Few shows at the Sudbury Theatre Centre take on a darker tone filled with otherworldly mysticism and twisting plots.

Not often is this kind of ambition on stage taken as it was with Stephen Massicotte’s The Clockmaker; however it pays off in the form of strong performances and interesting technical aspects.

With many plays going through the STC, few have a sense of mysticism about them, save for children plays.  This can be troublesome due to the overabundance of ‘realistic’ stories and characters that tend to make one’s theater-going rather dull.  However, The Clockmaker breaks this trend in that it hits a variety of themes other than the usual comedy and relationship-drama.

The Clockmaker reaches from mystery, to comedy, to fantasy, to physical conflict that so many productions in Sudbury seem to lack.

The technical aspect of the production also enhances the ambitious choice of script with the abilities of the set.  Using three rotating cogs on the stage, it makes for quick and spectacular set changes and interactions of the performers in a way that fits the motif of the play so well.  Set changes have so many moving parts (performers included) that it all seems to be playing out like clockwork before the audience’s eyes.

The production carries across two different locations, here and there, and both have a specific ambiance, one feeling more grounded and the other feeling more surreal.

The performances of the actors were mixed, with Stephen Sparks (Monsieur Pierre) and Richard Sheridan Willis (Heinrich Mann) being on the stronger side; while Jay Davis (Adolphus) and Jessica Moss (Freida) being on the weaker side.  However, this isn’t to say the latter two were unsatisfactory, as near the end particularly, Davis’ performance renders the audience dead silent under the blind rage and passion of his character.

The interactions between Sparks and Willis on stage were the most intriguing. Sparks’ portrayal of the character allowed for a pleasantly awkward exchange that left much to anticipate in terms of the reveal, dealing with the memories and lack-thereof of Willis’ character.

With a compelling and mystical opening, the production garners enough interest to make it through some of the less compelling moments to work its way to passionate performances by the entire cast near the end.

STC’s production of The Clockmaker is a refreshing change from the ‘realistic’ productions that have been all too frequent. With some well-done moments by the performers on an interesting set, it is one of the more compelling productions this season at the STC.

The SGA executive will have two of the same faces representing students next year and one new one, Mark Mancini.

Mancini competed for the position of Vice-President of Student Issues with incumbent senator Chris MacCullough.

“I am very excited about the election results and the team that the voters chose,” stated Mancini. “We are all in agreement and on the same page about the direction the SGA has taken in the last year, and the need for progress to continue.”

Mancini was a senator for two terms and the President of the Political Science Club at Laurentian University.

He is optimistic for his upcoming term in office and has an ambitious agenda that he plans to carry out.

“I am looking forward to carrying out an agenda that focuses squarely on direct, frontline issues that affect students everyday: transit, dealing with cuts to programming, and strengthening advocacy clubs,” said Mancini.

In order to do this, he will be working with the returning executive of Andy Rollins and Iain Park, who were re-elected in their respective positions.

“I know Andy and Iain will be great partners to have as we continue to work on behalf of the students,” said Mancini.

Iain Park has been re-elected as the Vice-President of Services for a third term.

Park was competing with David Kvelashvili for the position.

Throughout Thursday night’s count Park remained ahead in the vote with the final count being 507 for Park to Kvelashvili’s 283.

“I would like to thank everyone who voted in the election,” said Park. “I would like to thank my family, friends and co-workers for being so supportive over the past two years. I love my job and I’m honoured to continue serving my constituents.”

Park drew on his experience for his campaign with slogan’s like, “Vote for Dean Brody,” alluding to the 2012 Frosh concert.

The concert raised $30,000 for the SGA, which allowed for the largest club budget in Laurentian University’s history.

Park is looking forward to the upcoming school year and is excited to be working for the students.

“The union is experiencing an exceptional amount of growth,” said Park. “I look forward to growing with the union, and assuring that the SGA has a structure to accommodate this growth. I look forward to working with Andy (Rollins), Mark (Mancini), Charles (Wilson) and our membership to accomplish this.”

Andy Rollins will return as the SGA President in the 2013-14 academic year.

The final vote count was announced at approximately 3 a.m. this morning.

Rollins posted on Facebook early this morning that he “could not be more excited for a second year as President,” and thanked everyone who supported him throughout the election.

The final vote count started at 7 p.m. last night, and it was a close race. Rollins finished with 353 votes, McKenna Rose Elsasser with 306 votes and Kimberly Hempell (who ran for the second consecutive year) with 145 votes.

In his first year in the position, Rollins helped add food to the pub menu and began the Healthy Living Initiative. He also helped forge the university’s relationship with Ontario Northland Bus Services and the Canada Post.

A major platform of Rollins’ campaign was the experience he gained over the last year, stating in his bio in the Lambda that “now that I am familiar with how the school works I want to introduce more new initiatives… My experience and drive to help the student body will help me achieve this.”

In total, 825 LU students voted, which is 89 less than last year.

*Look for more in-depth coverage on the SGA elections in the next issue of the Lambda on Apr. 9.

This report is written to clarify the argument that, for uncontrollable reasons, was not stated explicitly in the debate I had with Prof. Brain MacLean, the Chair of the Economics Department at Laurentian University.  The debate was entitled “Should the American government have bailed out Wall Street?” and dealt with the decision made by the American federal reserve to bail out the financial sector after the market collapse in 2008.

Within the debate, I remember stating that Prof. MacLean and I were not in harsh opposition to one another.  The recognition that the activities of Wall Street were wrong was not in dispute, but the act of bailing out the debt by the Federal Reserve in order to correct the failures of the private banks in the U.S. should have included a punishment on the banks’ CEOs, instead of a convenient relief.  A revelation should have been stated to the open public of the real nature of these disparaging events.  They are not only examples of the increasing continuity of failures in the free-market system, but, beyond a construction by an “invisible hand” not knowable to the general public, a formulation of the dominance of economics to such an extent that we are under the control of “invisible” imperial factors of economic dictatorial rule. This revelation displays that the so-called “free-market” system from its beginnings has little contact with the major principles incorporated under the typical democratic order. That event should have generated the argument that a new monetary system should be created.

For various reasons the debate was not formulated in that manner. All I could do was be repetitive of my general view which I would not like to have it acclaimed as “theoretical,” but a general description of the real. The description of reality is a difficult task, owing to the fact that the description of our economic system and its related democratic neo-liberal order hides many important factors, which are made invisible. If anything, this is the true nature of the “invisible hand,” not the simplistic, ironically individualist democratic claim of Adam Smith, the forefather of the free-market system. Much of that simplistic, black- and-white logic misrepresents the more real condition of an increasingly complex and perplexing global framework.

I am certainly not blaming the previous reporter for not identifying these intricacies previously, since they would require a long explanation that obviously cannot be done in a news report. I am not exactly sure if I actually stated the following claims below in the debate. Yet, I can say that some of them were stated, and others are additions for the sake of clarity.

I did give a brief explanation of market failures: I believe I displayed the lack of consideration of externalities, and also mentioned Keynes and Galbraith, economic theorists, whose critical claims are not regarded by every-day practice. The neo-liberal market system, for Keynes, would not come close to the supply for the level of aggregate demand, and this inadequacy could lead to ever-prolonging periods of high unemployment.  John Kenneth Galbraith, a Canadian-born economic theorist, rejected the technical and mathematical models of neo-classical economics as being divorced from reality. Under this spectrum, he could see the rise in oligopolies, and I believe we can add plutocracies. He stated distinctly that the consumer sovereignty was firmly alienated by market power, and that the public sector becomes increasingly negated. For him, it seems that any viable reformer must be averse to the free-market.

Even amongst economic theorists, the free-market system was not efficient due to its simplistic, reductive view, and I desired a further explanation, even in economic parlance, on addressing these contentions.  I remember mentioning the speculative emptiness in the selection of gas prices: asking, who are these speculators, and how are they chosen to predict honestly the future economic conditions, or a reason for the price of gas? It was not answered. I belief I stated that most money was truly vacuous in regards of supply and demand, and that many of the people’s wants – which is a key requisite within neo-liberal economic theory – are ignored by corrupt and immoral corporations, and also our current government, which is more closely tied to these corporations, which are also more closely tied to the banks. Therefore, the once-upon-a-time Canadian pride in ‘social’ democracy -  which even Arendt stated is the only good thing in the neo-liberal democracy, where there are public bodies that could be formed to protect against the private, profit-making dictatorship of the free-market or the state capitalist market – is continuously diminishing. It may be argued that the Bank of Canada protects against the unruly activities of private banks, but that distinction is actually not so clear anymore, since not only the private banks in Canada but the Bank of Canada is under scrutiny.

The main problem that generated the economic crisis was the overvaluation of mortgage rates based on the false notion, from a lack of honest insight in the “invisible hand” idealization theory that housing prices would continue to escalate. Most of the money that engenders our activity is done through manipulated lending and investments of banks and stock markets, where speculation is used in order to take advantage through the increasing formalization of debt. This is how banks and the rich make money. This has little to do with the law of supply and demand, which should be based on actual products and services, not on the speculation of investments that is dependent on debt – not growth – in the economy.

These performances made by the irresponsible stock market and the private banks of America have global control, and we who are participants in this market system are included in this form of imperialism, a form of rule that democracy was supposed to eradicate.  Such participants are actually endorsing, whether they know it or not, the economic dictatorial determinism that is usually out of our control.  Yet, it is not really harming those who have extensive economic power, and who participate in maintaining it and establishing that illogical condition which is falsely described to us under seemingly concrete numerical terms and constricting, apparently logical, diagrams.

The main point is that the current all-powerful monetary system and its claims of security and protection do not make sense. Even the regulatory reforms to lessen the chance of economic-recessional recurrence do not come close to the requirements of the ‘non-value’ elements of environmental concern. The value monism of economics does not go beyond the price of the good itself.  It does not consider its “negative externalities,” making it absolutely ridiculous to claim itself as a perfect system. The entirety of effects on the public sector must be included in the economic value system. Yet, this limited “value monism,” instead of “value-pluralism,” continues by considering only profit as the main goal. There almost no true adherence to public, social, cultural, spiritual or aesthetic concerns, and yet these are increasingly recognized as essentials for the survival of a growing civilization. If they are not valued, the degradation of the quality of life will increase.

The answer of bailing out these American banks only relieves the problem temporally. It does not even recognize that this act adheres to another problem: that the current free-market system only functions through an immediate reaction, which exacerbates the condition.  Moreover this lack of good foresight – which comes from a severe lack of hindsight – does not consider the new important factors of sharing, or of employing a “gift economic culture,” which we can learn from our aboriginal peoples to relieve us from the global imbalances in trade, and to provide a sense of the worth of a long-standing economic sustainability, instead of the conflicting, inhumane practice of competition in the illusory ‘free’-market system. This is basically what I wanted to say.

Laurentian University and the Vale Living with Lakes Centre, along with 10 other Canadian universities, received $4.4 million dollars in funding to create the Canadian Network for Aquatic Ecosystem Services.

“Up on the Hudson Bay coast we’ve been working with first nations communities addressing some of their concerns that the rivers are changing,” Dr. John Gunn, Canada Research Chair for Stressed Aquatic Systems and Director of the Vale Living With Lakes Centre at Laurentian University, said.

The first nations peoples of Northern Ontario have been noticing climate change, water levels getting lower, more weeds, and more pike which was a species rarely seen in these rivers before. Using traditional ecological knowledge, as well as science, the Living with Lakes center hope to answer some of the main questions the first nations people are raising.

“Our project is asking big questions over a number of many years ahead of us, how will climate change change the nature of the fish and the water quality in such a big system, and what will be the impact of new development such as rail ways, roads and towns,” Gunn said.

The research being done on the Hudson Bay coast happens to be on some of the most controversial territory: Attawapiskat. Recently Attawapiskat has been fighting for aboriginal rights and the environment. Currently the area is very difficult to reach and costly to visit. The area is desolate and much of it lacks electricity, running water, and clean drinking water. It is home to a diamond mine, as well, there has been an oil deposit recently found close by. These factors can mean many things for the first nations peoples as well as the environment including railways and roads being built, as well as urbanization.

The north is also home to the second largest wetland in the world, an important place because according to Gunn, it is a wetland that absorbs contaminants from the atmosphere like green house gasses and is a major site for cleaning up the atmosphere that could be considered the lungs of the earth. The project will also involve testing these areas to further predict their future. An issue raised throughout the north is the mercury, which over the year has accumulated there and does not appear to be getting any better.

“Mercury is from the burning of fossil fuels,” Gunn said. “Most of the mercury is caused by coal and natural gas. Combustion then travels through the atmosphere, and then, unfortunately, the north is where it settles. Warm mercury polluted air comes down and settles in cold areas, so the poor first nations people don’t get any benefit from the activity that generated all of this, but the pollutant even from China come over the pole and land in Northern Canada.”

Many of the once commercial fishing rivers have been contaminated, and although it is mainly the older fish that have high levels of mercury, it is still an issue, said Gunn.

“The people in Attawapiskat, or other first nations communities, do of course use the fish very importantly for food,” Gunn said. “And we don’t want to discourage that because the mercury problem is concentrated in a few large individuals in the population and if you had to choose between eating wild fish and eating junk food, fish is better. A lot of these people suffer serious diabetes and health problems, their best quality food is their wild food.”

Using a unique mixture of traditional knowledge and science, the team hopes to start sampling the water shed soon, but with a small team working on an area the size of Nova Scotia, in one of the most controversial places, the challenge is a hard one.

lambda@laurentian.ca

The only place on campus legally permitted to sell alcohol, the Pub Downunder, is the place where you can find students unwinding and having a drink.

The Students’ General Association (SGA) operates the pub and the staff consists of SGA members. Cheryl Powell, senior manager explained, “everyone who works here is an SGA member because we are owned and operated by the SGA. We have almost zero affiliation with the university except for the fact that we are SGA-operated.”

The space is leased off of Laurentian University, but the pub does have to answer to the university if incidents happen on the premises.
If any incidents do occur at the pub, the consequences for those involved can be severe, as Powell explains, “we have a code of sanctions that is a very strict guideline. As in, you do this, this is the penalty. It generally works on pub bans. They are everywhere from three months, to a lifetime ban.”

Anyone caught fighting in the pub will immediately receive a lifetime ban.

The pub, however, does not have many instances where security needs to get involved.

“We’re pretty lucky here compared to other bars,” said Powell. “I’m not saying that things don’t happen, but if you look at particularly the city clubs, we don’t have the same kind of issues. Guns, knifes, broken bottles, I’ve been here nine years and I’ve never had an incident like that happen. If we have a handful of serious incidents, actual physical altercations a year, that’s about standard for us.”

Incidents are not always fights, for instance, at a pub event the DJ told everyone to get on the tables. One girl got up on the table and fell, resulting in her immediate expulsion from the pub.

“Our main job is to keep both our staff and our patrons safe,” said Powell. “If we start seeing risky behaviour like that, sorry you’re going to have to leave. They are usually pretty quickly handled with no serious repercussions.”

The security at the pub is handled by the pub itself and is composed of licensed security guards and in-house security. On an average pub night, the number of people working is between five and ten staff members, with one of them acting as head bartender and head of security.

This past fall, the pub started introducing a small menu.

“We’ve actually been talking about doing it for years,” said Powell. “But, because Aramark has the contract for food, we did have to work it outwith them. We finally got it going last year and they replaced the chef, so we kind of had to start again. It seems to be working really well, I’m pretty happy about it. It’s bringing in that different crowd in the afternoons.”

All of the profit from the sale of food goes directly to Aramark, but this will potentially change as Powell explained.

“[It’s] sort of a trial, in September we’ll renegotiate and say ‘you’re making this many dollars, why can’t we get a little cut of that?’”

The pub is also looking into expanding their food operation by possibly introducing wing nights or special appetizers.

“We’re working on ideas like this,” said Powell. “Will we see them this year? I don’t think so. It is something that we are pushing for.”

Since introducing food, however, the pub increased its prices within the first month resulting in complaints from the student body.

“Our hands are pretty tied with the contract with the university,” said Powell. “It’s tough for us, the menu’s changed, the prices have changed and we’ve taken some heat for it, but we don’t have a lot of control over it. We just apologize and say we’re doing the best we can.”

lambda@laurentian.ca

The Community Builder Award is an annual award given to a member of the Sudbury community that shows excellence in their field. On Feb. 21, Laurentian University President Dominic Giroux was recognized in the category of education.

“I am humbled by this recognition,” said Giroux. “Especially as I follow in the steps of former recipients and dear friends such as Jean Hanson and Gisèle Chrétien.”

Giroux has been a member of Laurentian University since April 2009, making him the youngest university president at age 33.Some of the accomplishments from his first term include: approval for the School of Architecture, the establishment of the Goodman School of Mines and the Centre for Academic Excellence and spearheading $51 million in funds for campus renewal and modernization.

All of these accomplishments have led the Laurentian board of governors to renew his appointment of president until June 30, 2019. This appointment sees Giroux oversee a $132-million budget, almost 10,000 students, 1,000 employees and $25 million in research. A leader is only as good as the people that they are leading according to Giroux, during his acceptance speech, as he paid recognition to everyone who helped him to win the award.

“The fact is that tonight I accept this recognition on behalf of the entire Laurentian University community. They are the true community builders and I am only up here on their behalf.”

Giroux has had a history of leadership and being in the public eye. His first public position being an elected trustee to an Ottawa school board at the age of 19. Since his time in Ottawa he has gone on to be the assistant deputy minister with the Ontario Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. While at this post he was in charge of 1,200 employees in 10 cities.

Giroux then went on to become one of the four members of the Drummond Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services as well as co-special adviser on the implementation of a Northern Policy Institute.

For all of these accomplishments, Giroux has also received one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Awards in 2011 and a Queen’s Jubilee Medal.
Giroux is expecting great things as he leads Laurentian University into the future.

“It is an exciting time to be part of the Laurentian community,” said Giroux. “We have much to be proud of and much coming up.”

lambda@laurentian.ca

On Feb. 6, Chloë Mirfield was elected Chief Returning Officer (CRO) for the SGA.

Mirfield chose to run for the position because she has “a lot of experience with elections and the issues [associated] with elections. Having run in every election from high school to when I was out west at UBC to here [at Laurentian University]. I decided that just because I’m not returning next year and not running for any positions, I thought my knowledge and wisdom could be used still in an unbiased position to make a smooth election, for the first time in 10 years of the SGA.”

The CRO is in charge of the overall running of the election.

“We do everything,” said Mirfield. “From vote counting to overseeing postering, candidate nominations, everything.”

The position of CRO is not a salaried position, however, they do receive a stipend at the end of the election for work put in.

The job is posted by the SGA and all interested students can submit their resumes to the SGA office.

The SGA board, at a board meeting open to all students, then holds a discussion while in camera regarding the applicants.

After discussion, the voting board members in attendance elect the new CRO.

The work can be challenging and enforcement of the rules can be necessary, according to Mirfield.

“The biggest thing we’re trying to deal with now is the influence of social media in elections. One of the biggest issues facing the last election was the use of the Internet to campaign. The CRO at the time with the elections committee, decided to not allow online campaigning and the issues came up when one candidate in particular decided to use online campaigning.”

The infraction of these rules as well as others caused one of the candidates in last year’s election to be disqualified. This coming election, social media and the Internet are once again a hot topic of debate, according to Mirfield.

“One of the things we’re going be looking at is the Internet. Is it going to be allowed? One of the biggest arguments why they [candidates] want online campaigning is, if you don’t have residence. It is a very powerful thing and it is such a large clique that the only way you can battle that is if you can use an online campaign to reach the greater community.”

The CRO also works closely with the elections committee, which share the responsibility of running the election.

This year, according to Mirfield, the CRO and elections committee are working for a fair and legitimate election.

“A key thing to getting people interested in an election is to show that it is a legitimate election, so that’ll be a big drive. It has always been a legitimate election, but we kind of need to get the trust back from the students that everything is going smoothly and I think that transparency is a thing, but also making it intelligible for people that aren’t familiar with the election process and once you get involved you understand it’ll be a lot easier to get people to jump on board.”

In order to ensure that this happens, the CRO will have to work long hours, especially on the night of the election, Mirfield added.

Last year the CRO and members of the elections committee were in the SGA office until five in the morning, counting ballots. The election is only a few weeks away and, regardless of its outcome, Mirfield reminds those running that, “it’s a learning experience, even for those who aren’t getting elected. Politics is politics, everywhere.”

Established author and speaker Gabor Mate spoke at LU on Feb. 7 as part of the Dr. Dan Andréae Distinguished Presidential Lecture Series on Living in Healthy Communities.

Mate is a Hungarian-born Canadian physician, best-selling author and public speaker. His published works, which include When the Body Says No; The Cost of Hidden Stress and The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction have been published world-wide in twenty languages. Mate is also a regular columnist for The Globe and Mail and the Vancouver Sun, and is known as an expert on a range of topics, some of which include addiction and attention deficit disorder.

Some of the topics discussed by Mate in the lecture, which was titled “Living Well in a Toxic World” included how mental stress affects the physical being, and how we are affected by living in a materialistic society.

Mate argued that the mind and the body are inseparable, and similarly the individual from the social environment cannot be separated. He also presented his theory that children whose parents are stressed are more likely to develop asthma.

“Human beings are bio cycle social creatures – this means that the biology of humans is shaped by psychological and social environment,” stated Mate in the lecture.

Mate also spoke widely on how child development is widely impacted by the time spend with their parents, and in modern society kids do not have the environment to develop correctly.

“Studies show that the optimal environment for child rearing is actually the hunter gatherer tribe,” stated Mate. “There are three reasons for this: number one is that in this tribe, children are constantly in a supporting network of adults. Number two, the parents are constantly with the children – there is no such thing as daycare. Most importantly and number three is that in a tribe, when children cry their parents pick them up, and fulfil the child’s deepest need of human connection.”

The series’ goals include enriching lives, and helping to build healthy communities.

The lecture was just over an hour long, and with sold out seats, staff had to set up extra seating in the Alumni Hall, where guests could watch a live video feed.

Mate’s lecture can be viewed at www2.laurentian.ca/lecture.