The Cord March 13, 2019

THE CORD THE TIE THAT BINDS WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY SINCE 1926

VOLUME 59 ISSUE 23 • MARCH 13, 2019

OUTSTANDING WOMEN The three finalists for the 2019 OWL award Sports, page 16

DOORKNOCKING

TALKING ABOUT TATTOOS

TICKET TO A GOOD TIME

THINKING OF LUKE PERRY

FAMILY TREE OF CURLERS

Gearing up for the annual Ezra street party

The changing stigmas in the workforce

Choosing concert-going as a hobby

Remembering celebrities on social media

Middaugh’s continue to rock athletics

News, page 3

Features, page 8

Arts & Life, page 10

Opinion, page 14

Sports, page 15

Laurier celebrates International Women’s Day “I think it’s really important because women have traditionally been so underrepresented in the science, technologies and engineering fields” - Deborah McLatchy

HAYLEY MCGOLDRICK NEWS EDITOR

On Friday, Mar. 8, the second annual International Women’s Day luncheon, entitled “Advancing Women in STEAM,” was held

by Laurier Alumni in partnership with the International Women’s Forum at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Kitchener.

Laurier President Deborah MacLatchy gave a keynote address at the luncheon and was followed by a speaker panel, moderated by Ginny Dybenko, former dean of the Lazaridis School of Business & Economics; panelists Arjumand

Ateeq, who graduated from Laurier with a computer science BSc in 2005; Nancy Tout, who graduated from Laurier with a biology BSc in 1991; and Sarah Shortreed, who recently completed a term on the Board of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

The panelists were all chosen due to their backgrounds as women in science, technology, arts, engineering and math (STEAM), and they spoke about their trials and triumphs as women in a very male-dominated field and how they came out successfully in their respective careers.

“I think it’s really important

because women have traditionally been so underrepresented in the science, technologies and engineering fields and coming together to talk about the challenges as well as the opportunities,” MacLatchy said.

“It provides great mentorship opportunities, great role models and really the important thing is looking at the generation of students we have now and the girls in high school and elementary school to open the doors so they can fulfill their full potential.”

The luncheon also featured an exhibit from Laurier social psychology PhD graduate Eden

Hennessey, entitled “#DistractinglySexist and #DistractinglyHonest,” which combined arts and science in photos, featuring women in science balancing science with their other responsibilities, such as being a mother, wife or academic, and still upholding a standard of beauty.

“The Centre for Women in Science is a great way for students to get involved and to interact with faculty and staff, as well as graduate and undergraduate students who are all interested in science and technology — so that’s a great way to get seen,” Maclatchy said.

Continued on page 6.

PHOTO BY SADNAN SAKIB RAHMAN/CREATIVE DIRECTOR

2 •

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2019

VOCAL CORD What is the best part of a concert?

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The Cord

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CordNews

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

“The buildup; getting excited to go.”

–Taryn Tufford, fourthyear language studies

“It’s a very spiritual, more personal experience when it’s live.”

–Dexter Adkin, thirdyear sociology JACKIE VANG/LEAD PHOTOGRAPHER

Protestors lined streets last week to protest against Canada Goose.

“The community of people who all like the same music.”

–Ainsley Purvis, second-year sociology

“The atmosphere and meeting new people.”

–Kate Prychitko, second-year global studies

Compiled by Margaret Russell Photos by Jackie Vang NEXT ISSUE MARCH 20, 2019

ARTS & LIFE EDITOR Emily Waitson arts@thecord.ca

CORD STAFF

OPINION EDITOR Alyssa Di Sabatino opinion@thecord.ca

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Safina Husein editor@thecord.ca

SPORTS EDITOR Pranav Desai sports@thecord.ca

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Sadman Sakib Rahman creative@thecord.ca

GRAPHICS EDITOR Kashyap Patel graphics@thecord.ca

WEB DIRECTOR Garrison Oosterhof online@thecord.ca

PHOTO EDITOR Eva Ou photos@thecord.ca

NEWS EDITOR Hayley McGoldrick news@thecord.ca

ONLINE EDITOR Katherine Weber online@thecord.ca

NEWS EDITOR Aaron Hagey news@thecord.ca

VIDEO EDITOR Sarah Tyler video@thecord.ca

FEATURES EDITOR Vacant features@thecord.ca

LEAD REPORTER Margaret Russell news@thecord.ca

LEAD SPORTS REPORTER Abdulhamid Ibrahim sports@thecord.ca LEAD PHOTOGRAPHER Jackie Vang photos@thecord.ca LEAD PHOTOGRAPHER Isaak Wong photos@thecord.ca SENIOR COPY EDITOR Sara Burgess copyeditor@thecord.ca SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR Vacant editor@thecord.ca CORDCAST PRODUCER Brielle Huang cordcast@thecord.ca

CONTRIBUTORS

EDITOR’S CHOICE

Emma McVicar Tyler Currie Yana Manevska Rachel Burns Victoria Marshall Caitlyn Lourenco Jennifer Webb

Media makes the world look bad by Pranav Desai

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2019

News

• 3 NEWS EDITOR HAYLEY MCGOLDRICK news@thecord.ca

NEWS EDITOR AARON HAGEY news@thecord.ca

SAFETY

Annual St. Patrick’s Day doorknocker campaign begins AARON HAGEY NEWS EDITOR

In what has become a routine beginning in the month of March, the City of Waterloo is once again preparing and organizing their services to deal with the growing concern surrounding St. Patrick’s Day festivities.

Beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Mar. 13, a collection of Waterloo community partners will be undertaking their annual St. Patrick’s Day door-knocking campaign. In addition, the city will be putting up posters and talking to residents of the city to encourage safe and responsible behaviour on and around the upcoming weekend.

The goal of the event is to educate those who may be participating or in the vicinity of the day’s activities on staying out of trouble with the law, as well as how to avoid exposing themselves to risk or danger.

“We’re going around the neighbourhoods around the university, to areas where we know there are high volumes of student housing, knocking on doors and giving them information and just encouraging them to stay safe,” said Shayne Turner, director of municipal enforcement services for the City

of Waterloo.

“If they’re going to partake in the St. Patrick’s Day events over the weekend, we want them to stay safe and be respectful and make sure that they look [out] for their friends as well.”

In doing this, the city hopes to reduce the amount of pressure that will be put on regional law enforcement and reinforce an overall message of “respect” and “pride” for their community.

Included in this campaign will be members of the City of Waterloo’s Fire Rescue and by-law enforcement, Waterloo Regional Police Services, Region of Waterloo Paramedic Services, members of Wilfrid Laurier University and their Students’ Union, as well as individuals from the University of Waterloo and their Federation of Students.

The City of Waterloo released a notice on Thursday, Mar. 7, providing some additional information regarding the weekend’s events.

In the release, Leanne Holland Brown, dean of students at Wilfrid Laurier University’s Waterloo campus, offered some of her thoughts regarding the university’s stance on hazard-minimization and mitigation.

“We are pleased to continue working closely with the City of

LUKE SARAZIN/FILE PHOTO

Waterloo and our emergency service partners on operational and communications plans to address growing safety concerns and to ensure a collective effort in responding to this situation,” Brown said.

Regarding St. Patrick’s Day itself, the city is preparing well in advance of the day to prepare for all the likely possibilities and hazards that come with such large crowds.

“We have an operations plan in place … it’s going to focus on what we know are the likely impacts of the large crowds on Ezra street,”

Turner said.

“But we also have teams of officers that are going to be in and around the neighbourhoods, outside of the Ezra area, where we also know there are likely to be large gatherings and large parties.”

As far as the major issues that the city expects to face, municipal enforcement notes a series of similar themes emerging from years previous.

“I think the issues we’re going to face are likely the same as what we’ve faced in previous years: the

large crowds, blocking sidewalks and blocking traffic, significant drinking, noisy parties, public urination,” Turner said. “[But] that also comes with the challenges of people getting injured when they slip and fall or they do harm by perhaps drinking too much.”

As members of the Laurier community, it is our duty and responsibility to encourage and promote messages of respect for the community and the city this upcoming weekend.

people were paying us for some data,” Chayka said.

“Statheltes organically came out of that niche, we didn’t work backwards from starting a business.

We kind of fell into what was really needed in the sport of hockey.”

As the number of women engaging in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) degrees and jobs is increasing, programs like the Lazaridis Institute’s aim to continue to aid this underrepresented demographic in creating successful ventures with opportunities they may not find otherwise.

“One of our managers played Division III hockey and another lady we had who moved onto an even better job played Division I hockey; they are very critical and we do have some very strong women on our team, but for sure you see that 90 per cent of our employees are male,” Chayka said.

“At the same time, 100 per cent of basically any hockey operations are male, so we’re almost diverse which is the sad thing; but for sure there’s a big push in tech for female and diversity inclusion initiatives, and the layer of sports does make it interesting.”

Kitchener-Waterloo is a consistently growing technology hub, especially for start-up companies with many incubators and accelerators.

But the goal of this program is to take already existing female-led companies that are past the start-

up stage and help them increase growth. Canadian technology has many talented creators, but not a focus on enhancing equality in the field.

“There are a lot of barriers that we have to work through as women in technology, but I think that puts that chip on your shoulder too to work harder and be better, so I think that is motivation as well,” Chayka said.

“One of the primary drivers of applying was to be more diverse.

For me, it was that in this company I want to not just do men’s hockey and men’s sports, but do women’s as well. We have a few female clients and that number has grown even just this year.”

The program runs for six months and runs various experiences in six cities in North America for intensive weekend workshops in order for the cohort to learn from experienced executives and find opportunities to enhance their businesses where they may not be able to at home.

“I want to keep increasingly building in a women’s realm, which I think from the all-star game and the Olympics, there is tailwind behind wanting to support women athletes,” Chayka said.

“I think learning from other entrepreneurs with similar backgrounds and experiences to me have that mutual understanding and drawing from their energy and experiences is invaluable.”

BUSINESS

EVA OU/PHOTO EDITOR

Lazaridis Scale-up: The women behind the next “Lazaridis10” HAYLEY MCGOLDRICK NEWS EDITOR

The Lazaridis Institute for the Management of Technology Enterprises announced their fourth cohort of the women-in-technology Scaleup Program, in which 10 different women-led companies are guided by mentors to continue their path of growth within their company.

The “Lazaridis10,” as they are referred to as by the institute, are

up-and-coming technology companies that have applied for a spot in the cohort and aim to enhance their skills through mentorship, networking, marketing and financing.

The companies that were selected this year are Advanced Symbolics Inc., Brillist Better Projects, Conscia Corporation Questor Technology Inc., Sheertex, Stathletes, Storytap, Symend Inc., Vivametrica and Voices.com, all

founded by women.

Meghan Chayka, one of the co-founders of Stathletes, is not only a woman in technology, but also a woman in sports technology, specifically hockey, which are very male-dominated industries.

“All of the co-founders were heavily involved in sports growing up, but we also all had co-op and business in our backgrounds as well; so about 10 years ago, we had a market idea in the sense that

4 • NEWS

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2019

GENDER EQUALITY

AWARENESS

New study ranks Waterloo Tri-City is named most unsafe and unhealthy for women SAFINA HUSEIN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge have been named as one of the least safe metro areas for women in Canada, according to a study published this past month.

The recent study, published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, was titled “The Best and Worst Places to be a Woman in Canada 2019.”

The publication ranked 26 metro areas across Canada, discussing various components pertaining to gender inequalities or differences in each of the areas.

Overall, Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge (KWC) ranked 17 amongst the 26 areas. However, KWC was ranked number 20 for economic security, number 22 for education and number three for leadership. For health and security, KWC was ranked last at number 26.

“The rates of sexual assault and intimate partner violence reported to the police in Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge were among the highest among large cities while

the rate of criminal harassment targeting women was the highest,” the report read. "Overall, KWC placed 26th—or last—as a safe place for women to live in Canada.”

According to the study, in 2017, over 1300 individuals “were victims of intimate partner violence.”

The rates of sexual assault and intimate partner violence reported to the police in Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge were among the highest ...

-Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Of those 1300, women made up 77.1 per cent. Additionally, women made up 95.6 per cent of sexual assault victims overall.

Nationally, 19 per cent of sexual

assaults were unfounded in the period between 2010 to 2014.

However, KWC’s unfounded rate was found at 27 per cent — much higher than the overall national average.

In terms of health, the study stated that life expectancy “in Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge is just above the Canadian average for men, and just below it for women.”

Women living in KWC live to be an average of 83.7 years and men in KWC were said to live an expectancy of 80.3 years.

“The proportion of women and men reporting high stress fell over this period,” the study read. “In 2016, one in four women in KWC (26.4 per cent) reported high stress compared to one in six men (16.7 per cent). The gender gap widened by almost 15 percentage points.”

KWC ranked high in terms of leadership, with women making up 47 per cent of elected officials.

Outside of politics, the study noted that, in 2017, women in management position made up 36.1 per cent, which is just above the national average set at 34.6 per cent.

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ISAAK WONG/CORD PHOTOGRAPHY

Laurier’s “5 Days For the Homeless” AARON HAGEY NEWS EDITOR

From Mar. 8 to Mar. 13, five students at universities around Canada put their survival to the test by simulating an experience of homelessness for five days in order to raise awareness for a vulnerable group of Canadians, partnering with local charities which help those who are currently experiencing homelessness.

Now in its eighth year, the Laurier chapter of the campaign will be donating their funds raised to OneROOF and Argus.

The goal this year is $17,000.

To raise funds for this campaign, the teams host a series of events, including a “kickoff night” with opening ceremonies, a barbecue fundraiser, a flag football tournament — which was, unfortunately, cancelled due to the weather — a silent auction and karaoke night, as well as boothing throughout the period.

“We try to focus on a lot of outdoor activities to try and really naturally get people to empathize for that feeling of being out in the cold — and then ultimately realize that they get to go home to a warm bed and heat, food that they have at their disposal,” said Noelle Rossi, president of Laurier’s “5 Days For the Homeless” campaign.

Currently, the figure raised is $2776.60, meaning that the campaign is quite far from its intended goal. However, Rossi is not concerned about this.

“The main thing is that we really want to start conversations and change as many perspectives as possible. If we change one perspective, then I’ll call it a success,” Rossi said.

This year’s participants are Alyssa Shields, Alessandro Portanova, Kevin Nam, Sandy Tedjasubrata and Adelaide Baker. “[They are] incredibly brave individuals, who I think — not only before, but after [the campaign] — are able to sympathize with the idea of not having a place to call home or feel safe,” Rossi said. “[They are] also people who notice that there is a group of people who are often invisible, they’re often stigmatized and they do a really incredible job of putting a

face to that.”

There are restrictions for the participants: they cannot shower for the five days, have access to their personal technology — phones or laptops — cannot have disposable income, relying instead on food donations, cannot leave the campus and most importantly, must maintain all their academic and extra-curricular responsibilities.

“We really want to emphasize the fact that these people who don’t necessarily have a place to call home, still have to maintain those responsibilities,” Rossi said.

However, they are allowed to use computers that are available on campus, such as in the 24 Lounge, the library or the computer labs, as well as rent computers from the U-Desk, which are available to any student, regardless of their housing status.

“They often rely on their very generous roommates, friends and people just passing by. This year, we’ve had a whole bunch of really generous people … people have come by with really generous donations of fresh fruit [, etc.],” Rossi said.

This campaign has not been without its criticism. Rossi, however, acknowledges the limitations and problems regarding this simulation of homelessness.

“The most accurate part of it is that they sleep outside. But we have to take into consideration … is the fact that they have an end to it … youth who are experiencing homelessness don’t have that opportunity,” Rossi said.

“They get food donated to them, basically at every meal — and if they don’t, then we get to cover it on our budget, which is amazing for us, but that’s not the case for people who are actually experiencing homelessness.”

“They get to layer up or email their roommates from the computers on campus and say: ‘look, I didn’t bring enough shoes, sweaters, can you bring me more?’. That’s not a reality for people who really are experiencing homelessness,” she said.

The key point of the campaign, Rossi emphasizes, is that the participants have made a choice that is not available for everyone, which they are becoming more aware of.

NEWS • 5

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2019 DEMONSTRATION

Canada Goose protest in Waterloo MARGARET RUSSELL LEAD REPORTER

On the evening of Friday, Mar. 8, a group of local activists joined together at the intersection of University Avenue and Seagram Drive to rally against Canada Goose, the Canadian winter apparel brand that actively and primarily uses animal textiles for their products.

Stephanie Lennon, president of the University of Waterloo Animal Rights Society, was an organizer of this protest and was accompanied by approximately twelve other students and community activists who led the demonstration.

“Canada Goose jackets are really popular for students especially and that’s part of the Canada Goose marketing strategy – they use cognitive bias when marketing to people, and it’s encouraging people to buy these jackets because they’re so trend[y] and everyone’s doing it,” Lennon said.

Canada Goose’s most popular style of parkas and bomber jackets are made from goose down and coyote fur.

Due to the popularity of this brand, they have reserved a section of their website to address this controversial choice.

“I think people experience a

great disconnect from the clothing that they’re wearing,” Lennon said.

“We really want to take a compassionate approach because we know that people buy these jackets, not realizing what they’re contributing to … I had quite a few conversations with people and they really didn’t know what these jackets were made out of.”

We really want to take a compassionate approach because we know that people buy these jackets, not realizing what they’re contributing to ...

-Stephanie Lennon, president, UW Animal Rights Society

“In terms of outreach [at the protest], I would say that I personally spoke to around 30 people, but we also had a lot of reception from cars, honking their horns and people giving us thumbs up,” she said.

However, not all responses were encouraging. Lennon recalls in-

stances of people yelling from their cars in a negative nature, stating things such as “animals deserve to die.”

“I think that it comes from a place of being defensive, I believe that humans inherently don’t want to cause suffering to animals,” Lennon said.

There was much constructive discussion facilitated by this event.

Lennon, who studies environment, resources and sustainability at the University of Waterloo, also recalls a discussion she had with a curious student about the assumed nature of species regulation regarding coyotes and Canada Goose.

“Coyotes are a keystone species; so when they are taken out of an area, [the population of ] what they are eating increases, then it goes down the trophic cascade of what those animals consume – which is herbaceous plants, which reduces the population of plant species in that area,” Lennon explained.

Lennon was pleased with the response overall as it was a productive experience engaging with people about their cause.

“We’re trying to reduce the suffering of animals wherever possible, from what we wear, to the food that we eat, the products that we use,” Lennon said.

JACKIE VANG/LEAD PHOTOGRAPHER

EDUCATION

Faculty of Music, Randolph College declare partnership HAYLEY MCGOLDRICK NEWS EDITOR

Wilfrid Laurier University’s faculty of music has announced that they have created a partnership with Randolph College for the Performing Arts, allowing students at both institutions to receive both a degree and a diploma from each school in certain programs.

The pathway agreement will allow Randolph College students to complete an additional two years of study at Laurier after their graduation to earn a bachelor of music (BMus) degree in either community music or self-directed studies on top of their performing arts diploma.

As for Laurier students, those who are currently enrolled in their third year of the BMus for voice performance can enrol in Randolph’s performing arts diploma to graduate with both a bachelor’s degree and performing arts diploma.

“We had long realized there was interest amongst our students and potential students in musical theatre, and we also recognized that we didn’t have capacity to introduce that kind of program on our own,” said Glen Carruthers, the dean of the Laurier faculty of music.

“Coincidentally, Randolph College had been looking for an academic partner for a number of years. They ultimately reached out to us and we were highly receptive and so things moved forward with ease and a lot of enthusiasm.”

Randolph College for the Performing Arts is located in Toronto,

EVA OU/PHOTO EDITOR

Ontario and has alumni performing in many capacities, such as live theatre shows and television roles. Laurier alumni are currently performing in venues, such as the Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall. The added value of a musical theatre diploma can help enhance skills for roles in places like Broadway shows, as some Randolph alumni have achieved this success.

“One of the features of musical life in the twenty-first century is that success seems predicated on versatility. At the end of the twentieth century there were a lot of us asking what kind of skills students need to succeed in the twenty-first century as a musician. I don’t think we need to ask that anymore,”

Carruthers said.

“We know that the ability to move seamlessly between a number of different art forms and a number of different sub-disciplines is a tremendous advantage for anybody in the professional world and it’s important that graduates are able to move from one career focus to another.”

Current Laurier voice-performance students have experience in productions, as they perform an opera each year — this year’s opera being Cendrillon — and Laurier offers an opera diploma to students once they have graduated from voice performance.

The added benefit of a Randolph College diploma is that, on top

of Laurier graduates’ voice skills, they will also learn about acting for film, TV and stage, musical theatre vocals opposed to opera, as well as a combination of dance including ballet, jazz and tap all in their curriculum.

“A lot of our graduates will go on to teach or go into business — a lot of them already do all these activities simultaneously. They will teach during the day and then perform in the evening. This program will enable our students to gain a greater diversity of skills that they will use in the professional world,” Carruthers said.

For Randolph College graduates, they have the choice to enrol into Laurier’s community music

degree, a new program introduced in 2017, or into a self-directed studies program where they are free to explore electives outside of the faculty.

“What we were looking for are the programs that either align most obviously with the kind of skills that Randolph are likely to have, or those programs that afforded the most opportunity to transfer credit,” Carruthers said.

“The community music program makes sense because community theatre and arts connect with community music and the self-directed study is the program with the most flexibility. So if a student is really intent on gaining skills in arts administration or entrepreneurial skills in music, the setting in which to do that is self-directed study.”

Though this academic pathway agreement has just been announced, the faculty of music is always looking for new ways to enhance the student experience and continue to be one of the top music programs for students in Canada.

“Institutionally, we were asking the same thing: how can we remain relevant and how can we use our limited resources and so forth.

The answer to that is clear, too: it’s partnering with institutions who already have strengths in particular areas where we would like to develop expertise,” Carruthers said.

“We’re constantly looking to provide students with the skills to have a high and satisfying quality of life upon graduation, so in that process, we look far beyond ourselves to find experiences that will benefit our students and I think this is a

6 • NEWS

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2019

MENTORSHIP

STEAM luncheon leaves ladies hungry for opportunity HAYLEY MCGOLDRICK NEWS EDITOR

— COVER “Reaching out to find those role models and mentors is another way. My experience has been that, when I was a student and reached out to either a male or female faculty member, I always got such a positive response back that was supportive in something I could do to learn.”

Many of the panelists also credited men for their success.

Though the luncheon was about advancing women as well as celebrating women, they all agreed that strong male figures who helped them pursue their dreams — and never doubted them based on gender — were also critical to the roles they currently have.

“In technology, the fact is that it is a very male dominated industry.

So because there are so many men in the room, in any conversation that you have it becomes very hard to be heard as a woman,” said Arjumand Ateeq, one of the panelists for the afternoon.

“That’s why the [main] challenge for women right now is to be in the space but to be authentic: which really means don’t try to be the same as men, because we bring a different perspective to the world and we need to [work to] maintain that.”

The panelists were asked about how they got their start in STEAM,

This is our chance to say we are going to be at the table this time, we are going to be an equal part in all the conversations.

-Arjumand Ateeq, panelist

I have gone to Fierce Founders, which is a completely women-focused boot camp at Communitech; I’m [also] a businessperson in Laurier Launchpad, [where] more than 50 per cent of them are women.

So it is definitely popping up more and as I go to events I see more of them,” Ateeq said.

“I think talking about it has really helped. There are a lot of men who have also helped make

it happen. It is very much happening, but I’m just hoping it isn’t a bubble where I’m only seeing people come to these events and in reality that’s still not reflected.”

Though only the second annual event of the luncheon and panel, Laurier is continually looking to help women in STEAM education.

This will bean even more important focus in the future while they work towards still building the Laurier Milton campus that focuses on STEAM. “I think that it’s very exciting where we are; there is a big opportunity for women and girls to reshape how we see careers in this industry ,” Ateeq said.

“Jobs are now being redefined, so this is that chance to say we are going to be at the table this time — we are going to be an equal part in all the conversations and all the jobs that get created.”

“We look forward to having this grow into something a lot bigger,” Shield said.

“Our intent behind this project is to spread that awareness of how to

cook and to pass these skills along, but it’s also [to let students] know that you’re not alone when you’re out here in university … the transition can be tough for students.”

GENconnect’s organizers are working on finalizing the details for their next class, at which they hope students will get the opportunity to learn how to prepare a sweet treat.

HAYLEY MCGOLDRICK/NEWS EDITOR

On display were several photos from Eden Hennessey’s #DistractinglySexist and #DistractinglyHonest exhibit.

the struggles of being a woman in these fields, as well as questions like how they handle being a mother with such strenuous careers in demanding fields.

“It is becoming more prevalent.

BUSINESS

GENconnect links students and seniors MARGARET RUSSELL LEAD REPORTER

Wilfrid Laurier University is welcoming a new student start-up to the Waterloo campus this semester.

GENconnect Waterloo is an event-based start-up social venture. Its goal is to create intergenerational connections and relationships, between students and seniors from the Kitchener-Waterloo community by facilitating cooking classes.

GENconnect was founded by Laura Shield, Giny Pearson and Roxy Suida, three Laurier students participating in the social entrepreneurship option of C3 Innovation Labs — a program designed for arts students wishing to take on community-engaged experiential learning in the tri-cities with their own ventures.

GENconnect’s launch and first cooking class took place on Feb. 28.

It was lead by chef Sally, a local senior citizen, who shared with the participating students her recipe for hearty couscous with vegetables.

The cooking classes are $5.00 per person per class and are lead by seniors who are eager to share their recipes and wisdom of nutritional, home-cooked meals with Laurier’s

students.

Sessions are held at the Harris Hope House on Albert Street.

Afterwards, student participants are given the opportunity to share and enjoy the meal together with their chef.

Any leftovers from the meals made are left in the global kitchen for international students who live there as part of a separate program.

“We plan on having at least two more [classes] by the end of April,” said Laura Shield, one of GENconnect’s founders.

“For the past couple of months, gearing up before the launch, we’ve been spending a lot of time getting our food handling [certifications].”

The chefs who lead these cooking classes do so on a purely volunteer basis.

“We typically ask the seniors that would be interested to bring their own recipes forward when coming in and teaching, because we want them to be comfortable when teaching other people how to cook the recipe — and we also want that conversation started,” Shield said.

GENconnect emphasizes the value of having mentorship and guidance during an important time in a students’ life, in which many of them will be learning how to cook and care for themselves for the first time.

CONTRIBUTED IMAGE

GAMES • 15

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2019

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 no later than Monday at noon each week.

Dear Life, Gus Dapperton is like if stevedave had a baby with Weird Al. Sincerely, Keen Eye Dear Life, Life is a presentation. So, are you going to use PowerPoint or Google Slides?

Sincerely, Keen Eye Dear Life, I’m so excited to see what tomorrow brings for us. The ups and downs this year haven’t defined us and now we’re who we want to be.

I promise to make tomorrow even

SUDOKU

better than today and long as you promise the same.

Sincerely, Hopeful Hawk

WORD SEARCH

Dear Dear computer in the corner, Why do you hate us?

Sincerely, Everyone Dear Safina, Regardless of what you say, we won’t listen to you.

Sincerely, Parnav and co.

Dear Life, Pleas esummon the St. Paddy’s angels and tell them to revitalize my soul on Monday morning for my 8:30am class.

Sincerely, Sham-Rocking Dear Safina I won’t miss you.

Sincerely, :) Dear Pranav, You will TOO miss me.

Sincerely, Just watch

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8 •

FEATU

FEATURES EDITOR/VACANT/FEATURES@THECORD.CA

The Changing Traditi

Online Editor, Kate Weber, investigates the tr For the first period of my life, getting tattoos was something that a large majority of my close friends were doing and seeing ink on people was more common than not.

Tattoos are something that stay on your body forever, and comparing the number of students who will one day be parents and adults versus the number of adults who have tattoos in this day and age is proof that times will be different by the time our generation gets older When I was 18 years old, I decided to get a tattoo that had a lot of meaning behind it for me.

Convincing my parents to even allow me to get one is a whole other story, but their main concern was that it would be something I had to live with forever. Their conditions of allowing me to get the tattoo included making sure it was in a place where I could hide it if need be and that I could only get one.

Being at my first corporate job last summer, I wore a long-sleeve shirt to work daily so I could make sure my tattoo would be covered.

I understand that the office I worked at may have been a bit more laid back in comparison to some offices, but to my surprise a lot of the full-time staff didn’t cover their tattoos.

The first instinct that came to my head upon seeing adults in the corporate world being confident with their tattoos was that many of the inappropriate or unprofessional connotations which surround tattoo culture was potentially changing.

An interesting point which came about through conducting interviews was that respondents from different career paths viewed tattoos as a form of art.

Andre Czegledy, an associate professor in Wilfrid Laurier University’s anthropology department, spoke about how tattooing and body modifications fit into our changing society through internet communications and a tattoos interpretations through art and aesthetics.

“I would say that society is changing in terms of its acceptance of tattoos and other forms of body modification. I would add that because as it’s not as simple as just tattoos, but I would also note that when we say society it’s which society because different culture and communities understand tattoos in different ways” Czegledy said.

Czegledy stated that within Canada and North America “tattooing is becoming more and more prominent.”

“That is partially because younger generations have been exposed to tattooing to a greater extent and accepting it to a greater extent.

That might also be a generational divide,” Czegledy said.

With respect to a theoretical line drawn between what tattoos could be considered as appropriate, Czegledy believes that this can be taken in two ways — one on an individual basis and the second from a collective basis. “[People] may understand or receive what is appropriate very different from another, which is a personal thing which would be from their history.”

“At the same time, people are a part of broader communities … and communities on a cultural ba-

sis, which has to do with heritage or traditions or conventions, may see tattoos and body modification on a different basis from community to community,” Czegledy said.

No individual will have the same perceptions of tattoos which is related to “the conjunction of the individual and the broader set of communities they are linked in,” Czegledy said.

Czegledy’s idea of change for tattoos in different generations was that different generations understand tradition, conventions, innovations very differently than previous generations.

“It is clear to me than in the Canadian context tattoos are more and more prominent in the Laurier Community” Said Czegledy Czegledy stated that when tattoos are hidden it is difficult to understand how many students actually have them,“it is hard to speak on it on a quantitative basis but at the same time it is much more apparent among my students and our students and I think that is readily recognizable.”

“It is different and we can accept that every generation is different in identity, passions, interest. For a younger generation that is clearly one of those things,” said Czegledy.

The Instagram account of famous tattoo artist Jon Boy has a large following because of his celebrity appeal by tattooing people such as Justin Bieber, Post Malone and many others. This is a frequent platform tattoo goers revert to for inspiration and has had a large effect on design choices.

Czegledy noted that digital communications is a place where “people are exposed to different ways of being and representation that was never easily accessible to in past generations.”

In AN347, a science culture and technology course offered at Laurier, students receive a historical perspective tht gives the class the groundings of the traditions on a cross cultural basis but also a comparative perspective in terms of how different communities understand and approach tattooing in a contemporary time period, explained Czegledy.

The class takes the time to go to a local tattoo parlour to get insight into the work they do and the artists share with students what they feel is appropriate in terms of the work they do on their clients when they do tattoos and when they refuse to do tattoos.

Often, the class visits Perfect Image, who Czegledy said has been supportive of the classes learning.

Alyssa Wippel, the social media and receptionists at Perfect Image, offered insight to the clientele of the parlour and her desire to be in the tattoo industry.

“I have been getting tattooed since I was really young. My first one was when I was 14 … I love tattoos, I love the culture, I love the industry,” Wippel said.

With respect to a theoretical line drawn between what tattoos could be considered as appropriate, Czegledy believes that this can be taken in two ways — one on an individuals basis and the second from a collective basis.

[People] may understand or receive what is appropriate very different from another which is a personal thing which would be from their history.

-Andre Czegledy,

Associate professor WLU

URES

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2019 • 9

ion of Tattoo Culture

ransforming stigmas surrounding body-ink For Wippel, a lot of the meaning behind the concept of tattoos is the history and how people connect with the tattoos they are getting.

“I love the art of it and I love watching people create tattoos and watching people get sentimental tattoos and being so in love with the end product,” Wippel said.

At Perfect Image, the typical age of those coming in to get tattoos rangeS from 16 to 24 years. Wippel said their main clientele is university students and specifically, first-years.

She noted that the age of the client often correlates to the size of tattoo as well. For example, younger individuals such as high school and university students often get small and dainty tattoos while older individuals often get bigger pieces, such as full sleeves or thigh pieces.

“I think it’s because they have career already and don’t have to hide it, whereas young people are more apprehensive because a lot of places won’t hire you if you have big visible tattoos.” Wippel said.

A big fad which has been taking Instagram by storm is kids getting matching tattoos with their parents.

“It’s a really good way for parents and their kids to have a really good memory to share together and its a sentimental thing,” she said.

“Most of the people that come in are either getting their grandparents handwriting or something that represents their father; I would say those are the most popular,” Wippel said.

“The reason lines can become blurred is that it has a lot to do with the lines too close together because over time the ink spreads under the skin,” Wippel said.

“Not a lot of people think about how it will age so we do let them know so they aren’t disappointed in the future.”

Wippel stated that in her opinion a tattoo shouldn’t define an individual’s abilities but in the eyes of the employer it could.

“I feel like a lot of people will look at people who are heavily tattooed and make assumptions about them and group them together when, realistically, they are all different people with differ-ent paths in life.”

There are lots of people who have tattoos which represent their either current or troublesome past; but that doesn’t mean tattoos have to always represent something negative.

Wipple states that a big stereotype found within society is that all “[People with tattoos] are all the same kind of people, whether that’s people that go to jail or do drugs a lot.”

It would not be a fair statement to say that all negative connotations of tattoos have been removed from society but it is in fact a promising statement to make that they are in fact changing more and more throughout generations. At the end of the day they are perfect symbols of sentimental value which one can keep forever; they can remind us of the good, the bad and the ugly.

Katherine Weber/Web Editor and Sadman Sakib Rahman/Creative Director Graphics by Kash Patel/Graphics Editor

10 •

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2019

Arts & Life

ARTS & LIFE EDITOR EMILY WAITSON arts@thecord.ca

MUSIC

FALLING IN LOVE WITH CONCERTS

CONTRIBUTED IMAGE

HAYLEY MCGOLDRICK NEWS EDITOR

You’ve all heard the stories of people going abroad and having their lives changed, or the twoweek trip they took to Hawaii gave them a new outlook on life.

Don’t get me wrong, travelling is cool. I’ve gotten the chance to take some pretty great trips and they haven’t necessarily defined who I am, but they definitely are always a fun time.

However, when I choose to spend my funds, I spend them on a different type of experience.

Everyone who knows me knows I love concerts; I have seen all of

my favourite artists live, I go to at least 10 if not more concerts a year and Ticketmaster for sure has taken thousands of dollars from me.

A lot of people don’t really get the hype, they’ve never been to a concert or went to some local band when they were eight and that’s it.

There’s a euphoric feeling that comes with standing in a room full of thousands of other people just as passionate about an artist as you when you’re all screaming your favourite song at the top of your lungs and dancing the night away.

I’ve seen all types of artists in all types of settings – I’ve seen The 1975 for $20 in the now-defunct venue Kool Haus, and I have also paid $250 on top of flights and hotel costs to go to Las Vegas to see the Backstreet Boys.

With all the money I’ve spent on concerts, I easily would have been able to fly to an all-inclusive resort

in Bora Bora by now.

So, what’s the point of continually spending my money on these things, sometimes seeing the same artist multiple times in one year?

With all the money I’ve spent on concerts, I easily would have been able to fly to an all-inclusive resort in Bora Bora by now.

It’s the feeling of hearing one of your favourite songs live and all the memories it brings.

Whether a song got you through

a hard time, brings back a point of happiness and youth in your life, or even reminds you of certain people, hearing it live brings back the memories a thousand times stronger and you’re surrounded by others who feel the exact same way.

Everyone is decked out in their concert shirts that they proudly sport outside of concert halls and when asked about their favourite band could go on about them forever.

Being a true fan of an artist doesn’t just mean liking their music. You learn things about them, on the odd occasion you get to interact with them and really, fans are artists’ entire worlds.

How can an artist be successful without a fanbase? That’s why concerts are so special. Die-hard fans of these artists travel from thousands of miles away to spend a few

hours not only hearing songs live but also getting to connect with other fans, they get to see the band in the flesh and they get to have memories that last forever.

In my experience, I’ve gotten to see main artists bring out their friends on stage, like Justin Bieber surprising the crowd with Drake, Taylor Swift bringing out Bryan Adams and I even got to touch Harry Styles’ hand — which, to be quite honest, was the best moment of my life.

Sitting in a venue when the lights turn off and everyone scream because they know they’re about to experience one of the best nights of their life is something that’s hard to fully explain, because each person gets a different experience from a concert. I would take screaming along to my favourite song right back to my favourite singer over laying on the beach any day.

FOOD

Freshii’s sales are declining EMILY WAITSON ARTS AND LIFE EDITOR

Freshii, the Canadian fresh food establishment that serves a variety of healthy meal options, has suffered declining sales in recent years.

The CEO is trying to combat these declining numbers by scaling back a number of their formerly planned ventures — but the question remains, can a restaurant like Freshii stay afloat with their current prices?

Unlike other fast food options, Freshii is by no means cheap or accessible for people, like students, who are on a budget.

With their bowls priced between seven to 10 dollars (not including protein, which is extra) and small smoothies around six dollars, it becomes difficult to justify spending money there regularly, even if their food is better for you.

Despite these declining sales,

however, Waterloo currently has two Freshii locations, one of which recently opened in uptown.

Similar whole food and vegan-based restaurants, like Copper Branch and Pure Juice Bar + Kitchen, offer menu items that are based around the same concepts and recipes — but theirs can be just as pricey.

Healthy eating can be far more reasonable when you’re buying ingredients for meals yourself, and that’s just a fact when you look at the food that places like Freshii serve.

I really like one of the custom-made bowls that I usually order when I go into Freshii; however, looking at the ingredient list and recreating basically the same thing at home is far cheaper.

For close to the same price, I can meal prep enough of that meal order for about a week.

The desire for companies to strike into the healthy fast food

market is relevant now more than ever in a culture that has become steadily obsessed with living our healthiest lives possible.

Even places like McDonald’s are doing their best to offer options that aren’t just their tried-and-true burgers and fries.

With smoothies, salads and wraps that aren’t like their typical menu options in terms of nutrition, people are being offered healthier alternatives everywhere we turn — which is a positive thing.

The trick seems to be making restaurants that are solely focused on balanced eating accessible to people who would only expect to pay a certain amount for their meal.

As for the future state of Freshii and restaurants like it, the scope for their success — and main problem — seems to be tied to their ability to win over people who perhaps can’t afford to buy a $15 bowl of quinoa and vegetables.

YITIAN CAI/CORD PHOTOGRAPHY

ARTS & LIFE • 11

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2019

The benefits of phone games

GAMES

AARON HAGEY NEWS EDITOR

SADMAN SAKIB RAHMAN/CREATIVE DIRECTOR

From puzzle games like Candy Crush or Tetris, to card games like Texas Hold ‘Em, to strategy games like Clash of Clans and word games like Words With Friends, the rise in mobile and Facebook games have made a noticeable impact on our society as popularity towards “social games” have skyrocketed.

Since October 2017, Facebook has been investing heavily in its “Instant Games” category of site entertainment. In order to compete with Apple’s App Store, Facebook began offering games within their “Messenger” app and encouraged the monetization of those games.

In a 2017 survey by Medium, where 1070 “mobile gamers” were asked their usage and preferences of messenger games, the two highest choices were “puzzle” games, at 60 per cent, and “word” games, at 44 per cent.

Overwhelmingly the survey also noted that, for those who play games on a messenger app, over 60 per cent prefer to play “social games” as opposed to “single-player games.”

But what are the implications of playing games like these on a consistent basis?In July, 2018, VITA — a Canadian online lifestyle magazine — published an article discussing some of the health benefits of playing mobile games.

Among the noted benefits were mood enhancement, improvement of social skills, “brain sharpening” and the ability to spark interest in other pursuits.

For example, if you played Candy Crush long enough, perhaps it might encourage your long-dormant desire to become the next Willy Wonka — without the questionable labour practices, of course.

For those who may find it difficult to socialize, or else wish to enjoy long-distance activities with friends, these online games provide a fun, low-stress — and sometimes, competitive — opportunity for connecting with the people you know.

Scrabble, the spiritual predecessor to “Words with Friends,” has been described by Forbes as “a game of strategy - one of detail and spatial organization and risk.”

The game gives players the chance to enhance their problem-solving skills, such as getting stuck with a particularly lousy set of letters; anticipate the future, by controlling what future spaces — such as the deadly “triple-word” tile — your opponent will be able to capitalize on; and most obviously the ability to grow your vocabulary, by learning words you never knew existed.

If the explosion of the professional gaming industry can provide any evidence to these claims, it is that nearly any game is a situation of “easy to learn, difficult to master,” meaning that there are “hard skills” — like focus, speed and the ability to process massive amounts of information — that can be mas-

tered with enough practice.

Online games such as “Candy Crush” have been noted as helping improve skills like “delay discounting,” the concept of smaller rewards now, versus larger rewards later; risk sensitivity, choosing between small, more definite outcomes or larger, more uncertain ones; and overall visual processing of information.

However, it is important to make note of the negative implications of its over-consumption. In June 2018, the New York Times published an article — amongst the myriad that exists — outlining the World Health Organization’s inclusion of “gaming disorder” in the eleventh edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11).

In the article, Dr. Petros Levounis, the chairman of the psychiatry department at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, discussed the implications of online gaming addictions.

As fun and exciting as Candy Crush may be to play, Levounis notes that “I have patients who come in suffering from an addiction to Candy Crush Saga, and they’re substantially similar to people who come in with a cocaine disorder.”

Though games like Words With Friends and others may have indirect benefits for one’s physical, emotional and social health, it is equally important to understand and remember the hazards of its excessive use — especially after you hit that 100+ word. Your ego may thank you, but your friends certainly won’t.

HUMOUR

Do your work now before the weather gets warmer TYLER CURRIE STAFF WRITER

This article is your formal warning.

You should be proud of yourself.

You’ve almost made it through the cold grip of yet another Canadian winter, with the sun starting to peak its little head out from the heavens and melt away the snow.

It’s almost time to “yeet” your coat to the back of the closet and throw on that spring jacket.

Your forearms are soon to be toasted in the warmth of the sunlight, a feeling that you’ve forgotten existed.

And what’s this? Summer plans are finally being made!

Your friends are emerging from their winter hibernations to offer promises of cottage trips, camping weekends and bonfires.

You’re thirsting for these plans as if they’re cool drops of rain and you’ve been trapped in the desert for days.

You need to indulge these summer plans.

After all, you’ve worked hard all winter. The last few months were

KASHYAP PATEL/GRAPHICS EDITOR

spent shacked up in your room under 35 pounds of blankets with your frozen, boney finger being the only bare skin exposed as it followed along the words of your textbook as you crammed what you could before that upcoming midterm.

“It’s almost here” you whispered aloud, your breath visible even in your room. “Summer is coming.”

Wrong.

I’m here to set you straight, friend. Summer isn’t here yet.

I know what it’s like to indulge

in the fantasies of the coming summer months.

Sometimes having something to look forward to is what’s needed to get through a tough time.

But at this point in the year when school burnout is most prominent, these dreams make getting your stuff done much more difficult.

That’s why you need to start your school work right now.

You can’t waste any more time.

The pre-summer final exam burnout makes the pre-Christmas final exams look like elementary school.

You see, as the weather gets warmer, the difficulty of cracking open a textbook or starting a final essay becomes exponentially higher.

Yet right now, there’s still snow on the ground. Going outside is highly discouraging. You can’t even take a three-minute walk to 7-Eleven without doing the splits once or twice on those icy sidewalks. Thus, it’s easy to shut your blinds and get back to work – the choice between smacking your back off the frozen sidewalks of Ontario or staying

inside with a textbook and a hot coffee is an easy one to make.

However, soon enough the birds will be chirping and the sidewalks will have an abundance of friction.

The people of Waterloo will come out of their hiding places and the outdoors will be alive again, calling on you to join them in their cries of rejoicing at the beautiful and temporary warm Canadian weather.

How can you stay inside on a sunny April day?

It’s going to be tough when you’re foregoing precious days of the best season to do work you could’ve done when the outdoors were miserable.

You’re not missing anything out there in early March, so make the most of it and get your studying, final essays or presentations finished now.

We procrastinators need to buckle down this year and avoid the painful burnout that inevitably comes with the end of second semester.

Summers on its way, but we still have many speed-bumps to break before we get to enjoy it.

If you don’t heed this warning, think back to this article as you head to the library to study in midApril.

Hell, to be honest, I’ll probably be right there suffering with you.

12 •

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2019

Editorial

OPINION EDITOR ALYSSA DI SABATINO opinion@thecord.ca

Editor’s Note: Timing is not everything That being said, the things those relationships have taught me what I am looking for in a partner.

And right now, I can say that my current partner provides me with the things that make me happy and what I consider to be a healthy relationship.

I wouldn’t say our relationship moved fast. I knew my girlfriend for over six months before we officially started dating, and I think we did a pretty good job communicating about how we felt with our pace and our feelings. And as a result, I’m confident in where we’re heading.

Celebrating our six month anniversary this month, my girlfriend and I always talk about how people pose judgements on how we have gone all out for birthdays or talk about our future together with such certainty.

But no one knows about the inner workings of our relationship, no one knows about our past relationships and how we’ve changed and grown in the past and together in our short time together.

We’re not perfect by any means, but no relationship can be.

I think it’s silly to pose judgements on relationships, whether that be about how soon a couple is posting photos on Instagram, their way of showing affection, how soon a couple moves in together, etc.

The goal of maintaining a healthy relationship is happiness and growth, and as long as that is being fostered, the nit-picking of little details like the timeline are ultimately irrelevant.

SAFINA HUSEIN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to relationships.

Every relationship is different.

And different relationships take on different levels of seriousness at different points in time.

For some people, it can take months or years to consider your relationship with someone serious.

But for others, sometimes it can take a shorter amount of time for a relationship to feel like it’s right.

On top of this, each person in a relationship has a past. People may take more or less time to process a new relationship due to past experiences.

Whether positive or negative, these experiences allow us to either feel confident in new relationships; or, in contrast, it might make individuals more cautious or careful with a new partner.

But regardless of how fast or slow someone takes their relationship, no matter how public or private they choose to keep their relationship, I don’t believe it’s the right of anyone outside of that relationship to place judgement.

Your relationship is just as valid as everyone else’s regardless of the pace you move at. Of course, I’m also guilty of doing this in the past and I’m certainly no relationship expert.

I am currently in what I would consider my first very serious relationship. My past relationships have taught me different things and have ultimately made me the person I am today.

WLUSP ADMINISTRATION DIRECTOR Rosalind Horne

CHAIR Terrence Mroz

DIRECTOR H.G. Watson

VICE-CHAIR Shyenne MacDonald

TREASURER Garrison Oosterhof

DIRECTOR Maiya Mistry DIRECTOR Vacant

KASHYAP PATEL/GRAPHICS EDITOR

Media makes the world look bad PRANAV DESAI SPORTS EDITOR

THE CORD IS PUBLISHED BY WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY STUDENT PUBLICATIONS 205 REGINA ST. N., WATERLOO

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

EDITORIAL CARTOON

PRESIDENT Terrence Mroz president@wlusp.com FINANCE MANAGER Randy Moore randy@rcmbrooks. com ADVERTISING MANAGER Care Lucas care.lucas@wlusp. com

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Lakyn Barton lakyn.barton@wlusp. com HR MANAGER Paige Bush hr@wlusp.com CORPORATE SECRETARY Maiya Mistry

A few weeks ago, one my friends told me that he felt as if the general population of the world is sadder than it has ever been.

He gave me some valid reasons for why he felt this way, including things like our addiction to technology, worldwide political disarray, global warming, etc.

Although my first instinct was to agree with him, the more I thought about it, the more the statement seemed false.

The human population’s addiction to technology isn’t good, but technology has helped us progress in so many ways that I think the increased usage can be justified to a certain extent.

Politics will always cause a divide between humans due to our differing opinions and preferences, and even though global warming is a seemingly gigantic problem that has the potential to cause severe damage to humans, we are taking small steps to solve the problem through action-plans such as the Paris Accord.

I think the media plays the big-

gest part in perpetuating particularly negative notions.

It is no secret that the media has a tendency to focus on negative events since that is what attracts the viewers’ attention. I also believe that media exaggeration is more evident now than ever in our society.

Websites, newspapers, blogs, etc. are constantly focusing on how to get more views and “clicks” and this often leads to overblown headlines and titles.

Crime and violence rates have been consistently dropping year after year all over the world, but because news reporting has become faster and more detailed than ever, crimes are being reported at a higher rate and this is might be leading people to believe that crime rates are alarmingly high.

As an obsessive sports fan, I have a lot of first-hand experience with the media overstating the importance of events and accomplishments that take place daily in the sports world.

For example, if an athlete happens to go on a good run of form and puts together a string of good performances, within a matter of days there will be hundreds of articles published on how that athlete stacks up to some of the all-time greats in that particular sport.

Social media always has the potential to make things worse. I see

sports fans taking to social media and calling athletes the “GOAT” (Greatest of All Time) in their respective sport and their opinion constantly changes week-to-week on who actually is the “GOAT.” Although there is nothing wrong with stating your opinion on social media — in fact that’s what social media is for — I think that this type of constant hyperbole often devalues accomplishments and events that have taken place in the past.

Media sensationalism extends to other topics such as music, movies, television shows, politics, fashion, etc. as well.

For example, when the movie Suicide Squad came out in 2016, I saw and heard numerous moviegoers calling it the “the worst movie they had ever seen.”

Although I wasn’t a big fan of the movie myself, I think classifying it as the worst movie ever is a little too harsh.

As someone who eventually wants a career in the media, I’m not expecting to make a radical change in the industry if or when I get the opportunity to work in the media.

I understand why sensationalism in the media exists, but I think that’s why it’s even more important for content consumers to gain the ability to see through the exaggerated headlines and titles before jumping to conclusions.

• 13

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2019

Opinion

OPINION EDITOR ALYSSA DI SABATINO opinion@thecord.ca

Will Trudeau’s scandal cost him the election?

ALYSSA DI SABATINO OPINION EDITOR

With national elections about seven months away, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberal party have become involved in a scandal that may threaten his party moving forward.

Trudeau and the Liberal Party have been accused of pressuring the now-former minister of justice and attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, to drop criminal charges against SNC-Lavalin, an engineering company based in Quebec.

The RCMP alleged that SNC-Lavalin bribed members of the Libyan government, including former dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

SNC-Lavalin denied these charges, but they have a reputation for suspicious business practices, so the allegations don’t seem too far from reality.

Instead of issuing them a 10year ban on bidding for federal contracts, the Liberal Party wanted Wilson-Raybould to issue financial penalties on the company, assumedly because a decade-long ban could be harmful to SNC-Lavalin’s business.

The company is involved in large Canadian infrastructure projects and employs about 9000 people

across Canada, so a ban would be detrimental on more than one level.

Trudeau has denied interfering with her decision, but never denied discussing SNC-Lavalin with other cabinet ministers.

Another reason Trudeau has been under fire for this is because before this scandal went public, Wilson-Raybould was reshuffled from attorney general and justice minister to the minister of veterans affairs, which is seen as a demotion.

Wilson-Raybould was a key proponent to Trudeau’s gender-diverse cabinet and is also a prominent Indigenous leader, so the reshuffling and alleged pressure over the SNC-Lavalin issue makes for poor optics for the Prime Minister.

On Feb. 11, Canada’s independent ethics commissioner said that they would be looking into the allegations against Trudeau. The next day Wilson-Raybould suddenly resigned.

Less than a week later, Trudeau’s close advisor Gerard Butts also resigned from his position of principal secretary. Despite his resignation, he has been adamant that there was no inappropriate pressure against Wilson-Raybould.

At the end of February, Wilson-Raybould testified before the judiciary committee in the House of Commons, saying that for several months she was consistently pressured “by many people within the government to seek to

politically interfere in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion.”

She said that the necessity of interference in the SNC-Lavalin case was expressed by those pressuring her, along with veiled threats if she did not defer the prosecution on the company. In her testimony she noted, that while the pressure from the Prime Minister was inappropriate, it was not illegal.

Since Wilson-Raybould’s testimony, Trudeau has defended his position saying that as Prime Minister, it is his duty to weigh the prosecution with consideration of national interest.

It’s clear that Trudeau has never denied his conversations about the SNC-Lavalin affair, but he seems to be deferring the blame as best he can.

Just the other week at a press conference regarding the SNC-Lavalin case, he avoided answering any questions about the cabinet reshuffle where Wilson-Raybould was demoted, instead saying “there are many lessons to be learned and many things we would have liked to have done differently.”

Both Trudeau and Butts have stated that they had intended to protect jobs with the SNC-Lavalin case, but failed to communicate this effectively, resulting in the scandal.

Regardless, the scandal has severely affected Trudeau’s image and has, for some, resulted in a loss of faith in the Liberal government.

The SNC-Lavalin affair is still unfolding, so it’s unclear as to

KASHYAP PATEL/GRAPHICS EDITOR

Existence is an unlikely occurence TYLER CURRIE STAFF WRITER

How selfish are we to worry about death? We act as if it’s not incredible that we get to be alive in the first place. As if we are somehow entitled to exist because we’ve developed a consciousness that

allows us to observe the world we live in.

Life is the most unlikely and unconventional occurrence in the universe. The coincidences that line up to allow the existence and survival of a single celled organism are unfathomable — let alone a species of primates that have developed technology to leave the planet where they sprouted and grew up.

It’s uncomfortable to think of life as a random list of chaotic events

that happen to occur, so we try to frame existence into religious beliefs or build upon scientific knowledge that attempts to make sense of it all.

Regardless of how you feel about what this really is, you can only really appreciate it when you acknowledge your luck.

Studies say the universe is about 13.8 billion years old and the Earth is 4.5 billion years old. Our species has existed for 200,000 years. But human civilization — that is, ev-

CONTRIBUTED IMAGE

what affect this will have during the October elections, but the potential for these events to threaten Trudeau’s political future are pronounced.

Justin Trudeau has been uplifted for much of his political reign, but maybe this scandal is one that will show the harm in holding any political figure to unrealistic standards.

I think it’s fair to say that nobody, even those who voted for Trudeau, expected him to be perfect. But it’s self-evident that

all citizens expect him to be as candid as possible, especially because of his strong emphasis on government openness in his 2015 campaign platform.

Many conservative critics have accused him of severe corruption, but I’m not sure I would go quite as far as that yet, especially because the case is still developing.

I would say, however, that Trudeau is facing a moral crisis, and has drifted away from his vow for transparency within the Canadian government.

eryone we’ve ever heard of and the knowledge that we’ve built and the ancient societies that have come and gone time and time again — has all occurred within only 7,000 years. We’ve barely even gotten started.

In comparison, the average human life lasts about 79 years with health and luck. It’s nothing.

A single life is so incredibly fleeting in the grand scheme of things that it barely even happens. An individual’s entire existence is a flash in the pan.

The universe has existed for billions of years before humans and will exist billions of years after us. In a seemingly infinite ocean of time, human existence is a tiny bubble formed on the surface for a half-second before it pops.

Yet our flash of existence is happening right now. The people here today haven’t existed for billions of years, and soon enough, won’t exist ever again. This moment is an anomaly.

And your luck keeps going. If you were born a millimetre to the left on the civilization timeline, you could be getting pre-anesthetic surgery from a doctor who doesn’t even know germs exist, while you bite down on a stick and hope the bottle of wine he dumped on you as an antiseptic worked while he digs through your leg.

We live in the time period after

the invention of indoor plumbing, heated houses, tap water and cars.

We live in the time-period before everything collapses. We exist in the pocket of the best time to be alive, as a species that has exited the food chain. We won the timing lottery.

We are a unique arrangement of matter available in the universe, a formation that has developed enough intelligence mixed with chemical reaction based on instinct and past-experience (what we call consciousness) that can observe and frame itself into scientific and mathematical measurements that help us conceive the universe in which we began. Alan Watts said it best: “You are the universe experiencing itself.”

Yet we humans have a self-entitlement problem. We get distracted by our everyday lives and forget that we’re coincidental life forms living on a rock in space.

I don’t think of this as a depressing thought, but instead find it liberating.We’re so lucky to have gotten the chance to be, and the fact that we are occurring right now is absurd.

It makes more sense to be exhilarated about your odds of existing at all than to fear when it will come to an end. We came from nonexistence and we will return there — being alive is a minuscule detour that we must appreciate.

14 • OPINION

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2019

Commemorating Luke Perry EMILY WAITSON ARTS & LIFE EDITOR

On Mar. 4, beloved television actor Luke Perry tragically passed away at the age of 52.

The internet collectively mourned the loss of the former 90s heartthrob and small-screen Riverdale star by expressing their shock and sharing their condolences across social media.

And if social media can be good for something, it’s commemorating the work of someone who deserves to be remembered for the impact they left during their lifetime.

Luke Perry became a teen icon during the run of Beverly Hills, 90210 for his role as the broody Dylan McKay, cementing his place in pop culture and television history.

More recently, fans would recognize, and will remember, Perry for his portrayal of Fred Andrews, the supportive father of Archie and the moral compass of Riverdale.

Whenever a respected celebrity passes away, the goodness of that person takes full focus (as it usually should), and with Perry, it seems to be entirely genuine.

I have yet to read one negative

thing about the kind of person the actor was, and it fits with the last television role he played; someone who was kind, humble and loving.

People often criticize the fans of celebrities for mourning human beings they never “really” knew and for using their deaths as moments to express their grief over their passing.

If social media can be good for something, it’s commemorating the work of someone who deserves to be remembered for the impact they left during their lifetime.

I do realize that most of the people on the internet posting about a famous person’s death did not actually know them personally, but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be able to voice their remorse and sympathy for someone who had an influence on their lives — even if that was through the fictional characters they portrayed.

And while it is always important to respect the privacy of the

individual’s family and friends who are grieving their loved one — as Cole Sprouse politely did during an interview with James Corden on The Late Late Show where he kept his comments about Perry very sweet, but brief — acknowledging the legacy of someone who gave the world positivity and memorable work isn’t a bad thing.

As much as I like Call Me By Your Name actor Armie Hammer, he shared a comment surrounding this topic when Stan Lee died that rubbed me — and many other people on the internet — the wrong way.

He said in a now deleted and since apologized for tweet: “So touched by all of the celebrities posting pictures of themselves with Stan Lee. No better way to commemorate an absolute legend than putting up a picture of yourself.”

Commemorating the loss of another human being, whether it’s through a photo of something connected to their professional work or a picture that was taken with them through a chance meeting, is equally as valid.

As long as the focus is on the person who is no longer with us, why does it matter?

For an actor like Luke Perry who shaped the lives of so many teens during the 90s and gained a resurgence of fans through his work on Riverdale, I’m sure it would mean something to him that so many

CONTRIBUTED IMAGE

people loved and admired him for the impact his career had on them.

The loss of someone influential, especially when it’s quite sudden and at a young age, will be felt by those who appreciated their influence.

And even though social media is far, far from perfect, I think this is one of the few things that can make it positive — collectively sharing the love and respect people have for someone who is no longer with us.

You have a responsibility to improve others’ lives power beauty has to move us.

We need something to strive for, something that motivates us to be better, to take action, to connect with others. The thoughts you indulge in and actions you perform are, a personal religion, in simplest form.

EMMA MCVICAR STAFF WRITER

Looking around at commercials, advertisements and simple communications of everyday life, we often forget that we are more than individuals living in-depth lives.

While each of us explores our own elaborate story, we are simultaneously constructing new pathways to understand truth.

Humanity is constructed of many individuals, all searching for meaning in our day to day lives.

The task now becomes, how do we root out these truths?

Nothing is more important than a good community. With it comes responsibility.

To illustrate this, imagine yourself as someone who goes for coffee each morning. You wait in line, noting the absent minded, downward facing frowns that swipe and flick through phones, waiting for their task of “get coffee” to be complete.

Suppose you take a moment to ask the barista’s name, and how her day is. You speak for only a few moments, and it’s pleasant. You smile, and go about your day.

Putting yourself aside now, imagine the barista. She remembers how a stranger (you) made her day, the day she lives on repeat every day as a barista.

She goes home, and instead

When you are brushing your teeth, you aren’t simply cleaning your mouth. You’re imagining an idealized version of yourself, one that has clean teeth.

MADELINE MCINNIS/CORD ALUM

of complaining to her boyfriend about a rude customer, your kindness is what she remembers. In this good mood, she and her boyfriend share a lovely evening.

The next morning when he goes into work, instead of frowning down at his phone in the coffee line, he smiles to his barista, asks her name, and how her day is going.

Each person you see will encounter several others. If you improve 1 day, you guarantee improvement for 5 other days that single individual knows, and 5 more for each of them. Your single interaction, without diving deep into the equation, has improved

125 individual lives by a small bit, and it doesn’t stop there.

This is where responsibility comes in. Imagine being a force of negative energy that somebody brings home or out in the world with them.

Is that the source you want to be? Or would you rather be a spring of joy and gratitude? You are much more important than you think.

This is the search for truth. What is the best way to communicate?

How do we live together? How do we organize ourselves? This is the ancient conversation of humans that we all participate in when we do something as simple as commit

to a new habit.

When you are brushing your teeth, you aren’t simply cleaning your mouth. You’re imagining an idealized version of yourself, one that has clean teeth.

This is the divine you, one that is purer, healthier, better than you in some way, and you’ve organized your internal structure to achieve that state of divinity.

The act of brushing your teeth is a tradition you uphold with yourself to strive to be a better individual.

Going for lunch with a friend is a gathering to bond over shared interests, and dancing to music you enjoy is a connection to the greater

This is not to say one has to be “religious” to find value, but we need a sense of spirituality, a sense of commitment to the people we are not but could become in the future if we just tried our best to a little better than we did yesterday.

What are you motivated by? It is wise to understand what moves you, not simply to understand what moves others, but to tap into the wealth of knowledge and beauty waiting for you to utilize.

If you can begin to understand the importance of your actions, you begin to see the small pathways to change your life, and hundreds of others, with the simplest of actions. What will you do today?

• 15

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2019

Sports

SPORTS EDITOR PRANAV DESAI sports@thecord.ca

PLAYER PROFILE

Curling runs in the talented Middaugh family ABDULHAMID IBRAHIM LEAD SPORTS REPORTER

Usually being the child of two star athletes, especially in the same sport, bears a lot of expectations to replicate what the parents had done in their great careers. Welcome to the life of Kelly Middaugh, a member of Laurier’s women’s curling team.

Daughter to Wayne and Sherry Middaugh, curling is seen as running in the family at this rate.

Wayne is a three-time world champion and the only one to ever do it at three different positions. Sherry Middaugh is a five-time Ontario champion and one-time Saskatchewan champion.

“It’s a very big shadow between both my parents. My dad being a three-time world champion and my mom competing in so many national championships out of multiple provinces and both of them are still amazing curlers.

When I practice with them, I try and beat them in one-on-one games all the time — still not very close,” Middaugh said.

“With how well they’ve done and I know they expect the same out of me, so that is a little bit of pressure.

I think we all understand it is a different time and I’m a different person so it might not follow the exact same timeline but I think everyone is kind of hoping that I do.”

It started from the young age of 10 years old, when Kelly was signed up to play in a Sunday youth curling league. Despite her

despising it at first, she continued for a span of three to four years in the league.

“It was more for fun and we would always enter competitive competitions and we’d just lose every game, not even close, and apparently I played well one time and a competitive team asked me to join them and for some reason, the second I did, it just kind of flipped in my head that I’m okay, kind of decent. Then from there it just got more competitive every year. I’ve been doing better in Ontario every year.”

When I practice with them, I try and beat them in one-on-one games all the time — still not very close.

-Kelly Middaugh, Laurier women’s varsity curler

It turned into a passion from then on and Kelly is as competitive as they come. With her parents also having been, and still being her coaches, she continues to build up her own story.

“I’m really passionate about this sport. I’ll go out and throw over 100 stones just by myself because I just

love doing it,” she said.

“They’ve made me into who I am today, both person-wise and in curling. I wouldn’t have gotten into the sport without them and they were my coaches for the longest time, still are. Any time I have an issue, I go to them.”

Her first year as a Golden Hawk was one for the books, as she enjoyed a level of success uncommon to most. The Golden Hawks took fifth place in the U Sports tournament and made the list of first team All-Canadians to go along with the Rich Newbrough Rookie of the Year Award, which is handed out annually for the most outstanding athletic performance from a male and female rookie.

“We had a really good season last year. We all meshed really well and ended up competing at U Sports, so that was awesome in my first year. This year, we kind of had a rough week at OUA’s, we kind of just peaked the weekend before and then we didn’t really play as well as we could, which hurt,” Middaugh said.

With the same confidence from earlier on still intact, Middaugh has high hopes for what’s to come in the future as she seeks to have a legacy and name of her own.

“We have some really good curlers coming into the program next year that I’m excited about.

So hopefully we could do well next year. I think we can make U-Sports [National Championships] within the next two years, and I know with the girls coming in next year,

ISAAK WONG/LEAD PHOTOGRAPHER

we’ve already been talking about shooting for U-Sports and shooting for a medal for U-Sports.”

“I think that’s the ultimate goal

for Laurier, is to try and win another U-Sports championship and hopefully compete at the Universiade,” she concluded.

because our budget is small,” Cassy Wiens, an organizer for the juggling festival, said.

“So that means that we have to offer something more than money so we do our best to offer accommodations and publicity. This year we’ve got someone who has made the top 40 jugglers [list], we’ve got a magician who has worked at the national circus school.”

Although there are plenty of world class jugglers headlining the festival, the festival will also feature some local Waterloo talent.

“We market the new festival as two separate events. The festival part includes a bunch of jugglers and people sharing ideas and their creative process. How they juggle, learning new tricks, things like that.”

“We also offer a number of workshops. A lot of jugglers just want to teach so when people are out and want to juggle, you’re going to find someone in that room who is more than happy to teach,” Wiens said.

There will be numerous workshops featured at the festival which offer something from everyone.

“They are quite a diverse set of workshops. This year we have a magic workshop, two-person juggling creation, workshops that go beyond basic juggling, and

more. The show which takes place at night is where you sit down and watch a performance.”

RECREATION

CONTRIBUTED IMAGE/UWATERLOO ATHLETICS

Get ready for some juggling!

PRANAV DESAI SPORTS EDITOR

The annual University of Waterloo juggling festival takes place this weekend from March 15 to 17.

The weekend is divided into two separate events in the actual festival featuring workshops and a gala event on Saturday night.

The festival will get underway on Friday night at 7 p.m. at the Physical Athletics Complex (PAC) at the University of Waterloo and it begins again on Saturday at 11 a.m. in the Student Life Centre until the gala show at 7:30 p.m. in the Modern Languages Theatre of the Arts.

Finally, the festivities conclude on Sunday with the festival be-

ginning at 10 a.m. and ending at 4 p.m. in the Student Life Centre.

“This event actually started 27 years ago. We’ve recently been trying to make it a bigger event where we draw in world class jugglers so that we can have a really good show that we put on for the community. There’s a lot that goes into how we contact the jugglers

It’s something that promotes healthy living as well as interacting with people and creating relationships.

-Cassy Wiens, Organizer for the UW Juggling Festival

Aside from entertainment, the major goal of the festival is just to create a sense of community and togetherness around juggling.

“A lot of the people on the organizing committee look at juggling being used to create a community and we believe that there’s a strong community around it. “ “It’s something that promotes healthy living as well as interacting with people and creating relationships. In that sense, we want to promote juggling as a hobby,” Wiens added.

16 • SPORTS

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2019

AWARDS

SADMAN SAKIB RAHMAN/CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Sydney Pattison (Left), Danielle Wark (Middle) and Jenna Lazarou (Right), the 2019 Outstanding Women of Laurier finalists

2019 Outstanding Women of Laurier finalists announced SAFINA HUSEIN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Jenna Lazarou, Sydney Pattison and Danielle Wark have been announced as this year’s 2019 Outstanding Women of Laurier (OWL) finalists.

Wilfrid Laurier University’s department of athletics and recreation will host the fourteenth annual OWL awards on March 28 at Bingemans Conference Centre where one of the three finalists will be awarded with the OWL award.

The OWL Award strives to recognize one female athlete each year. The recipient of the award embodies outstanding athletic and academic achievement while demonstrating leadership to young athletes within the community.

This year at the awards ceremony, Andi Petrillo will be present to give attendees a keynote speech.

Petrillo is an award-winning broadcaster with Ten and CBC.

This year’s finalists all said that being shortlisted for the award was an honour and an accomplishment to be proud of.

“I think first and foremost it’s a huge honour for all three of us.

It’s an amazing opportunity and it’s just amazing that our school recognizes those who are very dedicated and hardworking. I think in general it’s a huge honour,” said Jenna Lazarou.

Lazarou is a third-year health science student is on the Laurier women’s soccer team.

“I'm a pretty big female advocate so I think the fact that we have this opportunity at Laurier to advocate for females and even just to inspire those around us to be active and to be involved and blossom into your own i think that’s truly an honour,” Lazarou said.

For Sydney Pattison, a middle-distance runner, being nominated is both exciting on a personal note as well as for other

track athletes.

“I’m the first track athlete to ever get nominated, so it’s very exciting to bring this to my sport and get us more recognition and stuff like that,” Pattison said.

Pattison is a third-year kinesiology and physical education student here at Laurier.

“I'm really honoured. I didn't really expect this at all. I thought i’d throw my name in and see what happens. When I found out I was slated I was very, very excited.”

Danielle Wark doted on the prestige which being nominated for the OWL award holds, especially here at Laurier.”

“It’s an amazing opportunity and just to get nominated is a true honour,” Wark said.

“The people who got nominated before me.. to even be held at the same standard as them is absolutely amazing and an awesome opportunity just to grow women in athletics.”

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All three finalists agreed that the OWL award and recognizing female athletes is extremely important.

It’s an amazing opportunity and it’s just amazing that our school recognizes those who are very dedicated and hardworking.

-Jenna Lazarou, Laurier women’s varsity soccer player

“I think OWL is important for us students here at Laurier but not all the time females in sport are recognized in our world so I think we’re starting small here at our school, and publicizing this will further

revolve into something greater for the future and that’s very necessary for females and celebrating our greatness,” Lazarou said.

OWL ultimately works to inspire female athletes at Laurier while recognizing their accomplishments, successes and achievements as athletes and beyond.

“It brings more awareness to how important women in athletics is and it can get more women involved — or even those who are involved — it can get them to the next level or make them wanna stay in sport for the rest of their life,” Pattison said.

As well, recognizing female athletes promotes the importance of having female role models and mentors.

“Some of my coaches I've looked up to them my whole life in sport and in their own lives… having mentors out there for younger kids and having more visibility for women in athletics,” Wark said.

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