the carillon the staff
editor-in-chief editor@carillonregina.com
taylor balfour
executive director business@carillonregina.com
jacob nelson
production manager production@carillonregina.com
morgan ortman
advertising manager advertising@carillonregina.com
ty cote
technical editor shae shackman carillontechnical@carillonregina.com multimedia/Graphics editors
kate thiessen sarah carrier mercedes redman
multimedia@carillonregina.com graphics@carillonregina.com copy editor copyeditor@carillonregina.com
hannah senicar
news editor news@carillonregina.com
sara birrell
a&c editor aandc@carillonregina.com
julia peterson
sports editor sports@carillonregina.com
n/a
op-ed editor op-ed@carillonregina.com
marty grande-sherbert
distribution manager distribution@carillonregina.com staff writer staff writer news writer a&c writer
kyle anderson holly worby
reese estwick
issac tamlin joseph holoein
sports writer
n/a
web writer
gillian massie contributors malcolm cousins, john loeppky and pratheeksha r. naik
Vol. 63
board of directors taylor balfour, lindsay holitzki, maddie ouelette, dustin smith. marty grande-sherbert, and jacob nelson
the paper
227 Riddell Center University of Regina - 3737 Wascana Parkway, Regina, SK, Canada S4S 0A2 www.carillonregina.com Ph: (306) 586 8867 Printed by Star Press Inc, Wainwright, AB The Carillon welcomes contributions. Opinions expressed in the pages of the Carillon are expressly those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of The Carillon Newspaper Inc. Opinions expressed in advertisements appearing in the Carillon are those of the advertisers, and not necessarily of The Carillon Newspaper Inc. or its staff. The Carillon is published no less than 11 times each semester during the fall and winter semesters and periodically throughout the summer. The Carillon is published by the Carillon Newspaper Inc., a non-profit organization. land acknowledgement The Carillon is written on treaty four territory. As such, the staff recognize that we are living, working, and telling stories on and of Indigenous lands. We recognize that we are on the traditional homelands of the Nakota, Lakota, and Dakota peoples, along with the homeland of the Métis nation. The carillon understands that it is pointless to acknowledge the land on which we work without speaking to our commitment to telling stories and prioritizing voices that further the return of the land to its place sacred place in the cultures of those that live here. the manifesto In keeping with our reckless, devil-may-care image, our office has absolutely no concrete information on the Carillon’s formative years readily available. What follows is the story that’s been passed down from editor to editor for over forty years. In the late 1950s, the University of Regina planned the construction of several new buildings on the campus grounds. One of these proposed buildlings was a beltower on the academic green. If you look out on the academic green today, the first thing you’ll notice is that it has absolutely nothing resembling a belltower. The University never got a belltower, but what it did get was the Carillon, a newspaper that serves as a symbolic bell tower on campus, a loud and clear voice belonging to each and every student.
the people’s friend; the tyrant’s foe
The University of Regina Students’ Newspaper Since 1962 August 6 - August 12, 2020 | Volume 63, Issue 2 | carillonregina.com
news
Mask tatrums Welcome back (kinda), While it’s hard to feel as though we’re “back” given social distancing, we are! Thanks againto everyone who made this lastest issue one to remember. We’re so thankful to host all of your voices.
news
p.6
We all know wearing a mask helps stall the spread of COVID-19, so why are anti-maskers fighting so hard against them?
Coffee with execs
arts
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Isaac Tamlin chats with URSU’s VP of Student Affairs about their Coffee with Execs events.
op-ed
sports
The Carillon continues to accept submissions from students, so please reach out. Our paper is made for students like you. I hope you enjoy, Taylor Balfour Editor-In Chief
photos
cover................................sarah carrier news.............................wallpaper flare a&c.............................................wcifly sports................................holly worby op-ed...............................jeremy davis
Triple R fun!
p.12
Angry about campus sports being cancelled? Maybe Regina Rage Room can help you out...
John A. impedes justice p.18 Despite a new plaque on monument, John A. Macdonald’s statue is still standing in Victoria Park. Gillian Massie writes about the harm it’s causing future reconcillation efforts.
Real Gud vegan food
p.9
It was contributer Pratheeksha’s absolute pleasure to review Regina’s newest vegan establishment for the Carillon.
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editor: sara birrell news@carillonregina.com the carillon | august 6 - august 12, 2020
Evictions loom while COVID numbers climb People could lose homes amidst pandemic
sara birrell news editor On August 4, almost five months after COVID-19 prompted the provincial government to put a moratorium on evictions to ensure that Saskatchewan residents who were unable to pay their rent would not lose their homes in the midst of a pandemic, the ruling Sask Party has ordered the moratorium be lifted. However, the pandemic isn’t over, and neither is its effect on the employment and personal finances of Saskatchewan residents. The unemployment rate for June was 11.6 per cent, three per cent higher than in March when the moratorium was put in place and nearly double what it was in June 2019, meaning that many Saskatchewan renters are still without work. Numbers of confirmed COVID cases have also spiked in the province, with Saskatchewan reporting its second-highest COVID hospitalizations since the pandemic began and gaining the dubious distinction of having the highest per capita rate of infection in the country. In light of this, it’s unclear why the province is proceeding with lifting the eviction ban. Renters of Saskatoon Area (ROSA) and their supporters have been raising the alarm about the looming housing crisis since the
pandemic began. “The pandemic has magnified the [concerns about] existing safe, affordable rental supply policy [like] inadequate incomes and community health and safety supports, and justice and safety disputes,” they said in an e-mail. “Renter anxiety is high, including about abilities to keep their home and household together.” More than a decade of austerity coupled with exorbitant rents that don’t reflect vacancy rates or cost of living has made working class people in Saskatchewan especially vulnerable to the economic fallout from the pandemic. “In normal times, the rental industry has undergone a massive explosion in systemic tenant human rights breaches and corresponding homelessness,” ROSA said. Saskatchewan has the lowest minimum wage in the country, and social assistance benefits are also paltry – the real value of social assistance decreased by nearly 20 per cent between 1989 and 2017, but the cost of living has continued to rise. Even prior to the pandemic, 103,000 people were living in poverty in the province, one quarter of them children. This leads to an intersection of poverty and illness, where poverty forces people to live in overcrowded, often unsanitary hous-
ing, exacerbating existing health conditions, and ultimately contributing to the spread of highly contagious illnesses like COVID. Allowing landlords to evict tenants for non-payment will only worsen – and prolong – the pandemic. The landlord-tenant relationship is always a profoundly unequal one. You cannot commodify shelter, a basic human right, and then expect that those with the means to own property will not exploit those whose survival depends on having a roof over their head. Whoever has the gold makes the rules, and when it comes to housing, those with enough gold to buy it and rent it out are also the ones with the power to ensure the rules surrounding that relationship are in their favour. The poorer a tenant is, the greater the inequality between them and the person (or corporation) who owns the building they live in. It has always been this way. But the pandemic has thrown this inequality into sharper relief. “The existing calls for fair, equitable rental system changes, like eviction prevention, tenant protections, and fair access to justice […] became urgent at the onset of the pandemic,” ROSA wrote. While tenants already face an uphill battle when it comes
to fighting evictions and other housing-related issues, a lack of money to pay for phone and internet services and the inability to access those services in public spaces, either due to the pandemic, mobility issues, or living in a remote area, has made the crisis facing tenants more acute, since the Office of Residential Tenancies (ORT) will be requiring tenants to appear for their hearings via Zoom or by phone. If they’re unable to appear through those methods, ORT automatically rules in favour of the landlord. “If a tenant has phone reliability issues, they may lose their access to the justice of a hearing, and permanent loss of fair opportunities.” “[The] Ministry of Justice has inequitably favored businesses further in a pandemic by now combining several different tenant protection processes into one speedier eviction process, directly undermining tenant justice,” ROSA said. “Renters may find that what used to be separate and complex eviction or debt hearings now can be combined into one hearing, require greater expertise and range of evidence in advance, and increased risk of losses.” And getting evicted has long term consequences, far beyond the immediate threat of house-
lessness. “Tenants without a positive previous housing reference, and particularly with a rental history that includes eviction have a hard time competing for safe and affordable housing, often ending up renting from problem landlords, unsafe and illegal housing,” ROSA wrote, adding that this ends up “costing more to the community in the longer term, than it would have been to supplement the tenants through a rent bank grant, or with targeted emergency funding.” Studies have also shown that evictions (and the threat of evictions) can lead to depression, high blood pressure, and other poor health outcomes. Evictions are a public health issue, during a pandemic or not, and they affect the entire community. It will be some time before we get the full picture of how many people lost housing because of the coronavirus and its related effects, but one thing is clear: this could have been prevented. If leaders put people before profits, if they recognized the inherent right of everyone to have food, shelter, medicine, and dignity, if they concentrated their efforts on ensuring a robust social safety net for times of need, we would not be having these conversations right now. This is a policy failure.
Pixabay
Housing is a right
august 6 - august 12, 2020
carillonregina.com | The Carillon | 4
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Q and A with the URSU executive Asking questions you’d like to know
isaac tamlin news writer Since the spring, URSU has been doing Coffee with Execs, where students can contact their Executive Government and go for a coffee with them to discuss any concerns they might be having about the school year, and what’s going to happen. We at the Carillon decided to ask some questions about how it’s been going. What are some of the common concerns that are being brought to you during these “Coffee with Execs” events? What are some uncommon but important concerns being raised? The most common concern we have received from “Coffee with Execs” is about transit passes. URSU had to cancel the U-Pass program due to the budgetary issue of insufficient funds as there would be fewer students travelling to campus and thereby lower ridership from the student population. Notably, most of the institutions across the country are unable to come up with the alternative for semester wide bus pass, however, URSU is proud to subsidize $28 per month to its members from its financial budget. We will do our best to provide affordable transit to our members after the fall semester too if the situation stays the same. Aside from the transit questions, the uncommon, but important, concern we have also heard is a request from a student group to support their team with building a program that offers workshops and speeches about mental wellness, racial justice, and cultural diversity. Students are also worried about the quality of education they will get through online learning.
URSU logo manipulated by Jeremy Davis
Coffee with execs
What are the executives plans and hopes for fall and winter? In the fall and winter semester, URSU executives will encourage university administrators to partially reopen the most essential academic services like libraries, computer labs, face-to-face counselling services to students since we have to pay the almost same amount of tuition. At the same time, we will provide a mental wellness program, new campus group platform, Cultural Awareness Week, Welcome Week, and a Virtual Club Fair to our fellow students through an online experience. It is a challenge to deliver those programs successfully to every student under the current circumstances but we will do our best to fight for our students’ best interests. What are the execs doing to put pressure on the University to lower tuition costs? When the student community start[ed] to fight for lower tuition in the 2020-21 school year in May, URSU executives totally supported our fellow students. As a result, we met with senior administrators and requested them to reconsider the unaffordable tuition for several times till now. As VPSA, I have connected to several student groups and encourage them to start a petition regarding tuition deduction. Our president is currently working to strengthen Saskatchewan Students’ Coalition with which student unions across the province will be able to pressure the government better for affordable post-secondary tuition. URSU believes that education should never be a burden on a student and we will keep working best of our power to lower the tuition costs.
As an exec what are the most important issues on your mind leading into the 2020/2021 year? As Vice President of Student Affairs, the most important issue on my mind leading into the 2020/2021 year is lack of student engagement, I’m working my best on connecting with different student groups, and building a cohesive student community. Students’ power will be fragile and our voice will waver if we are disconnected from each other. Will you continue doing “Coffee with Execs” through the 2020/2021 school year? The URSU executives would love to continue to have this event through our whole term, it is a very great opportunity to allow executives to connect with student groups in an informal but informative manner.
“The most important issue on my mind leading into the 2020/2021 year is lack of student engagement […] Students’ power will be fragile and our voice will waver if we are disconnected from each other.” – Ziyang Li, VP Student Affairs
august 6 - august 12, 2020
carillonregina.com | The Carillon | 5
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Day of action against fighter jets $19 billion better spent elsewhere
sara birrell news editor On Friday, July 24, around 20 Regina residents gathered at the constituency office of Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer to protest the Canadian government’s decision to spend $19 billion on 88 fighter jets, the second most expensive procurement in Canadian history. They joined protestors in 20 locations across Canada in a movement backed by Canadian Voices of Women for Peace (VOW) calling on the federal government to divert the funding towards a just COVID-19 recovery and a Green New Deal. The Regina Peace Council, which coordinated the city’s participation in the day of action, has been challenging military spending and military interventions by the federal government since 1949. “We’ve always been in the position of being a critic of Canadian foreign policy,” said Ed Lehmann, president of the Peace Council. “We feel Canadian foreign policy has generally not been
tamara lorincz
Justice, not jets
aimed at making peace in the world but aimed at war making and war propaganda.” Lehmann said the fighter jet purchase is part of a broader problem with the Canadian military, namely that it acts not as a defender, but as an aggressor. “The government’s idea now of the major role Canada should play on the world stage is as a military power, working along with the US, rather than taking a more independent stance and trying to be more of a voice for reason and diplomacy.” He gave Canada’s support for the OAS/US-backed coups against elected leaders in Venezuela and Bolivia in 2019 as recent examples of Canada’s interference in the domestic affairs of sovereign states. “We shouldn’t be supporting the United States in its efforts to overturn the government of Venezuela,” he said. “We shouldn’t have helped in the overturn of a government of Bolivia, and we should stop supporting
all these so-called regime-change wars.” Lehmann noted that the violence of Canadian foreign policy doesn’t always come in the form of guns and bombs. “Canada right now has economic sanctions on 19 or 20 countries,” he said. “Economic sanctions are a kind of warfare. It’s saying to people, ‘we’re going to starve you until you do what we want.’ I don’t think that’s the way the western powers who say they believe in democracy should be conducting themselves on the global scene.” Economic sanctions have also hindered some countries’ ability to respond to COVID, leading to higher rates of infection and higher death tolls than if they weren’t subject to economic warfare. In addition the high price paid by other nations for Canada’s imperialism, the $19 billion price tag is a tab Canadians themselves will have to pick up. “There’s just so many different
issues that could be addressed with 19 billion,” Lehmann said. For instance, Canadian domestic undergraduates spend around $6.5 billion per year on tuition – for the price of 88 fighter jets, the Canadian government could send more than one million students to university for three years, tuition free. They could also afford to cancel the roughly $19 billion in student loan debt burdening Canadian graduates. And Oxfam estimates that universal childcare – the absence of which keeps tens of thousands of mostly women from participating fully in public life – would cost roughly $11 billion per year. And while $19 billion is a drop in the bucket when it comes to a Green New Deal (in the US, the cost has been estimated at anywhere between $10 and $90 trillion), diverting funds from fighter jets to a just and sustainable future has the dual benefit of moving money to the areas that
it’s needed most while avoiding the devastating environmental impact of jets. “Part of the reason for this particular action is the great pollution that these jets cause,” Lehmann said. “I call it the military bootprint.” Given that the National Roundtable on the Economy and the Environment (NRT) has estimated that climate change will cost Canada $21-43 billion each year by 2050, investing money that would otherwise be used on high-emission war machines into a just transition isn’t idealistic so much as it’s downright prudent. Lehmann said that the Regina Peace Council, along with VOW, is urging Canadians to write to their MPs, their local papers, and to party leaders in Ottawa, asking them to divert the $19 billion towards activities that will contribute to a sustainable future for Canadians and the world. They have further actions planned for the fall.
“We feel Canadian foreign policy has generally not been aimed at making peace in the world but aimed at war making and war propaganda.” – Ed Lehmann
august 6 - august 12, 2020
carillonregina.com | The Carillon | 6
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Stupid babies throw tantrum over masks Stupid babies need the most attention
isaac tamlin news writer On July 16, rallies occurred in both Regina and Saskatoon against mandatory mask wearing. Similar movements occurred across Canada and the United States. This comes in the wake of some places encouraging mask-wearing and some businesses and public transportation services making masks mandatory. So why is there so much controversy around masks? Scott Moe, Premier of Saskatchewan was quoted as previously saying, “There may be a point in time, either on a regional basis or maybe even province-wide, where we will have to go to wearing masks as a mandatory matter … I would far sooner want to have that conversation prior to shutting down our economy.” This prompted a lot of controversy over the legitimacy of making masks mandatory. A March to Unmask rally occurred in Regina in response, with about ten people showing up, toting signs that said things like “I won’t be muzzled” and
“your fear doesn’t take away my freedom.” Cody Payant, a former candidate and current member of the far-right People’s Party of Canada and one of the attendees of the Regina rally, said that, “My greatest concern [with mandating mask wearing] is the precedent it would set and how the gradual obedience/compliance with the new measures would then be exploited by aspirants of leftist authoritarianism.” He continued by saying “mandatory mask legislation violates the right to security of person as outlined in our 82 charter.” The charter right he is referring to is found under section 7 of the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.” Conveniently, he seems to forget about the right to life, also mentioned in that same part of the charter. He goes on to say, “Aspirants
of a less gradual creep of leftist authoritarianism fail to understand the value of liberty and freedom, of negative and positive rights, of natural law.” He continued to state that “we have gone in to 343 billion dollars of debt in Canada in this year alone because of this.” What he seemed to miss was the fact that making masks mandatory would allow for people to return to work safely and could go a long way to getting the economy back on its feet. Masks have been proven to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. The Center of Disease Control in the U.S. has stated that if even just 80 per cent of the population wore masks it would do more to reduce the spread of COVID-19 than a strict lockdown. Health officials in Canada have stated that mandatory mask wearing could slow the spready by more than 40 per cent. A nurse, who asked that her name be withheld due to a media ban, had this to say about masks: “Wearing a mask is not something that you do for yourself. It will not protect you. What it will
do however is protect your family, your friends, and your community. Sure it might be hot, itchy, and uncomfortable, but so is that sweater that your mom gave you last Christmas. If you can wear that sweater twice a year to protect her feelings, you can wear that mask for 20 minutes to protect her life. I challenge you to find a reason that speaks to you, whatever it may be, to wear a mask and wear it proudly. As a nurse I am required by my employer to wear a mask, but that requirement isn’t why I wear a mask. I wear a mask because I care about the safety of my patients and my coworkers and because I believe in the power of intentional acts of kindness. While there may potentially be a few people with underlying health conditions that prohibit them from wearing a mask to the same extent as the majority of the population – for example, those people permanently on oxygen – if those of us who are able to mask do mask, we will still be able to slow transmission rates and protect the more vulnerable sectors from infection.
With the recent surge of cases in Saskatchewan it is important to remember that coronavirus has not gone away, that everyone is susceptible to it, and that our collective behaviour is our first and best defence against the spread of disease.” Whether or not masks will become mandatory across Saskatchewan or Canada remains to be seen. As we head into fall, and schools begin to reopen, the possibility of another wave may bring this debate up into the forefront as we must decide how seriously we are going to take protecting the population at large from COVID-19.
Please just wear your masks Wallpaper Flare
“Wearing a mask is not something that you do for yourself. It will not protect you. What it will do however is protect your family, your friends, and your community.” – Public health nurse
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editor: julia peterson aandc@carillonregina.com the carillon | august 6 - august 12, 2020
Album Review: Taylor Swift’s folklore With its clever lyricism and gentle melodies, folklore is an album for the ages
pratheeksha r. naik contributer The COVID-19 lockdown has been a trying time for the best of us. Some took time off to take it slow, or learned a few new skills. As for American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, she released her 8th studio album folklore on July 24. It has 16 songs on the standard edition and 1 additional song on the deluxe edition. The album was a pretty straightforward release, which came across as a surprise as previous releases often involved clue-dropping. Written and recorded entirely in isolation, Swift has let her imagination run wild with stories inspired from her acquaintances, family and even random characters from her dreams – the ones with repeating visuals, the ones that piqued her curiosity. What most strikingly stands out in the album is the love-triangle between 3 teenagers – Betty, James and the girl whom James chose over Betty. “cardigan,” written from Betty’s point of view, was also the first single Swift released as a music video (also shot in isolation) alongside the album. The song is a slow ballad where Swift voices confidence and occasional sadness. It boasts catchy lyr-
Wikipedia Commons
“We gather stones, never knowing what they’ll mean / Some to throw, some to make a diamond ring”
ics that make great social media captions, along with a bleak reference to Peter Pan and Wendy. On the contrary, “august” is the other girl’s point of view – simple lyrics with a plethora of interpretations that gradually grows on the listener. At this point, one may wonder what does James feel after all? The answer to this question lies in the track “Betty”. Performed acoustically with a guitar, the song has upbeat vocals and a tempo that picks up the pace as suspense unravels in the chorus and bridge. The next character in Swift’s album is a misfit widow made an outcast from her town – Rebekah. In the song “the last great American dynasty” Swift narrates how Rebekah “had a marvellous time ruining everything” as the previous owner of Holiday House in Rhode Island currently owned by Swift. A clever progression can be noted when Swift takes over as the protagonist of the song. When it comes to vulnerable songs, Ms. Swift is specifically quoted time and again for her lyrical mastery. “Exile” is a duet with Bon Iver, and consists of a dialogue between a couple moving on from a broken love. The
echoes alongside the singers’ vocals accompanied by a piano are absolutely enchanting. “hoax” could leave the listener bawling their eyes out and “illicit affairs” is the opinion of a mistress who didn’t choose to be one, who was lied to. With lyrics like “You taught me a secret language I cannot speak with anyone else,” there’s no other song on the album that gives me chills quite like this one. Taylor takes a moment to reminisce about her grandfather Dean, who fought in World War II. In this regard, “epiphany” is a soulful rendition. Swift also takes a moment to address different forms of abuse/violence and the impact it has on women and children through songs like “mad woman” and “seven.” The former is an upbeat vocal track demonstrating how women are too easily labeled as crazy even under exceptional circumstances. The latter is a powerful song discussing the helplessness of a child in an abusive household. Eventually, in the song “this is me trying,” Taylor attempts to make peace with her past self and years of gossip while subtly shedding light on the importance of mental
health. This album couldn’t be more significant as nearly a year ago, Swift had given a public statement on how Scooter Braun and Scott Brochetta wrongfully owned the rights of her first six albums. Swift throws light on her feelings in “my tears ricochet” which is a soul-wrenching performance. The pain is felt in Swift’s voice as she sings with metaphors like “I can go anywhere I want but not home” and “stolen lullabies.” These songs draw a line where Swift starts personalizing her songs and writes them as she has experienced them. “Invisible string” is a parallel to “Delicate” from Swift’s 2017 album, reputation, and sonically similar to Red’s title track. She draws inspiration from different colours marking significant memories in her present relationship with British actor Joe Alwyn. It is interesting to note Swift’s ascent as she describes that time – initially “curious” and eventually “wonderful.” Up next, “mirrorball” speaks to her family, friends and fans who saw her true self amidst all the gossip. It is a metaphor of a disco light ball shedding light on
a dance floor where Swift tiptoes to avoid attention. There are instances where Taylor tries to reminisce about her “roaring 20s” in “the 1,” an upbeat song about how she has been accused of being a ‘serial dater’. Finally, in “peace” Taylor tries to make harmony with herself as she weighs off self-doubts. I give her brownie points for vocal variety at places where her voice tones down and softens to sing sensitive queries. All in all, folklore is primarily an acoustic album as it is mainly co-produced by the National’s guitarist Aaron Dessner. Hate it or like it, there’s no denying that Swift’s storytelling skills have the ability to stand out even in areas she’s never explored before. This is worth mentioning because for the very first time, she has an alternate explicit album released. folklore stands as a progressive idea and a new feather in her hat. In reference to “We are never ever getting back together” from the album Red, Taylor finally has that cool Indie record. I look forward to seeing Taylor go on tour for both Lover and folklore simultaneously as soon as safely possible.
“With lyrics like ‘You taught me a secret language I cannot speak with anyone else,’ there’s no other song on the album that gives me chills quite like this one.” – Pratheeksha R. Naik
august 6 - august 12, 2020
carillonregina.com | The Carillon |
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No rest for the NITWiT
Come for the Russian speculative fiction, stay for the skewering of institutional foolishness
malcolm cousins contributer Russian science fiction does not often get as much attention as books published here in North America. You will not often hear about them unless they are related to other popular media, such as the cult-classic video games Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl and
Wikipedia It’s time to revisit an overlooked classic
the Metro 2033 series. However, the works of brothers and co-authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky make a strong case for renewed anglophone interest in Russian speculative fiction. While some may know the Strugatskys based on the video game inspired by their work, or the cult classic
Andrei Tarkovsky film of a similar name, Stalker, another work of theirs, Monday Begins on Saturday, is perhaps what readers can relate to the most in today’s tumultuous world. The book came out in 1964, was originally published in Russian and then translated in English in 1977. It was published during a time of easing of draconian laws known as the Khrushchev Thaw, that saw a somewhat greater freedom of the press and freedom from censorship. Writers during the Stalinist era had to edit their work to fit government standards and Monday Begins on Saturday, a science fiction satire on the state of bureaucracies and their attempts to better human society, is a particularly impressive work given the context in which it was written. In the novel, our protagonist, computer programmer Sasha, picks up two hitchhikers on his way to a camping trip. During the drive, the two men explain that they work for an institute known as the National Institute for the Technology of Witchcraft and Thaumaturgy, or NITWiT, an organization devoted to the study of magic as science. They offer him a position as a programmer, which he accepts. Unbeknownst to him, Sasha has joined an institute that
– putting it lightly – is a sideshow. And that’s not just because of the fact that the institute is home to tea-drinking vampires, magical wish-granting pickerel and Merlin from Arthurian legend (working long past his retirement date). In fact, the most notable part of the institute is the sheer incompetence baked into its practices and organization. At NITWiT, people are being overworked as the concept of a weekend or a holiday is non-existent. In one part of the novel, when Sasha is locking up the building so he can do a firewatch after workers leave for New Years Eve, they come back shortly after to get back to work. The archetypes of a bumbling desk worker who is only there for a paycheque, or of management that makes one wonder who put them in charge aren’t new. We all know of politicians who have made ludicrously poor decisions, for example with regard to fighting climate change. What made me enjoy the novel was how it exaggerates certain elements of society to an effect that made me think as I was reading: “certainly it couldn’t get this bad”. The novel also shines in its portrayal of the characters, particularly Vybegallo, the overly idealistic but incompetent scientist. In the book, he attempts to arti-
ficially create the ideal man that desires everything and anything (when in reality, it just eats everything, could potentially consume the universe and later explodes from consuming too much). Some people in the real world with the same idealism as Vybegallo look to improve human society, but those attempts are often plagued by purely human errors in thinking and judgement. Vybegallo could be well acquainted with the doctors who were falsely promoting hydroxychloroquine as an effective treatment of COVID-19 before the issue had been appropriately studied. With our society dealing with the largest pandemic in a century, Monday Begins on Saturday is an often-accurate satire about how putting the wrong people in charge can result in disastrous outcomes for everyone. We all hope that the world will be able to go back to normal someday, that people will follow safety protocols and governments will be proactive, though of course that hasn’t always been the case. Right now, I find it helpful to read Monday Begins on Saturday to have a laugh and escape into a fantasy world – a fantasy world that literally is about the study of fantasy.
How I keep calm: nature resets your brain
A series featuring the different ways students are finding peace and contentment during the pandemic.
holly worby arts writer One of the first articles I wrote for the Carillon was a piece on my camping experience in Grasslands National Park. Since that trip last August I’ve gone on three others, and have developed a passion for the outdoors because of the way it calms me. When I was on a five-day trip in Cypress Hills, I got curious as to why I always feel so much better the longer I spend in nature, so I did a little digging. According to a survey by Coleman Canadian Outdoor Report on 1,500 adults, 98 per cent felt that their well-being is enhanced when outdoors, and 95 per cent felt that their stress is reduced. The bad news? 29 per cent stated they spend less than half an hour outside each week (that’s less than five minutes daily), and 64 per cent spent less than 2 hours outside each week, leaving just 7 per cent of people spending more than two hours outdoors. If we’re all so confident in the benefits, why do we choose to spend only 1 per cent of our weeks reaping those benefits? Cognitive neuroscientist Dr.
Carillon
How have you been keeping calm during the pandemic?
David Strayer has researched how nature helps to restore people’s mental states using EEGs to test theta frequencies before and after nature walks. Theta frequencies are linked to the anterior cingulate cortex which helps to coordinate multitasking – something that causes a lot of stress on the brain, and can lead to burnout. Everyone knows that stress isn’t “good” for prolonged periods of time, due in part to the way our prefrontal cortex – where our critical thinking and decision making are centered – can be fatigued by the constant multitasking that prolonged stress causes. Dr. Strayer measured people’s theta frequencies before and after taking a solo nature walk. He had half the walkers leave their phones with him while they strolled to avoid distraction, and half were to call a friend and talk while they walked. After the walk everyone’s theta frequencies were tested again, and the group sent without their phones showed lowered theta activity – their actual physical brain had rested. They hadn’t taken any medication, they weren’t walking in a different/
more-serene area, they weren’t meditating to reach a higher level of relaxation. The simple truth is despite our industrialization, we humans are still an animal species wired to feel relief in the familiar. Our neural evolution hasn’t quite caught up with our urbanization so to truly rest our brains, natural settings do wonders. The upsides of spending time in nature are clear, and researchers continue to find more specific benefits. Now the question is, what do we do with this information? Neuroscience is slowly giving us a handbook on the human brain that, ideally, we can use to prevent negative impacts from occurring instead of having to treat after the fact. Being aware of the benefits isn’t enough; we have to start putting knowledge into practice, and we have to start treating mental health as a priority rather than a luxury. Shae Sackman, the president of the Psychology Students Association at the U of R, had the following to say in regards to what the University itself can do to contribute to student mental health:
“The U of R and most mental health services operate in a reactionary way. A student seeks service, a student navigates the process to receive service, and counselling begins. Asking Counselling Services to navigate the influx of students requiring counselling while also figuring out how to be more proactive is unrealistic and not really their burden to bear. The University of Regina needs to consider a more proactive and holistic approach to supporting their students. Counselling is not the only solution. Identifying things that are eroding the coping skills and mental health of students would save time, money, and potentially lives.” Spending time in nature is not a mental health panacea, but it can help. In her TEDx talk, “Prescribing Nature for Health,” Dr. Nooshin Razani talks about the experience of awe. She defines awe as a combination of fear, happiness, and pleasure, and said that after experiencing awe people are more empathetic and their symptoms of anxiety and/ or depression are lessened. She
then outlined the changes a person experiences with time spent in a forest. In minutes, breathing and heart rate slow, and cortisol levels decrease. In roughly 20 minutes people have a better attention span and are able to solve more difficult cognitive tasks. After three days, the prefrontal cortex reaches a sort of “peak-relaxation” where people are at their highest productive and creative potential. Now most of us do not have the luxury to escape to a forest for three days every time we’re feeling burnt out – that’s not realistic for our schedules or bank accounts. Thankfully, Janelle Gerard in her honours project at the U of R found that immersing oneself in nature for just five minutes will increase “transcendent emotions” - one of which is awe. To make that more impressive, Gerard did the research for her study from October to March, so these benefits can still occur even in our frigid Saskie winters.
august 6 - august 12, 2020
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arts & culture
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Local Saskatchewan U-picks and a winery in need during COVID-19 Is berry season in a jam? joseph holoein arts writer Saskatchewan’s berry and fruit season is in full bloom, and one of the best ways to experience it this year is to visit a U-pick orchard or a winery. Around the province, different months will foster different kinds of berries, so June or July’s U-pick experience will be very different from August’s. Seasonal weather or exceptional events like flooding and droughts can also play a large role in determining the quality and quantity of the harvest. During a warm Saskatchewan summer just over a decade ago, I remember walking through the parallel rows of my local U-pick farm, in search of the most pristine raspberries and Saskatoons to fill my cracked icecream pail. I still remember a few shorter rows of golden raspberries which amazed me – no doubt due to my prior childhood experiences consisting of common red raspberries. It’s a fact that kids love U-picks and it can be a great family excursion during this time where the world seems to largely be on some sort of hold. Just the other day I asked my four-yearold niece, “What’s your favourite part about picking berries?” “Eating dem,” she said, followed by a great big smile. Although she might not remember every berry she eats, she will likely remember the memories made at local
U-picks with her family for years to come. Only a half-hour from Regina nestled in the Qu-Appelle Valley is a popular U-pick orchard called Ol Mill Berries. They are known for having Saskatoon berries, raspberries, sour cherries, and even a few strawberries. Every day during the season from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. their fields are ready for picking. When asked about how the current season is going, Amy Demyen from Ol Mill Berries said “2020 has been our busiest season yet.” Demyen believes that, “People are looking to spend more time outside or experiment in the kitchen with new baking ideas,” as a result of COVID-19. Perhaps the best thing about a U-Pick farm this year is that they provide an open space for people to visit while they gather berries. It could be the perfect getaway for a date, or a family group looking to do something different together. If people wish to take it an extra step in terms of COVID-safety, they should definitely be washing their berries before eating too many and remember social distancing. Public beaches and parks have been very busy and regardless of how worried you are about the virus, eventually you’re going to have to go for a walk for your own health and a U-pick might be the perfect place if you’re worried about being in the city or on a beach full of people. Plus, there’s berries! Another berry orchard just
14km east of Regina is the Very Berry Farm. They have been advocating for social distancing in their emails, as well as reminding people about the Saskatoon berries, sour cherries, raspberries, and rhubarb available depending upon the summer months you visit. What’s different about this orchard is that it is mostly functioning on an honour system at this point, where they have a “CASH ONLY” policy and they request that pickers, “bring [their] own pail.” While it seems that many U-pick orchards are doing great this year, a winery on the banks of the South Saskatchewan River not far from Saskatoon has had a bit of a tough season. Wolf Willow Winery is an “organic fruit winery which produces Sour Cherry, Honeyberry, and Rhubarb wines as well as fruit wine beverages.” Jesse at Wolf Willow Winery says that they have “seen a 25-30 per cent drop in sales from last year,” which he directly attributes to COVID-19. To keep their customers safe, the winery has taken a number of precautionary measures. “To accomodate the safety measures we’ve installed plexiglass between tables, limited table seating and service and we require reservations for all our dinner guests,” Jesse said. “These measures limit the amount of customers we can serve especially at peak times.” Additionally, the winery has had to lower its usual amount of staff due to having less customers
Pexels
Some berry good ideas for physically-distanced summer fun.
and also as a double effort to keep more people safe. But this isn’t just a place to taste and buy wine. They also serve pizza and snacks, and have a campground with tents and teepees to rent. Their loyal customers have been really good to them Jesse notes, and he has even seen many new customers, but things are just not quite the same as usual. Perhaps a large number of these COVID measures have contributed to this “drop in sales.” Regardless, Wolf Willow Winery is clearly a business who
took many measures to protect the local community, so hopefully sooner or later the community might return the favour by visiting the winery – especially knowing that this winery needs some help standing back up after COVID. This summer, wineries, U-picks and all sorts of local foodbased operations can be a great way to break out of the quarantine boredom, keep safe, and enjoy all the delicious local produce Saskatchewan has to offer.
Restaurant review: Gud Eats
If you’re looking to order some excellent vegan takeout this summer, Gud Eats has you covered. pratheeksha r. naik contributer What do you think when you hear the description “crave-worthy, plant-based” food? Is it something like a ‘beyond-meat’ burger patty, or inventive eats like ‘Chick’n’ and ‘Bacun?’ If that strikes your fancy, you can go and taste the latter at “Gud Eats,” a new restaurant in Downtown Regina! The vegan restaurant opened its doors (albeit partly) for pickup and delivery in April amidst the pandemic. The idea for Gud Eats started as a food truck in Saskatoon in Summer 2017 and transitioned to storefront that fall in Saskatoon. The idea of founder Chris Cole was to let people know how plant-based food can taste amazing and be a delicious option for ethical, sustainable living. Since there are other vegan restaurants in the city and many fast-food chains are now serving some sort of vegan patty, you might wonder, what’s the real deal with Gud Eats? Gud Eats’ speciality is their vegan versions of chicken and bacon that can step up any meal. Ever since their launch, I have been excited to try ALL their items – not just because I’m an ardent foodie but also because I’ve been practising vegetarianism for over 2 years
now and I couldn’t wait to taste the vegan meat. I had no idea what their “Popcorn Chick’n” was going to be like, but to my absolute surprise - the look, the feel, and the texture of the meal was exactly like a chicken popcorn. The taste? Even better. To be honest. I pranked my friends by switching out their chicken for some of Gud Eats’ Chick’n, and they didn’t even notice the difference. The next time around we collectively tried Chick’n Drummies and Chick’n Sammies (Sandwiches). We weren’t disappointed. It is quite a shock that tofu can wonderfully simulate most meat dishes with varying levels of cooking creativity. What is more exciting is that the restaurant has partnered with plant-based brands such as Miyoko’s, Beyond, and Earth Island to sell frozen, plantbased packets. The size of these packets vary but to start I ordered a 300 g packet of Thai Chick’n and it has been an excellent side dish and snack numerous times. My key tip is to defrost it completely, then eat it while it’s hot. In the future, I’m really looking forward to plant-based meat products in the technology-dominant world but for now, I’ll just think about my next order at Gud Eats. It will probably be their tacos or bowls and hopefully, I can soon visit the restaurant (with proper measures in place.). Still not convinced? Be a judge yourself and head over
to 1810 Smith Street to show Gud Eats some support. Don’t chick’n out of trying some of their fantastic vegan food.
wcifly
So tasty you’ll probably forget about the insta pic.
“The idea of founder Chris Cole was to let people know how plant-based food can taste amazing and be a delicious option for ethical, sustainable living. ” – Pratheeksha R. Naik
august 6 - august 12, 2020
carillonregina.com | The Carillon |
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TV Review: The Umbrella Academy season 2 The Umbrella Academy returns this summer with a time new, new place and same old dysfunctional superpowered siblings
julia peterson arts editor Since the principal cast members of The Umbrella Academy announced that Season 2 would be coming back to Netflix this summer – In a fantastic home-shot video mirroring their now-iconic dance sequence from Season 1 – I have been waiting with bated breath to see how the show was going to write its way out of its last cliffhanger. After all, ending the first season of your show with the end of the world doesn’t usually set you up for a sequel. Spoilers for both seasons of The Umbrella Academy below... The Umbrella Academy, based off the comic book series of the same name written by Gerard Way and illustrated by Gabriel Bá, follows a set of adopted sibling superheroes. “Dysfunctional” doesn’t even begin to cover their home situation – their robot mother Grace and talking ape butler Pogo are some of the more positive aspects of their childhood. Their adoptive father puts them through a brutal training regimen, sends them out on missions and only calls them by numbers – one through seven – but Grace names them. There’s Luther, who has super strength; Diego, who can curve anything he throws; Allison, who can control minds; Klaus, who can talk to
Wikipedai Commons
Welcome (back) to the end of the world
the dead; Number Five (his only name), who can jump through space and time; Ben (who died as a child while the group was out on a mission), who can summon “tentacled horrors” from his body; and Vanya, who is initially thought to have no powers, but is actually able to convert sound waves into destructive force. At the start of Season 1, the siblings reunite for their father’s funeral, setting in motion a chain of events that results in Vanya unintentionally using her powers to blow up the moon and end the world. To save his family – and, hopefully, everyone else – Number Five jumps them back through time, scattering his siblings through early 1960s Dallas, Texas. That’s where Season 2 picks up. One of my favourite parts of Season 2 is that the siblings don’t land all together. Instead, they all land on slightly different dates, each thinking they are the only ones who escaped the apocalypse. Number Five is the last one to land – on November 25, 1963 – and finds his siblings battling a Soviet invasion of mainland U.S. before the world is wiped out in a nuclear war. He manages to escape to ten days earlier, where he needs to find the others, figure out what went wrong with the timeline this time, and save the world again.
Somehow, even though the primary stakes of The Umbrella Academy’s second season are exactly the same as the first – a countdown to the end of the world, and a mystery as to what caused it – they feel different this time. Since each of the characters landed on their own in the past, they’ve managed to build a life for themselves. The most moving plotlines here belong to Allison, who reacts to being a Black woman displaced from time by becoming in the Civil Rights movement, and Vanya, who has lost her memories, but falls in love with steely farm wife Sissy. Sissy, who is brave and loving and fantastic, is such a major step up from Vanya’s abusive (and now very much deceased) ex-boyfriend from Season 1. And Klaus, Diego and Luther all have their moments in this timeline, too. So when Five informs them that the apocalypse has followed them back in time, the problem feels a lot more urgent this go-around – they’re not just fighting for the big-picture concept of “saving the world.” On the individual level, they now have so much more to lose. The show is still as weird as ever, from a creepy trio of Swedish assassins to a major plotline involving a talking goldfish in a tank perched atop a suit, but it’s the extraordinary talent of the designers and production crew
members that really anchors this narrative weirdness in a solid framework and allows it to shine. The Umbrella Academy’s first season was instantly lauded for its brilliantly on-the-nose soundtrack, and while this season’s music choices are less ostentatiously fantastic, they’re still pretty great – we watch the world end to the classic strains of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” and a legitimately awesome Swedish cover of Adele’s “Hello” does a lot to elevate a funeral scene in Episode 5. And there is amazing attention to detail in the set and blocking as well. For me, the best example of this is a short scene midway through the season involving a spacecraft accident. Some of the shots in the aftermath seem to directly reference the funeral of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov (note: the real-life pictures from his funeral are much more graphic than the reference in the show, so google with care). And the show’s writers have clearly thought through the nuances of time travel, in big and small ways. The way the characters have altered the timeline leads to a huge plot twist in the final moments of the season, but for my money, I’m more excited about the small changes. In Season 1, Klaus is accidentally sent back through time to the Vietnam
war and falls in love with fellow soldier Dave, who dies in his arms on the battlefield. Now that Klaus has been sent back to the past, he tries to stop Dave from enlisting in the military, to no avail – except that Klaus told Dave that his older self was in the army when he died, and this version of Dave enlists in the Marines. So maybe we’ll see more of him in Season 3? I can only hold out hope – the Klaus and Dave plotline was one of my favourite parts of Season 1, but it was mainly wrung out for emotional pain in Season 2. To sum up where The Umbrella Academy has left its characters at the end of Season 2, I’ll paraphrase Tolkien: they tried to save the world, and it has been saved, but not for them. While they won on the big issues – there was no nuclear war, they haven’t all been murdered at the hands of sinister time travelers – in doing so, they have all had to sacrifice so many of the smaller, precious things that make victories worth fighting for. And while I’m already looking forward to Season 3, I’m hoping the future of the show trends a little less bleak. Happy characters don’t make for good drama, but The Umbrella Academy characters all deserve a little bit of happiness that lasts.
“Somehow, even though the main stakes of The Umbrella Academy’s second season are exactly the same as the first – a countdown to the end of the world, and a mystery as to what caused it – they feel different this time.” – Julia Peterson
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editor: john loepkky sports@carillonregina.com the carillon | august 6 - august 12, 2020
Campus athletes return to training Student athletes back in the gym – but not in the same way
reese estwick staff writer At the University of Regina, many sports teams have returned to training, even though the majority of seasons have been cancelled or pushed back to a later date due to current U Sports regulations. The athletes have returned to campus for training, but practising looks very different than what the students are used to. The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) guidelines allow for contact sports to return, yet the University has implemented significantly more strict protocols for staff and students. “Obviously we have been following the provinces slow and conservative return to activity,” says Lisa Robertson, the University of Regina’s Director of Sport, Community Engagement, & Athlete Development. The return to the university was not a decision that was reached easily – there was consultation with athletic directors from all of the Canada West universities, sport medicine doctors, sport scientists, and an athletic thera-
pist to ensure the safest possible return for all involved. “They prepared a report for our athletic directors to review in regards to what they found and what medical advice was and they didn’t see that we would be ready nor would it be seeable for all four provinces to be ready by September to deliver sport, in terms of competitive contact sport,” says Robertson. “So far, I’m super proud of the level of responsibility our student athletes are taking with this.” For student athletes, it has been difficult to navigate all the changes. They are enthusiastic to return to training as normal, but for now are having to make the best of the situation and continue training for when play resumes. “At first I was pretty nervous,” expressed Mira Cappello, a goalkeeper for the women’s soccer team. She has had mixed emotions regarding her teams return to the field. “I have just been very cautious about COVID and about, like, who I’ve been in contact with and I know some of the girls that are here in Regina haven’t been super cautious, so that was just
a bit of a concern for me,” said Cappello. The cancellation of the 2020 soccer season has brought about many concerns for athletes, especially those who are getting closer to graduation. “I feel like it will be really difficult for some of the older girls, including myself, to make some decisions about whether or not we’re going to stay,” said Cappello. “Right now, I think everyone is just trying to focus on getting back and next season.” Ron Maclean, a track and cross-country athlete, is happy to be running again. Even though the cross-country season has been cancelled, he has high hopes that the track season will begin in the new year. “It’s just kind of weird when you’re not training for anything, but it is definitely good to get back to it because I love doing it,” said Maclean. COVID-19 has forced changes in many aspects of life, yet Maclean says it has not altered team dynamics. When asked about what his biggest fears were about the impacts of COVID Maclean said they mainly surround the
Nathan McCarville
We won’t see action like this anytime soon
inability to capitalize on the momentum of the last few seasons. “Our team has been building for the last couple of years and next year was going to be our year to really do well – just not having one final good run with them,” Maclean said when asked about his biggest fears about the impacts of COVID. Faith Reid, a women’s basketball player, expressed much frustration and concern regarding the effects COVID will have on her sport long-term. “I haven’t taken a practice off because I was feeling like shit in
years,” said Reid. She hopes that the current precautions do not impact practices and player engagement in the future. There will be announcements made in October about what sports, if any, will have a season beginning in January according to both Canada West and U Sports.
Four campus sports headlines to watch We ask one writer and one hanger-on what they think
isaac tamlin & john loeppky news writer and former eic Do you think we will have in-person events at all this season on campus? IT: Talking with campus staff, they said that the decision to have a season for winter sports like basketball, hockey, swimming, track & field and volleyball will be made by Oct. 8. With the decision to send K-12 students back to school in the fall we could very well see another wave of COVID show up in September. If that does happen, I think it’ll be unlikely to see in-person events at all this season. JL: I highly doubt we will see any Cougars sports this season. If the leagues with millions of dollars are having outbreaks – looking at you, baseball – I don’t see how leagues that claims to give a shit about
Sarah Carrier You’ll notice this clinic is not on campus
athlete health, like U Sports, can hope to have even a little bit of security for their members. How do you feel about the fact there is still no doctor’s office on campus? JL: I think it’s absolutely absurd that we don’t have a medical office on our campus. We are the only university of our size to not have medical facilities. The KHS faculty’s reasoning – to create a student-centred approach led by faculty and students – would be great . . . if it had actually materialized. Regardless of the circumstances of the clinic’s departure, the fact that the dean has told this newspaper, “There won’t be any physicians on campus, but in large part nurse practitioners can handle most
things that physicians are able to deal with, particularly with this population. Our students are generally healthy individuals, they’re not typically sick or aging, and that sort of thing,” is an embarrassment to our campus. That article, by the way, was from last November. IT: In light of COVID, having a doctor’s office on campus might not be a good thing. Any COVID-like cases should be handled at a hospital where they have the proper safety protocols and equipment. If we had a doctor’s office on campus my only concern would be sick people showing up at the university to see the doctor, potentially getting other university-goers sick in the process. How do you feel about losing access to gym facilities on campus for the foreseeable future? IT: I think it’s strange that a lot of off-campus gym facilities have been reopening with special precautions and protocols in place, but the university can’t do the same. I know the convenience of using facilities at the U of R was really important for a lot of students, so I’m not sure why the university isn’t offering some kind of opt-in for modified gym facilities. JL: If I can’t trust dudebros to not drop their weights and grunt louder than any tennis player alive or dead then I don’t think I trust them to wear a mask. Enforcement is always an issue and our campus can’t enforce consequences for plagiarism by its own faculty – don’t worry, engineering won’t read this section – let alone the
health and safety of its students Do you think this shut down could harm the Cougars and Rams longterm? If so, how? JL: No season means no revenue, but it also means no recognition. The Rams are partially funded by sponsors, so I think their upcoming seasons could take a hit. If there ever was a time to cut the hockey teams loose, particularly the perpetually losing men’s team, now would be the time. Better than cutting a wrestling team on short notice and causing an angry exodus. We’re already seeing shutdowns at smaller campuses – like the University of Alberta-Augustana, so I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility to see some teams take a cut or suspend operations until next season. IT: I think that the university has shown great resilience in the past and I don’t think this shut down will harm the Cougars and Rams long-term. The important thing is to ensure that athletes, coaches, and spectators all remain healthy, and we’ll just hope sports will be back up and running safely as soon as possible.
august 6 - august 12, 2020
carillonregina.com | The Carillon |
arts & culture
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Release your rage
Regina rage room reopens after COVID restrictions holly worby staff writer Have you ever wanted to toss a plate like a frisbee into a wall? Or smash a television screen with a baseball bat? Maybe taking a monkey wrench to an old door is more your speed. Whatever the case, if you’ve ever felt the need to sublimate your emotions (or just think this all sounds really fun), you need look no further than the Regina Rage Room. In the winter of 2017, Morgan Turner found the inspiration to make her own rage room after seeing it work in action. A close friend of hers was going through some rough times, so Turner set up a DIY raging space in her backyard. They blasted music while shattering vintage windows and “random crud” she had around, which both found cathartic. On July 18, 2019, Turner opened the Regina Rage Room at 1333 Rose Street, making it the first and only rage room in. Her and her fiancé, Kelly Taylor, are the only employees, meaning every visit the customers get to see their joyful faces. ` For those who don’t know, a rage room is a place you can go to break things for fun. The benefit of rage rooms comes partially in the form of sublimation, which is when socially inappropriate behaviours are turned into ones that are both socially acceptable and, ideally, beneficial. Examples of this include going for a run instead of punching through a wall, or using a stress ball to release anxious energy. “You don’t have to be angry to be here,” Turner commented with a laugh in our interview, “but I can say that some people go in and they’re fine, but when they come out you can tell they broke some stuff with specific people in mind.” One major benefit to participating in a rage room is the release of endorphins due to the physical activity. Endorphins are a peptide-neurotransmitter and hormone that bind to the same receptors in our brains as opioids do, and they’re produced by and in our bodies with exercise. They are pain-reducing and have been linked to the mood-boosting impact of exercise. Overall, they increase a person’s feeling of well-being, which is something everyone needs more of. If you’re not one for team sports, cardio, or the gym, this is a perfect way to make sure you’re getting a quality work-out that rewards you with both physical and mental benefits. The Rage Room provides safety equipment like face masks, gloves, and jumpsuits with the purchase of a room package. They also supply the various tools you can use for your raging, including frying pans, pool cues from Wonderland, and the ever-classic baseball bat. Turner also mentions that if you have a request for a type of item you’d like to break and you give them enough notice they’ll do their best to make that dream come true. Nearly all of the objects they have in the rooms to be destroyed are acquired via donation, with some items coming from local businesses like Fresh & Sweet and Dent Centre. If you or your business have items you’d like to donate you can message Regina Rage Room on Facebook. For some items they can arrange to pick them up, and they’ll give you a coupon for $5 off a room so you’ll have a chance to see how much joy you’re providing others by donating! They won’t take soft furniture or major appliances, but everything from mirrors to garden gnomes to chipped tea-cups are all welcome. The Regina Rage Room is open to those age 10 or older, and their oldest visitor so far was in her 80s, so don’t think this is a place you can’t take grandma. She’d probably have a blast making a mess that someone else has to clean up for a change. I first visited the Regina Rage Room in February, and the experience blew me away. Turner is one of the warm-
Holly Worby
It’s all in the name
est people I’ve ever met. Her passion for what she does is incredible, and she instantly makes you feel comfortable. She was patient with all my questions and had my friend and I set up in no time. After putting on the safety equipment and entering the room my eyes locked onto a stack of plates that I threw – yes, like frisbees – into the wall. I also managed to break the baseball bat I was using to hit things with, which (thankfully) we all laughed about. Turner mentioned a few goals to me, the first being to construct a mobile Rage Room that could be rented out for events; she already has approval from her insurance for this project, so now it’s only a matter of time. The second goal that’s a little further down the road is to become a therapy option that can be prescribed to people. I can personally report that after doing a rage room session my head felt clearer, I felt energized and alert but in a focused sense, I felt really connected to the friend I was there with due to all our teamwork in breaking apart the big-ticket items, and I laughed so much my cheeks hurt by the end.
Ironically, laughter is a very common sound at the Regina Rage Room. Turner’s smile and laugh are wildly contagious, and she gets so much joy from bringing joy to others. “I love when any group comes in and I can hear them belly laugh from the room.” she mentioned at the end of our interview. “That’s all the serotonin I need for the day.” Rage room packages range from $35 to $55. They reopened after COVID restrictions on July 15.
You don’t have to be angry to be here . . . but I can say that some people go in and they’re fine, but when they come out you can tell they broke some stuff with specific people in mind.” – Morgan Turner
sports
august 6 - august 12, 2020
On a roll: the 2020 Marble League
carillonregina.com | The Carillon | 13
Getting your sports fix . . . virtually
julia peterson arts editor There’s been a dearth of spectator sports to enjoy this summer, but the grandstands and stadiums haven’t all been empty – no, some of them have been full of mar-
International Marble Sport Committee Who knew marbles could be so much fun?
bles. Jelle’s Marble Runs, a YouTube channel run by two brothers from the Netherlands, has been running marble competitions of all sorts since 2013: Marbula 1
(the marble version of Formula 1), the Marblelypmics and, this summer, the Marble League. In these videos, teams of marbles compete in various events (everything from the five-metre sprint, to block pushing, to triathlon), vying for gold as the action is commentated by the brilliant Greg Woods. When watching a Marble League event, it’s easy to forget that these fierce competitors are, well, just marbles. The crowd cheers and sports team colours (and a bit of fantastic stop-motion animation really makes it look like they’re waving their signs), voicing their support for their favourite competitors. Woods’ commentary is feisty and on-point, adding a layer of verisimilitude and drama to the events. The Marble League is structured somewhat similarly to the real-world Olympics [editor’s note: hopefully without the doping ], with a dazzling opening ceremony and regular updates on the overall medals and points standings, so those of us who are
missing Tokyo this year can get a bit of our summer competition fix from these 16 teams. And there are even real stakes for these inanimate objects. In a completely unforeseen and genuinely great turn of events, the late-night comedy show Last Week Tonight is sponsoring the games this year, donating $5000 to various food banks in the name of each event’s winning team. It’s hard to explain why the Marble League is so great without just showing it to you, but if you had tuned in to Sunday’s event, the Black Hole Funnel, you would have seen groups of marbles racing through a giant funnel. Two competitors from each marble team participated in the race, and the winning marbles were the ones that lasted the longest before dropping through. This was a fast-paced event, with marbles jostling for position in the lower part of the funnel, anticipation building as the time stretched out. Would anyone manage to hang on for over 30 seconds? Would a wide angle of attack at
the start be an advantage once the speed picked up? These may not be human athletes, but it’s all too easy to get invested in their progress. I started watching the Marble League as a casual viewer this year, and now I’m a die-hard O’Rangers fan. For my money, the best part of the Marble League isn’t the ever-increasing production values (which are, admittedly, quite impressive) or the creative team names, or the exciting events and nail-biting photo finishes. What I love most is the earnestness with which the whole thing is produced. From the track designs to the commentary to the committed (marble and non-marble) fanbase, the Marble League is a brilliant celebration of humans doing weird, wonderful, amazing things and hard-committing to them just because we can. The next Marble League event, the five-metre relay, takes place today (Aug. 6) – so be sure to tune in for a marble-ous show!
“ . . . the Marble League is a brilliant celebration of humans doing weird, wonderful, amazing things and hard-committing to them just because we can.”
Sports funnies Get your chuckles in
john loeppky former eic
KHS to retrain contingent faculty as doctors In the midst of the pandemic, and without a new medical facility on the horizon, the Kinesiology and Health Studies faculty have decided to retrain all of their sessionals as doctors. The choice, according to one totally real member of faculty administration, was made because they couldn’t see a path forward for them as permanent members of the staff and it would be cheaper and easier to have mistreated doctors than frustrated scholars “We looked at the lack of security for doctors in places like Alberta and saw a similarity with our own sessional faculty. We’ve been getting some flak recently for having the same amount of medical support for students as the Dewdney McDonalds, so we thought this could be a perfect solution.” In typical U of R fashion, sessionals will have no choice but to either train as doctors at the University of Saskatchewan’s medical school or become unaffiliated scholars. It’s a position that the University of Regina Faculty Association is dead-est against, according to their latest
press release. “We at URFA refuse to accept that our sessional members be forced to undergo even more years of training just for the privilege of not being offered permanent positions once they are done. We are thankful that the University of Regina has finally offered tangible professional development opportunities, but we are saddened by the reality that the campus is more interested in clout-chasing solutions than they are in reality. Our students are now going to be left without well-taught classes and healthcare and URFA stands in solidarity with our workers as they fight this unjust decision.” The Owl to become official irresponsibility sponsor for Cougars and Rams athletics Gone may be the days of coach-sanctioned drunken binges in the Owl, but that doesn’t mean the campus pub is out of the game. The URSU-owned and operated watering hole has decided to become the Cougars and Rams’s irresponsibility sponsor. The idea, according to one member of staff, was to embrace a bygone era of U of R athletics while also acknowledging the rich history that drinking and collegiate
Jaecy Bells
athletics have in common. “Athletes are often our bouncers, sometimes they’re getting rowdy outside, and on the very rare occasions they credit liquid courage for their athletic successes to us behind closed doors. We thought, why not formalize that relationship as an official sponsor and get our little owl all across the gym.” The new partnership will feature the
The Owl can see in to your soul
Owl logo plastered across every wall of the gym, on all Cougars and Rams athletic gear, and right in the middle of the chest on all jerseys and warmups. An athletic department spokesperson could not be reached for comment on account of this story being satire.
“We looked at the lack of security for doctors in places like Alberta and saw a similarity with our own sessional faculty. We’ve been getting some flak recently for having the same amount of medical support for students as the Dewdney McDonalds, so we thought this could be a perfect solution.”
august 6 - august 12, 2020
sports
carillonregina.com | The Carillon |
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Why Paralympic athletes need to unionize Reclassification fight shines light on why disabled athletes need support
john loeppky former eic When wheelchair basketball athletes like the UK’s George Bates are speaking to the BBC about cutting their legs off just to continue playing basketball, you know there’s something wrong. A little background: wheelchair basketball – and all other para, disabled, or adapted sports played at the Paralympic level – have some form of what’s called a classification system. For the uninitiated, that means a set of criteria athletes have to meet in order to be deemed eligible to play at the Paralympics. The International Paralympic Committee changes their classification code periodically and has now forced one of their major sports federations, the International Wheelchair, Basketball Federation or IWBF, into line. Traditionally, the IWBF has had the loosest classification rulings. The IWBF’s old code essentially stated that the main criteria for participation was having a disability that limited participation in non-disabled sport, also called a minimal disability. Whereas other sports are far more limited in their scope, like wheelchair rugby’s requirement that at least three limbs be significantly affected, or swimming and track and field’s stratified classification system, with those in each class competing in their own racing category. Put simply, wheelchair basketball, while not being the only sport that has faced classification drama – swimming’s even made it into industry publications – has traditionally been the sport
Wikimedia Commons
The Canadian women’s wheelchair basketball team have spoken out about a need for inclusion in the sport
at the higher end of classification system. When your stated goal is to involve everybody, any attempt to limit that is going to be seen as negative. Some sports have clamoured for a tougher code in order to protect what they feel is the integrity of their sport, so the IWBF can hardly claim it is the only organization undergoing a seismic shift, just the one with the loudest athletes, perhaps. In an attempt to get the basketball players into line, the IPC warned the IWBF that if a reclassification process was not in place soon, this being in 2019, then wheelchair basketball would be at risk of not attending Tokyo 2020. The first point of contention was the 4.5 and 4 classifications, the highest in wheelchair basketball On July 29, it was announced that of the 132 athletes tested 119 were deemed eligible, with nine non-eligible, and four awaiting further review. This was the result of years of argument. So, how did we get to Bates threatening to pursue legal action to continue the sport he has dedicated his life to? Well, the IPC and IWBF, despite always claiming that the Paralympic movement was always about inclusion, have shown some athletes – at least in their own minds – that this is not necessarily the case. Many in the wheelchair basketball community see the reliance on a set of disability categories as a move away from the inclusive nature of the sport. Bates’ disability does not meet the criteria because it isn’t on the list and doesn’t have an easily quantifiable impact – de-
spite an amputation being offered to him at a younger age – and that is what some are calling a nonsensical approach. And so began the blame game. We have the IWBF blaming the IPC, the IPC blaming the IWBF, and the athletes (on the whole) blaming both. Which is how we get to my point: the only way for athletes in all of para sport to feel comfortable is if they unionize. During the Olympics, many of the big-ticket athletes, think those of the NHL and the NBA, already have a union fighting for them. Not only that, they have money from their pursuits outside of the four-year cycle. They can, without much penalty, give the Olympics a miss. Disabled sport, on the whole, doesn’t have that luxury. The funding structures are rooted in programs like Canada’s Own the Podium. There is very little wiggle room for the athletes, and they are not represented well. The only voice the athletes have is collective, like when a number spoke out after a coach for Team China’s women’s team was initially only suspended for one game after slapping a player in the middle of a huddle at the 2018 world championships. The IWBF was slow to react then just as they are now. The IWBF (falsely it seems) assumed that they had the leverage. In principle, they’re right, they have the labour force that would rally to the cause. Except for one problem: they are beholden to the funders – who only really care about the Paralympic
cycle anyway – and the member organizations that are almost never athlete-led. In fact, in a statement by Wheelchair Basketball Canada’s women’s team, the IPC athlete council was called out alongside the other parties – it should be noted Canada’s David Eng, a stalwart of the sport and frequent spokesperson for the Canadian Paralympic Committee, was also deemed ineligible by the recent ruling – for not fulfilling their promise to athletes. They wrote: “The IWBF, the IPC and the IPC Athletes’ Council are athlete-centered organizations, yet in this case the best interests of the athletes seem to have been lost along the way. It is crucial that they understand the toll this has taken on each individual athlete, as well as the entire team.” But how could unionization work? It’s quite obvious why a committee as part of the larger organization(s) doesn’t. Namely, because they are under the control of the organization if they are inside their doors. For example, if you look at the UK’s rugby union set up, the player’s union is funded in part by the league and its teams. That is not a partnership, but an ownership model. In order for a Paralympic athlete model to succeed it would need to be fully independent. To do so would also require a rethinking of the sport union structure. Where the NBA is the employer of the NBA Players’ Association’s members, the IPC is not the employer of its athletes. Outside of wheelchair basketball
and tennis, few Paralympic athletes are professionals outside of their own member organization’s federal funding – in Canada, that’s called carding money. But a different model already exists. Organizations like the Canadian Freelancers’ Union, who are further affiliated with UNIFOR, aren’t directly tied to an employer, but bargain on behalf of a collective. The same model could expand to Paralympic Sport. At the moment, aside from IWBF and IPC appeals of their sport-specific classifications, the only way forward for disabled athletes is to go to the Court for Arbitration for Sport, a costly move that would inevitably require the agreement of the athlete’s member organization. Some deemed ineligible have already announced their retirement from international competition, meaning that they have seemingly decided that the fight isn’t worth it, for justifiable reasons. If athletes want their voice at the table then they need to unionize, a more formal step than a change.org petition currently making the rounds. They need to think in terms of a formalized structure rather than an ad hoc attempt at fairness. Disabled people are already discriminated against on a regular basis. Seeing athletes like Bates be pushed out of their sport is an acknowledgement by the IPC and the IWBF that they are not quite as athlete or inclusion-centred as they they think they are.
“When your stated goal is to involve everybody, any attempt to limit that is going to be seen as negative.”
Op-ed
15
editor: marty grande-sherbert op-ed@carillonregina.com the carillon | august 6 - august 12, 2020
What the fuck is happening?
Reality is bizarre right now, and we need to stay unnerved.
As I was drafting questions for an interview for another story, a serious story in which I would engage experts to help me understand and explain some of the crises and responses of our current moment, I kept coming back to this one, fundamental question: what the fuck is happening right now? That a human – and humankind – can get used to anything is well known in art and in life. Raskolnikov knew it in Crime and Punishment and so did The Stranger’s Meursault. Following his liberation from the Türkheim death camp in 1945, Viktor Frankl confirmed it. Incarcerated people know it and refugees know it and people who are grieving know it, too. Even the eye knows, independent of consciousness: you must adjust to the light. Every hegemony, every regime, every social structure we take for granted became fundamental through a process of adjustment. But for all the talk that militaristic police violence and staggering economic inequality and rampant propaganda and callous indifference from elected officials has been “normalized,” – that we are, as a society, used to it – it remains unnatural and there is a jarring dissonance between what is happening in the world around us and what we know to be not only just, but rational. For all the talk of normalization, we still find ourselves asking, “what the fuck?” This dissonance between what makes sense and what is actually happening can be disorienting, and if we fail to acknowledge it, it can even be psychologically damaging. While we must accept the truth of our reality – that we are living in a time of mismanaged crises and that many of our leaders, from university administrators to heads of state, have abdicated their responsibility to keep us safe – that doesn’t mean that we aren’t repulsed by reality, that it does not offend us spiritually, psychologically, and physically. Though we may understand that greed and thirst for power motivates the dictator, the despot, the crony capitalist, that doesn’t mean that their behaviour in practice doesn’t defy understanding. And yet so much of the reporting on the issues of the day, in part because of the limitations that journalism places on commentary and in part because so much of legacy media reflects the views of the ruling classes who own it, is inadequate when it comes to acknowledging the absur-
Marco Verch
Let’s talk about everything going on
dity of what we are being forced to accept (and we are being forced to accept it – we can fight it, but doing so means accepting the truth of the reality that we are fighting against. Accepting something as true is not the same as resigning oneself to it). And so for the sake of our mental health, we should look at what’s happening around us not as events on a continuum which make a certain sort of perverse sense in the context that they are occurring in, but as what they are: aberrations in logic and reason. We should continue to ask, “what the fuck?” For instance: Provincial governments across Canada, including Saskatchewan, have lifted moratoriums on evictions that were put into place at the beginning of the pandemic. This means that people who were unable to pay their rent throughout the crisis, and received no rent relief, are now faced with paying up to six months of back rent (which they don’t have, or they wouldn’t have needed to defer their rent in the first place) or being evicted. This is absurd. If the government recognized in March that people could not pay rent because they lost employment due to the crisis, and with the unemployment rate remaining at 11 per cent, 3 per cent higher than it was in March when the moratorium was put in place, it is beyond comprehension that those same people will now have the means to pay their rent. The moratorium was to ensure people were not evicted amidst a deadly pandemic. But we are still amidst a deadly pandemic. The provincial government knows and understands this. Recognizes that perhaps thousands of people will find themselves unhoused because of this crisis, and that that will surely lead to overcrowded housing conditions and the unchecked spread of a lethal virus and they…don’t care. That’s messed up. It’s a callous disregard for the gravity of the situation, but it’s also completely baffling. People like to say that the cruelty is the point, and that’s often (not always) true. But it’s still unfathomably bizarre. The government is acting in contradiction to the available facts. The financial situation of most people has not changed, and has likely worsened, since this moratorium was initiated. There is still a pandemic. COVID is not gone. It’s fucking eerie.
Or take this: Structural and institutional racism have been called a public health crisis. Their effects are evident in the lived experiences of racialized people and they are also quantifiable. We have data about racial healthcare discrepancies and the disproportionate use of force meted out against Black and Indigenous people by police, about the disproportionate number of Indigenous people locked up and the disproportionate number of Indigenous children seized by social services. We have historical records of racism, and even apologies from various Canadian governments for racist actions. And yet we still have heads of government and representatives of Canadian institutions ignoring, denying, or downplaying the reality of racism in this country. And while we may know that not seeing or acknowledging institutional racism is part of how white supremacy (and the ruling class the myth of white supremacy was invented to uphold) is perpetuated, it’s still weird. It’s weird and unnerving to present people with lived experiences, objective data, and extensive scholarship about structural racism and have them look you in the face and say that structural racism doesn’t exist within their institution, or that it’s not as bad as you’re making it out to be. It’s infuriating and it’s frustrating and it’s fucked up. It offends our understanding of what is true and what is just. Or consider the bizarre acrobatics involved in stripping word of their meanings for political aims: Whatever your feelings about police, defund is a simple word. It means “prevent from continuing to receive funds.” If you want to be a pedant about it, you can break it down into its Latin root, “fund”, a transitive verb meaning to pay out money, and its prefix, de, which indicates privation, removal, negation. But I’m not a pedant so I would never do that. But a funny thing happens to this simple word when you attach it to “the police.” Suddenly, by some strange liberal alchemy, defund starts to mean anything but defund. After the lynching of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May, calls to defund and abolish the police – while not new – rose across North America and the world. And as they did so, something very strange started to happen. The word
defund was somehow voided of its meaning. Publications asked (either earnestly or frantically) what does defund MEAN? Earlier this summer, when a petition circulated calling on the city of Regina to defund the Regina Police Service – which uses more than 20 per cent of the municipal budget – police chief Evan Bray bizarrely said that defund meant, in part, that people wanted more accountability. And while we know the reason that people hedge so much around the meaning of “defund the police” – it is, after all, a demand to end the existing neoliberal order which places the defense of property and institutions ahead of the lives of working class people, especially Black and Indigenous working class people – it’s a surreal moment, for abolitionists and non-abolitionists alike, to see a word with such a clear and straightforward meaning seemingly vanish from the dictionary, treated as something ambiguous. It’s disorienting to see so much ink spilled trying to define a word with a readily available definition. While language is a living thing, seeing words gutted of their meanings in an effort to render a clear political demand open to interpretation can leave us feeling – rightfully – unmoored. We are speaking the same language, and being willfully misunderstood. I’m always cautious about using the term “uncanny” because fuck, but the reality we live in right now, in which the political response to everything, from the climate crisis to COVID to the global rise of authoritarianism, is jarringly at odds with the response that is actually needed, is truly unheimlich. We are living in the warped reflection of a funhouse mirror. And so I encourage you to continue to organize against the injustices that face us, to accept reality, but not resign yourself to it, and to keep asking yourself, “what the actual fuck?” Because in addition to being terrifying, dangerous, unequitable, and unjust, things are also really, really weird.
sara birrell news editor
august 6 - august 12, 2020
op-ed
carillonregina.com | The Carillon |
16
The state of “mental health advocacy” is dangerously out of touch When we neglect to connect racism and police violence to mental illness and suicide, it puts more lives at risk.
pxfuel
Content notice: this article contains discussion of suicide and racist police violence, including the murder of people with mental illness by police. As a mentally ill person who has been in the system for now over ten years, I always write about mental healthcare with a mixture of grief and fury, and this month that is more true than ever. I feel obliged to mention that recently Jason Demerey, the head of a Regina-based mental health nonprofit (UnderstandUs) which served high school and university students, resigned after a host of young women and eyewitnesses came forward about sexual harassment they experienced from him as teenagers. I know very little about UnderstandUs or what they do – I understand they partnered with Tim Hortons and sold a lot of merch, but I have to confess none of that spoke to me or made me feel particularly protected – I only know that it leaves me bitter and hopeless to think that a “mental health advocate” very likely did lasting psychological harm to those he claimed to help. As is all too common, young people who struggle with their mental health cannot even trust the institutions literally created to keep them safe. I wish I could see this event as an outlier in the otherwise uplifting world of “mental health advocacy,” but to me it is merely more of the same. In fact, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the way our “conversations” about mental wellness obscure the violence that really goes on even at the hands of trained professionals. I have spoken before about how “mental health” initiatives like Bell Let’s Talk Day and UnderstandUs merely scratch the surface of reality, but there is yet another layer to this which is even more insidious: the way racism, particularly anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, makes it completely irresponsible to centre the perspectives of white people’s mental health amidst healthcare that is quite literally deadly to those both racism and ableism (or “sa-
Let’s talk about everything going on
neism,” as some call it) affects. This past Friday, on July 30, Tristen Durocher and supporters of Walking with our Angels – a walk from La Ronge to Regina in support of suicide prevention legislation started by he and Chris Merasty – arrived at the Legislative building and constructed a tipi across the road. Tristen then began a hunger strike in protest of the unanymous Sask. Party rejection of Bill 613, a bill that proposed to address suicide in Saskatchewan by making it a health and safety priority in the province. At the time of writing this article, that strike has continued for five days. The same day the tipi went up, however, no less than six police officers arrived at the camp to deliver a single piece of paper, ordering that Walking with our Angels remove their tipi as they were violating Wascana Park bylaws. In four days, as reported by Walking with our Angels (@walkingwithour1) on twitter, no Sask Party politicians have come to speak with anyone at the camp, yet police have been dispatched to the location several times. This is just another example of a narrative that has been repeated with maddening consistency in Saskatchewan and across Canada: people suffer and die because of systematic neglect, they or their families speak out in anger, and instead of showing any change or remorse the government sends in cops to do more harm. It happened before just weeks ago when, after a public outcry across the city, the Saskatchewan Health Association apologized to the family of Samwel Uko and finally revealed the disturbing details of his ER visit before his death. Samwel was a student at our own university, an athlete who brought joy to the lives of his friends and family, and he was ejected from Emergency twice after clearly stating that he was in crisis and needed medical attention. His name joined hundreds of others in the
Black Lives Matter demonstration in Regina, but he should still be here. Would a white boy struggling with the same depression have been escorted out of the hospital by police while seeking treatment for himself ? Why were police dispatched to an ER when Samwel was a danger only to himself ? Why did Samwel die after that, with no one seeing that he got to safety? Outside of Saskatchewan, “wellness checks” by police – another deadly intersection between mental health “care” and law enforcement – have killed at least four people in the past few months: Ejaz Choudry, an elderly Muslim man who lived with schizophrenia. Chantel Moore, an Indigenous mother from Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation who was in danger from abuse. Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a Black woman, and D’Andre Campbell, a Black man, both young and in crisis. I would like readers to really think about what this means: police arrived in response to a medical emergency and killed the person who asked for help. For this to happen even once is monstrous. For it to happen four times in such a short period, during a pandemic, defies words. None of these people were white, and I as well as any white person with mental illness knows that whiteness deeply changes the way we would be treated in situations just like this. Yet, most “mental health advocates” and politicians who speak about suicide or mental health do not even mention this phenomenon of violent racism, much less make it the priority it needs to be in discussions about mental healthcare. Make no mistake: being an advocate for mental health must involve deep concern with the injustices above. This is the ultimate result of the discrimination, dehumanization and lack of compassion that mentally ill people face. We can talk about social stigma anytime, we can bring as many service dogs to our universities as we like, we can
list the symptoms of depression and anxiety until we’re blue in the face – but until we acknowledge that racialized people with mental health problems are literally murdered in their homes for being in crisis, we are not talking about mental health advocacy at all. We must start there, and we must realize that caring about mental healthcare means opposing the involvement of police in crisis situations. Since the pandemic began I have seen thousands of infographics on instagram about how to engage in self-care, support friends with depression and the like. These things are good, fine and necessary, but support of mentally ill people in our communities must also acknowledge that: a) there is an enormous difference between the way different people experience mental illness according to factors of race, class, and the vilification of their particular diagnoses, and b) supporting the mentally ill in our lives also means staunchly refusing to involve the police in their crisis interventions. Calling the police or calling for a carceral response to mental health issues or advocacy can kill. Lastly, anti-racist action constitutes action for mental healthcare. If you are passionate about reversing the stigma surrounding mental illness, you should also be passionate about Tristen’s hunger strike and the goals of Walking with our Angels. You cannot talk about suicide and depression without acknowledging that 29 out of the 30 people who die by suicide in Saskatchewan are estimated to be Indigenous. We must quickly address the racist gaps that exist in “mental health conversations,” or risk losing even more lives. There has been enough death for a lifetime.
marty grande-sherbert op-ed editor
“People suffer and die because of systematic neglect, they or their families speak out in anger, and instead of showing any change or remorse the government sends in cops to do more harm.” – Marty Grande-Sherbert
august 6 - august 12, 2020
carillonregina.com | The Carillon |
op-ed
17
Tuition rates must decline
With student unemployment at an all-time high, it is more important than ever to lower tuition
Peterson Airforce Base
High is high enough
Amidst the pandemic, students need tuition rates to decline more than ever. The University of Regina has already made steps in the right direction by eliminating Recreation & Athletic Fees and the Student Union Bus Pass, resulting in $188 decline, but more needs to be done. Recently, and even before COVID-19 struck, tuition rates have been a source of conflict for the University of Regina. In 2018, Maclean’s ranked the U of R as the fourth most expensive place to move away from home, costing $22,745.95. Exposure of this outrageous cost inspired the U of R Students’ Union “Tuition Freeze Now” movement, which went on to collect over 1000 signatures during the 2019 winter semester. Despite this, during the 2019-2020
semester, the University announced that there would be no financial relief given, and that tuition rates would continue to rise. For obvious reasons, financial difficulty has surfaced for students since the beginning of the pandemic. Many students face financial struggle on a regular basis in the first place, which only strengthens the urgency for tuition rates to decline. In January, 2020, Forbes estimated that student debt has risen to a devastating $1.56 trillion dollars. Accumulated student debt is already hindering for many individuals, but the effects of unemployment caused by the pandemic has made future education even more precarious. The U of R has still yet to release a
statement regarding the fall semester’s tuition, even though the pressure to decrease tuition rates is higher than ever. Many students are overwhelmed with expectations placed on them such as their education, jobs, social life, and mental health. The crippling debt inflicted upon students is a cause for deteriorating mental health. Financial difficulty can be a source of embarrassment and insecurity for students. On top of their heavy work load, many students are also forced to find extra work doing part-time jobs to pay expenses. Trying to balance schoolwork and jobs results in anxiety and stress, both of which are gateways to greater mental illnesses such as depression. In 2018, Psychology Today released an article showing the average student debt ranges between $20,000 and $26,300 by graduation. It can only be assumed that the rate has now risen since then. The transfer to online learning has been difficult for students and professors alike. Whether it’s struggling with internet connection issues, or the inability for students to get the desired in-class experience, a new semester of frustrations is in store for Fall 2020. This means that the quality of classes is reduced. Further, with the U of R locked tight, there will be no access to the library or the Writing Centre, limiting valuable research and tutoring opportunities. John Archer Library will be a sorely missed space this semester; for many students, having a quiet place to work was incredibly valuable.
Moreover, being able to book a study room with white boards and markers is essential for a successful study session in many cases. Although there is access to online texts through the online library, many books will still not be available to students. The physical space and feel of the library can be considered the office away from home – that is, if students can even have an office at home. For many individuals, the library is an essential place of production and focus, something that many students will have to make arrangements for during the fall semester. Tuition rates should reflect the access to spaces like this for students. The University experience is more than just classes, and student life should be more than just studying. Joining recreational activities and clubs can create fond memories. Meeting new people can generate long lasting friendships, and participating in class discussions offers additional insight. During the pandemic, it is important that we unite and recognize what we are missing, and part of that involves compensation from institutions. Tuition rates must decline to reflect the quality of the semester and ensure the mental well-being ofstudents. With many students left unemployed by the pandemic, it is essential that the University of Regina compensates to help their students during a time of crisis.
gillian massie web writer
“Accumulated student debt is already hindering for many individuals, but the effects of unemployment caused by the pandemic has made future education even more precarious.” – Gillian Massie
Loosening the reins on covid precaustions Saskatchewan has kept COVID cases low, but we cannot forget about the risks For months now, the world has existed in a constant state of fear about the COVID-19 virus. In Saskatchewan, the number of cases has remained fairly low throughout the pandemic, but that is no reason for us to excuse ourselves from taking all protective measures for the safety of everyone. As of August 2, there are 254 active cases of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan. To many, that number might seem very low, but in reality it is not far from the amount of cases Saskatchewan saw at COVID’s peak. On July 27 there were 306 active cases across the province. Yet as people begin to see the statistics decrease, they are becoming more comfortable going out in public – some even without a mask. Businesses and public spaces, too, have begun reopening across the province. The guidelines set in the Government of Saskatchewan’s Re-Opening Plan currently allow for bars, restaurants, fitness centres, and many more public settings to return at full capacity. The majority of people have been quarantined since April and are therefore enthusiastic to go out and spend time with their family and friends. Unfortunately, many of those people are forgetting that there is still a global pandemic going on around them. Personally, I believe that the fast re-
opening of businesses and vast allowance for social gatherings has painted a false picture to the people of Saskatchewan, and has allowed people to falsely believe life is back to a normal, pre-COVID setting – and now, people are acting like that is true. I have found myself guilty of being lazy with bringing a mask when I go to the grocery store, or eating out too often, because I was so anxious to return to Friday night beers with my friends. But I very quickly had to change my actions, as cases are climbing across Canada right now. This is because the health and safety of myself and others is more important than going out and having a good time. My experience since the beginning of the pandemic has been quite chaotic. When it was announced that classes were going completely online, I made the decision to move back to my parents’ house in Southern Manitoba. Within a few weeks, my life had completely shifted; I no longer was surrounded by my friends, school looked different, and my mental health began to suffer. My parents are very strict about taking all precautions, and for months we did not leave the house. I, as a very extroverted person struggled with this, even though I knew it was the right thing to do. In June, we began to loosen the reins a little bit, still ensuring we wore masks and exposed ourselves to only a small group of
pikist
Now isn’t the time to get too relaxed
close friends and family. Then, after weeks of careful consideration, many long conversations, and extensive research my family and I decided we were in a position where we felt safe enough to go into the city (Winnipeg) and do a few things, as well as go to the beach and public swimming pool. I have been very lucky to live in a town of only 700 people, which has allowed a bit of a safety bubble. Personally, I believe that now while cases are lower, it is okay to go out a little bit and allow yourself some freedom because when the second wave hits the country, we will all need to return to lockdown for months. Quarantine has taken a toll on
people’s mental health and it is important to ensure that you allow yourself some time to recuperate, while still social distancing when possible and wearing a mask when in public places. It is very important that each and every person does what they can to ensure the health and safety of others and hopefully we can all see life go back to “normal” as soon as possible – but it will take everyone working together as a global community.
reese estwick staff writer
august 6 - august 12, 2020
carillonregina.com | The Carillon |18
op-ed
A call for the removal of the John A. Macdonald The statue must come down if we care about reconciliation
The John A. Macdonald Statue in Regina’s Victoria Park has been ceremonially “hanged” by the Indigenous people with ropes around its neck. Indigenous protesters and their supporters reject celebrating the injustices Macdonald inflicted upon Indigenous peoples through assimilation methods, such as Residential Schools and the Indian Act. This call to remove the John A. Macdonald statue is essential for reconciliation with Indigenous people. The demonstration calls Canada’s First Prime Minister’s legacy into question, as he was responsible for the implementation of Residential Schools, oppressive institutions which caused generations of harm to Indigenous communities. Demonstrators gathered in Victoria Park on Sunday, July 26 to advocate for the removal of Macdonald’s statue. Colton Weins from CBC News spoke with demonstration organizer Star Andreas, who explains the symbolism behind the ropes that were attached to the statue’s neck: “We have eight red ropes, they represent the eight warriors that [MacDonald] hung. The blue rope represents Louis Riel, and the white rope represents all the children in residential schools.” Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “History is written by the winners” – or in this case, the oppressors. Canada’s history texts know John A. Macdonald as the Father of Confederation. We learn that Macdonald united Canada by building the Canadian Pacific Railroad, transporting people across the country and facilitating western expansion. Although this may have been important in developing Canada’s economy, we neglect to study what Macdonald was doing at the same time – facilitating destruction of Indigenous people and their cultural practices. In front of the demonstration at the statue, there is a sign that says, “Start Acknowledging True History.” The cultural genocide committed against Indigenous people has caused generations of trauma, and Indigenous people know Macdonald not as the Father of Confederation, but the “Father of Assimilation.” Residential Schools should not be celebrated or made into monuments when they took hundreds of children away from their families, kept them in unsanitary conditions with insufficient food, and stripped them of their heritage. The government’s treaties resulted in the possession of Indigenous people’s land, and the Indian Act locked individuals onto reserves with insufficient funding. Many people starved, whilst the government watched. Society is facing increased urgency when it comes to our standards of justice. With many movements promoting equality and solidarity amongst one another, it is time that prejudice and racism is eliminated. The removal of the statue could bring us as white settlers closer to achieving reconciliation with Indigenous people, because we will be willing to confront our ignorance and listen to demands for change. Before the protest just days ago, the Regina Leader Post reported on a legacy review for John A. Macdonald is being conducted by the City of Regina. This is a step in the right direction. The review began at the
Jeremy Davis
It’s removal shouldn’t be up for debate
start of July, and in the meantime, a plaque was placed on the statue. It reads, “Recognizing that the Sir John A. Macdonald statue represents a harmful legacy to members of our community, the City of Regina is reaching out to Indigenous elders, artists, community members and other cultural groups. The City will seek guidance on responding to harmful legacies and increasing community understanding of Regina’s diverse histories. The general public will also have the opportunity to be engaged.” Involving community members in the evaluation of John A. Macdonald’s legacy shows growth in the government by putting the power into the people. However, there has not since been any action to remove or replace the statue, making it obvious that its removal is but a second priority. By putting the values of Indigenous people
and protesters to the side, the city shows that they are not prioritizing reconciliation. Citizens may use their own power to help with future demonstrations. A petition for the removal of the statue on change.org states, “In the age of truth and reconciliation, this statue/idol should not remain standing.” If society can not acknowledge our faults, then how can we reconcile? The genocide committed against Indigenous people has had long lasting consequences. Intergenerational trauma has been shown to lead to substance abuse, mental health problems and death within families. Demonstrations, like the one in Victoria Park led by Andreas, are staged as ways for Indigenous people to express their frustration with the stigmas surrounding them. When Indigenous people are not listened
to about these issues, it becomes necessary to conduct a protest so the message will be received. Canadian settlers still struggle with admitting their historical faults, even when the effects of intergenerational trauma are still widespread today. We as settlers and supporters of reconciliation should prioritize the removal of the Maconald statue, as it would teach us a lesson on who we choose to honor in the future. White people idolize Macdonald for creating the blueprints for the economy, even while he is a assimilator, colonist, and genocidal terrorist to Indigenous people. We must acknowledge both sides of history. This will contribute to a greater society.
gillian massie web writer
“Canadian settlers still struggle with admitting their historical faults, even when the effects of intergenerational trauma are still widespread today.” – Gillian Massie
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Editors: sarah carrier, morgan ortman, kate thiessen graphics@carillonregina.com the carillon | august 6 - august 12, 2020