[about the cuts], but also to enjoy
the moment,” Barraud said.
However, Roy expressed her dis-
pleasure with the way the govern-
ment made its funding decisions
known to ATSA.
“They do not have consistency.
They don’t realize they are asking
small cultural organizations to be
responsible with their budget,”
she said. “[Canadian Heritage]
is totally disconnected from the
reality of the cultural milieu, how
difficult it is to find money. They
have the right to put their money
elsewhere, but just do it correctly
so we don’t crash.”
Canadian Heritage did not say
whether it would renew ATSA’s
grant until two weeks before
the festival, and before that, Roy
insists, Canadian Heritage led
ATSA to think it would gain sub-
stantial funding for this year’s
festival.
“The agent for Canadian
Heritage told us to budget
$65,000. The way they were
encouraging us told us that we
should expect money. We kept
Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily
calling throughout the year up État d’urgence may be packing up for good.
until two weeks ago and we were
absolutely not expecting a zero.” one who is here is going to be ing operation is detrimental to the
Festivalgoers, homeless and oth- upset,” said Ralph. cultural institutions it supports.
erwise, were disquieted when told Roy holds that not only was “They are not obliged to give us
that the festival might not be back Canadian Heritage misleading in the money but I think there is a certain
next year. run-up up to the grant decision, but ethic and procedure that needs to
“If that’s really happening, any- that the basic structure of the fund- be followed,” said Roy.

Gallowayland
Chronique| Nouvelles: Attention, chronique de droite

Jean François Trudelle faire la guerre. Un peu de recher- son souhait que les lois contre la femmes. L’odeur d’hypocrisie com- Musulmans, une organisation pro-
Le Délit che lui aurait permis de connaître diffamation soient utilisées contre mençait sérieusement à me brûler charia (donc anti-gay et misogyne),
des instituts tels le Cato Institute, le ministre Kenney qui l’aurait pré- les narines. il a simplement esquivé la question
un organisme libertarien américain, tendument refoulé aux frontières! Finalement, il est arrivé au point en prétendant qu’il n’y avait aucun

L
e 17 novembre, George
Galloway venait nous entre-
tenir à l’UQÀM de la liberté
d’expression et de libération pour
l’Afghanistan et la Palestine. Je ne
pouvais pas manquer l’occasion.
À peine assise, j’ai eu un
avant-goût de ce qui m’attendait.
L’homme à ma gauche disait à un
ami qu’Agnès Gruda de La Presse
était au service du «lobby juif». À
ma droite se trouvait un couple de
femmes. Quelle délicate ironie de
voir ce couple venir faire la cour à
des islamistes qui voudraient assu-
rément les voir disparaître.
L’événement a commencé
avec une demi-heure de retard.
Le maître de cérémonie, Stéphan
Corriveau du Bateau Canadien pour
Gaza, nous a servi un splendide
discours. Il a vertement critiqué la
droite qui défend les libertés indi-
viduelles en déclarant que la seule
liberté qu’elle défendait est celle de
qui fait notamment la promotion
du retrait des troupes américaines
d’Irak et d’Afghanistan. Parmi tous
les orateurs, c’est une belle jeune
femme qui m’a le plus étonné;
Marie Auer-Labonté d’Alternatives,
venue parler, keffieh au cou et en
jupe, devant une foule de femmes
dûment voilées. Qui sait si elle aura
toujours le droit d’être si légère-
ment vêtue dans quarante ans?
Une heure plus tard, George
Galloway a pris la parole. Il a eu
droit à une ovation. Puis, il a com-
mencé à débiter ses niaiseries.
Il a commencé par se présenter
comme un champion de la lib-
erté d’expression à cause de son
«combat» pour entrer au Canada.
Ce combat n’a en fait jamais eu
lieu étant donné qu’il n’a jamais
été interdit d’accès au Canada. Ne
reculant devant rien, et ce après
avoir dit qu’il était en faveur de la
liberté d’expression, il a exprimé
Ce n’est pas tout. Il a ajouté qu’il
était contre la liberté d’expression
sans limite!
Il a notamment témoigné son
appui aux lois contre la diffamation
des religions (lire l’islam). En ten-
tant de se défendre des accusations
d’antisémitisme, il a avoué son affec-
tion profonde pour les «titanesques
génies» Marx et Trotsky (ce dernier
disait que «toute opposition signi-
fie mort par inanition»). Autrement
dit, vous pouvez dire tout ce que
vous voulez, dans la mesure où lui
et sa bande d’autoritaristes sont
d’accord.
Il a poursuivi en parlant de
l’Afghanistan. Selon lui, l’OTAN est
la puissance colonisatrice. Il faut
dire qu’il ne fallait pas s’attendre
à mieux de quelqu’un qui disait
que les Talibans ne sont pas ses
ennemis! Par contre, il s’est empres-
sé de dire qu’il était entièrement
derrière les droits des gays et des
le plus important de son discours; la
Palestine. Il a prétendu que le Hamas
avait été démocratiquement élu et
que la communauté internationale
se devait de respecter le choix des
Palestiniens. Il a totalement négligé
le fait que ce «parti» a mené un vio-
lent putsch contre le Fatah en 2007.
Il a aussi eu le culot de dire que
le terrorisme était causé par l’État
hébreu et l’Occident. L’islam radical,
dans son imaginaire, n’y est pour
rien. Pourtant, une petite lecture de
la charte du Hamas lui aurait permis
de découvrir que ce parti, bras pal-
estinien des Frères Musulmans, est
profondément ancré dans la haine
des Juifs.
Cet homme vit dans un déni total
de la réalité. Pour lui, Ahmadinejad
ne veut pas détruire Israël. Lorsque
je lui ai demandé, sous les huées,
d’expliquer pourquoi il assistait
à des événements organisés par
des organismes affiliés aux Frères
membre des Frères Musulmans
dans la salle.
Vous doutez encore de la folie
des gens présents? Les organisa-
teurs ont réussi à récolter des
milliers de dollars pour le Bateau
Canadien pour Gaza. Ce bateau se
veut être une deuxième flottille de
la «paix». Cette flottille avait été
organisée par l’IHH, un groupe turc
associé au Hamas et parrainé par les
Frères Musulmans.
J’oubliais, Amir Khadir a fait une
apparition. Imaginez si un député
conservateur était présent à un évé-
nement où on faisait l’apologie de
Mussolini. Il devrait démissionner.
Je suis sorti de cet événement,
en entendant encore le maître de
cérémonie crier «Palestine libre!»
plus amoureux de ma liberté et de
la démocratie que jamais.
Vous savez pourquoi? Parce
que George Galloway a perdu son
siège.!"
 Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily 29.11.2010
Nouvelles |News

Arch Café emails released

JUNE
The Daily has obtained a bundle of documents relating to the
JUNE 15: 8:23 a.m.
Architecture Café – including personal emails between administrators
and student politicians, internal memorandum, and reports – after fil- From: Morton Mendelson
ing an Access to Information request. The document dump sheds light To: Michael Jemtrud

on the decision-making process surrounding the closure, detailing a

Any word on the Architecture students?
coordinated media strategy on the part of the administration. Several
The summer is fast evaporating, and we are
key administrators and faculty declined to comment for this article, hoping to clear up the issue regarding the
referring The Daily to Deputy Provost Morton Mendelson. They include Architecture Cafe before the start of the
Director of the School of Architecture Michael Jemtrud, Director of adademic year.
McGill Food and Dining Services Mathieu Laperle, Assistant Director
of Legal Services Vilma Campbell, Dean of Engineering Christophe JUNE 15: 9:16 a.m.
Pierre and Director of Media Relations Doug Sweet. Go to mcgilldaily.
From: Michael Jemtrud
com to see the full documents. To: Morton Mendelson

By Michael Lee-Murphy, Henry Gass, and Eric Andrew-Gee

...The new ASA president is very reasonable
and I have basically said that the Cafe is a

B
y July 15, the decision to close the Architecture
Café was final. More than a month passed
between when the decision to close the cafe
was made and when the administration officially told
students it would not be reopened.
There was also a more than two-month gap between
when Architecture Students Association (ASA) presi-
dent Kyle Burrows was told of the possible closure of
the cafe, and when the official notice came. This delay
left students confused about how to proceed – whether
to resist the closure whole-heartedly and risk losing a
student space, or to tentatively plan for a new, student-
friendly space where the cafe had been.
Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning)
Morton Mendelson wrote Mathieu Laperle, Director
of McGill Food and Dining Services, just after noon
July 15, in response to a question sent that morning
as to whether a final decision had been made on
closing the cafe. Mendelson wrote: “I agree that you
should remove the [Architecture Café] as a destina-
tion in your [promotional] material.”
As early as the beginning of June, however, Burrows
was made aware that he should start thinking about
new uses for the cafe space in a meeting with Michael
Jemtrud, Director of the School of Architecture. In a
June 15 email from Jemtrud to Mendelson, the director
wrote, “The new ASA President [Burrows] is very rea-
sonable and I have basically said the cafe is a done deal.
I think I am getting them to the right place but they are
concerned about being the bad guys of course and want
to make sure it is replaced by something defensible.”
In an interview with The Daily, Burrows said he
was hesitant over the summer to begin publicly sug-
gesting ideas for replacing the cafe, however, until he
was sure the cafe was being shut down.
“If the cafe was dead and gone we might start to
think about [new plans for the space]. It was that con-
stant struggle that we didn’t want to lose the space
for students…but [the cafe] wasn’t a lost cause in our
minds,” said Burrows.
“For us to come forward with a proposal, before
we had received any kind of official confirmation that
the cafe would be closed – that would have a very
negative effect on the way it was perceived,” he said.
Despite Jemtrud’s indication to Mendelson that
Burrows was resigned to the closure, the ASA presi-
dent insists that he wanted to keep the cafe open
from the beginning.
“Our main objective was to keep that room a student
space,” he said, adding that, “the ASA decided very early
on that the cafe was the best representation of a student
space we could have in the school. Nothing we could
think of – especially not a study space – could ever
match the quality and the charm of that space.”
Katherine Messina, last year’s ASA president and
senior manager of the cafe for the past two years,
saw a more elaborate strategy in Burrows’ hedging
between fighting the closure of the cafe and propos-
ing what might replace it.
Despite Burrows’s opposition to closing the cafe,
Messina told The Daily that Burrows formally accepted
the administration’s desire to shut down the cafe in an done deal. I think I am getting them to the
attempt to gain their support throughout negotiations right place but they are concerned about
over joining the Engineering Undergraduate Society’s being the bad guys of course and want
(EUS) Memorandum of Agreement (MoA). to make sure it is replaced by something
“The ASA was never on board with [the cafe’s]
closing,” she said. “But because the ASA wanted to be
defensible.
accredited [as a student association] and we didn’t
want anything to stop us from doing that, the idea
was to make the ASA and the Arch Café appear to be JULY
two separate governing bodies, so that whatever was
done to save the Arch Café did not reflect on the ASA JULY 15: 12:24 p.m.
and would not have made the University be like, ‘No, Mendelson directs MFDS director Mathieu Laperle
we’re not giving you your accreditation.’” to remove the Architecture Café from promotional
Messina said she and other managers were tasked materials.
with opposing the administration’s decision, setting
themselves apart from the ASA, which wanted to
remain on the administration’s good side.
AUGUST
Messina acknowledged that Architecture students
were trying to “pull a fast one” on administrators with AUGUST 11: 8:25 a.m.
this strategy. Part of the ASA’s reason for wanting to be
covered by EUS’s MoA – contracts that large student From: Michael Jemtrud
organizations like SSMU, faculty associations, and To: Mathieu Laperle; Morton Mendelson; Christophe
student newspapers have with the University – was Pierre; Subhasis Ghoshal
to protect the Arch Café, Messina explained. EUS is
allowed to run businesses under the terms of its MoA.
How do we move on this? I think it is impor-
“If we joined the EUS…the Arch Café could be a
business of the EUS. So that was the idea,” she said. tant we give them something ASAP so they
She also added that Jemtrud was aware of this are concretely invested in moving forward
two-pronged approach to saving the cafe, and that before school starts. They will defend the
he played along in his correspondence with admin- decision more heartily and have something
istrators. Both Messina and Burrows said it has been
positive to tell their constituents during the
a long-standing goal of Jemtrud’s to join an official
student organization with an MoA. referendum. ... What is the official process
“Because Michael [Jemtrud] has a lot invested in to put this thing to rest? I believe we are fin-
the ASA, and he really wants the ASA to ‘re-become’ ished with the major stick handling at this
a student organization, he had to paint Kyle in that point. Thanks to Everyone.
light: that Kyle agreed with [closing the cafe], just so
we wouldn’t get any backlash about it,” Messina said.
In his interview, Burrows said Messina was off the
mark, as he spent much of the summer trying to find
out why the cafe was being closed, with a mind to
keeping it open. “We weren’t hushed to be goody AUGUST 18: 5:37 p.m.
two-shoes with the administration,” Burrows said.
Jemtrud was also concerned about who would be
percieved as ultimately responsible for the closure. In From: Morton Mendelson
an August 30 email, he wrote, “Either Food Services To: Mathieu Laperle; Michael Jemtrud; Subhasis
takes responsibility...or this thing is going to go side- Ghoshal
ways.” Mendelson replied later that day that he would
be willing to be the “fall guy.”
...When you meet the student, please make
Students involved in the closing of the cafe are
unanimous, however, in feeling that the administra- it clear that you’re meeting her as a cour-
tion largely ignored their concerns. Carly Rouault, tesy to provide her with information about
slated to be this year’s top manager of the Arch the changes that will occur. Be careful not
Café prior to being shut down, said that Mendelson to create the impression that you are enter-
refused to negotiate with her and Burrows in a meet-
ing into a “negotiation” about the space or
ing during the first week of school.
“Mendelson made it very clear that he was not that you are speaking to her as a general
sure why we were meeting and that there was no representative of students in Architecture.
chance of any form of negotiation between us,”
Rouault wrote in an email to The Daily. “He had made
his decision and it did not concern us.”
Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily 29.11.2010
This timeline details the administration’s major decisions regarding the
closure of the Architecture Café. Where indicated, text has been directly
lifted from emails between administrators obtained by The Daily through
an Access to Information request. For full documents, see mcgilldaily.com.
SEPTEMBER
SEPTEMBER 12: 12:54 p.m.
From: Doug Sweet
To: Morton Mendelson
...I see this as representing the range of
response options, some of which are obvi-
ously unacceptable at this stage, but which
might have to be considered down the
road.
t
hunker down pretty much in silence
and know that, eventually, perhaps after
an awful lot of bad feeling, this, too will
pass
t
hang in with the opeds/interviews to try
to make the points the administration
needs to make, even though this will
largely become a dialogue of the deaf
t
capitulate
t
try to seek a compromise that will allow
this sacred icon to remain in some
other form/place
SEPTEMBER 21: 9:18 p.m.
EUS president Daniel Keresteci submits EUS pro-
posal to take over control of the cafe to Mendelson,
Christophe Pierre, and Michael Jemtrud
SEPTEMBER 21: 9:31 p.m.
From: Morton Mendelson
To: Mathieu Laperle; Doug Sweet
...My inclination: The University has moved
away from having student-run food ser-
vices outside the [University Centre] and
[Thomson House], and we do not intend
to revisit that decision.
I would sorely like to add: The obvious
place for a food service run by undergradu-
ates is in the [University Centre].
And then riff on SSMU selling out to corpo-
rate food.
OCTOBER
OCTOBER 8: 4:18 p.m.
Mendelson replies to Keresteci, writing that the
plans to repurpose the cafe space is going forward.
W
ithin the broader narrative of the
Architecture Café’s closure, both SSMU
and the Engineering Undergraduate
Society (EUS) entered the game late. SSMU entered
the dialogue as part of a late-summer attempt to
open an Arch Café-like space in the University
Centre, and the EUS was drawn in as a potential
solution to the cafe’s perceived financial problems.
By mid-September, both organizations were lobby-
ing to re-open the cafe under student management
in its original space.
The earliest records of SSMU and EUS entering
the conversation are found in a June 15 email from
Director of the School of Architecture Michael Jemtrud
to Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton
Mendelson. Jemtrud wrote that ASA president Kyle
Burrows “has spoken with the SSMU and EUS presi-
dents. It looks like the SSMU is the most likely route,”
referring to re-opening the cafe in Shatner. “The EUS
seem to merely be interested in our female students
and graphic design capabilities,” he added.
“I am not aware of any such meeting,” wrote SSMU
president Zach Newburgh in an email to The Daily. “I
had met with Kyle Burrows in June to ask about the
status of the Architecture Café after having heard a
rumour that the University was shutting it down. Kyle
assured me that there was no such action being taken
by the University, and that it was nothing more than
a mere rumour.”
According to the correspondences obtained by
The Daily, Newburgh was not involved in any Arch
Café dialogue for the rest of summer, until August 27,
when Director of McGill Food and Dining Services
(MFDS) Mathieu Laperle proposed opening a similar
cafe in Shatner.
Laperle wrote Newburgh: “I have a suggestion for
you: there is no space on campus available for [Arch
Café], but we can help you to prepare (MFDS with
SSMU) a business case during the school year to
open a kind of ‘Architecture Café’ inside [Shatner].”
According to Newburgh, “This was the first time that
an employee of the University suggested” such an
alternative.
“Unfortunately, there is simply not enough space
in our building to add another food operation,” wrote
Newburgh.
Four days later, according to Newburgh, Mendelson
proposed the same alternative. In the November 8
issue of The Daily, Newburgh said the remark was
“taken jokingly.”
“Beyond a casual email correspondence, and an
off-hand comment made by the Deputy Provost in
person, there was no real proposal to move the Café
into [Shatner],” said Newburgh. “Considering that the
ASA was in the process of becoming a departmental
association of the EUS, it made the most sense to
ensure that the former could continue running the
Architecture Café under the latter’s legal supervision.”
The incorporation of ASA into EUS had been
in the works for years, and it was this burgeoning
formal connection between the two organizations
that fueled the EUS’s legislative attempts to save the
Architecture Café.
Keresteci said that the administration had sup-
ported the merger for a long time.
“When I came into my presidency I knew that that
kind of move was supported by the administration,”
he said.
With the move coming closer to fruition through
the fall, finally approved by the Architecture student
referendum November 9, the EUS drafted a pro-
posal for a student-run Arch Café under EUS over-
sight. Keresteci submitted the proposal to Mendelson
September 21, and on October 8 Mendelson replied,
rejecting the proposal.
Engineering Senator Andrew Doyle had attempted
to set up a meeting with Keresteci and the Dean of
Nouvelles | News
Engineering, Christophe Pierre in a September 17
email to Pierre. The Dean was unavailable, and Doyle
ended up meeting with Engineering Faculty Senators
David Covo and Arun Misa two days before the
September 22 Senate meeting.
“We really just wanted to know anything: why it
was happening, why nobody knew anything about it
until it was too late, why there was no forum for us
to bring this up in,” said Doyle. “We’re talking about
something that should be the jurisdiction of some-
body else, just nobody knew who that was. It should
have been Christophe Pierre.”
Doyle, who edited the proposal, described it as
“pretty rough,” explaining that it had been gener-
ated in three days in order to submit it before the
Senate meeting. When asked if it would have been
preferable to submit a more refined proposal at a
later meeting, Doyle answered, “To be honest, I don’t
think it matters, I don’t think there’s a way to reverse
this.” Keresteci said that the neither the failure of
the proposal, nor the time Mendelson took to reply,
surprised him.
“I never really felt like the proposal was ever going
to be taken seriously,” said Keresteci.
“The reason we did the proposal was to show that
we wanted to be constructive. … If there was a possi-
bility – which we didn’t even know there was – if there
was a chance that they wanted to look at a student-run
option, then we wanted to have something ready for
them.”
Doyle concurred, stating that the proposal had
been designed as a response to the administration’s
arguments that the cafe wasn’t financially sustain-
able, illustrating that EUS could assume the financial
responsibility for the cafe. After the September 22
Senate meeting, Doyle said he confronted Mendelson
about the proposal.
“Mendelson and I had this back and forth, and
he basically just said, ‘Listen, we have this MoA with
student groups, with everyone, saying – and there’s
a clause – ‘You can not compete with McGill Food
Services.’ And he didn’t explicitly say that that was the
reason that it was closed, but that was the message
that I got,” said Doyle.
Email correspondence obtained by The Daily
reveal that the administration had clarified their
position to the EUS proposal less than 24 hours
after receiving it. Keresteci said that he did not
know Mendelson had decided to reject the proposal
the day after it was submitted, but said he wasn’t
surprised given that accepting it “would be against
what the administration’s plan is right now,” which
is to move away from student-run food services on
campus.
“That’s why it didn’t really surprise me when he
came back two weeks later saying no, and that’s why
it doesn’t really surprise me that he made the decision
the next day, because it was clear that the adminis-
tration never really wanted to revisit the issue of a
student-run Arch Café.”
For a brief moment, however, it appears that
Mendelson considered taking the proposal seriously.
At 8:00 a.m. on September 22, Mendelson wrote
to Laperle, “If we even consider the EUS suggestion,
we can’t remove the Arch Cafe equipment, so please
don’t remove it until we’ve decided whether we might
go there.”
Less than four hours later, Mendelson had decided
to reject EUS’s proposal. In an 11:27 a.m. email to
Laperle and Pierre, among others, the Deputy Provost
wrote, “After considering the EUS proposal and its
implications further, I believe it is in the University’s
best interest to hold the line on our position that
student associations cannot offer food services on
campus outside the University Centre and Thompson
House.
Thanks to all who have provided feedback on this.”

Vers une sphère publique laïque, vraiment?
Nouvelles |News
L’Université McGill et la Fondation pour la foi Tony Blair en partenariat pour l’étude
du rôle de la religion dans un monde globalisé.
Xavier Plamondon
Le Délit
e 12 novembre dernier,
étudiants, professeurs
ainsi que plusieurs per-
sonnalités publiques se
sont rassemblés dans
la grande salle de l’ancien Hôtel
Windsor afin d’entendre une allo-
cution de l’ancien Premier ministre
britannique Tony Blair, soulignant
de ce fait le partenariat entre sa
Fondation pour la foi et la Faculté
d’études religieuses de l’Université
McGill. L’objectif de cette coopéra-
tion consiste à établir un contexte
intellectuel et académique quant
à l’étude de «l’impact de la foi sur
la politique, les affaires, la société
et le développement d’une collec-
tivité de plus en plus globalisée».
Au total, sept universités à travers
le monde font partie de ce mou-
vement, dont l’Université Yale aux
États-Unis et l’Université Durham
au Royaume-Uni. L’événement
a pris la forme d’une discussion
de trois-quarts d’heure entre le
politicien à la retraite et l’animateur
de la CBC Evan Solomon.
«Le XXIe siècle ne sera pas mar-
qué par des questions fondamental-
es de la droite contre la gauche, du
capitalisme contre le socialisme», a
expliqué Tony Blair. Selon lui, l’enjeu
majeur sera de savoir «si la religion
devient une force pour le progrès,
ou bien si elle ne devient qu’une
source de conflits et de sectarisme».
Il a ajouté que l’étude de la religion
est essentielle dans la sphère pub-
lique puisque «les politiciens ne
peuvent pas se fier à une opinion
publique chancelante, mais plutôt
à un travail académique solide et
indépendant» que seules les uni-
versités peuvent fournir. De plus,
selon lui, l’a priori selon lequel une
société devient de moins en moins
religieuse à mesure qu’elle gagne
New McGill group seeks to change campus Israeli-Palestinian discussion
Founder hopes Omeq will have a “moderating effect”
Alexander Dawson
News Writer
new McGill group
calling itself Omeq
is aiming to change
the dynamics of the
Israel-Palestine dis-
course on campus.
The group takes its name from
the Hebrew and Arabic letters OMQ,
the root letters of the words “depth”
and “profundity” in both languages.
According to Omeq VP External
Michah Stettin, debates on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict are con-
sistently hampered by an adversarial
atmosphere. He described the for-
mation of Omeq in early 2010 as “a
response to too much inflammatory
rhetoric on campus, as opposed to
substantive discussion and dialogue.
We felt that there was a need to have
Tony Blair a charmé l’audience grâce à son flegme britannique et son charisme de politicien.
en prospérité est faux: «En fait, la
religion gagne en popularité tant au
sein des sociétés développées que
dans celles en développement. La
religion est donc là, mais la question
est maintenant de savoir quel rôle
elle devrait jouer». La foi serait donc
devenue un sujet incontournable
en gouvernance publique: «Si vous
voulez être un leader aujourd’hui,
vous ne pouvez pas être religieuse-
ment illettré. Vous serez peut-être
en désaccord avec la religion, vous
ne l’aimerez peut-être pas, mais
vous devez impérativement connaî-
tre ce sujet», a-t-il affirmé.
Si Tony Blair a parlé du rôle de
a group on campus that was hospi-
table to numerous viewpoints.”
Stettin cited last winter’s
SSMU General Assembly as a par-
ticular source of strife, when the
McGill chapter of Solidarity for
Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR)
brought forward a motion calling
for the creation of a financial eth-
ics review committee. The motion
made numerous references to the
occupied territories of the West
Bank and Gaza.
Another reason for the new
group, according to Stettin, is the
frustration expressed by Omeq’s
mostly Jewish members that posi-
tions taken by Hillel McGill, a
major Jewish student group, did
not reflect their own perspective.
“I don’t think that there is such a
thing as the Jewish political opin-
ion. Thus if an organization takes a
political opinion, there will be Jews
la foi au niveau politique, il a aussi
abordé le sujet de la religion dans la
prise de décisions importantes. «La
foi a une influence importante dans
la façon de penser. On ne peut pas
aller dans un coin, prier et demand-
er à Dieu quel devrait être le salaire
minimum! La foi donne cependant
du courage, mais ne nous dit pas
si ce que nous faisons est bien ou
mauvais».
L’événement a grandement plu
à Arvind Sharma, professeur à la
Faculté d’études religieuses de
McGill. «Le message de Tony Blair,
exprimant qu’il faut entendre ce
que la religion a à dire, est impor-
that disagree. Hillel in the past has
taken stances on issues on campus,
and there were people on campus
who were left outside of those posi-
tions,” he said. Stettin did, however,
maintain that “Hillel is a great place
for Jewish students and serves very
important functions.”
Corey Omer, president of Hillel
Montreal, said that he sees Omeq
“as a positive thing, to have other
groups. Any way Jewish students can
represent themselves is good. Hillel
strives to represent everybody; how-
ever, it is hard for one organization
to say everything to everyone.”
The effort to create what
Omeq’s executives call “increased
dialogue” on campus has not,
however, been met with universal
acclaim. Sam Bick, a McGill student
and SPHR member who stressed
that he did not speak for the group
as a whole, said that dialogue may
Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily
Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily
tant dans le sens qu’il ne faut pas
laisser la religion dicter ce que nous
faisons. L’ouverture est désirable, et
non la domination de la religion».
Le professeur Sharma pense
aussi que la religion tient un rôle
de plus en plus important au
niveau politique, mais que la ques-
tion n’est pas de choisir entre la
laïcité ou le pluralisme religieux.
«En fin de compte, c’est la société
qui le déterminera», tranche-t-
il. «Cependant, dans une société
moderne, nous devrions viser la
laïcité, et à la fois considérer la
diversité religieuse dans nos déci-
sions politiques». Selon lui, nous
hurt more than it helps. “People
don’t come to the table on the same
footing. … When there are different
degrees of power, when there’s mil-
itary violence happening, dialogue
becomes a much different thing,”
he said, adding that dialogue may
end up diverting attention “from
dealing with real issues.”
Through a series of talks on
subjects such as anti-Semitism,
Islamophobia, and the role of activ-
ism in Israel and Palestine, Stettin
hopes that Omeq can act as a
moderating force in conversations
that have been tense on campus
in recent years. A talk scheduled
for last Wednesday, “Debunking
Myths about Islam,” would have
been the fourth this year for Omeq,
but was postponed in favour of a
general meeting due to a schedul-
ing miscommunication.
Rex Brynen, a McGill Political
29.11.2010
devrions «privilégier un système
laïc-pluriel plutôt que religieux-
pluriel. On tolèrerait ainsi le plu-
ralisme religieux, mais ce dernier
serait circonscrit de par des con-
sidérations laïques. La laïcité com-
plète est dangereuse, puisqu’elle
deviendrait une nouvelle religion.
Elle serait forcée sur le peuple,
ce serait une idéologie officielle».
Lorsqu’on lui demande si retirer le
crucifix de l’Assemblée Nationale
serait un geste dangereux, le pro-
fesseur répond que «la majorité
des Québécois sont chrétiens.
Le crucifix n’est pas une offense,
mais si des minorités se sentaient
discriminées à cause de cela, ce
serait autre chose. Jusqu’à présent,
personne ne s’est plaint. Je ne vois
donc pas le but d’enlever le cruci-
fix.»
Arvind Sharma est d’avis que
Montréal est une place de choix
pour l’étude de ce sujet parfois
délicat: «Montréal est riche en
communautés. C’est en effet la
deuxième ville la plus diverse en
Amérique du Nord après la ville
de New York. L’étude de ce sujet
à McGill permet une anticipation
d’un modèle global». Tony Blair
avait d’ailleurs affirmé, au sujet des
accommodements raisonnables
au Québec, que c’était «un con-
cept construit pour trouver des
solutions à des problèmes impor-
tants. C’est toutefois intéressant
de voir que le monde entier vous
regarde résoudre ces questions,
car eux-mêmes sont à la recherche
d’une façon de remédier à leur
situation». Il apparaît donc logique
que Montréal soit un laboratoire
de choix pour observer ces phé-
nomènes. Pourquoi la Fondation
pour la foi a choisi McGill? Tony
Blair n’a pu s’empêcher: «Parce
que c’est une institution fan-
tastique pour l’apprentissage».
Décidemment, son flegme de
politicien n’avait pas pris congé. !
Science professor, sees a respect-
ful environment as something
that will come naturally to Omeq
because of its structure. “If you set
up contexts–whether it’s speakers
on campus or internal dialogue
sessions–in which the understood
rules of the game are that you can
say what you want but you have to
be respectful with it, [dialogue]
doesn’t become terribly hard,” he
said.
Brynen feels that organizations
like Omeq have an important role
to play in decreasing the polariza-
tion of campus discourse. “People
get upset at occupation of the settle-
ments, people get upset by terror-
ism, and and it sort of drives them
apart and leads them to a situation
where they can’t recognize common
interests, so I think [OMEQ] kind of
re-centres the discussion in useful
ways,” he said.
Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily
La démocratie-chrétienne au service du Québec
Depuis la fin du dernier mandat de l’Union nationale, de 1966 à 1970, le Québec n’a plus connu le con-
servatisme, le traditionalisme et le catholicisme au pouvoir dans les sièges du gouvernement. Par contre,
un parti politique peu connu garde la chandelle de la chrétienneté allumée.
Francis L.-Racine
Le Délit
a fin du règne de l’Union
nationale au Québec et la
Révolution tranquille ont
vidé les Églises et ont fait
en sorte que l’Église et
l’État ne soient plus joints comme
ils l’étaient du temps de Maurice
Duplessis. La société Québécoise
est bien différente aujourd’hui et
la chrétienneté n’a plus une place
prépondérante. En fait, la sépara-
tion entre l’État et l’Église est bien
floue, car aucune loi ne l’établit
formellement, mais en pratique
l’Église n’a plus aucune influence
sur le politique.
Les catholiques sont beaucoup
moins nombreux aujourd’hui,
mais encore nombre de Québécois
s’affichent comme catholiques.
L’héritage chrétien du Québec peut
résider dans une certaine mesure au
sein d’un parti politique peu connu
mais avec un programme imposant
pour «le projet» du Québec. Le parti
démocratie-chrétienne du Québec
ne prétend pas être dans la lignée
de l’Union nationale et loin de là.
Il ne s’agit pas d’un retour de la
prépondérance de l’Église ni d’un
retour aux valeurs du terroir. Selon
le chef du parti, Gilles Noel, «le pro-
jet du parti démocratie-chrétienne
CEGEP students locked out days before going on strike
Week of activism sees protest on McGill campus
Erin Hudson
The McGill Daily
B
eginning on Saturday
November 20, students at
CEGEP du Vieux Montreal
(CVM) were locked out of their
college for five days. The lockout
came as students prepared a week
of mobilization against the Liberal
government’s planned tuition
hikes. The week of student action
included strikes, sit-ins, and an
outdoor bed-in.
“The goal of closing the
CEGEP…is really to prevent the
mobilization of students,” argued
Laurent Cornelissen, a spokesper-
son for the AEGCVM, the CEGEP’s
student association.
According to Estelle
Desgerlis, another AEGCVM
spokesperson, students received
an email on Saturday morning
saying that the CEGEP would
be closed until Thursday. In the
email, the administration cited
the difficulty of securing the
school in the face of the week’s
coming activism, as the rea-
son for the closure. The CVM
administration could not be
29.11.2010
du Québec s’appuie sur les valeurs
chrétiennes pour aller de l’avant».
Il ne faut pas s’y méprendre
affirme M. Noel, le parti démocra-
tie-chrétienne ne cherche pas
à faire revenir l’Église au poste
prestigieux qu’elle occupait sous
Maurice Duplessis dans les années
50. «L’Église n’est pas une men-
ace pour la société québécoise.
L’Église a perdu depuis les quar-
ante dernières années de son
influence sociale et politique, car
seulement 10% des québécois se
disent pratiquants.»
Lorsque Le Délit a demandé à
M. Noel si la foi (chrétienne) était
politique ce dernier s’est empressé
de répondre: «Non, la foi de croire
en Jésus Christ est totalement
indépendante de la politique, mais
le fait de créer un parti politique
ayant la terminologie chrétienne
en son sein suggère que le parti
propose au Québec un projet de
société orienté sur les valeurs chré-
tiennes d’amour, de générosité et
d’entraide.» En fait, selon le chef
du parti, la foi n’est pas reliées
aux actions entreprises par le parti
politique.
Les démocrates-chrétiens
pensent qu’occulter l’héritage
francophone et catholique du
Québec, c’est oublier l’essentiel de
l’histoire québécoise mais surtout
son patrimoine. Ils proposent que
Locked out, striking CEGEP students slept outside their college.
reached for comment.
“It took three weeks for us to
organize the strike and the cul-
tural conference with workshops
outside…to really inform people
what is happening,” said Fallon
Roullier, a student who played
a large role in organizing the
action.
Last week’s schedule included
two strike days on November 23
and 24 along with participation in
protests on René Levesque and a
l’enseignement social de l’Église soit
remis à l’avant scène, car cet ensei-
gnement, selon le parti démocratie
chrétienne, apporte une solution
judicieuse aux problèmes tant indi-
viduels que collectifs.
La monnaie locale est l’un de
leurs chevaux de bataille. Le chef
du parti démocratie-chrétienne du
Québec a rappelé que les ménages
québécois étaient endettés à envi-
ron 119% et que pour remédier à
la situation la mise en place d’une
monnaie locale pour le Québec
serait souhaitable, malgré le fait
que la mise en circulation de la
monnaie est la compétence de la
Banque du Canada et du gouver-
nement fédéral. Il pense toute-
Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily
protest on McGill campus.
AEGCVM has traditionally held
bed-ins the night before student
strikes to prepare students for the
action and to facilitate more stu-
dents attending the strikes. This
year, in the face of the lockout,
students slept outside in a tarp-
enclosed barricade.
“In the past we had a lot of
experience with bed-ins, we had
an experience where things went
badly in 2007…[At that time the
Elizabeth-Ann Michel-Boulanger
fois qu’on peut prendre exemple
sur Canadian Tire: «ils ont émis
leur monnaie pour que les gens
dépensent leur monnaie chez eux.»
Dans cette optique, «le gouverne-
ment du Québec pourrait mettre
en place une monnaie locale pour
le Québec où un dollar québécois
serait égal à 10 timbres permanents
de 0,57$ en 2010, c›est-à-dire 5,70$
CAN donnent 1$ QC, et de cette
manière en substituant la monnaie
québécoise en canadienne, la dis-
ponibilité du dollar canadien aug-
mente. Nous pouvons rembourser
la dette en 10 ans et prêter aux
familles québécoises avec des taux
plus avantageux.» C›est en con-
currence avec les Banques q’un
bed-in was] illegal because the
administration did not permit
them except that some activists
decided to sleep there anyway,”
Roullier explained.
Rouiller said that in 2008 the
CVM administration oversaw
a successful bed-in. The role
of the administration included
supervision of students and
help in accessing bathrooms
and water.
This year, in the week before
the lockout, there were no nego-
tiations between students and the
administration.
“The CEGEP administration
refused all forms of negotiations
with us in regards to this strike. All
we wanted to do with the admin-
istration was to talk, make an
agreement, make compromises,
discuss. But the administration
refused that right,” said CVM stu-
dent Corrine Lagoie.
“It is due to [the unwillingness
of the administration to negoti-
ate] that we organized a pacifist
sit-in [for Monday afternoon] then
in reaction to this pacifism they
closed the school for five days,”
Lagoie added.
Students eventually staged
Nouvelles | News
gouvernement démocrate-chrétien
mettrait en place la monnaie locale
du Québec qui serait accepté dans
les détaillants participants.
Au niveau de la famille, ceux-
ci voudraient abolir le travail le
dimanche et pour toutes les fêtes
catholiques et d’autres mesures
sociales favorisant la famille et le
retour au travail. Ils sont d’ailleurs
contre l’avortement. Ils ne recon-
naissent pas un statut particulier
à l’homosexualité, ni aux unions
homosexuelles, car selon une posi-
tion affichée sur leur site internet
«Dieu aime tous ses enfants égale-
ment et Dieu a une préférence
pour les plus blessés et les plus
“poqués”».
Finalement, au niveau de
l’immigration, M. Noel urge de
renégocier l’entente Collins-
couture des années 70 faisant en
sorte que 65% de l’immigration
du Québec soit francophone; mais
M. Noel va plus loin, il demande
que 65% des immigrants soient
francophones et chrétiens. «Ce
n’est pas tout la langue, la religion
est très importante.» Selon lui,
l’immigration doit être régie selon
un principe de réciprocité.
En somme, selon le chef du
parti démocratie-chrétienne,
le parti souffre d’un désintérêt
par les médias ce qui explique
l’impopularité depuis 2003.!"
a sit-in scheduled for Monday,
November 22 – the day before the
two days of student strikes were
set to begin – in order to demand
that the administration negotiate
with students.
“I think that…[the admin-
istration] saw on Facebook the
group had 250 people who said
they would participate in the sit-
in … They feared the would lose
ground so they decided simply to
close the doors [of the CEGEP],”
said Desgerlis.
How the lockout and subse-
quent student protests will affect
long-term relations between the
CVM administration and students
remains to be seen. But students
are bitter about what a student
association press release called
“a pure display of paternalistic
behaviors.”
“[The strike] is the only
democratic medium that we can
use to be heard apart from vot-
ing,” CVM student Jeanne Pilot
pointed out. “We cannot wait
until 2012 when the [increased
tuition fees] have arrived. … I
think that [a strike] is the way to
send a clear message if you are
not heard.”

Loi C-94: les voix mésentendues
Nouvelles |News
Les femmes et les communautés musulmanes ont un rôle central à jouer dans le
débat public sur la pratique des accommodements dans les espaces publics.
Emma Ailinn Hautecoeur
Le Délit
omme en a témoigné
le colloque sur
la «Démocratie
dévoilée» tenu
à l’Université
Concordia, du 18 au 22 novem-
bre, la présence féminine au sein
de la recherche académique sur
les accommodements, la laïcité
et les modèles d’intégration de
société est majoritaire. Pourquoi
ne faisons-nous pas affaire à la
même formule dans le discours
politique?
Le débat public au Québec est
aux yeux d’une académicienne
française «extrêmement poli; vu
de France c’est vraiment dépay-
sant!» Cela ne signifie pourtant
pas qu’il en est plus juste.
Comme le fait remarquer
Corrine Torrenkens, membre du
Groupe d’études sur l’Ethnicité,
le Racisme, les Migrations et
l’Exclusion à l’Université Libre
de Bruxelles, la loi C-94 –comme
d’autres lois sur les signes reli-
gieux dans les espaces publics–
dans sa logique, bien que non
explicitement, vise le port de
la burqa et du niqab dans les
espaces publics, notamment
les écoles, et, par extension, a
pour objet sous-jacent la femme
Elliot Carver et la machine à cote d’écoute
Chronique|Nouvelles: Le franc-parleur
Francis L.-Racine
Le Délit
H
ier, à l’Assemblée natio-
nale, le Premier ministre
a fait un discours inspirant
pour les principes qui sont chers
aux Québécois et qui sont intime-
ment liés à l’État de droit. De cette
manière, Jean Charest, le minis-
tre de la sécurité publique Robert
Dutil, le député de Chomedey
Guy Ouellette, et la député de
Trois-Rivières Danielle St-Amand,
ont tous les quatre, notamment,
fait un plaidoyer pour les com-
missions d’enquête policières,
exposant le renforcement de la
législation sur le financement des
partis politiques, l’attribution des
contrats publics, l’éthique munici-
pale, l’escouade anti-collusion du
ministère du transport et plus.
Ce sont des actions concrètes et
vraies.
Ces personnalités ont ainsi
pris part au débat pour contrer
la motion de censure présen-
tée par la cheffe de l’opposition
officielle, la très gauche caviar,
Pauline Marois. Par contre, même
si Madame Marois dans sa décon-
nection la plus totale de la société
musulmane. La femme musul-
mane représente donc l’«autre»,
muet et uniforme.
Dans l’histoire du Québec, la
laïcité a subi deux transforma-
tions; une «dissociation entre
laïcité et langue», qui a permis au
Québec de s’épanouir culturel-
lement, et une «jonction entre
le débat pour la laïcité et celui
pour la souveraineté», note Yvan
Lamonde auteur de «L’Heure
de la vérité. La laïcité québé-
coise à l’épreuve de l’Histoire».
C’est bien cette dernière lutte
commune qui fait de l’exemple
québécois, non un exemple
unique mais bien un exemple
aux extrêmes qui permettait
aux journalistes en mars dernier
de parler de crise d’identité du
Québec, quand le débat sur les
accommodements raisonnables
a repris, à la proposition du pro-
jet de loi.
Daniel Weinstock, un des ini-
tiateurs du manifeste pour un
Québec pluraliste, note qu’une
des oppositions à la position plu-
raliste qui le touche le plus est
la position féministe. Les prin-
cipes d’accommodements reli-
gieux risquent «d’accorder plus
de pouvoir à certaines autorités
religieuses qui sont par tradition
plutôt patriarcales». Cette posi-
tion est bien celle articulée par
québécoise déchire sa chemise
tous les mardis, mercredis et jeu-
dis à l’Assemblée nationale pour
une commission d’enquête publi-
que… elle n’a jamais été seule.
À qui peut bien favoriser une
commission d’enquête publique
au Québec? Le PQ, sûrement
électoralement, mais on verra ça
aujourd’hui dans Kamouraska
Témiscouata. Les plus grands
bénéficiaires d’une commission
d’enquête publique sont cepen-
dant, sans l’ombre d’un doute, les
médias.
Les médias sont les plus grands
fervents des crises qui secouent le
Québec. On peut juste se rappeler
du triste épisode des accommode-
ments raisonnables pendant lequel
les médias véhiculaient l’idée selon
laquelle les Québécois se faisaient
assimiler au reste de l’Amérique du
Nord, créant ainsi une crise identi-
taire et un tollé! Et qu’a trouvé la
Commission Bouchard-Taylor? Elle
a mis l’intolérance des Québécois
au grand jour et au grand appétit
des médias, surtout que 75% des
dossiers présentés par les médias
étaient disproportionnés, faux ou
erronés.
Les journalistes sont victimes
de la pression de leur patron pour
la Fédération des Femmes du
Québec dans son mémoire sur
la loi C-94: «Être pour la laïcité
ne veut pas dire nécessairement
être pour le droit des femmes.
Le féminisme cible notamment
le patriarcat». Le problème est
la peur du «pouvoir coercitif
de l’État», note M. Weinstock,
qui est vraisemblablement
exacerbée par une pratique
d’accommodements au cas par
cas. La Fédération des Femmes
du Québec (FFQ) est donc en
faveur d’une «règle générale»
comme la loi C-94, encourant
quelques changements, bien
que critique de ses prémisses.
La FFQ recommande donc
«que le gouvernement prépare
un livre vert sur la laïcité et
tienne une commission par-
lementaire à cet égard». Bien
sûr, la laïcité reste probléma-
tique au Québec, car, comme
en France, «que serait la laïcité
sans le catholicisme français
(ou québécois)?», se demande
Narcira Guénif Souilamas,
auteur de «La République mise
à nue par son immigration» et
«Des Beurettes». Puisque notre
majorité laïque se forme en
opposition à l’autre, le religieux,
elle ne peut être composée de
néant. Qu’on le mette sous cou-
vert de tradition ou de culture,
attirer les cotes d’écoute ou plus
de tirages. Ainsi, les journalistes
ne font pas leur travail d’autocriti-
que en écrivant des articles sensa-
tionnalistes. Désormais, le Québec
n’est pas victime d’une crise de
corruption endémique, mais bien
de la désinformation intrinsèque à
la société.
La crise que vivent les médias
est sans précédent et elle s’achar-
ne sur le pouvoir en place, ce qui
rappelle qu’au Québec nous avons
un large bassin de médias tant
écrits que télévisuels pour une très
petite population, où les médias se
battent pour les cotes d’écoute, à
savoir qui aura la nouvelle la plus
croustillante de la soirée.
Les médias sont les premiers
bénéficiaires d’une commission
d’enquête. Une commission d’en-
quête publique est une machine
à faire imprimer des journaux et à
remplir un bulletin d’information
de 18h et de 22h! Une machine à
profits ! Les médias se sont déchaî-
nés tel Katrina sur la Nouvelle-
Orléans, lors des commissions
Gomery et Bastarache.
Qui est Elliot Carver? Cet
homme est le magnat de la presse
que devait affronter James Bond
dans le film Tomorrow Never
Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily
il n’empêche que les vestiges
de l’époque pré-révolution tran-
quille n’ont pas tous été anéan-
tis pour faire place à une neu-
tralité pure de l’État. Le Québec
ne peut donc pas être pris
comme exemple idéal d’égalité,
d’autonomie et de réalisation
individuelle des femmes. C’est
bien ce qui préoccupe la FFQ. La
fédération s’émeut aussi du fait
que du débat public «résulte une
vision des femmes musulmanes
réduites à des victimes sans libre
arbitre».
Justement, Mme Torrenkens
notait que lors du débat à pro-
pos des signes religieux dans
l’espace public en Belgique
–débat maintenant clos– les
organisations musulmanes
n’avaient pas pris part au débat
en masse. Elle expliquait qu’en
entretien avec certains chefs
musulmans du pays, ils ont
témoigné avoir en quelque sorte
«d’autres chats à fouetter», des
préoccupations plus impor-
tantes. Ce n’est pas le cas chez
nous: le Conseil Canadien des
Femmes Musulmanes (CCMW)
présentait aujourd’hui un
mémoire sur la loi C-94 dans le
cadre des audiences publiques.
Le CCMW est opposé à une loi
qui ancrerait une limite des
pratiques d’accommodements
Dies. Il avait créé une histoire de
toutes pièces pour déclencher une
guerre afin d’avoir des droits de
presse en Chine et dans le monde
grâce à ses journaux. Il décidait
ainsi de ce que les gens pensaient,
regardaient, écoutaient et discu-
taient. Cela ne semble pas très
éloigné de l’objectif de nos médias
d’essayer de faire flancher le gou-
vernement du Québec pour une
commission d’enquête bidon afin
qu’ils remplissent les journaux et
leurs bulletins télévisés.
La population pense doréna-
vant qu’une commission d’enquê-
te peut tout résoudre, mais une
commission d’enquête publique
ne fait peur à personne, car elle
ne met personne en prison grâce à
l’immunité dont les témoins appe-
lés bénéficient.
La police fait peur aux crimi-
nels, car elle trouve des preuves.
Personne ne bénéficie d’immu-
nité lors d’enquêtes policières. La
police découvre et démantèle des
réseaux criminalisés et mafieux.
Bref, la police met des gens en pri-
son. PAS LES COMMISSIONS.
Par contre, il faut savoir que
les commissions remplissent les
journaux, lancent des carrières
d’avocats et de journalistes, et pro-
29.11.2010
raisonnables dans le système
légal canadien. Il réitère les
craintes souvent formulées que
«les femmes qui portent le niqab
deviennent isolées et marginali-
sées» et pensent que «le rôle de
ces femmes comme mère serait
grandement compromis et toute
la famille serait indûment affec-
tée». On ne peut qu’observer
que les inquiétudes des fémin-
istes québécoises et des femmes
musulmanes se reflètent, même
si leurs positions quant à la loi
sont opposées.
Qu’en est-il des autres
groupes musulmans? Les autres
associations contactées n’ont
pas donné de réponse quant
à leur position sur le projet de
loi.
Les deux jeunes fran-
çaises, auteures de la vidéo
«Niqabitch», grandement visi-
onné sur YouTube, ont utilisé
l’humour pour «dédramatiser
la situation» autour de la loi
visant à interdire la dissimula-
tion du visage dans l’espace
public. Indépendamment de
tout discours religieux ou laïc
en fait, ces deux protagonistes
en niqab version mini-jupe ont
simplement passé le message
qu’il était temps qu’on arrête de
faire abstraction de la voix des
femmes musulmanes. !
tègent les criminels par l’immunité
que la commission leur offre.
Les médias sont prêts à monter
des histoires burlesques et sans
fond avec l’aide des péquistes au
Salon bleu qui bénéficient de leur
immunité parlementaire pour
lancer des allégations sans fon-
dement afin de semer le doute
dans la tête des Québécois. Les
médias jouent à Elliot Carver pour
leurs propres intérêts: le profit.
Les médias se sont dissociés de
leur fonction: tenir le gouverne-
ment responsable de ses actes de
manière factuelle et véridique.
Ainsi, la mise en place d’un
titre de journaliste professionnel
indépendant et d’une réforme
du Conseil de presse pour don-
ner des dents à cet organisme est
nécessaire pour protéger la popu-
lation du Québec contre les excès
des médias. Éviter les Elliot Carver
au Québec est une obligation à
laquelle le Gouvernement doit se
soumettre pour que les Québécois
aient le droit à une information
juste et factuelle sans se faire
endoctriner par les magnats médi-
atiques pour maximiser leurs prof-
its et faire décroître le bien-être
des Québécois. La machine à cote
d’écoute doit cesser! !
 Commentaire | Commentary
I believe in
connections
The character
of community
Adrian Kaats
adrian.kaats@mcgilldaily.com
any moons ago,
a budding under-
standing of sci-
ence led me to
turf the ideas of
an omnipotent and omniscient
deity. I would likely have had a dif-
ferent, and perhaps more pleasant
life, had I turfed science, but there’s
an elegance, an immediacy, and a
rationale to the sciences that have
always suited my temperament,
and so here I am, godless.
Age, however, erodes every-
thing, and that has included my
belief in my own faithlessness. I’ve
had a number of opportunities to
discover just how full of faith I am.
Particularly, I’ve found it necessary
to try to describe that feeling of
connectedness and purpose that,
from time to time, arises appar-
ently from nowhere, perhaps that
place some call “soul.”
A life of scientific study has led
me to believe that although I can’t
write you a system of equations to
describe it, this feeling of connect-
edness is an emergent property of
the interactions of various actors
and forces in the highly complex,
dynamical system we belong to, and
which science seeks to describe.
Simultaneously, my activities in
industry, academia, and politics
have all led me to understand that
one cannot have blind faith in sci-
ence, regardless of what it purports,
Supplique d’une promeneuse solitaire
«Flâner est un art. C’est la gastronomie de l’œil.» Honoré de Balzac
Luba Markovskaia
Le Délit
D
imanche après-midi. Soleil
sur le Mont-Royal. Une
journée d’été perçant la gri-
saille automnale et faisant resplen-
dir les couleurs d’octobre. Une
mer de monde –familles, couples,
joggeurs, promeneurs de chiens,
tous profitent de cette éphémère
journée estivale. Nous traversons
un portique néo-gothique et…
plus personne. Le cimetière Notre-
Dame-des-Neiges, pourtant l’un
des plus beaux parcs forestiers de
delitfrancais.com
since it’s produced by people. Not
only are people subject to a number
of corrosive influences which taint
our products, “to err is human,” and
those errors appear everywhere.
So a sensible view of the future
is nebulous at best. Who knows
whether we’ll maintain the course
that promises answers and unifying
theories, or if we’ll even survive long
enough to realize them. After all,
the universe is pretty complicated.
In fact, science itself has revealed
the fundamental uncertainty under-
lying observation, and if our obser-
vations are inherently uncertain,
perhaps that’s reflected in our con-
clusions. There is no finality in con-
clusions derived from this continu-
ing discourse – there is no “end” to
learning. Similarly, there is no end
to history or end to evolution. In
fact, it’s unlikely there’s even a final
destination. And that brings me to
a very important idea about human-
ity, where we came from, where we
are, and where we are going.
The human race, like any other,
is evolving. We have been and are
subject to the various forces of spe-
ciation inherent to that process.
Our minds and bodies are simply
not exempt. One implication is that
to deny the differences between
peoples is plain wrong. That idea
alone has far-reaching, and some-
times uncomfortable, consequenc-
es. Another implication is that if we
set and achieve goals, we should
only expect those achievements to
be met by still more goals. That’s
the nature of the game. We never
“reach the end” of anything, really,
and that translates to our position
l’Amérique du Nord, est désert en
cette journée de loisir extérieur. Le
soleil y brille pourtant tout autant,
les sentiers sont des plus agréables,
la nature est omniprésente, bref
tout pour satisfaire le marcheur du
dimanche. Alors que la moitié de la
population montréalaise s’entasse
sur les flancs «profanes» du Mont-
Royal, nous avons le cimetière pour
nous seuls. J’en venais à espérer de
croiser quelque promeneur, pour
me rassurer que certains sachent
tout de même apprécier cet espace.
Personne.
Est-ce par respect pour les
morts? Augustin disait que le rituel
in history. We haven’t reached a
final destination, nor should we
expect to, and there’s nothing
inherently wrong with that.
What bothers me about many
who claim to be “non-believers,”
often those simultaneously claim-
ing to “believe in evolution” (a
bit of an irony itself) have a habit
of exempting humanity. This can
make it easy to maintain a num-
ber of politically avant-garde,
but fundamentally rigid, beliefs
about various forms of “equality.”
This Cartesian-style logic is not
only tragic, but very dangerous. It
denies the very real and important
plurality of “human kinds,” both in
space and in time. By its corollary
it also denies the need for the con-
stant and widespread dialogue nec-
essary to satisfy the evolving needs,
desires, and goals of those kinds: it
kills community. In fact, this type
of thinking, which on the surface
appears to safeguard a number of
“human rights,” is actually the bed-
rock upon which those rights have
historically been removed.
This brings me to another matter
of my faith. In place of a rigid politi-
cal ethos, I believe that somehow
good deeds and tolerance beget the
same. The hope is that sustained
effort and input, even without prom-
ise of returns in our lifetime, eventu-
ally elicit response in kind. Equally, I
believe the opposite is true: put in ill
will, greed, egoism, and intolerance
(in their many forms), and expect
the same in return. I believe we are
indeed all “connected,” past, pres-
ent, and future, even if the math of
it is presently beyond our grasp. !
du deuil était pour les vivants et
non pour les morts, pour ceux qui
restent, plutôt que pour ceux qui
partent. Somme toute, c’est un rite
purement terrestre. Pourquoi les
vivants répugnent-ils ces espaces
qui sont pourtant pour eux? En
effet, on passe pour un morbide,
un lugubre ou un excentrique
lorsqu’on avoue aimer la calme
beauté des cimetières. Les Amis du
Mont-Royal stipulent bien, pour-
tant, que le cimetière est là pour
accueillir promeneurs et amou-
reux de la nature. Le site web du
cimetière propose une descrip-
tion détaillée de la flore qu’on y
mcgilldaily.com
Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily
La foi à temps partiel
Elizabeth-Ann Michel-Boulanger
Le Délit
a foi n’est pas très en
vogue dernièrement. Le
Québec est enseveli sous
les controverses reli-
gieuses depuis quelques
années: accommodements raison-
nables, scandales de pédophilie au
sein de l’Église catholique, aban-
don de nos églises, etc. Il était donc
probablement temps de passer en
révision ce que représente la foi
pour nous.
Je suis catholique pratiquante,
mais je me définis comme prati-
quante à temps partiel. C’est-à-
dire que je ne respecte pas tous
les commandements de Dieu, je
n’ai pas une Bible sur ma table de
chevet et je ne vais pas à l’église
toutes les semaines comme une
bonne catholique devrait le faire.
J’ai néanmoins reçu une éducation
religieuse et tous mes sacrements.
Je me surprends même à connaî-
tre toutes les prières lorsque je
vais à l’église. De plus, j’ai déjà fait
du bénévolat au presbytère pour
venir en aide aux plus démunis.
C’est en changeant de milieu que
j’ai réalisé que j’avais probable-
ment un plus grand bagage reli-
gieux que la plupart des autres
jeunes de mon âge.
Je ne peux parler de ma foi en
l’Église catholique, ou du temps
que j’ai passé chez les Sœurs-de-la-
Charité à Québec. Habituellement,
quand je raconte mes liens avec
cette communauté religieuse, les
gens sont extrêmement surpris. Je
dois avouer que je n’ai pas l’image
d’une «pure sainte».
Les sœurs ne sont plus beau-
coup à habiter au couvent, peut-
retrouve, vante ses 145 espèces
d’oiseaux et sa multitude d’arbres
centenaires, ce qui montre bien
que l’espace n’est pas réservé à
ceux qui pleurent leurs morts…
Un petit tour à la campagne, pour
s’assurer du même phénomène. Il
n’y a pas que les montréalais ou les
urbains qui boudent le cimetière,
ils sont autant déserts en région.
Ils bordent tristement les routes,
délaissés, alors qu’il manque cruel-
lement de haltes routières sans Tim
Hortons ni pompes à essence dans
nos périphéries, de lieux calmes
où on peut se ressourcer ou même
pique-niquer avant de reprendre
29.11.2010
être cinq. Elles me faisaient sou-
vent l’éloge d’une période qui
leur semble désormais lointaine,
où les jeunes filles prononçaient
leurs vœux par dizaines. Certaines
ont fait partie de ces jeunes filles
qui ont eu la vocation prématuré-
ment, d’autres se sont engagées
plus tard, après avoir eu une carri-
ère. D’ailleurs, il ne faut pas croire
qu’elles restent au couvent à prier,
au contraire, elles ont la girouette
les sœurs!
Quand je leur parlais de ma
génération, elles riaient: «Vous
avez le droit d’être jeunes, nous
aussi on l’a été!» Effectivement,
elles ont dû l’être, mais pas à la
même époque, pas avec les mêmes
enjeux. Pourtant, elles ne sem-
blaient jamais choquées. Elles
lisaient «religieusement» leur jour-
nal tous les matins, très loin de
l’image typique des sœurs coupées
de la réalité.
Ayant eu deux tantes au sein
des Soeurs-de-la-Charité, je sais
concrètement tout le bien que ces
femmes font à la communauté.
Elles sont à des années-lumière
des scandales de pédophilie qui
éclaboussent l’Église catholique
présentement, mais elles sont tout
de même gênées du comporte-
ment de certaines personnes qui
est très loin de ce qu’elles prônent.
Bref, ce n’est pas demain la veille
que je vais m’enrôler dans une
communauté religieuse, mais je
crois que ma pratique de la religion
s’adapte très bien à mon style de vie
et à l’époque à laquelle je vis. La foi
est quelque chose d’extrêmement
personnel qui peut se discu-
ter, mais n’est hélas pas toujours
sujet à débat. Encore faut-il avoir
l’ouverture d’esprit nécessaire pour
le faire. !
la route. Ils sont même très sou-
vent verrouillés (ce qui veut dire
que votre dévouée photographe a
sauté maintes barrières pour voler
quelques clichés) de peur qu’on
ne les profane. Impossible, donc,
de s’y recueillir quelques instants,
de profiter de l’ombre généreuse
des arbres qui y sont souvent mag-
nifiques. On garde toutefois les
parcs ouverts…
J’en appelle à votre sens de
l’esthétique. Lors de ma prochaine
promenade, je souhaite rencontrer
plusieurs de ces errants rêveurs.
Venez nombreux! Les morts sont si
accueillants… !

A preacher, a Muslim, and an atheist
Commentaire | Commentary
walk into a bar...
Marxism and faith
Red star over Asia
Ted Sprague
ted.sprague@mcgilldaily.com
“Religion is the sigh of the
oppressed creature, the heart of
a heartless world, and the soul of
soulless conditions.”
—Karl Marx
eter is the minister
of a small evangelical
church, the majority of
whose congregation
comes from working-
class slums. Nadia, a labour orga-
nizer, is a devout Muslim. I myself
am a committed atheist. What do
the three of us have in common?
Other than having assumed names
here, what we share is a faith in
Marxism. How do we reconcile
our religious faith – or lack thereof
– with a materialist doctrine that
rejects the existence of a divine
being?
Whether one believes in God
or not doesn’t change the fact
that there is injustice in this world.
Whether there is a heaven above
or a hell below doesn’t change the
fact that the majority of people
are living a hellish life, and thus
religiously seek heaven hereafter.
I don’t believe in prayers, but
as you read this line, millions of
people are on their knees pray-
ing to keep their jobs, homes,
or just to know when they’ll eat
next. These material facts bind us
together: an evangelical minister,
a Muslim woman, and an unflinch-
ing atheist.
Have faith
Listen to the people’s rage
All we want, baby,
is everything
Sam Neylon
sam.neylon@mcgilldaily.com
n the United States, they
called it the “enthusiasm
gap.” It’s when voters who
might have gone for the
Democrats didn’t – because
they thought they were boring.
All those polls show that almost
everyone was explicitly worried
about the economy. The way the
Democrats approached this prob-
lem was to “get the car out of the
ditch.” In other words, the econo-
my was fine, it just needed some
tweaking – it was a temporary
problem, not something systemic.
What they want is to continue
with a kind of solution-based poli-
tics, a “post-politics” where the
“smartest” solution wins the day.
As a Marxist, I am a man of
faith. What separates me from
other people of faith is that while
they believe in the inevitability of
the coming of the messiah, we
This sort of technocracy thrived
when the credit markets were
flying high: “What? Inequality is
increasing? Let’s give everyone
loans!” In this way, administrations
like Clinton’s Democrats, Blair’s
New Labour, and Paul Martin, when
he was Finance Minister here, were
able to achieve – temporarily – the
liberal goals of “helping marginal-
ized people” without engaging in
any kind of systemic critique.
But now the loans are due, and
someone has to pay.
Where did the rage go? After
2008, most people would agree
the “system” was flawed, and yet,
we were given more “solutions”
that were born from, and exten-
sions of, this system – only this
time without the smiley face.
The angry among us would call
bullshit.
But this inchoate anger at the
system is a powerful recognition.
Marxists believe in the inevitabil-
ity of socialism. While the former
zealously prepares the masses for
the eventual second coming by
shepherding them to the house of
This passionate response
comes when every solution offered
comes in one flavour, where the
roll-backs of austerity are always-
already paired with a roll-out of the
market: privatization, corporatiza-
tion, structural adjustment.
When we begin with the
assumption that what is good for
speculative capital is good for
everyone, compromise always
goes in one direction.
And so the Democrats sound
confused, because they won’t call
bullshit.
There are plenty of people, in
the United States and around the
world on the left, who have their
analysis ready, who are on the
streets, who are actively building
an alternative while they fight the
imposition and continuation of
these systems. But their anger, in
a way, cannot even exist, cannot
become intelligible within this ide-
Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily
Alex McKenzie | The McGill Daily
God every week, Marxists pre-
pare our working-class brothers
and sisters by organizing them
into unions and parties. They have
mass prayers; we have general
ology of post-politics.
The thing that mobilizes the
ordinary everyday, that causes the
facts and figures to harmonize is
passion – it’s faith.
It’s what makes you reach
out and love someone else, what
makes you sacrifice for something,
maybe it’s the only thing getting
you out of bed in the morning.
So far in this piece, I’ve been
setting up a binary – the boring
technocrats versus the passionate
activists. But what I really want to do
is shift away from this realm of the
boring, and join the fight to delin-
eate something we can have faith in.
My uncle back in the States is
pissed at the system – he wants
to throw the whole gang in the
ocean, et cetera, et cetera. This
passion is appropriate to the enor-
mity of the problem – crisis after
crisis, with each solution simply
moving the crisis around geo-
29.11.2010
assemblies. In a lot of instances,
mass prayers quickly turn into
general assemblies as the people
get tired of kneeling and praying.
It is heaven on earth that
we seek; this is our faith. While
Marxism as a philosophy provides
us with a method to understand
the world we’re living in, one
needs a leap of faith to go from
merely understanding to attempt-
ing to change the world. It’s easy
to criticize capitalism and all its
illnesses, but it’s another thing to
take up the cause when the odds
are against you.
Marxism is often likened to a
religion – with Capital as its holy
bible – and I think to a certain
extent we stand guilty as charged.
Capitalism has created a world full
of want, material and spiritual. It
crushes people. It leads people to a
blind alley. Religion, then, becomes
a source of solace in this world of
want. Religion is a symptom of a
society riddled with misery.
But Marxists do not clasp our
hands together praying for a sav-
iour from on high to save us. We
don’t wait for that pie-in-the-sky.
We clench our fists and rally our
class brothers and sisters to be
their own agents of change, with
a faith so firm that millions of
times over we have been lined
up against the wall for our beliefs.
Yet we’ll keep on believing until
we’ve found that promised land
and wrestle it – forcefully if need
be – from the few who own it now.
In that sense, there’s no contra-
diction in a preacher, a believer
and a non-believer all embracing
Marxism. !
graphically, and growing into the
next crisis.
The political movement that he
feels is expressing this rage is the
Tea Party.
Behind the technocracy is a
faith in markets; behind the Tea
Party is a passionate anger, and a
faith – this is where the politics lie.
So, rather than ignoring that
realm, regarding it like some “gate-
way drug” into irrational madness,
we need to join in, making inter-
ventions at that level – having that
discussion.
Faith is a powerful force, but
as long as we cede this ground,
there’s going to be that “enthu-
siasm gap” – which in real terms
means a choice between this post-
politics which gradually makes the
inequality and suffering in our
system permanent, or fascism, or
both. We’re going to need some
faith. !
Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily
Art, science, faith
The politics undergirding our beliefs
The gadfly
Shaina Agbayani
shaina.agbayani@mcgilldaily.com
“Skepticism is the beginning of
Faith.”
—Oscar Wilde
aith – in an Occident
made starry-eyed by
secularism – is often
unpopular. Yet it has
quite simply evolved.
Secularism: the Politicization
of Art
When feigned by apathet-
ic Rage Against the Machine
(politically-polemical nineties
band) concertgoers screaming,
“Eff you, I won’t do what you tell
me,” the politics of rage can be
seen as a practice of misguided
wretches, brainwashed into
fanatically commercialized per-
formances.
“Without action, rage becomes
just another commodity or mar-
keting tool,” laments Mark Levin
in an Al-Jazeera article titled, “No
More Rage Against the Machine.”
In response to the dearth of
rage surrounding Wikileaks’ rev-
elation of the myriad atrocities
denied or concealed in Iraq by
the American government, he
criticizes how fury is channelled
in concert-screaming rather than
protest. The disparity between
Rage’s enormous fan community
and the petty fraction of them
who exhibit the band’s com-
mitment to political resistance
against the woes of neoliberalism
epitomizes, for Levin, politicized
art’s artificiality.
The notion of politicized art –
or any artistic creation that is not
simply a religious product – is rel-
atively new. Walter Benjamin, in
his essay “The Work of Art in the
29.11.2010
Age of Mechanical Reproduction,”
speaks to the necessary politici-
zation of art when bereft of tradi-
tional and ritualistic value. After
secularization in the 18th cen-
tury, paintings and music once
commissioned primarily as ven-
eration for religious figures or as
accompaniment to religious cer-
emonies were diverted for secu-
lar purposes. The novel secularity
of art revised its value as an end
in itself rather than as means to
the divine. This paved the route
towards key loci of modern artis-
tic activity – galleries, concerts, et
cetera.
While Rage concerts may not
foment political spirit in the tra-
ditional sense, they politicize
the faith in music itself, required
to replace the faith gone astray
in the process of secularization.
Science=Faith
Atheism’s Jesus, Mohammad,
and Abraham – Richard Dawkins,
Christopher Hitchens, and Sam
Harris – preach scientific scrip-
tures, seeking to disenchant the
brainwashed from theological
curses.
Yet while watching Harris’s
TED presentation – “Science Can
Answer Moral Questions” – I was
persuaded that he was engag-
ing in mystic wizardry, casting a
spell on his white, middle-aged,
middle-to-upper-class audi-
ence. “Does the Taliban have a
point of view on physics worth
considering?” No, he responds
to himself. Almost on cue, as if
meticulously orchestrated, they
chuckle at hackneyed, obtuse
jokes. Laughter ensues from his
theatrically-voiced response.
Chuckles likewise follow his pro-
fession that he is the Ted Bundy
(seventies serial killer) of string
theory.
I frequently marvelled, Huh?
Wtf is Sammy sayin’? Eventually,
I was laughing incessantly at an
Olivia Messer | The McGill Daily
often-illogical ramble (liked by
4,197 YouTubers) accompanied
by visual presentations juxtapos-
ing DNA strands with statues of
the Virgin Mary; terrifying imag-
es of the Pope, sallow and dark-
eyed, with even more terrifying
pictures of gravely-gazed Rabbis;
and women in burqas, with
scantily-clad blonde bombshells.
While analyzing the infidels’
hyper-receptivity to Harris’s
scientific sermon – their erup-
tion into applause after remark-
ably uninsightful remarks – Bob
Dylan whispered to me...
Moralizing conclusion
The Duchess moralizes Alice
in Wonderland, “Tut, tut, child!
Everything’s got a moral, if only
you can find it.”
What is it?
Dylan chants, “The answer is
blowin’ in the wind,” depending
on what you listen to, or, more
precisely, what you choose to
hear, scream apolitically at Rage
concerts, or laugh gratuitously at
at TED talks.
Our ethnocentrism allows
us to criticize all performances
of faith as the actions of brain-
washed androids. Yet the idea
of brainwashing is curious to
me. The moralizing din that
religion, amongst other institu-
tions, brainwashes, is banal.
Everything “brainwashes” – capi-
talism, nationalism, art, ad infi-
nitum. Humans require faith in
somethings, the mere belief in
which never inherently indicates
vice. Faith is what forges institu-
tions into existence, and what is
humanly – not epistemologically
– contrived for “good” or “bad.”
As Wilde so astutely notes, skep-
ticism and the subsequent dis-
avowal of certain value systems
is quite simply the beginning
of faith in other systems from
which to derive a sense of com-
munity and morality. !
Beyond a
reasonable doubt
Why the burden of proof is on believers
Harmon Moon
Hyde Park
t some point in
your life, you will
find yourself con-
fronting the idea of
god. Does he exist?
What is his role? Does he actually
want you to do what you think he
does? This is, of course, normal;
to question one’s core beliefs is an
integral part of the development
and growth of a human being,
and not to do so is to deny oneself
the opportunity to mature.
Here, then, is a presentation of
the view from the other side: a brief
explanation of the principles behind
rationalist, atheistic thought.
In a debate, you usually have
two sides – the proposition and
the opposition. One person pro-
poses something and the other
person opposes. If the proposer
wants their argument to hold
water, they have to back up their
statements. Let’s say I turn to you
and announce that you are stand-
ing in the way of an invisible pink
unicorn that would like to get
by. It would be perfectly reason-
able in this situation for you to
ask me how I know there’s a uni-
corn there. Until I provide a sat-
isfactory answer, you’re in no way
obligated, to accept the existence
of my invisible pink unicorn as a
fact, and if I were to start demand-
ing, “Why don’t you think there’s
an invisible pink unicorn here?!”
it would also be perfectly reason-
able for you to simply walk away.
Since I am the one proposing, the
burden of proof is on me to show
that there is an invisible pink uni-
corn in the room.
There’s a bit more to this,
though. Continuing with the uni-
corn, let’s say that I announce: “I
know the invisible pink unicorn is
there because she told me so.”
“I didn’t hear anything,” you
reply. “Maybe she could repeat that?”
“You didn’t hear her because
she was whispering,” I reply in
turn. “She doesn’t want to talk
But wait!
t
.JDIBFM
.PSHFOUIBV on the BDS campaign
t
"OBTUBTJB
1PLIPMPL on net value
t
+BEF
$BMWFS on the merging of language and cul-
ture departments
t
'SB[FS
"OEFSTPO
BOE
4JNPO
)VETPO on the
upcoming “double-dip recession”
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"OHVT
on Canadian nationalism
t
8IJUOFZ
.BMMFUU on cancer activism
Check out
mcgilldaily.com/sections/commentary
for these great articles!
Commentaire | Commentary
to anyone else, though, so you’re
going to have to take my word for
it. There’s your proof.”
Unfortunately for me, evi-
dence needs to be verifiable in
some way in order to be reason-
ably accepted. Since there is no
way to confirm whether the uni-
corn actually spoke or not, hav-
ing me tell you that the unicorn
spoke is not acceptable proof of
the unicorn’s existence.
“Okay then,” I assert, “She’s
standing right there. You can see
her hoofprints in the carpet.”
“Those look like they could be
marks from the vacuum cleaner,”
you counter. “Can we take her
outside and see if she makes the
same marks in the dirt?”
“Getting her hooves dirty?!” I
cry incredulously. “What’s wrong
with you? Don’t you have all the
evidence you need?”
Further, the evidence needs
to be able to be presented inde-
pendently of the circumstances. If
you claim that your TV can turn
itself on, but only when there’s a
remote control in the room, you
have not presented compelling
evidence. Move the TV to a new
room, or move the remote, and
the phenomenon is no longer
replicable. The TV doesn’t turn
itself on, and the unicorn prob-
ably doesn’t exist either.
This is the same issue with
god. Extraordinary claims require
extraordinary evidence, and it’s
hard to find a claim more extraor-
dinary than that there exists an
omniscient, omnipresent, and
omnipotent being that cannot be
perceived but which has a pro-
found effect on everything that
happens in the world. Until the
proposition has working proof for
its claims, the opposition is under
no duty to disprove it, and the
invisible pink unicorn will never
make her way across the room.
Harmon Moon, U1 History,
is a member of the McGill
Freethought Association. Write
him at harmon.moon@mail.
mcgill.ca.
There’s more:

Clash of civilizations
Commentaire | Commentary
Learning about the diversity of belief in a globalized world
Mays Chami
Hyde Park
was raised with a very
Catholic upbringing in a
more or less homogeneous
community in the Middle
East. I believed throughout
the whole of my childhood that a
religious person was a good per-
son and a good person was a reli-
gious person.
My first contact with an atheist
person was at the age of 12, when
my day camp counsellor told me
in private that she did not worship
God. My first reaction was shock,
which slowly transformed itself
into an internal conflict. How
could this young woman whom
I liked and even looked up to be
a non-believer? For a time I went
through a phase of denial about it,
and then eventually came to terms
with my inner struggle to com-
prehend this seemingly blatant
contradiction by attributing her
atheism with the fact that she was
French: a foreigner from the land
of bohemians where the rules of
morality that I had been taught
simply did not apply.
The drastic and sudden change
in my life happened when I
moved to Canada and started to
encounter colleagues, classmates,
and teachers who completely
reworked my perspective on reli-
gion. Firstly, the girl sitting next
to me in English class at CEGEP
turned to me one day and casu-
ally asked me if I believed in God.
Again, I was flabbergasted, except
this time I tried not to show it. I
pretended to ponder the question
for a few seconds before respond-
ing in the affirmative.
A few weeks later I was intro-
The man waiting
Some misconceptions about Christianity
Joshua Chu
Hyde Park
t is not only about rules, nor
only about obeying the Ten
Commandments. It is not
only about heaven or hell,
nor is it only about reading
the Bible. It is not only about going
to church, nor is it only about toss-
ing a dollar in the collection plate.
It is something much greater than
that. Something rich. Something
life-giving.
Christians know what people
think of us. Popular depictions of
us as Bible-thumping, judgmental,
hypocritical, sexist fundamental-
ists are all over the place. We are
well aware of all this and it would
be more than fair to say that we
deserve some of that criticism. We
duced to a Jewish girl who I clicked
with immediately. She was the very
first Jewish person I had ever had
personal contact with, and happily I
felt the hesitant and ill-defined prej-
udice that had been instilled in me
are sorry and we hope that you
can forgive us for our insensitivity
and bigotry.
Though we sometimes fail to
effectively communicate the mes-
sage of Christianity, it is not only
about rules, duty, or obligation.
To be honest, I myself, as the
son of a pastor, thought that was
what Christianity was all about. I
blindly obeyed the rules without
really understanding what it was
all about. However, once I came to
McGill and left my parents and my
church, I realized that I needed to
find out what I, for 18 years of my
life, had committed myself to.
Christianity is about a relation-
ship. All of us as Christians have
met a man named Jesus. We were
not forced to meet him. We met
him when we were ready, in our
own personal ways. He was wait-
dissolve. For the next few months,
I started coming to terms with the
idea that believing in God was a
choice. Pretty soon I came to the
realization that atheists were per-
fectly capable of being good people
ing for us ever so patiently.
We came to Jesus in our pov-
erty. All of us are poor in some
way. We may not be financially
poor, but all of us experience
some sort of need or suffering.
Some of us need food, a roof over
our head, and a warm bed. Some
of us need freedom from the slav-
ery of school, perfectionism, and
self-hatred while others need rest,
peace in our bodies, and solitude
in our hearts. However, all of us
need someone who sees us as
who we are (not as our appear-
ances or our GPAs) and accepts
us in the way that we need to be
accepted. We, as Christians, have
acknowledged our needs, our
poverty, and in our desperation,
sought this man named Jesus,
who told us that he wants to offer
us something more than just a
Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily
Alex McKenzie | The McGill Daily
too. Eventually, I decided that I
liked the moral criteria of athe-
ists better than those of traditional
(monotheistic) religious groups. My
outlook toward religion turned into
one of cynicism bordering on self-
solution to our poverty. He wants
to offer water to our thirsty soul,
satisfaction to our hungry hearts,
peace to our chaotic minds.
Jesus has invited us into a rela-
tionship with him. He told and
showed us that we are precious to
him. We are valued. Even though
we suffer from our poverty, he
offers to be the shoulder we cry
on, our best friend, our sustainer.
Through this relationship, we find
true satisfaction, freedom, and
a deep love within. How do we
know this? He came to this world
to live with the outsiders – street
people, the awkward, and those
rejected by society. He then sacri-
ficed himself on a cross to show us
how much he truly valued us.
Jesus has asked us to let go of our
poverty, to let go of the things with
which we often replace an intimate,
29.11.2010
congratulatory haughtiness.
Recently, however, I have met
people who are religious and
believing, yet who behave in ways
that I thought were contradic-
tory with what is typically associ-
ated with devout faith. I have also
encountered people who behaved
in what I assumed were religious-
ly-adherent ways, yet did not
believe in God. I have also, on a
couple of occasions, found myself
having a debate with somebody
coming from a certain religious
background, where I was the one
siding with the standpoint that
their religion holds, instead of the
other way around.
These exchanges, along with
my personal readings and reflec-
tions, have allowed me to come
to a very passive view of religion,
where I do not feel the need to
categorize myself as either reli-
gious or non-religious: I choose
simply to be good.
The two concepts – being good
and being religious – are not inter-
dependent. I also find myself iden-
tifying with almost any religious
school, which has made me think
that if I can identify with bits and
pieces of different religions and
philosophies, then certainly I was
not the only person to do so, and
therefore an infinite number of
religious combinations and permu-
tations exist. It is extremely reduc-
tionist to group people into pre-
determined sets of philosophies
and beliefs. A more accurate way
of assaying a person is by under-
standing their philosophies, not by
knowing the name of the religious
group to which they belong.
Mays Chami is a U3 Chemical
Engineering student. You can reach
her at mayschami@gmail.com.
loving, life-giving relationship and
to acknowledge that what Jesus is
offering is so much better. However,
like all relationships, there must be
commitment, a willing desire and
decision to allow Jesus to become
our top-priority.
What is your poverty? What are
your needs? What do you suffer
from and wish every day that you
would be freed from? Jesus is offer-
ing you freedom. Do you want it?
Meet Jesus on your own terms.
It does not have to be at a church.
It does not have to be with a priest.
Speak to Jesus. He listened to
me, and he’s waiting to listen to
you. He’s been waiting for you.
Joshua Chu is a U3 Theology stu-
dent and president of the McGill
Christian Fellowship. You can reach
him at joshua.c.chu@gmail.com.
Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily 29.11.2010 Œuvre d’art | Art essay
How, not why
By Edna Chan
Essai photo | Photo essay Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily 29.11.2010
Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily 29.11.2010
Holy
mountain,
holy streets
Finding faith in Montreal
Lorraine Chuen for The McGill Daily
1 Notre-Dame Basilica
110 Notre-Dame O.
In 1824, Irish-American architect James O’Donnell moved
to Montreal from New York to design and build the Basilica,
and remains the only person buried in the church crypt
after converting to Catholicism on his deathbed. Its reputa-
tion as the main draw for tourists to Old Montreal is well-
deserved: Justin Trudeau delivered the eulogy for his father
and former prime minister Pierre Trudeau there; it was
the funeral site for Canadiens star hockey player Maurice
Richard.
2 The Mosquée Al-Omah Al-Islamiah (above right)
1245 St. Dominique
The mosque first rented a space on St. Laurent in 1982. It is
open to visitors everyday and hosts a children’s Sunday school
for religious education and Arabic. A mural gracing the outer
wall can be seen from Ste. Catherine.
3 Enpuku-Ji Zen Centre
4620 St. Dominique
Visitors, students, and resident monks meditate together in
morning and evening sessions under the guidance of the
abbess Myokyo, who helped found the centre in 1995. The
centre hosts the annual Montreal Zen Poetry Festival.
4 Centre Soufi Naqshbandi de Montréal
138 Fairmount O.
A distinct order of Sufi Islam, the Naqshbandi claim descent
from Abu Bakr, the Prophet Muhammad’s father-in-law and
the First Caliph (Muslim ruler). The Naqshbandi are cur-
rently led by Sheikh Nazim Al-Haqqani, who established the
Montreal centre in 1989. The Sheikh is in his nineties and still
receives visitors to his home in Cyprus.
5 Church of St. Michael and St. Anthony
5580 St. Urbain
Inspired by the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, this huge church
was built to serve an Irish Catholic parish but has since incor-
Courtesy of Thuru Murugan Temple
porated a mission for the growing Polish population in Mile
End. Instantly recognizable by its byzantine dome and min-
aret-style tower, the church’s regular bazaars offer a chance
to sample Polish cuisine and find used clothes on the cheap.
6 St. Joseph’s Oratory
3800 Chemin Queen Mary
The implied backdrop for Quebec filmmaker Denys Arcand’s
Jesus of Montreal, the Oratory is the largest church in Canada
and boasts the third largest dome of its kind in the world,
after the Basilica of our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro in
Côte d’Ivoire and St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
7 Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue
4894 St. Kevin
Although they have only occupied their current Cote-des-
Neiges location since 1947, the Spanish and Portuguese
Synagogue’s congregation dates back to 1760 and is the oldest
Jewish institution in Canada.
8 Union United Church
3007 Delisle
On September 1, 1907, 26 black railway porters and members
of their families worshipped together for the first time as the
Union Congregational Church. The stone church they moved
into nearly a decade later dates to 1899. Now deteriorating
because of water damage, the church is ineligible for restoration
funding because it scores a low rating from Quebec’s religious-
heritage council. The congregation has told the Gazette, how-
ever, that they are confident they will find a way to save their
church, which has been a spiritual and social and mainstay for
Montreal’s black community for over a century. Nelson Mandela
and Bishop Desmond Tutu are among the notable leaders who
have preached to the congregation at Union.
9 Bagg Street Shul (above left)
3919 Clark
In 1922, the Shul opened at this location just a stones throw
from the Main, or St. Laurent, which has always been an artery
Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily
of Jewish life in Montreal since a wave of immigration at the turn
of the last century. Also known as the Congregation Temple
Solomon, the synagogue is recognized by the Quebec govern-
ment as the oldest one still at its original location in Montreal.
10 The Bahá’í Shrine
1548 des Pins O.
In 1912, Montreal was the only Canadian city visited by ‘Abdu’l-
Bahá, eldest son of the founder of the Bahá’í faith, during his
North American tour. He stayed three days in the house of
May Maxwell, a central figure in the early Montreal Bahá’í
community whose husband William Sutherland Maxwell
was one of Canada’s most prominent architects. Their home
became the only Bahá’í shrine outside Western Asia in 1953.
Gaden Chang Chub Chöling Tibetan Buddhist Temple
1870 de l’Église, Longueuil (not on map)
The founder of the temple, the Venerable Geshe Khenrab
Gajam Rinpoche, was among the many who followed the
14th Dalai Lama to India after the Chinese invasion of Tibet.
In 1972, Canadian Immigration officials accepted approxi-
mately 400 Tibetan refugees and specifically invited Geshe
Khenrab to care for the Tibetan community in Longueuil.
His first small apartment there became a hub for Dharma
teachings in Quebec, with Leonard Cohen’s house in the
Plateau on St. Dominique a popular place for initiations and
retreats.
Thiru Murugan Temple (above centre)
1611 St. Regis, Dollard-des-Ormeaux (not on map)
Members of the Tamil-speaking Hindu community were meet-
ing on a weekly basis when they formed the Saiva Mission
of Quebec in 1985 to build a temple for the Lord Murugan.
By 1992, the Mission had raised the funds to purchase
two acres of land in Dollard-des-Ormeaux. Satguru Sivaya
Subramuniyaswami blessed the land and the temple was built
there three years later.
—Compiled by Rana Encol and Sheehan Moore

Feature
Miracles on the mountain
Catholicism in Quebec is nowhere near as prevalent as it used to
be, but the recent canonization of Brother André demonstrates the
persistence of faith in this province, writes Ian Beattie
t 4 a.m. on October 15, one
of the many underground
chambers of St. Joseph’s
Oratory – known as the
“crypt church,” and in fact the
first part of the complex to be completed –
was packed out the door by a crowd of well
over a thousand people. The occasion was
the canonization of Saint André Bessette,
a turn of the century Quebec monk and
mystic, who is credited with the miraculous
healings of thousands of people.
From around 1900 until his death in
1937, André was one of the most famous
people in Quebec. His personal legend and
his fanatical devotion to Saint Joseph, the
stepfather of Jesus, inspired the wealthier
Catholics of Montreal to finance the massive
Oratory’s construction. And his following
seems only to have grown since then.
More than two million pilgrims a year
visit the Oratory, many in hopes of curing
their medical problems. Part of the mas-
sive flight of stairs leading to the basilica is
roped off for pilgrims who ascend them on
their knees, saying a prayer at each step.
André is entombed in a chamber deep
beneath the church, his heart on display
in a nearby glass case filled with formal-
dehyde. Adjacent to the tomb is a chapel
devoted to Saint Joseph, with stations for
each of his different areas of patronage: the
worker, the family, those beset by demons,
and so on. In between the stations, enor-
mous racks reach up to the ceiling, covered
by hundreds and hundreds of crutches.
They have been left there by pilgrims who
came to the Oratory, and left with no more
need for them. The most poignant are the
crutches that are just three or four feet
tall – the flung-away fetters of an injured or
disabled child.
Since the actual ceremony for André
was being held in Rome, a screen had been
set up at the front of crypt church to live-
broadcast the ceremony, but it kept collaps-
ing. Each time it was re-erected, thunderous
applause broke out, and some were even
moved to tears. A young American nun sat
on the lap of her elder sister, craning her
neck for a better view; at the back of the
room, a Radio-Canada camera crew pressed
equipment in people’s faces, aggressively
demanding comment.
I spoke to one man who had came from
Ottawa to pay homage to André. “The fact
that it’s Brother André’s canonization, I
think it’s very important that I be here,”
he said. “Quebec City was founded 400
years ago or something, and we have [only]
one saint now. The church was mostly
in Europe, before, and now it’s expand-
ing.” Globally, maybe so, but not in North
America. “Quebec has gone very far from
being religious. Maybe [the canonization]
will bring some back, I don’t know. The
church needs to be realigned.”
Another man had travelled all the way
from Connecticut. Coincidentially, he was also
named André Bessette. “Over the past four
or five years, I have been more deliberate,
and mindful of my faith, and our heritage,”
Bessette told me. He is now an Episcopalian,
but comes from a traditional French-Canadian
Catholic family (he even said he was a dis-
tant relation of his namesake). “What Brother
André did, and continues to do through so
many people, it’s amazing,” he said. “I was
Foi | Faith
Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily
really honoured to be here.”
The path to sainthood
The process leading up to this honour
is remarkably bureaucratic. First, a person
must be beatified, for which one confirmed
miracle in their name is required. They are
then referred to as “The Blessed so-and-so,”
as Brother André had been since 1982. After
a second confirmed miracle, the person
becomes a saint, but this can take many
years. Brother André was actually one of the
youngest of his class – two of this year’s new
saints died in the 17th century.
In an interview with The Daily, Richard
Bernier, a doctorate student at McGill spe-
cializing in the intersection of faith and
culture, explained the technicalities of a
“miracle.”
“A miracle is understood to be some-
thing that manifests the presence of God in
the world,” Bernier said. Everyday, personal
miracles are part of the Catholic faith, but
in the context of canonization, he said, they
need to be a little bolder. “In practice it’s
always of a medical nature…something that
happens in the case of a sick person that’s
medically inexplicable.” Whether or not it
is inexplicable is determined by a Vatican-
appointed team of doctors. If they investi-
gate the case and come up empty-handed,
and the medical case is explicitly tied to
Catholic devotion – say, if the afflicted had
been praying for help to Brother André – a
miracle has officially taken place.
Contrary to common conception, the
Church doesn’t “make” anyone a saint;
the word merely refers to someone who
Le Délit & The McGill Daily 29.11.2010
is in heaven. Those recognized as saints
here on earth are those known to be in
heaven, thanks to the evidence provided by
miracles. Saints have no healing power of
their own, but, being in heaven, can appeal
to God on behalf of people here on Earth.
Most people in the crypt church that
night believed André already was a saint,
and had just been waiting for the Vatican to
acknowledge it. “It’s like when you discover
a band,” Bernier told me. Himself a practic-
ing Catholic with a hero of his own – John
Henry Newman – on the path to canoniza-
tion, Bernier continued “If everyone under-
stands how great that music is, maybe it
doesn’t change your appreciation of it, but
there’s a sense of confirmation, and also
you’re sharing something wonderful with
other people.”
Staying modest about miracles
The bureaucracy of the canonization
system, and individuals’ own veneration
of saintly people, can lead to some strange
contradictions. It took a century for Brother
André to be credited with two confirmed
miracles, yet people have been experienc-
ing miracles on the southwest slope of
Mount Royal every day for all that time. The
tiny chapel where André received the faith-
ful before the crypt church was constructed
has been preserved in the shadow of the
Oratory. Its walls are covered with donated
plaques, thanking Saint Joseph for curing
everything from rheumatism to cancer.
When I asked Bernier about the discrep-
ancy between the popular understanding of
Brother André and the Vatican’s recognition
Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily
of only two of his miracles, he emphasized
the need for skepticism within the faith.
“That’s kind of the hierarchy’s job, they’re
like the airbrakes on a truck,” Bernier told
me. “They’re meant to slow things down,
and that’s frustrating if you’re trying to go
faster, or it’s frustrating if you don’t want to
encounter that resistance.” Across the globe,
average Catholics venerate people and plac-
es that the church refuses to recognize.
Bernier cited the shrine at Lourdes, France, a
widely-revered site that in the past met with
severe resistance from church authorities.
Here in Quebec, though, there may be
other reasons for the church to play down
André’s mass healing powers. André was a
big part of pre-Quiet Revolution Catholicism,
when the Church was the most power-
ful cultural institution in the province, bar
none. At that time, people weren’t terribly
subtle about their faith in André’s miracles.
In one of my favourite documents from the
period, a comic book entitled The Wonder
Man of Montreal, a bulked-up André doles
out healing at every flip of the page. When
a man comes to him with a paralyzed right
arm, André reminds him to go to confession,
then says, “PICK UP YOUR HAT…WITH
YOUR RIGHT HAND.” And he does. Later
in the book, he even brings a woman back
from the dead, Lazarus-style. (She wakes up
hungry, prompting him to say, “GET ME AN
ORANGE. I WANT HER TO EAT IT.”)
But times have changed. We now live in
an era of high-tech hospitals and Catholic
child and sex abuse scandals. If the church
went around touting “the miracle-man of
Montreal,” it might garner some pretty
sharp criticism. Consequently, André has
29.11.2010
gone through something of a public-image
revision, from which he has emerged as a
faithful naïf, prone less to raising the dead
than saying pithy things like “It is with the
smallest brushes that the artist paints the
most exquisitely beautiful pictures!”
A Globe and Mail article about the can-
onization spoke sternly about the “creepy”
side of André’s legacy, meaning, essen-
tially, miracles, which always have been, and
always will be a central part of the Catholic
faith. Church officials were quoted in the
article emphasizing that the modern-day
Oratory only encourages “healthy spiritual-
ity.” “The context in which we live today
is different,” one priest told the Gazette,
“there are a lot more social services and
medical services, but there are still a lot
of people who need a friend, who need
a brother to whom they can talk. Brother
André reminds us that we can be this broth-
er, this friend, for people around us.”
For many of the faithful, this tamer
church may provide an avenue to reconcile
their belief with their modern sensibilities.
Besette explained his idea of miracles to me
in a manner that perfectly synthesized tradi-
tionalism and modern skepticism. Though
he “believes” in miracles, less institutional-
ized, more interpretative miracles appealed
to Bessette. “I believe in miracles, I can’t say
I see them every day, but I’ve seen them.
I’ve got three kids, and they’re all pretty
good kids, that’s miraculous.”
Crutches in the basement
Yet things have not changed as much as
it could seem to an outsider. Church offi-
Source: bloggingcanadians.ca
cials may insist to the sneering anglophone
press that they endorse “healthy” kinds
of devotion, but the crutches in the base-
ment more than speak for themselves. Little
testaments of private faith are scattered
throughout the Oratory, suggesting that in
the minds of the faithful, André is still the
same miraculous, humble man. There are
more crutches in the original chapel, and
notes slipped under the glass of André’s
preserved living quarters beg for his help
with all kinds of medical problems.
The Oratory has become a true sanctu-
ary for ill and disabled Catholics. On one
of my visits, a young woman who was
over-dressed for the weather reached the
top of the steps, leaned against a railing,
and coughed heavily into a white handker-
chief. If critics of the church wish to deride
its endorsement of miracles, then they
must contend with the other elements of
André’s healing legacy. One of these is the
Congregation for the Sick and the Suffering,
a weekly prayer service for disabled and ill
people, held every Wednesday without fail.
Bernier stressed the need to place heal-
ing miracles in perspective. “As much as
I, or anyone else might say, you know,
miracles are a thing of a past – and I’m
not saying that is the case – at the same
time there are ordinary folks who went
to the Oratory one day and experienced
something that allowed them to leave their
crutches behind. And for them, that might
have been life-changing.”
Do we really want to relegate miracles
to the past? Miracles are one part of faith
that can never be dominated by institutional
hierarchy or dogma. Even if they can be co-
opted, the actual experience of a miracle
remains entirely and intimately personal.
Likewise, saints must become folk-heroes
before they can merit that institutional stamp
of approval. The question of whether or not
miracles do, in fact, occur, has almost noth-
ing to do with the fact that people experience
them. Try to imagine that the maker of the
universe has singled you out and cured your
bad leg, and you can begin to understand
why the Oratory remains such an attraction.
It is this sense of wonder that drew people to
the Oratory the night of October 15, includ-
ing monks, priests, lay-people, and even
casually agnostic, Presbyterian-raised student
journalists like myself.
On the night of the ceremony, I met a
man named Pierre standing on the terrace,
smoking a cigarette. His eyes were red with
tears. He looked to be in his mid to late thir-
ties and he had long, brown scraggly hair.
Despite the awkwardness of the language
barrier, he seemed eager to talk to me, and
I told him I could record him in French. I
asked him why he was there. “Oh,” he said,
at a loss, “Brother André is my friend. I
don’t know how to explain it…He is some-
one who has helped me a lot...I wanted
to be here to thank him.” I asked what
“helped” meant. “I have foot problems,” he
explained. I nodded.
As Bernier said, “You’ll meet lots of faith-
ful who are encouraged by the fact that
there was a man who walked our streets,
who knew Côte-des-Neiges, and took the
streetcar – all these ordinary parts of urban
life. They derive encouragement from the
thought that he also seems to have done
extraordinary things.”
 Œuvre d’art | Art essay Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily 29.11.2010

Every day the same

Naomi Endicott
 Foi | Faith
Matière grise et pensées libres Le Délit & The McGill Daily 29.11.2010 Arts & Culture
par Raphaël Thézé

A church united?
The Daily speaks with NDP MP Bill Siksay about Canada’s religious landscape
ill Siksay is the first first people to come out in the sible eventually. giance as it once did? other religious groups and the
openly gay non-incum- process toward ordination when MD: The United Church has BS: The religious landscape proportion of those who claim no
bent to be elected to the United Church was debating traditionally been seen as politi- of the country has changed. Not affiliation.
the Canadian parlia- that issue back in the late 1970s cally left-leaning, supporting as many people claim affiliation MD: Does religion in Canada
ment. Originally from and early 1980s. The church had issues such as universal health to the United Church, the size make the political landscape more
Oshawa, Ontario, Siksay studied already begun a study of human care when it was an ideologically of other denominations and reli- difficult to traverse for gay politi-
to be ordained as a minister in sexuality in general, but a number divisive issue in Canada. Do you gious groups has increased, and cians?
the United Church of Canada, of us came out in 1980 and said think that the United Church still many people no longer claim affili- BS: I don’t think the objection
during which time he came out that we wanted to be considered has a strong voice on the political ation to any religion. While this to gay and lesbian people’s full
as gay. His partner, Brian Burke, for ordination and that we were stage, or has it diminished in the changing landscape has changed participation in society is entirely
is the minister of Trinity United gay and lesbian. I think it made last decade or so? the numbers within the United religiously motivated; people who
Church in Port Coquitlam, British the process more difficult, there’s BS: Certainly the United Church, the church still sees a hold that opinion come to it from
Columbia. Siksay currently serves no doubt about that. The church Church isn’t as prominent as it clear role for itself in influencing a number of different directions,
as the critic for Ethics, Access to at that moment hadn’t re-exam- once was in terms of the num- social policy in Canada, and I think not just religious concerns. Many
Information and Privacy, and ined its policy on ordaining gay ber of Canadians who have direct it stills exerts this influence. folks who you might consider to
LGBT issues in the NDP’s shadow and lesbian people, and was in affiliation with it, but I still think MD: Is the United Church be from a more conservative reli-
cabinet. the process of doing that. But it’s the church can and does exert more prone to losing members gious tradition don’t discriminate
The McGill Daily: You came hard for me to say that I wasn’t influence. The church seeks to of its congregation than other on that basis when it comes to
out as gay during your ordination ordained because of the policy. let politicians know its concerns denominations? judging the abilities or the suit-
process of becoming a minister There’s no doubt that the policy on matters such as refugee policy BS: No, I don’t subscribe to ability of an elected official.
with the United Church of Canada. was a barrier at the time, and that and economic policy, and I think the notion that the conservative
Did the fact that you came out play some of the church people I had the United Church played a posi- denominations are growing at the —Compiled by
a significant role in your never to deal with weren’t prepared to tive role in the debate on gay and expense of other denominations. Lyndon Entwhistle
being ordained? move forward with my candidacy, lesbian marriage as well. The proportion of Christians in
Bill Siksay: It’s an interest- but I think if I had persevered, MD: Why doesn’t the church Canada is just different than it Read the full interview online at
ing question. I was one of the ordination would have been pos- command the same type of alle- was decades ago, as is those of mcgilldaily.com/culture

L’irrésistible attrait du matériel
Arts & Culture
Chronique|Arts & Culture: Tant qu’il y aura des livres
Rosalie Dion-Picard
Le Délit
’est tellement 2007,
je le sais avant
même de com-
mencer. Non seule-
ment le sujet est-il
dépassé, mais mes prophéties le
concernant s’avèreront à la fois
vaines et ridicules. Dans trente ans,
quelque individu mal intentionné
trouvera, par le biais de Google
3000, cette chronique pompeuse
remplie de prédictions erronées
qu’il révélera à la face du monde.
Pourtant, au risque de gâcher ma
future réputation (dont l’existence
God on ice
Université de Montréal professor Olivier Bauer explains Habs culture as religion
livier Bauer is an
associate professor
of Theology and
Religious Sciences
at the Université de
Montréal. He is currently teach-
ing a course called La Réligion
du Canadien de Montréal
(The Religion of the Montreal
Canadiens). Next spring, he will
be releasing his second book on
the subject, entitled Une Théologie
du Canadien de Montréal. He
spoke with The Daily about the
relationship between religion
and hockey.
The McGill Daily: How do
you define religion?
Olivier Bauer: Religion is a
relation between human beings
and an absolute sacred one: god,
divine principle, or something
like that. It is a transcendent rela-
tion between someone or some-
thing where he or she is sacred...
you can name it what you want;
maybe it’s God, or the absolute,
the divine architect, and so on.
MD: How is sport a religion?
OB: In general, things don’t
happen every time as they
should. You can be the best play-
er and one time you can score
reste à prouver), je me lance telle
une héroïne sans peur dans le
monde de la controverse: écran ou
papier? Pour ce qui est du livre je
suis dans le camp, comme cela se
devine aisément, des arriérés pour
qui le livre physique s’apparente à
un ami. Qu’on se comprenne bien:
les tablettes ne méritent pas la mort,
non plus qu’elles ne sont que des
bébelles chères (quoique …).
Je vous ferai grâce des argu-
ments bibliophiles sur la com-
munion spirituelle exceptionnelle
entre le lecteur et l’incarnation
papier du livre. La question du
devenir des libraires, infogra-
phistes, manutentionnaires,
éditeurs et que sais-je encore a
a goal and the day after it could
be impossible for you to score…
so it seems that there is some-
thing more than human in sport
in general. It’s not just the skill
of the players or the quality of
the [equipment]; there is some-
thing we don’t know involved
in sport. There is a supernatural
power that is involved in sport
that can help you; it can play with
you or against you. It’s a religion
because you have to please this
supernatural being to make it
play with you, not against you.
MD: What factors lead to the
creation of a sport-religion?
OB: With the Habs religion,
what is very particular is that it
is a religion of Montreal and of
Quebec. It’s the same as in every
other sport; to make the gods
play with the Habs. But it’s in a
very Catholic way and in a very
Quebecker way. For the Habs, the
way you pray is the Catholic way
because the culture of Quebec is
very Catholic. For example, dur-
ing the playoffs, there are people
who go to the Oratoire St. Joseph
and they [kneel] because it is the
Catholic way to ask for some-
thing from God. It takes a Catholic
face because we are in Montreal.
été largement débattue par des
polémistes autrement plus savants
que moi.
Je puis néanmoins affirmer,
sans crainte de me tromper, que
l’imprimé a une valeur intrin-
sèque. Matériel et concret, on
peut le traîner partout, sans piles,
sans bébelle chère.
Oui, plusieurs déserteront les
librairies, car les œuvres les plus
demandées seront numérisées et
prêtes à être téléchargées depuis
le confort d’une chaise de bureau
ergonomique. Pourtant, certains
continueront de flâner entre les
rayons, de profiter des conseils
des libraires et de feuilleter les
œuvres. Comme devant leur pro-
But probably if you are Jewish or
Protestant or atheist you can have
another kind of a relation [to the
sport].
MD: Religion offers its follow-
ers a moral code, does hockey do
this as well?
OB: That is very interesting,
because in hockey you have a
moral code. It’s the man you
should be – it’s a very specific
kind of virility. You have to be
a man and you have to be very
strong and you have to be ready
sacrifice yourself and you need
to fight and you need to be hurt.
It’s this kind of morality. It’s very
interesting because of the motto
of the Habs: ‘Nos bras meur-
tris vous tendent le flambeau
(our bruised arms are holding
the torch). I think there is a
kind of moral dimension here.
It’s not very unusual in Quebec;
you know there is this mentality
“Nous sommes nés pour un petit
pain (we are born for a small
loaf of bread).” You have to suf-
fer if you want to win, if you are
a Quebecker you have to suffer
because everyone is against you.
It’s the same on the ice.
MD: What drew you to this
topic?
Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily
pre bibliothèque, ils choisiront
parmi les étalages leur prochaine
lecture. Moi qui suis, disons-le,
peu structurée, j’ai besoin de pos-
séder des objets physiques pour
ne pas oublier leur existence.
Et, non, ce n’est pas comme
les CD remplacés par les lecteurs
mp3. D’abord la musique, ça ne
se voit pas. Du disque à la cas-
sette au CD au Ipod, il faut un sup-
port pour écouter la musique, et
ce support change. Des mots sur
du papier, il y a longtemps que ça
roule comme système. Peut-être,
entre autres, parce qu’il est à la
fois pratique, peu dispendieux et
agréable à utiliser. Des choses que
j’ai du mal à associer d’emblée aux
OB: When I arrived in
Montreal in 2006, I thought it
would be very interesting to work
on this topic: the link between
the most important cultural phe-
nomenon in Montreal – the Habs
– and the religious dimension…
my interest was to discover some
religious aspect of cultural life and
to explain it [through theology].
MD: What has the reaction
been to your course?
OB: It was amazing. I remem-
ber it was in 2007 and I gave an
interview for the newspaper of the
Université de Montreal. The day
after I got two, three phone calls
for interviews… and over the past
two years I’ve given, I think, 150
interviews. I was very interested
to discover how important it was
for people in Montreal. Everyone
was saying that the Habs are our
religion but nobody had really
explained what that means.
MD: By studying sport as a
religion, what do you hope to
achieve?
OB: Some celebrity, of course,
and to be interviewed by The
McGill Daily. The first thing is I
want to understand. For my part
I wanted to understand what that
means: the Habs in Montreal.
29.11.2010
Kindles et Ipad.
J’ai aussi lu un jour quelque
chose sur les écrans, qui fatiguent
plus les yeux que la lecture sur
papier. En plus, tous ces machins
proposent des distractions. Le syn-
drome du «si je n’ai pas commencé
mes travaux, c’est de la faute de
Facebook» risque de s’aggraver si
toute lecture peut être interrom-
pue d’un simple clic vers Tetris.
En toute honnêteté, c’est ce qui
m’arriverait.
Même le guide de la maîtresse
de maison que j’ai vu en librairie
l’autre jour le dit: les livres pos-
sèdent un grand potentiel déco-
ratif, même si vous ne les ouvrez
jamais. !
I got a lot of testimonies from
people [saying] “I’m part of this
religion”, and so I’m a little bit
afraid because I think it’s not
a very good religion. It’s a very
tribal religion. There is a lot of
violence and hate, for example
between Flyers and Habs. You
have to hate Philadelphia and
also to hate the people from
Philadelphia…I think a religion
should promote love and not
hate. That’s why it’s not such a
good religion. It’s a very selec-
tive religion. If you don’t have
money you can’t be part of it.
You need money to go to the
Bell Center, you need money to
buy some jerseys. It is also a
selective religion on the ice: you
have to be the best player. And
the last thing is it’s not a very
solid religion. The team could be
sold and in ten years there won’t
be any Habs in Montreal like in
Quebec, the Nordiques. So what
is there left? That is three cri-
tiques I can address to the Habs-
religion. That’s why I think it
could be better to put your faith
and your hope in another religion
and maybe in another god.
—Compiled by Misha Schwartz
Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily 29.11.2010

Arts & Culture

The case for religion
Karen Armstrong’s book takes faith back to basics
Anqi Zhang
The McGill Daily
ontrary to what her
book’s title might
suggest, Karen
Armstrong does not
provide an argu-
ment for the necessity of religion
or the existence of God. Instead,
in The Case for God, she trac-
es a complex history of religion
through time to explore its role
and the means by which it was
practiced. Amstrong begins with
the earliest worship of Mother
Earth and the Animal Master,
moving to the origins of scrip-
tures and later, organized and
unified religions. She discusses
how the idea of religious skepti-
cism arose in the face of tragedies
such as the Holocaust, spawning
present-day debates about God’s
existence. There is extensive
discussion of several religions,
and not only the major mono-
theistic ones; Armstrong also dis-
cusses Paganism, Hellenism, and
Buddhism, among others. But for
all its historical breadth, this book
is tied together by one central
message, making it easy to follow
what would otherwise be a mere
historical account of various reli-
gious approaches interspersed
with esoteric vocabulary.
Armstrong bases her discus-
sion in the human tendency
toward religion that led to the
development of myths and mythi-
cal beings as early as the Stone
Age. But she says that our cur-
rent understanding of religion has
deviated from these roots: we are
no longer “willing to make the
effort” that true religious experi-
ence necessitates. We no longer
look at scripture as text to be
interpreted and reinterpreted, tai-
loring it to provide guidance in
our everyday lives. Instead, we
look to religion and religious texts
as an easy means of acquiring
empirical knowledge. The desire
to dissect religious texts in search
of concrete answers is a modern
phenomenon. So too, therefore,
is the rejection of those concrete
answers by today’s more militant
atheists. Armstrong berates not
only those who take religion too
literally, but also those atheists
who reject all that religion repre-
sents based solely on this factual
approach to religion. She stresses
that if religious texts were viewed
today as they are meant to be
viewed – as parables, and not
as factual account – there would
be no divisive conflict regarding
God’s existence.
In today’s society, where
speaking about religion in pub-
lic is almost taboo for fear of
offending or causing argument,
this concept offers a fresh angle
on the God debate. Armstrong
does a good job of presenting
it, as she defines key words like
“belief,” “atheism,” and “faith”.
She notes that the definitions of
these words have evolved over
time, and her attempt to ques-
tion our current perception of
these meanings provides a fresh
view of the approach to religion
as a concept. Armstrong tells us
that religion, in its purest form,
is not about belief as we define it
today – a blind faith in a tradition
that we take to be reality – but
about the experience. Religion
is not meant to be realistic, or to
be believed, Armstrong argues.
Rather, it is meant for people to
experience things that “are not
explainable or logical.” Believers
must actively involve themselves
in their faith, she says.
The Case for God has a mis-
leading title. Fortunately, this is its
only negative feature. Throughout
the book, Armstrong criticizes
humanity’s progressive diver-
gence from the pure concept of
religion. She does not attempt, as
the title might suggest, to prove
or disprove the existence of God,
but rather, to prove that there is
no real need to know whether
God exists. Though Armstrong
does not really present a case for
God in the expected manner, she
does present a compelling case
for a return to faith as it was clas-
sically defined. Framing religion
as a matter of dogma and reason
does not do it justice, Armstrong
maintains; she proposes a return
to the ancient approach to reli-
gion – emphasizing trust and con-
nectedness rather than the pursuit
of empirical correctness.

Holy fuck: the Pope and condoms

Davide Mastracci
The McGill Daily
here has been a storm of
controversy within the
Catholic world in recent
days. The stir was incit-
ed by Pope Benedict
XVI’s comments in a book of inter-
views conducted by German journal-
ist Peter Seewald. In one of the inter-
views, Benedict claims that “there
may be a basis in the case of some
individuals, as perhaps when a male
prostitute uses a condom, where this
can be a first step in the direction
of a moralization, a first assumption
of responsibility.” In the world of
the logically minded, this statement
would merely resemble the toss of a
pebble into a body of water: no major
discernible movement. Yet this pain-
fully obvious statement has had the
effect of a tsunami on the lunacy of
the Holy See.
People dissenting to Benedict’s
claim seem to prefer his previous
statement made only a few months
ago in May, when he stated that
condoms were not “a real or moral
solution” to the AIDS epidemic, add-
ing that this “can really lie only in a
humanization of sexuality.” It’s com-
forting to know that it only took six
months for the leader of the Catholic
Church to realize that if you pick up
dog shit with a plastic bag, you prob-
ably won’t get your hands dirty. This
realization is not the critical factor,
however, as it is merely a small drop
of insight (if you can even call this
elementary conclusion that) in the
vast Catholic desert of perpetual
ignorance. What holds a far greater
level of prominence is the terror
which accompanies the thought that
a group to which millions of people
pleadge allegiance can turn this
painstakingly obvious matter into
the subject of debate.
Those in the upper echelons of
the Church realize condoms can
help to prevent against pregnancy
and STIs, yet they insist on send-
ing soldiers into battle without their
helmets on. Thankfully, among the
legions of Catholics, many – even
some bishops – have objected to
this war crime. For some, it is due to
theoretical reasoning, while others
take a more realistic approach to
the matter. For many, shooting dag-
gers out of their dicks every time
they use the washroom is far more
daunting than the possible smiting
of an unknown spirit in the sky.
The Church would claim that
these rogue soldiers are mere
deserters from the Catholic legions,
and if they simply followed the rules
passed on by their officers, there
would not be an issue. In this sense,
the Church is correct. If humans
did not have sex until they were
married, and only for the purpose
of having children, condoms would
not be a necessity.
In an unjust war, however,
deserters have a moral justifica-
tion in disobeying their officers
and leaving the forces of injustice
behind. And when your officer is
standing over you and your partner,
attempting to enforce his despica-
ble views into the bedroom, desert-
ing his illegitimate cause is a mor-
ally justified option, although retali-
ation would certainly be preferred.
Davide Mastracci is a U0 Arts stu-
dent. You can reach him at davide.
mastracci@mail.mcgill.ca
Emilio Comay del Junco | The McGill Daily

Good luck on exams, McGill.

À janvier!
 Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily 29.11.2010
Arts & Culture

Une carte de souhaits au coeur de l’enfer

Le Cœur d’Auschwitz de Carl Leblanc retrace l’histoire inouïe d’une amitié tissée dans
l’horreur des camps de concentration.

Émilie Bombardier prochaine, à se souvenir d’elles et inébranlable en la vie, est le sujet de concentra-
Le Délit à reconnaître «que leur plus gran- du documentaire de Carl Leblanc. tion, puis pré-
de victoire sera la survie». Ce réalisateur québécois a servé. Pourtant,
L’objet intrigue le visiteur. commencé par rencontrer Fania à l’aide de quel-
u Centre com- Comment ses signataires ont-elles Feiner, aujourd’hui octogénaire. ques femmes,
mémoratif de pu voler papier, crayons, ciseaux Toujours bouleversée par l’acte si Leblanc parvient
l’Holocauste à et tube de colle dans cet endroit généreux qui aurait pu coûter la vie finalement à
Montréal, un objet à ses amies, elle déplore les avoir retrouver quel-
en particulier attire perdues de vue, et avoir oublié ques signatai-
l’attention des visiteurs: une carte leurs visages et leurs noms. Fasciné res, dont Lena,
de souhaits en forme de cœur, par cette histoire et assurément auteure du plus

Gracieuseté de Filmoption International

couverte d’un tissu mauve brodé
d’un «F» au fil rouge.
Une journée de travail en-
tière aurait été consacrée à la
confection de ces quelques pages
qui se déplient pour former qua-
tre cœurs juxtaposés sur lesquels
quinze jeunes filles âgées de
moins de vingt-cinq ans ont signé
des vœux d’anniversaire. Le 12 dé-
cembre 1944, ce minuscule cœur
de papier fut offert en guise de ca-
deau d’anniversaire à Fania Feiner
par ses collègues de travail, alors
que toutes étaient contraintes aux
travaux forcés à l’usine d’arme-
ment «l’Union», située au cœur
même du camp de concentration
d’Auschwitz. Leurs mots calligra-
phiés incitent la fêtée à garder
courage, à croire en une liberté
où la mort les guettait constam-
ment? Comment ont-elles confec-
tionné ce cadeau à l’insu de tous?
Comment Fania a-t-elle pu le rame-
ner de l’enfer, le garder sous son
bras durant son séjour à Auschwitz
et tout au long de l’interminable
marche de la mort qu’ont fait subir
les SS à bon nombre de déportés
à l’approche de l’armée rouge,
en 1945? Ce «cœur d’Auschwitz»,
symbole extraordinaire d’une foi
investit d’un devoir de mémoire, le
documentariste s’est chargé de re-
trouver les «filles du cœur», entre-
prise audacieuse qui l’a mené aux
quatre coins du globe. Il s’est ainsi
promené d’un centre d’archives à
l’autre, cherchant à déchiffrer les
signatures de chacune.
Le périple de Leblanc n’a pas
été des plus faciles. Entre celles
qui ne souhaitaient plus raconter
même une seconde de leur séjour
en enfer et celles qu’il n’a jamais
retrouvées, sa recherche a pu sem-
bler à plusieurs reprises aboutir à
une fin infructueuse. Une survivan-
te qui avait supervisé l’usine d’Aus-
chwitz lui a même affirmé que ce
cœur n’était qu’un coup de publici-
té; elle était convaincue qu’il n’avait
pas pu être fabriqué dans un camp
beau message
de la carte, ainsi
que Hanka qui
avait eu l’idée
de la confection-
ner. Les enfants
d’une autre, dé-
cédée quelques
années plutôt,
verront en ce cœur le dévoilement moyens, Le Cœur d’Auschwitz,
de ce que leur mère avait toujours dévoile l’histoire formidable d’un
voulu leur cacher. petit objet porteur d’une mémoire
Au fil de l’enquête –car c’est transmise aux enfants et petits-en-
véritablement ce que cette recher- fants des signataires, ainsi qu’aux
che devient– tout porte à croire visiteurs du musée auquel il a été
qu’un tel cadeau est le résultat confié. Si Theodor Adorno décla-
d’un acte de courage immense, le rait que faire de la poésie après
témoignage d’un espoir l’empor- Auschwitz était tout simplement
tant sur la peur. impossible, le fait de retrouver cel-
Documentaire réalisé en le qui s’est faite pendant l’horreur
toute simplicité et avec peu de tient presque du miracle… !
Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily
Christina Colizza
The McGill Daily
he mythic story
of the “Lily of
Mohawks” Kateri
Tekakwitha’s mirac-
ulous healing pow-
ers and devotion to the Catholic
Church has created much debate
surrounding her possible canoniza-
tion. An internationally cherished
figure, her lasting legacy yearly
draws pilgrims to the St. Francis
Xavier Church on the Mohawk
reserve in Kahnawake, Quebec.
Once a safe haven for indige-
nous people wishing to practice
Catholicism free from persecution,
reluctance now exists amongst
Kahnawake’s own residents as to
whether she truly deserves saint-
hood. Her miracles, albeit inspir-
ing in story, are viewed with ambiv-
alence by much of Kahnawake’s
population.
A wave of smallpox killed
Tekakwitha’s parents and brother
when she was four, leaving her face
completely scarred. Adopted by
her uncle, Tekakwitha was intro-
duced to Jesuit missionaries and
her passionate spirituality lead
to her eventual baptism in 1676.
Her fellow Mohawks ostracized
her for her devoutness, causing
Tekakwitha to flee from upstate
New York to Kahnawake in 1677.
In the last three years of her life,
Tekakwitha devoted herself com-
pletely to God, accepting Jesus as
her only husband. Stories often
glorify her self-flagellation, sleep-
ing on beds of thorns, or praying
29.11.2010
Mohawk miracles
The debated sainthood of Kateri Tekakwitha
barefoot in the snow to emulate
Jesus’s suffering. The most sig-
nificant of these folk tales is the
disappearance of her scars in the
moment of her death. After her
final words, “Jesus, I love you!”
(or “Jesus! Mary!” as other sources
say), Tekakwitha’s smallpocked
face cleared, leaving a rosy com-
plexion. Her body is said to have
exuded the “odour of sanctity” that
emanates from the body of saints.
Tekakwitha was only 24 years old.
A resident of Kahnawake
since birth, Michael Loft, of the
Indigenous Access department
at McGill, offered a more schol-
arly opinion of Tekakwitha. In
speaking about her chastity, Loft
explained, that “In her own way,
she was an early feminist. She was
a headstrong woman who was
going to do what she wanted.”
Despite a Catholic upbringing, Loft
remained primarily indifferent
to Tekakwitha. Influenced by the
community’s elders, Loft “heard
from the traditional people, who
gave me mixed messages as a
young man about her status. I was
lead to believe she was almost not
a real factor amongst us. I didn’t
grow up like, ‘Woah, she’s almost
a saint.’ She was not a cultural hero
of any sort for me. Only as a I grew
older did I realize that she was
practicing some pretty important
things.”
Loft’s view parallels that of many
Mohawk people in Kahnawake –
an appreciation for Tekakwitha
rather than a worship of her.
Interestingly enough, after endur-
ing multiple eye surgeries, Loft
prayed to Tekakwitha. He jokes, “I
don’t know if it was [Tekakwitha]
or the miracle of modern medi-
cine, but those things drive you to
prayer. I was so happy after and I
thank her for that.” However, like
many Mohawks I spoke to, Loft
remains essentially indifferent to
Tekakwitha’s legacy: “She is more
important to the rest of the world
than to us…but if anything gets
you that deep in life, can’t be any-
thing wrong with it.”
A local legend or a gift from
God? Kahnawake’s librarian Cathy
Rice explained that such clear dis-
tinctions don’t exist. For Rice, to
understand the debate from an
outsider’s perspective is difficult.
She asked, “Do you know the way
you recognize your family, your
brothers, your aunts? That is how
I look at everyone here [on the res-
ervation]. Everyone is much more
aware of each other’s sensitivities
and acts accordingly. It’s not a con-
flict; it’s just how it is. We acknowl-
edge the differences in opinion.”
In Rice’s case, she doesn’t believe
Tekakwitha should be a saint. For
her, religion is “too compartmen-
talized and controlling…and try-
ing to elevate her to sainthood
is against [Mohawk] philosophy
and culture.” She emphasized the
Harvest Festival and the Mohawk
way of “incorporating spirituality
into all daily activities and giving
thanks.” However, she too views
Tekakwitha as a strong woman.
For Rice, “[Tekakwitha] did what
she had to do. There will always
be battles we have to contend
with, even today. Encroachments
on our land, for example are still
happening today. She did what
Mike Mszanski for The McGill Daily
was best in the moment.”
A mile from the library in
Kahnawake, the steeple of St.
Francis Xavier dominates the
skyline from downtown. A stone
block bears Tekakwitha’s name
and dates of birth and death in the
front yard with the St. Lawrence
River behind. Despite passing
pickup trucks, the space feels
sacred. A museum in the left wing
of the church features old chalices
and rosaries amongst moccasins
along with a small room dedicated
to Tekakwitha. Paintings depict
her with braided hair and hands
clasped in prayer. It is also com-
pletely empty – a true reflection
of the prominence of Catholics in
Kahnawake.
Ron Boyer, a former colleague
of Cathy Rice and the deacon who
leads services at St. Francis Xavier,
described his efforts in promot-
ing Tekakwitha’s canonization. He
blamed the Vatican for her stalled
sainthood, not God. Canonization is
not, in fact, the process of “making”
someone a saint, but simply the rec-
ognition that they always have been
one. He explained the Vatican’s sus-
picion as to why Tekakwitha only
experienced an act of God (the
disappearance of her scars) after
death. However, he reassured me
the Vatican was just “taking their
time” after Brother André’s can-
onization this past October. Boyer
already views her as a saint – so
why the rush, one may wonder? He
responded quite simply, “It would
fill the seats!” Dependent on the
charity of church-goers, Boyer’s plea
for Tekakwitha’s canonization was
at least in part financially motivated.
Arts & Culture
Upon asking him about the many
non-believers in the community, he
explained, “Oh…they’re disenchant-
ed.” Disenchanted, discouraged,
plain old “hurt,” Boyer truly believed
all of Kahnwake felt Tekakwitha was
a saint in their hearts. In his view,
they simply weren’t “healed.”
Leaving Tekakwitha’s chapel,
I encountered a woman buy-
ing prayer cards. A pilgrim from
Indiana, she explained that “My
daughter has learning disabilities
and I am praying to Tekakwitha
for her, or for my own strength.”
She believed her prayers were
“just asking a favour. A big big
favour.” Before I had left, she had
bought up the store’s entire sup-
ply of cards.
For the Catholics on the
reserve, Tekakwitha’s canoniza-
tion may seem like an oppor-
tunity to legitimize their faith
before their peers. Catholicism
remains a contentious issue on
the reserve, with its echoes of
colonialism: out of a population
of 8,000, only 150 residents regu-
larly attend St. Francis Xavier.
Surely, Tekakwitha’s canonization
would be an economic benefit for
the church as well as Kahnawake
tourism. However, her saintly
status may only further suppress
Mohawk tradition. Tekakwitha
remains a controversial figure, but
many of the proponents of her
canonization are Mohawk them-
selves, and across the Americas,
Catholic indigenous people have
adopted Tekakwitha as a symbol
of their faith. Tekakwitha’s legacy
doesn’t require the approval of
the Vatican to be legitimized.
 Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily 29.11.2010

Religion 2.0
Arts & Culture

Worship is taking to the web in an attempt to keep up with today’s lifestyles

Anqi Zhang
The McGill Daily
t is possible to be baptised
online. It is also possible to
receive Holy Communion,
to develop their own identity and
influence their users.
Alphachurch.com provides,
among many others, a marriage
service, giving the email of a rever-
end who can be contacted for wed-
ding ceremonies. This same online
for some, the internet will become
a more viable or preferable substitu-
tion for traditional religious prac-
tices. By eliminating the restraints of
space and time, the arrival of online
spiritual communities makes reli-
gious participation more accessible.

Carly Shenfield | The McGill Daily

join prayer circles, and receive
religious guidance, all over
the web. This could be a reflection
of our generation’s ever-increasing
need for convenient solutions to
living fulfilling and busy lives. But
with the recent increase of reli-
gious organizations setting up base
on the internet, the impacts of this
trend both on society and these
religions should be considered.
These sites are all-encompass-
ing, offering the entire religious
experience, accessible in just a few
clicks. Online communities exist for
faiths from Christianity to Judaism
to Islam. These sites are not only
filled with religious texts and news,
but also stress interactive participa-
tion through prayer forums, dis-
cussion boards, games, and per-
sonality quizzes. Help and advice
is also offered through this online
medium; for example, many Islamic
websites offer online fatwas (reli-
gious decrees), allowing the website
church gives online baptisms and
offers online confession. Other
websites allow virtual pilgrimages;
hindunet.org, for example, allows
you to visit 3,000 temples. While
all this appears quite convenient
at first glance, one wonders what
this will entail for the religious
institutions that use online meth-
ods of reaching patrons. The pos-
sibility for open discussion online
may cause these religious commu-
nities to develop their own unique
identities; whether this leads to
changes in established religions,
or even the perception of religion
itself, remains to be seen.
Another concern is what this
means for the patrons of physical
places of worship. Many of these
websites are meant to play a sup-
plementary role to regular real-life
participation. But in our ever-glo-
balizing world, where real-life par-
ticipation may not be possible or
plausible for all, it is inevitable that
For example, in the age of online
religions, moving to a different loca-
tion or picking up an extra shift at
work no longer entails the loss of all
spiritual connectedness.
There are, however, inherent
downsides that can arise from these
benefits. While these sites may
allow new immigrants an element
of home to hold on to as they move
far away from all they have known,
it can be just as easily argued that
a lack of resources drives people
to set up new religious institutions
and places of worship in their new
communities. What remains to be
seen is whether the new level of
ease produced by these online com-
munities will impede this spread of
religious diversity. In addition, while
these online communities can make
worship possible at any time, at
any place, perhaps religion should
not be given the task of squeezing
into a schedule. The availability of
24/7 prayer time and advice takes
away the intimacy and communal-
ism of worship held at a shared
time and place, reducing the “orga-
nized” aspect of organized religion
to something barely existent. This
recent increase in online worship
could thus also negatively impact
both the quantity and quality of
meaningful time spent in places of
worship.
For all their convenience and
strategic value, one must wonder
whether the merging of religion
and internet was an inevitabil-
ity, considering the lifestyle a large
portion of the world lives today. It’s
certainly not a new trend in religion
to use media as an outreach tool.
From the early 12th century when
morality plays were the main mode
of popular religious expression, to
the more recent development of
televangelism in the 1980s, we’ve
seen religions like Christianity use
whatever media is currently most
dominant to promote its message.
But how will this particular shift
change the image, or reality, of reli-
gion for future generations? While
it may be too soon to predict the
concrete impact of the internet on
religion, it is not too early to know
that such an impact will certainly
arise.
Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily
Integration, an imfroshible mission?
Religious groups are trying to bridge the divide between bingeing and belief
Laura Pellicer
The McGill Daily
s a leader for my
paleontology-
themed Frosh, my
shirt was adorned
with the title “Dino-
Whora Laura.” At first I didn’t
object to this name suggestive
of bestiality; it was at least better
than my cohorts’ attire. I realize
in retrospect, however, that the
hyper-sexualization of Frosh not
only makes newbies blush, but
also serves to marginalize those
whose beliefs go against boasting
about sexual exploits – real or fic-
tional – on beer-stained T-shirts.
Frosh marks a lot of impor-
tant firsts for McGill students.
Some of the people who make
up your Frosh group will
undoubtedly become your first
friends at McGill. I personally
was comfortable enough sus-
pending some of the conserva-
tive Christian values that I was
raised with in order to delve
into three days of lower-field
drinking with wanton abandon.
But the drinking culture and
sexual rhetoric ubiquitous at
Frosh has the effect of alienat-
ing a good number of religious
students. Even the following
Present-tense Paganism
Ancient tradition campaigns for understanding
Jessica Lukawiecki
The McGill Daily
e have all heard
of the terrors
of the Second
World War, when
religious groups,
particularly Jews, were among the
minority identities persecuted,
tortured, and mass-murdered
under the Nazi regime. We know
what happened when Europeans
colonized new territory to the det-
riment of the indigenous popula-
tions. These are stories that we
grow up with, that are printed
again and again in textbooks and
are meant to teach us about accep-
tance and the dangers that exist in
discrimination.
There are stories of perse-
cution, however, that do not
attract such recognition. Nestled
among hundreds of books on
Judaism and Christianity in the
McLennan library exist a hand-
ful of texts which document
the historical struggle of one
of the most ancient religions of
our world – Paganism. The term
Pagan, originally derived from
the Latin word paganus – mean-
29.11.2010
age-old McGill chant popular
during Frosh carries an alienat-
ing message for many religious
students:
McGill once, McGill twice
Holy Fucking Jesus Christ
Wham Bam God Damn
Son of a bitch shit.
Three cheers for McGill –
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Three cheers
for fucking –
McGill! McGill! McGill!
A number of religious student
groups on campus offer alternative
activities during Frosh to encour-
age inclusivity of a range of beliefs.
Many of these groups attempt
to shift the focus of Frosh from
being primarily on heavy drink-
ing and sexuality. The Newman
Centre, Campus for Christ, Impact
Church, and McGill Christian
Fellowship host Fish Frosh, which
is specifically geared toward
Christian students. The McGill
Muslim Students’ Association and
Chabad Jewish Student Centre of
McGill both organize a number of
Frosh activities which are popular
with religious students.
Rabbi Shmuly Weiss of McGill’s
Chabad Students’ Centre on Peel
attended the last few Froshes
serving up kosher BBQ fare for
students. Although he explained
ing “country folk” – has come
to be one of perhaps the most
commonly twisted words in the
English language.
Paganism was once a main-
stream respected belief coexisting
with Christianity, which until 300
A.D. was the minority. It consisted
of a number of different belief
systems which shared a common
thread – they were all character-
ized for their reverence of and
connection with nature, their
belief in multiple deities (both
male and female), and their egali-
tarian views toward women.
The Roman Emperor
Constantine’s conversion to
Christianity in 312 A.D. set in
motion centuries of persecution
for all those religions that did
not identify as Christian, gener-
ally placed under the umbrella
term “pagan.” These non-Chris-
tians were labeled “heathens”
who were said to practice devil
worship, sexual deviance, and
witchcraft. Their status as a legit-
imate religion diminished expo-
nentially as Christianity gained
a following. Ironically, many
Christian traditions developed
out of these dying Pagan beliefs.
Constantine declared the official
that lots of Jewish students par-
ticipate in Frosh, he pointed
out that he doesn’t know of any
deeply religious Jewish students
– those who adhere strictly to
the laws of the Torah – who have.
Regardless of which Frosh McGill
newbies choose to attend, the
effect is similar: those first cru-
cial friendships are still being
established between like-minded
students with similar religious or
non-religious orientations. How
can students then meet people
with different backgrounds and
religious views?
Mahab Firuz is a McGill stu-
dent who has worked in the
Chaplaincy department for five
years. She suggested that an
activities or games day that was
open to all students and didn’t
revolve around drinking or reli-
gion would be a beneficial con-
tribution to Frosh.
Perhaps McGill needs to take
a page out of Concordia’s orien-
tation itinerary. Our neighbour-
ing university doesn’t organize
a Frosh where registration and
fees are mandatory. Instead they
host a number of free events on
campus where all new students
can participate. The free con-
cert that Concordia hosts at the
beginning of the year is a great
example of a successful event
celebration of the birth of Jesus
Christ to be on December 25,
which coincidentally was also
the birthday of the pagan sun
god.
Such persecution and repres-
sion may seem like ancient his-
tory, but consider the fact that
McGill had a Pagan Association
until 1998 when the group was
pressured to shut down for
unclear reasons – both outcry
from Christian Fellowships and
managerial problems have been
cited as catalysts. The group was
revived in 2003 by U1 student
Bruno Mastronardi, whose main
goal, as he said in 2002 in an
interview with the Tribune, was
to “provide accurate information
about Paganism to try to coun-
teract the negative propaganda
which has been associated with
Paganism.”
This hesitant but steadfast
return of Paganism has become
a trend during the past century.
A number of different religious
groups, collectively known as
the Contemporary Paganism
movement, have seen a dramat-
ic increase in following. These
beliefs developed mainly in
Great Britain and centre around
that attracts thousands of stu-
dents. The result is that a more
inclusive cross-section of the stu-
dent population can participate
in the same event.
I don’t want to discourage
newbies from participating in
SSMU or faculty Froshes. For
those who are planning on
indulging in the drinking culture
prevalent in Montreal’s univer-
sity population, then this intense
a nature-based faith deriving
from Eastern mysticism and folk
shamanic practices.
The Montreal Pagan
Resource Centre, the first of its
kind in Canada, is a volunteer-
based drop-in centre that was
launched in August of 2000 by
Scarlett Cougar. A Concordia
graduate who identifies herself
as a Wiccan, Cougar explained
that Contemporary Paganism is
a very young belief that has been
steadily on the rise – in 2005,
statistics showed a 400 per cent
increase in the number of peo-
ple who identified as Pagans,
with 849 believers living in
Montreal alone. “Paganism reso-
nated very well with both [the
feminist and ecological move-
ments of the 1900’s] because
it was very nature based, hon-
oured a Goddess, and regarded
women as equal religiously,” she
said.
Although her beliefs have
been met with ignorance and
disdain in the past, Cougar
said that outlooks seem to be
changing. “Twenty years ago
people thought that Satanism
and Paganism [were] the same
thing. If you were a Pagan, you
Arts & Culture
Alex McKenzie | The McGill Daily
week may serve as a boot camp
where you hastily discover the
many ups and downs to booze.
The sexual shock value of SSMU
and faculty Froshes is also a large
part of their appeal. But events
which attract both religious and
non-religious students would
serve to broaden the mindset
of first-year students and overall
have benefits for the coexistence
of students on campus.
worshipped the devil.” Today,
she sees a much greater interest
being taken by educators and the
media regarding the history and
understanding of her beliefs.
Although McGill University
does not directly teach any
courses on Paganism, Religious
Studies professor Torrance Kirby
explained that there are many
seminars and courses that spin
Paganism into their content.
For hundreds of years, alter-
native forms of belief have suf-
fered from persecution – in
particular due to the attempt to
unite people under the one reli-
gion of Christianity. Paganism
is a discreet yet long-standing
victim of this. As a belief system
targeted since the beginnings
of Christianity’s spread almost
2,000 years ago, it has under-
gone such prolonged periods of
discrimination and misunder-
standing that it has been relegat-
ed to the realm of superstition
and misconception. Its central
beliefs and practices had a major
influence on the traditions we
stand by today. Only recently,
however, has this been recog-
nized and Paganism’s legitimacy
begun to be restored.
 Société | Life
Une voie radiophonique
vers le divin
La foi sur 91,3 FM, la radio de Jésus?
Véronique Martel
Le Délit
adio Ville-Marie.
Pour un sens à la
vie!» Voilà tout un
slogan qui semble
annoncer un bien
lourd programme. Le 91.3 FM
serait-il donc destiné à nous
convertir au christianisme? Par
envoûtement musical? Par mes-
sages subliminaux? En fait, nul
besoin de croire que Jésus a
marché sur l’eau pour pouvoir
profiter de la programmation de
la station. Au contraire, depuis sa
création, Radio Ville-Marie (RVM)
tend à diversifier ses émissions.
Lorsque, en 1995, Radio-
Canada décide d’éliminer toute
trace de religion de sa program-
mation, trois animateurs de
la société publique s’unissent
et fondent Radio Ville-Marie.
Consciente que la société québé-
coise n’était plus aussi intéres-
sée qu’autrefois par la question
religieuse –Révolution tranquille
oblige–, RVM a dû faire preuve
d’une grande ouverture d’esprit
et accepter de travestir sa pre-
mière idée, soit de créer une sta-
Opening the discourse
Chaplaincy services aim to aid religious dialogue on campus with film competition
James Farr
Culture Writer
ast winter, I was broke
and needed a job.
After many fruitless
emails and submit-
ted writing samples, I
found a job posting at the McGill
Chaplaincy, which I’d never
heard of. According to its website,
Chaplaincy Services is “an inter-
faith organization dedicated to
spiritual and religious care in the
McGill community.” All I knew at
the time, however, was that I was
in desperate need of some cash.
So I applied for a job, and soon I
was hired on as an intern.
In retrospect, it strikes me as
utterly strange that I had never
heard of the Chaplaincy before.
It’s located on the fourth floor of
the Brown Building, which was an
old haunt of mine. I’d spent a fair
amount of time on the third floor
prostrating myself before finan-
cial aid advisors. Why had I never
noticed the Chaplaincy before?
What makes it even stranger is the
fact that I am a deeply religious
person. I was raised by a Bahá’í
mother and a Roman Catholic
father. Alongside my own investi-
gations, this influence has made
tion religieuse, en une mission
plus vaste qui engloberait toutes
les valeurs de la chrétienté. Ne lit-
on pas: «Tu aimeras ton prochain
comme toi-même»?
Bien que le chapelet médité
soit encore diffusé chaque soir
de la semaine à 18h30, RVM pro-
pose de nombreuses émissions
culturelles, telles que Carnet lit-
téraire animée par Gilda Routy,
Arts et lettres, L’âme des poètes,
Vivante poésie, et les quotidi-
ennes Passeport Matin et Temps
libre, ou même des émissions
d’actualité comme Culture et
société, Au cœur de l’être, ou
Questions d’aujourd’hui. Avis
aux laïques, Carnet littéraire et
ses acolytes ne traitent ni de la
Bible ni de ses produits dérivés.
Au contraire, Gilda Routy reçoit
des auteurs, des commissaires
d’expositions, des acteurs, des
comédiens. Elle commente des
publications récentes, parle de
l’actualité littéraire et des événe-
ments qui y sont liés. Le tout sans
faire une seule allusion à Satan,
Yavhé ou le fait que certains invi-
tés puissent ne pas être baptisés!
Alors, pourquoi RVM est-
elle définie comme une radio
chrétienne? «D’abord, explique
me a dedicated Bahá’í with a deep
love for Jesus Christ.
As I typed that last sentence, I
felt in myself a familiar sense of con-
fession. Not to any divine power,
but rather to you, the reader. Since
the time I was in public school,
there has always been a mild sense
of shame associated with my reli-
gious affiliations. The title of “the
religious kid” has never been tan-
tamount to cool, and throughout
all of my education I have always
been hesitant to reveal my faith. In
my experience, it has often led to
dismissal, ridicule, and sometimes
cruelty. I never had to ask why,
because the people always told me:
“Religion is responsible for all the
wars in the world!” “How can you
believe in a God who allows peo-
ple to suffer?” “If God exists, then
show Him to me!” As I grew older,
these arguments became more
elegant and sophisticated, but their
essence remained the same.
This is not to say that the argu-
ments are crazy or totally false; they
aren’t. I found in them, however,
a curious irony: one that perhaps
explains my initial ignorance of
the Chaplaincy. That is, my faith in
God was oppressed by those who
claimed that God was a supremely
oppressive idea. Let it be known: I do
not deny that God (or, perhaps, the
Jocelyne Sagala, coordonna-
trice du service aux donateurs et
responsable des activités béné-
fiques de la station, RVM n’est
pas exclusivement chrétienne,
mais œcuménique, c’est-à-dire,
qu’elle regroupe tous les cultes
religieux sans distinction aucune.
Elle propose une programmation
qui reflète certaines valeurs chré-
tiennes, telles l’honnêteté ou le
respect.» Son statut d’organisme
communautaire à but non lucra-
tif permet à la station d’offrir
des émissions qui traitent de
nombreux sujets, souvent hété-
idea of God) has been an extremely
oppressive force in human history.
Let it also be known that I hesitate
to use the word “oppression,” as
there are causes that are far more
worthy of the term than mine.
The irony, nevertheless, still
stands. What it demonstrates, at
least to me, is that oppression is
completely contextual: religion
may well be oppressive on a global
scale, but in my life it has been the
victim. I see particularly potent
examples of this oppression here
on campus. The continued lack
of an adequate prayer space for
Muslims immediately comes to
mind. More generally, however, I
think of the general sneer worn by
the face of academia with respect
to religious belief, and the perva-
sive fear of students and professors
alike to discuss their faith commit-
ments. Is this all in the name of
some long-gone notion of academ-
ic objectivity? Are we so blind as to
believe that our biases will simply
go away if we ignore them?
What is called for here, as has
been repeated time and time
again by far better people, is dia-
logue and openness. It is no longer
acceptable to engage neutrally (and
ultimately, superficially) with our
peers. Rather, it is my firm belief
that in order to avoid misunder-
Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily
roclites. Les animateurs et chro-
niqueurs ne sont liés à aucun
groupe ou mouvement, ils sont
donc libres d’expression puisque
rien ne guide leurs paroles (aucun
engagement politique, social, reli-
gieux ou commercial). Jocelyne
Sagala ajoute que «tous les ani-
mateurs sont bénévoles. Très peu
d’employés sont rémunérés. Sans
leur généreuse et constante aide,
la radio n’existerait tout simple-
ment pas! Nos animateurs sont
passionnés, ce qui donne cette
qualité à notre programmation».
Contre toute attente, la pro-
standing and further oppression
from religious or secular sources,
we need to look each other in the
eyes and ask, “What do you actual-
ly believe?” As the late David Foster
Wallace once said, “In the day-to-
day trenches of adult life, there is
actually no such thing as atheism.
There is no such thing as not wor-
shipping. Everybody worships.”
The only choice we get is what to
worship”. To modify this statement
for my current purposes I would
say that we also get another choice,
one that is almost equal in impor-
tance. That is, what do we do when
we encounter someone who wor-
ships something different than us?
Because guess what: the question
is no longer, “Why can’t we all just
get along?” In the wake of global-
ization, the development of devas-
tating weapons technology, and an
unmitigated tension of innumer-
able ideologies, we should now say:
“How can we get along before we
all die?”
This statement sounds melodra-
matic delivered in a campus news-
paper, but, as with oppression, the
matter is contextual. On a global
scale, the idea is not melodramatic
at all, but of incalculable impor-
tance. As such, McGill’s students
and faculty need to step up and
facilitate this fundamental dialogue.
29.11.2010
Elizabeth-Ann Michel-Boulanger
grammation de RVM regorge
d’émissions variées, intelligentes
et divertissantes. Le fait qu’elles
cherchent à promouvoir les val-
eurs d’intégrité, d’honnêteté, de
respect et d’entraide, que l’on
retrouve dans la foi chrétienne,
n’entrave en rien la qualité des
émissions de la station. Madame
Sagala rappelle que Radio Ville-
Marie est la radio des sans-voix,
qu’elle permet aux marginaux de
dialoguer, de partager et de se
reconnaître dans un autre modèle
que celui que propose la société.
Soyez à l’écoute! !
I applaud such efforts as the recent-
ly-instigated class “Religion and
Globalization.” I would also like to
call your attention to another, which
is where the Chaplaincy comes in.
In the early winter semester, the
Chaplaincy will be holding their
inaugural Faith in Film competition.
Students will be asked to submit
short films between ten and thirty
minutes in length that deal cre-
atively with their spirituality (or lack
thereof). There will be a screening
event on March 4, during which
the submissions will be judged by
a panel comprised of students, pro-
fessors, and a representative from
the National Film Board of Canada.
The winner will receive a $500 cer-
tificate to the McGill Bookstore or
Future Shop. The real allure here,
though, should be the opportunity
to participate in an important and
underrepresented conversation.
Be you Christian, Jewish, Atheist,
Agnostic, Hindu, Deist, or Anarcho-
Feminist – we want to hear from
you.
What makes a dialogue instructive
and important is that there are
at least two voices sharing their
thoughts. You have heard mine.
The invitation is open and I anx-
iously await your response: james.
farr@mail.mcgill.ca
Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily
Tolérance et foi en terre brûlée
Koudiadiène, Sénégal, été 2009. Un monde dominé par la foi.
Anabel Cossette Civitella
Le Délit
Histoire d’une mixité com-
pliquée
ers le VIIe siècle, les
Royaumes du Tekrour,
du Namandirou et
du Djolof se forment
progressivement. En
ces temps reculés, les peuples et
leurs croyances cohabitent sans fric-
tion. L’arrivée de l’islam au Sénégal
remonte au VIIIe et au IXe siècle.
Introduite par les commerçants
arabo-berbères, la religion est dif-
fusée pacifiquement. Une fois
convertis, les Toucouleurs et les
Sarakhollés la propagent partout au
Sénégal. Puis, au XIXe siècle appa-
rait le colonisateur français, majori-
tairement catholique, qui se fait un
devoir d’enseigner et/ou d’imposer
ses pratiques. Aujourd’hui, mal-
gré son indépendance, le Sénégal
demeure officiellement catholique
et musulman. Cependant, les
Sénégalais suivent-ils vraiment les
principes fondateurs de ces reli-
gions ou ont-ils, avec le temps, com-
biné les éléments qui les intéres-
saient le plus?
Dans un village ou la reli-
gion est partout
À l’intérieur du village de
Koudiadiène, les personnes de
croyance islamique et catholique
cohabitent très bien. Si les mœurs
diffèrent d’une religion à l’autre
(polygamie et appel à la prière
pour les musulmans et monoga-
mie et visite à l’église pour les
catholiques), les différences sem-
blent très bien intégrées dans leur
mode de vie.
La grande majorité des familles
catholiques dans le village de
Koudiadiène voient leur vie influ-
encée par le dogme catholique. Tout
chrétien doit minimalement assister
aux messes célébrées à l’Église le
dimanche. Tout le monde ne suit
pas scrupuleusement ces indica-
tions, mais, de manière générale,
la messe dominicale est un événe-
ment qui rassemble une majorité
de citoyens, des plus petits aux
plus grands. D’ailleurs, les jeunes
en âge de faire leur première com-
munion ou leur confirmation doi-
vent impérativement y être, faute de
quoi ils seront réprimandés par le
Père en charge de leurs sacrements.
Les familles musulmanes, quant à
elles, vivent au rythme des appels à
la prière et se rendent à la mosquée
régulièrement.
À Koudiadiène, le son des
cloches de l’église est une sym-
phonie orchestrée par les novices
de la paroisse du village. S’il est
impossible de savoir exactement
l’heure à laquelle se passera un
événement, il est tout de même
possible de se fier aux cloches de
l’église pour s’orienter. Le tinta-
marre des cloches ponctue le
quotidien d’un je-ne-sais-quoi de
29.11.2010
rassurant, comme si les cloches
mettaient des balises dans un
espace-temps où les horaires sont
très malléables, les contraintes
temporelles quasi inexistantes.
De plus, si la religion catholique
ou islamique s’inculque dès le plus
jeune âge dans la famille sénégal-
aise, l’éducation religieuse con-
tinue en dehors du foyer familial.
Les cours de religion (islamique
ou catholique) apparaissent donc
aussi à l’ordre du jour des jeunes
étudiants. Pour les catholiques, le
catéchisme enseigné à l’école pri-
maire vise entre autre à préparer
À la veille d’un mariage, les femmes portent leur plus beaux
atours pour la célébration en l’honneur de la mariée.
«le catholicisme
les imbibe de
son aura de foi
et d’encens»
les jeunes aux sacrements tels que
la première communion et la con-
firmation. Les enfants apprennent
aussi à réciter les prières destinées
à l’église.
Le petit catéchisme copié,
recopié, étudié, appris et finale-
ment récité en vue d’être évalué
n’est toutefois pas toujours com-
pris par les plus jeunes. Les enfants
ne comprennent probablement
pas la moitié des préceptes ensei-
gnés, mais ils les clament à qui
mieux-mieux dès que l’occasion se
présente. Par exemple, savoir qui
sont Jésus, Marie et Joseph semble
étrangement intégré lorsqu’ils se
réunissent et entonnent en chœur
des chants religieux… en che-
min vers le terrain de soccer ou au
retour de l’école.
Ainsi, dans le village, à
l’église et à l’école, les religions
s’enseignent et s’apprennent dans
les règles de l’art. Mais la pratique
est-elle représentative des croy-
ances profondes ?
Un mélange qui s’inspire de
l’histoire
Si certaines règles du catholi-
cisme sont scrupuleusement
respectées, plusieurs grandes
lignes manquent tout de même à
l’équation. Les traditions ances-
trales côtoient notamment beau-
coup les deux grandes religions
«officielles». Les rites animistes, en
ce qui a trait aux mauvais esprits
et aux malédictions, restent cen-
traux à leur mode de vie.
Comme si les peurs étaient
dans les gènes, transmises de
génération en génération, les
malédictions demeurent encore
actives malgré leur contradiction
avec les préceptes catholiques.
Étrangement, les croyances en
Anabel Cossette Civitella / Le Délit
Anabel Cossette Civitella / Le Délit
La croix de l’église catholique se dresse derrière un baobab.
les mauvais esprits (qui pren-
nent le plus souvent la forme d’un
singe) côtoient quotidiennement
et depuis longtemps la religion
catholique. Autant le catholicisme
les imbibe de son aura de foi et
d’encens protecteur, autant ils
restent craintifs face aux forces
occultes qui paralysaient déjà
de peur leurs arrières-arrières-
grands-parents.
Une autre présence évidente
des rites ancestraux s’exhibe
dans la médecine tradition-
nelle qui fait encore beaucoup
d’adeptes. Quel paradoxe de
croire fermement en les pré-
ceptes catholiques, de scru-
puleusement suivre les règles
qu’elles impliquent mais de tout
de même être influencé par de
vieilles peurs! Et de ce mélange,
quel est le dénominateur com-
mun?
Société | Life
La foi comme moteur d’une l’action des pères à Koudiadiène
nation dépassent leur simple mandat reli-
gieux: ils prennent part à la survie
«Sans foi, sans Dieu, nous ne et la continuité du village.
sommes rien. Comment pou- Père Yves, le supérieur de la
vez-vous [les occidentaux] ne paroisse, organise, à fréquence
croire en rien?», questionne avec irrégulière, des soirées «thé-
étonnement un homme rencon- débat» où tous et chacun sont invi-
tré au village. Lui répondre que je tés à discuter des enjeux de la vie
crois en moi ne lui suffit pas… à Koudiadiène. Quoique tout le
L’absence d’une pratique de la monde reste le bienvenu (y com-
spiritualité chez la majorité des pris les étrangers), les échanges
occidentaux contemporains est de la sorte visent principalement
incompréhensible pour beau- les jeunes de la communauté,
coup de villageois. «Vous pouvez ceux les plus susceptibles de
bien croire en ce que vous voulez, changer la société, de bouleverser
l’ordre établi. En effet, les «thé-
débats» demeurent le meilleur
moment pour s’asseoir et discuter
des problèmes rencontrés dans
l’immédiat ou dans le futur, discu-
ter des manières les plus efficaces
pour les résoudre et améliorer ce
qui a déjà été implanté.
Lors d’une séance spéciale,
père Yves tente de brosser un large
portrait de la situation du village.
N’épargnant pas les sujets les plus
délicats comme les problèmes
d’alcoolisme qui monopolisent
une bonne part de la population
masculine ou l’évidente carence
d’emploi pour les hommes de la
région, père Yves tente de faire
comprendre aux jeunes présents
On prend la pose avec qu’ils doivent avoir de l’espoir. Il
l’indispensable icône leur enseigne que l’espérance en
de Jésus-Christ. un avenir meilleur se doit d’être
leur allié.
Ce soir-là, les paroles de père
Yves, transmises avec la foi cou-
tumière des croyants, restaient
toutefois entièrement dépourvues
de toute allusion à la spiritualité.
Même lorsque la discussion a con-
vergé vers les croyances animistes
qui empêchent l’exploitation de
certaines terres par peur des mau-
vais esprits, père Yves a tenu à
maintenir la religion catholique à
l’écart: «Est-ce bien logique de lais-
ser de belles terres en latence par
peur d’éventuels esprits vengeurs?
Je ne suis pas contre l’idée que le
malin existe, mais vous devrez me
le prouver avant que je mette une
croix sur la possibilité d’exploiter
Nicolas Beauchemin
les terrains actuellement gaspillés
mais vous devez croire en quelque par une peur irrationnelle.»
chose, tout de même!» À l’heure actuelle, plus de
La foi demeure toutefois ce la moitié de la population du
qu’il y a de plus intelligible pour Sénégal vit sous le seuil de pauvre-
les occidentaux que nous sommes té, le taux de chômage est de 40%
lorsque nous tentons d’analyser la et les ressources naturelles sont
structure religieuse des commu- épuisées par des années de sur-
nautés comme celle rencontrée à exploitation. L’état de la politique,
Koudiadiène, au Sénégal. En effet, de l’économie, mais aussi de la
ce n’est pas la religion catholique, culture sont autant conséquences
musulmane ou animiste qui car- d’un passé marqué par la colonisa-
actérise les habitants du Sénégal, tion. La foi peut se déployer sous
mais bien un amalgame de ces plusieurs formes, et dans ce pays
trois croyances. Et la foi en est le le plus à l’Ouest du continent afric-
dénominateur commun. ain la foi demeure forte. Pour les
La participation active des Sénégalais de Koudiadiène, elle
religieux dans la vie du village est peut être vue comme le dénomi-
comparable à celle des prêtres nateur commun des diverses
québécois des années 1940. Ce fait croyances qui se côtoient quoti-
est impressionnant à un moment diennement. Pourtant, pour les
où la pratique de la religion s’efface sortir d’une pauvreté galopante,
tranquillement du quotidien pour pour leur redonner la fierté d’être
devenir occasionnelle, sinon Sénégalais, ils doivent avoir foi en
inexistante pour certains. En fait, leur capacité. !
 Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily 29.11.2010

Multiple universes,
Société | Life

myriad fragile coincidences

Stephen Hawking’s The Grand Design purports to know the very origins of the universe
Mehur Chahal
The McGill Daily
he ability of scientists
to account for and
explain “mystical”
phenomena has erod-
ed religious cred-
ibility for centuries, but religion
continues nonetheless. Though
the barometer may have proven
more effective at “summoning”
rain, several Balkan villages, for
example, continue to rain dance.
Even if science can better
explain certain phenomena,
like rain, how could a universe
so seemingly tailored to human
existence not be the work
of some benevolent creator?
Since its release in September,
Grand Design has been mak-
ing waves. In the book, Hawking
contends that recent cosmology
supports two assertions: first, that
multiple universes supporting life
are possible, and more interest-
ingly, that none of them require a
God.
While he concedes that the
myriad fragile coincidences that
have led to human existence are
intriguing, they do not in them-
selves prove the existence of a
grand designer. Rather, recent
advances in cosmology show that
universes are created from noth-
ing through a process known as
“spontaneous combustion.” Just
as our planet is one of many, and
just as our galaxy is one of many,

Stacey Wilson | The McGill Daily

Strange that everything (from
the Earth’s position in the solar
system to the weight of subatom-
ic particles) should be exactly
the way it is, finely-tuned for the
existence of life – it’s eerily ser-
endipitous.
According to Stephen Haw-
king, Lucasian Professor of
Mathematics at Cambridge
University and the most revered
scientist since Albert Einstein,
science can explain all of this.
Hawking’s work attempts to marry
Einstein’s general theory of rela-
tivity with quantum theory. In his
new popular science novel The
Grand Design, the emboldened
professor claims to know what
really created the universe, and
what role God would have played
in it.
our universe – Hawking explains
in the book – is one of many. Each
universe has different properties,
some with the possibility of sup-
porting life. Ours is one of those.
Where the laws of nature that sup-
port life forms do exist, they exist
by pure chance.
While the data that support
Hawking’s assertions would be
lost on most, his ideas still merit
reflection. Hawking and his co-
author Leonard Mlodinow may
not be so much radical as they are
simply privy to updated informa-
tion. However, at the same time
that as one ponders Hawking’s
assertions, one also ponders the
limits of scientific knowledge.
Could Hawking be wrong?
Gil Holder, Canada Re-
search Chair in Cosmological
Astrophysics and assistant pro-
fessor of Physics here at McGill
explained that in fact, evidence
used in astrophysics is “tricky”
to construct, as experiments are
hard to control. An experiment
attempting to recreate primordial
conditions is impossible, and this
results in a dependence on theo-
ries that explain future data. This
of course leaves room for error,
especially when tracing back 13.7
billion years to the beginning of
the universe.
Holder’s work involves measur-
ing the conditions of the universe
when it was 10 -32 seconds old.
Until now, humans haven’t been
able to measure the universe at
time zero. The implications of this
for the creation of the universe
are massive. Do we really need
to get to time zero to understand
the creation of the cosmos? “If so,
then I don’t see how any enter-
prise based on any variant of the
scientific method has a chance,”
said Holder.
Humans, and that includes
Hawking, attempt to draw conclu-
sions on the origin of universe by
studying its evolution and using
the laws in place. However, as
Holder explained, “It is certainly
possible that there is no informa-
tion about the origin of the uni-
verse encoded in its subsequent
evolution. I can measure every-
thing about a ping-pong ball after
it has been hit but I may never be
able to tell you the colour of the
racquet.”

Do we really need to sleep?

The dangers of staying awake, across species

The Split Brain
Daniel Lametti
danllametti@mcgilldaily.com
ast month, a celebrity
photographer in Los
Angeles named Tyler
Shields claimed to have
set the world record
for sleeplessness – forty days
without a wink of sleep; more
than double the current record.
He blogged about the experi-
ence on his website – a site that
also boasts an underwear-only
clad Lindsay Lohan lounging
beside a blood spattered wall.
Scientists were skeptical about
the claim. “In all likelihood,”
sleep researcher Michael Breus
told AOL News, “Shields slept”
during the forty days. It would
be impossible, he added, for a
human to go that long without
sleep. He’s probably right.
Sleep – on paper, a boring
activity that frustratingly occupies
nearly a third of our lives – is a
controversial topic for neuroscien-
tists. As of this column, research-
ers have no idea why we do it. “As
far as I know,” the famous Stanford
neuroscientist William Dement
recently said, “the only reason we
need to sleep is because we get
sleepy.”
Scientists might not know
exactly why we need to sleep,
but they do know what hap-
pens when we don’t, which
is why Tyler Shields’ claim
seems unlikely. In 1989, Allan
Rechtshaffen, a sleep research-
er working at the University of
Chicago, built a device to keep
rats awake. His contraption was
based on the idea that brainwav-
es signal the onset of sleep; by
monitoring the brainwaves from
rats he could prod the animals
at just the right moment to keep
them awake.
Brains, like toasters and televi-
sions, emit waves of electromag-
netic radiation. Awake, our brains
emit chaotic-looking waves: waves
filled with precipitous peaks and
valleys that seem to occur at ran-
dom. But as we drift off to sleep
the chaos subsides, and the waves
start to rise and fall with a predict-
able rhythm.
Rechtshaffen implanted brain-
wave-monitoring electrodes in
the heads of two rats. He then
placed the rats on opposite sides
of screen on a platform suspend-
ed over a shallow pool of water.
The platform rotated under the
vertical screen such that, when
in motion, like on a treadmill,
the rats had to walk against the
movement of the platform to stay
in the same spot. If they ignored
the platform’s rotation, they
risked bumping into the screen
and, potentially, falling into the
water. Rechtshaffen monitored
the brain waves from one of the
rats. When the rat’s waves start-
ed to show the rhythmic signs of
sleep, he rotated the platform to
keep it awake. As a control, he
ignored the waves from the sec-
ond rat, allowing it to sleep when
it could.
Within days, reported Recht-
shaffen, the effect of sleep depri-
vation was noticeable in the
rat forced to stay awake. Its fur
changed color from white to
brown, it lost weight even though
it ate more, and its heart rate
soared. Within a month the ani-
mal was dead. But the control rat,
able to sleep whenever its cage
mate’s brainwaves didn’t trigger
rotation of the platform, showed
no ill effects.
Rechtshaffen’s experiment has
been repeated in humans – of
course, not by scientists. Fatal famil-
ial insomnia, a rare genetic disor-
der, causes perpetual sleeplessness
when the midlife disease kicks in.
The syndrome has only afflicted a
few dozen people worldwide, but,
just like Rechtshaffen’s rats, those
that do carry the gene always die
shortly after the onset of insomnia.
Sleep, somehow, keeps us alive.
In the end, Tyler Shields’ forty
days and forty nights without
sleep, if they happened, were
all for naught. Not wanting to
risk anyone’s life, The Guinness
Book of World Records stopped
honouring sleep deprivation in
1990. The world record for sleep-
lessness will forever belong to
Robert McDonald, a resident of
California, who, in 1986, survived
19 days in a rocking chair, wide-
awake.
Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily 29.11.2010

Societé | Life
Superstitious for success
The idiosyncratic rituals of athletes

Paging Dr. Gonzo
Ben Makuch
benmakuch@mcgilldaily.com
must have played with the
filthiest scum-urchin in
history ever convinced to
play human sports, and he
also doubled as a success-
ful striker. Worse yet, I had the
tremendous misfortune of being
located beside him in the locker
room. You know mould? He had
it growing on his clothing. I’m not
sure how that even happens, but it
did. I’ve witnessed it. It’s blackish
grey – mobile I suspect – and irre-
sistibly ugly; like a hairless shih tzu
lounging in a lawn chair, except
this was quickly spreading fungi
on his pair of blue Kappa shorts.
I couldn’t look away. He even
wore them to practice, smearing
the black powdery organism on
the clean, muddy field. The inter-
esting thing was that we had our
laundry taken care of by the uni-
versity athletics department. Clip
your shit together with a laundry
tag, put it into a basket, and the
next day you looked like the clean-
est kid out of a Tide commercial.
In fact, not only was it free, the
process was painstakingly easy.
But I guess every dirty dog likes
his scent, and Andrew was com-
mitted to a culture of atavism.
We’re talking about a guy whose
diet relied on microwaved roast
beef. Yeah, he’s the one who buys
those rubber lumps of brown salt
they advertise as bovine gourmet.
I had enough; I could taste the
air now.
“You smell like a fucking fun-
gus tree – and I’m not even sure
that’s a real tree.”
“You smell like a virgin.”
“You smell like Tony Danza’s
ass.”
“Who’s the boss?”
“Definitely not you, you
Neanderthal.”
“Who has six snipes in six? Eh?
By the way I slept with your mom,
she says hi...”
He had a point. While I
scored maybe once all season,
he was somewhat of a semi-pro-
lific striker and was lighting it up.
What was the key to his success?
Was it a rugged playing style
that involved the unapologetic
maiming of opposing defend-
ers? An uncanny ability to invert
insults that had a knack for poi-
soning your thoughts? A strong
right-footed shot? His pre-game
fights at bars? No, sir. There was
an ancient ritual he invoked for
his own success. Like the great
Spartans before him and the
countless other warrior poets
who have trod the land of sport,
he had another ally altogether:
superstition. It makes perfect
sense, because the athlete, if
my knowledge serves me right,
is very much like Tom Cruise: a
profoundly superstitious crea-
ture also deathly afraid of doc-
tors. Andrew was no different.
“Oh yeah? What’s the secret to
your success, Ronaldo?” My guess
was milkshakes made of Jean-
Claude Van Damme’s body odour
harvested from the original set of
Bloodsport.
“After I snipe I don’t change a
thing.”
“What? You can’t be serious?” It
was all making sense.
“Not even the gitch [under-
wear].” I gagged tremendously.
“You mean to tell me you stop
washing your uniform after you
score for the rest of the season?”
This was an appalling discovery
for a part-time germaphobe such
as myself.
“Does it even remotely bother
you that you might be inadver-
tently growing anthrax?”
“I don’t give a shit. Six snipes,”
he repeated calmly.
This isn’t anything new – there
are countless oddities in the
sports world that mimic a simi-
lar script. I’ve heard of players
needing to throw up before every
game, putting on the left side
of their equipment first, avoid-
ing the colour yellow at all costs,
and eating a blade of grass before
taking the field. It’s a game of
chance that athletes respect, as if
some omnipotent being is waiting
for them to step out of line and
unleash something biblical. And
if you do adhere to the holy rules,
you will be victorious. But really it
all seems to come down to prepa-
ration. Are you focused? What is
it that you need to do to go to a
primal place where you can rise
above your adversary?
Anyway, I’m not one for dra-
matics. I think the answer is pretty
simple: smelling like a bucket of
wet garlic. Eric Wen | The McGill Daily

Keeping the faith

For many, sports are a religious experience

The foul line
Nader Fotouhi
naderfotouhi@mcgilldaily.com
n secular societies, sports
teams are the subjects of
near-religious following.
The term faith is most com-
monly used in reference to
spirituality, but it can also refer to
a belief in something unproven.
Sports fans, in particular, believe
in and have loyalty toward their
team; the best players are gods,
the worst are unworthy, and root-
ing for your team can be a reli-
gious experience. Optimists for
teams of all calibres have a firm
belief in their team’s impending
success in spite of past perfor-
mance or disparate talent lev-
els. Regardless of one’s religious
beliefs, faith in sports is a major
part of the fan experience.
Faith is an integral aspect
of religion – without it, people
would question the existence of
a higher power without reserva-
tions. For many, religious faith is
an order of belief in something
unseen and unfelt. The differ-
ence between religious and
sports-inspired faith lies first and
foremost in their contradictory
avenues of scripture. Religious
writing is set in stone for most
popular organized religions.
Every action and moment that
matters to the history of a given
religion has, for all intents and
purposes, come and gone – at
least until the Rapture. Sports are
an opportunity to invest those
hopes and volitions in a visible,
if not tangible, result. The pres-
ence of subjects of sports-based
faith is indisputable – their faces,
actions, and even salaries are all
accessible. The allure of sports,
for those with a vested interest
in the outcome, is the opportu-
nity to experience the range of
emotions as history writes itself
before your eyes. Faith is validat-
ed or proven futile in a matter of
seconds.
Having a team to fervently
cheer on adds to the sports expe-
rience, but is certainly not vital to
it. One of the simpler pleasures
is watching a highly-contested
competition, regardless of the
sport, without a favoured team or
individual involved. The absence
of faith alleviates the anxieties
natural to a die-hard fan. Indeed,
that’s how fandom starts for many
people – but after a while, it’s
hard not to pick a team to associ-
ate with. It’s a quality that makes
the narratives of sports that much
more compelling.
The return of a player once dei-
fied by a fan base only to turn his
back on them, for example, is a
recurring storyline in sports. This
particular situation manifested
itself again on November 20 in
Montreal when former Canadien
Mike Komisarek – who channelled
Judas in spurning the team to sign
with Toronto two off-seasons
ago – continued the Sisyphean
start to his Leafs career. With his
new team down 1-0 in the third
period, Komisarek gave away
the puck to Michael Cammalleri,
Montreal’s new saviour, whose
signing was made possible in
part by Komisarek’s departure.
In poetic fashion, Cammalleri
received Komisarek’s tape-to-tape
gaffe and rifled it into the top right
corner to ensure Montreal’s victo-
ry. Cammalleri proved his mettle
again while the once-prodigal son
was left to fume, chewing on his
mouth guard under a torrent of
jeers.
In the end, faith is a facet: one
which religions use for growth,
but also one from which people
can find comfort. Faith is also
the catalyst for myriad emotions.
The strongest positive feelings
arise when one’s faith has been
rewarded. When it is abused, it
causes one to abandon faith, in
addition to generating a stark
sense of betrayal. Faith in sports,
however, just makes the process
more engaging. Being a sports fan
is often about the highs and lows
of emotions in fandom, which is
only accentuated by ardent faith
in a team. And the good news is
that you can’t go to hell for being
a sports fan.

Societé | Life
Sensitivity training
Quebec schools’ new Ethics and Religious Culture program, two years later
Lisa Routly
Health&Education Writer
aith-based education
has long been a conten-
tious issue in Quebec.
With the adoption
of Bill 109 in 1997,
Quebec’s long-standing religious
school boards were abolished
and a system of linguistic school
boards was established, reflect-
ing the growing secularism
the province had experienced
since the Quiet Revolution of
the 1960s. The issue of Catholic
versus Protestant education
became a matter of French ver-
sus English, a divide that con-
tinues to mark the province’s
society.
In the fall of 2008, the bilin-
gual Ethics and Religious Culture
program (ERC) was introduced
as a mandatory course for all ele-
mentary and secondary school
students in Quebec. It replaced
Catholic, Protestant, and moral
education programs that had
previously been taught with a
secular, or “non-confession-
al,” program offering what the
Ministère de l’Éducation, Loisirs
et Sports explains is “the same
education to all Quebec students
while respecting the freedom of
conscience and religion of par-
ents, students and teachers.”
ERC aims to develop in stu-
dents a sense of “recognition of
others” and the “pursuit of the
common good,” by teaching stu-
dents about the various religions
present in Quebec society as
Grasse foi
Chronique culinaire| Société: Les pieds dans les plats
Christophe Jasmin
Le Délit
ucun rapport, direz-
vous, entre nourriture
et foi. L’un est on ne
peut plus physique,
l’autre absolument
métaphysique. En effet, mis à part
les interdictions alimentaires des
religions, le lien entre foi et ali-
mentation est a priori minime, voire
inexistant. Et pourtant…
Un peu d’histoire
Les grandes religions ont beau-
coup plus à voir avec ce que nous
mangeons et buvons que ce que
l’on pourrait croire. En fait, sans
la contribution des nombreux
abbayes et diocèses européens, la
bière et le vin seraient sûrement
encore ces boissons quasi imbuv-
ables qu’on mélangeait jusqu’au
Xe siècle avec de l’eau et du miel
well as worldwide, and encour-
aging them to reflect on ethical
issues through classroom dia-
logue.
The greatest challenge the
ERC program faces rests on the
shoulders of teachers under-
equipped to teach it. The new
curriculum puts the onus on
teachers to become knowledge-
able in the fields of ethics and
religious studies in their own
time, on top of their already
heavy workloads. Ron Morris, a
McGill professor in the Faculty
of Education and expert in the
field of values education, noted.
“Where everyone agrees is that
the Achilles’ heel [of the ERC
program] is teacher prepara-
tion.”
In September 2008, when
ERC was incorporated into the
social studies department at the
anglophone Laval Junior High
School, teachers who special-
ized in history or geography
took on the challenge of teach-
ing this new and unfamiliar
material.
“We inherited it,” Sunday
Skoufaras, a McGill graduate and
high school history teacher of 15
years, noted with a hint of irony.
She went on to add that, “The
Ministry knew for many years that
the reform was coming, and still
the English teacher’s manual isn’t
ready.”
Students at Laval Junior curi-
ous about the subject matter
expressed their disappointment
with the minimal depth of their
in-class explorations into other
religious traditions. One student,
afin de pouvoir se saouler sans
avoir l’impression de caler (parce
que c’est bien ce qu’on faisait à
cette époque) un verre de levures
ou de raisins fermentés à l’état
brut. Même chose pour le from-
age: sans les moines Trappistes,
les Bénédictins et les Cisterciens,
pas de Roquefort, de Saint-Paulin,
de Munster et… d’Oka. Vous sau-
rez qui remercier la prochaine fois
que vous dégusterez un verre de
Bourgogne ou une pinte de Leffe
en mangeant un bout de Tête de
Moine.
Don’t Eat, Pray & Love
Toutefois, le lien entre foi
et nourriture n’est pas qu’une
chose du passé, mais bien
quelque chose d’encore très
manifeste qui va bien au-delà de
l’influence des grandes religions.
Et je ne parle pas ici d’une spiri-
tualité à deux cents à la Eat, Pray &
Love. Il s’agit plutôt ici des choix
que nous faisons quand vient le
Dounia spoke for the class, saying
ERC would be “better if there were
more teachers educated about
ethics.”
Another, Jean-Michel agreed,
offering a suggestion to future
ERC teachers: “Maybe at some
point bring in guest speakers
from other religions, because
here we’re all Catholics or Greek
Orthodox.”
While the goals of the pro-
gram are hard to contest, ERC
has faced its share of criticism
and controversy in the two years
since it began. Morris explained
that because the topic of religion
is so controversial in today’s secu-
lar society, the Ministry has “made
[the ERC program] more and
more abstract. They’ve evacuated
a lot of the personal and subjec-
tive elements.”
As a result, he believes stu-
dents’ potential for learning and
personal growth has become
impoverished. He compared the
controversy with ERC to sex edu-
cation in Quebec, explaining that
by promoting a very “safe” educa-
tion, a great deal is lost in terms
of what students can learn about
themselves. With regard to hav-
ing the opportunity to share their
own beliefs about religious and
ethical issues, eighth-grader Yanni
at Laval Junior remains hopeful.
“We haven’t [had the chance]
yet. … But maybe we will in the
future,” he said.
Further complicating the mat-
ter is the fact that ERC is taught
twice in a nine-day cycle, which
comes out to three to four times
each month. This is “not enough
temps de choisir quoi manger.
De fait, ces choix sont tous plus
ou moins guidés par une cer-
taine croyance, une foi en ce qui
est bon (au sens du goût, mais
aussi de la morale) et ce qui ne
l’est pas.
Comme dans toute foi, on
trouve des extrémistes, tels
certains adeptes zélés du végé-
tarisme, voire du végétalisme qui
sont plus ascétiques que le pape
lui-même et qui voudraient que
tous partagent cette diète qui se
résume en un mot: privation. Il y
a aussi des athées, ceux «qui man-
gent pour manger» et qui trouvent
ridicule l’idée même qu’on puisse
manger pour des raisons autres
que pour ne plus avoir faim.
La majorité, évidemment, est
formée de simples croyants qui
mangent ce dont ils ont envie
sans trop se poser de questions.
Ceux qui se foutent des sermons
des extrémistes et ne compren-
nent pas trop les athées. Qui
Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily
time to cover the material,” said
Skoufaras. The students noted
the detrimental effect of the
time constraints on their learn-
ing experience and enjoyment.
Nicholas, another eighth-grade
student also at Laval, was disap-
pointed: “This year we haven’t
done a lot of ERC. We have it a
few times a month, or even a
year. … We do ethics here and
there.”
Despite the setbacks facing the
program, students, teachers, and
experts alike are hopeful about
the future of the program.
Spencer Boudreau, a McGill
mangent ce qu’offre leur IGA du
coin, mais aussi à l’occasion ce
que propose leur preacher gas-
tronomique préféré (tels le curé
Ricardo ou la sœur Di Stasio). Qui
tentent parfois même l’exotisme
au restaurant ou en voyage en
mangeant du boudin noir, voire
des insectes. Mais qui au grand
jamais n’oseraient même goûter
à l’hérétique, dont la seule pen-
sée est beaucoup trop immonde:
la cervelle d’agneau, les foies
de volaille, les tripes de porc,
la langue de bœuf... Ceux-là qui
se scandalisent, en chœur avec
les extrémistes, parce que les
Chinois osent manger nos ani-
maux sacrés, les chats et les
chiens, mais qui participent
aveuglement au gaspillage mas-
sif de milliers de pièces de vian-
de par dédain pour tout ce qui
n’est pas prescrit par leur «foi».
Faisant ainsi monter inutilement
le prix du bétail; ce qui pousse
les Chinois à manger d’autres
29.11.2010
Carly Shenfeld for The McGill Daily
professor of Education and for-
mer high school moral and reli-
gious education teacher, who
worked closely on the ERC pro-
gram from its inception in 2005,
emphasized that in order for stu-
dents to get the most from the
program, “there has to be a pas-
sion for the subject” in the class-
room.
Reiterating the need for the
potential that the program still
carries, Morris added, “I think the
really creative teachers will have
all kinds of opportunities to do
really interesting work with this
program.”
chats et d’autres chiens pour ne
pas crever de faim. Mais, tant
qu’il a son filet mignon, le croy-
ant préfère ne pas se poser trop
de questions.
Et puis il y a les agnostiques,
qui vont au-delà de la foi collec-
tive et s’interrogent sur ce qu’ils
mangent, mais surtout ce qu’ils
ne mangent pas. Certains sont
pratiquement végétariens, sans
toutefois s’identifier au mou-
vement. D’autres sont plutôt
satanistes et se plaisent à manger
le plus souvent possible ce qui est
contraire à cette foi. Cependant,
tous ont un point en commun:
ils ne refuseraient sous aucun
prétexte un plat préparé amicale-
ment par un autre. Que ce soit du
cheval, du dauphin, du chat ou de
l’ornithorynque.
À vous de voir à quel groupe
vous appartenez.!"
La gastronomie est une profession de foie.
– Paul Carvel
Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily
Sous pression
À l’aube de la période des examens: une pilule, une petite granule
Andréanne Martin
Le Délit
e fait n’est ni récent
ni inconnu: les étudi-
ants d’université sont
stressés. Cela peut être
dû à plusieurs facteurs
comme la volonté de réussir
ou encore un emploi en paral-
lèle des études. Bien que cer-
taines personnes perçoivent le
stress comme bénéfique (il nous
pousserait à atteindre nos objec-
tifs), il ne faut pas négliger les
conséquences négatives sur notre
santé physique et mentale. En
effet, le stress peut avoir des effets
négatifs à long terme sur notre
cerveau; il est également une
cause potentielle du diabète, en
plus de favoriser l’hypertension
et d’affaiblir, voire de supprimer,
le système immunitaire.
Société oblige
Nous sommes tous accablés
plus ou moins fortement par le
stress, et ceci ne remonte pas à
l’avènement des technologies:
les hommes préhistoriques,
par exemple, devaient combat-
tre toutes sortes de prédateurs
pour assurer leur survie. Les
causes du stress ont sans aucun
doute changé au fil des siècles,
mais il façonne toujours notre
existence. Les étudiants sont
parmi les groupes de person-
nes les plus exposés au stress.
Lorsque l’on pense que notre
vie peut être déterminée par ces
quelques années cruciales pas-
sées aux études, que ce sont les
premières pierres de notre fon-
dation future, il est difficile de
prendre les choses à la légère.
«Les études me stressent parce
que j’ai l’impression de devoir
être le meilleur dans ce que je
29.11.2010
fais», explique Nicolas, un étu-
diant au bac en bioinformatique
à l’Université de Montréal. Le
docteur Ted Baker, directeur
du Counselling Service de McGill,
abonde dans le même sens: «La
société agit sur le stress. De nos
jours, la croyance populaire est
qu’il faut réussir dans ses études,
si on veut réussir plus tard.»
Par ailleurs, les frais asso-
ciés aux études universitaires
poussent plusieurs étudiants à
travailler à l’extérieur de leurs
études. Ces heures passées à tra-
vailler le sont souvent au détri-
ment de celles consacrées aux
études, ce qui a comme consé-
quence d’augmenter le stress,
l’étudiant devant mieux gérer
son temps. «J’ai un emploi à
temps partiel et je fais un stage
non crédité depuis huit mois
avec un de mes professeurs,
convaincu que je ne dois pas
«rater» cette opportunité. Je tra-
vaille donc de dix à vingt heures
par semaine. Je n’ai pas le temps
de faire autre chose et mes notes
ne sont même pas indicatives de
l’effort que je consens pour mes
cours. Je deviens malgré moi un
reclus social!», explique Nicolas.
Pour ceux qui quittent le
nid familial pour poursuivre
leurs études universitaires,
cela entraîne évidemment de
nouvelles responsabilités, tout
en devant maintenir un haut
niveau de performance acadé-
mique. Lorsqu’une personne
manque de ressources, qu’elle
se sent dépassée, que ce soit
une impression ou une situation
précaire réelle, ceci augmente
son stress. Les étudiants se sen-
tent souvent submergés par la
quantité de travaux à remettre,
les examens à préparer, et si on
ajoute un loyer et des études à
payer, il n’est pas surprenant
que certains d’entre eux se
dépourvus de moyens. «Je
me réveille avec peu d’intérêt
pour quoi que ce soit, je me sens
comme une machine, je suis
triste et je manque d’assurance»,
confie Paul. «Les étudiants qui
viennent à McGill sont habitués
à être des premiers de classe,
et la situation change souvent
lorsqu’ils commencent leurs étu-
des universitaires. La charge de
travail augmente, ainsi que les
responsabilités, et cela en rend
plusieurs anxieux» précise Dr
Baker qui en rencontre plusieurs
dans cette situation au Counselling
Service.
Ritalin: Stéroïdes pour
matière grise
Quand le café et les bois-
sons énergisantes n’aident plus,
certains étudiants adoptent une
tierce méthode pour les aider à
mieux se concentrer: le Ritalin.
Selon un reportage effectué
par Marie-Laurence Delainey
pour Radio-Canada, cette pra-
tique est devenue «presque une
mode à la faculté de médecine
de l’Université de Sherbrooke»,
ainsi qu’à d’autres universités à
travers la province.
Le Ritalin est une drogue pres-
crite aux enfants et aux adultes
atteints de troubles d’attention
et d’hyperactivité, et sa consom-
mation par des étudiants univer-
sitaires dans le but d’obtenir de
meilleurs résultats académiques
soulève une polémique. La prati-
que, banalisée chez certains étu-
diants qui y voient une façon de
passer à travers une fin de ses-
sion difficile où le temps d’étu-
de manque souvent, semble de
plus en plus populaire. En effet,
«selon différentes études améri-
caines, la proportion d’étudiants
qui consomment
des médicaments sans prescrip-
tion pour améliorer leurs perfor-
mances cognitives varie de 3% à
11%», peut-on lire dans un article
de Daphnée Dion-Viens paru
dans Le Soleil en 2008.
Quoique Paul n’ait jamais
tenté l’expérience, il précise
qu’il connaît des étudiants qui
eux, ont déjà essayé. Il ajoute
que: «l’éphédrine et la pseudo-
éphédrine contenue dans les
décongestionnants nasaux, à
dose suffisante, produisent un
effet stimulateur similaire aux
amphétamines traditionnelles
[utilisée comme coupe-faim,
stimulant du système nerveux
central et pour le traitement
de l’hyperactivité] –quoique
sans euphorie)». La situation
est inquiétante si on pense aux
effets secondaires qu’entraînent
les drogues psychotropes
comme le Ritalin sur la santé:
les stimulants ont tendance à
augmenter le rythme cardiaque
et la tension artérielle, ce qui
pourrait être potentiellement
dangereux pour les gens pré-
disposés à des problèmes car-
diaques.
Les maladies du stress
Tout ce stress n’est pas neu-
tre. Au contraire, il contribue à
une variété de maladies physi-
ques et mentales. Lorsque nous
sommes stressés, notre corps
a tendance à augmenter la
sécrétion de glucocorticoïdes,
des hormones essentielles au
bon fonctionnement du corps
humain, mais qui, lorsque
secrétées à long terme, sup-
priment l’activité du système
immunitaire. Conséquemment,
nous sommes plus suscepti-
bles d’attraper des maladies,
Raphaël Thézé/ Le Délit
Societé | Life
des infections respiratoires
par exemple, du fait que notre
corps ne les combat plus aussi
efficacement. De plus, le stress
peut avoir un effet sur la gly-
cémie, soit la concentration de
glucose dans le sang: la sécré-
tion d’hormones telles que le
cortisol peut augmenter la pro-
duction de glucose par le foie,
de sorte que l’organisme dis-
pose de plus d’énergie, puisque
le cerveau et les muscles d’une
personne en situation stressan-
te brûlent plus de sucre qu’en
temps normal. Lorsque vécu
modérément, l’inf luence du
stress sur la santé est négligea-
ble, mais il y a une limite, car
une fois l’homéostasie [capa-
cité du système à maintenir son
équilibre] perturbée, le diabète
fait son apparition. Également,
le stress peut augmenter les
conditions du diabète chez
les personnes qui en sont déjà
atteintes.
Des remèdes
Y a-t-il un moyen de se sor-
tir de cette situation? Sommes-
nous condamnés à un avenir
riche en drogues stimulantes,
en maladies cardiovasculaires
et en diabète? Il existe plu-
sieurs méthodes pour gérer
le stress. «Les étudiants vien-
nent durant toute la session,
mais on remarque un acha-
landage accru vers le mois
de novembre, juste avant la
période d’examens», affirme
le Dr Baker. «Dépendamment
des raisons pour lesquelles ils
viennent, nous donnons dif-
férents conseils aux étudiants.
S’ils viennent en fin de session,
nous les préparons pour la ses-
sion prochaine. Nous leur don-
nons des conseils pour gérer
leur stress, des stratégies cogni-
tives, comment s’en sortir avec
certaines pensées.» Quoiqu’il
en soit, une chose est certaine:
les étudiantes ont davantage
tendance à rechercher de l’aide
professionnelle, comme le
Counselling Service, que les étu-
diants masculins: «Je crois que
ces derniers ont plus tendance
à chercher de l’aide informelle,
en allant voir leurs amis par
exemple», avance Dr Baker.
Une méthode d’intervention
ciblée individuellement est sou-
vent plus efficace que les pro-
grammes de gestion de stress
plus généraux.
Dans tous les cas, il faut
reconnaître notre source de
stress et faire face à la situation,
que ce soit en essayant de chang-
er notre environnement ou en
essayant de changer la signifi-
cation que les événements ont
pour nous, soit notre réponse
émotive face aux situations qui
se présentent, car il est bien évi-
dent que «souffrir en silence» ne
peut qu’apporter encore plus de
problèmes. Sur ce, bons exam-
ens! !
Essai photo | Photo essay Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily 29.11.2010

Rêveries
mortuaires
Luba Markovskaia
Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily 29.11.2010 Compendium!
READING THE STARS WITH MISS TICKLE Pizza problems How could you fucking kill Houdini?
December U pon exiting class today I heard a kid
from the northeastern U.S. say the fol- Y
ou’re telling me that a McGill student killed Harry
Houdini? Great fucking work, J. Gordon Whitehead.
divinations lowing: “There is no real pizza in Canada.” I’m
Way to punch Houdini three times before he could tighten
sorry that you haven’t been able to find slices
his stomach muscles. He’d been suffering from appendici-
Aries the Ram // March 21—April 20 to your satisfaction in our country, good sir,tis for a week, but refused to get medical attention because,
Do you think you’re better off alone? but let me say this... Canadians (French and guess what, he’s Harry FUCKING Houdini. Two thousand
Compatibility: Sagittarius & Leo English) are fucking sick of you complaining people came to his funeral and we all talked about what an
Famous Aries: Mariah Carey about how our country isn’t exactly like yours!
asshole you are, J. Gordon Whitehead. I hope that Death
You chose to come to school here, not the called you a loser and pants’d you before drowning you in
Taurus the Bull // April 21—May 21 other way around. So for fuck’s sakes, keep your own tears. FUCK THIS! I’m dropping out. What’s the
Your purse strings are getting tight, but that should be no your complaints about minute differences point in applying for jobs when any employer’s going to see
cause for consternation. Everything you need, you already between our countries to yourself! that I went to the school that killed magic? And what’ve we
have, and what you don’t have, you simply do not need. Of offered as collateral? Those kids who play Quidditch on
course, there is no harm in doing groceries occasionally. Fuck ya later! Fuck this! takes a break ’til lower field and who’re the world’s most painful reminder
Compatibility: Virgo, Capricorn, & Scorpio January. Send us your holiday gripes and that some 23-year-olds are still experimenting with sex for
Famous Taurus: Sigmund Freud grins: fuckthis@mcgilldaily.com. the first time?

Gemini the Twins // May 22—June 21

It’s not unusual to apologize. intentions close to your heart in the next month. Try to remem-
Compatibility: Pisces & Aquarius
Famous Gemini: Tom Jones
ber that jealousy is all in your head.
Compatibility: Pisces & Cancer
Your quality of life, in 
Cancer the Crab // June 22—July 22
Famous Scorpio: Le Corbusier review, and The Future
Familiarity breeds contempt. Sagittarius the Archer // November 23—December 21
Compatibility: Virgo & Scorpio Keep your guard up. Hide your secret diary. Lock your win- 400 ct
Famous Cancer: Bob Fosse dows!!! ept 14 O
30 S ct
Compatibility: Aries & Gemini 21 O
300
Leo the Lion // July 23—August 23 Famous Sagittarius: Woody Allen
Shit’s been hitting the fan lately, and – understandably – ct
200 7O
you’re not all that thrilled. Get a friend, a mop, some bleach, Capricorn the Goat // December 22—January 20
maybe a few paper towels. You might need someone to hold You have to try something 8-10 times before you can decide
you while you cry. It’s okay, Leo. It’s going to be just fine. whether or not you actually like or dislike it. It’s a fact. No 100 ov
Compatibility: Sagittarius & Aquarius more flippant pickiness, you hear? 11 N
Famous Leo: Aldous Huxley Compatibility: Taurus & Aquarius
Famous Capricorn: J. R. R. Tolkien ov
Virgo the Virgin // August 24—September 23 18 N
Someone is going to ask you for important advice very soon. Aquarius the Water-Carrier // January 21—February 19 -100
pt
Compatibility: Cancer & Pisces Choose your words carefully; each letter costs a pretty 1 Se
Famous Virgo: Ingrid Bergman penny… or maybe you should just get a new texting plan.
Compatibility: Capricorn & Virgo ct
e pt 28 O
Libra the Scales // September 24—October 23 Famous Aquarius: Rosa Parks
-300 16 S
Remember that time you did a bad thing in what felt like
ept
complete secrecy? There was a video camera. It has been Pisces the Fishes // February 20—March 20 23 S
recorded. A stranger knows what you did. But it’s okay, you’ll Get your head out of the sand, or at least out of the books. I -400
pt
probably never meet them… if you’re luck doesn’t run out by don’t wanna hear “It’s due tomorrow” or “It’s 30 pages,” because 9 Se
the end of this year! you need a break from the library. Why don’t you join a tai chi
Compatibility: Libra class? Or watch a movie with someone you think is cute? At the Pavel Chalupnik | The McGill Daily
Famous Libra: T. S. Eliot very least, you need to look in the mirror and think to yourself
“DAMN, my skin is perfectly moist despite this dry and cold cli- Quality of life
Scorpio the Scorpion // October 24—November 22 mate.” You also need to stop biting your nails. Projected line of best fit
You are a rascal through and through, no matter how many times Compatibility: Scorpio & Cancer
you iron your dress shirts or perfume your wrists. Keep good Famous Pisces: Bruce Willis

You’ll solve this with flying colours

Miss Nomer Across 62. “The Fountainhead” author 37. Attaches
! " # $ % & ' ( ) !* !! !" !# 1. Ridicule 63. Mill output 39. Anagram of a pathway
5. Too sentimental 64. Excursion 40. Seed cover
10. Sly 65. On the safe side, at sea 44. Type of project
!$ !% !&
14. Assist 66. Rice ___ 45. Stuck on land
15. Batter’s location 67. Wraps up 47. Met production
!' !( !)
16. Pre-euro money 48. Twangy
17. Angers Down 49. Construction site sight
"* "! "" 1. Where you may end up if 50. Chopin piece
18. Fake name
19. On a cruise you’re 38-Across 51. Milan’s land
"# "$ "% "& 20. Gave temporarily 2. Dublin’s land 55. Forsaken
21. Element with the shortest 3. First garden 56. “Idylls of the King” char-
"' "( ") #* name 4. Fix, as a guitar acter
22. Lots 5. Arguments 57. Mail org.
#! #" ## #$ #% #& #' 23. Migration to a new location 6. Friends in war 59. Cooking meas.
27. Measure again 7. Go out in the city 60. In-flight info, for short
#( #) $* 30. Bacon unit 8. Sch. group
31. Immediately 9. Affirmative
$! $" $# 33. Animal in a sty 10. Allegation Solution to “Friendshiptastic Girlfriend”
34. ___ good example 11. Bridal path A B L E S H E E T S K A T
38. Found committing a crime 12. Eco-friendly H E A R H O L L O H O M E
$$ $% $& 13. Bakery supply
41. Building additions E A S Y A R G A L I R A N
42. Spicy 22. Spirit M U S T A R D A N D C R E S S
$' $( $) %* %! 24. Carve in stone
43. Swapped H I K E R U K A S E
44. Pedestal parts 25. Walked C A P E R S H E M S
%" %# %$ %% %& %' 26. Proverbial end of L O O M K H A K I D O C
46. Image, variation
47. Occasionally a tunnel U N P A R L I A M E N T A R Y
%( %) &* &! 52. Do 7-Down 27. Compete B E E H A N D S U R E A
53. “Ready or ___...” 28. List-ending abbr. K I D D C A R T O N
&" &# &$ 54. Color of la mer 29. Referee’s call S P A I N R E A R M
58. Biblical twin 32. Actor Hawke T E N C O M M A N D M E N T S
&% && &' 59. ___ cotta 34. Desert danger? R A N K E I D E R R A I L
61. Charged particles 35. Taro root E R I E S L I M E I S L E
36. Adolescent P L E D A L I A S C H E W
 Foi | Faith Le Délit & The McGill Daily 29.11.2010
Volume 100 Numéro 12

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