the newspaper University of Toronto’s independent community paper
Since 1978
Volume October
XL
Issue IV 19th 2017
Masthead
the news
Cover Torin Craig
the newspaper University of Toronto’s independent student paper since 1978 Editor-In-Chief Alina Butt Managing Editor Natalia Herran Senior Copy Editor Rebecca Gao Assistant Copy Editor Erica Sung Business Manager Kelly Chan Public Relations Coordinator Gabbi Gard Design Editors Rel Ryann, Ashima Kaura, Judy Hu Visual Content Editor Noah Kahansky Online Editor Hilary Lo News Editor Noah Walker Comment Editor Maxim Basu Music Editor Chantel Ouellet Arts Editor Joyce Wong Contributors Anagha Acharya, Zeynel Akkus, Maxim Basu, Alina Butt, Russell Canceran, Brad Gira, Judy Hu, Ashima Kaura, Chantel Lee, Weiyun Li, Jenny MacPherson, Michelle Mao, Miranda Mirabelli, Jacob Newfeld, Rel Ryann, Noah Walker, Joyce Wong All U of T community members, including students, alumni, faculty, and staff are encouraged to contribute! the newspaper is published by Planet Publications Inc., a non-profit corporation
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IMPORTANT UPDATES FROM THE NEWSPAPER • Lonely copy-editor looking for ESS103 poster partner who is interested in geomythology, just like her. • READER RESPONSE: Is Joyce down on her luck or just a bad student? • As expected, while listening to Songs About Jane (2002) we made a few errors ... thank you again to Ashima Kaura for the lovely cover, and hello to our new Assistant Copy Editor, Erica Sung!
R.I.P.
THE PUMPKIN, JR. 2017 - 2017
thank you for pissing your rot all over our desk before we could carve you ~the good die young~
Caged, But Not in a Cage
Making Drugs Less Deadly
U of T talk on honor killings goes far ... but not far enough
With powders and pills becoming more available than ever, the issue of keeping users safe is at hand.
by Alina Butt
This past week, I attended a talk hosted by the Centre for Diaspora & Transnational Studies on how the United Kingdom handles forced marriage and honour killings through cultural relativism. The speaker was Dr. Lalaie Ameeriar, a Scarborough native who currently holds a professorship in Asian American Studies at UC Santa Barbara. The talk was a good, general introduction to the subject of honour-based violence. Ameeriar deftly broke down the complex issue from how “honour” is a concept heavily associated with culture to how culture itself is used as a marker of difference from what is considered “normal.” Her current research focuses on the most relevant place in which these concepts come alive: the United Kingdom, which boasts a large Muslim community. Ameeriar spent little time talking about forced marriages, and she did not explicitly link it to the occurrence of honour killings. However, she did clarify that forced marriage is unlike arranged marriage because the former happens against a person’s will. One woman in the audience questioned this definition, finding it difficult to discern where the line between consent and lack thereof should be drawn. In a sense, that’s how many of us felt about the whole talk—as if there was much left to be desired. The audience asked questions that demanded nuance, but there wasn’t a lot to work with in terms of answers. Understandably, the best Ameeriar could say was that the issue is complicated, though she did offer one example of this complexity by recognizing that many of the Muslim women affected by honour-based violence are not necessarily that Muslim—their relationships with religion are far more ambiguous and ambivalent. When that gray area was touched upon, I felt heard. The extremes offered up for study in research and in legal and popular media narratives are important to know about so that they can be combatted, yes. However, with all of your attention elsewhere, the deeply systemic problems of girls elsewhere get elided. The issue needs to open up to look beyond the menacing and towards the mundane. I think Ameeriar still gestures towards something similar to this idea despite focusing most of her attention on the issue of honour killings. Instead of blaming just the violent, patriarchal father, she holds everyone complicit for the victimization of the female Muslim—her family, community, teachers and social workers, and the police and courts. She asked us to consider cultural relativism and how, in an effort not to appear racist, law enforcement and the justice system still commit
racist acts. A police officer will respond to the call of a woman trying to report an instance of honourbased violence and silence her by saying, “It’s your culture.” Culture becomes a defense, especially since the wounds these women bear are not as often physical as they are psychological. Ameeriar looked to the case of Amina Al-Jeffrey, a Welsh girl who was taken back to Saudi Arabia and kept in a barred room by her father after she kissed a boy. A Welsh judge was asked to consider options to help her, and he ultimately decided that she is “caged, but not in a cage,” meaning that her situation is problematic, but does not constitute enough of a problem by Western standards to warrant legal intervention. This is where Ameeriar points out the existence of a double standard. She offered a list of historical cases of violence perpetrated by European men against their wives. The legal defense of provocation or loss of control in these cases had judges sympathizing with the men to downgrade charges and reduce sentences.
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The issue needs to open up to look beyond the menacing and towards the mundane.
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Ameeriar quoted former Prime Minister David Cameron’s idea of a solution being to engage the issue less with passive tolerance and more with “muscular liberalism.” The audience seemed determined to try to figure out exactly what Cameron meant by this term, and Ameeriar suggested it might mean a more overt assertion of patriarchy, perhaps as a challenge to the patriarchy of the violent father against the victimized Muslim daughter in the narrative. However, I think Cameron was suggesting something broader— being less politically correct, and therefore less culturally relativistic, since doing so contravenes the safety of these women. Ameeriar didn’t quite get to this, but she did touch upon how there is a greater preoccupation with protecting the human rights of groups (i.e., the religious and cultural freedom of the Muslim community) over those of individuals. That’s ironic to me, as honour is all about the community, and of all places, I would expect Western society to afford me the individualism I want … but even here, I’m still less important than the whole.
by Noah Walker
Illicit narcotic use is by no means a new phenomenon in Toronto. In recent years, however, it has become a growing cause of death among the city’s users due to the ingenious and irreputable dealers of the deep web. Now it is critical to ensure users are taking drugs safely. To help assist with this goal, the City of Toronto opened up its first official injection site this year in late August, following the success of an unofficial safe injection site that opened earlier in the month. The site was equipped with a registered nurse at all times and a police officer who stood outside the tent in Moss Park. First aid was thankfully administered immediately to one person that found themselves overdosing on opening day. This man was one of 24 who visited Moss Park that day. He “went down very fast[,] and if we were not here by the time paramedics might have arrived ... he may not have had vital signs,” according to Zoe Dodd, a frontline harm reduction worker at the site. Already producing results, it is clear how and why the city felt the need to put up an official site, thus providing great strides in the protection of the city’s citizens that wish to shoot up in relative safety. Still, questions are being raised about whether the city is doing enough. Those who feel that recreational drug use is illegal and that it is the responsibility of the individual to handle themselves while breaking the law don’t think that safe injection sites, among other death preventative measures, should be up to the state. There are those who feel that a person willing to do drugs illegally must be ready to face the consequences that come along with them, but therein lies the problem. Most people do not know what they are buying. The obvious solution is to provide test kits for such substances so that an individual can get an accurate reading of what they are about to
Diving Deep U of T professor studies Mediterranean trade routes by Maxim Basu
All of us have wondered about the mysteries of the ocean, with its seemingly limitless depths and awesome powers that fascinate and frighten. Some of us have even gone scuba diving on vacation, experiencing firsthand the magic and beauty of a world humans cannot truly naturally inhabit. Over the summer, Professor Carrie Fulton, a history instructor at the University of Toronto Mississauga, surpassed any of our scuba diving experiences by taking it to a higher level: she is scuba diving for a living, studying ancient marine sites in the Mediterranean Sea. For her, every single day is a brand new adventure. Fulton is concentrating on studying ancient trade networks that existed during the early Roman period dating back to 300 CE. Since last school year, she and her team have been busily conducting theoretical research, and now they are ready to roll.
Illustration by Rel Ryann
take, but no such test kit is available at any of the drug stores found around the city. Though they can be obtained on the Internet, it is not sold in an easily accessible manner. Becoming more and more prevalent at music festivals, drug testing tents are saving lives since the clientele often discover that the upper they were intending on taking was instead ketamine or various other substances that, even in low doses, can prove fatal. In the last year alone there were over 500 fentanyl-related deaths in the City of Toronto, giving rise to the following question: why is this happening? Not nearly as famous as classic substances such as cocaine or MDMA, it may seem unclear as to why so many people are taking and dying from this deadly chemical, but the proof is in the powder. Unfortunately for the many people that use these substances, these drugs tend to be odorless and colorless in their prescribable form, making it difficult for individuals to get an accurate read on the chemicals that they are ingesting. With little more than the word of their sales rep, most people go in blind at the moment of purchase as there are few other options to explore. According to the Toronto Overdose Information System, the number of drug-related emergency department visits has steadily grown from an average of Back in the day, the Mediterranean routes provided a great source of wealth and commercial activity to Europe, all the way from North Africa and Asia. Unfortunately, those trade routes do not exist anymore, and many of them are now underwater. Nevertheless, the routes still have some of their original characteristics. Drawing upon this year’s research, the team has begun excavating the sites and analyzing the matter they uncover. In an interview, Fulton states: “I’m thinking about that transition in history and how movement of material objects reflects those transitions…. In particular, I’m curious about how we can look at cultural interactions by studying how objects were moved, and how cultural ideas were embedded and changed as objects moved across different regions.” Her work is very handson, which will provide much needed 21st-century information about the physical state of objects that humans have only hypothesized to exist. In the past months, Fulton has been diving off the coastline of Cyprus, studying anchors and ship remnants that will provide clues about the cross-Continental trade. When studying the sites, Fulton and her colleagues are attempting to analyze physical matter in relation to the broader historical record, and rely on written records of the routes. This type of research is first-of-its-kind for the University of Toronto, potentially revealing physical evidence of a time long past. Fulton states that her research poses “interesting and challenging questions.” She asks, “How do we determine the differentiation of use of these anchorages in different periods? Do these anchorages also interact with sites on
around 50 per month in 2015 to an average of around 90 per month in the first quarter of 2017. This trend is alarming, as the fentanyl-related deaths of 2016 appear to have not influenced those taking drugs to any real degree. Fentanyl is finding its way into heroin, cocaine and other substances, and people are paying for it. This is similar to the issue in the United Kingdom with PMA, a substance often found in poor strains of MDMA that is much more potent and takes longer to kick in than the clean version of the drug. As a result, users are taking what they think to be MDMA but are not getting high. This leads users ttp ake more, leading to overdoses when the PMA hits later in the night. This is a problem. Though it is widely agreed that some sort of change needs to occur, this change is still waited upon. Of course, stricter laws may seem like a solution, but people have been recreationally doing drugs for as long as they have been around regardless of the laws that prohibit them from doing so. If the problem is not going to change, then perhaps making them more illegal is not the way to go. If people can be given a means to understand what they are doing to themselves, then there may be fewer deaths in fewer families, and fewer tears from fewer mothers. land? What can that tell us about goods being moved?” It is quite difficult to set up research stations under water; the digital technology is very expensive and human errors occur very easily down under. Most of the work required is completed under water, in full scuba gear. When mistakes are inevitably made, it takes a lot of energy to repeat experiments. It is common for Fulton to spend the entire day scuba diving in the exact same location, to make sure that the data she is collecting is recorded accurately. She states, “we systematically survey the area by swimming back and forth, searching for pottery and other cultural material near the anchors that can give us clues into the frequency of use of the site or the types of materials being transported.” After months, Fulton’s work is finally bearing fruit. Her team has struck gold. She tells us, “Most of what we are seeing belonged to transport vessels of some sort…. The other thing that we’re finding are large architectural blocks that weigh up to one tonne. They are similar to a type of masonry used in the late Bronze Age for elite architecture. Would these have been going to some elite building, or was it part of an anchorage system, or evidence of Roman or modern looting of late Bronze Age sites? Next summer, we’ll excavate around them and lift them up. I hope we’ll find clues about what they were used for.” We at the newspaper sincerely hope so too.
4
the pumpkin
the carving
It’s Pumpkin Season, Witch! how to carve a pumpkin in the latest fall fashions
Ah, pumpkin carving. The wholesome, age-old white wannabe witch tradition that’ll make you feel cute for like, two hours before you realize no one’s really gonna see this shit on your apartment balcony (or your Instagram).
by Rel Ryann, Alina Butt and Joyce Wong
hi readers— This time last year, the newspaper carved out a pumpkin and left it on the windowsill. We didn’t move it. We never moved it. It just slowly disintegrated into nothingness, and the ring of decay remains imprinted on the windowsill to this day—a reminder of our arrogance as mortal beings. But that doesn’t mean you still can’t have fun this year! Halloween is almost upon us, and if you haven’t yet carved a pumpkin, don’t worry! Check out our suggestions on how to style your pumpkin in the latest fall fashion.
TOOTHY PUMPKIN
THE PUMPKIN PUMPKIN
If you’ve ever wondered why we’re called the newspaper, it’s because we pull shit like this and think it’s hilarious #meta #2real
For when you want to keep people (and raccoons) from stealing your candles. PUKING PUMPKIN
You, the day after Halloween.
1. To begin, lobotomize your pumpkin by cutting a circle out of the top of its head, where the stem is. Place the top of the scalp gently to the side and proceed to scoop out its brains (meaning as much of the stringy bits and pumpkin seeds as you can). 2. FUN FACT: You can pick out the seeds and roast them if you wanna be extra. If you’re vegan, this will be your dinner for the next week. 3. PICK ONE OF THESE DESIGNS, or search the net for your local Good Housekeeping-esque website (though we personally recommend freepumpkincarving.com). 4. Trace the design of your choice onto your pumpkin with a Sharpie (or just really aggressively with a pencil, because who has Sharpies anymore?) 5. Using a small knife, make puncture holes along your outline. This step is important because it makes it so much easier to cut your whole design out. The holes will catch on your knife and keep it steady as you start to cut along the edge. 6. Play connect the dots with a big fucking knife—like just really get in there and live out your dreams of being Dexter, because you just stopped that pumpkin from committing the worst crime of all: becoming a latte. 7. For safety’s sake, cut down to avoid losing control of the knife, and away from your body. Use a sawing motion to go from dot to dot. 8. Once you’re done cutting, poke out the pieces from the inside. 9. Clean up and place the candle of your choice inside the pumpkin. It will be especially nice if it’s something scented, like lavender, a scent which goes well with that of pumpkins. 10. And that’s that! Put that shit on display and don’t forget to throw it out after two weeks, or Christmas, or whenever. If you’re like us, then that’s never, BECAUSE IT’S ALWAYS HALLOWEEN.
CLOUT PUMPKIN
Check out my mixtape on SoundCloud, bruh. @djpumpkitup OUR OFFICE PUMPKIN
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6
the spell
the film
Is Wes Anderson a Bad Friend? Cultural appropriation and plagiarism—how much can you forgive?
by Brad Gira
by Judy Hu
The trailer for Wes Anderson’s upcoming stop-motion film Isle of Dogs (2018) was released on Thursday, September 21. Many of his trademarks are on full display: deadpan acting, symmetrical frame compositions, a cast of Anderson regulars, endearingly awkward young characters and a return to using Futura typeface after a brief foray with cursive and Archer. The story deals with talking dogs who are exiled on an island and a rescue mission to help a boy who is trying to find his dog. The trailer seems less concerned with piquing interest in the movie than with confirming that it is indeed another Wes Anderson movie—a recurring sentiment in many reactions to the trailer (either from news articles, comments sections or reaction videos) is that it’s “so Wes Anderson.” Many people also feel it is somewhat appropriative. Voice-over narration explains the film’s setting: “The Japanese archipelago. Twenty years in the future. Canine saturation has reached epidemic proportions….” Visually, it resembles the future Tokyo of the 1988 anime film Akira. There have been criticisms that the film’s cast is largely white despite the Japanese setting, though it may not be whitewashing per se since the white actors seem to be playing the dogs, not the people. In interviews, Anderson has claimed that the film is “less influenced by stop-motion movies than it is by Akira Kurosawa.” The fact that Anderson is inspired by a specific Japanese director rather than vaguely being interested in “the concept of Asia” is promising … or at least more promising than when he hinted back in 2014 about his next film, “I will say I’m interested in Japan.” I myself felt a little uneasy watching the trailer, for reasons admittedly hazier than the complaints that Anderson is using Japanese culture as window-dressing.
One of my favorite films is Perfect Blue (1997), an anime masterpiece by critically-acclaimed director Satoshi Kon. That name may sound familiar, as he is also the director of Paprika (2006), another anime film classic, and Paranoia Agent (2004). Like most of his work, Perfect Blue is a dark, intense, swirling and often nightmarish experience that constantly makes viewers question reality. Recently, it has jumped back into headlines for its accuracy in having portrayed social media and fame 20 years into the future. There is an endless stream of Perfect Blue analysis videos on YouTube. Even Dazed magazine put out an article last month about how the film “predicted a dark age of internet celebrity.” Perfect Blue follows Mima, an ex-popstar, on her journey to become a television actress, much to her music fans’ disappointment. She immediately begins to receive strange and disturbing threats to stop pursuing acting— the most notable threat being a website that pretends to be Mima’s daily blog. It features incredibly personal, minute details only Mima would know, such as a compliment about a fellow co-star that Mima whispers only to her music agent, Rumi. It becomes apparent that she has a violent stalker as the website gets more and more personal and as coworkers around her begin to drop one by one in gruesome murders. The combined pressures of this eminent threat and of the media industry cause Mima to lose sight of who she is and what she truly wants—to the point of becoming an empty shell of a human literally following a hallucination of herself. The film leads viewers to believe Me-Mania, a disfigured and obsessed fan, is the murderous stalker out to get Mima, but (SPOILER ALERT!) it was Rumi all along, jealous of Mima’s fame and disappointed with her decision to switch to acting. It is revealed that Rumi had grown to believe she is Mima and could replace her if Mima was killed. Perfect Blue deserves all of its acclaim for its startlingly accurate depiction of social media and fame, and for its beautifully perplexing representation of time and space. These aspects are what make the film so entertaining and stunning to watch decades later—they give purpose to Kon’s signature smooth yet disorientating match-cut
My qualms come from knowing that director Noah Baumbach (who is Anderson’s long-time friend and collaborator; they co-wrote the scripts for Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) and Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)) and actress Greta Gerwig have been trying, for a considerable amount of time, to get their own talking-dog movie script, titled Flawed Dogs, produced. Considering that Baumbach and Gerwig (who are dating) also wrote Frances Ha (2012) and Mistress America (2015), two of the best comedies in recent years, it is difficult for me not to regret a little that we are not getting to see their dog movie instead. Isle of Dogs appears to have no connection to Baumbach and Gerwig’s script, as neither of them are credited for either the script or story for it, though Gerwig does act in it. It is difficult for me to believe that the emergence of Anderson’s dog movie idea could have been either coincidence or parallel thinking.
Why You Should(n’t) Watch Bojack Horseman I hate you, I love you, I hate that I love you. by Zeynel Akkus
Do I think Wes Anderson maliciously stole the idea for Isle of Dogs from his dear friend? Not really. I would imagine Anderson, Baumbach and Gerwig are all on good terms to this day. I also imagine Gerwig and Baumbach repeatedly reassuring, “Of course it’s fine, Wes! We’re very happy that your dog movie’s getting made. So happy for you! Ours will probably get made someday too. No hard feelings!” And I anticipate that when Isle of Dogs comes out and is seen, a lot of the wariness around appropriation will abate. Anderson is smart, so he probably made a movie that is at least passably politically correct. Viewed on small phone and computer screens, it is easy to scrutinize flaws like appropriation and alleged betrayal of friendship. But viewed on the big screen in all of its spectacle, I’m sure it will be difficult to find anything specifically wrong with Isle of Dogs. It is difficult to see flaws when everything’s so blindingly “Wes Anderson.”
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When I made my boyfriend watch Perfect Blue for the first time, he immediately noted when shit started to go downhill by saying, “Wow, she just needs some mental health help.” What makes the movie so powerful is the detail spent in the beginning building up Mima as a relatable, normal girl, despite her position as a pop idol and actress. Right off the bat, you want to empathize with her because she is innocent, sweet and wellintentioned. It makes the film all the more difficult to digest because it’s an hour and a half of watching Mima descend deeper into madness. Once it starts, you never receive relief—it builds and builds until the end. Perfect Blue’s effective illustration of mental health isn’t merely shown in scenes of Mima screaming underwater in a bathtub or sobbing violently on her bed. It is in the way Mima acts outside of her private space and in the public eye, especially in front of the camera. She is incredibly bubbly and happy—she has to be, for the sake of her career. This is most notable after she films a rape scene on her television show. The actual scene in the film is extremely unnerving and discomforting
because of its violence and realism. It makes Mima’s youthful bubbliness in front of her acting agent directly after filming all the more dissonant. As soon as she is home, however, she falls apart.
To me, the most relatable aspect of Perfect Blue is how restrained and secret Mima is about her mental health. Even at her darkest moments, she never confides in anyone about her concerns and feelings. The only person she does somewhat confide in is Rima, who ironically turns out to have been betraying her. Rima completely orchestrates Mima’s madness and depression. Even though Mima does not necessarily suffer depression naturally as a mental illness like others do, Perfect Blue still shows how the mind can be poked and prodded—and how mental health can unravel until it is completely undone.
My first reaction was “definitely overrated.” It was neither as amusing nor as reckless as shows of similar genres, but I kept watching it. I witnessed the characters developing over time. The jokes did get funnier to some extent, but then things got quite dark. Whenever I think of the reason for this, I look to the main character as the one who is responsible. Here’s an introduction to the beloved character of BoJack Horseman.
“Hope” may be the first thing that’s keeping us from quitting the show. No matter how bad everything goes, we still keep our hopes up, waiting for BoJack to somehow fix his problems. As a matter of fact, it seemed to me that the worse things became, the more impatient we are to see BoJack’s better days. Some may ask why we would even care about him being good in the first place. Well, in seeing someone way more messed up than ourselves getting onto the right track, we may feel, “If BoJack can succeed at getting things back in order, what can I not do?” This may give us motivation and help us deal with our issues.
So, why would you watch four seasons of a show that you started to be amused by, but it ended up being cancerous? It’s one of those shows that, when your friend sees you watching it, you instantly go, “I know it’s no fun or good, but I watch it anyways because there is something that makes
by Joyce Wong
Her decision and ability to feign being fine are dependent on the media. Many use social media to portray a different, better version of themselves too. Near the end of the film, Mima has to rely on the blog to tell her what she did the day before because she is a floating shell of herself, no longer sure of what is real, where reality and media stop blurring. Even today, the reality some people wish to see in social media begins to dictate their decisions and actions in real life in hopes of achieving the reality depicted online.
me keep watching.”
The effects of his issues are seen through his personal relationships with his few friends, all of whom receive nothing but problems by being around our dear horse. Is BoJack a bad person? I don’t have a solid answer for this. Though you see him want to become better, whatever he does leads to catastrophe for him and all who are around him. It’s not a matter of “oh, he screwed up here, but in the next episode he will get on the right track and get his shit together.” That is never the case. He will not get better. No matter what happens, it always ends up with BoJack screwing up, drinking, thinking about what a disappointment he is and then doing more things that get him into worse situations.
movie about media and celebrity fame
... what immediately stood out to me was the film’s depiction of deteriorating mental health.
A couple of months back, I saw a meme entitled “Best Adult Cartoons.” All of the expected shows were on it, like Family Guy, The Simpsons and American Dad. Then, I saw BoJack Horseman on the list. I had noticed the show on Netflix, so I decided to give it a try.
Having received no love from his parents, Bojack could only live the life he dreamed of by portraying the loving parent to a very close and fulfilling family in the hit TV show, Horsin’ Around. Once the show was taken off the air, the false sense of fulfilment BoJack had was gone no matter how much he tried to continue hiding behind the character and watching and rewatching his show years later. There is a hole within him, likely as a result of a lack of feeling loved, and he tries to fill this hole with alcohol, drugs and sex.
Perfect Blue Perfectly Depicts the Blues It’s more than just a transitions. But more than anything, what immediately stood out to me was the film’s depiction of deteriorating mental health.
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Cigarettes After Sex sends the crowd into an emotional trance. by Russell Canceran
It is only recently that I began to realize that the “something” is the relatability of the show. I came up with three hypotheses trying to explain why.
Or maybe we are not the little angels we think we are. Perhaps, though it may seem dark, our subconscious would simply like to see someone doing worse than us to comfort us. Seeing him fall down every single time is what makes us keep watching the show. Personally, I haven’t felt comfort of any kind watching BoJack so far, but I am not going to ignore the possibility of the evil within me affecting my appetite in TV shows. Finally, as a counter-argument for the unflattering reflection of human nature shown above—and what seems more appealing to me—is that we just want to see that we are not alone. We don’t often get the chance to be reminded that life is not much of an Alice in Wonderland phenomenon. When we witness only the perfect moments of the people around us, we begin to think that’s what life is supposed to be and strive for constant perfection. What is forgotten is that we are all faulty by-products as a result of faulty processes. Perhaps it is seeing fucked up characters like BoJack that reminds us we are not alone and makes us admit and appreciate the kinds of individuals we are so we can say, “That’s the way it is; that’s the way I am.”
As the Phoenix Concert Theatre quickly fills up, the crowd impatiently waits for the infamous and elusive Brooklyn-based band Cigarettes After Sex. There is no opener this night, and rightfully so, as the band’s cult-like following supersedes the need for one. The band’s lo-fi instrumentals and atmospheric sound, headed by lead singer Greg Gonzalez’s androgynous vocals, has garnered them high praise from independent music blogs. The band quietly took the stage and the crowd erupted in praise, which quickly transitioned to eerie awe as soon as Gonzalez sang a single note. The set began with the tracks “Sweet” and “Sunsetz” off the band’s self-titled debut studio album, Cigarettes After Sex (2017). Backed by beautiful monochrome visuals that match the band’s thematic cover art and paired with slowly drifting smoke, the crowd settled into a melodic lull. The band’s sensual lyrics almost made it seem criminal to not be there with a significant other. The band also made sure to repay long-standing fans with tracks such as “I’m a Fireman” and “Dreaming of You” from their 2012 debut EP, I. The band closed out with the song that brought them underground infamy, “Nothing’s Going to Hurt You Baby,” and followed up with their latest single, “Apocalypse.” As the crowd roared in applause, it was clear that this would not be the last time the band graced Toronto with its presence.
The Cost of Caring is Lower Than You Think. If you’re living the broke student life at the University of Toronto or anywhere else, then you know what it’s like to save up your loonies. Maybe not half a loonie, though. You’re a good person; you use your loose change to tip your barista, and besides, you’ve got standards. Still, you deserve to know where every cent of your money goes. The Big Picture Every semester, 50 cents of your tuition fee is set aside to fund a campus volunteer group providing undergraduate research opportunities, free workshops and various advocacy initiatives to students on campus and citizens across the GTA. They’re the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG), a provincewide network of campus groups with a mandate for action, education and research on environmental and social justice issues. OPIRG recruits an indefinite number of UTSG students into its various research and volunteer positions every year, and their work benefits marginalized groups both locally and abroad. One-hundred per cent of your 50 cents per semester goes towards funding these community projects and keeping their (literally only two) paid staff members fed. Feels pretty great to give back, eh? But hey, it’s your money! OPIRG believes that you should get to decide where your 50 cents goes. That’s
group’s alleged “radical left-wing views” due to their past support of Students Against Israeli Apartheid and the Communist Student Research Group.
So, pay 50 cents to fund community projects, or don’t. Sounds pretty fair, right? Apparently not. A group of UTSG students are now petitioning the UTSU to defund OPIRG by removing the 50 cent levy from tuition fees all together. But why would students want to defund a volunteer group, and why are they actively choosing to remain anonymous?
The Reaction
The Details The reasons for the defunding are as of now still unknown. Even now with the vote taking place next month, the petitioners protesting OPIRG’s funding have not made themselves public. A representative from OPIRG has explained that the group’s knowledge of the petitions has only come from their correspondence with the UTSU. Now that the petition has since received the necessary 250 signatures for a referendum, the vote has been scheduled to occur from Monday, November 20 to Wednesday, November 22. This is not the first time that OPIRG has faced such a situation. In 2012, the Graduate Students’ Union voted unsuccessfully on whether or not to remove OPIRG’s levy from graduate students. However, this is the first time that the UTSU has had to call a vote to decide the removal of the levy from undergraduate students. Defunding threats have arisen due to criticism of the
2017
A. Student
Carry your TTC Post-Secondary Photo ID when using your Post-Secondary Student monthly Metropass and present it to TTC staff upon request. Post-Secondary Photo ID photos will be taken on: Wednesday, October 25 (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.) University of Toronto - St. George Campus Hart House Reading Room Visit ttc.ca for more information.
by Rel Ryann
why you can opt out of the fee via the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) website or by visiting OPIRG’s office on campus at the start of every semester.
Get Your TTC Post-Secondary Photo ID
MY CAMPUS
Anonymous UTSG students seek to defund campus volunteer group despite their sessional fee being optional—and only $0.50.
Souzan Mirza, a board member of OPIRG-Toronto, expressed her disapproval with the petition: “OPIRG’s programming is widely enjoyed by students across campus, and the 50-cent levy we receive from UTSU members is optional. So we were surprised to hear that a small group of students wants to organize a referendum outside of an election period, rather than simply opting out of the levy or raising concerns with us.” Mirza also conveyed her concern regarding the change to the Charter for Referenda in Spring of this year, which resulted in petitions regarding student groups needing only 250 signatures, as opposed to 5,000. The reduction in the number of signatures needed means that referendum questions can be posed to the entire UTSU membership with support with less than just wo per cent of members. According to Mirza, defunding OPIRG “will impact the countless students who enjoy our programming, volunteer opportunities and rely on our services throughout the year. OPIRG supports equity and anti-oppression initiatives on campus, and defunding [OPIRG] will impact already-marginalized students and organizations on campus.”