The Fulcrum - Vol 76 Issue 12

VOL. 76 ISSUE 12

Nov. 19, 2015

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IN THIS ISSUE...

Grad rep butts heads P.5 Student unions call for removal of Robert Head from BOG

Blondes always have more fun P.9 West coast rockers play the NAC with Hey Rosetta!

Delays ahead P.12 The long road for Canadians seaking to transition A hard choice P.16 Does Greg Hardy have a place in the NFL? Three strikes-are GAs out?

P.18 Why the SFUO needs to change how they do GAs The porn ultimatum P.20 When your partner’s porn habits become a problem

NEWS General Assembly fails to meet

NEWS EDITOR

Eric Davidson news@thefulcrum.ca (613) 695-0061 @Eric_Davidson93

quorum for third successive term Students raise concerns over lack of motions, while SFUO says it’ll stick with GAs Eric Davidson & Jaclyn McRae-Sadik News Editor & Associate News Editor

T

he Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) held its third General Assembly (GA), and while it was held on campus, it failed to meet quorum.

The event was held in Marion Hall Nov. 14 at 10 a.m.

The SFUO instituted GAs two years ago after a referendum, and held two last year, but both failed to meet quorum—the first by a dozen people, the second by 230.

The upward trend continued at this GA—it missed quorum by 286 people. Forty people showed up falling far short of the quorum of 326 (one per cent of the undergraduate student population).

No motions Previous GAs saw a variety of motions submitted, touching on a variety of issues such as election reform, bilingualism, and fiscal responsibility.

However this year none were submitted to the SFUO before the Oct. 16 deadline. Even if quorum isn’t reached, motions are carried over to the next GA. Although there were no motions, the GA continued with the rest of the agenda. This included updates from all of the SFUO executives on SFUO-run businesses and events, as well as an overview of the budget. It also featured a 20-minute question period.

“We did our best to make sure that students know about the deadlines and procedures,” said Roméo Ahimakin, vicepresident of services and communications. “Maybe it speaks to the fact that right now there is no particular motion that

The U of O’s third General Assembly was held in Marion Auditorium with 40 people in attendance, and failed to meet quorum

students want to bring forward,” he said. “But we’ll keep doing our best… when the time comes and students want to submit a motion they’ll do exactly that.”

One student believes that mishandling of prior motions may have played a role in the lack of submissions. Brett Byers-Lane, a political science and communications student at the U of O, alleged that paperwork he submitted to the previous SFUO was mishandled, which deterred him from submitting again.

“This is the sort of thing that’s happened with many students,” he said, “and so it comes as no surprise that we’ve had the turnout that we’ve had.”

Room for improvement

The question period was open to any subject, but the most popular topic was the GA itself.

Byers-Lane said during the question period that the SFUO should do more to make the GAs appealing to students, using their recent “Strip Spelling Bee” as an example.

“People will voluntarily go to an event that is entertaining and fun,” he said. “You can’t just give people coffee and a croissant and expect them to beat their head against a wall.”

At the start of question period Benjamin Rivet of the Revolutionary Student Movement (RSM), which originally proposed the idea of holding GAs, criticized the GAs for not being more effective.

“General assemblies are in-

tended to function as the governing body of the Student Federation, not just a tool to make suggestions to the executives” he said. “We want to see a direct action such as a committee taken to encourage better attendance—the general assemblies need to make quorum.”

The SFUO has stated that it will meet with members from the RSM to discuss how to improve the GAs. Ahimakin said that while he was happy with the event, the SFUO would do more to make the next one a bigger success.

“We all really wanted to have quorum, so that we can all sit down and talk about every single aspect of the Student Federation,” said Ahimakin, adding they would increase the amount of promotion for

the next GA. In terms of promotional efforts, Ahimakin said that this year the SFUO put up posters, sent three mass emails, created ebulletins, gave class talks, and increased presence on social media.

However no posts about the deadline to submit motions are currently visible on the SFUO Facebook page, and no tweets were sent from the SFUO’s official twitter account, although there is promotion for the event itself.

“It’s the responsibility of all of us as students on this campus,” he said. “We all need to share that information and make sure to be there.”

Time to do away with the GA?

4 | NEWS

Photo: Marta Kierkus

One hurdle GAs have had to overcome is the cost of the event—last year’s event ended up costing around $5,000.

SFUO’ vice-president finance Camelia Touzany said she couldn’t yet comment on the cost of the GA—which included translation services and equipment, as well as food—but she said that holding the event on campus significantly reduced the cost.

Ahimakin says the SFUO has not entertained the notion of abolishing the GA, and only wants to improve them.

“It’s a platform that is the most democratic possible,” said Ahimakin. “I think there’s no argument to take away the GAs, there’s only an argument to make sure that it happens, and that it happens in the best way possible.”

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Off with his Head—GSAÉD demands expulsion of BOG rep

Grad student Robert Head clashes with student unions, La Rotonde Jaclyn McRae-Sadik Associate News Editor

The University of Ottawa’s Graduate Students’ Association (GSAÉD) is demanding the removal of Robert Head, its representative on the university’s Board of Governors (BOG), it said in a statement released on Nov. 16.

According to GSAÉD, the request for Head’s removal came after a BOG meeting where he voted in favour of a budget which included tuition increases for students of up to 10 per cent back in May. They also take issue with a motion he brought forward to distance GSAÉD from the union CUPE2626, which represents some U of O employees.

Head vs. GSAÉD Head said his proposal to leave CUPE 2626, where he was previously the Chief Steward Anglophone last year, made him a target.

He detailed how he proposed the idea of GSAÉD “self-representing” at a board meeting in July. He says that members were receptive and he was told to get further information, but the council meeting with GSAÉD board members on Sept. 29 didn’t go over as smoothly, where they refused to hear his report.

GSAÉD’s statement details the meetings and actions that lead to their demand, going so far as to say that Head’s behaviour—voting for a budget including a tuition hike and trying to remove CUPE 2626—contravenes the university’s Code of Ethical Conduct and Responsibilities of Members of the BOG. “Robert Head is trying to bring down our labour union over what

appears to be retaliation over an old grudge, said,” Antoine PrzybylakBrouillard, GSAÉD’s internal commissioner.

The release asked “that students take up this call to action, and help in the demand that the graduate student representative resign or be removed from office.”

The release also included a link to a petition to have Head removed.

The Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO), which represents undergraduate students, also publicly denounced Head at a General Assembly held on Nov. 14. “Currently, we are in the process of supporting GSAÉD to remove their graduate rep on the BOG just because their rep had not fully represented their membership,” said Vanessa Dorimain, vicepresident of university affairs.

Head vs. La Rotonde Head has also butted heads with La Rotonde, the U of O’s French-language student newspaper, who have criticized his decision to vote in favour of a budget that includes tuition increases, as well as his opposition to CUPE 2626.

Head has criticized their coverage of himself and his husband, Eric Chen, who ran and was acclaimed as Health Sciences representative on the U of O Senate. La Rotonde alleged that Chen didn’t pay tuition fees because of Head’s position with the university, but issued a correction on Nov. 3, after learning this wasn’t the case.

However Editor-In-Chief Didier Pilon, says the issue could’ve been avoided if Head had communicated with them. He says Head gave no sign that he was willing to speak at any

Robert Head, the representative for graduate students on the Board of Governors

point prior to publication.

Head and La Rotonde have disagreed on other issues as well.

Head said his husband was given more scrutiny by La Rotonde during his candidacy for the SFUO by-elections due to their connection. Pilon disputes this saying, “he (Chen) was the only candidate that didn’t come to our office to meet us, which right away sets off flags; everybody else communicates with media.”

Head also took issue with the Sept.

21 edition of La Rotonde, the cover of which featured an illustration of Head waving his hands and yelling

next to a veiled Muslim woman and a dark-skinned man, both with tape over their mouths. Head said the illustration was “ highly offensive.”

He said the caricature portrayed him “as taping the mouths and the binding the hands of a Muslim woman and a black man, you know, as this towering, menacing white, racist character.”

Pilon said that the illustrations portrayed Shahad Khalladi and Vincent Mousseau, the two undergraduate student representatives who voted in opposition of the budget.

“If you read the article this becomes

“Robert Head is trying to bring down our labour union over what appears to be retaliation over an old grudge.”

—Antoine Przybylak-Brouillard, GSAÉD’s internal commissioner.

Photo: Jaclyn McRae-Sadik

clear, and these are also caricatures that have been used and reused for these people. We have caricature that we use for certain figures that come back, so readers of La Rotonde will recognize these people and will know who they are,” he said.

Head stated he would not sue for libel, saying, “I had personally investigated it and decided it was not a course of action that I wanted to pursue.”

In a letter to Pilon, Robert Giroux, Chair of the BOG, wrote that he “deplored the tone and content” used to express their criticism of Head’s vote.

The BOG refused to comment on the situation surrounding Head, stating that the BOG “does not discuss their members’ activities outside of the Board.”

The next BOG meeting takes place on Dec. 7, 5:30 p.m. in the TBT 083 Senate Room.

U of O study tracks Canadians’ views on country energy’s future Giving environmental issues a voice, putting public opinion in the spotlight Lindsay MacMillan Fulcrum Contributor

A study commissioned by the University of Ottawa’s Positive Energy project from Nanos Research Inc. looked at Canadians’ attitudes to climate policy and in hopes of garnering acceptance and support for energy development for renewable and non-renewable energy sources.

The project “is an action research project aiming to use the convening power of the university to bring together key stakeholders in energy,” said Monica Gattinger, chair of the U of O’s Collaboratory on Energy Research and Policy, and associate professor at the School of Political Studies.

The goal is “to take solution-oriented applied research in collaboration

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to identify how challenges in energy can be addressed,” she said. Energy stakeholders the project targets include academics, government, business, environmental NGOs, communities, and Indigenous peoples.

The study was released Nov. 12, and involved input from 1,000 Canadian adults by phone from Oct. 15–16.

The Positive Energy Project began in March, sponsoring events as well as the study to unite academics, graduate students, and senior fellows at the U of O and other universities.

“As an academic institution, we can create a safe space to ask controversial questions that the government or business don’t want to ask or even hear,” said Gattinger.

Especially important given the debate over the “muzzling” of Canadian scientists.

The project has four streams of research interest—inter-regional relations and federalism, the involvement of local communities and NGOs in energy, the opinions of indigenous people in energy development, and energy literacy and public opinion.

The study examined the public opinion of Canadians on energy policy.

In March, the project commissioned public opinion research to present at its inaugural conference.

The poll reiterates the questions asked in the first poll as well as adding new questions in order to track the shifting opinions.

Ninety-three per cent of Canadians support or somewhat support the growth of Canada’s energy sector, and 59 per cent support or somewhat support growth in the oil and gas sector. Gattinger said the poll re-

flects that Canadians want to see this growth in “a way that protects the environment, and that they’re very conscious about climate change.”

The poll also showed that 54 per cent of Canadians think that protecting the environment takes precedence over the economy and job creation.

The survey communicates that Canadians want federal leadership on environmental and energy issues.

Seventy-eight per cent of Canadians prefer the federal over the provincial government to take leadership in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

A majority of Canadians think that national interest should take precedence over local (57 per cent), Aboriginal (54 per cent), and provincial (58 per cent) interests.

To contrast, Canadians also think

that the government at the time did not reflect the environmental wishes of the people. Sixty-one per cent thought that Canada’s environmental policies poorly or very poorly aligned with the interests of Canadians.

Only 13 per cent of Canadians thought that the country has a high or somewhat high level of international credibility in environmental policies and climate change, while 64 per cent thought it had a low or somewhat low level of credibility.

Gattinger said that the “idea is to continue with these polls over the next couple of years and do it semiannually” to see how opinions shift.

She added that with the recent election of a Liberal government, the project “is very curious” to see how the answers might change.

NEWS | 5

BOA ratifies Anne-Emilie Hebert as SFUO president Eric Davidson news editor

Anne-Emilie Hebert was officially named the new president of the SFUO at the Board of Administration (BOA) meeting on Nov. 15.

The Board voted 14-6 with one abstention to ratify the results of the second by-election, where Hebert was elected on a “yes-no” ballot by a count of 100-86. The second by-election was called solely for the president position, since the first one didn’t offer a “yes-no” ballot for Hebert, who was the only candidate in the running.

“We received a report at the previous BOA that they wanted to have a second by-election, and the board voted yes to that,” said vice-president services and communications Roméo Ahimakin. “Every measure and requirement that the constitution requires was put in place so that the president position could be voted on by all students all over campus.”

Those who voted “no” voiced concerns over the low voter turnout, and lack of accessibility for certain faculties.

“When you only have 100 people out of almost 40,000 students voting for their student federation, each one of those votes makes a big difference,” said Emile Hashem, BOA representative for the Faculty of Medicine, during the meeting.

He said this combined with a lack of accessibility for medical students led to them having less of a voice in student politics.

Proponents of ratification argued that every effort was made to accommodate all students.“The turnout was what it was, but I think it’s fair to say that the students who went out and voted made a clear choice,” said Ahimakin. “It’s important to realize that was a democratic vote.”

Despite the debate, Hebert said she is excited to start her new job.

“I am very happy to join such an amazing team and continue the great work that have started,” Hebert said in an email. “I am hoping to bring valuable input to the discussions around the table and also support my fellow executives as best as I can.”

In addition to swearing in the new president, the board ratified the results of the failed health-care refer-

Anne-Emilie Hebert was officially named president of the SFUO.

endum.

Also on the agenda for the meeting was updating the constitution of the University of Ottawa Student Emergency Response Team (UOSERT), an on-campus first aid service made up

U of O draws criticism after Paris comment offering sympathies Nadia Drissi El-Bouzaidi Editor-In-Chief

The University of Ottawa received strong criticism following its Facebook post offering condolences to the victims of the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris that killed 129.

The morning following the attacks the university posted, “our thoughts go to families of the victims of the attacks in Paris. Our students have been contacted and support has been offered. Those who need to talk about this tragedy can contact our International Office or Counselling and Coaching Service to get support to cope with this difficult situation.”

However some students took offence to the post, pointing out the university did not offer their condolences to the victims of bombings in Beirut the previous day, as well several other acts of terrorism in the past few days.

Fourth-year biology student Iris Aboulhouda replied to the U of O’s post on Facebook because she believes the university was be paying attention more to things that happen in the West than in other regions of the world.

“What bothers me is the fact is that there’s no message for

the numerous similar attacks, that are sometimes more atrocious, perpetrated by the same group,” said Aboulhouda to the Fulcrum in French. “When Garissa University in Kenya was attacked, I didn’t hear any sympathy from the university. Same thing for what happened in Beirut, Syria, Congo.

Mali and even Palestine.”

In a statement to the Fulcrum the university explained the close ties it has with many institutions in France. “Many of our students are French and several uOttawa students are in France for exchanges and other experiential learning opportunities. We reached out to those students both on campus and in France to direct them to available support services.”

Abouldhouda points out that the university has students who come from all over the world. “It’s difficult and painful to know that you’re far away from your family when these horrors occur. The university doesn’t acknowledge that all of these students are living and feeling the same thing,” she said.

Hanaa Mustapha, owner of the companies AccTax Solution Ltd., and Radix communications, sponsored her nephew and brother-in-law to study at the U of O several years ago. She said she was

also offended by the post, because she felt the university was valuing French lives more than Lebanese ones.

Mustapha is of Lebanese descent but said she was equally affected by the attacks in Paris, where she has two brothersin-law. “We all suffer from terrorism, we have to be united to stop it,” she said, adding her condolences to the victims of other attacks.

However some came to the university’s defence, like second-year sociology and history student, Mark Lofichenko.

“I find it ridiculous that people would find genuine reason to be so mad so quickly after something like that happens. Of course, there are tons of other tragedies happening around the world currently,” he said to the Fulcrum. “There is no way to tell which conflict is greater because nobody can rise above anyone else and say that their suffering is greater than someone else’s because how can you truly know?”

The university apologized several hours after making the original post, saying, “our thoughts also go to our students and families of the victims of the attack in Lebanon.

We are sorry if our previous message has offended you.”

The university said in their statement that counselling is

of students.

There was also a motion to abolish slates, groups of candidates running under the same banner, in SFUO elections, but it was defeated.

Another motion sought to update

also available for students coping with the many other trag-

Université d’Ottawa

|

Photo: Eric Davidson.

the SFUO constitution to include a mandate to research and eventually establish online voting in SFUO elections.

The motion was tabled until the next BOA meeting, on Dec. 6.

edies of the past few days. “Our intent was not to cause any

prejudice to members of our community.”

University of Ottawa

“Nobody can evaluate the quality of our courses better than we can. We play a crucial role in assuring excellence in our training.”

- Devon Johnstone Student, Faculty of Medicine VP Executive University of Ottawa Aesculapian Society

your

OPINION matters

evaluAction.uOttawa.ca

6 | NEWS

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SRC concerned deans aren’t receiving adequate sexual assault training Allan Rock says deans will receive full training Nadia Drissi El-Bouzaidi Editor-In-Chief

Mireille Gervais, director of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) Student Rights’ Centre (SRC), has raised concerns about the amount of training regarding sexual violence on campus that members of the upper administration are receiving.

Last year the Task Force on Respect and Equality made ten recommendations to the university to promote respectful behaviour and prevent sexual violence and harassment on campus. U of O president Allan Rock announced at a press conference on Jan. 30 that the university would adopt all of them.

One of the recommendations made was to have “all members of the senior administration participate in awareness training by Fall 2015,” as well as arrange for the delivery of harassment and sexual violence training to a variety of specified groups.

So far members of the university’s upper-administration

haven’t received any training regarding sexual harassment and assault complaints.

Gervais wrote in an email to members of the upper-administration that she participated in the training developed for several groups on campus, which although scheduled for the full two hours, wasn’t enough time to cover all the material.

She said she had been informed that the upper-administration would be receiving a condensed one-hour training session in November.

“In my opinion, this does not illustrate better leadership commitment on the part of the university administration,” wrote Gervais in the email, pointing out that deans are often the ones in charge of investigating complaints of sexual harassment or assault.

“The training stresses the importance of considering power (differentials) when discussing sexual violence.

Considering that the upper administration, including the deans, holds the most power within our hierarchical structure, in my view, your train-

ing should be twice as long rather than twice as short,” she wrote.

“To me that was like the ultimate sign of lip service where a lot of members of the community and their staff are working really hard on the issue, yet they themselves in their position of leadership aren’t dedicating the same time,” said Gervais in an interview with the Fulcrum.

Rock did respond to Gervais’ email, confirming that members of the U of O’s upper administration will receive the same two hour training offered to others on campus at a Nov. 24 meeting “Mireille Gervais raised a good point,” said Rock in a Nov. 3 interview with the Fulcrum. “Because of scheduling with the deans and the senior administration, we had taken two hour training and squeezed it down to one hour.”

Gervais says the SRC sees many complaints from students which end up being investigated by the deans, but they “lack training, specifically in relation to anything

News Briefs

with the mediator tasked to the case, and it doesn’t appear either side will use his services any time soon. Watson said that “boorish” behaviour would not resolve anything.

The attacks came as a surprise for Coventry Connections as the negotiations over airport fees and pickup policies went deep into the night, in the evening before the events. The two sides were supposed to meet again that day but the meetings were cancelled as a result of the attacks

—Moussa Sangaré-Ponce

Canada to buy replacements for CF-18 jets In line with the new government’s policy to scrap plans to purchase the F-35 stealth fighter, Public Services and Procurement Canada has created a new office, Future Fighter Capability

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project, to find replacements for the CF-18 jets.

It will be led by Paula Folkes-Dallaire, a public servant from the Fisheries department, who will be on the hook to replace the jets.

related to human rights, including sexual violence.”

“So knowing that they were going to receive an even shorter training than the rest of the

Photo: Remi Yuan

community was really worrying for me,” she said.

However, deans specifically will be receiving additional training once the new sexual

In mandate letters to his ministers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told ministers to work towards “an open and transparent competition to replace the CF-18 fighter aircraft, focusing on options that match Canada’s defence needs.”

Trudeau made headlines when he announced that he will end Canada’s role in using air strikes against ISIS, telling the CBC that he

Taxi protest takes violent turn

An attack on the Coventry Connections dispatch centre on Nov. 13 left 15 taxi fleets in Ontario blind and some employees injured.

Ottawa police chief Charles Bordeleau condemned the attacks, but admits that the investigation will be tricky because a lot of people from out of town were involved.

Unifor, the taxi drivers’ union brought busloads of supporters from across the province on what was called the “Day of Action”.

Ottawa mayor Jim Watson, recently spoke

Mireille Gervais, director of the Student Rights Centre.

violence policy is in place is approved, wrote Rock in his email, as per the Task Force’s recommendations.

As Rock pointed out, deans won’t be in charge of investigating complaints of sexualized violence much longer.

The Task Force recommended in its report that the university remove “deans as ‘competent authorities’ in presiding over cases of harassment and sexual violence.”

However before they can do so, said Rock, the university will have to negotiate changes to the collective agreement with the Association of Professors of the University of Ottawa.

The process will also be evaluated by an external reviewer, wrote Rock, seeking to determine the “relevance and suitability of the training.”

“Ongoing” training is vital to the process, according to Gervais. “I think that it’s something that needs to be done consistently and constantly and so I hope that with the plan that Allan Rock listed they’ll continue to take it seriously.”

would bring the planes home “in a responsible way.”

However, Trudeau maintains that Canada has a role to play in the conflict. “I know that Canada will continue to, and be seen to be continuing to, do its part in the fight against this terrorist scourge,” he told the CBC. —Eric Davidson

Allan Rock granted the Order of Ottawa, alongside 13 other Ottawans Allan Rock, current president of the University of Ottawa and former federal politician, received the Order of Ottawa at city hall on Nov. 10. Thirteen others were also inducted, including Wendy Muckle, former director of Sandy Hill Community Health Center, and Ron Burke, who has contributed to the local music industry for over three decades.

The Order of Ottawa is a civic award created in 2012 by Mayor Jim Watson and City Coun-

cil, as a way of honouring Ottawa’s exceptional residents who have devoted their professional careers to enhance Ottawa’s city life.

“Inductees into the Order of Ottawa are remarkable residents who are being honoured for their service to our city through a variety of professional and civic-­oriented endeavours,” Watson explained to the Ottawa Citizen.

—­Hannah Schickedanz

NEWS | 7

National News

Murdered Aboriginal woman, Helen Betty Osborne, immortalized in graphic novel

Book aims to bring indigenous rights issues to a younger generation Chinta Puxley iPolitics

WINNIPEG (CUP)—More than four decades before 15-year-old Tina Fontaine’s body was pulled from Winnipeg’s Red River wrapped in a bag, the country was shocked by the death of another Aboriginal teenager in Manitoba.

Her name was Helen Betty Osborne.

The 19-year-old was abducted as she walked down the streets of The Pas, Man., in November 1971. Later that night, she was stabbed to death with a screwdriver dozens of times.

It would take 15 years before murder charges were laid. An inquiry determined that racism, sexism and indifference in the community marred the police investigation from the beginning.

Her brutal murder 44 years ago, and the long road to justice, are the subject of a recent graphic novel aimed at educating the next generation about missing and murdered aboriginal women.

“Her story is one of the first times that, as a country and as a province of Manitoba, we became aware of things that were happening with our indigenous women,” said Winnipeg author David Alexander Robertson, who wrote Betty: The Helen Betty Osborne Story.

“That being said, even today not a lot of people are aware or appreciate the impact of that epidemic.”

Osborne is not one of Canada’s 1,182 missing and murdered indigenous women, because RCMP statistics on the file began in 1980.

Although indigenous women make up 4.3 per cent of the Canadian population, RCMP say they account for 16 per cent of female homicides and 11.3 per cent of missing women.

Writing one woman’s story in a graphic novel was a way to bring the issue to a broader—and younger—audience, Robertson said. “Through her story, we can learn about the residential school system,” said Robertson, whose father was from Osborne’s reserve. “We

can learn about missing and murdered indigenous women.

We can learn about racism, segregation, the justice system’s treatment of aboriginal people.”

Osborne spent the night of Nov. 13, 1971, with friends and was walking home alone when she was accosted by four white men who had been drinking.

“There was a practice around that time where young men would cruise around looking for indigenous women, because of the preconception of them being easy and that they liked to drink and party,” Robertson said.

Her body was found the next day by a boy following rabbit tracks in the snow.

Police were unable to gather sufficient evidence against the four men and the case stalled.

It was picked up again in 1983 by a constable and one of the four men, Dwayne Archie Johnston, was eventually convicted of murder.

The book has drawn praise from Canadian author Joseph Boyden, who writes about First Nations heritage and cul-

David Alexander Robertson, author of Betty: The Helen Betty Osborne Story, is photographed beside Winnipeg’s Red River. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods.

ture. He called it “one of the most powerful graphic novels (he’d) ever read.”

Justice Murray Sinclair, who co-led an Aboriginal justice inquiry in Manitoba after Osborne’s death, is also impressed.

“It’s a story of racism and

it’s a story of community coverup,” Sinclair said. “It’s also a story about how the community in the North has come to terms with its own history around this.”

Writing the novel, which is plotted out much like a screenplay, was emotional but vital to

help raise awareness, Robertson said.

“In the indigenous culture, women are so important and revered. When we lose one, we lose generations. The loss is profound. The movement for change needs to be equally profound.”

CURE wants community research to begin outside classroom Week-long event to highlight social justice initiatives

Radical Research Week, which started Monday, is a week of workshops, panels and art about community-driven social justice research. Photo: Courtesy of Marie-Pierre Savard, the Concordian.

Gregory Todaro The Concordian

Montreal (CUP)—The Community-University Research Exchange (CURE), part of the Quebec Public

Interest Research Group (QPIRG) at Concordia University is hosting Radical Research Week. The event consists of workshops, panels, art exhibits and film screenings to show how students and community members contribute to knowledge production—even if it

isn’t recognized by academic institutions.

QPIRG is an organization which works to connect students to community-driven social justice research through grassroots organizations in Montreal.

“It grew out of this undergraduate community-driven research conference that QPIRG puts on every year called Study in Action,” said CURE coordinator Cassie Smith.

Radical Research week kicked off on Nov. 9 with a free lunch with the People’s Potato, a donation-based soup kitchen on Concordia campus. Later that day was an exhibit showing art related to social and environmental justice and a collective piñata making workshop where participants create a piñata based on something that bothers them as a group. That piñata will be destroyed later during the week as a cathartic group experience.

Other events include a community roundtable with representatives from

10 different community groups, a panel discussion on technology on feminist technologies and a Radical Campus Tour to learn more about radical activism projects around Concordia, both past and present.

On Nov. 12, the keynote panel discussion about grassroots knowledge, hosted on the seventh floor of the Hall building, will feature Indigenous activist and artist, Ellen Gabriel, African-American feminist, Robyn Maynard, and co-founder of Montrealbased FemHack, Anne Goldenberg.

CURE will be requesting to become its own fee-levy group at the Concordia Student Union by-elections later this month. Smith said allowing the group to become independent from QPIRG would allow CURE to hire coordinators and increase the number of events they hold.

“We don’t have the budget to have a stable coordinator, they’re always hired through… some sort of shortterm grant,” said Smith. “Some semes-

8 | NATIONAL NEWS

ters we don’t even have a coordinator.”

Smith also said the fee levy would allow CURE to triple or quadruple the number of students working with grassroots groups each year. Currently, around six students take part in a CURE project each year.

“As an undergraduate student, I think it’s really easy to be on auto pilot or feel like what you do is just for some degree requirement but doesn’t really go beyond that,” Smith said. “I think (CURE projects) are really important for students because it validates that work you do as useful.”

“You don’t have to have a PhD to do amazing research,” she added. “Instead of writing papers that get read by your professors then shoved into a drawer someplace, you can do work that actually goes outside the walls of the university and benefits whole communities.”

To learn more about CURE and Radical Research Week, visit curemontreal.org.

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ARTS&CULTURE

Ready, set, whoa: A Gee-Gees’ guide to France Chapter. 6: Paris attacks Raghad sheikh-khalil staff contributor

A

t 10:30 p.m. on the night of Friday, Nov. 13, my friends and I were settling down in our hostel in Rome as many of us awaited an early flight back to Paris the next morning.

As we lay down to sleep, phones in hands, we looked over the pictures we’d taken that day along with the news we had missed back home in our absence.

“There’s been a shooting,” one of my friends calmly stated, staring at her phone in disbelief. Over the next 72 hours none of us would get much sleep.

As the news began to pour

in from Paris, a sense of unease quickly settled over us.

It wasn’t long before my ears began to ring, and from the cacophony of voices and broadcasts, all I could manage to filter through the noise were individual words. It began with “suicide bombing”, “execution”, and “terrorism”, later followed by “closed borders”, and the inevitable—“ISIS”.

As we collected the latest from different media outlets, the total number of victims continued to grow. By midnight the number had surpassed the 120-person mark, and thoughts of sleep had escaped us.

We soon learned the location of the shooting was mere metres across the street from several of our apartments. Just the week prior, many of us had come together to celebrate a

Illustration: Kim Wiens.

birthday only a few steps away from the Bataclan theatre. The subsequent hours were spent awaiting messages of assurance from friends in the af-

fected area.

Over the next few days we reluctantly filtered back into Paris. I arrived on Monday, Nov. 16 to a very different at-

A&C EDITOR Allegra Morgado arts@thefulcrum.ca

(613) 695-0062 @allietate

mosphere than the one I left.

There was a still hush engulfing the usual bustling City of Lights.

As I rode the metro toward the memorial to pay my respects, I was very aware of the people dressed entirely in black and the unusual silence that was punctuated every few minutes by the cool mechanical voice over the intercom announcing numerous closures throughout the city.

Emblazoned across the memorial in La Republique Square were the words “MÊME PAS PEUR” or “not afraid”. These words I can believe. After the Charlie Hebdo attacks earlier this year, the French people rallied together defiantly against this kind of violence.

However, I remain terrified.

In my lifetime, I have seen the world react to a large-scale terrorist attack on Western soil. It is the aftermath of these events that has me paralysed.

While fear can, in time, be rectified, anger can drive people to momentary irrationality, and often the repercussion of such actions is permanent. In a matter of three days, the largest migrant camp in Paris has been set aflame, mosques have been burnt down at home in Canada, and islamophobic at-

tacks have increased exponentially worldwide.

There is no such thing as complete safety. As I proceeded to have my bag searched at each store I entered on my way back home, I told myself that this soon shall pass. Eventually the heightened security and the passing looks of suspicion will fade. It’s simply impossible to protect yourself against every imaginable probability.

However, what we can protect ourselves against is intolerance. As I write to you in Paris today, several members of my predominantly Muslim family continue to live in Syria, others in Beirut. These attacks in Paris are symbolic of the terrors that refugees across the Middle East and Northern Africa are attempting to flee every day.

So, while the world mourns the loss of hundreds of innocent lives to a senseless attack on humanity, remember this—it is the values of “liberty, equality and fraternity” that France upholds so highly that we stand to lose most in the aftermath of these events. Let us react bravely and calmly in the face of hysteria, and let the past show us that the strongest approach to terrorism is a united one.

Yukon Blonde wants to give Ottawa an unforgettable night

Kelowna-based indie rockers to play at the NAC on Nov. 22 with Hey Rosetta! allegra morgado arts & culture editor

Ottawa may be referred to as the “City That Fun Forgot,” but according to Jeffrey Innes, the lead vocalist of Canadian indie rock band Yukon Blonde, the nation’s capital is actually one of the most fun cities to perform at in all of Canada.

Luckily for Innes, Yukon Blonde will soon be returning to one of their favourite cities in the country with Hey Rosetta!, another well-known Canadian indie act. The two bands will be performing at the National Arts Centre (NAC) on Nov. 22.

Yukon Blonde are touring in wake of their latest album, On Blonde, which was released in June of this year. The

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new record has been widely talked about due to its new, more synth-based sound that strays from the band’s more classic indie rock that they’ve been known for in the past.

“Everybody was on the same kind of vibe,” said Innes.

“Everybody really wanted to kind of get a little deeper, explore things sonically. So when we got together to sort of hash out the songs, we rented out a cabin on Galiano Island and then just went out there for a week, and worked relentlessly for 16 hours a day.”

One of Innes’ favourite parts of recording on the new record was working with Tony Hoffer, who mixed the songs on their album. Hoffer has worked with everyone from Beck to Depeche Mode,

and the members of Yukon Blonde are huge fans of his work, and felt he fit the direction that they wanted to take the record in.

With a big name like Hoffer joining their record, it’s clear that Yukon Blonde has been gaining ground in the Canadian indie scene over the past few years. Although the majority of their fan base is in Canada, Yukon Blonde will be performing part of their tour in Europe this year, with appearances in Madrid and Amsterdam.

Even though many Canadian musicians may not be as widely recognized internationally, Innes is still proud of belonging to what he calls a very “loving and supporting scene,” especially because of the government grant system

Yukon Blonde will rock the NAC with Hey Rosetta! on Nov. 22.

Photo: Courtesy of Olivia Jaffe

that’s in place for Canadian musicians.

“I’m really happy that the Conservatives aren’t back in power, because that was getting completely stripped,” said Innes. “I love that about Canada. The country is really supportive of the arts, and the

artists within the community are really supportive of each other, which is really cool.”

Innes and his band showed off their passion for Canadian politics this past month during election season. Yukon Blonde joined forces with Hey Rosetta! to urge their fans to

vote in the federal election on Oct. 19. Their collaborative song, “Land You Love”, was part of the anti-Harper campaign #ImagineOct20th that was supported by numerous Canadian artists including Feist and Dan Mangan.

With the Conservatives out of power, and having a brand new sound to share with their fans, it seems like the best possible time for Innes and his band to return to one of their favourite cities in the country.

“Every time we’ve played there, literally every time we’ve played there, the crowd is incredible. Ottawa’s such a wicked rock and roll town.”

Yukon Blonde will be playing with Hey Rosetta! at the NAC on Nov. 22 at 8 p.m. Tickets range from $29-$37, and are available on ticketmaster.ca.

ARTS & Culture | 9

The balancing act of mental illness

U of O alumna-directed play focuses on students dealing with mental illness allegra morgado arts & culture editor

As the spotlight shone on Naomi, the lone performer onstage, she drifted around the stage with a candle in her hands and spoke to the audience of her family’s history of mental illness and suicide, specifically focusing on her great-grandmother.

This powerful introduction to (off) Balance, a play presented by TACTICS at the Arts Court Theatre which premiered on Nov. 13, set the stage for the rest of the production.

The play follows writer and performer Naomi Tessler’s real-life experience dealing with mental health issues during her freshman year at the University of British Columbia. (off) Balance was directed by University of Ottawa alumna Bronwyn Steinberg, who is also the artistic director and series curator of TACTICS, a local theatre season for independent productions. The TACTICS model allows independent companies to produce together, helping them afford larger spaces and materials needed for

more elaborate productions. (off) Balance will be showing at the Arts Court Theatre until Nov. 21. After some showings there will also be “talkbacks”, where representatives from local mental health organizations will talk to the audience about some of the issues dealt with during the play.

Even with the financial support from TACTICS, Tessler chose to use simple props and only small costume changes to tell her story, relying more on her words and occasional dancing and singing to move the production along.

Some of the props she did use, however, ended up in the hands of the audience as she interacted with different members in the front row, either speaking to them directly as other “characters”, or silently handing them objects.

Steinberg met Tessler earlier this year, as they both work in the Ottawa theatre community, and Tessler later approached her to ask to join the production when she began working on (off) Balance.

Naomi Tessler’s story shows the difficulties of students dealing with mental illness.

Photo: Courtesy of Andrew Alexander.

“It’s been fantastic working with Naomi,” said Steinberg. “Her story is at once so completely unique because she’s such a unique person, and it’s her experience, but it’s also so relatable for so many people, so I think it’s really important to be telling it, but telling it in her own special way.”

The play overall was a very simple and accurate depiction of what it’s like to deal with mental health issues as a student, especially the fear and appre-

hension that comes with reaching out for help for the first time.

Throughout the play, Tessler portrayed herself, as well as the other people who were along for her mental health journey, including her parents and doctors. She demonstrated many typical experiences one goes through when dealing with mental illness, but still kept it uniquely her own, with singing and dancing, as well as personal anecdotes of how she dealt with

the experience. (off) Balance was followed by a dance-theatre piece called feelers, which focused on the sexual harassment that young women deal with on a daily basis. When Steinberg was approached by Amelia Griffin, the choreographer for feelers, she felt that it would go well as a double-bill with (off) Balance as they had similar themes “They’re certainly about totally different things, but there’s echoes of looking at power structures, especially from a young woman’s perspective, which are often the people that don’t have as much of a voice.”

The production and performance of (off) Balance certainly gave Tessler a voice, and is a must-see for those who have dealt with or are interested in learning about mental illness on campus. (off) Balance and feelers will be showing at the Arts Court Theatre until Nov. 21. Student tickets are $20 and can be purchased online at http://artscourt.ca/ events/off-balance-and-feelers/, or at the box office at the Arts Court.

Turning the tides of the conversation on water conservation Visual art student-curated exhibit focuses on H2O issues in Canada maitland shaheen staff contributor

When given a theme of water for an assignment, seven University of Ottawa visual arts students wanted to work with a subject that was both relevant and influential.

The result of their project is Turning Tides, an upcoming exhibit at the U of O’s Gallery 115 that uses contemporary art to discuss water conservation in Canada.

The project’s press release describes the show as “an exhibition of contemporary art that explores the phenomenon of water as a fundamental ecological and cultural resource.”

The eight artists showcased in the exhibit, either visual arts students at the university or alumni, use a variety of mediums to express this message.

The curators and organizers of the exhibit were grouped together while taking the fourth-year course Curating for Contemporary Art at the U of O. The

students—Sherena Razek, Chanelle Lalonde, Megan MacLaurin, Montserrat Carrion Garcia, Emilie Gignac, Phoebe Sampey, and Jenn Fournier— divided responsibilities such as research, communications, and management.

When assigned with the theme of water, Razek says the group wanted to approach the subject in a more psychological context, studying controversial water conservation issues in Canada, “and how contemporary art can play a role in that.”

“There’s a lot of debate about it right now,” says Carrion Garcia. “We wanted to start a conversation, to see another aspect of it.”

The artworks presented vary from film, to photography, to performance. “The works seem to engage with the material aspect of water, and as a psychological resource as well, and as a ritualistic resource and how we use it in our everyday lives,” says MacLaurin.

Common objects such as dryer sheets and recycled

10 | ARTS & CULTURE

industrial materials are used in order to highlight human interactions with water.

A performance art piece by U of O alumna Cara Tierney showcases different sources of water and the varying ways humans use—and sometimes abuse—the vital resource.

Razek explains that the performance “draws a parallel between the consumption of water, and the consumption of culture.”

By using evocative artistic methods such as performance work, the exhibit takes the issue of water conservation from distant and unknown to a closer, more personal level.

Local artists have used their distinctive artistic styles to communicate the message, creating a dynamic and inclusive exhibit.

Turning Tides runs from November 30 to December 8 at Gallery 115.

The vernissage will take place Thursday, December 3 at 7 p.m. with a special performance by Cara Tierney. Admission is free.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Ty Dolla $ign • Free TC | Atlantic Records moussa sangaré-ponce staff contributor

For Ty Dolla $ign, Free TC is on a mission to release his little brother from prison for a murder he did not commit.

For the listeners, it’s one of the most diverse collection of R&B delivered in a very long time.

Free TC opens up with arguably the best song on the entire album—”LA”. The soulful ode to the City of Angels features harmonies by Brandy and James Fauntleroy, along with a verse from Kendrick Lamar. What makes this song so pleasant to listen to is that every instrument was recorded live, rather than created on a computer, delivering a more authentic sound.

The second track, “Saved”, features west coast legend E-40 and is an upbeat track that’s easy to listen to. The song about a woman thirsting for the lifestyle of the rich and famous could easily fit in with Top 40 radio.

For a stretch of two tracks, Ty Dolla $ign shares the most introspective songs of his ca-

reer with listeners. “Credit” addresses previous women in his life, clearing the air on their relationships.

“Miracle/Whenever” might be the most touching song of the whole album, featuring a recording of Ty Dolla $ign singing, while his brother is on speakerphone, recording his bars from prison. This song really gives you a sense of the mission the artist is on.

One of the biggest cameos on an album that features many is Kanye West, who makes an appearance on “Guard Down”, an inspiring song about protecting loved ones and staying strong through difficult times. The song could have been the most powerful on the album if it weren’t for the generic monologues done by the man formerly known as Diddy (he’s back to being Puff Daddy).

Fans of Ty Dolla $ign who are used to hearing his bangers in the club will be pleased by “Blasé Blasé” and “Only Right”. “Blasé Blasé” features Future, who at this point in 2015 can do no wrong, and

Rae Sremmurd with one of the best verses on the album.

“Only Right” features longtime collaborators YG, Joe Moses and TeeCee4800. Though the song has no deep, intellectual value, don’t be surprised if you hear it next time you’re out at a club with friends.

While my complaints are few and far between for Free TC, it would have been great to see a bigger contribution by the collaborators on songs like on “Know Ya” and “Actress”.

Each song on the album has it’s own distinct sound, which showcases Ty Dolla $ign’s range and creativity as an artist. Whether the music is acoustic or produced by DJ Mustard, Ty Dolla $ign delivers on every song.

With such a unique mix of sounds, the album has a little of something for everybody.

The best part of Free TC, however, might not be the music at all, but the recorded phone conversations the singer has with his brother. With a lot of highs and few lows, Ty Dolla $ign’s Free TC is clear proof that R&B is not dead.

Fashion vs. Function No need to compromise your warmth this winter zachary guitor the cord

Headwear Waterloo (CUP)—Wool is your friend. It’s a great insulator, it doesn’t retain sweat and it’s comfy as hell. You don’t have to wear dorky earmuffs or an outrageous toque to keep warm. Stick with a minimalistic beanie, toque or even a skull-cap to keep things simple.

As far as colour goes, stick with solid or simple patterns and aim for neutral colours like black, grey, navy or even a darker red. As far as hats go, it’s best to pick something versatile that will match with anything.

Layers thefulcrum.ca

Did I mention wool yet?

Get that shit on lock—hoodies, sweaters, long-sleeve tees, tank tops, you name it. If it can be made of wool, put it on your body. All jokes aside, cotton and synthetic layers also work well in the cold weather. Cotton is arguably more comfortable than most wool pieces, but where it falls is in its tendency to retain water. Wool or cotton layers include flannel shirts, oxford cloth, waffle knit shirts and knit sweaters. These look best if you keep it simple.

Jacket or coat?

I know that denim jacket looks tight, but trust me when I say it’s not worth it. This winter, opt for a jacket with a down

or synthetic fill, or a more traditional cold weather option like the peacoat or overcoat.

Down-fill jackets will warm you right up, but beware if it isn’t waterproof as down-fill insulation loses efficacy when wet. That’s where synthetic comes into play, which perform better when wet.

Peacoats and overcoats present a formal alternative to the insulated jacket, but unfortunately don’t insulate as well and lack waterproof options.

These jackets can definitely keep you warm with some proper layering. Grandpa made it, so can you.

Pants You can normally get away with the same pants you wore in the fall—jeans, chinos or jog-

gers—but there are few things you can do to make sure those legs are extra toasty. I survived my last winter wearing some heavy-ass jeans, 21 oz. per square yard to be exact. It felt like I was wearing cardboard half the time, but it was definitely worth it for the added warmth. You can also consider wearing a pair of cotton or wool long johns or a pair of synthetic pants underneath your pants on those extra cool days. If you’re poor like me, you can also slip some pyjamas underneath.

Footwear Don’t get stingy with your sock game. If you’re going to splurge on one piece this winter, definitely invest in some wool socks. With the right socks, you can get away with nearly any shoe on a dry, winter day.

When things get wet, reach for something that’s actually waterproof. If you don’t want to look like your uncle, opt for a winter boot that uses neutral colours and ideally a narrow profile. One favourite is the L.L.

Zachary Guitor helps keep you stylish when the weather gets chilly.

Photo: Courtesy of Andreas Patsiaouros.

Bean “Bean Boot,” an iconic waterproof boot that pairs perfectly with wool socks for the

winter and remain excellent rain boots for the remainder of the year.

ARTS & Culture | 11

Trans-Canada health care

While the Ontario government is making strides to upgrade transgender medical care, there’s still a long road ahead in terms of improving accessibility

Kyle Darbyson, Features Editor

Montreal 200 KM

F

or many Canadian boys, turning 18 marks a big milestone in their lives, since it symbolizes a transition away from the carefree days of childhood and into manhood.

This is true for Brynn Emond as well, except the celebration for his passage into male adulthood will have to be put on hold until an arbitrary date in the future.

As an 18-year-old transgender youth living in Ottawa, Emond knew that he was born in the wrong body since he was two years old, and since 2014 has begun taking steps to transition away from his female sex using male hormone injections.

But despite receiving support from his family and the local trans community, Emond has been left in a state of limbo with regards to the final stage of his journey—sex reassignment surgery.

“The process that you have to go through right now is long and rigorous and really just unnecessary,” he said, having been put on the waiting list to get a referral for this surgery back in August of 2014. As of this month, he still has no idea of when he will be able to move forward with the process.

Recently the Ontario government announced plans to fast-track this system by expanding access for gender affirming surgery, in the hopes of streamlining the process and cutting down on these long wait times.

While Emond claims that these proposed amendments are a step in the right direction, is it enough to help balance the scales of how health care is administered to transgendered people in Ontario and Canada at large?

Delayed transitions Most of the transgender population throuhgout the province is in the same boat as Emond.

Even though over 10 different kinds of sex reassignment surgeries are covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP), the process to apply for these insured operations is fraught with bureaucratic red tape and limited access points.

Currently, the only health clinic in Ontario that can clear patients for the surgery is the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, and the amount of applicants their staff has to process has swelled exponentially over the years. Today, the number of applicants on the wait list is nearing 1,200, which means that trans people such as Emond might have wait several years until they are even given the green light for their surgery of choice.

Obviously this situation isn’t ideal, especially given the fact that CAMH’s history has been littered with controversy surrounding their questionable therapeutic and screening practices.

While some might claim that these operations are superficial and can be put off, Emond argues that these procedures are not just cosmetic in nature. In some cases, they’re life-saving.

After all, rates of suicide are at epidemic levels in the trans community, a reality that is exacerbated by the fact that some have identified the waiting period in between getting approval and getting surgery as being the most vulner-

able time for some members of the transgender population.

“When you have to wait upwards of two years for something to happen, that’s very frustrating,” said Emond. “More than frustrating, it’s dangerous, because there are people who are suicidal because they can’t get the surgery.”

This sentiment is echoed by Tamara Chipperfield, the director of the mental health and addiction program at the Centretown Community Health Centre here in Ottawa. Chipperfield helps coordinate counseling services and hormone replacement therapy for the local transgender population and has witnessed this kind of despair first-hand.

“When we screen people for the hormone readiness assessments, over 40 per cent at intake express that they’ve either currently experiencing suicidal ideation or have in the recent past.”

The research group TransPULSE projected similar numbers with a suicide rate of 30 per cent, although that number did drop to 11 per cent if the respondents had the option of accessing full medical transitions.

Admittedly, this study also highlights the fact that a severe lack of social support amongst many trans people is also a strong determining factor in this high suicide rate.

But not only does this prolonged waiting game encourage some trans people to give up hope, it forces others to explore dangerous methods of self-medication in the interim.

According to another TransPULSE study, 25 per cent of the subjects they surveyed who use hormones admitted to acquiring them from non-

medical sources. A small percentage of respondents even confessed to conducting crude sex reassignment surgeries on themselves.

Thankfully, Dr. Eric Hoskins—the Ontario Minister of Health and Long-Term Care—recently announced plans to make amendments to Ontario’s Health Insurance Act, which would allow any qualified health care-care provider (not just CAMH staff) across the province to refer patients for this kind of surgery.

These changes would be particularly beneficial to someone like Emond, since he could obtain a referral for surgery at a local health clinic like Centretown.

As described by Ottawa Centre MPP Yasir Naqvi, this screening process could be carried out by “(any) doctor or a nurse in a community health centre in Ottawa, as long as they are trained and certified by Rainbow Health Ontario under the internationally recognized standards which is under the world association profession for trans-gender health.”

Even though the specifics of how these amendments will be rolled out is yet to be determined, Emond is just happy that the wheels of change are finally in motion.

“If every health-care practitioner can offer it, then that’s what we want. That’s perfect.”

All paths lead to Montreal While Emond and Naqvi are extremely enthused about the possibilities of these new amendments, Quinn Blue, a coordinator for the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa’s Pride Centre, remains “cautiously optimistic”.

As someone who specializes in trans health issues, Blue has reservations about the practicality of employing these new amendments, and is unsure if our current health-care system can support the flood of individuals who will be seeking these kinds of specific operations.

“It’s something that’s very minimally taught in schools, so they are not necessarily learning how to provide trans health care and are not seeking out the resources that are available to learn more.”

If anyone were to take a surface-level glance at the nationwide resources available to our trans population, they’ll find that Blue is right.

Similar to the situation with CAMH, one’s options for finding proper trans-specific surgery is limited to a single location. Right now there’s only one clinic in all of Canada, the GRS clinic in Montreal, that performs the kind of operations that can accommodate someone in Emond’s shoes (bottom surgery).

In an interview on CBC’s The Current, Dr. Pierre Brassard—a cosmetic plastic surgeon who owns and operates out of this clinic— reveals that he and his partner can only process 300 patients a year.

Even someone with poor math skills can tell that this doesn’t bode well for the close to 1,200 people who are still waiting to be

“It’s something that’s very minimally taught in schools, so they are not necessarily learning how to provide trans health care and are not seeking out the resources that are available to learn more.”— Quinn Blue, coordinator for the SFUO Pride Centre. given referrals at CAMH, let alone 75 per cent of the trans population in Ontario who state that they require medically-assisted transitions.

So, it seems like people in Emond’s position might be trading one bottleneck for another, and will be forced to spend money out of pocket to travel out of province or to the United States for the surgery they need.

As in most cases where inequality runs rampant, a shortage of education is at the centre of this lack of understanding surrounding transgender health care.

“It’s not well taught in universities and in residency programs,” said Dr. Brassard in his interview on The Current, believing that it could take several months to a year to properly train new physicians on how to complete these operations.

“It’s intricate, it’s difficult, it has many possible complications and you have to rely on experience… and really learn the trade.”

While Minister Hoskins has promised more funding to places like CAMH and the Rainbow Clinic to cope with the increased demand of patients, Naqvi says that they have no specific plans to widen the educational scope of medical programs in the province. Instead he is hoping to lead by example with the proposed amendments to the referral system.

“Our hope is that through this change and making the system far more streamlined and focusing on the health of the transgender community, that it will incentivize more medical practitioners to be able to perform that service right here in Ontario.”

Detours and roadblocks

nal Code in all public institutions.

Limbo Even though these inconsistencies serve as an uncomfortable reminder of the hurdles that many trans people still have to overcome to access health care in the year 2015, the Ontario government is still planning to move forward with their plans to improve access to genderaffirming surgery.

Naqvi remains optimistic that these amendments will pass the month-long consultation period and come into law in early 2016.

Meanwhile, Chipperfield and her employees are prepped and ready to take advantage of the new potential services at a local level, and would definitely be in favour of giving out referrals to transgender Ottawans for surgery if given the opportunity.

“We’re still waiting for more information, but we would definitely advocate that decreasing barriers and increasing accessibility for folks is at the top of our priority list.”

As for Emond, he will be forced to play this anxietydriven waiting game for a little while longer. However, he remains in good spirits of now that a little glimmer of hope has appeared on the horizon.

“Not to be overly melodramatic or anything but it’s good. It’s really nice to see that stuff is potentially going to change.”

Hopefully these policy changes can eventually be replicated nationwide and Canada’s reputation for administering universal health care can get some legitimate backing.

Unfortunately, healthcare barriers for the transgender population transcends beyond a lack of accessibility to cosmetic surgery and hormones.

According to Blue, “accessing primary care can be challenging for trans folks. So if your doctor isn’t informed about trans health care they can neglect providing even just basic health care.”

This sentiment lines up with Chipperfield’s experience as well, revealing that the hostility and outright transphobic attitudes that some of her patients received from health-care providers is so bad that “a lot of folks just avoid dealing with the health-care system because of negative experiences that they’ve had in the past.”

This kind of overt discrimination is highlighted in detail in a recent report published by Western University, which surveyed different transgender people from across Ontario. Reportedly, 40 per cent of the people they talked to recalled some forms of unsavoury treatment from their family physician, ranging from demeaning language to outright refusal of care.

These same feelings of belittlement and dejection even extend to situations that could be described as life and death. The same report details how 21 per cent of their respondents actively avoided the emergency room when they needed it.

And even though Naqvi believes that the government’s latest amendments prove “that Ontario is an open and inclusive society”, the same can’t be said for the status of trans health care at a national and federal level, which is inconsistent at best, and outright discriminatory at worst.

For one thing, gender-affirming surgeries are not insured across the board, with Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and New Brunswick not offering any kind of government sponsored coverage whatsoever.

And that’s to say nothing of the Senate’s decision to gut the important stipulations of Bill C-279 in February, which would have allowed “gender identity” to be protected under the Canadian Human Rights Act and CrimiArt: Kim Wiens

SPORTS

SPORTS EDITOR Spencer Murdock sports@thefulcrum.ca

@SpencerMurdock @FulcrumSports

Gee-Gees ‘Pink the Rink’, dethrone #1 Carabins Late game heroics push Gees ahead in special performance Dylan Yegendorf Fulcrum Contributor

T

he Ottawa GeeGees women’s hockey team won on and off the ice on Nov. 15.

Hosting the nation’s topranked Université de Montréal Carabins, to whom they lost 4-1 the previous week, the Gees had a chance to avenge the loss and gain possession of first place in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) with a win.

Gee-Gees women’s hockey once again teamed up with Breast Cancer Action Ottawa, dedicating all of Sunday’s “Pink the Rink” match proceeds to the charitable organization.

Breast Cancer Action Ottawa is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for patients of breast cancer, the most common cancer among Canadian women that affects 25,000 each year. It’s a cause that surely hits close to home for players and fans alike.

The Gees played inspired hockey from the first minute on and applied constant pressure on Montréal, which produced the game’s opening goal

by Mélina Roy.

The Carabins wasted no time responding with a vengeance, quickly tying the game on a power play then converting a Gee-Gee turnover, making it 2-1 for the visitors.

Coming off a high-powered first period, the Carabins seemed intent on putting Ottawa away in the second. With a relentless attack, the Carabins generated countless scoring chances throughout the second period.

Although the second period was lopsided in Montréal’s favour, they could not find the back of the net thanks to redhot Gee-Gees goalie Maude Lévesque-Ryan, who thwarted every scoring effort put forth by the Carabins throughout the period.

Lévesque-Ryan has been brilliant this season, leading the RSEQ with a .951 save percentage.

The Gee-Gees ultimately repaid their busy netminder with a game-tying goal by Roxanne Rioux.

Ottawa Head Coach Yanick Evola had his goaltender to thank for the team’s narrow escape of the second period. “I thought we were lucky to have a tie after two periods, Maude Lévesque-Ryan did a good job

The Gee-Gees are proving their place among the nation’s best with their performance this year.

Photo: Marta Kierkus

for us in the second,” Evola told Sports Services.

In the final period, LévesqueRyan’s magic wavered, and the consistent attack of the Carabins finally came to fruition.

They notched two quick goals to begin the third, assuming a commanding 4-2 lead over the Gee-Gees.

But the resilient Gees refused to give up and matched their opponent with an offensive onslaught of their own.

With the Carabins back on their heels, the Gee-Gees forced several penalties late in the game, capitalizing on two of them with power play goals

by Violane Houle and Mélodie

Bouchard, to tie the game at 4-4.

In the dying minutes of a game seemingly headed to overtime, a loose puck in front of the Carabins’ net was picked up by Bouchard who grinded it in for her second goal of the night and the Gee-Gees’ gamewinner.

The Gee-Gees came out of Sunday’s “Pink the Rink” game with a rousing 5-4 victory and possession of first place atop the RSEQ, as well as a successful benefit for Breast Cancer Action Ottawa.

The Gees will travel to Montreal next to take on the Concordia Stingers on Nov. 22.

to the shooting of Catherine Traer.

The Gees closed out the 6550 win after a strong second half. Traer led the team with 15 points. Point guard Julia Soriano was also dominant in the game with a 13-point, sixrebound performance.

For the Gee-Gees men, being the number one team in the nation means every competitor has the game circled on their calendars, looking to take their shot at the best.

The game would start much slower than their typical pace after Lakehead hung with them throughout the first quarter, with the Gee-Gees only holding a narrow 23-22 lead until Mike L’Africain took

the game over.

The Gees ramped up their offence behind L’Africain’s 25 points to come out ahead of the Thunderwolves 89-61.

Four players scored in the double digits for the Gees, including a dominant 13-point, 13-rebound effort from Nathan McCarthy. Brandon Robinson also sunk 3 of 5 threes for 14 points.

Riding high from their wins, both teams would struggle harder in Guelph.

Both Gryphons teams came to fight, handing the GeeGees everything they had, but, luckily for the garnet and grey, they couldn’t muster enough to get a win.

The women’s team was

down for three quarters and at one point they trailed by 14, only to mount a fantastic comeback.

Once again, Catherine Traer was the star for the Gees with a huge 24 points on the night.

The tenacity of the team showed in their ability to come back for a massive win, improving their record to 4-0 on the young season.

The men also had their hands full with an inspired Gryphons squad who never let the Gees get much breathing room.

A vital 26-point third quarter finally gave the team the space they needed to close out the tight 77-70 win following

a heavy push in the waning minutes of the game.

It was another big game for McCarthy as he led the team with 15 points, along with seven rebounds. Caleb Agada was also a dangerous force, netting 14 and pulling down 12 rebounds.

With both teams remaining perfect on the road trip, the men defended their rank as top squad in the country, while the women continued their bid to break the top 10.

Returning to Montpetit Hall for a final home stand before the holiday break, they will take on Algoma on Nov. 21 at 6 and 8 p.m., and then Windsor and Western on Nov. 27 and Nov. 28.

Gee-Gees hoops stay perfect in road stand

Photo: Marta Kierkus

Spencer Murdock Sports Editor

Following a fantastic home opening weekend, both GeeGees basketball teams took to the road for matchups against

the Lakehead Thunderwolves and Guelph Gryphons.

In the first game of the double header on Nov. 13, the GeeGee women stormed out to a convincing 21-point lead at one point in the game thanks

14 | SPORTS

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Football analysis? There’s an app for that

Gee-Gee athlete and U of O students kick off sports software company eric davidson news editor

When it’s deep in the fourth quarter of an important football game, coaches need all the information they can get.

In most leagues, using video review during the game is a no-go, so coaches are starting to use photographs to analyze players’ position to prepare a winning play.

A group of University of Ottawa students have created a company to refine that process using, you guessed it, an app.

“It improves a process that coaches already use called ‘still photo analysis’,” said Tunch Akkaya, a Gee-Gees football player, graduate student in engineering management at the U of O and cofounder of GameStrat.

“It used to be that somebody up in the stands would take a bunch of pictures,” he said. “They’d print them out, throw them in a binder and

run down to the sidelines for coaches and players to use.”

But technology has come to the rescue—it’s 2015, after all.

“It’s all done on one device, it’s streamlined, it saves a lot of time,” said Akkaya. “You can see positioning, the type of defence or offence they ran… being prepared is what it comes down to.”

Akkaya got together with fellow students Elijah Wu, who’s doing his masters in computer science, and Marvin Reyes, an undergrad in software engineering, to get started.

Akkaya said he came up with the idea in the summer of 2014, when a rule change allowed tablets to be used on the field. “I said wow, this is a perfect opportunity,” he said. They got funding from the U of O’s Startup Garage program, which looks to help grow the companies of young entrepreneurs, and were on their way.

Coming up with a product is all well and good, but how can you be sure it works? The Gee-Gees were willing to put it to the test—by using it every game this season.

“The app was extremely helpful,” said Arthur Pidgeon, assistant offensive coach with the Gee-Gees. “It would show us what they were doing to adjust to our plays, and it helped us make in-game adjustments rather than doing it at halftime.”

GameStrat’s success could go beyond just the U of O team.

“We’ve had plenty of interest from the other Canadian university football teams,” said Akkaya. “Our plan is to go and demo the product for them and see where it goes.”

Right now they’re focusing on the photos, but GameStrat has a lot more in store. “We’re planning on adding all new analytics,” said Akkaya. Success rates of a play call, timing

Hand held review technology is the future in sports.

of plays—“any type of beneficial data that a coach might want,” he said.

“Our plan now is just to market,” he said. The group has plans to touch down in Texas in January for the

American Football Coaches Association Convention.

We’ve started to see a rise of the statisticians in sports.

Even Hollywood has gotten in on the action, idolizing Oakland A’s general manager Billy

Photo : Kim Wiens

Bean for popularizing the use of statistics in baseball. The creators of GameStrat are hoping they can ride a similar wave in football, and who knows where it will take them next.

It’s time to reform sports gambling

Explaining the war against one-day fantasy leagues Garry Balaganthan Fulcrum Contributor

There is no two ways about it, sports betting will always be present regardless of its legality.

The FBI has launched an investigation into whether or not one-day fantasy sports sites based in the United States, like FanDuel and DraftKings, are illegal gambling operations.

What these new sites promotes is a lower-risk, higherreward experience and they should be supported, not forced to close up shop. These sites have massive amounts of Canadians playing on them and if they are deemed illegal, they will be shut down or forced to move off-shore.

Under current U.S. law, no Internet form of gambling can exist whose base is in the United States and whose customer base are residents of the country. The model both FanDuel and DraftKings institutes becomes a point of contention when analyzed.

Daily fantasy operator sites like DraftKings charge an en-

Legality of one-day fantasy is truly a gamble.

Photo: CC, Shullv. Edits: Kim Wiens

trance fee, allow players to build a team of real-world athletes, and pay out the winners in cash—all the while arguing that the aforementioned law doesn’t apply to their business, because there is a level of skill for which an exemption exists.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the FBI has reportedly started asking DraftKings customers about their experiences with the company.

The investigation comes a week after it was revealed a DraftKings employee won $350,000 on a FanDuel daily contest, sparking speculations about trading insider information, and leading some sponsorship partners to pull support.

Company conflict of interest policies prevent employees from participating in their own companies, but there is no precedence for using information learned at your work to seek monetary gain from another company.

In the wake of the scandal, both FanDuel and DraftKings

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put a temporary ban on playing paid-for fantasy games for their employees. FanDuel turned that into a full ban a short time later, barring its employees from playing competitors’ daily fantasy challenges, and restricting employees of other fantasy operations from using its own site.

Despite the recent media buzz on the topic, gambling and sports have been closely linked since as early as the first Olympiad, with prospectors betting on eventual winners.

The days of dealing with a sketchy bookmaker putting money on games should be long gone, services like lottery sanctioned betting and oneday fantasy is the future and it’s here now.

No matter the circumstance, sports gambling is sure to undergo many changes in the near future, with leagues seeing the evolution and regulation of gambling as the next frontier for revenue and increasing the popularity of professional sports.

Sports | 15

Be mad, but let Greg Hardy play

Off-field actions shouldn’t affect sports, no matter how atrocious Moussa Sangaré-Ponce Staff Contributor

Dallas Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy should be allowed to play football. Let’s not forget that Hardy was found guilty of assault and that he served his four-game suspension for that. However, he did appeal the judge’s decision, and in the jury trial all the charges against him were dropped and his record was expunged.

Now, there was always outrage around the fact that the Dallas Cowboys signed the troublesome Hardy to an incentive-laden contract. However, cries for added punishment by the league or his immediate release from the Cowboys became exponentially louder after Deadspin obtained and released the police pictures of his bruised girlfriend, Nicole Holder, over a week ago.

When former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice assaulted his fiancée, there was outrage—the video of him dragging the unconscious body of Janay Rice out of an elevator was the catalyst for his football demise. It forced the NFL to act retroactively on their punishment, which opened up a Pandora’s Box for the league.

Hardy’s incident took place before the Rice fiasco, and up until the NFL acted on that scandal, Hardy managed to fly

Hardy’s lack of remorse and smug attitude turns the stomach of many but in the end, the pubic can’t tell him not to play.

under the radar.

Since 2000, there have been at least 50 NFL players found guilty in cases of domestic violence according to ESPN’s Outside The Lines. However, Ray Rice and Greg Hardy’s cases are the only ones that really drew public ire. Why? Well it’s simple—the images gave the public a way to quantify what

happened.

Domestic abuse is now under the microscope in the NFL. The outrage is more than understandable, the timing however is not. The evidence and testimonies presented in Hardy’s first trial are as graphic as the images. Yet, as it was the case with the Ray Rice scandal and many other major news stories,

the anger isn’t expressed until we have visual proof of the damage.

Would Greg Hardy be playing right now if he had broken his girlfriend’s collarbone or if he had attacked a pregnant girlfriend? Because, by the way, two NFL players did exactly that and haven’t been punished for it, let alone faced scrutiny

Photo: YouTube

from the media or the public.

Arizona Cardinals linebacker Daryl Washington and Ray McDonald, recently cut by the Chicago Bears saw almost no repercussions on their actions.

You might be right to call Greg Hardy disgusting and completely lacking in remorse for his actions.

However you should have

been calling for his head from the start, not now that we have the photos to confirm how sickening his actions were.

Like it or not, he has the right to play but, with more awareness and less tolerance of this issue in the league, hopefully this will be the last time we have to see this kind of scandal in the NFL.

Women’s Hockey Ottawa 5 Montreal 4 Women’s Volleyball Ryerson 3 Ottawa 0 Toronto 3 Ottawa 0

Women’s Basketball Ottawa 65 Lakehead 50 Ottawa 72 Guelph 69

Men’s Basketball Ottawa 89 Lakehead 61 Ottawa 77 Guelph 70

16 | SPORTS

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OPINIONS Time to overhaul General Assemblies OPINIONS EDITOR David Campion-Smith

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

Use the latest GA as a chance to strike down apathy on campus David Campion-Smith Opinions Editor

A

nother semester, another failed General Assembly (GA).

For those who missed the memo, there was a GA held on campus last Saturday, Nov. 14.

From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Students were given time to question their student government, and debate motions presented by other student groups.

That was the dream, but this time the GA not only didn’t meet its quorum, but there also weren’t any motions presented, since none had collected the required 100 signatures ahead of the GA. The biggest reason that GAs are held in the first place is, to provide a platform for student requests to be heard by our student government. And, yet again, it was unable to happen. With this latest failure, it

might be time to acknowledge that the current GA system is failing—and that serious redesign is needed.

If the goal is to get students to vote for a motion, then why not open up an online community where students can find these motions and get involved? There are a multitude of ways to do it, some of them are as simple as Facebook posts, or an updated page on their website detailing the motions.

Voting shouldn’t be open indefinitely but it could be open for a week to provide people with plenty of opportunities to vote. Combine all of those opportunities with the ease that comes from being able to get involved virtually. While moving onto a more digital platform is not a guarantee that engagement will increase, at this point things can’t really get any worse.

As disheartening as it is that no student measures were put forward and that this GA was

another failure, we shouldn’t give up on the idea of direct democratic participation on campus.

Creating a system that creates results that students will actually use won’t be easy, but effective communication is important. A good sign is that the current Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) executives listened to students and made the GA on campus, and during a time that wouldn’t conflict with class, in an attempt to give more students the chance to attend.

Unfortunately, there is much less that the SFUO can do to solve the problem of no motions being submitted, since it is up to those who bring up the motion to find their 100 names.

The fact that no motions were brought forward speaks to a deeper vein of political apathy that isn’t going to be solved by a quick fix, like making things digital.

The problem of political apa-

The General Assembly on Nov. 14.

thy isn’t helped by the fact that the SFUO didn’t release any social media posts letting students know the GA was taking place, though they did send out mass e-mails.

Students can’t be expected

to get involved if they don’t know what’s happening and the SFUO has to adopt a more aggressive promotion campaign if they’re planning on sticking with the GA model.

After a General Assembly

Photo: Marta Kierkus

which didn’t even have motions submitted for debate, let alone meet quorum, it’s time to rethink what direct participation in student government looks like on the University of Ottawa campus.

Democratic stability save the Queen

Canadian monarchy question would cause constitutional chaos Madison McSweeney Fulcrum Contributor

Thirty-eight years after Pierre Trudeau’s infamous pirouette behind the Queen, Justin Trudeau’s government has sparked another monarchyrelated controversy.

Less than a week after being sworn in, newly appointed Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion removed the Queen’s portrait from the foyer of the Foreign Affairs building, to be replaced with a pair of landscapes

by Québec painter Alfred Pellan. While the Liberals defended the move as a restoration of the building’s original artwork, Monarchist League of Canada chairman Robert Finch accused Trudeau of attempting to “excise” pictures of the Queen.

For what it’s worth, the removal seems like a misstep. As Finch told the Huffington Post Canada, it’s “natural to have a

portrait of the head of state in a prominent place,” such as the Foreign Affairs building. The portrait also possessed significant historical value, having been installed in 2011 to mark the first visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

But this controversy runs deeper than the government’s choice of decor.

A May 2015 Forum Research poll that surveyed almost 1,300 Canadians found that nearly “4 in 10 favour abolishing monarchy in Canada upon the death of the Queen.”

However, doing away with the Canadian monarchy would be a grievous error.

Firstly, the monarchy can’t be abandoned without opening a constitutional can of worms.

In response to the Forum poll, U of O public and international affairs assistant professor Phillipe Lagassé told the CBC that abolishing the monar-

Queen Elizabeth II.

Photo: CC, PolizeiBerlin

chy would not only necessitate re-opening the constitution,

but also extensive consultations with provinces and First

Nations who “would want to renegotiate their roles in the confederation.”

Considering the current domestic and international issues facing Canada, is this really the best time to mess with Canadian identity and re-start the constitutional amendment process?

Canada’s symbols and traditions foster unity and shape our national identity. Monarchs such as Queen Elizabeth, who has visited Canada 22 times, provide Canadians with nonpartisan figures to rally behind during times of triumph and times of strife, not to mention her on-point head gear.

Secondly, the Crown plays an essential role in maintaining stability. As Lagassé explains on his website, the institution of the Crown remains stable throughout democratic turnover, “allowing the executive to enforce the law, attend to Cana-

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dians, and operate the machinery of government.”

Pragmatism aside, Canada’s connection to Britain is a legacy worth celebrating.

The traditions that have kept our democracy functional and stable, including our Westminster parliamentary and common-law judicial systems, all came from Britain. It was Queen Victoria who chose Ottawa as the capital of the province of Canada in 1857. It was a British Privy Council ruling that recognized women as persons. Our Charter of Rights and Freedoms would likely never have been written had it not been for the English Magna Carta.

Canada’s version of constitutional monarchy retains a link to our history without sacrificing our national sovereignty. In the face of increasing apathy towards the monarchy, I say God save our gracious Queen.

OPINIONS | 17

Work is work, and it deserves compensation Cherie Wong

Fulcrum Contributor Imagine graduating from your undergraduate degree, after four years of constant financial and academic stress.

What are your next steps?

With no relevant work experience or professional references, your future might not be as bright as you had imagined.

Could an unpaid internship be your way to a successful career? It might, but it probably won’t be.

The story of David Hyde, a 22-year-old intern at the United Nations (UN), raises questions around the ethics of unpaid internships. Hyde was living in a tent in Geneva, as he was unable to afford housing while doing unpaid work for the UN. This story led to worldwide backlash, which highlighted the UN’s hypocrisy of not paying their interns while advocating that everyone who works has the right to remuneration with article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It’s now a common practice both in Canada and worldwide, for organizations to not pay their interns, claiming that benefits from the experience of working at the company will outweigh the financial losses incurred while doing unpaid work. The legality of unpaid internships is primarily determined at the provincial level, and each province has their own requirements.

You don’t have to sit in school to stand among greatness.

By Levin C. Handy (per http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cwpbh.04326) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

No more UN-paid internships

Photo: CC, Patrick Gruban

According to the Canadian Intern Association, unpaid internships are illegal in Ontario unless they’re part of a program approved by a college, university, or secondary school board, provide training for certain professions, or meet the conditions to be considered a trainee.

Unpaid interns currently make up about 10-20 per cent of the UN’s work force, and Hyde’s story has struck a chord with other interns, leading to protests and demonstrations being held by interns in the Geneva and New York headquarters last week.

A major problem with the practice of unpaid internships is that it can be abused by organizations to obtain free labour with no obligation to offer employment afterwards. Many

students and recent graduates seek out internship opportunities as a stepping-stone to a career in their field—believing an internship can help get their foot in the door at a prestigious company or organization. Another issue with this system is that it only allows those on the higher end of the socioeconomic scale to work for major organizations. This is especially problematic when an organization’s mandate, like the UN, is to fight for the rights of the poorest and most disadvantaged.

As an organization that promotes international cooperation, a goal that requires at least some understanding of different socioeconomic situations, the UN puts their mission in a precarious state by only making internships at-

tractive to upper-class citizens.

A uniform employee make-up isn’t a good thing when the UN works to co-operate on a global scale—where the environment is anything but homogenous.

As both a student and an unpaid intern, I can say that unpaid internships are less than ideal. The unique experience and learning opportunity that internships offer doesn’t make up for the stress of a precarious financial situation.

It’s time to get rid of unpaid internships and acknowledge that work deserves pay. The federal government should take real action towards the immoral practice of unpaid internships, so those trying to break into the job market don’t need to choose between a full stomach and valuable work experience.

Businesses should decide if tips are right for themelves Nicholas Robinson Staff Contributor

Earlier this year, Joe’s Crab Shack, a large restaurant chain in the U.S. eliminated the practice of tipping and increased the pay of its workers. As several other American restaurants have moved towards ending tipping, the future of this long held practice is being called into question. The idea of abolishing tipping shouldn’t be completely dismissed, but is a decision for individual businesses to make.

Tipping is the act of overpaying a bill, usually by around 10 to 15 per cent. The extra money is supposed to go to the employee who provided the service, usually as a measure of the quality of service provided.

There are several argu-

18 | OPINIONS

ments to be made against tipping.

First, tipping can easily be used by businesses as an excuse to not pay staff the minimum wage of $11.25 but instead the serving wage of $9.55 in Ontario.

Adjusting someone’s salary to expect tips forces the customer to pick up financial burdens that the company should be carrying. Tipping can also be arbitrary, as what constitutes good service varies from person to person—a server can’t be expected to guess each different standard.

Tipping is also hard to regulate. In Canada, tips are supposed to be declared to the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA), and can count towards income tax. However in 2012, the CRA found large-scale tax evasion through unreported

tips—amounting to thousands of dollars per waiter.

On the other hand, there are benefits to tipping. First, the cost of the wages gets passed on to the customer anyways.

Joe’s Crab Shack and other restaurants that have eliminated tipping all increased the menu prices by 12-15 per cent.

Furthermore, while there are many different standards of good service, there are definitely clear, widely accepted expectations to be met while doing any kind of work in customer service. Eliminating tipping could take away the incentive for workers to provide good service. As for taxes, does the government really help low-wage workers by taking thousands of dollars from them?

If the government wishes to improve the standard of

living for low-paid workers, they should do so by lowering taxes, encouraging access to training and education, as well as encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship.

The government can’t support Canada’s low-wage workers through salary quotas and red tape.

In the end, it should be up to each business, in consultation with their employees, to decide what works best. Business owners should be trusted to have the knowledge, the experience and the flexibility to both serve their customers and have sustainable business practices.

There isn’t any one business practice that will suit the needs of every restaurant, and this should be considered when it’s Canada’s turn to decide the future of tipping.

› Thomas Edison: The world’s most extraordinary failure never gave up.

Thank goodness.

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

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Heckle

People who are offended

by Starbucks cups David Campion-Smith Opinions Editor

Recently Starbucks has faced criticism for dropping designs from their annual Christmas cups and opting instead for a plain red and green cup. One of the most vocal critics of the new design was Donald Trump, who suggested that a boycott of Starbucks might be in order. What everyone seems to be forgetting, Trump included, is that it’s just a disposable coffee cup.

This change in design upset some Christians, who pointed to it as further evidence of the long running societal “War on Christmas”. The important thing to note however is that Starbucks cups have never had Christian symbols on them, not even for their Christmas cups.

Previous seasonal cup designs have had snowflakes, snowmen, and people tobogganing on them. While these symbols are connected

to the same time of year that Christmas occurs, they aren’t ‘Christian’ symbols, so it isn’t like Starbucks is parting with a long-running tradition of Christmas bible verses on their cups.

The controversy over the plain red cups prompted two social media campaigns. One, called #MerryChristmasStarbucks, was for people to vent their frustrations over not being able to look at snowflakes while drinking their coffee.

The other campaign #itsjustacup, was a reminder to people that there are more important issues to be giving our attention to than a simple cup.

Another fact used to support this theory of a “War on Christmas” is the stores and other locations that say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. Holidays are not a zero-sum game, and a society can celebrate all of them if they wish. Saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry

Photo: CC, Rudolf Schuba, Edits: Kim Wiens

Christmas” is just a recognition of the fact there are other holidays that are being celebrated during that time, not a condemnation or insult of whichever holiday you’re celebrating.

The fact is that there is no “War on Christmas”. Christian holidays are more insti-

tutionalized than any other and sales around the holidays were over $3-billion and represented almost 20 per cent of total retail earnings for the U.S. in 2013, according to Statista.

Students get time off around events like Christmas and many employers close

their shops because they know they won’t have any business during those days.

Even Starbucks still has a full menu of holiday-themed drinks like gingerbread lattes and peppermint mochas.

There is very little point to getting angry over the design of Starbucks cups—the

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company isn’t going to change it. It sounds like a cliché but there truly are bigger issues to worry about than the design of simple disposable cups.

In any case, it seems that the new Starbucks design and the resulting outcry is saying a lot more about current society than the company itself.

OPINIONS | 19

DISTRACTIONS Dear Di

FEATURES EDITOR Kyle Darbyson

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

Dear Di, My boyfriend enjoys watching porn and, while I know this makes me sound like an insecure wreck, it honestly makes me feel like I’m not enough. I know a lot of girlfriends are fine with it, so I’m wondering if I should try to be more understanding or if I’m crossing the line by telling him to stop?

-Porno No No Dear Di,

Dear PNN,

Throughout my dating history, I’ve always stuck to seeing women.

However, recently I’ve found myself checking out other men and harbouring feelings of longing towards the male body. Is this just a curious phase or am I bisexual?

-The Curious Case Dear TCC, I believe that sexuality is fluid in nature and that we don’t need to put a concrete label on everything. If you’re starting to develop a sexual awareness of other men then, by all means, experiment away. You’re never going to get a better time to explore the full spectrum of your sexuality than during your time in university!

If you want to explore this side of yourself, try hanging out with a guy that you have the hots for and see how it goes. Pay attention to how you feel and how you react to his body language. Are you sexually attracted to this person? Can you see yourself being in a more personal relationship that involves kissing or cuddling?

If you find that it’s more than just curiosity, you can try to pursue your interests more intimately.

And if you feel that label of bisexuality applies to you at this point then own it! But always remember that labels don’t encompass us as people, and how you define your own sexuality is your personal choice.

In the end, just acknowledge what your mind and body are telling you. They’re likely to lead you down the right path ;)

Love, Di

20 | DISTRACTIONS

Sex position of the week: the Wheelbarrow Had a rough week? Use this position to plow away all that stress. Ladies, get on all fours and have your man pick you up by the pelvis.

Grip your man’s waist tightly with your thighs.

Not only will you get deep penetration, but you’ll get an amazing arm workout in the process!

We live in a society where many parents still find it uncomfortable to discuss sex with their children and sex education was (up until very recently) very restrictive in schools. So, in this respect, porn has historically served to educate youth in the art of love making and (for some) has triggered their own sexual awakening.

While the sex depicted in most pornography has no semblance of what one should expect in real life, it still provides an introduction to basic positions and concepts that could prove useful in future steamy endeavours.

On the practical side of things, asking your man to cut out porn entirely is a pretty tall order.

With porn being so widely available thanks to the Internet, it’s difficult to find a male (or female) who hasn’t indulged in the occasional naughty web video. Single men on average watch 40 minutes of porn three times a week, while men who are in a relationship watch porn on average 1.7 times a week for 20 minutes. So, statistically speaking, your partner has probably already reduced his porn-viewing habit since he started going steady with you.

Plus, it’s difficult to ask someone to stop with a routine that, according to a Université de Montréal study on porn usage, develops around the age of 10.

However, if this fact still makes you feel uncomfortable, you can always try discussing these feelings with your partner and establish some ground rules. If he causally makes jokes about his saucy search history, you can ask him to stop. If his virtual voyeuristic viewing habit is eating up time that he would otherwise be spending with you, then you can ask him to shift around his schedule.

Also, jealousy shouldn’t be a factor in how you decide to handle things. Some women feel betrayed that their partner watches porn, but, as many men explain it, it has nothing to do with finding their partner less attractive. After all, masturbating is an excellent form of relieving stress and appreciating your body. For a lot of guys (and women too) porn is simply a means to an end, nothing more.

At the end of the day, porn is nothing to be afraid of and it’s definitely possible to peacefully co-exist with it under your roof ;)

Love, Di

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nov. 20 to nov. 26, 2015

THRYLLABUS

MUSIC arts Sports FUN Thinking

Friday, Nov. 20

Gee-Gees Women’s Volleyball vs. Brock, Montpetit Hall—7 p.m.

Baby(a)lone (Luxembourg import), 30th European Union Film festival, Bytowne Cinema—7 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 21

Ottawa Pop Expo (featuring William Shatner and Brett Dalton), opening day, EY Centre—10 a.m.

Help Santa Toy Parade, downtown Ottawa—11 a.m.

Gee-Gees Women’s Basketball vs. Algoma University, Montpetit Hall—6 p.m.

Gee-Gees Men’s Basketball vs. Algoma University, Montpetit Hall—8 p.m.

The Barenaked Ladies, National Arts Centre—8 p.m.

Vanessa Carlton, Mavericks—8 p.m. ‘da KINK in my

Hair, Ottawa Little Theatre—7:30 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 22

Hey Rosetta! with Yukon Blonde, National Arts Centre—8 p.m.

ComMedia Convergence Festival, showcases the best community media from across Canada, opening day, Carleton University—8 p.m.

Monday, Nov. 23

World War Women (exhibit), opening day, Canadian War Museum—9:30 a.m.

Exotic World and The Burlesque Revival (documentary screening), fundraiser for the Ottawa Burlesque Community, Arts Court Theatre—7 p.m.

Tuesday, Nov. 24

Breaking Bad as Literature: Why is Walter White so fascinating?, Westboro Brainery—7 p.m.

Lawrence Hill Q&A, talking about his new book The Illegal,

hosted by the CBC’s Waubgeshig Rice, Centretown United Church—7 p.m.

Wednesday, Nov. 25

3D printing workshop, U of O Makerspace, free admission, Morisset Hall —12 p.m.

Resistencia: The Flight for the Aguan Valley (documentary), Ottawa premiere, Mayfair Theatre—6:30 p.m.

Anne of Green Gables: The Musical, Centrepointe Theatre—7:30 p.m.

Thursday, Nov. 26

Christmas Market, showcase of handcrafted creations, free admission, Canadian Museum of History—12 p.m.

Ismael (Spanish import), 30th European Union Film festival, Bytowne Cinema—6:55 p.m.

Matthew Good, Chaotic Neutral tour, National Arts Centre—8 p.m.

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DISTRACTIONS | 21

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22 | LETTERS

thefulcrum.ca

Volume 76, Issue 12, Nov. 19, 2015 Masking our alcoholism since 1942.

Phone: (613) 695-0061 | Fax: (613) 695-9006 631 King Edward Ave. Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5 Recycle this paper or you don’t get a refill.

EDITORIAL World needs to unite after all acts of extremism

Nadia “Long Island Iced Tea” Drissi El-Bouzaidi Editor-in-Chief editor@thefulcrum.ca Devin “Old Fashioned” Orsini Production Manager production@thefulcrum.ca Savannah “Cosmopolitan” Awde Managing Editor content@thefulcrum.ca Eric “Screwdriver” Davidson News Editor news@thefulcrum.ca Allegra “Sex On The Beach” Morgado Arts & Culture Editor arts@thefulcrum.ca Spencer “Faderade” Murdock Sports Editor, Rap Correspondent sports@thefulcrum.ca Kyle “Tequila Sunrise” Darbyson Features Editor features@thefulcrum.ca David “Mojito” Campion-Smith Opinions Editor opinions@thefulcrum.ca Reine “Rum & Coke” Tejares Online Editor online@thefulcrum.ca Kim “Whiskey Sour” Wiens Visual Editor visual@thefulcrum.ca Jaclyn “Martini” McRae-Sadik Associate News Editor associate.news@thefulcrum.ca Marta “Dark’N’Stormy” Kierkus Staff Photographer photographer@thefulcrum.ca Zach “Sazerac” Verret Multimedia Coordinator multimedia@thefulcrum.ca Nicole “Mint Julep” Rutkowski Associate Features Editor associate.features@thefulcrum. ca David “Tom Collins” Agbaire Proofreader Deidre “Bloody Mary” Butters Advertising Manager ads@thefulcrum.ca Dayne “Gin & Tonic” Moyer General Manager manager@thefulcrum.ca

Contributors

Raghad “Sidecar” Sheikh-Khalil Nicholas “Sangria” Robinson Madison “Manhattan” McSweeney Cherie “Caesar” Wong Moussa “Margarita” Sangaré-Ponce Dylan “Daiquiri” Yegendorf Garry “Brooklyn” Balangathan Maitland “Amaretto Sour” Shaheen Lindsay “Moscow Mule” MacMillan Hannah “Mimosa” Schickedanz Rémi “White Russian” Yuan

Cover art: Kim Wiens

The Bataclan theatre was the site of over 100 deaths.

M

any of us won’t soon forget what happened on November 13, 2015 in Paris, France. Six different attacks, five shootings, two suicide bombings, and one hostage situation resulted in the deaths of over 129 people, with hundreds more injured.

As the facts became clearer and the body count continued to climb, individual citizens and world leaders alike pledged their support to the French people.

“Our hearts and thoughts and prayers go out to our French cousins in this dark and terrible time,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, while U.S. President Barack Obama called the events an “attack on all of humanity.”

The next morning newspapers around the world detailed the horrors of the previous night on their front pages. Facebook introduced features to change profile pictures into the colours of the French flag, and safety checks for people in Paris to let their friends and family know that they were safe.

ISIS (also know as IS, ISIL or Daesh) has since claimed responsibility for the attacks, and France has already increased bombing of targets in Iraq and Syria.

As more and more details of the

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horrific crimes were made public, we also learned of the small acts of kindness and humanity, from #PorteOuverte to the unknown man playing John Lennon’s “Imagine” at a piano outside the Bataclan theatre.

However it’s important to note that on the night before, world leaders were not roused in the middle of the night, and Facebook didn’t offer safety checks, even though many other people had been killed at the hands of ISIS. On Nov. 12 twin suicide bombings ripped through Beirut, targeting a school, marketplace, and mosque, killing 46. On that same day al-Shabab fighters killed 147 at Garissa University in Kenya.

The day before, 19 were killed at a funeral in Baghdad. A few weeks before, a commercial airliner was downed in Egypt’s Sinai Pennisula, killing 224, most of whom were Russian nationals.

There was nothing wrong with the overall response to the Paris attacks In fact it was extremely moving. The issue is that it wasn’t the way most people reacted to the tragedies—if they even took notice.

The attacks in Paris are not an affront to the tragedy in Beirut, instead it’s an extension of it. We need to start showing the same horror and compassion to victims of extremism in

the Middle East, as we do when they hit the Western World. As Elie Faras demonstrated in an Al Jazeera English editorial, one doesn’t get used to hearing of senseless acts of violence, even when they’re a common occurrence.

“People believe that it must have become second nature for us Lebanese to hear of attacks. They assume that living in a country teetering on the edge of chaos means being ready for whatever such chaos throws our way,” wrote Faras. “But it’s never the case.”

As Faras shows, compassion isn’t mutually exclusive.

“The news came as a shock to me.

Paris is a city I love. When I last visited, I stayed on the very street where the Bataclan concert venue is located. I know those avenues and those boulevards,” wrote Faras. “It broke my heart to see the maps pinpointing the locations where the same harm was being inflicted upon Parisians as had been unleashed on my people just a few hours earlier.”

It’s important to make the connection between the two attacks, not only because they seem to have been perpetrated by the same terrorist organization, but because the victims of one of the attacks may be seen as the perpetrators of the others.

In Canada, Muslims have already

Photo: CC, Celine

been targeted by those who blame them for ISIS’ actions. On the evening of Nov. 14, a Peterborough Mosque was set ablaze, while a Muslim mother was attacked a few days later when picking up her kids from school near Toronto.

Already the finger is being pointed not solely at the extremist organization who committed these crimes, but the brave men, women, and children who are trying desperately to escape them.

News of a Syrian passport being found in connection to one of the assailants have stirred discussion on Canada’s pledge to welcome 25,000 Syrian refugees in the next six weeks.

Conservative Premier Brad Wall of Saskatchewan has asked the federal government put their plan to resettle refugees on hold, citing security concerns.

Those who argue that we can’t accept these refugees as a result of these events, keep in mind, this is why they’re running.For those who present a single Syrian passport as evidence as to why we should shut down our borders, remember their are 11.6 million Syrian refugees.

These people do not come bearing bombs, but like those mourning lost ones in Beirut, have already felt explosions rip their lives apart.

EDITORIAL | 23

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University of Ottawa

WELCOME TO OUR NEW CHANCELLOR The University of Ottawa proudly welcomes Calin Rovinescu – an outstanding uOttawa alumnus – as our 14th Chancellor.

An accomplished leader with a distinguished international professional career, Mr. Rovinescu has extensive experiencein law, finance and business and, as President and CEO of Air Canada, has earned wide recognition for his exceptional acumen and insightful leadership. In 2013, he was named Canada’s CEO of the Year by Report on Business magazine and has served as Chairman of Star Alliance and IATA. Mr. Rovinescu has a long record of philanthropic and community service and has served on the boards of many private and non-profit organizations. Through the Air Canada Foundation, he has demonstrated his deep commitment to children’s causes, including providing humanitarian relief during global crises.

A graduate of the University of Ottawa’s Common Law program, Mr. Rovinescu is an inspiration to our students and our alumni.

It is an honour to welcome Calin Rovinescu back to the University of Ottawa. He demonstrates that with vision, determinationand higher education, one can truly defy the conventional.

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