December 2013

the newspaper The University of Toronto’s Independent Publication

since 1978

VOL XXXVI Issue 4 • Decemeber 2013

Canada’s most scandalous university The mayor’s crack opera: a timeline Combating mental exhaustion XXX-mas: places to frolic in Toronto

p3 p4 p12 p14

December 2013

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Our season’s burdens the editorial

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tudents often fail to cope with what goes on inside their minds, especially at this time of year—a time when finances, family, and academic pressures converge.

At the newspaper every section editor is either a full- or part-time student and holds one or more paying part-time jobs—running the gamut from cheese saleslady to opera house usher to baby carriage expert. Such is the common burden of young people who live within an increasingly expensive, yet credentialed world. Mental health invariably suffers, and for many, this is a not a culturally constructed reality, but a medical fact.

Some of us have had to go on hiatus from the paper, unable to cope—yet making the wise decision to know our boundaries.

Our mutual stress and anxiety cannot be parsed or compared with each other’s stress and anxiety. Our problems are paradoxically our own and not our own, shared by others, felt by others, but never understood in their totality by others. Such is the nature of subjectivity.

We struggle as a culture to develop the right language to discuss mental health, particularly as young people trying to explain to

Editor-in-Chief Yukon Damov Managing Editor Dylan Hornby

the older generations that mental health is a real thing, not just a matter of keeping calm and carrying on.

Jamie Flexman, writing in The Huffington Post in September, argued that it is impossible to really understand depression without experiencing it, so he used an apt metaphor instead: “When depression has its grip on you, life becomes water. The air around you becomes water, crushing you with its weight and even the simplest tasks become difficult. … You have essentially become trapped inside your own prison and true access to your brain lies behind that locked door.”

It is perhaps this inability to explain what is going on in our own minds that keeps us from seeking the help we require, preferring instead to attempt a self-presentation of some normalcy.

But left unspoken and unacknowledged, sometimes the worst outcome can occur.

Saturday, November 30, a 20-year-old student at the University of Guelph attempted to burn himself to death in his dorm room and streamed it live before an audience of 200 people. Before he popped pills and lit himself on fire—when he was contemplating

his spectacular ending—what could have been done to intervene?

It’s the usual complicated, but necessary question, and hopefully one that will be discussed by UofT’s new Provostial Committee for Mental Health and its working groups, which was recently established with funds from Ontario’s $27-million plan for tackling mental health on the province’s campuses.

The committee is a welcome step towards addressing mental health at UofT and the sign of a serious commitment to the situation. UofT’s mental health services face serious inefficiencies and a lack of resources, as reported by The Varsity.

But the Provost’s office must make available to the public information about the committee’s existence and work; it can begin by including the committee with the others listed on the Vice-President and Provost website.

Most importantly, members of the committee and its working groups must listen closely to those in the UofT community with mental health ailments, because mental illness is too often left unspoken and hidden out of sight. •

the newspaper Contributors: Stefan Bird, Daniel Braverman, Parker Bryant, Yukon Damov, Daniel Glassman, Julia Grieg, Laura Charney, Eman Cheema, Dylan Hornby, Jane Alice Keachie, Camille Leon-Angelo, Peter Liakhov, A.I. Marin, Marsha McLeod, Phil Metz, Lisa Monozlai, Zach Morgenstern, Conner O’Grady, Grant Oyston, Max Parr, Ted Rawson, Anna Bianca Roach, Paulina Saliba, Ilene Sova, Taylor Stinson, Michael Wilson

Design Editor Odessa Kelebay Associate Design Editor Samantha Preddie News Editor Isaac Thornley Associate News Editor Marsha McLeod Arts Editor Carissa Ainslie Associate Arts Editor Jane Alice-Keachie Comment Editor Zach Morgenstern Features Editor David Stokes Senior Copy Editor Sydney Gautreau Photo Editor Grant Oyston Illustrations Editor Nick Ragetli Video Editor Ted Rawson Events Coordinator Chelsea Hirons Cover Image Stefan Bird

Yukon Damov

Farewell to our beloved Senior Copy Editor, Syd. We hope the rolls are fresh in England.

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

256 McCaul Street, Suite 106 Toronto, ON M5T 1W5 thenewspaper@gmail.com All U of T community members, including students, staff, and faculty are encouraged to contribute to the newspaper.

Many thanks to: Mac DeMarco, Gaia, Sebastian Greenholtz, Chelsea Hirons, Jenny James, Anthony Kalsatos, Taras Kuzio, MasterWeb, Max Parr, Pour Girl, Jay Rangam, Cara Sabatini, Steamwhistle, The Bob, The Varsity, Ivor Tossell, Ketchup Packets, 60 Timbits, 12 Donuts, Justin Trottier, and the Umaro Brothers No thanks to: Viktor Yanukovych, Ted’s Second Grade English Teacher, and General Al-Sisi

thenewspaper.ca

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Canada’s most scandalous university Sex parties, child porn, and “real hard-on guys”: A year in U of T news

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n 2013, the University of Toronto learned that scandals make headlines. Canada’s largest university regularly ranks among the top universities in the world, produces cutting-edge research, and is a global leader in innovation—none of which seemed to be as newsworthy as “student orgies,” disgraced administrators, or controversial teachers.

So, in the scandalous spirit of 2013, a year of twerking, crack-smoking mayors, and t-shirts with menstruating vaginas, here are the stories at UofT that made the national headlines this year.

Student Orgy On January 21, the University of Toronto Sexual Education Center (SEC) organized an “epic student sex adventure.” Despite Reddit and the host venue, Oasis Aqualounge, referring to it as an “orgy,” the SEC specified it as a social.

The feature event of Sexual Awareness Week, the intention of the social was to provide a non-judgmental environment in which safe sex could be explored.

Over 600 students lined up for the club, but by 7pm, when clothing became optional, the club had already reached its full capacity at 189 people. Despite the acceptance of nudity, only a small minority of students reportedly had sex, though one could catch glimpses of young men and women (nakedly) exploring the club’s dungeons and using sexual equipment.

Regardless of what was occurring inside the club, the event roused the environment outside the club all the same.

Christian members of York University’s United Through Worship protested the “unholy” activities going on inside. Some also handed out free Bibles to those waiting in line.

SEC ensured that the event would promote a safe and sex-positive environment. Condoms and lubricant were provided throughout the club, and the SEC required attendees to show their student IDs in order to be admitted with a plus one.

The club’s different floors served different purposes; the first floor was a bar-like setting—a low-pressure environment where students could simply socialize­—whereas as other floors lent themselves more directly to kinks and other sexy stuff.

Profits from the evening went to charities such as Maggie’s,

AIDS Action Now, and TRIP. Oasis Aqualounge, a self-described “water-themed adult’s playground” is comprised of four floors of bars, hot tubs, pools, play rooms, and dungeons.

Year-round, they have passes available to students, individuals, and couples. Couples’ passes only qualify to those which consist of a man and a woman and individual males are only allowed entry on Mondays and Wednesdays.

The SEC executive director Jordan Lavoie stated that this rule was enacted on the night of the social due to a “miscommunication” with Oasis Aqualounge. This misunderstanding is a noteworthy reason why a social will not be held at Oasis for the 2014 Sexual Awareness Week.

The theme for this coming year’s Sexual Awareness Week will be body positivity. In terms of a future social, the SEC is looking for a venue that will maintain its values and condone the most sex-positive and body-positive space. Other events to look forward to will be the return of porn and cookies—essentially, watching porn and eating cookies—as well as workshops on anal sex and how to buy sex toys on a student budget.

Professor Porno Benjamin Levin is a tenured University of Toronto professor, former Ontario deputy education minister, and was a member of Kathleen Wynne’s transition team. This July, the UofT community was shocked when Levin was arrested and charged with seven counts of child pornography.

His charges included one count of possessing child pornography, one count of accessing child pornography, two counts of distributing child pornography, one count of making child pornography, and agreeing to perform a sexual offense against a child under age 16.

According to Detective-Constable Janelle Blackadar, the Toronto police had begun investigating Levin last year.

A phone call from New Zealand authorities in June indicated they had also been investigating him. After exchanging information with authorities in England and London, ON, Levin’s child pornography inquiry was confirmed.

Levin, an education expert, is married with three children. He travels extensively, to both publicly lecture and to perform research

regarding understanding worldwide education systems. One of his main goals, according to his profile on the Ontario Institute in Studies of Education (OISE) website, is to learn “more about how we can ameliorate the impacts of poverty and inequality in education.”

In 2010, as Ontario’s deputy education minister, Levin proposed a radical sex education curriculum, which then education minister and current premier Kathleen Wynne was hoping to adopt.

Parts of the program suggested teaching eight-year-olds about sexual orientation and identity and 11-year-olds about anal and oral sex, as well as masturbation.

Premier Dalton McGuinty rejected it at the time due to opposition from parents.

Wynne now denies that Levin played any role in forming the sexual education curriculum.

Although Levin was released on July 10 on $100 000 bail, he was ordered to return to court on August 8.

Gilmour-Gate More recently in UofT news, Victoria College guest professor/lecturer David Gilmour was under attack by women, Chinese, gays, Canadians, and basically anyone who does not identify as a real “guy’s guy.” In a late September interview with Hazlitt magazine, Gilmour declared that he is “not interested in teaching books by women” and is only interested in teaching “serious heterosexual guys.”

Later, in an interview with the National Post, Gilmour clarified his comment by stating that he teaches only “big hard-on guys.”

Gilmour defended his controversial statements by saying that the interview was taken out of context. He also defended himself by stating that he can only teach what he knows and relates to and can share passionate wisdom about– which happens to only pertain to white, middle-aged, “macho guys.”

Regardless of the social media uproar and a small protest at Vic, Gilmour continues to teach two very popular classes through Victoria College.

From coverage in the National Post to the Huffington Post; the Globe and Mail to the CBC; the Toronto Sun to the Toronto Star, UofT did not stray from the scandalous spotlight. Now with a new President at the university, it will be interesting to see what will be considered “newsworthy” in the upcoming year. • Laura Charney

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO OISE WEBSITE

Prof. Benjamin Levin smiling; he has far less to smile about these days.

SEC president recalls Oasis the newspaper: Why did the SEC choose to have a sex party?

Jordan Lavoie: It wasn’t a sex party, first of all, nor was it an orgy— despite what Reddit said. Utter bullshit. The point of having a party at Oasis was to try to promote having fun in a safer sex environment, an environment where sex is very obvious, so it doesn’t seem like a sleazy gross hidden thing, which is how a lot of people talk about sex. tn: How rowdy did it get? What happened once the social got on?

JL: Obviously, due to the amount of media attention we got, there were far more people than we had ever imagined. More than 600 people showed up; we had to turn away more than 400 people. It was crazy.

A lot of people showed up expecting an orgy because that’s how it had been mediated; those people were very quickly disillusioned. A lot of people were having fun: there was dancing and swimming—people in the hot tub. A lot of people in a sexpositive environment and feeling kind of awkward but nobody else was looking awkward, so they shouldn’t have been feeling awkward. It was awkward trying to not be awkward but it was a lot of fun. tn: Oasis Aqualounge has a policy that couples’ discounts rates only apply to couples consisting of a man and woman. Was that the case the night of the social?

JL: Much to our dismay, it did end up being that way. There was a miscommunication between us and Oasis where we didn’t outrightly communicate that we don’t hold those values, so they just sort of proceeded to divide people that way, which is why we are not going to have the social at Oasis this year.

Yeah, breaking news. The main reason is that we’re doing a body positive schedule this year, and Oasis isn’t wheelchair accessible. tn: Did you tell them about your values before and they did it behind your back?

JL: I’m not sure if it was ever communicated, I just know that once it got really busy and rowdy, they were doing two different queues which we put a stop to as soon as we heard about it.

December 2013

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UTSU opponents provide “facetious” voice to AGM

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nless you’re well-versed in the complexities of Robert’s Rules (the go-to text for most union meetings) or enjoy the monotonous debate between three people about whether to consider a motion an “agenda” or a “point of business,” the 2013 UTSU Annual General Meeting repeated the struggles between our farleft student union and an opposition who is willing to waste everyone’s time to argue trivialities.

The UTSU is often chided for being a doubtfully democratic group. Last year’s AGM proved quite eventful as organized opposition groups from Trinity College and the Faculty of Engineering managed to vote against approving the agenda, resulting in the meeting’s premature end.

The meeting was re-scheduled, but the opposition had shown to be legitimate obstructionists.

Surely enough, they tried to pull the same thing this year, but Trinity College boycotted the meeting and the UTMSU executive once again brought in students from Mississauga—mostly UTSU supporters. Without Trin’s support, the opposition couldn’t hope to attain the same result as last year.

“I found this whole meeting to be a total disrespect to the $33 most engineering students pay to the UTSU,” said Pierre Harfouche after the meeting. He sits as Engineering Science representative on the Engineering

The mayor’s crack opera: a timeline

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n recent months, the substance abuse and pathological lying that are inextricable parts of Mayor Ford’s tenure have been increasingly revealed.

Time and time again, Ford proved himself to be unreliable and incapable of being entrusted with the title of Mayor of Toronto. the newspaper compiled a timeline highlighting Ford’s repeating pattern of lies—which morphed from allegations to facts—that prevent him from doing what he was elected to do.

Society’s board of directors.

“This is absolutely ridiculous!” a UTSU-supporter called out to Harfouche as he moved, early in the meeting, to remove all remaining items from the agenda.

“I wanted to show the UTSU that students are fed up with the lack of YUKON DAMOV democracy they have,” explained Michael Wainberg listens as the chair explains Robert’s Rules at AGM on November 27.

Harfouche. Once the heckling stopped, the vote was recorded and failed because the room. One asked, “Do you know why speakers per side, following Harfouche’s the move required a two-thirds majority. he’s allowed to just stand there and speak lengthy chat with the chair. Harfouche later called the procedural change After that initial vote, all bureaucratic all the time?”

Harfouche later told us that the another example of how the UTSU hell broke loose. Harfouche, armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of Robert’s motion was: “To appoint two [UTSU “changes the rules on the fly.”

In the end, all but one of the motions Rules argued the vote only required a execs] to speak at the student summit simple 50 per cent majority. While the … the students should be able to (the one against SAIA) passed through a chair claimed Harfouche was incorrect, vote on that.” UTSU president Munib shrunken representation of the student Michael Wainberg came out with a well- Sajjad ducked a question earlier in the body. The audit passed without any used (but current) copy of Robert’s Rules evening asking why he has not attended questions and Harfouche claimed that the summit, which was founded by as a student union with assets equivalent to support Harfouche’s claim.

The chair consistently dismissed the administration after the Victoria to “a thousand engineering tuitions,” Harfouche’s reasoning as “facetious,” College, Trinity, and the Engineering adding that “this is so sad, and it just as the two sides went back and forth student governments held referenda to breaks [his] heart.”

Maybe Harfouche was actually debating the fine print of the union direct their students’ $17.34 individual tome. After nearly an hour of debate fees away from the UTSU. If these speaking from the heart, but what and several votes over whether to hold divisions were allowed to divert their credibility does the opposition gain from subsequent votes, it was clear that the fees away from the central union, the debating minutiae? The opposition’s UTSU would lose a significant portion points are certainly valid—last year’s vote opposition wasn’t going to get its way. proves that. Yet, instead of electing their Cue plan B. Harfouche surprisingly of its membership and revenue.

By the time Harfouche’s all-out effort own candidates for last year’s election, requested to read out a new motion, which the chair refused to hear because to introduce his own motion had been they derailed the meeting, wasted time, he did so after the posted deadline. Out decisively out-voted, the room had resulting in the same bureaucratic largely emptied out. The meeting finished ballyhoo that caused student apathy in came the Robert’s Rules again.

In the back of the auditorium, an hour late even after questioning the first place. • Dylan Hornby frustrated students began flooding out of was restricted to two minutes and two

The Toronto Star reporters, Robyn Doolittle and Kevin Donovan, meet with Mohammed “Soya” Siad, an alleged member of the Dixon City Bloods, in a parked car where the reporters are shown a cellphone video of Ford smoking crack.

Siad offers to sell the video for a “six figure price,” prompting Buzzfeed to launch a fundraising campaign to purchase the video.

May 3, 2013

May 16, 2013

Gawker and the Star release reports on the Rob Ford crack video.

On his way to City Hall, Ford firmly denies the allegations by the Star that he ever smoked crack-cocaine.

May 17, 2013

May 23, 2013

Mayor Ford fires his Chief of Staff, Mark Towhey.

After pressure from City Council executive committee, Ford reads a prepared statement to the press at City Hall: “I do not use crack cocaine, nor am I an addict of crack cocaine.” He also denied the existence of the video.

May 24, 2013

May 27, 2013

Ford’s press secretary, deputy press secretary, policy advisor, and executive assistant resign.

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Student politics must move beyond duels over Robert’s Rules Whether you hate, love, or don’t care about the UTSU, consider the political implications

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istory repeats itself, “the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce,” said Karl Marx when, for the second time, a Bonaparte took over revolutionary France. The same quotation could easily apply to this year’s UTSU Annual General Meeting.

A year after charismatic UTSU opponent Sam Greene called for a vote against the Annual General Meeting’s agenda (leading to the meeting’s cancellation and subsequent rescheduling), Pierre Harfouche unsuccessfully attempted to pull off the same move.

Prior to the AGM, Harfouche proposed motions in support of fee diversion that, according to UTSU president Munib Sajjad, he was already told would be ruled out of order, in what seemed a ploy to prolong conflict between the UTSU and its opponents. Despite the monotony of this debate—which one student told me was akin to “watching angry paint dry”—some form of it will likely continue.

Student politics has the potential to centre around important political questions, such as the right to education.

Unfortunately, the controversies that surround the UTSU often obscure these more fundamental questions.

Opponents criticize the UTSU because one political class dominates its elections, because some feel its politicians are paid too much, because until recently it did not offer an online voting

option, etc. These criticisms can be applied just as easily to all liberal-democratic governments (governments that don’t even go so far as to have AGMs).

Yet many of the faces we see leading the charge to delegitimize the UTSU are not the faces making similar demands at higher levels within movements such as Occupy and Idle No More.

While I imagine many students support the concept of online voting, I doubt that students spent their days angrily fretting about the absence of online voting in UTSU elections before opposition demagogues worked to make it a polarizing issue. Rather than thinking about concepts like online voting in isolation, politically conscious students should analyze them from a strategic perspective.

Imagine you have a fundamental political disagreement with the way a student union runs. Unless your idea is a radical solution aimed at a radical populous in a radical context—i.e. you’re a CLASSÉ organizer during the Quebec student strike—chances are you won’t be able to mobilize students for the sake of your philosophy alone. Instead, you look for an issue that you can frame as being part of a catch-all philosophy such as democracy or anti-corruption. That is what I believe happens in the anti-UTSU movement, and it makes sense in a broader context of attacks on student unions.

Monir Kassim is charged with “trafficking in weapons and drugs (cocaine and marijuana) for the benefit of a criminal organization.”

The office of the Mayor pens a character reference for Alexander “Sandro” Lisi.

June 14, 2013

At other schools, the ideological struggle inherent in campus politics is more out in the open. Inspired in part by the anti-OPIRG campaign of Conservative Stuart Clark at Queens, right-wing campus groups have campaigned against levies to PIRGs (student-run public interest research groups).

At Carleton and McMaster, conservatives told students to take back their OPIRG levies and to spend them on beer.

At the University of Windsor, the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, a pro-Liberal rival organization to the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), was kicked out a year ago. In a video published by The Windsor Star, the union’s OUSA-affiliated ex-president and self-described proud Liberal André Capaldi defended a 4.5 per cent tuition increase on the grounds that there were “limited resources.”

At the University of Guelph there have been back and forth battles over the student association’s membership in the CFS, which is also UTSU’s parent organization.

The role of student associations have been challenged at various schools, and seeing as these challenges are often politically motivated, it’s hard to take fights within the UTSU over minutiae at face value. People fight the UTSU and the CFS, for political reasons. While these challenges occasionally comes from far left critics (who denounce the UTSU and

Released court documents indicate that Toronto Police investigated the Ford video and the attempted recovery of the video by Lisi. On the same day during a press conference, Police Chief Bill Blair confirms that the police seized a copy of the video from the hard drive of a computer obtained in Project Traveller raids.

Chief Blair confirms the content of the video is consistent with media reports.

June 4, 2013

CFS for not putting enough effort into their activist roles), it most loudly comes from the right, or at least from nominal leftists corroborating liberal order rhetoric.

My deconstruction of the anti-UTSU movement should not be misinterpreted as a complete defense of the status quo.

Rather, I would argue, when fights over issues such as fee-diversion dominate conversation, other debates are undermined. During the AGM, Petr Liakhov (a newspaper op-ed writer) asked whether the UTSU would organize demonstrations against tuition fees. Sajjad gave him a vague, but enthusiastic answer that Liakhov was not satisfied with. This is an important area of contention, yet with fights over fee-diversion, as well as more explicitly left-right battles over issues such as Israeli Apartheid Week dominating debates, this potentially game-changing question went largely unnoticed.

For the foreseeable future, student leaders from Trinity, the Engineering Society and elsewhere will continue to clash with the leaders of the UTSU. While the words of these figures may make for great headlines, the subtext of these fights is of far more importance than what is said out loud. Hopefully we’ll get to a point where student governance is openly understood in a truly political light. Then we can challenge tragedy and eliminate farce. • Zach Morgenstern

A new video of Ford is bought by the Star for $5000. The video depicts the allegedly intoxicated mayor yelling threats such as “I need fuckin’ 10 minutes to make sure he’s dead!”

Nov 7, 2013

Oct 31, 2013

June 13, 2013

A Toronto Police raid as part of Project Traveller enters the home of Muhammad Khattak, one of the men posing with Ford in a photograph of Ford outside 15 Windsor Rd. Monir Kassim, another individual in the picture, is also arrested.

Oct 1, 2013

Sandro Lisi and another man are charged with possession of and trafficking in marijuana, possession of the proceeds of crime. He is also charged with conspiracy.

Nov 5, 2013

Mayor Ford admits to smoking crack cocaine. When asked why he lied, Ford replies, “I wasn’t lying. You didn’t ask the correct questions.”

timeline continues on page 6

December 2013

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Toronto’s (somewhat) secret uranium processing plant How Toronto learned to stop worrying and love processed uranium

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f I told you to imagine what a uranium processing plant looks like, what would you picture? Maybe your mental image would be of a monstrous industrial building: perhaps a little ominous and vaguely threatening in an I-hope-this-place-won’t-irradiate-me kind of way.

Where would you picture this building being located? Probably some small rural town, or out in the sticks: somewhere where no one lives, just in case of a catastrophic Chernobyl/ Three Mile Island/ Fukushima kind of disaster, to minimize collateral damage.

If you’re someone whose imagination runs along these lines, you might be surprised to find that there is a uranium processing plant right here in Toronto.

Located in the West End at Lansdowne Ave and Dupont St, the GEHitachi uranium processing plant has been converting uranium powder into uranium fuel pellets since 1965, and has been doing so in relative peace and anonymity until last year.

In November 2012, Zack Ruiter began a campaign to raise awareness on the GE-Hitachi uranium processing plant and to educate the public and local residents on what he says are the dangers posed by it.

How much of a risk does the GEHitachi plant really present? Ruiter may be hoping for a knee-jerk reaction from residents who are surprised to find out that uranium is being processed across the street from where they live. But does it actually put their health and wellbeing under any kind of threat? First let’s look at what the plant actually does.

The GE-Hitachi plant processes about 150 tonnes of uranium powder each month, all of which is inert and

sealed into barrels. These barrels are shipped to Toronto from a Cameco Corporation-owned conversion facility in Port Hope, where they are processed into powder from raw uranium. The powder is converted into pellets at the GE-Hitachi plant and then transported to Peterborough, where the pellets are inserted into rods for use as fuel by nuclear reactors.

While the powder is radioactive and does pose health risks, it would require long-term exposure for there to be any real impact on one’s well-being. Anybody not spending long amounts of time in immediate proximity to the powder would be completely fine.

But what about people who live next to the uranium plant or along the routes where uranium-laden trucks travel? Some critics of the plant argue that residents who live nearby can gain unhealthy amounts of exposure to radiation over the course of years or decades.

GE-Hitachi has its own monitoring processes that ensure the safety of local residents by testing the air and soil in the area surrounding the plant. The results of these monitoring studies have consistently found that radioactivity levels are well within the acceptable limits as set out by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), Canada’s nuclear material and energy regulator.

Not ones to trust Big Nuclear, Ruiter and area residents have lobbied against GE-Hitachi’s findings, prompting the Ontario Government to conduct its own tests through the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MOE) and the CNSC. The government’s report corroborated GE-Hitachi’s findings. The MOE and CNSC sampled 24 different public areas

Judge Nordheimer orders release of the details of the police report on Ford (an earlier version had large portions redacted). The report revealed that Ford regularly drove drunk, engaged in sexual harassment, had staffers buy liquor for him, took Oxycontin, and cavorted with prostitutes. The same day, Ford admits to having purchased illegal drugs during the past two years.

Thirty of the 44 City Councillors enter a petition asking Ford to step down.

Nov 13, 2013

Using profane language, Ford denies allegations of sexual harassment by former staffer Olivia Gondek and admits to “driving after taking a drink.” Later in the day, he apologizes for his earlier language while speaking about the allegations of Gondek.

Nov 14, 2013

in the vicinity of the processing plant and found radioactivity levels which were well within the maximum acceptable level set out by the CNSC. The typical level of background radiation in Ontario soil is about 2.5 µg/g. 22 out of the 24 samples taken near the GE-Hitachi plant were found to be below this level. The two samples that were exceeding the background level were between 2.53 and 2.93 µg/g, which are both well within the acceptable range for residential areas set out by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment.

These findings take the wind out of Ruiter’s sails. The processing plant works

with an inert material, one which is not irradiating the site or surrounding area, and which has absolutely no chance of exploding, melting down or causing any other conceivable catastrophe.

The worry and handwringing is all for naught. They are simply the gut reactions of people who hear the word “uranium” and immediately picture nuclear bombs and atomic wastelands.

To paraphrase Stanley Kubrick, residents of Toronto need to learn to stop worrying and love the uranium. • Phil Metz

A possible series of events at Toronto’s uranium processing plant.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne declares that the Government of Ontario is ready to intervene if City Council requests it. Toronto City Council votes to strip Mayor Ford of executive committee and emergency powers. Ford states he will challenge the action in court.

Nov 15, 2013

PARKER BRYANT

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ayor Ford’s deception, substance abuse, and brazen disregard for law and public opinion represent a recurring pattern of behaviour.

Such repeated offences cannot be taken to be isolated mistakes, but rather need to be addressed for what they are: a chronic disregard for legality, decorum, and the Office of the Mayor. • Eman Cheema & Zaid Ahmed Shahid

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Egypt’s failing democratic heart Arab Fall: military snuffs Egypt’s youthful revolution

HASSAM EL-HAMALAWY/FLICKR

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Egyptians fill their Tahrir Square in protest with a relentless vigour and intensity, but the military-backed interim government seems on the verge of slipping deeper into authoritarianism.

t the beginning of the Arab Spring two years ago, Egypt played a promising role in igniting a series of popular uprisings that spread across North Africa. In January 2011, 50 000 Egyptians crowded Cairo’s Tahrir Square to protest the legitimacy of Hosni Mubarak’s government, which had been in power for 30 years.

Months of prolonged protests— which at one point swelled to nearly 300 000 people, according to Al Jazeera—in Tahrir Square, as well as protests elsewhere across the country, finally forced Mubarak to step down.

With a population of 85 million people—larger than the UK, Germany, France, and Iran—Africa’s largest economy (third-largest in the Middle East), and a median age of 25, Egypt’s revolutionary impulse signalled a hopeful turning point for a democratic transformation across the region.

Now, in what some call a return to the authoritarianism of the Mubarak regime, the military-backed government has made controversial amendments to the constitution that are to be approved by referendum in December or January.

Morsi: Hopes dashed Mohammed Morsi, leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, came to power in June, 2012, as the first democratically-elected and

Islamist president in June 2012.

His supporters still see him as the legitimate president of Egypt.

Many Egyptians—90 per cent of whom identify as Islamic—then believed that Morsi could represent the people in a step towards Western-style democracy, but that he would also remain true to the religious and moral values of the community through political Islam.

In late November 2012, his success in mediating a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel caught the attention of the Arab world and the international community.

But trouble began just one day later. Though he had succeeded in foreign policy, domestic policy failed him. On November 22, Morsi issued a decree granting him sweeping powers and immunity from judicial review in an attempt to stabilize the country while forcing through a new constitution, which met fierce opposition.

In Tahrir Square, protesters quickly resumed demonstrations. Many felt that he hijacked the revolution to consolidate his own power. Morsi argued that this temporary move would lay the foundations for a new democracy and return the country to stability.

He would later rescind this power grab, but he never recovered his legitimacy in the eyes of the people.

Military launches popular coup This impasse reached a breaking point in July. The country was at a standstill as open revolution raged in the streets.

Morsi remained in power by right of position only. He had lost the support of the majority of Egyptians. Morsi’s aim to hold onto power at all costs led to the arrest and killings of protesters, journalists, and activists.

The military arrested the president and effectively took control of the country. This was a coup, which the military said was backed by the will of the people. Paradoxically, this takeover was seen as a necessary protector and usurper of democracy.

Military amends constitution The military-backed government claims to be restoring democracy by ousting Morsi, but his democratic election makes this notion problematic. Their heavy-handed tactics enforced to quell dissent—such as issuing restrictive laws against protests, killing 1000 Islamist protesters since July, and banning the Muslim Brotherhood—are transparently undemocratic.

The new constitutional changes do little to satisfy the military establishment’s critics.

Morsi adopted revisions to the original 1971 constitution last year, which many Islamists consider the legitimate legal basis for the country. In September,

the interim government initiated a 50-member constitutional assembly, which included few Islamists and only women.

Although the latest draft keeps Sharia law as its legal basis, its ban on political parties based on religion is sure to raise ire.

Human rights activists criticize the constitution for continuing to allow civilians to be tried in military courts.

Analysts say that the constitution could allow for the military to further consolidate power, but in the presidency. It is unclear, once the referendum is ratfied, whether the interim president will choose presidential elections or parliamentary elections to come first; the outcome of the decision could expedite the election of Egypt’s de facto leader, Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, defense minister.

Yet it is natural that the pace of change has slowed following the fecundity of the Arab Spring. The liberals and the Islamists, both marginalized for many years under the tyranny of Mubarak, are fearful of losing what they fought so hard to gain, possibly united in their demands that the long grip of dictatorship must end.

Although the youth continue to organize mass rallies and call the people to protest, they struggle to find ways to participate within the political process itself. The Islamists, however, are

unable to meet the demands of a population that increasingly places the importance of individual freedoms, human rights, and the participation of women in society, above the voice of the ummah (the Islamic community). For Egypt to truly move forward, an integrative approach must be adopted that accounts for the values of both sides.

For all the negative headlines, a new openness does exist. Political Islam brings issues that are important to many Egyptians to the forefront. Concern about religion and the role of women have entered into public debate through the voice of newly aggressive news media channels and a civil society that demands to be heard.

There has been great turmoil over the past two years, but hope cannot be lost.

Throughout history great change has always been accompanied by unrest and destruction when the grip of the past refuses to let go. Much has gone wrong but as a new year beckons the potential for so much to go right remains very strong.• Michael Wilson

December 2013

8

Gaia addresses new realities of our streets through art Site-specific art moves Gaia beyond the realm of “signature” imagery

Imagining a Modern Philadephia, Center City, 2012

G

aia is one of the few urban artists to successfully draw upon imagery, symbolism, and architecture while simultaneously challenging commercialized notions of street art. Travelling around the world, he predominantly employs animal imagery to contrast an environment built by humans, and comment on the human condition in the natural world.

You have travelled a fair amount recently. Each piece you create appears to be very site specific. Why do you draw upon your location to inspire your work?

My conscience has slowly driven me to a place where the subject matter of my work is completely site generated. I want my pieces to feel as if they are visually and historically relevant to the situation.

I have had the great fortune to be a part of this growing global Street Art/Mural infrastructure, and have

been invited to paint sanctioned walls all over the world. The guerilla branding technique of endlessly repeating “signature” images in every city across the world has become the weakest aspect of this diverse movement. I enjoy the excitement of getting up and “bombing,” if you will, but striving towards site specificity in both form, content, and function places me in the position of student rather than an imposition.

How does the relationship between urban planning and socioeconomic groups influence you?

Architecture and the arrangement of our living spaces determine how we navigate our environment and how we define ourselves. The formal decisions of elected officials, private developers, and institutions as well as the informal improvisations of a city’s residents dictate how we are collectively arranged.

To not address the reality of our

streets and how they are shaped would be a gross artistic injustice and would limit the scope of “Street Art” as it is being interpreted today.

Sometimes I address these issues directly, in a patently didactic manner. My ongoing “Legacy” series seeks to superimpose the thinkers, planners and officials back onto the urban consequences of their decisions. For instance, RobertMoses is painted in the Freedom Tunnels in New York, Corbusier and Mayor Gijs van Hall placed onto an abandoned Bijlmer slab outside of Amsterdam, and James Rouse is resituated back onto one of his first Urban Renewal projects in Baltimore.

Why do you prefer public murals to gallery work?

I see the gallery world as a way of eating, not as a vessel for meaningful exploration. When the artwork is reduced to a simple commodity, its power is determined

by the secondary market price that it commands.

With a mural or poster, the impact is so much more immediately palpable. Smiles, thumbs-up, fits-ofrage, oral histories, and confusion are a selection; a wide spectrum of emotions elicited by artworks in a more public sphere. I do not derive the same sort of excitement and satisfaction from a gallery show.

What do you think is the biggest weakness or challenge "street artists" are facing?

The biggest weakness of a street artist is the temptation to disseminate a recognizable brand rather than be playfully engaged with the setting. Personal style is simply a hindrance that must be undressed in order to more adequately respond to the outside world. • Camille Leon Angelo

thenewspaper.ca

9

Discovering Canada’s missing women through art How art spurs necessary discussion about missing women of colour

ILENE SOVA

W

hy is it that the OPP and North American Missing Persons databases—lists of unresolved cases of missing persons and unidentified remains that have been reported as far back as the 1960s—contain very few cases of missing women of colour?

For the same reason a UN rights official urged the Government of Canada in October to investigate the hundreds of cases of missing and murdered aboriginal women that have yet to be solved.

“It’s systemic racism,” said Ilene Sova, painter and creator of the Missing Women Project, a series of ongoing portraits depicting women that have gone missing in Canada between the years 1970 and 2000.

“I’ve read a lot of stories about people of colour going to the police when someone is missing and the police simply disregarding their report,” she said in an interview with the newspaper.

“White Missing Woman Syndrome” is a term believed to be coined in 2006 by Sheri Parks, a professor at the University of Maryland, which describes the trend of news stations paying special attention

(Top left) Painting of Nancy Liou MISSING, (top right) Painting of Janet Derbyshire MISSING, (bottom left) Painting of Marianne Minor MISSING, (bottom right) Painting of Amber Potts MISSING

to Caucasian women that have gone missing while casually disregarding reports of missing women of colour.

Since then, mainstream North American media outlets introspected, but the problem persists and the question remains: how do we bring attention to prejudice in missing persons databases, law enforcement and the media?

“More than ever before we are inundated with images,” Sova says.

“We’re moving into a visual culture where art can be an even stronger purveyor of social change.”

Sova’s series is one of several projects that is utilizing art to generate discussion about the ignored and undocumented missing women of colour in Canada.

The project depicts missing women from a variety of backgrounds, including women who are wealthy, elderly, endangered runaways, sex workers, young and mentally ill. Sova researched her subjects through the Canadian Newsstand Database and Pages From the Past archives to find out more about their personal histories and cases.

The diversity in her portraits is meant to show that violence against women has no prejudice and is directed against all classes, races and backgrounds. Her method of portraiture and her choice of oil paint are used to monumentalize the women through a medium that has historically been used to paint politicians, royalty, and the very wealthy, not the everyday person.

“It’s a metaphor, taking something that society doesn’t see as important and making it important,” said Sova.

Walking With Our Sisters is another project that is bringing attention to the unrecognized missing women of Canada. This installation is run by the WWOS collective and is currently on display at the First Nations University Gallery in Saskatchewan.

The installation is comprised of hundreds of moccasin vamps that have been donated by hundreds of individuals, each one representing one of the over 600 missing or murdered aboriginal women in Canada that the media has scarcely paid attention to.

The exhibition’s website states that there has been “inadequate inquiry into [aboriginal women’s] disappearances or murders paid by the media, the general public, politicians and even law enforcement. This is a travesty of justice.”

What art does well is create an imperative discussion about these otherwise invisible issues, said Sova.

“It’s a unique medium. When I displayed my paintings I had the case file for each woman next to them and people took the time to contemplate what I was trying to say,” she says.

While the Missing Women’s Project and Walking With Our Sisters gain further media attention and the discrimination against women of colour in missing persons databases, law enforcement and the media becomes more apparent, their artwork is unravelling a disturbing discovery about the Canadian agenda.

We are a society that verbally exhorts a belief in equality among race and class, but is doing a poor job at acting on this principle. • Lisa Monozlai

10

Media darling Pope Francis changes Church’s tone Can emancipatory language transform an entire institution?

P

ope Francis’ current tenure as pope may be short, but it has certainly caught the media spotlight.

Unlike his traditional, pomp and pious predecessor, Francis shocked the Catholic world with his simplistic living habits, approachable nature, and what many consider big steps in the direction of tolerance.

Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio took his name after St. Francis of Assisi, a great reformer of the Catholic Church.

Elected by the Papal Conclave in March, he is the first pope ever from a nonEuropean country.

Francis has become something of a papal poster boy in mainstream media.

Every few weeks a new story is bound to pop up about Francis’ behaviour. He casually took the subway in Buenos Aires, he’s driven around Rome in a Ford Focus rather than the Popemobile, he appears in a selfie with some tourists at the Vatican, and supposedly “makes a mean Paella.” These articles have undoubtedly made great publicity for the Vatican, an institution historically known for being out of touch with the billion Catholics it represents.

More shocking than the fact Pope Francis occasionally acts like an average Frank is the direction in which Francis is taking the Church. His predecessor Benedict XVI called for a “smaller,

that are open to interpretation. The pope may have tipped his really big hat to the LGBT community, but his words don’t necessarily reflect the views of over 200 000 Catholic priests around the world, and many high-ranking Catholics are quick to indicate that Francis’ remarks do not endorse marriage equality.

Nevertheless, this point may not even matter in the greater scheme of what media are calling the “Francis Effect.”

December 2013 Tourism to Rome and the Vatican is up, as are attendance rates in Catholic Churches. The media has already hailed him as a symbol of progress: whether or not Francis’ words are actually translating to Conservative high-ranking Catholics doesn’t seem to matter. • Dylan Hornby

but pure” brand of Catholicism, while Francis has done the opposite, wanting to bring lapsed and progressive Catholics back into the fold. He has expressed his opposition to the Church’s “obsession” with contraception, abortion and gay marriage.

Pressed by the media, Pope Francis declared that “if someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” He has also denounced the wealth associated with the Vatican by calling for “a poor Church for the poor.” He has criticized global economic powers for worshipping a “false idol called money” and the negative impacts of “unbridled capitalism.”

Many evangelical Christians have opposed these statements, including Sarah Palin who labelled The Pontiff as “a kind of liberal.” Do these progressive statements from head of the Catholic Church actually mean that it is attempting to modernize itself? To answer this question, it’s helpful to think of the Church as a corporation that thinks in terms of centuries, rather than years. It was only in 1992 for instance that the Church got around to making an apology to Galileo, just 350 years too late for him to accept it.

Let’s also not forget that while Francis may be making these rosy and liberalpleasing statements, they are only words

JULIA GREIG

Selfies: narcissistic or artistic expression?

A

hh, the beloved Selfie. It’s no secret that western cultures have long placed emphasis on the value of individualism, hence the self-centred act of self-photographing.

In an age where self representation is increasingly complex, a relatively new trend has emerged in constantly documenting the transforming self, intertwining new forms of technology with self-serving ideals.

Considered a new form of superficial self-expression, the selfie is actually a modern take on an old practice. This infamous and somewhat addicting medium of self-portraiture has much deeper roots than it’s given credit for.

Swiss developmental psychologist Jean Piaget developed the term “egocentrism” to refer to children’s tendencies to be overly invested and interested in the self.

As they grow into adolescence, this selfcentredness becomes more self-reflexive.

The self develops socially as teenagers share their personal growth and self discoveries through photographs and blurry iPhone pictures enhanced with Instagram filters.

Selfies are often regarded as controversial and scandalous because of their self-indulgent nature. In keeping with this idea of instant gratification, social media platforms have revolutionized the

act of selfie-taking­­ —now individuals expect an audience.

“We are inherently interested in other people and social media platforms are rife for social comparison,” said UofT psychology professor Ashley Waggoner Denton.

“We like to look at other people’s selfies to inform our own evaluations about ourselves and others. I feel like there have always been selfies: going back in time to when people had portraits painted of themselves, they were asking to have themselves purposefully represented in a specific way,” explained Waggoner Denton. “It’s easy to just dismiss Millennials as more narcissistic than other generations, but smartphones have made it easy to incorporate selfies as a part of everyday life.”

Social media is indeed influential in cultivating a sense of self-branding, which includes the art of self photography.

Specific smartphone apps that heartily encourage the snapping of selfies have enabled subcategories of self-promotion: there now selfies in the form of fitness girls, makeup queens, and Instagram style icons—all of them managing to redefine celebrity status. The selfie allows ordinary people to reclaim various social media as a way to experience a sense of self-importance. This is most evident in

the attention and credibility afforded to those social media icons, who are more relatable than an unreachable movie star.

Selfie culture can also be viewed as dark and self-exploitative, however.

Young people are facing increasingly intense forms of social media that permeate all aspects of social life from LinkedIn to Snapchat to Twitter, all requiring drastically different kinds of selfie etiquette. Self-deprecating double chin photos and explicit nudes are relegated to the Snapchat sphere, while more carefully planned and professional headshots appear on LinkedIn. And while the definition and performance of selfie-taking remains subjective and personal, it becomes worrisome when the act of photography limits one’s presence in real life.

Taking selfies at funerals is a recent phenomenon where teenagers and young adults take pictures of themselves before, during, or after the ceremony.

“It’s such a disgrace, selfies are meant to present yourself in a positive light and show the creative side of self representation . . . what do you put as a hashtag, RIP sadface?” said Nathalie Sehgal, a recent UofT graduate now specializing in social media and marketing.

“I can only image a negative reaction from your peers if you are taking selfies at

such a sad and serious occasion. It shows that some people care more about their physical appearance at a public event— being seen—than about a sad thing that has happened to another person. In that sense social media can be dehumanizing.”

The act of taking selfies, however, also has a more complex personal meaning.

Prospective student and 20–-something, Kaye Reid, views selfies as a means of glamorizing everyday moments while realizing her own self worth.

“I use selfies to see the person I am. I was constantly told I was worthless and ugly, and to have pictures where I can reflect on my jaded sense of self and still think I’m a beautiful, strong woman is amazing. And I want to share the woman I see in those pictures with others,” said Reid. “I post them and keep them so that on those bad days I can remind myself of who and what I am.”

Self representation is a liberating process of choice and control which extends far beyond an egotistical rhetoric of self-promotion. The selfie is ultimately self-indulgent, but it simultaneously reflects a nostalgic desire to capture as many of life’s small moments as possible.• Taylor Stinson

thenewspaper.ca

11

Destroying life: a brief history of polonium as a poison What could the fate of an ex-Russian spy teach us

O

n a chilly November evening in 2006, ex-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko met two former colleagues at the Pine Bar located in the lobby of London’s posh Millennium Hotel. After a long discussion and a round of drinks, he returned home to his wife after what was seemingly an ordinary night.

In just a few hours, however, the Russian dissident knew something was very, very, wrong—he began to feel nauseous, and was quickly seized by bouts of severe vomiting.

Fearing the worst, his wife called an ambulance and he was quickly hospitalized. Upon arrival, doctors attributed his symptoms to a bad case of food poisoning, but their assumptions were proven wrong as their patient deteriorated at an alarming rate.

In mere days Litvinenko began to lose his hair, and his immune system began to shut down. In a short while even more basic bodily functions began to fail, his food intake diminished and his breathing became managed by a respirator. In just a few weeks the man—described by some as a “fitness fanatic”—become a mere shadow of his former self, bedridden and skeletal, reduced to little more than pallid skin sagging over bone. Only three weeks after his visit to the Pine Bar, Alexander Litvinenko was dead.

The cause of Litvinenko’s mysterious death was not immediately discovered.

While it was known that the man had

many enemies, including Russia’s infamous intelligence service, his death did not match the symptoms of any known poisons.

It was only after extensive testing that the culprit was identified: Polonium 210—an extremely rare radioactive isotope, which can only be artificially created through the use of a nuclear reactor or a particle accelerator.

Due to its chemical properties, Po-

Hip hop dad RJD2 on being a 20-something Transcript from the TNHD (the newspaper in high definition) Episode 3 Interview

A I MARIN

lonium makes for a perfect assassin’s tool. Though radioactive, it can be safely carried in glass vials, it is colourless and odourless, and a lethal dose requires little more than a few milligrams that can be administered either in a liquid or as a powder. Due to the rarity of the isotope and the difficulty of producing, it is not often tested for by investigators.

In the Litvinenko case, the poison was most likely delivered through his

Ted Rawson: Do you have any advice for the UofT students out there who are struggling to do anything with their lives?

RJD2: This might sound cold, but I'd say that to some degree you're at the crappiest part of life right now. So hang in there and stick it out. I really do feel like your late teens, early-20s is one of the most difficult parts of life. I feel that it only gets better; it only gets easier; it only gets more sensical. It'll be easier to get a job; it'll be easier to understand yourself and why you do things and your motivation behind things. So in many ways I’d say if it sucks, I understand; if you're having a hard time getting stuff done, I understand; just don't stop trying.

TR: That’s very encouraging to hear because you spend your younger life being told “Ohhhh 17, 18, early-20s: That’s the best time of your life!” At 15, I was a pretty confident young guy and things just started getting worse and worse and I feel like they’re still kinda getting worse but I do believe they will get better, that there's a turnaround coming soon.

drink—his tea spiked surreptitiously at some point during the evening. For a long time, this was the only recorded assassination by Polonium, but as of November of this year, it seems that the former spy was not the only victim.

A recent report points to the strong possibility that the late Palestinian resistance leader Yasser Arafat, may have also been a victim of this deadly poison. Released by the University of Legal Medicine in Lausanne, France, it points to Polonium as the likely culprit in his death, with scientists “confident up to an 83 per cent level” that the late Palestinian leader was poisoned by it.

Three teams of Swiss, French, and Russian scientists analyzed his bones and the soil surrounding his remains— with the Swiss investigation finding an amount that was 18 to 36 times higher than normal Polonium levels. More conclusive findings may very well be released in coming years, as the French government has opened a criminal case on the matter.

Regardless of the findings of the investigation, the only certainty is that the story of Polonium, the most infamous poison of the early 21st century, will continue. • Petr Liakhov

A study has since been published refuting the claims in the second-to-last parapgraph of this article. The issue, however, remains contested.

RJD2: When i was growing up it was the same thing: people would always say you're young, you're in the prime of your life.

I don’t believe that all the adults that told me that believed it.

I think that this was the face they thought you were supposed to put on when talking to a young adult.

TR: And they look back at this shameful dark disgusting period of their life and they don’t want to admit what it was so they say, “Nah, it was a blast!” They remember a couple good memories— RJD2: Maybe to some degree they regret aspects of what they did later in their life, so their retrospective projection is to pretend like everything was hunky dory when they were young.

TR: Reconstruct your past by lying to your children. I think it’s a good approach; I may take it myself. •

December 2013

12

Combating mental exhaustion How to reduce, cope with, and manage stress levels

U

niversity can be—and undeniably is—extremely competitive. It demands the highest quality of human functionality—students are expected not only to compete for spectacular grades with their peers and classmates, but establish themselves socially and politically within the university community.

This survival-of-the-fittest expectation in the current education system originates from the economy: the better one does in school, the better the job one gets; the better the job one gets, the more money one makes; the more money one makes, the better the standard of living. Students are given this message from a very early age: one must be the absolute best at everything.

This sort of extreme competition becomes unhealthy and manifests itself in the form of stress, as succeeding determines not only self-worth, but also the method of measuring the ability to sustain oneself.

Fortunately enough, the pressing predicament is not without appropriate remedy. Not all stress is bad, it is only when stress is in excess that we react in ways that are often harmful or destructive. Before coming up with a comprehensive plan of action, it is important to be able to identify the source(s) of stress. Once that is done, reflect upon how it is currently dealt with.

Be critical of the choices made in regards to relaxation, and whether or not they are effective.

Unhealthy ways of dealing with stress include but are not limited to: overeating, under-eating, drinking, smoking, excessive consumption of TV, prolonged selfisolation, sleeping too much, using drugs or pills to unwind, procrastinating, having outbursts of negative emotion, busying oneself to avoid facing problems, etc. If current methods of coping with stress are not contributing to greater emotional and physical health, it is time for change; it’s time to to adapt to new practices and to pursue healthier options.

There are plenty of ways to healthily manage anxiety and keep stress levels low. Other than activities and practices that can be incorporated into daily life to stay healthy, UofT offers a range of programs and workshops to promote mental well-being. Here is a list of things to prevent getting overwhelmed with pressure: 1. Make to-do lists.

Organize your time, to ensure the completion of all necessary tasks. Do not forget to make time for relaxation, however. Dedicate time in which you do something you enjoy to nurture a healthier you.

2. Start writing in a journal. Studies have shown that writing about negative aspects of your day tends to dilute the impact it has on you, freeing you of unnecessary stress.

3. Spend time in nature.

Be it for a walk, to garden, to play a sport; the Great Outdoors are known to be able to induce mental serenity and calm.

4. Pamper yourself.

Take a long bath, light scented candles, or get a massage.

5. Indulge.

Engage in some stimulating conversation with people you trust and care about.

6. Exercise.

Sweat out your frustrations. It not only improves your cardio, but also produces hormones in your body that motivate you to cope with stress and anxiety in a rational manner.

These stress management strategies involve physical exertion, relaxation, laughter, connection or genuine enjoyment. They can easily be incorporated within busy schedules and routines. For something that is a little more conducive to building new relationships within the UofT community, there are a number of Health and Wellness programs offered by the University, as well as the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education.

For example, throughout November and the first half of December, there are Coping Workshops being offered on Tuesdays and Fridays by UofT Health and Wellness in the Group Room B on the Mezzanine Level in the Koffler Student Centre at 214 College Street. They deal with lifestyle, behavior, emotions and cognition to improve methods of dealing with stress and anxiety. Similarly, the UofT Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education offers drop-in daily fitness classes for students to take advantage of in order to improve their health.

Details and schedules for all on-campus activities can be found online.

For Health and Wellness: http://healthandwellness. utoronto.ca/ For UofT Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education Drop-In Programs: http://physical.utoronto. ca/FitnessAndRecreation/Drop_In_Programs.aspx Adopting healthier alternatives to less-effective, unhealthier options can be difficult and may often seem futile or time-consuming. Given the impacts it can have on mental and physical health, it is most definitely necessary. There are opportunities to improve within the community, and they are more than welcoming to all those seeking to grow. • Eman Cheema

thenewspaper.ca

13

No gravy flowing for youth facing homelessness

S

tephen Gaetz believes he knows your perspective on homeless youth: “The public likes to think they are bratty runaways who didn’t like to do the dishes,” said Gaetz, an Associate Professor at York University and the Director of Homelessness Hub, an online research centre.

“But in reality,” Gaetz argued, “if you lived on the street for a week and had to worry about getting your head kicked in and wearing the same pair of socks, you would probably head straight home if you could. We know those who remain on the streets face very difficult, very complicated, and often abusive situations in their homes.”

On any given night in Toronto, approximately 2000 youths under the age of 24 sleep on the streets. Among young people, there is also a growing population of “invisible homeless”— youths who sleep on the couches of friends, in abandoned buildings, or who are otherwise unacceptably housed.

“Female, male, and trans* youth are are often woven into arrangements with predatory adults where that individual gets a place to live but has to subject themselves to whatever the other person wants in exchange,” argued Emily Paradis, a Senior Research Associate at the University of Toronto.

The vulnerability of homeless youth is often reflected in the state of their mental health. Homeless youth are 40 times more likely to commit suicide or die of a drug overdose than a housed youth.

Mayor Ford has espoused his opinion about people facing homelessness with clarity.

“I had my first encounter with Rob Ford long before he was the mayor of Toronto,” Paradis explained, “City Council was voting to ban a motion on people sleeping in Nathan Phillips Square… [After the vote ruled in favour of banning sleeping in the square], Rob Ford got up, came over to the barrier and yelled—to all these people who had come to participate in civic proceedings, many of whom would be sleeping on the streets that night—‘you should all just get a job!’”

“To have a mayor who openly exposes and promotes those views, it makes it more acceptable in general for people to be open about those kind of views; it teaches people to regard homeless people in a deeply disrespectful way,” elaborated Paradis.

Serena Nudel, a Toronto-based Youth Worker and Youth Access and Equity Panelist explained that youths in Toronto face specific barriers to education and integration into the economy for a number of reasons: “many families [in Toronto] are newcomers, and once they arrive, they discover our minimum wage is too low.”

“Newcomers are often excluded from healthcare and forced to pay out of pocket, they also face discrimination, and are limited if they lack the ability to speak English.” Moreover, argued Nudel, racialized youths in Toronto are largely

pocketed into certain neighborhoods and “when these youths leave their neighborhoods, they feel stigmatized, causing youths to remain where their opportunities may be limited.”

Paradis: “Tenants ask, ‘where is the government in all of this?’”

Prior to 1995, Canada had a National Housing Strategy which succeeded in providing housing to over one million citizens. The strategy was effectively dismantled in entirety in 1996 by the Paul Martin government. This coincided with large cuts made by the provincial Mike Harris government to welfare programs.

Almost 20 years on, Paradis describes welfare in Ontario as “insufficient funds, which make it virtually impossible to survive and keep body and mind intact.”

In addition to a lack of available social housing, overcrowding is a constant concern in rental highrises and units known as rooming houses. On the annual National Housing Day rally on November 22, Patricia Moore explained the issues surrounding housing in her Thorncliffe Park neighbourhood: “there are 10-12 people living in a one bedroom apartment and the rent in the community for a one bedroom apartment is $1100 plus hydro.”

The issue is not confined to Patricia’s neighborhood: for over a year, the Toronto Municipal Licensing and Standards department has been actively shutting down overcrowded student rooming houses in the area surrounding the University of Toronto Scarborough

campus. UTSC spokesperson Don Campbell reported on the university’s solution to overcrowding in Inside Toronto: “students of the fast-growing campus are being educated on how to look for off-campus housing, their rights as tenants, and the legal responsibilities of landlords.”

Despite these measures, the fundamental issue for students remains.

After tuition is paid—a sum three times what it was 20 years ago—OSAP and a part-time job often cannot cover eight or more months of living expenses. Within these circumstances, there are students who cannot sustain the cost of housing.

“There are certainly homeless youth who go to university,” asserted Gaetz.

“These are students who have to figure out which buildings are open all night in order to have a place to sleep. The universities just aren’t keeping tabs on the numbers of these students. … It remains [a] largely invisible [issue].”

The time is ripe to connect the movements gaining momentum in Toronto. By combining the student movement with the affordable housing movement—under the lens of antipoverty and anti-oppression—young people can jointly bring their issues to bear. This collaborative action is critical as the margin of difference between university students, young people struggling with mental health issues, and youth facing homelessness has become tenuously slim. • Marsha Mcleod

Distressed denim: a history

D

enim has come a long way since its humble 19th century beginnings. The first blue jean was designed in the late 1870s by German immigrant Leob Strauss, who later changed his first name to Levi.

Using twilled cotton cloth, Strauss sought to design a strong pant tailored for the working class man.

The trend of distressed denim emerged from the cultural punk movement in the 1970s.

Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols manifested the British punk ideology, which was fighting against the status quo and Margaret Thatcher’s rigid conservative government.

Early punks tore apart consumer goods as an expression of their anger towards society. Denim became a key target of this politically fuelled deconstruction, with both men and women donning torn pants and jackets, accessorized with safety pins and slogans.

In North America, the beginnings of distressed denim as a fashion statement can be seen in Iggy Pop’s get-up during the 1970s. Iggy Pop once explained in an interview with Vice: “[...] as I began doing more gigs, these flimsy pants I wore would start to rip, and I left the rips in. I thought it looked right. It was

the thing at the time for people like PJ Proby or Jackie Wilson, or even James Brown, to leave loose basting instead of proper stitching in the crotch of the pants. Before the end of the show they’d rip onstage, and that was part of the gig.

But I was the first one to just come out with the rips, as far as I know.”

Despite its subculture beginnings, the trend became very popular in the 90s; from Kurt Cobain to pre-millennial hip hop. The wide acceptance of the look muted past political connotations, making worn denim appealing to many different types of people.

Distressed denim has since been coopted by capitalist clothing companies that make a ton of money off of generic jeans with precise tears and abrasions.

Who would have thought Iggy Pop’s sartorial sensibilities would eventually show up at Abercrombie & Fitch.

And nowadays, the demand for store bought already-worn looking jeans, has lead to mega-clothing companies to employ dangerous techniques within their overseas factories in order to achieve the illusion of wear and tear.

Sand blasting is one of the most common techniques used and is extremely dangerous when inhaled, causing Silicosis. Employees in countries

such as Bangladesh, where many of the world’s most popular denim is manufactured, experience deteriorating health and trouble breathing stemming from the practice of sand blasting.

Levis and H&M banned this process within their own manufacturers, but the nature of sub-contracted factories means that it is difficult to regulate. There are other techniques that would achieve the same results, such as distressing the jeans by hand or using lasers.

The lack of transparency, however, within the garment industry means that most consumers have no idea which technique was used the jeans they just bought, let alone precisely where they came from.

While distressed denim is no longer so much of a radical political statement, it still holds great sway in the wardrobes of many. In fact, with a resurgence of 90s grunge in recent fashion trends, distressed denim is as popular as ever.

May it be a lesson learned, however, that the best way to achieve the look is through years of loving wear, when above the knee rips and fraying hemlines occur naturally. • Jane Alice Keachie

GRANT OYSTON

Try a Canadian tuxedo on for size this holiday season.

December 2013

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XXX-mas: places to frolic in Toronto

The Last Subway of the Night

Underground is kind of outdoors, right? If you’re lucky enough to catch an empty subway at the end of the night you shouldn’t pass up this opportunity.

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oronto was recently voted the most youthful city in the world, beating out cities like Berlin, New York, and Paris. After spending a day downtown it’s easy to understand why. The city of Toronto is bursting with life. Everywhere you look someone is biking down the street, heading to a party, or... hooking up? If you’re a youthful Torontonian looking for a place to bring your special someone this holiday season check out our picks for the top 10 places to, ahem, frolic in the city!

Paulina Saliba

The Waterfront Amphitheater

Located next to the boat docks on the Toronto Waterfront, nothing beats spending an evening cuddling next to the sparking water and listening to wave crash against the boats. It may not be the east coast, but it’s home.

The Rock in Yorkville

Hidden behind all the excitement of Bloor St is a dimly lit peaceful Yorkville attraction. During the day hundreds of people make their way past this rock without giving a second thought, but as soon as the sun sets this rock is one of Toronto’s most romantic hot spots.

The

Necropolis in Cabbagetown

If graveyard’s don’t turn you on, I don’t know what will. The tombstones make for a great hiding place, and the beautiful trees and dimly lit streetlights make for the perfect ambiance. If complete privacy is something you’re after this is perfect! As long as you forget about the amount of dead bodies below the ground... I’m sure they can’t hear you.

ACROSS 4. Nerve Destroying Element 5. Bacteria Eradicator 7. Forestry Practice 14. Myers' Movie Character 15. Machine that can Separate Liquids of Different Densities 18. Thermonuclear Weapon 19. Heart of Darkness Character 20. Japanese City Destroyed

By Atomic Bomb 22. German "Destruktion" Philosopher 23. U2 Album 24. Author of "Silent Spring" 29. Method of Waste Disposal 30. E.g. Flood, Tornado, Tsunami 32. CDC 33. State where Capital Punishment is Legal 34. Paul Bowles Novel 36. Marxist Economics Term 38. Erase 39. Illegal Artistry 40. Self-Destructive Mayor 42. Heat Producing Chemical Reaction 44. Antonym for Implode 45. Accident 46 Greek God of Hell

The Toronto Reference Library

We’ve all had this fantasy, don’t lie. Hiding behind a stack of books, the Oxford English Dictionary resting at your fingertips—nothing screams sexy like a study break. Just as long as the librarian doesn’t “shh” you.

The Eaton Centre

WHAT DID SHE JUST SAY?! Yup, ladies and gents, the mall. This season while everyone is rushing to buy their gifts why don’t you try to sneak away into a change room or closet. I hear a certain book/knick-knack store has poor security.

A Rooftop

Located on the north-west corner of Ossington and Dupont is a medium sized building consisting of the most hip lofts in the Wes End. Climb to the roof of this complex and the view will not be a disappointment. If the West End isn’t your cup of tea, any roof will suffice. Just make sure to bring an extra sweater and maybe some hot chocolate.

Trinity Bellwoods Park

Unlike most parks in Toronto, Trinity Bellwoods is dimly lit, and utterly surrounded by trees. Pull out a blanket, take out a joint, and just relax. Heck, maybe drop by the Lakeview Restaurant afterwards for a midnight snack.

DOWN 1. Star Wars Saga Novel 2. AIDS 3. 2012 North Eastern Hurricane 6. Shakespearean Tragedy 8. "Axis of Evil" Speech Writer 9. Final Book of the New T estament 10. Naval Board Game 11. Type of War Ship 12. Town of Quebec Rail Disaster 13. Explosion of an Evil Spirit 16. Russian Nuclear Meltdown Site 17. Antonym of Create 21. Pompeii Destroyer 25. 2011 Apocalyptic Movie 26. Antagonist of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 27. Nuclear weapon 28. Organism that has a Host 31. Miley Cyrus Hit 35. Monterey Pop Festival Guitar Arsonist 37 Boxing Acronym 41. 1962 American President 43. Guard of the Gates of the Underworld

thenewspaper.ca

7-Eleven Go-Go Taquitos review

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A conversation on taquitos, a hearty snack—sometimes, a meal—available 24-7 at College and Spadina (and other locations) Chipotle 2/10

Monterey Jack and Chicken 3/10

Ted Rawson: Definitely an authentic initial taste of chipotle. The essence of chipotle hits you right away. The same kind of creamy fucking stinksauce, but this time with the essence of chipotle. It’s the same texture, but now it’s a vessel for chipotle.

TR: It reminds me of, like, a disturbing memory of school dinner meals when I was really young.

I don’t know what that flavour is but it reminds me of something. Like warm cream. I wish it could still be moist, but without the warm cream.

Grant Oyston: It’s like they took the last one and just dumped a shitload of chipotle powder on it.

What even is chipotle? Is that a real thing?

YD: Which one is this?

First it’s, like, slightly spicy, and then you get all the creaminess; it’s pretty gross. And then, like, you recognize the chicken chunks, and then it’s, like, actually I want some more. I want to keep eating. The taste is second to the texture, which is special to taquitos. Now I feel kinda sick.

Yukon Damov: I think I just really like the goo.

TR: That’s fucked.

YD: I’m enjoying it more the longer I eat it. It’s not that rich. There’s not much subtlety to it though.

GRANT OYSTON

GO: I wasn’t expecting so much dairy. I almost had milk with this and I’m glad I didn’t. It’s like they designed this to wreck your digestive system as effectively as possible.

The spice here is nicely complimented by my Tangy Original Sunny D.

Beef 4/10 TR: That’s by far my favourite. It’s exactly what I was talking about.

Still moist, no cream. No cream’s coming through.

YD: Really? At the end there is.

TR: No, look! It’s all creamy but there’s no distinct layer of cream.

GO: This tastes like “meat,” but not a specific meat. I’m grateful for the relative lack of cheese here, though.

TR: Imagine people eating this for dinner.

Someone being like, oh, it’s 6pm, guess I’ll go get a couple taquitos. People must. Hopefully mostly students, not like middleaged folks.

Jalapeno 0/10

Buffalo 1/10

GO: I don’t even want to break it open. I feel like a hundred tiny winged beetles will fly out.

(Breaks it open.) What the fuck is this? This is worse.

GO: A certain numbness is setting in now. My body is telling me it hates me. Nothing in this taquito tastes like any real food I have ever eaten.

YD: Is that cream cheese?

TR: It’s not quite as bad as I thought it would be.

YD: Really? It’s worse! It’s sticking to the top of my mouth! And my teeth!

Eww. TR: Kinda like the jalapeño flavour, the cream cheese texture isn’t as liquidy as I thought it would be but still very gross. But it’s a textural problem, not a flavour problem.

YD: These are supposed to be “fresh.” What does “fresh” mean?

YD: The texture is repulsive.

TR: It’s like a big shitty mix of the first three. It tastes like shitty chicken wings. The chicken pieces seem bigger. You can make out the texture of gelatinous tofu cubes.

YD: That one’s the grossest so far. It’s just like… I don’t want any more. It’s like, why have so many different kinds of taquitos?

GO: I think because it implies legitimacy, like at some point a chef in a white hat was like, hey, let’s make some flavours.

Instead of 7/11 just locating a river of toxic waste and wrapping it in a deep-fried shell.

TR: There must be 0 legal requirement to describe your food as fresh.

Despite cuts and critics, Bob carries on 141 years-old Vic sketch comedy show continues

Two of the Bob’s cast members hover around a couch during a skit. Funny stuff!

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or the past 141 years, a group of student writers and comedians have come together at Victoria College to put on The Bob Comedy Revue, the oldest student comedy show in Canada, whose alumni include Lester B Pearson, EJ Pratt, Norman Jewison, and Margaret Atwood.

The Bob was founded in 1872, at a party hosted by Victoria College caretaker

Robert Beare, who was “apparently just the coolest guy,” according to one of this year’s directors, Britta Johnson. His annual parties were known as “The Bob,” and were occasions to mock the school, professors, and other students.

After Beare’s retirement, The Bob continued on as a stage show in the form of a musical revue.

Over the years The Bob has radically

changed format. In the 1970s, it came to include more sketches than songs. In addition, in the last few decades there has been less humour revolving around Victoria and more scenes about general life situations.

As with many Victoria University Student Administrative Council (VUSAC) clubs, the budget of The Bob has shrank in the last few years, down to roughly $200 in 2013. This slash meant that for the first time in many years, the members of The Bob were unable to have their writer’s retreat at the Hart House Farm and instead had to use a private residence in North York.

Not only financial problems plagued this year’s production. Three days before opening night, Vic’s administration requested changes to one of the show’s planned sketches due to the perception that it was overtly offensive. It involved a man murdering a woman.

“Every event goes through a risk assessment process to make sure it is accessible and to make sure it isn’t offensive,” said VUSAC president Jelena Savic. “The Bob is tricky because humour really relies on things that can potentially

be construed as offensive.”

The Bob’s director, producers, and administration officials negotiated a compromise the day before the show opened. The directors made some minor alterations to lines in the sketch, at which point the administration gave the show the green light.

Despite this year’s complications, perhaps The Bob can be considered a success for its sheer existence. Its 15 student actors from across UofT were joined by comedian Mark Little from the viral video series “Powerthirst” and the CBC show Mr. D. It is The Bob’s rich history that keeps it together. Director Kieron Higgs commented on the history of The Bob: “Its legacy has astounded me lately: seeing ‘Established 19XX’ on product labels brings into scope the age of The Bob. Compared to numerous beer breweries, newspapers, you name it, being able to experience a five-year chunk of that time makes me feel lucky and honoured to have taken part in such a long-standing tradition.” • Conner O’Grady

16

10 presents that don’t require standing in line

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The “you know you want to” present

2

Start a travel savings jar

December 2013

Everyone knows that one thing their best friend wants to do but is generally too scared/apprehensive/awkward to go at alone. Arrange for the two of you to do said activity together.

Donating blood, getting an armpit wax, and sex toy shopping all fit nicely in this category.

For the traveler—particularly those who have difficulty with the actual saving for travel bit —create a savings jar for them.

To make this glorified piggybank, use an empty 2L wine bottle; the bottleneck is particularly effective at preventing hungry paws from retrieving money once deposited.

Decorate the bottle with photos and glitter and add some base cash to get your traveler started.

When buying friends and family the perfect

3

Make an unusually nice card

Here are ten ways to savour connections, make new bonds, and share some laughter without purchasing a mountain of physical things— courtesy of your off-kilter, multi-holiday, pro-love, independent paper.

4

Get off the TTC grid

5

Get wordy

present becomes paramount, the winter holidays can become tiresome. Consider casting off the necessity of acquiring gift receipts and embrace the liberated beauty of “not really doing the holidays.”

Marsha McLeod

On Valentine’s Day in grade five, each student in my class wrote a compliment about every other student in the class and our teacher anonymously compiled them. I still enjoy reading some of the compliments on my list. This holiday season, get crafty by making cards that grudgingly pay your friends a compliment or two.

Know how to drive in a snowstorm and use an emergency brake? Rent a car, so that you and your giftee can benefit from getting out of the icy wind tunnel that is Toronto. Spend your gift day driving northward to Collingwood or Grey Bruce County, and walk the snowy trails or go skiing—crosscountry offers limited possibilities for injury.

A) Give a year-long library subscription to your own personal collection of books by lending out your favourite reads—complete with underlining, spoilers, and sticky notes—on a monthly basis.

B) Gift a friend their own literature for keeps. There is a huge selection of Canadian and international magazines which provide a great monthly read at a relatively low cost.

The availability of thematic media allows you to give the woodworking, nature, architecture, politics, and/or fashion lover a subscription that easily suits their interests.

GRANT OYSTON

6

Gift the belongings your friends permanently “borrow”

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Try something new­and make it a present

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Give coupons

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Curate photo albums (circa 2007)

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Prior to Christmas last year, a friend had been in possession of two items of mine for over a year: a favourite purple sports bra and matching tank top. I abruptly demanded said items back, wrapped them up, and re-gifted them to her for Christmas. She was overjoyed that I had validated her practice of extended borrowing.

Trying something you’ve never done before makes you seem terribly thoughtful, even if the project doesn’t turn out so well. Never made alcohol before? Try brewing beer and give someone your inaugural batch. Want to start making preserves? Buy a load of fruit at the Lucky Moose and make a friend a few pots of jam.

Rather than 40 cent reduction on bulk poultry, make your coupons something desirable. Make a coupon for something your gift-recipient simply hates to do. If you aren’t interested in doing your friends’ dirty work, consider gifting coupons which commit you to teaching a friend or family member a skill they have always wanted to learn from you. In other words, teach your parents to cut and paste, send e-mails, and use Skype.

Stalk a friend’s Facebook photos ad nauseum, select their most embarrassing photos, and print them at Shoppers. Write drunken stories in the margins for an extra thoughtful touch.

Sexual favours

The gift that keeps on giving.