The Fulcrum, Volume 78, Issue 6

VOL. 78 ISSUE 6

oct. 2, 2017

MISSED IT

BY THAT MUCH

In this week’s issue...

Two U of O students pass away P.5 One was honoured in a ceremony before the Panda Game

Birdwatching taking off among young people P.9 For many, seeing new birds a feather in their cap Social media and mental health P.12 How is social media affecting you?

Panda-monium P.14 Read all about this year’s Panda Game Group projects, you suck P.17 University’s shouldn’t rely on this unfair technique

Teach English in Japan

jetprogramme.ca

Applications Due:

November 17th

The Boardashians are back! P.19 Catch up on your favorite SFUO reality show

NEWS

NEWS EDITOR

Zainab Al-Mehdar news@thefulcrum.ca (613) 695-0061 @ zainabalmehdar

U of O football player U of O student dies after passes away in his sleep being shot in broad daylight Gee-Gees to honour Loic Kayembe in Murder of Hamza Serhan marks ceremony at Saturday’s Panda Game 12th homicide in Ottawa this year Eric Davidson Editor-in-chief

L

oic Kayembe, a University of Ottawa Faculty of Social Sciences student and starting defensive end for the Gee-Gees football team, passed away on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 24.

Kayembe, who was 24, had been with the Gee-Gees since 2015.

“Loic’s vibrant personality radiated far beyond the football team to his classmates and fellow Gee-Gees on other varsity teams,” the university said in a statement. “The entire University of Ottawa community and all Gee-Gees wish to express their sincerest condolences to Loic’s family.”

The statement did not provide a cause of death, but said that Kayembe had died suddenly, in his sleep.

U of O president Jacques Frémont offered his condolences to Kayembe and his loved ones at the Board of Governors meeting on Monday, Sept.

25. He also noted that the Panda Game, a football game between the U of O and Carleton University on Sept.

30, will feature a ceremony to commemorate Kayembe.

The Fulcrum will provide more updates as they are made available.

Zainab Al-mehdar news editor

On Wednesday, Sept. 20, a 20-year-old man, identified as University of Ottawa student Hamza Serhan, was shot in broad daylight and found outside an Ottawa Community Housing Property at 1500 Caldwell Ave. by Ottawa Police at 3:20 p.m.

Serhan was injured by a gunshot wound and later taken to the hospital where he “succumbed to his injuries,” said Constable Chuck Benoit from the Ottawa Police.

“We don’t have an arrest on this homicide at this time, it is still an ongoing investigation,” said Benoit.

Residents of the neighbourhood have since protested the lack of security in the area and

for the safety of their children, but police believe this was “a targeted incident.”

“At this time we feel that there is no security risk to the public,” said Benoit.

While police do not currently

have a lead on a suspect, “investigators are working hard towards solving this case, he said, adding that police are continuing to look into the storyline of what happened.

Serhan’s death marks the 12th homicide in Ottawa this year.

Hamza Serhan was named the 12th homicide of the year.

Photo: CC, Tony Webster.

U of O psychology professor competes on Jeopardy! episode Despite loss, Chris Fennell shares research on national television Ellie Sabourin

Associate NEWS EDITOR Chris Fennell, a professor of psychology at the University of Ottawa, recently competed as a participant on Jeopardy! in an episode that aired Tuesday, Sept. 12.

Fennell started the game out strong, answering several of the first questions correctly, but ended up placing third.

However, he says that it was a positive experience with a unique U of O connection.

“It was just fun,” Fennell said. “Despite being in a bit of a high pressure situation on national television, it was something that was just purely fun.”

A self-professed trivia nerd and life-long fan of the show, Fennell said that he applied to be on

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the show back in 2014. “I was on sabbatical in Chicago at the time, and my friend told me about an online test you can take to qualify for the show.”

After successfully passing the test, Fennell went on to the in-person interviews where he hoped to set himself apart from the rest of the applicants.

Having competed three years after initially applying, Fennell said that the delay can probably be chalked up to the fact that Canadians were banned from applying to the show from mid 2014 until May 2016.

One of the reasons why Canadians could not participate was due to the requirement of a zip code— a Canadian participant couldn’t even take the test to prequalify at the time.

Although Fennell was

Fennell’s episode on Jeopardy! aired on Sept. 12.

successful in making it on the show in 2014, he said that they didn’t film his episode until April 2017.

One of his favourite parts about being on the

game show was getting to share his research on national television. “I’m really happy that I got to say my area of research, which is studying bilin-

Photo: Courtesy of Jeopardy!

gual language development in babies,” he said.

Despite being on the show, few students have mentioned it to him. Fennell said that on the night

it was airing, he taught a class until 5 p.m. and at the end of the class, a student ominously said, “Good luck tonight,” as they were on their way out. Other than that, most of the support has come from his hometown of St. John, New Brunswick.

Fennell also said that he and show host Alex Trebek did talk about their shared U of O connection while on the show—Trebek himself is a U of O alum.

“At the end of the game, you can see (Trebek) chatting with each of the contestants a little bit and we were talking about the University of Ottawa,” said Fennell.

To become a contestant individuals have to pass the online test first. After that you qualify for a place on the show.

NEWS | 5

U of O ran $5.1 million deficit in 2016-17 school year

Board of Governors discusses finances, academic reputation, and more Eric davidson editor-in-chief

On Monday, Sept. 25 the University of Ottawa’s Board of Governors (BOG) met to discuss its latest financial numbers, the university’s academic ranking, and more.

Kathryn Butler Malette opened the meeting for her first time as chair, replacing long-standing meeting-runner Robert Giroux. The first item on the agenda was a review of the previous year’s finances, presented by Marc Joyal, the vice-president ressources at the U of O.

REVIEW OF FINANCES Joyal told the board that the university ran a $5.1 million deficit during the 2016-17 academic year, in line with the $4.9 million expected deficit. Keeping the deficit this low was done with great effort on the part of the university and its staff, and there were points last year where he feared the deficit could climb as high as $15 million.

Last winter, the university announced a series of costcutting measures, including the restriction of discretionary expenses like travel, a reduction in construction, and a hiring freeze for some job categories at the university.

Joyal said that the university isn’t out of the woods yet. In his presentation, he highlighted that tuition and government grants, which together make up nearly 100 per cent of the university’s funding, are covering less and less of the university’s costs.

According to Joyal, ex-

penses grew by around 12 per cent more than revenues this year, a trend he said must be reversed by either increasing revenues or decreasing expenses.

Joyal added that many of the funds the university has are restricted. For example, some funds can only be used for specific research. He also listed the university’s endowment fund, where the money cannot be used, only the interest it generates, and the university’s “sinking fund” which is designed to be used in the future to pay off longterm debt.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT U of O president Jacques Frémont spoke broadly on the university’s new projects, and the state of the school in general.

Frémont said in order to deal with the growing opioid crisis, the university had purchased naloxone kits and has been working with Ottawa Public Health on a broad strategy. While there have been no incidents of overdose, Frémont noted that there is a growing use of opioids on campus.

Frémont then discussed the university’s negotiations with the Ontario government over their new Strategic Mandate Agreement (SMA), where the university outlines its goals and commitments to the province. The previous version expires this year, and a new agreement is being negotiated. Frémont said that this year he was pushing for the province to make more commitments in the SMA to the

The BOG met on Monday, Sept. 25.

Photo: Kyle Darbyson.

U of O. While the process has been slow, it is proceeding.

The president also talked about the university’s ranking. While he said that many people deem the reports useless, potential students read them, especially international students,so the university must pay attention. While the university generally does well in research-related categories, it suffers in more arbitrary “reputation” categories. When asked about the university’s plan to improve, Frémont said there are many factors that go into reputation so there is no specific plan.

The next meeting will be on October 30, 2017, at 5:30 p.m.

In room 083 of Tabaret Hall.

6 | NEWS

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U of O shows benefits of sleep on students’ memory Sleep allows for improved learning, especially involving motor skills ERic Davidson Editor-in-chief

I’m hoping this article won’t put you to sleep, but even if it does, University of Ottawa professor Stuart Fogel says that’s not a bad thing.

Fogel’s latest research, published in the journal PLOS ONE, looks at the connection between sleep and memory. If you’re a student, athlete, or musician then it’s a study you won’t want to forget.

The study, conducted in partnership with the University of Montreal and the University of Western Ontario, focused on bursts of brain waves that occur while we sleep called “spindles.”

Fogel, who teaches at the U of O’s school of psychology, explained that while we’re sleeping, these spindles are reactivating the memory process for the task we were learning. “In order for us to learn something new and strengthen those

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memories, we need sleep,” he said. “When we go to practice later, we’re better at the task that we just learned.”

It might sound trite, but as Fogel notes, sleep is a part of learning that gets very little attention, especially among students.

“I think sleep is often overlooked,” he said. “It’s often one of the first things to go when people have a lot of pressures on their time.”

Fogel’s research dealt specifically with motor skills. So if you’re trying to be a better three-point shooter or piano player, then you can learn a lot from the study.

But Fogel also noted that there’s a fair amount of overlap between the way we learn motor processes and the way we, say, study for a calculus final.

But is it better than an allnight study session? As you might have guessed, latenight, caffeine-fuelled study sessions get a thumbs down from Fogel.

“There’s a lot of research to show you want to study

during the day when you’re alert,” he said. “You’ll actually do better if you break up your studying and get a good night’s sleep.”

Our knowledge of how sleep and memory are connected is only continuing to grow. We used to think that sleep was a bit helpful to learning in that it would make you better rested to learn the next day. But according to Fogel, we’re finding that sleep is much more integral to the process.

“What we’re seeing now is that sleep seems to be actively involved and engaged in the formation of memory,” he said. This occurs through a “reactivation and transformation of the memory trace during sleep.”

Basically, sleeping is educational.

And Fogel said there’s much more research to be done. His study looked at one kind of sleep, what we would call “dreamless” sleep, but there are others as well.

Fogel says there are other processes besides the “spin-

dles” that trigger our memory process that affect how we learn when we sleep. We also don’t know how sleep affects other kinds of memory, like the kind required to solve puzzles.

If you’re not convinced to turn in early just yet, Fogel stressed that sleep’s benefits go far beyond memory.

“Sleep is really one of the pillars of good physical and mental health,” he said, put-

ting it on par with good diet and exercise habits. Fogel said poor sleep can have negative effects on your metabolism, work performance, mood, and cardiovascular health.

So, are you feeling tired?

Stuart Fogel researches the connection between sleep and memory.

Photo: CC, Dagon.

NEWS | 7

A&C EDITOR Ryan Pepper arts@thefulcrum.ca

ARTS&CULTURE Birding popularity soars among young and old alike (613) 695-0062 @pep_ryan

New apps encourage competition, get young birders involved RYAN PEPPER

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

B

irding is no longer just the retiree pastime it used to be. As birding makes use of new apps and encourages gamification, it is quickly being embraced by Millennials everywhere.

The major apps that are changing birding are Merlin Bird ID, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and eBird.

Merlin is an identification app that allows users to keep extensive lists of all the birds in their area on their phone, instead of carrying around a physical field manual. The app also allows users to input the size, colour, and location of the birds they spot, and the app will generate a list of potential matches.

“You can download different packages for the region you are in … and it just keeps a list of all the birds on the phone,” said Christine Jarjour, a mas-

ter’s student in biology at the University of Ottawa who studies the social behaviour of black-capped chickadees.

“It’s a list of all the species, and if you click on one you get some ID info, pictures of the different sexes and ages, you get the calls and the songs, and a range map, which is very convenient for people just starting out.”

The app eBird encourages the gamification and “see-them-all” nature of popular apps like Pokémon GO. The app allows users to keep personal lists of birds they have seen, which they can share with others to encourage competition.

“A lot of people, when they go out birding, they will now make a list of the birds they see,” Jarjour said. “You can now upload that onto eBird and that data becomes public, so everyone can see the birds, where they were, what they saw.”

According to Jarjour, eBird is great for amateur birders, but it also appeals to researchers, by allowing scientists to track population trends, or find the best location to release rehabilitated birds.

“It acts as citizen science. You get to go out and collect data that gets put in a public database,” said Megan Thompson, who recently defended her master’s thesis at the U of O on blackcapped chickadee behaviour in urban environments. “That’s kind of cool because you feel like you are giving to the scientific community or maybe helping protect our species of birds.”

Also, eBird keeps track of the top 100 birders in a region, which opens the gate for serious competition.

Why birding is taking off among millennials is a multi-faceted question, but these new apps are making birding easier and more competitive.

Thompson also believes birding is “a great way to get outdoors, rather than sitting on a computer all day like us Millennials are doing with our time. It’s a good way to get away from the screens and get back outside.”

Birding is also a hobby where one can measure their improvement—it becomes addictive when you can identify a bird just by its call, or when you look up and can identify one more bird than you could last week.

Megan Thompson posed with a chickadee on a birding trip.

For U of O students, this new hobby can be made even easier, as a wide variety of bird species can be found right on campus.

“We get mallards, turkey vultures flying over, we have ravens nesting … we have gulls, pigeons, house sparrows, starlings … waxwings, chipping sparrows, song sparrows, cardinals,” Jarjour said.

While the university lacks an or-

Photo: Teri Jones.

nithology club, it’s very easy to get involved in birding in Ottawa, Thompson explained, with groups like the Ottawa Field-Naturalists’ Club, the Club des ornithologues de l’Outaouais, and the Innis Point Bird Observatory in Kanata always welcoming new members.

“It’s okay if you don’t know anything about birds,” Thompson said. “I guarantee people will show you and teach you all the different birds.”

Fair Trade Campus Week provides hands-on learning

Week featured fair trade food, bake sale, and advocacy Ryan Pepper

Arts & culture editor Fair Trade Campus week ran from Sept. 25-29 at the University of Ottawa, raising awareness of fair trade practices here in Canada and across the globe. Fair trade centres around two benefits to farmers: a set minimum price for their goods, and a premium awarded to co-ops that the community can use for health care, education, or infrastructure.

The guaranteed minimum price helps protect farmers from the vagaries of the world market, as it assures them that they won’t have to sell their products for a loss.

“All coffee is considered the same thing, it just goes out there on the world market, the lowest price sets the price. So, if it’s a bumper year in Vietnam for coffee they’re going to be selling

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The fair trade bake sale featured baked goods made with ingredients from fair trade co-op La Siembra.

their coffee cheap because they have a surplus. Colombia was a bad year and now they can’t get the price that they deserve,” said Maryann Moffitt, the dietician and food liaison officer for the U of O. “The goal of fair

trade is to lift communities out of poverty.”

Fair trade is also concerned with gender equality and worker’s rights.

Fairtrade International— the governing body that sets fair trade standards—

Photo: Henry du Basty.

makes sure that all voting bodies in co-ops are 50 per cent women and that employees do not work in hazardous conditions.

The U of O is the seventh fair trade post-secondary campus in Canada, a rec-

ognition it received after meeting a set of standards focused around three products—coffee, tea, and chocolate. The campus received fair trade status in 2014.

“We have to offer exclusively fair trade coffee, we have to offer at least three fair trade teas wherever tea is sold, and we have to offer at least one fair trade chocolate bar wherever chocolate is sold,” said Moffitt.

Brands are exempted from the fair-trade rules for campuses, but Food Services must abide by those standards.

The university goes beyond these minimum standards. All the coffee and tea in the Dining Hall is fair trade, and the campus offers about 10 varieties of fair trade chocolate bars, purchased from the fair-trade worker co-op La Siembra, the makers of Camino chocolate.

Food Services practices sustainability in many other ways, too. The Dining Hall is the first in a Canadian university to be certified as a Green Restaurant by the Green Restaurant Association, an organization that looks at energy usage, water, pollution, and more.

They sell used cooking oil for biofuel, compost all leftovers, produce no landfill waste, and donate unused food to charities.

The Fair Trade Committee does not currently have significant student involvement, but Moffitt encourages groups on campus who want to help with fair trade to reach out to her.

“We don’t have that student engagement piece built into our committee,” Moffitt said. “So that’s why I’m kind of looking for student groups who already have this as a topic who want to liaison with me and be that part.”

ARTS & CULTURE | 9

Parks Canada Club promotes history, heritage Club starts new year with exclusive tour of Laurier House ERIC DAVISON

staff contributor After a year-long hiatus, the University of Ottawa Parks Canada Campus Club has returned with their inaugural event of the semester. The club kickstarted their revival with an experimental tour of Laurier House featuring prime ministerial debauchery, competitive trivia, and being handcuffed to strangers.

The club was founded in 2012 to get students and youth involved in Parks Canada programs and raise awareness of Canada’s many national parks and heritage sites. It aims to provide students with a range of opportunities to experience and connect with the country’s unique history. Through volunteering, tours, day trips, and activities, the club hopes to bring a new generation into the world

of conservation.

“We want to get people out to national historic sites, national parks, and we want to support conservation efforts,” said Sarah Dubé, the club’s colead and a third-year environmental studies student at the U of O. At its core, the Parks Canada Campus Club wants to get Canadian youth experiencing their own history.

“I think it’s important to know where you come from so that you can feel confident in the present and move toward a good future,” Dubé said.

Parks Canada has been facing decline in people visiting national parks and historic sites for years.

Their campus outreach programs are part of an initiative appealing to youth through revamped programming and site accessibility. Last week’s Laurier House tour dem-

onstrated their commitment to this goal. Dubbed the “Confessions” tour, the event aimed to break down the indifferent attitude that many younger citizens have towards historical landmarks. Facts about dignitaries and architecture styles were discarded in favour of raunchy stories and a more interactive trivia experience, and drab speeches were replaced with champagne and costumes.

Heather Gallant, the second co-lead and recent U of O history graduate, expanded on the demand for a more interactive approach to learning history.

“Doing my undergrad in history, I realized what was flawed in the system: everything seems to be textbook based. You’re expected to read a book, learn about it, learn about what some random guy in Europe did and how it had

The Parks Canada Campus Club toured Laurier House on Thursday, Sept. 28.

a huge effect on Canada,” she said.

Gallant felt she was a perfect fit for Parks Canada’s fledgeling student programs.

“For me, there are so many other ways of learning about history and getting to know history ... being able to physically experience history—that’s

what interests me. I want to get away from that canonical idea of sitting down and reading a textbook,” she said.

At its core, the club hopes to prove that history can be accessible to everyone and isn’t a strictly academic pursuit.

“There are already groups on campus doing

Photo: Parker Townes.

a fantastic job organising multi-day nature events.

So instead we want to focus on the day trips and how accessible (heritage) is,” said Gallant. “We want to tell students that even though we are in a downtown campus, you still have an opportunity to explore and experience so much of Canada’s history.”

U of O music student puts bassoon front and centre

Nicholas Richard soloing on bassoon with university’s Symphony Orchestra Alex Szigeti

FULCRUM CONTRIBUTOR The bassoon will get its chance to shine as Nicholas Richard, a second-year music student at the University of Ottawa, takes the spotlight alongside the U of O Orchestra as they perform at St. Joseph’s Church on Oct. 6.

As the winner of the university’s annual Concerto Competition, Nicholas Richard, a originally from Fredericton, New Brunswick, will get a chance to showcase not only his talents, but also the sound of the bassoon—an often neglected instrument in the orchestra.

“Lots of people in the music building are like, what’s that, it’s funny,” Richard admits of his chosen instrument. “(The bassoon is) a wind instrument—so it has sort of a nasally woody character to it, but it’s also round

and warm and in the orchestra. You don’t hear it all the time, it’s a very good blending instrument but it’s really very beautiful,” Richard said.

Richard originally played the French horn, but was having a hard time learning the instrument. When he first heard the bassoon he was struck by the beauty of it, and after a monthslong process of coming to terms with switching instruments, he made the change permanent when he was 13.

Originally attending the U of O with the intention of getting a degree in the sciences, he changed his mind over the course of his first year, having been playing his bassoon more than he was doing homework.

Richard was no longer enjoying his program, since music, he realized, was the only thing he wanted to do with his life. So he made the program switch and

10 | ARTS & CULTURE

hasn’t regretted it since. “(I) may as well give it a really good chance and if at a certain point it doesn’t work, just go back,” Richard said.

After only one year, that switch has seemed to pay off. His first-place finish in the Concerto Competition is a great start to his desired career as a bassoonist in a professional orchestra, as he will not only be gaining actual orchestral experience, but has already proven his musical proficiency.

“To win was very surprising—I can’t underline that enough. It was very shocking for me to win, especially a bassoon, especially playing a work by Mozart that isn’t the flashiest music,” Richard said, thanking his support system—his parents, friends, and teachers—for all their help in the process.

Richard’s lasting words to anyone wanting to pursue classical music is to

Bassoonist Nicholas Richard won the Concerto Competition in his first year of study.

work hard, because hard work and devotion is what the music deserves.

“It all comes back to this process of just trying to give the music what it deserves

and just focus on that,” Richard said. No one will ever be as good as the music deserves, he believes, but everyone should continue pushing themselves to be as

Photo: Courtesy of Nicholas Richard.

close to that point as possible.

The U of O Symphony Orchestra featuring Nicholas Richard as soloist play their first concert on Oct. 6 at St. Joseph’s Church at 8 p.m.

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11/8/16 9:37 AM

IS SCROLLING TWITTER HELPING OR HURTING YOUR MENTAL HEALTH? The “It’s complicated” relationship between social media and mental illness This past week, the Fulcrum reported on new technology from University of Ottawa professor Diana Inkpen, which detects mental illness using a social media algorithm. This initiative postulates that you can use inputs from a user’s social media activity to determine whether they could be in need of mental health care.

We already know that the nature of social media is that users hugely affect platforms and their content, bringing researchers like Inkpen enough data to create her software. But what if we were to flip that around, and ask about how social media affects the mental health of its users? In this case, the answer is less clear.

To shed some light on the current research behind this relationship, I sat down with U of O psychology professor and cyberpsychologist Krystelle Shaughnessy.

The Fulcrum: First of all, could you tell me a bit about your research in the area of cyberpsychology?

Krystelle Shaughnessy: Most of my publications and research to date are focused on cybersexuality, so how people use the Internet for online sexual activities, who uses it, who are they engaging with if there’s somebody else involved, and what are the outcomes of that.

And I did a post-doc in social anxiety at the University of Waterloo, so we started talking about and looking at, and sort of finding that there’s very little research to help us understand how people who are higher in social anxiety use the Internet and online social forms as a way of connecting with other people in an environment that might be less threatening than offline. But part of my research is actually looking at the nuance of these online environments, and recognizing that there is some threat there.

If you read the research, it’s really the cyberpsychologists who do more of the theorizing and research that looks at these nuances, that doesn’t look at the Internet or smart phone use as if it’s one thing.

So my research from the beginning, in either sexuality or social anxiety has really tried to start to talk about these behaviours that we do online regardless of … if I’m doing it on Facebook, or if I’m doing it on Twitter. Let’s look at the behaviour that’s happening regardless of what domain it is.

And then talk about the fact that depending on what you’re using you may be anonymous or you may not be anonymous. You may be talking with someone you know or you may not be talking with someone you know. You may be posting for a

Savannah Awde Features editor

Illustration: Alina Wang.

broad audience, or you might be posting for a few people who have access to your stuff. That’s a good transition I think into why there’s no straightforward answer on how social media impacts mental health, or the other way around.

F: To your knowledge, what does current research suggest about the relationship between a user’s mental illness and their social media use?

KS: When people first started studying the Internet and social uses of the Internet, they were really focused on email, and discussion boards, news boards, things that a lot of people don’t use anymore.

The first studies that came out really problematized this activity. Some of them were even longitudinal studies, so they would ask someone a question at one point in time and they would actually follow up with them later on and later on.

And those initial studies, and I’m talking like 1999, 2000, came out and they very clearly stated that if you follow someone who has access to the Internet over time, their social ties that are immediate become weaker over time, even though they tend to connect more broadly with other people, and that’s what seemed to be part of what’s interfering with social relationships.

The clinicians and researchers and funders kind of jumped on this, and we see that be perpetuated into today. So there’s a lot more research from the get go that I would say is trying to show social media as a bad thing. And when we’re trying to show something, we end up pretty easily showing it.

And so... with my own research, we’ve gone in and said we can’t just talk about the negative, we have to see what’s the positive, because if there’s nothing good about this, why are people doing it as much as they are? There’s obviously something good about it.

And so when we look at the research that tries to take a more balanced view, we see mixed findings. So things like normalizing a lot of behaviour that for a long time was normal and naturally occurring, but maybe because it occurs in a smaller group of people or it’s behaviours that people don’t talk about, that can have a positive impact on mental health later on.

On the flip side, there are behaviours we know that are terrible that happen through social media.

So cyberbullying does not have any positive impact, so this is what I mean, we gotta get into the nuances, it’s not like it’s straightforward.

And then the other piece is the reverse, it’s people with mental health problems who then go online, and what’s the impact of that? Is it, I use social media and that leads me to be more anxious or more depressed?

It’s looking a little more like, people who are starting to have symptoms of depression or have depression, people who have difficulties with social anxiety, people who have, there’s a little bit of research on people who have ADHD, actually go and use social media in a way that’s not helpful to them.

A very classic symptom of depression and social anxiety is pulling away from your social contacts, so if I’m already in this withdrawal and then I go online… one idea is that if you’re connecting and getting social support, and that social support is about trying to encourage you to do things, and go out and meet people, and stay active in your life, and live a happy life, and you’re talking about positive things, that can be super beneficial for people with depression or social anxiety, or other mental health conditions.

If, on the other hand, it becomes an, “I’m staying up late to connect with people in another part of the world, or the only social connections I have are online, or I’m connecting with people who are sort of commiserating in their symptoms…” that’s not going to have a good impact on these people.

F: Are there any unhealthy behaviours that are independent of connecting with other people?

KS: There’s actually a lot of research on Facebook specifically… and I would say a lot of that is focused on your profile, and what you post. So there’s two things.

First, it’s a realm of self-presentation, and it would fit in any other realm like Twitter or Instagram. And that research has pretty conclusively told us that people find the positive parts of them, stuff that they think looks best, and then that’s what we put out there.

And then there is this social comparison that happens. So there’s even been in lab studies… and researchers expose them to different types of profiles, and typically we are looking at other people’s profiles and thinking about how much better their life is from us, how much happier they are than us, how much better looking they are than us, whatever, all of that. The point being that we are often looking at other people’s profiles and thinking worse of ourselves. So that can have a negative effect, the question is whether that effect lasts.

And then you get into different individual factors around levels of self-esteem, and the way you tend to approach relationships and attachment. And we’re talking profile but that would be the same with putting out anything that’s about you.

F: Are there any relationships between user mental health and the frequency at which they post, the types of posts they make, or the types of platforms on which they engage with people?

KS: I don’t know if there’s anything on the types of platforms to be honest because I think the research tends to focus in on a platform instead of looking at multi-platforms.

The indicators of depression getting worse, or anxiety getting worse, have to do with what they’re posting. It’s two things, actually—it’s what they’re posting, and there’s some research in the States that is using not just posts to social media, but how many phone calls you make and how many text messages you send.

That shows that as people develop depressive symptoms, and as those symptoms get worse, they actually drop off on all those things.

So we can use that automated data collection that happens in our smartphones to see that, oh this person was typically texting and posting at this frequency, and all of a sudden the frequency at which they’re doing it has plummeted. And when it plummets, it means we need to go and connect with this person.

So it’s almost the opposite of what we talk about or think about, that the frequency goes way up. I think with things like depression and social anxiety, there’s a pulling away from people when symptoms get worse.

So my guess is that if we looked at any type of mental health problem where pulling away from people is part of that symptom or part of the impact of that symptom, we’re going to see posts go down. And anything where actually going out more, doing more risky behaviours, we’ll probably see posts go up.

It’s more the change from what your typical post looks like, if there’s a change it probably means that there’s something happening in someone’s life.

F: Given the research discussed, how can social media users engage with online platforms in a way that will support their mental health?

KS: We’re not all that insightful into why we’re doing something, but I think one thing would be to be more reflective on what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, and what you’re trying to get out of it, and how you feel after. If we’re binging on social media the same way we binge on Netflix, and at the end of it we don’t feel very good, or we feel even a little bit crappier, or we feel crappy because of what we didn’t do during that period, probably that’s not what we want to keep doing.

On the other hand, if you are tired, and you don’t have anything important to do and you binge on Netflix all night, and you’re like “oh that was fun,” and now I’m gonna go to bed, that would be the same as binging on social media, it’s probably not having a bad impact.

The other thing is to choose what you’re engaging in.

As I mentioned, there are a lot of very positive things, positive people, positive groups… so connecting with those, getting those types of streams in your feed would probably be good, because they’re doing things like talking about gratitude and commenting on how beautiful nature is, or different things that are positive.

So when you open your Facebook, a lot of what you see is positive stuff as opposed to negative stuff.

F: Does it tend to be difficult for users to break their habits if they’re identified as unhealthy?

KS: It can be a pretty vicious cycle, and for a lot of people it’s not the easiest thing to break. And that’s why one of my tips is think about how do you feel after, and why are you doing what you’re doing, what are you getting out of it.

Part of breaking that cycle is getting people to become more aware of what is driving that cycle to begin with, and making sure we have other tools, and then getting people motivated to use the other tools first.

F: Do clinicians currently tend to take social media use into account for their patient’s recovery?

KS: This is actually an area I’d like my research to go into more. I would say that the vast majority of clinicians don’t take anything to do with online... into consideration. The area that’s been up and coming and is more booming would be using it for interventions, trying to connect with people who need help, accessing help by using the Internet. But not, how is your use of technology impacting you, is there a role for technology in what’s happening to you right now? Those are kind of really broad questions I would like to see people include.

I would say generally speaking, it’s definitely not widespread.

F: Should it be?

KS: Yeah, 100 per cent. I do think that technology and social media use, especially any social activity that involves connecting with other people, should be part of something that we’re asking up front. Because it could be playing a role in ways that we don’t really realize.

SPORTS

SPORTS EDITOR Nico Laliberté sports@thefulcrum.ca @nico_laliberte @FulcrumSports

Gees fall just short in overtime in gutsy Panda Game Fourth straight Panda loss brings Gees record to 4–2 on the season Nico Laliberté sports editor

O

n Sept. 30, the Gee-Gees men’s football team met the Carleton Ravens for this year’s edition of the highlyanticipated Panda Game. The Ravens had won the last three contests between the teams, but held a 1–3 regular season record coming into this game.

The Gees, for their part, held a 4–1 record entering the game.

The game began on a sombre note, with a moment of silence for Gee-Gees defensive end Loïc Kayembe who passed away on Sept. 24.

With fifth-year starting QB Victor Twynstra still injured, first-year QB Alex Lavric got the start for the Gees.

The Gees kicked off first, with Carleton getting the ball to their own 30 before having to punt it back down to the Garnet and Grey. The Gees got it at their 45.

Carleton got their fans into the game right away, returning a Gees punt and running it 84 yards down field for the touchdown just under three minutes in, making the score 7–0 Carleton.

With just over three minutes left in the first quarter the Ravens had three consecutive first downs to bring the ball to the Gees’ 11-yard line. The Gees de-

fense managed to keep them out of the endzone and the Ravens had to settle for a field-goal, setting the score at 10–0 Carleton.

The first quarter ended with Carleton holding a 72–24 advantage in offensive yards gained.

The Ravens came out strong in the second quarter with a field goal in the first three minutes. They capitalized on a Gees fumble to get the ball right back to the Gees’ 8-yard line.

A Carleton fumble kept the Gees from going down by an even bigger margin, but the Carleton errors didn’t end there. An intercepted pass at the Ravens’ 30 led to a Gees first-down. The Gees got their first touchdown off a beautiful 27-yard pass from Lavric, setting the score at 13–7 Carleton.

With less than three minutes in the half the Ravens got a 21-yard run that brought them to the Gees 17. The Ravens appeared to have another touchdown, but the pass was deemed incomplete. A Ravens field goal brought the score to 16-7 Carleton, which would hold until the half ended.

Carleton carried the play throughout the half, putting up a whopping 259 offensive yards to the Gees’ 91. The Gees only managed three complete passes for the entire half.

The third quarter couldn’t have started better for the Gees. A Carleton fumble gave the Gees a first-down on the 9-yard line. Lavric made the pass giving the Gees their sec-

ond touchdown of the game with the score now at 16-14.

With just over two minutes left in the third quarter the Gees took their first lead of the game, with a 75-yard drive ending in a 49-yard pass to widereceiver Kalem Beaver for his second touchdown of the game, and the Gees now at 21–16.

The Gees had a monster third quarter, led by Lavric. The rookie QB had 110 passing yards on 8 complete passes in the quarter.

The fourth quarter started with Carleton in control. With just over six minutes left they got the ball to within field goal range, but missed the attempt, taking the single instead.

With just over two minutes to play, Carleton passed the ball for a 75-yard touchdown, capping off a 102-yard sequence to give Carleton a 24–21 lead.

After being the hero all year long, fifth-year kicker Lewis Ward blasted a 45-yard field goal to tie the game up at 24 with zeros left on the clock to send the game to overtime.

The two teams exchanged field goals in overtime. The Gees took a 33–30 lead, but the Ravens came back with a touchdown to win the game 33-30.

Though the Gees lost in heartbreaking fashion, they can rest in the knowledge that they played hard in a gutsy game, and almost came out on top.

The Gees next home game is on Oct. 14 at 1 p.m. Tickets can be purchased from the Gee-Gees’ website.

The 2017 edition of the Panda Game was a wildly entertaining event.

14 | SPORTS

Photos: Parker Townes.

THEFULCRUM.CA

THE BOXSCORE: PANDA-MONIUM SOCCER 6-1-3

FOOTBALL 4-2

RUGBY 4-1

Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017 Gee-Gees 1

Satruday, sept. 30, 2017 Gee-Gees 30

Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017 Gee-Gees 101

at

vs

AT

laurentian

1

carleton

33

Bishop’s

0

sunday, oct. 1, 2017 Gee-Gees TBD

Saturday, oct. 14, 2017 Gee-Gees TBD

Saturday, oct. 6, 2017 Gee-Gees tbd

at

vs

vs

nipissing

tbd

waterloo

tbd

st. francis xavier tbd

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

Gees looking to return to playoffs after narrow miss last year Women’s volleyball team hopes to improve in their second year in RSEQ Nico Laliberté sports editor

Last season represented a significant change in the Gee-Gees women’s volleyball program, as the team made the jump from the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) division to the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ). The team missed the playoffs on a tie-breaker, finishing fifth out of six in the conference.

This year they will look to improve on that finish, with most of their players returning. That being said, the Gee-Gees lost a couple of major contributors from last year in setter Kira Tome and middle Kaiva Mateus.

However, the Gees have thirdyear setter Emily Lenton ready to step in for Tome, and second-year middle Dana Bulloch should be able to fill in admirably for Mateus.

The Gees attack will largely be the same, with Caroline Lemay, Kara Hayes, and Kaly Soro returning from last year to lead.

The Gees participated in a preseason tournament this past weekend, which head coach Lionel Woods says is a great way to

assess the team.

“For us preseason really is all about getting our feet wet, finding our rhythm. Who are we? Who aren’t we?”

Woods will take all of the information he gathered over the weekend to determine which areas to focus on.

“For us preseason really is all about getting our feet wet, finding our rhythm. Who are we? Who aren’t we?”— Lionel Woods, head coach “We video the crap out of this, we write a lot of notes, and we sort of say ‘okay, well this is all the stuff we worked on and we’re not very good at, here’s all the stuff we worked on that we are pretty good at,’ and then

we can reset for this two weeks what we’re going to do. So it’s all about assessment.”

After seeing their numbers dwindle over the last few years, the Gees brought in a large recruiting class this year.

“The biggest thing about this tournament for us is that we’re a little bit young, a little bit new in terms of the people together on the court, and we’re trying to find what’s our rhythm of this team?

What’s our style, what’s our feel of this team?”

Woods said that while the starting six rotation is mostly set based on experience and seniority, there’s still room for players to impress and get regular playing time in niche roles.

“Already we’ve had a couple of first-year players step up faster than we thought. And even our second, third-year kids, they’re very established in a role. We’re really starting to see how we use them, when we use them.”

The Gees will have a couple of weeks to get everything sorted out and where they want it to be before the season begins on Oct. 20.

The Gees are gearing up for their regular season.

THEFULCRUM.CA

Photo: Nico Laliberté.

SPORTS | 15

Women’s rugby smash points record with 116-0 win over McGill Gees see points from numerous players as they drive to catch Laval Eric Davidson editor-in-chief

The University of Ottawa women’s rugby team lit up Matt Anthony field on Sept. 23, soundly beating the McGill Martlets 116–0. According to the U of O, this is a team record for highestscoring game, and their first game to break 100 points.

Not one to waste time, second-year wing Alexandra Ondo—who played for Rugby Canada’s U20 team over the summer—opened the scoring with a try just a couple minutes into the game.

From that point on, the Gees offence didn’t let up.

Lauren Minns, a centre in her first year with the team, continued to drive the ball home, scoring a whopping six tries to rack up the points.

Other Gees were eager to get in on the action as well, with first-year front row Maya Montiel, first-year back Samantha Bennett, and fifth-year fly-half Patricia Mandon each scoring two tries.

To top it all off, five other Gees scored one try apiece:

The women’s rugby team won big on Sept. 23.

fourth-year back row Paulina Karwowski, second-year back row Georgia Stewart, fifth-year back row Dana Sommerville, first-year front row Tanika Bonneville, and fifth-year centre

Emma Sandstrom.

In addition to her try, Sandstrom added 10 conversions in the game.

All in all, the Gee-Gees put on a clinic in both offence and defence, as they al-

Photo: Greg Mason.

lowed no points to be scored on them in addition to their stellar offence.

With this handy win, the Gee-Gees improve their record to 3–1, which leaves them tied for second in points in the

Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) with Carleton University.

The Gees continue to stalk Laval University, which leads the conference with a 4–0 record.

While it was a big win for the Gees, the Martlets have been lit up plenty of times this season. McGill lost 85–0 against Concordia, 108–7 against Laval, and 127–3 against Bishop’s. So while the Gees can celebrate their big win, they know the blowout didn’t come against their biggest competition.

However, the Gees have been putting up solid stats as they aim for their fourthstraight RSEQ title.

After four games they’ve allowed only 50 points against, which is easily best in the league. Laval is second, having allowed 66, while Carleton has allowed 162.

The Gees’ offence has been strong as well, their 198 points scored good enough for third in the league, though firstplace Laval’s is much higher, at 300 points scored.

The Gees took on the seventh-place Bishop’s Gaiters on Sept. 30.

The Gees’ next home game is on Oct. 6 at Matt Anthony Field at 6:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased from the GeeGees website.

Outdoors Club gives students chance to escape the city

Club provides recreational activities throughout the year Zack Goobie

associate sports editor There are many clubs here at the University of Ottawa, catering to every possible interest a student might have, and the outdoors club is just one of them. With a distinct focus on having fun in the wilderness, the club organizes a multitude of events for both seasoned nature-lovers and those students venturing out of their apartment for their very first time.

Anna Ananchenko, a third-year student in biomedical science at the U of O and long-time Outdoors Club member said, “Generally, the club is just about having fun outdoors. There are a bunch of different trips that happen throughout the year, with varying degrees of difficulty.”

With the U of O campus situated in the heart of downtown Ottawa, students can often lose sight of

the multitude of opportunities that await them at various parks in the area, such as Gatineau Park.

As an example of the events that are put on by the club, this past weekend there was a three-day canoe trip at Algonquin Park. Later on in the semester, they will be making a trip to the Adirondack mountains. These two diverse events are just some opportunities to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

The club is very active during September and October when the weather is more accommodating, with events usually happening on a weekly or biweekly basis. In the winter months, the club operates when the weather permits.

“There are groups that like to do cross-country skiing and snowshoeing as well. it all really depends on the interests of the members,” said Ananchenko.

The club also allows members to organize their own trips if they have particular interests in a field.

Talking with the executive, members can organize trips with the required equipment.

Ananchenko talked about one of her favourite events, the Brown’s cabin trip in Gatineau park, “It’s literally just going to Gatineau Park, renting a cabin that can fit 20 people, and just hanging out… hiking, swimming, boulder and look at the caves, just really whatever people want to do,” she said. “It’s kind of a get to know each other event, and a beginner kind of event.”

This event usually happens twice a year, with one cabin trip this past month, and the other in November.

Ananchenko explained how students can join the club: “You need to be a student at the University

Outdoors club features activities from hiking to skiing.

of Ottawa, and you pay a $50 fee for the membership, and the membership lets you go on all the trips that are happening. There is also a waiver that must

be signed. It is ideal to sign up at the beginning of the year at the club fair, but if a someone would like to join later they are encouraged to go to the Facebook page,

16 | SPORTS

Photo: CC, Skeeze.

uOttawa Outdoors Club.”

With a wide range of activities, this club offers a great opportunity to enjoy the outdoors with your U of O peers.

THEFULCRUM.CA

OPINIONS

OPINIONS EDITOR David Campion-Smith

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

There needs to be a limit on group projects in university

Group projects shouldn’t make up almost half a student’s total marks david campion-smith opinions Editor

C

lasses have been in session for almost a month here at the University of Ottawa, which means most students have likely had the chance to tackle an assignment or two. As you read through your syllabus and see what’s in store, you might notice that some of your marks will be made up of the bane of most students’ existence: group projects.

Group projects aren’t the most effective way to teach course material for most classes, reward those students

who know more people in the class, thus being able to pick better group members, and most importantly, fail to test if the individual team members actually understand the course content.

I have several classes where group work accounts for almost 50 per cent of my marks.

This is ludicrous for my final year of my undergrad.

At this point in my university career I don’t want to do group work, and my marks—especially for many mandatory classes—shouldn’t be so dependent on the work of other students. If the goal of university is to test an individual’s knowledge and understanding of the course material, how is that met through group projects?

For professors, the appeal of assigning group projects is that it reduces the amount of marking they have to do, going from one assignment per student to however many groups there are. But deciding

what assignments you will give your class based solely on what is easiest for you as a professor isn’t exactly the best way to run a class.

I understand that there are some classes, such as business classes, where group work is a better representation of what working in that particular field will be like, but this is not the case for the majority of classes.

There can certainly be some practical aspects of group work, and I’m not denying that. I’m saying that in an artificial environment like school, we shouldn’t reward those who get along better with other people but may not know the subject matter. Academia is founded at least in principle on knowing the subject matter, and demonstrating how well you know it.

The reality is that group projects unintentionally reward those students who know more people in the class and can form groups with

Actual image of a group project on campus.

those they already have a good relationship with. We can agree that essays are not the best way to test some peo-

Photo: Cailey Fletcher.

ple, so let’s say the same about group work. If neither of these options are perfect then instead of lurching wildly from

one to the other let’s find an option that’s closer to the middle, and best for the most students.

Players taking a knee is the patriotic thing to do Protesting against injustice isn’t disrespectful and shouldn’t be discouraged connor chase

fulcrum contributor If you’re like me, then sports are a sort of therapy; a calm, refreshing dose of high octane competition that momentarily eclipses the truly consequential aspects of life. But recently, news and sports headlines have blended together and that tranquility has wilted.

This past week, if there was still at least a slight, timid wall separating the realms of sports and politics, President Donald Trump told the wall it was fired, took a bulldozer to it, and had the remains ground into dust.

Last year Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem to bring attention to police brutality against people of colour, specifically black communities. At a speech he gave in Alabama on September 22, Trump called for his supporters to boycott the NFL

until players taking a knee during the national anthem were fired. With Trump’s past comments and character, it’s not hard to imagine who he means when he says “our” flag.

Nationalism is not entirely negative, and I am sympathetic to people who wince when “sacred” symbols are disrespected.

But my sympathy only extends insofar as I feel that said symbol actually deserves respect.

In the present case, kneeling during the national anthem is a justified example of disrespect.

The stars and stripes may be iconic, and the Star Spangled Banner may be inspiring to some, but these symbols are not what is important about America. America, fundamentally, is devoted to the protection of the “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness” of her citizens. That’s what’s worth celebrating.

These symbols are subordinate to a principle; when the

principle deteriorates, so does the sanctity of the symbols.

When America is doing a lousy job at protecting these rights, it should be protested. If you are protesting in the name of upholding the principle of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” then you are the true patriot.

When Kaepernick and others refuse to stand during the anthem they are doing so justly.

There is no way to exonerate the issue of police brutality against people of colour—an inequality that certainly deserves protest. If taking a knee means being in solidarity with those fighting injustice, then it is not disrespectful; it is patriotic.

This declaration does have some implications, however.

If kneeling during the anthem is a display of genuine patriotism, what does that say about all those who proudly remain standing? Are they

racists who support police brutality? Are they nationalist ideologues who blindly attribute no injustice to their country? Of course not.

There are many ways one can show solidarity with people of colour. Protest is not limited to kneeling during the anthem.

Players who simultaneously support the cause and refuse to kneel may choose to do so because they feel that kneeling won’t actually accomplish anything of consequence. To attribute malevolence to those people is a very narrow minded way of viewing the situation.

But it is also narrow minded to suggest that, under all circumstances, kneeling is a sign of unrepentable disrespect. Blind allegiance to a cause or idea is not patriotism; it is weakness, and to defend institutions regardless of their actions is not commendable, but dangerous.

A football players kneels during the anthem.

THEFULCRUM.CA

Photo: CC, Ed Clemente Photography.

OPINIONS | 17

Like it or not, Canada needs to keep its trade with U.S. New trade deals are fine, but unlikely to replace U.S trade soon Eric Davidson Editor-in-chief

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is coming back into the national conversation, with renegotiation efforts taking place in Ottawa this past week. Couple this with the recent spat over jet prices, and you might find yourself asking some serious questions about Canada’s trading relationship with the United States.

Despite the challenges ahead, Canada really only has one option, and that’s to keep its relationship with America. It might not be easy, but with a little creativity, it can certainly be done.

But wait, if the nation’s trade with America is going downhill, can’t we just focus on building trade relationships with other countries?

We can and we have, but it won’t be enough, at least not for the foreseeable future.

For one thing, America

is by far our largest trading partner. Canada’s second biggest trading partner is the European Union, to which it exported $41 billion of goods in 2016. This pales in comparison to the $392 billion it exported to America, or 75 per cent of Canada’s total exports, while only 18 per cent of America’s exports go to Canada. It’s not as if both countries have the same amount to lose.

Also, starting new trade relationships is tough.

Canada’s recent trade deal with the European Union, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), went through seven years of negotiation and was almost destroyed by a small region in Belgium that threatened to veto it. The much-debated Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal was scuttled after much negotiation when the U.S. walked away from the table.

Even if trade deals do get signed, they don’t always work out as expected. A few

years ago, when Canada entered into a free trade deal with South Korea, a big selling point was that it would increase Canada’s exports of natural resources and foods such as pork. But in the wake of the deal, exports on such items have been tepid at best. Even if you do a trade deal, it won’t help if there’s little demand for your products in the first place.

In America, at least, there has been historically a large demand for Canadian products. But what does Canada do if the U.S. president is playing hardball, or, at the very least, being extremely unclear on his position?

Luckily, Canada can deal with more people besides the president. In fact, Canada is already starting to end around Trump. Canadian diplomats have been meeting with American mayors, governors, lawmakers, and business people to talk trade, going far beyond the muchpublicized negotiations between trade delegations.

Canada and the U.S. have recently had a number of trade disputes.

Opening up deals with these other actors has already shown signs of paying off for Canada’s trade.

In January, New York state considered introducing a Buy American element into its budget. However, after talks and lobbying

from the Ontario government, it backed off and weakened the provision.

Given America’s stance at the federal level, anticipating and reacting to major, possibly negative shifts in NAFTA is a must, and relationships at other levels

Photo: CC,White House Photographic Office.

of U.S. government are the best way to do that.

Whether through NAFTA, trade deals with other levels of government, or some combination of the two, Canada shouldn’t try and ditch its largest trading partner.

Canadian citizens’ privacy extends to the U.S. border Asking about pot usage is pointless, and accessing phones is invasive Neha Virk

fulcrum contributor The last month has seen much discussion on how open Canadians should be when they cross the American border, over issues as diverse as past marijuana use and handing over electronic devices. Both of these issues are ridiculous and impose on the rights of Canadians.

The only reason to tell border officials about your past use of marijuana is if it’s somehow relevant to someone’s safety at the time. If we were to compare it to alcohol, it would be odd to ask someone about their drinking habits unless they were currently endangering themselves or others. Canadian citizens crossing the border to the United States should have some reasonable expectation of privacy, and border security asking probing and unnecessary questions

about someone’s history with marijuana intrudes on that.

This concept of privacy protection extends to accessing Canadian phones at the border. There should always be reasonable grounds before searching, and if those grounds aren’t present then officials cannot search phones. The largest issue is that under U.S. law, border officials can ask for passwords and access devices. In a day and age where most people’s electronic devices hold intimate details of their lives, this is a clear invasion of privacy, particularly for citizens of other countries.

Border protection agencies need to understand that everything is accessible by the touch of a finger, and yes, this can be a security risk, but phones are also so integrated into people’s lives that accessing them is a huge breach of privacy. Security person-

There is debate over how much access to privacy border officials should have in the realms of technology and marijuana history.

nel need to acknowledge the ever changing nature of our society and our relationship with technology, and adapt their laws and regulations toward the needs of the citizens.

After all, we the people are the ones giving these officials the monopoly of the use of force—and not to mention a job.

I understand that America is trying to protect

their citizens, but how does knowing about past marijuana usage do that?

If all of Canada and many of the States have decriminalized it then how dangerous can it really be?

Photo: Christine Wang.

Both of these policies are a breach of privacy, and we as a society need to be less accepting of these increasingly common and dangerously invasive breaches.

18 | OPINIONS THEFULCRUM.CA

MTV revives hit Boardashians, revamps show’s format

Funding for new season came from EHE Fest’s pay to play policy Graham Robertson MANAGING editor Following two successful seasons of the MTV hit Keeping Up with the Boardashians, fans and viewers across the country were left with questions after the show was taken off the air.

But on Sunday, Oct. 1 the show returned, featuring new cast members, revamped opening credits, and a new airing schedule— once a week, which is a stark difference from their neardaily episodes the past two seasons.

The reality television show, which chronicles the antics of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO), most recently featured mobs of students wielding pitchforks at the winter General Assembly.

However, the show was pulled from the air shortly afterwards, with little to no explanation.

“To put it simply, we lost funding for the show,” said SFUO vice-president of services and communications Kathryn LeSwank in a confessional during Sunday’s episode. “We had an incident with a lawsuit this spring, and unfortunately we had to allocate our funding for the show to pay for that.”

LeSwank did not comment further on the lawsuit.

According to LeSwank, funding for season three of the show came from profits from the recent Everybody Hates Everybody (EHE) Festival. The festival featured a controversial “pay to pay” policy, where the SFUO selected artists to perform based on how many tickets they could sell.

“We had a lot of students asking us where the money from tickets sales would go, and in all honesty, we had no idea,” said LeSwank. “Ultimately, we decided to bring

the Boardashians back. We’re all about that hashtag good comms—we want students to know what we’re up to here at the SFUO.” One of the highlights from the Oct. 1 Boardashians special was the SFUO’s recent town hall, where students were able to meet with federation executives, ask questions, and provide criticism—albeit that these critical comments were written down and sent to the executives for approval before read aloud.

“We had a bumpy last few months here at the SFUO, with our vice-president social resigning this summer, leaving me to plan 101 Week on top of my own duties,” said the federation’s president Wadi Hess. “But we’re excited to get back on track and make this a great year for all of you folks!”

Vice-president finance Richie Lachiq chimed in after Wess’ statement, saying,

New episodes of the SFUO reality show will air weekly on MTV.

“That’s right. We want to put your money towards initiatives that benefit you, which is why I’m planning on sticking around for the next three years to hear your ideas and put them into action.”

The episode then cut to commercial, as Lachic began discussing the federation’s budget.

Photo: Henry du Basty. CC, Lutz H. Edits: Christine Wang.

“I’m not sure why the budget presentation wasn’t filmed for the show, considering it’s our finalized version,” said Tristan Harmonica, a Faculty of Arts representative and finance committee member, during a confessional following commercials. “Man, just

working on that budget gave me a headache. I was literally Ubering to the summer board meeting when I received the initial draft for review. Unbelievable!”

The next episode of Keeping Up with the Boardashians will air on Sunday, Oct. 8 at 8 p.m. EST on MTV.

U of O vs. Carleton game is literal panda-monium Gee-Gees football team replaced with 12 giant pandas JaCK Collie

Tomato contributor In a startling, albeit strategic move, Richard Benson, head coach of the University of Ottawa’s men’s football team elected to field 12 panda bears in this year’s edition of the annual Panda Game against Carleton University.

According to Benson, this was an innovative move to snap a three year losing streak.

“When the U of O’s athletic director told me I was fired if I didn’t win this year I knew I had to do something drastic,” said Benson. “That’s when I remembered my buddy Donnie has some connections on the Chinese black market. I gave him a call and bing bang boom, I had 12 pandas ready to go”.

The lethargic animals began the game as expected, and the Carleton Ravens had no problem evading the slow moving herbivores for a touchdown off the opening kickoff. However, the disparities began to show on the first drive as Carleton pressured

It was an intense Panda Game where players could bearly contain themselves.

the Gee-Gees pandas, resulting in what Carleton’s head coach Franklin Queek dubbed a “bloodbath”.

“Everyone in the league knows these antics are right up Benson’s alley,” said Queek. “Let us not forget his other morbid, yet adequately themed

Photo: CC, Breakpoint, Clker Free Vector Images. Edits: Christine Wang.

game when he fielded a hundred bees as head coach of the Concordia Stingers while knowing the opposing quarterback was allergic.”

The game, however, was abruptly stopped by Ottawa Police after only seven minutes of play, in an attempt

to prevent what they described as a “clear threat to public safety”. After all, several players had been absolutely mauled, with 10 taken to the hospital.

Despite the glaring danger posed by these wild animals, no students showed any sign of concern. In fact,

the atmosphere among the crowd was quite the opposite. “Man, we’re dominating this year!” slurred fourth-year U of O economics student Chris Stevens.

At one point during the game the Gee-Gees side of the stadium began cheering “No mercy!”, paired with Snapchats singing along to “Panda” by Desiigner.

Perhaps the most shocking reaction to the day’s events was the complete lack of regret shown by Coach Benson. “ I would do it again, 100 per cent,” he said.When pressed about whether or not he regretted the injuries to the Ravens’ players, the forfeit, or the seven season suspension for the U of O, all he could say was, “I was told to stop Carleton and it seems like I did just that”.

All in all, the Gee-Gees made mistakes this year, hurting their opponents in the process. Despite some people labeling the coach’s decisions as “dangerous,” “irresponsible,” and “outright reckless endangerment,” the Tomato applauds Coach Benson for defying the conventional.

THEFULCRUM.CA THE TOMATO | 19

DISTRACTIONS DEAR DI Horny homework: X-Rated

Lay on your back on the edge of your bed with your legs propped on your partner’s chest. Now cross your ankles or knees (dealer’s choice), while your partner slowly enters you.

Dishing with Di: Freud’s less zany theories Sigmund Freud, of the ‘boys wanting to have sex with their mothers’ fame, had some interesting thoughts on bisexuality. Primarily that a lot more of us, well all of us, are actually attracted to both sexes. Freud coined the theory of innate bisexuality, that humans were all born bisexual, but our same sex urges were repressed due to psychological development. Scientists, however, have not been able to produce any concrete evidence of what causes differences in sexual orientation.

20 | DISTRACTIONS

FEATURES EDITOR Savannah Awde

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

Dear Di, I’m planning to come out to my girlfriend as bisexual, however I’m worried she won’t take it well. I’ve told a few friends, and they’ve all asked me if I’m trying to tell them I’m gay. After these test runs, I’m super worried she’ll ask the same thing. How can I be honest about my sexuality while maintaining my relationship with my girlfriend?

—Bi-ding My Time

Dear BMT, I’m so sorry to hear that some of your friends have been dismissive about your sexuality. While public perception of the LGBTQ+ community has become immensely more positive in the past few decades, there’s still a long way to go.

There’s no shortage of ignorance when it comes to bisexuality—like, why can’t you just pick a team, or “I’m not even sure bisexuality exists. I think it’s just a layover to Gay Town” (this was actually said in a Sex and the City episode). Other assumptions are that bisexual people are overtly sexual, or incapable of commitment. Bisexual erasure is also common in media, think Willow in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Why did fans have to completely disregard her amazing relationship with werewolf Oz, to accept her beautiful romance with Tara?

Not to mention that bisexual women are typically fetishized and bisexual men, like yourself, are rendered completely invisible.

OK, I digress. Before discussing things with your partner, think about what your bisexuality means to your relationship. Do you want things to remain completely the same? Or do you want to take the chance to explore your sexuality?

The most common assumption people make about bisexuals is that they’ll be down for a threesome. If that’s something you want, inviting another person into your bedroom (or two, or three…) could be a way to get your girlfriend aroused. But if you want to stick with a ménage à deux, don’t worry, you won’t lose your bi-card.

Coming out to your girlfriend can also heat things up in the bedroom for just the two of you. You can experiment in ways you might not have felt comfortable with before (think strap-ons). You can also consider whether you would be interested in an open relationship where you both get to experiment sexually with others, but maintain your close emotional bond.

It’ll be much easier to talk to your girlfriend if you can be honest about what you want. Apart from that, all you have to do is tell her.

There is, of course, a chance that she won’t take it well, because of the many misconceptions about bisexuality. While it might be painful to hear, in the long run you deserve to be in an open, honest relationship with someone who accepts you as you are.

Love, Di

THEFULCRUM.CA

OCT. 2-OCT. 8, 2017

THRYLLABUS

MUSIC EATS SPORTS FUN THINKING ARTS

Monday Oct. 2 The Office trivia night, Cafe Nostalgica, $5 admission—8 p.m.

Mean Girls trivia night, 1848, $5 admission—7 p.m.

Friel Talks: Homelessness, with U of O professor Tim Aubry and the Alliance to End Homelessness—7 p.m.

Tuesday Oct. 3 Folk Road Show, Rainbow Bistro—9 p.m.

Human Rights in the 21st Century, Fauteux Hall room 302—11:30 a.m.

Wednesday Oct. 4 Part-time job fair, University

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Centre—10 a.m.

Free home-cooked, healthy, and vegan meal, hosted by the People’s Republic of Delicious, Deja Vu kitchen (between Thompson and Morisset)—9 a.m.

Thursday Oct. 5 Hyper/in/visibility: A Dialogue on Women of Colour in the Arts, Studio Sixty Six—6 p.m.

The Glass Castle (based on New York journalist Jeannette Walls’ best-selling memoir), ByTowne Cinema—9:15 p.m.

Friday Oct. 6 Vegan Thanksgiving Food Giveaway, come

try and learn about vegan alternatives for Thanksgiving, University Centre—11 a.m.

Every Time I Die, the Bronson Centre—7 p.m.

Saturday Oct. 7 Ottawa Senators vs. Detroit Red Wings, Canadian Tire Centre—7 p.m.

Azealia Banks, Barrymore’s, $35 admission—8 p.m.

Sunday Oct. 8 Ottawa Fury FC vs.

FC Cincinnati, TD Place—2 p.m.

Woodshock (film on grief and loss starring Kirsten Dunst), ByTowne Cinema— 2:30 p.m.

DISTRACTIONS | 21

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Fill the gap and save a semester.

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

22 | LETTERS THEFULCRUM.CA

EDITORIAL Volume 78, Issue 6, oct. 2, 2017 Overrun by birds since 1942.

Phone: (613) 695-0061 | Fax: (613) 695-9006 631 King Edward Ave. Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5 Recycle this paper or we’ll send a swarm of crows after you.

Eric “Blue-footed Booby” Davidson Editor-in-Chief editor@thefulcrum.ca Jaclyn “African Grey Parrot” McRaeSadik Production Manager production@thefulcrum.ca Graham “Morning Dove” Robertson Managing Editor content@thefulcrum.ca Zainab “Crow” Al-Mehdar News Editor news@thefulcrum.ca Ryan “Grey Jay” Pepper Arts and Culture Editor arts@thefulcrum.ca Savannah “Resplendent Quetzal” Awde Features Editor features@thefulcrum.ca Nico “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” Laliberté Sports Editor sports@thefulcrum.ca David “Kingfisher” Campion-Smith Opinions Editor opinions@thefulcrum.ca Christine “Dodo” Wang Visual Editor visual@thefulcrum.ca Dmitri “Egret” Bakker Social Media Manager social@thefulcrum.ca Ellie “Flamingo” Sabourin Associate News Editor associate.news@thefulcrum.ca Nadia “Rainbow Lorikeet ” Drissi ElBouzaidi Associate Features Editor Zack “Bue Jay” Goobie Associate Sports Editor associate.sports@thefulcrum.ca Parker “Penguin” Townes Staff Photographer photographer@thefulcrum.ca Chad “Ostrich” Ouellette Videographer videographer@thefulcrum.ca Chafik “Owl” Kassis Head Web Architect webmaster@thefulcrum.ca Lucas “Andean Cock Of The Rock” Ghosn General Manager manager@thefulcrum.ca Kaylum “Albatross” Bobal Advertising Representative ads@thefulcrum.ca

Contributors

Jack “Sparrow” Collie Connor “Pigeon” Chase Neha “Chickadee” Virk Alex “Falcon” Szigeti Eric “Finch” Davison Alina “Goose” Wang Cailey “Heron” Fletcher Henry “Hummingbird” du Basty

Board of Directors

Raghad “Petrel“ Sheikh-Khalil Katelyn “Quail” Murray Jonathan “Duck” Rausseo Mackenzie “Swan” Gray Fadi “Emu” Azzi Spencer “Yellow-bellied Sapsucker” Murdock Kim “Cardinal” Wiens Maggie “Seagull” Gollish Cover Credits: Parker Townes.

VICE-PRESIDENT OF FINANCE POSITION SHOULDN’T BE UNELECTED, BUT IT CAN BE IMPROVED

At its upcoming Board of Administration (BOA) meeting on Sunday, Oct. 8, the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) will table a motion on whether or not to make the vice-president finance position unelected, and last for a three-year term.

While the reasons for wanting to change the vice-president finance job to make it more manageable and effective are perfectly valid, the proposed solution of an unelected three-year term would be a huge mistake, opening the federation up to a whole host of legitimacy and organizational issues.

For one thing, the vice-president finance is in charge of all human resources decisions. In a federation where there are perennial human resources issues, you want to be able to have the person in charge of them to be accountable to the student body via elections.

Increasing the tenure of the vicepresident finance to three years is also incredibly limiting. For a qualified student interested in holding the position for one, or perhaps two terms (i.e., one or two years with the current mandate), they may feel less inclined to pursue the position now knowing they would be in the job for three years. Three years is almost the length of a full undergraduate career, and for someone nearing the end of their degree hoping to get involved in student government, this would require them to stay in the position for a vast length of time, perhaps longer than desired. Taking the choice away from students to hold the position for one or two years raises serious concerns about the validity of this upcoming motion.

The SFUO also needs to be accountable for its finances. If the vice-president finances is likely to put the federation in some kind of financial peril, you don’t want them

their own finances and to make it easier for the student population to hold the student union to account, especially given the weakened power of general assemblies. And it’s not like a dire financial situation is a hypothetical situation, with the federation currently recovering from a near-bankruptcy.

In fairness, the reason that brought on the idea, that the vicepresident finance is overworked, is valid. They’re in charge of the money, all human resources decisions, legal matters, and the health plan.

These are all huge portfolios and it’s just too much to put on one person.

This problem should be addressed, but, as argued above, making it an unelected three-year term is not the way to do that.

Luckily, there are feasible alternatives that the SFUO can pursue, which involve a greater reliance on staff positions, and distributing responsibility across the rest of the executive and the BOA in general.

One such solution is adding an unelected general manager position who handles more of the legwork on portfolios like human resources and legal, but who still reports to the board and executive. This takes away work from the vice-president finance and doesn’t put too much human resources power into the hands of one person, instead placing the work on an employee, and the responsibility on the board as a whole (the executive as a whole in times where quick decisions are needed).

Several other student unions actually do have a general manager position. The SFUO currently has a business manager to manage its businesses, and a general manager would be largely the same but for the federation as a whole.

The SFUO can also make better use of current employees. For example, the SFUO employs full-time

to have a three-year term, which the federation may not be able to easily get out of for fear of legal ramifications. It’s also important to have the check of yearly elections, to make students feel confident that they have a higher level of control over

accountants. This should go without saying, but they should be doing a lot of work in the budgeting and finances process. They know what they’re doing and it takes stress off the VP finance. The vice-president finance role should be to make sure the pro-

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fessionals are clear on student priorities, so students know their voices are being heard.

Basically, the whole vice-president finance role can be restructured so, instead of doing all the legwork, it guides the employees that do this work (the employees are actually specialized in those fields) to stay in keeping with the wishes of the students that elected them.

The extra time can be used for a crucial element that is lacking right now, communication about financial matters to students. This is an area that can’t be done by the vice-president communications. The vice-president finance can use their time to explain budget matters to students during office hours, and ensure things like the budget go online in time (still waiting on that one), and making sure the BOA is informed early on financial issues, which never happens, as evidenced by this year’s budget presentation delay.

To deflect the stress of all-encompassing responsibility for the money, HR, legal, and health plan, ultimate authority can be distributed across the board in general (exec when needed). Also less sketchy to not have all this power in the hands of

Current vice-president fiance, Rizki Rachiq.

one person anyway. Such a structure would also force the VP finance to keep in close contact with the BOA. Applying this argument more broadly to the rest of the executive, it’s clear that most of the positions have a lot on their plates. For example, the vice-president services and communications is responsible for all publicity and media by the federation, as well as a number of student services. The vice-president equity handles both the SFUO’s equity-based services and all club-related matters. Distributing the work of these portfolios more evenly among employees is the right way to go and avoids overworking the executive.

This would prevent similar motions, such as the one we’ll see tabled this Sunday, arising in the future. How long until there are efforts to make all positions on the executive unelected with arbitrary mandates?

We need an executive that’s accountable to their students through yearly elections, because these elections, maintaining transparency during these elections through the press and public debates, and oneyear terms that allow more students to get involved are the fabric of our student democracy.

Photo: Eric Davidson.

EDITORIAL | 23