Graffiti Spring 2016

TORAH HIGH (MARKS)

JUICE YOURSELF

A critical report on what those inflated credit mill marks might signal for students pg 5

We drink $10 [insert unsavoury vegetable here] juices so that you don’t have to! pg 25

NT’S RADIO STAR Viktor Elias on Kesha, activism, and the radio. pg 14

NO MONEY FOR ART? >> The TDSB’s Budget Cuts Analyzed CHECK YOUR PRIVILEGE! >> On Intersectionality

Baruch Zohar Jessica Bulgutch

editors in chief

Features pg 12

Fay Asimakopoulos Tamar KB

editorial board Arts and Culture Olivia Willows Victoria Stafford

Opinion & Humour Caitlyn Heffernan Logan Midroni

JHR Susi Hermanns Elizabeth Wolfenden

Internal Ajantha Nades Alyssa Joynt

Sports Matt Scace Sam Spodek

Copy Editors Parnian Hossein-Pour Emily Steen Steven Lee Naomi Bargiel Genevieve CrispinFrei Jo Faisman

External Chitta Chowdhury Amy He Features Cassidy Bereskin Jenny Lee Visuals Editors Amy Zhu Alice Liang

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Contents

Internal External

pg Arts & Culture 25 pg 28

Sports

pg Opinion & Humour 32

staff advisors Baruch Zohar Jessica Bulgutch

editors...

High school is a time for change. It is a time for asking questions and experiencing new things. It is a time for planning. And for some, it is a time for playing before life really happens.

So yes. Try new things. If you find yourself in Kensington market, as we often did, try a food stand you haven’t before. Dip your aloo paratha in a combination of chili sauce, date sauce and yogurt. Buy a book by an author you’ve never heard of before without consulting GoodReads first.

Take a detour towards a neighbourhood you rarely pass through. Seek new experiences -- hopefully with the help of our Top 10 profiles on the editorial board’s favourite TTC stations.

This issue was slightly easier, if not a bit less stressful for us. Just like the rest of NT’s class of 2016, we have grown a little too familiar with our craft (although, truth be told, InDesign will never not be tedious). It’s a bittersweet type of comfort, because we know it won’t -- and shouldn’t -- last.

So, we tried to get ambitious with our subject matter instead, exploring everyone’s favourite gossip fodder -- the grad trip -- as well as the lives of Syrian refugees, the credit mill craze, transgender rights, and Hillary Clinton’s identity politics, among other issues.

Read widely. Unsettle yourself. We are here to help.

Stay restless,

Fay and Tamar

pg 17

pg 20

Advisors Lucy Wolff Lujayn Mahmoud Anastasia Zaritovskaya

Letter from the

pg 4

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Community Updates...

Charity Week Recap...

Higher(Ed) [

]

EDUCATION

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>> THE LEGEND OF S-TRIP >> SPECIAL PROGRAM CUTS >> SYRIAN REFUGEES >> MORE

The Cult of Grad Trip: Myth Meets Reality

by Fay Asimakopoulos & Tamar KB Spring break is a weird, even if starkingly predictable, tradition. It is what prom would look like if it happened in Vegas. It purports to be the ultimate marriage of innocence and debauchery: a time to hook up, do illegal substances, and lose your voice while wearing sparkly nail polish, a Punta Cana tourist t-shirt, and the less-than-endearing naivete of someone who has never had to clean up a dismantled hotel room. And more NT students than ever before are paying to go on it.

The most popular organizer, and the corporation likely responsible for bringing this thoroughly 90s Americana rite of passage to Canada, is S-Trip. Amusingly enough, S-Trip’s promotional materials tout the trip as an opportunity for PG-13 socializing mixed in with a copious amount of voluntourism and cultural exchange. In fact, S-Trip’s website contains testimonials from students who claim the volunteer experience helped them “pursue an international relations major at university”, or whose “life was changed!”.

A quick chat with an S-Trip office staff, under the pretence of being an interested student and her concerned mother left us with no doubts about the fact that most attendees don’t go on S-Trip in an attempt to build schools or rescue the Developing World from the jaws of poverty. As a student, we were told to “contact the school-wide S-Trip coordinator” for more information, and were reassured that there would be “a lot of partying, if [we] wanted that”. As a parent, calling at a later time to clarify safety concerns and ask about the educational value of the trip, we were told that “volunteer opportunities exist, I think” and that “there haven’t been too many safety issues in the past few years”.

There might have been a shrug on the other side of the line. “You know your child.”The office staff sounded either thoroughly unprepared to provide rigorous data to back up his claims or humoured by the idea that a parent might want for their kids’ S-Trip experience to match that of their website prospectuses.

The verdict is clear. According to an NT grad who went to Punta Cana last year, “At the end of the day, S-Trip [is] just a huge party”.

Yet, if anecdotes are to be trusted, grad trip is more than just a huge party: it is a party where high schoolers can shatter all taboos, abandon all concern for public decency, and not be judged by their peers. A female grad and S-Trip veteran calls the experience “insane”, noting that “many of [her] friends lost their virginities on that trip, a sex tape was made without a girl’s consent, and people were nearly naked on the beach”. That year, a student overdosed on drugs and was left in the hospital in a coma long past the trip’s ending. This year, according to a Grade 12 male student, a “group of students managed to get their hands on cocaine”,

leading to another series of emergency room visits. A Grade 12 female student who went on the Punta Cana trip this year claims that the maids got fed up with students’ tendency to “leave condoms all over the floor” and left a note in Spanish imploring them to “enjoy [their] f****** time”.

So extreme was the behaviour of S-Trip attendees last year, that the Punta Cana hotel they went to has banned S-Trip from hosting another grad trip there. In a phone conversation with a receptionist, in which we expressed concerns that our family vacations might be interrupted by S-Trip, we were reassured that “there would be no S-Trip” in any of the hotel’s chains, and that all independent (non S-Trip) grad trip attendees would be restricted to a single hotel.

S-Trip represents a party where high schoolers can shatter all taboos, abandon all concern for public decency, and not be judged by their peers.

And while it is easy to sensationalize grad trip -- after all, others’ almost cinematic debauchery makes for rather satisfying gossip -- it is more difficult to understand why and how this tradition came about. It is customary for students around the world to rejoice about the final stretch of high school; however, there are few places, other than North America, where it is acceptable, if not expected, for that celebration to take the form of complete and utter abandon.

So why do we pay so much to make complete fools of ourselves? The answer is the same myth that drives North Americans to work long, corporate hours just for a timed get-away to

a tropical vacation; it is the same reason why prom, a single dance at the end of the school year, is seen as the peak of one’s high school years; it is the same reason why people have Bachelor and Bachelorette parties before getting married.

With mounting academic pressures, there is an anxiety about missing out -- on life experiences, childhood, and carelessness.

But this is Canada -- and so, we must get our solution in the form of a $3000, drug-addled week-long excursion. If one works hard, it is so that they can “play hard” during the weekends; moreover, the harder one works (to quote one NT student who went on S-Trip this year “I have been burning out for four straight years, and I think that I deserve this”), the more entitled one is to partying. And to party, one has to go away -- to a place where, according to our sensationalized perceptions, people have more joie de vivre, an exotic lifestyle, or both. It is a myopic, if not unfulfilling, mode of existence: it asserts not only that hard work is the only way that one can be entitled to happiness, but also that, once one has worked hard enough, they are entitled to doing anything that tickles their fancy -- as long as they can return to the monotone security of their Canadian home to continue working, unscathed, afterwards.

In the late 1960s, Glendon Swarthout’s book “Where The Boys Are” documented American soldiers’ summer getaways to North Carolina beaches, where they would party, womanizing and drinking heavily. It effectively ushered the idea of a spring break into the American consciousness. The students that go on S-Trip this year aren’t soldiers; the justification for their complete abandon is the appealing narrative that the harder they work, the harder they must play. All other concerns are secondary.

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Torah High(er) Marks

by Cassidy Bereskin

Torah High is a fast-growing private credit program offering high school students a less competitive opportunity to earn credits in courses such as leadership, history, philosophy, Jewish studies, and political science. For an NT student aiming to raise his average by a few percent to get into his“top choice” university program, Torah High may sound like an attractive opportunity.

Torah High defines itself as a pathway to “affordable Jewish education”. While the credit program considers its courses to be “fun, experimental and personalized”, students see them as vehicles to successful university applications. Among NT students, there is increasing demand for Torah High courses.

A female NT Grade 12 student is currently enrolled in Torah High’s philosophy course.

Her class consists of “ten students” who all appear to “get good marks”. Throughout the course course, she “learns about philosophers like Plato as well as [topics in] Jewish philosophy”. She claims her course has been “easy” because she “doesn’t don’t get homework and only [has] had a few assignments and an exam in each half of the course so far”.

Jon Ziner-Cohen, a Grade 12 NT student, is currently completing Torah High’s Canadian and world politics course. He signed up for the course craving “the full Torah High ex-

perience”, which consists of “pizza and a laid back style of learning”. Ziner-Cohen primarily considers his Torah High course “an easy mark” because he “has a lot of knowledge in the subjects pertaining to [the course]”.

Although Zinner-Cohen acknowledges that

his course material is “quite difficult”, he concedes that most students “simply don’t apply themselves” and attributes their apathy to Torah High’s reputation for “giving really high marks”.

Torah High’s objective is simple: to maximize profit. On average, Torah High charges $599 for each course. To compete with Blyth and other private credit giants, Torah High needs to keep grades competitively high.

Mr. Gorenkoff reports that “Torah High marks appear to be higher than most other schools.

Frequently, marks that Torah High gives out are between 95 and 100, and very often 99100”. Ziner-Cohen’s current average in Canadian and world politics is 98 and his class’s overall average is between 87 and 90. This Torah High class average is almost 20 percent above its average NT class counterpart. ZinerCohen has even heard of instances of a “handful of [Torah High] students” receiving 100 in a course at once.

However, not everybody seeks a Torah High education for the same reasons. A Grade 11 NT student claims he was driven to Torah High to “get more involved with Judaism”.

According to a student in Grade 12, “the history and politics course was actually really dense”. She claims that people often overlook the complexity of Torah High’s courses. The student highlights that her class “learned the entire history of Hellenism, Christianity, Islam and Judaism”. According to the student, Torah High gave her an insightful taste of “history, politics and philosophy” -- but she also notes that, despite the fact that the history and politics course was a “designated hard course”, her class’s marks were primarily in the 90’s.

NT’s administrators have mounting concerns over the marks that Torah High allocates.

Although our administration strongly condemns private credit schools and aims to deter students from “buying their credits”, the demand for Torah High is still seeming to increase. Mr Gorenkoff has “concerns about the types of marks that are being generated [by Torah High]”. He questions the “efficacy of the numbers” and wonders whether Torah High’s “overly elevated” marks are truly representing students’ abilities to master course material.

NT’s administration has responded in various

ways. The guidance department prepares an annual assembly for Grade 11’s to debunk the myths of private credits. NT’s administration has also barred students who have received private credits from collecting scholarships and awards. NT’s administration also makes an effort to warn parents that programs such as Waterloo’ engineering and computer science program deduct 5% from averages that are formulated with one or more private courses.

Mr. Gorenkoff points out that a hypothetical student may “have a 60 average” but may still “want to go to the university program of [his] choice”. Gorenkoff renders this student susceptible to eventually “falling down” or “dropping out of a competitive university program.

Although NT’s administration has cracked down on the Torah High surge, a Grade 12 NT student doubts her universities will be concerned with her Torah High credit, as “[universities] will see it regardless on the OUAC website” and “don’t have any way of knowing where [she] took the course”. Another NT student highlights that “some universities care, but most don’t”.

Although Torah High is gaining traction among NT students, its mark inflation can create long-term problems that jeopardize students’ post-secondary success. As Mr. Gorenkoff says: “sometimes, students are missing the point. Students should strive to master what they’re learning and receive a mark that is indicative of the work they put into their education”.

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Budget Cuts

by Victoria Stafford in order to prepare. Professionals must be booked and instruments must be repaired. All of these are difficult tasks if, every couple months, new conductors, directors, and teachers are introduced.

Physical education and sports teams are generally known as outlets for stress. They provide a safe space for students to “blow off steam”, “let loose”, and about five other clichés used in conjunction with the definition of relieving stress. Growing up, DPA was mandatory, as students were told time and time again how important physical activity was, and is. Conversely, there is a large group of students who cringe at a football, laugh at sweat stains, and consider running shoes strictly a fashion statement. These students find comfort not in sweat stains and soccer fields, but stages and musical staves. Musical students thrive in TDSB music programs, when those programs are not being suppressed by a variety of factors.

At threat from budget cuts, union seniority, and “in district” rules, are music programs really receiving the attention they need to keep them vibrant? No, not really.

Budget cuts are one thing. Music teachers have, in the past, admitted to using “[their] own money to buy new literature sources” after their school received budget cuts.

Many have sought ‘outside funding’, as they are no longer capable of acquiring the necessary funding to purchase resources to effectively teach their classes. These outside funds can come in the form of

grants offered by the municipal government, school board, and parent councils; however, as they are only grants, they cannot be offered to everyone. While textbooks and novels can be read year after year, music programs must purchase new sheet music every year in order to maintain interest and diversity and provide exciting concerts. This is in addition to the thousands of dollars spent on instruments and the maintenance of their quality. Music programs simply cannot afford budget cuts.

Union seniority. Nearly every student has seen this rule in action, as one teacher is replaced with another. Often referred to as the “bumping process”, schools such as Lawrence Park have relatively weaker music programs, largely in part from it. Recently, their former music director retired, leaving a spot for a new teacher in the fall of 2015. This new teacher #1 was then “bumped” in January of 2015, and subsequently replaced by another music teacher, new teacher #2.

Without surprise, new teacher #2 was “bumped” in late August of this year, and replaced only weeks into the school year. For nearly two years, the TDSB allowed their seniority rules to disrupt a school’s music program. The sheet music discussed earlier? It has to be purchased spring of the previous year

Due to the high demand for spots in the new building, North Toronto’s ‘out of district/in district’ rules are infamously strict. This was not always the case; the crumbling building did not experience the level of demand that the new building does. This newfound compulsion was, for many, not from the new computers and fancy auditoriums, but the music program. However, with the new building and academic quality of N.T. receiving increasing attention with each passing year, the size of our program decreases. While N.T. music teachers explain that numbers go up and down from year to year, this is definitely one of the lowest. A teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, stated, “When I first came to N.T. in ‘94, there were a total of 23 students in the grade nine class who were ‘in district’. The remaining 150 or so grade nines came from all over the city. Many came because of the music program”.

Affluent schools with longstanding teachers do not experience disadvantages through budgets or seniority, but the new school can sometimes be a hindrance as much as it is a help.

Yes, millions of dollars are invested into the arts every year in a variety of ways, but they still struggle. The arts are expensive, but thousands of students means the money is more than well spent. Set in stone rules – such as the seniority rule – have to evolve to allow exceptions. Yes the district rules prevent over-population, but is it fair to let music programs suffer because of it? These once-great rules need to change.

If I come out of high school biology with anything it’s that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell and everything has to evolve.

Top 10 #2: ST PATRICK

by Angela Cui

St. Patrick Station is known for the stunning mint green coloured tiling that’s a true reflection of it’s name and its rare circular tunnels. It’s also located in a great part of downtown Toronto; a mere 20 minute subway ride from Eglinton. The surrounding area is filled with exciting places to explore and a diverse architecture. The station is only a five minute walk to the Art Gallery of Ontario, which is always filled with great exhibits and has free admission on Wednesday nights! (Fun fact - the TTC had once considered changing the name of St. Patrick to ‘Art Gallery ‘ in reference to the AGO.) If you’re up to a longer stroll, Kensington Market is a 20 minute walk away. Kensington has an eclectic mix of cute cafes, vintage clothing shops, and an amazing gelato place scattered along it’s streets. This is also, of course, in the Chinatown district, so there’s bound to be great places for food and booths filled with fruit. I mean, who doesn’love downtown Toronto?

Top 10 #1 EGLINTON

By Cassidy Bereskin

Although many consider Eglinton a TTC station on the Yonge— University line, I consider it my home.

As a ninth grader, Eglinton was my gateway to Toronto’s public transit system, to independence, and to urban exploration. The station’s homelike familiarity, which stems from its proximity to North Toronto, holds sentimental value to many students.

Eglinton connects a spate of high-rise apartment buildings and offices to the Yonge Eglinton Centre, an open, architecturally innovative complex, which contains popular chains such as Indigo Bookstore, Urban Outfitters, Pickle Barrel, and Silver City.

For many students, Eglinton station is fundamental to everyday life.

The Second Cup tucked inside the station serves as our meeting place; the food court tucked inside the Yonge Eglinton centre serves as our go-to lunch spot; the Starbucks tucked inside the Indigo serves as our group project hangout. In a buzzing and populated city, it can be difficult to feel at home.

Yonge and Eglinton’s sense of community serves to remind us that even in a densely crowded place, homelike familiarity can be achieved.

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A Story From The 25 000

by Charlie Littler

On February 29th Canada achieved its goal of assisting 25,000 Syrian refugees in relocation to Canada. However, the 25,000 refugees accounted for only include those that have been publicly relocated, meaning that the government provided them with direct assistance. Private sponsors have also proven to be a significant source of support. As of February 27th, there were 8,527 refugees accepted to Canada through private funding such as charities, and places of worship. The Rajab family is amongst those 8,527.

Private sponsorship for refugees is a system that is unique to Canada. It allows for nongovernment run organizations to provide assistance in bringing people to Canada. For refugees, the system is run by requiring that every group raise a certain amount of money depending on the amount of people the plan to be sponsoring. The system is a brilliant way of involving a community in light of crises like the Syrian Civil War, and promotes responsibility within Canada to contribute.

The Rajab family arrived in early January of 2016, after a grueling four months of preparations and applications. The family of six; Mostafa, his wife Souheila, and their four children, Mohammed (19), Abdel Hamid (18), Yahya (11) and Hala (13) were met with a wave of support from their first steps off the plane.

However, their journey had not been easy.

The family fled Ikko, a village in Syria, after it was attacked on March 21st in 2012. The family, as Mostafa put it, was “left with only the clothes on their backs”. They left behind a difficult but happy life in Ikko. The Rajabs had never been particularly wealthy, but with their father teaching, and the house he built years ago, they were comfortable. However, as the fighting began, that life soon crumbled, leaving Mostafa having to support and protect four kids under the age of 16 while escaping a war zone. They spent months running from the dangers in Syria, eventually having no choice but to settle near the Syrian border in Lebanon. The family soon heard word that their beautiful house had crumbled in the air

strikes on their village. With that, the Rajabs lost hope. They had been striped of their home and their safety, forced to seek refuge in dangerous areas. As Mohammed, who was just 16 at the time, pointed out, “A person [his] age was not supposed to live that kind of life.” And he was right; a warzone is no place to live out a childhood The Rajabs had no other options and their home, which had once been a great source of pride for the family, was now a small tin shack barely fit for one person, let alone a family of six. Conditions were poor, and the Rajab family often ended up without food for days at a time. Taken so abruptly from their lives, the children had no access to a school, and quickly fell behind in their education. Mostafa was now burdened by the incredible task of supporting his family without any way to work and earn money. The Rajab’s prospects were dim, and so they waited out years without knowing what each coming day would bring.

The family, as Mostafa put it, was “left with only the clothes on their backs?

As fate would have it, Eglinton St George’s United Church was looking to sponsor a family of Syrian refugees. The church community was soon able to raise and surpass the amount of money required for this, and were even gifted with an anonymous $10,000 donation to aid in the cause. The government soon matched the Rajab family (who was considered to be in immediate danger if not granted relocation) and the process began. The first contact that the Rajab family had with Eglinton St George was through a phone call taking place through translators, and with a shaky connection. Despite this, they got the message.

Hope. The Rajab family would soon be coming to Canada.

The following weeks were a blur of preparations and anticipation from both the family and the Church. The Church community all pitched in, providing kitchenware, clothing, and helping to set up the apartment. There was not a single person not involved in some way.

A father and daughter came to paint Hala’s room pink. Another group set up a computer for the family to use. Thousands of kilometers away, the Rajab family waited for their flight announcement to come. By Christmas, they were undergoing their physical examinations, and by early January they were getting on the plane.

Their arrival was emotional, and exhausting.

After hours of travel the Rajab family were put in a hotel room until the morning, when they would move into their new home. “My favorite memory is the first day in Canada and meeting new people. The first day was very nice. A new home and new people and new country was a strange feeling” Mohamed remarked of their arrival. The Rajabs were eager to settle into life in Canada, a country they knew nothing of beyond the kindness of the people at Eglinton St George’s United Church. They quickly made home in the small Scarborough apartment, where the posters that first greeted them at the airport hang above the couch.

The family has recently begun an ESL program, and the children have all been welcomed into new schools. The details of the family’s future remain unknown. But if one thing is certain, the compassion and acceptance of communities like Eglinton St George, project a bright future for the Rajabs and the 25,000+ other refugees settling into Canada. Mohamed and I ended our interview with one question: What are you looking forward to the most in the future? Mohamed pondered this for a few moments then replied, “After five years of war and four difficult years in Lebanon, I look forward to the establishment of a beautiful future for me and for my family”. And what a beautiful future it looks to be.

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The Woes Of An 8th Grade Parent

By Josh Chung and Hanna Sharifi Remember a time not too long ago when you had to make a decision; perhaps the biggest in your life? It was easy for some, probably forced upon others. Historically speaking, the choice was simple and you just went to the closest high school in your community. Within the last decade, things have heated up. Cities have grown; new high schools have been built. Since the amalgamation of 7 school boards to create the TDSB in 1998, students in Toronto can choose between 105 secondary schools. If that school is open for optional attendance, any student can apply to it, regardless of where they live. The competition between parents to enter their children into their high school of choice has become intense, to say the least. ​ At popular high schools such as North Toronto and Forest Hill, hundreds of optional attendance applications are turned down every February. At Lawrence Park CI, optional attendance has been closed for the last few years. Currently, Lawrence is over capacity by 140%, with some classes being held in the staff room. Even schools that accept out of district students have to turn down some applicants in order to keep themselves from overflowing.

For North Toronto, Mr. Gorenkoff says that, “It’s like word of mouth. North Toronto has to be the place to go, because it’s bursting at the seams, but they’re missing out at great opportunities out there.” Each year, North Toronto receives an average of 400 applicants that live across the TDSB’s network, meaning that they do not come from one of NT’’s feeder schools (Hodgson, Glenview, and Deer Park).

The students who do not currently study at a feeder school, nor have a sibling currently attending NT, are given the lowest priority when they apply under optional attendance. It is not therefore not surprising that the odds for their odds of being accepted are estimated at a mere 10% each year. ​ However, overbearing parents have become increasingly desperate to get their children into these attractive schools. Buying an address, renting a basement or even paying a friend to vouch for you have become popular methods of “going under the radar”. An article done by The Toronto Star in 2013 discovered 15 grade nine applicants for Earl Haig apparently living under the same roof. It is not uncommon to find homeowners who live in popular catchment areas earn an income by selling their address. In the NT community, Mr. Gorenkoff agrees that there are a few “hot addresses” that the administration is constantly on the lookout

for on optional attendance forms. ​ TDSB policy states that students must reside in the school’s catchment area in order for that school to be considered their home school. However, many parents believe that just owning or renting a property gives their child direct access to the school. Last year, a family from Hong Kong bought a property in the Yonge-Eglinton area to gain access to NT. The child never actually lived at the address, instead staying with her grandparents’. The family rented the property, which was worth upwards of 1 million dollars, and used the address on her application form.

Not surprisingly, NT goes to great lengths in order to catch offenders each application season. “We’re very careful and we’re very equitable,” says Mr. Gorenkoff. “I don’t care if you have money, or power; I want to make sure that you live in this area. It’s all about equity and fairness.”

Parents routinely convince each other to falsely apply together In addition to the form, parents must also provide evidence that the family resides at the given address, such as hydro bills or telephone bills. If the school administration is still skeptical about a student’s residence, they may conduct random house checks, knocking on the door of the address provided. “It’s often interesting,” Mr. Gorenkoff says. “I’ll go on Google maps, look at the place. We do a lot of research when someone arrives.” In the past, a family creatively devised a plan to use their business address (which was located in the catchment area) as their home address. Thanks to Google street view technology, the administration was able to see that the address provided led them to a nail salon. Upon such discoveries like these, the applications are discarded and the students are turned back to their home school (or they try their luck at their second high school of choice). ​ Schools like NT have become desirable as a result of high ratings from reputable ranking systems such as the Fraser Institute. NT is currently ranked the 21st best high school in Ontario (out of 676), and the 4th best in Toronto, including private schools. Along with that, real estate agents go around listing the top schools in the area and include the most recent

EQAO scores from those schools. Subsequently, the Yonge-Eglinton neighbourhood has become one of the most sought after housing areas in Toronto. According to Ms. de Braux, students have told her that “[NT is] mentioned on message boards all over the world and that people actually settle in this catchment area when they settle in Canada because they have heard things about the school”. She went on to say that some things listed online about NT are untrue. “We are erroneously listed as an Advanced Placement school, and a number of people want to come here for those courses which we don’t offer”. ​ Peer pressure has significantly added to the problem. Parents of eighth grade students who live out of district routinely convince each other to falsely apply together. A current grade nine student claims that he was constantly pressured by his peers to buy and declare a fake address to be assured of an acceptance into North Toronto. Although the student entered NT legally, it is unknown if his classmates ever made it through the rigorous screening process.

The strides that parents take to do what they think is best for their child can often jeopardize their child’s future. “If a student entered the school on false pretenses, meaning the parent/ student presented incorrect documents, they will be removed from the school,” says Mr. Gorenkoff. “And the parents should understand that if they are removed – all the friends the kid has made, all the teams they’ve joined – all that is at stake. Each year, I have 1 or 2 [students] that I have to do that to”. Although the school tries to facilitate a smooth transition to the home school, usually at the end of the year, the change can be detrimental to the rest of the child’s school life. On some occasions, the guidance department has had to counsel students who have been removed from the school. Ms. de Braux describes that “It is unfortunate because students are students, and it is their parents that are making decisions”.

It is hard to imagine why parents go to such lengths to get their child into what they believe is the “best” high school. Although they are right to want to do what is best for their kids, at what point does that desire go to extremes?

To those parents out there, keep in mind this quote from Ms. de Braux: “It doesn’t matter where you go if you try hard, you get involved, and you get excited about your education. That can happen anywhere”.

Top 10 #3: UNION

By Jimmy Yang

Union station. The busiest subway station in Toronto. It is the hub for all major transportation routes connecting Toronto to the rest of Canada. Via Rail, the GO Train, GO Buses, and the Union-Pearson Express all connect at this station. With the new renovation and expansion just over two years ago, it not only looks neater but it is also less crowded. Monday to Friday, the area is jammed with suits and ties. On the surface, we find the reason for the abundance of suits and ties in the area. There are many office buildings, which rise high above the ground. Accompanying them are the numerous restaurants and cafés which are scattered about. If we walk a bit further west, we end up at the base of Toronto’s most iconic building: the CN Tower.

Alternatively, if we go south, we can enjoy Toronto’s waterfront, overlooking the Toronto Islands and the Billy Bishop Airport. Travel to the islands is simply a ferry ride away. Union also connects to the underground labyrinth of shops and restaurants known as the PATH. This complex stretches all the way to Dundas, across four subway stations. With so much diversity and so much to offer, it is no wonder the station is named Union.

Features [ FEATURES]

>> 40 hours >> NT CLUBS >> NT VS NORTHERN >> MORE

40 Hours of Opportunity

by Olivia Willows

It’s one week before your grade 12 graduation when, suddenly, you come to a horrifying realization. You haven’t completed your 40 volunteer hours. You tell yourself there’s no need to panic; you can figure this out. You grab your calculator, crunch some numbers, and come to the conclusion that you will need to volunteer for six hours per day for the next week in order to graduate. But, taking your tests, essays and assignments into account, it’s impossible. There’s no better way to put this­– you’re screwed.

As a requirement to receive the OSSD, the Government of Ontario mandates that all students complete 40 hours of community service. The hours may be obtained from as many places as a student wishes, provided that each volunteer activity has a stamp of approval from the student’s school board. The requirement was created in 1999, with the purpose being to “encourage students to develop awareness and understanding of civic responsibility and of the role they can play and the contributions they can make in supporting and strengthening their communities.” To any rational human being, encouraging students to become benevolent citizens sounds like a fantastic idea, but not all share this belief — the main opposers being the students themselves.

According to one grade 11 NT student, Jordana Stal, “forcing” students to complete 40 volunteer hours is “a really stupid idea.” She claims that the requirement “forces people to do nice things, instead of making people want to do nice things on their own,” which is “not genuine.” While the majority of students do not share this extreme view, most are quite apathetic when it comes to their community service. In fact, there appears to be an epidemic of community service fraud in Ontario high schools. My cousin conceded that most students at his London, Ontario high school, himself included, forged the signatures on their volunteer sheets, and a colleague of my mother’s said that this was a frequent occur-

rence at the high school she attended as well.

Although volunteering may seem like a tedious chore, it is extremely beneficial for the future careers of students. In a recent online survey of North Toronto Students, 74% of 72 students claimed that their volunteer work was not relevant or only somewhat relevant to their job prospects. Most students admitted to receiving most of their volunteer hours by completing mundane tasks around the schools, making little effort to seek a more challenging or rewarding volunteer experience. Relevant volunteer experience, however, is considered an asset to many employers. In fact, Deloitte, a global human resources consulting firm, found in their 2013 Volunteer Impact survey that 76% of human resource executives believe that volunteer experience makes a job candidate more desirable. For high school students, having relevant and meaningful volunteer experience on their resumes may give them a leg up when they are applying for ever-so-desirable Starbucks barista and Urban Outfitters shirtfolder positions. There are even monetary postsecondary scholarships available for students who have partaken in outstanding community service work. Who doesn’t love a financial reward for a job well done?

And, volunteering reaps benefits that go far beyond future employment. In fact, according to helpguide.org, a non-profit website that focuses on mental health and wellbeing, volunteering is good for your mind and body. It can increase self-confidence, provide a sense of purpose, and potentially combat depression. One high school student, Rachel Otchere Gyan, can attest to these benefits. She claims that “volunteering as a camp counsellor has made [her] a more confident public speaker.”

For students who are unsure about their future careers, but still want an extraordinary volunteer experience, there are other options. One grade 11 student, Jordie Wilkinson, received her volunteer hours on an overseas service trip

with Me to We, an organization that “inspires and enables people to become leaders and agents of change.” The summer going into her grade ten year, Wilkinson travelled to rural Kenya and completed her 40 hours by building the foundation of a school. But for her, the trip was so much more than just that. As she said, “most people did not go on the trip just for their volunteer hours, and if they did, they were there for the wrong reason.” In addition to building the school, Wilkinson engaged with village children and played games of soccer. She also assisted the village “mamas” with fetching water on trips called “water walks”.

Wilkinson said that the “water walks” opened her eyes to hardships of life in rural Africa, as the village mamas would walk two kilometers to the nearest stream, often multiple times a day, to get water for their families. When asked what she learned from the experience, Wilkinson mentioned that the children’s love of education inspired her to no longer to take school for granted, and she learned that one can be happy with very few material possessions.

She told a heartwarming tale of how, on one rainy day, all the students at the local school offered the volunteers their jackets. She was profoundly moved by this kind gesture, stating “these kids had nothing, yet they were taking clothes off their backs for the volunteers who had everything.” On top of receiving 40 volunteer hours in Kenya, Wilkinson also gained a lifetime’s worth of experience and memories.

So students, make the most of your 40 volunteer hours. Don’t wait until the week before your graduation; begin your volunteer work in as soon as possible, and you will discover how beneficial and enriching community service can be. Traveling to an exotic location isn’t necessary; just find something you love or are passionate about, and volunteering will no longer feel like a chore. Whether you want to be a craftsman, cook or counselor, there is a volunteer opportunity for you.

Top 10 #4: MUSEUM

By Alyssa Joynt

Tucked between St. George and Queen’s Park, Museum takes the cake for the coolest TTC subway stop. Sure, St. George is nice with its green walls and yellow trim, and Queen’s Park is neat with its rounded walls, but nothing tops Museum. Appropriately, it is designed with a museum theme in mind. The name on the wall of the station is written in orange letters filled with hieroglyphics, and the boring old concrete pillars have been replaced with statues, sarcophaguses, and even more hieroglyphics. You might not have reached your destination yet, but you have already started your adventure.

Once you get up to the street, the most obvious attraction is, of course, the Royal Ontario Museum, with it’s extensive permanent collection and it’s fascinating travelling exhibits. Most recently, the ROM played host to an exhibit all about Pompeii. Right across the road is the Gardiner Museum, Canada’s national ceramics museum.

If museums aren’t your thing, you can enjoy walking around UofT’s St. George campus. You can visit Diabolos’, their student-run cafeteria, and walk around admiring the beautiful old architecture.

Regardless of what you want to do, Museum station can provide you with something exciting. Whether that means a long walk on campus to explore your future, or a long walk in the ROM exploring your past, or even if you are just passing through, Museum will keep you interested.

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A Closer Look at NT Clubs

By Anastasia Zaritovskaya At the beginning of each school year, NT’s clubs are in the spotlight as club heads see a flurry of students rushing into their weekly meetings. Groups of friends sit together in classrooms as they listen to the new heads announce their ambitious yearly plans.

If students are making hearty promises in September to stick with their clubs, why do these students eventually abandon them? Why can’t NT students keep their promises to clubs? A group of NT students may have some answers to what causes this decline in attendance. “It’s not realistic in a school setting,” says one, who imputes the blame to her increasing workload. “Two of my best clubs are on the same day” one student complains. “We need time to socialize as well,” another mentions. Many of NT’s clubs meet during lunch — a time of the day when students are particularly inclined to socialize with their friends.

Prioritization appears to be the root cause of the problem. When a student decides to prioritize friends or homework over attending a club meeting, the club tends to pay the price. But not all clubs struggle with a lack of attendance.

NT’s Classics Club has virtually always had a constant stream of people with steady attendance.

“This club is a well-rounded club where there’s something for everyone. Very rare in a club, very specific,” says Lee Gaudet, a general

Classics club member. “You won’t find a more unique group in the school. We’re a family, literally.The Classics Conference is the highlight of my year. There’s so much love in this club, so many different things. Classics club becomes a key part of your life. It’s insane but a good insane, where you bond. It makes you feel like you’re a part of something.” Lee is heavily involved in the club and it’s easy to see why. The members of the Classics Club enjoy the work they put into the club, and get a thrill out of it.

“It’s about the food now.

The clubs know it, too — they advertise it,” Not every club can be as picture perfect as Classics, and there’s a good reason why. Many NT students seem Classics among the most exclusive clubs at NT. This label stems from the fact that many Classics club members appear to take Latin and history courses. Grade 10 student Leia Kook-Chun says, “I felt as though I didn’t belong as I was not taking Latin and I didn’t understand any of the inside jokes they were referring to. In a sense, this made it seem as though they didn’t really need more members as they were not serious about introducing and informing us about their club. I did attend a few of their meetings again, but this was to spend time with my friends. I did not really do anything for the club except for questioning

my friends about topics to prepare them for an upcoming competition. Even though I was present during their club ‘meeting’ I still do not consider myself a part of their club.”

What are the consequences of decreasing attendance? “The more people that sign up, the more funding the clubs get,” admits an NT student. If no one attends them then the clubs, which started out as great ideas, will fail; a crushing blow to committed club heads and staff advisors.

Among newly formed clubs, a shared marketing strategy is employed: bribery.

“It’s about the food now. The clubs know it, too — they advertise it,” says a grade 10 student.

Clubs have certainly come to realize that the way to a student’s heart is through their stomach. “The people just go for the food.”

Overall, there are a myriad of possibilities to why there seems to be a decrease in attendance in NT’s clubs. But at the end of the day, there’s no better feeling than joining something that appeals to your interests. The rewards of befriending like-minded students and pursuing passions are endless. “One night at the Conference when I was staying up all night and I didn’t have time to get food, people brought me pizza,” said Lee Gaudet. “It was so sweet — even though it was pepperoni and I’m a vegetarian.”

Do You Even Vape, Bro?

By Chitta Chowdhury

Once thought to be an exclusively cool European method of smoking, vaping has become a common practice amongst teens, 20 year olds, and anyone looking to find an alternative to smoking. If you don’t already know, vaporizers are essentially portable, battery-powered hookahs used to smoke tobacco or weed. This surge in popularity has come with some controversy.

Pro-vapors argue that it’s much safer considering that the amount of chemicals taken in is greatly reduced (compared to cigarettes) and the fact that people are inhaling vapor rather than smoke.

Shop 180, one of the most popular vape shops in Toronto sells an array of vaporizers, from smaller gadgets meant to mimic regular cigarettes to larger devices, meant for waxes, which are mostly used for weed. Their customers range from “people who are smokers who are trying to quit [smoking, to] people who just tried it from their friends and wanted to get one for themselves,” says John, who has been working at Shop 180 for the past few years. He himself claims that vaping helped him quit smoking. “I used to smoke a pack a day, and [vaping] worked for me,” he says. John claims that Smoke 180 “actually got a few people from hospitals, even though it’s not a government approved method, some doctors recommended vaping as a way to quit off papers - for people who just can’t afford to smoke anymore healthwise.” It’s been argued that vapes are essentially the same thing as Nicorette inhalers, which

also use vapor, and are designed to help lower withdrawal symptoms and urges. “[Nicorette inhalers] have pretty much the same ingredients as vaporizers have for nicotine liquids… but they have around 15 more chemicals than what the vaporizer liquids have,” says John.

Claire associates this rise in popularity with how vaping has been very “normalized on social media.”

Some vaping advocates have put vaping at 95% safer than tobacco cigarettes, due to most of the damage coming from the actual smoke, however the effects of second-hand vape is unknown. Kathleen Wynne has said the “smoking, whether it’s vaping, whether it’s medical marijuana, whether it’s cigarettes -- that there should be restrictions on that.” Many people who vape, argue that equating vaping and smoking cigarettes is largely problematic and can be damaging to those who use it medically. The Vapor Social lounge at College street has been running for 10 years and is a space where people can vape freely. Claire, a worker at The Vapor Social, says that “people come in here to find a safe place… for safer smoking.”

She claims that the lounge “allows people to be more confiding with the law.” Fear of harassment and stigma has held barriers for many people who vape medical marijuana, many

of whom “do not feel like it’s safe smoking at home.”

It’s understandable for people who vape for medical reasons to feel somewhat unsafe in public, with the rise of anti-vape campaigns. #Curbit is a campaign aimed at ending vaping and making it illegal to sell and use vapes.

Their ads claim that that vaporizers are just as bad as regular cigarettes, using the hashtags #smokelessnotharmless and #toxicvapor. More startling are the anti-marijuana campaigns, such as the ‘stoner sloth’ campaign, which uses the hashtag #youreworseonweed and equates marijuana users to lazy, dysfunctional sloths.

Accessibility of medical marijuana has been a polarizing topic of debate for the government, and with tougher laws being implemented in Ontario for vaping, many claim that it’s just gotten harder to use marijuana medically.

Despite the new laws, like the new legal age for purchasing vaping products (over 19) and that you cannot vape where smoking is banned, the newfound popularity is recognized. At The Shop 180, sales have “really exploded. It’s almost slowed down since pretty much everyone already has a vaporizer,” according to John.

The Vapor Social has also seen a rise in popularity with “a lot more younger people coming in.” Claire associates this rise in popularity with how vaping has been very “normalized on social media.”

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Which School is Superior

By Chantelle Nejnec

Northern students refer to their school as their sanctuary, their home away, their holy place.

Conversely, we refer to it as the dark side, or better yet, the execution chamber. North Toronto students scoff at the thought of Northern claiming superiority over us. Rightfully so, Northern is unquestionably at the top of the list of most butchered schools at NT. Why is Northern so widely discriminated against within our grey walls? Why do we so wholeheartedly believe in Northern’s inherent evil? Do Northern students ridicule us as much as we do them? Is Northern really that terrible?

To find out what the school is really like, a few Northern students were interviewed.

Q1: “Would you say that North Toronto gets teased or degraded a lot at Northern?

“Generally, no. It’s mainly after sporting events when we beat NT at a sport (which is after every game). But if we’re just in class, we don’t really care. LP (Lawrence Park), is teased the most. Literally all we joke about is how sh*t your football team is.” Another Northern student adds, “many kids actually like people at NT at our school. I don’t think the feeling is mutual though” NT? Bad football team? I can imagine the stake that drove through your heart after reading that. The Northern interviewee started to laugh at my growing rage. So surprisingly enough, we aren’t talked about at Northern to the same extent that Northern is talked about here.

Q2 “What clothes are “in” at Northern?”

“Well, the guys who were on the football team during the 2014-2015 year, the year we won the city championships against NT, got letterman jackets so most of the football players have been wearing those. Guys usually wear khakis, jeans and sweats, and shoes consist of timbs and a lot of vans. Girls usually wear leggings with a sweater and converse or Adidas superstars.”

Although Northerners are not as exposed to the all-too-familiar Sperry’s, Juicy sweaters, and Uggs, reassuringly enough, North Toronto and Northern students seem to share similar fashion tastes.

Q3 “Do you believe that Northern is a better school than North Toronto?”

“Academically, North Toronto gets the better rep because the academics are notably far more superior. More students come out of NT with better academic prospects...but at Northern our sports and art programs are far more superior.

For example, Patrick J. Adams who plays Mike Ross on Suits graduated from Northern. We also have many guys in the CFL who have gone to pro leagues. NT is a good school though.

It’s newer and more advanced. Your technology is most likely superior [to ours] but when you walk into Northern it’s more colourful and has greater diversity in terms of clubs. Another Northern student agrees: “for workload and actual education, NT is undeniably better.

However, there are more options at Northern in terms of course selection. We have really cool courses that you guys don’t have like genocide and law.”

Clubs? More clubs? It’s hard to stay quiet when NT contains many clubs with active members.

He rightfully admitted to North Toronto’s academic superiority though. Who even is Patrick J. Adams? We have some notable alumni too, such as Malin Akerman, star of Couples Retreat, The Proposal and Rock of Ages. We also have Keanu Reeves who played in The Matrix and Brit Selby, who played for the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Philadelphia Flyers. And of course, Bill Watters who is the assistant president of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Nuff said.

Q.5. “Is Northern divided into cliques?”

“Yeah. It’s not like high school movies, but it’s pretty close. All the drama kids mostly spend their time together in drama rooms. Then there are the airheads who only like to associate with their kind. Those people are very self-absorbed and refuse to interact with anyone but the other airheads. They’re just one big group. And then you have other people who just steal vapes from Shoppers and make tornados during lunch.

There’s also sub cliques. The groups of people we hang out with at lunch aren’t the same people that we hang out with outside of school.

It’s weird but that’s [the nature of] Northern’s cliques.”

Vape tornados? That sounds promising. This is where North Toronto evidently differs from Northern, as cliques are less distinct here. Ad-

mittedly, there are people who mostly hang out with friends who share their interests, but there are also groups of friends that consist of many different types of people. There are introverts and extroverts that mix, different nationalities that come together, and people with contrasting interests that associate.

Q6 “What kind of music is big at Northern?”

“Rap. It’s literally just rap. Not even mainstream rap. Just some Toronto rappers. There are even some rappers at our school that we listen to. But then there’s people who listen to classic rock and alternative. Queen, David Bowie and AC/DC are also pretty popular.”

I wonder if they listen to Laith Goldie… #ChillSideWavy Q.7. “Are the rules and policies at Northern strict?”

“Well, there are three hall monitors [who] roam the halls at Northern. They are security people.

[As such], they’re huge and broad and come in LeBron’s. Everyone’s absolutely terrified of them. They have goatees and everything, so people usually stay out of trouble in the halls.”

Well, George is pretty terrifying right? That’s right. 5 feet and 4 inches of pure terror.

Q.8. “How does it feel like to be inferior to North Toronto?”

“That was a mean question. I refuse to respond.”

He’s just not willing to accept the facts.

Contrary to the opinions of many, there are many similarities between NT and Northern.

So, what’s there to take away from this? Should we respect Northern more? Maybe. On the other hand, our rivalry is such a fundamental of day to day life here, that it really doesn’t seem fair to take away the joy of dropping some well placed shade at the next assembly.

Internal [

INTERNAL

]

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The P-Word? Political Correctness

By Ajantha Nadesalingam Historically speaking, the term “politically correct” arose during the latter stage of the 20th century. In 1793, the term appeared in a United States Supreme Court judgement of a political lawsuit. In contrast, today, the term is widely used on a colloquial level. In this context, the term means, “using words or behavior which will not offend any group of people.” It is generally used to imply that the level of care taken to be inoffensive to all persons is excessive.

This idea is particularly important at North Toronto Collegiate Institute, where there is a large proportion of students who are of uppermiddle to upper class, white families. The fact that many of North Toronto’s students were born into privilege is not intrinsically a negative aspect -- after all, being born into a certain situation is not due to personal merit, or lack thereof.

Charlie Littler, a grade 11 student at North Toronto, thinks that “political correctness is a way for people, particularly those that are not minorities, to compensate for years of oppression.” They continue to say that political correctness “in some sense...comes from the guilt we associate with our history.”

For example, many Canadians are plagued by the previous presence of residential schools - a horrific, government mandated, cultural genocide of First Nations. The purpose of residential schools was to assimilate the indigenous persons of Canada into the mainstream culture. They functioned in such a way that they left both physical and emotional scars; former students reported forced labour, administered electrical shocks, sexual assault by superiors, and unsanitary conditions. It may sound like a barbaric, distant, and irrelevant part of our history. Yet, the last residential school closed in 1996, only 20 years ago. On the whole, in Canada, Aboriginal communities continue to have a lower standard of living than a vast majority of Canadians.

Given this example, it becomes clear that certain topics are very sensitive due to historical factors. Therefore, it is important to cultivate

a society where the citizens are mindful of their words when speaking about such things, for the ramifications of the actions of the past permeate into the present. There are certainly “some words that should never be used because of their connotations,” says Littler. However, an important question is raised -- once a certain topic is sanctioned as grounds for political sensitivity, should we still talk about them, given the possibility of causing offense?

In rigidly defining such topics as sensitive, it is possible that we silence discussion altogether.

“In this process of edging carefully around difficult topics, we often inadvertently create radio silence for the fear of appearing discriminatory, and thus, a terrible human being,” says a student at North Toronto. However, she says that she would rather be on the politically incorrect side rather than remain silenced, as “through open discussion, it is more likely that I’ll offend someone. However, in saying something that does offend someone, I learn about cultural sensitivities and about my own biases.

Also, it is in our nature, as humans, to make mistakes”. She goes on to condone the new wave of society that demands constant political correctness, stating that it “is forgetting, if not forbidding, an inseparable fallibility of being a human - making mistakes.” She encourages open discourse, believing that “speaking openly and risking being offensive is superior to not speaking at all, and in the process of being respectful, potentially creating a taboo subject.”

Sangeetha Ram, another student of a minority group at North Toronto Collegiate Institute, asserts that her status as a minority allows her more freedom in speech. When inadvertently suggesting or commenting in a way that might be “perceived as racist, I wouldn’t be given such a hard time about it,” she says. As a result, “they have to be more politically correct to prove themselves to be good people.”

Should white people be assumed to be discriminators by default? There are a plethora of discriminations that transcend the pigment of our skin. Grace Pawliw-Fry, a grade 11 student at North Toronto, shows that there is often

more than meets the eye. Pawliw-Fry says that “as a white person, I have never experienced racial discrimination.” Through identifying as a “queer woman,” Pawliw-Fry says that she has experienced other “intersections of discrimination.”

This issue of censorship while striving for political correctness may, in fact, be culturally founded. Anastasia Zaritovskaya, a grade 10 student at North Toronto, is an individual who prefers to lead on the politically-incorrect side. Through Anastasia’s perceived politicalincorrectness, “some people think of [her] as a little rude, but [she] doesn’t see it as that.”

Instead, she says, she “usually calls it as [she sees] it.” This may be a cultural difference, she proposes, saying that “[Russians]...don’t feel the need to be politically correct almost at all... when talking to someone [they’re] close to.”

In fact, within the Russian community, political correctness may be perceived as “Western Fakeness,” she says. As someone who moved to Canada about five years ago, she takes Canada with a grain of salt. Within Canada, Zaritovskaya feels that it is only “socially acceptable to say good things to people - even if that involves lying a little.”

Through political correctness, humans aim to be kind and compassionate towards others, particularly those who have undergone unspeakable tragedies. In these cases, those who may have historically been the oppressors have a duty to communicate in a particularly respectful manner. This is despite the fact that it may not have been their fault; they pay the prices of the actions of their ancestors. And thus, to some extent, political correctness is simply a method to extend a level of mutual respect and humanity to each other. However, when we are afraid to speak our minds for fear of appearing “politically incorrect,” there is a severe, overarching problem. Censorship is not the answer. Not speaking about atrocities, for whatever reason, will not decrease their impact. Yes, political correctness is well intentioned, says Zaritovskaya. Yet, she adds, so is the road to Hell.

Top 10 #5: PAPE

By Fay Asimakopoulos I wish I could wax poetic about the significance of memory or ethnic identity, but the truth is straight-forward: I like Pape Station because I’m a Greek person who likes Greek food, and the area surrounding it boasts some of the best.

A main attraction is the gyros. Skip Messini -- the best gyros in Toronto can be found in a small store directly facing Pape Station called “Souvlike”, complete with a Facebook thumbs up sign. The store is run by Sakis, a restaurant owner from Leivadeia, a small city one hour north of Athens that has a Greek-wide repuation for the quality of its meat-based street food. If you’re more into sea food or cooked meals, I’d also recommend Athens, a restaurant slightly east of Pape on Danforth that boasts a daily rotation of traditional Greek dishes, including calamari, octopus, slow cooked lamb. If any selection of Greek food beyond gyros confounds you, ask the chef to take a look at the day’s specials.

Finally, hit up Athena Bakery if you’re looking for a savoury or sweet palate cleanser. Their meat pies, galaktoboureko (a type of cream custard eaten in the north of Greece), and loukoumades (fried dough pastry rolled in honey and cinnamon) are almost as good as my grandmother’s.

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Is Competing For Grades Really Worth it?

By Anastasia Gaykalova

First of all, what are grades? According to the Oxford dictionary, a grade is a particular level of rank, quality, proficiency, intensity, or value.

On the other hand, grades are also a systemic indicator used by students to “compete” against each other. Of course, the fact that universities consider grades among the most important factors to acceptance is part of why students start to value grades above other things, but there is an increasing number of students in North Toronto Collegiate Institute who compel themselves to compete with others for the highest grades, exemplifying this type of competition for many different reasons.

Students at North Toronto Collegiate Institute tend to place an implicit value on people based on their “mark” or “grade”. The higher one’s grade is, the smarter they are presumed to be, and the more they are presumed to be capable of accomplishing in the future. On one hand, this appears true; grades are, ultimately, what most universities and companies scrutinise with high regard. But why are so many students sacrificing both their mental and physical health for good grades? Do grades accurately reflect your future and success in life? Is all the competitiveness worth it?

why I feel that if I don’t work hard enough, I will fall behind,” says Olivia Song, another grade 10 student. Evidently, the school sets this mindset, pushing students to overreach and go beyond their limits, shown in the exceedingly hard work some put into their assignments.

The real issue rests not with these students, but with those eager for marks, simply for the sake of beating another person. Among the commonality of competitive people, some are incapable of even supplying a rational justification as to why they so desperately wish to beat others. One such person is Allison Suba, a grade 12 student who “wants to beat others so [she] can be the best”.

Just because; end of argument.

There are, however, wiser people who chose to withdraw from this community, such as a grade 9 student (who wished to be anonymous), who, in reference to the culture, said, ”I used to be competitive regarding marks, but now I’m not, because it doesn’t matter… Why compare yourself to others? Why not just be yourself and do your thing?”

As Serena Vilde, a grade 10 student, points out, marks are a numerical representation of an achievement based on a criterion set to evaluate how hard a person worked, and that is why some people strive for higher marks. The aspiration to achieve academic excellence is well justified when identified through the foresightful perspective of students’ post-secondary educations. Another factor that drives this urge is parental pressure, who, in wishing for their children to be as successful as possible, impart a stressful burden on their children.

Some competitive people would argue that they compete with grades for a nobler goal than merely putting others down: defending their own intelligence. This is among the more common vindications found in use to validate competitive natures. While not the best of arguments, it is an accepted and commonplace excuse, which lends relatability to the victims. Be that as it may, “there are two parts to a person’s intelligence, academic intelligence, and the way you interact in the real world,” says Doris Braunstein, another grade 10 student. What’s more, following common sense, ‘street-smarts’ are ultimately more valued in real life, with no intended offense to academic ‘smarts’.

“The pressure of this school, which is highly academically focused, makes everyone push themselves to be the top notch students; that’s

When it comes to competing with marks, many people say that they are competitive, but only with themselves. Furthermore, another reason as

to why people might be academically competitive is the desire to maintain a former reputation.

One such grade 11 student, Genevieve CrispinFrei, says, ”I want my marks to be high as they can be; I just want to prove to myself that I’m as good as I have been in the past.” Self-fulfilment by way of competition with self motivates the process of improvement, without relying on others. The idealistic situation is if one were to have a clear goal in mind, and they are pushing themselves to improve and reach said goal.

Despite the motive to enhance herself, Genevieve also elaborated that “[she] want[s] to beat other people so [she] can prove to [her]self that [she] ha[s] some self-worth by putting others down, which is terrible, but it is so true.”

Many aspects of competition also come down to how intelligence is defined, which “is definitely something that can’t be calculated in quantity, but rather in quality,” says Lucy Ma, yet another grade 10 student. This is true of the education system as well; the written examinations give only one chance, and in the case of an accidental failure, there is no alternative or workaround. In some other countries, examinations are administered orally, and evaluation principles are determined not by what someone writes, but by what they communicate, and their level of associated skill in doing so. This kind of assessment reflects a more accurate representation of one’s abilities.

“Being too competitive takes away the true meaning of learning. When you’re only motivated by the marks and grades you get… you don’t get to appreciate the material you learn,” believes Anne Lemonolan, a grade 12 student. Although this article may appear as if it aims to antagonise competition via marks, it is simply to attract and center the attention to the fact that the nowstandard logic “I have a better grade; therefore, I am better” has flaws, with the main one being that marks do not accurately represent one’s brilliance.

Top 10 #6: BATHURST

by Olivia Willows

Situated on the Danforth-Bloor line between Spadina and Christie stations, just a mere 15-20 minute ride from Yonge and Eglinton, Bathurst Station’s location gives you easy access to the great surrounding neighbourhoods. Located at the intersection of Bathurst and Bloor, The Annex, U of T’s St.George Campus, and Kensington Market are just a short walk (or streetcar ride, if you’re feeling lazy) away. If you’re not in the mood for a walk, the area immediately outside the station is equally as cool. You can spend hours basking in Honest Ed’s cheap glory, sip on a tea at the Green Beanery Café, or see a movie at the famous Bloor Cinema (which is super cool and vintage, might I add). Snakes and Lattes’ Annex location can be found just a few blocks west on Bloor, as well as a plethora of restaurants serving cuisine from all around the world. Whether you’re in the mood for Vietnamese, Korean Barbeque or Italian, you can find a restaurant within a 5 minute walk of the station. Although Bathurst Station’s dreary white tile walls–which are likely perpetually dirty at this point–don’t allow the station of qualify as one of the more ‘aesthetically pleasing’ ones, it’s great location and proximity to various restaurants, cafes, shops and entertainment undoubtedly make Bathurst’s one of Toronto’s best subway stations.

Viktor Elias on Positive Impacts Through Social Media

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By Ajantha Nadesalingam Viktor Elias, who is featured in this issue of Graffiti as the founder and host of Hits 93 Toronto, elegantly exemplifies the potential of media, particularly social media. Elias began his journey at the age of 13, when he was featured on CP24 Breakfast. Until this age, he had a “popular news-junkie” style Twitter account, which he used to both “unwind” but also “gain experience in social media.”

After being featured on CP24 Breakfast, one of his followers reached out to Elias, suggesting that he get involved with radio. Immediately, Elias started up Hits 93 FM. The reaction, also, was immediate. In the following weeks, his Twitter following grew exponentially. After this, his following steadily grew, and, currently, he has an approximate following of 130 000.

With consideration to Elias’ broad reach, he has the ability to reach grand audiences. And with grand audiences comes a respectively grand impact. On an number of occasions, Elias has used his followings, both through Twitter and Hits 93 Toronto, to positively impact society.

assault in an attempt to both destigmatize the issue and raise awareness.

Another internal source contacted Elias with a photo which “appeared to show Kesha sleeping in Dr. Luke’s bed,” says Elias The photo was captioned by Dr. Luke with “Damn, my artists work hard!” Considering Dr. Luke as an abuser, the photo has dark undertones of nonconsent and abuse. Though this image was deleted from Dr. Luke’s Twitter, Elias had access to a screengrab of it, which he forwarded to Kesha’s lawyer. This piece of information was then used in court.

Regardless of your personal perspective on

social media, it is here. And for the foreseeable future, it isn’t going anywhere. This form of media is available to any individual with internet access, regardless of their personal merit, or lack thereof. However, the strength of the media is in this duality. The principle of metaphysics which comments on the structure of reality, stating, “there cannot be good without bad,” rings true here. After all, as with all posts on social media, there is permanence. Once something is posted, regardless of whether it is deleted, the message can be saved and associated to one’s name. Therefore, when the “bad”, such as Dr. Luke, post something unacceptable, the “good,” in our case, individuals such as Viktor Elias, will rise to the challenge.

After Elias came out as a homosexual to his family, he was met with positivity and acceptance. Following this, Elias became increasingly comfortable with his identity, and subsequently came out to his Twitter followers. Elias was met, again, with an overwhelmingly positive reaction, receiving hundreds of messages on Twitter. In addition to these messages of support, some individuals stated that “[his coming out] really helped them to start talking about their own sexuality with their families.” On the whole, this made the station very relatable to members of the LGBTQ+ community, says Elias.

Further, Elias had a pivotal role in the #FreeKesha movement. The movement aims to release Kesha from a contract with her producer, Dr. Luke. This request for release is as a result of his alleged abuse of the position, through which he sexually and mentally abused Kesha.

However, before the Kesha’s allegations surfaced to mainstream media, Elias caught wind of the issue from an internal source, who contacted him through Twitter. The individual “recounted some [graphic] stories of abuse and rape,” after which Elias’ empathy was piqued.

Consequently, Elias ran a “Kesha Twitter takeover” where he would play all her music, attaching the hashtag #FreeKeshaNow to all tweets. In addition, Elias posted numerous tweets with statistics about victims of sexual

Top 10 #7: BROADVIEW

By Elizabeth Wolfenden

Broadview subway station solidly lands in the top 10 best Toronto subways stations. Located just two stops eastbound from Bloor-Yonge station, it is the gateway to friendly neighbourhoods, delicious restaurants and scenic parks. The station is just down the street from The Danforth, which is host to some of Toronto’s best restaurants, shops and entertainment.

The especially steep and long Riverdale hill is also ideal for high intensity sledding in the winter and the Riverdale outdoor public pool is a popular summer hangout. Further, you can board the 501 Queen streetcar from Broadview Station, which is the longest streetcar ride in North America and was voted one of the top 10 trolley routes in the world by the National Geographic. There are many excellent things about Broadview station, but the best part occurs just before the train arrives at the platform. This is when you ride over the Bloor Viaduct and a magnificent view of the Don Valley is displayed before you, which is quite refreshing when dirty concrete and bad advertisements have been your only visual since you stepped onto the train.

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Gym or Geography?

By Hana Sharifi and Annie Doane Gym or geography? Business or band? Academic or enriched? Should I drop this course or that course? Can I handle this? What would my parents want? What do I want?

About halfway through the year, North Toronto students are faced with every indecisive person’s nightmare: course selection. It’s like a slap in the face. Students are forced to choose the courses they must take for the entirety of next year - who is ready for that kind of commitment? Every course students choose will impact another course in the future, which makes the process that much more overwhelming. Why should students aged 14-17 be forced to make decisions that could influence their post-secondary education and ultimately their future career?

Teenagers are at the point in their lives where they are constantly changing their minds about everything. They want the freedom of trying a bunch of different fields before making their final decision. It’s like buying a car. You want to be able to test drive a few options before making the final big investment. To make the situation even more complicated, some students have the added pressure of parents. Some parents are more strict than others, because some parents have a certain path they want their kids to take, while other parents just want

their kids to take what they’re good at, and what they’re interested in.

So what specific things make course selection especially stressful? Una Pasagic, a grade 9 student, thinks that the technological aspect makes the process so nerve-wracking. “The teachers put so much pressure on not messing up while picking your courses, which makes it so much more stressful. Also, the process is made more complicated when the technology is involved.” Many people agreed with this sentiment, saying that submitting courses through a computer was complicated and unreliable. The website reportedly did not work for some people, forcing them to submit their sheet late and thereby forfeit equal choosing rights, increasing the risk of not getting into a class they want. Some students noted additionally that it was difficult because of all the different course options North Toronto offered.

For grade 11 students, course selection is one of the biggest decisions they will have to make all year. Alyssa Joynt, a grade 11 student and Graffiti editor, says, “During the course selection assembly, you hear all of these stor-

Soda Pop Shop

The selection of high school courses, university programs, and, in the end, a career, can be the among the most difficult choices for students.

Although it won’t get any easier, take comfort in the fact that if you keep an open mind and do the things you love, chances are, you’ll have a great future ahead of you.

10 Most Awkward Situations During NT Charity Week

By Leia Kook Chun Lookin’ for a fun event to spend time with your friends? Problem solved! Attend the annual Soda Pop Shop, hosted by your Music and Art Councils on Friday, April the 8th! This is an all-ages event, and thus, you are invited to bring those who do not attend North Toronto, such as friends and family. The two councils organize events which work in conjunction with one another to create a fantastic night; musical performances are surrounded by a gallery of visual art, all of which comes from NT’s student body. Those who have previously attended the event feel as though Soda Pop Shop creates an amazing and inspirational environment.

Alice Liang, an NT student who attended the event last year, describes her experience as being “a lot of fun.

It’s a great showcase of all the artists and musicians at NT.” In addition to these wonderful aspects, Soda Pop Shop is set up as a kind of café where you can order and be served food from the many waiters and waitresses. Items on the menu include delicious baked goods, sodas and ice cream floats! With music, art, and food, I bet you’re thinking that this event couldn’t get any better.

ies about mistakes other students made that impacted their university acceptances and it really freaks you out. You are also provided with all of these courses that you have to take and all kinds of cool courses that you can take. I often feel like I have to plan my whole future in order to make good selections, and that freaks me out.” When asked what advice she would give to new grade 9 students, she stresses the fact that you should choose courses you will enjoy, not courses your friends are taking. “I would suggest that Grade 9’s don’t take courses for their friends or for easy marks.

If you are not doing something that you’ll love, you won’t enjoy it. Most importantly, get your groups out of the way! They can be hard to fit in later. You should also plan ahead, but don’t stress about it. Just take a look at courses that you think you might enjoy in the future, and jot them down. But make sure you are keeping an open mind. Don’t decide that you want to become a chiropractor and refuse to stray from that path when you discover that you have a passion for Ancient Civilizations.”

Well actually, it can. Soda Pop Shop includes the Best in Grade art competition; the winners are decided through votes from the public. Near the end of the event, the four winners from each grade are given their prizes. Finally, Soda Pop Shop is the perfect opportunity to view what talent NT has to offer. This is one of the main reasons why Christina Wen loves the event so greatly. =“I love Soda Pop Shop because it’s a chance to see all the talent at NT. You never really realise how talented everyone is until you’ve been to Soda Pop Shop.”

If you are interested in participating in the event, please speak with the Art and Music Councils respectively. Entry for Soda Pop Shop costs $10 per person. If you wish to submit artwork for the Best in Grade art competition, the instructions are as follows: first pick one of your 2-Dimensional artworks, then submit it to room 227 by April the 7th alongside a $2/submission fee which includes a free entry into Soda Pop Shop.

By Lauren Kim

1. When you don’t have money and a bunch of people ask you to buy something, to which you sheepishly reply, “will you take 2 quarters and a dime?” Or having to avoid the first floor hallways and commons so you don’t have to embarrassingly give the same excuse: “I’m broke”.

2. When the vendors ask you to buy something and you really just aren’t interested. Sure it’s for charity, but money is money. Is it horrible that a Tim Hortons’ hot chocolate sounds so much better than a $2 dusty packet of chocolate mixed with water?

3. Lying to the sellers by saying “I’ll come back”, even though, both of you know that you won’t.

4. Trying desperately to sell something, but rarely making any sales.

5. Guilt tripping your teachers into buying something from your homeform because, come on, they’re adults!

6. Running around and savagely screaming at strangers whom you’d otherwise not talk to, just so that they will buy your booth’s stuff (And your excuse? It’s all in the name of charity).

7. Secretly thinking “damn charity week is so overpriced”, and then immediately feeling guilty upon remembering that it’s for charity.

8. Feeling pity for the unsuccessful booths, and impulsively buying something from them.

9. Having the same person approach you twice in one lunch period because they’ve probably asked a hundred people and now can’t remember who they’ve already asked.

10. In the end, enjoying charity week because of the extended lunch and all the amazing booths that everyone worked so hard for!

TDSB Supercouncil: The Voice of the Students

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by Joshua Chong

Does it bother you that, even if a meter of snow falls overnight, school will still remain open?

As one finds themselves begrudgingly dragging themselves out of bed, trying to remember the last time school was cancelled because of snow, they’ll think “oh right, never!” Or perhaps you, the reader, are among those grade 10 students who feels that civics and careers are a waste of time. Likely, this perception results in the thought, “why do I want to waste my time on finding a career path when I can’t even choose my courses for next year!”

Students are all too familiar with the TDSB’s policies, which range from the dress code, to the cell-phone policy, and everything else that takes up a quarter of their agendas. However, many students feel that these protocols, instructions, and educational curricula are way over their heads.

Just last year, students from Etobicoke School of the Arts stood in solidarity with fellow peer Alexi Halket, who was unfortunately removed from class for wearing a crop-top that fully revealed her stomach and shoulders. In mid-May, the E.S.A. students organized a crop-top day to protest the TDSB’s conservative dress code.

Students were hoping for a change in the policy so that the community body could express themselves in their chosen style of clothing without restriction. Girls in particular felt that it was unfair for them to lose their freedom of choice and expression, with the flimsy explanation that boys would not get “distracted” in class. However, in the aftermath of much protest and media coverage, the TDSB still did not change their stance on the dress code.

It is after incidents like these that students feel their voices are left unheard. After all, this is their education, and many feel that it is only

fair that their voices and concerns can be heard at the board level. However, what many students fail to recognise is that there is a group of 22 democratically elected TDSB students who do just that. The TDSB Supercouncil was established years ago and functions under the mandate to “provide consistent, responsive representation of all TDSB students at the appropriate levels, and to help ensure students’ needs and interests are met with the proper attention”.

Two student trustees round off the Supercouncil executive team, and they attend all TDSB board meetings to voice the opinion of students. Throughout its history, the Supercouncil has fought to change policies, such as the weather protocol. Through consultation with students, it has also instituted new policies, such as the homework moratorium policy, which “ensures that four days before exams begin, no excursions, assemblies or culminating activities will occur”. The two student trustees are also members of the Ontario Students Trustees’ Association. OSTA is currently negotiating with Liz Sandals and the Ministry of Education to amend the current high school curriculum and remove the mandation of the civics and careers courses.

The journey for the information, which must be passed on from ordinary students, up the ladder, all the way to the Ministry of Education, is a long one. Each month, the Supercouncil holds area meetings, which allow students to voice their opinions. Sadly, these meetings are almost always under capacity, due largely in part to a lack of advertisement and interest. The Supercouncil is run for students, by students, and without them, there is nothing they can fight for. At the last Supercouncil election, which was held the preceding May, there were less than

150 delegates, despite eligibility for more than 300 students’ attendance.

However, the turnout at last month’s Student Leadership Day was a cause for optimism.

Nearly 200 students from 60 schools attended the event, which aimed to provide workshops to help student leaders be an effective leader in their community. The event was organized

by N.T.’s own Cassidy Bereskin, and included workshops that dealt with networking and social justice. The four workshops were very well received by many students, a majority of whom represented their schools’ student council. The aim of the conference was also to enlist students to attend Supercouncil area meetings. Less than half of the delegates attending had ever gone to an area meeting, or even had a base-level understanding of how the Supercouncil functions. Nonetheless, Student Leadership Day continues to be one of Supercouncil’s keystone events, helping to engage student leaders.

Despite being relatively unknown, and even sometimes dismissed by students, the Supercouncil has overcome many hurdles to champion for the voice of students in the TDSB. And yet, the small student-led organization still has further hurdles to overcome in its future to success. Among other things, even though student trustees are often consulted during TDSB board meetings with trustees, they do not have a binding vote that counts on the board. That is just one of many more steps that need to be taken so that students can legitimately have their voices heard on matters that concern them. But there is hope, when each month at Supercouncil meetings, we see students, educators, and politicians all sitting down to reach one common goal.

Work Hard, Play Hard?

by Elizabeth Wolfenden

On the first day of school in Grade 9, as new students are initiated into the North Toronto way of life, they are told repeatedly by teachers about the abundance of sports, clubs, activities and events that fill NT’s schedule. But, as the teachers shake their heads and roll their eyes, it’s hard to tell whether they are warning the new students or encouraging them.

On balance, NT is an unusually busy school.

“North Toronto has the most interruptions I’ve ever seen,” said Geography and Humanities teacher Mr. Rea, “I’ve been at three schools and this is probably the busiest out of the three.”

Almost every student at NT is or has been involved in an extracurricular activity. It’s rare for someone not to be active in something extracurricular, and often more students are involved in more than one. Whether they play sports, participate in clubs, run in a council, or organize and plan events such as charity week, students are using large amounts of their time for commitments outside of schoolwork. This kind of school culture has a big effect on both teachers and students, but, as we detected on our very first day, it’s an issue with two sides.

Without question, there are many benefits

to participating in extracurricular activities.

Involvement in sports can lead to being physically healthier and going into class feeling more alert. Oceana Sinkovic, a grade 11 student at NT, is involved in at least one major sport per term as well as choir, PALs and piano lessons outside of school. She feels that participating in activities makes her more productive in class and she goes “into school feeling ready to learn” instead of groggy and unfocused. She also feels it’s important to get involved in order to have the life skills you don’t get in class, such as teamwork, cooperation and communication.

“You get to actually enjoy your high school experience instead of thinking of school as a prison,” she says.

learn about interruptions with little warning and have to make adjustments, such as holding make-up tests at lunch. Mr. Rea estimates out of his 15 classes a week, about half are interrupted in some way. This can sometimes make keeping up with curriculum difficult.

Extracurriculars can be great for many reasons, but if students are overly committed, the benefits go away. “The big thing [for students to keep in mind is] how much time they can actually afford,” says Computer Science teacher Mr. Heffernan, “There’s a certain point when the benefits are lost.” For example, if students are missing classes for other commitments and not communicating with their teachers to keep up with the material, it is very easy to fall behind and see their performance suffer. Student absences also have an effect on teachers who often

North Toronto is an ambitious school. There are upsides and downsides to this. The downsides are that it is easy to feel overwhelmed and overworked. But in the end, would we, or our teachers, want it any other way?

An abundance of activity is not the only defining characteristic of NT; we also have an abundance of stress. Mr. Rea, who coaches three sports at NT, believes there is a connection between the excess of activity and the stress felt at NT because, “you feel you should be at a certain point but you can never reach that point.

It’s impossible to keep up… not only students face it but teachers do as well.”

Students find what they are passionate about and pursue it; they move on to challenging programs in university and succeed. It’s likely that they feel more confident and prepared to lead interesting and ambitious lives after North Toronto.

External [EXTERNAL]

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>> CHILD MARRIAGE IN BANGLADESH >> LIVING ON MARS >> TRUE THOUGH, TRUDEAU >> MORE

The New Face of Fascism

by Charlie Littler

For the better part of the twentieth century, the world has been treating fascism as a symbol for the horrific dictatorships that punctuated The Second World War. And while it is true that this form of fascism, incorporated into the ideals of an authoritarian regime, were once a serious threat, “New Wave” or Neo-fascism holds new, and possibly more dangerous connotations. Neo-Fascism has seen an unsettling rise throughout Europe in recent years. However, this wave of fascism is quickly proving to have distinctly different qualities from the fascism of the past.

The Second World War generated reason enough for people to shy away from the term “fascist”, and while this might inherently seem like a positive factor, all it’s done is facilitate the ride of extreme right wing political groups that veil their right wing agendas under propagandic messages promoting national interests. These parties do this as a way of skirting around any relation to fascism, as that would create a negative image for the party. Having parties that are more open about supporting Neo-fascism would likely be better. In the 2014 European Parliament elections, extreme right wing groups like the British Democratic Party, and the National Front contributed to over a quarter of the vote. What makes these parties so dangerous is that they deliberately avoid aligning themselves with fascism, which in turn, means that more people are likely to vote for one of these parties without the full knowledge of their political agenda.

Britain First is a political party that claims to be patriotic and nationalistic in their policy; they claim to be “Taking [their] country back”.

Zika Virus

The party’s website even features a suspiciously convenient page titled “racism”, a page that begins by claiming that the very term “racism” does not exist. They then continue to deny any racism within the party, which wouldn’t be necessary if the word was actually illegitimate.

They pepper their borderline farcical claims with the odd photograph of a non white person supposedly supporting their ideals. While this propaganda nonsense might seem harmless and laughable from an objective perspective, from a localized viewpoint the implications are anything but. The party still remains minor in terms of power, gaining less than 1% of the vote in the 2014 European elections, but it must be kept in mind that the party was only founded in 2011, meaning that Britain First was able to achieve a relatively decent percentage of votes for its short life.

However, the extent to which neo-fascism has swept over Europe extends beyond misleading politicians. The Golden Dawn, which is a far right and often openly fascist political party in Greece is an example of the violence and damage that fascist parties can inflict upon a vulnerable country. It’s no surprise that the Golden Dawn was able to capture 10% of the vote in the last election. The economic situation in Greece has been in a dire state for the past few years, quickly sparking a rise of people wanting a complete reform of the government and a rise in anti-immigration sentiments, with the main justification being that jobs and resources should go to the Greek working class rather that immigrants. This economic desperation rings eerily familiar to the repercussions of inflation in 1920-30s Germany, and just as the Nazi party entered

politics promising Germany a better economy, The Golden Dawn is doing the exact same thing. Both parties promised the development of a meritocratic employment system and the nationalization of resources. However, the similarities don’t end there. The Golden Dawn has also taken to promoting their ideals through violence that is targeted particularly towards those who promote political views that contradict with the Golden Dawn’s beliefs. In one case, Pavlos Fyssas, a rapper that promoted anti-racist messages was stabbed to death on September 18th 2013. Despite overwhelming evidence to suggest the Golden Dawn’s involvement in the murder, they continue to feign innocence.

From a North American perspective, neofacism seems to be a blip on someone else’s radar. But in reality the issue is much more closer to home. The 2016 US presidential elections, which are a pivotal time for Canadians due to our extensive relationship with the United States, are proving to be harbouring extremely racist sentiments. Donald Trump, a frontrunner for the republican candidate is a distinctly similar example of propaganda and populist messages working with intense racism. Trump has openly stated on a multitude of occasions that he does not support refugee programs and that he believes banning muslims from America to be a viable solution to race problems. Similarly to Britain First, he claims that these beliefs stem out of a desire to protect the prosperity of American’s above all.

Only time will tell of the possible dangers of Donald Trump but one thing’s for sure, Fascism is getting bigger in Europe and it’s time we start paying attention.

by Shreya Anand The 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil may not be the best idea for pregnant women, according to America’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The reason is the new Big Bad in diseasedom: the Zika virus. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Zika virus a “public health emergency of international concern” (PHEIC) on Feb 1, 2016.

sex. During pregnancy, a baby’s head grows as a result of brain growth, but if the brain is under-developed, it will be smaller than usual, resulting in a smaller head. Microcephaly can be accompanied by a whole host of other problems (including developmental delay, hearing and vision loss, and more) depending on the severity of the case.

The virus is primarily spread through bites from mosquitos of the Aedes species. The infection is generally mild and, in most cases, doesn’t warrant hospitalization. As a result, often people don’t realize when they have been infected. The most common symptoms include fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes (conjunctivitis), which can last for several days to a week after the initial By Alyssa bite. Once someone Joynt has been infected, they are likely to gain protection from future infections.

Top 10 #6: MUSEUM Doesn’t sound too bad, right? Unfortunately, that is not the case when it comes to unborn fetuses. Microcephaly is a birth defect linked with this virus. Babies with microcephaly have smaller heads than expected, for their age and

Recently, nine new cases of infected, pregnant women have been tested in the United States.

One of the women gave birth to a child with

microcephaly, while another had an abortion after doctors detected severe brain atrophy in the fetus. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two of the other women delivered healthy babies, while one had an abortion, two miscarried and two have yet to give birth.

Before 2015, Zika outbreaks mostly occurred in parts of Africa, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. In 2015, the first infections were confirmed in Brazil. The virus is projected to continue spreading, but it is difficult to predict how and where. The cases in North America have been travel-based cases, as the mosquitos that are known to spread the disease are not found naturally in most areas.

Basically, be careful when you travel. Yes, the warm climates are fun, but infection is not, so take precautions. Check if the areas you are travelling to have a Zika warning beforehand, especially if you or someone you know is pregnant. Safety first!

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The Danger of Being Yourself

by Konrad Petri

Imagine a world where you identify as yourself.

In this world, you have a pretty good idea of who you are and who you want to be; it is clear as day that you are meant to be the person you feel. But not everybody believes you. They give you a different name, they refer to you with the wrong pronouns, they call you “weird” and “a freak” for wearing the clothes that you like, and they tell you that you can never be who you want to be.

Now think about this from the perspective of a transgender individual. For them, this isn’t an imaginary world. This is their reality.

Thankfully, with the rise of more transgender individuals, including famous examples such as Laverne Cox, Caitlyn Jenner, Lana and Lilly Wachowski, society has become more educated on the matter of trans individuals. This has helped usher in a new wave of trans positivity. However, while the onset of trans positivity is helping many transitioning youth, we still have a long way to go in terms of acceptance. The fight is still unfinished, and for many, the fight is still raging on in their lives. Many trans women still experience violence and backlash, simply for being who they are.

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) stated in their 2013 report that 72% of victims of anti-LGBTQIA+ related homicide were transgender women, and 67% of anti-LGBTQIA+ related homicide were trans women of colour. This shows that not only transgender women, but transgender women of colour as well suffer from anti-LGBTQIA+ re-

lated violence at least twice as much than other trans women. There are numerous documented reports of women subjected to gender-related violence, just for being who they are and living as who they identify as.

The violence that occurs against trans women even to this day means that the average life expectancy for a trans woman of colour is 35 years. Why is this happening? How many cases of violence against trans women, and lives of trans women ending prematurely has to occur to form statistics? If we pride ourselves on being a forward thinking, inclusive society, we have to confront the heart of this problem as a society.

One episode of the comedy-drama show Horace and Pete made by Louis C.K., confronts the issues of trans acceptance. In that episode, Horace has a talk with one of his dates about the issues facing trans women. Throughout the episode, Horace confronts his previous thinking about trans rights and the struggles they face, with his date telling him “Everyone is feeling real good about accepting the transgender right now. They love the transgender when they are transitioning; they’re brave, they’re becoming themselves, good for them. But the true path to acceptance comes when you have sex with one and you don’t think you got cheated into doing something gay.”

So why is this relevant? First off, the NCAVP have stated that transgender women are 1.8 times more likely to experience sexual violence on average when compared to other survivors.

This becomes even more apparent when we look

back at the above statement from C.K.’s show.

Trav Pittman of the Huffington Post, herself a trans woman of colour, wrote “the disconnect between a trans woman’s lived gender and aspects of her biology challenge a man’s sense of his own sexuality, his own manhood, and the concept of manhood itself.”

The image of masculinity is itself a skewed topic; “masculinity” is often exclusively linked to being a “macho man” never being “feminine” or engaging in anything considered “feminine”, and an aversion to being gay. Often, it seems as if “gay” and “masculinity” don’t exist in the same societal pools. This is a problem because, for trans women, they are seen and perceived by some people as not truly female, or “pretending” to be female while in “actuality” being a man.

So if a man has sex with a trans woman, they consider it “gay” or “un-masculine” And this is one of the biggest roots of trans female-related violence. That there are still people who see trans people as their previous gender, or disregard the gender they identify with, is a serious problem in and of itself. True acceptance comes at the point where people don’t feel that it is an obligation for trans people to disclose that they are transgender to everyone. True acceptance comes at the point where trans women aren’t murdered because cisgender men think that they are “pulling one over” on them by dating them. True acceptance comes at the point where trans women are able to be who they want to be without getting attacked or worse.

I hope that we can reach that point soon.

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Discounted, Not A Deal

by Amy He

As traditional retail plummets, shutting stores and sloughing off workers, online vendors are blossoming from the raining gold coins. People like the convenience of e-shopping and the illusion of getting a deal.

It was only a few days ago when I was surfing the web for a face serum, and, instinctively, I right clicked on its Amazon profile. List Price: $28.49 Price: $19.99 & FREE Shipping You Save: $8.50 (30%). The passionate, impetuous, and reckless moment was a blur; I can only recall waking up sober to “The item has been shipped.” Let’s not pass any judgment here — sale and free are notoriously known for impulsive decisions. After rigorous follow up research on the product to justify my action, I stumbled upon the department store’s website that shows ingredients, purpose, and original price, $19.99.

The same as the discounted product. Although I wasn’t overcharged, I was outraged by the misleading discount.

The perception of a bargain is fostered by the strategic use of vaguely labelled manufacturer’s price, list price, or suggested price. Whatever shape it may take, its nature implies that people are getting a discount. A recent example of the ‘Singer 1304 Free Arm Sewing Machine’ shows

how retailers use list prices to motivate online buyers. Amazon said two weeks ago that it would knock $89.99 down from the $159.99 list price to sell the sewing machine for $70. Check around. On Singer’s own site, its list price is $119.99 and it also sells the tool for $70.

estimated in accordance with standard industry practice; or the estimated retail value for a comparably featured item offered elsewhere.”

The retailer concludes its list prices “may or may not represent the prevailing price in every area on any particular day.”

“Everyone likes deals and it makes people happy when they think they are saving a lot of money.” says Ms Konforte. This type of Black Friday psychology is often employed by companies; with many products sold online, hardly anyone is charging the manufacturer’s price. However, this sales tactic promotes the question of the integrity of e-commerce.

Anchored pricing is still a relevant business tactic in the physical world, but, online, list prices are even more prominent. Online retailers don’t need traditional blowout sales to draw traffic because it’s so easy to shop online. However, in order to assure consumers that they are regularly getting good deals, many companies are compelled to provide staggering price comparisons.

List price is a terminology used in a marketing context and thus not covered by the law. The law only protects consumers from practices that they cannot reasonably judge for themselves. This means that businesses are free to exploit these words regardless of whether it is true or only partially true. Many e-commerce websites are getting away from legal persecution because of the expansive definition of list price. On Amazon’s website, ‘Condition of Use’ states the list price can have many basises: it can be the “retail price listed on the product itself, suggested by the manufacturer or supplier, or

Business is competitive game and “at the end of the day profit is the only thing that matters,” says Liat Fainman-Adelman. In this competitive environment, businesses may do things that seem unethical in order to capture the market.

Yet, consumers are not entirely powerless: they have a right and opportunity to choose and therefore have the power to withdraw their purchase. By shopping conscientiously, consumers could play the game better. As an avid, free-loving, sales-devoted, online-shopping-enthusiast, I advise consumers to look around before making impromptu decisions.

“Finally, a Realistic Barbie”

by Hodman Abukar

The American icon, Barbie herself, has recently gotten a makeover.

In early 2016, Mattel decided to release three new types of dolls, a tall doll, a petite doll and a curvy doll. These three new body types are said to accompany the addition of new skin tones and hair textures initially released in 2015. With the introduction of a more diverse range of dolls, Mattel intends to have their products reflect the “21st century America.”

The iconic symbol Barbie has been under controversial scrutiny for decades; the ideology of the disgraceful disproportionality in Barbie’s body being a popular one.

Many will agree that Barbie looks nothing like the average American female’s body.

So by recognizing unrealistic standards presented to young girls, Mattel has basically wiped their image perfectly clean, right?

A realistic Barbie is what young girls all over North America can truly benefit from, but when the name “Barbie” is said, the modern

concept of an idealized doll with impossible proportions comes to mind. What about when Barbie had careers at a time when women were restricted to just being housewives? Or the “Barbie: I can Be….” campaign, when Barbie was an astronaut, a doctor, a lawyer, a police officer? Not to mention male-dominated occupations like computer engineers and architects.

There was even a 1992 Marine Corps Sergeant Barbie. The point is, Barbie may not look like most women, but has been inspiring young girls for over half a century.

“Our brand represents female empowerment, it’s about choices,” said Mattel president and COO Richard Dickson. In an interview among North Toronto students, upon being asked how barbie has impacted their childhoods, a female student in grade 10 claimed, “I played with Barbies everyday. It depended on what they were wearing really. I once had a business woman Barbie and I thought that was super cool, but I didn’t think the same for a swimsuit model Barbie. Although, if I had a curvy Barbie growing

Top 10 #8: DUPONT

up, I would probably realize that Barbie’s ultra fancy life wasn’t just for skinny, caucasian females.” Another female student said, “I played with Barbies growing up, but not as much as other dolls. I mostly thought how cool it was that Barbie had all these different occupations.

If I had a curvy Barbie doll growing up, I would think that Barbie dolls weren’t just about one type of person. I’d love getting to play with a diverse range of Barbies.” Both students highlighted the fact that a big part of their childhood was noticing all the different occupations Barbie held, and that seemed to inspire them. Despite this, mainstream media and the general public does not seem to care about all the inspiring things Barbie has done but, per usual, a toy marketed towards females must be correlated with beauty in the most direct way possible. And what about toys marketed mainly towards males? ] Setting standards on what is realistic and what is not, what should be accepted and what shouldn’t, appears to only apply to women. Any

toy, game, or brand should have the same set of standards regardless of the targeted audience, because that is the only way to reach full equality in terms of products available on the market. Another point of interest is the gendered way toys are marketed. Why does a toy car or soldier not hold the same appeal for an 8-year-old girl as a a mini hot-pink hair brush in glammedup Barbie’s hand? Or why can’t a horse or baby doll hold the same appeal for a 9-year-old boy as a buff Superman in blue and red. There has been some improvements in the toy industry, but the unrealistic standards for both males and females as well as the gender-biased toys are all still evident.

Until Barbie is recognized for something other than her body and until products targeted towards males are given the same solicitous, thoughtful attitude given towards female-targeted products when unrealistic standards are present, the toy industry will not be credited as a place for equality..

by Caitlin Heffernan

I’ll be honest. I only chose Dupont because all the other “good” stations were taken and it was the first thing that came up when I googled “best ttc stations”. But, the moment I stepped out of the train and saw the sloped walls and worn tile mural, I fell in love. I have never gotten more excited about anything transit-related in my whole life (although I’ll admit, that’s not saying much). Basically I just walked around gasping at everything. This station was just so aesthetically pleasing, from the street-level entrances that look more like yellow bird cages (a nice contrast from most other stations, whose entrances tend to consist of, well, a hole in the ground) to the circular lights on the walls. Located in the Annex at Spadina and Dupont, there are plenty of tiny, adorable restaurants and cafes (a popular theme seems to be Asian fusion) within walking distance. There was also a fabric store with a really big pair of scissors hanging on the wall. Also, Casa Loma. That’s about it. But at least the station is pretty.

Journalism for Human Rights [JHR]

>> Korean Comfort Women >> Medical Marijuana >> Hillary Clinton’s Identity Politics >> MORE

‘Comfort Women’ Deal Backfires with South Korea’s Indignation

by Jasmine Chung (NTCI), Adrian Zee (Western University), Leanne Kim (University of Toronto) Asian countries were abruptly divided into conflicting opinions on December 28th, 2015 when a deal between the Foreign Ministers of Japan and Korea was announced regarding “Comfort Women” issues. The Japanese government issued approximately one billion yen (8.3 Million U.S.) in relief funds to act as compensation for the war crime committed against the “Comfort Women.”

However, with the compensation, the Government of Japan stated that the issue surrounding “Comfort Women” was settled, and international communities including the United Nations should refrain from making accusations or criticisms regarding this atrocity.

The world is fully aware of the atrocities committed in Europe during the Second World War, the most infamous of which is the Holocaust.

However, there was an equally dark chapter of World War II taking place in Asian countries that much of the world is unaware of to this day: Comfort Women. Although the Comfort Women issue is one of the biggest factors that contributed to strong antagonism and strained relations between the Korean and Japanese governments, there is very little awareness of this issue.

Comfort women were young girls who were forced to become sex slaves for Japanese soldiers by the Japanese government. “Comfort woman” is the Japanese euphemism of Ianfu, which means “prostitute”. There were an estimated 200,000 comfort women during World War II, most of them from East Asian countries.

Thousands of girls and young women from Korea, Mainland China, Philippines (as well as Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Malaysia) were abducted, lured, or tricked by the Japanese government, being told they would receive jobs at factories or restaurants. In reality, they were were sent off to different “comfort stations” which were distributed in various Japanese battlefields in China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Macau, etc. The women were then victimized into days of torture, sexual assaults, and rape from soldiers of the Japanese Imperial

JHR Dispatch

Army.

Serving up to 30 soldiers a day in Japan’s military “brothels” for an average of 5-7 years, many of them were subjected to physical and sexual violence from the Japanese soldiers that resulted in psychological damage and physical ailments that persist to this day. The majority of the victims are now dead or in their late 80s to early 90s, with only 46 alive today. For years, the survivors bore their secrets in shame and silence; Since the early 90s, only 238 comfort women have come forward. One of them, Kimiko Kaneda, told how she had to get a hysterectomy (surgery to remove a woman’s uterus/womb) in her twenties after being raped by as many as 20 men every morning after she was sold into sexual slavery.

A great deal of controversy surrounds the issues

of comfort women and whether they voluntarily subjected themselves as prostitutes or were forced as sex slaves. There have been many objections from the Japanese side, while Asian countries who had majority of comfort women victims, such as Korea and China, demanded formal apologies and adequate compensation.

According to the President of The Republic of Korea, “Nine [comfort women] died this year alone. I hope the mental pains of the elderly comfort women will be eased”.

The agreement from the meeting held on De-

Visual News Around The World

cember 28th, 2015 ended with Japan giving one billion yen to a fund for the comfort women, Japan’s apology by the Prime Minister Abe, (Note** Abe did not entirely make it clear if he was representing his country or not in his speech**) and the acceptance of “deep responsibility” for the issue.

Many news outlets announced the agreement between the South Korean and Japanese government created a positive solution that satisfied both sides of the deal. The contract considered the matter completely resolved, and advised international communities to refrain from considering the issue any further. However, the Korean public is still extremely upset and offended by the deal made between the two nations. The agreement also demanded South Korea remove a statue symbolising comfort women that was erected outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul in 2011. Sixty-six percent of South Koreans opposed the relocation of the statue.

The vast majority of the survivors were extremely disappointed and angry over the agreement. Not only was it executed without consulting the comfort women, the money was not for legal reparations, and not sufficient for the damage caused to the women during the colonial years from 1910 to 1945. The deal only provided support for “projects recovering [comfort women’s] honour and dignity, and healing the psychological wounds”.

“I will ignore [the deal] completely. What we demand is that Japan make official reparations for the crime it has committed.” said Lee Yong-soo, an 88 year old survivor. “I wonder whether the talks took place with the victims really in mind.

We’re not after the money. If the Japanese committed their sins, they should offer direct official government compensation.”

Another comfort women, 88 year old Yoo Heenam, said “[When] I look back, we’ve lived a life deprived of our basic rights as human beings. So I can’t be fully satisfied.”

Legal Weed & Other Confusing Phenomena

21

by Tamar KB

Each week, new retail storefronts are opening in the city of Toronto. But these aren’t your average retailers. Medical cannabis dispensaries, storefronts which dispense cannabis on-site to those with medical conditions, have historically operated on the margins of the law, providing access to patients since a time in Canada when there was no legal means of doing so.

Yes. Cannabis for medicinal purposes can be used as treatment for specific conditions or to alleviate certain symptoms when authorized by a doctor. Since a 2001 Supreme Court ruling, qualifying patients can use medical marijuana, but the specifics about who can prescribe it has changed throughout the years. Health Canada, however, continually does not outright endorse its use but must comply with the courts and provide reasonable and safe access to the medicine.

So patients and others interested have two main options: clinics or dispensaries.

Clinics are medical facilities that have in-house doctors specially trained in the diagnosis and prescription of medical marijuana. When the original medpot legislation was introduced, the responsibility fell on Health Canada to oversee who could qualify for access. Since 2013 when the new Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations Act came into effect, the onus shifted to individual doctors to prescribe cannabis to qualifying patients.

Ronan Levy is a director at Canadian Cannabis Clinics, the largest system of clinics specializing in connecting weed-friendly doctors to patients in the country. When responsibility shifted to GPs, Ronan said many doctors were uncomfortable: some were morally opposed to prescribing weed but most said they simply didn’t know enough about its medicinal properties. “So even though it was legal and technically every doctor in Canada had the ability to prescribe, very few would actually do so,” Levy says.

That’s where places like Canadian Cannabis Clinics come in. Levy tells, “we provide [patients] with access to doctors who will assess them and

determine whether cannabis is a suitable treatment option, and for the doctors who are open to the use of cannabis as medicine, we provide them with the structure they need in a safe manner that’s not going to jeopardize their license.” These clinics are just like any other health practice in Canada and are completely free. The only payment comes when you actually purchase weed from a licensed supplier. Some so-called clinics may charge a fee to connect you with a physician who will be more likely to write you a green prescription but, if you’re looking to abide by the letter of the law, you may as well stick with a clinic like Levy’s that does the same for free.

Dispensaries are the other option. These storefront operations are popping up around our city at an astonishing rate: Levy speculates that there were about four of them in total last year; presently, they number around 25. Dispensaries skirt much of the red tape of clinics, making it easier to get weed. “The issue with the clinics is that they make you jump through a bunch of hoops,” says Conor Purdon, district manager of Weeds Glass and Gifts in Toronto. This BC-based family of dispensaries will soon have five locations in Toronto. Unlike clinics, dispensaries don’t employ doctors. Purdon has a masters degree in botany with a specialization in psychoactive plants, but his staff lack a medical background.

Instead, they’re encouraged to keep up-todate on news, trends and to test the products firsthand. They take a more grassroots approach, allowing patients to lead the charge in determining whether they think medical marijuana is in their best interest and removing many administrative barriers, allowing patients to receive weed that day. However, they also lack the stringent oversight that clinics and their suppliers operate under since they’re not beholden to the same official guidelines.

Steve Churchill and Chris Cardozo own a dispensary called Toronto Holistic Cannabinoids, or THC for short. He said that was a matter of supply and demand. “There’s a need for it,” said Churchill in an interview with CBC. “There was only a select few dispensaries that were here, and they were closed to the general public. You

needed to jump through flaming hoops, whereas in B.C., they have an open door policy where you can come in and find out how to get a prescription.” Some dispensaries in this city will tell potential clients to go to your family doctor, some will recommend a doctor, some actually have a relationship with a doctor, and that can range from doctors who require paperwork showing your diagnosed condition, to those who do it on a more ad hoc basis.

Alain Baldini, who runs two dispensaries in Vancouver, says the biggest difference between getting product from dispensaries like his or through the government’s licensed producers is customer experience. “A lot of people don’t like having it mailed to them. It’s not fair to the patient,” he said. “Here, you get to look, smell, touch, feel. We have knowledgeable staff, you get to know the patient, have conversations. It’s more of a hands-on approach.” “You want it to be your Cheers, where everybody knows your name. You want to feel at home.”

For some, weed is the key to living a pain-free, healthier life. Cannabis has been successfully used for a variety of medical purposes, including trauma, anxiety, epileptic seizures, and arthritis.

Medical marijuana has been legal in Canada since 2000, but new regulations introduced by the Conservative government have made access more difficult. Last June, Vancouver city councillors voted to license marijuana dispensaries, which operate outside the current federal framework, becoming the first Canadian city to regulate retailers selling the drug. Under the old system, patients could grow their own plants, buy from licensed home growers, or get their medicine directly from the government. But as of 2014, only large-scale licensed producers can grow and sell marijuana, a move that has made it much harder to obtain, patient advocates say.

Dispensaries are not exactly legal, but restrictions on Health Canada’s commercial growers mean that local dispensaries are often the only place patients prescribed medical marijuana can get quick, in-person service, find strains that suit them best, and buy non-smokable forms of the drug like oils, extracts, and edibles.

Wealth Inequality is Rising Fast

by Susi Hermanns

The ever growing gap between the rich and poor is reaching new heights. A recent report

by Oxfam revealed that the richest 62 billionaires internationally have as much wealth as the poorer half of the world’s population. This is no surprise seeing as the wealthiest have had a major spike in their net worth over the past few years. It was found last year that the top 1% own as much as the rest of the world’s population.

The 62 billionaires together share the same collective net worth as the 3.2 billion poorest people in the world. Mark Goldring, Chief Executive of Oxfam GB says “It is simply unacceptable that the poorest half of the world’s population own no more than a small group of the global superrich - so few, you could fit them all on a single couch.”

Leading figures around the world have called for action on this trend of wealth inequality. More than ever, there is huge demand to reverse it. Ox-

fam responds in saying that none of these words have translated into action.

crazy how the 1% are just sitting on heaps of cash that’s been hidden from the public.”

Goldring adds, “World leaders’ concern about the escalating inequality crisis has so far not translated into concrete action to ensure that those at the bottom get their fair share of economic growth. In a world where one in nine people go to bed hungry every night, we cannot afford to carry on giving the richest an ever bigger slice of the cake.”

She is not alone. Many people already feel exhausted by inequalities evident within the world’s current economic framework. In a world that has been devastated by war, terror, ignorance, and poverty, it’s natural for people to be uneasy about the future. It has been reflected in the international rise of popularity for leftist politics that challenge this phenomenon. Bernie Sanders in the U.S., Jeremy Corbyn in the U.K., and Syriza in Greece reflect the international swep in politics representative of the people.

In 2011, the 388 richest people had the same wealth as half the world’s population. By the end of the year, this number dropped to 177. By 2014, the number was 80, and last year, it was 62. It is simply a matter of time before we see the stats drop down to a single person who owns just as much as half of all people globally.

Tara Kidwai, a North Toronto student and social justice activist comments on the situation, “It’s

2016 promises to be an exciting year in the world of politics and economics. Wealth inequality has grown to a breaking point. People are recognizing the damage that inequality has on the world around them. Maybe now it is time that we will see change in this system that allows inequalities to grow.

The Human Right to Internet Access

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by Elizabeth Wolfenden

The invention of the printing press in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg was the first time a written work could be duplicated without laborious and error-prone manual copying, allowing for information to become increasingly widespread and easily accessed. In response to the new printing press technology and the controversial ideas that began to spread with every stamp, the Roman Catholic Church implemented censorships. This censorship was followed by a demand for freedom of expression by creative thinkers.

And history continues to repeat itself. We now have our own modern version of the printing press: the Internet. Technological changes today are so profound that they demand for us to rethink what constitutes a human right. With a printing press on steroids, we need our definition of freedom of expression to keep up.

In 2011, a U.N. Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression reported on access to the Internet as a human right. The report made 88 recommendations to ensure secure access to the Internet for all, as the Internet is “an enabler of other human rights [and] boosts economic, social and political development, contributing to the progress of humankind as a whole.” A number of countries include the right to Internet access as part of their constitutions or legal codes, such as Costa Rica, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece and Spain.

When one thinks of a human right, things necessary for basic health, well being and survival come to mind. Since the Internet doesn’t fall into any of these categories, many consider it too much of a luxury to be considered a human right. For most people living in Canada, and definitely at NT, the Internet is used largely for entertainment and information. Though

most NT students wouldn’t know how to write a research paper without it, it is not considered a basic necessity for survival. However, this attitude may be changing.

It is becoming impossible to participate fully in our modern world without access to the internet Consider this important reality: It is becoming difficult and sometimes impossible to participate fully in our modern world without open access to the Internet.

The main way in which we communicate, access information and gain education, the Internet will soon become increasingly necessary to find jobs, use healthcare systems, receive financial services, participate in politics and other necessary activities. Mobile banking may soon eliminate the need for paper money or coins and Internet voting may one day eliminate the need for physical ballots.

More importantly, the Internet has become a hotbed for activism. It is where people state their opinions, start movements and organize demonstrations in their pyjamas. Current presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton has said that cyberspace “is the public square of the 21st century.” Without the Internet we would not have had the Arab Spring, started with a single shared video that sparked an entire movement of political activism across the Middle East and Africa. Or the Black Lives Matter movement, whose hashtag has been shared millions of times since its first use in 2013. “The tools

that we have to organize and to resist are fundamentally different than anything that’s existed before in black struggle,” said DeRay Mckesson, oBlack Lives Matter movement.

The advocacy group, A Human Right, has estimated that 4.6 billion people live without access to the Internet. This means that over half of the world is at a disadvantage, having less of an ability to exercise their rights to expression and less access to information about the world, their country and their community. According to a study conducted by the UN, more people in the world have phones than toilets. Give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and feed him for a lifetime - give a man the Internet, and he can teach himself how to fish, and anything else he wants to know. If half the world is unable to do this, how will they achieve a better quality of life?

A UN report identified two primary reasons why many people do not have Internet access: poverty and censorship. Some people cannot afford to own digital devices, while others have devices but their government censors information. The “Great Firewall” of China is a famous example of government censorship. Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey have also blocked Internet access in the past, making it difficult for opposition movements to form and organize.

In the past, the Internet has been considered an unnecessary luxury. This attitude is beginning to change as the Internet becomes crucial in order to live a rewarding life regardless of financial or social situations. Free access to the Internet is the shiny, brand new addition to the Declaration of Human Rights. It may seem hyperbolic today, but it reflects changes in our society that need to be recognized and may prove to be one of the most important human rights of this century.

Militarization of the Police

by Hodman Abukar

During the 1968 Democratic National Convention Riot, the Chicago Police Department were equipped with helmets, gas masks, Billy clubs and tear-gas grenades.

For the 1995 Million Man March, Washington D.C. police were supplied with a standard United States Park Police uniform which included handcuffs, a TETRA or Airwaves radio, CS spray (tear gas), a taser (the alternative to firearms for non-firearm officers), a collapsible baton, and a personal protection pouch (gloves, CPR mask).

In the 2011 Occupy Oakland Eviction, the Oakland Police Department confronted protesters with 12-gauge shotguns, stun grenades, gas masks, riot helmets with face shields and Kevlar tactical body armor.

When looking at these three incidents, it is obvious that over time, the North American approach has become to prepare for war, not confronting protesters.

This story cannot be dismissed as an ‘American problem.’ Right here in Canada, Toronto Police Services plan to order 8 carbine semi-automatic

assault rifles for front-line police officers. The assault rifles, made by arms and artillery manufacturer Colt Canada for the Canadian Forces, will cost $2,500 each, and will be used in patrol cars on the streets of Toronto by May 2016.

The militarization of North American police is no recent event. For the G20 Summit in 2010, Toronto Police purchased 4 Long Range Acoustic Devices. Also known as sound cannons, these weapons were developed by the United States military to fight Somali pirates and Iraqi rebels. The sound is so powerful, it makes human bones vibrate. This destructive weapon was used against Canadian citizens and still exists in the Toronto Police arsenal.

With an undeniable rise in police brutality, militarizing our police force will not lead to peace.

In 2013, Toronto Police shot an 18-year-old, switchblade-wielding Sammy Yatim 9 times. If

this police officer was supplied with larger, more powerful artillery, Yatim may have faced a far more gruesome end. What’s more, James Forcillo, the officer convicted of the crime, got away with a sentence of 4 years for ‘attempted murder’ and still plans to fight his sentence.

The first three shots Forcillo fired could have been justified, but the other 6 were unacceptable.

This is a precise example of the excessive force being used by police in our country. Canada brands itself as a peaceful nation, not one that allows excessive, violent actions taken by its police officers. James Forcillo used his position of authority to justify shooting a young person 9 times. A nation that does not hold police officers like Forcillo accountable for this behaviour is not a nation Canada aims to be.

There is too much power being put into North American police’s hands, and too much money being invested into police forces. Police should bear arms with the intention of protecting civilians across the nation, and not feel as though this weapon can be used in the first sign of conflict, but as a second resort. Militarizing police does not lead to peace and will not work to serve or protect Canadian citizens.

Hillary Clinton and the Limits of Neoliberal Identity Politics

23

by Susi Hermanns

Fighting for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, Hillary Clinton is at wit’s end. She has taken a sharp turn into the realm of neoliberalism. She has campaigned herself as a leader of the struggle for women’s rights and a defender of racial minorities. While many people have found Clinton to be progressive because of her gender, many others have become disillusioned in her seemingly contradictory campaign.

This portrayal has been reinforced by her support from Gloria Steinem and Madeline Albright.

Steinem, leader in the second-wave feminist movement of the 60s and 70s, claimed that women voting for Bernie Sanders were simply giving in to him for the sake of men’s attention.

Steinem later apologized, but, regardless, she clearly uncovered the hypocrisy of liberal feminism. Madeleine Albright, on the other hand, made the claim that “there is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women”.

It begs the question, would this include Hillary Clinton too? And is there a special place in hell for the woman who, in the scheme of her entire political career, has served in the interests of American imperialism and the prison industrial complex?

The fact of the matter is that Hillary Clinton is just another representative of the establishment.

For much of her career, Clinton has been openly complicit in the oppression of women and racial minorities in the U.S. and around the world.

Clinton has avidly supported wars and policies that have put women through overwhelming suffering and destitution. In the 90s, US sanctions in Iraq resulted in the deaths of half a million children according to UNICEF. With Clinton as first lady at the time, her husband took on a central role in this. Albright said that “we think the price is worth it”.

The Clintons played a leading role in mass incarcerations during Bill Clinton’s presidency. His crime bill, passed in 1994, lead to the U.S. imprisoning the most people in the world at the time.

Prisoner numbers exploded during Bill Clinton’s effort to get “tough on crime”. The prison population under federal jurisdiction doubled, and grew at a rate farther than any point of the Republican run 12 years prior.

The bill introduced many federal crimes punishable by the death penalty, $16 billion in grants for state prisons, mandated life sentences for three-time offenders, and created an expansion of the police system. In seven states, black people accounted for the majority of drug offenders in prison despite research pointing out that they are equally likely to white people to use or sell illegal drugs. Prison sentences related to drug offences jumped 26 times higher for black people in 2000 from 1983.

Admittedly, while Hillary Clinton was the first lady at the time, she had no official role in the vote and execution of the 1994 crime bill. The language she uses surrounding the prison system now as opposed to her husband’s days as president have changed dramatically.

rates of violence against women nearly doubled compared to 2008. By 2013, rates of disappearing women were 281% higher than of that before the coup. Bureaucratic measures taken after the coup are directly linked to preventing the safety and justice for Honduran women.

We need more and tougher prison sentences for repeat offenders,” Hillary Clinton said in 1994.

“We need more prisons to keep violent offenders for as long as it takes to keep them off the streets.”

Despite her longstanding history as a reactionary leader, Clinton is making the transition towards identity politics. In order to win as the Democrat’s presidential nominee, her plan is to appeal to the most oppressed layers of American society who make up a huge part of the country’s population.

“Not everything is about an economic theory, right?” Clinton states at a campaign rally. “If we broke up the big banks tomorrow - and I will, if they deserve it, if they pose a systemic risk would that end racism? Would that end sexism?

Would that end discrimination against the LGBT community?”

Conversely, in December of 2014, Hillary Clinton said “The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, yet we have almost 25 percent of the world’s total prison population”.

She added “It is because we have allowed our criminal justice system to get out of balance.”

The problem is that Hillary Clinton portrays concerns of racialized people, women, and the LGBT community as being separate from that of class. She treats these groups as monoliths with the sole aim of fighting for social justice that pertains to them. She implies here that people of these groups aren’t interested in their own country’s economics, even though the oppression

As opposed to acknowledging American prison populations’ direct relationship with her husband’s policies, she leaves the dilemma with an ambiguous “we”. Her evasiveness has failed to connect with those looking for solutions against America’s prison industrial implex.

There’s a reason why so many frown upon her recent striving for social justice As then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton played a major role in the 2009 coup against Zelaya in Honduras. The coup stopped much legislation for workers rights, reinstated Honduras’s oligarchy, and brought an end to a relatively stable government and bureaucracy. As democratically elected president, Zelaya proposed to rewrite the Honduran constitution. The day after this referendum was voted down, Zelaya was detained at gunpoint and taken to Costa Rica. Afterwards, Porfirio Lobo Sosa and the Conservative National Party succeeded him. Clinton explains that “We [in Obama’s administration] strategized on a plan to restore order in Honduras and ensure that free and fair elections could be held quickly and legitimately, which would render the question of Zelaya moot”.

Zelaya proposed a wide range of progressive reforms such as raising minimum wage, decreasing interest rates, and allowing subsidies for small farmers. The CNP reversed many of the reforms and committed tremendous human rights violations against Honduran people, especially women. Instances of violence against women and disappearances of women in Honduras have skyrocketed after the 2009 coup. Only a few months after, reforms were put in place that are preventing women from accessing emergency contraceptives, even in cases of rape. A year later,

that many of these groups face is very closely tied with their economic history.

Identity politics generally deals with social arrangements such as race, gender, sexuality, religion, and nationality and studies how these groups influence individual’s politics. Identity politics, in and of itself, does not reject the concept of class but within the confines of neoliberal ideology, meeting quotas for boardroom diversity is considered a political victory.

In the domain of identity politics, feminism pushes forward the notion of defending women against sexism. Hillary Clinton is not exempt from this. However, her history that has advocated for the trauma, poverty, and murder of women and racialized people will not be defended along with it.

There’s a reason as to why so many people frown upon Hillary Clinton’s recent striving for social justice. She has shamelessly directed the latest discussions on race and gender in order to fight against the diverse assembly of students and workers who are challenging the oligarchy that Hillary Clinton has thrived on for decades. She behaves as though her own existence as a woman now exempts her from her oppressive history. As soon as Clinton absolves the relationship of class to race or gender based oppression, the trust of those she claims to help is lost.

24

Fair Enough?

by Tara Kidwai

One of my favourite things to do on the weekend is to head down to Greenwood Avenue and Coxwell, home of Toronto’s own “Little India”.

The visits usually include sauntering down Gerrard street in search of curry, or finding some outlandish snacks that would not be sold anywhere else, such as butter chicken flavoured chips. As I enter a tired-looking convenience store crammed with crates of mangoes, spices, and pirated Bollywood flicks, my eyes are drawn to a multitude of boxes on a shelf above the cashier’s head. Slogans like “Fair and Lovely”, “Get brighter and lighter skin” and “White Perfect” mark the boxes, accompanied by images of digitally altered South Asian faces flaunting whiter-than-white complexions. The scene provokes a few questions. First, is this serious? How is this even legal? And most importantly, why would anyone want to literally bleach their skin?

Research reveals that more than half the world engages in skin bleaching or skin whitening.

The global skin-whitening industry is a multibillion dollar trade estimated to be worth at least 20 billion dollars by the year 2018. Skin lightening treatments such as skin whiteners, skin-toning creams, and skin fading gels work by lessening the presence of melanin, a pigment within the skin responsible for determining skin and hair colour, depending on how much a population has been historically exposed to the sun. The majority of users are women--although the cosmetics industry has also started to target men--from areas where dark skin is most common, such as Southern Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. Further, four out of ten women surveyed in Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines and South Korea reported to have used a skin whitening cream.

If you’re wondering how smearing peroxide over your body doesn’t result in your skin immediately evaporating off your bones, you’re not far off. The dangers associated with the use of these creams include leukaemia and cancers of the liver and kidneys, not to mention a severe skin condition called ochronosis, a form of hyper-pigmentation which causes the skin to

turn dark purple. Some products are reported to contain up to 60,000 times the acceptable dose of hydroquinone, which is a chemical banned in Europe due to its connection with cancer. Local doctors in Jamaica, where lightening creams are not effectively regulated and are sold in tubes and powders by roadside vendors, are dealing with increasing numbers of patients who have burnt their skin with these products. The death of bride-to-be Chhuon Sovann from the Cambodian town of Poipet, has been traced back to whitening cream by Thai doctors, who blame untested black market ointments.

Given all the risks of engaging in these activities, why do millions of people still insist on using them? What could be worth taking this risk?

For most people, the need for pale skin stems from a larger issue concerning their societal standards of desirability. It’s difficult to pinpoint one specific cultural reason, but, nevertheless, with issues such as business and beauty often resting on colorism and racial discrimination, people invest in skin-whitening creams in the hope of a better chance at life. Throughout the numerous “pigmentocracies” across the world, the fairest toned peoples have the highest social status, followed by the brown skinned, and finally the black skinned at the “bottom” of this social hierarchy. Bleaching enthusiasts see pale skin as desirable because it suggests wealth, and a life that does not include working and tanning in the sun. Not only does this imply your social status and wealth, but, in many postcolonial nations, the purchase of skin lightening creams is meant to achieve a racially superior “European” appearance. In British India, skin color served as a signal of high status for the foreign British who had most of the power. Thus, individuals with a lighter skin color enjoyed more privileges from the British, and were considered to have a more affluent status, while darker skinned individuals were socially and economically disadvantaged.

Products like Fair and Lovely, the most widely used skin lightener in India and Pakistan get endorsed by top Bollywood actors. In Thailand, most TV ads display men and women who are abnormally touched-up to look lighter. Social media has even embraced these trends, creating a section on matrimonial websites to specify your skin tone. Fair and Lovely, even went so far as to launch an application to make the skin of Facebook users look lighter in their profile pictures.

Technically, this practice is no different than broiling one’s skin under ultraviolet light or injecting silicone into their face. So what is the problem with this particular trend, seeing as there are many others like it? The owner of Clean and Dry claims, “Lipstick is used to make your lips redder, fairness cream is used to make you fairer – so what’s the problem?”. The problem comes when fairness-obsessed customers plunge head-first into their quest for a pearlescent complexion without, or perhaps despite, knowledge of the potential side effects. Corporations are capitalising on racial inequality and deepening a sense of self-hate in people, while hawking products that are either ineffectual or turn your skin purple. More worryingly, it condemns a new generation of people of colour to grow up immensely insecure about the colour of their skin. Darker-skinned people of the same ethnicity grow up emotionally scarred and completely unrepresented by the media.

Skin-whitening perpetuates a form of racism and it should be stigmatised as such. But what is there to do if women across Asia and other parts of the world are constantly told that if they get darker no man will find them worthy of marriage, or that their tan translates to their work ethic? It is important not to scrutinize the people, who are just reacting to the messages shouted at them. The dangers of skin whitening are obvious, therefore it is the responsibility of the government and health officials to teach people about these dangers. But after that, the decision is theirs to make.

Top 10 #9: BLOOR Bloor is perhaps the best station all around for its stores, entertainment, and variety that comes with it. The intersection, Bloor and Yonge, is packed with leisure and entertainment. Centered in the heart of Toronto, there are plenty of options for shopping, entertainment, and more. The street itself acts as the dividing line between Toronto’s midtown and downtown areas. Nearby is Yorkville, loaded with high end restaurants, high-priced hotels, and designer boutiques. Chanel, Holt Renfrew, and Dolce & Gabbana are some names that come to mind. The upscale setting ensures for excellent urban photography. More appropriate for the average high schooler’s budget, Bloor is home to plenty of restaurants and fast food joints. Hudson’s Bay Centre, sitting right on top of the station, is home to an array of stores for fashion and food. There are some downsides, though. Home to the two longest subway lines in Toronto, Bloor’s heavy traffic makes it the TTC’s busiest station.

This would be easy to make up for if you enjoy the sense of the urban setting. There is lively musical performances at Bloor station that fill the halls. If you stop by Bloor often, you’ll see the same faces singing a mixture of classics and their own songs.

Arts & Culture [Arts & Culture]

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>> Cold Pressed Juice >> Oscars So White >> Mockingjay >> Sears Fest >> MORE

A Juicy Review of Cold Pressed Juice

by Aiyana Bradshaw and Caitie Robinson If think that the frenzy of the juicing fad is a craze of the past, you are mistaken. Taking over the blocks of Yonge and Eglinton is an army of different juiceries decked out with fridges of freshly squeezed juices promising to keep you slim and pure with their superfood powers.

Floored with pristine white tiles, and decorated with succulents and cactuses, it’s not just the juices that have you feeling refreshed. The sleek ambiance of these juice shops leaves every customer feeling irresistibly organic. When trying to order, endless selection of good is enough to overwhelm even the most seasoned juice lover.

But with all the options, the question remains: which juices are best, and from where? We took to the streets to find the answer.

Greenhouse Juice Co: The pioneer of its type, Greenhouse is famously known for being the it place for all things juice.

Housing many different flavors with many different health benefits, $11 price for the 500mL quantity means that experimentation could have a negative consequence on your wallets. If you are a fan of fruity flavours, we recommend trying out Wake Up and Gold Rush. These juices pack a punch of citrus, and feature a sweet, zingy undertone. Next up: the green juices. Our best advice is to steer clear of East of Eden and

The Giver. While these juices are undoubtedly the epitome of healthy, they just aren’t worth having to purse your lips every time you take a sip. The good news is, however, the fruity flavors are full of just as many health benefits as the green juices, so you don’t have to feel bad about treating your taste buds.

Fresh Since 1999: Another classic juicery which has been around for years, this hot spot offers more than just juice. With a full menu of vegetarian decadence, this restaurant is a must for breakfast, lunch or dinner. They even offer an extensive brunch menu. As far the juice, Green Candy is a must try–you would never expected something that tastes so amazing to have so many health benefits. Another fabulous option Fresh offers are their immunity boosting shots. Each shot is a 3 oz dose of detoxifying serums like pure ginger or lemon cayenne. Since every juice on the Fresh menu is a guaranteed good press, you really can’t go wrong. This is a go to place if you are looking to embrace your inner health guru.

Village Juicery: This juice spot is kind of a newbie of the Yonge and Eglinton area. Featuring an array of cold pressed juices, their menu answers the ques-

tion “how do you want to feel?” With titles like Be Active, Be Radiant, and Be Calm, they have a juice for every adjective. Their juices consist of adventurous ingredients from sweet potato, Swiss chard, bok choy and fennel. It’s up to you how daring you want to be with your order– whether it’s a safe classic or an exotic experiment, every juice is a 10/10.

Refuel Juicery: Refuel has the smallest menu of the four, and is the latest juicery to hit the uptown scene. Even with prices averaging $2 cheaper than it’s competition, this shop offers equally health packed juices. Made with 100% raw and local ingredients, Refuel offers a wide range of fresh flavors from fruity Mango Tango to tangy Mr. Ginger.

Many skeptics believe nothing can disguise the taste of health. However, these four juiceries prove that a healthy juice can double as a tasty treat. With every shop bursting with flavors, there’s something for every taste palette.

Whether you’re looking for a fruity refresher or a beneficial detox, every menu has you covered.

With the warm weather coming, be sure to check them out to nourish your body and satisfy your taste buds. Happy juicing!

Oscar Diversity Controversy

by Joshua Chong and Hana Sharifi The Oscars got a makeover this year. It was relevance is more than merely a PR issue–it is announced on February 17 that the statuette, also a business one. The bulk of the organizafamously nicknamed “Oscar,” was getting a tion’s budget comes from sales of the TV rights throwback to his original 1929 design. Why the to the telecast, and if a sizeable amount of the big change? It is rumoured that the modification audience sits the show out, the effects could be was in light of this year’s Oscar controversy over devastating. the lack of diversity in the nominations. For the

second year in a row, no actor or actress of On the other hand, there colour was nominated for an Oscar. were a few actors of colour

against the boycott. Most Ever since the Oscar nominations were annotably, Whoopi Goldnounced on January 14, actors, directors, and berg, came out against other Hollywood insiders alike have reacted the boycott on The View, to the nominations’ lack of diversity with stating it would be “a slap emotions ranging from mild disappointment in the face” to fellow black to stark outrage. Some actors were so enraged artists and industry figures that they went so far as to boycott the Oscars like the Rock (Dwayne to show their disapproval. One well known Johnson). Jane Hubert, best actress, Jada Pinkett Smith, who was at the known for playing Aunt forefront of the boycott, tweeted, “At the Viv in The Fresh Prince Oscar’s…people of color are always welcomed of Bel-Air, went further, to give out awards…even entertain, but we posting a video criticizare rarely recognized for our artistic Visuals by Alice Liang ing Pinket Smith for accomplishments. Should people of asking working black color refrain from participating all together?” actors to jeopardize their careers by participatPinkett Smith has been joined together with ing in the boycott. “As actors, we know that every award winning director Spike Lee, who went job you get could be your last,” Hubert said in an on to post a photo of Martin Luther King Jr. on interview about her video Tuesday, “you don’t ask his Instagram, with a caption stating, “How is it people to step out on a limb to hang themselves.” possible for the 2nd consecutive year [that] all 20

contenders under the actor category are white?”

Some actors of colour who did not receive an For the academy, this is concerning, as cultural Oscar nomination include British film vet David

Oyelowo, for his riveting performance as Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma. Selma, which also features Oprah Winfrey, won rave reviews from many critics. However, it’s cast failed to garner any Oscar nominations. Joining the long list of actors who did not receive a nomination include Will Smith for his portrayal of Dr. Bennet Omalu in Concussion, and Jason Mitchell as the best supporting actor in Straight Outta Compton.

However, there is hope, as The Academy is actively making an effort to improve upon the issue.

On the Oscars website, an article was posted on January 2nd with the title: “Academy Takes Historic Action to Increase Diversity”. The first two lines read, “In a unanimous vote Thursday night (1/21), the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences approved a sweeping series of substantive changes designed to make the Academy’s membership, its governing bodies, and its voting members significantly more diverse. The Board’s goal is to commit to doubling the number of women and diverse members of the Academy by 2020.”

Some people are hopeful for this endeavour; others think it’s a false promise. Either way, most people agree that it is a baby step in the right direction. As actor Sylvester Stallone said, “[I do believe that] things will change. It’s a matter of time. Eventually, all talent will rise to the top. It’s a matter of getting a new paradigm, a new way of thinking.”

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Up & Coming Bands

by Olivia Willows

Catfish and the Bottlemen: If their debut album, The Balcony, is an indicator of future success, this new band is going to be very big very soon. The young British alternative rock band has already been compared to well-known alt-rock bands such as The Kooks and The Strokes. The Balcony, which was released in 2014, features 11 impressive songs, including their 2014 hit singles Kathleen and Cocoon. Although a release date is still pending, the band confirmed that they are working on a new album, which according to lead singer Ryan McCann, will be “miles better” than their first. Song suggestion: 26.

Hinds: Hinds (formerly Deers) is an all-female, Madrid based indie-rock band that is going to take over the indie music scene. Nominated for the NME Award for best New Artist, this Spanish band has received a lot of praise for their music. The band creates garage rock, lo-fi (low fidelity) style music that has been influenced by the likes of the Velvet Underground, Black Lips, The Strokes, The Vaccines, and Mac Demarco. Hinds is also well known for its unique amateur-style music videos, which epitomize teenage angst. Who doesn’t love a badass female music group? Song suggestion: Trippy Gum.

San Cisco: San Cisco is an Australian indie-pop band that got their big break following the release of its 2012 single, Awkward. San Cisco’s lead singer, Jordi Davieson, describes the song, which has received over 5.6 million views on YouTube, as “a bit of a weird story about a stalker, involving me and Scarlett [drummer]. It’s completely made up.” Following Awkward, the band released its debut album, San Cisco, in 2013, and second album, Gracetown, in 2015. The band’s classic indie-pop sound follows in the vein of MGMT, The Flaming Lips, and Vampire Weekend. Although there has been no news of the third album, based on the quality and success of their first two albums, it can be expected that their third will be nothing shy of exceptional. And, when performing live, not only does San Cisco sound amazing, they put on an incredibly fun show as well. Song suggestion: Stella.

Hippo Campus: When first presented with an of image Hippo Campus, you may think: who are these angstylooking teenagers and why should I listen to their music? But this young band proves that age is just a number when it comes to creating good music. Just barely out of high school, Hippo Campus has been a recent hot topic in the music industry. Their music, closely resembling the upbeat, poppy melodies of Vam-

pire Weekend, has a refreshing sound, and lead singer Jake Luppen’s distinct voice adds a unique facet to each of the band’s songs.

Hippo Campus has already circled the festival scene, playing sets at South by Southwest, Lollapalooza, Red Rocks, and Reading and Leeds.

The band has two EPs, Bashful Creatures and South, and is set to release its debut album in the near future. Song suggestion: Suicide Saturday.

Clean Cut Kid: Clean Cut Kid is a band so new that they are yet to have a Wikipedia page. Nonetheless, the few songs they have released sound as though they could belong to any successful indie band. The British quartet consisting of husband and wife lead singers, Mike and Evelyn Halls, Saul Godman, and Ross Higginson, is already making news in the music industry with popular music websites such as The Line of Best Fit and Consequence of Sound reporting on their music. The band’s musical style, which has been accurately described as “soulful pop ballads, washed in Mersey water,” sounds as though it has also been influenced

by Vampire Weekend (notice the trend?). What sets Clean Cut Kid apart, however, is how beautifully Mr. and Mrs. Hall’s voices compliment each other. If you want to be cool and say you knew this band before they hit it big, start listening. Song Suggestion: Vitamin C.

Sears Fest Review

by Anastasia Zaritovskaya Walking into the 70th annual Sears Festival, it was easy to sense a difference about the school auditorium. It felt like a certain presence in the air - a spirit which I would only later find the words to describe. It is easy to forget, sitting in a comfortable chair as just a member of the audience, how much work goes into making this presence possible. Well, in the case of this show, this work has not went unnoticed. And the experience which we all got out of it was extraordinary, and certainly worth remembering.

The festival consisted of three plays: “The Canterbury Tales: Las Vegas Edition” - comedy from our very own North Toronto, “Flatline” - a touching production from Don Mills C.I., and “A Brewed Awakening” - a musical from St.Clement’s School. All three performances were different in almost every way, and that was exactly why they complimented each other. The people that stayed for all three plays, like me, did not come to regret it. During North Toronto’s performance of “The Canterbury Tales: Las Vegas Edition”, it was hard to find a single person who was not laughing. It was an effortless yet downto-earth comedy, which was easy to follow along with and kept the viewers entertained throughout every second of it. “Comedy is a tough challenge to play or write,” says Ms. Boutilier, the drama teacher at NT who was very involved in making our school’s play possible, ‘So we had to encourage students to play it big - big and loud.”

And big and loud it was. From the first moments of the play, it was clear that this comedy would be much larger than life - a quality that made it all the more special.

What amazed me most in the play was the attention to detail - nearly invisible on stage but very

evident behind the scenes. The production of Canterbury Tales started last spring, when the student director - Kyla Ion - was picked. Ms. Boutilier refers to people involved in the play with such an honest and clear affection that it’s easy to see why they put so much effort into making the show possible. They had to overcome many challenges - as it turns out, they had to build and paint the set by hand outside of school, and then bring it in due to the unavailability of resources in the school. Ms. Boutilier describes the sound design, performed by Ethan Cohen, as remarkable perfectionism, and Kyla’s directing as marvellous. “It’s a long process but it’s really rewarding,” says Kyla herself, “Your cast becomes your family. And this great dynamic starts to form and everyone is just so pumped towards this one common goal.” It’s hard to find words of criticism, even for a cynic like myself, when there is so much positivity engraved in the production.

The hard work of the drama students paid off; Canterbury Tales’ cast received the Award of Excellence for Ensemble Acting, and Ethan Cohen received the award for Sound Design and Composition. “North Toronto’s entry this year was the strongest in decades. We had the boldest

and most unified cast, and the whole dynamic of the group was amazing,” says Ms. Boutilier, and her words are clearly not to be doubted. However, our school’s play has also been shortlisted to go to the Southern Ontario Youth Festival, which has never happened to our school before, and will be a chance for the actors to grow in their skills during workshops. We should also look out for Canterbury Tales at University of Toronto’s Hart House Theatre at the Regional Showcase during April 6-9.

In Ms. Boutilier’s opinion, people come to see live theatre (which she believes to be one of the strongest expressions of art) because “it’s about being a part of something bigger than yourself, and not about the individual. Theatre builds a community. It builds trust and respect and a better world.” The play itself, which focuses on a pilgrimage of a 14th century man in the 21st century, transcends the experiences of the characters onto the audience. Looking back, I can finally put words to the presence in the air I felt during the show: a transcendence between the real and the unreal, and the blending of different emotions to create an experience like no other. “It’s truly humbling. You look at the other schools and sweet they’ve done, and being up on stage is amazing,” says Alex Fortsas, a member of the production, to answer my question of what the experience was like for him. At this point, he is interrupted by Ms. Boutilier as the two laughingly argue over what the best way to phrase the experience is. The play, evidently, not only transcends experiences between the cast and the audience, but also between the show members themselves, forging connections that are sure to last. So I leave the two of them be. Of course, after I thank them.

Mockingjay Part Two: The Odds Were Never In Their Favour

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by Aiyana Bradshaw

Warning: spoilers ahead!

It’s done. As heartbreaking as it may be, the Hunger Games movie saga has come to an end, and the hype of the final instalment has retired.

Once raging hot at every popular Cineplex, the blockbuster is now fizzling out at a few independent theatres. Now that the flame has almost died, one question remains: was it really that hot?

Mockingjay Part Two begins where Part One left off; with District 13 alive and kicking under the inspiration of Katniss, “The MockingJay,” Everdeen. The goal is revolution and the target is the Capitol. The rebels are rallying under the lead of Alma Coin, who now seems like she’s got a hidden agenda. Together with her team of rebels and camera crew in tow, the celebrated Katniss fights her way to the Capitol, ultimately defeating President Snow.

wood strategy to milk a franchise to produce more money than it’s worth. Half decent movies, however, are almost always the result. Both Mockingjay movies would have been more entertaining and more true to the books if they had been combined into one film.

Another (not so) excellent example of this strategy is the stretched thin Hobbit trilogy. In an attempt to live up to the celebrated Lord of the Rings series, the single Hobbit book was divided into three movies. Although the novel is jam-packed with excitement, it could have easily been fit into a full-length time frame.

Hollywood’s greedy desperation to make more money turned what could have been an action packed movie of epic proportions, into a slowly tortured out trilogy– with the final credit roll putting both the franchise and the audience out of their misery.

The entire movie is set against a typical dystopian grey sky–which is fitting for the tone of the movie, as Adapting a book the entire feature can be described the into a movie is same way as the set: dull. With too always a chalmuch build-up and not enough clilenge. The film max, the Final Hunger Games movie Visuals by Alice Liang must be apinstalment was snooze-inducing. proachable to people who have read the novel, and people who have The biggest fault of all was the idea to make not. More often the popular verdict is “the book the final book into two movies–a classic Hollyis always better than the movie”.

North Toronto student Eva Boghosian has read every Hunger Games book at least twice, and “found the book way better than the movie”.

“The movies were very slow, and they changed several things for no apparent reason” rants Boghosian. She goes on to describe the pleasure and thrill she experienced when reading the book, and how such emotions were not drawn out by the film. “The book was such an exciting read, but the movie was a bore! I was disappointed, to say the least”.

Students who did not read the book gave similar feedback about the movie. “The movie integrated info from its predecessors, so it wasn’t too hard to follow.” Caitie Robinson reports. But even with the abundance of context, Robinson found her interest leaving the film. “I had no issue keeping up, but I found I didn’t really want to. I could feel my eyelids drooping within the first 15 minutes.”

The Hunger Games Trilogy is without a doubt one of the most popular novel series. But the hype and expectations left by the novels set the bar at heights impossible for the movies to reach. And, a two-part finale made the chances of reaching such standards even worse. The movie was dull from start to finish, and a bore compared to the book. With so much for the finale to live up to, the odds were never in it’s favour.

Business is Boomin’

by Caitlin Chichora

It all started after getting lost at sea. On December 14th, the self-proclaimed music mogul was crusin’ on the Miami waters on his treasured Jet Ski, when, as the sun was going down, he was abruptly caught in the middle of the sea at night time–with zero visibility to view his surroundings. This great misadventure lead him to call for help from his beloved fans through the popular social media platform of Snapchat. The app, which is said to have six billion views daily, not only saved the day, but also established the beginning of a pop culture phenomenon. On this day, the modern-day Shakespeare was born.

This music mogul is none other than the infamous DJ Khaled. This big-time music producer, hip-hop DJ, and now motivational speaker (who is more supportive than any of your friends), has caught the attention of millions around the world. His candidness and passion makes him wonderfully admirable.

So what is it about DJ Khaled that makes everyone so interested in following his life from sunrise to sunset? Could it be his positive outlook on life? Could it be his desire for everyone to “win”?

Or, could it be the intimate, one-on-one connection that the fan establishes with him on the Snapchat app? In intervals of 10 second videos,

fans get to live the life of a celebrity. This includes making hits in the studio, partying till 2am on a school night, and drinking an unlimited amount of Ciroc Apple with your superstar buddies. You just know your day is going to be great, when waking up and having the “elliptical talk” with the DJ, or having lunch in the Commons while DJ Khaled is telling you what “They don’t want us to eat.”

When asked about his newly found fame, the “King of Snapchat,” will tell you that it is the outcome of 25 years worth of hard work and hustle.

He also states that Snapchat “was made [for him] to talk to the whole world at one time.”

The public obsession with DJ Khaled is inspiringly original, laid-back… and ultimately genius.

Although genius may be considered a strong word, his use of social media is nothing shy incredible.

From a business perspective, DJ Khaled is the PR dream. He is someone who is able to exploit his admirable personality to the whole world to ultimately market himself and his own brand identity. Through social media, he’s gradually pointing his viewers to his newly opened online store, wethebeststore.com, where you can find

t-shirts, jackets and slides emblazoned with his signature catchphrases. According to the Miami New Times, “through his SnapChat he’ll tell you precisely what brand of boat to buy, what soap to wash with, what sneaker cleaner use to keep your kicks fresh, and of course what online store to shop at to get your We The Best gear.”

Professional marketers can learn some major marketing techniques from DJ Khaled to help them obtain marketing gold. According to Forbes, “What [Khaled] is good at, is seeing an opportunity to gain recognition, and seizing it in full force. Capturing emotion and creating personal moments is what marketing is all about.”

DJ Khaled uses authenticity and provides his fans with genuine, mentor-like, motivation that is true, honest and inspiring. Using his celebrity power, he is able to make himself a true capitalist and verify the notion that money and hustle never sleeps.

It is evident that all DJ Khaled does is win, and is proven that his “keys to success” and the magical “pathway to more success” works. In one of his Snapchat videos, he states, “My Rolls-Royce has stars in the roof and a superstar in the seat.” And what a superstar he is.

Sports [ SPORTS ]

>> ROWAN’S LAW >> THE PAIN >> NBA MEETS NTCI >> MORE

Visuals by Matt Scace & NTAA

Season Highlights March 10 - Erin Chan, Paulina Kate, Camilla Jamieson and Agnes Lim finish the 200 IM with a time of 2:19.53 minutes, securing the bronze medal at OFSAA for swimming!

March 11 - Emma Rowatt, Erin Chan, Agnis Lim and Camilla Jamieson strike gold at OFSAA swimming in the 200 freestyle relay! With their final time clocking in at 1:59.25 minutes, the team snagged first place by .3 of a second!

March 3 - Jocelyn Rough places 9th in level 1 at OFSAA snowboarding and Jess Alexander places 6th in level 2!

Calling all of NT! Get ready for the house competitions starting on April 4th!

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The Pain

by Matt Scace It wasn’t a proud hour in Toronto’s storied sports history. Game seven of the first round, Leafs vs Bruins. We all recall how it felt. The three goals in ten minutes. The sinking feeling when we realized that we were perpetually damned by the sports gods.

Put simply, the pain of the Toronto sports fan is indelible. The agony we endure every year is similar to death by a thousand cuts, however for every hundred cuts you receive, a kick in the shins is added. A few band-aids may be added to help, perhaps by the odd playoff appearance.

But just when you think the treatment is over, they rip the stitches out and turn you back into that emotional mess that you were just a short time ago.

By now you may wish to object. What about the Jays making the ALCS, huh? Ask the Royals fan in the outfield how that ended. Haven’t the Raptors made the playoffs two years in a row?

Yes, but have you used a broom to sweep a floor since last spring? Oh, remember when the Leafs made the playoffs a few years ago? Ask ex-leaf James Reimer what it was like playing in game seven. I’m sure he had fun. And all this convincing you may be putting yourself through is only further epitomizing you as the quintessential Toronto sports fan.

Toronto, as a major sports town, has and always will be an oddity. Among constant failure with bright spots few and far between, Toronto has almost always been there for their teams. Until late last season, the Maple Leafs had sold out the Air Canada Centre for 13 years straight. Of those 13 years, ten times they were hitting the golf courses by April. In any other city, holding the torch for their team for that long would be

social suicide. Such fans would be the laughingstocks of the city. But not in Toronto.

The worst part? Fans convince themselves that what is happening is actually exciting. To put this into perspective, recall the Blue Jays coming back from a two game deficit against the Texas Rangers. They staved off elimination three consecutive times. No professional sports team in Toronto had achieved that feat since 1942 when the Leafs pulled a horseshoe out of their butts against the Detroit Red Wings. Heck, when Toronto FC made the playoffs for the first time in CLUB HISTORY this year, a very small but prominent population of Toronto erupted, only to be let down by a pathetic 3-0 loss in the first round. Sure, it’s fun. But in any other city where playoffs are almost a rite of passage, the magnitude of the situation is dampened.

To put this in perspective, when 9-year old Brown Public School student George Zimmermann, brother of NT grade ten, Max Zimmermann, was asked why he watches the leafs, his response was one of an earth-shatteringly Torontonian boy:

“They’re just the first team I’ve ever heard of.”

Translated, he is saying I don’t know. He makes it sound like he simply doesn’t have a choice.

And because of this, he has been locked down by the grasp and inescapable pain of being a Leafs fan since day one, like many of us.

Further, Toronto sports teams specialize in what could be called tasteful losing. To put this in perspective, one can look at past teams that have tanked for certain reasons. While it doesn’t look good in the process, all they do is lose. It’s simple, nothing special. It’s forgettable losing. Toronto does not excel in this department. No one forgets a blown 4-1 lead or losing by two points in game seven. Something along those lines nearly occurred in game five of the ALDS when Russell Martin threw a routine ball back to Aaron Sanchez hitting the hitter’s bat, causing a freak run to be scored. It could have ended the Jays season just like that. But it didn’t.

Post-glory and eternal joy a la Jose Bautista, many of us were forced to ask the question, “what if?” What if the baseball gods were not looking down upon us that day? A sufficient answer? Should have seen it coming. If you live in Toronto and don’t expect to get your heart ripped to pieces, choose another city.

Look, we, as Torontonians, have it pretty darn good. We wake up every morning to a beautiful skyline and some of the nicest people in the world (or so we like to think). But if there is one thing that makes Toronto one of the hardest cities to live in, being pushed into supporting any one of our teams can be one of the most difficult things to endure. It’s rarely daisies and roses, but when a miracle hits us, it feels better than anything we’ve ever felt before.

Seems like Toronto just had Phaneuf (Enough)

by Garrett Thompson

On Tuesday February 9, 2016, The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators were involved in a nine player blockbuster deal. This deal sent the captain of the Maple Leafs, Dion Phaneuf as well as Toronto Marlies forward Matt Frattin, and three other AHL players to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for an injury prone forward Milan Michalek, defenceman Jared Cowen, two other AHL players, and a 2017 second round pick.

Most of the players coming to the Toronto Maple Leafs are going straight to the AHL, and those who are not are injured and are out for some time.

Leafs fans heard about this deal minutes after it was made. Since then,the conversation has been both positive and negative. Some have said that it needed to happen, Phaneuf was a bad player and should have been traded last season or the season previous. The leafs are in a “re-build

mode” that has been in in the works for what feels like an eternity and this trade is just a part of it. The new management, from the coaches to general management, are the main reason why this trade went through. The new look has brought new ideas for the team and therefore the trade of the leafs captain.

Phaneuf’s tenure as a captain was not a standout performance. Not only were the statistics not in his favour but his overall personality, especially in front of the media, was not strong.

Even though the stats were not important in a captain of a team, it’s how he leads the team.

The stats are always something that the fans want to know.

The stats that he had by the end of his career in a Leafs uniform were average. He had 45 goals and 151 assists in 7 seasons with the Leafs. That is an average of 6 goals and 21

assists per season. Toronto went to the playoffs once while Phaneuf was captain, and we all know how that ended. Phaneuf came over from Calgary where he was drafted and played 4 full years as one of the top line defensemen and was nominated for rookie of the year in the class of Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin. So, when he was traded to Toronto in a large deal like this one, the Toronto fan base was excited to get some of that Calgary defensive performance, something Toronto still needs to this day.

All in all, Phaneuf was given the “C” in a city that has very high expectations for their hockey players. The pressure that Phaneuf had to produce did affect him, as well as the contract that he was given was what gave him the target on his back to be traded. It was a trade that just needed to be made, his time was on very thin ice and the fans just had Phaneuf of it.

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Rowan’s Law

by Rowen Smith Sports have always been a major part of the North Toronto community, from September to June, with all the early morning practices a student could need. Fittingly, our (unofficial) motto says work hard, play hard, and we definitely adhere to the latter when it comes to our sport teams.

But playing hard tends to lead to injury, and, while they are more common in fast pace or contact sports, injuries can occur anywhere.

Thus, our motto can be double edged sword.

The pressure students place on themselves in order to achieve the standard that has been set before them is significant. While it is almost expected and accepted as the norm of our school, it can cause more psychological strain.

After all, no one wants to be the person that drags the team.

While team victories are an amazing accomplishment, especially in an environment with highly skilled athletes who are equally competitive, we must askwhether it is worth sacrificing your well-being in order to win or simply be in game? Unfortunately, one Canadian female rugby player’s family is feeling the effects of that question.

17 year old rugby player, Rowan Stringer, was the captain for her school team in Ottawa. She went on the field for a rugby match in May of 2013 and never came off. Rowan, like any other high school student, was involved in many school activities and aspired to be a paediatric nurse.

To the entire community’s shock and great sadness, Rowan Stringer was denied her dreams and her entire future on that rugby pitch.

Rowan suffered a double concussion within the span of a week, the third time suffering a headon collision. In the aftermath of Rowan’s tragic death, the community searched for a silver lining from Rowan’s story. Though her school and the world around her made their attempts to educate Rowan and her peers about concussions and the symptoms that accompany them, she was still lacking the necessary information that could have possibly saved her life.

Neither Rowan nor her teammates had the information they needed that could have prevented an avoidable death; Ontario was shockingly behind the United States when it came to concussion prevention and education. This is why Rowan’s Law, or Bill 149, was put into play. It is law that requires everyone in Ontario to be required to uphold 49 recommendations for improved concussion awareness and better treatment. Surprisingly, if Ontario were to pass this bill it would be the first Province in Canada to pass any law that dealt with concussion prevention in young athletes.

Scarily, concussions are the least reported injury that can have long lasting consequences and, in severe instances, death. It’s easy to report a broken bone or bloody nose, since both injuries have physical reactions. Blood is often reason enough to get checked, however a hit the head can be played off as nothing so many don’t report it to coaches.

The recommendations, made by Rowan’s coroner, included directions such as making concussion awareness mandatory in Ontario’s curriculum, the promotion of an annual Brain Day awareness campaign, and better tools for coaches and players to identify and treat concussions.

Whether it is out of fear of being taken from the game and not being able to contribute to crucial plays in the game or believing it’s nothing to be concerned about, knowing and acting when one gets concussion-like symptoms is crucial. The negligent mindset can be beyond dangerous; even if a minor head injury is obtained, it can have lasting effects.

In 2013, the year Rowan died, teachers or volunteer coaches did not enforce the importance of recognizing signs and symptoms of concussions; Rowan’s mother Kathleen claimed that, “We’re confident that if Rowan had the knowledge she wouldn’t have died.” .

In 2016, coaches and volunteers have made an increased effort to inform young athletes about the importance of reporting injuries, especially head injuries, no matter how minor the player believes it is. Despite this, concussion prevention and symptoms are yet to be taught in everyday curriculum, despite the benefit to both athletic and non-athletic students.

So the question still stands, is it worth it?

While many athletic students would say yes automatically, because a little pain doesn’t compare to the team’s victory or an opportunity to go to OFSAA, it is time that we begin to use our brains and understand what must be done when they get injured.

NT Gets Fit

by Sam Spodek

Visuals by Graffiti Digital Very few students knew who either of these retired pro ballers were, but by the end of the day everyone in the room was crawling all over them, especially Bowen.

This past February, North Toronto Collegiate Institute hosted one of the most exciting events in TDSB history, and most NT students had no clue that it was happening. On February 11th, 2016, as part of the NBA Fit All-Star Celebration, students from a few Toronto middle schools were invited to participate in a morning of basketball activities. The event was of large magnitude, and many news outlets were in attendance.

So what’s the big deal? A bunch of twelve yearolds came to NT to dribble some basketballs with a couple of NBA Fit trainers. Why all the hype? Well, for starters, two-time WNBA champion and olympic gold medalist Ruth Riley was in attendance and participated in the exercises with students. Even more excitingly, Bruce Bowen, a three-time NBA champion came and made the middle-schoolers look on in awe as he showed off some of his skills.

The day was run by the NBA, but its focus was primarily on fitness and healthy living rather than basketball. One could easily assume that this would mean the day was not very fun and all about fitness. However, a majority of the young students found to day highly enjoyable.

A grade eight student from Lake Wilcox middle school was eager to say that, “I don’t normally play much basketball. Barely at all. But this is a lot of fun.” The emphasis on exercise, with basketball being the vehicle, allowed for the day’s activities to be enjoyed by basketball players and non-players alike.

In addition, there was also a heavy emphasis on just having some plain old fun. Glenview Senior Public School was represented by all of the players on the school’s basketball teams, as well as the team coaches. Matthew BassettSpiers, a teacher at Glenview, felt that “today [was] good because it’s a good experience for the students to remember, and it’s good to help them remember that basketball should be fun. We should all appreciate the game. This is really huge for these kids. Exercise and play-

ing sports can lose it’s fun, and today is a good reminder of how fun running around can be.”

When asked if the students not knowing who Bruce Bowen was made any difference, BassettSpiers said “yeah, of course none of them know him, but it doesn’t matter. He’s a personality and he played professionally so [the students] love him.”

The value of this experience was not lost on the participating NT students. NT student volunteers ran the various activities and many of them had nothing but positive remarks afterwards. “This is huge” was heard from numerous North Toronto staff and administrators in attendance, including Principal Gorenkoff and Phys Ed teacher Mr. Tallevi. Handfuls of other NT students were left jealous of being unable to participate in the days activities, and many of them were seen watching through the large window that overlooks the gymnasium. But, in any case, it was a day worth remembering.

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Free Agent Flop

by Stavros Greer

On July 4th 2012, the Minnesota Wild signed stars Zach Parise and Ryan Suter via free agency, signing both of them to huge contracts in hopes that they could turn their team into a Stanley Cup contender in one quick move. At this time, it hadn’t been strange for teams to add major pieces via free agency. The New York Rangers signed center Brad Richards the year before, when he was still considered to be a first line center. However, since that day, when Parise and Suter were signed, free agency has seemed to turn into days of senseless talk about prospects.

Justin Williams and Matt Belesky, all of whom are good players, but not superstars.

Going into free agency in 2013, Nathan Horton and David Clarkson were considered to be two of the top free agents. Maple Leaf fans will be able to tell you just how bad these two signings were. Clarkson had a grand total of 15 goals in two seasons in Toronto, and Nathan Horton only played 36 games in Columbus for the Blue Jackets before getting injured and being put on long term injury reserve (he probably will never play in the NHL again).

In 2014, the pickings were just as bleak, with Paul Stastny, Jaroslav Halak and Jaromir Jagr rounding out the top three free agents. All three have been good since signing those contracts, but none of them changed the fortunes of the teams that signed them, the way Parise and Suter did in Minnesota.

This sudden caution in how teams treat top free agents has slowed free agency, to the point where the summer has become as boring as ever for hockey fans watching their team’s signings.

Last summer, things seemed to hit rock bottom as some of the top free agents were Mike Green,

Of course, Maple Leaf fans have become adamant that the Leafs should try to sign Stamkos

What has caused this drastic decrease in high quality free agents? In recent years, NHL teams have been more keen to re-sign their top players, and if they are going to get rid of them, they trade them to a team that will re-sign them before free agency starts. Teams have become much more wary of giving up good players for nothing, as upcoming free agents have become trading pieces for draft picks.

This summer, however, things may change.

Tampa Bay Lightning center Steven Stamkos, the 1st overall draft pick in 2008 NHL entry draft and two time Rocket Richard trophy winner has said he will not re-sign with Tampa this summer, and Tampa’s general manager Steve Yzerman has said he will not trade Stamkos before the trade deadline. Despite this, his intentions are still quite unclear. But this does mean that Stamkos will be the first superstar in four years to become a free agent, and he will become one at the age of 26, right in the middle of his prime.

and bring the Markham native home for the rest of his career. When Dion Phaneuf was traded in February, several hockey-related Facebook pages asked fans who the next captain of the Maple Leafs would be, there was a significant number of people saying “Stamkos” in the comments, as if it were already a given that he would be a Leaf.

While Stamkos coming home to play in Toronto may seem like a great story, it just doesn’t make sense for the Leafs. Toronto doesn’t plan on being a contender for at least another three years, by which time Stamkos will be 29 and exiting his prime. In five years, if all goes well and the Leafs are a major contender, Stamkos will be a 31 year old making well over $10 million and the Leafs will need that salary cap room to sign younger players, like Mitch Marner, William Nylander and Brandon Leipsic to long term deals. Leaf fans, I know we all want Stamkos, but money wise it just doesn’t make since.

Along with Stamkos, Radim Vrabata, Alex Goligoski, Loui Eriksson and Mikkel Boedker are also set to be UFA’s. The odds of a few of these players, especially Boedker, being resigned are high, but with Stamkos in the mix, this free agent class will be the best one we’ve seen in years and free agency will resurrect itself as the reality show-esque events that once characterized it.

Paying to Win

by Jeremy Steen

One way or another, you’ve probably heard about the corporation known as FIFA. Whether it’s playing the popular EA games on annual release or seeing Lionel Messi as the face of Adidas, there are few ways you can avoid familiarizing yourself with the owners of the World Cup. Since its inception in 1904, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association has made what is the biggest splash in international professional football competitions in the history of international professional football competitions.

They are responsible for spending $2 billion every time for holding the third largest sporting event, after the Super Bowl and the Olympics, bringing together everyone from families to athletes across nationalities. To a good portion of the world’s population, FIFA is the football equivalent of Vatican City, being the epicenter of a widespread religion and playing God with its followers. Despite this, FIFA is the world’s largest criminal organization, with a startling amount of corruption which surprisingly no one has heard of. Let’s look at the numbers.

The single event that has launched them to global fame is the FIFA World Cup. Every 4 years, FIFA selects from a number of countries who have returned their bids for expression of interest to be the host for the World Cup. But recently FIFA has made some poor decisions. The last World Cup in 2014 was held in Brazil with the Brazilian government spending roughly $11 billion on football stadiums, which are currently being used as parking lots because there is no team in Brazil capable of filling them. And as a return for diverting so much of the hard-earned money of Brazilian taxpayers for about a month

worth of entertainment, the country gets next to nothing. FIFA receives all the profit from ticket sales to marketing rights, leaving the host country scraping at whatever they can salvage from media coverage and tourism.

This has led to the self proclaimed non-profit FIFA having an atrociously heavy piggy bank.

During an interview last year, the former president of FIFA, Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, tried to dismiss their growing funds as “just a reserve.”

FIFA is worth around $338 million and has a reserve of $1.5 billion as of last year. To put things in perspective, the World Wildlife Fund, another widely known non-profit organization and worth around $357 million, has a reserve of merely $25.7 million. When you have a rainy day fund large enough to buy your own house 5 times over it’s tough considered as not having a steady stream of income anymore.

But perhaps even more outrageous than the records from the past are its plans for the future.

Last year, the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were elected, being Russia and Qatar respectively. As expected, the river of controversies over the decisions immediately started to flow. Efforts are already being made to relocate the 2018 World Cup to the United States due to the discrimination which had occurred during the Sochi Winter Olympics. As for Qatar, not mentioning it being an unbearably hot arena for professional sports, it still functions as a slave state. As a result, the building of football stadiums have already caused the death of around 1,100 workers.

These not so sensible hosts elected by not so sensible humans clearly weren’t decided how FIFA claims to have decided them. How professional players competing under the scorching sun trampling the bloodstained grounds built by migrant workers came to be wasn’t a result of logic, but instead influenced by a collective $10 million worth of bribes traced back to the former FIFA vice president Jack Warner. Him, along with the president Sepp Blatter himself, who sits upon the iron throne supported on the shoulders of Coca-Cola and Adidas, and many other officials try their best to make sure this trend continues to happen. The more this happens the more money FIFA receives, and in turn the more money Blatter will (illegally) payout to each of them.

But after all that’s been said, after how many years FIFA has continued its unhindered rampage of crime and misconduct, things are finally starting to look up. Jack Warner had been arrested for those $10 million in bribe money and was forced to resign his position in 2013.

An additional 15 FIFA and corporate executives out of the 40 accused have been arrested since May of 2011 following an increasingly strict FBI investigation. Even Sepp Blatter, after serving 4 terms (one election of which he ran unopposed) resigned just days after he won his 5th. And perhaps the most hilarious tidbit to come out of all of this is in 2014 FIFA funded the creation of “United Passions,” a glorified version of their history sown into 2 hours of propaganda that, because it was shot on a camera, technically qualifies as a movie. The total budget came down to $28.5 million, with FIFA paying $27

Opinion & Humour [OPINION & HUMOUR ]

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>> UNTRANSLATEABLE WORDS >> AFTERPARTY WOES>> CELEBRITY WORSHIP >> MORE

Things We Thought Were True

by The Opinion & Humour Team

I’ve been breathing since I was born: kind of a big deal. Still, even with that much experience, it took 16 years for me to realize that if you were being choked, you couldn’t just breathe through your nose and be fine.

No one told me. It just came to me randomly, like my brain just got tired of me being a clueless idiot one day.

Logan Midroni, Editor of Opinion & Humour I found thinking of an example difficult, because I am rarely wrong, and it is even less common that it is embarrassingly so.

However, until the age of 7, I believed that the turn signals in the dash of a car were some sort of low-end GPS. The only feature on this device were arrows that would light up as you pulled up to an intersection, to let you know where to turn.

Noah Chapnik, Grade 12 Nothing sums up American pride like “The Star-Spangled Banner”, of which everyone knows at least the first line. It wasn’t until half a year ago that I realized that Americans were not in fact asking José if he could see, but rather “O say, can you see?”

Genevieve Crispin-Frei, Copy Editor

I used to believe that every night as I was sleeping, my mother would gather my dad, siblings and every person who I would see the next day to ‘choreograph’ their roles in my day and memorize what they would say under my mom’s totalitarian supervision.

Jon Ziner-Cohen, Grade 12 Up until grade 8 I lived under the assumption that boys didn’t have eyelashes.

Charlie Littler, Grade 11 I used to think my dad was black. He is not

Grace Pawliw-Fry, Grade 11 At one point I thought that drunkenness was perpetual; that once you got a bit tipsy you were stuck in that state for life.

Bear in mind, I didn’t really know what being intoxicated entailed.

Daanish Sayani, Grade 11

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Words That Can’t Be Translated Into English

by Ajantha Nadesalingam

If you’re a “multilingual individual” (say that fast five times), perhaps you’ve experienced this sort of conversation. It comes up in conversation that you’re multilingual, and upon hearing this, a friend wants you to translate a word. A pregnant pause ensues. It isn’t that you aren’t fluent, god damn it. Twelve years of language classes can testify to that. But rather, the requested word simply does not have an exact equivalent whether that be due to connotation or the specificity of the word. Languages from around the world have some pretty funky, specific meanings.

When translated, the result is, well, hilarious.

The following is a list of such words. Enjoy.

Jayus Indonesian A joke told so horribly and so lackluster in content that the listener cannot help but to laugh.

Tartle Scottish

The act of pausing, likely uncomfortably, during an introduction because one has forgotten the name of the person they are to introduce.

Prozvonit Czech A useful one for poor students with shitty phone plans. To call a mobile phone, let it ring once, then hang up. Subsequently, the other individual will call back, which allows the individual to exist at a standstill with their 13 minutes of talk left for the month.

Schadenfreude German Most commonly felt among horrible human beings, this word means the feeling of pleasure that arises as a direct result of another’s misfortune.

Ya’aburnee Arabic This one is for those that manage to walk the

beautiful yet fine line between morbidity and romanticism. This translates literally to “you bury me.” However, it is a declaration that one hopes they’ll die before another person because of the unfathomability of living without the individual.

Verschlimmbessern German The German verb denoting a circumstance where one makes something worse while in the process of trying to improve it. Oh, did you try to take apart your pen to change the ink? What, now you’ve lost the spring? And now it won’t fit together again? It looked so simple from the outside!

Gråtrunka Danish For those of us that are so utterly single yet so hormonal that they somehow manage to simultaneously cry and masturbate.

A Beginner’s Guide to Afterparty

by Caitlin Heffernan and Alyssa Joynt A year ago, we had an idea. An insanely dumb idea. Somehow, we followed through with it.

And that is how we ended up sober at After Party. To explain why this was a dumb idea, here are some of the reactions we got when we told people about our plan.

“You’re going to After Party?!?

You?” “Trust me, that’s not your scene.”

“You’re just going for Graffiti, aren’t you?”

You get the idea. Despite all the haters, we found our way to Queen and Church, still not totally understanding what we were doing. We had no idea what to expect. Upon arrival, we were treated to the stereotypical high school party - loud music, lots of humans, and party lights everywhere.

As you can probably tell by now, this was the first time we did anything like this. It was a great learning experience for us, and we would like to share our enlightenment with you.

Get ready. Grab a pencil, ‘cause you’re gonna want to take notes for next year.

Step 1: Before you go, make sure to pack wisely. Items that would be good to bring include your cellphone, emergency money, and coat check money. Please do not bring your teddy bear, binoculars, pen and paper, or your little brother.

Step 2: Make sure your arrange for wise transportation to and from the party. Good options include the subway, Uber, or Your Parent’s Taxi Service. Poor options include Floo Powder, a unicycle, or your pet polar bear.

Rickshaws are also not recommended.

Step 3: Figure out the entrance.

There was no handle on the door. Don’t unhelpfully point this out to others. Use common sense. When there is a closed door, you knock. Make sure to have your ticket ready.

Step 4: Deal with your coat. Coat check fills up fast, so you can choose your own adventure here.

Option A) Come early and claim your spot. Option B) Find a friend and tie your coats together. Then put one coat inside the other and zip it up. When you go to leave you only need to find the outer coat, and no one is going to steal coats that are mangled together. Be sure to find a discreet spot to put your coat so that it is not in the line of fire in the case of vomiting. This is the single legitimate piece of advice in this article, so feel free to leave now. Our productive work here is done. The outerwear gospel has been spread.

Step 5: Put on your gas mask.

Didn’t bring one? That’s okay.

You would have looked dumb anyway. But seriously. Secondhand smoke is an actual thing, and it reached levels not seen since the 1950s.

Step 6: Don’t be awkward.

Standing on the sidelines looking confused as to how you got there is not a recommended pastime. We should really take our own advice.

Visuals by Alyssa Joynt

Top 10 #10: CHRISTIE

by Tamar KB

Trinity Bellwoods may be the best Toronto park for people watching, but those looking for a different scene hang out in Christie Pits. Originally dug for a gravel pit, this green bowl was also the site of The Battle of Christie Pits in the 1940s. This historic fight was an all night neighbourhood brawl that started in the park during a baseball game broken up by Nazi youth. Christie Pits is also home turf for the Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club and many a bootcamps. In warmer weather, you can slip down the slide into the public pool or enjoy some vegan ice cream. Christie hosts some of Toronto’s favourite bike repair spots, chocolate shops, stores for fresh produce and churrasco, beaming with just a gentle modesty that perhaps makes it all the more endearing. It’s not quite the Annex, it’s not quite Little Italy. More of an in-between. It’s where the clear lines between neighbourhoods, the ones Torontonians know so well, start to blur.

It’s home to families, popular with students and free (for now) of condos. While it’s a great place to live, it’s an underrated weekend destination. Try Koreatown, which might seem like an unlikely shopping destination, but has some great (and cheap!) stores. If you’re looking for something pretty, check out Boutique Cherie and House of Rinka.

If it’s accessories, costume jewelry or stuffed animals you’re after, Just You Sara & Tom or their sister store S&T.

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Celebrity Worship Syndrome

by Charlie Littler

It’s 11 pm, and you have a test tomorrow. You think it’s about science but you could be wrong.

Instead of studying you spend 4 hours scrolling through Tumblr looking at pictures of [insert attractive celebrity] from [insert form of media].

It’s not like you’re obsessed, you just sincerely believe that an extensive knowledge of every anime ever made will do you more good in life than physics ever could. But you’ve spent so much time in the Destiel AO3 tag you’ve forgotten to ask yourself one very important question. What the heck are you doing? If your answer to that question was anything other than to shutting off your computer and opening a damn textbook, then you’re probably a casualty of the epidemic of celebrity worship syndrome. Celebrity worship syndrome is an obsessive addictive disorder wherein a person becomes extraneously involved with the lives of celebrities. But a syndrome that was once characterised by an extensive knowledge of things like the exact shade of Benedict Cumberbatch’s eyes (a stormy shade of gray) has now extended to include fictional characters and universes. It Visuals by Steven Kenny

might seem harmless at first, but after spending an entire weekend binge watching Attack on Titan, it’s hard not to have a mildly existentialist outlook on life. However there is a cure, and in just three easy steps you will be able to proudly say you HAD celebrity worship syndrome.

That folder full of every haircut had by each member of One Direction organised chronologically? Not necessary. The customized Benedict Cumberbatch browser theme? Unnecessary and frankly kind of creepy. Once this is done, you may proceed to step three.

Step 1: Think about what you’ve been doing these past few years. You used to have goals, aspirations, hopes. Will reading homoerotic Harry Potter fanfiction help you become Prime Minister? Are you going to need the knowledge of every single episode of Doctor Who when ending world hunger? Probably not. If you’re overrun with guilt at having lived years of your life watching famous people live their lives then congratulations, you’re ready for step 2.

Step 3: Go outside. No, really. Take a walk to the nearest park or strike up a conversation with your local Starbucks staff. Breathe fresh air.

Would you really prefer to be fighting titans or attempting to overthrow the Capitol? Is knowing everything about fictional people/celebrities really preferable to knowing everything about those people you think might be your friends?

Step 2: Remove extensive imagery of [insert celebrity/media form] from your computer.

Change your desktop background from a “Castle in the Sky” poster to an actual sky. If you’re not sure what one of those looks like, well, it’s typically blue and obscenely bright.

Hopefully, your answer to these questions is no.

If so, go home. Say hello to those people that are either your family or burglars that are just taking a heck of a long time to do their job. Call your grandmother. And hopefully come to the realisation that it’s actually not so bad to live in this universe.

What Your Handwriting Really Means

by Matthew Ferguson

Everyone has a different style of writing.

Here are a few totally scientifically accurate descriptions of your personality based on your type of handwriting.

The 3rd Floor Boys Washroom

by Jon Ziner-Cohen

It’s lunchtime, and I’ve returned from my typical Chipotle run.

After socializing for a few minutes on the third floor, I hear the first ring of the bell. My bladder begins to act up, punishment for refilling my water cup with Coca Cola around 5 times during the course of devouring my burrito. I make my way to the washroom.

As I enter, a crowd of students are waiting to pee, but only three of the four urinals are taken. Why is this? Because of the lost barrier, absent from its place between urinals. Any guy who has used the third floor boys washroom should know exactly what I’m talking about. Rumour has it G-koff removed it as a punishment for all the kids who pee in the change room shower on Red and Grey Day. I was fascinated by the role this missing barrier plays for the NT student body: it changes everything. Psychologically, the effects are immeasurable. It’s an unwritten rule not to use the urinal next to someone else when it can be avoided, but this takes it to a whole new level. It’s not just that this one barrier is missing, it’s that the other two barriers on either side are still there! It’s knowing that the opportunity to not have to awkwardly drain your fluids a few centimetres from a guy also awkwardly trying to water-blast the urinal exists, just out of reach. If you do choose to pee in the remaining urinal, in some eyes, you will be a revolutionary, a legend, a savage.

In the eyes of others, you will be seen for the true evil within you, for bringing such discomfort to the poor guy next to you. What has NT come to? Is this Northern? How am I supposed to work hard in order to play hard when I can’t even pee in peace? This breaks the very creed I am supposed to live my life by. This is true injustice. So what can we do about this? I will now take my own initiative and start the movement of using that final urinal. We will no longer be self conscious about our blast power, our splash range, our penis measurements.

We’re all beautiful. All of us. We’re all brothers. #longliveNT.

Cursive: People who write in cursive seem to believe they’re at the top of the handwriting hierarchy. If you write in cursive you’re, most likely, a bit arrogant and pretentious (This is all totally unbiased by the way). You probably believe yourself to be refined and exquisite. You constantly say cliché phrases such as “je ne sais quoi” , despite the fact that you can’t actually speak French. Your preferred method of travel is a horsedrawn carriage. You take baths made out of a mixture of high-end crème brûlée and the tears, blood, and sweat of poor people, while laughing maniacally about their problems. You sleep on a pillow which is made unnecessarily, in its entirety, of solid gold, yet you continue to complain about your sleep deprivation, blaming it once again on the impoverished and the less refined.

Neat but small: If your writing is neat, but only takes up half of the line, it clearly means your life is only halffulfilled. You have big dreams and aspirations, but you have great difficulty achieving and going through with things. You once dreamed of starring in a documentary about swimming potatoes. Sadly, you were devastated when you found out the lead role had been taken by an actual potato. To this day, you have an ever-growing sense of resentment and an irrational hatred of hash browns and latkes.

Messy: If your writing is messy but still perfectly legible, then you’re a normal person and you’re apparently smarter than everyone else. Good job. That’s it.

Visuals by Leia Kook-Chun “Distinct”: If anyone has ever described your handwriting as “distinct”, like mine, then it’s probably illegible. It’s so bad that people often think you’re writing in some foreign, unknown and fictional language. We “distinct” handNeat: If you’re writing is neat, you writers are the hippies of handwriting. have your s**t together. You’re a bit of Distinct handwriters firmly believe that a perfectionist, and sometimes your handwriting should be open to personal perfectionism is a bit extreme. You are interpretation and that we shouldn’t be perpetually smiling and staying orso definitive in the ways we express ourganized and have an utter need to see selves. Distinct handwriters can often everyone doing likewise. Unfortunately, be found enlightening the world and not everyone is. Oftentimes, you can be people around them and are certainly found using duct tape to force smiles on not constantly sobbing insufferably unhappy children while trying to conbecause nobody can ever understand a vince their parents that you’re a qualiword of their writing. Nope, definitely fied professional. not.

Horoscope Visuals by Amy Zhu Writing by Riley Scanlan Aries: March 21 – April 20 Everyone knows your name and you know his or hers. People love talking to you because you’re such a great listener! But don’t forgot to take sometime for yourself. You are a super star and never let anyone else outshine you.

Most likely to… become famous Gemini: May 22– June 21 Oh Gemini… You always were the quiet one. But not this month! It’s time to finally break out of your bubble and live your own life. Don’t let other people tell you what to do. You rock and you should go do your own thang.

Most likely to… eat a lot of chicken

Taurus: April 21 – May 21 Did you know… if you go out and don’t snapchat the event… it still happened! Maybe keep this in mind next time something funny happens. Just tuck it in the back of your mind and save it as a good story. It’s important to live in the now, because before you know it, the now is over and everyone’s gone home. So live a little!

Most likely to… go to jail for someCancer: June 22 – July 22 You’re the boss lady/man and everyone knows it. Maybe it’s time you use this power to your advantage and get something for all your hard work! You’re allowed to take a break to relax. Maybe go for a bike ride!

Sunny days are yet to come.

Most likely to… live in Portland, Oregon Virgo: August 23 – September 23 Hey there, Virgo! You really got yourself together this month, good for you!

Now you get to go out and help others be more like you. Because you rock.

And everyone should aspire to be more like you. Never change. XOXO

Leo: July 23 – August 22 These past few weeks have been pretty busy for you, but we get it! The sun is about to come out. (Metaphorically speaking of course, if you’re reading this in homeform then the sun is already up) You’ve got bright days ahead, so take Most likely to… love plants advantage of that!

Most likely to… get a really bad sunburn Libra: September 24 – October 23 This month is your month. You always talk about travelling to foreign lands, so what’s stopping you? Maybe you won’t make it to Norway this month, but the Scarborough bluffs are pretty cool too! Go out and try new things, even if they’re small. Baby steps.

Most likely to… go trespassing but not get caught

Scorpio: October 24 – November 22 People always assume that you’re pretty sneaky, but they’re wrong. It’s hard for people to get to know the real you. This month, try to let more people in! You know, we’re not all bad.

Most likely to… secretly have magical powers

Sagittarius: November 23 – December 21 I’m going to be real with you here, Sagittarius. This is going to be a tough month for you. But that’s okay! Because all of the hard work is going to be extremely rewarding. Especially because it might get you that sweet scholarship or 90% average. Trust me, it all pays off in the end.

Most likely to… speak another language (parseltongue counts)

Capricorn: December 22 – January 20 Did you know, MattyBRaps is also a Capricorn? If you don’t know MattyB, you have got to check him out. He is going to be the next Justin Bieber. If you follow your Capricorn instincts you too can become rich and famous one day! Because, money and fame is all that matters… right?

Aquarius: January 21 – February 18 This month, you’ve got to focus your thoughts inwards. You tend to go pretty crazy sometimes… why is that? Try to remember that it’s okay to forget about school for a little while and relax. Working hard is great, but only if you play hard too!

Most likely to… almost drown in the ocean and take an hour long shower to recover

Pisces: February 19 – March 20 There is a common misconception that the ‘C’ in Pisces in silent. In fact, you pronounce it (pise-keys). It’s your turn, to clear up your lifestyle. Toss out everything holding you back. Whether it be the unsupportive people, or that twenty-pound rock in your backpack.

You don’t need that extra weight!

Most likely to… take the elevator and not get caught

Most likely to… be in marching band and totally rock the outfit

35

Students remember

Mr O’Connell

You taught me to be curious, critical, and showed me that a passion for your work is more important than anything. You were a wonderful teacher and you will be missed; whenever I walk into that empty room, crack open my Chem textbook, or see that shade of blue. You will be missed.

I have no idea how many times I went in for help after school and ended up staying till 4 just listening to him talk about and explainall these fascinating things. I am glad to have had the pleasure of being your student for 2 years. Rest in peace Mr. O’Connell, you will be deeply missed.

I cannot remember a time, that he and I did not have an intricate conversation going from topic to topic, often losing track of time. It was because of him and several other teacher that I am succeeding in my academics today, and...I don’t know where I’d be if it hadn’t been for him. He was among the group of teachers I count as a mentor, even though we had out differences at time.

Mr. O’Connell inspired me to pursue what I enjoyed the most, which was environmental science. He was like a father to me, and I really could talk to him about anything, from too much homework to athletics to how to become an astronaut... and he was the

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