January 26, 2015 by The Varsity

Vol. CXXXV, No. 16

INSIDE

TRANSIT CLOTHES

26 January, 2015

The University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880

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A TA strike puts undergrads in a difficult position Columnist Li Pan unpacks the implications of a strike

TEXTBOOKS

PG. 11

Editorial

GROCERIES TTC fares unfair to students

Students should be included in transit discussions

PG. 13

TUITION

Feature

THE BOTTOM DOLLAR U of T students discuss their financial struggles and successes PG. 5

Renewed Student Commons push met with skepticism

Around the block City landmarks around campus reveal Toronto history

PG. 14

Arts & Culture

Let’s talk about sex Exploring dirty talk, tantric yoga, and more at Sexual Awareness Week

PG. 16

Science

Delayed project still faces scrutiny from divisional societies Alex McKeen

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

While the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design prepares to set up camp at historic 1 Spadina Crescent, the fate of its old home at 230 College Street remains a pertinent question on students’ minds. The University of Toronto Students’ Union (utsu) has renewed its efforts to promote the construction of the Student Commons, slated to be built at 230 College Street since 2010. The Student Commons is intended as a multi-use space, with facilities available for students to work on projects, study, and relax, among other activities. However, the Student Commons Agreement has gone through a series of delays, and precedes most current students’ arrival at the University of Toronto. The Commons Project is funded by a student levy, and has been since the fall of 2008 following a 2007 referendum. For the 2014 —

2015 year, full-time undergraduate students at the St. George campus pay $8.20 in both the Fall and Winter sessions for a line item called “utsu — Student Commons”. According to Althea Blackburn-Evans, director of media relations at U of T, the levy funds are being “held in a distinct restricted account by the University.” The six-year levy funds have yet to be put to use. Inaction on the Student Commons is partly due to ongoing turbulence involving the utsu and divisional societies. Many of these student groups agree that there is a need for increased community space on St. George campus. Yet, controversy continues over how the student space will be run, given the current unstable state of student politics on the campus.

CAMPAIGNS FOR THE COMMONS The utsu has recently launched a number of awareness initiatives detailing the features of the proposed Student Commons space. The

new website studentcommons.ca features a floorplan of the building and highlights unique features such as rehearsal and workshop space and a rooftop garden. The website also boasts of ample space for clubs, meeting rooms, a food court, a Bikechain location, and space for service groups. The utsu has been advertising the new website through posters and other materials on the St. George campus, found primarily in Sidney Smith. Yolen Bollo-Kamara, president of the utsu, says that the awareness efforts will help students understand the history and significance of the Student Commons. She says that the Commons should have been operational in 2009, two years after the referendum that approved the project. “At that time, the University promised to build the building within two years. Since then, the University has refused to forward

CONTINUED ON PG 7

In conversation with ROSS developers U of T students place second at IBM Watson University challenge

PG. 21

Sports LAÜRABAR

Which nutrition bar is the best for workout recovery A companion between Clif Bars, Larabars, and Quest Bars

PG. 25

VARSITY NEWS

Vol. CXXXV, No. 16

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Contributors Salvatore Basilone, Aditya Chawla, Emily Colero, Sampson Coutts, James Flynn, Claire Fox, Susan Gordon, Maitri Gupta, Meerah Haq, Dhruvin Hirpara, Diandra Ismiranti, , Alaa JeelonyEmily Johnpulle, Emma Kikulis, David Kitai, Wan Xian Koh, Daniel Konikoff, Andrea Macikunas, Matthew Manhire, Tamim Mansour, Alex McKeen, Malone Mullin, Anastasiya Muntyanu, Peter Nash, Sarah Niedoba, Li Pan, Sara Rebelo, Samantha Relich, Iris Robin, Caroline Shim, Kate Stoehr, Brittaney Warren

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Mascot True Blue in pink at the Varsity Blues Think Pink hockey game. JENNIFER SU/THE VARSITY

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THE EXPLAINER:

WHAT’S GOING ON THIS WEEK ON CAMPUS:

SUPER BOWL XLIX EDITION

COMMUTER APPRECIATION WEEK EDITION MONDAY PANCAKE BRUNCH AT VICTORIA COLLEGE Alumni Hall, 73 Queen’s Park Crescent, 11 am-2 pm The Off-Campus Students’ Association (ocsa) kicks off Commuter Appreciation week with a free pancake brunch in historic Victoria College Alumni Hall. There’s nothing like free carbohydrates to kick off a great week.

TUESDAY

Things to say when pretending you know about American Football Next Sunday, the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks will face each other in Super Bowl XLIX. If you know nothing about American football, here are some topics of conversation to help you fit in when taking in the game with more knowledgeable fans. 1.

The New England Patriots are generally referred to as the ‘Pats,’ so make sure you call them that. Using profanity (“*expletive* Pats”) may also be appropriate, depending on whom you are with.

While you can refer to the Seahawks as the ‘Hawks,’ the team’s secondary — that is, the defenders who stand a little further back when the play starts — is also widely known as the ‘Legion of Boom’ for their strong play and punishing hits. So you should definitely take advantage of the opportunity to use such an awesome nickname.

Make sure you offer your opinion on ‘Deflategate,’ which refers to allegations that the Pats allegedly used underinflated footballs in their last game, and whether or not the Pats are morally decrepit cheaters. Bonus points if you can do so while making inappropriate double entendres.

There is no bird properly known as a ‘Seahawk,’ but the term is used to refer to the fish-eating Osprey. This has nothing to do with football, but you can break out this factoid to divert the conversation to ornithology if you need to hide your ignorance of sports.

Tom Brady is a beautiful angel sent down from heaven to grace humanity with his immaculate quarterbacking and sublime good looks.

COMMUTER WORKSHOPS Trinity College JCR, 6 Hoskins Ave., 11 am-4 pm U of T professionals and students will lead 30 minute presentations on strategies for commuters. The sessions will address off-campus housing, using resources wisely, money management and getting involved on campus.

WEDNESDAY COFFEE HOUSE AT ST. MIKE’S 81 St. Mary Street, 8:30 pm smc’s annual coffee house is teaming up with the ocsa to put on this campus-wide event featuring coffee-house performances and the cast of Fiddler on the Roof. Door prizes will be available as well as free food and ice cream from Kawartha Dairy.

THURSDAY SALSA AND WALTZ TUTORIAL WITH THE UC LIT uc Commuter Student Centre, 79 St. George Street, 5 pm-7 pm The University College Literary and Athletic Society (uclit) is providing free dance tutorials in preparation for the upcoming Fireball event. All students are welcome to attend this free event and may come with or without a partner.

FRIDAY CASINO NIGHT AT WOODSWORTH COLLEGE Kruger Hall, 119 St. George Street, 7 pm-10 pm Bring your friends and test your luck as ocsa wraps up Commuter Appreciation Week with an evening of blackjack, roulette and more.

Correction: An article from last week’s issue titled “Paving new paths” stated that a mentor, Nicole Fogel, was a fifth-year student. In fact, she is a fourth-year student. The Varsity regrets the error.

VARSITY NEWS

var.st/news

MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2015

“Hybrid” Board of Directors proposal in the works Union has six months to transition following Notice of Deficiency Iris Robin

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

With Wednesday’s joint board proposal meeting, the University of Toronto Students’ Union (utsu) Board of Directors structure saga continues to captivate students at the university’s St. George campus. Ryan Gomes, Engineering director and the Engineering Society’s (EngSoc) vice president, academic, and Natalie Petra, a University College (uc) student, co-chaired an open meeting on January 21 in order to begin work on a new proposal. Students from utm, colleges, professional faculties, and student societies, were invited to attend. Last semester, the utsu proposed a board structure that member voted down at the Annual General Meeting (agm) in late October 2014. In the wake of the structure’s defeat, the utsu is racing against the clock to hammer out a new proposal that will represent all members while being legally compliant. Such structural reform is necessary since the utsu is in the midst of transferring from the Canada Corporations Act (cca), which is being dissolved, to the Canada Not-For-Profit Corporations Act (cnca). This transition requires the utsu to submit new bylaws which govern the structure of the Board of Directors. If the membership does not pass these bylaws, the utsu would fail to comply with the cnca and could be dissolved following an injunction.

NOTICE OF DEFICIENCY The utsu requested its transition from the cca to the cnca on October 14, 2014, three days before the deadline. This request was denied and a Notice of Deficiency dated December 1, 2014 was issued. A Notice of Deficiency states the issues that caused the request to be refused, as well as the deadline to file a new request — six months from when the notice is issued. Once the union has made the transition, it has until October 14, 2015, to hold an agm at which at least two-thirds of the membership must approve new bylaws. If the utsu fails to transition, Corporations Canada confirmed that the union would likely be pending dissolution. In a phone call with Corporations Canada on January 20, The Varsity confirmed that the utsu’s transition request was declined for two reasons. Corporations Canada said that the number of directors listed in the Articles of Continuance — documents necessary to make the transition — did not correspond with the Corporations Canada’s records. Corporations Canada also said that the description of membership classes was improperly filed. Yolen Bollo-Kamara, utsu president, echoed the information from Corporations Canada. She said that the union needs to clarify what the current minimum number of directors on the board is, including when there are vacancies, and whether or not the utsu has classes of membership, which it does not. Some students alleged that Bollo-Kamara only informed them of the Notice of Deficiency at the January 21 meeting, despite the notice being dated December 1. “[The] utsu should have disclosed this immediately,” says Rowan DeBues, president of the Victoria University Students’ Administrative Council. “I do not know why they would want to hide such an important development that is imperative to the survival and running of the Union.” Tina Saban and Connor Anear, co-heads of Trinity College, stated that they have been working diligently to develop a plan for transitioning. “We believe that the membership deserves to know this crucial piece of infor-

Attendees at the open meeting on January 21. JENNIFER SU/THE VARSITY

mation about the status of our union. This is yet another example of utsu not operating in an open manner,” reads a joint statement. “We’ve been providing regular updates to the Board of Directors as we receive information, and this will be included on the agenda at next week’s Board meeting. I am confident that the membership will be able to pass such a structure before the deadline to do so,” says Bollo-Kamara.

A NEW PROPOSAL Among the criticisms of the previous proposal was that constituency directors would have addressed specific equity-based issues, with college and faculty representation granted through a committee. The challenge of how the Board of Directors should address equity issues whilst maintaining representation for divisions such as colleges, faculties, utm, and clubs, as well as the size of the board itself, were all discussed at the meeting. The result was a tentative framework which Gomes and Petra have dubbed a “Hybrid Proposal.” According to the cochairs, this model would define the Arts & Science Colleges, Professional Faculties, and utm as three unique classes of membership of the faculty. Since the cnca mandates that all members of each class have the right to vote for the representatives of other classes, the meeting attendees tried to think of ways to restrict voting to individual colleges and faculties while remaining legally compliant. At the meeting, those present agreed that internally organized elections run by the utsu’s Chief Returning Officer should take place at individual divisions, with the winners of those elections to be acclaimed and voted in at an agm as per the cnca. “Thus, while all members within a class can vote for all directorships available, they

would effectively only be voting to acclaim candidates from all colleges or professional faculties. We felt that this was a fair way to reflect individual constituencies while also recognizing that directors within a class do not solely answer to their direct constituents, and do share collective class and community interests,” said Gomes and Petra in a joint statement. The “Hybrid Proposal” also includes provisions for equity issues. Candidates for these positions are set to run in university-wide elections similar to how the utsu Executive Committee is currently elected. Under this proposal, there would be a combination of individually titled directorships and at-large positions, designed to reflect entrenched issues while allowing for alternative ways for students to connect with their representatives. This model also serves to limit the size of the board.

MEETING IN THE MIDDLE Teresa Nguyen, EngSoc president, did not attend the meeting in person. In a statement circulated before the meeting, Nguyen “commended the efforts in which students put in to [sic] improving their student environment and campus life.” The statement also clarified that EngSoc’s position is to support representational structures that increase engineers’ representation and transparency. “It was beneficial for us to meet and to discuss the board. It wasn’t necessarily productive in that we didn’t come up with a board structure that was finalized, but it was a necessary process,” says Angelo Mateo, a student attending on Trinity College’s behalf. Mateo advocated for college representation to remain on the board at all costs. “Trinity’s stance has always been that college representation must remain on the board and that representation of college

communities remain exclusive within their own constituency. If other communities influence each the vote, it doesn’t remain representative democracy,” Mateo stated. He added that Trinity College believes equity positions on the board are important. “Trinity’s position is that equity needs to be coupled with democratic representation of the colleges.” Dalia Hashim, vice president, external, of the Muslim Students’ Association attended the majority of the meeting and felt that it was productive. Hashim voiced her support for representation of clubs and minority groups on the board. “A lot of college members do not identify with their college or even know the council that runs their college,” Hashim says. “[Students] do however identify with different groups or clubs on campus. I think it is important for people to realize that clubs do provide services to members in a manner that colleges do not (and perhaps can’t),” she adds. Gomes and Petra said that they were pleased with the meeting. “To have pretty much everyone in the room (including the utsu) agree on a model worth pursuing was hugely positive,” they say. “It really showed the power of compromise, and the ability of University of Toronto students to come together and work towards a collective goal.” Bollo-Kamara said that she is glad to see students engaged with the board structure issue, and she is looking forward to continuing these discussions at next week’s “What’s Missing?” townhall, organized by the utsu. The meeting is intended to serve as an opportunity for students to tell the union directly about what they want to see from their students’ union, and how they want to be represented.

Vol. CXXXV, No. 16

VARSITY NEWS

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Students, community groups decry TTC fare hike Token prices to increase 10 cents to $2.80 starting March 1, 2015 Meerah Haq

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Students and community groups alike are criticizing Toronto Mayor John Tory’s proposed increase to ttc fares. As part of the hike, token prices will increase 10 cents to $2.80 starting March 1, 2015. The increase will not apply to the standard cash fare, which remains at $3. Tory, who campaigned on a fare freeze, says the increase will be accompanied by expansions in ttc service, including the restoration of all-day, every-day bus service, the addition of two trains to the rush hour service on both the Bloor-Danforth and YongeUniversity subway lines, and the purchase of 50 new buses. Children 12 and under will also ride free starting March 1. According to Tory, his goal is to restore services cut by previous mayor Rob Ford. Overall, Tory says he plans to increase ttc funding by $95 million, of which a little more than half will be provided by the fare hike. Bhani Wadhwa, a second-year commuter student, says she has no option but to accept the fare hike. “I do not have the option of not coming to school, so even if the fare [increases], I have no option but to accept and keep paying the fees,” she says. Although Wadhwa says the fare hike will not stop her from attending classes, it may limit her ability to participate in extracurricular activities.

St. Patrick subway station. MALLIKA MAKKAR/THE VARSITY

In a press release, ttcriders, a transit advocacy group, lauded the increased service and funding, but was critical of the fare hike. “We are disappointed to learn that Mayor Tory has reneged on his promise to freeze fares,” the release said. Jessica Bell, ttcriders executive director, says that fares are moving in the wrong direction. “Funds need to be allocated for transit improvements and lowering the fare for all users,” says Bell.

Haris Yaqeen, a second-year commuter student, says increasing fares is unfair to postsecondary students. “Students have less income to spend for what employment they have, and also have high costs that are unique to them, so it is unfair that they must pay the same amount as adults,” Yaqeen says. Alex Parent, a third-year commuter student, says he already pays $14 to commute from Mississauga to the St. George campus. For him, the already expensive fare takes

away money he could be using on meals. Since Parent’s journey takes him across cities in the Greater Toronto Area, he uses both a Presto card and cash fare. He says that the Presto cards are often not accepted at ttc locations, and that he would like to see better infrastructure implemented for Presto users. Parent adds that post-secondary students often lack financial stability, and that special consideration should be given to them as a result.

Controversial UC Lit date auction cancelled New charity, Central Neighbourhood House, withdraws Iris Robin

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

A date auction in aid of the Central Neighbourhood House, a settlement house in Toronto, was abruptly cancelled last week after the charity withdrew from the event. The auction was organized by the University College Literary and Athletic Society’s (uc Lit) Equity & Outreach Commission and was originally intended to raise money for Walk With Me Canada Victim Services, a charity that provides

resources and support to survivors of human trafficking. After some University College (uc) students criticized the event, the uc Lit decided to change the charity and the uc community voted to support the Central Neighbourhood House instead. A statement on the uc Lit’s Facebook page announced the cancellation of the event just a few hours before it was due to begin. The statement cited the charity’s withdrawal as the reason for the event’s cancellation. “[Since] we do not have enough time to allow

for our constituents to pick a new benefactor for the proceeds from this event, we have decided to cancel the event,” the statement read. Eric Schwenger, president of the uc Lit, expressed his disappointment that the event did not take place. However, he says that the uc Lit plans to hold additional fundraisers in the coming weeks. “[We] hope to benefit both of the charities we originally planned to work with. It is unfortunate that we had to cancel after the Equity Commission put so much work into planning,” Schwenger says.

“[It] was really [our] only choice: we couldn’t well hold a ‘charity date auction’ without having the secured involvement of a charity to begin with,” Schwenger says. Despite the disappointment, Schwenger says that he is “immensely proud of the uc community for ensuring that all perspectives are considered when engaging in a potentially controversial endeavor such as the auction, and making sure that the Lit maintains its emphasis on prioritizing equity and inclusivity in all our events & other work.”

Students petition administration for sexual violence response Emily Colero VARSITY STAFF

A student group is calling on the university administration to make a more rigorous effort to curb sexual violence on campus. The petition, launched by “Stop Sexual Violence U of T,” comes in the wake of the formation of the new Advisory Committee to the President and Provost on Preventing and Responding to Sexual Violence. According to the coalition, the committee lacks thorough representation from affected groups, particularly students. The petition asks the president, provost and Advisory Committee to open a new selection process, draw feedback from a variety of students and student groups from all three University of Toronto campuses, improve resources and support services, ensure campus police are well-trained on issues of sexual violence,

and review current policies and procedures. Althea Blackburn-Evans, U of T director of media relations, says that, due to the large number of students looking to participate, not all interested parties were able to have representation on the committee. She emphasizes that interested individuals will have other opportunities to be heard. “These individuals have been provided with an opportunity to make a submission to the committee. There will also be opportunities for individuals and groups to speak to the issue of sexual violence as the committee work moves ahead through consultation and focus groups,” says Blackburn-Evans, adding that the university is eager to have input relayed to the committee from all sources. Celia Wandio, the undergraduate student who launched the petition, expressed concern about the lack of information on the Advisory Committee’s selection procedure. “My impression of the selection process is that

it is not thoroughly thought-out. It seems that the university started to feel pressure to do something as a result of media attention to the topic of sexual violence as well as student pressure, so they announced the launch of the Advisory Committee to quell discontent,” Wandio says. Wandio became interested in the committee because of her summer job at the Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children, an organization that works on issues related to violence against women and youth. “Much of my job consisted of doing research for a recently launched discussion paper on campus sexual assault policies. In doing this research, I learned about the importance of clear sexual assault policies, and I also learned of the incompetence of U of T’s current approach to these issues,” Wandio says. To Wandio, there is not enough student representation on the committee. Najiba Ali Sardar, University of Toronto

Students’ Union vice-president, equity, shares similar concerns. “Representation matters, especially in this context. Racialized women, for instance, or Trans* women, are at higher rates of risk for sexual violence. We need those voices to help us... to protect all of our students as best as possible,” she says. Wandio also expressed concern about the lack of an intersectional approach to addressing sexual assault. “[W]e have no indication that they have recognized the importance of including voices from groups that face disproportionate levels of sexual violence: not only women, but Indigenous women, racialized women, trans* people, international students, gay men or men ‘perceived’ as gay,” she says. “I hate to sound cynical, but I can’t help but think the administration wants to do the least they can while still avoiding negative public attention,” Wandio adds. As of press time, the petition has 328 signatures.

VARSITY NEWS

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MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2015

THE PRICE OF AN EDUCATION Five U of T students discuss the cost of living in one of North America’s most expensive cities

The Varsity: How is your tuition paid? David: My parents, but I am from France so it is very cheap [there] — only a few hundred Euros.

Article by Salvatore Basilone Illustrations by Janice Liu

Attending university in Canada’s largest city can quickly become expensive. At the University of Toronto, undergraduate tuition starts at $6,000 for domestic students, setting aside $1,000 for incidental and ancillary fees, and textbooks, which can cost upwards of $1,000 per year. Living away from home adds significantly to the cost. According to the Rent Board of Canada, the average rent in Toronto is $1,224 a month for a one bedroom apartment, and $1,487 for a two-bedroom. The cheapest internet service plan offered by Rogers costs $54.99 per month, while Bell Mobility’s cheapest cell phone plan starts at $45. Many students also have to balance a busy school schedule with part-time or full-time jobs to make ends meet. Currently, the average hourly wage for the nearly 870,000 workers in Ontario aged 15 to 24 is $13.72 — just a few dollars above the general minimum wage of $11 per hour. The Varsity spoke with six U of T students to get their stories of financial survival.

TV: Do you work, and how much do you make? D: I usually make 1,000 Euros. TV: Monthly rent? D: It used to be $680 when I lived at Tartu [College], but I have moved, and now it is $800. TV: How much do you receive from your parents each month? D: The $800 for rent, plus $400 to live. TV: What do you splurge on? D: Just eating, travelling, and partying.

DAVID, 20

Exchange student studying Computer Science Year of study: Third Course Load: Three

TV: Do you work, and how much do you make? T: Only over the summer. I make $3,000 as a receptionist at a retirement home.

TOM, 20

Specializing in Sexual Diversity Studies Year of study: Second Course load: Six The Varsity: How is your tuition paid? Tom: My parents pay. TV: Monthly rent? T: $640.

TV: Do you have any financial advice for fellow students? T: Eat in as much as you can because it saves money. Also… drink in — it is way cheaper.

TV: Monthly rent? B: I actually live with my parents. They do get a majority of my pay cheque, and that goes towards the rent, but they cover most of the rent and support me. I help out.

TV: Monthly rent? A: $750, plus Internet and phone and things like that.

ADAM, 38 PhD, Experimental Cosmology Course load: Six The Varsity: How is your tuition paid? Adam: I get paid through the Physics Department with a grant, which covers my tuition and living, to a certain degree. TV: What is the grant for a PhD student? A: There are different categories, but the one I am in is about $28,000. Take out the eight and-a half thousand of tuition and it is even less. TV: Do you work, and how much do you make? A: You have TA [Teaching Assistant] options

Majoring in Human Biology and Religious Education, with a minor in Human Geography Year of study: Fourth Course load: Six

The Varsity: How is your tuition paid? Beatrice: For the entire tuition of my bachelors degree, I would say 75 per cent of it was mine [and] 25 per cent of it my parents. I’ve been saving for my education since I was 10. I saved about $35,000. At New Year’s or Christmas, when you are young and cute, your family tends to give you a lot of money. I also started working when I was 15. In high school, I’d work three or four jobs in the summer and that earned a lot. Not much of a social life though, so that kind of sucks.

TV: Any financial advice for fellow students? B: If you’re younger, I would say start saving as early as you can. But if you are in a situation now where you need to make money fast, work summers. If you’re not going to do extra courses or go abroad, or if you don’t have the finances for it, I would say work.

TV: Aside from rent, what do you spend and splurge on? A: Splurging? Not too much. Sometimes I go out to dinner; maybe I’ll buy a used video game or something. Splurging is kind of a ridiculous thought, really. TV: Do you have any financial advice for fellow students? A: The obvious advice is to know how much money, or at least close to how much money, you’ll have. That includes rent and food and things like that. Don’t splurge. Only spend money that you have, not what you think you are going to have — because you might not get it.

TV: Do you have any debt or loans? C: I don’t have too much. I think by the time I graduate, I’ll have about $6,000.

TV: Do you have any debt or loans? B: I finance my education with osap, but the great thing with osap is there is a portion you don’t have to pay back, which for me is about $800 a year. So I’ll have approximately $37,000 in debt when I graduate, but I have approximately $35,000 that I haven’t spent available to pay it off. So I’m a little bit short, but it is not that bad. TV: Aside from rent, what do you spend and splurge on? B: I splurge sometimes — mostly on food. But I have a frugal way of spending with food, so unless there is a deal going on I won’t go for it. For example, at Hart House, there is a Wednesday $5 lunch deal once a month, and it is a full course!

TV: Do you have any debt or loans? A: For my undergrad, I got OSAP throughout, so I am sitting somewhere around $50,000. But I have no new ones taken out.

so I get paid quite well — almost double the minimum [wage]. In previous years, I worked more because of lower course loads.

TV: Do you work, and how much do you make? B: I work at Red Lobster. The gross income would be approximately $7,000 a year, but per month it does range.

ALEXA, 21

TV: Do you have any financial advice for fellow students? D: No available, which a lot of the times aren’t very different than regular part-time work, but as far as having a second job there really isn’t time. A PhD is considered to be a full-time job times two, basically.

TV: Do you have any debt or loans? T: No. TV: How much do you receive from your parents each month? T: It equals about $800. But I have the money I make working, as well, because I live with my parents during the summer and I don’t spend anything. TV: Aside from rent, what do you spend and splurge on? T: I spend it on my hair, my phone, makeup, general toiletries. I don’t actually buy clothes as much as I used to. When I was in high school, I bought a lot of clothes and I still have a lot of them. I like to get my hair done. If I waste money in a consistent way, it is on my hair.

TV: Do you have any debts or loans? D: Yes, I have received 1,000 Euros for the whole year, but that is only because I am studying abroad. Usually, I don’t get anything.

TV: How much do you receive from your parents each month? C: They do help me. For example, they pay for my Metropass, and they paid for tutoring I took. TV: Aside from rent, what do you spend and splurge on? C: Does travel count? I [splurge] on traveling. I’m going back to Edinburgh for reading week.

CARLA, 21

Majoring in International Relations and History with a minor in French Year of study: Fourth Course load: Five The Varsity: How is your tuition paid? Carla: I pay my own tuition. TV: What is your monthly rent? C: I live at home, so I don’t pay anything. TV: Do you work, and how much do you make? C: Yes. I make about $250-300 per month. In the summers, I work full-time as a lifeguard

TV: Do you have any financial advice for fellow students? C: Looking back, I would have started working earlier. I didn’t work in high school, which, if I did, would have been beneficial and lowered my debt even further. I do think it is important to track your money, which I try to do — making sure I know where my money is going, how much I am spending on coffee, or on going out for lunch, or whatever it is, has helped me stay on track in terms of financing. Names changed. All interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

Vol. CXXXV, No. 16

VARSITY NEWS

news@thevarsity.ca

Kathleen Wynne concludes 10-day post-secondary tour Premier’s tour, which included visit to utm, addresses success strategies, mental health Brittaney Warren VARSITY STAFF

Kathleen Wynne, Ontario’s twenty-fifth and first female premier, recently visited the University of Toronto Mississauga (utm) as part of a ten-day tour of Ontario universities. Wynne launched her tour in Ottawa at La Cité Collégial, where she announced that the purpose of the tour was to discuss strategies for student success. During her visit to UTM on January 15, Wynne was greeted by U of T president Meric Gertler, utm principal and vice-president Deep Saini, and several Members of Provincial Parliament (mpp) from the Mississauga area. The premier mingled with students at the Northside Bistro, asking about challenges they face in their university careers. After responding to student inquiries, Wynne toured a new rehearsal space at Deerfield Hall, and concluded her visit by participating in a chemistry lab. During the tour, Wynne stressed the importance of Ontario universities and colleges remaining accessible. “Our colleges and universities should be places where our young people can explore their passions and engage with one another to help create new communities,” Wynne told reporters after touring La Cité Collégial. According to Jen Carter, president of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (ousa), prior to the launch of the university and colleges tour, Wynne sat down with members of the ousa to discuss concerns facing today’s post-secondary students. Carter says that the meeting with the premier is a positive sign that the province is taking student concerns seriously. “There are a lot of key issues to be addressed in Ontario’s post-secondary sector: financial accessibility, adequate mental health care, effective sexual violence policies, to name just a few. Seeing the Premier reach out to engage on these complex topics is encouraging and bodes well for developing future improvements,” says Carter.

Kathleen Wynne and Sophie Kiwala engaged in a dialogue with aboriginal students at Queen’s University’s Four Directions Aboriginal Centre. COURTESY OF ONTARIO LIBERAL PARTY

Throughout the tour, students expressed concerns about sexual violence against women and the perceived lack of support for mental health issues. Wynne announced 14 projects to improve the mental health of post-secondary students on January 16 at Sault College in Sault St. Marie. The projects, which will make up a part of the Mental Health Innovation Fund, seek to identify and treat mental health symptoms during their early stages.

The province is investing up to $6 million annually in the fund, which is part of Ontario’s Mental Health and Addiction Strategy. The University of Toronto Scarborough, in collaboration with the Toronto District School Board and the Shoniker Clinic-Rouge Valley Health System, has been approved for developing an intervention program aimed at helping high school students with mental health challenges transition to a post-secondary lifestyle. Reza Moridi, Minister of Training, Colleges

and Universities, echoed the importance of this change. “Every college and university student in Ontario should have access to the support they need to enjoy good mental and physical health throughout their learning journey. Through the Mental Health Innovation Fund and other important initiatives, Ontario is working to ensure that every single student who needs help can turn to co-ordinated, high-quality mental health care,” Moridi said in a press release.

Robarts’ hot dog cart catches fire Student launches fundraiser to save school “landmark” Alex McKeen

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

Hungry students leaving Robarts Library late last Friday night were met with an unpleasant shock when the hot dog cart outside of the library caught fire. The incident occurred around 11:30 pm and was highly destructive. Richard Zhou, a second-year student in actuarial science and economics, witnessed the fire as he came out of Robarts. According to Zhou, the fire was large and came dangerously close to surrounding vehicles. “The cars would have exploded if it was a bit closer,” says Zhou. Zhou noticed that the day after the fire, all that was left of the hot dog stand was a stove. As of press time, the cart has not been replaced. Some students are reacting to the incident with a benevolent call to action. Nish Chankar, a first-year student at Trinity College, started a crowdfunding page called “Save U of T Robarts Hot Dog Man” on the website gofundme.com. The description on the page reads: “This hot dog cart has been a staple of UofT cam-

pus life for decades. Please donate what you can to help save a prominent University landmark!” The page has raised over $200. Chankar states that the hot dog cart owner is part of U of T, and that it is a sign of community engagement that students are contributing. “Thousands of us have stayed in Robarts, studying for hours, and have emerged to see that the only food available is from the 24hr hot dog stand right outside. This hot dog man is a member of our community, and the least we can do is chip in a little to put a smile on his face,” Chankar says. Other students agree that the for-profit hot dog stand carries sentimental value. Phil Kukulak, a third-year computer science student, says that many students rely on the business. “I think many took the hot dog stand for granted and only now do some of them realize how much they relied on him,” he says. Chankar says that she plans on tracking down the hot dog vendor to give him the proceeds from the fundraiser. She adds that, though the funds will not be enough to purchase a new cart, the gesture is a good one.

A hot dog stand on Queen Street in Toronto. RICHARD HSU/FLICKR BY CC

var.st/news

VARSITY NEWS

MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2015

“Taking stock” University of Toronto president Meric Gertler discusses sexual violence on campus, government funding, Student Commons provincial government, and at the same time we would like to see more research support coming from the federal government.

University of Toronto president Meric Gertler in his Simcoe Hall office. MALLIKA MAKKAR/THE VARSITY

James Flynn NEWS EDITOR

Set against a backdrop of rapid growth at the Mississauga and Scarborough campuses, sweeping changes to flat fee policy, a contentious University of Toronto Students’ Union (utsu) election, and the election of new mayors in Mississauga and Toronto, Meric Gertler assumed office as the sixteenth president of the University of Toronto during a period of unprecedented change. As he closes in on 500 days in office, The Varsity sat down with Gertler to discuss the year gone by and plans for the one ahead. TV: There’s been a lot of discussion across North America regarding sexual violence on postsecondary campuses. In November, the University of Toronto announced the Advisory Committee to the President and Provost on Preventing and Responding to Sexual Violence. Can you talk about the steps the university is taking to combat sexual violence? MG: We recognize this as a very serious issue, and we recognize that our overriding responsibility is to do everything we can to provide a safe environment that is conducive to learning by all members of our community — whatever gender they may be, whatever sexual orientation they may have, and any other characteristics, social or otherwise, that differentiate one from another. That is a bedrock value of this institution that has always guided us. To that end, when these recent events hit the media, our first response was to have the provost issue a statement that acknowledges our responsibility in this area, that reminds members of the community that we do have a variety of existing channels and support services available to students if they do find themselves in a situation where they feel they need help.

We listed those very clearly, so it was an opportunity to collate these and to put them all in one place. We’re very proud of the services that we have on offer, and the policies and procedures in place to deal with such events, should they occur. Nevertheless, whenever something like this happens at another institution, whether it’s in Canada or elsewhere, it’s a good opportunity for us to take stock and look at our own practices and ask ourselves: “Are we doing the best that we can? Can we learn from other places’ experiences, and incorporate that lesson or those lessons into how we do things?” That is really the reason for this new group that has been announced. It’s a chance for us to take stock, looking systematically across all of our practices, all of our policies, across all of our campuses, to make sure that what we do is the absolute best-in-class. We will, of course, run that review process in a way that is very open and provides ample opportunities for all members of the university community to contribute their wisdom and perspective to this discussion. We want this to be as inclusive and as open as possible. We want everybody to feel ownership of whatever recommendations come out of this exercise. TV: As it stands right now, do you think current resources are adequate for dealing with incidents of sexual violence? MG: Too early to say. All I can say is that our student life operation is a very high quality operation. It is recognized partly because of the scale of this place — the fact that we have experience here that smaller universities may not encounter as frequently in terms of variety and number, which creates a valuable experience base and learning opportunities for our dedicated staff. We believe that the current offering of services is very strong in that regard, but we want to make sure that is the case, and that’s why we’re undertaking this review.

TV: Ontario has consistently had the lowest per-student funding of any Canadian province during the last two decades. How does the university balance the need to fill provincial funding gaps with the need to keep the university as accessible as possible for both domestic and international students? MG: You’re quite right. This is one of our biggest challenges, and is something else that I talked about in my installation address, right at the opening moment. It continues to be a pressing challenge for us. We’ve made a little bit of progress in the past year. The province has negotiated Strategic Mandate Agreements (sma) with each university and each college in the provincial system. Those agreements, now that they are struck, are supposed to be templates to guide future resource allocation decisions by Queen’s Park. Step one is in place; we are waiting to see whether subsequent steps unfold in the way we hope they will. The good news is that our Strategic Mandate Agreement acknowledges the quality of the University of Toronto and its flagship status within the Ontario system, while other universities may have been encouraged to narrow their range of offerings... So that’s the good news. Whether there will be more good news down the road in terms of funding that comes from Ontario in ways that acknowledge our role as a comprehensive university, and as a researchintensive university, remains to be seen. That research intensiveness is another really distinctive part of our mission and our identity. It’s one of the reasons why students come here — to be able to work with world-leading scholars in all of these different fields. We want that to remain true for a long, long time. But research is expensive, and it is not fully supported by — particularly, the federal government, which is the primary source of research funding. So we have a double challenge in that regard. Our undergraduate mission is not funded at a level that we think is appropriate from the

TV: There’s been a lot of discussion lately about international student representation on Governing Council. That’s largely out of the university’s hands, but have you had any discussions at the provincial level about changing that? MG: We have. We’re quite concerned. As the proportion of our enrolment that is comprised of international students has grown over the last several years, we’ve recognized that there is a disconnect between the scale of their presence on campus and the opportunities that they have to voice their perspectives in our governance system. The good news is that they are indeed welcome to, and encouraged to, get involved in faculty councils and various committees on Governing Council, but the University of Toronto Act does prohibit non-Canadian citizens from participating. By the way, this is not just students. The same applies to faculty and staff and alumni governors and LGIC [LieutenantGovernor-in-Council] governors. Our preference is to see the citizenship restriction lifted for all categories of members so that, whether you’re a student governor or a faculty governor or an alumni governor, citizenship is irrelevant. I understand that the act was written at a time when nationalism was a bigger concern, perhaps than it is today. But I think everyone recognizes that we would be better off if those citizenship restrictions were not in place. So we are beginning a discussion with the provincial government to see if there is some way that we can change that. There are seven other universities in Ontario, so far as we can tell, that have similar citizenship requirements or restrictions, and we are consulting with them as well to see if they are similarly concerned. TV: Most students on the St. George campus agree that student space is a big issue. Over the past five years, the Student Commons has been a big topic of discussion. Do you see any timeline for breaking ground on that facility? MG: It’s hard to forecast a specific timeline, but I can tell you that no one wants to see that Student Commons built more badly than I do, or than the provost does, or than the chair of Governing Council does. We are doing everything we can to move that process along in a more expeditious way. We are focusing on a draft operating agreement that had been devised through negotiations with the utsu several years ago. That has been a point of contention for many members of the student community on the St. George campus, and there have been concerns about the way that the management of the Student Commons would be structured. We are trying to find a way to revisit those terms and agree on some revisions that would end up with a structure that people could be satisfied with; that would allow for an appropriate representation of all the student groups on the St. George campus that are dues collecting and that have a rightful place in the governance of that Commons... We really want to see it built. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

Read an extended version of this interview online at var.st/gertler.

Vol. CXXXV, No. 16

VARSITY NEWS

news@thevarsity.ca

“The aftermath of carding exists” Panel discussion on policing in Toronto calls for accountability, rethinking of carding Emily Johnpulle VARSITY STAFF

Last Thursday, the Arts & Science Student Union (assu) and the Policing Literacy Initiative (pli), a public education and advocacy group, held a panel discussion at New College to discuss the evolving relationship between police in Toronto and the communities they serve. Panelists included pli member Wyndham Bettencourt-McCarthy, Toronto Police Services Inspector Myron Demkiw, Noa Mendelsohn from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, and Gary Newman from Breaking the Cycle, an early identification and prevention program. Moderated by Zakaria Abdulle, a utmstudent who serves as a research analyst for pli, the panel began with a screening of pli’s documentary, Crisis of Distrust, which provides first-hand accounts of carding, a practice where police officers stop individuals and obtain their personal information. “There are people that talk to us that… are lawyers or they’re journalists and they have a voice, a big booming voice. But there are some people that talked in this film that wouldn’t have that platform,” says Dan Epstein, the documentary’s director. Following the screening, Abdulle outlined the progress that has been made surrounding police practices, including a one-year pilot

Panelists at the discussion on Thursday. NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY

project to explore the use of body-worn cameras, as well as the suspension of the practice of carding. Bettencourt-McCarthy says that vigilance is needed when a new policy on carding is released later this year: “I think for a carding policy to be solid, the police have to define what a valid public safety reason is for a police officer to stop an individual… The second contentious element is that a police officer, when they stop someone and begin to engage with

them that they have to tell the person that they are allowed to walk away.” With regards to body-worn cameras, Demkiw explains the complications that involve managing the large amount of data, since the work police often deal with traumatic events in people’s homes. “Body-worn video is a very complicated, difficult thing. It has a number of implications, not the least of which is privacy implications for everybody involved,” Demkiw says.

During the question-and-answer portion of the panel, the issue that body-worn cameras would not necessarily stop racial profiling or guarantee police officer prosecution was put forth. Demkiw responded by speaking about the Police and Community Engagement Review and its process of implementing a set of 31 recommendations, including fair and impartial police training and the possibility of a tribunal hearing in the case of explicit bias on the part of a police officer. Moving forward, both Mendelsohn and Bettencourt-McCarthy voiced the need for accountability . “What I’d like to see in the new police chief, which will be announced this spring, is that commitment to accountability, to sharing information with the public, to acknowledging and accepting research that is done on police behaviour, and to ensure that there is a disciplinary framework where there are consequences,” says Bettencourt-McCarthy. The panel also touched on the mental health impacts of carding, as well as the issue that racial profiling speaks to broader issues in society. “The aftermath of carding exists. It’s real, you can touch it, it’s there in the neighbourhoods… We’re dealing with young men and communities who have been impacted by carding. That impact is terrible to them because they’re coming from neighbourhoods that are already deteriorating — already falling apart,” says Newman.

Former candidates say: “We Belong!” Multifaith Centre holds conversation on toxic political atmosphere during municipal election Tamim Mansour

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

“It was unprecedented.” This was how Ausma Malik, the Toronto District School Board (tdsb) trustee who ran for office in last year’s municipal elections, described the “co-ordinated, well-funded barrage of hate, lies, and innuendo” that she faced during the last election cycle in a statement that was read to the audience. Malik was invited to attend We Belong!, a discussion panel on “the hateful incidents and discriminatory climate in the last Toronto municipal elections” organised by the Centre for Community Partnerships (ccp) with support from the University of Toronto Students’ Union (utsu) and the Equity Studies Student Union, alongside mayoral candidate Olivia Chow, city councillor Krystin Wong-Tam, and city council candidate Munira Abukar. Malik was unable to attend the event, although a statement read on her behalf re-iterated her belief in the need for an equitable public education system.

Rebecca Wolfe, coordinator, community development at the ccp, said that the aim of the panel was to provide “an opportunity to learn” from the previous election and to work towards “building an equitable and inclusive city.” Wong-Tam noted that, after the election of mayor Rob Ford in 2010, the discourse in the city changed. “We saw language that surfaced that was extremely homophobic, and we saw that we had a mayor who was playing up racial stereotypes and was pitting communities against one another,” she said. Chow offered an explanation for the change in political discourse. “When it comes from people in power, then it gives a licence to hate, licence to hurt,” she said. For Abukar, the fact that political discourse in the city had taken discriminatory overtones was not surprising at all. She said she was “frustrated” that others had found it so shocking. “The reality for someone like myself, as a young, racialised Muslim woman... is that’s the everyday behaviour of certain people,” she said. Abukar added that this stems from the fact

that political leadership does not adequately reflect the diverse demographics of the city, saying, “Our city slogan is ‘Diversity Our Strength.’ If diversity is truly our strength, why don’t I see that reflected in our politics?” Chow also spoke of the class divide in the city and country, saying that class division leads to insecurity that manifests itself in bigoted attitudes. The candidates also spoke about personal threats that they had encountered. Wong-Tam said she received threats to the point that she had to change her walking patterns. “What they do is not attack your idea[s], but attack you personally,” she said. These included attacks on her sexual orientation and her race, as well as her immigrant history, with comments telling her to “go back to [her] country.” Wong-Tam also said she once received a death threat from a resident of “a very prominent neighbourhood that [she] represents” when one of her canvassers was at his door. The resident had said that if he had a gun, he would “put a bullet through her head.” She noted that throughout her predecessor Kyle Rae’s 19 years in office, “[T]he volume of

hate mail that he received was astronomical compared to what little I received.” Munira had been told by a teacher that she would become a dropout and “have... 30 kids.” But rather than accept that comment, she took it as a strong motivation to succeed, “So I had two opportunities: the opportunity to give him what he wanted... or I can be ‘Munira’ and look forward to the end of my high school year and having the highest average in the high school and photocopy every award and stapling them on his door,” she explained. The panelists also criticized the media for not adequately covering personal attacks. “I did not see the mainstream media unpack what happened to Olivia and the overt racism and sexism that was being levelled at her, and this was a city-wide race so the issue is on the forefront,” Wong-Tam said. Najiba Ali Sardar, utsu vice-president, equity, said she was thrilled at the turnout for the event, adding that it was “important to have this conversation.” She also said that, later in the term, the utsu will be holding a conference that will invite women in politics to speak about their experiences.

Transitional Year Programme celebrates 45 years Claire Fox

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

The University of Toronto’s Transitional Year Programme (typ), an eight-month accessto-university program, celebrated its fortyfifth anniversary on Wednesday with an open house that showcased the communities served by the program. Both current and former faculty members and students attended the event. The program, intended for those who have

not finished high school, offers students access to an academic advisor and other resources. After one year of program coursework, students who pass with an average of 65 per cent become eligible for admission to the Faculty of Arts & Science. Anastasia*, a current typ student, says that, for her, the program has helped her find confidence and provided her with many opportunities. “I arrived here completely on my own, without any family... and the typ ensured that my transition here was as smooth as... possible,” she says.

“Since I arrived at the program, they have been my family, they have been my support… It’s the best thing I could have ever asked for,” she adds. “The program means an opportunity... to learn perseverance and belief in yourself — that’s not something you can easily find a world full of adversity,” Anastasia says. L.A. Wade, the program’s registrar who is also a typ alumnus, echoed Anastasia’s sentiment, saying that the program has the potential to be life-changing. “The program means opportunity. It

means the fulfillment of a dream. It’s hope. It’s the ability to give back... and, knowing that it was around for 45 years, the legacy of being a part of that,” Wade says. Wade adds that her future hopes for the program include opening it up to marginalized communities abroad and further extending the opportunity for transition into university education. *First name used at student’s request.

VARSITY NEWS

var.st/news

MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2015

UTSU launches Student Commons awareness campaign CONTINUED FROM COVER over the funds [to the utsu] and has been collecting interest — contrary to government policy,” Bollo-Kamara says. Once Governing Council approves the agreement, the utsu estimates that construction will take approximately one year. This means that, by the time the Commons is operational, many students who paid the levy will never be able to take advantage of the space that they funded.

POLITICS AND PUSHBACK The ongoing conflict over how the space will be run is the primary barrier to progress on the Student Commons. According to the Student Commons Agreement, the utsu will have management and operational responsibility over the commons, which presents a problem for many student societies. Others have expressed concerns over student representation on management and operations committees. Since the utsu currently represents students at both utm and St. George, it is possible that the management of the Commons could be partially handed down to students who have not paid the levy. This is a chief concern for Connor Anear and Tina Saban, co-heads of Trinity College. “[W]e believe that the operating committee of the Student Commons should be entirely made up of St. George students, as only St. George students have been paying fees towards the Commons,” they write in a joint statement. “[W]e [also] believe that the Commons should be run by a majority of at-large committee members and a minority of utsu executive members,” they continue. Bollo-Kamara says that the Commons will be run by the utsu, its subsidiary clubs and service groups and St. George students. According to Blackburn-Evans, the volatile relationship between certain divisional societies and the utsu contributed to the administration’s decision to hold off on approving the Student Commons Agreement. Blackburn-Evans says that the plebiscites conducted by vusac, Trinity College, and the Engineering Society (EngSoc) to divert fees away from the utsu were particularly concerning. “Because the Student Commons Agreement is a long-term agreement — lasting for up to 50 years — concerns had been voiced by some governors and others about entering into it when internal disputes were occurring among the student societies, in

The future site of the Student Commons at 230 College Street. TOSIN MAIYEGUN/THE VARSITY

particular with respect to utsu’s relations with divisional student societies,” she says. For Bollo-Kamara, disagreements between the student union and divisional societies are a normal part of the democratic process and not a good reason to delay the Student Commons’ construction. “I want to say very clearly: this building, pushed largely by and for clubs, should not be used as leverage to force the students’ union to make changes to its internal structure that will benefit the political goals of the university undemocratically,” Bollo-Kamara says. The executive committee recently passed a resolution that the Student Commons Agreement would not be placed on the agenda of the December 11 Governing Council meeting, and would instead be deferred to a future meeting, in order for U of T counsel to consult utsu’s counsel. Blackburn-Evans expressed optimism about the resolution. “The University is

hopeful that these discussions will lead to a positive outcome,” she said.

University of British Columbia coyote becomes media sensation

Judy Goldring to chair Governing Council in 2015–2016

Students at the University of British Columbia (ubc) have a new furry classmate. A coyote, endearingly named “Carter” by ubc students, has been living on the Vancouver campus for over a month, according to head of ubc security Barry Eccleton. ubc students post pictures, videos, drawings, and anecdotes about Carter on a Facebook page called “ubc Coyote.” The page has over 7350 likes, and also has Instagram and Twitter accounts. Eccleton says that conservation officers won’t intervene unless Carter shows signs of aggression. Carter is frequently spotted on the way to classes and in close proximity to school buildings. The coyote has not been aggressive so far. ubc student Guy Noah says that the students enjoy the idea of having a school mascot, and that Carter has replaced a previous infatuation with the campus squirrels. “It’s kind of sad because now the coyote is eating all of the squirrels,” says Noah.

Last Friday, Judy Goldring was re-elected as chair of the University of Toronto’s Governing Council. Goldring will begin the term in July 2015 and serve until June 2016. Four generations of Goldring’s family attended U of T, and Goldring herself graduated with a ba in Economics in 1987 before recieving her L.L.B. to practice law. Goldring made a name for herself in the asset management business, joining agf Management Limited in 1998, where she is currently the Chief Operating Officer. She was first appointed to Governing Council in 2007 and has chaired the university’s top decision-making body since July 2013. Goldring has repeatedly been recognized as one of Canada’s most powerful women, making the top 100 according to the Women’s Executive Network rankings in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

A LONG TIME COMING According to Bob Parry, president of the New College Student Council, the Student Commons project is very important to New College students, while the politics of how it happens is less so. “[As] long as New College students can enjoy the space and are getting their money’s worth, I will be happy,” he says. Even Teresa Nguyen who, as president of the EngSoc, has been a vocal opponent of the utsu, is eager for the Commons plan to come to fruition. “Although the Engineering Society is looking forward to the space that the Centre of Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship provides, I think it could be very interesting and quite beneficial to have a space where students from all disciplines and programs collaborate,” she says.

Nguyen says that it is important that the management committee structure issue be resolved prior to opening the building. “Once it’s built, there’d be too [much] pressure to make a swift decision which could result in a decision that lacks foresight,” she says. For Victoria College students, however, the same eagerness for a unified student space may not be present. According to DeBues, the recent opening of the Goldring Student Centre at Victoria College renders the Student Commons initiative redundant for most students at the college. “If anything, students are not happy seeing their funds go into a project they aren’t getting anything out of,” he says. Victoria College students who graduated before the opening of the Goldring Centre were reimbursed their student levies. No equivalent plan has been released regarding the Student Commons.

BRIEFS University of Toronto professor Benjamin Levin to plead guilty to some charges: attorney Dr. Benjamin Levin, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and former Deputy Minister of Education under former premier Dalton mcGuinty for Ontario, will plead guilty to some of the child pornography charges laid against him according to his attorney Clayton Ruby. Toronto Police have charged Levin with seven offences, including the making and distribution of child pornography, as well as counselling another to commit an indictable offence. Levin, who served as a member of the transition team to current Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne, was charged by Toronto Police in 2013, after investigations by police led to suspicions of Levin’s involvement in related crimes. The University of Toronto suspended Levin following the charges, and a statement by Ontario Minister of Education Liz Sandal confirmed his suspension from the ministry’s work. — Alaa Jeelany With files from The National Post and The Globe and Mail

— Alex McKeen With files from CBC News

— Iris Robin

Members of McGill’s Post-Graduate Students’ Society vote to leave CFS 2,014 members of McGill University’s PostGraduate Students’ Society (pgss) voted “no” to continued membership in the Canadian Federation of Students (cfs) on January 16, while only 56 members voted “yes.” “We understand that our members have a lot of work on their plate and often don’t have a lot of time to devote to student politics. We were therefore extremely happy to see that they genuinely cared,” said pgss External Affairs Officer Julien Ouellet. The outcome of the vote must still be ratified by cfs member unions at a general meeting of the federation. The Quebec Superior Court ordered the referendum last September after pgss Internal Affairs Officer Gesa successfully sued the cfs. “The Federation respects the right of individual members to vote on the question of continued membership through the democratic processes set out in the Bylaws,” says cfs National Chairperson Jessica McCormick. —James Flynn With files from The McGill Daily

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Students and the neutral net It is time for young people to become more active in the struggle for a free Internet Maitri Gupta

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Net neutrality is a guiding principle for Internet Service Providers (isps) that is simple to grasp: according to the Oxford Dictionaries, ISPs must permit “access to all content and applications regardless of their source, and without favouring or blocking particular products or websites.” A free Internet is crucial. The Internet is a platform for communication and education. Everyone is given a fair chance to share their voice and discover a variety of opinions. However, recent months have seen a question raised: is it appropriate for corporations responsible for the provision of Internet access to censor or alter that access for profit? Currently, major telecom companies such as Comcast and at&t have banded together to pass new regulations that would create a two-tiered system for Internet speeding. They want to create a fast lane and a slow lane. The fast lane is essentially the speed most of us know now. The purpose of these lanes is to monopolize the fast lane for big corporations and entrepreneurs and push the everyday indi-

vidual into the slower lanes. If you want access to the fast lane or certain websites, you dish out more money to your isp. This whole concept is analogous to cable tv. Everyone pays basic fees for the basic channels; if you want access to networks outside of that, you have to pay extra. The United States’ Federal Communications Commission (fcc) is the governing body for all sources of the Internet in that country and in control when it comes to passing the aforementioned regulations. However, there is a significant flaw in the organization. Tom Wheeler, who was appointed to chair the fcc by President Barack Obama, is the former chief executive officer of a major telecom company, representing a serious conflict of interest in the lobbying relationship between the government and isps. Increasing rates are an even greater threat to students, burdening their already scant budgets. Additionally, isps cannot simply be boycotted, given that the Internet is such an integral part of our daily lives. Christopher Malmo, an executive member of OpenMedia — a Canadian non-partisan, nonprofit advocacy group tasked with promoting a free Internet — and frequent contributor to

VICE, commented on the topic in an email interview with The Varsity: “Net neutrality is massive because it's the way the Internet has always worked. If isps are allowed to slow and speed up different content, they can basically extort everyone and make us all pay for data twice: once on the consumer side, and again on the web service side. These smaller players don't have the resources to fight in court, and their traffic would drop off because people abandon web pages that take more than a few seconds to load. Losing net neutrality would be bad for innovation, bad for the economy, bad for our connection to one another, and bad for democracy.” Thankfully, Obama has recently come out in favour of net neutrality, thanks to a multitude of organizations, such as Open Media, that are fighting for the right to our privacy and Internet. Over 5.1 million people spoke out through online petitions and comments on the fcc’s website. Efforts were also made by entities such as Netflix, which have been extorted by companies such as Comcast for more money in exchange for optimal access speeds. As a result, the decision thus far has been prolonged and several regulations are being revisited.

For the time being, and at least until February 26, the Internet remains neutral in the US. However, the critical fcc decision will be released at the end of next month to determine whether or not isps are within their rights to constrict Internet access. "Students can get involved by joining online activist groups, taking part in demos, and writing their representatives. They can create meshnets and promote open source software. They can create clever pages and games online to build awareness. Lately, there were colossal protests in Hungary against a proposed new Internet tax — the protesters accomplished a great deal. This proves that it's still a world that we can change,” says Malmo. Members of the U of T community also have the potential to start a Canadian post-secondary fight for a free Internet. Such decision-making is revolutionary for students. The easiest way to get involved is to leave a comment on the fcc website or get involved with advocacy organizations such as OpenMedia. The more voices that accumulate, the louder the message will be for a free Internet, and the sooner we will be heard. Maitri Gupta is a third-year student at UTSC studying neuroscience and mental health.

var.st/comment

VARSITY COMMENT

MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2015

A TA strike puts undergraduates in a difficult position While undergraduates can be sympathetic, they should not be used as a bargaining chip Li Pan

VARSITY COLUMNIST

Last November, teaching assistants at U of T overwhelmingly approved a motion to give their union (cupe 3902) a strike mandate. Their main objectives were to seek higher wages and tuition waivers during renegotiation of graduate student funding packages with the university administration. A more complete picture of their grievances can be found in an op-ed written by Ryan Culpepper and Craig D. Smith for The Varsity shortly before winter break last year. While I support graduate students in their struggle for fairer compensation, I believe that a ta strike represents unsuitable leverage to use in these negotiations. Graduate students play a dual role at the university: a primary role as junior academics and a secondary role as teaching assistants. These two roles should not be confused with each other. The former involves a lot of stress and little financial compensation. The latter is an undeniably great part-time position that pays a substantial $42.05 per hour for some fairly low-pressure work. Graduate students will of course urge us to look at this rate in the context of their overall take-home pay of approximately $15,000, but the ta salary should instead be examined separately from other sources of funding. Indeed, while other stipends are rewarded to encourage the pursuit of graduate studies and academic research, this salary is paid in direct exchange for services provided to undergraduate students. Even the tasks themselves are completely separate, as tas often lead tutorials only marginally related to their actual topics of research. This distinction is important because, unlike research work, teaching assistantships are generously compensated and should not be any cause for protest.

Should U of T's teaching assistants strike, undergraduate classes could grind to a halt. NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY

As it happens, most of graduate students’ grievances stem from their role as junior academics. For instance, they object to having to continue paying the full tuition of $8,500 after their third year because they no longer take any classes. They also protest against their minuscule annual take-home pay, because they are earning below the poverty line, despite working full-time. These are legitimate grievances, but they have little to do with their role as tas. Given that teaching assistantships and graduate studies involve distinct work and distinct compensations, they should be clearly distinguished: dissatisfaction with one need not involve retaliation through the other. The most legitimate way for graduate students to protest their increased tuition and unfair sti-

pend would be to strike in their capacity as academics by choosing to stop attending graduate classes or cease research work, for example. To drag undergraduate students into a negotiation in which they have no stake and little say is to hold them hostage to be used as leverage. This seems selfish and unfair. While I disagree with graduate students’ method, I am sympathetic to their cause. Graduate students are incurring significant opportunity costs by choosing to pursue their passion; such dedication should not be rewarded with diminished living standards. Furthermore, in these negotiations, graduate students are only asking for a routine increase in stipends — which have been frozen since 2008 — to match the increased costs of living.

After all, if tuition can be raised three per cent a year to match inflation and increased costs, there is no reason why graduate funding packages should not follow suit. Teaching assistants are a vital part of the undergraduate experience, and their grievances demand the university’s attention. However, this doesn’t justify graduate students leveraging off this role to seek fairer compensation for something quite unrelated. Perhaps, in this instance, the easiest way to avoid any potential disruption to undergraduate studies would be for the university to pay what is rightfully due. Li Pan is a third-year student at Trinity College studying financial economics and math. His column appears every three weeks.

Home away from home? As an invaluable source of revenue and culture, it is time for international students to be granted full representation Op-ed Jane You

VP COMMUNICATIONS, U OF T INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS ASSOCIATION

As a student at the University of Toronto, I have always felt blessed to count myself among the 10,276 international students coming to this school from all over the world. To the university and the province, we are an invaluable source of revenue and economic growth; we are not only an integral part of the university, but also of the city of Toronto, known globally for its cultural diversity. Despite our glaring presence, it may come as a surprise that we do not have any say in the governance of the university we attend. Written in 1971 and amended in 1978, Section 2(4) of the University of Toronto Act states, “No person shall serve as a member of the Governing Council unless he is a Canadian citizen.” Immediately below this clause, Section 2(5) reads, “Every student is eligible for election to the Governing Council.” With the international student population growing substantially with the coming of each academic year, this act alienates an increasing proportion of students who must pay up to six times as much as their domestic counterparts in tuition and differential fees — institutions like U of T are free to raise international student fees at

their own discretion on an annual basis, while the provincial government of Ontario has not stepped in to regulate since 1996. What is worse is that this disparity in tuition fees ends up feeding the stereotype that international students are wealthy, leading to a general apathy for issues concerning the group. The truth is, many of these students and their families face financial instability due to the unpredictable, and often exorbitant, tuition hikes, without the option of getting help from the government or U of T. Though the university’s Centre for International Experience goes above and beyond to facilitate international student integration, there still exists an inherent hypocrisy in the way the university is touting its pride in being the “home away from home… to students from over 150 countries” when these students do not even have a representative voice to advocate for equal rights as their domestic counterparts. As the issue stands, international students are not eligible for election to the Governing Council that manages tuition and revenue; they are not eligible for ohip; they are not eligible to receive financial aid from the government; and they are not eligible to be treated equally in relation to their peers based on their national origin. This is an issue that is dear to my heart, and I have been working very hard this year to make changes for international students, meeting with

MAYA WONG/THE VARSITY

government and administrators to bring this issue to light. And the push for international students’ right of representation on the council is slowly but surely garnering the attention it needs, with student groups such as our newly founded International Students Association (iNSA) working to raise awareness among students. By creat-

ing a more equitable environment for all of its students, U of T can set a precedent and garner the respect it deserves as one of the best postsecondary institutions in the world. Jane You is vice-president, communications at U of T’s International Students Association (iNSA).

Vol. CXXXV, No. 16

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comment@thevarsity.ca

Class discussion kills dialogue Aims of active learning might be admirable, but the method fails to deliver

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FILE PHOTO: MALLIKA MAKKAR/THE VARSITY

Malone Mullin VARSITY STAFF

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A group of students in a lecture hall can be a willing audience or a captive one, but that depends on who’s talking. If you’ve enrolled in a course, then you are there to learn from an instructor who has multiple degrees and can claim some authority on the subject. They are lecturing because they have proven themselves worthy of speaking at length in an academic setting. So, why is it that the centre stage — and the audience’s attention — gets handed off to students so frequently? Class discussion is often used to generate dialogue, the dynamic interchange of ideas that is purportedly necessary to creating meaning. It is an arguably legitimate educational end, but discussion is not the only way to find meaning in academia. In many cases, class discussion is a hindrance to collective edification. Long-winded diatribes and redundancies tend to result from this common arrangement, leaving students stranded and annoyed. The few who speak up are perhaps the only beneficiaries. The technique of class-wide discourse originates in the theory of active learning. This approach has its roots in the 1990s' social constructivism — which in turn is based on the ancient Socratic method. According to its proponents, posing questions to lead pupils to a conclusion surpasses spoon-feeding them data. In order

to know, the theory goes, you’ve mostly got to get there yourself. This philosophy seems vital to U of T’s pedagogy, where class discussion is often the go-to strategy, especially in seminars and tutorials. For many courses, engaging in discussion is mandatory and can account for a significant portion of the your final grade. U of T’s administrative policy actively invites faculty to consider marking for oral participation, indicating that some students may excel at verbal contributions rather than written work. I have spoken with classmates who say they struggle to express themselves on tests and papers, but, given the chance to speak, can articulate their ideas more effectively. One could contend that including both oral and written components in student evaluations simply reflects a fair grading scheme. Yet, there remain complications that cannot justify entire seminars built on the alleged benefits of active learning. Almost inevitably, a few students tend to dominate class conversation, leaving the rest to listen politely to conjecture rather than the rational insight of instructors informed by years of study. It doesn’t seem reasonable to penalize students who don’t want to jump into the discussion because they are socially anxious, or perhaps selfconscious about using a foreign language. Accommodations are given to students with conditions that make reading and writing difficult, so withholding a dedicated forum for those who need text-

based or small group conversation is ultimately indefensible. The data is sparse, but one study in the Journal of Literary Research suggests that older students may engage with material by writing, reading, and listening more predictably than through class discussions. If these findings are indicative of post-secondary settings in general, then using class discussion as a crutch to inspire dialogue is unwarranted and irresponsible. Socratic questioning, after all, is an archaic didactic tool; at the very least, academic institutions ought to question its suitability in modern classrooms. Ultimately, we are not attending class to hear the mere opinions of fellow students. Asking rhetorical questions during lectures engages a learner without the unnecessary feather fluffing and rambling distractions of many students. Independent study groups can always be formed if the student requires verbal interaction to get the most out of their education. Dialogue does not have to be a mass endeavour, and it does not even have to be verbal. Taking advantage of the discussion board feature of Blackboard allows speech-averse students to take part in the conversation and frees up lecture time in order to learn from the experts. Class discussions are meant to provide a fair opportunity for everyone to contribute, but better methods of engagement should be considered. Malone Mullin is a third-year philosophy specialist.

Editorial

VAR.ST/EDITORIAL 26 JANUARY 2015

comment@thevarsity.ca

Increase in TTC fares raises concern for commuters COST OF POST-SECONDARY METROPASSES

Post-secondary students deserve to be considered in transit plans

Last week, mayor John Tory announced that Toronto Transit Commission (ttc) riders should expect a 10cent increase in all non-cash fares in March of this year. The reasons for the change are painfully clear: our city’s transit system is dismal. Anyone who has had the pleasure of riding the city’s streetcars, buses, or frequently delayed and overstuffed subway trains knows that walking or biking is often a preferable alternative — even in sub-zero weather. However, walking is not always a viable option for U of T’s commuter population — a group that has hovered around an estimated 85 per cent of students for years. While the increase in fares is frustrating, it is the glaring exclusion of post-secondary students from the conversation around transit that is most discouraging. Currently, post-secondary students can purchase a discounted Metropass — an allocation first offered in 2010 — for $108 per month, making the total commute cost $864 for the months of September through April. Come March, the cost will increase to $112 monthly. For students who travel to and from the St. George campus via Union Station, using go Transit in addition to the ttc, the costs of commuting can amount to $25 per day. For students commuting five days a week, the aggregate cost is $550 per month and $4,400 for September through April. Due to the rising cost of living in the city, the expanding costs of commuting are being foisted on more and more students. In a cbc article, the shortage of low-income rental units in Toronto was described as “striking.” Many students are travelling further from campus in pursuit of affordable housing, necessitating the daily use of transit. Despite their growing financial burdens, there is no mention of considerations for post-secondary students in the justifications of the transit fare increase offered by the municipal government and the ttc. The ttc is not the only transit staple to announce a fare increase as of late. go Transit also implemented an increase in the cost of their services effective February 1, 2014. This increase is proportional to the cost riders currently pay — determined by distance travelled — but will average to roughly five per cent. Compared to other major North American hubs, Toronto and gta transit riders’ fares cover 82 per cent of transit operation costs for the ttc and 72 per cent for go Transit — the average farebox recovery ratio in the us sits at 36 per cent. The burden of this set-up is borne disproportionately by low-income constituents, which include students, who use public transit more frequently than wealthier citizens. Some Ontario universities cover the cost of local transit for students. At McMaster University, for instance, students enjoy unlimited access to local transit for the academic year for $121.80 — a sum that is collected from their student fees. While it would be ideal to implement this system at U of T, commuting in a city struggling to afford transit improvements and attending an institution that spans three campuses and multiple transit systems makes unlimited access logistically unfeasible. However, with 67,182 undergraduate students, the vast majority of whom are dependent on transit, U of T’s population is a sizeable market for the ttc. It is because the university represents a key consumer base that the shortfalls of the current system must be addressed. The current savings from the purchase of a post-secondary Metropass are minimal for many students. If you travel on the ttc twice a day for 17 days per month — or roughly four days per week — cash fare costs $107, making the savings afforded by the metropass inconsequential unless you use transit more frequently. Further increases to Metropass costs while the cash fare remains frozen only increase the number of trips necessary to make the pass truly worthwhile. Even when students commute often enough to justify the cost of the pass, the process to acquire it is woefully inaccessible. Post-secondary students are the only demographic who cannot access their discounted metropass with government issued photo id. Instead, a ttc post-secondary student identification card must be procured for $5.25 at Sherbourne Station — an inconvenient location relative to many post-secondary institutions in the city. During select dates in the fall term, students can have their ID made on campus through the University of Toronto Students’ Union. The id card expires each year and must be replaced at cost. Only full-time students qualify for the pass. go Transit’s system is better in some respects. Students receive fares automatically discounted by at least 17 per cent with the presentation of a go Student id and the addition of the corresponding setting on their presto card — though the discounts are only available to full-time students. The id cards are readily available to students at TCard offices on all three campuses with the presentation of a TCard — the product of collaboration between the university and go. A similar arrangement with the ttc would make the postsecondary student identification card more accessible. There has been a lot of talk about Toronto’s lagging public transit infrastructure, and, of course, any progress is welcomed. However, as citizens of Toronto and as patrons of transit services, students should be considered and included in these conversations as significant stakeholders. We understand that some sacrifice is necessary to support the heavy costs of improving and expanding the city’s transit system. We are invested in the upgrading and development of the ttc — after all, roughly 85 per cent of us brave the over-burdened system each day. It is clear that the transit systems in Toronto are broken and that time and money are needed to make large-scale changes to their infrastructure. However, small interim improvements would greatly benefit the lives of commuting students — among them greater access to the discount afforded by the post-secondary student identification card, and partnerships between gta transit and the university to afford students more meaningful discounts. Paying for important infrastructure for Toronto’s future should not preclude us from affording our own. 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.

TTC COSTS TO STUDENTS PER ACADEMIC YEAR*

*8 months

of U of T undergrads are commuters PUBLIC FUNDING SUBSIDIZED PER FARE Montreal

York Region

Vancouver

Durham

Toronto minimum discount students save with GO student fare Source: ttc.ca transit.toronto.on.ca magazine.utoronto.ca thestar.com gotransit.com

Article by Samantha Relich Photos by Victoria Dawson, Sofia Habib, and Evan Luke

Rochdale Buil

Histori origins

Harbord and St George

ci p u e cranes dot t develops mo Tucked bet opments are behemoth n as icons like their own on status, while tional struct Whether th name of pro people that the significa students see

Ramsay Wright Laboratory

Wall at CAMH

MENTAL HEALTH IN HISTORY

lding

ical landmarks in Toronto reflect the s of an evolving city

city is a patchwork of narratives. It is the juxtaposition of people and places — each with its own history — that shapes the metropolis around us. Toronto is an urban centre in the midst of rapid development and expansion — construction in the name of progress clogs the streets and the skyline as you drive into the city. In constant flux, the city’s image ore and more into a glass and steel metropolis. tween the towering office buildings and new, impressive condo devele smaller buildings composed of brick, dwarfed in comparison to their neighbours. Though not as clearly representative of the city’s identity e the CN Tower and Honest Ed’s, these landmarks have left marks of n the city’s development. Dozens of them have been granted heritage e others have been torn down and replaced with newer, more functures. hey have weathered the tide of expansion or have been replaced in the ogress, some buildings are as integral to Toronto’s composition as the reside within them. We took a look into the rich histories of some of ant buldings on and around campus to situate some of the landmarks e every day in the evolving architectural tapestry of Toronto.

The Silver Dollar Room

For those hurrying along Queen Street West in an attempt to avoid the sting of winter winds, this landmark can easily be overlooked. In the city’s west end a span of historical wall runs along the exterior of the property outside of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (camh). Though adorned with plaques outlining their historical significance, the walls themselves are unimpressive on first glance. Upon a closer look, the bricks quite literally tell a story. Many are imperfect, though the imperfections are not all a product of their age. Many have deliberate markings: words, phrases, and Xs gouged into the brick. The walls and the messages inscribed upon them are the work of patients in what was once the Provincial Lunatic Asylum. Constructed in 1850, the large institution once occupied the lots of present day 999 and 1001 Queen Street West. The official address of the asylum was 999 — a number that came to be synonymous with insanity and mistreatment. The walls themselves — once 16 feet high and surrounding the perimeter of the asylum — were the work of patients in fulfillment of the labour portion of their treatment. In 1850, theories about how best to treat the mentally ill were changing, largely moving toward a consensus on the value of “moral therapy.” This treatment advocated a strict daily regime that incorporated manual labour. To afford for this type of treatment on a large scale, the province constructed a massive asylum — at the time of its completion, the Provincial Lunatic Asylum was the largest non-military public building in Canada. Today, the only remaining components of the original structure are the walls. The walls bear scars of those days of mistreatment, and today serve as a monument to the patients who existed behind them, intentionally hidden from the world. The walls hid the conditions of the institution, which were squalid — a product of over-crowding and inferior sanitation systems — conditions there led to the rapid spread of disease. Over the course of the past several centuries, the Provincial Lunatic Asylum evolved, along with approaches to mental health. In the course of its transformation from the horrors and neglect of the past to the centre that resides on the land today, the institutions that have occupied the land have changed drastically in architectural style. Although camh has carefully separated itself from the site’s questionable past, it is mindful of this dark history. Perhaps most symbolic of the dichotomy between past and present is the change from the original 999 Queen Street West address to the current 1001 Queen Street West address that camh now occupies.

A BEACON IN THE NIGHT

Pausing at the corner of Spadina Avenue and College Street, the red façade of The Silver Dollar Room stands out against a spectrum of greys. The paint is chipped in some places, discoloured in others — saturated panels of red mark where bills were posted shielding the paint from the effects of the sun. This windowless building is not an impressive spectacle in the traditional sense. To learn that it recently received a heritage site designation could easily be seen as surprising: there aren’t many music venues in the city that have earned such a protection, let alone one as seedy as The Silver Dollar Room. For students at the University of Toronto, the venue is probably most known for its iconic sign and its presence at the edge of campus on Spadina, just north of College. Opened in 1958, the venue was conceived as an upscale lounge for the neighbouring Waverley Hotel. In the decade that followed, that image was dashed as the venues reputation deteriorated. After a brief stint as a strip club, it became a popular music spot. Many acts have graced the stage, from local Toronto artists to some of the biggest names in the industry, including Bob Dylan. For more than 50 years, crowds of concert-goers packed into the venue night after night. This popularity opened its doors to a history of performances and a legacy as a Toronto landmark. The iconic sign affixed to the front of the Silver Dollar has lit the College and Spadina streetscape in neon for half a century — with the exception of 1992 when new owners briefly rebranded the venue. Indeed, the resilience of The Silver Dollar Room is perhaps what sets it apart. It occupies prime real estate in a burgeoning city and has been threatened with the wrecking ball more than once. One recent building proposal suggested tearing down the venue and the neigh-

bouring Waverly Hotel in order to create additional student housing. Having recently been granted heritage status, the venue now has some additional protection against developers. Nevertheless, like many iconic Toronto landmarks, the future of The Silver Dollar Room remains uncertain in the face of the rapidly changing city.

A SHADOW OF A LANDMARK

Located at the corner of Harbord Street and St. George Steet, the grey, drab Ramsay Wright Laboratory building appears unremarkable. The most interesting aspect of the building is quite possibly the land that it occupies. Long before the building was constructed, this street corner was part of a small, well-groomed neighbourhood adjacent to a then much more compact University of Toronto campus. In those days, trees rose above many of the city’s buildings. Now, surrounded by towering structures of metal and steel, it’s hard to imagine that apartments were ever a novelty in the city. It was, however, on this site that Toronto’s first apartment building was erected. Called the St. George Mansions, the building was completed in 1904 and consisted of 34 apartments with a combined maximum occupancy of 99 people. The units were marketed to wealthy Torontonians, and their construction marked an important shift in the city’s architectural developments. Later, during World War II, the building was repurposed for the war effort; the mansions became the Trinity Barracks, the Toronto base for the Canadian Women’s Army Corps. During this period, the building fell into neglect. Evelyn Jamieson, a member of the corps, described the barracks as “cockroach palace.” After the war, the building had become so dilapidated that it was torn down. The Ramsay Wright building eventually replaced it, erasing all signs of the landmark that once existed in its place.

ARTISTIC LEGACY

Nestled north of the intersection of Yonge Street and Bloor Street is an unassuming three-storey building. It is not particularly remarkable for its design — it is, essentially, a rectangle of red brick with a flat roof. From the outside, the building is little more than a bulky cube. The only compelling architectural feature is the two columns of bay windows adorning the front walls of the building that divide the monotony of brick. The windows are large, letting light in to illuminate the rooms. Light would be of particular importance for some of the historical residents of this building. The Studio Building, located at 25 Severn Street, was once the studio space of The Group of Seven, perhaps Canada’s most well-known artists. The building itself was constructed with art in mind and was intended to be a working studio space. The building contains six studios which have been inhabited, at one point or another, by some of the most recognized names in Canadian art history. The purpose-built space was designated as a historical site in 2004, partly because it continues to represent a foundation of sorts for Canadian visual art and a meeting place for young artists who had a profound impact on the development and vision of Canadian art.

CHAOS IN THE STREET

To many of us, the looming apartment building above G’s Fine Foods is not noteworthy, except maybe to comment on its generally unappealing, dated appearance The building, now apartments, was once the home of an experimental initiative in cooperative living and alternative education. Rochdale College, established in 1964, was Canada’s first free university and a residence for the University of Toronto. The classes were student-run and degrees were not reputable: they could be obtained for a fee and the successful answering of a skill-testing question. When Rochdale was established, the Bloor Street West and St. George Street area was a very different place; the now-affluent Yorkville was, at the time, a gathering point for hippies. The co-op became a haven for creative and unique minds — a collective for artistic and philosophical thinking. Though borne out of good intentions, the co-op quickly spiralled out of control. A 1969 surplus of student housing at the university opened Rochdale’s doors to a more varied population. By the early 1970’s, the co-op had changed drastically. It became known as a crime hotspot and drug haven. In 1974, a riot broke out, which culminated in bonfires burning in the middle of Bloor Street. In 1975, the co-op was forcefully closed. Remaining residents were carried out, and the doors were welded shut. The building remained vacant for many years.

Arts&Culture

VAR.ST/ARTS

26 JANUARY 2015

arts@thevarsity.ca

SEC’s annual Sexual Awareness Week brings with it educational events about everything from yoga to sexting “A week of fun, sexy and informative events,” reads an online description of U of T's Sexual Education Centre’s (sec) Sexual Awareness Week. With this in mind, The Varsity’s Arts & Culture writers set out to make the most of the occasion, venturing into the worlds of yoga, asexual education, and dirty talk, to varied levels of success.

YOGA AND SEXUALITY New experiences are always terrifying. Whether it’s learning to drive, trying new food, or merely switching shampoo brands, veering away from your day-to-day routine can be frightening. You find yourself faced with both the anticipation of exploring uncharted personal territory and a nagging fear of the unknown. Add sweatpants to the mix, and that’s exactly how I felt before trying tantric yoga. Never having participated in any events hosted by the sec, I opted to lose my Sexual Awareness Week virginity Tuesday morning by stopping in at Yoga and Sexuality. Run by yoga instructor and sexual education enthusiast Cordelia Huxtable, Yoga and Sexuality presented me with two unique opportunities that had never been laid (pun intended) before me: first, to get in touch with my sexual energy; and second, to place my body in an assortment of intricate postures in a judgment-free environment. Huxtable created a calm and supportive environment out of a cramped, hard-floored room. Her soothing guidance was extremely

comforting for a beginner, particularly during the more difficult (read: painful) poses. Manipura involved stretching out like a pencil and doing a sustained abdomen crunch, which I managed to achieve with great difficulty. The only position I truly excelled at was Downward Dog, which I attempted with minimal pants-tearing. Huxtable’s expertise in all things sexy-yoga also made for an academically enriching experience. Throughout the hour-and-a-half session, I learned about the philosophy of Tantra, the seven distinct chakras (energy points on the body), and how these nodes can be stimulated through breathing exercises, meditation, and basic corporeal contortion, in order to perceive, retain, and positively direct one’s own sexual energy. I left feeling mildly sore, yet elated at having tried something new and thrilled at having made a memory. After all, you never forget your first time. — Daniel Konikoff

and the challenges of those who identify as such. Terms such as “compulsory sexuality” and “relationship hierarchies” were introduced, and the presenters concluded with a few slides on how to be more ace-friendly, including never assuming someone’s sexuality, regardless of the setting. The audience was then split into small groups for an activity on how challenges facing ace individuals had affected their own lives. Members of the audience offered up personal stories and the conversation quickly turned to empowerment and consent. Speakers discussed how sex is not owed by one partner to another, and how empowerment is also about context — what is empowering for one person may not be for another. No relationship is identical, and partners should be able to opt out of what is generally prescribed. This translates to the nature of the workshop — the presenters say they tailor specifically to each event, making it all about the individual. — Andrea Macikunas

ASEXY TIME

LET’S GET SEXTY!: A WORKSHOP IN SEXTING AND DIRTY TALK

“I found out about this on Tumblr,” shared an audience member at the Asexy Time workshop on Tuesday night. The event in question was being run by Ace Toronto, a Toronto-based group that organizes meet-ups for asexual and questioning individuals. The night covered a wide range of topics, but began by defining the spectrum of asexuality

It honestly didn’t occur to me that a workshop entitled Dirty Talk might be awkward, until it was. Just like the subject we were there to discuss, a certain amount of this had to do with timing. 11:00 am, perhaps unsurprisingly, didn’t seem to be the time of day when students were jumping to talk about sexting.

The event was held in a small room with an even smaller audience — roughly half a dozen of us sat on couches, quietly listening and not making eye contact. Event coordinator Mariah Ramsawakh sat at the front of the room, addressing us in a fashion that initially felt oddly formal as I found myself having unfortunate flashbacks to high-school-guidancecouncillor talks of a similar nature. The atmosphere got better as time passed, allowing everyone to settle into the room and the conversation. Consent was discussed first — the importance of establishing a mutual want of sexting before sending explicit pictures or messages. One girl shared an anecdote of a friend who never realized that his girlfriend was trying to sext him: “She’d text him, ‘I just got out of the shower,’ and he’d be like, 'why is she always telling me all this random [stuff] about her day?'” After an hour or so of discussion, Ramsawakh passed around a brown paper bag and asked us to write down suggestions for how we might start a sexting conversation, emphasizing that the exercise was anonymous and completely voluntary. Responses ranged from “I’m in bed, thinking of you” to “I just bought a new thong today.” One person suggested mentioning listening to Barry White, which provoked laughter from some and confusion from others. In the end, the workshop felt not unlike trying to sext for the first time — awkward at first, but ultimately a lot of fun. — Sarah Niedoba

VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE

var.st/arts

MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2015

Theatre Reviews

Twelve Angry Jurors tcds’ production of Twelve Angry Jurors delivers commendable performances Caroline Shim VARSITY STAFF

Trinity College Dramatic Society’s (tcds) interpretation of Reginald Rose’s classic court drama, Twelve Angry Jurors, was a dynamic play marked by phenomenal acting. The tcds’s interpretation of the play held true to the original plot, known for its almost singular focus on the strength of individual actors performances. The jurors’ emotional changes were well portrayed by both new and seasoned performers. The production also managed to highlight equality by amending the original play,

Twelve Angry Men, to incorporate both male and female jurors. Originally a 96-minute-long drama, tcds’s production was condensed into a concise and thrilling hour. This choice involved the removal of the opening and closing scenes of the play, as well as a significant shortening of the eventual emotional breakdown of Juror Three. While the condensed script somewhat limits the audience’s ability to sympathize with Juror Three, a key character, there is no doubt that tcds’s rendition of Twelve Angry Jurors was a notable staging with smart costumes, strong set design, and talented actors who brought a compelling devotion to their roles.

Twelve Angry Jurors. COURTESY OF SOFIA JELOVAC

The Miser Wolfpac’s The Miser twists romance and family bonds in a new and refreshing way Diandra Ismiranti

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

The Woodsworth Performing Art Collective’s (Wolfpac) performance of Molière’s The Miser made for a lighthearted comedic production with a satisying twist ending. The set was simple, creating an easy intimacy through its proximity to the audience, although not quite managing to portray the grandeur one might expect from a wealthy miser’s elegant home. The acting in the first few scenes was at times bland and often shaky, with a few lines getting lost in the midst of the action. The actors, however, managed to find their stride towards the intermission, and Act II progressed in a much smoother fashion. Stand-out performances included Audrey Amar, as a volatile Frosine; Naseem Reesha as the titular miser whose irritable manner served its purpose well as the main antagonist; and Michael

JANICE LIU/THE VARSITY

A bi-weekly film podcast from The Varsity's associate Arts & Culture editors

The Miser. COURTESY OF BRIAN DE LA FRANIER

Dineen and Armon Ghaeinizadeh as La Fleche and Master Jacques respectively, minor characters whose humor and sarcasm stole the scene on more than one occasion.

The cast was well-suited for the light tone of the story and managed to perform the comedy without too many hiccups and more than a few laughs.

The Abandoned City Dynamic and engaging, vcds and Broadleaf Theatre’s unique collaboration is a great success Kate Stoehr

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

The Abandoned City. COURTESY OF VCDS

The Abandoned City, produced by the Victoria College Dramatic Society (vcds) and the Broadleaf Theatre Company and directed by Kevin Wong and Nate Rose, is a play that chooses to highlight environmental awareness. It follows a winding narrative of three cities coexisting in a dystopian world, using a combination of music, movement, and story to communicate its themes. The play was staged in the Goldring Student Centre’s Cat’s Eye Pub & Student Lounge, a small space that made for an intimate viewing experience. The stage boasted a modest but versatile set that transformed the space from an underground mining tunnel, to a ship deck, and finally to a floating city with nearly seamless transitions. Perhaps most interesting was the use of a blue

desk on wheels which, through a series of intricate details, conveyed the transportation of the actors between the three cities. The cast, clad entirely in black, convincingly used their bodies to relay not only time and place, but situation as well. The actors adequately portrayed life in a mining city through the use of nothing but a few props, body language, and their own vocal sound effects. The musical aspect of the piece featured a violin, guitar, piano, and cello, and was particularly captivating throughout, contributing greatly to the tone of each scene. It was evident throughout the performance that each of the eight actors were committed to their message. The entire group contributed to the show through its experimental improvisation and brainstorming production process, resulting in an outcome that left the audience both environmentally aware and inspired by the show’s creativity.

This week, the Associated podcast tackles recent releases Selma and American Sniper respectively, examining the issues of historical accuracy and social importance in both films. While both Dan and Jake recognize the important social issues depicted in both movies, they take issue with what they see as a romanticization of war in American Sniper, which attempts to create a narrative of heros and villians in a real life situation that was hardly as polarized. They also discuss whether or not it matters if Lyndon B. Johnson is depicted fairly in Selma, and weigh the importance of historical accuracy against that of creative license. And, of course, they give their take on the now infamous fake baby situation.

Selma Jake: Selma is a genuine and, at times,

heartwrenching look into the civil rights movement, complete with amazing visuals and a captivating performance by David Oyelowo. Dan: It's a movie that came out at just the right time, and with careful and stellar direction from Ava Duvernay, it's surprising that they were both snubbed in their respective categories.

American Sniper Dan: Lacking in all nuance and subtley,

American Sniper shows, to me at least, that director Clint Eastwoods best days are behind him, and that he's more interested in advancing an agenda than making a relatable film. Jake: While knowing his way around a camera and an editing system, [Eastwood] does nothing but make a movie that reinforces our already flawed notions of good versus evil.

Listen online at var.st/associated

Vol. CXXXV, No. 16

VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE

arts@thevarsity.ca

Students’ guide: Cabbagetown

A journey to the Cabbagetown-Parliament strip can make for a productive day featuring curries, coffee, and a second-hand crystal chandelier Article by David Kitai I get it, January’s cold. You probably dread the idea of venturing anywhere outside of your bed. But this month, when productivity is less than paramount, is the best time to start exploring the city we study in. The Cabbagetown-Parliament strip is a neighbourhood where cheap, exciting immigrant cuisines meet cozy, yuppy-driven neighbourhood cafes. Wellesley and Parliament, roughly a 20-minute walk east of campus, has to be one of the most unexpected intersections in the city. St. James Town, one of Toronto’s most densely populated and lowest income areas, hits Cabbagetown, a pocket of quasisuburban affluence. South along Parliament, the South Asian and West Indian influences of St. James Town mingle with photogenic establishments catering to well-to-do Cabbagetowners. Almost completely free of chain stores, this little strip of Parliament offers the best of so many worlds. So bundle up, pack a few readings, and spend a little time east of Yonge.

BREAKFAST AND FIRST STUDY SESSION

Café Olya (540 Parliament Street) Café Olya immediately greets you with the warm smell of fresh-baked buttery pastries. Half of the tiny café is behind the counter — where other street café’s might try and maximize seating and content themselves with an espresso machine and bought pastries, Café Olya makes everything in-house. It serves a clientele of dedicated neighbourhood regulars, and so at 9:00 am they are already sold out of savoury biscuits. Luckily, soft, gooey chocolate chip cookies are laid out and just starting to cool. Seating is limited to two barstools and a window bar, so if you’re coming with a large group, get your coffees to go. If you’re soloing, grab an Americano and whatever pastry’s going that day, and set up by the window. It’s hard to sprawl out on the table, but the lack of WiFi means you’re bound to get some work done. When you want a break, the big, bright bay window provides some excellent people watching.

LUNCH

Rashnaa (307 Wellesley Street East) The first Sri Lankan restaurant in Toronto, Rashnaa has been operating on the edge of Cabbagetown for almost 25 years. It boasts a variety of Sri Lankan dishes hard to find outside of Scarborough. Growing up with pretty standard Toronto Indian food — which my Indian roommate informs me is decidedly northern ‘Mughal’ — the Sri Lankan fare at Rashnaa is unlike anything I’ve ever tried. Their lunch specials are all between $5 and $10. I splurged a bit and got the Rashnaa combo ($14 with roti and Chai), which was a heaping plate of basmati rice, a crisp popadom, soft dal, tender chicken thighs in a dark, spicy curry, and a dish of curried eggplant, potatoes and plantain in coconut sauce. Chatting with Arun, who I think owns the place, results in a new dish: curried beets. The sweet-spicy curry will surprise and delight, especially when you dip some thick, flaky roti in the sauce. Arun, who seems a little standoffish at first, is immensely proud of his restaurant and happily shares a twenty-years of operation award he received from Bob Rae. For fans of Indian food and South Asian neophytes, Rashnaa is the perfect sort of unexpected.

AFTERNOON STUDY/NAP

Cabbagetown Brew (552 Parliament Street)

Cabbagetown is filled with cozy spots to get work done. PHOTOS BY ALEXANDRA SCANDOLO/THE VARSITY

A little ways south of Rashnaa is the newly renovated Cabbagetown Brew. The Italian-Canadian coffee shop has been in the neighbourhood for about two years. It’s a little ostentatious, but the boisterous, opinionated guys behind the counter give the place a lot of charm. The big, garish, off-white armchairs are almost too comfortable. If you’re not too busy, take a quick nap as the owners unironically

blast Frank Sinatra. The coffee is strong and should get you nice and productive again. Big windows and fast WiFi actually make for a good work environment if you can get past how comfy the chairs are. Cabbagetown Brew also has a solid menu of pizzas, panini, pastries, and grilled cheese. If you want a change from South Asian food, prosciutto grilled cheese is a pretty excellent early supper.

SHOPPING ON THE WAY OUT

Vintage Vagabond Co. (603 1/2 Parliament Street)

Don’t let the name fool you, this is not a vintage store a-la Queen West — there are no hipsters silently judging you here. Instead, Mike and his dog Josephine guard a genuinely eclectic collection of everything from vinyl records to vintage cookbooks. Pointe shoes sit next to mid-century silverware while oil paintings of foxhunts bedeck the walls. The shelves are crammed with ceramic beer steins and crystal decanters. Costumes, taxidermy, leather and furs have a room of their own. The jewel of the collection, at least to my eyes, is a signed copy of Gone With the Wind. Mike’s a lovely guy and Josephine is sweet (and very well-behaved). Prices are negotiable and it’s hard to leave empty handed. And be careful, because you don’t have much room to move! January at U of T is all about mild productivity. Turns out, Parliament Street is a great place for that. If the day’s not too cold, you can even take a walk in Cabbagetown proper and linger over some of Toronto’s most interesting residential architecture. Sure it’s a bit of a trek, but for curries, coffee, and a second-hand crystal chandelier, you’re not going to find anywhere better walking distance from campus.

VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE

var.st/arts

MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2015

A night at the opera The Canadian Opera Company’s Youth Opera Lab cooks up anticipation for Die Walkure JANUARY 30 - FEBRUARY 12, 2015

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A scene from The Marriage of Figaro. COURTESY OF MONIKA RITTERSHAUS/CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY

Jeffery Chen VARSITY STAFF

One of Toronto’s best and seemingly lastknown programs is the Canadian Opera Company’s (coc) Youth Opera Lab. Designed to engage a younger audience in an art form predominately attended by an older generation, the program offers an interactive experience in which a workshop with opera professionals is integrated with a backstage tour and exclusive look at the rehearsal process. The topic of this month’s lab was Die Walküre, the second instalment in Richard Wagner’s celebrated Ring Cycle. Famous for his harmonic language and ground-breaking musical innovations, Wagner is not the most accessible introduction to the world of opera. His music provides a richly complex musical narrative complementing the action on stage. Although the music may seem difficult to decipher, the Opera Lab was able to highlight many of the key passages and themes in Die Walküre, so that even a novice opera-goer could appreciate the genius and invention found in the music. The lab featured a small audience with a wide range of backgrounds. Some participants were fully-fledged theatre and music students with ambitions to carve out a career in the art world, while others were simply opera lovers, or newcomers with an interest in learning more. After introductions, we toured the orchestra pit under the guidance of Marie Bérard, the concert-master of the coc orchestra. Bérard spoke about the challenges about fitting a Wagnerian 100-piece orchestra into the pit, and the way in which she has to balance her own career in teaching and performing with her commitments to the orchestra.

When asked how she juggled everything, she responded dryly: “Alcohol." After the orchestra pit tour, we began our score analysis workshop with Johannes Debus, the coc Music Director, who, as an experienced Wagnerian conductor, was able to communicate the complexity of the score while making it accessible and exciting. We were given a sheet with several of the opera’s key thematic motifs as a guide, as Debus enthusiastically showed us on the keyboard how Wagner provided Siegmund, the wounded hero, with an anxious, restless thematic identity. We were also given excerpts of the orchestral score, and together we analysed the way in which Wagner used musical motifs to paint an integrative musical portrait of the opera’s action. After working through some of the opera’s key motifs and action, we were given a look at one of the first rehearsals. With the musical details Debus had pointed out fresh in our minds, the performance sprang alive with the unique way Wagner wrote his score becoming clear. The workshop prepared us to notice the musical foreshadowing of the sword theme played by the orchestra before Siegmund sees the sword in person, and to recognise Wotan’s (Chief of the Gods) theme playing softly as Siegmund talks about his father’s disappearance. With many of the score’s intricacies unravelled, the full performance of the first act of Die Walküre was an appropriate and engaging way to end the opera lab. Although, as one of the coc’s staff admitted, the average age of the coc core audience is over 60 and increases by one every year, programs like the youth opera lab are an effective and creative way to promote youth engagement in this venerable field. With no prior experience necessary, the program provides participants with a glimpse into the world of opera.

20 Vol. CXXXV, No. 16

VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE

arts@thevarsity.ca

Art in the everyday The Toronto Design Offsite Festival brings a new perspective to what we call art

Sara Rebelo

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Not nearly as well advertised or well known as Nuit Blanche, the Toronto Design Offsite Festival (tdof) is a chance to experience art without the crowds, and celebrate the beauty that exists in the mundane objects present throughout our everyday life. The one-week event transforms the city into a platform for celebrating the uniqueness in local art initiatives. Divided into three components, the festival offers events, exhibits, and window installations. All across the city, exhibits are built upon objects and the interplay of feeling and belonging. One exhibit, entitled “Hollace Cluny Introduces the Bec Brittain Collection” showcases lighting based on innovative and forward thinking technology. The lighting installations in the exhibit expose spectators to traditional lighting in new and creative ways. Similarly, “1/16”, an exhibit housed at the Craft Ontario Gallery, presents 16 individually crafted pieces by 16 graduate students. At first glance, the white walls and soft natural woods of

the gallery don’t seem to make for an impressive setting. Walking farther into the gallery, however, brings the realization that it is full of distinct interpretations of traditional chairs (16, to be exact). Standouts include the “Team Slayer Gaming Chair,”, “Loveseat,” the “Walnut Barstool,” with each chair seeming to represent a different aspect of our lives, leaving you with the realization that everyday objects can have artistic merit. “Urban Fabric: Portraits of a City” at the Textile Museum examines both the intimacy and the isolation that can come from living in a city like Toronto. Through the use of photographs, sculptures, videos, and fabrics, the exhibit tells the story of both natural and industrial environments. Artist Sheila Ayearst paints three representations of concrete in Toronto streets: “Dundas West Concrete,” “Lisgar Concrete,” and “Beaconsfield Concrete,” each represented with their own unique textures. Her paintings evoke a sense of nostalgia for the urban setting in which we live. A painting of weathered concrete is able to create feelings of empowerment, unity, and togetherness.

In another portion of the exhibit, Jessica Craig photographs 12 “hidden” spaces that encompass Toronto’s natural geography. The contrast between her work and Ayearst leads us to wonder about the functionality of art: what is more important — the sense of identity to be found in the concrete paintings, or the permanence of our city’s natural geography?

The tdof manages to revitalize one of the city's neglected art scenes. It provides the artistic community with an opportunity to experience unique portrayals of the city through subtle and diverse installations. The festival succeeded in incorporating art into the everyday, challenging viewers' perspectives on the structures that make up their daily routines.

Art pieces at Toronto Design Offsite Festival. PHOTOS BY ALEXANDRA SCANDOLO/THE VARSITY

Science

VAR.ST/SCIENCE 26 JANUARY 2014

science@thevarsity.ca

U of T students place second at IBM Watson University Competition Developers behind ROSS on entrepreneurship, education, and the future of technology try that’s sort of resisted technological change. So we saw a great opportunity to make the legal system better and provide better legal services to people like you and I, but also corporations and governments. AV: Just the nature of the data. So it’s a lot of unstructured data, and that’s what Watson’s really good at mining conclusions from, so it felt like a great fit.

Akash Venkat, Andrew Arruda, Shuai Wang, and Jimoh Ovbiagele (from left to right). NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY

Jeremy Li

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

A group of U of T computer science students recently placed second in the ibm Watson University Competition, presenting their app, ross, that functions as a legal assistant. The app — based on ibm’s artificial intelligence platform, Watson — shortens research time for lawyers by analyzing case files and predicting outcomes of each case. ross competed against top American schools at the culminating challenge in New York City, after besting four other U of T teams. The Varsity spoke with Jimoh Ovbiagele, Shuai Wang, and Akash Venkat who created the app along with teammates Pargles Wenz Dall’Oglio and Andrew Arruda. The Varsity: Tell me a little bit about yourselves and how you got involved in building ROSS. Jimoh Ovbiagele: I got an email from the undergraduate newsletter and I just picked up the words ibm Watson. So I clicked on the link and it pulled up on the computer science forums, which was… really dated… But in there was the gem: the opportunity to work with Watson… So I applied, sent in a résumé, they asked some critical thinking questions, and then I got an email telling me that I was accepted. Shuai Wang: For me, I’ve always been interested in computer science courses, so I looked through the website of computer science, and I tried to select a bunch of courses

for the semester, and I got hooked by this course. Akash Venkat: It was two courses, kind of offered under one umbrella, so it was traditionally the Business of Software class, but they had this cognitive computing capstone added in because of the Watson contest. That was really it. For me, I was just kind of going through cool cs courses to take and then I saw that they had this Watson component, and I’m like, this is fantastic. TV: What was the competition like? AV: It was amazing; just being in the ibm Watson building was pretty surreal, I think, for all of us. I mean, this is kind of the place where they work on Watson every day and it’s where they built the Jeopardy winning machine, and I think the biggest thing was just interacting with the executives running the company, sort of that close. So we were presenting to the four or five people actually running the ibm Watson group, and so it’s just that proximity to people that important [that] was pretty sweet. The field of schools that actually competed was the top cs departments in North America, so I think that really raises the stakes of the contest. They kind of took us on a tour of the actual facility. It was like a client experience to us. They showed us what Watson’s about and how they impress Watson clients, essentially. TV: What was the most memorable part of the project, and what was the hardest part of the competition? AV: I think we really, really enjoyed it from the get go. The good thing

about our team was that we really gelled very well together from the start. And it was just the mindset as well. We thought of this as an actual company… an actual startup really early on, and that shaped the culture of how we work together. I think that made a big difference. JO: It’s hard to say what’s memorable cause we’re working in the moment, but we’re thinking ahead so we don’t really have time to think back on things. New York felt like months ago. AV: Yeah, exactly, I mean the two days was like a blur, it all went by so fast. We were all focused on the presentations and even the social stuff after; all that just went by really fast. I guess the really memorable moment was since we did so well, I think the next day morning, when it kind of sank in a little, I think that was pretty special, is when we knew our lives had kind of changed at that point. So that was the moment we had to reflect on what we had done, so I think that was a pretty special moment. It’s been full of memorable moments. It’s been amazing wins, from the first bit of coverage we got in the Metro to the… projects we’ve signed with law firms, and just going forward now, we’re doing this full-time. TV: I suppose you had a lot of options for what to do with Watson. Of all the options you had, what inspired you to make a legal researcher? JO: Well, a lot of the big domains where Watson could make a big impact, ibm already had their hands in, like medicine and finance. The next big thing was law, and it’s an indus-

TV: Can you explain in nonscientific terms how Watson works? JO: So, what Watson does is it breaks down sentences, and it understands the relationships between words. From that, it relates those relationships to the relationships… found in other sentences, so it knows how a word is used in the context of a sentence but also in the context of some subject matter. So... if I say a word, it really means nothing standing by itself. It only means something in a sentence, and that sentence only means something because of your experiences and your previous knowledge that inform how you interpret that sentence. So that is really the big thing that Watson is able to do, is to understand the context of a sentence and being able to understand humans in ordinary language as opposed [to] something like keyword search, which we are all used to doing. Since the advent of computing, we’ve been used to, or forced to, communicate with computer[s] on their terms, and this is turning that around. SW: So, there’s a vivid example. For keyword search, if you type in Google, “find me any restaurant but a pizza restaurant,” all you get is a list of pizza restaurants. What Watson does here is generate hypothesis and does some semantic and syntactical parsing so it [can] analyze the content like Jimoh says. That’s the main difference between natural language processing and the keyword search. TV: Entrepreneurship is a big leap from, you know, going to school. How did you get into it? JO: I feel like the answer is going to be different for each of us. At least for me, school and education was always a means to an end. So, the destination was always tacking some challenge, which entrepreneurship, I think, is. So, now, leaving school early to do this, it was for me just a realization that I could tackle this big problem now. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

Read an extended version of this article online at var.st/ross.

UTM Annual Research Excellence Lecture Attend the lecture titled SelfSimilarity and Universality in Natural Sciences and Mathematics by the 2015 award-winner, professor Konstantin Khanin of the Department of Mathematical & Computational Sciences Monday, January 26 4:00 pm Instructional Centre, room IB-140 Free; RSVP: rong.wu@utoronto.ca

Science Abroad Information Seminar Attend this seminar to learn about participating in the summer abroad program — including science offerings at research facilities located in China, Taiwan, Hungary, and Switzerland Tuesday, January 27 4:30–6:30 pm Woodsworth College Residence, Water Lounge Free; no registration necessary

Academic Luncheon with professor Peter McCourt Attend this luncheon hosted by the Cell and Systems Biology Student Union to enjoy some free food and a conversation with molecular biologist and Canada Research Chair Dr. Peter McCourt Wednesday, January 28 12:00–1:00 pm Ramsay Wright, basement lounge Free; no registration necessary

What can I do with a BSc — A Graduate and Career Seminar Hosted by the Undergraduate Physiology Student Association in partnership with the Graduate Association of Students in Physiology, the event aims to share graduate experiences and career opportunities with undergraduate students. Wednesday, January 28 4:00–6:00 pm The Hospital for Sick Children, room 1246

Free; register on Eventbrite

Walk for Memories Participate in this event to raise awareness about Alzheimer’s disease. Students Against Alzheimer’s U of T has organized this particular walk — check their Facebook page for details. Saturday, January 31 9:00 am–12:00 pm Brookfield Place Donations encouraged; register online

22 Vol. CXXXV, No. 16

Our gut tells us you want to write for science.

VARSITY SCIENCE

science@thevarsity.ca

No fear, gut bacteria is here Scientists uncover how gut microbes might help you cope with stress

science@thevarsity.ca

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VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

The bacteria in your gut might be giving your yoga instructor some competition helping you reduce mental anxiety. A recent study conducted by U of T researchers has found a correlation between the growth of indigenous gut bacteria and suppression of the body’s stress response. The study, published in the journal, Psychopharmacology, explored the effects of two prebiotics — nondigestible carbohydrates that act as food for the bacteria that reside in the human gut — on the secretion of stress hormones. The researchers also studied participants’ performance in several tasks assessing various cognitive domains including attention and concentration, learning and memory, processing speed, and executive function. In a cohort of 45 volunteers, those who received the prebiotic daily for

three weeks were seen to focus less on negative information. The prebiotic recipients were also found to have decreased salivary cortisol, a key hormonal driver of the body’s stress response. This dampening of the body’s stress response is consistent with earlier findings of changes in gut flora, though scientists are still uncertain of how these changes might be affecting the brain. According to Dr. Roger McIntyre, a professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at U of T, the bacteria in our gut may be affecting inflammation and metabolism, which, in turn, could be manipulating the brain. The notion that the gut microbiome can communicate with the brain to impact physical health has far-reaching implications in the medical world. “Although this research is quite promising, it is not yet ready for prime time,” says McIntyre. “Clinically, the idea that we can alter a patient’s probiotics as a way

to treat psychiatric illness is still in its infancy... This study is a small step forward in furthering our understanding of the link between prebiotic intake and abnormal health,” adding, “Manipulating the gut microbiome to treat medical illnesses would be justified once we prove that there is a difference in the gut flora of patients and healthy individuals,” he continues Currently, the mainstay of anxiety treatment in patients is a combination of pharmaceuticals, cognitive behaviour therapy, as well as alternative therapies including mediation techniques. McIntyre is hopeful that in the future, “a more robust understanding of the bacteria that colonizes the guts of patients with mental illness will allow scientists and physicians to target mental illness with a whole new set of therapies, namely prebiotics, probiotics and even antibiotics.” In the meantime, tell your yoga instructor to watch his back.

VARSITY SCIENCE

var.st/science

MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2015

Revolutionizing 3D printing for the production of prosthetics U of T team establishes 3D printing technology for production of affordable, customized prosthetics in Uganda Wan Xian Koh VARSITY STAFF

In many developing countries, the production of prosthetics is limited by the lack of expert prosthetic technicians. According to the World Health Organization, the developing world has a shortage of approximately 40,000 prosthetic technicians. In the next 50 years, the number of prosthetic technicians can only increase by 18,000 due to the limited ability to train technicians. Besides the lack of expertise, the current process of creating prosthetics is both lengthy and inefficient, often resulting in illfitting and expensive prosthetics. To address this problem, a research team from the University of Toronto has partnered with Christian Blind Mission Canada, a Canadian nongovernmental organization, and a local Ugandan hospital to leverage 3D printing technology for use in the production of prosthetics.

Dr. Matt Ratto, an associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information, leads the revolutionizing initiative in Uganda. Ratto is also the director of the the Critical Making Lab at U of T. The aims of the project are sustainability, efficacy, and efficiency. This system functions by sending a 3D scan of a residual limb to a graphic processor that converts the data into a printable form. A customized socket composed of bioplastic and polylactic acid is designed and printed in six to nine hours. The socket can then be used as part of a standard prosthetic leg. This will act as a replacement for the traditional labour-intensive and time-consuming system. Previously, every patient had to be casted for a mold, and subsequently return for fitting and adjustments. There is a bigger picture behind this project. The ultimate goal extends beyond the establishment of 3D printing technology in Uganda,

to encompass the development of local skill. Moreover, the technology is easily transferable. 3D printing can be implemented in other developing countries, benefiting communities on a global scale. The next step has already begun. Ratto and his team are in Uganda in the process of piloting their project. By sending the technology to Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services Uganda, the skills of local prosthetic technicians can be developed and the process of “training the trainers” can begin. The local technicians are growing accustomed to the new technology and have begun scanning and printing sockets for their patients. In addition to their increasing familiarity with the 3D printing system, the prosthetic technicians have further expanded the system to cater to local needs. The knowledge gained can provide vital information in establishing similar solutions in other parts of the world. 3D-printed prosthetics. MALLIKA MAKKER/THE VARSITY

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24 Vol. CXXXV, No. 16

VARSITY SCIENCE

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U of T student wins Sunnybrook research award Third-year engineering science student shares $10,000 prize with Winnipeg student Anastasiya Muntyanu VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Third-year undergraduate student, Kramay Patel. JESSICA SONG/THE VARSITY

A third-year undergraduate student, Kramay Patel, recently shared the Sunnybrook Research Award for his work on improving dynamic trunk stability in spinal cord injury patients by developing neural prostheses. Patel understood the efficiency of functional electric stimulation (fes) from his own experience. He suffered from a herniated disc and undergoing FES therapy made him both empathetic towards and interested in helping individuals suffering from spinal cord injury. “fes uses small currents to artificially and extrinsically contract muscles,” Patel says. Individuals with higher thoracic or cervical spinal cord injuries often lose control over their trunk muscles, including the abdomen and back, which results in a condition known as trunk instability in addition to a poor sitting posture. In these individuals, a small disturbance to their sitting position may lead to an increased risk of falling which can result in worsening their current injury as well as potentially causing secondary ones.

Working in collaboration with his supervisors, PhD student Matija Milosevic, and U of T professor Dr. Milos R. Popovic, Patel is looking to use fes technology to increase trunk stability of individuals with spinal cord injuries while driving a powered wheelchair. “This means that I have to develop an effective controller that can intelligently contract the right muscles on the individual’s trunk at the right time and in response to the right accelerations in order to increase trunk stability,” says Patel. By increasing the trunk stability of these patients and eliminating the restrictive belt straps and chest harnesses presently used, this system will allow patients to have more functional workspace and hence increased quality of life. Patel says that fes has been shown to improve muscle tone, reduce loss of muscle mass, and to have rehabilitative effects. These are some of the things Patel and his supervisors expect to see in a test of their system. Patel’s project is different from the research that has been conducted thus far in that it applies to a different subset of patients.

“Some groups have looked at improving trunk posture using fes in static and voluntary conditions but not under external dynamic perturbations,” he says. Patel’s project is a novel wheelchair-based neural prosthetic device. “Our system, which we affectionately call fes-Wheels, is the first of its kind...” he adds. The promise of significant clinical results has driven the development of this device. “It can most certainly be used by a large population of individuals with spinal cord [injuries] to not only increase immediate wheelchair safety, but also help improve their quality of life while helping them potentially rehabilitate and fight the secondary complications of spinal cord injuries such as loss of muscle tone and muscle mass,” Patel explains. The next step in his research will be to perform a full-scale study of the system with a large, able-bodied test group. “Once we can demonstrate improved trunk stability on ablebodied individuals, we can move on to individuals with spinal cord injury,” concludes Patel.

Undergrad students lead conference on cardiovascular regenerative medicine Leading researchers present recent studies at lmpsu conference Aditya Chawla VARSITY STAFF

Cardiovascular disease has a major impact on North American society, affecting over 71 million adults. In fact, every seven minutes in Canada, someone dies as a result of heart disease or stroke. Using our knowledge of the development and regeneration of the cardiovascular system, is it possible to restore normal function in these patients? This was the major theme of “Healing and the Heart,” an undergraduate-led conference on cardiovascular regenerative medicine put forth by the Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology Student Union (lmpsu). Having a personal connection to heart disease, lmpsu co-presidents Alena Zelinka and Maya Deeb chose cardiovascular medicine as the topic for this year’s conference. “We were both inspired to look at cardiovascular disease because both of our families were impacted by cardiovascular disease, and I’m sure many other families in Canada are,” says Deeb, adding, “[We] were thinking about cardiovascular medicine, and the future of that which we think is regenerative medicine, so we married the two topics.” The conference took place on January 17 at the Medical Sciences

Panelists speak at the LMPSU conference. COURTESY OF ASHLEY ZHANG

Building, beginning with a presentation by Dr. Gordon Keller on how to model the development of cardiovascular disease with pluripotent stem cells. Keller’s goal is to make a complete model of the human heart in a petri dish, but that

requires highly technical control based on dozens of genetic factors. Keller brought his address to a close by stating, “This is not the future, this is now.” “Big companies are using these cells for drug discovery, and I think

this is a good opportunity to think about human biology and its applications to disease,” he added. Following Keller’s inspirational words, Dr. Ian Scott’s lecture focused on adding factors and signalling molecules that might actu-

ally allow the heart to regenerate itself following a heart attack. Scott studies the zebrafish model, which presents a unique opportunity to study the heart as zebrafish can completely repair their heart tissue. The question remains as to why this regenerative property has been lost in adult humans, and how we could restart that system following heart damage. Following his research into the means of heart regeneration, it may be possible in the future to take a drug that can activate this regenerative mechanism following a heart attack. In a slightly different theme than the concept of developmental biology discussed in the first half, Dr. Milica Radisic offered a unique engineering approach with her human cardiac bio-wires. Her work in tissue engineering has allowed scientists and engineers to simulate a human heart on a chip with greatly improved accuracy. Radisic also discussed her novel biomaterial, which could allow physicians to inject healthy heart cells directly into patients without any need for invasive surgery in the future. The day ended with an insightful and thought-provoking panel discussion on the future of cardiovascular research, as well as some of the ethical issues involved in embryonic stem cell research.

Sports

VAR.ST/SPORTS

26 JANUARY 2015

sports@thevarsity.ca

Alumni profile: Liz Warden Meet the Blues swimmer turned Olympian turned teacher Susan Gordon

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Liz Warden competed in the Olympics in 2004. COURTESY OF ELIZABETH WARDEN

To her students, Toronto teacher Liz Warden is not a former Varsity Blues star swimming athlete, but a passionate educator. Yet, at their age, Warden had already begun working towards an athletic career that would include multiple awards, a perfect Ontario University Athletics (oua) record, and a berth at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Warden cannot remember a time when she was not swimming; her mother was a swim instructor, so she learned to swim at a young age. Warden first competed when she was only six years old. Swimming was “a way of life,” says Warden. In particular, one event cemented her commitment to the sport. “When I was 15, I made the 8 Nation Youth National Tour team that travelled to Dortmund, Germany where Canada competed against 7 other countries. I won 2 gold medals in both 200 and 400 im [individual medley] swims,” she describes, adding, “Looking back, I suppose this was a pivotal point in my swimming career. I felt encouraged and motivated to continue to swim and win at an international level.” Warden chose to attend U of T because she wanted to both stay in Canada and be coached by Byron

MacDonald, who had a reputation for coaching swimmers to international success. Warden mostly competed in im races with the Blues, but also swam other races when the team needed her to. “Although the women’s team never won a cis title while I competed for them, we won several oua titles of which I am very proud to have been a part of,” says Warden. “As for myself, I never lost an oua race over my entire career at U of T, and I consecutively won 5 straight cis titles in the women’s 400 im. Also, I was the recipient of the Howard Mackie Award or Canadian University Athlete of the year for 2002,” she adds. Despite her many awards, Warden’s favorite moments on the team involved her fellow swimmers and the camaraderie that she enjoyed with the Blues. “I guess the thing I remember most is arriving on the pool deck at 5:45 on most mornings [and] joining my teammates for another grueling training session. Although we sometimes didn’t want to be there, we would dive into the pool, each with our own goals — some wanted to make the Olympics, others wanted to qualify for their first cis’s, while others were hoping to earn a spot on the oua team,” she says. “No matter what, we were there together pushing and helping each

other every step of the way. We shared a lot of laughs in the process which always made things easier and more fun,” she adds. In addition to being a decorated member of the Varsity Blues, Warden competed with the Canadian women’s team at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics. While she and the team did not perform as well as they had hoped, it was an experience that Warden had worked hard for, and one she will always treasure. “I guess you could say that the process of my making the Olympic team was 20 years in the making. I started competitive swimming at the age of 6 and did not make the Olympics until I was 26,” says Warden. “I competed in 3 Olympic Trials where I had a legitimate shot at qualifying for the Olympics and only succeeded the third time. It took many years of hard work,” she adds. Soon to be a mother of three, Warden is not as involved in swimming as she once was. Although her time with the Blues is over, Warden has many good memories of her time swimming for U of T. “I mostly miss the camaraderie and the dynamic of being part of a team. As strange as it may sound, I also sort of miss the hard workouts and pushing my body to the limits on a daily basis — sometimes... not always,” says Warden.

Clif bars and Larabars and Quest bars, oh my How nutritious are the most common nutrition bars? as you’re giving them another reason to eat,” Collier says. “Most people don’t need another reason to eat,” he concludes. With these ratios and guidelines in mind, how do the, arguably, three most popular energy bars hold up?

Emma Kikulis VARSITY STAFF

Walking to and from class, especially around the Goldring Center and Benson Building, you would be hard pressed not to notice the number of students adorned with Varsity garb and huge Adidas duffle bags, hustling either to or from practice. Other than the fact that they all belong to university teams or clubs, the factor which unifies these students is the array of protein bars that they furiously scarf down. Nutrition is an important facet in the daily life of a university student, particularly athletes, and finding time to prepare and eat a healthy meal is often a challenge. Fortunately, if being students has taught us anything, it’s how to be resourceful — enter, energy bars. As a connoisseur of these glorified bars, I maintain that energy bars (sports bars, nutrition bars, protein bars) are the most convenient option while travelling from the weight room to class and to practice, and often double as a meal replacement for students on the go. The most popular of these bars, in my experience, have been Clif Bars: dense, sweet, and deliciously textured; Larabars: small, light, and all natural; and Quest Bars: chewy, microwavable, and with an

CLIF BAR

CATHARINE SOLOMON/THE VARSITY

assortment of flavors. Although these bars act as a stand-in for a home-cooked meal, do they provide enough nutrition as a full meal? Do they actually do an optimal job at replenishing your body before or after a workout? Professor Denis Collier of NFS302, Nutrition, Athletics, Performance and Behavior, recognizes the two main nutrients critical to performance: protein and carbohydrates. “There is no magic ‘ratio’ of protein versus carbohydrate for recovery,” explains Collier, “However… those two nutrients are likely of most importance.” In terms of recovery, Collier suggests that 20 grams of protein is the magic amount that we need in our post-

workout snack. Collier also explains that this number does not vary greatly depending on your age, gender, or mass. “There is pretty solid evidence of the benefits of a serving of 20 grams of high quality protein,” details Collier, adding, “As a general rule, this is the number for protein that I go with and it doesn’t change greatly from person to person.” Carbohydrates, however, are more difficult to figure out. With no magic number that works universally for everyone, the amount of carbs to consume after a workout depends on the level of fitness you’re striving to achieve. “Very much unlike protein, the carb requirement stands to vary

enormously between people,” explains Collier, who emphasizes that the level and intensity of your training are directly related to the amount of carbs you need to consume after a workout. “[People with] no great aspirations to be a specimen of physical fitness… [and] work out to be healthy and maybe even lose a few pounds… could likely get away with a post workout carb intake of zero,” he says. With many of us on campus hitting the gym in order to stay fit and socialize, many of us can abide by that rule. “Making such a person think they have to capitalize on some quickly closing window of carbohydrate recovery could be counterproductive

Boasting a list of vegan ingredients and 250 calories, Clif Bar’s Black Cherry Almond Original Energy Bar has only 10 grams of protein for 1 bar, so you’d have to consume double to get the recommended dosage. However, the bar does include 43 grams of carbohydrates, making it a suitable post-workout snack for a high-level athlete.

LARABAR Coming in at 230 calories per bar, Larabar’s peanut butter flavored bar contains even less protein at seven grams per bar and 23 grams of carbohydrates. However, the bar only contains three ingredients (peanuts, dates and sea salt), making it the most natural option.

QUEST BAR Quest Nutrition’s cookies and cream protein bar has the highest level of protein per bar at 21 grams, but balances it out with 22 grams of total carbohydrates. At 180 calories per bar, it is also the lightest option on the list.

VARSITY SPORTS

26 Vol. CXXXV, No. 16

sports@thevarsity.ca

Athletics at UTM and its director Ken Duncliffe helps UTM keep pace with evolving student needs Peter Nash

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Since 2001, the director, department of physical education, athletics and recreation at utm has been Ken Duncliffe. As director, Duncliffe is responsible for the overall management of resources, services, and programs run for students, staff, and the broader community at utm. He is also responsible for 20 full-time and over 400 part-time staff. Before assuming his position as director, Duncliffe held senior management positions in sport and recreation in both Toronto and Hamilton, adding up to over 35 years of experience in community recreation, sport, facility development, and resource management. In his current role, Duncliffe has helped bring about positive change for the utm student experience. The student population has grown to almost 14,000, and programming has been developed to meet the evolving student needs. His goals are to help students have the opportunity to incorporate physical activity and engagement into their daily lives outside the classroom. One major achievement for utm athletics during Duncliffe’s tenure has been the 2006 opening of the

Recreation, Athletics and Wellness Centre (rawc). The facility adds 74,000 square feet of athletic space to the campus. In the rawc, U of T students have access to a double gymnasium, fitness centre, swimming pool, and running track. The facility is a big factor in increasing student participation rates. All three campuses of U of T have independent departments that manage the athletics and recreation programs and services. utsc has the Department of Athletics and Recreation, utsg has the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, and utm has the Department of Physical Education, Athletics, and Recreation. Each department operates independently, but many tri-campus initiatives are available for students. All U of T students are eligible to participate in the Varsity Blues Intercollegiate program, as well as take part in drop-in activities at any campus. Intramurals, tournaments, and tri-campus opportunities are ways for students to play with students from other campuses with transportation provided. The Mississauga campus boasts a continuum of programming — from casual recreation to varsity excellence. This year, the utm

Ken Duncliffe took over as Mississauga athletic director in 2001. COURTESY OF KENNETH DUNCLIFFE

Eagles have entered the Ontario College Athletic Association, which includes colleges like Durham, Fanshawe, Humber, Flemming, and more. Additionally, they

entered tournaments in men’s and women’s indoor soccer, badminton, and cross country. With Duncliffe as utm’s athletic director, the campus can look

forward to further growth of programs and services to meet the growth of utm. He hopes to keep every student engaged in physical activity of some regard.

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A game of cricket. MEDIA PHOTO

Matthew Manhire

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

The University of Toronto is home to one of the largest North American Intramural leagues with an average 10,000 members. The indoor cricket season is in full-blown preparation mode and the new intramural office location (the main floor of Varsity Center) is bustling with activity. One of the driving forces of making these athletic activities come together is assistant manager Mohsin Bukhari. He took a few minutes to explain to The Varsity what to expect for this up-coming season. There are three levels of cricket that are offered for various levels of interest, the first being the intramural level that is coming into its fifth year and is open to players

of any level. Bukhari hopes that this year will see the first all-women’s team participate; a qualifiable team consists of 7-8 players. The second level is tri-campus, which is holding its tryouts on Monday, January 26 at 9:30 pm. This league pits all three U of T campuses against each other in a two-day tournament on February 13 and 27. This league features a higher level of competition and coaching, as well as a chance to play for the coveted tri-campuses championship. The third level is known as the Clubs Cup Cricket tournament, designed for recognized Ulife Clubs. Cup favourites such as the Pakistani Student Federation (psf) and the Indian Student Society (iss) bring a loyal draw every year.

The tournament will take place in late March, with more details being released on the intramurals website soon. Mohsin applies a structured flexibility to the league that makes it fun and convenient for all players involved at every level. A condensed season has resulted in ease of commitment for teams and players. Those who lack experience in the sport should not be intimidated; the leagues feature a one-day mentorship clinic where experienced players share tips and explain the inner workings of the game. If you have a basic level of fitness and want to experience a great way to exercise your body and mind, any level of the Intramural Cricket League may suit your interest.

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VARSITY SPORTS

MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2015

Blues stick it to Laurier and York Both men’s and women’s hockey teams succeed this past weekend Sampson Coutts VARSITY STAFF

The Varsity Blues hockey teams took part in Saturday’s double-header of the season this weekend, with U of T’s women defeating the high-flying Laurier University Golden Hawks 5-4 and the men besting cross-town rivals York 3-2. Saturday afternoon’s game against Laurier represented a real test for the Blues, as the Golden Hawks entered the contest with an Ontario University Athletics (oua)-leading 54 goals. Concerns among the faithful seemed justified following a first period in which the Golden Hawks outplayed the Blues, leading 2-1. The Blues were better in the second period, but it was Laurier who added to their lead with star forward Tammy Freiburger scoring twice in the first 13 minutes. Undaunted by the 4-1 deficit, the Blues scored twice in the closing minutes of the second period to bring the game within reach. With five and a half minutes remaining, U of T rookie Kassandra Roache scored her first oua goal, winning a battle in front of the net and catching Laurier goaltender Amanda Smith off-guard with a quick five-hole shot. Roughly three minutes later, Kristi Riseley scored a tapin power play goal from a great feed by veteran defender Stacey Oue. Laurier was excellent in the third period, snuffing out U of T’s offense with a relentless forecheck, but Riseley managed to tie it with less than two minutes to play, redirecting Taylor Day’s shot right under the crossbar. Following a goal-less overtime, the game progressed to a shootout. After four misses, U of T’s electrifying Jacqueline Scheffel snuck a

shot just under Smith’s blocker. Star goaltender Nicole Kesteris shut the door on Laurier’s final shooter to seal the 5-4 comeback victory. Saturday’s five-goal effort was the second straight for the Blues, who have seemingly put concerns regarding their ability to score goals to bed. Veteran defender April Looije was spot on when she stressed patience in an interview with The Varsity two weeks ago; the goals have, indeed, come. An hour after the women’s triumph, the Blues men played one of their best games to date, overwhelming the York University Lions with their trademark brand of high-intensity hockey and scoring three times in the opening eight minutes. Veteran sniper Jeff Brown scored first for U of T minutes into the period, jumping on a loose puck in the slot and blasting a low shot past York goaltender Chris Perugini’s blocker. Star forward Michael Markovic added to U of T’s lead 49 seconds later, beating his man on an odd-man rush to bang home an Andrew Doyle rebound. Veteran two-way forward Paul Van De Velde rounded out the barrage of scoring three minutes later, corralling a Tyler Liukkonen wrap-around attempt and sliding the puck past a helpless Perugini. The Lions responded late in the period with veteran York forward Tyler McGee scoring on a lovely cross-ice feed from rookie Kyle Campbell. The Blues kept up the intensity in the second frame, forcing Perugini to make several great stops while fifth-year goaltender Garrett Sheehan was excellent when called upon. Down two goals, the York Lions played aggressively in the final period, controlling the pace of play and repeatedly hemming

The Varsity Blues men’s hockey team celebrate a goal. ELENA IOURTAEVA/THE VARSITY

the Blues into their zone as they adopted a defensive posture. The Lions did manage to pull within one with a late goal by star winger Michael Santini, but Garrett Sheehan stopped 12 of 13 shots in the final period, and the Blues hung on for a well-deserved victory. Following the match, Sheehan stressed the

importance of this win, stating that it was “a really important game in the playoff race.” Pressed on whether the club had turned a corner following a trying autumn, Sheehan felt they had and that this success was hardearned, stating: “We just needed a couple bounces to go our way... but I think the effort has always been there.”

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