The Fulcrum - Volume 78, Issue 17

VOL. 78 ISSUE 17

jan. 29, 2018

University of Ottawa Community Legal Clinic

www.commonlaw.uottawa.ca/community-legal-clinic/information-clients We provide FREE legal advice & representation and FREE notarial services to undergraduate students Law students, supervised by lawyers, offer help with: 

Criminal Offences, such as ...



Some provincial offences



Family law, such as…





Our graduate certificates and intensive programs give you practical, hands-on experience that will take your qualifications to the next level — fast.

o Drug offences o Theft o Fraud

o Spousal and child support o Custody and access o Restraining orders

Information Session Feb 3rd, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

1st Floor of the UCU

Notary hour: Wednesday

Applications to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board

2:00-3:00pm

Apply to your program today

Services offered:

Tenant law, such as ... o Repairs o Evictions o Rent deposits

Graduate Certificates that stand out

Affidavits Statutory declarations Certified true copies of original documents

Joey _ GRAD ‘17

Location:

Drop-in hours: Monday 7:00 – 9:00 pm Wednesday 7:00 – 9:00 pm [Type text] Thursday 2:00 – 4:00 pm

17 Copernicus (Corner of King Edward and Laurier) Tel: 613-562-5600

fill a gap in your program

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

Fill the gap and save a semester.

go.athabascau.ca/online-courses open. online. everywhere.

Changing Futures algonquincollege.com/gradcerts

In this week’s issue...

What went down at the Women’s March P. 6 How the event has changed since last year, and where it’s going next

Out for a float are ya, bud? P. 9 Why the new trend of floating might be for you Education for everyone P. 12 The educational hurdles faced by nonstatus immigrants Nine in a row P. 14 Women’s Basketball extend streak against Ryerson Consent is more than an app P. 17 Legal apps miss the point of consent conversations I kissed a boy, and I liked it P. 20 “Every time I get hammered with my friend, we make out.”

HEROES WANTED! 2hrs/wk! Volunteer with Ottawa's children.

Give literacy and life-skills help. sageyouth@hotmail.com I 613-838-5539 www.excellenceinliteracy.org www.sageyouth.org

NEWS

NEWS EDITOR Anchal Sharma

news@thefulcrum.ca (613) 695-0061 @anchalsharma_

Jan. 19 BOA sees motion for explanation of executive absences

Board also discusses referendum question for WUSC program Anchal Sharma News Editor

O

n Sunday, Jan. 19, the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) Board of Administration (BOA) met, where several executives were questioned about their absence at the Dec. 3 meeting.

EXPLANATION OF ABSENCE MOTION The board saw a motion regarding just cause for absence of certain members at the Dec. 3 meeting that read: “Be it resolved, that the VP finance, president, and VP equity give the board of administration just cause for their absences at the December 3 meeting.”

An amendment to the motion was proposed by Faculty of Social Sciences representative Philippe Garcia-Duchesne to change the wording from “just cause” to “explanation of absence” to avoid confusion over the current rule requiring just cause for absence after missing two mandatory meetings. The board approved the amendment and the final motion read: “Be it resolved, that the VP finance, president, and VP equity give the board of administration an explanation for their absences at the December 3 meeting.”

Vice-president finance Rizki Rachiq explained his absence due to an infection, and Leila MoumouniTchouassi, vice-president equity, provided mental health issues as the reason for her absence. President Hadi Wess, who was absent to attend the Ontario general Assembly of the Canadian Federation of Students

THEFULCRUM.CA

(CFS), explained via proxy that he missed the December meeting due to a family emergency.

The board then moved into an in-camera session, which is closed to the public, to discuss a report by the disciplinary committee.

WUSC REFERENDUM QUESTION Faculty of Social Sciences representative Gabi Ghannoun amended the agenda to include an emergency motion referendum question, and gave his speaking rights to Siddeeq Abu Ghazaleh, a third-year student in the Telfer School of Management, and co-president of the U of O’s World University Services of Canada (WUSC) chapter.

WUSC is responsible for the Student Refugee Program, which is currently sponsoring three refugee students at the U of O through a student levy of $1.88 per semester. Abu Ghazaleh explained that WUSC is currently undergoing financial difficulties, and the referendum seeks to raise the levy from $1.88 to $3.88.

The question was presented as follows: “Do you support each undergraduate student contributing an additional two dollars per semester to the student run World University Services of Canada (WUSC) local committee so as to further support and sponsor three refugee students to resettle and attend uOttawa annually?”

After Faculty of Social Sciences representative Cori Trandafir proposed an amendment to the motion to include “an additional two dollars for a total of $3.88 per semester,” the board voted in favour of the emergency motion.

The final referendum

Three executives were asked to explain their absences at the Dec. 3 BOA meeting.

question reads: “Do you support each undergraduate student contributing an additional two dollars per semester for a total of $3.88 to the student run World University Services of Canada (WUSC) local committee so as to further support and sponsor three refugee students to resettle and attend uOttawa annually?”

The referendum question will be included in this year’s general election, with voting taking place Feb. 7-9.

EXECUTIVE UPDATES Moumouni-Tchouassi’s executive updates included planning for Black History Month, and events like the annual gala, an open mic night, a potluck night, and a mini documentary about black students at the university.

She also mentioned an initiative called Demand Drive, wherein postcards addressed to various departments at the U of O will be distributed to students around campus to have them write things they wish to see improve or occur through administration.

According to Moumouni-

Tchouassi, “students ask a lot of the university and that often doesn’t come through,” something she hopes will improve through this initiative. The plan is for these postcards to make up a wall at the university, and later be sent out to administration. MoumouniTchouassi said she will begin by doing a trial of 300 cards in the month of February, and plans to create a list of all of the demands they receive to be revisited each year to measure for progress.

She then discussed committees for sexual violence prevention and mental health, separate from the president’s committee, that will take student input into account when making decisions on these issues.

Moumouni-Tchouassi said there are meetings planned for both committees in the next two weeks.

Following her updates, Moumouni-Tchouassi received a question about the recent death of a student on campus, asking if any new information was known, such as the student’s faculty. Kathryn Leblanc, vice-president services and

Photo: Anchal Sharma.

communications responded by saying, “not very much information has been released and that was an intentional decision on behalf of the university,” adding that since the BOA meeting was being live-streamed, and nothing had been confirmed by the university, it was not the right context for discussion surrounding the issue.

Leblanc then gave her updates surrounding events for Mental Health Awareness Week which was began on Jan.22 and Green Week beginning on Jan. 29, with services like the SFUO Food Bank offering free vegan lunch, and foot patrol recycling electronics.Also in her updates were the upcoming Fedtalks, an adaptation of TED talks, being led by Wess, and a Fight the Fees press conference to be held on Feb. 1. She also mentioned progress with the election rebrand, and plans for a new peer help tutoring in statistics at a subsidized price for students.

Rachiq’s updates surrounded the SFUO’s various businesses. According to Rachiq, the Agora bookstore saw a lot of profit in

January, but profits are low in comparison to past years. He also mentioned that there is concern for the next five to 10 years, since most of the money that keeps the book store afloat is through the $10 student levy. Rachiq attributes this to the fact that the bookstore is off campus, making it less convenient for students. He also shared that 1848 has been doing better than last year, and that Café Alt is under new management.

Rachiq then discussed finances and complaints from the federated body money roundtable regarding their audits. According to Rachiq, the dismissals of the last two comptroller generals affected last year’s audit, and that there will be another money roundtable in the following week.

Axel Gaga, vice-president university affairs discussed a mental health workshop in March, as well as the SFUO’s work with the Fight the Fees campaign and the CFS for a new campaign called Fund our Future.

A live-stream of the meeting can be found on the SFUO’s Facebook page.

NEWS | 5

Thousands come together to advocate for women’s rights

Second annual Women’s March in Ottawa sees new speakers, activities Ellie Sabourin

Associate News Editor On Saturday, Jan. 20, women and allies took to the streets of Ottawa for the second annual Women’s March, advocating for women and trans people of various intersecting identities.

Police and event organizers estimate that there were between 6,000 and 8,000 participants at the Ottawa march, while up to 50 other marches took place across the country on the same day, with various other cities in the United States also participating for the second year.

The event, which started at Parliament Hill and made its way down to the Bronson Centre, was co-led

by Amanda Carver and Catherine Butler, who are part of the Women’s March, Ottawa Chapter.

The chapter hosts community tables and workshops throughout the year, working on initiatives such as supporting more women in politics, raising the voice of other marginalized groups, and taking collective action to end gender-based violence.

“The march came together in a very organic way,” said Carver. “We have some guidance from collaborating and having ongoing dialogue with women’s marches at national and international levels.”

The Jan. 20 march took place a

day after the one-year anniversary of U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

In Ottawa, Carver says that they ran into few challenges, most of which can be chalked up to logistic issues.

The Ottawa Police have confirmed that there were no arrests or incidents at the march, however there were two male counter protesters at the corner of Laurier Avenue and Lyon Street who held up signs that read, “Men Matter Too” and “There are only two genders.”

This year, the organizing team made an effort to be more inclusive as a result of the feedback they received from the previous march.

“For example, as organizers we decided we were not wearing “pussy hats” to be inclusive of transgender women,” says Carver. “We also added a mobility bus to accommodate for mobility challenges, and ensured that we had ASL translation both at the hill as well as Bronson Centre.”

Sophie Rose, a second-year communications student at the University of Ottawa, says that this was her second year attending the march in Ottawa.

“My friends and I have started to look forward to it every year,” she said. “I think this year, especially with the ‘Me Too’ movement the

Organizers estimate that between 6000 to 8000 participants attended the march.

energy was especially pretty high.”

Carver emphasizes that these marches are important because they make a collective statement about the state of women’s rights and making changes towards mak-

Photo: Courtesy of the Women’s March, Ottawa Chapter.

ing our society more inclusive for all oppressed groups, including Indigenous groups, people of colour, LGBTQ2s.

“It’s a public commitment to keep fighting together to make this bet-

ter,” she said. “If we don’t make big gestures like marches, these discussions get pushed out of the limelight and do not get the coverage required in traditional media and social media.”

The U of O announces interdisciplinary fellowship with Ingenium Fellowship in Gender, Science and Technology open to graduate students Marissa Phul

staff contributor Early last week, in a call to passionate young minds, the University of Ottawa, in partnership with Ingenium, a crown corporation of Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation announced a Fellowship in Gender, Science and Technology. Open to full-time masters and doctoral students from all faculties, the goal of the fellowship is to produce interdisciplinary research in the fields of gender, science, and technology.

Ingenium oversees three museums: the Canada Science and Technology Museum, Canada Aviation and Space Museum, and Canada Agricultural and Food Museum. The two chosen fellowship recipients will be able to choose which of the three museums they’d like to work with.

Emily Gann, a Ph.D. stu-

dent at the U of O and assistant curator at the Canada Science and Technology Museum, originally discussed the idea with Ruby Heap, former associate vice-president, research at the U of O and current professor of history of women in science and engineering. From there, the partnership took off. According to Heap, the fellowship is “a truly collaborative effort.”

For Ingenium, the fellowship provides an opportunity to open up their collection not only to the general public but to researchers. Heap called it “mutually beneficial,” and an effort to give students “practical experience as researchers.”

The fellowship emphasizes women in STEM, a field that Heap believes to still be largely underdeveloped in Canada. “We believe that if we don’t have fair representation of women, we will lose, and this will be to the detriment of the field.”

Bryan Dewalt, the director of the curatorial division at Ingenium, is “very excited about the fellowship.”

“We take the whole area of gender and women in STEM fields very seriously,” he said.

Both Heap and Dewalt stressed the importance of the interdisciplinary aspect of the fellowship with Heap saying, “we are eager at the University of Ottawa to contribute to creating new bodies of knowledge on gender, science, and technology.”

Recipients of the fellowship will be chosen by a committee that includes representatives from both the university and Ingenium.

The committee is looking for new perspectives and angles, from medical history to domestic inventions. Heap remarked that the most important qualities applicants should possess are a passion for their research and an innovative perspective.

The announcement came

The Canada museum of science and technology is one of the museums that’s part of the fellowship.

just days before Prime Minister Trudeau’s speech in Davos, Switzerland where he said, “I’m talking about hiring, promoting and retaining more women and not just because it’s the right thing to do, or the nice thing to do,

but because it’s the smart thing to do,” according to the Toronto Star.

Heap mentioned the prime minister’s speech and the fellowship as “pieces of an agenda which is to attract and retain more women in STEM.”

6 | NEWS

Photo: Parker Townes.

Interested applicants have until February 15, 2018 to apply.

Additional information about the Fellowship in Gender, Science and Technology can be found at the University of Ottawa’s website.

THEFULCRUM.CA

Canada Science and Technology Museum partners with U of O Exhibit seeks to study child development through practical and applied research anchal sharma news editor

The Canada Science and Technology Museum has recently partnered with the University of Ottawa to introduce the Living Lab, a new interactive exhibit that allows researchers to study child development in the heart of the Ottawa community.

The lab, co-directed by developmental psychologists Dr. Cristina Atance and Dr. Chris Fennell, and linguist Dr. Tania Zamuner at the U of O, opened in Nov. 2017 along with the museum after it underwent renovations from 2014 to 2017.

According to Atance, the Living Lab is a collaborative effort between the private and public sectors. The museum provided the space for research, while the university and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council provided funding through grants.

Fennell, an associate professor of psychology at the U of O sees the opportunity as a fundamental part of his job.

“As scientists that work with families and children, one of our big responsibilities is to convey what we know,” he explained. “(It’s) not to hide in the university and just publish dry academic articles, but to actually engage the public with what we’re discovering.”

Such discoveries come in the form of puzzles, games, and other engaging activities for toddlers and young children. Parents are welcome to walk in with their kids as they browse the museum and take part in research studies looking at anything from word recognition to cognitive development and ‘mental time travel.’

Atance explains the concept as a means to measure the ways children see themselves in future situations, and how they relate

back to past experiences.

She also shared that the museum has given them more exposure as opposed to working within the classic university structure. “We’ve had over 300 families come in in two months,” she explained, which is the same amount of children they would usually get in a span of six months at the university.

The lab is also a great opportunity for students to build their experience in the field of cognitive development, and, in a broader sense, communication.

At the moment, Atance, Fennell, and Zamuner are working with graduate and undergraduate students completing honours theses in the lab to provide them with relevant experience in their programs, with one directed research student who is receiving a university credit for their work. Fennell said that he is also incorporating the exhibit

Dr. Cristina Atance and Dr. Chris Fennell are professors at the U of O.

into his courses by getting his students to create PowerPoint presentations based on their research at the lab that is then displayed at the museum.

The professors plan to open the lab to other initiatives such as the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program at the U of O that will provide a student with

$1,000 to intern at the lab.

They are also looking into the possibility of offering a work-study program, as well as co-op placements.

Although for the time being, they are looking for volunteers, and ask that interested applicants with relevant experience, such as good marks in a cognitive development class,

Photo: Anchal Sharma.

and prior engagement with children, email them for more information.

“We’re looking for someone who has the drive, the ambition, but also the discipline,” Fennell said.

The Living Lab is open Wednesdays to Sundays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Canada Science and Technology Museum.

CFS to hold province-wide Day of Action on Feb. 1 Event to focus on lowering cost of tuition, accessible education Ellie Sabourin

Associate News Editor On Thursday, Feb. 1, the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) will host their province-wide Day of Action across postsecondary campuses in Ontario, to bring awareness to the difficulties and issues that students face while accessing higher education.

This year’s Day of Action will focus on universal accessibility to postsecondary education for all students and eliminating systemic barriers that do not allow for people to access education, educational justice, and public education. It will also focus on the elimination of student tuition fees, the relief of student debt, and increasing funding for postsecondary education.

The CFS is the largest student organization in the country and comprises

THEFULCRUM.CA

of more the 650,000 students nationwide, advocating on a wide range of issues that affect students such as ending sexual violence on campuses, ending the privatization of campuses, and creating a more accessible campus for persons with disabilities.

James Casey, the University of Ottawa field organizer for the CFS, has been tabling on campus and talking to students in different classrooms for the past five months, to shed a light on what the group does and the student issues they are advocating for.

“One of the biggest issues that I face is hearing from students that I talk to tell me that they love the work that the CFS is doing and want to help volunteer, but they had no idea about the organization before I talked to them about it,” he says. “Not many

students know who we are and that is part of the problem when trying to outreach to students.

Casey, and the CFS at large, are hoping to see a shift in student engagement with the help of the Day of Action.

“I am expecting to see a lot of students being engaged and talked to by myself and other volunteers,” Casey said. “The (Student Federation of the University of Ottawa) has some exciting announcements and events orchestrated for the Day of Action, which I am expecting a lot of students to turnout to. We are hoping to see lots of students signing up with us, and on other campuses across the province, and engaging with as many students as possible to make sure that everyone knows about our awesome campaigns and work that we do.”

For Casey, one of the

The CFS day of action will take place on Feb. 1.

most important things he hopes to cultivate through his work with the CFS is awareness of student debt.

“I think that it is important for people to know that on average stu-

Photo: Jaclyn McRae-Sadik.

dents graduate with over $28,000 of education-related debt after an undergraduate degree,” he says.

“This is simply not acceptable. Students cannot continue to fight rising tuition

fees and interest rates, as well as significant decreases in funding.”

For more information about how to get involved with the CFS, you can find them on Facebook.

NEWS | 7

ARTS&CULTURE Relic of St. Francis Xavier coming to Ottawa

A&C EDITOR Ryan Pepper arts@thefulcrum.ca (613) 695-0062 @pep_ryan

Right arm of saint on cross-Canada tour Alex Szigeti

staff contributor

A

465-year-old relic, the right forearm of St. Francis Xavier, is currently on a month long, fifteen-city pilgrimage, and will arrive in Ottawa, its final destination, on Wednesday, Jan. 31. It will remain in the city for three days, with viewings at ParoisseSainte Marie d’Orléans, St. John the Apostle Church, and the downtown Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica.

The pilgrimage has drawn large crowds from all walks of life, as experienced first-hand

by D’Arcy Murphy, a second-

year international development and globalization student at the University of Ottawa.

“Everyone from babies, to very elderly people of all ethnicities and backgrounds.

We’ve really seen so many people flock to this, in faith or even just in curiosity,” he said.

As a student leader with Catholic Christian Outreach (CCO), a national university movement across 15 Canadian campuses with the focus of “sharing the gospel clearly and simply, and raising up leaders,” Murphy was invited to take part in the St. Francis Xavier relic pilgrimage.

The relic is here because of Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, the archbishop of Ottawa, who originally suggested the idea to the co-founder of CCO, Angèle Regnier, 10 years ago.

In May 2017, after deciding it was an appropriate time to ask Rome for the relic, Regnier

asked archbishop Prendergast to make a request for the arm itself, which was granted by the end of September.

“In the last three months, basically October, November, December, a thirty-day, 15-stop nationwide tour was planned,” said Murphy. “We’ve had crazy numbers, anticipating between 75,000 and 100,000 people, so the magnitude of this is huge, and it all happened so fast, which is remarkable.”

St. Francis Xavier, born in 1506, attended university in Paris, and although he was Catholic, he was not particularly active religiously.

“His story sounds very much like someone today… he had two roommates and he really didn’t like them, they were annoying, and on a different wavelength, he was sort of known as the big man on campus, he came from nobility, he was popular, he loved going to

dances, and drinking, and partying, and he lived a high life and people loved him, he did well in school and he was very athletic,” said Murphy.

But soon his roommates, Peter Faber and Ignatius of Loyola— both later canonized—brought him closer to the Gospel, and it soon became the focus of his entire life.

St. Francis went on to cofound the Society of Jesus, a scholarly religious congregation of Catholicism, and become a missionary, spending most of his time throughout Asia before passing away in 1552. He was canonized in 1622, and this tour gives Canadians the rare chance to view his right forearm, which is believed to have baptized 100,000 people during his lifetime.

“Everyone without exception comes out of it very touched, very moved in one way or another,” Murphy said of the gen-

The relic of St. Francis Xavier will be coming to Notre-Dame Feb. 2.

eral reaction to the relic. “What I think what this relic points is that this man, St. Francis Xavier, lived an extraordinary life,” And for anyone curious as to how the relic gets transported on this pilgrimage—it gets its own airplane seat, and ticket.

Photo: Dasser Kamran.

The relic of St. Francis Xavier can be viewed on Jan. 31, at Paroisse Sainte-Marie D’Orléans, Feb 1 at St. John the Apostle Church, and Feb. 2 at NotreDame Cathedral Basilica. Visit CCO’s website for times and more information.

Underground theatre highlighted at festival

Undercurrents Festival to offer “pay what you can” deal for students Kevin Vélez Guerrero fulcrum contributor

From Feb. 7–17, Undercurrents Festival, part of Ottawa Fringe Fest, will present more than 30 theatre performances in the Arts Court Theatre and the National Arts Centre.

This is a great opportunity for students as there is no fixed price. You just show your student ID, pay what you can afford, and you’re in.

As their tagline, “Theatre below the mainstream” suggests, Undercurrents Festival is looking to present work that would not usually be seen on Ottawa stages. The spirit of this event is precisely to be a platform for non-conventional and experimental theatre.

“We try to change the perception of the theatre.

A lot of people can be intimidated by not knowing what to wear, maybe showing (up) at the wrong place or not knowing what to do when they go to a theatre.

We try to break that down with an open atmosphere,” said Patrick Gauthier, the Undercurrents Festival’s director. “A lot of people have the perception that theatre is what you learn in high school: Shakespeare, Molière.”

Gauthier is hoping to change this perception and introduce people to alternative modes of theatre.

“Theatre is not one thing, it can be many different things,” he said. “I want someone to come for the first time and say, ‘I didn’t know that theatre could do that.’”

Undercurrents also intends to speak about sub-

8 | ARTS & CULTURE

Undercurrents runs from Feb. 7–17.

ject matters that usually stay away from the stage, like The Pipeline Project, which discusses fossil fuel dependency, cultural heritage, and first-world privilege, as well as political conflicts in Canada’s oil industry. Another example

is How to Disappear Completely, a movie screening combined with live storytelling with actors.

This year, the Undercurrents Festival aims to connect with students, especially university students. For this reason, the

Photo: Courtesy of Undercurrents.

admission for students will be “pay as you can, no questions asked,” as Gauthier said. The offer is valid for all performances except Daughter—which will take place at the National Arts Centre. According to Gauthier, this will also

help to get people to know more about what theatre can be.

“You never hear someone say, ‘I don’t like music’, but you hear people say, ‘I don’t like theatre.’ And it’s not that they don’t like theatre, but they haven’t found a theatre that they like, that speaks to them,” Gauthier said. “We want to introduce to people theatre that is for them.”

The Ottawa-based festival intends to serve as a platform for emerging local artists—as well as artists from three other provinces—to show their work.

The majority of these plays are being shown for the first time, and Undercurrents intends to help these up-and-coming artists gain the support and experience they need to boost their careers.

THEFULCRUM.CA

A float tank is what students need right now

Float tanks lower stress, anxiety, chronic pain A float tank might just be a student’s best friend.

Sensory deprivation tanks, commonly referred to as float tanks, are pods filled with warm salt water, that is buoyant enough for a person to float in. Enclosed from any external noise or light, they are an excellent meditation aid, and in addition have proven health benefits.

Jasson Grant opened ISÖ Spa on Bank St. with Mika Husband two years ago. Since then, the four-pod business has become popular with athletes, mindfulness practitioners, and anyone who is stressed, sore, or tired.

So, it’s great for students.

According to Grant, the pair opened the business to fill in a gap.

Before they decided to start their company, the only place to float in the city was a salt-water cavern owned by Nordik Spa. Husband had come from Calgary—where float tanks are popular—and one day wanted to go for a float.

“We Googled it, there was nothing here, and we decided by the end of that lunch that we should open one in Ottawa, and nine months later we were open,” Grant said.

Float tank pods are an interesting bit of engineering. The sleek pods hold a thousand litres of body-temperature water and 1,200 pounds of Epsom salt, allowing anyone to float.

All the pods are also easy to open, can be kept open, and have lights on the inside if you’re nervous about being enclosed in a pitch-black pod.

However, Grant recommends closing the pod and turning off the lights for a full meditative experience.

“40-50 per cent of our clientele come in just to meditate ... just to be able to come in and for that hour be completely alone and with your own thoughts,” Grant said. “The nice thing is, once you get in the pod, cause the pod does everything for you … you don’t have to fight the traffic the lights, the people.”

People may be wary of mindfulness and wellness because of the New Age clichés, but ISÖ Spa, and much of the culture surrounding floating, avoids the New Age feel in favour of academic-tested health benefits.

Grant says the tanks can also help chronic pain. Grant cautions that it’s not a miracle cure, but that people can feel zero pain while floating and often feel better for a while afterwards.

“That lack of gravity (in the tank) takes all the pressure off the circulation, off the exoskeleton, off the muscles, so they are able to sit there with no pressure points and helps

them, for the time they’re in there, feel no pain,” Grant said.

The sensory deprivation also helps reduce stress or anxiety, and has a calming effect for users. In this way, the float tanks acts as both a massage, reducing physical pain and discomfort, and a form of meditation, helping ease the mind.

The tanks have benefits for students, too. An hour in the float tank can make you feel well-rested, reduce stress, and help with concentration.

Float tanks can also help increase creativity and lower tension and fatigue, which would be helpful for students come essay or exam season.

Float tanks are a growing part of the wellness trend, and Grant sees a lot of people incorporate them into their wellness routines.

“They just use it as another tool for that whole wellness market,” said Grant. “They use this as another tool to find that equilibrium.”

The science for float tanks is scarce, but there are some studies, mostly Scandinavian, that have found scientific evidence for the claims often made by users.

“When I first tried when I was much younger it I just found it frustrating and boring … now I recognize that I have to do the work when I’m in the tank to get whatever benefits I want out of it,” said Raywat Deonandan, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Ottawa.

Deonandan explores various forms of complementary medicine as a public health specialist. Floating is one that he tried and has stuck with.

He cautioned that the first time in a tank can be boring and frustrating, especially for people who have not practiced meditation, since it is essentially “forced meditation.” But after several floats, the mindfulness benefits begin to appear.

Most research has found that there are perceived measurable reductions in stress, anxiety, and depression while floating, Deonandan said. Pain reduction is also being explored in the scientific literature, although this is very new. Claims of float tanks unleashing someone’s inner DMT—dimethyltryptamine, a powerful psychedelic—are completely unfounded, said Deonandan.

So, floating might not make you hallucinate or find your inner self, but it can have tangible benefits for people suffering from chronic pain, stress, insomnia, and many other ailments. Maybe it’s time for students to begin finding ways to incorporate a float tank into their regimes. At least around exam time.

ISÖ Spa is located at 464 Bank St. Unit #5.

THEFULCRUM.CA

ryan pepper

arts & Culture editor

The author floating.

Photos: Cailey Fletcher.

A sensory deprivation tank.

ARTS & CULTURE | 9

University to host panel on Heritage Minutes Canadian history videos discussed for historical, communication values eric davison

fulcrum freelancer The University of Ottawa is hosting a roundtable event on Jan. 30 at Morisset Library titled “60 Second Storytelling,” focused on the role that Heritage Minutes play in the public perception of Canadian history.

The minute-long summaries of national events initially rose to prominence in the early ‘90s and have become a familiar part of Canadian public broadcast, often airing on the CBC and CPAC, and being shown in public schools around the country.

Since their inception, Heritage Minutes have become a field of study unto themselves, with several books and academic articles published concerning how they have impacted a generation’s perception of their nation. Serge Durflinger, a professor of history at the U of O specializing in

Canada’s wartime history, will be speaking as a specialist at the event.

Durflinger states that the purpose of the panel is to examine Heritage Minutes from a critical perspective as a form of communication.

“I think all the Heritage Minutes, regardless of subject matter, often display the same central idea, which is that Canadian history is interesting, it’s worth knowing, and it’s worth celebrating. It’s underpinned by a celebratory message,” he said.

Durflinger explained that the uniquely Canadian form of history was born out of a complex sense of nationality that Canadians have struggled with for decades.

“Canadians often feel like they are in the shadow of something bigger— the United States. The history that was taught in school that was considered great was British history. So in more recent

years, we have seen a trend in national affirmation and cultural strategies that aim to create a unique sense of Canadianism.”

According to Durflinger, the “Triumphalist” view of history portrayed in Heritage Minutes has been imperative to our understanding of Canada and our sense of national identity. They often focus on Canada’s victories in social, Indigenous, and women’s rights, with a lens of success, rather than pure objectivity in the subject.

Despite their pro-Canadian views, Heritage Minutes are well-researched and often seek consultation from academic experts. Rather than being propaganda, Durflinger explains that they draw attention to Canada’s very real victories, which have been neglected in traditional history curricula.

Durflinger sees a lot of good in Heritage Minutes,

but he does admit that there are some faults to the format that may be discussed at next week’s event.

“There will always be winners and losers, things that get picked and things that don’t. For example, I don’t think there is a Heritage Minute for the welfare state—a citizen has an expectation that the government will sustain their lives.... It’s what makes this country unique and its one of the great building blocks of Canadian history.”

Derflinger hopes that this talk will address some of the concerns seen in Heritage Minutes as well as many of their triumphs, stating that they are an important and powerful format that deserves the attention and support of the public.

The University Library will be hosting ‘60 Second Story Telling’ on January 30th. Details can be found on their website.

in Ireland, I experienced some culture shock. Everyone I met was friendly and outgoing, the academic lifestyle was far more laid back than at the University of Ottawa, and I was being bombarded by new experiences with every passing day.

I can remember my first day in school, meeting my roommates, and making tons of friends from all over the world. It was a blast.

As time went on, however, I started to get used to my Irish surroundings and began to miss certain aspects of life in Canada. Sometimes it was as small as craving a Bridgehead coffee or missing the comforting sound of accents that I could understand without extreme levels of focus.

Paradoxically, when I arrived home in Canada for the winter holidays, I began to miss Ireland again.

Seeing family and friends is always great, but the possibilities of holidays spent across the English Channel and exploring the rest of Europe for cheap prices is a reality that’s hard to pass up.

I have found that going on an exchange is exciting and—whether homesick or not—my time here is limited and incredibly valuable.

So, since arriving back in Ireland to start my second semester, I have had to take a different approach to the increasingly familiar experiences that Ireland now offers. This sums up the new mindset that I’ve found I’ve adopted after living through a semester of an exchange.

Instead of being overwhelmed, I have grown accustomed to living across the pond. While the almostapocalyptic amounts of overcast weather and tea-ob-

sessed culture used to seem foreign to me, I now find that I don’t notice the differences as much and, instead, it has helped me to grow to appreciate sunny days and a great cup of coffee.

While going on an exchange for a semester would have given me similarly amazing experiences, I’m not sure that I would have fully grasped just how short three months can seem to pass.

So, for any exchange hopefuls out there who may be trying to decide how long they want to go abroad for, I would definitely recommend getting the full experience of a year-long exchange.

However, if that’s not your style and you would like to try out a country for a semester, then be warned that time flies, so be sure to enjoy it as much as you can!

Photo: Christine Wang.

Ready, set, whoa 3.0 Iain Sellers

Fulcrum contributor Around this time last year, I had submitted my exchange request to the National University of Ireland, Galway, and was impatiently waiting to find out if I would be accepted to study for two semesters across the Atlantic Ocean.

I now feel that my time in Ireland has become an integral part of my academic career, but the details of my exchange weren’t always so certain.

One of the biggest decisions that any student hoping to study abroad must make—after deciding where to go—is how long they want to spend in their host country. Normally, students have the choice between spending one or two semesters in a new and unfamiliar environment. I chose the whole year.

When I first arrived

10 | ARTS & CULTURE

The choice between the Irish pub and Bridgehead can be a tough one.

Illustration: Thomas Sequeira.

THEFULCRUM.CA

savannah awde ARE THE CURRENT ACCESS features editor TO EDUCATION PROGRAMS FOR NON-STATUS IMMIGRANTS EFFECTIVE?

Illustration: Christine Wang.

York U pilot project raises questions about the U of O’s efforts to accommodate precarious status students Kimberly and Gerald Lizano-Sossa. Matthew Nguyen. Rawad Reda. Sarah Leonty.

Saad Alam. You might be wondering, what do these names, and the individuals behind them, have in common?

Though each individual story is different, they represent a small handful of Canada’s precarious or non-status immigrants who met massive hurdles in simply accessing postsecondary education while living in Canada.

It was organizing around Leonty’s case in 2008 that put the issue front and centre at York University in Toronto. Nine years later, York has introduced a pilot program that seeks to ease the cost barrier by offering domestic fees to 10 non-status immigrants.

But, as with any new program, important questions arise—will this be enough? And if successful, could this model be replicated at other institutions like the University of Ottawa?

UNDERSTANDING THE “APARTHEID” OF EDUCATION Only 11 years old when she arrived in Canada from St. Lucia, Leonty had lived in Toronto for most of her life. In 2008 she was set to enter her second year at York University, when the institution discovered she could be classified as an international student due to her parents’ precarious status.

When Leonty realized she couldn’t pay the international student fees, which were significantly higher than what she had been paying in her first year, she was unable to continue her schooling. This meant that she would lose her student visa, and be deported to St. Lucia—a place she hadn’t set foot in since age 11.

Eventually, with pressure from the student body, York made an exception for Leonty.

Although public pressure succeeded in this case, it was demonstrative of what David Moffette, a U of O professor of criminology, calls a type of “apartheid.”

A long-time participant in Toronto’s access

to education movements, he says that a major issue for immigrants trying to obtain a post-secondary education is that a “dual law” comes into play.

“If you have permanent residency, you pay domestic fees, so that’s thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars less,” he says.

“Basically any other immigrant who is nonstatus is treated as international, not entitled to paying domestic fees, and having to pay a very important premium.”

term. His study permit was rejected with no reason given, and he was told to leave Canada voluntarily to Aita el Chaab, a village in Lebanon where he had no immediate family and that was mostly destroyed by bombings.

Reda was told that enforcement actions would be taken if he didn’t leave voluntarily.

But with the support of teachers, friends, and activists, the Minister of Citizenship ultimately chose to extend his study permit so that he could attend college.

At the U of O, for example, for an undergraduate student working towards a bachelor of arts, the international fee for tuition is over $10,000 more per term than the domestic fee.

While cost is an important factor in the struggle for access, it’s evidently not the whole story. Lenard says that the most pressing issue, alongside the question of education, is the available legal protection.

Patti Lenard, a professor at the U of O’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, notes that this kind of premium can pose a challenge to non-status immigrants as they might not have enough money to fund their education—as seen in Leonty’s case.

She notes important questions to ask, such as “can we get them legal help, to make a better case in order for them to stay? Can we find ways to prove to the Canadian government or immigration that they have a right to stay?”

“You don’t want anyone paying international fees, because international fees are very high. So the biggest barrier to education, especially university education, is cost,” says Lenard. “What all universities should do is abolish international fees, but they can’t do that because … the provincial government, the way they fund universities rewards the university for choosing domestic students.”

As well, while provincial government spending to universities has in fact decreased, this has been paired with a pointed increase in international student fees in Ontario. Taken together, international students have become an important source of funding for universities, at the expense of equal access.

BARRIERS START, BUT DON’T END, WITH COST It was in 2006 that Reda was served with a deportation order, after graduating from Toronto’s Jarvis Collegiate Institute and gaining acceptance to Georgian College for the fall

Moffette believes that it’s not just the money that matters, but the way the immigration system limits access to other services related to schools, such as sports activities and libraries.

“I don’t think we can separate success at school from the other parts of our life,” he says.

“Having trouble finding good work, and paying for school, and all of this, I think hinders people’s capacity to be successful in school.”

“I think we in Canada exclude discrimination that international students face in general from the discussion.”

CAN THE U OF O PUT AN END TO THE PRECARITY? In September 2008, Alam was attending the University of Toronto when his application for status was rejected, and he was ordered to be removed from his studies. Although other students rallied in his defence and called for the university to intervene, the U of T remained silent while Alam was de-

ported alongside his family mid-semester.

The Ontario Education Act indicates that everyone, no matter their status, has a right to education until age 18. However, no similar provincial policy exists to ensure that students older than 18 can equally access university or college education regardless of socioeconomic background or immigration status.

But according to Moffette, this can leave people stuck in limbo due to their precarious status.

“It’s important that people who come here on a work visa but they’re not able to renew their work visa, people who come here as asylum seekers and eventually their claim is denied, people moving here with their parents renewing a short-term visa, I believe they should have access like anybody else to has access to services.”

To this end, York has put 10 students on equal footing with domestic students—for now. An important caveat in this program is that funding for these students is only secured for this year, meaning that if the donations to York don’t pan out as anticipated, or new priorities for the university arise, they could be thrown into a tricky situation similar to Leonty’s.

But with many of the same issues facing students at the U of O, can our university learn from York’s trial run and implement a better program?

When faced with this question, U of O media relations manager Néomie Duval noted that the York program is comparable to the U of O’s differential tuition fee exemption program. This program allows international students to pay domestic fees, provided that they meet the eligibility criteria. For undergraduate programs, this includes being enrolled full-time in a program offered in French with a minimum of three courses in French per term.

On the other hand, under this program graduate students must be enrolling in a degree that is offered only in French, or have a secondary or postsecondary diploma in French equivalent to a minimum of two years of study.

To maintain the fee exemption, both undergraduate and graduate students cannot study part-time during their degree, with the exception of the summer term.

The implication of this is that international students who access their education through the program cannot reduce their course load in the event of health issues, in order to serve in their student federation executive (as executive members are required

to be part-time), or simply to work while studying in order to pay for basic expenses such as rent, tuition, and textbooks.

Clearly, both the York and U of O systems are well-intentioned, but ultimately leave international students at a disadvantage relative to domestic students and students with permanent residency. Moffette says that for Ottawa, and beyond, this needs to change.

“If we’re sharing the same workplaces, the same society, the same city, people should have similar and equal access to all services.

And education is one of them.”

DEMANDING INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE Moffette says that it’s important to note that York University might not have even started their program if Leonty and her supporters hadn’t made so much noise around the issue in 2008. This underlines the fact that, even if university administrations remain silent on challenges around precarious status, action from the university community—including teaching staff, students, campus clubs, and more—can go a long way.

Matthew Nguyen, Rawad Reda, and Sarah Leonty were all able to pursue their education, despite precarious status, due to the public outcry around their cases. The movements around these students all began in their respective school systems, and this is a commonality that’s hard to ignore.

While post-secondary schools have begun to take strides in what Moffette says is the “right direction,” if these institutions are serious about easing the barriers to access, it’s imperative to evaluate whether the programs themselves are introducing even more precarity to the situation.

In the case of York, will these 10 students begin their studies this year, only to find themselves without funding for the second, third, or fourth year? At the U of O, will students enrol with fee exemption, only to be faced with a health issue that prevents them from studying full-time, and therefore lose their exemption? If students at both universities find themselves unable to pay the extra fees that result, what does that mean for their visa?

While hypothetical, these are important questions, and very possible realities, that neither program seems to have considered. But if universities want to wear the badge of assisting non-status immigrants, they must

consider the very real barriers that their advertised benefits may pose.

As Moffette says, “There’s no way we can provide good education if we don’t provide education that is accessible to anyone who wants to get an education.”

It’s time to bring good education back to the U of O.

SPORTS

SPORTS EDITOR sports@thefulcrum.ca @FulcrumSports

Behind the numbers: Women’s Basketball Despite low offence, Gees shut down opponents Eric Davidson editor-in-chief

A

fter 16 games, the University of Ottawa Women’s Basketball team sits third in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) eastern conference with 22 points, riding an eight game winning streak. What are the numbers behind their play so far this season? We took a look to find out.

Compared to the other teams, the Gees don’t score very much. They have scored 966 points this season, or 60.4 points per game, which is the sixth most out

of the eight teams in the eastern conference, and puts them 11th in the whole league. The highest scoring team in the east is Carleton, with 1,195 points after 16 games, while McMaster in the west has 1,200 after 17 games.

However, despite putting fewer points on the board than most of their rivals, they also have a tighter defence. In fact, the Gees have the second fewest points scored against them of any team in the league, across both conferences, with 894, or 55.9 points per game.

Only Carleton has allowed fewer buckets, at 742.

The Garnet and Grey is also second in the league in offensive rebounds per game, with 16.4, second to Queens, who have 17.6, and third in overall rebounds per game, with 42. They

have also been showing hustle by causing turnovers, with 11.4 steals per game, good for fourth in the league.

As for putting points on the board, the statistics are a little more tame.

The team attempts 66.1 field goals per game, seventh-most in the league, and makes 34.9 per game, good for 12th. Their field goal percentage, 34.9 per cent, is good for 12th in the league.

And the numbers don’t look too different for shots from beyond the arc. The team attempts 18.5 threepointers per game and makes 4.9, ninth in the league on both counts.

From the freethrow line, the team fares relatively poorly. The Gees sit near the bottom of the league in free throw percentage,

The Women’s Basketball team sits third in the OUA east.

their success rate of 61.6 per cent is good for only 16th in the league.

So what are the individual numbers? The team’s most prolific shooter is Bri-

gitte Lefebvre-Okankwu, who attempts 10.4 field goals per game, with a 51.4 per cent success rate. Amelie Hachey takes 11.2 shots per game, with a 33.3 per

Photo: Remi Yuan.

cent hit rate. When it comes to the long bombs, the Gees look to Maia Timmons. She attempts 6.1 three-pointers per game, with a 36.7 per cent success rate.

Competitive club closeup: Men’s Volleyball Team chases varsity club status amidst busy season eric davidson editor-in-chief

It’s been a busy year for the University of Ottawa’s Men’s Volleyball team, a Competitive Club. From playing in tournaments to vying for Varsity Club status, the team has had a lot on its plate.

Overall, the Men’s Volleyball team’s season lasts from September to March, but it is a lot more spread out than other teams’ seasons.Unlike the varsity teams, the Men’s Volleyball team doesn’t play in a large league like Ontario University Athletics (OUA).

“We usually do about six to eight tournaments a year,” said head coach Étienne Pépin, who notes that the team also plays some exhibition games against La Cité collégiale and Algonquin College.

“This year we had a strong

group, we had a strong start to the season,” said Pépin.

“We had a little hump before the holidays, but that’s just the nature of a really long season I think.”

But he says the team is getting back into form, after a strong showing at Coupe de l’Est in January, finishing in the top four. “That’s one of the best finishes that the club has had at that tournament in a few years, so that was good.”

Pépin also said that the team is looking to increase its status at the U of O. The team put in an application to join the new Varsity Club tier, which is a step above the Competitive Club tier, where it sits now, and a step below the Varsity tier.

According to Pépin the team’s application was viewed favourably, though they weren’t accepted this year. “We were selected as

one of the last six finalists,” he said, adding that the team would continue to pursue the status. “It’s definitely in our interests for the future.”

“It got the guys all excited, because a lot them are a lot younger, and still have a long career in volleyball,” said Pépin. He said the team is planning to improve to get there soon.

“For us I think it’s a question of building a more highperformance program as best we can without playing in the OUA,” he said. Pépin also talked about making sure the team was on solid financial footing. “The last thing we want to do for the players is make it a hassle for them to play volleyball.”

The team also has a new coach, with this being Pépin’s first year running the team. Pépin who played on the team throughout his undergraduate degree at the

The Men’s Volleyball team plans to move up in future years.

U of O and spent two years as captain, said he’s looking forward to the new task.

“My approach was to keep myself busy and give myself challenges,” he said. “I’m really enjoying it so far.”

And if you want to see the Men’s Volleyball team play, you’ll get a rare chance next month. On Sunday, Feb. 18, the team will be hosting a round-robin tournament with the University of Mon-

14 | SPORTS

Photo: CC, VaniaVdB.

treal, Everton College, and McGill University in Montpetit Hall, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“We don’t often get home games, so It’s always fun to see fans,” said Pépin.

THEFULCRUM.CA

Swim team finishes strong, looks to OUA finals

After big performances at home, Gees ready for more Eric Davidson Editor-in-Chief

The new year has only just begun, but the University of Ottawa swim team is already making a splash.

With big wins at a University of Toronto invitational earlier in January, and an outstanding performance against Carleton University on Jan. 26 to finish off their regular season, the Gee-Gees are looking strong going into the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) finals from Feb. 8-10 at Western University.

By all accounts, things have been going swimmingly for the aquatic squad so far.

It started with a strong showing at the Winter Invitational at the U of T on from Jan. 21-22, where the team cashed in on a whopping 26 podium finishes competing against teams from the U of T, McMaster, Western, Waterloo, Laurentian, Guelph, Queen’s, Laurier, Brock, and York.

It was a team performance, with 13 Gee-Gees swimmers nabbing top

The Swimming team is set to go to the OUA finals.

three finishes. The Men’s team, which is ranked seventh in the OUA, saw a strong performance from Montana Champagne, who came first in the 100 metre breaststroke, where

he edged out the previous year’s champion, and the 100 metre butterfly, where he won by narrowly edging out his teammate Davide Casarine. Casarine put on a good show as well, edging

Photo: Parker Townes.

out Champagne to take the 200 metre backstroke.

For the Women’s team, Delphine Vandal, who was an OUA bronze medallist last year, took home the win in the 200 metre free-

style, and took second place in the 800 metre freestyle and 400 metre freestyle, losing only by fractions of a second.

Back home in the Montpetit pool, the Gees proved

it was no stroke of luck that they performed so well in Toronto.

Facing off against the Carleton Ravens on Jan. 26, the women completed the sweep, winning all 14 of their races, while the men came within one race of the same outcome, winning 11 out of 12 races. Both teams had races where it was only Gees on the podium.

Delphine was again among the top finishers, winning the 100 metre freestyle, Champagne won the 100 metre freestyle and 50 metre freestyle, and Casarine won the 200 metre breaststroke.

Other top finishers were Alina Juuti, who came first in the 200 metre freestyle and 200 metre breaststroke, Miles Ruttan, who came first in the 100 metre backstroke, and Erin Power, who won the 100 metre backstroke.

The team will be buoyed by their success, but it will be sink or swim for the Gee-Gees at OUA finals in February.

Women’s Volleyball push third-ranked Carabins to limit

Strong performance against top team a good result for Gees eric davidson editor-in-chief

Following a string of tough losses, the University of Ottawa Women’s Volleyball team pushed the University of Montreal Carabins, who are ranked third in the country, to come within arms reach of a huge upset. The Gees pushed hard all game, but fell 15-11 in the fifth and final set.

The Gees opted for some fresh blood in their starting lineup against the Carabins, with rookies Tristan Peterson and Milana Grahovac starting at left side and middle, respectively.

It was a slow start for the Gees, falling to 8-3 early in the first set and never recovering. Montreal kept up the pressure, eventually winning the first set 25-14.

However, the Gee-Gees were able to focus in the

second set. It was a busy start to the set, with the teams trading points back and forth. Peterson scored back to back points to keep the game close at nine apiece.

Both teams continued to put on a strong performance, until a pair of aces

by Kara Hayes helped the Gee-Gees pull even at 2020. Both teams showed no sign of letting up, as a big point from Peterson tied the game at 24 apiece. Finally, the Garnet and Grey pulled away, taking the second set 27-25.

The Gee-Gees kept their momentum going in the third set, starting with a rash of points to lead 5-1 right out of the gate, and extending their lead to 8-3.

Over the course of another tight set, the Carabins looked like they might pull away, but some big team

plays let the Gees take a lead at 18-17. From then on it was an easier set for the Gees, who went on to win the set 25-21, taking a 2-1 lead and coming one set away from an upset against the third-ranked Carabins.

But in the fourth set, the Gee-Gees showed signs of slowing down. After an equal start, leading to an early 3-3 score, the Carabins pulled ahead and never looked back. Montreal cruised to a 25-12 victory, to tie the game at two sets apiece.

The Gees came out with more fire in the fifth and final set. The team’s blocking, which had come up big several times in the game, was on display early, with Meseret Tamrat and Kaly Solo putting up a double block to take a 3-2 lead early in the final set.

The Gees lost a close match to the Carabins in five sets.

The fans were starting to worry as the Carabins started to pull away, and the Gees called a timeout down 11-7. After that, the team showed they still had fight in them, pulling with-

in two points at 11-9 and again at 12-10. In the end, the Carabins pulled out the victory after a contested fifth set, winning the set 15-11, and taking the match three sets to two.

THEFULCRUM.CA

Photo: Parker Townes.

Despite the loss, it was a strong performance for the Gee-Gees against one of the top teams in the country, and something they can build on going forward.

SPORTS | 15

THE BOXSCORE: THE STREAK CONTINUES BASKETBALL(W) BASKETBALL(M) HOCKEY(M)

VOLLEYBALL(W)

FRIDAY, Jan. 26, 2018

FRIDAY, Jan. 26, 2018

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 24, 2018

FRIDAY, Jan. 26, 2018

Gee-Gees

Gee-Gees

Gee-Gees

Gee-Gees

62

AT

58

ryerson

92

AT

95

ryerson

3

at

VS

UQTR 6

MonTreal

2

3

Friday, feb. 2, 2018

Friday, feb. 2, 2018

SUNDAY, FEB. 4, 2018

Saturday, FEB. 3, 2018

Gee-Gees

Gee-Gees

Gee-Gees

Gee-Gees

VS

carleton

TBD TBD

TBD

vs

TBD

carleton

VS

UQTR

TBD TBD

TBD

AT

SHERBROOKE TBD

For detailed game coverage check out the Fulcrum’s website at www.thefulcrum.ca.

Women’s Basketball team wins ninth straight game

Timely shooting keeps game out of reach for the Rams eric davidson editor-in-chief

The University of Ottawa Women’s Basketball team has been lighting up the league, and their game last Friday was no exception. With a 62-58 win against the Ryerson Rams, the team pushed their winning streak to nine games, making them a team to watch in Ontario University Athletics (OUA) play.

It was a tight game from the very start. The Gee-Gees took an early 4-2 lead on points from Brigitte Lefebvre-Okankwu, and managed to hold on, closing out the first quarter with a 16-14 advantage. But it wasn’t all good news for the Garnet and Grey, as forward Jennifer Crowe suffered an injury during the game.

The second frame started off tough, with both teams trading points until shooting from Amélie Hachey put the Gees up 2217, giving them more breathing space. But the game remained close, with the Gees hanging

The Women’s Basketball team is on a nine-game streak.

on to a 33-32 lead, nine of those points by Hachey, as the teams closed out the second quarter.

In the third quarter the GeeGees, who had been leading much of the game, came out flat-

footed. Unable to find the net, they quickly fell behind 38-33.

The Garnet and Grey had to fight to tie the game up again, and two quick points from Angela Ribarich tied the game at 42 with just

Photo: Greg Mason.

under four minutes left in the third frame.

Then something clicked for the Gees, and they started to pull away. A three-pointer from Hachey got things started, and

14 | SPORTS

the team didn’t let up for the rest of the quarter, scoring nine unanswered points to take a 51-42 lead at the end of the third quarter.

Just for good measure, Hachey scored another three-pointer to kick off the fourth quarter, giving the team a 54-44 lead right off the bat. But the Rams weren’t ready to let the game go, and continued to chip away at the deficit.

The Garnet and Grey struggled to hold onto their lead, and the Rams drew close, bringing the game to 56-54 in favour of Ottawa, with three minutes left in the final frame.

But some timely points by Lefebvre-Okankwu widened the Gee-Gees’ advantage, bringing the score to 62-56 with a minute remaining.

In the end, the Gees were able to hang on to win the game 6258, and push their win streak to nine games.

Hachey had a strong offensive showing with 15 points, Ribarich had 12, and Lefebvre-Okankwu had 11 to give the Gees the win.

THEFULCRUM.CA

OPINIONS

OPINIONS EDITOR David Campion-Smith

opinions@thefulcrum.ca (613) 695-0062 @davidcs96

The Women’s March has more work to do What we can change marching forward Anchal Sharma news editor

O

n Saturday, Jan. 20, a year after the first historic women’s march, women around the world returned to the streets toting new signs (“what Oprah said” and “I am a snowflake and together we are an avalanche”), with a similar message for their respective governments: There’s more work to be done in the fight for equal rights.

While the march originally started in protest of U.S. President Donald Trump and his sexist policies, which affected women’s rights to abortion clinics and cut funding from Planned Parenthood, the movement has evolved in Canada from one of solidarity with our neighbours south of the border to one that marches to the beat

of its own demands from the Canadian government.

This past Saturday, the Ottawa chapter of the Women’s March gathered with allies on Parliament Hill and demanded attention to social issues affecting women like homelessness, the gender pay gap, trans rights, access to child care and health care for Indigenous women, systemic racism in the justice system, the Black Lives Matter movement, and violence against women, among others. The march was a call to harness privilege in a positive way by giving marginalized voices space to speak.

While this event was empowering to be a part of and definitely well intentioned, it still has a ways to go. For instance, there were a few slip-ups indicating colonial roots; yes, there was land acknowledgment, but an Indigenous ceremony was also referred to as a performance. Religious analogies (“get in line just like if you were in church”) were sprinkled throughout speeches

and while there were speakers of various backgrounds, the march could benefit from having these people on their organizing committees.

I spoke to a woman who told me she remembered doing this in the 70s. She told me she never thought she would still have to be marching. It’s a telling sign that we have to continue to do this work generation after generation, but it’s not surprising.

The problem with an initiative that seeks to smooth out the imbalances within so many communities is that inevitably, some voices will get lost in the crowd.

We need measures to ensure that this is more than just a symbolic movement. The Ottawa Women’s March Chapter is already doing its part to help by offering workshops throughout the year. This is a group of women who volunteer their time to do this. We need more of that, and we need it from our government, our workplaces, and our universities.

Photo: Anchal Sharma.

As students, it’s our responsibility to address these issues on campus. The Student Federation of the University of Ottawa already promotes events for women’s wellness through the women’s resource centre, like the self care workshop on Feb. 2, and while these events have their place, in the larger scheme of things, they’re not sufficient. What we need is for

student groups to mobilize in a noticeable way. We need gender equity groups to be visible in public spaces, and workshops to be held by women in professional fields, and women who are minorities.

So far, the government seems to be listening. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 23 ad-

dressed some of these concerns.

According to the CBC, Trudeau discussed #MeToo, Time’s Up, and the Women’s March in saying, “these movements tell us that we need to have a critical discussion on women’s rights, equality and the power dynamics of gender.”

This is definitely a start, but until we see concrete change we must march on.

Apps are not the way to address consent Consent is not a single legal document, but an ongoing discussion David Campion-Smith opinions editor

Consent is not just sexy, it’s mandatory in all aspects of relationships, especially when it comes to the physical stuff. However, apps are not the best way to have the myriad conversations that should take place around this sensitive, yet important subject.

As we spend more time fixated on technology, and our lives begin to increasingly resemble an episode of Black Mirror, there have been a slew of apps designed to make it easier for users to provide sexual consent to their partners.

Legal Fling, just one example of such apps, enables users to create legal documents granting a sexual encounter and then to consent to a specific list of activities. Performing an activity not on the approved list is treated as a breach of contract.

It’s important to note that the Legal Fling website states that “while you’re protected by law, litigating any offences through court is nearly impossible in reality,” which seems

THEFULCRUM.CA

like an indifferent attitude to the difficulty of taking sexual assault cases through our legal system.

These apps have framed themselves as easy ways to receive and prove consent, marketing that last aspect to a sometimes creepy, and perhaps dangerous extent. In reality however, most of these apps are just providing legal documents that largely miss the point of consent conversations. As author Jaclyn Friedman notes, conversations around consent should not be about providing legal protection for activities.

Conversations around consent need to be ongoing, especially during a sexual experience, and allow everyone involved to revoke consent for any activities they feel uncomfortable with. Conversations around consent shouldn’t be onetime legal documents, no matter how comprehensive those documents posit themselves to be.

What many apps fail to do is to capture the immediacy of consent.

Consent can change almost instantaneously, and consent to a certain activity can change from one sexual

Let’s focus on having consent conversations in real life.

encounter to the next, and even within the same sexual encounter.

And most importantly, all of this is normal and acceptable. An app with a supposed legal document creates a frame of mind that makes withdrawing difficult. You have literally signed up for certain activities, at least on some of the apps, so how

can you tell me that changing your mind is easy?

Because conversations around consent need to be ongoing, speciality apps are not the best place for them. Conversations around consent need to take place in person, to allow for immediate feedback from a real human. As our society contin-

Photo: CC, Pixabay.

ues to have conversations around consent we need to also keep in mind that consent is not a one off, not just a signature or a swipe on an app. Consent is an ongoing conversation with a partner or partners about what you’re comfortable doing, so let’s have those conversations, IRL.

OPINIONS | 17

I spent an hour in a float tank thinking about work: So that’s how my life’s going Anchal Sharma News Editor

This week, because I have an awesome job, I got to accompany my good friend Ryan Pepper, the arts & culture editor here at the Fulcrum, to Iso Spa, Ottawa’s first floatation therapy centre. For those of you who skipped the arts section this week, floatation therapy is essentially the act of floating in a tank of 1,200 pounds of epsom salt and 1,000 litres of water that is heated to your exact body temperature. The future is now.

There’s a lot of talk of holistic healing when it comes to floatation therapy, and as someone who is known to frequent a spiritual church, owns a deck of tarot cards, and plans my life around what my psychic tells me about my aura, I was super down.

Spoiler alert: I did not find God, but because I’m a piping hot mess, I missed the bus and called an Uber

to meet Ryan so we could head over to the spa together, and my uber driver was named Jesus, so in a way, He found me (to settle the debate, Jesus is a black man).

The website recommended exercising before your float so Ryan and I walked 10 minutes to a bus stop to take a bus that would get us there faster.

The atmosphere in the spa was calm and welcoming. There was a sitting area with a sofa next to a table with coffee, tea, lemon water, and a coffee table tastefully littered with books about mindfulness, being happy, and the science behind floating.

According to Jason Grant, ISÖ Spa co-owner, floatation therapy has many health benefits. Jason explained that floating helps people with chronic pain, and a lot of his clients are athletes, from sports teams like the Ottawa Redblacks.

He also said it helps reduce insomnia and stress, and that one hour of floating is the equivalent of four

hours of sleep. I suffer from clinical depression and occasional insomnia so this is what sold me the most, and despite not loving the idea of being alone with my thoughts for an hour in a dark enclosed space full of water, I was intrigued.

When it came down to actually floating though, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the giant receptacle that would hold my body was more reminiscent of a queen-sized bed than a coffin. Still, I had my doubts.

For the first 15 minutes of the float, the outside lights remained on and ocean sounds permeated my eardrums. It was pretty cool.

As soon as the lights turned off though, I was nervous. There was an LED in the tank that changed colours if you pressed a button, and it switched between sci-fi blue and rainbow. I preferred rainbow.

I tried to relax, but my thoughts flitted between “oh no am I in here too long, did everyone leave me,” planning the next four weeks of

articles for this column, and imagining my life as an episode of a Bob Ross-esque show.

Time felt suspended in the tank, and somehow an hour stretched on forever, yet it also felt like no time had passed at all. I don’t know if I did it wrong, or if I just don’t know how to relax, but I found myself sitting up, or trying to bounce off the walls of the tank rather than just floating. After the fact though, Jason and Ryan assured me that this is a young people problem, and not just a me problem.

At the end of the day, for 60 bucks I would totally do this again. Being in that tank is the lightest and happiest I’ve ever felt (hell, I only swore twice). I would definitely recommend doing this with that one friend that you don’t really like and have been putting off plans with, because you literally get to avoid them for an hour and still walk out of there having had a pleasant shared experience.

Illustration: Christine Wang.

For just a small fee of 60 bucks you, too, can float in a tank.

18 | OPINIONS

Photo: Cailey Fletcher.

THEFULCRUM.CA

Canadian government promotes radical idea of staying cozy in winter

Government begins CANCozy initiative, teaches Canadians how to be warm Ryan Pepper Tomato Reporter

Inspired by Denmark’s hygge and Scotland’s cosagach, the Canadian government is now looking to cash in on the coziness trend with their own uniquely Canadian way of getting snuggly, dubbed CANCozy.

Heritage minister Melanie Joly is spearheading the latest attempt by a Northern country to market being warm in the winter, proclaiming the “idea of staying warm in winter” as something that Canada—and no one else—is uniquely qualified to teach.

“I was just seeing this massive market for basic comfort,” said Joly in a press briefing after the national strategy was announced.

“We’re always looking for ways to grow our economy and help Canadians just like you.”

Joly expressed jubilation in the potential for CANCozy to spread the “liberal gospel of warmth and comfort” to people who have apparently been suffering in sub-zero temperatures for millennia. In fact, the government is already exploring ways in which they can scale back their

peacekeeping missions and instead focus on spreading the radical notion of warmth to other countries in the Global North.

Joly and her team toured Canada in search of coziness, and assembled their findings in the seminal Report on Canadian Coziness, which divides coziness into different levels.

The highest level of comfort, according to the report, can be achieved by lounging in a Mountie outfit while watching Anne, a show with 13 Canadian Screen Award nominations, on the CBC, fresh from a vigorous crosscountry ski. A toque from The Bay should be substituted for the Mountie hat. The voice of Leonard Cohen should be lulling you gently into a stupor. Hot chocolate and apple cider, both provided by Tim Hortons, both tied for max coziness, so either drink is acceptable here. Something light, like Stephen Leacock, should be read. Avoid moodier books, such as literally any other Canadian author’s work.

Scott Snugs, a professor of leisure studies at the University of Ottawa

who specializes in research on coziness, stressed the importance of CANCozy as a lifestyle philosophy, a way of living that uniquely compliments Canadians’ Northern temperaments.

“There’s no part of me that sees this a marketing ploy,” Snugs said.

“Some people might say that using apple cider to bring people from around the world to Mt. Tremblant is just a way to make money, but honestly—apple cider is a lifestyle.”

“A Canadian lifestyle,” he added menacingly.

Of course, there has been opposition to the trend. A lobbying group known as Canadians for the Cold has mounted an attack from various angles. One of their arguments is that our addiction to warmth is in fact fueling global warming.

“Canadians have become accustomed to a certain level of warmth and comfort ever since the economic booms of the postwar period, which we are now taking for granted,” said spokesperson Lisa Dumchill. “To consolidate power, the neoliberal governments of the world are arti-

Just a few of the key elements of CANCozy.

Photo: CC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Abby Kihano, Pexels, Kurt Bauschardt, masatoshi. Edits: Christine Wang.

ficially raising global temperatures to keep people happy. It’s sort of obvious: if they weren’t behind it all, I think they’d actually do something to stop global warming.”

However, Canadians for the Cold seems to be splintering as internal division takes root, with a break-off group claiming that any warmth is essentially impossible under capitalism. Another faction, how-

ever, claims that the basic futility of the universe itself precludes any chance of coziness. The frigid dark nights, as they like to say, are frigid dark nights of the soul.

But if frigid isn’t exactly in your vocabulary, then why not try Kim’s Convenience and a Canada Goose jacket, while enjoying a Tim Hortons chili from the comfort of your sugar shack?

Apple update makes phones faster, but with trade-offs

New phone update doesn’t slow down phones, asks for first-born child Veronique Therrien tomato reporter

These days iPhones are a huge part of many students’ lives, between the need to use social media every few hours, endless group chats full of memes, and an epidemic of selfies. Apple got in trouble recently after admitting that they slow down older phones to encourage people to buy their new models that are obviously different and not at all the same, but with a better camera.

Students at the University of Ottawa are concerned with the news of Apple’s newest updates slowing down older phones, for what they claim is a function designed to “preserve the battery life.” However, Apple has recently promised that the new updates will not automatically slow down devices, and will now offer

THEFULCRUM.CA

users a choice. After you update your phone, a message will pop up reading, “New update is finished, slow down phone and improve quality of performance?”

Now you can choose for your phone to not slow down, with the only cost being that all the social media apps glitch and won’t open. This perhaps won’t be a major issue, considering that the phone will run as well as it did before.

Many students have voiced their satisfaction with this update, claiming that they don’t need apps with a fast-running device. “I love that I can chose whether my phone slows down. It’s nice being able to make my own choices and decide if I want my phone to work at the right speed, and the only cost is all my apps not working,” says Aye Fune a third-year economics student and loyal Apple customer.

The new iPhone update will stop draining your phone’s precious battery life. Photo: CC, Stocksnap, GlebK. Edits: Christine Wang.

The update also comes with a new security feature buried within the terms and conditions when accepting the update. This small change allows Apple

to record, store, and release any sounds, voice calls, texts messages, pictures, and fingerprints used with the newly updated phones. “Yeah so Apple knows everything

about me and I don’t know what they’re doing with it,” said second-year English student Tina Rogers. “I don’t care, as long as I can get my sweet, sweet memes.”

Installing the update will also give Apple custody of the users’ first-born child, which is a step up from the litre of blood that was in the first draft of the new security protocol. “We just felt that we had more use for children than for a whole bunch of blood. What would we do with blood from all these different blood types?” said Apple CEO Tim Cook.

To the majority of students, this seems like a small demand when they are being given a choice of whether or not to slow their phones down. Apple has been receiving lots of praise for giving their customers this choice and about the very small security conditions being asked instead of the slow down. The company has further plans to launch their mind-reading program on unsuspecting citizens.

THE TOMATO | 19

DISTRACTIONS

DEAR DI Horny Homework: Tongue Tied

Your mouth can get you into a lot of trouble, but it can also get you into some fun!

Have your partner lie on their stomach, and give them a nice talking to! Kiss their neck, suck on their fingers, working your way (very) slowly down. Lick their inner thighs and then finally flip them over to finish off the job. To make things more fun, challenge your partner to see if they can do you any better.

Dishing with Di: #WCW Hedy Lamarr The Austrian actress Hedy Lamarr was one for the history books.

Lamarr became known early in her career as the Ecstasy lady for her starring role in the controversial Ecstasy. The film became known as one of the first (if not first) movie to show a woman orgasming on screen.

In addition to showing close ups of Lamarr’s face as she gets some, it also had several nude scenes.

Afterwards she escaped a marriage with an older arms dealer with ties to Mussolini, moving to Paris and then the United States. Lamarr had trouble getting work at first because of the sexually explicit nature of Ecstasy (madonna-whore complex, anyone?). However she later starred in popular movies such as Algiers.

If Hedy wasn’t cool enough already, she became determined to help Allied forces in World War II, and did so by trying to invent a frequencyhopping signal for torpedoes so they couldn’t be tracked or jammed. While the U.S. government never adopted her technology, it did become important in developing technologies such as GPS, Bluetooth, and Wifi.

FEATURES EDITOR Savannah Awde

features@thefulcrum.ca (613) 695-0062 @s_awde7

Dear Di, Every time I get hammered with my friend, we make out.

What’s this all about? I’m definitely not gay, and both of us have girlfriends whom we live with. Why can’t we just kiss without societal judgment? Fuck the patriarchy. Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

—I kissed a boy and I liked it

Dear KBLI, Fuck the patriarchy is right. The best thing you can do right now is to try and unpack what’s going on. Have you talked to your friend to see what he’s feeling about your impromptu makeout sessions? Does it feel sexual or romantic? I would also recommend talking to a counsellor or therapist who would be more adept at discussing what’s going on.

I want to touch on the point of your sexuality. Have you ever thought you could be bisexual, or sexually fluid? Just because you’ve kissed your male friend, that doesn’t invalidate your relationship with your girlfriend and vice versa.

More and more research is coming out everyday pointing to the fluidity and complexity of sexuality, so don’t feel too bogged down by binary categories of gay and straight!

In fact, research on the sexuality spectrum goes back to 1948 with the pioneering work of Alfred Kinsey, an American biologist and sexologist. Since then, different sexual identities from bisexual to pansexual to asexual have begun to enter the mainstream lexicon.

It’s also important to consider how your girlfriend might feel about this. Since making out with your friend has happened multiple times, you should definitely talk to her about it. She might be hurt or angry to hear about it, but it may also bring you guys together in the long run. If you’re feeling adventurous, and your girlfriend is comfortable with it, you could even try a threesome with another man.

Sexuality can be tricky, so the only foolproof advice I can offer is to be honest and to communicate with your girlfriend and friend.

Love, Di

20 | DISTRACTIONS

THEFULCRUM..CA

JAN. 29-FEB. 4, 2018

THRYLLABUS

MUSIC EATS SPORTS FUN THINKING ARTS

Monday Jan. 29 Muggy Mondays, free coffee for whoever brings a reusable mug, Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS) building 2nd floor landing—8:30 a.m.

Winter cycling workshop, Bike Coop—6 p.m.

Tuesday Jan. 30 Hegemonic Orders and Entangled Modernities, FSS building, room 4004—12 p.m.

Life Drawing, $15 per session, the Art House Cafe—7 p.m.

Wednesday Jan. 31 Free home-cooked, healthy, and vegan meal, hosted by the People’s Republic of

THEFULCRUM.CA

Delicious, Deja Vu kitchen (between Thompson and Morisset)—9 a.m.

Brain Food, SFUO Food Bank will serve foods that are beneficial for brain health, University Centre—10 a.m.

Thursday Feb. 1 Mental Health: A Conversation, come hear what’s up with mental health at the U of O, FSS building, room 4004—1:15 p.m.

Summer Job Fair with the Career Development Centre, University Centre—10 a.m.

Friday Feb. 2 Pet therapy, 90 University residence, room

152—11 a.m.

Self-care workshop, Women’s Resource Centre—1 p.m.

Saturday Feb. 3 KROY, National Arts Centre—8:30 p.m.

Bey Bey Dance Party, $7 before midnight, Babylon Nightclub—10:30 p.m.

Sunday Feb. 4 Free Winterlude Yoga, Horticulture Building, Lansdowne Park— 10 a.m.

Unikkaaqtuarniq: Stories from the North film screening, Horticulture Building, Lansdowne Park—6 p.m.

DISTRACTIONS | 21

22 | DISTRACTIONS

THEFULCRUM.CA

EDITORIAL Volume 78, Issue 17, Jan. 29, 2018 Marching for women’s rights since 1942.

Phone: (613) 695-0061 | Fax: (613) 695-9006 631 King Edward Ave. Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5 Recycle this paper or we’ll stuff you and put you in our museum.

Eric “The Louvre” Davidson Editor-in-Chief editor@thefulcrum.ca Jaclyn “State Hermitage” McRae-Sadik Production Manager production@thefulcrum.ca Graham “Canadian Museum for Human Rights” Robertson Managing Editor content@thefulcrum.ca Anchal “Canada Science and Technology Museum” Sharma News Editor news@thefulcrum.ca Ryan “Agriculture and Food Museum” Pepper Arts and Culture Editor arts@thefulcrum.ca Savannah “The Newseum” Awde Features Editor features@thefulcrum.ca Sports Editor sports@thefulcrum.ca David “Guggenheim museum” Campion-Smith Opinions Editor opinions@thefulcrum.ca Christine “American Museum of Natural History” Wang Visual Editor visual@thefulcrum.ca Social Media Manager social@thefulcrum.ca Ellie “British Museum” Sabourin Associate News Editor associate.news@thefulcrum.ca Nadia “Musée d’Orsay” Drissi ElBouzaidi Associate Features Editor

HOW TO SURVIVE AN SFUO ELECTION SEASON

It can be hard to get excited about elections for the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO). And after last year’s election saw many issues, including miscounting votes, it’s understandable that you might not be thrilled about going into another potentially tumultuous election season.

But this year will be an interesting year—and not for negative reasons.

For starters, the SFUO is going through a significant restructuring next year, with the roles of all the executive positions being shifted around. It will be the first time anyone is doing the jobs with these specific roles, so students have a chance this election to make sure they pick the best people for these new jobs.

However, even if you want to vote, it can be a chore wrapping your head around different candidates and issues. Adding to

the difficulty of the situation is that there’s no year-long media campaign to get to know all the key players—we only find out the candidates two weeks before voting days As it turns out, in about as much time as it takes to binge watch five episodes of Black Mirror on Netflix you can know everything you need to about the candidates. And you still have time, since voting doesn’t start until Feb. 7.

The first thing to do is check out a debate. There are two debates this coming week, on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. The candidates for each executive position will be debating various policy questions related to their desired role, so not only do you get a sense of who these people are and what they want to do, but you get to see exactly how their approaches differ.

There are also a lot of people

running for executive positions this year—13 candidates for six positions, to be exact—so if you find you don’t like a given candidate based on what you’ve seen, you have options.

Now, at the same time, there will be an election for student seats on the university’s Board of Governors (BOG).

This has nothing to do with the SFUO, but the BOG is the body that decides if your tuition is going to go up. Students only make up three votes out of 33, but they can also talk to other board members to try and convince them on issues like tuition, and they can put forward motions.

And finally, there are the elections for faculty directors on the SFUO’s Board of Administration (BOA). I’m sure you’re bored of boards already, but there is one thing to keep in mind. When making SFUO policy, the ex-

ecutives only have a total of six votes and the rest of the board has over 20. So when the BOA is voting on motions, the executive will be a small part of it.

The BOA also often reviews motions from General Assemblies that don’t meet quorum.

Nobody is saying the BOA races are particularly exciting, but they are more important than people think (a low bar, but still).

And if you want to make sure the best people possible are making decisions on education policy at the university, then don’t forget about the Senate candidates.

It’s a lot to keep track of. Luckily, you can pick the issues you want to see the most change in, and get all the information you need relatively easily.

So don’t toss out the idea of getting to know the SFUO elections a little. It turns out they can be a fine way to procrastinate on your schoolwork.

Zack “The Acropolis Museum” Goobie Associate Sports Editor associate.sports@thefulcrum.ca Parker “Smithsonian Institution” Townes Staff Photographer photographer@thefulcrum.ca Videographer videographer@thefulcrum.ca Chafik “The Vatican Museums” Kassis Head Web Architect webmaster@thefulcrum.ca Lucas “The Prado” Ghosn General Manager manager@thefulcrum.ca Kaylum “The Metropolitan Museum of Art” Bobal Advertising Representative ads@thefulcrum.ca

Contributors

Cailey ”The Uffizi Gallery” Fletcher Dasser “Rijksmuseum” Kamran Thomas “The Art Institute of Chicago” Sequeira Alina “The Vasa Museum “ Wang Eric “Museo Nacional De Antropología” Davison Alex “The Van Gogh Museum” Szigeti Kevin “Galleria Dell’Accademia” Velez Iain “Pergamon Museum” Sellers Marissa “The Getty Center” Phul

Board of Directors

Raghad “Instituto Ricardo Brennand“ SheikhKhalil Katelyn “Inhotim In Brumadinho” Murray Jonathan “The Museum Of Qin Terra-Cotta Warriors And Horses” Rausseo Fadi “TMuseo De Arte Latinoamericano De Buenos Aires” Azzi Spencer “Museum of New Zealand” Murdock Marguerite “Aga Khan Museum” Gollish Cover Credits: Christine Wang.

THEFULCRUM.CA

Photo: CC, Kelvin Hu.

EDITORIAL | 23