Volume 46, Issue 15

January 27, 2020

THE MEDIUM

The Voice of The University of Toronto Mississauga | themedium.ca

Vol 46, No. 15

UTM community responds to the mental health report Community speaks out following the release of the Task Force’s final report and U of T’s response Read our recap of MELISSA BARRIENTOS NEWS EDITOR On January 15, the Student Mental Health Task Force released their findings and recommendations in their final report to the university.

The Task Force covered four key areas including the delivery of mental health services, the internal coordination between student supports, partnerships with external organizations, and the physical spaces of the Health and Counselling Centre (HCC) across all three campuses.

The report also discussed the “Culture at U of T” and future research initiatives on mental health at the university, which went beyond the “original scope of the mandate” the Task Force was assigned by U of T. The Permanent Mental Health Body (PMHB), a recently established student organization focused on gathering academic departments together to discuss student mental health protocol and regulations, believes that the Task Force could have gone further in their consultations.

Under mandate one, which dis-

cusses the delivery of student mental health services on campuses, the Task Force stated that while they “understand that additional funding allocations may be necessary to address the need and respond to recommendations put forward in this report, it is beyond the scope of our mandate to advise on specific allocations or increases.”

Graeme Littlemore, co-president of PMHB, told The Medium that the university needs to be more transparent about student mental health services’ funding allocations so the communities involved can work with and understand the monetary estimates.

“Why is this not in the scope of the mandate to recommend at the university level what appropriate funding towards mental health services would look like?” asked Littlemore.

“That way we can begin to work with an actual number in relation to the university’s allocation of their endowment and at the same time give the province an idea of what is a number they should strive to match.”

Littlemore also highlighted how

simple strategies to inform students of mental health services on campus have been overlooked.

Under recommendation one, which asks the university to increase student accessibility to resources and supports, the Task Force suggests that U of T “create a single, easy to navigate, user-friendly web presence for mental health at U of T that local sites [can] link to instead of duplicating.”

To this, Littlemore asked, “why does [the] HCC not clearly outline on their website the protocols for mental health parameters?”

Since the HCC website is the primary source of information for the center’s regulations and procedures, Littlemore wondered why the website was not more accessible in the first place, or transparent with their protocol.

Regarding recommendation six, in which the Task Force recommends U of T “enhance coordination and expand direct crisis response support and resources and establish a tricampus mobile team for after-hours support,” Littlemore questioned the depth of the Task Force’s consider-

ation of police assistance.

“This is the only mention of police involvement where it might not be necessary,” said Littlemore, quoting the final report. “How does this deal with concerns at UTM of tactful de-escalation without police involvement, with specific emphasis of the handcuffing incident?”

Discouraged to see how the final report glazes over how campus police have handcuffed students seeking mental health support, a critical point of concern for UTM students as of late, Littlemore is troubled over how the report seems to shift the blame.

“Is the implication that the culprit for police involvement is overworked and strained staff?” asked Littlemore.

“How does this then lead to the police getting involved?”

Similarly, professor Beverly Bain, who teaches Women and Gender Studies in the Department of Historical Studies at UTM, is concerned about the police involvement that the report states “might otherwise not be required” if the campus had afterhours support.

Response continued on page 5

last week’s QSS meeting

News Should we blame the media for our problems?

Comment

2 6

The Lighthouse: an eerie tale of lust and Lovecraft

Arts

7

Read new research on the effects of cannabis

Sports

12

2

«

01.27.2020

Editor | Melissa Barrientos

QSS votes yes to student fee increases despite doubts UTMSU members in QSS showed their hesitance to vote in favour of fee increases, said it wasn’t “necessarily required” ISIK VERA SENEL ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

The Quality Services to Students (QSS) committee met on January 22 to continue the unofficial voting on the tabled service fees from last week, as well as to conduct the official voting on the entirety of the student services fee.

In the previous QSS meeting, the UTMSU abstained from voting on three streams within the student services fee including academic support, student clubs & funds, and international student support.

While student clubs & funds and international student support received unanimous votes in favour, all of the UTMSU members in the meeting voted against the approval of academic support.

“In the proposal offered on academic support, which includes academic support related portions of the International Education Centre, the Centre for Student Engagement, [and] student life initiatives, the proposed increase is $8.62 to $10.55,” stated Salma Fakhry, QSS chairperson.

UTMSU president Atif Abdullah expressed his concern on the matter and explained why the UTMSU members had voted against the motion.

“Academic support is very important, and I don’t think any of us can deny that,” stated Abdullah. “But I

NOUR SAQQA/THE MEDIUM

Student fees were increased and the coronavirus response was discussed at the QSS meeting. do think that some of the proposed changes are things that have either been continued for a few years or are things that don’t necessarily equate to direct academic support.”

“While I do respect some of the proposals, we didn’t believe that it necessarily required an increase,” continued Abdullah. “We just didn’t see major changes that have happened in the last three years that justify why there would have been an increase.”

Despite their expressed opposition on the matter, when it came time to conduct the official voting on the QSS budget proposal, all UTMSU members voted in favour, which resulted

in the committee’s approval of the proposed budgets.

In an interview with The Medium, Abdullah stated that their actions were due to the structure of the QSS voting procedures.

“Unfortunately [the way] QSS is structured, even though every bucket has a straw poll for us to vote down, student services would in bulk be voted down, putting down literally every category,” stated Abdullah.

“And while we did disagree with one of them, there were some that we did agree on.”

“I know, an increase is not an easy thing to swallow. But at the end of the

day when the Health and Counselling Centre (HCC) is able to provide more embedded counselors and have a bigger office space that does help students, that is meeting some of the demands of our students,” continued Abdullah.

The budget proposals will now advance to the Campus Affairs Council, Campus Council, and the University Affairs Board of Governing Council for final considerations.

The announcements in last week’s QSS meeting also included one by Erin Kraftcheck, director of the Health and Counselling Centre, who stated that they were watching out for

the coronavirus and were following the guidelines provided by the Canadian government.

“We’re keeping an eye on the holding situation with the new coronavirus that’s originating out of China and we’ll be following along with the public health recommendations,” stated Kraftcheck.

“We’re going to be doing increased screening for students who are presenting with fever and respiratory symptoms and following protocol set up by public health in order to ensure that we’re managing the situation appropriately,” continued Kraftcheck.

Jessica Silver, the director of the Centre for Student Engagement, also announced that the nominations for the Principal’s Involvement Award will begin soon.

“Nominations for the Principal’s Involvement Award will be going out in the near future. So that’s eligible for third and fourth-year students who have had [an] exemplary station on campus,” said Silver.

Felicity Morgan, the director of the Career Centre, also went over the successes of the recent Get Hired Fair.

“For last week’s Get Hired Fair, the final number of attendees for students [was] 2,159,” stated Morgan.

“Lots of great feedback from employers who are complementing our students, which is always great to hear, and lots of students got offers from Trillium [Health Partners] for the summer.”

The next QSS committee meeting will be on February 12.

U of T honours plane crash victims with scholarship U of T launched Iranian Student Memorial Scholarship and stated they will match any donations to the fund MAY ALSAIGH STAFF WRITER Earlier this month, the University of Toronto (U of T) launched a new fund that honours those who tragically lost their lives in the crash of Ukraine International Airline flight PS752 near Tehran, Iran.

The Iranian Student Memorial Scholarship Fund will provide needsbased scholarships to international undergraduate or graduate students from Iran or students from any background studying Iranian studies at U of T. On January 8, Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 was shot

down near Tehran by an Iranian missile and crashed immediately after.

All 176 passengers on board, including six U of T students, were killed.

Given the magnitude of the tragedy and enormity of the community’s loss, the university took the unusual step of matching donations at such a high rate.

U of T has dedicated a page for anyone interested in donating to the fund. All donations will be matched by the university at three dollars to every dollar donated for the first $250,000, with all funds beyond that threshold to be matched dollar-fordollar.

“It saddens me to see such young

lives gone so soon. I hope my donations make a difference in their honour,” said Alyanna Nicdao, a first-year biology student at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM).

The first of these needs-based awards will be available in the spring of 2020 for students studying at U of T during the 2020-21 academic year.

Students must be admitted to the university in an undergraduate or graduate program before they can apply for the award.

More information, including how to apply and the award value, will be available in March 2020.

U of T campuses have held vigils for the victims where students, fac-

ulty, and staff gathered to remember those who were on the flight, including fourth-year UTM biology student Zeynab Asadi Lari and her brother Mohammed.

Other U of T students include Mohammad Amin Beiruti, Mohammad Amin Jebelli, and Mohammad Saleheh.

U of T president Meric Gertler told UTM News that “with the creation of this scholarship we hope to honour the memory of those we have lost by helping students from Iran pursue their studies at U of T and by supporting students of all backgrounds who are interested in exploring Iranian studies.”

The disbursement of the scholarship will be managed by U of T’s Enrolment Services Office and the scholarship will be accessible to undergraduate and graduate students.

Aside from Canadian universities, the Government of Canada is also offering financial support as well. The government will be giving families of the victims who are Canadian citizens and permanent residents $25,000 per victim in order to assist them with immediate needs.

Canada is also working with international partners to ensure the families are compensated according to the liability provisions established under international law.

01.27.2020 THE MEDIUM NEWS

»

3

Ford’s scholarship to Campus police honour plane crash avoid parking fines victims is scrutinized Ford’s 57 scholarships is seen by some as a political movement

TALA ALKHALDI/THE MEDIUM

Toronto Police have been giving UTSG Police passes on parking.

DILJOT BADESHA ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

FORD NATION/FACEBOOK

Students are questioning Ford’s decision after all the recent cuts to OSAP.

HEMA RAMNARINE CONTRIBUTOR In honor of the 57 Canadian citizens lost on flight PS752, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced on January 16 that a scholarship fund would be created. 57 scholarships, worth $10,000 each, will be awarded to post-secondary students across Canada, one for each life lost.

The announcement came at a time of national grieving for those who passed away on flight PS752, a commercial airplane operated by Ukrainian International Airlines that was hit by an Iranian missile on January 8. All 176 passengers and crew members were killed when the plane was struck just moments after takeoff.

“Many of the victims were students and professors with bright futures, studying and teaching at Ontario universities and colleges, contributing to the advancement of research in many life-changing fields” said Premier Ford during a news conference.

The University of Toronto (U of T) lost six of its students, including University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) student Zeynab Asadi Lari, who is remembered fondly by friends and professors alike.

The scholarships will be allotted directly to the schools who lost stu-

dents or faculty, with the rest going to other institutions to be awarded based on academic merit and financial need. Premier Ford said in his statement that he has been in contact with the families of the victims, along with cultural community groups and the federal government, to implement this fund.

He stated that the schools and the families of the victims will be consulted in the selection process for the scholarships, which are planned to be in place for the 2020-2021 academic year. The scholarships will be a one-time disbursement but can be extended with the help of donors to the fund.

For the most part, students seem pleased with the news and see the scholarship fund as a fitting way to honor the victims of the Iran plane crash, especially those who had been so dedicated to the academic community.

However, they do acknowledge its shortcomings.

“Although I appreciate the emotional response from the universities, especially U of T,” says Nafas Tehrani, a third-year English and Drama student at UTM of Iranian descent. “I truly don’t think that will ease the pain their parents, family, and friends are going through back home.”

Some students are questioning Premier Ford’s motives in announcing the scholarship fund.

“I think it’s great, but I understand why people may question it,” said Keyanna Bell, a fourth-year Communication, Culture & Informational Technology student. “I’m sure people will question whether this is coming from a genuine or politically loaded place.”

This sentiment was echoed by other students The Medium spoke to, especially in light of last year’s cuts to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) and education program funds, which have been the subject of much contention recently.

Despite the debate, Tehrani and Bell both agree that it’s an honorable way to remember the victims. During the press conference on January 16, Ford said, “we will honor their memories through these scholarships to recognize their incredible contributions to our communities.”

In any case, the devastating crash will not be easily forgotten. As an Iranian student who is part of the UTM community, Tehrani is deeply aware of this.

“It will be a memory that all Iranians will never be able to erase from their minds, and we all feel sympathy for their families.”

At the St. George campus, some campus police officers are allegedly using folded, plain white paper to get away with not paying for parking on certain streets in Toronto, particularly Sussex Avenue.

According to CBC News, among those suspected include campus police constables, sergeants, and staff sergeants who make over $100,000 a year and are listed on the Ontario Sunshine List, a list of the province’s top earners who receive public funding.

Toronto police are currently investigating the situation.

In an interview with CBC News, Brian Moniz, operations supervisor for Toronto Police Parking Enforcement Operations, said the police are trying to find the officers that are allegedly helping the University of Toronto (U of T) campus police.

Moniz ensured the interviewer that the police would never join hands with campus police to avoid paying parking fines.

“I can tell you this was never done on a corporate level, nor would we ever sanction it. Again, it’s something we’re going to have to look into and see how this started,” he said during his interview with CBC News.

Unlike the St. George campus, the City of Mississauga enforces the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM)’s parking policies, leaving the UTM campus police to follow these regulations and policies.

Developed by the city, the Administrative Penalty System (APS) allows municipalities such as the university to enforce parking by-law violations.

Parking tickets are given out by certain campus police staff who have been given the power to issue tickets under the APS. Although UTM campus police are able to give out tickets, the university is not responsible for any issues that students, staff, and faculty may have with their parking violations. These issues must be brought to court. Tick-

ets that are issued are to be paid to the city and vehicles are to be towed by the city.

Like many other students, Julia Gadomski, a first-year student in Environmental Management, parks her car at the Square One bus terminal every day and takes the bus to campus.

Gadomski knows her daily routine takes up more time and can become a hassle, but since it costs no money, she is willing to do it.

“Paying that much for parking is a bit excessive in my opinion, and I’m sure a lot of other students agree with me,” said Gadomski.

Prices for annual parking permits available to UTM students, staff, and faculty are valid from September to August, and range from $965.40 to $1,190.96 depending on the type of permit (underground parking, reserved, unreserved, or resident).

Sessional parking permits, only available to students, can cost up to $635.46 for both fall and winter semesters.

When informed that the St. George campus police were allegedly avoiding parking tickets, Gadomski was not pleased.

“It does make me a bit upset because it’s not fair at all. We have to pay for basically everything in life, especially for school, so when some people are prioritized and others are not, it becomes unfair,” said Gadomski.

According to CBC News, this is not the first time St. George campus police are receiving attention for their presumed actions.

In 2016, some St. George campus police officers were caught placing campus police uniform patches on their dashboards while on duty to avoid parking fines.

Students and local residents quickly figured out the scheme and began to also place police patches, purchased from eBay, on the dashboards of their cars.

The patches stopped showing up on cars after the scheme was exposed by the media.

4

«NEWS

THE MEDIUM 01.27.2020

Mandate two of the Mental Health Task Force’s final report

HUMANS OF UTM

U of T responds with a Redesign Team and a CAMH partnership

“Coming from Abbotsford, BC, and growing up there all my life has been a really confining environment, where the people I see every day are the same people I see over and over again. I was intending on staying in BC, but then I came to Ontario for the very first time, without seeing the campus or doing any research, and I was pleasantly surprised with the environment and the diversity that was available here in comparison to where I lived. Everyone seems much more accepting, and there seems to be a lot more opportunities—especially here at UTM with a smaller campus. I did not have any expectations coming here. The community I’ve made here has helped me a lot in better understanding myself, and what my strengths and weaknesses are.”

JULIA HEALY/THE MEDIUM

The final mandates and recommendations have been released from the Mental Health Task Force.

MELISSA BARRIENTOS NEWS EDITOR Earlier this month the Student Mental Health Task Force released its final report and recommendations for the university.

The Task Force was asked to cover four main areas including how mental health services are delivered at the three campuses, the internal coordination between student supports, the partnerships with external community organizations, and the physical space of the Health and Counselling Centre (HCC).

Last week The Medium covered the first mandate and how the University of Toronto (U of T) agreed and responded to the Task Force recommendations.

Mandate two of the Task Force’s report specifically reviews “the coordination of student supports related to mental health across the university’s three campuses.”

Under mandate two, the Task Force made three recommendations.

The first recommendation stated that the university should “provide more integrated and coordinated care across campuses that promotes ease of access to supports for students.”

This recommendation comes from consultations with students, faculty, and staff where the issue of students facing “bureaucratic processes that create barriers to seeking and accessing mental health support and service” was brought up. The Task Force concluded that “this is due in part to the fact that intake processes and services are not consistent across the university.”

“Students registered at one campus but taking courses at another campus are required to register with each campus office for an academic accommodation related to a mental health disability, and recommended accommodations are not transferable from one campus to another,” stated the final report.

“The current model is burdensome to students and acts as a deterrent to seeking assistance for accommodation needs when taking courses outside of their primary campus,” added the report.

The Task Force also recommended shared databases so electronic records and reporting across HCCs and accessibility offices at the three campuses are kept consistent. The report stressed that this streamlining of services should include “establishing

a single intake process, service protocol, database, and care model.”

In U of T’s administrative response to the final report they addressed the first recommendation of mandate two by creating the Mental Health Services Redesign Team that will “conduct a process redesign of student mental health services at U of T.” The Redesign Team is meant to streamline mental health services across all campuses and will be spearheaded by professor Joseph Desloges, the former principal of Woodsworth College, and two Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) experts.

The administrative response also affirmed that the Redesign Team will “initiate individual changes as expeditiously as possible, without waiting until all aspects of the redesign are ready.”

Recommendation eight asks the U of T to “establish a Clinical Director role with oversight of the three health centers to provide leadership and streamline processes and protocols related to mental health services.”

The Task Force added that the tricampus Clinical Director would also be “responsible for identifying trends and challenges in the provision of

mental health service delivery within post-secondary environments.”

The Task Force also stressed that the university recognize “the complexities associated with the establishment of such a position, ensure that the vision and scope of the role are clear, and consideration is given to the unique individual needs of each campus community.”

U of T is not clear on who the Clinical Director will be but do agree with the creation of such a position.

While discussing the Redesign Team in the administrative response letter, U of T stated that the “ultimate goal will be to create an integrated tri-campus system with one Clinical Director, one website, one consistent approach to way-finding, one online booking system, one electronic records system, and one institutional letter for accessibility services.”

The last recommendation under mandate one, recommendation nine, stated that the U of T should “implement an institutional integrated support system that facilitates early access to mental health resources for students.”

“We heard in consultations that not all students know how to seek help or are connected to the appropriate re-

sources in a timely manner,” said the Task Force in the final report. “We heard concerns about students ‘falling through the cracks’ and not having support systems in place until their mental health issues reached a crisis point. We also heard about students not finding supports at all.”

To combat this, the Task Force recommended the university to integrate an “Early Access and Support System that prompts students, staff, and faculty to reach out for guidance if they or students they know are in need of access to mental health resources.”

In the administrative response to the final report, U of T administration agreed to the need for early intervention and support the assessment of students with potential mental health needs.

“We will also implement new measures to support all members of the U of T community in facilitating early access to mental health services for students in need,” stated the administrative report. “To that end, we will enhance our engagement with faculty and staff on this issue and provide them with additional resources and professional development opportunities.”

This story is ongoing. More to come.

01.27.2020 THE MEDIUM NEWS

»

5

UTM organizations respond to the final report Response continued from page 1

“[The Task Force’s final report] did mention that there will be a review of the handcuffing issue, but there is no framework for that in the context of speaking about the way that it works within the criminalized context,” said Bain. “That the reason why handcuffing is a problem [is that it] criminalizes students.”

“Not only does it traumatize,” added Bain. “But it criminalizes and it’s the criminalizing effect that traumatizes [students].”

Additionally, Bain is concerned about recommendation two and nine, where the Task Force suggests that the university’s community members like faculty and staff should be trained in mental health literacy and early intervention.

“What I am seeing, and what I am uncomfortable with, is [that] it seems to be [an] offloading of additional work onto staff, faculty, and student bodies that actually already provide support to students,” said Bain.

“Our job is to teach and to do research. Our job is not to counsel students,” added Bain. “If you’re going to be offloading work onto the backs of faculty administration and others, what supports are there for us? It will have an impact on our primary work [of] teaching.”

In the final report, the Task Force also stressed that while hiring more counselors will help, it is the effective reallocation of mental health supports that will decrease wait times.

JULIA HEALY/THE MEDIUM

The admin of U of T as well as UTM student organizations respond to the mental health report.

But in order to readjust this offloading of work, Bain determines that hiring more mental health staff and resources is necessary.

“They need to hire more people, said Bain. “They need to put money into expanding the health center and creating more private spaces which they said they will do and creating more spaces for more counselors to come in and do that work.”

In regard to recommendation five, where the “diversity of mental health service providers for students” is emphasized, Bain believes that the mental health support framework at the university needs to account for students with intersectional experi-

ences.

“I would argue that this report itself lacks a framework that understands different issues that particular intersections have,” said Bain. “Issues will come up to students who are racialized, who are LGBT people, who are trans, who have a disability, because it does not have that framework center.”

Atif Abdullah, the president of the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU), said that while the Task Force’s final report shows extensive consultations with students and the UTM community, there are still a few issues that are not being reviewed at length.

“We haven’t had a chance to actually sit down and have that conversation with the folks of the Mental Health Task Force,” said Abdullah. “[But] we did go through [the final report] and I can say that there are portions of it that we do appreciate, and we do think are good ideas.”

“So, to me that is a positive that the consultations were not just for the sake of having them, they were actually taken seriously,” added Abdullah.

In particular, Abdullah is conflicted on U of T’s decision to pass on the management of student mental health services to an external organization like the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).

“While we definitely respect the need to bring in someone who has a little bit more experience within the mental health criteria, it’s also not enough to sort of pass on the responsibility to an outside organization and sort of leave it to them to figure out what to do right,” said Abdullah.

Nevertheless, Abdullah believes that the Task Force’s final report is a step in the right direction to improve the treatment of student mental health at U of T. “We do want to give credit where its due, where it talked about integrated mental health support. And that being a key focus on something the UTMSU has been talking about for a year,” said Abdullah. “That was something we talked about at the consultations, [and] that’s been talked about in QSS [Quality Services for Students] for HCC.” Erin Kraftcheck, the director of the HCC, stated that the U of T is currently implementing the mental health initiatives they outlined in the administrative response to the Task Force’s final report.

“The Task Force[’s] Student Mental Health report and U of T’s response were recently released,” said Kraftcheck. “And UTM’s Health and Counselling Centre, along with our colleagues at the St. George and Scarborough campuses, are working to implement the recommendations.”

“More information will be available this term as details are worked through,” added Kraftcheck.

Indigenous land acknowledgement needs more meaning, says Chief If organizations view “the acknowledgement as, ‘that’s it, we have done our part,’ then please don’t bother,”said Chief LaForme

JULIA HEALY/THE MEDIUM

A land acknowledgement cannot be used as the bare minimum.

SALEHA FARUQUE DEPUTY NEWS EDITOR All public proceedings in the Region of Peel will now begin with a formal Indigenous land acknowledgement.

The decision was approved by Regional Council in December 2019, and is meant to recognize the “historic and present inhabitants” of Peel.

This acknowledgement embraces the Treaty Lands and Territory of the

Mississaugas of the Credit, including other Indigenous groups that have been “inhabited and cared for” Peel for thousands of years.

According to Indigenous U of T, a land acknowledgement is a statement formally recognizing “the unique and enduring relationship that exists between Indigenous peoples and their traditional territories.”

The recommendations, which included a formalized land acknowledgement, were published in an October 2019 report by the Diversity, Equity and Anti-Racism Committee (DEAR). The report proposed a revised land acknowledgement demonstrating Peel’s commitment to “diversity, equity, inclusion and antiracism.”

“Land acknowledgement is a start to building awareness of the Indigenous peoples and honouring the people who lived and worked on the lands in the Region of Peel,” wrote Catherine Matheson, Commissioner of Corporate Services.

The report also supported the recommended calls to action released by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in 2015. In particular, the report asks Peel Region to support Action 57, which calls upon all levels of government to promote the edu-

cation of the “history of Indigenous peoples” and of the “Treaties and Indigenous rights.”

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigates historical accounts of residential schools and works to promote healing and reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians.

Regional Council was originally advised through a September 2017 report that a land acknowledgement would be made at the beginning of the meeting held during Treaties Recognition Week. As a result, Regional Council meetings that took place closest to Treaties Week from 2017 to 2019 opened with a land acknowledgement.

According to the Region of Peel, the land acknowledgement promotes understanding of colonial history, while continually building mindfulness and participation in the present day.

Indigenous land acknowledgements are commonly recited before public events and gatherings across Canada. In recent years, feedback on the usage of land acknowledgements has prompted discussion on their impact on reconciliation efforts.

“Beginning with a land acknowl-

edgement is a sign of respect and it is appreciated. However, it should be viewed as a beginning and not the finish,” said Mississaugas First Nation Chief R. Stacey Laforme at a news conference. He added that the acknowledgement should reflect both parties’ efforts “toward learning, understanding, and moving forward in a good way.”

“If an organization or municipality views the acknowledgement as, ‘that’s it, we have done our part,’ then please don’t bother,” Chief LaForme said.

In a statement published by Mississauga News, Peel Region said that “embedding the practice of land acknowledgments is only one small step toward reconciliation efforts.”

The revised Peel Regional land acknowledgement was developed in consultation with the University of Toronto (U of T), amongst other local Indigenous-group participants.

Across all U of T campuses, the land acknowledgement statement is used at certain ceremonies, such as convocation, groundbreakings, and building openings.

U of T Indigenous welcomes “all members of the university community” to use the statement at university events “where appropriate.”

6

«

Ali Taha

MASTHEAD Editor-in-Chief / Ali Taha

editor@themedium.ca

Managing Editor / Paula Cho

managing@themedium.ca

News / Melissa Barrientos

news@themedium.ca

Deputy News Editor / Saleha Faruque

deputynews@themedium.ca

Satire / Erin Delaney

satire@themedium.ca

A&E / Vinney Wong

arts@themedium.ca

Features / Fatima Adil

features@themedium.ca

Sports / Sarah-May Edwardo-Oldfield

sports@themedium.ca

Photo / Julia Healy

photos@themedium.ca

Design / Tegwen McKenzie

design@themedium.ca

Illustrations / Tala Alkhaldi

illustrations@themedium.ca

Copy / Jessica Cabral

copy@themedium.ca

Online / Yasmeen Alkoka

online@themedium.ca

GENERAL STAFF Webmaster / William Pau

web@themedium.ca

Distribution Manager / Mduduzi Mhlanga

distribution@themedium.ca

Ads Manager / Amina Safdar

ads@themedium.ca

ASSOCIATES News: Harris Watkins, Isik Vera Senel, Diljot Badesha Satire: -A&E: Shalomi Ranasinghe Features: Latisha Lobban, Bismah Rizvi Sports: Noor Bhatia Photo: Hayden Mak, Kellsy Ann Meneses, Nour Saqqa, Irtaqa Arif

MEDIUM II PUBLICATIONS 3359 Mississauaga Road Room 200, Student Centre Mississauaga, ON, L5L 1C6

Intent matters, not what you say TOMASZ GLOD STAFF WRITER I recently came across an opinion piece in the Hamilton Spectator by Sue Boychuk titled, “When did ‘no problem’ become a replacement for ‘you’re welcome.’”

As an individual who has a lot of opinions, I decided to read the article. To my intrigue, I discovered that Sue Boychuk felt quite passionately about how people respond to her thanks. She believes that people shouldn’t use “no problem” or “no worries” in day-to-day interactions because “There was NO problem and I had no worries; I ordered a drink in a restaurant. Is it not part of the routine to bring it to me?”

After doing some research, I discovered that this discussion surrounding how you should respond to people thanking you has existed for quite some time. A lot of people have interesting opinions on it. Not wanting to get sucked into the underworld that is the debate of “no problem” or “you’re welcome”—and because it seemed so hilarious—I wanted to write this letter to touch upon a greater point of contention that Boychuk brings up.

It appears that these day-to-day

interactions that you have with employees at a coffee shop, or the receptionist behind the desk, or even your friends have become routine. I am guilty of this myself. The number of times I’ve responded with “you too” to the clerk who told me to “enjoy my movie” will testify to the fact that I’ve become conditioned to appear polite.

What it means to be polite is defined differently across generational and cultural lines, but I find that irrespective of what you’re expected to do—I would hope that people are being genuine. The difficulty of course is that when we have a habit of something, when it becomes routine, those actions or sayings lose the significance that they once held.

Importantly, only you can ensure that the things you do or the actions you say have meaning. Breaking away from routine and doing something not just because you’re expected to do it, will provide additional meaning and value to whatever it is that you do.

So, the next time someone hands me my coffee, I’ll try and remember to be truly thankful for it if I say “thank you”—I would recommend Boychuk do the same.

Is media really to blame?

AYA YAFAOUI STAFF WRITER The “Media.” It is often referred to in a way that makes it sound like a foreign entity, disassociated from the people who work in the field, like journalists and editors. I’ve always been fascinated by the way people have talked about media, especially news media.

How often have you heard that the media is to blame for, say, the rise of Trump? Or blamed for the undue focus on superficial issues, such as physical attractiveness or where Trudeau gets his donuts from? There are a lot of things the “media” participates in that should be examined— especially the propagation of fake news, but it is too easy to blame all these massive societal problems on some faceless entity that is so big and complex. We, the people, are what is responsible for the problems we see in our society; the media is simply our ugly reflection.

Take Trump for example. Did he rise to power because the news media was transfixed by his flagrant disregard of every political norm and his lack of decency? Or was he elected because a large enough group of people decided that his flagrant disregard and lack of decency was either exactly what they needed (or was to be ignored) for their own interest?

In truth, it is more complex than that. This issue is not a one-way street.

The media influences society, that is true, but the media is also comprised of society. Every journalist, editor, cameraman, producer, executive, and corporation head exists in society and they bring with them the ideas, beliefs, misconceptions, and biases

inherent to that society. Therefore, it is the structure of our society that proves dysfunctional (but you didn’t need me to say that). The media’s role in all of this is not, as previously believed, to be a cancer, but a symptom of our chronic disease, the diagnosis and treatment of which is a matter best left untouched in this piece.

So, why do people blame the media for societal problems so easily? Is it out of ignorance? Or because they don’t want to carry the responsibility given to them as a free citizen? Or perhaps we’ve been overemphasizing the role media has on our current lives? Well, unfortunately, the answer is that it’s probably all three and more.

The media supplies the masses with information. In modern western society, we often believe that our independent news media is factual and impartial for the most part. Yet as social scientists Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky pointed out in their book, Manufacturing Consent, the media does have a dark underbelly.

The current system of media is governed and operated by money and power, with corporations, governments, and the establishment controlling much of what is broadcast through five “filters”: media ownership, advertising, the media elite, flack, and the creation of a common enemy. These five filters work together to control the perspective and frame of the information broadcast across the country, and even across the western world.

So, if the media is so controlling and deep-rooted, is it not the manufacturer of our societal problems? Yet again, that would be too easy.

The structures that exist to enable

such systems to grow and take hold are rooted in our own choices as a society. Ultimately, it is we who decide to let these structures remain because of our lack of collective will to change the system. However, it should be clarified that societies lacking in democratic institutions and ideals are not the target of this piece, those living in tyranny are in a vastly different situation. Nonetheless, citizens of western, mature democracies do have a responsibility to not only recognize the flaws in the system but to advocate for the reformation of the media because of its importance to the health of a society.

Of course, I can’t talk about media and not mention social media. Social media is a tricky area because it both concentrates power and distributes power widely. Social media, as is often pointed out, has many dangerous flaws, such as fake news and echo chambers, that penetrate beyond the screen and affect society and politics in a sometimes terrifyingly tangible way.

However, social media can also have a positive effect when used in the pursuit of truth and, with the support of an organized body, can even counteract the negative consequences of the media.

Chomsky himself still uses media sources, like The New York Times and Washington Post, but does his due diligence by looking at the sources and examining other sources outside of his media bubble. In the end, we need to accept our responsibility in the continuation of these societal problems and stop blaming the “media” for being a poor reflection of our dysfunctional society.

01.27.2020

»

7

Editor | Vinney Wong

The Lighthouse makes roommates scary Robert Eggers blends octopod-body horror with demonic seagulls in his sophomore effort CHRIS BERBERIAN CONTRIBUTOR You trudge up a rickety staircase, luggage in hand, ready to settle down into your new living space. You enter the damp room and notice your roommate has made himself welcome. He’s off in the corner, urinating into a metal bucket. He clears the phlegm in his throat and farts.

This scene opens The Lighthouse (2019), Robert Eggers’ new film about the horrors of male power struggles, intergenerational conflict, flatulence and, well, roommates.

The roommates are Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) and Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe). Both men are wickies—lighthouse keepers—who must man an island tower isolated off the New England coast.

Winslow is our strapping young protagonist. Graced with a thick moustache and chiseled physique, Winslow performs all the tedious daily tasks. He lugs heavy kerosene containers, dumps out chamber pots, repaints the tower exterior, refuels the lighthouse, and tries his best to ignore Wake’s provoking ways.

Wake is our flatulent fellow, far older, and grizzly bearded like the god Neptune. He assumes top-dog status and spends his days alone in the top of the tower, naked and getting a little too intimate with the light.

At first, the two wickies are distant,

PHOTO/IMDB.COM

A feat of filmmaking that features heavy drinking, long sullen silences, and a lot of other weird stuff. convening only for nighttime meals in awkward silence. Wake cooks lobster for them both and drinks until he can no longer stand. Winslow isn’t a drinker, but that soon changes.

Eggers frames these suppertime shots to stress each character’s shadows, symbolizing the dark secrets they hide. As the days bleed into each other, and the rum bottles flow, the duo interacts more, and those secrets bubble to the surface. We see a mermaid reappear in Winslow’s dreams, at first seductive, then uncanny. We also see glimpses of a man Winslow desperately wants to keep in his past.

Soon, these rising secrets spill over, and the film takes an even darker turn into something you’ve never

seen before.

The suppers become rowdier and the quarrels more vicious. Their rum-fueled nights oscillate between orgiastic highs and melancholic lows, seadog tirades and screaming gibberish. One moment, they’re prancing dosey doe. Next thing they’re swaying in a homoerotic hug. Eggers finely tunes these dramatic tonal shifts to uncomfortable and comedic effects.

You don’t know whether to laugh, cry, or grit your teeth.

The power of these scenes comes from masterful actor performances.

Pattinson reaches a career-best in his role. Dafoe compels us with thunderous rants and distinct wide-eyed stares. His wickie slang is pitch-per-

fect to nineteenth century New England, salty like the nearby sea. Dafoe’s absence from the Academy Awards is, as Wake would say, treble shameful.

Alongside the performances, Eggers weaves in a drowning, ominous score of heavy bass and blaring horns. With cues from The Shining, the score injects staccato violins to amplify the film’s climactic moments.

Eggers also emphasizes diegetic sounds: thunderous rain on the rooftop, crashing waves against the docks, squawking seabirds in the distance, whipping winds, and the unmistakable moans of the foghorn. All this creates an immersive soundscape, drawing us deeper into the story’s

clutches. Even in its silent moments, drips of water leak from the ceiling, unnerving us like the ticks of a clock.

Meanwhile, black-and-white cinematography and rustic 1910 camera lenses imbue an authenticity to the story, like we’re watching dug up footage from long ago on this island.

Eggers also frames the film in a 1.19:1 aspect ratio, nearly a box screen, where black side bars blend into the scenes’ edges. It blurs our periphery so the characters—and us—feel the walls closing in. We’re trapped in our subconscious, forced to confront the Freudian nightmares that lurk within.

In a film laden with octopus sex, menacing mermaids, and one-eyed seagulls, there is a strange timeliness to this film. Themes of power struggles and intergenerational clashes persist, as well as the consequences of hyper masculinity. It’s about how blind pursuit of fantasy, the lost object as Freud would say, produces our physical and emotional downfall.

When our strive for power overtakes rational compassion, any advantage soon becomes a disadvantage.

The Lighthouse is among the strangest films you’ll ever seen. It’s inventive filmmaking on steroids and Eggers tells an original story—one that eloquently balances absurdist visuals with raw acting and haunting soundscapes with farts.

Legally Blonde: The Musical is a show-stopping experience Emma Sangalli shines as Elle Woods in Hart House Theatre’s musical rendition of Legally Blonde SHALOMI RANASINGHE ASSOCIATE A&E EDITOR

Hart House Theatre’s fourth production of their 2019/2020 season was Legally Blonde: The Musical. The play, based on the film of the same name, was directed by Saccha Dennis, choreographed by Gregory Carruthers, and musically directed by Giustin MacLean.

Legally Blonde: The Musical followed Elle Woods (Emma Sangalli) on her journey through Harvard Law School. She enrolled into the law program in hopes of getting back together with her ex-boyfriend, Warner Huntington III (John Carr Cook), after he broke up with her because she wasn’t “serious.”

As Elle ventures into Harvard’s law program, she finds herself in tight spots and is occasionally picked on by other girls at the school. However, she always seems to make friends with people in her community. Elle befriends her Teaching Assistant, Em-

SCOTT GORMAN/HART HOUSE

Hart House is currently performing their rendition of the musical/movie classic, Legally Blonde. mett Forrest (Ethan Vasquez Taylor), as he begins to help her study and focus in her law classes. She also became friends and later confidantes with Paulette Buonofuonte (Moulan Bourke), a manicurist, at a salon near Harvard.

A fun twist Hart House Theatre’s

production added was in the final scene of the musical. After Elle’s graduation ceremony at Harvard University, she gets down on one knee and proposes to Emmett. The play closes with a spotlight focusing on Elle and Emmett gushing over one another.

The musical included two acts

and twenty songs. A crowd favourite seemed to be “Omigod You Guys.”

The play opened with this number, sung by an ensemble of sorority girls. Throughout the night, the song would reappear in snippets and was always greeted with giggles from the audience. After the show, many au-

dience members were humming the catchy song.

A specific character always received adoration from the audience each time he stepped foot on stage.

Elle’s dog, Bruiser, was played by an actual black French bulldog. Each time he was brought on stage, the audience would “aw” in unison. Occasionally, he wore different outfits and performed tricks. The dog who played Bruiser also played Paulette’s dog Rufus. He received equal adoration for each character he played.

Sangalli’s performance as Elle was phenomenal. She epitomized Elle’s girly and bubbly personality and captivated the audience each time she sang with her outstanding vocal work.

Vasquez Taylor’s performance as Emmett was earnest. He depicted a kind-hearted, honest, and hardworking character with precision. His body language and facial expressions throughout the musical showcased the character’s persona well.

Musical continued on page 9

8

«ARTS

THE MEDIUM 01.27.2020

George Alevizos on advocacy in entertainment The UTM alumnus has kept busy with guest roles and commercials since his graduation VINNEY WONG A&E EDITOR It has been almost a year since George Alevizos graduated from the Theatre and Drama program at UTM. Since then, the 22-year-old has been busy working at the City of Toronto, booking commercials, appearing on TV shows, and advocating for people with disabilities in the entertainment industry.

The Medium recently spoke with Alevizos to discuss life after university, his guest-starring role on Hudson and Rex, and his upcoming role in the play A Few Good Men. The Medium: It’s been nine months since you graduated from UTM. What have you been up to since then?

George Alevizos: Well, I went to school for acting and it was what I intended to do after graduation even though people always warned me that actors make no money. I’m happy to prove them wrong.

As an actor, I’ve been working with ACTRA Toronto which is a television and film union for actors.

I am also a union member of Canadian Actors’ Equity which is the actors’ union for theater.

In between my work with those organizations, I’ve done four commercials, a couple of theatre stints, a guest-starring role on Hudson and Rex on City TV, and I am just working and auditioning non-stop.

TM: What has the auditioning process been like?

GA: It was definitely challenging at first, especially because I had no idea how the acting landscape would be. Overall though, it’s been pretty good. I’m starting to get a momentum that I’ve never had before.

Obviously, I know that I’m going to be rejected a lot and I’m not going to book every job I audition for, but I’ve been lucky with the opportunities I’ve gotten thus far. I’ve become more confident in my ability to go

PHOTO/MARC BETSWORTH

Alevizos is proving non-believers wrong by working consistently in the world of acting. out and book jobs.

TM: You mentioned you were on Hudson and Rex recently. How did that role come about?

GA: Funny story, I was vacationing in Barbados in September when I received the call from my agent for Hudson and Rex. He told me that I got a self-tape request from the casting director and thought I would send it in while I was on vacation.

The problem was there was little to no internet connection where I was staying so I couldn’t send my tape in.

Plus, I would’ve looked terrible.

I ended up doing the self-tape when I came back to Toronto in midSeptember. I sent my tape in and got a callback about two weeks later, saying I booked the job.

TM: What was your reaction when you got the call?

GA: Well, I was surprised because I was getting a callback from a network television show. It was a pretty big deal so I went for my callback which was where I initially auditioned for the show.

I also heard that the casting director from the show was really hard to impress. She had cast for television shows like Orphan Black so she had

high standards.

TM: You must’ve worked extra hard in the callback to nab the role then.

GA: Not exactly. During my callback, I noticed that no one was in the room except for me. Apparently, I was the only one called back for the role. I had no idea, so I emailed my agent, asking if he knew that I was the only callback and he was like, “they rented a room just for you.”

The casting director then brought me in. We talked for a bit—she was really great and helped me through the scenes. At the end of the callback, she was like “you have really good training.” It was so nice to hear that from someone in the industry.

TM: What was the filming process like?

GA: It was fantastic! I was working with really great actors on the episode. Andrea Bang, who plays the daughter on CBC’s Kim Convenience, was guest-starring with me too. The lead of the show, John Reardon, is really well known as well.

The director, Felipe Rodriguez, had directed for Netflix’s Slasher and was nominated for an Emmy in 2017 for his documentary so it was fantas-

tic working with him. The cast and crew were great. Newfoundland was also beautiful.

TM: Without spoiling too much, what was the episode about?

GA: The show is about a major crimes detective who is partnered with his dog to solve crimes. I was playing Casey James who was being investigated for a crash. The detectives saw that I was getting money and was able to afford a really expensive power chair and didn’t understand where my money came from.

They wanted to investigate my character for a murder.

TM: That’s a plotline that I don’t think I’ve seen in network television.

GA: It was new in terms of the guy in the wheelchair wasn’t being pitied for once. You feel bad for the character up to a certain point until it’s revealed that he’s had three DUIs. The reason he got into an accident was because he was drinking. There were a lot of factors in that episode that made my character unique.

TM: Apart from television appearances, I know you’ve been a vocal advocate for people/actors with disabilities. Can you tell me more about your advocacy and goals?

GA: I ran for council at ACTRA and I thought it was important to get someone on council who had a disability. Running and getting elected meant that I could participate in contract negotiations and agreements for providing more opportunities for those with disabilities. I didn’t get elected, but I worked with them to do an accessibility audit last May when I received my first ACTRA credit.

When I did the “Dear Everybody” campaign, which helps to end the stigma around people with disabilities, the commercial didn’t show that I was in a wheelchair until the end.

The message was to showcase that you should be hired if you’re able to perform the job—regardless if you have a disability or not.

A lot of people saw the commercial and wanted to do an accessibility audit for casting houses in Toronto.

Most casting houses in Toronto are inaccessible for actors with disabilities so we went with casting directors to all the locations to do a checklist of elements that needed to be restructured for better accessibility.

The results are going to come out soon, but I’m hopeful that the audit will lead to positive changes in the acting community.

TM: That’s great! What are your plans for the future?

GA: I will be moving to Waterloo in a few weeks because I got hired for A Few Good Men—a theatre production from Drayton Entertainment in Cambridge, Ontario. I’m working with the old artistic director of Stratford and the National Arts Centre English Theatre of Ottawa, Marti Maraden. I auditioned for the show on January 14 and got the call two days later. It was a fast turnaround, but I’m super excited.

I also am job-hunting because acting contracts are never full-time, so I always have to keep an eye out for jobs. But that’s also the fun of it.

New Circadia invites you to be less stressed The exhibit promotes better rest and sleep cycles with curved seats and unconventional pillows SHALOMI RANASINGHE ASSOCIATE A&E EDITOR University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design’s exhibition New Circadia is a dreamlike escape. The exhibition’s concept was curated by Richard Sommer, Natalie Fizer, Emily Stevenson, and Laura Miller.

The exhibit is featured in the Architecture and Design Gallery at the St. George campus.

New Circadia was inspired by the Mammoth Cave experiment of 1938, conducted by Dr. Nathaniel Kleitman. The scientific research explored the cycles of human sleep and wakefulness.

Part of the New Circadia exhibit was a gallery of educational artwork titled Circadian Rhythms and the Cycles of Daily Life. Clocks were

hung on the walls which sectioned out the times of day different groups of people spend doing a specific task.

For instance, there was a section titled “Prayer time” which featured four religious groups: Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Sikh. Each religious group had two clocks which illustrated the times of day that were devoted to prayer; one clock for summer and one for winter. Under the clocks was a legend and written description about how the religious groups divide their prayers.

Upon entering the New Circadia exhibition, the gallery instructed that no shoes may be worn, no photography, no consumption of food or drinks, and no pets are granted in the exhibit.

Before entering the metaphorical cave, a wall filled with cushions of various shapes, sizes, and colours

were available for public use. Participants had the choice to take a pillow and use it in the cave.

To enter the exhibition, participants walk through a make-shift door, of thick grey felt fabric, and immediately are immersed into the metaphorical cave of New Circadia.

The lighting was dim, the floor was a soft carpet, and there were mesh fabrics drooping down from the ceiling. An artificial skylight mimicking the stars of a dark night. Periodically, soft sounds were heard—it sounded like a celestial white noise.

The exhibition was filled with abstract couch-like chairs. Those chairs had soft swoops which adhere to different positions a body may lay. The purpose of its abstract shape was to resemble the curves and uneven surface of caves. Part of the chairs where people could lay on were covered in

a soft carpet fabric. Participants were invited to lay on these abstract chairs and relax in any way they wish.

The exhibit had various architectural features. Participants were free to climb the high ledges, which resembled massive sofas. There were also smaller semi-circled areas that were a bit more private for a singular person or couple to relax in.

New Circadia was a place of relaxation. The goal of the exhibition was to create a dreamlike space by snuggling the body and calming the mind. As I walked around, I felt like I was in a dream. The exhibit wanted to showcase that being in a state of rest is not unproductive, but rather essentially for human survival.

Inside the exhibit, participants were free to relax in any way they want by either sleeping, dreaming, or mediating—the exhibition was a

safe-place for comfort. Conveniently, New Circadia is located at the St. George campus so students can enter the gallery to escape the stresses of school.

The exhibition also featured two stations regarding dreams. One included headphones where participants can listen to dreams. The other was a website which recorded dreams virtually.

The atmosphere of New Circadia was one I’ve never experienced before. It was a place of comfort, mediation, focus, and relaxation—a judge-free zone. Each person inside the exhibition kept to themselves and did not bother other participants.

If you’re interested in engaging in an exhibition that resembles a dreamlike state, visit New Circadia, for free, running until April 30.

01.27.2020 THE MEDIUM ARTS» 9

Legally Blonde 070 Shake’s MODUS VIVENDI

The hip hop artist shows fans her way of life through pulsating beats & vocals

TALA ALKHALDI/THE MEDIUM

YASMEEN ALKOKA ONLINE EDITOR

SCOTT GORMAN/HART HOUSE

The cast gave a seemingly effortless performance.

Musical continued from page 7 Elle’s entourage included her closest friends: Margot (Paige Foskett), Serena (Émilie Macaulay), and Pilar (Tama Martin). Foskett’s, Macaulay’s, and Martin’s performances were energetic and exciting. They were all talented dancers, actresses, and singers. The production would not have been the spectacular show it was without the spirit of these three ladies.

An impressive character was Brooke Wyndham (Amy Holden).

As act two began, she reopened the show by performing Zumba and singing “Whipped Into Shape.” Her ability to perfectly hold notes while doing physical exercise was astonishing—she did not stutter or gasp for air once.

The production excelled in its movement between scenes and timelines. The time periods were easy to follow and showcased progress between Elle’s time at Harvard, and her relationship with Emmett and Paulette. The progression of

time was not jumpy as the production did a fantastic job on smoothing out transitions.

There were scenes when a character would speak internally. At these moments, background characters would freeze. Their stillness was impressively wax figure-like.

Overall, Legally Blonde: The Musical was stellar. I truthfully felt like I was watching a Broadway production. Between the set designs, the choreography, and the actors’ vocals, each scene was astounding and exciting to watch.

As the night came to an end, the cast and crew were applauded with a standing ovation. The crowd cheered loudly as each actor and actress took their bow. No detail nor concept went unnoticed; each structural element enhanced the amazing performance.

If you’re interested in watching a high-quality rendition of Legally Blonde: The Musical, catch Hart House Theatre’s production, running until February 1.

Film censorship harms artistic integrity DANICA TENG ASSOCIATE A&E EDITOR Cinema is a shared art. Films can travel from one place all the way to another on the opposite end of the Earth. Though cinematography itself seems to be a universal experience, the stories they tell are not always universal. There’s often tension in countries in terms of politics, beliefs and other controversies that arise.

Films expressing content that cross

any of those lines become censored.

Though it may not be something we always hear about, the censorship of films has been happening for decades.

Even in the present, controversies can cause or derive from censorships.

Gal Gadot and her husband Jaron Varsano’s production company Pilot Wave recently partnered with Keshet International to adapt a film based on a book banned from school reading lists in Israel for its depiction of an Israeli-Palestinian romance. Different

On January 17, hip hop artist 070 Shake, also known as Dani Moon, released her debut album MODUS VIVENDI. The name of the album comes from a Latin phrase for “way of life.” The Cambridge Dictionary defines MODUS VIVENDI as “an arrangement allowing people or groups of people who have different opinions or beliefs to work or live together.”

That sounds to me like a positive, accepting notion to bring into 2020.

Despite starting her music career in 2015 and blowing up on Sound Cloud in 2016, 070 Shake gained the most attention in 2018 when she appeared as a guest in Kanye West’s album, Ye. Since then, she’s been featured in various other artist’s songs, and has released several impressive singles that have also brought attention to her older singles. Two of my favourites include “Bass for My Thoughts” which encourages you to “turn up the bass” and enjoy her music, and “Be Myself ” which hypes you up to forget about the haters and be who you want to be.

After its release, 070 Shake shared instructions on her Facebook page on how MODUS VIVENDI should be heard. “I would like you guys to not just hear this album, but really listen!

Isolate yourself if you have to, because

views tend to be a point of contention, causing controversy on what should or shouldn’t be shown in media.

Over the years, film censorships are often followed by complaints.

Some believe that films are banned for seemingly trivial reasons, but the countries that choose to censor them don’t treat it as a small matter. Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) was banned in Cambodia as it was portrayed as the location of an enemy base. Many jokes circulate online about The Human Centipede, but its second film The Human Centipede 2 (2011) was banned in Australia and New Zealand for “disturbing content.”

Christopher Robin (2018) was banned in China because of the comparisons circulating online of their President Xi Jinping to Winnie-the-Pooh. Noah (2014) was also banned in several countries for its religious depictions.

With time, some censorships have

it’s an experience, listening to a movie. I want you to allow yourself to visualize things. Create your own story.

Direct your own movie to it, even if it never leaves your mind. It’s a sound of its own, created by us. Instead of going to everyone else’s world, I am creating my own world. It’s a manipulation of vibrations and frequency.

I hope that more than anything you are able to understand and receive the love I stored inside it. Thank you!”

070 Shake knows she is unique.

She knows her music is an experience. And she wants her listeners to feel it with her, in their own ways.

Her instructions provide an opportunity for an interactive experience with music, where most of the time people just listen for background noise.

Each song in the album is different from the last. Some are slower and more reflective while others are more upbeat and in-your-face. An overarching theme among the tracks is a sense of daydreaming. 070 Shake’s voice is deep and eerie yet mesmerizing. The beats are addictive, combining hip-hop with ’80s synths. Her music is about the feeling, but her lyrics share her story and also leave you with something to think about: “And then I start to wonder … why can’t I feel it with another?”

There are plenty of gems on the album, including “Morrow”. The cho-

rus is the highlight with 070 Shake singing: “I know it’s hard to swallow / I don’t know if I’ll be here tomorrow.” This track was released before the rest of the album and captured attention for its relatable feeling about the struggles of life: “I, only I can control, need to find, to decide / Why I’m alive, in the burn and the glow / ‘Til I learn how to flow with the highs and the lows.”

In the YouTube video for “Guilty Conscious”, 070 Shake starts with a note about the song’s message: “Although I’m not a boy, I wanted to display a boy being broken. How he manages his sadness when he is not allowed to cry. From young, a boy must create a shell that protects him from his own emotions. But when that shell cracks, it creates an intense amount of vulnerability where the boy must replace the shell with actions that make him seem as if the shell never broke.

He replaces this shell with ego, desire and pride.” This statement shows how 070 Shake moves beyond simply creating music and takes a step further by making a comment about society.

MODUS VIVENDI is an original, creative, modern sound that I highly recommend experiencing. 070 Shake allows herself to be vulnerable and encourages you to “create your own story” as she shares her own.

been changed and seen bans lifted.

Usually, this happens when the offensive content is cut, edits are made, ratings are changed, or simply the progression of time changed views.

Although some directors refuse to make cuts, even if it means jeopardizing film markets in different countries. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) directed by Quentin Tarantino had a set theatrical release date in China, not banned by any censors this time, until a complaint was made about the portrayal of Bruce Lee in the movie. A source confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that Shannon Lee, the daughter of the late Hong Kong actor and martial artist, was the one who filed the complaint, halting the film’s release.

Censorship in China has been prevalent for decades with the country’s Communist party censoring any or all content seen to jeopardize its

morals or that included sensitive topics. Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) was edited to exclude any LGBTQ+ content, including when Freddie Murcury revealed his bisexuality. Strict censorship impedes the amount of box office revenue that movie studios are able to make in a worldwide release. In Tarantino’s case, he refused to adhere to Chinese censors and did not cut scenes that characterized Bruce Lee in a bad light. This marks a change in attitude from Tarantino as he had cut scenes of graphic violence before for Django Unchained’s China release in 2012.

Other popular releases such as The Dark Knight, Call Me By Your Name, and Crimson Peak have also been banned due to the vast restrictions of China’s film boards.

Read the rest of this article online at themedium.ca.

10

«

01.27.2020

Editor | Fatima Adil

View to the U: UTM’s very own podcast Carla DeMarco founded View to the U to showcase the exciting research happening at UTM FATIMA ADIL FEATURES EDITOR

Did you know that UTM has its own podcast? View to the U features University of Toronto Mississauga faculty members “from a range of disciplines who illuminate some of the inner-workings of the science labs and enlighten the social sciences and humanities hubs at UTM.” For this issue, The Medium sat down with Carla DeMarco, the Research Communications and Grants Manager at UTM and the founder of the View to the U, UTM’s very own podcast.

An avid listener of podcasts, DeMarco was inspired to start a podcast herself after discussions with her director, Devin Krueger, who also enjoyed podcasts. DeMarco thought it would be great to feature UTM’s researchers and started formulating the idea in 2015. In 2016, she presented a plan to the Vice-President of Research and started recording.

The podcast’s mission, “at its very base level, is to showcase the research [at UTM].” DeMarco has also innovatively assigned a theme to each year.

For instance, the first podcast was released in 2017, the year UTM turned 50. DeMarco “focus[ed] on research-

IRTAQA ARIF/THE MEDIUM

Carla DeMarco is the founder of View to the U, a podcast featuring UTM faculty members. ers who had been [at UTM] for a while and who had seen changes over their time.” The first person DeMarco interviewed was Ulrich Krull who had been a member of the UTM faculty since the eighties. She asked him about the changes he had observed throughout his career and those that he perceives will occur in the future.

The theme of the second year of the podcast was ‘Women in Academia’ and DeMarco “profiled women across the seventeen different departments.”

In 2019, the theme was “Global Perspectives” where DeMarco inter-

viewed “researchers who were doing research around the world” and whose research had “broader global implications.”

DeMarco mainly interviews UTM professors and “would like to involve student research down the road.”

When reviewing grants as part of her role as the Research Communications and Grant Manager, she gets to know what professors are researching which helps her “learn what to be focussing on” when deciding the theme of her podcasts and her interviewees.

Her upcoming podcast will feature

Dr. Norman Farb, an associate professor of psychology, who discusses “why meditation is important, why should we be incorporating it, and why are we talking so much about it now.”

The podcasts also provide a glimpse into “the other side of a professor” to students who usually only interact with them in a classroom. An interesting question DeMarco asks her interviewees is what the impact of their work is. They discuss the benefits of the professors’ research but also their impact on students who

“are the next generation of researchers.” DeMarco asks about the professor’s journey to academia which is often very interesting. For instance, when she featured Liza Blake, an assistant professor of English, as part of her ‘Women in Academia’ series, she found out how Blake came from a science background and how she ended up teaching English. “Her parents were both scientists, but she was really interested in forensics and wanted to be a detective. [Blake] started [studying forensics but when] she took a Shakespeare class, [it] changed her life [and] she became a literature professor,” DeMarco relates. DeMarco thinks it’s important “for students to hear that sometimes, people don’t have it all figured out when they start out, but then you [eventually do] find something.”

The podcasts are free and are all available on SoundCloud. There have been “over ten thousand listens” with the most popular podcasts being about psychology research. It takes DeMarco about an hour to record the podcast and about six to ten hours to edit the recording. She also adds to her podcast original music recorded by her spouse, who is a former musician.

View continued on page 11

UTM’s innovative research greenhouse An automated software controls the light, temperature, humidity, and irrigation in the greenhouse IRTAQA ARIF ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR The University of Toronto Mississauga is an institution focused on advancement in research in multiple fields, one of which includes plants.

Last Tuesday, the Erindale Biology Society organized a tour of the UTM Research Greenhouse, opening up the innovative building to students.

In this article, The Medium reports on the features of the greenhouse.

The UTM Research Greenhouse is located behind the library and was built in 2016. It is a standalone building with its own heating and ventilation system and is comprised of five glasshouses. Each glasshouse has 63 m2 of bench space for plant growth with individual environmental regulatory machinery. Four of the smaller glasshouses are used for individual projects, while the larger one is used for plant growth in general projects.

Conditions essential to the plant’s growth are altered by an automated software which regulates the light, temperature, relative humidity, and irrigation in each of the five glasshouses. The adjustments are made to better mimic the native conditions

from where the plants originate and to control for extraneous variables.

The amount of light supplied to the plants is modified according to the requirements of the project and the amount of daylight hours the plant experiences in its native habitat. For instance, if needed, even 18-hour daytime light can be supplied to the experimental plants.

The automated software also allows for the manipulation of the

relative humidity in each of the glasshouses. For example, the relative humidity may be increased to improve the sprouting of a seedling. The glass surrounding the glasshouses is double-paned which maintains proper insulation. The greenhouse also has a weather station installed on the top of the building which relays information about the outside weather to the automated software. If, for instance, the outer temperature falls below

5°C, the chiller would not be turned on.

Another innovative feature of the Research Greenhouse involves the silver shade curtains which can be used to cover the roof of the building.

The curtains are used to minimize sunlight exposure and to maintain heat inside the building. The automated software also allows the researchers to monitor the precise conditions in which the experiment was

IRTAQA ARIF/THE MEDIUM

With specialized lighting and curtains, this greenhouse is made for any desired plant project.

performed and later use the details in their analysis.

Some of the plants in the greenhouse which are currently being used as part of research include rose geranium, poplar, and white clover. The areas of active research in the greenhouse include the epigenetics, stress, physiology and ecology of plants.

The greenhouse is actively used by UTM professors. Dr. Saša Stefanović, professor of biology, is currently investigating the interactions between autotrophic plants and parasitic plants. Dr. Peter M. Kotanen, also a professor of biology at UTM, studies the relationship between plants and insects, while Dr. Michael Phillips, an assistant professor of biology, is currently studying plant metabolism-specifically terpenoids and their impact on human health. Dr. Yuhong He, an associate professor of geography, uses the greenhouse and ecosystem modelling to identify endangered and invasive species.

Numerous graduate students in the biology and geography departments at UTM also conduct their research at the greenhouse—a centre for advanced plant research enhanced by the use of automated software.

01.27.2020 THE MEDIUM FEATURES» 11

Mechanisms behind The coronavirus modern meditation global outbreak Dr. Norman Farb discusses meditation in the modern world BISMAH RIZVI ASSOCIATE FEATURES EDITOR

As determined from research and personal experience, meditation and mindfulness practices have numerous benefits in terms of stress reduction and wellbeing. “We don’t have to prove that [the practices are] helpful for some people anymore but understand why,” says Dr. Norman Farb, an associate professor of psychology at UTM and a faculty member of the Health, Adaptation, and Well-Being Cluster.

Farb’s research focuses on the underlying mechanisms of emotion regulation and dysregulation. To investigate beyond self-reports of emotion, Farb uses neuroimaging to determine “what’s happening in neural systems [and] what parts of the brain are getting activated when people are put under emotional stress.” Farb is interested in understanding how meditation and mindfulness work at the neurological level. Knowing that different forms of meditation work better for certain people, Farb hopes to apply his team’s findings to better “adapt interventions to the individuals” and curate the optimal techniques.

Before delving into Farb’s insights, it is important to differentiate between meditation and mindfulness.

Meditation is a broader umbrella term for the various techniques used to clear one’s mind. On the other hand, mindfulness refers to “intentional reflection on experience” and was adapted by Jon Kabat-Zinn, an American professor emeritus of medicine. Kabat-Zinn modified the practice from the Theravāda School of Buddhism in the late 1970’s to fit within scientific parameters and introduced it in his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program.

As Farb explains, mindfulness views the “body as a substrate for feeling-states and [a substrate for]

understanding how we are conditioned to respond” to our surroundings. The practice encourages individuals to be aware of what is going on in the present moment by simply taking in the sensory inputs. By focusing on that awareness, one can gain insights about themselves and their mind.

Some modern mindfulness techniques—which are also based on Buddhist practices—include lovingkindness meditation. Loving-kindness training entails stimulating your mind to focus your thoughts towards a specific person you feel a positive connection towards. In terms of the feeling of connection, we can begin to ask ourselves, “What are the barriers I put up that stops me from hav-

“It’s not that meditation fixes you, but it really shows you where [your] suffering is coming from.” ing that connection? What would it take or what would I have to give up to let that connection occur?”

Through this type of reflection, “you’re scaffolding people’s ability to let themselves have positive regard for other people, even if a lot of life experiences have taught them [to not] risk it,” explains Farb. “Eventually you might move on to people [who you have] a lot of conflict with [and reflect upon] how [to] change the way [you] see people in [your] mind.”

Farb discusses how “we already know that just focusing on your breathing by breathing slowly and listening to someone talk in a calm voice for a while is going to help you physiologically relax. [However, that] does not mean you are going to adapt better to social stressors.” This is where adding loving-kindness elements to meditation might be beneficial beyond the individual level.

Loving-kindness meditation can be used to “teach people [how] to renegotiate that basic affordance of compassion or kindness or connection with another person” and apply that to broader pro-social attitudes.

For the modern generation, meditation can be of additional benefit since social media and technology have resulted in people constantly attending to something and leaving little time to attend to themselves.

Farb explains how “nowadays, everyone is fighting for our attention—it’s an attention economy—so we almost need new compensatory or regulatory skills to successfully navigate and stay sane in the face of people always trying to distract us.”

If you have never tried meditation or mindfulness, Farb suggests starting with brief, scheduled moments of intentional reflection. Even taking thirty seconds to check in with how you feel can be highly impactful in the long-term. Focusing on breathing can be important as well; however, breathing is more of a tool to help you calm down and quieten your mind so you can have the mental space to reflect.

Farb describes how when you reflect each day, you will begin to see patterns emerge. For instance, you might have similar thoughts about overwhelming days or have a specific event which consistently triggers the same attitudes in your mind. These patterns can help indicate what you might need to think more deeply about and where changes can help you. “It’s not that meditation fixes you, but it really shows you where [your] suffering is coming from and if it is getting worse, [then you] should do something about it…that is the heart of mediation.”

Farb does mention that “meditation can seem like a very lonely act in a way because you’re off on your own. If you’re finding that things are getting worse, the right thing to do is to talk to other people about it.”

Never-before-seen virus spreads to various countries including Canada

FATIMA ADIL FEATURES EDITOR

On December 31, 2019, China reported a virus to the World Health Organization. On January 25, 2020, this never-before-seen virus had claimed the lives of 56 individuals and spread to various countries including Japan, Australia, the United States, and Canada.

According to BBC News, the virus is believed to have originated in a large seafood market that “conducted illegal transactions of wild animals” and sold seafood in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. It is a type of coronavirus—a family of viruses which includes the common cold—and since it is a novel virus, it has been termed 2019-nCoV. Coronaviruses are common in animals, and although it is rare, they can cross over to humans and cause an outbreak.

The virus causes mild to severe respiratory illness and symptoms include fever, cough, and shortness of breath. As stated on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, symptoms may appear two to 14 days after exposure to the virus. It is not yet known how contagious 2019-nCoV is; however, it is believed to be transmitted between humans through “respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes.” There is no specific cure or vaccine. However, according to BBC News, “it is believed that only a quarter of infected cases are ‘severe,’ and the dead are mostly—though not exclusively— older people, some of whom have pre-existing conditions.”

CNN reports that China has banned motor vehicles in Wuhan’s city center to contain the virus. Only

View to the U View continued from page 10

NOUR SAQQA/THE MEDIUM

Mindfulness meditation focuses on taking your attention away from the things that stress you out.

“vehicles with special permits, free shuttles, and government vehicles will be allowed to move around.”

The Chinese government has also banned the sale of all wild animals across the country and is reportedly building a 1000-bed hospital in six days. Several Chinese cities are under lockdown and public organizations such as theatres and cafes have been closed. Lunar New Year gatherings have also been shut down along with tourist attractions such as Shanghai Disney and the Great Wall.

Masks are now mandatory in public.

The 2019-nCoV is also currently a popular topic on social media. However, according to CBC News, many of the claims being shared are unverified and untrue. For instance, individuals are tweeting about people collapsing on the streets, authorities covering up deaths, travellers escaping the quarantine, and nicotine being able to cure the disease. It is important to distinguish between fact and fiction considering there were “almost half a million [tweets] on Friday, [January 24]” about 2019nCoV and misinformation regarding a health issue can spread fear and cause harm.

In terms of the case reported in Canada, the patient is a man in his 50’s who recently travelled from Wuhan City to Toronto and has been admitted to Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre with symptoms. To reduce one’s risk of infection, the CDC advises washing one’s hands “often with soap and water for at least twenty seconds, avoid[ing] touching [one’s] eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands, [and] avoid[ing] close contact with people who are sick.” Health officials say that the risk to the general Canadian public is low but advise following the situation closely.

It is interesting to learn that DeMarco taught herself how to create a podcast through YouTube videos and tutorials available on Lynda.com. She uses a Zoom recorder to record the audio and Audacity for editing. Although it “was outside [her] comfort zone and a huge learning curve” for her, DeMarco has persevered since she loves podcasts and really believes in sharing the innovative research being conducted at UTM. DeMarco has also “presented at four different conferences about podcasting in academia, one each in Toronto, Ottawa, Saskatoon, and most recently San Francisco.” Although public speaking “is not something that comes easily to [her], [she is] trying to put the View to the U podcast out there as much as [she] can.”

For those new to the podcast, DeMarco recommends listening to the episode with Dr. Loren Martin, an as-

sistant professor of psychology. As he conducts research on pain, DeMarco aimed to debunk the many myths associated with pain but ended up finding out that some of the myths were actually true. Another podcast she recommends is the one featuring Dr. Jennifer Stellar, who is also an assistant professor of psychology, and who has given multiple TED talks on positive emotions and how they promote well-being.

While DeMarco enjoys reading and appreciates the video format, she says that with podcasts, one does not have to stop what they are doing to listen. They can be on a run or folding laundry and listening at the same time. She also says that “there is something very comforting about having someone talk to you” and that podcasts can show “a fuller picture.”

DeMarco is “really glad to be able to profile researchers in such a different way” and encourages those interested to check out a View to the U podcast.

12

«

01.27.2020

Editor | Sarah-May Edwardo Oldfield

Cannabis affects driving hours after use Results from recent study by MIND changes how we might understand cannabis use and driving sobriety ANDREW STONE ASSOCIATE S & H EDITOR Driving sober is crucial for the safety of the drivers and the safety of the people in our communities. A recent study from McLean Hospital’s Cognitive and Clinical Neuroimaging Core and the Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery program (MIND) may influence our current understanding of sobriety in relation to cannabis use.

The study, published in January 2020, found that regular long-term cannabis use has negative effects on an individual’s driving ability, even after they have already sobered up.

The findings also report that individuals who started their cannabis use before age 16 were even more impaired than those who began recreational use after age 16.

The research team enlisted a total of 45 participants, who were required to have valid driver’s licenses and were evaluated with various tests, including an IQ test and the Barrett Impulsivity Scale-II (BIS).

The BIS measures impulsivity in the participants’ attention, motor, and non-planning abilities.

The participants were split into two groups: the chronic use group (28 participants) and the non-user control group (17 participants).

SAMUELE ERRICO PICCARINI/UNSPLASH.COM

Even after the cannabis has left the system, there are lasting effects that can still affect the mind.

The chronic users were eligible to participate if they use cannabis at least five days a week, had previously used cannabis at least 1,500 times in their lifetimes, and tested positive for cannabinoids from a urine sample. They were then assessed for any other underlining substanceuse disorders and were not able to participate if anything other than a cannabis-use disorder was present.

The chronic use group was split further into two groups, one group of cannabis users who started using before 16 (14 participants) and

the other consisting of cannabis users who started after 16 (14 participants). They reported what kind of cannabis products they use (e.g. pills, edibles, joints, etc.), their preferred method of use (e.g. vaping, smoking, etc.), their frequency of use, and the dosage they commonly take.

Finally, they were asked to abstain from any form of cannabis use for at least 12 hours before the experiment was conducted and reported their symptoms using a Marijuana Withdrawal Checklist containing 16 criteria to be ranked during the ab-

stinence period.

The experiment began with all participants undertaking another urine test to ensure they abstained for the proper amount of time. Then, the participants used a driving simulator for a 10-minute period in order to measure how they conduct themselves on the road. The simulation included both rural and urban driving conditions and required the participants to obey all the laws of the road as they would normally do in the real world.The simulation took note of any of the participants’ vio-

lations such as accidents, traffic sign violations, speed limit violations, and lane violations.

The research team found that the chronic user group scored higher in the attention and non-planning categories of the BIS, meaning they are more impulsive in these domains.

In the driving simulation, the user group was far more impaired than the non-user group and had more collisions, more missed stops, more centerline crosses, and drove at greater speeds than the non-users.

The early and late user groups performed very similarly on the preliminary tests, but the early user group performed even more poorly than the late user group.

The results from this study show that recreational cannabis use has noticeable lasting effects on the brain even when the substance is not present in the body. Their findings also show that cannabis use before age 16 leads to more impaired driving abilities.

The findings of the present study show a possible link between earlyonset cannabis use and increased impulsive driving, especially when other research in this area is factored in. Further research is needed to truly figure out if early cannabis use has any direct negative effects on brain development.

UTM Lady Eagles grounded by Thunder UTM’s Women’s Varsity Eagles basketball team fall against the undefeated Algonquin College Thunder ROBERT BUI CONTRIBUTOR Last Sunday afternoon, the UTM Eagles women’s varsity basketball team hoped to win their second game of the new year, and the eighth game of their season.

Ahead of them were the Algonquin Thunder who sit at the top of the OCAA standings and remain undefeated, with a record of 9-0 going into the game. In their previous encounter, the Eagles lost to the Thunder 74-80 in a tough game in Algonquin. Albeit their best efforts, the task of beating the Thunder was too tall an order.

The game looked promising in its early stages for UTM as they came out of the gate with a 5-0 run. The Eagles did not allow their opponents to score for three straight minutes and were finding open teammates for a good selection of shots. The Thunder sunk three three-pointers in a row, and an 11-0 run forced UTM to call a timeout halfway through the first quarter. UTM came out of the timeout looking to find some rhythm inside, repeatedly looking for drives to the basket and

CHARLENE CRUZ/UTM ATHLETICS

The motivated Eagles played as fast and strong as they could, but ultimately lost to the Thunder. foul calls to grind away at the lead.

Algonquin’s play gave them the lead after the first ten minutes of play, 12-23.

Both teams traded baskets for the first half of the second quarter. Algonquin played very tough defence, causing the Eagles to throw away possessions due to shot-clock violations and lack of open teammates.

An aggressive style of play however sent the Eagles to the line repeat-

edly, and into the bonus with four minutes of play remaining in the quarter. UTM saw themselves successfully chipping away at the lead, getting it down to six. Algonquin then went on to score quick baskets, but Jade Addai surged life into the Eagles by scoring a tough basket and getting a block on the fast break to end the half, 32-44.

Jade Addai kept her momentum from the first half going; using her

quickness to score a flurry of layups for UTM. On the other end, Algonquin used their size to continue finding shots under the rim and their quality showed as they continued to finish their possessions. The Thunder decided to incorporate another style of defence to start the second half of play, frequently double teaming and using help defence to cause UTM to make quicker decisions.

This sped up the game, and UTM

had trouble adjusting to the higher tempo that their opponents forced.

Algonquin took an 18-point lead going into the fourth quarter, 66-48.

With only one quarter left, the door was closing on UTM’s hopes of winning. While the Eagles were forcing turnovers and making shots of their own, time was too big of a factor to overcome. In the winding moments of the game however, motivation never left the Eagles’ side and they continued to play until the final buzzer.

UTM lost to Algonquin for the second time of the season, 86-62.

UTM on the offensive side was streaky against Algonquin, finding moments of high-volume scoring and moments of no scoring at all.

Defensively, UTM applied pressure effectively, causing the opposing side to turn the ball over several times. When it came to contesting shots however, UTM could not stop Algonquin’s offence.

The Eagles record dropped to 7-3, but they shouldn’t lose motivation from dropping a game to an undefeated Algonquin Thunder that sits at the top of the OCAA standings.