NEWS 2
Sheaf
Last stop for grad student U-Pass
the
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A battle with bloodthirsty bed bugs at the McEown Park residences
NEWS 3
Paralympian Lisa Franks explains how she beat the odds
SPORTS 7
14 February, 2013 | The University of Saskatchewan student newspaper since 1912
Previewing all seven of the Huskies playoff-bound sports teams FEATURE 10 & 11
A new stage for Saskatoon’s electronic music scene
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CULTURE 14
OPINIONS 16
NEWS
Students’ council green-lights overhaul of Browsers
Early renderings of the upcoming makeover to the Memorial Union Building. The mock-ups were presented to council Feb. 1 to provide a rough sketch of what the finished space could look like.
DARYL HOFMANN Senior News Editor Browsers Café will unveil an entirely new look and name this summer after more than a decade selling books and operating as a coffee house. The University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union has approved a $725,000 renovation that will transform the top floor of the Memorial Union Building into a modern restaurant and café by day and versatile event space by night. The project will be funded using
the USSU student infrastructure fee, which levies $111 each year from full-time undergraduates and $55 each year from undergraduates taking fewer than three courses per term. Construction is expected to begin early April and finish by mid-May, taking just six weeks. The union hopes to capitalize on the demand for a venue that can host weddings, banquets, performance art and campus club bookings, says USSU Business and Services Manager Jason Kovitch. “The existing business plan of
Browsers saw a decline in book sales of 30 to 40 per cent over the last few years and we knew that was sort of drifting away from us,” Kovitch said at the Feb. 1 University Students’ Council meeting. “At the same time, we didn’t have a coffee business that could exist on its own and generate the type of revenue we need to sustain that space.” In fact, revenue gleaned from book sales at Browsers has nosedived from about $350,000 in 2003 to just $100,000 in 2011, according to a financial spreadsheet
obtained last year by the Sheaf. For the current fiscal year, Browsers is projected to sink nearly $18,000 into the red. The renovation will rid the space of its large bookshelves, add booth seating and relocate the bar that snakes along the side of the space to the far back near the washrooms. The new bar will include coolers for bottled drinks, four draft beer taps, food displays, an espresso machine and a small oven. Customers will be served at their table and food will be brought upstairs from Louis’. In addition,
supplied: sepw architecture
there will be a handful of shortorder items exclusive to the upstairs, such as grilled paninis, salads, pizzas and baking. Self-serve coffee will no longer be available. In recent years, Browsers has averaged about $90,000 annually in food and beverage sales. “We’re quite confident that within the first year... we will be able to double that,” Kovitch said, adding that events like weddings and holiday parties can sometimes bring in up to $10,000 each.
Browsers’ overhaul
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CULTURE
Atkings dismantles the traditional exhibit
AZZEDINE ISSA Tyson John Atkings has invited his audience to help themselves at his upcoming exhibition, To Whom it May Concern, taking place Feb. 25 through Mar. 1. The BFA candidate’s graduating exhibit, on display at the Gordon Snelgrove Art Gallery, will open with over 60 pieces of Atkings’ hand-worked monotype prints covering the walls. Waiting to be discovered underneath these prints is the actual installation, which Atkings has painted on the wall. He has asked his audience to take pieces off the wall in order to unveil the painted walls beneath. For Atkings, the invitation to freely take his artwork is a manifestation of his frustrations with the recent events occurring in universities across the country.
Atkings continued on
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Tyson John Atkings surrounded by his prints.
t.j.atkings
NEWS
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Editor-in-Chief: Kevin Menz, editor@thesheaf.com Production Manager: Jared Beattie, layout@thesheaf.com Senior News Editor: Daryl Hofmann, news@thesheaf.com Associate News Editor: Anna-Lilja Dawson, news@thesheaf.com Photography Editor: Raisa Pezderic, photo@thesheaf.com Graphics Editor: Samantha Braun, graphics@thesheaf.com
Culture Editor: Jenna Mann, arts@thesheaf.com Sports Editor: Cole Guenter, sports@thesheaf.com Opinions Editor: Tannara Yelland, opinions@thesheaf.com Copy Editor: Victoria Martinez, copy@thesheaf.com Web Editor: Bryn Becker, web@thesheaf.com Ad & Business Manager: Shantelle Hrytsak, ads@thesheaf.com
| 14 February, 2013 | thesheaf.com |
Graduate students to vote on mandatory bus pass
Board of Directors: Danielle Siemens, Pete Yee, David Konkin, Ishmael N. Daro, Andrew Roebuck, Lewis Casey Index Photo: Raisa Pezderic Editing Assistance: Shazia Esmail, HenryTye Glazebrook
Office Numbers: General 966-8688 Advertising 966-8688 Editorial 966-8689
Corporation Number #204724 GST Registration Number 104824891 Second Class Mailing Registration. #330336 The Sheaf is printed at Transcontinental Printing Ltd. 838 56th St. Saskatoon, SK Circulation this issue: 4,500
The Sheaf is a non-profit incorporated and student-body funded by way of a direct levy paid by all part- and full-time undergraduate students at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S). Membership in the Society is open to undergraduate students at the U of S, but all members of the U of S community are encouraged to contribute to the newpaper. Opinions expressed in the Sheaf do not necessarily reflect those of the Sheaf Publishing Society Inc. The Sheaf reserves the right to refuse to accept or print any material deemed unfit for publication, as determined by the Editor-in-Chief. The Sheaf is published weekly during the academic year and monthly from May through August. The Editor-in-Chief has the right to veto any submission deemed unfit for the Society newspaper. In determining this, he/she will decide if the article or artwork would be of interest to a significant portion of the Society and benefit the welfare of Sheaf readers. The Sheaf will not publish any racist, sexist, homophobic, or libelous material.
Corrections
• In last week’s issue of the Sheaf, a letter to the editor from R Fleming was edited in a way that the author felt misinterpreted his message and implicated illegal action on the parts of Peter MacKinnon and Richard Florizone. The letter originally read, “There’s an old adage that is particularly apt in this instance — you can take more with a briefcase than you can with a gun.” The edited letter read, “There’s an old adage that is particularly apt in this instance — you can steal more money with a briefcase than you can with a gun.” The Sheaf apologizes to R Fleming if our edits changed the meaning of his letter.
raisa pezderic/photo editor
Graduate students could be slapping U-Pass stickers onto the back of their student cards by next fall if they vote to approve the $110.85 per term mandatory fee.
ALICE GODSON Graduate students will vote on PAWS Feb. 28 to decide whether or not they will finally get a universal bus pass, or U-Pass. The referendum comes after a petition with over 500 signatures was brought to the Graduate Students’ Association in September expressing graduate students’ interest in a U-Pass similar to the one currently provided for undergraduates. If the majority of graduate students vote in favour of the motion, the U-Pass will be instituted on a one-year trial period. At the end of the trial, graduate students will vote in another referendum whether or not to permanently implement the U-Pass. The proposed U-Pass will cost $110.85 per term and is subject to future price increases. The pass will be available for each of the three graduate semesters: September to December, January
to April and May to August. Currently, graduate students can buy a bus pass through Saskatoon Transit. A four-month pass costs $253 while a monthly pass costs $78. The cost of the U-pass would be a mandatory part of graduate student fees for every term that a student is enrolled, unless a student fulfills at least one of the four optout criteria. Students would be eligible to opt out if they live outside of city limits, live in on-campus housing — Ogle Hall, Voyageur Place Residence, Lutheran Theological Seminary and St. Andrew’s College — are enrolled exclusively in distance education courses, or are unable to ride the bus due to a disability. Because of the traveling graduate research can involve, students may also opt out if they will be out of the city or country for several months during a term. GSA President Ehimai Ohiozebau believes the GSA has negotiated a fair price for its
approximately 3,500 members. He said the undergraduate students’ union charges less for the U-Pass — $73.51 per term — because of collective bargaining. “The Uof S Students’ Union has over 17,000 students and definitely with collective bargaining, their power is high.” Saskatoon Transit and the GSA negotiated the conditions of the U-Pass for the referendum. The GSA cannot become a part of the undergrad U-Pass because the two unions are considered two separate entities. In 2007, both the GSA and USSU voted on implementing their own U-Pass programs. The majority of graduate students were not in favour while the undergraduates moved ahead with the program. Reanne Ridsdale, a graduate student leading the GSA’s U-Pass committee, believes the reason the U-Pass was voted down in 2007 was that few people knew about the vote.
She thinks the U-Pass has become more desirable because “climate change has gotten worse... the bus systems have improved and gas is more expensive.” Ryan Boivin, a political studies graduate student, is in favour of the U-Pass. He believes there are many graduate students who need the U-Pass for transportation, even if he would not use the pass often himself. “I think a lot of new graduate students are coming from out of province and it would be beneficial if they had access to the Saskatoon Transit system provided by the Graduate Students’ Association,” Boivin said. Mohammad Rafati, another member of the GSA U-Pass committee, suggested that the U-Pass would increase graduate students’ mobility, which would in turn allow students access to housing throughout Saskatoon, rather than just near the university.
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NEWS
| thesheaf.com | 14 February, 2013 |
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One student’s nightmare: McEown Park rez infested with bed bugs ANNA-LILJA DAWSON Associate News Editor An international student — we’ll call him “Raj” to protect his privacy — arrived on campus at the University of Saskatchewan in fall 2011. He had never seen a bed bug in his life. He moved from India and the first few months living in Seager Wheeler at McEown Park went fine. But by the second semester, he and his roommates found bed bugs. The students reported the infestation to the Residence Office within 48 hours of finding the bugs and the room was booked for a chemical treatment. It didn’t work. A second attempt by the university to eliminate the bugs by heating the room to a scorching 49 C was successful and the room was bug-free for the rest of the year. But Raj had had enough of that place. During the summer he moved across the park to Assiniboine Hall to have his own private apartment. This is where his bed bug nightmare really began. “Assiniboine is a building that houses a lot of bed bugs. It’s known for its bed bugs,” he said. Raj bought a new mattress and a bed bug mattress cover to keep the pests from infesting his bed, but it didn’t work. His room had bed bugs by September. Once again his room was treated, but it only kept the bugs at bay until November. Upon receiving a report of a bed bug infestation, the Residence Office arranges for pest control to assess the room and then books a treatment as soon as possible. They then notify the student or students of the procedures required to prepare their room for treatment and tell them they cannot return to their rooms during the six hours needed to attempt to kill the bugs. But after Raj informed the Residence Office in November that the bed bugs had returned, he said a treatment was not booked until final exam time in December. The infestation required four chemical treatments. “They did four more treatments. And all those four were on my days of my final exams. I told them that I had my final exams. They said to me, ‘No, this is what we can do.’ “It really disturbed me a lot. I had to clean my whole room in the morning before my exam, because in engineering our exams are in the morning. I had to wake up at 5 a.m. every day. I would [go to] sleep late after preparing for exams at two or three in the morning.” If a room is not properly prepared when pest control arrives, students face a non-negotiable fee of $125. The four treatments did not eradicate the bed bugs and they began to take their toll on Raj. “I started getting used to the bed bugs,” he said. “I had a lot of rashes and infections due to them. I had to start taking sleeping pills to sleep in the night. It’s the worst thing a person of 18 years old could do.” Raj filed complaints with the Residence Office, contacted
jordan bulgis
Consumer Services, which oversees the residence operations for the university, and applied to move to an apartment without carpet. He still has not received a response. “I didn’t get a single reply. That makes me frustrated.” The Sheaf called Residence Life Manager Stephanie Mulhall twice for a comment and did not receive a reply. Lucky for Raj, he has not yet had to pay for a cleaning bill. But he is worried that he might have to at some point. Students are billed if they do not report bed bugs or other pests within 48 hours of the first sighting. The bills range from $75 to $100 per room. This can be a pricey mistake for students who live in the six-bedroom apartments in Seager Wheeler Hall. Raj has heard of students receiving $1,000 fines for not reporting bed bugs within two days. Some of Raj’s friends received a cleaning bill for $3,000 after their apartment needed heavy treatments to get rid of not only bed bugs, but mice and cockroaches as well. Their room is known to be a hot spot for pests. Raj says that it is easy for students, especially graduate students who are busy and rarely home, to notice an infestation only when it has progressed to its later stages. “You just come there to sleep and you wake up and you go to your work and do research. That’s what we are here for. It’s not like we keep
monitoring for bed bugs.” The bed bug problems are the only issues Raj has with residences. Moving off-campus is a solution to the bed bugs, but he does not want to give up the proximity to campus, free internet and cheap rent that comes with living in residence. “We want a good service to be offered because living space is the most important thing in a student’s academic life,” he said. “That’s what we all want. We all pay a lot of money compared to our country [to study] here and for the residence.”
A nasty situation Bed bugs are tiny insects that feed on the blood of humans and animals as they sleep. They are about 4-5 millimetres long and have flat, ovalshaped bodies that are brown but change colour to a rusty-red after feeding. They live in small spaces — crevices in woodwork, mattresses, furniture, picture frames, under wallpaper and in carpet — where they can hide and feed easily. The bugs feast during the night and are attracted to humans because of their body heat. Usually bed bug bites resemble mosquito and flea bites: itchy, round, red and inflamed. Apart from bite marks, the presence of bed bugs can be identified by the red and brown
spots they leave on bed sheets from their bloodied fecal matter. They can often be found in mattress folds and tend to leave a musty odour. Bed bugs were almost fully eradicated worldwide with the use of dangerous pesticides — like the notorious chemical dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, or DDT — in the first half of the 20th century. But as these pesticides were slowly banned and the bugs’ resistance to chemicals rose, so did the worldwide bed bug population. In the last few decades, the spread of bed bugs in North America has been attributed to an increase in domestic and international travel. Bed bugs are often associated with poor hygiene and cleanliness, but the truth is that an infestation can happen anywhere. Clean homes in Saskatoon and across Canada often have bed bug infestations, and many world-class hotels have reported problems with bed bugs.
No easy fix Alex Werenka, U of S Students’ Union vice-president of student affairs, says the U of S is far from the only school in Canada that has bed bug problems. “There’s always students coming and going,” getting rid of bed bugs is a daunting and exhausting task for universities, Werenka said. The insects hide in luggage,
furniture and clothing so they spread easily and inconspicuously. Occupants of McEown Park’s Assiniboine, Wollaston and Souris Halls are advised not to bring furniture or mattresses they find on the street into their apartments as this has been the greatest cause of bed bugs in residences. There has not yet been any reports of infestations in the new residences at College Quarter. Martin Gonzalez is the acting director of Consumer Services. He said informing students about bed bugs is a priority for the university. He wants students to know that bed bugs are on campus. “We’ve been trying to focus our attention more on educating and assisting students so that they understand what to look for and how to prep their rooms a little bit better,” Gonzalez said. During the summer when students are not living in residence, every room is cleaned and rooms that were reported to have had bed bugs throughout the year are heavily inspected and treated when necessary. Gonzalez said that there is a plan to renovate and refurbish the residences in McEown Park in the near future and that bed bugresistant furniture will be looked at as a possibility.
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NEWS
| 14 February, 2013 | thesheaf.com |
Student groups join forces for a bolstered Aboriginal Achievement Week in March ANNA-LILJA DAWSON Associate News Editor The University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union has secured a $40,000 sponsorship for Aboriginal Achievement Week, a five-day celebration of aboriginal culture that will run March 11-15. The sponsorship comes from Cultural Connections for Aboriginal Youth, a local organization that funds community events. The funds provided will support a number of the week’s events, including a round dance, a banquet and an arts and comedy evening. “We’re trying to get as many people from our community, the people who work on campus and study on campus, but also the people who live around the city to come and check this out,” USSU President Jared Brown said. The Aboriginal Students’ Centre has been working closely with the USSU and the Indigenous Students’ Council to put the week together.
Browsers’ overhaul
continued from
Annie Battiste, one of the week’s main organizers and mentorship coordinator for the ASC, said the activities will celebrate a variety of parts of aboriginal culture. “It’s a celebration of aboriginal culture and achievement on campus, and it’s not just academic achievement: it’s creativity, art — all sorts of different things,” Batiste said. Three years ago, the USSU made an agreement with the Office of the Treaty Commissioner to host a week that celebrates all Canadians as treaty people. The week landed in the same month as Aboriginal Achievement Week. The USSU, ASC and treaty office decided the weeks were too similar. This year We Are All Treaty People Week has been integrated into Aboriginal Achievement Week. In order to honour their agreement with the treaty office, the USSU will host a series of educational sessions on treaties during Aboriginal Achievement
Week. The speakers will focus on the treaties’ roles in education, healthcare and literature, among other things. “We decided that We Are All Treaty People would become a key role in Aboriginal Achievement week,” Battiste said. The three student groups and the treaty office will renew their alliance with an official signing ceremony to kick off the week. The Treaty Six flag, representing the central Saskatchewan treaty, will be given to the university at the flag raising ceremony. First Nations war veteran Roy Alexson, Chief Wallace Fox of Onion Lake Cree Nation and the Treaty Six Tribal Council Chief have been invited to take part in the ceremony. The flag will be smudged with charred sweet grass outside the atrium of the Agriculture Building and then presented to U of S President Ilene BuschVishniac. The flag is expected to be kept in Convocation Hall following the ceremony. Bob Badger, the cultural
for the USSU. He previously worked on the $29-million Place Riel renovation and the last major renovation to Louis’ about a decade ago. He was given just 10 days in December to come up with the design as the USSU is scrambling to have the space available by summer. “We needed to come up with some sort of concept and design that still works as a coffee shop by day with food services, and a fullservice bar and special venue space by evening,” Wotherspoon said. A major component of the design, he said, was to “class up” the space by blocking the entrance to the washrooms with the bar.
“A lot of money actually ends up being put into the bar,” he said. But there will also be upgrades to the lighting and flooring to give it more of a “fine dining” feel. The renderings are “very early,” Wotherspoon added, and are meant simply to give a basic understanding of the direction of the design. The new name for the space has been chosen, according to USSU General Manager Caroline Cottrell, but will be kept under wraps until Browsers operations end and renovations begin. USSU Vice-President Operations and Finance Steven Heidel began fleshing out the plan early in his term after last year’s executive
university of saskatchewan/flickr
Aboriginal Achievement Week will feature a workshop on drum circle.
coordinator at the ASC, will be leading a pipe ceremony as part the week’s activities. He says that the presentation of the Treaty Six flag to the university is a sign of mutual respect between the university and the people living in Treaty Six. The week will also celebrate two landmark achievements by aboriginal groups on campus. The Indigenous Students’ Council will commemorate 35
years of operation during the week while the Indian Teacher Education Program will celebrate its 40th anniversary. High school students have been invited to attend the sessions and a round dance March 15. They will be shown around campus in hopes that they will attend the U of S in the future, Brown said.
started the project. Initially there was talk about refitting the space into a childcare centre. “We could not get over the legal technicalities of turning that space into a childcare space,” he said. “The building is too old and also it’s right above a bar. Having a childcare space there just wasn’t possible. So I think this is the best option.” Once finished, Heidel wants to see student groups use the space for parties, steak nights, galas and banquets. He says the space
will be a less expensive and more convenient option for fundraisers than, for example, the Sutherland Hotel and Tequilas. “It’s a very nice, bright space up there,” he said. “So we just want to keep that atmosphere.”
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“Without any advertising or anything, we already have three weddings booked this summer,” he said. “So that just speaks to the demand for this space.” The space will seat 150 guests for dinner and an additional 100 guests for receptions. The new space will also allow customers to eat and drink when Louis’ closes early, which is often the case when performers need to do soundcheck prior to a concert. Kovitch plans to use existing Louis’ staff to fill the additional three to four hours of labour the new space will require per day. Justin Wotherspoon of SEPW Architecture drafted the new design
An architectural schematic of the forthcoming renovations to the top floor of the Memorial Union Building.
NEWS
| thesheaf.com | 14 February, 2013 |
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Professor packaged dead ducks and sent them to Memorial University administration LAURA HOWELLS — The Muse (Memorial University of Newfoundland) ST. JOHN'S (CUP) — Several dead ducks have been found at a Memorial University pond in St. John’s, N.L. in recent weeks. Last month two of those ducks were packaged and sent to university administration. There are between 30 and 50 ducks that make their home in Burton's Pond and have done so for approximately 15 years. Members of the public have fed the ducks for many years, especially during the winter months. In November 2012, Facilities Management erected signs around the pond telling the public not to feed the ducks. According to Dean Sorensen, MUN’s manager of communications, the measure was put in place to deal with the “very serious problem” of rats around the pond. Ian Jones, a professor of biology at the university whose primary research involves the ecology and evolutionary biology of seabirds, said he was concerned about the new signs as soon as he saw them. Jones said that many of the ducks that inhabit the pond are incapable of flight. When the pond freezes over, there are only limited sections of open water for them to inhabit, and subsequently there is not enough
aquatic vegetation for the ducks to feed on. He worried that the new measures would lead to duck starvation. Jones immediately took his concerns to university administration, but the signs remained. Over the weekend of Jan. 19, Jones spotted a duck carcass at the pond. On Jan. 21, Jones spotted another. This time, he decided to examine it. Jones thinks the ducks starved to death: he found them frozen solid but just “skin and bone.” Jones removed the carcasses from the pond for sanitation reasons. The following day he found another carcass, which he also removed from the area. Jones elected not to discard any of the carcasses, as he believed them to be the responsibility of the university. Instead, he decided to package the deceased ducks and send them to Sorensen at communications. Sorensen “received the frozen carcasses of two starved ducks,” Jones said. “And he's complained about it to security. “These are Memorial's ducks and they should do something about them. I don't have the freezer space to collect and preserve domestic ducks on behalf of the administration.” Jones sent the ducks hoping for the administration to perform the
j mark dodds/flickr
After administrators at Memorial University posted a sign asking campus to stop feeding the ducks at Burton’s Pond, several apparently starved to death. Now one biology professor is taking matters into his own hands.
necessary tests on the carcasses to determine whether starvation led to their death. He has not received word from Sorensen, but says he has since been “interrogated” by Campus Enforcement. Because they are on MUN property, Jones believes the domestic ducks belong to the school and should be the university’s responsibility. “The presence of dead ducks on campus is highly embarrassing,” Jones said. “I don't think I've done anything wrong. I will continue to pick up dead ducks. But the next
Campus crime report Incidents at the University of Saskatchewan involving Campus Safety from Feb. 4 - 10 Infractions issued:
Other reports:
• 1 Using phone while driving • 3 Operate unregistered vehicle • 2 Tint on front side windows • 1 Have alcohol in public • 1 Intoxicated in public • 1 Drive without due care and attention • 1 Drive while suspended • 1 Disobey stop sign • 3 Trespassing
• A male found intoxicated in the Arts Building at 7 a.m. on Feb. 4 was found to have warrants for being unlawful in a dwelling and for public intoxication. He was also ticketed for two new charges and handed off to the Saskatoon Police. • Campus Safety attended to four medical calls along with MD Ambulance.
dead duck I find is going to be sent to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. “Since the administration of MUN is not appearing to take action on this, perhaps the Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals will, which could include laying charges.” Sorensen refused to comment on the carcasses. “We have never been responsible for the care of those ducks,” Sorensen said. “No one takes care of those ducks; those ducks were not placed there by the university.”
On Jan. 31, biology and ocean sciences professor William Montevecchi will meet with Facilities Management to discuss the situation. “When we have that meeting we'll determine if there's a problem, and if there is, what next steps we should take,” Sorensen said. Since news has broken of the dying ducks, members of the public have dumped seeds around Burton's Pond in an effort to avoid futher starvation, and MUN lifted the feeding ban.
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hrblock.ca | 800-HRBLOCK (472-5625) © 2013 H&R Block Canada, Inc. *Average is based on all student returns prepared at H&R Block in Canada for 2010 tax returns. The average refund amount calculated for students was over $1,100, cannot be guaranteed and varies based on each individual tax situation. $29.95 valid for student tax preparation only. To qualify, student must present either (i) a T2202a documenting 4 or more months of full-time attendance at a college or university during the applicable tax year or (ii) a valid high school ID card. Students pay $79.99 for Complex/Premier return. Expires 12/31/2013. Valid only at participating locations. Additional fees apply. SPC cards available at participating locations in Canada only. Offers may vary, restrictions may apply. For full terms see www.spccard.ca.
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Sheaf
| 14 February, 2013 | thesheaf.com |
the
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IS HIRING FOR NEXT YEAR If you are interested in covering student issues at the U of S or thinking of a career in journalism, photography or graphic design, journalism schools look more favourably upon those who have dedicated time working on a student newspaper. Apply for one of the 11 paid staff positions at the Sheaf.
Editorial Staff positions include:
Editor-in-Chief, Production Manager (layout designer), News Editor, Associate News Editor, Opinions Editor, Culture Editor, Sports Editor, Photography Editor, Graphics Editor, Copy Editor and Web Editor.
Submit your resumĂŠ and cover letter together in a sealed envelope to: Hiring Committee The Sheaf Publishing Society Room 108 Memorial Union Building 93 Campus Drive Saskatoon, SK S7N5B2
Editor-in-Chief applications must be received by Wednesday, February 27th @ 3:00 pm
Applications for all other positions must be received by Wednesday, March 13th @ 3:00 pm
Any undergraduate student may apply for an editorial position. All positions are term positions running from May 1, 2013 until April 30, 2014 *.
Remuneration for most will start in September of 2013 ** .
* Some may be asked to volunteer time from May 1, 2013 until August 31, 2013
** Determined by the Board of Directors
SPORTS
| thesheaf.com | 14 February, 2013 |
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U of S alumnus brings success story COLE GUENTER Sports Editor
University of Saskatchewan engineering graduate and threetime paralympian Lisa Franks spoke on campus Feb. 4. Franks was the keynote speaker for the Kin Life launch, a College of Kinesiology program meant to encourage career planning and personal growth among students. She shared the extraordinary story of how she was unexpectedly paralyzed from the neck down when she was only 14 years old — then went on to become an Olympic gold medalist and multisport world-class athlete. Franks was no ordinary student athlete. She didn’t compete for the Huskies, or for any other campus sports teams. Instead Franks competed internationally in wheelchair racing and basketball — but that doesn’t come close to covering her whole story. The first 14 years of Lisa’s life were like those of most other young women. She was academically gifted and expressed an early love for sports as she tried to keep up with her three older brothers. But her life drastically changed on April 18, 1996. Franks recalls waking up in the middle of the night unable to move her legs. By the end of that day she had lost function of her arms as well. Franks was diagnosed with arteriovenous malformation, a condition that caused clusters of blood vessels to prevent blood from properly passing by her spinal cord. These vessels eventually built up so much pressure that they burst and damaged her spinal cord. When the doctors discovered what the issue was, Franks was told to say goodbye to her family and rushed into surgery to stop the bleeding before she died. Doctors stopped the bleeding, but enough damage had been done to permanently change Franks’ life. “When I was first injured I was completely paralyzed from the neck down. I was on a ventilator and there wasn’t a lot of good prognosis,” Franks said. “One of my first goals was to be able to move my arms, to feed myself and to dress myself.” She spent the next few months painfully recovering from surgery and rehabilitating movement in her upper body. She slowly regained movement in her fingers, hands and arms. “When I first wiggled my finger, that was an amazing day because that showed that I still had some neuron function into my hands,” Franks said. A few months later, once she had regained most of the movement in her upper body, Franks started participating in wheelchair sports. Less than a year after her surgery Franks made Team Saskatchewan and was competing at the Canada Games in wheelchair racing. Franks described the years following the national competition as being caught in a whirlwind that ultimately led her to the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.
Lisa Franks competed in wheelchair racing from 1997-2005 before joining Team Canada’s women’s wheelchair basketball squad for five years.
Sporting the red-and-white, Franks shocked the world, winning four gold medals and a silver. Only 18 years old and she sat atop the wheelchair racing podium in both sprint and distance races. Four years later, at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, she scooped up two more gold medals. By the time Franks finished the 2004 racing season, she had posted world-record times in the 100-, 200-, 400-, 800-, 1500and 5000-metre races as well as the 42-kilometre marathon. It appeared as if she had achieved the impossible by winning almost every competition in the world of wheelchair racing. Franks decided she was looking for a new challenge. She chose wheelchair basketball. “I came back from Athens and I knew that I wasn’t going to continue with racing,” she said. “I took two weeks off and then
I went to Edmonton and I trained with some of the [Team Canada] basketball players.” Franks was named a team reserve player in her first tryout for Team Canada and made the team the following year. She competed with the squad until 2010 and in that time she won a world championship in 2006 and returned to the Olympic stage in 2008 for the Beijing Olympics, where the basketball team finished fifth. After taking a year off from university to train for the 2004 Olympics, Franks returned to the U of S to complete her mechanical engineering degree. She graduated in 2006 but was not able to attend her convocation because she was playing in a basketball tournament with Team Canada in Europe. She often missed school for athletic purposes. “I travelled quite a bit,” Franks said.
“I would be gone for usually two weeks at a time and [went on] probably eight to 10 trips out of the year. “Luckily engineering is the kind of program where you can learn from a textbook.” After sustaining a careerending shoulder injury in 2010, Franks went to work as a mechanical engineer. She retired from competitive sports with six Olympic gold medals in racing and a world championship in basketball, and she still holds four of the seven world-record times she set almost a decade ago. But it didn’t take long for her to get back into sport. Last November she was hired as the high-performance wheelchair basketball coach for Saskatchewan’s provincial wheelchair basketball program. She is currently training and coaching other wheelchair athletes who hope to make the national team.
bogetti-smith
The students listening to her keynote speech on Feb. 4 were left with this message from the woman who had seemingly done it all: “I tasted the sweet taste of success both when I won my first gold medal and when I was first able to feed myself a chocolate bar after my surgery,” Franks said. “I’m not saying everyone’s goals have to be to reach that podium but just do what you find enjoyable and really give your whole to it and you can get so many benefits from it. “I set goals because that keeps you motivated and engaged in what you’re doing. That way you can see your small gains and then celebrate your success. It doesn’t have to be in athletics, it can be in anything. I think it’s important for students to set those goals for themselves.”
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SPORTS
| 14 February, 2013 | thesheaf.com |
Dog Watch: Sara Greschner
COLE GUENTER Sports Editor
Sara Greschner is only in her second year with the women’s hockey club but she has come up big in the last few weeks, helping her team earn a playoff date. Scoring twice in the Dogs’ Feb. 9 game against the Lethbridge Pronghorns, Greschner now has four goals in her last four games. Two of those goals have been game-winners. She now sits third on the team in goals scored with nine, and is tied with fifth-year Shelby Davey for the best plus-minus rating among Huskies forwards. Greschner is no stranger to on-ice success. Back in 2011 Greschner was named the most valuable player for the Saskatchewan Midget AAA female hockey league. She played with the Saskatoon North Stars that season and racked up a whopping 40 points in only 28 games. Greschner was still living in her hometown of Dodsland, Sask. while she was playing with the North Stars. She had to drive two hours to Saskatoon and back home just to get to practice, which the team held three times per week. She had to travel even more when the team played a game. “I’d get back from the bus ride at three o’clock in the morning and head home and go to school the next day sometimes,” Greschner said. “It was pretty busy, but my family was so supportive of it that it worked good. Mom and dad drove and I would sleep or do homework on the road.” Greschner’s father, Tony, played in the Western Hockey League in the 1980s. Sara said if it wasn’t for her dad she probably wouldn’t
calvin so
have played hockey. “When I first started I didn’t want to play. My mom said I would cry every time I was put on the ice but my dad made me keep doing it.... It definitely paid off,” Greschner said, adding that her dad was a coach for many of her hockey teams when she was growing up. Greschner is proudly superstitious. She always puts her equipment on from left to right. What’s more, she applies fresh tape to her stick before every game
Upcoming Huskies games *This schedule shows the Huskies remaining games in the season and the games the Huskies are guaranteed to play in the postseason. Keep up with the Sheaf online to follow your favourite teams and see which ones move on. Men’s Hockey • Feb. 15-17 — earned a bye through Canada West quarterfinals Feb. 22-24 — host Canada West semifinal series @ 7 p.m.
Women’s Basketball Feb. 15 & 16 vs. Alberta Pandas • Feb. 22-24 at Canada West quarter-final series
Women’s Hockey
Track & Field
• Feb. 15-17 at Alberta Pandas — Canada West quarter-final series
• Feb. 22 and 23 at Regina — Canada West Championships
Men’s Volleyball Feb. 15-17 vs. Brandon Bobcats — Canada West semifinal series Men’s Basketball Feb. 15 & 16 vs. Alberta Golden Bears
Wrestling • Feb. 15 & 16 at Alberta — Canada West Championships - Home Game
and then puts the blade of the stick in the air, ensuring that it does not touch any floor surface until she gets on the ice, or else she will retape the blade. “I just kind of did that one game and it worked out good and I kept doing it,” Greschner said, noting that her teammates often play practical jokes on her by pretending to knock down her stick. While Greschner said that other practical jokes do go on in the dressing room, she was all too
willing to blame her roommates and not herself for pulling them off. “This year my two roommates, Brooke Mutch and Julia Flinton, put water underneath some of the girls’ helmets, so when they pulled [the helmets out of their locker] the water spilled all over them. It was pretty funny.” It’s these kind of light-hearted moments that seem to keep Greschner playing her best hockey. She describes playing games as relief from everything else she has
going on. “It’s not a break, but it’s a relief when you get out on the ice and you don’t have to worry about any homework or anything. You just think about what’s out there and that is it. It’s my relax time.” Sara and the rest of the women’s squad travel to Edmonton to take on the Alberta Pandas Feb. 1517 in a best-of-three quarer-final playoff series.
Canada West Standings Men’s Volleyball 1. Alberta - xy 2. TWU - x 3. Saskatchewan - x 4. UBC - x 5. Manitoba - x 6. Brandon - x 7. Winnipeg - x
W-L 19-1 15-5 14-6 13-7 13-7 11-9 10-10
*These teams qualified for playoffs
Women’s Hockey 1. Calgary - xy 2. Regina - x 3. UBC - x 4. Alberta - x 5. Saskatchewan - x 6. Manitoba - x
W-L-OL 23-4-1 18-7-3 17-7-4 16-9-3 10-12-5 10-12-6
*These teams qualified for playoffs
Women’s Basketball
Prairie Division 1. Calgary - x 2. Regina - x 3. Saskatchewan - x 4. Alberta - x 5. Lethbridge 6. Winnipeg 7. Manitoba 8. Brandon
W-L 17-3 17-3 13-7 12-8 10-10 6-15 2-19 0-20
Men’s Hockey 1. Alberta - xy 2. Saskatchewan - x 3. Manitoba - x 4. Calgary - x 5. UBC - x 6. Regina - x
*These teams qualified for playoffs
Men’s Basketball
Prairie Division 1. Saskatchewan 2. Alberta 3. Manitoba 4. Winnipeg 5. Calgary 6. Lethbridge 7. Regina 8. Brandon
Pacific Division Pacific Division 16-4 1. UFV - x 1. UBC - xy 16-4 2. UBC - x 2. Victoria - x 15-5 3. Victoria - x 3. TWU - x 15-6 4. UFV - x 4. TRU - x 7-13 5. TWU 5. TRU 6-14 6. UNBC 6. UNBC 5-15 7. Mount Royal 7. Mount Royal 5-16 8. UBC Okanagan 8. UBC Okanagan *Top four teams in each division qualify for crossover playoffs x - Clinched playoff spot
y - Clinched first place
W-L-OL 23-4-1 19-8-1 17-7-4 17-11-0 14-11-3 13-12-3
W-L 14-6 14-6 14-7 13-8 1211-9 6-14 5-15 18-2 14-6 11-9 11-9 7-14 5-15 4-16 3-18
SPORTS
| thesheaf.com | 14 February, 2013 |
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U of S student powerlifting onto world stage COLE GUENTER Sports Editor Walking around campus, 20-year-old Robyn Pearce blends in with the crowds of students, but meet her at the gym and you’ll soon see why Pearce is a nationally recognized powerhouse. She holds a national record in powerlifting, a strength sport where competitors vie against one another to see who can lift the most combined weight in three separate events — the bench press, the deadlift and the squat. A competitor’s score is the sum of their heaviest lift in each event. Pearce has been lifting competitively for a year, and only started because she was looking for summer employment. “I applied for a job with an organizing committee for the World Championship that was held in Moose Jaw a couple of summers ago,” Pearce said. “I just randomly applied and they hired me. “I had no idea what the sport was and after the summer went by and I saw the competition, I thought it was really cool and I wanted to start.” That was in the summer of 2011. Pearce started going to the gym more often and it didn’t take long before she was following a training program specific to powerlifters. She participated in her first competitive powerlifting event last February. “From then on I went to nationals and slowly just kind of found my groove,” said Pearce who competes in the Junior age division, which encompasses athletes aged 19 to 23. At nationals last year she set a new record for deadlift in the Junior 52-kilogram weight class. Starting in a bent position, she hoisted 92 kilograms off the ground and brought her body to an upright position. She also set the total-weight record in her class and age division with 212 kilograms. Since becoming a national champion, Pearce has joined
raisa pezderic/photo editor
Robyn Pearce is training to show off her strength at the Junior World Powerlifting Championships this summer.
forces with a handful of other powerlifting enthusiasts in Saskatoon to create Saskatoon Barbell. The club is a group within the Saskatchewan Powerlifting Association and includes seven U of S students and faculty members. Pearce says the group is currently gearing up for Canada’s national competition in Richmond, B.C. March 18-24. “It’s just a big passion of mine. I love doing it. It’s what I spend most of my free time doing,” Pearce said. She joked that her ideal date was spending time in the gym with her boyfriend, who also powerlifts. Unlike weight lifting, which includes the snatch and cleanand-jerk events, powerlifting is
not an Olympic sport — though competitive powerlifters are tested by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the same drug testing agency used by the Olympic Games. The lack of mainstream attention that powerlifting gets means that even those who compete for Canada internationally almost never receive any public or private funding. “If you’re really good and basically World Champion multiple times in a row, you’ll start to get money,” Pearce said. But she stressed that to get started “you have to love it enough to not want to base it off money.” Although you would never know now, Pearce used to have to force herself to go to the gym,
just like most university students. She now trains three times a week, sometimes more than two hours per session. Pearce says the focus of powerlifting has made the difference for her. “My first year of university it was all, ‘I’m totally going to go to the gym,’ and I never went because I didn’t know what I was doing and I would just go on the treadmill and not feel very productive. “But with powerlifting you set new goals for yourself and it’s like you go to the gym with a purpose. Now I love going to the gym, it’s a complete 180.” Even though Pearce became a national champion at classic lifting last year, she has decided
to switch to the equipped lifting style. Equipped includes the use of braces, belts and shirts that aid the lifter in stabilizing their body and getting the most out of their strength. Those who compete in classic powerlifting do not use extra equipment. Despite the switch, Pearce still expects to qualify for the Junior World Powerlifting Championships in Killeen, Texas this summer. “I should get a place on Team Canada because there aren’t a lot of equipped women competitors in Canada,” Pearce said. She will compete in the 57-kilogram weight class in this year’s competitions.
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10
FEATURE
| 14 February, 2013 | thesheaf.com |
Huskies prep for playoffs
COLE GUENTER Sports Editor
The Huskies hockey and volleyball teams have already wrapped up their regular seasons, Dogs basketball is only one weekend away from playoffs and the wrestling and track teams are both gearing up for conference finals.
It’s been a good year for the Huskies’ indoor sports teams, with seven of eight of them qualifying for the post-season. Here is a look at how each team’s chances are shaping up as they head into conference and national playoffs in the coming weeks.
Women’s hockey In the final weekend of the regular season the Huskies women’s hockey team managed to pull up to fifth spot in the Canada West standings. The squad finished with a win-loss record of 11-12-5. Those five overtime losses played a big part in the team’s final position. While the single point boosts they got from those games pushed the team into the playoffs, overtime losses don’t count in the
Men’s basketball With only one week remaining in the regular season, the Huskies men’s basketball squad are in a three-way tie for first spot in the Canada West Prairie Division. But with just four teams eligible to make the post-season from the division, the Huskies are not yet guaranteed a spot. It will come down to the final two games of the season at the PAC against the Alberta Golden Bears, one of the teams the Dogs are tied with in the standings.
This battle of two of the top teams in the division will be vital for both squads. If either team can sweep the weekend series, the winning team would guarantee themselves first place in the Prairie Division while the team on the losing end of a two-game sweep could fall far enough to miss the playoffs entirely. The Huskies will play for their post-season lives Feb. 15 at 4 p.m. and Feb. 16 at 6 p.m. in the PAC.
jared beattie/layout editor
photos: raisa pezderic/photo editor
Women’s basketball The Huskies women’s basketball squad also have one more weekend of regular season action. However, a weekend sweep of the Manitoba Bisons Feb. 8 and 9 has already ensured their spot in the playoffs. The Huskies improved to 13-7 and currently own third spot in the Prairie Division. They will be in a dogfight to keep their spot, though. The fourth-place Alberta Pandas are in town Feb. 15 and 16 and will be looking to steal the Huskies’ position. Alberta is two points back of the Huskies, meaning the Dogs need to win only one of the two
games this weekend to hold on to third place. Two wins for the Dogs will not move the team up in the standings at all. The Huskies might be happy about that, though, because it means they are certain to play a crossover playoff game on the road against a team from the Pacific Division. The squad boasts a 9-2 record when playing on another team’s court this season. Playing on the road might be exactly what the team needs to make it past the best-of-three opening round of playoffs Feb. 22-24.
Wrestling The Huskies men’s and women’s wrestling teams will be travelling to Edmonton Feb. 15 and 16 to compete in the Canada West Championship. The teams will likely rally around the performance of women’s team captain and fifthyear Natasha Kramle. She finished a non-conference tournament in Winnipeg Feb. 2 with a gold medal and the most outstanding female athlete award. Kramble was on the podium at both the conference and national tournaments last year and is expected to fight for top spot in her 48-kilogram weight class this year. Men’s captain Ryan Myrfield
s
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| thesheaf.com | 14 February, 2013 |
Men’s hockey
’s post-season. The Huskies will have to find a way to win those close games if they want to move past the first round of playoffs. The Dogs will travel to Edmonton to take on the fourthplace University of Alberta Pandas in a best-of-three quarter-final series Feb. 15-17. Alberta won three out of the four games the teams played against each other in the regular season.
Track & field Courtney Erickson and Mignon Le Roux both vaulted 3.52 metres last meet and are hopeful for their chances at the championship meet. For the men, 1000-metre runner Tye Buettner has had a strong season. He finished third in his event at the Bison Classic in Manitoba on Feb. 1 and 2 and topped the podium earlier this month at the Queen City Games. Nolan Machiskinic competes in shot put and will be a medal contender, as will pole vaulter Lane Britnell. Heading into the conference meet the Huskies women’s track and field team is ranked seventh on the CIS national polls. The men are not ranked.
EXPIRES FEBRUARY 13, 2013
is also in his last year. The Dogs hope he can repeat his history of dominance at nationals. Myrfield has competed in both the conference and national tournaments in three of the past four years and has won gold medals in his weight class every time. As a team, the men’s squad goes into the conference finals ranked seventh in the nation while the women’s side is ranked sixth in Canada. Athletes who make it past the Canada West Championship will move on to the CIS Championships in London, Ont. Mar. 1 and 2.
The Huskies men’s and women’s track and field teams have been training since September and are ready for the Canada West Championship tournament in Regina Feb. 22 and 23. The Dogs will already be familiar with the track since they competed in Regina at the nonconference Queen City Indoor Games Feb. 8 and 9 and picked up a combined 33 medals at the meet. On the women’s side, watch for the sprinters and pole vaulters to crack the podium at conference championships. Astrid Nyame, Lauren Taylor and Ashley Promhouse will all be threats to win the women’s hurdles and 100-metre races. Meanwhile
After a terrific start to the season the Huskies men’s hockey team slipped in the standings following the Christmas break. The squad lost four of their first five games in January before finding their groove in the second half of the season. Since then the Dogs have battled back up the standings and in their final weekend were able to clinch second spot in the conference thanks to a weekend sweep of the Lethbridge Pronghorns Feb. 8 and 9. The Dogs finished with a 19-8-1 record and 39 points. Now they, along with the first-place Alberta Golden Bears, get a bye into the semifinal round Feb. 22-24. While consistency has not been the team’s strong point this year, if they can continue their recent surge of offence — which includes 11 goals in the past three games — the squad should be able to win their semifinal round and likely face the 23-4-1 Golden Bears in the conference final.
Men’s volleyball The Dogs men’s volleyball team captured their first playoff berth since 2004-05 and they are gearing up to make a big playoff push. The squad’s offensive side has been led all season by fourth-year left-side hitter Bryan Fraser. He averages nearly 3.5 kills per set, and almost every ball he smashes onto the other team’s side of the net comes from the team’s astute veteran setter Chris Gilbert. Gilbert averages more than 10 assists per game and leads the conference in the category. The Huskies finished 15-7 on the season and in third spot in
the standings. They will host the Brandon Bobcats in the opening round of playoffs. The Dogs defeated Brandon in both of the two regular season matches they played against each other and, with a 9-2 record when playing in the PAC, the Dogs like their chances of beating the Bobcats. The teams will play Feb. 15 and 16 at 8 p.m. and, if necessary, Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. in the PAC. If the Huskies beat Brandon, they will move on to the conference Final Four tournament in Edmonton Feb. 22 and 23.
CULTURE
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| 14 February, 2013 | thesheaf.com |
A Tribe Called Red are dancing a revolution NOLAN MATTHEWS The Silhouette (McMaster University) HAMILTON (CUP) — Politics and music go way back. In the 1980s, Public Enemy challenged the popular conception that music is only a form of entertainment. Instead, as writer Mark Fisher points out, they used music as a way to define a new revolutionary history. Even earlier, legendary folk musician Woody Guthrie gave a voice to the Great Depression as he travelled across America carrying a guitar that famously displayed the words, “This Machine Kills Fascists.” Though music’s grand promise of provoking revolutions hasn’t come to fruition, now more than ever we need artists to shake up our assumptions about how we see the world. That’s what A Tribe Called Red’s music is all about — subversion. And dancing. Based in Ottawa, A Tribe Called Red is a Canadian group that combine traditional powwow and electronic dance music. In 2008 Ian Campeau, better known as DJ NDN, and DJ Bear Witness founded the Electric Pow Wow, which became a monthly club night in Ottawa. When the duo grabbed the attention of Dan General, or DJ Shrub, in 2010, A Tribe Called Red became the trio
it is today. “We played for the crowd,” Campeau said, “which was First Nations students, and people went crazy for one track that sampled
powwow music so we thought we should try more of it.” People in clubs were so ecstatic they cheered after the songs. Their first show in front of a mostly
upcoming events
©
Wednesday, February 20, 7:00 pm
Life of Pi CELEbraTion DinnEr: an EvEning wiTH Yann marTEL
Ian Campeau aka DJ NDN
Financial Town Hall #4
Operating budget adjustments update
Provost and Vice-President Academic Brett Fairbairn and Acting Vice-President Finance and Resources Greg Fowler will provide an update on operating 2:40:02 PM budget adjustments and answer your questions.
Tuesday, February 26, 7 pm in Prairie Ink TiCkETs now avaiLabLE 955-3579
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non-aboriginal Canadian crowd in Montreal even had people chanting the group’s name before they went onstage. A Tribe Called Red didn’t start
Everyone’s showing you what they think Indians are but nothing’s native about it. Until we took it and decolonized it.
Tim E.H. JonEs & s. LouisE JonEs
Launching St. Victor Petroglyphs
supplied
From left to right: DJ NDN, DJ Shub and Bear Witness of A Tribe Called Red.
Join us from 12:30 pm–1:30 pm in Convocation Hall on Tuesday, February 26. Students are invited to attend. For more information and to watch live online, visit usask.ca/finances
out with political aspirations, but they found it impossible to not get involved in politics. The group recently released a song called “The Road” in support of the Idle No More movement, and their music and live shows often feature clips of hilariously racist representations of indigenous people. “A really good example is a video made by Bear of Super Cat, a Jamaican dude, singing about Indians from all directions and a clip from a 1960s British variety show,’ ” NDN said. “You had these British white people dressed as what they thought Indians were supposed to be and a Jamaican singing about Indians — everyone’s showing you what they think Indians are but nothing’s native about it. Until we took it and decolonized it.” The stories of indigenous Canadians are often told by people who are anything but. The “indigenizing,” as NDN calls it, of aboriginal representations is about trying to understand more than we already know. “We see it as a very good way to subversively pass these messages on,” he said. “It’s better than if we sat down and said, ‘This is racist,’ because it gives people a chance think about it on their own.”
CULTURE
| thesheaf.com | 14 February, 2013 |
13
Zorro graces the silent, silver screen MICHAEL MACLEOD
Do you remember the days of dashing cinematic heroes like Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone? Tales of pirates, damsels in distress, triumphs of good over evil and characters so charismatic that they make Jack Sparrow look like Smee from Peter Pan? The Roxy Theatre is offering local film lovers a chance to relive all the celluloid glory of the golden era of cinema with their upcoming Silence is Golden show. Silence is Golden is an annual event held by the Roxy in conjunction with the Saskatoon Symphony. Classic silent films are shown with orchestral accompaniment, as they would have been seen when they first debuted. This year’s film is The Mark of Zorro from 1920, the first film incarnation of the masked swordsman fighting for the people of California. The Mark of Zorro can best be described as fun. Douglas Fairbanks, famous for his athleticism, physical comedy and skill with a blade, is considered the greatest actor of his period and plays Zorro brilliantly. Fairbanks’ Zorro is flippant, fighting oppression and wrongdoing like a happy mixture of Steve Martin and Batman.
Physical comedy reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin is sure to have you howling with laughter, all while Fairbanks performs stunts that would make a young Jackie Chan blush. The final fight features some of the most impressive sword play in the history of cinema, with all the standard swashbuckler moves: from the jump-over-the-table stab to the chandelier swing. Complementing the great physical performances on display is the score. As a silent film, Zorro relies on its orchestra to maintain atmosphere and audience attention. The Saskatoon Symphony will provide the film’s musical accompaniment along with pianist extraordinaire Rick Friend. The score will be heavily influenced by classical Spanish music. Musical talent of this calibre is worth the price of admission alone. This event is a chance to see the film that kickstarted the cinematic tradition of devil-may-care adventures and had a hefty influence on the costumed heroes who fill our theatres and comic shops today.
Fairbanks performs stunts that would make a young Jackie Chan blush.
Atkings
Silence is Golden plays Feb. 23 at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets are available at the Roxy Theatre, the Saskatoon Symphony office or online at saskatoonsymphony.org
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Zorro smiles playfully, ready for a fight.
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“It means we can take our shit and go at any time,” Atkings said. Though Atkings feels the art community is alive in Saskatchewan, he worries that staying in the province is not practical. “There are many artists here who have all their cards on the table,” Atkings said, “who want nothing more than to make art for the rest of their lives. The problem is, are they going to stay here? Can they?” Atkings will leave To Whom it May Concern attendees with more than just the secret installation and free works of art. He will issue an open letter addressed, as the title of the exhibition suggests, “To Whom it May Concern.” The letter will be attached to the reverse side of every one of the removable works and will explain the nature of Atkings’ exhibition, including his motive for giving the works away. Atkings hopes this open letter will prey on the curiosity of the viewers and will push them to take the pieces for their personal collections— though Atkings insists, “free things make people nervous.” For Atkings, his method of presentation is a statement against the current state of the “so-called art world.” He says
that by giving his works away for free, he is countering the way money has limited arts’ reach and voice. Artists who “wish to make money by selling their work commercially, in general, must strive to have their work in large personal and corporate collections, which will only be viewed by a select few,” he said. Atkings wants his art to be experienced by the public and to serve as the “voice of the people and a catalyst for change” that art is supposed to be. Atkings’ message is clear: Art is to be appreciated and coveted as it is a vehicle for change. In addition to his show at the Snelgrove, Atkings is currently showing pieces at Void Gallery on 8th Street.
“In Callosum” Monotype 14” x 21” Tyson John Atkings
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CULTURE
| 14 February, 2013 | thesheaf.com |
It’s electric — new open-stage night comes to Saskatoon
Food For Health
shelley & dave/flickr
It would probably take 22 seconds on the bike to burn off one of these green peas.
AMY JANZEN
daniel etchell
Jesse Selkirk playing live at last week’s Synaptic Monday.
JENNA MANN Culture Editor Electronic music fans in Saskatoon have a new home. Vangelis Tavern launched Synaptic Mondays on Jan. 14. The open mic event is the city’s only weekly showcase of electronic music. Launched by Vangelis’ event booker Rich Taylor and musician Jesse Selkirk, who performs as a solo artist under the pseudonym Sleepwreck and in the band The Depth, Synaptic is a venue for electronic enthusiasts to play, network and enjoy local electronica. “We see Synaptic as a lot of different things,” Selkirk wrote in an email to the Sheaf. “It’s a great way for people who are new to performing and new to the scene to get their feet wet on stage and meet other folks who are making similar music. It’s a chance for more experienced artists to test out new material on a decent-sized [sound
system] and an opportunity for them to provide mentorship to artists with less experience.” Selkirk is also a music instructor at Saskatoon’s Academy of Music where he teaches guitar, bass and voice. Mentorship at Synaptic is important to him. He describes the weekly event as “an artistic melting pot,” saying he hopes “to see some new and interesting collaborations coming out of it.” Selkirk added that new collaborations are a “big contributing factor to the health of a scene.” Synaptic joins a slate of local talent showcases along Broadway. Lydia’s hosts open mic on Tuesdays while the Fez’s open mic lands on Wednesdays. These nights aren’t as specialized as Vangelis’ Synaptic Mondays — they cater primarily to bands and acoustic musicians. “One thing that’s always been really exciting to me about live electronic music is that no two people do it the same way,” Selkirk wrote. “We’ve had
MCs freestyling over originally produced hip-hop beats, we’ve had improvised downtempo incorporating looped voice and guitar, we’ve had... rocktronica with live vocals, and I expect the list to keep growing and diversifying as time goes on.” Vangelis has already lined up artists for Synaptic Mondays. So far local acts Clive Sinclair and Danny Hanson have performed and, on Feb. 18, Synaptic will feature Saskatoon artist Brennan Hart, known by stage name Knar. “He’s been making glitchy IDM [intelligent dance music] since the mid-late 90s and his set-up is always changing,” Selkirk said. “The last time I saw him he played an entire set just on a couple of vintage hardware pieces.” Synaptic Mondays begin at 10 p.m. at Vangelis. New artists can sign up on the event’s Facebook page or through Selkirk at jessedavisselkirk@gmail.com.
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Thursday
Wednesday 21
Thursday
Upcoming Events 17
Sunday
Unchained, Nightrain and the Rock 102 Band at Outlaws Tonight it’s Poetry at Lydia’s
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Sunday
Tonight it’s Poetry at Lydia’s
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Monday
Synaptic Monday at Vangelis
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Monday
Synaptic Monday at Vangelis Soulfly at Louis’
19 Open Mic at Lydia’s
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Open Mic at Lydia’s
Tuesday
Tuesday
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Open Stage at the Fez Shawn Desman at the Odeon Calvin Love at Vangelis
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How many of us honestly understand where our food comes from? From now until the end of March, the Canadian Agriculture touring Food For Health exhibit will be providing answers while on display at the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon. Food For Health primarily asks audiences, “Are you what you eat?” The exhibit encourages viewers to think about their daily lifestyle choices by examining the food they buy, the way they prepare food and the way bodies use food. By incorporating an informative and interactive format, the exhibit shows viewers that every food choice affects their body in different ways. Using historical examples, Food For Health examines how food has changed and how we have evolved as customers over the past century. Hands-on activities and multimedia displays include a video on how foods can become contaminated before reaching consumers and how best to ensure you are eating safe foods. There is a large scale and interactive nutrition label that encourages audience members to match foods to corresponding vitamins, minerals or fat contents. There’s even a bike that
Wednesday
Open Stage at the Fez We Day at Credit Union Centre
White Rabbit, Red Rabbit by Nassim Soleimanpour at the Refinery Richard Haubrich Trio at the Bassment
Boats at Vangelis
measures how quickly we can burn calories. Sitting in the middle of the exhibit, the bike calculates how long one would have to exercise to burn a single potato chip (22 calories). This exercise will likely leave the rider breathless long after one would assume they have burnt off the small snack. Early 20th-century Canadians knew exactly where their food came from. While curing meat, canning food and preparing food on a daily basis was more typical for the average Canadian a hundred years ago, today we are more inclined to eat pre-packaged or prepared food. Not only has the way we prepare food changed, but so have our production methods and purchasing habits. As foods from around the world have become more readily available in Canada, purchasing produce from the grocery store rather than growing it in our own backyards is more typical now than it was for past generations. The exhibit demonstrates how we, as Canadians, no longer have to labour over our food. Food For Health is an informative show and provides audiences with a basic understanding of how food processing and consumption has changed over the last 100 years.
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Friday
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Friday
Jannecke and Catherine Lewans at the Broadway Theatre Tommy Wiseau’s The Room at the Roxy Theatre Foggy Notions and Ones at Amigos Fur Eel at Lydia’s Last Exhibition: The Sequel reception at the Gordon Snelgrove Gallery
Wine Night at Souleio In Flames at the Odeon
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Saturday
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Saturday
David Braid at the Bassment The Battlefords and Maes at Amigos
Sarah Slean at the Broadway Theatre
OPINIONS
| thesheaf.com | 14 February, 2013 |
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We have unparalleled access to information and we’re using it all wrong HENRYTYE GLAZEBROOK It’s not uncommon to hear the Internet touted as the most revolutionary technology since the printing press, and who could argue with that sentiment? After all, modern computers deliver a world of knowledge to our fingertips. You can research an entire paper without ever setting foot in a library. You can stay informed about the latest world news without a cable subscription. Hell, you can do all of this and much more from the comfort of your own bathroom. And yet every time I go online, it’s not long before I’m lured away from whatever I’m looking for by the siren call of the the Internet’s more frenetic side. You know the sites. Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest — the usual suspects. They rear their heads anytime you’re trying to actually get things done. The next thing you know, you’re posting a hilarious Tumblr you just found to your best friend’s Facebook wall. Wait, does that clock say 3 a.m.? What happened? The Internet happened, that’s what. Twitter can chew through your free time with frightening efficiency. And who can blame you for wanting to see just one
more video of kittens chasing a laser pointer? With the ready access to instant gratification such sites afford, they are productivity piranhas. And they appear to be here to stay. I know I’m not the only one with this problem. We’ve all been a part of that awkward dinner where everyone’s looking at their
phone just a little too intently, or rolled our eyes as someone snaps yet another picture of their plate for Instagram. It’s grating when everyone around you is doing it, but we’re all guilty of letting our cyber personas weasel their way into real life. Look, this isn’t an attack on social media or a curmudgeonly rant about how all this
newfangled technology is going to turn us into zombies. These websites are useful tools in their own right, even if only as distractions from the more mundane aspects of our lives. They can be perfect diversions from dreary morning bus rides or the checkout line at the grocery store. I can’t count how many times I’ve been cooped up in a
waiting room watching some poor sap flip through dusty Reader’s Digests and thanked my lucky stars for my smart phone. But, as with any potential vice, the burden falls on consumers to set their own limits. If an important paper is due next week and you want to get a head start on it, try turning your wi-fi off while you hit the books. Leave your phone in your pocket when you’re out for dinner and actually enjoy the food in front of you. Use your laptop for notes when you’re in class. Isn’t that what you keep telling people you brought it for, anyway? Leave the distractions for the next time you’re waiting on the microwave. Eventually that insidious urge to check Facebook for the 15th time today will fade and you’ll find yourself with a clearer mind for it. After all, those adorable kittens, delicious meals and clever jokes all existed in the real world before they were zapped onto your iPhone. Fry up something for lunch; go to the animal shelter; have a beer with friends and laugh at their witty remarks firsthand. Spectating is fun, sure, but why settle for watching when you can get in on the action?
donovan thorimbert
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OPINIONS
| 14 February, 2013 | thesheaf.com |
Everlasting Love? Remember to enjoy KIMBERLEY HARTWIG The Beatles sang “All You Need is Love,” but what is love, anyway? Trying to pin down what exactly it is and why we feel it is no easy task. There is no universal definition of love. Everyone feels it differently and has different ideas of what love means and how to express it. But this doesn’t stop people from trying to put love in a box and give it a specific definition. This happens most noticeably around Valentine’s Day when we are constantly confronted with an idealized love. Most often this concept involves lots of expensive jewellery, candlelit dinners and romantic music lingering in the background. The problem with this picture is that it doesn’t match reality. The love that is most often put on a pedestal is an unfaltering, everlasting, passionate love between a man and a woman. It lacks diversity and inclusivity, and the fact that this is supposed to be the ultimate expression of love undoubtedly leaves many people feeling as though love is lacking in their lives. The truth is, there are many kinds of love, and all of them enrich our lives. We are so consumed by the idea that we need to find one special person to share the rest of our lives with — to “complete” us — that we become blind to the fact that we are already surrounded by wonderful, loving people. Science has already cast doubt on the myth of lifelong love, so why are we still so attached to the old norm? Love can change over time just like our
ideas about it should. The classic idea of love is that it is an eternal passion that never fades despite how many years a couple spends together. Many people waste their time searching for this mythical type of love. Expectations of love have become so high that the type of love people want to feel cannot realistically be achieved. Just because you don’t have a significant other in your life does not mean something essential is missing. Many single people feel the need to drown their sorrows with bottles of wine on Feb. 14 because they think they have a serious void to fill; they believe that some intrinsic part of their life is missing. If you don’t have an all-consuming, world-altering love right now, consider looking for the small moments of love in everyday life. Love can come from anywhere, from anyone, at any time. By reducing our conception of love to a single expression we do it and ourselves a disservice. Love is such a hard word to define because there are so many different types and degrees of love. There is love that lasts a year, love that lasts a few months or love that lasts a few seconds when we catch someone’s smile. The people you love today may not be the same people you love tomorrow. This scares many of us but that shouldn’t be the case. Eternal love is not the only kind of love there is. Couples are not the only ones who have something to celebrate around Valentine’s Day. Love is not something to be monopolized by two people but something to be shared with everyone.
Valentine’s Day this year FATUMA ADAR With Valentine’s Day this month, a good number of my friends are pulling their hair out and suffering panic attacks in efforts to appease their loved ones. It is to them that I address these words: don’t sweat it. It is the pressure of perfection that throws all the anti-love sad-sacks into a tizzy and has whiners saying Valentine’s Day is a stupid holiday that forces people into a nerve-wracking situation in order to perfectly demonstrate their love. Another complaint is the ever-popular, “I don’t need a day in the year to prove myself romantically, I do that everyday.” I really doubt that your partner expects extravagant parades, doves, diamond jewelry or whatever you think they saw on The Bachelor. I’m not all gung-ho for the spectacle of love at this point in my life. But ever since I saw how much my classmates appreciated the badass Garfield Valentines I handpicked at Shoppers, I’ve known one thing: Valentine’s Day is not evil. It is not about some vile little baby with an arrow reminding you how lonely you are or how inadequate your love life is. You don’t need to gulp that Haterade and ruin the festivities for everyone who is happy in their relationship. The day isn’t meant to destroy whatever relationship you have because you have been deemed unworthy by the allpowerful St. Valentine. Valentine’s Day is about making people happy. The day is meant to be celebrated by
people who want to do something nice for someone, in any way that they desire. Wanting to do something is the key. No one is forced or obliged to do anything for Valentine’s Day. If you feel like your hands are tied and you have no choice but to make that certain someone happy, then maybe there is a problem between you and your certain someone. It may well extend far beyond Valentine’s Day. With life always throwing new things at us, we often forget the good things we have. If something as small as a Valentine could make a kid happy in elementary school, I’m sure none of us need outrageously grand gestures now to know someone cares. If you want to give your boyfriend a pack of Pokémon cards, or buy your girlfriend some chocolate you picked up at Mac’s, do it. If you want to give your friend that scarf they’ve been not-so-subtly hinting they want, or if you want to buy some friends a round of drinks, go ahead. Think of Valentine’s as a day when you remember that the world doesn’t revolve around you and your happiness, and that there are other people who, although you might not be getting frisky with them, would enjoy a pick-me-up. Once you stop taking the entire debacle as seriously as some movies do — expecting someone to put an engagement ring in your champagne glass — you might even have some fun. This reality check is my Valentine to you. It’s not as funny as the Garfield ones from my childhood, but it’ll do.
samantha braun/graphics editor
OPINIONS
| thesheaf.com | 14 February, 2013 |
Commodified education behind campus mental health crisis
GORDON KATIC — The Ubyssey (University of British Columbia)
116 recommendations, many of them related to making life less stressful for students. The report prescribed a number of measures to prevent mental health issues, including better scheduling of exams, clearer course design and description, smoother coordination and timing between classes and longer orientation periods. I am not at all convinced that any of these will do much to address the root of students’ dysfunction on campus. Is it enough to simply moderate some of the more demanding elements of higher education to help students stay healthy? Better scheduling of exams may ease the stress students feel at the end of each term, but that alone will not make most universities fundamentally healthy places to be. If you are ruining your physical and emotional well-being for the sake of making the grade, how would these reforms convince you to work any less hard? When you begin postsecondary education, you sit in an impersonal lecture hall where the only way to distinguish yourself is to keep getting those grades. But you grow disillusioned by the whole
VANCOUVER (CUP) — Everywhere I turn, people are having solemn conversations about the mental health crisis on university campuses. But nobody seems willing to have an honest conversation about the true causes of students’ mental health issues. It all comes back to capitalism, I’m afraid. By commodifying higher education and reducing it to a mere competition for grades, we have created an unhealthy environment in which mental well-being and meaningful learning have no place. In fairness, there have been a handful of sensible reforms proposed by some universities and student societies. The Alma Mater Society at the University of British Columbia has advocated for a database of old exams to be made available to students, and for mandatory mid-term teaching evaluations. At Queen’s University, the administration commissioned a report in Sept. 2011 in response to a spate of student suicides. The resulting document provided
experience, so you instead turn to other things, perhaps including drugs and alcohol. Eventually many students realize that they will actually need a graduate degree to achieve success in the real world. But if their average is below where it should be, they have to push themselves to study even harder. Then they might be surprised to find that some of the ideas in their textbooks are pretty fascinating. They’d like to take a moment to reflect on what they are studying, but there is no time to do anything but continue on. Overworked, they become alienated from their own education and interests, and this depresses them. In this state of mind, they find it even harder to study, so they fall further behind. Then they fail an exam. Suddenly it feels like they’re falling apart; it feels completely hopeless. Sound familiar? It is the story of many students. Our generation was raised to believe we could do anything, but we are the first in a long time likely to be worse off than our parents. At one time, we might have chosen stable, highpaying, unionized labour work, but that has all but vanished. University seems to be the only
route to financial security. You hear stories of the underemployed barista and the unpaid intern, struggling once they are out of school. What can they do but work harder? Perhaps if you distinguish yourself, you will avoid the same fate. There are some generous scholarships, resumé-padding opportunities and this impressive program at Yale you heard about. That will make it all OK, right? All you have to do is stay up later, take stronger study drugs and spend less time doing the things that make you happy. Do we really think better scheduling, an exam database and an orientation program can do much to help this situation? I am glad that people are finally paying attention to students’ mental health issues, but I am afraid the solutions are a little more complicated than we are willing to admit.
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Letter to the Editor: I think it would be a good thing for students riding the bus to be reminded again about giving up seats or standing up for people with disabilities, elderly people or pregnant ladies. I have been observing for some time now that students sit on seats reserved for the above groups and they simply look away, trying to avoid eye contact, when someone gets on the bus. It is alarming to see students sitting at the very front of the bus, and when people from the above mentioned groups come on board, students refuse to stand up for them! I don’t even sit up front and I still stand up for such people to use my seat if need be. I think this behaviour is unfair and a sign of the moral decadence in our society. I saw a case of this on the bus just this morning and I felt so bad I almost took out my phone to take a picture inside the bus. I hope the Sheaf will redirect students’ behaviour. Thanks, David Ogunkanmi Art & Science Rep in the USSU
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February 11th - 16th
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HUMOUR
| 14 February, 2013 | thesheaf.com |
dan smolinski
xkcd.com
smbc-comics.com
Really bad advice Not everyone has it easy on Valentine’s Day. Students at the U of S had some major concerns approaching this year’s celebration of love and sent their questions into the Sheaf. Because all of our editors were busy throwing together the rest of the paper this week, we passed on the questions to our worst friend ever. Really Bad Advice Guy Q: Dear Sheaf, I recently got up the courage to ask my girlfriend if we could invite a third party into the bedroom. You can imagine how excited I was when she not only agreed, but was enthusiastic about it! Problem is, I don’t think we talked about the idea enough before we started approaching people. Now she’s invited some guy and I had assumed we were bringing another girl in! Help me, Sheaf! — Lucky Dude A: Whoa, dude. What if this guy is super cool? Maybe this starts out awkward, sure, but soon you’ll be knocking him out of first place in Mario Kart and rehashing your favourite episodes of 24. The next thing you know, you’ll be playing for his work softball team, sluggin’ homers with him and picking up the first pitcher after the big game. In fact, maybe you don’t even need this dumb girlfriend. Dump her and
stick with the dude, bro! Q: Dear Sheaf, My boyfriend and I have been dating for five years now and I think it’s about time we moved in together. He seems hesitant, though. How do I convince him that I just want to take the next step in our relationship? — Stepping Lightly A: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Five years? Is that really long enough? What happens when your books and movies get all mixed together? What if he puts his toilet paper roll over and you’re an under girl? What if every time you check the cupboard, your Nutella is gone? Do you even know if he has a nut allergy? Have you ever given an EpiPen shot? He could die! Naw, you two aren’t ready. Give it a few months. It’ll be better then, I promise. Q: Dear Sheaf, I’m beginning to worry that my boyfriend isn’t attracted to me any more. Lately it doesn’t seem to matter what I do to get his attention, he’s always “too tired” to give me what I need. What should I do? — Hot to Trot A: Wow. Clearly you need to spice things up. Well, not literally. I can’t imagine how painful cayenne pepper would be on your genitals. I got it in my eyes once and I couldn’t see straight for days. The spice was
impossible to wash out of my finger nails and every time I tried to wash my eyes, the pain got worse. The meatloaf was a disaster. My friends only ate it to humour me and I’m pretty sure Steve just fed it to the dog. I cried all night — but only because I had spice in my eyes, I swear. Q: Dear Sheaf, There’s a girl I really like but it feels like she doesn’t even know I exist. I tried friending her on Facebook and following her on Twitter. I even started re-pinning the things she puts on Pinterest so she’ll know we have similar interests! I’m out of ideas. How do I get this girl to notice me? —Invisible Boy A: Well, now. Obviously you’re thinking too small. Go bigger. Create a Facebook group dedicated to her. Get other people to join. Photoshop some pictures of you two together and post them on the group’s timeline. That old photo of you and your sister at the lake? Now it’s that new photo of you and your soon-to-be girlfriend. Don’t you love that picture of you and the team dumping Gatorade on the coach after the big game? Not as much as you love the idea of your best friends initiating your future wife into the group. And remember that time you went to the prom alone? I don’t, because I’m pretty sure she was there with you. Make her feel like she is already a part of your life and soon she will be.
HUMOUR
| thesheaf.com | 14 February, 2013 |
Campus Chat
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What are you doing over the break?
Catching up on schoolwork. Ava Menezes
FAKE NEWS Pope’s retirement sparks calls for mitre retirement
Suntanning.
Reading new law books. Filip Cupial
Snowshoeing.
Heather Franklin
Dan Leblanc
IT’S HERE!
catholic church (england & wales)/flickr
Since Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation Feb. 11, a grassroots movement has begun pressuring the Vatican Council to retire his mitre — more commonly referred to as a “Pope hat” — from use. The movement, launched by British Columbian John Brimley, would see that the distinctive hat hangs from the rafters of the Apostolic Palace alongside the caps of other greats like St. Peter, Alexander VIII and John Paul II. A longtime fan of Benedict XVI, Brimley claims it was the Pope’s dedication to “giving 110 per cent” of himself to the faith that inspired him to call for the retirement of the hat. Even when it meant breaking with tradition in the 2010 season to declare that condoms can be a useful tool for disease control, Benedict never stopped fighting for the team. “You just wouldn’t have seen a Pope like Benny a decade ago. He brings an unrivalled skill set to the faith,” Brimley said. “The man is a legend.” When reached for comment, the Pope was surprisingly humble about the nomination. “It was never about the glory. Any time I heard the roaring crowd of worshippers or stepped into the Popemobile, it was the fan’s best interests that I had at heart.” At press time, his holiness was said to be negotiating a deal with Nike that would see the release of an “Air Benedict” athletic line this fall.
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| 14 February, 2013 | thesheaf.com |