Humber EtCetera / December 18, 2020 / Vol. 62 No.5

HUMBER’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER

VOLUME 62, ISSUE 5

FRIDAY DECEMBER 18, 2020

CANADA BEGINS VACCINATIONS Healthcare workers, eldery first in line for COVID-19 vaccine p2 TORONTO TENANTS FEAR EVICTION P3

PEN PALS RELIEVING SENIORS' HOLIDAY BLUES P6

LGBTQ+ YOUTH AT RISK IN ONTARIO SPORTS P 11

2 - NEWS

HUMBER ET CETERA

DEC 18, 2020

REUTERS/CARLOS OSORIO

Cecile Lasco, a personal support worker, is one of the first people in Canada to be inoculated with the Pfizer/BioNTEch coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at The Michener Institute in Toronto on Dec, 14, 2020.

Canadians roll up sleeves for COVID-19 vaccine program Eli Ridder

NEWS REPORTER

There have been major developments in the fight against COVID-19, but it is far from over as Canada started this week to distribute the first vaccine doses across the country.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine approved by Health Canada on Dec. 6 started going out to workers at nursing homes in Quebec and Ontario on Monday, nine months after lockdowns began in the spring.

“This is good news,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote in a Twitter post announcing the vaccines had arrived Sunday night.

“But our fight against COVID-19 is not over,” he added, encouraging Canadians to continue to be vigilant by wearing masks, washing hands and using the virus phone alert app.

The first person to be vaccinated was Anita Quidangan, a personal support worker in Ontario. Later on Monday, vaccinations started in Quebec where 89-year-old Gisèle Lévesque, a former bank employee in Saint-Antoine, was first in line.

More than 60 per cent of Canada’s 13,400 coronavirus deaths have been in nursing and seniors homes, pushing staff at those facilities to the front of the vaccine line.

Humber Et Cetera is the Humber College journalism program laboratory newspaper. It is created by second and third year journalism students. Et Cetera serves to inform the Humber community and give its readers well rounded coverage on the things that matter to them. @humberetc etc.humber@gmail.com humberetc.ca

Canada is the third nation worldwide to launch inoculations of Pfizer’s vaccine. The United States also started injections on Monday with frontline workers in New York.

Humber College student Harrison Smith, who is in his second year of Film and Television production, said he will take the vaccine, but not as soon as possible.

“I’m young, healthy and have no known pre-existing conditions so I’m not a priority person to protect,” the 24-year-old told Et Cetera. “I’ll get it, I just won’t move mountains or re-arrange an entire schedule around it.”

While Smith may be among the majority of Canadians who want

to take the vaccine at some point, as indicated in an Ipsos-Radio Canada survey, there are some that vow they will avoid the injections, known as “anti-vaxxers.”

The survey found about 16 per cent of Canadians plan not to take the vaccine, which health experts say could hinder efforts to create herd immunity.

Smith said he was disappointed in the poll’s findings and the unfounded reasons for refusing vaccination.

“Take your doomsday conspiracy theories elsewhere, if the government really wanted to track or control people they’d just do something with our technology,” the North Campus student said.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Jared Dodds

FACULTY ADVISER Rob Lamberti

EDITORS Pablo Balza Francis Commey Kyle Drinnan Nathaniel Marksman Jayvon Mitchum

CREATIVE ADVISER Marlee Greig FRONT PAGE PHOTO: Pat Lachance

The Trudeau government has also ordered 168,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine by the end of the year, pending Health Canada’s approval. Moderna’s product could start shipping within 48 hours of receiving authorization.

Trudeau said in a City TV interview on Wednesday the reason his government ordered so much of the vaccine was because of lessons learned earlier in the year when there were personal protective equipment shortages.

“There’s lots of things we’ve learned, but one of the things we learned through the scramble on PPE was to be early on vaccines,” he said.

© 2020 All rights reserved Humber Et Cetera is a publication of the Faculty of Media and Creative Arts at Humber Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning 205 Humber College Blvd., Etobicoke, ON, M9W 5L7

DEC 18, 2020

HUMBER ET CETERA

NEWS - 3

JENNIFER KOZAK

A banner at Weston Road and Oak Street, south of Highway 401 in Toronto. Ontario's Landlord Tenant Board is conducting online eviction hearings which have drawn criticism from tenants and housing advocates.

Online eviction hearings 'dehumanizing' says legal worker Daniel Lonic NEWS REPORTER

Nutella sandwiches and Ramen noodles have become commonplace for single mother Cristina Carmo and her two children, aged 9 and 13, as she preserves every dollar possible to meet rent repayment deadlines.

“The fear of being evicted is always on my mind,” said Carmo, who lives in a Keele Street-Eglinton Avenue area apartment in Toronto. “I rarely do eight hours at work each day ever since the pandemic started so now I need to be very careful with how I spend my paycheques.”

Ontario’s eviction ban ended

July 31 and the notion of home security vanished with it. Bill 184 was passed the same month with amendments allowing landlords to enter private rent repayment plans with tenants.

Failing to meet these deadlines would allow landlords to issue eviction notices — a process that once required a hearing at the Landlord and Tenant Board.

In recent weeks, there have been 2,000 online eviction hearings across Ontario.

“The Landlord and Tenant Board has always been notoriously pro-landlord but these online hearings being held in the context of a pandemic and economic recession are partic-

ularly dehumanizing,” said Cole Webber, a legal clinic worker in Parkdale.

Tenants can receive notice of eviction hearings through email and if they fail to read the message and miss the hearing they face an accelerated eviction process.

Webber believes the process was intentionally framed to get rid of as many tenants as possible in a short period. To counter it, communities have banded together to help residents keep their homes and some supporters have taken to withholding their own rent until negotiations are considered.

“Once we establish that no

7,000 properties were sold at an average price of almost $845,000. This November, almost 9,000 properties were sold at an average price of about $955,000.

The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board reported in October there were 2,118 more homes sold than in October 2019. It isn’t the only board to report a better year. The Oakville, Milton and District Real Estate Board showed a 154 per cent increase in sales in November than the previous year.

However, there are winners and losers within industries, Park said. In real estate, condominium markets are suffering because of lockdowns.

Harsimran Sira, a realtor at SAVEMAXX, said even without open houses new listings are selling with multiple offers.

“When the pandemic started

in March, there was a pause, a freeze in the market until June,” he said. “As soon as the lockdown (was) over, people flooded the markets, which brought the value of the homes up by $30,000-to-$40,000.”

He said the boom is based on the usual equation of supply and demand, with fewer homes for sale and low-interest rates on mortgages.

Harmel Johal, a Mississauga realtor at RE/MAX Paramount Realty, said the Bank of Canada has lowered rates which caused a “surge in real estate and mortgage markets.”

Information technology is also going strong despite the pandemic.

Mukund Mishra, a business analyst at Tech Mahindra, said there is increased demand for IT services as more and more

tenants will be evicted because they were unable to pay rent during the crisis, then those tenants who’ve been holding back their rent in protest are prepared to pay that money back,” Webber said.

Having to decide whether to stock the fridge or pay rent is a desperate situation, especially during a pandemic But it’s a decision many are faced with.

One in five Parkdale residents is currently behind on rent, the Parkdale Organization, a local residents’ association, said in a news release.

In an attempt to discuss terms with MetCap Living CEO Brent Merill, more than 150 residents

rallied outside his head offices.

MetCap oversees more than 300 apartment communities.

“There’s no help coming from federal or provincial governments, the only way that tenants can get the help they need is through a class struggle,” said Dustin Brown, a member of Guelph Renters and Housing Association.

Brown urged tenants to work jointly with neighbours to support any tenant facing eviction threats and cited the power of rent strikes.

“You’re withholding the thing that your oppressor wants and need from you to gain some concessions,” he said.

Some business sectors thriving despite COVID-19 pandemic Ayesha Raizada NEWS REPORTER

Airlines, the travel sector and restaurants are some of the many industries that have been hit by the pandemic.

Kala Narayanan, owner and founder of EUROJETS Canada Inc., said sales have dropped to “next to nothing.”

“It has been zero sales literally from March,” she said.

But others, including real estate, insurance and information technology are booming.

“We have exceeded last year’s numbers,” said Charles Park, a GTA manager and broker at RE/ MAX West Realty Inc. “The business is up by 24.3 per cent compared to last year.”

Park said the residential real estate industry is doing very well. In November 2019, almost

MARK BLINCH/REUTERS

One of the many houses that were sold during the pandemic as business is great.

people work remotely. For him, that’s been good news.

He has plenty of business and “is working virtually, hence able to spend more time with my family and I also get time to upgrade my skills by enrolling for various programs.”

Sanjeev Malik, an insurance and financial advisor, said the industry has been highly profitable during the pandemic as more people buy life and critical illness insurance.

He said there has been a significant increase in policy sales this year compared to 2019.

4 - NEWS

HUMBER ET CETERA

DEC 18, 2020

‘Hope’ and the Toronto eye doctor who carries it from Canada to Africa Nur Dogan

NEWS REPORTER

Ontario-based ophthalmologist Dr. Umut Duygu Uzunel brings hope with her every time she arrives in Africa. Her volunteer work on the continent is long and hard, but fulfilling.

According to estimates, there are about seven million blind people in Africa and 10 million cataract patients needing eye surgery for cataracts or other ocular ailments.

Uzunel, whose first name translates to Hope in Turkish, is one

world, cataracts are “more common and complicated.”

She would use her vacation time to travel to Africa to volunteer, she said, often contacting pharmaceutical companies and other firms to donate health supplies she could bring with her in her luggage.

“I went to the poorest villages in the countries,” she said. “Their monthly incomes were a maximum of $30 while cataract surgery was $150. So, they were not able to have an eye operation.

But an operation that takes me 15 minutes might change their

far as 400 kilometres away.

She said her team operated on them and then sent them back to their village. Sometimes, she would see hundreds of patients on the day she was due to leave Africa to return to Canada.

“My friends were packing up my luggage while I was examining patients,” Uzunel said.

She was in Uganda in January and hoped to return in April, but COVID-19 interrupted her vital humanitarian work.

Uzunel has in the meantime been studying naturopathic medicine in Toronto while waiting

“It is very hard to supply medicine, but they have rich natural sources. We can teach them how to utilize and make medicine.”

Dr. Umut Duygu Uzunel OPHTHALMOLOGIST

who has been addressing the continent’s critical need for eye care.

She immigrated to Canada from Turkey in 2017 and has been taking her ophthalmology skills to Africa since 2014 as a volunteer.

In Africa, she said, the doctors are few and the “case numbers are very high.”

Uzunel, who has been to Somalia, Senegal, Uganda and Mali, said because of the sun’s direct rays in that part of the

perspective to the world.”

Uzunel would start surgeries at 6 a.m. and work until almost midnight, examining about 200 to 300 patients and operating on approximately 40 to 50 patients every day. She estimates she has examined 20,000 patients and performed more than 3,000 operations in Africa.

The local health team would hire a bus to bring patients who needed treatment to her from as

for the pandemic to be subdued by vaccines, in hopes of someday building a university in an African country to train local naturopaths.

“It is very hard to supply medicine, but they have rich natural sources,” she said. “We can teach them how to utilize and make medicine.”

What she wants for her African patients is hope, which is what her first name translates to from Turkish, Uzunel said.

EKREM KOSE

Dr. Umut Duygu Uzunel standing infront of children she worked on when she was doing work in Africa before the pandemic hit

JARED DODDS

Graduates from Humber College have an uphill battle facing them due to the pandemic but many are hopeful the opportunities will be out there next year.

Humber graduates, their goals and 2021 Hannah Clarke NEWS REPORTER

The 2020 pandemic has significantly changed the goals of Humber College’s graduates.

Moving out of residences or their parents’ homes, paying off student debt and finding a good job are just a few goals that have become much more difficult due to COVID-19.

“There are a lot of businesses that are forced into digital transformations, and need students with skills like ours,” Tiana Eghdam, a work placement administrator overseeing eight of Humber College’s Advertising and Design programs and their internships, said. “But they don’t have the means to hire full-time.”

Some future graduates like Liliia Smichenko, a third-year Humber journalism student from Ukraine, are still excited about what life after Humber may look like.

“I am really excited to find a job in [a] magazine,” Smichenko said, “I would also like to do some video editing.”

She said the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t discouraged her from pursuing her personal post-graduation goals since most job openings are being done remotely, and stock photos and personal editing software have become the norm since the move to remote learning.

The part Smichenko said she misses most is the face-to-face

contact interviews in-person grants.

“I wanted a full-time job in PR,” said Jenny Scrivens, a Humber 2012-2013 public relations graduate. “But before I graduated, I found out that I was moving with my family to the States.”

Eghdam said she and other administrators for Advertising and Design programs have flexible alternatives to help students achieve their “dream jobs” with the internship programs.

The Advertising and Design programs have had a 96-percent placement rate for students entering their internship programs, she said.

Eghdam, Scrivens and Smichenko all agree Humber graduates are in high demand right now and that more jobs should become available to future graduates as well.

Smichenko is particularly confident that journalists, writers and photographers will be in increasing demand if the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

“A lot of my classmates are very ambitious, and I can see that nothing is going to stop them,” she said, “This situation is pushing them to think [of] how can they push themselves more, using what they have.”

Eghdam said the positions are not just going to be available for journalists.

“I think that now, from a business side, the opportunities are coming,” Edhdam said.

DEC 18, 2020

HUMBER ET CETERA

NEWS - 5

INTERNATIONAL

COVID-19 cancels famous New Year’s party on Brazil’s Copacabana Beach Anna Beatriz De Santanna NEWS REPORTER

RIO DE JANEIRO — One of the most famous parties in the world, the New Year’s Eve bash on Copacabana beach, which last year drew almost three million people, is another high-profile casualty of COVID-19.

The city, which as of Dec. 14 reported more than 151,000 coronavirus cases, announced this week all official parties for New Year’s Eve have been cancelled. This included planned telecast and live-streaming of concerts around Rio’s numerous beaches.

The beaches recently reopened to the public and some bars and restaurants around the city were selling tickets for New Year’s Eve. But beachfront restaurants — torn between the health threat of large gatherings and the desperate need for

income — were fearful of what Dec. 31 could bring had everything gone ahead.

Vanessa Raposo, who works at Aipo & Aipim restaurant close to the Copacabana waterfront, said she thought it would be best for people if festivities were cancelled.

“As someone who works in a restaurant, I would like it to be different, because, economically speaking, things are very difficult,” Raposo said. “But we know that we are living in a very serious health crisis.”

Rio is in the second wave of COVID-19, with worrying numbers of cases, and Raposo fears large crowds still might gather despite the official announcement.

“I don’t know if the authorities will be able to restrain people from coming to New Year’s, from coming to the beach,” she said.

If that happens, “now and in

INTERNATIONAL

January, the situation here will be much worse,” she said. “I think we have to make a collective effort.”

New Year’s Eve concerts had been scheduled to take place — without an audience — on six stages installed in different regions of the city, such as Forte de Copacabana and Cidade das Artes, in Barra da Tijuca near Rio. Those were to be televised and streamed online.

Julia Leidens, who recently graduated from Estácio de Sá University, a private university in Rio, originally planned to attend the party this year. Her mother works at a beachfront hotel and often gets free tickets for parties.

But with the COVID-19 scare this year they decided to stay home in Recreio dos Bandeirantes and celebrate with family.

Leidens said the parties of 2018 and 2019 were the first she’d attended at Copaca-

JESSICA OLIVEIRA

Copacabana Beach, one of the many beaches in Brazil that had to cancel their events

bana Beach and “words cannot express how beautiful everything is.”

Jéssica Oliveira and Larissa Coelho live close to Copacabana beach and, for them, attending the party have been a New Year’s Eve tradition.

Oliveira said normally by this time of year the beach and waterfront hotels would be jammed. But while the neighbourhood’s been busier lately than it was two months ago, “it’s not like a typical December.”

Oliveira said the two would “take the puppy to walk and

didn’t see such a large crowd of people on the street.” But as the Southern Hemisphere summer brought warm temperatures “people returned to normal life.”

On the beach, there had been clusters of exercisers, surfing classes and various sports being played. But was only in November that beaches were officially reopened.

To Coelho, the lure of the Rio beaches is so strong, and the celebrations of New Year’s Eve on Copacabana so appealing, that even in a pandemic “I believe that people will come anyway."

Mysterious disease in India kills one, hospitalizes hundreds Manan Nijhawan NEWS REPORTER

NEW DELHI — Health experts suspect chemicals pesticides were to blame for the outbreak of a mysterious illness that killed one person and sent 600 to hospital in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

“The Agriculture Department should focus on withdrawing harmful pesticides from the market,” said Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, chief minister of the region.

Patients reported dizziness, headache and epilepsy-like symptoms. The authorities started doing door-to-door surveys to get a better understanding of the disease. Medical teams from district hospitals were rushed to the colonies, tending to patients in makeshift facilities arranged on the streets.

The state is located on the south-central coast of India and relies heavily on agriculture.

Andhra Pradesh resident Alok

Kumar said the area could not afford another outbreak of illness “since we are not even done with the coronavirus yet.”

Other locals agreed.

“The government needs to ban the use of DDT in order to prevent the spread of such mysterious illness,” resident Naveen Reddy said.

Early reports from doctors and experts at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and the National Centre for Disease Control have suggested pesticides might be to blame.

Even though no traces of heavy metals like arsenic, lead and nickel were found in blood samples and water samples, experts found Endosulfan and DDD in blood samples of those who were affected.

When DDT is exposed to soil it breaks up into two parts, DDE and DDD, which have similar properties and result when ingested in food or water in symptoms such as nausea, irrita-

tion of eyes, nose or throat. High doses might lead to tremors and convulsions.

More than 150 patients had been treated and discharged from the hospital and the rest were in stable condition. None of the patients tested positive for COVID-19.

Call centres were set up in order to monitor the situation, with contact information being provided in cases of emergency.

The recovery rate of the illness is good and officials have asked local residents not to panic.

“If there is one good thing that came out of COVID-19 it is that from now on any kind of virus or disease will be taken seriously and monitored closely by the government authorities,” Alok Kumar said.

World Health Organization representatives asked the government to focus on finding out how the residues from the pesticides were able to enter the human body.

REUTERS

Patients are seen on hospital beds, after hundreds of people were hospitalised due to an unknown illness in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh on Dec. 9, 2020.

6 - NEWS

HUMBER ET CETERA

DEC 18, 2020

Seniors thrilled by Christmas pen pals, thousands of letters Melike Hilal Gumus NEWS REPORTER

The COVID-19 pandemic is set to bring a particularly quiet Christmas, and seniors isolated in retirement homes are facing a particularly glum Dec. 25.

So Symphony Senior Living in Orleans, Ont., near Ottawa, came up with a solution, inviting people to become pen pals of its residents and send Christmas letters to brighten their season.

The idea came from Paul Griffith, activities co-ordinator at Symphony Senior Living.

“Paul had the idea because this year has been really hard on seniors, he wanted to try and get something that would be giving them some hope,” said Theleah Hayter, a team member at Symphony Senior Living and a Humber College paralegal graduate.

The Christmas Pen Pal event started with a post on Facebook, which went blew up overnight and reached more than 7,000 people.

“It’s absolutely insane,” Hayter said. “We’ve got people from Australia and New Zealand, so we’re sending over letters along with people from Newfoundland all the way to B.C.” Tiffany Steadman-Collins is one of the many people who saw the event and sent letters to all 13 residents who were shared on the page.

“Sending the letters made me happy,” she said. “I was super excited, and I did it as soon as I saw the post. I won’t lie, I am really giddy to see if anyone writes back.”

Melanie Baron would usually spend her holiday going to senior care homes and singing Christmas carols to them. However, this year with COVID-19, that was not possible. Instead, she participated in Christmas Pen Pal to spread happiness and cheer.

“It’s a double-edged sword, I felt sad but at the same time, I also felt really happy that we were extending

some holiday cheer to somebody and hopefully developing a friendship out of that,” Baron said.

She was not the only one in the family that sent Christmas letters to the seniors, her 10-year-old son Nathan wrote letters to all 13 residents.

“He had a great time doing it,” Baron said. “It made him happy to know that somebody would be receiving his letter for Christmas. It makes them feel like they’re not forgotten, and especially in times like this people are so lonely.

“You want to make people feel included and special, and know that somebody out there is thinking about them,” she said.

Symphony Senior Living received about 1,800 letters on the first week of Christmas Pen Pal, and since then the retirement home has received thousands more.

“We started doing announcements, just because of the amount of mail we received on the first day was crazy,” Hayter said. “We had no idea that this was going to happen at all, we were just expecting that we would get some letters from the community.

“We slowly started handing out the letters and even gifts we received, it’s awesome,” she said.

Every morning, the team members gather letters on their big table in the dining room, where all the ladies from the residents come and organize them.

“These residents are over the moon, they’re so excited to be able to chat with new people,” Hayter said.

Steadman-Collins said she’s sure the residents felt acknowledged and cared about, as “knowing that someone is thinking of you can brighten anyone’s day.

“I can not wait to see if I hear back,” she said. “Even if I don’t, it’s still is worth it, in the end, to make someone smile.”

Symphony Senior Living will be continuing its Pen Pal event throughout the year, so the seniors will be able to chat with people all around the world.

COURTESY/SYMPHONY SENIOR LIVING ORLEANS

Every morning residents at Symphony Senior Living Orleans gather together around the dining room table to organize Christmas letters.

“It’s your own writing and your own personal thoughts, you can tell that they took the time for you,” Baron said.

“The biggest blessing I think somebody can give is their time because that’s something you can never take back.”

Smaller charities thrive, Sally Ann struggles this Christmas Jennifer Kozak

NEWS REPORTER

Canadians are donating to charities to bring some holiday cheer to those in need despite the financial distress of a global pandemic.

“Our goal was to help 650 families, which is about 2,500 people, and we surpassed that and ended up helping 681 families this year,” said April Rutka, co-founder of Holiday Helpers, a registered charity.

The business of brightening Christmas and the holiday season is a year-round job.

“We start our Christmas program for 2021 in February, and our campaign ends on Christmas Day. On Dec. 26, we start fundraising for the new year,” Rutka said.

Her organization’s mission, with the help of donors, is to

provide customized relief packages to families with young children living in low-income households. Such packages include clothing, household goods or special requests. Along with the package, each family receives an artificial tree, decorations and a gift card for a warm meal.

“We do all the family shelters downtown,” Rutka said. “When a family leaves the shelter, and into their first apartment, they are usually referred by the shelter’s social worker.

“If they’re deemed low-income, we’ll provide their first Christmas for them and their children,” she said. “We get referrals from teachers, principals and immigrant services like Costi to help those in need.”

The charitable sector employs 1.5 million Canadians making up 10 per cent of the Cana-

dian workforce and represents eight per cent of Canada’s GDP, according to Canada Helps.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced many charities to lay off staff and cut-back on volunteers, but Canada’s Sector Monitor reports charities that solely depend on gifts and donations are seeing an increase in support this year.

Through its Christmas program, Mooreland Kids provides children in its program with three gifts, said David Borsook, the organization’s camp director.

“They get something to keep them warm, which is typically a hat and gloves. Something fun to do and something that they enjoy doing. For instance, if the child is into science, they’ll get a science kit,” Borsook said.

With rising food insecurity this year, Mooreland Kids also

tried to boost food support.

“We created a program called Top of the Pantry,” Borsook said. “Normally we provide each family with a $25 gift card, but this year we will be adding a second gift card just for canned goods.”

Some charities have turned to virtual donations for programs and resources because of a lack of in-person events to raise money for holiday campaigns.

The Salvation Army’s Christmas Kettle campaign is one of the most recognizable annual charitable events in Canada. To boost this year’s fundraising efforts, the Salvation Army, in partnership with Rogers Communications, launched a touchless giving solution where donors can tap their smartphones or debit cards to give.

Dan Miller, a local Salvation

Army kettle organizer, said the goal for Ontario is $12 million.

“We are only at 50 per cent of that right now,” he said. “The donations through Christmas time go to our community family services to provide toys for families in need.”

The charity is seeing an increase in families in this particular year as many have lost their jobs due to COVID-19, but Miller said the Salvation Army “will never turn anyone away who needs help.”

Despite the hardships many Canadians endured this year, the three charities hope to surpass their holiday goals in helping those in need.

“We’ve been so thankful for everyone who reached out to us to make sure families in need are supported during this time," Borsook said.

DEC 18, 2020

HUMBER ET CETERA

COMMENTARY - 7

EDITORIAL

Ontario hopes new plan will right the ship, restart economy

T

he provincial government looks to be taking a step in the right direction economically as Ontario is in the early stages of distributing the vaccine for COVID-19.

Ontario announced it will be releasing a Poverty Reduction Strategy plan that could help the people and the province recover financially from the ravaging that has taken place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Todd Smith, the minister of Children, Community and Social Services, said this could be a solution for the damage this year has caused. “Our new poverty reduction strategy will play a key part in Ontario’s economic recovery and long-term economic growth.”

The strategy focuses on networking for employment, building financial resiliency and job creation. “Employment services and training programs can play a critical role in helping people lift themselves out of poverty and

manage through these difficult times”, Monica McNaughton, the minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development said in the release.

There is also a heavy focus on supporting BIPOC families, with $26.4 million is being committed to helping First Nations families, and $1.5 million is being put towards Black organizations.

While the numbers for Black families should assuredly be higher, it’s a start.

While COVID-19 negatively impacted just about everything, it is undeniable the economy has been hit the hardest. According to Ontario’s Ministry of Finance, the province’s GDP decreased by more than 12 per cent in the second quarter, the largest quarterly decrease ever. Families that have lost jobs due to layoffs and closings of stores throughout the pandemic have reached high and unacceptable percentages between May and June 2020.

Natalie Vasyliuk

father tried to convince us he was getting better. But we insisted on a COVID test and he was positive.

His fever and headaches persisted. He tried to hide how he was feeling because that’s how we are used to seeing him - always funny and cheering everyone up. But when he was diagnosed with pneumonia, my dad was taken to hospital.

Things quickly got worse. My mom tested positive. Doctors found a clot in her lungs. When they told her the results, she resisted.

“I can’t stay here, I have two kids at home,” my mom said. But when the doctors explained the dangers of that clot, she agreed.

My parents sleep on wonky, old beds and enjoy views of cracked wall paint. It’s definitely not the Christmas experience we were hoping for.

My mom does get to come home every evening at about 10 p.m., while my dad stays at the hospital full time.

I am staying at home with my

According to Ontario’s Labour Market Report, they reached a peak of 30 per cent this year, for those aged 15 to 24. Full-time jobs reached a low point, and during the lockdown, more than 200,000 positions in customer service and sales were lost, including more than 70,000 in the trades field and another 50,000 in recreation sport.

There is real hope this pandemic is coming to an end as the vaccine is being distributed.

But as Ontario begins to figure out what the new normal looks like it must be remembered the economic impacts will be longlasting, with some businesses never recovering.

There’s now a plan for the next five years, and it is a step in the right direction, where the province can put one foot in front of the other, and eventually get to a place where Ontario can move past the effects COVID-19 had on businesses and communities.

COURTESY OFFICE OF PREMIER

Doug Ford hopes the new Poverty Reduction Plan helps get Ontario back on track.

TALES FROM HUMBER One family has to spend holiday fighting against the COVID-19 infection NEWS REPORTER

KOROSTYSHIV, Ukraine — Seeing my mom crying was breaking my heart. She was wiping her tears and packing clothes for my dad as he prepared to enter the hospital.

Little did she know she would soon be occupying a hospital bed right next to him.

Our family’s battle with COVID-19 started with my aunt and uncle getting sick. Not long after they tested positive, my godfather — who works with my dad — started to show symptoms.

That’s when we knew our family was at risk. But we were not expecting it to become so serious.

My dad didn’t pay much attention to the first symptoms. He didn’t think a headache and feeling of weakness were cause for alarm. But in a couple of days, things got worse.

He developed a fever. That’s when my mom stopped letting him go outside. Spending hours in bed, drinking hot tea, my

NATALIE VASYLIUK

Vitalii and Svitlana Vasyliuk are stuck in a Ukranian hospital room fighting COVID-19.

10-year-old sister. Both of us have had COVID-19 symptoms, but not as severe as our parents.

The only thing bothering me was the complete absence of smell, which, I must admit, is a very confusing feeling.

The experience of being a mom for my sister turned out to be much trickier than I could

imagine. Cooking, cleaning, making sure she takes her medicines and goes to bed on time, doing my assignments and helping her with homework makes me feel pretty exhausted at the end of the day.

I try to look at it as an opportunity to improve my time-management skills.

“I don’t stress about you two being home alone, because I know I can rely on you,” my mom said.

Every time she comes home, I can tell how glad she is to see we’re doing well, and that’s the most rewarding feeling.

I really miss having dinner together, watching movies and laughing at my dad’s jokes. For now, the only way we can see him is through a window in his hospital room. But nothing can make my dad lose his sense of humour.

“There’s this old lady living right next to me, and it’s so hilarious how every time she accidentally walks into my room instead of hers,” he told me on the phone.

I’m proud of having such strong parents, and I hope the worst part is over. But through this, I’ve come to realize something as simple as it is profound: every second of life is precious and we have to enjoy it because we never know what might be coming our way.

8 - ARTS

HUMBER ET CETERA

DEC 18, 2020

TARO HALFNIGHT

May your holidays be delightful and delicious Erin Leblanc NEWS REPORTER

Holiday baking is a tradition that transcends cultures and most people have special treats that make them think of the holiday season or take them back to their childhood. Humber College students of Advanced Confectionary and Nutrition are busy this time of year, doing a lot of baking at home on top of finishing projects and writing tests.

“I do most of the baking in my house, that’s for sure,” said Michailla Cymbalista, a third-year Nutrition and Healthy Lifestyle promotion student. Cymbalista celebrates Christmas in December, and Orthodox Christmas in January.

“During Christmas, I try to bake something the day of, usually, it’s cookies,” she said.

“My favourite cookies to make at the moment are peppermint mocha.”

• • • • • •

Ingredients • • • • • • • •

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup light brown or dark brown sugar 1 large egg, room temp 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 tsp peppermint extract 1 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder 1 tbsp instant coffee 1/8 tsp sea salt 1 cup of chocolate chips 2 bars of white chocolate, melted 3 large candy canes, crushed

Method: •

Beat butter until smooth and fluffy for 1 min. Add granulated sugar and brown sugar and beat on medium speed until fluffy and light in colour.

Beat in egg, vanilla extract,

•

peppermint extract at high speed.

Scrape down sides when needed.

In a separate bowl whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, instant coffee, and salt. On low speed slowly add dry ingredients into wet until combined.

Add in chocolate chips and mix at high speed. The dough should be thick, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 3 hrs or overnight.

After 3 hours, take out the dough and let sit for 30 mins or until room temperature

• •

•

• • • •

Preheat the oven to 350 F, scoop in 1 tbsp portions and place on baking sheets. Bake cookies for 10-12 mins.

Cookies will look undercooked but leave them on the tray for five minutes once out of the oven.

Melt white chocolate in a double boiler or the microwave in 15-second intervals.

Make sure cookies are completely cooled before dipping them in chocolate. Sprinkle crushed candy cane on top. Place in the fridge to help the chocolate set.

Luciana Cuello is in Humber’s Advanced Confectionary program.

She is from Argentina, and her husband is from Italy. “In Italy, during Christmas, everything revolved around food,” she said.

Christmas is celebrated over three days, from Dec. 24 to Dec. 26, and it’s a time when people visit family, play games, and eat lots of food.

Cuello shared the recipe of an Italian Christmas treat called Struffoli, which originated in the Campania region of Southern Italy.

Ingredients: • • • • • • • • • • •

⅓ cup of sugar 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour ⅓ cup melted unsalted butter Zest from one orange 3 large eggs 1 pinch of salt 1 tbsp. baking powder 1 tbsp. rum or rum extract (optional) For decoration: 300 g honey confetti as needed (optional) candied oranges (optional) hazelnuts and orange zest were used for decoration (optional)

Method: •

• • •

In a stand mixer fitted with the hook attachment, place all the ingredients and knead on medium-low until a smooth dough is formed. Remove from the mixer and slightly knead with hand and round.

Cover with saran wrap and allow to rest for 30 minutes. Heat oil in a pan to 375 F on medium heat.

Divide the dough into four and work with one piece at a time, leaving the rest covered to avoid drying out.

Roll into long thin cylinders and

• • •

cut them 1 cm approx. about the size of a hazelnut.

Once all of them are cut, fry them in small batches.

Remove from oil once golden and place them onto a tray lined with paper towels.

Warm the honey just enough to make it thin, and glaze the struffoli in the honey. Place on a serving dish and sprinkle with decorations of your choice.

Visit Humberetc.ca for a third cookie recipe

TARO HALFNIGHT

DEC 18, 2020

HUMBER ET CETERA

ARTS - 9

MIKA BAUMEISTER

Disney+ will be adding Disney+ Star to its streaming service starting Feb. 23, 2021.

Disney+ announces price increase with new content Nicholas Seles ARTS REPORTER

CRILAPHOTOS

Dione Taylor worked with different musicians and created the same organic sounding album she visioned for Spirits in the Water.

Music grad garners album of the year nom Christian Collington ARTS REPORTER

Dione Taylor hit pay dirt by turning the Black experience in Canada into what she calls “Prairie Blues.”

The Humber College music grad has received an Album of the Year nomination from Blues and Roots Radio for her album Spirits in the Water, a genre-bending project incorporating Americana, blues, folk and gospel, a sound she dubs Prairie Blues.

“What’s great about Prairie Blues is that I’m writing about my Black experiences,” Taylor said.

“Coming from Regina and living in Toronto as a Black woman and having that experience.”

She’s also nominated for the Maple Blues Awards as New Artist of the Year, Female Vocalist of the Year, and Songwriter of the Year.

Taylor, a graduate of the college’s Jazz program, attributes her success to what she learned at Humber.

“It prepared me in a lot of ways, I got to work with some of the most amazing and influential artists that are on the jazz scene,” Taylor said.

When Taylor graduated she released her first jazz album

Open Your Eyes in 2004, which was nominated for a Juno and featured contributions from college faculty such as Ted Quinlan.

Quinlan, a professional musician and former head of the Guitar Department at Humber, was tickled to be asked to work on the album.

“Dione and I are good friends,” Quinlan said. “Working with current and former students shows the connections that the program makes.”

Quinlan played on five tracks on Taylor’s album, providing acoustic guitar on the Brazillian inspired songs and electric guitar on the jazz songs.

“My favourite song would be the last songAngel’s Share. It was a duo with her and me, so, it gave her room to express herself,” Quinlan said.

Taylor worked with Joel Schwartz, a Humber Jazz program graduate, for the first time to produce Spirits in the Water.

“It was a really great experience,” Taylor said. “We would bounce ideas off each other.

Sometimes I would have a lyric and Joel would have a guitar riff, and we’d work organically together to come up with these great songs.”

Schwartz, a music producer, attributes the jazz training as something fundamental to producing the album.

Schwartz and Taylor’s relationship with jazz is what brought them together for Spirits in the Water.

“We drew on our jazz training for the album,” Schwartz said. The album took three years to make and Schwartz noted that, as a producer, many moving parts led to its success.

The nomination from Blues and Roots radio delighted Schwartz.

“It’s absolutely thrilling,” Schwartz said.

“To hear it on the radio and know that people enjoyed it and were moved by it was great.”

Schwartz said he was proud of Taylor and the work she created.

“Dione is truly a unique artist,” said Schwartz.

“It was a privilege for me to help and put out this excellent project.” Quinlan also raved about how far Taylor has come as a musician in Canada’s music industry.

“Dione is a fantastic singer, I think she’s one of our brilliant Canadian artists. She’s as good as it gets,” Quinlan said.

Taylor is looking forward to hearing the winner announced on Dec. 24. In the meantime, she has kept busy teaching vocal lessons at Humber College.

“I’m really, really honoured to be named with so many amazing other artists as well,” she said.

Canadians will be paying $3 more for Disney+ when it launches Disney+ Star next year, its add-on section that will feature more adult-oriented content like Deadpool.

The price for a Disney+ monthly subscription will rise to $11.99 from $8.99, set when it came online in November 2019.

The price increase is expected to into effect on Feb. 23, 2021, which coincides with the release of Star, when the service will start to see the release of new shows from Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar and National Geographic.

The addition of Disney+ Star’s new content, as well as the price increase, were announced at Disney’s investor’s day conference on Dec. 11.

The question that it raises is: do people feel the price will be worth paying?

Danyal Somani, a first-year Film Production student at Humber, said there is optimism in looking to the future of Disney+.

“Star is a great move, as it will attract more subscribers due to having more mature content,” Somani said.

“The price increase is pretty fair, given all the new content.

I am mostly excited for all the Marvel content like Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Ms. Marvel, WandaVision and the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special,” he said.

Marvel Studios experienced many delays in 2020, caused by COVID-19, in regards to the theatrical releases of the films Black Widow and Eternals as well as delaying filming for the

subsequent films like Shang-Chi, Thor: Love and Thunder as well as their Disney+ shows. WandaVision will be the first to debut on Jan. 15, 2021.

“If Disney+ starts adding more content that isn’t strictly Disney, then I think they can pull it off and then maybe they’ll have a chance to surpass Netflix,” Humber business graduate Jasmeet Jandu said, “I would say it’s a fair price,” he said. Alongside the Marvel content, Kathleen Kennedy, the president of Lucasfilm, offered a look at upcoming shows which included The Bad Batch, an animated show in the vein of The Clone Wars. She also showed off the Cassian Andor series, the Obi-Wan Kenobi series and announced the long-awaited Ahsoka Tano series which Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni are writing.

Pixar also showed off its slate of content which included Dug Days, an animated series following the lovable golden retriever from Up and how he’s coping with life in the city.

Pixar also announced a movie titled Lightyear which would show the origins of the space hero Buzz Lightyear (now voiced by Chris Evans instead of Tim Allen).

The film is not connected to the Toy Story series, but as a standalone film. At the end of the investor’s conference, former CEO and chairman Bob Iger reaffirmed Disney’s long-term commitment to the streaming service, indicating they were just getting started.

“It’s very important to us, that when people watch our shows and movies, they see themselves reflected,” Iger said.

10 - SPORTS

HUMBER ET CETERA

DEC 18, 2020

Examining the rituals and mentality of hockey goaltenders Garrett Thomson SPORTS REPORTER

To listen to Canadian paralympic gold medalist Paul Rosen tell it, hockey goalies are a breed apart.

And, really, why wouldn’t they be?

“When a forward makes a mistake, the defence is there. When the defence makes a mistake, we are there. When we make a mistake, it’s in the net,” Rosen told Et Cetera, explaining why goaltenders often display personality quirks seen as different or weird.

“They have to be on their own a little, which makes everybody think they are a little weird,” Rosen said.

They don’t tend to prepare for games the way other players do, in large part because the roles are so different.

Rosen said goalies shouldn’t and don’t get ready the same way that players do, because the job they have to do bears little resemblance to the skaters in front of them.

The position demands the reflexes of a cat, the toughness of an airplane tire and nerves of a cat burglar.

Also, a willingness, as the last line of defence for every team, to face the music for blown saves,

blown wins, and the team’s overall level of confidence.

So it’s not surprising that goalies have superstitions, the better to rally all possible forces — both athletic and supernatural — to their side.

“I would tape my shin pad onto my left leg from outside to inside 13 times,” Rosen said.

Then, before the first puck is dropped, he’d feel compelled to tap his stick on both his left and right shoulder, twice, then his head, then the crossbar. In that order. Every time.

Others in the weird fraternity of goaltenders agree.

“I get to the rink at a certain time, tape my stick at a certain time, and put certain pieces of gear on first,” said Luke Richardson, goaltender for the Queen’s Golden Gaels Varsity men’s hockey team.

Rituals are all part of mental preparation and the business of focusing on the task ahead, the two goalies agreed.

Such psychological gamesmanship can be seen almost every time a goal is scored. The victimized goalie will take off his mask, turn to the water bottle on his net and drink. He resets, refreshes, refocuses — puts that goal behind him and thinks

COURTESY PAUL ROSEN

Paul Rosen makes a save during the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Games. Rosen said goalies are often seen as different or weird.

only about the next shot, not the last.

Goalies need to be able to handle pressure in the tensest moments and most hostile environments.

“It’s the ability to not let anything bother you,” Richardson said, even when games are on the line, especially when things aren’t going his team’s way.

Goaltenders see the game from

a unique vantage point, from one end of the rink, seeing the entire ice surface and the play unfold in front of them.

They spend much of the game alone, being fussy housekeepers to the ice around their crease, continually tapping their best friends — the goalposts — to make sure they’re still there.

They say they stand ready to go from relaxed mode to high alert within a heartbeat, staring down breakaways, peering through forests of legs for screened shots, hacking at attackers taking liberties in their territory marked by light blue paint, all the while knowing the red goal light behind them is a remorseless judge.

NEWS Fewer Canadians getting therapy amid COVID despite increasing need Alex Thomas NEWS REPORTER

Bill Taekema has seen the toll of the COVID-19 pandemic firsthand.

The Brampton psychotherapist knows in addition to the deaths, illnesses and economic costs, the pandemic has threatened the mental health of people who have been living for a year under extraordinary stresses and their world turned upside down.

“I would say (I’ve seen) more clients due to the pandemic,” Taekema said.

“People are struggling financially, emotionally, socially and in family relationships.”

Some clients have been hit by the double whammy of economic losses reducing their ability to seek psychotherapy at a time when they feel an even greater need for it.

“Instead of coming every week, maybe they have to come every other week or once a month because of financial constraints,” said Taekema, a Gestalt psychotherapist and owner of Therapy By Bill,

said.

“Without a source of income, for some people, it is a struggle getting the money to do things such as therapy,” he said.

Mental health struggles are made worse by isolation and the inability to see loved ones, he said.

During the pandemic, Mental Health Research Canada found Canadians haven’t been going to therapy. The study found the number of people going to their therapist dropped to three per cent from 22 per cent. Online therapy has only increased to four per cent from three.

Brittany Barratt, a Hamilton psychotherapist with Rebound Total Health, said talking to a therapist, even when things aren’t going wrong, helps enhance mental health.

“It builds up those protective factors that make it easier to go through life for us,” Barratt said.

Under the current crisis, therapists must also ensure their own well being, she said.

“COVID has definitely put limitations on

our own emotional capacity as well from a therapist perspective,” Barratt said. “It’s really imperative that now more than ever therapists are practicing what they preach and taking care of themselves.”

Many people feel pressure to soldier on and not admit to feelings of stress and anxiety. But experts are trained to detect subtle indicators of worry, burnout and exhaustion.

“It’s still possible to hear in their voice,” said Terry Simonik, a psychotherapist for more than 30 years and co-director of the Toronto Institute for Group Studies. “I can hear their emotions, I can tell. I can hear them, I can sense when they’re calmer.”

Therapists have been providing services online during the pandemic, which while it is less satisfactory than in-person sessions, for some people it does have the benefit of reducing time for travel and freeing it up for other duties.

Some services are available by text, which, during the pandemic, is sometimes enough to help a client through a difficult patch.

COURTESY BILL TAEKEMA

Brampton psychotherapist Bill Taekema said many people are struggling with the social, mental and economic burdens of the COVID-19 pandemic.

DEC 18, 2020

HUMBER ET CETERA

SPORTS - 11

Homophobia rampant in Canadian youth sports, study says Garrett Thomson SPORTS REPORTER

Canadian youth sports has created a dark and dangerous place for LGBTQ+ athletes as statistics show Canada is among the worst offenders when it comes to homophobia.

In Toronto, a trial of a teenage boy continues after pleading not guilty to two counts each of gang sexual assault and assault with a weapons-related to incidents in which students were sexually assaulted with a broom handle at elite St. Michael’s College School in 2018.

In another case, 14 former Canadian Hockey League players, led by Dan Carcillo and Garrett Taylor, have filed a class-action lawsuit in Ontario Superior Court of Justice alleging sexual abuse and a “deviant culture” of hazing rituals that took place for decades.

The global research — by Monash University in Australia and Out On The Fields — that includes Canada shows LGBTQ+

OPINION

youth who came out found nearly half were targets of bullying, slurs, assaults and other negative behaviour, and sport leaders largely ignored their duty to stop homophobic and transphobic behaviour in sports.

Under such intense scrutiny and with growing awareness of the lasting damage such abuse does, organizations are now doing the much-needed work to change.

“There’s a significant prominence of casual homophobia in youth sports,” said Jonas Worth, director of Partnership and Development for You Can Play, an organization that works to ensure the safety and inclusion for all fans, coaches and players apart of the LGBTQ+ community.

Education programs are available to coaches and managers to create healthy, inclusive atmospheres in youth sports and to educate their players.

“The art of being an ally to the LGBTQ+ community also applies to Black Lives Matter, as well as any member of the BIPOC community,” Worth said.

COURTESY YOU CAN PLAY

The You Can Play Organization, which promotes inclusion of LGBTQ+ athletes, at the 2019 Toronto Pride Parade. A 2020 global study found that half of LGBTQ+ youth involved in sports were targets of bullying, slurs, assaults and other negative behaviour.

And he said the bonus is “an inclusive locker room can create a more winning environment.”

For players experiencing homophobia, the abuse can follow them through their lives.

Chris Voth is a retired national and professional volleyball player and the first openly gay athlete on Canada’s national team.

“I was denied a contract specifically for the reason of being gay” going into his second year

as a pro, Voth said.

After spending a few months at the national training centre in Quebec, he signed with a team in Finland.

“A few months later, we became the first professional volleyball team to walk in a pride parade,” Voth said.

“I don’t think people realize the effect that it has,” he said of the homophobic slurs he routinely heard in locker rooms.

Voth looks to return to his former professional team, Lycurgus in the Netherlands, as an assistant coach as soon as next season.

He said homophobia in youth sports is a much greater issue than sometimes perceived and youth sports in Canada need to be made safe for all players to thrive and experience the benefits that team sports, in their best moments, can provide.

NCAA faces losing basketball, football and it's about time

Francis Commey SPORTS EDITOR

C

ollege basketball is one of the most exciting products sport produces. The National Collegiate Athletic Association’s March Madness tournament is one of the mostwatched television events every year, generating billions of dollars for colleges, the NCAA and oddsmakers.

But notably, none of that revenue goes to the players on the court.

The conversation about paying college basketball and football players is a long and muddy one. Some balk at the notion of paying amateurs a dime, a chorus led by Mark Emmert, the president of the NCAA, who says the players are compensated with a world-class education.

However, there is a growing number of others who question how it is at all fair that these athletes are working, ostensibly, for free.

Some of the pushback on paying college players is the idea that every one of these collegiate players is going to have a bright future making millions in the NBA. But numbers from the NCAA itself debunk that idea, as just more than one per cent of basketball players are drafted every year.

The NCAA appeared to be almost feudal in nature in the way it operates. While collecting huge revenues and some

coaching staff earning millions per year, UConn basketball star Shabazz Napier told the world in 2014 there were nights he didn’t eat because he didn’t have money to buy food.

So what is the solution?

I’m sure the NCAA’s answer is nothing. Why would they change when they’re making off like bandits? But the NBA has forced the NCAA’s hand by allowing high school players to skip out on college and go straight into the NBA’s developmental league, entering their names into the draft the year after.

There’s also speculation the rule put in place after the 2005 NBA draft forcing high school players to wait a year before entering their names may be eliminated for the 2022-2023 season.

If that comes to fruition the NCAA will almost certainly see a drop-off in talent across the board, as there is little incentive for a five-star recruit to go to

play in college, risking injury or a drop-off in skills and putting potential earnings in jeopardy.

As for the “world-class education,” the simple fact is these young men go to college to play basketball. They have dreams of being professional basketball players, suggesting for some top recruits, education means next to nothing.

But it’s not just the NBA knocking on the NCAA’s door.

The college sports body has legal trouble as well. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up an appeal by the NCAA where a lower court ruled denying the organization to put a cap on how much colleges can pay their players for education-related expenses. The original suit was brought by many, including Shawne Alston, a former football player for West Virginia, and this is the first time the high court will hear a case involving the NCAA since 1984.

Along with the legal issues is a

recommendation by The Knight Commission, a panel of academics and sports leaders, that college football should separate from the NCAA and operate as it’s own entity. If that decision is made it opens the door for college basketball to follow, all but ensuring the demise of the NCAA as we know it.

So it seems clear the NCAA must make a change, both in its rules on eligibility and on its stance for paying its players.

These changes must be made, for the simple fact that college athletics are an important part of the sports ecosystem. It provides some the chance to develop their skills, and the education some receive actually is important, as only a small number will go on to play professionally.

Collegiate athletics needs to be a viable option in the changing landscape of sports, but the NCAA seems to be doing everything in its power to stop that from happening.