From Boomtown to Bleak Town

Vol. 17 No. 16 February 4, 1993 Concordia pr ofessor captures sense ol once-proud prairie city From boomtown to bleak town hn Timmins Can Moose Jaw, Sask., once a vital rail town, find true happiness in the 1990s as "the international marching band capital of North America?" Sadly, the answer is no, according to Moose Jaw, the latest film by Concordia Communication Studies Professor Rick Hancox. The old Moose Jaw has had its day. Hancox is one of Canada's most influen tial experimental film-makers. Besides Moose Jaw, he has made the prize-winning landscape/poetry -film trilogy Waterworx, Landfall and Beach Events, as well as Wild Sync and the one-hour autobiographical documentary, Home for Christmas. Moose Jaw will be shown at Concordia on Feb. 18. The screening will take pl ace in the F.C. Smith Auditorium on the Loyola Cam pus at 7:30 p.m., as part of the Communica tion Studies Coll oquium Series. 10-year project To make Moose Jaw, Hancox returned to the city of his boyhood several times during the last 10 years -each time with his 16mm Bolex clasped firmly in hand. Conde nsing a I 0-year film project into 57 minutes, he has captured a vivid, fatalistic sense of a once-proud prairie city, now 30 years into its decline, by using filming tech niques and all the post-production magic 'There's a future in our past' holds true for Communication Studies Professor Rick Hancox. His expected of an independent filmmaker in film Moose Jaw begins as a documentary about the city of his boyhood and evolves into an top form. experimental film about himself. The city of Moose Jaw's decline - a process that Hancox calls "the museumiza tion of prairie culture" - has not been par Professor brings theology ticularly graceful. A vibrant economy driven by a forward-looking community has been eclipsed by tourist attractions and local to Ukrainian students community boosterism. The trains have Eludes fran~ises has launched a new co-op withdrawn, and the only thing that runs programme, the first since 1988, to place through the town on a regular basis is a Specialization in Translation students in real parade. The motto of present-day Moose ii Moscovitch work environments, balancing class work with Jaw is "There's a future in our past," which hands-on experience. Hancox has adopted as the film's subtitle. "The community has reached a wall where the future looks so bleak, all it can do What the Ukraine needs is "a perestroika is turn towards the past," Hancox said. of the soul," according to Theology Profes "They put their past in museums and hope sor Russel Moroziuk. The Canadian Association of University to at least develop a tourist industry." "Everything there has changed, but the Teachers has released a report drafted by an mindset is still the same. It's going to take a independent study group on university gov Post-war optimism long time." _ ernance, openness and accountability. Moroziuk, who is of Ukrainian origin, The eldest of three children, whose family spent the fall semester at the University of moved to Moose Jaw when his father be Kiev's Mohyla Academy, which opened last came publisher of the Moose Jaw Herald, September. The Academy is located in the Hancox has fond boyhood memories of heart of Kiev, the Ukraine capital. While Moose Jaw. "The 1950s were filled with there, he worked on research and taught an How does Concordia keep borderline stu post-war optimism. I had a rich, exciting introductory course in the psychology, soci dents from failing? A special report explores and romantic childhood, growing up in that ology, and philosophy of religion. some of the avenues a student might take and era, in that city." Students and faculty at the Mohyla Acad the services available to them to keep students in school and succeeding. This affinity for this topic, repeated visits, emy seemed starved for courses in religion conversations with residents ( there are more and theology, Moroziuk said. More than Professor Russel Moroziuk Sae MOOSE JAW page 10 S1111 UKRAIIIE page 10 PHOTO: Marcos Townsend 2- February 4, 1993 First since 198 8 .Ir Etudes fran~aises launches Off the Cuff is a weekly column of opinion and insight into major issues in new co-op programme the news. If you are a Concordia faculty or staff member and have she hopes to admit IO students and to have something to say "off the cuff," call CTR at 848-4882. an equal number of anglophones and fran Moscovitch cophones. The students' first language is important, Tragedy of lnnu result of gap between because they are trained to translate from either English or French into their mother expectation and reality: Dean Valaskakis The Department of Etudes fran~aises has tongue. just launched Concordia's first new co-op The three-year programme involves three programme since 1988. Suicide attempts, such as those last week by six lnnu children in Davis inlet, consecutive semesters of classroom work, Five francophone and three anglophone Newfoundland, are not uncommon in the native world, says Dean ofArts and Science followed by six semesters that alternate students chosen from among the 50 enrolled studying with hands-on work experience. Gail Valaskakis. Nor, for that matter, is it that uncommon among other Canadian in the Specialization in Translation Pro- . youth. Valaskakis, herself part-Chippewa, and a long-time worker and scholar on Catry-Verron said that having three full se.: gramme, were admitted this semester to the mesters of school work under their belts communications programmes in the North, attributes the despair of these children Department's new co-op Programme in before starting an internship will be impor and negligence of their parents to the disorientation of identity and psyche caused by Translation. tant for the student translators. The programme is brand new, but good the gap between expectations and reality. "It takes a long time to be credible in a intentions have been kicking around for translation job," Verron said. "It takes that "This is devastating for Canadians, but what is so remarkable is that that community some time. much time to be ready for your first intern is not unique. Every native knows someone who has gone that route. In native "Ten years ago we looked into it and we ship. You have to have some terminological planned for it, but we didn't have the re communities and in our own society we see more and more of this despair reflected. knowledge." It's hard for many natives and many youth in general to see other ways of solving sources to run it," said Judith Woodsworth, Chair of the Department. Ghislaine Yelle, the Institute for Co-op problems. The programme was made possible erative Education's Co-ordinator for the Translation Programme, is responsible for "What does surprise me a little is that the lnnu are politically active (regarding stopping thanks to a re-distribution of resources placing the eight students. She said she the NATO low-level flying over their territory), and I would have thought that their within the Department. "We were very selective of the students," doesn't expect to have any trouble finding politicization and organization might have made the lnnu community stronger. It's also said Programme Director Marthe Catry internships. the case, however, that Labrador and some of the non-status communities are the Verron. "We had a written exam and an An aeronautics company in Edmonton worst. interview and we checked their first-term has expressed interest in hiring interns from the co-op programme, and so have several "There have been such changes in native communities between one generation and results." Comparing the group of students to a fine banks and an aerospace firm in France. the next- parents can't advise kids because they haven't had the same experience. wine, she said, "we wanted to start with a "With the contacts we've developed, I On top of that you have a cultural orientation toward not telling others what to do. At grand cru." Next year, Catry-Verron said See CO·OP page 12 the same time television is everywhere. Native children don't see their own experience reflected here; instead, they see this other reality and they have no way of attaining it. It's a moccasin on one foot and a shoe on the other, and it's very hard to reconcile that. There is no employment and no strategies to empower, only people living with A case of mistaken identity this cognitive dissonance. ,A number of complaints lodged last year Spilhaus, who is coordinating the removal Concordia doing its bit about a voyeur who frequented the women's of all the warning posters with the Security washrooms on the Loyola Campus has Department. made life miserable for an innocent male "This is to affirm, categorically, that the "All I can say is that we're trying to do our tiny bit here through the Concordia Council Concordia student. suspect in question is not a Concordia stu on First Nations Education. It's not going to help those children in Labrador, but it The student resembles the person in the dent, " Spilhaus said, provides opportunities for native youth and they are their communities' future. It gives mugshot that was posted on washroom The voyeur is known to police. Michel native students here access to tutors and to the native community. We try to ensure doors to alert users to the possible presence Bujold, Security Director, said no com that options are attainable; otherwise, when expectations can't be met, you only sow of the voyeur.

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