Vol. CXXXV, No. 7
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Exploring the realities of homelessness in Toronto pg.14
Controversy at the CUSP Dispute between researchers may damage U of T involvement in international partnership Iris Robin
ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
The University of Toronto’s involvement in a highly praised New York applied sciences research institute is off to a turbulent start. In April 2012, U of T announced that it would be expanding to New York in partnership with other international academic institutions. One of the highlights of the initiative was the Center for Urban Science and Progress (cusp), designed to foster collaborative research and technological development for the challenges facing the world’s cities. The cusp is part of the Applied Sciences nyc initiative and was intended to benefit students and faculty alike. As part of the initiative, three new campuses were slated to be opened in New York City. Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Warwick, Indian Institute of Technology Bom-
bay, and New York University (nyu) were also involved. U of T is the only Canadian post-secondary institution involved in this project. nyu planned to contribute around $50 million to the program, with New York City providing $15 million in benefits, according to The New York Times. A 2013–2014 U of T budget report allocated funding of $3.15 million, through the University Fund, to support salary and benefits for 21 faculty positions in the area of cities research and teaching. “Divisions in receipt of this funding will participate in the University of Toronto’s educational and research partnership in the Centre for Urban Science and Progress (cusp) located in New York City,” the report said. At the time of the project’s announcement, U of T hoped to send master’s and PhD students to study at the cusp and carry out their research. U of T also announced that some U of T faculty would take on the role of visiting professors
and teach at the cusp, allowing them to benefit from the research facilities, government, and industry in New York City, and then bring back transferrable expertise that could help tackle challenges in Toronto or other Canadian cities. Steve Easterbrook, professor of computer science at U of T, reported a recent research dispute between several U of T staff and Steven Koonin, the cusp’s director at nyu. “Incidentally, I’m no longer willing to have anything to do with the cusp since Steve Koonin, director of [the] cusp at nyu, started misrepresenting the work of many of my climate scientist colleagues by writing nonsense in the Wall Street Journal last month,” Easterbrook said. On September 19, Koonin published an article in the Wall Street Journal titled “Climate Science Is Not Settled,” which argued that we are very far from the knowledge needed to make good climate policy. Koonin posited that the uncertainties of cli-
mate science prevent it from being a solid base from which to enact policy decisions. “While the past two decades have seen progress in climate science, the field is not yet mature enough to usefully answer the difficult and important questions being asked of it,” Koonin wrote. “This decidedly unsettled state highlights what should be obvious: Understanding climate, at the level of detail relevant to human influences, is a very, very difficult problem,” he continued. These controversial claims drew a response from Raymond Pierrehumbert, a geophysical sciences professor at the University of Chicago. Pierrehumbert wrote an article in Slate titled “Climate Science Is Settled Enough.” “What [Koonin] fails to note is that this uncertainty provides an argument for more rather than less action on emissions control, since it
CONTINUED ON PG 9
INSIDE Comment When do you take a stand? Responses in light of solidarity protests in support of the Umbrella Revolution
Arts&Culture Discovering public art on campus
Science In conversation with Ari Cohen
Sports Strong starts for Blues hockey teams
A look at the art we see every day but may not notice
Canadian filmmaker talks about his award-winning documentary The Family Farm
A look at the key players in season previews
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WHAT’S GOING ON THIS WEEK ON CAMPUS MONDAY
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TORONTO PHOTO WALKS GROUP EXHIBITION
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Art Square Gallery, 334 Dundas Street West, all-day, free Organized by Toronto Photo Walks, this event features photography of Toronto from photographers with a wide range of abilities.
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AME HENDERSON, THEATRE & PERFORMANCE TALK
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The Varsity is the University of Toronto's largest student newspaper, publishing since 1880. The Varsity has a circulation of 20,000, and is published by Varsity Publications Inc. It is printed by Master Web Inc. on recycled newsprint stock. Content © 2014 by The Varsity. All rights reserved. Any editorial inquiries and/or letters should be directed to the sections associated with them; emails listed above. The Varsity reserves the right to edit all submissions. Inquiries regarding ad sales can be made to ads@thevarsity.ca. ISSN: 0042-2789
Room SW 335, Science Wing Building, 1265 Military Trail, 2:00 pm, free The talk features Ame Henderson, artistic director at a studio that explores and shares choreographic experimentation.
WEDNESDAY LIMITS AND PROTECTIONS FOR JOURNALISTS: MEXICO AND HUMAN RIGHTS LAW WITH PATRICK TIMMONS Room MW 170, Social Sciences Building, 1265 Military Trail, 5:00 pm, free The talk features Patrick Timmons, a Juárez/El Paso–based researcher of attacks against the press in modern Mexico.
THURSDAY CONVERSATIONS WITH NÁSTIO MOSQUITO Leigha Lee Browne Theatre, 1265 Military Trail, 12:00 pm, free The talk features Nástio Mosquito, a multimedia and performance artist whose work highlights African stereotypes in western contexts.
FRIDAY HUSSMAN FOUNDATION PRESENTS WRETCHES AND JABBERERS Price Family Cinema, Accolade East Building, York University, 4:30 pm–7:00 pm, free This event features a documentary film about two people with autism who try to change prevalent attitudes about intelligence and disability, followed by a discussion with the film’s two stars and producer.
THE EXPLAINER
Stuff you should know before voting in the municipal elections On October 27, there are three elections being held across the City of Toronto for the positions of mayor, city councillor, and Toronto District School Board trustee. The Varsity shares some top tips to facilitate the voting process. 1. If you live in Toronto but you are from another province, you are eligible to vote in this municipality as well as your home municipality. 2. If you are going be out of the province, you can proxy your vote to someone who is going to vote in person. 3. Remember to bring your voter information card and a piece of identification showing your name and qualifying Toronto address to the polling station. 4. Look up the list of acceptable forms of identification online. Among them are documents such as a void cheque, a pay receipt issued by an employer, or a utility bill. 5. If you don’t have a voter information card, go to the polling place with identification and one will be printed for you. 6. Use the MyVote tool to find out where you can vote, as well as information on the candidates in your area. 7. If you identify as Roman Catholic and there is a TDSB trustee election in your ward, you have the right to vote for candidates running for the city’s Catholic board. 8. Voting information is available in 24 different languages. 9. If you have accessibility concerns, the Voter Assist Terminal is equipped with audio functions and braille keypads and may be able to help you. If you cannot enter the polling place, curbside voting is available. 10. Polls are open from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm. Correction: An article from October 6 incorrectly said that the Student Commons Management Committee motion was defeated at the board meeting. In fact, the motion was not discussed at the board meeting. Additionally, a motion to change election rules was actually proposed as a change to the Articles of Continuance. An article from October 6 incorrectly said that Michael Kennedy is president of the JCCF. In fact, John Carpay is president.
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VARSITY NEWS
MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014
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Absence of UTSU AGM agenda questioned Agenda not included again following AGM shutdown in 2012 Iris Robin
ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
The University of Toronto Students‘ Union (utsu) will conduct their Annual General Meeting (agm) without an agenda for the second year running, with an order of business outlining the proceedings instead. Last year, the motion to approve the agenda was removed and the procedural document labeled as an agenda was referred to as an “order of business” throughout the meeting. These changes came about after the 2012 agm was shut down when a motion to approve the agenda failed. Vipulan Vigneswaran, former campaign manager for Team Unite, said that the utsu’s bylaws stipulate that an agenda must contain the items to be discussed. “The Board shall also in-
clude other items on the Agenda as described under Procedural Policy of the Union,” reads the bylaw. Vigneswaran contacted Cameron Wathey, utsu vice-president internal, to ask when the agenda for the agm will be published and noted that the utsu’s Policy Manual does not mention an order of business. Vigneswaran raised the issue last year and was dissatisfied with the answer he received. “They said they were allowed to do it; I assumed it was allowed or mentioned in the bylaws and policy manual,” Vigneswaran said. “The section of the bylaws Mr. Vigneswaran has quoted to you refers to a section of the Policy Manual that, from what I can tell, has not existed for quite some time, and is perhaps left over from previous amendments to the Bylaws and Policies,” Wathey said in an email to The Varsity.
Wathey stated that he would notify the Policy & Procedures Committee of the existence of the bylaw pertaining to the agenda. The utsu’s bylaws require the procedure of an agm to follow that of the most recent version of Robert’s Rules of Order. “This year has contentious issues and [the utsu doesn’t] want to risk losing an agm,” Vigneswaran said, adding: “Time and time again, the utsu has shown a Machiavellian attitude towards everything. They’re willing to ignore proper protocol and democracy in the hopes of getting their endgame.” Vigneswaran said he was not confident that the agenda issue can be resolved in time for the meeting. “As someone who’s seen the utsu’s mechanism of dealing with complaints first hand, I am absolutely confident that if I were to file a grievance it would go nowhere,” Vigneswaran stated.
In late September, Vigneswaran alleged that the utsu’s bylaws had not received ministerial approval since 1992 and that, therefore, the utsu’s operations, by the current versions of the bylaws, are illegal. According to Vigneswaran, the most recent version of the bylaws that Corporations Canada has in their possession are those dated March 19, 1992. Vigneswaran outlined his concerns in an email sent to all members of the utsu Board of Directors, where he attached his correspondence with Corporations Canada and a copy of the 1992 bylaws. The executive committee positions, the class definitions, and the number of representatives that each constituency is entitled to are among differences between the 1992 bylaws and those by which the utsu currently operates. The agm is scheduled for 6:00 pm on Wednesday, October 29.
Youth well-educated, under-employed Annual Toronto Vital Signs report signals prosperity in the city, but poor job prospects for youth Alyssa Bouranova
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
Young Torontonians are paying the price for living in a world-class city while struggling to find full-time work. This month, the Toronto Foundation released its annual civic report card, Vital Signs. The report aims to paint a socioeconomic picture of the metropolis through statistics. The report provides a context for municipal reform by identifying areas in need of improvement and compares the city to other regions in Ontario, as well as major metropolises abroad. This year’s edition presents some troubling facts, especially for students and young people in the labour market. Rahul Bhardwaj, chief executive offier and president of the Toronto Foundation, recently spoke at the St. George campus in a “Let’s Talk Toronto” panel discussion regarding the report. Bhardwaj said that Vital Signs shows that Toronto has become a world-class city, but that its government’s tendency to stick to the “middle road” puts it at risk of stagnancy when it comes to tackling the city’s pressing issues.
YOUTH IN AND OUT OF THE LABOUR FORCE One of Bhardwaj’s concerns is that, despite boasting an internationally-ranked post-secondary education system, Toronto youth face poor job prospects. Vital Signs reports that Toronto’s youth unemployment rate continues to hover at about 18 per cent. While this has dropped from the 2012 rate of 21 per cent, Bhardwaj says such a high rate is startlingly reminiscent of some of Europe’s more economically-strained cities. Equally concerning, Toronto’s youth employment rate is hovering around 43 per cent. A Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives study suggests that this is the worst of any region in Ontario. With so little work available in the city, the study suggested that more young adults are leaving the province to find jobs. The discrepancy between the youth employment and unemployment rates also indicate that there are a significant number of young people withdrawing from the labour force altogether. The study said that some of this trend is accounted for by youth enrolled in education or training.
However, Vital Signs reported that about 10 per cent of youth are neither in employment, education, or training. At the panel, Shauna Brail, a lecturer in the Urban Studies Department, expressed her concern with the implications of the statistics. She said the findings are especially concerning in cases where communities have heavily invested in youth education in the hopes of brighter futures. 57.1 per cent of Torontonians over the age of 15 have some post-secondary credentials, while approximately one-third of food bank users in outer and inner suburbs are university or college graduates. “This isn’t how we think of having a post-secondary degree,” Brail said.
CALLING FOR CHANGE Alastair Woods, chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students Ontario, is worried that discussions on youth unemployment place too much of the onus on educational institutions preparing graduates for the labour market. Woods pointed out that Statistics Canada reports only one job vacancy for every six people looking for work, or every nine in Ontario. Woods believes that strong government action is necessary to solve the unemployment crisis and to ensure the availability and accessibility of job opportunities for graduates, regardless of major. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives indicated that Toronto has the largest gap in the province between youth and adult employment, at nearly 22 per cent. In its March 2014 submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance studying youth unemployment, the Centre criticized the gap between the billions of dollars spent on the Canada Jobs Strategy and decreasing funding for the Youth Employment Strategy. The same submission also called on the federal government to take a leading role in helping young people find jobs in their industry, offset costs for those relocating to areas with high job growth, and amend the Canada Labour Code to make unpaid internships illegal. At the panel, Susan McIsaac, chief executive officer of United Way, also echoed Woods’ hope for government action in solving the issue of youth unemployment. McIsaac indicated her particular interest in looking at cross-sectional innovations that will create broader positive change across the city. She suggested policy reforms to incentivize hiring youth and help youth gain first-time
brittany gerow/tHe Varsity
work experience, as well as programs for civic development.
UNIVERSITY INITIATIVE Despite discouraging municipal statistics on youth in the labour force, Althea BlackburnEvans, U of T director of media relations, expressed optimism on the employment prospects for U of T graduates. She said that, based
on a 2009 survey, the University of Toronto’s employment rate for graduates two years out is 91.7 per cent. Blackburn-Evans also pointed out the multiplicity of programs and initiatives across the three campuses that aim to further graduates’ career prospects, including co-op programs, professional experience year programs, and career centres.
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Vol. CXXXV, No. 7
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Canadian blood inventory at dangerous lows Young Liberals call for end to gay blood donor ban Salvatore Basilone and Lisa Bernard
nificant increase in that supply,” said Hawa, adding: “There are people who want to donate blood who are not being given the opportunity to.”
VARSITY CONTRIBUTORS
As Canadian Blood Services’ blood inventory reaches critical lows, the Young Liberals of Canada — the youth wing of the Liberal Party — is calling for an end to the blood donor ban on men who have sex with men (msm). Currently, msm are banned from donating blood if they have engaged in “msm activity” in the last five years because they are seen as a group at high risk for hiv infection. According to a report from the Public Health Agency of Canada, msm make up approximately 47 per cent of new hiv infections. Approximately 71,300 Canadians are living with hiv. Of those, around 53,000 are aware of their status. The Young Liberals support behaviour-based screening of blood donors, but argue that questions regarding sexual orientation should be left out of the process. They say that other countries have ended such policies without harmful effects. “Its not a public safety issue, that argument is not correct,” said Kaleem Hawa, president of the University of Toronto Liberals. “All blood donations are scanned for disease regardless. So it doesn’t actually matter if you are a gay man or not,” he added.
MAKING THE RULES Canadian Blood Services and HemaQuebec are the non-profit organizations that manage the country’s blood supply and screen potential donors. In order to “make sure every donation
“HOW IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MAKE ME FEEL?”
catherine solomon/the Varsity
is safe,” the screening questionnaire asks people about their sexual practices. Every single donation is then tested for infectious diseases. Though the government maintains what they call an “arm’s length” relationship with these organizations, Health Canada ultimately sets the rules the organizations have to follow, and the federal agency’s approval is required for any operational change. In May 2013, Health Canada approved a change in the blood donor deferral period for msm from a lifetime to five years since last engaging in msm actvity. Hawa joins many who say that change did not go far enough. “It is a way for the government to save face and say ‘We’ve liberalized our donation policy — gay people can donate blood.’ But the reality doesn’t reflect the principles that the government has stood on,” he said.
SUPPLY AND DEMAND In September, Canadian Blood Services announced that the country’s blood supply was “critically low.” “In recent months extremely low attendance at blood donor clinics across Canada in combination with the constant need for blood has caused the national inventory to be used faster than it can be replenished. This has created the lowest national blood inventory since 2008,” said the Canadian Blood Services’ statement. According to the Young Liberals, some 52 per cent of Canadians have required donor blood for medical treatment. Hawa argues that the ban is not only wrong in terms of equality, but that from a utilitarian perspective it is “also one that does harm to us as a society.” “If the government were to liberalize their policy on gay individuals donating blood, you would see a sig-
Franklin* said he attempted to give blood when he was in high school. He was in a monogamous relationship at the time and would have been accepted as a donor based on all other safe sex criteria. However, he was rejected solely on the fact that he had a same sex partner. “After filling out the questionnaire you meet with a rep. They asked me if that answer was a mistake, and when I said it was not, they told me they could not accept my blood,” said Franklin. “They still wanted me to encourage my friends and family to donate. It really pissed me off. Why should I help you after that? How is that supposed to make me feel?” he added. Franklin said that when a blood drive came to his school later that year, some of his friends refused to donate in protest at his exclusion. “I am aware that they are at an all-time low, but if they truly wanted to they could change that,” he said. “The blood services in Canada are supposed to be independent, and if they pushed for this and made a case for change I believe it would happen,” Franklin added.
A QUESTION OF SAFETY? Dr. Brian Cornelson, assistant professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, said the ban is a holdover from decades
ago. “I think this started in the days when there was so much that was unknown and, not surprisingly, a lot of fear,” said Cornelson, adding: “There was fear that a lot of gay men weren’t being tested and wouldn’t know their status, or would be infected after their last test.” Cornelson noted that tests available in the 1980s could take up to 12 weeks from the time of infection to find a positive result. “Back in the mid-80s when the rule was established there was arguably a rationale for it,” he said. But Cornelson feels that times have changed and says that the gay community’s experience with hiv could even be a point in favour of allowing them to be blood donors. “Gay men are arguably the most sensitized to the risk of being hiv infected, and [are] therefore more likely to get tested than the average heterosexual having casual sex,” he said. This is in line with Health Canada’s own findings. In a 2011 report, they estimated that 20 to 24 per cent of hiv positive msm were unaware of their hiv status. They also found that “there was a much higher proportion of people who were unaware of their hiv infection [34 per cent] in the heterosexual exposure category.” “Canadian Blood Services is always desperate for donors. Arbitrarily ruling out an entire population is, in my opinion, a hysterical knee-jerk reaction to the damnation of the Canadian Red Cross for mishandling the situation in the ’80s,” Cornelson said. *Name changed at student’s request.
Tradition prevails at Trinity College Meeting Two amendments fail at meeting on October 6 Caroline Shim
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
Two amendments designed to change all 16 references to Trinity students from “Men and Women of College” to “Members of College” in the Trinity College constitution, and to desegregate the traditionally gender-segregated Trinity College Meeting (tcm) held at the end of each academic year, were voted down at the tcm on October 6. Haley O’Shaughnessy, president of Rainbow Trinity, put forward both motions. The motions were intended to accommodate people of all gender identities and expressions, reflecting the fact that not all students fit into the binary of ‘male’ or ‘female.’ “The amount of unnecessary cissexist structures at Trinity College is frankly ridiculous,” O’Shaughnessy said, alleging that the current constitution perpetuates the gender
binary and does not recognize the rights of all Trinity students. The constitution designates all students who pay Trinity student society fees as “Men and Women of College,” which leaves the voting privileges of non-binary students ambiguous. O’Shaughnessy added that, in practice, non-binary students have had voting rights, but only because Trinity College members do not recognize them as nonbinary. Trinity College is the only college at the University of Toronto that refers to its members in terms of gender and has designated leadership roles for men and women. Some students raised concerns that the amendments could hamper other gendered structures within Trinity College. O’Shaughnessy argued that having male and female representatives are quotas, rather than gender segregation. She further noted that having such a structure is one of the only ways the college can have more female leaders.
Although voting at the tcm is usually done via a show of hands from gowned members, both votes were conducted using a secret ballot. Luis Lopez, the college’s resident head of second year, motioned to hold the vote by secret ballot, which was narrowly approved. “I think that nobody should feel guilty for voting their real opinions,” said Lopez, adding: “People are more confident when they know they are making a decision when they feel it’s right instead of being peer pressured. ” Cas Legrand, the college’s nonresident head of second year, also supported the secret ballot. “Open voting would have simply resulted in a divided college, with certain individuals marked in addition to personal accusations of being deemed sexist [or] homophobic,” said Legrand. Although many students present at the tcm spoke openly in favour of the first motion, it failed to reach the
two-thirds majority required to pass. Discussion of the second motion was more contentious and was held in-camera. Sahal Malek, a second-year Trinity College student, opposed the motion. “I felt that the segregated tcm better served the interests of the Trinity community,” Malek said after the vote. “I think the outcome of the secret vote is pretty shameful to our college,” O’Shaughnessy said. “They know that our structures are exclusionary to people at our college and instead of voting in favour of these amendments, they were cowards and hid their cissexist views behind a secret ballot,” she added. Madeline Hancock, a second-year student, saw both perspectives. “There are many who were against the amendment who did not get the right to express their opinions, which was not fair,” Hancock said, referring to the fact that the votes
were held before everyone had a chance to speak. Overall, Hancock expressed disappointment at the outcome. “If a member of the college could vote in good conscience to exclude and marginalize their peers, they should not be given the privilege to hide their opinions behind a secret ballot… I hoped that empathy and a desire to make all members of our college feel welcome would overcome ignorance, ties to tradition, or antipathy regarding our peers that feel excluded. I was proven wrong,” she said. O’Shaughnessy said that she will continue to fight for more inclusive practices at the college. “I love this college enough to say that we need a wake-up call about our exclusionary policies,” O’Shaughnessy said. O’Shaughnessy has put forth a non-binding motion at the next tcm recommending that student leaders refer to Trinity students as “Members of College.”
VARSITY NEWS
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MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014
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Ebola prompts faculty response Dalla Lana School of Public Health’s Ebola Working Group working to contain the disease Alex McKeen
ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
University of Toronto faculty are at the forefront of a global health response to the Ebola outbreak that has killed over 4,400 people. On October 14, the World Health Organization (who) said that the death rate of West African patients reached 70 per cent and that the number of new cases may soon reach 10,000 per week. Though there are no confirmed Canadian cases, a number of Canadians who recently took trips to West Africa have been kept in isolation after reporting Ebola-like symptoms. So far, all have tested negative for the disease.
“WE KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH THIS”
subsequently addressed. Upshur is now leading the Dalla Lana School of Public Health’s Ebola Working Group, which has highlighted the importance of rapid response to a viral outbreak. The working group consists of both professors and public health students. “Communication between Public Health Ontario, the Public Health Agency of Canada and the who has been improved,” the working group said. Fish echoed the working group’s findings. “I don’t want to say we’ve set the standards, but from our experience with sars, we know how to deal with this,” she said. “We identified hospitals, we identified teams, we have all the personal protection equipment,” she added.
UNIVERSITY RESPONSE
According to Dr. Eleanor Fish, associate chair of international collaborations and initiatives and professor of immunology, it is unlikely that Ebola will become a pandemic. Toronto previously dealt with the outbreak of an infectious disease in 2003, when a tourist who visited Hong Kong brought severe acute respiratory syndrome (sars) to Toronto. Fortyfour Canadians died of the disease, and 400 became ill. During this previous event, a number of faculty played important roles in containing the outbreak, including David Naylor, past–U of T president and former chair of the national advisory committee on sars and public health; Sheela Basrur, former Ontario chief medical officer of health; and Allison McGeer, a microbiologist and infectious disease consultant. Ross Upshur, clinical public health division head at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, said that the sars outbreak identified numerous flaws in Canada’s healthcare system that were
University administration is also taking a proactive approach to the health threat posed by Ebola. A notice released by the university through Blackboard provided information on the virus, as well as contact information for university health resources. Althea Blackburn-Evans, director of media relations, said that the university is committed to supporting faculty, staff, and students through a potential public health threat. “The university relies on the information provided from the relevant Ministry and health agencies, and will follow any recommendations from these agencies,” she said. Similarly, the university’s Health and Safety Policy, published by Angela Hildyard, vicepresident, human resources and equity, makes an exhaustive commitment to high health and safety standards. “The University will strive to exceed the legislated requirements by adopting the best practices available to protect the University community,” the policy says. The risk of potential outbreak has nonetheless
STREETERS
Clare Fox | VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
caused students to think seriously about their own medical security. Mary Githumbi, a third-year international student, said that her University Health Insurance Plan (uhip) would afford the same treatment as the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (ohip), but expressed concern that administrative burdens associated with the plan could cause issues. Ontario disqualified international students from ohip in 1994, leaving international students to pay private health insurance fees through uhip. “This is a barrier to healthcare since the student may not have the finances to pay upfront,” Githumbi said.
RESEARCH ACTIVITIES Fish expressed concern that Canadian discourse on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa only recently became more urgent, and said that the slow international response played a key factor in the virus’ migration from West Africa to other parts of the world. Although the outbreak began in fall 2013, Fish said that Canada has yet to contribute certain basic tools, such as personal protection equipment, medication, and hydration equipment. “Where are our priorities?” Fish said. In the meantime, Fish is committed to using her research to help quell the outbreak in West Africa. Her research focuses on using synthetic interferon, a substance naturally released by the body’s immune system, to reduce replication of viruses. Fish said that the Ebola virus, like sars, blocks interferon to evade immune response. By producing interferon, Fish added, it is possible to boost the immune system and inhibit virus replication. Though there is no human trial evidence that the drug is effective for treatment of Ebola, Fish said that studies of interferon’s effectiveness in primates are encouraging. Interferon also has the advantage of being
currently available, unlike many study drugs currently being developed for Ebola. “Time-wise, there’s some imperative to do something urgently. Interferon is available, we’ve drafted a protocol, there are individuals in Guinea who are interested in implementing this as soon as possible,” Fish said. The Ebola Working Group at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health is mobilizing research to help curb the outbreak. “As a top-rate research institution, we have the capacity to conduct research to gain a comprehensive outlook on the biological, epidemiological, ethical, and social components of the Ebola outbreak,” the group said. The group emphasized the importance of using the large-scale outbreak as a learning opportunity for future outbreaks. “Due to the scale of this outbreak, it provides us with an opportunity to understand the disease better and how to treat it,” the group said. Meanwhile, some students described the need to be involved in broader discussions of public health. Victoria Banderob, third-year health and disease and anthropology student, said the outbreak provides a real-time case study for students and faculty from every discipline at U of T. “This institution is [full] of minds that have this ability, and those at the helm of organizations will have no one interjecting or criticizing their decisions unless questions are asked,” Banderob said. Fish said that the university’s Beyond Sciences initiative, where undergraduate and graduate students come together to look at ways to improve global health outcomes, is one example of student engagement in public health issues. “There are many ways that you can get involved in public health ... We have First Nations communities that would benefit from social justice. We have marginalized communities … that cannot access [public health] easily,” Fish added.
With the municipal election coming up on October 27, The Varsity asked students whether they plan to vote or not.
Photos by Priyanka Sharma
Emma
Anne
Issaac
Brian
“I’m definitely going to vote this year. I’m not sure that any of the candidates perfectly reflect my view of the city, but I do feel that it’s important to vote. I think that there are so many issues that need attention.”
“I think voting [is] important and it’s my right as a Canadian citizen, but I honestly don’t have a clear idea who I’m voting for. I feel like all the candidates are the same, and I’ll probably decide on my vote when I get to the ballot box.”
“I think I’m going to vote, although I don’t know a lot about the candidates … I’ve voted in the provincial elections before and I do think it’s important to vote, although I don’t know if there any issues that directly apply to me.”
“I do plan to vote. I work in the City of Toronto so I may have a biased outlook on the election and what the candidates are able to do, but I feel like there has been a lot of discussion surrounding the election.”
Raymond
Bremnen
Abiola
Mofe
“I know the election is going on, but I’m not really interested in politics. I’ve never voted before, and although I do think there’s a point in voting, I’m just not fussed.”
“I have voted before in the provincial elections and I definitely think it’s important to vote, as the mayoral election affects us the most.”
“I’m not feeling like voting this year. I’m not really into the process, and although I know of the three main candidates, I’m not sure of their policies.”
“I’m probably not going to be voting this year. I just became a permanent resident, and although I’m able to vote in my first election, I don’t feel like I’m in tune enough.”
fourth-year, sociology and women & gender studies
third-year, life science
second-year, statistics
second-year, Rotman Commerce
first-year, history
Master’s in public policy
fifth-year, political science
second-year, biochemistry and global health
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Vol. CXXXV, No. 7
VARSITY NEWS
news@thevarsity.ca
Anne Johnson discusses youth empowerment, campus consent
Anne Johnson empowers youth to engage in social change. jennifer su/THe VArsiTy
Nabi Dressler
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
Anne Johnson is the executive director of Generation Progress, an American non-profit organization that fosters youth empowerment and community action. In partnership with the White House, Generation Progress recently launched “It’s On Us,” a campaign that aims to stop sexual assaults on college and university campuses. The campaign’s star-studded promotional video features actors Kerry Washington and Jon Hamm, as well as President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden. The Varsity met with Johnson to discuss changing conversations around campus consent, youth engagement, and social policy. The Varsity: As executive director, what does your job entail? Anne Johnson: Totally depends on the day. We run a variety of campaigns around issues that young people care about. We just launched a campaign a couple weeks ago called “It’s On Us,” and it’s a national campaign to prevent campus sexual assault, so that has been a huge focus of my life for the last couple months — getting ready for that launch of that campaign. But, you know, we also work with young people on campaigns around higher education and student debt, we have a gun violence prevention program, so my days sort of depend on what campaign is happening and working with the young people in our networks. TV: How do you come up with these different campaigns? AJ: They’re really led by the young people that we work with... The goal of our work is to empower young people to make change in their communities and I think young people are very sophisticated when it comes to identifying problems — what are the issues that they’re facing, whether that’s access to good jobs or access to higher education or preventing gun violence. Young people know what the issues are in their community, and so it’s really less about picking and more about empowering young people to work on those
issues. The campus sexual assault campaign, “It’s On Us,” really came out of work with people in the higher-education community, both on campuses and advocacy organizations saying that there needed to be an effort, a national effort around culture change around campus sexual assault. I think it’s really important when we pick our campaigns to work on that we listen to people, we listen to young people and empower them to do work in their communities. TV: How do young people get involved with the organization? AJ: We don’t have chapters on college campuses; that’s not exactly our model, but we work with a lot of individual young people who are working on specific issues, so it might be a young person who’s working on climate change in Mississippi, or it could be someone who’s working on gun violence prevention in Chicago, and we just work with a variety of different people. They’re really issue-based campaigns, so the way that people would generally get involved with Generation Progress would be through an organizing campaign around an issue on their campus, so in California, our gun violence prevention network is working on a campaign called the “Campaign to Unload,” which is working on divestment in the state college system around guns, and that campaign is totally localized. TV: Could you speak more specifically about what Generation Progress does to combat sexual assaults on college campuses? AJ: This campaign that we just launched a couple weeks ago — it’s a new effort for us, and it’s something that we’re really excited to be a part of. It’s a campaign that we’re working in partnership with the White House on, and we’ve got a couple dozen really amazing partners in the campaign already, including … the ncaa and mtv, and vh1 and Electronic Arts. There’s all sorts of different partners within the campaign and it’s really meant to be a campaign that shapes the way that we think and changes the way that we think and act around campus sexual assault, so we want it to be completely unacceptable for campus sexual assault to exist, and we want to empower young people to be a part of that solu-
tion. So it is not a legislative campaign, it’s not a campaign about a specific policy — but it’s more about empowering young people to stop sexual assault. TV: Have American colleges been improving their policies around consent and sexual assault? AJ: There’s this thing called Title IX, and Title IX basically says you can’t discriminate against people on college campuses. It’s the thing that led to women being involved in sports on college campuses — equal access. But Title IX also says that sexual harassment is a form of a civil rights violation, and so there’s a Title IX oversight of colleges and universities, which was part of the Higher Education Act. The Department of Education and the Department of Justice at the federal level actually have some authority through Title IX to investigate complaints on college campuses. One of the new things that’s happened is that the Department of Education actually released, for the first time, a list of colleges and universities that had Title IX investigations happening on those campuses. And I think that was a really important step, because it brought to light that there is some transparency in this, and that students have the ability to go to their college, and if they don’t find a place to file a complaint, or they feel like their school is not treating them correctly, then they can file a complaint through the Department of Education, and that school will be investigated. TV: Do you think the types of things Generation Progress is doing could be applied to U of T and other Canadian colleges? AJ: Yes, totally. I mean, I think a lot of the work that we do at Generation Progress is about empowering young people to make social change, and I don’t think that matters if you’re in Kansas, Florida, Toronto or anywhere else in the world. I think the campus sexual assault campaign, “It’s On Us,” is a campaign that could be run on any campus anywhere in the world. We actually have a week of action coming up on November 17, and we have events taking place all over the U.S., but we also have young people around the world who are volunteering to host events in other countries.
TV: How do you think students and staff, just anyone on campus, can try to combat sexual assault? AJ: There’s a really good tool-kit that we put together… so I’d encourage people to download it and look through it, because there’s some good advice on things people can do. One of the first things that we’re asking folks to do is to have a conversation on your campus. There’s probably an organization that exists on your campus that is doing work on this issue already, and so I would encourage students to find people who have expertise on this issue, whether it’s within the university administration or student organization that’s been working on it. Set up a conversation, and try to bring more people in, whether it’s student athletes, chapter presidents, [members] of the Greek system, or people who have a profile on campus. Bring people together to have this conversation about what’s happening on campus; what needs to be done. There’s some really great training programs, called Bystander Intervention, that’s teaching people how to step in when they see something that looks like it could lead to sexual assault. TV: Have you had any experience with the types of services that colleges provide for sexual assault victims? AJ: It varies… schools have set up different programs. There are certainly some fantastic ones, and there are some that need a lot of work... I don’t think there’s one sort of model nationally that everyone’s implementing. I think that’s part of the challenge — a lot of different programs in different places. But I think what’s important for students to know is that they have power in the situation to advocate to the university, to create the programs that they need to help survivors. So I think that is a really important first step. The university community, the faculty, the students — especially survivors — need to advocate for services to help survivors, and also to engage a broader university community in that conversation about prevention. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
var.st/news
VARSITY NEWS
MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014
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Future of Diabolos’ uncertain University College coffee shop may not reopen until next September India McAlister VARSITY STAFF
The future of Diabolos’ Coffee Bar may be hanging in the balance. There has been little movement to reopen the coffee shop this academic year. Diabolos’, which is currently located in the college’s Junior Common Room (jcr), has been a University College (uc) fixture for many years. “Over the past few years, Diabolos’ has been functioning in an unsustainable manner,” said UCLit upper-year representative Madison Kurchik. Kurchik said that the previous year’s management did not file their taxes. At the moment, Diabolos’ is unlikely to reopen until next September. The UCLit is currently in the process of collaborating with individuals with business experience, including food service managers and Rotman School of Management students, to cobble together a business model. The coffee shop’s closure is already causing a stir among uc students, who say the jcr is much quieter and emptier than usual. Nicky Bhatty, a fourth-year uc student, said that Diabolos’ closure has forced him to find alternative places to purchase refreshments on campus. Bhatty added that many students are now purchasing coffee at Caffiends, Victoria College’s student-run coffee shop. Caffiends has had problems of its own in the past year. At the end of last semester, its fate was also uncertain due to threats of relocation. For now, Caffiends continues to serve fair-trade coffee in its home in the Old Vic building. Catherine McMillan, a fourth-year uc student, expressed her disappointment that Diabolos’ would not be opening in the foreseeable future.
It is unclear when Diabolos’ Coffee Bar will reopen again. jay bawar/THe VarsiTy
“It’s unfortunate because the community that surrounds [Diabolos’] is very vibrant. They make this space a more vibrant one,” she said. McMillan has taken to bringing her coffee from home, and has no plans of starting to buy her coffee anywhere else on campus.
Sylvia Urbanik, a second-year uc student, echoed McMillan’s sentiment. “[Diabolos’] is one of the defining features of this community,” she said, adding: “I’m severely disappointed.” Kurchik said that the changes to the coffee shop’s business model will pay off for students
in the long-run. “The long-term improvement goals for Diabolos’ and the sustainability of the business are priorities that will benefit everyone,” Kurchik said. On Friday, the UCLit held a by-election to elect its new president and vice-president.
Former ambassador to China talks economic opportunity Canada-China relations topic of new UTSC lecture series Joshua Miller
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
The University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus is one step closer to a better understanding of the world’s second biggest economy. A new lecture series entitled Getting to China Competence was launched by utsc and the Bank of China’s Canada branch on October 8. David Mulroney, former Canadian ambassador to China and distinguished senior fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs, took to the stage to deliver the series’ inaugural address. Mulroney discussed the close economic relationship between Australia and China as a model for a successful trading relationship. China is Australia’s number one trading partner. Among the challenges in the way of a stronger relationship between Canada and China, Mulroney explained that a more personal approach is required in connecting with China in various areas, such as education and immigration. utsc’s Green Path program was highlighted as a step in the right direction. The program provides an opportunity for Chinese undergraduate students to experience a Canadian classroom learning environment. The program takes place in the summer, admitting Chinese students directly from high school. Thus far, the program has facilitated successful transition of 1,200 Chinese students to utsc. In an interview with The Varsity, Mulroney spoke about current political unrest in Hong Kong, where protestors have taken to the
streets to demand universal suffrage in the Special Administrative Zone. Mulroney said that it’s important for Canadians to make their voices heard. “I think there will be a lot of voices in Canada saying it’s undiplomatic to speak up, or who are we to speak up? We have a voice and it’s important to speak or else these things are ignored by, for example, the government in Beijing,” Mulroney said. Rick Halpern, utsc dean and vice-principal of academics, opened the event with introductory remarks. “The most important outcome will be a higher profile for the University of Toronto Scarborough around China studies and what Mr. Mulroney called ‘China competency,’” Halpern said. Halpern added that Canadians still have significant lessons to learn about China. “Canadians need to understand China in order to make intelligent decisions about our country’s relationship with it, but also in order to understand the way in which China, its culture, and its people are impacting our own society,” Halpern said. Halpern also highlighted the many opportunities for students to learn more about China. The lecture series is just one of many resources and programs that the university offers. For example, the university offers a summer program in Shanghai that provides students from the University of Toronto and Fudan University with a look at international issues from both Western and Chinese perspectives.
BY THE NUMBERS Value of Canadian exports in 2013 to China from China
Top Canadian import from China Top Canadian export to China
$20.2 billion $52.7 billion
} }
Electrical machinery and equipment
Ores, slag and ash
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VARSITY NEWS
Vol. CXXXV, No. 7
news@thevarsity.ca
How good is your WiFi connection? Students feel effects as university’s wireless expansion project moves into Phase II HIGH-PERFORMANCE INFRASTRUCTURE
timothy law/the Varsity
Misara Elgammal and Tamim Mansour VARSITY CONTRIBUTORS
The deadline is approaching and you have just finished your assignment. You have 15 minutes to upload the file to Blackboard when — without rhyme or reason — your Internet connection is lost. Many U of T students are familiar with this experience, though students have noticed some slight improvements over the years. Aliya Bhatia, a fourth-year international relations and art student, said she’s noticed improved wireless connectivity in a number of locations on campus, especially Hart House. “It used to be so bad. But it got much better last year,” she said. Bhatia also noticed that some residences have installed wireless networks over the years, including Teefy Hall and Sorbara Hall, where she used to be a resident.
WIRELESS NETWORK ROLLOUT Since 2010, the university has been taking steps to expand and optimize the network across all three campuses by strategically allocating wireless Access Points (aps) based on the functions of the building, expected user-density, and performance requirements. Douglas Carson, manager of network infrastructure, said the project is progressing well. “There are currently 3,400 access points deployed on the St. George campus. When the wireless network rollout is complete, we expect to have about 5,500 access points on this campus and about 7,000 across all three campuses,” Carson said. The network currently supports around 52,000 users, with the expectation that the number will eventually grow upwards of 100,000. “Wireless networks in each building are designed to the specific requirements and functions of that building. For example, a 200-seat lecture theatre may have four to six aps in the same room, while an office area may have only
a few aps for the entire floor,” Carson added. It should come as no surprise, then, that 211 aps provide full service to the Robarts Library. According to chief librarian Larry Alford, 18,000 people visit Robarts Library on a busy day. Mike Peng, a second-year civil engineering student, said he attends seven lectures a week at the Lassonde Mining Building. Although the building is listed as having seven aps, Peng said the building’s WiFi capability is poor. According to Carson, deployment of the network on the St. George campus is only 65 per cent complete, and some buildings may still experience poor connectivity as a result. “The deployments at utm and utsc are now essentially complete. However, because of its size and complexity, full coverage for the St. George [campus] is expected to require a few more years to finish,” Carson said, adding that full wireless service will be installed in the Lassonde Mining Building this winter.
Good WiFi is not just the product of a large number of aps. On a typical afternoon, the wireless network on the St. George campus generates four gigabits per second of traffic. To support peak usage, an appropriate network design with enough bandwidth is required to get data from the Internet to user devices. Carson said that, if needed, the capacity of the network can be upgraded to accommodate more connections. “Each [ap] is backed by two data cables, each capable of carrying up to 10 gigabits per second of traffic. Each ap is connected to a central switch at 1 [gigabit per second]. These switches are, in turn, connected to a high-performance network specifically designated to handle wireless traffic,” he said. When asked about the university’s network design, Ahmed Seoudy, a manager at Nokia Network Solutions, praised the university’s network setup. “[It’s] very scalable and puts into consideration future growth... ensuring redundancy and allowing for easy upgrades,” Seoudy said. Some students have complained about turning off mobile WiFi access while on campus in a bid to avoid connectivity issues, instead relying on a cellular operator’s LongTerm Evolution (lte) network. Solving this issue would require smart offloading, whereby the network switches between WiFi and lte/3G, depending on signal strength. This switch is mostly decided by the particular device in use and the cellular service provider. According to Seoudy, however, U of T “can reach agreements with major cellular providers on offloading rules to prevent congestion and allow optimal user experience.” This sort of data switching is relatively new and its rollout has been slow, particularly due to its complexity and its effect in reducing the service provider’s revenue when offloading to WiFi. However, to provide better coverage, cellular operators sometimes use it in highly congested areas like shopping malls. Carson added that, although the university’s wireless network does not formally support Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), it is investigating whether to allow applications like Skype or Viber to transfer VoIP calls from a cellular network to the university’s WiFi.
Finland president marks end of support for Finnish Studies Sauli Niinistö’s visit coincided with twenty-fifth anniversary of the program Andrew Richmond
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
On October 10, Finnish president Sauli Niinistö visited the University of Toronto to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Finnish Studies program and mark the end of 25 years of the Finnish government’s financial support for the program. Niinistö attended a discussion on Finnish Studies in North America and presented scholarships to Finnish Studies students. In a separate event, Niinistö discussed international affairs with Janice Stein, director of the Munk School of Global Affairs. Cheryl Regehr, U of T provost, began the discussion by highlighting the prominence of the university’s Finnish Studies program and the close relationship of the program with Finnish universities.
Members of the university’s Finnish Studies program then spoke about the future of Finnish Studies.
END OF SUPPORT
ment’s reduced budget for promoting Finnish studies internationally — now only €200,000, or $288,000 Canadian. “They have supported us for 25 years — we have nothing to complain about,” Vahamaki added.
Concerns over funding were a major theme in the discussion. Upon the program’s inception, the government of Finland agreed to pay half of the professors’ salaries for 25 years, with the Canadian Friends of Finland Education Foundation (cffef) and the university sharing the rest of the expenses. Though Finland’s financial support is ending, the speakers expressed thanks for the assistance received so far. “The days of 50 per cent support are over,” said Borje Vahamaki, professor of Finnish language and literature and head of Finnish Studies from its beginning until 2009. Vahamaki attributed the move to the ebbing Finnish economy and the Finnish govern-
The cffef is now trying to raise a minimum of $3 million to endow a chair in Finnish Studies. So far, they have raised $1.4 million of that goal — $500,000 of which has been set aside for the endowment, with the rest going towards immediate expenses in the program. The university has also contributed, but there remains a gap of about $2.4 million. Vahamaki, who is also the president of the Canadian Friends of Finland (cff), has high hopes for the fundraising campaign. “We would like to get halfway there in a very short time, within a year — a year and a half — so
A WELL-ENDOWED PROGRAM
that the university can see that it is viable,” he said. The Finnish Studies program is the second largest in the broader Slavic Languages department. “My successor was hired for two years only, because that’s how far we’re able to guarantee money,” Vahamaki said, adding: “If we have no success at all, then we’ll just have to bite the bullet and we’ll gradually fade out.” However, Vahamaki was quick to dismiss the possibility of failure, especially because of the attention garnered from the president’s visit. “We have a moment now where the awareness is a little bit heightened,” he said. With this in mind, the cff is reaching out to many sources for aid, including corporations like Rovio Entertainment — the Finnish company responsible for creating Angry Birds — as well as private donors.
var.st/news
VARSITY NEWS
MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014
9
New president, VP at UCLit Eric Schwenger and Munira Lila speak about plans and goals for the year ahead Caroline Shim
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
On October 17, Eric Schwenger, a third-year ethics, society, and law student was elected president of the University College Literary and Athletic Society (UCLit). Munira Lila, a fifth-year global health and anthropology student, was elected vice-president. Voting took place at the Howard Ferguson Dining Hall, as well as on the University of Toronto website. Schwenger and Lila were the only candidates running for their positions. On October 14, both candidates participated in a debate at the college’s Commuter Student Centre to discuss their goals and plans for the year ahead. Vipulan Vigneswaran, UCLit elections coordinator, hosted the discussion.
Schwenger pointed out the need to implement transitional processes for both new and returning councils so that they are aware of their responsibilities in the society. “This is especially important this year as [the council] is mostly made up of new members,” said Schwenger. Schwenger also said that he plans to file articles of continuance this year for the new Canada Notfor-Profit Corporations Act (cnca), in order to incorporate the council under the new act. The cnca replaces Part II of the old Canada Corporations Act. Schwenger ended his speech by stating that he will further work on what he was not able to do last year, such as compiling thorough documentation on resources, spaces for the college’s clubs, and transitional processes. Following Schwenger’s speech, Lila began by
noting that her focus will be on bringing sustainability to existing practices within the council. Lila said it would be unrealistic for her to introduce too many new initiatives, since she is coming in late as the vice president of the council. Lila echoed Schwenger’s stance on transitional processes from year to year. She highlighted the high turnover rate in student politics and the reliance on weak transition methods. “We need to have better accountability mechanisms to ensure that incoming councils are familiarizing themselves with what we do,” Lila stated. Lila also called for monthly constitution reviews in order to discuss or amend current policies. She encouraged inclusion of public deputies and active student participation in the reviews, saying an increase in attendance would strengthen accountability and direct democracy within
the council and the college. Lila further pointed out the need to have additional support for commissions, inventory practices, and promotion of existing clubs. Lila contended that many clubs within the University College community are not aware of the resources the college has and, as such, are not adequately advertised; the rest of the townhall meeting involved further debate with the chair of the society regarding how to increase student engagement. There was also discussion on how to approach the council’s relationship with the University of Toronto Students’ Union. Leo Chen was elected president of the UCLit in March of this year for the 2014–2015 term. Schwenger was elected vice-president at the time, later stepping down to run for president. It is unclear how or why Chen vacated his position.
Mental Health fund extended Fund provides $6 million annually to fund proposals from post-secondary institutions to improve mental health Spencer Knibutat VARSITY STAFF
The Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (tcu) has extended the Mental Health Innovation Fund (mhif) by two years. The announcement took place on World Mental Health Day, October 10. The mhif is part of Ontario’s $257 million Open Minds, Healthy Minds strategy to improve the province’s mental health system. The fund provides $6 million annually for proposals from Ontario post-secondary institutions. “Mental health services on our campus suffer from a shortage of funding, which is acutely felt in months-long wait times to access counsellors,” said Yolen Bollo-Kamara, University of Toronto Students’ Union (utsu) president. A number of the funded projects aim to improve access to accommodations for mental health disabilities. One of these projects, the Good2Talk service, is a helpline that provides postsecondary students with bilingual 24/7 access to professional counselling. According to May Nazar, tcu media coordinator, Good2Talk was fully launched in October 2013, and provides support for more than 1,000 post-secondary students per month. Another large funded project is the three-year, $1 million mental health support website devel-
CONTINUED FROM COVER means that no scientifically credible argument advanced in the past several decades has been able to rule out the risk that climate sensitivity is at the high end of the range,” Pierrehumbert countered in the article. Easterbrook suggested that this incident will have a negative impact on the involvement of other U of T faculty members on the cusp project. “I suspect many others around campus will also now want nothing to do with this program,” Easterbrook said. Four professors who resarch urban issues were contacted for this story, but said that they have no direct involvement with cusp, or that they have had limited involvement. According to Easterbrook, a cusp steering committee that he served on was struck in 2012 by the university’s previous provost, Cheryl Misak. In April 2013, the committee was disbanded with no reason given. “I understand that a number of faculty positions in various departments were created with the intent of supporting U of T’s collaboration with nyu... But I’ve heard nothing more about the program in the last 12 months,”
Ontario recently renewed support for mental health initiatives. helena najm/The VarsiTy
oped by Queen’s University. The project aims to improve access to academic accommodations for students with mental health disabilities. Other funded projects aim to improve the mental health of lgbt students on campus, as well as provide mental health first aid training to university staff and community members. Easterbrook said of U of T’s involvement and provisions for the project. U of T’s website provides little information on the project’s progress. Althea Blackburn-Evans, U of T director of media relations, said that the university is still working on sending students to study at cusp. “The University of Toronto continues to be committed to the Center for Urban Science and Progress,” she said. “We have world-class researchers engaging in workshops, faculty members exploring funding possibilities for projects associated with the cusp, and we are continuing to work on opportunities for student exchange,” Blackburn-Evans added. Blackburn-Evans also stated that U of T provost Cheryl Regehr visited New York in May 2014 to continue discussions about furthering U of T’s involvement in the cusp and that Meric Gertler, U of T president, has also been involved in recent discussions about the initiative. Gertler, an urban theorist and expert on culture, creativity, and innovation as drivers of a city’s economy, has often talked about enhancing the university’s relationship with the Greater Toronto Area.
“Many projects are starting to show positive results, and the demand for services at colleges and universities continues to rise,” said Nazar, adding: “Staff and faculty at postsecondary institutions have seen a rapid increase in students presenting with mental health problems and this is being borne out in statistics that institu-
tions collect and report to the Ministry.” However, Nazar also said that, while 88 projects were submitted during the fund’s first two rounds, the ministry noticed that the needs of certain groups, including First Nations and Métis people, were not adequately addressed. “There are high suicide and substance abuse rates among Aboriginal people,” Nazar said. She also noted that cultural health and well-being programs are seen to be most successful. Bollo-Kamara said it was important to address the need for services for those with mental health or addictions issues who are transitioning into post-secondary studies from secondary studies. “[A] high-stress environment without adequate support only serves to exacerbate mental illness. High tuition fees and mounting student debt affect mental health, as do policies like flat fees that force students to take more courses than they may be able to handle,” said Bollo-Kamara. “Massive class sizes, lack of access to professors and [teaching assistants], and feeling like a ‘number’ can also have an impact,” she added. Bollo-Kamara advocated a greater focus on preventative strategies to mitigate stress and promote mental health, and called on the university and provincial government to work proactively to address systemic issues. Good2Talk can be contacted at 1-866-925-5454.
BriTTany GerOW/The VarsiTy
Blackburn-Evans said that projects of this nature often take time to come to fruition. “It takes time and a great deal of consultation to fully realize the benefits of initiatives of
this scale, and the university remains excited about the possibilities and potential impact of this partnership,” she said.
Comment
VAR.ST/COMMENT
20 OCTOBER 2014
comment@thevarsity.ca
To address climate change, we need to start with global inequality We don’t just need a radical reordering to ensure that society is fair; we need it to ensure that society is livable
Climate change activists spill into the streets of New York City during the People's Climate March in September. stephen Melkisethian/flickr by cc
Sean Allingham
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
Issues of First Nations’ sovereignty and self-determination are continually being papered on the halls of Canadian consciousness. The more our artists, activists, journalists, scholars, students, and First Nations communities work to pull back the veil on our county’s colonial legacy, the more nuanced that legacy appears. In fact, the further back the veil slides, the more our nation’s pedigree seems bound up with what the scientific, and some religious, communities tell us is the most pressing issue of our time: climate change. For many of us, climate change is our gravest concern. To quote un Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, climate change is “the defining challenge of our era.” But when you look past the carefully chosen quotations, the sound bites lifted by the mainstream media, and the distortions that big green groups serve up to the public — if you direct your attention to the front lines of the climate movement — you will see that activists are really rallying about inequality.
Even as we call attention to global warming, the millions displaced by extreme weather, or the risk of retaining walls rupturing and the tailing ponds of the Alberta tar sands spilling into the Athabasca, the front lines are talking about inequality between people, governments, and nations. As journalist and activist Naomi Klein said in a recent interview, “We can’t fight climate change without dealing with inequality within our countries and between our countries.” This suggests that we don’t need a radical reordering of our political, economic, and social systems to have a fairer society; we need a radical reordering to have a livable society.
PROBLEMS We all know the science. We’re pretty sure that 98 per cent of the scientific community is correct when they proclaim, from every mountaintop they can climb, that the problem of climate change is largely the product of humanity. While Torontonians might feel like summer temperatures passed them over this year, NASA has confirmed that last August was the warmest on
record. What’s more, as the science linking extreme weather to climate change piles up, it is no longer difficult to see how the havoc wreaked by a warming planet is rooted in the actions of just one of its species. Some things haven’t changed. Some things stay the same, even if on the surface they appear different or seem better. When Angélica Navarro, a Bolivian climate negotiator talks about global warming, she correctly declares herself and all the inhabitants of the global south as “climate creditors.” In her speech at the United Nations climate conference in Bonn, Germany in 2009, she explained that “[m]illions of people, in small islands, least developed countries, landlocked countries as well as vulnerable communities in Brazil, India and China, and all around the world — are suffering from the effects of a problem to which they did not contribute.” It is here that we can see, as Klein points out, the “intimate connection between climate change and colonialism.” Just as the arbiters of the colonial project exploited the Amerindigenous throughout the Americas, so too does the extractivist ideology
of our fossil fuel economy exploit the environment of the indigenous world. Bolivia is extremely reliant on glaciers for drinking water and irrigation, so when the snow-capped peaks of the Andes are reduced to muddy mountaintops, the very livelihood of a nation that has been suffering the effects of colonialism for hundreds of years is affected by a modified yet no less extreme form of exploitation. All of this says nothing about the local destruction wrought by the Canadian oil and gas sector, that flailing cephalopod of pipelines that seeks to stretch its tentacles across the treatyprotected lands of the First Nations.
INROADS TO CHANGE In 1990, governments began officially negotiating how best to solve the climate crisis. Since that time, emissions have gone up by 61 per cent. That being the case, it shouldn’t surprise us that almost a half-million people took to the streets of New York City last month, making the People’s Climate March the largest climate gathering in history. It shouldn’t surprise us that indigenous activist groups represented the vanguard of the march and that gatherings in solidarity were held in
162 different countries. Mass sit-ins like #floodwallstreet, which halted business in the New York Stock Exchange and resulted in a hundred arrests, are putting real pressure on the ineffectual government, corporate, and market driven responses to the climate crisis. On school campuses around the world, including ours, divestment campaigns have started to spring up, calling on our institutions to pull their money out of fossil fuels. This year’s DisOrientation Week provided the “Defiant Spaces” we need if we are to foster the requisite elements of resistance and effectually set them in place. Navarro, Klein, and all of us who see the post–carbon economy as part of a beautiful, necessary, and decolonized world do not suffer from utopian far-sightedness; we have simply removed the rosy frames from our eyes and have recognized the need — the “opportunity,” as Navarro puts it — to be a part of “a massive mobilization larger than any in history.” Sean Allingham is a third-year student studying English, philosophy, and literature and critical theory.
var.st/comment
VARSITY COMMENT
MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014
11
U of T professor takes on tar sands "These are the signs of a petrostate"
4blUEEyES pETE wIllIAmSoN/FlIckR by cc
Malone Mullin
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
In light of accelerating activity from Canadian energy companies, U of T geography professor Danny Harvey is advocating for climate science to combat proliferating pipeline construction across the country. The National Energy Board (neb), Canada’s sole regulatory body for the national oil
industry, currently refuses to consider the impact of oil pipelines on global warming during their approval process. Harvey challenged this refusal in August during a hearing for the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline, but his motion was denied. Harvey appealed to the constitutional right to life and health in his motion, providing ample evidence for the direct relationship between the construction of oil sands pipelines and the negative effects of climbing global
temperatures. In response, the neb cited a Supreme Court ruling stating that the right to life and health is not violated in cases that are “unprovable." “They’re throwing the precautionary principle out the window,” says Harvey. “The National Energy Board’s mandate is to assess future risks as a result of oil sands development, and they’re failing to do that.” Harvey’s argument is predicated on a causal link between pipeline construction and oil sands growth — a link that he says is selfevident, but which the board contests in their dismissal. “If you can’t transport the oil, you’re not going to take it out of the ground. And the only way to transport it is to build pipelines galore. Increased operations are directly linked to pipeline expansion… Canada’s goal is to increase [operations] without limit. Profits are never big enough,” he said. Yet on the issue of climate change, Harvey said, “government policy is ‘don’t talk about it.’” “The mindset is that oil is here to stay no matter what, so why not expand?” said Harvey. Canada is sitting on at least 173 billion barrels of recoverable oil, the vast majority of which is located within Alberta’s oil sands. We rank third, behind only Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, in terms of proven oil reserves. Considering the wealth of energy within our borders, it’s not surprising that oil has substantial influence over Canada’s economic policy. Investment in the oil sands is expected to generate $79.4 billion for the Canadian economy in the next 20 years if the resource is properly developed. National policy recognizes that in order to make money from our oil reserves, companies need the go-ahead to construct extensive
oil infrastructure, including trans-provincial and transnational pipelines. However, if production is increased fourfold, as economic projections assume, total carbon emissions from oil sands production and fuel use will total three per cent of annual global emissions. Even without this increase, the oil sands already emit a disproportionate amount of greenhouse gases in comparison to other states and industries. If Alberta were a country, it would be the world’s biggest per capita carbon producer. “Canada doesn’t have a hope in hell of achieving its target CO2 levels by 2020,” Harvey says. The neb’s reticence to inhibit pipeline expansion strongly indicates a national prioritizing of economic growth over governable action on global warming. “The [neb is] doing the government’s bidding,” says Harvey. “And the government has made it clear they don’t want anything to get in the way of pipelines.” Harvey made it apparent in a recent lecture at utsc that future fuel needs can be entirely satisfied by renewable energy. Advances in battery technology, he argues, will render oil sands and their pipelines unnecessary for Canada’s future energy infrastructure. But, Harvey says, the Canadian government has no plans to end production, even with alternatives in sight. If his last-resort Federal Court appeal is overturned, then it’s clear to Harvey that “the government just won’t accept science.” In his words, rulings like these “are the signs of a petrostate.” Malone Mullin is a third-year philosophy specialist.
The Varsity and Ask Big Questions want to know: When do you take a stand? In the wake of recent pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, referred to as the Umbrella Revolution, solidarity movements have cropped up across the world Ask Big Questions While it's important to spread information, be informed, and demonstrate an understanding of the issue, it would be inappropriate to coopt the issue as though the original groups were unable to effect change themselves. As an outsider, it is only appropriate to take a stand for a group if they specifically ask for support and solidarity, under their own conditions, to ensure that I do not belittle their purpose or abilities. — Melanie Wittes There are revolutions going on all around us from pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong to anti-police brutality protests in Ferguson. What these events and the countless others around the world have in common are people who are motivated to make a change. In my own experience, I see that people usually take a stand when they have a personal stake in the matter — when it’s their own life on the line. Meanwhile, there are people who are far away from the line of fire who just sit back and watch; admittedly, I am sometimes one of those people. In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote an open letter titled “Letter from Birmingham Jail." There was one line in particular that resonated with me; he wrote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." We should take a page from the books of great revolutionary leaders and stand up for what we believe in regardless of whether
we’re personally affected. I take a stand when I see oppression anywhere. — Zeinad Aidid I take a stand when I experience, or notice, exploitation in the workplace. In order to graduate with as little debt as possible, many students, myself included, find part-time jobs in order to lessen the financial burden after graduation. Unfortunately, many employers see working students as easy prey and won’t hesitate to force us into working long hours, on minimum wage, with little to no breaks. This is why it’s crucial that we know our rights as part-time workers so that we can stand up to employers and managers who try to exploit us. Did you know that in the hospitality sector, where most students work, a daily shift is capped at eight hours? And that if you’re scheduled for more than eight hours your employer isn’t legally obligated to pay you overtime? It’s these types of rules and regulations that students are typically unaware of and, therefore, don’t take an active stand against. This ignorance is what many employers rely on in order to exploit us into working in illegal conditions, without our knowing. The importance of both knowing your rights and fighting for them is essential for working students. Fortunately, unions and labour laws
Students outside of Convocation Hall protesting in solidarity with the Umbrella Revolution. jENNIFER SU/THE VARSITy
are there to back us up in the ongoing fight for students to become respected and educated members of the working class. — Emma Kikulis
Every week, The Varsity and Ask Big Questions U of T post a thought provoking question over social media to prompt students to start conversations about the things that matter most. More responses can be found online at var.st/askbq
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Vol. CXXXV, No. 7
VARSITY COMMENT
comment@thevarsity.ca
Transit trouble
The infrastructure Toronto plans today will define the city tomorrow Op-ed
nancy ji/THe VarsiTy
Aliya Bhatia
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
The discussion around transit in this city is toxic, but that does not mean it’s not important. As October 27 approaches, Toronto has been consumed by one-liners on lrts, subways, streetcars, what’s SmartTrack, and what’s plain dumb. Rhetoric–spewing politicians may be losing focus on the real question: how
do we move a lot of people to a lot of places quickly and cost-effectively? But we shouldn’t. Eighty-five per cent of undergraduate students commute, whether it is by bike, car, or public transit. So, for those of us who don’t walk to campus every day — and good for you for being able to make it to your 9:00 am class — transit is most definitely a top concern in this election. But a discussion on transit is about more than just infrastructural concerns. Yes, the boom in condo
development, the gentrification of neighbourhoods, and all around transit user growth will make any commute more sardine-can-like than normal, however it is often the inability of Toronto to match up to its status, being the fourthlargest city in North America, that frustrates many. Residents note cities like London and Hong Kong and pinpoint their ability to successfully implement a Presto card service equivalent — switching from token fees to pay-per-distance charges — and their shorter wait times, when arguing that Toronto is simply being left behind and distanced from its cosmopolitan neighbours. A city trying to propel itself to the future, Olivia Chow, John Tory, and Doug Ford should attempt to mimic larger, urban transportation strategies. Nevertheless, addressing immediate concerns outweigh global positioning. To put it simply, Toronto’s transportation system is a joke, with ever-increasing wait times and numbers of packed streetcars and trains going past you. However, concerns regarding accessibility are also of major concern. There appears to be a growth in the not-in-mybackyard mentality while skimming the candidate’s policies, with many voters dismissing the need for lrt
infrastructure and bus service in Scarborough, forgetting that they are also constituents of the city of Toronto and that they too need service as soon as possible. The past few years under Rob Ford have left City Council’s unity in tatters and its transit plans and budget utterly hopeless. And so, inevitably, a discussion on transit becomes a discussion on taxation. It is simply naïve to think that improving transit service won’t cost money. Olivia Chow, among the three frontrunners of the 68-people ballot, has proposed to increase the land transfer tax by one per cent, which will help in the financing of her Subway Relief Line and her proposal for an extensive bike network to be established; the increase will also improve bus service, leaving many to dismiss her as a "tax and spend socialist." A prudent investment, by establishing these services commuters may be able to evenly spread across different transit infrastructures as opposed to all taking the same ttc line. Alternatively, Tory’s team promises maintenance of the current land transfer tax rates with SmartTrack and proposes to leverage not only existing transit infrastructure, but the city’s existing fiscal infrastructure, too. A service that proposes to extend to areas that have little or no transit lines, including the often-neglected
Liberty Village, SmartTrack reaches to peripheral and neighbouring suburbs, too — addressing the divisive nature of the city. However, many are noting the social cost which far exceeds his proposed monetary cost. Execution of SmartTrack is slated to take seven years and cost $8 billion, though it is important to note that experts are yet to approve its feasibility. It has not yet been confirmed that SmartTrack can be built with absolutely no tunnelling. What then becomes of the west-end corridor of the surface railway that cuts through Mount Dennis and extends to Eglinton West, a region that is primarily residential? But before you go around throwing the ugly E word that is expropriation, what then is the alternate solution? A growth in the not-in-my-backyard mentality may be guiding many voters to vote strategically, or vote for policies that directly affect them. Coupled with election fatigue and the recent heated mayoral debates, which see no constructive approach, it is important to think about the city you want to live in as opposed to just the train you want to be on. Aliya Bhatia is a third-year student studying international relations. She has worked on the Olivia Chow mayoral campaign.
Rising above the rhetoric: student politics at U of T is broken It is time for the UTSU to look at the big picture Op-ed Anamjit Singh Sivia VARSITY STAFF
For decades, student politics and governance have served as a petri dish to develop future leaders. Apart from providing services and representation, the key purpose of student politics has been to facilitate a space to harvest the youthful enthusiasm that comes with forming and challenging world views at this stage in life. Indeed, former Prime Ministers Joe Clark and Kim Campbell both cut their teeth in politics as university students. By and large, student leaders are generally held in high regard for their service. The University of Toronto Students’ Union (utsu), of course, is a wild exception to this rule. At the Engineering Society’s (EngSoc) first Board of Directors meeting this fall — as the firstyear students were debriefed about the history of the relationship between the EngSoc and the utsu, as well as the proposed new board structure — I witnessed how it shaped their image of student politics. This was the story of individuals so blinded by the desire for power and influence at
the lowest levels that they went to great lengths, using dishonesty and cronyism, along with ideas fundamentally lacking common sense and a disregard for students’ opinions, to preserve their control. In hindsight, this House of Cards–like story was probably a terrible introduction to inspire any kind of positive interest in student governance. In the midst of all the back-andforth and bickering in the past few years, student organizations across the board seem to have lost sight of the big picture. While dissenting opinions are healthy for any democratic organization, the rhetoric, the finger pointing, and the dramatic exits from forums only encourage apathy and cynicism among students. Thus, instead of being a petri dish to inspire future leaders and encourage debate, student governance at this university has become a loud and obnoxious caricature of some of the most condemnable aspects of politics in the real world. But as the provost is due to present the administration's response to the Student Societies Summit Report to the Governing Council and the utsu faces what is sure to be another chaotic
Annual General Meeting, we have an opportunity to buck this trend, stop the level of debate from going any lower, and reform governance at this university. The damage that the utsu defederation controversy has caused to the quality of political debate on campus and the opportunity to push important initiatives like the Student Commons is profound. It is time for the utsu and its leaders to look at the big picture. At a university the size of ours, students easily become mere numbers for administration and student governance, and advocacy plays a vital role in protecting their interests. It is up to student leaders to act if we want to serve students or simply cease to be caricatures of petty politics. It is time for the utsu to rise above the rhetoric, realize the extent of the damage it has caused, and do what is in the best interest of the 50,000 undergraduate students that it claims to represent. Anamjit Singh Sivia is a representative on the Engineering Society’s Board of Directors, as well as on the Governing Council’s University Administration Board. He currently serves as president of Engineers Without Borders at the University of Toronto.
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Editorial
VAR.ST/EDITORIAL 20 OCTOBER 2014
Toronto's next mayor cannot ignore student concerns On October 27, Torontonians will head to the polls to select the city’s new mayor. In a highly competitive and nationally scrutinized electoral race marred by scandal and lacking in substance, student issues have been disturbingly absent from the headlines and scarcely discussed by the candidates. The minimal discourse, however, should not discourage students from getting informed and voting on election day. Students and young people generally are major stakeholders in this election and ought to show up to the polls to vote for the candidate they believe is best prepared to tackle the issues that matter most to them. Chief among the electoral concerns for students are the need for improving the city’s transit infrastructure, further developing affordable housing in the downtown core, and increasing employment opportunities for youth. If these concerns are neglected, living as a young person in Toronto will become increasingly difficult. The city prides itself on its culture and educational centres, but in order to keep these elements strong and competitive, it is imperative that Toronto does more to accommodate youth. Our next elected mayor will have to create both short- and long-term plans in order to rectify these areas which, in their present state, are holding youth, and by extension, the city, back.
comment@thevarsity.ca
WHERE DO THE CANDIDATES STAND? DOUG FORD
OLIVIA CHOW Chow plans to explore the development of a downtown relief line subway, create 200 kilometers of new bike lanes in the next four years, and increase bus service by 10 per cent during rush hour to increase transit efficiency in the city. Additionally, she wants to impose fines on companies blocking traffic lanes when no work is occurring, as well as appoint a new traffic liaison in the mayor’s office, also known as the most stressful job ever.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING The significant dearth of affordable housing options in the city should be among the first priorities for whichever of the major candidates is successful in this month’s election. The strain this deficiency imposes on students in particular should be of concern to the next elected mayor as, every year, a large fraction of University of Toronto’s students struggle to find a place to live near campus. The country’s largest metropolis is ground zero for the pervasive and increasing income gap as the city develops as Canada’s financial capital. This growing wealth disparity is responsible for leaving as many as 77,000 Toronto households in struggling low-income communities as they wait for affordable housing. For prospective and recent university graduates still battling a stagnant economy and navigating a highly competitive job market, the possibility of owning a home in the Toronto area remains frighteningly unrealistic. An Ipsos Reid report showed that 90 per cent of Torontonians feel that the cost of living in the city is becoming untenable for the average earner. One doesn’t need to look any further than the reported number of individuals relying on Toronto Community Housing Corporation services, which is upwards of 58,500 households, to appreciate the severity of the city’s housing crisis. Low- to moderate-income renters bare the brunt of Toronto’s affordable housing crisis, with the majority of students falling into this category. Since 2002, the gap between average monthly income and rent in lowto moderate-income housing has increased by 20 per cent, leaving Torontonians, and particularly students, fighting to make rent. Toronto needs a mayor who will not only address the city’s current housing predicament, but who will work to create long-term development plans to ensure that, as the city grows, it remains financially accessible to young people and won’t require them to compromise on their living conditions.
YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT According to a 2013 report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (ccpa), Toronto’s youth employment rate, at 43.5 per cent, is the worst in all of Ontario. As of August 2014, youth unemployment in Toronto stands at 19.7 per cent. Many U of T students applied to and enrolled in university based on the assumption that a premier education necessarily improves their chances of securing gainful employment in the future. These numbers demonstrate that this trajectory is no longer guaranteed, especially in the city. The reasons for Toronto’s relative underperformance in youth employment are varied and complex. The city’s status as a global financial hub, as well as the prevalence of unpaid internships, are both listed in the report as possible causes for the deficiency. However, the report concludes that, without localized data, it is difficult to pinpoint the causes of Toronto’s youth unemployment problem. The new mayor of Toronto should address youth unemployment immediately by putting the issue on the agenda at City Hall and taking meaningful action to remedy the situation. As some candidates have suggested, creating jobs through strategic partnerships and city projects, incorporating job creation for youth into the city budget, and improving municipal youth employment services would all go a long way towards employing upcoming generations in the city. Furthermore, the mayor should launch an investigation into the local causes of chronic youth unemployment in the city with a view towards implementing more effective programs and policies equipped with a clearer understanding of the problem.
The Varsity's editorial board is elected by the masthead at the beginning of each semester. For more information about The Varsity's editorial policy, email comment@thevarsity.ca.
JOHN TORY Tory has voiced support for a downtown relief line subway, though he doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to expand on the idea. He has also proposed an $8 billion surface rail line, to be built largely on existing go Transit infrastructure. Good news if you want to leave the city, bad news if you live on the Danforth and commute in for class on Monday mornings.
FORD Having arrived late to the race, one of the missing pieces of Ford’s platform is a strategy to ameliorate youth unemployment in the city.
CHOW To combat growing youth unemployment in the city, Chow plans to create 5,000 new jobs for young Torontonians by requiring companies engaged in high-cost capital projects to sign “community benefits” agreements requiring them to hire young people. Whether that means taking coffee orders or operating a crane remains unclear.
TORY In addition to working towards doubling the number of companies participating in the Partnership to Advance Youth Employment, Tory has pledged to personally act as “youth employment ambassador,” though he hasn’t provided a mailing address or personal phone number where he can be reached for career counselling or résumé tips.
TORY Tory plans to allow developers to build affordable housing at belowmarket rates on unused Toronto Community Housing Corp land or on city-owned parking lots, and why not? No one in the city is looking for parking anyway.
PUBLIC TRANSIT In addition to those issues listed above, the city’s incoming mayor is faced with the trying task of ameliorating Toronto’s public transit infrastructure. The Toronto Transit Commission (ttc) remains one of the most talked about concerns in the mayoral race, and for good reason. Every day, 1.6 million people rely on the ttc to travel within the city, including a sizeable number of U of T students commuting into the downtown campus. The current system does not extend to many areas of the city, providing inconsistent service, and alienates some citizens through fare prices. A monthly metropass costs a post-secondary student $108. Meanwhile in Montréal, another large city with a significant student population, monthly transit passes cost $47.25 for people between the ages of 18–25, and commuters are provided with a system that covers the city on a greater scale. The cost of the ttc and the service that it provides do not match up. Whoever is elected as mayor should work for lower subway fares in order to make the service more accessible for those who rely on it. While expanding transit lines is essential for the city, existing service needs to be improved. Both a shortterm plan to reduce fares and improve current service and a long-term plan to expand on existing routes need to be implemented. In addition to addressing the perennial disappointment of the ttc, the city’s next mayor should make an effort to reverse current mayor Rob Ford’s anti-cycling policies. An insufficient number of designated bike lanes makes roads less safe for cyclists and disincentivizes the more eco-friendly transit solution.
By reallocating funding for proposed light-rail transit solutions, selling “air rights” above subway stations, and pursuing the councilapproved three-stop subway extension in Scarborough, Ford plans to develop the city’s subway system underground and keep all the good air above ground for paying customers.
CHOW
FORD Ford has yet to articulate a stance on the development of affordable housing. At least there will be more subways to nap in.
Chow expressed an interest in fasttracking development on existing tower sites, as well as introducing a new initiative to bring senior's housing administration under the control of a new stake-holder government corporation, rather than the tchc. She proposed an intriguing “pay us later” plan to defer development charges on affordable housing for at least a decade to spur construction.
By Samantha Relich Photos by Jennifer Su and Priyanka Sharma
Exploring the realities of homelessness in Toronto
A
nthony Schofield walks south on Jarvis Street pointing out landmarks as he goes. The landmarks he describes are not buildings or intersections, but instead indications of homelessness. “You’re looking at what’s residual of something that 10 years ago would have blown your mind,” he says, describing the state of homelessness in Toronto and the dramatic changes that have taken place. For him, these changes are very personal. Schofield was homeless for much of his life and is now employed by various organizations to do outreach work and run educational programs. According to Schofield, the gentrification of the city in the past two decades has pushed the homeless presence to the outskirts of the city’s neighbourhoods and, consequently, out of public awareness. “In [Moss Park and St. James Park], you would see dozens of people on benches, most of them lighting up, sleeping on benches,” he says. He remembers Toronto’s homeless population being much more visible, especially in very public spaces. “Fifteen years ago every doorway would have someone sleeping in it,” he adds.
LIVING WITHOUT CERTAINTY Schofield’s life of homelessness began when he was 12 years old, when he started moving nightly, crashing on the couches of willing friends. The next decades of his life were spent cycling through various living conditions — shelters, others’ homes, and living on the street. His experiences highlight the complicated typology of homelessness. According to the Canadian Homelessness Research Network, homelessness can take a variety of forms. “Unsheltered” describes the state of living in places not intended for human inhabitants, whereas “provisionally accommodated” describes situations of tenuous, unstable housing — individuals in these circumstances may not be living on the streets, but lack a permanent residence. The circumstances leading to homelessness are highly individual. For Schofield, it was a product of neighbourhood circumstances, early exposure to drug use and abuse, and the lack of a sense of empowerment. These problems, which he experienced nearly 30 years ago, are the same predicaments he witnesses today in
his capacity as an outreach worker for various shelters and organizations dedicated to helping the homeless. He points to the conditions of community housing as one important issue, saying, “If you give someone a crappy apartment, how do you think they feel? Definitely not empowered.” In January 2014, Toronto Community Housing reported a capital repair backlog of $914 million. This deficit is approaching a critical level, and, without additional funding, buildings owned by the organization will fall deeper into disrepair.
HOMELESSNESS AND THE LAW In the 1990s two pieces of government legislation were enacted that have had a significant impact on the lives and visibility of homeless persons in the city. The first is the Ontario Mental Health Act (1990), a portion of which outlines the options available to police officers when they come into contact with individuals demonstrating symptoms of mental health issues. The second is the Ontario Safe Streets Act (ssa), enacted in 1999. The latter was born from public concern regarding solicitation in public places, specifically the growing presence of “squeegee kids” in the 1990s, who were ubiquitous on Toronto’s busiest street corners. The ssa has been widely criticized. Issues include concerns about the definitions of “aggressive panhandling,” which the act prohibits. The bill defines panhandling in an aggressive manner as “a manner that is likely to cause a reasonable person to be concerned for his or her safety or security” — a definition that critics argue is vague. In 2011, a study published by York University and the University of Guelph recommended that the law be repealed, claiming that it is egregiously overused and contributes to the “criminalization of homelessness.” Perhaps one of the most impactful statistics in the report is a finding of a 2,000 per cent increase in the number of tickets issued to homeless people for panhandling between 2000 and 2010. The ssa sets out specific circumstances in which aggressive panhandling may occur, including solicitation near a public transit stop or near a public transit vehicle, or solicitation near a vehicle or in a parking lot. Police can is-
sue tickets in response to violations of the ssa, with fines ranging from $50 to $100. The Mental Health Act, on the other hand, outlines the criteria police officers must follow when determining whether to take an individual displaying signs of mental illness into police custody for a psychiatric evaluation. These grounds include whether the individual is threatening or has attempted bodily harm to themselves or others, or whether the individual “has shown or is showing a lack of competence to care for himself or herself.” In Schofield’s experience, the Mental Health Act has also had a profound experience on the work that outreach workers provide. “You can’t just call the police and have someone be taken into custody,” he says. Schofield claims that the act has limited the opportunities for intervention that outreach workers and police have to periods of crisis alone. The act does not accommodate for situations where an individual is demonstrating symptoms of mental illness — without an urgent need for intervention — and would benefit from a psychiatric evaluation upon being taken into custody. “[If someone] hasn’t said they’re going to hurt me or herself, I’m stuck — people have to say these things in order to be considered in crisis,” Schofield adds.
NECESSITIES FOR PROGRESS Homelessness is a highly complex issue with a network of underlying causes and complications. Consequently, solutions to homelessness are equally complicated. Inarguably, affordable and accessible housing, or a lack thereof, contributes to individuals’ abilities to secure stable shelter. According to the rbc Affordable Housing Index, the cost of owning a home in the Toronto area exceeds 50 per cent of an average household income, and the costs are only getting higher. The cost of condo ownership is also nearing the 30 per cent level. For low- to moderate-income households, these costs are simply unmanageable. Some steps are being taken at the municipal level to offset the inaccessible costs of housing in the city. Currently, Toronto Community Housing provides housing to around 58,500 low- to moderate-income households. However, while they offer both subsidized rent and “affordable” rent rates, the latter is often set at or just slightly below market value, making these options unattainable for many
Photo essay: Vacancies For homeless people in Toronto, spaces have very different meanings. These photos illustrate the multifaceted uses of urban spaces; sidewalks become work places, park benches become a home for the night, and alleyways between buildings become shelters. These vacant spaces, which may not be noteworthy to the average passerby, sometimes serve as a place to stay the night for others. individuals. With the average cost of rent increasing annually in the city, considering more affordable options for one of the city’s most vulnerable populations is essential. There is also a distinct need for additional emergency shelters. “There aren’t enough beds,” says Schofield. Currently the city has a 3,800-bed shelter system, which simply cannot accommodate the number of individuals in need of shelter on a nightly basis. Even when space is available, encouraging individuals to take shelter is challenging. “You can’t make people go inside,” explains Schofield. “I can come by, tell them who I’m working for, offer them an option. But if they say no or tell me to leave all I can do is leave a bottle of water and a card,” he adds. While reactionary measures remain essential to ensure individual safety in the shortterm and provide for housing infrastructure in the future, understanding and addressing the individual factors that place people at risk of homelessness is crucial. It’s a complicated issue, but for Schofield, there’s one universal element: “For most people, this isn’t a choice,” he stresses, adding, “There are any number of reasons why someone ends up on the streets — addiction, family abuse, individual trauma — but it’s rarely a choice.”
10,o00 Homeless youtHs in toronto oF Homeless youtH HAVe suFFereD 70% PHysiCAl, seXuAl, or emotionAl ABuse 64% oF Homeless youtH Are mAle
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30,000 Homeless
PAiD emPloyment
on Any giVen nigHt in CAnADA, tHere Are 2,880 Are unsHeltereD 14,400 Are in emergenCy Homeless sHelters 7,350 Are in ViolenCe AgAinst Women sHelters 4,464 Are ProVisionAlly ACCommoDAteD
roBBery or Drug trADe soCiAl AssistAnCe
Homelessness serViCes toronto:
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3,800 -BeD sHelter system, in 57 FACilities APril 17 2013: 447 PeoPle liVing outDoors uP 24% sinCe 2009 20-30% outsiDe oF sHelters or in 70-80% oCCur HosPitAl oF sHelter resiDent DeAtHs HAPPen insiDe sHelters
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Arts&Culture
VAR.ST/ARTS
20 OCTOBER 2014
arts@thevarsity.ca
Hiding in plain sight A guide to public art on the U of T campus Ivana Dizdar
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
Public works of art have the potential to uplift, provoke, and enrich us in unexpected ways. They’re usually permanent, and they’re usually big. But a bizarre thing happens when something is always in your face — it becomes invisible. Whether we know it or not, when we make our way through the city, we are constantly circulating inside of an exhibition. It can be easy not to notice or care, because public artworks have a way of blending into a city’s landscape. Take U of T. There are artworks left, right, and centre — but on our daily class-to-class rushes, it hardly seems practical to stop and look at them. How many can you count off the top of your head? Can you imagine them in your mind’s eye? Do you know what they stand for? With the help of this guide to campus artwork, you may start to notice more of the art that can be found on our campus and have some insight into why it’s there.
Cedar. jay bawar/THe VarsiTy
UNKNOWN STUDENT
1970, Dale Heinzerling Huron and Bloor, just outside of G’s Fine Foods This hunching figure has its back turned to what used to be Rochdale College, an alternative school and co-op that was opened in the ’60s and closed down in 1975 due to drug-related problems. They say the sculpture symbolizes the hippie values and attitudes of the era, but it looks more like someone’s just upset.
BLOOR PARKETTE PIECE
1997, Susan Schelle and Mark Gomes Bloor and Spadina intersection This grouping of oversized dominoes doubles as a set of benches (and even as a playground).
SURVIVORS ARE NOT HEROES
1968, Sorel Etrog In front of Hart House This is an abstract sculpture, so it’s okay if you don’t know what it is that’s being depicted at first glance. The piece seems pretty subversive given its title and location: it’s installed near solider’s tower, a memorial those who lost their lives in the World Wars.
Unknown Student. jay bawar/THe VarsiTy
COMPLEXES OF A YOUNG LADY
1962, Sorel Etrog Hart House courtyard The artist appears to have picked out certain parts of the body and omitted others to produce a portrait of a girl, the way she sees herself. Maybe he’s wrong for correlating female complexes to body issues, or maybe I’m wrong for assuming that he is.
STATUE OF NORTHROP FRYE
2012, Darren Byers and Fred Harrison South-west corner of the Victoria College campus Northrop Frye, for those who don’t know, was a pretty influential literary critic. U of T is very proud that he was a student and a professor here. You might call this an interactive sculpture: Frye is inviting you to have a seat next to him so he can read to you.
HELIX OF LIFE
1971, Ted Bieler In front of the Medical Sciences Building Art meets medicine — this sculpture represents strands of dna.
Cheap arts OBN IIIs with Sam Coffey & The Iron Lungs An all-ages punk rock show featuring some local talent Monday, October 20 Smiling Buddha 9:00 pm $10 advance
HORIZON
1964, Walter Yarwood On the facade of Sidney Smith Hall This wall sculpture is an abstract rendering of seventeenth-century alchemy symbols.
BECCA'S H
1973, Robert Murray In front of the Galbraith building Minimalism was a thing. The sculpture looks like an H and is dedicated to the artist’s daughter, Rebecca. It’s one of the few boldly-coloured artworks on campus and it totally counters the stark engineering building in the background.
CEDARS
1962, Walter Yarwood Outside the Anthropology Building The interpretation is up to you with this artwork. To me, these figures look like dysmorphic animals of some sort, but that’s probably not what the artist was going for. In fact, based on the title, it would seem he was going for trees.
Crucifed Woman. jay bawar/THe VarsiTy
UNTITLED
1966, Ron Baird Outside of the Daniels Faculty of Architecture There’s something intimidating about this sculpture. It's like a bronze watchdog.
Under $10, pay what you can, and free arts events happening around the city this week
Work/Death with Gordon Ashworth, Manticore, and Beard Closet A trippy all-ages show from four experimental artists Sunday, October 26 Ratio Space 8:00 pm $7
CRUCIFIED WOMAN
1976, Almuth Lutkenhaus Victoria College The sculpture says a thousand words. A woman takes the place of Jesus.
By Sofia Luu
fixed fragments launch party
CINSSU: Me And You And Everyone We Know screening
Vatican Shadow with Jokers of the Scene and Votive
A night of poetry and illustrations by Alexa Xavier and Emily Pope
CINSSU continues their Free Friday Films with a drama by director Miranda July.
19+ show from indie pop artist Vatican Shadow and EDM DJs Jokers of the Scene
Friday, October 24 Muzzo Family Alumni Hall 100 7:00 pm–8:00 pm Free
Saturday, October 25 Comfort Zone 10:00 pm $10 advance
Thursday, October 23 The Black Cat Gallery 7:30 pm–1:00 am. $5
var.st/arts
VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE
MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014
17
Inside Art Side Out An exploration of UTSC's annual arts exhibition
Students at the annual Art Side Out event. Ken jones/THe VArsiTy
Sam Natale
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
utsc’s annual Art Side Out ran from 11:00 am– 11:00 pm this past Thursday, October 9, showcasing visual art, musical performances, film, and
more from students and others in the community. It seemed like everywhere you went that day, there was art. The political piece Art As Resistance by Toronto Students For Justice in Palestine could be found in the Student Centre, and students’ paintings, drawings, and photographs lined the walls of the third floor hallway.
While there was no shortage of art, there was a shortage of people. Many students had no idea Art Side Out was happening. “What even is Art Side Out?” asked student Linh Tang around 4:00 pm that afternoon, after the event had been happening for a few hours. Many people asked where you could get a program
and where the art was located. Hewot Dawit, a first-year student, said, “I wish it was more publicized; I didn’t even know it was going on. It was happening all around me, though, so in a sense, I was forced to go.” This was true — even though it was fairly empty outside, lots of art could be found inside if you knew where to look. In the Meeting Place, tables featured work from students in arts classes, such as Foundations in Studio. Featured student artist Maddy Nelson said, “Without the class, I wouldn’t have been motivated to put artwork in. It was pretty kick-ass.” The walls were lined with pieces such as a photography set entitled Why We Still Need Feminism by the Women's Centre. There was also a wearable installation called Hung, Drawn, and Quartered by Lesley Hampton and Sarah Lowe — both students from utm. The piece involved Lowe being wrapped in red material for hours on end. “This is our first time at Art Side Out, and we’ve gotten a really good response,” said Hampton. There were also interactive pieces such as Wanderlust by Aspire Youth. Aliya Karmali from utsg described Aspire Youth as “a creative hub for everything youth want to do.” In Wanderlust, people could place a dot on a giant map of where they would like to visit and then place a sticky note stating why they chose that place. Other interactive exhibits included The Wishing Wall by Tedxutsc, one of the few exhibits found outdoors. Also found outside were the performances at the arc quad that started later in the day. From solo performers like Henry Lu and Bollywood dancer Aasiyah Kevwala to bands like Soul Sistas, the performances were diverse and well-received by the audience. The performances continued at Art Side Out After Dark, the evening component of the event. Performances from off-campus bands Crowns for Convoy, Plaitwrights, and Charleston Relay closed the night and wrapped up a long day of artistic excitement.
The struggle of the "big break" Up-and-coming band Grizfolk talks about their ongoing tour with Bastille Leelan Farhan
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
The Los Angeles–based, upbeat, electro-folkpop band Grizfolk is composed of Swedish musicians and music producers Fredrik Eriksson and Sebastian Fritze, as well as lead singer Adam Roth, guitarist/vocalist Brendan Willing James, and drummer Bill Delia. The Varsity sat down with Grizfolk before their Toronto show at the Air Canada Centre to chat about their upcoming album, touring with Bastille, and the secret food that keeps them motivated. Although currently known as Grizfolk, there was a time this Americana-influenced band went by the name Griz Adams. “It used to be our nickname for Adam before we really became a band, and when we started making music we named our Soundcloud that,” Fritze explained, “but after a blog picked up a demo of [our song] 'The Struggle,' it went viral and we decided to change the name to Grizfolk — something that better reflected what’s supported us.” Since then, the band has released their ep From The Spark this past February and are hard at work finishing up their first full-length album. Although no release date has been set yet, Roth said to expect “that every song will be different, just like our ep.” Grizfolk mixes electronic music with Americana folk and indie pop to create a unique sound and, given that, one cannot help but wonder what musical influences lie behind their music. “Justin Vernon — for sure,” said Frizte, and the whole band nodded unani-
mously, referring to the man who founded Grammy Award-winning band, Bon Iver. “It would be a dream to work with him. Justin Vernon — if you’re listening!” Roth said, laughing. In addition to Vernon, the band’s dream collaboration list also includes Dave Grohl and Miike Snow producers Bloodyshy & Avant. The music business can be ruthless, especially when it comes to the pressure of making your “big break.” “We genuinely love what we do and that’s what keeps us going,” Delia said, “but we hate the cut-throat music industry.” At the end of the day, it’s the fact that Grizfolk “can’t imagine doing anything else” that helps them keep going, as well as their love of burritos, apparently (and really, who can blame them). In terms of writing the music, Roth’s biggest obstacle is the doubt that what you’ve written isn’t good enough. “Because the best stuff that comes out is unexpected — it’s verbal diarrhea,” he said. Fritze added that the advent of various multimedia platforms makes it easier than ever for artists to make a name for themselves. “You know, you can put a song up on YouTube or a blog can catch it, and it blows up,” he explained. Their tour with Bastille has been nothing short of amazing so far, with most venues sold out. Their favourite venue ever played, however? “Bell Centre, Montréal. It’s our first time in Canada, and man, you Canadians,” Fritze said. With over 200,000 YouTube views and one million Spotify listens on their single “The Struggle,” not to mention sold out stadium shows, it’s safe to say Grizfolk are well on their way to their big break in this cutthroat industry.
Grizfolk performing. mAdelein scHrijVer/flicKr by cc
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Vol. CXXXV, No. 7
VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE
arts@thevarsity.ca
Exhibit review: World Press Photo A review of the international exhibit's stop in Toronto
pHoTos courTesy of world press pHoTo
Emily Katz
VARSITY STAFF
If you’re interested in photography, journalism, or simply identify as a human, please read this. Everyone who has an hour to spare should check out the World Press Photo exhibit temporarily stationed at Brookfield Place. World Press Photo is a Dutch non-profit that has held one of the most well-known and prestigious press photography competitions every year since its founding in 1955. The exhibit’s stop here in Toronto is one of 100 total cities visited worldwide. The primary award is the World Press Photo of the Year. They break down the rest of the awards by category; some of these include news, sports action, daily life, contemporary issues, nature, and observed or staged portraits. For over two decades they’ve had a photography academy that aims to bring visual journalism training to photographers in regions where there may otherwise be limited access, such as North Africa, the Philippines, Mexico, and Bangladesh.
Additionally, they award a yearly grant of 20,000 euros, jointly sponsored by Human Rights Watch, in Tim Hetherington’s name to a photojournalist looking to fund a project with a human rights theme. Hetherington was a highly acclaimed British photojournalist killed during his coverage of the 2011 Libyan civil war. Hetherington was the winner of the 2007 World Press Photo of the Year for his photo of a soldier in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan; this was the epicentre of the fighting and inspired the documentary Restrepo, which he co-directed. The exhibit is in the middle of the expansive office and commercial building, which I imagine reverberates with commotion during rush hours. I walked underground from Union Station in the early evening, only bumping into a few energetic Leafs fans, and when I arrived it was somber and quiet. The photos are displayed prominently in the centre of the atrium, hopefully slowing down at least some of the businesspeople passing by in their travels. One of Rahul Talukder’s photos showed
the crowd gathering around the collapsed factory in Savar, Bangladesh in April. The sheer scale of the onlookers is incomprehensible, and people are not only standing at ground-level but are also exposed on the roofs and levels of adjoining structures. On the left side of the picture a hand points towards the mass of people. A collection of six images by Sara Naomi Lewkowicz documents the life of a family in Ohio. The male figure, Shane, had been arrested for domestic violence against his partner, Maggie. The photos depict moments of the abuse as well as more peaceful ones, such as Shane and Maggie’s four-year-old son getting a haircut. Robin Hammond photographed the plight of mentally ill people in “areas of crisis” — failed states, refugee camps, or countries with a collapsed infrastructure. In these images we see the extent of the isolation they endure, as well as their mistreatment. In one image, two men are seated cross-legged on the ground while another man yells at them through a megaphone only inches away from their heads. They seem not to be phased,
staring listlessly into the camera. Chair Gary Knight asked the rest of the 2014 jury if they thought there should be a hierarchy of issues when deciding which photos should be chosen. In his words, this meant, “if we were all unbiased, what choices would we make?” Their decision was that they should judge the photography of issues and events, and not the issues themselves. The winning photo is John Stanmeyer’s depiction of men on a beach in Djibouti, holding their cell phones up in the air to pick up cell service from nearby Somalia — “a tenuous link to relatives abroad.” The exhibit in its entirety, given that it showcases the best work of this year, certainly deals with weighted themes. For my first 10 minutes there, I was calm but tearing up; after a point, it becomes more about the message than the emotion. I was simply and honestly transfixed by the different stories being told. According to Knight, Stanmeyer’s photo was the standout for the jury not only for its excellence and creativity, but because it signified a “moment of hope born from despair.”
Concert review: Bondax A review of the DJ duo’s recent Toronto concert Corrine Przybyslawski VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
Soulful electronica DJ duo and Lancaster natives Adam Kaye and George Townsend doused Tattoo in their signature house-tinged pop recently as Bondax. Their unique breed of garage-funk is distinguished by its eclectic soundscapes and melodic grooves. Reminiscent of Disclosure, the pair of 19-year-old producers brought Queen West a night of undeniably danceable and mid-tempo disco on Saturday, October 13. Having started as bedroom DJs, the pair craft a sort of melodic garage funk that is not stereotypical to the average “parents’ basement producer.” The Bondax sound is one that reflects a maturity and control over its production, unprecedented for the genre. Kaye and Townsend’s synths boast a structural, sonic complexity that is conscious of contemporary sound, yet maintains its own integrity — marking the distinguishing factor of the duo. Though their atmosphere is consistent with the sonic tropes of the commercial disco contemporaries currently ruling the under-
ground of the industry, the pair’s original material has a cool and almost introspective emotionality to it. This distinctive facet of their production translated to positive vibes felt all around, which ultimately separates a Bondax performance from contemporaries on the Majestic Casual label, like Kygo. Before Bondax took the stage, special guest Pomo set the tempo and spurred the audience’s energy with remixes by the likes of Snakehips, among others, which successfully engaged even those unfamiliar with the genre of the evening. As midnight drew closer, the venue began to fill and the milling audience gravitated from the bar to the stage, if not directly onto it. Despite the pair’s isolation on a raised and gated stage, members of the audience were warmly welcomed to join the duo on stage and dance along to the shimmering and atmospheric curation that is a classic Bondax set. Between shifts on their Traktor hardware, both Kaye and Townsend took photos interchangeably with members of the audience. Truth be told, mere moments into the set, it became difficult to discern the performers from the audience — but the kids were all right.
Bondax performs at Tattoo. corrine przybyslawski/THe VarsiTy
VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE
var.st/arts
Budget chef Easy, pocket-friendly, healthy meals for students Jasleen Arneja VARSITY STAFF
If you love your mother’s cooking as much as I do, you would have had a hard time adjusting to meal plan food and an even harder time cooking for yourself. Buying the groceries, finding the time to cook, making sure you don’t set off the fire alarm — all of these are very real elements of the struggle that is student cooking. Not to mention that it costs a pretty penny. However, none of these excuses will stand up against the recipes below. They have all been tried and tested, are quick and easy to prepare, and are very pocket-friendly. The Varsity challenged me to create a healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner in my residence while spending only $10 per meal and shopping only from the Metro on Bloor Street West and Robert Street. I’m pretty satisfied to say that I used only 28 dollars and 81 cents, taking advantage of their Tuesday student discount.
ZUCCHINI, MUSHROOM AND TOMATO FRITTATA When shopping for my breakfast frittata, I was sad because my initial plan involved ingredients that were quite expensive — asparagus, mushrooms, and red peppers. Knowing my budget, I made some substitutions and ended up with a pretty great frittata. I used zucchini, mushrooms, and tomatoes to keep the same colour scheme. It does help that frittatas are extremely versatile, so you can stuff them with whatever is on sale. You can also refrigerate or freeze leftovers depending on when you’re going to eat them. Serves: 2–3 Total time: 20 minutes Ingredients: û ]XFFKLQL û Ţ FXS PXVKURRPV û ţ WRPDWRHV û EXQFK ȂDW OHDI SDUVOH\ û ŧ ODUJH HJJV û Ţ WDEOHVSRRQ ROLYH RLO û 6DOW DQG SHSSHU Slice your zucchini, mushrooms, and tomatoes and place the first two ingredients in a hot and greased frying pan. If you’re a hardcore carnivore, feel free to start with some bacon in your pan. While the vegetables soften, whisk the eggs with salt and pepper and add them to the pan. Top the eggs with the parsley and sliced tomatoes. Cover your pan and let it sit over low to medium heat for about 10 minutes. Turn your oven onto broil and broil your frittata, uncovered, for about two minutes. Use an oven mitt or towel to get that delicious frittata out of the oven and onto a plate.
WARM KALE SALAD Boiling, steaming, or toasting some of your ingredients ahead of time can help make super quick lunches. My kale salad took about 10 minutes to put together given that I had washed and chopped the kale, boiled the sweet potatoes, and
toasted the pecans the night before. This recipe is vegan, but if you’re not, feel free to add grilled chicken or bacon to the mix! Serves 1 Total time: 30 minutes Ingredients: û Ţ ODUJH JDUOLF FORYH û Ţ VZHHW SRWDWR û Ţ EXQFK RI JUHHQ RU EODFN NDOH û Ţ WDEOHVSRRQ RI KRQH\ û 2OLYH RLO û 6DOW DQG SHSSHU û ŅĀŖ FXS SHFDQV Wash and boil your sweet potato whole and covered in a small pot for about 20 minutes, or until it’s easy to pierce with a fork. Don’t peel it because the skin has a lot of nutrients. You can also microwave it for five minutes if you’re running low on time. While that’s cooking, toast the pecans in the oven at 350 degrees fahrenheit for 10 minutes. Use the waiting time to add a tablespoon of olive oil and minced garlic to a hot frying pan and sauté for 30 seconds. Follow up with kale and sprinkle with some salt and pepper. Pro tip: When you wash and chop your kale, make sure to leave out the woody stems because they’re pretty much inedible. Stir-fry that for about a minute and reduce the heat from medium to low and cover your pan. Let the kale cook for five minutes and then transfer it to your plate. Top with sliced boiled sweet potato, toasted nuts, and a generous drizzle of honey.
COCONUT SALMON CURRY Cooking for yourself can be boring and repetitive if you don’t change things up once in a while. This coconut salmon curry is fragrant and almost as good as something you’d find in an Indian restaurant. Serves 1 Total time: 20 minutes Ingredients û ~ FDQ FRFRQXW PLON û ţ WDEOHVSRRQV ROLYH RLO û Ţ ODUJH FORYH RI JDUOLF û WHDVSRRQ FXUU\ SRZGHU û WHDVSRRQ SDSULND û ~ WHDVSRRQ VDOW û Ţ IUHVK $WODQWLF VDOPRQ ȁOHW û ~ FXS FLODQWUR Add the olive oil, garlic, and spices to a hot skillet and let cook for 30 seconds. Pour in a quarter of a can of coconut milk and stir for a minute. Place the salmon fillet skinside-down into the skillet and baste with the curry. Cook covered for 10 minutes, basting once in between. Uncover and add a splash of coconut milk. Garnish the fish with cilantro (use parsley if you can’t find or dislike cilantro). Serve this with brown rice cooked according to package directions. You can use shrimp in place of the salmon, but make sure to reduce the cooking time to about four minutes or until the shrimp turns pink. From top to bottom: Coconut salmon curry. Warm kale salad. jENNIFER SU/THE VARSITy
Like to doodle? illustrations@ thevarsity.ca
MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014
19
20 Vol. CXXXV, No. 7
VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE
arts@thevarsity.ca
Projected scare factor: Toronto After Dark Horror film festival promises major scares ahead of Halloween Jacob Lorinc
ASSOCIATE ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
As horror film aficionados across the country will likely agree, being a fan of scary movies can be a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you’re more prepared for the inevitable zombie apocalypse than any of your friends; but on the other hand, you’re often misunderstood by your peers. According to some “normal people” — like my roommate, for instance — horror fanatics have seen too much. They’ve been watching clips of dismemberment, torture, and Jack Nicholson limping around with an axe for far too long to be entirely healthy. As a horror fan myself, most of this I attempt to deny — but the stigma remains. For all the misunderstood horror film fans across Toronto, I bring good news: the Toronto After Dark Film Festival is here to quench your thirst for a nightmare-inducing movie. Taking place at the Scotiabank Theatre until October 24, Toronto After Dark promises a wide variety of thoroughly terrifying films, each one set to be more dreadful than the next. Here are some recommendations to suit all levels of horror film fans.
POSTGRADUATE CERTIFICATE
OPEN WINDOWS
Monday, October 20, 7:00 pm Billed as a “twenty-first century Rear Window,” Open Windows follows Elijah Wood as a blogger obsessed with a woman he watches from his computer. He then becomes victim to a psychopath who kidnaps her, and taunts him from the same video cameras he used to watch her. Watch as Wood spends a night trying to track him down, complete with chase scenes and a lot of angry shouting into phones and webcams. More of a fast-paced thriller than an all-out horror, this film will keep you at the edge of your seat but probably won’t keep you up at night. Projected scare factor: Jump factor high, scream factor low.
THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN
Thursday, October 23, 7:00 pm
Set in rural America, the little town of Texarkana is tormented by a series of murders — all seemingly linked to sightings of a mysterious man. Originally a cult classic from the ’70s, The Town that Dreaded Sundown has been reinvented by the creator of American Horror Story to evoke complete and utter fear in whoever is brave enough to witness it. There
The Toronto After Dark Festival films will be screened at the Scotiabank Theatre on Richmond Street West. neal jennings/flickr by cc
will be a short film shown before the screening titled Satan’s Dolls. Sounds charming. Projected scare factor: Very scary. Enter at your own risk.
LET US PREY
Friday, October 24, 7:00 pm Let Us Prey looks genuinely terrifying — the trailer itself is nauseating enough for most. The film follows the barbaric outbreak of violence that occurs when a medieval-looking man
(conveniently, Game of Thrones’ Liam Cunningham) appears at an isolated police station in the middle of the night. But who knows, this one seems much more gory than it does suspenseful — and the suspenseful ones are usually the scariest. I definitely wouldn’t encourage eating too much beforehand, though. Projected scare factor: Definitely Not Safe For Work, and probably Not Safe For Life either.
POSTGRADUATE CERTIFICATE CHANGING LIVES IMPROVING L IFE
FROM PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT TO ADVERTISING, THIS PROGRAM OFFERS THE UNIQUE SKILLS YOU WILL NEED TO LAUNCH YOUR CAREER AS AN ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE, MARKETING MANAGER, MARKETING SPECIALIST, PRODUCT MANAGER AND MANY OTHER EXCITING CAREER OPTIONS.
business.humber.ca/postgrad
FROM TRADE SHOWS TO WEDDINGS TO CULTURAL FESTIVALS, THIS PROGRAM OFFERS THE UNIQUE SKILLS YOU WILL NEED TO LAUNCH YOUR CAREER AS AN
Graduate Preview Day
EVENT COORDINATOR, SPECIAL EVENTS ORGANIZER, ACCOUNT REPRESENTATIVE, CORPORATE MEETING PLANNER AND MANY OTHER EXCITING CAREER OPTIONS.
business.humber.ca/postgrad
GRADUATE STUDIES PREVIEW DAY Saturday, November 1 | 10am-1pm University Centre, University of Guelph Choose from over 90 graduate programs Meet with faculty to discuss potential research opportunities Speak with current graduate students to learn more about the graduate experience at Guelph Discuss admission with graduate studies admission specialists
uoguelph.ca/graduatestudies
Science
VAR.ST/COMMENT 20 OCTOBER 2014
science@thevarsity.ca
In conversation with Ari Cohen Canadian filmmaker’s latest award-winning documentary The Family Farm explores small-scale farming across Canada
Hatchery Speaker Series: Jeremy Chan Jeremy Chan is the founder and principal of Jonah Group, a software consulting firm based in Toronto Tuesday, October 21 12:00 pm–2:00 pm Bahen Centre for Information Technology, room BA1130 Free; register online
Embinghaus Empire Talk Series 2014-2015: The Processes and Process “Dissociations” of Recognition Memory Dr. Aaron S. Benjamin of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will be talking about memory deficits associated with aging Wednesday, October 22 12:15 pm–1:30 pm Sidney Smith Hall, room 3130 Free; no registration necessary
The Family Farm explores the promotion of sustainability through natural farming. courtesy of rotating planet
Shahin Imtiaz
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
Ari Cohen is an acclaimed Canadian actor turned filmmaker who has directed iconic films such as Falafelism and Garbage! and had roles in TV series such as Suits and Supernatural. Not only is his latest documentary, The Family Farm, a visual treat incorporating expansive rural Canadian landscapes, but it also gives insight into local Canadian family farms across the country, which many modern consumers have long lost touch with. The documentary will be screened at the Toronto Environmental Film Festival from November 6 to 9. The Varsity: You have had an extensive career as an actor and producer in film and television. What made you turn towards directing? Ari Cohen: I graduated with a degree in arts administration, then I became the cultural director of an arts center. After working there for a few years I started producing documentaries and the like. I produced and helped direct a documentary called Too Colourful for the League, about the history of black hockey players and that snowballed into other films and got me started off in the industry. TV: What inspired you to make this documentary? AC: I felt like it was my duty as a documentary filmmaker to address something important to our society, from sociopolitical to environmental issues, and to influence them in a positive way if possible. Coming from a Moroccan Jewish family, food
has always been a big part of my life. I made another film before this one on food called Falafelism which documents the relationship of food and politics in the Middle East. I’ve also filmed quite a bit in the Arctic and there food is so scarce and hard to grow — which really made [me] think of the disparity out there. Some can afford to waste food, others have nothing to eat. For a while, I’ve been exploring how we can use food to talk about other issues. TV: What is family farming and why is it important in Canadian agriculture? AC: They are basically farms that have been run by a family for generations and have become integral parts of their local communities. Most of them grow natural foods and the animals are reared in far better conditions than that in mass produce — which many people feel is more ethical. Studies have shown that a shift in our food habits can solve the climate change problem and family farming is a direct link to that shift. Eighty-five per cent of Canadian foods come from five companies, and oftentimes smaller producers have a hard time with provincial regulations and the like. Canada is a country without a national food policy, and has many regulations that dissuade family farming enterprises, such as food quotas. This country was created based on family farms. These farms mean cheaper, natural, [and] healthier alternatives to mass produced foods and they also help maintain biodiversity. TV: What was the biggest challenge towards making the documentary? What did you find the most interesting?
AC: The biggest challenge was finding the right characters to film the documentary about. I screened, profiled, and interviewed hundreds of farmers from every province, and they all had stories worth documenting. How do you choose from thousands of farmers? I just had to handpick a few stories out of them that I felt flowed well together and were a good representation of the diverse collective. We met a Mennonite farmer by the way of Waterloo and I was very taken by their way of farming. They had to battle their heritage and ideologies to make space for and keep up with modern farming techniques that uses machinery, etc., and I thought that was very interesting. TV: What do you think should be done to resolve the problems addressed in the documentary? AC: I think it’s a few things. One, we need to learn about our food, from when we grow it to when we eat it. Bringing biodiversity back in the face of mass production is also important. Healthy natural farming should be allowed to survive — a lot of existing regulations oppose that. People with the right vision and right intent need to be able to execute their farming ideas and allowed to survive. Eating [locally grown produce] is also a step ahead in healthier, environmentally safe lifestyles. People should know they can find affordable healthy food in local farms. Also, the government is big a part of the solution. TV: How did the stories, the research, and the journey affect you personally? Did their effect on you translate into your documentary?
AC: I come from a typical Canadian family and many such families are used to having two or three fridges in the house. In the last few years I started questioning my lifestyle. Is so much consumption important for my health or survival or do I just splurge on mass grown food mindlessly? Making such filtered choices can affect all kinds of things for me, the idea was to question my actions and be aware of their consequences, and I wanted to share that. These personal questions led me to the research the issue, and I have spent the last two years on this film. This film not only gives the objective views of issues in family farming, but it also creates an emotional connection between the viewer and the farmers. My aim was to make the issue of food farming relatable — I wanted to make people think “oh, I know a place exactly like this. It’s not far from where I live.” TV: The Family Farm will next be screened in the Toronto Environmental Film Festival. Are you going to be attending it? AC: Yes, I will be attending it, I’m really happy that the film is getting the right sort of critical focus, being showed in environmental and science festivals where it’s less about the red carpet and more about the issues. I am very excited to be meeting the other filmmakers as well. I think everyone who has the time should come by to the festival as it will explore many important problems and their solutions. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
CPIN Distinguished Lectureship Series: The nightlife of the brain A lecture hosted by Dr. Sandra Black, a neuroscientist at U of T, featuring speaker Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, a professor in the Department of Neurosurgery, Center for Translational Neuromedicine and Departments of Neurobiology and Anatomy, and Neurology at the University of Rochester Medical Centre Thursday, October 23 1:00 pm–2:00 pm Sandford Fleming, auditorium 1105 Free; no registration necessary
Think Thursday Chat with Karl Martin, the founder and CEO of Torontobased startup, Bionym Inc, behind wearable authentication device Nymi Thursday, October 23 6:30 pm–9:00 pm Bitmaker Labs Free; register on Eventbrite
Adaptive Collaboration Systems A lecture about adaptive collaboration systems (ACS), with speaker, Dr. Haibin Zhu professor and founding director of Collaborative Systems Laboratory at Nipissing University Friday, October 24 12:00 pm–1:00 pm George Vari Centre for Computing and Engineering, room ENGLG06 Free; register online
VARSITY SCIENCE
22 Vol. CXXXV, No. 7
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Study finds long-acting insulin more effective for type I diabetes Findings can help physicians give more tailored choices to type I diabetes patients Aditya Chawla
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
A recent study published in The BMJ suggests that long-acting insulin may be a safer and more effective treatment than intermediateacting insulin for patients with type I diabetes. In a systematic review and network metaanalysis of 39 studies, Dr. Andrea Tricco, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and lead author of the study, compared long-acting insulin to intermediate-acting insulin. She found that in patients with type I diabetes, long-acting insulin was more effective in preventing weight gain and severe hypoglycemia. Long-acting insulin analogs such as glargine and detemir regulate glucose levels in the bloodstream uniformly over a 24-hour period and take effect three to four hours after injection into the bloodstream, whereas intermediate-acting insulin analogs such as Neutral Protamine Hagedorn (nph) and lente are taken one to three hours after ingestion, and can last up to 16 hours. In the case of hypoglycemia, patients develop abnormally low blood glucose levels,
which can lead to coma and death in extreme cases. According to Tricco, “ [Long-acting insulin] reduces the risk of severe hypoglycemia events by 38 per cent, on average.” Furthermore, the study shows that patients taking intermediate-acting insulin had an increased likelihood of gaining weight. These patients “gained an average of four to six pounds more than patients who took longacting insulin,” said Tricco. The study showed that long-acting insulin significantly improved hemoglobin a1c levels, which is a clear indicator of effective blood glucose control in type I diabetes patients. In terms of the cost-effectiveness and economic benefits of these types of insulin analogs, Tricco said, “Only 23 per cent of studies showed that long-acting insulin was more cost effective than intermediate-acting insulin, although 77 per cent found that long acting insulin was more costly but more cost effective than intermediate-acting insulin.” With this information, Tricco hopes that “patients and their physicians can determine their choice of insulin according to their cost and accessibility.” As for future aims for this research, Tricco suggests that future trials should include a
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Researchers at U of T have shown that long-acting insulin may be better for type 1 diabetes patients. brian j matis/flickr by cc
longer follow-up period to examine the longer-term effects of different insulin analogs. In addition, a de novo cost effectiveness
analysis would allow physicians, patients, and policy-makers to choose a particular type of insulin best suited to their needs.
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Call of sensorimotor skills Study: first-person action gaming enhances ability to notice patterns in everyday tasks Jasleen Arneja SCIENCE EDITOR
In a recent study published in the journal Human Movement Science by Dr. Jay Pratt and phd candidate Davood Gozli of the University of Toronto Department of Psychology in collaboration with Daphne Bavelier, a research professor at the University of Rochester, studied the effect of chronic action video game playing on basic sensorimotor skills. “By action video games, we usually refer to first-person shooter games, [where] the gamer is controlling this avatar and looking at the environment through the perspective of this avatar and shooting in a battle situation,” said Gozli. The study used a manual motiontracking task. “The task involved the gamers and non-gamers, following with their mouse, a moving dot on the screen,” said Gozli. The study ran two experiments. In the first one, the moving target itself followed a pattern. “In the condition where the moving target was completely predictable, the video gamers performed better than nongamers,” said Gozli. In the second
experiment, the movement of the dot was entirely random, in which case both gamers and non-gamers performed equally well. “So the conclusion is that gaming doesn’t allow us to use our motor skills better,” said Gozli, adding, “What it does, is it allows us to pick up lawful patterns in the environment, when there is actually a lawful pattern in the environment.” Playing videogames has been proposed as a habilitation tool for patients suffering from a variety of diseases including cancer, Alzheimer’s, stroke, and Multiple Sclerosis, among others. “But what we’re showing is that if those patients are confronted with real world situations, which things are not patterned for, or regular… playing a lot of action video games may not be a beneficial tool as a means of recovering,” said Gozli. Therefore, playing action games may result in the advantage of an improved ability to learn the dynamics of new sensorimotor tasks accurately, which is essential in high precision tasks like laparoscopic surgery, which encompasses manual control of remote surgery tools through a computer interface.
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Video games might not be all bad, according to a recent study. Steven andrew/flickr by cc
“The surgical procedure that [surgeons] have to perform usually follows a predictable pattern…that’s why videogamers become better surgeons because they are able to
pick up the patterns in any kind of task better,” said Gozli. A future direction that Gozli wants to explore involves the detriment of assuming that regular
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patterns exist in all situations. “If you go about a task assuming and trying to pick up patterns and regularity, you might, in the long run, slow down,” he said.
VARSITY SCIENCE
24 Vol. CXXXV, No. 7
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Waste less, reuse more Sustainability conference to ask unique questions about reducing waste Haman Mamdouhi
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
At a time when environmental issues are often swept under the rug, Wastefree Takeout Enterprise hopes not only to open up a forum for discussion, but to stir the waters by presenting interesting, unconventional, and unique questions. “We’re presenting the controversial topics that no one usually talks about,” said Alice Zhu, president and co-founder of Wastefree Takeout Enterprise in an interview with The Varsity. The lack of concern for sustainable waste is the reason for the sustainability conference Ideas for the World Exposé: Disruptive Topics Regarding Sustainability in the Modern, Fastpaced Society, which takes place on November 1 at the Bahen Centre. “Wastefree Takeout is about changing the norm and challenging what is the status quo,” said Zhu. “The conference is just about that and things we don’t talk about,” Zhu adds. The event hopes to bring together youth from the high school and university levels to offer radical solutions to the status quo of environmental advocacy. The conference has workshops lined up on innovative ideas in the field of sustainability, covering topics such as the effect of our diet on the environment, the use of political power to promote environmental change, and the role of sexism in climate change.
Wastefree TakeOut aims to replace styrofoam containers with reusable eco-containers in the fast-food industry. FILE PHOTO: CAROLYN LEVETT/THE VARsITY
Wastefree Takeout is a University of Toronto non-profit student initiative that promotes the replacement of toxic Styrofoam containers with reuseable eco-containers. “We are promoting [the] eco-container [to] replace styrofoam in the takeout industry. These containers can be re-washed up to 2,000 times, and aren’t toxic like Styrofoam,” said Zhu. These containers have already been adopted at most eateries across campus, such as the
cafés at Robarts and Gerstein libraries. Wastefree Takeout is also continuously working to persuade restaurants offcampus to offer the healthier and more eco-friendly containers. Zhu recommends that students explore ways of reducing waste when they get takeout food. “Whenever you get takeout at a restaurant, ask if they have alternative packaging options. This lets the restaurant know that the students take ecological options seri-
ously as a factor when choosing restaurants and signals to them to seek out to offer better choices,” said Zhu. The conference is scheduled to begin with workshops in the morning, followed by a sustainability exhibition accompanying lunch, an interactive critical analysis of climate change, and a documentary screening of the film Cowspiracy — a documentary on the Agricultural Industry and its Secrets.
Are black holes mathematically impossible? UNC and U of T professors find flaw in current black hole theory Kasi Sewraj
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
Every science fiction fan is familiar with the mystery of black holes, which are believed to form when a massive star collapses under its own gravity to a single point in space, called a singularity. Scientists were led to believe that the singularity was surrounded by an invisible membrane called the “event horizon,” which was essentially the point of no return, where the black hole’s gravitational pull is so strong that nothing can escape it. The main reason that black holes have been so controversial in astrophysics is because they contradict two fundamental theories of physics. The first is Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which specifies how space and time are influenced when matter and radiation are present and further goes on to support how a black hole’s gravitation collapses. The second is the law of quantum theory, which states that no information from the universe can ever disappear. Dr. Laura Mersini-Houghton, an associate professor of theoretical physics and cosmology at the University of North Carolina (unc) at Chapel Hill, and Dr. Harald Pfeiffer of the Department of Physics at U of T have now used hydrodynamic equations and various mathematical codes to show that black holes cannot actually exist.
It was thought that Hawking radiation, which is a type of radiation released by black holes, was produced during the collapse stage of a star before it turned into a black hole. The findings of their paper state that Hawking radiation emission actually slows down the collapse of the star and reduces its mass, which in turn causes the star to explode. Simply stated, the star goes through a back reaction where negative energy is absorbed during its collapse, and the black hole never reaches the event horizon. The back reaction reduces the gravitational binding energy, or the energy that is required to pull material apart to infinity, reducing the star’s momentum, and this instability causes an explosion. This new idea brings agreement between Einstein’s theory of general relativity and the law of quantum theory, which scientists have been trying to unify for years. If these new findings are supported by peer review, then scientists will have to re-evaluate the theory behind the creation of our universe. The Big Bang theory states that the universe originated from a singularity that began expanding. If black holes are non-existent, this means that singularities also do not exist, so there would have been no starting point from which the universe could expand. Unbelievable as it may seem, our current scientific theories may soon have to be changed. Though there is still no experimental evidence to reinforce these claims, Mersini-Houghton believes the mathematics are concrete.
Black holes may not be a scientific reality . COuRTEsY OF NAsA
anorexia nervosa treatment study Researchers at CAMH and the Toronto General Hospital are currently investigating a new treatment for Anorexia Nervosa and are looking for participants
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Sports
VAR.ST/SPORTS
20 OCTOBER 2014
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More than just running The differences between sprints, cross-country, and marathons Jonathan Yue
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
Walking through the streets of Toronto, one is bound to see people in athletic gear running through the streets. From Varsity Blues athletes training to Torontonians running recreationally, runners have become a common part of the city and campus. Running may appear to be a simple past time, but it’s more than that. There are different types of runners with different routines and practices. Sprinting, cross-country running, and marathon running may seem very similar, but what sets them apart from each other? Many are familiar with 100-metre races in the Olympics featuring the fastest man in the world, Usain Bolt. Sprinters, some of the world’s fastest athletes, run distances ranging from 60 metres to 400 metres with both speed and power. Gregory MacNeill, one of the Varsity Blues Track and Field captains explained that, “In sprinting, you use your full energy, going full tilt over a short period of time.” Aside from the use of energy to move in fast bursts, there is also a technical aspect to sprinting. As MacNeill explained, “Every little motion is broken down to a precise movement in order to maximize your effort over the short distance.” When the component of speed is added to the activity, you get something more than just running fast. Cross-country, on the other hand,
is less publicized in the sports world, but still takes a lot of skill to compete. Zain Ahmed, a cross-country runner with the Varsity Blues, explains that cross-country is very unique. “Cross-country is a crazy footrace over a variety of terrain(s), and often against the elements,” said Ahmed. Unlike the consistent surface that sprinters run on, cross-country athletes have different routes and courses to constantly adapt to. “We typically race on grass, but sometimes there is gravel, dirt, and sand. There are hills of various dimensions. We (also) often have to deal with wind, rain, and even hail or snow,” Ahmed added. These athletes face many different obstacles as they run, but what keeps them going when it gets rough? Gabriela Stafford, another member of the Varsity Blues cross-country team, emphasized that the major difference between sprints and crosscountry is the team influence. “The team aspect is an integral part to cross country. Whenever you have moments of doubts in a (long) race, what gets you through it is thinking about toughing it out and digging deep for the team,” explained Stafford. Marathons are by far the longest out of the three forms of running. The official length of a marathon is 42.195 kilometres, a course that tests one’s endurance and ability to pace themselves throughout the race. Ahmed commented on the taxing effects that marathons have on a runner: “In the marathon, the distance is so long that even running the
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marathon at a slow pace is tiring for anyone. Add a fast pace to the marathon and of course the event becomes brutal,” he explained. Marathon runners must train to find their ideal speed so that they can efficiently run a constant speed throughout the long event. So, when observing a marathon runner during training, it is their
pace, rather than their speed, that matters most to their success. Next time you see a runner on the streets of Toronto, try to guess which event they are training for. Are they training for the speed and power needed in sprints? Are they trying to adapt to the different terrains found in cross-country races? Or are they pacing themselves
to find a constant running speed? Whatever the answer, these sport events have distinct challenges with which the athletes are faced. One should never underestimate the challenges that come with these sports. Despite falling under the broad category of “running,” sprints, cross-country, and marathons are more than they seem.
Blues on the water The Varsity Blues’ rowing teams have strong development systems with both varsity and novice teams
cOuRTEsY Of VARsITY BluEs
Anthony Piruzza
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
After completing their third tournament at Brock last weekend, the Varsity Blues men’s and women’s rowing teams are nearing the end of their season. Both teams are led by a collection of distinguished rowers that
were successful at last year’s Canadian University Rowing Championship, and are backed up by a solid group of novice rowers. The men’s rowing team ended the 2013 season successfully, as two Varsity Blues boats were victorious at the Canadian University Rowing Championship in Montreal. The men’s heavy-
weight fours B final was won by Toronto’s Jacob Giesbrecht, Andrei Vovk, Ben Mayers and Matthew Vincent, and all but Vincent have returned for the 2014 season. Giesbrecht and Vincent also captured first place in the men’s heavyweight B final. The success of these veteran rowers at the Western Invitational was
an encouraging sign for the Varsity Blues. The men’s team dominated the heavyweight single race at this season’s opening tournament. Second–year rower Giesbrecht took gold, with Vovk following up with a silver medal for the Varsity Blues. This duo continued their success at the Head of Trent Regatta, where they placed third in the heavyweight double. The successful return of these rowers suggests that the team may improve on last year’s seventh place finish at the Ontario University Athletics rowing championships. The Varsity Blues men have not won the tournament since 1981, but the young team and their standout rowers show signs of success for this year’s tournament on October 26. Similarly, the women’s team is fronted by Heather Noble and Oksana Wankieicz, who received third place in the lightweight double B final at the Canada-wide tournament. These two have been repeating their success as of late, with both being awarded two medals at the Head of Trent Regatta on October 4. They were members on the
third-place lightweight eights boat, and the tandem placed fourth in the lightweight double race. Noble and Wankieicz lead a young team this year, as seven rowers on the women’s roster are in their first year of eligibility. In order to improve on last year’s eleventh-place finish at the Ontario University Athletics (oua) championship, first year novice rower Pauline Karpazis explained that the team must continue working on some aspects of its competition: “After the Brock invitational last weekend, we realized we need to focus on exerting more power through the stroke and to really push our boat through the water by driving with our legs in order to be competitive at ouas,” said Karpazis. A successful oua showing will rely on these novice boats improving their power while maintaining their rhythmic catch timing, which Karpazis notes as a strength of the novice boats. The rowing teams will compete in the oua championships October 25– 26, and hope to move onto the Canadian Intercollegiate Sport championships at the beginning of November.
26 Vol. CXXXV, No. 7
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Season preview: Varsity Blues men’s hockey team Blues hope to perform at top level after last season’s rebuilding Sampson Coutts
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
Following a solid rebuilding year in which the University of Toronto Varsity Blues men’s hockey team qualified for the Ontario University Athletics (oua) playoffs despite a challenging move to the oua’s intensely competitive West Division, fans should be optimistic about the team’s prospects this season. The vast majority of the team is returning this year, with only forward Blake Boddy and defender Tyler Turcotte having graduated this past spring. Leading scorer Michael Markovic will lead the 2014–2015 forward core. Markovic is a prominent star on the team, respected for his back checking, shot blocking, and penalty shots. Senior sniper Jeff Brown, who led the team in goal scoring in his sophomore year, will work with Markovic to form a potent onetwo punch on the top line. The Blues will look to Tyler von Engelbrechten, whose offensive production sky-rocketed from 5 points to 24 last season; captain Andrew Doyle; two-way forward Paul Van De Velde; and veteran Tyler Liukkonen to provide secondary scoring.
Also returning are sophomore third-line grinders Dean Klomp, Casey Knight, and Russell Turner, who were crucial in energizing the team last season. This year they will be complemented by Clarkson University transfer Patrick Marsh, who plays the same high-speed, hard-hitting style of game. Defense will be the position to watch this season. The Blues will rely heavily on defenseman Dylan Heide and two-way defender Lane Werbowski to lead the defensecore, while veterans Cameron Bernier and Marcus Yolevski, along with currently injured sophomore Charlie Connell, will battle for space on the second pairing. The performances of Bernier, Yolevski, and Connell, along with fellow sophomore Corey Jackson, may well determine if U of T keeps its current streak of 25 straight playoff appearances alive. The team allowed an average of 34.4 shots per game last season, too many of which were high-quality scoring chances. Had the team’s goaltending been merely average, the Blues surely wouldn’t have qualified for the post-season last February. In goal, U of T boasts two excellent goaltenders in veterans Garrett Sheehan and Brett Willows. Both are consistent, perform well under pressure, and give the Blues a chance to win
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every time. Their heroics were on prominent display last season, with the highlight being Willows’s 50save win over the Ryerson Rams in the final week of the season, which
secured the team a playoff spot. With last year’s heart and soul team a year older, it’s not unreasonable to think that the Blues might just turn some heads this
post-season. The team has solid forward depth and excellent goaltending. If the defense lives up to its potential, this team could play well into March.
Season preview: Varsity Blues women’s hockey Expectations for women’s hockey team are high with many strong players Sampson Coutts
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
COURTESY OF VARSITY BLUES
Expectations are sky-high for this year’s University of Toronto Varsity Blues women’s hockey team, and with good reason. Following a stellar 2013–2014 campaign in which the Blues posted an 18–5–1 record in the regular season, won their first Ontario University Athletics (oua) playoff series in half a decade, and were a win away from advancing to the oua finals, it is fair to expect a deep playoff drive this year. Up front, the Blues continue to boast some of the best depth in oua. First line sniper Taylor Day, who led the squad with 11 goals last year, is returning, as is her line mate Sonja Weidenfelder. Last year’s second line of Alie Brind’Amour-McClure, her sister Courtney, and veteran Amanda Ricker are also back. The 2013– 2014 season was tremendous for the Brind’Amour-McClure line, with a year of improvement culminating in a playoff performance for the ages. The Brind’AmourMcClure sisters scored 15 goals throughout the season, while Ricker scored a huge goal in the deciding game of the Blues’ first round playoff series against the Western Mustangs.
Also returning are energy forwards Kristi Riseley, who has been promoted to the first line, and veteran Jacqueline Scheffel. With rookie Becki Bowering and sophomore Katherine Gale also expected to contribute offensively this season, scoring plenty of goals shouldn’t be an issue for the Blues. Assistant captain Stacey Oue, who was relied upon to play big minutes in last season’s playoffs, will anchor a solid defense this season alongside seniors Caitlin Maikawa and April Looije. Coming off a stellar rookie campaign, Rebecca Bourgeois will likely round out the top four, with sophomore Autumn Garnham, fifth-year Mary Claire Geneau, and rookie Julia Szulewska competing for the final roster spots. In goal, U of T female athlete of the year Nicole Kesteris is back for her final season with the Blues. Kesteris was deservedly crowned a Canadian Interuniversity Sport (cis) first team all-Canadian for her efforts. The Blues boast incredible depth, but with Kesteris in her final year of cis eligibility, this season may well be the best chance the women’s hockey program will have of placing another banner in Varsity Arena’s rafters for quite some time. It will be a season to remember.
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