April 4, 2013

the newspaper

The University of Toronto’s Independent Weekly

Since 1978

VOL XXXV Issue 27 • April 4, 2013

0% percent down! 0% percent interest!

U of T lures top faculty with interest-free deals A substantial paycheck and tenure at a storied university does not appear to be enough to retain top-level faculty, a recent Freedom of Information request suggests. The University of Toronto administration has been offering large, interest-free mortgages to staff members.

In accordance with the FOI act, the U of T detailed a list of mortgages valued over $65 000 that it provided to unnamed persons employed by the University. A U of T alum filed the

request when researching a similar practice at the University of British Columbia. Interested in how widespread the practice was, he filed a request for the same information from the U of T. The subsequent response displayed 25 interestfree mortgages that the University granted members of various faculties.

When questioned about the issue by the newspaper, VP equity and human resources, Angela Hildyard stated that, “the provision of an interestfree mortgage loan is very occasionally an essential com-

ponent of a recruitment or retention arrangement.”

Despite not paying any interest on the loan, Hildyard points out that recipients are taxed in accordance with Revenue Canada’s understanding of the loans as a fully taxable benefit. More specifically, the University’s response to the FOI indicates that “interest on the outstanding loan is reported annually.”

When asked about the source of the money, Hildyard said they are assessed and granted on a faculty basis, as they are responsible for com-

Student Commons coming soon 60 year-old idea almost ready for plan Yukon Damov After eight years of negotiations, it appears as if students will have to wait just over 18 months before they stroll into the new Student Commons.

University of Toronto administration and the University of Toronto Students’ Union both agree that they are nearing an agreement, possibly as soon as Friday.

“We’re still in the negotiating process, but we’re nearing the end,” said UTSU president Shaun Shepherd.

Shepherd’s optimism is shared by U of T vice-president, operations, Scott Mabury. “I believe the ‘agreement’ is close to being final as we are exchanging near final language on the last remaining items.”

“Once the agreement is finalized and signed I expect the ‘project planning report’ for the renovation of 230 College Street would begin the journey through governance for approval,” continued Mabury. ”Once we have approval then an architect selection process begins…the architects will

work with the project committee to design the project which will be tendered for a contractor who will do the work.”

While the idea for a centralized student space dates back to just after World War Two, the Student Commons’ latest iteration has been in development since 2005, when the university administration struck a planning committee to review the current model of atomized student-activity space. In 2008, students voted in an UTSU referendum to pay $20 million of

continued page 2

pensating staff.

Thus, a pertinent further question is why so little information was revealed through the FOI request. No names or payment periods are provided, only the list of loans made at zero per cent interest, some as high as $300 000. To this, Hildyard commented, “The information was provided in accordance with the FOI request and in accordance with FOI law.”

Despite the strange opacity that enshrouds the destination of student funds, the practice is widespread. UBC offers the

same kind compensation to its senior staff. A similar FOI request unearthed $11.8m in loans made to employees at the west-coast institution. Included in their slightly more detailed response were the names of the recipients as well as the amounts remaining on their principal.

As reported in Ubyssey, the UBC student publication, the school’s administration similarly defends the practice by saying that it is a crucial tool used to attract and retain top-

continued page 2

BRITTANY ARJUNE

Emerson Vandenberg

2

THE NEWS

April 4, 2013

the newspaper

the newspaper is the University of Toronto’s independent weekly paper, published since 1978.

VOL XXXV No. 27 Managing Editor Helene Goderis

Associate News Editors Sebastian Greenholtz Emerson Vandenberg

Web Editor Joe Howell

Associate Art Editor Carissa Ainslie Photo Editor Bodi Bold Illustrations Editor Nick Ragetli Copy Editor Sydney Gautreau

News Editor Yukon Damov Features Editor David Stokes

Contributors Brittany Arjune, Jonas Becker, Sarah Boivin, Yukon Damov, Sebastian Greenholtz, Kevin Hempstead, Dylan Hornby, Jane Alice Keachie, Marsha Mcleod, Samantha Preddie, Nick Ragetli, Cara Sabatini, David Stokes, Isaac Thornley, Emerson Vandenberg BODI BOLD

Editor-in-Chief Cara Sabatini

Collage by RHIANNON WHITE

Comment Editor Dylan Hornby Video Editor Ted Rawson

from “free deals”

from “ready for plan” the projected $30 million cost for the Commons; the University will cover the rest. Hence the $5 per session UTSU levy currently paid for the capital cost and a $20.75 per session for operational costs once the Commons opens.

The Commons will “house club offices, levy group space, meeting rooms, commuter space, lounges, rehearsal space, construction space, a studentoperated cafeteria with vegan, Halal and Kosher food options, and U.T.S.U. services including a cheap copy shop, food bank and a permanent used textbook exchange,” according to the UTSU website.

Shepherd said that should fee diversion occur, the seceding membership will have full access to the Commons, but non-UTSU members, clubs, and levy groups will not be able to access UTSU services nor book spaces.

defederate this Engineering and Trinity students overwhelmingly support fee diversion Isaac Thornley & Kevin Hempstead Trinity College Of the 33 per cent voter turnout at the recent Trinity College referendum, 72 per cent voted in favour of diverting fees currently paid to the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) to the Trinity College Meeting, the college’s localized governing body.

The proposed fee diversion, scheduled to go into effect in September 2013, must first be approved by the University Affairs Board (UAB) of Governing Council, the body “responsible for consideration of ... matters that directly concern the quality of student and campus life,” according to the Governing Council website.

Despite gaining the support of only 24 per cent of Trinity College’s 1733 eligible voters, the numbers are still high compared to most campus political activity at U of T. Victoria College’s referendum on fee diversion managed a voter turnout of less than 12 per cent, while the recent UTSU elections turnout was around seven per cent.

The fees currently paid by Trinity students to the UTSU ($159.63 per session, per student) are planned to be directed to the TCM with a few minor adjustments. And the $7.28 membership fee for the Canadian Federation of Students, of which the UTSU is a local chapter, would no longer be charged to Trinity students.

In the coming weeks, Trinity

will present the referendum results to the UAB, establish a “transition team” composed of student leaders to meet with various administrators to discuss the implementation of these proposals, and hash out the details of health and dental insurance coverage throughout the summer.

Many questions remain surrounding the likely outcomes of the referendum. In recent years the UAB has honoured the outcome of multiple student-run referenda dealing with the modification of fee payments, though ultimately respecting the ruling of the courts where they have been involved. Though the CFS has a reputation of pursuing legal action against those attempting to leave, the UTSU has yet to address questions of whether they intend to go to court should the UAB implement the proposals of the referendum.

Engineering Society Polls closed Wednesday at 8pm for the Engineering Society referendum to divert fees from the UTSU. Results show a gigantic 95 per cent yes vote with a 29 per cent turnout. .

The referendum asked for a reallocation of the entire UTSU fee of $159.63—including the elimination of the $7.50 Canadian Federation of Students and $0.25 Orientation fee—to EngSOC. This ability to divert fees has yet to be established, as they still need to be validated by the University Affairs Board.

“The next step will be taking them to UAB,” explains EngSOC President Rishi Maharaj.

“We will be looking to the Vice-Provost Students, who is the senior assessor of the UAB, to bring that motion forward in time for the fee changes to take effect for the Fall 2013 session.”

While the results of the University Affairs Board is yet to be determined, given the similar positive results both at Victoria College and Trinity, its acceptance or rejection will most likely face the same hurdles as the others.

EngSOC does face one added obstacle, however, that the other colleges do not. While Victoria and Trinity consist of a wide diaspora of student ranging in programmes, there remains the possibility that EngSOC—composed singularly of engineers—will fracture from the U of T community without a campus-wide advocacy group such as the UTSU.

EngSOC’s “Report on the Feasibility and Implications of Separation from the UTSU,” which details how EngSOC can provide for all of the UTSU’s services, does not mention how to maintain campus-wide connections. It even reassures the differences within engineers, simply stating that the “body most relevant to Engineering students is their own faculty.”

Yet EngSOC is confidence this can be overcome. “The SGRT already fills that gap,” comments VP Finance Pierre Harfouche. It would need some work, but if people are this committed to diverting fees from the UTSU, I fail to see why people could not be equally as committed to improving student services, life and advocacy together through a round-table.”

It is yet to be determined when the UAB will debate on the matter, or how any meeting would proceed.

BRITTANY ARJUNE

quality staff. The January article goes on to quote a system of loans provided at Simon Fraser University that are subsidized, but not completely interest-free as the UBC and U of T model offer.

Public servants—university staff included—are already handsomely paid, as the 2013 Sunshine List demonstrates.

The yearly report details all public sector workers who earn over $100 000. Listed among them is virtually every professor at U of T. Is such generous compensation not sufficient to retain their employment? Do interest-free mortgages really need to be offered in addition to such vast salaries?

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3

THE NEWS

SlutWalk Toronto organizes internet-based day of action International Day Against Victim Blaming too large for traditional public protest Jane Alice Keachie On Wednesday, April 3rd—the second anniversary of the original Slut Walk in 2011—the people behind Slutwalk Toronto organized a day of action on the internet, called International Day Against Victim Blaming. The event functioned as a call-to-arms “to spread the word that those who experience sexual violence are never the ones at fault,” according to the organization’s website. Participants in the event were encouraged to take advantage of social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr

in order to spread awareness of victim blaming and the offensive rhetoric of slut shaming.

After a Toronto police officer advised women to “avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized,” in February 2011, Heather Jarvis co-founded Slut Walk Toronto; she did so in response to a culture she believes blames women for sexual assault because of how they choose to dress or act.

The continued pervasiveness of victim-blaming rhetoric has been recently illuminated by the media coverage and commentary on the Steubenville rape case, such as Barbara

Amiel’s controversial article in Maclean’s. Jarvis hopes IDAVB will both highlight “the horrendous examples of victim blaming around the world” and also “celebrate some amazingly creative ways people are fighting back.”

Since 2011 the Slut Walk movement has expanded internationally to include chapters in various North American cities. Two years later, the sentiment behind the march remains strong, but international growth has made it too difficult to organize and synchronize numerous marches all over the world.

“Online social activism is increasingly important and increasingly happening,” said Jarvis. “It’s a way for people to tap in when they may not have the availability, the time, or the energy to be out in a public space and attend a public event.”

SlutWalk Toronto took advantage of its connection to organizers around the world to promote the event internationally. This included translating key phrases regarding rape culture and victim blaming into multiple languages.

Images bearing the statement “Because survivors deserve

our support, not our scrutiny” were available in multiple languages, including German, Portuguese, and Hebrew.

“We want to highlight that this is not something that is just happening across North American mainstream media,” said Jarvis. “This is happening all over the world, all the time.”

With their audience growing to an international level, the IDAVB’s online social presence has enabled and augmented Slut Walk’s greater struggle to end oppression and violence against women worldwide.

Undergrad tuition increase capped at three percent per year A look into why Ontario students pay the most compared to their provincial peers And offset we do. In light of multi-billion dollar federal budget surpluses for most of the last decade, the Canadian Federation of Students highlight that federal-to-provincial cash transfers for post-secondary education have decreased by 50 per cent as measured as a proportion of GDP during the same time period.

Ontario universities are particularly strained, as the Ontario government currently contributes the lowest perstudent funding towards postsecondary education out of all

provincial governments.

“Ontario students pay the highest tuition in the country for one very straightforward reason,” U of T provost Cheryl Misak told the newspaper.

“The Government of Ontario contributes the lowest funding per student in the country.”

A guideline for Publicly-Assisted Universities published by the Ministry of Training, College and Universities stipulates two provincial conditions for permitting tuition increases: there must be improvements to quality of edu-

e.g.

- human resources - health + wellness

utilities + maintenance

shared infrastructure

e.g.

- Blackboard - wireless internet

general expenses

cation and no student with financial need be turned away under stipulations by the Student Access Guarantee.

If these requirements are not fulfilled as tuition costs continue to rise - albeit by a lower percent per year - students must understand that it is upon their headcount that meagre government funding is allocated at all. Professor Hamel hopes that students realize “the amount of power you have here. You guys are the crack-cocaine of this place.”

SEBASTIAN GREENHOLTZ

Since 2006, Ontario undergraduate tuition has been allowed to rise by five per cent yearly. This year – and for the next four years – the Ontario government has stipulated that undergraduate tuition will be capped at a maximum three per cent increase per year; graduate tuition will be capped at five percent per year, reduced from eight percent.

“What we announced last week was a $1200 savings for students over the next five years,” Brad Duguid, Minister of Training, Colleges, and Universities, told the newspaper.

Under that new framework, the most expensive tuition cost for 2013-2014 will be $5,838.04 for full-time U of T Arts & Science undergraduate students. The University of Toronto considers its programs to be of good value compared to other jurisdictions, comparing its fees to those of similar institutions in the UK and the US, as outlined in its 2011-12 Tuition Fee Schedule for Publicly Funded Programs.

While average Ontario tuition might compare equally to its international counterparts, Ontario students still pay the highest average tuition in the country. Full-time tuition costs for Arts and Science (BA&Sc) at McGill University ran $2,167.80 in 2012-2013 (for

Quebec students) and full-time undergraduate arts or science tuition at the University of British Columbia is calculated at $4,700.40.

Duguid argues that “some of the provinces have artificially kept tuition down by reducing their quality of education.”

Duguid also notes that Ontario “can’t pretend that the government is in anything but a challenging fiscal position right now.”

In the 2011-2012 fiscal year, the University of Toronto’s total revenue was $2.4 billion, of which student tuition made up $847.4 million and government grants accounted for $702.2 million. The University of Toronto brands itself as a “public research university,” but government funding only accounts for 30 per cent of the university’s revenue, and student tuition, donors, and “services and sales” front the remainder.

Referring to the Queen’s Park legislative building visible from his office window in University College, Paul Hamel, a biology and human rights professor at the University of Toronto, explains, “someone made a choice about what would be in the public sphere and what would be in the private sphere, and the choice was that students should be there to offset the burden of higher education.”

NOAH VANDERLAAN

Marsha Mcleod

e.g.

- staff - grad student carrels

library

academic divisions

student aid

The above graph depicts the approximate distribution of funds from one domestic student’s tuition payment for one year.

THE INSIDE

10 WEIRD classes to take next year 1. HIS343Y1—History of Modern Espionage: If you grew up climbing trees to spy on friends and neighbours or reading cold war novels, come to History of Modern Espionage, where the course explores the origins and evolution of intelligence services. Topics include, technological change, covert operations, and lies that cost lives.

2. AST251H1—Life on Other Worlds: Previously confined to sci-fi novels and B movies, the debate on extraterrestrial life has emerged in the academic classroom setting. The course will engage current ideas on the development of the universe as well as developing possible search techniques and the discussing the creation of space colonies in other solar systems.

3. CHM101H1—The Chemistry and Biology of Organic Molecules: Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll! Chemistry for people who thought they hated chemistry! Chemicals make their way into our lives whether we plan on it or not—from medicines to perfumes to artificially-flavoured foods. This course examines the chemistry and biology of organic molecules to see just how cool chemistry can be.

4. HIS437H1—Telling Lies About Hitler: Frauds and Famous Feuds Among German Historians History may be written by the victors, but with a story as complex as the rise of Hitler and the Holocaust, the lines between winners and losers is blurred.

This course examines Hitler controversies and their public reception.

5. ITA346H1—Monsters and Marvels in Italian Modern Literature: Modernity is itself a monster, and unknown are its future perils and existential angst. This course uses Italian literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to examine these horrors.

6. RLG209H1—Justifying Religious Belief: This is an age of wavering faith, and the rising number of atheists and agnostics makes it increasingly important for the faithful to defend religion. This survey course examines topics such as the nature of religious language, reason vs. faith, religious pluralism, and how to tell your Catholic parents you’re a Muslim.

7. SLA103H1—Golems and Robots on Stage and Screen For centuries, playwrights and filmmakers have identified the limitations of a human-only cast. Thus, the introduction of artificial creatures on stage and screen has served to enhance the viewing experience. This course explores the major issues in the study of theatre, cinema, and popular culture, with a focus on case studies from Central and Eastern Europe.

8. SLA203H1—Faking It: Throughout history people have found the need, whether for financial or personal gain, or simply to stay alive, to forge cultural artifacts or personal identities. This course examines literary texts from Central and Eastern Europe to explore the porous boundaries between what is real and what is forged, exposing the artificiality of social and cultural norms.

9. UNI377H1—Lesbian Studies Queer identity and culture has a tendency to be gay-male-centric, while the sphere of lesbianism is a strong and ever-changing subcategory. The course will look into the meaning of “lesbian” and its changes, and follow political movements and expressions in the history of lesbianiam.

10. PHY100H1—The Magic of Physics For all those who were waiting for an invitation to Hogwarts that never came, there is still a chance to learn magic—that is, the magical rules that determine motion and time in the universe. This course will focus on concepts such as chaos, time travel, and black holes.

April 4, 2013

no taxation with detestation?

Motion: Westboro baptist church should stay tax-exempt With the US Supreme Court debating marriage equality this week, the gay-loathing Westboro Baptist Church has taken advantage of the recent media publicity on gay marriage to protest in various locations throughout Washington DC, including war memorials and military cemeteries.

Given that the church draws plenty of criticism for its hateful views, should WBC’s tax-exempt status as a religious organization be removed?

CON Dylan Hornby The visual, hate-filled messages used during the Westboro baptist church’s (WBC) famous protests have created controversy for years.

The church is known for picketing against gay rights, Jews, and even outside the funerals of American soldiers killed overseas.

No matter how disgusting one finds their views, holding these ridiculous positions is not illegal, nor should it warrant the demand for them to give up their status as a religious organization. WBC is effectively just a church, with a very small weekly, passionate congregation. Their messages specifically use

strong language and protests to gain significant attention and get its point across. This is, of course, the basis of any society founded on free speech.

Making people angry is not against the law. It should not carry a penalty for any citizen, any political group, or any religious group.

They are also not the only church in the country with hateful views. Churches have protested many sensitive topics before, from abortion and homosexuals to other religions. Some Ministers preach extreme political views every Sunday. To single out WBC for their views does nothing to mediate intolerance from pulpits across the nation.

The WBC is careful not

to break hate speech laws with their protests. This is because they don’t call for the physical eradication or murder of any of the groups they preach against. While the KKK is a hate group because they have been known to persecute and harm people exclusively for being a different race, the WBC does not do anything to gay people except tell them that they are going to hell. In fact, some same-sex couples will even make out in front of the WBC protesters to spite them.

This demonstrates that the WBC protests are not always depressing scenes. People are increasingly coming out to counter-protest against them. The results are often hilarious, and seek to make

a mockery of the WBC’s messages. These days, wherever the group takes their small protests, at least twice as many counter-protesters show up to creatively express themselves against their message.

Therefore, what began as hateful words can lead to a healthy and entertaining exercise of free speech rights.

WBC should not be punished more than any other religious groups by taking a position on a divisive issue.

Besides, it is thanks to the free speech laws Westboro takes advantage of that they are quickly ridiculing themselves and their cause into submission.

order for a tax exemption a religious organization must be operated “…exclusively for religious, educational, scientific, or other charitable purposes,” while also ensuring that “…no substantial part of its activity may be attempting to influence legislation.” Protesters point out that its homophobic and anti-Semitic principles bears more similarity with a hate group then a religious organization, while also deriding its utter lack of charitable activity.

Popular opinion aside, the WBC should be removed from the IRS’ charitable list for two main reasons. First, while the characteristics of what constitutes a religion are becoming ever more broadly definable, the WBC focuses its activities more on the targeted discrimination of a particular group of individuals, thus falling more within the category of a hate group. As the group serves no visible educational or scientific purpose and does not partici-

pate in any charitable work, it is thus ineligible for the first IRS criteria.

Second, the WBC’s entire scope of activities is centered on an attempt to change legis- l a t i o n

filed a complaint with the IRS, hoping to remove the WBC from its charitable organizations list. Another group has filed its petition with the US government on “We the People,” and has to date collected over 280 000 signatures. Groups like the WBC have no place in modern society, and combined with rational uses of both the law and public anger, can and will be barred from further spreading their vitriol.

PRO Jonas Becker The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) has long possessed the dubious reputation of being one of the most reviled organizations in the US. With an extreme ideology that targets homosexuals, the WBC regularly conducts anti-gay protests at military funerals and other high profile events, and is monitored by antihate watchdog groups such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The WBC’s 40 members are primarily drawn from founder Fred Phelps’s extended family, and have broken off all ties with larger, more mainstream Baptist communities.

Although freedom of speech is a carefully enshrined right of liberal democracy, the line has to be drawn somewhere. The WBC’s virulent, anti–homosexual activism is revolting enough on its own, but the protests at the funerals of deceased soldiers, murder victims, and AIDs patients completely oversteps the boundaries of basic human decency.

According to the IRS, in

regarding the legal rights and privileges of gay and transgender citizens, neatly severing them from the second IRS criteria.

One group of protesters has already

NICK RAGETLI

4

5

THE INSIDE

CARA SABATINI

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Toronto, home to ancient Chinese festival of the dead David Stokes April 4 is a particularly busy day at Toronto’s cemeteries.

And, on that same day, smoke rises from backyards across the city. What unites these events is the Qingming Festival, known as Tomb Sweeping Day, an annual commemoration observed by many of Toronto’s over 280 000 strong Chinese population. Qingming is a tradition stretching back more than 2 000 years.

Qingming is the day to tend to the graves of the departed.

Families remember and honour their dead relatives by praying at their grave, cleaning their tombstones and decorating them with flags and coloured paper. Food, tea, wine, and afterlife-accessories are also offered to the departed.

Qingming is a unique festival on the Chinese calendar because of its bittersweet character. It is a conjunction of opposites, combining both a confrontation with death and its attendant pain with renewal and respect—through acts of providing and updating

those who provided for those left behind. Ideally it is a day of deep and hopefully warm memories, and occurs on April 4 or 5 of each year to coincide with the arrival of spring on the Chinese calendar.

Simultaneously a final dose of winter and the arrival of coming warmth, the festival is also known as the Clear Brightness Festival. It is as good for the living as it is for the dead. A shop owner on Dundas Street told me, “I will be making my grandfather’s favourite foods.

We offer it to him, but my family will be eating it.”

After visiting a grave, many families go home and use a stone furnace or other backyard enclosure (a clean hibachi works nicely in a pinch) to burn offerings and provisions for the dead. Akin to sending a package by regular mail, this burning is the mechanism of transferring items to the dead.

As the fire turns the gifts to ash in our realm, it brings the items fully into the next world.

“When [people] die, they feel maybe they’ll need things in the afterworld.” And “they

might want money and other nice things,” said one store employee in Chinatown.This is a practice that originates from ancestor worship—the belief that deceased relatives can influence the fortunes of the living. Hence, the spirits of the ancestors have to be kept fed and happy so they will send wealth and other good things your way.

The increase of Chinese names and mourning practices in Toronto cemeteries is an easily overlooked symbol of how the city’s culture has diversified. In China, where hundreds of millions participate, the festival highlights the aggressive modernity, urbanism, and capitalism of China’s rapidly changing present.

Imitations of products most Chinese citizens can’t afford (and past citizens neither knew about nor had access to under strict communist rule)—such as iphones, mansions, passports, airplanes, Louis Vuitton, and Burberry bags, all made out of paper—are burned.

Even paper concubines and nannies have been added to

the traditional offerings. It is ironic that the festival began because an ancient emperor worried that his citizens were holding too many extravagant and ostentatiously expensive ceremonies in honor of their ancestors. In response he declared that respects could be paid to ancestors only on this date. The leaders of modern capitalist China don’t seem to mind the excesses.

I could find no mock iphones on Dundas or Spadina, and my ancestors will have to be content with a blocky old Nokia.

Certainly there were no custom-made paper Bugattis like those reportedly favoured by the super rich in China.

But there are ample supplies in most Chinatown variety shops, particularly huge stacks of ritual money, even ritual alcohol, cigarettes, and credit cards. The money and credit cards are typically labeled “Bank of Hell.” This is neither a reference to the banking crisis nor to the Western connotation of hell that implies torment, but refers to an unknowable afterlife experienced by

all people.

In a backyard ceremony of my own, I burned and thus sent over 2 billion dollars of afterlife money to my ancestors.

Despite this large number (is there inflation in hell?) it is not particularly excessive; talking to Chinatown resident’s, they repeatedly stressed how important it is that the ancestors don’t think you’re stingy. Intense filial piety coexists with practicality: many people are not going to observe on April 4, as it’s a workday in Canada.

They will go on the weekend.

Qingming has always been a variable and highly personal festival. It is flexible in its practices: anything can be burned—whatever you think the deceased might like to get a hold of. I’ve read that some have chosen to burn copies of Playboy magazine. And for some in Toronto’s Chinese diaspora, Qingming here simply cannot involve a trip to a grave. As one young man on the street told me, “I don’t have any ancestors here. But I’m going to go to a restaurant and think of them.”

A drizzling rain falls like tears on the mourning day. / The mourner’s heart is breaking on his way. / Enquiring, where can a wine shop be found to drown this sad hour?

A cowherd points to a village in the distance. - 9th century poem by Du Mu

6

THE ARTS

April 4, 2013

BRITTANY ARJUNE

‘I Thought There Were Limits’ at Hart House

Current exhibit challenges notions of artistic practice

Photo mural ‘Perspective Floor-Wall’ by Karen Henderson at Justina M. Barnicke Gallery until May 18.

Lauren Peat The current exhibition at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery – “I Thought There Were Limits” – is both constructive and deconstructive; it establishes its own spatial parameters and decentering preconceptions about art and artistic practice.

The work is temporal -- it combines the artwork of five Torontonian artists: Karen Henderson, Yam Lau, Kika Thorne, Josh Thorpe, and Gordon Lebredt, the latter having passed away in 2011.

The exhibit defies generalization and transcends demarcation between media. The two gallery rooms themselves are sparse, and the first immedi-

ately appears rather unassuming. An aluminum foil sheet is rumpled and twisted on the floor toward one side of the room. On the opposing wall there is a panoramic image of hardwood flooring, stained the same shade as the gallery’s own hardwood; the boards fan out as a kind of horizon where the wall meets the floor.

A row of architectural drawings is featured on another wall; innovative designs penciled in black and white suggest the destabilization of boundaries and a preoccupation with limits and divisions -- a partition fashioned of mirrors that appear to fold, as an accordion, and another constructed from a cinder-block

wall.

The exhibit challenges the viewer; it asks them to consider, to re-examine, to search out the art in the rooms themselves. Indeed, the importance of several details becomes apparent only gradually -- a beige half-moon painted over a corner, or a door held mysteriously ajar.

Such details illuminate the beauty of the seemingly trivial -- the commonplace -- as the gallery’s literature suggests: “… the artworks form a responsive relationship to their site and in so doing reveal specific architectural, temporal, and virtual properties of the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery.”

According to this same lit-

erature, the exhibit “[takes] as its departure the tradition of site-specificity pioneered in the 1960s … [and] tests the limits of site-specific practice as both responsive to a particular place while also adaptable to any site.”

In the neighbouring room, two tarpaulins – one pink, one black – are stretched across the room and joined in their centres, one atop the other, their connection perhaps a kind of umbilical cord.

Viewers are implicated as consumers of the art and yet also belong to the art itself -- the installation challenges notions of viewership by interacting with the rooms and the viewer’s own spaces. As is

scrawled on one of the architectural drawings: “the space differs from itself in order to coincide with itself, falls with itself into itself….. Space… opens itself as a continuum.”

The exhibition takes its title from a poem of the same name

by Canadian poet Douglas G. Jones: “I thought there were limits, Newtonian/The apples, falling, never hit the ground.”

As the exhibit suggests, the act of delimitation – of rupture with expectation – becomes the object, space and time the art itself.

“I Thought There Were Limits” at Hart House’s Justina M. Barnicke Gallery until May 18.

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7

THE ARTS

Augmented Film Fest OCAD student films feature homage to modern technology Carissa Ainslie April 25 marks the premiere of the second annual Augmented Cinema Film Festival, a showcase of work by OCADU students from various disciplines.

The festival was first organized

by Jamie McMillan, an OCADU graduate of Integrated Media studies, as an opportunity for his thesis class to show off their work.

Last year was the festival’s first experiment with branching out to students in different OCAD programs for submissions, prompting a name change from “OCAD Film Show” to “Augmented Cinema” as an homage to both to the modern outlook and use of digital technology in contemporary cinema.

“I wanted to do it because I knew it wasn’t being done,”

WTF TO DO this summer OUTDOOR ART EXHIBITION What: Free entry to view local artists and designers that use a variety of mediums and techniques.

Where: Nathan Phillips Square When: July 5-7 FREE TORONTO PRIDE What: Annual LGBTQ festival to celebrate diversity, includes concerts, family activities and parade!

Where: Church + Wellesley When: June 21-30 FREE

From the Womb by Chris Laxton will screen on April 25 at OCADU’s Augmented Film Festival.

McMillan told the newspaper.

Rather than limit the festival to thesis work, he wanted to enable any student to submit to the show, regardless of year or program. McMillan saw that there were screenings being done almost every year, but they were always limited to the thesis work of Integrated Media students.

This year will host 25 submissions. While the showcase is mainly work by Integrated Media students, the festival has been able to include work by students from a variety of other programs such as Drawing & Painting, and Graphic Design.

The festival provides an exceptional chance for students interested in film to show their work, as OCADU does not have a specific film program.

Integrated Media is the clos-

est thing the school has, but it is not marketed as such; film is but one medium students engage with in the program, along with electronics, animation, video and performance.

McMillan doesn’t think that a film program could be supported right now at the school, as there seems to be no real interest. However, with the right facilities and the right marketing, perhaps in the future OCADU could have such a program. Increasing awareness of the scope of the Integrated Media program could help raise interest, says McMillan, as no one really knows that OCADU has film classes and the program has so few students.

The future of the ACFF is growth. McMillan wants this festival to bring people together from across the city and possibly move it outside of OC-

ADU, believing the festival better suited for a larger audience.

“It’s about different ways of using the cinema” says McMillan, who would still like OCADU to have a film fest to one day call its own. But, he says, the ACFF will certainly bring awareness to our school. Ryerson and Humber both have their own festivals to cap of the year by showing students’ work, and McMillan wants that for OCADU as well. Best case scenario: OCADU would have its own film fest and the ACFF would further grow to include work from other universities.

The ACFF is screening 7pm, April 25 at the Royal on 608 College Street. Admission is free and doors open at 6:30pm.

reach students now! to see your ad here, send us an email

CBC MUSIC FESTIVAL What: CBC is putting on a music festival with bands such as Sam Roberts and Of Monsters and Men. Where: Echo Beach When: May 25th starting at 2pm Tickets are $59.50 NXNE What: NXNE, now in its 19th year, hosts over 900 bands at music venues across the city.

Where: Yonge & Dundas Square, various music venues When: June 10-16 Early bird priority passes are $125 for students. Festival wristbands $60.

TORONTO JAZZ FESTIVAL What: One of North America’s largest jazz festivals. Artists confirmed for this year include Willie Nelson, Mavis Staples, Dr. John, Steve Martin and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.

Where: Nathan Phillips Square, various venues When: June 20-29 Prices for shows vary TORONTO URBAN ROOTS FEST

What: Brand new this year, TURF marks the return of an outdoor multi-day roots festival to downtown Toronto, for the first time since 1995; the fest features 30+ bands including She & Him, Kurt Vile, , Yo La Tengo, Flogging Molly, and Neko Case.

Where: Fort York When: July 4-7 Earlybird single day tickets range from $40 to $60 SUMMERLICIOUS What: The perfect opportunity to have a taste of Toronto’s best restaurants at affordable prices. A must for foodies.

Where: 181 participating restaurants in Toronto When: July 5-21 Prix fixe menus start at $25

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FAN EXPO What: Get your comic books signed or meet one of your favorite actors.

Where: Toronto Convention Centre When: August 23-26 Tickets: Thursday, $25, Friday $35 Saturday $50 Sunday $40 CANADIAN NATIONAL EXHIBIT

What: Rides, funnel cakes and face paint comprise this longest running Canadian fair.

Where: Toronto Exhibition Place When: Aug 16 to Sep 2 General Admission $16

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THE END

April 4, 2013