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Affordable healthcare a world away

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Tim Mitchell, Features Editor

Populations more than double that of Dalhousie University are struck off the map every day because of preventable diseases such as malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and tuberculosis found in areas of poverty. We don’t worry about these things in Canada. It all sounds depressing, and far away.
But Dr. Robert Huish, assistant professor of international development studies at Dalhousie, says we have an obligation to help.
“People wonder: what benefit is there to us in helping others around the world?” Huish says, during a phone interview. “If you consider the severity and lack of healthcare, we shouldn’t need to rationalize it to support it.”
At the moment, Canadians are mainly interested in H1N1, the dreaded swine flu, rather than preventable disease worldwide. Never in Dal history has there been such a strong response to such a potential threat.
“It’s staggering the amount of money we put into H1N1 because of our moral responsibility to act,” says Huish. “But if it’s not an issue for us, than we don’t feel obliged to act.”
About 50,000 people die a day from conditions and diseases found in impoverished places, while about 500 die a day from H1N1, according to Huish. Two billion people suffer from poverty globally, while the most recent number of confirmed H1N1 cases is 883,000.
Over the summer, and next September, Huish wants to teach a third-year level class on global health as well as a fourth-year class on poverty and human rights. Dal is still reviewing his proposals. He hopes to have approval by January.
Huish questions the ethics of physicians and healthcare workers in the world who move to more developed areas to make more money. One Dal student is doing just the opposite.
Sunisha Neupane, a fourth-year student in combined international development studies and chemistry, is working hard toward medical school to be a doctor who works in development. Neupane, who moved to Halifax from Nepal three years ago, wants to practice medicine in Canada and return to Nepal every year to help people living in poverty.
“The thing that touched me really early were people dying of diarrhea,” says Neupane. “There are reasons why people die, but diarrhea shouldn’t be one of them.”
In Canada, becoming a doctor is a long road full of non-stop studying that takes about 10 to 12 years, and a lot of dedication. Yet Neupane would rather go through the system here than in Nepal, where she was in her first year of medical school before moving to Halifax.
During her time at school in Nepal, Neupane discovered it could take around seven years, after becoming a doctor, to get a license to practice in Canada. Nepal was wrapped in growing turmoil at the time. In a bizarre incident reported by the Western media, a prince of the royal family shot each member of the family, including the king.
“There were bad things going on,” Neupane says. “With the king dead, med school was closed for two months.”
That’s when her family decided to move to Canada.
When she becomes a practicing physician, Neupane wants to work in Canada most of the year. Here she can have a stable income and learn all the proper skills. But for several months of the year, she plans to go back to the rural areas of Nepal where she can use those skills to help people living in poverty.
“With some people, they forget where they come from,” says Neupane. “I am not going to be one of them. I remind myself every night of that.”
Huish’s research shows that Neupane’s selfless strategy is the right move.
For him, healthcare ethics is an important part of his work. And one of the world’s leaders in health care ethics is Cuba. While Human Rights Watch and the U.S. Government tend to see Cuba as the devil in disguise, the healthcare system there has exceeded most other countries in the efficient way they treat their sick, keep people healthy, and export doctors or other professionals to areas in need of proper medicine.
One example he uses to show the contrast in the Cuban and Canadian healthcare systems, is of the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan that left around four million people in poverty. Three weeks after the earthquake, Canada sent 60 people, among them, six physicians. Their focus there was on water treatment. After working in Pakistan for 15 months, they packed up and left, having treated several hundred thousand people.
Cuba, on the other hand, was on the ground within three days of the earthquake. Right away they started building field hospitals to treat people for a period of six years. Over this time 2,400 health workers treated millions of Pakistanis affected in the disaster. In addition, they flew some Pakistanis to Cuba for more intensive treatment, and some for prosthetic limbs. When the Cuban aid workers left Pakistan, they offered 1,000 scholarships for Pakistanis to attend medical schools in Cuba so they would eventually return to Pakistan and replenish the need for doctors there.
“We seem to approach everything in a very minimal (way),” says Huish. “In terms of the Cuban scale, we need to figure out how to match it. Why aren’t we matching it?”
Lately, he has been following one of the most heated debates in recent U.S. history.
Since January, the American democrats have pushed for healthcare reform. Their proposed policy would cover about 30 million Americans who currently can’t afford treatment if they become ill.
While the U.S. is struggling to offer healthcare to its own people, its arch nemesis, Cuba, is able to do so while also training doctors from other countries. Huish has added his input to the American healthcare debate.
“I’ve written Obama and Biden about it,” says Huish, who sent his professional opinion and research to the U.S. president and vice president. “They didn’t write back.”
“It’s something that requires conscious knowledge on the problems,” says Huish. “We can give moral and financial support to the development of healthcare. But if these concerns could grow, and if people could get emotional about this topic, than elected officials would need to act.”

Breaking up the old boys’ club

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Graham Briggs, The Martlet (University of Victoria)

VICTORIA (CUP) – Corporate Canada is still mostly a man’s world.
In 2007, a Catalyst Census survey found that women held only 13 per cent of board positions in Canada’s 500 largest firms. The newly formed Canadian Board Diversity Council is hoping to boost that number to 20 per cent over the next four years.
The council, founded by 30 organizations, including some of Canada’s largest firms, says that cracking male-dominated networks is one of the biggest challenges facing “board-ready” businesswomen today.
“A lot of the (board) candidates are chosen from the CEO ranks and the corner-suite ranks of major corporations,” said Colleen Johnston, chief financial officer of TD Bank Financial Group, one of the council’s founding members. “It’s the ‘who knows who’ within that community.”
The 2007 Catalyst survey of women directors found that “reliance on informal ‘old boys’ networks’ continues to be a significant factor in how new board directors are recruited.”
Johnston said a key goal of the council is “making sure that there is greater awareness of that broader talent pool out there.”
Johnston, one of Canada’s top female executives, said diversity is increasingly vital to any firm’s success.
“You want the widest range of perspectives, whether that’s men, women, visible minorities, people with disabilities, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered or aboriginal employees.” she said. “That only makes you a stronger organization, when you can really embrace diversity as a business imperative.”
Johnston says boosting diversity and creating a “fair and equitable workplace” is a “huge priority” for TD.
“You look at our business – and many businesses – and we have a large female clientele,” she said. “So we have to really make sure that we have all of those perspectives.”
Since the pool of graduates from business and professional schools is increasingly diverse, firms that already have well-established cultures of diversity are better able to attract and keep top graduates.
“There’s a war on for talent, and you’ve got to have the best and the brightest people on your team,” said Johnston.
But boosting diversity can still be a challenge. Johnston said that while “blatant discrimination” no longer exists, “there are always subtle forms of sexism and discrimination.”
“Let’s face it – there is subjectivity that comes into decision making around recruiting or promoting people,” she said. “There’s a human tendency to recruit and promote people that are like you. And I think you have to push back against that tendency and create as much objectivity and fairness as possible.”
TD has increased the percentage of women in its senior ranks from 22 per cent in 2005 to 33 per cent in 2009. Five of TD’s 18 board members are women – well above the Canadian average.
“John Thompson, the chair of our board (at TD), would say that the job isn’t done, but that we’re really pleased with our (diversity) programs as well,” said Johnston.
Johnston urges aspiring businesswomen – and men – to focus first and foremost on discipline and technical skills, and also to “be demanding of yourself, be demanding of your organization, look for ways to get involved and to be a leader.”
“What will ultimately define your success in your career, if you want to progress in your career, is leadership,” she said. “It’s about people, it’s about relationships and it’s so important that you focus on developing those skills.”

Transgendered washrooms inexpensive, make positive impact

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Scott Beed, Staff Contributor

Gender-neutral bathrooms can be found at different locations on Dalhousie University campus – from the Life Sciences Centre to the Dalplex. But until recently, the Student Union Building was noticeably absent from this list.
Lisa Buchanan former Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Queer (LGBTQ) community representative on Dalhousie Student Union council, says she noticed this lapse.
The concern was that any student, staff member, or member of the general public would have to choose a gender when going into a SUB bathroom. This can be an issue for transgendered people who don’t readily identify with one gender or the other.
“I became particularly motivated on the issue as I began to meet more and more trans-folks, all of whom could speak to the issue of gender-designated restrooms. One trans-man living in residence said the co-ed washroom in his residence was saving his life,” says Buchanan, who has also held executive positions with DalOUT.
Over the last few years DalOUT has made a goal to better represent and create a more welcoming environment for transgendered students. Buchanan says the group will hopefully have an impact on the broader community and help create awareness.
Buchanan also chaired the Promotion of Diversity on Campus Committee during the 2008-2009 school year. She says this position allowed her to bring the issue to the DSU. At the time, current DSU President Shannon Zimmerman was a committee member and ensured the renovations would be completed between the end of winter semester last year and the resumption of classes this fall.
Buchanan says the DSU was open to the idea of installing gender-neutral restrooms in the SUB. The actual process was simple and inexpensive, and the two original washrooms only underwent minor changes.
“The whole issue is comfort. We want to make these students feel as comfortable as possible and that’s why it was important to do it through the union. Also it was an initiative that the union was more than happy to follow through on,” says Zimmerman.
The older buildings on campus would be difficult to renovate – there would be problems with rerouting plumbing finding a suitable space and construction costs.
“The university needs to keep the issue in mind when moving forward and building new buildings,” Zimmerman says.
Unlike at other universities in the United States and United Kingdom, these transgendered restrooms didn’t create a lot of controversy.
“Of course there were questions on why we were doing this and what it meant,” says the DSU president. “But, it seems that in the Student Union Building it was met with a lot of support.”
Located on the third floor of the SUB, the gender-neutral restrooms are not unlike other single-occupancy restrooms at Dal, except that they were created specifically with transgendered students in mind.
“I’d love to see at least one gender-neutral restroom in all Dal buildings, and I’m happy to report that this issue is on the university administration’s radar, so any new buildings should have them,” says Buchanan. “It’s a small action that can have a big impact for members of the trans community.”
Liz Bugbee, DalOUT secretary, says some people at Dal don’t fit the standard description of genders. There are transgendered students who identify with being female but have many of the physical traits commonly associated with being male. For them, just going to the restroom can be stressful. Bugbee is happy to see the DSU taking this issue seriously.
Allies at Dal, a group that actively supports students, staff and faculty in the gay community on different issues, has complied a list of gender-neutral bathrooms on campus. The list can be found at  dalally.studentservices.dal.ca.

Students gone fishin’

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Laura Parlee, News Contributor

Four Dalhousie University students are making a difference in how Haligonians look at their fish and chips.
Marine biology students Jesse Kelly, Ainsley Hill, Tammy Wilson and Kandace O’Brien, working with some like-minded organizations, put together a website to centralize research and reviews about sustainable seafood available at restaurants in Halifax.
The students say they were inspired by the documentary “At the End of the Line”.
“The information was presented in such a significant way that we all knew we have the information, we had the time, so we should try and make a difference,” says Kelly.
Rob Johnson, from Seachoice, one of their partners, says consumer choices can protect ocean ecosystems.
“Sustainable seafood is fish and shellfish that’s caught or farmed in a manner that can be sustained over the long term without compromising the health of the ecosystems,” he says.
While many larger fishing companies use cost saving and high-yielding measures such as bottom trolling and dragging at the expense of ecosystems, sustainable fishing works to preserve and protect the environment of the targeted catch.
Johnson says sustainable seafood is harvested with more direct techniques that protect the ocean floor and avoid over-fishing.
“It’s important for people to become informed on these issues,” he says.
The students agreed, and their project is meant to be a practical tool to create this information.
The site includes reviews of various restaurants around the city that serve dishes made with sustainable seafood.
“We thought it would be a good resource for Halifax for tourists,” says Wilson. She says the site presents better options to those who “come here to eat fish.”
But working with restaurants was sometimes a challenge.
“Collecting the information was sometimes hard because restaurant managers and chefs are really busy and it’s hard to get all the information at once,” Hill says.
The Wooden Monkey is one of the restaurants profiled on the site. The Grafton Street establishment is known for its environmentally conscious cuisine.
Matt Gass, general manager of the Wooded Monkey, says the issue is important to him. The restaurant took halibut off the menu when they found out it was a vulnerable species. They have always offered sustainable seafood products such as hook and line haddock, lobster and mussels.
“We can’t keep destroying our oceans. Mother Nature has spent many thousands of years creating a balance, and we’re really messing it up.”
But Gass says they’re still a business and sometimes the options for sustainable dishes just aren’t available.
“The one most embarrassing part of the restaurant is the scallops that we get. They’re just regular Digby scallops, and they are dragged. There’s just such a demand for them,” he says. “There’s not a whole lot of dive scallops out there, and so the price is just unbelievable. It really wouldn’t be cost effective at all for us to get those scallops.”
He says they are working with the EAC on finding better options, but in the meantime are upfront about the origin of their scallops.
Gass says he is proud to be featured on websites such as www.yourchoicehalifax.ca.
“It’s hard on a daily basis to choose sustainable seafood,” he says. “It’s wonderful that we have links to these websites.”
Currently, the website has eight reviews of restaurants and organizations around the Halifax Regional Municipality that support sustainable seafood – a small portion of the many seafood serving establishments in Halifax.
The team hopes to continue to expand the site beyond the municipality, or even form partnerships with environmental groups in other cities.
“We’re definitely not the first, there’s a number … this idea is spreading.”
O’Brien has already graduated from Dal, and the other three students aren’t far behind – graduating within the next year. But they hope to keep the site up even after they go their separate ways.
“We’re hoping over the Christmas break to write up articles on related issues and get those posted, and we’d like to add a general comment section,” said Kelly.
And they’re still meeting with restaurants around town to develop a larger list of sustainable options.
“If you’re concerned for the future for your children you should try to make these sustainable choices,” Gass says. “The power of the consumer is just a powerful thing.”
The students don’t plan to encourage boycotts by highlighting restaurants that don’t use sustainable products.
“We’re hoping to keep it more positive,” says Hill.
But they do hope the website will increase demand for sustainable seafood. They hope restaurants that don’t offer it now will scramble to make the list.
“Hopefully they’ll come to us … and want to change,” says Kelly.

Former Afghan MP calls end to war

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Laura Conrad, Staff Contributor

Speaking through a megaphone to a crowd of over 100 people outside the Westin Hotel, former Afghanistan MP Malalai Joya made her anti-war message clear.
“The U.S. and allies occupied Afghanistan under the name of ‘war on terror,’ but today they themselves are terrorizing Afghan people, and have deep hidden deals with terrorist groups,” she told the crowd Nov. 21. “We Afghans can’t expect freedom to be donated to us by the U.S., which itself is the biggest terrorist country in the world, and has imposed war, destruction and mass-killings in countless countries since the Second World War. Afghanistan and Iraq are just two of the most recent examples.”
Joya, who was called the “bravest woman in the world” by the BBC, was suspended from the Afghan parliament in 2007 because she was accused of insulting other representatives. She’s known for speaking out at political meetings and opposing other members. Her controversial position has received a lot of international attention and criticism. Joya has survived four assassination attempts and travels in Afghanistan with body guards.
Joya stopped in Halifax during the middle of her tour across the nation. She gave public talks on freedom, democracy and peace, while promoting her new memoir, A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice.
Joya happened to arrive in Halifax on the same weekend of the International Security Forum. The forum included discussions of Canada’s future role in the Afghanistan mission, piracy and Arctic security. Some of the speakers who attended the conference included Canadian Minister of Defence Peter Mackay, U.S. Secretary of Defence Robert Gates and Republican Senator John McCain.
Joya was denied an invitation to attend the conference. In response, she addressed the public protest outside the Westin Hotel where the conference was being held.
Joya explained her reasons for opposing NATO’s mission in Afghanistan, which are also outlined in her book.
“A glance to the history of U.S. government involvements in different poor countries in the past shows that this country has only overthrown democracies and supported dictators and oppressors,” she said. “The Western governments not only betray Afghan people but their own people too. They are wasting tax-payers’ money and their soldiers’ blood for a war which only safeguards the interests of the big corporations. Not only did it not defeat terrorists but made them more powerful, and today the world is more dangerous than it was in 2001.”
There was little information about the future of the NATO mission released from the International Security Forum. Joya said the mission is doing more harm than good.
“We call on the withdrawal of all troops from Afghanistan because they are making the situation more complicated day by day. It is the duty of our own people to fight for their liberation, even if it will require a hard, long and decisive struggle. Let our people decide about the future.”
Joya also told the Halifax audience how grateful she was for public support.
“I would like to extend my salutations and deep thankful regards to anti-war movements around the world. I see a huge difference between the war monger governments of the U.S., Canada, the UK and other governments involved in Afghanistan, and the support and sympathies of justice-loving people of these countries.”
Joya’s book launch tour ended Nov. 27, the day after she gave her last speech in Ottawa.  Despite uncertainty about the mission’s future, Joya said she would continue to oppose it.
“I will never stop to say again and again that no nation can liberate another nation. History has no such example. My people throughout history have fought for their independence, and are now on the verge of rising up against the U.S. and NATO.”

A call to action, 20 years later

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Julie Ireland, News Contributor

The day of the Montreal Massacre, our country changed. Organizers of this year’s remembrance events in Halifax are conscious that current students are living a generation after the Dec. 6, 1989 shootings. They also know that the time that has passed since then hasn’t made the lessons of that day any easier to learn.
On that day, Marc Lepine gunned down female engineering students at Montreal’s École Polytechnique, after saying to a class full of people: “I hate feminists.” He killed 14 women, and injured about a dozen others. The horrific event shook people into realizing that not enough was being done to end violence against women. In 1991, the Government of Canada declared Dec. 6 a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.
This year, the Halifax Women’s Community, with the support of many local organizations and business, launched the 20 Days of Action to End Violence Against Women. All proceeds from the events are going to the Purple Ribbon Campaign – a project of the Transition House Association of Nova Scotia. The events connected local, national and international efforts to end violence against women, and lead up to a candlelight vigil on Sexton campus, Dalhousie’s own engineering campus, to be held on Dec. 6 in memory of the 14 victims.
Emily Krehm, Oxfam Canada Outreach and Policy Intern, says the Montreal Massacre may not be fresh in people’s minds, but remembering it is necessary in order to move forward.
“Violence against women is still pertinent,” she says. “There is still a lot of work to be done, as we are still living in a culture of silence. Many of the victims don’t speak out, and many of the crimes remain unreported.”
According to the YWCA Canada website, more than 50 per cent of Canadian women will experience violence in their lives.
The days of action began on Monday, Nov.16 with a screening of “Polytechnique”, a dramatization of the Montreal Massacre, directed by Denis Villeneuve, at Empire Theatres. Also on this day, the Rose Campaign launched. The campaign takes its name from the rose button created 20 years ago to commemorate the 14 young women who lost their lives. This year, they printed postcards people can pick up at the YMCA and send to Prime Minister Stephen Harper to ask him to take action.
On Nov. 25, Veronica Ngwerume spoke about violence against women in the form of the HIV and AIDS crisis in Zimbabwe. To coincide with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the Dalhousie Women’s Centre hosted “Changing the River’s Flow: Zimbabwean stories of ‘best practice’ in mitigating the HIV crisis.”
Ngwerume, the executive director of a rural health care organization in Zimbabwe spoke on ending violence against women by changing cultural practices through education and communication.
Currently in southern Africa, approximately 58 per cent of all people living with HIV and AIDS are women. Many of the cultural practices don’t allow women to have full control over their bodies. She said that, even if these women are not being physically abused, their situation is still an act of violence towards women. Ngwerume’s program educates through cultural dialogues, as well as by encouraging women to speak out and to get tested, and to ask their partners to get tested. Her programs also heavily promote condom use.
But her work does not stop at women, and in this lesson, she spoke to one of the greater themes the Days of Action hoped to convey.
“Including men is important. You start with a few and (the message) cascades,” She said at the event.
“Even if women know that crimes are being committed against them and speak out about them, the men also need to be made aware of this, or nothing will change.”
For, Ngwerume, keeping culture is important, but she believes that solutions can be found which allow women and girls to have more control over their own bodies.
The organizers of the 20 Days of Action want this message to spread into Canadian culture, as well.
Krehm says that ending violence against women is “not just a women’s issue; it’s a gender issue, and a community issue.”
“Everyone needs to be engaged,” she says.

Turkish women shame ‘male state’

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Hilary Beaumont, Copy Editor

About 30 women wearing purple and red lined the tiled main street of Taksim, Istanbul on Nov. 25. They smiled for the few reporters who showed up, and ignored the male police in full riot gear standing across the tram tracks. Their posters showed headshots of other women, and photos of coffins. Scrawled in red lipstick on a mirror between two protesters were the words “erkek devlet” – in English: “male state”.
They chanted against honour killings, a customary practice in which one family member murders another because he or she is believed to have shamed their family name. Perceived ‘shame’ can range from improper clothing at one end of the spectrum, to sexual or marital relations deemed unacceptable at the other. Female rape victims are common targets of family ‘cleansing’.
There is now one victim of an honour killing each week in Istanbul, according to a recent government report. The same report estimated there have been 1,000 of these murders in the city in the last five years. Women are most often the victims. They are usually killed by male relatives, or pressured into committing suicide.
In one such case, Sait Kina stabbed his 13-year-old daughter Dilber to death, the Washington Post reported in 2001. He did it because she spoke to boys and ran away from home on several occasions. He said he had carried out his duty.
Two weeks ago, I left Canada with the impression that women were systemically undervalued. I touched down in Turkey.
Turkish social values place a large emphasis on women dressing and acting modestly. Females often wear headscarves and long sleeves. In more extreme cases, they are expected to avoid interacting with men who are not their relatives. These expectations stem from conservative Muslim values (98 per cent of Turkish people identify with Islam). But in 1923, Turkey was established as a secular state. And now, many young women no longer want to carry on modest lifestyles. This leads to a clash of values within families.
While booking bus tickets from Eskisehir to Izmir earlier this week, my male travel companion noted a map of our bus that showed where men and women were seated. The interactive map gives women the option to sit by another female. The helpful diagram would not let us sit together on the bus.
Next week, we fly to Cairo. Though we didn’t come across any seating problems, we did find this jarring travel advisory:
“Women should cover their arms and legs if travelling alone, and covering your hair may help to keep away unwanted attention … Egyptian women, even those who wear the full hijab, are often subjected to sexual harassment, including cat calls. You may find that completely covering up does not make a huge difference, with regards to harassment, versus wearing a top with shorter sleeves. In regards to harassment, it’s also important how you act … the best thing to do is ignore men who give you unwanted attention. They want to get some reaction out of you.”
“I didn’t see a single woman on the streets when I was there,” my travel buddy told me, remembering Cairo seven years ago.
Honour killings also take place prevalently in Egypt. The United Nations estimates 5,000 people are victims of honour killings globally each year. These murders happen all over the world: in Pakistan, England, Germany, the U.S. and, yes, even in Canada. The difference is the level at which they are tolerated socially.
Ironically, I’ve realized I should be grateful for the level of inequality between men and women in Canada. I may still experience sexism, but at least I can speak to a man without fearing death.
The brave protesters in Istanbul made it clear they wouldn’t stomach violence ‘justified’ by shame. They wore pictures of their sisters and the colour of the first women’s shelter in Istanbul: the Purple Roof. It has housed women who fled from their families for actions Western women do daily without a second thought.

New year, new hope

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Timothy Pain Van Der Kooi, Staff Contributor

Change symbolizes the beginning of a new year for many people. NHL hockey fans are no different.
The new year marks the midway point of the NHL season, and consequently, it affects hockey fans’ thinking patterns. They consider the midway point of the NHL season to be like a novel: after the completion of a book they turn hopefully to the new, exciting possibilities of the next one on the shelf. Thankfully, most Canadian hockey teams – with the exception of Edmonton – have put themselves in favourable positions to advance into the postseason. Let’s take a look at the possible future for all six Canadian NHL teams.

Calgary
With the great defensive presence from players such as Dion Phaneuf and Jay Bouwmeester backed by goaltender Mikka Kipprusoff, it’s hard to put it past the team ranked fourth in goals allowed. If Rene Bourque can continue to put up goals, combined with supporting actors such as Curtis Glencross and Nigel Dawes, Jarome Iginla could lead Calgary to first place in the Northwest Division.

Vancouver
The Canucks are in the same boat as Calgary, but with a little more dependence on their goaltender. However, since Daniel Sedin has come back, he has helped his twin brother Henrik lead the NHL in points. Alexander Burrows is another Canuck forward propelling the Vancouver offence to new heights, scoring back-to-back hat tricks last week. Their combined offensive production will alleviate some of the pressure from Roberto Luongo’s shoulders. If this continues, it should lead to an interesting finale in the Northwest Divison.

Montreal
If Jaroslav Halak can continue to make over 40 saves a night, then expect the Canadiens to make the playoffs. The return of Andrei Markov is sure to help Montreal on the score sheet, but they are missing pivotal defensive-minded defensemen to help out their psychologically battered goaltenders.
Team point leader Tomas Plekanec has been a nice surprise for the Canadiens and Michael Cammalleri has also filled a void in Montreal since joining the squad. However, this offence does not make up for their lack of defence, and will ultimately harm their chances of making a playoff push.

Toronto
If Toronto can tame their nightly shooting gallery into some form of precision, then Toronto could make the playoffs. This team is capable of surprising the best teams on any night, yet they are still a young, inconsistent hockey team.
Jonas Gustavasson has been a reliable goaltender for the Leafs, while Vesa Toskala continues to fade into the background. The Leafs will need Gustavasson to step up his game while players such as Phil Kessel, Mikhail Grabovski and Jason Blake find out where their shots are going.

Ottawa
Inconsistency has affected this Canadian team as well. Goaltending has always been a major issue for the Senators, and this year is no different.
The team has found themselves jumping from Pascal Leclaire to Brian Elliot, who had two shutouts in the month of December against Buffalo and Philadelphia. However, with Jason Spezza out indefinitely with a torn right MCL, the Senators offence is too dependent on Mike Fisher and the underachieving Alexei Kovalev. Their offence does not provide the support for their shaky goaltending situation.
The Senators will need to turn it around quickly to make a stab at the playoffs.

Edmonton
Poor, poor Edmonton. Injuries have plagued the team all season and have proven to be their toughest battle. At this point in the season the Oilers are last place in the Western Conference and are out of eighth place by over 15 points. The career year of Dustin Penner is the only highlight for Oilers fans this season.

The NHL season is playing out exactly like the last in the Eastern Conference, but the Western Conference has been mixing it up. The absence of the Detroit Red Wings and the rise of the Nashville Predators, Phoenix Coyotes and the Los Angeles Kings have been the biggest surprises (and should continue to surprise) in this NHL season. With less than 40 games left in the season, it should be interesting to see which teams will surprise and perform in the new year.

Swedish backup falls to Moncton offence

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Dylan Matthias, Staff Contributor

AUS scoring-leader Mariève Provost scored twice and set up two other goals last Saturday, giving the Moncton Aigles-Bleues a 4-2 win over a battered Tigers team.
“The score doesn’t really reflect the game at all – we were all over them, we just couldn’t put the puck in the net,” said Tigers assistant captain Robin Mullen.
Bad news hit for the Tigers coming into the game and continued pretty much all through the game. Dal’s most potent offensive weapon and second-place league scoring-leader, sniper Jocelyn LeBlanc was in bed with mono.  Leblanc, a third-year Kinesiology student from Moncton, N.B., has eight goals and eleven assists in 10 games this season. Tatamagouche-native Robyn Nicholson, who is tied with team-mate Fielding Montgomery for second in point-scoring for Dal, was injured, and starting goaltender Ashley Boutilier, who posted a .923 save percentage in eight starts in 2009 was sitting out to focus on schoolwork. To make matters worse, the Tigers lost rookie shooter Rebecca Sweet to a collision in the first period. In the second period, forward Cassie Banfield went down with a knee contusion. Dalhousie Captain Laura Shearer was playing injured. The beleaguered Tigers were counting on big performances from some of their depth and role players to keep pace with the high-scoring Aigles-Bleues, who are 6-1 on the road this season.
The Tigers outplayed Moncton, whom they have not beaten since AUS started publishing stats in 2004, in the first period. Both teams had chances and both goaltenders looked solid, with five-foot-two Swedish goalie Emelie Ederfors getting her third start in lieu of Boutilier. The 24-year-old Ederfors, a fourth-year Kinesiology student from Aseda, Sweden, posted a .826 save percentage in the loss.
2008-2009 AUS MVP Kathy Desjardins was solid for Moncton, stopping 19 of 21 shots. After a quiet first period, Provost started to shine in the second, her vision, passing, and speed overwhelming the Tigers’ defence.
“She’s got some great individual skill,” said Tigers coach Lesley Jordan. “She’s probably the most skilled player in the league. Our whole strategy was trying to cut down their odd-man rushes.”
Provost scored at 5:59 of the second, after getting in alone down the left she beat Ederfors with a quick fake out. Provost then assisted on Marie-Ève Couture’s first goal of the season with a fast return pass to give Couture the open side on Ederfors, the two Aigles-Bleues having space after a horrific defensive turnover by the Tigers.
Provost then scored again, in controversial fashion, as she leapt on the ice to receive a stretch pass before Jill Stockton was anywhere near the bench. Provost in alone is a scary sight, and she fooled Ederfors with a fake before tucking the puck in the side. The run of four goals in 14 minutes was complete when Kristine Labrie bundled a goal in, fractions of a second before the end of the period. Provost had pushed it across to her.
Moncton begins the new year sixth in national rankings and two points behind St. Francis Xavier for first in the Atlantic conference.
“We knew we were in a bit of trouble,” said Tigers forward Tessa Boudreau.
“We were like, ‘They scored four goals in 10 minutes. We definitely can go out there and comeback in 20 minutes,” said Mullen, who was named Dalhousie’s player of the game.
“We gave (Provost) a couple of chances and she buried them,” said Jordan.
The Tigers did make a comeback attempt, scoring at 9:18 of the third on an Alyssa Hennigar deflection. They added a late goal with the net empty to make it 4-2, with Mullen deflecting Miranda McMillan’s shot past Desjardins. Boudreau said the loss of Banfield affected the team’s ability to cover Provost. She and McVey had been matching up against Boudreau. LeBlanc will help with the offence – she has eleven goals. But mono can take a while to run its course. Boutilier is expected back between the pipes next week.

Four misconducts in ice brawl

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Dylan Matthias, Staff Contributor

It was just a typical game in the SMU-Dal hockey rivalry last Saturday, but chances are this one will be remembered for a long time. The 8-3 Huskies win at Memorial Arena was reason enough, but the game provided plenty of bad blood, with an incident that led to a confrontation between coaches at the end of the game.
“We were just trying to arrange a spot for a beer after the game,” said Tigers assistant coach Scott Allison.
The Tigers, who have been rebuilding this season, managed to play with the Huskies through much of the first period but that didn’t stop the Huskies scoring two: a high wrist shot over goalie Bobby Nadeau’s glove, and then a second with 1:36 to go in the period. The Dalhousie team didn’t come out in the second period, though, and by the end of 40 minutes, the Huskies led 6-0. Backup Chris Wall replaced Nadeau in the Tigers goal after the fourth Husky goal. Fans were heading for the exits by 5-0. Nadeau, the highly touted former goaltender of the QMJHL’s PEI Rocket, was recruited by Dal in the off-season. Since joining the Tigers Nadeau has four wins in 13 starts and a save percentage of .886 while leading the league in saves-per-game at 31.
“We regrouped after the second—‘Let’s try to win the third,’” said Tigers coach Pete Belliveau.
“We started to run around a little too much and try to do someone else’s job instead of playing your own and you get caught. Next thing you know you turn the puck over and they put it in,” said Benjamin Breault, who made his home debut Saturday after transferring from Florida Everglades. He was a seventh-round pick of the Buffalo Sabres in 2006. Elkhorn, Manitoba-native Devrin Stonehouse found a goal for the Tigers when he banged in a rebound at 9:52 of the third.
Then things unravelled.
The Tigers have had discipline problems all year, and have already had four misconducts for hits from behind. Tiger forward Daniel Bartek had already been thrown out in on Saturday for a hit from behind. The Czech winger has six goals and 10 points for the Tigers this season.
“Kenzie Sheppard butt-ended Scott Brophy,” said Huskies coach Trevor Stienburg. “At that point in the game, there was nothing going on. It was dirty, it was cheap,” Stienburg continued. “He’s a player who’s got no character. He’s not respected in this league.”
Video evidence shows that, shortly after the faceoff following Stonehouse’s goal, Sheppard butt-ended Brophy miles off of the puck. Six-foot-seven SMU enforcer Justin Wallingford then slammed Sheppard into the boards. Then a scrum broke loose, from which Wallingford, Sheppard, the Tigers’ Shea Kewin, and the Huskies’ Brad Smith were all thrown out of the game.
“Do I condone that? No,” said Stienburg of Wallingford’s response. But, he added, “When a liberty’s taken at your player – there was nothing that Brophy had done to deserve that – in the hockey world it’s unacceptable. You don’t let that happen. I know there have been problems with Kenzie Sheppard’s discipline while he’s been there, and I know (Pete Belliveau and Dalhousie) are trying to deal with that. But I don’t need Kenzie Sheppard injuring one of my players.”
To be fair to Sheppard, AUS stats show he hasn’t had a major penalty or misconduct (before Saturday) since he joined the Tigers in 2008. Therefore,  referees haven’t noticed any discipline problems he may have had.
After the game, Belliveau and Stienberg met near the rear entrance and yelling ensued. One of the linesmen tried to calm things down, and, according to Belliveau, there was no physical contact.
“It was a discussion about running up the score. I thought they shouldn’t have had the first power play,” said Belliveau. “When it was 8-2, they had the first power play. You don’t need to have that; they had enough goals. And (Saint Mary’s) took exception to that.”
Tigers captain Jeff Larsh snapped a shot past Husky’s goalie Brandon Verge off a face off to make the score 7-2. Brendon McDonald scored the Tigers’ third goal, and Andrew Hotham scored the third for the Huskies.
“We just thought they were taking liberties with our players,” said Belliveau. “They probably thought we were taking liberties with their players. We’re just trying to play the game and not have anyone get hurt.”
AUS has received no report from the referees about the incident, meaning no suspensions or fines will be issued for the clash after the game.

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