The Cord Sept. 20, 2017

THE CORD THE TIE THAT BINDS WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY SINCE 1926

VOLUME 58 ISSUE 5 • SEPTEMBER 20, 2017

Beyond the Body type Biting down on the culture that forces fatty food — but shames the results Features, page 8

THE AMAZING RACE CANADA

LSPIRG WRAPS UP RAD WEEK

COMMUTER’S GUIDE

THE CASE FOR AUTOMATION

ONE GAME AT A TIME

Former Students’ Union president wins

Inclusive programming for all to engage in

Making the best of off-campus living

Positive aspects of mechanization

Running back Levondre Gordon talks Hawks

News, page 3

News, page 4

Arts & Life, page 11

Opinion, page 13

Sports, page 16 MADELINE MCINNIS/CREATIVE DIRECTOR

2 •

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017

VOCAL CORD

Who is your favourite professor at Laurier?

@cordnews

The Cord

@cordwlusp

CordNews

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

“Professor Zaidi, faculty of arts.”

–Emilia Loewen, firstyear business administration

“Ken Jackson, faculty of business and economics.”

–Lara Barr, first-year economics

TANZEEL SAYANI/PHOTO EDITOR

The Golden Hawks faced off against both Windsor and Western but, unfortunately, were not able to create enough scoring opportunities to get a win.

“Dr Joanne Lee, faculty of science.”

–Jason Lovendhal, firstyear psychology

thecord.ca

1990: East and West Germany ratify reunification.

2010: Leonard Skinner, gym teacher and namesake of southern-rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, passes away.

Compiled by Erin Abe Photos by Luke Sarazin

CORD STAFF

FEATURES EDITOR Karlis Wilde features@thecord.ca

LEAD REPORTER Erin Abe news@thecord.ca

ARTS & LIFE EDITOR Shyenne MacDonald arts@thecord.ca

LEAD SPORTS REPORTER Abdulhamid Ibrahim sports@thecord.ca

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Kurtis Rideout editor@thecord.ca

OPINION EDITOR Emily Waitson opinion@thecord.ca

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Madeline McInnis creative@thecord.ca

SPORTS EDITOR Pranav Desai sports@thecord.ca

WEB DIRECTOR Garrison Oosterhof online@thecord.ca

GRAPHICS EDITOR Alan Li graphics@thecord.ca

NEWS DIRECTOR Safina Husein news@thecord.ca

PHOTO EDITOR Tanzeel Sayani photos@thecord.ca

NEWS EDITOR Jake Watts news@thecord.ca

WEB ASSISTANT Kate Weber editor@thecord.ca

NEWS EDITOR Nathalie Bouchard news@thecord.ca

VIDEO EDITOR Sarah Tyler video@thecord.ca

1926: Mobster Bugs Moran attempts to kill Al Capone in drive-by shooting.

1969: “Sugar, Sugar” by the Archies hits #1.

–Prabh Jeebankalra, third-year health sciences

SEPTEMBER 27, 2017

1891: The first gasoline-powered automobile is debuted to the public in Springfield, Mass.

1964: Actor Crispin Glover (Charlie’s Angels, Back to the Future) is born.

“Dr. Dawe, faculty of science.”

NEXT ISSUE

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: SEPT. 20

LEAD PHOTOGRAPHER Luke Sarazin photos@thecord.ca SENIOR COPY EDITOR Michael Oliveri copyeditor@thecord.ca SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR Danielle Deslauriers socialmedia@thecord.ca

CONTRIBUTORS

EDITOR’S CHOICE

Jessi Wood Simran Dhaliwa Lucia Lau Josh HortaLeza Aaron Hagey Brittany Tenhage Tyler Currie Victoria Berndt Sara Burgess

“Criticizing the food choices other people make”

by Emily Waitson

ADVERTISING INQUIRIES All advertising inquiries can be directed to Care Lucas at care.lucas@wlusp.com or 519-884-0710 ext. 3560.

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Quote of the week: “Sometimes I wish I could put my hands in the dirt and my face in the sun and ... photosynthensize.”

- Web Director, Garrison Oosterhof

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017

News

• 3

NEWS DIRECTOR SAFINA HUSEIN news@thecord.ca

NEWS EDITOR NATHALIE BOUCHARD news@thecord.ca

NEWS EDITOR JAKE WATTS news@thecord.ca

ALUMNI

Former SU President wins Amazing Race Canada ERIN ABE LEAD REPORTER

Former Students’ Union President and CEO, Sam Lambert concluded season five of The Amazing Race Canada with a first place victory.

Lambert and boyfriend Paul Mitskopoulos, teamed up and became the first gay male couple to win The Amazing Race Canada.

“Paul and I knew that we were extremely lucky to even be given the experience to compete,” Lambert said.

“And to have gone through the six weeks of filming and come out on top is surreal.”

This season highlighted Canada’s 150th birthday and took contestants across the country where they competed against other teams in both mental and physical challenges.

Both Lambert and Mitskopoulos grew up watching The Amazing Race and had always talked about joining the competition. The couple finally got the opportunity to share both high and low moments with viewers and it taught them how to operate as a team at their highest level.

“The hardest challenge for us to overcome as a team would probably be stubbornness. We’re both type A, Alpha males, so each one

of us think we know what’s best for the team and I think it was kind of recognizing one person’s opinion … was something we learned as we went on,” Lambert said.

Teamwork and communication quickly became a crucial aspect in order to persevere throughout the season.

You have to be thinking on your feet, problem solve ... I think a lot of those skills I gained from being president -Sam Lambert, former Students’ Union president and CEO

“In order for any team to win the Amazing Race you need to have really strong communication so I think that Paul and I definitely encompassed that,” said Lambert.

Lambert said that being a former Students’ Union President and CEO taught him a lot of skills he was able to apply to the race.

“You have to be thinking on your feet, problem solve and be able to

focus on specific challenges and I think a lot of those skills I gained from being president,” Lambert said.

During filming Lambert found out about his recent acceptance into McMaster University’s Medical School. He got to share this emotional and exciting achievement with fellow cast members, and he admitted that it was a personal highlight of the season.

Along with the first place victory, the couple was happy to share their experience as a gay couple and viewed this as an opportunity to get a message out to young men and women who may be struggling with their sexuality.

“I’m most proud of Paul, he only came out probably a year ago, so when we were filming it was probably six months in and it was a very public way to announce your sexuality on national television,” said Lambert about his partner.

“I think anytime you can have a couple or someone that represents a community that might be struggling its never a bad thing,” Lambert said.

“To represent the gay community and help any young people around the country who might be struggling with their sexuality; it’s the ultimate honour.”

The couple is now looking for-

HEATHER DAVIDSON/FILE PHOTO

ward to the many travel opportunities ahead, which they won on the show.

In addition to the trip around the world, they also won trips to Rio de Janeiro, China, Costa Rica, Cape Town and New Orleans.

Lambert looks forward to taking the time to be a tourist in the cities he will soon visit.

“Paul and I are probably the most excited to go to China, on the race we were at the Great Wall very briefly, so it will be really nice to go back to China, and see a little more than we would have when we were racing,” Lambert said. “[Actually] experience it rather than being stressed and running around.”

well as the section from Erb Street to King Street to Albert Street is closed also.

Phil Bauer, director of design and construction for Region of Waterloo, said that there are a number of reasons for construction delays, one being poor weather conditions.

However, the Region has confirmed that they will not continue on with construction North of Bridgeport in 2018 as originally planned.

As for expediting the construction, Bauer said the decision to work nights and evenings is ultimately up to the contractor.

“The contract does make allowance for the contractor to work extended hours, [but] it doesn’t absolutely require the contractor to do that so we have been working with the contractor to try to find ways to expedite the construction and accelerate and make up for some of the lost time but at the end of the day, the contractor is in control of their forces,” Bauer said.

Business owners like Jennifer Freitas, owner of Truth Beauty Company, have also experienced physical damage as a result of construction, not just business loss.

“The region does have a claims process … if a business feel they’ve suffered damages or losses [sic],” Bauer said.

At “Let Uptown Breathe,” Freitas expressed her frustration towards the Region’s process experiencing physical damage, as business own-

ers like herself may not have the means to hire a contractor to do repairs as a result of business loss.

CONSTRUCTION

MADELINE MCINNIS/FILE PHOTO

Region responds to qualms SAFINA HUSEIN NEWS DIRECTOR

In response to an event held last Monday Sept. 12, 2017 called “Let Uptown Breathe,” the Region of Waterloo will be meeting with the Uptown Business Improvement Area (BIA) to discuss construction in uptown Waterloo.

At “Let Uptown Breathe,” business owners in uptown Waterloo gathered to voice their frustration

in regards to the delays they continue to experience with closures and construction surrounding their businesses.

Melissa Durrell, uptown city councilor and member of the Uptown Business Improvement Association Board, read out a statement on behalf of business owners.

In the statement, Durrell read out three requests of the Region of Waterloo: to provide new resources and funding to help customers

access uptown businesses, to speed up construction by lengthening the number of hours and days when construction is being done and lastly, a moratorium to end all construction in 2018 as well as perform a re-evaluation of all construction by the Region.

Currently, there are various closures within uptown Waterloo as a result of construction. King Street is currently closed from the ION tracks to Bridgeport Road, as

The contract does make allowance for the contractor to work extended hours, [but] it doesn’t absolutely require the contractor to do that.

-Phil Bauer, director of design and construction for Waterloo

The Region of Waterloo plans to meet with the BIA this week to discuss options.

“The efforts that we’re taking to work with the Uptown BIA to try to make sure that we’re getting out accurate up to date information and communicate as much as possible on what to expect,” Bauer said.

“The area is accessible, people can get there, there’s lots of places to park, it’s open to pedestrians so that’s our focus I think is on trying to get that message out with the help of the BIA,” said Bauer.

The Region of Waterloo will also be asking the BIA for feedback in terms of timing for completing future construction in 2018, 2019 or beyond.

4 • NEWS

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017

WORKSHOPS

ORIENTATION

LSPIRG’s annual Radical Week JAKE WATTS NEWS EDITOR

CONTRIBUTED IMAGE

Workshop is hosted on peacekeeping NATHALIE BOUCHARD NEWS EDITOR

The Peace and Conflict Studies Association of Canada (PACS-Can) is hosting a workshop at Wilfrid Laurier University in partnership with the Balsillie School of International Affairs and the Canadian International Council. The workshop aims to focus on Canada’s international role in peacekeeping efforts.

Timothy Donais, associate professor of global studies at Laurier, explained the objective of hosting an event like this: “The idea is to reflect on Canada’s past, present and future role in relation to United Nations (UN) peacekeeping,” Donais said.

The workshop brings up important points about how Canada’s role in peacekeeping has changed over the years. Donais explained that Canada was supposed to be engaging with UN peacekeeping but has struggled to do so.

“Canada is hosting a big peacekeeping ministerial summit in Vancouver in November, so it’s a good time to reflect on Canada’s role in peacekeeping and what we’ve done and our past reputation as peacekeepers,” Donais said.

“But also, what our options are and why it’s taking so long for our government to make some decisions about how we’re going to engage and where we’re going to reengage and what the future is in terms of Canada and peacekeeping.”

There are four different panels taking place as part of the workshop and there are 13 different papers on a range of topics from the historical evolution on UN peacekeeping to looking at questions of countering violent extremisms.

“In addition to the workshop, there is a forum taking place in the CIGI Campus’ auditorium on Thursday evening and for that we have three people presenting,” Donais said.

The three presenters included Mark Sedra, executive director of Canadian International Council, Jane Boulden, Canada’s research chair at the Royal Military College, Walter Dorn, professor at the Canadian Forces College as well as one of Canada’s leading authorities on international security.

The event is free but requires registration for the workshop portion and will take place Thursday Sept. 21 in the afternoon starting at 2:00 p.m. and Friday, Sept. 22 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. “[The event] is open to all Laurier students, the main audience is students at Laurier who are interested, students at the Balsillie School and graduate students who are studying international security issues. We’ve been mainly promoting the event here at Laurier,” Donais said.

“This is for students to gain a real sense of these issues [that are] not confined to a text book,” Donais said.

The idea is to reflect on Canada’s past, present and future role in relation to United Nations peacekeeping.

-Timothy Donais, associate professor of global studies at Laurier

“These are things that are happening in real time and real life.”

This is one of PACS-Can’s first events with the Laurier and Waterloo community.

Although this would be beneficial to students in Global Studies involved with the Peace and Conflict stream, Donais explained that the community needs to be aware of international issues of conflict as well.

“The idea is to engage the local community in some of discussions on what Canada’s role should be in UN peacekeeping,” Donais said.

“By engaging the community they can talk about some of these issues and what role Canada should and could be playing.”

“Peacekeeping is still relevant in a lot of the world’s so called hot spots. It’s an imperfect tool but it’s really the best tool that the international community has to actually try and make a difference in some of these places.”

From Sept. 11 to Sept. 15, the Laurier Students Public Interest Research Group (LSPIRG) held their annual Radical Orientation Week on Wilfrid Laurier University’s Waterloo and Brantford campuses.

The Rad Week events — intended to highlight social justice issues — took place the week following the Students’ Union Orientation Week, and were organized in collaboration with the Diversity and Equity Office (DEO) and Indigenous Student Centre (ISC).

LSPRIG has been putting on Rad Week annually since 2006.

“I wasn’t around then, but from what I hear...is that we wanted to create events that kind of like complimented O-Week,” said Jay Rideout, communications and outreach director for LSPIRG. “There are a lot of events during O-Week that are really high-energy, and like a lot of extraverted kind of stuff and we wanted to like counteract that with some more mellow things for folks to do,” Rideout said.

“But also its always been really educational, it has always been

really focused on talking about certain issues that were important each year.”

Some of the events offered at this year’s Rad Week included “Lunch with ISC and LSPIRG; Learning Land Acknowledgements,” and “Will You Be My Friend?” an event which was held at The Turret and described on the LSPIRG webpage as “A new play by Janice Jo about her journey in finding her place within the community as a person of colour.”

Rideout noted that the “Will You Be My Friend” event nearly sold out completely.

“We packed the Turret, which was really cool,” Rideout said.

While all of the Rad Week events went off smoothly, the “Sexy Health Carnival” that was supposed to be put on by the Native Youth Health Network got cancelled at the last minute.

“We’ve had them before, but they just last minute fell through unfortunately,” Rideout said.

For the first time this year, the organizers decided not to run Rad Week events concurrently with the rest of the Orientation Week events, but instead, schedule them all the following week.

“This is actually the first year that we did Rad Week the week after O-Week,” Rideout said.

“We’ve always done it the same week as O-Week, and we saw a lot of divide, where like you have your very extraverted students who want to go to all the very loud, chanty, concert-type things for O-Week, and we get the more introverted folks.”

“This year as a team we really talked about it, and we were like, ‘we think it would be really beneficial to do it the week after’, and it definitely was,” Rideout said.

In addition to this change, Rideout noted that organizers also adjusted their focus this year when programming events throughout the week.

“We tried to pack a little bit too much in sometimes. So this year we did less events, but focused more on those events to make them bigger, advertise them more, bring in specialized folks who cost more money,” Rideout said.

“So having one event, sometimes two a day, we noticed that was really helpful and people were more willing to come out when they didn’t have to choose between like three other events that day.”

NEWS • 5

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 RESEARCH

Professors inducted to College Baltzer and Ghose join prestigious group of new scholars JAKE WATTS NEWS EDITOR

CONTRIBUTED IMAGE

Dr. Jennifer Baltzer, associate professor, is set to join prestigious scholars.

TANZEEL SAYANI/PHOTO EDITOR

Dr. Shohini Ghose, physics and computer science professor, joins College.

Among the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists’ 70 new members inducted this year will be Wilfrid Laurier University professors Dr. Jennifer Baltzer and Dr. Shohini Ghose. The College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists is a part of the Royal Society of Canada, a publicly-organized academic institution whose objective, as stated on their webpage, is to “promote learning and research in the arts, the humanities and the natural and social sciences.”

The College in particular brings together accomplished, early-career researchers from different areas of expertise in order to foster an interdisciplinary, wide-reaching research community.

Both professors from Laurier were excited to be brought on as new members of the College.

“It’s a huge recognition and it’s a great opportunity,” Dr. Shohini Ghose, professor of physics and computer science and one of the two new members from Laurier said.

Ghose performs research on cutting-edge topics in quantum physics, but in addition to that, does work to address gender issues in science.

“I’m really excited to have the research I’ve been pursuing recognized in that way,” Jennifer

Baltzer, associate professor, biology and the other new member from Laurier said.

Baltzer works as a forest ecologist. A lot of the research she does focuses on the way that climate change affects forests.

Both professors were excited at the opportunities that the college could provide to broaden their areas of inquiry.

And specifically, they were excited at the opportunity membership in the college could provide for networking and interdisciplinary collaboration.

“It’s a great opportunity to be able to connect with a network of amazing scholars and artists and people outside of my own field,” Ghose said. “I know that part of it is networking and engaging with

other members.”

“Talking to some colleagues who are members of the college, they’ve been offered some pretty exciting opportunities to work with different people on the international stage about really societally-relevant issues, so I’m really excited about having that opportunity,” Baltzer said.

Other previously inducted members from Laurier include Alison Blay-Palmer, associate professor and CIGI chair in sustainable food systems, Alison Mountz, professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Migration and Anne Wilson, professor and Canada Research Chair in Social Psychology.

Membership in the college lasts for seven years, and a maximum of 100 new members are inducted each year.

Baltzer and Ghose had first been recognized as potential inductees to the college by staff at Laurier.

“We attempt to identify those who are working faculty members that we think would be competitive in this process, and then we approach them and see if they’re prepared to allow their names to go forward,” said Robert Gordon, vice-president: research at Laurier.

“One of the roles that we play in the office of research services, but certainly other parts of the university, is to demonstrate the quality and the exceptional capacity that our faculty have,” Gordon said.

By 2019, Jetlines plans to serve four major cities within Florida, being Orlando, Tampa, Ft. Myers and Ft. Lauderdale.

“A lot of people from this part of the country like to go away in the winter and Florida is a big destination so I think they would like to add some flights to Florida and hope they can attract some new people as well as some existing passengers that want to get away,”

Wood said.

By working with smaller airports, start-up carrier airlines have the benefit of lower costs while. at the same time, also helping increase traffic of airports in smaller cities.

“It could be very significant for [Waterloo International] and we are hoping and expecting that they will increase our passenger numbers significantly over the next couple of years,” Wood said.

We attempt to identify those who are working faculty members that we think would be competitive in this process.

-Robert Gordon, vice-president: research at Laurier

TRAVEL

Canada Jetlines will offer domestic flights

ALAN LI/GRAPHICS EDITOR

SAFINA HUSEIN NEWS DIRECTOR

Earlier last week, Canada Jetlines announced their plan to begin flying out of the Region of Waterloo International Airport and John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport by June 1, 2018. The planned route map found on Jetlines.ca displays the routes based from Waterloo and Hamilton airports will fly to other large cities in Canada, including Halifax, Winnipeg,

Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver by summer of 2018, then expanding to Las Vegas and Orlando in the United States by October 2018.

More locations will follow including some in Florida and Cancun by April 2019.

The new airline is in the stage referred to as a start-up carrier and is in the process of funding for licenses to operate as an airline explained Chris Wood, General Manager of Waterloo International.

“They still need to work through

some regulatory issues, and need to secure capital funding in order to have a license to operate as an airline,” Wood said.

In order to be an ultra-low cost carrier, the airline will focus on flying from smaller airports due to the smaller fees and costs that come with operating. In addition to lower costs, smaller airports also have less congestion issues and less airlines to compete with for the new airline. By focusing on smaller airports, Jetlines is available for the larger communities of Waterloo and Hamilton, both cities of which have a large student population. The airline is focusing on competitive prices, with the goal of being at least 30 per cent lower than other airline fares.

“I think that students are a big part of their decision to base here, with the number of students we have and I know like to go visit home but also go away, this could potentially help the local student population with affordable travel,” Wood said.

Each aircraft would likely have 189 seats, all of which would be economy class to ensure low prices.

“It’s going to be a lot less than what the other airlines are charging, their product is price and they’re going to stimulate the market with price,” Wood said.

Florida is likely to be a frequent destination for the airline as there is a large market of travelers looking for cheap flights to the state.

6 • NEWS

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017

LOCAL

JESS DIK/FILE PHOTO

WIlfrid Laurier University’s Library was one of the 50 buildings that participated in Doors Open.

SAFINA HUSEIN/NEWS DIRECTOR

The Button Factory, located on Regina Street, was also a facility open to the public for touring.

Open doors to Waterloo heritage and architecture SAFINA HUSEIN NEWS DIRECTOR

Doors Open Waterloo Region, which took place this past Saturday Sept. 16, 2017, gives individuals the chance to explore the heritage and architecture of unique buildings throughout Waterloo Region.

During the day-long event, almost 50 buildings across the Region opened their doors to the public, allowing them to take free tours of the facilities.

“Doors Open is a chance, it’s an event that give the public a chance to see inside interesting places.

They are either interesting for their architecture or what’s going on inside, or for their heritage,” Karl Kessler, co-coordinator of Doors Open Waterloo Region, said.

This year, almost half the buildings and facilities that were open

to the public were completely new to Doors Open, while the other half have been a part of the event in past years, but not necessarily last year.

“It’s rare that we have a site on two years in a row. We try to mix it up a lot so that people if they miss it one year, it’ll come back around more often than not,” Kessler said.

“There’s lots of new and exciting sites as we’re building new buildings every year.”

Two sites included in the event were Wilfrid Laurier University’s Library and Lazaridis Hall.

In correlation with Ontario 150 and Canada 150 celebrations taking place throughout this year, the theme for Doors Open Waterloo Region was identity and innovation.

“Those are two words that we hear a lot and sometimes it’s hard,

I think, to know what they mean,” Kessler said.

Buildings, we take them for granted but often you catch yourself wondering what goes on in some places ...

-Karl Kessler, co-coordinator of Doors Open Waterloo Region

“Those are two words that are branded and used quite a lot locally so what we decided to do with those two words was define them a

bit and put a finer point on them.”

For identity, the Doors Open event focused on the many peoples that have made up the Region of Waterloo, including those from pre-settler periods, Indigenous Peoples, all the way to recent immigrant groups.

On the innovation side, explained Kessler, Doors Open included the essential science and technology aspects of the region, but also branched out beyond that to new and unique facilities that are innovative.

In addition to the facility tours that took place throughout the day, there were six public talks that were held for individuals to attend.

“The [talks were] all related in some way either to theme or the overall mandate of Doors Open, which is heritage, architecture and community building in terms of

getting inside places and finding out how people use their spaces,” Kessler said.

For example, one of the six talks took place at Ontario’s only surviving stone Mennonite meetinghouse — the Detweiler Meetinghouse. Sam Steiner, a Mennonite historian and author, was the speaker who gave those who attended an overview of life and faith amongst Mennonite settlers.

“Buildings, we take them for granted but often you catch yourself wondering what goes on in some places, especially if it’s an interesting looking place. You wonder what that place is about, what goes on in there,” Kessler said.

“What we hear back from the hosts and from the visitors is how much they enjoy interacting with each other … it just makes them look at these places in a new light.”

RESEARCH

Analyzing paramedic well-being SAFINA HUSEIN NEWS DIRECTOR

Renée MacPhee, associate professor for Wilfrid Laurier University’s department of kinesiology and physical education, recently joined a national network that will be exploring and uncovering critical information regarding Canada’s public safety personnel.

Individuals working the various sectors of public safety, such as correctional officers, dispatchers, firefighters, paramedics and police officers, dedicate their every day to helping Canadians. However, this line of work involves high levels of stress and — often — trauma.

In response to a federal government public safety report, the Canadian Institute for Public Safety Research and Treatments (CIPSRT) was launched in July 2017 based out of the University of Regina.

CIPSRT works to make a positive impact on the mental health of Canada’s public safety personnel by bringing together leading stakeholders and researchers.

MacPhee, one of approximately 38,000 individuals in Canada who is a part of CIPSRT, is also an associate director for the group in addition to being a leader for the organization’s work on paramedics.

“Our primary goal is to try to identify what the mental health issues are among all public safety personnel … The idea of the research is to try to clarify and identity what mental health concerns do exist for public safety personnel and the direction in terms of where were need to go,” MacPhee said.

These are people who have dedicated their lives to looking after people.

-Reneé MacPhee, associate professor for Laurier’s department of kinesiology and physical education

“They see horrific things on a regular basis and I think as researchers we have an obligation to improve their lives and we need to provide them with whatever they need to continue doing their job and to do it from a healthy standpoint.”

For MacPhee, however, her interest regarding the subject of paramedic mental health started

over 25 years ago when she was worked at the emergency department at St. Mary’s General Hospital in Kitchener.

“I started to take a pretty significant interest in things that were effecting [paramedics], seeing the challenges and learning about their job and the things that they see on a day-to-day basis,” MacPhee said.

Approximately a year ago, MacPhee, alongside a colleague from the University of Waterloo, launched a national survey called the Canadian Paramedic Health Involvement Survey.

“In that survey we wanted to try and identify the mental health issues that [paramedics] were facing and also the physical side of the equation,” MacPhee said.

Ensuing the survey, which was sent out to paramedics across the entirety of Canada, MacPhee and her colleague conducted physical fitness assessments and focus group interviews in addition to the information they received from the surveys.

Through their research, MacPhee explained, there were various challenges that were identified that could directly effect a paramedic’s well-being and mental health.

Some of the main challenges included the ever-increasing call

TANZEEL SAYANI/PHOTO EDITOR

MacPhee conducts national research on the mental health of Paramedics.

volume that paramedics respond to on a daily basis. As a result, many paramedics have very little down time during their shifts and may also miss a lot of their meals and breaks.

“You can’t work 12 hours and not eat or not have an opportunity just to gather your thoughts for a few minutes,” MacPhee said.

In addition, another prevalent challenge presented to paramedics is the long off-load waiting time.

Off-load occurs when an ambulance arrives at a hospital and there’s nowhere for the paramedics to transfer the patient. Thus, paramedics are required to stay with a patient until room becomes

available.

Off-load delays can last anywhere from 90 minutes to a few hours, preventing the paramedic crew from responding to other calls throughout that community, thus, causing stress to those paramedics.

“These are people who have dedicated their lives to looking after people,” MacPhee said.

“They see horrific things on a regular basis and I think as researchers we have an obligation to improve their lives and we need to provide them with whatever they need to continue doing their job and to do it from a healthy standpoint.”

GAMES • 7

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017

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, Why does it seem like only a couple board members actually care about the students and not their own personal agenda...

Where’s the accountability here?

Sincerely, Done with this corruption Dear Life, I still don’t like the new My Learning Space layout. I just want to finish my readings without any extra struggle, is that too much to ask?

Sincerely, Annoyed Dear life, All my friend talks about is parking. I get it, there’s no space.

Sincerely, Try bussing b

Forest G. Dear Becca, You make me smile so much, I’m so thankful for this possible maybe-hypothetical. Happy 1 month of hypotheticals.

Sincerely: Many more hypotheticals to come

Dear Life, I’m glad Mathews scored. I’m glad Nylander scored. Where was everyone else? (Also, Lupal is selfish; I was happier when he wasn’t a Leaf ) Sincerely: The Maple Leaf

Dear people who start shit on Facebook, Here is a list of things you can do instead: not that, not that, not that, and not that.

Sincerely, Don’t do it

Dear 8:30 classes, I wrote you a Haiku.

Why why why why why I fucking hate my life Why why why why why Sincerely, Tired

Dear Life, Roses are red Violets are blue Harambe would make A better SU chair Sincerely, A boy who misses his ape

Dear Life, Why do business students who don’t get accepted for co-op think life is over? It’s not. Move on and #LiveYourBBA a different way.

Sincerely, An Arts Student (with Co-op)

Dear Life, What is a more traumatic experience, falling in love or having your heart broken? Both of them lead to a persistent inability to focus, at least for me. Both of them fuck with your mind. I guess you can’t really experience one without the other anyways, so all you can do is just roll with it.

I am not a smart man. But I know what love is. I love you Jenny.

Sincerely,

Dear News lady, You’re too cool for school Sincerely, You’ll never know Dear News boy, You fly Sincerely, Not news Dear Life, The emotions you invoke are too

much Sincerely, Too disassociated

Bob Dylan fan

Dear Pranav, You are doing so well and you’re picking up everything so fast. Thanks for all the hard work and your wonderful attitude.

Sincerely, Positive Vibes

Dear Maddie, You never crack under pressure. You hold the team together. Your role is beyond that of a captain. You are the wind caught in the sails. I’m glad to have you on my team.

Sincerely, SD4L Dear Life, Szechuan sauce, its always been about the Szechuan sauce.

Sincerely, R

Dear Life, This isn’t what I asked for, yo.

Sincerely, Cursed Dear Laurier Parking Lot, You give me grey hairs.

Sincerely, Why do I pay for a parking pass?

Dear Life, Roses are long I like to sing songs Violets smell good My heart goes out to the hood Sincerely, Sincerely

Dear Life, Thanks for everything, yo.

Sincerely, Blessed Dear printer, Please print.

Sincerely, You’re not printing

Dear Life, Hey y’all, You’re a great team. Keep up the great work!

Sincerely, Love you

Dear Life, I’ve been shooting in the dark too long, when something’s not right it’s wrong, you’re gonna make me lonesome when you go Sincerely,

Dear Life, Sometimes you’re too much, and I’m not entirely sure how I’m supposed to handle it.

Sincerely, M.

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8 •

FEATU

FEATURES EDITOR/KARLIS WILDE/FEATURES@THECORD.CA

Digging into the world of fat culture around them with

al Natur

The Apple body type

Natur al The Banana body type

When I was eight years old, I weighed around 140 pounds.

By the time I was 17, I couldn’t weigh myself with an ordinary scale. The digital ones flashed a loaded ‘error’, while the analog ones spun more than a full circle — all the way past 300 and into uncharted, supposedly uninhabited territory.

But no matter how much my insecurities made me feel like I was, I was never really alone in ‘being fat’. As age accrues, the modern person tends toward a few extra inches around the middle. More people than not make poor choices regarding their personal health and — at least at some point in their lives — become overweight.

Yet, as ordinary as chubbiness is, that weight actually kept me from doing ordinary things: it kept me from swimming in public, out of fear of removing my shirt and displaying my hideous stretch marks.

It kept me from playing sports, out of fear that I’d be seen as a joke trying to be something that he wasn’t: physically normal.

At times, it made me so ashamed of myself that I couldn’t go out in public — instead, I’d reach toward happiness by ripping into an unsatisfying, neon bag of Zesty Cheese flavoured Doritos. The chips made me fatter, the fat made me sadder, the sadness brought me back to the chip aisle.

Why are we so prone to obesity, and — for that matter — why are we so cruel about it?

Food, especially in this cultural period, is ubiquitous. I spoke with Karen Lill, the owner of Lillypad Health Wellness Connections, who understood the significance of food’s constantly present status as a commercial push to repeatedly buy and consume — the byproduct of which is obesity.

“I think it’s because, socially, [food is] what’s around us constantly,” Lill said. “People used to socialize in their homes, playing a game of cards. We now socialize sitting in a restaurant, sitting in a coffee shop.”

“Food is constantly there and the restaurants — especially the fast food [ones] — really want you to buy it. So they’re constantly finding ways to put it in front of you. And they sell it cheap. We’ve become obsessed with food because it’s constantly in our faces.”

With a coffee shop or a vending machine in just about every building – and a campus that is sandwiched between blocks and blocks of high-fat, highcarb, delicious restaurants – it’s not difficult to see that there is a very real, although indirect, consumerist advocacy for obesity.

As Lill continued, she detailed how packaged foods are — at a very direct and fundamental level — an enormous proponent for that kind of obesity.

“Most packaged food has sugar added to it because they want you to buy it. That is their goal… we have so many choices and they put sugars in because they know that it makes you crave it.”

But there are other less commercial links throughout recent history that illuminate shifting attitudes

toward appropriate weights. To gain better insight on this I spoke with Jenny Ellison, the curator of sport and leisure at the Canadian Museum of History and co-editor of the book Obesity in Canada: Critical Perspectives.

“If we situate the question of weight in a longer history,” Ellison said, “We see over time, say in the last hundred years in Canada — for example — in the 1920’s and 30’s Canada had a crisis of underweight. There wasn’t enough food for the population.

Numerous recruits for the second world war were rejected because they didn’t meet the minimum size requirements … because they were undernourished.”

“Immediately following the war there was this Canada-first obesity epidemic. In the 1950’s there was this concern that Canadian men in particular were becoming too soft — they were all back at their desk jobs after the war — and that as a population we weren’t prepared to defend ourselves.”

“So if we look at weight in historical perspectives we often see … that attitudes toward weight shift in relation to broader social scripts and social anxieties about our population.”

But what makes this difficult to reconcile is that it suggests that society has pragmatically pushed both for and against weight gain as a society. And when compared with various points in history — specifically when it’s rarer — a few extra pounds can be viewed as a positive thing.

Yet even without a fear for our country’s being able to defend itself, our society wants nothing to do with those soft bodies and flabby stomachs.

“We can go way back in time in ancient history, and find that fat was considered a negative physical trait,” Ellison said. “In Christianity fat bodies were gluttonous and heavenly bodies were light and airy and angelic.”

“We have this long cultural history of attaching negative connotations to larger bodies, and I think in Canada and our society we place a lot of value on self-control, taking care of oneself. We place a lot of responsibility on individuals for their health and people see weight as a signifier of health.”

“We just have a lot of cultural baggage around the idea that being fat is a bad thing. That being fat signifies negative personal characteristics … fat is an easy target for people … it makes people feel safe and strong and protected to be able to say ‘well, I’m not that, I’m thin’ or ‘I’m healthy’, or whatever they think they are in comparison to a fat person.”

The solution sounds simple: to lose weight, you eat less, and maybe you exercise more.

But these fixes don’t tend to work on a practical level, especially when we consider the addictive properties in food.

“We don’t have significant evidence that diets work,” Ellison said. “If there was a scientific study to show that diets work I think the weight of the population might shift given the cultural pressure to be thin. But there is no scientifically proven weight loss method. So I think there’s a lot of emotional pain,

URES

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 • 9

shaming, eating habits and the Features Editor Karlis Wilde.

heart-ache and money spent to lose weight when biologically our bodies aren’t playing along.”

“Even many medical doctors would acknowledge that there’s no hard and fast method for weight loss and that people tend to regain the weight. It’s a difficult data set to collect,” Ellison continued.

“What many fat activists said in my qualitative study working with women who identified as fat who had tried to lose weight … they kept going back to Weight Watchers because they wanted to lose weight, but actually Weight Watchers benefits from the fact that weight loss is almost impossible because - Kare n Lill, owne Heath people keep r of Lil Welln lipad ess C coming back onne ction s and rejoining and spending their money in order to lose weight.”

As a complement to the social science, Lill’s experience operating Lillypad creates a more comprehensive picture of why diets don’t tend to work and — in many ways — it comes down again to how modern people interact.

“If you think about when you’re sitting in a restaurant,” Lill said, “and the first thing they bring you is the bread, the nice warm buns, so you start with that and then you’ve ordered your meal and sometimes your appetizer … then you have a dessert and you’re very full, but you sit at that table and you think… ‘I’ll have dessert, I’ll just take a taste.’”

“And you keep eating it. And it’s basically [the fact that] your brain is hijacked; they’ve proven with MRIs that the reaction in the brain is the same to sugar as it is to heroin and cocaine.”

“It lights up in the same areas, so people crave it.

They want it. They can’t stop thinking about it, then they have it. And they’ll eat more of it than they really want because it causes that craving.”

“On the [Lilllypad Weight Loss] program, they don’t crave the junk anymore. And the only time it becomes a problem – for the breads and the pastas and the sweets – is when they’re sitting in a social setting with friends.”

“If it’s not [sitting in front of them], they don’t have the cravings.”

Personally, I have been both very overweight and — mostly through obsessively unhealthy, ascetic di-

We’ obsevse become food sed w constbecause ith antly it’s faces in our .

ets — almost thin throughout my adult life. There are enormous, staggering differences a person realizes when they make that change.

When you lose weight, suddenly people are nicer to you; they respect you more and they tend to listen to your ideas.

They smile and nod at you in public. Members of the opposite sex treat you with friendliness and curiosity rather than doing everything in their power to ignore and avoid you.

When you aren’t fat, the world suddenly accepts you as a human being.

It’s a staggering change, and — despite being a change for the better — it’s a disturbing realization, because it shows how much people tend to assign characteristics based on superficial details.

Intrinsically, I was not a different person when I was fat than when I was thin.

But the world only saw the crux that the enormous belly represented and that then became the foundation of how they saw my identity.

As Jenny Ellison sees it, especially when related to fat shaming: “It’s an easy target because [people] think that they understand what fat means. They think when you look at somebody’s body, that says something about who they are.”

“But I don’t think it’s true. And I think making assumptions based on somebody’s physical appearance or their skin colour or their hair or clothes or whatever is wrong.”

Especially because the associations that we draw are, in many ways, completely incorrect.

Karen Lill spoke about how a great many people are eating terribly and not properly sustaining their bodies, and yet they continue to appear to be thin.

“I wasn’t losing any [weight] until I understood how we store fat,” she said. “I see people now with the fat shaming, it’s usually somebody who’s got other issues of their own … if [they’ve] never had to deal with it [themselves], they tend to assume that it’s some weakness in you.”

“But it’s not. It’s really what society’s doing that’s causing these health problems, and that’s why there are children that are type two diabetic already. And it’s just getting worse and worse.”

Whether it’s a cultural misunderstanding of what fat means that needs to be changed, or an issue with how our society eats, Ellison sees the greatest weakness is in how we frame the conversation.

“I think that body weight is a misdirect when we’re talking about health in our society and that we need to think of health more globally,” she concluded.

“In my ideal world we would rethink what health actually meant and take the focus off weight and put it onto other metrics like heart health, mental health, emotional health.”

Natural The cola body type

Natural The pizza body type

MADELINE MCINNIS/CREATIVE DIRECTOR

10 •

Arts & Life

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 ARTS & LIFE EDITOR SHYENNE MACDONALD arts@thecord.ca

SOCIAL

Discussion of underpants and their imprint on society ALAN LI/GRAPHIC EDITOR

MADELINE MCINNIS CREATIVE DIRECTOR

I have some breaking news for you, so you better sit down if you’re not already.

Women wear underwear.

Along with the cultural obsession with bra straps, another worstkept-secret seems to be underwear — namely, visible panty lines.

“It’s very strange that underwear and the idea that people have to wear underwear is sexualized,” Alicia Hall, assistant coordinator at the Centre for Women and Trans People said.

Let me just clarify this further.

It’s not that you can even actually see a woman’s underwear — it’s the imprint of her underwear through her outer clothes.

Absolutely scandalous. This is the shaming of women for wearing something so unnecessarily

sexualized. To even see the mere outline underneath ones clothes is a sight that raises eyebrows.

“You should be able to wear whatever makes you feel good about yourself and that shouldn’t be related to how other people are going to view you,” Hall continued.

This is something that’s a universal female experience. No matter the age, body type, assigned birth sex and gender identity, etc., all women are at risk of people seeing the outline of their underwear.

The sexualization of young women starts exceedingly young. Even elementary students are worried if people can see their underwear. “[A visible panty line] is something that’s been on my radar since around grade seven,” Hall explained.

And it’s endless from there. I had to have a whole conversation with a friend in high school about why

I don’t wear thongs because she could see the outline of my underwear through my uniform shorts.

But the stigma involving visible panty lines represents a deeper problem in our culture. Hall explained that society purports that women’s bodies are not their own and they are made for someone else.

“Panty lines and bra straps are just the tip of the iceberg,” she explained. “Especially with guys … you have that ‘bro’ culture and — because of toxic masculinity — one of the ways they bond is through the putting down of women.”

Because of a culture that passes judgement on women as sexualized objects, things like underwear begin to take on a new meaning.

“By demeaning, sexualizing and objectifying women, it becomes more normalized,” she continued.

Hall encouraged men in situ-

ations like these to be allies for women instead of buying into the culture of toxic masculinity.

“If men are objectifying women, they’re not always going to be listening to women, so having allies from different groups speak out against it is very, very valuable.”

But as the culture continues, we all have to monitor how to shut it down.

“There’s never, ever going to be a right way for anyone, but I think that, if people are capable, challenging sexism and that type of behaviour in their daily lives … is very important,” Hall said.

Two tips that Hall has for women in a situation where a visible panty line has been brought into conversation are either to ask someone to explain what they mean by their statement or to simply tell them to fuck off.

She also encourages women to

act on the situation and to make sure that they always feel as safe and comfortable as possible.

“If you’re just looking at the cause [of the sexism] … you’re never going to solve anything because whatever the cause is will always be changing,” Hall continued.

“Culture is constantly evolving, so if you don’t get at the root … then it’s just going to be some new thing.”

Even if you can’t stand up in the moment, there are resources — such as the Centre for Women and Trans People — that are willing to listen, help and empathize with everyday sexism.

Frankly, if you’re looking that closely at my butt — close enough to notice where my underwear starts — you’ll probably be looking regardless of what I’m wearing, and that has nothing to do with me.

can live their life any way they see fit — so long as it doesn’t infringe upon the law.

If I decided that — instead of building a life with someone and having a few kids — I wanted to pursue a career as a chef, I wouldn’t feel as though I was letting myself, or society, down by not following an inherent, socially constructed sense of purpose.

Instead, I’ve created my own purpose from scratch. Hopefully one that will give my life meaning and happiness.

In this scenario, it doesn’t matter how insignificant my life is in the grand scheme of things.

It doesn’t matter that I’m just

one person on one rock in one galaxy out of the infinite people on infinite rocks in infinite galaxies.

Why should it even matter if I’m living life on my own terms and enjoying myself?

So long as I am not harming others of course.

Feelings of happiness, love and belonging all help us realize our own purposes and — through a nihilistic lens — god and society are not needed to inform us on the importance of these feelings.

You don’t need someone else to tell you that you are leading your life correctly.

At the end of the day, only you can make that call.

LIFESTYLE

The perfect form of pessimism TYLER CURRIE CORD ARTS

Look up at the night sky, embrace the cosmos and notice the millions of tiny little dots that blanket the sky.

Realize that each one of those dots could very well be a sun to a new set of planets, many of which hold the potential of harbouring life.

Now, realize that these are only the dots you can see from where you’re standing; the universe appears to be infinite and therefore there are — in turn — an infinite number of planets.

With the incomprehensible size of the universe, it’s hard to say that there isn’t alien life somewhere out there with a straight face; especially considering NASA’s firm belief that it’s very likely life has cropped up on several planets in our galaxy alone.

With our existence being so proximate to other planets and

galaxies, where does that leave us — human beings — in terms of significance? More specifically, where does that leave you — the individual — in terms of importance?

The answer is harsh: you don’t technically matter to the cogs that keep the universe running.

In that vein, you are insignificant.

I am insignificant. Your parents, teachers and friends are insignificant and you best believe your future kids will be insignificant too.

But just because we’re too small to matter in the grand scheme of things, does that mean there is no pertinent purpose?

Nihilism is the belief that life and morals are meaningless. As scientific discovery propels our knowledge of our position in the universe forward, more and more people — particularly millennials — are adopting this ‘pointless’ perspective on life itself.

Scientific discoveries are made about the universe, the internet make this information easily accessible to the population and finally, slowly — but surely — the popular opinion begins to shift from folks believing Earth was ‘made for humans’ to having them conclude

that the Earth is simply a rock floating through space.

A rock that just so happens to contain a large group of primates, who happened to evolve brains competent enough to comprehend and categorize their daily collective experiences.

However, this concept of ‘meaningless life’ is not a new perspective. In the early 20th century, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche expressed his fears about the potential dangers of nihilism.

He assumed that if one held the opinion that all moral, metaphysical and religious ideologies had no distinct purpose, the individual would acquire a sense of independent morality that would ultimately lead to degeneracy.

If one didn’t fear being judged by a god or society, what’s to stop that person from bending their own morals and committing crimes against society to suit their own selfish interests?

Today, however — with a rise in popularity of nihilistic perspectives — we are beginning to see an increasingly positive version of the outcome Nietzsche once feared.

Without believing in a set of cemented, moral guidelines, one

LUCIA LAU/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

ARTS & LIFE • 11

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 ADVICE

ALAN LI/GRAPHICS EDITOR

A commuter’s guide for travelling to university How to survive that daily 40-minute drive to campus

BRITTANY TENHAGE STAFF WRITER

Commuting to and from school is a viable option for many students, but so few tackle it.

Want the cold, hard facts about being a commuting student? I’m

your gal.

I often get asked “how do you do it?” by fellow students, as well as profs.

I know lots of people choose not to commute because they don’t have their license, can’t afford a car, want to be independent, or would just rather move out.

I made the choice to buy a cheap car and live at home simply to save money. I’m just beginning my third year of university and I’ve commuted the whole time.

It’s a 40 minute drive each way, which sounds long and boring, but isn’t that bad, really.

First off, I don’t waste those 40 minutes. I use that time to listen to audiobooks, sometimes for my courses, sometimes for pleasure.

It’s a good way to ensure that I’m never bored and also making use of my driving time.

Secondly, money. How much does it cost?

That depends on the person and the driving time, of course.

But I spend less than I would on rent if I decided to move closer to campus.

My insurance is $145 a month. I get about nine school trips off a gas tank and it’s an average cost of $35 to fill my tank.

If I drive all five days — to and from school — that’s three tanks of gas if I round up. That’s around $200 a month for car costs.

If I add the cost of the parking pass — around $350 for September to April — that’s $43.75 a month.

That brings the total to $239.75 for a single month of commuting.

This is obviously just for me, but that’s a reasonable amount to be spending per month.

Commuting has many pros and cons. One of the pros is that I’m living at home, meaning I have access to my parent’s food.

It also means that I’m in my own bed every night, with the nice home environment to work in.

Another pro is that I’m not worrying about rent, wi-fi, or other costs that come with a home.

From what I understand, that can be very stressful for many students.

If people choose to commute in their first year, there’s also the option of joining Laurier Off-Campus University Students (LOCUS).

Which is an incredible way to participate in residence events without living on campus.

LOCUS has off-campus advisors — much like dons — and they host monthly events so one can get to know other off-campus students.

With that being said, there still are a few cons to commuting.

My class attendance becomes

extremely weather dependant; occasionally I have no choice but to miss class due to road closures or poor weather.

I miss out on multiple campus events as well, just because I have to be home.

I use that time to listen to audiobooks, sometimes for my courses, sometimes for pleasure

If I want to consume alcohol, I must find a place to stay overnight, which can be stressful.

The school-provided parking passes don’t include overnight parking, so if I’m staying overnight, I have to get a city pass or find someone’s driveway I can park in.

I quite frequently also miss out on meeting people when I can’t be at campus events.

I think that I might have made a few more friends in my first year if I had chosen to live in residence.

Commuting is not the best choice for many students, but it can be if you prefer to be home and have free food.

It’s a good way to save money and still have a good university experience!

CANADIAN MUSIC

Stars on the rise: a new is band emerging SHYENNE MACDONALD ARTS & LIFE EDITOR

Lindsay is a small town in Ontario located along the Scugog River.

Founded in 1825, its claim to fame since then has been that it was the home of a long dead military official.

Trip Advisor suggests checking out the Lounge Haven Cottage and Boating Club, if you’re so inclined.

In more recent years, however, the town has received attention for being the home of country group, James Barker Band.

I have a sneaking suspicion that soon enough it’ll also be recognized as the hometown of the upand-coming band, The Kents.

Who are The Kents? They’ve yet to grace the top of the billboard, so don’t kick yourself for not knowing them right away.

But they are a band to watch, that’s for certain.

They were featured as one of Apple Music’s 2016 Rising Stars, Spotify’s Best of 2016 Viral Hits, Canada’s Walk of Fame Emerging Artists. As well recognized on other platforms.

But still, who are they? The band is made up of four members: lead singer Warren Frank, guitarist Freddy Kwon, base player Luke Shauf and drummer Tanner Paré. “[Freddy, Luke and I] met in a

guitar class in high school, that’s where we started as a band,” Frank recalled how the origins of their group.

“Tanner joined officially about a year-and-a-half ago. So, we’ve been a real band for like two years.”

In that short time, The Kents independently released their debut EP Waking, which featured five songs, all written and preformed by the band.

When you get that connection of different styles then you can start working toward something that does stand alone.

-Warren Frank, lead singer

CONTRIBUTED IMAGE

On October 13, their second EP, Within Waves, is expected to be released.

As of yet, there are two songs released from the EP: “Distant,” and “Is There Anyone?”

When you listen to a song by The Kents, it’s not hard to see why

they’ve been likened to the other popular Canadian band Arkells.

However, while Arkells seem to be tapping into whatever world The Lumineers have drawn inspiration from, The Kents lyrics seem to be genuine to the human experience.

“We always want to write a melody that’s catchy, but we do feel like we want to say something in

every song and I think that’s maybe a difference,” Frank said.

“The lyrics have to mean something to us. We’re not just writing a song so people like it.”

However, The Kents also attribute their unique sound to the varied genres each band-member tends to gravitate toward.

“We all listen to such different music, it’s a combination of

all those genres. I listen to a lot of things: Half Moon Run, Twin Peaks, or Pure Rock and Roll, Hey Rosetta,” Kwon said.

“This last year has been a lot of history lessons for me, with U2 and The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Oasis. I’ve been diving into good, classic music from recent decades,” Shauf said.

Paré confessed to being into the darker genres. But each member agreed that it was the amalgamation of their combined musical interests that results in an authentic sound.

“I think Freddy writes with a lot of tone that borders on the psychedelic scene, which isn’t the melodies that I’d be listening to. So, I bring something else,” Frank said.

“When you get that connection of different styles then you can start working toward something that does stand alone.”

Currently The Kents are finishing up their Frosh Week tour, which is how they found themselves in Waterloo.

Soon, they’ll be returning to their hometown to preform alongside James Barker Band.

The Kents still have a way to go before becoming a household name, but with a Canadian music scene that is on the rise, this is a band that has a chance to make it big.

12 •

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017

Editorial

OPINION EDITOR EMILY WAITSON opinion@thecord.ca

Note: Peer pressure sity experience is unique to you.

I’m not saying that you should ignore everybody all the time and set up a hermitage in your dorm room. What I am saying is that you shouldn’t let other people decide what is important to your own experience.

If the consumption of alcohol at various local establishments is something you would consider ‘essential’ to the university experience, then all the power to you my friend.

Honestly, many people would consider studying to be an essential aspect of the university experience, yet I’ve never seen anyone prioritize studying over ‘thirsty Thursdays.’

KURTIS RIDEOUT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

I have never been to Phil’s.

Not hating — my brother went there a few times and my father did before him — just stating facts.

It has become apparent that I might historically be the only Editor-in-Chief at this newspaper that never made a point of popping by there at least once.

On that same note, my university experience is said to be pretty incomplete without it, which I think is sad.

Ah. The pressure to consume alcohol. My university experience feels incomplete without that too, which I think is really sad.

As a transplant from the Brantford campus, it does make some sense that I am not super familiar with the local student nightlife.

Brantford does have its own prized local haunts, most of which I can say I attended at least once, but the scene there is simply not as present to say the least. I still can’t tell if that was a blessing or a curse.

As a Golden Hawk living in Waterloo I guess it’s safe to say I have missed out on a valuable part of the experience.

But as someone who was born in Kitchener — someone who has been familiar with this area my entire life — do I actually feel like I am missing out?

Does it bother me that I haven’t been to the establishments some have deemed essential to the student experience? That I can pretty much count on two hands how many times I’ve been intoxicated on campus?

Nah, definitely not. And here’s why.

First — and most importantly — because I have my whole life to drink and make poor decisions.

Just because I decided to put some of this stuff off until later does not mean I am missing out.

I don’t need confirmation of this, honestly.

Second, although I respect, understand and am capable of identifying the fact that traditions matter to some people, I very strongly believe that your univer-

What I am saying is that you shouldn’t let other people decide what is important to your own experience.

Don’t get me wrong, Phil’s is definitely on my bucket list, Chainsaw makes for some memorable evenings and I do love chilling at Becky’s Apartment.

But if you are going to tell me that my experience at university is incomplete just because I didn’t go out and party enough, I am going to look you in the eye and say that you are wrong.

Maybe that was an essential part to your personal experience — which I totally respect and don’t mind acknowledging — but I’m tired of pretending that I understand that sort of culture for no reason other than trying to assimilate.

And mark my words — I will go to Phil’s, eventually. It will happen.

I’m not going to lie, I feel like I am not fully capable of representing the student body without such a ubiquitous experience.

But — like every other evening I spent in a bar — I will definitely regret it the moment I drop my cover into the hand of the doorman, because that’s just who I am.

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Taking away technology NATHALIE BOUCHARD NEWS EDITOR

Each year we go into the fall semester thinking “this year will be different.”

You pull out your notebook, turn the Wi-Fi off on your computer and start listening to your professor preach about research methods and Plato’s theory of forms.

You probably already know where this is going.

Before you know it, you’ve watched four Tasty videos on slow cooker tacos and made plans with the squad for a fun night out at Brixton.

Although that same Tasty video — which you’ve already watched six times this past week — is so interesting, what you’re doing in class is inhibiting others from doing what you’ve failed to accomplish, paying attention and being a good student.

Trust me though, I’m definitely not perfect either; but it has been a learning curve to say the least.

I’ve read my fair share of Narcity articles about the best dim-sum hot spots in Toronto, but I’ve learned the hard way entering my

fourth year of university.

I noticed that my marks were significantly lower in classes where I used my laptop to take notes compared to the classes where I wasn’t allowed to bring technology.

I also noticed that when I was doing a Buzzfeed quiz to determine which Disney princess I am — I am Ariel, by the way — that I was distracting my friends and peers.

When you use technology outside the realm of taking notes you are distracting your peers around you, which ultimately hurts their learning experience, too.

When you are on your computer and you receive a text, you are almost programmed by reflex to want to answer and get rid of that annoying red ‘one’ chilling on the dashboard.

However, you are not only not learning about things that can enhance your career and make you a better academic, you’re also wasting your time and your money too for that matter.

There is no point in going in to debt with school loans if you are just going to watch YouTube clips on your phone; you can do that at home, without even having to pay tuition.

But really, why do something if you aren’t giving 100 per cent, anyways?

It is time that, as university students — or as people over the age of 18 for that matter — that you take responsibility of your learning.

If you sign up for a class, whether you choose it or not, you should make a commitment to put forth your best effort and learn something you didn’t know beforehand.

The topics and discussions in university classrooms have allowed me to explore things I never even thought I would learn about.

It’s your degree, why not get the most out of your time at university to better yourself as an individual, critical thinker?

The topics and discussions in university classrooms have allowed me to explore things I never even thought I would learn about.

It took putting down my phone to make me realize that the things we’re doing in classrooms are worthwhile and worth listening to.

OPINION • 13

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017

Opinion

OPINION EDITOR EMILY WAITSON opinion@thecord.ca

Embracing the inevitables of automation JOSH HORTALEZA STAFF WRITER

Automation seems to be a trending topic over the past few years. Two technology giants, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, recently had a debate on the topic of Artificial Intelligence’s role in our society, which brought the issue to the forefront.

As technology gets better and better, the logical question that comes to mind concerns whether or not human jobs will get replaced by computers and robots.

Will automation get so advanced that it will make human work obsolete?

So much so, in fact, that we may need a universal basic income to cope with the ridiculously high unemployment rate that comes as a result?

Many workers fear that their jobs will be replaced and thus, they will have no means of generating an income to support themselves. I — for one — embrace automation, and welcome it into our lives.

For the entirety of human history, there has been massive advancements in automation and I do not doubt that there were some people at those times who were fearful of it.

How many people lost their jobs when the wheel was invented? Or maybe the horse and carriage?

How about the automobile?

Obviously, it is clear to see that humans have benefitted greatly from automation.

Interestingly enough, as technological growth has increased, unemployment trends do not follow it closely.

In fact, one could argue that the employment rate has only increased along with trends of innovation and automation.

This is not to say that automation is the cause of a lower unemployment rate, but if the critics are

CONTRIBUTED IMAGE

correct, then shouldn’t we be able to recognize a trend in the opposite direction?

I am not saying that automation will have absolutely no bearing on how society prepares people to enter the workforce.

However, a shift in the standard of what society considers to be ‘qualified’ will have to occur. Adjustments to a person’s skillset will have to be made.

Automation has created entire industries of jobs that no one could have dreamed of existing in the

Finding your own ambition

JESSI WOOD/GRAPHIC ARTIST

AARON HAGEY OPINION COLUMNIST

In nearly every high school coming of age movie I used to watch growing up, there were a lot of relatively common themes — university, education and the prospect of thinking about your future.

“What school are you going to go to?” “It’s a big life decision and it’s crucial to your future!” “I’m worried I’m not going to get accepted!”

“Oh, I know you’ll be fine, Chad!”

I’ve always felt a disconnect from these common media tropes.

Being pushed by family to pursue higher education wasn’t something that I was overly familiar with.

In a household where the highest standards were obtaining a driver’s license, owning a car and merely graduating high school as the definitive checkpoints of adulthood, university was never something I expected, or intended to pursue.

A lethargic disinterest was present; there was merely no interest one way or another as to whether or not I pursued a higher education.

My prospects weren’t really

considered or cared about beyond the steps of high school and I felt increasingly lost because of it.

Over time, this lethargy manifested itself into fear. It grew slowly from doubts, wondering if I’d have enough skill or worth to succeed.

From there it became hopelessness and the motivation to try waned as my high school years came to an end.

Despite everything telling me otherwise, I persisted and sought help to consider my options.

I was lucky to have other people in my life who saw the value and potential I contained.

More so, I am thankful that they were more stubborn than I was, and pushed me to help myself further than I ever imagined possible.

Lacking the inherent motivating factor that family is known to provide, I found a considerable force of motivation came from facilitating personal fulfillment in my future.

It coerced me from my state of apathy, illuminating that there needed to be a fundamental change in my life if I was to take control of where it was going to take me.

I have changed from a person that simply graduated high school into someone who wants more out of their future now. I’ve rediscovered the desire to become more than what I was given and to be

worth more than how I used to think.

It’s an extremely important ideology that is very easy to let slip in the wake of inactivity.

This is an attitude that doesn’t just apply to post-secondary education, it’s an overall mindset to become seemingly content with the bare minimum of potential.

One of the single largest regrets in the minds of many as we age becomes “what could I have done that I didn’t try to do?”

I’m not going to claim that I’m now an ultra-ambitious, hyper-aspiring person, because that would be laughably disingenuous.

But in a family where university has never been prioritized, it’s pushed me to grow in a different way than if they’d been the opposite.

It’s uncovered a dormant part of my personality that seeks to demonstrate that I’m worth more than the self-negligence I resolved myself to.

It’s also helped me in my interactions with others. I want to become the person that I needed when I was younger, to give someone the kind of motivation and push that I required to help myself.

Moving forward, I now have a goal that has changed my perspective on the importance of what a future is worth and how essential it is to protect.

past. There were new jobs then, and there will definitely be new jobs in the future.

And really, if people are so worried about the threat of automation, then the government should create a business environment that would make it attractive to hire human beings as opposed to robots.

Ontario’s upcoming minimum wage laws certainly do not help with the process of slowing down automation. McDonald’s already has self-serving kiosks and Metro is starting to experiment with auto-

mated cashiers in order to mitigate the losses that will be incurred due to a raise in the minimum wage.

A McDonald’s self-serving kiosk has never given me attitude or gotten my order wrong.

A kiosk does not ask for sick days or take extended vacations. I would rather my car be built by precise machinery than be built with the slightest potential for human error.

Even Tesla is jumping on automation with its self-driving car model.

Automation is business friendly and if you cannot incentivize or convince businesses to hold the position that humans are a better hire than machines, then I hope you can make it out of this ‘qualification’ shift unscathed, because the fact of the matter is that this is where our society is headed, whether you like it or not.

So, embrace it — and prosper — as sulking about it will get you nowhere.

But also take some time to admire what humans are capable of with a little bit of brainpower.

WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY

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OPINION • 15

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017

Criticizing the food choices other people make EMILY WAITSON OPINION EDITOR

We are fortunate to live in a day and age where we are given seemingly endless dietary options that can fit specific eating restrictions and overall preferences.

Opportunities to consume unnervingly specific foods catered to the needs of — what would once be considered — niche health groups are becoming more and more popular with each passing Gwyneth Paltrow blog post about “detox tea.”

With so many evolving diets that people are choosing to abide by, I find myself seeing a corresponding increase in the amount of people who judge what others choose to put on their plates.

There are countless reasons to eat the foods that we do. Convenience, health consciousness, allergies, diseases, individual beliefs, you name it.

Food is connected to so much of what we do and how we live that it seems to be an almost universal reaction for people to extend judgments toward others who do it differently.

I am slowly but surely attempting to work towards becoming a vegetarian. I have made it a

personal goal of mine to one day be vegan, but I’ve allotted that for a time in the future where I won’t cave and buy a cheeseburger the minute I walk by a McDonalds.

I see complete merit in the ethical and health benefits surrounding this diet choice — however, I would not use it as a means to be a sanctimonious asshole.

The problem I find with any diet is that there are always going to be health experts in the surrounding vicinity and adamant naysayers who are steadfastly against your personal choices. A vegan casting judgment upon someone who eats meat because of their “mindless consumption of innocent lives” isn’t going to effectively promote anyone’s cause.

I get it, showing visuals that depict the graphic horrors of slaughterhouses may jolt a person into a dramatic life change, but most of the time it doesn’t. People generally don’t like being yelled at and told they’ve been living a pretty essential part of their life “wrong”.

Advocating for your cause is one thing, but blasting another person for their own choices isn’t likely to elicit a complete reversal in their belief system.

On the other side of this, loud and proud meat eaters also have the tendency to shove their unshakeable dedication to animal consumption under the noses of otherwise quiet vegetarians and vegans.

Loud mouthed remarks that no one asked for regarding their “obvious” lack of protein, how humans were designed to eat meat and how bacon is a way of life, are an unnecessary addition to the comment section of almost any vegetarian post I see online.

I have never understood the need others have to infringe upon someone else’s decisions regarding food. I believe that it’s possible to calmly educate and inform others about it.

I have never understood the need others have to infringe upon someone else’s decisions regarding food.

I consider it necessary for my own health to become more knowledgeable about what I eat, but I’m not going to publicly call out someone who likes pepperoni on their pizza.

As a type 1 diabetic, a huge portion of my life is dedicated to what food I put into my body. I count and track carbs, which then determines how much insulin I have

JESSI WOOD/GRAPHIC ARTIST

Don’t pity me for my OCD MADELINE MCINNIS CREATIVE DIRECTOR

“Hello, I’m Madeline McInnis, and before I start, I just want you to know that I have obsessive compulsive disorder so that you can

judge me now instead of changing your opinion about me later.”

True? Yeah. Unnecessary?

Absolutely.

Then why does the conversation suddenly have to change when we find out that someone does have a mental illness after getting to know them for a while? I mean, they were the same person they were before you found out, right?

Once we know, we tiptoe around certain subjects, hesitate before

speaking and generally just change topics of conversation entirely.

Wading the waters of how to talk to a friend with a mental illness shouldn’t be difficult. We are just people — and should be treated as such.

Quite frankly, I don’t want anyone to pity me because of my mental illness.

My OCD is part of who I am and to pity my mental illness is to reduce me to it.

MADELINE MCINNIS/CREATIVE DIRECTOR

to give myself. This has created a general onslaught of daily comments from people who assume they know what’s best for me.

People act aghast when I eat fruit, trying to convince me that I can’t eat any sugar. In restaurants when I’ve ordered a diet soda, wait staff have either rolled their eyes or made comments that I “don’t need it.”

I see assumptions like this made in lines at Starbucks, where someone ahead of me — who may or may not be lactose intolerant — orders soy milk in their coffee and the barista acts like they’ve told them to spit in it.

I don’t believe in pushing people to swear off gluten if they don’t want or need to, but I’m not about to cast a judgmental glance at a person picking up a gluten-free

item in a grocery store. For all I know they have celiac disease, something that I myself can develop at any point in my life because of my diabetes.

And I don’t even want to think about a life without garlic bread, so let’s not go there.

Treating legitimate diseases and food insensitivities like they’re inconveniences isn’t a progressive or helpful stance to take on an otherwise arbitrary fact of life for someone else.

Diets and food fads are always changing and I think for the most part, it isn’t unreasonable to respect how someone else gives their order at a restaurant.

Preaching isn’t the appropriate response to have when someone tells you what they like on their burger.

I genuinely think that my OCD helps me to succeed in school and in work-life more generally. As an obsessive-compulsive perfectionist, I have a keen sense for detail, I’m good at problem solving and I have learned to work well in stressful situations.

Of course, sometimes that means staying up all night, not eating, needing complete silence or being completely narrowed into a task.

Mental illness is nothing to glorify, but it’s nothing to pity either.

I realize that some aspects of what it makes me do are shitty. I know that and I don’t need anyone to tiptoe around that.

This is my life and I deal with it in the best way I can. What I do is what I need to do to stay in control of my mind and my body.

Whether you’re afraid to remind me to eat — like you would to any other friend — or just avoiding talking about your “obsessions” entirely, it shows me that you value me as a medical patient more than you value me as a person.

Just because I have to think differently from other people does not by any means represent that I am lesser.

My value is in what I do and who I am. I can do things just as well as people without mental illnesses and sometimes even better.

Pitying me or treating me differently because of a three letter designation shows more about you than it does about me, after all.

We are disabled, we are not stupid.

We have to do things differently, but there is nothing we can’t do

that an able-minded person can.

Don’t be afraid to talk to your friend with anxiety about how you’re stressed about class. Don’t be afraid to open up about being sad to your roommate with depression.

If anything, we understand.

I genuinely think that my OCD helps me to succeed in school and in work-life more generally.

And by God, if you don’t have any knowledge about OCD, please don’t tiptoe around any notion of cleaning and hand washing — that’s a stereotype and the only way you’re going to learn that is if you care enough to ask.

I guarantee that no one can tell you the experience of the mentally ill better than the mentally ill can.

One-in-five Canadians have a mental illness. Statistically, you probably talk to several people with a mental illness every day.

We’re everywhere. We may do things differently than you do. We are people, just like everyone else.

We should be treated with humility, regardless of whether you know about our brain waves.

16 •

Sports

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 SPORTS EDITOR PRANAV DESAI sports@thecord.ca

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Rough weekend for the Golden Hawks ABDULHAMID IBRAHIM LEAD SPORTS REPORTER

In the first game of the weekend for the Wilfrid Laurier University women’s soccer team, the Windsor Lancers came to town in hopes of taking one at University Stadium to collect another 3 points and a win.

The game began with Laurier playing well from the very start and taking control of momentum early on, but that would change quickly.

The Lancers, by the five-minute mark, would come close scoring via a three on two opportunity.

Come the 29-minute mark, they broke through as Jade Samping scored off an assist from Jazmin Martin. Consistently managing to break for opportunities with good passing and good usage of through balls, Windsor kept the pressure on Laurier for much of the first half.

“I think in the first half we didn’t compete. We weren’t prepared mentally to play,” head coach, Barry MacLean said. “I think the first five minutes we started off well and then after that we just stopped competing — stopped working — and at halftime we had a word about that.”

It seemed like those words worked because Laurier looked quite different in the second half in comparison to the first.

With the exception of a missed opportunity to go up 2-0 early in

TANZEEL SAYANI/PHOTO EDITOR

the second half, Laurier came out stronger, creating more opportunities.

They would finally manage to tie the game up at the 55-minute mark with Mackenzie D’Andrade scoring off an assist from Ellie Reid and from that point on, they carried momentum for much of the remainder of the game.

Even though it was a sight to see with both teams fighting to the finish, that final goal would turn into a pipe dream as the game

FOOTBALL

would end in a tie, with both teams unable to capitalize late.

When asked about whether he thought they could have scored more, especially in the second half, Coach MacLean said, “I think we should’ve scored a couple of more goals but in the first half we gave up a lot of chances as well and it was very poor defensively and we didn’t take care of the ball when we were in possession. Second half, we were a lot better but I still was disappointed overall with the

overall performance.”

Game two of the weekend would bring a whole new challenge in the form of the 5-1 Western Mustangs.

Western would come out strong and showed why their record is as good as it is from early on in the game.

They played strong defensively and didn’t show too much weakness as a unit. The Mustangs also managed to score early as Sabrina Denard would put one in unassisted at the 15-minute mark.

The first half would be rough going for the Golden Hawks as they came out “sluggish and slow” while their counterparts came out firing.

The second half would be better as the Golden Hawks finally managed to produce opportunities for themselves on offense.

Even though Laurier showed some ability to create, Western wasn’t giving up much as far as legitimate chances of scoring go.

With that turning out to be the story of the second half for Laurier, they came out on the losing end, falling 1-0.

The main thing that did stand out with this game was the level of physicality and lack of calls made.

The refs really let the teams play more than usual instead of making the correct calls.

“No, I wouldn’t think it’s [hurt] the outcome. I mean, I agree with you that there were some questionable things but I don’t think it affected the result,” MacLean said.

Moving forward, the Hawks will have to regroup with back to back games next weekend versus the Algoma Thunderbirds.

“I think the level of competing for us is going to be our biggest thing. I haven’t seen where we’ve had 11 players were ready to fight from the beginning to the end of the game yet and if we don’t get that, it’ll be a short season,” MacLean concluded.

Taking it one step at a time PRANAV DESAI SPORTS EDITOR

TANZEEL SAYANI/PHOTO EDITOR

One of the biggest keys behind the success of the Laurier football team last year was their balanced offense.

The dual threat of the passing game and the running game kept opposing defenses guessing all year.

The Hawks have picked up right where they left off last year, as their balanced attack has resulted in a 3-0 record to start the year.

The passing offense has been consistent and the running game has exceeded all expectations.

Spearheading this rushing attack is third-year running back Levondre Gordon.

Gordon has been dominant on the ground and he especially displayed his talent against Carleton on Sept. 9.

He rushed for an outstanding 208 yards — a career high — on 27 attempts, along with a pair of touchdowns.

The Mississauga native mentioned that the Hawks’ plan going into that match up was to be as balanced as possible.

“The game plan was to be balanced. I’m pretty sure we had an even number of runs and passes.

That helps keep the defense on their toes and we just executed the game plan,” he said.

Gordon isn’t the only one capable of severely damaging defenses in this backfield. Osayi Iginuan is a perfect complement to Levondre Gordon.

Coach Faulds has described this dynamic duo as “thunder and lightning”, due to the contrasting power and speed running styles of the backs.

“It’s a good relationship. We feed off each other. If I’m not getting the job done, they’ll put him in. I don’t take that as a disappointing type of thing though,” Gordon said.

“I know he’s capable of the things that I’m capable of. It’s whatever is in the best interests of winning the football game for the team.”

Coming off a season in which they lifted the Yates Cup, it would be natural for them to overlook some games. However, Gordon pointed out that the Hawks will be wary of this, ensuring that the plan is to take it one game at a time.

“After we lost to Laval last year, we learned not to take any game for granted. It doesn’t matter who we are facing, you have to take every game step by step. Every single game is a challenge.”

Building a title winning team for consecutive years is one of the hardest tasks in all of sports.

But so far, it looks like coach Faulds has built a team that is capable of going very far again this season.

The goal this year is the Vanier Cup. That’s the motto the whole team is going by...

-Levondre Gordon, running back

“The goal this year is the Vanier Cup. That’s the motto the whole team is going by this year. Obviously last year we were excited because of winning the Yates, but this year we have higher goals,” Gordon said.

“We’re looking to win the Vanier Cup this year, but we will take it one game at a time, one step at a time.”