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First Paralympic Games in Canada will have record television coverage

Now that the Olympic flame has been extinguished, the events completed and the medals awarded, most of the thousands of journalists and revellers who descended upon Vancouver have gone back to wherever they came from. Those who stick around for another two weeks, however, will witness something special.
They will watch athletes like Lauren Woolstencroft, Brian McKeever and Jean Labonté as they try to realize their Olympic dreams. McKeever, who is visually impaired, was set to become the first athlete to ever compete in both the Winter Olympics and Paralympic games until his Olympic spot was given to someone else. There are about 55 athletes expected to represent Canada at the 10th Winter Paralympic Games.

Rest your fanny at Art Matters

Sean Yendrys curates unique art, and features his favourite four legged friend - the chair

By looking over his past shows, you might assume that Sean Yendrys has a chair fetish.
The 22-year-old Concordia graphic design student is curating his second Art Matters show at Concordia this week. And like last year, he is featuring some chairs in his display.
“There is a big possibility that my phone will die,” Yendrys said, upon my third phone call in two days. “I’ve spent the last 48 hours at Concordia. I haven’t had a chance to recharge it.”
The man is busy, and with good reason.

“O Canada” change an attempt at a progressive veneer

Proposed changes to national anthem a waste of time, representative of Conservative cynicism

Last week’s Throne Speech saw the announcement that the Conservative government would be asking Parliament to investigate changing the lyrics of “O Canada.” Specifically, the government intended to change the line “in all thy sons command,” to “thou dost in us command.” The proposed change was apparently intended to make the national anthem more gender-inclusive. Although the proposed change was quickly cancelled due to what appeared to be popular disapproval, the fact that the change was even proposed represents yet another instance of political correctness being taken too far. More so, it exposes an attempt by the government to appear progressive without actually taking any sort of progressive action.

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What the budget means for you

Budget 2010 offers little for students

OTTAWA (CUP) — While its title was “Leading the Way on Jobs and Growth,” the Conservatives’ March 4 federal budget offered little for students seeking such prosperity in the near future. The biggest announcement in the over 400-page document offered $19 billion in stimulus funding to complete the Tories’ Economic Action Plan. The two-year program launched in the 2009 budget has supported post-secondary education in the form of a $2 billion Knowledge Infrastructure Program announced last year — an initiative that many universities and colleges still have yet to benefit from. The majority of that targeted spending is set to end in March 2011. Full story

Concordia communications and journalism students break losing spell

Concordia students prove they can play on a field dominated by French universities

Concordia University reversed its reputation as being a loser — and it took less than one week of competition.
For years, Concordia students finished last or second-to-last at the all-French Communications Games, an annual competition where students from a number of Canadian universities are challenged in fields of media studies, journalism, debate and advertising, among others.
This year, however, the delegation walked away with a third place overall finish, and two gold medals, after competing in the 13 challenges. One of the first-place finished was earned in debate by delegate Hugo Pilon-Larose. The other was won in the sports competition — a Dance Dance Revolution dance-off.

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Israeli Apartheid Week opens to good attendance, controversy

Critics accuse IAW of demonizing Israel, encouraging anti-Semitism

With the opening of Montreal’s annual Israeli Apartheid Week, last Thursday, came the annual firestorm of criticism over the name and purpose of the event. IAW Montreal is one of 40 similar events being held around the world. Each features speakers calling for a boycott of Israel, accusing the Jewish state of discrimination towards non-Jews and being guilty of apartheid.
Apartheid is a form of government practiced from 1948 to 1994 in South Africa, in which non-whites could not vote, own land, marry whites or use the same public facilities and services as whites.
This year’s IAW runs until March 11, when it will culminate in a cultural event featuring Palestinian hip hop and spoken word poetry. Organizers are expecting around 150 to 200 people at most of the events, said Samer Sefian, a spokesman. “I’d say it’s almost as big as last year,” he said. “We’ve had good attendance and of course there’s been a lot of negative attention too.”

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