October 18, 2012

the newspaper The University of Toronto’s Independent Weekly

Since 1978

VOL XXXV Issue 7 • October 18, 2012

the briefs

SAMANTHA CHIUSOLO

Sitting more dangerous than smoking, new research finds

Arab democracy activist’s computer hacked by Italian-made malware Citizen Lab connects Italian software firm’s Trojan virus to hacking of UAE dissident Emerson Vandenberg Citizen Lab, the cyberspace monitoring body at the Munk School of Global Affairs, released a report on October 10

that identifies a possible connection between the Italian software company, Hacking Team, and a malware virus that infected the computer of a prominent pro-democracy dissident in the U.A.E.

The report indicates that in July, Ahmed Mansour, a member of the activist group UAE 5, noticed a mysterious email from Arabic Wikileaks with scrambled text attachments.

After realizing that a virus had

infected his computer, Mansour contacted Citizen Lab where security researcher Morgan Marquis-Boire dissected the email attachments. The results

see page 2

New program adapts to environment, breeds different kind of journalist Munk School’s Fellowships in Global Journalism turns experts into journalists

Yukon Damov Journalism education is adapting too slowly to the rapid changes occurring in the field, claims Robert Steiner, Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs’ Fellowship in Global Journalism program. The new program is designed to provide news organizations with the specialists they need and want.

The traditional model of journalism training, argues Steiner,

is outmoded because news organizations no longer seek--or can afford--additions to their newsrooms who can cover a general array of topics. Instead of teaching journalists to become specialists, the Munk Fellowship teaches specialists to become journalists.

Launched in September, the program’s nine fellows include two young professors, three PhDs, a lawyer, a former advertising executive, a former

development aid professional, an architectural designer, and a Middle East specialist.

Associate journalism professor at UofT Scarborough, Minelle Mahtani, agrees with Steiner’s logic. “Too many journalists are masters of none, and superficial experts in a lot of areas,” she told the newspaper.

“This programme works to challenge that mythology.”

The Munk School’s program is meant to enable its fellows to

work autonomously as freelancers, to become entrepreneurs and launch their own media companies, or to continue in their profession and do part time freelancing. They learn to develop their own story ideas and pitch them to international media.

“In a lot of ways this is a great time to become a journalist,” Steiner told the newspaper. The

see page 3

A study published on Monday by Dr. Emma Wilmot of the diabetes research group at the University of Leicester in Britain sheds new light on the risks of a sedentary lifestyle. An analysis of 18 existing studies found that sedentary people have a 147 per cent increased risk of heart attack or stroke; 112 per cent increase in the risk of developing diabetes; 90 per cent greater risk of dying from a cardiac event; and 49 per cent greater risk of premature mortality. More people die from sedentaryrelated issues than smoking. In the paper, Wilmot suggests two minutes of movement for every 20 minutes of sitting. Even for obese people this could start to reverse the dangerous health effects of a sedentary lifestyle.

City councillor arrested for driving while intoxicated Ward 18 city councillor Ana Bailao was arrested early Tuesday morning for drunk driving. Initially pulled over for not using headlights, a breathalyzer test showed a 0.08 blood alcohol content level, the legal limit in Ontario. Bailao, a University of Toronto grad, has sat on the council for two years, and has voted with and against mayor Rob Ford. She will appear in the Old City Hall court on Dec 3 at 11 am in courtroom 111.

cont’d page 3

2

BC ad campaign says get a job, hippies

THE NEWS

October 18, 2012

Province has plenty of work, but needs to entice (not insult) young workers, says UofT prof Sebastian Greenholtz The government of British Columbia launched an advertising campaign that targets unemployed youth with slogans like “Hipster is not a real job.” Bright signs on buses bearing this text have been

met with mild interest, confusion, and anger, but its purpose isn’t clearly communicated through the cheeky phrase.

The signs do, however, list a website for wary hipsters to visit. CareerTrekBC.ca posts videos of its two young hosts traveling around B.C. to try out

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

VOL XXXV No. 7

Editor-in-Chief Cara Sabatini

Managing Editor Helene Goderis

News Editor Yukon Damov

Design Editor Samantha Chiusolo

Arts Editor VACANT

Contributors

Photo Editor Bodi Bold Illustrations Editor Nick Ragetli Web Editor Joe Howell the newspaper 1 Spadina Crescent Suite 245 Toronto, ON M5S 1A1

Suzanna Balabuch, Sarah Boivin, Bodi Bold, Samantha Chiusolo, Dan Christensen, Yukon Damov, Sebastian Greenholtz, John Han, Jordan Harcourt, Dylan Hornby, Keely Maynard, Christina Maravegia, Nick Ragetli, David Stokes, Fang Su, Emerson Vandenberg

Editorial: 416-593-1552 thenewspaper@gmail.com www.thenewspaper.ca

the newspaper is published by Planet Publications Inc., a nonprofit corporation.

All U of T community members, including students, staff and faculty, are encouraged to contribute to the newspaper.

different occupations. The jobs listed range from human resources specialist to longshore worker to midwife, and the site details the skills needed for each occupation. Sortable by education, salary, and field of work, every video ends with the catchphrase “this career could be yours.”

Recent development of industry in BC has brought thousands of new jobs to the province. However, there is a shortage of skilled workers to fill them, coming to a 22 000 to 32 000 person deficit, according to the provincial government. John Yap, the province’s new minister of education, has started to address the problem by investing in trade skills programs. The supposed lack of desire to even pursue these trades as implied by the ads still remains an issue.

Professor Brandon McFarlane at UofT, whose research focuses on urban culture in Canadian literature, sees this so-called hipster mentality as a product of a process called “creative city development.”

McFarlane explained, “The basic idea is that neighbourhoods with a lot of artists, bohemians, and creative people are areas with economic growth, so the city started investing in the arts and subsidizing rent for artists as a form of economic development.”

But not everyone can be artists, as B.C. is discovering. With youth unemployment in Canada at 13 per cent according to Statistics Canada, the call for labourers is definitely timely.

So why aren’t youth flocking to B.C.? McFarlane sees the viewpoint of youth as the barrier, which the ad campaigns dubs “hipster.” This viewpoint, McFarlane explains, is ascribed to “people with very high-paying, high-skill, high-educational jobs who wouldn’t want to work at those industries. …

You’re brought up saying you want to be a lawyer, you want to be a doctor and now we have a surplus of lawyers.”

A recent study by professors Sean Lyons of University of Guelph, Eddy Ng of Dalhousie University, and Linda Sch-

weitzer of Carleton University examined the values and motives of 3000 people working across Canada from the last four generations. They found that the millennial generation, the same age demographic targeted by the B.C. campaign, want a fun workplace with friendly co-workers; in contrast, baby boomers between 40 and 60 want to expand their skills and put them to practical use.

Other slogans such as “Oh sure, you’ll definitely win the lottery” and “Because marrying rich may not pan out” have enraged the twitterverse, including the retort “Condescension is not a real message” from @stillbrandworks.

McFarlane offers an alternative campaign angle to get through to hipster youth: “The solution is to convince young people that there are ‘hip’ localities in B.C. outside of Vancouver and Victoria. Small towns and and small cities offer the lifestyle they’re looking for and jobs to boot!”

from “citizen lab”

for targeting people.” According to Marquis-Boire, the similarly targeted dissidents in Bahrain and Egypt indicates this type of hacking technique is a growing trend among state agencies attempting to monitor activists.

Marquis-Boire posted another Citizen Lab report on July 25 that notes a connection between UK-based Gamma International Ltd and a backdoor virus that targeted Bahraini activists’ computers. According to the report, Gamma International has been criticized before for supposedly selling surveillance software to Hosni Mubarak in Egypt during the 2011 revolution.

According to Hacking Team’s website, the purpose of this virus is to gain complete control of the infected computer’s operation. It can access all documents, Skype conversations, and keystrokes. The latter eventually grants access to email.

Hacking Team has refused to comment on the connection. Eric Rabe, Hacking Team’s spokesman, responded to the newspaper’s inquiry stating that

they only sell their commercial malware to “recognized government law enforcement and antiterrorism agencies.” He went on to say that they do not sell to “governments in countries that are on United States or European Union blacklists.”

Marquis-Boire commented, “Hacking Team is not necessarily doing anything illegal.” The U.A.E. is not on any blacklist or trade embargo. According to Bloomberg, Mansour stated that he was twice the victim of organized attacks by men who could have only known his whereabouts through intercepted SMS messages. Marquis-Boire believes that with respect to this growing trend of private firms supposedly selling surveillance software to anti-democratic states, it is “a really good idea for purveyors of such technology to know the actor they are selling to, and what the technology should be used for.”

have shown that a type of malware virus known as a backdoor Trojan was hacking Mansour’s computer. Marquis-Boire determined that the virus is indeed a version of the Milan-based Hacking Team’s Remote Control System virus.

Mansour’s dissidence towards President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan landed him in jail between April and November 2011. Administrator of the prodemocracy discussion forum Al-Hewar (“The Dialogue”), Mansour was charged with threatening state security, insulting the president and for signing a petition advocating democratic reforms. According to Bloomberg News, Mansour was released on a presidential pardon, but his activities continue to be subject to possible monitoring.

Marquis-Boire, in an interview with the newspaper, stated that the backdoor Trojan virus used to hack Massour’s computer is “a common technique

Citizen Lab’s reports are all available online through their website at citizenlab.org.

www.thenewspaper.ca

3

THE NEWS

from “new journalist”

NICK RAGETLI

catch? “It’s not a great time to look for a staff job.”

Director of the Journalism Program at UofT’s Scarborough campus, Jeffrey Dvorkin, agrees with Steiner’s assess-

ment of the contemporary journalism landscape. “As media organizations look for ways in which they can become financially more self-sufficient, they’re going to have to employ journalists in a variety of functions,” Dvorkin told the newspaper. “And I think the role of a freelancer is going to become more important as time goes on.

“The world now belongs to freelancers,” Steiner wrote in a recent article for Harvard’s

lowship does not give marks or grant degrees.

Though they are based in To -

Nieman Journalism Lab. But for Roger Gillespie, Executive Producer of CBC Hamilton, freelancing is not necessarily the best route to secure future employment. “Should you have an expertise? Sure--of course you should,” he told the newspaper. “Are you going to be called upon to do it all the time?

No.” Steiner argues that journalism schools are teaching students to become general-assignment reporters who would eventually

find work in a newsroom after interning in one. But, as most news organizations have less money, those general-assignment positions are not being filled or the company chooses to use a succession of interns.

Those interns rarely get on-thejob training from editors.

“We’re not training people for jobs that don’t exist,” Steiner told the newspaper. “Our folks will be more qualified than folks coming out of a typical program.”

Stiner was quick to point out that the Fellowship is not meant to compete with other journalism schools, but supplement and complement them. The Fel-

Toronto school named for UofT’s nobel laureate John Polanyi

ronto, Steiner emphasizes the Fellowship’s global reach: “We recruit internationally and our fellows are covering their stories internationally for media around the world.”

The Fellowship already has partnerships with six news organizations, including The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, and The Dallas Morning News. Two stories have been published so far: one for Alertnet.org on the U.S. presidential election and another in The National Post on the crisis in Syria.

Students and alumni bank on food support Daily Bread report finds 28 percent of its recipients have university degrees According to a recent report released by Daily Bread, a food bank organization that serves the Greater Toronto Area, over a quarter (twenty-eight per cent) of food support recipients are university degree graduates. This finding is a three per cent increase from 2005.

Daily Bread is one of an array of donors to the U of T Food and Clothing Bank (UTFCB), which serves all U of T students and is run by the University of Toronto Students’ Union.

“Most of the baked goods [come] from a bakery in Chinatown, and the rest from various philanthropic organizations,” said Kyle, UTFCB coordinator. “The food isn’t going to last a week, but a couple of days,” added Felicia, the UTFCB coordinator in charge of statistics. “It’s supposed to save you a couple bucks.”

There is more demand for food and clothes than UTFCB can provide. “We need more canned foods and a lot more clothing,” said Kyle. “We don’t have a lot of diapers or baby food. It all depends on what gets donated. In regards to consistency, there is none. Once we got donated 150 pineapples, but no one’s gonna eat

eight pineapple’s a day.”

For Felicia, the high percentage of university graduates using food banks is not surprising. “Students just got out of university,” she told the newspaper. “[They] have OSAP loans, tuition fees, and not a lot of people get full-time jobs right after graduation.”

Corey Scott, UTSU Vice President of Internal Affairs, blamed the three per cent increase on tuition fees rising 8 percent over the same period, a tough job market, and accumulating student debt.

Scott also attached students’ financial predicaments to larger economic problems.

“People are choosing between buying food, paying rent, paying tuition fees and paying for transit among other things,” he told the newspaper. “Students that have the least amount of resources are paying more in tuition fees due to the interest charged on student loans. That’s not access; it’s a class war.”

In order to obtain food,

there is a four-step process: You have to fill out a form (including how many people you live with, what year you are in, what your timetable is), show your T-card, take a picture, and then receive your food bank card. No financial documentation is required. Scott argued that

there might be two percent who do not need the support, but the remaining 98 percent are the ones who really need the service, and return for food and clothes each week.

The city of Toronto honored Professor John Polanyi at the official opening of the John Polanyi Collegiate Institute (JPCI) in Toronto. Affiliated with UofT’s Chemistry Department since 1956, Polanyi won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in developing infrared chemiluminescence.

The JPCI saluted Polanyi’s many contributions to Toronto and around the world. Howard Goodman, Toronto District Board trustee, said that Polanyi is a huge example for people all over, to try to excel themselves.

Eight new Canada research chairs for UofT The Canada Research Chair program has added eight new members, allowing celebrated researchers to have tenured professorships. UofT is home to 238 chairs, the most of any university.

Professor Paul Young, UofT’s vice-president of Research and Innovation, was pleased with the Government of Canada’s decision to invest in the Canada Research Chairs Program, adding that this allows the university to attract and keep some of the world’s most renowned researchers.

- Sebastian Greenholtz and Christina Maravegia

SAMANTHA CHIUSOLO

John Han

the briefs cont’d...

4

THE INSIDE

Watching the clock

Christian Marclay’s installation, The Clock, hypnotizes viewers at the Power Plant

The Clock, created by collage artist Christian Marclay, is a 24-hour movie that tells time using film clips. Example: when it’s 3:23 pm in Toronto, the clip on-screen will somehow reference 3:23 pm. It took Marclay and a team of six assistants three years of work to create The Clock. Massively popular in New York and London, it is running (free of charge) until November 25 at the Power Plant, and includes a series of 24 hour marathons so the work can be experienced in its entirety. This reporter spent the better part of a day watching it.

David Stokes Imagine asking a stranger for the time. Now do that about nine times a minute for every minute in a 24-hour day. Now imagine that all those strangers are actors from films.

That begins to introduce the strange obsessional world of The Clock. For in this odyssey, the viewer will cover a lot of ground and will see a lot of faces, clock-faces and otherwise.

You will see the exact time as Denzel Washington defuses a bomb. You’ll get the exact time from Peter Sellars. At 1:17pm Sean Penn will try and pawn a watch that reads 1:17pm.

Initially, The Clock’s thrill comes simply in recognizing the actors and the movies used, and being curious about the faces and films that you can’t place. But within minutes the relentless pacing of the movie puts you in a trance; it’s an encounter with a powerful hypnotic force.

For you aren’t merely getting the time, but are witnessing something infinitely more complex and affecting. The viewer watches people become physically affected by time, and how the awareness of time takes hold of people, changing them. Panic seizes some faces. Others are deathly bored. You witness the toll that time takes over and over again, unflaggingly, at every instant, for 24 hours.

The time shown during many scenes in movies is an illusion, part of the background set. But The Clock takes this staged fictional time and shoves it in its truthful slot of the day. And if movies are meant to transport us out of our time, The Clock does the opposite. You feel time creeping over your body; time takes over your mind as you are continually presented with the fact of your life escaping.

The Clock is a memento mori for every moment. Just

when you begin to enjoy a clip from a movie you love, the scene changes. The actors themselves become clocks: we see them in different stages of their careers, their body’s growing older. Many scenes feature older men in despair after younger women; in equal amounts, young women look pensively at themselves in the mirror.

But the movie isn’t all bleak.

In fact it’s often funny and joyously exciting. For in seeing such an incredible diversity of events and faces, we realize: anything can happen any time! Time is endless variation along an identical structural principle. For when can’t you fall in love? Find laughter? Do something good? Life may be short but each moment can be overwhelming, pregnant with character, personality, drama, and surprise. While you will know the time, it’s impossible to predict what the next clip will be about.

Such is life. While I was watching, late at night (from 1:00 am to 3:00 am sex scenes and dream sequences become prominent motifs), my dad texted me and asked if I wanted to fly to Miami with him--in three hours--at 6am. Out of the blue my world had changed. I suddenly didn’t have time to watch The Clock.

October 18, 2012

www.thenewspaper.ca

5

THE INSIDE

The Debate: CASINO OR CASIYES? Motion: Toronto needs a casino, pronto

Last week’s town hall meeting centred on the proposal to build a casino in the city. The casino proposal, which has already seen some billion dollar development plans by private companies, was met with mixed reaction. Opponents claim a casino in Toronto would only benefit ‘the house,’ and increase crime and addiction. Supporters say that the development would bring jobs and tax revenue to the city. The city council will receive a report from city staff in early November outlining the pros and cons of the idea.

^ ^

David Stokes

Casinos are the economic equivalent of a tacky, creepy uncle who drinks all your liquor and leaves. He’s fun for a bit, sure, but far better to keep to the occasional visit.

Toronto doesn’t need a casino because it’s simply not necessary -- people can just go the hour and a half to Niagara or Orillia if they need to gamble. There’s already a market flooded with casinos and we’d just be diluting the overall potential casino dollars.

PRO

Casinos are more or less a tax on the mathematically illiterate -- the house always wins! But certain members of the government are playing the same losing game.

Caught up in the “jobs!” rhetoric, casino supporters are ignoring a litany of studies that show it is impossible to generate long-term growth through casino licensing.

Just like casinos entice gamblers on the false (but perhaps entertainingly fanciful) promise of winning money from nothing, you can’t magically gamble your way out of financial doldrums. The economist Paul A. Samuelson puts the case in stark terms when he described casinos as encour-

aging the “sterile transfer of money or goods between individuals, creating no new money or goods.” Casinos in fact often just divert spending away from surrounding businesses like already viable restaurants, movie theaters, and live entertainment.

While it is true that building a casino would generate an initial burst of construction jobs and a series of low-skill, mid-wage service jobs, the bulk of the profits would leave town just as fast as the casino executives. The real money made in casinos doesn’t end up in the pockets of the people who work within them or in the surrounding community, but the owners of these

operations. These are soulless corporate structures lacking community roots. Casinos are a type of economic strip-mining. Two prospective casino lords that have expressed interest, MGM and Caesar’s, are US-based casinos. The longterm economic benefit won’t necessarily stay in Toronto.

Then there’s the social cost: studies show that where casinos are established there is a directly correlated increase in crime, bankruptcy, divorce and suicide. These are perhaps the most potent reasons to abandon the casino plans.

A casino business simply doesn’t play to Toronto’s strengths. It puts money ahead of the city’s character.

And our economy has always been about innovation, education, healthcare, and savvy financial stewardship. We attract tourists not because they can have a fast glitzy time here, but because the world admires our culture.

Let’s focus our efforts on economic growth that expands our communities, celebrates our uniqueness, and strengthens our infrastructure.

^^ CON

Toronto’s city council was handed a 3 billion dollar proposal last week to build a casino com-

plex in the heart of downtown.

While many councillors have shown interest, others have criticized casinos as potential crime havens and easy targets for gambling addicts.

Nevertheless, the

solid benefits of a Toronto casino will far outweigh these potential problems.

First off, a casino could benefit specific areas of this city. For example, there have been over a dozen separate plans to “revitalize” our waterfront in the past 65 years. Unfortunately these plans are costly, impractical and often use public

money. As a result, our waterfront remains an abandoned eyesore in many places. However with big industry names such as Caesar’s Palace and MGM Grand now willing to place a bet on Canada’s largest city, we have a tremendous opportunity to change it.

Instead of building up downtown, a premiere shoreline casino would be an integral part of transforming the waterfront. It would attract more tourism to the city, utilize land that has remained vacant for decades and since it would be privately funded, would not cost any taxpayer money. If anything, the revenues generated from the casino will go back to the province, benefiting everyone.

NICK RAGETLI

Dylan Hornby

There’s another financial advantage for casinos. They offer employment opportunities for Torontonians of many different skill sets. Even after construction, the average casino resort employs thousands of people, ranging from hotel maids to blackjack dealers.

When you look at the rest of Canada, it’s almost absurd that Toronto isn’t in the casino business. The feared “increase in crime” is simply an overreaction; most Canadian cities have built at least one. These include Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, Montreal and even Moncton.

To those who claim that a casino would be unhealthy for our citizens, look around.

Torontonians have visited Niagara Falls’ casinos for years. Lotteries, horse racing, scratch cards and online gambling have all become part of everyday life. Gambling is everywhere, and not building a casino in Toronto will only serve as a minor inconvenience. The odds are in our favour, and a new casino will surely be a big payoff.

6

THE ARTS

October 18, 2012

Putting sex on the map Sarah Boivin In his public lecture last Thursday, “Sex and the Sacred,” hosted by the History Students’ Association, Professor Nicholas Terpstra shared the details of his current project with a room full of enthusiastic students. A warm and dynamic speaker, he talked us through his plans to bring new depth to historical study with modern technology.

Professor Terpstra’s work involves two very avant-garde fields in social history: the history of sexuality and the history of the senses. These fields are on the forefront of histories that were forgotten, or left out, of traditional--political, maledominated--historical narratives. Social historians are now reclaiming the importance of the study of social experiences,

such as sexual and sensual experiences, in understanding the lived realities of the past.

Professor Terpstra argued convincingly for the role of the senses in determining state-sanctioned boundaries where prostitutes could live and work in Early Modern Florence. From ‘out of sight’ to ‘out of earshot,’ regulations adapted over the centuries to fight against sensory pollution of sacred spaces--particularly convents--keeping the daughters of influential Florentines safe from sex.

With a vast amount of research on the lives and locations of these Early Modern prostitutes, Professor Terpstra and a team of researchers are putting the sex trade of Renaissance Florence on the map. Using new GIS technology and a 16th century map of the city,

they are able to synthesize the data they have onto the map itself.

“What’s really amazing with Sex and the Sacred is the marriage of historical research and digitized mapping,” expressed President of the History Students’ Association, Adnan Subzwari. ‘[It’s] something that has never been done before.’

The map, Terpstra hopes, will provide a synthesis of information for historical research on Florence as other researchers add new work and the map continues acquiring information. This fusion of advanced technology and historical study is an exemplary case of the opportunities to be gained from interdisciplinary applications of study. Combining technology and knowledge from other

NICK RAGETLI

U of T professor uses modern technology to map the history of the Florentine sex trade

fields with historical study could help bring research out of departmental isolation and into a truly dynamic and innovative realm.

Sarah Boivin is Member-at-Large on the Executive Committee of the History Students’ Association. For more information on upcoming events, go to facebook.com/uofthsa or http://uofthistory.com.

When it comes to gambling, taking precautions just makes sense. safeorsorry.ca Take our quiz online for a chance at a home entertainment system.

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8/7/12 9:45 AM

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7

THE ARTS

Argo, the movie that saved lives

Ben Affleck’s latest delivers the goods...but what about the hostages?

Dan Christensen Argo tells the Hollywood story of the real incident known in the press as the “Canadian Caper.” When the American embassy in Iran was taken over in 1979 - the event that resulted in the Iranian hostage crisis six Americans escaped and hid at the Canadian ambassador’s home in Tehran, waiting to be rescued.

Enter Ben Affleck, the Prince of Hollywood himself! (Who is the King? Producer George Clooney obviously.) In addition to directing, Affleck plays Tony Mendez, a cool rising officer in the CIA, tapped by his boss Jack O’Donnell (Bryan Cranston) to hatch a plan to sneak those Americans out of there.

Considering the perception of North Americans in Tehran at the time, no one wanted a strategy that rocked the boat, but for Mendez, more was less.

He suggested they pose as a Canadian film crew on a location scout for Argo, a too late Star

Even with no romantic interest, Ben Affleck will still find a scene to take his shirt off in.

Wars knock off.

Luckily the CIA has a friend in movie makeup man John Chambers (John Goodman) and can count on help from past-prime producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) to set up and promote the fake movie.

That leaves it up to Mendez to coach his six diplomats to act like they’re from Hollywood and get them through the obstacle course of airport

security and onto a plane out of Iran.

Wait a minute. I thought this was the Canadian caper - what happened to the Canadians?

Well, I suppose the Canadian ambassador is there, but not doing much more than wringing his hands and putting pressure on Mendez to move things along.

And there is a postscript remark that Canadian involve-

ment in the operation stands as an enduring model of international cooperation (added

by Affleck after some outcry at TIFF screenings). Yet this comes only after the Canadian government are mocked during the film for taking credit for the mission in the press, while the Americans lament the fact that they can’t make their heroic story known to the world for fear of the politi-

cal fallout.

Oh well, I guess I shouldn’t be shocked that Ben Affleck’s priority wasn’t about making Argo a sparkling historical record; however, the insertion of copious pieces of actual news footage from the period throughout the film is a very nice touch, and adds valuable context to the story.

Still, Affleck does good on what we’ve come to expect from his directorial outings.

It’s fun, it’s exciting, and the story makes sense, while hitting all of the beats it needs to in order to keep us hooked in, even if the subplot of Mendez trying to be a better father is a little bit wedged in there.

In other words, Argo may more or less be your standard Hollywood fare, but it’s the best example of it available, and tough not to like, with some intriguing political substance to boot. However, if you’re a movie goer apt to dig for something deeper, you might not find much hiding beneath the surface.

Garlic fest feeds local lifestyle Jordan Harcourt This past weekend, Evergreen Brickworks hosted the second annual Toronto Garlic Festival.

The festival, created and organized by Peter McClusky, drew in local businesses and community members with garlic, the particularly pungent culinary staple.

Peter McClusky, a native Torontonian, returned to his roots after a ten-year stint with a media company located in New York. McClusky pursued his interest in farming with an internship at Whole Circle Farm located in Guelph, and with his newly acquired green thumb, McClusky was ready to choose a crop for planting in the autumn of 2009. When asked why garlic, he chalks it up to pure timing: “It was already the end of the year. You could plant maybe tulips or garlic, so I decided on garlic.”

In the span of three years, McClusky has gone from har-

vesting 1000 cloves of garlic to 25 000 cloves of garlic, all while organizing a successful festival two years in a row.

With his background in business, added to a communitybased mindset, the inspiration behind the Toronto Garlic Festival is clear. The Garlic Festival is also smart advertising for many local growers and businesses, including McClusky’s own produce. Local appeared to be the theme for the weekend.

Live Green, an organization dedicated to reducing energy use, water and waste, was present at the festival registering people for free Live Green Membership cards. As incentive, green-committed businesses offer discounts to cardholders, which promotes a green lifestyle and shopping locally throughout Toronto.

“All of these farmers and chefs are almost virtually all small businesses.They’re all owned by individual people, they’re

not corporations with shareholders.” To further prove his point, McClusky is capable of listing all of the participating businesses online by the owner’s names, and not the company.

The camaraderie among vendors is easily felt as McClusky recounts the launch of his garlic growing career.

“So I got about the equivalent of a thousand cloves of garlic actually from another fellow here who’s become a very good friend, Bob Litke. And so I planted that garlic on the other Bob’s farm in Brampton.

And that got me started.”

If the celebration of local produce and satisfaction of supporting local businesses failed to entice, the samples surely stole everyone’s hearts-or stomachs. The spread of garlic-infused foods could have converted any garlic cynic into a garlic enthusiast.

“The challenge,” Peter says, “is finding interesting food.”

FANG SU

Torontonians risk bad breath for friendly atmosphere, great food at Toronto Garlic Festival

Brickworks hosts second annual Toronto Garlic Festival On the contrary, there was no challenging the interest factor of the foods offered at the festival. University of Toronto student, Helena Andrigo, saluted

the babi on a bun as, “the best thing I have ever eaten.” For such an unassuming little vegetable, that’s saying a whole lot.

8

THE END

Dear Suzie

The Friends of the Library, Trinity College

37th Annual Book Sale October 18 – 22, 2011

What to do when your bestie falls victim to your newfound lurve

Thursday October 18: 4 pm –9 pm (Admission $5 )

Friday October 19: Saturday October 20: Sunday October 21: Monday October 22:

October 18, 2012

10 am – 8pm 10 am – 8pm noon – 8pm 10 am – 8pm

Dear Suzie,

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I recently entered into a romantic relationship with someone and I’m finding myself wanting to spend every waking hour with them. As a result my best friend/roommate has fallen by the wayside. How can I satisfy everyone, including myself?

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Dear Anonymous, You and I both know that it is impossible to please everyone. Someone always ends up getting hurt, and too often that person is you. However, I do think you’re a good friend for not forgetting about your bestie/roommate at a time when most love-struck people would.

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So here’s what I suggest: have you thought about inviting your friend along on hangouts with your significant other? It will only be a weird third-wheel situation if you make it that way.

Think of something the three of you can do on a regular basis, like making dinner once a week.

Apart from that, let go a little bit. Your bf/gf will understand that you had a social life before they came along, and your friend will come to understand that people in new relationships simply need to spend time together, both in company and alone. Give credit where credit is due, and enjoy your amazingly good fortune in love and friendship.

Newspaper 2011

Sincerely, Suzie

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Got a question for Suzie? Submit it anonymously at the newspaper.ca in the blue box

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the campus comment

the newspaper asked: If Obama and Romney were suddenly out of the running, who would be your pick for president of the United States?

2

DARREN Life Sciences, 1st year “J.K. Rowling because she could make up good stories about the nation’s debt.”

FIZZA Equity Studies, 3rd year “A human manifestation of Mufasa because he is a compassionate leader.”

JIEUN English, Anthropology, 2nd year “Dumbledore because he has the perfect combination of compassion, intelligence, courage, and morality.”

WESLEY Humanities, 1st year “Ned Stark because most of the leaders in the western world prioritize the popular thing over the right thing; it’s about time we had a leader who did the right thing.”

ALEX English, 1st year

KEELY MAYNARD

Keshini Music Teacher Program, 1st year “Craig Kielburger because our morals are focused too much on materialistic things and he would be able to change the world’s perspective.”

“Gari Baldi because he conquered half of Italy and gave it away. Politics is full of people who want power and we need someone who doesn’t.”