Queen's Journal - Volume 146 - Issue 19

the journal Vol. 146, Issue 19

Queen’s University

Friday, January 25, 2019

Since 1873

Trust in Team AJW to engage Unprecedented lack of student engagement demands attention

Read our full AMS Endorsement • Page 8 • ILLUSTRATION BY JULIA BALAKRISHNAN

Students protest OSAP changes SEE THE PROTEST PHOTO ESSAY AT QUEENSJOURNAL.CA/NEWS

PHOTOS BY MATT SCACE AND TESSA WARBURTON

FEATURES

OPINIONS

ARTS

SPORTS

LIFESTYLE

Examining the costs and benefits of volunteer trips

Student journalism is an essential campus service

The Journal’s art critics go to Bob Ross wine and paint night

Women’s volleyball’s Jackie Boyle an olympic hopeful

A Japanese exchange student travels North America

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queensjournal.ca

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@queensjournal

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@queensjournal

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@queensjournal

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@thequeensjournal

News

2 •queensjournal.ca

Students took to Univeristy and Union on Jan. 22.

Ontario addresses changes to OSAP Province minister, student alliance respond to questions from The Journal Raechel Huizinga Assistant News Editor Following the Ford government’s announcement of proposed changes to the OSAP, tuition, and mandatory student fees, The Journal sent a list of questions to the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.

In response to questions about justifications for the changes, Minister Merrilee Fullerton wrote the changes are “historic reforms” intended to refocus support to low-income families.

“We are restoring accountability, affordability, and access to post-secondary education, while giving more students opportunities to find a job and build a career right here in Ontario,” she wrote.

Fullerton also called the 10 per cent decrease a measure to put “more money in the pockets of students and their families.”

“It means publicly-funded college and university is more affordable,” she wrote, adding it “gives every qualified student the opportunity to gain the skills and education needed to get a good-paying job.”

The Minister didn’t respond to questions about how universities are expected to maintain the same level of academic and support services for students after the 10 per cent tuition cut.

Citing the Student Choice Initiative, however, which will allow students to opt out of services deemed non-essential by the provincial government, the Minister wrote students will have the “power to choose the services they use and support on campus” to avoid “costly and unnecessary student fees.”

“We are bringing transparency and predictability to the fees at post-secondary institutions by setting a province-wide policy that ensures students have the options regarding non-essential fees while ensuring that critical services are retained,” she wrote.

The Journal also asked how the changes to OSAP will impact low-income students who cannot attend university without free tuition.

Fullerton wrote that “by restoring the financial sustainability of OSAP so it is efficient and cost-effective, it can get back to doing what it is supposed to do—supporting the students who need it most.”

She also maintained that, while interest will now begin to accrue immediately after students graduate, they will still have a six-month grace period where no actual

Friday, January 25, 2019

PHOTOS BY MATT SCACE AND TESSA WARBURTON

‘More questions than answers’: student governments parse OSAP changes

payments will be required on their loans.

Fullerton wrote the provincial government is “aligning [their] repayment terms with that of the federal government,” which is currently held by the Raechel Huizinga thousand dollars.”

Liberal party.

Morrison added the ambiguity of the Assistant News Editor “We will maintain the current Ford government’s announcement has $25,000 annual income threshold As the structure of Ontario’s university left him unable to explain to students what for the Repayment Assistance finances changes, the AMS and SGPS are in their next few years will look like.

Plan, ensuring students can the dark on the specifics.

While Morrison said he’s had get on their feet after school,” she added.

The provincial government announced discussions with different members of She also pointed out under the Liberals, major changes to the framework of University administration about families making as much as $175,000 post-secondary education on Jan. 17, the proposed changes, he said they don’t were eligible to receive OSAP support, ranging from alterations to the OSAP, know much more than anybody else. ballooning the assistance program beyond mandatory student fees, and tuition fees.

“The unknown hinders our ability at the appropriate sustainability.

“There is uncertainty surrounding SGPS to educate students and also begin The Journal also inquired why the the future funding of university services to make moves that could sustain the provincial government raised the number and resources, as well as the quality viability of the society,” he said. of years a student must wait after high of education, due to a cut in university Something Morrison is also concerned school to be considered independent from funding,” the AMS wrote in a statement about is how the Ford government will four to six, and how that would affect released Wednesday. decide which student fees are essential. students who fund their own fees.

The proposed 10 per cent cut in tuition “The unknown is a little bit scary,” he said.

Stephanie Rea, director of announced by the province will likely “It’s very much our view that a lot of what we communications for the Ministry of require institutions to make up millions in do is essential academic support.”

Training, Colleges and Universities, wrote funds, leaving members from all levels of The Society provides students with “every student, including independent the university wondering how the overall services like emergency bursaries and students, will benefit from lower tuition budget will be affected. community building events. The problem, and more control over their student fees” in In its statement, the AMS said that, according to Morrison, is both of these are a statement to The Journal. while a tuition decrease will provide funded through the same student fee.

Rea also wrote the Auditor General students with financial relief, reducing OSAP “What happens when they say your identified challenges with the Ontario eligibility and replacing grants with loans emergency bursary is an essential Student Assistance Program’s criteria and will “negatively affect students who require service but the social events of oversight for independent students. financial assistance.” the community building events you She added OSAP in its current state “is The Ford government has also hold aren’t essential services?” he said. not delivering the desired results,” but didn’t proposed the Student Choice Initiative, “To even begin to make moves to prevent directly answer why the number of years which will allow students to opt out of all something like that from happening, I need was raised from four to six. non-essential fees. to know what they’re talking about and The auditor general’s report While the Ford government has said the statement is just so ambiguous.” recommended an adjudicatory process walk-safe programs, health and counselling, Morrison is also concerned about the be implemented to determine whether athletics and recreation, and academic Ford government’s redefinition of an independent students were receiving support will remain mandatory fees, there independent student from four years to six funds from their families in addition to was no explanation for which services will after high school graduation.

OSAP funds. fit into those categories.

He believes this decision stemmed It did not recommend the government “There are more questions than answers from the auditor general’s report raise the number of years a student must from this statement,” the AMS said, adding released last year which recommended be out of high school to be considered the Society, along with the Ontario an adjudicatory process be implemented independent from four to six.

Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA), is to determine whether independent Representing multiple post-secondary “concerned about the impact this will have s t u d e n t s were receiving institutions in the province, the Ontario on its ability to provide critical services OSAP grants and money from Undergraduate Student Alliance published to students.” their parents at the same time. a response to the proposed changes on While the Ford government is promising Morrison said this is both over and Jan. 17. a 10 per cent tuition decrease for undergrad under-inclusive. students, graduate and professional students will see their tuition decreased by only a thousand dollars.

SGPS President Tyler Morrison doesn’t know where that number is coming from.

“Put it this way,” he said in an interview with The Journal. “There’s not a law school in Ontario where a 10 per cent tuition reduction would only be a

AMS, SGPS to clarify tuition decrease, ancillary

To read the rest, visit queensjournal.ca/ news

To read the rest, visit queensjournal.ca/ news

Friday, January 25, 2019

News

queensjournal.ca • 3

More than a consignment

dress boutique Fifty-five per cent of the City of Kingston’s homeless population is women.

dress that works with their budget,” McCaugherty said “We’re not just a bridal shop. We’re trying to promote prom, bridesmaid and grad dresses.”

All its profits are allocated towards the provision of affordable and supportive transitional housing for marginalized women in Kingston at a time when homelessness continues to be a pervasive issue Claudia Rupnik in the city.

As per Kingston’s 2017 Assistant News Editor 10-Year Municipal Housing & In November, the City reported 55 Homelessness Plan, the city is per cent of Kingston’s homeless trying to solve the issue through population were women. Dawn an increase in transitional housing House Women’s Shelter and through programs such as Spread the Love Boutique want to Rent-Geared-to-Income. make sure no one forgets.

Kingston’s rates of The organization is tackling the homelessness are more than barriers between local women double the national average of 25 in poverty and their access to per cent. The causes are unclear affordable housing. The response but are exacerbated by rising rent is a social enterprise: Dawn House costs and lack of available housing hired Michelle McCaugherty to within city limits. open the organization’s Spread Re n t - G e a r e d - t o - I n c o m e Love Boutique’s dress resale housing is designed to allow program and develop a business residents to pay approximately model that could raise funds.

30 per cent of their gross monthly “I worked for Dawn House income as rent, prior to utilities. as a relief front-line worker. As there are a limited number of Based on my past experience, units available—2,003—the city my employer said that she’d be estimates it could take anywhere willing to hire me to develop a from less than a year to over five social enterprise,” McCaugherty years to secure a home. said. “It was determined there was Dawn House wants to change a need and desire for affordable, that with proceeds from the previously-loved wedding and dress resale program. The formal dresses.” non-profit offers long term The boutique supports and transitional supportive the Dawn House through the housing to women in need in consignment sale of wedding and the Kingston community. formal dresses. It began taking According to the organization, appointments in the summer of it can take eight to 10 years 2018, and since accumulated an for the women accessing inventory of over 300 dresses. their services to secure a The boutique primarily sells Rent-Geared-to-Income unit. designer dresses at a fraction Over the past few years, the of the original price, alongside organization has seen an increase accessories including shoes, in the number of women with jewelry, veils and tiaras. dependent children and seniors The program meets the accessing their services, a jump demand for formal wear at an they attribute to the low vacancy affordable cost in the community. rates and high rent in the “Previously-loved dresses allow Kingston community. individuals who may have a Maggie McLaren, the smaller budget to have the executive director of Dawn House, opportunity to buy a designer acknowledged the changing

Dawn House’s Spread the Love Boutique raise awareness and funds to assist homeless women in Kingston

demographic of the homeless population in Kingston, suggesting the female proportion is much higher than suggested in the City’s November report.

“70 per cent of the homeless population are now women. With the City’s 10-Year Homelessness Plan, the first shelter to have its funding cut was the [only women’s] shelter, and now, the only shelter available is In From the Cold, which is a co-ed night shelter,” McLaren told The Journal.

Dawn House is a middle step for these women, allowing them to organize their living situation, while meeting the basic needs of shelter. Having recently moved locations, some operations are on hold while their new building is under construction.

The organization additionally continues to provide wellness-based services, advocacy programs, and crisis intervention for women in need; the housing portion of the new building was opened in October of 2017.

While the move temporarily reduced the organization’s resources, it’s always needed more support.

“Dawn House doesn’t receive funding from any level of government and has to rely on fundraising, donations, and successful grants,” McLaren said.

This need for resources led to The Spread the Love Boutique’s dress resale program’s creation.

In July of 2017, Dawn House received an Ontario Trillium Foundation SEED Grant—a

The boutique sells designer formal wear at reduced prices.

PHOTOS SUPPLIED BY MICHELLE MCCAUGHERTY

provincial initiative which provides funding for projects that aim to create social impact in the community—to research and develop a social enterprise.

The grant allowed the team to hire McCaugherty to research business options that could generate revenue for the organization and serve the community.

As founder of the Boutique, McCaugherty said the organization plays a vital role in the lives of local women.

“The women at Dawn House face a great deal of challenges, and while each woman’s challenges are unique, there are some common trends, such as systemic poverty, chronic homelessness, addictions, and struggles with mental health,” McCaugherty said.

Beyond generating funds to support the organization’s services, the boutique provides a healthy work environment for women re-entering the workforce. Women living in poverty are often prevented from securing employment because of barriers including limited work history and lack of formal education or training.

“Women can work towards gaining the transferable employment skills needed to build their resume. This can help women work towards their goals of finding and securing employment in the community and increase their ability to become more economically empowered, independent, and self-sustaining,” McCaugherty said.

McCaugherty also told The Journal about plans to expand the boutique in the future.

“We would like to see the boutique generate enough revenue to support at least one paid staff, as it’s difficult to find sustainable funding. It would be great if we outgrew the space we currently occupy and could expand to sell other formal wear,” she said.

“In the long term, we’d like to open more affordable housing.”

News

4 •queensjournal.ca

Friday, January 25, 2019

ASUS executive open forum Team Chayce and Aaryan discuss major changes to ASUS with students

[...] we would constantly have our doors open.”

Equity was another topic of discussion at the forum. When asked about the final report of the Principal’s Implementation Committee on Racism, Diversity, Tegwyn Hughes, Matt and Inclusion (PICRDI), the team Scace shared it hopes to apply the Journal Staff committee’s research to future SUPPLIED BY JEREMY ABRAMSKA AND JASPAR WONG Jeremy Abramska (right) and Jaspar Wong (left).

ASUS policy.

Despite running uncontested in Perkins added the team has this year’s ASUS Executive election, already consulted with student Team Chayce and Aaryan faced groups such as the Queen’s Native numerous questions at Tuesday Student Association (QNSA) and night’s forum in the Lower Ceilidh the Queen’s Black Academic of the JDUC. Society (QBAS).

The candidates’ responses Going forward, Perkins hopes covered student wellness, that “all of these groups [will transparency, and equity. work] together to discover shared Aside from his plans for community, promoting holistic Aaryan Chaudhury, ArtSci ’21 passions and interests in order fostering inter-faculty relations, health and wellness, and is the vice-presidential candidate to make Queen’s and the ASUS Wong’s platform focuses on i n c r e a s i n g a c a d e m i c and Chayce Perkins, ArtSci ’20, is environment more equitable.” financial transparency, including and career support for the presidential candidate.

The main platform point called informing members of voluntary graduate students.

Chaudhury kicked off the into question was the candidate’s opt-out fees and allowing “It shouldn’t be hard to night by delivering the team’s goal to create the position of a students greater freedom over find SGPS events and the SGPS opening statement and wellness officer in ASUS. The their finances. itself. If elected, I would hold explaining the six platform officer would be tasked with “There are $50 in optional fees, open-air office hours, I would pillars her team hopes to achieve creating mental health campaigns and just keeping our populace make an effort to go to West in 2019-20. and lobbying the administration Brigid Goulem aware of what fees are optional Campus, to Mac-Corry, have a The team’s plans include on behalf of students.

Arts Editor shouldn’t hurt them. If they dorky ‘meet the President’ sign,” implementing a wellness officer, Chaudhury pointed out that the This year, the only contested SGPS know where their money is Abramska told The Journal in enhancing academic support, and Equity Commissioner, within the election is for its presidency. going—which are fantastic an interview. implementing a comprehensive Society, oversees too many projects Jeremy Abramska, Law ’20, will programs and services—it might Despite having a platform online calendar. The team also to be able to effectively increase face off against Jaspar Wong, Ed ’21, incentivize them to play a more in place, Abramska said recent hopes to increase transparency, wellness initiatives in ASUS. in the SGPS presidential election active role in these programs,” changes in provincial policy simplify course management, and “Wellness and equity, although on Jan. 28 to 29.

Wong said in an interview with significantly altered the potential further equity and advocacy efforts related, are not synonymous,” With four uncontested The Journal. budget of the SGPS, and the under the Society.

Chaudhury said. vice-presidential elections, Wong added his experience financial reality for many graduate “With these six pillars, I hope Perkins said it’s ASUS’s graduate and professional students as an education student will and professional students. that we can create an equitable responsibility to have wellness will likely be focused on Wong be an asset to the SGPS. While “[OSAP] is a real issue. It’s a environment for all students,” support for its students. and Abramska ahead of the vote there are many law and graduate pocketbook thing. As much as I Chaudhury said.

“Our sibling societies [...] have next week. students who participate in the will continue with the platform When asked to explain the executives in place that are dealing Both candidates are committed SGPS, he believes that education as is, I think the SGPS needs to most significant issue currently with mental health initiatives [...] to further integration among students are underrepresented in take a strong voice and work facing ASUS, Perkins pointed to it’s a little bit problematic that faculties, identifying a divide the society. with other groups on campus, the difficulty of addressing the ASUS is the largest faculty society between graduate, law, and “I think my experience as an the administration, look into needs of over 14,000 students but it doesn’t have anything education students. They said education student will help bring emergency grants and funding. of various degrees and interests right now pertaining to the topic the gaps between disciplines a diversity of experience to the That’s a hot-button issue. That’s who make up the faculty. Perkins of wellness.” make representation a SGPS—one that is currently, I maybe outside the scope of the said ASUS’s large student greater challenge. believe, lacking,” Wong said.

SGPS, but you need someone representation “makes it a bit To address disconnect, both Abramska’s platform is who takes that seriously,” challenging for all different students candidates plan to implement geared towards making the Abramska said. to be represented equally and inter-faculty intramurals they SGPS executives and programs The SGPS election will take advocated for.” hope will provide opportunities more accessible to students. place on Jan. 28 to 29 online.

To address the issue, Perkins for graduate student His plan focuses on three main Eligible voters will receive a ballot said, “If elected, we want to make community-building. pillars: strengthening the SGPS in their inboxes once voting opens. it clear that we’re here for students

SGPS presidential election sees two hopefuls

The Journal sits down with candidates Jeremy Abramska and Jaspar Wong

To read the rest, visit queensjournal.ca/ news

News in Brief

Student Wellness Services to conduct online survey about student health Student Wellness Services (SWS) is administering an online survey to better understand the health and wellness needs of students at Queen’s.

Approximately 40 per cent of the student population will be randomly chosen to complete the survey between Jan. 28 and Feb. 15.

The survey will be administered through the National College Health Assessment (NCHA) on behalf of the Division of Student Affairs, with the intention of

collecting current information about student health habits, behaviours, and perceptions.

The survey will ask questions about a range of health-related topics including nutrition, substance use, sexual behaviour, and mental health. According to the NCHA, the survey is entirely confidential and takes about 30 minutes to complete.

The results will help SWS identify common barriers to student wellness and make changes to the structure of its operations to better support students’ academic and personal successes. “[It] takes a holistic approach and provides us with valuable insight into what health-related issues most commonly affect academic success. Information gathered is used to help inform the health promotion initiatives, services, and programs we offer on campus,” Beth Blackett, Health Promotion Coordinator for SWS, wrote in an email to The Journal.

The SWS survey comes just a weeks after Queen’s signed on to the Okanagan Charter, which calls for the consideration of wellness in all aspects of campus life.

“This initiative aligns with a number of principles within the Okanagan Charter. We want to ensure we are taking a participatory approach and engaging the student voice,” Blackett wrote. “Student responses help ensure that what we are doing is evidence-based.”

Those selected to complete the survey will receive a web link through their student emails during the survey period.

“Queen’s is one of over 30 post-secondary institutions in Canada taking part in this survey, which means that, in addition to having student responses to inform change on our campus, it allows us to be part of sparking change at the provincial and national level,” Blackett said.

—Claudia Rupnik.

INFORMATION FOR ALL STUDENTS IMPACTED

BY SEXUAL VIOLENCE GET HELP, GIVE HELP queensu.ca/sexualviolencesupport Sexual Violence Prevention and Support Coordinator, Barb Lotan bjl7@queensu.ca

Friday, January 25, 2019

Referendum News

queensjournal.ca • 5

AMS winter referendum

The Journal provides this free, unedited space for parties on the ballot QUEEN’S BEST BUDDIES

100 students from across Kingston to revolutionize mental health.

We use the funding from the student fee to help put on these events and make sure that they are accessible to all students.

Thank you so much for considering us, and please don’t hesitate to email us at jack. orgqueens@clubs.queensu.ca if you have any questions!

of students have learned skills in consensusbased decision making, group facilitation, The purpose of Queen’s University events organizing, media relations, and Best Buddies is to promote and support community-based research. friendships between Queen’s University OPIRG Kingston has also acted as students and individuals with special needs an incubator for important community in the community. Best Buddies provides the organizations that now serve Queen’s and opportunity for students to develop close the wider Kingston community. Loving friendships with people with developmental Spoonful (promoting access to healthy food), and intellectual disabilities with the goal of Reel Out (Kingston’s queer film festival), fostering respect and understanding for the THE LEVANA GENDER ADVOCACY CENTRE and Yellow Bike Action (affordable bicycle diversity of people and abilities. repairs and sales) all got their start as OPIRG Queen’s University Best Buddies is a The Levana Gender Advocacy Centre Kingston working groups. OPIRG Kingston campus affiliate of Best Buddies Canada, is a student-funded Queen’s University was also a founding partner of the Queen’s an organization that aims to provide organization committed to creating and Positive Space Programme, whose steering people with intellectual disabilities the nurturing a radical community of Kingston committee we still participate in. chance to have experiences that many students and residents. Founded in 1888, OPIRG Kingston continues to support people take for granted. As a club, Queen’s Levana, formerly known as the women’s the development of exciting projects and University Best Buddies facilitates and centre, is one of the oldest organizations working groups like the annual Alt Frosh/Alt supports friendships between students on campus. Levana works from a principle Frost events series (frosh period workshops, and individuals with intellectual disabilities of anti-oppressive action, devoted to film screenings, and other events aimed at in the Kingston community. Students are fighting gender oppression and advocate fostering social consciousness), the People’s paired with a buddy and are responsible gender empowerment for those of any or History Project (researching and archiving for contacting their buddy regularly and no gender. Having collected a student fee Kingston’s history of social activism), Roots meeting their buddy biweekly for a one-on- in years prior, we have developed student- & Wings (a one-of-a kind group for racialized one activity. These friendships are intended led working groups and programming girls in Kingston), and Kingston Coalition to be similar to any other friendships and initiatives such as our lunchtime chat series, for Reproductive Justice. OPIRG Kingston time spent together may include going for in which we have facilitated conversations also offers summer job opportunities to coffee, watching movies, going to the mall, around social justice issues relevant to the students and research grants for unique attending a local sporting event, engaging Queen’s community. Further we are able non-scholarly student research. in physical activity, or another mutually to co-sponsor panels and conferences on We are seeking a $3.00 optional student enjoyable activity. At least once a month issues applicable to our mandate of gender fee. This will allow us to expand existing Queen’s University Best Buddies hosts advocacy such as Alt-Frosh and Alt-Frost, projects and assist with the development chapter-wide group events where everyone consent workshops, as well as our upcoming of exciting new initiatives, research, is invited to socialize with other buddy pairs Radical Body Positivity Conference in educational events, campus collaborations and enjoy refreshments, crafts, dancing, and January. As well we facilitate and provide for social & environmental justice and more! various other activities. equity and anti-oppressive training for internal organizations on campus such as QUEEN’S HEALTHCARE AND BUSINESS CONFERENCE GIRLS INC. AT QUEEN’S ASUS. We also provide funding for equity based student projects, and have funded Since its inaugural year in 2016, Girls Inc. at Queen’s is a campus conference, publications, and performances the Queen’s Healthcare and Business based chapter of Girls Inc. Canada run by in the past. The $1.00 opt-outable fee has Conference (QHBC) has served unparalleled members of Queen’s University whose allowed us to create our own events, as well as an engaging platform, connecting goal is to unite the student body, as well as give back to the Queen’s community. students and future leaders with current as the Kingston community, in order to industry professionals who share a passion educate them on various gender issues as MUSE for this rapidly growing industry. As the first well as provide opportunities get involved student-run conference of its kind in Canada, in Girls Inc. This branch of the Girls Inc. MUSE is an entirely student-produced we are dedicated to delivering the most organization has many objectives, such as publication that features the writing, valuable attendee experience we possibly spreading awareness on campus and in photography, and creative direction of can. With healthcare as Canada’s largest the Kingston community, raising money for students. We hand out free copies of our service industry and the world’s seventhGirls Inc. Limestone chapter in Kingston publication at the end of each semester, largest industry overall, QHBC seeks to and encouraging volunteering with Girls allowing Queen’s students a chance to enjoy explore healthcare in terms of the diverse Inc. Limestone. Help us unite the members the artistic contributions of their community. range of models, international organizations, of Queen’s University and the Kingston We hope that MUSE brings a fresh look at a and the innovations in care delivery that are community as one and educate us all on range of topics, inspires others, and creates found throughout the world. Our two day women’s issues and projects organized by solidarity between students across campus. conference aims to highlight the dynamic Girls Inc. Most importantly, we intend to create a healthcare industry and its increasingly platform for students’ voices, and we hope integrated relationship with both the JACK.ORG that students use this platform to inspire global private and public sectors. Our goal and connect with one another. Our fee is is to spark discussions that push delegates’ Jack.org is working towards a Canada used to advertise, rent space for events, and thinking from a local to a global level. where all young people understand how to print copies of the magazine, so that it is take care of their own mental health and accessible to everyone on campus.

QMIND look out for each other. A Canada without shame, where all those who need support OPIRG KINGSTON QMIND was established in January 2018 get the help they deserve. With thousands with the intention of creating a thriving of young leaders across every province and Since 1992, Ontario Public Interest community built around the emerging territory in Canada, we’re only just getting Research Group (OPIRG) Kingston has field of artificial intelligence (AI). Growing started. encouraged Queen’s students to engage to over 110 members in its inaugural year, Through the Queen’s Chapter we work to in research, education, and action on QMIND has made AI significantly more identify and dismantle barriers to positive important environmental and social justice accessible and has demonstrated what can mental health on campus. We do this by issues. OPIRG Kingston is one of 13 PIRGs be accomplished at the undergraduate level. organizing events that work to reduce the operating on university campuses across QMIND has two primary programs: stigma associated with mental illness and Ontario. OPIRGs are non-partisan, non- Design and Educate. In Design, 20 teams ensure that students do not feel alone in profit, student-funded organizations that of 4-5 students are provided with the what they are going through. are democratically run by students and mentorship and know-how needed to Our internal events teams organize community members. Over the last 25 years tackle industry relevant problems – often events throughout the year such as exam we have initiated and supported various with client sponsors. From anomaly care packages, our annual charity concert, community groups/projects, organized detection for credit card fraud analysis, to and an event for Bell Let’s Talk Day. Our inclusive events and programming, and image recognition in health care, to sports external events teams collaborate with empowered, educated, and connected predictions, to speech recognition, students various groups on campus to help them students and community members for a are guaranteed to find a project of interest, organize events that support positive more socially and environmentally just with a scope, team and guidance tailored to mental health on campus. Our members Queen’s and Kingston. their skillset. team facilitates bi-weekly discussions with OPIRG Kingston is primarily driven by In Educate, QMIND focuses on increasing over 80 members on various topics ranging volunteers. Volunteers of OPIRG develop the accessibility of artificial intelligence from different types of anxiety disorders skills through volunteer opportunities, through resource collation and creation, to how we can better support students on educational events, public campaigns and through internal and external events, campus. Finally, our summit team organizes partnerships with community organizations. and through a one-day conference: the our annual summit which brings together Through involvement with OPIRG, hundreds Canadian Undergraduate Conference on AI

(CUGAI). Educate has created a 15-week, 475-page course, supplemented with created video content. Educate also hosts lower-commitment sessions such as Coffee and Code, aimed at creating an inclusive environment for any student at Queen’s to learn about disruptive technologies at any level of experience, for free (and with coffee and snacks!). As it hosts CUGAI this spring, QMIND will set the national standard for undergraduate AI and establish Queen’s University as a pioneer in the space.

QMIND will continue to strive for a positive learning environment, targeting students with any experience level or discipline for hiring, and providing numerous external resources and events to engage the Queen’s, Kingston, and Canadian community. Stay tuned for updates on events, 2019 hiring, and updates on QMIND’s journey to make Queen’s a reputable hub for innovation and disruptive technologies in Canada.

QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY BLOOD TEAM

Queen’s University Blood Team advocates and educates students and the Kingston population about blood, stem cell and organ donation. This is done through organizing and running blood donation clinics on campus, stem cell registry events, organ donation sign up and speaker series. You may have seen us in the ILC, in BioSci or in Grant – we host OneMatch Stem Cell Registry events and blood donation clinics in these spaces. In addition to these events, Queen’s University Blood Team works with a variety of athletic teams, faculty groups and clubs to promote blood donation. Lastly, the club works with first year students to educate them about organ and blood donation and surrounding topics – this includes knowing your blood type and how to talk to your family about your donor status. Using our student fee, we are able to host events bringing these opportunities to students, keeping all of our events free for the student population. The fee is also used to pay for advertising the club and our events, as well as renting the spaces required for our events. Notably, we have worked with QMed and EngSoc to host some of the events that you may have seen around campus. Most recently, our club has been pushing for innovation in the aforementioned donation fields. We have hosted our QHEARTT series for the last two years, introducing students to researchers who have impacted the field. These series have been free for the last two years, and have given students an opportunity to network and ask questions with physicians who are removed from the undergraduate population.

THE QUEEN’S JOURNAL

As one of Canada’s oldest continuously publishing student newspaper, we are pleased to offer you a new way to support the next generation of our country’s journalists. Industry-wide downturns in ad and classified revenue, alongside the minimum wage hike, have left us in need of increased support to continue covering our campus.

Since 1873, The Journal has been providing journalism experience to the dozens of students we employ each year, and the dozens more who contribute. We provide hands-on learning experience for these young reporters to develop their skills in the real world, giving them the tools to contribute to our campus and build their portfolios with high quality content.

Our success reappears in every major Canadian media outlet, where our staff go on to enjoy impactful careers using the skills they learned here.

6 •queensjournal.ca Your continued support can allow The Journal to produce another Editor in Chief at The Globe and Mail, an investigative reporter at The Toronto Star, or a national correspondent for the The National Post— to name a few.

The Queen’s Journal is a proud part of Canada’s media legacy, but wider downturns in print media have left us in need of support—in a time where quality journalism has become more important than ever. Your support today can help us to adapt to an evolving media landscape, giving you a key role to play in our paper’s story.

ROBOGALS

Robogals is an international, studentrun, volunteer organization dedicated to increasing female, and overall, enrollment in the engineering and technology fields of study. Robogals introduces elementary school and high school students to engineering through hosting free interactive LEGO robotics and coding workshops.

These workshops give young students the opportunity to become passionate about the engineering and technology fields, and to interact with university students who study these fields. The university student volunteers act as role models to the younger students and show by example that they can be successful in a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field. Robogals also holds various events that raise awareness of engineering as a career, especially for young women. All workshops and events are offered free of charge to the participants, which is possible with the help of the student fee. By offering workshops free of charge, this encourages all girls to come and participate, regardless of their financial situation. On a global scale, Robogals is made of more than 30 different chapters in over 10 different countries that have impacted 50,000 girls worldwide.

QUEEN’S STUDENTS FOR LITERACY

Queen’s Students for Literacy is a campusbased chapter of Frontier College - an organization dedicated to improving literacy skills and spreading literacy awareness. We run three programs within the Kingston Community. Our first program is Read for Fun which works with children one-onone to increase their literacy and numeracy skills. Our second program is Literacy Outreach which works with children and youth at local shelters for displaced families and women as well as Immigration Services Kingston and Area (ISKA) multicultural youth groups. Our third program is Community Justice Literacy Outreach which works with inmates one-on-one or in small group settings to reduce recidivism rates as well as youth and adults who have been or are at risk of being in conflict with the law. By collecting and receiving a student fee, Queen’s Students for Literacy is able to provide the necessary materials, such as books, activities, writing materials, crafts, to learner programs. Additionally, the student fee covers the transport of our tutors to and from weekly programs. Collecting a student fee is crucial to the success of our program, it is what allows us to continue working with our community partners.

THE SUSTAINABILITY ACTION FUND

The Sustainability Action Fund seeks to provide financial assistance to studentrun projects that increase campus energy efficiency, reduce waste and/or educate the Queen’s community on sustainabilityrelated issues. The Sustainability Action Fund grants have gone towards several on-campus projects in a variety of areas, such as: Orientation Week Application for ASUS Orientation to avoid waste associated with printing information for incoming students; the Queen’s Solar Education Centre, a fully off-grid, net-zero energy house that is entirely self-sustaining; the planting of a bee garden outside of the BioSciences Centre through the Society for Conservation Biology, Kingston; a variety of conferences,

Referendum

Friday, January 25, 2019

speaker series, and workshops on campus their disposal. We as well have undertaken A commitment to AMS transparency dedicated to promoting sustainability. The initiatives over the past few years to ensure and engagement, reigniting the student grant has allowed many sustainability- that we are continually refining our service. experience and empowering clubs, pursuing focused projects to flourish on campus and Various efforts undertaken with the fee have proactive mental health policy, and actively has also allowed for groups to consider been our advertising to students about the seeking a more sustainable campus. We how they could make their initiatives service available to them, new radios to need to be open, available, and accountable more sustainable, even when that may not refine our ability to respond and decrease to our peers who don’t feel they have an necessarily be the focus. the amount of time patrons have to wait, adequate voice on campus. To address this and similar initiatives. we will hold open office hours throughout SWAM KINGSTON the term to ensure better representation THE WORLD UNIVERSITY SERVICE for our peers. We want to ensure that the SWAM Kingston (formerly SwimAbility OF CANADA (WUSC) University District Safety Initiative, Fall and Making Waves Kingston) is a notReading Week, Frost Week, and services for-profit student initiative founded as a The World University Service of Canada such as the AMS website are innovated to registered chapter of SWAM Canada in 2011. (WUSC) is a leading Canadian non-profit serve the needs of students. Additionally, Our mission is to provide an affordable organization in international development, we look to strengthen the tools available to and accessible one-on-one recreational committed to building a more equitable clubs by continuing to simplify the process swimming lessons to children with special and sustainable world. Since 1978, WUSC of event sanctioning, seeking out clubs to needs. has sponsored over 1,500 young refugees help them remain ratified, and reforming Drowning has historically been and through its Student Refugee Program. The the clubs handbook. remains the second-leading cause of injury- only program of its kind in the world, it We looked to an often-tokenized pillar related death in children, despite a significant assists refugee students to resettle in Canada regarding Mental Health, and through increase in general swimming proficiency in and continue their studies on Canadian extensive research have demonstrated that North America (Centre for Disease Control campuses. resources can still be strengthened through and Prevention, 2002). Whereas a large As the Queen’s University Chapter increasing access, collaboration, and portion of the population has been exposed of this organization, we aim to build a marketing. Finally, we will institute a NEW to water safety education through relatively supportive environment for the refugee Commission on Sustainability and Wellness affordable, group swimming lessons, the students who come to study at Queen’s as to work towards a greener campus and format in which these services are provided permanent residents of Canada, as well as address the current Mental Health crisis. is not suited to special needs children who raise awareness for various other global require more personalized supervision and development - centred initiatives through TYLER MACINTYRE - TRUSTEE need individually adapted teaching methods events held on campus. to ensure their success. A separate study Since 1989, funding from both the I’m Tyler Macintyre and I’m running for found that disabled children are a further ten AMS and SGPS mandatory student fee has the position of undergraduate trustee. I am times likelier to suffer from a submersion been used by Queen’s University to fund a running because I care immensely about this injury than the general population (Injury scholarship package for sponsored refugee school and its operations. As undergraduate Prevention, 2001). Put together, these students as well as the annual WUSC service trustee, my number one priority will be to facts paint a concerning picture: the slice fee. Beginning in 2007-2008 the University ensure that undergraduate students needs of the population for which water safety committed to assist with the funding of and opinions are brought to the board in an instruction seems to be the most relevant is students until at least 2016. In 2013-14 accurate and clear manner. exactly the portion of the population most the University presented to Drs. Alfred I have several plans to accomplish this. marginalized by the structure of swimming and Isabel Bader the opportunity to help First, before every board meeting I will lessons currently on offer. support this initiative, at which time the take the agenda, briefly summarize the key The SWAM program builds on the Baders established a fund in recognition points in more accessible language, and institutional strengths and successes of of Robert Charles Wallace. This funding is publish it in places where it can be easily existing swimming lesson organizations. awarded based on academic achievement, accessed by students. This could entail We are able to be more effective in injury to a refugee student who is part of the WUSC places like Facebook on groups such as prevention by providing lessons specifically Student Refugee Program, and is entering Overheard at Queens or various graduating targeted and adapted to those children their first year of any undergraduate class groups (Class of 2019, 2020, etc.), but at highest risk of drowning. We recruit degree. The award is renewable for three it may involve other distribution methods. our volunteers from the abundance of subsequent years provided the student In the same posts I will attach my contact university-aged, qualified swimming remains in good academic standing in a information, and a few times and places on instructors and work with our community full-time course load, and is structured to campus to meet with me. In these meetings, partners to properly train and educate them encourage the student to gradually become students will be able to drop in and tell to work with special-needs children. We financially independent over the course of me their thoughts about the issues at the rent out ARC pool space twice a week, batch their degree. The University continues to upcoming meetings and how they want lessons together and assign one instructor contribute funds when there is funding gap me to represent them. After every meeting to each child to offer private and affordable between what is raised through the student I will take the minutes from the meeting, one-on-one lessons, tailored to the needs of activity fee and the Wallace fund. summarize, and publish them in a similar each individual child. manner.

TEAM AJW My final plan to ensure students are well TELEPHONE AID LINE represented is to push for me to be held KINGSTON (TALK) As a team we have seen a lack of accountable for any choices I make in the engagement that is uncharacteristic of position, and any statements I give to the Telephone Aid Line Kingston (TALK) Queen’s and its students. We wanted to see board. I will encourage students to contact was established in 1973 for the purpose if others felt the same way, so we set out to me at any time about issues they have with of lending a listening ear to the Kingston connect with services, clubs, and individuals my actions. I will set up meetings with these community and surrounding areas. TALK is a across campus. We have designed our students and talk about the action, why I crisis, distress, befriending, and information platform around consultations and made it, and what I may do to make it right. community service. We are confidential, meaningful dialogue with fellow students I will be doing this to ensure that no groups anonymous and non-judgmental. TALK’s to determine how they want their student are unintentionally marginalized by my mission is to empower our callers to make government run. Through this process, we actions. decisions for themselves by reserving have seen that so much is possible through Thank you very much. personal judgments and advice.” clear dialogue and collaboration. This is why —Tyler Macintyre we have, and will, continue to commit to the WALKHOME idea of “Listeners before Leaders”.

Our campaign rests on four pillars: Walkhome is unique for the AMS Services in that we are funded entirely through student fees collected at the beginning of the school year and grants. In that, Walkhome’s use of our student fee is the service we provide with allowing patrons to use the service to request a safe walk home any time during our hours of operations. We can provide walks as far west as West Campus, as far North as York Street, and as far East and West as the waterfront. People can request walks by coming to our kiosk in the Lower JDUC, calling in to our number (613)533-9255, or by putting in a request through the Walkhome App available for iPhone and Android. What Walkhome does each year with the fee includes training our staff, making sure that we are adequately staffed to meet demands, and make sure that we are providing enough awareness of the service so that people know about the resources at

7 • queensjournal.ca

Friday, January 25, 2019

Features Voluntourism mixes travel with short-term volunteer work.

Hannah Stafl Features Editor For many university students, a trip spent mixing volunteer work with tourism in the developing world is a rite of passage.

Coined as “voluntourism,” these blended trips have become a staple in many developmental organizations and groups. They’re advertised as a way for students to expose themselves to new cultures and have more meaningful trips than those spent at a resort, in addition to volunteering with local communities.

The trips tend to be short, ranging from a week to a couple months in length.

Often run through organizations that focus on secondary or post-secondary schools, students who participate gain a memorable experience and communities are left better off because of their volunteer efforts, according to the organizations.

One student, Paritosh Arya, Sci ’19, was keen to go on one of these trips.

In his third year, Arya went to Ghana on a fourth month volunteer program through Queen’s Engineers Without Borders (EWB).

He was attracted to the program because it centred around implementing mobile money as a tool for development in Ghana, an endeavour that appealed to him as a major in computeer engineering.

However, professor David McDonald of the Global Development Studies department offers the critique that a voluntourism trip “benefits the person who’s going more than it benefits the people that are being visited.”

This may be a design flaw. It’s hard to solve problems—which can have extremely complex and deep-rooted origins—over reading week, according to McDonald.

These trips can also involve the volunteers doing work they’re largely unqualified to do, such as medical work.

Additionally, volunteers may create a sense of helplessness for recipient communities, who see a revolving door of volunteers pass through each year. In turn, communities may become dependent on consistently available volunteers.

Organizing and hosting volunteers can be “typically a very time and resource intensive thing,” McDonald said. The other potential drawbacks include shifting away from

long-term, local solutions to objectives that can be completed in a short stay.

When Jessica Hennings, ArtSci ‘19, went to Arviat, Nunavut, it was for 10 weeks.

Through Queen’s Project on International Development (QPID), her initiative was meant to review waste management in the community in efforts to aid environmental sustainability.

Hennings said the trip was beneficial because it helped her learn more about northern Canada, saying “many of the most striking features of the community

thing as a short term project.” In preparation to leave, Arya felt his training prepared him well for the program. If he could, he’d do it over again.

But Arya still noticed “there were certainly people locally who could have done [my] job.” Even though the host company Viamo collaborated locally, its ownership was in Western countries.

The idea of seeing an outsider as a better tool for development than a local was something Shannen Rowe, ArtSci ’19, experienced as well.

She went to Georgetown,

to be granted access to schools by the Ministry of Education.

Additionally, Rowe said some students would come up after class to talk about suicide. She left the trip torn.

“How do we know the kid that came up to talk to us, saying they have had suicidal thoughts, doesn’t do it [since] we’re leaving after seven weeks?” Rowe said.

Her biggest criticism of the trip was the group’s volunteer work at a local children’s aid centre, which they visited twice a week.

Kids would go to the centre after school to play and have

Altruism meets voluntourism Examining the costs and benefits of the wildly popular volunteer trips—a new tool in international development

could only be captured by visiting and creating connections [within it].”

Her only concern with the program was that, as an intern, her project was prirotized last, which isn’t an uncommon occurrence.

After leaving, Hennings felt she’d had an impact, albeit small, in the community. This isn’t a failure to her: she was aware the time frame couldn’t allow for a complete overhaul of the community’s waste management.

“We travelled to Arviat under no false assumptions that we would revitalize their waste management system, or change the community’s perspective on environmentalism in a summer,” Hennings said.

Life abroad

Back in Ghana, Arya worked at Viamo, where he developed data tracking and analysis software. It could be used for surveys on life expectancy, for example, with cell phones being used to automate the process.

Arya’s experience abroad wasn’t the typical image of voluntourism: he was in a white-collar office in the capital city of Accra. “I was living to a higher standard than I was at Queen’s,” he said.

Upon joining, Arya liked EWB’s model of constant re-evluation.

“You have to collaborate rather than dictate,” he said. And while volunteers were in Ghana for only months at a time, “There’s no such

Guyana as a Peer Health Educator with Queen’s Health Outreach (QHO). She was there for seven weeks, educating classrooms about physical, mental and sexual health.

During her trip, Rowe and her group often felt like they weren’t adding much to the local community. Before going, she’d assumed the schools in Georgetown didn’t have any health curriculum.

This wasn’t the case.

“We went in with the thought they weren’t getting health education, and that’s why we were going in to teach it,” Rowe said.

This meant the volunteers would instead teach their lessons in place of the permanent teachers.

Rowe noted the program is meant to be needs-based to the local community, but “depending on what we think is needs-based.”

Guyana having one of the world’s highest suicide rates, the initiative decided to focus on mental health and suicide prevention. Rowe said these lessons did end up being useful, as the local curriculum had less of a focus on mental health.

QHO’s educators don’t claim to be teachers. But when in classrooms abroad, Rowe felt their position as Westerners inflated their qualifications, with the local teachers often introducing them also as teachers.

As time went on, Rowe began to feel useless.

“We didn’t feel like we were needed. [We] saw problems because it’s pretty short term,” Rowe said. She added it took one week alone for the group

dinner. Some children grew attached to Rowe, despite the volunteers being temporary. One child asked her, “Who am I going to be friends with now?”

“We developed relationships with these kids, and then we left, to never speak to them again,” Rowe said. When she became a program director later on, Rowe ended QHO’s partnership with the children’s aid centre.

“There was no actual benefit” for the children, Rowe said.

While she advised stopping the program there, Rowe said “[QHO doesn’t] go into a location with an exit strategy.”

QHO has been in Guyana since 1989.

In an email statement to The Journal, QHO said they’re “looking into piloting a different location called Essequibo to transition into as [we] transition out of Georgetown.”

In regards to exit strategies, they said, “This year, our main goal has been to develop an Evaluation Framework that provides Peer Educators with more direction when conducting evaluations and will include policies on how to close an initiative and when the correct time to do it is.”

QHO said it “does not replace education systems already established in the communities with which we work.” They added the Peer Educators consult with local students, school teachers and principals, community members, and community groups to determine which topics to focus on.

To better serve these

PHOTO BY TESSA WARBURTON

communities, QHO stated “A Needs Assessment is being developed to be rolled out in this upcoming summer to be conducted at the start of [the] initiative as an assessment of community resources so that we are able to continually assess the needs and resources available to each community.”

Aware of the faults

As president of Medicine, Education and Development for Low-Income Families Everywhere (MEDLIFE) at Queen’s, Quinn Scarlett, ArtSci ’19, is aware of the common critiques of voluntourism. MEDLIFE trips tend to be during reading week, their most popular location being Peru.

Scarlett said MEDLIFE works to avoid the common mistakes, such as being driven by a heightened resume or likes on social media.

He also noted there’s a trend of communities becoming reliant on short-term volunteer help, which is “a crisis that’s going on with a lot of organizations.”

The difference with MEDLIFE, Scarlett said, is it focuses on supporting communities so they develop local capacity to meet challenges. For example, the organization sets up mobile clinics, which are staffed with medical professionals from within the country itself, with the volunteers only shadowing.

“In no way, shape or form am I actually helping with the medical procedure,” Scarlett said. “I’m just there to watch.”

Despite volunteering at a distance, Scarlett said “people can go on these trips and take away this realization of community empowerment.”

“I came back from my [trip] and was inspired to do more work in Canada.”

From here on

The entire MEDLIFE organization has over 60 trips available to take part in for 2019.

QHO indicates shifting focus to another region, but hasn’t indicated plans to leave Guyana.

Meanwhile, when Arya was in Ghana, there was an implicit suggestion of deferring to the Westerners first. While local associates at Viamo were in fact local, the country managers in the company were almost always Westerners.

This lead Arya to believe that while well-intentioned, “Even Viamo [suffered] from this idea of the Westerner at the top, and local people at the bottom.”

8 •queensjournal.ca

Friday, January 25, 2019

Our Endorsement EDITORIALS Team AJW’s enthusiasm covers its blind spots The Journal’s Perspective

W

hen students demand transparency and accountability from their government, sincerity and a vision go a long way.

In a 17-0 vote with two abstentions, The Journal Editorial Board elected to endorse Team AJW for the 2019-20 AMS executive.

For the second consecutive year, there’s only one team running to be our AMS executive.

While this lack of student engagement demands attention, AJW’s diverse external experience and passion for Queen’s have forged a team The Journal can support.

Comprised of Auston Pierce, Will Greene and Jessica Dahanayake, AJW acknowledged their uncontested run speaks to greater disengagement with student leadership across campus. What differentiates them is their commitment to change that.

While AJW lacks preparation and experience, the team members exude competency and enthusiasm. Their big plans, though sometimes ungrounded, bring trust back to student politicians.

Greene, ArtSci ’19 and AJW’s Vice-President (University Affairs) candidate, spoke about how previously volunteering on student campaigns “opened [his] eyes” to the importance of advocating for issues students care about.

His team spoke fervently about trying to bring a culture of engagement back to the AMS. However, this is easier said than done.

Experience goes a long way.

Greene and presidential candidate Pierce, ArtSci ‘19, have never worked in an official capacity for the Society, yet they often interrupted and spoke over more experienced Vice-President (Operations) candidate Jessica Dahanayake, Sci ’20, who’s the AMS IT director.

When discussing how they planned to ensure safe space on campus for marginalized students, Pierce and Greene used the team’s full two-minute response time without giving the floor to Dahanayake.

Though well-intentioned, every member of a hopeful AMS executive

THE QUEEN’S JOURNAL

Volume 146 Issue 19 www.queensjournal.ca @queensjournal Publishing since 1873

Editorial Board Editors in Chief

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Sebastian Bron Nick Pearce Julia Balakrishnan Angus Merry Jasnit Pabla Rachel Aiken Raechel huizinga Claudia Rupnik

Features Editors

Samantha Fink Hannah Stafl

Editorials Editor

Meredith Wilson-Smith

Opinions Editor

Sophia Spencer

Arts Editor Assistant Arts Editor

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should have the ability to bring forward responses to student voices.

AJW’s collective lack of preparation also led to few substantive policy proposals.

When asked how she’d ensure that student services remain fully operational during the JDUC’s revitalization, Dahanayake “couldn’t say confidently” whether certain jobs would be cut before the building’s proposed reopening in 2022.

On how they would continue efforts to prevent and respond to sexual violence on campus, Dahanayake said the team “had no time” to address it in consultations or planning.

Pierce interjected: “We failed.” While stating that’s one of their greatest regrets during the campaign process, the pervasive issue isn’t mentioned in the team’s platform.

A lack of attention to detail extends to a lack of knowledge of facts.

AJW proposes to couple sustainability Sports Editor

Assistant Sports Editor Lifestyle Editor Assistant Lifestyle Editor Photo Editor Assistant Photo Editor Video Editor Assistant Video Editor Graphics Editor Editorial Illustrator Copy Editors Editorial Intern

Matt Scace

You make time for what you care about.

However, Team AJW repeatedly stated they wanted to continue to consult the student body and learn from them. The team knows Queen’s student government needs to change—the good thing is they’re honest about it and willing to bring about that change.

The team might not fully understand the scope of the responsibility they seek, but they recognize they’re in for a steep learning curve.

While The Journal acknowledges flaws in AJW’s campaign, the team has integrity and pursue transparency. We hope our criticisms will be taken in good faith and the team allows that to guide them in leaving Queen’s better than it was before them.

Pierce, Greene and Dahanayake could’ve had a more concrete platform, but they have an earnest willingness to become the best leaders they can be.

Above all else, we hope Team AJW follows through on their promise to bring engagement back to student government.

If elected, their uncontested run can’t allow them to rest on their laurels. They should challenge students to raise the bar and implement the changes they wish to see in campus politics.

ILLUSTRATION BY ZIER ZHOU AJW’s slogan is “Listeners before and wellness initiatives in one commission, leaders.” However, listening is a part of pointing to the 2017 dissolution of leadership. It doesn’t have to be a choice the Commission of Environmental between the two.

Affairs (CEA) as the reason for pairing As the only team running for two supposedly smaller goals under one AMS executive office, The Journal committee. However, this analysis of the Editorial Board trusts, through CEA’s closure fails to note a number our endorsement, AJW can make of other factors influencing the that distinction. commission’s dismantling.

AJW admitted they’ve bitten off more —Journal Editorial Board than they can chew in their campaign, and this was, at times, apparent.

It’s not promising when the presidential candidate refers to the “toxicity” and Our Process corrupt perception of the Society which he hopes to lead.

The endorsement is the result of a vote by The team justified their lack of answers The Journal Editorial Board. The Editorial to the Board’s questions with the fact Board considers prior interviews, debates, that they only decided to platforms and a private questioning period run in December. This is no with the teams before making excuse—AMS elections take place a decision. during the same period every year.

Meg Kirkpatrick Hinano Kobayashi suet Ling Wong

Maggie Gowland Josh Granovsky Ally Mastantuono Chris Yao Tessa Warburton Amelia Rankine Christian Siriano Nour Mazloum Zier Zhou Tegwyn Hughes Abigail Kingswood Lillian Gao

Contributing Staff Staff Writers Dana Meilach Iain Sherriff-Scott Contributors Amanda Collins

Business Staff Business Manager Head Sales Representative

Morgan Dodson Aidan Chalmers

Sales Representative

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Sales Representative

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Office Administrator

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

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

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Friday, January 25, 2019

queensjournal.ca

OPINIONS The campus press is an essential service Student Choice Initiative will risk student newspapers unless universities step in Iain Sherriff-Scott, ArtSci '19 A policy shift buried under the recent changes to OSAP and tuition in Ontario could severely threaten the campus press in this province.

Though the Progressive Conservatives’ reforms are headline-grabbing reversals of the previous Ontario government’s agenda, the Student Choice Sherriff-Scott argues student services deserve protection.

Initiative could impact campus life just as dramatically.

Those services are now in jeopardy. The Under the new policy, students will be Journal—a 146 year-old institution—is one given the choice to opt-out of certain fees. of them. More than 40 student publications The aim is to allow students to choose across this province are too. which student fees they want to pay to It remains to be seem how dramatic the reduce provincial costs. Fees for “essential impacts will be on student publications campus health and safety initiatives” will arbitrarily deemed “non-essential” by the continue to be mandatory. Individual province. But what is sure is that without institutions will then decide what else will mandatory fees supporting them, they’ll remain mandatory. be strained, if not unable to The problem with the initiative is continue operating. universities across Ontario have an The campus press isn’t just worth saving. array of non-essential—while extremely It’s essential to university life. valuable—services paid for by mandatory Often times, student-run newspapers student fees, and that’s because they are the only sources of direct local news on serve broader student interests. Plus, post-secondary campuses. They serve a most of them were established through critical role in the accountability of university democratic referenda. administrations, student governments and

•9

Your Perspective

automatically have their licences revoked, rather than be shuffled to a different school.

Robyn Doolittle—author of The Globe and Mail’s landmark Unfounded series—also got her start in the campus press. Her investigation into how police deal with sexual assault cases prompted law enforcement agencies across the country to review more than 37,000 of their case files.

Doolittle wrote in a tweet last week if it hadn’t been for The Eyeopener, Ryerson University’s independent student newspaper, she “almost certainly” wouldn’t be working at The Globe and Mail.

Recently, Brendan Kennedy, a former Journal Editor in Chief and Toronto Star investigative reporter, published a series of articles following the case of refugee Ebrahim Toure, and thousands like him, arbitrarily detained by the Canadian government. After spending more than five years in detention, Kennedy’s series led to Toure's release.

What the Ford government d o e s n’ t understand—or understands all too well—is campus newspapers are essential to the future of journalism in this country.

Leaving the survival of student publications up to the institutions they cover sets a dangerous precedent.

In a statement last week, the Canadian University Press raised concerns that “it will be up to the institutions” to decide if the very media that covers them is essential.

Queen’s now has to make a choice: either save the independent PHOTO BY JULIA BALAKRISHNAN press on campus, or leave its fate with the provincial government the broader community. that has its staffers clap to drown out the Not only do student newspapers questions of reporters. serve public interest, they’re also one The Journal isn’t alone. If universities of the greatest sources of new talent for across this province don’t step in Canadian media. Undermining that risks and protect the campus press by Canadian journalism. deeming it an essential service, the If you don’t believe me, all it takes is consequences for Canadian journalism will a quick look at the work of journalists be catastrophic. who got their start at student newspapers.

Queen’s Senate and Board of Trustees In 2017, Victoria Gibson, a reporter must recognize an independent press for The Globe and Mail and recent Journal as essential to protecting free speech alumni, published an investigative series on campus. in The Toronto Star detailing the transfer The Student Choice Initiative is a threat to of abusive teachers from school to school student papers across Ontario. It shouldn’t across Ontario. be treated otherwise.

As a result of her story, provincial law changed. Now, teachers who are found Iain is a fourth-year history major and guilty of sexually abusing students will former news editor at The Journal.

Talking heads

... what is your take on the recent OSAP changes?

PHOTOS BY TESSA WARBURTON

“I'm not from Ontario so I'm unsure about the situation.”

Zack Bueler, Comm ’21

“It's reckless to assume a 10 per cent deduction makes up for students losing opportunities.”

Yara Elsharkawy, Comm ’20

“Coming from a family dependent on services like OSAP and the grace period, I'd disappointed.”

Isra Mohammed, ArtSci ’21

“It's not fair to students and frankly, society—we're better off educated.”

Hannah Klouse, ArtSci ’21

Friday, January 25, 2019

queensjournal.ca

• 10

Arts MUSIC

The Kingston Symphony Orchestra’s ode to bad behaviour Evan Mitchell discusses excess, gluttony and upcoming performances

Evan Mitchell conducts the Kingston Symphony Orchestra.

Brigid Goulem Arts Editor This weekend, the Kingston Symphony Orchestra is going to be letting their hair down.

Playing this Saturday and Sunday at the Isabel Bader Centre, the Kingston Symphony Orchestra accompanied by the Queen’s choral ensemble will be performing the 1930’s Carmina Burana—symphony’s ode to bad behaviour.

Kingston Symphony Orchestra’s Music Director Evan Mitchell—who’s programming and conducting the evening—is excited to put on a show celebrating the excesses in life. “[Carmina Burana] is one of those pieces that we know everyone loves, so it’s always a lot of fun whenever we’re able to perform

ARTIST PROFILE

it,” Mitchell said in an interview with The Journal. “It’s a very raucous piece, filled with all sorts of craziness—it’s really a chance for us to let our hair down.”

For Mitchell, this will be his first time programming the production and he plans to put his own spin on the evening. Due to the length of the production, pieces need to be added to justify an intermission.

To add on to the running time, the Orchestra will be performing two additional pieces. The first will be an overture from the opera Il Segreto di Susanna (Susanna’s Secret) in which a woman is trying to hide her smoking habit from her husband, but her secrecy leads him to believe she’s having an affair.

The second piece will be performed

Artist pits nature against industrialism Decayed architecture versus overgrown greenery reminds us of environmental issues Brittany Giliforte Assistant Arts Editor For Dominika Dembinski, fine art and decaying architecture are a natural duo.

As of last year, Dembinski, BFA ’19, began exploring scenes of overgrown industrial architecture, unused factories and warehouses reclaimed by nature.

It’s fundamentally an environmentally conscious piece of work.

“My paintings are all environmental landscapes: they’re meant to address concerns of deteriorating environment like industrialism, pollution, man-made structures and abandoned architecture,” Dembinski told The Journal.

Having finished two paintings of what she expects will be a collection of 10 or 11 pieces, Dembinski’s intention is to display her work at the end of the year BFA art show in a Solange style.

by the choir’s Soprano soloist Elizabeth Polese, who will be singing a piece from Ethyl Smyth’s Opera in which the character Mrs. Waters shares her thoughts on finding love at a later age. As she’s sharing her deepest thoughts, drunken pub-crawlers tumble into her tavern at 3 a.m. for a final drink.

These pieces, Mitchell believes, play on the themes of excess and temptation that are explored in Carmina Burana and will complement the story for the audience.

For many, a trip to the symphony can seem a daunting experience, but Mitchell wants to dispel that myth. While many believe that a trip to the symphony will be a stuffy affair, he thinks that productions like Carmina Burana show that symphony can be anything but stuffy.

“We’re constantly fighting a war of buildings, Dembinski paints a picture of life in unlikely places.

One of her paintings, “What we left behind,” shows a hallway in a factory or warehouse that is now overgrown by greenery. The walls of the building are cracking, the paint’s peeling.

Underneath the walls there are the remains of burst pipes and stains covering the ground.

The factory isn’t operational and nature has taken back the land; vines and trees twist into the building through cracked walls and broken windows.

The people who built and worked in the factory are gone, giving nature time to regrow and return to the industrial setting.

“It’s supposed to show how in our world, people come and take over nature, build over top of it, then when they’re done with it, leave and move on,”

PHOTO SUPPLIED BY THE KINGSTON SYMPHONY ASSOCIATION

perception. An afternoon at the symphony is an afternoon of exposure to great art, and great art in all of its forms can be the entire spectrum of emotions—both big and small,” he said.

Mitchell added that regardless of perception, the coming-together of 50 to 60 musicians to share their art and their work is bound to be an intimate and heartfelt experience.

In addition to the performance, Mitchell will host an open discussion an hour before the shows, open to all ticket-holders. Queen’s students will have access to tickets at a discounted ticket rate.

While the orchestra performs regularly throughout the year, Carmina Burana is an opportunity for students unfamiliar with it to dip their toes into new realms and discover excess at the symphony.

Dembinski said.

“That painting specifically is supposed to feel a bit haunting and empty.”

Dembinski’s paintings critique environmental apathy and careless waste.

She comments on these destructive outcomes, saying nature is something to be revered and respected and will outlast pollution.

“I would always love for my art to be open to interpretation because I think everybody sees art differently, so it’s important for everyone to draw their own meaning, but I want to drive the point home that we need to work to save the environment,” Dembinski said.

A striking combination between visually appealing art and societal collapses, Dembinski’s thesis is a collage of decay and survival—one sure to shock viewers into awareness.

Popular in mid 1800s France, the style hangs paintings from floor to ceiling, side by side.

In a gallery setting, where paintings are typically lined up one by one along a single wall, this style has an overwhelming effect on its viewers.

The paintings grouped together are all scenes from a singular theme, with an unrelenting impact. There’s no calm space or blank wall acting as a break.

For her work, Dembinski expects she’ll need four large paintings, and six or seven smaller pieces to complete her vision.

“The main thing I’m trying to do with all paintings is to explore the intersection of aging architecture and beauty,” Dembinski said.

“Even though the architecture is harmful to the environment, the whole point of everything is to challenge our visual senses.”

Bringing together the ideals of a beautiful natural landscape and the decay of industrial Dominika Dembinski stands with her art in Ontario Hall.

PHOTO SUPPLIED BY DOMINIKA DEMBINSKI

Arts

Friday, January 25, 2019

quensjournal.ca

The Journal’s art critics try their hand at painting—it didn’t go well Brigid Goulem & Brittany Giliforte Journal staff Bob Ross was a firm believer in happy accidents.

While it’s a nice philosophy, attending a Queen’s Helping Haiti’s Bob Ross wine and paint night, we definitely made some mistakes.

Aside from the complimentary glass of wine, the event was for a good cause. Queen’s Helping Haiti supports a free medical clinic in rural Haiti. After paying for painting supplies, our money goes to a worthwhile cause that allows people to access healthcare.

Despite walking into the event knowing that we were no experts, even our belief that we were minimally competent was a wild delusion of grandeur.

Coming in, we believed that we were capable of artistic feats Ross himself couldn’t accomplish.

The evening started off well.

We could both paint a blue and white background—though the clouds presented a minor challenge—but when it came time to paint a mountain, we were slapped in the face with a brush stroke of reality.

We had an embarrassingly hard

Assistant art editor Brittany’s Bob Ross masterpiece.

EVENT REVIEW

PHOTO BY CHRIS YAO

A completely failed attempt at a Bob Ross masterpiece time following the directions given by our Bob Ross proxy. Besides the fact that she didn’t have a microphone, was soft spoken, and kept moving her canvas out of eyesight, we had no idea what we were supposed to be doing.

It felt impossible that her simple instructions, like “draw a white line,” could present such an enormous challenge to two semi-capable 20-something women.

The mountain painting began

EXHIBIT

with a crooked black line in the middle of the sky. The instructor painted little ridges representing peaks, but when we attempted to copy her effortless movements, we realized just how in over our heads we truly were.

• 11

Blaming every mistake on the wine—despite only one glass each—we trudged onward.

Once we managed to get the mountains to look less like black holes in the middle of our winter landscape, and slightly more like rocky mounds, we moved on to something far worse.

If you’d told us before Wednesday we would be utterly and emotionally defeated by the prospect of painting trees—we wouldn’t have believed you. However, this is exactly what happened.

First, one of us forgot the most basic fact about trees: they tend to be green. Black paint it was then.

To make it worse, we both missed the demonstration on how to paint a Bob Ross Tree.

Apparently, like every legitimate professional, Mr. Ross knows the importance of branding.

The Bob Ross Tree is an easy one to paint. It requires a back-and-forth horizontal brush stroke that looks easy—but isn’t.

Instead of this simple manoeuvre, we both covered our paintings with black lines that we spent the rest of the evening turning into tree-like shapes.

Despite the rude awakening that neither of us are destined for careers in painting, the evening was truly worthwhile.

While we were both disappointed with our lacklustre painting skills, it was relaxing to say the least. The mesmerizing back and forth brushing movement was almost a sedative.

A glass of wine and an evening of painting were worth having to grapple with our inabilities.

Outdoor ice art exhibit Froid’Art could melt masterpieces away exhibit—and it may be the last.

Owner and curator of Martello Alley, Dosset, ArtsSci ’83, puts on his outdoor art exhibit every winter—assuming the cold weather we’ve been experiencing this January sticks around.

Brittany Giliforte The festival is a huge Assistant Arts Editor undertaking, however, and Dosset isn’t certain it’ll return It’s the fifth annual year of David for another year. The paintings Dosset’s Froid’Art outdoor art have to be purchased before he can

Difficulty selling paintings may freeze event

send them off to be made, or else the festival loses him money.

This year, he sold the final 12 paintings in the last two weeks before the festival was set to begin.

In future years, Dosset said he’ll have to sell all the paintings earlier in the year if the festival is going to be able to run. He sold a total of 19 this year. This is the only art exhibit of its kind in Kingston, without Dosset, the city streets would’ve been kept grey and snowy.

The coming years might see a return of bleaker winter streets if Dosset isn’t able to sell the paintings well in advance.

Dosset got the idea for this unconventional exhibit five years ago when he went out walking in Kingston with his wife.

Noticing the greyness of the street, he knew he wasn’t alone.

Anybody who’s spent a winter in Kingston knows how bleak it can get. The city’s limestone buildings underneath a slate sky can make for gloomy evening walks.

Dosset decided to figure out a way to make his walk—and everybody else’s—more enjoyable.

He already had experience running a gallery—and an unconventional one at that—through Martello Alley.

Located on Wellington Street, the outdoor gallery is a bright, pedestrian-friendly invitation to

view local art.

He found a company that specializes in making obscure ice products. The company, I c e c u l t u re — wh i c h once built a novelty truck out of ice—was the perfect solution to Dosset’s problem.

Before sending pieces off to Iceculture, he commissions artists to make paintings on plexiglass—even customizable pieces for businesses that want one displayed in front of their buildings—then sends them off to Iceculture where they’re inserted into 300 pound blocks of ice.

The blocks are then transported back to Kingston and distributed

around the city.

Residents can purchase the paintings for $200 then collect their new original piece of art once the ice melts. It’s a great way to celebrate the end of winter, according to Dosset.

All proceeds go to the creator of each piece. Dosset wanted to be sure this festival would improve Kingston by making brutal winters more enjoyable, and also by supporting local artists.

For now, the exhibit thrives and can be seen along the waterfront.

But with the spring, comes a possible end to the annual tradition that’s brightened the Kingston cityscape for the past five years.

Froid’Art is on exhibit now at Martello Alley.

PHOTO SUPPLIED BY DAVID DOSSET

12 •queensjournal.ca

Friday, January 25, 2019

FOOTBALL

Sports

Steve Snyder introduced to Queen’s ATHLETE PROFILE

From varsity athlete to Olympic hopeful in 11 months

Women’s volleyball’s Jackie Boyle uses RBC Training Ground success to actualize dream Jackie Boyle on the assault bike at the RBC Training Ground finals in Toronto, Ont.

Matt Scace Sports Editor Jackie Boyle was certain she’d walked into the wrong gym. Full of 14 year-olds, the ARC looked more like a middle school class than somewhere unproven young athletes could take aim at their Olympic dreams. She hadn’t prepared whatsoever—her mom had signed her up on a whim.

Six months later, the fourth-year women’s volleyball player was being told to pick between joining Canada’s national bobsled team or cycling squad.

The choice, they said, was hers. ***

Boyle started dreaming about being an Olympic athlete in 2012 when she and her family made a trip to London, England to see the Summer Games. Loading up on every event they could, Boyle quietly decided what she wanted to make out of her life.

“That’s when I realized my goal in life was to make the Olympics,” Boyle recalled in an interview with The Journal.

When her mother entered her into Kingston’s RBC Training Ground event last March, the thought of creating an opportunity for herself didn’t pass through her mind. She didn’t even do specific training for it.

RBC Training Ground, a project initiated in 2016, frequently sets up in cities and towns across Ontario, providing fitness testing for over 3,000 athletes. All members of the public are able to register. Through numerous physical tests, they select 50 male and 50 female athletes for the finals in Toronto.

The initiative’s mission is to provide a funding program to uncover Olympic potential.

Among a handful of fellow varsity athletes, Boyle excelled in the lower body-powered events such as the mid-thigh pull and vertical jump. Among the other fitness tests, she had to test her endurance in the beep test and showcase her explosiveness in 10-, 15-, and 40-metre sprints.

Shortly after the event, Boyle received notice that she’d made the cut for the top 50 females across Ontario. This time, she made sure to train practically—she was shooting high.

“My goal was to win the Toronto [camp],” she said.

While Boyle prepared for the event—which took place a month later in June—almost none of the machinery used in testing was available to her in Kingston.

The challenges included unique versions

of stationary bikes and rowing machines; the running tests stayed the same but long jumping exercises were added.

In Toronto, Boyle was grouped with the event’s strongest female athletes—after the first few tests, she realized she was dueling with one of the women for the top spot.

“If I hadn’t had them in my group, I wouldn’t have tried as hard,” Boyle remembered. “I beat her in some events, but she beat me in the majority of them.”

At the end of the day-long session, the results came in: she finished in second place.

On her way home, she thought her chances of receiving funding or getting selected for a sport in the Olympics were shot.

A few weeks later, though, Canada’s national teams in bobsled, cycling, and rowing were filling up her inbox. ***

By mid-July, Boyle was in Calgary at Canada’s national bobsled facility, trying out for the national team.

With her mother watching in the stands, Boyle plunged her bobsled at 160 kilometres an hour for the first time in her life. To see how she’d adapt, the coaches didn’t provide her any instruction. In one of her first runs, she was paired with two-time Olympic gold medalist and 2014 Lou Marsh Award-winner Kaillie Humphries.

“It was crazy,” Boyle said. “The first run down I was so nervous […] They knew I hit the physical threshold requirements; they just wanted to see if I was a team player and how well I could learn.”

Bobsled Canada told her she’d find out if they wanted her to return later in the summer.

After returning to Toronto, Boyle travelled to Milton, Ont. to get tested at the

PHOTOS SUPPLIED BY JACKIE BOYLE

national velodrome facility for cycling.

Like bobsled, she went through the same process: the coach gave her a bike and told her to ride. Having never cycled in a velodrome—the track’s turns often angle upwards of 40 degrees—Boyle had to learn at 60 kilometres per hour.

In addition, Boyle had an hour-long interview with the national team’s head coach to gauge her experience in high-pressure situations.

Despite the steep learning curve, Boyle particularly excelled on the bike. A past hockey player, she said her lower body strength has always been her defining athletic feature, making her feel at home with the bobsled and cycling teams.

“When I got to the bobsled and cycling tryouts, everyone was jacked in their lower body and I was like, ‘Okay, this is where I belong.’”

Placing herself in two high-speed sports, Boyle knew she had to erase any of her doubts if she wanted to succeed.

“You can’t have any fear. When I was on the velodrome, on the track, it’s like 45 degrees and if you have fear and slow down, you’ll fall off the bike,” she said.

“Honestly, I just had to be like, ‘F— it,’ and go down the track.”

A few days after leaving Milton, on the morning of her birthday, she received a call from the cycling coach while in the car with her mother. Forcing her to stop the car, Boyle picked up the phone.

First, he said she’d made the team. Next, he explained she didn’t just make it, but he said she’d hit Canada’s World Cup standards—in running shoes, no less. The coach told her that she had world-class power and perfect mechanics for professional cycling.

But recently, Boyle committed to a three-week training camp in September

Boyle at the national training centre for bobsled in Calgary.

New head coach holds press conference, announces new offensive coordinator Matt Scace Sports Editor On Tuesday afternoon, Queen’s football got their first look at the Gaels’ new sideline boss.

Steve Snyder, named head coach of the program on Dec. 19, met with season ticket holders to answer questions at the University Club on Stuart Street—his first formal introduction since getting hired.

“It means a lot to come to a place like Queen’s,” Snyder said.

Tactically, Snyder hails from a comprehensive, offensively-minded background. Coming out of his playing career as quarterback for St. Francis Xavier (St. FX) in 2009, he moved to Germany for his first coaching job. He said that period of his life—in which he met his future wife—forced him to make immense strides in his coaching ability.

“I had to become a great communicator and use body language and teach the game,” Snyder said. “I felt like an ambassador for the game.”

When he returned to Canada in 2012 as a minor league coach, Snyder was the University of Windsor’s special teams and recruiting coordinator before transferring to St. FX as its offensive coordinator.

See Expressway on page 13

with the bobsled team. Her coach gave her two weeks after bobsled training camp to decide between the two sports. During that span, Boyle spent hours on the phone deliberating with her mom on what she should pick.

“I’d call my parents saying, ‘Okay, I’m choosing bobsled.’ And the next day saying, ‘No, I’m going to go cycling,’” she said.

There were some factors when it came to her decision. After bobsled training camp, the coaching staff said they wanted Boyle right away, meaning she’d have to defer her final semester of life sciences and move to Calgary. But more importantly, bobsled is known to be a sport that athletes move to after a career in another sport. From what Boyle was beginning to understand, choosing cycling would likely be best for her career.

“Based on talking to [the cycling team], it seems like I have a better chance of going to the Olympics,” she said. “I can always go to bobsled later.”

Having made her final decision, Boyle’s currently on campus training with the national cycling program—she spends 60 per cent of her time cycling and 40 per cent weight lifting. After she graduates in April, she’ll be commuting between Toronto and Milton to prepare her for World Cup competition. Despite all her success, she’s remaining humble in her approach.

“It kind of came out of nowhere—I’m just taking it with a grain of salt and seeing what comes of it,” Boyle said. “I know there are a lot of steps to go along the way, but my goal is to go to the Olympics, be that in 2020 or 2024.”

Sports

Friday, January 25, 2019

queensjournal.ca

RECRUITMENT

Queen’s signs top recruits for cross country, football

Ethan Martin and Head Coach Steve Snyder.

Miles Brackenbury to join men’s cross country team; Ethan Martin ‘a winner,’ according to coach Maggie Gowland Assistant Sports Editor Brackenbury commits to maintain consistency in coaching The men’s cross-country team’s roster will see no shortage of local talent next season.

On Monday afternoon, Kingston Collegiate Vocational Institute (KCVI) student Miles Brackenbury signed with the men’s cross country team for the coming 2018-19 season, joining three other Kingston runners—Matt Flood, Mitch Kirby, and Mitch De Lange—already with the program.

Brackenbury, 17, has previously trained with Queen’s coaches Steve Boyd and Brant Stachel at local running club, Physi-Kult, and will recognize familiar faces in his new training environment. Stachel, the assistant coach for the team, has coached Brackenbury since he was in the ninth grade.

In a phone interview with The Journal, Stachel mentioned he has a personal relationship with Brackenbury, having coached him before he was recruited.

Brackenbury’s trained with both Boyd, cross country’s head coach, and Boyd’s wife, who taught at Brackenbury’s elementary school. Boyd’s wife was the young runner’s coach before he began at KCVI, and Stachel became his coach when he transitioned into high school.

“Now he’s going to be with [Boyd] and I at university, which is pretty cool,” Stachel said.

In the 2017-18 high school cross country season, Brackenbury ran his personal best in 6,100 meters with a time of 19:09.5 at the EOSSAA regional championships. He ran an average pace of 03:08.4 per kilometre—a speed that’d keep him on pace with Queen’s existing roster in their usual eight to 10 kilometre races.

Despite his youth, Brackenbury’s accomplishments include ranking third in the country for the under-18 steeplechase and being a seven-time EOSSAA champion

in track and field.

With one more track and field season remaining before joining the Gaels, Brackenbury has a shot at a gold medal for KCVI at the OFSAA Championships in June. At Queen’s Brackenbury will enroll in Concurrent-Education, anticipating a five-year stay with the cross country program.

Stachel expects Brackenbury to step in as a scorer for the team—in the OUA and U Sports Championships, a team’s first five runners make up their score.

This past season, the men’s cross-country team was nationally-ranked eighth entering the OUA Championships before taking everyone by surprise and coming away with a silver medal. The team’s second-place finish knocked the defending U Sports champions Guelph into third.

At the U Sports Championships, the men produced a fifth-place finish, matching their performance at the event the season prior.

“I think we’re still in a really good hunt for the OUA podium again,” Stachel said of how Brackenbury can factor in to the Gaels’ success. “We show a really good track record of developing local kids.”

The local talent on the women’s team is also notable, including U Sports Rookie of the Year, Brogan MacDougall.

Both Brogan and her older sister, Branna—last year’s OUA Champion and this year’s second-place finisher—are from Kingston. The sisters trained with Boyd before attending Queen’s.

For Stachel, the cross country program’s track record of developing young local talent will hopefully be indicative of Brackenbury’s career at Queen’s.

“We think we can continue that trend [of developing homegrown runners], and hopefully, by second year, [Brackenbury’s] somebody who, like Flood and [Kirby], could go top-10, top-14 at the OUA level.”

Martin signs with Queen’s, to switch from quarterback to defensive end

Steve Snyder’s had his eye on Ethan Martin since 1999.

Hailing from London, Ont., Martin—a highly coveted football recruit—officially committed to Queen’s for the coming 2019-20 season on Tuesday. His signing marks Snyder’s fifth since being hired as the football team’s head coach in December.

A London native himself, Snyder has deep ties with the Martin family. In ninth

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MATT SCACE

grade, Martin’s father, Dave, was Snyder’s coach as a member of H.B. Beale Secondary School’s basketball team.

At a press conference unveiling Martin’s commitment earlier this week, Snyder reminisced seeing his newest recruit develop into one of the province’s top high school football players—and right in his hometown, no less.

“I’ve watched Ethan come up since he was just a young kid,” Snyder said of Martin’s journey to committing to Queen’s.

Spending his high school career playing quarterback at London South Collegiate Institute, Martin’s been a member of Team Canada’s junior national team and the Team Ontario Canada Cup team, along with being dubbed a top-100 recruit by CanadaFootballChat. Last February, he was a SPECTRA award winner, given to two London-based high school graduates for their exceptional records as student athletes.

He’s also a three-time Bob Gooder Player of the Year, awarded to London’s most valuable high school football player—the only player to have ever won the award so many times.

For Snyder, looking for talent in his hometown was a no-brainer. He said the city produces high quality athletes, many of whom ultimately have successful U Sports careers.

“Ethan’s a winner,” Snyder said. “He’s won a number of championships, all the way down from being a young kid, right up through his high school program.”

“We’re excited to have him. He brings an incredible work ethic, a high football IQ, and a great leadership quality to our program.”

Martin, who will be entering the general science program at Queen’s, has his sights set on a pro football career. Although he has historically played quarterback, he’ll play free safety for the Gaels next season.

“Ethan’s got a really unique skill set—he has the ability to play a number of positions,” Snyder said. “But you’ve got to look at his true potential, and where he might be able to pursue pro football and have the most immediate impact on our program.”

“As you start to get to [the U Sports level], the coverage starts to get a little more complex and the speed of the game [will be] an adjustment, but you’re talking about a really fast athlete that plays really fast and is truly smart.”

American and Canadian universities have pursued Martin, including Harvard and Yale, for upwards of two years. And while he’s always been interested in

• 13

‘Expressway for success’ Continued from page 12 In 2017, he returned to his hometown of London, Ont., as the offensive coordinator for the Western Mustang’s eventual Vanier Cup-winning team. A year later, the team lost to Laval in the national championship game.

Shortly after sending his application to Queen’s national head coaching search, Athletics Executive Director Leslie Dal Cin called him to offer him the job.

“When Leslie gave me a call, my heart sunk,” Snyder said. “It was just, okay, this is what life’s about. It was all meant to be.”

In his first weeks as head coach, Snyder has brought in four recruits—some of whom have deep ties to him. At Thursday’s luncheon, he also introduced the team’s new offensive coordinator, Tom Flaxman, who served as McMaster’s offensive coordinator and interim head coach in 2018-19.

With his coaching staff, Snyder said he’s prepared to bring a new culture to Queen’s football program.

“My philosophy […] is about culture,” Snyder said. “The real thing we want to find for our program is reliability. We have to start to communicate more so we know. If everyone in our program knows that we’re doing that, then we’re going to start to work together at a higher level.”

In addition, Snyder said he’s forcing the entire team to fight for their positions, regardless of what they’ve played in previous years under past coaching staffs.

“When a new head football coach comes in, we’ve got to wipe the slate clean for athletes and re-open competition,” Snyder said. “We’re opening competition across the board, certainly including quarterback.”

His utmost concern is making sure his players are able to realize their value as athletes and students.

“The student athletes gotta know that they’re getting more out of this,” he said.

“They’re not an X or an O on a sheet of paper.

They’re a human being that’s going to be put on an expressway for success as soon as they leave this program.”

Queen’s, Snyder’s move to the school is what finalized his decision.

“We’ve always kind of joked around about this, and I never wanted to pressure Ethan in the recruiting process because of how much respect I have for his family,” Snyder said.

Assistant Head Coach and Defensive Coordinator Ryan Bechmanis said Martin will add a great deal of athleticism to the Gaels’ defense—which “was a focus” in this year’s recruiting class.

“Another young guy to come in and compete with the young guys that we have already [will] hopefully make us a better defensive unit sooner rather than later,” Bechmanis said.

As the Gaels’ roster begins to take shape this off-season, Snyder and his coaching staff still have their eyes on a number of recruits who could fill potential holes on their team—one of which being the quarterback position with the recent departure of fifth-year starter Nate Hobbs.

When Martin was asked about switching from quarterback to the defensive side of the ball, he said he initially thought being quarterback was his passion. But if pro football is the path he wants to pursue, he understands playing defense will grant him a better shot.

Regarding Queen’s, Martin said he’s excited to be part of the greater tradition the school offers its athletes and students.

“Growing up, it was always Queen’s and Western in the Yates cup. [I’d go] to those games and watch,” he said. “Now, to be a part of it, it’s going to be special.”

14 • queensjournal.ca

Friday, January 25, 2019

Lifestyle OBITUARY

Losing a best friend at 21 Remembering Izy Guerrico Amanda Collins Contributor On Nov. 15, 2018, I lost one of my best friends, with whom I had one of the strongest relationships I’ll ever come to know.

I met Izy Guerrico in grade nine orchestra. Our mutual failures in music theory brought us together, and our relationship was strengthened by the locker we shared for two years and the lunches we ate under the stairs each day. We met four other girls by those stairs, and the six of us grew such a strong bond that we were unintentionally considered “The Under The Stairs (UTS) Girls” by fellow classmates—a title that still sticks with us today, nearly a decade later.

We spent every waking moment together. We were all equally in love and comfortable with one another, and the six of us shared secrets of any relationship which passed through our group.

We accompanied each other through long walks, shaking cries, and roaring laughs. We also got the privilege to travel the world together, from Washington D.C. and Boston to Eastern Europe.

Eve r y u n fo rg e t t a b l e , coming-of-age moment was experienced together as a collective. The thought of going through life without any one of us never crossed our minds.

Izy was the definition of spunk and light. Her laugh was rooted in her belly and lived in her entire body. She crossed her legs when she sat in a way I’d never seen another person do. She ate anything the rest of us didn’t like and had no issues welcoming change into her life.

Always ahead of the fashion curve, Izy’s clothing was iconic.

Her ever-changing hair colours and styles kept everyone in constant wonder of what would come next, knowing she’d never look the same for long.

She always had the loudest opinion in the room while simultaneously keeping the most open mind. She was the first to introduce new ideas to our friend group—the first to get piercings and tattoos, to discover new music, or to volunteer when asked to do anything. She was fiercely protective of the people she loved.

Izy never let anyone fall behind, whether you were her best friend or a perfect stranger.

Having spent so much time with her, Izy shaped me and my friends’ lives in ways I think we’ll never fully realize. Even still, I find myself doing small things that I only now remember were things she first taught me, like straightening my hair forwards for volume or dipping pickles in Dijon mustard.

This year was supposed to be the year the six of us graduated together—we’d share our graduation photos just like we did in high school four years ago. Instead, it’s the year we attended our best friend’s funeral.

We had to comprehend how we could possibly move forward Izy Guerrico. from a loss that seems so backwards. she left as.

It remains a harsh reminder Valuing the important and every day when Izy isn’t healthy relationships in your peppering our group chat with life is often overlooked in her off-side comments, giving favour of day-to-day her insightful opinions, or responsibilities, like going to simply reminding us that she class or finishing an assignment. loves us.

You truly never know how I want to tell this story simply much you value the people to say Izy’s name and to remind in your life until they aren’t everyone, whether you knew her there to text a funny photo to or not, of the amazing person at 2 a.m. or to share a new Netflix

POP CULTURE

SUPPLIED BY AMANDA COLLINS

series with.

The impact Izy leaves is strong enough to uphold her remembrance on its own, but Izy deserves to rest even stronger than she lived. I hope this is only the beginning of a long life of tributes to the fiercest, strongest, and most impactful woman I’ll ever be so privileged to call my best friend.

The Good Place’s Jameela Jamil is the body-positive celebrity we need Jamil addresses disordered eating and privilege on social media Tegwyn Hughes Copy Editor Jameela Jamil is about to be your new favourite badass.

Joining the ranks of empowering female celebrities like Serena Williams, Chrissy Teigen, and Lorde, Jamil is the unfiltered, unedited, and unapologetic media presence the world needs right now. She’s the rare celebrity who challenges social expectations for women in the public eye both in real life and online.

Not only does Jamil bless our screens as philanthropist and fashionista Tahani on NBC’s The Good Place, she’s also popular on Instagram for her #IWeigh campaign. The social media movement asks participants to share photos of themselves surrounded by a list of personal attributes they care about more than “the flesh on [their] bones.”

Instead of thinking of weight as a number on a scale, Jamil’s movement asks us to value the

positive characteristics they hold, like strength, honesty, accomplishments, friendships, and self-love.

In an interview with Buzzfeed this past October, Jamil explained the #IWeigh campaign stemmed from her own struggles with body image and disordered eating. “[W]eighing is not an indication of health,” she said. “It shouldn’t be part of our narrative.”

Jamil also uses social media to address sponsored celebrity weight-loss products which influential women often peddle on their platforms, especially Instagram. Last November, Jamil made headlines after criticizing Cardi B for accepting a detox tea brand deal and endorsing the product in online videos.

The actor took to Twitter, telling her followers, “[Y]ou need fiber! Not something that honestly just makes you have diarrhea the day you take it.” In additional tweets, she called out female celebrities for having diet plans and personal trainers but attributing their weight loss to these sponsored tea products.

J a m i l explained that she used

Jameela Jamil.

controversial weight-loss products as a teen and suffered from the results. She tweeted, “I was the teenager who [...] spent all her money on these miracle cures and laxatives and tips from celebrities [...] I have had digestion and metabolism problems for life.”

The thing that makes Jamil all the more likeable is she stays true to the advice she s h a re s .

Her photos are unedited, her posts uplifting, and her platform is used to highlight lesser-known causes and activists.

Despite the actor’s authenticity, as a conventionally attractive woman herself, she’s been criticized for speaking out against body-shaming and societal beauty expectations.

Critics seem to believe women at the forefront of the body positivity movement should better represent the disadvantaged community they defend.

On Twitter, Jamil responded to these criticisms by saying, “Fat phobia and ableism leads those with power to willfully ignore the voices of the most important activists. Because of my privilege, they are not currently ignoring me.

I take it as my duty to use that privilege to push things forward.”

While Jamil’s explanation is valid, her actions shouldn’t have to be justified. It’s admirable that Jamil is using her privilege

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JOSH GRANOVSKY

and fame to further the causes that benefit everyone.

That’s why #IWeigh is so important. The campaign’s Instagram account has over 300,000 followers, allowing the people who submit their photos to reach a much wider group than they would otherwise. Jamil rarely posts photos of herself there. Instead, people with unique sizes, shapes, and skin colours greet you when you click through the page.

It’s important for our generation to have fiercely outspoken female role models in Hollywood and over social media. Jamil’s refusal to back down when it comes to speaking about what she believes won’t only inspire others to reject gender expectations, but also has the capacity to affect change. She may only be one voice, but Jamil’s shown that when you use your privilege against the patriarchal system, people listen.

Recently, Jamil shared that she wore jeans under her dress at the 2019 Golden Globes. She paid for the dress—and, I’m guessing, the jeans—out of pocket, did her own makeup, and wore jeans because she knew it’d be cold.

If that isn’t the most relatable thing a celebrity’s ever done, I don’t know what is.

Lifestyle

Friday, January 25, 2019

queensjournal.ca

• 15

LIFE HACKS

A guide to meal prepping Tips to plan your food in advance Make a plan

Meal prepping can save you trips home and food costs.

Dana Meilach Staff Writer Despite its reputation as a food strategy for gym aficionados and mothers of four, meal prepping—making portable meals to eat throughout the week—is an inexpensive and healthy choice that makes your life easier.

Whether you are trying to save some money, want to eat healthier, or are just sick of CoGro bagels, here are some tips to get you started.

Do what works for your schedule

You don’t need to plan and prepare every single meal for a week if that doesn’t suit

PHOTO BY CHRIS YAO

your lifestyle.

If you’re going to be on campus during the day, plan lunches ahead of time. If you have some night classes, pack dinner so you don’t have to run home in the middle of the day to avoid inevitably falling asleep and missing your class.

If you’re always hungry in the mornings but never have time to eat before class, try making overnight oats or mini frittatas to throw in your bag and eat during class. You can also plan times to eat out, especially if that’s what you like to do with your friends.

If you can only sit in Stauffer for three hours while mindlessly snacking, plan ahead and bring some snacks.

Planning what you’re going to make, how many servings you’re making, and when you’ll eat each dish is integral to meal prepping. To avoid losing time being overwhelmed in Metro, this should be done before you even step into the grocery store.

Knowing exactly how much you need to buy is a great way to ensure you use everything you purchase and avoid wasting food.

Depending on your goals, looking at grocery store flyers for deals and coupons may be a great way to decide what you’ll base your meals around. Flipp, for example, is an app that lets you browse flyers in your area to see what will be on sale the coming week.

Another benefit of planning is you can actually be aware of the nutrients you’re putting in your body. By organizing ahead of time, you can measure the macronutrients

in your food to ensure you’re getting enough protein or meeting your caloric requirements for the day.

Buy the gear

You’ll need containers to hold the food you prepare—and a bag to hold those containers. I encourage Tupperware over plastic bags, as it’ll ultimately save you money and create less waste. Dollarama and Dollartree sell BPA-free containers in a variety of sizes. You can also buy sets of 16 Rubbermaid Tupperwares from Walmart for about $10.

To read the rest, go to queensjournal.ca/ lifestyle

CULTURAL COMMENTARY

Netflix’s Sex Education earns its title Choreographing intimacy ushers in a new age onscreen Meredith Wilson-Smith Editorials Editor Sex scenes in movies and TV have long mystified and fascinated audiences.

Sometimes, it’s hard to believe intimate scenes are professional transactions between actors and, typically, not that sexy to make. It gets even more complicated when actors date their onscreen lovers in real life—like The Notebook’s Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling, or High School Musical’s Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens.

This fascination can take a more sinister tone in light of the #MeToo movement, which swept the entertainment industry to reveal abuses of power. Influential men have long taken advantage of their career-breaking control over the industry’s more vulnerable professionals.

In a post-Harvey Weinstein era, women have advocated for improved safety standards in settings that demand long hours, high emotions, and close contact with co-workers.

That’s why the employment of an intimacy coordinator for Netflix’s latest hit, Sex Education, is refreshing and meaningful.

The series, a British dramedy starring Asa Butterfield and Gillian Anderson, follows Otis, a shy high school virgin living with his mother, who works as a sex therapist.

Otis partners with his sexually experienced classmate to set up his own sex therapy clinic at school, dealing with his peers’ most intimate problems.

The show’s been met with instant acclaim—if a friend says they’re binging something new on Netflix, odds are it’s Sex Education. Its widespread popularity makes the show’s depiction of adolescent sex through the use of intimacy coordinators particularly important.

Intimacy coordinators work to make public depictions of sex more comfortable for everybody. They’re similar to stunt experts who train actors to do their own tricks—making on-screen action more realistic and preventing harm.

The coordinators provide a step-by-step approach to sex scenes through choreography and timing. They allow actors to rehearse fully clothed and ensure their motions look real; they also set boundaries, giving a way for actors to keep their personal feelings out of the equation.

If an actor feels uncomfortable with a certain depiction of intimacy, they can express their concerns to the coordinator without fear of retribution from anyone else in the production.

Intimacy coordinators aren’t anything new. The position was first introduced in 2004 by Tonia Sina and Alicia Rodis, who founded Intimacy Directors International.

Since its inception, the company’s spawned a movement with coordinators working on shows like The Deuce, Crashing and Deadwood. In October, HBO announced that all of its future productions would employ intimacy coordinators on set.

When consent matters so much in daily life, it’s important to represent it in the institutions that guide young people’s perceptions of relationships. Actors are professionals. Whether depicting the removal of a belt or an explicit instance of sex, they deserve to feel in control of their bodies and surroundings.

Despite a wave of young people mobilizing to speak out for equality, our social climate remains weighted with setbacks. From September’s Brett Kavanaugh hearing to an American president claiming he can touch the female form however he wants, it can be difficult for women to believe their bodies and experiences will be respected.

That’s why even the smallest actions, like adding one person to a TV set, can make a difference.

Sex Education used intimacy coordinators on set.

In 2019, sex is a reality onscreen, just like in real life. It’s critical to represent it in a way that sets a positive example without holding adolescents to unrealistic standards.

Intimacy coordinators on sets worldwide continue to create change for the better.

They depict fumbling and vulnerable

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ALLY MASTANTUONO

moments in a respectful manner, keep professionals safe, and promote equitable power dynamics.

As actors continue to benefit from this training, intimacy coordinators bring a new meaning to sex education.

Lifestyle

16 •queensjournal.ca

Friday, January 25, 2019

POSTSCRIPT

North America in the eyes of an exchange student A Japanese student at Queen’s documents travelling through Canada and the U.S.

PHOTOS BY HINANO KOBAYASHI

To read the rest of this postscript, visit queensjournal.ca/lifestyle