Laval defeats McMaster as the Vanier Cup comes to Toronto pg 26
Shaun Shepherd on the polarized state of student politics pg 10
THE VARSITY
Vol. CXXXIII, No. 10
University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880
26 November, 2012
Demands for electoral reform unheeded as opposition votes down UTSU agenda in tense meeting Kaleem Hawa & Zane Schwartz VARSITY STAFF
The University of Toronto Students’ Union’s annual general meeting ended abruptly Thursday night after members present at the meeting refused to approve the agenda. Less than half an hour after the meeting was called to order, the agenda was brought to a routine vote. Following failed attempts first to amend it, and then to force the chair of the meeting to recuse himself, membership declined to approve the agenda with an unofficial tally of 999 votes against to 905 in favour. The failure to approve the agenda brought the meeting to a screeching halt. More than 300 students, carrying nearly 2,000 proxy votes, were packed into the meeting room at the Medical Sciences building on the St. George campus. Many waited in line for hours to be admitted, after delays caused by the union’s restricted access to its membership list. The meeting, scheduled to begin at 6 pm, did not get underway until 8.19 pm. In the meantime, the capacity crowd was addressed by Trinity-Spadina City Councillor Adam Vaughan and Aboriginal elder Cat Criger.
Many students waited almost two hours to sign in for the meeting. MICHAEL BEDFORD/THE VARsITy
At the meeting Thursday night, Engineering Society president Rishi Maharaj initially argued for hosting a separate general meeting in January to entertain reforms, but was overruled by the meeting’s chair. Maharaj saw the ultimate rejection of the agenda as a step forward. “It’s nice to know that democracy has a chance, even if it’s taken this long. It’s only the start, but against the
odds we’ve faced, even the smallest victories have meaning,” said Maharaj following the meeting’s abrupt conclusion. In an impassioned speech before the agenda vote, student head of Trinity College Samuel Greene urged members not to “rubber stamp” the union’s items and called for student-driven electoral reforms, which failed to make the agenda.
“If you believe that the union can only be effective if it is accountable, that it can only be strong if it is fair, then join with us in demanding reform,” said Greene. “Our current system and our current union executive are stuck in the past. We need online voting, preferential voting, and greater accountability and transparency so that we can move past the old and divisive politics that
this union has fostered year after year and focus instead on how to improve the student experience,” Greene added in a post-AGM interview with The Varsity. The reform-minded opposition, who had previously failed to bring their proposals to a vote at the AGM, claimed a victory. Union executives and staff, for their part, expressed their disappointment. According to AGM chair Ashkon Hashemi, this year marked “the highest attendance at any AGM in recent memory.” Both Greene and Maharaj attributed to the opposition’s success to the “swathes of students that voted against an agenda that didn’t adequately address student concerns.” Student leaders from Trinity, Victoria, St. Michael’s, Innis, and University Colleges all congratulated those at the meeting — both in person and via proxies — on their actions in voting down the agenda. University College Literary and Athletic Society president Benjamin Dionne believes that those present at the meeting rejected the agenda because it “failed to adequately represent student interests.” He felt that “if the agenda only reflected the issues that
CONTINUED PG 6
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VARSITY NEWS
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012
THE VARSITY
WHAT’S GOING ON
VOL. CXXXIII No. 10
THIS WEEK
21 Sussex Avenue, Suite 306 Toronto, ON, M5S 1J6 Phone: 416-946-7600 www.thevarsity.ca
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO 2012 WORLD AIDS DAY Dalla Lana School of Public Health Tuesday, 27 November, 5:30–7 pm 7th Floor Lounge, Health Sciences Building 155 College Street
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Design Editors Suzy Nevins Dan Seljak
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Video Editor Wyatt Clough
GAVIN AU-TEUNG @AUYEUNGGAVIN Heavy fog at UTSC, expecting zombies to come out at any moment. Pic.twitter. com/XLxmkh4i —20 November 2012 ACCESS COPYRIGHT: A TALK ON THE LICENSE AGREEMENT Graduate Students’ Union Tuesday, 27 November, 4–6 pm George Ignatieff Theatre | 15 Devonshire Place
PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE CONCERT Faculty of Music Thursday, 29 November, 7:30–8:30 pm Walter Hall, Edward Johnson Building 80 Queen’s Park Crescent
video@thevarsity.ca
THE VARSITY’S FALL MEETING OF MEMBERS
Associate Design Editor Nathan Watson Associate Photo Editor Vacant Associate Online Editor Vacant Associate Copy Editor Catherine Kabasele Associate News Editors Rida Ali James Maiangowi Zane Schwartz
Wednesday, 5 December, 2012, 5 pm 21 Sussex Ave., 2nd floor
Associate Comment Editor Vacant Associate Features Editor Damanjit Lamba Associate A&C Editor Danielle Klein Associate Science Editor Roxanne Leung Associate Sports Editor Vacant
The Fall Meeting of Members of VARSITY PUBLICATIONS INC. (the “Corporation”), the company that publishes The Varsity newspaper, will be held for the purposes of reviewing Varsity Publications’ year, approval of the public accountant’s report in respect of the financial statement, and re-appointing the public accountant.
Contributors Assunta Alegiani, Zoë Bedard, Aberdeen Berry, Sophia Costomiris, Julia Cottrelle, William Deck, Amanda DiVito, Leelan Farhan, Sam Feldman, Olivia Forsyth-Sells, Joshua Fumo, Kaleem Hawa, Adrienne Ho, Trevor Janes, Danielle Klein, James Maiangowi, Svetlana Maleva, Alexander Mihaescu, Cristina Olteanu, Sneha Raju, Anne Rucchetto, Zane Schwartz, Dan Smeenk, Shradha Talwar, Katrina Vogan, Irina Vukosavic, Alec Wilson, David Woolley Copy Editors Zareen Din Catharine Kabasele Nancy Kanwal Laura Sabatini Tanya Sutherland Catherine Virelli Riley Watson Fact Checkers Catherine Kabasele Alex Ross Designers Ethan Chiel Suzy Nevins Joshua Oliver Dan Seljak Shaquilla Singh
Photo and Illustration William Ahn Minhee Bae Michael Bedford Sam Cen Wyatt Clough Bernarda Gospic Nancy Ji Carolyn Levett Janice Liu Patrick Love Suzy Nevins Corina Wong
Cover Bernarda Gospic
Business Office
Business Manager John Fountas
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Crime Stats November 16–21
“Only the UTSU exec could see people waiting in line for over 2 hours to have their voices heard and call it “privilege.” It’s not a “privilege.” Unions are supposed to protect their members, not dismiss, belittle, and disenfranchise them.” –Taylor Scollon, student
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Thefts
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Demonstration
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Liquor License Act Offence
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Robbery
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Breaking & Entering
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Dispute
The Varsity is the University of Toronto's largest student newspaper, publishing since 1880. The Varsity has a circulation of 20,000, and is published by Varsity Publications Inc. It is printed by Master Web Inc. on recycled newsprint stock. Content © 2012 by The Varsity. All rights reserved. Any editorial inquiries and/or letters should be directed to the sections associated with them; emails listed above. The Varsity reserves the right to edit all submissions. Inquiries regarding ad sales can be made to ads@thevarsity.ca. ISSN: 0042-2789 Please recycle this issue after you are finished with it.
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Damage
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JOHN VEINS @JENCVIENS Romey & Juliet @HHTheatre. Mercutio + Nurse = WOW. See it if only for Mercurio’s death scene. Riveting even when completely still. —22 November 2012
WOODSWORTH COLLEGE @WWCOLLEGE Don’t forget to join WCSA Wednesdays for free pancakes : ) Every Wed 11am – 1pm @ Kruger Hall —23 November 2012
JOSEPH IANNI @JOSEPHIANNI At SMC u don’t need to know someone’s name. You Just sit down and talk. – A St. Michael’s student @SMCSU @ SMCCampusLife! — 23 November 2012
Quoted
“Corey, I’d like to point out that democracy doesn’t have a price tag (i.e. $3000). It’s a right.” –Pierre Harfouche, VP Finance, EngSoc
THE VARSITY VOL. CXXXIII No. 10
Advertising Manager Tina Yazdi advertising@thevarsity.ca Advertising Executives victoria@thevarsity.ca Victoria Botvinnik nick@thevarsity.ca Nick Brownlee sofia@thevarsity.ca Sofia Luu maokai@thevarsity.ca Maokai Shen
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Managing Online Editor Patrick Love online@thevarsity.ca Senior Copy Editor Laura Mitchell
the week in tweets
ON CAMPUS
Editorial Board Editor-in-Chief Murad Hemmadi
news@thevarsity.ca
Trespasses
Online Content
“Student-driven electoral reforms were not “excluded” from the agenda. They missed the deadline.” –Jonah Letovsky, student “A deadline which Shaun Shepard himself could/would not specify even after directly questioned during the TCM meeting this past Monday.” –Yerusha Nuh, student
Check out The Varsity’s highlight reel of UTSU’s Annual General Meeting and its early conclusion. WATCH ONLINE AT www.broadcast. thevarsity.ca/
var.st/news
VARSITY NEWS FEATURE
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012
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What does your university make? Forget publish-or-perish; in today’s university, the focus has shifted to patents and profits. JAMES MAIANGOWI ventures inside U of T’s budding innovation ecosystem.
NANCY JI/THe VArsITY
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nnovation isn’t always enough. In 1979, Xerox PARC, a Silicon Valley research and development centre, invited Steve Jobs over for a visit. Jobs was the rambunctious 24-year-old CEO of Apple, one of the hottest startups in the Valley, and PARC was one of the most innovative R&D centres in the world. The encounter augured well. Jobs heard Xerox was doing truly groundbreaking work at PARC, and, intrigued, offered to sell Xerox a hundred thousand shares of Apple stock at a low price merely for the chance to tour the research centre. What he saw there astounded him: Graphical user interfaces. Word-processing programs. An early version of e-mail, sent along the first ever ethernet cable. A computer mouse, then still a novelty. At a time when most personal computers had clunky, monochromatic, text-based displays, this was like getting a glimpse into the future. Jobs’ reaction was characteristic: “Why aren’t you doing anything with this? This is the greatest thing. This is revolutionary!” The rest is future history. Apple released the Macintosh personal computer in 1984, and one famous Superbowl advertisement later, the Mac became the first commercially successful computer with a mouse and windowed programs. From that moment on, every computer had to to be commercially viable, transforming the personal computer industry. Xerox, meanwhile, developed an expensive, barely-marketed personal computer with graphics, and when it under-performed, decided to get out of the personal computing market entirely. Though they invented many of the now-standard parts of a modern computer, Xerox ultimately failed to profit by its research and innovations alone. Xerox’s failure to capitalize on its computer inventions is a cautionary tale for anyone hoping to commercialize basic research. The path that turns research into a saleable product can be a treacherous one, even for a company as large and experienced as Xerox. The challenges faced by entrepreneurs are even greater. The University of Toronto has launched several initiatives in recent years to help student entrepreneurs in the sciences commercialize their research and avoid pitfalls along the way, as part of the university’s
wider plan to increase the application of research to real world problems. TechnoLABS and the University of Toronto Early Stage Technology (UTEST) are new programs providing startup companies with funding, work space, and business support. Both programs bill themselves as “part of a growing ecosystem” of institutions and programs helping students build and lead companies. “The path from turning research into a product is quite long,” said Cynthia Goh, professor of chemistry at U of T and founder of TechnoLABS, at its launch in November. “What we’d really like to ask is: can this go any faster? We would like to see interesting new products in our lifetime.” “That’s our goal: to capture how knowledge can be turned into a product to benefit society, and quickly.” TechnoLABS is just one of Goh’s many startup-related activities. A successful entrepreneur herself, Goh also pioneered Entrepreneurship 101, a free weekly lecture series on the finer points of starting and running a business. In the summer of 2010 Goh invited 10 hopeful companies to Techno, an intensive four-week program for entrepreneurs in the sciences. The company founders attended lectures from Goh and her colleagues, met with prospective investors, and worked furiously to develop and refine their products. Since then, two new batches of companies have passed through Techno, and there are now over 20 companies associated with it, spanning a range of industries from digital pathology to designing new LED materials. A number of companies also ‘graduated’ from the program, having raised external capital or partnered with established companies. “Starting a company can be terrifying without experience,” says Rich McAloney, director of technology development at TechnoLABS. “TechnoLABS aims to offer complimentary services and space for companies to work in. The result of that is to lower barriers.” TechnoLABS’ official launch coincided with a truly landmark event: it now has office space. TechnoLABS is located on the fourth floor of the Best Institute, a stolid brick building that betrays no sign of the developments in its interior.
Inside, the floor hums with the day’s work: BreqLabs is building specialized computer modules to augment off-theshelf models, Vive Crop Protection is designing new ways to use nanoscale particles in agriculture. A poster on the bulletin board advertises discounted lab supplies; nearby, a door warns visitors that potentially hazardous biochemical research is being done in the lab.
“The path from turning research into a product is quite long. What we’d really like to ask is: can this go any faster? We would like to see interesting new products in our lifetime.” —Cynthia Goh, professor of chemistry at U of T and founder of TechnoLABS “It’s pretty exciting,” Scott McAuley says of his experiences with TechnoLABS. “It’s also unique, from what I’ve heard, in its focus on science.” McAuley is also the co-founder of Lunanos, a company researching ways of reducing infection rates in healthcare environments like hospitals and nursing homes. McAuley completed his master’s degree in chemistry under Goh, and credits her for inspiring him to found his company. “Being in her lab and seeing the companies her other graduate students founded opened up the idea that this was possible,” McAuley said, noting there isn’t a developed culture of entrepreneurship in chemistry. “Few chemists say ‘I want to be the next DuPont or Dow’; mostly, it’s just ‘I want to work for DuPont or Dow.’” Founded in 2010, Lunanos has developed two technologies for cleaning and disinfecting surfaces in healthcare envi-
ronments. Leo Mui, other co-founder of Lunanos, credits TechnoLABS’ ‘ecosystem’ approach for the opportunities it’s offered startups. “Lunanos does much of its development work in a wet lab, which would have been prohibitively expensive to rent if not for the space provided,” Mui said. “Besides the physical space, we have also been able to tap into the experience and expertise of mentors when we need help.” Along with UTEST and the newly launched Banting and Best Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, TechnoLABS is part of the university’s long-term plan to increase the rate of knowledge transfer from universities to the world at large. The university’s recently released 2012– 2017 Strategic Research Plan outlines future goals for U of T’s research. Along with the usual suspects — striving for global leadership, facilitating collaborations between different disciplines — one goal stands out: “Maximize the application of research and the innovation of creative concepts.” Research themes throughout the plan were chosen with this goal in mind, from developing more efficient forms of sustainable energy to studying the causes and nature of war and peace. Interestingly, and unlike all the other goals, a moral angle is used to justify this one: “Institutions of higher learning have an obligation to help translate their discovering to the benefit of the public good,” the plan states. “A goal of the University of Toronto is to maximize its positive impact on society and the Canadian economy.” In taking this bird’s eye view of its research efforts the university may be reaching farther than its grasp — Scott McAuley says that while benefiting the global good is definitely on his agenda, his current preoccupations are more prosaic: signing up local hospitals for Lunanos’ products and redoubling efforts to break into the Indian healthcare sector. Nevertheless, the university’s efforts to commercialize its research proceeds apace. Having grown every year since its inception, TechnoLABS shows no signs of slowing down. Over the summer a new crop of companies will participate in Techno 2013, and a new batch of entrepreneurs will be born.
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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012
VARSITY NEWS
news@thevarsity.ca
Co-curricular transcript gets UAB hearing Student life administrator fields questions, comments about new transcript Dan Smeenk
VARSITY STAFF
Bernarda Gospic/THe VarsiTy
Kintore College quietly opens its doors Independent women’s residence on Charles Street to offer “optional spiritual activities” from Opus Dei Aberdeen Berry
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
Kintore College, a new women’s residence situated in the first four stories of a condominium on Charles Street, quietly opened its doors in September of this year. The residence has been in various stages of development since the idea for its establishment was conceived in the mid-1990s. A spokesperson for the University of Toronto, Laurie Stephens, explained that the residence was one of several independent living spaces near campus, and was unaffiliated with the university. Kintore instead exists under the purview of the non-profit association Promotion of Education and Values (PEV), which aims to promote women’s education. “In 1997 we purchased the property, which had a building on it already, from the United Church,” said Virginia Nanouris, project manager for PEV. At that time, the site housed the Lycée Française. “After doing some studies, it seemed the best way to go about it would be to demolish and rebuild,” Nanouris explains. Due to the relatively small size of PEV, it became necessary to find outside assistance to complete the project. Nanouris says of the somewhat peculiar arrangement that resulted, “We partnered with a developer, and negotiated that they would get the air rights if they built this facility for us free of charge.” The college is mostly separated from the apartments above it — it has its own entrance, security, and elevators. Unlike troubled attempts to build the Knightstone residence in recent years, Nanouris notes that while complex, the project was largely free of snags: “We met with most of the neighbours at the time, along with the developer, and people didn’t ob-
ject to a student residence, especially because it’s already close to Jackman and Loretto [Victoria College buildings].” One difficulty was that the residence was not completed in time for September, leading to decreased enrollment. “We had many inquiries, but some of the students’ choices were affected by the fact that they couldn’t see the facilities beforehand,” said Crystal Mason, Kintore College’s director. Delays in finishing the residence space led to the students who opted to attend being housed in the Holiday Inn until mid-October. “We won’t have this problem next year,” Nanouris says. While Kintore College has ties to the Catholic Church (its website states that “optional spiritual activities are entrusted to Opus Dei,” and its facilities include a chapel which holds daily mass), Mason emphasizes that religion is not a matter of obligation for residents: “We’re open to absolutely everyone … there doesn’t have to be any particular religious affiliation.” Catholic activities are offered, but Mason says that the residence administration’s priority is to “foster a close-knit community.” She adds, “attendance is open to any female student attending a post-secondary institution.” Current residents include students at U of T, Ryerson, George Brown, and other educational institutions. “We have students from, I think, every continent,” says Mason. Nanouris and Mason also hope that the college will become a hub of community engagement. Lectures are offered (“Is Evolution Compatible with Creationism?” was letting out as I visited the facility, though not all lectures are religious), and there are also several mixedpurpose rooms available for students not attending Kintore to use. “Students always need more space — not just study
space, but space where they can talk or discuss ideas. Education is not just in the classroom, but involves engagement with others,” Mason says. In spite of a decline in women’s-only residences in recent years, Nanouris believes there are benefits to a single-sex environment, and keeping an emphasis on women fostering the development of other women. “The residence is an extension of this idea. Women can thrive here without being self-conscious. They have their own private space.” “They have a lot of potential, and we want them to bring to bear their talents on society,” Nanouris goes on. “As women, we understand women, so we’re in a good position to help them do so.” The parent charity, PEV, as well as the college’s administration, are primarily female in membership. While acknowledging that Kintore may not be what everyone wants, Mason suggests, “it’s good to have another option.” In many ways, Kintore College provides a unique option. In addition to its small size and composition, it has a distinct ethos. Life for its students is highly structured around shared meals and activities. Perhaps most unusually, Kintore students are subject to curfews. When asked how this played out in a modern context, Mason noted that some students were dissuaded by the notion. However, she explained that the role of the curfew was more to do with the communal nature of the residence, saying, “we want to show care for our students and safety. Sometimes people can’t make it back for whatever reason, and that’s fine — it’s not an iron rod.” She also noted that this kind of structure helps students to better organize their lives, for instance, tacitly encouraging them to go to bed early in case of morning classes.
Assistant vice-president, student life programs Lucy Fromowitz advocated the implementation of co-curricular transcripts at a University Affairs Board (UAB) meeting at Simcoe Hall Tuesday, bringing the project one step closer to completion. The co-curricular transcript, intended to augment the current academic transcript, would list students’ extracurricular activities affiliated with the university, as well as skills gained as a result of their involvement. Fromowitz’s presentation, made on behalf of two guests, attracted considerable interest from other members of the Governing Council. “As the CEO of a Fortune 100 company we see the same kinds of resumes all the time,” said Council member Gary Mooney. “They show marks, but do they share the values of our culture? That would be very helpful.” Fellow Council member and student representative Aidan Fishman voiced his support for the transcript. “I was originally a bit sceptical of the co-curricular transcript, but as my concerns have been addressed, I think it will be a boon to the university.” The transcript will also allow students to hide their political leanings if they wish. “You’ll be able to mask being in a Young Liberal club if you’re applying to a firm that’s more conservative in nature,” said Fromowitz. However, several members raised concerns regarding the methods and viability of the transcript, asking if the increased costs and administrative work would be worth the benefits a transcript might bring. “As much as possible we’d like to piggyback on existing bodies,” Fromowitz responded. “We don’t want to make more work, or it will fall by the wayside.” The idea for a co-curricular transcript came from the Council on Student Experience, which held a series of student consultations in 2010 and identified a need for students to track and list their involvement while at university. While the broad strokes of the co-curricular transcript’s mandate are agreed upon, questions remain about the fine details of its structure. Questions were raised at the UAB meeting about what difference, if any, would be made between paid and volunteer extracurricular activities, and where teaching assistants, dons, and research assistants would fall on this spectrum. Participation in potentially contentious organizations was another issue discussed. Council member Andrew Szende asked Fromowitz if anti-establishment activities such as organizing protests or joining advocacy groups would be considered among the activities included on the transcript. For Council member Kimberly Ellis the answer is clear: “If it’s a process that could go on a resume, it should go on a co-curricular transcript.” While the transcript is currently being developed and designed, it may take several years before it is made available to students. Jill Matus, vice-provost, students, noted during a separate presentation at the UAB that other Governing Council programs such as the On-Tap Initiative and the Email Project took two to three years to implement. Matus said the extensive consultations and research these programs required were responsible for the gap between their proposal and their implementation. “As we live in this community, what looks innocuous is actually complicated,” Matus said in a later interview. “We don’t as a rule tend to do top-down decisions.” Fromowitz indicated during her presentation that “extensive consultation, system selection, implementation, testing and training, and development” were the necessary next steps in creating the co-curricular transcript. Co-curricular transcript have been implemented at other Ontario universities such as Windsor and Guelph.
VARSITY NEWS
var.st/news
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012
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U of T radio station to sue former general manager Lawsuit details alleged long-term embezzlement at CIUT 89.5 Dan Smeenk VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
U of T’s campus radio station, CIUT-FM 89.5, has filed a lawsuit against former station manager Brian Burchell, seeking to retrieve more than $160,000 that were allegedly embezzled by Burchell in the lead up to his firing in October 2010. The lawsuit accuses Burchell of professional malpractice, claiming his actions constituted a “breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and conversion.” In the statement of claim filed against Burchell, University of Toronto Community Radio Inc. (UTCRI), the registered charity which operates CIUT-FM, is seeking damages of $162,193.68, in addition to standard damages resulting from legal fees and “other damages proven.” Burchell was hired by the station in July 2007. Among Burchell’s privileges as a manager at UTCRI was access to the station’s bank account, granted with the provision that Burchell would use the money “in the best interests of the UTCRI.”
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In May 2010, the UTCRI Board of Directors was forwarded a complaint from one of Burchell’s assistants that alleged that Burchell was misusing UTCRI funds. In response, the station conducted a forensic audit. It was not immediately clear what role, if any, university administrators had in the commissioning or execution of the audit. University of Toronto students pay $3.75 to the radio station each year as part of their compulsory ancillary fees. According to the lawsuit, the audit found that Burchell had, over a number of years, used money from the UTCRI accounts for his own personal expenses, including “alcohol, groceries, restaurants, parking fines, and personal travel.” Burchell was suspended with pay and given until October 15, 2010 to respond to the audit, which he allegedly failed to do. He was fired four days later. The lawsuit paperwork was signed by attorneys from highpowered Bay Street law firm Blake, Cassels, and Graydon LLP, and dated April 23, 2012, although copies of the filing have only recently begun to circulate.
The cause of Burchell’s firing was reported by The Varsity at the time as an “unspecified issue,” although Gage Averil, then-president of the station’s Board of Directors, said in an interview that the “issue” had been related to Burchell’s unnamed corporation, 17092700 Ontario Inc. “We had a process of review over the last few months and decided to terminate the contract with a company that Brian Burchell runs that had management contracts for CIUT,” said Averill at the time. The Varsity was unable to contact Brian Burchell. Burchell is also the publisher of Gleaner Community Press. In a phone interview with The Varsity, Ken Stowar, the current president of the Board of Directors at CIUT-FM, said that Burchell’s lawyers had filed a statement of defence within the 20 day period mandated in the statement of claim. Stowar, who took over Burchell’s duties as station manager after his dismissal, also added that the UTCRI had filed a response to his defence. The case is currently pending before the courts.
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VARSITY NEWS
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012
“AGM AGENDA FAILS” CONTINUED FROM COVER students held dear, there would have been more support for Shaun Shepherd and his union.” Corey Scott, vice-president, internal for UTSU, said he was disappointed. “It’s privilege,” said Scott. “I think that’s what a lot of students showed.” Scott said organizing an AGM is a “massive undertaking” budgeted at $3,000, with students coming from as far away as Mississauga. Criticism of Scott’s post-AGM comments came swiftly. “Only the UTSU exec could see people (from both sides) waiting in line for over two hours to have their voices heard and call it privilege. It’s not a privilege. Unions are supposed to protect their members, not dismiss, belittle, and disenfranchise them,” said Taylor Scollon, vice-president of communications for the University of Toronto Young Liberals. Chris Thompson, president of the UTMSU, echoed Scott’s concerns. “It’s difficult for a lot of my members to get down here,” said Thompson. He added that the issues on the agenda were “really important” and he had wanted the chance to discuss them. Had the agenda been approved, the assembly would have discussed approval of the union’s audit and reappointed the auditor, tinkered with union bylaws (including the redefinition of the term “campus publication”) and altered the job description of the vice-president, campus life. Also scheduled for the meeting were president Shaun Shepherd’s address and a question period. Because the agenda was not approved, all of these motions will most likely be deferred until the next AGM, when they will be introduced as “old business.” “I’m just concerned the next AGM will be held in Mississauga in order to limit the opposition’s ability to attend. Hopefully transportation will be provided then too,” said Pierre Harfouche, vice-president, finance for the Engineering Society. Earlier in the meeting, Harfouche had moved to compel the chair of the meeting Ashkon Hashemi to recuse himself, a motion that Hashemi refused to allow. UTSU executive director and former president Sandy Hudson suggested that the vote against the agenda might have resulted from “some misunderstandings.” Hudson said she was concerned about “some people who made comments smearing the union.”
Tensions at the meeting ran high as the personal blended with the political, creating a combustible situation rife with extreme rhetoric. In an emotional presidential address prefacing the meeting, Shaun Shepherd described his personal struggles with depression. “I personally had a break-down, because of attacks on my team, and people that work sixteen hours a day,” said Shepherd, his voice breaking. “I want to make this year a year that everyone can work together. Not a year of mud-slinging, or smearing. That can’t happen anymore.” Greek Student’s Association president Dmitri Kyriakakis said at first he had come to the meeting to “support the UTSU and burn Trinity to the ground.” Asked in a follow-up interview about his comments, Kyriakakis clarified he was referring to “specific Trinity students” and not the entirety of the college. “The ones I was talking about are those who are trying to dissolve our student’s union,” said Kyriakakis. “The rationale saying that students should vote against this, was a personal attack on the executive saying that all of our work was not in good faith,” said vice-president, equity Noor Baig. Baig had previously come under attack online in an episode the union describes as “cyber-bullying,” after a leaked Facebook message she sent in advance of the AGM described some students planning to attend the meeting as “randoms” who were “just going to make a mess.” Greene rejects the notion that opposition groups personally attacked UTSU executives. “I simply do not understand how advocating for electoral reform and transparency at the UTSU constitutes a ‘personal attack.’ To label common sense proposals for reform as ‘personal attacks’ simply because you don’t want to accept them is ludicrous,” he said. The agenda’s failure, and the meeting’s premature ending, meant that the union’s audit and a host of by-law changes were not voted on. As of press time, neither the chair of the meeting or the union’s lawyer, executive director, or president were able to clarify how the failure to approve the agenda would affect the union’s operations in the coming days and weeks, or what plans, if any, existed to call another meeting of members.
news@thevarsity.ca
(clockwise from left) Students hold up signs demanding ‘online voting now’; Meeting chair Ashkon Hashemi; Trinity head of college Samuel Greene calls for the rejection of the agenda; Rishi Maharaj, president of the Engineering Society, oversaw a massive drive to collect proxy votes. BERNARDA GOSPIC & SUZY NEVINS/THE VARSITY
Vaughan flirts with mayoral run in AGM address
BERNARDA GOSPIC/THE VARSITY
Adam Vaughan, city councillor for Trinity-Spadina, delivered the keynote address at the UTSU AGM last Thursday evening, speaking to students about affordable housing and transportation. Vaughan’s ward encompasses the western half of the University of Toronto campus, and his constituents include students at several universities and colleges in the downtown core, including George Brown, OCAD, and Ryerson University. “It is our job to make sure that students have housing and have transit needs met, so that they can get to and from class but also live in a secure and affordable environment,” said Vaughan. “The city has not always done a good job of that. In fact, the university hasn’t always done a good job, and the province hasn’t always done a good job of that either.” Vaughan said that to resolve the region’s transit woes would require the city to work together with the university, student unions, and the province. Vaughan also took the opportunity to discuss Knightstone residence at 245 College St., which Toronto City Council rejected earlier this summer. Approval of the proposed residence is currently pending before the Ontario Municipal Board. Vaughan has been an outspoken opponent of the residence development, saying it was of “great concern” to him and local residents. “The university and the private developer have brought the stories and height of the building down, but
the basic problems remain,” said Vaughan. “We haven’t heard the voice of students. You have an important voice to raise in designing, determining, and creating better housing,” Vaughan added, admonishing students to demand better-quality, affordable housing from the university and to get involved in municipal governance. Vaughan also played down his previous confrontations with local fraternities and sororities, stressing that his priority as a councillor was to render neighbourhoods livable, and where conflicts arise, to bring the different parties together to reach some consensus. He also denied that neighbourhood residents associations, who had strenuously opposed the construction of the Knightstone residence, were against students living in the area. “The idea that we want to kick students out of this neighbourhood, that’s the last thing on my mind,” said Vaughan. After slamming Rob Ford’s transit strategy, Vaughan was asked pointedly by one student whether he was considering a run for mayor in 2014. “We are, as a city, drifting,” said Vaughan. “And that concerns me. The challenge we have is: are we building a city that is going to provide a future for you and the skills you’re acquiring in university?” “We’re not talking about that city. And that concerns me a lot… If the only way to stop that backwards drift is to run for mayor, I love this city too much not to do it,” Vaughan concluded.
VARSITY NEWS
var.st/news
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012
News in Brief Study: Maclean’s university rankings lack statistical integrity A study by University of Windsor professors Ken Cramer and Stewart Page has found systemic problems in the statistical methodology Maclean’s uses for its annual university rankings. The study, published in Academic Matters, a quarterly magazine covering post-secondary education, found that “the data seldom allow students or others to use the indices as logical or reliable indicators.” Maclean’s ranking groups universities into three categories: Medical/Doctoral, Comprehensive, and Undergraduate, and uses 14, 13, and 13 indices respectively to rank universities in their category. In each category the authors found that less than half of the indices used were statistically significant, and that indices correlated unpredictably with each other. The study also criticized Maclean’s “view of higher education as a type of financial issue and investment,” and encouraged taking a more holistic approach to university rankings. Maclean’s has published its rankings since 1990. In 2006 over 20 universities jointly refused to participate in the rankings, including the University of Toronto. — James Maiangowi With files from Academic Matters and Maclean’s
Students win lawsuit against George Brown College Domestic and international students won a class action suit against George Brown College for negligently misrepresenting the benefits of its International Business Management Program. The 2007 course calendar purported that students could complete industry designations and obtain the college’s graduate certificate. Justice Belobaba of the Ontario Superior Court held that the course description was false, misleading, and a breach of the Ontario Consumer Protection Act since the college lacked agreements with any of the associations to award such accreditations. In ruling in the students’ favour, Belobaba considered that the sole reason for enrollment was to obtain such designations and that foreign students had paid nearly $11,000 in tuition by the time the descriptions were corrected. Belobaba stated that the disappointed students neither had the additional time nor money to independently pursue the designations. George Brown’s arguments that reasonable students would know that the program was only preparatory were rejected. Despite stating that the careless mistake should not be seen to impugn the otherwise highly regarded college, Belobaba awarded the students the difference between what they paid for and the program’s actual value. Exact damages are to be determined at a later date. — Adrienne Ho With files from The Globe and Mail.
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SMC, CUPE resolve strike Job security concerns alleviated, instructors return to the job Irina Vukosavic VARSITY STAFF
Brennan Hall, St. Michael’s College. Wyatt clough/the Varsity
After five days of strike action, contract workers at St. Michael’s College have reached a tentative agreement with the university. “We are pleased to announce that early this morning, after a long session of mediation yesterday, USMC reached a tentative first collective agreement with CUPE 3902, Unit 4,” read a press release issued last Thursday. The tentative agreement was reached Thursday at nearly 2 am. Contract workers, teaching assistants, and continuing education instructors, organized as CUPE 3902 Unit 4, returned immediately to teaching, marking, and other duties. The strike, which began the Friday prior, had impacted undergraduate studies in departments such as Book and Media Studies and Celtic Studies. The agreement was ratified unanimously the following day. “We’re very pleased to say that we have successfully negotiated a first collective agreement that is fair to our members, fair to St. Mike’s, and strengthens quality postsecondary education,” said Tadhg Morris, a member of Unit 4’s bargaining team and a Celtic Studies instructor at St. Mike’s. The primary issue relating to the strike had been job security. Under the previous system, instructors were required to re-apply for their position at the end of every year, no matter how long they had been teaching. “If you’ve been teaching the same course for years, it doesn’t make sense that you have to constantly re-apply as if it is a new position. We want a situation where the course you previously taught you can teach again. Then, if you refuse, it goes to a seniority process where the next person in line, with a certain amount of hours, gets the position,” said Bader in an interview with The Varsity last week.
Gains in the collective agreement include consistent hiring language, hiring criteria, and paid training where necessary. The agreements, bargaining members say, have met the primary goals of the union, formalizing the hiring process of contract workers. “The bargaining team was creative and we were able to break the impasse and achieve a fair settlement, without any intervention from the province,” said Abe Nasirzadeh, chair of CUPE 3902. The provisions of the agreement will be implemented starting July 1, 2012 and will be in place until June 30, 2014. The agreement implemented for the next two years has given union members faith in the efficient system of bargaining. “I think we’ve demonstrated — not just to St. Mike’s and the University of Toronto, but also to the provincial government and others who are trying to interfere with free collective bargaining — that the system works. More to the point, the system works best when employers and employees sit down and negotiate agreements free of interference and the threat of legislation,” said Nasirzadeh.
“We’re very pleased to say that we have successfully negotiated a first collective agreement that is fair to our members, fair to St. Mike’s, and strengthens quality postsecondary education,” — Tadhg Morris, member of Unit 4’s bargaining team
Report: obstacles remain for women in academia Recognition and equal pay remain stumbling blocks with no easy solution Amanda DiVito VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
The Council of Canadian Academies issued a report last week detailing the challenges that continue to confront women working in academia. The CCA, an independent, not-for-profit organization that conducts assessments to inform public policy with experts from Canada and abroad, was asked to examine factors that continue to hinder research careers of women. The report, entitled “Strengthening Canada’s Research Capacity: The Gender Dimension,” was commissioned by the federal Ministry of Industry last fall, after 19 Canada Research Chair positions and nearly $10 million in funding were granted exclusively to male researchers. “It really stands out, and I said: ‘where are the women?’” remarked former Minister of Industry Tony Clement in the aftermath of the episode. The 252-page study found that a number of problems continued to limit the progress of women’s academic careers, and concluded that Canada is not fulfilling its commitments to gender equity particularly in the higher education sector. On the surface, some progress appears
to have been made. In the 1960s, women made up only a small fraction of the student body at Canadian universities. By the late 1980s, the trend had reversed. There were more full-time undergraduate female students than male. During this time, women also made inroads as professors and instructors, breaking into fields that had traditionally been male-dominated. The CCA report, however, describes some troubling shortcomings. The findings include a slight but persistent salary gap between male and female professors, negative biases in recruitment and evaluation, tenure systems that can be unaccomodating to women who take time off for childcare, self-reported lower levels of self-confidence in physical sciences, computer science, engineering and mathematics, and a lack of female role models in some fields. The study also found that in general, the higher the rank or position, the less likely it was to be filled by a female researcher or administrator. “The issue itself is a multifaceted one that is affected by social, cultural, economic, institutional, and political factors and contexts,” said Dr. Lorna R. Marsden, president emeritus and professor at York University. Marsden chaired the panel of 15 Canadian and international experts from a num-
ber of different academic fields who ultimately produced the report. To conduct the study, the panel met over the course of 18 months and explored a range of disciplines. The study used a “life course model” that examined critical factors that might impact career paths, starting from early years through post-secondary education. According to the report, challenges begin early in a prospective researcher’s life: children are taught stereotypes that define acceptable roles, and might consequently lack knowledge about potential career paths. Those that defy stereotypes about acceptable careers might find that they lack role models and mentors as women. In many regards, the situation in Canada remains similar to other advanced nations. The panel noted that several past reports have focused on women’s progress in science, technology and engineering research careers because women have traditionally been underrepresented in these fields. The report also notes that little attention has been paid to women researchers in the humanities, social sciences, and education, where they comprise 58.6 per cent of doctoral students, and have made major contributions to the study of poverty, violence, popular culture and literature, among many other topics.
“The face of academia is changing, and institutions can adapt to this new diversity or continue to lose talented researchers,” the report cautions. Solutions proposed in the report include offering more long-term contract positions to ensure job security and stability for women. Part-time positions and re-entry would also help transition new parents back into a career in academia. Allowing work from home, offering work time on grants, reduced workload options, providing child care and ensuring fairness when hiring committees are also floated as possible solutions to the issue. “The [old] model boxes in men as well as women. If we want to have excellent people who are good teachers, sensitive and supportive of their students, they need to be more than uni-dimensional. They need to have an outside life,” said Donna Lero from the University of Guelph, Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology, told The Globe and Mail that “it is too early to speculate on what actions the government will take to address this important issue,” but noted the percentage of Canada research chairs held by women has doubled to 26 per cent since 2001.
ELSEWHERE IN COMMENT
VAR.ST/COMMENT
An op-ed from UTSU president SHAUN SHEPHERD regarding the AGM
26 NOVEMBER 2012
pg 10
pATRiCk lOVE/THE VARSiTy
comment@thevarsity.ca
Deadlock, dead loss
The polarized state of student politics represents a failure of leadership on all sides Olivia Forsyth-Sells VARSITY STAFF
This year’s UTSU Annual General Meeting, held Thursday, boasted one of the largest student turnouts in recent years. The ongoing controversy over what opponents call the UTSU's lack of transparency came to a head at one of the most contentious AGMs to date. From the beginning, both sides behaved in such a way that any positive or productive conclusion to the meeting seemed impossible. The conversation between union executives and the union’s opponents was not a professional discourse, as both sides’ behavior contributed to the downward spiral of the event. Following several preliminary speeches, which all seemed preemptively aggressive, discussing how the students in attendance ought to ‘behave’ and be polite, UTSU president Shaun Shepherd took the microphone to make his president’s address. This included showing a self-aggrandizing video promoting the union’s successes this year, which, given that the event was hours behind schedule, probably could have been skipped. Throughout his speech, students held up signs saying, “online voting now” — to which Shepherd responded, “Really, guys?” in a tone that suggestion he had no intention of addressing the actual message of the signs.
After countless interruptions, impolite shouts and general heckling, Shepherd became visibly emotional. He dropped his notes, removed his glasses, and — in what I’m sure seemed like an act of bravery at the time — informed the attendees that he is “suffering from depression” and has experienced severe stress resulting from the online ‘bullying ’ his executive has been facing. Following Shepherd’s speech, the meeting was called to order and then quickly came to an end as the first motion, to approve the agenda, failed. So it turns out that all the abuse, online bantering, and stress leading up to the AGM was a waste of time and of every student’s dollars. Neither party seemed willing to engage in a professional political discourse, which brought the meeting to a close before it could conduct business and before any real issues could be formally discussed. Given the child-like behavior of many present, even the very few issues raised could not be taken seriously. For this event, or any event like it, to be a success those who disagree must respect each other. At the AGM neither party was willing to do so, and this made Thursday’s meeting unproductive, which is ultimately detrimental to everyone. Unfortunately, Mr. Shepherd portrayed himself as a victim, and some of his critics will surely see this as weakness. I would like to be perfectly clear that I am not claiming that Mr. Shepherd’s actions were unjustified, nor do I diminish the significance of his public an-
nouncement. He had every right to become emotional over some of the truly hurtful things about his staff and himself that have been thrown around on the Internet; they could certainly lead to significant psychological distress. However, as a politician and as the leader of one of the largest student unions in Canada, he did not maintain his professionalism. Prior to his outburst, Shepherd was on ethically higher ground than his mouthy opposition. Yet by addressing, engaging, and reacting to their behaviour, he gave power to his hecklers — who didn’t deserve it — and diminished his own position. In that moment of apparent emotional honesty, in an attempt to explain himself on a very human level, he lacked the foresight to understand that as a leader, his role is to always be stoic, calm, and not allow to the opposition to see him sweat. Regrettably his actions will probably lead to more of this negative behavior — it worked this time, and will almost certainly work again. The conduct at the AGM represents nothing less than a failure of student leadership at this university. Both parties behaved in a way that diminished themselves, disrespected their opponents, distracted from the issues at hand, and quite frankly, embarrassed the student body in a public forum. Questions of professionalism aside, if progress is the main goal, these strong voices and personality, on both sides, must stop polarizing themselves into opposing camps that cause unnecessary conflict and stress, and as the AGM proved, are ultimately counter-productive.
10 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012
VARSITY COMMENT
comment@thevarsity.ca
A call for student solidarity An op-ed from the president of the University of Toronto Students’ Union Shaun Shepherd PRESIDENT OF THE UTSU
In the build-up to last week’s Annual General Meeting, it has been disappointing to see some students use the AGM as an opportunity to motivate a personal agenda at the expense of the entire UTSU membership. I have also witnessed members of our executive endure malicious personal attacks fueled by misinformation and political motivations. Posted on the UTSU Annual General Meeting’s Facebook event are a series of disrespectful comments made by a small group of students towards their peers. Why do these students perpetuate a divisive ‘us versus them’ mentality? I encourage UTSU members to challenge the rhetoric and grandstanding that took place on the floor of the AGM and in its lead-up because you are being misled. Student leaders who spoke at the AGM intentionally misrepresented their own awareness of the UTSU’s AGM procedures to disenfranchise their constituencies. For example, one of the student leaders speaking at the AGM has suggested that they have never received a response from UTSU executives as to how to bring forward agenda items for discussion at the AGM and those proposals were barred from reaching the AGM. These allegations are false and they only serve to disenfranchise the hundreds of
students in attendance at the AGM. As a result of the false allegations, the UTSU audit and bylaw amendments were not discussed, including those that would enshrine the rights of PEY students in the Faculty of Engineering to vote in UTSU elections. We are fortunate at this university to have student representation at the college, faculty, and university-wide levels. However, many of the college council representatives have teamed up to form an ‘opposition’ to the students’ union. Whose interest does this serve? I would argue that student representatives have a common interest, and the tensions perpetuated by some college and faculty councils hurts the students we all collectively represent. It also hurts those of us that make the commitment to serve students. As an elected representative, my mental health has taken a heavy toll from trying to maintain these relationships. Rather than being able to focus on outreaching to UTSU members to participate in their Union, I have been forced to defend myself from aggressive and relentless attacks from other student representatives. In my efforts to openly address questions and concerns, I have been met with hostility from some of my colleagues at the college and faculty level. My efforts to do the job UTSU members elected me to do are being undermined by the political agenda of some student leaders.
Our college and faculty council representatives must work in good faith with the UTSU to ensure issues are not lost in the absurdity of rehtorical speechs and ill-founded motions of non-confidence. It saddens me to know that this is the reality of our relationship with our college councils. However, it does not have to be this way. Student leaders from our colleges and faculties can and must re-evaluate how they engage with their students’ union. If we want to move forward, the commitment cannot rest solely on the UTSU, though my executive team remains committed to working together. Our college and faculty council representatives must work in good faith with the UTSU to ensure issues are not lost in the absurdity of rhetorical speeches and ill-founded motions of non-confidence. There are a number of forums available for student representatives to engage with the UTSU. Unfortunately, they are seldom taken advantage of. First and foremost, each college and faculty council president has a seat on the UTSU Board of Directors. This empowers these individuals with a direct forum to engage the UTSU Board of Directors. Second,
Full coverage of the AGM in News, pg 6
‘‘
students in each college and faculty have elected representatives to listen to and bring forward their concerns. Third, the Union hosts a series of monthly commission meetings, where projects are shaped with input received from all general members. As president, I believe strongly in making sure our organization reflects the needs of its members. I am always glad to hear from students with genuine ideas and suggestions to shape our Union. I do not support the misrepresentation of our Union, nor do I condone personal attacks on my colleagues, who inspire me with their dedication to our members by working 16-hour days. To my colleagues at the college and faculty level, I believe we can work together to build a stronger University community. I hope you’ll take me up on the offer. Shaun Shepherd is president of the University of Toronto Students' Union
AGM video coverage, broadcast.thevarsity.ca
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VARSITY COMMENT
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012
11
In the quest for acceptance, initiations are a step too far Shared interests, similar personalities, or simple friendliness should be enough to establish belonging Anne Rucchetto VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
My Saturday night took an interesting turn on the way to St. George station last weekend. Walking south on Bedford, approaching Bloor, my friends and I neared a group of four freshman lining the sidewalk. They stood with impeccably straight backs, facing a characteristically stately Annex home, made unique by an unkempt lawn and a half-collapsed picnic table — the requisite characteristics of a university fraternity house. Dressed identically in black and holding thick, wooden paddles bearing characters in the Greek alphabet, they addressed us in monotonous unison: “Good evening.” The formal greeting combined with the ludicrous paddles gave me the impulse to laugh, and my friends and I slowed our pace to face them in curious bemusement. But within moments, taking in the rain, the paddles, how
late it was, and the intense air of coercion, any humour at their expense faded. In light of recent events that have brought highly publicized cases of bullying and exclusion to the fore, it seems ludicrous that these hopeful pledges would subject themselves to a senseless display of submission. “You know, you guys don’t need to do this to make friends,” I heard myself saying, completely in earnest. “Yeah,” chimed in one of my friends, “Why would you do this to fit in with anyone? It doesn’t really seem like they’re trying to make you feel welcome.” This might seem like grade school logic, but if it really is, then why are these young adults agreeing to it? The conditions for admittance to groups vary across all social networks, but at this age it is nothing less than demoralizing to subject oneself to degrading hazing rituals, whatever tradition they might represent. Why shouldn’t shared interests, similar personalities, or simple friendliness suffice to initiate a
friendship? Regardless of any allure that an organization might hold for reasons of prestige, prominence, or acceptance, it is baffling that anyone would be interested in a network that demands inconvenience at the least, and humiliation, danger, and dehumanization at the worst — even if it is only initially. The pledges remained upright, but a tremor of doubt passed across their faces as they tittered nervously at our remarks. As if on cue, a man with a brown parka and significantly larger paddle appeared abruptly and filled the space between us and his fraternity’s hopefuls. “Did these guys say ‘good evening’ when you passed by?” he inquired curtly. “Yes.” “Well then, good night.” The statement seemed more like a demand than a farewell. We proceeded on our way, marvelling at the suddenness with which the pledges’ mentor had emerged from the woodwork. Our innocuous probing proved to be more offensive
Canada’s Caribbean opportunity Greater integration would benefit both Canada and Caribbean nations David Woolley VARSITY STAFF
These are strange times for the Caribbean. On November 6, Puerto Rico held a referendum to decide its international status. Currently the island is a Commonwealth within the United States, meaning it cedes control of its foreign affairs and defense to the U.S. while maintaining self-government and not paying U.S. taxes. However, the island’s nearly four million residents do not have a vote in Congress or the Electoral College, which elects the U.S. president. In the referendum, 61 per cent of voters chose full U.S. statehood over independence or greater autonomy. Jamaica, about half the size of Puerto Rico, has just marked the 50th anniversary of its independence from the United Kingdom. Yet in a June 2011 poll, 60 per cent of Jamaicans said the island would be better off if it returned to British colonial rule. Six months after that poll was taken, the citizens of Jamaica removed the Jamaican Labour Party from power. The party’s rule had been defined by one of the highest murder rates in the world and a dismal economy. De-
spite the party’s ouster, there are few signs that Jamaica’s prospects will have a significant turnaround in the near future. This is an opportunity for Canada. The Caribbean region has long been the almost exclusive domain of the United States and the influence of coastal states — particularly Florida and Texas — has historically been integral to the history and development of the region’s Spanish-speaking nations. However, of the 22 independent countries in the Caribbean, 14 speak English and eight of those have the British Queen as their head of state, like Canada. They also share with Canada the Westminster parliamentary system and tradition of Common Law. Canada is also home to a sizeable West Indian population, many of whom still have family in the Caribbean. These nations currently receive large amounts of foreign aid from the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the People’s Republic of China in an attempt to shore up votes at the UN. But this bankrolling has done little to improve the lives of those in the region. A sluggish economy and high poverty rates are the regrettable norm. Yet a concerted effort by Canada to turn this around would provide significant advantages for both the Caribbean and Canada.
There are lots of voices on campus. Make yours heard. comment@thevarsity.ca
By signing agreements to allow for the free movement of goods, capital, and people, Canada could open the region up to a massive influx in investment in agriculture, natural resources, banking, and tourism. Canadian universities and colleges would be open to Caribbean students, while Caribbean workers could help meet Canada’s labour shortage. Students would return to their nations better equipped to handle the demands of an advanced economy, while workers would send back much of their pay cheques to help pay expenses back home. As the standard of living rises, greater integration could be pursued with the express desire of bringing the region into Canada’s confederation. At that point, Canada would not only have brought into its fold a sizeable population and economy, but would also have greater access to the growing Central and South American markets. The desire to seek alternatives to independence has never been greater in the Caribbean, and Canada has never had a better chance to exercise its influence there. Greater economic, social, and eventual political union would be a boon for all parties.
than we could understand. Offering a perspective that was critical of this useless vindictivness risked puncturing the mystique of a high-minded ritual, which made the midnight paddler’s farewell seem acutely vulnerable. At a time when bystanders stepping forward to offer support for people who are being taken advantage of, mocked, and exploited is more vital than ever — globally and locally — we left the scene of the initiation ritual feeling collectively discomfited. Sadder yet, it struck us that in encouraging those young men to stand up for themselves and seek friends without highly conditional qualifiers of admission, we were being more supportive peers than their disgruntled supervisor will ever be. Although those young men might have been pledging the fraternity to seek a source of confidence and collective identity, the panicked reaction of their mentor will hopefully have signalled to them how far from acceptance they really were on that dreary Saturday night.
Recognizing the struggles of disabled students Julia Cottrelle VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
Despite its thumping footsteps, we rarely stop to notice the elephant in the room. The elephant in question is the physical disabilities and mental illnesses from which we protect ourselves with blinders. Unless we are a part of the accessibility mailing list, these important issues likely don’t ever make it to the forefront of our thoughts. As someone on the receiving end of this mail, I am shocked to note that each time I read an update, it is the first time I have thought about the struggle of the physically disabled since the last e-mail arrived in my mailbox. I am not alone. In fact, many are not even aware of the disabled population on campus and their complex and endless struggles. The Tetra Club strives to disconnect the ‘dis’ from disability and we could all learn from their work. For 25 years, the Tetra Society of North America’s mission has been to improve the lives of the disabled by designing uniquely tailored devices. That is precisely the quest that fourth-year club leaders Andrea Pagotto, Fiona MacLeod, and Divia Hobson continue to pursue. U of T’s ambitious chapter is one of many across North America. In the past, the focus of the club has been on creating devices for the GTA at large, but this year Pagotto and MacLeod have turned their focus to developing devices for U of T students struggling with the limitations of their disabilities. Anyone can request a device through the Tetra website. A recent meeting was held at U of T to determine what devices would aid students best — developing such projects is the primary objective of the club at present. Pagotto and MacLeod gave a run-down of some of the projects that the club had taken on in the past. The first project they described pertained to an iPhone. The remedy that they worked out was a “sip and puff device.” The user sucks through a straw, creating a change in air pressure that can control the device’s touch screen interface. Pagotto, MacLeod, and Hobson urge U of T students grappling with complex disabilities, who are plagued by daily problems that urgently require solutions, to reach out for help. What is more, they encourage U of T students from diverse backgrounds to get involved with the chapter. All students should take the time to recognize the challenges that their disabled peers face, and help make their lives easier.
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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012
VARSITY COMMENT
comment@thevarsity.ca
The rise of resume tourism
International volunteering is becoming more about the experience and less about helping Alec Wilson VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
My generation is plagued, like those before it, by the criticisms of its predecessor. We hear that we are entitled, that we don’t know the meaning of a hard day’s work, but a new dig at our integrity is starting to register among the cacophony of captious voices. We are accused of being shallow and disingenuous. We have become too enamored with accolades, with prizes and trophies for accomplishment’s sake and have lost the spirit of trying, of learning. Surprisingly enough, a recent conversation with a friend had me seeing some substance in this affront to my generation’s character. I do not see this questioning of our motives as a condemnation of all of my peers, but there are certainly some of us who are guilty of such posturing, particularly in the arenas of charity and humanitarianism. This friend of mine recently returned from the cold of far Northern Quebec where he had spent several weeks living among a
struggling First Nations community. He, like many others of his cohort, including myself, is a relatively privileged Canadian university student. It is with this group that I’m concerned. I too have spent time in my life ‘doing some good.’ In the summer of 2010, I spent almost a month living and volunteering in Cambodia. As my friend and I discussed the commonality of our experiences — the culture shock and juxtaposition in quality of life — we came to a sobering realization. We had each taken on these endeavors for selfish reasons. This is not to say that my entire generation consists of shameless ladder climbers, eager to do what is necessary to succeed professionally and socially, but it is a growing trend nevertheless. We have come to expect something from everything we do, even from charitable work. I put aside a significant amount of my own summer earnings, begged my parents for money, and spent countless hours fundraising, all so that I could go and help some people, about whom all I knew — or presumed — was that they needed
my help. I never asked myself the difficult questions about why I was going or what I was doing. I had picked Cambodia from a list, with no inspiration other than that it was one of the more reasonably priced trips available and sounded exotic; a small, often forgotten country in South East Asia, a silent but substantial casualty of the Vietnam era, its people impoverished, its infrastructures failing — it was perfect. The currency of humanitarianism on any resume was something I was too aware of, and which I was eager to take advantage pf. I do not wish to paint my friend or myself as heartless or deliberately underhanded. We are young and lucky to have at least realized our superficiality in retrospect. We had fallen prey to the commoditization of charity. We are better versed in what we stand to gain from helping others — namely a perceived well roundedness that schools and employers alike pine for — than what we stood to learn about other people and, most importantly, about ourselves. In a recent commencement speech-turned-viral video, David
McCullough Jr. warned the graduating students of Wellesley High of the incipient risks of an accolades-overexperiences worldview, in which such a trip “becomes more about the application to Bowdoin than the well-being of Guatemalans.” I would like to mirror these sentiments. I was shocked to find upon entrance into university that my personal voluntourism experience pales in comparison to those of some of my higher-achieving classmates. Some had taken it upon themselves to create their own charitable organizations; others had been on several trips where I had been on only one. More often than not, their chronicling of such endeavours reveals the tensions that exist between their initially naïve, self-consumed motivations and expectations for getting involved, and their subsequent processing of the gravity of the differences witnessed and assumptions challenged. I do not intend to cheapen their experiences or their accomplishments, or cast aspersions on the sincerity of their dedication. I only wish to stress
the importance of forethought and perspective when we endeavor on these kinds of adventures. I wondered if my friend’s experience instilled in him some worldview, harmless or not, about the people he had helped and their needs. It is of the utmost importance that we do not become the first generation to be so invigorated with the gravity of our own sensitivity for differences of privilege, that our sympathy becomes so righteous that we fail to recognize our prejudice. For all of our willingness to help, for whatever reason, we should not presume that others are in absolute need of our help, or that our help is absolute. For too many of us, charity has come to represent an ‘in’ — another way of getting a leg-up. If anything, looking back on my trip, I am struck by the realization that maybe my post-hoc guilt over my questionable intentions and ambitions doesn’t matter in the long run. Some benefit was given and received. I just wish that my peers and I had the benefit of purer and humbler motivations at the departure gate.
Don’t forget domestic volunteering If you want to make a difference, start in your local community Svetlana Maleva VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
william ahn/The VarsiTy
There are many factors that could motivate high school and post-secondary students to seek opportunities for volunteering overseas: personal satisfaction, the possibility of increased social esteem, improving your resume, extra-curricular requirements — the list goes on. But is every young person the most suitable candidate for volunteering abroad and is it a good investment for both volunteers and those that are to receive their assistance? While motivation is in no short supply among prospective volunteers in this age group, it is worth questioning whether that motivation is really of the correct sort. That is not to say that those with a sincere interest in cross-cultural interaction and providing assistance to developing countries should not become involved in such programs. Volunteer hours and extracurricular activities are encouraged — and in some cases — required in order to earn a high school diploma or for post-secondary applications. Furthermore, in a competative world, employers and scholarships seek those who have demonstrated some form of community involvement, and prefer voluntary experience to academic achievement. But while motivation for overseas volunteering may often be altruistic, it isn’t always so. While an experience such as helping to build an elementary school in a developing country might seem to speak to selflessness and culture-consciousness on your resume, if you do not feel
that volunteering abroad is something that you can truly be dedicated to, you’d be better of saving yourself and your parents several thousand dollars and volunteering domestically. The issue of global development is a highly complex one. If you feel that it is a course that you may be willing to pursue and explore in-depth, then it may be that volunteering abroad is for you. On the other hand, if you’re interested in making a difference in the lives of others, consider donating your trip money to a reputable charity focusing on issues in your home country or in a developing country that truly needs the money. Several thousand dollars in charitable contribution can make a real difference. Another question is whether or not the people and communities whom these programs are meant to assist really benefit from them. Those international volunteers who are dedicated and passionate about global development can make effective contributions in assisting developing communities and representing their home country on a global scale, while having a valuable cultural experience. But volunteering abroad should be seen as a much more serious matter than an opportunity for tourism, which is how some currently perceive it. If you want to make a difference, examine other possible options that could also fulfill your personal goals before deciding that you are the right person for volunteering abroad. If you would like simply to beautify your resume, you should save your efforts for organizations in your local community.
var.st/comment
VARSITY COMMENT
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012
13
LETTERS TO
Vol CXXXIII, No. 09, November 19, 2012
THE EDITOR
I was ‘privileged’ enough to have the time to attend the AGM, but the lack of accessibility to basic voting on campus is the reason there is a turnout problem on campus. If the Union's representatives really want to hear the voice of its members, it will welcome this idea at the table.” — Shannon Nieve (from web)
Trudeau visits University of Toronto campus The Liberals have had two totally unsuited teachers as leader, why would they consider another one, especially one of considerably lesser stature? One who has demonstrated his unsuitability to be an MP, let alone PM, with his foul-mouthed outburst on the floor of the house. People like Garneau and Findlay bring a large measure of intelligence, experience, and new ideals to the morally bankrupt Liberals. One must hope that they renew with brains rather than seeking glory in a name, not particularly loved by many. If the Liberals fail there is a real danger of the NDP actually becoming the government; then we [will] become like Greece is today. — puzzled2 (from web) Arrest, assaults overshadow “men’s issues” lecture Well, the way to respond to a point of view you find objectionable is definitely organized thuggery. Can anyone imagine what this institution would be like if anyone who could put together a mob was allowed to dictate what could or couldn't be discussed here? I'm unsurprised to find Danielle Sandhu, who has never been legitimately elected to represent any one for any reason shouting and yelling that she represents the students of U of T. Maybe one day she will find the courage to replicate the assault and destruction of property that she advocated as UTSU president and finally be removed from this campus. — Rishi Maharaj (from web) …some of the comments made by Warren Farrell are pretty horrific: date fraud? He doesn't seem to have his head screwed on. Definitely not a great protest, but I can also understand the level of outrage that lead to the protester's reactionary behaviour. Reading some of the misinformed and anti-women comments on this site is pretty upsetting too. However, it is a relief to hear [some] speak respectfully and coherently on the subject. — Hanna (from web) …'Being Sexual', as you'd term it, is convoluted victim blaming. Your attempt to justify misogyny and rape culture is sad-
dening to say the least and the notion that some perception of ‘body language’ gives one the right to ignore direct and absolute verbal instruction is indeed an endorsement of rape. Members of CAFE and folks like yourself are just bigots wearing the mask of equity, misusing statistics and language to weak and pitiful ends... — Brad Evoy (from web)
Vol CXXXIII, No. 10, November 26, 2012 UTSU agenda voted down at annual general meeting The disapproval of the agenda signifies a move towards reform perhaps. It is important now that students voice their opinion about the issues that need to be addressed so that we may constructively discuss them in the next general members' meeting. The turnout at the AGM was much better than previous year as stated in this article. I’m glad this was the case. I love seeing participation rates of UTSU members increase like this. Cheers. — Christopher Balette (from web) ‘It's privilege’? Let's talk about privilege: Having the financial liquidity to run against a heavilyfunded platform in the UTSU Elections, something very few students have. Student that do not run on the CFS platform have very little chance of winning. They are comparably overburdened financially and procedurally and when they try and address the problem, their efforts are stymied.
I find it offensive to have well-organized, thoroughly discussed perspectives which happen to be in opposition of the current UTSU mandate and electoral system be dismissed as the result of our lack of awareness of our own ‘privilege’ or ‘misunderstanding.’ To claim such is to label us too stupid to appreciate the complexities of this system and develop any legitimate opinions of our own about it. Over 300 students did not crowd into that room because we thought it might be fun to cause a political mess in accordance of our own blissful ignorance. Despite the fact that the 30 Board Directors and 6 executives combined to provided as many as 396 votes in favour of their stance (due to a proxy system that is an absolute affront to democratic voting in every way), opposition still succeeded in toppling an agenda which portrayed a complete disregard for student concerns. We did that even though dozens of our supporters were forced to leave the event and forfeit hundreds more votes in our favour because they didn't have the 'privilege' of sitting around until 9.30 to vote on the agenda. We are not stupid rabble-rousers who are doing nothing more than procrastinating our essays, and it's terribly inappropriate for the executive to insinuate that the only reason any reasonable, intelligent person at U of T would disagree with them would be because we're confused or misguided. If that is how you feel, executive, then it is you who is ‘misunderstanding.’ — Aimee Quenneville See, this is partially due to a cadre of active, yet spiteful members of the Union who neither understand the key aspects of these organizations (like the need, fundamentally, to address matters like an audit) nor care to. It is high time to smash the hyper-partisanship of all Union and student organizations by ending slate campaigning AND curbing the misuse of proxies by all sides of this discussion… —Concerned Student (from web)
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The web for women
by Sophia Costomiris photos by Bernada Gospic
The messy collision of Pinterest, advertising, and gender online On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog. But chances are, they know your gender. Drifting through all that code is the promise of anonymity and equality, but for women, the Internet can be a very strange space.
Here’s how it works: 1. Tell women they aren’t good enough. 2. Tell them being perfect is achievable, but only through consumerism. 3. Label these goals “feminine” and deride them as “frivolous.” Logically then, the masculine must be the opposite: the selfcontent and the serious. 4. If women object to such a label, or try to exit the “feminine” sphere and share your masculine one, object. Get really angry. Call them names you wouldn’t call your mother. 5. ???? 6. PROFIT!!!!
Commoditizing femininity What is it like to be a woman on the Internet? If you’re a woman, you probably visit social networking sites more than men do: women account for 99 million more individual social networking hits a month than men. Pinterest is just one of these social networking sites, the Platonic form of the Female Internet. Created by Paul Sciarra, Evan Sharp, and Ben Silbermann, Pinterest allows users to share hyperlinked images in the form of “pins” — and those images, overwhelmingly, link to items you can buy. To say Pinterest is an example of the burgeoning gender divide on the Internet is an understatement: 82 per cent of its users are women, and they spend an impressive average of 14-plus minutes on the site per day. According to Internet analysis firm Comscore, this June Pinterest received around 31 million unique visits, no small total. This makes Pinterest a website of gigantic advertising appeal, because the advertising is crowdsourced: women are being recommended products by their peers, and those products and that advertising is, you guessed it, gendered. To understand the basic premises underlying gendered advertising, all you have to do is watch some deodorant commercials: Hey,
dude! Use this deodorant and you’ll be the manliest of all (Old Spice); Really sexy angels will fall from the sky to… um, sniff you (Axe). This is positive advertising. The emphasis is on what the product can do for you, the consumer. For women, the emphasis is different: there’s no leveling up from woman to Ultrawoman with a swipe of antiperspirant; instead, it’s all about making yourself the way you ought to be. An emphasis on presumed female inadequacies is central to the majority of women’s advertising. A man’s deodorant takes him from man to manliest man, to demi-god. A woman’s deodorant simply makes her the way she should be. Why? No one’s swiping their credit card faster than a woman who’s repeatedly been told she’s not being a woman in the right way. This doesn’t mean men don’t experience shame or poor selfesteem. It’s just that female dissatisfaction sells. This is Pinterest’s — bastion of overly-complicated manicures, throw pillows, and crockpot recipes — stock-in-trade. Designed as a social networking site, Pinterest has become an advertiser’s dream. It’s the ultimate resource for deliberately cultivated female dissatisfaction because it seems to provide so many solutions, most of them for a price.
Having it all What is it that Pinterest, and the rest of the “pink” Internet sells? It’s the Kelly Ripa mythology: having it all. Having it all isn’t a concept original to the Internet, but the Internet makes it seem so much easier. It’s the idea that the actualized modern woman is one en pointe at home with the kids and in the workplace (which is outside the home, natch). In addition to finding this perfect balance, the Kelly Ripa ideal tells women they should be welldressed, thin, happily married, and that their homes should resemble a combination of Crate & Barrel and Restoration Hardware. But she’s not having it all, she’s doing it all; household work and child-rearing are overwhelmingly still “women’s work,” with men putting in, on average, less than 20 minutes around the house every day. The failed dream of second-wave feminism was that by entering the workforce, women would become equal to men by not having to choose between work and family. In reality, though, men do face those choices — society just doesn’t tend to penalize them for it. Louis C.K. jokes that he’s a good dad just for showing up and spending time with his daughters. For men, childcare is above and beyond the call of duty, additional labour after a day at work, whereas no matter what it might say on her business card, a woman with children is a mother first. Yes, people have to make choices and things fall through the cracks: not all women want 18-hour office days, and not all women want motherhood. But our popular dialectic is one of the “working mom” — and when you’re trying to have it all, there’s very little that can’t be sold to you in the name of ease or style.
The female If Pinterest is the “pink” Internet, of course, there must be a “blue” internet. As a news aggregation site, Reddit would seem to be primarily gender neutral, but 84 per cent of its users are male. Is Pinterest really the “female Reddit” as Reddit users are fond of calling it? The site, which provides an equal platform for both serious discussion and epic trolling, makes its money from what are surely the net’s most unobtrusive ads. (Seriously, go to Reddit right now. There’s probably just an Amazon ad with a picture of Scarlett Johansson at the top of the page, and a moose on the side thanking you for not using Google Adblock. Now leave Reddit. It’s a timesink.) In a cultural sense, Reddit is, in fact, what we think of as prototypically male: supporting demographics aside, it’s equal parts serious news, overblown debate, toilet humour, and abrasive trolling. If Pinterest is your girlfriend, Reddit is your frattiest bro — drunk. These gendered divisions are as old, and as quaint, as Adam and Eve: Reddit, the masculine, is both earnest and lewd; Pinterest, the feminine, both frivolous and functional.
An emphasis on presumed female inadequacies is central to the majority of women’s advertising. A man’s deodorant takes him from man to manliest man, to demi-god. A woman’s deodorant simply makes her the way she should be. Gender roles, language, and what happens when they’re questioned Even in parts of the Internet that seem gender-neutral in terms of access and appeal, it’s not hard to discover jealously-guarded gender roles. It doesn’t take much browsing to find that women on the Internet face discrimination in every domain that is not specifically feminine, be it Reddit, gaming forums, or the scientific and skeptic communities. The propensity of Reddit users to refer to one another as “Sir” without evidence of the other commenter’s gender is evidence of this. Women commenting on sites or topics not designated as primarily feminine face gendered trolling and bullying that make sites like Pinterest, despite its emphasis on materialism, seem like a haven for women on the web. Chances are, if you are reppin’ someone’s biscuit recipe or workout routine, you won’t be called a “cuntbag” or sent threatening tweets or emails for weeks, as recently happened to Toronto tweeter Stephanie Guthrie. However much we might like to think of the Internet as a safe and open space, the fact is that in terms of
both advertising dollars and personal communication, the Internet is intensely gender-biased. You can see this tension in the linguistic tendencies of the Internet: on page after page, posters refer to women “females,” a term that while technically correct, is distant, clinical, and almost entirely confined to the web. Think about the last time you heard “female” used as a noun in real life. Outside of government forms, it’s primarily an adjective. On the Internet, the female is the alien. The pink alien. So what happens when women attempt to join a typically male Internet community? The Internet has been abuzz lately with the threat of “fake geek girls,” women who are co-opting the attributes of the geek community for (so the argument goes) male attention. Why is the geek community — whose borders are broad and porous, reaching from Rohan or Westeros into deep space — so zealously guarded against female interlopers? Is it because geekdom, and to a lesser
degree, the Internet itself, have been the province of men who don’t fit into society’s traditional masculine categories? In a post on science and entertainment site io9, Rachel Edidin, an editor at Dark Horse Comics, explains that “geek” is primarily a male-gendered noun, gendered for men who don’t fit America’s traditional model — either physical and cerebral — of masculinity, and thus that masculinity in the community is aggressively enforced. So it makes sense that women aren’t welcome, that they’re assumed to be there under false pretenses. When women want to game, or cosplay, or draw web comics, or do just about anything on the internet that isn’t shopping or personal blogging, they’re seen as a threat to geek culture because geek culture has for so long been a masculine refuge for men who were told by society at large that they weren’t manly enough, that any feminization indicates depreciation. And geekdom is protected, with bullying and gendered insults and threats.
Conclusion Those who assess Internet culture from outside its borders (say, your mother, or the New York Times) are fond of reminding us that anonymity leads to bullying. To be a woman on the Internet is to be confined to the continuous consumption of your own gender, or face serious outrage. Femininity, which has since the earliest days of advertising been linked with the frivolous and the intellectually inconsequential, has translated into binary with little change in form or function. Traditional feminine interests are met with disinterest and limited to certain sites, and any attempt to deviate from these interests is met with scorn and derision. Don’t believe me? Read the comments.
Arts & Culture
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
var.st/arts
A review of the new film, Hitchcock
26 NOvEMBEr 2012 arts@thevarsity.ca
var.st/arts
Making a Mochrie at Trin
Colin Mochrie visits U of T as the special guest of the Trinity College Comedy Collective Sam Feldman VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
November 20 was no ordinary night in the Trinity College junior common room. Eighty students crammed into every available crevice and all eyes were intently focused on a single person: Colin Mochrie. Mochrie visited U of T as the special guest speaker of the Trinity College Comedy Collective.
A veteran of Canadian comedy, Mochrie starred in This Hour Has 22 Minutes, The Royal Canadian Air Farce, Getting Along Famously, and two incarnations of Who’s Line is it Anyway? He also has more cameos under his belt than this article has room to list. But that night, instead of showcasing his legendary improv skills, Mochrie answered students’ questions and told stories about his illustrious career. The room echoed with laughter and the clinking of emptying beer bottles as Mochrie thrilled the crowd with his wild stories and insightful views on comedy.
The focus of the questions ranged from stage fright, to the Canadian comedy industry, to the social and political role of comedy. When asked if he has ever been starstruck, Mochrie told a story about his performance at the White House Correspondence Dinner and his subsequent invitation to tour the White House with Bob Dole and George W. Bush.
“If you go down to Comedy Bar at Ossington and Bloor… Eddie Izard is doing a couple of shows there, Pat Thornton just did 24 hours of comedy. A lot of the improv troupes are great, I think comedy [in Toronto] is doing very well.” —Colin Mochrie
Colin Mo c h
As the talk progressed, the tone became a little more philosophical. Mochrie discussed the arbitrariness of censorship, illustrating his point with a story about an argument that broke out on the set of Who’s Line is it Anyway? One of the show’s producers apparently wrangled with a censor about the quality and quantity of swear words that the actors could use per episode. According to Mochrie, the producer walked out of this heated debate to triumphantly tell the actors that they’d “lost a pussy but got two penises.” Mochrie’s talk at Trinity is just one of a series of events organized by Jacob Duarte Spiel, a Trinity College student. Last year, Spiel created the Trinity College Comedy Collective with the intention of bringing together likeminded comedy lovers. “For the first meeting no one showed up,” Duarte Spiel said with a laugh during an interview with The Varsity.
rie at Trinit y Colleg e . BEr a GOs N a rd piC/ t HE va rsit y
CONTINUED PG 19
Food for thought
“Bread and Butter” exhibit tackles issues of contemporary food supply Assunta Alegiani VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
Imagine someone in your proximity eating a banana. Not strikingly odd, is it? The “Bread and Butter” exhibit at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery showcases pieces that explore what is, in fact, problematic about this image and other issues concerning contemporary food supply in the Western World. Curator Sandy Saad spent about eight months looking for and approaching artists who engage with the very broad topic of food, a topic chosen by the Jackman Humanities Institute. “A lot of the themes of the exhibition came from the work of the artists,” she says. “Many contemporary artists were looking at industrialized food systems, the relationship between food and money, how accessible our food is now to certain people. Those were the ideas that came together and that is why we chose the title ‘Bread and Butter.’” Six artists in total were selected, all challenging the status quo with their work. Though the pieces differ in medium, style, and point of focus, they are all straight-forward in what they want to get across: that issues surrounding food are not hard to see, we just need to make an effort to look a bit further than our own kitchen table. For example, to get back to the banana, Ian Baxter’s photographic print Still Life with Win-
Transcend: Meeting Room by Ron Benner at JMB Gallery. saM CEN/tHE varsity
ter Vista sets a table lusciously abundant with tropical fruits against the backdrop of the Canadian winter landscape. Saad explains it references the Dutch Vanita style, “which exposes the mortality of things we live with.” The juxtaposition of the harsh winter environment with the foreign fruit “questions the availability of food, how we don’t even think about it.”
In a more humorous take on the issue, performance artist Christian Jankowski, fully equipped with bow and arrow, literally hunts for bargains at a Berlin supermarket in a looped video installation titled The Hunt. “He did this for a series of days at different places, until he got kicked out,” Saad says. But good comedy always includes an ele-
ment of tragic truth, and in The Hunt, the tragedy lies in the fact that nowadays, the arrow has become entirely obsolete. Industrialized food systems dissociate us from what we consume; today all that is needed to access our food is, at most, a pair of scissors to cut open the packaging of a store-bought product. Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge, on the other hand, shift focus to migrant farmers in Southern Ontario with their photo-shopped print series Salt On the Earth. By personifying Mother Earth in scenes of contemporary farming, they expose the entwined structure of corporate impact, environmental damage, and mistreatment of workers in the capitalist system. Trained in Indian miniature painting, Cole Swanson walks a similar path with his series of narrative pictures, though his gaze extends to other provinces. His stunningly intricate paintings, with ornamentations inherent to the area he depicts, further draw a link between corporations and cultural identity, a theme most evident in Roadside Monument: Portage La Prairie. Here, two happy factory workers, who clearly resemble two fast-food chain icons, stand on top of Manitoba’s Simplot Potato Processing Plant, holding up a giant potato. “The company produces fries for Wendy’s and McDonald’s and in the area everybody works there,” Saad explains.
CONTINUED PG 18
VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE
var.st/arts
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012
17
Coffee pure and simple
Voodoo Child café impresses with its minimalist menu and humble décor
Joshua Fumo VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
With the chilly winter season approaching, one Toronto café is providing what true coffee-lovers crave: a simple, sensibly-priced and artfully-crafted menu of drink specialties. Located at 388 College St. just east of Bathurst, Voodoo Child is the month-old creation of Scotty Daté and David Rad, whose minimalist concept is quickly gaining popularity across the city. Its interior is bright, thanks to a gigantic storefront window, and it features hardwood flooring, a distressed bar top, antique metal stools, and white walls covered in local artwork. Exposed-filament bulbs provide a cozy ambiance, perfect for when the sun goes down — an ethereal touch of warmth to combat winter's cold. Voodoo Child’s menu, like its decor, is beautiful in its simplicity; it offers only eight drink options beyond alcoholic beverages like beer and wine. Voodoo Child’s cappuccino ($3.25) is a robust yet
smooth combination of espresso and milk, topped with light, airy foam. The Cortado ($3), served in a miniature crystal goblet, packs a punch with less milk and more espresso. These café staples are served without sugar, meaning those of you who have never experienced pure espresso flavour may need to add some of the sweet stuff. If you are craving some sweetness, Voodoo Child offers one of the most pure and simple hot chocolates ($4) out there. A humble combination of cocoa powder, milk and sugar, it's the perfect drink to keep warm in the harshest of seasonal conditions. While Voodoo Child currently offers only a handful of snacks to pair with your drink — such as their signature banana bread ($4) which is made fresh daily — the cafe plans to start serving late-night cocktails on Fridays and Saturdays until 2 am, as well as weekend brunch for the morning after a night on the town. Voodoo Child is open 8 am–7 pm Sunday to Thursday, 8 am–9 pm on Fridays and Saturdays.
Voodoo Child, 388 College Street. CArOLyN LEVETT/THE VArSiTy
The final chapter Toronto Women’s Bookstore closes its doors after 39 years Danielle Klein
ASSOCIATE ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
On November 30, the Toronto Women’s Bookstore will close its doors after 39 years of business on Harbord Street. “The bookstore was founded in 1973, and it grew out of a need for women’s voices, books written by women, for women, and about women,” explains Victoria Moreno, the store’s owner. “There was a great need for this at the time and initially it did really well. At first, it was just one shelf of reference books, and the women who started it realized there was a significant need and started a bookstore. [The store has] always had its struggles, up and downs … even survived fires.” Moreno took over the store in August 2010, but has a long history of involvement with the bookshop, having worked there on and off since she was 19. Since it’s founding, the Toronto Women’s Bookstore has expanded its repertoire of content. “It’s considered a community bookstore with [an] emphasis on antioppression: social justice, women’s rights movements, children and parent family books, queer fiction, non-fiction,” Moreno says. “It’s a broad base, but it’s a left-leaning
Victoria Moreno, owner of the Toronto Women's Bookstore. SAM CEN/THE VArSiTy
bookstore, so it’s not something you can necessarily find on the shelves at Indigo.” In Moreno’s time at the store, she’s observed a declining connection to the surrounding community. Although the shop is right on campus at Harbord and Spadina,
Moreno doesn’t feel that the Women’s Bookstore is particularly connected to U of T, with only a few course orders each year from professors who want to support the store. “The bookstore has had a lot of people who have supported it in the past, but in
the past two and a half years, not many people have come through the door,” she notes. “I’m not blaming anyone for it. It’s obviously a sign of the times and how people are perhaps buying differently, reading differently, and [it’s also a sign of] a change in the way we socialize. “So, there have been obviously the few who come in regularly who have been supportive, but it’s a reality of independent bookstores that it’s hard to sustain [a business].” A popularly cited reason for the plight of independent bookstores is the introduction of e-books, which are cheap and eliminate the need to physically walk into a store at all. Moreno also points to large bookstores and online shopping as factors that are contributing to the decline of independent bookshops. “It’s not just e-books; it's Amazon, it’s Indigo. With such big box stores, you can find almost anything online, and when you’re in an economy such as we are, it’s really a challenge to compete with them, even if we were online. “Student’s don’t have the money, so when they’re opting to buy, if something is retail $20.00 and online you can find it used or half-priced, that’s the route
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Film Review: Anna Karenina Tolstoy’s classic novel gets an unexpected twist Leelan Farhan VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
"FOOD" CONTINUED FROM PG 16 Transcend: Meeting Room by Ron Benner is an installation that inhabits a whole room and was created specifically for the exhibition. Saad says: “The artist originally started out as an agricultural engineer but found there were so many things ethically wrong with this that he quit.” Henceforth, Benner has been travelling the world to trace where our food comes from (apparently Latin America, for the most part). Benner’s installation seems intended to resemble his office space, as the room is stacked with all his research books and photographs taken of places he visited. A
Keira Knightly in Anna Karenina. PHOTO COURTESY ALLIANCE FILMS
Anna Karenina is infused with a profound symbolism that becomes increasingly apparent as the plot begins to unravel. Particularly effective are the shots of churning train wheels,
gorgeous tabletop centerpiece not only provides food for thought, but is also quite literally filled with food; dried corn, nuts and seeds surround an old world map placed at the table’s center. Transcend: Meeting Room brings us back to the kitchen table, although this one is quite different from what most of us are accustomed to. Benner’s table reminds the exhibit's visitors of the link between imperialism and the spread of food — seeds that were taken from one place and then grown in another — and why it is that today, in cold, cold Canada, we can expect to have our banana every morning, without pausing for a second to think about it.
"BOOKSTORE" CONTINUED FROM PG 17 they’re going to choose. I think it’s a combination of all those things [that is] affecting the independent bookstore industry, and even the publishing industry. It’s all been affected by technology, not just bookstores but also art and music.” To revitalize the independent bookstore industry, Moreno believes there needs to be an effort made from both consumers and store owners. “I think it’s really important for everybody to continue to support independents,” she says. “Independent bookstores definitely have to move with the times and get online and do all that as well.”
Moreno explains that the Toronto Women’s Bookstore has not opened an online shop due to the cost involved. With the remaining stock, she plans to have a sale, return whatever is returnable (unfortunately only a nominal amount) and possibly establish a reference section in a local community centre with any books that are left over. Moreno is currently working on a documentary about the Toronto Women’s Bookstore, which will look at both the store’s history and its final month on Harbord. The film is tentatively titled The Final Chapter. Yet when it comes to her own future, Moreno is uncertain as to what lies in the years ahead. “I’m sort of overwhelmed with what’s involved in dismantling
this 39 year operation, so it’s been an emotional roller coaster and it’s been heart-wrenching,” she says. “I will definitely rest and I’m not certain what I’ll do next, but I’m open to job offers!” Moreno’s lease on the store goes until August 2014, so she is also currently seeking a sublease on the property. Although in recent years traffic through the door has been slow, Moreno maintains that the Toronto Women’s Bookstore has made a significant contribution to the community. “It’s provided a voice and an empowerment and a safe, comfortable space to be who we are and to challenge the norms and to challenge the politics. That’s what it’s meant for. It’s been a community hub in its time.”
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The much-anticipated adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (Dir. Joe Wright) uses wonderful symbolic elements to reconstruct the heart-wrenching classic novel. Set in nineteenth century Russia, Anna Karenina (Kiera Knightley), a wealthy aristocratic wife, has a heated affair with a highranking military official named Alexei Vronsky (Aaron Taylor Johnson). This affair continues even after her cold, emotionless husband Karenin (Jude Law) finds out about his wife’s lover. Wright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard do a phenomenal job of putting their own twist on a well-known and much loved novel. The entire film takes place against the backdrop of an abandoned theatre, as though the characters are putting on a play that they do not know is unfolding. Intimate, personal scenes between characters take place in the mezzanine of the theatre, and the settings of all the lavish parties are merely cardboard paintings. With every new scene, the background characters change the cardboard backdrops in an almost mechanical fashion, and the characters walk on and off stage accordingly.
which become more frequent as Anna starts to come undone. In another poignant scene towards the end of the film, Karenin is seen playing with his children in the very field in which Anna and Alexei have made love. Kiera Knightley is just as good as the vulnerable, insecure Anna Karenina as she was in the film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, in which she played the strong, determined Elizabeth Bennet. The chemistry between Anna and Alexei is undeniable and charged with electricity, bringing their desire to life. Knightley and Taylor-Johnson make the love between Alexei and Anna palpable, prompting the audience to question the social constructions of love, desire, and marriage that still exist today. In spite of the length of the novel, Stoppard managed to stay true to the many themes that Tolstoy injected into the plot, such as the importance of true love, family bonds, forgiveness and even social change. Yet the plot never feels rushed or oversaturated. The beauty of this adaptation of Anna Karenina lies in the fact that it can stand on its own. With or without Tolstoy’s novel as inspiration, the film would leave the audience entirely enthralled by Anna’s moving story and tragic fate.
VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE
var.st/arts "MOCHRIE" CONTINUED FROM PG 16 “[But] I’d already [planned] to invite comedians to come in and talk, in order to give us some guidance.” During the second meeting, Spiel brought in local voice actor and comedian Dwain Hill (of Arthur, 6Teen, and Crash Canyon fame) and the meeting drew a substantially larger crowd than it had the first time around. “I kind of realized maybe that’s all the
club should be,” Duarte Spiel said. “Maybe it should just be a series of talks.” The Trinity College Comedy Collective has since hosted increasingly bigger names, from local stand-up Bobby Knauff, to Kids in the Hall’s Scott Thompson and Mark Mckinney, to Governor General Award-winning playwright George F. Walker. Duarte Spiel sees these talks not only as a means of offering guidance to aspiring comics, but also as a starting point for getting
high profile comedians to perform at U of T. “I would love to see a comedy festival,” he noted. “A lot of students feel like numbers [on such a large campus]. A good way to fix that [is to] give something back to them.” Jacob believes that comedy is one way that U of T can combat its reputation as a less-than-fun place to study. Toronto has one of the best — if not the best — comedy scenes in Canada, something that Mochrie affirmed during his talk at Trinity College. “If you go down to Comedy Bar at Ossington and Bloor… Eddie Izard is doing
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012
a couple of shows there, Pat Thornton [a local comedy hero, starring in such shows as Punched Up and Hot Box] just did 24 hours of comedy. A lot of the improv troupes are great, I think comedy [in Toronto] is doing very well.” Comedy is cheap to produce, can be performed almost anywhere, and, as Spiel’s talks clearly demonstrate, comedians tend to attract quite an audience. One can only hope that in the near future, U of T will take more advantage of the tremendous cultural resources at its disposal. Until then, comedy fans can get their fix, thanks to Jacob Duarte Spiel and the Trinity College Comedy Collective.
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Colin Mochrie chats with students at Trinity College. BERNARDA GOSPIC/THE VARSITY
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Science
FROM THE ARCHIVES
var.st/sCIENCE
BIANCA LEMUS takes a translucent look at holograms
26 NOvEMBEr 2012
var.st/science
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Antidepressants will not harm child’s IQ U of T research debunks myth surrounding mood medication JaNICE LIu/tHE varsIty
Shradha Talwar VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
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New compound reveals intriguing properties of uranium Uranium nitride linkage more than just a triple bond Cristina Olteanu
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
Researchers from the Universities of Nottingham and Manchester recently created a once-elusive chemical compound containing a uranium-nitrogen triple bond. Published in Science, their work features the chemical synthesis of the new uranium nitride linkage and a thorough investigation of its properties. Scientific studies of the uranium nitride linkage were inspired by an interest in the fundamental chemistry of uranium, as well as its possible function as a ceramic fuel for advanced nuclear reactors. In the past, little was known about the reactivity of the uranium– nitride linkage, due to the difficulty of isolating and creating the necessary functional group. The triple bond is usually created by reducing dinitrogen or ammonia with uranium at high temperatures and pressures. However, this is a harsh reaction that creates impurities, making it difficult to study the molecule. Attention has more recently been focused on isolation techniques at low temperature and pressure. The researchers’ synthetic strategy combined a very large, bulky ligand with a two-electron oxidation using sodium azide. The resultant sodium salt was treated with a crown ether, a
chemical efficient at chelating cations such as sodium, to free the anionic product in solution. They designed and synthesized the sterically demanding ligand known as TrenTIPS. A large ligand needed to be chosen to protect the reactive uranium core from decomposition via competing side-reactions. By obtaining an X-ray crystal structure, the scientists determined that product had two U-N bonds bridged by two sodium cat-ions. The chelating cyclic ether 12-crown-4, added later to the reaction mixture, grabbed the sodium ions, revealing the free uranium nitride anionic product. Another X-ray structure revealed the once-elusive functional group U≡N in this compound. To understand the fundamental properties of the linkage, researchers calculated the electronic structure of the compound. There is one uranium electron residing in the 5f nonbonding orbital. This electron is very easily removed from the valence shell, a testament to its vital importance in chemical reactions. The U≡N triple bond is a result of two π orbitals and one σ orbital, with the σ orbital being higher in energy. The natural bond order of the uranium nitride bond was found to be 30 per cent uranium and 70 per cent nitrogen in character. The U≡N bond order is 2.91, close to three, as expected for a triple-bond.
Transition metal complexes containing multiple bonds to nitrogen, carbon, or oxygen atoms are critical in a wide range of important chemical and biological transformations. The researchers were interested in developing new catalysts for chemical reactions involving uranium as the transition metal component. In order to rationally design these catalysts, the stability of various uranium compounds, such as the reported uranium nitride, needed to be investigated. The preparation of the complex allowed for the first comparisons between experimental and computationally-calculated orbital energies of uranium, which were found to match closely. The researchers were also interested in the role of uranium nitride as nuclear fuel in fast neutron nuclear reactors. This compound is considered to be superior to others because it has a higher melting temperature, thermal conductivity, and fissionable density. It is considered to have stable mechanical, thermal, and radiation properties in comparison to uranium fuel. The new understanding of the physicochemical properties of the uranium nitride linkage will help to more accurately predict long-term stability of this functional group as a ceramic nuclear fuel as this molecule becomes a more likely candidate for practical applications in nuclear reactors.
Hormones raging, scattered emotions, and morning sickness — pregnancy can be a scary time. Many women adopt certain restrictions and habits during the course of a pregnancy for the welfare of their unborn child, whether that is limiting caffeine, listening to classical music, or refraining from heavy lifting. Another maxim that most people seem to agree with is that the less medication you take while pregnant, the better. Many believe that drugs, from painkillers to sleep medications, can be harmful for their unborn child, and so they refrain from taking them during pregnancy. And for good reason: there have been numerous studies linking certain medications to impaired fetal development. However, a problem arises when the mother is suffering from an illness that is harmful to the baby as well. Many people don’t regard depression as being a physical illness; however, it is a mental illness that can have a vast array of negative physiological effects on the mother’s body and on the developing fetus. Antidepressants come with a large amount of stigma and many women prefer to avoid them during pregnancy. Recent U of T research suggests that this stigma is unfounded. A paper published earlier this month in the American Journal of Psychiatry by Dr. Irena Nulman of SickKids Hospital and the University of Toronto shows that there is no difference in intelligence between children whose mothers took antidepressants and those whose mothers left their depression untreated. Although children of healthy mothers (those not afflicted by mental illness), exhibited the highest intelligence, Nulman’s study failed to find an effect of antidepressant medication on children’s intellectual or behavioral outcomes. The study tracked the long-term outcome of different antidepressants on child neurocognitive development and behavioural abilities. There were four possible conditions for the mother: no depression, depression left untreated, depression treated with SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) and depression treated with venlafaxine. Nulman’s study was the first to compare the use of antidepressants during pregnancy and child IQ over a extended period of time. The study was conducted using about 200 participants over the span of four to five years, making it much more difficult to carry out than a simple pregnancyoutcome experiment. Nulman notes that in the latter “the results are documented in the delivery room,” making it relatively easy to complete. In previous studies, researchers reported “neurodevelopmental outcomes as secondary, whereas this study focuses on it as the primary concern,” says Nulman. The interesting thing about this experiment is the fact that there is a condition in which depression is left untreated. “Selective reuptake inhibitors antidepressants have been around for over 26 years and there is a lot of research surrounding them. But these studies fail to separate the effect of the drug and the depression itself,” Nulman explains. It is important to note that Dr. Nulman’s study found that depression during pregnancy is a high predictor of postpartum depression (80 per cent of untreated mothers went on to suffer from this condition), which can be extremely harmful for the mother, the baby and the family. Also, as supported by a vast field of research in psychology and neuroscience, postpartum depression puts the child at risk for cognitive impairment and psychopathology. Thus, taking antidepressants during pregnancy should not be avoided as they do not seem to have an effect on their child’s IQ in the long term, and are beneficial for both the mother and the child. In fact, the depression itself can turn into a bigger problem if left untreated.
VARSITY SCIENCE
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Science in brief Duke University researchers create an invisibility cloak
Synthetic skin almost the real deal
Rusty solar technology shines
In 2006, engineers from Duke University manufactured the first functional cloaking device, which worked moderately well, but reflected too much light to be completely undetectable. A member of that team has now improved the design and has created the most effective cloaking device to date. The first iteration of the cloaking device weakened electromagnetic waves by reflecting some of the waves at the boundary of the device. Nathan Landy, a graduate student working with the same team from 2006, explained that it was like looking through a clear glass of water. One is able to look through the glass, but enough light is reflected by the glass to see it as well. The cloaking device the team developed is divided into four quadrants, with most of the unwanted reflection occurring at the edges and corners where the quadrants meet. Landy discovered a way to reduce the amount of reflection by shifting each quadrant of the cloak so that it meets its mirror image at each interface, greatly improving its invisibility. This new research in shaping the direction of light has lead to the emergence of a new field called transformational optics. This research could be applied to fibre optics, smoothing out the bends in fibre optic cables, which normally dampen the light wave data with each turn. The results from the Duke experiments were published online in the November 11 issue of Nature Materials.
It’s almost impossible to believe that synthetic materials can successfully mimic the largest organ of the human body: the skin. Our skin is responsible for sending information about the environment to the brain. Creating a synthetic material that can readily perform these roles required great innovation by Dr. Zhenan Bao and her Chemical Engineering team at Stanford University. While there have been many advances in this field over the past decade, the main obstacle was creating a material that was commercially feasible. In the past, most selfhealing materials only worked at very high temperatures, or changed their mechanical structure when healing at room temperature. This, compounded with the fact that most self-healing materials were terrible conductors, was a major roadblock. Bao and her colleagues were able to overcome these issues. How? They used a plastic held together by hydrogen bonds and weak electrostatic interactions, which can reconnect when the material is split. To render the material conductive, they embedded tiny pieces of nickel into the plastic compound. Additionally, the material can sense pressure and tension due to changes in distance between nickel particles. The result is a compound that is extremely sensitive to external stimuli and restores itself to 100 per cent capability with half an hour of being lesioned. What’s even more impressive is the composite compound’s ability to sense flexion. This ability makes this synthetic skin ideal for prosthetics. Synthetic skin can also be used to coat wires and electric devices, so as to decrease maintenance costs when damages occur.
To decrease humankind’s dependence on carbon dioxide-producing fuels, solar energy must be used. The sun shines only intermittently, so technology is needed in order to harvest and store solar energy. Finding a method to efficiently convert sunlight to hydrogen, a chemical fuel that can be stored, is arguably one of science’s most important challenges. This month, Avner Rothschild and coworkers from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology reported exciting progress in this field. They have used ultrathin (less than 50 nanometres) film made of iron oxide (rust) to improve the efficiency of electrodes in systems that split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Previously used electrodes made of iron oxide were durable and cheap, but inefficient. They were either good absorbers of light or good collectors of the charge produced by the absorbed light, never both. Rothschild’s finding removes the need to sacrifice absorption for collection or vice versa: the researchers use a strategy they call “resonant light trapping” which improves light absorption close to the surface of the material. This absorption causes formation of positive charges, and since the charges produced are so close to the surface, they are quickly collected before dying off. The authors of the report suggest that their strategy can be applied to many other electrode materials in addition to iron oxide, which may lead to cheaper and even more efficient electrodes. A viable system for the storage of solar energy for on-demand use is now one step nearer.
— Alexander Mihaescu Source: Science Daily
— Sneha Raju Source: Science Daily
— Trevor Janes Sources: ScienceDaily and Nature Materials
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The physics behind the movie Skyfall and other Bond flicks Katrina Vogan
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
The twenty-third movie in the James Bond franchise, Skyfall, wallows rather appropriately in the concept of age and modernity, (minor spoilers for the overall plot of the movie follow). What good are physical spies in an era of cybercrime and internet espionage? Are old fashioned models of espionage useful in the modern day? It’s not hard to see the WikiLeaks Scandal in the action of the plot. In an effort to re-establish Bond as relevant for modern day audiences, one of the most escapist franchises ever make an attempt at realism. In a wonderfully self-referential scene, the reintroduction of Q as a hacker genius drives home Skyfall’s commitment to verisimilitude in a nod to the kitsch of Bond’s past. “What,” he quips, “were you expecting an exploding pen?” Q’s gifts to Bond — a gun only he can shoot and radio tracking hardware — are scientifically plausible. The human palm print is just as unique as the human fingerprint; keying a gun to the palm print is a logical way to ensure that only one person can shoot it. Radio waves are also used in the tracking of animals. There’s a historical precedent for use of radio technology in military offenses: in World War II, what the Americans called Radio Detection And Ranging (RADAR) played a major part in the Allied victory. These gadgets are practical — they lack the whimsy and outlandishness of some of the earlier Bond technology. The irony is, of course, that a sizeable portion of the appeal of the Bond franchise comes from those “exploding pens.” Bond
technology has always favoured the cool factor over scientific reasoning. His outlandish gadgets are as much a part of his image as his martini order. Of course, standards of outlandishness change with time. In 1963, calling the office from your car seemed outlandish, but now nearly everyone can do what Sean Connery’s Bond does in From Russia with Love thanks to the invention of the mobile phone. In 2008’s Quantum of Solace, M uses a table that functions as one large tablet computer. The iPad was released in 2010, two years later. Moonraker depicted a space base in 1979; the International Space Station was launched November 20, 1998. Possibly the single most derided Bond gadget, in 2002’s Die Another Day, is the invisible car. Roger Moore, himself intimately familiar with the more “imaginative” Bond technology, commented that he thought that the movie played too fastand-loose with reality. “Invisible cars and dodgy CGI footage? Please!” he scoffed. In 2006, Duke University researchers created a cloaking device that redirected electromagnetic waves around an object. The waves behave as if they have moved through empty space, and the object was cloaked. Researchers announced recently that the device had been further perfected. The device doesn’t yet work on a visual level, but scientists might be able to use similar principles to bend light waves around objects and hide them from human sight. Bond movies may not always be realistic at the time of their release, but they have a proven track record in predicting technological advances. Skyfall cut gadgets for realism, but in doing so, missed an opportunity to be ahead of the curve.
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Laval defeats McMaster in Vanier Cup rematch in front of record crowd
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Last stand on the mound William Deck VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
This may be Andy Orfanakos’ last year at the University of Toronto, but the Varsity Blues’ pitcher has had his fair share of success both on the field — winning an OUA championship — and in the classroom, where he is close to finishing his Bachelor of Education at OISE. Orfanakos received his undergraduate degree from York University, where he pitched for the Lions for four years. However, U of T’s academic reputation and successful baseball program drew him here for his next degree. “U of T was always my first choice because of the prestige and reputation of the school,” said Orfanakos. “I also knew I wanted to play baseball, and with the success the program had experienced up until this year, it made it an easy decision for me.” Orfanakos has not yet decided whether to pursue further education or enter the job market. It hasn’t been all schoolwork for Orfanakos — he has seen much success with the Varsity Blues during his time here, capturing the OUA championship this season. For his outstanding pitching in this season’s playoffs, he was awarded the OUA championship MVP award and named OUA male athlete of the week. During his one season pitching for the Blues, Orfanakos experienced one of the wildest baseball seasons imaginable. “[It was] crazy in every sense of the word.” Because of his commitment to represent Greece in a tournament in the Netherlands this fall, Orfanakos was forced to miss the start of the season, which created a hole in the Blues’ pitching rotation. This, combined with inconsistent starts from Marek Deska and an injury to Ryan Donelly, required the pitching rotation to be filled with younger, less experienced players. With some shaky defense and stagnant hitting, the Blues got off to a very disappointing start, at one point falling to a measly 3–8. Despite the bad start, the Blues stayed positive, and once the second half of the sea-
son came along they were at full strength, clicking as a team and ready to roll. “At this point our pitching rotation was together for the first time in the season,” said Orfanakos. “We were able to get strong pitching performances in the final stretch of the season which set a huge tone for the team.” The Blues snuck into the playoffs, where Orfanakos would come up with clutch performances right when they were needed. In game two against Guelph in the first round, Orfanakos closed for Drew Taylor, sealing the win that took the Blues to the final against top–seeded Brock University. “The adrenaline was definitely running, especially knowing how huge this game was. At this point I knew I had to keep calm and just make quality pitches to give myself and the team a chance to win.” But his most important performance came in the final against Brock, in a winner-takes-all game. Orfanakos allowed no runs during his eight innings pitched, helping his team to a 4–0 victory and a second consecutive OUA championship. His pitching was so good that he was able to keep the Brock fans quiet through most of the game. As the team with the best regular season record, Brock hosted the tournament, and their fans were able to get under the skin of the Varsity Blues players. “Pitching the final game was awesome,” recalls Orfanakos. “There is no better feeling than pitching well in a big game and ultimately helping your team win the championship.” Orfanakos’s baseball career is not limited to the Varsity Blues. He began by playing for various teams at the city level, one of them being the Scarborough Stingers. Before coming to U of T, he studied at Winston Churchill C.I., and then York. This past summer, Orfanakos signed with the Burlington Twins of the Intercounty Baseball League, a semi-professional league based in Ontario. Playing against ex-major and -minor league players as well as against the current champions, the Brantford Red Sox, provided valuable experience that Orfanakos was able to use over the course of the Blues’ wild season.
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Andy Orfanakos reflects on successful Blue baseball season
Orfanakos’s game does not start and end here in Canada. However, he is very involved in the international baseball scene. In the summer of 2011, Andy was invited to play in a European Cup Qualifier for a Greek club named Spartakos Glyfada. In their last game of pool play, Orfanakos pitched a complete game win with 12 strikeouts against Beograd 96, a team from Serbia, who eventually went on to be finalists in the tournament. This past September, Orfanakos was given the opportunity to pitch for Greece at the European Championships in the Neth-
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erlands. The competition featured many players with major and minor league experience, and saw Greece go for 3–3, missing out on the second round by just a single game. Orfanakos was called on to pitch in four of those six games. “The experience was amazing and I was able to learn a lot by listening to coaches, teammates and playing against great competition,” recalled Orfanakos. Although this will likely be his last season pitching for the Varsity Blues, Andy plans to continue his baseball career at the international level.
GREY CUP COVERAGE!
26 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012
VARSITY SPORTS
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LAVAL HOISTS The Rouge et Or beat Mac 37–14 in lopsided CIS championship rematch
Laval extracted Vanier Cup revenge over the McMaster Marauders at the Rogers Centre on Friday. The Rouge et Or controlled the game and simply outdueled the Marauders en route to a 37–14 victory in a replay of last year’s final. The 2011 Vanier Cup has since been dubbed ‘The Game’ — the greatest match in Canadian university football history. Laval saw themselves lose 41–38 to McMaster in a heartbreaking double overtime match and losing is not an option for Laval. “If you don’t win the Vanier Cup at Laval then it feels like the season has been a failure,” admitted Rouge et Or middle linebacker Frederic Plesius. So when the game clock rested at zero, the stage was set for a hotly-contested rematch. No one wants to put too strong an emphasis on revenge, but it was the sentiment driving the teams all season and in each snap of the game. Going into the year, says McMaster head coach Stefan Ptaszek, he knew that, “If we are to repeat and get two in a row and get to 22 straight (wins), the only way we want to do it is by beating the best. Laval is the best.” On Friday Laval did not falter to re-assert themselves as precisely that, much to the chagrin of the Marauder faithful, who turned up in large numbers to support their players. The game began strongly with the Rouge et Or storming through the smoke that clouded the players tunnel to a tune of cheers behind their team bench and resonating boos from the McMaster maroon filling most of the stadium’s seats. McMaster followed suit shortly after, darting through a firework archway of gold stars. Even as the teams found themselves standing shoulder-to-shoulder at centerfield waiting for the coin toss, tensions were running high, with the teams trading insults and small fights breaking out. “I don’t think it’s a secret that we’re two teams that don’t like one another,” Laval quarterback Tristan Grenon explained after the game. “It’s a good thing that we only meet once a year if we see each other in the Vanier Cup.” Fans expecting an immediately entertaining and offense-powered rematch were forced to wait until the waning minutes of the first half, after the first quarter ended scoreless for the first time in the Vanier Cup since Laval defeated Saskatchewan in 2000. However, with three minutes left in the half, the wild characteristics that have come to define Canadian university football were on full display. With just over three minutes remaining the Marauders were down by 12 points, after an earlier secondquarter Laval touchdown to wide receiver Matthew Norzil for 28 yards, a Marauder-conceded safety, and a 22-yard field goal off the foot of Boris Bebe. The final minutes of the half gave fans hope that this year’s game would follow in the footsteps of the 2011 championship match. Kyle Quinlan started the action for the Marauders with both his arm and feet. McMaster head coach Ptaszek has long praised Quinlan’s quarterback ability. “Arm strength, ability to be a pocket passer and carve defenses as a traditional quarterback, but then he can also pull it down and cut a Michael Vick-run on his own. There have been very few who can do both.” Quinlan displayed precisely those attributes on McMaster’s go-head drive. He hit receivers Michael Dicroce for 12 yards and Robert Babic for 24 yards, while also gaining 22 yards and the one-yard score on his own legs. After forcing a Laval three-and-out, the Marauders regained possession deep in their own territory. Quinlan, after being sacked on first down, found receiver Ben O’Connor for a 42-yard completion with under a minute in the half. A 59-yard pass to Dahlin Brooks in tight coverage saw McMaster rip the lead from the Rouge et Or to seemingly take control of the game. However, the pivotal play of the game was still to unfold as the clock continued to tick towards the half. Tristan Grenon and the Laval offense took to the field and threaded a perfect ball to J.S. Haidara for
by Zoë Bedard photos by Bernarda Gospic
75 yards that brought the team to the McMaster two-yard line. With 13 seconds remaining, there was plenty of time for the game’s pivotal moment to unfold. Laval head coach Glen Constantin opted to take a crack at the end zone, so Grenon floated a pass just over the head of receiver Norzil as the half expired. The Rouge et Or offense was left stranded on the two-yard line as McMaster players quickly ran off the field into the locker room, relieved to have escaped with their lead still intact. Laval’s incomplete pass and misjudgment of time proved to be the turning point in the game, and all the motivation that Laval needed to come out roaring after the break. Laval received the ball after the half and, following a fake punt on third down to keep the drive alive and move the team inside the McMaster 20, Maxime Boutin punched the ball in from 11 yards out to begin the Rouge et Or’s rout. Entering the game, Laval knew they would have to run the ball to chew up clock time, wear down the strong Marauders’ defense, and keep the ball out of the deadly hands of Quinlan. Laval certainly ran the ball, amassing 373 rushing yards to McMaster’s 75, but the yards did not come from a player whom they anticipated to lead the team in the championship. Only two weeks ago Maxime Boutin was third on the Laval depth chart. On Friday, he was named the Vanier Cup MVP. Boutin found himself first choice only because of injuries to the other running backs. Yet those other injuries may have been the team’s biggest blessing in disguise. “I never thought this would happen,” said Boutin. “It feels very good.” Boutin carried the ball 24 times for 258 yards, only two yards short of the Vanier Cup rushing record. He ran the ball over the goal line twice, including once off an 84-yard run, the third-longest run from scrimmage in Vanier Cup history. “The (offensive) line was very good,” said a humble Boutin. “I did not know how many yards I ran for. I just keep running. I don’t care. The most important thing is we win.” Boutin’s success came as no surprise to Laval quarterback Grenon. “We’re packed with great players, it’s just a question of time before everybody get his opportunity to play and Maxime took advantage of it. When he’s been getting the ball, he’s been tearing it up. I think people underestimate him. “I don’t think they’ll make that mistake again,” Grenon chuckled. McMaster, whose defense allowed an average of only 15 points a game in the playoffs, was unable to hold Boutin, and with the Marauders’ offensive line also unable to protect Quinlan who was sacked seven times, Laval easily took control of the game. The Marauders were held scoreless in the second half, while Laval added on 25 points through a combination of a safety, three field goals, and two touchdown carries by Boutin. Last season, Grenon, who was then the backup Laval quarterback, found himself anxiously pacing the sideline as he watched his team battle and ultimately fall in a nail-biting, incredibly tight championship final. That was not the case this time. “[Sitting on the sideline] was extremely tough, so I worked really hard so that if I got this opportunity, I wouldn’t miss it. I know we were supposed to give you a game as exciting and close as last year’s, and we tried,” laughed Grenon. The Laval team did not miss their opportunity. They entered the season with only one goal, and left the Rogers Centre with the Vanier Cup, and their revenge. Standing with the trophy in hand under the bright lights of the dome, there was no question who the best team in the country is. McMaster saw their 21-game win streak snapped while the Rouge et Or captured its record-setting seventh championship. Laval offensive lineman Danny Groulx summed the game up perfectly. “We were just ready. We’ve been ready for a year.”
VARSITY SPORTS
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012
VANIER CUP One last stand
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Record-setting crowd
The sight of 37098 fans out in full force for the Vanier Cup on Friday night was nothing short of spectacular. It set a record as the largest crowd for the Canadian university championship final and added fuel to the argument that the Grey Cup and Vanier Cup should always be paired at the same venue on the same weekend. While McMaster, being only a short drive away, certainly boosted the attendance, Grey Cup fans already in town definitely helped to boost crowd numbers. Friday night’s attendance broke the record set in 1989 in the then-SkyDome — the first year the Vanier Cup was held in Toronto. The top five attendances recorded at Vanier Cup finals have all been set at the SkyDome/Rogers Centre. Selling Canadian university football is tough. When over 37000 people turn out, it’s obvious that they’re expecting something extraordinary. The game drew such a large crowd, not only because it was a rematch of ‘The Game,’ but also because there was little doubt that the two best teams in the country would provide a thrilling match.
28,652
Laval senior Arnaud Gascon-Nadon returned to the Rouge et Or in hoping for a rematch of the 2011 Vanier Cup game.
1994
Western 50 – 40 Saskatchewan
29,178 1995
Calgary 54 – 24 Western
30,191
1991
Laurier 25 – 18 Mt. Allison
32,847
1989
2012
37,098
6154+ 50+ 48+ 46+ Laval 37 – 14 Macmaster
A university team will inevitably lose players to graduation and the draft at the end of each season, but Laval avoided that combination of events following their heartbreaking double overtime loss to the Marauders in B.C. in the 2011 Vanier Cup. Laval defensive end Arnaud Gascon-Nadon and linebacker Frederic Plesius both ended last season’s championship game with a bright professional future awaiting them, both having been selected in the CFL draft. But within minutes of the game ending and the pain of the loss fully setting in, both wanted revenge more than anything; that would mean returning to Laval for another season, hoping to meet McMaster again on the biggest stage in Canadian university football. Gascon-Nadon embodies the lure of Laval. The Rouge et Or are as Quebec City’s professional football team — minus the paycheques. With such a strong backing and dedicated group of players the team becomes your family — and family is hard to leave. “I came back because I just didn’t have enough,” Gascon-Nadon told the Toronto Sun. “Two years was just too short for me, especially losing that last game was too bittersweet for me.” Standing at centre field with his teammates passing around the Vanier Cup, Plesius knew coming back for another crack at the trophy was the right decision. “I won as a leader, as a fifth-year guy. It feels really, really amazing. Us against 30,000 people screaming against us. It feels good to leave as a winner and I can’t wait to go back home and celebrate with the guys.” Plesius ensured that his presence on the team was felt — he was a continual thorn in the side of the McMaster offensive line and constantly pressured McMaster quarterback Kyle Quinlan through the evening with two solo tackles, two assisted tackles, as well as two of the seven sacks Laval recorded.
Western 35 – 10 Saskatchewan
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McMaster rules CIS honours In the days leading up to the pivotal Vanier Cup final rematch, the CIS announced the 2012 All-Canadian teams. The Marauders boasted an impressive six players on the first team and three on the second team. McMasters’ contributions to the first team included quarterback Kyle Quinlan and Aram Eisho, who was named defensive player of the game in last year’s Vanier Cup. Laval had five players on the teams.
The awards just kept coming for the Marauders in the week before the Vanier Cup. Seventh-year head coach Stefan Ptaszek was named CIS coach of the year. Under his direction, McMaster went 8–0 in the regular season, dominating the OUA, and rode a 21-game winning streak coming into the championship. McMaster has not missed the playoffs during Ptaszek’s time as coach.
To the shock of no one, Quinlan capped off the awards by hoisting the Crighton Trophy for the player of the year. Quinlan has led the Marauders to back-to-back Vanier Cup games, but remained humble after receiving the award. “The biggest prize is still out there. This is great but individual awards are something you look back on after the season,” he said.
McMaster Quarterback Kyle Quinlan threw for 335 yards and a touchdown while also running in another score in the loss.
The 37,000-strong crowd set a Vanier Cup attendance record.
THE VARSITY
28 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012
Present move seen as a step towards student government According to the present constitution, the president of the S.A.C. must be a graduate of the University, either engaged in post-graduate work in the University or a member of the Staff. The motion to be proposed to-day, as the latest step in the movement towards student government, will provide for an undergraduate president. The meeting of the Students’ Administrative Council is open to the students of all faculties and colleges. Although small attendances have been the order of the day in former meeting members of the executive have expressed the hope that more undergraduates will appear. In view of the important matters that be handled at the meeting to-day, it is anticipated there be a much larger attendance than usual.
1930
Undergraduate Head of Student Council May be Appointed
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— Wednesday, November 12, 1930
Covering U of T’s student politics for over 100 years
2012
Opposing factions battle for proxy votes Scramble for votes leave both sides on edge as meeting approaches A concerted effort by opposing factions on campus to gather proxy votes in advance of Thursday’s UTSU annual general meeting is underway, with thousands of votes potentially in play. Routine votes that take place at the meeting have become increasingly polarized in recent years. Students opposed to the UTSU have consistently been outgunned when it comes to voting, and appear determined to change the status quo this year. “For the first time in as long as I can remember, we’re actually collecting proxies,” said Sam Greene, student co-head of Trinity College. Proxies are forms enabling students who cannot attend the meeting to have other students vote on their behalf. A fully completed form can confer one student with the votes of up to 10 others.
— Zane Schwartz, Monday, November 19, 2012
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