Volume 47 Issue 2

The Independent Student Newspaper of the University of Toronto Mississauga since 1974

Issue 002 Volume 47

September 14 2020

themedium.ca

GOVERNING COUNCIL

REOPENING SCHOOLS

THEATRE ERINDALE

The University of Toronto Governing Council held its first meeting of the academic year online on September 9. The most pressing item on the agenda was regarding the measures taken by the university to combat COVID-19.

After months of establishing physical distancing measures, wearing mandatory face masks, and the overall “COVID panic” in Ontario, classes are resuming not only for post-secondary students but elementary and secondary school students as well. >> continued on page 6

A night of theatre used to mean gathering at Theatre Erindale and filling the room with laughter and tears. But with Covid-19 restrictions, the new theatre experience means live streaming on Zoom with a bag of microwaved popcorn.

>> continued on page 4

>> continued on page 10

Ford administration denies then acknowledges systemic racism in Canada Isik Vera Senel News Editor

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ince May, issues surrounding institutionalized racism and discrimination by law enforcement officials have been the main topic of discussion alongside the COVID-19 pandemic. While local governments, such as the Peel regional council joined by the Peel police services board, have taken some action to combat racial inequality, the same cannot be said for Toronto and the provincial government.

>> continued on page 2

How An ‘80s Video Game Inspired a Cure for Cancer Duaa Nasir Contributor

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hen we think of common treatments for cancer, strong medicine and radiation are typically at the top of the list. Muhammad Murtaza Hassan, a Ph.D. student in the Gunning Lab at UTM, thinks differently. In Hassan’s research, he uses the process of fitting together geometric shapes to selectively inhibit the action of HDAC8, a protein associated with cancer. His novel and insurgent method of analyzing this protein caused him to make a discovery that could revolutionize cancer treatments. In June, Hassan’s study was published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry in the American Chemical Society (ACS). >> continued on page 7

I’m thinking of ending things Chris Berberian Arts Editor

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e drift through an empty house, when a voice whispers: “I’m thinking of ending things.”

It’s a vague phrase, with many implications, none of which are, on the surface, good. We soon realize this voice belongs to our protagonist Lucy, who twirls and smiles under the faintly falling snow. There’s an older man in a nearby upstairs window, peeking through the blinds, repeating meaningless words under his breath. He’s watching her. >> continued on page 10

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NEWS

Isik Vera Senel News Editor

>> continued from page 1 Ontario Premier Doug Ford was asked about institutionalized racism within the government of Ontario at the daily media briefing on June 2.

“I don’t have time to watch the news,” said Ford in response to the increasing concerns surrounding institutionalized discrimination in North America. Public concern intensified following the death of 46-year-old George Floyd in the United States who was killed by a Minnesota police officer while being arrested on May 25.

“They have their issues in the U.S., and they have to fix their issues, but it’s like night and day compared to Canada and the U.S.,” continued Ford. “Good luck to them, and hopefully they can straighten out their problems.”

Two days after Floyd’s death, Toronto resident Regis Korchinski-Paquet died under suspicious circumstances with police present at the scene. However, the Premier was confident that these concerns weren’t valid for Ontario and Canada.

“Thank god we’re different than the United States, and we don’t have the systemic, deep roots they have had for years,” added Ford. “In Canada, for the most part, we get along.”

Ford’s statements were immediately met with backlash across social media. They were considered tactless if not blatantly ignorant toward the struggles faced by minorities in Canada and especially the mistreatment of Indigenous peoples.

The following day, Premier Ford spoke at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and contradicted his previous statement on the topic, going on to state that “of course there’s systemic racism in Ontario.”

“There is systemic racism across this country. I know it exists,” he continued. “What I don’t know is the hardships faced by those communities. I don’t have those lived experiences, and I can empathize with them, but again a lot of us have never lived that.”

Ford concluded his amended statement by stating, “not only just in the Black community, a lot of minority communities throughout the history of Ontario and Canada have faced racism, and I won’t stand for it.”

Despite renewing his stance on the presence of institutionalized racism in Ontario, many critics looked further into the actions of government officials, especially those appointed by the Ford legislation.

Since the lockdown of the province back in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, gun violence has significantly increased across Ontario. Mississauga alone had 10 separate major cases involving shootings in the past four months.

These tragedies were devastating to the communities in

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Editor | Isik Vera Senel news@themedium.ca

Doug Ford denies then acknowledges systemic racism in Canada UTM professors, alongside BLM Toronto founder, criticize the Ford government for their lack of action and sympathy.

FordNation/Facebook. Ford received backlash for his dismissal of systemic racism in Canada.

volved; however, Jamil Jivani, the Ford government’s advocate for community opportunities, blamed “young gangsters” for the increased violence rather than help the people heal and rebuild.

“During COVID, a lot of young gangsters were talking trash on Instagram and YouTube, making videos about rivals, starting e-drama,” stated Jivani. “Now, the conflicts are boiling over [and people] are dying.”

Jivani went on to call Canadians advocating for legislative change and the restriction of law enforcement’s funds and powers as being “out of touch.”

Akwasi Owusu-Bempah and Julius Haag, both professors of sociology at the University of Toronto Mississauga, responded to Jivani’s statement. While Owusu-Bempah emphasized the oxymoron of Jivani’s position as a community and anti-racism advocate, Haag addressed the many problematic points Jivani made, going on to call it outright shameful.

“There’s no clear evidence that conflicts on social media are a widespread vector for real-world violence,” said Haag. “Also, describing marginalized and criminalized young people as ‘young gangsters’ is both callous and dangerous.”

Despite the contradictory and frequently apathetic comments made by government officials in Toronto and Ontario, many people continue to fight for racial equality and law enforcement reform.

Sandy Hudson, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto, stated on June 5 that she had been pleasantly surprised with the recent popularity of the BLM movement as well as the increased attention on the systematic racism within law enforcement and other government institutions.

“For people to put themselves out there like that means that they’re taking this problem of anti-black policing very seriously and really want some sort of concrete change,” said Hudson in an interview with TVOntario.

Owusu-Bempah, who was also a part of the joint interview, emphasized the significance of recent rallies and protests as by participating, “people [put] their lives on the line not only for the risk of violence at the hands of the police but also contracting a virus that can be deadly.”

The diversity of the Toronto residents taking part in the protests and rallies for change was unexpected for Kike OjoThompson, the founder and principal consultant of the KOJO Institute. This consultancy firm aims to help companies and organizations face racial discrimination related challenges through coaching programs and conferences.

The amount of people advocating for racial equality and law enforcement reform have increased significantly since May 25 and whether government officials have time to watch the news or not, they need to address public concerns sooner rather than later.

As stated by Ojo-Thompson, “this is not Black peoples’ problem to fix, it’s bigger than that.”

First week of online learning results Segen Assefa Contributor

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ith the first week of school behind us, students and faculty alike have begun a new semester.

However, this Fall semester will be conducted entirely online, as was mandated by the U of T administration over the summer. Zoom University, a phrase coined on Twitter to describe the shift to online education, will be quite a change from the conventional post-secondary school experience.

Even though the internet has improved convenience

and accessibility, online schooling may not be the most logical answer for many post-secondary students in Canada. Just this month, about one in every 10 students has reported that some or all of their courses are unsuitable for online delivery, with this number being slightly higher for students enrolled in trades programs.

Moreover, online schooling does not take into account factors such as students with poor internet connectivity, those residing in non-conducive learning environments or living across multiple time zones. Not to mention, the national lockdown and COVID-19 have affected students worldwide, causing many to work extra hours at work, care for family members who have been affected, >> ONLINE continued on page 3

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UTMSU in-person frosh cancelled due to social distancing requirements

Julia Healy/The Medium. The annual event catered to first years was cancelled by UTM because of safety reasons.

Razia Saleh Contributor

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he University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union announced on August 27 that in-person Frosh week, COSMOS’20, which had been scheduled to take place from September 6 to September 11, was cancelled.

This announcement was regarded as a disappointment by first-year students planning on attending the program.

The cancellation statement released by the UTMSU stated that “The University of Toronto has prohibited the UTMSU from using campus facilities to hold in-person orientation programming.”

Having Frosh week online has been difficult for incoming students to interact with their peers as the online platform has put a pause on the social aspect of the events since students are limited in their interaction with others.

However, the UTMSU has expressed that they will “continue to explore ways to engage students in the coming weeks.” Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students who planned on attending the hybrid program will not have other continued online Frosh events after September 5, and “reimbursements will be administered to those who purchased hybrid tickets” with an email being sent out later explaining the process.

The Medium talked to the president of the UTMSU, Mitra Yakubi, about the outcomes and the challenges of cancelling in-person orientation.

“Considering that no concerns about our programming were raised by the university throughout our discussions since March, we were extremely disheartened when told we were prohibited from using the university’s fa-

cilities,” stated Yakubi. “Regardless, we planned for a hybrid orientation with both online and in-person programming and made necessary precautions to ensure our programming and the UTMSU space was safe and accessible for everyone.”

There are benefits to introducing events through different platforms and taking a new approach without risking people’s health. Having an online platform has been challenging yet eye-opening. Interactions through social media will play a more significant role in this year’s communication systems and students’ social interactions.

“We are investigating opportunities for in-person programming for the second semester; however, nothing is set in stone yet,” Yakubi continued.

“Since March, the UTMSU worked diligently to adapt its programming to COVID-19 safety protocols. We worked closely with various U of T departments and representatives to assess and discuss our planned events, precautions, and procedures to ensure safety amongst participants.”

Moreover, the university administration hadn’t raised any concerns regarding the union’s planning of Frosh events during their discussions following the campus’ closure in March.

“The UTMSU’s Health and Safety Committee [had] assessed the risks associated with in-person programming and created a plan to ensure proper physical distancing, smaller orientation groups, as well as enhanced sanitization and safety protocols,” said Yakubi.

Regardless of Frosh’s in-person events being cancelled, students are finding new ways to engage with the university experience through social media and other online platforms. The UTMSU has acknowledged students’ concerns and “will continue to offer a variety of cost-saving services, events, and campaigns in accordance with health and safety protocols.”

UTMSU: Looking Forward Sheryl Gurajada Contributor

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ollowing the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union elections at the end of the winter term in March, the team in charge of operating the union for the 2020-2021 academic year was voted in. The newly appointed members in their executive roles are President Mitra Yakubi, VP Equity Noha Farawi, VP External Lily Pan, VP Internal Fahad Dayala, and VP University Affairs Anushka Sokhi.

The Medium spoke with President Mitra Yakubi, as well as VP University Affairs Anushka Sokhi over email, regarding the impacts of COVID-19 on the UTMSU’s plans and the initiatives currently available to students in response to the physically distancing restrictions.

With campus closures, the UTMSU has been forced to move their events to a virtual platform,

with Frosh, International Orientation, and SaugaFest all having taken place this past week in the new online format.

“Throughout the summer, we were fully online and have now manipulated this to a hybrid of online and in-person services for the fall semester,” said Sokhi. “We have ensured that our staff and volunteers are trained on proper codes of conduct and practices if they’re working in the office. We have also worked with our Health and Safety Committee to establish and maintain a safe environment in the UTM Student Centre for our members.”

Concerning the events that were on the initial planned budget for the year, “the last three events of the [previous academic] year: International Women’s Day, XAO, and the Campus Groups Gala were cancelled. [But] the allocated budget had already been spent on various costs associated with the events,” explained Yakubi.

One of the primary UTMSU campaigns is the Education for All initiative that promotes equal

access to education for all students.

The Education for All campaign is divided into seven platforms: the immediate reduction of tuition fees for all students, fairness for international students, increased non-academic scholarships for all students, increased awards and grants for indigenous and black students, increased paid experiential learning and internship positions for all departments, stand-alone mental health counsellors within all departments, and last but not least, the improvement of accessibility services.

“With the Education for All campaign, we have been and will continue to lobby the University of Toronto administration on these seven demands,” continued Yakubi. “In addition, we plan on holding workshops and seminars about access to education as well as working towards creating more support systems and opportunities for our members.” >> UTMSU continued on page 4

>> ONLINE continued from page 2 or care for themselves.

Yet, students like Lisa Mai, a fourth-year student in commerce and finance, argue that there are some benefits to the upcoming semester delivered online.

“One of the good things about online school is that we get to set our own schedule, which I’ve found works well for me,” said Mai. However, she did note that she will miss in-person study groups, which capture a sense of collaboration that video calls do not.

Another concern about online learning, as mentioned by fourthyear digital enterprise management student Laura Kuria, is the projected change in workload. For some students, online schooling has decreased the number of quizzes, tests, and in-person assignments. In contrast, others have observed the opposite, including an increase of due dates and a more technologically immersed learning system.

Regarding incoming UTM students and their readiness for university, Professional Writing and Communications Professor Divya Maharajh expressed her unease about technology accessibility discrepancies.

“I’m concerned about the knowledge gaps from the final months of secondary school,” said Maharajh.

“I’m sure that teachers did their best to equip students, [but] still, I’m in the dark about how the new batch of students handled the transition to online learning.”

However, as Mai and Kuria mentioned, online schooling has provided students with some notable advantages, including the luxury of framing their school schedules around their work and personal schedules, forgoing hour-long commutes, and having more flexible class schedules.

Whether or not you are in favor of online learning, it is essential to recognize that this model of education may be in place for a while. And like all methods of teaching and interpersonal communication, there are pros and cons, but one thing is

04 >> UTMSU continued from page 3 The union has also emphasized the importance of providing adequate training for frontline workers of mental health services and making the safeTALK training program accessible to more students.

With student mental health on the forefront during this time, Sokhi stated that “the UTMSU has [been working the last few months] in collaboration with Stella’s Place to create a Mental Health Peer Support Program where students are trained to provide online peer support, wellness, and recovery services.”

International students make up a large portion of the UTM student body and are additionally heavily affected by the pandemic. With uncertainty surrounding global travel and the premium paid on international tuition fees, these students are facing multiple difficulties.

“The university is interested in recruiting and retaining international students. However, services and supports do not replicate this,” stated Sokhi, who is an international student herself. “The university needs to represent and tend to all students. We demand fairness for international students.”

With all the uncertainty surrounding how the rest of the school year will play out, it is clear that the UTMSU, along with other student organizations, will be actively working to provide students with an encouraging educational environment.

Governing Council begins 2020-2021 meetings

UofT hosts the 2020 World Academic Summit Mihail Cubata Contributor

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his year the University of Toronto hosted the Times Higher Education’s World Academic summit for the first time. This year also brings with it another milestone for the prestigious event as it was the first summit to be held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The summit followed the theme of “the power of place,” focusing on how the geographical and cultural environment of universities have an impact on the schools and how, in turn, the universities impact their communities both near and far. The summit’s theme also explored whether the digital realm has replaced the physical aspect of campus, which U of T President Meric Gertler discussed later on.

U of T has a lot to celebrate. The university was not only selected to host the summit this year but also kept its top 20 spot internationally and number one in Canada across all major university ranking publications. Compared to years prior, where U of T was ranked 19th and even 21st on the list, it is an accomplishment to remain as 18th for two consistent years now. The recent Times Higher Education publication ranked U of T as eighth for world rankings, and third for North America. U of T has also been selected to host the summit again next year in 2021.

In his speech, U of T President Meric Gertler discussed how the university has benefitted from being located in the Toronto area, especially as a leverage point for students deciding where they want to study. “More often than not, it was the quality of the city that helped tip the balance in our favour,” said Gerler.

Location has become even more important with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic since many students are now required to stay home, rather than take advantage of the opportunities life in the Toronto region may provide.

Professor Susan McCahan, the vice-provost of innovations in undergraduate education, also spoke at the summit, particularly about how the pandemic has created an accelerated shift in online education.

“In 2018-2019, we had about 150 online courses at the University of Toronto. This coming year, we will have several thousand,” she stated. McCahan went on to predict that the future of higher education will result in “the blending of the virtual with the real and in-person.”

Considering how many courses are being delivered via online methods this year, McCahan’s point hits close to home for many students.

Moreover, with the assistance of digital media, recent events regarding systemic racism have gained more attention and are being recognized for the critical issues they are. President Gertler said that universities must work on challenging systemic racism through both faculty and student channels.

President Gertler also mentioned that the university administration is putting in more effort to reach out to larger numbers of racialized students by co-operating with public schools in disadvantaged areas, hiring more Indigenous and Black faculty, and dismantling the unconscious bias in faculty search committees through targeted programs, which are yet to be announced.

Although the U of T administration was proud of the outcomes of this year’s summit, President Gertler pointed out that universities the world over still have a lot of work to do to remain the respected institutions they are revered to be.

New mask policy requires everyone to wear face coverings on-campus.

Nour Saqqa/The Medium. There are several thousand courses online.

Kasia Proce Contributor

>> continued from page 1 The summit followed the theme of “the power of place,” focusing on how the geographical and cultural environment of universities have an impact on the schools and how, in turn, the universities impact their communities both near and far. The summit’s theme also explored whether the digital realm has replaced the physical aspect of campus, which U of T President Meric Gertler discussed later on.

U of T has a lot to celebrate. The university was not only selected to host the summit this year but also kept its top 20 spot internationally and number one in Canada across all major university ranking publications. Compared to years prior, where U of T was ranked 19th and even 21st on the list, it is an accomplishment to remain as 18th for two consistent years now.

The recent Times Higher Education publication ranked U of T as eighth for world rankings, and third for North America. U of T has also been selected to host the summit again next year in 2021.

In his speech, U of T President Meric Gertler discussed how the university has benefitted from being located in the Toronto area, especially as a leverage point for students deciding where they want to study. “More often than not, it was the quality of the city that helped tip the balance in our favour,” said Gerler.

Location has become even more important with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic since many students are now required to stay home, rather than take advantage of the opportunities life in the Toronto region may provide.

Professor Susan McCahan, the vice-provost of innovations in undergraduate education, also spoke at the summit, particularly about how the pandemic has created an accelerated shift in online education.

“In 2018-2019, we had about 150 online courses at the University of Toronto. This coming year, we will have several thousand,” she stated. McCahan went on to predict that the future of higher education will result in “the blending of the virtual with the real and in-person.”

Considering how many courses are being delivered via online methods this year, McCahan’s point hits close to home for many students.

Moreover, with the assistance of digital media, recent events regarding systemic racism have gained more attention and are being recognized for the critical issues they are. President Gertler said that universities must work on challenging systemic racism through both faculty and student channels.

President Gertler also mentioned that the university administration is putting in more effort to reach out to larger numbers of racialized students by co-operating with public schools in disadvantaged areas, hiring more Indigenous and Black faculty, and dismantling the unconscious bias in faculty search committees through targeted programs, which are yet to be announced.

Although the U of T administration was proud of the outcomes of this year’s summit, President Gertler pointed out that universities the world over still have a lot of work to do to remain the respected institutions they are revered to be.

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COMMENT

Why you should read the classics Andrew Paul Contributor

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n 1815, Edmond Dantes was betrayed by his friends on his wedding day and imprisoned for 14 years before making a daring escape from the clutches of his demise. By the time he escaped, he had lost everything he deemed valuable. Invigorated by his desire for vengeance, he actively sought out the whereabouts of his betrayers, not to simply kill them but to cause as much suffering as he could on their unsuspecting lives.

Such is the synopsis to The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. It is one of those tales that makes you sincerely hope that as the story gradually unfolds, Dantes will secure his vengeance and leave you with a sense of satisfaction.

We all have books and authors we deeply admire for teaching us about our reality, endowing us with characters we can relate to, and immersing us in a completely different world that we enjoy interacting with and dissociating from the dissatisfactions of our own world.

But something makes The Count of Monte Cristo more exemplary of what the best of literature in that period had to offer and elevates it to become a classic.

So, what makes something a classic and not like any other piece of literature? Søren Kierkegaard, the 19th-century Danish philosopher, answered this question by considering the nature of a classic and how we classify it. Kierkegaard says that a classic relies on the material as much as the artist or author’s talent. The artist or author must match their inward gifts with what is present in the world. For example, the Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer are unique because, along with having rhetorical and grammatical mastery over words, the Trojan wars were presented to him as “epic” material. The harmony found between Homer’s poetic abilities and the events and characters of the Trojan war is what made his work a timeless classic.

Classics, like the Homeric epics, are written in a time where there are shifts in political and cultural attitudes, giving the characters in the books a dilemma in which it becomes character-driven. This gives the protagonists or antagonists the vehicle to steer toward a developed ethic and purpose in life to find their place in the tales of history. A journey much like our own lives take. Therefore, classics are prolific in endowing us with characters and events that have made a tremendous

Editor | Aya Yafaoui comment@themedium.ca

1815 impact on culture and the literature that follows, making them canonical because of their influence and deserving of our attention.

Other classics teach us about the capacity for courage and hope in humans as well as demonstrating how feelings of anguish and confusion during a tumultuous time are not new—inspiring hope for humanity that sees brighter days after a period of darkness. As the cliché goes, “history repeats itself,” and we can harness the best of it for ourselves by reading classical literature.

For these reasons, classic works of literature are not only timeless but unique in what they have to offer. We have all read or witnessed tales of vengeance, but The Count of Monte Cristo distills all of what humanity has to offer—the good and bad—into one tale. Moreover, the diversity of thoughts and philosophies the reader experiences is staggering. It forms the most fertile ground on which the best of ideas can bloom.

Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Dostoevsky’s The Karamazov Brothers capture this timelessness even better through philosophical approaches on how one should confront a changing world.

Today, with the COVID-19 pandemic causing unexpected shifts in our societal and cultural attitude as international organizations and nations worldwide work together to fight the viral outbreak, writers are becoming inspired. Perhaps, historical works are being written at this moment with the hope of a better world post-pandemic. But one thing is for sure: the pandemic has prompted challenges for people worldwide to overcome.

Thus, the classics should not only be honoured but appreciated for their value and the inspiration they instill in readers. Even though the aforementioned classics were written in a different time than ours, with a differing political and cultural landscape, we get to engage with the characters and events on a more intimate level instead of a strictly historical perspective.

Besides being a great read, this personal experience of a different time stokes our creative and imaginative impulses to be inspired to deal with the changes that we witness today in the world. Much like the characters in the classics, we are also attempting to find our place in the affairs of history. They are like the roots from which the bark and branches find their strength and grow. Since the classics help us recognize how our society was formed, they also continue to contribute to our contemporary culture. What we do in the present is crucial in deciding what befalls us in the future, and lessons from classic literature can undoubtedly play a role in shaping that future.

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Allyship in the digital age Kasia Proce Contributor

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n light of the recent events happening in the United States surrounding the George Floyd and now Jacob Blake protests, you’ve probably seen a plethora of Black Lives Matter (BLM) posts on your feed. The prevalence of BLM content seems to indicate that people are becoming more aware of the systemic discrimination present in both the United States and Canada. However, another term, “performative allyship,” has been floating around social media in retaliation to the movement, targeting people who, for example, simply post a black square on their feed to show their solidarity.

So, what exactly is performative allyship? Simply put, performative allyship activism is a form of virtue signalling. It’s an attempt to show how moral one is by aligning themselves with a just cause, thereby portraying themselves as acceptable to others. Performative allyship has been criticized as dangerous: if people of the nonBIPOC community are posting black squares or reposting popular BLM related posts to seem “woke” or “cool,” it could potentially hurt the movement.

However, although some people are, unfortunately, only posting BLM content to fit in, social media platforms continue to be an incredible tool to educate others in this day and age.

For example, suppose Mary has 1,200 followers on her Instagram, and all she’s been seeing is BLM feed on her page. Perhaps she’s never heard

of the Black Lives Matter movement before, and to fit in, she reposts an image titled “Justice for George Floyd” on her Instagram story.

Now one of two things just happened: Mary simply reposted the story on her feed and forgot about it, but, while doing so, directly contributed to the chain of education onto her 1200 followers.

Any number of people from her follower count now has the opportunity to read into the George Floyd story and further educate themselves.

Or number two, Mary became interested in the George Floyd name she sees popping up around her and researches his story. From there, she reads article after article that informs her of the serious problem facing the world today: systemic discrimination. In both cases, at least one >> ALLYSHIP continued on page 6

06 >> ALLYSHIP continued from page 5 person benefitted from the virtue signalling that Mary participated in, whether it was one of her 1200 followers or Mary herself. There’s no saying what Mary or someone from her follower group will do from this point forward. They may, too, keep reposting for the sake of fitting in. Still, the possibility that even one person among Mary’s mutual followers and friends takes it upon themselves to become a true ally—meaning listening to racialized communities, adjusting personal behaviours, and having difficult conversations with those against the BLM movement—is worth having some virtue signallers in our feed.

I will give a personal example to show how I benefitted from someone’s potential performative activism. Back in June, I saw a few posts on Instagram from my friends about a list of movies to watch to educate yourself about the history of Black lives in America. I screenshotted the list, and in the next week, I binged watched movies

such as Selma, 13th, and When They See Us, all directed by Ava DuVernay. These movies taught me how deep-rooted systemic racism is, especially in the United States, and opened my eyes to Canada’s similarly severe issues. I would have never gotten this opportunity to watch these eyeopening films had it not been for my friends and peers who kept reposting the same content. Although some of them may have just been mindlessly reposting the list to seem “woke,” I was able to educate myself and pay it forward by recommending this list personally to others.

The main idea to keep in mind is that the impact matters more than the intention. Although there are people who repost BLM content on their feed to be seen as acceptable by peers, there is no way of measuring the impact their post has on their many followers. Moreover, many, like me, may take it upon themselves to use this abundance of content to become more aware of racial injustices and therefore, take the first steps to become a better ally.

Schools reopening could force Ontario back into lockdown Tehreem Iqbal Contributor

>> continued from page 1 For some, this is relieving news as life before the pandemic can continue as well, and people can return to their typical routines. Yet, for many others, the reopening of schools is an anxious step toward the second wave of COVID-19.

Soon after the provincial gathering limit was increased to a maximum of 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors for the majority of Ontario, COVID-19 cases began rising steadily. Then, 190 new cases were reported on Labour Day, along with 185 cases the following Tuesday, amounting to 375 new cases over two days. Moreover, students returning to classrooms increases the likelihood of cases continuing to rise in the coming weeks, and potentially sending the province back into lockdown.

The possibility of a second nationwide lockdown due to school reopenings concerns me greatly, as I’m sure it does many of you. I believe it is wrong to put school staff and students at risk. In fact, the hazard extends beyond those individuals and into their households and family life, where there may be immunocompromised individuals. This possibility is not far from reality, considering the developing outbreaks of COVID-19 in over 70 Québec schools, and possibly more as the province struggles to keep up with case reports.

Though it is essential to keep the context of these numbers in mind, larger numbers do tend to arise from smaller ones, like a domino effect. Despite the safety measures put in place, physical distancing challenges continue to emerge in classrooms. Additionally, safety concerns are more challenging when we look into the structure of buildings and ventilation, which is a severe problem in the majority of dated buildings.

Most university students are continuing their studies through online classes, which comes with its own set of pros and cons. Being a first-year student myself, I have come across some of my own challenges with navigating digital learning platforms and have experienced the overwhelming emotions that often come with the transition from high school to university.

That being said, if children were mandated only to take online classes, they would have their share of struggles as well. Most likely to a greater degree, given their young age and unfamiliarity with the concept of online learning.

For example, Zoom fatigue, easier distractions, and the engagement barrier that online learning breeds are all challenges that children and their parents will have to deal with. Yet, while online learning for all students is not as effective as in-person learning, it is an important alternative that keeps in line with physical distancing measures and helps stem the spread of COVID-19 among children, their families, and the wider population.

I believe that by establishing stricter COVID-19 physical distancing practices, enforcing masks and sanitizing in schools, and providing dividers for students during lunchtime, Ontario will be able to eradicate the contraction of the virus quicker, and, as a result, the province will be able to resume in-person classes more easily and safely for all involved.

Moreover, if COVID-19 cases continue to rise, students—be they elementary, secondary, or post-secondary—will have to continue adjusting and readjusting to new forms of learning if a firm and universal way of learning amid the pandemic is not established.

However, I recognize the complexity of this issue and the reality that arriving at a universally agreed-upon solution is impossible. So, the questions we all have to ask ourselves and our government are: What risks are worth taking right now? And what is being prioritized?

Canada needs to confront its racist past by acknowledging John A. Macdonald’s history Until Canada stops erasing Indigenous history and the role that Macdonald played in it, justice and peace will never be found.

Maya Super Contributor

H

eads often roll in revolutions. In Canada’s case, it was the bronze head of Canada’s first prime minister, John. A. Macdonald. The statue was toppled by “defund the police” protesters in Montreal on August 29. The move was condemned by our current PM, Justin Trudeau, who has often presented himself as a progressive and Indigenous ally. The Conservative Party’s new leader, Erin O’Toole, has also commented on the toppling of the statue, saying that it “dooms Canada to forget the lessons of history.”

However, this brings forth a question that has haunted countless statues that have been torn down around the world. From #RhodesMustFall in South Africa in 2015 to the Stonewall Jackson Monument in Richmond, Virginia, which was torn down in July following Black Lives Matter protests. The question being: what history are we choosing to remember? Furthermore, how do we condone figures who were once idolized but are now representing outdated morals and social norms?

The John. A. Macdonald statue is an excellent example of this. Macdonald is often portrayed as the “Father” of Canada, and without Macdonald, it can be argued that our nation would not exist today.

Yet, the memory of Macdonald seeks to glorify his few good actions while ignoring his heinous crimes against fellow Canadians.

Macdonald established residential schools during his years in power that Indigenous children were forced to attend to be “re-educated” on cultural and societal practices. Moreover, Macdonald contributed to the establishment of an unjust, racist justice system and the isolation of Indigenous communities from Canadian society.

As a result of Canada’s history and Macdonald’s actions, racist ideologies are now embedded in Canada’s society and systemic practices, from the horrific reality of the hundreds of indigenous women who are murdered or missing to the subtler stereotypes that insidiously imply indigenous people leech off of taxpayer money. The last residential school in Canada only closed down in 1996. Not to mention, Indigenous populations across Canada continue

to experience intergenerational trauma of having their identities and culture erased.

The overall argument in favour of keeping Macdonald’s statue, and statues, by and large, is that by tearing them down, history is being erased. However, in my opinion, the real history that is being erased is Macdonald’s horrific and deeply racist actions towards Indigenous groups, which continues to create inequalities for them in Canada today.

So, how do we come to terms with these often admired historical figures without “erasing” history? I believe that keeping these statues up glorifies and memorializes figures who instigated great harm, which is still felt through generational trauma today. Thus, I have a few suggestions on how we can keep these statues of political figures up without erasing the dark history of Canada, while also acknowledging the systemic racist policies that Canada dislikes coming to terms with.

Museums have existed for many years. They exist to preserve and teach us about history by providing the context and focus needed to understand the past. Thus, placing Macdonald’s statue in a museum can make space for both the good he did and the terrible actions he caused. This way, no history is erased, nor is it glorified to portray Macdonald as a hero.

Another method is to add a plaque to Macdonald’s statue acknowledging his actions, since some citizens, like Francious Legault, the premier of Quebec, find the removal of a historic figure from the public sphere to be offensive. The plaque could serve as a compromise between both sides of the debate and would display the duality of our first PM. Of course, we must acknowledge that history does not always align with the political culture of a country. Today, Canadian culture and identity build on the idea that Canada is an inclusive country, where people from all backgrounds are welcome. Canadians pride themselves on being less polarized than our neighbours to the south. Yet, the rhetoric surrounding the statue being taken down reflects our similarities to the United States.

Canada’s inability to reckon with the inappropriate actions of its idolized “founders” sets us back from becoming a truly diverse country. Until Canada stops erasing Indigenous history and the role that Macdonald played in it, justice and peace will never be found.

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features

Editor | Elizabeth Provost features@themedium.ca

How an ‘80s video game inspired a cure for cancer Duaa Nasir Contributor

Ph.D. student Muhammad Murtaza Hassan speaks on his Tetris derived discovery and how it could lead to a cure to cancer.

>> continued from page 1 The National Cancer Institute identifies the following cancer treatments: surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapy, hormone therapy, stem cell transplants, and precision medicine. Each of these comes with a specific set of challenges and side effects.

Radiation therapy and chemotherapy can damage healthy cells in addition to the cancer cells, which can cause numerous side effects, notably fatigue. Immunotherapy can cause flu-like symptoms, nausea, and dizziness. Targeted therapy can cause liver problems and diarrhea, while hormone therapy can result in sexual side effects. Other effects for current cancer treatments include, but are not limited to, anemia, fertility issues, memory issues, nerve issues, insomnia, and delirium. Scientists like Hassan are currently conducting ground-breaking research to identify new methods of treating cancer and improving the quality of life for patients enduring these side effects.

Among the causes of cancer, the cancer proteins, Histone Deacetylases (HDACs), are noteworthy. The abundance and protein activity of certain Histone Deacetylases are implicated in certain types of cancers. For instance, HDAC2 is involved in carcinogenesis, and several types of cancerous tissues have been found to possess higher levels of specific HDAC proteins than normal tissues.

Currently, there are four drugs approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that target HDACs: vorinostat (SAHA), romidepsin (FK228), belinostat (PXD101), and panobinostat (LBH-589). Each of these is non-selective, meaning they target multiple HDACs, and they come with unwanted side effects, such as diarrhea, thrombocytopenia, and anemia. Non-selective drug options are often not practical and end up damaging the health of the cancer patient, especially when compounded with other aggressive treatments.

“When medicinal chemists want to target cancer cells selectively, over healthy cells, they often target a distinguishing factor of a cancer cell over a healthy cell. What medicinal chemists do is target these proteins that are associated with these hallmarks of cancer,” says Hassan. In doing so, medicinal chemists target the actual root of the diseases without threatening the viability of healthy cells and proteins.

HDAC8, the protein that Hassan has placed great emphasis on in his research, confers specific properties of cancer. “It plays a vital role in the progression of neuroblastoma, says Hassan.” Neuroblastoma is a type of cancer that originates from immature nerve cells found in several areas of the body. Moreover, HDCA8 has also been implicated in schistosomiasis and Cornelia de Lange syndrome.

When Hassan was mining through scientific literature, he found a study demonstrating how the HDAC8 enzyme has an L-shaped pocket. He combined this knowledge with the idea of Tetris, a video game from the ’80s, which involves perfectly fitting together geometric shapes.

“Tetris is perfect for [illustrating how to target HDAC8 exclusively] because you often have all these pieces that are falling, and you have to make that piece fall into that perfect pocket or that perfect puzzle. And the L-shape, you can say, is the archetypical Tetris piece.” This gave him the idea of playing molecular Tetris by building molecules that take an L-shape to lock into HDAC8’s L-shaped pocket and prevent it from carrying out its function. He found the perfect piece, containing zinc-binding groups that fit into the HDAC8 pocket and inhibited their functioning.

“So, the way you target these enzymes is that, oftentimes, you make a molecule that fits into that tunnel, which prevents the protein from carrying out its natural function,” continues Hassan. “And when you prevent it from carrying out its natural function, you prevent it from carrying out the function that helps cancer be cancer. That, in turn, leads to killing the cancer cell or making it more sensitive to other forms of therapy.”

Confirmed by an oncologist in Germany who tested the molecules, Hassan’s inhibitor was successful in interacting with the HDAC8 protein in cancer cells and subsequently hindering their functioning.

By merging the knowledge of structural chemistry and structural biology, Hassan focused on the creation of molecules that assume a complementary shape only to the HDAC8 pocket to inhibit its function. This treatment is selective rather than indiscriminate, which can potentially allow for safer therapies with minimal side effects.

As a result, cancer patients can have a greater quality of life and receive more accurate treatment.

Hassan completed his bachelor’s degree at UTM in math and chemistry and continued his master’s at York University. He likes to look at chemistry at its molecular level as similar to engineering and treat it like solving a puzzle. Furthermore, Hassan has an eagerness to discover new methods of treating cancer that minimizes side effects and revolutionizes the understanding of the mechanisms involved.

Currently, Hassan has published his research in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry and is pursuing further research related to this process. “I’m currently working on another study looking into the biological role of these inhibitors and trying to see how applicable they are to certain diseases,” says Hassan.

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Project UTMC: building a virtual community and UTM campus through Minecraft Four UTM students have created a closeto-perfect replica of our UTM campus on the virtual video game Minecraft.

Hema Ramnarine Contributor

S

ince the university’s sudden closure in March, students, faculty, and staff are still waiting to return to campus and experience its bustling atmosphere. As a result of the pandemic and the subsequent physical distancing measures, four UTM students decided to bring the campus to life through the classic video game Minecraft.

Jonathan Ho, Lance Santiago, Akira Takaki, and Naaz Sibia are all members of UTM White Van, a discord server consisting of over 1200 UTM students and alumni dedicated to discussing events from the Mathematical and Computational Sciences Society, UTM news, and advice.

The idea of creating a virtual campus first started circling in March, following the closure of the UTM campus, but the project didn’t officially begin until mid-June. Project UTMC began with Deerfield, the main building for Computer Science students. “We were feeling homesick in a way. Deerfield is our home building, so to speak. We figured since most of us played Minecraft [already], we might as well build it, so the presence of Deerfield is there. Now we can visit it whenever we want,” says Lance Santiago, who is going into his final year with a major in statistics and a double minor in computer science and math.

The initiative is impressive to new and returning students alike—those who miss campus and those who are missing out on the chance to see it for the first time due to COVID-19. The virtual reality they’ve created bears a remarkable resemblance to reality.

The astonishingly detailed recreation took just a month, with the team working on it in their spare time. The team used publicly available resources, such as Google Maps and floor plans found on the UTM Timetable service, to nail down the exterior of the building. They also did a video walkthrough to achieve a replica of the interior of the building itself. “We had a lot of resources to make sure we got everything right,” says Jonathan Ho. The attention to detail is evident when looking at the finished product. In a video available on the UTM White Van website, a walkthrough takes viewers on a virtual tour, showcasing the recreation and its incredible accuracy. The hallways, classrooms, and common areas, right down to the furniture, are a perfect virtual model of the real building.

While the project began with just four students and a virtual Deerfield Hall, it has grown considerably and extended to other parts of the UTM campus. “For [Maanjiwe Nendamowinan], we currently have about eight or nine people [working on it]. [...] We were all in the same program, but we really got to

know each other through the server, and through quarantine we got closer to each other as well, just talking through the server almost every day,” says Santiago.

Because the project is open to any member of the server, the team is cautious with granting editing access to Project UTMC. Lance Santiago exclaimed: “there’s always the chance where we give the wrong person access, and then the whole server is on fire.” To mitigate this, the team ensures that they are familiar with who is getting involved before giving them full access to their creation.

“Over time, after we’ve been talking for a while and getting to know them, they can join and start to work on building,” says Santiago. “We’re open to anyone helping.”

The expanding team demonstrates the desire to see more of the campus come to life in Minecraft, and people are eager to help. “If they want to just work on classrooms or exterior, they’re free to do that. Once they’re there, we don’t want to limit people as to what they can build,” says Ho. As design lead, however, Ho does get the final say.

“Our builders can consult [Ho] when building decisions need to be made, such as what blocks to use and how the finished products should look. We want to make sure everything looks uniform,” says Santiago.

The platform itself, Minecraft, was a familiar and robust asset in their endeavor. According to Ho, “a lot of the members within the server also played Minecraft at some point, so they have access to an account and know the right tools. We chose Minecraft because it allowed the most creative capabilities when it came to something like recreating a campus.”

It also allowed the team, some of whom have been playing Minecraft for almost a decade, to reminisce on the game and platform they know so well. “Coming back to it after a while away was nice. It felt like I was a kid again, and getting to play

Photo/Project UTMC. Minecraft is the new address of UTM. with people that I know well has been very nice,” continued Santiago.

The team is open to its recreation being used as a virtual campus for events or even graduations. Ho says, “to take advantage of the virtual environment for something like that would be very cool. We learned that there are a couple of other universities that are using some sort of virtual platform to host events, and it would be a really cool opportunity to see something like that in the future for [the project].” In this era of advancing digital technology, Project UTMC offers yet another way to stay connected.

In terms of the project’s future, they see progress slowing as everyone returns to classes and a full workload. For Ho and Santiago, they haven’t yet decided where the end of the line is for them. “After graduation, [we’ve] considered continuing it and possibly passing it on. Some of our builders are in their first or second year, so we can always pass the torch on.”

The project has been extremely well-received by staff and students alike, and many students are excited about potentially having a virtual campus to visit, as a return to campus life is still up in the air due to COVID-19. Project UTMC has the potential to comfort homesick students and provide a virtual platform for new and future students to explore. The team is optimistic about its future, with Ho concluding, “We don’t know how far we’ll take it, but we’re happy for now.”

Photo/Project UTMC. The talented team managed to intricately recreate the UTM campus in their free time.

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Researching how kind acts can help manage the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic Sociology Professor Andrew Professor Miles discusses his new research on the effects of prosocial behavior.

Yasmeen Alkoka/The Medium. A kind act can go a long way during hard times.

Aya Yafaoui Comment Editor

T

he COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a heavy blow to the world, from the heart-wrenching human toll to the economic side-effects that will reverberate for years to come. To combat these serious problems, we need serious solutions. To find some of those solutions, U of T has set up the Toronto COVID-19 Action Fund, which aims to give researchers the funds they need to conduct meaningful research on the various aspects and consequences of this pandemic.

Sociology Professor Andrew Miles is one of the researchers whose study was selected by the fund. As part of The Medium’s “Quarantine Stories” series, he sat down with us to talk about his research that focuses on how prosocial behaviour can help one’s wellbeing and safeguard our mental health.

Commenting on his reaction to having his research selected by the Toronto COVID-19 Action Fund, Professor Miles explained how empowering it was to have the necessary support to carry out his work. He also revealed his initial hesitation in applying for the funding, saying, “I remember having this moment where I sat, and I thought for a while, and I wasn’t sure that we had anything to offer. [But] I have this group of graduate students, and one of them voiced this idea that if there’s anything that we can do, we should, and that resonated with me. So, as I thought about it more, I realized that potentially we could help out an aspect of this problem that is recognized but has not been the first point of concern.” This inspiring moment is what kickstarted Miles’ and his team’s research.

Miles’ current research is built on a foundation of studies, which suggests that doing kind things for other people causes one to feel good. These studies on prosocial behaviour have shown a link between two variables: kind acts, and happiness and a better mental health.

In the context of the pandemic, the need to socially distance ourselves from others has caused people to feel isolated. Thereby, special management efforts were established to manage mental health challenges that arose due to the lack of human and physical connections.

Professor Miles stressed that these mental health challenges don’t “necessarily have to be fullblown depression and anxiety, but simply extra stress from not being able to go out and do the

09/14 09/25

things that we normally do—potentially all of these real challenges that even the best regimen of Zoom calls can’t take care of.”

Miles also stated that studies suggest doing kind things for others could give you an emotional boost, even if that action can’t be done physically. If this is true in a pandemic, and under circumstances where people have undergone great hardships, he hopes that engaging in prosocial behaviour could be an ideal intervention for dealing with the unique mental health challenges born out of the pandemic. He introduces this positive way of thinking as bringing light to the unexpected circumstances we have been placed under.

When speaking about the impact he hopes this research will have, Professor Miles focused on two key ideas. The first being that he hopes the scientific contributions of his research will help to fill in some gaps of knowledge in studies about how effective prosocial behaviour is as a treatment. Specifically, identifying who it works for, the factors that alter the effectiveness of the treatment, and whether it can prevent or reduce depression and anxiety may be the key to help those suffering from various mental illnesses, even in a non-pandemic setting. Secondly, he hopes to determine if further investigation is worthwhile and if discoveries therein could be helpful to those struggling.

To those who may be struggling with their mental health, Professor Miles urges them to reach out to a mental health professional if they find themselves in a “repeated pattern of bad days.” He also acknowledged that “mental health challenges are not always particularly well understood, and they’re somewhat stigmatized. People don’t want to sit there and say, ‘maybe I’ve got a mental health challenge,’ because we don’t see it the same way that we see a broken bone.”

Miles emphasized that mental illness doesn’t reflect one’s strength of character and that many mental conditions are “extremely treatable.”

Amid a year of trials and tribulations brought on by the pandemic, Professor Miles and his team’s research into the practical ways to aid our mental health and the people around us is crucial to surviving the isolation of social distancing. His work also illuminates the concrete steps that can help alleviate the side effects of the pandemic and reminds us that sticking together through dark times can bring light into our lives. To learn more about Professor Miles’ research, you can visit his website at www.andrewamiles.com/.

If you or someone you know is struggling emotionally or with their mental health, please reach out to the Health and Counselling Centre at UTM or visit their website to get help.

The Medium is holding elections for our Board of Directors! Five positions are open for any UTM student to fill. We encourage anyone who is interested in gaining valuable experience learning to contribute to financial and corporate decisions to run.

What you’ll need to apply:

09/28 10/02 10/05

- Nomination form that can be found at themedium.ca/elections - Resume - Short statement detailing why you are running for a place on the Board of Directors

Email any questions and your nomination package to cro@themedium.ca by 09/25.

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Arts

Director Charlie Kaufman mines our minds in the feel-bad film of the year.

Chris Berberian Arts Editor

I’m thinking of ending things

Photo/Netflix

>> continued from page 1 This scene opens I’m thinking of ending things, the newest film from the ever-churning mind of Charlie Kaufman.

Adapted from Iain Reid’s breakthrough novel of the same name, the film is a tense and brooding story about countless things from aging and illness to awkward dinners and how art shapes our thoughts. All the consequence of a director who notoriously can’t shut off his brain.

The story follows Lucy (Jessie Buckley) as she travels along a sideroad in rural Oklahoma. She sits beside her boyfriend, Jake (Jesse Plemons), waiting to meet his parents for the first — and hopefully last — time. That’s because she secretly wants to end things.

Along the drive, the young couple discuss many topics, some of which are mundane musings on biology, others are

Editor | Chris Berberian arts@themedium.ca

pretentious conversations about poetry. The dialogue teeters the line of thoughtfulness and ennui, and risks losing viewers to Netflix’s main menu if not for the phenomenal performances from the two leads.

As Lucy, Buckley exudes genuine apprehension to meet Jake’s parents. We see it in her calculated micro-expressions, the twitch of a lip, the tilt of an eyebrow, the subtle clench of her jaw. As the film unfolds, her character sheds her skin.

Her mannerisms contort and her accent shifts, at one point uncannily resembling famed film critic Pauline Kael. Even her face morphs. Lucy, or Lucia, or Louisa (as her name is ever-changing), is elusive like the story she’s within.

While Buckley impresses with her range, Plemons does so through understatement. His performance as Jake persists in contemplative stares and selective mutism, but even he changes by the ending. We also see the masterful Toni Collette reprise her Hereditary role as the erratic mother. She oscillates between grating laughter, soulless stares, and smiling a little too much. David Thewlis provides some comic relief as Jake’s father, albeit the kind where laughing distracts you from the awkwardness and perversity of it all.

Herein lies the power of Kaufman’s film. It’s a mishmash of thoughts and emotions, delight with unease, joy with sorrow.

You simultaneously want to scream, laugh, and cry. But you can’t do anything.

The score amplifies such inner tension through dissonant mixes. Sometimes, there are ominous woodwinds fighting against a melodic string ballet, with a flute flittering across octaves. Other times the score dissipates, giving way to an immersive diegetic soundscape — the whirling winds whipping against the car, the tedious wipers thumping back and forth, back and forth, and the faint squeals of a rusted swing set.

This film also features some of the darkest scenes ever made. Literally. As Lucy and Jake drive through the deserted country sideroads, the sky darkens, and the faint snowfall turns blizzardy. Soon the characters are bathed in black, only silvery contours of facial features breaking through, creating a menacing ghostly appearance. No matter how hard you try, you can’t look away. The unsettling feeling is enough to make David Lynch squirm in his seat.

Kaufman simultaneously ratchets up our unease through razor-sharp attention to detail. It’s in the kitchen wallpaper changes between scenes, the characters’ clothes altering as they move between rooms. Why does the dog vanish between continuous shots? Why are there scratches on the

basement door? Why won’t Jake go near it? And wait, wasn’t the bandage over his left eye?

As we move through Jake’s parents’ house, and things really snowball into the absurd, Kaufman flexes his directing muscles. He subtly pans away from people as someone’s talking. Other times, like when Lucy enters the house, the camera will pan into the living room before she walks into frame.

And when she sits down, it’ll scan back out and up an empty staircase, as if possessing a mind of its own. Alongside camera movements, Kaufman crafts unique tension through the narrow 4:3 aspect ratio. In night scenes, we’re sucked deeper into the claustrophobic centre frame, and in daylight, we’re forced to confront the things that lurk off screen.

I’m thinking of ending things eludes classification — combining horror with sentimentality and Kaufmanesque surrealism with pitch-black humour. At its heart, the film is a layered tale of loneliness, isolation, and mental illness. But the layers proliferate, with allusions to consciousness, gender identity, free will, and Freudian defence mechanisms.

The film reflects what many of us are experiencing in this time of prolonged isolation and rampant loneliness. Some of us numb our pains by escaping into fictional worlds; others try brushing anxieties aside as if everything’s normal.

Kaufman asks us to confront our issues, perhaps even ruminate in them, to find meaning — or lack thereof — in the world. Because even if our world is meaningless, we have a shared experience and a moral responsibility to care for one another.

As humans, we can empathize with others, proactively and retroactively travel through our mental time machine, and ponder our existence. Likewise, to Kaufman, the boundaries between people are blurry. Between my conscious experience, writing this review on my laptop in a dim living room, and yours, skimming through this on your phone while waiting for your class to start. The film offers a stark meditation of our existence and free will, and ultimately, whether our thoughts are truly our own.

I’m thinking of ending things is a masterclass in foreboding — the skin-crawling sensation that something is off, but you aren’t sure what. Like a virus implanting itself, it’s on the tip of your brain, gnawing away as you watch the events uncoil.

This is a film that’ll have you rationalize this feeling, have it sear into your mind and, if you give it a chance, have you thinking of things long after it ends.

How drama students are adapting while the curtains stay closed Nina Richards Contributor

>> continued from page 1 Zoom classes at UTM have hindered the Theatre and Drama Studies (TDS) students’ ability to rehearse with classmates, learn group choreography, and express their creativity through live performances. I asked two third-year students — Jacob Dowdall and Daniella Khayutin — and one fourth-year student — Michael Karrangus — to share their concerns about the upcoming school year.

“All our classes are scheduled for online syn-

chronous delivery, including our rehearsals,” said Karrangus. “The goal is to have classes delivered in-person for the winter semester, but there’s always the possibility they’ll still be delivered online.”

“Personally, I don’t mind,” Dowdall said when asked to share his feelings about online class delivery. “I don’t think it’s ideal, but this could be our future for a while, and I’m open to learn and experiment with it.”

Some students are experimenting with camera angles, special effects, and skillful editing to help bring the theatre experience online.

“Jacob and I had the privilege of working virtually with the Shaw Festival over the summer,” shared Khayutin. “We created a scene we performed with the use of multiple camera angles

and laptops in different locations. It was really fun and interesting to be part of the ‘Covid Theatre World.’ It’s amazing to see the beautiful performances that are still being created during these times, even if it’s virtual.”

Regular attendees will be disappointed to find out that Theatre Erindale has postponed in-person shows for the fall semester.

“Every show has been pushed back to the second term in hopes of physically preparing and performing them in-person,” said Dowdall.

“The Sheridan faculty is determined to perform winter shows in-person,” continued Karrangus, “whether it be through social distancing or a recording of the live performance.”

Although the TDS cancelled in-person shows for the Fall semester, students aren’t let-

ting remote delivery deter their creative expression.

“We’ll be doing an online show at the end of the Fall semester that we’re creating ourselves as a class,” said Khayutin. “Our faculty scheduled the classes that are more useful to do in person, such as stage combat, to be in the winter semester. This leaves us room for more personal creative work for the Fall semester as we prepare to create our devised creative piece as a class.

The online performance will be in November.”

While TDS students continue to keep theatre alive through virtual performances, many of them worry about unemployment upon graduation, as Covid-19 restrictions continue to limit >> DRAMA continued on page 11

11 >> DRAMA continued from page 10 live theatre performances.

“It’s going to be hard for theatre to bounce back,” stated Karrangus, “especially when a gathering of individuals is so important to

the life of theatre. We’ll be graduating into an uneven job market and getting our foot in the door as actors will be harder.”

As COVID-19 restrictions hit the theatre industry more severely than others, preserving theatre has never been more important.

Tenet will warp your sense of time even more Haowen Lin Contributor

W

ith Tenet, director Christopher Nolan delivers one of his most fascinating films to date.

The first thing you notice about Tenet is its soundscape. With the volume dialled up to 11, the opening feels like a bass-heavy rock concert.

Every note and gunshot pounds your ear drums.

Nolan’s latest creation capitalizes on its tremendous budget to deliver fresh sound choreography, which sets the tone throughout the film. There are no more wooden-plank-onwatermelon sound effects that characterized action flicks from The Empire Strikes Back to Daniel Craig’s Bond films. In Tenet, the sounds of fist-against-flesh were crisp and distinct, more like a live MMA match than an action film, especially when experienced in IMAX. It’s worth paying for the kitchen fight scene alone, where characters used various utensils to show off the sound engineering. While the audio effects were outstanding, conversations were a letdown, with most dialogue sounding muffled and unclear, as if the film were being played from behind a heavy curtain. Despite the lacklustre voice quality, Tenet offers an easy way to experience the impressive foley.

While this mind-bending, action-filled thriller quenches the quarantine-induced thirst of any movie-lover, its plot leaves you wanting.

Convoluted would be an understatement when describing the time travel plot device.

Like Inception, Tenet is a science-fiction thought experiment beautifully disguised as a spy thriller. It’s a signature Nolan film — daring, thought-provoking, and backed by a budget most directors can only dream of. Despite its muffled audio, ironically, Tenet dedicates a large chunk of screen time to exposition. Sitting in the sold-out theatre, surrounded by a sea of empty seats (for social distance), listening to the hand-waving explanation of time travelling bullets by Barbara (Clémence Poésy) to the protagonist (John David Washington), I travelled back to Con Hall biophysics classes, except with particularly photogenic lecturers.

In many ways the film is an example of how not to make a movie, with its overemphasis on minute details and complex plot mechanics. Yet one leaves the theatre feeling both satisfied and filled with questions. It’s a nice break from remakes and sequels that define the Marvel and DC duopoly. If The Avengers is a sugary soda drink — raw storylines and addictive cliffhangers that leave you wanting more, then Tenet would be kombucha — ideas aged, distilled,

and refined. The “Mimsy Were the Borogoves”style plot feels almost academic, but it’s tempered by awe-inspiring visuals and action choreography; a magnitude more realistic than Jason Bourne. The film recognizes its verbosity, with secondary protagonist Neil (Robert Pattinson) mentioning that having a physics degree would barely suffice to keep up with the plot device. In that light, my background in computational biology also felt inadequate.

All reservations aside, if you need an excuse to visit the cinema amidst a pandemic, Tenet’s cinematography is more than enough. Hoyte van Hoytema overdid himself this time with every fight scene. The visuals offer little in the form of massive Inception-style non-Euclidean geometry and multi-dimensional urban planning that’d make Harry Potter and Doctor Strange fans swoon. Instead, we’re treated to two perspectives of the same fight scenes and battlefields that have soldiers moving in either direction in time. The battle choreography has clear echoes of Dunkirk and interpreting time travel is both bold and innovative.

This treatment of science fiction is trendsetting and distinct for Hollywood and, to some extent, the entire film industry. It’s refreshing to have a break from the repetitive yawn-inducing space operas and killer robot genres that have come to define mainstream sci-fi. If you can see past the overly convoluted time travel narratives (or ignore them completely), then the film is a treat for the eyes. Tenet seems unlikely to win any awards for its plot itself, but should contend for best cinematography thanks to its tremendous and trailblazing audiovisual effects.

It’s difficult to describe actor performances without divulging spoilers. Dimple Kapadia and Kenneth Branagh each played their antagonistic role beautifully, while Elizabeth Debicki underwent some dramatic changes in her character arc. Sadly, the clunky overarching plot and, inevitably, the breathtaking visuals overshadow their performances. The muffled speech didn’t help either.

Tenet is an excellent example of modern art; it’s counterintuitive, provocative, and novel.

It’d fit in perfectly at the Art Gallery of Ontario’s modern art section, or perhaps nestled among Warhol’s recyclables in New York City’s MOMA. It goes against every filmmaking convention: a confusing plot, over-the-top special effects, and a fan-made fiction storyline. Yet Tenet also belongs in a class of its own.

Verdict: Gorgeous cinematography and fascinating plot but an absolute head-spinner given its convoluted time travel storyline.

“Keeping theatre alive is important, but I also think it’s important to keep all art alive during the pandemic. Most of us have been using art, music, and TV to get through quarantine and the pandemic,” concluded Karrangus. “Especially during the online

age, people are craving art, and we need to [help] keep art evolving. It’s more important now than ever.”

How Monstro mirrors our current reality In Junot Díaz’s short story, we find that many people are sadly rather familiar.

Jennifer Schneider Contributor

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very written work — including this article — should be considered fiction. It’s a retelling of events through a particular lens. We live in a reality that resembles a work of science fiction, one that, back in January, we would’ve called a dystopia.

Believe it or not, the pandemic was predicted in 2012. Just like Jules Verne predicted the submarine and George Orwell the rise of digital control, Dominican-American writer Junot Díaz predicted the denial, spread, and panic of a disease, with eerie resemblance to that of Covid-19.

Every report and news article about the Covid-19 pandemic may have credibility but not necessarily verity. For instance, the Chinese government and the World Health Organization (WHO) spread misinformation by downplaying physical transmission, labelling masks as unnecessary, and understating the prevalence of the disease. If the WHO had held the Chinese Communist Party accountable, cases in China would have been reduced by 95 per cent. Even after the WHO proclaimed a pandemic on March 11, the data on accounted cases were obscured by gender and race biases.

The disease depicted in Junot Diaz’s Monstro is similarly shrouded in misinformation and biases: “There were widespread rumors that the infected were devils, even reports of relatives attempting to set their infected family members on fire.” La Negrura — the Darkness — comprised black pustules that developed along appendages. Other behavioral symptoms emerged as the story advanced, from synchronized shrieking to the merging of pustules among patients.

While these symptoms fall more into the realm of an incoming zombie apocalypse, there’s no denying that, just as the Darkness affected the characters’ senses of touch and sound, Covid-19 similarly affects our senses of smell and taste. Increasingly similar was the population’s reaction: “I was one of the idiots who didn’t heed any of the initial reports, who got caught way out there. What can I tell you?

My head just wasn’t into any mysterious disease.” Covid-19 sceptics and naysayers claim that masks stop their breathing, the Chinese government invented the virus in a lab, and the virus is no worse than the common flu.

The media response is also similar to the world in Monstro. When the pandemic started,

people claimed that cold weather exacerbated Covid-19, just as La Negrura increased with the heat. Initially, Western media didn’t examine either disease carefully. Covid-19 began in China, a global power, typically othered by the North American media, while La Negrura emerged in Haiti, a small country in Central America with little political or economic power: “For six, seven months it was just a horrible Haitian disease—who fucking cared, right? A couple of hundred new infections each month in the camps and around Port-au-Prince, pocket change, really.”

Both sicknesses were associated with animals: “zoonotics by the pound.” With Covid-19, some people used this association to perpetuate racist stereotypes, whether through memes of Chinese people eating bats or Donald Trump naming Covid-19 the “Kung flu.” La Negrura also had racist undertones, with people accusing each other of having the disease and joking about a Haitian becoming blacker.

Meanwhile, the international reaction focused on the generational divide, implanting quarantine, and violence as a result of the respective diseases. The idea that Covid-19 solely affected the elderly or people with preexisting conditions emphasized the generational divide.

Likewise, the Negrura “seemed to hit only the sickest of the sick - victims who had nine kinds of ill already in them.” Ironically, the first person affected by La Negrura was nine years old, while the first patient to die from Coronavirus was sixty-one years old.

In Monstro, quarantine was implemented in camps for the sick, alongside closing the borders to the Dominican Republic and banning international flights from Haiti. With Covid-19, society confined people to their homes, which also sprung a wave of domestic violence, with cases rising to 20 per cent. In Monstro, the violence was sparked by rioters in the quarantined zones, described by the narrator as a “straight massacre.”

So, should we have predicted the rise of a pandemic? Not necessarily, even when an article published by Scientific American suggests “changes in the timing, geography and intensity of disease outbreaks around the world” following Covid-19, with flu symptoms increasing as a result of global warming. If anything, the Coronavirus pandemic, and its comparison to Díaz’s Monstro, shows how media coverage and the spread of information influences scientific responses. Monstro couldn’t teach us how to best handle the pandemic; Díaz never finished the story. Still, it shows how fiction imitates, and even predicts, real life.

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sports & health

A beginner’s guide to getting into fitness Duaa Nasir Contributor

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he first time you step into the gym, it can look intimidating.

With so many different machines, equipment, sections, and free weights, it can be hard to figure out where to start. A google search isn’t much help either. Looking for a guide to fitness for beginners yields millions of results, each promising to tell you everything you’ll ever need to know – only you’ll have to pay for it. With all that in mind, here’s a very basic, general guide to fitness and some resources to help.

TERMINOLOGY Free Weight: These are the weights you see stacked near a wall, usually in front of a mirror. Free Weights can be an alternative to exercise machines or used to increase the difficulty of certain bodyweight exercises.

Reps: The number of times you repeat an e ercise without taking a break (e.g. completing ten squats in a row).

Sets: The number of times you repeat your reps (e.g. repeating that group of ten squats three times with thirty-second breaks in between).

HIIT: High Intensity Interval Training refers to short bursts of intense training that temporarily speed up your metabolism. This is great if you want to burn fat but don’t have a lot of time.

IDENTIFY YOUR GOALS Losing Weight: This usually means you focus more on cardio and less on strength training.

Strength training should still be a part of your workout to prevent the loss of muscle mass.

Building Muscle: This requires exercise machines, free weights or bodyweight exercises.

You also need to make sure you’re getting enough protein to build muscle.

Toning Up (Combination): This is a combination of cardio and strength training and can be less intense since your goals are less rigid.

Feeling Better: If your goal is just to feel better than you don’t have to be too picky about what you go with. Preferably stick with exercises you enjoy doing, or at least don’t hate doing.

Medical Reasons: If you’re exercising to deal with a medical condition, you probably have an idea of what sorts of exercises you need to do but need to establish a routine.

Editor | Sarah-May Edwardo-Oldfield sports@themedium.ca

New research claims ‘loneliness’ may be the greatest threat to humanity’s survival Melissa Ramsammy Contributor

TYPES OF EXERCISES Push: These train the chest, shoulders, and triceps. They include exercises such as pushups, dips, and handstands.

Pull: These train the back and biceps. They include pull-ups, bicep curls, and chin-ups.

Legs: These target the lower body or legs.

They include squats, lunges, and deadlifts.

Core: These target your abdominal muscles.

They include planks and crunches.

CREATING A WORKOUT ROUTINE When doing this, you want to be realistic about how much time you have. There’s no point in planning on working out an hour everyday if you know you have a ton of homework and responsibilities.

You also don’t want to overdo it. If you know you aren’t eating enough (fixing that should be your first step), then don’t schedule intense exercise every day of the week.

Once you decide how often you can work out, schedule in the exercises you plan on doing. While there are a ton of ways to do this, try to keep it simple by completing each of the four types of exercises every week for a full-body workout.

For example, if you decide to do three thirty-minute sessions every week, you can complete three push exercises in your first session, three pull exercises in your second session, and two of legs and core in your last session.

RESOURCES NerdFitness: Contains all the information you need, with clear step-by-step articles that answer all sorts of questions.

Fitness Blender: Contains various types of workout videos for all levels.

Popsugar Fitness: Similar to Fitness Blender, but also with dance and group workouts.

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n 2019, the World Health Organization declared that loneliness is a major health concern worldwide. A year earlier, the UK appointed its first Minister of Loneliness.

Fast-forward to the socially distanced present-day reality of COVID-19. For many of us, loneliness is no unfamiliar feeling, as we begin the school year away from our campus and peers.

In a recent review published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Danilo Bzdok and Robin I.M. Dunbar explore the effects of social isolation on our health and psychological well-being. Drawing on evidence from various disciplines over recent years, Bzdok and Dunbar conclude that loneliness may be the most potent threat to humanity’s survival.

Among all existing species, humans depend longest on other individuals, say Bzdok and Dunbar. Loneliness sprouts from what they describe as a ‘learned social helplessness’; a psychological spiral we trap ourselves in, reinforced by a skewed perception of how others interact with us. This could include feelings of exclusion, negative social cues, or feeling socially threatened.

Evidence shows that loneliness impairs the immune system, thus reducing resistance to disease and infections. Effects include an increased risk of inflammation and hypertension in old age. One study found that having social bonds triggers the release of your body’s killer cells, designed to destroy harmful bacteria and viruses.

Bzdok and Dunbar conclude that the more immersed we feel in a community – engaged with our friends and fellow human beings – the happier, and healthier, we are. For example, our friends tend to act as our social support. According to the 2008 Framingham Heart Study, we strongly mirror emotional changes in our close friends, both figuratively and geographically: If a happy friend lives within a 1-mile radius, you are 25% more likely to be happy.

Now, one can imagine that the more friends we have, the better. However, between school, work, long commutes, and life’s responsibilities, we only have so many hours in the day to befriend as many people as we can.

The review notes that some friends we hold closer than others, devoting about 40% of our daily social time (in total, about 3.5 hours), to them. The study finds that our five closest friends and family members matter the most in combatting loneliness and its adverse effects.

Of course, many of us now rely on Zoom calls and Netflix parties to spend quality time with our friends. Given our transition online, do we miss out on the social benefits? Not necessarily.

Bzdok and Dunbar note that the COVID world of digital interactions is not so different from inperson. We follow the same general patterns, frequencies of contact, and we’re just as satisfied (or sometimes more) to send memes in a group chat of our top five friends. Similarly, we use emojis to replace the obvious facial cues we use in-person.

Nonetheless, staying socially engaged during COVID can be a challenge for students who already have a lot on their plate. But entering social networks has significant health benefits, while social isolation can cause harm. So, what are some tips for having a social semester?

Bzdok and Dunbar suggest that you create opportunities where friendships can develop naturally. Friendships are not forced; they involve a willingness from both parties. Thankfully, UTM offers many campus events and occasions to make a new friend.

Another bonus UTM offers is an abundance of student clubs. The study found that joining social groups (i.e. sports, hobby groups, etc.), can reduce the risk of depression by almost two-thirds.

Thirdly, choose video for your calls. The study emphasizes that the visual component of an interpersonal encounter plays a key role in creating a more satisfying digital experience.

Lastly, try singing – an activity known for its dramatic, immediate effect in lifting one’s spirits and creating a sense of social engagement.

Being social creatures by nature, humans struggle in isolation. This semester, we may feel the absence of the physical UTM community – bonding over free breakfast, group study dates in the library, and walking through campus with our friends. Yet, our social needs remain, and our online tools, though not the same, can lead us to healthier and happier lives.