The Silhouette — November 16, 2017

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NEWS: Speqtrum Hamilton gives LGBTQ+ youth a community // PAGE 5 ARTS & CULTURE: Queer spaces in Hamilton // PAGE 18-19 SPORTS: Mary Craig talks pride off and on the field // PAGE 24-25

The Silhouette Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017

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Volume 88, Issue 13 Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017 McMaster University’s Student Newspaper

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EDITORIAL BOARD editor-in-chief | thesil@thesil.ca Shane Madill @shanemadill digital media specialist | dms@msu.mcmaster.ca Aaron de Jesus managing editor | managing@thesil.ca Rachel Katz production editor | production@thesil.ca Catherine Tarasyuk online editor | online@thesil.ca Haley Greene sections

Sasha Dhesi Cassidy Bereskin news@thesil.ca

news editor news reporter

Emily O’Rourke

features reporter

features@thesil.ca opinion editor

Reem Sheet

opinion@thesil.ca

Justin Parker Jessica Carmichael sports@thesil.ca

sports editor sports reporter

& culture editor Daniel Arauz & culture reporter Razan Samara aandc@thesil.ca

arts arts

media

Madeline Neumann photo reporter Kyle West production coordinator Grant Holt production coordinator Timothy Law production@thesil.ca photo editor

You’d th in k th a t if you phoned up a trium virate of pow erfully-piped women w ho c a ll th e m s e lv e s T h e S c ra p p y Bitches w hile they w ere ea tin g th e ir breakfast, you m ig h t be in for som e trouble. In actuality, you’d be in for a most lig h t-h e arte d early m orning te te a - t e t e , fille d w ith ta lk o f sin g in g , Sudbury, d u m p -ta k in g an d laughter. Lots o f laughter. S om e o f it at your expense, but laughter none the less. T h e Scrappy Bitches are C an ad ian songstresses K innie Starr, Veda H ille an d O h S u s a n n a ( a .k .a S u zie U ngerleider) and th eir self-titled tour is m ak in g its th ird trip a ro u n d th e G o ld e n H o rs e s h o e . A f te r h i t t i n g Sudbury on W ednesday (th ere are, of course, ten tativ e plans for a take on the S to m p in ’ T om c la s s ic , “S u d b u ry Saturday N ig h t” ) th e y ’ll be h e re in H a m ilto n (“T h e H A M M E R !” Suzie can’t stop scream ing) at our very own Rathskeller on Saturday. A lth o u g h all th re e originally hail from th e W est, th ey ’ve played our fair city before. W h at you can expect from th e sh o w a re th r e e d i s ti n c t iv e individuals grinding o u t a show in three individual styles. Veda H ille’s p ia n o bangery will pick at th at part of your soul w hich still responds, on som e level, to animal calls. K innie S tarr’s mix of beats and “b eat” will have you h ip -h o p p in g , be-bopping, and should have long ago had h e r c h a rt-to p p in g . O h Suzanna expertly strums h er six-stringed chum , while her beefy pipes will plum b your depths. Yum. These three aren’t bitches in th e old, bad sense of th e word— th ey ’re bitches of the cuss-reclaim ery kind. A lthough th e m onicker may h av e caused some ruffled fo re h e a d s a m o n g th e m ore conservative media, it draws th e crowds which will get th e most out of the ladies.

G IA N T T A L K IN G C O C K

s ta n d s u p a g a in s t h « m « p h o b ia MY D IC K A N D O T H E R M AN LY TA LES By N orm an Naw rocki D ire c te d by S e b a s tia n Yeung an d M inda Bernstein Played a t th e R o b in so n M em orial T h eatre, Septem ber 21, 1999

Yvonne Lu Jaime Cook online content coordinator Susie Ellis online@thesil.ca video editor

Fifteen years as a cabaret perform er and th e cum ulative efforts as a M o ntrealbased m usician/actor/w riter lead to the o n e -m a n show about his penis. O r rather, about all o f our penises and clitorises. How does Mr. Nawrocki know so m uch about our private parts? (Reader: insert your own joke here.) H av in g sp e n t th e last th re e years interview ing people, (friends, strangers, therapists, doctors, gays, straights, young, old, sexually active, sexually inactive, peo p le from V ancouver, p eo p le from M ontreal) N aw rocki is alm ost a walking Kinsey In stitu te. But he doesn’t really want to talk about private parts, he would m uch prefer people would talk am ongst them selves about such things. “Especially am ong th e m e n ,” said N aw rocki in a brief interview after th e show. “W om en tend to talk more about sexuality. M en n e v e r talk ab o u t such th in g s , th e y n e v e r ta lk a b o u t m asturbation, or th eir dicks in a way th a t isn’t m acho or boastful.” But My Dick isn’t really about th e areas we all get urges in, it’s really about hom ophobia, so m eth in g you w ouldn’t know unless you were to show up at the performance. A n d you aren’t supposed to know. T h e poster advertised the show as “H ilarious,” “Totally cool” and featuring

social media coordinator

COVER PHOTO Madeline Neumann

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Er, bitches. In th e end, th o u g h , th e n am e is really just “th e first th in g we th o u g h t o f,” says H ille . T h e y la u g h e d h a rd enough over it to make it th e only nam e th a t w ould stic k . Jo k es Suzie: “W e reserve th e right to be bitchy.” Due to an unfortunate tape-recorder glitch, most o f th e ir salient quotes from our phone co nversation are now lost in tim e. W h a t can be related, however, follows. T hey all three have new albums com ing out. Veda H ille’s is called You Do Not Live In This World. O h Susanna’s is called Johnston. K innie S tarry may well be called Mending. H er last album was called Tidy. As well, Ms. S tarr was one o f th e a rtis ts to be a ffe c ted by th e re c e n t s h a k e u p w h e n la b e ls lik e G e ffe n , M ercury and o thers were swallowed by U niversal and subsequently Seagram ’s (th e booze m akers). A lthough this has pushed th e release date for her album b a c k , sh e fe e ls, sh e says, w h a t an employee of M cD onald’s must feel like w hen she quits: definitely liberated. Though th e re ’s never a set lin e -u p for a Scrappy Bitch date, K innie Starr will be playing first h ere o n Saturday because h e r m o m ’s s is te r (a H a m ilto n ia n ) will be a tte n d in g th e show . S h e a lso a te S h r e d d ie s fo r breakfast w hile th e rest of th e Bitches ate re-fried C hinese food. O n e tim e, she ate a lo t of cho co late cake and it gave h er strange dreams. S he doesn’t m ind

th e world’s biggest talking penis! Even the Ringling B rother’s d o n ’t have a talking penis (th e greatest show o n Earth, my ass). T h ere are warnings on th e poster about th e adult nature of th e m aterial and th a t it m ight offend some. But there is n a ry a m e n tio n o f Q u e e r Issu es, s o m e th in g N a w ro c k i i n t e n t io n a ll y avoids. “T h e point of th e show is to reach the unreachables,” explained the soft-spoken Naw rocki. “If you say, ‘C om e see a show ab o u t gays an d lesb ian s,’ p eople w ho should see the show will steer clear. If you say, ‘C om e and see a show about my dick,’ people will com e o u t.” Essentially, he doesn’t see th e need to preach to th e converted. W h en talking to th e converted, h e doesn’t preach, he instructs. O n e o f his previous shows, Le Cirque en C A $H , know ing full well th a t poverty is out there, exam ined th e roots of th e problem instead of just pointing it out. M ore th a n th a t, he and th e troupe (com prised of N aw rocki’s band, R hythm A ctivism and 3 0-plus o th e r artists and performers w ho don ated th eir tim e and efforts) advocated radical ideas to help fight back, including “sh o p -in s,” where a n o rg a n iz e d g ro u p ru n s in to a superm arket and grabs food and leaves w ithout paying. But My Dick is about reaching those people w ho still make “fag jokes” (“You c a n ’t make stupid wom en, dum b blonde jokes anym ore, but it’s still OK to make stupid fag jokes,” he lam ented). A n d if you fe e l t h a t th e r e is n o n e e d for education o n such issues, you probably should have attended th e show. N a w ro c k i c ite s ex a m p le s su c h as

campuses where gays and lesbians can n o t form clubs (or services such as M ac’s own GLBT C entre) for fear of being terrorized. G ay bashing is o n th e rise, an d some reporters w on’t even cover this show for fear of being labelled as queer by th eir peers. "D uring interviews, I saw how afraid people still are— afraid of being bashed, afraid of losing th e ir jobs. N o one knows w ho is out, and n o o n e can afford to be ousted,” claim ed Naw rocki. So w hat about the show itself? T here are certainly issues being brought to th e forefront on stage and N awrocki is n o t o n e for su b tlety . A m ix tu re o f skits, buffoonery and a little bit of seriousness throw n in for good measure, My Dick and Other M anly Tales is a m o ra lity ta le m asquerading as a comedy. B eg in n in g as M rs. R o b in so n , sex educator extraordinaire, Nawrocki brings his m anic elem ent to th e stage, using his nose to d e m o n strate how to coax th e c lito ris o u t fo r som e fu n . A u d ie n c e particip atio n is encouraged (w ith their ow n noses— n o t w ith th e ir neighbour’s naughty bits). S oon we m eet R ichard (denoted by glasses), h is c o u sin Jerry (b ackw ards b aseb all c a p ) an d th e ir frien d C h ris (m ask)— th e m ain characters of th e story presented. A ll th ree o f these guys seem p retty norm al. R ichard is m arried and concern ed about th e size o f his penis.

READ THE REST OF THIS LONG-WINDED WIENER’S WISDOM ON B5.

w e lc o m e B a c k M a c ! F r o m a h Y o u r F r ie n d s A t “And if you feel that there is no need for education on such issues, you probably should have attended the show.”

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www.thesil.ca | Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017

The Silhouette

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News Failing to discipline welcome week representatives One science rep shares their experience as they attempt to call out racism within their rep team

C/O CONNOR MACLEAN Sasha Dhesi News Editor

*name has been changed to protect identity Jamie*, a science student and former faculty rep, was not expecting they would have to file a human rights complaint against three fellow science representatives. But due to a lack of clear disciplinary action, they have had to go the McMaster Equity and Inclusion Office to report three students who repeatedly used the n-word on social media. On Mar. 31, the day before the first day of Welcome Week representative training, one of the representatives in question posed a video of himself and two other representatives using the n-word onto his public Snapchat story. Unsure of their next course of action, Jamie recorded the video. They decided to hold off on sharing it until Aug. 30, when they witnessed the planners taking decisive actions against other representatives who were

behaving in a similar manner. “So in my [rep group], there were two girls who were treating me like a [stereotype], using certain phrases and when I told them to stop, they just laughed. I brought it up to the [Welcome Week science] planners and they were cut the next morning,” they said. “So the night this happened, I sent the video forward to my executive, who forwarded it to the planners. I figured 'oh if you're going to handle this issue you might as well handle this one,’” they added. The planners then set up a meeting with Jamie the next day and promised all science representatives would receive additional training after Welcome Week. Jamie then contacted McMaster Students Union Diversity Services on Sept. 1, who tried to help them through the MSU branch. According to Jamie, Diversity Services was not contacted to facilitate any additional anti-oppression practices training other than the general session given to all Welcome Week rep-

resentatives during their Aug. training. Diversity Services later confirmed this via email.

Two of the representatives were still allowed to participate during Welcome Week and have not received any additional training. After talking with the planners and the MSU vice president (Administration), Diversity Services relayed to Jamie that they could not further censure the representatives in question because they were not in their representative suits in the video. Jamie, however, questions the legitimacy of that ruling. “In our first email from our planners, it said whether you're in the suit or not in the suit, you're still representing the Faculty of Science and science

representatives,” they said. After nearly two months, Jamie decided to post the full video in the Rep Network Facebook group on Oct. 27, where they asked why these students were allowed to continue to represent the Faculty of Science. Within an hour, the video was taken down and Jamie was kicked out of the Rep Network group. They received an email from the McMaster Science Society president and the Welcome Week faculty coordinator, both of whom gave them different reasons for being kicked out of the group. The former stated that the video had potentially triggering content and cited that for its removal while the latter stated they had not posted the video with the consent of those recorded. Jamie asked to be added back to the group, but still remains barred from it. Both stated that disciplinary action had been taken, but neitthem would elaborate to Jamie what course of action had been taken. Two of the representatives were still allowed to participate

during Welcome Week and have not received any additional training. The third rep in question was cut from the team because he failed to show up to a social event he had planned as an executive. Following this experience, Jamie has filed a formal complaint with the Equity and Inclusion Office and hopes that no one else will go through such an ordeal. “I'm hoping there will be a framework in the future, that way when someone comes forward with something like this, there's a protocol to follow and that in the event that the people involved are too close to the issue, that the planners and whoever else is involved can reach out to other bodies on campus,” they said. “That way when you bring something up you're not left in the dark, the issue isn't brushed aside and something like this isn't allowed to flourish during the whole Welcome Week repping experience,” they added. @theSilhouette


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NEWS

Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017 | www.thesil.ca

UN examines Hamilton as home United Nations Head of Communications and Chief Spokesperson gave a talk reflecting on the refugee experience in Canada

KYLE WEST / PHOTO REPORTER Cassidy Bereskin News Reporter

On Nov. 8, Melissa Fleming, the Head of Communications and Chief Spokesperson at the United Nations Refugee Agency, came to Hamilton. In addition to visiting local organizations, Fleming also gave a lecture in Convocation Hall. Fleming is responsible for leading media groups and highlighting the plight and resilience of refugees across the globe. In her speech at McMaster, Fleming focused on the concept of home and emphasized that, by virtue of their situation, refugees are “confronted with new meanings of ‘home’.” Fleming also visited the Immigrants Working Centre, an organization specializing in settlement services for newly landed immigrants, and Karam Kitchen, a Hamilton-based

“When people become refugees they need a special kind of home – defined in this case as a place of sanctuary where they can heal, and where they can rebuild.” Melissa Fleming Head of Communications and Chief Spokesperson United Nations Refugee Agency catering company operated by Syrian refugee women. “When people become refugees they need a special kind

of home, defined in this case as a place of sanctuary where they can heal, and where they can rebuild,” said Fleming. Nevertheless, Fleming noted the difficulty of the rebuilding process and the fact that millions of refugees continue to question and redefine what home means to them. Towards the end of her speech, Fleming discussed No Stranger Place, a new UNHCR project aimed at illuminating the stories of refugees and hosts from across Europe. She also praised Canada’s private sponsorship of refugees program, which has brought over 275,000 refugees to the country since 1979. Fleming concluded by offering her definition of home: “Home is a place of compassionate community. It is a place where the act of compassion benefits the receiver, but

also enriches the giver,” she said. While earnest and well-intentioned, Fleming’s speech garnered mixed reactions from those in attendance. Odette Anderyous, a refugee in attendance, wished that Fleming spoke more about how refugees go about finding a new home and how long they have to wait until their applications are processed. “It was like the whole lecture was to convince some people that we as refugees have to be here and live with [hosts] and that we are just numbers that Canada needs every year for economic purposes,” said Anderyous. In addition, Anderyous critiqued Fleming’s use of the word “asylum” and the fact that she, a spokesperson for refugee issues, does not know what it is like to be one. For others, however,

Fleming’s speech was a beacon of hope. “She spoke directly on her experiences in the camps, and meeting refugees, which is an extremely important perspective to take into account,” said Abdullah Al Hamlawi, a fourth year health studies and peace studies student who helped organize Fleming’s visit. “The meeting with Melissa went great and she got to see how refugees are creating their own jobs by being entrepreneurs when they lack Canadian experience,” said Al Hamlawi. Although Fleming has left the city, Hamilton continues to support refugees with its different services aimed at resettling and empowering newcomers in Hamilton. @cassidybereskin


NEWS

www.thesil.ca | Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017

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Sharing skills and communities As local LGBTQ+ spaces morph, Speqtrum Hamilton hopes to teach skills and bridge the gap between LGBTQ+ youth Sasha Dhesi News Editor

Last names have been omitted to protect identities. In an office within the YWCA’s Hamilton headquarters on MacNab Street lays the home base for Hamilton’s latest initiative to connect LGBTQ+ youth. Speqtrum Hamilton, a non-profit organization housed under the YWCA, hosts monthly events and workshops for LGBTQ+ youth aged 17-29, and focuses on creating connections and teaching youth new skills. Founded by three McMaster alumni, Speqtrum Hamilton holds sessions twice a month offering a variety of activities such as knitting circles, dodgeball tournaments and letter writing workshops. Speqtrum Hamilton is funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation and housed under the local YWCA. Speqtrum Hamilton is meant to fill the void left after the shutdown of LGBT+ friendly bars and the LGBTQ+ Wellness Centre of Hamilton. Currently run by Jyssika, the project coordinator and Jiya, the program coordinator, the two hope to offer LGBTQ+ spaces outside of post-secondary institutions. “When I went to McMaster, I found a lot of community in spaces like the Queer Students Community Centre and spaces like that but I noticed there wasn’t a lot happening outside of Mac and with the fall of the [LGBTQ+ Wellness Centre], Hamilton’s only queer agency, which collapsed about three or four years ago, there really wasn’t anything,” said Jyssika. “Considering barriers queer students face just to access school, or maybe you lose financial support from your parents, that kind of thing, or maybe you’re just not interested in going to school, then you don’t really have those spaces,” she said. “There’s no specific [LGBTQ+] space that’s continuous, and the nice thing about Speqtrum Hamilton is that it’s every single month,” Jiya said. Jyssika cites the recent gentrification of Hamilton’s downtown core as one of the reasons for the shutdown of popular LGBTQ+ bars like the Embassy,

MADELINE NEUMANN / PHOTO EDITOR

a once popular club on King Street West. “I think that, especially in Hamilton and the gentrification that’s happened in the last five years, unfortunately, that gentrification in a way also comes some different queer acceptance in spaces — generally gentrified spaces are more queer-infused, and there was a comfort level queer people had going to other places outside of traditional spaces that probably affected business in spaces,” said Jyssika. Jiya also cites the lack of connection between LGBTQ+ services and service providers as another aspect of the decline of LGBTQ+ spaces in Hamilton. “So for example, if you’re not connected to a service provider, it’s a lot harder to be connected with the different things that are happening for queer youth. And that’s not

to say there aren’t groups here and there. … There’s no specific [LGBTQ+] space that’s continuous, and the nice thing about Speqtrum Hamilton is that it’s every single month,” Jiya said. Speqtrum Hamilton focuses on offering a variety of activities in hopes of building different communities within the LGBTQ+ community in Hamilton. “Some of the most lasting connections I made at school were through theatre or doing something together or learning a skill together, rather than the classic form of ‘alright, let’s put a bunch of people with a shared identity and expect them to be best friends’,” Jyssika said. “Ideally if you don’t find comfort in one space, you’ll find comfort in another. We want to create spaces for people to learn skills to learn how to create community,” she added.

While Speqtrum Hamilton currently focuses on offering diverse programming, both Jyssika and Jiya plan on creating community building workshops to teach LGBTQ+ youth how to plan their own events and community build on their own. As the service continues to grow, both hope to offer a sense of community in Hamilton. “We’re trying to offer consistency, and offer a space that people know and that they can invest in,” said Jyssika. From letter writing workshops to swim nights, Speqtrum Hamilton hopes to build communities for LGBTQ+ youth living in an ever changing city.

@SashaDhesi

“Considering barriers queer students face just to access school, or maybe you lose financial support from your parents, that kind of thing, or maybe you’re just not interested in going to school, then you don’t really have those spaces.” Jyssika Program coordinator Speqtrum Hamilton


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FEATURE FEATURE

Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017 | www.thesil.ca

In this TOGETHER “

The amount of students who are facing mental health problems has been skyrocketing. Emily O’Rourke Features Reporter

Ontario’s students, colleges and universities are calling on the province to take immediate action on the growing problem of mental illness on campus, and McMaster is on board. The number of students with identified mental health disorders has more than doubled over the past five years, and the Spring 2016 National College Health Assessment survey indicated that depression, anxiety and suicide attempts are consistently increasing among Ontario’s postsecondary students. The amount of students who are facing mental health problems has been skyrocketing. With nearly 46 per cent of students reported feeling so depressed within the previous year that it was difficult to function, and 65 per cent of students reported experiencing overwhelming anxiety in the previous year, there is a resounding need to address what is happening on campuses around the province. On Nov. 2, a joint report titled, “In It Together: Taking

Action on Student Mental Health,” was released by four groups representing Ontario’s 45 colleges and universities. These four groups, consisting of the College Student Alliance, the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, Colleges Ontario and the Council of Ontario Universities, have determined that providing effective support for student mental health is one of the most pressing issues on postsecondary campuses today. Sean Van Koughnett, associate vice president (Students and Learning) and Dean of Students, represents McMaster on the Ontario Committee on Students Affairs and in the development of the report’s recommendations, represented OCSA in its work with the Council of Ontario Universities. “This degree of collaboration across the sector is highly unusual and demonstrates how important this issue is to everyone involved in post-secondary education,” said Van Koughnett. “Collectively, our role is to not let this issue drop off the government’s radar, to keep pressing until they commit to taking action.”

46% Students with debilitating depression within the previous year 65% Students reported experiencing overwhelming anxiety

The report calls for a community-based approach from governments, health-care providers, community agencies, student associations and postsecondary institutions to include mandatory curriculum, an early-warning system throughout all levels of education, counselling and expanded use of technology at no cost to students, whether they live on or off campus. Some of the recommendations within the report are far-reaching. For example, the report calls for the provincial government to provide free mental health care to all postsecondary students through increased services that are not funded through OHIP. The importance of this report, however, is to articulate to community agencies, health care and government officials that postsecondary institutions and campus wellness centres are not able to support student mental health without proper funding and partnerships.

Looking forward, a review is planned to ensure Student Accessibility Services is able to respond to the increasing needs of students with mental health and/or physical disabilities through proper academic accomodations.


FEATURE

www.thesil.ca | Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017

| 7

TIMOTHY LAW / PRODUCTION EDITOR

How does Mac hold up? The launch of “In It Together” came a week following McMaster’s report that significant progress has been made towards advancing its Student Mental Health and Well-Being Strategy. Since the strategy’s introduction nearly two years ago, hundreds of students and staff have been specially trained in mental health response, more front-line mental health professionals have been hired in the Student Wellness Centre and an improved student accommodation policy is in place. Van Koughnett, who is

leading the implementation of the strategy, noted progress made on priority areas, which include a new coordinated proactive approach to provide service and care for students in distress, new and improved Academic Accommodation of Students with Disabilities policy, additional hiring of mental health professionals to the Student Wellness Centre’s team and training for students and staff surrounding emergency mental health response. Looking forward, a review is planned to ensure Student

Accessibility Services is able to respond to the increasing needs of students with mental health and/or physical disabilities through proper academic accommodations. In addition, the Student Wellness Centre will find a larger, more visible home within the Peter George Centre for Living and Learning, which is set to open in Fall 2019 and aims to make the Student Wellness Centre a more accessible and inclusive space. McMaster has also secured an e-Campus Ontario grant to further develop digital tools

that are designed to educate and support students and instructors in corresponding with individuals who have mental health concerns. Currently, the Student Wellness Centre has is working to initiate a program called Pathways to Care, which will have different information levels that can empower students to optimize their care through an app called WellTrack.

Peer Support on Campus While McMaster is dedicated to supporting students dealing with mental health issues, peer and community-based services offer a unique addition to traditional psychiatry in a post-secondary setting. Within the McMaster Students Union, services such as Maccess, the Women and Gender Equity Network and the Peer Support Line offer peer-to-peer support for students in distress. Volunteers at each service are provided with specific mental health training to ensure that students in emergency situations

are met with the care that they need. Hilary Zorgdrager is a volunteer at Maccess who believes that although peer support services are an important addition to an individual’s mental health, there is still a significant amount of work to be done surrounding the ratio of students with mental health needs to counsellors in the Student Wellness Centre. “The system that currently exists to access counselling on campus, whereby students have to wait for a drop-in appointment for sometimes

multiple days, is fundamentally inaccessible,” said Zorgdrager. “More awareness of the services that are offered through peer networks is really useful for students, but as previously stated, really cannot replace formal counselling and psychiatry.” Wait times within the Student Wellness Centre have been an ongoing issue, especially for counselling services. Although, as of recently, new counsellors have been hired, there are only thirteen counsellors for over 45,000 students who are in need of counselling services.

“Strategies like [the Student Mental Health and Wellness Initiative] do very little to acknowledge the systemic issues that exist within formal mental healthcare providers at McMaster and other universities,” said Zorgdrager. “Peer support is really vital and important, however, it simply places the onus on students to support themselves through community without fixing the problems that exist in SAS and SWELL.”

More front-line mental health professionals have been hired in the Student Wellness Centre and an improved student accommodation policy is in place.

The system that currently exists to access counselling on campus, whereby students have to wait for a dropin appointment for sometimes multiple days, is fundamentally inaccessible. Hilary Zorgdrager Maccess Volunteer

“In It Together” McMaster along with the Student Wellness Centre and other student groups on campus are working diligently to address the ongoing and rising issue of mental health resources on campus. However, along with several other universities around the province, the lack of resources and funding are making this a difficult challenge to face alone. Rosanne Kent, director of the Student Wellness Centre, says that although both she and

her staff work actively in looking at different ways to improve the care and programming that is offered within SWELL, providing care that meets every student’s needs is an ongoing and fluid process. “The most brilliant thing is that all universities and colleges have come together and are working with students to deliver this [“In It Together”] strategy to the government,” said Kent. “I think that is the most powerful

message that anyone can deliver, because we’re not talking about just a couple [of] universities, everybody is together on this in ensuring that we put mental health on the docket for our government.” “In It Together” is a huge step in fighting for proper funding, partnerships and resources for postsecondary institutions across the province. Through collaboration, the government, post-secondary institutions,

student groups, health-care providers and community organizations can guarantee that every student in need has access to quality care and services.

@emily_oro

“In It Together” is a huge step in fighting for proper funding, partnerships and resources for postsecondary institutions across the province.


PRESIDENT’S PAGE

November 16, 2017 | thesil.ca

and other commitments. Even before this acute issue, residents of West Hamilton consistently experienced full buses passing throughout the year, especially in the winter. Overcrowded, infrequent buses are a sign of a bus system that is not meeting the needs of its riders. On Tuesday, November 14, I went to City Hall for a meeting with concerned riders, the HSR, and the transit RYAN union – organized by Environment Hamilton. The MSU is also DESHPANDE meeting with the HSR directly, Vice President (Education) to express concerns and provide our recommendations. Although vped@msumcmaster.ca City Council’s recent investment 905.525.9140 x24017 to hire 58 new bus drivers is a step in the right direction, there Although the crux of our is more work to be done to enfederal advocacy happened last sure the needs of students are week, other aspects of my port- met. It is critical that students folio, such as provincial and help us report no-show buses or municipal advocacy, happen on buses which fail to stop due to a more ongoing basis. It is im- overcrowding. Email hsrserve@ portant that students are aware hamilton.ca or call 905 527 4441, of pertinent developments in the as that is how city officials will city of Hamilton and the services know the amount of people afdesigned to offer community re- fected by this problem. lated support to students. Most pressing is the bus can- While this is a difficult cellation crisis in the city right situation for students, now. Nearly every HSR rider is familiar with checking the bus there are resources on schedule and waiting at a stop, campus designed to help only to have no bus arrive until the next scheduled time, if at all. You might have seen news The Sil reported last week that articles concerning increased on average, 23 buses per day are by-law enforcement in the city cancelled across the city. The 51 – of Hamilton, or received a fine University line has been notice- for not cutting your grass after ably affected. There have been coming home from fall break. days where four buses in the Recently, there was a motion morning were cancelled, causing passed by City Council approvpeople to be late to class, work, ing the expansion of a by-law en-

forcement program specifically for McMaster neighborhoods. This motion was moved by our own Ward 1 Councillor Aidan Johnson, involving two Mohawk co-op students acting as by-law officers who will hand out tickets for infractions. Although the program is designed to target landlords who are not properly doing maintenance on properties, student testimonies have shown that city staff are dealing with tenants directly and expecting payment from students when the landlord should be paying. We expressed these concerns to Councillor Johnson both at City Hall and at the SRA meeting he attended two weeks ago. While this is a difficult situa-

tion for students, especially those living off-campus, there are resources on campus designed to help. The Student Community Support Network (SCSN) aims to support off-campus students and foster a sense of community in the West Hamilton area. From November 20 to 24, SCSN is hosting the Student Housing Awareness Week, a campaign designed to inform and educate students about relevant housing information. Throughout the week, students can learn about finding a home to rent, provide their student housing related experiences, and familiarize themselves with relevant city by-laws. Visit facebook.com/msu.scsn to view the week’s events.

SCSN PRESENTS

STUDENT HOUSING AWARENESS WEEK MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20

FINDING A HOME

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21

WED, NOV 22

TELL US YOUR STORY KNOW YOUR BYLAWS STUDENT COMMUNITY HOUSING FAIR LIVING THURS, NOV 23

FRIDAY, NOV 24

NOV 20-24 | FACEBOOK.COM/MSU.SCSN

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The President’s Page is a space sponsored and used by the McMaster Students Union (MSU) Board of Directors (BoD) to communicate with the student body. It functions to highlight the Board’s projects, goals, and agenda for the year, as well as the general happenings of the MSU.


www.thesil.ca | Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017

EDITORIAL

| 9

Editorial

Upcoming special issues What do you want to see out of our big projects?

On Apr. 9, 2015, one week after the final weekly paper of the academic year, the former arts and entertainment section known as ANDY had its last 24-page magazine. The direction and focus of the section in the 20152016 year lead to the magazine being discontinued, and was not revived with ANDY’s merging with the Lifestyle section in 2016-2017. On Feb. 10, 2016, we had our last Sex and the Steel City magazine, which was distributed at the same time as the regular, weekly paper and totalled 32-pages. This was more of a reflection of the former Lifestyle section, and while considered despite the merging of the ANDY and Lifestyle sections in 2016-2017, was discontinued due to budget cuts and low pickup rates. While these sorts of special issues were generally high quality with the amount of time allowed for long-term goals and let volunteers who do not generally contribute share their perspectives, these concerns and others similar to them have been inhibiting factors for considerations. We have considered a few options to help elevate these:

1) Have better timing to not align with the usual, weekly release to not potentially cannibalize readership, and have a better gauge of distribution processes. 2) Be willing to produce online only issues. 3) Create issue ideas that are more applicable to a wider student base of the university, and reduce how niche the topics are. Right now, we have two ideas of what we want to do for this year. The first is an issue entirely dedicated to humour. The Speculator on the back page of every week is a fantastic example of what you could expect. We could branch out a bit, open it up for contributions from you and the McMaster community and create a physical product that would appeal to almost anyone on campus or in the city. This would likely be released after classes end for one of the terms or during the midterm recess next term. The second idea is to revive Sex and the Steel City as an online only publication. This was historically beneficial for putting out stories and perspectives that did not fit into the weekly sections, and was a favourite of our Production and Lifestyle teams of the past in order to show off some of their best work. While

the topics did not appeal to everyone and was insistent in maintaining its NSFW mentality, it was a fan favourite to those who picked it up. This would likely be released just before Valentine’s Day or during the mid-term recess next term. These are not set in stone by any means. When it comes to the revival or creation of content like this, we want to make sure we are making content that you actually want to read and contribute to. While we can assume a lot based on history and random, sporadic feedback, there is still a degree of uncertainty given the amount of time off we have had from special issues. We would love to hear about your interest in these two goals and other considerations for projects we could do. If you were passionate about ANDY, we would love to hear it by messaging us on social media or sending an email. If you would like for other sections of the paper to get their chance at a special issue or have a completely new idea, then that is perfect too. Just let us know what you want, and we will do our best to provide it for you.

NEWS

OPINION

A&C

SPORTS

MEDIA

Are you interested in current affairs, campus events and student politics? Join our News team as a writer!

Do you have something you want to get off your chest? A pressing opinion about campus life or the community? Write for Opinion!

Is new media in Hamilton on your radar? Enjoy music, movies, arts, fashion and games? Get involved with Arts & Culture!

Do you stay updated with Marauder sports? Do you have commentary to share about your favourite teams? Join the Sports team!

Interested in photography or videography? Want your art featured as the compliment to an article? Join Production!

news@thesil.ca

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In-person volunteer meetings are Mondays at 4:30

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Shane Madill Editor-in-Chief

@shanemadill

to Salomon to emo covers of emo songs

to playing holiday music in Nov. to selfish brides

to pickle jar heroes

to heavy days

to sharing oats with your brothers

to gravity

to pie-in-the-sky to the Brotherhood of the Travelling Brother to intimidating your high school nemesis to wearing hoodies and eating sandwiches to hitting up an old flame to Zee Float to not being like other horse girls

to spam mail from Peterborough to coming home to your house locks being changed and your parents yelling at you to never come back to ruining everything to not being able to resell Massey Hall tickets to dreaming about Hotel California to sleep inertia

to couriered heels

to not stretching before HIIT IT

to father Greene

to tiny candles

to Mark Johnstone

to classist profs

to Teddy the dog

to November


10 |

HUMANS

Kyle West Photo Reporter

Could you please introduce yourself? I am Lauren McClinton and I’m a 4th-year cognitive science of language student. For people who don’t know, what exactly is Maccess? Maccess is a peer support service offered by the McMaster Students Union to support students at McMaster who experience disability. We are a peer support, which means that we are run by students who experience disability for students who experience disability. How did you end up working at Maccess? I initially started working as a member of the Diversity Services Abilities committee in my second year. From there in the following year, Maccess was started as a pilot service. We did not have a space for the first half of the year and kind of just popped around and did lots of different pop-up space hours around the McMaster University Student Centre. Then in my third year, I was a training and volunteer coodinator and now I am the full coordinator.

Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017 | www.thesil.ca

that work to support students. Peer support is really important because it offers support specifically for students who have similar lived experiences so those students are much more likely to understand what you are going through. They might not have had exactly the same experience as you, but they have in the context of disability these are students who have also dealt with a lot of the systems that make things difficult for the students who experience disability. They just get it a little bit more than any other service.

Lauren McClinton Cognitive Science of Language IV

How does it feel to finally have your own permanent space? So good. It feels so nice to finally have a centralized space where we always are. So that students do not have to go hunting for us and that students will know that during the times that we are open we will be there and always be in the same spot. A permanent space for people to meet and sit or chat and hang out.

Why did a service like Maccess just come to fruition recently? Maccess is a combination of a lot of people around the student body really pushing for the fact that students with disabilities needed a place to be. So, initially we had Diversity Services that had a abilities committee that was pushing to offer students who experience disability programming and things that they could engage in, which were made specifically for them, and then the Student Representative Assembly was also pushing for the fact that there was no peer support group on campus. There was absolutely no peer support group on campus for students who experience disability. From there after a lot of pushing last year, we finally got our pilot program. What do you think is the benefit of having a peer service compared to one run by the university? I think that there are lots of different services on campus

What do you think are the next steps for Maccess? This year Maccess is working really hard to solidify the community that we have been building and really solidify that we as a service are here. I’m really excited in moving forward to see Maccess push more advocacy work. Right now we have a really solid set of after-hours programming and we are running some pretty cool community building events and for future coordinators to pull some strong advocacy work. Could you elaborate on those events? So, right now we are running a multitude of support groups.

On Tuesdays we run Topic Tuesdays. Every Tuesday we chat about a different topic and how it relates to disability experience. Today we are talking about commuting and disability. In light in things that are happening with the HSR right now we are talking about what it is like to be a student with a disability who is also using the bus or biking somewhere or engaging in any type of public transit. We have talked about parties and disability and how your disability experience affects the way you socialize and things like that. On Wednesdays and Thursdays we run a whole lot of different support groups. So we are running support groups for personality disorders, chronic pain, chronic

illness, for anxiety and depression. We are running a lot of different groups that cater to different identity faced needs. Have you seen first hand any point where Maccess has really helped people out? I know that for me personally as a student who experiences disability having a community of people who understand and who get it and who are there to support me has been absolutely incredible. Its had a really important an demonstrable impact on my own university experience for sure.

“Peer support is really important because it offers support specifically for students who have similar lived experiences so those students are much more likely to understand what you are going through.”

So, you feel like Maccess is a step forward? Absolutely I do.

facebook.com/HumansOfMcMaster


www.thesil.ca | Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017

The Silhouette

| 11

Opinion Balancing between necessities Education as a priority is taking a toll on my family time Reem Sheet Opinion Editor

Education is a priority. This is something we are used to hearing in our society not just from our peers, but our parents as well. We are told that time management is the key to healthy and balanced life, and the prioritizing is necessary for time managing, especially in post-secondary education. However, that balance has diminished, and education has been prioritized over our personal lives. Between commuting, studying, working hard and trying to find room for sleep, I hardly have time to say hi to my mother sometimes. By the time I get home, she is already asleep

and all I can think about is doing the same. Ideally, family time should be factored into our daily lives and our parents should be prioritized just like we prioritize our studies. But this is no longer the case. However, on top of the stress of getting our assignments in on time and finding some room to do some last-minute studying for midterms, I now find myself stressing over when the next time I will be able to spend time with family will be. This is not intentional. This is just how we are forced to respond to the demands of university life.

GRANT GRANT HOLD/PRODUCTION HOLT / PRODUCTIONCOORDINATOR COORDINATOR

The standards seem to suggest that if you are in university, in order to succeed you should factor out work and family to give an adequate amount of dedication to your schoolwork and find a way to factor in extra curriculars to improve our CVs. But how can we factor out these necessities and still manage to live the university life? For many of us, a part-time job is the only way we can afford to pay for our meals and with rising living costs in Ontario, unless you are fortunate enough to have your parents’ financial support, work is a necessity. When bursaries and financial aid can’t cover for your university expenses and if your workload is more de-

manding than most, there is always the option of a holiday job if you are willing to take away from perhaps the one time you may be able to breath between books in the semester. So, if school and work are both necessitates how can we find the time for family while keeping up with these demands. According to the Guardian, “It’s often said at Cambridge that students have to sacrifice one of three aspects of their lives to survive: work, sleep or their social life.” I can personally vouch for this, where my social life has dwindled down to asking a friend to grab a self-serve coffee with me five minutes before our lecture starts and then walking in two minutes late to lecture. Sacrifices must be made, but when sleep is a luxury, coffee

seems to be one of my greatest expenses. In addition to coffee, with a total of three hours of my day being spent commuting, I also need to factor in the meals I need to spend on for my 12-hour school days since meal prep doesn’t always suffice. University life has made me realize how important it is to find time to share a meal with my family, if I can ever find the time to do so. With the holiday break on its way, I’m hoping that without the stress of making it to lectures on time, I may be able to find a way to balance between work, school and extra curriculars to spend some time with my family. If only finals weren’t around the corner. @ReemSheet


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OPINION

www.thesil.ca | Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017

Striking out Instructors need to take a look at the bigger picture and remember the students Maeb Shaban Contributor

I am not the most knowledgeable student when it comes to strikes. What I do know is that the effects of the current college faculty strike have affected me and many other students greatly. This needs to be addressed as it is impeding on our education. Being in a college and university-based program has its perks, but when it comes to this strike, we students are definitely getting the short end of the stick. The majority of classes in the nursing program function through the Mohawk College, but now with it being on strike most McMaster/college students are left with maybe one course to attend. The strike has been going for more than four weeks now. That means four weeks of missed class and labs for students in McMaster’s nursing, Bachelor of Technology, medical and radiation sciences and specific social science classes. Not only did we pay an immense amount of money for a schedule of courses we now cannot attend, we may be forced to be in the classroom for a longer period of time due to the delay. Our winter break may even be cut short as a result. For students who have booked tickets to go home and be with their families for the holidays, getting a refund and breaking the news to your families must be difficult to do, but the alternate just puts you at a greater delay. As of now, Mohawk-McMaster students are unaware of how their schedules are going to play out. There are so many students who are living off campus, paying rent and full tuition for what has become only one class. Can you imagine a student paying $600 a month in rent, then $4,000 for a full semester and only be learning one of those five courses? Mo-Mac students are not only losing money but also being forced to add time to their undergraduate careers. Seeing as instructors and the labour board are unaware of how they are going to make up this month of missed class time, students are left waiting to hear about how their future will be affected. It’s fair to say that we’re more stressed out about all this time wasted out of the classroom

than we would be if we were in the classroom. After watching a video on how the bargaining between the union and the labour board was going, I became infuriated. It was clear how stubborn the labour board was being and how they were not willing to settle easily. This wouldn’t be as much of a problem had our future have been considered and accounted for in the process.

THE SILHOUETTE PHOTO ARCHIVES

Seeing as instructors and the labour board are unaware of how they are going to make up this month of missed class time, students are left waiting to hear about how their future will be affected. From my understanding (and what the Ontario college bargaining team stated) Ontario Public Service Employee Union was given everything they wanted: increasing pay, greater rights for contract faculty, better job security for contract faculty and academic freedom guarantees. So why not return to the classroom and get back to what they are being paid to do to begin with? As educators, instructors are setting a poor example for students who look up to them for a brighter future. Students are not asking for much. We are merely asking that we get what we are paying for, and since what we are paying for is our education, I don’t think we are asking for much.

@theSilhouette

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McMaster Students Union’s

EVENTS CALENDAR Stress Buster: Effortless Meditation Workshop

in by a McMaster student. 1 guest per student. No guest list available. *No alcohol will be sold this night*

Thursday, November 16, 2017 Time: 4:00pm to 5:00pm Where: MUSC 220 A one-hour workshop where you learn effortless breathing techniques and meditation that will help you de-stress for upcoming midterms!

All Ages Night: Glow Party Thursday, November 16, 2017 Time: 10:00pm Where: TwelvEighty Shine under the black lights for this NIGHTLIFE all ages dry event! Break out those neon colours and dance the night away! $10 cover. All guests must be signed

Stay Connected:

Shave for a Cure - Smiling Over Sickness Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Country Night: James Barker Band Thursday, November 23, 2017 Time: 8:30pm Where: TwelvEighty MSU Campus Events and TwelvEighty Nightlife is proud to announce that the JAMES BARKER BAND and special guest, Andrew Hyatt, will be performing at Country Night inside TwelvEighty. This concert is open to McMaster University students only. All attendees must present their ticket, plus a current McMaster student ID card at the entry. All Ages Event + Licenced area for 19+.

/MSUMcMaster

Time: 10:00am to 2:00pm Where: MUSC Atrium McMaster students and faculty shave their hair for Camp Trillium, a camping experience exclusively for pediatric cancer patients and their family. There will be shows and performances from prominent McMaster clubs. For more info, emailsos@mcmaster.ca

Check out the full Events Calendar at: msumcmaster.ca/events

@MSU_McMaster

msumcmaster.ca


OPINION

www.thesil.ca | Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017

| 15

Is Hamilton truly ready for Amazon? Ambition is good, but Hamilton has taken it to a whole new level Rob Hardy Contributor

This past autumn, huge buzz began to spread around Hamilton about the next big idea taking shape for the Hammer. Amazon, one of the largest players in a select circle of cool 21st century global tech brands, announced it was taking bids to open a second headquarters in North America, known as HQ2. Such a chance would provide an immediate boost to any city lucky enough to land a deal as large and rare as this. Numerous municipalities across Canada and the United States began preparing how best to sell their cities. As has been consistent with Hamilton’s ambitious stance this past decade, we decided to boldly take up the challenge and join more than 200 other bids vying for this golden opportunity. We certainly should not count ourselves out of competition for larger ventures. Instead, we should be proud that such a diligent effort was made to lure this powerhouse into setting up shop here. In order to keep Hamilton moving, we need to continue plugging away at increasing our business sector and working to gain a larger share of the investment capital that is attracted to the Golden Horseshoe, but usually goes to regions closer to Toronto’s nucleus than our own. However, given the odds, we should be realistic enough to understand that winning this lottery is a huge long shot. Moreover, it is not just a numbers game. Some bids are inevitably much more attractive than others. It is likely that many other proposals ultimately have more convincing selling points. Hamilton mayor Fred Eisenberger recently penned an open letter in the Hamilton Spectator where he referred to our city as “unstoppable”, and wrote passionately about his conviction that we are up to the challenge. While I applaud his leadership and positivity, his sentiments seem a bit grandiose and too optimistic. It is not a question of our resolve, but of how much more unstoppable other competitors are. Is it helpful to believe that Hamilton is currently in the same league

as some of the strongest players in this race? One of the most fallacious claims in Eisenberger’s op-ed is that Hamilton happens to have everything Amazon is looking for. Actually, meeting their requirements is merely what is necessary to be considered — it is not something that somehow makes us standout from other serious contenders. It is also possible to find dubious ways of claiming that everything on a checklist has been satisfied. Yet in this case, we have not even done that. For one thing, Hamilton is not a metropolitan area of over one million people. There are many cities that genuinely meet this criterion without attempting to pass off their additional surrounding regions as part of their actual metro population. Even if we include Burlington in Halton Region, a city that is increasingly more of a satellite community for Toronto than Hamilton, we still do not even come close. This is important, because Hamilton’s rather small downtown core, relative to Seattle or Toronto or San Francisco, lags far behind in terms of the number of businesses and services that are already established. This brings us to another point relating to service. Hamilton also does not have any sort of rapid transit infrastructure set up — not even bus rapid transit. What we do have are promises to have an LRT up and running by 2024, even though progress remains painstakingly slow, with an astounding number of setbacks and vague assurances. Any reasonable assessment would conclude that there is no way this project will be finished on time. Meanwhile, are we are expecting a slew of forward-thinking millennials to be stuck with relying on the under-performing HSR to get to and from the Amazon campus every day? The idea would actually be funny if it wasn’t for how truly miserable that would be for them. Though I surely expect us to land in the rejection pile, this should not be a blow to our egos. After all, only one bid will be successful. More importantly, we should be proactive at asking ourselves how we can get closer to success in the future.

Are we really as good as we are blowing ourselves up to be, or should we realize that burgeoning art and restaurant scenes are merely typical of many other cities in a post-industrial economy and don’t really make us all that unique? And though some hate to hear it, some level of gentrification needs to be further embraced to help Hamilton grow and evolve. Even as change causes us to lose a part of ourselves, it allows us to give birth to new identities. After all, having the guts to confidently bid for Amazon says that we are at least willing to overcome some of our trepidation as we explore the idea of new possibilities.

THE SILHOUETTE PHOTO ARCHIVES

@theSilhouette

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www.thesil.ca | Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017

Arts & Culture Swooning the Casbah crowd The Zolas return to Hamilton as part of their 2016 tour playing new, unreleased music

C/O Jason Jillard Anisha Rajkumar Contributor

The lights cut out abruptly, and the sound of melancholic chords progressed. What followed was a warm welcome from the anxiously awaiting Hamilton crowd. On Nov. 7 the Casbah played host to synth-pop indie darlings, the Zolas. Hailing from Vancouver, Zachary Gray, Cody Hiles and Dwight Abell, accompanied by Tom Heuckendorff on piano, knew just how to keep the crowd going on a chilly fall night. The group has just embarked on a tour, which was kickstarted with a free performance at Sonic Boom in Toronto. The final track on their 2016 record Swooner, “Why Do I Wait,” started their set. Gray stated that this was one of his favourite songs on the album. They had never played it live

before the Sonic Boom performance that took place the night before. The Casbah crowd was lucky enough to be serenaded by it as well. Gray’s inspirations for this song were sparked from his life, his friend’s life and from Canadian musician Sean Nicholas Savage’s live performances. “I remember watching this video of him [Sean Nicholas Savage] playing at Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona just looking way too high. The song is [about] being into somebody and being crazy about someone, always holding a candle to them when you know… the timing will never be right.” A few years ago, the band was in Venice and had a day off on their tour. Gray and his bandmates had a “hilariously cliché romantic encounter” where they spent the night on a boat in order to see as much of the city as they possibly could in that one night. “That’s what the end of the

song is about. It’s about making a connection to someone in a setting like that where it’s almost too cliché to believe it’s happening.” Through the song Gray reflects on being the center of attention as a performer, a sentiment that was also inspired by the Sean Nicholas Savage concert footage. “You can be an absolute star for an hour and a half in one evening and you can finish that set and as soon as you’re off stage, you’re a pretty normal person, especially once you’ve left the venue and you go home. You might play a show for 10,000 people and within two hours once you’ve finished that show, you’re at home eating macaroni and cheese with nothing to do.” Gray described their live performance as feeling the warmth of the crowd. For “Escape Artist,” Gray took his microphone and a small keyboard into the mid-

dle of the crowd and played amongst them with the phone flashlights of fans illuminating the experience. “It’s nice to make a moment that that feels less sort of pedagogical, where it’s not just us on stage and [the audience] watching us on stage with all the lights on us [and them] in the dark.” “For a secular society, you need these evenings where people come together and are in the same room, listening to the same words and participating in broader ideas. That’s the kind of show that I want to have. Like when you leave, you feel a bit of a kinship to the other people who were there that night… you’re all going to go out and you’re going to make a little bit of a change.” The Zolas are all about embracing the moment on stage. From Abell’s electrifying dance moves, to catching cheeky smirks between Hiles and Gray, they truly soak it in.

“That’s the kind of show that I want to have. Like when you leave, you feel a bit of a kinship to the other people who were there that night.” Zachary Gray Vocalist/guitarist The Zolas In the future, the Zolas plan to release singles as soon as they finish mixing them. If you want to hear a new song sooner you may catch it at one of their live shows first, as they performed an unreleased track called “Ultramarine” at The Casbah, and we can expect to hear more from the Zolas in the coming year. @theSilhouette


A&C

Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017 | www.thesil.ca

John St S

18 |

August a

St

I know a place: queer spaces in Hamilton

Madeline Neumann Photo Editor

Hamilton is the city in which I first discovered what a queer community could feel like. When I moved here for my undergraduate degree, I quickly learned how to assemble a makeshift community of queer friends that felt more like coming home than I could have ever predicted. Building a home is equal parts locating a physical space to claim as yours and finding a family to fill it. I have had no difficulties with the latter. What Hamilton has failed to do, however, is represent the needs of its queer communities in the services and spaces it provides. There is an astounding lack of permanent queer nightlife in Hamilton, despite the clear need for more adequate spaces of our own. Although permanent queer spaces in Hamilton are sorely missed, queer people create communities by staking out places for ourselves. When brick-and-mortar spaces hold nothing for us,


A&C

www.thesil.ca | Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017

| 19

MADELINE NEUMANN / PHOTO EDITOR C/O GOOGLE

finding sanctuary in each other is equally as important. I am thankful for all the LGBTQ2SIA+ people who have created a makeshift safe haven when a physical one didn’t exist. Hamilton needs to better reflect the members of its queer community, many of whom are building safer, more accessible spaces from the ground up on their own time. Queer Pub Night is a monthly event run by Queer Outta Hamilton, operating one night a month at Gallagher’s Bar & Lounge, located on John Street South. The final Thursday of each month sees some of Hamilton’s LGBTQ2SIA+ folks in attendance. Hamilton used to have gay bars. In the past, you could find yourself at the Werx, the Rainbow Lounge, M Bar, the Steel Lounge, the Windsor or the Embassy. For a variety of reasons, none of these spaces exist any longer. Queer Pub Night is now the only semi-regular queer bar environment in Hamilton. It is important to remain mindful of which groups of

people feel welcome in, or can access, spaces like these. Queer Pub Night is a predominantly white space. The fact that it is currently the only night of its kind in Hamilton fails our com-

Seeing queer and trans elders in these spaces is especially significant because it is a reminder that queer and trans people actually survive, that we live long enough to see each other’s hair turn grey.

munity severely. I am grateful for organizers working within groups like Speqtrum, McMaster Womanists, New Generation Youth Centre, McMaster’s Women and Gender Equity Network and The Tower, who work toward accessible safe(r) spaces for trans, queer and/or gender oppressed youth, and specifically spaces for Black and Indigenous young people. Those who can must elevate these projects and spaces by and for queer people of colour. There is strength to be drawn from being in the midst of large gatherings of other people who share identities similar to your own. Seeing queer and trans elders in these spaces is especially significant because it is a reminder that queer and trans people actually survive, that we live long enough to see each other’s hair turn grey. As a white cis queer woman, I can see myself reflected in a lot of older queer folks at events like Queer Pub Night, but there are many people of other, more marginalized identities, who should be there but haven’t survived.

Trans femmes of colour and queer trans people of colour in general face much higher rates of violence. As a result, many young queer folks cannot see themselves in older generations of queer folks simply because of the mortality rate of people sharing their identity namely, the most marginalized and atrisk of our community. The reality of queerness, of otherness, is that no place is truly safe. But the triumphant feeling of seeing whole spaces filled with people like you, of being able to let down some portion of your guard, of seeing that others like you have survived and continue surviving, is unparalleled. I have drawn strength from every unambiguously queer space I’ve ever found sanctuary in. As someone who has decidedly failed at categorizing myself, queer spaces have been integral to the formation of my jumbled queer identity. Queer spaces have reminded me that I owe no justifications to anyone, or even to myself, of my labels, of whom I might love or of the

boundaries I have drawn and am constantly redrawing. I am lucky to have had these spaces to grow myself in, and luckier still that I felt safe enough to access them. If Hamilton is to do better by its queer community, we need to raise up spaces that allow folks to express and explore their queerness. While Queer Pub Night is an important, and now integral, part of the community here, we need more than one night a month to gather and celebrate our queerness. Cultivating more queer spaces in the city will make Hamilton a safer place in which to survive and thrive as young queer folks and older queer folks and everything in between. @neumannmadeline


20 |

A&C

Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017 | www.thesil.ca

Made in Madrid, performed at Mac McMaster students perform lost 16th century Spanish play for the first time in English Vanessa Polojac Contributor

C/O PRISCILLA LOU

Bridges Café

Refectory Building

Come check out this hidden gem on campus! McMaster’s Plant based dining experience is a fantastic combination of different ethnic dishes and old classics. Feature Roti Fresh ingredients compliment the unique environment. Mixed vegetable curry,

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From Nov. 10 to the 18, Peter Cockett’s Theatre and Film class hold the world premiere of Barbara Fuch’s English translation of Women and Servants. Women and Servants, written by famous Spanish playwright Lope De Vega, has been lost for over 400 years. But in 2014, University of California at Los Angeles English professor Barbara Fuchs rediscovered the manuscript hidden at the back of a library while vacationing in Madrid. The Fall Major Production is a yearly event held at McMaster. It is a required for the students in Theatre and Film 3S06 to be a part of the play although casting is open to all undergraduate and graduate students at the university. This is the first year the production will be held in L.R. Wilson Hall. The building offers many innovative areas for the crew to work with. “This building is an enormous step-up and improvement from the Robinson Memorial Theatre,” explained Cockett. “One of the many new elements that the L.R. Wilson building has is a trampoline grid for the lighting. Usually in other buildings there would need to be a 50-foot ladder that is much less sufficient.” Women and Servants was chosen by Cockett when doing research and planning for the Theatre and Film program in the spring. When approaching Women and Servants in the fall production class, Cockett and his students were all captivated by the excessive emotions of the men in the play and the comparatively calm intuition of the women, whose actions drive the plot. “The research was about the performance of gender on European stages in the 1600s. The questions that were asked were asked in my research were: what did the boys learn from the female performers? In what ways were the boys different from the female performers? How were the women performing femininity? In the summer I went to a press conference where I met Barbara and we related these questions to Women and Servants. This is when I concluded we had to put on this production,” said Cockett.

When holding the open casting calls, Cockett and his class didn’t cast people strictly based on their gender identities. Cockett wanted audience members not to be able to assume what characters are based on their actors’ identity alone. “While this would have been extremely unlikely in Lope de Vega’s world, it is more familiar to us today, and that has added advantage of reminding us that these are performers who are making choices about how to play the radicalized, class and gender roles assigned to their characters,” said Cockett. Even though the play was written in the early 1600s, there is a feminist theme that is evidently portrayed throughout the plot. The protagonists, sisters Luciana and Violante, take control of their own love lives and fate despite their assigned roles in a patriarchal society. The playwright reverses the hierarchy by having the servants, who are expected to be loyal, go against their masters for their own personal desires. “The play investigates the social relationships of past societies. The playwright reveals the 16th century society to be more complex and less conservative than we might be inclined to imagine,” explained Cockett. Cockett, along with assistant directors Toni Holmes and Pricilla Lou, hope to introduce the idea, radical in its day, that one’s social identity is something that is performed rather than given. “There was a time when we were considering an all-female cast. We were breaking down the male characters and how they were reducing stereotypical male roles and that’s why we chose to stick with male actors,” said Holmes. “Our performance celebrates our relative freedom to be who we desire to be, and love who we desire to love, but also, in its playful way, it asks us to consider the enduring influence social power structures have on the free expression of love,” added Cockett. Cockett hopes that audiences will enjoy the mischief and antics of these once lost characters and uses their story as an opportunity to explore historical and contemporary questions about gender performance.


A&C

www.thesil.ca | Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017

| 21

Sous Bas: The party I didn’t know I needed Nina Gaind Contributor

It’s a Saturday evening and I’ve been sitting in my room all day claiming that I’ve been studying. My friends and I decide to go out. We could go to Hess and pay $10 to listen to 99.9 Virgin Radio, or we could slip beneath the earth’s surface and sizzle on the molten hot dance floor at Sous Bas. Sous Bas is a bar located at 145 Main Street East in Hamilton. It first opened its doors this June, but started in 2015 as a pop up party series on Rebecca Street. The pop ups were started by Erika McMeekin and Kelly Seagram, who wanted to create a high quality and inclusive dance floor. It is difficult to describe Sous Bas in one sentence, which speaks to how it is more than just a bar. The environment serves as a safe space for individuals who identify as anything. It is a place where being unique is not simply embraced, but encouraged. Walking into Sous Bas is like walking into a house party of a close friend. Warmth lingers in the atmosphere with the personalized scented candles placed delicately around the room. Comfort is inevitable with the huge couches positioned for your friends and you to catch your breath. The environment is reminiscent of childhood sleepovers in your parents’ basement, but with an X-rated twist of sexy dance tunes. Dancing allows me to forget daily problems and feel control on the dance floor. I don’t want societal woes like racism, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, sexism and body shaming to be associated with my nights out. In Hess, I am on hyper alert with these issues and unable to enjoy myself. At Sous Bas, I literally lose myself in the music and forget where I am. Due to my own experiences in Hess, I have been alienated from typical club scenes alto-

gether. When I used to go out, I would not drink too much as I wanted to stay alert and ready to defend myself against predatory men. I never wore heels because I wanted to be able to run in case I needed to. After experiencing Sous Bas, I realized that these were not required anxieties for a night out. These anxieties only came to me because of the constant discomfort I felt in Hess’ hegemonic masculine spaces full of homophobic slurs, aggressive cat calling and large absence of racial minorities. A large part of my reasons for feeling safe at Sous Bas is the prevalence of kind and supportive staff. In many clubs, bouncers are prone to power tripping and aggression. Sous Bas does not look to scare off partygoers. It expresses that it is a judgment free zone, and hate will not be tolerated. As someone who identifies as a woman, it is important to have supportive staff members that will be reliable incase of trouble. Aside from feeling safe, I also feel able to be myself at Sous Bas. I can wear whatever I feel for that night’s look, whether that’s seven-inch heels or black sneakers, a bomb-ass jumpsuit or leggings and a t-shirt. It’s a place where my armpit hair can flow freely on the dance floor and the sparkles on my face can glisten from the majestic disco ball. The DJs are all energetic and spin musical styles such as house, hip hop,

The environment is reminiscent of childhood sleepovers in your parents’ basement, but with an X-rated twist of sexy dance tunes.

R&B, reggae, boogie, disco, funk and soca. Sticking with importance of diversity in the club scene, Sous Bas hires a multitude of DJs. They look to hire women, people of colour and queer DJs as much as possible as these individuals are often absent from club culture. When I am on the dance floor, I feel energized and inspired watching women curate amazing sets. Sous Bas has a lot to offer to its partygoers. To be certain the theme for the night fits who you are, you can find descriptions of what each DJ will be playing on Thursday, Friday and Saturday on Facebook and Instagram @

MORE

Sousbas. Bring your friends, a good attitude and most importantly, a towel to wipe up all the sweat from dancing.

THAN YOU’D EXPECT FROM A

PUB!

C/O INSTAGRAM @SOUSBAS


22 |

GAMES

Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017 | www.thesil.ca

Puzzle 1 (Hard, difficulty rating 0.62)

8

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Generated by http://www.opensky.ca/sudoku on Wed Nov 15 19:38:18 2017 GMT. Enjoy!

Puzzle 2 (Hard, difficulty rating 0.60)

5

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Across 1. “The Lion King” villain 5. He sang about Alice 9. HOMES, e.g. 14. Tent stick 15. Showy trinket 16. Expiate 17. Singer Tori 18. Breakfast brand 19. Dry stalks 20. Rote procedure 22. A type of spoonbill 24. Tolkien baddies 25. Victor 26. Brawl

29. Worked with wicker 31. Insertion mark 32. Kingly address 33. Brit’s raincoat 36. Get a move on 37. Erik of “CHiPs” 40. G.P. gp. 41. Before, to bards 42. Diplomacy 43. PC storage medium 45. ____ Kick Out of You 47. Body of work 48. ____ by Starlight 51. Comparable 52. Martial 54. Destructive

58. One way to read 59. Count (on) 61. Gaming cubes 62. Deputised group 63. Arrow poison 64. To Live and Die ____ 65. Scornful look 66. Dweeb 67. Minn. neighbour

5

1. Practice in the ring 2. Crooner Perry 3. Moises of baseball 4. Make good as new 5. Part of CIA 6. Fads 7. Pull labouriously 8. Redolence 9. Timmy’s dog 10. Go to 11. Sacred text of Islam 12. Related on the mother’s side 13. Ed Norton’s workplace 21. Beside oneself

23. Possessed 26. Throb 27. So-so 28. Gratis 29. Approximately 30. Smell ____ 32. Sports figure? 33. Sportscaster Albert 34. Cupid 35. Approached 38. Meat 39. ____ the hole 44. Seaport in New Zealand 45. Mistreat 46. Unpowered aircraft 47. Gave the go-ahead 48. Trades

3

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Generated by http://www.opensky.ca/sudoku on Wed Nov 15 19:38:18 2017 GMT. Enjoy!

Puzzle 3 (Medium, difficulty rating 0.60)

2

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6

49. Claw 50. Irregularly notched 51. More competent 53. The Auld Sod 55. Discover 56. Bruins’ sch. 57. Security problem 60. Compass dir.

1

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Generated by http://www.opensky.ca/sudoku on Wed Nov 15 19:38:18 2017 GMT. Enjoy!

6


The Silhouette

www.thesil.ca | Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017

| 23

Sports Back on track

Although they were initially missing from the U Sports Top 10, the men’s volleyball team remains a force to be reckoned with Griffin Marsh Contributor

The McMaster men’s volleyball team, the Ontario University Athletics defending champions, produced a dominant weekend of matches at Windsor and Western. This is how the team initially intended to start the season before their first OUA game resulted in a shocking loss. The OUA volleyball season is long. It is challenging and strong performances are asked of teams quickly. These are the lessons that the volleyball team is grappling with as the 20172018 season begins to pick up speed. Now five games into the season, the Marauders sit at a record of 4-1 coming off of a weekend double header on the road at Windsor and Western. In Windsor on Saturday, the Marauders swept the Lancers clean, taking the match 3-0. At Western on Nov. 12, McMaster fought for a five set victory, taking the fifth and deciding set 15-13. This was a much-needed bounce back for the Marauders, who sat at 2-1 coming into the weekend. This included an eye-opening loss at home to the Ryerson Rams in the season opener. Consistency is key for coach Dave Preston, which does not come overnight. “I really like the way we are starting to play,” said Preston. “I am not sure I could have said that a couple of weeks ago. I think our efficiency and quality can start to improve a lot, but I do not think there is a coach in the country who could disagree with that for any of their teams.” For the Marauders, this season has been a roller coaster so far. Following the challenging loss to Ryerson, McMaster won both its next two matches against Waterloo and Guelph in very different fashions. “Waterloo was the full package,” said Preston. “Then Guelph was kind of a wash

because we played two good sets and two average sets. So right now, I think we are pretty much average.” What was clear in talking to Preston is that no one in that dressing room is striving to be average. “For us to go from low to super high to average, as a coach, those are rides I that I do not really want to be on,” Preston said. Shifting the focus back to this past weekend, that search for consistency and excellence in play seemed to begin to express itself. This notably emerged against Windsor, who came into the match ranked fifth in the country. According to Preston, this was no small feat as Windsor boasts two of the best outside hitters in the country in Pierce Johnson and Brad Gyemi. Against McMaster, Gyemi was the most effective, scoring 13 points. Yet neither player could easily solve the Marauder defence, a huge key to their success. The Marauders also finished the Windsor match with a strong middle presence, strong defensive performances and continued to work to limit the serving errors — three places that hurt McMaster against Ryerson. That makes three road wins in a row for McMaster, something that coach Preston believes to be of great importance. While the results against Windsor and Western may suggest a different reality for this team, the casual fan may have noticed that McMaster found itself outside the U Sports Top 10 this week for the first time in many years. When this was raised with coach Preston, he was quick to put the panic button back into the drawer and explain that even when the things have been excellent in previous seasons, the Top 10 was never a point of discussion for this program.

C/O ALISTAIR BOULBY

“I think people use the Top 10 for a variety of reasons,” Preston explained. “Some use it to validate, some use it to motivate, some use it to market.” Coach Preston also clarified that there is a new ranking system being employed by U Sports this year, called aptly, the Volleyball Ranking System. The VRS combines your results, your opponents’ results and your opponents’ opponents’ results, including the margin of victory within each match, to determine a mathematical ranking. This system is much more controlled and unbiased compared to the coach’s poll that had been employed in previous

years. It also allows for unity between the Top 10 rankings and the eventual National Championship seedings when those are released during the playoffs. What that means today is that there is very little data on this Marauder team, having played their pre-season against non-U Sports programs, and the data that does exist may not be totally representative of the whole picture. Either way, this is not phasing Preston and his team. “We do not think of ourselves as a good team because others think that as well,” explained Preston. “We think of ourselves as a good team because we know what we are

capable of and what we want to play.” Following wins in Windsor and Western, I may have to agree with him. This season may not have initially gone according to plan, but this team will find its groove. When it does, the OUA should watch out, because this team remains primed to compete for an OUA and U Sports Championship this season and well into the future. The next step in that search for its groove is Nov. 19, as McMaster travels to Brock to face the Badgers at 4 p.m. @theSilhouette


24 |

Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017 | www.thesil.ca

SPORTS

Marauder on and off the field

OUA women’s soccer second-team all star Mary Craig reflects on her experience as a gay athlete

Mary Craig Contributor

When I was 16 I experienced two milestones in my life. The first was being part of a team that won a Women’s Soccer Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championship title. The second was coming out as gay. Both of these had a major impact on my life at the time, and still influence my life today. In life people always look to categorize themselves and others, and this tends to make people believe that we can only belong to one “box” or the other. For me, being a soccer player and being gay are not two separate parts of me, but both part of my identity as a whole. I personally had a very positive and accepting coming out experience, which I am very lucky and grateful to have had. My family and friends showed

KYLE WEST / PHOTO REPORTER

me unconditional love and support at the time, and I was never excluded or ostracized for being gay during my high school years of playing sports. However, when it was time for me to attend McMaster to play soccer at the university level, I was still afraid my teammates, coaches and school would not be as accepting of me being an openly gay athlete. When you move away from home to attend university, there are a number of obstacles all students face. There is the challenge of getting used to the newness of living on your own in addition to adapting to a new academic level. Plus you’re trying to make new friends, take care of yourself, keep in touch with family and try to stay active, all of which is far from easy. As a student-athlete I had to keep all of those

things in mind while also learning how to balance them with training, workouts and film sessions. On top of all of this, I was feared that me being a lesbian would not fit into my new environment. I knew that being myself was something that could be seen as different from the “norm” and that feeling terrified me. When you are in high school you recognize or know

everyone around you. In university, every day you see and meet new faces from different walks of life. This could either mean you encounter more people who are open-minded, or unfortunately meet those people who are closed-minded. I feared the latter. Like many others, I was scared to come to university because I didn’t know how much of myself I had to be in order to be accepted.


SPORTS | 25

www.thesil.ca | Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017

Would my team be awkward around me? Would they make me feel uncomfortable for being a lesbian? It may seem absurd to some to think like this in this day and age, but these were the thoughts running through my mind. Luckily for me when I came to Mac, I found out I had no reason to be terrified. McMaster University, especially McMaster Athletics could not have been more welcoming. My teammates, coaches and other student-athletes displayed acceptance and inclusion in every aspect. By choosing to use inclusive language and the support they constantly give me, or seeing rainbow stickers on doors that signify safe spaces around campus and Ron Joyce Stadium all help make me feel more welcome. The David Braley Athletic Centre doubles as a second home for me at times, and the facility itself is somewhere I feel comfortable being myself and expressing my sexuality. The facility establishes a statement of dignity and inclusion that aims to create a safe space and value all human differences. These statements may not mean much to most, but this is something that I genuinely feel as a student-athlete at McMaster University. I am grateful to have former

teammates who paved the way for gay soccer players like myself and played a huge role in helping me feel more comfortable in who I am. This as well as the clubs and events on campus that make being queer visible, and celebrate the differences among us as students are so amazing to have. Today I proudly rep both Mac pride and Marauder pride. I haven’t always been proud to be gay, but it is something that I have learned to become over time. I know not everyone has the opportunity to attend or play the sport they love at an institution that makes them feel included, and for that I will never take my time attending McMaster for granted. @theSilhouette

Mary Craig #22


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SPORTS

www.thesil.ca | Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017

| 27

Losing and learning The men’s basketball team was able to keep up in Toronto, but continue to fall short when it matters the most

Coach Patrick Tatham looks on as Mac has one win in five OUA games. GRANT HOLT / PRODUCTION COORDINATOR

Jessica Carmichael Sports Reporter

The men’s basketball team was down in Toronto last weekend for some regular season action, facing off against the Ryerson Rams and University of Toronto’s Varsity Blues. The season started off with a strong win over Guelph, but the Marauders arrived at their weekend in Toronto with a different mindset after back-to-back games to the York Lions and Queen’s Gaels. “The guys came in with a lot of confidence today,” said head coach Patrick Tatham following the Ryerson game. “We had our ego’s bruised last week with Queen’s and York, and I challenged the guys to play better defence, both team defence and one-on-one.” For Tatham, the former head coach of the Rams and 2016 Ontario University Athletics Coach of the Year, a win against his former team after two crushing losses was all he wanted. “It’s always weird coming back to where you actually started everything and sitting on the opposite side,” said Tatham. “Coaching against coach Rana, who coached me when I was 14 and 15 years old, and playing

against some of the kids that I recruited four or five years ago was just an amazing feeling. But the best feeling would be getting that W.” The Marauders went into the game knowing what it would mean to win for their head coach, but are also aware that they always need to play with a winning mentality no matter who they face. “We understand that [Ryerson] loves him as a coach and will be glad to see him back even if he’s on the other side, but it doesn’t change how we prepare for the game,” said first-year starter Kareem Collins. “We are going into this game hoping we can win just like any other game.” Collins is one of the 2016 recruits that both Tatham and former head coach Amos Connolly brought in to revamp the Marauders. Miles Seward, a former National Collegiate Athletics Association Division I player at the University of Northern Colorado, Kitchener natives Sasha Simic and Tyrick Thompson and former Carleton Raven Sheldon McIntosh are among the team’s new faces in this transitional year. “They really took [playing with more of a defensive mindset] to heart this week in

practice and it really showed today,” said Tatham. “We were not only physical and aggressive on the glass, but also defensively and offensively.” Mac was able to lead by a marginal difference early on in the first half for the first time this season. This was largely due to newcomer Seward, who is already one of the OUA’s leading scorers, averaging 25 points per game. The Marauders were able to end the first quarter 25-20, surprising both the Rams and the several Rams fans attending the school’s Blue & Gold Night game at Coca-Cola Court. The Marauders were not able to maintain the lead for long after the second half, when Ryerson was able to outscore Mac, and pull ahead to a 44-41 lead in the third quarter. For the rest of the game, the two teams went back and forth matching each other shot for shot. For veteran player David McCulloch, playing with more discipline was a huge part of the team’s mindset coming into the game against Ryerson. “We’ve been pretty undisciplined for the last few games,” said McCulloch. “So we really needed to control their tempo and play the game we wanted to play.” The Marauders executed

their game plan extremely well throughout the whole game, but were not able to make the most out of their opportunities when it really mattered. The win started to look in Mac’s favour as Matt Quiring was able to tie the game 69-69 at the 30-second mark. But the Marauders were unable to get the lead because of missed free throws and a stolen inbounds pass. It was the worst time possible for the Marauders to make such fundamental mistakes after playing extremely disciplined the entire game. “We really felt like we had the game,” said Seward, who ended the game with a career-high 29 points. “So losing because of our lack of discipline and inability to execute when it mattered the most is unacceptable and what we will be focusing on tomorrow.” Unfortunately for Mac, the same problems followed them into their next game. They were able to start the game off strong against the Varsity Blues, but lost the lead by the the end of the first quarter. The Mac men were unable to catch up for the remainder of the game. Reminiscent of their previous match, the Marauders still continued to make mistakes playing catch up. To make

matters worse for Mac, Tatham was ejected from the game after receiving two technical fouls for disagreeing with a referee’s call. Although McCulloch was able to finish the game with a team and career-high of 32 points, the game ultimately just slipped out of the team’s grasp in a close 92-88 loss. Simple mistakes make the biggest differences in tight games like this. This was the fourth straight loss on the road for the Marauders, but a valuable learning experience for both the team and the coaching staff. With the next two games back at Burridge Gym, the Marauders hope to maintain their 1-0 home win record. One of the most valuable takeaways from their weekend in Toronto is that the Marauders have what it takes to hang with the best of the best. As they look to face the Laurentian Voyageurs and the Nipissing Lakers this upcoming weekend, they need to not only use their upsets to ignite a fire in them, but get back to basics so they can defend their home court. @jaaycarmichael


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THURSDAY

THE

HAMILTON SPECULATOR Member of the Canadian sof tball team since 1934

November 16, 2017

NOTSPEC.COM

Student union meeting is still going on I have fallen asleep five times, and I regret ever signing on to cover this

SAINT PETER VEGAS There is no Vegas here, that’s for sure

It started out so innocently. A basic meeting with basic agenda items, they said. It will be fun, they said. I will not regret all of the decisions in my life that led me to being at the meeting, they said. It kept going on and on. Question after question, motion after motion and the only things that progressed forward were thoughts that the meeting may never end. That realization was only after the fourth hour too, but I thought I was being melodramatic at the time. I am stuck in this room. The live stream went down by hour five. The file was also corrupted, so the only footage of this sequence of events will be a 15-minute period break near the beginning of the meeting. By hour eight, hunger pains afflicted the union. An hour-long food break was announced, but it took half an hour to motion for it. Many of the members took the opportunity to run as far away as they could. I should have joined them. This would be the last easy chance to escape from the Lord of the Flies-esque hellhole. By hour 15, the first few symptoms of exhaustion from a lack of sleep started to become evident. Some of the remaining members bragged that they should be able to stay up as long as possible. The legendary 24-hour meeting that took place a few years ago weighed in their minds, and a former representative assembly would not upstage them. The doors were then locked

The meeting room is kind of like this, but with less lighting, worse chairs, a weird colour scheme and bad ventilation.

from the inside with a key held by Charles Ibay, who insisted that everyone stick it out just a little longer to get everything on the minutes done. This was a massive mistake. By hour 26, multiple members of the union had passed out. Had there been a vote, these members would have been considered abstains. More food was finally ordered for delivery, but the delivery guy got lost while trying to figure out where everyone was on campus. It would be another four hours before he arrived. Ibay left briefly to get the food. One member managed to get past the temporary barricade set up next to the doors by the vice presidents. They used another member as a springboard to jump over it. This member then slept through their next few lectures, then

POLL: What was your favourite meeting? The one with you in it

Watching Netflix in meetings of one

Going to the bar and meeting with your favourite alcohol

That one meeting where we planned times for other meetings

That one I had with the two bad groupmates

Office meetings

Where we discussed whether a poptart is a sandwich

All of the above

realized they were unable to call for help as it was never motioned for during the meeting. By hour 42, the windows were blacked out and barred as the sun was considered to be too bright and distracting. Oddly enough, this was by far the quickest motion of the meeting as hysteria settled in. By hour 45, all forms of technology were burned in a ritualistic sacrifice to the McMaster Gods. The hope was that Datrick Peane, the late John Candy and Eugene Levy would hear the prayers of the assembly and grant them the strength to get through the minutes. Every update since has been provided to the staff for publication through written notes slipped under the door. By hour 48, the door was unlocked, but no one left. Everyone embraced their new lives

inside the room. They had come too far, and been away from society for too long. Freedom is a myth. This is our home now. By hour 55, cannibalism was considered, but lost in a narrow vote once people realized they could just order more food. It is now hour 100. It has been three days since I have seen sunlight. The room has split into two distinct factions: nonSTEM faculties versus STEM. It is worth noting that this was almost always the case anyway. The next meeting is Nov. 26, but only assuming this one ends by then. Time limits for meetings, more regulated breaks and other sensible suggestions like that are not on the docket, but the idea for nap pods dedicated for meeting use only is.

Tweets to the Editor My house locks got changed and my parents yelled at me never to come back.

I remember the 30-year meeting. Got married and had a few kids during it.

- Jason, 34, likes to cry wolf

- Timmy, 52, representative assembly alumni

Disclaimer: The Hamilton Speculator is a work of satire and fiction and should not under any circumstances be taken seriously. Remember to like and subscribe, and let us know in the comments below what you think.

INSIDE I PLAYED FOX SERIOUSLY ONCE IN SMASH BROS. AND NOW MY WRISTS ARE IN AGONY A2 THE MILWAUKEE BUCKS LOGO DEMONSTRATES THE DECLINE INTO FASCISM OVER TIME A3 IS A POP-TART A SANDWICH? SURVEY SAYS YES (SAMPLE SIZE OF ONE) B2 I TRIED REALLY HARD TO MAKE A GOOD PUN WITH PAWS AND PAUSE BUT I AM KIND OF OUT OF ENERGY SO WE WILL FIGURE IT OUT BY NEXT WEEK C4 AN HOUR-LONG AWARDS CEREMONY WITH A TWO HOUR AFTER-PARTY AT THE BAR TELLS YOU ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PRIORITIES D1 CHAOTIC NEUTRAL FOR BEGINNERS D3 PER ISSUE: Too many references to sleep, apparently. It has been a weird, consistent theme for the last little while, but I guess that makes sense near the end of the term. Stay healthy out there.


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