Driver hosts consultations

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April 2, 2012

By Shaun Fitl (CUP)

When the war on drugs is doling out more death than the drugs themselves, is it time to re-evalute decriminalization?

WATERLOO (CUP) — At a regional summit of Latin American leaders on March 25, Guatemalan president Otto Perez Molina announced his desire to end the taboo surrounding drug decriminalization and legalization. He said the past 40 years of war against drugs in his country has been a failure. Guatemala’s domestic drug production and consumption is relatively low, but it is a checkpoint for cocaine and other narcotics being smuggled northwards from producers like Columbia and Peru.

Although Molina, a former army general, came into power last November advocating an “iron fist” against criminal enterprise, he has since moderated his position because of the high price of human life that the war on drugs has imposed on Central America. Rather than focus on supply reduction, which often entails direct military involvement against rebel groups and peasant coca farmers in South American countries, he’s asking policymakers to consider more demand-reduction plans such as regulation, education, or rehabilitation.

The shortcomings of prohibition, and other aggressive means of assaulting drug production, have been known since the 1920s and ‘30s during the alcohol prohibition era. Many believe that if the legislation had not been reversed, alcohol consumption would have risen above the levels recorded before prohibition because of the extensive marketing networks of criminal enterprise. Without a legal, regulated market for narcotics, the business becomes lucrative as demand skyrockets and supply dwindles.

Regardless of law enforcement efforts, nearly one-third of Canadians reported having consumed illicit drugs in 1994, with that proportion increasing to nearly half by 2004. Similarly, since 1975, at least 80 per cent of U.S. secondary school seniors have consistently said marijuana is “easy to obtain”. When polled about the war on drugs in 2008, about 75 per cent of Americans had the impression that it was failing.

This disparity has been officially recognized but barely discussed.

During the Clinton administration, a study called the RAND Drug Policy Research Center concluded that a demand-side “war on drugs” would be more successful (23 times more) than the past legacy of supply-side warfare, and that $3 billion ought to be shifted from law enforcement to treatment. A similar study done by RAND in 1986 evaluated the effects of using armed forces to intercept smuggling runs and found that there is little to no influence on overall traffic.

In The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Drugs, author Richard Davenport-Hines notes that “at least” 75 per cent of illegal shipments would have to be sabotaged to damage the traffickers’ profits at all, because most of them have profit margins reaching up to 300 per cent. So far, the U.S. has never been able to damage more than 15 per cent of the heroin trade, or 30 per cent of the cocaine trade. This is not even close to enough and, rather than having a real, long-term effect on drug trafficking, the U.S. role in eradicating the South American coca leaf has only exacerbated radical inequalities between indigenous farming communities, left-wing rebel groups, and U.S.-aided paramilitaries and police forces.

For example, the $4.7 billion invested in Plan Colombia from 2000 to 2006 only shifted cocaine production further and further away from urban zones and more into remote communities that are increasingly hard to police, as government infrastructure lags behind in the Andes. There was no overall change in the number of acres used to cultivate the drug, and some of the production actually moved to neighbouring Peru and Bolivia.

With the vast majority of its drug-fighting budget being allocated primarily to law enforcement and military supply-side strategies, the U.S. has only exacerbated the profitability of drug trafficking and the intensity of rebel fury. The battle plan for the war on drugs must be subject to more criticism.

University Briefs

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April 2, 2012

By Ariane Madden

Instructor strike at Brock causes problems

Thirty-eight English as a Second Language instructors at Brock University went on strike last week, causing transit back-ups as they blocked the entrance to campus. Negotiations from a previously-closed labour contract dispute broke down after an error in the contract text was unable to be resolved.

Memorial aboriginal seats protected

A provincial program which reserves seats for aboriginal students in classes shall remain protected by Memorial University administration. The protection will ensure that the seats cannot be challenged by external students because the saved seats still require the aboriginal students to meet entrance requirements and are not an admission guarantee.

U of C to boost aboriginal enrolment

The University of Calgary has announced a new strategy to recruit and enrol aboriginal students to the university. The new vice president, academic stated that the school has low aboriginal enrolments given the three nearby aboriginal bands.

UBC enrolment targets international students

The University of British Columbia has revealed its enrolment strategy for the coming academic year, streamlining admission requirements to attract more international students. The administration outlined that the strategy may also increase domestic enrolments, but that the streamlining should help alleviate underrepresentation of international students in the sciences.

Qatar donates $1.25 million to McGill

Qatar recently donated $1.25 million to the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University. The donation is intended to assist the planning of a series of conferences over the next year as the university celebrates its 60th birthday.

— Ariane Madden

The Daily Snooze: Insurance

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April 2, 2012

By Jacob Samuel at The Daily Snooze

King of the stage

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April 2, 2012

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By Esther Tung

Drag king performer Ponyboy stays gold by breaking traditional ideas of gender identities and norms

When Paige Frewer puts on a fake moustache and takes the spotlight, she becomes Ponyboy, the ladies’ man who isn’t afraid of doing a little work to win your admiration. Often, that work involves stripping down to skivvies to a Bobby Darin number. Other times, Frewer dons a long, brown wig and trades in her chest binder for a push-up bra to host Man Up, a monthly drag king show.

Drag performers like Frewer make a real show out of gender and its boundaries. “Drag mocks the theatre and performance of gender,” she says. Frewer, who is set to graduate from SFU this semester with a bachelor’s in environmental science and a minor in dialogue, has been a drag king for over four years.

Like drag queens, drag kings are campy and over-the-top in their performances. Queens make decadent use of lewdness and vulgarity while in character, and drag kings might employ the machismo and swagger of a tough guy. Frewer tries to balance those representations with more admirable aspects of masculinity. “Chivalry and cuteness, for instance,” says Frewer. “Masculine drag doesn’t always necessarily put forth the message that masculinity is inherently bad or disrespectful, because it’s not.”

On the other hand, it can be rare to see a drag queen performance that doesn’t primarily get by on ribaldry and sass, although drag kings certainly have less pressure to have a high-energy act all the time. “I don’t look all that much different in my normal life than in drag, except for the moustache. But it’s a huge production for a man to transform into a woman. He has to shave, wear a wig, and all that crazy makeup. It does make a point about how we present ourselves as women and go through all these crazy lengths to express our femininity,” says Frewer.

Her first performance was at Lick, as part of a birthday party that she threw there. At the time, the drag king scene was tapering off in popularity, and most people hadn’t seen any performances in awhile. Sammy Tomato, another king, approached Frewer to create a four-person collective to put together a regular show to rejuvenate the scene. Man Up enjoyed some popularity in its early years, but didn’t take off until it moved to the Cobalt, just months before Lick closed down.

Frewer has held drag king workshops leading up to the Fruit Basket queer variety show in IGNITE, a youth-drive talent festival at the Cultch. Over a weekend, Frewer prepped her class of teenagers on drag history, and helped them put together a number to perform in front of the group. “The fact that these kids are involved with Fruit Basket is a testament to their gender and sexuality politics,” says Frewer.

Man Up, which celebrated its fourth anniversary this past weekend, sells out more often than not, despite minimal advertising. Frewer, who produces, promotes, and books all the shows, says that the biggest selling point is word-of-mouth. Surprisingly, Vancouver has one of the most developed drag king scenes in the region. On a road trip to Mexico last year, Frewer was disappointed and surprised that she couldn’t find a single drag king show in the cities she visited, not even in progressive San Francisco.

“There were cities that didn’t even have a women’s bar. San Francisco has one, but they weren’t open some nights,” says Frewer. She hopes that Vancouver might come to be a trendsetter in other cities. “I’ve seen the effect of Man Up far beyond just creating a safe space for women to party in and see a great show. This is a place where straight couples will come on a date night, and cross-dress. There are all different colours, sizes, abilities, and backgrounds at the show. It’s really become so much more than I thought it would.”

Man Up shows at the Cobalt every last Saturday of the month.

The dysfunction of the Maple Leafs

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April 2, 2012

For some time now, the Toronto Maple Leafs have been little more than the punch line to countless jokes from hockey fans around the league. Just last week, when the inevitable came and the Leafs were mathematically removed from the playoff picture, a “Happy Leafs Elimination Day” picture made the rounds on the internet. The last time the Leafs made the playoffs, Apple was $13.07 a share; today it’s at $609.86. There have been some hard times in Leafland of late, but there’s no joke here. The Leafs are in trouble.

On February 6, the Leafs won a game against the Edmonton Oilers at home that moved them into sixth in the Eastern conference. Since then, they’ve spiraled into chaos, losing 11 straight at the Air Canada Centre. They’ve won only five of their 25 games since that point, losing games by scores of 8–0 and 7–1 to Boston and Philadelphia, respectively. They have moved from being in the thick of playoff contention to having a shot at the first overall draft pick. They may have been officially eliminated from the playoff picture just last week, but their season was over long ago. It’s a familiar story for Leafs fans, this missing the playoffs thing, but this year it has a decidedly different script.

For the past three or four years, the Leafs have started abysmally but made late season pushes to make the playoffs, only to fall just short. This year, the Leafs started well, and maintained it until early February. Then something changed, and everything fell apart. The biggest difference between this year and years past, however, is simple. For the first time in a long time, no one seems to care.

The players certainly don’t — that’s been clear for a while now. They were shutout four times in March, and scored more than two goals just three times in that same span. They’re listless on and off the ice, — just watch one of their post-game interviews. Not what you want to see from players in the world’s biggest hockey market, but you can see where the lack of passion stems from, especially when they have their home fans on their case every game at the ACC.

Then again, can you blame the fans for being angry with the multi-millionaires for dragging their knuckles along the ice? For seemingly ever, the Leafs have been buoyed by a loud, raucous fan base, a la Montreal, but that too is changing. The ACC has been strikingly (although, after 11 straight home losses, unsurprisingly) empty — and not just in those gold seats where the suits are always inexplicably five minutes late to the start of every period. Actual fans, who pay good money to purchase tickets, are staying home. The ones who show up are quiet and bored. They rouse themselves late to boo the team off the ice or get a faint “Fire Burke” chant going, but that’s about it; they have little reason to cheer.

It’s all a vicious cycle, whereby uninspired play leaves uninspired fans who fail to provide anything for their home team. Compare this to Montreal, another major hockey market whose team is struggling. Habs fans seem to be doing their best to inspire their team with the passion we’re accustomed to seeing in Montreal, but the difference is that the Canadiens are just a season removed from the playoffs — it’s been eight years since The Leafs played in the postseason.

Of course, now that fans have finally stopped putting up with mediocrity or worse, the common thought is that Leafs ownership will actually do something. That, of course, raises the question of what exactly they can do. They’ve fired their coach, they spend to the cap, and ownership has stopped interfering with hockey decisions, leaving them up to GM Brian Burke. So, again, what can they do? They can fire Burke, but that’s about it. Right now, there’s nothing left in Toronto, except for a hollow team and fans bored half to death. There’s little to look forward to, save for maybe the end of another disappointing season.

Clan golfer earns GNAC honours

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April 2, 2012

It’s been an up-and-down golf season for the Clan, but for Michael Belle, there have definitely been more of the former. For the second time this season, Belle was named the GNAC golfer of the week.

The honours come after he finished seventh in the Concordia Classic in Washington last week; his three-round score of 224 was just eight over par. It wasn’t an easy task, however, as mother nature did her best to slow the golfer down.

“The course was in pretty rough shape, thanks to a lot of rain and snow,” said Belle after the tournament. “Luckily, they did a good job to keep the greens in great shape. It was important to be patient and stay dry. Luckily, [head coach John Buchanan] prepared us for the conditions the previous week in practice, and worked on specifics to be ready to compete.”

The second-year Burnaby native is currently ranked eighth in the GNAC with a 74.5 stroke average, but is well within reach of the conference leaders. Three Western Washington golfers top the charts, with Nick Varelia leading the trio with a 73.2 average. Whatever intangibles they have to get themselves to the top, Belle is working his way there.

“I’ve been working harder on the mental aspect of the game this year, as opposed to just developing my physical abilities,” said Belle. “I’m not necessarily hitting better, but I’m preparing better.”

And whatever he’s doing, it’s working. He’s planted himself firmly at the top of the Clan’s roster, but he’ll need to keep improving with the GNAC championships looming.

“I’m looking forward to [the GNAC championships],” he said. “The goal is obviously to try and win the tournament, but I’d also like to compete for the conference scoring lead since I’m just one stroke behind the leader now.”

It’s a necessary confidence coming from Belle, but he also knows what he needs to work on in order to improve and reach his goal at the top. And, with his second GNAC honour of the season, he’s well on his way there.

Olexa leads the Clan in sweep over WWU

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April 2, 2012

Like clockwork, the Clan softball team got right back in to the win column after a disappointing week prior, and leading the charge up the standings was sophomore Sammie Olexa.

The Clan snapped a three-game losing skid by sweeping the Central Washington University Wildcats last weekend. The offence had almost completely dried up for SFU in those three losses against St. Martin’s but it didn’t take long for the bats to heat up. After opening the first game against the Wildcats with a three-run first inning, Olexa drove in three runs and scored another herself in the third to push the lead to 7–0 early on. That was more than enough of a lead for Clan ace Cara Lukawesky to work with, as she pitched another stellar game. She allowed just one hit in five innings, and the Clan kept swinging away and easily won the first game 12–1.

The second matchup wouldn’t come as easily for the Clan. It took Lauren Mew stealing home to get on the board to begin with, but a two-run fifth inning and a Lukawesky save gave the Clan a hard-fought 3–1 victory.

The next two games were just as competitive, and if it weren’t for some late heroics from Olexa, the weekend could’ve taken a much different turn.

In the first of the two, it was the Wildcats getting off to a quick start when Carrina Wagner hit a solo home run to open the scoring. The game stayed that way until the bottom of the seventh and final inning, where it took a dramatic turn. With the Wildcats poised to eke out a narrow 1–0 win, Olexa blasted a two-run walk-off home run to give the Clan the win. As clutch as Olexa was, Lukawesky was impressive once again, allowing just one run on six hits, improving her conference-leading win total to 11 — but there was still one more game to be played.

In the fourth and final game, the Clan found themselves trailing the Wildcats 5–2 in the bottom of the seventh inning. Again, CWU looked poised to take the victory , but again, the Clan clawed back. Clan senior Leah Riske hit a solo home run to cut the deficit to two, before a single from Rosie Murphy drove in Megan Durrant to tie the game and force extra innings. Then, with two runners on base, an ever-clutch Olexa belted another walk-off home run to give the Clan the four-game sweep. The weekend was unquestionably a bright spot on the Clan’s strong season, especially when seen as a rebound from a tough week the week before. That said, above all, Olexa shone the brightest.

She recorded 13 hits and nine RBIs over the series, and won two games for her team. For all her heroics, she was named the GNAC player of the week.

“It’s so exciting,” said Olexa on being named player of the week, but was quick to deflect the praise. “My success is really attributed to the team’s success. If our pitchers didn’t keep us in the game and if hitters hadn’t got on base in front of me, we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do what we did.”

What they did was win four straight against a team that was close to them in the standings, and move up to second in the conference. Yes, they did it as a team, but Olexa certainly had a say in
the matter.

Clan football gets bigger, better, with new recruits

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April 2, 2012

The football team may have only won two conference games last year, but the Clan made monumental strides towards becoming a competitive force in the GNAC. Nonetheless, entering their third season as a member of the NCAA, there’s still plenty of room for improvement. Last week however, the Clan took some early steps to do just that.

The Clan released their recruitment list for 2012, and without looking at any names, one thing became abundantly clear: the team wanted to get bigger. Size has unquestionably been one of the biggest downfalls of the Clan in their GNAC tenure, as they’ve been literally bowled over by the opposition.

“We physically aren’t the right size,” said Clan head coach Dave Johnson. “This year, the goal was to get bigger,” and that they did. Of the 38 new recruits, only eight are shorter than six feet tall, and there are a few athletes in particular whose physicality jumps off the page.

One of them is quarterback Reece Hack, a 6’5” Oregon native who has Division 1 talent. Quarterback play has been an issue for the Clan since their NCAA inauguration, and while it was much better last year (whether it was Trey Wheeler or Greg Bowcott at the helm), adding a raw talent like Hack provides the Clan with a potential star, or if nothing else, depth at the most important position in sports.

“[Hack’s] not polished, but [he’s a] really athletic quarterback,” said Johnson. As raw as he is, he’s got enough talent to make anyone do a double take. “I don’t know why the heck he’s coming here to be honest,” said Johnson, “but I think it was the quality of character in our locker room.”

Character has been something Johnson has preached since day one, and it showed in spades last year. When you add it to simple talent like that of Mack, only good things can happen.

Linebacker Jack Goodwin has both in spades, and that’s what put him on the Clan’s radar as early as November. Built like a truck, the 6’3”, 220-pounder “plays with an edge and intensity that will really help [the Clan’s] defense.

“We need guys that play with emotion,” added Johnson, “and Jack Goodwin is a guy who does that. Not only his physical stature, but the way he’s wired excites us. That’s going to help us.”

The Clan’s biggest weakness, apart from maybe size, has been their defense, so bringing in talented, physical specimens was not only a top priority, but one that the Clan addressed well. Goodwin is just one of many, but as a junior college transfer, he will be expected to contribute right away. Given his track record, that shouldn’t be much of an issue.

One of the most intriguing new prospects plays in the defensive backfield. Defensive backs are traditionally some of the smallest athletes on the field, and tall receivers can easily take advantage of the size mismatch. Cairo Messer-Barrow doesn’t have that problem, as the 6’1” corner doesn’t often have wideouts go over top of him, nor run past him.

“His ability to run, and be athletic, and match up not just size-wise, but speed-wise, with the guys we’re going to play against . . . will help make us a better team,” said Johnson.

It’s that type of player — big and athletic — that the Clan need to recruit in order to compete in the GNAC.

“The first question we asked . . . was, ‘would our opponent recruit this kid?’” added Johnson. “If the answer is ‘no’, [then] we need to fish in a different DNA pool.”

Apparently, Johnson and his coaching staff believe Hack, Goodwin, and Messer-Barrow, as well as the 36 other 2012 recruits are exactly those types of players — and the tape backs them up. Between hiring a new promising offensive coordinator and bringing in a strong recruiting class, the Clan look poised to continue their ascension in the GNAC.

Schools Building Schools duped us all

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March 26, 2012