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Forty years of progress for Transition Year Program

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Scott Beed, Staff Contributor

It has been nearly 40 years since Dalhousie University started its Transition Year Program (TYP), but while the program has benefitted many First Nations and African Canadians, the university is still lacking aboriginal professors, says the program’s director.
Data on student ethnicity is collected on a voluntary basis, so there’s no accurate record of the exact number of aboriginals on campus. But HYPERLINK “http://collegeofcontinuinged.dal.ca/Transition%20Year%20Program/PDB.php” \t “_self”Patricia Doyle Bedwell, the director of the TYP says there are about 60 aboriginal students at Dalhousie and no aboriginal faculty members.
Lauretta Syllidoy, a representative of the Native Education Counselling Unit, says if there was a larger presence of native staff members on campus it would most likely inspire native students to follow in their footsteps. Syllidoy says when students see other aboriginals in important positions it gives them an achievable goal to work towards. Positive role models can have untold benefits according to Syllidoy.
The one-year program prepares students whose high school grades don’t meet standard Dal entrance requirements. Dal established the TYP to redress educational inequities faced by members of the aboriginal and black community.
“It’s important to address historical inequalities and inequities that continue to plague Nova Scotian societies (and) Canadian society,” explains Isaac Saney, a staff member who has taught with the TYP for 17 years. “This is a way of dealing with the historical weight of injustice, discrimination and racism.”
The program, according to Saney, builds a society of equity and equality.
Founded in 1969, the TYP was a response to growing concerns that blacks and aboriginals were not being represented at Dalhousie. At the time, it was hailed as a unique program in the country.
According to Saney, the program is designed to build critical thinking skills, develop fundamental academic abilities such as basic writing skills and develop a student’s ability to make coherent arguments. A significant amount of academic work and skill building is done. The program prepares its students to enter any discipline from the humanities to mathematics to chemistry.
To go with the standard classroom instructions there’s an orientation week, special guest lectures and a multitude of workshops.
“Normally in a year there are 25 to 30 students enrolled in the program. These people are taking a preparation year for university studies. But in total there are about 70 to 80 students who use the services in one way or another,” says Saney. These numbers haven’t changed significantly in recent years.
According to Saney, the program has successfully met its objectives over the years. Most students will take the skills they have learned in the TYP and successfully navigate their way through Dal undergraduate and graduate programs.
“These people go on to be important leaders, role models, exemplars in the first nations and the black community” says Saney.
As well as the TYP, there’s the Native Education Counselling Unit, part of The Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq. This program provides both academic and societal support to natives attending university in the greater Halifax area.
Located on 1220 LeMarchant St. across from Risley Hall, the centre is open to any native or black student who wants to drop by and use the computer, phone or any other service that may be available.
Syllidoy has noticed some students can suffer from culture shock. These students move from small communities or reserves and can find the size of Halifax overwhelming. In these communities it’s a reality to know the name of every member. So according to Syllidoy the hustle and bustle on campus can seem foreign to new students.
The department can act as a home base for native students. A safe haven for students to meet and create relationships. Syllidoy says the centre creates a feeling of community.
Syllidoy goes on to say that because the centre is relatively small it has the ability to address the needs of native students on an individual level. The centre is multifaceted with all its official duties, but Syllidoy says the staff members are willing to sit down and lend an ear.
There are regulars who use the resources every day. But according to Syllidoy there are also other students who will just drop by to satisfy their curiosity, grab a cup of coffee or tea and have a chat.
The centre helps students choose courses and it gives new grads career counselling. The centre can be a good place for students to network because they can gain access to resources they wouldn’t be able to gain access otherwise.
Debbi McCue, a full-time Dal student who completed the TYP, says it’s easier to work at the counselling centre because it has fewer distractions than the McCain Building or the library.
“It just feels like you’re at home studying, you have friends here that will help with your school work if you need it. It’s a good support group.”

$30,000 from McGill legal settlement went toward survey

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Lucy Scholey, Assistant News Editor

The $30,000 put toward a Canadian Student Survey came from a settlement with McGill, members of the Canadian Alliance of Students Association learned last Friday.
After several bouts of miscommunication, the national director of CASA explained the survey’s details to a group of student union representatives at the alliance’s Annual General Meeting
“We sincerely do apologize because we do feel that this was in our jurisdiction to decide,” said national director Arati Sharma at Dalhousie University on Nov. 20.
The survey raised questions among some student union members who were unclear of its details, including who made the decision to conduct the survey and where the money came from.
The Canadian Student Survey is a project co-initiated by CASA and the Canadian Education Project, a Toronto-based research group. It’s the first time Canadian student unions and lobby groups have designed a survey for data gathering purposes. The idea behind the survey is to prop up advocacy and lobby efforts. In previous years, these groups relied on data from outside research groups.
As of the AGM plenary – the meeting when a representative from each student union votes on the specific decisions up for debate – 20,000 students had completed the survey.
Due to confidentiality reasons, Sharma couldn’t disclose details of the McGill case, but said the issue was missed member payments. Through an out-of-court settlement, CASA gained $37,500 in total, but kept $28,575 after the $8925 in legal fees were factored in.
Sharma and CASA’s governance officers decided to put the money towards the Canadian Student Survey. Student unions that have membership with CASA and their provincial lobby groups can receive funding from both organizations to participate. Non-CASA members can also participate, at a fee of $1,000.
The Canadian Education Project is a division of the Educational Policy Institute (EPI), an American research group. Alex Usher is the Canadian director of EPI. He was also a former national director of CASA.
In an interview two weeks ago, Sharma said this doesn’t pose a conflict of interest.
“The data is ours,” she said. “(EPI is) just processing it for us.”
“I didn’t know there was a settlement before I came here,” said Jack Brown, to the group of representatives from about 23 CASA-affiliated student unions.
“We’ve been having communications issues for the past little while now,” added the president of the University of Fraser Valley Student Union Society during a break.
The university isn’t participating in the project because British Columbia doesn’t have a provincial lobby organization and the University of Fraser Valley doesn’t have room in its budget to pay the fee. There were also issues with the survey’s methodology, he said.
While the president of Saint Mary’s University Student Association admits there has been a lot of miscommunication, he says he has few doubts about the project.
“Our union’s job is to interpret the budget and what is best for students and what we really should be discussing … (are) the merits of the survey itself,” Matt Anderson said. “(SMUSA thinks) the merits of the survey are very good.”
Ella Henry, Vice President of Education at St. Thomas University, said the project has raised questions concerning CASA’s governance structure.
“I think we heard, here, in the plenary, that a lot of schools have questions about whether the national director and governance officers were within their mandate to make that allocation of money,” she said.
St. Thomas University didn’t participate in the survey because its Research Ethics Board raised concerns about the lack of scholarly research. Before the university’s student union could put it to a vote, the project had already been approved, Henry says. She was not consulted on the project, she adds.
Kory Preston, Vice President of University Affairs at Wilfrid Laurier, said Sharma and the governance officers had the right to allocate the money without a vote from the general assembly.
“It’s up to the national director to allocate those funds because it came up outside of the budget,” he said.
After several student union representatives voiced their concerns over the lack of communication, Sharma said CASA would work on improving the head office’s communication with members.
“Our leadership working group is developing a communications strategy for the organization,” she said. “I think we have a great external communications strategy for responding to the media and government, but I think we need something a little more robust so our leadership group is actually communicating with our members better.”
The provincial lobby organizations partnering with CASA in the survey are the Alliance of Nova Scotia Students Association, the Ontario Undergraduate Students Alliance and the Council of Alberta University Students.
The Dal Student Union hosted the AGM from Nov. 17 to Nov. 20. Other topics up for debate included a graduate grant for students with high financial need, and a motion to post all documents, recordings and minutes online.

Dibs on the new building

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Jason MacGregor, News Contributor

A new Dal building promises more space, more light, and more rainwater.
In case you’ve missed it, the new academic building under construction on Coburg Road and LeMarchant Street has taken form over the last few months. While it may look a lot like the Kenneth Rowe Management Building, it has the added features of being one of Halifax’s greenest buildings.
Andrew Merrick, the Aecon Project Manager overseeing the work, and Omar Khartabil from Dalhousie University, say that the building should be waterproof by the middle of December. It’ll then take the crew another six months to fit out the inside so that the different departments can move in around the end of June.
“The schedule is just a tool to monitor progress,” says Merrick, a civil engineer who graduated from Dal Tech in 1999. He’s happy with how everything is going so far.
All four floors have already been delegated.
Across from University Convenience, on the street-front corner will be the new location for PCPC, the campus computer store. The rest of the floor will be relatively open with couches, chairs, vending machines and a microwave. There is a spot in the plans set aside for a café, but it’s unclear who will be the tenant because the school is still in talks with unnamed companies.
Upstairs, on the second floor, will be the new home for the Department of Continued Education. The third floor will host space for the School of Social Work. And hidden away on the fourth floor will be spots for the Department of Computer Science.
All along the sunny, south side of the building, on all four floors, will be the classrooms and washrooms. On the not-so-sunny north side, overlooking Coburg Road, will be offices.
For all those chumps who were jealous of Citadel High School for its environmentally friendly look and design, the new academic building is also LEED built, meaning it meets the standards of the Canada Green Building Council.
“It may look a lot like the Rowe (Management Building),” says Khartabil. “But it’s definitely more sustainable and more efficient.”
Green features include a green roof, re-used rain water, a solar wall, light sensors in most rooms, bike racks galore, natural lighting and a 30 per cent decrease in the amount of concrete used. The grass and low-maintenance garden on the roof act as an extra barrier to keep in heat, and retain rainwater that can later be re-used – not for drinking, it’s not potable. The 80,000 liters of water that can be held at a time will be used for flushing toilets and watering the green roof.
In the construction, a new type of concrete, called Bubbledect was used. It has nine-inch plastic bubbles inside, allowing for longer spans to be used, which in the end means larger public spaces. Because of this design, less concrete was used, which also cuts down on construction costs.
For those worried about electricity consumption, the new academic building is built so that sunlight can light up the atrium through windows on the south side of the building. In rooms that are not very accessible to natural light, like the staff offices overlooking Coburg Road, motion sensors are being installed that turn down the lights when nobody is around, and turn the lights back on when people are in the room.
After construction is complete, trees are going to be planted in the sidewalk area surrounding the site,
In 2010, the 65 trades-people working on the building will move inside.
“Once we get the building water tight we’ll be working from the first floor up to the fourth in that sequence, so the trades will all follow one another all the way up through the building,” says Merrick.
While weather plays a role in construction, Merrick is confident that the furniture will be ready to move in by the beginning of July.

Proposed LSC ventilation upgrades long overdue

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Hilary Beaumont, Copy Editor

Paint fumes lingered in the halls of the Life Sciences Centre and circulated through the building Wednesday. Painted concrete walls are the first sign of a $27-million building upgrade Dalhousie intends to complete by early 2011. The plan includes a revamped ventilation system.
But many faculty members who work in the building say cleaner air is long overdue.
As he sat in his second-floor Life Sciences Centre (LSC) office Wednesday afternoon, Peter Wallace pointed at the rough, exposed wall beside the door.
“It’s a concrete building. You’ll always have problems with dust … that’s a problem with any concrete building unless you finish the concrete with paint.”
Dust is just one of many air quality concerns the Dal geology professor has. When trucks idle at the loading dock behind the building, Wallace smells the fumes. The system sucks them up and dumps them in his department.
“Twice or three times a day I smell diesel fumes,” Wallace said.
His students comment on the fumes during class.
“They’re quite noticeable,” he said. “Last week it was incredible. It was like the diesel truck was right outside the door.”
Other smells travel too – the stench of fish from the biology department and the fragrance of fries from the cafeteria.
Wallace has minor allergic reactions to scented products, such as hair mousse and perfumes, which regularly venture through the vents. When they reach his nose, his heart palpitates and he sweats more. That makes him uncomfortable and changes his mood. But he said it won’t kill him.
“Because it’s recycled air, there’s a lot of smells that float around and go through. You can’t get rid of it.”
Wallace wonders if the recycled air system could potentially spread viruses.
“You live in an unhealthy building, you have unhealthy people.”
He said air problems could be easily solved if the building had windows that could open. But the circulation in the building relies on a closed environment.
The proposed retrofit does not include plans to change the windows. Instead it will receive a new air circulation system and pressurized doors to keep the heat from escaping.
In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, Wallace said a group of faculty members complained about the building’s air quality and humidity. At the time, Dal wanted to respond to their concerns, he said, but the university didn’t have the budget for upgrades. Most faculty members have since given up the fight for cleaner air.
A staff technician, who works in the building, said he called Dal’s Health and Safety Office regularly for 10 to 15 years to complain about unhealthy exhaust fumes, garbage smells, dust and cigarette smoke in his office due to the building’s poor ventilation system.
The technician asked that his name not be included in the story because he fears repercussions if he openly criticizes Dalhousie.
“(The technician) used to call all the time,” said Jan McIntyre, secretary of the Health and Safety Office. “Now he doesn’t call anymore.”
The office does not keep records of health complaints. McIntyre couldn’t say how many phone calls she had received about the building’s air quality.
“Concrete surfaces are very depressing, and when we have the real humid weather sometimes the air gets really stale,” said McIntyre. “There are issues (with) the oceanography loading dock, there used to be idling engines and that would come through.”
When someone calls to complain, the office sends a supervisor to the building to solve the problem. Often the supervisor will simply ask the drivers at the loading dock to stop idling, or ask the smokers to move elsewhere.
Raymond Ilson, who has worked as director of the Dalhousie Health and Safety Office for a year and a half, said he hasn’t heard any complaints about the air quality in the building.
He has never been asked to do an air quality assessment in the building.
However, he said there are no air quality sensors in the Life Sciences Centre. His office relies on people to report air quality problems.
Ilson received a call that asbestos was found in the building, but he said it has since been cleaned up.
“Maybe people are just suffering,” he said. “They don’t tell us.”
Lauren Edwards, a Dal kinesiology student who takes classes in the building, has also noticed the ventilation problems.
“Being in the LSC is like being in an underground bunker,” she said. “Constant darkness and poor air quality.”
The dust hasn’t bothered her.
“I was just there and the air just feels so thick and it can’t possibly be fresh. It’s hard to breathe because it’s so thick and warm.”
“That’s precisely why we’re tackling this,” said Charles Crosby, Dal’s media relations manager. “(A new ventilation system) is one of the main priorities. And we’ve been hearing that for a while. We’ve needed to address it and we’re addressing it.”
The $27 million comes from the provincial and federal governments’ Knowledge and Infrastructure Program. It will help reduce the LSC’s ecological footprint and address environmental concerns, he said.
Dalhousie built the LSC between 1969 and 1971 as part of a construction boom that included the Killam Library, the Student Union Building, the law school and the arts centre. Designed by Ray Affleck, a celebrated architect, the buildings were considered by many at the time to be innovative, and fresh.
Today, about 200 researchers, 450 research students and 3,000 undergraduate students regularly use the building, according to DalNews, the university’s public relations pamphlet.
“It’s been a number of years where we’ve heard different kinds of issues coming out of the building, including the way the building was designed,” Crosby said. “We’ve needed to tackle the building in a systemic way for a while, but the matter was resources to be able to do that. Now we have the resources, we’re doing that on a relatively quick timeline.”
Wallace isn’t holding his breath for drastic changes in the building’s air quality by 2011.
“I’m cynical. I don’t think they’re going to improve a damn thing. The only way they can improve this building – which is near impossible because of the way it’s built – is really just to change the windows, make them open-able, change the whole system around.”
Soon he won’t have to tolerate the Life Sciences Centre. After 31 years, the tenured professor is retiring.
“A good thing to clean this up would be a good bomb to start it all over again,” he jokes.

This article was first published by UNews.ca, a King’s Journalism School website that covers campus news in Nova Scotia.

In the year 2020!

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Matthew Ritchie, Assistant Arts Editor

For those of us without Deloreans (or, at least, a 1987 Toyota Camry with built in flux capacitors), it is hard to see what the future will really be like in the next 10 years. But it is easy to imagine.
The Toronto Maple Leafs will certainly not make it the playoffs. Obama will let the world down after his eight-year term. At least one of the Jon and Kate Plus Eight children will develop a drug problem.
But what does the future hold for Dalhousie in the next 10 years? When I started here in the middle of the decade, it seemed like the whole world was changing and new and exciting ways. On campus, the Grawood got moved and some building got torn down. Still, I wonder what will happen in the next 10 years of Dalhousie University.

In the year 2020!
Becoming tired of outsourcing their labour to students for $10 an hour, Tiger Patrol will purchase real live tigers to patrol the school after midnight. Although providing useless assistance in navigating students home at night, they will certainly create a means for getting rid of those two freaks handing out pamphlets outside of the sub.
In the year 2020!
Sloan will perform another concert at the Grawood. People will still not care.
In the year 2020!
Students will protest against fellow peers claiming they are from Toronto, when in fact they are from a town most have never heard of an hour away from the provinces capital. Because of this, all other cities in Ontario will simply be known as “Not Toronto.”
In the year 2020!
Girls will finally stop wearing Ugg boots tucked into sweatpants on campus.
In the year 2020!
Engineering students will quit drinking for a semester and instead focus their efforts on improving their social skills.
In the year 2020!
Science students will finally stop ridiculing students working on arts degrees once they realize they too will probably end up working in offices once they graduate.
In the year 2020!
In an attempt to create more jobs on campus, Shirreff Hall will change taco day from Tuesday to everyday of the week, creating at least 10 new positions for plumbers on campus.
In the year 2020!
The debate about whether it is pronounced “Greywood” or “Grahwood” will finally be settled – by pistols at dawn.
In the year 2020!
Someone will finally explain what leisure studies actually are the study of.
In the year 2020!
Frats will contain cool people.
In the year 2020!
Aramark will be forced off of campus when the Dawgfather expands into the student union building. His empire will crumble with the addition of a new hot dog vendor: Fredo Corleone.
In the year 2020!
Dalhousie will buy back Fenwick Tower, then re-sell it, then buy it back again, and finally, re-sell it. It will still resemble an album cover by the band White Lies.
In the year 2020!
The Dalhousie Student Union will release its second issue of Storm magazine.

See you in the future!

Disclaimer: This has been a parody of Conan O’Brien’s In the Year 2000. In case you are unaware, this is a satirical article. The point of it is to be witty, not factual. Though it deals with a true and controversial issue, the quotes are completely fabricated. Take these words as you would take any episode of the Colbert Report: with a thigh-slapping grain of salt.

The Whetter the better

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Sasha Downer, Staff Contributor

Dalhousie professor Dr. Darryl Whetter’s latest novel involves a cross-country journey via bike.

“It’s a rarest of Canadian novel,” he grins. “(It) has a plot.”

The novel is titled The Push and the Pull. It is about Andrew Day, who, according to a synopsis from Whetter’s publisher, Goose Lane, “embarks on a bicycle trip from Halifax to Kingston, his childhood home. As he goes, the dual narratives of Andrew’s life emerge: the slow, painful death of his father and the disappearance of Betty, who may be lost to him forever.”

“It took me 10 years to write,” Whetter says. “I had to make sure that (it) was never just scenery. I had to make the journey part of the story.”

Whetter is quite an accomplished man. But before he had his PhD in English, before his work was published all around the globe, before he became a professor and environmentally friendly politician, Whetter was “just a wee lad in Orillia Ontario.”

Boy, has he come a long way since his days spent reading Fables of the Green Forest.

It is difficult to label a man who has been awarded so many titles. But this multifaceted overachiever says he’s “first and foremost a writer.”  Though he dabbles in many areas, it is obvious even from a brief conversation, where his passion lies.

“I try to write five days a week in the morning. In an ideal world, I give myself several hours, but I’m really only chasing the angels for about 90 minutes. But during that 90 minutes … that’s as good as life gets,” he said, gazing up at the ceiling. “I just love writing. Sentences, paragraphs, lines of dialogue — I just love it.”

“It (also) terrifies me and is pure hell,” he adds with a smirk.

Whetter writes a book column in This Magazine, he’s published 75 book reviews, several academic papers in France, Sweden, Iceland, Germany, India and North America, as well as two books, one of which, entitled A Sharp Tooth in the Fur, was named to The Globe and Mail’s Top 100 Books of 2003.

Because he is the Green Party candidate in the 2008 federal election, I asked Whetter to dream big. He said if he were to add prime minister to his ever-growing list of titles, he would rearrange the government he once called “archaic and undemocratic.”

“I would invest heavily in green energy,” he says. “Nova Scotia is one of the best wind sources on the planet, and yet we import our energy from Central American coal and Middle Eastern oil.”

Investing in renewable resources, he says, “doesn’t send the money elsewhere,” and will in turn create jobs.

Like many students, he’s also hoping to see more accommodations for cyclists.

“Halifax is a city of 30,000 students and it has two bike lanes, ya know?” he says. “You can’t even find a place to lock a bike downtown.”

He will be reading from The Push and the Pull on Friday, Nov. 20th at 3:45 in room 1198 of the McCain building.  Free wine to follow.

Dalhousie’s defence devastated in loss to McGill

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Alex Calvert, Staff Contributor

When the Dalhousie Tigers played McGill in the Eastern Canadian Championship in 2008, the Tigers were down a try before they scored in the very last minutes to win 14-12. In 2009, the Tigers weren’t so lucky and they were the ones on the short end of a loss to McGill that was decided in the final minutes on Nov. 14.
The teams played in the cold and wind in the Eastern Canadian Championship, and there were many dropped balls, which made for exciting plays and open field tackles. The Tigers had many interceptions that led to long runs downfield. These tired the McGill defence.
John Hewitt stepped up and surprised the Redmen by seeing the vulnerable position they were in and ran 50 yards. That interception eventually led to a try, and helped the Tigers position themselves for the win.
By halftime, the score was a hard fought 12-12.
“We knew it was going to a tight game,” said Head Coach Matthew Gibbon. “We knew it was going to be close and everyone was in pretty good spirits at halftime. Our defence was getting to where it needed to be.”
McGill tried to punch holes in the defence by passing the ball out to the backs and crashing close to the scrum, but Dal held strong and surrendered few opportunities to the talented Redmen backs.
Dalhousie scored in the second half to make it 17-12 on a try from team point-leader and hooker Ewan Wilson. However Dal’s lead would not last. Strong as the Tigers were on the field, it was to no avail last Saturday. McGill completed an impossible march down the field on one of the few defensive breakdowns by the Tigers.
Along with an unbelievable conversion from the McGill kicker, the Redmen made the score 19-17. That was the end of the season for the Tigers. But the season is not without perks.
“This was the very first game of the season that we played as a team,” said captain Paul Forrest. The match marked Dalhousie Rugby’s first and only loss in the last two years, and, while it is disappointing for everyone, fans and players alike can look forward to lots of great rugby from Dalhousie and McGill for years to come.
The Dalhousie Men’s B-side defeated McGill’s B-side to claim the Division II Eastern Canada Title. Up by a score 16-0 at halftime, the Redmen fought back and eroded Dal’s lead in the second half, resulting a 23-21 final in favour of the Tigers.

Feathers and chains

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Jorah Kai Wood, Staff Contributor

In Halifax, where the masses of pub and bar goers seem to enjoy Top 40 spots, the alternative nightlife tends not to be in the cavernous cabaret bars, but rather in intimate corners around the city.
This Saturday, there will be a plethora of events to choose from in Halifax, but my picks for the night involve feathers and whips.
Deanne Pye, organizer of Pony Land Productions, is presenting A Glam Affair: The Grand Bam Bam. It’s their first production, and they have been planning the event since May.
“Our goal for this show is to bring glam rock back to Halifax.”
Their production is a one-off, but they are hoping to host many future events, with the next one potentially in the early spring.
The event, which asks attendees to come in costume, entices patrons with “long legs and furious circus power,” sequins and feathers, go go boots and “boom a lang double dare in the cock rock city.”
The event features various performances that Deanne is excited about, including drag queens and kings, burlesque, dance and “other surprises I don’t want to give away. You have to come and see for yourself!”
The performers are from across the city’s artistic communities, including the Halifax Burlesque Society, Pink Velvet Burlesque, some of the guests of this year’s Montreal Burlesque Festival and some newcomers to the Halifax stage.
A live band will play songs paying tribute to the pantheon of glam rock heroes including Bowie, Iggie and T. Rex.
The event starts at 10 p.m. and finishes around midnight. It’s at The Company House, a gorgeous, cozy venue on Gottingen Street. Organizers are expecting the event to fill early, so arrive on time if you want to be a part of the Grand Bam Bam.
If submission, domination, whips and chains are more your bag, you need to check out monthly event Masq’s Fetish themed affair the same night at Club 1668 on Lower Water Street.
Organizer SandE Jordan has been promoting monthly Masq events for two years in Halifax, continuing a legacy of darker, industrial-themed parties such as Shadowplay and Pye’s Staircase – events that have sheltered the darker crowd for the last decade.
There will be a dungeon set up for kinky play, belly dance performances by Monique Ryan and Solmaz Asheri, and fetish performances by MisRE, Careotica Lovicious and other guests. DJ Bludston and Freedom Danish are set to provide music. Doors open at 10 and the event runs until 2 a.m.
If you think you might have a kinky bone in your body, you are invited to witness the performances and then try the dungeon out for yourself.

Be Well Sushi

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Nick Laugher, Staff Contributor

Grade: B+

Soft, ambient lighting and carefully hung knick-knacks line the walls of Be Well on Quinpool Road. The atmosphere is cozy and inviting, and feels more like the living room of your well-to-do aunt than that of a café.
Be Well is a newcomer to Quinpool, filling the empty sushi spot that has plagued the road for countless years. And they sling the traditional coffee and tea fare to boot. The general vibe of Be Well, from the staff right down to the walls, is literally about being well. The staff is very personable and helpful in a way that’s human – there aren’t any pushy salespeople or robotic, burnt out wait staff at Be Well.
The café offers sushi options from dragon rolls to shrimp and salmon nigiri, as well as more interesting menu items, such as the puzzling “sushi pizza”.
While the sushi is delicious, there’s not really much of a selection on the menu; there are only four sushi combo choices despite the variety of sushi they offer. For the price you’re paying for a sushi combo – $11.25 – you’d expect a lot more sushi to be littering your plate, which also comes with a small ambiguous salad and a bowl of miso soup.
The Be Well is a perfect place to bring a French existentialist novel, relax and have a coffee, but if they want to compete in the breakneck world of Halifax sushi, they’d better step up their game.

Mr. Malla goes to Halifax

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Vanessa Lent, Arts Contributor

Last Friday afternoon, a dozen excited people sat in room 1198 of the McCain building awaiting the arrival of Pasha Malla. In my four years of attending the English department’s Colloquium Series I’ve never made it more than a few minutes early. I usually showed up, along with everyone else, tiptoeing past bookbags and winter jackets to a seat as a nervous moderator started the class. Not this time. The room was only half-full, but butts were in seats an unprecedented 15 minutes early for what turned out to be one of the most original and challenging talks in years.
Malla is – as a friend commented last week when I told her he’d be giving a talk – “a huge deal right now.”  Originally from St. John’s, he’s a regular contributor to McSweeney’s and has been published in The Walrus, Esquire, Nerve and Salon. Along with being long-listed for the Giller Prize and short-listed for the Commonwealth Prize, he’s also a bona fide winner, snagging the Trillium Book Award and the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for his short story collection The Withdrawl Method and an Arthur Ellis award (given by the Crime Writers of Canada for the best works of crime or mystery) for his short story “Filmsong”.
Add that all up and you get a writer with a significant quota of peer respect, an impressive amount of cold, hard cash, and a little statuette of a hanging man who dances when you pull a string. Arthur Ellis is, after all, a pseudonym for Canada’s official hangman.
Fitting, then, that instead of the usual lecture style of the Friday afternoon Colloquium Series, Malla would instead choose to open up the format to a dialogue. He asked for an audience volunteer to read part of a conversation between himself and writer Sheri Heti, encouraging members of the audience to interject whenever they liked. The topic loosely circled the tenuous lines we tend to draw between fantasy and realism in literature. What is the value and how do we value non-realist texts? Who decides how the terms fantasy, fable, magic realism, fairy tale, myth, and sci-fi are variously assigned to our literature?  How do we gauge the value of a fantasy that seems to have few reference points to our contemporary world, or few that seem decipherable (think David Lynch’s Eraserhead) against fantasy that seems to be thinly-veiled allegory (think any episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation)? Where does the impulse to always try to pull literature to a reference point come from? Why can’t stories, as Malla asked us, just be stories?
By the end of this dialogue, we had covered the under-ratedness of New Jack Swing, the Disneyfication of everything sacred in childhood, Fox’s innovative use of three-act structuring in “The Simpsons”, Y2K (what were those big techno-Armageddon fears about again?), the omnipresence of Coca-Cola as a mythic trope, second- versus third-wave feminism, and how to scare the bejesus out of children (answer: German fairy tales and Edward Scissorhands).
No agreement on or clarity about the questions originally posed was reached, of course, but the value of a dialogue is always located in the process of the thing.  Pasha Malla left us, wine glasses in hand, with a satisfying amount of questions to puzzle over in the old brain box.

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