Vol. 56 Issue 17

The Black Excellence Mixer is back in-person

By Sahara Mehdi

Toronto Metropolitan University’s (TMU) Black Excellence Committee held its first in-person mixer for Black students, staff and faculty since the COVID-19 pandemic began, on Feb. 16.

The fourth annual mixer took place on the eighth floor of the Sheldon & Tracy Levy Student Learning Centre (SLC).

The mixer opened with a land acknowledgement delivered by its two student hosts, Isioma Uwadiunor and Kristian Senior, accompanied by a sign language interpreter.

proportionate effect [COVID-19] has brought to our communities, especially the Black community.”

According to the Black Health Alliance, COVID-19 infection rates for Black people in Toronto were three times higher than white Torontonians.

First-year urban and regional planning student Aryam Abdalsed wasn’t aware of the event beforehand but stumbled upon it with her friends when she came to the SLC to study.

“Having events like this helps us get engaged with our people,” she said as she played Uno. “We get to learn about our culture, our race, our colour, our history.”

Tanya De Mello, who was recently appointed as vice president of equity and community inclusion at TMU, was present at the event. She began her speech by acknowledging the impact the pandemic has had on the school community.

“Many of us feel we’re still thinking about the pandemic,” De Mello said. “We are thinking about family members and the dis -

The mixer included a lunch catered by Robbie’s Jamaican Cuisine and there were board games, a photobooth, music and a raffle for all attendees, featuring prizes provided by local Black-owned businesses.

Eboni Morgan, the Black Student Support Facilitator for the Tri-Mentoring Program (TMP), said her goal for the event was to create a fun and relaxed environment.

She said when planning the event, she focused on one central question: ‘How can we make sure Black faculty, staff and students are able to come into a space where they can mingle

and feel the comfort of community and have the opportunity to share a meal together, share conversations together, share joy together?’

“Everybody’s smiling and enjoying themselves,” Adbdalsed said. “It’s nice, I see everybody’s really comfortable. They’re having fun.”

Morgan said the organizers wanted to remove the pressure that exists in more professional settings. “Sometimes students might not want to approach a professor or

faculty member,” she said. “But in this setting, they don’t really have to worry about seeming professional.”

De Mello said the Black Lives Matter movement in May 2020 following the death of George Floyd caused the school to rethink how they acted in relation to anti-Black racism.

“There was a really big shift,” she said, explaining how the movement focused on paying attention to institutions like healthcare facilities and education. “What it looks like now is

[an] even more established commitment to do some of the work to move from just surviving to thriving.”

Morgan said the event is a celebration of the school’s Black community and all they continue to accomplish.

“To me, Black excellence is simply being Black and embracing every aspect that comes with it,” she said. “Black people are, of course, not a monolith. We don’t all have the same experience. But by being Black, we are inherently excellent.”

TMU students hopeful about a possible extra reading week

KONNOR KILLORAN/THE EYEOPENER

a good feeling,” she said.

Mikayel Baghouzian, a secondyear chemical engineering student at TMU, said a study week in the fall would benefit all students.

“Study break helps out a lot. Just to catch up, get all your work done,” he said.

First-year child and youth care student Tharini Jeyakumar, said an extra week could promote attending class instead of skipping class to study for exams when it’s close to the examination period.

By Ayshat Abdurzakova

With engineering students currently only benefiting from one reading week, some students say that adding an additional one may relieve stress and help their organization throughout the semester.

In its January Board of Directors Meeting (BoD), the Toronto Metropolitan Students’ Union (TMSU) discussed the possibility of an extra reading week, as previously reported by The Eyeopener

Specifically, the TMSU discussed working toward a fall reading week for engineering students, who currently do not have one, according to the university’s website.

TMU’s fall study week is from Oct. 11 to Oct. 14 and the mid-winter break is Feb. 20 to Feb. 24 this year. However, engineering students only

observe the winter reading week.

These dates also combine existing statutory holidays—like Thanksgiving weekend and Family Day, respectively.

Alana Teejai, a first-year engineering student, said the lack of free time engineering students have due to their rigorous school schedules can cause stress.

“Every weekend, I’m always busy, I can’t really go out. When I get home it’s super late,” she said.

“An entire week to catch up on things I put away or put off would be nice or [to] just prioritize other things would be nice.”

Amy Zhu, a second-year engineering student, sees the lack of a reading week as unfair.

“I hope they give us a break,” she said. “When everyone else is having fun and we’re stuck at school, it’s not

According to the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB), as of the 2021-22 accreditation cycle, engineering students must complete a minimum of 1850 accreditation units (AU) over the course of a school year in seven mandatory categories. One AU is equivalent to one hour. The student must meet the AU requirements in order to be accredited as an engineer upon graduation.

“This is one of the reasons that you have engineering students, who always start the winter term ahead of the rest. It’s not because we want them to do it, it actually was imposed by the accreditation requirements for engineering,” said TMU president Mohamed Lachemi.

Students in other programs also say that an additional reading week would benefit them.

Leila Boyacheck, a second-year early childhood studies student, said having an additional week on top of the existing reading week would help students organize themselves better for exams.

“I feel like the one week, it’s too rushed,” she said.

“We [the students] don’t know if we should actually go in [to class] and if you’re going to learn something,” she said.

“I would love it…even if it makes the [school] year a bit longer,” said Boyachek.

As of now, some students feel the crossover of reading week and official holidays is troublesome because they have to prioritize their studies over family downtime.

“It is inconvenient that reading week falls on weekends and statutory holidays,” said Boyacheck in a follow-up email. “Many times I feel like I have to choose between family and school.”

In order for an additional study break to be instated, the TMSU must bring forward a plan to the Student Senate, which is a group of elected graduate students, alumni and faculty who discuss and work to improve student life, according to TMU’s website.

But before they can do so, the students’ union said it needs to account for how many students are willing to add an extra week of classes elsewhere in the year.

“Something will have to give in order to make this happen,” said TMSU

“Currently, the TMSU is taking preliminary steps and researching the issue in order to lay the groundwork on how to best prepare future teams to carry on this project,” the TMSU said, in an emailed statement to The Eye Lachemi added that there are many factors to consider when issuing study breaks.

“The reality is that the university semesters are based on curriculum and materials that must be covered in order to achieve the result for each course,” he said to The Eye

“We cannot take any risk to lower the minimum requirements for programs because that can also affect the quality of accreditation or the results of the accreditation from some of our programs,” Lachemi said.

“I will not close the idea of having conversations or consultations, but we have to be realistic about the requirements of programs,” President Lachemi concluded his statement.

Despite the hopefulness among students surrounding this possibility, they are still cautious about getting their hopes up.

“Honestly, will [TMU] even listen to us?” Boyachek said.

“I hope they do for students because I know it can be really helpful for other people. I’m hopeful but I’m realistic,” she said.

COURTESY OF ADRIAN LAYNE

president Marina Gerges at the January BoD meeting.

“We get to learn about our culture, our race, our colour, our history”

By Moyo Lawuyi and Victor Ola-Matthew

When Toluwani Adeniyi first came to Canada in the fall of 2021, everywhere was a reminder that she was Black. There was a stark difference from her home country where most of the population is Black.

“It was a sudden rude awakening,” she says.

Adeniyi, a third-year psychology international student from Nigeria, began to notice that the colour of her skin could now be the cause of several complications in her life, including being able to get a job.

While she doesn’t believe she has experienced outright racism from a person in Canada since moving here in 2021, she admits she might just not have noticed since she grew up in Nigeria and wasn’t very educated about race issues prior to her move.

For some international students from Africa, living in the multicultural city of Toronto proves difficult. Many of them say they’ve experienced racism for the first time, something they never had to worry about in Africa and quickly realize how race affects their everyday lives.

According to the City of Toronto’s action plan to confront antiBlack racism, more than 200,000 people of African descent or origin in the city are affected by racism, making it hard for them to integrate into a new society. In addition to the typical culture shock that comes with coming to a new country, African international students encounter what is for them the strange feeling of being treated differently from their white counterparts.

ing away from their country and in my opinion, they think this is a better bet,” said George.

Dora Antwi Adomako, a former third-year exchange student in the performance production program from Ghana, recounted a racist incident she experienced when she came to Toronto in September 2022. Adomako was at Oakham Café, a restaurant on campus located inside the Student Campus Centre, when a staff member abruptly asked her to leave without a reason. This happened in her first semester as an exchange student.

feel more welcomed,” she says.

According to TMU’s Student Life and Learning Support website, the BSL, located at Kerr Hall West 77A, is “an identity-affirming space on campus where Black students at Toronto can study, heal, relax, gain tools and resources, make new friends and build community.”

While racism is prevalent when they enter Canada, some African immigrants also say they start experiencing racial discrimination before they even enter the country. Many African-born students at TMU say they had to wait very long for their study permits despite meeting all the requirements.

of this interview, were still waiting for their study permits, which they have since received. George says she has had African students in her classes who were forced to learn online due to their study permit delays.

During a House of Commons session in May this year, the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) recognized the racism within its system. Its report stated that in the IRCC, there were “widespread internal references to certain African countries as ‘the dirty 30,’ and stereotypes of Nigerians as “particularly untrustworthy.”

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Despite the racism they experience, African immigration is increasing in Canada. According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada News, Canada welcomed more than 300,000 immigrants in 2022 from the continent, with Nigeria being the fifth top source. Toronto is also a popular destination, with 88,020 African immigrants arriving here in 2021.

Usha George is the former director of TMU’s Centre for Immigration and Settlement and an expert in Canadian immigration. She explains why immigrants from African countries keep migrating to Canada despite possibly dealing with racism that doesn’t exist in their home countries.

George says Canada has fewer racist incidents than other developed countries. In addition, Canada—and especially Toronto—is filled with so many economic opportunities that immigrants are willing to overlook the racial discrimination they will face. “People are looking for the final outcome, for the final goal of mov-

Adomako was perplexed by the sudden request and left to get lunch elsewhere without further investigations to find out the motives of the staff. She had only recently arrived in Canada and was happy she made it, so she was blind to the experience. “It is only now, looking back, that I feel it,” she says.

The Eyeopener reached out to Oakham Café for comment regarding this incident. “This is obviously quite upsetting to hear, we never want anyone to leave the Café or any of our operations feeling this way,” said Crystal Pettman, the restaurant manager.

Adomako says she adjusted more to Toronto’s multicultural climate with the help of her friends, who were mostly white. She also says she didn’t find it hard to meet Black students from familiar backgrounds and experiences when she arrived on campus, with the help of the TriMentoring Program’s Black Students’ Lounge (BSL).

Still, Adomako says she felt they already had friend groups which she found hard to penetrate into.

“The Black Students’ Lounge (BSL) made me feel some sort of belonging but honestly, the white students [in my classes] were always checking up on me and made me

Fred Mammah, a first-year Nigerian chemical engineering student says his visa processing took five months. “They gave no feedback during the entire process, so it was really hard to plan,” he says. Because of the long wait time, he missed his orientation in September 2022 and had a harder time making friends than others.

Visa processing times for African countries are particularly slow. According to the Canadian Council for Refugees, the Canadian visa office in Nairobi, Kenya, which processes visas for 18 African countries such as—Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda—is the slowest in the world. Adeniyi, who was forced to leave China, where she was studying, in 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak, says the processing time for a Canadian visitor’s visa from China only took two weeks, as opposed to her parents’ two-year wait for one in Nigeria.

Mammah has friends who have fulfilled all the requirements for their visas since April 2022 yet, at the time

The report said racial biases are a significant factor in the high refusal rates of immigrants from African countries. Since then, the IRCC has pledged to do more to remove racial bias from its system. “If I had a different passport, I believe I would have been given more priority,” says Mammah.

Adeniyi says she has doubts on how to deal with racist encounters as she isn’t a very confrontational person. “I have tendencies to just let it go but the problem is that if I let it go, it could be done to someone else who isn’t as strong as I am,” she says.

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She suggests that students who have difficulties confronting others after dealing with a racist encounter could report the situation to their professor and ask to be kept out on the loop of the matter. She says for some international students at a social disadvantage like those with social anxiety, confronting racism may be difficult while for others it may not be. But if they don’t speak up, whether through email reports or in person, another international student is bound to have the same experience.

“If it’s within your power, say something,” says Adeniyi.

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African international students have a first-time concern: Racism

“It was a sudden rude awakening”

“It is only now, looking back, that I feel it”

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“If I had a different passport, I believe I would have been given more priority”

WILLIAM HAMON VIA FLICKR

TMU EngOut fundraises $1000 at Lee’s Palace Queer engineering community unites students with live music at charity event

of fell into place,” said Temelkos.

CONNIE founders and third-year creative industries students Cameron Carolan and Church Reid played not only their first school-affiliated show at Jam Out but also their biggest show yet.

“Cameron and I were actually talking about our dream venues and our bucket list venues and Lee’s Palace was, between both of us, just the absolute number one,” said Reid.

The venue has famously hosted bands like Nirvana, Oasis and The Smashing Pumpkins.

By Kinza Zafar

At Toronto Metropolitan University’s (TMU)’s takeover of Lee’s Palace on Feb. 17, over 150 people got to mosh the night away at one of Toronto’s most historic venues.

TMU EngOut is an engineering group dedicated to the advocacy and inclusion of fellow 2SLGBTQIA+ students. Their first-ever live music event, Jam Out, attracted a turnout over three times their average attendance. EngOut hosts a variety of professional networking and social events geared to empower queer students and foster community on campus.

The Jam Out event’s $1000 profit will be donated to The Lambda Scholarship Foundation, a charity creating scholarships to advance the research of 2SLGBTQIA+ and queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, people of colour studies nationwide, according to their website.

This event featured three Torontobased genre-exceeding bands including CONNIE, The Howlin’ Gales and Berner Trail.

“Lee’s Palace was an exciting show for us, playing with two great bands at an iconic venue can’t be beat,” said Berner Trail in an emailed statement to The Eyeopener. The band said performing for charity “made the night

even more special.”

EngOut president and fifth-year biomedical engineering student Diana Temelkos said she fully devoted herself to Jam Out and planned meticulously for several months.

“The fact [Lee’s Palace] even responded and were so excited was mind blowing,” she said.

Temelkos did their best to spread word of the event, from asking friends with large social media followings to share the poster, to circulating promotions herself in random university subreddits and Facebook groups.

Lee’s Palace offers a discount on venue fees for charity events and non-profit organizations. “It all kind

Farrah Khan leaves TMU after seven years

By Asha Swann

After spending seven years at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), Farrah Khan is now taking time to discover what brings her joy.

Khan joined TMU in November 2015 as the coordinator of Consent Comes First (CCF) at the Office of Sexual Violence Support and Education. She became the manager of CCF in 2017, delegating a team of master’s of social work students and a volunteer, peer-led program called the Consent Action Team. Both the Consent Action Team and CCF created advocacy campaigns at TMU.

Khan has been central to CCF, providing TMU students with “free, confidential, trauma-informed, healing-centred support,” according to their website.

Her departure was announced on Jan. 26 through CCF’s Instagram account.

“Under her leadership, CCF created a healing-centred support service for TMU community members affected by sexual violence and gender-based violence, including case management, system navigation, court support, and safety planning,” the post read. “She worked tirelessly to create opportunities for people affected by violence to cultivate safety, healing and leadership on their terms.”

Khan explained that her decision to leave “wasn’t taken lightly.” She described feeling burnt out, with CO-

VID-19 restrictions limiting what resources the CCF team could provide.

“Some of those requests were complicated and had a lot of needs that we couldn’t meet because of the pandemic at the time, because social services were not available or things were shut down,” she said. “It took a toll on our whole team.”

Khan said after much discussion with the CCF team, she knew she had to take some time away.

“I love my job,” she said. “I love waking up and knowing that I get to connect with students that are going through such a challenging time but trust themselves enough to get support.”

with my kid, spend time with my partner, spend time with my community,” she said. “I want to celebrate the things that are really wonderful about doing this work.”

Though she’s spent many years at the school, Khan’s career didn’t start at TMU. She has over two decades of experience behind her, previously working as a youth anti-violence coordinator at METRAC Toronto, a coordinator for the young Muslim women’s program at the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic and serving as co-chair of the provincial roundtable on violence against women and more.

One project that particularly stands out to TMU alum and CCF member Lidija Projkovski is #HighSchoolToo, a project that ran from 2021 to 2022, which she described as her favourite project under Khan’s mentorship.

Carolan said it was surreal watching people he could see on campus enjoying his music and that he was recognized at TMU the next day. “It was really nice seeing a whole bunch of just familiar faces get involved in the scene.”

Berner Trail emphasized the long history and strong prevalence of queer trailblazers in Toronto’s music scene, naming icons such as Jackie Shane, Beverly Glenn Copeland and Sara Ellen Dunlop.

“People need to be educated on all facets of our artistic history, especially the lesser told history of Toronto’s then-marginalized groups,” the band said in their email signed by Aaron Lusch, Spencer Desilva

and Nate Murray.

Though the pandemic connected 2SLGBTQIA+ youth through expansive online spaces, many students are just now getting acquainted in real life. When lockdowns lifted and Toronto’s music scene began reviving, Reid said being able to “clock” others as queer brought them joy.

“To me, the queer youth has always been at the forefront of a lot of the music scenes,” said Reid.

Queer folks, especially those who are genderqueer, are often forced to conform to societal norms and thus, are involuntarily performing. “It’s super liberating to take that and be able to perform in a way that you do have control over,” said the musician.

Despite their success and a growing team of over 150 members, EngOut does not have an office at TMU.

“We don’t have a safe space,” said Temelkos, who has also resorted to storing EngOut materials in “a trash bag in [their] closet.”

But they’re hoping to continue growing in the coming years. “This event went really well and we’re aiming to do even better every single year. We welcome everyone, not just queer students,” said Temelkos. “I can tell you right now, this is not the end of it.”

Khan created the Consent Comes First Office of Sexual Violence Support and Education at TMU in 2015

Khan said it’s “been an honour” to be a part of the CCF team because of the resilience of the students at the university.

Ever since the beginning of the winter break, she’s been focusing on what makes her happy. She described falling in love again with Toronto’s public library system and wanting to be present in her four-year-old son’s life. She said her favourite form of self-care at the moment is cooking and spending time with her family.

“I just want to really just have joy every day right now and spend time

Projkovski graduated from TMU’s child and youth care program in 2022. During the second year of her undergrad, in 2019, she joined the CCF’s Consent Action Team, helping create self-care guides during the pandemic and advocating for sexual violence awareness at the university. The team also started #HighSchoolToo to promote consent education and policy change in secondary schools across Ontario.

Khan served as a feminist mentor for the program. Projkovski said throughout both #HighSchoolToo and CCF, Khan always

made her feel supported while working on projects.

“I never felt like I asked a silly question, I never felt like my ideas weren’t heard,” Projkovski says. “Farrah really heard everyone and made sure everyone had a chance to talk and everyone had a chance to share.”

Khan said she finds it hard to pinpoint just one moment in her time at TMU that stands out the most. Like Projkovski, she described facilitating #HighSchoolToo with pride.

“[It] was amazing to get to talk to high school students and get to see consent action team members learn about policymaking,” Khan said with a smile. “They created press confer-

ences, they did huge media talks, they created a policy platform.”

Another project Khan loved working on was Healing Comes in Waves (2022), a podcast meant to aid sexual assault survivors who weren’t able to find justice through the legal system.

“So often survivors are taught that the only way to get justice is through the criminal legal system,” she said. “[Healing Comes in Waves] is a seven-part podcast about healing from sexual violence, recognizing that so many people—so many survivors—never go to counselling…it’s just not available to them.”

Read more at theeyeopener.com

COURTESY OF FARRAH KHAN

“When you do crisis work, sometimes you forget to take care of yourself”

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Let’s Talk Texture

Trigger Warning:

This story contains mentions of racism and racial proiling

Elizabeth Jones describes her signature hairstyle when she was five years old as braided with beads attached to the ends. This was the style she wore while living in Kenya, a time in her life when she was constantly surrounded by other Black girls getting their hair done. She fondly remembers how the smells of Pink hair lotion would engulf the local salon she often visited. The now second-year criminology student can still hear the sounds of the bristle brushes and blow dryers as workers would create neat hair presses.

Although she moved from Kenya and away from that salon when she was just around five or six years old, the memories of being surrounded by other young Black girls as they’d all get their hair done stick with her today.

The time she spent in the salon also extended far beyond the experiences of getting her hair braided, as she recalls how the salon workers would give her and the other girls free chicken nuggets and other fried foods when they behaved well.

This sense of community and strong bonds helped Jones feel like she wasn’t the odd one out and allowed her to connect with others who shared similar experiences and looked like her in a positive environment.

However, having that community connection hasn’t always been the case for Jones. When she moved to Tunisia in 2008, a country in Northern Africa that is predominantly Arab, she realized her hair looked different and wasn’t the same texture as everyone else’s.

She went from her signature long beaded braids to a “straight flop cut,” a conventional style that fell just below her shoulders. Even after changing her hairstyle to better fit in with her new environment, Jones often felt discriminated against because she didn’t look like everyone else.

In Tunisia, Jones’ family was part of a small handful of Black people living in their neighbourhood. The racism she and her family experienced also extended beyond feeling excluded from her peers. She vividly remembers how people would throw rocks at their house and car while calling them a derogatory term.

Words by Bana Yirgalem

Photo by Konnor Killoran

Visuals by Vanessa Kauk

Those instances of racism, combined with losing the ability to wear her hair how she used to, affected how Jones understood herself.

“I think I felt a loss of self-identity,” says Jones. “I moved around a lot and I didn’t really know my place in society and with other people.”

At Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), some Black students say they feel supported and represented because of the school’s diverse student body. But outside of school, students say they’ve faced many instances of racism, especially those fuelled by the perception of their identity based on their hair.

For some Black students, their hair is a big part of who they are on an individual and cultural level. Although some students embrace the beauty of Black hair, many have also had struggles in their experiences with their hair—from anti-Black racism to discrimination and to what the media portrays their hair to mean. For these students, finding ways to accept one’s natural hair remains a struggle, both in navigating the world around them and learning ways to accept their uniqueness on a personal level.

Negative connotations and reactions to Black hair can cause deeply-rooted issues within the community. From an early age, the media often tells Black people their hair is unacceptable and may even hold them back from professional opportunities. In real life, a lack of representation also means there is less visibility of how natural Black hair looks for everyday people.

Within some professional environments, a certain look is often perceived to be the standard of what is considered “acceptable.” Charmaine Gooden, the founder of the Black Fashion Canada Database and a fashion journalism professor at TMU, says when a Black individual holds a high position in a particular industry, they must present themselves in a way that is deemed “professionally acceptable.”

She uses Michelle Obama, a former First Lady of the United States, as an example. When Obama was in the White House, her hair was always straight. Now that she’s no lon-

ger supporting her husband in office, there have been several pictures of her with braids and other “non-traditional” hairstyles. This transition shows how politicized Black hair is and that anything other than straight hair is often unacceptable to the mainstream public.

“The style was the acceptable look, which was straight. She blow-dried straight, used straight extensions, because she knew it would cause such an uproar and she didn’t want to be a distraction,” says Gooden.

In a chapter titled “Black women, beauty, and hair as a matter of being” from a 2009 Women’s Studies inter-disciplinary journal, author and TMU professor Cheryl Thompson states that “even within the Black culture, a woman who wears her hair in its natural state may suffer being ostracized in relationships or the workplace because of her hair.”

Thompson specializes in topics such as Black communication and media studies and race, ethnicity and media. In her 2009 study, Thompson spoke to three Black women who gave accounts from their childhood that highlights the power of social comparison.

Their accounts show how, through the physicality of hair, Black women are caught between what Kobena Mercer, a British art historian and writer, describes as two logics of Black stylization. “One emphasizing natural looks, the other involving straightening to satisfy artifice,” the study cites.

For TMU students, these negative influences can cause a lack of self-acceptance or, more severely, feelings of internalized anti-Blackness that could physically and mentally impact their identity throughout their lives.

One day in October 2021, Aydan Owusu-Toussaint, a second-year mechanical engineering student, was looking for a last-minute costume for Halloween. While at the mall, he ran into his friend working their shift at Bath & Body Works in Bramalea City Centre in Brampton, Ont. Soon after they started talking, a manager interrupted their conversation and told Owusu-Toussaint’s friend that someone was calling for them in the breakroom.

Once left alone with just the manager, Owusu-Toussaint remembers how the manager didn’t offer to help him but just walked away. He wasn’t that concerned until he noticed he

While some Black TMU students regard their hair as an important part of their identity, others have dealt with racial profiling because of the way they wear their hair

was being talked about by another employee with the manager, who was also pointing fingers at him.

After his friend returned from the break room, the manager pulled them in for a chat. Returning to Owusu-Toussaint, his friend said, “My manager thought you’re like one of those creepy guys that just take people out of the store and flirt with them.”

Feeling uncomfortable, he started questioning what had happened to him and what was the reason for it. He then went home and explained the situation to his sister, who told him he was likely racially profiled.

He then realized it was because he was wearing a durag.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission defines racial profiling as “any action undertaken for reasons of safety, security or public protection that relies on stereotypes about race, colour, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, or place of origin. Rather than on reasonable suspicion, to single out an individual for greater scrutiny or different treatment.”

What Owusu-Toussaint experienced was something called consumer racial profiling. A 2018 study in Sage Journals titled “Courting Customers: Assessing Consumer Racial Profiling and Other Marketplace Discrimination” defines this type of profiling as “a type of differential treatment of consumers in the marketplace based on race/ethnicity that constitutes denial of or degradation in the products and/or services that are offered to the consumer.”

“This was Bath & Body Works,” says Owusu-Toussaint on the frustrating experience. “You should be doing better. Do better.”After what happened, Owusu-Toussaint called customer service and let them know of the incident. He remembers them just saying they don’t condone racism.

Bath & Body Works were contacted for comment but did not respond in time for publication.

Durags are popular in rap and hip-hop music videos but also play a huge role in Black culture, specifically in Black fashion. The primary purpose of durags is to protect styles such as waves, braids and locs. Popular artists of the late ‘90s and early 2000s, like Nelly, 50 Cent and Jay-Z, were also known to wear durags in their music videos.

Jones touched on the fact that movies also sometimes portray Black people poorly within the media. She used Tyler Perry, a Black male director who often has Black women play characters that are “weak, aggressive or ghetto,” as an example of problematic representation.

“Sometimes they’ll be patting their weave, then it is seen as ghetto, and people internalize that,” explains Jones. “They perpetuate those stereotypes, but it doesn’t relate to everyone.”

Gooden says there is a double standard on Black fashion items like durags because white designers often steal the accessories without crediting the originators: Black people.

“It was rap music, gangster music, hood music until someone figured out [how to make it appeal to other audiences], and that someone’s usually a white person,” says Gooden.

She says although Black culture has been the source of popular culture for decades, society has only recently started to call out appropriation more frequently. “Black culture and that whole Black fashion look of that time are so popular right now,” says Gooden. “It’s not popular now because of Black kids, it’s because of white kids.”

Negative connotations surrounding Black hair can seep into the way Black families practice hair care. When OwusuToussaint was in Grade 10, he was writing an English essay. Due to the stress of the paper, he started playing with his uniquely coily hair, pulling it out of his scalp to distract his nerves. His sister noticed this and asked, “Aydan, do you want me to braid your hair for you?”

He immediately agreed, as the protective style would allow him to return and focus on his essay without damaging his full head of hair. Owusu-Toussaint has type 4c hair, which he says is hard to manage and there are times when he feels down about it.

“I think bad hair days are the worst. It does bring my confidence down with the state my hair could be in.”

That day, his sister sat down with him and started arranging Owusu-Toussaint’s full-volume afro into neat, long braids. Although his mom, who is Grenadian, used to braid his hair back when he was a child, she expressed her dislike of him wearing braids when he was older.

“My mom was never really [fond] of me having braids at that point,” says Owusu-Toussaint.

His mom was hesitant, believing that some people associate negative connotations with Black men wearing braids. At the time, she worried that people would think that only “thugs” wore their hair in braids.

However, after seeing the braids his sister did, his mother was more accepting. It also helped that his sister explained that braids were a protective hairstyle for Owusu-Toussaint’s long hair that would help maintain and keep it healthy. “I have been on a self-acceptance journey with my hair,” he says.

Growing up, Jonathan Reynoso felt that his family didn’t understand the beauty of his curly fluffed-out hair that fell right by his ears. Reynoso is half Jamaican and half Filipino, yet the second-year business technology management student was raised more by his mother’s Filipino side of the family. He explains that when he was younger, his family wanted his hair a certain way because his culture deemed other hairstyles “unacceptable.”

Due to this disconnect from his Jamaican roots, he never had the opportunity to care for his hair appropriately, which meant he could never wear Black hairstyles suitable for his hair type. He would always stand out amongst his family because he was the only one with his type of hair.

“They never really understood,” says Reynoso. “That’s why I always wore my hair short.”

He would have to keep it short and tidy to appease his family because, in their eyes, the only respectable style was the “corporate” look, which involved having your hair short and clean cut. Now though, he realizes the stigmas behind Black hair and Black hair types aren’t true and that no hairstyle, as long as it’s kept well and is clean, is inappropriate for the workplace.

“I just feel like the [stigma] behind Black hair and Black styles is different,” says Reynoso. “Nothing is corporate, nothing is untidy, nothing is tidy.”

He also now believes that however he chooses to style his hair doesn’t define him as a person.

“You can put hairstyles of any kind in the same category as art,” he says.

Reynoso isn’t alone in recognizing the beauty of his culture’s unique hairstyles and textures. Although natural Black hair and hairstyles are sometimes considered “unacceptable” by mainstream society, Black hair symbolizes empowerment in the Black community.

A 2020 article by Essence magazine explained that in the 1960s, Black people wore their hair in afros to mimic what oppressors thought of Black hair, which was “nappy” or “kinky.” According to the article, the civil rights movement also helped change how Black people personally viewed their hair and increased the popularity of the famous phrase “Black is Beautiful,” which was implemented into the African American community in the 1960s.

Similarly, a prominent Black Panther party member, Angela Davis, used her afro to symbolize Black power and fight against the oppressors. Back then, when a Black person would have an afro, it was often labelled as militant and threatening. But now, an afro is more widely regarded as a symbol of Black beauty.

As a child, Reynoso’s hair was short and curly in the front.

He explains that the style was inspired by how Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima’s, a former Brazillian soccer player’s, hair looked in 2002—a clean buzz cut with a patch of hair right in the front of his head. He now says the look was “weird,” but truthfully, he never cared how his hair looked then—it was just to satisfy himself and his family.

Reynoso’s hair texture isn’t what mainstream society perceives as “nappy” or “kinky.” Instead, his Filipino and Jamaican heritage means that his hair texture falls under the category of two hair types—3b (tight curls) and 3c (an “S” or “Z” shape that returns to it’s shape after it’s been stretched).

Although Reynoso’s Filipino family often says his hair is nice, they still tell him to cut it shorter. He remembers often hearing them say things like “this is messy” and “this isn’t going to get you a job” about his natural hair.

Despite their reactions, Reynoso doesn’t blame his family because he understands that they’ve been conditioned to have these reactions to his hair. He’s come to terms with the fact that whatever they see displayed in mainstream society as “clean cut” or “professional” is what they’ll believe is normal. Because of this, Reynoso thinks it will take time for his family to accept his Black hair and that he might have to help them do that.

“You just have to sit down and help them understand,” says Reynoso. “Nothing’s gonna happen if you’re gonna be bitter about it.”

Although he’s willing to help educate his family on the beauty of Black hair, he says that it shouldn’t be only his responsibility to do so. Yet, he accepts that the responsibility falling onto his shoulders is just “how it is” and continues to help his family understand and learn how to become more accepting of Black hair.

“I’m not trying to be someone I’m not, I’m just trying to do what I want to do with my hair,” he says.

Although she wanted straight hair when she was younger and would beg her mother to relax her natural curls, Jones is now glad she didn’t follow that route—despite how badly she wanted to look like she fit in at the time.

“Even younger Black girls my age had their hair permed, and only some of us had our natural hair,” says Jones. “On TV and such it would always be straight hair that were found attractive.”

She says she was very impressionable as a young girl which affected her perception of herself. “Not seeing people that looked like me took a toll.”

has

Today, she says her curly hair has made her comfortable with her true self and she’s grateful for the journey to acceptance she’s been on. Now, at 19, Jones has her hair in long, passion twists that fall down her back. She’s grown more confident in her hair, although she sometimes still feels uncomfortable because she feels that other Black girls always look put together and she may not.

Jones started to embrace the beauty of her hair as she got older when she started taking care of her hair on her own without her mother’s help. She used different hairstyles to showcase how diverse her hair can be—such as cornrows, passion twists, faux locs and braids with beads.

Since coming to TMU in September 2021, Jones believes her confidence with her hair has grown steadily because she’s able to see different hairstyles and how other Black students have the confidence to try new things with their hair—something she hasn’t always been used to seeing. She remembers seeing a Black girl with bleached hair on campus and thought it was cool to see how Black students could do so much with their hair. For her, this is what makes Black hair so magical and beautiful, the ability to create something original.

TMU Anime Club’s maid café shines as a place to let go and have fun

By Ella Miller

The return of one of the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Anime Club’s most iconic events saw the Thomas Lounge in the Student Campus Centre (SCC) transformed into a bustling café.

The tables were covered in white cloths and the chairs had delicate pink bows tied to the backs. Vintage comic book panels and a large projection of a lantern-lit street had been added to the walls. The sound of Lo-fi classical music floated through the air, occasionally disrupted by a clatter of dishes from the chaotic kitchen.

This was no ordinary café, however. Instead, it was one of the most popular anime tropes brought to life: a maid café.

According to participants, a maid café is a type of restaurant originating from Japan where the main draw is that waiters and waitresses roleplay as maids for customers.

“Being a maid, we’re basically supposed to just take orders and chat with guests, be entertaining, take pictures with the guests if they want,” said third-year film student Victoria Zubiri, a maid at the café. While a master-servant dynamic is traditional in maid cafés, TMU Anime Club’s take on the concept was more focused on the fantasy of customers getting to interact with characters from their favourite anime and ensuring that the maids and customers were having fun.

“Here, what we emphasize is that consent is key,” said Ren Denise, an

Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) student, who had joined TMU’s Anime Club to participate as a maid. “We don’t necessarily go into that stereotypical master-servant thing. We’re just here to have fun,” they said.

To add to that enjoyment, servers at the Anime Club’s maid café sported maid outfits that were straight out of a Victorian period piece, only rendered through a cutesy lens: drab black and white uniforms transformed into puffed skirts and frilly aprons.

“I feel prettier, I’ll be honest,” said fifth-year mathematics student Andrew*, speaking about his maid costume. “I feel very girlypop.”

For many customers, one of the most exciting aspects of the café was the chance to see their friends and classmates dressed like anime-style maids and be served by them.

things always happen, last minute changes, people may not be able to come, so we usually always have a couple back-up options on the menu,” said Kasam.

kitchen staff. “To be a part of that is so fulfilling and just awesome.”

“I’ve gotten seven of the maids to hold up my glass so I can take a sip,” said Vincent Holliday, a first-year computer science student and a customer at the café.

The seven maids in question were some of Holliday’s friends who were helping with the café. Holliday stayed for the entire five-hour duration of the café in order to be served by as many of his friends as possible.

By the end, he had managed to get a total of nine friends dressed up as maids to hold his glass for him.

Despite the last minute menu change, customers still found plenty to enjoy. Menu items were named after memes and jokes in anime fan culture, like the “Jelly Donut” onigiri, a reference to an infamous error in the English dub of Pokémon.

The biggest hit of these creatively named items was undoubtedly a combination of lemonade and Sprite dubbed “Suipiss” after a meme involving virtual YouTuber or VTuber—someone who creates video content using a virtual avatar —Suisei Hoshimachi.

Several other maids also expressed feeling “girlypop”—which is when an individual assumes an outgoing, confident and bubbly persona.

Many of the maids who took part in the café also wore accessories like cat ears. Others fully committed to the fantasy element of the café by cosplaying as characters from animes like JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and Komi Can’t Communicate, to name a few.

“[Maid cafés are] a common theme in certain anime—especially the sliceof-life, comedy, sometimes even romance,” said Asy Kasam, a fourthyear computer science student and TMU Anime Club’s event planner. “We just kind of bridge the two.”

“The Anime Club’s execs are really good and everyone should be nice to them,” Holliday said about the staff tolerating his scheme.

The enthusiastic response of customers—many of whom had lined up outside of the Thomas Lounge before the café had even opened— was promising for the maids and organizers alike.

This was the first year that TMU’s Anime Club had been able to host the maid café in-person since the COVID-19 pandemic and it was not without its challenges. A major hurdle they had to overcome was certain menu items being unavailable during the event.

“As to be expected with any event,

“Perfect,” said first-year computer science student Vanja Dorovic in her review of the item. “Perfect stuff. Like exactly what you need today. The [Suipiss] makes the day better.”

According to Kasam, the creation of the menu was a collaborative process.

“Instead of actually making them ourselves, we actually let our staff decide,” they said. “We have one staff [member] who actually worked as a chef for a couple years, so we kind of give him control.”

This sense of community and collaboration was made clear by the camaraderie between the maids and customers throughout the café.

“Everyone here, including the staff, are just having so much fun,” said first-year civil engineering student and maid Thomas Leikauf, while on break from a busy day of assisting the

While the maid café is primarily a fundraiser for TMU’s Anime Club, it also serves as a way to bring awareness about the club’s role in TMU’s student community.

“Obviously, because of [COVID-19], Anime Club was online for a while, so this is the first maid café in two or three years,” said Ul Alam. “I hope [people] see it as an opportunity to be with like-minded weebs or anime fans and just have a good time.”

“Even if you’re not a fan of anime or not really engrossed in that culture, it’s just a great way to make friends and hang out and have a good time in-between classes or just relax,” said Kasam. “That’s what we aim for, for most of our events.”

“Even if you’re not a fan of anime or not really engrossed in that culture, it’s just a great way to make friends”

That sentiment was echoed by the café’s atmosphere.

“Live your best life,” Andrew said. “Do what you want to do. If you want to come to the maid café, come on by.”

Name has been changed to protect source’s privacy

KONNOR KILLORAN/THE EYEOPENER

“I feel very girlypop”

“We’re just here to have fun”

“To be a part of that is so fulfilling”

TMU assistant dubbed ‘future of coaching in Canada’

By Armen Zargarian

When David DeAveiro was hired as head coach of Toronto Metropolitan University’s (TMU) men’s basketball team in 2020, the role of his lead-assistant coach was sought after by many across the country.

DeAveiro heard from many who wanted the job but he already had someone in mind—Jeremie Kayeye. The two knew each other from Kayeye’s days at The Rise Centre (TRC) Academy in Brantford, Ont., where he was the director of athletics from 2016 to 2020. It was at TRC Academy where Kayeye and DeAveiro’s relationship began, after Kayeye recruited the TMU bench boss’ son, Darius.

Kayeye had sent DeAveiro a congratulatory text message and about a week later, he received a call from the TMU coach. A call that—after more than a decade of twists and turns throughout the coaching ranks—got him an opportunity with one of the top U Sports programs at TMU.

“There was no mention about whether he wanted to be an assistant or not,” recalls DeAveiro. “So, that’s when I go on to say ‘Look, I’ve heard from everyone else but you. If you’re interested in this job, I’m gonna hang up and you can call me back.’ He called me back and that’s how it went down.”

Kayeye’s rise to the U Sports ranks began in the early 2010s. He was so dedicated to chasing his hoop dream, he ended up leaving the corporate world behind and following a path he stumbled upon by chance.

Canada, a student-athlete support organization, under longtime coach Ro Russell.

Kayeye stepped in to help and immediately impressed Phillips and assistant coach Francis Fridal. So much so, that they asked him to return to the following practices.

“It ended up being the next 14 years of my life,” says Kayeye.

The Lions had two teams—an ‘A’ and ‘B’ team—invited to a tournament hosted at a premiere youth rep program in Newmarket, Ont. two weeks later. Both teams were scheduled to play their first games at the same time but on different courts. Phillips tasked Kayeye with head coaching Team B for that game—throwing him right into the fire as a lead coach. Team B ended up winning by 20 points and Kayeye coached them for the remainder of the tournament and into the finals.

to ensure that the 24-year-old’s character was equivalent to his on-court success. Later that season, the Lions had a tournament in Las Vegas, NV, and during one night of the trip, the pair took Kayeye out with them.

He caught their attention, so with free agency and the draft coming up, the Power asked Kayeye to bring a list of 10 noteworthy players to members of the front office. Instead, he brought a list of 50 noteworthy names.

“His capacity for learning is unrivaled by a lot of people,” says Wiggins.

Since getting his first taste of U Sports action during the 2021-22 season, DeAveiro sees his lead-assistant coach as someone who could take over the reins one day. That’s if, as DeAveiro says, nobody comes along and offers Kayeye a head coaching position first.

“Unless somebody comes along earlier and offers him the job…I can see the TMU job being his.”

He drove his little brother, Michael-Ange, to Amatuer Athletic Union youth basketball practice with the Ajax Lions. In 2011, head coach Terence Phillips needed an extra hand and had previously seen Kayeye play basketball at Grassroots

The Lions’ next tournament was in Detroit, MI, and upon their arrival, Kayeye learned that he’d be coaching Team B again. He ended up coaching the team to the finals of two tournaments in the span of weeks.

“He literally got thrown into coaching,” says Phillips. “And did a phenomenal job.”

But Phillips and Fridal weren’t fully convinced by Kayeye. They wanted

When the trio returned to their hotel room, their key cards had demagnetized. Philips and Fridal went down to the lobby to retrieve the group’s new cards while Kayeye waited at the entrance to the room.

The pair took a very long time returning with their new keys and much to their surprise when they did, Kayeye was asleep on the floor of the hotel hallway.

Kayeye had been tired all night, but Phillips says he hadn’t shown a single sign of fatigue and was a perfect companion. To Phillips and Fridal, Kayeye’s will to keep up during the night out after a day on the court without complaining had proved that he was ready for the next step.

“We sat there that night and said, ‘You gotta start taking this seriously, because you’re going to be a coach for life,’” says Phillips.

Kayeye’s coaching career has taken him all over the place. He’s coached for Team Ontario as a head and assistant coach, at the Canadian National Training Centre doing skill development with players in the national system, at the high school level in the Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association (OBSA), for two Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) teams and even in China with the Mississauga Power’s development program.

He also spent time in the Raptors 905 organization, working as the “everything guy,” carrying out roles like video coordinating, driving people to practice and other front office tasks.

Kayeye attributes his route to coaching success back to the sum-

mer of 2013.

In June of that year, Kayeye reached out to Tim Chung, the executive assistant of the MegaCity Pro-Am tournament, a competitive adult league in Toronto, to see how he could get involved. Chung invited Kayeye to the tournament, where he met John Wiggins, the vice president of operations for the Oshawa Power of the National Basketball League (NBL), who had a partnership with MegaCity.

Wiggins welcomed the hard work Kayeye was willing to put in, which included tasks like sweeping floors and filling Gatorade containers. That same 2013 summer, Wiggins propelled the Power to relocate to Mississauga.

Now the Mississauga Power, the organization offered Kayeye a job with the outreach team. Then, he parlayed that position into a game operations job.

“A lot of people see the flash, the glamor and the glitz. At that point we were all grinding,” says Wiggins. “Jeremie showed early on he was committed to a long-term project, a long-term vision.”

But not everyone was so enthusiastic about the move.

Leaving a corporate job to pursue a career in hoops was met with skepticism from some of Kayeye’s family members. They couldn’t believe he would make the move to coaching and others questioned what a basketball coach in Canada could really make. His parents however, were all in on the move and without them, Kayeye says he wouldn’t be where he is today.

“As long as I have enough to take care of my daughter…I don’t need any more,” recalled Kayeye, thinking back to 2013.

Scorekeeping was one of Kayeye’s many responsibilities with the Power. While keeping the official scores, he started simultaneously writing down the plays that opposing teams were running, sharing the notes with coaches and executives after games.

DeAveiro says there’s no doubt Kayeye will one day be a head coach. He mentioned U Sports, the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association or even the U.S., as possible avenues for a leading bench boss role. DeAveiro says until that time comes, he is trying to guide Kayeye and support him as much as he can.

Kayeye’s mission has gone beyond making an impact on the sidelines.

He heard about and joined the Black Canadian Coaches Association (BCCA) in 2020. Among the BCCA’s objectives is to “lobby for the hiring of more visible minorities in leadership and executive positions.”

Kayeye wants to work toward equal opportunities for Black coaches, who have historically been asked to overcome the odds with losing teams.

“How much time do they get to turn [the program] around?” posed Wiggins, who is now the Toronto Raptors’ vice president of organizational culture and inclusion.

“He literally got thrown into coaching. And did a phenomenal job”

Kayeye feels lucky to be alongside other Black coworkers at TMU like strength and conditioning specialist Patrick Williams and athletic therapist Shueb Ahmed. Recent success stories of Black head coaches in Ontario, like two former TMU coaches Patrick Tatham and Charles Kissi, have helped to puncture the perception of who can be a leader in sports.

Tatham is now in his sixth season as head coach of the McMaster Marauders and Kissi, after transforming the Brock Badgers from a four-win team to a 21-win team in his final year with them, is now an assistant coach for the Raptors 905.

Wiggins believes Kayeye’s ability to connect with the youth should have him next in line to lead a U Sports program.

“Anyone looking for the future of coaching in Canada, they need to be looking at Jeremie.”

MATTHEW LIN/THE EYEOPENER

MATTHEW LIN/THE EYEOPENER

“As long as I have enough to take care of my daughter...I don’t need any more”

“Anyone looking for the future of coaching in Canada, they need to be looking at Jeremie”

TMU students contemplate using Uber’s new ride-sharing feature

By Yumna Kamran

As Uber reintroduces its cheaper ridesharing option, some Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) students say they are unsure of the new service.

On Feb. 5, Uber relaunched UberPool—now called UberX Share—a ride-sharing option in Toronto that used to be available before the pandemic.

While Uber’s other ride options like UberX are for individual people, UberX Share allows users to share a ride with another customer

for a cheaper trip. For TMU students like Samreen Yousuf, a second-year architectural science student, there are some drawbacks to using this revamped service.

“I only use Uber when there is a dire need, such as when I urgently need to get somewhere and the TTC will take too long,” she said. “Ridesharing adding any additional time to my commute is a turn-off for me.”

She is also wary of sharing rides with people she does not know.

“The idea of sharing a ride with a stranger feels pretty unsafe and will

create an uncomfortable situation where a person will have to awkwardly interact with a stranger,” she added.

Jessica St-Dennis, a second-year psychology student, is concerned about the COVID-19 risks associated with UberX Share.

“I would not feel comfortable being so close to someone, especially because I have immunocompromised relatives,” she said.

But some students feel using UberX Share poses less risk of contracting COVID-19 than using public transport like the Toronto Tran-

sit Commission (TTC) does.

“The crowd on the TTC, especially near campus, is worse in terms of social distancing than sharing a ride with one other person, in my opinion,” said Aadil Shaikh, a third-year computer engineering student.

Aside from safety, TMU students still find that paying for an Uber trip is too expensive for their daily commute compared to a TTC fare, even with the new UberX Share option.

According to Uber’s website, a benefit of using the new service includes an immediately applied discount on fare of up to 20 per cent every time a customer chooses UberX Share.

Still, Shaikh says he is not convinced. “I think a lot of students can agree that spending upwards of $20 to get to class multiple times a week is not a possibility,” he said.

According to the TTC website, a trip on the TTC is $3.20 for an adult when paying with a Presto Card. Meanwhile, the price of an Uber ride in Toronto varies depending on time and distance, with costs starting at almost $10 for a ride from TMU to the CN Tower during nonpeak hours, according to the Uber ride estimator.

Due to the cost difference between TTC and UberX Share fare,

Dr. Sui Sui, an associate professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management, thinks most TMU students will use this new service occasionally rather than daily.

“Generally, this is a good option for students with low incomes and for students who are trying to save some money in case the TTC breaks down or if there is a snowstorm,” Sui said. “I think students can really benefit from it as alternative transportation.”

On average, using UberX Share will only add an additional six minutes to a customer’s ride than if they were to choose the standard UberX option, according to the Uber website. Uber also claims that this option is more sustainable, as transporting more people with fewer cars limits carbon emissions.

“There is definitely a market for cheap alternatives to public transportation right now,” said Sui.

“Many people want to make sustainable choices now and ride-sharing is a good environmentally friendly option to give to the public.”

Shaikh said that the UberX Share is more geared towards those with a higher disposable income. “For users that are not students who are willing to spend that much it is definitely a good option, given they are comfortable with it,” he said.

Students concerned as Netflix tightens grip on password-sharing

Bad news, TMU. Chances are you can’t watch Stranger Things with your dad’s Netflix password anymore

By Mykhaylo Batashov

Netflix’s new password-sharing policy has Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) students reconsidering their use of the streaming platform.

On Feb.8, Netflix announced modifications to its subscription policy in Canada, in an effort to reduce password-sharing among its users.

The changes include, mandating users to set a primary location with the ability to add additional households for $7.99 each, per month.

These policies are designed to clamp down on password-sharing, as accessing a Netflix account outside of the given “primary location” will be impossible without the additional fee, according to Netflix’s press release. Currently, over 100 million households are sharing accounts, impacting their “ability to invest in great new TV and films,” said Netflix.

“Netflix has, in the recent past, taken increasing steps that are trying to solidify their hold on the [streaming] market,” said thirdyear chemical engineering student Connor Johnson. He said Netflix’s recent measures were more likely to deter customers, like him, than create new revenue streams for the company.

In the first two economic quar-

ters of 2022, Netflix reported a loss of 970,000 subscribers—almost one million—according to USA Today. Other streaming services like Disney Plus and HBO Max, however, are gaining more viewers.

The new policy has raised concern among TMU students, especially since many live away from their family homes or use shared Netflix accounts belonging to friends or family.

Urooj Khan, a second-year business management student, is a fan of shows available on Netflix like Grey’s Anatomy and Bojack Horse-

man. But he uses his father’s Netflix account, who lives across the world in Saudi Arabia.

“The account is paid for and owned by my father…I’m here in Canada,” said Khan. “I’ve been using this account for years with my family.”

He said the new policy is a bad move on their end, especially because a lot of families use Netflix. “Password-sharing isn’t bad in general.

As long as someone is paying there shouldn’t be a problem,” he said.

The new Netflix mandate would render Khan unable to view any of

the programming he has grown accustomed to, unless he is willing to pay an extra $7.99 in addition to the already high expenses for international students in Canada, he said.

As for the consequences for not abiding by Netflix’s new rules, the company could pursue users who don’t comply, said Maura Grossman, a computer science professor at University of Waterloo.

“It is no different than stealing Internet service that you aren’t entitled to because you haven’t paid for it,” she said in an emailed re-

sponse to The Eyeopener

However, she said Netflix is more likely to crack down on accounts with many users, as opposed to students who use their family’s account.

Johnson said he doesn’t think he will be too impacted by the new policy but if he is, he plans to use a VPN to work around the restrictions.

According to Proofpoint, an American enterprise security company, a virtual private network (VPN) “adds security and anonymity to users when they connect to web-based services and sites.” By encrypting and routing your internet traffic through the server of the VPN provider, it makes it harder to track your online activity. Users can, in theory, use a VPN to hide their location while streaming.

“But unless you and your family are using the same VPN, they [Netflix] might be able to catch you,” wrote Grossman.

For Khan, Netflix’s new rules on password-sharing won’t deter him from streaming altogether because there are other platforms out there.

Still, he thinks Netflix’s decision is one that doesn’t centre their users. “They’re making more moneyfocused decisions rather than keeping in mind what their consumers want,” he said.

KONNOR KILLORAN/THE EYEOPENER

KINZA ZAFAR/THE EYEOPENER

Megamind Evil? Dissecting what it means to be good

By Reina Chaiekh

For my Introduction to Film Studies class, I was assigned to watch and analyze a movie of my choosing. In an attempt to take the class less seriously—and because I thought it would be funny—I decided to watch Megamind. Though many people may have watched this masterpiece, they may be ignorant to the intricatelycrafted brilliance etched into the film the first time around.

In 2010, long before the popularization of “the villain arc” otherwise known as an explanation or deep dive into the backstory of someone other than the hero, Megamind killed the animation competition with an unusual storyline for its time and a voice cast consisting of Hollywood stars such as Will Ferrell, Jonah Hill, Tina Fey and Brad Pitt. It was released in what is objectively one of the best years for animation movies, alongside How to Train Your Dragon, Tangled, Despicable Me, Toy Story 3 and Shrek Forever After.

Megamind begins with a scene of an adorable baby being hurriedly strapped into a rocket pod—reminiscent of Superman’s origin story— and the audience is almost fooled into thinking this is a movie about a hero. But the movie is quite the opposite, deconstructing the idea of good and bad, hero and villain and right and wrong.

To start, while his rival, Metro

Man, is raised with everything handed to him on a silver platter, Megamind lands in a prison facility where he is raised by convicts. Naturally, the convicts teach Megamind their version of right and wrong.

At this point in the story—not even past the five-minute mark— the movie has already begun to challenge the definition of right and wrong and how that creates the ‘bad guy.’ Megamind, in prison surrounded by criminals, is seen as a bad kid and troublemaker. Metro Man, who is being raised by affluent adoptive parents, is a supposedly gifted or ideal child, when they both end up at the same elementary school.

It is important to note that Megamind craves the validation and love he sees his peers award to his rival, Metro Man. He tries his hardest to earn that love by attempting to fit in by replicating the behaviour of Metro Man, yet is met with alienation from his peers, school and even jail staff. It isn’t explicitly spelled out to the audience why Megamind is treated as such but the implication is that his striking physical difference from humanity is evident to those around him.

Both Metro Man and Megamind are aliens but they are perceived very differently. Metro Man looks like an exaggerated version of all those fitness bros on TikTok that gained clout doing thirst traps. He can fly, has superstrength and can shoot lasers from his eyes that he only uses to entertain,

provide and protect. Meanwhile Me gamind is the mix between E.T. and a blue Smurf who, despite having an impeccable fashion sense, faces dis crimination and judgment. Also, apol ogies to all the superheroes but villain fashion does it better.

Megamind is the stereotypical image of an alien. With blue skin, an inhumane head size and powers that backfire—due to his inexperience— not to mention a lack of privilege to flaunt, he does not gain any respect from others. The movie doesn’t shy away from depicting how modern society views superheroes, even showing a scene of a crowd cheering as Metro Man juggles babies and then hurls them back to their parents as people kiss his feet.

With the guise of childhood innocence, the movie makes a strong point in addressing humanity’s inability to accept what does not fit societal norms. Lacking the validation of his peers and even his teacher, Megamind is constantly told he is a bad guy.

Ultimately, he decides he will be a bad guy, which raises the question: if the world refuses to see past their prejudice and continually labels a person as one thing, what will the outcome be but eventual compliance? If Megamind was a ‘bad guy’ no matter the intention behind his actions and it was the only thing he was seemingly good at, what should he have done?

When Metro Man ‘dies,’ the en-

tire basis of right and wrong, the balance they bring to society is tested and the reliance that exists between them is challenged. Megamind, who had thought this achievement would grant him peace of mind and maybe even the freedom to no longer conform to society’s labels, is now bored and lonely with the lack of an arch nemesis.

After becoming the presumed leader of Metro City, Megamind senses an emptiness and imbalance that he attempts to replicate. In the process, he realizes the entire ordeal is much more complicated than the black and white view of ‘good’ and ‘bad’. In Megamind’s own words: “What’s the point of being bad when there’s no good to try and stop you?”

Though, he does say this right before sending the Metro Man Museum—built to honour the Metro Man’s ‘humble’ service to the city—

exploding to smithereens, so make of that what you will. Even though no one is there to stop him, he still executes it rather messily. All efforts are then exerted to create a superhero that can be the new bane to Megamind’s existence as kryptonite is to Superman.

All in all, I give this movie a solid 8.5/10. It is hilarious, with Megamind’s comments so off-handed and in critique of society, you can’t help but laugh. It was a unique experience, to say the least, to enjoy and still learn in this way for a school assignment. I seriously suggest that everybody watch this movie, especially on family movie nights, which usually end up being disastrous when the only options are a kid’s movie that bores everyone to sleep or a deceivingly safe one that ends up containing an “awkward” scene on screen that you have to pretend you can’t see.

Shows President Lachemi watches in his free time

this show creates a riveting, edgeof-the-seat effect on its audience, and it would be an excellent getaway from the rigid schedule of our university’s leader.

Scandal

tonight at 11:59 p.m., we all know who’s got the tougher clientele.

HowtoGetAwaywithMurder

ZARMMINAA REHMAN/THE EYEOPENER

By Maryam Ahmed

We hope President Mohamed Lachemi had a lot of time to cozy up on his couch this reading week after dealing with the first half of a frenzied winter semester.

The Eyeopener believes our president may enjoy watching a marathon of mystery or a thriller TV series after a day of serving the public (relations) and whatever else a university president does.

So here are some shows we think he has watched or are on his towatch list on streaming platforms:

Primal

When considering the disciplined

restraint that must come with managing 121 acres of university land, Lachemi definitely loves to wind down by watching Primal. This show is an adult animated action horror series about a caveman and his T-Rex mate, with nearly no dialogue. The lack of speaking allows the show’s breathtaking settings and powerful sound design to craft the story between man and beast and how they survive together in their prehistoric world.

There is something about the unbridled, almost poetic violence of this cartoon that we think would really entertain Lachemi after a long day signing papers and shaking hands. The unpredictability of

Next up on the list, imagine the president’s impressive frame snuggled up onto a floral couch to watch a good old-fashioned steamy romantic drama. Of course, the first show that comes to mind is Scandal—a series that covers the electric affair between a media consultant and her boss: the literal President of the United States. The former is played by the gorgeous Kerry Washington, where she served an incredible performance alongside whichever male lead they casted.

We reckon that Lachemi would side with Washington’s no-nonsense personality, while also relating to the president’s character in the show for obvious reasons. However, Lachemi deals with university students whose future depends on properly annotated bibliographies while the Scandal president deals with dignitaries with chocolate eclairs stuffed up their arses—considering that bibliography’s due

Another series that would spark our buddy Lachemi’s interest is How to Get Away with Murder. I think this delicious thriller series, packed with scandal and layered with lies, is the perfect show to sink one’s teeth into after a horribly mundane day at work.

Lachemi would no doubt marvel at the ruthless professor and attorney Annalise Keating and maybe even reminisce about the days where he used to be a professor himself. This fun and flirty series is what we picture him getting into (other than a pair of fuzzy bear slippers).

AndThenThereWereNone

Based off of a novel with the same name by none other than famous author Agatha Christie—which we think has been on Lachemi’s reading list—And Then There Were None, is a murder mystery mini-series which is now also on Lachemi’s watch list.

The show follows a group of colourful characters who are invited to stay over at their friend’s mansion, unaware of what lies ahead for

them. In the delightful Christie way, things start getting uncanny as each guest starts to die one by one and the next boat off the island is not due to come anytime soon. Secretly, we don’t think Lachemi would mind finding solace on an island where it’d just be him and the seagulls— frankly, it might actually be a good vacation for him away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Poor fellow probably needs just that.

TheGreatBritishBakeOff

A guilty pleasure in more ways than one, we bet Lachemi revels at the drama and tension of Larry the lorry driver and Denise the dancer as they race to complete baking trays of meringues and towers of cookies. This iconic British series delivers fantastic episodes filled with wholesome moments of baking cakes and crumpets to its audience with the side stories that parallel the drama seen in America’s Next Top Model. With the notorious silver fox Paul Hollywood sneering at the contestants’ crumbly batters, Lachemi probably wiggles his toes in excitement every time the disdainful contenders get booted off the show.

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