THE CORD THE TIE THAT BINDS WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY SINCE 1926
VOLUME 60 ISSUE 5 • SEPTEMBER 18, 2019
A GAME OF CHANCE
Housing is becoming a dicey gamble for Waterloo students Features, page 8
LAURIER’S WIFI WOES
BRANTFORD’S BIRTHDAY
SHOP SOUNDS SATISFIES
MAKING ME TIME
CRICKET CHAMPS
Troubleshooting the campus disconnect
Satellite campus celebrates milestone
Vegetables and music please audience
Why setting aside self-care days matter
Women’s team takes home national win
News, page 3
News, page 6
Arts & Life, page 10
Opinion, page 13
Sports, page 15 PHOTO BY BRIT KOVACS
2 •
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2019
VOCAL CORD Do you have a roommate horror story?
@cordnews
The Cord
@thecord.ca
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
CordNews THIS DAY IN HISTORY: SEPTEMBER 18 1793: US President George Washington lays the cornerstone of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. 1809: The Royal Opera House in London officially opens. 1812: Great Fire of Moscow burns out after five days; 75 per cent of the city is destroyed and ~12,000 are killed.
“She threatened to sue me for bringing in my dog because she said she’s allergic, my dog’s hypoallergenic. My dog was in for like ten minutes in my house..”
1838: Anti-Corn Law League established by Richard Cobden. 1848: Baseball rules first baseman can tag base for out instead of runner.
– Maya Luciani, 5th year psychology
1851: The New York Times starts publishing issues, at just two cents a copy. 1895: Booker T. Washington delivers the ‘Atlanta Compromise’ address.
“... the sublet would leave for the weekend with dishes in the sink, but he would be “soaking” them for the weekend, so it would be like a swamp.”
1931: To create a pretext for the invasion of Manchuria, China, a railway explosion is faked by the Japanese.
– Tyler De Sousa, 4th year BBA
1942: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation authorized for radio service.
1934: The USSR is admitted into the League of Nations.
BRIT KOVACS/PHOTO EDITOR
Musician Connor Gains performs for Shop Sounds concert at Downtown Kitchener Market.
1947: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officially comes into existence after being established by President Truman in July. 1947: US Air Force created as a separate military service by passing of the National Security Act.
“I know a girl who had a really bad roommate story, this girl was such a psychopath that she put hair removal shampoo in this girl’s shampoo, and then put it on her snapchat. So my friend found out and she’s like “dude I’m not gonna use this shampoo ...”
1951: “A Streetcar Named Desire”, based on Tennessee Williams’ 1947 play of the same name, is released. 1964: “The Addams Family”, starring John Astin, Carolyn Jones, Ted Cassidy and Jackie Coogan, premieres on ABC.
– Lauren Barnes 3rd year BBA Compiled by Alyssa Di Sabatino Photos by Sidney MacDonald NEXT ISSUE
A photo, definitely not advocating smoking, from the Sept. 18, 1996 issue of The Cord, courtesy of Laurier Archives.
OPINION EDITOR Jade Hosick
LEAD PHOTOGRAPHER Sidney Macdonald photos@thecord.ca
CORD STAFF
SPORTS EDITOR VACANT sports@thecord.ca
SENIOR COPY EDITOR Victoria Marshall copyeditor@thecord.ca
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Emily Waitson editor@thecord.ca
GRAPHICS EDITOR Jamie Mere graphics@thecord.ca
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Kate Weber creative@thecord.ca
PHOTO EDITOR Brittany Kovacs photos@thecord.ca
WEB DIRECTOR Kashyap Patel online@thecord.ca
PHOTO EDITOR Darien Funk photos@thecord.ca
NEWS DIRECTOR Hayley McGoldrick news@thecord.ca
ONLINE EDITOR Kathleen McCullough online@thecord.ca
NEWS EDITOR Sophia Cole news@thecord.ca
VIDEO EDITOR VACANT video@thecord.ca
ARTS & LIFE EDITOR Alyssa Di Sabatino arts@thecord.ca
LEAD REPORTER VACANT news@thecord.ca
SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 opinion@thecord.ca
CONTRIBUTORS
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Jennifer Webb Lauren Symbolik Laura Thompson Jackson Carse Ruby Wingrave Hamzah Raza
“Taking a chance on student housing”, by Victoria Marshall
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COLOPHON The Cord is the official student newspaper of the Wilfrid Laurier University community. Started in 1926 as the College Cord, The Cord is an editorially independent newspaper published by Wilfrid Laurier University Student Publications, Waterloo, a corporation without share capital. WLUSP is governed by its board of directors. Opinions expressed within The Cord are those of the author and do not necessarily refl ect those of the editorial board, The Cord, WLUSP, WLU or CanWeb Printing Inc. All content appearing in The Cord bears the copyright expressly of their creator(s) and may not be used without written consent. The Cord is created using Macintosh computers running OS X 10.10 using Adobe Creative Cloud. Canon cameras are used
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PREAMBLE The Cord will keep faith with its readers by presenting news and expressions of opinions comprehensively, accurately and fairly. The Cord believes in a balanced and impartial presentation of all relevant facts in a news report, and of all substantial opinions in a matter of controversy. The staff of The Cord shall uphold all commonly held ethical conventions of journalism. When an error of omission or of commission has occurred, that error shall be acknowledged promptly. When statements are made that are critical of an individual, or an organization, we shall give those affected the opportunity to
2018: China announces new $60 billion tariffs on US imports, a day after the US imposes $200 billion worth of new tariffs on Chinese goods.
reply at the earliest time possible. Ethical journalism requires impartiality, and consequently conflicts of interest and the appearance of conflicts of interest will be avoided by all staff. The only limits of any newspaper are those of the world around it, and so The Cord will attempt to cover its world with a special focus on Wilfrid Laurier University, and the community of Kitchener-Waterloo, and with a special ear to the concerns of the students of Wilfrid Laurier University. Ultimately, The Cord will be bound by neither philosophy nor geography in its mandate. The Cord has an obligation to foster freedom of the press and freedom of speech. This obligation is best fulfilled when debate and dissent are encouraged, both in the internal workings of the paper, and through The Cord’s contact with the student body. The Cord will always attempt to do what is right, with fear of neither repercussions, nor retaliation. The purpose of the student press is to act as an agent of social awareness, and so shall conduct the affairs of our newspaper.
Quote of the week: “If I wore that I’d look like a fisherman.” - News Director, Hayley McGoldrick, talking about her personal style.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2019
News
• 3 NEWS DIRECTOR HAYLEY MCGOLDRICK news@thecord.ca
NEWS EDITOR SOPHIA COLE news@thecord.ca
INTERNET ISSUES
Discussing Wi-Fi on Laurier’s Waterloo campus HAYLEY MCGOLDRICK NEWS DIRECTOR
Internet connection at Laurier has been a hotspot for conversation as students increase their wifi usage throughout campus while they take notes in lectures and study for midterm exams. Laurier was subject to an internet outage last April during the exam period which enraged many students who could not access MyLearningSpace to see course notes or exam study aids on the days before or on their exam. “Over the summer we spent a large amount of time trying to increase the bandwidth to alleviate the issues we experienced in the past, we upgraded the connection to 10GB from what it previously was which was about five and we added redundancy, before I was here there was an outage so part of what we did so that if Brantford or Waterloo go out of service it will flip over and still have connection between the two,” said Kyle Harris, the manager of ICT administration and communications at Laurier. “It should prevent those instances from happening, we installed a large [new] number of access
“We’ve rolled back all the software to kind of see if it would alleviate the bug, we noticed a significant decrease in the Twitter traffic as well as the service desks complaints after that, so we rolled back the software on all access points to provide more access in classrooms, study areas and
dorms.” Many classes, as well as extracurricular activities, are based solely online, including online learning classes and even some online bachelor of arts programs offered by the university, so it is imperative that the internet access does not have another fiasco like in April. “Sometimes there are certain instances where it is difficult to assess where areas are going to be extremely busy, like during the first week of school the bookstore, there are a lot of people who are waiting in line and will be trying to access the internet, what we need to do is have the infrastructure but also as the year goes on and events happen all over campus that we have access points available in different areas where students will be,” Harris said. “If there are continued issues, we ask that we get contacted to put it through the correct channels, but with that being said eduroam will be the preferred network because it is far more secure than laurierwifi and also allows students and faculty to go to other universities who use the network and hop on their wi-fi.”
to create a product and pilot it at multiple hotels. The EarthSuds business is now supported by a core team of 15 volunteers along with the help of the 50 additional Enactus members. “Laurier is all about connecting people and really caring about the effect that we have on each other and really encouraging that mindset. Enactus really does all of that… Enactus means entrepreneurial action for a better world for us all and that really is something that Laurier does embody.” As the business transitions out of the pre-revenue stage, Vettoret-
ti says she sees a lot of changes for the company in the next year. As the products expand into the rooms of hotels, the team is simultaneously working on selling their product directly to consumers through their website. “Tn the next few years, I could only hope for even more growth. The goal is always to eliminate all plastic bottles so hopefully we’ll be in a few big chains in the next few years and eliminating as much plastic bottles as possible or at least seeing a change in society which reduces our plastic use overall,” Vettoretti said.
identify those problems because after more than 250 users were on a specific access point that’s when it would stop working, unless we had 250 computers on that in the summer it would’ve been difficult to assess,” Harris said.
Over the summer we spent a large amount of time trying to increase the bandwidth to alleviate the issues we experienced in the past. -Kyle Harris, manager of ICT admin & communications at WLU
KASHYAP PATEL/ WEB DIRECTOR
points, so we hope to alleviate a lot of issues. At the beginning of the year a few things happen, last week we identified a bug ,thanks to students, that access points had a software bug, so after a certain number of users would log in, after 60 seconds it would start to reboot.” The internet access issue comes
as more students use these access points, the ICT department could not test out multiple users during the last few weeks of summer as few people were on campus and there were not hundreds of users on the same access point. “Despite the fact that we had installed infrastructure to alleviate those problems, we weren’t able to
SUSTAINABILITY
Earthsuds group named finalist in NatGeo Ocean Plastics Challenge The social enterprise business began at Laurier, and was selected from 291 candidates for their sustainable design. HAMZAH RAZA CORD NEWS
EarthSuds, a social enterprise created at Laurier, has been named a finalist for the National Geographic Ocean Plastic Innovation Challenge. The business was selected from a global pool of 291 candidates for their novel toiletry tablets that replace shampoo, conditioner and bodywash amenity bottles found in hotels. The product is simple. First, crush the tablet, then lather and wash like any other liquid soap. However, unlike traditional soaps EarthSuds do not require a plastic encasing. For this reason, Earthsuds have the potential to eliminate the 5.7 billion amenity bottles sent to landfills every year in North America. The only Canadian finalist in the competition, EarthSuds has already secured the $5000 prize and is looking ahead to the $100,000 grand prize that will be awarded later this year to one of the finalists. Having completed several unpaid pilots, the business secured its first customers this summer. The focus initially was on hotels, who
are looking for ways to stock rooms with soaps and shampoos without using single use plastics. However, the business found that customers wanted the product in their own homes, which inspired the team to launch a consumer line that will be available in the coming months.
Laurier is all about connecting people and really caring about the effect that we have on each other and really encouraging that mind set. -
-Marissa Vettoretti, Earthsuds founder
“I just wanted to do more cases, and get more experience, so during summer when I had a bit more free time, I was just looking around for online competitions that weren’t really with Laurier at all, and I found that one online competition,
the circular design challenge,” said Marissa Vettoretti, the founder of EarthSuds. “It was called the circular design challenge and it was run by a company called OpenIDEO. The actual case competition was about how to get products to people without producing plastic packaging. So, the competition gave us plenty of use cases for a lot of different types of plastic. They had like straws, bottle caps, and this is like way before anybody even knew that straws were an issue with the recycling process. So straws, bottle caps, coffee lids, stuff like that and one was for shampoo packets that you would get samples for and for some reason I just got drawn to that and I started thinking of ideas for that.” While the competition did not end with a win for Vettoretti, her interest in the plastic problem did not subside. She approached a professor about her idea to replace amenity bottles with a solid shampoo. She was directed to Enactus, a club on campus that helps students launch social businesses. With Enactus, Vettoretti was able
CONTRIBUTED IMAGE
4 • NEWS
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2019
FILM PREMIERE
Bringing Australian immigration detention to the screen SOPHIA COLE NEWS EDITOR
CONTRIBUTED IMAGE
On Sept. 19, Wilfrid Laurier University’s International Migration Research Centre (IMRC) will host the Canadian premiere of Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time, a documentary film which looks at life inside Australia’s Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea. “We have a lot of people who work on both movement, mobility, migration and also displacement or refugee issues [at the IMRC]. In fact, this film we’re showing on Thursday really brings all those into play,” said Alison Mountz, director of the IMRC. “It’s about the detention facilities in Australia set up on a remote island which is not its own sovereign territory. So essentially, for years [Australia has] been offshoring its commitments that it made as a signatory to the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees by not allowing people who are seeking asylum to come into Australia,” Mountz said. “People set off by boat to try to get to Australian shores to make a claim for asylum, [but] rather than allow them to land in Australia and make that claim, Australia diverts the boat, intercepts them and sends them to these far-away places offshore.” The premiere will take place from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, located at 67 Erb Street West in Waterloo. There is no cost for those who wish to attend, however, registration through Eventbrite is encouraged for those who would like to reserve their seats. “We want people to come out, we want people to come see this film, and we want everyone to be able to participate in this amazing opportunity, not only to see this film but also to enter into conversation with the film makers” said Mountz. The film showing will be followed by a Q and A session with the film makers: Arash Kamali Sarvestani, an Iranian Dutch filmmaker from Amsterdam, and Behrouz Boochani, an Iranian-Kurdish Journalist and award winning author who fled Iran in 2013 seeking asylum in Australia but ended up detained on Manus Island. Sarvestani will be personally attending the event while Boochani will be present via live video chat from Manus Island. Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time reveals what life on Manus Island is like for those inside the detention centre, as well as the locals living on the island. Boochani used Whatsapp to film inside the Manus Island detention centre, interviewing other detainees and filming in secret. “Arash and Behrouz worked together so that Behrouz basically filmed when he was able to figure out ways to do it without getting intercepted. In the film itself we see Behrouz in interior spaces, so he’ll do an interview with someone sitting on a bed or they’ll reconstruct something that happened and they film it in the detention facility when they won’t get caught,” said Mountz
Sarvestani supplemented Boochani’s footage by coordinating with other free people on the island who were able to gather more footage for the film. “Irash, because he was not in detention, he was a free person although not on the island, in Amsterdam. He was able to coordinate with other people who were outside of detention and stage other things being filmed, for example interviews with locals outside of the facility,” said Mountz. “They assembled these pieces from the interior of the detention centre and outside of it to give a fuller portrait of the context of what’s happening and how locals understand it.” The story told in Chauka, Please
If one country shuts its doors down than others will see more asylum claims because when people are displaced they need somewhere to go. -Alison Mountz, IMRC Director
Tell Us the Time is an important one in many ways. Because of how globally interconnecting the world is today, the actions of other countries can be directly impactful to countries across the globe. “Canada plays a really important role as a country that has chosen to, like Australia, be a signatory to the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. So Canada not only resettles refugees every year but it also receives asylum claims every year,” said Mountz. “If one country shuts its doors down than others will see more asylum claims because when people are displaced they need to go somewhere. In fact, some of the people who are now being resettled from Manus Island are actually being resettled in North America.” The films story is especially relevant to the region because of its large refugee population. “KW is a really important region for the resettlement of refugees, refugee claims and newcomers of all kinds. Many people who come to our local region have actually spent time in refugee camps or detention facilities.” Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time tells a story which is often kept hidden from the public eye to the big screen, encouraging discussion around the many challenges that refugees on Manus Island and across the globe face. “In putting people on remote islands in detention, the Australian government is really trying to hide them from view of local and national publics, they don’t want people to see what’s going on there,” said Mountz. “That’s what makes this film so important and such an important platform and tool for dialogue on what’s happening around the world to people who are seeking protection.”
NEWS • 5
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2019 ACADEMICS
Professors elected RCS fellows HAYLEY MCGOLDRICK NEWS DIRECTOR
CONTRIBUTED IMAGE
One of the Royal Society of Canada’s newest fellows, WLU’s Phelim Boyle.
Three Laurier professors have been elected as fellows of the prestigious Royal Society of Canada (RSC) for their research in various fields, including political science, mathematical and physical science and arts and humanities. Eleanor Ty, Phelim Boyle and Rianne Mahon will be inducted into the society at a ceremony in Ottawa on Nov. 22, as fellows in the RSC advise governments, non-governmental organizations, and the general public on different topics of interest. These scholars are also mentors to developing scholars. “I’m really honoured by it - and a bit overwhelmed. My husband put it on Facebook and I’ve had so many good wishes from all over the place. It’s terrific that there are three of us from Laurier - bigger and more ‘prestigious’ universities got fewer - and across different disciplines. It is great to be recognised for one’s scholarly achievements but I am also looking forward to working with the society to give back to society,” said Rianne Mahon, a professor in the department of political science at Laurier as well as the Balsillie School of International Affairs, focussing in research on comparative social policy and gendered global governance, in an email statement. “Today I went to the Royal Society offices at the suggestion of the woman coordinating the process and learned a lot about the induc-
tion process, which will take place at the Chateau Laurier on November 22. It’s a bit like convocation plus, without the gowns!” Mahon has been elected to the RSC’s academy of social science, as she has done ground-breaking research in the area of comparative childcare politics and policy, looking at childcare and parental leave as social policy. Eleanor Ty, elected to the academy of arts and humanities, is an English and film studies professor at Laurier as well as the graduate program coordinator, being Laurier faculty since 1991. “I was ecstatic about receiving this honour, it’s been a while coming because even though the news was announced now I had to help with the nomination process and suggest people who could write letters for me. So in a way it isn’t a total surprise but it’s been years of hard work to lead up to this, but I was certainly really happy to hear about it,” Ty said. “The best thing is the validation of my research and the area that I work in because I think it makes it feel worthwhile, that the 20 years that I’ve been working on this literature and establishing the field had made an impact and that people recognize it.” Ty’s research in Asian Canadian studies acknowledges the dislocation of this minority in a way that both empowers and constrains them, as well as the pressures young Asian North Americans they feel to fit into standardized ideals.
“I think it would be great to have more publicity on a diverse group of writers, writers as well as filmmakers [and] artists who are put into terms as a visible minority, in Canada we celebrate the Margaret Attwood’s and those sort of people but there are a lot of other writers who deserve recognition so I hope that being a member of the Royal Society of Canada I can create more publicity and events for the public for these types of scholars, artists and creators,” Ty said. “Laurier has been growing as a research university, but this is also a validation of the institution as well as the individual. It’s been a real privilege for me to research and teach at Laurier as they’ve allowed me to do the kind of research I wanted even though that may not have been an established area in English, I think that I’m very lucky to be working here.” Phelim Boyle is currently a faculty member of the Lazaridis School of Business & Economics, researching the areas of hedge funds, structured products, investments and Ponzi schemes. Boyle has been elected into the RSC’s academy of science in the division mathematical and physical science. Thanks to his introduction of the Monte Carlo simulation-based method for valuing derivative securities in financial markets, as his primary research is in managing risk in insurance and finance, Boyle has changed the way financial institutions worldwide assess risk management in contracts.
to the graduate student parental leave grant are an example of Laurier’s commitment to supporting and strengthening the graduate student program. “I think for a school our size, we probably have the most supportive and generous parental leave policy, and I am really proud of
that… as a smaller comprehensive university, we’re always trying to make sure we support our grad students to the best of our ability,” said Deutschman. “I think that our policy is in the top tier of supportive policies in Ontario, and I’m really pleased with that.”
FUNDING
Laurier to finance parental leave for masters, doctoral students ALYSSA DI SABATINO ARTS & LIFE EDITOR
Wilfrid Laurier University has recently made enhancements to parental leave funding for full-time masters and doctoral students pursuing a research degree. This grant, in effect since Sept. 9, is available for full-time graduate students taking a temporary leave from their studies during the first year of their child’s birth, adoption, or when they first gain custody of the child. The grant is specific to graduate students in a research program with a funding package (i.e. a research or teaching assistant student). Dr. Douglas Deutschman, Associate Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, spearheaded this project alongside the Ontario Council on Graduate Studies (OCSG). “Parental leave can be adoption, or other forms of having a child come into your care full-time and I think the university recognizes that it’s really important to support those students,” Deutschman said. The goal to enhance Laurier’s parental leave support has been in
the works since last October. “It was a really strong collaborative effort. We sought input from a lot of stakeholders across campus and input from other universities across the province so that we could really say, ‘this is a good program, or this is an average program or this is a program that is weaker than some,” Deutschman said. The grant is designed to cover the first 12 months of parental leave. The grant can and should be used with any other available Employment Insurance benefits, and maintains financial support at the level of 95 per cent of the average pre-leave funding amount per term. “We went through (our policy) and said, ‘what if a student was in their second term and they were on this support, or their fourth term and they were on that support?’ And we’d run through the calculations and see how they’d play out in different scenarios to make sure there weren’t surprises where people could fall through the cracks,” said Deutschman. The maximum amount of funding available per student is $10,000, with a $4000 maximum being granted for the first term and a $3000 maximum for the second
and third. Longer leaves may be granted, but will be unfunded by the university. “That’s actually higher than average,” said Deutschman. “The fact that you can have support in the third term is very unusual.” Those looking to apply must do so two months prior to their expected leave, via the parental leave application form, which can be found online under “Graduate Funding and Awards” on Laurier’s website. When looking to return from parental leave, “students are expected to confirm their return date at least four weeks in advance of a term,” said Deutschman. Students must have completed at least one term of study prior to their leave before they are deemed eligible for the grant. This is an enhancement from the previous grant policy, wherein students had to have completed three consecutive terms before being eligible. The grant can also be split between parents if both are eligible Laurier graduate students. Further, students who do not return to their studies following the leave will be required to repay the grant they received. The recent enhancements made
JAMIE MERE/GRAPHICS EDITOR
6 • NEWS
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2019 SATELLITE CAMPUS
Making a toast to Brantford’s twentieth The integrated campus will be celebrating its birthday over the homecoming weekend, hosting a party in Harmony square on Sept. 21 HAYLEY MCGOLDRICK NEWS DIRECTOR
Laurier is celebrating the twentieth birthday of the Brantford campus over homecoming weekend, as the campus has completed its second decade in the integrated downtown core after the initial opening of the campus in 1999. The city of Brantford became a university town starting just before the millennium and to celebrate, will be hosting a “Party Like It’s 1999” party in Harmony Square on Sept. 21 starting at 1:30pm.
DARIEN FUNK/PHOTO EDITOR
What sets Brantford apart is that we are here because of an effort initiated at the grassroots level ... Beth Gurney, associate director, communications and public affairs for the Brantford campus
Though an integrated campus, unlike Laurier’s Waterloo campus, the city of Brantford has worked in unison with Wilfrid Laurier University to implement an innovative campus in the city’s downtown core to offer students programming like game design, criminology, education and journalism. “The Brantford campus came to be because grassroots support here in the community, there was a group formed called the Grand Valley Educational Society, they’re actually still around, and they recognized that for a community of it’s size that Brantford was unique in the fact that it didn’t have a university campus and that meant students were leaving the community and settling where they had gone to study,” said Beth Gurney, associate director of communications and public affairs for the Brantford campus. “The Grand Valley Educational Society looked around and thought that there were opportunities being missed and that Brantford could benefit from being a university town, they began a grassroots effort, lobbied and in 1998 they signed a letter of understanding with the city of Brantford and Laurier to open a campus here.” Brantford is continually evolving to adapt to the ever changing student population and expansion in programming, seen in the opening of the OneMarket building last month as well as the Brantford YMCA that students at the campus use as their fitness facility. “When the campus opened their flagship program was contemporary studies, it was part of a broad based humanities degree where
students would be learning the foundational academic knowledge from a variety of disciplines, we don’t offer that anymore but the principle of broad based learning and applicable skills continues at the campus,” Gurney said. “When we started here the city of Brantford actually gave up the Carnegie building, which was formerly the library, as well as over $1 million to renovate and start the campus, so we are very aware that without this community support the campus wouldn’t exist so the homecoming is open to everyone, not just students or alumni because we want to celebrate with everyone who made this possible.” The new YMCA facility will host a basketball showcase from the men’s varsity basketball team based out of the Waterloo campus, dividing the squad up into two teams to compete, having two honorary coaches leading each respective team. “We’re having a showcase, that’s going to be our team based out of Waterloo coming to Brantford, they’re going to do a skills demonstration which is amazing because we have a very talented team, then we’re splitting the squad in two to have an inter-squad match, hawk versus hawk” Gurney said.
... It was the community saying this is something we value and want to bring here, that is what has been the core to our success here. -Beth Gurney, associate director, communications and public affairs for the Brantford campus
“In order for the crowd to have a sense of which team to cheer for, we’ve recruited four honorary coaches, three of them played for the Golden Hawks and they’ve all been involved in local sport and community involvement and they are Ross Enslev, Mike Cleary, Dan Pace and Rob Innes.” The festivities happening on Sept. 21 are one of many ways to recognize the amazing students, staff, faculty, alumni and community members who continue to make the Brantford campus what it is today. “What sets Brantford apart is that we are here because of an effort initiated at the grassroots level, this wasn’t the university saying they had an appetite to expand, it was the community saying this is something we value and want to bring here, that is what has been the core to our success here,” Gurney said.
GAMES • 7
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2019 SUDOKU
Dear Life
Dear Life is your opportunity to write a letter to your life, allowing you to vent your anger with life’s little frustrations in a completely public forum. All submissions to Dear Life are anonymous, should be no longer than 100 words and must be addressed to your life. Submissions can be sent to dearlife@thecord.ca.
Dear Life, Bringing candy and cookies to the office as a seasonal treat seems great in theory, but it just means that I casually snack on little chocolate bars and sugar cookies all day mindlessly while I’m blissfully ignorant to the excessive amounts of chocolate I’m consuming throughout the day. Please help. Sincerely, Stuffed and Ashamed
Dear Life, Dear Life, It would be nice if I could go one year without catching the Laurier plague. Sincerely, A Sick Hawk
I’m blessed to have such a great team to make this paper with each week. I love each one you. Sincerely, Mother Cordie
Dear Life, Dear Life,
MAZE
You know why I love autumn? Because I get to wear big sweaters, and big sweaters mean big sleeves AKA convenient snack holders.
To the asshats who drag race in their 2005 Honda Civics down University Avenue - really?
Sincerely, Pleased
Sincerely, Enough is enough
8 •
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2018
Features TAKING A CHANCE ON STUDENT HOUSING Senior Copy Editor, Victoria Marshall, looks at living conditions for students in Waterloo
CHA
It’s no secret that the student housing market in Waterloo has reached the point of crisis. To those who are currently renting, this is nothing new. In recent days, however, the “Fuccommod8u” scandal has done more than rock the boat – a recent data breach released over 6000 alleged maintenance complaints from within student property management company Accommod8u has capsized the corporate-dominated market. As a result, students from WLU and UW alike are using social media as their life rafts. Nine days ago, reddit user u/Accommod8u posted links to public Google Drive files – notably, a report titled “FUCCOMMOD8U” – filled with pie charts, graphs and tables of information pertaining to alleged maintenance requests that had been submitted to Accommod8u for eight buildings, all of which were either previously or are currently under their possession. Although the hacker(s)’ taking of precautions, such as redacting sensitive information to protect the identities of Accommod8u tenants, may appear to soften the scandal’s blow, many students are disturbed by how easily their confidential information could be accessed. In the report, the hacker(s) allege that the information was accessed through a tenant web portal online, which many property management companies (including Accommod8u) allow public access to on their site so student tenants can, ironically, enter maintenance requests. In the introduction to the report, the methods of the hacking process were not fully divulged, but it was noted that the security on the website was notably poor. In sum, the report chronicles living issues separated into two main categories: the issue options Accommod8u’s website allows students to choose from, and ones that the hacker(s) heating and cooling, electrical, plumbing, NCE furniture and fixtures, doors and windows, paint, mold and flooring. The leak instead categorizes by mold, heating, vermin and fire/carbon monoxide alarm issues – the latter two of which
cannot be formally submitted to Accommod8u due to the layout of their complaint form. As of now, anyone can access this inform tion by the links posted throughout the reddit thread “LIST WHERE LINKS/INFO ARE PUT HERE.” It’s important to note, however, the big-picture numbers in order to emphasize the severity of the issue. Since Dec. 2017, over 6000 requests were recorded through the Accommod8u tenant portal. On average, a maintenance requests took 13 days to be resolved, according to the corporation standards. The report alleges that 30 per cent of complaints took over two weeks to resolve. 14 per cent of cases took one month or more to resolve. The leak also provides a breakdown of complaints by category on a per-building basis: 130 Columbia St. West, the location of Accommod8u’s leasing office, tops the charts for total complaints filed. 258A Sunview St. is a close second. 365 Albert St. had the highest mold and heating/cooling complaints. 130 Columbia St. West was recorded as having the highest amount of issues with fire and CO alarms. 246 Albert St. lead the pack in regard to vermin complaints. Surely this information is not a surprise to students, as we are the most familiar with legal abuses our housing inevitably entails; but “FUCCOMMOD8U” is the first case in which students have taken to illegal means in order to make these realities statistically and publically available. According to coverage from Waterloo Region Record, Accommod8u confirmed last week that there was unauthorized use of their computer systems, which resulted in the leak. Under the Criminal Code of Canada, unauthorized use of a computer or computer system can be processed as either a summary or indictable offence – this means that if authorities identify the person(s) responsible, they may serve a sentence of up to 10 years – potentially in federal prison, too. The motive behind the leak doesn’t appear to be malicious towards students, and did not express any ill will towards Accommod8u tenants, despite their data being illegally accessed. In fact, the report encourages students to mobilize
in order to better understand and advocate for their rights as tenants. Exposure of this issue lead to a storm of social media posts where students of both local universities, as well as Conestoga College, began to share their student housing horror stories. One of those people was fourth-year UW student Sylvia Skoruch, whose post in the “Student Housing in Waterloo” Facebook group went viral overnight. Skoruch alleges in her initial post that property management company KW4Rent, also owned
by Prica Global Enterprises, illegally coerced her into rescinding a lease she was meant to start in September only weeks before she was to move in. The Cord reached out to KW4Rent via email to clarify their policy on the rescinding of leases at the option of the corporation, but did not receive a comment. Skoruch explained that she was told by a KW4Rent employee in late August that, due to “safety concerns,” her unit would need significant renovations and she would no longer be able to take possession of the unit. “What was also weird was that [KW4Rent] didn’t want to give us back our cheque,” Skoruch said. “Everything was already paid, and they said they said they could give it back in three weeks … If it wasn’t for my mom making a scene, we would have had to wait.” This was a detriment to her
then-frantic search for new accommodations, as she needed the money to be able to secure a deposit on a new apartment so she could have somewhere to live for the school year. “When I called them [to ask about other properties], I found out that the penthouse was rented out to someone else,” Skoruch said. She stated that, during the process of inquiring about other potential units for rent, the agent she spoke to told her that if she wanted the property, she shouldn’t have cancelled the lease. Skoruch claims that she was pressured into rescinding it, as KW4Rent gave her no further options. Skoruch was unable to find accommodation in Waterloo on short notice that was dog friendly, and she currently commutes to classes daily from her parents’ home in Mississauga. She leaves every day, before 6 a.m., to make her 8:30 classes, and when she misses the last bus home, she stays overnight in the UW campus student lounge. After she posted her story on Facebook, Skoruch said KW4Rent called her and asked her to take it down. She refused, and as her story continued to go viral, she learned she wasn’t alone. Skoruch has created a new Facebook group, “STUDENT HOUSING CRISIS IN WATERLOO,” so that students can exchange stories and help make students more aware of their rights as tenants. In addition to the creation of this group, a student housing rally has been planned for next Monday at Waterloo City Hall. Details for this can also be found on Facebook. To advance the cause, Skoruch has spoken out to off-campus media outlets, as well as local politicians. She is currently in talks with the office of MPP Catherine Fife to create a petition for better student housing regulations. The petition will be put forth when the legislature is back in session after the upcoming federal election. Thanks to the FUCCOMMOD8U report and Skoruch’s activism, we’ve got the attention of TV, radio and local politicians – and that’s great: but what next? Although making students more aware of their tenant rights is a good first step, sometimes it’s not enough. As firsttime renters and young people, we’re often taken advantage of by corporations and indepen-
dent landlords alike. Laurier has a number of resources available to its students that help them become better acquainted with their tenant rights, but most Golden Hawks are unaware of them. To get the lowdown, I spoke with Skye Nip, assistant vice-president of University Affairs for Laurier’s Waterloo Campus. The Student Rights Advisory Committee (SRAC), under the oversight of the WLU Students’ Union, provides a number of resources to students who rent. The SRAC connects students to municipal bylaw guidelines and provides information on how to check if the student property they live in is licensed with the city. It can also provide connections and referrals to Waterloo Region Community Legal Services. Currently, a major issue that the SRAC and Students’ Union is working on is extending the residential rental licensing bylaw to high-rise buildings. The existing bylaw only covers houses and low-rise units and traditional houses, which excludes many students from the protection of tenant-focused municipal bylaws. “Housing keeps going up, and we have that density in apartments,” Nip said. “We really want it to apply there as well.” Nip also explained that this is a plan that she will be working on through the SRAC, in tandem with the Students’ Union Outreach Committee in preparation for local advocacy week, where university affairs are discussed with local politicians. This is to take place in January. It is important to note that in many cases of student housing issues, knowing your rights may simply not be enough. As shown through this past week’s events, students taken advantage of in Waterloo’s housing market have no problem speaking their mind. Hopefully this type of perceptive and peaceful advocacy can continue – it must, if true change is to be brought to the current market. As high rises continue to be built and universities continue to accept increasing numbers of students, what can we do? Well, for starters, we can raise a little hell. Know your rights, students – but fight for them, too. *The Cord attempted to reach out to Accommod8u and its parent company, Prica Global Enterprises, to confirm the breach, but as of the time of publication, neither were available for comment.*
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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2019
Arts & Life
ARTS & LIFE EDITOR ALYSSA DI SABATINO arts@thecord.ca
BOX OFFICE
IT: Chapter 2 provides satisfying conclusion to horror adaptation EMILY WAITSON EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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As a massive Stephen King fan and someone who loved the first IT film in the most recent adaptation of one of my favourite horror books — I think the concluding chapter of this successful franchise was a near perfect way to finish it off. Continuing with the spot-on casting from the first film, IT: Chapter 2 provides audiences with impeccable portrayls of the adult members of the Losers’ Club — each a mirrored version of the children who were in the previous film. I have read the novel probably four or five times in my life, and can safely say that watching the actors onscreen gave me the feel-
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ing I’ve had each time I re-visited the book. They were tangibly real and familiar, and they felt like the characters I knew and imagined them to be. I had the privilege of experiencing the movie at a drive-in theatre in Guelph, at the Mustang DriveIn, which couldn’t have been a better setting to watch it in. What this film did well, was mixing in expertly executed horror with the heart that the story is meant to hold. And while I didn’t expect some of the little additions tossed into the story, like Richie’s love for Eddie (which I firmly believe was mutual), the narrative choices the writers made worked fairly well. I did find that parts of the film felt a bit rushed, like the inclusion and use of Henry Bowers, who plays a much larger role in the book. Which, in all honesty, made me wish that the movie could have been turned into a Netflix mini-se-
ries, which easily could have been done given the length of the original source material. I can’t complain too much, though, considering the lead monster is my favourite horror villain and is played to perfection by Bill Skarsgard. I had my doubts when I went to see the first film that he would be able to actually embody such a complex creature that’s almost beyond conception, but he did so masterfully, and he is by far one of the stand out highlights overall. And while I think they could have toned down the CGI used on Pennywise in some instances and let Bill work his magic (the drooling is one of the creepiest, but best inclusions to the character), he proved to be even more frightening the second time around. This movie delivered what I had hoped for — just the right amount of scares, emotion and a satisfying end to a great horror story.
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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2019
MUSIC
SHOP SOUNDS GROCERY STORE CONCERT IS A HIT BRIT KOVACS/PHOTO EDITOR
ALYSSA DI SABATINO ARTS & LIFE EDITOR
Not many people can say they’ve been to a concert in a grocery store, but on Sep. 15, the Kitchener Market hosted Shop Sounds: DTK’s
grocery store concerts. Shop Sounds is a free intimate three-part concert series organized by the DTK team, Good Company Production and hosted at grocery stores across downtown Kitchener. The third and final installment location, Kitchener Market, was announced the day before the concert via email for ticket-holders. The first two events were hosted in June and July at Full Circle Foods and Legacy Greens, respec-
tively. Being that the event was hosted in a market, those attending were given paper bags and were invited to pick vegetables and fruits from a local produce stand. All snacks and produce were “pay-what-you-can,” with the leftovers being donated locally. The Kitchener Market is coming up on its 150th anniversary this Fall, and to celebrate the venue’s longstanding-history, the Mar-
ketplace was transformed into a modern concert space. Brightly coloured chairs and tables lined the room, and an array of quilts and pillows were smartly arranged on the floor for attendees. The local musical acts were kept a secret until the doors opened at 7p.m. that day. The first act set to play was 12 Mile Island, a Kitchener-based Indie-Rock band. Right away, I was struck by their unique sound. As someone who is very into concerts but doesn’t often listen to live bands (most of the music I listen to is produced by a DJ or digital software), I found their set to be unique and refreshing. Their opening song was lead by a strong bass guitar, drawing all attention to the stage. The set was arranged very smartly, with each original song bleeding into the next, creating an overall cohesive set. My favourite song of the night was “Lioness,” a song with a catchy trumpet tune that incorporated some elements of jazz music. I feel as though their music had a refined, yet diverse vision. Their blending of genres including rock, indie, and blues works in their favour because it appeals to a large audience. This was clear to me by observing the audience, most of whom were swaying or bobbing their heads to the tunes, some were even dancing. I attended the show with my
friend, and even though we both have different tastes in music, we both walked away satisfied with what we heard. Next up was Conor Gains, another local act who hails from Cambridge. Gains had a much smaller set up than the previous act, as it was only himself on stage with his instruments. This minimalist set served to create an even more intimate experience. The dancing and movement from the crowd had stopped and all eyes were on stage. With only a guitar, a kick drum and the use of “live looping” — a software that instantly records and repeats tunes — Gains put on a well-executed one man show. His sound was very soulful and blues-inspired while still being modern and fresh. He played all original songs during his set, even going a cappella for the length of a song, getting the crowd to snap and clap along with him. While I’ve been to the Kitchener Market before, going there for a concert was an experience I wasn’t expecting to have. This event opened my eyes to local talent and the unique events that are happening in the region. Being that I’m not originally from the KW region, this event made me feel more intimate with the community and I’ll definitely be on the look out for any of the DTK team’s upcoming events.
CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Using campus resources to resolve roommate tension EMILY WAITSON EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Living independently while going to school often means having to navigate one aspect of university life that many students aren’t prepared for — roommates. Sharing your space with other people — in many cases, complete strangers — can be challenging, especially when conflicts arise with the people you’re expected to share your space with. And while your first instinct may be to lock yourself in your room to avoid making any potential roommate disagreements worse, Laurier has resources on campus that are designed to help resolve housemate issues and difficult living situations. The Office of Dispute Resolution and Support provides students with the tools to work through a variety of social conflicts, and they can provide assistance with problems that many students experience throughout their time in university between faculty, fellow classmates and roommates. Ceara Rafalski, an early resolution support coordinator at the Office of Dispute Resolution and Support, assists students in the process through a variety of methods. “I find that with students, what I can do if we’re looking at conflict, is I can do conflict coaching, oneon-one — they can come and show me some email communications, if
they’ve gotten themselves in some kind of a bind, we can draft an email together, I can also do scripting with them to get a difficult conversation going, and then they can take it from there. We can also do roleplaying: as much as people cringe at roleplaying … it builds a comfort level with them,” Rafalski said. Communication plays a huge role in properly tackling everyday situations and disagreements, and it’s something that students often struggle with doing effectively. “People forget that communicating is crucial: in our relationships, our successes, everything. We take for granted as well that people understand what we mean, when we say something, which they don’t; so I find that sitting down and having a structured, facilitated conversation really gives people an opportunity to speak, but to listen, and co-create what they’re going to do going forward, to get out of conflict and make sure they don’t have it happen again,” Rafalski said. And the next time your roommate pisses you off by eating your leftovers or leaving a mess in the kitchen, perhaps the best method of addressing it isn’t to make an angry Tweet and put them on blast to blow off steam. “I think people don’t understand the power of their words. I think that’s a really big omselves, that not considering what they’re saying and how that could be taken and misunderstood,” Rafalski said.
As well, ignoring any problems that you may have just to “keep the peace” usually allows them to grow in severity and continue without a positive outcome. “But I also think that another problem, too, is that people don’t know how to address it. They either don’t address it, so it festers, and it starts to bother them, and then they tell these stories that [turn] it into a much larger issue than it needs to be … or they let emotions run at the forefront, and then they get angry, or sad ... and they try to address it through emotions, without figuring out what is strategically the best way to do it. And so I find that those come into play no matter what the issue at hand is, that always has some kind of nuance with what’s going on,” Rafalski said. With the issues she sees on a daily basis and the commonality that threads many of them together, Rafalski offered five tips to students for resolving conflict in these situations: 1. Stop, take a breath and get grounded. Put into perspective that this is something you can work through. 2. Be mindful of your non-verbal communication and behaviours that could be unknowingly exacerbating the conflict. 3. Consider there is more than just your perspective in the matter. Be empathetic to other people involved and open to hearing from them about how they have been
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impacted. Really hear what they are saying and ask questions to better understand. 4. Take responsibility for your part. 5. Be open to engaging in dialogue about resolution. Present your ideas and ask for others’ ideas. Try to find a resolution that feels good to everyone involved. Be prepared that each of you may have to give up something to get a successful resolution. And if you still need assistance with a dispute you’re having, the Office of Dispute Resolution and Support, located on the main floor of the Arts building, is there to offer help where you may need it. “We have an email address —
disputeresolution@wlu.ca; we also have a main line, ex. 3322, and make an appointment through that,” Rafalski said. “What I do is I try to get a little bit of info from them — not too much, because sometimes people are a little hesitant on sharing — but just to make sure that if they’re asking something that is way outside of my scope, I can redirect them to where they need to be.” “I always open my door to anyone who wants to sit and spend the hours talking about what’s going on, what I can do to help them through it [and] if it’s not me, I make sure they get connected somewhere else on campus,” she said.
ARTS & LIFE • 11
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2019 ADVICE
Woes of living with roommates JACKSON CARSE ARTS & LIFE CONTRIBUTOR
My expectation of what it was like to live with roommates was comically wrong from the beginning. Embarrassingly, my assumption was that the next few years of my personal life would play out similarly to a Disney Channel show. Harmoniously living, exchanging witty greetings as we share a communal breakfast in the nook of the uniquely decorated kitchen. We all sip our coffees in unison as we huddle around our meals watching morning cartoons off the wall mounted flat screen. This was a guarantee, the standard I crudely assumed. How could three irritable, sleep-deprived twenty-year-olds coursing with anxiety and testosterone not live amicably, becoming best friends along the way? As my naive prediction inevitably unravelled over the next couple of months, I slowly realized that living with roommates can be a total irrevocable nightmare. Here are just a few of the things I wish I knew before moving in with roommates along with some offhand ways of dealing with them. 1. Gaps in knowledge It’s just a fact of nature that you and your roommates will all have varying gaps in knowledge. Some may be slim while some are embarrassingly and concerningly large. Some may be understandable, such as running a load of laundry or navigating an electrical breaker. While some are comically trivial — “Are coffee filters reusable?” I
recall being asked — a question I assumed answered itself considering they come packaged in the hundreds. Combining your preexisting knowledge is the best way to accommodate this, ensuring no one puts hand soap in the dishwasher or covers the stove’s heat exhaust with their indisputably essential BarStool flag. Saturdays are for four-story electrical fires, right? 2. Differing music tastes Thanks to advanced portable speakers and Waterloo’s poor drywall contracting, it’s a safe bet that you’ll be experiencing your roommate’s grunge phase (or whatever out-of-date 90s subgenre they’re into) along with them through the napkin-thin walls of your apartment. You’ll know Tim Hicks’ “Stronger Beer” off by heart thanks to the living room pregaming that you weren’t invited to. You’ll find yourself humming unfamiliar country songs to yourself and finally acknowledge this needs to stop. Although debatably immature, the most effective way of combating this is passive aggressive retaliation. IInsist that The Beach Boys’ “Wouldn’t it be Nice” is an utter necessity in passing your afternoon bowel movement and that nothing puts you to bed quite like the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage.” This may not solve any of your noisy problems, but at least as you fall asleep to The Muppets’ “Mahna Mahna” you’re given the peace of mind in knowing that your roommate’s tinder-swain of the night is only a few feet away, slightly
aroused to the notorious puppetry of Jim Henson. 3. Poor bathroom etiquette and weak constitutions Whether your roommate’s an intolerant dairy fiend or simply lacks the skill to trim themselves under running water, sharing bathrooms can be a messy and often gruesome experience. The best advice I can suggest is keeping all important toiletries in a separate tote locked away in your bedroom, brought out only when required. This is the best way of ensuring no one herpes-ups your toothbrush or touches their genitals with the razor blade devoted to your chin and upper lip. Scheduling may also be an issue provided your apartment comes with only one washroom. 4. The terrible, no good, very bad friend(s) There’s nothing worse than a freeloader. Someone who tends to overstay their welcome while treating themselves to the mealplanned tupperware in your fridge. Who better to keep you up at night playing Guitar Hero than someone you were never legally obligated to tolerate? A person so rancid smelling, hair greasier than a skillet, that you suggest bathing them yourself with an extension hose in the parking lot like neglected cattle. You wonder where your roommate has found this person as they finish clipping their nails in your kitchen sink. Somewhere along a swampy marsh? Buried under hurricane rubble? Maybe they’re visiting from Brock. Now this may not
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always be the case (it’s possible I’m projecting), but in my experience, every roommate has a terrible, intolerable friend who tends to visit more than you’d like. I have no adequate advice for this one: this serves as more of a warming than a combatant. Be friendly and hide your beer. Despite all the pessimism I’ve discussed thus far about living with roommates, it can also be one of the greatest experiences of your life. You learn a lot about a person when living that close to them for that long. My last roommate and now one of my closest friends was integral in helping me detox off my antidepressants, distracting me with humour and laughs while giving me lifelong stories and memories that I could never have crafted myself.
Some of your greatest nights will come with these people. Rowdy nights spent vandalising the absent roommate’s property, influenced by a couple bottles of pinot grigio, or silent evenings spent watching Marley and Me with the downstairs neighbours you both know are out of your league. Sure, living with new people can be scary and unpredictable; I’ll never get used to the idea of a stranger painting the ceiling only feet away from me, realizing that a deadbolt and a locked door doesn’t necessarily protect you from airborne bacteria. Although the realities of living with roommates may not have been what I expected, with a positive attitude and a hefty pair of rubber gloves, it may just change your life.
FILM
This year’s TIFF highlights amount of publicity and discussion around it definitely makes it one of the most original films of the year, and for sure, one to watch. RUBY WINGRAVE ARTS & LIFE CONTRIBUTOR
It’s that time again! The Toronto International Film Festival has arrived, and with it, a slew of fresh and exciting films for cinephiles and casual viewers alike. Not sure how to wade your way through all of this year’s picks? Here is a list of the four most talked-about films of the festival:
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Jojo Rabbit New Zealand director Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit has been met with plenty of controversy: it’s a film about a young boy whose imaginary friend is none other than Adolf Hitler. However, fans of Waititi will know that he puts his signature spin on things — the Jewish Maori director himself is playing Hitler. The plot also deals with heavy topics like white supremacy and the Holocaust. While Jojo Rabbit has received mixed reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, the
Joker Todd Phillip’s entry in this year’s festival was the much-anticipated Joker, previously screened at the Venice Film Festival. The film focuses on the origin of the infamous super villain and critics have praised the story as well as Joaquin Phoenix’ performance. The film has received some backlash due to its portrayal of mental health and surrounding issues, but responses are mixed so far. One thing’s for sure: fans of the franchise will not want to miss out. A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood Marielle Heller’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood tells the story of a journalist reluctantly writing an article on Fred Rogers’, of Mister Rogers’ Neighbourhood, fame, played by Tom Hanks. The movie has received critical acclaim for its portrayal of Rogers’ story, as well as highlighting the core values that he preached on his show and in his personal life. Audiences can
expect an emotional, heartwarming message that is sure to add a dash of Rogers’ trademark positivity to their day. Be wary, though, this one looks like it’s going to be a tearjerker. Hustlers Hustlers, written and directed by Lorene Scafaria, was one of the biggest picks at TIFF this year. The film follows a group of female strippers through their successes and struggles in life and a dangerous criminal money-making scheme. The star-studded cast, led by Jennifer Lopez in one of her most critically acclaimed roles to date, has been praised for its diverse representation of strong women. The film is inspired by a true story and has already hit theatres, where it has become a big winner as well. It was a great year for film at TIFF, with plenty of groundbreaking and original content receiving widespread critical acclaim. Film junkies will have a lot to look forward to in the coming months as this year’s picks are released in mainstream cinemas. Happy movie watching!
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2019
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Editorial
OPINION EDITOR Jade Hosick opinion@thecord.ca
Like what you like and don’t be ashamed of it
EDITORIAL CARTOON
recognized by critics as brilliant additions to the entertainment world, but bring you some form of comfort and joy. EMILY WAITSON EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
A tendancy of many people on the internet and society today seems to be gatekeeping the interests of others. Whether it’s the comments on a YouTube music video, a Reddit thread about book suggestions or the very polarizing opinions about The Arkells, if you like something, there will be someone out there to tell you that it’s shit and therefore makes you a tasteless moron. Dictating what people should and shouldn’t like based on their personal beliefs of what they think is the standard for quality, is quite frankly, senseless. I like a very eclectic blend of bands, television shows and movies, and not all of them would be considered incredible works of artistic entertainment.
Dictating what people should and shouldn’t like based on their personal beliefs of what they think the standard is for quality, is quite frankly, senseless.
I’m a shameless lover of The Jonas Brothers, I have an affinity for trashy television — I think Dr. Phil is quality network programming thank you very much — and I will watch crappy horror movies and cheesy made-for-Netflix chick flicks like there’s no tomorrow. There’s no shame in passing the time with things that may not win any Academy Awards or be
I just think it’s a pointless effort to preach and lecture other people about why their tastes suck or why they shouldn’t like what they already do.
It is possible to like things just because. I am by no means a lover of country music and it’s highly unlikely that you would ever see me in the crowd at Boots and Hearts, but to the people who are the opposite, more power to them. I may not be interested in it, but so what? How is it my place to judge or take that fun away from someone else? I’m by no means a perfect angel who refrains from judging, ever. It would be sanctimonious of me to say to not have your own personal opinions on what you think is “good” versus what’s “bad.” I just think it’s a pointless effort to preach and lecture other people about why their tastes suck or why they shouldn’t like what they already do. It’s highly unlikely that I would be able to convince someone to stop liking a band because I don’t like their music. And really, why does it matter? Like what you like, and don’t feel the need to justify your interests and their merit to other people, regardless of what they may think about it.
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Why an informed vote matters VICTORIA MARSHALL SENIOR COPY EDITOR
Although the date of the upcoming federal election has been looming for some time, the dissolving of Parliament on Sept. 11 served as a reminder to Canadians that Oct. 21 is approaching very quickly. For most of us currently enrolled in university, this federal election will be the first in which we get to cast a vote. Voting at any level should be considered a duty and responsibility, but in many ways, the federal vote is seen as more significant. In some ways, this is true: who the people elect in each riding will determine who Canadians choose to represent the face of the nation. That being said, having the power to choose who represents the interests of over 37 million people should not be a responsibility that is taken lightly. When we turn 18 and are granted the ability to vote,
we are also handed the responsibility of making an informed choice. These duties go hand in hand – and their separation is often what causes the election of an individual or party on the bases of misconception or fear; and for many post-secondary students living without access to TV debates or election-focused radio programming, casting a blind vote can seem like the only option. I insist, however, that this is not our reality. We are so privileged in the sense that the world is truly at our fingertips. If we can see news on Twitter and videos on YouTube from halfway across the world, we can just as easily access the platforms of parties to give them a quick scan – or, at least, read an article that summarizes each platform for us all in one place. How safe do you feel going into a final exam without having done any of your readings? Probably not great. Would you sign a lease to a new apartment without reading any of the terms? Ideally not. Plenty of young Canadians, however, would feel comfortable casting a vote uninformed: perhaps
because they may want to vote the way their parents have, or keep a current government in power because they are scared of change. As the youngest generation of voting age, we have every opportunity to change the system if we so desire. Without knowing what we might be heading into, we risk being labeled self-indulgent and ignorant by the generations that mobilized before us. If every person from 18 to 25 came out and voted informed this fall, we could transform the governance of Canada completely. If the environment is your priority, vote accordingly. If you want to see the implementation of pharmacare in your lifetime, vote accordingly. If you’re not sure what you want for the future of this country, or for yourself, for that matter, open a new tab on your laptop and figure it out. In sum, voting is important – it’s your duty to do so. But if you head to the polls and mark a candidate you read nothing about with an “x,” you’re only doing half of what you left your house and lined up to do. So vote – but vote informed. The future of the nation is in your hands.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2019
Opinion
13 • OPINION EDITOR JADE HOSICK opinion@thecord.ca
Making space in your schedule for “me time” JADE HOSICK OPINION EDITOR
When leaving for university, my parents stressed to me that I needed to prioritize school work. While I agree that this is good advice, I would also advise every student entering post-secondary to prioritize downtime where they focus on self-care. In high school, I found that I always had enough time to work on projects while still having a part time job and doing extracurriculars, while simultaneously spending time with my friends and having time to recharge my battery so to say. But after you leave high school, making time for yourself becomes even more difficult. Something that took a while to learn was that taking breaks from studying or partying is better for your productivity. In my first year and half of second year, I really waited until it was almost too late to start my assignments, and while I got them done and did decent on them, my mental health really took a fall. Often, you hear students talking about powering through their work, but we are not machines and do not have the ability to continue doing tasks for super extended periods of time. This is why more
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often then ever we are hearing about young people experiencing a ‘burn out’. A burn out is defined as ruining one’s health or becoming completely exhausted through overwork. Almost like you lose the joy in things you once had found interesting. The second half of my second year, I really started to prioritize starting my work earlier and then taking breaks in between.
I know, it’s something that a lot of people do not really want to worry about, making projects a ‘night before’ kind of issue, but it really does affect your overall mental state. An easy way to do that is as soon as you can start a project, start it. If during syllabus week where you do not have much work to do, you are able to start a project, start it. Or, if a project can be completed little by little after each class, take
some time after the class to work on it, that way you do not stress about it. Now, I’m sitting here and telling you how to do your work, and even though I am trying to get better at doing my work with downtime in between, I am not perfect. I mean, I did stretch myself too thin this week and did not get any downtime. I will still leave assignments until the last minute because I must go
to work or because I needed to finish an article, or I just got lazy. But, if you start to prioritize breaks, you start to schedule your time and that is really what is going to help you down the road. A study conducted at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found that companies that forced their employees to take breaks or vacations increased productivity. If you sit in front of a laptop all day, you become less focused and get less work completed. We’ve all been there, re-reading pages because once we got to the bottom we realized that we had no idea what the author even said in the last twenty pages. But with this downtime that you now have, you should be focusing on really taking care of yourself – maybe use the downtime to go to sleep earlier and get a full night’s rest. Sleeping is one of the best things that you can do in downtime, in my opinion. I look at sleeping like recharging a battery – so getting a full night’s sleep means that you have a 100 per centt battery, but if you only sleep for maybe four hours then you only have roughly 50 per cent battery – so you have less energy and less ability to focus on your tasks. Also try to take a break from your phone, or really any form of technology. It’s difficult, but having an hour where you aren’t connected to everything is also very good for your mental health.
14 • OPINION
EMILY WAITSON EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Forever 21, a company rife with its own problems and a looming path to bankruptcy, has recently found itself on the receiving end of a 10 million dollar lawsuit courtesy of Ariana Grande. The fast fashion retailer is facing the consequences of using the singer’s likeness in various Instagram posts without her permission, and, given the information available about her case, she has a strong chance of winning the settlement. Back in February, the company contacted Grande in hopes of striking an endorsement deal with her. It seems that after she turned it down, the company went ahead and used her “aesthetic” to promote their own products. Now, there’s a reason that the company is facing the closure of at least 700 of their stores. It seems the market for their products is dwindling drastically, and, in an attempt to remain relevant and appealing, took notes from H&M — which features an Ariana Grande branded clothing line that was created with the pop star’s consent and knowledge. And while it may seem like a trivial issue, and Grande is certainly not hard-pressed for money — it isn’t right for an already morally ambiguous company to take what they please simply because they’re desperate for an effective promo-
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2019 tional scheme to sell their cheap products. If the way to remain relevant in a cutthroat world of changing fashion is to exploit images that are clearly mirrored directly from a 26 year-old woman’s music videos, then perhaps Forever 21 needs to reevaluate their business strategies and spend what little money they have left on their social media advertising after they pay the “7 Rings” star the money that she is due. Grande is by no means blemishless herself, and although I am a big fan of her and her music, I can acknowledge that the similar issues she’s run into aren’t forgettable or justified either. She paid the price for interspersing pieces of The Sound of Music’s “My Favorite Things” into “7 Rings” and ended up forking over 90 per cent of the royalties. It should be a simple fact and aspect of reality, especially in the entertainment industry, that if you take or clearly use creations, likenesses or pieces of another person’s work for your own benefit or products, you owe that person some sort of compensation for doing so. And while it’s not very likely that most people who shop at Forever 21 are on the hunt for sustainable, well-made, innovative pieces of clothing from a retailer who utilizes effective marketing and advertising campaigns — looking at you, Aerie — it doesn’t mean that they’re above the law because of it. Regardless of whether or not you like Ariana Grande, dislike doesn’t justify writing off the utilization of her brand and images without her expressed consent.
Ariana Grande versus Forever 21
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Female James Bond controversy not been seen before. Which is also why there are 13 different movies all set around Fast and The Furious. JADE HOSICK OPINION EDITOR
Currently, we are in the age of cinema where people who once were not getting portrayed in the mainstream media are now having movies made about their experiences. I am a female, and I am all for females getting roles that used to be traditionally male, but I don’t know how I feel about all roles being refigured from male to female. This opinion has less to do with the gender of the character and more so with my opinion that a lot of production companies are basically rehashing the exact same story lines over and over again and making a profit off of it. Like the live-action Disney remakes, of course I love them, and we all know that Disney makes bank off of them, but it really is the easy way out. It is much easier to change a character around and still have the same branding and get people to come watch a show then it is to really delve into the creative process and create something new that has
Spy movies sell because of the action sequences and whatever else - people love to watch explosions and hot people saving the day.
The James Bond movies, which have been made with six different male actors, have become very predictable in the way that they are completed. I get it, companies want to make a profit and spy movies sell because of the action sequences and whatever else - people love to watch explosions and hot people saving the day, as my mom would say “James Bond is a movie you can watch on mute”. If we get a female version of James Bond, we should not just add a woman to the six actors
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who already donned the role, but maybe make a movie for her in the same universe (She could be 008 or something). The executive producer for the Bond movies, Barbara Broccoli, has also stated that she does not want to have a female Bond as she would prefer the creation of new female characters.Which I am all for! Get women to play parts that were designed for them! In a RadioTimes.com article
where 2000 people were polled it was also shown that 77 per cent of people in the survey did not want a female James Bond. While the statistics and the demographics surrounding this survey were not told, my first thought was that much of the people who voted “no” to a female James Bond did so just because they did not want to see a female take over a traditionally male role, which makes me sad.
But then I realized I am a part of that statistic simply because I don’t think the world needs a seventh portrayal of the character. It’s getting pretty boring. I think it’s time we move on and start looking into the lives of a different character. All in all, James Bond is a movie role that has been around since 1962, let’s start to find some more innovative ways to give females roles.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 2019
Sports
• 15 SPORTS EDITOR VACANT sports@thecord.ca
WELLNESS
What the Athletic Complex can offer Laurier students HAYLEY MCGOLDRICK NEWS DIRECTOR INTERIM SPORTS EDITOR
Laurier’s athletic complex is a space available for all students to use, as included in their fees is access to the gym space. While many students may find lifting free weights intimidating, or the gym busy at times, Laurier offers many programs to help students find their place in a healthy, active community. Through intramurals, group exercise, dance classes, rock climbing, personal training, aquatics as well as club and varsity sports, the goal of its programming is to be as inclusive as possible possible for each Laurier student’s schedule and lifestyle. “We try to provide a variety of
programming so we can hopefully reach everyone’s interests. Although the programming comes at an additional cost it is a great way to get involved, make new friends, and potentially discover a fitness community all while helping to take care of one’s overall well-being,” said Stefanie Kubacki, coordinator for intramurals and instructional programs for Laurier athletics. Intramural offerings at Laurier include soccer, basketball, hockey, volleyball, flag football, wallyball, water polo, badminton, dodgeball, ball hockey, cricket, ultimate frisbee, squash and table tennis, with many variations and leagues within those sports that students can participate in. Laurier’s dance classes also offer different styles of dance like
jazz, contemporary, ballet, lyrical, hip-hop, Latin, burlesque and tap among others, with beginner, intermediate and advanced levels of each class. The group exercise program offers a one-time purchase or payper-class purchase option, including programming like HIIT classes, a “bootylicious” class focused on lower leg muscles, GSRBHC, meaning “gun show, rock bottom, hard core” which focuses on a full body workout, cardio kickboxing and others. “The whole healthy living, wellness aspect of recreation covers so many different parts of wellness, not even just the workout portion of the programming but also it got me more comfortable being at the gym because I knew more people. It made the whole fitness expe-
rience at university — especially with my schedule — it’s convenient to pop into a class you know is there,” said Elora Austrup, group exercise coordinator for Laurier athletics. “My advice is to just go to a class, even alone, because nine times out of 10 you are going to meet other people there, our instructors are so welcoming, it’s not supposed to be intense training; it’s supposed to be fun, but also uplifting and empowering for all levels of fitness whether you are a beginner or an expert.” Laurier’s pool, used for innertube water polo, is also used for aqua fit, lane swims and lifeguarding courses for students who are looking to get fitness into their lives in a different way. Another program offered by
Laurier athletics is called “I Move My Mood” and focuses on the mental health aspect of well-being helping improve mental health through recreation. “All of our instructors are students: we all understand what it’s like to be a student, and when we’re doing our training we talk about mental health a lot. We incorporate it into all of our classes, we announce at the end of our classes to make sure participants are taking care of themselves, we collaborate with I Move My Mood,” Austrup said. “It’s definitely a huge part of the program and something we do keep in mind as instructors. We are trained to be supportive of it and everyone is informed about it because a part of wellness is mental health.”
CRICKET
Laurier women’s cricket team takes home championship JOE DEFILIPPIS CORD SPORTS
From Sept. 3-4, Laurier University’s women’s cricket team competed in the first-ever Canadian College Cricket Women’s National Championship in King City. Despite the team being in its infancy at Laurier, having been founded less than three years ago, the Golden Hawks managed to take home the championship, being crowned the Canadian College National Champions for 2019. “We were just hoping to have a fun time,” vice-captain Amisha Yadav said, “winning was totally not expected.” After defeating Ryerson in the semi-finals, Laurier set up a finals matchup against Canadian College
Cricket’s top team. Trailing for a large part of the match, Laurier saw themselves down 11 runs with just three balls left. However, the team was able to dig in deep and squeeze out an 81-79 victory. Top performers in the finals included Yadav, who contributed 45 runs, and Maaike van Wingerden, who gave the team 33 runs. “We have been practicing throughout the summer, so in terms of skill set, there has been significant improvement in a lot of players,” Yadav said. Making this tournament win even more surprising for Laurier is the fact that just a few weeks ago, the team was not even sure if they would be able to compete in it. “Throughout the summer we
lost a lot of players, [as] a lot of our team graduated. We were just concerned with if we would be able to even play at all,” Yadav said. This challenge of having enough players to compete is something that Laurier’s women’s cricket team has dealt with since it was founded. As with many new clubs or teams created at the university level, being able to recruit enough individuals to join is often the biggest hurdle that needs to be cleared. “A lot of students in general at Laurier don’t know what cricket is as a sport,” Yadav said. “So even if we do advertise that we are looking for people, and no matter how much we say that we don’t require any previous experi-
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ence, people just aren’t as willing to just try it out.” “We’re trying to get as many players as we can and just get the word out about our team and a women’s cricket team in general, because there are just not that many teams like [us] across Ontario and Canada,” she said. Following an impressive performance at the National Championships, the Laurier team will have a busy few months ahead of them to not only continue to make a name for themselves at the provincial level, but work towards continuing to grow interest in the team. “We are hoping to host a tournament in November, where we are getting universities coming to Laurier for a two-day event. Nothing is confirmed yet, but that is our goal,”
Yadav said. The next big provincial tournament for Laurier will be the Ontario Cup, where the Golden Hawks will be entering as the defending runner-up, after losing to York University in the finals last year. Coming off of such an impressive performance at the National Championships, Laurier will definitely be entering the Ontario Cup as one of the favourites for the tournament, and it will be very exciting to see how the team can perform. With continued tournament success and a strong effort by team members to promote the sport of women’s cricket, it would be no surprise if the team becomes among the most popular choices at Laurier for women’s athletics.
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16 •
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2019
BASEBALL
WOMEN’S FASTPITCH REMAINS UNDEFEATED, 7-0 FILE PHOTO/PAIGE BUSH
HAYLEY MCGOLDRICK NEWS DIRECTOR INTERIM SPORTS EDITOR
Women’s fastpitch at Laurier has gone on a seven-game win streak, sitting first in their division as they stay undefeated during the first two weekends of their season, aiming towards a first-place finish at the season’s end. “We have a really strong focus: obviously we are hosting the national championships this fall and four of the last five years we’ve come second to Western and this is a pretty veteran team, so we have a lot of girls in their last year who want to make that jump and beat Western in the finals. For us we’re really focused on one game at a time,” said Matt Allen, head coach of the women’s fastpitch team. “It’s going to be tough — the way the playoff format works, the only chip on our shoulder is that we’re focused on two goals in
mind, two gold medals in October, so we’re really not looking at standings or who our playoff matchup could be; we’re focused on those two goals and we’re not paying a whole lot of attention to the standings.”
... We have a lot of girls in their last year who want to make that jump and beat Western in the finals ... we’re really focused on one game at a time. -Matt Allen, head coach of the WLU women’s fastpitch team
Starting the season with two wins each over Ryerson and Toron-
to, the purple and gold continued their streak with two wins over Windsor as well as one win over rival team Western, who has taken the gold medal from the Golden Hawks for the last two years. “For us it was a really big booster beating Western — they don’t lose a whole lot of games, so for us it was a big mental block to get over on Friday. Coming out with a win gets it in their minds that the team is not invincible and we can beat them when we play our game,” Allen said. “It proved to ourselves and our athletes who have lost to Western over the last four years that the Western team is human — and if anybody can beat them, it’s us.” The women’s team will stay at home Friday night to battle the Waterloo Warriors for two games before travelling to Guelph for a double header Saturday morning, and will be finishing off their weekend with two final games against
Queen’s in Kingston on Sunday afternoon.
We’ve got them focused on their sleep patterns and what they’re eating, but we put more of a focus on their mental game ... -Matt Allen, head coach of the WLU women’s fastpitch team
“Right now we’re really focused on some stuff off the field, mental game. The girls are in the gym three to four times a week. We have six games this weekend, which is a lot, so our focus is to stay healthy,” Allen said. “We’ve got them focused on
their sleep patterns and what they’re eating, but we put more of a focus on their mental game because when you’re hosting the national championships and when you have the top eight teams in the country in one spot there will be a lot of tight games — so we’re focusing on getting that edge mental wise.” The national championships are being hosted at Budd Park on Oct. 11-13 and the Golden Hawks will be looking to bring a championship back to Laurier on home soil. “This year is a special year for us because hosting the national championships is obviously a big deal, but it’s been 10 years since we won our first national title, which was here in Kitchener as well, so we’ve got some engaged alumni; they’re coming out to games and we’re doing a celebration with them the Saturday of the championships so this team has a cool background story this year.”