The Queen's Journal, Volume 144, Issue 6

the

Queen’s University

journal

Vol. 144, Issue 6

F r i day , S e p t e m b e r 2 3 , 2 0 1 6

since

1873

Richardson Stadium

opened with the Gaels recording a 27-13 loss to the Western Mustangs.

A father and son history of Richardson page 11

If you build it, will they care? page 14

PHOTO BY GHAZAL BARADARI-GHIAMI

Whistle-blower Morteza Shirkhanzadeh fired

Curtains raised on new musical theatre program Joint program between Queen’s and St. Lawrence College announced

Draft report by the Secretariat on Responsible Conduct of Research received prior to termination Morgan Dodson Assistant News Editor This article originally appeared online on September 20, 2016.

After 27 years of teaching, an 11-year case and hundreds of letters exchanged with Queen’s administration, Professor Morteza Shirkhanzadeh received his final letter from the University administration on Monday announcing his termination.

For Shirkhanzadeh, who was the subject

Maureen O’Reilly Assistant News Editor

On Aug. 11, Professor Shirkhanzadeh was suspended and warned of further discipline.

He was fired on Sept. 19

of a heated case involving allegations of research misconduct, academic freedom and institutional non-compliance, the firing had been coming for a long time.

Speaking to The Journal immediately after the termination, Queen’s Communications wrote via email that “Queen’s is party to a collective See Queen’s on page 4

Every day, music echoes through the halls of the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts. On Thursday though, voices were raised to celebrate a new, multi-institutional program.

Queen’s and St. Lawrence College (SLC) announced on Sept. 22 that the two institutions have collaborated to create a brand new joint Bachelor of Music Theatre program.

Various members of SLC and Queen’s staff spoke at the public announcement for the impending program, including Principal Daniel Woolf and SLC President Glenn Vollebregt.

Both representatives expressed their excitement about the collaboration.

According to Vollebregt, the new program “combines practical hands-on experience of [SLC’s] music theatre

INSIDE THIS ISSUE FEATURES

EDITORIALS

page 5

In conversation with Rector Cam Yung

Online:

queensjournal.ca

@queensjournal

PHOTO BY JENNIFER WILLIAMS

See Program on page 4

I didn’t get into sports to meet guys

ARTS

“I know not seems”: is Shakespeare overrated ?

LIFESTYLE

POSTSCRIPT

page 6

page 8

page 15

page 19

facebook.com/queensjournal

instagram.com/queensjournal

qjlongform.com

Getting my toes wet at a sensual spa

Dispelling the myths of Wiccan Magick

2 •queensjournal.ca

News

Friday, September 23, 2016

Aboriginal task force campaigns for Indigenous pride on Queen’s campus Truth and Reconciliation Commission set dates for five open consultation discussions Blake Canning Assistant News Editor Mid-morning on Sept. 22, Marlene Brant Castellano answered a phone call from The Journal and began the difficult process of discussing Indigenous affairs in the education sphere, a topic that has often been kept from the public spotlight.

“There are many Indigenous students on campus who have been reluctant to identify themselves because they feel they might be the object of negative stereotyping,” she said.

The issue on campus has lead the Queen’s University Truth and Reconciliation Commission to announce on Sept. 20 five open consultation sessions to take place in the coming months. The sessions will provide a forum for community discussion and feedback on the Aboriginal communities at Queen’s.

Castellano, the co-chair of the Elder and Aboriginal Council of Queen’s, was named as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2005 and has been campaigning for a dialogue between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples since her career began in 1973.

“What we’ve been working on over the past five years is just raising the level of participation and recognition and responsiveness across the University,” she said.

This most recent project will be co-chaired by colleague and Queen’s professor, Mark Green. She explained that, recently, they had observed “great advances” in the recognition and response of Aboriginal students by the University.

“In the past five years, Queen’s has really incorporated in its strategic planning the fact that they want to do more on Indigenous education,” she explained.

Joining Castellano and Green on the newly commissioned task force is student representative Lauren Winkler, who will be stepping in to the presidential position of the Queen’s Native Student’s Association.

When speaking with The Journal, Winkler was in agreement with Castellano on the critical issues surrounding Indigenous affairs on-campus, and a need for these kinds of open discussions.

“What I’m hoping, mainly, is that the

task force can make some changes to really enhance our presentation at Queen’s. I’m hoping that students will feel a lot safer, and feel like [they’re in] a place where they can openly self-identify as an Aboriginal student,” she said.

Winkler has seen the front lines of hurtful stereotypes and assumptions pointed at self-identified Indigenous students, which she says number at around 350 at Queen’s.

“I know that the staff at Four Directions [Aboriginal Centre] believe that number is a lot higher,” she admitted regretfully. Harmful stereotyping even, at times, extends to the academic sphere.

“I hear it in my classes, there’s still a lot of stereotypes that are still being perpetuated, even in our generation,” she said. She recited back a list of hurtful descriptions fluidly, seemingly memorized after so many repetitions.

“I hear these things all the time,” she responded. “Usually I self-identify in my classes, but that makes me feel unsafe.”

While the reality of Indigenous relations has historically been fraught with strife, Winkler has seen Queen’s evolve through

Campus catch-up

her four years, and believes that our generation is on the right track.

“Our age is the age of positive change,” she said. With so many clubs working on social issues and social advocacy at Queen’s, Winkler is optimistic about the outcome of the consultations.

“I feel like if people just understood, and took the time to learn a bit more, then we have the power to strengthen that relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people,” she said.

Looking forward to the next few weeks, Winkler hopes primarily that more Indigenous students will come out and have their voices heard.

“I think if we have a strong student voice, administration will be more likely to listen.

And I think they will listen,” she insisted.

The first open discussion will take place on September 26 from 2:30 – 3:30 p.m. in the McLaughlin room of the JDUC. Individuals or groups who wish to participate in one or more of these sessions are asked to email trctaskforce@queensu.ca.

VIA WIKIPEDIA

The Journal debriefs on events in the last few weeks across Canadian campuses Morgan Dodson Assistant News Editor Ryerson: Vegan burger that’s not actually vegan It was revealed this week by The Eyeopener, Ryerson’s student paper, that The Ram in the Rye, a Ryerson campus pub, had been serving a vegan quinoa burger that wasn’t actually 100 per cent vegan.

The burger, included on the menu in an attempt to accommodate more students, is marked as vegan. However, no buns produced in their bakery are guaranteed to be dairy or egg free.

The patty itself is vegan, and the default buns can be substituted for a gluten free option.

The Ram staff told The Eyeopener that “the onus falls on the customer to specify their dietary needs, despite misleading labeling”.

However according to the Foods for Special Dietary Use section of the Canadian Food and Drug Regulations Act “mislabeling packages or falsely advertising a product for dietary use is strictly prohibited”.

It also states that “restaurants will be held liable even if the fault falls on the supplier,” according to The Eyeopener.

Manager of the Ram, Alex Dabideen, said that the mistake will be corrected as soon as possible.

UBC: $51.5 million investment by provincial and federal governments On Sept. 19, Navdeep Bains, Canadian Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, and Andrew Wilkinson, BC’s Minister of Advance Education, announced a $51.5 million investment in the University of British Columbia.

The investment will be put towards three major projects on UBC’s Vancouver campus. $43.3 million of the investment will be for the renewal and reconstruction of the Undergraduate Life Sciences Teaching Labs located at the Biological Sciences Complex.

UBC has offered to contribute an addition $35.6 million to this project. $4.7 million from the investment and an additional $6.7 million from UBC and other donors will be put towards the new Chan Gunn Pavilion, also known as the Sports Medicine Centre. $2.5 million will go towards the Centre of Excellence for Simulation Education and Innovation at the Vancouver General Hospital.

The goal is to expand and enhance the centre in hopes of advancement in biomedical engineering.

UBC: Rape kits to become available on campus for students

A month from now UBC Hospital will begin to offer rape kits seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

UBC will be the first university in British Colombia to offer kits to students on-campus, rather than having to make the 20-to-30-minute drive to the Vancouver General Hospital.

Rape kits allow for the collection of evidence of sexual assault. They consist of tools, swabs and storage bags. Vice reported that the evidence collected using these kits is crucial for criminal cases in which the accused says they don’t know the complainant, and DNA evidence can disprove that defense.

Vice also noted that access to rape kits in British Columbia is limited. The announcement comes hard on the heels of the Sept. 12 University Sexual Assault Panel’s report.

The Ubyssey campus newspaper noted that the report intends to inform discussion around the drafting of a campus sexual assault policy and to make wide recommendations on policy and practice.

brought Max in three years ago, and it quickly turned into a daily occurrence.

“Not only is having Max in the office helpful for his owner, but he also provides some loving support for the other administrators in the office,” the Gazette reported.

Max even has his own email address where students can request to meet with him.

He receives plenty of treats and attention on a day to day basis and even gets an annual birthday party from the office every year.

“It’s a dog’s life for Max at Western,” wrote the Gazette.

Western’s Faculty of Law staff directory now includes the name of 5-year-old golden retriever Max Meingarten, accompanied by his professional headshot.

“His duties include eating leftovers, going for walks and greeting people at the door,” the Western Gazette reported.

The IT administrator for the faculty

The report that Shikhanzadeh received from SRCR was only a draft report, as the investigators are awaiting the comments of both the institution and Dr. Shirkhanzadeh before finalizing it.

Western: Faculty of Law to appoint “Canine Ambassador”

CORRECTIONS “Whistle-blower Morteza Shirkhanzadeh fired,” first published online Sept. 20 2016

The Journal regrets the error.

News

Friday, September 23, 2016

Take Back the Night 2016

For the full photo story, see queensjournal.ca Julia Balakrishnan and Jessica Gibson

When I told that to someone else tonight, they were appalled. Because we know this happens.

— Rebecca Benson

”

“Look at my balloon! There’s a light in it. ” — Aria, 4-years-old

You know the feeling when your heart is kind of full? That’s “ what it is. You feel safe, automatically. You feel okay to be here …

We’re getting there. But we haven’t got there. Especially with the Indigenous community with regard to the missing women and the LGBTQ community, there’s a long way to go.

— Zelia Bukhari, ArtSci ’18

”

•3

CRIME

Campus break-and-enters produce bizarre thefts Multiple cases of B&E in September cause confusion among staff members Blake Canning Assistant News Editor

a statistic that I’ve learned recently. Nobody “hasThere’s ever been expelled from Queen’s for sexual assault.

queensjournal.ca

Household burglary in the University District is regrettably commonplace, but in the first month of the fall term, it seems thieves have shifted their focus from students to professors.

Since Sept. 2, Campus Security has responded to six reports of breaking and entering at buildings on campus.

According to David Patterson, the Director of Campus Security and Emergency Services, two reports were filed in Mac-Corry offices, two in the JDUC, one at Richardson Stadium and one at the International Learning Centre.

While all the reports were filed with the Kingston Police (KP), according to KP Media Relations Officer Steve Koopman, the victims of the incidents weren’t always informed immediately.

In the case of the first JDUC incident, a brick was hurled through the window of Oil Thigh designs and the cashbox stolen from inside during the early hours of the morning.

“The keyholder was unable to be reached,” Koopman said. “That’s quite common at two in the morning.”

In a separate campus break-in, an entire section of the Mac-Corry offices was ransacked and all the offices were rifled through on Saturday.

Members of the sociology department on the fourth floor of Mac-Corry were not informed that their offices had been broken into until nearly a week after the actual incident occurred.

Administrative assistant Wendy Schuler explained to The Journal that they weren’t notified that the office had been violated, as it occurred over the weekend when they were away.

“The girls came in to work and found that their door was open and things had been flipped over.”

“I was informed when I got to work on Tuesday, and apparently the incident occurred on Saturday,” she said, shaking her

head as she recounted the incident.

Schuler also noted that there was speculation among the department that a master key was taken from the offices.

Since they weren’t given a warning after the events, the offices could likely have been left vulnerable for five days straight.

According to Koopman, in the sociology department there was damage found around the door of the first office that was entered.

Found on the office floor was a screwdriver, several drill bits, and on the desk counter was a black leather case filled with screwdrivers and pliers. There was also some wood dust found on the tile floor.

For an operation that required so much equipment, very little was actually taken.

According to Schuler, “there [were] some odd things taken. Like a kettle, and eyeglasses. All the laptops in this room were strewn around, but none taken.”

It was later discovered that the head of the department had his laptop, containing lecture slides, stolen from his office.

There [were] some odd “things taken. Like a kettle,

and eyeglasses. All the laptops in this room were strewn around, but none taken.

”

— Wendy Schuler, sociology department

“Chairs were flipped over,” she said. “I honestly don’t know what they were after.”

Filing cabinets were also opened with stolen keys, and thoroughly rifled through.

Quick to be clear on the gravity of the situation, Schuler added that though that wing of Mac-Corry contained student information, those cases “were locked and they weren’t touched.”

The sociology department has since had their locks changed, although it is unclear whether the other B & E victims have followed suit.

News

4 •queensjournal.ca

Friday, September 23, 2016

Queen’s breached requirements, draft report finds Continued from front

agreement with the Queen’s University Faculty Association, the union that represents faculty members. This is a confidential personnel matter undertaken in accordance with the collective agreement.”

Leading up to Monday’s termination, Shirkhanzadeh had faced several suspensions without pay over the course of the last year. On Sept. 6, he was warned of the impending discipline by means of a letter from Deputy Provost Teri Shearer.

The letter addressed an insubordination investigation that was launched after Shirkhanzadeh declined a meeting with his unit head, Kevin Deluzio in August.

After being informed of the investigation, Shearer recapped in her letter, Shirkhanzadeh was invited to attend a meeting with the University’s legal counsel Andrew Zabrovsky to respond to allegations of insubordination by not attending the meeting with Deluzio. Alternately, he was able to submit a written response.

“You informed me by email on August 22, 2016 that you would not meet with Mr. Zabrovsky, nor would you provide a written statement,” Shearer stated in her email.

The Sept. 6 letter also contained an advisory on the impending discipline, with another potential time to meet and discuss it on Sept. 8.

Dan McKeown of Faculty Relations was to be present at the potential meeting, if Shirkhanzadeh accepted that option, and there was an option to bring a representation from QUFA. In lieu of attendance, Shirkhanzadeh responded to Shearer’s email on Sept 9.

“The head wrote to me on August 2 wanting an immediate discussion of the teaching improvement plan the very next day, August 3. His assumption that I was back at work was wrong: I was in the UK at that time,” Shirkhanzadeh wrote.

According to him, the head had previously dropped his need for a teaching plan in March, but abruptly requested one again on August 2.

A meeting about the teaching plan was then scheduled for August 8 — the same day that Shirkhanzadeh was set to return from the UK. “He wanted to discuss the teaching improvement plan on Monday without allowing me to have time to consult with [The Centre for Teaching and Learning]. This was very unreasonable,” Shirkhanzadeh wrote to Shearer.

As well, his response addressed concerns about the content of the meeting, including USAT scores he found to be unreliable, and the perceived retaliatory nature of the meeting itself.

“It was clear that my service contributions

were not recognized by the head and the dean for the purpose of workload assignment and I was being punished because of my activities related to research integrity,” Shirkhanzadeh said in his response.

On Sept. 16, Shirkhanzadeh advised The Journal that Monday would likely be the end of his career at Queen’s. Consistent with his expectation, Monday yielded a termination for the engineering professor.

The night before Shirkhanzadeh’s termination, he found a stack of papers in his mailbox. The papers were the first draft of a report from the Secretariat on Responsible Conduct of Research (SRCR), which provides support and advisement for the three federal granting agencies in Canada on maintaining researcher’s conduct in the academic world.

“I wrote a couple of times to SRCR in July and August and informed them that I had not received the report yet. They never replied,” Shirkhanzdeh wrote in an email to The Journal. The report, compiled for the SRCR by external investigators Martin Letendre and Larry Kostiuk, was charged with determining whether Queen’s properly investigated Shirkhanzadeh’s original allegations of research misconduct.

It was dated August 18 — exactly one month prior. According to information provided to The Journal by Shirkhanzadeh,

the main findings of the drafted report were that: "The institution did not meet the Tri-agency Framework's requirements when investigating the Complainant's allegations."

"The institution's breaches of the Tri-agency framework had a significant impact on the investigation process."

The Secretariat was contacted by The Journal subsequent to Shirkhanzadeh sharing the report’s contents. “Unfortunately, the Secretariat cannot comment on active files,” their Media Relations team wrote via email in response.

SRCR later emailed The Journal to clarify, that Dr. Shirkhanzadeh wrote to the SRCR on June 22, 2016, inquiring into the status of the draft report, with the SRCR responding on June 28, 2016, that the investigation was still in progress and that he could expect to receive a copy of the draft report around the end of July.

On Aug. 19, 2016, the Secretariat sent a copy of the confidential draft report to Prof.

Shirkhanzadeh, inviting him to provide his comments on it by Sept. 30, 2016.

The Secretariat also informed Prof.

Shirkhanzadeh that his comments on the draft report would be forwarded to the external investigators for their consideration in preparing their final report.

Don't Be Late Nominate!!

Student performers at the announcement on Thursday.

PHOTO BY JENNIFER WILLIAMS

Program kicks off fall 2017 Continued from front

program with the highly regarded theoretical education of the Dan School of Drama and Music at Queen’s.”

Vollebregt also noted in his speech that the program will admit 20 students per year, beginning in September 2017.

According to Principal Woolf, the program will be four years long, with the first two years occurring on SLC’s Brockville campus and the final two located at Queen’s.

Principal Woolf ended his speech with high hopes for not only Queen’s and SLC, but the entire City of Kingston.

“We’re showing the rest of the country that Kingston is well on its way to becoming the most premier arts destination and a valuable source of talent,” said Woolf.

The program will provide a pathway for current music theatre students at SLC to receive two years of credit at Queen’s towards this new degree.

This is the third joint diploma and degree program being offered between Queen’s and SLC, after the Biotechnology program was unveiled in January 2016 and the Digital Music and Bachelor of Music program was announced in January 2014.

Craig Walker, Director of Queen’s Dan School of Drama and Music, relayed his own experience with musical theatre in high school during his speech.

According to Walker, the new program “creates an opportunity for those who have

discovered this galvanizing experience as teenagers,” and deepen it further through SLC’s intensive practical program and the opportunity at Queen’s for broader academic context.

Several Queen’s students performed at the unveiling of the program, including a rendition of ‘Corner of the Sky’ from the musical Pippin, adapted by fourth year Queen’s drama and music student Brandon Swann.

In an interview with The Journal, Swan said that he sees the program as unique. “It’s something that’s not offered anywhere else.”

Recent Queen’s music graduate Ryan Cowl, ConEd ’16, shared that he was pleased to see Queen’s prioritizing the liberal arts in recent years.

“Musical theatre has been here as a club before, but this opens it up to be taken more seriously,” he said.

Jadelyn Beukeboom, a fourth-year Queen’s music major, performed ‘Climb Every Mountain’ from The Sound of Music.

Beukeboom also expressed her joy that arts programs and the students within them are finally “being heard” on campus.

President Vollebregt reaffirmed this sentiment in his speech.

“As much as today is an important partnership announcement and agreement between SLC and Queen’s, it’s really not about the institutions,” Vollebregt said. “It’s about the students. It’s about providing them with a unique learning experience.”

Special Recognition for Staff Award Nominations

This award recognizes staff members who consistently provide outstanding contributions during their workday, directly or indirectly, to the learning and working environment at Queen's University at a level significantly beyond what is usually expected (e.g. improving the workplace efficiency, quality of worklife, customer service, problem-solving, etc.)

Information and nomination forms are available from: http://queensu.ca/humanresources/poli cies/queens-special-recognition-staffawards Deadline: October 14, 2016

Friday, September 23, 2016

queensjournal.ca

•5

STUDENT LEADERSHIP

And a Rector does what?

FEATURES

Placing Cam Yung in the historical context of a unique student position Mikayla Wronko Features Editor When Cam Yung talks about policy, he uses his hands.

“Policy, in my opinion, is meta,” the Rector said, excitedly pantomiming the scope of his topic.

“We may not see the [policy] makes a difference right away but in 5, 10, 15, 20 years from now, it may be one of the greatest changes.”

Yung, ArtSci ’16, is only 23 years old and unlike most students, he has the ear of Queen’s administration. On a first name basis with Principal Woolf and new Provost Benoit-Antoine Bacon — who he earnestly describes as a genuine leader — part of Yung’s job is to have personable relationships with administration members who only appear to other students in press releases.

After winning a crowded election this January, the fifth year Biology major took the Rector’s office in May. He’s been in love with his position ever since, the excitable Yung said, beaming.

“I love leaving my door open because you just get random people, whether it’s my friends or someone who has seen me speak or seen me on campus coming in and saying that I seem familiar.”

“Having the opportunity to listen to stories, I can’t tell you how much I love listening to other experiences.”

It seems as if Yung is everywhere, from serving on the Board of Trustees to serving coffee at Cogro. He also sits on AMS Assembly and SGPS Council, weighs in on different Senate committees — the Senate Committee on Non-Academic Misconduct and Academic Procedures Committee for example — and provides a confidential ear for concerned students.

When given the chance, Yung raves about the student leadership that he’s following in the footsteps of.

Counting with his hands, he quickly name dropped past Rectors, Mike Young and Nick Francis, and past AMS executives, Eril Berkok and TK Pritchard, as his student leader heroes.

“I think what Nick and Mike have done has been absolutely exceptional work”, Yung said enthusiastically.

While Yung holds past student leaders above himself, as Rector he’s the highest ranking student leader in the entire school. In the grand scheme of things, it’s the third officer of the University, right after the titles of Chancellor and Principal.

The Rector tradition is Scottish, adopted from the University of Edinburgh — Queen’s sister school. What the term Rector entails varies with different universities around the world — including an unusual Rector, NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, who holds the position at the University of Glasgow.

Queen’s is the only Canadian university to have a student serving in the role.

It was 1969 when the last non-student Rector at Queen’s, Conservative Senator Grattan O’Leary, was forced out of the position under student pressure for being out of touch with student needs. Since there was no impeachment process, the student government pressed for O’Leary’s resignation.

The student tradition was introduced later that year as a response to previously out-of-touch cronyism. Alan Broadbent — a graduate student who was in his first year at Queen’s — was elected the first ever student Rector.

Prior to Broadbent, the Rector was typically a famous figure who was deemed a friend to the University. Former Prime Minister R. B. Bennett and the chair of CBC, Leonard Brockington had served terms as Rector for Queen’s.

But from then on, the Rector changed from a public figure head and became a truly unique liaison between the

ILLUSTRATION BY VINCENT LIN

Cam Yung speaking earlier this year at the Rector Debate.

University administration and the students they serve.

Because the Rector is supposed to be a student and not a salaried official, the Rector’s tuition is fully paid by Queen’s as a form of compensation. Yung plans to serve all three years of his term by hopefully enrolling and completing the Masters in Public Administration program here at Queen’s.

skills and knowledge that someone who has been working in finance for 20 years might have. But at the same time, the administration and the Board of Trustees will understand that and they’ll always take the time to educate you,” he explained.

“That’s what makes Queen’s so amazing. It’s the fact that we have the best student engagement out of all Canadian universities but

between student politicians “ There’s a difference and student leaders. ”

Serving as a student in a role of such influence places Yung in situations where he looks outside his office for help.

“I’m only one individual, I don’t have all the ideas. I look towards people in the AMS, I look towards the SGPS, I look towards anyone who will come to me and say ‘I have an idea,’” he said.

That the administration is welcoming of his input, despite his relative inexperience, affords Yung his influence in shaping the University.

“I obviously don’t have the

— Cam Yung

what helps to facilitate that is that the administration, staff and faculty are educating. This is an educational system.”

When asked if he’s taken seriously as a student by the administration, Yung nodded his head enthusiastically, responding “without a doubt” as if it didn’t occur to him that administration would be anything less than inviting.

“We don’t always have to agree on everything, then you wouldn’t be able to keep pushing forward.”

Turning to discuss his role in rubbing shoulders with Queen’s leaders, Yung reminded me that when he has a dialogue with the administration, he always conscious of it being in the interest of the students he represents.

“There’s a difference between student politicians and student leaders.”

Yung’s firmness on political neutrality stands in contrast to the actions and reputation of one of his more infamous predecessors, former Rector Nick Day. During a Remembrance Day ceremony, at which he appeared as the Rector, Day used his speech as an opportunity to address Pinochet’s regime in Chile, Aboriginal rights in Canada and the Rwandan Genocide.

In response, the AMS at

JOURNAL FILE PHOTO

the time passed a motion to censure Day following his remarks, concerning “whether or not the Remembrance Day service was an appropriate place to express his own political opinion in association with his position as rector,” a Journal article reported at the time.

Day later made national headlines in 2011 when he leveraged his title of Rector to send then Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff a politically-charged open letter, scolding him for allegedly supporting a “genocide” against Palestinians by supporting Israel.

Even in light of an AMS referendum that showed that 72 per cent of voters were in favour of Day’s impeachment, Day refused to step down until months later.

Not that Yung steers completely clear of politics. Though he has only been in office for five months, Yung kicked off his term by working with Claire Gummo — a student representative who serves on the Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Working Group — on how to address sexual assault and violence.

In an overarching vision, Yung sees the position of Rector evolving to connect more students to services available on campus.

Yu n g t a l ke d about tapping into student talent in technology to help update the Rector’s webpage and to even creating a special Queen’s smartphone application.

As the conversation drew in to a close, so did Yung’s hands. Clasping them back together, Yung said that policy, at the end of the day, is a team effort.

“The only time you succeed is working as a team and having that clear communication and working together.”

“This is what policy does, it brings everyone together.”

6 • queensjournal.ca

Friday, September 23, 2016

EDITORIALS

The Journal’s Perspective

No reason not to warn

When it comes to using historical slurs in the classroom, context is everything

U

niversities don’t have to choose between honouring historical injustices and protecting the communities still affected by these histories today — they have the power to do both.

An opinion piece in McMaster’s student newspaper, The Silhouette, detailed one student’s experience with sitting in a class where a racial slur was used in a historical context.

As a black woman on campus, the use of a slur that specifically references the violent histories of slavery and institutionalized hatred against black people left her shocked and fearful.

Understanding why they may be important in the context of a history class — where a holistic education includes doing justice to the horrors of the past — is necessary. That being said, not all students can be expected to turn a blind eye when these slurs trigger negative responses and generate inaccessibility in their education.

”

If a historical racial slur used in a classroom setting could make education inaccessible to some students and a one-line warning doesn’t hurt anyone, why wouldn’t it be common practice?

By using racial slurs in educational

Sarah O’Flaherty

Level the playing field for women in sports journalism Last May, when I got the call that I’d been made Assistant Sports Editor at The Journal, I was elated. Since then, the most frequent comment I get when I tell people about my job is that I must get to meet a lot of hot guys.

The assumption from my peers is that I’ve taken on my 30-hour-a-week workload so that I have an opportunity to date a varsity athlete. Apparently, people think that my passion for sports extends only as far as marrying a future NHL player.

As an aspiring female sports journalist, I am vastly outnumbered. Sports journalism is an industry made up almost entirely of men, and that results in some terrible situations for women in the workplace.

There are few occupations with a gender imbalance this vast. In 2014, the

Volume 144 Issue 6 www.queensjournal.ca @queensjournal Publishing since 1873

Editorial Board Jacob Rosen

Editors in Chief

Jane Willsie Production Manager

Kayla Thomson

News Editor

Victoria Gibson Blake Canning

Assistant News Editors

Morgan Dodson Maureen O’Reilly Shivani Gonzalez

Features Editor

Mikayla Wronko Editorials Editor

Ramna Safeer

Opinions Editor

Arththy Valluvan Erika Streisfield

Arts Editor

Alex Palermo

Assistant Arts Editor

Joseph Cattana

Sports Editor

Sarah O’Flaherty

Assistant Sports Editor

Jenna Zucker

Lifestyle Editor

Ashley Rhamey

Assistant Lifestyle Editor Photo Editors

Julia Balakrishnan

Video Editor

Ghazal Baradari-Ghiami

Auston Chhor Valentino Muiruri

Digital Manager

Rachel Liu

Graphics Editor

Doing away with warnings “makes the assumption that all

students in any given classroom are at the same level of experience.

THE QUEEN’S JOURNAL

Vincent Lin

Editorial Illustrator

Zachary Chisamore

Copy Editors

Brigid Goulem Irene Liu

Contributing Staff

ILLUSTRATION BY VINCENT LIN

Staff Writers and Photographers Baylee Hennigar

contexts such as a history class, we can generate positive conversations about what these words mean, both in history and why they’re still relevant and evoke pain for some communities today.

But the cost for many students may be being left with a much more negative experience that prevents them from rationalizing the use of the slur in the context of the class, let alone confronting a professor about its use.

Some students may have to leave the classroom and face fear about coming to class. Some may miss their chance to learn simply for the use of a word that could be acknowledged without being said.

In that case, it’d also make sense to claim that racial slurs don’t belong in the Associated Press Sports Editors reported that over 90 per cent of sports editors are male.

Since May, I’ve had almost all of the people I tell about my job mention my ability to meet attractive male athletes — even though we cover many female sports teams.

I’ve had players wolf-whistle when I interview their teammates on the sidelines after a game. I’ve had men question my knowledge of sports with the dreaded and patronizing “name three players” challenge.

classroom at all. But the least that can be done is a warning.

Doing away with warnings makes the assumption that all students in any given classroom are at the same level of experience.

It dismisses differences in experience, history and background. It fails to accommodate for those who are impacted by the ongoing nature of historical trauma. After all, protecting its students is a significant responsibility for a university.

A warning at the beginning of class is an easy fix to what could be a debilitating trigger for a student, who came to learn and to be accepted by their university.

”

Lauren Luchenski Stephanie Nijhuis Gabi Sandler Jennifer Williams Melissa Forcione

Contributors

Jessica Gibson Clayton Tomlinson Cameron Treanor

Business Staff Max Mclernon

Business Manager

Renee Robertson

Head Sales Representative Sales Representatives

Sebastian Jaramillo Cierra Madore

— Journal Editorial Board

journalism as objects of men’s desire, rather than valid people with a job to do, we devalue them and the potential talent of 50 per cent of the population.

Moreover, young women are left out of the fulfilling and important experiences found on sports teams that shape confident, healthy people.

This treatment of women in sports media also extends to our treatment of female athletes. Some of the best female athletes in the world were criticized during the Rio Olympics for their makeup choices or referred to only in relation to their Since May, I’ve had almost famous husbands.

It’s not an easy answer to why women are all of the people I tell about my treated as if they’re encroaching on rightfully job mention my ability to meet male turf, or can’t unselfconsciously attractive athletes. embrace a love of sports.

But we can start by treating female sports There are countless examples of writers with the same respect we afford their this behaviour beyond Queen’s varsity male counterparts. When we hear people sports. Just watch the infamous videos of make disparaging remarks about female journalists Erin Andrews or Melanie sports reporters, we can say something. We McLaughlin dealing with overt sexism can encourage women’s love of sports and on the job. celebrate their accomplishments on the field, Men’s Fitness recently released their list in the newspaper, or on TSN. of “40 Hottest Female Sports Reporters.”

It’s our responsibility to ensure that The secondary headline reads “No athlete future generations of young female sports would mind being interviewed by one of journalists are treated better than Erin these sideline hotties.”

Andrews, Melanie McLaughlin or myself.

When we treat women in sports It’s on us.

“

Adam Laskaris Adam Loudfoot

Geoff Roberts Office Administrator

Anisha Jain

Want to contribute?

For information visit: www.queensjournal.ca/contribute or email the Editors 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 © 2016 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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Sarah O’Flaherty is The Journal’s Assistant Sports Editor. She’s a fourth year Politics student.

Friday, September 23, 2016

queensjournal.ca

OPINIONS

•7

Your Perspective

Talking heads ... around campus PHOTOS BY JULIA BALAKRISHNAN

What were your thoughts on Richardson Stadium at the home opener?

Welcome to grad school Funding cuts, high tuition and empty pockets

“I left half way because of the rain, but it was pretty.”

Jenni Axelson

Melissa Forcione, PhD ‘20

ArtSci '20

“It was nice.

Super new-looking.”

Abby Hunter ArtSci ’20

“Definitely worth the money.

Just kidding.”

Nyah Hernandez ArtSci ’18

“Really beautiful. It was my first time at a football game.”

Bill Luan ArtSci ’20

Recently The Queen’s Journal shed some light on the reality of how graduate students’ funding packages can be drastically changed from their original agreement.

However, certain aspects about this reality warrant more attention — especially regarding how graduate student poverty and professional development experiences are tied to these cuts.

Graduate students may find that the ambiguous standard statement in their funding letter explaining how “the makeup of your package may change” is a huge understatement. That is how I felt when my funding package was swept from under my feet after I received an Academic Excellence Award.

The first time I walked into my new department, the Geography administration promptly followed their congratulations for my award with a harsh dose of reality — I was likely no longer going to get a teaching assistant position because I was now considered ‘well-funded’.

One may think that a $30,000 award is huge by students’ standards — which realistically, and unfortunately, it is. But if this award potentially takes away all professional development opportunities and the income that comes with it, students who receive it can consider themselves at a loss.

I was being penalized because I received what the School of Graduate Studies explains is a “prestigious new award [that]

L E T T E R

ALUMNI PARADE: MORE THAN A LAP AROUND A TRACK I can remember my first Homecoming like it was yesterday.

October 2007. Crammed into the student side at Richardson Stadium. My tam? Firmly pulled down over my ears.

As the clock ticks down to half time I notice the alumni side of the stadium starting to empty. Class after class getting into place along the (now-defunct) Richardson track. Queen’s bands take their

rightful place at center field. The parade starts to creep towards us.

First come the golf carts, driving alumni well into their 80’s and 90’s.

Bundled up in tri-colour blankets and scarves, they wave and blow kisses to the crowd as they pass by. I feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up. In this moment I realize this is Queen’s. This is what it’s all about. The noise from the student side starts. It doesn’t stop. We chant year after year as they walk past us. “We love alum, we love alum, we love alum.” It

PHOTO BY AUSTON CHHOR

is granted to highly qualified applicants”. Students in my situation have their original funding supposedly redistributed to other students that haven’t received awards.

This leaves me to wonder why students have their funding cut and employment taken away to help other students. That should come from the top of the academic ladder, not the bottom.

Many of us already need to worry about paying for living expenses, funding our research, supporting our families and gradually paying off debt from our last degree. Students shouldn’t have their funding packages, and by default their lives, so easily meddled with.

The make-up of funding packages offered by universities bear a lot of weight in a student’s decision of where they choose to pursue their graduate degree.

Financial support offered by a department often determines whether or not a student will live in poverty, finish their degree with crippling debt, or get paid a fair salary.

Professional development opportunities included in an offer, whether a teaching or research assistantship, is crucial to a graduate student’s chance at securing employment after their degree — especially in today’s extremely competitive academic job market.

Unfortunately, a graduate student’s funding package is not secure. It’s subject to change for a variety of reasons.

In my case, it was the reception

of an external award.

According to Queen’s policy, to even qualify for the minimum funding guarantee ($18,000 per year for doctoral students), “students must apply for all major external and internal (where appropriate) scholarships for which they are eligible.”

The awards graduate students are obliged to apply for can — and frequently have been — used as a reason for departments to partially, or completely, revoke the very funding packages that likely influenced the decision to do graduate work at Queen’s.

Now let me stress — I am pleased and humbled to have received an award. It is, however, a merit-based award.

I spent many hours writing proposals, finding references for support letters, keeping up grades, and making life decisions that would facilitate such kinds of recognition.

I did luckily manage to receive a half TA position in my department after scrambling to find other positions at Queen’s.

But consider this — without additional financial support after receiving a sizeable award, students like me who are considered by their departments as ‘well-funded’ are still at the poverty line for a single adult in Ontario once they pay for tuition, which is often worth a third of their minimum funding package.

Many departments at the University of Toronto have avoided making students do this by both providing a funding package and covering tuition fees.

Receiving both an external

or internal award and financial support from one’s department is by no means a ludicrous accumulation of wealth. Having a higher level of financial support than what is currently offered is much more conducive to a decent standard of living and a student’s overall wellbeing.

Like most doctoral students, I’ll dedicate most of my waking hours in the next four years to research that will benefit both Canadian society and the reputation of Queen’s.

I work very hard for very little monetary gain, if any at all.

Students should never be penalized for receiving an award by having the work component of their funding removed, regardless of the institutional reasoning.

I don’t want students to have to go through the disappointment and stress I went through when I found out that I was likely no longer employed. This is not conducive to an educational and professional space that fosters good mental health.

This issue is not openly discussed by graduate students due to a fear of further exclusion from future award and employment opportunities. Recognizing and questioning how departments are allowed to deal with funding in a precarious way is important for all current and prospective students.

Graduate students deserve to at least know their negotiations with the university for funding are genuine.

doesn’t matter what faculty, what residence. Every student is unified, reaching over the railings to highfive or shake hands with any alumni we can get close to. There are families walking together – a grandmother, mother and daughter representing three generations at Queen’s, packs of Engineers who wouldn’t miss this moment for the world and young couples carrying their toddlers on their shoulders.

It was special. It was tradition. It was Queen’s.

To think that no Queen’s

student or alumni will get to share that experience moving forward is, frustrating, sad and, frankly, indefensible. The new stadium might not have a track, but there’s plenty of room to make this happen. A simple question of logistics shouldn’t trump decades of tradition.

Until you’re able to be a part of something like the alumni lap I don’t think you can truly comprehend just how deep that Queen’s spirit and connection runs for so many. Alumni will be

flying in from all over the world to come home this October, the least we can do is ensure they get their chance to take a lap and soak up the love from the Queen’s community. Queen’s is tradition and tradition never graduates -- it simply comes home. We should be there to welcome it at halftime, like we always have.

T O

T H E

Melissa is a first-year student in Geography.

PhD

E D I T O R S

Andrew Lockhart, ArtSci’11

8 • queensjournal.ca

Friday, September 23, 2016

ARTS COMMENTARY

To be or not to be

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY RACHEL LIU

Is Shakespeare deserving of the praise he has received over the last centuries?

Shakespeare is irreplaceable Clayton Tomlinson Staff Writer William Shakespeare is the pinnacle of achievement in English drama and is widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of the English language.

His plays and poems are favoured and studied predominantly in English-speaking schools, because they contain timeless and universal themes expressed in magnificent words.

Yet, like other long-standing institutions, he has faced criticism by many who argue we should make room for the study of other writers, perspectives and voices.

While new work continues to be admitted to the literary canon, the complexity and continued relevance of his work should ensure Shakespeare a seat among the works studied in academia.

Shakespeare deals with themes of life, death, honour, family, suicide and love — to name a few. He’s able to deal with questions that are still relevant today, and yet, simultaneously create some of the most beautiful sounding, and at times, hard to interpret, verses ever written.

“To be or not to be…” begins Hamlet’s long-winded soliloquy on taking his life. Keeping up with the language is difficult, if you follow the ebb and flow of the iambs, the full impact of his question spills through.

These fundamental questions that Shakespeare writes about won’t suddenly become clear if they’re written by someone born in a more recent era. Time is needed to see to the beauty behind the musicality of his verses, to see that there is no word chosen accidentally.

While our world is a different place from Elizabethan England, the fact that Shakespeare’s characters wondered about the same things we do in Canada today should give anyone pause. His plays are powerful in that they demonstrate the immutability of many aspects of life — even

the ones we wish we could change.

Studying his work will allow students to question these important and apparently unchanged themes of life. The age is, in a way, a strength of his timeless work.

High school students are able to study and — hopefully — appreciate Shakespeare, if given a chance.

No class at that level really delves beyond the surface of whatever subject is being studied, however, in Shakespeare we’re presented with the whole iceberg to explore in every line and word.

To shuffle Shakespeare aside for the sake of discovering new English writers, is like chemistry putting aside carbon because they never really gave francium a chance to shine. Sure, francium is important in its own right, but carbon is carbon — essential to the world.

Plain and simple, there is no other writer like him. The man not only changed the theatre, he changed the English language and by extension everything that happens in it.

Besides, The Lion King wouldn’t exist, nor the word “bedazzled”, without Shakespeare. He has a continuing profound influence on life and language today, valuable because in his works we’re shown the problems to life and how to deal with them. Or, at least, how not to.

Time to shake things up Gabi Sandler Staff Writer Shakespeare is the most successful writer in the English language. However, success is in the eye of the beholder, and we may have given Shakespeare a little more c redit than he’s worth.

The generally accepted thought that Shakespeare is the greatest writer in the English-speaking world isn’t without reason.

Together, his syntax and diction are stirring, but it’s his themes that are timeless. Some would say there is no one better than good ol’ Billy Shakes. Yes, Shakespeare’s themes are timeless, but he was not the first to use them and was definitely not the last.

The poet drew on the themes and plotlines of playwrights that came before him, using earlier English writers, folklore and Ancient Greek plays, borrowing from Chaucer and Ovid.

The belief that his work is original and creative in its subject matter is therefore a misconception. Also, just as he did, many writers that came after Shakespeare continued to explore these motifs that have been

discussed for thousands of years.

The notion of star-crossed lovers: Try reading Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre.

Loss of innocence: Just pick up Lord of the Flies. Death, honour and revenge: Hello, Harry Potter, anyone?

The point here is that many writers and creators have made equally beautiful and impressive tales with similar plots and themes in the last four centuries. So, if he wasn’t the first and he wasn’t the last, then it’s definitely possible that we’ve given England’s most talented wordsmith a title that he doesn’t deserve.

In a modern learning environment, we students know that unless something seems relevant and up-to-date, we don’t really pay attention to it. That’s why more and more classes are offered with online components and class time is including more interactive technology.

The same goes for class content.

While you technically can’t “translate” Shakespeare, the language is out of date and very incomprehensible. Not only does his phrasing not make sense to our ears, but the multiple possible meanings make the dialogue between the script and the audience a difficult one.

Shakespeare is the Nokia phone of the English-speaking, smartphone-using world. A great first go at it, but it’s time to keep up with the times.I’m not saying we should never Shakespeare again; but it’s time to take Shakespeare off this pedestal that we’ve placed him on for so long. Think of Shakespeare as just another part of history. As times go on, there’s more history to tell. We give up on certain stories and values to make room for the new ones.

For example, almost everyone knows of Sigmund Freud and his suggestions about the unconscious. Any Psychology student knows that Freud and his findings were a major catalyst in the field, but he had his downfalls and many researchers in the post-Freud era have made discoveries that debunked Freud’s theories.

That said, he’s still an icon in the field and an important part of the learning process.

By simply touching briefly on his strengths and weaknesses, the pathway to modern psychological theory becomes a little clearer.

The same should be done with Shakespeare: Use him as a reference, but recognize that he is just one figure in a much larger picture.

Arts

Friday, September 23, 2016

queensjournal.ca

•9

FESTIVAL

Visiting a tatted paradise Kingston tattoo and arts festival celebrates body art Cameron Treanor Contributor The needles were humming and the ink was flowing as tattoo artists and enthusiasts gathered for The Limestone City Tattoo and Arts Festival in downtown Kingston last weekend.

Hosted at the Four Points Hotel, the festival brought together a variety of Canadian tattoo artists, visual artists, local vendors — selling anything from handmade jewellery, tattoo and skin care products to taxidermy animals — and fun activities, including a kid’s tattoo station (don’t worry, they weren’t permanent).

The atmosphere was friendly with enthusiastic volunteers and bustling patrons squeezing their way through the crowds to get a better look at the artists at work.

The artists set up shop in the large ballroom of the hotel with fresh needles, ink and tattoo chairs.

Patrons were invited to check out their work, and if they were lucky enough to grab a spot in the schedule, get a tattoo.

The variety of talent on display with artists specializing in unique media, including photorealism, watercolour-inspired pieces, pointillism, line work and more, simply blew me away.

In a room offset from the main space, there was a gallery where beautiful pieces of art were

UNION GALLERY

displayed, both tattoo-related and otherwise. Peering into the room, I noticed an artist working away on an immense, photo-realistic painting of Tragically Hip lead singer, Gord Downie, that took my breath away.

While most of the artists were busy showing off their unique talents during the festival, I still managed to have a word with the artist, even if it meant having one of my tattoos coloured in while we chatted.

Tattoo artist Simon Golygowski beckoned me over to his booth in hopes of filling in my minimalist tattoos with permanent marker.

Having started when he was 18 years old, Golygowski has been tattooing for 23 years. His portfolio is a collection of breathtaking illustrations, featuring a variety of themes with emphasis on women and animals.

Golygowski, who goes by the pen name ‘Dadahell’, works mostly in bigger pieces, such as sleeve tattoos and chest illustrations.

My favourite piece in his portfolio was a woman with feathered wings surrounded by skulls and flowers. It was a chest piece that according to Golygowski took 11 to 12 hours, over a number of sessions. “Most people can’t handle that,” Golygowski said.

For Golygowski the best thing to tattoo is “good clients”.

“Gets a good sleep the night before, eats a good breakfast, comes

in, drinks a lot of juice, and brings some good whisky for me…that’s a good client,” he said in a thick Polish accent.

The festival was a space to appreciate the art form, without the stigma usually attached to it. To me, tattoos are one type of artistry that is truly under-appreciated, especially in the artistic realm.

The Limestone City Tattoo and Arts Festival offered a unique opportunity to see such a love of tattoos in one space.

The ability to talk and share with other tattoo enthusiasts, to look in awe at the art displayed on people’s bodies, and have them look at my tattoos with the same wonder in their eyes, was priceless.

A Journal staffer’s new tattoo illustrated at Little Sisters Tattoo Studio in Kingston.

PHOTO BY AUSTON CHHOR

Reclaimed objects meets minimalism A look through two new exhibits at Union Gallery Lauren Luchenski Staff Writer On Friday, Montreal-based artists Emily Jan and Anne Billy made themselves at home in Union Gallery with a seventeenth century Dutch banquet table deluged with food and ornaments and walls covered in warm and homey textiles.

Union Gallery is notorious for scouting fresh, local talent and showcasing it to the Queen’s and Kingston community. This season’s exhibitions feature Emily Jan’s After The Hunt and Anne Billy’s Fleeting Memory.

Originally from San Francisco, Jan completed an MFA at Concordia University in 2014 and is currently based in Montreal.

Jan’s installation is impossible to miss. Placed in the middle of the gallery’s main space, Jan’s exhibition features a banquet scene — a long table covered in ornaments, food, drinks, artifacts, vases, cups, dishes, flowers, and extremely lifelike woolen animals and carcasses.

Her three-dimensional and life -sized installation brings certain objects to life, especially when

mixed with real fruit and lively Treanor flipping through a tattoo artist’s portfolio. flowers, which interestingly alter the display as the exhibit goes on and they begin to rot.

Modelled after seventeenth century Dutch still-life paintings, typically characterized by a display of ornate decor and luxurious possessions, Jan’s banquet scene is littered with seemingly expensive and impressive belongings.

However, Teresa Carlesimo, Union Gallery’s curatorial assistant, explained that the expensivelooking objects amongst Jan’s carefully crafted and handmade animal caracesses, are items Jan found at thrift stores.

“From a distance it looks like these might be expensive objects, but when you get closer you realize it’s not, it’s just discarded things,” Carlesimo said.

Jan’s use of discarded items and junk comments on the excesses and consumption of today’s hyper-consumer culture, which is similar to that which also existed in seventeenth century Dutch culture.

The critique of the material excess of today’s culture is compelling. While looking at an See Montreal on page 10

PHOTO BY CAMERON TREANOR

Arts

10 •queensjournal.ca

Photos from Emily Jan’s (left and right) and Anne Billy’s (middle) new exhibits on display at Union Gallery.

Montreal artists debut at Union Gallery Continued from page 9

immoderate number of forgotten items in her display, I began to feel self-consciousness and almost guilty about personal and communal consumption.

Although her work features a lot of found objects, for anyone who has been to a thrift store, you’ll realize that Jan’s display doesn’t include even a fraction of the discarded items out there. Her work subtly reveals how much stuff people have, and then forget about.

In the gallery’s smaller room, just off the main space, is another

featured exhibition, by Anne Billy — a multidisciplinary artist also located in Montreal.

Billy’s exhibition Fleeting Memory is influenced by her father who suffers from a degenerative memory disorder.

In comparison to Jan’s work in the next room, Billy’s minimalist exhibition is calming and inviting, featuring a delicate and intricate use of textiles and soft colours.

Taking over three of the project room’s walls, a large white textile circle depicts a bird’s eye view of a man in walking motion; a quilt-like piece made with thread and ink on Chinese funeral paper and three shirts with needlepoint work.

The commonality of fabric in our lives makes Billy’s exhibition seem humanistic and familiar, but her use of textiles is most intimate through the use of three of her father’s shirts, which the artist has altered with intricate needlepoint work to depict houses, hands and faces.

Whether this is an attempt to capture snapshots of her father’s life

is unclear as Carlesimo explained that Billy doesn’t want to reveal what these places are, or what they mean to her.

Billy’s pieces are open for interpretation because she wants people to understand them in the context of their own lives.

The openness of interpretation invites viewers to enter an almost escapist frame of mind to reflect on their own homes and family relations.

Both Jan’s After the Hunt and Billy’s Fleeting Memory will be on display at Union Gallery until November 11.

Friday, September 23, 2016

PHOTOS BY ADAM LOUDFOOT

Friday, September 23, 2016

queensjournal.ca

• 11

SPORTS

Ben D’Andrea (#26) salutes the Richardson faithful during the 2009 run to the Vanier Cup.

FOOTBALL

JOURNAL FILE PHOTO

Like father, like son

The D’Andrea family remembers two generations playing and coaching on two Richardson fields Adam Laskaris Staff Writer

R

ichardson Stadium may have undergone a massive transformation over the past year, but Queen’s football assistant coach Ben D’Andrea is still unsure exactly how to feel about it.

Now in his second year on the coaching staff, D’Andrea played five years for the Gaels as a

WOMEN’S RUGBY

defensive back from 2008-12 in the old incarnation of Richardson Stadium, winning a Vanier Cup as national champion in 2009 — the team’s most recent trophy.

“It’s bittersweet,” he said of the stadium’s reconstruction.

Unsurprisingly, he described his most memorable moment of his playing career at Richardson as a play that’s gone down in Queen’s football lore: Jimmy Allin’s

full-field punt return touchdown in the 2009 national semi-final against Laval in front of a sold-out crowd.

“I remember blocking on that play and hearing the crowd noise as we ran down the field. I’ll never forget that,” he said. “That whole year was incredible, we had a very special group of guys.”

But while there’s many highlight moments to pull from his

playing career, the thing he’ll miss most about the actual stadium was the competitive advantage that’s now gone from the grass field — a rarity in modern university sport.

“None of our opponents were comfortable playing on it,” he said.

While the memories hold a special place in D’Andrea’s heart, he does accept that there’s an upside to the new Richardson experience.

“I think it’s probably the best university football stadium in Canada now.”

Though his own career at Richardson has plenty of talking points, D’Andrea’s not alone in his family as he’s a second-generation Gael.

His father Jim was a team captain, a 1978 Vanier Cup champion and a member of the Queen’s Hall of Fame.

“Seeing the old pictures of my dad and his buddies at Queen’s is sort of what inspired me to start playing football in the first place,” D’Andrea said.

Jim described a goal line stand in a 1978 playoff game with Carleton as his most memorable moment at Richardson in an email interview with The Journal. Backed up against their own goal line, the Gaels used a new defensive package they’d only practiced “a couple of times that week.” Three plays later, the Gaels came out with a turnover on downs.

“Our coaches could not figure out what defence we were playing, but it worked out brilliantly!” Jim said.

Growing up in Calgary and attending Western Canada High School, the younger D’Andrea wasn’t always certain if he’d attend his father’s alma mater.

A series of conversations with high school coach Sean Timmons, his father, and current Gaels head coach Pat Sheahan convinced D’Andrea that Queen’s would be the right fit for him.

After graduation, D’Andrea began working for a private company called KING Athletics in a strength and conditioning role in both Calgary and Ottawa.

After a few years, D’Andrea saw a job opening at Queen’s last year for defensive assistant and immediately applied, beginning work shortly after that.

His new role, which he began last August, involves working primarily with the team’s defensive backs.

And while the team’s not had much success at 0-3, D’Andrea has high hopes for the current roster.

“We’re still dealing with a group that’s very much coming of age,” Ben said. “I don’t think our record reflects the talent level at all.”

Though Jim is nearly four decades removed from his playing days, he keeps in constant involvement with the team and his son’s role, even while in Calgary and often travelling the world. “[We try to] talk every week and discuss what is happening with the team and the DB’s,” Jim said, who watches as many games as he can online.

And while Jim has his own impressive resume, he does find himself constantly learning new things about football from his son.

“I am truly amazed by Ben’s knowledge and understanding of the game and how he tries to put his athletes in the best possible position to succeed.”

Queen’s one of four provincial teams leading rugby national polls Joseph Cattana Sports Editor Although the women’s rugby season is relatively young, one thing is already clear — it’s Ontario’s sport.

Currently, three of the four top teams in national rankings are from the OUA conference.

The one Ontario outlier, Ottawa — who plays in the RSEQ with teams from Quebec — sits one spot above Queen’s in third place. Queen’s fellow Ontarians, Guelph and McMaster round out the top two.

One of the major advantages to playing in a competitive league like the OUA is the preparation it gives for later on in the season.

Battling it out on the field early on in the year gives teams an early indication of where they are. It’s not only important to the schools, but the athletes as well.

In a sport like rugby where physicality is central to the flow of a game, a softer regular

season schedule could be ideal, allowing teams to rest players and prevent injury.

While head coach Beth Barz has suggested in the past that there should be more time between games leading into the playoffs, she welcomes the idea of competition during the regular season.

“For our athletes who are preparing to go on to represent their provinces and help us represent Canada, it’s really important that we have those games to put them under lots of pressure so they can see how they’ll still stand up.”

With Queen’s playing their next two games against McMaster and Guelph, their true colours will show. For the looming national championships in November, only two of these three top ranked teams will get to represent the OUA. Last year, Guelph was left out despite coming second, because Queen’s was given the last OUA qualification

spot as the tournament hosts.

For Barz, it’s too soon to think about the playoffs.

“We’re doing all that we can do to be there and realistically that’s a conversation to have in six weeks.”

There are some difficulties that come with the competitive OUA off the field — especially in recruiting. 30 of the 34 Gaels this year are from Ontario, making the province a “battleground” for recruiting with Guelph, McMaster, Ottawa and Western.

Barz believes that there are multiple things that attract student-athletes to Queen’s.

“The traditions, and the enthusiasm, and the focus on academics — to me those are the things that make us special and stand apart.”

This has been a long time coming for Barz. In her 16 years with the Queen’s rugby program, she’s noticed one constant trend — the type of See Gaels on page 14

GRAPHIC BY RACHEL LIU

Sports

12 •queensjournal.ca

Friday, September 23, 2016

ATHLETE PROFILE

A match that saved a life Football player donates bone marrow to stranger Joseph Cattana Sports Editor As Gaels offensive lineman Brendan Ginn walked off the field at Richardson Stadium last weekend, his mother and an unfamiliar face stopped him.

It was someone he had planned on meeting for a while now — Kingston resident Joanne Curran. During this brief moment, the two shared a few words and took a photo while Curran thanked Ginn multiple times.

Although this was the first time the two met, their connection originates from a simple mouth swab that Ginn had done in 2013 that would change the course of his life. It wasn’t until two years later that he’d find out exactly how, but Curran’s daughter Mackenzie, was the catalyst.

In 2013, OneMatch — a group responsible for finding and matching volunteer donors to patients who require stem cell transplants — was in the ARC, trying to find a donor for then local high school student, Mackenzie Curran.

Curran needed a bone marrow donor after finding out she had myelodysplastic syndrome — a disorder that prevents the bone marrow from producing enough healthy blood cells.

Led by some older Gaels football

players, Ginn filled out his email and phone number information, took a swab of the inside of his cheeks with a q-tip and awaited the results.

Later that year a match was found for Curran in Germany.

Ginn, hearing the news, moved on from being a potential donor and focused on football.

“The odds of finding someone in Kingston is pretty rare, but somebody in the world is going to match you,” he said.

And someone did. Although it came two years later, Ginn received a call in February 2015 that changed his life.

“I got a call from a random number in Toronto so I thought I’ll answer this and when I did they said ‘We’re from OneMatch’ and I thought oh wow.”

While they didn’t confirm the details of surgery at the time, OneMatch said they had found a match for Ginn to donate marrow to and they would be in touch.

After four months without hearing back, Ginn thought they found a better match. But in May of that year the same unidentified number showed up on his phone, telling him that he was indeed the best match.

With the surgery set in July of that year, Ginn was prepared to donate the bone marrow from his

hip and then to return to football for their preseason. However, after coming down with a bad cold just before the scheduled surgery, Ginn had to move it later, effectively cutting his training camp short.

After telling head coach Pat Sheanan and his teammates about the surgery, his priorities became clear — surgery before football.

Even with hearing stories of people not returning to sport following the surgery, the people at OneMatch put him at ease; telling him the recovery process would take three weeks.

Early in the morning on August 5, 2015, Ginn had two needles drill small slits into his back, taking some 20-odd liters of bone marrow from his hip.

Following surgery, Ginn travelled back to Kingston to get ready for the football season.

He spent the first week on the recovery bike and gradually worked his way back to the weights and eventually onto the field. In the end, OneMatch was correct. Brendan Ginn dressed for the first game of the year against the Carleton Ravens.

The surgery was a success, Ginn was able to save a life.

Currently, he hasn’t met or heard from the person who he donated to. OneMatch leaves it up to the

Brendan Ginn, Queen’s football player, had 20-odd liters of his bone marrow donated.

recipient to reach out and while he’d like to meet them, Ginn understands that it’s up to them.

Since the surgery, Ginn has been doing what he loves — playing football.

Having both seen the effects of the OneMatch organization, Curran and Ginn decided to meet up to share their stories with each other. It was only then that Curran found out how Ginn’s journey began with her daughter that she began to cry.

“Anyone who had swabs and is willing to do it is a hero in her books,” Ginn said.

Since meeting Curran on the weekend, Ginn has kept in touch with the family.

After being influenced by older

PHOTO BY JULIA BALAKRISHNAN

Gaels to take a swab, Ginn has taken the same role.

When a team’s film meeting finished at Dupuis Hall in Kingston on Sunday, it happened to coincide with a Canadian Blood Services swabbing event at BeamishMunro Hall. When the team was done learning from the mistakes of their loss to Western, Ginn grabbed a few teammates and got them swabbed.

The bone marrow surgery was a life changing moment for Ginn.

“I never thought in my whole life that I would potentially have the chance to save someone else’s life or at least give them more time.

The fact that I was able to do that for somebody … Its bigger than a lot of us.”

Happening at

293 Princess St Tuesday to Saturday 4pm-late!

Tuesday: Crokinole, don’t know how to play? Come on by and we’ll teach you Wednesday: TRIVIA NIGHT begins at 9, doors open at 4, come early for a table it fills up fast!

Thursday: Music series, from 9pm-12am stop by to hear who’s jamming for the evening Friday: Prize day, what better way to finish your week with the chance to win a prize down at the Alibi? Draws will be made at midnight. ___________________________________ As always we have shelves of board games for you to play For the month of September stop by the Alibi for a chance to win free beer for the school year, courtesy of the Gananoque Brewing Company. Draw will take place September 30 at midnight.

Friday, September 23, 2016

Sports

queensjournal.ca

• 13

PHOTO BY STEPHANIE NIJUHIS

(From left) Laaren Bensette, Tim Peters, Gavin Ronan and Coach Ryan Abraham at practice.

BASEBALL

The road to redemption Queen’s “well-kept secret”, the baseball team, is stepping back in the spotlight Sarah O’Flaherty Assistant Sports Editor The Queen’s men’s baseball team is a bit of an enigma on campus — you may have heard about it, but you’re not quite sure it’s really there. While the team is most definitely here, at one time, it almost wasn’t.

On September 25, 2010, the baseball team had been found drinking on a team bus on the way back from a game against the Waterloo Warriors.

On top of that, 11 of the team’s players that were on that bus had also been involved in an alcohol related incident surrounding a rookie party in 2009.

To sanction the team, Queen’s Athletics charged those 11 players with repeat offences and they were given two-year suspensions from the baseball program, essentially wiping out the majority of the team’s roster. For many of the players, this signified the end of their baseball career, as they would graduate by the time the suspension was over.

The University had originally decided to suspend the entire program, but reversed that decision because they felt that there was an obligation to the other schools in the OUA to have a team to compete that year.

Subsequently, the baseball team was put on probation for three seasons, with the understanding that “any future misconduct, violations and/or infractions” over the probationary period would lead to the suspension of the program all together.

Ryan Abraham, a Queen’s alumni who played on the team for five years before becoming the team’s coach, has had a first-hand experience with the team’s rocky rebuilding attempts.

“Guys just weren’t behaving in the standard that Queen’s expects the varsity athletes to,” Abraham said.

During his first year on the team in 2011, 18-year-olds were thrust into competition against much older teams. They only won one game.

“The guys that we have now, they all want to be there. No one was paying money and riding school busses to lose games by 20 runs that didn’t want to be there,” Abraham said.

According to Abraham, it was up to Dave Venturi — a player from the 2010 team — to complete an unprecedented number of volunteer hours and their old coach Ken Spicer to fight for the team, to stop Queen’s from closing the baseball program.

Currently, the baseball team is considered

to be a varsity club rather than a varsity team. While the difference in labels between “club” and “team” might seem insignificant, the implications for the players and coaches aren’t.

One of those differences is having to pay their own way. According to Abraham, all players pay $550 to be on the team. Instead of getting their own equipment, they share it with a local team For Gaels catcher Tim Peters, the biggest difference comes with recruiting. Peters, who works with Varsity Events, has seen first-hand the repercussions that a lack of funding has on a program as delicate as the baseball team.

“I had someone come in during the visit weekend last year and ask about baseball and what kind of scholarships [he] might get. I said, ‘no there’s nothing like that, we pay to play.’ He couldn’t believe it and I could just tell he pretty much ruled out coming here just because of that,” Peters said.

For the Queen’s team, this means that they miss out on recruits to OUA schools like Brock, Western, Laurier, who focus on their teams through advertisements and pushing attendance.

Playing off campus has made it difficult for the team as well, as they find it tough to fill the stands.

“We’re still a well-kept secret around Queen’s. You go ask 100 people about the baseball team, at least half of them don’t know we’re there,” Abraham said.

While the team has been fighting an uphill battle to keep the program going, Abraham sees the team’s struggle as a point of pride.

Historically, Queen’s is known as a rag-tag baseball team — showing up to games on school busses with mis-matched jerseys and hats when Abraham first started.

Although the lack of funding causes problems for the program, they are attempting to rebuild their once-fraught relationship with the school.

“Obviously we knew that being on probation we had to be on our best behavior and we’ve worked really hard to start building a positive image for ourselves.”

By doing more with Queen’s and being active in the community, Athletics has begun to support the team more. For example, through extensive fundraising, the team is getting new jerseys this year.

While it has been a shaky road back from its darker days, it has brought the team together more.

“We’ve just learned to rely on each other and it’s become a family, the guys have

learned to lean on each other 100 per cent,” Abraham said.

The lack of sufficient funding for the team has been effective in weeding out bad attitudes or undedicated players.

“Everybody wants to be there,” Abraham said. “I really think that’s a testament to the guys that we have and their ability to take initiative to take it upon themselves and build the program.”

While it has been a long road for the baseball team to recover the respect and

recognition lost by the actions of the past, there are no hard feelings from the guys that are currently on the team.

“As shitty as it was at the time, I think it was a bit of a blessing for us to be able to rebuild from new,” he said. “It’s a rare thing to be able to build a brand new culture in a school that’s been around for 175 years and to do it right, and I think that we have.”

“The future looks very bright for this program.”

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Sports

14 •queensjournal.ca

Friday, September 23, 2016

Gaels face a rematch with first ranked Marauders Continued from page 11

athletes she has on the field.

“One of the unique things we have at Queen’s is that we have overachievers who come to this school and are ready to work,” she said. “They’ve been overachievers their entire life and they’re used to putting in the extra time and the extra work in order to be that much better than the next person.”

Up next for Queen’s is a rematch with the defending national champions, McMaster Marauders, this Friday.

Last year, the two teams split their season series. Queen’s won a 15-14 comeback thriller early in the season, while the Marauders got the last laugh and the taste of gold when they beat the Gaels on Nixon field in the CIS national championship.

With schedules released in the latter half of this summer, Barz and her team has been ready to avenge last year’s loss for a while now. Just looking at her team through two games, it’s clear that Queen’s is motivated.

Currently, the Gaels are second in the OUA in points-for with 160 and sport the league’s best defense, only allowing an unprecedented five points-against.

“We have done that work and I think we are ready and I think we look forward to playing a good game at McMaster on Friday.”

Spencer Belyea contemplates student support for the Queen’s football program.

SIDELINE COMMENTARY

PHOTO BY JULIA BALAKRISHNAN

If you build it, will they care?

Staff writer debates the positives and negatives of the revitalized Richardson Stadium Spencer Belyea Staff Writer Saturday, September 17 was a day 45 years in the making. Until just under a year ago when work began on the revitalization,

Richardson Stadium had been the unchanged home of Gaels athletics since constructed in 1971.

This past weekend, all the hype surrounding the newly refurbished stadium came to fruition as the Gaels football team took on their rivals, the Western Mustangs.

Though the Gaels lost the game, from a purely bricks-and-mortar perspective, the new stadium is a resounding success.

It feels a lot like the old stadium, but just improved in all facets. While it’s impossible to compare it to larger college football stadiums in the USA, Queen’s Athletics’ revitalization project places the University at the centre of Canadian college football.

But a shiny new stadium doesn’t fix all ailments.

Unfortunately, many of the problems that plagued Queen’s Athletics before still exist.

As the grand-opening game approached, I had hoped that the new stadium would be the catalyst for overhauling student apathy when it came to university sports — especially football.

This was the chance to hit the reset button — to use a time of natural excitement and interest as the jumping-off point to re-engage large swathes of the student population and make athletics matter at Queen’s.

As a student body, our support and engagement with our teams has been disappointing.

Looking back at the last home playoff football game in 2013, the student section wasn’t even half full.

That all could’ve changed this year, but unfortunately — yet unsurprisingly — it hasn’t.

At least the students showed up, and I guess that’s half the battle. We filled the 300-plus seat section that was allocated to us, plus a good portion of the endzone seats.

But while students made an appearance visually, that was the only way you could tell we were there at all.

One of the hallmarks of any sporting event is the passion, intensity and spirit that the fans bring. In the NCAA, 62.8 per cent of home teams win their games, with coaches and players attributing that to the home-field advantage their student sections provide, as they simultaneously give an emotional boost to their team while making it difficult for the opposing team to focus.

Despite our claims as a spirited and proud school, this sentiment disappears at sporting events. Any attempts to start basic chants on Saturday quickly fizzled out, and there were only short bursts of applause after good plays.

The atmosphere and excitement matched the weather — dreary and dull.

I enjoyed myself because I like to watch football, but Richardson should be a fun place to be on a game day because of the atmosphere — regardless of the product on the field.

That being said, students shouldn’t shoulder all the blame for the less-than-ideal game experience. We’re relegated to one of the worst sections in the stadium, hidden in the corner with poor sightlines to the rest of the field.

Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer as to why students don’t seem to care about Queen’s football. I’m tempted to say it’s about the product on the field, as Queen’s hasn’t had a competitive team on a provincial level since 2013 — but even when we hosted a playoff game, no one showed up.

Some might say it’s because of drinking regulations, but not being able to drink at the stadium shouldn’t be an issue — you can’t in the United States, and they don’t have any issues with spirit.

And as much as I think it was a mistake by the University to take away or limit many of our great traditions with how the new stadium was designed — like Queen’s Bands or the homecoming halftime parade — student apathy seems to be one of the features that was preserved from Richardson prior to the revitalization.

It’s telling that the equivalent sections on the other side of the stadium were virtually empty, making it clear that we were placed where we were as a cash grab for the highly priced midfield seats. It’s disappointing that making a few dollars was prioritized over the experience of both the students in the stands and on the field.

All that aside, I think the problem is in the culture that currently exists on campus.

Going to football games, or caring about how the team does, just doesn’t matter to students. In the list of things students generally care about, it just doesn’t seem to make the cut.

So, after one game, what’s the verdict?

Well, the stadium is great — but those who fill it, especially us students, can do better.

Showing up is half the battle, but that alone doesn’t win you the game.

Vocal, enthusiastic, and continued support is what’s needed to really make Richardson Stadium a success, so let’s support our fellow students on the field and show that we have as much spirit and passion as we claim we do.

Friday, September 23, 2016

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• 15

LIFESTYLE SEX TALK

Drinking, dancing and full frontal-nudity An account of a time I ate pizza at an orgy

By Sexy in the Six

Y

ou can always expect a certain level of nudity on spa days. It’s not unreasonable for your masseuse to ask you to take off your clothes or a pedicurist to remove your shoes.

My experience at an adult-themed spa in Toronto was quite different.

It was my friend Harry who initially proposed a day at the lounge, which caters to sexual satisfaction. When he explained that single men weren’t allowed in so he needed a friend to come with him, at first I shot him down. When he offered to pay for all my drinks, I couldn’t refuse.

My curiousity got the best of me, and despite my apprehension, I showed up and let him buy us a day membership.

Having public sex with strangers isn’t really my idea of a good time and I generally

hate clubs. There are too many strange dudes touching/sweating/grinding on you, and I figured that this place would be the same, but with the addition of nudity.

I’m sure you can imagine my trepidation.

Browsing their website, I was impressed by the establishment’s policies on consent (ask once, and no means no) and trans* identified guests (all employees were trained to ask for guest’s pronouns and gender neutral bathrooms/change rooms were available).

When we arrived, it looked nothing like what I’d been imagining and seemed surprisingly clean and upscale.

The first thing I noticed was that all the surfaces were red vinyl and easy to wipe down. I tried not to think about all the different body parts that had touched the couch I was sitting on as I filled out a

CULTURE COMMENTARY

PHOTO BY JULIA BALAKRISHNAN

Reading the underrated and under-read An English major’s personal literary canon of books that go ignored Ramna Safeer Editorials Editor Like “cool” or “art,” the term “classic literature” is notoriously indefinable. The literary canon taught in universities and reprinted countless times is full of works by authors who we’re told are great before we can decide for ourselves.

After many years of feeling the pressure to read all the books deemed “classic” — and

often liking them only because I was told they were worth liking — I grew to resent what the term seemed to entail and the multitudes it seemed to ignore.

First off, white, male authors wrote most of these classics. What was deemed “classic” and therefore worth a timeless respect were reflective of a small percentage of society and definitely not reflective of me.

Second, I slowly realized that many of the writers for whom a singular novel had

VIA WIKIPEDIA

liability form.

The second thing I noticed was that there wasn’t a buffet. I don’t know where I got the idea that there would be one, but for some reason I’d always pictured orgies to have mediocre buffets available. After all, orgy-ing is pretty hard work, I assume.

My disappointment over the lack of snacks available must have been palpable, because one of the attendants pointed out a stack of menus and told us that many restaurants in the area will deliver, and we could have food brought to us if we liked.

So, I spent the afternoon lounging by the pool eating pizza in various states of undress while Harry attempted to befriend the other visitors. Somewhere between my fourth and ninth beer, I noticed him making idle small talk with a couple decked out in leather harnesses. They appeared to be in

their early to mid twenties and the woman was explaining her theory on what really happened to Rob Ford.

In response to Harry’s interjection that he thought Rob Ford died a while back, the woman asserted that was just what “they” want us to think. Her male friend nodded vigorously, causing the dog tag on his leather collar to bang against his Adam’s apple.

Upon closer inspection, I was able to make out that it had the word “SLUT” engraved on it.

We eventually ventured upstairs to check out the “playrooms,” where we sat half dressed on the red vinyl couches of the movie theatre. The selection of titles included Lesbian Vampire Babes 3, The XXX Files, and inexplicably, the 2009 American biographical sports drama, The Blind Side.

been etched into the canon had written other things — books that were considered to be worth less attention but ones I ended up loving just as much, if not more.

As an English major whose assigned readings often fall squarely inside of what is considered “classic literature”, and whose bookshelf at home would probably fall just outside it, I’m always redefining the literary canon for myself.

My own definition of a literary canon takes the global authors writing diverse stories that I can see parts of myself in and makes room for them in what is considered “classic.”

My own definition of what is considered “classic” also takes the authors we all love — Vladimir Nabokov, Daniel Handler and Jane Austen — and gives them credit where credit is due but not often given.

Although my English major will continue to assign me the novels that have been considered “classic literature”, I’ll keep digging out the authors whose books have been overlooked or under-read in favour of an objective definition of “classic.”

I’ll keep reshaping the literary canon to fit into my bookshelf, because it’s just that — mine.

Middlemarch or Anna Karenina. That aside, its content achieves the very things we often associate with epic novels.

White Teeth seamlessly travels across cultures, continents and generations while tackling difficult themes that remain just as relevant now as they were 16 years ago when it was written — the ability to stand the test of time being a signature trait of what is deemed as “classic literature.”

White Teeth by Zadie Smith A Dickensian epic if ever there was one. This novel chronicles the lives of two wartime friends — Bangladeshi Samad Iqbal and Englishman Archibald Jones — and their messy, dysfunctional families as they enter middle age. It articulates a bundle of complex themes like the diaspora experience, the immigrant struggle and the complexity of family relationships, doing so with a generous helping of wit.

This novel is one that sits at the summit of my literary canon for several reasons.

First, it’s a tome — the total page count could easily battle other brick-sides books like

See Sexual on page 17

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi Iranian-American Satrapi’s Persepolis is excluded from the canon just by being a graphic novel.

The narrative is an autobiographical account of Satrapi’s childhood during the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the years following, as she experiences prejudice, love and sorrow. The book — accompanied by minimalistic yet stunning black-and-white illustrations — is a sweeping depiction of a narrative’s ability to exemplify the human impact of major historical events.

It’s timeless for its ability to seamlessly balance a dynamic, nuanced character and her personal narrative while commenting on the world as it shifts and changes around her.

Love and Friendship by Jane Austen As for authors whose one novel paid the bills while the world turned a blind eye to the rest, Jane Austen is the first to come to mind. The renowned Pride and Prejudice writer has become a household name for her tales of love — her heroines, though feisty, nearly always fall into some form of miscommunication with the man they’re destined to end up with, who in turn falls into their line of fate by happenstance.

This winning formula is exactly what’s lacking in perhaps her most underrated and in my opinion, her most interesting, piece of work. Love and Friendship, written See A different on page 17

LIFESTYLE

16 •queensjournal.ca

Friday, September 23, 2016 Kayla Thomson Production Manager

Brad and Angie in happier times.

CELEBRITY GOSSIP

VIA WIKIPEDIA

You probably haven’t heard but ‘Brangelina’ broke up It’s the end of celebrity marriages as we know them HEALTH

They started dramatically and ended dramatically — Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have filed for divorce. What did we do to deserve this?

Angelina filed for divorce following a September 15 separation. I thought it was out of character for me to not get out of bed that Friday but it all makes sense now. And no, I won’t acknowledge my “Stage Rage” bender as a reason why.

We all know the story. The two fell in love on the Mr. & Mrs. Smith set back in 2005. Brad divorced his then-wife Jennifer Aniston, and quickly after, Jolie was pregnant with their first child. Although they’ve been together for over a decade, they’ve only been married for two years. And it was probably the most beautiful wedding.

Angelina wore a custom gown by Versace, with the train decorated by her children’s drawings. The venue was at their estate in France, and the photos of the wedding were sold to a tabloid for five million dollars, but the selfless couple reportedly gave all that money to charity because of course they did.

And now it’s all over, along with my hopes of ever achieving their level of #couplegoals.

Dear old Brad — what went wrong? You were doing so well!

Brennifer (Pittiston?) has been in your past for over a decade! You adopted kids from all over the world! You! The golden boy from the States!

I could see you trying to commit to the persona when you grew out your hair like a really cool guy. You were just trying to be on par with

Angelina’s ex-husband Billy Bob Thornton. But I mean, he was in Bad Santa. The bar was obviously too high.

Angelina — what happened?

The coolest thing he’s ever done was Fight Club — but we can’t talk about that.

Did you just no longer find him attractive? Because from my perspective I’d say that’s impossible. He’s like Leonardo DiCaprio but always in peak movie-bod shape.

And now that Brangelina is officially over, so are the dreams of all the Tumblr users who frequent the “beautiful famous couple” search.

Brad and Angie were the image of what we (yes, I speak for everyone) aspire to: a happy, mutually-supportive relationship with endless amounts of wealth, crazy sex appeal, philanthropic endeavours, broods of beautiful children, award winning resumes, and arguments over who has better cheek bones as you fall asleep at night.

Now Madame Tussaud`s wax museum is going to have to separate the Brangelina wax figures. And Buzzfeed has to update the list of their top favourite exes of the twenty-first century, along with relatable GIFs. The Oscars will take place under the same oppressive pall as those awkward family dinners with your separated aunt and uncle throwing shade at each other over the pies.

And most importantly, all lifestyle journalists have to come up with a unique yet witty article to announce the breakup of the year, as rumours and theories pile up as to why the most celebrated celebrity marriage has ended.

The benefits of journaling for your mental health When talking isn’t enough, write it down Cassandra Littlewood Contributor This article originally appeared online on September 20.

Are you stressed?

If I were to gather every Queen’s student into a room and ask them this question, I think I’d get a unanimous “yes” in response.

Stress is the body’s way of combatting challenges. Whether they’re physical, emotional or mental, students face difficulties every day. The university lifestyle and culture demands it.

While juggling many different tasks at once isn’t foreign to a student, it still takes a mental toll that I often feel too stressed to address. That’s when I turn to my journal.

I started journaling as a way to document my first year at Queen’s.

I wanted to remember every part of an inevitably memorable year in my life.

What started out as a fun project for the year turned into something much more important to my mental health than I’d anticipated. Without realizing, I was able to track my mental health through how I recounted different events and the emotions that those events brought about. I was able to see my own patterns, since similar

feelings would often resurface.

I saw that every time I came back to Queen’s from visiting my parents, I had an overwhelming surge of homesickness. But when I noticed this pattern, I could reassure myself the feeling wouldn’t last, no matter how bad I felt. I had physical proof on paper that I had gotten past the negative thoughts that consumed my head in that moment in the past.

According to the University of Rochester Medical Center, the most obvious benefit of writing in a journal is it reduces stress.

Journaling helps you identify exactly what’s wrong. You confront what’s causing you stress and can assess it through your writing.

While there are great mental health benefits to journaling, your physical health benefits as well. By reducing stress, you also decrease the physical toll that stress would’ve taken on your body.

Consistently writing in a journal created a firm outlet for my thoughts and emotions. It allowed me to have a space to validate my homesickness, excitement over new things and sadness over events I couldn’t control or things that overwhelmed me.

As I wrote more regularly, I realized how easily I could become overwhelmed, more often by social obligations as compared to

academic ones. Journaling helped me see this tendency that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.

I was then able to figure out different strategies for how to manage my feeling of being overwhelmed, such as calling my best friend for a pep talk or heading to the library for

some quiet time to myself (and my readings).

But how do you start?

It doesn’t matter your medium, whether it be the Notes app on your phone or a pristine leather journal, the important part is that you write and write honestly.

This cannot be a lukewarm

endeavor. If you don’t know how to start, try writing the most honest and clear sentence that your brain can muster and the rest will follow.

By being honest with your journal you can then be honest with yourself and your health.

PHOTO BY JULIA BALAKRISHNAN

LIFESTYLE

Friday, September 23, 2016

Sexual explorations Continued from page 15

We flagged down an attendant to ask where the remote was. The attendant, who was wearing a “him/he/his” pronoun sticker, told us they have to hide the remote, otherwise someone will try to shove it up their ass or something.

I laughed, but he assured me in a monotone voice that he wasn’t kidding, as he put on a porn parody of Gilligan’s Island. I wasn’t really into watching a Skipper look-alike get a blowjob so I wandered downstairs to hang out in the hot tub.

It was empty, save for one other woman. She struck up a conversation and told me about how she and her husband come here because it’s a safe space for kink-oriented couples.

“I don’t feel safe meeting people on Craigslist. Without Oasis, I don’t know where we would play.”

She mentioned that sometimes she comes here just to hang around and swim. “Where else would I get to swim in my birthday suit? I love spending time just being naked,” she said with a laugh. “What’s more comfortable than your own skin?” Harry and I both had a pretty g o o d time, even though neither of us ended up having anonymous

sex with strangers. Not that we didn’t get our fair share of offers — I personally got approached a few times, but it was actually far more civilized than any interaction I’ve had at a non-adultoriented club.

After accidently making eye contact with a middle aged man in a towel, he approached me at the bar and asked politely if I’d like to “join him upstairs”.

Usually when unwanted suitors approach me at bars, I feel compelled to come up with a fake excuse like, “I have a boyfriend.”

For some reason, I felt safe enough to simply smile, and say “no thank you!” He nodded, wished me a pleasant evening and was quickly gone.

In comparison to my recent experience of having a guy at a club tell me to “get raped, stupid cunt” because I was not interested in the warm, pre-opened Budweiser he was offering me, the lounge was downright genteel.

Maybe it’s because of their LGBTQ inclusive and feminist values, or maybe it was because you didn’t have to wear pants, but I felt more comfortable where the pretense — and clothing — was stripped away.

A different literary canon Continued from page 15

into Austen’s childhood notebook when she was just 14, is a story told in letters.

The parody of Victorian-era romantic novels follows the narrator Laura as she retells her life’s adventures and misfortunes to her best friend’s daughter, Marianne. In her letters she mocks the fickleness of romance and family traditions — a social critique that was far beyond her years in maturity.

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell I first read Gaskell in an English

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class. We read North & South, a novel set in the epicentre of Victorian industrial society, with heavy themes of women’s place in Victorian society.

Although this is the one often taught in literature classes, people typically forget that Gaskell wrote another book, Cranford, that takes her characteristic penchant for social critique and expands it ten times over.

In Cranford, a series of vignettes tell the story of the English country town by the same name that’s governed and dominated by women — the novel is populated by their lush friendships and dark satire. It speaks not only of its time, but much of the same critique of women’s place in society could apply just as aptly today as it did then.

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The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood We’ve all heard of The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood’s dystopian novel that sits at the forefront of “Canadian classics”. Though she’s known for her ability to write books almost as quickly as Stephen King’s nearly annual thrillers, many often overlook the thin, yet sharply intelligent The Edible Woman.

Her first novel is a cutting satire of a young woman caught in the chains of a consuming relationship and a society obsessed with thinness. It tackles with eloquence and wit the same theme that stirs constant discussion today — body image and its overlap with modern relationships.

Applications Due: November 18th

18 •queensjournal.ca

LIFESTYLE

Friday, September 23, 2016

LIFESTYLE

Friday, September 23, 2016

queensjournal.ca

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POSTSCRIPT

Exploring alternate faiths in Kingston Our experience at a Wiccan Moot

Our uninformed, novice’s attempt of a Wiccan altar.

Jenna Zucker and Ashley Rhamey Journal Staff

A

s we pulled open the double doors to The Merchant Tap House on the third Wednesday of September, we were nervous to see what was on the other side.

Days of discussion and wonderment pre-empted the many possibilities, all of which we expected to be grand, odd and… magical.

Walking through the dimly lit entrance at exactly 8 p.m. we nervously approached the bar to find that the inside of it was far larger than it seemed. It stretched into several directions filled semi-divided rooms that couldn’t be fully seen from any one vantage point. We’d never been here before and didn’t know what to expect.

We made our way to the bar and ordered a white wine each, paid for by the only other person on a stool, a man from Boston watching the Red Sox game.

Looking around the almost empty pub, we began to lose hope that we would find what we were looking for, so we asked the bartender if he was familiar with the Wiccan Moot that meets there monthly.

He wasn’t.

Wiccans are members of the religion Wicca. Often scrutinized for being cultlike and mysterious, the religion in simple terms can be defined as an earth-based, pre-pagan religion. It’s very hands-on and requires a lot of work to properly follow.

The word “moot” is what they call their informal gatherings.

The bartender walked through an entryway to the back of the bar and returned to tell us that he suspected we should go sit by the table with the white balloon in the center, as the group sitting around it looked like they could fit the part.

The incredibly practical way of finding the group was a theme that continued throughout our evening.

We couldn’t help but giggle and promised we’d give him the details afterwards and with that, nervously made our way over to the Wiccan’s table.

In preparing for the Moot, we ran multiple searches on how to begin practicing Wicca. We wanted to go in already inducted into the religion — which we now realize was ridiculous. The Internet told us to build a religious altar with things that inspired us, made us happy and connected us to nature.

Actually, it said “you.” Singular. If our first faux pas was trying to build a religious

altar, our second was trying to do it as a pair.

We collected clovers and leaves, do-dads from our bedrooms and a compilation of Poe’s short stories and tea light candles; each item meant to compliment the spooky mood we were aiming for.

When we thought of Wicca the night before coming to the Moot, the images that came to mind were of Hermione Granger, broomsticks, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and that really odd Halloween-themed Olsen twins movie with a moonstone and a magic mirror.

Walking over to the three person table, it was clear that those depictions were nowhere near reality.

Sitting down, an outsider’s only clue as to why we were congregated was a small

continue the practice into her adult life. She emphasized that they don’t sway people or allow people under 18 to participate in certain aspects until they have lived enough to make an informed decision.

She sent her own children to Catholic schools in order to expose them to mainstream religion and make sure they were able to experience things for themselves before choosing what they wanted to practice.

The male leader of the meeting, was raised in a Christian family. He chose to pursue Wicca when he was 16 years old after a period of questioning Anglican Christianity. While both had different experiences, they connected in Kingston.

The itinerary for the evening was

What began as a defensive and uncomfortable “ conversation quickly turned to a friendly and welcoming academic environment.

pentagram pendant hanging from the male group leader’s neck.

The female leader welcomed us with questions about what led us to their gathering and we shifted uncomfortably in our seats as we told them that we worked for The Journal and came to learn more about the Wiccans than what was offered online.

What began as a defensive and uncomfortable conversation quickly turned to a friendly and welcoming academic environment. The leaders pulled out their prepared notes and began to explain the topic for the evening: Mabon, the autumn equinox.

This occurs twice a year and puts the sun and the moon, the god and the goddess, in equality. They explained that this was a time of harvest and celebration, also known as a Sabbat.

Wary of our minimal knowledge, the Wicca leaders frequently stopped themselves from only using technical terms and seemed to genuinely care for our understanding of the practices.

We glanced over at each other knowingly — we were being better accommodated here than in some of our seminars.

The duo who ran the meeting explained that they had very different introductions to Wicca. The woman told us that she had been raised with Wicca and decided to

”

formatted to encourage discussion and was balanced to include some hands-on inspection of the selected gemstone and herb. We were presented with a wealth of information, both scientific and spiritual, about each.

Both leaders had differing views peppered throughout the evening. Each time they spoke about their opinion and interpretation of something, such as the concept of Magick, they managed to do so without aggression. Neither one wanted

A five-point star in an apple, the herb of the Moot.

PHOTO BY JENNA ZUCKER

to convince the other that their way was best, instead they expressed their thoughts intelligently and listened to each other’s point of view.

The common understanding of magic has to do with spells, wizards and witches.

Magick with a ‘k’ is to be understood as the belief in nature being super rather than the belief in the supernatural. Wiccans will things to happen through their everyday actions. They don’t force change, but promote it through ritual.

They stressed after any sweeping statement about what something meant or how something was practised, that not all Wiccans would agree on everything.

Because of the heavy emphasis on individual interpretation, they didn’t need to.

It gave the concept of Wicca, despite being a demanding practise, a sense of freedom that someone from a monotheistic background may not have had with their own scripture and sermons.

Wicca, as we came to realize, was not a mysterious fad, but a complicated and serious religion with an equally complicated and serious history.

By about halfway through the night, we began to feel somewhat guilty about our misinformed ideas about what Wicca would be like.

We concluded that any religion or practise could be reduced to spooky and strange rituals if not presented by a knowledgeable source. Just because we desperately wanted Harry Potter’s world to exist in real life doesn’t mean it does.

PHOTO BY JULIA BALAKRISHNAN

20 •queensjournal.ca

Friday, September 23, 2016