QUID NOVI Université McGill, McGill University, Faculté de Droit Faculty of Law Volume 31, no. 3 Volume 31, no. 3 2 7 octobre 2 009 October 27, 20 09 QUID NOVI QUIDNOVI IN THIS ISSUE... Editorial 3661 Peel Street Buncha’ Balooney Montréal, Québec by Courtney Retter 3. Veni, Vidi, Vaccinati? H2A 1X1 (LAW II) (514) 398-4430 www.law.mcgill.ca/quid 4. From the LegalEase Collective 5. Listening to the Victims of Crime... Caution: The following headline may Editors-in-Chief Courtney Retter surprise you as much as it surprised Chanel Sterie 6. Droit à l’image me. Ready for it? The Balloon Boy saga was a hoax. Falcon Heene was never in- Webmaster 8. Living in a World of Crooked Lamps side that free-floating helium balloon Ryan Schwartz that cascaded across a Colorado sky. In Layout Editors 9. Shame on Human Rights Interns... fact, court documents have revealed James Nowlan that the couple orchestrated the event Lexi Pace 10. Integration at the Law Faculty... two weeks prior to the incident and in- Associate Editors structed their children to lie to the au- Stefanie Carsley 12. 50 States in 50 Seconds thorities and media alike. Falcon’s Eliza Cohen Michelle Felsky parents could be charged with conspir- Andrea Girardin 14. Enfin une campagne électorale acy, contributing to the delinquency of a Faizel Gulamhussein Daniel Haboucha minor, and attempting to influence a Allison Jaskolka 15. Humbled by Seeing the Bigger Point public servant. Oh, and there is also the Bonnie King claim that the Heenes may have vio- Ilya Kirtsman Mathieu Kissin lated FAA regulations barring people Marie-Pier Leduc from flying balloons within 5 miles of an Carrie Levitt Corey Omer airport. Does anybody else want their Evan Paperman October 15th back? Maybe I am being Brett Pedvis David Rapps overly sensitive to an event that, in the Christina Sauro grand scheme of newsworthy, is trivial Laura Scheim and undeserving of my love and atten- Nikita Stepin Lucinda Tang tion. In my defense, it has been a rough Eva Warden week of revelations. I also learnt that Randee Zeitz Krista Zeman global warming might be a hoax too. Staff Writers Paul Hudson, the Climate correspon- Chase Bartlét Kirk Emery dent for BBC news, reported that the Charlie “Diva” Feldman warmest year recorded globally was not Andrea Girardin Michael Shortt in 2008. Marc Tacheji continued on p.17 The Quid Novi is published weekly by the students of the Faculty of Law at McGill University. Production is made possible through the direct support of students. All contents copyright 2009 Quid Novi. Les opinions exprimées sont propres aux auteurs et ne réflètent pas nécessairement celles de l’équipe du Quid Novi. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views of the McGill Law Students’ Association or of McGill University. Envoyez vos commentaires ou articles avant jeudi 5pm à l’adresse: [email protected] Toute contribution doit indiquer l’auteur et son origine et n’est publiée qu’à la discrétion du comité de rédaction, qui basera sa décision sur la politique de rédaction telle que décrite à l’adresse: http://www.law.mcgill.ca/quid/epolicy/html. Contributions should preferably be submitted as a .doc attachment (and not, for instance, a “.docx.”). Contributions should also include the student year of the contributor. 2 OCTOBER 27TH, 2009 VENI, VIDI, VACCINATI? by Joanna Baron (LAW II) You’re nothing, not even an exam num- drome has been shown to be a compli- ments and vaccine manufacturers usu- ber, without your health. I learned this cation affecting approximately one or ally include an indemnity clause that ex- in many hard ways last year when I two in one million people who receive empts companies if there are problems started studying at the Faculty. And so the vaccine). with the vaccine.) lately, though my day job remains studying law, I spend every other pos- On the other hand, though, one gets In the extensive clinical trials of the sible nail-biting minute keeping abreast the unmistakable feeling that the pro- H1N1 vaccine, 10,000 to 15,000 adults of H1N1 developments, and at present duction and administration of the H1N1 and children were treated and nothing the rather maudlin debate unfolding vaccine- poised to be the largest public serious happened to any of them. This over the H1N1 vaccine. As your neigh- vaccination in history- is the result of a is reassuring, but we ought to note bouring bed of antibodies and local creepy admixture of public health pol- what these trials cannot tell us: the worrywart, I’d like to share a few re- icy, law, medicine, and politics. For ex- long-term effects of this rapidly pro- flections about the issue of to-vacci- ample, the Canadian Medical duced vaccine, and also the actual effi- nate-or-not. Association quite soberly critiqued the cacy of the vaccine in inducing Canadian government’s strategy of de- resistance to the H1N1 virus, which is First of all, be wary of the rhetoric on livering the vaccine to the whole popu- so worrying to public health officials in both the pro- and anti- vaccination lation at the same time. It would have part because of its potential to rapidly camps accusing the other of ‘fear mon- been more efficient, they argued, to mutate. gering’. It was Hobbes who said human vaccinate higher-risk groups- individu- nature was predominately characterized als with compromised immunity, preg- Finally, many have pointed out the par- by being motivated by fear, and both nant women- early. One can see ties that stand to profit from pandemic: sides stake their claims accordingly. On immediately that this idea would be ad- the media (who is happy whether the one hand if you Google ‘H1N1 vac- ministratively a nightmare and also po- they’re advocating or assailing the vac- cine unsafe’ on YouTube you will be litically untenable- nobody wants to feel cine) and dreaded big pharma. The treated to a veritable carnival of loonies, that they’re being triaged. As well, fail- media are likely to be the more suspi- reporting such objective and reliable in- ure to provide the vaccine universally cious parties: although pharmaceutical formation as ‘doctors are sending mass might leave the government vulnerable companies wield unsettling amounts of e-mails to all their friends telling them to nightmarish tort claims. (Buying the power (and GlaxoSmithKline is happy to the vaccine is dangerous’, ‘VACCINE vaccine from manufacturers poses an comply with an order to produce 50 mil- CREATORS WILL REFUSE VACCINE’, element of risk, too: because vaccina- lion doses of vaccine), government and ‘the vaccine causes Guillain-Barré tion is considered as a matter of public medical research is nowadays strictly syndrome’ (note: Guillain-Barré syn- importance, contracts between govern- regulated and represents genuine evi- dence-based recommendations. But whether we choose to vaccinate or not, we all are being triaged. It’s the unavoidable symptom of this social con- tract we find ourselves in. Studying law together makes it all the more immedi- ate: my decision to vaccinate or not will inevitably take into account my col- leagues and professors at the Faculty, some of whom have families, children, and pregnant spouses at home who are connected to our community by germs if nothing else. I hope most of your de- cisions will as well. 3 QUID NOVI From the LegalEase Collective Welcome to Legal Ease - a monthly genocide, Choose Life McGill, a SSMU Montreal-based, produced and broad- club, was subject to criticism and casted radio show concerning "The protests by other McGill students. The Law". The collective is composed of law University administration organized a students from McGill University. follow-up townhall on controversial events at McGill. LegalEase contrasts In our first half, we discuss Buffy reproductive rights and freedom of Sainte-Marie and her legacy. The CIA speech, while considering some rele- black-listed 1960s Cree singer has been vant legal issues. a strong voice on women's equality, na- tive issues, and peace for half a century. Her recent concert as part of POP Mon- treal offered an opportunity to reflect on her legacy and play a few songs. Past Shows: In our second half, LegalEase looks at Have you ever dreamed of being on the the recent controversy at McGill. After radio? This is your chance. Le-gal-ease. organizing an event entitled "Echoes of Want to get involved in the production the Holocaust" comparing abortion to of the radio show? Choose wonderful law-related music? You could simply read pre-written scripts. The point is http://www.archive.org/details/Legales this: we want you! This can be your e-Ckut90.3Montreal-July102009 chance to a) do something cool in law school; b) learn new media skills (or http://www.archive.org/details/LegalEa share pre-existing ones); and c) trans- se-Ckut90.3Montreal-July312009- late all the 'school-learning' dry ink into JudgesAndImprov waves of experiential aurality. Our next program theme is prisons. Want to pick up a story? You can just sit in and get a feel for the show. Email us at [email protected] if you would like to help out. Ride more than the grade curve, catch the audio wave! Also, if you or your group is working on something interesting that you'd like us to feature, please shoot us a line. We cover talks, discussions, and weird im- promptu events (like the controversial townhall event below). Yes, imagine yourself in (pre) colour. On the waves. Have a listen to our past show.