Issue 14, (Volume 144) (January 15, 2024)

THE VARSITY The University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880

January 15, 2024

Vol. CXLIV, No. 14

One year before Ontario's accessiblity deadline, how far does U of T have to go?

Ontario has tasked universities with updating disability accommodations by 2025 Maeve Ellis Assistant News Editor

With Ontario’s self-imposed deadline for accessibility targets set for postsecondary institutions less than a year away, students say that U of T needs to do more to meet those goals.

The Ontario government’s 2005 Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) set a goal of making Ontario accessible by 2025. The AODA set out specific guidelines for universities as part of that goal.

In interviews with The Varsity, students discussed the difficulties they faced in academic contexts and in getting accommodations from Accessibility Services.

Yearning for online learning For some students with disabilities, a lack of online learning options from U of T has hampered their ability to participate in lectures and retain information.

The AODA includes sets of standards for accessibility covering five areas: information and communication; employment; transportation; design of public spaces; and customer service.

The act also specifies eight areas in which institutions should try to implement changes, including digital learning and architecture. In its Recommendation 12, the AODA recommends that universities use funds supplied by the provincial government to increase online learning infrastructure.

U of T’s AODA Office aims to ensure that the university complies with the AODA’s standards for Ontario’s institutions.

The university’s 2022 annual AODA report discusses a pilot program in 2021–2022 and 2022–2023 where work-study students edited closed captions for 119 hours of lectures.

Prisca Sebaratnam, an undergraduate student at UTSG, told The Varsity in an interview that she could have graduated

six to 10 years earlier if U of T had accommodated her visual and hearing impairments. Sebaratnam has multiple disabilities stemming from sustaining a traumatic brain injury, along with autoimmune disorders and a hearing impairment.

A lack of registered note-takers and live transcripts has meant that she’s had to retake one course seven times and another five times. She also notes a stark difference between her grades in the courses that accommodate her disabilities and those that don’t.

Her doctor has emphasized her need for live transcripts in class and registered note-takers, which she has trouble accessing as her classmates often don’t volunteer to share their notes.

“Anywhere you go, on Facebook, YouTube, or whatever, there’s closed captioning,” she said. “That shouldn’t be something that we need to fight for. It’s 2023.”

The 2022 U of T AODA Office report does not mention encouraging professors to record lectures or provide live transcripts for classes.

Accessing Accessibility Services Students also reported having issues with learning about the resources U of T makes available.

Diana Vink, a third-year majoring in literature and critical theory, has multiple disabilities including hypersomnia but is not officially registered with accessibility services due to her complicated healthcare status as an American international student. This means that Vink has to independently negotiate with professors about deadline extensions and missed classes.

“Some days I wake up, and I’m like, I cannot do this today,” she said in an interview with The Varsity. “To not have to advocate for myself all the time would be helpful.”

Though she has found the registrar and academic advisors

at Victoria College useful, she finds the main Accessibility Services to be understaffed, hard to research, and “a big mystery.”

“I don’t think a lot of people know what kinds of accommodations are available,” she said. “I understand that they want to focus on people already in their system, but I think the need on campus is more knowledge about how their services work.”

The AODA “recommends that all college and university policies and procedures related to students should be easy to understand.”

In a statement to The Varsity, Heather Kelly — executive director, student life programs & services — wrote that students can sign up for accessibility services before arriving on campus and that all students wishing to register with Accessibility Service should consult the registration webpage.

“Because accommodations are highly individualized and tailored to each student’s specific disability and needs, we encourage students who have concerns about their accommodations and how they are being implemented to speak with their accessibility advisor,” she wrote.

Ottavia Paluch, a second-year at UTM, is visually impaired and has struggled with a lack of signage about access to shuttle buses on the St. George campus and with U of T’s online interactive map of campus, which purports to show accessible entrances and washrooms. She said that doing well as a student with disabilities often requires students to advocate for their needs.

“You have the right to go to your advisors or your professors and tell them, ‘Hey! This is what I need,’” she told The Varsity during an interview.

Continued on page 2.

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The Varsity would like to acknowledge that our office is built on the traditional territory of several First Nations, including the Huron-Wendat, the Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit. Journalists have historically harmed Indigenous communities by overlooking their stories, contributing to stereotypes, and telling their stories without their input. Therefore, we make this acknowledgement as a starting point for our responsibility to tell those stories more accurately, critically, and in accordance with the wishes of Indigenous Peoples.

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Ottavia Paluch, a second-year at UTM, is visually impaired and has struggled with a lack of signage about access to shuttle buses on the St. George campus and with U of T’s online interactive map of campus, which purports to show accessible entrances and washrooms. She said that doing well as a student with disabilities often requires students to advocate for their needs.

“You have the right to go to your advisors or your professors and tell them, ‘Hey! This is what I need,’” she told The Varsity during an interview.

Architecture’s room for improvement Catherine Dumé, a fifth-year studying political

science, told The Varsity in an interview that architectural difficulties were one of the main downsides to her time at U of T. In particular, she described the outdoor steps adjacent to Robarts as “stairs of death, in my opinion, because [they’re] so crooked and then, on top of that, [they’re] all in one shade of concrete.”

“That is just so impossible for me to look at,” Dumé explained.

She has also fallen on the wooden benches outside of Robarts because the uniform colour makes it difficult for her to perceive the benches’ depth.

In an article for The Varsity last year, Dumé analyzed the accessibility of Robarts Common.

She noted that study rooms lack open buttons, and many railings don’t have rails to prevent people from hitting their heads on the concrete above staircases. Dumé characterized U of T as a “leader in accessibility” and noted that the university has been receptive to her complaints and activism.

In terms of accessible building plans, U of T’s 2022 AODA report outlined a new universal washroom in Hart House which opened in October 2022 and elevators at New College’s Wetmore Hall and in the William Doo Auditorium.

Disclosure: Catherine Dumé served as The Varsity’s accessibility correspondent for Volume 143.

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The AODA sets guidelines for making universities more accessible.

JULIA DEDDATHE VARSITY

Resources for Comment article “Grieve for women & girls,” page 8 If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual violence or harassment at U of T: • Visit safety.utoronto.ca for a list of safety resources.

• Visit svpscentre.utoronto.ca for information, contact details, and hours of operation for the tri-campus Sexual Violence Prevention & Support Centre.

Centre staff can be reached by phone at 416-978-2266 or by email at svpscentre@utoronto.ca.

• Call Campus Safety Special Constable Service to make a report at 416-978-2222 (for U of T St. George and U of T Scarborough) or 905-569-4333 (for U of T Mississauga) • Call the Women’s College Hospital Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Care Centre at 416-323-6040 • Call the Scarborough Grace Sexual Assault Care Centre at 416-495-2555 • Call the Assaulted Women’s Helpline at 866-863-0511 If you or someone you know has experienced harassment or discrimination based on race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship and/or creed at U of T, report the incident to the Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity office: https://antiracism.utoronto.ca/help/.

You can report incidents of antisemitic incidents at U of T to Hillel U of T at https://hillelontario.org/uoft/report-incident, and events of anti-Muslim racism through the National Council of Canadian Muslims’ Hate Crime Reporting form at https://www.nccm.ca/programs/incident-report-form/.

If you or someone you know has experienced anti-Muslim racism and is in distress, you can contact: • Canadian Muslim Counselling at 437-886-6309 or info@muslimcounselling.ca • Islamophobia Support Line at 416-613-8729 • Nisa Helpline at 1-888-315-6472 or info@nisahelpline.com • Naseeha Mental Health at 1-866-627-3342 • Khalil Center at 1-855-554-2545 or info@khalilcenter.com • Muslim Women Support Line at 647-622-2221 or gbv@ccmw.com If you or someone you know has experienced antisemitism and is in distress, you can contact: • Hillel Ontario at counselling@hillelontario.org • Chai Lifeline Canada’s Crisis Intervention Team at 1 (800) 556-6238 or CIT@chailifeline.ca • Jewish Family and Child Services of Greater Toronto at 416 638-7800 x 6234 • The Hamilton Jewish Family Services at info@hamiltonjfs.com A news article published in issue 11 entitled “UTMSU statement in solidarity with Palestine draws criticism from UTM, Ontario universities minister” has been amended for clarity. A previous version of the article stated that a motion to grant speaking time to protesters at a Campus Council meeting failed. In fact, the chair did not allow the motion to go forward for a vote.

A news article published in issue 13 entitled “UTSU discusses international student work cap updates, election dates during December meeting” incorrectly stated that that the campaign period for UTSU elections ends on March 6, when, in fact, it ends on March 7.

A news article published in issue 13 entitled “Temerty Medicine physicians sign open letter on their right to openly identify as Zionist” has been amended for clarity. An earlier version of the article mischaracterized the Combat Online Harassment (CoHa) group’s claim that workplaces often treat claims of anti-Palestinian racism with a double standard, and implied that this claim was directed specifically toward U of T or other universities. The article also did not clarify that SickKids had not suspended a doctor whom it announced it was investigating due to editorial error.

The headline of a news article published in issue 13 entitled “U of T cancels Buddhism, Psychology and Mental Health minor, prompting backlash” incorrectly implied that U of T had already cancelled the Buddhism, Psychology, and Mental Health minor, when the university has currently only proposed cancelling the program. The article also incorrectly stated that Yves Roberge is the New College Principal, when, in fact, it is Dickson Eyoh.

A sports article published in issue 13 entitled “Daniel Demaras’ racing journey” incorrectly stated that Power lost several IndyCar championships in 2014. In fact, it should state that Power lost several championships prior to 2014, when he won.

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KYANNA VELASQUEZ/THEVARSITY

Data from U of T students threatened by MOVEit ransomware attack Ransomware group CL0P accessed data shared with U of T’s auditor in May 2023 Eshnika Singh Associate News Editor

U of T’s financial auditor Ernst & Young LLP (EY) contacted impacted students and staff members in November about a security breach that may have compromised sensitive personal information.

Between May 27–31, 2023, a Russian ransomware group called CL0P conducted a ransomware attack, gaining unauthorized access to data from companies including EY, TD Ameritrade, PwC Canada, and the BBC, threatening the security of information from more than 62 million people.

Breaking down the attack MOVEit Transfer is a software product that simplifies file transfers between organizations.

Since its creation in the early 2000s, a number of companies have used the system to exchange files and data between servers. However, the software had a vulnerability: a bug in the system could allow unauthorized actors to gain access to databases stored in MOVEit. Progress, the system’s developer company, didn’t detect the vulnerability until May 31 — likely after the attack had occurred.

The ransomware group CL0P exploited this unaddressed weakness in the system to conduct the biggest data theft of 2023. In an interview with The Varsity, David Lie, a professor in the electrical and computer engineering department at U of T, said that the key motivation behind these ransomware attacks tends to be profit, which means groups seek out bigger organizations.

The attack impacted over 2,000 companies, including EY, in a myriad of industries ranging

from finance to journalism. In total, it threatened information from 62 million people who work for the affected organizations and their partners.

As of November 2023, the ransomware group claimed it had access to three terabytes of EY data, which it threatened to sell after negotiations with the company failed. Lie explained that individuals’ data, more and more of which is stored online, often “becomes collateral damage” in attacks like this as ransomware groups try to induce companies to pay up.

Ernst & Young LLP and U of T Since 2014, EY has worked as the external auditor for U of T, entrusted with examining a number of records for the university, including its enrolment records. To conduct the auditing process, EY obtains information about U of T students and employees, and transfers files using MOVEit. When CL0P intercepted the system, it gained access to sensitive information from the EY database.

An email from EY to affected students and employees sent in November 2023 states that CL0P may have accessed personal data, including impacted community members’ “name, gender, date of birth, information relating to your employment (such as your employee ID and compensation and benefits), and information relating to your education (such as your student ID).”

In a statement to The Varsity, a U of T spokesperson wrote, “Before U of T shared information with EY, precautionary steps were taken to redact any unnecessary data to protect personal information.” While data from U of T was affected, CL0P did not gain access to systems at U of T itself.

EY confirmed that it has begun an investigation into the matter and has taken the required steps to protect the stolen data. Further, it asked individuals to be cautious of phishing emails and unsolicited communication from unknown sources.

U of T became aware of the attack impacting EY in June. On June 27, the U of T Governing Council renewed its partnership with EY for the year 2023–2024 — days after multiple news sites had reported that the attack impacted EY. The documents submitted to governors about the decision did not mention the attack. When asked why governing council members weren’t informed of the attack before deciding to reappoint EY, a U of T spokesperson did not address the question.

In an email to The Varsity, a U of T spokesperson wrote that the university worked to notify impacted students “as quickly as possible” but that determining whose information may have been compromised took “significant time due to the nature and amount of data involved.”

The spokesperson did not answer The Varsity’s question about how many community members may have been impacted by the attack.

Responses from students After receiving the email from EY about the data leak, some U of T students said they did not fully understand the situation and raised questions about the leak. When asked for her thoughts on the situation, second-year engineering student Sanskruti Jadhav told The Varsity that while “the email was easy to comprehend,” the lack of information in it worried her.

Other students initially doubted the reliability of the email. Third-year computer engineering

student Krishna Advait Sripada wrote in an email to The Varsity that since the letter looked suspicious, he didn’t originally worry too much about it. Angel Rajotia, a third-year industrial engineering student whose data was compromised, wrote that she’d received similar emails in the past and hence had difficulty judging its veracity. Coordinated phishing attacks have impacted thousands of U of T students in the past, and U of T wrote in October about increases in malicious QR-code phishing attacks.

Another source of worry and confusion for Rajotia was that she’d been looking for internships at EY. From the information EY released, she couldn’t tell whether CL0P could have accessed the information she’d submitted in the application process.

Protecting your data To protect themselves from such attacks, Lie recommends that companies hire good IT professionals who ensure systems are set up properly. On an individual level, he suggested that students and employees create stronger passwords.

He also stressed the importance of setting up multi-factor authentication in addition to having a strong password. This additional step asks users to provide additional information such as a code, password, or fingerprint. Since 2022, U of T has required all community members to set up U of T multi-factor authentication to enhance their security. Lie emphasized that “this is really one of the main ways to kind of protect your assets to U of T.” Ernst and Young LLP did not respond to The Varsity’s request for comment in time for publication.

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New College and Chestnut Residence diners have complained over food quality.

COURTESY OF JOHN YFANTIS

Students raise hygiene concerns at dining halls following pay-by-weight move Allegations of food poisoning and presence of pests among diner complaints Je Ho Cho Varsity Contributor

Multiple diners at the New College and Chestnut Residence cafeterias have lodged complaints over food quality and hygiene issues since the cafeterias’ transition to a pay-by-weight system. After a previous implementation of the pay-by-weight system was removed in fall 2021 following a student outcry against it, Food Services reimplemented a similar system with the start of the fall 2023 semester.

In interviews with The Varsity, seven Chestnut Residence students noted concerns about food hygiene despite the steeper prices they paid in comparison to food options off campus.

Many of the students mentioned undercooked potatoes and meat as primary concerns. Michael

Lander, a first-year computer engineering student at Chestnut Residence, said that he had contracted symptoms of food poisoning for several days within a week of moving into residence and believed it was associated with food he’d eaten from the dining hall.

Anne Macdonald, assistant vice-president of spaces and experiences, wrote in an email to The Varsity that claims about food poisoning “should only be made with diagnosis and/or evidence.”

She wrote that U of T takes any supported claims about food poisoning seriously and investigates such claims, sometimes involving Toronto Public Health. She also confirmed that managers and staff at Chestnut and New College had not received any reports of food-borne illness at the time of comment.

Macdonald wrote that students with concerns

about food safety or hygiene should report those concerns through Food Services’ website, although The Varsity could not find any information on the website specific to reporting food poisoning, as of January 14, 2024. The City of Toronto welcomes individuals to report food-borne illness online or through its designated phone line at (416) 392-7411.

Interviewees also noted seeing pests in residence dining halls. Tissa Razavi, a first-year architecture student, claimed that her friend had seen a rat in the Chestnut Residence dining hall. Gabriella Wang, a third-year student, added that they often saw flies at the salad and condiment stations at New College.

John Yfantis, a first-year engineering science student, shared with The Varsity a photo of a live caterpillar found in a salad one of his friends

obtained from the Chestnut Residence dining hall in September. Yfantis informed The Varsity that, after consulting with his residence don and bringing the matter up to Food Services, he received an apology from the organization.

In her statement, Macdonald said that staff “routinely monitor[s]” both where food is prepared and non-food spaces for pests.

Toronto Public Health has inspected both New College and Chestnut dining halls — most recently in November 2023 — and consistently issued them passes. In May 2023, however, Toronto Public Health issued a pass to New College dining hall with a minor infraction: failure to protect against pests.

In the most recent November inspection, the inspector did not find any infractions. Chestnut Dining Hall did not receive any infractions in 2023.

Ziibiing Lunch & Learn: Why Canada’s legal system falls short for Indigenous land sovereignty PhD student holds talk on legal injunctions related to resource extraction in Canada Avishka Gautham Varsity Contributor

On November 24, Kavita Reddy — a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science — held a “Lunch & Learn” event at Ziibiing Lab, located within Sidney Smith Hall. The talk focused on settler colonialism within Canada’s resource-extractive economy and how liberal ideals and Canadian legal structures conflict with Indigenous governance and knowledge.

Ziibiing Lab Ziibiing Lab is an Indigenous-led research lab focusing on Indigenous politics. Created by political science assistant professor Uahikea Maile in 2023, the lab aims to “support Indigenous peoples, thought, and movements.”

According to the lab’s website, it has three main objectives: upholding Indigenous selfdetermination, sovereignty, and jurisdiction; advancing Indigenous thought on politics, policy, and praxis; and defending Indigenous movements for decolonization and dignified life.

The lab hosts Lunch & Learn sessions throughout the year to educate students on various Indigenous issues and topics of significance within a Canadian context.

Reddy’s talk Reddy’s research focuses on Canada’s role in resource extraction and the implications for Indigenous communities. She points out a contradiction between Canada’s alleged commitment to reconciliation and its reactions to Indigenous communities’ “on the ground” activism.

Reddy explores this idea by focusing on the role of injunctions within the context of Canada’s resource-extractive economy. According to the Legal Information Institute, injunctions refer to court orders requiring a person to do or cease to do a specific action that could cause harm.

In her talk, Reddy explained how injunctions “were a really strong way of reinforcing Indigenous rights in the 1980s.” Yet, in the early 2000s, she said, injunctions became a tool for Canada to combat civil disobedience. In 2018, the BC Supreme Court granted the Trans Mountain

Pipeline Unlimited Liability Corporation an injunction, ordering protesters of the pipeline — including Indigenous land defenders — to stop physically stopping construction on the pipeline.

Reddy said that the legal standards one must meet to receive an injunction reflect liberal theories — instead of reflecting the ways Indigenous knowledge systems view harm. She compared liberal theories on economic harm to Indigenous peoples’ knowledge systems, and how the latter takes into consideration “the interconnectedness of nature and society” and effects over “longer time horizons” — including impacts on future generations — when conceptualizing harm.

Reddy also discussed how Canadian institutions pit Indigenous Peoples against each other and use disagreements between Indigenous groups to justify not respecting those groups’ rights to determine what happens on their lands. The Canadian government imposed an elected council system on First Nations recognized under the Indian Act, yet many Indigenous Peoples continue to respect the guidance of hereditary chiefs or other forms of

traditional governance. In the case of the Coastal GasLink pipeline, the Royal Bank of Canada cites support for the project from the Wet’suwet’en elected band council despite the opposition of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs.

In some instances, she noted that Western liberal legal tools such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples could be helpful for protesters. The declaration calls for governments to ask for free, prior, and informed consent when adopting measures that impact Indigenous people. Reddy noted that, through blockades, Indigenous land defenders “were really bringing this idea into fruition.”

Reddy ended her talk by discussing how the Canadian government should not only give Indigenous nations the opportunity to present their cases before Canadian courts but also promote Indigenous institutions that exist outside of the Canadian government to arbitrate these cases. “In these cases, we need to not only defer judgment to Indigenous nations, but we also have to create recognized institutions that are solely Indigenous nations,” she said.

Lunch & Learn event held at Indigenous-led research lab.

ELENA IOURTAEVA/THEVARSITY

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The Explainer: What UTM’s energy audit shows about its buildings Unpacking UTM’s energy efficiency and progress on reducing building emissions

UTM’s William G. Davis Building consumes the most electricity and natural gas of any building on the UTM campus.

OMAR HABIB/THEVARSITY

Emily Cheng Varsity Contributor

With buildings and homes accounting for 18 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions nationwide, according to the Government of Canada, increasing buildings’ energy efficiency — that is, using less energy to run them — remains a part of combatting global warming.

With a total building inventory of around 190,000 square metres, an audit of UTM’s buildings commissioned by U of T found they used approximately 41,700,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity in 2022. The audit suggested initiatives tailored to specific buildings that the university could adopt to improve efficiency and reduce energy consumption.

Current energy consumption at U of T In 2022, Efficiency Engineering Inc. conducted energy audits of all buildings at UTM. An energy audit surveys and analyzes the energy use of an area or a building, enabling building owners to understand the building’s energy consumption patterns, and provides ideas for initiatives they could adopt to improve energy efficiency.

According to data from the audit, in 2022, the campus consumed around 41,700,000 kWh of electricity in total — a 3.8 per cent increase over the past four years, according to a 2019 report from UTM. According to an energy usage census conducted by the US Energy Information Administration, universities in the US used, on average, 33 billion kWh of electricity in 2012, and had an average floor space of approximately 174,900,000 square metres. That means the average US university consumed more energy than UTM — but less energy per square metre.

UTM’s total natural gas consumption in 2022 was about 3,900,000 cubic metres — producing approximately 874,500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. This was a 22 per cent reduction in natural gas consumption from 2018 levels.

The Energy Utilization Index (EUI), or the

measurement of energy consumed in kWh per square foot per year, came in at an average of 34.98 across all UTM buildings. The Research Greenhouse had the highest EUI. According to the 2019 Survey on Commercial and Institutional Energy Use conducted by the Canadian government, Canada’s universities had an average EUI of 26.8 — making the current EUI of UTM’s buildings 31 per cent higher than the 2019 Canadian average.

In addition to data on energy usage, The Varsity obtained the full Energy Audit Reports for the William G. Davis Building, the Communication, Culture and Technology Building, and the Instructional Centre from U of T. U of T’s data shows that, in both 2018 and 2022, the William G. Davis Building had the highest overall electricity and natural gas consumption at UTM. It also had the third-highest EUI of UTM’s buildings.

The Communication, Culture and Technology Building had the second-highest electricity consumption and third-highest natural gas consumption at UTM, and the Instructional Centre (IC) had the third-highest electricity consumption.

What next?

The reports also recommend energy efficiency initiatives the university could take in the near future. The measures suggested in the reports are tailored to each building, although some common suggestions include installing solar energy systems, upgrading to LED lighting, and installing electric hot water heater tanks instead of the gas-powered tanks currently heating some buildings.

The William G. Davis building report includes a number of recommendations, such as scheduling air handling units to not operate at full capacity while buildings are closed overnight and installing lighting controls that could turn off when rooms are unoccupied. The report projects that, if U of T implements all its recommendations, the building’s overall EUI would decrease by 27.2 per

cent. Implementing the measures suggested for the IC could decrease the building’s EUI by 51.2 per cent.

However, the reports noted that adopting some measures could result in a financial loss and categorized them as “Longer Payback” because they don’t appear as “financially attractive.”

“These measures should be considered when equipment failure occurs or as Capital Renewal projects as equipment approaches its end of life,” the report for the IC reads.

U of T did not respond to The Varsity’s questions about whether it had implemented the audit reports’ recommendations.

Ongoing measures across the three campuses In 2018, the university joined the University Climate Change Coalition, a network of North American research institutions committed to accelerating the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Since then, it has pledged to reduce 37 per cent of its GHG emissions by 2030, according to U of T’s Low-Carbon Action Plan 2019–2024. Announced and launched in 2019, the Action Plan is a tri-campus five-year framework of initiatives aiming to reduce U of T’s carbon emissions.

One highlight of the Action Plan was the construction of geoexchange systems — which extract energy from heat underground — on all three campuses to reduce energy consumption.

For instance, the UTM Science Building currently under construction, which uses a geoexchange system, is designed to use 65 per cent less energy than a conventional building.

The Action Plan detailed a tri-campus-wide energy consumption reduction strategy with retrofits, optimizing building systems, and adopting designs of standards with superior energy and carbon intensity performance.

At UTSG, U of T recently completed much of its King’s College Circle construction and thus a large part of Project Leap, an initiative designed

to eliminate over 50 per cent of the St. George campus’ direct GHG emissions by 2026. The project has three main components: modernizing the campus district energy system; retrofitting buildings to dramatically reduce energy consumption; and connecting the campus’ energy system with the geoexchange system at King’s College Circle.

Building energy efficiency According to an email from Danny Harvey, a professor at the Department of Geography at U of T, there are many initiatives occupants and landlords can take to reduce building energy building consumption.

In the near term, he wrote, occupants should be conscious when operating the building’s heating and cooling system. For instance, they could only use thermostat settings when inside the unit or building, lower heating or cooling levels when they’re not present, and use fans.

In the longer term, building managers can make necessary renovations and upgrades — such as replacing double-glazed windows with tripleglazed ones to improve heat retention — to reduce energy use as much as possible.

Most of UTM’s buildings are relatively new.

However, Toronto contains many historic buildings. Harvey suggested that owners of these buildings could apply for the City of Toronto’s ‘Deep Retrofit Challenge’ program to lower their energy use. The program selects buildings in Toronto to undergo a “deeper-than-planned” retrofit aiming to reduce their GHG emissions.

Selected buildings will receive an investment of up to five million from the federal government.

Harvey wrote that students are frequent energy consumers on campus, and thus their consumption patterns impact the energy consumption of buildings on campus. Students should be more conscientious of their energy use in residences, and “pressure the admin[istration] for a deep retrofit of [buildings] such as Sid Smith,” Professor Harvey wrote.

6

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NEWS

Gertler discusses steps to reduce antisemitism, Islamophobia at U of T

dialogue within the university community in her new position.

Report on Ontario universities calls for increased grants, ending domestic tuition freeze Eshnika Singh Associate News Editor

Content warning: This article mentions genocide and faith-based racism.

At the December 18 meeting of the University of Toronto Governing Council — which oversees the university’s academic, business, and student affairs — U of T President Meric Gertler spoke about the rising tensions and hostility felt by Jewish and Palestinian community members. He further discussed the provincial Blue-Ribbon panel’s recommendations for changes in Ontario postsecondary fiscal policy.

The Presidential Committee on the Environment, Climate Change and Sustainability also presented its plans for implementing more sustainable practices at U of T and discussed its triumphs from 2023.

U of T has recently opened nominations for student seats on multiple governing bodies for the 2024–2025 year, including eight student seats on the Governing Council: four for full-time undergraduate students, two for part-time undergraduate students, and two for graduate students. Interested students must submit a candidacy form online by January 18 at 5:00 pm. Voting will take place online from February 6–16.

Reducing faith-based racism on campus Gertler began his report by discussing the measures U of T has taken to create a safer campus environment since the beginning of recent and ongoing violence in Gaza and Israel. He recognized the losses felt by people with loved ones in the region.

At a congressional hearing in December 2023 about antisemitism and limitations on hate speech at university campuses, congress members asked presidents of Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of Pennsylvania whether calling for genocide against

Jewish people would violate their universities’ codes of conduct.

When asked about this by the Federal Liberal Caucus and the Toronto Star, Gertler said, and reiterated at the meeting, that “threats of harm to others and inciting violence and genocide are clear violations of university policy.”

In response to letters he received expressing concerns from Jewish, Muslim, and Palestinian students and faculty members, Gertler reported that he’d outlined a new approach to addressing complaints of faith-based racism by creating a new position of assistant director of faith and anti-racism. Starting in winter 2024,

The Blue-Ribbon Panel report and Fall Economic Statement In his speech, Gertler also discussed expected changes in fiscal policy at U of T and across universities in Ontario in accordance with the report of the Blue-Ribbon Panel. The Council of Ontario Universities convened the panel to make recommendations that would help ensure financial stability among colleges and universities. Gertler highlighted that one-third of colleges in Ontario ran deficits in 2023.

The panel recommended increasing tuition for professional programs and, to ensure middle and low-income students can continue to access education, grants for domestic students and funding for the Ontario Student Assistance Program.

While Gertler appreciated the panel for their work, he pointed out how much support from the province as a whole has decreased over the past decade, when accounting for inflation: “Let me remind governors that the provincial grant per student that we receive has not increased since

The presidential committee discussed sustainability at U of T. YUHUAN XIE/THEVARSITY

Shari Goldberg — who previously worked in the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development and holds a PhD from U of T — will work to enhance the process for responding to faith-based racism incidents and promote

2008.” He advocated for the province to increase funding for universities across Ontario and lift the provincial tuition freeze that has been in place since 2019.

Gertler also discussed the Fall Economic Statement released by the Trudeau government on November 21, 2023, which describes the government’s current budgetary situation and plans for spending. He expressed his disappointment that the federal government did not mention allocating additional money for research and graduate student support in the statement, particularly given a recent federal government report calling for more support.

He also mentioned that the Liberals’ statement focused on helping solve the housing affordability crisis. He called on local governments to accelerate the approval process of new residence projects and on the federal and provincial governments to subsidize the process of setting up new residences through capital grants.

Advisory committee reports on sustainability President Gertler concluded his report by announcing that U of T ranked first in the QS World University Rankings: Sustainability 2024. Following his address, the co-chairs of the Presidential Committee on the Environment, Climate Change and Sustainability presented their report, which broke down U of T’s progress toward sustainability in the last year and the university’s goals for 2024.

The committee’s sustainable development goals focus on four areas with associated subcommittees: teaching and learning; research; operations; and engagement and partnership.

The committee is undertaking projects, such as workshops and internships, in these subcommittees to work toward achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Advocating for higher masters research assistant wages Members of the Graduate Architecture, Landscape & Design Student Union including Health and Sustainability Officer Izzy Mink, Equity and Diversity Officer Bhavika Sharma, and Masters of Landscape Architecture student Jessica Palmer addressed the council on behalf of 270 graduate students at the John H. Daniels faculty who have signed a petition calling for all masters student research assistants to receive a living wage of $25 per hour.

The speakers noted that, despite the rising cost of living in Toronto, many students still only earn minimum wage. “What should currently be a priority for the university is a commitment to ensuring that the people that make this university great can afford to continue to do so,” Mink told the council.

SCSU ratifies new vice-president campus life amid low by-election voter turnout

BOD confirms spring general election dates, VP equity position yet to be filled James Bullanoff UTSC Bureau Chief

At the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) monthly Board of Directors (BOD) meeting on December 8, board members ratified the results from the union’s October by-elections, officially welcoming three new directors and a new vice-president (VP) campus life. Only one per cent of eligible UTSC students voted in the election.

The board also approved the dates for the spring general elections, with nominations scheduled to close on February 5.

The board grows At the meeting, the board appointed three new directors; Muhammad Faisan Ashraf and Fatima Zaidi became first-year directors, and Hana Ali Houssein became director of French and linguistics.

The voting period for the SCSU’s by-elections ran from October 24–26. As in the prior year’s byelections, only one per cent of the UTSC student body voted. Excluding spoiled ballots, 100 students voted for first-year director positions, compared with the 183 votes cast for VP campus life.

In an interview with The Varsity, VP Operations Akaash Palaparthy explained that election turnouts consistently seem to be falling, which he said people often ascribe to “apathy” or “a lack of campus vibe, a lack of culture.” He noted that, in his view, the SCSU does “more than half [its] job” to promote election awareness.

Eight first-year students ran for the first-year director positions, and Palaparthy feels that interest in the position is growing. However, he explained that only first-years can vote for first-year directors, which limits voters. “Firstyear students just [happen] to be disconnected.

They’re just figuring things out,” he said.

VP External Khadidja Roble wrote in an email to The Varsity that the engagement from first-year directors “excited” her and “reflects the great work SCSU has done… with [its] first-year students.”

The SCSU also confirmed the dates for its spring general elections, where it will elect six

executive positions and 18 BOD positions for the 2024–2025 session. BOD members confirmed that the voting period will take place between March 4–6. In a post on Instagram, the SCSU also set the dates for events leading up to the final vote, including a nomination period from January 17 to February 5, an all-candidates forum on February 12, and a campaign period from February 13 to March 6.

“I’m hoping we have two or three slates… I’m hoping to see some competition,” Palaparthy told The Varsity, noting that more competition tends to draw more voters.

JESSICA LAM AND MICHAEL PHOON/THE VARSITY

Gain a VP campus life, lose a VP equity The BOD also ratified Victoria Mata as VP campus life. Originally, Transform UTSC — the slate that won all executive positions in 2023 — featured Abdulrahman Diab as VP campus life. However, Diab resigned in April 2023, citing personal reasons that prevented him from meeting the required hours. The SCSU hired Mata as VP campus life until the fall 2023 by-elections could occur.

Mata ran unopposed during the by-elections.

“I’m just obviously ecstatic that the student body trusts me again back in the position,” Mata told The Varsity.

Mata has many things planned, including working with Palaparthy on multicultural week from March 18–22. She said she is excited to showcase the unique diversity present on the UTSC campus.

In a January 10 email to The Varsity, VP Academic and University Affairs Afsana Miah wrote that the SCSU is still interviewing VP equity applicants after Denise Nmashie resigned in December, citing changing academic goals. The executives will present two candidates during the January BOD meeting, where the BOD will select one person for the position.

Although the SCSU has yet to confirm the date for their January BOD meeting, Miah wrote that the union seeks to hold the meeting in the coming week. It hopes to finalize the VP Equity selection in early January so the new VP can settle into their role in time for Black History Month programming and other initiatives slated for the winter semester.

Business & Labour A private investment trust is turning U of T’s Steward Building into a new residence Acquisition prompts criticism of student housing privatization, affordability

The Stewart Building, on the corner of College Street and University Avenue.

GEORGIA KELLY/THE VARSITY

Giselle Sami Dalili Varsity Contributor

Over 400 real estate developers and Canadian university real estate executives convened at the University of Toronto for a real estate conference last November to talk about student housing — and to hear the announcement that a for-profit real estate investment trust (REIT) had acquired U of T’s Stewart Building.

The buyer, Alignvest Student Housing (ASH) REIT, plans to convert the building into a high-rise, mixed-use building that will include student housing. Alignvest already owns 12 student housing properties across Canada, which house a total of 5,208 students and represent $945.3 million in total value.

Behind the November conference was private, US-based real estate consulting firm CAPRE Omnimedia Ltd. This was one of many conferences that CAPRE has hosted in Canada and the US as part of the company’s Student Housing and University Real Estate initiative (SHURE). The SHURE initiative’s website states that its purpose

is “to improve student lives and enhance the built environment in university neighbourhoods.”

Despite these intentions, the Stewart Building announcement, and the SHURE conference where industry leaders heard it, have prompted criticism from student housing activists around increasing privatization in student housing across Canada.

Insufficient student housing This is one of many recent partnerships between Toronto universities and private real estate developers. Knightstone Capital Management developed Campus One at U of T in 2017 and Parkside residence near Toronto Metropolitan University in 2015, for example, and Forum Equity Partners Inc. and Campus Suites’ partnered with York University to develop the Quad Student Housing Community, which was completed in 2017.

Investment trusts like ASH REIT make it possible for individuals to pool funds together and invest in for-profit real estate properties without being directly responsible for their ownership and management. Critics of large-scale investments in

January 15, 2024 varsity.ca/category/business biz@thevarsity.ca

real estate believe that such investments contribute to artificially higher property prices and rents — especially in high-demand urban areas.

Canada is in the middle of a massive housing shortage. It needs approximately 3.5 million additional housing units by 2030 to make housing as affordable as it was in 2004, and Ontario shoulders the largest share of this demand.

Further complicating the issue is Canadian universities’ increasing recruitment of international students, which has sparked polemic debates on the housing crisis, given the way that universities have relied on international student tuition fees to maintain their bottom lines.

In response to questions about the Liberal government’s proposed cap on international student visas as a strategy to combat the housing crisis, former federal housing minister Sean Fraser argued that some educational institutions aren’t building up the necessary infrastructure to support their international students. “I’m convinced [some institutions] have come to exist purely to profit off the backs of vulnerable international students rather than providing quality education,” said Fraser last August, “[especially] when you see some of these institutions that have five, six times as many students enrolled as they have spaces for them in the building.”

Concerns with private development Aidan Thompson, vice-president of university and public affairs for the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU), is doubtful that SHURE will further student interests. He claimed in an interview with The Varsity that the SHURE conference, by inviting so many private developers and investors, seems

to prioritize profit incentives over student and community interests. However, Thompson noted that SHURE invited several non-profit organizations, including the UTSU, to the conference.

Michael Jodah, executive director of HOUSE Canada — a non-profit affordable housing development organization formed and owned by student union locals from across Canada — criticized increased privatization in student housing.

“The private student housing development sector is trying to push non-profit student housing solutions to the margins,” he claimed in a statement to The Varsity. As an example, Jodah pointed to Wilfrid Laurier University’s sale of university land to a private developer, against its student unions’ requests to turn that land into a non-profit student housing co-operative.

Jodah asserted that when private developers partner with public universities to secure portions of campus land and university funding to use in forprofit developments, they profit off of students and taxpayers in the process.

HOUSE Canada urges that community-based, non-profit housing solutions are better at fostering sustainable, mixed-use development as well as stronger public oversight and accountability. “We are not against private student residences,” Jodah said. “[But] it is critical that we use publicly owned resources like university-owned land to build housing that is deeply affordable for students who might otherwise be priced out of housing entirely, or forced to live far away.”

U of T did not respond to The Varsity’s request for comment.

Exploring economies that centre people’s needs over profit Podcast hosted by a recent U of T graduate aims to give young listeners hope Victoria Man Associate Business & Labour Editor

academic projects in hopes of combatting social and corporate exclusion.

Recent UTSC graduate Serena Bahadur is the host for season two of Diverse Economy Conversations for Youth, a podcast that features interviews with academics and leaders within the field of feminist political economies — a field that, broadly, investigates how economic systems depend on and reinforce inequalities. The podcast aims to tackle systemic and racist barriers present in the economy and show young listeners that alternative economic futures are possible.

The podcast gets its funding from the Canada Research Chairs in Africana Development and Feminist Political Economy, and is one of several projects from U of T professor Caroline Shenaz Hossein’s Diverse Solidarity Economies (DISE) Collective, which she founded in 2017 with the goal of “decolonizing and diversifying the field of political economy.” DISE Collective members are anti-racist feminists working on community and

Bahadur’s journey Bahadur, a 2023 international development studies graduate from UTSC, in an interview with The Varsity talked about how she got the position: “Man, I don’t know. Sometimes I ask myself the same question.” She recounted that she initially contacted Hossein, who is an associate professor at UTSC for global development and crossappointed to U of T’s graduate program of political science, to simply work as a research assistant.

Then, one day, she found she had become not only a research assistant but also a podcast host.

Hosting the podcast, Bahadur said, is a way for her to “use [her] voice for these ideas that we can all definitely stand to hear.” In particular, she highlighted her interest in the relationships between race and social institutions, and how younger generations can take part in moulding the world into a better place.

In each episode, Bahadur typically interviews a DISE Collective member to get their insights on political economies. In these conversations, the aim is to provide the young audience with insight into the diversity of economic systems. These conversations “teach people about the different ways we can run the economy, instead of having the economy run us,” Bahadur said.

Behind the scenes of an episode As the host, Bahadur is in charge of preparing each podcast episode’s topic. The subject of a podcast episode greatly depends on which DISE Collective member is set to be interviewed. Once the episode’s guest has been confirmed, she said that she asks herself, “What about this is the most important for our future? What tangible solution could this be a part of?”

Through the podcast, Bahadur explores economic systems alongside the audience that provide alternatives to standard models of capitalism, which include solidarity economies,

social economies, and Black social economies.

Such alternative systems might revolve around satisfying common needs, rather than making a return on capital.

“They support global communities quietly, but fundamentally, in ways that capitalism can’t,” Bahadur explained. “They’re rooted in those values of reciprocity and trust. It’s like a whole different take on how to run an economy together instead of grinding all on our own just for pennies and for status.”

Bahadur emphasized that the podcast allowed her to become more optimistic about the future of the world. “The world can be anything… no one said that it would be easy, but I think whatever you believe in is always what is worth fighting for,” she said.

“If you’re someone who has ever worried or just wondered about the direction that our future is headed in, I would just say: take a listen and see how you feel.”

The podcast is currently available to listeners on its website and on Apple Podcasts.

Forming intergenerational connections while saving on rent How Humber College’s senior home sharing program aims to help student housing crisis Sami Khdair Varsity Contributor

Toronto’s housing market is still a huge burden for many people living in Toronto. But as rental rates continue to soar, students are particularly vulnerable to housing insecurity. A 2021 survey from Fostering Learning and Awareness on Student Housing suggested that students in Canada end up paying 25 per cent more than the average renter.

A variety of general solutions are necessary to address Toronto’s housing crisis on the whole. One option for students in particular, though, is to share space with seniors with a room or two to spare in their house.

The SpacesShared platform Humber College has partnered with the SpacesShared platform to pair students looking for accommodation with seniors with extra space, providing an affordable housing option.

Ian Crookshank, the associate vice president,

learner and career success and dean of students at Humber College, explained in an interview with The Varsity how pairing tools at SpacesShared focus on looking for beneficial attributes between the student and senior worker. The platform tries to create a “direct connection” between both users by having each party fill out a questionnaire, including prompts like “How often will you clean up dishes and the cooking area after using it?” and “How often would you like to have daytime guests visit you at the home?”

The SpacesShared platform differs from regular home-sharing platforms, as Crookshank described, where a tenant might live in the basement apartment of someone’s house with a separate entrance.

“You’re going to be using the main entrance to the home, there’s [going to be] a communal living space,” he pointed out. Furthermore, he added that students can get discounts on their rent in exchange for helping out around

the house, with tasks that “might be hard” for seniors to keep up with on their own.

With the platform already in use in the Barrie Area, SpacesShared’s arrival in the GTA seems to have created a buzz, as over 500 students in the area have already signed up. SpacesShared has also partnered with other Canadian universities and colleges with the goal of supporting students across the country.

Not just an affordability solution Home sharing as a concept is not very new. Yet, in Canada, the concept of home sharing — with a common space and a ‘roommate’ feel — may be something that many Canadian individuals will need to get used to.

Crookshank noted that the program has seen many students, but finding seniors willing to allow a student to live in their home has been more of a struggle. However, Crookshank is confident that this hesitation will fade in the longer term. He predicts that option will become more normalized

as a “critical mass” of seniors and students start to use the platform.

While the home sharing program may help seniors and students with their bank accounts, potential benefits go beyond that. Crookshank pointed out that home sharing may be a way for seniors to preserve their old homes, which are often filled with memories — instead of selling and downsizing. He also pointed out that seniors may benefit by combatting loneliness and increasing their day-to-day cognitive stimulation.

Furthermore, Crookshank highlighted the importance of intergenerational connections between students and seniors. He explained that living with a senior citizen has unique potential benefits to students. “A senior who’s been a part of a community and has been within that community for a period of time… has that sort of narrative knowledge of both the community and life,” which may support and connect students in a way they would otherwise not have access to.

Comment

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Suffering in Israel and Gaza reminds us women and girls are uniquely vulnerable No matter your politics, grieve for the women and girls JESSICA LAM/THEVARSITY

Sarah Stern Varsity Contributor

Content warning: This article discusses the ongoing violence in Israel and Gaza, sexual violence, and death, including death by suicide.

On December 12, 2016, 20 women in Aleppo, Syria died by mass suicide. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s troops had captured the city, and the women faced a choice: be raped or kill themselves. The women knew that al-Assad’s soldiers were raping and imprisoning women across the country and decided that death was better than sexual violation. It was not the first time that women have killed themselves to escape sexual violence. Women and girls, throughout ancient and modern history, often pay the greatest price of conflict.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas militants raped and mutilated Israeli women. Israel’s subsequent bombardment of Gaza has caused enormous suffering for Palestinians generally but specific agony for Palestinian women. The horrors in Israel and Gaza on and since October 7 are a reminder of how uniquely dangerous it is for women and girls in times of conflict.

In 2008, the United Nations (UN) Security Council passed resolution 1820, declaring that “rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, or a constitutive act with respect to genocide.” Sexual violence, in particular, has a long history as a war tactic. Countless terrors in recent history have manifested as mass rape and violence against women and girls.

In the 1994 genocide against Rwandan Tutsis, Hutu militants sexually assaulted between

250,000 and 500,000 women. During World War II, Hitler’s soldiers raped thousands of women.

When soldiers of the Red Army conquered Nazioccupied territories, they mass-raped German women and girls, leaving a wake of some 10,000 deaths by suicide. Here, in North America, both Union and Confederate soldiers sexually assaulted hundreds of women during the American Civil War — crimes that are still only being uncovered. This is still happening to this day, as the world has seen with reports of Russian soldiers committing sexual violence in Ukraine, and, of course, the predations

by Hamas on October 7.

Sexual violence is not the only type of suffering women and girls face. As one of society’s most vulnerable groups, they endure other agonies worsened by conflict.

Consider the effect that Israel’s bombing campaign and invasion has on Palestinian women.

In late November, the UN estimated that 50,000 women in Gaza were pregnant and would give birth in a war zone. It can be a death sentence to give birth without doctors, medical infrastructure, or proper supplies while bombs rain down. Women in Gaza are reportedly taking menstruation-delaying medication owing to shortages of water and menstrual-hygiene products.

Analysts may disagree on the geopolitics of the Middle East or any other global conflict zone. Still, I believe no one should dispute that women and girls are uniquely at risk in times of war and instability.

Unfortunately, political polarization can hinder the ability to recognize this reality and mourn or even acknowledge the victimization of women and girls if those women and girls belong to the “enemy camp.” Some voices that see Israel as the sole source of conflict in the region, and who have

either denied or rationalized the sexual violence committed by Hamas, seem to have had a difficult time accepting that Israeli women and girls can ever be victims.

We have seen this phenomenon on Canadian university campuses. Most notoriously, the thendirector of the University of Alberta Sexual Assault Centre signed an open letter that included suggestions that the sexual violence of October 7 were “unverified accusations,” in a pattern of popular denialism that has led some Jewish women to adopt the slogan “MeToo, Unless You’re A Jew.” As a Jewish woman at U of T, I was distraught by an Instagram post from the student coalition The PEARS Project, a group that is supposed to advocate against gender-based violence. While the PEARS Project said in its statement that it offers “support, grief, and care to all those impacted by this violence” regardless of race, religion, or nationality, and that it stands with survivors everywhere, this post made me feel that Jewish and Israeli women don’t have space with PEARS. The post wrote, “Pointing to Hamas sexual violence as a means to encourage support for Israel is an act of commodifying survivors voices as a political tool, rather than a true act of standing with survivors.” I interpreted the statement to mean that those who sympathize with survivors of Hamas’ sexual violence do so only to garner support for Israel, which seemed to me to suggest that Israeli girls and women cannot be legitimate victims in their own right. I believe this logic comes dangerously close to rationalizing the violence against them.

This is also one of the only two sentences in PEARS’ statement that refer to but does not specifically condemn Hamas’ use of sexual violence.

I am concerned that PEARS is politicizing sexual

Toronto’s New Year’s resolutions must facilitate its population growth The city’s infrastructure has become increasingly strained in recent years Immigration has greatly benefited Toronto, but I believe the city hasn’t returned the favour.

EHSAN ETESAMI/THEVARSITY

Rubin Beshi Comment Columnist

It’s no surprise that Toronto’s population has been steadily rising. The past four years have seen Toronto’s population increase roughly 0.93 per cent annually, with a population of roughly 6,431,000 in 2024. The economic opportunities and high quality of life that Toronto provides have made the city an attractive destination for immigration.

However, this surge in population has also put a severe strain on the city’s infrastructure. Various sectors in Toronto — such as its healthcare, transportation, and housing sectors — have been seriously compromised. Wait times in hospitals are too long, traffic is too congested, and housing has become too expensive.

As we head into 2024, I believe Toronto’s most important New Year’s resolution should be to find ways to accommodate its rising population while maintaining its infrastructure.

Ineffective healthcare services In recent years, Toronto has been experiencing overcrowding in emergency rooms across the city. Extended wait times have been seriously frustrating patients, with Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children reporting wait times of up to 12 hours in 2022. In addition to posing a risk to patients who

may not receive the timely care they need, the extended wait times are also affecting hospital staff.

Erin Ariss, president of the Ontario Nurses Association, noted how nurses are being severely overworked in their attempts to manage overcapacity emergency departments. Coupled with bed shortages, some health professionals believe we are facing a medical crisis.

A major reason for this emergency room crisis is the passage of Bill C-124, which has slashed the pay of certain public sector workers, including nurses. With nurses leaving Ontario in search of better pay, patients have been suffering in greater numbers.

With our rising population, it is more important than ever for Toronto hospitals to retain nurses to ensure better healthcare services, and I believe repealing Bill C-124 would be a good start. Progress has already been made on this front in part due to the advocacy made by unions. With the support of the Ontario Federation of Labour and over 40 other unions, Bill C-124 was deemed unconstitutional by the Ontario Superior Court. While the provincial government appealed this decision in December 2022, the court has not made a decision yet.

Too much time in traffic According to a new index by TomTom — a navigation and location technology company —

Toronto has recently been labelled as the worst city in North America for traffic, beating New York City and Mexico City. The index states that it takes around 29 minutes for Toronto commuters to complete a 10-kilometre trip, while comparable trips in Montreal and Vancouver mark 19 minutes and 23 minutes, respectively.

In addition to an increasing population, Toronto’s horrible traffic is also due to poor infrastructure maintenance along important highways and downtown arterial roads. Although the City announced plans to improve traffic by modifying traffic signals in high-density areas, progress remains slow.

Downtown is not the only area that is affected.

Etobicoke, where I live, has also been seeing severe congestion along major roads, such as Bloor Street and Burnhamthorpe Road, which has frustrated commuters. All in all, it is unacceptable that Toronto drivers are currently spending roughly 199 hours per year in traffic.

Skyrocketing real estate market Most notably, perhaps, is what I see as Toronto’s real estate market crisis. As more people move into the city and surrounding GTA, demand for homes has skyrocketed. According to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, the average house has risen in cost by 3.5 per cent since October

violence because the group did not unambiguously denounce Hamas for using sexual violence, but specifically denounced Israel’s use of sexual violence in the same statement. The refusal to specifically condemn Hamas for weaponizing sexual violence on October 7 and readiness to denounce Israel for its own history of sexual abuse immediately after feels like a case of ‘whataboutism’ that, in my view, renders hollow any expression of support for the victims.

Similarly, one cannot deny or minimize the trauma and violence that Palestinian women face. In 2016, after Israeli courts convicted an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier of sexually assaulting Palestinian women from the West Bank, Israel barred its media from reporting on the case — a particularly disgraceful instance of sexual violence being, if not denied, certainly covered up, to preserve a political narrative: in this case, a narrative of the IDF’s unblemished character.

Today, we shouldn’t deny Palestinian women and girls the empathy they are due on the grounds that “Hamas started the current conflict.” That is wrong.

Women and girls have suffered and are suffering — in Nagorno-Karabakh, Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and wherever else violence and conflict occur. It is said that war is hell. For girls and women, it is even worse than that.

Sarah Stern is a fourth-year student at Victoria College studying English and European affairs.

If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual violence or harassment or has experienced harassment or discrimination based on race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship and/or creed at U of T, please see resources on page 2.

2022 to a whopping $1,125,928. Townhouses and semi-detached homes have also seen price increases.

Rent prices in Toronto have also increased by 4.9 per cent in 2023 compared to the previous year, with the average monthly rent price for a one-bedroom property this past fall being roughly $2,614. These rent prices have generated unrest among many tenants in the city, especially considering that many are being forced to live with roommates as a means to alleviate costs.

A major factor for these price increases is the labour shortage of construction workers. The rate of construction for new homes has simply not kept up with the population growth in the past couple of years. In an effort to spur development, Mayor Olivia Chow announced that the City Council committed eight billion dollars for the course of the following decade to speed up development processes. The City’s HousingTO action plan for 2020 to 2030 also sets the ambitious goal of raising $33.2 billion across all levels of government in response to housing challenges. Although this shows promise, it has proven difficult to secure the federal and provincial funding necessary for the project.

Overall, I believe it’s a good thing that our population is increasing. Immigration has greatly benefited Toronto by enhancing its cultural richness, increasing economic opportunities, and attracting investments. I do not believe Toronto has returned the favour. In my view, City Council needs to secure more provincial and federal funding in order to invest in infrastructure development and respond to this increased demand for city resources.

Rubin Beshi is a third-year student at Woodsworth College studying political science and English.

He is the Local Affairs columnist for The Varsity’s Comment section.

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Celebrities can do great things for the news industry — but it’s a tricky task Are celebrities becoming the next journalists? Are journalists becoming the next celebrities? What is happening?

Charmaine Yu Comment Columnist

In the age of social media in which celebrities and influencers occupy our daily conscience more than ever, we — as Gen Z — may expect them to act as sources of news for world events. Being a parttime news anchor has essentially become part of the package of fame.

A collaborative digital news report by the Reuters Institute and the University of Oxford in June 2023 found that the participants in their data paid more attention to news coming from celebrities, influencers, and social media personalities than actual journalists on TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. In the same report, their data shows that younger online users are visiting news sites less frequently.

Though the data may seem to present an untapped potential for celebrities to become educators of world events, I see this emerging culture of equating celebrities to a news source as a concern for journalistic integrity. With their mass following, celebrities wield the power to create tangible effects for the news industry — but right now, they’re just not doing it effectively.

When two arenas of the media collide The first distinction between celebrities and journalists is that celebrities often do not share news in the objective way that credible journalists are expected to do. I think celebrities’ and influencers’ posts on world events tend to be constructed through a lens of social activism rather than as a vehicle of journalistic reporting.

I don’t see this as inherently bad, but I believe a problem arises when viewers interpret the information in the same way they consume news — with the assumption that information is presented im-

partially. With parasocial relationships between fans and celebrities, it is easy to blindly adopt a celebrity’s political stance. Or, at least, the political stance that they project to the public.

Shockingly, celebrities are not just ‘regular’ people. They are products. Their social media presence is cautiously crafted by a big team of publicists to ensure maximum profit. What they deliver to the public will more than likely prioritize the celebrity’s marketability rather than aim to educate their consumers. I’ve observed this leading to celebrities using an over-sanitized, over-simplified, and a ‘bothsidesism’ framing of political events that adds nothing productive to the conversation.

At best, a celebrity’s input makes a marginal impact. At worst, it’s harmful to the communities involved. Although celebrity figures play a potentially crucial role in dispersing news, they are mostly not political experts nor held to any significant standard of journalistic integrity — hence, I worry it may lead us down a path of misinformation. For example, Justin Bieber faced backlash in October 2023 for sharing a now-deleted Instagram post saying “Pray for Israel,” despite the image used alongside it depicting destruction in Gaza.

Celebrities’ support for certain political stances will ebb and flow according to consumers and stakeholders. ‘Cancelling’ celebrities for their politics dates before the days of TikTok, evident in the case of the American country band, The Chicks, who were blacklisted by the music industry for criticizing then-president George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq.

Additionally, although BLM’s #BlackOutTuesday protest began as an attempt to disrupt the digital industry, celebrities and influencers were criticized for exploiting the protest performatively to retain followers. The money runs both ways — celebrities

The “girl” trends are a symptom of a generation reluctant to grow up Adult women beginning to label themselves as “girls” may have deeper significance Alia Ginevra Varsity Contributor

About a month ago, I was getting ready to go to a dance with a couple of friends. We were curling each other’s hair, chatting, putting on makeup, and listening to songs from early 2000’s Disney Channel original movies. Amid pure fun, I remarked, “This is what girlhood is.”

Although girlhood is not simply participating in such activities, my use of the term “girl” to refer to myself, a legal adult, comes in the context of many social media users adding the word “girl” to everyday activities and aesthetics. From eating “girl dinner,” to going on “hot girl walks,” to labelling yourself and other women as “that girl,” the “girl” trend has taken the internet by storm.

The trend is striking, as I cannot imagine previous generations enthusiastically labelling themselves as “girls” past the age of 18. The responsibilities expected of women, such as taking care of families in the mid-twentieth century or working a job in the later half of the twentieth century, were often thrust upon them at a much earlier age.

At 23 years old, my late Nonna was already married and helping her family immigrate to Canada. This makes sense as, according to The National Center for Family & Marriage Research, the median age of first marriage for women rose from approximately 20 to 27 between 1960 and 2015 in the US. Perhaps the ‘adult responsibilities’ she was forced to engage in by life circumstances allowed her to step into

womanhood more readily. For my Nonna and other women of different cultures and periods, girlhood has usually had a defined expiry date.

Thus, in a way, I see my use of the term “girl” as demonstrating the privilege that I must possess to identify myself as a “girl” when I am legally not one.

However, even if we choose not to be big career women or homemakers, childhood eventually comes to a close. I am unsure if it is a positive to self-identify as a girl when the responsibilities of adulthood inevitably lie ahead. To me, the “girl” trend is a symptom of a generation that finds it difficult to grow up.

Billie Walker points out in her Dazed article, “Why ‘girl’ trends need to stop,” that “very few of us can now take the next step into adult life, whether that be renting a place alone or getting a mortgage.” In another example of prolonged adolescence, Gen Z are now getting their driver’s license at a slower rate compared to previous generations. In my view, labelling themselves as women feels inaccurate for many young women who do not participate in traditionally “grown-up” activities like driving, renting a place, and getting a mortgage.

I believe the word “woman” symbolizes a responsible, mature adult who makes decisions for herself and her loved ones. The “girl dinner” trend juxtaposes this as it implies a sense of carelessness, as an adult wouldn’t dare have nothing but morsels of bread for dinner. I see the word “girl” as having a whimsical quality, almost acting as a barrier to responsibilities.

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can either get ‘cancelled’ by the industry or by the masses.

Of course, these examples bleed into the realm of social activism rather than news. However, they showcase the difficulty for celebrities and influencers to be trustworthy news sources when they’re also under the threat of losing viewership.

Spotlighting, platforming, and amplifying All of this sounds pretty negative about the relationship between celebrities and news, but I think that celebrities can do great things for news media — depending on how they do it.

Especially for famous figures who have profited off principles of liberation and equality in their work, I believe they have a moral duty to bring attention to situations across the world where those same principles are endangered. I’m reluctant to say that social media posts don’t do anything and that therefore celebrities should stop sharing political content — if their social media posts would make even just one person aware of the news, I think it’s a difference worth making.

But, simultaneously, I believe celebrities should be platforming voices with more nuanced knowledge and robust documentation about the news events to maximize the use of their large following and to reduce misinformation. Perhaps they could start by inviting publicly-known journalists to take over celebrities’ online accounts to give them wider exposure or spotlighting existing news articles and credible journalistic resources. The vital thing is to centre informed voices for viewers to educate Interestingly, many ‘girls’ participating in these trends are legal adults. Is that always a good thing? Part of me thinks it’s not. Although I enjoy reminiscing on the nostalgia of girlhood, I imagine that some excitement toward the responsibilities found in adulthood is healthy.

The question remains: why would young women purposely seek to infantilize themselves, especially after years of struggling to be perceived as equal? Although the freedom to enter the workforce has been a significant step for women in gender empowerment and financial independence, I believe modern society has made it difficult for women to ‘do it all’ — working, balancing a healthy family life, and socializing. Recently, a young woman named Brielle Asero went viral on TikTok for complaining about the lack of free time in her first nine-to-five job out of college. In her TikTok, she claims that she finds it difficult to have the energy to socialize outside of work hours due to her long commute.

While I can sympathize with the perspective that she has to “face the real world,” I see her tears coming from recognizing a loss of her

themselves with rather than treating celebrities themselves as a source of news.

Of course, the risk of blacklisting from the industry or public will continue to loom over celebrities when they choose who to platform and not. But, it seems the only way out of this is for celebrities to show strength through numbers and offer solidarity to those who get penalized for platforming resources that they can prove credible.

I believe we should start dedicating ourselves more to supporting journalists’ craft in a similar way we rave about celebrities’ films and songs. Don’t get me wrong — we shouldn’t treat journalists like celebrities in the sense that they should wear garish costumes to the MET gala or cash out a million dollars from posing with the newest perfume scent — but we should start investing more of our time, attention, and empathy into journalists. In fact, I’m glad to see the increased interest in journalists happening now with on-the-ground Palestinian journalists who are accruing unprecedented numbers of Instagram followers.

Yet, as the lines between celebrity, influencer, and journalist begin to blur, it is worth reflecting on what exactly those roles entail and paying attention to where the boundaries between those three begin and end.

Charmaine Yu is a third-year student at Trinity College studying political science and English. She is an editor-in-chief of The Trinity Review and the What’s New In News columnist for The Varsity’s Comment section. youthful femininity that can come with advancing roles and responsibilities of women in society.

The days of going on “hot girl walks,” eating “girl dinners,” and having endless “feral girl summers” don’t last forever.

Nowadays, many young women must learn the difficult task of juggling corporate life with their personal lives. On the other hand, picking whether you prefer the strawberry girl aesthetic, the clean girl vibes, or the vanilla girl aesthetic feels less strenuous than grappling with the lack of freedom in modern womanhood.

I recognize that this trend is supposed to be fun, and I have analyzed it to oblivion.

Nonetheless, I am analyzing it because the “girl” trend implies a fear of adulthood that seems to be an issue for Gen Z. As a tribute to overcoming my fears, perhaps I should start eating ‘women’s dinner’ — but for now, I'll stick to the more satiating and better-sounding “girl dinner.”

Alia Ginevra is a third-year student in the Faculty of Music at UTSG studying music and political science.

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FEATURES

The popcorn you eat in class is my horror movie

How misophonia has affected my university experience

Lina Fourati Varsity Contributor

Isabel Bader Theatre, September 2022, almost 2:00 pm on a Friday. A jury of my peers awaits for an unexpected trial. My laptop is connected to the projector. It’s almost time. When the clock strikes, I begin to plead my case in the court of public opinion — as public as an ENG140 lecture can be, anyway.

I don’t really remember the slides I made. I don’t recall the details of speeding through them, looking down at my hastily prepared script. But I wish I didn’t remember the experience of presenting in front of my class: every second is clear to me in reality. Because it wasn’t the first time — nor would it be the last — that I had to make such an announcement.

I’ve done one for nearly every class I’ve had since 11th grade, explaining my situation to my classmates, though sometimes a lengthy group chat message does the trick. This was hopefully the first and last time I’d do it in front of a class size of 400 people, sure, but the situation itself was nothing new.

Merriam-Webster defines misophonia as “a condition in which one or more common sounds cause an atypical emotional response in the affected person hearing the sound.” It’s a little-known condition, and research on it is still emerging. A 2023 study done in the UK found that out of the 772 participants, approximately two per cent identified as having the condition, and only about 14 per cent of participants in total knew what it was called.

Because I’ve had the condition since the beginning of high school, I know all too well its impact on a person in a seemingly normal situation. Once, I had someone jokingly ask me if it was the fear of miso soup. They weren’t entirely wrong: the trigger sounds for misophonia can vary, but the one that affects me the most, it turns out, is eating.

Eating, interrupted Unfortunately, my condition is quite severe. The emotional response varies as much as the trigger sounds, but for me, it’s almost always anxiety. I have panic attacks when I hear, and see, certain sounds come my way. My brain is on constant high alert for any sonic danger in the vicinity. I like to call it my Spidey-sense. Most call it paranoia.

My brain is on constant high alert for any sonic danger in the vicinity.

Misophonia is so deeply conditioned in my brain that a split-second screen of salad in a soap opera causes me to shudder. Seeing someone open their mouth to take a bite out of a sandwich causes my eyes to widen in fear. Even the sound of my own eating gets to me — I get

extremely self-conscious, and my Spidey-sense goes off so much every time I hear a plastic bag that I often just give up trying to finish my lunch.

So, as you may imagine, eating in public is difficult for me.

In a case like mine, accommodations are more than just helpful — they’re necessary for my survival. For days when I was on campus for hours on end, I’d need some privacy, some space to myself where I could feel isolated enough to eat properly. In high school, I was provided that space, and it was one of the few places I felt like I could breathe. So naturally, the first thing I did upon coming to U of T was ask Accessibility Services if they could provide me with such a place.

Nope.

I felt my heart sink from my chest. How was I going to survive in university if I didn’t have a place to eat? I lived too far from campus to be able to go back and forth every time I needed a bite, and the subway would just add to my stress. And considering the toll my paranoia takes on my energy levels, I can’t just skip meals so easily.

I couldn’t just give up, though, so I kept on searching tirelessly for any organization I could think of within the university’s system that seemed to have the authority to provide me with the space I needed.

Nothing.

Registrars and libraries all referred me back to Accessibility Services, said they didn’t have enough space, or told me there was nothing they could do. I’m sure they meant it too, since I don’t think there was any case like mine that

they could use as a reference. There was a brief period in which I had access to a meeting room at certain times every week, but the meeting room got busy when the term ended and I was left with uneaten lunches and increasing desperation.

To this day, I’m stuck booking library rooms for every possible time I think I might need one.

It’s the only thing I can really do at this point: hope that no one booked something before me.

Pray that the windows don’t face someone else with a meal in their hands. Rinse and repeat, every week.

Survival: What works and what doesn’t To be fair, I haven’t had entirely negative experiences with the university and its staff. Pretty much all of my professors have been as accommodating as or more than I needed

features@thevarsity.ca them to be. Typically, they too have never heard of the condition, but they’re often eager to learn. I’ve had to ask for permission to make the announcements pleading for people to avoid eating in class for every course, and with few exceptions, they’ve been willing to lend me the floor for a few minutes. They weren’t all perfect, but I can’t expect perfection: nobody is. I just do what I can to survive.

Survival in a world filled with imaginary and real danger is no easy task. Right before entering university, I ordered three coloured bucket hats to wear in public so that I could pull them over my face in case of visual triggers. I was wearing one of those hats during my big announcement.

Riding the subway is filled with people chewing gum or eating, so the hat is paired with noise-cancelling headphones blasting my favourite music. The face mask completes the look of obscurity I’m going for, though I’m sure I stand out at times. But these methods work as well as I could ask for.

To be honest, it’s not easy, and it never has been. People forget, people ignore, and people just suck sometimes. I won’t blame them. My survival is my priority, not theirs. People often don’t realize the severity of negative reactions to triggers. Sometimes people just think that they can be quiet.

In large classes, people often forget about that one kid who’s sensitive to eating, and they get hungry. So what do I do then? It’s not a perfect system, but I just leave. Sometimes crying.

Sometimes out of breath. Sometimes just tired.

There’s not much else I can do.

People forget, people ignore, and people just suck sometimes.

In those cases, lecture notes are a lifesaver.

Though accommodations for outside of class time were lacking, Accessibility Services did help quite a bit with study help and exam accommodations, I’ll give them that.

Often, people think I don’t see or hear them.

I do — pretty much always. I just can’t exactly approach them in that situation, though, especially when they’re the cause of my panic — you don’t run toward the bear you’re trying to escape.

Finding support Despite all of this, as someone who experiences misophonia, I wouldn’t be able to get through university without other people. Having a support system has been so much more vital than I initially thought, even though it’s often also made up of people who make mistakes.

Messing up is fine, as long as you stop when I ask you to, and as long as you make an effort. Little things can build up in a negative way, but they build up positively as well. Knowing people care is so important, and I don’t know if people realize the extent to which people with mental health issues need community as much as they need space. So I want to express gratitude to those who have helped me.

My family has been such a huge help throughout all of this. My mom: the person who went through all the trouble to

find out what the condition was, and even found a clinic that treats it nearby. My sister: my subway buddy who puts up with all my annoying messages even when she’s studying. My dad: the one who makes an effort to drive downtown whenever he can to pick me up on days I can’t deal with the subway. All of them together, who always ask me how I’m doing, spend time with me, and keep me up to date on all the dinner gossip I missed. It’s these things, big or small, that make me appreciate them to no end.

Not to be missed are all of my friends, who always help me out when I’m in need. One gave me a key to her apartment in case I ever need some privacy, which has been a lifesaver. Others leave class with me to help me calm down after a rough situation. I’ve had friends walk across campus to pick me up from class so they can help me feel better.

I can’t stress enough how important it is that they don’t exclude me. They’ll make efforts, making sure not to eat when they know I’ll be there, but they’ll still invite me to events, talk in group chats with me, and just overall support me. I sometimes think that I’m a burden on people, but the people around me never let me think that way, and I can never thank them enough.

Finally, I want to say thanks to my classmates, who don’t know me personally but still make an effort. They ask me questions about what’s okay and what’s not, or sip their drinks quietly — though drinks are fine — or just talk to me like a normal human being. I’m okay with being treated differently — since I’m literally asking for people to make an effort to do so — but it never feels good to be excluded. The whole point of explaining my condition to people is that I want to be included.

Bravery out of necessity And so we return to September 2022, on that fateful day right before my second lecture of the course. I had just finished my presentation, leaving my contact information on the screen if there were any questions. I immediately noticed a bunch of notifications on my phone: people were asking questions, and the buzzes continued as I returned to my seat on the balcony.

The usual questions were there, about

whether bubble tea is okay — it is, as long as you don’t chew on the tapioca — and if lozenges are fine — again, just avoid chewing. There was also that one random comment about my bucket hat — thanks for the compliment. I had a couple of people tell me I was brave for standing up like that and giving a speech about something so personal. All somewhat expected, nothing out of the ordinary. What I didn’t expect were a few kindred spirits.

By this point, I had met one, maybe two people with the same condition. Suddenly, I had people messaging me, telling me they had the same problem but hadn’t had the courage to tell anyone, especially not in a theatre full of strangers. They thanked me for doing what they didn’t feel they could, and I was even able to give people the name of the clinic where I was getting treatment.

There still weren’t that many, only a few, but those were only the people who told me about it and knew that they had it. I don’t think I’m a hero, but I’m still proud of myself for doing that presentation, even with all of my stutters. It wasn’t easy, but it wouldn’t be easy for anyone else to do it for me either.

To this day, I meet new people who relate to having misophonia. Not a crazy number of people, but it feels crazy that I’m not alone when I used to think I was. And to think: none of them would have said anything had I not said something first.

I don’t like having to constantly bring up to near-strangers the state of my mental health. It probably doesn’t feel great to hear that from a near-stranger either. But expressing one’s mental health shouldn’t have to be something that takes as much courage as it does. I don’t want to be called brave. I don’t want to have to be brave.

If you have to take anything away from my story, make it this: for those of us who need help, asking for it is no easy feat. Making that effort, though, is certainly worth it. For everyone else, make sure that you’re showing enough kindness and compassion to listen.

And if you see a girl in a bucket hat and AirPods running past you and avoiding eye contact, just turn around and finish your sandwich.

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Arts & Culture

January 15, 2024 thevarsity.ca/section/arts-and-culture arts@thevarsity.ca

Director Yorgos Lanthimos reanimates the coming-of-age genre in Poor Things This quirky take on Frankenstein takes Lanthimos’ tradition of weird into the mainstream Kyle Brandys Varsity Contributor

Content warning: This article mentions death.

The chimera looms large over Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things (2023). The word chimera, a lion-goat-dragon hybrid from Greek mythology, symbolizes the idea of a potentially freakish fusion of different creatures. Squint your eyes, viewers, and you can spot many variations of the mythical figure in the film’s central setting: the household of mad scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), where bizarre creations are brought to life. A menagerie of animal hybrids — a chicken pig, a bulldog goose, a duck goat — roams wild throughout the surgeon’s laboratory and home.

Poor Things’ very structure is chimeric. The film — part Frankenstein homage, part travel film — seems to delight in its incongruity. In the spirit of Godwin’s chimeric brand of reanimation, over the course of the film, the coming-of age genre itself also receives an imaginative, offkilter rebirth.

Poor Things, a film about upbringing and development, begins ironically with the death of its protagonist. Victoria Blessington (Emma Stone) plunges off the ledge of a London bridge into the dark waters of the river below, which extinguishes her life and seemingly the life of her unborn daughter. Before long, Victoria’s corpse is plucked out of the river by Godwin, who has the novel idea to insert the child’s brain into

Victoria’s body. A macabre switcheroo ensues; Victoria Blessington becomes Bella Baxter.

The coming-of-age story is reinvented in a fashion I found refreshing as Lanthimos unearths new trajectories of this genre. Uniquely, Bella’s birth is not the beginning of her story, and Victoria’s presence continuously haunts the narrative. As such, this is not a coming-of-age film that just progresses linearly forward but also backward to reconcile with Bella’s past life.

Lanthimos also reconfigures the typical timeline of the coming-of-age film by having Bella be ‘born’ physically as an adult. While she does not visibly age throughout the movie, within the film’s confined timeframe she nevertheless traverses many pivotal life stages, from infancy to adulthood — often nonsequentially. These stages overlap for Bella; she is still learning how to speak and understand basic social cues while experiencing a sexual awakening and confronting societal injustices.

Viewers familiar with Lanthimos’ body of work will find certain parts of Poor Things uncannily recognizable. Following in the footsteps of Dogtooth (2009) and the Lanthimosproduced Attenberg (2010), Poor Things once more foregrounds repressed adults who yearn to break free from the confinement of their households and parents. This tension between restriction and freedom and Bella’s use of language most directly recalls Dogtooth, wherein sadistic parents teach their sheltered adult children a disjointed vocabulary. Bella’s education and wordplay bring about some of

Poor Things’ most comedic moments — this very well may be Lanthimos’ most overtly funny film. Bella delights in her discoveries of carnal pleasures — she calls sex “furious jumping” — which culminates in the wry observation: “Why do people not just do this all the time?”

Bella’s journey of self-discovery is cleverly aligned with a much more literal expedition.

Bella departs Godwin’s workshop for a global trot around the world; this leads to the infusion of elements of the adventure film and the road movie genre into Poor Things’ DNA. My favourite stylistic element is the dazzling, dreamlike black and white title cards that chart Bella’s journey, from London to Lisbon to Paris.

These tableaux feel as if they are not being used as superfluous decoration but as inventive benchmarks to mark destinations along Bella’s journey, which coincide with important periods of development for Bella’s evolution, much like how sketched lines on kitchen door frames mark the growing heights of children.

Poor Things shines a light on Lanthimos’ own filmmaking journey. The film is his fourth feature made in English with Hollywood actors, after cutting his teeth on his early films as part of the “Greek Weird Wave.” However, it feels as if the director has finally arrived in mainstream filmmaking — for better or worse.

Along with the more familiar components of his work, Lanthimos introduces new stylistic elements that may divide long-term fans. Gone are the muted colour palettes and minimalistic art direction that dominate films such as Dogtooth and The Lobster (2015). Now, this starkness is replaced by an ornate visual style that seems to pull from various eclectic sources, from Tim Burton’s films to Antoni Gaudi’s architecture.

I was in disbelief at the depths of Bella’s marvellous wardrobe created by costume designer Holly Waddington — ruffled dresses, a pastel translucent coat, a puffy blue jacket and a yellow shorts ensemble. Likewise, the deadpan performances that conjured the cruel

Mourning Lee Sun-kyun’s mortality and his immortal characters Why the South Korean media is responsible for the Parasite actor’s death Eleanor Yuneun Park Comment Editor

Content warning: This article mentions death by suicide and torture.

One of the charms of Seoul is the five well-preserved, majestic palaces that serve as remnants of the Joseon Dynasty. On a particularly warm December day, I visited Changgyeong Palace with an agenda: walking through the palace according to the scenes in Hong Sang-soo’s 2013 film Our Sunhi.

In Our Sunhi, actor Lee Sun-kyun is distinctly memorable. He is awkwardly annoying, boyishly querulous, and overly intrusive about his muse, Sunhi. And I think his tactless, outdated romantic skills make his scenes at Changgyeong Palace all the better: the centuries-old ancient Palace seems to neutralize his antiquated behaviour.

Mere minutes after reenacting a scene of Lee’s, I saw the news. Lee had died by suicide. At age 48, he was no longer.

Since October, the police had been investigating Lee for his alleged illegal drug use. A Seoul bar hostess accused Lee of using marijuana and ketamine — which are illegal in South Korea — among other substances. Before his death, he underwent three separate rounds of questioning by the police, including one which spanned a total of 19 hours.

By the third questioning, Lee had tested negative for both a reagent test and detailed analysis via hair samples.

All the while, the media was there, filling every gap Lee could breathe through. The police denied Lee’s request for the date of his final questioning appearance to remain confidential after reporters

swarmed him before his first two. In November, South Korea’s national broadcaster, the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), stooped down to tabloid-style journalism and revealed an excerpt of Lee’s phone call with the hostess. Their supposed illicit affair was ridiculed among the Korean public — 90 per cent of whom are on social media, according to a survey by OOSGA, a market consulting firm.

I refuse to enumerate further what else Lee was humiliated for because enough of it has been exposed, circulated, and chewed on. The social media posts that dominated my feeds since October provided me and millions of South Koreans with Lee’s private life that was entirely irrelevant to the crime he was being investigated for.

While Lee’s role in Parasite gave him international renown, his performance as Park Dong-hoon in the 2018 television series My Mister stayed with many Koreans. On my feed, I saw numerous commenters complain that they wouldn’t be able to watch the series anymore in disappointment.

Lee and Park were inseparable from the public, so viewers’ subsequent frustration and obsession intensified.

Koreans use the word “in-gyeok,” (인격) which is often translated to “personality,” but is more accurately the consistent ego identity that defines one’s dignity. The sacrilege of in-gyeok is worse than mere humiliation, as it is akin to the loss of your dignity and, hence, your identity and self. What Lee lost in the process of the police’s interrogation and violently intrusive media involvement is his in-gyeok and himself.

Even after his death, major conservative newspaper Chosun-Ilbo’s television network TV Chosun disclosed parts of Lee’s suicide note — despite his

family’s request for confidentiality. YouTube channels claiming to know more about the case than the public racked up millions of views with their privacy-encroaching videos. The fact that Lee is survived by his wife and two young sons seems to hold no moral significance to media leeches.

It’s been difficult to swallow how vicious humans can be to others. This disbelief in human nature was stirred in me when I was reading about the corporal punishments that were carried out in the Joseon Dynasty. Paintings from the time depict dehumanizing torture methods — while crowds of civilians observe the torture scenes. Many evidently found the scene entertaining, or captivating at least.

This feels eerily similar to the media’s public torture of Lee’s in-gyeok and the public reception to it — but the public doesn’t want to see these criticisms pointed out. When famous lyricist Kim Eana posted a eulogy for Lee on her Instagram account with a fairly acerbic take on the passive audience that allowed such media to persist, she was criticized to the point where she had to take the post down. Many commented that she had no place lecturing the public about something that they cannot help.

But we can. Just listen to the head of KBS’ social department, Park Hee-bong. He defended KBS’ right to the exposé of Lee’s phone calls for it being a matter of great social interest. This is a flawed, sensationalist journalistic approach but simultaneously a testament to how public interest helped feed the monster of Korean media and the extent to which we are responsible for Lee’s treatment by the media. We must make a conscientious effort to remove our attention from coverage that damages the soul of a person, and call out journalism and

Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, and Willem Dafoe star in this new film.

COURTESY OF SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES CC WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

tone so prevalent in Lanthimos’ early works have also been supplanted by the exaggerated and whimsical performances by Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo.

By the end of Poor Things, I was caught off guard by how moved I was by the film’s tender story. Due to Bella's lack of physical changes as she grows up, her evolution feels gradual and subtle. As she evolved from infantile babbling to an unapologetic quest for enlightenment and independence, I began to relate to Bella without knowing it, like I was growing alongside her.

Some may find that, in Lanthimos’ relocation from the Greek film industry to larger budget English language films, some of his bite and edge have been excised. However, in its place, in this quirky potpourri, Lanthimos sprinkles in a surprising ingredient: sincerity. social media posts that do this. And, at this point, we owe our attention to artists like Bong Joon-ho calling for an investigation into police’s and media’s role in Lee’s death.

The life Lee led outside of the camera for a reason — we didn’t need to probe into it. Lee dedicated his life to creating lives inside the camera and we were gifted the opportunity to watch those instead. The lives of Lee’s characters inside the camera are immortal — Lee’s life outside the camera is not. So why did we conflate the two? Why did we treat his life outside the camera as if it would always be there, no matter how much people spat on it?

I mourn for both Lee’s life outside the camera and the many more lives he could have created inside the camera. I mourn the loss of the opportunity for him to create another immortal character, one that could drive a person to take themselves to a film location just to feel what he felt — as I did on the day of his death. Rest in peace to the identity, dignity, and soul of Lee Sun-kyun.

Lee Sun-kyun died at age 48 on December 27.

COURTESY OF KINOCINE CC WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

thevarsity.ca/category/arts-culture

JANUARY 15, 2024

On sex and politics, everyone’s two favourite things

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JESSICA LAM/THEVARSITY

Why someone’s politics can be such an easy turn-off (or turn-on) Noora Zahedi Varsity Contributor

When describing a perfect romantic partner, some standards need to be spelled out, and some are just a given. Like many others, I can’t imagine dating someone who holds different values from me. Politics showcase a person’s morals and principles, and our political beliefs reflect who we are and how we view the world.

Personally, my dating someone is contingent on an agreement on our shared principles and on most political discourses. The alternative is unimaginable: married or with kids, and having to defend my morals and principles regularly from someone who is meant to be my life partner and support person sounds exhausting.

The story is different with casual sex — which, as a rule, is meant to be impersonal.

With casual sex, we’re not supposed to care about the person, so we can minimize our emotional attachments. I’d argue that most standards become negotiable when the goal is to spend a short time being intimate with someone; I may not care about their fashion sense, drinking habits, or relationship with their parents if the goal is to enjoy their company without knowing them very well. While a longterm connection in a relationship reflects your standards for people you choose to associate with, your short-term partners are less likely to do so.

Yet, I still experience a mental block that prevents me from wanting to spend time with someone whose views clash very much with

mine, even if our views aren’t relevant in the bedroom.

Or are they? Do our political beliefs influence who we desire?

It seems like they can. For one, it’s easy to believe that people with different political ideologies have a fundamental stance against us and may resent us for our differing opinions.

Many political issues can be rooted in issues of gender, race, and class, which could mean that our political beliefs are not just political but directly involve our identities — who we are. You may not want to sexually engage with someone who you believe discriminates against you.

Interestingly, however, some people don’t mind — and even enjoy the thrill of sleeping with a political opposite. According to a Washington Post report, political humiliation is an alive and thriving scene in taboo fetish communities, where people enjoy degradation, humiliation, and submission from those of opposing political stances. It is common and sexually arousing for some to roleplay as political figures, be degraded based on their race, or be ‘red-pilled’ through domination. That said, fetish communities tend to be outliers and not the norm in society.

Another way to view someone’s disinterest in sexually engaging with our political opposites is to look at the correlation between sexual habits and political stances. In popular culture, it is often perpetuated that left-wing individuals are more sexually active, while right-wing individuals are more “vanilla” or celibate.

While this does not apply to everybody, a 2017 study in the journal Personality and

Individual Differences found that right-leaning individuals tend to have more traditional sexual habits, such as engaging in missionary sex, while left-leaning individuals tend to be more adventurous and open to things such as sex toys or masturbation. Their research explores various sexual habits in relation to politics.

The study also references Hans Eysenck’s 1976 book Sex and Personality, in which he finds that anti-government views positively correlate with aggressive sexual behaviours, that left-leaning individuals tend to have a higher number of unsatisfying sexual experiments, and that right-leaning views tend to translate into less sexual shyness. This may be another reason why we subconsciously view political opposition as a turn-off: deep inside, we know they may not share sexual interests and expectations.

These findings appear theoretically similar to a phenomenon called positive assortative mating, which occurs when people would rather romantically and sexually engage with

those who are physically similar to them. Similar principles also work for social attraction: we judge others much more harshly on differences than we do on similarities. In other words, we tend to notice and write off those who are unlike us more quickly than we would give someone similar to us a chance. Being turned off by a potential sexual partner’s different politics may be based on our natural propensity to seek similarities and harshly judge what is different.

So why might we be interested in the political views of our hookups, even if our personal connection with them is not our primary focus?

Essentially, it might be because we tend to subconsciously group and label people based on our perception of their similarities and differences to us. Although we may not all consciously care about the politics of those we sleep with, on some level, we know that sexual compatibility may be likelier with those on our side of the political spectrum. After all, a successful one-night stand is one where both parties feel satisfied.

Between Bottles: Champagne is not just for New Year’s Eve A dive through the versatile world of sparkling wines Harry Khachatrian Arts & Culture Columnist

Few items in the culinary world are as synonymous with luxury and class as champagne.

Revered for its complex palate, imbued with notes of brioche and toasted almonds, and its effervescent bubbles, this iconic beverage has long been the mainstay of celebrations and special occasions.

Despite their perception as a commemorative drink, champagnes — and sparkling wines, more broadly — are far more versatile wines with myriad pairing options. Due to their exclusivity and lustrous label, champagnes command a hefty price; starting at around $50 at the LCBO, the cost prevents most of us who aren’t moneyed caricatures from HBO’s Succession from adding them to our regular wine repertoire. But worry not; many lesser-known bubbly alternatives exist at a fraction of the cost.

Readers who’ve hung around pedantic winos or meticulous Frenchmen long enough have no doubt been admonished that Champagne denotes a specific region northeast of Paris, not a type of wine. And while the name has been trademarked, the method, known as the “traditional” or the “Champagne” method, is replicated worldwide.

What is the “traditional method”?

Whether sparkling or still, all wine is created through the process of yeast reacting with sugar, known as alcoholic fermentation. This reaction converts the sugars in grape juice into ethanol and carbon dioxide (CO2).

In still wine, the CO2 gas dissipates over time. However, in Champagne-style sparkling wines, a second fermentation occurs inside the bottle. After bottling the wine, winemakers add more yeast and seal the bottle with a cork, trapping the CO2. This in-bottle fermentation

imparts Champagne-style wines with their signature bready notes.

In contrast, the “tank method” — exemplified by Prosecco from Italy’s Veneto region — involves adding yeast to a large tank rather than individual bottles. The wine undergoes its secondary fermentation in this tank before bottling. This method produces a lighter wine, typically without the yeasty, brioche-like notes found in traditional method sparkling wines.

Crémant: Your budget-friendly alternative In France, sparkling wines produced outside the Champagne region using the traditional method are collectively known as Crémant, with each variety bearing the name of its region. For instance, Crémant de Bourgogne, hailing from Burgundy, just three hours from Champagne, shares key grape varieties such as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with its illustrious cousin. The Bailly Lapierre Réserve Brut Crémant de Bourgogne, available for $24.95 at the LCBO, represents significant value, offering much of the same nose and palate as entry-level Champagne, for half the price. For something slightly different, you can opt for Crémant de Loire — a real bargain at $22.95 — from the Loire Valley, made from the herbaceous Cabernet Franc grape.

Beyond France’s borders, many wine-producing countries have developed their own versions of Champagne-style sparkling wines.

Spain is known for its Cava and Italy for its Franciacorta, while Germany and Austria produce Sekt. In South Africa, a similar wine is labelled as Cap Classique. And, due to climate change, the English have also found a new arena to rival the French, crafting sparkling wines in the country’s southern regions such as Sussex.

Sparkling wines and vintages Vintage dating in sparkling wines, particularly

Champagne, is rare due to historical climatic challenges.

Champagne’s unpredictable weather has often limited grape yields, prompting winemakers to blend reserve wines from different years. It was only in the best years that Champagne houses would declare vintages — you’ve likely heard of Dom Perignon, the vintage label of Moët & Chandon.

This practice of blending the best years’ wine ensured consistent quality and financial viability. Although in recent years climate change has stabilized conditions, allowing more frequent vintage declarations, the tradition of creating a non-vintage base cuvée (blend) endures in Champagne houses. This cuvée, blending multiple vintages, defines a house’s style and offers a consistent taste profile year after year, a tradition that the broader sparkling wine world continues to follow.

How to pair sparkling wines The versatility of sparkling wines stems from their high acidity, diverse styles, signature bubbles, and relatively low alcohol content. This acidity is crucial in balancing richer, more decadent dishes. A classic example is the pairing

of champagne with fried chicken; the wine’s acidity and effervescence seamlessly cut through the saltiness and fat of the dish. For a lighter option, champagne and popcorn make a fun combination. Additionally, the acidity in sparkling wines acts as an appetite stimulant, rendering them perfect as aperitifs.

Sparkling wines also vary significantly in sweetness levels. Terms like ‘brut’ on a label indicate dryness, with Brut Nature and Extra Brut being even less sweet. Conversely, labels such as Extra Dry, Dry, Demi-Sec, and Doux denote increasing levels of sweetness. Sparkling wines on the sweeter side are ideal companions for spicy foods — a sweeter bubbly with Indian cuisine is a personal favourite.

It’s a shame that sparkling wines have largely been relegated to perfunctory props for celebration; their range and versatility extend far beyond such myopic choices. I would propose, dear reader, that the next time you select a wine to serve or pair, consider a sparkling option. Whether it’s a distinguished Champagne or a budget-friendly Crémant, there’s a sparkling wine to suit every budget, palate, and occasion.

SOPHIA LEUNG/THEVARSITY

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ARTS & CULTURE

A Monobloc chair holds memories On romanticizing a worldwide threat to the environment Lina Obeidat Varsity Contributor

During this fall’s final exam season, I was scrolling through my camera roll when I landed on an old photo of me at my grandparents’ house in Jordan. Visible in the corner of the photo was a plastic white chair — the kind with convenient armrests and slits at its back that allow it to withstand almost any sort of weather. It’s also the kind of chair that could probably be stacked miles high and is perpetually covered in a thin layer of dust, regardless of how frequently it is used.

According to the internet, this chair is officially known as the Monobloc chair. Designed in 1946, the Monobloc chair gets its name from the means of its production; instead of assembling it from multiple pieces, the chair’s manufacturer injects a material called virgin thermoplastic polypropylene into a mould. This makes the production process quick and costeffective — and very dangerous for the environment, but we’ll get to that later.

Now, this might sound silly, but when I saw that plastic white chair, I teared up a little bit.

You could argue that those tears were symptoms of the stress and sleep deprivation that often accompany final exam season, but I also believe that they were a symptom of my homesickness.

I’m from Jordan, and those stupid plastic chairs are present in all my memories of living there. They were present at the weddings and funerals I attended; in my grandfather’s kitchen where he would treat my cousins and me to homemade hummus and falafel; and on the terraces where, late into the night with my aunts and uncles, I would indulge in eating sunflower seeds and discussing conspiracy theories.

During olive picking season, I would balance on those plastic chairs to reach the highest branches, and when I went to get my passport photo taken, the photographer gave me one of those chairs to sit on. The same chairs

lie abandoned by little children in parking lots or outdoor swimming pools, and they accommodate street vendors near old downtown Amman. They line everything from the shoreline of the Dead Sea to the entrances of cheap cafés where people get together for an afternoon coffee. In Jordan, Monobloc chairs are everywhere, and based on conversations with friends and my exposure to Arab television, it would seem as though the omnipresence of the Monobloc chair extends to other parts of the Middle East.

Despite how ugly Monobloc chairs are, they have been able to blend in with their surroundings and become a charming part of Middle Eastern culture — at least in my view. It’s similar, I think, to the way that windmills, tall and protruding, have become almost a romantic feature of the landscapes in Cape Cod or Switzerland. The main difference between these two inventions would be the fact that while windmills are meant to save the environment, Monobloc chairs do the opposite; their effects on the environment are pretty devastating, as is the case with any object that cannot be recycled easily and is produced on a massive scale.

In the case of the Monobloc, we’re talking billions of chairs produced since 1946.

Monobloc chairs are so mass-produced and ubiquitous that they have been dubbed “context-free,” meaning that they give absolutely no indication as to what the place they are found in might be — from a Toronto suburb to the centre of Beirut, it’s apparently anyone’s guess where a Monobloc chair could appear. In fact, I stumbled upon a blogger who pointed out that there is even a Flickr album called “Those White Plastic Chairs” documenting this context-free phenomenon that includes over a thousand photos taken in countries worldwide.

I’ll admit, I was surprised to learn about this Flickr album and the ubiquity of the Monobloc chair. I’m not sure if I was just exercising selective memory, but I could not remember seeing this sort of chair anywhere in Canada — even

so, I don’t know why that was enough reason for me to believe that this particular kind of plastic chair had any unique relationship to the Middle East.

If this were an article written for The Onion, it would be titled, “Girl Discovers That Plastic Chairs Can Sometimes Exist In Places,” but since it isn’t, I’ll say this: I think my romanticization of a generic plastic chair during a moment of homesickness points to how cultures are influenced by globalization — what else could you call it when the same plastic chair embeds itself into the setting of virtually every single country on the face of this Earth?

Moreover, I’m a little concerned that my view of my own culture, one with such a long and beautiful history, has been artificially influenced to this extent by globalization.

Given this, I’m now trying a little harder to learn more about some of the more substantial features I can attribute to my Jordanian and Middle Eastern cultural heritage. I’ve started by looking through the works of a bunch of pre-Islamic poets, but half of it just goes over my head. Maybe I don’t need to go that far back — maybe my versions of Jordan and the Middle East, which exist in the globalized present, are still valid.

Beyond the plastic chairs, other features of the landscape remain distinct. Maybe this association is less about those plastic chairs and more about the people who moved around them — the people who reflect my cultural heritage through the language they speak and their sense of humour, even if the dialect has changed, and their jokes now include references to modern cinema.

Monobloc chairs are so mass-produced and ubiquitous that they defy geographical boundaries.

LINA OBEIDAT/THEVARSITY

Science

January 15, 2024 thevarsity.ca/category/science science@thevarsity.ca

Can AI convert your thoughts into words?

Highlights from the Mersivity Symposium on Humanistic and Sustainable AI Aakash Anil Varsity Contributor

Sometimes, I feel like I’m standing on the threshold of the future, as though I can see it streaming in like light from under the door.

Attending the Mersivity Symposium last December was one such moment.

Mersivity Symposium unites pioneering in technology with sustainability. The event hosted a diverse group of participants, including researchers, authors, economists, and innovators from esteemed institutions — such as U of T, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers — focusing on the integration of humanistic artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced technologies.

In his opening remarks for the event, U of T President Meric Gertler captured the essence of the symposium: “The ideas raised in this symposium remind us of the vital importance of harnessing technology in the service of people and the planet.”

A highlight for me was the presentation by two young researchers from MIT, Akarsh Aurora and Akash Anand. They invited us to envision a future where thoughts could be directly translated into words.

Imagine a world where you wouldn’t need a mouse and keyboard to interact with your computer and could simply use your thoughts. You could turn on the lights with just a thought and surf the channels without even having to find the remote, undisturbed from that cozy spot on the couch. You could set an alarm by just thinking about it before you drifted off into sound sleep. From a humanistic standpoint, they emphasized the importance of such a technology to people with speech impediments and to those who have, in some way, lost the ability to communicate.

The talk given by Aurora and Anand helps us pull back the curtain on how such futuristic research might be done.

The electrode implant problem and the alternative To convert thoughts to words, researchers must first receive the raw data of thoughts. On a physical level, thoughts are primarily electrical signals in the brain. One way to read these signals is to stick an electrode smack-dab in the middle of the brain and observe the electrical signals whizzing by.

Researchers have done this before. However, the problem with such implants is that they interfere with and start to erode the brain tissue around them. After a while, implants also become

New study shows why pulling an all-nighter may just turn your frown upside down

We’ve all been there: surrounded by snacks, body hunched over your laptop, eyes fixated on the screen while furiously typing into the wee hours of the morning, with no plans to sleep soon.

As we’re thrust at full force into another semester, all-nighters seem all too possible. Each time you find yourself awake in the early hours — whether it be from working, socializing, studying, or scrolling — the guilty feeling from failing to abide by your New Year’s resolution to get more sleep likely continues to haunt you.

Perhaps that guilt might ease knowing that your short-term sleep loss may temporarily boost your mood. Yes, you read that right; no, you’re not just tired. A group of neurobiology researchers at Northwestern University, investigating the effects of brief sleep loss using mice, have found that pulling an all-nighter may lead to us feeling happy and giddy afterward.

In their 2024 study published in the journal Neuron, the Northwestern researchers investigated the impacts of sleep deprivation on affective disorders, in hopes of developing more effective treatments. Affective disorders are mental health conditions characterized by disruptions in emotion, often in the form of depressive states or manic states. As such, common affective disorders include depression and bipolar disorder.

To convert brain activity into words, they used a pre-trained AI to generate candidate word sequences representing predictions of the words a person was hearing. An AI-generated word sequence would be considered “correct” if it matches the sequence a participant was actually listening to at that moment of recording.

Anand and Aurora then used a model to generate predicted EEG responses from candidate word sequences. Then, they used a system to score each word sequence based on how much the predicted EEG response from the AI-generated word sequence differed from sleep, allowing their mood changes to remain for a few days afterward.

While this mood boost is plenty to be excited about, before you pull out your exhaustive to-do list and resolve to stay up all night, be warned: the effects of missing consecutive nights of sleep have widespread negative impacts on one’s physical health, impaired functioning, and ability to manage stress. Some studies even suggest that being awake for 24 hours is similar to having a blood alcohol concentration of 0.10 per cent.

Moreover, long-term sleep loss is associated with a range of health issues including depression, diabetes, heart attacks, and strokes.

Even in the Neuron study, researchers quickly found a downside to staying up in the short term.

Alongside the increased levels of dopamine that caused this change in mood, short-term sleep loss in mice resulted in behaviour that was notably aggressive, hyperactive, and hypersexual compared to the mice’s behaviour when they got a regular amount of sleep. While these symptoms disappeared within a few hours, it may not be wise to pull all-nighters solely for the mood boost.

Instead, consider doing something active or an activity you enjoy when you’d like to lift your spirits.

As with all things, moderation and maintaining healthy habits are incredibly important. So while these findings might ease your guilt about a oneoff sleepless night, it probably should not be motivation for a slew of all-nighters.

COURTESY OF HARMONIC LIGHT

less effective, which means an implant must be replaced periodically. If you’re anything like the general consumer, you’ll agree that the idea of invasive implants in your brain sounds absolutely odious. You’ll likely never buy that.

The alternative? Non-invasive brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) like the electroencephalogram (EEG). An EEG resembles a delicate cap fitted with numerous wires and small electrodes, placed across the scalp to detect the brain’s electrical activity. You might have encountered it on Stranger Things or medical TV shows. Since it’s non-invasive, EEG is what neuroscientists use to gather data from the brain.

You might have already noticed that you have more energy, or that you feel wired, after staying up all night. This feeling, researchers believe, is the result of an increase in dopamine in the brain, evidenced by the sleep-deprived mice in the study.

The neurotransmitter dopamine, known for its role in pleasure and rewards, contributes to the transitions between different emotional states in healthy subjects and patients with mood disorders. For this reason, people with affective disorders may use antidepressants, which limit the reuptake of dopamine — that is, the reabsorption of dopamine into the neuron that released it. Normally, when dopamine is released, it only lasts a certain amount of time before it is reabsorbed, but antidepressants let dopamine last longer before reabsorption, leading to greater dopamine levels so that people can maintain feelings of pleasure and satisfaction for longer.

A 2011 review by Colleen A. McClung, a chronobiologist and neurobiologist at the University of Pittsburgh, showed that manipulating one’s sleep schedule can change one’s affective state by changing one’s dopamine level. This new study furthers these findings by demonstrating that sleep deprivation can reverse depressive episodes and induce manic ones.

Researchers also observed that the mice’s synaptic plasticity — that is, their neurons’ ability to either strengthen or weaken their connections — was enhanced after a night of no

the true EEG response. This score system allowed them to find the most likely among many AI-generated word sequences.

So far, the result doesn’t have quite the accuracy we would desire, but it is a notable step in the right direction.

The groundbreaking research presented by Aurora and Anand at the Mersivity Symposium serves as a beacon of what the future might hold in the realm of BCIs. Their pursuit of translating neural signals into continuous language reflects the brilliant fusion of neuroscience and advanced technology and exemplifies the symposium’s theme of harnessing technology for the greater good, blending human intellect with artificial intelligence.

Other talks: AI for veganism and the Freehicle Other talks included a presentation from artist Reid Godshaw, discussing how AI can be used creatively to magnify our artistic voice. He showed a series of gorgeous and moving artworks he created with the help of AI to spread awareness of veganism. Using the digital artwork, he highlighted animals’ similarities to humans and spotlighted the cruelty behind the meat industry.

Engineer and U of T Professor Steve Mann presented a conception of a “Freehicle”: a free vehicle, that would have the potential to reconfigure itself to land on land or water, highlighting the importance of accessibility and the improvement in quality of life an accessible means of transport could bring to all, and especially to people with disabilities.

In conclusion, the Mersivity Symposium has showcased innovative research and how technology and humanity coalesce in unprecedented ways. As the symposium drew close, I felt as though the ground had shifted from underneath my feet, on the metaphorical precipice of time that I was standing on. I thought of the popular internet meme that proclaimed: “The future is now, old man.”

Ed Hore, Ajay Agrawal, Mike Shoreman, and Steve Mann in Godshaw ’s inflatable tent at Mersivity-2023.

Staying up all night makes me happy Alyssa Ukani Associate Arts & Culture Editor

Reconstructing words from EEG signals For their study, Anand and Aurora recorded the EEG data of participants listening to the first chapter of Alice in Wonderland. Their goal was to reconstruct the words the participants were listening to from only EEG data.

But going from an EEG signal to a word is a herculean task! The EEG picks up a lot of excess ‘noise’ in the data — even blinking generates noise — so Anand and Aurora first had to “clean up” the EEG signals by removing the noise through filters.

MEDHA SURAJPAL/THEVARSITY

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SCIENCE

A representation of the expansion of the universe.

COURTESY OF NASA CC WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

How the universe started, and how it could end Exploring the Big Bang, Crunch, Rip, and Freeze

Ridhi Balani Varsity Contributor

The oldest evidence of Homo sapiens — the species to which modern humans belong — is around 300,000 years old. Scientists estimate the Earth itself to be around 4.5 billion years old and the entire universe to be around 13.8 billion years old.

Clearly, a lot has happened between the existence of humans and the beginnings of the universe, including the beginning of the Earth.

We are but a blink in the lifetime of the universe — so, naturally, humans have made the origins of the universe one of the great questions of cosmology.

How did the universe start? How will it end?

Those are the defining questions.

Starting with a bang While the latter question remains ambiguous, the former has been explained by a well-supported theory called the Big Bang.

Astrophysicists believe that the universe originated from a single, hot, dense point that expanded outward. This theory was first proposed in 1927 by theoretical physicist Georges Lemaître and proven after astronomer Edwin Hubble observed that galaxies were moving farther away from us in all directions. The universe was — and is — expanding.

As something moves farther away, the lightwaves emitted by that object stretch and be-

come longer, moving toward the lower end of the electromagnetic spectrum. This is exemplified through a visible red-shift: red light representing a less energetic form of light. Similarly, a blue-shift would indicate that an object is moving toward us.

Hubble found that over time, the light emitted from galaxies we’re able to observe stretched and appeared red-shifted, which meant that the universe was expanding.

Working backward, the observation of the universe as a uniformly expanding and cooling system suggests that at some point, expansion must have started at a single hot and infinitely dense point, which scientists call the singularity.

The discovery of cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation has further supported this theory. Astrophysicists consider CMB a left-over radiation echo — detected everywhere as a faint glow of light — from the Big Bang and is the oldest light wave scientists can detect.

This is similar to how some metals, after being heated, will continue to glow for a short time even when the heat source is gone. The existence of CMB as a leftover from the extremely energetic origin of the universe and its uniformity throughout the universe follows the predictions of the Big Bang theory.

Also, observations by both Hubble and other scientists showed that far-away galaxies were not only moving away but accelerating. This

was unexpected, as many scientists expected the expansion rate to slow down because of gravitational forces that attract things with mass to each other, like the Moon to the Earth.

So, what exactly is making the universe expand? Will the universe simply continue to expand?

Ending with a crunch, rip, or freeze?

Those questions start an exploration into the end of the universe.

Essentially, there seem to be two major forces interacting in the expansion of the universe.

The first of these is gravity, an attractive force — which suggests that the universe should resist expansion.

But, as evidenced by the moving galaxies, there also appears to be a force that is causing the universe to expand. Scientists believe that this expanding force may be caused by dark energy, which is essentially a mystery force.

Scientists are fairly confident dark energy exists because of discrepancies that cannot be explained otherwise, like the universe’s accelerated expansion. The acceleration of the universe’s expansion suggests that the force generated by dark energy may be increasing as the universe expands.

So, there are mainly three scenarios that can happen with this struggle between dark energy and gravity.

Gravity could be stronger, in which case, instead of the universe expanding forever, it

must eventually crunch together into a point much like the singularity at the beginning of the Big Bang. The temperature would increase and atoms would collapse as the universe contracted. This ending is fittingly called the Big Crunch.

Additionally, if the universe could crunch back together, that also adds the possibility that we live in an oscillating universe that expands and crunches back together, erasing its past each time. This theory is called the Big Bounce.

However, if dark energy is the far greater force, the universe could simply expand until atoms themselves are ripped apart as any gravitational and other fundamental forces that hold matter together get completely overwhelmed. This ending is called the Big Rip. Currently, most scientists accept something called the Big Freeze to be the most likely scenario. In this scenario, the universe would continue to expand and cool until it simply runs out of energy, so that it cannot support movement anymore, reaching a temperature of near absolute zero when matter stops moving. Without movement, objects in the universe would have no heat or energy to sustain themselves.

Whatever the ending of our universe may be, we will all be as non-existent by the end as we were in the beginning. So enjoy the little blink of survival in this much greater story of bangs, crunches, rips, and freezes.

Self-driving labs: How AI could accelerate scientific discovery U of T Acceleration Consortium receives new funding for research into autonomous materials labs Elyse Da Costa Varsity Contributor

As students, we often hear about the negative side of artificial intelligence (AI) in academia: that it’s a tool discouraging actual learning and encouraging plagiarism, cheating, and unoriginality in work.

But this isn’t the whole story. Research by the University of Toronto Acceleration Consortium, in fact, proves it’s not; on the contrary, it found that AI can enhance scientific research — namely, by AI-powered labs.

The Acceleration Consortium’s mission is to show how AI can accelerate the generation of sustainable materials in demand on a global scale. Climate change, disease spread, and waste management are international issues beckoning for cheaper, more sustainable materials that just aren’t made fast enough locally.

Using self-driving autonomous labs, the Acceleration Consortium is making larger strides toward integrating the subdisciplines of materials science, AI, robotics, and computer modelling to test new materials in a time-efficient, cost-friendly way.

What exactly is a self-driving lab?

Self-driving labs (SDLs) — and, specifically, materials acceleration platforms — are autonomous labs that are programmed by researchers to predict the feasibility of a material for an objective by evaluating its molecular composition.

Using robotics and engineering, materials undergo several trial experiments in which they are assessed by the SDL’s AI in terms of their usefulness to a particular predefined application — for example, optimizing chemical methods for creating a specific pharmaceutical drug.

The SDL’s system continuously feeds new data back into itself to store evidence on prior experiments, derive new hypotheses, and alter trials to reflect previous results more accurately.

These robotically powered labs are programmed to store a slew of algorithms applying to a large range of disciplines, such as biochemistry, physics, and engineering, which are later tapped into when testing material candidates. With robot brains at the heart of material science labs, researchers can now be exempted from performing tedious and repetitive steps in experiments such as syntheses, purifications, and reagent preparations.

“We’ve essentially supercharged the process of scientific discovery,” said Alán Aspuru-Guzik, the director of the Acceleration Consortium and a professor in the departments of chemistry and computer science at UTSG, to U of T News.

U of T received a $200-million grant from the Canadian First Research Excellence Fund in support of Aspuru-Guzik’s research on SDLs. With the help of this grant, the Acceleration Consortium hopes to bridge the gaps between government, industry, and academia worldwide and be inclusive of environmental impacts and Indigenous perspectives when implementing research designs.

“No one person has all the skills to address the sustainability of new substances,” said Michelle Murphy, in a U of T News article in response to the research grant. Murphy is a professor of history and women and gender studies at UTSG and the Canada research chair in science and technology studies and environmental data justice. “We truly need much greater collaboration and a willingness to really think across difference[s].”

With materials for healthcare, renewable energy sources, and biodegradable fuels in demand across the world, Acceleration Consortium’s mission is to tackle “[these] global issues [with] global approaches,” convening experts from around the world.

What does the future look like with AI-powered labs?

Self-driving labs augment the manufacturing process to produce

sustainable materials, such as drugs for ecofriendly cement, greener electronics, regenerative medicine — which develops methods to regenerate lost cells, tissues, and even limbs — and much more.

Some products that used to take months or years at a time to develop can now be produced within weeks with AI. SDLs have already formulated several algorithms to design a drug that could potentially treat a common type of liver cancer in 30 days and to design organic lasers within two days.

Self-driving labs show that AI doesn’t deserve its bad reputation in academia. On the flip side, they present autonomous technology as a solution to the materials race worldwide.

Autonomous labs can use AI to design and optimize the production of new materials.

BRENNAN KARUNARATNE/THEVARSITY

thevarsity.ca/category/science

JANUARY 15, 2024

Mixed outcomes from 2023’s UN climate change conference

from across the world agreed to sign a methane pledge, which, among other things, binds oil and gas giants into cutting methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030. Such reductions would have a notable positive impact on the global climate.

COP28 was controversial before it even began.

What did it achieve?

Philip Harker Science Columnist

The 28th United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference — also called The Conference of the Parties, or COP28 — took place from November 30 to December 13, 2023. It was hosted in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and was attended by over 85,000 diplomats, scientists, industry leaders, and journalists.

The UN has been holding COP conferences since 1995, originally conceived as a meeting point for countries who were signing members of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). COPs have been the site of many important climate agreements, including the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and the 2015 Paris Agreement.

This conference, like many previous COPs, was hardly without controversy.

A questionable chair Given the UNFCCC’s stated goals, which include “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere,” the choice of Dubai as a venue for COP28 seems a bit ill-suited. The UAE, a Gulf state, has an enormous oil sector and has the second highest oil production per capita as of 2022.

Further, the entire conference was presided over by the Emirati Minister of Industry and CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, Sultan al-Jaber.

Isn’t it a conflict of interest to hold a crucial climate conference in a historically oil-driven nation, chaired by an oil executive? Many were quick to argue so. Amnesty International, an advocacy group for human rights, called al-Jaber’s career

plans “incompatible with his role as president-designate of COP28.”

The Climate Reality Project, an international climate education and advocacy group, found al-Jaber’s appointment “alarming” and demanded his resignation through an online petition, saying, “We’re overdue for a global commitment to phase out fossil fuels, and we can’t trust an oil CEO to effectively secure that commitment. It’s that simple.”

The methane conversation A major point of discussion at COP28 was the issue of methane emissions. Methane — the carbonbased molecule that we use as natural gas — is a greenhouse gas that traps heat in our atmosphere, like carbon dioxide. The two largest human sources of methane emissions are leaks during the processing and transport of natural gas and agricultural livestock.

Though it dissipates faster, methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, as it traps heat in the atmosphere much more effectively. This makes methane pollution a critical issue.

At COP28, participating nations resolved to address the excess methane release from the oil and gas industries but failed to propose any plans to reduce livestock emissions. Still, this is significant because dozens of fossil fuel companies

The physics of flying buttresses How flying buttresses enabled gothic architecture to reach new heights Jeanine Varney Associate Science Editor

U of T is a university of many different architectural styles, from brutalist to neoclassical to Romanesque. One of the most majestic styles of architecture present at U of T is Gothic architecture: a form developed in the later Middle Ages and characterized by large windows, arches, and, most recognizably, flying buttresses.

The flying buttress is a thin half arch that connects a wall to a culée, a large column that helps the wall support the weight of its roof.

The flying buttress allows walls to be thinner while still preserving a high ceiling, and enables the inclusion of large windows that illuminate the interior of the building. This contrasts with the earlier medieval style of Romanesque architecture, which often features thick walls with smaller windows punched in.

The amazing feature of the flying buttress is its ability to support much of the walls’ weight while still being thin and graceful. To do this, flying buttresses have a few important components. The ‘head’ of the buttress is where it connects to the wall it is supporting. The ‘extrados’ is the straight line of the top of the buttress, and the ‘intrados’ is the line of the circular arc on the inner side of the buttress.

These elements mediate the buttress’ line of thrust, in other words, the forces from the wall which is directed through the buttress and toward the ground. The way in which the wall’s weight is redirected to the ground is similar to how electricity from a lightning strike would move through a lightning rod toward the ground and become grounded.

Flying buttresses thereby balance the bulk and greater stability of a thicker buttress and the elegance and grace of a thinner buttress.

Flying buttress’ failures Theoretically, in the physics of a flying buttress, the gravitational force along the buttress pulling the wall toward the ground should apply enough horizontal pressure to keep the stones of the buttress together. However, when there is too much vertical thrust and not enough horizontal thrust where the buttress connects to the wall, “sliding failure” can occur.

Sliding failure — in which the intrados’ stones near the head of the buttress overcome friction and slide against each other — is the most likely type of failure for a buttress. When the sliding motion travels upward in the masonry,

Some questioned the virtues behind oil companies pledging to reduce emissions. An open letter released by over 300 organizations, spearheaded by Oil Change International and 350.org, criticized COP28, arguing that “cutting methane pollution from the oil and gas supply chain is an important component of near-term emissions reductions – but it is not enough on its own.”

Supporting victims of climate change At this point in the climate crisis, addressing climate change requires more than just reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It means working it creates cracks in the flying buttress, leading to its collapse.

Another type of failure that flying buttresses can be met with is when the force carried outward through the buttress is directed more horizontally than vertically at its base, which can mean it pushes out at the culée, rather than down, and overturns it.

Thus, the stability of the buttress largely depends on the ‘head’ of the buttress receiving an overall horizontal thrust and the culée receiving a vertical thrust.

Maximizing flying buttress’ stability Several factors — like the steepness of the buttress, and whether the centre of the arc described by the intrados is inside or outside of the wall — can maximize the head and the culée receiving the appropriate amounts of thrust in the right directions.

When the centre of the partial circle formed by the arc of the intrados is inside of the wall, the buttress is more stable. This orientation of the arc guides horizontal thrust from the wall into the

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to prepare for the damage that climate change will do, not to mention the damage it has already done.

In 2022, at COP27, the parties to the conference agreed to establish a “loss and damage fund” to assist vulnerable people, mostly in countries that would feel the impacts of climate change first and hardest. These funds would be used to assist victims of disasters and climate refugees.

However, the nature of the fund took some time to negotiate, and so COP28 marked the first time that member countries actually made pledges to the fund. The Guardian noted that the $700 million pledged by nations at the conference will be able to cover less than 0.2 per cent of the estimated $400 billion of economic loss caused by climate change.

An optimistic future?

In COP28’s final report, the conference parties made overt calls for “the phase-down of unabated coal power” and “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems.” The message is noble, but these calls to action lack timelines and clear definitions.

Undeniably, positive work was done at COP28 — but it was not without issues. Between commitments with grave oversights, relief funds not meeting their organizers’ goals, and a president who was perhaps not the ideal fit to oversee a climate conference, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2023 was steeped in controversy.

However, as the world moves to the evermore-pressing issue of global change, international cooperation is key. Carbon emissions continue to rise globally. Addressing global change, no doubt, requires extensive global collaboration, but we need a specific and measurable plan to reduce methane emissions to reach the goals addressed at COP28.

JACQUELINE RENÉE/THEVARSITY

buttress, preventing sliding failures, and guides vertical thrust to the culée. Even when the intrados arc is shorter than ideal, locating the centre inside of the wall can help stabilize an otherwise tenuous buttress.

Furthermore, steeper buttresses play an important role in guiding vertical thrust and effectively offloading thrust onto the culée. Steeper flying buttresses also often mean the centre of their intrados’ arcs is inside of the wall.

The flying buttress is emblematic of Gothic architecture, showcasing the delicate balance between form and function that builders in the Middle Ages maneuvered to create airy and soaring buildings while ensuring lasting stability.

Many gothic buildings at U of T, such as Hart House, Burwash Hall, and Knox College, do not contain flying buttresses, but they do still showcase the majestic style of Gothic architecture that flying buttresses enabled, inspiring awe even today.

And, if you look carefully at some buildings like Trinity College, there are small flying buttresses just waiting to be discovered by you.

Neo-gothic architecture is prevalent in the John H. Daniels building.

VALERIE YAO/THEVARSITY

Sports

January 15, 2024 thevarsity.ca/category/sports sports@thevarsity.ca

Roy Han’s approach to MMA as a way of life How Han is creating a community at UTM to share his passion for mixed martial arts Ahmad Khan Associate Sports Editor

At the end of 2024, Roy Han, a fourth-year UTM student specializing in digital enterprise management, seeks to make his professional debut in mixed martial arts (MMA) at Burlington Training Centre Fight Promotions.

It is a journey that started when Han’s father first introduced him to taekwondo at the age of seven.

A few years later, Han began training in muay thai, where his love for striking was sparked. Striking in particular, was intuitive for Han — from the simple things, like punching and kicking, to the intricacies of managing distance. “Hundred per cent, striking comes more naturally,” Han said in an interview with The Varsity.

Balance between disciplines While striking formed Han’s foundation, established stars in MMA clearly show that a wide variety of styles are useful to excel in the sport. Whether

you’re looking at the early days of MMA, where Royce Gracie showcased the effectiveness of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, or the more recent boxing-heavy style used by Sean Strickland, any style of MMA can be effective.

However, even if a fighter has the slick striking of Israel Adesanya or the relentless wrestling of Khabib Nurmagomedov, being exceptional in one discipline is only the start. A balance between disciplines and styles is essential to progress and succeed in the sport.

Identifying the areas in which one is lacking — whether that be on the ground or while standing up — and developing them further is essential to becoming a well-rounded mixed martial artist. Even at the lower levels of the sport, Han’s first-hand experience found that fighters with a more nuanced skillset tended to dominate those who were pure wrestlers or kickboxers.

Amateur competitions Han has not only engaged in disciplines like grap-

Roy Han is the president and head coach of the UTM Martial Arts Club.

COURTESY OF ROY HAN

pling through tournaments such as the All Versus All Grappling Championship, but also in striking in the provincial and national kickboxing championships within the World Association of Kickboxing Organizations. Both grappling and striking have been important in his development as a fighter.

However, Han encountered struggles on both fronts early on. A few months after he started jiujitsu in 2019, Han faced competition from those who had many years of experience over him. “It really humbles you, and you have to take every defeat as a learning opportunity,” Han explained.

Once he started winning and getting better at grappling exchanges at his gym and in tournaments, Han’s confidence built up and motivated him to keep training.

On the kickboxing side, Han had more experience going into tournaments, but it was very much still a learning process. There were always more technical opponents. Some were more aggressive — and a few were even faster. As Han asked, “Even if you’re really, really good, there’s always a guy who’s better, right?”

But even beyond that, Han finds that to compete at the higher levels, there’s a certain level of aggression one must switch on. “Some guys can turn it on a lot better than others,” Han explained.

What made kickboxing so appealing to him were the adrenaline rush and the mental focus required to outmaneuver his opponents with split-second decision-making.

Training and diet To compete against such impressive competition, Han trains five to six days a week. Training becomes the most gruelling during fight camp, for about two months before a major bout, which features more focused training, including sparring sessions, and more time spent on conditioning. Han’s technical skills are also sharpened and integrated into a roadmap that sets him up to be as prepared as possible. At that point, training becomes “more of a curriculum,” Han shared.

Consistent hard training can be extremely draining, so Han pointed to having a proper diet as essential to recovery. He explained that “diet is almost

Empowering the ice: Charting a new horizon for women in professional hockey The newly-formed PWHL represents women’s counterpart to the NHL Dihyah Khan Varsity Contributor

The NHL boasts a rich history, including legendary names like Wayne Gretzky and Sidney Crosby.

From the camaraderie of watching NHL games in vast arenas to the grassroots action in local rinks, ice hockey itself transcends just being a sport. It embodies undying passion, hard work, and community bonds — qualities that are often overlooked.

As the sport continues to evolve, a new chapter is unfolding for women hockey players. The introduction of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) in July 2023 and the beginning of its first season earlier this month marks a significant milestone, as it represents women’s counterpart to the revered NHL. PWHL stands as a symbol of inclusivity, hope, and resilience, offering a new platform for women to showcase their skills and nurture the sport for generations to come. Most importantly, this league is a groundbreaking opportunity for women to redefine their place in hockey while casting aside historical limitations and stereotypes.

Fixing inequities Historically, ice hockey has been a bastion of men’s dominance in the professional sports scene; there have been very limited chances for women to display their talent and passion. While, in the last

couple of decades, several leagues and associations have been introduced as the highest levels of women’s professional hockey — like the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL), Canadian Women’s Hockey League, and the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) — none have gained the same traction as their counterparts for men. The discrepancy in resources, awareness, and support has led to a lingering imbalance for women.

Born out of the necessity to rectify these past inequities, the PWHL becomes not just a league but a symbol of transformation — a vessel for change in the narrative of women’s hockey.

The PWHL distinguishes itself by its financial stability: it has funding and support from Mark Walter, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and part-owner of Chelsea FC, and women’s tennis icon Billie Jean King. This sets it up not just as the only national-level women’s league but as one that has the potential to withstand the financial challenges it may face.

With hopes of surpassing the NWHL, which faced criticism over truncated salary caps, the PWHL’s clear sources of funding address previous league issues. The league also features many players who previously competed in the PWHPA, which was a temporary organization established by players until a more sustainable league emerged.

Changing narratives Notable names, including Olympic gold medallists Sarah Nurse, Natalie Spooner, and Blayre Turnbull, have already signed with the Toronto team, which is set to use the Mattamy Athletic Centre — the renamed but historic Maple Leaf Gardens — as their home ice. None of the six teams — in Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal, Boston, New York, and Minnesota — have official names yet.

These medallists’ involvement establishes the PWHL as a platform for inspirational role

just as important as training.” The difference in recovery that a clean and balanced diet provides creates a change in performance.

Such a change is especially noticeable in a sport as intense as MMA, where rest, recovery and nutrition are all important to minimize risk. A good team and good sparring partners are also essential to being well prepared for a fight.

Coaching and the club Instructing has also been a central part of Han’s growth in MMA. In 2017, he began teaching kickboxing at his local gym in Burnaby, BC, which allowed him to learn from other instructors around him for a few years. Even during the pandemic, Han continued to teach boxing online. Now, he teaches both boxing and kickboxing at UTM’s Recreation Athletics and Wellness Centre.

In 2022, Han founded the UTM Martial Arts club, where he also teaches as the head coach, though he isn’t the only coach. Creating an official space expanded the small group with whom he already engaged in training into a larger community where people could share their knowledge and teach each other.

The club’s members include U of T students who are second dan black belts in karate, Varsity Blues wrestling team students, and grappling coaches who teach at local MMA gyms.

The club has people trained in taekwondo, muay thai, jiu-jitsu, and kung-fu. Having such a variety of martial arts is something Han loves to see “because that’s kind of the spirit of the sport.”

Ultimately, while mixed martial arts is about fighting, it’s also about developing discipline and building community. Above all else, for Han, it’s a way of life.

Sharing his passion for MMA with like-minded individuals in the community is paramount for Han. He welcomes all students to come and join him at the UTM Martial Arts club, which holds training sessions twice a week and special events every now and then. To find more information, check out the UTM Martial Arts club’s Instagram page @utm.martial.arts or Discord. models for young girls across North America, and one that could help us transition to a new era where women’s hockey can stand on equal footing with men’s hockey. As future generations explore the layers of hockey history, there is optimism among players and fans that the women’s teams’ legends will share the spotlight with iconic men’s players like Gretzky and Crosby. And, with newfound significance and professionalism, the league has the potential to attract sponsors, media attention, and fans.

Leagues such as the PWHL will hopefully play a pivotal role in shaping the future of ice hockey, fostering a more inclusive and diverse sport for all. There is still much to accomplish, but this league will make a start as its first season goes into full swing, running from now until the end of June.

JISHNA SUNKARA/THEVARSITY

thevarsity.ca/category/sports

JANUARY 15, 2024 19

From Blues to Brampton: Callum Baker’s CEBL debut How U of T’s Callum Baker is expanding his career as a professional athlete Alessia Baptista Varsity Contributor

After playing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for his first three years of university and returning to his hometown as a Varsity Blues athlete, Callum Baker has progressed to the next level in his career as a professional athlete in the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) with the Brampton Honey Badgers. Baker sat down with The Varsity to discuss his career with the CEBL so far.

A 6-foot-2 guard from Oakville, Ontario, Baker is a guard on the Varsity Blues men’s basketball team this year and the newest addition to the Honey Badgers roster.

Ambitious both on and off the court, Baker’s dedication to basketball has put him on the road to success.

Baker played for the Toward the end Brampton Honey Badgers during the of the 2022–2023 summer.

Varsity Blues NEIL PATEL/THEVARSITY

season, Honey Badgers’ general manager Jermaine Anderson reached out to Blues head coach Madhav Trivedi, expressing interest in drafting Baker to the Honey Badgers. “I had a good conversation with Jermaine Anderson, and they told me they’d like to select me with their 11th pick in the draft. So that was big for me,” said Baker.

Honey Badgers season After an impactful season with the Blues and being drafted to Brampton, Baker headed into training with the Honey Badgers. Training camp began at Humber College toward the end of May to establish the team’s chemistry both on and off the court, with the Badgers practicing one or two times a day in preparation for their first game of the season just a few weeks later.

During the regular CEBL season over the summer, practice occurred about five to six times a week.

For Baker though, in the summer, training didn’t stop with the Honey Badgers. A typical day for him consisted of waking up early in the morning and getting in a shooting workout with his dad and brother at around 7:00 am. Honey Badgers practice was in the late morning or early afternoon, then he stayed around in the gym for extra practice, after some rest in between. In addition to practices, the Honey Badgers played once or twice a week, making for a busy schedule.

All of it was a big learning opportunity for Baker. “Getting the opportunity to learn from professionals every single day and compete against them, that really helped my game grow and my confidence just grew a lot,” Baker said. His head

coach and one of the assistant coaches with the Honey Badgers were also coaching in the NBA, providing some great lessons and experience for the young basketball star.

With the Blues, Baker is currently averaging 23.3 points per game — the second-best average in Ontario University Athletics statistics.

Being exposed to different approaches to the game has elevated his training early in his professional career. Baker had a successful CEBL debut over the summer, averaging 3.1 points, 1.7 assists, and 13.6 minutes across 15 games for the Badgers.

“The most challenging thing is making a name for yourself,” Baker explained. “Obviously, you’re playing with guys that have been playing professional basketball for over ten years in some cases, [that’s] longer than I’ve been playing in university.” While Baker’s playing time on the Badgers may not match his minutes with the Blues yet — where he currently averages 38.5 minutes per game this season — he remains focused and works hard to continue to develop his skills.

Championing growth Baker’s big break with the Honey Badgers was during a playoff game against the Scarborough Shooting Stars. Baker was named the player of the game, as he had career-high numbers across the board with 16 points, seven rebounds, and four assists. “It was [also] just huge having my U of T teammates, they were all there supporting… [and] that meant a lot to me just seeing them there and having that support,” Baker said. “It was a really big game for myself and my confidence.”

Baker is surrounded by support, from his family and friends to his teammates and coaches.

After moving from the NCAA, many of his teammates on the Blues helped him navigate his transition to U of T and continue to cheer him on as he plays in Brampton.

Furthermore, after being apart from his family for nearly eight years, Baker is happy to be back in the GTA and playing locally in front of friends and family. “Coming home last year, and this past summer with the Honey Badgers, it just means everything to see them in the stands before the game and look at my dad, my mom, and my brother,” Baker said. “[It] brings the biggest smile to me before the game. It means the world to me that they get to see me play.”

Focused, humble, and a true team player, Baker’s goals extend far beyond basketball. After his time with the Honey Badgers, he hopes to play professionally in Europe — though the CEBL is something he wants to continue to play in. “The [CEBL] season is only in the summer, so [the season] would most likely end or [be] just about to end before a season would start in Europe,” Baker added.

There isn’t a set timeline for playing professionally, however. Once Baker decides to hang up his basketball shoes, he hopes to attend law school. In the off-season, he hopes to make time to prepare for the LSATs and achieve his goal of working in corporate or criminal law.

In the meantime, you can support Baker and Varsity Blues basketball by attending the games throughout the season, or by following Baker on his social media and attending the Brampton Honey Badgers’ games at the CAA Centre.

The trials and victories of U of T’s Synchronized Swimming Club Diving into U of T’s historical contribution to the world of synchronized swimming Julia Kochanski Varsity Contributor

tive inter-university competition with their clubs across Canada.

Merging the elements of ballet and gymnastics, synchronized swimming allows athletes to challenge themselves in a multitude of ways. It’s a sport where athletes can explore an element of theatrical acting, wear sparkly outfits, and perform precise and seemingly effortless routines that push their bodies to their endurance limits. U of T’s Synchronized Swimming Club has a strong history of success and challenges.

#BleedBlue Last year, at nationals, the University of Toronto team received the CUASL’s championship trophy.

The team worked hard to succeed. “It was really amazing to see everyone giving it everything they had,” wrote Lucy Tempest, a third-year kinesiology undergraduate, in an email to The Varsity. “It was so rewarding and [it was] just a really great time.”

With the weight of this accomplishment, the team plans to achieve first place this year as well. “It was an amazing moment,” wrote Lindsay McLean, a student at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) and a member of the club, in an email with The Varsity. Students from any Toronto university or college can participate in U of T’s synchronized swimming club, as many schools such as TMU and OCAD do not have their own synchronized swimming clubs. “[It] showed [that] our hard work and dedication had paid off,” McLean added.

Synchronized swimming in Canadian university clubs has seen a growth in technique, so the team needs to focus on choreography to be fun for athletes to perform but also strategic with these new expectations. “We have a national championship title to defend this year,” Tempest wrote. “As well as new rule changes to navigate.”

The significance of 2001 U of T was one of the first four Canadian universities to start competing in provincial synchronized swimming competitions with a Varsity team, along with Queen’s University, Western University, and McGill University. For a sport to meet Ontario University Athletics’ (OUA) criteria for a recognized OUA sport, six participating Varsity teams must already exist. Therefore, it wasn’t until McMaster University and Guelph University began competing with their teams later that synchronized swimming held Varsity status and became a recognized sport in the OUA. In 2001, McMaster University lost its Varsity synchronized swimming team, leaving the OUA with only five Varsity teams. Despite attempts from students at other universities to create Varsity teams, all such efforts were rejected or failed, ending synchronized swimming’s involvement in the OUA. After losing its status in the OUA, participating universities were left to create club versions of their synchronized swimming teams instead.

Despite this setback, the creation of the Canadian University Artistic Swimming League (CUASL) allowed student athletes to participate in a competi-

Smile, swim, repeat Avery Noll, a fourth-year kinesiology undergraduate, explains that even though the team is successful, there is still much more to love than competition. “Sport isn’t [just about] the ribbons, medals or trophies,” Noll explained in an email to The Varsity.

“If you [think that], you [will] miss [what makes]… the journey important and memorable. Sometimes, that means that you have to push yourself a little.”

The U of T Synchronized Swimming Club was the top team at the CUASL. COURTESY OF ANTOINE SAITO CC UOFT SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING CLUB

The club has created a very tight-knit community that fosters inclusivity, and periodically, the studentathletes participate in team outings and bonding opportunities — such as potlucks — to enhance teamwork.

“We [hang out] outside of practice when possible, as friends and teammates,” Noll wrote. “Our team gels very well, we all encourage each other’s ideas and love laughing with each other… I feel very fortunate to have them in my life.”

“I love the community that synchro has [and] I will always recommend trying synchro,” said Ben Hackerson, a second-year undergraduate in women and gender studies as well as sexual diversity studies.

“Everyone is so welcoming and willing to teach.”

Synchronized swimming is rooted in a community where athletes stay in love with their sport beyond their years of competing. Emma Jewer, the current coach of U of T’s novice team, swam competitively for seven years and fell in love with the sport. Yet, after developing a chronic injury, she was forced to retire.

Nevertheless, she soon found U of T’s synchro team on Instagram. “It turns out they were looking for a coach, so I happily volunteered,” Jewer explained in an email to The Varsity. As a result, she was able to continue to immerse herself in her beloved sport, but this time as a coach.

The circle of sport If you’re interested in testing your limits and

embracing the opportunity to give artistic swimming a chance, U of T’s Synchronized Swimming Club typically holds tryouts the second week of each fall semester. They welcome everyone at all levels, including beginners, as there are CUASL categories for beginners and professionals. “We always welcome new athletes,” Jewer wrote.

“I was new to the sport [and] I didn’t understand much about it, so [I] just came to practices to learn,” Catherine Wang, a second-year undergraduate, wrote to The Varsity. “But now, as a second-year with more experience with synchro, I realized that I’ve developed a deeper appreciation and actual passion for the sport.”

The team has coaches who are truly passionate about their athletes and their performances.

“It’s all about recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of your athletes, and [highlighting] the strengths in the choreography you give them,” McLean wrote. “You want to make [the athletes] feel confident and look their best.”

Unlike its Varsity teams, the university does not fund sports clubs. As a result, the synchro team pays for their outfits and transportation to competitions. To help alleviate the burden, the team hosts numerous fundraising events throughout the school year, such as bake sales and bar nights. They advertise all events on their Instagram, and more information can be found on their Instagram page: @uoftsynchro.

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THE VARSITY

JANUARY 15, 2024

DIVERSIONS

The Varsity’s Varsity’s Weekly Crossword — Spectrum

Check out our crosswords online! thevarsity.ca/games

Answers to the previous crossword

Ashley Wong Varsity Contributor