The Queen's Journal, Volume 145, Issue 19

the journal Vol. 145, Issue 19

Queen’s University

F r i d ay J a n u a r y 2 6 , 2 0 1 8

Our AMS

Endorsement Page 7

since

Controversy surrounds ASUS election with two disqualifications Teams reinstated, accusations of conflicts of interest among candidates cause discrepancies Ejaz Thawer and Maureen O’Reilly Journal Staff This story first appeared online on Jan. 25.

At approximately 6 p.m. on Jan. 22, two of three teams running for ASUS executive were notified of their disqualification for campaigning outside the designated period.

After unsuccessfully appealing their disqualification to ASUS Policy and Elections Review Committee (PERC), the teams brought their cases to the AMS Judicial Committee. The committee then reinstated both teams, replacing their disqualification with temporary campaign blackouts.

The disqualification

What’s Inside?

1873

Only 18 hours after the campaigning period had begun, Teams Harmony & Gurjot and Sagal & Alissa were notified via email that they were disqualified from ASUS elections. The disqualification was based on ASUS Policy Manual 2, Section C-3.08, which reads: “Any instances of campaigning outside of the campaign period will result in immediate disqualification.”

According to current ASUS President Jasmine Lagundzija, one of the teams was caught with a volunteer Facebook group that encouraged students to vote for them prior to the campaign period beginning on Jan. 22 at midnight.

Meanwhile, the other team had posted an Instagram on one of their

personal accounts announcing their candidacy approximately one hour before the campaigning period began.

According to Team Sagal & Alissa, their volunteer Facebook group wasn’t made with the intent to campaign.

“We know the ASUS rules on campaigning before the campaign period has started,” the team said.

“We were simply building our team of volunteers and supporters, as almost every ASUS and AMS executive team has done. We were following precedent … We didn’t actually even post any campaign material in the group until 12:03 p.m., which was a full 12 hours into the campaign period.”

The team said the ruling stemmed from anonymous complaints from people that were added to the group without consenting. However, Team Sagal & Alissa claim they didn’t add any non-consenting volunteers.

“We know that creating a team’s volunteer group before the start of campaigning is not only common practice, but it’s also essential for communicating any logistical information [with our volunteers] before the campaign period begins,” the team said.

Team Harmony & Gurjot told The Journal the private account photo linked to their disqualification had “an innocuous caption that had nothing to do with [their] campaign.” The team took issue with the ruling and connected it to the “archaic practices” that restrict student participation in ASUS. Appeal to ASUS Policy and Elections Review Committee

After the ASUS elections team determined that both teams had violated policy, they provided instructions to each team on how to appeal to the ASUS Policy and Elections Review Committee (PERC). Although both teams went

See ASUS on page 5

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JUSTICE KING

NEWS

FEATURE

OPINIONS

SPORTS

SGPS loses $120,000 in new PSAC 901 agreement

House on Earl has a

When can we forgive

history of its own

politicans for past mistakes?

Kevin Bailie wins 50th game Our experience at a Psychic as member of Gaels

page 3

page 6

page 8

page 11

queensjournal.ca

@queensjournal

@queensjournal

@queensjournal

LIFESTYLE

page 16 @thequeensjournal

News

2 •queensjournal.ca

Friday, January 26, 2018

Three candidates envision the University’s future at Rector debate Candidates address issues ranging from SGPS concerns to sexual violence on campus

PHOTOS BY SEBASTIEN MOLGAT

Rector candidates at the debate on Wednesday.

“

“

[Making sure] there are enough cross-cultural counsellors on campus, so that students who fit into a specific niche aren’t talking to someone generic, they’re talking to someone who can really empathize with exactly what they’re going through.

”

ALEX DA SILVA ConEd ’19

I have a pretty good “understanding of the

mechanisms of the University as a whole. I work with the AMS and a little bit with the SGPS ... in my understanding of those different roles, I have a decent understanding of how the University operates as a whole.

”

”

”

The most important “ undergraduate issue that I

JAKE ROSEMAN ArtSci ’19

“

It is about continuing the cultural change that has been put forth by past leaders, the legacy that has been left, and to be able to continue that change ... it is more about continuing that and being an active member and understanding the magnitude of [it].”

[It’s about] looking not so much at can [smudging] happen, but does it happen regularly? Does it happen in a way that makes the experience enjoyable for everybody involved? Because you don’t want your culture to feel like a burden to your experiences and your role on campus.

want to address is quality of education at Queen’s ... we used to be within the top 150 schools internationally. As a result of our classroom sizes increasing and [other factors], this has no longer been the case.

”

“

AFSHEEN CHOWDHURY ConEd ’19

All of our services, SHRC, our clubs, offices, SGPS, AMS, all of these facilities need to be moved to a different location temporarily if the JDUC is getting revitalized. And when it is getting revitalized, we have to see ‘will these services come back into this location?’

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CHECK OUT THE JOURNAL’S ELECTION COVERAGE AT QJLONGFORM.COM & QUEENSJOURNAL.CA Content By: Sarina Grewal & Shivani Gonzalez Journal Staff

”

News

Friday, January 26, 2018

BUDGET

bargaining agreement. Instead, it refers to the MOA that we always sign with them.” He added it was “business as usual.”

The reference to PSAC 901’s 2017-18 budget that Grotsky mentioned shows the allotted $120,000 in lines 18, 19 and 20. The lines feature an asterix explaining the budget items were “awaiting SGPS MOA approval,” with no express contingency on until April.” the bargaining process mentioned Despite this, Grotsky indicated in the budget. “it was suggested to [the SGPS] by the union that we would be SGPS-PSAC marketing receiving that money this year.”

He said it was “quite the surprise” In marketing material created to learn the new agreement for the 2017-18 academic year was going to be retroactive and to advertise the SGPS Health and the SGPS wouldn’t be receiving Dental Plan, PSAC Local 901’s the $120,000. contribution is cited in a line at the “Both we and PSAC had bottom reading “The SGPS Health budgeted for us to receive that and Dental Plan is brought to you money. We looked at their budget, through generous support from we saw they had put that money PSAC 901.” in there, we did the same for According to Grotsky, when the our budget with the expectation SGPS put together its marketing that the money was going to materials, PSAC 901 “requested come and unfortunately we now that we include [the line],” this have learned that is not the case,” academic year even though the Grotsky said. previous agreement had expired.

In response, Berggold told Berggold said in the original The Journal it’s “not true” that MOA between the SGPS and PSAC PSAC and SGPS exchanged 901, the SGPS was “mandated to budget information. make that acknowledgement.”

“The budget that was passed at When asked about the the last annual general meeting reference only being requested (AGM) shows zero income on the this year, Berggold said “the SGPS Health and Dental Plan. The local broke the contract repeatedly, budget shows no income on those took our money and never line items for the 2017-18 year,” acknowledged that they received Berggold said. it publically for several years. And However, Grotsky noted we continued to give them money.” “an important piece about “When Adam said to me ‘oh well their budget — from my we have been advertising PSAC perspective — is that none of 901 for the last eight months,’ even the references to the Health though the contract expired. I said Plan funding are contingent on ‘well maybe that’ll make up for the outcome of the collective the many years that you took our

SGPS stripped of $120,000 in new tentative agreement

Public Service Alliance of Canada agreement puts Society for Graduate & Professional Students “in a budget crisis”

Iain Sherriff-Scott Assistant News Editor

PSAC 901 and Queen’s is ratified Friday, the $120,000 will be retroactively stripped from the SGPS from Sept. 2017.

Craig Berggold, President of PSAC Local 901, told The Journal he’s been “transparent and above board” throughout the negotiation process about whether funds would be allocated. SGPS President Adam Grotsky said in an interview that “isn’t true at all.”

After a previous collective agreement between the University and Public Service Alliance Canada Local 901 (PSAC) expired in April of 2017, the two sides reached a new tentative agreement on Dec. 20 of that same year. PSAC Local 901, a union that represents professional graduate students, has been at the bargaining table with Queen’s for months.

SGPS-PSAC budget confusion The vote to ratify the agreement spans Jan. 25 and 26, with the Legally, the deal between PSAC results announced at the Grad Club 901 and the SGPS hinges on an on Friday. Despite being allowed MOA that is renewed annually. access to all on-campus events, Berggold told The Journal this year, The Journal was denied access to “we never sent them that letter.” a ratification vote meeting at the “It was made very clear to Sutherland Room on Thursday by them when the original MOA was union representatives. agreed to between SGPS and PSAC For several years, PSAC Local the union was not in a position 901 has contributed $120,000 to make any future financial to the Society of Graduate & contributions or donations [after Professional Students’ (SGPS) its expiration],” Berggold said.

Health and Dental Plan. The Grotsky explained the MOA contribution has historically has existed as more of a formality been agreed upon through a between the two parties. memorandum of agreement “Admittedly both the SGPS (MOA), renewed annually. and PSAC have never been very The SGPS Health and Dental diligent with the MOA,” Grotsky Plan covers all graduate students said. “Both parties have always at Queen’s. This year, PSAC 901 taken for granted that the money didn’t renew the MOA that has will be transferred and have upheld the deal for years. If the viewed the MOA as a formality. For new tentative agreement between example, last year it wasn’t signed

Broaden your opportunities and take the first step to earning your Queen’s MBA

Learn the fundamentals of business in just 4 months • Program runs May-August • Earn credits toward an MBA • Designed for recent graduates of any discipline • Broaden your career prospects

Register for the Webinar Thursday, February 8 @ 2:30pm ssb.ca/gdb

queensjournal.ca • 3

money and never advertised it,’” Berggold continued.

“I understand [the] SGPS was hoping to receive the money and we had no reason to believe that we couldn’t [provide it], but we were under no legal agreement to give SGPS any future money after April 30. They were well aware of that and we were at the mercy of the bargaining process,” Berggold said.

Grotsky explained, “since Craig never brought up the fact that we wouldn’t be getting the money, in addition to the marketing request and his comments at Council, we figured it was a repeat of previous years.”

SGPS budget crisis

The results of the ratification vote — expected to be released at 5:00 p.m. Friday — will determine whether the union goes back to the drawing board. As of now, Grotsky is preparing for the worst.

“We are currently reviewing our annual budget and looking at ways that we can make cuts without sacrificing the essential services that we provide to our student body … it certainly is not easy to come up with $120,000,” he said.

Despite the difficulties it causes the SGPS, Grotsky said the agreement “is a good deal for students.”

“The three per cent pay they will receive in their paychecks is added money for them. There is good reason for them to approve it,” he said.

Though Grotsky voiced support for the deal, he explained it’s likely the SGPS will remain in a deficit this academic year as a result. He added it’s “too early to say just what that number will be.”

News

4 •queensjournal.ca

Friday, January 26, 2018

ELECTIONS

Society of Graduate and Professional Students (SGPS) 2018 elections

SGPS Executive candidates share their platforms, prior experience and vision in this Q&A

From left to right: Tyler Morrison, Isabel Luce, Lauren Peacock, Leo Erlikhman, Mac Fitzgerald, Stefy McKnight and Abel Hazon.

Renee Sands Contributor After a completely uncontested election last year, the Society of Graduate and Professional Students (SGPS) is seeing two of five positions contested in the upcoming executive race.

The Journal met with the candidates to hear about their motivation for running and some of the plans they have for the future of the SGPS. Tyler Morrison, Law ’19 Presidential candidate

Q: What’s the biggest issue SGPS students face that you want to tackle?

TM: The Health and Dental [contract reinstatement] is something … that students will be feeling for not just the next three years of the contract, [as] insurance is a finicky thing. If they are unsure about how students behave or how they claim, the companies will hedge their bets by charging more money. When something is stable and they have a good idea of what [the student body] looks like, they can lower their price.

The next president is going to be on the selection committee and that is a huge advocacy role. We need a principal who is committed to graduate space and building that graduate community, [and] increasing funding for graduate students, not only to benefit the school, but graduate students as a whole.

Q: Why should students vote for you?

TM: Just being in the office every day, understanding the process with the JDUC revitalization, understanding how health and dental works, understanding the process that will happen to pick a new Principal … and being involved in those decisions makes me well positioned to take on this role.

Working with [SGPS President Adam Grotsky], I have that experience, and I think that I know the role better than anybody.

Stéfy McKnight, Cultural Studies PhD Student Presidential Candidate

Q: What’s the biggest issue SGPS students face that you want to tackle?

SM: I think Health and Dental is a go-to ... but I think there are a

lot of things we can be working on.

We need to diversify our SGPS, we need to work with inclusion and equity, we need programming, and [working on] our representation would be huge. I am really happy this year with some positions being contested, as it demonstrates that we have made an impact this year, and that people want to get involved. I think it’s great to have a platform that looks at very specific things and issues … but if we don’t have diversification and student engagement, those things don’t matter.

happy “thisI amyearreally with some

positions being contested, as it demonstrates that ... people want to get involved.

”

— Stefy McKnight, SGPS Presidential candidate

Q: Why should students vote for you?

SM: Voting for me is voting for students. I was asked by a colleague about what my vision is, and I struggle speaking about what my vision is because I don’t believe that the president should be the one who creates the vision.

It should be something that the collective society should create together. A vote for me will ensure that people have …. someone who will link the concerns of the society to council. I am more interested in being an interlocutor of people’s thoughts and using my access to give people room to speak … I am one person that represents, but I promise that my vision and my goals are completely directed from the society and my executive.

Isabel Luce, Art History PhD student Vice-President (Community) candidate Q: What’s the biggest issue SGPS students face that you want to tackle?

IL: Mental health is a really major one. I have encountered so many students, and dealt with my own struggles in completing my PhD, and it is really important that graduate students know that there are so many services available on campus, from the Student Advisor Program … to the Graduate counsellor. This past year,

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JOSH GRANOVSKY

one of the commissioner’s roles week, but that may not be what [was widened from Mental Health] Q: What’s the biggest issue ends up happening, because I’m to Health and Wellness, and I SGPS students face that you want going to go out to students and ask think that commission could be to tackle? ‘okay, what do you have now and [further] enlarged.

AH: The biggest issue I see from what do you want?’ Also, meeting Q: Why should students vote my experience is the Health [and with different department heads, for you?

Dental Insurance] plan cost. It’s with the SGPS, with the Law school, IL: I am really passionate overpriced, the coverages are very with the Education [school]; about creating a safe, welcoming, low … insurance companies tend seeing what they offer, and making informed graduate community to limit marketing to lower claims, sure we’re not duplicating. here, and I have a lot of experience and that is a very unethical thing being a graduate student as well to do when students are paying Leo Erlikhman, Sociology as working with them. I would for them. Increasing awareness Master’s Student like to put a lot of focus in working around our health plan ... having Vice-President (Graduate) with the exec as a team towards a good health plan … and making candidate fixing some issues I’ve been our health plan term sustainable seeing, as well as being on some … makes perfect, logical sense. It Q: What’s the biggest issue of the advisory committees … the exists in other plans and I think SGPS students face that you want provost advisory committee of that’s a big issue that needs to to tackle? mental health advisory would be fixed.

LE: The biggest problem that really be a good one to sit upon.

Q: Why should students vote faces graduate students doesn’t I would take this job extremely for you? really exist. There is no ‘one’ issue, seriously … it would just be me AH: The experience I bring is just because of how diverse the completing my dissertation while very unique. My work experience group is. The School of Graduate also working towards making speaks tremendously to my Studies has targeted graduate the [graduate] community a capacity to lead in this role. My student engagement and student better one. academic experience, given that satisfaction as a priority. … so that

I am in the Master of Public is definitely something that the Mac Fitzgerald, Urban & Administration Program, [allows executive is going to have to look Regional Planning Master’s me to] put to use the things that at pretty quickly. As a team, we student I have learned this year. I don’t will have to look at engaging and Vice-President (Community) think the [SGPS] has ever had an increasing the satisfaction, and candidate MPA student … and the curriculum hopefully, by offering a diverse speaks to managing organizations range of programming, we can Q: What’s the biggest issue in the public sector and delivering improve those services.

SGPS students face that you want on policy points. I am excited to to tackle? put that to good use.

The biggest problem MF: We see a lot of candidates

that faces graduate talk about the Health and Dental Lauren Peacock, Law ’19 students doesn’t really Plan because it is up for renewal Vice-President (Professional) exist. There is no ‘one’ next year, but in terms of my candidate issue, just because of portfolio, I think the biggest issue is engagement. [Last year] we saw Q: What’s the biggest issue how diverse the group a six per cent voter turnout. We SGPS students face that you want is. are seeing a lot of participation in to tackle?

SGPS events … and we need to find LP: There is a bit of an apathy — Leo Erlikhman, a way to harness that excitement amongst our membership. A lot SGPS Vice-Presidential candidate for events and turn it into of people don’t know that we some excitement for the society even exist, so just increasing the Q: Why should students vote in general. amount of attendance we get for for you?

Q: Why should students vote for things like council or executive LE: I’m just passionate about you? debate[s] … having people from improving graduate life at Queen’s.

MF: Looking at the platform I our general student body coming I’m hoping to improve overall put forward, I have provided a lot out [is important]. I imagine we campus life through my research of deliverables and a lot of things are going to have to find some way and looking at ways that we can that are really achievable in my to incentivize people to come out, make the university experience time. It’s not overly strenuous because pizza clearly isn’t working. more inclusive and more diverse. to put together an information This year there will be a kind of We don’t [want] to have a package that can be used by every incentive for people to come out cookie-cutter experience for single student, it’s only a matter and vote, and we are hoping little everybody, because we have to of hitting send on an email. Those things like that will make people recognize that as our school grows, are really simple tasks, but they’re more aware and help them to our experience needs to grow as going to be really powerful. I think want to get involved. well. I hope to be someone who I’ve covered a lot of ground with Q: Why should students vote is approachable who will create my portfolio, and I think that I’ve for you? that experience. been really realistic about what I LP: [The vice-president can accomplish. professional role] really isn’t For full elections coverage,

about me. It’s really about what visit queensjournal.ca and Abel Hazon, Law ’20 the students want, and what I can qjlongform.com.

Vice-President (Finance and do for them. I have a few ideas of Services) candidate what I think will be good for career

“

”

News

Friday, January 26, 2018

queensjournal.ca • 5

ASUS elections policy now under review The ASUS offices on University Ave.

Continued from front went through the appeal process, they were told later that night committee ruled to uphold each ruling.

“Once we filed the appeal to PERC, we believe the ASUS CEO [Chief Electoral Officer] and PERC failed to allow us due process,” Team Sagal & Alissa told The Journal. “We were unable to represent ourselves, we were unable to submit any evidence, or to tell our side of the story.”

In addition to claiming PERC’s failure to relinquish decision-making responsibilities to the AMS Secretariat violated the ASUS constitution, Sagal & Alissa criticized the committee’s handling of their case. They made multiple requests to know where the location of PERC’s meeting was so they could send representation, all of which went

unanswered before they were told PERC’s verdict around midnight.

Lamenting a similar delayed experience with PERC, Harmony & Gurjot questioned the legitimacy of the committee’s decision, noting they weren’t given a formal sitdown discussion, nor did PERC ask for any materials or explanations from the team.

“They made their own decision … without getting our input,” Harmony & Gurjot said.

Conflicts of interest

In an interview with The Journal, Team Sagal & Alissa claimed ASUS Chief Returning Officer (CRO) Regina Codera made the decision to disqualify the two teams. At the beginning of the election period, Codera declared a conflict of interest given her relationship with one of the candidates on

fill a gap

the third team running — Team Eric & Dave.

Team Harmony & Gurjot said the existing conflict of interest “severely impacted the success and legitimacy of all campaigns involved, aside from one,” a sentiment which Sagal & Alissa echoed to The Journal.

“Regina had made a decision to disqualify two of the three teams within 18 hours into the campaign period, thus effectively handing over the successful election to her boyfriend and his running mate,” Team Sagal & Alissa said.

However, on the ASUS elections webpage, it says that “any concerns related to elections violations should be directed to the ASUS Chief Electoral Officer Luca BonifacioProietto” and “any related inquiries sent to the CRO will be ignored.”

In an email to The Journal, Codera wrote “the decision to disqualify two teams running for ASUS Executive was one made by the Chief Electoral Officer.”

Codera said the CEO’s decision to disqualify wasn’t easy, especially because “many people both in and outside the society have conflicts of interest with more than one of the teams running.”

Lagundzija confirmed there were “a couple of conflicts of interest” among candidates this year.

“For the sake of transparency, it’s important to note as well that one of our teams was an internal team and had a candidate that is a commissioner within our office,” Lagundzija said. According to the ASUS website, Sagal Sharma currently works as the ASUS Services Commissioner.

When asked about the CRO’s relationship with one of the candidates, Lagundzija said, “the statement that they are dating is true,” but noted she couldn’t comment on “the specifics of whether that played into the decision or not.”

Judicial Committee reinstates both teams

in your program

Athabasca University has over 850 courses for you to choose from to meet your needs. Monthly start dates of undergraduate courses fit into your schedule so that you can work at your own pace.

Fill the gap and save a semester.

www.athabascau.ca/course

Following the PERC ruling, the two teams were told they could further appeal to the AMS Judicial Committee, who maintains the final authority on elections complaints.

The teams proceeded with their appeals to the AMS Judicial Committee, which were heard on Tuesday afternoon. The committee reinstated both teams, upon the condition of “campaign blackouts.” This means both teams had to cease any campaigning procedures until the end of their blackout.

Team Harmony & Gurjot’s blackout ended Jan. 25 at midnight, while Team

PHOTO BY JOSEPH CATTANA

Sagal & Alissa’s blackout will end on Jan. 26 at midnight. Campaigning materials that were already posted prior to the decision — including posts on social media — were permitted to remain, but no new posts could be issued during the blackout.

ASUS elections policy under review

As a result of the two rulings, the AMS elections team will now handle the ASUS executive election. This means ASUS will now follow AMS elections rules, handing over control of reviewing complaints and issuing sanctions to the AMS as well.

“We as an executive recognize that it puts two teams in a very uncomfortable position, having been disqualified and blacked out

This is the most fair and due “process that we can give the candidates. ” — Jasmine Lagundzija, ASUS President

and allowed to come back in,” Lagundzija explained. “This is the most fair and due process that we can give the candidates so there’s no perceived biases or leniencies.”

“Seeing as the AMS elections team … was not implicated in the decisions made by the ASUS elections team, we thought it was fair to transfer power,” AMS Secretary Neil Sengupta said.

Moreover, Lagundzija added that ASUS and the AMS will now be reviewing ASUS elections policies to reevaluate the effectiveness of its rules.

In interviews with The Journal, each of the sanctioned teams expressed their displeasure with the policy they were accused of violating. According to Team Sagal & Alissa, “We did not have the motive or intent to campaign by creating our volunteer group, and ASUS policy stipulates that you need to have intent to campaign.”

Team Harmony & Gurjot categorized the “vague” policy as one that must be clarified “so the people in charge aren’t able to bend the rules or over-exaggerate certain aspects of another candidate’s platform to get them disqualified.”

The ASUS executive debate has been postponed and will now take place this Friday at 6 p.m. in the lower ceilidh of the JDUC.

6 • queensjournal.ca

Features

Friday, January 26, 2018

IN-DEPTH STORIES FROM AROUND CAMPUS AND IN THE COMMUNITY

The Kingston House of Industry after its relocation to Montreal St.

Brigid Goulem Features Editor If you walk past 305 Earl Street today, you would see an old, grey brick house with the occasional piece of litter on the lawn. While it’s no different from any other home you’d walk past in the University District, it’s a far cry from what it was 160 years ago.

In May of 1850, the Kingston House of Industry was written into law and the house on Earl served as a refuge for many of the poor men, women and children in Kingston.

The House of Industry — known also as a ‘workhouse’ — was an attempt to improve the situation of the poor by making people do work like breaking rocks and sewing, for room and board.

While the House of Industry was built to address the issue of poverty in Kingston, the roots of the problem can be traced across the Atlantic Ocean.

The 1847 Great Famine in Ireland created a significant rise in immigrants to North America, who sought refuge from the famine and destitution in their homeland. Unfortunately, the trip to their new home wasn’t easy.

On the journey, an outbreak of typhus — or what they then called ‘plague of ship-fever’ — caused many to die before they reached the shore. According to a 1949 Kingston Whig-Standard article, the United States, aware of the typhus outbreak, closed their borders to Irish immigrants and consequently almost 100,000 arrived on Canadian shores. It’s estimated 20,000 of these people died from typhus.

Quarantines were established on Gosse Isle on the St. Lawrence to hold those infected with typhus. But those who were healthy — or at least appeared to be so — were allowed to continue on to Kingston and Toronto.

In Kingston, the bodies of those apparently healthy people who died after passing through the quarantine point were unloaded onto the wharves for removal and burial. Those who had died were taken to a field south of the Kingston General Hospital, placed in trenches and sprinkled with quicklime. Until 1894, the mass grave remained unmarked.

In addition to those who died from contracting the disease on the ship, typhus spread to residents of Kingston, making the

outbreak even harder to control.

The epidemic finally ceased in 1848, but the aftermath was severe. Those who had died had left families behind, women no longer had sources of revenue, children were left without parents and many were left unable to work.

An essay from the Queen’s University Archives details makeshift shelters lining King Street along the water. According to

indigent with a safe place to stay. The justification was that the products of labour would pay for the food and lodging expense, thus being a minimal cost to the public.

According to the Queen’s University Archives essay, the majority of those who frequented the House were seeking refuge as new arrivals to Canada. Often people would stay while waiting to meet

Workhouse to Welfare A look back at Kingston’s first social reform institute

a report referenced in the essay, “the air was charged with a heavy, mephitic vapor and insufferable odor proceeding from the three sheds.” The need for public assistance was evident and overwhelming.

There was a belief among residents that a House of Industry would allow people the chance to help themselves and would eliminate the problem of “vicious families of beggars [who] resort for the purposes of living upon the public.”

relatives they had journeyed to join. The elderly and infirm were another group who heavily depended on their services.

The workhouse was a refuge for new Canadian immigrants who lacked the means to support themselves during this tumultuous period in their lives. While the House of Industry provided a vital service to the community, there were many rules and conventions that our modern sensibilities would find objectionable.

A group of women called the Female Benevolent Society undertook the task of helping the “indigent and friendless.”

This was first exemplified through the establishment of the House of Industry, which the secretary of the society, Mrs. Cartwright, described in an 1949 Kingston Whig-Standard article as the best “means of affording relief to the many destitute beings left among us by the recent calamitous season of sickness and destitution arising from the awful visitation of famine in Ireland.”

The premise of the Kingston House of Industry was to provide the poor and

To differentiate groups, non-wealthy people were classified as either part of the ‘deserving poor’ or ‘undeserving poor.’

The deserving poor included widows, the elderly and injured or disabled people. The undeserving poor were drunks, unchaste women and criminals.

These divisions were written into the rules of the institutions with people “who are depraved in their morals and whose general character is bad” deemed ineligible for admission to the Kingston House of Industry.

In an interview with The Journal, Queen’s history professor Steven Maynard said this

Those who had died had left families behind, women no “longer had sources of revenue, children were left without parents and many were left unable to work. ”

PHOTO VIA THE COLLECTION OF JENNIFER MCKENDRY

rule was particularly hard on women, who often composed the majority of those who frequented the House of Industry.

“Who’s going to be poor, disadvantaged, out on the street? Well, unmarried women who find themselves with a child whose father’s taken off, they’ve maybe been kicked out of their family because it’s a disgrace — well, isn’t this the place you should be able to go? But the rules said no,” he said.

Maynard pointed out the inherent contradictions in the House of Industry, as the efforts to help were often clouded by the 19th-century middle-class biases and preconceptions of the women of the Female Benevolent Society.

In addition to their heavy concentration on arbitrary morality, Maynard said the Kingston House of Industry was perhaps poorly named. There was almost no ‘industry’ involved and its operating budget was almost entirely dependent on government grants.

According to records from the Queen’s Archives, there were also many functional problems within the building. Doctors almost never visited the site, the building was over capacity and infested with vermin and the basement — which often served as a dormitory or workshop — had no ventilation. All of this amounted to a very unsafe working and living environment for the residents and workers.

Eventually, Kingston residents became fed up with the House of Industry’s looming presence in their community leading to its relocation to Montreal Street. The House of Industry remained at this location until it was closed, serving the needs of the deserving poor of Kingston.

While the Kingston House of Industry was flawed and mismanaged, it offered a glimpse at the social institutions that would soon develop in Canada and eventually across the developed world.

The institutions established by the women of the Female Benevolent Society in the 19th century were all a part of a social reform mission that attempted to address the problems of different groups of Kingston society.

The efforts of the women of the Female Benevolent Society are easy to critique from a 21st-century perspective, but as Maynard says, “they saw a need, they responded to it, and it was important.”

Friday, January 26, 2018

queensjournal.ca

EDITORIALS

•7

The Journal’s Perspective

ILLUSTRATION BY STEPHANIE JIANG

We can’t be lenient on supporting student politicians that don’t meet our expectations, even when there’s no alternative. We need to expect better.

In a 19-0 vote with one abstention, The Journal Editorial Board voted to not endorse Team ECN for the 2018-19 AMS executive.

Team ECN, comprised of Emily Vanderheyden, Craig Draeger and Natasha Kornak, is the only team campaigning to be our AMS executive this year.

The decision not to support ECN didn’t come easily. At the end of the day, The Journal endorsement isn’t a prediction of the election results; it’s a stamp of approval for the team that proves to us they can make the school a better place than it is now.

We want a team that inspires change, one that’s willing to surpass the ambition of their predecessors. A hasty platform shouldn’t be a winning one, and just because ECN is the only team doesn’t mean they have to receive our support.

There was some great potential in Team ECN’s platform.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t demonstrate they were prepared to get all of the things they’re promising done. Many of their current platform points involve what they plan to implement in the redeveloped JDUC. However, the JDUC revitalization project isn’t set to break ground until the end of their potential term.

Although ECN could plan for

THE QUEEN’S JOURNAL

things like more gender-neutral washrooms, an Indigenous student lounge and increased club space during their time in office, they can’t promise students that subsequent executives will honor those plans.

Many of their platform points also included creating new jobs as well as adding funding to clubs and initiatives. Worryingly, the team didn’t effectively demonstrate how they would navigate these added expenses coupled with

every issue, she didn’t convince us she was going to be able to put up much of a fight for students.

It’s not a set expectation that the Presidential candidate of an AMS team dominates the conversation. On the contrary, balance between the candidates would’ve been something to support. But what we saw was a team with three very different

Kornak emphatically stated that Vanderheyden was the best manager she’s ever seen, and in the same breath, admitted she had never worked with her in an official capacity.

Throughout the endorsement meeting, each member of Team ECN retroactively called for some comments to be ‘off the record.’

It’s common to encounter this in journalism, even student journalism. But seeing it multiple times in a meeting centred

the recent minimum wage hike.

For the majority of the endorsement meeting, Presidential candidate Vanderheyden rarely spoke. Both Draeger and Kornak were more than willing to step in on every question the group was asked, and more often than not, Vanderheyden was left with nothing to add.

If elected, Vanderheyden is going to be representing students by liaising with Queen’s administration and the Board of Trustees. However, in an endorsement meeting where both Vice-Presidential candidates overpowered her on

members working towards a common goal, but never actually working together.

For a team with years of extracurricular experience on campus, ECN gave no indication of how their past positions would prepare them for the executive roles. Instead, they credited themselves with personal anecdotes and asked us to trust them.

In their hour and a half interview, each member of ECN gave their teammates high praise in an attempt to show they were worthy candidates.

In one unprompted instance,

around trying to convince a student newspaper to endorse you, all while repeating how committed you are to being transparent with the student body, doesn’t bode well.

Futher, when someone makes a mistake in the digital age it will follow them for a long time.

While Kornak and Vanderheyden may have forgiven Draeger for his past mistakes, the student body is under no obligation to do the same.

We can’t forgive so easily; we can’t allow racialized students to continue to be let down

We can’t settle for less with Team ECN

Jasnit Pabla Alex Palermo

Features Editors

Brigid Goulem Ashley Rhamey

Editorials Editor

Caleigh Castiglione

Opinions Editor

Nick Pearce

Arts Editor

Volume 145 Issue 19 www.queensjournal.ca @queensjournal Publishing since 1873

Assistant Arts Editor

Sebastian Bron

Sports Editor

Editor in Chief Managing Editor News Editor

Assistant News Editors

Joseph Cattana Meg Glover

Maureen O’Reilly Sarina Grewal Iain Sherriff-Scott

Matt Scace

Assistant Sports Editor

Shivani Gonzalez

Lifestyle Editor Assistant Lifestyle Editor

Josh granovsky

Julia Balakrishnan

Photo Editor

Editorial Board

Clayton Tomlinson

Assistant Photo Editor

Nicole Langfield

Video Editor

Max Silverberg

Assistant Video Editor

Amelia Rankine

Editorial Illustrator

Stephanie Jiang

Graphics Editor Copy Editors

Rebecca Frost Meredith Wilson-Smith Ejaz Thawer

Contributing Staff

Business Manager Sales Representatives

Contributors

Brittany Giliforte Ally Mastantuano Renee Sands

Staff Writers and Photographers Bryn Evans Vishamayaa Jeyamoorthy Cassandra Littlewood Sebastien Molgat Raechel Huizinga Yixuan Lin Zier Zhou

Business Staff

Abby Choudhry

Head Sales Representative LeeAnn Sverko

Office Administrator

Robyn McMurdy Kiera Sitzer Faith Villanueva

Want to contribute?

For information visit: www.queensjournal.ca/contribute or email the Editor in Chief at journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca Contributions from all members of the Queen’s and Kingston community are welcome. The Journal reserves the right to edit all submissions.

The Queen’s Journal is an editorially autonomous newspaper published by the Alma Mater Society of Queen’s University, Kingston.

Editorial opinions expressed in The Journal are

by those that would become their representatives.

Despite his obvious capabilities, the racist video Draeger was a part of several years ago isn’t something we can separate from his campaign. Regardless of whether or not he’s apologized, Queen’s has a terrible history and omnipresent record of tearing racialized people down. If we endorse Team ECN, we’re allowing that to become acceptable of our campus leaders when it should be a disqualifying factor.

We can’t tell our peers to settle for less than they deserve. We can’t judge the people the AMS would vote in instead of them, but we can judge these people. We won’t accept this kind of executive team anymore.

Our vote is a symbolic one, and we couldn’t justify giving our endorsement to a team we don’t have confidence in.

— Journal Editorial Board

Our Process

The endorsement is the result of a vote by The Journal Editorial Board. The Editorial Board considers prior interviews, debates, platforms and a private questioning period with the teams before making a decision.

the sole responsibility of The Queen’s Journal Editorial Board, and are not necessarily those of the University, the AMS or their officers.

190 University Ave., Kingston, ON, K7L 3P4 Editorial Office: 613-533-2800 Business Office: 613-533-6711 Fax: 613-533-6728 Email: journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca Please address complaints and grievances to the Editor in Chief.

The Queen’s Journal is printed on a Goss Community press by Performance Group of Companies in Smiths Falls, Ontario.

Contents © 2018 by The Queen’s Journal; all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior permission of The Journal.

Circulation 3,000

8 • queensjournal.ca

Friday, January 26, 2018

An apology isn’t enough

Opinions

If politicians are oppressive, when do we forgive them?

Vishmayaa Jeyamoorthy, ArtSci ’18

When someone who once participated in a racist depiction of Mexican people tries to run for government, it’s very unlikely I’ll support their campaign.

Why? Because I’m not interested in seeing another person with this kind of history in a position of power. But if it was nine years ago, does that still matter? It matters to me if they haven’t changed.

A racist is a racist unless they’ve proven they’re actively anti-racist. It’s not enough to make the claim that they no longer deserve such a title. If they aren’t actively working against those systems of oppression, then I’m not interested.

I’ll politically support a person who’s previously participated in oppressive actions only if they’ve actively apologized.

What is considered an active apology? It’s not retracting a statement; it’s not standing at a podium and saying, “I’m sorry.” To me, an active apology is presented in both words and actions. Politicians must use their position of power and privilege to actively be anti-racist.

A racist is a racist unless “ they’ve proven they’re actively anti-racist.

”

There’s an important difference between being not-racist and being anti-racist.

Being not-racist usually entails recognizing that systems of oppression lead to things like the school-to-prison pipeline. Being anti-racist means actively working to end the pipeline. Another example of being not-racist is recognizing that cultural appropriation is unacceptable and apologizing for those actions. Being anti-racist is supporting Black, Indigenous and coloured peoples overthrow those same systems.

Social justice movements are conflicted about apologies — some argue these from

Vishmayaa outside the AMS offices.

oppressors are usually cop outs intended to make themselves feel better as opposed to actually changing anything. Others argue apologies from oppressors are the first step in growing into an anti-oppressive activist.

I think context matters here — a politician retracting their statement isn’t an anti-racist action, it’s a step towards being anti-racist.

It’s not the be-all and end-all, especially if it’s not also accompanied by actions they can only undertake as a politician with immense amounts of power and privilege.

A great example is Justin Trudeau’s apology on behalf of the Canadian government to LGBTQ+ communities in November of last year. Trudeau apologized for the Canadian government’s persecution of queer members of the military and other federal institutions, after a class action lawsuit. The lawsuit awarded the defendants over $100 million in reparations, but the Trudeau government also put aside an extra $250,000 for community projects against homophobia.

To me, an active apology is “presented in both words and actions.

”

The Trudeau government’s commitment to being an ally to LGBTQ+ communities felt genuine because of the financial commitment they made alongside the apology. Trudeau showing up at Toronto Pride was a great PR movement, but the money he put aside will haveanactualimpactonLGBTQ+communities

in Canada. It matters that politicians put their money where their mouth is, literally and figuratively.

that politicians “Itputmatters their money where

their mouth is, literally and figuratively.

”

In democratic nations, we elect our political representatives. With that power we give them also comes responsibility; with that responsibility comes even more power.

Elected officials must be aware of the cycle of both that comes when they accept the mantle of leadership. So, when a politician says something oppressive, we must hold them accountable for it.

Some would argue that world leaders need to be held to the same standards of moral clarity as the average citizen. I argue that given their positions, we must hold them even more accountable for their actions. The average person doesn’t have the same impact on society that the leader of a nation does. The average person who calls me a terrorist on the bus has little to no real-world impact on my life. On the other hand, President Trump calling my people terrorists has global implications because of the power he holds. This is why we hold politicians to a higher standard; we rely on their moral clarity to steer us towards prosperity.

In every community, at every level, people

Talking heads ... what campus issues do you take into account when voting for student elections?

PHOTO BY JULIA BALAKRISHNAN

rightfully hold their government to a higher standard. Federally, provincially, municipally and even at the student government level, people should be asking their representatives to prove they’re actively engaging in anti-oppression work. Likewise, politicians at every level need to be aware that they’ll be accountable to their constituents. If that means we demand apologies from politicians for their actions from years ago, then so be it — better than possibly allowing a despotic figure into office and awarding them a platform to uphold systems of oppression.

This is why we hold “politicians to a higher

standard; we rely on their moral clarity to steer us towards prosperity.

”

I need to know my representatives are worthy of forgiveness. Have they shown they’re truly remorseful for their oppressive actions? Are they working to be not only better, but actively anti-oppressive? It’s no longer enough to be not-racist, when you can be anti-racist. Talk is cheap — a simple apology won’t solve systemic oppression.

My politics are anti-oppressive — I would ask the same of my representatives.

Vishmayaa is a fourth-year English major.

PHOTOS BY JULIA BALAKRISHNAN

“Plans for where the money will get allocated.”

“Fair hiring practices.”

“Their perspective on racial issues. ”

“Someone with a positive vibe, who cares about student involvement.”

Fredsen Otchere-Jan ArtSci ’17

Amanda Di Luch ArtSci ’18

Clarence Lau ArtSci ’19

Tyler Hunt ArtSci ’18

Friday, January 26, 2018

queensjournal.ca

•9

Arts

GALLERY REVIEW

New exhibits are a modest attempt at a big idea Reviewing Modern Fuel’s winter releases

Julia Balakrishnan Photo Editor This January, Modern Fuel unveiled two new exhibits for the winter semester — Ritualia and Untitled (eyelids).

The wide open space of the main room features a variety of scattered pieces that viewers can wander around, under and through.

Altogether, these form the exhibit Ritualia, meant to re-examine and critique the activities our society has become used to acting out while ignoring their consequences.

Impossible to miss, a dead pine tree lies on the floor, wrapped in plastic gauze. This work — titled Needs — gives viewers the disturbing effect of a mummified body. The unique piece by artist Lumír Hladík provides an uncomfortable view of post-Christmas reality.

In his description of the unnamed piece, Hladík states his desires for the work to portray “the arrogance of the anthropomorphic view that our universe is at humankind’s disposal.”

Less evocative is Hladík’s other installation, titled Yawn. Here, a plush, silver spandex cross sits illuminated and attached to the wall with door holders. What’s

clear in this piece is that Yawn is supposed to be a commentary on religion, but what exactly that is seems vague.

In the exhibit handout, Hladík explains the work is supposed to resemble gym equipment, connecting the element of masochism in both religious practice and exercise. Even with that message in mind, the shiny fabric cross doesn’t seem to vibe with the “man vs. nature” theme the rest of the exhibit offers.

On the other hand, artist Dagmara Genda revisits the problem of “humanizing” nature with her vinyl installment Beating the Bush, which lines the far wall of the first room and drapes over the doorway.

A collage displaying photographs of plants gives the impression of a trellis, but upon closer inspection, they don’t all match up, and have all been taken in different light conditions.

Genda’s intention is to protest the human tendency to disinfect nature in order to make it decorative.

Ironically, the piece looks just like what it’s trying to argue against. Many hours went into photographing the same bush

THEATRE REVIEW

Modern Fuel’s new exhibits.

public space.

The feelings that Untitled (eyelids) elicit are what make the new exhibits at Modern Fuel worth visiting and for the curious, the best experience may be in going alone.

An introduction to immersive theatre

Shivani Gonzalez, Sarina Greweal and Maureen O’Reilly Journal Staff

As three girls who have no acting experience, joining an immersive theatre workshop was probably the most out-of-character activity we could’ve chosen for our Tuesday afternoon.

The Colliding Scopes Theatre workshop was led with the help of Associate Professor of Drama, Jenn Stephenson. The exercise focused on creating an escape room through the means of immersive theatre, where a participant’s personal experience of the show constituted the art.

Our venture into acting had a rocky start: it took us longer than probably acceptable to find the room for the workshop in

under different conditions, a repetitive process that does little to inspire.

The real gem of the newly released exhibits is hidden away in the very back of the gallery — what sounds like soft whispering leads you to Jordan Loeppky-Kolesnik’s exhibit Untitled (eyelids), a dark, gate-encircled area with TV screens playing clips on loop.

This piece explores the isolating effects of rumination and how sensory experience influences it.

The exhibit’s space is very intimate. A cushion on the floor in a gated-off corner only has room for one. Images play of a pair of hands cutting plant stems with a razor and then bandaging them up while rain pours down.

The video’s narrator calmly relates a rapid stream-of-consciousness series of thoughts: “I pause and I don’t know how long it lasts — hours, days, months, years.” There’s no sense of time.

This same meditative process is repeated on the other television, this time with clips of a large snake winding around a person’s body. Loeppky-Kolesnik totally succeeds in capturing one’s personal thoughts of isolation in a

Three drama newbies dive into Colliding Scopes Theatre’s workshop Theological Hall. Once we’d finally located the Rotunda Theatre, we were greeted by a group of students, all of whom we soon realized were either drama majors or had previous acting experience.

We were promptly split into two groups and told that each team had to create a 15-minute fictional ‘escape room’ theatre mission, based around a code word the other team had to guess in order to

The workshop split the students into two groups.

‘escape the room’.

The goal was to use the concepts of awareness, communication and community to guide participants to guess the code word.

Team One landed on their code word being “attempt.” Their goal to create a unique escape room led to both teams simulating a magic camp in which the first group acted as camp counsellors and the second group as

PHOTO BY SARINA GREWAL

the campers.

This scenario mostly involved the first team heckling Team Two for lacking magical capabilities.

The magic camp counsellors of Team One controlled the scenario, inviting Team Two — our magic campers — to try and complete several tasks, all of which were impossible to achieve. They had to find a nonexistent flag, fly for five seconds and move a large flaming tower structure using only their imaginations.

Team One’s immersive escape room resulted in the Team Two campers running into the most obscure areas of the room — including behind stairs and in the balcony — in search of the flag.

It also included several campers jumping into the air with a broom between their legs and a group of 20-somethings staring aggressively at a tower with their fingers at their temples.

Needless to say, they all failed the tasks spectacularly.

Three failed attempts and one burned down fictional tower later, the magic campers of Team Two completed the escape room by guessing Team One’s

PHOTOS BY JULIA BALAKRISHNAN

code word.

Team Two, whose code word was “discovery,” took a more traditional, inspired approach in which half of the participants were locked in the backstage of the theater to illustrate the sense of community in the space.

The scenario had them earn their way backstage by mimicking vocal exercises under the guise of saving an actor who had gone missing.

Once we were all together in the back room, the lights “went out,” forcing us to have a heightened awareness of the space around us. Participants were told to hold hands to give an understanding of the bodies in the room.

Finally, the actor who had gone “missing” showed up to let us out of the locked room but only when we showed her she was appreciated by guessing her favourite TV programme. Because of the wolf on her shirt, participants finally guessed it was the “Discovery” Channel, simultaneously guessing the code word and being freed from the space.

At the end of the workshop, we gathered to discuss what we thought about the immersive experience.

The three of us agreed we learned that seemingly innocuous actions can help a person become incredibly aware of their surroundings. We also learned that stepping out of your comfort zone can force you to realize a lot about yourself.

For one thing, we also now know we don’t have a future in acting.

10 •queensjournal.ca

Friday, January 26, 2018

The event marked Queen’s a cappella’s first ever riff-off.

EVENT

First campus a cappella competition hits right note Riff-off offers entertaining spin on singing competition Brittany Gilliforte Contributor

On Jan. 23, the Queen’s a cappella scene held their first ever riff-off — a showdown for bragging rights between all four a cappella clubs on campus.

As the first competition between all of Queen’s a cappella groups, the show managed to blend a variety of genres while making time for each of the performers to reach out to their audience with little preparation.

“Definitely my favourite part of the night was getting to watch — and perform — what all the groups had put together in the given 30 minutes,” Queen’s A Cappella

Association president Sam Sosnowski said.

The rules of the riff-off were relatively simple: four teams were required to draw song titles from a bowl and proceed to rehearse for half an hour. While three of the teams worked backstage on their new song, one team performed three pre-prepared songs on stage for the crowd.

The four teams competing were All The Queen’s Men, The Caledonias, Momentum Vocal Group and the Trillers.

Despite the competition, the teams demonstrated enthusiastic support for both their own teammates and their competitors, applauding and cheering after each performance.

All The Queen’s Men performed first, setting a high bar for the rest of the groups with their rendition

RETIRING FACULTY

Marjan Mozetich closes a chapter in his career Professor and composer looks back on 27 years teaching

Marjan Mozetich is retiring.

SUPPLIED BY QUEEN’S COMMUNICATIONS

of the Jimmy Fallon Barbershop Quartet version of Justin Timberlake’s ‘Sexy Back.’

They closed the set with a mashup of ‘Sunday Morning’ by Maroon 5 and ‘Sunday Candy’ by Chance the Rapper, a crowd-pleaser that had the audience singing and dancing along. Their selected surprise song was ‘Escape (The Pina Colada Song)’ by Rupert Holmes, executed flawlessly considering being put together in only 30 minutes. Additionally, this song featured the impressive vocals of rookie tenor, Ryan Kwast.

Following All The Queen’s Men was The Caledonias, who performed a mashup of Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’ and Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep’. The all-women’s team alternated solos before closing with ‘Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F)’ by Katy Perry.

The teamwork was evident in the way they harmonized to make up for a lack of instruments.

Clayton Tomlinson Assistant Arts Editor

On Jan. 21, The Isabel held a concert honouring Marjan Mozetich life’s work.

Over his 45-year career in music, the Canadian composer has won several awards and written some of the most popular, bestselling Canadian contemporary classical pieces.

But even before this notable recognition, Mozetich saw an early difference between himself and the other pianists in his studies at the University of Toronto.

“I aspired to be a concert pianist … but I can be nervous about things and it requires a certain amount of extrovertedness,” Mozetich said.

Instead of attempting to change this, he devoted himself to music composition.

Mozetich received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts from 1973-75 and used the money to study in Rome with Luciano Berio — a famous modernist composer and later a teacher at Juilliard. Despite this unique opportunity, Mozetich revealed Berio didn’t influence his music as much as he’d expected.

“He didn’t do a lot of teaching … He wanted you to copy his music,” Mozetich said.

Not all was bad with the Juilliard professor.

Berio did suggest he study over the summer in Sienna — an experience that helped the aspiring composer to explore styles of music other than modernism.

“It was there that I came into contact with other composers starting to really not do the modern type of thing,” he said. This style was a return to the classical symphonies and grander pieces that had gone out of fashion.

When Mozetich returned from Europe, he went on to co-found and act as artistic director of Arraymusic from 1977-79. The classical ensemble made contemporary music that prioritized audience enjoyment over theoretical standards.

“By self-education, going to concerts and talking to other artists, it made me realize this high art was too abstract and removed,” he said.

The composer’s friends and colleagues tended to be the sole audiences at these high

PHOTOS BY YIXUAN LIN

Next to perform was Momentum Vocal Group who shook things up with a jazzy performance of Duke Ellington’s ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing,’ surprising the audience with the first non-contemporary song of the evening.

The Trillers followed, becoming the overall winners of the riff-off as made obvious by the audience’s immediate applause. After their three pre-prepared songs, which included Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’, they performed their surprise song: Miley Cyrus’ hit ‘Party in the USA’.

The crowd danced and sang along with the Trillers and the performance ended with a member of the group pulling off his shirt and enthusiastically waving it around in the air above his head.

The event sold out the room to capacity and attracted a supportive audience. A strong initial showing hopefully indicates the return of a cappella competitions to campus in the future. art concerts.

Mozetich said his art is a sort of populist, classical mix. His intention was to bring the classical music that had been left behind by modernist composers like Berio into style again.

“I wanted to relate my music to others but also, at the same time, myself,” he said.

In 1980, Mozetich found his artistic voice.

He began writing works which tended to reflect the sound of older, grander classical pieces.

He used the ideas that came with minimalism, regular rhythm, more tonal and tuneful sounds to become more confident in the works he wrote.

In 1990, Mozetich moved out of Toronto after recognizing the noise of the city’s downtown too often kept him awake at night.

The following year, he started his decadeslong career as an adjunct lecturer at Queen’s.

Mozetich reflected on his decision, recognizing his long career in teaching brought about his most successful years as a composer; famous pieces like “Affairs of the Heart” and “Postcards from the Sky” following his move to Kingston.

These works still carry some of the scope of classical music but provided a softer, more accessible presentation.

“I believe in carrying on that torch, that branch of music that’s not in the mainstream like it used to be,” he said.

Mozetich described a time in our country where broadcasters would show performances by classical ensembles like symphony orchestras. “[Many CBC affiliates] all had orchestras and now it’s just all gone,” he said.

The composer added that despite this truth, it’s no reason to lose hope.

“You can still write things that are fresh and new-sounding, applying some of the traditional aspects of classical music,” he said.

Although his time at Queen’s is coming to an end, Mozetich reassured he’ll continue keeping busy with composing. Currently, he’s working on a cello concerto for soloist Amanda Forsyth and the National Arts Centre orchestra in Ottawa.

Friday, January 26, 2018

queensjournal.ca

• 11

MEN’S HOCKEY

Kevin Bailie joins 50 win club

Sports

Gaels goalie reflects on a wild road to becoming one of Queen’s hockey’s all-time greats Matt Scace Assistant Sports Editor In 2013, Kevin Bailie found himself scraping off the remains of a plate in the back of an East Side Mario’s in Belleville, Ontario. It was rock-bottom — that much he knew.

His future was far from certain. Recently released by the OHL’s London Knights, the 21 year-old Bailie thought he’d never touch the ice again as a goalie.

But six years later, the sound of a final buzzer at the Memorial Centre marked Bailie’s 50th career win as a Gael.

And his future looked pretty good. ***

Bailie’s junior career was full of promise. After playing internationally early on, the Belleville native was drafted in the first round by the Oshawa Generals at the age of 16. With four seasons and 109 games under his belt, going pro was the only thing on his mind.

“From a very young age I always thought I would provide for my family through hockey,” Bailie said. “But when you’re 21, you think you know everything.”

After getting traded to the London Knights in 2012, Bailie began to play the best hockey of his life. In his 27 games with the Knights, he posted a stellar 0.921 save percentage and had a career-best 2.5 goals against average. But with a crop of young talent on its way in, the Knights released Bailie.

“I remember thinking at a

certain point that I wasn’t going to play another game of hockey ever again,” Bailie recalled after being cut. Shortly after the team’s decision, he moved back to Belleville to live with his parents.

With no education, washing dishes at an East Side Mario’s was his only option. The world, Bailie remembered, felt unforgiving.

Just months earlier he played in front of 11,000 people a night.

“Being rock-bottom, washing dishes, working a job that only criminals can really get, you think you’re the biggest loser in the world,” Bailie said. He’d fallen hard and he didn’t think he would get up any time soon.

But in the spring of 2013, Queen’s hockey coach Brett Gibson made a phone call. “[I]t was a phone call that changed my life,” Bailie said.

With Queen’s roster facing significant turnover, Gibson searched for new talent. He offered Bailie a spot on the team and a chance to get an education.

“When you’re in the dish pit, getting an education sounds pretty good,” Bailie said. ***

Hockey was a foreign concept for Bailie’s parents, Mark and Gabrielle, when they came to Canada. Mark, a first-generation Irishman and Gabrielle, an immigrant from Italy, had Bailie try every sport he could get his hands on. Entering Canadian culture, hockey simply made sense.

Bailie’s parents’ relationship with hockey has been very different over the 26 year-old’s

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Veronika Lavergne makes big jump in second season Post sheds light on her sophomore year

Sebastian Bron Sports Editor Women’s basketball’s Veronika Lavergne has made a name for herself in more ways than one this season.

The second-year post player — who transferred to Queen’s from the University of Albany in 2016 — has taken a leap that’s been hard to ignore.

She currently leads the nationally ranked Gaels in points, free throw

attempts, field goal percentage, rebounds and blocks.

Queen’s head coach Dave Wilson has often preached unity and cohesion — not individual skill — as the backbones to a team’s success. But beyond the notion of collective play yielding greater results, Lavergne’s individual development warrants notice.

In her first season with the team, Lavergne started just two of 19 games, posting averages of

Bailie has been at Queen’s since 2013.

“He said to me at the start of the year, ‘When you were three years old I put you on the ice and, even though you’re old now, at your last game, I’ll be sure to take you off of it,’” Bailie said.

“This has been a ride I’ve taken with him.”

career. Although his dad is a constant figure in the stands, his mother has only seen him play a handful of times — a response to the nerves she feels while watching him play.

“I take her not watching me as a sign of her love, because she doesn’t want things to go wrong,” Bailie said.

Despite being there every step of the way, his father has had his doubts.

“When I decided I wanted to become a goalie, I think he was just terrified, because who wants their kid to be a goalie?” Bailie explained, who recently learned his father knew nothing about the game when he first put on skates.

But like many fathers, he didn’t want his son to know this. When he decided to pursue goaltending, Bailie found out his father would sneak to the local library to read retired Soviet goaltending legend Vladislav Tretiak’s “The Art of Goaltending.”

Off the ice, his dad would run some of the drills outlined in the books.

“I was like, ‘How is he thinking to do these things?’” Bailie said, recalling a drill wherein his dad would write fractions on tennis balls and throw them at him.

Before making the catch, Bailie had to say the fraction out loud to train his ability to track the ball.

“They were old Russian, Soviet techniques so it’s kind of funny now,” Bailie said. It was this, Bailie noted, that served as the catalyst for his early athletic success.

“If I didn’t do that from a young age, I probably wouldn’t have the athletic success that I have now,” Bailie said.

With Bailie’s career nearing its end, it’s been an emotional time for the two, who have experienced the best and worst hockey has to offer together.

Reaching the 50-win mark has been on Bailie’s mind for a while.

While there are no definitive records of the most wins in a Gaels uniform, there’s no doubt the achievement only reaffirms his position as one of the best hockey players Queen’s has seen.

A starter since he arrived on campus, Bailie’s first year was one to remember. Finishing the season with a .934 save percentage, Bailie was named CIS Rookie of the Year, CIS All-Rookie, OUA MVP, OUA Top Goaltender and OUA Rookie of the Year.

In Bailie’s rookie season, Queen’s finished fifth in the league and nearly upset the first seed in the second round of the playoffs.

The season prior, they had finished fourth-last in the OUA. “When Kevin came, he was that generational player that changed the program,” Gibson said.

In each season but one since his arrival, Bailie has seen the team’s record improve from the year before. Not only has he helped Queen’s improve, Bailie has also been a large reason why the Gaels are considered one of the best teams in the country.

The personal accolades have followed as well. During the 2016-17 season, he represented Canada at the FISU games and also played in the Ottawa Senators’ prospect camp this past fall. Last year, he was named Queen’s male athlete of the year.

Last season, the Gaels set

eight points, 4.7 rebounds and 0.8 blocks per game. This season she has started all but one game, averaging 14.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and an OUA-leading 2.1 blocks per game.

“I think just some of the way our plays are set up and the way that teams are guarding us … it’s complementary to my personal skill set,” Lavergne said of her growth this season.

“We have shooters, we have players who drive into the key — when you have players who can do that kind of stuff, it keeps

the other team’s defense honest.”

What could be further credited to Lavergne’s improved play are the increased opportunities she’s seen on the floor. The departures of seniors Emily Hazlett and Robyn Pearson — who last season started every game while averaging 24.2 and 22.7 minutes per game respectively — have been a gateway for Lavergne to find more open lanes on offense.

“Those were two players and two positions we kind of had to fill,” she said of her former teammates.

***

SUPPLIED BY KEVIN BAILIE

a new precedent for Queen’s hockey by reaching the OUA finals and subsequently playing in the U Sports Championships — something Bailie cherishes more than any of his individual accolades.

“That to me is the ultimate kind of recognition the team could have,” Bailie said.

Throughout his career at Queen’s, one of Bailie’s motivators has been his desire to leave a legacy behind.

“When I’m working 10 years from now in an office, in my heart I hope that Queen’s is very successful,” Bailie said. His coach believes — rather, he knows — the effect Bailie’s had.

“Kevin has now set the bar for every kid that comes though the program … you can be an All-Canadian and an academic all-star,” Gibson said. “That’s what Kevin’s done.”

This year has come with its own set of challenges. During last year’s playoffs, Bailie began experiencing pain in his hips. Through the team’s historic playoff run, Bailie kept it under wraps to maintain the positivity in the dressing room.

But on Oct. 21 against Ryerson, he couldn’t go any longer. After several visits with Queen’s strength and conditioning coaches, Bailie found himself back in the crease for the Gaels in November.

And while the injury isn’t fully healed — a complete recovery will require surgery — Bailie is just happy to be in control of his last games as a Gael.

“Where I come from, there’s a saying, ‘go out with your boots on.’

It’s kind of like, leave everything on your own terms,” Bailie said, who will begin his career as a lawyer at the end of the semester.

“And that’s what I’m trying to do.”

Lavergne added that Wilson — particularly since his recruitment of her from Albany in 2016 — has talked to her about her potential as an inside post-up player. “[Wilson] said that just because of my height and the league that we play in, I have a lot of potential in that I can score a lot or get rebounds,” Lavergne explained of the head coach’s message regarding her skillset.

“Within the structure of our See Eyes on page 13

Sports

12 •queensjournal.ca

Friday, January 19, 2018

MEN’S HOCKEY

Darcy Greenaway recognized for leadership on and off the ice Men’s hockey left-wing awarded prestige Murray Douglas Scholarship

Bryn Evans Staff Writer The Murray Douglas Scholarship is as prestigious an award a Queen’s varsity hockey player can get their hands on.

And Darcy Greenaway knows that.

Last Friday — after the men’s hockey team’s 4-3 win over the Nipissing Lakers last Friday — the fourth-year forward was honoured with the Murray Douglas Scholarship. The award is given annually to a men’s hockey player who boasts extraordinary academic and athletic achievements, while also taking on a leadership role for their team.

As a fourth-year economics student and member of the hockey team, Greenaway said winning the award was a huge honour.

“Balancing hockey and academics my first year or two was difficult. To be recognized for those efforts as well as my leadership in my fourth year is a great feeling,” Greenaway said about being recognized for his achievements.

The scholarship was initiated by Murray Douglas, B.Comm ’72, and Donna Douglas, Arts ’73. Murray, who played on the varsity hockey team from 1968 to 1972 and has had his scholarship awarded since the 2003-2004 season.

The recipient for the past three seasons has been current Gaels goaltender Kevin Bailie.

Considering his impending graduation, Greenaway said he’s been focused on enjoying his last year as a Queen’s varsity hockey player. And his team’s success has made doing this so much easier. Currently, the Gaels sit third in the OUA East behind McGill and Concordia.

“Each year, I’ve found the team here has improved,” Greenaway reflected.

“It’s been fun to be part of it and see how the team has developed. We’ve made it a little farther each season so hopefully we can continue with that trend this year.”

Over the past four seasons, Greenaway has endured the highs and lows of Queen’s hockey. He particularly remembers of the different feelings of victory and defeat that come with every season.

“My favourite memory was beating McGill last year to send us to the OUA final and the national championship in Fredericton,” Greenaway said.

The visit to the national championships was the Gaels’ first in over 30 years.

When asked about Greenaway, Gaels head coach Brett Gibson takes enormous pride in what the left-winger has been able to accomplish during his hockey career at Queen’s.

“Darcy’s a real great success story,” Gibson said. “Darcy’s a guy that came out of junior hockey and was considering [pursuing] pro hockey instead of going to school ... It makes me real proud as a coach that we were able to provide a place for Darcy to go excel both on the ice and off the ice.”

“That’s what we try to do here at Queen’s.”

For Gibson, the award simply amplified how he feels about one of the strongest players Queen’s has had over the past four years.

“Darcy’s one of my favorites to ever put on the uniform,” Gibson said. “He gives everything he has and it’s just special to have an opportunity to reward him for all the hard work.”

While Greenaway was honoured to receive such a revered award, he said the celebration with the award was short-lived. Instead, the playoffs are on his mind. Despite having a rocky start to the season, the Gaels are gaining momentum going with five games remaining.

“We have a strong returning core this year, as well as some great first-year additions,” Greenaway said.

“We’re gearing up for what is hopefully another long playoff run. Nothing would make this year more special than winning an OUA title and bringing the Queen’s Cup home.”

Left to right: Murray Douglas, Darcy Greenaway, Brett Gibson. PHOTO SUPPLIED BY SHAWN MACDONALD

The Ban Righ Foundation invites **Mature women students enrolled at Queen’s to apply for the

Spring AwardS (Financial need is a criterion) Applications become available Monday January 22, 2018 at the Ban Righ Centre, 32 Bader Lane, (Hours: Mon - Fri 9-4).

For descriptions and terms of these BURSARIES, visit Ban Righ’s Website http://banrighcentre.queensu.ca and pick up an application at the BRC. Applications can be sent out to distance students.

Applications are due on Wednesday March 7 by 3:30 pm.

(Staff will be available March 1, 2, 5 and 6 to help review applications. Incomplete or late applications will not be accepted.) ** ‘Mature women students’ refers to female students who have been away from formal education for at least one year and/or have children.

Friday, January 26, 2018

Sports

queensjournal.ca

• 13

PLAYER PROFILE

George Anthony Desmond takes his talents to Brazil Gaels rugby player’s highlight video spurs opportunity on national stage

Sebastian Bron Sports Editor

Wishful thinking is often a precarious way to plan for the future — but not for George Anthony Desmond.

Spending the beginning of 2018 away from his final semester at Queen’s to be in Brazil, it’s clear he’s chasing a dream. And if his past few weeks are any indication, he seems well on his way.

After compiling game footage of his three years as a player within the men’s rugby program, Desmond finds himself in his native country of Brazil — his highlight reel prompting the country’s national team to offer him a two week trial in their São José Dos Campos training centre.

Desmond, who moved to Canada from Brazil at age three, couldn’t help but think of how unconventional his career path has been, expressed during a phone call with The Journal. The idea of playing rugby upon arriving at Queen’s in the fall of 2013 wasn’t even on his periphery.

Desmond is a fifth-year student at Queen’s.

“[M]y knowledge of sports was kind of based off this sort of Brazilian sport conscious,” Desmond said. “I played soccer and volleyball in high school … I idolized Brazilian soccer stars growing up.”

Subsequent to finishing his first year at the University, a friend encouraged Desmond to try out for the rugby team.

Although he knew little about the sport at first, shortly thereafter it became something he couldn’t get enough of.

“I loved it,” Desmond said of when he first stepped on the pitch. “I really felt in my element playing rugby. I picked up pretty quickly [but], you know, I’d make some really silly mistakes.”

While the Gaels’ varsity team has won five of the last six OUA championships — with a handful of its players featuring in Canada’s national team — Desmond’s late introduction to rugby didn’t deter his drive to compete with quality talent. Being a part of the program for him — albeit at the lowest of seven teams in the men’s rugby club system — was looked at as an invaluable

learning opportunity rather than an uphill climb.

“I mean, luckily, Queen’s rugby program is bar-none one of the top in the country, so I had the absolute privilege of learning from great players and coaches,” Desmond said. He added that as he learned more about the sport, he was able to work his way up.

This past season, Desmond featured on the program’s second team, wherein he found his development as a player grew considerably.

“I think I’ve always kind of had a drive that I want to test myself against the best I can [and] push myself into being the best that I can in order to really challenge myself.”

His thoughts about competing at the national level, however, didn’t exclusively come from his growth on the pitch.

Desmond first considered a path to Brazil’s national team after they posted a series of YouTube videos they hoped would promote the sport locally. “[A]nd that’s where the idea took form … The idea of, ‘Well, I’m Brazilian ... If I can get myself to a good enough level, that could very well be a possibility,’” he said.

In November, Desmond began to put his highlight reel together. The video amassed over 2,000 views in two days — and that was all Desmond needed to take his chance.

He called the offices of the Brazilian national team in Sãu Paolo and touched base with their technical superintendent. He was told to pass along his game film.

SUPPLIED BY GEORGE ANTHONY SILVA

“They said they would send [the video] to the head coach, and if he liked what he saw, they would bring me up for a trial,” he said.

The week between his sending of the highlight tape and the team contacting him was, Desmond admitted, “probably the most anxiety inducing week of my life.”

He wondered if he was too direct — questioning whether it was appropriate to send a national team a highlight reel — but come early December, it was clear why he gave thought to the idea in the first place.

“I got an email from them saying they wanted to set up a trial for me. And from then it was, like, ‘O.K., this is happening.’”

Desmond trained in Kingston, working with physical trainers at the ARC to ensure he’d be in the best shape possible. The Brazilian staff said his two week trial could spur an opportunity to feature with the national team consistently.

Albeit focused and staying in the moment, upon stepping off the plane in Sãu Paulo, Desmond was overcome with emotion.

“It really made things real for me, it was very emotional,” Desmond said. “I hadn’t been back in nine years. I was emotional, excited, anxious.”

More than anything, Desmond said he felt humbled and fortunate.

“I’m thinking, ‘Let’s go. Let’s get ready, let’s focus,’” Desmond said of how he’s approaching his opportunity. “This is a national team — it’s a different level, and so I really needed to treat it as such.”

Eyes on the big stage

Continued from page 11

plays, they’d kind of be set up more for my position [to] get the ball.”

And it has been evident this year.

Lavergne checks in the top-10 of the OUA’s leaders in points (ninth), free throws made (sixth), field goal percentage (second) and blocks per game (first).

Most impressive, however, may be her efficiency.

Of the top 15 scorers per game in the conference, Lavergne averages the least minutes — in fact, she doesn’t even crack the OUA’s top-50 among leaders in minutes per game this season. Despite her jump in numbers across the board compared to last season, Lavergne is only averaging six minutes more per game while doubling her

on-court production.

“It’s because I’m so close to the net and getting good looks,” Lavergne said. “During practice, we usually work on physicality. So we’ll have players, like, slap our arms while we’re finishing layups so we get used to it in a game.”

Despite being in a groove, Lavergne said she has goals which extend beyond personal achievements during her career at Queen’s.

She wants to win on the big stage — and then do it a second, hopefully third, time over. “[O]ur goal this year is go to Nationals and bring back a medal for sure. And over the next few years we want to win again.”

14 • queensjournal.ca

Exploring the issues with the norms of consent

Friday, January 26, 2018

Lifestyle

Shivani Gonzalez Lifestyle Editor When the headline popped up on my newsfeed that Aziz Ansari had been in a less-than-consensual sexual encounter, my first thought was “please, not another one.”

But after looking into the issue, it’s apparent this situation is much more complicated than what’s on the surface.

To sum up the available details of what happened: Ansari went on a date with a woman referred to in the original Babe story as Grace (name changed for privacy). At the night’s end, the two participated in intimate relations and while Grace later admitted she felt uncomfortable with the situation, she never gave Ansari a verbal “no” cue to indicate she wasn’t interested in taking it any further.

According to the same article, Grace said Ansari texted her the next day and told her he’d enjoyed their night together.

Grace responded negatively, telling Ansari, “you ignored my non-verbal cues; you kept going for advances.”

He then responded to his date explaining he was upset there had been a miscommunication.

In a statement released since the story in Babe was first published, Ansari states “we went out to dinner, and afterwards we ended up engaging in sexual activity, which by all indications was completely consensual.”

By Grace’s own account, it seems understandable there could’ve been a disconnect in communication. After all, the duo wasn’t overly familiar with one another at the time of the incident and non-verbal cues are often harder to interpret than direct verbal cues.

While sexual assault doesn’t Zier Zhou Staff Writer

Arriving into lecture, I register the sounds of scribbling pens, cheerful chattering and the effortless pitter-pattering of keyboards.

Everyone around me seems to know what they’re doing and where they’re going.

And then there’s me, feeling like an imposter amongst a sea of focused, driven and successful students.

Imposter syndrome is when someone feels as if they don’t deserve the success they’ve achieved and are afraid others around them would agree. It’s a common insecurity and I believe I’ve always had some form of it, before I even knew what it was.

The first step to overcoming such a frustrating feeling of never being good enough is understanding it.

From my experience, the mind manufactures far more questions than answers. While some are for the sake of curiosity, far too many of them stem from the useless roots of self-doubt and worry. Whenever I’m presented with some sort of success, there’s always a voice inside me that whispers ‘You’re just lucky.’ But as strange as it may seem, it’s not

News articles about Aziz Ansari.

CULTURAL COMMENTARY

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JOSH GRANOVSKY

Aziz Ansari’s story highlights the need for “yes means yes” seem to be the defining issue here, it really highlights issues with currently standing consent laws.

The rules of consent most of us were taught growing up was that “no means no.” But Ansari’s case highlights why that standard can be problematic and ambiguous.

Even so, it must be understood the absence of a no isn’t a yes.

Current Ontario consent laws highlight the ability to say no to sexual encounters throughout policy.

Consent laws aren’t set in stone and there have been some steps made towards changing them from this currently confusing and

complicated definition.

Most notably, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill into law in 2015 which changed sexual assault policies on NY university/collage campuses to incorporate “no means no” to “yes means yes.”

Promoting the ideology that “yes means yes” is an attempt to make affirmative and enthusiastic consent the standard for any sexual experience.

This baseline rule for consent makes a lot more sense. Having someone enthusiastically say yes leaves much less up in the air than waiting for someone to say no.

Stigma around this law seems to claim that “asking permission” makes a potential sexual activity no longer sexy. However, from my own experiences and from much discussion with those around me, this has proved the exact opposite.

Back to Ansari and Grace — if the norm was enthusiastic consent, it would’ve been much more apparent that the lack of any enthusiastic consent was a cue to halt any further advancements. But because this idea of “no means no” has been so deeply ingrained into society and into our minds, there was an issue of miscommunication.

PHOTO BY JULIA BALAKRISHNAN

Someone afflicted with imposter syndrome.

SELF HELP

Increasing our immunity to imposter syndrome If you’re a fraud, I’m a fraud

completely wrong.

Despite also being impacted by our actions and decisions, much of what happens to us depends

on luck. The lives we lead aren’t only already influenced by our inherited genes and surroundings, but also significantly determined

by timing and coincidence.

If you consider yourself to be an imposter for this reason, crediting all of your success to chance, then

We’re making progress with more and more states signing “yes means yes” into sexual assault policies. But we still have to focus on making cultural changes and maintaining social norms that can change the existing ideas of consent from absence of “no” to enthusiastic/affirmatory consent.

Ansari’s story highlights the issues with consent laws and the way we think about sexual relationships as a society. Once we decide the absence of “no” isn’t the same as an enthusiastic “yes,” these sort of uncomfortable and problematic sexual standards will change. everyone else might as well be considered one too.

It’s easy for us to view the world in black and white, describing people as different shades of happy or miserable, successful or hopeless and so on. However, what we might forget from time to time is that people are perpetually changing and we clearly can’t be confined to a single definition.

Everybody grows from their achievements and even more so from their failures. The latter isn’t so simple to spot in a world with history written by the victorious and those with straight-A report cards stuck on the kitchen fridge.

We shine a light on everything impressive, including LinkedIn profiles and Instagram posts, while any negativity coming from others tends be kept hidden in the shadows. This can make it easy to believe the people around us are better and more qualified since we’re only seeing their successes.

There’s an unusual saying I’m quite fond of: I’m going to succeed because I’m crazy enough to think I can.

It reminds me of the idea of faking it until you make it, which at first might sound like the complete opposite remedy to the imposter syndrome. But have you heard before that forcing

Lifestyle

Friday, January 26, 2018

queensjournal.ca

• 15

WEB CULTURE

New year, same YouTube Why the Logan Paul scandal should make us rethink our social media consumption in 2018 Ally Mastantuano Contributor This article mentions suicide and may be triggering for some readers.

Less than a month ago, YouTube superstar Logan Paul rang in the new year by posting a video that featured a dead body hanging in Japan’s Aokigahara forest, a site commonly known for its high suicide rates.

The video blog, which has since been removed from Paul’s 15 million-subscriber YouTube channel, followed the 22 year-old and his friends as they encountered a man who had recently taken his own life.

Despite blurring the victim’s face and claiming it was to promote mental health awareness, the viral video and Paul have rightly faced major public backlash.

Paul has been widely criticized not only for mocking the deceased, filming his hands, clothes and bag, but also for his decision to bring a camera into what is colloquially known as the “suicide forest” in the first place.

In the first of two poorly-received public apologies, Paul claims to have been “caught up in the moment.” Yet, the Twitter post, which is less remorseful than it is self-congratulatory, goes on to praise his otherwise sound judgement and knack for raking in “views,” and wide-reaching social media presence.

Though extremely misguided, Paul is unfortunately right about one thing: he’s a force to be reckoned with.

Within the span of four years, the vlogger has managed to cultivate a cult-like following by uploading daily content, engaging in outrageous stunts and

antics, as well as shamelessly plugging his brand and merchandise. This scandal is nothing if not evidence of the true fruit of Paul’s labour — his fan base, which seems to buy or believe anything he puts forth.

Before its removal, the “suicide forest” video racked up over six million views and more disturbingly, almost 600,000 likes. In response to the widespread condemnation of Logan Paul, his fans also took to social media to defend his actions. Their protests not only exposed the gravity of his influence, but also shared that many of his most devoted supporters are children and young teens.

Sadly, Logan Paul isn’t the only YouTube creator guilty of circulating inappropriate content and taking advantage of his young, unsuspecting audience. This isn’t an isolated incident; YouTube has become a breeding ground for sensationalism.

Hungry for subscribers and views, a large portion of the YouTube community churns out shocking or misleading videos — inventing drama and controversy — to capture mass attention.

And all of this goes essentially unregulated.

In light of the scandal, YouTube itself has been forced to make some changes.

Heavily criticized for its initial inaction, the platform has punished Paul by removing his channels from the top-tier advertising program Google Preferred and booted him out of a YouTube-original movie and series. YouTube has also promised to hire more team members to monitor the site’s most popular content.

Television series, video games and novels have also been under fire in the past for confusing or corrupting young minds at large. So why is this any different?

Imposter syndrome is possible to overcome through confidence Continued from page 14

yourself to smile can actually enhance your mood and make you happier?

This idea ultimately emphasizes the power of an optimistic mindset, and how your beliefs and expectations can have a profound impact on constructing your castle of confidence.

Although it can sometimes be inevitable to place ourselves beside others who are similar to us, we must remember that in the long run, it’s practically impossible to make

fair and accurate comparisons of ourselves to someone else. Each one of us is built on our own unique experiences and irreplaceable memories.

The greatest thing we can do is to balance our humility with confidence, learn from the people who inspire us and concentrate only on being better than the person we were yesterday.

We ’ r e not imposters; sometimes, the success we garner can only be credited to our own hard work, passion and perseverance.

Logan Paul and the YouTube logo.

YouTube has answered this question by way of their most recent public statement.

Dismissing the claim that the platform’s content should be regulated like traditional broadcasters, YouTube’s chief business officer, Robert Kyncl maintained “We’re not content creators; we’re a platform that distributes the content.”

YouTube’s biggest appeal is also its

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JOSH GRANOVSKY

biggest downfall. In giving its users the freedom to upload and consume content, they give the layperson an opportunity to share their talents, foster a community, and even start a satisfying career. At the same time, the platform also skyrockets digital stars like Paul to fame, leaving them unequipped to deal with the accompanying social responsibilities.

Lifestyle

16 •queensjournal.ca

Friday, January 19, 2018

POSTSCRIPT

An afternoon spent cleansing our chakras and seeing in the future Three Journal staff head to the psychic

Shivani Gonzalez, Josh Granovsky & Nick Pearce Journal Staff Shivani: When someone gives you the opportunity to find out about your future, whether you believe in the supernatural or not, are you really going to say no? That’s the mentality I had before going to local Kingston psychic Shadia Medium.

Josh: When Shivani first told me we were going to visit a psychic, I felt my traditional Jewish upbringing fighting against my liberated, Arts-degree mindset. I’ve never taken the time to consider my opinions on the supernatural, but my family is grounded in realism.

Nick: My first thought going into the psychic was that Catholic school clearly didn’t do the trick. If over 12 years of masses and generally shaky sex-ed can’t dissuade me from checking out the competition, maybe there’s something to it.

S: Our psychic, Shadia, told us she first realized she had a supernatural gift when she was three years-old. While her gift was always with her, she worked to tune out the voices of spirit guides she could hear speaking to her as she grew older.

In the meantime, she established a career as a microbiology research associate at Queen’s and a gastroenterologist at KGH. However, after realizing how much her gift could help those around her, Shadia decided to work full time as a psychic/medium.

J: Shadia’s story floored me when I realized, contrary to the $10 palm reading booths littering downtown Toronto, her motivations weren’t simply to make money. She gave up a successful academic career because she just happened to be born with an incredible gift and felt a responsibility to use it for the greater good.

S: Stepping up for the first session of the three of us, Shadia started by giving me a reading of my personality. Although her interpretations were true, I still had yet to be persuaded — it just seemed like a list of fairly general, reasonable assumptions.

But as she continued, I became more and more convinced that Shadia has a gift. She made several comments about my background, personality and life that weren’t things anyone could just guess.

N: I was up next. Upon settling in, Shadia pegged me pretty quickly as being along for the ride, before explaining I was maybe more spiritual than I was willing to admit.

Then we dove into past lives.

Apparently I’ve had 80, making me an official “old soul”, which isn’t hard to believe.

Shadia explained most of these lives were spent serving time in the military — surprising considering the last time I did push-ups I couldn’t open

Josh, Shivani and Nick exploring the psychic world.

pull-doors for a week. She said the most important past life involved either World War I or II when a bomb blew me up after trying to save an injured friend.

Turns out, we’re currently friends again in this life and he inherently feels like he owes me, which explains a specific friendship with a generous Spotify and pizza arrangement I’ve been coasting on for about three years.

Shadia, “Ourtoldpsychic, us she first realized she had a supernatural gift when she was three years old.

”

J: When my turn came, I started to get nervous. I realized a part of me was hoping this psychic would end up being a witch hat-wearing, crystal ball-abusing fraud. I’m not one for deep, personal introspection and feared the kinds of baggage Shadia would dredge up from the depths of my chakras.

I wore a red-and-blue flannel that could’ve been fresh out of Ron Swanson’s closet in an attempt to throw Shadia off my indoors-y vibe. Maybe I should’ve worn gloves too because she promptly took out a magnifying glass, analyzed my palm and told me I wanted to be a screenwriter.

My apprehensiveness — and jaw — dropped instantly.

S: After discussing ways to clear up my chakra, Shadia moved into the psychic part of the reading — talking about my future and allowing me to ask questions I wanted answered.

According to Shadia, I’m going to fall in love and get married only once. At age 46, I’m going to have a drastic career change. I’m going to have two or three kids, likely one boy and one girl, and won’t have any biological problems conceiving — cue my letting out a deep sigh of relief, having settled my fears of infertility.

She also told me that of the two options I have for living situations post-graduation, moving to a big city is where I belong. I guess that means in June I should pack up and move to New York — which, coincidentally, is the same month Shadia told me all my loose ends and goals will come together.

N: As far as predictions went, mine were relatively tame. I was sort of hoping for something fun, like, “Never under any circumstances can you get on a cruise ship.” Instead, I was pretty much guaranteed a future of grad school.

J: Considering I struggle to name films made from before 1985, I was surprised to learn I’m actually a relatively old soul.

According to my reading, I was an aristocrat in most of my past lives and had a particularly raunchy life in France, which is why I guess I don’t feel a connection to French culture. Take that, every French

teacher I’ve angered in the past 14 years.

My future basically sounded like the reassuring pep talk my mom used to give me if I did poorly on a spelling test. Shadia told me if I continue to work as hard as I have been, I’d find great success in my career, financial stability and have a solid family life complete with four children. Since I’m aiming for a career in the notoriously unstable entertainment industry, it was kind of comforting to hear.

My jaw — and “ apprehension — fell immediately.

”

N: I may not be fully on-board with the art of psychic mediums, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t surprised at how accurate Shadia’s comments were. Sure, it may have seemed out there at times but it I can completely appreciate how it can be an outlet for someone looking for a little direction.

Finally, a big shoutout to my “very balanced but quiet” future wife — we did it, baby.

S: Honestly, visiting Shadia was one of the best Sundays I’ve had in a while.

Visiting a psychic allows you to gain insight about yourself or your situation and process it with a kind of guidance. It also has the ability to give people closure and comfort when it comes to the death

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JULIA BALAKRISHNAN

of a loved one, a traumatic life experience or the general baggage of day-to-day stresses.

Shadia, specifically, is a wonderful person who very obviously decided to take on the role of a psychic medium full-time because she felt it was important to help others. After our session, she sent me home with a bracelet that she said would keep my spirit grounded and emailed me exercises to do if I needed to clear my mind. It’s really obvious she’s doing this solely because she cares about others.

Plus, knowing my future husband’s going to walk into my life in two or three months gives me another reason to get up in the morning. Thanks for that, babe drinks on me when we finally meet.

J: My experience with Shadia definitely nudged me more into the realm of believing in the general concept of psychic powers. My flannel did nothing to camouflage my screenwriting ambitions, my number of siblings or the fact that it was time for me to forgive my ex.

I got the general sense Shadia genuinely wanted to help me.

She wasn’t trying to con me into twice-daily yoga classes or make me afraid of going in the ocean.

She just wanted me to have hope for the future. If all goes according to plan, I hope to one day thank Shadia for everything at my wedding, which will apparently be on an unusual island to a bride who’ll “be very funny, but won’t know how to cook at all”.