Université McGill,Faculté de DroitVolume 31, no. 8 1 décembre 2009

McGill University,Faculty of Law

Volume 31, no. 8December 1st, 2009

QQUUIIDD NNOOVVII

IN THIS ISSUE...

3. Quel bilinguisme?

4. Video Games...

5. Letter Re: “Getting Rejected”...

6. Public Participation...

7. Law School Stole Christmas...

9. Droit à l’image...

12. Trois autres entrevues...

14. The CoffeeHouse Playlist...

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All contents copyright 2009 Quid Novi.

Les opinions exprimées sont propres aux auteurs et ne réflètent pas nécessairement celles de l’équipe du Quid Novi.

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QUIDNOVI

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Éditorial/Editorial

by Chanel Sterie(LAW II)

Voilà une autre session qui se termine,trop rapidement comme d’habitude!

Le Quid Novi aimerait remercier touteson équipe pour leur excellent travail aucourant de la session, ainsi que le restedu corps étudiant pour leur intérêt etleur encouragement.

La qualité des soumissions reçues cettesession a vraiment dépassé nos at-tentes. Nous sommes très reconnais-sants envers tout ceux qui ont pris letemps de contribuer leurs idées.

Le Quid Novi sera de retour la sessionprochaine dès la 2e semaine de cours.

Entre temps, bon succès à tous pourvos examens et vos papers.

Profitez pleinement de vos vacancesbien méritées et passez un merveilleuxtemps des fêtes!!!

DECEMBER 1ST, 2009

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I too went to the F.R. Scott lecture twoweeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed it.In fact, I have been going to these “freelectures” shamelessly and indiscrimi-nately and find them to be an immenseenrichment of my law school experi-ence. As a result of these events, I havelearned much about topics that are out-side the first year syllabus, have heardmore about our professors’ research in-terests, have met distinguished speak-ers and guests, and have expanded mylegal panorama overall. I encourageeveryone to take more notice of theseevents - make it your extra-curricularduty to attend some of them! Back to the F.R. Scott lecture; I wouldlike to defend Graham Fraser’s mono-lingual delivery of the lecture by arguingthat his choice of language was a cal-culated and intentional rhetorical de-vice. Graham Fraser is Canada’s currentCommissioner of Official Languages.Having also written a book on the suc-cesses and failures of Canada’s bilingualpolicy (Sorry, I Don’t Speak French,2006), he is no doubt an authority onbilingualism in Canada. He can alsospeak French fluently. If the lecture wasotherwise titled: “Assessing the CurrentState of Bilingualism”, I am sure Mr.Fraser would have delivered some of hislecture in French. However, the title ofthe lecture was “J’y suis, j’y reste; F.R.Scott and the Evolution of LanguageRights”. Ultimately, it was a story aboutF.R. Scott and bilingualism, not simplybilingualism.

F.R. Scott was perhaps one of Canada’smost complete public intellectuals in thelast century. Most of us would have en-countered him in high school Englishand French classes as Scott the poet.He was also a McGill Law alumnus andled an illustrious legal career as a con-stitutional lawyer, writing the report thatgave birth to Canada’s Official Lan-guages Act. Furthermore, he was avocal advocate of bilingualism at a timewhen Canada was going through someserious identity crises. Judging from theprevious lecture topics in this series,

such as Justice Binnie’s lecture on“Counter-Terrorism, Civil Liberties, andthe Legacy of F.R. Scott”, StephenLewis’s lecture, “Make This yourCanada, Part II” and Charles Taylor’slecture on “Canadian Duality: The Un-resolved Conflict”, one begins to appre-ciate just how much of an impact F.R.Scott had on Canadian politics, law, lit-erature and identity.

In this light, Graham Fraser, like hispredecessors in the lecture series, ischarged with the task of exploring yetanother aspect of F.R. Scott’s contribu-tion to Canada: bilingual policies. Thestory was made more captivating by thefact that Fraser was a family friend ofF.R. Scott’s, the two having spent manysummers together as cottage neigh-bours. Fraser essentially outlined F.R.Scott’s public life in terms of Canadianbilingualism, starting with the latter’sfervent defence of language rights asfundamental rights and his advocacywork for the French language in Que-bec, and ending with his bitter disap-proval of Bill 22, which alienated himfrom Quebec. Scott’s life was a paradox- the more he advocated for federalbilingualism, the more legitimacy hegave to Quebec’s unilingual policies.This paradox found its way into theCharter. So how does all of this explainwhy the lecture was monolingual? Theanswer is that Graham Fraser deliveredthe lecture as F.R. Scott would havedone.

F.R. Scott was a stalwart defender ofbilingualism with a passion for the mi-nority. His vision of a bilingual societydid not stem from protectionism, butrather from a poet’s love of language.According to Mr. Fraser, Scott did notbelieve in any linguistic compromisesshort of bilingualism. It is no surprisethat during the 1980 Referendum,Scott’s words “J’y suis, j’y reste” be-came a motto for the English minorityin Quebec. Walking into one of the veryfew English universities in Quebec,Scott would have certainly spoken inEnglish. He would have charged his

English audience, in English, with a pleato contribute to Quebec and Canadianbilingualism. After the lecture, Scottwould have gone outside, hailed a cab,and chatted with the driver in French(or maybe even in Joual) all the wayhome.

Bilingualism starts with the people, andnot when they feel as though they havea language to protect, but rather whenthey want to relate to their neighboursand colleagues in such a way that theybecome motivated to use another lan-guage. Fraser’s choice of languagecatered to the audience that night, themajority of which belonged to the olderAnglophone generation - the true An-glophone minority that lived outside themotto of “J’y suis, J’y reste”. It is prob-able that most of the audience wasbilingual, but to these people, Fraser’stalk, in English, was a strong affirma-tion of their linguistic minority status inQuebec.

I know that, having paid a high price bylearning another language, it is easy topoint at certain language policies andcriticize. But I think we can all benefitfrom taking a step back and seeingbilingualism the way F.R. Scott wouldhave, that “bilingualism is not a desti-nation, but a journey”. So what doesthis mean for the many at McGill Lawwho are not fluently bilingual? I canspeak for myself: let’s travel together. Iwould be glad to get out of my comfortzone and talk to you in French, but Iwould expect you to do likewise and tryto relate to me in English. The resultingconversation might not be eloquent, butit will advance bilingualism and cama-raderie, among other things, in our fac-ulty. “Quel bilinguisme,” you ask? “Ourbilingualism,” I answer.

Quel bilinguisme? Our bilingualism.by Henry Ngan (LAW I)

Video Games: An Essential Guide toEscape Boredom During Classes

by Julien “Bob” Lefebvre (LAW III)

Are your friends on Facebook notupdating their profiles oftenenough? Or do you not have Face-book? Or do you not have friends?Try these video games!!

Through the years, I have accumulatedconsiderable resources to overcomeboredom during classes. Those of youwho know me or who have sat behindme are already aware that I spend mostof my class time playing video games. Ihave tried pretty much any game thatcan be found online. Forget Sudoku.

Here’s a list of fun games that I recom-mend:

SNES EmulatorThe SNES Emulator is basically a pro-gram to play Super Nintendo games onyour computer.

Remember those days when you usedto spend eight hours a day playing Don-key Kong, Aladdin, Zelda, Street Fighter2 Turbo and NHL ’95 on Super Nin-tendo? You can live the dream again.During my first year, I spent mostclasses playing countless SNES games.Some of them are epic. Most notably,Barbie Super Model was a hit in CivilLaw Property (where I sat in the firstrow).

To get an SNES Emulator, just Google it(I recommend Snes9x). First you down-load the program, and then you down-load the individual games. I don’t knowif this is legal; I’m taking an IP class andstill have no clue about this (maybe be-cause I spend my time playing). Itmight be copyrighted stuff. No clue. Thesite says that if you possess the gameat home you may download it. I swearI have Barbie at home, I just can’t findit.

The advantage with the SNES Emulatoris that you can pause it to write notes orask/answer questions in class. The dis-

advantage is that it’s highly addictive,and that you need both hands to play,so if you move on your chair too muchit looks weird.

www.onemorelevel.comThis is a highly useful site. It provideshundreds of free addictive Flash games,with a new game added every weekday.Pick your favourites. Mine are:

N NinjaCollect gold and avoid ninja-killing ro-bots with crazy Matrix-Jackie Chan-likemoves. This game is really fun, and I’m proudto say that I’ve completed the 40 levelsand the expansion pack. It’s a discreetgame, so it’s not too obvious that you’replaying, but the downside is you can’tpause it.

Bubble ShooterTetris-like, very simple game. Point andshoot the bubble to other bubbles ofthe same color. It gets boring after afew classes, but still allows you to staysomewhat focused.

Stick-Figure BadmintonThe name says it. If you want a trick,

try jumping.

BloonsShoot all balloons with your darts-shooting monkey. This will improve youraptitudes in life, but might cause frus-trations. In the end, it’s all good.

3D LogicA puzzle game, kind of based on theRubik’s Cube. I’ve had nightmaresabout this one.

Crush the CastleIf you spend your weekends on MontRoyal dressed as a knight, this is yourgame. Destroy castles with an oldschool trebuchet.

www.omgpop.comThis is my new thing. It keeps me frompaying attention in classes. I barely takenotes. It’s a collection of games youhave seen before that are easy to un-derstand and easy to play. You playmultiplayer games with people of allages from around the world (mostly 14years old kids from California, so watchyour language when you chirp).

Baloono

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A kind of Bomberman replica. Insteadof astronauts, it’s monkeys and insteadof bombs it’s bubbles. Games with apesare the best. The goal is to splash youropponents and be the last one to live.

Hover Kart and Hover Kart BattleThese are Mario Kart and Mario KartBattle replicas. Super fun. Some peoplespend their lives playing at this. It’s oneof my favourite games right now, butit’s really hard to follow in class whenplaying.

Draw my ThingThis is a great opportunity to develop

your artistic talent. You get to guessother people’s drawings, and when youdraw, people guess yours. I’m prettygood at it. Some people on the sitehave started calling me the Lady Gagaof drawings. Come give it a shot. Tryand draw Snow White and the SevenDwarfs in 60 seconds, just for fun.

BallracerYou’re a hamster in a ball, and you tryto race downhill to the finish line. It’ssurprisingly hard at times. Animallovers, don’t worry: the hamster lookssafe.

If you intend on joining the site, get atme, I’m mrbob(2915). The “mr” givesme notoriety.

ConclusionUnlike what you may think, videogames have not ruined my life. I still getdecent grades and I have improved mydexterity. However, I must warn you, I’m not re-sponsible for your finals debacle.

1DÉCEMBRE, 2009

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Letter Re: “Getting Rejected”by Eva Warden (LAW II)

The Quid has seen no dearth of debatethis semester over human rights intern-ships, including those offered by theCentre for Human Rights and Legal Plu-ralism. Much of the discussion has beencritical, and often with good reason.However, I don’t think that the latestweighing-in, an anonymous letter froma student whose internship applicationwas not selected, was particularly use-ful, constructive, or true.

Admittedly, the student honestly framedthe letter as a simple, even indulgent,exercise in self-consolation. Still, thepiece is largely a critique of the intern-

ship selection process, and I believe, isintended to go beyond its stated pur-pose as a mere expression of hurt feel-ings. It is in response to that critiquethat I am writing this letter.

I applied for a human rights internship.The application process was not unfair.Calling it unfair is – both to those whomade the internships possible and tothe deserving students whose applica-tions were selected. I found that theindividuals conducting the applicationprocess handled every step both effi-ciently and respectfully towards the ap-plicants. The students who will be

completing internships in 2010 – not allof whom “already have all the interna-tional experience and connections theyneed”, not all of whom “could easily af-ford to pay their own way” to make thetrip, and surely not all of whom intendto trade their belief in human rights forhuge corporate firm jobs upon graduat-ing – were selected on the merits oftheir applications. Let’s rejoice in thefact that there is such a “wide range ofqualified candidates” in our community,and in the fact that our Faculty is hometo an institution like the CHRLP.

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Pursuant to the s. IX 33 (1) of the LSAConstitution which states “Any mem-ber of the Corporation or any LSAGroup may refer questions or disputesto the Judicial Board”, the JudicialBoard has accepted the following ref-erence questions from 2nd Year ClassCo-President Charlie Feldman:

1) a. Is it the duty of the CRO to set anelection date that allows the LSACouncil to meet its exigencies perConstitution, or, apart from the formalrequirements indicated does the CROhave complete discretion in this re-gard?

2)a. May items for which the Constitu-tion specifies a date (such as electionof LSA Speaker by October 15th,adoption of the preliminary budget byOct 30th) occur after these dates?May they be challenged for failing tocomply with the Constitution? Or, willthey be valid in an instance such asours where Council has failed to meet?b. When a date is specified by theConstitution, are the actions requiredto occur before that date legitimate ifpreformed after that date? Are therecircumstances in which noncomplianceis acceptable?

3)Acting under V-15, is it appropriate forthe Executive to undertake any actionsspecifically set for Council as per IV-17?

4)a. Can LSA Council meet prior to theelection of first-year class presidentsand faculty council?b. If yes, who sits? (I.e. does V-15preclude elected class presidents andthe law senator from convening withthe Executive in the form of the Leg-islative)?

c. If yes, may the Council vote? May itadopt its own budget or must the fullCouncil – including first-year presi-dents –be reserved the right to voteon this as IV-17 appears to indicate?d. If no, and there are no meetingsoccurring that include those personselected for the academic year, howmight the full Board convene to fulfillits responsibilities?

In an attempt to provide the mostcomprehensive and informed responseto these reference questions, the Judi-cial Board welcomes the contributionof all interested parties. S. IX 33 (2)of the LSA Constitution declares that“[a]ny member of the LSA has, in ac-cordance with the principles of naturaljustice, the right to be heard on anymatter before the Judicial Board.”

We propose the following tentativedeadline to provide opportunities forinterested parties to offer written andoral submissions respecting thesequestions with a view to promotingtransparency. An information sessionwill be held on Monday, January 11,

written submissions will be accepteduntil Monday, January 18 and formaloral submissions by interveners willtake place the following week. At anytime, we welcome comments and sug-gestions to the Board via email (seeaddress below).

Le Conseil judiciaire de la Faculté tientà vous entendre afin d’éclairer ses ré-flexions sur les questions. Nous éva-luerons la situation afin de trouver lameilleure solution possible, dans l’inté-rêt des étudiants de la Faculté. Votreopinion sur le sujet nous tient à cœur,c’est pourquoi nous vous offrons plu-sieurs possibilités afin de nous latransmettre. Vous pouvez nous fairepart de vos idées et suggestions parcourriel à l’adresse suivante:mcgill.jboard@gmail.com.

Merci de votre participation!Cordialement,

Annamaria Enenajor, Brett Hodgins,Jessica SymsLes membres du Judicial Board del’AÉD

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION ENCOURAGEDFOR JUDICIAL BOARD REFERENCE:

Les membres du Judicial Board de l'AÉD:Annamaria Enenajor (LAW II), Brett Hodgins (LAW II), Jessica Syms (LAW II)

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Law School Stole Christmasby Chase Barlet (LAW I)

As finals approach in law school world,I am noticing that the holidays are ap-proaching in the real world. Lookingback on my youth, I can’t help but wishI could once again celebrate Christmaswithout the guilt and stress school nowcauses me.

From an early age, a compulsive needdeveloped within me to ensure that ourhouse had more Christmas lights thanany other house in the neighbourhood.To my absolute thrill, every car thatslowed while passing our house to mar-vel at our waste of energy symbolizedtrue success. If the car stopped, it wassimply too much; I’d shriek with glee.

Growing up, I assumed my father’s or

my own death would ensue as a directresult of my holding the ladder onwhich my dad climbed into the atticabove the garage to retrieve Christmasdecorations. Half-holding the latter andhalf-balancing boxes larger than myself,I stood sock-footed on my tiptoesgrunting as each wreath, nativity piece,light box, and reindeer descended. Ifthe decoration managed to remainsafely in my grasp without crashing tothe cement floor, I would then haphaz-ardly toss it into the yard. Why my dadtrusted 8-year-old son with the task,and his life, remains a mystery. I sup-pose he had no choice. My sisters con-veniently tried to disappear the dayafter Thanksgiving - the moment Christ-mas music started playing.

The Christmas season in the US com-mences the day after Thanksgiving in aflurry of overspending and, at least inColorado, a race to decorate one’shouse before any more snow wouldrender the roof a complete death trap.Christmas music, chez Barlet, alsomeant communal fighting. It was withgreat ceremony that the women of thehousehold would yell and scream evenbefore saints and angels could singtheir joy to the world. Once, upon mysisters’ unwillingness to help her, mymom lost her temper with such passionthat she dramatically made good on herthreat to “screw Christmas” by throw-ing a box of glass decorations down astaircase. She then spent an hour onthe floor crying picking up the pieces.Sweet, sweet memories.

I, however, was always spared theseoutbursts. I was busy outside with fa-ther. He would first place what I be-lieved was the first-ever patentedboom-box in the middle of the opengarage and crank it up with versions ofChristmas music that embarrassed myvery existence. “Why do we have to lis-ten to this stupid music?” I would ask.Then he would begin to sing. I learnedto not discuss the matter again. In-stead, while I secretly turned the stereodown one tick at a time, we embarkedupon the first task. After surviving theacrobatic art of balancing ladder andChristmas decorations, we had to re-move each strand of lights from its re-spective box. Because we sought tocover virtually every surface of our two-story abode, my father had affixed la-bels to each cord detailing its lengthand exact location on the house.

Then the fun started. Without fail, myfather would mutter and curse withintwo minutes, genuinely baffled at howthe lights he had so carefully placed inthe boxes the January before hadsomehow resulted in this tangled webof hell. To his defence, it really did lookas if someone had taken the strand of

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QUID NOVIlights, crumpled them into a ball, tiedthe ball into a knot a dozen times, andthen wedged the knot into a cord oftwine. It was my job to help untanglethem. My father was very supportive ofmy assistance and offered many wordsof encouragement: “What is wrong withyou? Stop shaking it up and down likethat; you’re making it worse,” “If youbang that strand on the ground onemore time, so help me…” and “Pleasestop picking your nose.”

Once the task was over and the casual-ties that would forever remain entan-gled joyously disposed of with greatsatisfaction, we tested each strand tomake sure the effort of untangling hadbeen in fact worthwhile. Fighting overthe one available electric plug (asstereo would not be unplugged underany circumstance), my father refused toindulge my inquiries, year after year, asto why we couldn’t have tested thestrand and then untangled it. “With theway you abuse them during the untan-gling process, it would be irrelevant. I’msurprised they light up at all after you’vehad your grungy hands on them.”

So it was that often a strand would onlypartially light up, if at all. My dad han-dled these situations with stunningpoise. At age 16, I was let in on theworld’s biggest conspiracy: Christmaslight companies that intentionally de-sign lights to burn out within two sea-sons. “See! See, Chase?! This strand isfrom 40 years ago, and it works fine.This one, this I bought last year, andlook at it.” I was just grateful he sparedme the finer details of what else waswrong with my generation. One year,after three or four consecutive strandsall appeared burnt out, he plugged in astrand of large white lights on whichonly the first ten or so lit up. Brow fur-rowed and lips pursed, he slowly stoodup. He then proceeded to jump up anddown on the working lights until eachwas broken. There was also the strandof interchanging green and red lightsthat he spent twenty minutes untan-gling. Only half of it lit up, and thestrand met its fate as my father took itin his hands and like a whip whacked it

repeatedly against the brick wall to thegarage. Then there was the year in highschool when squirrels had burrowedinto the attic and chewed off the end ofalmost every cord. The baffled look onmy father’s face was a Christmas pres-ent in and of itself. If he ever launchesa global vendetta against squirrels, Iwill not be surprised.

Each year, about two-thirds of the pre-vious year’s haul was salvaged in work-ing order. Strands in only half-workingorder were demoted to placement onshrubs. I learned to hide workingstrands over the years to make surethat when we went to the store to buynew sets, each year the house wouldsport a net gain.

Occasionally, a shatter heard from in-side the house affirmed that the womenwere still in fact working diligently. If afemale was heard to yell and anotherthen cry, it meant progress was hap-pening especially fast. I found that verycomforting. Christmas was really com-ing.

Fingers now frozen and it invariablysnowing, my father and I began affix-ing the lights to the house. For a while,I was content to stick to shrubs, trees,and pillars. By fourteen, however, I de-cided my father, now in his late-40’s,was simply too old to complete thechore by himself. He assured me hecould manage. I disagreed. I took mat-ters into my own hands. The first yearI ignorantly did so in his presence. Withstaple-gun in hand, I pathetically tackeda dozen too many holes into the newsiding above my mother’s favourite baywindow. My father informed me that ifI ever did such a thing again near thatwindow, our family would no longer cel-ebrate Christmas.

I learned my lesson. My father had not,however, because the staple gun re-mained where it had always been:within the reach of his teenage son.Now out of his presence, I took the sta-ple gun to the roof, which was verymuch not near the bay window. I sta-pled lights all over this one neglected

asphalt surface. I then affixed morelights above the bay window using ducttape. They survived one night of frost.My dad, trapped by my clever sub-terfuge, shook his head and recom-mended that I might pursue a career inlaw.

When the house was ready and everycord attached to a series of extensioncords converging on an electric stripthat would no doubt keep firefightersup at night, we paraded my mother andsisters to the middle of the street sothey could see our feat. My mother’sface, though obviously impressed, sug-gested she was more concerned aboutthe impending energy bill. By around15-years-old, enough lights had beenacquired such that we were forced toplug in two different cords into differentfuses in different corners of the house.My sisters were reminded not to use themicrowave at any time the lights wereon. Blackouts frequently followed thisoft-broken rule.

This year, once again, I am not home.Paying my own hydro bill has causedme to forego any electrical extravagan-zas. Still, every wreath and strand oflights I see showing up in Montreal re-minds me of the “family bonding time”that may have came with it.

Our families may be far away and ourcommitments full, but this time of year,I hope we can all take a moment to re-member what really matters most to us.The New Year will ring a new opportu-nity to think about not only what expe-riences the year may bring to our lawschool careers, but also what it maybring us personally – a level that I, per-sonally, find to be a lot higher.

So ‘tis the season; let it ring.

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DROIT À L’IMAGE Charlie Feldman (LAW II)

In reverse order! Note: Because so few people

voted for the last few categories, there are a few

ties.

Best TL: Sy Yang, Justin Douglas, Stefanit Cars-

ley (TIE)

Un-sung Hero (from your group): Tiffany

Boisvert, Suzanne Amiel, Sao-Mai (TIE)

Biggest Laugh: The e-mail from Margaret Bar-

ratta (Intimate Relations)

Best WebCT Materials: Duty of Loyalty

Meilleur Powerpoint (présenté en cours): Reg-

ulation of the Legal Profession

Meilleure présentation: Regulation of the Legal

Profession, Access to Justice (TIE)

Most entertaining: Ryan Gallant’s Group

Most informative: Access to Justice

Best Video: The Devil’s Advocated (Ryan Gal-

lant)

Meilleur montage image: Ryan Gallant

Meilleure utilisation de la technologie: Ryan

Gallant

Best Costume: Mari Maimets (as Aristotle)

Best Presenter (Male): Joel Lightbound, Michael

Bookman (TIE)

Meilleure présentatrice: Tanya De Mello, Tiffany

Boisvert (TIE)

Best Supporting Actress: Catherine Coursol,

Suzanne Amiel (TIE)

Meilleur acteur de soutien: Yesse Gutman

Best Portrayal (Male): Steven Jegou, Corey

Wolman (TIE)

Meilleure représentation (femme): Mari

Maimets, Annamaria Enenajor (TIE)

Best Actress: Charlie Feldman

Meilleur acteur: Randall Blom

Autres catégories (write-ins):

Best Make-Up: Annamaria Enenajor

Best Case Reference: Poo at the circus

Best Song: Duty of Loyalty

Best Coverage: The Quid (lol - thanks, person

who submitted that)

Good luck on exams everyone and see you next

semester!!

AND THE ENVELOPE PLEASE LES PRIX LEGAL METH 2009!

First, congratulations to all the winnersand thank you to all who voted! Whileturnout was a bit lower than I wouldhave hoped for, I do realize it’s the timeof year when everyone is busy and hasother things to do. While there wereonly a few fully completed ballots, manyof you sent me notes containing a votefor one or two specific categories. Fur-ther, when reminded to vote in person,many of you said something along thelines of ‘oh… just put down so-and-so

for this category”. As such, there wereonly a few votes for categories such as‘best powerpoint’ but many more votesfor ‘best actor’. This is to be expected.

Of course, I should put a reminder herethat the voting only reflects the prefer-ences of those who voted – so, eventhough your WebCT materials may havebeen ‘da bomb’ (as one of you indi-cated), if you were the only person fromyour group who voted - and nobody

from outside your group saw it - it hada reduced chance of winning.Not every suggested category is in-cluded here – in particular, some of yousuggested the category of ‘Most Inap-propriate’. And, there was at least onesuggestion of ‘Worst Impression’. Thewhole idea behind this was to makepeople smile, so, by the power investedin me by … umm… me, I decided tosavor these moments of hateration pri-vately.

A few reflections...

1DÉCEMBRE 2009

9

Il faut noter aussi qu’on a eu l’optionsoit de remplir la feuille, soit de m’en-voyer les votes. Personnellement, j’aibien aimé que plusieurs d’entre-vousont décidé de voter pour vous-mêmes.Ce n’est pas un problème en soi. Ce quiest drôle est que vous m’avez envoyéun e-mail avec vos choix (c.-à-d. lechoix de vous-même) quand vous avezeu le choix de rester anonyme en replis-sant le formulaire. Let’s just say, interalia, I now know who thinks of herselfas the next budding Meryl Streep!

While I liked not having nominees (i.e.letting you vote for anyone for any-thing) some of you felt that this was ac-tually worse than having pre-selectedpeople because you couldn’t remembereveryone and a list would have beeneasier than trying to remember everypresentation. For whoever does thisnext year: give a list. AND, be cleareron the categories. It’s funny – I wonBest Actress but got 2nd place for BestActor, Best Portrayal (Male), and BestPortrayal (Female). Oh, and one of youput me down for ‘Best Supporting Ac-tress’. UTTER NONESENSE!

But, more to the point: Joel Lightboundwon ‘Best Presenter’ but got votes for‘best actor’ and ‘best portrayal’. Havingthe ‘Presenter’ category (as describedin The Quid last week) was meant forthose whose involvement in the pres-entation was not in an acting capacity– i.e. someone who presents materialalong with a slide. To my mind, Joelwould not have qualified for this and‘Best Portrayal’ would have been morefitting, but you, the tribe, have spoken.

Lastly, and on a slightly more seriousnote, more than one of you approachedme with concerns over the categories –specifically, the use of male and femalecategories – i.e. having ‘best actor’ and‘best actress’. The suggestion was madethat having a category such as ‘best ac-tress’ implies - to use words the wordsof one of you - “that women need aseparate category in order to win some-thing”. I will confess here that the useof gendered categories was a consciousdecision – I felt as though overall therewere fewer female leads, and, as such,I wanted to avoid an entirely male list ofwinners. I think this speaks to a much

bigger problem.

If we take the last week’s Jeopardy skitwe find six people who took the stage.,only one of whom was female, and ina supporting role. Even in a majority-fe-male skit, such as the Canada’s NextTop Lawyer parody wherein of the ninepeople who spoke seven were female –the main role was played by a man. Isubmit that there were very few femaleleads overall, and I think this was re-flected in your voting and perhaps thereason I won best actress handily (notthat I’m not grateful) – there justweren’t too many other choices (so itseems).

Quoi faire alors? I do not think – in andof itself – that having gendered cate-gories is the problem. I think there’s alarger issue we need to address of whyin a majority-female law school, malesdominated the lead acting roles. Cer-tainly, there is some element of self-se-lection here and groups were free toorganize however they wanted (i.e.there was no stipulated requirement ofgender balance in presentations) –however, I do wonder what encouragedthis outcome and what the appropriateways are to address it.

So, in a nutshell on this point, if therewere more female leads, I wouldn’thave separated the categories. Whetheror not it’s appropriate for something likethe Oscars to retain these categoriesdespite a plethora of performances byboth genders from which to choose isanother matter I leave to far wiserminds than mine to debate.

There is a related concern, however,based on the winners list. I do have toquestion myself as to why I felt it moreappropriate to separate on gender linesthan to divide on language lines (i.e.having best actor – English; best actor– French). Certainly, English dominatedthe presentations overall (No, I’m notgoing to wade into the bilingualism-at-the-faculty debate that may be takingplace on other pages) and I am upsetabout the paucity of Francophone win-ners.

Si ma mémoire est bonne, dans la to-talité des présentations, il y a juste eu

six personnes qui n’ont parlé qu’enfrançais tandis qu’une trentaine qui ontparlé uniquement en anglais. Oui, il y aeu plein de performances bilingues.Mais je crois que la balance pourraitêtre beaucoup mieux. Comment pro-mouvoir la utilisation de français lorsdes présentations? Je ne suis pas cer-tain.

We should be cognizant of these issues.It should not be the case that (if it is)that women in the Faculty feel discour-aged from participating as much astheir male classmates. Nor should any-one feel as though they have to speakEnglish at the Faculty in order to be un-derstood. Certainly, the two precedingsentences are aspirations many of usshare. If you have any thoughts you’dlike to share with me or the Faculty (onthe pages of the Quid) as to how weget there, I think we all would benefit.

10

Prof Glenn: Whatever you do, do not leave a

question unanswered. Write your name and get

10%

Prof Jukier: Go home tonight and play with your

codes!

Prof. Dedek: Well, what can I tell you? It's a sad

world!

Prof. (Redacted): If there are mistakes on your

cover letter, I’m not the only bitch here who is

gonna notice!

3L: I had the sweetest dream – NSYNC re-

united oh GOD it was GLORIOUS!

2L: Non! J'ai pas envie de me faire triple Nexté!

2L: On t'as déjà double-Nexté pour préjudice vi-

suel!

2L: I’m not Team Edward – I’m team the other

guy – he’s way cooler

2L: I hate that I have to buy a book to explain

that which the Prof was supposed to explain this

year but was incapable of doing so

2L: Wait, who are these Jacob, Edward, and

Bella people???

1L: With my summary I’m gonna to Chris Brown

this exam

1L: That’s it – we’re Christmas caroling at the

SAO when we turn in our contracts take-home!

…Disons… (Overheard at the Faculty)DECEMBER 1ST, 2009

11

Trois autres mini entrevues:Paris, Hong Kong, et Barcelone

by Héloïse Apestéguy-Reux (LAW III)La semaine dernière, j’ai commencécette rubrique – que je pense biencontinuer le semestre prochain – demini entrevues avec les étudiants detroisième année qui sont en échange.L’idée, c’est de nous aider à garder lecontact avec nos camarades en cettetroisième année, année pendant la-quelle nous sommes pas mal épar-pillés en tant que classe.

Dîtes-moi (heloise.apesteguy-reux@mail.mcgill.ca) si vous avez uneidée pour le titre de cette rubriquepour le semestre prochain – moi jepense tout simplement à « carte pos-tales » de tel et tel endroit mais celame semble peu originale…

En tout cas, cette semaine nous avonsune mini entrevue avec Abigail Be-craft, qui est à Paris, une avec TimBottomer, qui est à Hong Kong, et uneavec Stevi Papadopoulos, qui est àBarcelone :

D’abord, les réponses d’Abby :

Héloïse: Up until now, what has beenyour favourite experience on ex-change?

Abby: It is going to sound like some-one paid me to say this, but my fa-vorite part of studying abroad isactually going to classes. I find it in-credibly interesting to hear a Frenchprofessor teach students about thecommon law, or about concepts likeclass actions, which are so familiar tous, but so exotic to them. There areso many subtleties about the Frenchworld view that you pick up in theseexplanations that you could neverglean from a textbook. I even had aprofessor lecture about the McGill Lawcurriculum. It was fun listening to herdefine the word “transsystemic” to aclass full of French students lookingslightly perplexed.

Héloïse: What has surprised you themost since you’ve been there?

Abby: Professors don’t assign read-ings!

Héloïse: What are your favouritethings about Paris? Your leastfavourite?

Abby: My favorite things about Parisare just the simple things that makethe city so iconic- sunset over the Pontdes Arts, people-watching at outdoorcafés, and being surrounded by beau-tiful architecture at every turn. It is avery inspiring place to go to school.My least favorite would be the Frenchbureaucracy. I practically had topromise my first born child in order toget a student card. Things should notbe that complicated!

—-

Les réponses de Tim:

Héloïse: Up until now, what have beenyour favourite experiences on ex-change?

Tim: I just went to Hong Kong Disney-land today; that was pretty awesome!Local dim sum, visiting Beijing, andplaying rugby on a local team havealso been highlights of my trip.

Héloïse: What has surprised you themost since you’ve been there?

Tim: The fact that after two and a halfmonths of approximately 30 degreeweather, the 15 degree “cold snap”we’re having legitimately feels like itrequires a jacket.

Héloïse: How are the people you’vemet? That is, what are they like – stu-dents, roommates, new friends etc?

Tim: Everyone has been very nice.Since Hong Kong does law as a highschool entry undergraduate degree, alot of my classmates are quite young,but it’s better at the Master’s level pro-grams. The other exchange studentsare great; lots of fun people from allover the world who are very social.

Héloïse: What are your favouritethings about Hong Kong? Your leastfavourite?

Tim: Hong Kong‘s fantastic! The food’samazing, there is always tons of activi-ties going on, and it’s a nice mix of thefamiliar and the exotic in one of theworld’s finest natural settings. My leastfavourite thing is probably the humid-ity.

——

Et les réponses de Stevi:

Héloïse: What has been your favouriteexperience on exchange?

Stevi: My favourite experience hasbeen studying at a European univer-sity and getting an idea of how law istaught elsewhere. It’s interesting tosee the different approaches profes-sors can take to teaching controversialissues and their willingness to voicetheir opinions about the law and itsapplication. I’ve also enjoyed studyingin Spanish because it has been instru-mental to improving my knowledge ofthe language.

Héloïse: What has surprised you themost since you’ve been there?

Stevi: I was most surprised by howyoung most students are (early 20s);especially in comparison to McGill lawstudents. I think that the difference inage also creates a class dynamic

12

QUID NOVI

13

where students are generally lessvocal and less proactive.

Héloïse: How are the people you’vemet? That is, what are they like?

Stevi: The people are generally veryfriendly and easy to get along with.The only problem is that most ex-change students end up meeting otherexchange students and it’s easy tospeak very little Spanish amongst your

friends. However, attending class anddoing all your assignments in Spanishis a positive way to counter-balancethe prevalence of English.

Héloïse: What are your favouritethings about Barcelona? Your leastfavourite?

Stevi: Barcelona is a fantastically livelyand diverse city! With a combinationof tourist attractions, fascinating archi-

tecture, the beach and nice weather,it’s a great place to live. On the downside, because there is so muchtourism all year round, it’s sometimeshard to get a feel for how the localslive and for Spanish/Catalan culture.It’s also a haven for pick-pocketing soa certain amount of caution is neces-sary at all times.

1DÉCEMBRE 2009

14

The Coffeehouse Playlistby Professor David Lametti

So I gather that I am not allowed tohave certain songs on my iPod… As thesound quality was so terrible in theAtrium last Thursday, I thought I wouldcomplete the rather incomplete picturegiven by the guy in the clown suit bygiving you the whole playlist, includingwhat we didn’t get to. I have addedsome annotations!It is by no means a“soundtrack of my life” – indeed manyof my favourite past and current bandsare NOT here, from the Beatles, LedZep, and Black Sabbath to Wilco and LizPhair. Rather it is a bunch of fun,danceable tunes! Red nose not neces-sary.

Feels like Teen Spirit, by Nirvana(Grunge’s greatest line: “Here we arenow, entertain us.”)

Everybody Wants to Rule the World, byTear for Fears (For law students.)

Ordinary Day, by Great Big Sea (Cana-dian content.)

Beijing, by Patrick Watson (Montrealcontent.)

Montreal – 40 C, by Malajube (bis)

L.A., by Elliot Smith (Only the good dieyoung.)

Imaginary Friends, by Ron Sexsmith(After wine, and Rush, Niagara’s bestexport.)

4th of July, by Aimee Mann (Brilliant lyri-cist: “And she’s got the river, downwhich I sold her.”)

Watching the Detectives, by ElvisCostello (Ditto: “She’s filing her nailswhile they’re draggin’ the lake.” Ouch.)

Friday I’m in Love, by The Cure (LoveCats was a late deletion.)

Janie Jones, by The Clash (According toSandy Pearlman, who produced it, it isthe next great rap backbeat.)

Boys Don’t Cry, by The Cure

Alinéa, by El Motor (Pretty cool band,recommended to me by Prof Bachand.)

Your Ex Lover is Dead, by Stars (Hesaid, she said, and Montreal refer-ences.)

Gimme Sympathy, by Metric (Who’dYOU rather be, the Beatles or theRolling Stones?)

Heads Will Roll, by Yeah YeahYeahs(Heavy Metric.)

Rapper’s Delight, by The SugarhillGang(The original rap; Public Enemy’sFight the Power a late scratch from theplaylist.)

Jamming, by Bob Marley and the Wail-ers (Reggae requested by CharmaineLyn, for Tenzin.)

Redemption Song, by Joe Strummer &The Mescaleros (A great cover, andshout out to The Clash and Bob Marley.RIP both. “How long shall they kill ourprophets, while we stand around andlook?”)

Lost In the Supermarket, by The Clash(“Came in here for the special offer,guaranteed personality.”)

Seven Nation Army, by The WhiteStripes (Only for the bass line.)

Bittersweet Symphony, by The Verve(© Mick and Keith, and the Re-MixManifesto.)

Tubthumper, by Chumbawamba (Whatis an anarchist urban collective anyway?

A one-hit wonder, but great dancetune.)

I’m Too Sexy, by Right Said Fred (Askthe guy with the red nose…)

Tainted Love: Where Did Our Love Go,by Soft Cell (the genius of Marc Almond.Extended dance hall remix where elec-tro pop meets Motown. David Gray’scover of Soft Cell’s Say Hello, WaveGoodbye is better than the original.)

33 Degree, by Thievery Corporation(Great music for airplanes, btw. Fromtheir new album; my son’s pick.)

I Bambini Fanno “Ho”, by GiuseppePovia (A song about wonderment, forany age, in Italian or Spanish.)

Sweat Dreams (Are Made of This), byEurythmics (One of the first really coolvideos, along with Thriller.)

The Mess We’re In, by PJ Harvey withThom Yorke (Payback for the time whenRadiohead used to back up PollyJean…)

Bobcaygeon, by The Hip (Quintessen-tially Upper Canadian band.)

The Headmaster Ritual, by Radiohead(Covering the Smiths.)

Creep, by Radiohead (‘nuf said.)

Hummer, by The Foals (another Oxfordband, currently doing their time in Jeri-cho (UK) bars.)

Raspberry Beret, by Prince (Had mychoice here of brilliant tunes.)

Losing My Religion, by REM (A popularpick, but I like the whole of Murmurbetter!)

QUID NOVI

15

I Am Superman, by REM (Only Rodwould know that this was a cover ofDonovan, and hence, a shout out tohim.)

Never Say Never, by Romeo Void(Pro-duced by Dan Levitan, in the pysch de-partment, in a previous life; I might not,actually.)

The Good in Everyone, by Sloan (Shoutout to George S. on late night CBC.)

Cornerstone, by Arctic Monkeys (won’tbe the only prof there at Metropolis(after Civil Prop that day), maisl’autren’est pas tout à fait évident…)

Soul Meets Body, by Death Cab forCutie (Ethereal.)

The Cheapest Key, by Kathleen Ed-wards (Ottawa content, hockey con-tent; neither Wayne nor Marty, thanks.)

I Confess, by The English Beat (thisweek’s playlist it would have included(There’s no) Tenderness; Habs finallygot rid of a lazy, overrated whiner, whohad his chance, pace Rejean Tremblayet cie.)

Love Will Tear Us Apart, by Joy Division(RIP Ian Curtis. Bizarre cover by Collec-tive Soul in the Time Traveller’s Wife;the music cited in the original book –Chicago bands in the 80s, like the Vio-lent Femmes – was much better.)

There She Goes, by the Las (One hitwonder, but really catchy pop.)

Suddenly I See, by KT Tunstall (for mygirls: more catchy pop, more than onehit: “She fills up every corner like she’sborn in black and white”.)

People Got a Lotta Nerve, by Neko Case(Country to pop.)

Sex on Fire, by Kings of Leon (Now oldhat: why can’t this be on my iPod?)

Going Underground, by The Jam(No ex-planation necessary.)

Town Called Malice, by The Jam (Too lit-tle too late in terms of North Americanpopularity: Paul Weller was alreadymentally somewhere else… Style Coun-cil, maybe?)

Reptilia, by The Strokes (The Jam, 20years on.)

Arrow, by Tegan & Sara (From the newalbum.)

Take Me Anywhere, by Tegan& Sara(From an old album.)

Kid Fears, by IndigoGirls (Most movingconcert moment: the boys all sangMichael Stipe’s part.)

**** Coffeehouse ended

right about here ****

Bring on the Dancing Horses, by Echoand the Bunnymen

Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk, by RufusWainwright

Bleeding All Over You, by Martha Wain-

wright (Sibling rivalry.)

Alternative Ulster, by Stiff Little Fingers(All-time great punk band.)

Boulevard of Broken Dreams, by GreenDay (Stiff Little Fingers, 20 years on;who would have thought American Idiotpossible from these guys?)

Forgotten Years, by Midnight Oil (Whatyou can do with a law degree: rock star,Cabinet Minister, aboriginal rights advo-cate & environmentalist.)

Refugee, by Tom Petty & The Heart-breakers (Is there a better Americanband? Some as good, perhaps.)

Velouria, by The Pixies (For a quiet mo-ment.)

Seether, by Veruca Salt (For Roald Dahlfans everywhere.)

Today, by The Smashing Pumpkins(Billy Corgan is back, or so I haveheard.)

My Rights versus Yours, by The NewPornographers (Fitting end.)

Best of luck for December to all of you.

DECEMBER 1ST, 2009