The Strand | Volume 59, Issue 4

the

strand VICTORIA UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER VOLUME 59, ISSUE 4 - OCTOBER 17, 2016

Editorial

Not Just Words: Professor Peterson’s transphobia and “free speech”

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News

Vic land dispute Reviews Son of Saul | 14 VCDS’ Peter Pan | 10

Tangled Art Gallery | 11

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Features

Eating kind

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Film & Music

Upbeat, but dark

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Stranded

NFL picks

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News • The Strand

Dispute between Victoria University and GE Canada Real Estate Equity Samantha Santoro | Contributor The current legal dispute between Victoria University and GE Canada Real Estate Equity is regarding the university-owned land currently occupied by the Colonnade building on Bloor Street West. The appeal by Victoria University involves the meaning of the “fair market value of the demised lands,” referring to the land on Bloor Street West.

Victoria University reportedly continues to raise the amount of rent for said building.

The issue of focus is concerning whether or not the value of the “demised lands” should take into account a potential use (e.g. condominium development) that is currently impossible due to the fact that the land is subject to a lease.

The court held that, although rent under the 100-year lease at issue resets every 20 or 30 years, this should not be interpreted as permitting the parties to continually dispute the interpretation of the lease, as well as the principles to be applied in setting the rent. Unlike a large portion of universities in Ontario, Victoria University is exempt from paying taxes on leased properties regardless of whether or not they are being used for educational purposes.

Additionally, Victoria University has been planning on giving this highly sought after piece of land to developers, in return for leasing fees of a great enough magnitude such that the costly rental fees would be covered. The university has

also considered renting out the leased property on an hourly basis to increase profits. Although there has been sparse news regarding this potential development, it was revealed this past June in The Varsity that Victoria University had allegedly avoided paying millions of dollars in property taxes on these lands. This is attributed to an oversight in the Victoria University Act which, as mentioned, exempts the university from paying taxes on leased properties.

Although I am a Victoria University student, I was never informed of the existence of this dispute until the composition of this article. Many undergraduate students, primarily in first or second year, have also never heard of this case. In addition, several were shocked to hear that Victoria University owned property on Bloor Street West.

Furthermore, this dispute is unlikely to ever completely be resolved, as the terms of the rental agreement are constantly being debated, and fluctuate depending on the individuals engaging in the discussions. Whether this land will one day be transformed into high-rise condominiums, or remain mostly vacant student residences, every 30 years new terms of the rental agreement must be discussed and reconsidered from the perspective of both parties involved.

Photo| Hana Nikcevic

Cineplex raises price of tickets in reaction to minimum wage increase The Canadian mega-company increases ticket prices to maximize revenue and match the recent rise in minimum wage Erin Calhoun| News Editor As of October 1st, Cineplex theatres will be raising ticket prices by 22 to 51 cents per ticket. In a released document, the reason given for the increase was to compete with the recent rise in minimum wage in Ontario from $11.25 to $11.40 per hour for adults and $10.55 to $10.70 for students.

The released document by Cineplex is labelled as “Management Only” and explains directions for how to answer guest inquires about the recent price increase. Largely, the price increase is due to minimum wage increases in some provinces by as much as 29 percent. In Cineplex’s second quarterly report it states that 89 percent of 13,000 employees make minimum wage.

Cineplex spokesperson Sarah Van Lange also states that minimum wage increases are not the only reasons for the rising prices. Van Lange explains that prices must remain competitive to supply operating costs, real estate, and locations of theatres in urban and rural areas.

In the past, the rise of ticket prices has resulted in a boost in the company’s revenue. In 2012, the rise of ticket prices resulted in the company doubling their profits at the box office, and promotional exercises

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increased concession sales.

Illustration| Lynn Hong

In the Financial Post, RBC Capital Markets analyst, Haran Posner states that Cineplex would be able to increase revenue substantially if the company were to make a slight increase to ticket prices for new release films on weekends, where the company makes

70 percent of their revenue.

Rising ticket prices can also risk attendance numbers for the theatre that monopolizes 80 percent of the market share. Patrons may chose to find a cheaper theatre, buy tickets but skip out on concessions, or not attend the movie at all.

It also states in the quarterly report that box office revenue decreased 12.9 percent to $162.1 million and food service revenue decreased 10.7 percent to $96.8 million as a result of a 14.4 percent decrease in attendance for the year.

The decreases in revenue and attendance is suspected to be due to the top three grossing movies for the year: Captain America: Civil War, The Jungle Book, and Finding Dory, not overcoming the highest grossing movies from the previous year: The Avengers: Age of Ultron, “Jurassic World, and Furious 7.

The decision to increase ticket prices cancels out the perk of a rise in minimum wage. Cineplex’s parttime employees receive two free movie tickets per pay period as employee benefits, but for students, a single movie may cost at least an hour of their working time.

News • The Strand

All Families Are Equal New legislature, huge win for LBGTQ families across Ontario Maia Kachan | Staff Writer

Photo| William Murphy, Flickr

On September 29th, the All Families Are Equal Act was introduced into Ontario legislation. This act, if passed, is a huge step in fostering acceptance and equality for Queer families in Ontario.

The All Families Are Equal Act is a piece of legislation that ensures both members of a couple who use alternative means of conception, such as a sperm donor or surrogate, are legally recognized as parents regardless of biological connection. In this bill, there is equal recognition for all parents and children under law. Another notable inclusion is the ability to specify more than two parents on a birth certificate.

The development of this bill came primarily from LGBTQ families, who fought against the need to adopt their own children, and in many cases spend time and money on legal bills in the wake of a new baby. Ontario’s old marriage legislation act had been present since 1978, and it’s dated policies clearly disadvantaged LGBTQ families.

Though same sex marriage was legalized 11 years ago, the status of parenthood was only granted au-

tomatically to those biologically related to the child under current Ontario law until the implementation of the All Families Are Equal act. Under the old legislation non biological parents in same-sex partnerships lacked the ability to obtain medical treatment and travel accessibility for their children.

In May of this year, Premier Kathleen Wynne pledged to implement legislation to end discrimination against same-sex parents. NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo’s private member’s bill to change existing policy influenced the final All Families Are Equal act, in addition to influence from similar bills already passed in British Colombia, Alberta, Manitoba, and Quebec.

DiNovo’s bill came out of her work with multiple LGBTQ families in Ontario, but especially Kirsti and Jennifer Mathers McHenry: her bill was named after their children Cy and Ruby. To be recognized as a parent, Kirsti (the non-biological mother) had to spend months and around $10,000 applying in court for recognition as the legal parent of her children.

Additionally, complications during her wife’s labour with their daughter made Kirsti fearful that, should something serious happen to her wife, she “was a legal stranger to (their) daughter.” This situation is upsetting and common in the LGBTQ community.

The liberal government developed their own update to the old Ontario parental act, and hopes to have it passed by the end of the year. In the mean time, some LGBTQ families have been able to have both parents legally recognized on their children’s birth certificates, which is in itself a big step.

The creation of this bill comes during a movement of Canadian infrastructural change to protect LGBTQ people, which also includes Trudeau’s plans to create a gender neutral option on drivers licenses and health cards, federal legislation to protect human rights of trans people, and gender neutrality in our national anthems. It also reflects the long way we have to go to create equitable legislation for all Canadians.

Photo| Rosa Kumar

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Editorial • The Strand

OUR MASTHEAD Erik Preston Alexandra Scandolo

Photo| Scott Richard

Free speech is not the same as hate speech Shailee Koranne | Opinions Editor & Molly Kay | Arts & Culture Editor

By now, everyone on the UofT campus will have heard about the comments made by Professor Jordan Peterson regarding free editor@thestrand.ca speech.

The statement that has caused the most furor among students News Erin Calhoun and the community-at-large is Peterson’s refusal to acknowledge news@thestrand.ca “they/them” pronouns, which trans people use if they identify as Opinions Shailee Koranne non-binary, gender-fluid, etc. opinions@thestrand.ca Perhaps the most witless and irritating argument made by transphobic people against using “they/them” pronouns is that it Science Tanuj Ashwin Kumar is grammatically incorrect to do so. Linguists argue that society science@thestrand.ca should adopt “they” as a default pronoun for when someone’s Features Tamilore Oshodi gender is not known, and “they” was even selected as the 2015 features@thestrand.ca word of the year by the American Dialect Society. On the Society’s website, they elucidate on their decision, saying: “The use of Arts & Culture Molly Kay artsandculture@thestrand.ca Elena Senechal-Becker singular they builds on centuries of usage, appearing in the work of writers such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Jane Austen. In Film & Music Joshua Kim 2015, singular they was embraced by the Washington Post style filmandmusic@thestrand.ca guide.” Not only has “they” been in use for centuries—language is constantly evolving.

Stranded Celeste Yim stranded@thestrand.ca When they are not prioritising grammar over people, PeterCopy Editing Tristan McGrath-Waugh son supporters are claiming that political correctness has gone too far and free speech is no longer encouraged on university camcopy@thestrand.ca puses. Free speech is not the same thing as hate speech. Freedom Design Genevieve Wakutz of speech is not boundless and unconditional—it never has been. design@thestrand.ca People have always been held responsible for the abuse of free speech, which is why hate speech is illegal.

Photo Rosa Kumar There should be no reason for people to be defending their photo@thestrand.ca right to have uninformed, hateful, and destructive opinions.

Art Lynn Seolim Hong Changing your pronouns is not a personal decision, like sudart@thestrand.ca denly deciding to rock a different hairstyle. Personal pronouns are a reflection of a person’s gender identity and should be respected.

Web Arjun Sawhney It is not the place of cis people to tell gender nonconforming folks web@thestrand.ca Justine Chen that they should only identify with the gender assigned to them at birth. If you do think that’s your job, let me assure you that you Editorial Assistants Ainsley Doell Amanda Gosio are not as important as you think you are.

Carol Park Even if Peterson did not intend to be hateful, the impact that Grace King his comments can have—and have had—far outweigh his intenSabrina Papas tions. Peterson’s divisive comments make trans people seem like Tyler Biswurm “others” and infringe upon their safety. So no, he does not get to Contributors be hateful under the guise of free speech, and neither do you.

Luca Bellisario, Julia Dasilva, Maia Kachan, Professor A.W. Peet, a physics professor at UTSG who idenSimran Kataria, Heather McBrien, Wilfred tifies as non-binary, quickly called Peterson out for his comments, Moeschter, John Richardson, Nikta Sadati, noting that they were concerned about trans students on campus Samantha Santoro, Hiba Siddiqui, Emma and how they were feeling.

Workman, Isha Varma Peterson responded in his CBC interview where he delibCopy Editors erately mis-gendered Peet, saying: “The mere fact that Professor Ainsley Doell, Tristan McGrath-Waugh, Peet would like to be addressed by a particular pronoun does not Heather Mckay, Eric Preston, Ally Scandolo mean that I am required to address him by that pronoun…The mere fact that I don’t want to use pronouns that some else has Illustrations decided I should use doesn’t mean that I don’t believe that transLynn Seolim Hong, Varvara Nedilska gender people exist…I’m not a bigot.”

On Thursday, October 6th, the Mark S. Bonham Centre Photos for Sexual Diversity Studies held a Trans-Positive Teach-In. This Rosa Kumar, Hana Nikcevic, Hiba Siddiqui, Isha Varma event featured six speakers from different departments and offices at UofT, including Professor Peet. It provided the opportuCover nity to learn how to make UofT a more safe and inclusive space Rosa Kumar for transgender staff, faculty, and students. After the lecture, The Strand had the opportunity to talk with Professor A.W. Peet.

Note from the Editors: Article entitled “Day of action “When I got home last Wednesday, I read a [National] Post against the Trans-Pacific Partnership speaks volumes to Canadians” from Issue Three was written by Erin article about [Peterson’s comments]... I got mad for about five Calhoun, News Editor. seconds for myself, but then I thought about the students and I got really mad. That’s what galvanized me to do something about The Strand has been the newspaper of record for Victoria University since 1953. It is published 12 it.” Peet said, regarding how they felt when they first heard about times a year with a circulation of 2000 and is diswhat Peterson had said. tributed in Victoria University buildings and across “He’s doing it for media attention. He wants the publicity, the University of Toronto’s St. George campus. like every privileged man... He wants everything to be centred on The Strand flagrantly enjoys its editorial autonomy him, and now that the centre of gravity is shifting away, he feels and is committed to acting as an agent of conhimself and his supremacy being left behind,” added Professor structive social change. As such, we will not publish material deemed to exhibit racism, sexism, Peet. homo/transphobia, ableism, or other oppressive Theo Williamson, an FTM (female to male) trans student in language. their second year, explains how this experience has affected their The Strand is a proud member of the Canadian student experience at UofT: “The biggest impact was that it made University Press (CUP). me feel unsafe and anxious on campus, as it gives other people Our offices are located at 150 Charles St. W., with the same dehumanizing opinions an opportunity to speak Toronto, ON, M5S 1K9. Please direct enquiries out and cause more violence towards the trans community,” says by email to editor@thestrand.ca. Submissions are Theo. “I used to feel safe walking around UofT, but now I’m findwelcome and may be edited for taste, brevity, and legality. ing myself checking over my shoulder more often in case someone feels compelled to cause me harm. I am ashamed and disappointed that UofT would not realize the violence that Peterson’s Editors-in-Chief

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Peterson’s transphobia— It is not just words

actions have caused. I love UofT and it’s an incredible school, but the fact that they enabled Peterson and that he’s hiding behind academia and his tenure makes me very uncomfortable.”

Peyton*, a non-binary student currently in their third year at UofT, was a student of Peterson’s in second year. They shared their direct interactions with Peterson to The Strand: “There were some things that [Peterson] said that made me really uncomfortable, so I went to the ASSU to figure out what to do…They put me in touch with an advisor who basically told me that I was misunderstanding Peterson’s comments and suggested I talk to him personally. I felt uncomfortable with that because he was still my professor. I was afraid that his perception of me would negatively impact my grades in his class.”

“That summer, I got a position as one of Peterson’s research assistants and he had me handling his Twitter to boost his online presence because there wasn’t any actual lab work to do. In September, he emailed all of his RAs—including me—that video and asked us all to share it. I wasn’t even his RA anymore, and I feel like it was probably an HR violation at the very least. I sent him an email respectfully declining to share the video and saying that I think he had some fundamental misconceptions about the issues he’s talking about and I was prepared to leave it at that.

But, one of his RAs was friends with me on Facebook and he went through my posts and took screenshots of some that were criticizing Peterson and sent them directly to him while accusing me of potentially sabotaging his social media. I feel like I’m being pushed out of the psych department.”

People like Professor Peterson have a huge platform and their words are not separate from the existing discourse in our society that actively allows the harm and murder of transgender people.

A quick Google search shows that trans people are targeted at horrifying rates—72 percent of reported anti-LGBT homicide victims were trans women, and 67 percent of those were trans women of colour. Nearly a fifth of transgender people face homelessness at some point in their lives. Trans people are also six to seven times more likely to be subjected to police violence, and nearly twice as likely to be sexually assaulted.

Why would we want to add fuel to this fire? Cisgendered people are in a privileged position. Professor Peet stated perfectly, “If you’re looking down on someone, the least you can do is pull them up.”

A woman spoke at the Trans-Positive Teach-in as the mother of a trans child who is considering UofT as their post-secondary school. The woman expressed concern about sending her child to UofT after hearing Peterson’s comments, especially because her child’s transition was not easy. Is this the campus culture UofT wants to promote?

Toronto is hailed as a hub of diversity and inclusion. UofT represents this city on a global scale. Words are very powerful and much greater than personal opinions, especially when they have to do with identities that may not be ours to begin with.

Be mindful, be open, and most of all, stay in your lane. *Name changed to protect identity of student.

Resources for trans students “There’s no shame in reaching out, but it’s hard. It can be awkward, it can be difficult. But it’s everybody’s responsibility to care for these students… it’s not up to the trans student to find all the resources themselves. We should be offering them love.” - Professor Peet Professor Peet’s website can be found at www.ap.io/home/resources

U of T Sexual and Gender Diversity Office 21 Sussex Avenue, Suites 416-417 416-946-5624 • Office is wheelchair accessible and has gender neutral washrooms • All students, staff and faculty are welcome to drop by and visit the St. George location • SGDO staff regularly travel to UTSC and UTM and will be able to meet you on your campus • Appointments are available for students, staff and faculty at all three campuses • You can let the office know in advance if you have an accommodation requirement so that they can provide appropriate assistance

LGBT Youthline: call 1-800-268-9688, text 647-694-4275, or chat online Trans Lifeline: 877-330-6366

To infinity and beyond: Extending the numbers

Science • The Strand

Tanuj Kumar | Science Editor Look at your hands and—most likely—you have a finite number of fingers on them. That is, you don’t have an endless number of fingers on any hand. On average, a human has ten fingers and ten toes. But, what exactly is “ten?”—not the word, but the quantity. Is there something deeper to the abstract concept of “ten,” an idealized number form that we just approximate when sticking out all ten of our fingers at once? We are going to explore what exactly “numbers” mean, and how different “levels” of numbers are layered on top of each other like shortcake.

Look to your fingers and count them. One, two, three, four, and so on, until you get to the maximum number of fingers on your hands. Notice something interesting here? You counted them in the same way you would count a quantity of apples, or books, or something that looked “concrete” and “indivisible.”

When referring to how many fingers we have, we treat the finger as a single unit and count the overall quantity of fingers. It seems straightforward and almost natural, in a way. It is like the type of counting that you’ve learned from the start, and has been etched into the deepest recesses of your brain.

That’s why they’re given an amusingly fitting name—the “natural numbers”or, one, two, three, four, five, and so on. Do we stop? No! The natural numbers comprise a “set,” which is just a convenient name for a collection of unique objects. This collection can be finite or infinite. When talking about the natural numbers, we can think of a bottomless bucket that contains all of those straightforward-looking numbers from one and so forth. If we want to pull out a number from this bucket, whether it’s two or 200,000,000,000,001, we will find it. That’s simply because there is no such thing as the “biggest natural number!” Here’s a quick proof for you: think of the biggest number you can, big enough to serve as a candidate for “biggest natural number.” Got something? Good. Now add 1 to it. Whoops, it looks like you found an even bigger number!

But, cleverly, you say, “What about infinity?” Well, infinity isn’t a “number,” but there are different levels of infinity, which we will get to soon enough. Some “infinities” are, in a sense, more “infinite” than others.

What kind of basic arithmetic can we do with just our fingers? Well, we can add them: 1 + 1 = 2 and 4 + 5 = 9—maybe 2 + 2 = 5, if you’re currently studying Orwell.

Given two natural numbers, adding them together will always pop out another natural number as a sum. Neat, huh? What about multiplication?

It’s basically just adding a number to itself a certain amount of times. Three times three is just the number three added to itself three times, and so we know it’s nine. Reducing multiplication to these addition sequences makes it clear that multiplying two natural numbers pops out another natural number. In fancy terms, we say that the set of natural numbers is closed under addition and multiplication.

Just as a quick remark for the perceptive: do we consider zero to be a natural number? Yes and no. This has been the subject of harsh disputes for decades—I wish I were joking. For our purposes, it doesn’t matter either way, and it’s convenient to think of zero as one whenever you’ll need it.

There’s other “natural” sorts of operations that the natural numbers aren’t closed under, though. If we have five fingers and put down three then we’re left with two fingers, but how do we work out the idea of

having three fingers and putting down five? Can we even find a natural number that corresponds to three subtract five? We can’t. So, we just extend the numbers we can use and this is where we begin to think of things a bit more abstractly. Abandon the idea of numbers being tied explicitly to quantities and past this point of no return, numbers will just become more and more abstract.

Now, we can introduce the integers! We grab our set of natural numbers (and concretely stick the zero in here without dispute), and extend them in the “opposite direction” to include negative numbers. So now we have a bucket that has ... -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, ... and so on. It’s convenient to start thinking about an infinite line here. This line will be useful the further we go into this story, but for now, we can picture each of these integers being represented by equally-spaced notches on the line, extending off in both directions.

Now we have an answer to our question of three subtract five. We just represent it as (3) plus (-5). What

Illustration|

does that look like? On the line, I’ll walk three steps to the right and five steps to the left. That’ll leave me off at two steps to the left. So we’ve got 3 - 5 = -2!

It’s peculiar to think that we can just “extend a number system” like that, but it’s a fairly useful trick.

Can we go further than the integers? We can add, multiply, and now subtract them. Division is still a problem, though. If we divide three by four, we won’t get anything in the set of integers. So let’s extend our set again and include any numbers that we can represent as a fraction of two integers (just make sure the denominator isn’t a zero). Now we can divide in this nice new set we call the “rational numbers”. But what’s cool about them is this is where the granularity of our sets and lines begins to break a bit. Let’s look at the distance between any two numbers on our integer line, like 0 and 1. If we want to take half this distance, we get 1/2. Half of that is 1/4. Half of that is 1/8. As we continue, we keep getting smaller and smaller intervals, all of which we can easily represent

as integer fractions. But just like how we didn’t have a biggest number, we can keep dividing these intervals to get smaller and smaller numbers. So not only does our set of rationals go off into infinity in both positive and negative directions, but between every rational number there is an infinite number of other rational numbers!

That takes care of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division! What else is left? Of course, numbers that cannot be represented as a fraction of two integers, of course. Wait, what? Those exist? They do indeed, and two of the most famous ones are pi and the square root of 2, which humans have tried for centuries to approximate after mathematically proving that no integer fraction representations exist. We call them “irrational numbers” for that reason, and what’s surprising is that, between any two rational numbers, no matter how close they may be, there is also an infinite amount of irrational numbers between them!

These infinities are piling up. We can extend our number set to include these irrationals, and define our new set to be “anything we can uniquely represent with decimals.” So this can include anything from “1.00000 ...” to “3.141592654 ...”. While it’s not a perfect definition by any means, it’s a rough idea of the set of “real numbers,” which are closed under the four major algebraic operations and contain rationals and irrationals.

Let’s look back at how we pictured “infinity.” With the natural numbers, we basically thought of infinity as “reaching something really, really big.” With the integers, we thought of infinity as the same but in two directions—positive and negative infinity, extending into the horizon. With the rationals, we knew they extended into positive and negative infinity, but there was also an infinite amount of rationals between each rational.

The real numbers are on another level of infinity. They extend into infinity in both positive and negative directions. But if you look at any two real numbers on a line, no matter how close together, you will find an infinite number of other real numbers—rational and irrational—between them. And if you were to choose two numbers from the infinity between your two numbers, you would find that even between these two new numbers, there exists an infinite amount of real numbers.

Try it—pick any decimal number you can think of. Then divide it by any other larger Lynn Hong decimal number and you’ll get something smaller.

This infinity is so deep—”an infinity of infinities”—that we call the set of real numbers something special: an “uncountable set.” The natural numbers and integers are both countable, as you can find a one-to-one way to “map” each number in these sets to a subset of the natural numbers. With some clever thinking through using the fact that rational numbers use integers as their fractions, it’s been proven that even they are countable—but, the real numbers are not.

Two interesting ideas arise out of this. The first is, that the unique infinity of the real numbers has lent itself to theorems that shake the foundations of mathematics. The second is that there’s another mystery left: what’s the square root of negative one? It certainly isn’t in the set of real numbers, so there are still some gaps!

However, a look into these questions will be for another time. For the time being, make sure your fingers are still intact.

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Opinions • The Strand

O Canada: The time for timidity has passed Julia DaSilva | Contributor

I first heard of the Leap Manifesto in an issue of Maclean’s titled, “How to Kill the NDP.” That was April 2016, almost a year after a coalition of environmental, Indigenous rights, labour, social justice, and other activist movements began discussion on what was too quickly becoming an object of ridicule for much of the mainstream media. The conference was organized by activist Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything and Avi Lewis, director of the documentary of the same title.

“It’s not about carbon: it’s about capitalism” is the thesis of This Changes Everything, which examines why so many attempts to address climate change have failed. They have been unable to escape the narrative wherein every problem—including those created by a ceaseless drive for profit and economic growth—can, and should, be left for the “free market” to solve.

“The Leap Manifesto: A Call for a Canada Based on Caring for the Earth and One Another” builds on the central logic of this thesis. If our profit-addicted system is at the root of our inability to tackle climate change, then the climate crisis is inextricably linked with the other failings of this system: dependence of less-developed nations on the more-developed, the trampling of democracy by corporate power, and the host of austerity measures that—in preventing governments from addressing environmental injustice—have “become a threat to life on earth.” Its 15 demands include a rapid transition away from a carbon-centered economy, based on energy democracy, and a “polluter pays” principle that will shift the costs of the crisis away from the most vulnerable.

The “Leap” is not a revolutionary document: it is a non-partisan list of policies that could, in theory, be adopted by any party. Given that there can be no NDP (divided or not) and no economy on a dead planet, the “Leap” is an assertion of basic common sense. The disastrous consequences that global warming and environmental exploitation will have are not news.

Moving past a fossil-fuel burning economy—in a way, of course, that supports and empowers local

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economies to make this transition, as the Leap makes clear—is an indisputable necessity. Yet the moment any action is suggested—apart from international climate talks that fail to establish legally binding emissions reductions (like the COP21 summit, which only binds countries to continue emissions target negotiations)—those who suggest it are met with accusations. For example, in the September 15th, 2015 Globe Editorial—where such people were “saddling” a divided NDP with the “madness” of a “revolutionary utopian manifesto.”

I chose to examine “Hard Left Turn” by Jason Markusoff and John Geddes from the aforementioned Maclean’s issue not because it vehemently attacks the Leap Manifesto, but precisely because it doesn’t. “Hard Left Turn” seems to do its best to not pass judgment on the Leap itself: instead, it uses the Leap as the crowning example of ways in which the NDP has failed to hold itself together. It reflects well the tone of discourse surrounding serious climate action in Canada, that a major news magazine’s article on the Leap Manifesto was not about the Leap’s contents themselves, but instead a dismissal of it as divisive—a diversion to which no self-respecting party should let itself fall prey. “NDP leadership for years had proven effective at keeping the party’s more extreme wings at bay,” reads the inset on the first page.

“Another big idea” (such as supporting safe injection sites) “could have captured party passions, if the Leap wasn’t dangling there for the hungry.” Now the Liberals will regain the vote of Canada’s “left” while the NDP “compromisers and idealists wage battle.”

I could spend pages refuting claims that the Leap Manifesto is not technologically or financially feasible, but not only would that be beyond the scope of this article, it would be beside the point. If insufficient finances or technological development were the only things preventing Canada from investing in public infrastructure, or shifting to 100 percent renewable energy, proposals such as the ones made in the Leap’s accompanying document “How to Pay for the Leap” would be taken seriously, and national

research programs would be put in place. The problem is not technology or the budget. The problem is that anyone who tries to address systemic failings is labeled an idealist that makes life difficult for compromisers. Any proposal for meaningful change is dismissed as another “big idea” that prevents parties from choosing less controversial “big ideas,” and branding something as divisive acts as a legitimate refutation of its arguments. The problem is our political timidity, which has been clearly demonstrated in the media-response to the Leap Manifesto. We’ve ceased to equate common sense with what is necessary for an inhabitable planet, and we’ve come to equate it with what we can accomplish without damaging the status quo, while “keeping the party’s more extreme wings at bay.”

Timidity has a tendency to slide into apathy.

When our narrative is so restricted that the deepest crisis humanity has ever faced is not important enough to risk re-examining the structure of our economy, rationality becomes a mask for fear: fear that if a different world is possible, building it is our responsibility. Opponents accuse the Leap of pessimism, of making the crisis sound greater than it is, when serious discussion of proposals like the Leap are the best chance we have of overcoming this apathy and fear of change. The Leap is, in fact, a call to optimism, but one that is far from idealistic, and acknowledges the deeply disturbing realities our future could hold. We have a narrow window in which it is still possible to build a livable world. Yes, this will lead to controversy, and will be messy in the short term, and it will not leave every large, fossil-fuel dependent corporation happy.

It is time to stop treating the environmental crisis like one more idea that parties only attach to their platforms when it feels politically safe, and it is time to stop dismissing any attempt to address the problems inherent in our system as “idealism.”

It is time to take the mental leap that will allow us to participate in writing our own story.

Opinions • The Strand

Bras, insecurity, and overcoming Why I cut bras out Carol Park | Editorial Assistant

Illustration| Varvara Nedilska

For the majority of my teen years, my worth and value relied heavily on the size of my breasts. Perhaps it was a result of the culture I was brought up in, where beauty was found in a woman’s cup size. Perhaps it was the criticism that I was forced to endure on a daily basis from those who were closest to me.

Regardless of how I gained a negative view of body image, it stuck with me all throughout my adolescent years, negatively affecting my perception of myself, and other women.

I was a so-called “early bloomer”—menstruating earlier than my peers, and wearing underwire bras much sooner than the girls in my grade. Still, the idea that the early onset of puberty had peeped its head through the front door never bore importance. I did not feel like a woman, nor did I care to understand what a transition from a girl to a woman meant. That fantasy was shattered instantly when I entered the seventh grade, and the majority of the girls had started developing large breasts. Many of the girls, myself included, realized that boys were increasingly giving the girl with the largest chest the most attention. She was deemed “hot” and “sexy,” starring in many of my guy-friends’ fantasies. It soon became a competition: who could show the most cleavage and get a boy’s attention?

Having been raised in a predominantly white city, I was almost always the only Asian girl in the entire school, throughout both elementary and middle school. Being the only Asian had never been a negative experience, if anything, it had been quite the advantage in class and out. However, in a setting where a girl’s attractiveness was determined by the size of

her breasts, I became the running joke: “Asians don’t have boobs.” This quickly became engrained in my mind, tampering with my self-esteem and forming a toxic relationship with my body image.

The origin of the bra is unknown, though there are a few theories on how it came to be. It is believed that the first “bras” were used in the ancient world, when women would wrap a band of wool or linen around their breasts. Then came the Victoria era, and suddenly corsets were mandatory for middle and upper class women in the Western world. Due to World War I, women were needed for work in factories, which encouraged them not to wear corsets as they limited one’s physical ability. After World War II, bras had completely replaced corsets, and from then on, it became a billion-dollar industry.

This summer, I stumbled upon a YouTuber who announced that she was throwing away her bras, replacing them with bralettes, and going completely bra-less in the future. Inspired, I too replaced my bras with bralettes. When I first wore a bralette in public, I felt very vulnerable and naked: it felt strange.

Although I felt pride surge through me, I could not help but miss the feeling of having cleavage.

It soon dawned on me that the reason I met the first few days of wearing bralettes with scepticism was because I had been wearing push-up bras my entire adolescent life. It felt unnatural to have breasts that were not rounded, or pushed up to the extreme. This is all thanks to Frederick Mellinger, founder of Frederick’s of Hollywood, for inventing the push-up bra (known during its introduction in the mid 40s as the “Rising Star”) as we have come to know it. The idea

that breasts should be perky and round was largely influenced by Mellinger’s lingerie business and the debut of the first push-up bra.

Women’s lingerie is a rapidly growing, billiondollar industry. To say that the bra industry—as well as the cosmetic industry—is making billions off of women’s insecurities would be an incredible understatement, and a disservice to the female narrative and experience. Lingerie is and can be empowering for many women, including myself. While it can definitely be used as a tool to objectify a woman and her sexuality, in a situation where female agency is present, it can allow a woman to embrace her femininity, sexuality, and overall beauty. The act of wearing and presenting oneself in lingerie to a lover is a sensual experience, and enhances intimacy in the bedroom— or wherever you choose to explore. The lingerie industry is far more commercial than it has been in the past. It still plays into female insecurities pertaining to body image, but also presents a message demanding women to reclaim and embrace their sexuality.

That being said, it has, in the grand scheme of things, allowed women to discover their bodies.

It took me eight years to wholeheartedly embrace and accept my breasts, the size and shape, despite not complying with society’s expectations of what constitutes one’s body as being feminine and attractive.

For years, I had contemplated going through surgery in order to feel like a “woman” but now, I have realized that it takes a lot of confidence to show the world the real size and shape of one’s breasts. I have stopped giving a damn because I truly, completely, and wholeheartedly accept my body for what it is.

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Be Respons Emma Workman | Contributor

A re-evaluation of the

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very Sunday morning in my home, for as long as I can remember, my mother has made brunch. The ritual was so integrated into my childhood that I thought it was something everyone did. After mentioning it in passing to my friends, and having to explain the intricacies of the meal, I realized that this was something special—this was my family’s. Bacon, always crispy; eggs, scrambled; bagels; hash browns that my sister and I would fight over. This was the ritual.

Our relationships with food are not our own. They are a series of choices made by the people around us, a series of individual experiences and meals, a mess of cultural, religious, and familial ties that we can’t undo. Herein lies the issue with modern views of health and wellness: they strip us of these nuanced experiences with food. Rote explanations of health with terms like gluten free or low fat consider eating an emotionless act, when that couldn’t be further from the truth. From the beginning of humanity, eating has been an act dripping with connotation—connotation of celebration, when hunters brought back food for weeks, of importance as part of rituals and sacrifice, of mourning, at burials. Evidence exists that even 13,000 years ago, people were offered a last meal before their death. Food is not just about nutrients or necessity. Food is a collective experience unlike any other we have, and this is not by chance, or by modern invention.

The problem arises when people recommend dogmatic forms of eating without taking into consideration the individual pasts that people have with food. In an age that prides itself on considering strong the new skinny, more and more people feel comfortable recommending diets under the guise that they intend to make the population healthier. Of course, it’s never that simple. Health is not something that can be prescribed across the board by cutting out bread, or fat, or sugar, or whatever food group is currently taking the heat for making us bad. Further, this isn’t necessarily an effective view of nutrition: if it was as simple as cutting out all foods deemed horrible and never thinking about them again, more people would do it. We have to consider who we are blaming. Is it the food, for appearing innocent but revealing a sinister nature? Is it our bodies, for taking up too much space? Or, worst, us, for daring to crave things that have been determined as unworthy?

Food is integral to culture. When we make blanket statements about the value of healthy food that condemn other cultures’ food as overly rich and indulgent, not only ignores

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Illustration| Lynn Hong

Features • The Strand

sible and Keep Eating

e issue of food in the fitness community the presence of this food in people’s everyday lives but also ascribes them the same way of eating as us. There needs to be space in discussions about food to account for our differences. There is no hierarchy of health, and positing our diet laden culture as better than others is unfair and untrue. Ordering curry from an Indian restaurant as your “cheat day” shows a lack of understanding of other cultures’ food. To tell someone that the naan their mother makes them at home is actually unhealthy ignores their history, and also posits the West as the forerunners in health. In actuality, many cultures have been doing things for centuries that the West as a community is just coming around to.

Inherent in this is the idea that we did have reason to feel shameful before. This is hurtful and, more importantly, untrue. Many people are addicted to the pleasures that food can bring them, and shame is the center point of addiction.

In teaching ourselves shame in eating, we only stand to limit discussion and growth.

Imagine a world where any journey with food begins with the prioritization of kindness. Imagine beginning with the knowledge that we are protecting ourselves, not attempting to change ourselves. Imagine advocating for moderation: a world in which we partake in all of the foods that bring us joy—avocado spread on a bagel, a smoothie with only your

I urge you that your body is already the one that you deserve.

Your body is already good, already worthy of

your love and respect and nourishment...

The fitness community also seems to derive a certain kind of joy in the persistent elimination of unhealthy foods. There is a pleasure in difficulty, a pleasure in being the kind of person who is strong minded enough to achieve a certain body, a pleasure in depriving oneself of more and more things. While there also exists a pleasure in being the kind of person gifted with a body that appears healthy, the fitness community depends upon the concept of work: working for one’s health, which almost always means working for the right kind of body, whether this is admitted or not. Moderation is a hard thing to build an identity out of, whereas eliminating foods from your diet can earn you a spot among a community of people who are strong in the same way as you.

This system seems to centre on food first, and thus, bodies first. There is very little concern for the history of food, or the latent insecurities of the person choosing to become healthier. The advice first focuses on acai bowls and what foods to never, ever eat (Number 3 Will Shock You!). The idea here is that our bodies, once beautiful or thin or otherwise “healthy,” will no longer burden us. We will no longer feel ashamed because we will have eradicated the need to.

favourite fruits, a plate of fries—because that is what we deserve. We deserve vitamins and proteins and colours because we have bodies that keep us alive, and we must protect them.

We deserve good food because it is memory-inducing and community-building and it makes us happy. Refrains from fitness gurus of “I work hard for this body” imply that you get the body that you deserve when you work enough for it.

I urge you that your body is already the one that you deserve.

Your body is already good, already worthy of your love and respect and nourishment.

This weekend, or any weekend that I return home, my mother will wake up on Sunday morning and start to make brunch. Bacon, always crispy; eggs, scrambled; bagels; hash browns that my sister and I have found a system to divide.

This is the ritual. To deny myself this food would not be an act of my own volition and it would ruin the simplicity I felt eating it as a child. To feel guilty about it would be to betray myself and negate the joy I feel from it. To remind me prescriptively of the gluten in my bagel would be callous and unfeeling. So, I will sit down, and I will eat.

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Arts & Culture • The Strand

The Strand reviews VCDS presents Peter Pan Sabrina Papas | Editorial Assistant

Photo| Hana Nikcevic

The sixth of October marked the opening night of the Victoria College Drama Society (VCDS)’s first production of the 2016-2017 season: J.M. Barrie’s beloved Peter Pan. The classic children’s story was brought to life by director Yimeng Sun in the Emmanuel College quad, starring Allie Sinclair as Peter Pan, Isobel McDonald as Wendy, and Shak Haq as Captain Hook.

Emmanuel College served as the perfect backdrop for the performance. Fairy lights were hung on the branches of the trees surrounding the stage and tea lights in mason jars were placed throughout the audience, transforming the quad into an enchanting set.

VCDS provided blankets for seating around the stage as well as homemade apple cider, which both contributed to the cozy atmosphere. Holding the production outside was incredibly visually pleasing and created an intimate ambience that would be difficult to replicate indoors at the Isabel Bader Theatre or The Cat’s Eye. The outdoor setting, however, caused an unfortunate issue with the sound, as none of the actors were miked.

Several of them were unable to fully project their voices over the background noises, including wind and sirens, making it difficult to hear the dialogue during some scenes.

The performance was imbued with humour, which was a surprising addition to a story that is considered to be fairly devastating. The attachment of Barrie’s name to the production as the sole writer falsely represents it as being a traditional rendition of the work.

Although well received by the audience, the humour would have been more suitable if the costumes and props were at least cohesive, and appropriate for a story written in the Edwardian era. Peter Pan sported a black windbreaker and Chuck Taylor sneakers and Michael (Jasmine Cabanilla) carried around a modern Japanese plush bear. All the while, Mrs. Darling (Lauren Van Klaveren) wore a vintage chiffon gown and 1920s-styled heels, producing a tremendous lack of cohesion. Additionally, this contrast between modern and classical elements did not adequately complement the original score, beautifully composed by Wilfred Moeschter and performed live.

Towards the end of the performance, there were a few scenes that could have been misinterpreted by those who are not entirely familiar with Barrie’s story. The scene during which the Darling children and the Lost Boys are all grown and are saying goodbye to each other was the most unclear. It comes directly

after Wendy, John, and Michael are reunited with their parents and the Lost Boys are adopted by the family.

Michael was still clutching his plush bear and John was still wearing his captain hat in this scene, making it appear as if no time had passed between the two scenes.

The passing of time was only clear once Mrs. Darling shed her robe and placed it on Wendy’s shoulders, a tender detail which produced one of the more emotional moments of the performance.

It’s necessary to note that the cast and crew impressively prepared the show in a mere three weeks, as stated by the executive producers, Rhea Bhatia and Maya Wong, in the playbill. The cast formed a strong collective and worked extremely well together, and each performer was perfect for their role. This was especially true of Shak Haq in the role of Captain Hook, who improvised many of his lines and was even able to work through his hook falling off mid-performance, incorporating the incident into his lines later in the show. Despite a few minor discrepancies, VCDS presented a charming and highly entertaining production, giving students a great deal to look forward to in the upcoming performances this season.

The Power Plant gallery fall opening Gallery’s latest exhibition raises political and sociological questions Max Weiss | Contributor The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery at the Harbourfront Centre is known for its diverse public programming and provocative exhibitions. It emphasizes accessibility of art and is intent on enriching the Toronto cultural landscape. Thus, the gallery is free to visit all the time throughout the year. Thankfully, the artists of the Fall opening of such a modern institution provided unique takes on the tradition of art history.

We live in a world of increasing social, political, and sociological awareness and it is abundantly clear that, much of the time, the systems holding these constructs together are as broken as the constructs themselves.

This has come sharply into focus in structures like the current American political theatre. The broken system has become the “A” story, while the political message takes the backseat. Such a broken system is evident in art history, as often-oppressive, singular narratives, and exclusions have shaped art history into quite a one-sided story. Current contemporary art often shares modern and cutting-edge ideas but, increasingly, artists and their art are calling bullshit on the systems that have been in place for a long time.

In the upstairs of the gallery lies Maria Loboda’s Some weep, some blow flutes, an installation of works that draw from archaeology and the pre-dynastic era. The exhibition begins traversing a narrow, stuccoed hallway that opens up into a warm, womb-like room. The room is filled with works that have been

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inspired by her exploration of early cultures, archaeology, and ancient belief systems. These meditative ideas are wound throughout the works but most striking are her three pottery vases: The Unattainable Original Condition, displayed in what Loboda herself called a “Sotheby’s atmosphere.” In contrast to the commoditised auction-esque lighting, the vases are holed in spots with garbage peeking through, as if they were badly restored antiques. The compelling message of the vase is one of sarcasm, poking fun at the traditions of restoring and selling art and antiquity.

Located in a grand, two-story hallway is Latifa Echakhch’s engrossing fresco, Crossfade: a decrepit skyscape that has been hacked away to show the wall underneath. The impressive installation in the tall, narrow space of the gallery is consuming. The viewer stands in between two walls and amidst the rubble of the frescoed sky and clouds. One can’t help but be reminded of frescoes in antique and renaissance art—Echakhch literally hacking away at a deeply rooted medium in art history used by masters like Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. To add insult to the proverbial injury, Echahkch doles to art tradition. The narrow hallway encourages those more rambunctious gallery-goers to walk upon the rubble of fresco—both the artist and the viewer, if only by accident, traipse over such a classical beloved method of art history.

In her exhibition on the first floor, Faux Guide,

Yto Barrada examines the relationship between the museum system and the artefacts it cultivates and condemns. The works produce a rather explicit commentary on the role of the museum in determining value in objects and their history. A series of fossilised rocks, carved to look like Coca-Cola bottles, highlight the commodification of the museum and its artefacts. The real showstopper is Barrada’s short film Faux Départ, an ode to the craftspeople of the Tangiers that work in a world somewhere in-between real and forgery. The intricacy and beauty of the craftsman’s art almost make the viewer forget they are creating forged fossils. In this regard, Barrada gives as much primacy to the forged as real thing, questioning traditional ideals of authenticity and originality in art.

The questioning of historical authority that runs through the show feels right for this specific moment in time, albeit perhaps overdue. Neither Loboda, Echakhch, nor Barrada claim they have solutions to this upheaval, nor does it seem they are concerned enough to do so. Rather, the reflection and questioning of these archaic systems is a spark to the fire. We have a long way to go for a perfect world, and these reflections count. In a room that was humming with discussion of the latest social injustice or political tableau, the questioning was enough for me.

Arts & Culture • The Strand

From cozy to aesthetic, we’ve got your café needs covered!

Hiba Siddiqui | Arts & Culture Associate Editor A unique spin on the ever-so-popular topic of coffee shops. Instead of just telling students where they can satisfy their coffee needs, why not tell them what types of cafés are out there?

Caffiends

L’Espresso Bar Mercurio

Innovative and communal

For coffee addicts and foodies Located at 321 Bloor St West, this Espresso Bar has you covered for brews, pastries, and quality Italian lunch foods.

The lighting inside also makes for a nice study spot or a place to just wind down.

If you show your T-Card, you get a ten percent discount!

Housed in Old Vic, this student run cafe offers fair trade coffee and tea with a creative display of student artwork and photographs. The welcoming arrangement also makes for a great place to socialize!

Photos | Hiba Siddiqui

Diabolos’ Coffee Bar Cozy and spacious

University College’s iconic coffee bar offers fair trade coffee and light meals. It is attached to the junior common room: providing ample space to study, relax, and refuel. Did I mention the leather couches?

Sorry Coffee Co.

Aesthetic and visual This coffee shop, found at 102 Bloor St West, is well designed for all the artsy individuals out there—fuelling creative angles and lighting for Instagram. You can also browse the stylish and streamlined clothing chain, Kit and Ace, while you’re there.

Tangled Art Gallery Redefining Disability Arts Campus Shailee Koranne | Opinions Editor

Photo| Shailee Koranne

The week leading up to my 10 AM trek to the Tangled Art Gallery for a class field trip had been physically and emotionally exhausting. I deal with anxiety and depression on a daily basis—name a more iconic duo… I’ll wait. September was a very long, busy month, I had a stomach flu, and—you get it. I was tired. I didn’t want to go.

But I’m so glad I did.

The Tangled Art Gallery (TAG) is a new space that aims to better represent disability arts in Toronto. It is free to the public and offers audio description, “relaxed” gallery hours, ASL interpretation at exhibit openings and events, wheelchair accessibility, and it also allows service animals. In addition, all of the art is hung at accessible levels. Its inaugural season features “textile work, painting, performance art, media arts, and multi-sensorial installations.” Deep importance is given to the intersections of disability with race, gender, Indigeneity, and aging. The exhibitions are curated by artists with disabilities, so anyone who engages with TAG will be able to truly increase their understanding of disability, and appreciation of disability arts.

The exhibit currently on display at TAG is called Mad Room and is curated by Gloria Swain, a black feminist woman in her 60s who is sharing work inspired by her anxiety and depression. Her pieces explore themes such as the intersections of misogyny, systemic racism, ageism, domestic and sexual abuse, forced medication, and depression. She uses mediums such as acrylic paint and ink, often combining them to make textured art.

Gloria’s work was incredibly moving. As a woman of colour, I often feel as though I’m not allowed

to talk about my own experiences with mental illness.

Women are often dismissed for showing any emotion on a level higher than one (on a scale of one to one thousand) while men are lauded for being anything other than stoic. Take, for example, the connection that Sandra Song from Paper Mag drew between the

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The Tangled Art Gallery (TAG) is a new space that aims to better represent disability arts in Toronto.

way that the internet reacted to musicians Kehlani and Scott Mescudi (Kid Cudi)’s respective public battles with mental illness.

Kehlani was hospitalized because online harassment drove her to attempt suicide. Upon recovering, the jokes were merciless, and it seemed that no one pitied her because she had allegedly cheated on her boyfriend. Mescudi checked himself into rehab and the Internet launched the hashtag #YouGoodMan, supporting him and other black men who have mental illnesses. While I am so glad that conversation was

opened up about black men who deal with mental illnesses, I wish the same respect and concern was given to the women of colour who need it.

Being racialized takes away from how much I can open up about my mental illnesses as well. Every time I try to discuss the familial problems that cause me major depression and anxiety, stereotypes engulf the way I am perceived. E.g.“Oh, yeah, I’ve heard that Indian parents are really strict… do they want you to get married… they probably want you to focus on school and become a doctor... that’s just the way it is with brown people, right?”

My issues are taken less seriously than those of white people who feel comfortable talking about their mental health.

Gloria Swain’s art spoke to me because it was honest, personal, and introspective. The pieces that stuck out to me the most were a painting of four ghostly figures which Gloria later explained were the ghosts of her ancestors who were looking after her, and a long scroll on which Gloria had written all the names of black women killed by white police officers in the past few years.

I cannot relate directly to Gloria’s work and I won’t pretend that her message about living with anxiety in an anti-black society was for me, but it meant a lot to me to see her work. I felt supported by the people in the room. I felt empowered by seeing the art of a marginalized woman on the walls in a big gallery.

Even if you can’t identify with any of these themes, I strongly encourage you to check out the Tangled Art Gallery. Gloria’s exhibit is on until December 3rd, 2016.

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Live Music Through Pixels Isha Varma | Contributor

My 50-year old father sitting next to me and the 10-year old child sitting in front of me were both belting out the lyrics to Piano Man in unison.

Too often, I see spectators watching live concerts through a pixelated screen. I’ve been guilty of this too.

I used to record and document every concert. Every song, every awkward talk the artist gave between tracks, every unknown opening act.

Maybe it was to broadcast to my friends through various social media platforms about my cool, teenage life.

Whatever it was, it became an instinct. When I heard the first bars of a familiar track, my hand would clutch my phone as I screamed to my friends that I need to record this. I watched the artist sing to me through my 4-inch screen.

In 2015, I came across a series of concerts known as SOFAR Sounds or Songs from a Room. A group of friends were tired of going to live performances surrounded by loud and distracted crowds, so they decided to host their own gigs.

The premise of a SOFAR Sounds show is simple; apply to attend, get the address, show up with $10, and just listen. This is where I learnt about reciprocating the artists’ energy, connecting with your fellow attendees, and bringing the magic back to live music.

The lead singer of one of my favourite bands accidently stepped on my finger before this. What a time to be alive.

The song playing was called “Your Good Times Are Just Beginning.”

Not focusing on documenting my experience has helped me connect more with live music, the artists, and the people around me.

Or maybe, I wanted to watch these videos again sometime (I never did, they were awful).

I started being more mindful of documenting my concert experiences. I stopped recording performances. Still, I wanted only one picture for my camera roll—one picture per concert.

Photos | Isha Varma

When this picture was taken, the guy behind us was proposing to his girlfriend during I Will Wait.

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Here’s to being more present.

Film & Music • The Strand

But it sounds so bouncy!?

3 upbeat songs with dark meanings Nikta Sadati | Contributor Generally, upon the first listen of a song, the thing that sticks with us the most is the melody. If a song has an upbeat melody, something bouncy like Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk” or jazzy and sultry like Mac Miller’s “My Favourite Part,” we tend to listen to it with a smile on our face, calling it our “song of the summer” or our “feel good tune.” However, when we take a second listen, sometimes what may be found are darker lyrics that directly contrast with the bright beats and drops. This is what makes the juxtaposition between painful poetry and calming or excitable melodies something worth a closer look. Here I give you three songs that are on an endless cycle of repeat in my ears for this exact contradiction.

Panic! at the Disco – “Camisado”

Photo | Wikipedia

Starting off with a simple keyboard and lead singer Brendon Urie’s voice, the opening lines recite “The I.V. and your hospital bed, this was no accident, this was a therapeutic chain of events.” Already, we have a lot to unpack. This track was released on the band’s debut album A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, in 2005, and during this time, all of the band’s songs were written by their guitarist, Ryan Ross. Ryan has spoken out in interviews about growing up with an abusive and alcoholic father with whom he had an estranged relationship. This “therapeutic chain of events” may be watching his father turn to alcohol for therapy. Right after this stinging line, the beat kicks in, leaving us with jarring guitar chords, drums, and an electronic keyboard riff with every chorus: the glory of all punk rock lovers. On top of these layers of music we hear: “Just sit back and relax ... Just sit back and relapse again.” Just dig your teeth into that play of words. Finally, leading into the bridge we hear: “You’re a regular decorated emergency, the bruise and contusions will remind me what you did when you wake” in a faded vocal with a backing of strong drum lines. Upon first listen, “Camisado” appears to be a jumpy, pop-punk anthem. However, even from the title itself we can derive a darker meaning as “Camisado,” in military terms, defines “an attack by night.”

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Stromae – “Papaoutai” Listen, putting a French song in here is not pretentious. Just because I’m a French minor doesn’t mean I chose this life. This song didn’t just hit it big in Europe, it blew up across America. The most popular single from his album Racine Carrée, Stromae wrote “Papaoutai” to depict the hardships he had experienced growing up for the majority of his life without a father. With an electronic backdrop and a single piano line following along, “Papaoutai” was met with success in clubs and amongst numerous DJ’s, being remixed several times due to its “fist-bumping” beat, specifically in its high energy chorus. However, as always, I’m here to ruin it all.

The title “Papaoutai” comes from a french “slang” style of writing wherein words are combined to imitate the way native french speakers will enunciate sentences. Translated, the phrase becomes “papa où es-tu?” meaning: “father where are you?” Stromae has opened up in several interviews about the struggles of his family during the Rwandan Genocide. His father, an architect, was a Tutsi at the time and was captured and brutally murdered when Stromae was only 12. This song, sung from a childlike perspective, asks: “Ah sacré papa, dis-moi où es-tu caché?”— “where are you hiding dad?” The heartbreaking lyrics are found again in the chorus, a repeat of the simple question “where are you dad?” Stromae found himself as a lost little boy looking for a father where he no longer could find one. Towards the end of the song, over blaring electronic beats, he gives a warning of sorts telling us, and I translate: “everyone knows how to make babies, but no one knows how to make fathers.” Many children grew up fatherless due to this genocide, and Stromae writes to show that a caring and loving father is not only unique, but also irreplaceable.

Photo | Wikipedia

The 1975 – “UGH!” The 1975 love to play around with weird sounds and, as your “cool” uncle would call them, funky beats. “UGH!” is no exception, with its groovy guitar riffs and seemingly random, high-pitched staccato noises. However, despite this bouncy beat, (you guessed it) the lyrics tell the story of lead singer Matty Healy’s former cocaine addiction and the difficulty of “giving it up again.” Within the first verse we hear: “I know your lungs need filling since your gums have lost their feeling,” depicting the physical effects of cocaine and the desperate bodily need for relapse.

This is followed by “Don’t say that you’re giving it up again.” This prefaces the rest of the song as the singer moves back and forth between delving into his addiction, and restraining from it. Formatted like a love song, upon first listen, one might believe it a ballad to a romantic interest. Matty sings, “You’re the only thing that’s going on in my mind, taking over my life a second time.” However, the haunting twist of cocaine as the subject depicts a life in tunnel vision.

The singer is describing a breakdown into a relapse of consuming obsession, exclaiming: “You’re meant to be helping me.” The end of the song, however, leads listeners to wonder if this was a look into the future, and then a decision made, the song fades us out with the repeat of “I’m not giving it up, not giving it up.”

While these are only three examples, this contrast in music and lyric is apparent almost everywhere. It reflects a desire to capture attention—mainly mainstream—in order to deliver a deeper, more personal story or message. Although I did use information from interviews of the artists themselves, a lot of lyric analysis is interpretation and opinion-based. You might be reading this article and thinking that when you listened to “Uptown Funk” it was more to you than just a bouncy little song: and that’s what makes music so diverse! Next time you are listening to the radio and your friend starts dancing to an upbeat song, remember to turn down the volume and begin to dissect the darker story behind the electronic beat.

Trust me, they’ll love it!

Photo | Kmeron, Flickr

When we take our second listen sometimes what may be found is darker...

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Film & Music • The Strand

Son of Saul: The Existential Void Simran Kataria | Contributor The Holocaust, for the Jews, represented a time of uncertainty and chaos—the complexity of the events that took place during the mass extermination of Jews often deprive the viewers of an ability to comprehend the horrors that went on in the camps. It is the task of filmmakers to be able to do justice to such a topic, Nemes defies dramatization and rather walks the viewer through the void created by the unconveyable enormity of the events.

“What on earth prompted you to take a hand in this?”

“I don’t know. My…my code of morals, perhaps.”

“Your code of morals. What code, if I may ask?”

“Comprehension.”

Laszlo Nemes’ recent Academy Award winning movie Son of Saul is not only a film about the life of a Sonderkommando members in Auschwitz-Birkenau, as it goes far beyond just attempting to depict the communal suffering in the camp. Son of Saul works around the idea of the existential vacuum: the director seeks to fill this void with an artistic expression that tries to rationalize the absurdity of the Holocaust.

He does this through the protagonist who himself is in search for meaning that can fill his moral vacuum.

Thus, when he realizes that he lacks the answer, he takes it upon himself to do a righteous act that brings some form of purpose to his life. This film resonates a stark allegory of phenomenal consciousness and the human condition as seen in the works of Frankl and Camus.

The director uses a filming style that advances a feeling of nostalgia with the use of a 35mm screen as well as his “in-the-moment” style of cinematography that follows the protagonist around, instilling a sense of direction in the minds of the viewers. As the camera is constantly homing in on Saul, the director tries to make the viewer have an experience of the monstrosities that are constantly occupying the background and the setting of the film. The protagonist Saul Auslander, a member of the Sonderkommando unit is seen shepherding the Jews at the camp to the gas chambers and cleaning up afterwards—which involved sorting through their belongings, cleaning the chambers, and burning their corpses. It was during this daily drill that he sees a doctor suffocate a young boy who had survived the gas chamber, it is this boy that gives meaning in form of a task to Saul’s life as the film revolves around Saul’s quest of giving this boy he claims to be his son a proper Jewish burial.

Saul has no sense of repercussions of his actions as he moves forward on his illogical quixotic quest: it is as if he tries to fill a void, a void surrounded by a moral dilemma. Sonderkommando members hold a very controversial place in the history of the Holocaust, they were Jewish inmates that acted to save their lives in the German machine of murder. The unit was often rewarded for their tasks with menial favors such as better rations and postponement of their inevitable deaths. The members of the units were according to Primo Levi “the most demonic crime” of the Nazis.

A crime, as it was “an attempt to shift onto others— specifically, the victims—the burden of guilt, so that they were deprived even the solace of innocence.”

Which is the solace director Laszlo Nemes’ seeks to restore through the film Son of Saul.

Victor Frankl refers to a lack of meaning and purpose in life as the existential vacuum, manifesta-

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Photo | YouTube

tions of the vacuum include apathy and sometimes noogenic neurosis which is best described as psychological symptoms caused by moral and spiritual conflicts. It is these moral and spiritual conflicts that Saul is subjected to during his time at the camp that lead to his neurosis. This further affects his attitude towards life as he lacks the sense of consequence to his actions and turns into an accidental rebel. In On the Theory and Therapy of Mental Disorders, Frankl characterizes attitude change due to the existential vacuum as follows: (1) a provisional attitude toward life–living as if there is no tomorrow; (2) a fatalistic attitude toward life–acting as if one has no control over one’s destiny; (3) collectivist thinking–a denial of one’s own personhood; and (4) fanaticism–a denial of the personhood of those who think differently. He goes on to further argue that “I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka and Majdanek, were ultimately not prepared in some Ministry or other in Berlin but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of Nihilistic scientists and philosophers.”

Saul is in search of meaning and takes up the tasks of burying the young boy he refers to as his son. He is driven by his Judaic piety to do a morally praised job that he seeks might bridge or fill his void. All throughout the movie, we come across an existential and moral crisis that reminds me of Albert Camus’ work The Plague. As an epigraph, Albert Camus chose a sentence by Daniel Defoe: “It is as reasonable to represent one kind of imprisonment by another as it is to represent anything which really exists by that which exists not.” This is what the film seeks to do. As Camus, himself, suggests, in a letter to Roland Barthes, that “The Plague should be read on several levels; but nevertheless its obvious content is the struggle of European Resistance against Nazism.” The director uses these ideas to shape the depiction of the horrors of the holocaust as he often plays with negative space in terms of what we don’t see but feel. The movie is characteristic of shots in which we hear noises in the background but do not see the acts, thus indulging the audience in the process of meaning making that fills their own existential vacuum, giving their own sense to the holocaust.

For instance, when we hear the screams of people in the background intensify as Saul awaits there, as a dead soul, for time to pass as, for him, it is just a part of his daily routine, it’s the blank horror in his eyes, coupled with our imagination that makes this movie a piece of brilliance. By homing in on Saul, and on the range of his melancholic eyes, we are made aware of the monstrosities that surround him and that we

don’t need to have them spelled out. Furthermore, the movie serves to ascribe both dignity and identity to the living commandos as well as the immortal boy to thereby refute the Germans to whom they are “pieces” affected by the Nazi machinery of killing.

The notion of “Absurdity” is the central theme of the film, Camus states that individuals must embrace the absurd condition of human existence while they must also defy the status quo to explore in search for meaning. In The Plague, the death of the populace is so preposterous that it leads to a mental dissonance for those who try to reason, this is similar to what we can imagine happened in Auschwitz. Like in The Plague, many doctors try to play their part to help the suffering populace, it is a similar action that Saul seeks to perform. Although, in both cases, the individuals are aware of the fact that their actions might not decrease the emotional and physical suffering of others but they seek to elevate their own moral and ethical suffering by their righteous deeds. The action of giving the boy a proper Jewish burial brings back meaning to his life, the Sonderkommando unit members seek meaning and purpose through organizing an uprising to destroy the gas chambers.

“And indeed it could be said that once the faintest stirring of hope became possible, the dominion of plague was ended.” It is this hope that the burial of the boy raised—the hope that there was some sense of order amidst chaos. The fulfillment of traditions brought a sense of harmony. It was the hope that the Jewish inmates were given, through deception by the SS officers, that they were at the camp not for extermination but for work. Right before the inmates were made to strip down their belongings for a quick “shower,” they were told: “We need people like you in the workshops, you will work and will get paid.

Hurry up or else the soup will get cold,” it was this false assurance that gave their lives a meaning that, although not initially, Saul deprived them of through his unintentional role in the killing machinery. It was this false hope that Saul felt the need to compensate for through his actions of redemption—as if he hadn’t given the boy a proper Jewish burial, he would have suffered from his own moral internal plague.

The movie represents the void that may exist in the Hungarian psyche regarding the Holocaust. It is a way through which the director seeks to understand the role played by Hungarian Sonderkommando members in the Holocaust. The film is a multi-play of genealogical representation of the Holocaust focusing not only on the event as a whole, but also on personal histories through a play of symbolic gestures that are open to the viewers’ interpretations.

Stranded • The Strand

Hedge Bets NFL Money Line Parlay Best Picks, Fantasy and Preview and Predictions, and Sports Talk: Luca Bellasario | Staff Writer For those sports fans not willing to be wrong, the world’s hedgiest better Luca Bellisario provides you with his TOTAL LOCKS for week 8 of the NFL.

Raiders vs.

Buccaneers

Packers vs.

Falcons

Eagles vs.

Cowboys

Behind Quarterback sensation Derek Carr, this game is a LOCK for the Raiders, whose rich tradition of success will be on full display this week when I predict they will TOTALLY DESTROY the defenseless Buccaneers, CRUSHING THEM IN A LANDSLIDE. This gambling expert strongly suggests you BET BIG on Derek Carr and the Raiders.

HOWEVER, I wouldn’t be surprised if Tampa Bay can pull off the upset. I like their defence, they have got a lot of heart.

Aaron Rodgers is the man. I repeat, AARON RODGERS IS THE MAN. You’d be a fool to bet against him and his Green Bay Packers, who I predict will TOTALLY ROUTE the BITCH Atlanta Falcons, sending them home with a loss and THEIR BITCHY TAILS BETWEEN THEIR BITCHY LEGS. BUT, I wouldn’t count out Atlanta, who have shown some spark in recent weeks.

Cowboys phenom Dak Preskot has surpassed all expectations and has transformed this years’ Cowboys into A BULGING SUPER BOWL THREAT. I predict they ABSOLUTELY OBLITERATE the Eagles, who don’t even deserve to BE IN THE SAME SENTENCE as Dallas, because DALLAS IS GOING TO DEMOLISH THEIR HOPES AND DREAMS AND WITHOUT EVEN TRYING. Bet the spread against the Eagles.

ON THE OTHER HAND, the Eagles have got some preeetty good players too.

Who’s to say, ya know?

Luca Bellisario’s* Betting Record This Season Is 853 - 0. *All bets were hedged.

An Interview with Jon Favreau Fish Are Actors, Not Food, Well, They Are Food, But Also Actors, And So Are Humans, But Fish Are Better, Reportedly Wilfred Moeschter | Staff Writer September 8th, 2020—longtime Stranded contributor Wilfred Moeschter lands an exclusive interview with the infamous Disney director Jon Favreau discussing his latest live action reboot: Finding Nemo.

Take a look at what the director had to say about his actors, eating with his actors, eating his actors, and his new take on a Pixar classic: The Strand: Jon, your live action version of Finding Nemo has made quite a splash! Almost $85 million in the worldwide box office this weekend. Were you expecting this much success?

Jon Favreau: Well, after our live action versions of The Jungle Book and The Lion King went so well, the Disney Pictures president and I knew that a live action Disney universe would rip Marvel a new one, and that’s just what happened! [laughs] WM: [laughs] Very true, one more asshole, not counting Robert Downey Jr. Why hasn’t Disney come up with any original stories since the live-action craze took off?

JF: Well, y’know, after people started complaining about a lack of diversity, and then when we do something diverse like Moana, they complain about cultural appropriation, we decided that it was just easier not to involve people at all. Who knows, maybe there will be a fish president some day and we’re just ahead of the diversity curve! More likely than an Asian President anyways [laughs]. Shit, is that out of order? Sorry.

WM: What prompted your decision to work with

real animals instead of CGI? JF: Well, CGI is expensive, y’know? I remember with The Jungle Book, we had to pay Christopher Walken god knows how much to talk like himself, and then animate the stupid monkey around his voice? Hell, no. With real fish actors, it was easier to just film them, and dub the voices on top without needing any sort of effects.

Favreau on a live-action Finding Nemo:

...After people started complaining about a lack of diversity...we decided that it was just easier not to involve people at all.

WM: Some critics say that since The Lion King in 2018, you and Disney have only committed to the live action remakes to make money. What are your thoughts?

JF: I mean, they’re not wrong. People love watching the classics, right? That’s why we have A Bug’s Life coming up next.

WM: Tell us more about that.

JF: It’s been real tough finding insect actors. There are a lot more restrictions, but luckily not too much paperwork. The great thing is, we don’t have to pay them. So, like sweatshops but better! [laughs] Luckily the animals don’t mind.

WM: What have been the biggest challenges of filming with animals?

JF: Well, re-casting took quite a while after one of our cameramen stepped on a nest and killed every actor in A Bug’s Life. Luckily nobody was on the payroll, amirite? Finding Nemo was easier to cast, since I have experience working with fish from Chef, a stellar movie by the way. Admittedly, I was only eating the fish during that movie. The fish just kinda swam around though—they were good actors when they weren’t crapping everywhere. If you remember, we had to ditch Ratatouille because rats are just fucking stupid and can’t actually cook. After that, we just decided to stop working with mammals altogether.

WM: Any closing thoughts for our readers?

JF: We’ve started casting for Cars, so look out for that! We don’t feel like blowing $100 million on effects when we can find vehicle actors ourselves. We might just paint eyes and a mouth onto my Prius.

Catch Finding Nemo opening in theaters on September 12, 2020!

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Stranded • The Strand

STRANDED’s Spot The Seven Differences!

Celeste Yim | Stranded Editor

Photos | Gage Skidmore, Flickr

1. Background colour is red in image 1 and blue in image 2.

2. The man in image 1 is holding his hand up and the woman in image 2 has her hands down at her sides.

3. The man in image 1 is dressed in blue and the woman in image 2 is dressed in red.

4. The subject in image 1 is a man and the subject in image 2 is not a man.

5. Image 1 and image 2 are two different pictures of two different people.

6. The hair in image 1 is fake plastic doll hair and the hair in image 2 is real human hair.

7. The subject in image 2 is a champion for women’s rights and the subject in image 1 has admitted to touching women without their consent.

ANSWER KEY:

Campus Group Wages War on Political Correctness Upcoming events for the year following Free Speech Rally unveiled to the public John Richardson | Contributor ST. GEORGE CAMPUS – Following the success of the U of T Free Speech Rally last Tuesday, organizers are looking forward to their upcoming schedule of events attacking political correctness throughout the year. In November, the confident group is excited to be hosting The “Let White People Use Slurs While Listening To Rap” 2016 bake sale, “Empowering Frat Boys To Say ‘That’s Gay, Bro’” conference, and The “Stop Female Ghostbusters” car wash outside of Sidney Smith Hall.

Their year will culminate at the first annual Ignorance Fest where they are excited to announce their illustrious slate of guest speakers including: Professor Jordan B. Peterson, the Cleveland Indians, your grandmother who still uses the word “oriental”, and others. The exciting day shall include an enlight-

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ening panel where several courageous white and straight males will speak and hold a Q&A on the challenges they have faced not being able to offend people as often as they would like to.

When asked about the goal of the events, organizer Jeff Simon stated, “I want to ensure all voices are heard because all lives matter. I am so happy a platform for white males has finally been given outside of television, politics, literature, film, theatre, niche clubs about science, and society. I really believe becoming the voice of the discriminated is the next, and final, frontier.” Protesters attending Ignorance Fest 2017 are asked to dress for the weather and wear yellow face if possible.