No bargaining dates after a week
MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM
Picketers were out last week chanting and handing out information to students about the strike.
Length of strike uncertain as Unit 3 nears end of its own vote on university’s offer MARIA IQBAL NEWS EDITOR The university still refuses to meet with Unit 1 a week into the strike, according to the unit’s vice-chair Ryan Culpepper. After Unit 1 members voted down the tentative agreement, CUPE 3902 immediately issued a press release saying that the bargaining team was prepared to meet on short notice to continue negotiations. VP human resources & equity Angela Hildyard said in a memo on Wednesday that the university will meet Unit 1 when the provincial mediator “thinks there is a basis to return to the bargaining table”. Culpepper, vice-chair of Units 1 and 2, was sceptical. “The mediator has only one job and that’s to bring the parties together,” he said. “I can’t believe that if the union is saying it’s ready to meet any time and the employer is saying it’s ready to meet any time that it’s somehow the mediator that’s the hurdle. It’s ludicrous.” Asked to clarify what was meant by the “basis” for continuing negotiations, Hildyard responded on Sunday that “we have nothing
to add to what we have said previously”, repeating that the university remains in touch with the mediator and would return to bargaining once he invites them to do so. On Tuesday, CUPE 3902 chair Erin Black told The Medium that U of T administration told the bargaining team that they “do not plan to meet with [CUPE 3902 representatives] at this time”. When asked to comment, U of T news & media relations director Althea Blackburn-Evans referred to the stance taken by Provost Cheryl Regehr in a blog entry for The Huffington Post. In it, Regehr says that all Unit 1 members should have a chance to vote on the tentative agreement, which was overwhelmingly rejected at a meeting of 800 to 1,000 Unit 1 members out of 6,000. According to Ontario labour laws, an employer can request the Ministry of Labour to hold a vote on their last offer among the membership even after a strike is declared. “Upon receiving this request, the minister is obligated to direct such a vote,” says the Ontario Ministry of Labour’s website. It is unclear whether U of T has requested such a vote.
According to Black, around 500 Unit 1 members are course instructors. It is unclear how many courses are unable to meet because of the strike. Meanwhile, both CUPE 3902 and U of T have publicly accused each other of spreading misinformation. GRAD STUDENT FUNDING In an open letter on Thursday, Regehr and Hildyard discussed the tentative agreement that was rejected. According to the letter, while graduate students are guaranteed a minimum funding package of $15,000, the actual amount of support students receive can range from $23,400 to over $46,000. When asked to comment, Culpepper called the numbers “junk”. Culpepper, who is also a member of the Unit 1 bargaining team, said that the $23,400 is the amount of the $15,000 minimum funding package when added to the tuition waiver that is given to students in the funded cohort. The funded cohort consists of students in either the first four or the first five years of a Ph.D, depending on the program.
According to Culpepper, the average student takes six and a half to seven years to complete their Ph.D. He claimed that when Unit 1 members win external awards, those members lose their tuition waiver and the fees are deducted from the award. The Medium has not independently verified this claim. He also said that the unfunded cohort—including international students and students in the upper years of their Ph.D—are charged full tuition without receiving the funding package. “Shame on the university for using distorted junk numbers,” he said. The letter also notes that the agreement focused on the working conditions of TAs as part-time employees, which Regehr and Hildyard said is “separate from the broader issue of graduate student support”. Asked why the bargaining team initially accepted the tentative agreement, Culpepper said that its employment benefits for graduate students were worthwhile. “The contract that was recommended and then voted on as strictly an employment contract was a good offer,” said Culpepper, noting
the wage increases and improved health benefits among other improvements. “What wasn’t in that contract […] was matters of minimum funding and tuition relief. All the wages and benefits in the world don’t mean anything to you if your funding is capped at $15,000 and can’t go up.” UNIT 1’S ALLEGED THREATS Culpepper also accused U of T of spreading misleading information concerning Unit 1 members who continue to work during the strike. He pointed to the “crazy FAQ” that U of T has posted online, specifically referring to questions that discuss alleged threats from CUPE 3902 to its members who continue to work. “[U of T says] the union shouldn’t threaten us like that. Well, the union has never said that,” he claimed. CUPE 3902’s constitution also says that members who work for the employer during a legal strike “or engages in any strike-breaking activities” is guilty of an offence, which can result in fines or the loss of union membership. Strike continued on page 4
Two slates after 5 years
Two sides to every coin
Coming out to Mom
Feminism’s full circle
Down and out and up
UTM Rise faces off against
Some are protesting Israel’s
Filmmakers on how they
An introduction to changes
So the women’s bball team
UTM Reform as they rack
settlement policy this week.
involved their parents in
in our culture that mean we
wasn’t so hot this season.
up the demerit points.
Keep a clear head as you do.
their LGBT-friendly projects.
need to redefine the term.
Essence says that’ll change.
Medium News, page 2
Medium Opinion, page 5
Medium Arts, page 8
Medium Features, page 11
Medium Sports, page 14
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«NEWS
THE MEDIUM 03.09.2015
Two slates competing for UTMSU exec UTM Rise and UTM Reform are going head to head after both slates were nearly disqualified
UTM RISE
UTM REFORM PRESIDENT
Ebi Agbeyegbe VP external
Maaham Malik Div 3 director
The need to lower fees Increase student presence on university governing bodies
Break the “wall that exists between the students and the student union” “Union Ear”, an open forum where students can “discuss issues and seek advice” “Honesty box” for feedback Improvements to campus Wi-Fi
VP INTERNAL & SERVICES MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM
Francesco Otello-DeLuca VP campus life
The presidential candidates debated on stage in the Blind Duck. NICOLE DANESI ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR For the first time since 2010, two slates are going head to head in this year’s UTMSU annual spring election. UTM Rise and UTM Reform, the two slates vying to be elected to the union’s executive team, began campaigning at noon last Monday. Despite what presidential candidate for UTM Reform referred to as “many attempts to discourage [her] from running” against the other slate, both teams are continuing to compete for positions on next year’s executive team. “They approached me when they found out that I had a team that was going to run, because it came to them as a shock because they hadn’t seen a team in many years,” said Maaham Malik. By Wednesday night, both slates were pending disqualification because of the demerit points they had racked up. According to the Elections and Procedures Code, candidates running for UTMSU executive can get a maximum of 35 demerits before being disqualified. For VP parttime candidates, that number is 30, with a cap of 25 demerits for candidates running for seats on UTMSU’s board. By Tuesday morning, Rise was alleged to have violated the Elections Procedure Code for “improper distribution of campaign material”, according to statements issued by Ashley Toste, UTMSU’s chief returning officer on UTMSU’s “Wall of Transparency”. This is the glass wall of the union office on which brief updates on rulings are posted during the elections. The allegations resulted in eight demerit points for each Rise member. Reform candidates racked up 12 demerit points each for the same violation, having been charged additional demerit points for “multiple violations in [the] same building/ location”. On Wednesday, Reform was charged with “malicious or intentional violation of election procedure code or policy” and was issued 20 demerit points. Rise was also
charged 15 demerit points for “unsanctioned use of union resources” after “candidate(s) abused their position in the union during campaign time” the same day. In separate interviews with The Medium, both teams addressed the charges. “We just have to make sure that our volunteers or people helping with the campaign are following the EPC,” said Ebi Agbeyegbe, presidential candidate for Rise and the current UTMSU VP external. Reform also discussed the allegations. “There [have] been some mistakes from our parts as well, which we did unintentionally,” said Muhammed Talha Mahmood, the candidate for VP internal & services. The demerit points were later reduced for both teams. On Friday, the Elections and Referenda Committee retracted 15 demerit points from Rise, 14 demerit points from Reform, and 13 demerit points specifically from Rise parttime contender Amir Moazzami. The details of the rulings are unknown. As of press time, Toste had not responded to requests for clarification. CANDIDATES TAKE QUESTIONS Members of both slates gathered on Thursday for a two-hour Q & A at the Blind Duck. The public forum carried on despite both slates being disqualified at the time. “We held a meeting with both teams on Wednesday evening to discuss their disqualification and their options to appeal. As the CRO I allowed them to both participate in the all-candidates debate on Thursday because their appeals would only be heard by the Elections and Referenda Committee in the late afternoon. They were not allowed to campaign until the ERC decisions were made,” said Ashley Toste in an email on Saturday. Questions from the audience were vetted by election representatives before being asked, to make sure they were “appropriate”, according to services manager Nausheen Adam.
Elections continued on page 3
Increased club funding Lobbying for improved transit services Merge U-Pass with ISIC (N.B. This is already being implemented in the fall.) More lounge space and games in Student Centre New stage in Blind Duck
Muhammed Talha Mahmood Former board member
24-hour print and photocopy centre on campus System for legal and financial assistance through U of T alumni New hiring practices for UTMSU including feedback to job candidates for each decision
VP UNIVERSITY AFFAIRS & ACADEMICS
Nour Alideeb Minister of the environment
Include student rights on course syllabi Work with union representatives at other campuses to secure “grade forgiveness”
Taras Yasynovsky
Declared ineligible one hour into campaigning, according to the slate (has not paid incidental fees for winter semester)
VP EQUITY
Zehra Ramsha Food Centre coordinator
Use sexual assault policy as a tool for “advocacy, educating, and providing services and resources” Expand interfaith space, work towards establishing interfaith centre on campus
Rishabh Dev Div 2 director
Expand student bursaries Increase interfaith space More emergency push buttons on campus Improve student awareness of Food Centre services
VP EXTERNAL
Naveen Ahmed Div 3 director
Shreya Narang Clubs coordinator
Lobby for lower international student fees Improve food options Limit entry to library fourth floor to UTM students Work on international student healthcare services (“work with provincial, municipal, federal government to make sure that we get OHIP”)
Establish immigration counselling services on campus
VP PART-TIME AFFAIRS Amir Moazzami VP Part-time Affairs
Never filled
Not present at forum
DIVISION 2 (Directors-at-large; full-time UTM undergraduates) 4 seats Ayesha Anand Chirag Nihalani Faiza Yousuf Hiba Al-Attar Nikhil Chhabra Vaibhav Narang Valentina Botero-Gutierrez
N/A
DIVISION 3 (Central directors-atlarge; full-time U of T undergrads who represent on UTSU’s board) 7 seats
DIVISION 4 (Part-time) 2 seats
Abbas Godhrawala Abdul Hadi Tariq Abdul Shakoor Kahloon Abdulla Omari Emerson Calcada Falhad Mohamoud Farah Noori Hashim Yussuf Larsen Manns Maheen Farrukh Sana Chishti
DIVISION 5 (Mississauga Academy of Medicine) 1 seat
No candidates.
No candidates.
Photos Nicole Raquinio Mahmoud Sarouji facebook.com/talha.ahmedani
03.09.2015 THE MEDIUM NEWS» 3
Last stage for fee hikes February 25, 9:45 p.m. Noise complaint Noise complaint was reported at the Student Centre. February 26, 1:45 p.m. Parking Related A vehicle was towed for excessive fines. February 26, 4:20 p.m. Theft Under $5,000 Campus Police investigated the theft of a laptop from an unlocked locker. February 26, 5:20 p.m. Theft Under $5,000 Campus Police investigated theft of personal belongings from an unlocked locker.
February 26, 10:52 a.m. Motor Vehicle Accident Campus Police investigated a report of a motor vehicle accident in parking lot 9. March 4, 7:35 p.m. Controlled Drugs and Substances Act Campus Police investigated a report of smell of marijuana. The person(s) were gone upon arrival. March 4, 10:50 a.m. Driving Offences Campus Police cautioned a driver who entered UTM Campus in an aggressive manner.
These reports are those that have been released to The Medium and do not necessarily constitute an exhaustive list. Students can contact the UTM Campus Police at 905 828 5200, Peel Regional Police at 905 453 3311, or Crime Stoppers at 1 800 222 8477.
Voting starts this Tuesday Elections continued from page 2 One candidate from each slate answered each question. The responses and platform promises are tabulated in the accompanying infographic. All executive candidate positions were present at the forum except Rise’s Amir Moazzami, the sole candidate running for a second term as VP part-time affairs. Toste said Moazzami was unable to attend. “There is a wall that exists between the students and the student union,” said Maaham Malik, the presidential candidate for Reform. “One of my main goals this year is to break that wall.” Unlike Rise, which has a full roster of executive candidates, Reform has candidates for only four of six positions, having never had a VP part-time affairs and following the ineligibility of their VP university affairs & academics candidate, Taras Yasynovsky. According to Reform, Yasynovsky was disqualified one hour into campaigning as he was not considered a member of the union. Toste, however said that Yasynovsky was not “disqualified” but was “an ineligible candidate because he has not paid membership fees in the Winter 2015 session”. According to the UTMSU Constitution and Bylaws, “membership is only valid for the session paid”. According to Reform, Yasynovsky was not a student in the winter semester and therefore did not pay the levy for that term, although they said he plans to return to classes in the fall. Reform appealed the disqualification on the basis that the code was “vague” and “unfair”, but were
denied their request. The nomination period drew a total of 31 candidates for both executive and board positions prior to closing on February 27. BOARD CANDIDATES Shortly after the nomination period, Ali Al Wafi and Ryan Persaud pulled out of the race for Division 3 director. Vibhuti Razdan was also disqualified from running for Division 2. Several candidates vying for a seat on the board of directors were also present at the candidates’ forum on Thursday and were briefly introduced, but did not participate in the discussion.
By Wednesday, both teams were facing disqualifications after accumulating demerit points over the first three days of campaigning. No candidates are running for the two part-time representative positions available within Division 4, or the sole seat representing the Mississauga Academy of Medicine within Division 5 of the union’s board of directors. Both positions will remain vacant until a by-election is held this fall along with the Division 1 candidates vying for the two positions representing first-year students. Voting for next year’s executive and board positions will take place from 9 a.m. on Tuesday until 6 p.m. on Thursday. The results are to be announced next Monday.
MAYDA ALKHALDI/THE MEDIUM
UTMSU’s president Hassan Havili says U-Pass fraud is one reason fees are going up. MENNA ELNAKA ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR Fee increases for the U-Pass and student services were approved by Campus Council, the last step before confirmation by the Executive Committee, last week. The motions had been passed by the Campus Affairs Committee on February 12 and were brought to the Campus Council on Thursday. The first motion was an increase to UTMSU fees. Currently, full-time students pay $119.16 per session to UTMSU and part-time students pay $97.58. Next fall the fee will increase to $127.15 for full-time students and $105.33 for part-time students. The bulk of the fee increase involves what the agenda calls an “inflationary” increase for the U-Pass. According to UTMSU president Hassan Havili, UTMSU’s agreement with MiWay Transit calls for an increase of 9% every year. The referendum voted on by students on the U-Pass allows UTMSU to request increases to the fee by up to 9% after approval from the UTMSU board. The UTMSU board approved the fee increases at its meeting on November 24. Havili said one of the major reasons
for this increase by MiWay Transit is because of “fraud” that students commit with the U-Pass. The U-Pass fees are expected to increase by $7.67 per session, by $10.08 in the summer, and by $4.76 for the students in the Mississauga Academy of Medicine. Other non-academic incidental fees in the motion included a $0.26 increase in the society portion of the fee, a $0.01 increase for the Erindale College Special Response Team, a $0.01 increase for the Food Bank portion of the fee, a $0.02 increase for the Academic Societies portion of the fee, and a $0.02 increase for the student refugee program WUSC. Fees for UTM student services were also increased. The UTM Athletics and Recreation fee will be increased to $171.76 for full-time students, with a $3.37 annual increase, and $34.35 for part-time students, with an annual increase of $0.67. The Student Services fee, which funds a range of programs and services, will be increased to $151.08 for fulltime students with an $8.57 year-overyear increase, and $30.22 for part-time with a $1.72 increase per year. The Campus Council also approved increases for UTM Health and Servic-
es and for the fall and winter U-Pass for UTM-affiliated graduate students. On the other hand, for both UTM graduate and undergraduate students, the summer shuttle service fee is to decrease to $4.41, with a year over year decrease of $0.27. Before the vote on the second set of fees, Mark Overton, UTM’s dean of student affairs, discussed Quality Services to Students, which deals with non-tuition fees. QSS protocol allows students to be involved in decisions to increase incidental fees. QSS meets with advisory groups and service directors to discuss budget and fee proposals. QSS also considers proposals from the administration. In order for the proposal to be accepted, there has to be a “double majority” of votes in favour—a majority of voters and a majority of student voters. If accepted, the proposal is forwarded to the relevant governing body. Overton said Student Affairs weighs the impact of the increases or decreases on the students and tries to find a “balance” for them. The motions passed last week will be submitted to the Executive Committee on May 11. The next Campus Council meeting will be held on April 22.
Blazing the university trail FARAH QAISER STAFF WRITER The annual Trailblazers: New Perspectives tri-campus conference for first-generation students took place on February 28 at St. George. Twenty-three UTM students attended the conference, which consisted of first-generation students and current utmPLUS mentors and coaches from the “First in the Family” program. Participants were invited to explore their identities, passions, and strengths through various workshops and speakers and had the opportunity to meet other first-generation students, mentors, alumni, and staff. Four concurrent sessions were offered at the conference focusing on equity and inclusion, networking with alumni, and other topics. Each hourly session was led by two instructors who guided students through activities to help them understand the different aspects of be-
ing a first-generation student. The instructors who led these sessions were first-generation alumni. The activities ranged from freestyle writing to conversations with alumni and interactive sessions where students could share their personal experiences.
“All of us are successful and unsuccessful [...] you’re the boss and you have to be unapologetic about it.” The keynote was given by firstgeneration speaker Gloria Roheim McRae, the author of the Amazon bestseller BYOB: The Unapologetic Guide to Being Your Own Boss and the cofounder of Wedge15, a firm that has helped establish over 200 projects by providing digital strategies.
McRae shared her personal experiences with the students, describing how she was the first in her family to enter university and how her grades did not define her career. She said she had worked at 21 jobs in three different countries before settling on her career. “All of us are successful and unsuccessful—it just depends on what area of life you’re looking at. […] You just have to make sure that what you’re doing is a success to you, and you can have a lot of believers or naysayers, but either way, you’re the boss and you have to be unapologetic about it,” McRae said. Various prizes were handed out throughout the day to the participants, including copies of McRae’s BYOB and gift cards. U of T also offers the First in the Family program to first-generation students. At UTM, the program has recently started offering utmPLUS, a series of biweekly sessions for students to interact with upper-year first-generation students.
4
«NEWS
THE MEDIUM 03.09.2015
»HOW ARE YOU AFFECTED
Still to “Thrive” at UTM
BY THE STRIKE?
Ismail Noray 1st year, social science
Ayan Ahmed 1st year, CCIT
I feel like I’m not in uni anymore. Tutorials were the reason I got out of bed.
I just get to sleep in. I have no drive to do my work because it’s not being graded.
Khadija Tariq 3rd year, business mgmt
Muqsit Rana 1st year, criminology
The whole walking from the bus stop is a workout on its own.
I can’t get help since tutorials are cancelled and TAs aren’t working.
Unit 3 is voting now
ZARA RIZWAN/THE MEDIUM
Katrina Vogan launched the Thrive initiative at St. George and hopes a UTM chapter will follow. MARIUM FAISAL Victims of sexual violence have had an advocacy group at St. George for a month, but Thrive has yet to make an appearance at UTM. At the start of last month Katrina Vogan founded Thrive U of T, a group that advocates for better institutional support for those who are affected by sexual violence. The third-year physics and literature major at St. George wanted to give a voice to the unheard narratives of sexual victimization. It was the increasing number of stories on campus and in the news that encouraged her to build on the idea. “During the Jian Ghomeshi and Bill Cosby trials, this had become a topic of conversation that I was very frustrated about and eventually the frustration grew to an extent where I felt like I didn’t have a choice but to do something productive and do something that might change it,” Vogan said. In November, U of T created an advisory committee on sexual assault on campus. When the committee announced its members, few of them were students. According to Vogan, UTSU VP equity Najiba Sardar was “very vocal”
in expressing her disappointment. Because of Sardar and St. George student Celia Wandio, who launched a petition for more student voices to be represented on the advisory committee, the situation “marginally improved” by adding students to the committee’s working groups, said Vogan. This was all she needed to start her own initiative with the help of others who had worked on raising awareness about sexual violence cases. Among the institutional issues Vogan said she wants to address is the accessibility and awareness of the services offered on both campuses. Many students don’t know that counselling services are offered to them, said Vogan, and when they do find out they have to make an appointment because there is no walk-in service. There is only one sexual assault counsellor appointed to serve the three campuses. Thrive now runs a blog that includes “And Then”, a platform for students to tell their own stories about sexual assault. Vogan said the stories don’t just talk about what happened but about the aftermath as well: the way the students felt, what they were thinking, and the healing process.
“We need to be having open conversations about that fact that violence doesn’t look the same against women or men, doesn’t look the same based on who you are. Sexual violence as a blanket term is a very big thing,” said Vogan. “Because it’s such a big term we really need to have that conversation about what that looks like if you’re not white, if you’re not straight, if you’re not part of a gender binary.” The blog also has a survey in English and Chinese on safety and services offered at St. George. Vogan says part of the reason Thrive is not already at UTM is that the campus offers a different experience that “isn’t understood as well by those who live and go to the downtown campus”. She added that feeling safe at UTM was probably a more “complicated feeling” than at U of T. “The woods seem really beautiful during the daytime but it becomes a very different situation at night,” she said. Vogan visited UTM to investigate her options, but said it would be better if a UTM student took the lead in running the initiative here. She said the main group is willing to share its resources.
Priorities for U of T’s future MALEEHA IQBAL STAFF WRITER MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM
A picket in the snow. Strike continued from Cover Earlier, the bargaining committeesteward’s council representative for Unit 1, Tom Laughlin told The Medium that CUPE 3902 has not yet decided to engage that provision for members who choose not to strike, but added that the union can choose to do so if the union “goes in that direction”. UNIT 3 VOTE ENDS TUESDAY Last Tuesday, Black told The Medium that the ratification vote for Unit 3’s tentative agreement was underway. Unit 3 members had voted in favour of their tentative agreement last Monday, moving the agreement to a full membership vote which ends on Tuesday at 5 p.m. “We’ll know the outcome later that night,” said Black. If the tentative agreement is
passed, the new agreement will come into effect. If struck down, Unit 3 members would be on strike. YORK MAKES NEW OFFER As of Friday night, CUPE 3903 at York had reached a tentative agreement with York administration that will be subject to a ratification vote on Monday. Three units of CUPE 3903 have been on strike since Tuesday and no classes have been in session since then. According to a statement released on Saturday by CUPE 3903, union members and York administration returned to the bargaining table on Thursday. The statement says that if the majority of members in each of the three units vote in favour of the tentative agreement, the strike will end with members likely to return to work on Tuesday.
President Meric Gertler visited UTM last month to solicit feedback from students and staff on his “three priorities” for meeting the challenges U of T is facing. The “three priorities”, inspired by the goals in the Towards 2030 plan, are using the university’s location better, establishing stronger international relationships, and improving undergraduate education. Gertler said during his visit on February 26 that he wanted to be more engaged as a “city-builder”. “The better we make the Greater Toronto Area, the easier it is for us to make the University of Toronto better,” he said. Gertler also said he wanted to allow both students and faculty to benefit from the research opportunities afforded by the university’s location. UTM’s principal Deep Saini asked about difficulties arising at St. George when, he alleged, the city does not respond with the same “vigour”. “How we can engage on a broader scale in that mutualistic way with our
community and vice versa as we have done here in Mississauga?” he said. Gertler replied that he has received positive feedback in Toronto since he started communicating in November 2013 that U of T is interested in engaging with partners in the community. “Our new mayor in Toronto has been quite interested in reopening the conversation,” he said. He said the Scarborough campus has managed to engage with its community. “The most recent and most tangible example of that would be the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, which is a joint venture with the city of Toronto,” he said, adding that the athletics centre benefits both the campus and the community. On the priority of improving undergraduate education, Gertler said the university wants to make sure students can succeed in “whatever they choose to do”. “That’s why I believe that we should not be rejecting the traditional liberal arts model, but in fact rejuvenating it and renewing it, and thinking about how we can make it
work for our students more effectively,” he said. One of the ways he hoped to do so is through improved online teaching formats. One student asked Gertler to take a stance on the cost of postsecondary education. The student called for U of T to communicate to the government that “loans are detrimental to students and how it affects accessible education”. Gertler’s solution was to remind taxpayers of the social benefits of public education. “There are such important spillovers to society at large from having well-educated citizens,” he said. Gertler said he wants to expand U of T’s international activities by encouraging more students to pursue international opportunities and removing obstacles to doing so. The Towards 2030 plan was launched in 2007 to improve U of T’s position in undergraduate research, graduate education, and as a research-intensive university. Feedback on Gertler’s three priorities can be sent to three.priorities@ utoronto.ca, he said.
03.09.2015
MASTHEAD EDITORS Editor-in-Chief Luke Sawczak editor@themedium.ca News Maria Iqbal news@themedium.ca A&E Maria Cruz arts@themedium.ca Features Madeleine Brown features@themedium.ca Sports Jason Coelho sports@themedium.ca — Photo Mahmoud Sarouji photos@themedium.ca Design Mubashir Baweja design@themedium.ca Copy Akshaya Sharma copy@themedium.ca Online & Blog Michelle Bonsu Safia Amin blog@themedium.ca online@themedium.ca Video Russell Wu videos@themedium.ca ASSOCIATES News Nicole Danesi Menna Elnaka A&E Kathelene Cattell-Daniels Features Andreea Mihai Sports Eric Hewitson Sihan Zheng Photo Christy Tam Zara Rizwan Nicole Raquinio Copy Tanya Decarie GENERAL STAFF Distribution Manager Ifunanya Paulinus distribution@themedium.ca Comic Artist Corey Belford BOARD OF DIRECTORS Christine Capewell, Larissa Ho, Saima Khan, Denio Lourenco, Jaime Pokhoy, Obaid Said, Ajay Sharma, Luke Sawczak
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5
Room for disagreement Even in the heat of moral indignation, we have to keep an open mind It’s Israeli Apartheid Week in Toronto, and we have a features article by Dana Bibi on the Israeli company SodaStream. The main point of interest is that it operates its principal factory in a settlement in the West Bank—i.e. on Palestinian land that most of the world does not recognize as Israeli. Israel is a very delicate topic and has blown up in The Medium before. I don’t mind blow-ups, but we have to be very much on our guard to tell both sides of the story. Boycotts of this factory have cropped up in the last few years, mainly instigated by BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions), a Palestinian organization dedicated to stopping the Israeli occupation through economic and academic sanctions. Many clearthinking people have withheld their support from BDS, including some of Palestine’s most prominent advocates, such as Noam Chomsky (who says its “hypocrisy rises to heaven” and that it “harms Palestinians”) and even the Palestinian Authority itself, the provisional government of the West Bank. Similarly, some of those who decry the injustice of Israeli settlement have expressed concerns about BDS’s founder, Omar Barghouti, being something of a charlatan and hypocrite, being that he recently studied at Tel Aviv University in Israel. All of this is on the decently balanced Wikipedia page.
But BDS is very popular across the globe and has a lot of support, including here at UTM, as the over 60 heated comments on a former UTMSU VP equity’s letter to The Medium show. In general, even if BDS is a poorly run organization, its general goal of encouraging Israel to stop building settlements in Palestine, stop refusing Palestinians entry to Israel, and stop doing other things controversially referred to as “Israeli Apartheid” (the Wikipedia page redirects you to a more neutral phrasing, a good indicator of the term’s not being widely accepted), is a good goal. Even the Palestinian Authority supports boycotting not of all Israel but products made in the West Bank. It’s easy to see why people get behind it without doing research on the particulars: Nobody in their right mind wants to see Israel continue to oppress Palestinians. So that brings us to the SodaStream factory. Again, the bad is that it’s on land that almost nobody considers belongs to Israel but was seized in the Six-Day War of 1967. Many of these settlements are enclosed by walls, and some even by electric fences, as though Palestinians were wolves. A huge part of the international pressure on Israel is to cut out the settlements. The PA’s economy minister has warned Palestinians not even to patronize the industrial park it’s in, Mishor Adumim.
But they do patronize it—and in fact work there. That brings us to the good side, which is that large numbers of otherwise unemployed Palestinians work there and at SodaStream specifically. At that factory, 950 of its 1,300 workers are Arab, and 500 of those are Palestinian. At the factory they receive significantly more than the minimum wage the PA has set for the West Bank. The vast majority of employees interviewed by The Christian Science Monitor (a very well-respected paper for its coverage of the Middle East and, despite the name, mostly secular) did not want to see the factory close. However, some employees did protest the unfair working conditions. For example, Jewish dietary requirements are the norm there, not Muslim ones, and the article mentions that there is difficulty arranging for Ramadan fastbreaking feasts under the restrictions in force. Perhaps more notably, the upper levels are all Israeli while the assembly line workers are Arab, leading to a disturbingly colonial image in which a lower class provides labour for an affluent upper class. In other words, the Palestinians working there might get a better deal than elsewhere in Palestine, but it’s still essentially geared to making them second-class. All of this argument is somewhat dated now, however, because just in October SodaStream announced that
it would close the factory by the end of 2015. They say it’s because of profitability issues, whether or not that’s true—I don’t know if it’s as much about revenue loss from the successful boycotting of its products or the image loss resulting from the fact of boycotting. A potentially looming followup is that the factory is moving to an area that is on what is internationally agreed to be Israeli territory, but it’s close to the predominantly Bedouin city of Rahat, which could create some of the same issues all over again. Lots of Bedouin would be employed... but is it really good for their people to implicitly support Israeli manufacturing? After all, among other reasons for their becoming sedentary, they’ve suffered mobility issues since Israel put up the extremely controversial West Bank wall. So it is a story of great interest with multiple angles. Yes, boycotting can be prudent, but there are times and places. Yes, the message was valid, but it wasn’t complete. Yes, we can celebrate the outcome, even if we acknowledge that the short-term loss of jobs is a cost Palestinian workers pay. When we take sides we don’t need to lose our power of criticism. YOURS, LUKE SAWCZAK
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Students on the strike 24 students on how it affects them and whether or not they’re in support I’m lost for words because I have assignments that I handed in and have yet to receive. Still haven’t received a first mark for one of my classes. Mohamed Dini 2nd year, CCIT We pay thousands of dollars a year; the administration and the union need to reach a fair and just agreement ASAP. Ryan Persaud 3rd year, English & philosophy Half of my classes are basically pointless now because of this strike and it’s even affecting the MiWay transit. I fell two times yesterday coming up the hill, and almost this morning, too. Their rights need to be met, but so do ours. There has to be a way to reach a consensus without making us suffer. Dammy Oduko 2nd year, English & drama The strike has affected my commuting times! I have to walk an additional 15 minutes to arrive to class. I also hate not knowing whether or not my classes will be cancelled. Some of us can’t afford an extra semester. We’re paying so much money to receive an education, so the university should grant the requests of the TAs. They’re not asking for a millionaire’s salary, just a raise. Sophia Bustos 3rd year, CCIT I couldn’t get help for my essay on time. My TA responded 24 hours later with an automated email. My tutorials are cancelled, and they were helpful because they summed up the previous week’s content through application. If they want to talk about corporate greed, they’re being entitled hypocrites. Ajanta Sivanesparan 3rd year, life sciences I had already studied for a test the day before the class was cancelled. Sophia Yang 3rd year, CTEP I think the strike is justified; being paid several thousand dollars under the poverty line, giving them the right to protest, and the university should pay their employees adequately. Amandip Dhindsa 2nd year, poli sci & history
I believe that the strike is, for the most part, a healthy way of showing us how crucial the TAs and other parttime staff are to our education and the university as a whole, thus raising our awareness of the rights and benefits they deserve. However, the strike should not go on for too long as this will result in a chaotic unorganized environment that will affect the students negatively, who have no say or influence on the rights and benefits given to the TAs. Abdel Rahman Mouftah 2nd year, biology & psychology Students, who have nothing to do with the conflict, should not be punished. Mohamed Mansour 3rd year, psychology The TAs got in with this agreement of this job while they’re studying, so they knew about it from the beginning. Heba Yasser 3rd year, commerce I think what the TAs are doing is remarkable and worthy of praise. It’s not easy for them to strike, and they have a right to demand a wage above mere subsistence. They’re brilliant individuals and as inconvenienced as I am, I respect their decision. Mehak Kawatra 2nd year, crim & English I understand the TAs, and I really think they have a right in what they do, but I do not want to be affected because the problem isn’t mine; it’s between the administration and the unit. I’m also paying for this semester and I don’t want my exams to be affected, in addition to not getting my midterm marks back and having to walk in the snow because of the bus route changes. Carol Mekhaeil 2nd year, life sciences I say that the TAs had a contract signed or duties to be done; they can protest while working. But with the strike, we students will be affected. I would say that I am with it, if it’s true, as they say, that they don’t get paid in a fair way. You can’t just watch wrong things happen and stay calm, but if it’s about higher salary, well, everyone is suffering. George Samaan 1st year, life sciences
I honestly don’t care as long as my classes are not affected. Sandra Elbaradie 2nd year, management The TA strike sucks because MiWay and the shuttle bus cannot access campus. However, TAs are currently being paid below the poverty line. TAs do the bulk of the teaching and deserve better pay because of this. So I think the strike is good. Sara Elborno 5th year, political science I completely understand where the TAs are coming from. However, they claim that they have the students’ best interests in mind, yet not only is this strike a huge inconvenience in terms of our commute and our labs and such, but now they’re probably going to get paid from our tuition, making
I feel that many students blame the TAs for things such as relocating bus stops when they don’t really have much choice. Yes, this strike affects many students, but it’s better to take a stand on this problem now, or else this problem will never be resolved by remaining quiet. our tuition fees skyrocket. That’s not fair to us. That would just put us in the same position they are in. I understand their concerns, I really do. But how does walking around in circles at a traffic light going to prove their point? If they did have our best interests in mind, they should proceed to help us in tutorials. Afnan Abdul 2nd year, poli sci & psychology I agree with the reason behind the strike, but I just want it to get resolved quickly so that I can get back to tutorials. Anisa Abdi 1st year, social sciences
I understand why TAs want to go on strike. I think they do deserve to have a higher wage to match the amount of work they have to complete as part of their job. I totally respect their right to strike. However in my opinion, this is a critical period during the academic school year and it would have been better if the two parties had reached an agreement so it would not affect students, who are paying to attend tutorials and some lectures. Nana Yaa Pabi 2nd year, poli sci & history
The fact that we got heated bus shelters to keep us warm while waiting for the bus and we can’t use them because of this stupid strike irritates me. Not only that but the distance I have to walk from the bus stop to school. Amanjit Garcha 4th year, political science
My tutorials are not mandatory so it has not impacted me as much, but the buses have. Instead of being able to stop at the campus, I have to walk to Mississauga Road and The Collegeway near the bridge, which I find unsafe in the evening and night around 6 p.m. You know the emails we always get about alerts about sexual assaults on campus all happened around that area; it just doesn’t make sense to have to go to that area to get on a bus. Sabrina 3rd year, criminology
I have done my share of reading about the reasons behind the current strike, and I will say that I sympathize with the plight of the teaching assistants who, in some cases, feel that they have no choice but to strike if they want themselves and their position heard. I sympathize. However, this situation, to be frank, still sucks for the students. On the surface, the situation does not seem that bad; classes still continue to run, and thanks to the efforts of the professors, things are running as smoothly as is possible considering the circumstances. But, still, there is only so much the professors can do, partly because doing more (such as doing more marking) would be considered stepping into the labour reserved for their TAs, and the professors are not allowed to do that. So while professors can make changes to reflect the changing circumstances (such as changing the assignments on the syllabus, the way the assignments are weighted, or the format of the assignments), that is all they can do. So students are missing out on having their assignments marked. Students are missing out on their tutorials, something their tuition is paying for. Students are, in some cases, missing their lectures (lectures are cancelled), so they may have to make up school in the summer, or at another time, or may not be able to graduate when they expected. All this is expounded by the fact that, at this time, the students do not have a clear idea of when the strike will end and when they can resume school as it was. The situation is bleak; indeed, bleaker than it seems on the surface of things. Hopefully, a suitable solution can be worked out soon, since the whole situation affects more than the TAs. Tersha De Konig 4th year, philosophy & psych
I’ve had one tutorial cancelled. The moved bus stop affects how quickly I get to class and planning my commute. I live two hours away already. Abisola Olaniyi 4th year, psychology
Compiled by Menna Elnaka Christine Sharma Sidra Weqra Maria Iqbal
Although the strike has really only affected one of my classes, PWC, I commend the TAs for standing up to U of T on the reoccurring issue of underpaid wages. I feel that many students blame the TAs for things such as relocating bus stops when they don’t really have much choice. Yes, this strike affects many students but it’s better to take a stand on this problem now, or else this problem will never be resolved by remaining quiet. Overall, I just feel like it’s unfair for students but there’s no other way of getting this message across, since TAs do teach and mark most, if not all, the material taught in classes. Brenda Zhou 2nd year, CCIT & PWC The strike has impacted some of my labs, including chemistry and anthropology. Both of those have been cancelled. Nothing affected me except for the cancelled tutorials. Vivan Sohal 1st year, life sciences
Re: U-Pass fee increases recommended Dear editor, Last year I wrote a letter to you when UTMSU had turned down the fee increase at the QSS meeting. That fee increase would have benefited the Health & Counselling Centre, among other services, allowing them to bring on additional staff to support the students on campus, especially a specific mental health nurse. This all happened prior to their campaign around the Student Centre expansion. Although stu-
dents had voted it down, the actions of UTMSU still stood. They had turned down an approximate $11 fee increase while requesting a $50 increase. Now I know it’s a fair question to ask why I am bringing up the past. It’s because when it comes to UTMSU, despite a change in leadership every year the same one-track mentality seems to persist; fee increases are only acceptable if they benefit UTMSU. This has been evidenced by the recent proposed hikes presented by
the UTMSU to the Campus Affairs Committee. The increase they have suggested is around $10 per term for the summer U-Pass and around $7 for part-time students in the fall/ winter term. On top of this there will be additional tuition fee increases to benefit other services situated under the UTMSU. I was not entirely shocked having read this in The Medium. Like last year, this increase has been requested after their rally against fee increases proposed by UTM. I was present in the Meeting
Place of Davis when a large group of students, led by the UTMSU executives, entered the space chanting for no fee increases. They later proceeded upstairs and interrupted a council meeting to make their point. I am in my fifth year now and by writing this letter to you now I am trying to make one definitive point. The UTMSU have, year after year, failed to capture the student’s needs. They have always put the benefit of their “organization” above that of others. If it doesn’t benefit UTMSU,
then it can’t happen. With the elections for next year’s executives approaching I would like to make one last statement to our current student body. No matter whose face is advertised on the posters, no matter what their platforms, current agendas, and ideas, they will forever adhere to one statement: UTMSU is not for the students, only for themselves. Zoya Tahir 5th year, biology
Executive Candidate Elections Forum UTSU is holding its Spring 2015 general elections
The forum will be held: Thursday, March 19 at 6:00 p.m. Medical Sciences Building in room 2170
To run for a position, pick up a nomination package during the nomination period at the UTSU office and return it by 5:00 p.m. by March 13. Please keep in mind the dates and deadlines.
For more information, visit your Students’ Union website at utsu.ca or contact the Chief Returning Officer at cro@utsu.ca
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03.09.2015
Diasporic family ties and the queer Two filmmakers share short films, perform songs, and open up about their LGBT identities MARIA CRUZ A&E EDITOR It’s always nerve-wracking to have to tell your parents a secret, let alone when it’s about your sexuality. The U of T Sexual and Gender Diversity Office, the UTM Equity and Diversity Office, and UTMSU gave two young filmmakers the chance to screen their films about the relationship between queer diasporic children and their parents. Casey Mecija and Vivek Shraya arrived at UTM last week as part of their Family Ties Tour to screen their two short films, My Father, Francis and Holy Mother My Mother. According to the SGDO website, Mecija is an artist, musician, and community organizer. She is involved in several organizations in Toronto ranging from Clutch, an arts program for young Filipino women, the AMY (Artists Mentoring Youth) Project, and Girls Rock Camp, which is a music camp for young women. On top of all this, Mecija also cofounded the Friends in Bellwoods music project, which
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Filmmakers Casey Mecija and Vivek Shraya. has raised $40,000 and counting for the Daily Bread Food Bank. Her film was recently awarded the Women in Film and Television Award at the 2013 International Reel Asian
Film Festival and was also chosen to screen at the 2014 Inside Out Festival in Toronto. Shraya is a Toronto-based artist whose work spans several media
including literature, music, performance, and film. He’s the author of two novels, She of the Mountains and God Loves Hair. She of the Mountains was named one of The Globe
and Mail’s Best Books of 2014, and Shraya is also a two-time Lambda Literary Award finalist. In addition to this, he’s the winner of the We Are Listening International Singer/ Songwriter Award and has released several albums dabbling in different genres. He’s read and performed at shows, festivals, and schools all over the world. Shraya’s also no stranger to the short film scene, with his film What I LOVE About Being Queer expanding to include an online project and book that’s been featured on Buzzfeed, The Huffington Post, and ELLE Magazine India. Before screening My Father, Francis, Mecija took to the mic to share a story about when she first came out to her father. She explained that she invited her girlfriend over for dinner once while her older sister was pregnant. Since there were only girls in the family, Mecija asked her father if he was hoping for a boy. He turned, smiled knowingly, and said, “I already have a boy.”
Family continued on page 10
The gruesome murder at Hart House Disturbing topics discussed on and off stage in Hart House’s last play of the season MARIA CRUZ A&E EDITOR Hart House put on an entirely different kind of production for the end of the season. Rather than taking on another Shakespeare play, director Chelsea Dab Hilke chose a modern one. This Is for You, Anna is a piece loosely based on the murder of Klaus Grabowski, who was gunned down during his trial for the charge of murdering Anna Bachmeier, whose mother Marianne burst into the courtroom and shot Grabowski in the back seven times, instantly killing him. She was sentenced to six years in prison. This play is a difficult one to take on; the entire story was constructed solely from a small newspaper article from the 1980s after the murder took place. Hilke and her brilliant ensemble merged improvisation with the script to create something unique and powerful. One of the most compelling aspects of this non-linear play was how snippets of scenes would break into ones already being performed. The actresses engaged in monologues and a flash would go off to the sound of a camera shutter, prompting an actress
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The four young women behind This Is for You, Anna. to interrupt her lines and shout, “No interviews!” This happened several times throughout, with the flashes sometimes going off repeatedly to look like paparazzi, which painted a great picture of what Bachmeier would have seen as she left the courtroom during her own trial.
The set was also notable. White clothes hanging on clotheslines that stretched out into the audience took up the majority of the stage. A refrigerator stood at back centre and a small TV set at stage right. Everything was there to pull the audience into the piece. The play began with
the TV turning on and playing a news clip about a murder. Also impressively, in some scenes the actresses all spoke at once. This was particularly moving when they discussed topics like domestic abuse. All four women began to give excuses simultaneously and the over-
lap effectively depicted the excuses women make for friends and family in an abusive relationship. The actresses all played Marianne, but took on different roles in certain scenes. Claudia Carino, Lesley Robertson, Amaka Umeh, and Melissa Williams were all powerhouses in their own ways. Anna was an offstage character. The group also worked well together when they improvised scenes. Williams warned the crowd that they shouldn’t watch the next scene they were about to perform. The audience chuckled and then the actresses branched off as different characters into the audience. They made their way through the crowd, engaging in conversation and asking questions. They broke the fourth wall like this several times throughout the play. Towards the end, all four actresses took on the role of Grabowski’s fiancée, providing her side of the story and trying to plead his innocence. Their speeches weren’t meant to convince anyone that Grabowski’s act should go unpunished, but it was interesting to see her perspective. Anna continued on page 9
03.09.2015 THE MEDIUM ARTS» 9
A burst of Hindustani culture Love never gets old Blankets balances art and prose KATE CATTELL-DANIELS ASSOCIATE A&E EDITOR
Narendra Datar, Raya Bidaye, and Kishore Kulkarni. MARIA CRUZ A&E EDITOR Students lent their ears to Indian music and culture as part of “Sarang: A Series of South Asian Performing Arts” in the MiST last Saturday. Free to students and faculty, the event gathered a decent crowd to hear Toronto’s Narendra Datar lecture on the modal and rhythmic qualities of North Indian classical music and listen to performances of the same. Datar began his formal musical training at the age of 16 under agra gharana vocalist Pandit Vasantrao Kulkarni, according to a biography provided at the event. Since 1986, he has been an active teacher, composer, and musician in Toronto. Datar is also a recipient of the Shastri IndoCanadian Institute Senior Performing Arts Fellowship.
Before the event kicked off, Deep Saini took to the mic to share a story about when he first arrived to Canada in 1982. He said that when he played this genre of music, people were too confused to appreciate it. He spoke about how the diaspora in Canada and the mainstream culture in Canada are becoming one, which allows people to speak between cultures. Anuja Panditrao took the stage to introduce Datar and some of the technical qualities of the music to be played and sung later that night. Datar introduced the two musicians who performed alongside him, Raya Bidaye on the harmonium and Kishore Kulkarni on the tabla, and the music began. The first piece was breathtaking, a strongly melodic piece that lasted for about five minutes. The amount
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of energy poured into each song was astounding. Panditrao gave some background on each song before it was performed, which made them easier to appreciate. For people like me who have never experienced a Hindustani workshop, listening to the complexity of the music combined with the insights on each piece was wonderful. After an intermission, Panditrao announced that a more complex, technically advanced piece would be performed. She advised the audience to pay special attention to the rhythxmic patterns. The song that concludes a recital in North Indian classical music, she said, is chosen to leave the audience in a peaceful state. The concert was incredible. To experience another culture in such a short amount of time was eyeopening.
With Reading Week past us, I imagine that most UTM students have just about had enough of school-related reading. So, here’s what I’d propose: brave the cold, head out, and get yourself a copy of Blankets by Craig Thompson. The story itself is cozy, centred around the coming-of-age of the young Thompson and all the things that are making this 17-yearold’s life way more complicated than he’d like. Raised a devout Christian, he’s battling bullies, a rocky relationship with his little brother, and a long-distance relationship with his one true love, Raina. But things aren’t simple on Raina’s end, either. With one sister married young, she is almost singlehandedly taking care of her family. Her parents are getting a divorce, and her two foster siblings, nearly adults, both struggle with mental disabilities. The characters are all fully developed and highly relatable, which is commendable, especially since there is not much time to build strong secondary characters. This graphic novel is nearly 600 pages long and mostly dedicated to exploring Craig and Raina’s relationship, which is described in one beautiful panel after another. Blankets is also metafiction. Thompson is an artist, and it seems appropriate that he gets to discover his love of drawing through drawing itself. His brother, also an important
character, draws as well, so it makes sense that he is featured in this story. Similarly, Raina writes poetry, expressed in the lyrical descriptions and inner thoughts Thompson includes. Herein, I think, lies the beautiful balance of this novel. The art is beautiful, though not overly complex; the dialogue is natural, but the narration is poetic. Thompson also makes good use of panels with action but no dialogue, and similarly uses silent panels to slow down the pace.
Though the end of the novel is devastating, the plotline follows a full arc that leaves no ends untied. The semiautobiographical graphic novel is not an easy medium to pull off; there is a fine line between a series of facts and just too much information. The pace of the action and the number of pages the novel takes is perfectly appropriate to the subject matter—everyday but not uneventful life. Though the end of the novel is devastating (bring tissues), the plotline follows a full arc that leaves no ends untied. Even from a structural point of view, it is satisfying to know that everyone has been accounted for, even if not all the questions have been answered.
Farewell to the gang This Is For You, Anna tackles Say goodbye to literally the best show MAYANK SHARMA STAFF WRITER When I first heard the news that Parks and Recreation would be airing its final season this year, I was heartbroken. As a guy who tends to be organized in everything he does, I always plan out my schedule in such a way that I keep up with the TV shows I watch. But that week I got to a point where I was finding any reason to not watch the series finale. Alas, I had to face my fears and view the end of a magnificent TV show. Parks and Recreation first aired in 2009 and introduced us to overly ambitious public servant Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and her hopes to make the beloved city of Pawnee the best in the world. Knope, along with her crack team, work for the Parks Department and are supervised by Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), who’s filled with anti-government sentiment. During a public forum, the department’s authority is questioned by a local nurse, Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones), when her boyfriend Andy (Chris Pratt) falls into a pit behind their house. Knope gives Perkins her word to tend to the issue, thus making it the foundation of their undying friendship. Over the next few seasons, she
jumps through hoops with her team—Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari), misanthropic April (Aubrey Plaza), Donna (Retta), and Jerry (Jim O’Heir)—to make the pit into a park. The show mocks the effectiveness of a local government when Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe) and Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) are tasked by the state government with assisting the government of Pawnee, which blossoms into new friendships and relationships. Parks and Recreation is not a show about politics. It’s about the character-driven storylines and the connections they make with the audience. The series finale wrapped up the show perfectly, giving every character the ending they deserved and leaving the audience with optimism and hope. The finale commendably left the audience with no loose ends. We are definitely going to miss the cast and all their quirks. Everything from Ron’s anti-government rants and Ben’s nerdiness to Jerry’s clumsiness, Tom and Donna’s “Treat Yo Self ” days, April’s hatred for humanity, Andy’s multiple personas, and Leslie and Ann’s friendship. So if you haven’t watched the series finale yet, get ready for a whirlpool of emotions. Or if you are looking for a good TV show to watch, this is literally one of the best ones yet.
rape, murder, domestic abuse Anna continued from page 8 After the play, a discussion followed with Hilke, the actresses, and Hilary Carroll, Michelle Langille, and Tenille Read, members of Theatre Inamorata, about “creative collection”. The moderator, Professor Kathleen Gallagher, began the discussion by enquiring about Theatre Inamorata, which Langille explained had been created to bring scripts to life for emerging female artists. “It’s nice to have a script that also inherently has that collective creation aspect,” Hilke said. “So you have the structure of the script, but there’s moments where you have to create together.” “The beauty of this piece is that it tells the story of not only just Marianne and Anna, but the unity of all women and the struggles that we’ve been going through,” Williams said. She thanked Hilke, saying that before they met she had neither understood nor supported feminism. Umeh said it was her first time being part of an official collective creation. “The script provides a skeleton for us and the fact that
it’s a true story definitely informed some of our connections to the piece,” she said. “But this isn’t something that’s happened to any of us, so in that sense we didn’t collectively create this experience.” But, she said, they spent a lot of time bringing themselves into the narrative under Hilke’s direction.
“We hope that what you take away [from the play] is that something needs to be done about the issues.” Hilke said certain parts of the script simply instructed them to improvise. “It was terrifying for me to just say, ‘Go off and make something,’ and I could tell it was terrifying for [the others] as well,” she said. “But I think that’s why an ensemble has to be really strong and connected and with the same goal in mind, because it is a scary thing to trust each other to put something together.” Umeh said they really wanted to
challenge the audience. “There are pieces that you go to see to be entertained but, especially with the addition of the victim scene, it sort of forces you to act,” she said. “We hope that when all is said and done, what you take away from the entire thing is that something needs to be done about the issues that are raised in this show.” As the discussion wrapped up, Robertson explained that there was never an effort to hide from the audience that four performers are taking on multiple characters. “I think it would be almost more confusing for the audience for me to be a schizophrenic performer on stage rather than this storyteller,” she said. “As performers relating to it, we’re communicating in different ways.” Hilke added that she had instructed the performers to present the characters and stories, but not to represent them. “That way, it does remove the actor from the character a little but to keep them unbiased and tell the story straight out,” she said. “That allows the audience to form their own opinions. We’re not trying to tell you how to feel about her or the events.”
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Filmmakers share their
Country meets rock
personal experiences
Artist Kid Rock releases his 12th album
UPLOAD.WIKIMEDIA.ORG/PHOTO
Kid Rock’s latest album promotes typical rock ’n’ roll themes. CHRISTOPHER ANTILOPE ASSOCIATE A&E EDITOR CHRISTY TAM/THE MEDIUM
The filmmakers screened My Father, Francis and Holy Mother My Mother. Family continued from page 8 Her short film was a touching journey between the two of them, showing them building objects together and participating in an art exhibit, organized by Mecija, which showcased her father’s creations for people to visit and experience. After her film screened she took to the mic again to perform a song, “Balikbayan”, which is a Tagalog term for goods and bodies that move across Filipino diasporic routes. Shraya came up next to share the story of how he came out to his mother. He began by sharing the story of how his older brother would be preoccupied with shaving while he would be preoccupied with eyebrows. He’d watch his mother pluck her eyebrows and eventually took her tweezers to his own. She took him down to Zellers to get him a pair of his own and handed them to him in the parking lot. Shraya took this as a sign that his mother knew his secret and loved him and accepted him just the same. The story is from his collection of short stories, God Loves Hair. Holy Mother My Mother follows the relationship between Shraya and his mother as they travel to India for Navratri, a festival that celebrates femininity and motherhood. The bonding between the two is a beautiful sight and it was very touching to watch his mother talk about her children and the joys of motherhood. After the screening, Shraya returned to the stage to give a little more insight into the inspiration for the film. “Her greatest joy, namely her children, is also the cause of her greatest pain and I think she’s always caught in this duality,” he says. “Despite the fact that we have very different belief systems, I believe that it’s our connection to spirituality that deepens our own connection to each other and I think my mom’s faith, in a lot of ways, gives her a lens in which to see and sometimes even embrace my queerness.” He then went on to sing one of his mother’s favourite prayers dedicated to a Hindu god-
dess, the same prayer she sang in the film. Mecija then joined him for a Q & A about their films. In regards to touring together and screening these films together, Mecija says the two of them have been friends for quite some time and that she’s always admired his projects. “When we made these films, Vivek was screening his film in Toronto and asked if we could be paired together and it was a natural fit, as is our relationship,” she says. “I wanted to do a film about my father because it’s hard to see the collection of objects [that her father created] that are stockpiling in our house. I recognize these objects as these symbolic gestures of his support and love for his kids,” Mecija adds. “All of these objects have a utility and I really wanted to explore that more. When I thought about these objects I was really touched by them and really fascinated by the aesthetic of them and creativity behind the production of them and I thought that I wanted to show that admiration through this film.” “Actually, the idea for my film was not about my mother,” Shraya says. “I’m always trying to reconcile my relationship with my faith. I grew up in a very religious atmosphere and in a lot of ways that religious atmosphere was one of the only safe places I had as a queer kid.” He went on to say that one of his biggest personal agendas is pushing against the dominant narrative that queerness and faith can’t coexist. “When I was a kid I used to celebrate various festivals. I just got really excited to explore what it would mean for one festival might be celebrated in different ways and I really wanted to document that,” he said. “I thought about Navratri because logistically it made a lot of sense. It’s nine days, so this way I could go to a different place for nine days. I’m also really drawn to the goddess of the feminine energy.” But, he says, he realized his film wasn’t really about the festival; it had to do with his constant draw to
motherhood and femininity, inspired by his mom. The two discussed whether their parents knew they were going to be the subjects of their films. “My mum’s a very, very private person,” Shraya says. “So I was actually surprised that she said yes and I expected her to say no. I called her and had a very direct conversation with her and told her I was gonna put her in front of the camera.” He admitted that at that point he still didn’t know what direction his film was going to take, but he did tell her that it was going to be about her and that it would be juxtaposed with the festival. “She was really quiet for like, 30 seconds and then she said, ‘I’m so touched. I’m so honoured.’ And then when we went to India and did the whole film, I asked her what possessed her to say yes and she said, ‘I didn’t think you were gonna film me that much.’ “I think she would have also said yes for anything because it meant spending time together,” he continued. “The first time she saw the film was at the launch in Toronto and was very solemn about the whole thing. So, I still don’t really know how she feels about it. I think she understands that it’s a tribute to her and she receives that but she’s a hard person to read in that way.” Mecija also held an art show for her father’s works, and said she doesn’t think he knew what it would be like. “He’s a very private person as well and he’s very shy so I think it was very awkward for him,” she continued. “But in awkward moments my dad becomes a showman.” She told the story of the first time her father saw the festival and how, when an audience member asked if he was in the audience, he stood up and asked if people wanted autographs afterwards. “Queerness is difficult,” she said. “It’s difficult to navigate and so those difficult feelings, those painful experiences are still there. We captured this moment with our parents that, to us, is very painful to look at.”
Just as Game of Thrones coined the phrase “Winter is coming” and Wiarton Willie predicts how many more weeks of winter are left, you know that the warm weather is approaching when Kid Rock releases a new album. First Kiss, the pop/country/hiphop/rock artist’s 12th album, was released on February 24 and it’s already got my hopes up for yet another fun summer. The album is definitely fun, and that’s something you can always give Kid Rock credit for—he makes enjoyable music. First Kiss makes me want to listen with a cold beer in my hand in my backyard with the barbecue blazing and the sun shining down on me. The new album relies heavily on modern country themes—drinking, trucks, women, and allusions to popular culture. We hear Kid Rock talking about listening to Tom Petty in the song’s first track, “First Kiss”, and how he wants to be his lover’s “Johnny Cash” in the third song of the album. Kid Rock is drinking Jim Beam in “Jesus and Bocephus”, which also alludes to Hank Williams Jr., an influential country rock star similar to Kid Rock, being popular only in the mid-1970s and 1980s. In regards to “Jesus and Bocephus”, that’s easily my favourite song on the album, because it represents that both faith and secular life rule Kid Rock, living each day under the influence of someone he admires. Kid Rock also offers a glimpse at his soft side in “Best of Me”, an ode to
the singer’s supposed lover. Sure, the album promotes drinking and misogyny, as many country or hard rock albums do, but hearing the twang of Kid Rock’s voice in a song like this shows that all men have a hint of “gentleman” in them. In keeping with this slower sound, “One More Song” is perfect nostalgia. This song was great because it really reflected on the experience of not wanting an amazing night to end, and wanting “One More Song” to be played before the night was over. If you’ve seen The Wedding Singer, you will have no problem remembering Adam Sandler’s angry song to his ex-fiancée. If you’re up for a sweetsounding, hate-fuelled, and amusingly bittersweet song, then I urge you to listen to “FOAD”, which is definitely NSFW. It’s hilarious and sad, but entertaining. Above all, that’s what the album is. Kid Rock’s First Kiss won’t hit #1 on the iTunes charts, and I’m not saying it deserves to be there. That said, I’m not saying that it shouldn’t be listened to. See, I’d rather listen to this album than to those who are on top of the charts right now. Why? Because it’s an album made not with the intent of making a masterpiece to look back on 50 years later, but with the passion of performing and singing. It’s a jam album. Write a song, sing it with the band in the back, and perform it. There’s your album. Thus, if you want to get your guilty pleasure of country-rock, listen to this album. At first it was just another album, but now that I’ve kept listening to it… I really like it. MMM
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Say hello to the birds and bees Having survived the former sex education curriculum, UTM students share their views JANE BURKE I still vividly remember sitting in my grade eight classroom trying not to cringe as my French teacher demonstrated putting a condom on a banana. The condom was red. The banana was yellow. Together they formed an orange beacon of awkwardness and I wanted to close my eyes and make it all disappear. Why was my French teacher doing this? Because my classmates had questions—questions that weren’t being answered in our regular health and phys ed courses. And questions our French teacher wanted to make sure we knew the answers to before we made life-changing mistakes and learned them for ourselves. Personally, I didn’t need the lesson. At that point I could barely say hi to my crush without blushing and running away. But it also didn’t harm me. It didn’t make me feel like I should start becoming more curious about intercourse because my cohort was. If it affected the choices some of my classmates might be making, I thought it was worth the small shock to my naivety. It is with this perspective I approached the new Ontario sex ed
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The debate on what kids can and cannot see rages over the proposed new sex-ed curriculum. curriculum. It was originally released in 2010, the first update since 1998, after a period in which Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube were born. But it was then recalled by Premier McGuinty because of the public outcry stirred up by Charles McVety, the president of Canada Christian College.
On February 25, the Liberals reintroduced the curriculum. Its aim is to provide young people with the knowledge to prepare them for what they will inevitably encounter. A few notable parts of the curriculum: In grade one, students are taught how to identify their body parts us-
ing the correct terminology. (Yes, that includes genitalia.) In grade three, they discuss visible differences, such as skin colour, and invisible differences, such as gender identity and sexual orientation. In grade five, they learn about the dangers and emotional considerations of sharing sexual pictures or
messages. In grades seven and eight (prepare yourself, here comes the big one!) students will learn about consent and the risks of and how to be safe when considering vaginal, oral, and anal intercourse. The curriculum continues through high school, but it’s concerns about the elementary school content that have sparked public protests at Queens Park and endless social media debates. Those against the curriculum feel that the government is exposing children to the facts of life too early and endangering them. The PCs, currently Ontario’s opposition, have also criticized the Liberals for only including 1% of public school parents in the policy formulation. Liberal education minister Liz Sandals appeared on Global News’ Focus Ontario program elaborating on the prompts to be used in the sex ed lessons and reminding parents that under the Education Act they have the right to pull their child out of any content they find inappropriate.
Sex continued on page 14
Placing third-wave feminism For International Women’s Day, The Medium discusses the changing attitude towards feminism VALERIA RYRAK To be honest, I can’t recall how it began—the sensation that something was changing in our culture. The feeling could have been inspired by any of the following: the premiere of HBO’s series Girls; American author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED talk, gloriously entitled We Should All Be Feminists; Beyoncé’s incorporation of the said talk into her music video “Flawless” and her 2014 VMA performance; Emma Watson’s UN speech in support of the HeforShe campaign; the brutal rape of New Delhi student Jyoti Singh and the subsequent country-wide protests for women’s rights; the Jian Ghomeshi fiasco; the Dalhousie dental school fiasco; or The Hunting Ground, a documentary about the prevalence and subsequent cover-ups of sexual assault cases on university campuses. Things do seem different these days. As far as I remember, five or six years ago there was little talk in our cultural sphere about sexual politics or the treatment and percep-
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The documentary The Hunting Ground was released at the end of February. tion of women in the workforce, at school, and in the media. One heard little about that nuanced and complex term “work-motherhood balance”, or about why, in an age when women are
roughly 60% of university graduates, the majority of the leadership roles in the world’s most powerful corporations are still filled by men. Now such talk is everywhere. Sher-
yl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, has delivered a series of TED talks focusing on the lack of female leaders in the top levels of the corporate world. Her holistic solution, that women
must learn to “lean in”, has produced both a book and a social campaign. Marissa Mayer, the current CEO of Yahoo, has also been busy sharing similar words of wisdom. This has given shape to the uniquely 21st century idea of being told to pursue their goals with tenacity and fearlessness while on the other hand, that they can’t “have it all” or at least certainly not all at once. Women, it seems, are once more in the fray, but have they ever been out of it? March 8 was International Women’s Day, and as a tribute to it I will be writing this series of articles talking about all things woman. Men, listen up too, because whatever involves half the world’s population inevitably involves you too. As the saying goes, we’re all in this together. To begin with, let’s get to the root of the term. “It seems to me that the word ‘feminist’, and the idea of feminism itself, is [...] limited by stereotypes,” Adichie said in her TED talk, and I concur.
Women continued on page 12
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Scarlett Johansson is no role model The SodaStream controversy crosses the Atlantic after a distasteful Super Bowl 2014 ad DANA BIBI In January 2014, Scarlett Johansson starred in her shortest role to date: a 30-second Super Bowl ad for home carbonation appliance manufacturer SodaStream. Johansson’s opening line, “Like most actors, my real job is saving the world,” was heard by over 111 million American viewers. In the ad, Johansson slinks around the screen and stares seductively at the camera while suggestively sipping the beverage. The $4 million advertisement was meant to introduce SodaStream to the American public. Instead Johansson became the subject of international debate and criticism surrounding one of the most divisive geopolitical issues of our time: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. SodaStream, an Israeli company, manufactures a home carbonation device that allows people to “brew” soda at home. Their marketing campaigns encourage consumers to “set the bubbles free”. The company’s value statement focuses on the environmentally friendly and health-conscious nature of their products. SodaStream’s main factory is in Ma’ale Adumim, an Israeli settlement in the Palestinian West Bank. In a statement in The Huffington Post, Johannson wrote that such a factory allows her to be a “supporter of economic cooperation and social interaction between a democratic Israel and Palestine”. In the same statement,
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Johansson’s not sipping her SodaStream-made sodas anymore. she says, “I believe in conscious consumerism and transparency.” Under the International Criminal Court Rome Statute, the factory site on the settlement is illegal and “a war crime”. The 126 state parties and signatories of the International Committee of the Red Cross’s IV Geneva Conventions “reaffirm the illegality of Israeli settlements”. The UN Security Council Resolution 242 criticizes the Israeli annexation of Palestinian territories and
asserts “the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war”. The International Court of Justice “concludes that the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory have been established in breach of international law”. The Coalition of Women for Peace scrutinizes “international corporate involvement in the Israeli occupation”. Their investigation found that SodaStream “benefits from low rent, special tax incentives, and lax enforcement of environmental and labour protection
laws” in the factory that operates in the settlement. SodaStream’s 2012 annual reports reflect a corporate tax rate of 1.7%. The 2012 corporate tax rate in Israel was 25%. SodaStream has operated this contentious factory in the Mishor Adumim industrial park since 1998. Daniel Birnbaum, SodaStream’s CEO, refers to the factory’s location as a “pain in the ass” due to the international scrutiny. In the same interview, published in Jewish Forward, he praises Johansson’s performance in
the ad. Birnbaum denies exploiting Palestinian labourers. Oxfam, an international charity confederation, questioned Johansson’s affiliation with SodaStream. Oxfam has devoted itself to aligning with UN resolutions to decrease poverty, injustice and inequality around the world. “Businesses that operate in settlements further the ongoing poverty and denial of rights of the Palestinian communities that we work to support,” they have stated. In 2012, Oxfam released Paola Maugeri, a popular Italian radio personality, from her commitment to the charity after she too endorsed SodaStream. Johansson was an ambassador with Oxfam for eight years. In January 2014, she chose to end her association with Oxfam and represent SodaStream for an undisclosed fee. Social media platforms like Twitter have circulated memes that satirize the ad. One of the most shared images depicts a photoshopped picture of Johansson standing in front of a Palestinian checkpoint with the caption, “Set the bubbles free, not the Palestinians.” Johansson sees no problem with representing the brand—in fact, she’s been giving SodaStream appliances as Christmas gifts for years. In an interview with Time, Johansson said has she “no regrets” with leaving Oxfam. “I am not a role model,” she said. Soda continued on page 13
The cost of a cuppa The F word Your daily fix of joe adds up by the end of four years Women continued from page 11 KAITLYN FERNANDES STAFF WRITER With so many students forced to trek from the temporary bus stops of the strike, the best option for a quick warm-up is usually a hot cup of coffee. For some students, the small indulgence is part of a daily routine, while others find that the winter blues have them chugging down a cup more frequently. But although a cup is affordable, the small cost can add up. Soon enough, a daily indulgence equals the cost of a new laptop or a year’s textbooks. Exempting the exam periods, there are 24 weeks in the university calendar. The student who buys only a daily cup of coffee will consume about 120 coffees in these 24 weeks. If this is a medium from Tim Hortons, this adds up to around $194 a year. For Second Cup or Starbucks lovers, that amount rises to $252 and $270, respectively. Over the course of a four-year degree it can accumulate to between $775 and $1,080. This figure is rarely considered when making daily purchases in $2 instalments, but they must eventually be accounted for. What could have been bought instead of a year’s worth of coffee is
what is referred to in economics as an opportunity cost. In this scenario, a new laptop or eventually even a TV could be the opportunity cost of a daily Starbucks indulgence. Of course, for many students that daily hot cup of coffee is the price they pay to stay awake during class or remain focused during a particularly brutal round of studying for midterms. To those students, I’d like to introduce them to the thermos. A thermos is a great and inexpensive way to treat oneself to a daily coffee for a fraction of the price. As soon as the temptation to buy a cup of coffee strikes while walking by the Tim Hortons in Davis or the Second Cup in IB, a trusty thermos filled with the good stuff can satisfy instead. For students who don’t want to part with their favourite blend, it’s possible to buy bagged grounds from each of the three main campus coffee retailers to take home and brew themselves. Admittedly, many students commute to school and a thermos won’t keep its contents hot forever. On the coldest of days a cheap thermos filled with once–piping hot coffee will be lukewarm after a 20-minute commute that involves waiting in bus shelters in the freezing cold,
and of course that lovely walk from the temporary bus stops into campus. Another UTM student I talked to revealed that she keeps a bag of tea bags in her backpack and buys a hot cup of water when she arrived at school with which to make her tea. At each of the campus’s coffee retailers, hot water is just 25 cents (or, if the cashier is kind enough, nothing at all), adding up to a drastically lower yearly sum of at most $30 a school year plus an extra $10 for a box of 100 tea bags. For students who aren’t a fan of tea, it might be time to try a different flavours. Today a wide variety abounds in most grocery stores. As someone who formerly discounted tea as nothing more than water with an aftertaste, I can definitely say that my opinions have changed since experimenting with different brands and flavours. At the very least your wallet will thank you for making the switch—and so will your body, since drinking tea comes with many health benefits, such as lower cholesterol and mental alertness.
Coffee continued on page 13
Somehow the contemporary connotation is someone who hates men while trying to be macho, detests any sign of femininity, and believes that women should be superior to men. While it’s true that secondand third-wave feminism produced radical beliefs such as these, with a small minority of women choosing to live in female-only communes from which all males, including their own male children, are excluded, and where the very idea of sex is seen as oppressive, they are thankfully not shared by the majority of women. The truth of the matter is that women don’t dislike men; what we dislike is patriarchy. To quote Adichie again: “The late Kenyan Nobel peace laureate Wangari Maathai put it simply [...] when she said, ‘The higher you go, the fewer women there are.’ ” We all have to ask ourselves why that is. In her talk Adichie defined the term ‘feminist’ as “a person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes”. Emma Watson said it is “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. It is the theory of political, economic, and social equality of the
sexes.” She too noted that “fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with manhating”. My very own Canadian Oxford Dictionary says feminism is “the advocacy of the equality of the sexes, especially through the establishment of the political, social, and economic rights of women”. Nowhere is there mention of manhating or gender superiority. By the end of the 19th century, first-wave feminism was well underway. Although at its core this was a suffragette movement, sexual and economic liberation was also under discussion. The mid-20th century saw the rise of secondwave feminism, which intended to further the gains of the first wave by, among other things, making the workforce more open to female employees, campaigning for equal pay, shared childcare duties, and laying claim to the sexual freedom enabled by contraception. What I have been increasingly noticing is that third-wave feminism—which began in the 1990s as a campaign for abortion services and raising awareness of violence against women and the workplace “glass ceiling”—has been taking on a new shape in the 21st century and writing these articles is to define it.
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Any career tips, coach? Something fishy Career coaches provide professional advice—at a cost A new fish and chip restaurant opens MADELEINE BROWN FEATURES EDITOR
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Vlad Novochek is a professional career coach based in New York. SAMINA SULTANA STAFF WRITER Entering the job market isn’t easy. And finding the right job doesn’t guarantee you’ll get it. If there were a person to help score your dream job, would you seek them out? Could finding the perfect job be that simple? Career coaches help you solidify the career you’d like to have and how to attain it, such as perfecting your resume and your interview skills and helping you understand what it is you’d like to do with your life. It’s more than a single session; it’s a process. UTM commerce grad Lavan Puv began looking for jobs upon graduation, but he felt that he wasn’t “ready to shine at networking events”. A friend and high school guidance counsellor suggested seeking a career coach. Puv then found Vlad Novochek of scoremydreamjob. com. Puv explains, “Sometimes when that negative block of self-criticism grows quite large, a career coach can help sift through all the facts to help you see yourself for the strengths that you do have and guide you to a career that you might not even have considered would make you successful.” Like numerous students and recent grads, his former job-searching methods included “online job boards, job fairs, networking sessions, and recruiters”. “Job boards were the worst. Many times these postings are left open
online long after they have been staffed,” he says. “I found that by working hard on improving yourself first to improve your networking skill, your brand management strategy, your interviewing skills, your conversation skills, etc., you greatly increase your rate of success in seeking out jobs that you desire.” Novochek describes a career coach as someone who plays “a dual role with his/her clients”. The first aspect of this role is “discovering what [the client] would be best suited for if they don’t already have a dream career in mind and then helping them tackle the steps necessary to actually land their desired job” and says he also works with “clients who want to take their career to the next level if they feel stuck in their current roles with no sight of future promotions”. The second aspect is coaching. “It is almost impossible to compartmentalize your career as one aspect of your life that is not interlinked to other aspects. In order for someone to land their dream job or accelerate their career to the next level, they need to be successful as a whole in their thought process and approach to life,” says Novochek. When asked how this information differs from what can be found online, he replies, “Any information can be found on the Internet these days, but there are two major problems with this, the first being credibility—often, articles/advice you read will be written by individuals who do not have real-world experience. [The second problem
is that the] information is scattered and disorganized. You can spend months following different pieces of advice from different sites, then using trial-and-error to see what actually works and doesn’t work. There can be a huge mental backlash to this approach as you get discouraged from trying certain approaches that yield no results.” Puv and Novochek’s relationship certainly isn’t out of the ordinary for those entering the workforce after university. Just last month The Toronto Star ran a feature called “Career coaching on the rise among recent grads and young professionals” by Lauren Pelley. However, of course, such assistance comes at a cost. Novochek justifies the fee by saying, “You cannot put a price on investing in yourself.” Puv points out that affordability depends on the recent grad’s budget. In parting, Novochek shares his top tips for graduates-to-be. “It may sound cliché, but I can’t emphasize the importance of networking. The statistic is somewhere in the range of 80–90% of people that have social anxiety when it comes to networking, so if you feel scared/ uneasy you’re not alone,” he says. “However, real growth in any aspect of life really only comes when you step out of your comfort zone, so the sooner you do it the better off you are. Use time and the resources your career centre offers to your advantage. Build your network slowly while you are in school by attending events, connecting with people on LinkedIn, and staying in touch.”
Bring your own coffee Coffee continued from page 12 For students who look to their daily cup of coffee for an energy boost, another inexpensive and healthy alternative is fruit. It’s possible to have
a slight boost in energy after eating fruit like apples and strawberries because of the sugar content. However, according to livestrong.com, the boost isn’t as instant as coffee’s. Every once in a while it’s okay to
indulge and spend a little on coffee, especially if it’s Roll Up the Rim season, but buying it too often means an empty wallet and a lost opportunity to afford something more useful.
When I think about it, fish and chips are my favourite comfort food. I grew up on them during my childhood summers and two years of elementary school spent in Edinburgh, Scotland. Whether my siblings and I begged and pleaded for them, or my dad slipped up and came home without any plans for dinner, we ate fish dinners on a regular basis. And my local Italianowned chippy was top notch, too, at one time selling world-class wines by the case to so-desiring customers and throwing the exotic fish or two on their menu. Crocodile, anyone? So, back in December, in a moment of weakness when I made a visit to my favourite Mississauga bakery, the French Corner, I was delighted to see that the retail space next door was under renovation to become a fish and chip restaurant. Quality fish and chips just down the street from me? I couldn’t wait. However, unforeseen circumstances meant that the restaurant remained unopened for what felt like forever. Each time I rode the 44 S or the 1C E I made sure to grab a window seat to check their progress. Then finally, last week, English Bay Fish and Chips opened. English Bay is not technically new to the restaurant scene. Run by a husband and wife team, Grace and Mark McFadden, their Oakville location has been around since 2006. (My roommate, an Oakville native, says it’s her family’s go-to dinner every Good Friday.) And certainly upon entering the Mississauga branch there was a calm and organization only attainable by a couple of pros. The décor was surprisingly nice and more upscale than any neon sign–flashing, greasy chippy I’d been in before. Even the pair that served my dinner date and me were dressed in nice collared shirts, tidy pants, and aprons tied around their waists. Unfortunately, I wished the waitress hadn’t been so caught up
in her surroundings and was less formal. The waiter managed a casual vibe. We selected a booth in the back. My dinner date and I were the only ones there, so we didn’t have to put up a battle of any sort. I decided to go traditional with my order—I mean, I’d been waiting four months for some classic fish and chips. I selected the haddock (with traditional batter instead of the breadcrumb coating) with chips plus an additional side of small mushy peas. That said, I could have gone for cod or halibut for the fish itself and I could have even swapped out the chips for a different side. Beyond just fish and chips, the menu offered an exciting range of seafood entrees, including seafood stew, clam chowder, rainbow trout, and Lake Erie pickerel. My dinner date chose the fish cakes with a side of garden salad and raspberry vinaigrette. Our order came quickly (in fact, we were in and out in just under an hour). I was immediately disappointed with the portion size. Half the fun of fish and chips is the possible enormity of the fish—be it the cut itself or just how much the batter has puffed up in the fryer. Even the chips, a medium cut, were hardly piled on the plate. I’ll admit I’m guilty of eating far more than I should and what I was given was probably a reasonable size. (My mother would have approved.) But if I’m going out for a deep-fried delicacy, I want to go all out. The mushy peas came in a nice glass bowl on a doily-lined saucer. How quaint. The fish and chips were fine. I say that completely indifferently. They didn’t taste shockingly awful nor did they beat fish and chips that I’ve had in the past. The mushy peas seemed homemade and as a result didn’t have that horrible synthetic quality of the fluorescent kind you get in a can. There was a good ratio of whole to pureed peas. Fish continued on page 14
Soda-sgraceful Soda continued from page 12 Due to international pressure predominantly created by the Palestinian organization Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions, SodaStream products have been removed from store inventories in countries like Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the UK. SodaStream revenue growth stagnated throughout last year. Share prices plunged from $50.34 to $17.26. In 2013, SodaStream recorded a net income of $42 million. In 2014, the net income was $12 million. Earlier this year, SodaStream dismissed Johansson from her role as the global brand ambassador, and in October they announced that they will close the Ma’ale Adumim factory—ostensibly because
of profit concerns—and will relocate it to an industrial settlement within what the international community considers its legal, pre-1967
SodaStream products have been removed from store inventories in countries like Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the UK. borders by July. SodaStream secured a grant worth approximately $7.85 million from the government to construct the new factory in the park near the predominantly Bedouin town of Rahat.
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Catch of the day
Give kids credit Sex continued from page 11
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Don’t make a mistake and skip dessert at English Bay Fish and Chips.
Fish continued from page 13 But my favourite part of the plate was the tartar sauce, which I was happy to have been asked whether or not I actually wanted. It was noticeably tart and a welcome accompaniment. I also loved, perhaps even more, the lightly pickled, finely sliced cucumber on the side. Now that stood out. It too provided a tartness to the deep-fried heart of the dish, but without the richness of a tartar sauce. I could have had a plateful of those cucumber slices. The fish cakes, made of a combination of halibut and salmon, were a similarly moderate portion. But they were nicely breaded and, according to my dinner date, had a pleasing texture that didn’t immediately turn to mush on chewing. The salad… was a salad. And the vinaigrette was what you’d expect of your typical— probably mass-produced—vinaigrette.
Even if the portions had been larger, we weren’t going to pass on dessert, all of which are made by co-owner Grace. I chose that night’s feature dessert, another British classic that I have a weird affection for: warm toffee date cake. I might have gone for the rice pudding, but given the $4 price tag I was afraid that my portion size might amount to a single grain of rice. The warm bread pudding also sounded enticing. My dinner date went with the warm brownie sundae. As expected, the portions were indeed small. A palm-sized square slice of cake for me and an almost-sliver of brownie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for my dinner date. Throwing my gluttony aside, it was the best date cake I’ve ever had. Big statement, I know. But my gosh, was it (a) moist, (b) lightly and evenly textured, and (c) moist. The toffee flavour came through strong, but not in conflict with the date. I’d have
taken another slice home if it didn’t cost $6. Meanwhile, I’m told that the brownie and the vanilla ice cream dolloped with chocolate sauce and whipped cream were quite good. Although I’m doubtful that the latter, which made up half of the dessert itself, was homemade. After our desserts we got the bill, which, as I always love to see, came with candy. My meal came to around $25 including a tip; my dinner date’s was just under $20 with a tip. Did English Bay rank up there with the fish and chips I’ve had in the past? No, probably not. But the charm and atmosphere of the restaurant would bring me back. In fact, if I got slightly more grub for my money and I had money to spend on eating out regularly, I’d make an effort to go weekly. And without question I’d get dessert every time too. I’m happy to see a restaurant specializing in fish in the neighbourhood and finally open.
Sandals also argued that the Liberal Party did include parents in the conversation by surveying the elected parent council chair at every elementary school in Ontario. But the best insight on this debate might be that of university students. As young adults, unlike most parents, we grew up with social media and we experienced the current sex ed curriculum most recently. Fourth-year biology major Emile Sabga, who attended elementary and high school in Barbados, recalls starting sex ed at the age of 11. Sabga’s experience didn’t seem much more comfortable that my own grade eight French class. “To be honest, I learned about sex the way most teenage boys do: the Internet,” says Sabga. Regarding the proposed curriculum, Sabga says we need to give kids these days more credit. “Children are a lot more resilient and understanding than I think parents [and] adults give them credit for,” he says. “I think I would definitely implement these lessons (or want them to be implemented) into my child’s sex ed program. Sex ed isn’t something that should be sugar-coated.” Sabga supports the inclusion of “invisible differences”, as many in university environments are likely to do. “By introducing these ideas in their early years, it will help to derail some of the
associated social stigma, making these differences more normal and acceptable,” he says. But not all students feel that way. Consider that at six years old children are still reciting nursery rhymes and listening to stories at bedtime. We often don’t want to mix that image with the idea of teaching them about the birds and the bees. Fourth-year molecular biology major Dima Ayache isn’t as sure about the early sex ed. “In theory I’d elect to pull my children from those classes because that is a really young age for kids to even have a grasp as it what any of that is,” she says.
As young adults, unlike most parents, we grew up with social media and we experienced the current sex ed curriculum. But she conceded that the most important factor is that kids are prepared. “Students are starting to have sex pretty young so they do need proper education,” she said. Despite the controversy, there does seem to be one common goal: to protect the children. The trouble is that each side has different ideas of what that means.
Meals make occasions. And I’m not just
and chard, adding in half a banana,
talking Christmas dinner. An ordinary
half a cup each of mango, pineapple,
Friday night might not mean anything
and apple, and finishing it with water,
special to most, but perhaps that’s
juice, or coconut water before blending.
the day every week that you and your
But how do we celebrate the occa-
best friend order Chinese. When I was
sion when we actually land the job (or
younger, every Tuesday night my mom
commiserate if we don’t)? Scott sug-
made dinner (instead of my dad) and
gests a family favourite among three
every Tuesday night we had spaghetti in
generations of bakers in her family,
Classico tomato sauce. Or what about
still known to her elementary and high
ice cream after baseball practice every
school friends as “Mrs. Scott’s Brown-
Thursday?
ies”, she says.
Monica Scott, a career outreach
“Brownies are a tradition in my fam-
consultant at the Career Centre, shares
ily; my mom always had—and still
not one but two recipes this week, to
does—a pan of brownies ready most
make an occasion of milestones in job-
days to enjoy over a glass of milk or
searching—something you might not
a cup of tea or coffee and good com-
otherwise consider celebrating. Her
pany,” she says.
first is a very easy-to-make and healthy
Scott’s favourite variation is a top
“Interview Day Smoothie”, which she
layer of warm, gooey melted marsh-
suggests is a “great way to start the
mallows and chocolate icing.
day, especially on the day of an impor-
If it means a smoothie and a brownie
tant job interview”. Scott makes it with
every time, job interviews don’t sound
a good handful of baby spinach, kale,
so awful.
Mrs. Scott’s Brownies MAKES 1 PAN OF BROWNIES INGREDIENTS • ½ cup butter or margarine • 4 tbsp cocoa • ½ cup flour • 1 cup white sugar • 1 tsp vanilla • pinch of salt • ¼ tsp salt
saucepan. Melt together on stovetop on medium heat. 2. Remove from heat and mix in flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Then stir in the eggs and vanilla. 3. Pour into a greased 9” by 9” pan. Bake at 350 F (preheated) for 30 min. 4. In the last five min of baking,
• 2 eggs
remove. Add marshmallows on top
• 12 large marshmallows
of the brownies and return them to
• chocolate butter icing, to decorate
the oven. 5. Remove when marshmallows are
METHOD
soft and squash with a wet knife. Let
1. Put cocoa and butter/margarine in a
cool. Ice with chocolate butter icing.
03.09.2015
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15
Vet finds hope in losing season Penaloza-St. Hill is excited for the future of women’s basketball under new head coach JASON COELHO SPORTS EDITOR The UTM tri-campus basketball team has had its struggles this season. In what could be called a rebuilding year, the team has gone without a win and sits at the bottom of the standings with a 0-6 record. The team has found ways to be successful in extramural tournaments while placing second in a tournament at Humber in October and winning a six-team tournament in February, beating UTSC in the final. Although on paper the team’s regular season says little about their talent, UTM has had a bumpy season, losing games by both small and large margins. They lost by six points to UTSC in one game and by 24 in another against St. George Black, the undefeated team that is currently leading the pack. At the end of the day, most sports fans couldn’t care less about the margin of victory. Instead they focus on the number of wins and losses. A string of continuous losses can dishearten a team, but that doesn’t seem to be the case with the Eagles. Essence Penaloza-St. Hill is in her third season as point guard for
MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM
Penaloza-St. Hill is a third-year point guard on the Eagles and plans on coaching after undergrad. the Eagles tri-campus team. Basketball has been a part of her life since she was a kid in elementary school, one who dreamed of playing in the WNBA and even of being the first woman to play in the NBA. After graduating from Loyola CSS and coming to UTM, she realized that despite an ever-increasing workload, basketball had to be a part of her
university experience. Although her desire was to play at the top-tier level for varsity, or even to play NCAA college ball in the U.S., Penaloza-St. Hill settled on tri-campus as a happy medium for managing sport, school, and a part-time job. This season has been different for Penaloza-St. Hill. The winless record is a shadow that has followed the
team throughout the fall and winter semesters, but the changes the squad has experienced throughout the past two seasons seem to be a significant factor in the team’s lack of success. As Penaloza-St. Hill points out, the team started off the season with a new coach and a new team, and is pretty much building from the bottom up. The lack of team chemistry
was one of the many factors that led to the losses. “Our struggle is partially because we are slightly out of shape and we don’t talk,” says Penaloza-St. Hill. She notes that this was more of a problem early in the season. New teammates are generally more reserved in front of each other and take some time to warm up and start communicating; since the start of the new semester, she says, the team has begun to address the problem. The team also had to get used to a new head coach. Salee JohnsonEdwards took over the coaching position last August after former head coach Jack Krist was unable to continue due to his new role as varsity program coordinator. Johnson-Edwards’ impressive resume includes playing for the University of New Hampshire in the NCAA, eventually coaching in the States for Harford Community College, Monmouth University, and Fordham University. Her experience makes her an ideal candidate for the position and the team is proud to have her as a coach and teacher.
Essence continued on page 16
Eagles beat UTSC in first playoff game UTM men’s Div 1 team wins ninth game in a row, edges their east-end rival for a 69-62 victory ADAM PENKUL Amid picket lines, cancelled classes, and general strike confusion, UTM students came together on Wednesday night to support the Eagles on their quest to the finals. A large crowd welcomed both teams into the RAWC with a resounding cheer to set the atmosphere for the men’s basketball Division 1 semi-final. UTM came into the game with a 10-1 record, looking to extend their impressive run into the playoffs. UTSC entered as the fourth-seeded in the playoffs and were big underdogs with a 7-4 regular season record. As the game began, it was clear that Scarborough had come to win the game, scoring two quick baskets to take an early 4-0 lead. UTM managed to pull one back, but UTSC was fighting hard and managed to build up a 13-6 lead, capped off with a threepointer at the five-minute mark. But UTM soon shaped up and started to look like the team that had won the regular season, bringing the score to 11-22 and within three minutes to 17-22. The roaring crowd seemed to be a motivation, cheering UTM as they scored on the fast break, getting
ZARA RIZWAN/THE MEDIUM
The Eagles will play in the Division 1 final this Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. in the RAWC. a steal and scoring within seconds to close the gap to just two points. After a three-pointer in the final minute of the first half UTM had completed an impressive comeback, tying at 33-33. The teams returned to the court with new energy in the second half. After stealing the ball, UTM got the crowd pumped up again with an acro-
batic rebound basket that gave them their first lead of the game at 35-33. The Eagles continued to dominate in an 8-2 run, bringing the lead to 47-38. The crowd didn’t stop cheering when UTM came out of the timeout with a quick basket to keep the pressure on. The Eagles confidently handled the ball with ease and defended with a
high press. Despite this, Scarborough managed to bring several baskets back to lower UTM’s lead to just 5345. This gave UTSC hope again, and they went on a seven-point streak to tie again at 55-55. The game was suddenly very close, the teams going basket for basket. With five minutes left in the game, the Eagles had to call a
timeout to preserve their 62-59 lead. The tension was palpable when the teams retook the court, the pace of the game having slowed considerably. The Eagles managed to get a basket, but UTSC responded right away to keep the game close at 64-62. With a minute left in the game, Scarborough was beginning to look desperate, and their all-out attack left them open at the back. UTM took advantage with a fast break to bring the lead to 6662. With the time running out, the Eagles’ defence regained their confidence and held strong, and with seconds remaining, UTM topped it off with a last basket and foul to end the game 69-62. The UTM crowd, who have been faithfully supporting the men’s basketball team all season, were elated for a final UTM will be playing in for the second year in a row. “It’s awesome to see them make it to the final,” said Mollie Johnson, a first-year fan. “They’ve been putting in work all season and it’s really paying off. It’s great being able to cheer for a team like that.” The Division 1 final takes place on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. in the RAWC gym.
16
«SPORTS
THE MEDIUM 03.09.2015
Basketball on The business of sports the upswing Annual UTSB conference talks analytics, investment, more
Essence continued from page 15 “She is amazing,” says Penaloza-St. Hill. “Salee brings the energy and understanding of the game that some coaches don’t have.” Part of JohnsonEdwards’ coaching style involves getting the team into shape. PenalozaSt. Hill jokes that she hasn’t had to do so many suicides since she was in grade nine.
“Our coach reminds us that [we’re] more than just girls playing on the same side, but girls who help each other when we’re winning or losing.” Part of what she and her teammates love about Johnson-Edwards’ coaching and personality is her focus on unifying the group and helping to build the chemistry that was initially lacking. “Basketball is a sport. The goal is to get the ball in the basket and for your team to win,” she says. “But in order to achieve this goal of winning you have to be a team. [Johnson-Edwards] reminds us that a team is more than just girls playing on the same side, but girls who help each other when we are winning or losing.” Penaloza-St. Hill says Johnson-Edwards had the team do team-building exercises, something she and many
of her teammates had never done before. They included standard exercises like partnering up and simply talking to each other. Some were more demanding, like a game involving one blindfolded partner and the other as “seeing-eye”. The seeing-eye must help the blindfolded partner walk safely from one end of the court to the other without tripping over scattered basketballs. The influence Johnson-Edwards has had on the team is evident, regardless of their record. The program seems to be on the upward trend, and the team has their coach to thank. Penaloza-St. Hill is an aspiring coach herself and has been involved in Athletes in Action, a summer program that coaches kids in grades one through eight, teaching them the fundamentals of basketball. She was also part of the coaching staff for her high school’s junior and senior girls’ basketball teams and coached the women’s open division team with former UTM teammate Meghan McErlain. The hardest part about coaching, for Penaloza-St. Hill, is being restricted to the sidelines, unable to involve herself in the action on the court. She finds inspiration in Johnson-Edwards and sees herself having a similar style if she does end up coaching somewhere down the line. “It may be high school coach, UTM coach, or even starting my own league for kids—who knows what the future holds?” she says. “I hope I can balance the fire and the fun when my time comes.”
SPORTSANDBUSINESS.CA/PHOTO
UTSB held its fourth annual conference, featuring media personalities and GMs from pro sports. SIHAN ZHENG ASSOCIATE SPORTS EDITOR Some 300 students and sports fans heard world-class speakers on the state of sports business today at the fourth annual UTSB conference on Friday. The first panel of the U of T Sports and Business Association’s conference discussed the question of why companies invest in and partner with sports teams. David Kincaid from Level 5 Strategy, Scott Moore from Sportsnet, Kan Otto from CARA Operations, and Justine Fedak from BMO discussed how sports sponsorship has changed significantly in the last 20 years and offered some insight into how simple sponsorships and purchasing naming rights has morphed into the partnership model popular today. The second panel, “Same Script, Different Story”, focused on modern developments in sports journalism. The world of sports journalism has changed with the Internet and social media, and the panellists were there to discuss how these modern developments have affected sports journalism. The five who spoke on
it were James Mirtle from The Globe and Mail, Steve McAllister from Yahoo Sports, Evanka Osmak from Sportsnet, Scott Morrison from CBC, and Daniel Bruno from BarDown. During lunch, the U of T Sports Analytics group presented a poster on sports analytics. The majority of attendees showed interest in the emerging field, flocking to the UTSPAN. The Toronto Raptors mascot was also there to take pictures and interact with fans. The panel after lunch was probably the most interesting of the day. Titled “Big Data and How We View Sports” and featuring NBA director of analytics Jason Rosenfeld, New York Giants assistant GM Kevin Abrams, former New York Rangers GM Neil Smith, and The Guardian writer Richard Whittall and moderated by Bloomberg Sports’ Alex Burwasser, the panel discussed the modern and future use of analytics in sports. The panel was peppered with a wide variety of questions on everything from how much analytics affect field decisions in the NFL to how they have transformed minor league hockey. The attendees were mostly enthusiastic about the questions, which num-
bered by far the most of any panel. The last panel of the day was on disruptive marketing in modern sports. With experts from Canadian Tire and Red Bull, the panel discussed how modern sports marketing has switched its focus to disruption and how integrated marketing is taking over. Susan O’Brien from Canadian Tire, Keith DeGrace from Red Bull, Kevin Foley from Project 10, and John McCauley and Susan Krashinsky of The Globe and Mail were the panellists for this one. The final keynote was delivered by John Bitove, the founder of the Raptors. He discussed the unique challenges of running a professional sports franchise here in Toronto and how the Raptors became successful. There were a large number of Raptors fans in attendance and Bitove’s keynote was very well received. The annual UTSB conference is a must for any fan, anyone interested in the business of sports, and any athlete. The speakers are top-notch, and every year the content is cuttingedge. As fans, we are all interested in the inner workings of our favourite games, and it’s not often that we get to look inside.