Caper Times (2013-04)

www.capermedia.ca ISSN 1929-1140 the voice of the students at CBUVOL. XL, ISS. 11 • 18 Feb. 2013

CAPER•TIMES@caper_times fb.com/cprtimes

Allison RedmondSenior Correspondent

llThe Caper Times staff are proud to announce the acceptance of our bid to bring the Atlantic Regional Canadian University Press conference to Sydney. In the history of our paper, this is the first time that the Caper Times has hosted the conference. Mitch Mäder, our Editor-In-Chief is to thank for his impressive bid to the Canadian Univer-sity Press and we expect to have up to 40 people attend this year. The Canadian University Press or CUP is a national organization owned by over 80 different university news-papers. CUP holds both spring and fall regional, as well as one national, confer-ences each year. As Mäder states, “Be-cause we’re so far away from where the big conferences are held we don’t usu-ally get to go to them so it’ll be really nice for our staff to be able to take part in this.” This year we are really looking

forward to bringing the conference to Sydney, as our Editor Mitch said, “we’re really excited to be bringing it here. It’s a really good opportunity. We can’t wait to showcase Cape Breton”.This year the Caper Times will hold the three-day event in downtown Sydney for March 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. We have a number of roundtable discussions and workshops for marketing, writers, and designers planned. We hope to keep it interesting. In fact, we plan to show off some of Cape Breton’s tradition by hosting a ceilidh the first night of the conference. For those unfamiliar, a ceilidh is a Gaelic gathering which involves dancing and, traditionally, music. Not to forget, on March 2nd the Caper Times plans to celebrate our fortieth birthday with a large bash with our guests.We look forward to the conference and hope to make it one that has the ARCUP conference coming back!

CAPER TIMES TO HOST THE ARCUP THE FUTURE OF XBOX MIGHT BE HERE – and its name is DurangoFrederick BoutilierSenior Correspondent

llAccording to a recent article by Kotaku, the details of the next generation of gaming consoles mi-ght be a little less foggy – at least, for fans of the Xbox platform. The next Xbox system, codenamed Durango and unof-ficially dubbed the “Xbox 720” by various media and fan sources, had some of its details leaked by a member of the gaming commu-nity allegedly with access to the software development kit (the package used to program a piece of software, in this case a video game) that is issued to developers prior to the launch of a game console. The source, known as SuperDaE, claims to have played games on what will be the new

Xbox, comparing the graphical leap from current gen technology to something akin to “going from playing Halo 2 on an original Xbox to playing Crysis on a powerful PC.” The hardware difference between the current Xbox 360 and Durango has been dubbed as promising for the most part; many component specs of the Durango design are more similar to a powerful desktop compu-ter. According to a leaked image of the motherboard layout, the console will feature a whopping 8 GB of DDR3 RAM – a significant departure from traditional console design in which low-RAM, high processing-capacity specs are the norm (for comparison, the Xbox 360 has only 512 MB of RAM – one sixteenth of its supposed next-gen brother).

See DURANGO, page 2

2 NEWSAbout Us

Mitch MäderEditor-in-Chief & Chair of the Editorial Board

Andrew SkinnerCreative Director

Holly KennedyBusiness Director


Frederick BoutilierSenior Correspondent

Justine WilliamsonIntern

The Caper Times is a division of Caper Media and is printed on a fortnightly basis with distribution points across Sydney Metro and Cape Breton County. Caper Media is the autono-mous news agency of the Cape Breton University Students’ Union. The Times is proudly printed in the unionized print shop of the Cape Breton Post in Sydney, Nova Scotia. We welcome your questions, comments, enquiries, or submissi-ons from students or members of the greater Cape Breton community via our email: [email protected]

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DURANGO continued from page 1

In an interesting, yet predictable turn after the “medium wars” following the releases of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Durango will support the Blu-Ray disc medium, like the PlayStation 3. The console also supports the USB 3.0 standard, used by modern PC’s. Controversially, the console will allegedly require a Kinect-like peripheral to function, but the controller itself is said to be a “natural evolution” of the Xbox 360 controller (meaning “almost the same” if it’s to take after its older brother). Additio-nally, the console will require installation of games - something that was optional on earlier consoles – though installations can apparently now be broken up into manageable chunks in order to avoid the wait typically associated with initial installations (particularly frustrating to those waiting to enjoy an exciting first-day buy). Durango is apparently also capable of multi-tasking – something almost entirely new to the console world – and is allegedly even capable of

playing multiple games at once. The console will not be compatible with cur-rent Xbox 360 controllers, with the new controllers supporting a different wireless standard. According to a Eurogamer article dated 29 July 2012, the first reported leak of the development kit was when someone using the alias DaE offered to sell the kit for $10,000 USD on assemblergames, an “obscure developer forum.” The kit was well-disguised, looking like a custom PC, and the user interface looked familiar to those knowledgeable of current x86 home PC CPU architecture. While originally seen by the gaming com-munity to be fake, media sources have gradually come around to the original photos of Durango, believing them to be real – leading some credence, and perhaps hope, to those planning to purchase the console. For PlayStation fans, meanwhile, the Play-Station 4 – if rumours are to be believed – will be unveiled at a press conference on 20 February.

Xbox 360 S Durango Wii U PS3

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3NEWS

Dennis Curry

llNearly a month after the second inauguration of American President Barack Obama, political junkies seem to be thinking about only one thing: 2016. Potential candidates from both sides of the isle have already been placed under the political punditry microscope. Oddly enough, a great deal of the candidate speculation overshadows the first 100 days of the sitting President’s most recent term. This year is no exception and what follows is a list of potential nominees from the Democratic side. Senator Chuck Hagel’s recent confirmation hearing woes will no doubt remind the daring politicians contemplating a run, that the best plan of attack may be to always act (and talk) as if you’re on the campaign trail, coordinating choice words very carefully.

Vice-President Joe BidenBiden has always been known to speak his mind; this at times has come at a price. Analysts fre-quently refer to Obama’s right hand man as a ‘gaffe-machine’ known for sudden outbursts or the spilling of the beans. Some examples include his telling a crowd of supporters that Hillary Clinton would have been a better VP choice (after he’d been given the spot) as well as remarking that his memory was “not as good” as Justice Rob-erts’ before swearing in senior staff at the White House. Whether you like Biden’s policy outlines or not, one thing isn’t up for debate and that is his authenticity. Replying to a cheap shot VP candi-date Paul Ryan took during the Vice Presidential

debate before last year’s election Biden swiftly fired back “But I always say what I mean”. With two unsuccessful bids for president already on the books, supporters of the passionate lawmaker are hoping he can build on some of his more recent successes such as his handling of the debt ceiling negotiations as well as the work he has completed on prospective gun legislation. When asked by reporters if he had voted for himself for the last time after leaving a polling station in November he replied with a smile, “I don’t think so”.

Secretary of State Hillary ClintonMany Democratic commentators suggest that if indeed the former Secretary of State decides to run, her clinching the nomination would be the only plausible outcome. Let us not forget that Barack Obama barely made it out of the 2008 democratic primaries alive. At times it looked as though the ‘change we can believe in’ idea was going to fail when met with the sheer cerebral natural of the Clinton political juggernaut. Of course, in the end Obama did win the nomination and the presidency but not before making allies with one of the most powerful women in America. After short talks of a Vice Presidential bid, Clinton was nominated Secretary of State. Just months before leaving office she was met with the cata-strophic Benghazi blunder in which four Ameri-cans were killed, one of them a US ambassador. Repeated calls for security enhancement to the area went unanswered and Clinton was harshly

criticized by her former senate colleagues dur-ing testimony related to the event. Many have suggested that this blow may be the deciding factor in terms of a prospective run. Even the most obtuse follower of politics knows one thing though; if anyone can make a quick and unrelent-ing comeback, its Hillary Clinton.

Governor Andrew CuomoThe charismatic Governor of New York has pre-sented himself as a viable option for democrats in 2016. His handling of the post Sandy relief efforts has certainly painted a nice picture in terms of what the politician stands for. The son of a former New York Governor and a former Attorney Gen-eral himself, Cuomo by all accounts is qualified to seek the highest office in the United States. He has led crusades against political corruption in his state and against child pornography around the country. In the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy Cuomo took an immediate and aggressive stance, signing new gun control laws in a state widely regarded as having some of the most constric-tive laws already. These measures along with his support of same sex marriage make him well liked among fellow Democrats. During the Sandy relief effort Cuomo worked closely with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie effectively showing that he can get past the partisanship we have all grown to hate. This begs one question; will Cuo-mo be gearing up for war with Christie in 2016? The Republican Governor has all but announced his candidacy and with his party in shambles, who else would be taken seriously?

THE ROAD TO 2016

4 OPINION


llIt’s been a somewhat quiet news week, and CBU is gearing down for reading week, and so – as you may have noticed – I’ve done a bit of a gaming theme this issue. There’s a whole lot of buzz going around in the gaming community about Durango and the possible official announcement of the PS4, so I figured it might be a good time to look at a few aspects of gaming. As for opinion-type pieces, after some soul-searching, I decided I would pose a ques-tion. Why aren’t there any good multiplayer pure RPGs for consoles out there? The question comes as one day a friend and I were bored, and we both felt like playing an RPG. My friend isn’t an MMO guy (and I’m not really interested in any on the market right now myself), so we rack our brains for a good thirty minutes trying to figure out if there’s a fun multiplayer MMO we could both play on consoles. “Borderlands 2,” we utter in frustration. It’s an RPG, but it’s more shooter than RPG and we’re feeling like some good old fash-ioned party-based, grindy fun. Now genuinely curi-ous, I shuffle over to Google (read: pull out my iPod) and

search for “good console multiplayer RPG” in various forms. “Borderlands 2,” the Internet barks at us. Other than that, a few other games are mentioned, mostly fan picks that had 60-70% on gaming review sites. In other words, certainly nothing to write home about. Why is that? No doubt someone is capable of making this game, and I would assume there’s a market for it as long as multiplayer isn’t forced. So I ask, why is there no split-screen Skyrim (though I find that game far from perfect – more on that some other time)? Why no two-player Dragon Age (same note)? Why do developers seem to want us to play with thou-sands of people, or none? Part of why this is, no doubt, is because the RPG market is one, in its very origins, that was very much a PC thing, and so even on consoles, people enjoy PC limitations. I’m an avid PC gamer – so I certainly don’t mean this in an insulting way – but it’s incredibly frustrating that console gamers are stuck playing by themselves. Only rarely does a console MMO come out, and everyone in the developer world is still stuck on the PC concept of “there’s only one keyboard.” It’s easy to discern how this came about, of course. The first RPGs were text adventures, in which

you typed out all your com-mands to the game, and it read the result back to you (read: printed text back at you). Sometimes they even had pictures. Credit where credit is due, the first console RPGs, when they came, were ab-solutely incredible (though often first on PC’s). Pool of Radiance, an Advanced Dun-geons and Dragons video game for the original NES, was absolutely incredible, as were the original Wizardry games (...if you liked being punished) – and who could forget Final Fantasy? That said, the genre has changed so little in that time, and many of the ways it has changed are annoying (lookin’ at you, Final Fantasy 13). But it’s time to shed our ancient ways and adapt to our environment – consoles are the norm now, and re-gardless of the status of the PC gaming world, console games should respect con-sole capabilities. So next time you go on a developer forum, raise a fuss about multiplayer support for consoles. Ideally split-screen. If even one de-cent company listens, that’ll be enough to hold us over for a while assuming it’s as packed with replayability as most modern RPG’s. Let’s face it – even if it falls on deaf ears, it’ll be more effective than your begging Gabe Newell for Half-Life 3.

L’ACCENTThe State of Affairs with Console RPGs

QUOTE MISUSED IN

PREVIOUS LETTER TO THE

EDITORPaul Goldring, Sydney

"Going Vegan: Some Food for Thought" by Justine Williamson in the 04 Feb 2013 Caper Times, did give me food for thought.

Yes, meat does seem gross. Blood oozing from flesh, dead animal parts on a plate.

But I didn't like the quote from Mahatma Gandhi at the end of the letter: "... the life of a lamb is no less

precious than that of a hu-man being". If Gandhi were alive today, he'd probably want to clarify that state-ment.

To my mind, two things that set us human beings above animals are: (1) our desire to shun cruelty, and (2) our ability to make eth-ical choices. The lamb just does what comes naturally -- drink its mother's milk and develop into a vegan [sic].

The CBU cancellation po-licy lacks in concern for the safety of students and staff at this institution. On more than one occasion in the last two weeks this univer-sity has been open when most other businesses, as well as all other educatio-nal institutions, have been closed because of winter blizzard conditions. At times when county ploughs were only ploughing and salting main throughways to ensure emergency vehi-cles could get to and from hospitals and other emer-gency centres, students of CBU were braving the weather and risking their lives to get to class because the university cancellation

policy put people’s lives at risk instead of closing for a day because the university would lose a small amount of government funding. This practice is barbaric and only exemplifies the idiocy of the funding system in this province in regards to post-secondary education. While one cannot condone the university’s decision to open during recent winter storms, one can under-stand why such a decision was made. This system of cutting funding when university’s close for incle-ment weather must change for it puts university staff and students’ lives at risk on a weekly basis during the winter months.

CBU LACKS IN CANCELLATION POLICY; UNIVERSITY FUNDING SYSTEM BARBARIC

5LIFESTYLE

Holly KennedyBusiness Director

llIn light of this issues re-view, I choose to reflect on the recent experience I’ve had at Flavor 19. I decided to partake in a supper time food run with a few of my co-workers and found our-selves at Flavor 19 where we were greeted immedi-ately upon entering. The waitress was very polite and courteous, allowing us to choose our own setting at our leisure. It had a very relaxed atmosphere, with dimmed lighting and a modern style. It is a very open space, with rich colors that are brought out by outskirts of white. We sat in the bar area, which has leather seats and couches and a rustic meets modern appeal. We were served drinks immediately by the host of the bar, who was also very attentive and quick to serve. The food was quick to be served, was hot upon ar-

rival, and the ingredients were fresh and appealing to look at. A co-worker and myself indulged in the Grilled Chicken Panini which had roasted red peppers, fresh basil and mozzarella along with a side of sweet potato fries. Our other companion ordered the Flavor 19 Style Fish & Chips, which fea-tured panko crusted had-dock and house fries. The waiter refilled our glasses before we even realized they were empty, and the food was as spectacular in taste as it was visually. And to boot? Students get a 20% discount off their meals which was a wel-come bonus. All in all, a very good experience at Flavor 19, as always. I will definitely continue to visit their establishment for quality food, decent prices, and a student friendly atmo-sphere.

FABULOUS FOODIE: Flavor 19 in a Nutshell


andCeline Cooke

llFashion Through the Ages is a new series of the Caper Times that will look at the different fashions trends that have gained popular-ity throughout the decades. We begin in the 1920s and will move up to more con-temporary forms of fashion and how they have changed between the decades. These changes mark new ways of thinking and acting that have evolved over the last 90 years. We also hope to show how it is possible to incorpo-rate these fashion trends into today’s fashion. The 1920’s was a time when women starting break-ing social rules. There was a “new breed” of women. They would visit bars with men, and stay out all night drink-ing and smoking. They wore make-up, wore short hair, and voted. Much different to “Gibson Girls” from before -and they wanted to hold onto this youthful sexualized lifestyle. These were liberated women called Flappers, and their fashion choices reflect-ed this change in what was “acceptable” for women. While in previous decades, women’s ankles

were scandalous, forbidden, and hidden under hemlines that reached to or below their ankle, the Flappers adopted a new skirt length. These new hemlines came to an inch below the women’s knee. This meant if the wind caught the skirt her knee might become exposed, a much more shocking event in the 1920s then it would be today. The stockings worn by women were more flesh coloured rather than black making it harder to tell if the person was “covered up”. These hemlines were not the only “scandalous” new addition, make-up became popular among Flapper culture when before it mostly belonged among the “mor-ally loose women”, but now it appeared as culturally acceptable for women to ap-ply cosmetics. Flappers also abandoned corsets and wore high heels. On the other hand, women also began to appear more masculine then they previ-ously had due to the short hair and the drop-waist dress that concealed their feminine curves. Some went as far as to bandage their chest to get the desired androgynous look. Some feminine touches remained in the form of ac-cessories and accents such beading and fringing.

For men’s fashion, not much changed, but it was the beginning of the age of Jazz and the Jazz suit gained popularity. The Jazz suit was trim and had a tight look to it. It appeared in 1919 and disappeared not long after-wards. Tailcoats appeared for formal occasions and for occasional eveningwear, a man might choose a tuxedo. Usually men choose to wear these with narrow pants or with Oxford Bags, exception-ally baggy pants. If one does wish to bring a touch of the nineteen twen-ties into your wardrobe, it is easier than you think. Bring-ing together the masculinity of a tuxedo jacket with a dress or if the weather does not permit a dress, try a lace or a dusty rose coloured blouse. If you are up for a commitment, you could try getting a bob haircut and throw some finger waves in there. One benefit of short hair is that maintenance is easier. If it is just an accent you are looking for, try go-ing with minimal makeup or wearing a headband over your hair. To include the guys, but not excluding the ladies here, it’s as easy a throwing on a felted fedora or a driving cap.

FASHION THROUGH THE AGES: 1920’S

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6 HUMOUR


llLast Tuesday, game developer Bethesda released the newest in-stalment of their incredibly popular “Elder Scrolls” series of games. Cited by PC Gamer as “arguably one of the best, most exciting collections of embarrass-ing glitches and annoying issues of all time,” TES 6 will focus on The Black Marsh, the native land of the Argonians, a lizard-like race play-able in the series that hasn’t been visited outside of expansions since “The Elder Scrolls: Arena” in 1994. Kotaku noted the game was “aptly named – the experience is like swimming through a murky sea of graphical issues,” later adding that the game in fact experienced rendering issues in showing the marsh areas of the region, and that players would occasionally get stuck under the murk, leading to their having to load a prior save. “It’s incredible,” the article goes on to say. “10/10,” chimes in IGN TES 6 features a number of improvements to the series, most notably the inclusion of an Ironman Mode, which Bethesda believes will be considered “The ultimate Elder Scrolls experience.” Game Director Todd How-ard was available to shed more light on the situation: “I would go so far to say that not only is Black Marsh the

ultimate Elder Scrolls experience, but it’s the ultimate Bethesda expe-rience,” he stated in an interview. “Ironman Mode truly represents our passion for instilling seething, glitch-fueled rage in our fanbase.” “I expect half of our fans to break their TV set in the first day, because of some glitch during character creation that we’ll fix in a week or so,” he said. Other improvements in-clude the streamlining of the spell system for Mage-type players, of which Howard said: “The Skyrim system was too hard to understand. In the Destruction tree [the primary type of magic used for combat], you had your little one-target spell, medium one-target spell, big one-target spell, a little area-of-effect spell, and a big area-of-effect spell. Repeated for three elements. That’s way too much to handle, so we’ve made it so that all Mage spells are just area-of-effect spells doing low damage. And we’ve removed in-combat Magicka regeneration, so you can look forward to hours of frustrating rage-quits because you can’t attack.” “You’ll love the element choices in this game,” he added, hinting “let me tell you just this: your element is Fire.” Players walking the path of The Warrior or The Thief will, of course, enjoy the same legiti-mately fun gameplay they enjoyed throughout the series.

BETHESDA RELEASES THE ELDER

SCROLLS VI: THE BLACK MARSH (Satirical)

7HUMOUROVERHEARD @ CBUA collection of odd quotes and phrases overheard at Cape Breton University.

“Often we put things in our mouths that shouldn’t be there. ”

“He sounds so beautiful when he moans. He

could get punched in the face and still sound

hot.” “Regina with a Va”

“I like to eat out a lot.”

“I don’t like bananas, they’re obscene.”

“I had a cramp once, it was horrible.” – Discussing

ovaries

“Don’t worry if you can’t get it open, I licked it vigorously.”

“It just comes on me.”

“How do you go from eating sandwiches to cannibalism?”

“Can you

do me?”

8 NATIONAL

CONTROVERSY ARISES OVER RECOGNITION OF GREEK ORGANIZATION AT MUNRussell Cochrane The Muse (Memorial University)

llST. JOHN'S (CUP) — Recent controversy has arisen over whether or not the Memorial University of Newfoundland Students' Union (MUNSU) should recognize the Greek Phi-lanthropy Society (GPS).The recognition and ratification of student groups and societies is an agenda item considered to be mundane by those who frequent the meetings of MUN Students' Union's (MUNSU) Student Activities and Organi-zations committee. However, during the January 30 commit-tee meeting, director at large Max Page's motion to recognize the GPS came to dominate the agenda and consume 45 min-utes of the 60 minute meeting.The GPS, as outlined in their proposed constitution, would be an organization dedicated to doing charitable work on campus. It would consist of the members of accepted fraterni-ties and sororities, as well as other non-affiliated individu-als. The implication of such a mandate is that the activities of the GPS would always require a

charitable component.Page’s motion was defeated by a vote of nine to one with six members abstaining. The subse-quent motion to deny the GPS recognition passed with ease.The concerns of those who stood in opposition to the motion focused on issues of exclusivity and sexism. The questions prompted by their concerns dealt with allegations of sexist behavior on the part of the founding fraternity of the GPS, Sigma Theta Pi. There was also confusion within the GPS's constitution with regards to membership and the proposed executive structure.One MUNSU board member questioned whether or not MUNSU, an organization that includes sex and gender equity among its most basic principles, should consider the GPS, as it allegedly engages in sexist behavior.To illustrate the point, she talked about parties at which lower cover is charged to wom-en, who are then encouraged to wear togas.Speaking to concerns regard-ing sexual harassment, Page explained that “a request was submitted to the Sexual Harass-ment Department on whether or not there has been any for-mal complaints” against Sigma Theta Pi fraternity to which the reply was that “there has been no formal complaint of sexual harassment received by the

sexual harassment advisor.”Representatives of Sigma Theta Pi and Nu Delta Mu, Zach Mor-ris and Amanda Wilkins respec-tively, further argued that they were “not trying to ratify the frat and sorority individually” meaning that the GPS should be judged based on its own prospective activities and not those of its member groups.The matter of exclusivity, how-ever, carried the vote. Travis Perry, director of finance and services, cut to the core of the debate on exclusion by reassert-ing the opinions of executive members to speak before him and asking whether a group, with six of seven executive positions reserved for affiliated members, could be considered inclusive — a characteristic required of recognized student societies by MUNSU by-laws.Akin to this consideration were concerns regarding member-ship and voting rights as the proposed constitution contains apparent contradictions which may also bring into question the democratic nature of the GPS. Discussing these consti-tutional concerns, Page was optimistic and explained that they have “been getting a lot of different consultations on it and stuff like that does come out very unclear and hard to inter-pret.”Page concluded by stating that the document was still up for review.

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9NATIONAL

IDLE NO MORE TALK DRAWS STUDENTS EN MASSE IN HALIFAXHundreds listen to speakers on social and environmental justice

Robin TressThe Watch (University of King's College)

llHALIFAX (CUP) — More than 300 people gathered at Dal-housie University on Jan. 10 to “unlearn” stereotypes about First Nations peoples in support of Idle No More.People filled the a campus audi-torium and spilled out into the lobby, eager to hear from Idle No More leaders Marina Young, Rebecca Moore and Tayla Paul, as well as Halifax MP Megan Leslie and others.“Unlearning means to ac-knowledge that something you thought was true is actu-ally untrue,” said Erin Wunker, coordinator for the Dalhousie’s Canadian Studies Program. She self-identifies as an ancestor of colonial settlers.“I am part of a population that has always been told that I have always had a right to be here, and that is simply untrue,” continued Wunker. “We have to acknowledge that.”Idle No More, publicized by coverage of round dances in shopping malls and Attawapis-kat Chief Theresa Spence’s hunger strike, is widely viewed as a movement in opposition to

Bill C-45. The bill, called the Jobs and Growth Act, 2012, con-tains changes to the Indian Act, Navigation Protection Act and Environmental Assessment Act.Speakers argued the causes of the movement run further into our history than an omnibus bill and the Harper government.They named colonialism, assimi-lation by formal education, and a lack of recognition in govern-ment as stimuli for the uprising.Patricia Doyle-Bedwell, director of Dal’s Transition Year Program, spoke to the colonial intentions behind residential schools and federally-funded post-secondary education for First Nations peoples. She quoted the De-partment of Indian Affairs in 1920, which said, “Our object is to continue until there is not a single Indian left in the body politic.”“Colonialism would have killed us, except for our strength and our spiritual foundation,” said Doyle-Bedwell.“We have to take back our edu-cation so it’s not simply a tool of assimilation. Education is not only getting our degrees … [it] is about teaching us to be good Mi’kmaq men and women.”Speakers focused on settlers’ responsibility to create ally relationships between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people.“For example: doing the work to find out how financial relation-ships between the government and first nations actually work, rather than saying ‘Hey, that

new budget, the audit of At-tawapiskat, isn’t that damning?’” said Wunker.Solidarity Halifax’s Sebastian Labelle says Idle No More is a “defiance against the paternal treatment of indigenous peo-ples.”He says without non-aboriginal people taking responsibility for our colonial past, “true, honest, and genuine reconciliation” can-not happen.Aaron Beale, vice-president academic and external for the Dalhousie Student Union, says as a Canadian institution Dal has a “colonial legacy, and responsi-bility to challenge that.”“Students often learn about his-tory and sociology of racism but don’t have the opportunity to get involved and support some-thing ongoing.”One of the All Nations drum-mers, who opened and closed the event, capped the night with a call for engagement in Idle No More.“The seventh-generation proph-ecy … It was told about this time we’re standing in right now. It was about a time of taking responsibility for this planet that has sustained life since long before we came.”Despite the heavy topic, the sen-timent in the room was familial.“They asked me to speak about colonialism for 10 minutes,” said Paul. “I went home and face-palmed so hard I think my neighbor could hear it.”

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10 NATIONAL

Aissa Boodhoo-LeegsmaThe Silhouette (McMaster University)

llHAMILTON (CUP) — Edwin Mellen Press is suing a McMaster librarian, along with the university, for $3.5 million in damages over a libel claim stemming from a 2010 blog post.The Ontario Superior Court of Justice is now trying the case of Dale Askey and McMaster versus Edwin Mellen Press (EMP). Askey published a series of per-sonal blog posts critiquing the publisher under the title, “The Curious Case of Edwin Mellen Press” three years ago.In his blog posts, Askey stated that Edwin Mellen Press produced books of low quality and was a “junk publisher” that regularly published second-class works that were exorbitantly overpriced. He also claimed that the press treated its authors in an unprofessional manner and, as a librarian, had seen many poorly edited and poorly bound books pub-lished by EMP.Askey was issued legal notice in June 2012 as a result of the alleged defamato-ry statements. The notice also identifies McMaster University as co-defendant.The plaintiff, EMP, claims that by refus-ing to force Askey to remove his defama-tory comments, McMaster has vicarious-ly adopted his defamatory and libelous statements.McMaster spokesperson Gord Arbeau said that the university stands in full sup-port of Askey.“The university is very supportive of Mr. Askey. Freedom of speech and academic freedom are foundational principles of

this institution.”McMaster issued a statement on Feb. 8 re-asserting its commitment to academic freedom. McMaster affirmed “the right of the academic community to engage in full and unrestricted consideration of any opinion … the university supports the exercise of free speech as a critical social good.”In his posts, Askey emphasized the im-portance of being critical of publishers and the quality of academic publications that universities purchase. He re-iterated that in his role as a librarian, and given limited university library budgets, it is important for universities to be selective in what they purchase.Lingua Franca, a noted American maga-zine, was also taken to court by EMP in 1993 for libel and asked for $15 million in damages. EMP lost the case.An online petition on Change.org, asking for the case to be dropped, has elicited over 1000 signatures in support of Askey and McMaster.On Feb. 11, the McMaster Faculty As-sociation also issued a statement urging McMaster to offer its member, Askey, all “necessary support, including financial assistance, in dealing with this threat to him, our institution and to the wider academic community.”Arbeau noted that because Askey’s com-ments were made on a personal blog and while he was not an employee of McMaster, his case is a unique one.McMaster has chosen to act in support but “is responsible for its own defence and the costs borne from that as a co-defendant,” he said.

PUBLISHER SUING MCMASTER AND LIBRARIAN FOR $3.5 MILLION IN LIBEL DAMAGES

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Rosie Townshend-Carter The Cadre (University of Prince Edward Island)

llCHARLOTTETOWN (CUP) — Considered a front runner in the ongoing race for the Liberal leaders-hip, Marc Garneau stands among a diverse field of nine candidates. Garneau has been criss-crossing Canada of late, gathering support from Liberals and non-Liberals alike in anticipation of the April vote.The Cadre called up the former Royal Canadian Navy Officer, reti-red astronaut and past-President of the Canadian Space Agency to chat about his leadership campaign, post-secondary education, and the economy.Cadre: Hi Mr.Garneau, how are you today?Garneau: I’m very well, thanks.Cadre: How is the Campaign going? What has been the best part of the campaign so far?Garneau: Well it’s going great. Last time I was at UPEI was just a few days ago. I was in Charlottetown, and then the next day I went up to New Brunswick, and yesterday I was in Cape Breton. Today I’m moving into northern Ontario. It’s been a pretty busy campaign but its going very well … and meeting a lot of Liberals. The campaign is picking up momentum as it has been since the beginning.Cadre: Sounds like you’ve been doing a lot of traveling.Garneau: You bet. Next week I’ll be in Quebec.Cadre: So, what is one thing that you offer that other leadership candida-tes do not?Garneau: Well I think that I offer a lifetime of experience and demons-

trated leadership capability. As you know I started my career off in the Navy. I was in the space business of course — I flew as an astronaut 3 times, I was Canada’s first astro-naut, [and] I ran the Canadian space agency which is a big responsibility because I was responsible every year for $300 million of federal money to do [the] Canadian space program, and I’m very proud of my accom-plishments during that time and of course [I’m] a politician now. I was elected in 2008, and I’ve had some important jobs within the Liberal Party. I was also the industrial and science and technology critic.What else I’m offering is basically what I think is a vision that will focus on Canada’s economy. The main concern, particularly with young people is that of the future, jobs and job opportunities. That’s the kind of policy that I will bring forward, beca-use that’s what I’m hearing across the country, that is the greatest concern to Canadians. They are concerned about their jobs, the security of their jobs, they’re concerned about the end of the their life, about secure retirement, and those are the things I’m focusing on. If you go to my website, I’ve already announced some policies in that area.Cadre: Experience is obviously key, but the youth vote is also very important. How would you increase youth voter turnout in the 2015 election?Garneau: Well I think speaking to issues that concern you. I know that one giant concern of theirs is job opportunities. As you probably know, youth unemployment is twice the national average at around 15 per cent. Young people coming into the work force … they are looking for jobs, they want the same thing as we all did in the past, which is to get a job and begin to build a life, and perhaps at some point buy a house and start a family and those kinds of things.It’s a different kind of situation these days, so one of the things that I’ve done, this is only one of them, I will do more, is that many of them coming out of university

are also having a very large student debt as well to pay off, but one of the things I’m doing is too that I’m saying is that I would give a tax credit to an employer who hired a young person, so they wouldn’t have to pay a payroll tax as part of hiring the student, so this would be an incen-tive for employers to hire young people.Another thing is that very often some of the brightest ideas that people have come from young people who want to start a business, who want to start an enterprise, or start a company because they have a great idea and they want to develop something. Whether it’s a product or a service and they need some capital, they need some money to start it. At the moment for those who want to start a business, its very difficult getting access to some money to develop their idea and turn it into something that is commercial.Another thing that its on my website, and I’ve spoken about this, is to start giving a capital gains exemption to somebody who is prepared to invest in a start up, and very often those are young people out of university and they’ve got this bright idea, and also to in some cases to give what’s called an angel investor tax credit. It’s to encourage people who have money to invest in new young enterprises and to put their money there. That will help those young people who need to get access to money to develop their idea into a product.Cadre: Accessible post-secondary education is a policy of the Liberal party. How would a Garneau govern-ment work to make post-secondary education more accessible?Garneau: Well, I believe in the last election the Liberal Party stated that its platform said that if you get the grades, you get to go. The whole idea there was to point out the fact that there are some young people who definitely do well in high school and would like to be able to go onto university, but they don’t have the financial means to do it.So, that is something that is impor-tant if we are going to develop the knowledge based economy. It means

we need as many people having opportunities to take advantage of university ... but ideas to provide a grant program that would allow young people who don’t have financial support, and it would be based on a means test. Don’t have the means to go, because of income. This would be a grant system to get them into university so that they can realize their full potential, [and] so it would depend on the income situa-tion of the student in question.Cadre: I think that it would be a great opportunity.Garneau: Well, I think that it’s a smart investment in the future of this country. You know we need to get the maximum out of our young people, and this is one way to do that.Cadre: Keeping a balanced budget is a vital part of governance. How would a Garneau government work to balance the federal budget? Would that plan include tax increa-ses?Garneau: No, not at the moment. I would [work to balance the federal budget] by growing our economy, and specifically the knowledge based economy. In the same way as you and I have to manage our finances and be responsible, and cannot get ourselves into debt, I would take the same approach towards govern-ment.Government has access to the taxpayer’s money, so we need to manage it in a responsible manner. That includes balancing the budget. In normal circumstances, there is no excuse to not balance the budget; you and I have to in our own lives. I have a family, and I can’t put myself into debt to the point where I have to sell my house and sell my assets and change a whole bunch of things, and it would be irresponsible of me and the bank would be there to tell me that. So, we need to take the same attitude in respect to government.Cadre: It was great to talk to you today. I’ll be interested to see where the rest of the campaign goes, have a great afternoonGarneau: It was my pleasure Rosie. Thank you, Bye.

A CHAT WITH LIBERAL LEADERSHIP CONTENDER MARC GARNEAU

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Caper Hansard Resolutions of the Publishing Board of the Caper Times • 13 February 2013

Here Ye; Take Notice! The proclamation of the following resolutions of

the Publishing Board of the Caper Times

By authority of the, and the guidance hitherto the Constitution of the Caper Times

Resolution 40:1—Mary Suzanne MacEachern

Whereas the Constitution of the Caper Times requires the Publishing Board to a budget to the Student Representative Council by the 15th February each year, and whereas the Editor-in-Chief M.G. Mäder has taken it upon him-self to prepare a budget of $20,000 in line with the two previous year’s budgets, and whereas the deadline is tomorrow, we hereby adopt the proposed budget created by Mr Mäder and give him permission to submit the budget to the Stu-dent Representative Council.

Rescinded 15 February 2013.

Resolution 40:2—M.G. Mäder, UE

Whereas the Constitution of the Caper Times requires that the Publishing Board strike a hiring committee for the Editor-in-Chief, and whereas the hiring of the Editor-in-Chief is to take place the second week of March, we hereby strike a hiring committee at this meeting and commit to plan interviews for the Editor-in-Chief applicants on the second week of March at this meeting as per the Constitution of the Caper Times.

Passed 13 February 2013.


Whereas the Constitution of the Caper Times sets out the standards of governing of the Caper Times, and whereas the Publishing Board is essentially the Board of Governance of the Caper Times, we hereby adopt the attached seal in which to officially seal documents of the Publishing Board and certify them as official. The seal shall serve to represent this board in all respects and on all documents. We also adopt a flag with the seal in the middle, outlined in white, upon a navy blue background.



Whereas the Constitution of the Caper Times requires members of the board to sit for two years, with the exception of elected and hired Students’ Un-ion officials, we hereby pass this motion to represent the commitment of the two-year members to return in September. As well, this motion represents the grati-tude of the Caper Times to the volunteers who sit on our board and ensure our governance.



Whereas we are an autonomous organisation within the Students’ Union, and whereas we are aware of our autonomy and the rights and responsibilities which it brings, we the Publishing Board wish to express our autonomy from most internal functions of the Students’ Union in order to preserve the journal-istic dignity of the Caper Times as a protector of the public good and service collectively owned by the Students of Cape Breton University via the Students’ Union.


Resolution 40:6—Mary Suzanne MacEachern

Whereas the information in the budget passed with Resolution 40:1 was incorrect, and whereas it has been corrected and adjusted for inflation and un-foreseen costs which may occur, we hereby adopt the attached budget and re-scind Resolution 40:1 and the budget associated with it.

Passed 15 February 2013

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