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New survey aids lobby efforts

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Lucy Scholey, Assistant News Editor

Student unions and associations across Canada might have more push behind their lobbying efforts with data gathered from a new survey.
The Canadian Student Survey is designed and run by student organizations – the first such project in the country. Unlike past confidential reports conducted through research groups such as the National Survey of Student Engagement, this project will publicly publish its findings and the students will own the data.
“It’s filling a void,” says Arati Sharma, national director of the Canadian Alliance of Students Association (CASA). “Canada doesn’t do a fantastic job of data collection when it comes to post-secondary education. I think there’s a real gap in the research side of post-secondary education and the actual system.”
The voluntary survey launched Nov. 9 and will remain open for three weeks. Members from CASA-affiliated student unions, plus a few non-CASA members, are participating. Each school participates with approval from its respective research ethics board. The cost for each university is roughly $1,000. On top of these fees, CASA is putting $30,000 towards the project.
The Canadian Education Project, a new Toronto-based education research group, is co-initiating the survey. The group is a branch of the better-known Educational Policy Institute (EPI), based in the United States. EPI will analyze the data and publish it in a report, but the students still own the data, says Sharma.
Other student groups have partnered with CASA on the initiative, including the Alliance of Nova Scotia Students Association (ANSSA), the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance and the Council of Alberta University Students.
Mark Coffin, executive director of ANSSA, says the decision to partner with the project stems from the need to understand issues concerning students as a whole.
“You hear a lot of anecdotal evidence from students,” he says. “The problems they’ve faced in student financial assistance, and the problems they face paying back their debt, or the views they have on where money should be going.”
“We want to put weight behind the advocacy efforts that we’re doing right now,” he adds.
ANSSA is contributing $3,000 toward the project. That money helps fund the survey’s implementation at the five ANSSA-affiliated universities. CASA is funding the remaining participation fees.
Rob LeForte, Dalhousie Student Union VP (education), says the DSU is participating in the project to uncover information about its own students, but also “to have Dal students represented in that national data. We wouldn’t want to see them left out of reports that were being generated and going to be presented to everyone federally and provincially.”
The DSU decided to allocate a portion of its ANSSA fees to the survey after it learned about it at an ANSSA retreat last August. Dal students each pay $2.50 toward ANSSA, amounting to roughly $35,000 per year.
Although the survey’s website says the project aims “to publish national and institutional-level reports,” the data won’t include all universities across Canada.
CASA is associated with 23 student unions across the country. Nineteen student unions are participating in the survey –14 are affiliated with CASA and five are not.
St. Thomas University’s Student Union isn’t participating because of several concerns surrounding the project.
Ella Henry, STUSU’s VP (education), says she’s still unclear about the project’s details since she first heard about it from the executive director of the New Brunswick Student Alliance.
“What we would really like is an explanation because it’s very frustrating to find out, not from CASA, but from conversations with a different organization that CASA agreed to contribute this money and then after several phone calls and e-mails, not have an answer as to where that $30,000 came from,” she says.
The union might have participated, but its research ethics board had concerns with the project including its lack of scholarly research, says Henry. She contacted Sharma, who told her EPI would contact her about her concerns. They never did. The project launched, without STUSU.
“I think it was a really rushed process and I don’t think the decision to fund that was done very openly or very accountably to members,” Henry says.
Sharma says the survey launched quickly to gather data at a time when students were more likely able to participate.
“The timeline was a little tight, but, I mean, each one of our student associations was consulted,” she says.
But Henry says by the time Sharma contacted her again, the decision to launch the project had already been made.
“We were consulted on whether the STUSU would like to participate, not whether we thought CASA should spend $30,000 on the survey,” she says, adding that CASA’s budget can’t cover that amount for a project.
When asked how CASA produced the $30,000, Sharma said to speak with the treasurer. He didn’t respond before this article went to print.
The DSU hosted CASA’s Annual General Meeting this past week. As of last Sunday, the STUSU planned to put forward a motion asking for financial and decision-making details about the process leading up to the survey.

New immigrants leaving Nova Scotia

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Joshua Brown, Staff Contributor

Atlantic Canada has more recent immigrants leaving than any other of region of Canada. Academics in the Dalhousie department of sociology and anthropology are trying to figure out why.
Dr. Howard Ramos of the department of sociology and social anthropology at Dalhousie says greater access to regional data is needed to answer those types of questions.
“Atlantic Canada has begun to respond to a lot of immigrant settlement issues,” says Ramos. “But without Atlantic Canada regional data … we have no way of knowing if their efforts are actually paying off.”
With about 24 per cent of landed immigrants eventually leaving the region, Atlantic Canada is the only region other than Saskatchewan with more than five per cent of its landed immigrants leaving, says Ramos.
Ramos presented some of his most recent work with colleague Dr. Yoko Yoshida on the topic at a seminar on campus last week. He was quick to point out their research is not complete.
“(This is) a working paper. It’s not a paper that is closed to further discussion. The answers that we offer are really tentative,” says Ramos. “(More regional data) will allow us to make stronger statements.”
Ramos spoke to a packed seminar room at Dalhousie of mainly policy professionals and academics.
He describes economics, demographics and health amongst other factors affecting why immigrants leave Atlantic Canada.
He says when you look at people who move and people who stay, you find a big difference between incomes.
“As one would expect, the stayers earn more money,” says Ramos. “By looking at average income … what you find is that there is a $10,000 difference between stayers and movers.”
Income is just one of the aspects considered by Ramos and Yoshida affecting why landed immigrants in Atlantic Canada leave.
The federal government is also thinking about immigrants. On Nov. 12 the government released an updated guide for people considering Canadian citizenship.
The new 62-page guide is the first update to the government guidelines for citizenship since the Liberal government published one in 1997, Canwest News Service reported.
Ramos emphasizes the importance of designing a government policy that facilitates immigration processes and makes it more comfortable for families.
“Immigrants are constantly entering into the job market,” says Ramos.
They can help solve problems such as declining fertility, aging populations and economic stagnation, he says.

A second winter Out of the Cold

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Lauren Naish, Staff Contributor

As the winter months approach and the temperature drops below freezing, the community members, volunteers and organizers of Out of the Cold emergency shelter are gearing up for another season.
On Nov. 12, more than 40 people attended an orientation session at the shelter’s new location, St. Matthew’s Church. As they sat on metal chairs in a gymnasium attached to the church, members of the Out of the Cold organizing committee discussed the roles, expectation and goals of those who would be involved in the shelter.
“We have a very basic mandate that is just to provide sanctuary to those who just don’t fit anywhere else,” Jeff Karabanow said after the presentation.
Karabanow is a professor of social work and international development studies at Dalhousie. His interest and expertise in homelessness drew him to join other concerned members of the community to create the emergency shelter last winter.
The group got together after the long time emergency shelter for Halifax, Pendleton Place, was shut down. The government cut funds to Pendleton Place because they felt existing shelters could serve the needs of people better, if the money went to them instead.
Carol Charlebois, executive director of Metro Non-Profit Housing Association, did not believe this would be the case. She and the Metro Non-Profit Housing Association took on the cause and became the main organization for the Out of the Cold shelter.
When shelter opened last year in March, it was run out of the Fort Massey United Church on Tobin Street. Even though the season was short, she says it was enough to show that this was an important resource.
“Just over the two months, and there was no fanfare. Very few people knew we existed, we served 64 different individuals,” Charlebois says.
Both Charlebois and Karabanow are quick to point out that providing shelters isn’t the solution to the bigger issue.
“It’s our philosophy that people deserve a place to call their own, so we are involved in housing,” says Charlebois. “We felt we had to step in, in this emergency, but we would rather not be running shelters.”
Karabanow agrees, and believes the group still needs to push the government to see the importance of safe housing. He is confident in the city’s need for the shelter, but feels it isn’t the solution.
“It’s around because we see there is a gap in the system,” Karabanow says.  “Our fear is that since we, as a community, have kind of taken up the cause, it lets governments off the hook.”
“None of us are in the shelter business. We don’t believe that is the answer, but while we advocate for support in safe housing we also need to be providing something immediate.”
This year the immediate service provided will come in the form of 15 beds in the church on Barrington Street and they hope hot meals provided by the volunteers. The shelter will be open from Nov. 22 to the end of April.
Volunteers do all the work. They sign up to staff overnight or evening shifts, or to do clean-up duties, or they donate supplies.
Shannon Aulenback volunteered last year and came back this winter as a member of the organizing committee.
Before his stint last year Aulenback had no idea what the homeless situation was like in Halifax.
“This isn’t a big city and there are a lot of people that don’t have a safe housing situation and I really had absolutely no idea about that,” he said, after this year’s orientation meeting.
Working at Out of the Cold also opened his eyes to the network of support out there for those who are on the street.
“There is a huge network of organizations around, whether it be government run and that sort of thing, whether it be non-profit like Metro Non-Profit Housing, or church organizations,” says Aulenback.
To Aulenback, the shelter also serves to direct people through this network of support.
“It helps, it definitely helps. I mean the answer isn’t shelters for people who are homeless,” he says. “The answer is finding a way to find stable housing for people.”
“If nothing else, we try to refer people, we try to find out where a person is, what their needs are, where we can best try and refer them to get them into a stable situation.”
As the volunteers leave the meeting Thursday night, a message written on black wooden panels is left behind in the belly of St. Matthews Church. In white letters, it reads: “An open door … welcoming people regardless of background and social situation who are interested in joining our journey of growth and life.”

Secret contracts petition headed to DSU

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Samantha Durnford, Staff Contributor

The “No Secret Contracts” petition from Students Mobilize for Action on Campus (SMAC) will be brought to the attention of the Dalhousie Student Union at their meeting on Nov. 18, says a member.
SMAC’s petition takes aim at the secret contracts the student union signs. Now the group has decided to do something about it. The petition calls on the DSU to make contracts open to students before signing them.
Dave Bush of SMAC says he feels the DSU did not allow any discussion from students when it came to the contract decisions.
“The DSU does not seek to involve students in discussion,” he says. “They have effectively shut down all debate.”
The petition asks the DSU not to sign any more secret contracts, says Bush, and asks for “accountability and transparency” within the DSU.
The petition will be put to council this week and then, in two weeks, says Bush, it will be open for a vote.
In regards to the vote, Bush simply asks the DSU, “Are you going to be on the side of democratic openness or not?”
Shannon Zimmerman, DSU president, says this is the first she heard of the petition aside from hearsay, and that she had no idea it was coming to the attention of council this week.
“I have never been approached by SMAC,” says Zimmerman.  “I have at least sent them two or three e-mails asking to sit down with them and have a conversation about this.”
But according to SMAC, Zimmerman first contacted them last Friday, after her interview with The Gazette.
Zimmerman says that in her five years of being on council, no petition has ever made it to the attention of council.
“I know that there was a petition floating around last year but it was never given to anyone,” she says.
Whether the petition can make an impact or not, Zimmerman says she doesn’t know. A petition needs signatures from 10 per cent of the student body – that’s at least 1, 500 people – to be binding.
“The reasoning … from Pepsi’s standpoint is that they wanted something for a competition basis,” says Zimmerman. “Without having read the petition it’s hard to say what impact the petition could have.”
She says if any students, including SMAC, had come forward saying they were upset about the contract, she would have been happy to discuss it.
“Its definitely a conversation we are more than willing to have,” says Zimmerman. “I can’t speak for anything that happened last year, but in my term it has not been something that has formally been brought to me yet.”
Matthew Downer, third-year Dal student, says he signed the petition but isn’t sure what’s going on either.
“The petition went around in class,” says Downer. “I wasn’t really aware of the issue but everyone else was signing it so I did too.”
He says he doesn’t care that the DSU signed a contract for Pepsi Co.
“I guess it’s important for the DSU to include students in decision making,” says Downer. “But I’m not too upset about the whole Pepsi thing.”
The Pepsi Co. contract is for seven years, so even if council debated no longer signing secret contracts, it may be a while before the petition would actually make an impact.
SMAC on the other hand, wants to make a point.
“The contract turns students into a product being bought and sold!” says Bush.

Virtual tutoring

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Dalhousie Gazette Staff

Junior high and high school students won’t have to stay long hours at school for extra help. They won’t even have to step outside their homes. Or meet their tutors.
The virtual school project at Imhotep’s Legacy Academy uses an online videoconferencing program to help high school students with their math and science homework. Students and tutors communicate with each other by writing on a virtual white board, sending personal messages, and talking face to face via webcam while using the program.
Emmanuel Nfonoyim, the academy’s project manager at Dalhousie University, says the project is designed specifically to help black Nova Scotian students achieve their full potential in math and science regardless of barriers they face at home or in the community.
“The parents and teachers are very, very dedicated, but they cannot move mountains,” he says. “They need help to make those mountains shift, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
The project is currently in its pilot phase, and will become available to six more high schools in Nova Scotia by the end of November.
“The rationale is that there is a need for support programs to be in place to facilitate access for African Nova Scotian students,” says Nfonoyim.
Students enrolled in the project can sign out headsets, webcams and video conferencing software from their school’s office for free and get help with homework at home. Students also have access to a live tutor for more than six hours a day, Monday to Saturday, during and after school hours with the project.
Nfonoyim says these extra resources can help compensate for after-school programs that are unavailable to students.
“Students in rural areas don’t always have access to support (for math and science) at home or after school, since the bus schedule is not (convenient) for them,” he says. “This is something that will help facilitate their learning after school.”
The project currently has seven online tutors, and the academy will hire three more by February 2010. The project’s pilot phase will end in June 2010, and the completed version of the project will launch in September 2010.
Nfonoyim says the completed project can support up to 80 students. He says the academy is trying to expand the project to rural areas like Antigonish, Amherst, Shelburne and Digby.
“We’re always working with our stakeholders and different communities in Nova Scotia to see how we can access resources that would enable us to establish a program,” says Nfonoyim. “It always comes down to personnel and financial resources.”
The project’s long-term goal is to help students make the transition from high school to college or university math, computer science and engineering programs. Nfoyonim says many students in Nova Scotia who aspire to work in these programs are taking applied math in high school when they should be studying university-level math.
“They’re basing their choices on what their perceived ability is and the type of support they think they will have,” he says. “Our program comes in to help students realize that there is support they can get in addition to what they already have.”
Nfonoyim wants black high school students in Nova Scotia to know that if they have the potential and the drive to succeed, the academy is there to help.
“What we do may not be sufficient to solve all the issues, but it adds to what others are doing, because that much more is needed for those mountains to be moved.”

Whitewashed foundation

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Sunjay Mathuria, Staff Contributor

The morning of the lecture about the Souls of Black Folk, Monica Mutale knew she was going to have a weird day.
W.E.B. DuBois’ book is the focus of the only lecture on an African-American text in the Foundation Year Program, the curriculum every first-year University of King’s College student follows.
“I was the only black person in my tutorial, so I knew it was going to be uncomfortable,” she says.
And it was.
“I kept getting called out to comment,” Mutale says. “I’m usually very quiet, so normally I don’t contribute in tutorial.”
“It’s not surprising, but it does eventually get to you,” admits Mutale, who is now a second-year journalism student.
The singling out of students of colour at King’s, and in the Foundation Year Program (FYP) in particular, happens for a simple reason. This year, the number of minority FYP students could be counted on one hand.
FYP was introduced in 1972 and has since become nationally renowned. What sets FYP apart from any other first-year of undergraduate university in Canada is that it is a survey of Western philosophy and thought spanning from ancient civilizations to the contemporary world.
While FYP dabbles a bit in Islamic history and Confucius, many perspectives are still overlooked in the program’s survey of great books.
And FYP co-ordinator Daniel Brandes realizes this can be a problem.
“We have to be attentive to the composition of the curriculum and the composition of FYP, and I think we’ve tried to respond to this concern over the past five to 10 years,” he says.
But this attention has not produced drastic changes. The number of black writers on the reading list fluctuates each year. Last year, there was just one.
Part of the explanation for the racial make-up of FYP students is their shared backgrounds.
“Students come here by word of mouth. We have a lot of students from Toronto who come from privileged backgrounds, from private schools,” says Dorota Glowacka, a contemporary studies professor at King’s.
But she says there have been recent efforts to make King’s more attractive to students of different backgrounds.
“We really advertise it far and wide,” she says. “Despite these efforts, I’m not sure we have made great strides.”
Glowacka also says the King’s Racial Equity Committee used to be active, but over the years, has become immobile.
“Somehow issues of racial equity have always been put on the backburner. I don’t think we’re equipped at the moment to deal with these issues,” she says.
But Glowacka thinks that revisions to the FYP curriculum would be a part of the solution. She says this might even encourage more students of different backgrounds to take FYP.
“I don’t think you can separate the curriculum from issues of equity and how our students fare on an everyday basis, so it has to be really a part of the curriculum and a part of what people talk about in regards to academic texts,” she says.
Glowacka herself will be doing a lecture series at King’s next year on the Conception of Race in Philosophy, Literature, and Art.
Eluned Jones, the only black FYP instructor at King’s, has also pointed out curriculum deficiencies in area of race in the past and has tried to initiate some change.
But she soon realized she could not do it alone.
“It’s not my burden to carry. I can’t work on diversity by myself,” she says.
Mutale thinks changes to the FYP curriculum could benefit all King’s students.
She says representing different perspectives in the curriculum could help broaden everyone’s understandings of other cultures.
“By this point, you should be able to deal with people of all cultures. University should prepare you for the world. You’re supposed to be experiencing the whole world,” Mutale says.
The demographics of not only Halifax, but also its universities, have drastically changed over the past 30 years. By 2008, 7.5 per cent of Halifax’s population identified themselves as belonging to a visible minority.
Mutale says once these FYP students begin to see more of themselves reflected in the program, they may begin to feel more comfortable.
She says the school definitely needs to take action to revise the curriculum.
“They don’t realize how difficult it is for students to be sitting there and thinking, ‘Here I am at this great university, great history, world renowned, and I don’t think I belong here and I don’t think you really want me here.’ And for a school that’s so worried about their image, I guess they don’t realize that’s what they’re actually saying,” says Mutale.

How far we haven’t come

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Dalhousie Gazette Staff

Diversity. It’s a bit of a buzzword like “sustainability” or “whazzap”. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, during what one might refer to as the Politically Correct Revolution, we in Canada began, in a bigger way than ever, to celebrate differences between people that in the past had been regarded as a divisive handicap. We came to see them for what they really are: a strength.
At The Gazette, we celebrate and revel in the cultural diversity of our campus and city. It is incredibly drab to imagine a place where all the music sounds the same and none of the food tastes like ginger. Or curry. Or jerk. We revel in this appreciation year round. We’ve covered top immigration stories; we’ve reviewed amazing African art shows; we’ve tried to bring to light gaps in services for students with disabilities, and students of colour.
It’s impossible, though, to celebrate love of diversity without having some feelings of tokenization.
The question is: How can you fairly cover diversity? Especially when you’re a Caucasian university student, like eight out of nine Gazette staffers. It’s a delicate issue, especially when our staff does not reflect the diversity of students at Dalhousie.
And why even make it an issue? Why make a point of drawing attention to something that maybe is better unmentioned? Why dedicate a whole issue to diversity when it has the potential of patronizing the topics we cover, making it seem like they got in print due to some sort of editorial concerted effort at affirmative action?
At university, it can be easy to forget that the people we go to class with come from different socio-economic backgrounds, families, ethnic groups and religious persuasions than we do. It’s easy to forget that many of our peers are living with disabilities, or have children or older dependents to look after. It’s easy to forget how far we’ve come. And how far we haven’t come.
The 1960s demolition of Africville, the city’s oldest black neighbourhood, is one painful example. It came with a promise to end racial segregation, but African Nova Scotians were shuffled out with little money and no community. The memory still stings the minds of many Africville descendants, who are still waiting for an apology or compensation.
How does a newspaper even begin to approach issues of oppression, and systematic racism, ableism and xenophobia on campus, when, really, we’re mostly white, able-bodied young people?
To start, we believe in learning from other individuals on campus – profs and students – who are tackling these issues. Anthony Stewart, a tenured English professor at Dal, published a book last spring called You Must Be a Basketball Player that highlighted injustices in the university system.
“If you major in English, history or philosophy at this university, among the full-time professors, the only professor you’re going to get who’s a person of colour is me,” Stewart told The Gazette in an interview earlier this year.
Similarly, the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group (NSPIRG) is set to launch a new publication in January called Racism in Perspective. The magazine will compile fiction and non-fiction submissions that bring issues of discrimination in Halifax to light.
Stewart’s book and NSPIRG’s ambitious project have set strong examples for The Gazette to follow. We don’t believe in relegating issues of diversity and oppression to one edition.
This edition of The Gazette is about approaching some issues of racism and ableism on campus, but it can’t and won’t be the end. The Gazette will continue to cover issues about the oppression faced by students on our campus. We’ll continue to strive for balanced, but accurate coverage of issues rarely at the forefront of major media. And we’ll try to make space for those on our campus who are too often silenced.
But, we also recognize that in some ways change starts at home, and if students are disenfranchised from their students’ union, from the services that are supposed to offer support, and even from the paper that is supposed to speak truth to the issues that effect all students, then our staff will stay whitewashed, our coverage will remain one-sided, and stories will remain untold.

Capers win AUS Men’s soccer playoffs

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Dylan Matthias, Staff Contributor

Last weekend’s AUS men’s tournament didn’t quite turn out like everyone thought.
The host Dalhousie Tigers lost their only game in controversial fashion, and the conference topping Cape Breton Capers took Monday morning’s final in extra time, 2-1 over the UPEI Panthers. Both teams advance to CIS nationals in Langley, B.C. this weekend.
The weekend provided other stories, too, with games being postponed by a day after a vicious nor’easter on Friday forced cancellations. Third-seeded UNB were bounced by the plucky Université de Moncton, a long-shot team that brought everything they had to play and shone.

Tigers season a disappointment
For a Dalhousie team that was expected not only to reach nationals, but also to compete in Langley, Sunday afternoon’s loss to UPEI was heartbreaking.
“Soccer’s a cruel sport,” said Tigers coach Pat Nearing after the game.
He said the team expected to have made nationals. In a year that saw the Tigers play beautiful soccer at times, the Panthers exposed their weaknesses: namely pace on the wings.
After a wonderful curling strike from Hamzeh Afani gave Dal a 22nd minute lead, controversy struck. Tigers’ goalkeeper Ben Ur collided with a UPEI attacker and caught the Panther’s studs in the face, going down. Referee Jose Ferres refused to stop play and
Jimmie Mayaleh scored past the incapacitated Ur.
The head-injury rule has reared its head before; referees are supposed to stop play if there is any likelihood of a concussion or other head injury. At the amateur level of CIS, this rule makes a lot of sense —a goalkeeper with a concussion cannot be asked to put himself at risk in making a save. It became quite apparent that Ur was not feeling good after the collision, and in the 32nd minute Jordan Murphy cut inside an out of position Jordan Mannix and fired home past a frozen Ur.
Ur returned to play the second half, but Dal let in two more goals, both from wide positions as the speedy Panthers walked all over the Tigers’ slow back line, at which point Colin Power replaced the beleaguered Tigers ‘keeper, who looked in pain as he went to the bench.
Dalhousie rallied, with Afani banging in another goal and Julian Perrotta finally scoring after a season that saw him miss way too many chances.
In stoppage time, the Tigers forced UPEI back into their own box. A ball made contact with a Panther arm, but despite massive appeals from every Dal player, Ferres made no call.
“I did see a handball,” said Perrotta, who was in the box at the time. “At least I thought I saw it. Maybe it was hopeful thinking.”
“I thought we had a good appeal for a handball in the end,” said Nearing, who also cast doubt on UPEI’s third goal, suggesting it was offside. “The refereeing wasn’t everything, though. We had our chances. We should have just stopped them from scoring. We scored enough goals to win today.”
Nearing said he’s aiming for a striker and a defender in the off-season, to replace Michel Daoust and Talal Al-Awaid, who will be ineligible.

Cape Breton end UPEI’s run
Monday morning’s final was a far more tactical, technical affair than the two 4-3 shootouts on Sunday, but it too had its stories. The University of Prince Edward Island entered the game as fatigued underdogs, playing their third game in three days against a Caper team loaded with CIS-level talent itching to prove itself after a dismal 2008. The class difference showed as UPEI approached the game quite cautiously, making for a turgid first half full of long ball tactics and poor passing.
“They came out with a game plan to stop us playing the way we play,” said AUS player of the year Andrew Rigby, a CBU midfielder.
The Capers eventually broke through early in the second half after a goalkeeping mistake by Tim Kalinowski, who first came out to challenge Shayne Hollis, then thought better of it and back-pedalled into his box and tried to block the shot. He got a hand to it, but couldn’t stop the goal.
When it all looked over in the 87th minute, Jimmie Mayaleh cut in from the left and looped a perfect shot into the far top corner past Chris Tournidis to make it 1-1. In his exuberance, Mayaleh pulled his shirt off and leapt into a throng of his teammates, earning an automatic yellow card. While an easy burst of happiness is easy to forgive, Mayaleh followed his goal up with a mindless challenge straight off the ensuing kick-off, slicing down Keishen Bean from behind and earning himself a second yellow 30 seconds after his beautiful goal. With UPEI down to 10 men for extra time, the Capers wasted no time in attacking, and the nation’s leading scorer in Keishen Bean chipped a shot past
Kalinowski, just 15 seconds into extra time. UPEI could not muster an equalizer and Cape Breton took the title.
Both teams will attend CIS nationals, although Mayaleh will miss his team’s crucial first game (which decides whether they compete for a medal or go into the consolation pool) due to the red card. Rigby was named tournament MVP, which includes a $1000 prize.

Upstart Moncton impress
Everyone’s favourite team seemed to be the U de M Aigles-Bleu at some point over the weekend. Up against a UNB side that bunkered in their own half and played for penalties all through Saturday’s quarter-final, the Aigles-Bleu kept up a quick, exciting attacking style of play that was quite wonderfully free of any kind of defensive responsibility, meaning chances were created in abundance. It took them 110 minutes to break down the UNB fortress. Antonio Mékary passed to Patrick Gautreau, who crossed for captain and attacking midfielder Olivier Babineau, who nodded it past UNB ‘keeper Matt Lally.
Babineau was the most exciting player to watch all weekend. He held no constant position, falling perhaps best into the Latin American trequartista position behind two other attackers, although he popped up wherever the ball was, wowing fans with crafty ball skills and intelligent movement.

Dal women out in St. John’s, St. FX win
The Dalhousie Tigers Women’s team suffered a similar semi-final loss in
Newfoundland, losing to St. FX after Kate MacDonald scored in the 23rd minute.
The Tigers conceded two long-range goals, first from Meghan Ramsden on a free kick, and then a long bouncer from Nicholle Morrison at 99 minutes, in extra time.

The young Tigers team will have a better chance next year when rookie attacking trio Emma Landry (one goal), Joanna Blodgett (no goals), and Beth O’Reilly (no goals) are more used to the AUS level of play. St. FX will be joined in Toronto by underdogs UPEI, who upset the heavily favoured Cape Breton women (the 2007 CIS champions and 2008 AUS champions) 1-0 in a snowstorm.

I’m on a boat

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Joel Tichinoff, Sports Editor

Every sailor knows that moment. The wind snaps out the sails, the boat surges forward and water sings from the stern. The sailors of the Dalhousie sailing team know that moment well as they take to the waters of the Atlantic four times a week – sun, rain or snow. Dal is the only East Coast school to field a competitive sailing team, the only other Canadian sailing teams belong to the University of British Columbia, Queen’s, Toronto and McGill. With the Atlantic Ocean lapping the shore only minutes from the Studley campus, Dalhousie students have had a long connection to the sea. However, a first-year management student from Kingston, Ontario created the Dal Sailing team in its current incarnation in 2005. Matt White, who graduated from Dal last spring, came to Dal in 2005 having formerly been head coach of the Kingston Yacht Club and, finding no real sailing program being offered, set about creating one. Four years later the Dal sailors regularly compete, and win, at regattas hosted by the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA).
White, who also established an annual business ethics case competition at Dal, has moved on, but current team president Peter Dixon has continued his work. Dixon, who will complete a combined honours degree in Biochemistry and Neuroscience this year, grew up sailing out of Toronto’s Royal Canadian Yacht Club and was already an accomplished sailor when he began his studies at Dal in 2006, having sailed solo in several world championships. Dixon’s skills as a coach and sailor have been a major boon to the Dal Sailing program. Assisting Dixon in his work have been management student Seamus Ryder of the Royal Nova Scotian Yacht Squadron (RNSYS) and commerce student Paul Brickis of Ottawa.
A typical practice runs roughly three hours with the team assembling at the docks of Waegwoltic club and being ferried across the Northwest Arm by zodiac to the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron. North America’s oldest yacht club, the RNSYS has been instrumental in supplying boats and facilities to the sailing team. The Dal team recently received its own sails from the school but team members supply most of their own personal equipment, neoprene wetsuits are a must for a sailing team that practices well into November.
Team members pay dues of $160, much of which goes toward insurance and operating expenses, the Dal sailors also shoulder most of the travel expenses on top of the team fees. The university provides some funding but as with many Dal teams there almost a sense of pride in the fact that students compete for Dal with minimal assistance from the school itself.
“We basically get money for sails and rental cars,” says Dixon. “(Dal Athletics program manager) Shawn Fraser has been supportive and awesome funding-wise, but two years in row we applied for funding from the DSU and never heard back. This year we didn’t apply.”
The Dalhousie team competes against American schools such as Yale and Harvard, which have their own fleets. When asked if Dal is looking at acquiring a fleet of its own, Dixon is philosophical.
“Some teams are able to replace their fleets and NEISA (New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association) facilitates schools obtaining second-hand boats. Its not impossible, but it would take a commitment of funds that we’re unlikely to see Dal putting into an athletics program.”
The purchase of a small fleet would be roughly equivalent to a varsity team’s annual budget, excluding storage and maintenance costs. Currently the team trains with 420 dinghies lent by the RNSYS, the relationship between the squadron and Dal is strong with many Dalhousie alumni members of the club however this year the Squadron has limited its partnership with Dalhousie to the competitive team only.
“We had a huge rec program before where pretty much anyone could come out and sail,” Dixon says. “But there were too many inexperienced sailors and not enough veterans. It was too risky for us to put people who didn’t know what they were doing out on the water. Too much can go wrong. We had to make it just the team this year but I still get tons of e-mails every week from people who want to come out.”
Dixon is working with RNSYS to accommodate the large volume of Dal students interested in sailing. Through an adaptation of the Squadron’s Learn to Sail program, Dixon hopes to give more Dal students the opportunity to experience sailing.
Dal fielded competitive boats in four NEISA regattas this year. The NEISA regattas generally feature two-man crews racing up to four races to determine a winning team. “We mostly race Flying Juniors (class of boat) against the NEISA teams,” coach Ryder says. “But we can handle all types.”
Two teams competed at the Northern Series Two Regatta at Dartmouth College in September placing 16th and 18th. A team of Paul Brikis, Brittany Duraul, Andrew McNeil and Alana Keider travelled to Montreal in mid-October. Racing out of the Pointe-Clair YC, Dal placed third overall at the McGill Cup behind Tufts and McGill. The season highlight came on Oct. 25 when Anna Millar, David Castle, Ted Murphy and Warren McDougald captured first place and the Wellahan Trophy at the Northern Series Three race. Dalhousie also placed fifth at the Team Racing Series Two, held at Newport, Rhode Island over the Halloween weekend.

Pray with Priestess

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Delia Macpherson, Staff Contributor

Your ears are ringing, your head is banging. You’ve just had a great view of the lead singer’s crotch as he leaned forward into the crowd screaming unknown lyrics into a mic that isn’t turned up high enough. You’re front row, centre at the Priestess concert.
Priestess performed on Saturday, Nov. 7 at The Paragon Theatre in Halifax. Cover was $15 and the venue was about half full.
The type of music Priestess play is tricky to define. It’s not heavy metal. It’s not mosh-pit music. It is heavier than The Trews or Billy Talent, which are both considered rock bands.  Yet Priestess is still a rock n’ roll band through and through. Because of the uncertainty of genre, the audience at the show included two groups: the strong, silent, head nodding type, and the drunk, joker, mosher, hair-swinging type.
The Montreal band members are on tour promoting their new album titled Prior to the Fire. Their newer music has the same dirty rock ‘n’ roll sound as their former albums, though a bit heavier.
You may know Priestess by the single “Lay Down”, which is included in Guitar Hero 3. The band is made up of four guys. They wouldn’t quite make People Magazine’s 100 most beautiful list, but they could make it to Rolling Stones 100 best bands.
Priestess delivered an incredibly good performance. The band members’ energy was high and the instruments sounded great.
Opening for Priestess first was East Coast band Motorleague. They were mediocre at best and seemed a bit too into themselves for the sound they were producing. The second band, Trigger Effect, also from Montreal, were much more entertaining. They played  heavy, head banging riffs. They were all in tight, low rise jeans and three of the four members were shirtless by the second song of their set.
The boys in Priestess were more simply dressed. Garbed in jeans, sneakers and rock ‘n’ roll T-shirts with hair no shorter than shoulder length. The bass and lead guitar players had hair to their bellybuttons and thrashed it about on stage. The one complaint anyone seemed to have about the night was that the microphone wasn’t turned up enough.
Why, oh why does almost every rock band on the face of the earth have their vocal mics turned down too low? The singing sounded as clear and tight as the CD recordings, at least what could be heard of it.
They kicked their set off with “Firebird”, the fourth track on the new album, soon followed by my personal new favourites “Gem” and “Murphy’s Law”. They closed the night with their single off the new album “We Ride Tonight”.
On the album you can find heavy, fast-paced drum solos, which are complimentary and slightly offbeat, and really interesting guitarmonies, especially on “Gem”. The track pumps thick bass through you, and has powerful vocals bellowing themes about death, birth and escaping from something. You’ll find a mix of fast paced and slower paced music that remains true to what rock n’ roll is about.
Prior to the Fire is refreshingly good rock ‘n’ roll music. It’s loud, in your face and it shows talent.
The boys in the band seemed modest and focused on their music throughout the night. Their sound has obvious stoner-rock influences, but it’s still as sweet sounding as Zeppelin, with high-pitched guitar riffs. Check out the new, killer album Prior to the Fire.

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The Dalhousie Gazette is the main student publication at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The paper first began publishing in 1868, making it the oldest continually operating student newspaper in North America followed by The Harvard Crimson and The Columbia Daily Spectator

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