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Acres to Acres – All Nations

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Janet Davie, Arts Contributor

Grade: B+

The relatively small but talented music scene of Halifax has churned out yet another gem: Acres and Acres’ All Nations. You may recognize Acres and Acres’ Kris Pope and Dave Scholten from touring with the rock band Down With the Butterfly. With Acres and Acres breakthrough album, the band proves that they too can hold their own in the spotlight.
All Nations is claimed to be inspired by Neil Young’s Harvest album and the Cowboy Junkies’ Trinity Sessions, and this album certainly falls under the same roots rock category. Other bands that come to mind include Iron and Wine and Ray LaMontagne. Another bonus of All Nations is that the band has kept true to their hometown roots, infusing plenty of East Coast flavour into every track.
Many of the songs, such as “Money”, “Joker” and “Dirty Dog” offer laid back rhythm with a dash of quirky songwriting. “All He Needs” is a bluesy tune that is easily the best track on the album due to its romantic and retro feel that is best listened while dancing cheek to cheek.
All in all, All Nations is a combination of relaxed melodies and thoughtful lyrics. With songs that blend seamlessly together, it’s easy to start at the beginning and mellow out all the way to the end of this LP.

Girl Talk – Feed the Animals

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Rebecca Spence , Staff Contributor

Grade: A+

Girl Talk’s Feed the Animals nourishes your mind, body and soul with some of the tastiest and most energizing mixes ever concocted. But I’m not talking about nourishment in the whole grains and fresh vegetables kind of way. I’m speaking of the sugar high you get from a Mars bar, two Red Bulls and a triple shot of espresso.
The album, which was released online under a “pay what you can” philosophy about a year ago, has also recently become available on vinyl and in CD format.
It is safe to say that Feed the Animals is a huge improvement on Gregg Gillis’s previous endeavor, Night Ripper, in which the mash-ups were generally either hit or miss. On the other hand, Feed the Animals is consistently mind-blowing from beginning to end. Considering that the vast majority of his material is recycled, Gillis creates something surprisingly fresh and unique with this album. By grouping hundreds of unlikely beats together – from Eminem’s “Shake That” with Yäel Naim’s “New Soul”, to Lil’ Wayne’s “Lollipop” with The Red Hot Chili Pepper’s “Under the Bridge” – he completely revolutionizes these otherwise tired and played out tunes.
Girl Talk’s mixes can inspire you to do things you never even thought were possible. These things can be mildly crazy, like when “Don’t Stop” starts playing on your iPod during a workout session and the ensuing adrenaline pushes you to run an extra five kilometers. Or they can be hedonistically insane, like deciding to take ecstasy from a stranger and have a wild orgy on the dance floor after seeing him perform live in Montreal.
The music invigorates your body. It makes you feel good and leaves the listener wanting more. Here’s hoping Gillis’ next recipe is even more delicious.

Gideons call it quits

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Nick Laugher , Staff Contributor

“Even if we hate each other, at least we love turtlenecks,” says Josh Salter as he bites into a bacon and egg sandwich, shrugging his shoulders at fellow bandmate Cailean Lewis. Salter and Lewis are just two parts of the boisterous and quirky local quintet known as The Gideons. With their personal cocktail of twisted, jangly psychedelic pop, The Gideons have been trudging it out as a local Halifax band for over two years.
Unfortunately the absurd humour and poignant, self-deprecating jabs are coming to a close. To mark the end of an era, the band is releasing their last – and technically first – album, a double LP entitled Oxford Street with 150 copies pressed on vinyl. It’s also a free download.
“We kind of did an album before and it had nine songs,” says Salter, tongue in cheek. “But we barely knew them when we recorded it. I guess it was more of an EP.”
The band is calling it quits despite playing a plethora of shows over the years and garnering a dedicated fan base. The catalyst of the split is Lewis’ imminent move to Toronto, but the band admits it’s not the sole reason.
“We’ve got four songwriters in the group now,” explains Lewis. “We’ve come to the point where we all want to start our own little vanity projects.”
The band members also cite their workhorse mentality as somewhat of a downfall, claiming they oversaturated the Halifax scene and played themselves out.
“I think (Halifax) can definitely still sustain bands, that’s not what (this is) about,” says Lewis, citing Dog Day as a prime example.
For budding bands to make it in the HRM, they have to be willing to put in the time. Unfortunately, in a university city like Halifax, you also have to deal with the perpetual in and out of your fan-base.
“Honestly, we just thought it would be best to quit before all of our fans finished their degrees,” says Salter slyly.
Before they flee the scene, the band  members are eager to go out with a bang. Upon receiving a grant from FACTOR, the group scrambled to release the double vinyl LP version of Oxford Street, referring to it as “self-indulgent” and “obnoxious.”
The title of the record comes from the legendary Oxford Street residence that has been passed down through the ages of indie in Halifax. Lewis recalls a New Year’s Eve party the band once played at the residence, during which Salter drank a bottle of absinthe and wound up in nothing but cut up underwear on the floor, unable to play an instrument.
“I originally wanted to call (the album) ‘Let It Be’, but none of the other guys found it that funny,” Salter jokes. “Then it was something like ‘100 per cent Crap, Zero Effort’. That or ‘Japanese Democracy’.”
Before The Gideons ride off into the sunset like the desperados they are, they’ve got two last shows up their sleeves. Aside from playing another New Year’s Eve bash – this time at Gus’ Pub – the band is also playing a show in support of the release of the album on Nov. 13 at the Khyber Club.
Salter is quick to mention that they haven’t practiced in nearly six months. The last time they did, there was actual fighting.
“At the show you’ll get the possibility of a live fight,” says Salter. “We’re like the Kinks, except we’re not brothers, so I might actually kill them.”
As for what’s on the agenda after The Gideons, Salter assures fans the band was merely a launching point for his brilliance.
“I’m positive my next band will absolutely eclipse The Gideons.”
While it’s hard to know if Salter is ever truly kidding or not, it’s pretty easy to see that anything involving The Gideons is nothing short of a riot.
Head over to www.myspace.com/getthegideons to grab their new album as a free download and keep your eyes peeled to www.hotmoneyrecords.com for the physical release. Be sure to catch them live before they’re gone for good.

Laura Chenoweth’s good garments

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Amy Donovan , Staff Contributor

Halifax fashion designer Laura Chenoweth says with assurance that there is no “hocus-pocus” in her organic cotton clothing line. She can trace the clothing she sells both to the farmer who grew the crop and to the guy in India who did the sewing.
That’s a big part of what being sustainable means to her.
“When I think of the word sustainability, I find the word misleading,” says Chenoweth in her airy Agricola Street office. “You have to be able to highlight what it means because it’s overused so much.”
“I like to break it down, thinking (about) what is involved in making beautiful clothing in say, a ‘sustainable’ way. Then I break it down even more. What are the ingredients used? Who’s involved? What’s the whole sphere involved? Rather than saying, ‘Oh, that’s sustainable.’ I mean, what does that mean?”
In Chenoweth’s fashion line – a collection of cotton clothing in simple, classic cuts and colours, with bold prints and sassy patterns thrown in – ‘sustainability’ is about being conscious of all the ingredients involved in each piece’s production.
So, the Ontario native flies to India once a year or so to work with several tailors (one is the son of longtime friends in a “block printing family”) who sew all of her clothing. The certified organic cotton she uses exclusively in her clothing comes from India too. Recently, Chenoweth has also started selling organic cotton to anyone in Halifax who sews and wants it.
She stresses that here in Canada, it’s especially important to think about where cotton is coming from and what’s being done to it. Canada, unlike the United States and other countries, can’t grow cotton, so all of our cotton is imported.
Organic cotton costs about 25 per cent more than conventional sprayed cotton, but Chenoweth is adamant that it’s worth it to pay more.
“You have to get in touch with what the clothing ingredients are,” she says. “Cotton is the most heavily-sprayed crop in the world.”
Cotton accounts for 16 per cent of the world’s pesticide consumption, she says.
“And the people who pick the cotton? They’re really sick, like very sick. They all have nerve damage. Women are mostly infertile.”
It is obvious that Chenoweth puts a lot of thought into the ethics of her clothing designs. “The companies that are growing the cotton are not educating the farmers who are working with this genetically modified seed with the fact that what they’re spraying on the plants is highly poisonous,” she says.
Chenoweth had no idea of the consequences of spraying cotton until she read the Environmental Justice Foundation’s 2007 report, “The Deadly Chemicals in Cotton”.
“It changed my life, reading that.”
That was when Chenoweth decided she would work only in organic cotton. It was also the time she started working on her business, Laura Chenoweth Organic Apparel, now a year old.
Chenoweth’s clothing can be purchased at P’Lovers in Park Lane Mall on Spring Garden Road and at Love, Me Boutique on Birmingham Street. She tries to avoid competition between the stores. Her more bohemian pieces go to Love, Me, and the “conservative who is still interested in conscious consumerism” can find Chenoweth’s basic corduroy skirts, available in a range of fall colours and priced at $120 at P’Lovers.
So far, Chenoweth says response from the Halifax market has been great. Price is a challenge, but Chenoweth is both confident and determined.
“I feel very artistic,” she says, choosing the word carefully. “One wants to look for a bargain but when you buy something new, I feel you have to be willing to put out a bit more money,” she smiles. “But yeah, Halifax has been great. I feel like I’m in the right place.”

No risk in No Great Mischief

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Delia Macpherson, Assistant Arts Editor

On the bill this week at Neptune Theatre is Canadian playwright David Young’s No Great Mischief. Originally a novel written by Alistair Macleod, who grew up on a farm in Cape Breton, the play shows us the stories of the MacDonald clan.
The show centers around lead character Alexander MacDonald played by David Mcllwraith.  His character is the bored, annoyed, dispassionate type.  A character who is bored or annoyed all the time, unless masterfully done, translates similar energies into the audience, leaving them equally as unconcerned.  Mcllwraith’s character, for the most part, did exactly this.
No Great Mischief opened with most of the characters on stage, all facing the back wall, except Alexander MacDonald who sat in the centre, holding an invisible steering wheel, driving an invisible car. The characters facing the back wall began to hum and chant.
To avoid the confusion of actors coming on and off the stage between scenes, most of the performers remained on stage facing this same back wall when they weren’t performing. This was distracting. To avoid the confusion of changing sets, the stage consisted off a handful of chairs, a few musical instruments and a misty, blue backdrop – simple and dull.
Duncan Fraser played Callum MacDonald, brother to Alexander. He gave an absolutely brilliant performance. It was worth going to this show just to see his acting. Debuting at Neptune Theatre, Fraser takes on the challenging role of a verbally abusive alcoholic.
He appeared for the first time sitting in the far right hand corner of the stage, wearing a dirty undershirt and a bright red dress shirt. He had white spiked hair and patchy scruff.  He was shaky and spoke with a sarcastic, throaty Cape Breton accent and a tight chest.
“The MacDonald’s come from storm and shadow!”
If Callum MacDonald were ripped out of this play, he would still be equally entertaining if not more so. The plot is monotonous, repetitive and dogmatic.
The characters, set, props and story he interacted with were tedious and tiresome. There was no action, or colour, or conflict. Why not plunk the bitter alcoholic from Cape Breton, who most of us can relate to, in an old folks home? Or a mental institute? Both of these settings make us uncomfortable, and therefore all the more captivated. Think Martin Scorsese’s upcoming film Shutter Island. It’s set on a remote island where equally fascinating characters interact with each other – something worth watching.
Why not take a risk?
Richard Rose, director of No Great Mischief, obviously knew what he’s doing. The play screamed good director. The movements were tight, the blocking interesting, the performers confident, the transitions smooth.  Rose has worked on unconventional shows before, including directing a play performed in a house in Toronto. Each audience member picked a character and followed them around the house. That sounds awesome! Why not take the MacDonald family and set them up in home and do it the same way?
So much theatre is done without originality these days. For theatre to be brought back into the mainstream it needs to embrace challenges. Of course not all theatre needs to be alternative or earth shattering. The goal should be for a balance to suite all tastes. The tastes at Neptune must be bland.
The only real risk No Great Mischief took was with the lighting. There were cool lighting transitions mostly reflecting the weather and the moods of the characters, such as effects to mimic sunshine. There were also a few scenes set in mining shafts, where the only light came from the top of the men’s helmets.
Risk leaves audience members on the edge of their chairs. Risk includes fake blood, a tricky set change, an elaborate set, nudity or a touchy subject. It can breathe life into a show. Risk can be anything unconventional that aims to generate a response, any response at all, negative or positive, as long as the audience is engaged.
No Great Mischief had mind-blowing acting, chill music, interesting lighting and great direction. But it was conventional. Why not edit the play? Take something conventional and change things around.  Make it original.  How is the theatre world going to sustain itself on these types of performances? When the target age group is gone 50 years from now, what then?

Getting the Meat Curtains to open up

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Ella Rowan, Arts Contributor

On the street, Heather Rappard, Jenna Empey, Erin Allen and Jenny Gillespie look like four ordinary young women who lead ordinary lives. They do – during the day. But when night falls, the art student, the gardener, the baker and the street canvasser shed their sweet, everyday skins and slip into something a little more savoury. The awesome combination of their collective pussy power gives birth to the all-girl, all-punk sensation: Meat Curtains.
Ronnie RibRack (Empey) and Molly Meatloaf (Allen) sing/scream their hearts out while they beat the shit out of the drums, Patty Pastrami (Gillespie) shreds her guitbox to pieces and Betty Bologna (Rappard) mercilessly bitch slaps her bass. The result is a sound unlike any you’ve ever heard before, all recorded on a Fisher Price tape recorder. Don’t be fooled by what you read on their MySpace page: they sound nothing like “Maya Angelou fronting TLC”. Influenced by ‘60s girl groups The Crystals and The Birthday Party as well as ‘70s art-punk band The Fall, Molly Meatloaf eloquently summarizes their eccentric sound as “Steve Albini’s underpants”.
Their eclectic taste is evidenced by their answers to the crucial question: “what was the first album you ever bought?” Pastrami’s was The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. RibRack’s was One by Bryan Adams. Bologna bashfully admits her first as Mariah Carey’s Daydream – a classic. Meatloaf’s was Salt N’ Pepa.
Meat Curtains began by paying homage to their favourite bands, but now focuses on creating their own material.
“When we first started jamming together, we just picked covers we all liked to feel it out,” says RibRack, listing songs “He Hit Me” by The Crystals and “Jezebel” by Frankie Lane. “We’ve dropped those since.”
The band agrees that this change in repertoire was a good decision.
“It’s way easier to write your own songs than it is to try and mimic another band’s song while trying make it your own,” says Bologna
In the few months since the band’s summer inception, Meat Curtains has attacked the Halifax music scene blitzkrieg style: puncturing eardrums and satisfying the appetites of carnivorous punk lovers. The band members have played shows with the Stolen Minks, Dead Wife, ECT and Shearing Pinks – just to name a few. They’ve been working on a variety of projects that fans can look forward to hearing by January. And they’re just getting started.
“It’s a combination of novelty and timing, I guess,” says Ronnie RibRack when asked to spill the secret to Meat Curtains’ success. “Not that we’re like, super awesome supernovas … We sound different than what’s in town, and that seems to go over well.”
All-girl bands (good ones, at least) are hard to come by these days, but be sure to look out for Dream Couple, another local girl act and one of the Curtains’ faves. Rarely does a band fall in that sweet spot between Pussy Cat Doll girl pop, vapid as it is catchy, and femme rock a la Riot Grrrl, politically charged as it is crappy. Meat Curtains is hard to define, and they don’t want to be labelled as pissed off feminists with guitars.
“If four gentlemen got together to make music, would people say they sound like the Barenaked Ladies?” demands Meatloaf.
She makes a strong point.
Meat Curtains doesn’t want you to bare your breasts or burn your bra. They would rather you slap two slices of bologna over your nipples and dance around in sequined garb. They are amused by nicknames for female genitalia and share their favourites with me:
“Dick sandwich!”
“Wolf pelt!”
“Cold grilled cheese! We’re writing a song about this right now!”
Meat Curtains, in my opinion, takes the vaginal cake. To the band members, their name embodies “grease!” “filth!” and “sequins!”
“Cigarettes!” adds Pastrami emphatically. It all makes perfect sense. When I ask them about their upcoming show with Fresh Flesh and Jenocide at Gus’ Pub on Friday Nov. 13 (spooky), the excitement rises.
“It’s gonna be a cunt fortress!” promises Meatloaf.
The band muses on the idea of baking cupcakes for the show.
“We should just throw meat!” suggests Bologna. “I have a huge tub of mustard,” agrees Pastrami. “I’m waiting for the day when I can just throw it at people with a big wooden spoon.”
Maybe her opportunity has come at last. Gus’ Pub, next weekend. You’ll find me in the front row, covered in mustard.

Sustainability by the Sea

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Jenner-Brooke Berger, Staff Contributor

It was early April. In search of the perfect place for their new café, baker Tara MacDonald and barista Zane Kelsall had one disappointment after another. Almost at the end of their ropes, driving down Ochterlony Street in Dartmouth, Kelsall and MacDonald saw the for lease sign. Within minutes the landlord arrived to unlock the doors. What they found inside was a vast space with lofty ceilings, winding staircases, and white walls.
“We fell in love with it,” says Kelsall, “It became apparent we needed to do whatever it took to make this space work.”
Seven months later, what began as blank canvas has been transformed into Two If By Sea Café (affectionately nicknamed TIBS). Under a staircase sits the custom made bar, crafted by Kelsall himself, with local carpenter Todd Wall and artist John Howse. Howse’s paintings hang above the condiment table found at Halifax antique store Finer Things. The TIBS logo is designed by Halifamous poster magnates Yo Rodeo! Just Friends Records’ Mat Dunlap, another Haligonian, designed the café’s website.
On the first Saturday of the café’s career, coffee and croissant fans bustle in, their heads cast upward and around the space, taking in the rich mahoganies of the design, and the full smells emanating from brand new ovens. MacDonald’s long lithe arms quickly whisk their way through batch after batch of baked goods. Kelsall’s toothy smile welcomes the hoards of customers while he pours artful lattes. Kelsall’s wife Alexis serves coffee in her apron handmade by another local artist, Keely Maclean.
With everyone who has cheered and lovingly shoved TIBS into existence, it’s quite a family affair. But how did two young hopefuls manage to open their own business?

The Baker

Just weeks ago, MacDonald was baking commercially from her minute kitchen.
Originally from Ottawa, MacDonald moved to Toronto in 2006 in search of a broader music community. For two years she floated through the metropolis of the Greater Toronto Area. Heavily involved in the music scene for more than a decade, MacDonald worked for Canadian indie label Arts and Crafts. Arts and Crafts is responsible for such Can-pop sweethearts as Broken Social Scene, Stars and Apostle of Hustle. But MacDonald hit a wall. The routine, the rush, it all came to a head.
“I felt that I was suffocating in that big city, ” she explains.
In a bold choice, MacDonald decided to leave the province she had spent most of her life in. She aimed for the coast. What followed her move to Halifax was a series of events narrowing themselves in the path to TIBS. MacDonald began baking in her kitchen, a room roughly one-sixth the size of her space now at TIBS. With encouragement from her friends, she started to sell her croissants at the Dartmouth Farmer’s Market every Saturday. That the response was good is an understatement.
“I don’t even know how they all got my e-mail! People were just sending me these messages about how much they loved my baking.”
From there MacDonald happened to sit in Alexis Kelsall’s chair at Life Salon on Spring Garden. Then, MacDonald approached Zane Kelsall, then manager of Steve-O-Reno’s Café, about selling her croissants at Steve’s. They hit it off, riffed on coffee, hung out, and began their business plan in January 2009.

The Barista

Zane Kelsall’s true passion for a finely crafted beverage blossomed while working in a popular tea lounge in his hometown of Edmonton, Alberta. On a vacation to Halifax in 2005, Zane met his wife Alexis, and coincidentally drank coffee for the first time. Ordering whatever Alexis was getting in attempt to impress her, Kelsall hated the iced latte. He didn’t understand how anyone could love coffee.
After settling in Halifax, Zane worked for a popular, more reputable café than the one in which he had his bitter first impression. He began to learn the life of a proper espresso. Later, during a short stint in Calgary, Kelsall’s exposure to coffee culture exploded. Kelsall was trained by three time Barista Champion Sammy Piccolo at Caffe Artigiano. Upon returning to Halifax, Kelsall worked as acting manager of Steve-O-Reno’s. Once he met MacDonald, it was clear that their visions of an independent café complimented each other.

Dartmouth and localism

Community and location have played important roles in the opening of this independent business. With MacDonald’s Farmer’s Market following, and the virtual non-existence of café s in the city, TIBS recognized demand and sought to supply it.
“Dartmouth is Brooklyn to Halifax’s Manhattan,” MacDonald says, “it has everything: musicians, businesses, young families.”
TIBS’ focus on local talent and Canadian product ensures their sustainability. Because coffee’s value as a commodity is second in the world after petroleum, coffee ethics affect everyone. As a customer, buying coffee and tea from local independent cafés is number one on Planet Green’s “How to Go Green: Coffee and Tea” List. Second is using a travel mug. In support of this, TIBS offers a discounted cup of java to anyone who brings in their reusable mug, which means less garbage, and less impact on the environment. Another important aspect of environmental sustainability is the use of organic coffee and tea. Products with organic certification are more eco-friendly because they are grown and processed without toxic chemicals and harvested in ways that protect sensitive ecosystems. They spare workers from exposure to harmful pesticides and herbicides. A little known fact is that shade-grown coffee preserves habitats for migratory birds on coffee farms. TIBS brews only 49th Parallel coffee. Fair trade ensures living wages and safe working conditions for farmers. To exceed these standards 49th Parallel actually pays a special premium above the Fair Trade price standard through their Direct Relationship Program.
“This is the punkest thing we’ve ever done” beams MacDonald. “Ian Mackaye can’t say anything.” Kelsall’s and MacDonald’s do-it-yourself attitude is what she refers to. Young entrepreneurs face many challenges in acquiring loans and funds to open their own businesses. Through their resourcefulness this duo learned about the Centre for Entrepreneurship Education and Development (CEED), an organization which has funded other local independent businesses such as The Loop Craft Café. CEED’s website states their mission: “CEED is devoted to helping people discover and use entrepreneurship as a vehicle to become self-reliant. We have a vision of a vibrant entrepreneurial culture for all of Atlantic Canada.” (http://www.ceed.info)
“You know when everything kind of aligns itself? That’s what it was like. Once we decided to do this (open the café) it took about nine months. But we went slowly where it matters.” For Kelsall and MacDonald, quality is important. Fittingly, they nurtured their vision of a café for as long as it takes to have a child. Last week, they gave birth to the beautiful baby by the sea.
Visit Tara and Zane at TIBS at 66 Ochterlony Street in Dartmouth. Two If By Sea serves coffee and life-changing croissants Monday to Wednesday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday and Friday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Letters to the Editor

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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Climate change coverage opinionated, misleading

I was extremely disappointed to read the two articles in last week’s issue about Power Shift.
Joel Tichinoff’s article is extremely misleading about how the majority of participants felt about their experience at Power Shift and Fill the Hill. Had Tichinoff interviewed any of the Halifax delegates he would have received the most enthusiastic and positive of responses. I’ve been to many climate change conferences and rallies and these two events were by far the largest, best organized and inspiring I have ever attend. Tichinoff however, by his own admission, has never attended a climate rally and therefore has no basis for comparison, not to mention the fact that he’s not involved in the youth climate movement and didn’t attend a single Power Shift workshop.
And as to his comments about the lack of coverage of fill the hill, he was factually mistaken: CBC, CTV and Global covered the event.
He also failed to mention that youth protested during Question Period because they felt that it was the only recourse available to them; our leaders won’t listen to the urgent call for action on climate change from their own citizens and from the global community.
As I told him and as he heard on the bus back from Power Shift full of 40 youth participants, the Power Shift and Fill the Hill experience was an incredibly educational and valuable one for those youth. Those speeches were inspiring to many. If a “sense of disenchantment hung over the crowd” it was because our country is governed by people who choose to ignore the largest threat to human civilization the world has ever known – not because they were disappointed by the rally.
The science is proven, the urgent need for action is clear and we are trying to do something about it. I am disappointed with The Gazette for painting this vital movement in such a bad light.
Ben Wedge’s article was also highly misleading. It was in poor taste to highlight CBC’s portrayal of Jeh Custer’s abuse at the hand of security guards as seemingly fake. The photo used by the CBC to show Jeh’s face without blood prior to a later photo of him with blood is extremely blurry and pixelated, and is poor evidence of “an NDP conspiracy,” as the CBC alleges.
Wedge failed to address the core issue in his article, namely that youth felt that protest in the House was their only option to be heard since they’ve tried everything else. Wedge states “theatrics won’t help the cause,” but it appears that the opposite is true. The protest in Question Period got the climate movement more media coverage than ever before. As long as the federal government fails to take any action on the urgent issue of climate change, these types of protests are going to become more and more common.
I expect that you’ll be hearing from the youth who participated in Power Shift and I hope that you’ll publish their responses to these two negative and misleading articles.
One last thing, I understand this week’s issue has a sustainability theme. SustainDal was contacted to write an Opinions piece, for which we are grateful and have already submitted an article. However, as a group, we are disappointed that we have not been contacted to write more articles for the sustainability issue, on which we are one of the best authorities to speak. This is not to suggest that SustainDal should write the entire issue, or even the majority of articles (I understand The Gazette’s unwillingness to publish biased media), however we feel that we could give valuable direction to the content.
In general, I’d like to commend The Gazette for the best year of reporting I have seen in three and a half years.

— Emily Rideout

Editor’s note: Joel Tichinoff interviewed several delegates to get a sense of the atmosphere at Power Shift, however their names were not included, so the quotes had to be cut.

Power Shift story one-sided

I was disappointed to read Joel Tichinoff’s coverage of Power Shift in last week’s issue. I question his experience with climate change issues and find it quite surprising that he was so disappointed and uninspired by the conference. His perspective contrasts greatly to those of my friends who attended – they have come back praising the conference. Of course, the article doesn’t consider any one else’s opinion about the conference, especially from those who are more active in the field and have a lot more experience and credibility to discuss the event.
Additionally, Tichinoff stated that one MP called the loud verbal protest “embarrassing”, but failed to mention that Halifax’s own MP, Megan Leslie, personally called on Halifax Power Shifters to applaud them for their efforts, mentioning that they showed more courage than many MPs in the house.

— Spencer Fowlie.

Racism just as complex for international students

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By David Kumagai, Opinions Columnist

My voice fluctuates during my journalism ethics class. My classmates and I are trying to navigate the awkward issue of race. The tension hits a high note when one class member unintentionally insinuates that Albertans are bigots. The class jumps all over the slip, finally finding a simple case we can almost unanimously condemn. Still, I know I occasionally think it, my class was proof others do too: Alberta’s kind of like Canada’s Texas right?
Our professor, David Swick, sardonically recalled a documentary on American white supremacists called Blood in the Face, where one person calls on people from all white supremacist areas to unite. After circling different places in the States, the person includes southern Alberta.
I’ve never been to Alberta, so I know little first-hand about what it’s like there. After doing some research, I’ve found almost no statistical evidence that substantiates this apparently common assumption about the prairie province.
According to a report commissioned by the Department of Canadian Heritage in 2007, Alberta has more anti-racism initiatives than any other province and fewer complaints – proportional to its population – of racial discrimination than both Nova Scotia and Ontario. Is the rodeo the sole reason we associate Alberta with the perceived capital of American ignorance? Maybe it’s the tarsands. As usual, it’s probably more complicated than I can even allude to in this column.
But the in-class debate made me curious about Nova Scotia’s reputation both within Canada and abroad. I’ve spoken to a number of international students from Rhode Island, Antigua, the Bahamas and Poland; they have all been able to cite an encounter with racism here. The police, other students and university administrators were named as culprits.
One student recalled an evening where she was walking past Howe Hall and a group of students, who she guessed were drunk, said a number of racist comments to her and her friends.
Of course, Halifax has a poignant history of racism – from slavery to Africville to segregated schools to the more recent racism at Dartmouth’s Shoppers Drug Mart, when the store was caught keeping many of its black hair products locked up. Racism seems to be as big a problem here as it is in the much-lampooned province of tomorrow.
How do newcomers rate Halifax’s open-mindedness? Some of the people I’ve spoken to lauded the exposure to diverse communities in Halifax, such as the prominence of the LGBTQ community, while they are neither thrilled nor appalled by their reception as internationals.
I’ve mentioned the lack of Canadian geniality towards internationals in earlier columns, and have suggested that the entrenched support of the cultural mosaic has made us apathetic toward engagement with international visitors. The debate in ethics class made me question that suggestion. Is the distance between international students and domestic students a racial issue rather than a cultural one? As is usually the case, I think the answer lies somewhere in the middle.
Either way, it’s an obstacle that needs to be overcome, from the tarsands to Peggy’s Cove.

The Healthy Student – Don’t panic when you hear ‘pandemic’

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Rachel Sunter, Health Columnist

At the first mention of Swine Flu in Mexico, visions of zombie-like global infestation danced in my head. Will it come here? Will the forest be safe? Will I need a gun?
But after the 50th person joked, “Maybe you’ve got swine flu,” and I realized there was no apparent need for paranoia, I stopped paying attention. Shrugging my shoulders and exemplifying my best won’t-happen-to-me attitude worked well until the vaccine became available, and suddenly I had a choice to make.
On one hand, a cheerleader in Washington can only walk backwards after taking the vaccine. She is the unfortunate one in one million to get such side effects from the vaccine.
On the other hand, medical officials promise the vaccine is safe, and media outlets are coaxing the public with overwhelming statistics about how quickly this virus is spreading and how many people it’s killed. When pushed by panic, it’s hard to make choices.
I’m a firm believer that knowledge can reduce the fear of the unknown. So here’s a breakdown of Swine Flu, sans out-of-context numbers, without one in a million cases.

What is it?
H1N1 is a type of flu. In more medical terms, it is a strain, or subtype, of the influenza A virus. A virus is an ultramicroscopic (too small to be seen) agent that infects living things by dwelling and reproducing within cells. Viruses mainly infect bacteria, plants and animals.
Influenza is a virus that affects birds and mammals. It is divided into three subtypes: influenzas A, B and C. Each is categorized by its dominating chemical characteristics. All Influenza A viruses have an H and an N protein on their surface (hemaglutinin and neuramindase). These proteins vary in form due to the rapidly mutating nature of viruses. Swine Flu is classified as an Influenza A (H1N1) virus.
Earlier forms of this same flu have been seen before. In 1918 and 1919, a different H1N1 flu killed tens of millions of people worldwide, making the Spanish Flu the most lethal pandemic in recent history. The term ‘pandemic’ refers to both the geographical size and number of people affected by a particular affliction. An illness is deemed to be an ‘epidemic’ when it affects a large number of people at the same time in a specific region. When this region is particularly widespread or seen in regions around the world, the outbreak is considered to be a pandemic.
When the World Health Organization stated in June that H1N1 is a phase six pandemic, this was due more to its widespread nature than to the severity of its cases.

Where did H1N1 come from?
Thankfully, today’s H1N1 virus has not shown the same lethal potency as its earlier relatives. Scientists believe this virus contains strains of up to five pre-existing flu viruses, combining traits from bird flues, pig flues and human flues. Although originally rumoured to be the pig virus from Mexico, scientists now believe it is more likely the H1N1 flu came from pigs raised in Asia. They think it came to North America with an infected person.

How does it spread?
The H1N1 flu spreads the same way other flu viruses spread: through the bodily fluids of mucus and saliva. Coughing and sneezing project the virus into the air, and if the particles reach another human’s nose or mouth, either directly or by hand, this person is prone to infection as well. According to germ theory, hand washing should help prevent spread of this flu.

What are the signs and symptoms?
Influenza viruses give humans headaches, fever, chills, coughs, congestion, sore throat, body aches and fatigue. For some, diarrhea and vomiting may also occur.
I recently spoke to a girl in Halifax who had H1N1 a few weeks ago. She said her skin was sore and sensitive, and she had a deep, phlegmy cough, but that it wasn’t much different from flues she has had before.
The symptoms vary from case to case, sometimes according to a person’s history of health.

Why is H1N1 in the news?
Fatalities from this flu take a tiny notch out of the deaths caused by world hunger, cancer and even the seasonal flu. From a journalistic standpoint: it’s scary because it can kill you, and it’s new.

Though increased understanding does not always reduce fear – understanding torture, for example, may sky-rocket fear into total terror – I’ve found that breaking H1N1 down to the virus it is, and all that that entails, has made it a lot less scary.

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