The Strand | Volume 59, Issue 10

the

strand VICTORIA UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER VOLUME 59, ISSUE 10 | MARCH 20, 2017

This year’s VUSAC elections are uncontested, but why should you care?

news Two Presidents, no longer the precedent

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features Meet your VUSAC candidates

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editorial Whose bubble is it, anyway?

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EDITOR | ERIN CALHOUN

NEWS

@STRANDPAPER

VUSAC revises constitution, removing co-presidency

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hana nikcevic

carol eugene park editorial assistant

The 2017 VUSAC Spring elections package clarifies that there will no longer be an option for co-presidency.

Before VUSAC co-presidents (2016), Stuart Norton and Rahul Christofferson, and VUSAC co-presidents (2015), Ben Atkins and Gabriel Zoltan-Johan, VUSAC presidency was limited to one student.

During VUSAC’s meeting on January 20th, 2017, council discussed the rationale behind removing co-presidency and reinstating a single president. VUSAC co-president, Stuart Norton, explained that co-presidency was a reaction to the heavy workload. He stated that the solution to the problem should have been in reallocating the workload to the vice-presidents, instead of splitting work and opportunities in half. A straw poll was taken and the majority of council agreed upon removing co-presidency. VUSAC co-president, Rahul Christoffersen, was absent from the preliminary meet-

ing that discussed the removal of co-presidency.

The proposal for VUSAC co-presidency was briefly discussed in the winter of 2015, and during a meeting on February 6th, 2015, former VPO, Enxhi Kondi, outlined the potential changes and the impacts of a shared presidency.

Co-presidency was introduced mainly to lessen the president’s workload who, above all, was still a student, working towards receiving a degree. Rowan DeBues, 2014 VUSAC president, revealed that in 2008, co-presidency was proposed but then shut down. He further stated that the change in VUSAC portfolio and “added external advocacy” would allow for co-presidency to be successful for upcoming years.

On February 27th, 2015, proposal for co-presidency was approved.

In an email correspondence, Christoffersen responded to the significance of reinstating a single presidency: “The

Co-President role was created to lesson the workload on the President, but while there were benefits to have a Co-President – for example the support that Stuart and I have given each other during rough patches. But given that much of the President’s role involves sitting on committees and attending meetings, both with student organizations and admin, it ended up being just as much work because we still had to be constantly updating each other and keeping each other in the loop.”

What was once introduced to alleviate the president’s workload and responsibility, resulted in miscommunication, split opportunities, and an impractical solution to a problem that should have been resolved through reallocation within VUSAC. Whether the revised constitution will or will not allow for stronger presidency is uncertain and will remain as such until the next VUSAC elections in 2018.

Liberals promise substantive rent control reform Promise follows New Democrat’s proposed bill to close rent hike “loophole” alex resendes the dialog

Following the announcement of an Ontario New Democrats (ONDP) private members’ bill, the Liberal government has pledged to reform rent control in the province.

In a statement, Liberal housing minister Chris Ballard called the rising housing costs that face Ontarians “unacceptable.”

“That’s why my staff are already developing a plan to address unfair rises in rental costs by delivering substantive rent control reform in Ontario as part of an ongoing review of the Residential Tenancies Act,” he said.

The statement was issued hours after Peter Tabuns, an ONDP MPP announced that he was introducing a private members’ bill to change the province’s rent control laws so that residential units built after 1991 will be subject to limits on rent increases.

Once a lease has expired, it’s currently legal for rent to be increased at the landlord’s discretion in residential rental units built after Nov. 1, 1991.

For Tabuns, having no rent control for newer residential buildings is a “loophole” that needs to be closed.

“It doesn’t seem justifiable to continue having a two-tier rental market with people in older buildings being protected by rent control and new people, many of them young and trying to get into the housing market, not having any protection at all,” said Tabuns, who represents the riding of Toronto-Danforth.

Rent control is a government policy where the rate of rent increases is restricted to help keep housing affordable for tenants and to stop market fluctuations from disrupting existing renter’s tenancies.

In 1997, the Progressive Conservative government led

by Mike Harris enacted the Tenant Protection Act, which repealed the Rent Control Act alongside other landlord and tenant-related laws. Residential units built before Nov. 1, 1991 had rent controls grandfathered in, while those built afterward did not.

For pre-1991 Ontario rentals, the provincial government sets a yearly permissible rate increase linked to the Ontario Consumer Price Index. For this year, units built before 1991 were permitted a rent increase of 1.5 percent.

“Right now, if you move into a building built after 1991 as a tenant, you don’t have any rent protection at all,” said Tabuns. “So we’re hearing stories about landlords who are raising rent 30 to 40, (and) in some cases 100 per cent. What this bill will do is bring all rental units under rent control legislation so people will have some protection.”

For students, dramatic rent hikes and housing pressures can affect them in more ways than one.

“On one hand, we’re seeing students pay an arm and a leg just to live; on the other hand, we see a lot of students opting to live with their families and paying sky-high transit fees,” said Gayle McFadden, national executive representa-

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benson kua, creative commommons

tive for the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario.

Student residences, like George Brown College’s the George, are not subject to rent-control laws. But McFadden, who is optimistic about what Tabun’s bill proposes, said that simple measures, such as including residences under Ontario landlord and tenant laws, would solve some affordability issues students face.

Tabuns private members’ bill is set to be introduced on Monday, March 20.

With files from Steve Cornwell

NEWS@THESTRAND.CA

NEWS

THE STRAND | 20 MARCH 2017

UofT hosts first Powwow in over 20 years Students gather to celebrate indigenous culture erin calhoun news editor

On March 12th, UofT hosted the first Powwow event on campus in 20 years. The event featured traditional food, dances, and education on indigenous cultures.

The Indigenous Studies Students’ Union began to organize the event mid-November, 2016. Chairman of the event, Jennifer Sylvester, told The Strand in November that the purpose of the Powwow was to celebrate the “wide range of Indigenous culture at the University, so that we are all equally represented.”

The flag bearer for the Powwow was a selected student leader, Zachary Biech. Biech finished his undergraduate degree in Indigenous studies and is now a first-year law student. Notably, he is a descendant of the legendary Chief Poundmaker. While growing up, Bliech claims he had little contact with Plains Cree communities.

In 2015, Beich and two other students decided it was time for proper representation for students claiming or supporting indigeneity. Thus, the Indigenous Student’s Union was constitutionalized.

Taking place at the Athletic Centre, student participation included: performances from smoke, hoop, jingle,

and Aztec dancers. Along with dancing, there was drumming and singing throughout the event. The Powwow also featured workshops where people were invited to learn about Indigenous cultures.

UofT is one of the first universities to act accordingly to the Truth and Reconciliation act. President Meric Gertler commissioned a report to be done by UofT’s Steering Committee for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in a response to a nation-wide report on reconciliation by the TRC of Canada in 2015.

The Powwow recognized missing and murdered indigenous women, whom were honored with a dance by UofT undergrad, Nichole Leveck.

The last event, similar in nature to the Powwow, was the First nations House 20th anniversary, which brought out nearly 200 people, including government officials.

Those who attended the March 2017 Powwow included: Carolyn Bennett, UofT alumna, and federal minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs. Susan McCahan, vice provost, innovations in undergraduate education, was also in attendance.

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Campus (re)conciliations: first listenings

Friday March 24th, 2017 8:30 am - 4:00 pm Victoria College, Alumni Hall a free conference to discuss the role of the university in responding to the truth and reconciliation commission’s

94 calls to action

spaces are limited so please register online as soon as possible, at

uoft.me/firstlistenings

Congratulations!

UofT generates an expert panel in response to sexual violence policy Panel invented to discuss and further education and awareness in prevention of sexual violence

This past week, The Strand elected Editors-in-Chief for 2017-2018, Molly Kay & Elena Senechal-Becker

And we’re hiring!

maia kachan associate news editor

Vice-President and Provost, Cheryl Regehr, has gathered an “Expert Panel on Education and Prevention of Sexual Violence.” The new panel’s mandate is to provide Regehr with principles and foundations in which to support sexual violence prevention. The panel has also been founded to advance current programs designed to combat sexual violence.

Students, staff, and faculty are able to provide feedback at different consultation meetings, running from March 15th to 20th. The principles of the panel are outlined in the draft for consultation of the “Education and Prevention of Sexual Violence.” The purpose of the draft is to be a base educational resource for all UofT community members.

The draft includes initiatives such as the provision of advanced education for students on the subject of sexual violence, aimed in particular at elected student leaders.

Education will include sessions that provide awareness on how to support peers in situations of sexual violence and how to prevent students from experiencing these instances in the future. Assistance will also be provided to students in regards to the process of filing a report on situations of sexual violence.

The expert panel encourages UofT members to review the draft and provide feedback on potential areas of improvement or where there are gaps in the information.

Review will remain open to the public until April 10th, 2017.

Developed by a committee of students, staff, and faculty, the Final Report of the Presidential and Provostial Advisory Committee on Preventing and Responding to Sexual Violence was released February 2nd, 2016, by UofT. The goal of the committee was to discuss recommendations for preventing and properly responding to sexual violence at UofT. In furthering Regehr’s memorandum from April 6th, 2016—which was a call for members of the expert panel—three groups have been established to discuss education and prevention tactics. These groups are: Expert Panel on Sexual Violence Policies, Expert Panel on Education and Prevention of Sexual Violence, and Sexual Violence Survey Climate Advisory Board. The inclusion of staff, undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty members is purposed to strengthen and coordinate university procedures and education on all three campuses.

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EDITORIAL

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the strand v o l u m e

erik preston

editor@thestrand.ca

alexandra scandolo

news

erin calhoun

news@thestrand.ca opinions@thestrand.ca tanuj ashwin kumar

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features@thestrand.ca molly kay

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tyler biswurm ainsley doell amanda gosio grace king sabrina papas carol eugene park

contributors carol eugene park, harrison wade, hiba siddiqui, kathleen chen, luca bellisario, maia kachan, mariah ricciuto, rebecca gao, tamara zayachkowski, ted fraser, zahavah kay copy editors ainsley doell, alexandra scandolo, erik preston, heather mackay design team

The bubbling effect Recognizing that talking about the insularity of student politics leads to stunted engagement alexandra scandolo

shailee koranne

opinions

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EDITOR@THESTRAND.CA

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editors-in-chief

arts

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF: ERIK PRESTON AND ALEXANDRA SCANDOLO

annika hocieniec, sonya roma illustrations lynn hong photos hana nikcevic, jenna liao, matt finner, rosa kumar cover design alexandra scandolo, genevieve wakutz

The Strand has been the newspaper of record for Victoria University since 1953. It is published 12 times a year with a circulation of 1200 and is distributed in Victoria University buildings and across the University of Toronto’s St. George campus.

The Strand flagrantly enjoys its editorial autonomy and is committed to acting as an agent of constructive social change. As such, we will not publish material deemed to exhibit racism, sexism, homo/transphobia, ableism, or other oppressive language.

The Strand is a proud member of the Canadian University Press (CUP).

Our offices are located at 150 Charles St. W., Toronto, ON, M5S 1K9. Please direct enquiries by email to editor@thestrand.ca. Submissions are welcome and may be edited for taste, brevity, and legality.

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editor-in-chief

This year’s VUSAC Elections Forum brings up important questions about the future of Victoria College’s student government—but only to an audience of just over 400 people.

VUSAC’s Spring elections have been in full force since February 27th, when nomination packages became available to all Vic students. When the nomination period closed on March 13th and the list of candidates became available on the Facebook group “Spring Elections Forum,” Chief Returning Officer Taylor Cenac announced that all positions, save for Vice President Internal and Board of Regents, were uncontested or unfilled. Following VPI candidate Alexa Breininger’s withdrawal from the race, the Victoria College community is more than likely looking at its council for 2017-2018.

The Facebook forum immediately picked up on the odd nature of these elections, particularly that most council positions have only one person running, and in the case of Sustainability Commissioner and Vice President Student Organizations, no one. These positions represent the entirety of Victoria College’s student body, through voting on behalf of students at council meetings and by planning events with student funds. Questions have been posted daily in the group since March 13th, and have brought up important issues in regards to accountability, equity, and student services. Most questions were asked with the hope that the only candidates in the race can respond to the challenges facing the student body effectively in the year to come.

On the forum, VCU member Nickolas Shyshkin noted that the group has an incredibly small audience in contrast to the Victoria College population and asked, “What are you doing right now during your campaign to inform students who are not in this forum, not on Facebook, disengaged, or disenchanted with the entire process of the election and student politics?” The forum holds most, if not all, of the candidates’ platforms, while many others use their personal Facebook or Instagram pages to campaign. For the over 2000 members of the VCU not in the group, most of the uncontested campaigns and the forum’s posts are completely unavailable.

The “Vic Bubble,” the self-named and ever-evolving small group of involved students at Vic, has come up in elections prior to this year. This year, the discourse has expanded far beyond the three posts found in last year’s forum. While a worthwhile discussion amongst those involved at Vic, there is something ironic in talking circles about the bubble when a small-sized elections group perpetuates it (even taking up pages of The Strand). Trying to discuss the exclusivity of Vic results in a strange cyclicality: are those aware of the bubble only those within in it?

I began my involvement at Vic through VUSAC. My game plan for Open Vic in May 2013 was to march up to then-President Jelena Savic, introduce myself, and ask to join the Listserv for updates on first-year positions. Within the first few weeks, I knew I wanted to run for Member-at-Large, which has since become the Councillor position. Reflecting on this with my first-year roommate, she recalled having no idea that those positions were open until I mentioned that I was already running. She hadn’t been in Toronto for Open Vic—that Listserv, while a helpful tool to connect those already interested, only informed those that had been dead set on joining before school had even started.

Joining a club, levy, or student government means committing time beyond school, but in effect, their entire purpose is to function as an educational—and completely optional— addition to your degree. The purpose of these groups on campus is to help you get experience beyond the classroom. While it would be to the benefit of organizations to pay their volunteers, most of these unpaid positions require a willingness to work on something as a passion-project. With VUSAC especially, the accountability extends far beyond just “doing your part”—there’s the necessity to be a representative for everyone at Vic, especially those beyond the immediate, most involved group.

“People shift in and out of VUSAC, and the ephemerality of our roles is the reason there is a lack of systemic change,” said Shailee Koranne, current Communications Coordinator

and Equity Commissioner candidate in a statement on the group. Koranne highlighted a discrepancy by stating how pressure differs for the council: “While we take on these jobs on our own accord, we are not experts—we are your peers. We are learning as we go. By the time we get the hang of it, we are moving on from council. And the cycle repeats itself.” Things tend to shift slowly in student organizations due to turnover.

Since my own time on the council two years ago, VUSAC has grown immensely, though, for many, it may not seem like enough. Their transparency, advocacy, and outreach has been worked on over time, but it has been a slow process, due to the arrested development in discussing “Bubble Politics.”

VCU member, Thomas Trimble stated in the group, “the easy answer is to blame the ‘bubble,’ or to blame the office space that isn’t large enough to accomodate [sic] any number of students anyway, but that doesn’t nearly go far enough. It’s especially apparent this year, since truth be told you are all already seen as being part of the same social circle, that the system isn’t working. That you are friends is not in itself a bad thing, but it shows the problem, that one group is seen to run the adminstration [sic], quite honestly to the detriment of newcomers.” There can only be a handful of people on a student government, it’s simply meant to be a small-scale representation of the whole. After spending time with a group for so long, a bubble will kind of just… form. The standard to which VUSAC must be held makes this so problematic, but debating the bubble’s existence doesn’t affect change.

Steve Warner, the current Vice President External, said poignantly in a post while prefacing a question about whether accountability measures can engage students, “[It’s] not to say that accountability measures aren’t important—they obviously are—but it’s my experience that people care more about student governments when we show what impact we actually have in everyday life, rather than when trying to engage people in politics they just don’t care about.”

trying to discuss the exclusivity of vic results in a strange cyclicality : are those aware of the bubble only those within in it ?

Trying to figure out “Bubble Politics” only continues to perpetuate them. Outreach has been getting better each year in terms of VUSAC’s expansion, but there is still work to be done on many fronts. Like anything else, there are faults in the system, but those reaching out to be involved should be doing so to effect change. Talking circles about the “bubble” only continues to be self-involved, especially while there are so many Vic students on campus who may not even know there is a bubble to pop. Outreach starts when that self-involvement takes a breather and focuses on engagement, instead.

EDITOR: TANUJ ASHWIN KUMAR

SCIENCE

SCIENCE@THESTRAND.CA

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Humans may have helped create the Sahara Desert tanuj kumar science editor photo

Climate change is a hot topic. Decades of data have shown that worldwide temperatures, on average, are rising and the potential for ecological devastation is a reality that places the blame squarely on our environmental negligence. This negligence continues to this day as the United States attempts to shut down its own Environmental Protection Agency out of short-sighted arrogance, and the monumental power of capitalist greed. But in order to understand the impact of climate change and what makes our post-industrial global warming so dangerous, it is important to understand the history—and prehistory—of how humans have interacted with their environment. As an apex species since the late Cenozoic, humanity has altered its environment to suit its needs, even thousands of years prior to the development of agriculture. Of course, the environment has also—disproportionately up until today—shaped humanity’s course. Nature is powerful, after all.

One of the most puzzling situations is the existence of the Sahara Desert. If you were to fly to Algeria with a trusty palaeontologist friend to visit the dried lake beds deep in the arid, rocky south—the heart of the desert—you’d be startled to see clear evidence of thriving plant and vegetable matter that had once existed there thousands of years ago. From paleontological records to the earliest artistic depictions of the humans that lived there, the consensus is that the Sahara was once a wetter and more humid place, during the “African Humid Period.” So, what happened?

Around 10,000 to 8,000 years ago, pastoralist humans first started migrating around what is today the Sahara, bringing some basic farming and domesticated livestock with them. At the same time, the Sahara began to shift towards becoming much more arid. Thus, we get to a “the chicken or the egg” situation; did the environmental shift from the African Humid Period lead to humans changing their pastoral and agrarian behaviours? Or . . . Was it perhaps humanity that had a role in changing the environment with their behaviours? When you look at how enormous the Sahara is, this sounds absolutely absurd. Sure, today we are close to destroying the planet because of industrialization on a global scale, but how could humans change such a vast swathe of land in the early Neolithic era?

Indeed, scientific orthodoxy believed the idea that humans were influenced by their environment. However, Professor David Wright of Seoul National University has recently brought about a more anthropocentric hypothesis, backed with models using prehistoric, historic, and paleontological data. While not directly implicating humanity, the data shows that humans played a majorly active role.

Current academic orthodoxy presents the desertification of the Sahara as something outside of human control.

Small changes in the Earth’s orbital period influenced and weakened monsoons. With less rain, the Sahara biomass reduced, which led to the first small patches of scrubland.

This in turn increased the ability for the region to essentially reflect solar radiation and sunlight brightness (it’s “albedo”), which started a feedback loop of further helping weaken monsoons and warm the region. The result accelerated, helped in small parts by humans who shifted towards pastoralism and basic agriculture around the Nile, and, as a result, the Sahara rapidly turned into a desert.

Wright claims that this hypothesis, when looked at in detail, has some internal issues and doesn’t provide strong enough arguments on how the influence of the monsoons effectively accelerated the desertification. He claims that the “patchiness” of desertification happening in different times and places, influenced by various regional microclimactic conditions, cannot be fully causally explained by this monsoon-feedback-loop hypothesis. Instead, Wright believes that, while the external environmental effects made the Sahara ecosystems fragile, it was the influx of humans to the region which caused irreversible ecological change, moving it past a “tipping point” that led to its rapid desertification.

The idea of an ecological “tipping point” is conceptually simple, but bears universal relevance. When a number of internal and external factors combine together in certain ways, they act as stimuli for a biological ecosystem, which, in turn, reacts to these factors. However, when all of these factors are just “too much,” ecological change propagates and accelerates—kind of like rolling a ball up a hill, reaching the peak or “tipping point,” and then watching it roll down. Today, global warming puts us at a worldwide tipping point that is extreme in scale and intensity for its ability to rapidly change not just one ecosystem, but entire biomes and global biotic systems simultaneously.

Traditionally though, these ecological shifts are relegated to ecosystems, and sometimes insufficient paleontological data can lead to incorrect conclusions.

Wright thus uses his collection of paleontological, prehistoric, and historic data as the basis of his explanation. He states that three criteria would need to be met for the anthropocentric hypothesis to have credence: the system must already be weakened and close to change; the system’s internal factors would not be as strong as external factors when reaching the tipping point; and human patterns of movement, pastoralism, and agrarianism must synchronize with known patterns of Sahara desertification.

There is wide consensus that the ecological mechanisms of the Sahara were weakened in some way or another, particularly because of the weakened monsoons and the feedback loop. Where Wright differs is the impact of these and their patterns of desertification. According to paleontological data, the first signs of patchy desertification started from the northern parts of the Sahara and eventually moved rapidly west and south, away from the northern Sahara and the Nile.

With a weakened Sahara, it would be easy for any external factor to act as a tipping point. Why didn’t internal

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luca galuzzi

environmental factors accelerate these? Wright outlines various microclimate examples of “desertification patchiness,” which imply the monsoon-feedback-loop as an “internal factor,” not being strong enough to change the Sahara so rapidly. Instead, he points to prehistoric and historic evidence of human pastoralism changing landscapes, drawing upon the earliest records of landscape manipulation up to the recent decimation of the grasslands in the Americas through settler-colonialism. Humans throughout history have had the power to alter landscape in various ways, and would serve as a sufficient external factor to change at least small, but significant, parts of the Sahara.

Decisively, Wright combines this hypothesis with existing patterns of floral change in ecological models of the prehistoric Sahara, showing that external factors would be necessary to reach a “tipping point.”

What about human activity? Large-scale models have shown that sediment runoff from the Nile progressively increased around the end of the African Humid Period, which can be traced to increased farming and pastoralism.

Furthermore, prehistoric floral data shows that an abundance of Saharan plants were quickly wiped out in favour of scrubland and biomass homogenization, characteristic of what humans tend to do when bringing grazing mammals and conducting small-scale farming in uninhabited land. All of this data follows the general pathway of Saharan desertification, and Wright concludes that this third criterion is also met, cementing humans as an external causative factor. Of course, humans didn’t rapidly and intentionally desert-ify the Sahara. Rather, Wright argues it was a result of an “apex species” making its own land more productive, taken to the extreme and accelerated by already existing weakened ecological conditions. Thus, Wright argues that the desertification of the Sahara was as much a natural process as other species changing their environments, with external environmental systems like the monsoons intensifying the scale of this change.

While this recent hypothesis will soon be up for further scientific debate and response, it brings us back to the fundamental impacts of climate change. Humans have changed their environments for centuries, even in non or pre-agrarian societies, but, while humans acted as potential causative agents in turning the Sahara into a desert, this was a singular—although large—collection of regional ecosystems. The reality of climate change today is that it smacks the entire planet, and is squarely within the bounds of direct human influence. We have unfortunately destroyed environments for centuries, as this hypothesis has shown us, and we are at a point where this unbridled destruction has caught up with this planet on a global scale. At this point, the effects are irreversible, and we have gone beyond numerous tipping points. The question that remains is: how can we deal with the spectres of our past, and fight against those who believe in the nihilistic destruction of the environment in our future?

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EDITOR | SHAILEE KORANNE

OPINIONS

@STRANDPAPER

Imagining UofT as a state How does U of T compare to the criteria we use to define a nation state? ted fraser opinions associate

photo

The traditional definition of a state as a national entity with defined borders needs to be reimagined. The University of Toronto fulfills all the commonly accepted criteria of a state, albeit with slight adjustments.

Per the state’s official newspaper, The Varsity, the university will take in revenues of $3.13 billion in the 2016/17 fiscal year. This is largely derived from student fees, contributing $1.4 billion. The $3.13 billion value excludes money received at any of the shops and restaurants within UofT’s borders, which would increase it substantially. If we classify these revenues as GDP, the University of Toronto takes in more than Greenland, Djibouti, or the Central African Republic.

However, our debt-to-GDP ratio is unusually high.

Valued at approximately $1 billion, the state’s debt has been a source of headaches in recent years, arguably the reason for rising international student tuition. If we include faculty, students, librarians, TAs, and staff members, there are 111,610 citizens of UofT. This makes for a GDP per capita of $26,879. This would place us 39th internationally, sandwiched between Malaysia and Greece.

With an unelected leader as university president, Meric Gertler, a peculiar form of benign dictatorship is present. Fortunately, the usual symptoms of a cutthroat dictatorship are absent. There are no political purges, media repression, corruption, or famines. Moreover, there are actually numerous governing bodies spread out across campus. From the relatively insignificant role of voluntary house president to paid positions like co-president of VUSAC, students have a myriad of opportunities to contribute to the democratic process.

Immigration to the state is above average, with roughly 16,000 out of 86,000 students coming from abroad. This makes for a multicultural paradise, fitting for a state that is located within the most diverse city in the world.

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rosa kumar

As any UofT student can observe by taking a quick check through their invoice, some of these groups have more political sway than others. The state-funded newspaper, The Varsity, for instance, extracts roughly $2 from each student at the university. VUSAC takes about $28 per

THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO IS A PROSPEROUS UNIVERSITY-STATE LOCATED IN THE HEART OF DOWNTOWN TORONTO. DIVERSE, INNOVATIVE, AND FLOURISHING, THIS QUASI-DICTATORSHIP IS UNEXPECTEDLY PROGRESSIVE AND EGALITARIAN National identification cards are distributed upon arrival. Colloquially known as T-Cards, these cheap pieces of plastic are the most valuable asset of any Varsity Blue.

The card’s make-up is an odd yet endearing amalgamation of a city library card, a driver’s license, and a credit card.

Featuring an inexplicable cameo by the infamous Comic Sans font on the back of the card, these sought-after university passports allow access to services and resources, on and off campus. This includes the state gyms, Robarts after-dark, and even the frat houses on St. George Street.

With over 1,000 clubs and groups to choose from, citizens have a multitude of opportunities to engage in.

Victoria College student. Representatives from each of the subsidized groups secure these subsidies through lobbying and consultation with the appropriate governing body.

The University of Toronto is a prosperous universitystate located in the heart of downtown Toronto. Diverse, innovative, and flourishing, this quasi-dictatorship is unexpectedly progressive and egalitarian. Offering a wide assortment of opportunities for its roughly 110,000 citizens, this untraditional state is a global leader in arts, culture, science, and more.

OPINIONS@THESTRAND.CA

OPINIONS

THE STRAND | 20 MARCH 2017

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#Lets Talk Responsibly Continuing the conversation of #BellLetsTalk zahavah kay contributor

“Bell Let’s Talk” day is an annual occasion that encourages people to speak out about and end the stigma around mental illness.

On this day, any tweet, Instagram post, or text that includes the #BellLetsTalk hashtag will prompt a five-cent donation by Bell to “mental health initiatives.”

The posts surrounding these hashtags display a similar theme. Scrolling through Facebook or Instagram reveals post after post following the same “fallen hero” narrative. These posts usually discuss anxiety, depression, or eating disorders. The person behind the post will retell a genuine and emotional story, followed by an inspirational message surrounding strength, recovery, or self-love.

I am not one to discredit how people heal. Mental health is a personal battle and, for many, being able to talk about it is an important part of the process of healing. That’s their prerogative.

But, at what point do people start wanting and wishing they could participate in this event, receive an outpouring of support and likes, and have people telling them how strong and inspirational they are? We live in a society that craves attention; we manage our own personal brand through multiple social media networks and, once a year, we get to shift this narrative away from “look how amazing my life is” to “look how strong I am.”

We cultivate a culture that both idolizes and vilifies the mentally ill, in two distinct groups. We do this by rewarding stories of certain illness with social media popularity, but also with how we talk about mental illness. We talk about it in the past tense. We hear the stories from the point of view of the survivor and we gloss over the details. Mental illness is ugly. It is dirty, it is unclean, it is painful, it is heartbreaking. But, when we come to talk about our struggle, it takes so much more courage to discuss these aspects than to take a more removed stance.

It is not the responsibility of a mentally ill person to reveal the intimate horrors of their illness, but we should never confuse the hero/survivor narrative with the entire range of mental illnesses or experiences.

All of those who participate in the event have the admirable goal of expanding the conversation on mental illness, and taking away the fear of those who are mentally ill. However, the truth is that, as a society, we aren’t really afraid of people with

anxiety, depression, or eating disorders, yet these are disproportionately the illnesses we hear about on Bell Let’s Talk day. In actuality, we are afraid of those with Bipolar Affective Disorder, Schizophrenia, and personality disorders. We are afraid of the “crazy” people talking to themselves on the subway. We call one another “schizos” or casually say “I’m so bipolar today.” We think homeless people who are speaking nonsensically are going to hurt us, we make fun of manic people dressed in bright colours that sing on the street. In the United States, mentally ill people are ten times more likely to be placed in prison than in state psychiatric hospitals. There are not nearly enough beds in psychiatric wards for all those who need them, and mentally ill people who commit even minor crimes are much more likely to be given jail time, often without treatment. In reality, people suffering from psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia are at a much higher risk of harming themselves than the general public. Because we are uncomfortable with the visible signs of these disorders when left untreated, we prefer to lock individuals up in prison, in situations that exacerbate their mental illness through solitary confinement, lack of treatment, and with guards who do not have adequate training. Rather than fund programs and hospitals that could provide treatment, we elect to remove that which frightens us from the streets and place it behind strong penitentiary walls.

Why aren’t we afraid of depression and anxiety? Is it because we have succeeded in destigmatization—or is it because we skew our perspective of these illnesses, make them seem beautiful, even desirable, and depict their sufferers as nobly wounded warriors? There is a trend among university students that I have noticed: an attempt to “out-depress” or “out-anxiety” one another. People will get competitive about how sick they are, what dosage of meds they’re on, how badly they’re sleeping or eating.

Self-harm scars and suicidality are a trump card in these debates.

So why do people want to “win” at mental illness? Pity? Attention? I believe we have constructed a societal narrative in which being mentally ill, as it pertains to depression and anxiety, is seen as impressive. But this is not the case for the vast number of those suffering from other mental illnesses, nor is it true for the myriad of people suffering from unremitting depression and

anxiety, for whom the only narrative is one of ongoing misery.

Suffering with mental illness is not beautiful, nor is it impressive, nor can anyone win in this “competition.” This isn’t to say if you are suffering and manage to find beauty and meaning in your illness, you shouldn’t express it. However, when these are the only narratives we hear, we skew the general perception of what living through mental illness is. And if these are the only narratives we hear, we oversimplify the societal problems surrounding mental health—such as the over-incarceration of mentally ill people, and the disproportionate difficulty racialized people have in getting in to see a counselor in comparison to white people. Nationally, 24 percent of deaths among 18-24 year olds are due to suicide. However, this rate is doubled in the Aboriginal community and tripled when looking specifically at Aboriginal women. Mental illness affects people of all ethnicities equally but the availability of treatment and support is massively disproportionate, with white people and those of higher socioeconomic status receiving more. Of the six celebrities who are the face of the Canadian campaign this year, only one, Michel Mpambara, is non-white. We pay far too little attention to the intersection of racism and prejudice with mental illness and the experiences of those whose cultures make recognizing mental illness and finding help infinitely more difficult than it was for, say, Bell spokesperson, Serena Ryder.

To be clear, the creation of a day to discuss mental illness, and especially the millions of dollars in donations it produces, is commendable, especially coming from a national corporation able to reach a wide audience. Bell is right to draw attention to mental health, and has made an important impact on the mental health discussion. However, as this discussion is implemented on social media, we foster the image that mental illness is limited to hero stories of those who suffer through and triumph over depression and anxiety. This story is one small fraction of the reality of mental illness, and does a disservice to those who cannot tell their own similar hero narratives. It is an injustice to those who are afflicted by more serious, chronic mental illnesses, and ignores many of the complexities of race, gender, and financial status that we must also be discussing. Let’s talk about those problems, too.

Stop telling me how to protest ... and start doing the work yourself shailee koranne opinions editor

Imagine that you are someone who has studied chemistry for years. Not only that, but you come from a line of chemists who performed long, arduous, personal resource-draining experiments that eventually achieved success and changed the field, eventually inspiring you to care about the science. Now, imagine that you’re performing another one of many countless trials of an experiment in your lab when, suddenly, in bursts someone who has no idea how chemistry works, aside from maybe the course they took in high school. They begin insisting that they know how to do this experiment perfectly and with success. You watch them take over your equipment and create a gigantic mess— then, they turn around and say in all sincerity, “why’d you screw up the experiment so badly?”

That is how it feels every time a white person tells me how I should be protesting a cause I care about.

Never mind that I’m privileged enough to be studying social justice topics at a world-class university and definitely know more about the history, execution, and heroes of protesting than the next person. Even if I weren’t pursuing an education in topics such as race relations, misogyny, ableism, homophobia, etc, being a queer brown girl who deals with mental illnesses is education enough on discrimination in those areas.

One of the other recurring arguments that white folk throw my way is “being loud and in my face isn’t the way to get me to agree with you! That’s not how change was brought about in past generations!” Yeah, I’m sure everyone thought Marsha P Johnson, Viola Desmond, MLK Jr, and Co. were peaceful—not. It’s easy to look back at civil rights heroes with rose coloured glasses.

They made as much of a scene as we are today, and they were even angrier—believe that.

I have put up with racism, misogyny, ableism, and more for my whole life—of course I’m angry. Wouldn’t you be if you weren’t in the most comfortable social bracket? When the very same people who marginalize me try to tell me how I should be educating them on how to stop marginalizing me, I am baffled that they can’t see the irony.

Confronting your privilege isn’t supposed to be a cakewalk; it’s not supposed to be a calm conversation. I try every single day to make sure I’m doing my best to keep my own privileges in mind and stay in my lane. This includes but isn’t limited to: listening to Black and Indigenous folks in conversations about colonization and racism, instead of talking over them because they face racist violence at much higher rates than I do; actively trying to un-learn problematic language that marginalizes transgender people; and diversifying my pool of things to read and watch to include stories that aren’t my own.

Of course, this isn’t always easy—sometimes I think I know all about something and talk over a Black or Indigenous person in a discussion that I should just be listening to, or I mess up someone’s preferred pronouns, or I partake in the consumption of media that uses marginalized people as punchlines to jokes. It happens and it’s embarrassing, and being called out feels like an attack because we are ashamed—but it’s not an attack, it’s a plea to learn and grow.

Putting your ego in front of the opportunity to learn is a sure-fire way to make sure you never change. Admit that you

have certain social privileges and that having said privileges has made you ignorant. In essence, you should be willing to admit that, if you’re not Black, you have definitely engaged in and continue to unconsciously engage in anti-black behaviour—you should be willing to admit that you have been racist. Acknowledge it. Everyone else already knows you’ve been racist, pal.

If you are waiting for a brown or Black or trans or First Nations person to sit down and calmly teach you how to be less shitty, you’re purposely ignoring the facts. You’re ignoring that, for one, marginalized folks are tired of being disrespected by you and don’t always have the energy to teach you how to respect them after they’ve spent all day navigating everyday discrimination and two, there is a wealth of resources out there that you can seek out for your own education.

I have been protesting my entire life just by existing in a brown body and it has made existing difficult, so don’t tell me how to do it in a way that makes learning easy for you in your white body.

If you care as much as you say you do, then pick up a book or watch a documentary or just pay attention.

Some good places to start: everydayfeminism.com Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay bgdblog.com even this page is white by Vivek Shraya blog.angryasianman.com teenvogue.com

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EDITOR | TAMILORE OSHODI

FEATURES

@STRANDPAPER

erin calhoun

tamilore oshodi

news editor

features editor

all photos provided by the candidates

In the current VUSAC 2017 Spring election cycle, an uncontested council is being decided upon by students. Each position, besides Board of Regents, is running unopposed.

Candidates have been campaigning their platforms on Facebook, by talking to students, and at the VUSAC Townhall, held on March 17th. An efficient council depends on an informed student body.

The Strand officially presents students with every candidate’s platforms on one convenient page.

ZAHAVAH KAY

ARTIMES GHAHREMANI

PRESIDENT

VICE PRESIDENT INTERNAL

KATIE COHEN

VICE PRESIDENT EXTERNAL VICTORIA UNIVERSITY SENATE

Kay has three major pillars to the Presidential platform: transparency, equity, and support of clubs and levies. By publicizing votes in meetings and organizing one-on-one consultations before budgeting periods, Kay hopes to improve transparency within council members.

Under Kay, equity training will be implemented for both semesters, which leaders of students groups, residences, and levies will be invited to attend. Working with the Dean’s Office to begin a fund for students participating in unpaid internships is also a part of Kay’s platform for equity. VUSAC members will show support for other student groups by being mandated to attend at least three club/levy hosted events.

Through a paperless campaign, Ghahremani aims to practice proactivity by addressing interpersonal disputes immediately.

They are running on a platform that seeks to welcome all students by creating opportunities, and where the VUSAC office will be an accessible space for students for “other reasons than just printing,” as Ghahremani stated at the VUSAC Townhall.

Cohen hopes to maintain a positive relationship with the Dean’s Office where the voices of students are heard and treated fairly. They will also work to connect students with programs offered by the Dean’s Office that often remain unattended, due to the lack of coverage by student fees.

Cohen is running on a platform to reevaluate and discuss alternative options for events. A major part of this will be reintroducing a mass Calendar for student clubs/levies/groups so that information is streamlined. Also, Cohen hopes to bring in niche clubs and give underrepresented groups a voice and platform for events within VUSAC.

Ritchie hopes to make networking, research, and academic opportunities more available and accessible. They will specifically focus on connecting students to the abundance of services offered at Vic like the Writing Centre and Research Centre.

Additionally, Ritchie wants to improve access for students to mental health and financial aid services. They also seek to strengthen ties between VUSAC and the Alumni Affairs and Advancement Office to find ways that best represents what students want.

McNally aims to promote effective transparency of the commission through social media and verbal engagement. By working closely with The Bob and VCDS, there would be more emphasis on content warnings before shows to ensure safety and comfortability for all students engaged with the arts.

McNally wishes to continue the Blue Moon cafe which was reintroduced to Vic two years ago. Their platform hopes to implement more casual program-planning that engages the Vic community through fun activities that serve as de-stressors from school.

Calderon wants to vide representation commuter voices wi the council, as they a dominating demogra at Vic. If elected, provement and inte tion of commuter dents with other stu groups at Vic, such VOCA, will be a pr ity. The hope is to pand variety at VO pancakes each week! includes more topp and gluten-free/ve options. Calderon ho to continue the cur Commuter Commiss er portfolio as he fo Khouzam to have d an exceptional job.

VICTORIA UNIVERSITY SENATE ACADEMIC & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

ARTS & CULTURE

COMMUTER

ZOE RITCHIE

BLANAID MCNALLY

GABRIEL CALDERON

pron of ithin are a aphic imegrastuudent h as riorexOCA This pings egan opes rrent sionound done

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FEATURES@THESTRAND.CA

FEATURES

THE STRAND | 20 MARCH 2017

Koranne’s platform focuses on the differences between equality and equity. If elected, Koranne would partner with organizations such as VicPride!, the Muslim Students’ Association, Black Students’ Association, and the Native Students’ Association, each group will have a platform to represent themselves. They hope to enforce equity training for the council both semesters, which will provide a year long, well rounded awareness of equitable practices.

As a Board of Regents candidate, the main initiative is to provide a direct line of communication for equity issues/concerns on campus.

Spagnuolo aims to continue the high numbers of ticket sales and more open availability for Highball, as well as the use of Google Forms for event registration, and for collecting critiques from the VCU community.

Giving more options to students in terms of the types of events available is another part of Spagnuolo’s platform— like creating both dinner and dance tickets for Highball and other alternative and “low-energy” events for students during events like Highball.

BOARD OF REGENTS

EQUITY

SCARLET & GOLD

SHAILEE KORANNE

STEPHANIE SPAGNUOLO

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ALEXA BREININGER

GEORGE WILSON

ISAAC KHOUZAM

HANNAH BRENNEN

BOARD OF REGENTS

BOARD OF REGENTS

BOARD OF REGENTS

BOARD OF REGENTS

VICTORIA COLLEGE COUNCIL

VICTORIA COLLEGE COUNCIL

Wilson hopes to enlighten others as to how the Board works in this position, ultimately allowing an adequate representation of student voices. The duties and roles of student representatives will be advertised more efficiently, through both Facebook and increased presence at events like Caucus.

They previously served as a Board of Regents member for the Victoria College Union and will utilize such experience to promote effective implementation of student feedback.

Brennen hopes to push the expansion of Northrop Frye Hall to accommodate more study spaces, a multi-faith prayer centre, and more appropriate class sizes.

Brennen also aims to advocate on the Board and Council for all-gender washrooms.

They will promote a more accurate portrayal of Victoria College with more depth and less on aesthetics. Brennen will encourage the publicity of the review system available that can be utilized by students to share their concerns for Victoria College.

Breininger hopes to make representation and diversity their highest priority on the Board of Regents by challenging opinions in the Board’s decisionmaking process.

Breininger’s platform highlighted property being one of the major focuses for the upcoming year, hoping to make campus a more inclusive space overall.

After serving as Community Commissioner for Victoria College, Khouzam hopes to apply prior experience on the council, coupled with his sound judgement and ability to be a team player.

Khouzam hopes to influence more substantial outcomes for Victoria College’s interests as a whole.

In addition, they hope to strengthen the connection between commuters and Victoria College. They will also work towards balancing and listening to the interests of all active groups in the Board to achieve peaceful cohesion.

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EDITORS | MOLLY KAY & ELENA SENECHAL-BECKER

ARTS & CULTURE

@STRANDPAPER

TEDxUofT encourages mindful discussion and promotes themes of acceptance The importance of community, social activism, and knowing one’s worth

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jenna liao

kathleen chen associate opinions editor

The theme of this year’s TEDxUofT was “Open,” which speaks to the conference’s efforts to open up the stage to the diverse voices at UofT and in Toronto. Despite the variety of topics, the idea of improvement linked the talks together. The presenters spoke about the challenges that preoccupy them: ranging from academic problems, to social concerns, to personal obstacles. Their speeches ultimately focused on the process of confronting these issues.

The conference took advantage of the expertise demonstrated by members of the UofT faculty. Audiences heard from professors currently researching artificial intelligence, self-driving cars, and cancer-killing molecules. The technical nature of their subjects did not pose any issues of accessibility. The complexity did not deter from how exciting it is that these ideas are not all that futuristic, and that such innovative research is being done so close to home.

Other speakers proposed different ways of thinking about social issues. Cristina d’Amico’s analysis of the affordable housing crisis borrowed methods from the humanities to think imaginatively about the idea of housing as a right, and not simply a commodity. She examined the feasibility of tiny homes as a solution to high real-estate prices, but brought up the contradiction that the anti-

consumerist language surrounding tiny homes is both a marketing technique, and restricted to a market-based framework—therefore emphasizing the need “to think bigger than tiny homes.”

I appreciated that all of these talks were open-ended, inviting us to think about these proposals and to contribute our own ideas to the discussion. A wonderful aspect of attending this conference was the opportunity to participate in a dialogue right away by engaging with the speakers individually. In this sense, the conference felt quite personal.

Other presenters shared personal stories. Tobi Ogude performed a spoken word poem, and spoke about the need to bridge the gap between Toronto’s urban arts community and the city; A city whose identity is shaped by this urban arts culture, but misrepresents it, and fails to give it credit for its influence on the global perception of Toronto. He referred to an incident of police brutality at Blank Canvas Gallery, which led to the closure of the community-run space. He went on to highlight his community’s resilience in finding a new space for art and self-expression, in order to counteract systemic violence with a culture of “love, peace, and mutual respect” around art.

Rajiv Surendra, best known for playing Kevin G. in the cult-classic Mean Girls, told another inspiring story about overcoming systemic and personal obstacles, detailing his obsession with landing the lead role in the movie Life of Pi, which presented an opportunity to finally go beyond the roles he’d been typecast as in the past: terrorist, math geek. He invested himself in embodying Pi’s perspective by living in Pondicherry, and learning to swim. In the end, however, he did not get the part. He concluded his speech by telling us that the possibility of failure should not prevent us from trying. Although he did not land the role, his dedication allowed him to collect beautiful experiences, and a good story for his new memoir The Elephants in my Backyard.

Tobi Ogude is currently an undergraduate at UofT, and Rajiv Surendra graduated a few years ago. Though this brought on insecurities about my own accomplishments, seeing young people and fellow students on the stage was also reassuring. This showed me that you don’t need to have founded a company, accumulated multiple degrees, or landed your dream job before you give a TED talk.

There is validity in your own experience and your own story, no matter where you are in life.

Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience Kent Monkman’s artwork stuns at UofT Art Centre hiba siddiqui associate arts

&

culture editor

With Canada turning 150 this year, there are many projects underway to celebrate the uniqueness of our country, while also remembering the histories that have shaped it. Shame and Prejudice: a Story of Resilience; Indigenous artist Kent Monkman takes us on a journey through Canada’s history, beginning one hundred years before confederation. His artwork sheds light on the dark realities of Canada’s relationship with Indigenous people throughout history, by referencing classical European art styles to recount these Indigenous experiences. The exhibition was produced by the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, in partnership with the Confederation Centre Art Gallery, and ran from January 26th to March 4th.

Kent Monkman’s powerful paintings and artistic arrangements take us back to the 19th century and narrate, with passion, the incarceration and genocide of Indigenous people and culture. Rarely, if any, have there been a series

we need to be cognizant of our dark history of historically-based paintings that conveyed or accredited Indigenous experience into the canon of art history. This was instantly apparent walking into Kent Monkman’s exhibition.

There was an incredible ambiance and emotion that I, personally, have never felt at an exhibition before. The vibrant colours, bold images, and intricate structures illustrated empathy, grief, passion, power, and strength. It was a tapestry

of emotions, elicited through art, that both engaged you in their specific content, and connected to the present.

The notion of resilience was undoubtedly present in Monkman’s visual storytelling of Indigenous people. It is incredible to see how art can depict and describe histories that are often censored from public debate and overshadowed by more dominant narratives. The exhibit was a powerful reminder as to whose land we live on and of the importance of remembering our country’s challenging past. As Canadians celebrate the big 150 and reflect on the progress we’ve made, we need to be cognizant of our dark history and treatment of the Indigenous peoples of Canada; the legacy of residential schools, deep socioeconomic inequalities, violence, urban disenfranchisement, and poverty. Especially during our current global-political environment, it is crucial that we strive to maintain harmony and respect between all Canadians.

ARTSANDCULTURE@THESTRAND.CA

ARTS & CULTURE

THE STRAND |20 MARCH 2017

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The Strand reviews VCDS presents Assassins rebecca gao contributor

VCDS’ final show of the season, John Weidman and Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins, opens in a shooting gallery. As a collection of misfits wanders onto the stage, the proprietor of the game, an enticing Cole Currie, invites them to join and promises them that all of their problems can be solved by shooting the president. The rest of the show explores the idea of the American dream—represented by a Balladeer deftly played by Brandon Vollick—and the attempted assassins’ motivations, stories, and philosophies.

Though the musical is framed within the context of a carnival game—and the colourful set certainly shows this—most of the show happens outside of any specific time or place, opting instead to jump from era to era in order, with focus on specific individuals and political moments from American history. This concept is interesting, but it made the plot hard to follow at times, especially to a Canadian audience that may not have the historical background and knowledge needed to understand it.

The performances were phenomenal with not one bad performance in the main cast. From Kenzie Tsang’s powerful and exuberant portrayal of Giuseppe Zangara, and Matthew Fonte’s naturalistic Sam Byck, to Gianni Sallese’s magnetic John Wilkes Booth, every actor was able to steal the show at the appropriate time and still share the stage with eight other equally unhinged killers.

Despite some scenes being more substantial than others, every actor infused their energy and brought even the

dullest scenes to life. If anything, Assassins was a great vehicle for these actors to showcase their immense talent, despite plot issues.

assassins was a great vehicle for these actors to showcase their immense talent, despite plot issues The great weakness of the show, however, was the tech. Though the set was eye-catching and well-designed from an aesthetic perspective, it wasn’t functional. There were certain parts of the set that weren’t always lit; the top level of the set, for example, was just outside of the light’s reach, casting an unfortunate shadow on the actors’ faces when they were on that level. The gunshot sound effects were not well co-ordinated, creating an awkward second’s worth of silence after a very audible “click” from the prop gun. The band was slightly too close to the lights so they

casted shadows during especially intense solos.

There were also some coordination blips that further weakened the otherwise engrossing show. During the electrocution of Giuseppe Zangara, Tsang’s costume hat fell off and clanged around on the stage for a bit, disturbing the dynamic performance. At one point in the show, an actress entered too early and was crouched behind a table, muttering curse words that could be clearly heard in the audience, before being dismissed by the Proprietor in an uncomfortable but necessary save. The noose that eventually executes Charles Guiteau was so precariously dangled that the audience was more worried for actor Nam Nguyen’s real neck than focused on his energetic rendition of “I am Going to the Lordy.” Though it is understandable to have some mistakes on opening night, there were a few too many; they really detracted from the professional quality of the production and disrupted the flow of the show.

Overall, the show was a bit of a mixed experience.

Though the performances were all wonderful and the music was filled with the usual Sondheim magic—played expertly by a 14-piece band led by Sam Poole—it was hindered by technical mistakes and sloppiness that brought the audience out of the story. Rather than the high-concept show that it was advertised as, Assassins was a series of some great scenes, monologues, and performances strung together loosely by a carnival game concept.

What Else We Could Be Doing explores growing pains and the struggle to stay present molly kay arts

&

culture editor

Dan Darrah is a third-year Political Science and History student at Ryerson University. When not playing guitar for local hardcore band, Mil-Spec, or putting out solo music under the moniker Funeral Blues, Darrah takes to creative writing and producing zines. Earlier this month, he released a poetry collection entitled What Else We Could Be Doing through Permanent Sleep Press. The book—which tackles themes of childhood, relationships, and life in the suburbs—contains 28 of Darrah’s most intimate poems, edited by Caroline White. The Strand sat down with Darrah to discuss the process of getting a book published, the hardcore scene, and the struggle to establish oneself within the arts community.

In What Else We Could Be Doing, Darrah draws on his experiences growing up in Ajax and in Whitby, where he still lives. “I wanted to write about stuff that was personal,” he says. “I guess it’s like a sin in fiction to write about what you know because then you approach it in a guarded sense—you don’t want to talk about the things that you’ve experienced. For some people, I guess, you don’t want to render them in a way that doesn’t do them justice, or you wanna protect the people that you try to talk about. But I found the opposite with poetry is that the only thing I want to talk about is experiences that I’ve had and I can’t really talk about anything else.”

“It’s nice to be able to get to a place where you can say: I wasn’t thinking about the other things I could be doing while I was in this moment,” continues Darrah in reference to the title of his collection. “If I’m out somewhere, or with a friend, or even doing something mundane or unimportant, it’s nice to just sort of be there and to be doing that, instead of thinking: okay, there are a hundred other things that would be better for me, or that I could be doing.”

He explains that it was through his connections in the hardcore community, a subgenre of punk music, that he was able to get the book published. “I’ve always been a

part of [the hardcore community] since I was really young.

It’s sort of the binding logic for a lot of the people I hang around with. It branches out into film, books, or whatever other hobbies people have outside of hardcore. Anyway, there’s a subsection of people into alternative music that are also enormously into reading, so that was, for me, a comfortable thing to tap into.”

He adds, “I don’t think this book would have been published in any other situation than with me being friends with Matt Finner, founder of Permanent Sleep.”

For Darrah, finding time for creative projects is a difficult balancing act. “Making time just had to be a necessity,” he begins. “That’s probably why I started writing poems as opposed to longer stuff—poems are more digestible. I’d be like: okay, I have an hour to write out an idea I had. It kind of helps to see it come together and to see an ending. When I was writing poems, I suddenly felt like I was completing something. And in turn, that let me develop a faculty for patience […] which got me to a point where I was able to balance my obligations through school, while still engaging to some degree with writing.”

Never having done a reading of his poetry, or taken any formal creative writing classes, Darrah expresses his uncertainty about his position in the art community. “I don’t know if I’m in the Toronto arts scene at all,” he says nervously. “I guess I am by definition, now that I’ve written or produced something.”

“This is actually something that I’m trying to figure out. I don’t feel like an author, or a poet […] I’m disconnected from the culture that surrounds writing. I’ve never really been a part of it. I just kind of read and write in my own sort of world, I guess. I would feel wrong trying to say that I’m a part of the arts scene, when I don’t really have a real stake in it.”

When it comes to finding the confidence to share his work with a larger audience, Darrah explains his approach to opening himself up for criticism: “I just close my eyes

and go. That’s all you can do.”

“If I think about it too much, I’ll just talk myself out of it,” he laughs. “Like, more than fifteen minutes—I will just opt out. You just gotta get it out! If you get to a point where you can say like, I think this is a good poem—send it off. Don’t think about it, just close your eyes and do it.”

Darrah concluded the interview by mentioning that the only way to get better at writing is to keep working at it, and especially to keep exposing yourself to new forms of literature. “Read a lot. Figure out what is impactful and analyze it. Don’t copy it, but let it sort of carry you. Figure out your own work habits, figure out which environment you thrive the most in, and write every day. Even if it’s just like a sentence, write every single day.”

What Else We Could Be Doing is available for purchase online at https://deathwishinc.com/collections/permanentsleep-press.

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matt finner

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EDITOR | JOSHUA KIM

FILM & MUSIC

@STRANDPAPER

Review: Paterson The latest Jim Jarmusch film reveals the poetry in the everyday harrison wade staff writer

illustration

Paterson is like taking a much-needed breath of fresh air; it’s understated and overlooked, but healing and necessary. The movie focuses on a bus driver and poet named Paterson (Adam Driver), who lives in the town of Paterson, New Jersey. The film follows him for one week, giving a brief glimpse into his life. There’s little drama and only hints of conflict, but Paterson is perfectly made.

Instead of being dull, the movie refines the everyday into cinematic poetry. Instead of being about nothing, it is about living, creating, and existing.

Paterson lives with his girlfriend, Laura (played by the magnificent Golshifteh Farahani), and her dog Marvin. With so little conventional action happening, the actors not only have to make their characters believable, but interesting. They succeed with small ticks and habits, never highlighted by the movie itself, but noticeable as it progresses. Like so much, their love is understated but never questioned; their kisses are some of the most honest ever projected on screen. Their dialogue is banal enough to seem real, but deep enough to hold a variety of meanings.

But Paterson is interested in more than just its leads.

It’s just as much about everyone else in the town—seen through the conversations Paterson overhears driving the bus and the friends he sees at the local bar. Scenes on the bus allow a space for connections between strangers. A

shot of the dangling feet of two kids is mirrored by the heavy boots of two grown men the next day. They occupy the same place, but in different times. After work, Paterson walks Marvin and goes to the bar, where he often meets a trio of friends. Barry Shabaka Henley plays the bartender, Doc, and Chasten Harmon and William Jackson Harper play ex-lovers in the last tangles of romance. Even there, Paterson is more ready to watch than anything else.

The movie finds beauty in the small changes in Paterson’s routine. Director Jim Jarmusch is ready to capture these changes by repeating the same shot each day. We get to know the front of their house, and the corner Paterson turns as he walks home from the bus depot. The audience is left to pick up on the variations, while also being drawn into Paterson’s habits. Jarmusch never moves the camera forcefully through the space—he lets the characters move it naturally as they speak. But when Paterson writes, it’s really something special.

The poems appear on screen in small, imperfect, letters, at the same speed that Paterson narrates it in his head. The music swells out from the sounds of reality— but even then, it’s low, slow, and almost melancholy. And then, the movie layers images on top of each other, as Paterson’s subject, muse, and thoughts all collide at once.

It’s a muted but daring representation of the thought pro-

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lynn hong

cess behind writing.

But why go see it? Especially in such a political time as this, why see a movie about the mundane? A movie that purports to be reality but is really a representation of some conflict-less ideal? The short answer: because it’s spectacular art. The long answer: because it’s exactly in a time of such volatile politics that Paterson is needed.

Jarmusch is aware of film’s place as a medium of cultural discourse. There’s a scene at a movie theatre, where Paterson and Laura watch a black and white horror film. It’s outdated and racist, but Paterson cuts to different people in the theatre, revealing a brief cross-section of America.

Paterson is a diverse movie simply because it’s trying to show a truth.

Paterson is an experience to see in the theatre, but also the type of movie to vanish—ignored by both awards and the mainstream. It’s a reminder of overcoming small conflicts every day, of the beauty found in habit, and the never-ending flow of time. By the end of the movie, Paterson seems to want the audience to use it as inspiration, inspiration to go capture something unique about their own life. I was sad to leave Paterson’s world after just two hours, but I felt inspired to go home and write poetry, bad poetry—but it’s the doing, and the living, that matters.

FILMANDMUSIC@THESTRAND.CA

FILM & MUSIC

THE STRAND | 20 MARCH 2017

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Fiercely Irish and insanely funny

Playlist: March madness

The Young Offenders nails it at the box office

It’s that time of year again

mariah riccuito contributor

staff writer

Has school got you down? Are you wondering how you’ll ever finish the 10-page essay you’ve left to the night before? Are you contemplating why you even decided to put yourself through this whole “University Thing” in the first place? Never fear—The Strand has assembled a list of sweet, sweet tunes to help you stay on your grind over these next few weeks.

the young offenders wittingly combines the bleak and absurd. it’s not very often that a comedy is capable of introducing unfavourable realities without

*Borrowed from the English word “crack,” and then reintroduced into the English language with the Irish spelling, “craic” is a versatile term exchangeable with multiple expressions. One example appears in the film when Conor says his mam is “always having the craic with [Jock],” meaning she is constantly joking around with him.

tamara zayachkowski contributor

vides many homages to the 1960’s Adam West Batman, with fighting punctuated with sounds of “pow” and “biff!” He has the same energy and uber-confidence as Adam West, and the character of Dick Grayson most resembles his Robin in terms of devotion to Batman and geeky enthusiasm.

However, he does grow in character, becoming more concerned with allies and more aware that he actually needs them. The point of this film was for Batman to overcome his fear of losing people, enough to allow them to be in his life, and to begin to relate to them. Doing so while still being egotistical and brooding. He does not lose his key characteristics as Batman, yet manages to adopt levity at the same time. As such, this Batman is the most nuanced version of the character to appear in a long time.

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There is, however, another element that is slightly more difficult to untangle. The Irish Times wrote that the disabled drug dealing bad-guy is the only element of the film not funny enough to avoid offence. However, I believe it to be a relatively successful attempt at subverting a common stereotype—something in which national cinema seems to constantly be interested. Viewers are given one trop when it comes to disabled people: the kind, gentle and passive “cripple” in need of a caretaker. This has always been problematic for its objectifying inflections, suggested by the fact that these characters are typically denied agency.

Instead of adhering to this role, The Young Offenders offers an alternative by giving agency to the crippled drug-dealer—agency that acts as a catalyst to the story.

All in all, The Young Offenders wittingly combines the bleak and absurd. It’s not very often that a comedy is capable of introducing unfavourable realities without compromise. It’s already obvious that The Young Offenders will be regarded as one of the most successful Irish films ever made. So, is it worth watching? Well, to use Jock’s wise words, “I dunno boy. Why are you asking me these questions like?” Now that the film is on Netflix, you have to go see it for yourself.

lynn hong

compromise

Review: Lego Batman Batman is portrayed in this film as an egomaniacal brat who is, nonetheless, as competent as he is spoiled and selfish. He is an awesome crimefighter, but unlike other incarnations, he has no family apart from Alfred, his butler. In fact, the plot of the film hinges on the fact that he is afraid to form relationships that he could lose in the same way that he lost his parents.

The crux of the plot is him learning to rely on and connect with others, such as his adopted son, Dick Grayson, and the new Commissioner, Barbara Gordon.

Here, Batman is also a lot more disrespectful to his cohorts, especially demeaning to Alfred and treating him as a simple servant who does not know how to raise a child—despite having raised him. Batman manipulates his adopted son into risking his life for him.

Despite all this, Will Arnett’s Batman is still a hugely entertaining character. With his hammy beatboxing and, even with his dark broodiness, the character pro-

charlene hanania

abusive, alcoholic father. At the end of the film, which is filled with sequences of his abuse and alcoholism, the controversy is resolved when Sergeant Healey witnesses Jock’s abuse and says “I think I just found my new hobby,” signaling an assumed move from bike thieves to child abusers.

illustration

This year’s Toronto Irish Film Festival, was, for lack of a better term, great craic.* The festival took place between March 3rd to 5th, at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.

Five feature-length Irish films were screened, along with various animated and live action shorts. Among them, The Young Offenders. If you have a sense of humour, this film will have you in hysterics. From Irish director Peter Foott, the film is about two 15-year-old boys—Jock (Chris Walley), the “criminal” mastermind, who hides his identity by wearing a mask, and Conor (Alex Murphy), his obedient best friend. Based on the true story of a drug trafficking boat gone overboard at Mizen Head, County Cork in 2007—with 440 million euros worth of drugs in tow— he film follows Jock and Conor as they bike 120 kilometres to steal a bale of cocaine. Along their journey, they are pursued by Sergeant Healy, who has a penchant for arresting Jock for bike theft. The film includes; Conor’s cynical mother, Jock’s abusive father, a criminal looking for revenge, and an angry drug-dealer. These characters, despite the heavy themes and their troubling nature, all contribute to the film’s non-stop humour.

The Young Offenders seems, at first, little more than an Irish comedy, and while it undoubtedly succeeds here, it also surprises by weaving darker elements into its predominantly comic exterior. It excels where movies that also contain representation of unpropitious subject matter, like Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting or Kevin Allen’s Twin Town’s, falter.

First, Conor’s mother, Mairead (Hilary Rose), feels the need to take on roles of both mother and father but this causes her to be an inadequate parent.

Her face is in a permanent scowl, and it seems unlikely that any cheerful words could ever escape her lips.

However, just when this view is being solidified in our minds, she surprises the audience, and Conor himself.

Mairead’s tear-filled praise, although simple, signifies a parental love, hidden underneath her hard exterior. It is from this brief exchange that we begin to see a pattern; for every unsettling component presented in the film, there is a corresponding moment of resolution.

Second, there is an obvious incompetency in the police force, which is shown by the Sheriff’s disinterest in essentially everything. In spite of this disheartening incompetency, the audience is given hope in the form of Sergeant Healey. Although he is originally painted as the antagonist, we eventually realize that he is to be trusted and loved for his desire to seek justice and maintain social order.

The third, and most worrisome, element is Jock’s

“Photomaton”

Jabberwocky feat. Elodie Wildstars “You Make Me Feel Good”

Satin Jackets “FKJ” Canggu “Archive” Shagabond “Chanel”

Frank Ocean “Passionfruit” Drake “Something About Us”

Daft Punk “Kerala” Bonobo “Chemical Face” Else “Moonrise” Zimmer

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EDITOR | CELESTE YIM

STRANDED

@STRANDPAPER

An open letter to 40-year-olds with jobs I would like to have your job—whether you like it or not!

Please and thank you. alexandra scandolo editor-in-chief

Hey 40-year olds with jobs, one question: how’d you get that job? Now that I’m graduating, I just want you to know that I’m coming for ya. I’m bright-eyed and naive, willing to buy coffee for hire. I’m soooooo much cheaper than you! I heard you don’t want to retire. That’s nice, but that’s not going to work for me, unfortunately. Think about how much work I’ll do for so much less pay than you! Doesn’t that scare you a bit! It should—I’m going to take your job right after June 2017.

I’m planning on moving back into my parents’ house this summer. It’s kind of a bummer to tell acquaintances when they ask, “hey, what’s up?” and I interpret it as a chance to mention my grand “Get Rich Slowly By The Time I’m 55” plan. I’m gonna get to live rent-free in the basement while my parents cook me everything: think of how much money I’m gonna save and how little my resume will have improved by the time September rolls around!

It’s nice that I can so easily get a job in this economy—like you did when you were 20, current 40-year-olds with steady salaries. For instance, if I just wanted a cool job—like a secretary, a bread-maker, a doctor—all I have to do is put “typing” on my list of special skills and I’m in! There’s definitely not an over-saturation of young adults with liberal arts degrees here in Canada; I personally think it’s refreshing that I am able to over-analyse anything at the drop of a hat! Just the other day I had a thought about writing a thinkpiece on Squash—wow!

So weird and unnecessary! LOL! Anyway, I hope you know that your jobs aren’t safe. I have so much charisma and pentup anxiety that I’m willing to swerve into your boss’s junk mail with an overeager cold-email about how I am “the ideal candidate,” even if it’s for sales or something Boring like that.

Here’s the thing: I am so tired! I just spent four years learning about Hegel or Derrida or someone in that vein. Just—give me your job, please! I promise I will work very hard, I will also build myself into being just like you in 20 years—if the world can hang on that long.

Life is so fleeting, 40-year old, why not play golf in Florida like everyone else relinquishing their death grips on desk jobs across the country? Florida’s nice! But, you know what’s nicer?

Me being employed.

I have approximately five endorsed skills on LinkedIn and a resume made on Adobe InDesign, what more do you want? My millennial entitlement makes me incredibly hard working when you give me exactly what I want. I’m glad we’ve established that I am Great and you need to Go. Thank you for your time, I look forward to hearing from you.

Insensitive white person lashes out about being called “racist” Reports say she “hopes you understand that she has Freedom of Expression” celeste yim

stranded editor

TORONTO, ON: 22-year-old Rebecca Smith has found herself throwing a tantrum after Korean bystander Celeste Yim, 20, lightly informed her that a languid comment about the “rank smell of kimchi” was “a little insensitive” and “kind of racist” on Tuesday. According to Smith, this is one of many instances in which an accusation using such “charged” language like “insensitive,” “racist,” “little,” “of,” and “a” has really ruined her day.

“Blanket statements like that could really hurt someone,” the Chipotle employee told The Strand, “My own career has been threatened just for appreciating different kinds of cultures.” At the time of interview, Smith, who wore a Bindi to this year’s employee Christmas party, “didn’t get fired but felt super judged.” Smith courageously removed herself from the conversation to avoid both reaching a maximum level of rage, and being late for her weekly “Culture Club” meeting—which celebrated cucumber sushi rolls this past week.

STRANDED@THESTRAND.CA

STRANDED

THE STRAND | 20 MARCH 2017

15

Every answer is areola backwards celeste yim

stranded editor

ACROSS 1 Do your parents love each other?

5 Drake, stop putting out albums with more than 20 songs.

No one puts out 20 good songs at a time. Chill the hell out.

But good job, buddy.

7 Rhymes with "faloera."

9 Just write "aloera."

12 Within it, it is natural for there to be spelled bumps.

This word, backwards.

13 You lift your shirt and yell: check out my "_ _ _ _ _ _!"

And someone says, do you mean your "areola?" And you say, "Oh yeah, sorry, I was reading it backwards."

14 Life is suffering.

15 Fascism will destroy us all.

16 The larger outer ring of a nipple, spelled backwards.

DOWN 2 Zayn is the objective hottest member of One Direction, but Harry has my heart.

3 Stranded was OK this year, right?

4 The singular, backwards form of "areolae."

6 Acronym for Alright Life Obviously Endures Racist Assholes 8 Love dies.

9 I just didn't want to let Ally down.

10 It's Areola Backwards.

11 The word "areola" but spelled "aloera."

someone apparently

“less

important” than a council event

and definitely stayed eight months too long contributor

Hello, you sweet innocent souls. How are you? Doing well? Filled with pride that the young politician you fell in love with was “elected” to a prominent position on student council? Good, savour this moment. This is probably the last happy memory you will have for a while.

If your experience was anything like mine, your past two weeks probably included the phrases: “You have to understand that I’ll be busy and won’t have time for you,” and “Can you help me poster for like, four to six hours?” But that’s ok, right? It was only a few weeks or something.

And now that it’s over, you can get back to your blissful relationship! Now that they’ve more or less been “elected” to their positions, you’re happy for them—you really are! Somehow, though, you can’t shake the overwhelming suspicion that that this could spell disaster for your happily ever after.

Congrats, that gut feeling you have is correct! I’m speaking as a literal former VUSAC trophy wife. Your honey pie becoming a VUSAC member will spell the end of your relationship. Don’t think so? Let me break it down: It’s not that VUSAC is a bad place. It’s just that it’s members tend to get really caught up, really quick. So much so that they have hour-long conversations about, like, the way the motioning structure at the UTSU AGM was intentionally flawed. But, hey, this is what your boo is interested in, so you find it cute at first.

The tricky thing is, VUSAC members can get so wrapped up in the snafu that is student politics that the importance of actual, real-life things (like your birthday) (or your relationship) (or your brother’s birthday) can fall away. You’ll find yourself being shut out of conversations and being left to fend for yourself at Trin parties you didn’t even want to go to. You’ll find your texts start to go unanswered because the “meeting ran four hours over,” and, if you’re upset about that, you just “don’t understand the kind of mental focus these kinds of things take.” You’ll start to feel like the side hoe to the affair that your sweetheart and VUSAC are having without you. You’ll find them constantly reminding you (and, like, your dad???) of how looked-up-to and visible they are now that they are the Council Member of an Illustrious Student Organization, and that their student life position is, as a result, kinda more important than yours.

But you couldn’t possibly know any of this now. Right now, you’re just happy for the one you love. When you break up with your sweetheart over Facebook Messenger while crying silently on the Bathurst streetcar after your month-long break didn’t (surprise) fix anything, don’t tell me I didn’t warn you. Please, though, I beg you: when all of this hubris slowly seeps into the once-strong foundation of your relationship, do not put up with any of it. Don’t stay for longer than you should.

Liberals and Conservatives to fight against “Orwellian Dystopia” by targeting and surveilling teenagers on Twitter luca bellisario contributor

Despite being cartoonish illustrations of pure evil, many Conservative politicians have agreed that the biggest threat to individual freedom is the “Orwellian Tyranny” of highly educated and largely racialized teenagers with Twitter accounts.

“When Orwell wrote 1984, he was warning us,” said Conservative Leadership hopeful Brad Trost, “Warning us about young left-leaning teens with an online presence.”

“For example: If I want to go to a university and spread racist lies about black people, these SJWs will harass me online, organize, and then protest the event,” continued Trost, as he pet a stuffed Teddybear whose eyes were obviously tiny cameras filming me as I interviewed him. “Sounds like something Big

Brother would do, right?”

In an interview, Conservative Kelly Leitch tried to apply a more historical approach to the topic.

“Name me one violent dictatorship that began in a way other than young people speaking their voices and engaging in non-violent protests? I’ll wait,” said Leitch. Before I could respond to her question, I was forced to answer a “Canadian Values Test” to make sure I was an actual citizen.

When asked about the importance of free press and journalism in opposing tyrannical government, Leitch and Trost both agreed all media members are “un-Canadian pansies who deserve to be tortured and brainwashed.”

Quiz: Guess which lame Voltaire quote some neckbeard got tattooed on his lower back!

A. “Judge of a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”

B. “ Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.”

C. “I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Answer: Jordan Peterson is a huge bitch.

Some thoughts for the significant others of future VUSAC members

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STRANDED

Free Speech is so stupid!