Issue 16, (Volume 144) (January 29, 2024)

January 29, 2024

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

Vol. CXLIV, No. 16

Federal government imposes two-year cap on international student undergraduate study permits Ottawa halves Ontario’s permits, province to determine which schools receive them

James Bullanoff UTSC Bureau Chief

On January 22, Ottawa announced a two-year cap on the number of international undergraduate study permits the federal government will issue, halving the number of permits it allots to Ontario postsecondary institutions.

In interviews with The Varsity, U of T student leaders said that the cap doesn’t actually address the fundamental issues that international students, the postsecondary sector as a whole, and the Canadian economy are facing. They argued that widely limiting permits in the short term discounts the contributions that international students make to resolving the issues facing the country.

Study permit limits: The breakdown On January 22, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Marc Miller officially announced that the government will only approve approximately 360,000 international undergraduate study permits for 2024 — a 35 per cent reduction from the number of permits it approved in 2023.

The cap will also halve the number of international undergraduate student permits Ontario universities and colleges will receive. The plan gives the provincial government authority to determine which institutions will receive these permits.

In addition, the federal government announced that it

News: Vigil memorializes journalists killed in Gaza Page 3

will stop automatically issuing open work permits to all spouses of undergraduate students.

Ottawa will also allow all masters degree graduates to apply for a three-year work permit.

Previously, the federal government had based post-graduation masters degree work permits on the length of the given masters program.

The cap won’t impact current study permit holders or students seeking permit renewals. It also does not address visas granted to students pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees.

Why the cap?

In a statement to The Varsity, Isabelle Dubois — a communications advisor for Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada — wrote that the government hopes to deter “bad actors who pose a threat to the system.”

Miller previously criticized some colleges for operating like “puppy mills” when recruiting international students, arguing that they lure in international students but then provide inadequate education or lack resources to properly support those students when they arrive.

In a statement responding to Minister Miller’s announcement, Migrant Workers Alliance for Change wrote that the change to limit study permits “does not fix the failures of the massive expansion of such get-rich institutions to which recruiters will continue to funnel vulnerable students.”

Although Dubois acknowledged the “immense

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contributions” international students make to postsecondary institutions and the economy at large, she claimed that the growing number of international students has increased the demand for housing and other services “that all Canadians must be able to access.”

For some postsecondary institutions, their residences have not kept pace with the number of students they’ve recruited, leading to a student housing shortage. Currently, neither the Ontario nor federal governments require universities to build housing that actually corresponds to the number of students they receive.

International students currently make up almost 30 per cent of the U of T undergraduates.

In a post on X — formerly known as Twitter — U of T Vice President (VP), International Joseph Wong wrote that the university supports the federal announcement.

The university plans to work with the provincial government to “ensure that the allocation of permits recognizes institutions like U of T — which uphold rigorous & transparent recruitment and admissions processes, offer robust student supports — and addresses the problem where the challenges lie.”

He highlighted the need to support international students’ success. “Let’s be thoughtful and precise about how we do this.”

Students weigh in University of Toronto Students’ Union VP Public and University Affairs Aidan Thompson told The Varsity that trying to limit the number of international students reflects a “short-

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term” calculus on the federal government’s part.

“Who is going to build those houses if not for the future contractors, electricians, welders engineers, who are training right now in our colleges and universities? If you blanket ban the people who want to contribute to Canada’s economy from getting here in the first place, how are you possibly going to see Canada’s economy rebound?” he said.

Canada has faced a shortage of construction workers and engineering graduates in the past few years, with enrolment in mining engineering falling over in recent years and tens of thousands of construction jobs unfilled nationwide as of summer 2023.

Thompson also noted the danger in peddling rhetoric that blames international students for the housing crisis. “There is a spike in xenophobia across our province and our country, and it’s being normalized under the guise of this open, ‘we’re just trying to build housing,’” he said.

Radhika ‘Rads’ Gupta, an eighth-year international student from California majoring in women and gender studies with a double minor in history and city studies, spoke to The Varsity about the impacts of the cap.

“It’s blatant anti-immigrant, anti-migrant sentiment [to me]. Canada loves to pride itself on being a mosaic over America’s ‘melting pot.’ But they only like immigrants when we can be of use to them.”

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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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Gupta also spoke about how the cap will change things going forward. “I think that Canada benefits a lot from immigrants. And so to now do this and set these caps, I think will have really deep, drastic, and devastating impacts.”

In an interview with The Varsity, Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) VP Equity Vyshnavi Kanagarajamuthaly mentioned that she feels mixed emotions about the cap.

“You have some international students claiming that the cap is a good idea because they had no idea… they would be experiencing things like this housing crisis, the cost of living crisis [when they arrived at school],” she said. However, she noted that many international students may now feel unsure about whether they can attend a Canadian university.

Universities’ demand for international students Steve Orsini, president and CEO of the Council of Ontario Universities — an organization which

provides a forum for universities, including U of T, to collaborate on a variety of advocacy projects — released a statement on January 22 condemning the cap. He wrote that Ontario universities are “responsible players” and have taken steps to ensure they can meet students’ needs.

However, he noted that in the context of falling provincial funding and the continuing freeze for domestic Ontario tuition, the potential cut to international student enrolment threatens the university sector.

SCSU VP Operations Akaash Palaparthy noted in an interview with The Varsity that university budgets often greatly depend on international students, and as the number of international students decreases, they will have to look to other funding methods.

“U of T specifically overcharges its international students. It absolutely exploits its international students — they’re cash cows,” he said.

In 2019, the provincial government cut domestic tuition and imposed a tuition freeze that extended through the 2023–2024 school year. Since the 2021–2022 academic year, the Ontario govern-

ment permitted institutions to raise the tuition of domestic non-Ontario students by three per cent annually. Now, some post-secondary institutes are advocating for the province to cap tuition increases for such students at five per cent per year.

2019 also saw funding from international student tuition surpass the amount U of T received from either provincial grants or domestic tuition. In its proposed 2023–2024 budget, U of T predicted that it would receive $661.4 million of its revenue in provincial grants — only 20 per cent of its total operating revenue.

“If any other institution in the province or the country was only 20 per cent publicly funded, we would not call it a public institution, we would call it a private institution,” Thompson told The Varsity.

“That has ramifications for sustainability.”

The university has previously maintained that the tuition prices charged to foreign students accurately represent the genuine cost of delivering a U of T education. Nonetheless, U of T’s international tuition costs continue to be significantly greater than those of comparable Canadian universities.

Campus Safety under fire for not adequately warning UTSG of second voyeurism case were not aware of the recent incident.

Suspect targeted Wilson Hall residence shower stalls days after another voyeurism arrest Securing security Maeve Ellis Assistant News Editor

Content warning: This article contains mentions of sexual violence and harassment.

On January 9 — less than a week after Toronto Police Service (TPS) arrested and charged a man for voyeurism in the fall semester — the St. George campus saw another incident of voyeurism.

According to a community alert sent by Campus Safety on January 10, an unidentified person allegedly held a cellphone above a shower stall in an all-gender washroom at the college’s Wilson Hall residence. Students living in New College residence who talked to The Varsity said they received a copy of the alert, but The Varsity was unable to confirm the full list of recipients.

Unlike previous incidents, U of T did not inform the entire UTSG community about this most recent report, prompting criticism from student activists.

This contrasts with the voyeurism incidents in 2023, where Campus Security sent at least three email alerts to the entirety of the St. George student body.

In some of those incidents, which students reported from July to October 2023, the individual also allegedly held a cell phone under stalls in women’s and all-gender washrooms.

A picture worth a thousand concerns In 2023, when individuals reported instances of voyeurism to the Campus Safety Office, the office sent out alerts to all St. George students on October 24, November 22, and January 4 of the following year, when TPS arrested the suspect. So far, Campus Safety has yet to send out any UTSG student-bodywide emails regarding the most recent incident on January 9.

“As far as we know, yes, UofT has yet to inform the general student body about the January 9th act of voyeurism,” Aidan Thompson, Vice-President, Public & University Affairs of the University of Toronto Students’ Union wrote to The Varsity.

“What the University’s rationale is behind choosing a mechanism of communication that notably falls short of how they handled those incidents in the Fall is beyond us, but clearly their decision is putting the student body at risk.”

In an interview with The Varsity, Jay Prentice — co-director of The Prevention, Empowerment, Advocacy, Response, for Survivors (PEARS) Project, a U of T student advocacy group that supports victims of sexual violence by providing resources and peer support — said that Campus Safety not informing all students erodes trust between students and the university.

“Considering this was only told to New College residences, where does this happen elsewhere?” said Prentice, a fifth-year student studying at UTSG, who is majoring in criminology and critical studies in equity and solidarity with a minor in sexual diversity studies.

“Are there other incidents that are just not broadcast to U of T students? What are we not hearing?” they added.

Ella Freeburn — a New College student and thirdyear critical studies in equity and solidarity major — told The Varsity that she only heard about the voyeurism incidents by word of mouth.

Freeburn, who is president of New College Against Sexual Assault & Harassment (NASAH), which is the New College chapter of PEARS, raised concerns that U of T might not have broadcasted the latest voyeurism incident to protect its reputation. “I honestly think that that’s an image thing because the first one did get backlash. They had just recently sent out that the person got arrested, and everything is good. And then, less than a week later, this one happens,” she said.

In a post on Instagram on January 16, NASAH called on U of T and New College to inform students of the incidents and “address how the University plans to inform students of these events and risks in the future.”

Four of seven non-New College students who reached out to The Varsity through a survey form

Juan Loaiza, a second-year New College student who is a political science specialist, said that a lack of security in New College residences may be to blame — a feature of the residence buildings that he has personal experience with.

“My friend lived in this building last year and we were here all the time. I would come in with no notice and the people who work would know me and they would sometimes let me in for fun because they would see me all the time,” he said.

For Loaiza, implementing a TCard swiping system like the one at Robarts Library could help prevent future crimes.

Indi Treon-Mutuma — a first-year pursuing humanities and a resident of Wilson Smith, where the report of the January 4 voyeurism incident took place — said she doesn’t feel the need for more security measures in her building, but she did feel fearful when she first read the Campus Security email. “I didn’t think it would happen to me or anything, but I was still cautious of [the voyeurism].

When I use the bathroom now, I kind of look around.”

“That kind of stuff is more likely to happen in a frat party, or a bar, or a restaurant, because you don’t know those people, but you wouldn’t really expect that to happen somewhere where you live,” TreonMutuma said.

Prentice said that there are downsides to an increase in campus security, citing risks to racialized and otherwise marginalized students. “We were told, with the last case of voyeurism, there were more checks going on, there were more Campus Safety officers deployed, and it still took a year to catch him,” they said.

The residential floors of New College residences can be accessed only with a key. On the afternoon of January 25, however, a Varsity representative found they could still enter the all-gender washrooms on a residential floor without a key, as people entering and exiting the building often leave the door open temporarily.

U of T did not provide comment in time for publication.

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CORRECTIONS: A news article published in issue 15 entitled “Why the UTSU recently became a homeowner” mistakenly stated that the UTSU levy at the time of publication was 76 cents per semester. The current UTSU levy is $2.16 per semester.

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A news article published in issue 15 entitled “85 per cent of UTM math class fail exam, sparking discussion on department shortcomings” mistakenly referred to the Academic Handbook for Instructors, which sets recommended grade ranges for professors in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at UTSG, as a handbook which applies to all U of T faculty. In fact, the recommendations of this handbook do not apply to UTM faculty, and UTM does not have similar specific recommendations.

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A sports article published in issue 15 entitled “Opinion: The Stake F1 team is seeing high stakes — possibly at too high a cost” mistakenly stated that the Sauber F1 Team would be rebranding to the Stake F1 Team for the 2024–2025 and 2025–2026 seasons. Formula 1 seasons take place within the duration of one calendar year, and the deal runs until 2025; the team is rebranding to the Stake F1 Team for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, but not necessarily until 2026.

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Student demands included a framework for addressing anti-Palestinian racism.

COURTESY OF TSSP

“To collectively mourn and honour”: U of T students hold vigil for journalists killed in Gaza Students call on U of T to cut ties with Israeli universities, accommodate Palestinian applicants Kyla Cassandra Cortez Deputy Senior Copy Editor

Content warning: This article discusses death and the ongoing violence in Gaza and Israel.

On January 17, the Tkarón:to Students in Solidarity with Palestine (TSSP) — a U of T student-led advocacy organization — held a vigil for Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza by the Israeli military. Capturing a sense of “collective grief and frustration,” according to the vigil’s organizer Sara Rasikh, speakers and members of the U of T community discussed the ongoing violence and shared their own stories.

In addition, TSSP members and attendees reiterated their demands to U of T, which included calling on the university to adopt a new definition of and framework for addressing anti-Palestinian racism and “end its complicity” in violence against Palestinians by cutting ties with Israeli universities and companies that fund the Israeli military.

“Space for a moment of healing” Around 4:00 pm, around 60 people gathered inside Sidney Smith Hall. Most of the attendees sat on the floor. TSSP members set up posters that included the names and pictures of 117 Palestinian journalists who, according to a January 11 announcement from the Gaza government media office, the Israeli military has killed in Gaza since the October 7 attack.

They also placed tea candles that spelled “Gaza” and a sign that read “Palestine” in Arabic.

As of January 28, nonprofit advocacy organization, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had documented at least 83 journalists and media workers killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon since the violence began, including 76 Palestinian journalists. Additionally, some journalists injured in Gaza have had to evacuate for medical treatment.

The CPJ has accused the Israeli military of targeting journalists and their families, noting one instance where the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) killed a journalist wearing a press insignia in a location where fighting was not taking place. “In at least two other cases, journalists reported receiving threats from Israeli officials and IDF officers before their family members were killed,” wrote the CPJ on its website.

Mohammad Rasoul Kailani, a third-year student specializing in peace, conflict, and justice studies, placed the current violence in the context of historical violence that Palestinians have faced in

Gaza. “Thousands of Palestinians were murdered and taken out of their homes in 1948 and 1967, [and] they are being forced off their land today.”

Kailani was referring to events known by many Palestinians as the “Nakba” and “Naksa,” which mean “catastrophe” and “setback” in Arabic, respectively. During the Nakba, in the war following Israel’s declaration as a state, Israeli military forces expelled 750,000 Palestinians from their homes. 19 years later, the Israeli government displaced over 300,000 Palestinians in the Naksa during and after the Six-Day War with Egypt, Syria, and Jordan.

Rasikh, a first-year masters student studying social justice education, read stories about children in Gaza impacted by the violence that were documented by the London-based news outlet The New Arab.

Rasikh wrote in an email to The Varsity that there was “a sense of collective grief and frustration” during the vigil, but it “opened up space for a moment of healing.”

She explained that the vigil aimed to highlight the Israeli military’s “targeted campaign against journalists” and “to collectively mourn and honour the memory of the over 100 journalists killed by Israeli forces thus far.”

Rasikh wrote that she viewed Western media’s coverage of Palestinian journalists’ deaths as “inadequate.”

“When such so-called ‘deaths’ are reported on, they are treated as if they were accidental,” wrote Rasikh.

“They are portrayed as mere side effects of war.”

dents’ and professors’ academic freedom to speak about Palestine; adopt The Arab Canadian Lawyer Association’s definition of anti-Palestinian racism; restore the Absence Declaration policy adopted during the pandemic which allowed students to declare absences without providing a doctors’ note; extend the present application cycle and waive the application fee for Palestinian applicants; and end “UofT’s complicity in Israel’s continued occupation.”

Parsa Albeheshti, a third-year philosophy major and a TSSP member, said in an interview with The Varsity that U of T is complicit through its semester abroad programs with Israeli universities, such as Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. “We demand that U of T ends its complicity by essentially divesting and ending its ties from those institutions,” he said.

Rasikh shared this sentiment, noting that the university grants six awards to students interested in studying in Israel. She also mentioned that the university is “indirectly complicit” in the occupation because it engages with companies and brands such as the Royal Bank of Canada, Starbucks, SodaStream, and Scotiabank that, she said, “finance Israel and the occupying forces of the IDF.” “We are calling on UofT to end its complicity by cutting ties to all institutions that directly contribute to the occupation of Palestinian land and the apartheid system to which Palestinians are subjugated,” she wrote.

In a statement to The Varsity, a U of T spokesperson highlighted academic supports available to students impacted by world events, including Health and Wellness at UTSG and Health and Counselling centres at UTSC and UTM. They also noted the existence of the Anti-Islamophobia working group, which aims to “address experiences of Islamophobia with a key focus on anti-Arab racism, anti-Palestinian discrimination, and related forms of racism and faith-based discrimination,” according to the working group’s website.

Three days after sending it out to U of T, the TSSP made its letter available to the public and allowed U of T community members to sign on. As of January 28, there are 491 signatories listed on the Google

“When such so-called ‘deaths’ are reported on, they are treated as if they were accidental,” wrote Rasikh. “They are portrayed as mere side effects of war.”

TSSP’s open letter and demands for U of T On November 20, 2023, the TSSP sent a letter to senior members of the U of T administration — including U of T President Meric Gertler, and the heads of the three federated colleges: Mayo Moran, the provost and vice-chancellor of Trinity College; David Sylvester, the president and vice-chancellor of St. Michael’s College; and Rhonda N. McEwen, the president of Victoria College.

The letter cited six demands for the university: call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire; publicly acknowledge and address the “growing hate against the pro-Palestinian expression”; protect stu-

Form version of the letter.

At the very end of the vigil, TSSP members and the audience started chanting, chants such as “Meric Gertler, you can’t hide, you’re condoning genocide,” and “U of T, you can’t hide, you’re condoning apartheid.”

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

If you or someone you know is in distress, you can call: • Canada Suicide Prevention Service phone available 24/7 at 1-833-456-4566 • Good 2 Talk Student Helpline at 1-866-9255454 • Connex Ontario Mental Health Helpline at 1-866-531-2600 • Gerstein Centre Crisis Line at 416-929-5200 • U of T Health & Wellness Centre at 416-9788030 If you or someone you know has experienced antiMuslim racism or is in distress, you can contact: • Canadian Muslim Counselling at 437-8866309 or info@muslimcounselling.ca • Islamophobia Support Line at 416-6138729 • 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 647-6222221 or gbv@ccmw.com If you or someone you know has experienced antisemitism or 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

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UTGSU BOD fills committee seats, discusses processes for setting up Board of Appeal Union holds first BOD meeting for directors elected during by-election

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Emma Livingstone Graduate Bureau Chief

During its January 19 meeting, the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union’s (UTGSU) Board of Directors (BOD) filled vacant committee seats with directors elected in December and discussed the process for selecting members to fill its Board of Appeal.

During the union’s Annual General Meeting

(AGM) on November 28, members passed a motion proposed by pharmaceutical sciences student and at-the-time BOD member Chris Rodgers that tasked the union with creating a functioning Board of Appeal as soon as possible.

The January 19 meeting, the first of 2024, constituted the first for many directors elected through the by-election held during the union’s AGM.

Filling committees Over email, from December 14–22, BOD members approved Devonnia Miller as the Chief Returning Officer for the union’s 2024 general elections.

The main items on the BOD’s agenda aimed to fill vacant seats on board committees. Given the many changes to BOD membership over the fall semester, due to resignations and by-elections, the BOD decided to start the committee selection

process from scratch and elect all new members to the director slots on each committee.

The BOD elected members to fill most of the available seats on the Campaigns & Activism, Governance, Graduate Affairs, Finance, Elections & Referenda, and Funding Committees.

Each committee — except for the Campaigns & Activism Committee and the Elections & Referenda Committee — allocates one voting-member position to board representatives from each of the four academic divisions the union represents. The union did not fill all division spots. Kanika Josephine Lawton is the only representative on the board from division one, which represents the humanities, and could not fill all of the committees’ division 1 voting positions by themself. Jonah Dunch, who was elected as the other new director for division one during the by-election, tendered their resignation before the meeting due to other commitments.

To fill the Elections & Referenda Committee, which the union has struggled to fill in previous years, the BOD agreed to ask back committee members who served during the by-election, as they had expressed interest in continuing on the committee.

Board of Appeal According to the UTGSU Bylaws section 14.6.1.2, the Board of Appeal has the power to investigate decisions made by “the Chair, the Board of Directors, the Executive, Committee, the Elections and Referenda Committee, the Chief and, Deputy Returning Officers, and the UTGSU Course Unions.”

However, neither the UTGSU Bylaws nor the Policy handbook outlines a formal process for selecting the Board of Appeal’s members.

During the AGM, members discussed the complete dearth of individuals currently on the Board of Appeal. At the BOD meeting, UTGSU Executive Director Corey Scott said he hoped to remedy this by setting up a process for a BOD committee to interview and recommend people to take on the Board of Appeal’s chair and vicechair positions. He argued that a nominating process where the committee reviews applicants and presents them to the BOD for approval would ensure more members of the BOD could be involved in appointing applicants, as opposed to if it established a small committee that would work to appoint people independently of the BOD. The BOD appointed three members to sit on the nominating committee.

If not the police, who should we call?

U of T PhD student discusses community crisis approach to mental health emergencies Avin De Varsity Contributor

“An alternative to a police response” — this was how Andrea Westbrook, a PhD student in the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work (FIFSW), described the Toronto Community Crisis Service (TCCS). Currently, Westbrook manages the TCCS team operating out of the Gerstein Centre — a social services organization in downtown Toronto and one of TCCS’ four hubs.

On January 16, at a lecture event in the FIFSW building, Westbrook discussed her work, which focuses on providing alternatives to calling the police when people experience mental health crises.

Westbrook, who is registered as a social worker, described the importance of providing alternatives and the organization’s plans for the future.

The Toronto Community Crisis Service The TCCS launched as a pilot program in March 2022. Several organizations — including the Canadian Mental Health Association, the 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations, TAIBU Community Health Centre, and the Gerstein Crisis Centre — lead the project, which they founded in collaboration with the City of Toronto. The TCCS aims to treat mental health crises as public health events instead of public safety issues by providing direct mental health and substance use support.

When someone calls 911 or 211 about a mental health crisis, a dispatcher will inform them about the TCCS. People aged 16 and above in four regions — including much of downtown Toronto, north Etobicoke, and Scarborough — can contact the TCCS crisis response team, which provides

an alternative to policing to people in need of their assistance.

The TCCS also follows a “No Wrong Door Approach,” where it helps people access a variety of governmental and community-based resources, including future mental health and medical assistance.

Why establish the TCCS? During her talk, Westbrook discussed how the current police approach often fails to serve people with mental health issues. She noted the need to reconsider how we conceive of violence, citing research showing that people often see people with mental illness as dangerous. “Your first instinct might be that person might hurt me, I’m going to call 911,” she said.

However, she noted that Canadians with mental health issues disproportionately experience violence themselves: “violence from within community, violence at the hands of law enforcement, violence in the hands of our mental health system, as well… So [think] about how our approaches to responding to someone in crisis are, in fact, making people less safe.”

The CBC reported that, from 2000 to 2018, 70 per cent of Canadians killed by the police faced challenges with mental health or substance use disorder, with an overrepresentation of Black, Indigenous, and person of colour (BIPOC) people.

“When we have a justice response to a mental health crisis, we’re going to see higher levels of violence,” she said.

According to Westbrook, the TCCS aims to provide assistance to people of all backgrounds, particularly given the “catastrophic impacts” that

systematic over-policing has on BIPOC communities.

The TCCS’ approach differs from that of the police, who do not necessarily ask for people experiencing mental health crises for consent before intervening. Police intervention may lead to violence and incarceration for mentally impaired individuals.

Westbrook noted that people with mental health diagnoses, cognitive impairments, and disabilities are overrepresented in the criminal justice system.

How has the pilot program fared?

According to Westbrook, within the last year, the Gerstein Centre alone received 2,600 calls and only needed to call the police for backup on just two per cent of these calls.

The organization has also gone on to work with police programs, educating them on how to respond to different crisis calls. Now past its twoyear mark, the TCCS plans to launch its services city-wide in July 2024.

This Toronto pilot program provides support for mental health and substance use disorders.

ZEYNEP POYANLI/THEVARSITY

thevarsity.ca/category/news

JANUARY 29, 2024

The Breakdown: Summer internships and jobs Tips and tricks for finding work experience this summer Sharon Chan Varsity Contributor

Whether it is to earn money to pay for college expenses, explore different career paths, or gain work experience, many U of T students are scrambling for summer jobs and internships right now. If this is your first time seeking such a position, below are some things to keep in mind so that you can find an internship or summer job that best suits your needs and stand out in a massive pool of candidates.

Know the differences Since summer internships and summer jobs are seasonal — meaning that the employment is a temporary job with a pre-determined end date — what differentiates an internship from a job in Ontario is that internships come with a learning

agenda, focusing on gaining skills and professional development.

Internships can be paid or unpaid, depending on the company. However, unpaid internships might not be the best choice if you need financial assistance.

Larry Afun, a third-year physiology and immunology student, found his paid internship opportunity through the ELITE Program for Black Youth. He believed his experience as an intern at a scientific research lab solidified his passion for science, as his supervisor was open to teaching him new skills. For instance, Afun had the opportunity to learn about starting a business.

“Part of the contract involved me working on a mock business startup… I was being paid to learn about business in the context of scientific endeavours and then do research. It was a brilliant

NILIMA PAUL/THEVARSITY

opportunity,” he told The Varsity in an interview.

Where to look Students can find summer internships and jobs offered by the university’s faculty, staff, or third-party employers under Jobs and Recruitment on the Career & Co-curricular Learning Network (CLNx).

However, the university clarifies in its Non Endorsement Statement that it is “not responsible for the practices of employers or conditions of offcampus employment opportunities.” According to the statement, “students and graduates are responsible for researching organizations and verifying the employment terms and conditions with the employer before applying to or accepting opportunities.”

If you cannot find anything that sparks your interest on CLNx, you can also turn to job boards.

While Indeed is one of the most commonly used job boards in Canada, students can also consider looking at public platforms — like the Government of Canada Job Bank and Ontario Public Service Careers — and other private companies — such as TalentEgg, Workopolis Campus, and Magnet.

Many jobs posted to these platforms are targeted toward students and recent grads.

If you are an international student, you may work on or off-campus without a work permit, but you must have a valid study permit, a valid Social Insurance Number, and a full-time student status.

There are no restrictions on the number of hours an international student can work on campus as long as they meet the eligibility criteria above.

However, international students in Canada can currently only work up to 20 hours per week at an off-campus job.

Finding the right job Now that you know where to look, the Career Exploration and Education Centre says you

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should ask yourself the following questions about your previous academic or work experiences: what did I enjoy in the experience? What made the experience meaningful? What skills did I develop or enhance through the experience?

Answering these questions can help you narrow down your options. The Academic Advising & Career Centre at UTSC offers an Online Self Assessment that walks students through these types of questions.

It is equally important to read each job description carefully and research the company by visiting its website and reading online reviews on sites like Glassdoor before applying for an offcampus position. This prevents you from falling victim to job scams and toxic work environments.

U of T also offers several internship opportunities, including the Arts & Science Internship Program and the Sidney Smith Commons Summer Internship.

Annie Yan, currently a student engagement coordinator at Ontario College of Art and Design, attended U of T as an international student.

During her time at U of T, Yan worked for the Sidney Smith Commons as an intern.

She encouraged students looking for summer internships to apply for jobs using CLNx. Yan also emphasized connecting with professors or university staff. “At this age, money matters, but not as much.” She explained, “It’s your experience and your [connections] and all these things that matter more.”

Selling yourself According to the Harvard Business Review, employers look at résumés for seven seconds on average. This means every word counts on your résumé and cover letter. To captivate recruiters, résumés, and cover letters should be tailored to the hiring company’s needs, objectives, and values.

To get started with your résumé and cover letter, you can refer to the Résumé Workbook or Résumé and Cover Letter Toolkit provided by the university’s Career Exploration & Education Centre.

Canada’s homelessness crisis: What’s gone wrong since the 1960s?

Professor Alison Smith discusses the future of Canadian housing policy Joy Chan Varsity Contributor

Content warning: This article has mentions of death and substance use disorder.

On January 17, Alison Smith — a UTM political science assistant professor and the author of the upcoming book Filling the Gap: Cities and the Fight Against Homelessness in Canada — hosted a virtual webinar addressing the historical roots, current landscape, and future of Canada’s homelessness crisis.

In her talk, which has received 307 views on YouTube as of January 28, Smith noted how an unclear allocation of responsibility and inadequate resources have contributed to the issue.

The homelessness crisis As of December 2023, York University’s research group the Homeless Hub estimated that between 150,000 and 300,000 people experience homelessness in Canada each year, although the high incidence of people experiencing hidden homelessness — in other words, people who find temporary housing and unstable housing situations, such as couch surfing — makes it hard to quantify.

At least 35,000 people in Canada are experiencing homelessness on any given night.

HelpSeeker, a technology research company that focuses on social issues, applied an artificial intelligence model to data gathered by municipal governments on topics like shelter usage to estimate that the number of people experiencing homelessness will almost double by 2030. This estimate includes a large proportion of people who will experience hidden homelessness.

While the homelessness crisis has existed for decades, Smith explained that “over the course of the pandemic we saw it really reach new levels.” She noted that emergency shelters that enforced social distancing during the pandemic reduced their

capacities, resulting in fewer people being able to access them. In addition, the opioid crisis that worsened during the pandemic resulted in the deaths of more than 2,790 people from April 2021 to March 2022 and disproportionately impacted people experiencing homelessness.

Smith said, “The continued existence of homelessness is certainly not free, it’s actually really expensive.” She explained that in 2021, the City of Toronto spent approximately two million dollars on clearing encampments. While she noted that encampments are not a long-term solution, many activists argue that dismantling encampments displaces people, leading to further housing insecurity.

Whose responsibility is it?

In the 1960s and 1970s — which Smith described as the “most successful era of Canadian housing policy” — the federal government invested highly in housing and partnered with provincial governments, co-ops, and nonprofits.

In the 1990s, the federal government dropped funding to develop affordable housing “down to zero” and changed the system of transferring funding to provinces, which “long story short, resulted in provinces getting a lot less money to implement their own social policies.” Most provinces cut their spending on social housing as a result.

In Ontario, former Premier Mike Harris implemented a realignment process that shifted responsibility for housing policy and funding to the local level. While responsibility has trickled down, Smith cited a lack of additional funding transferred to local governments to fulfill that responsibility.

“There’s a particular mismatch where we have the authority for housing at the local level, but the resources to be able to invest in an inclusive and sustainable housing system are at the provincial and federal level,” Smith said.

Additionally, much of Toronto has been zoned historically and contemporarily for single-family houses, increasing the difficulty of zoning for multi-

Smith explained we need government responsibility and more resources to address the crisis.

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family housing that could help increase housing affordability. The mismatched division of responsibility leads to an accountability issue in which the federal government points to local governments, and local governments point to provincial governments.

Alternative models Smith noted that the protections for citizens’ rights in Canada’s constitution constitute ‘negative rights,’ “which [means] the government cannot interfere with your rights.” In practice, this means that while the government isn’t allowed to prevent access to resources — including housing — it is also not responsible for providing those resources to everyone.

In Wales, a country with positive rights, the government has a duty to assist people at risk of homelessness. This means that even before people begin to be at risk of homelessness, the government takes steps to secure housing for everyone. According to Smith, Wales’ emphasis on both universal prevention and clearly defined responsibility at the local level aids their approach.

Smith also pointed to BC Premier David Eby, whose policies — while they haven’t solved the homelessness crisis in BC — provide innovative solutions. Under Eby’s administration, the BC

government has created the Rental Protection Fund — a housing group that helps purchase affordable rental buildings — which made $500 million in funding available for non-profits and other community groups to purchase properties, increasing the availability of quality social housing.

Houses in this non-market sector are protected from rising costs, prioritizing affordability over profit.

Moving forward Smith argues that the solution is “not easy to solve, [as] it requires a lot of collaboration.” Other experts echo this sentiment. Each solution is not only difficult to implement but will entail a trade-off of some kind.

According to Smith, a future without homelessness will not eradicate the demand for governmentfunded, owned, and operated social housing. She explains that “even if we were to move towards ending homelessness, there really always would be [a] need for [emergency shelters].”

“Federal, provincial, regional, municipal governments all have a role,” Smith explained. “It’s everyone’s responsibility, and so everyone needs to be bringing what they can, whether that’s resources or expertise or capacity or land.”

Business & Labour

January 29, 2024 thevarsity.ca/category/business biz@thevarsity.ca

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Blue Ribbon Panel suggests deregulating tuition for U of T amid Ontario universities’ financial crisis Student unions say the solution is more provincial funding, not higher tuition Nina Uzunovic Associate B&L Editor

and is therefore unlikely to implement the panel’s recommended increase in public funding.

As universities across Ontario report mounting debt and forced corner-cutting, a provinciallycommissioned report on postsecondary education institutions in Ontario is recommending that the province end its four-year-long domestic tuition freeze and hike tuition by five per cent for the 2024–2025 academic year. It also recommends that the Ontario government — whose funding to postsecondary institutions per student is 57 per cent less than Canada’s provincial average — increase its funding by 10 per cent.

The panel also suggests allowing further tuition increases for professional degree programs, as well as high-demand programs, such as engineering, where program graduates’ earnings are higher on average.

The domestic tuition freeze has been in place since 2020, with the aim of ensuring accessible postsecondary education and financial stability following COVID-19. However, the panel called this freeze a “significant threat to the financial sustainability of a major part of the province’s postsecondary sector,” echoing a 2022 report from Ontario’s Auditor General.

The Ontario government first commissioned the group that wrote this report, called the Blue Ribbon Panel, in March 2023. According to the government’s website, its purpose is to “[keep] the postsecondary education sector financially stable and focused on providing the best student experience possible.” Meanwhile, the head of a postsecondary consulting firm, in a CBC News article, argued that the government’s actual motivation for commissioning the panel was to churn out justifications for ending the tuition freeze —

Special exemptions recommended for U of T “I encourage the province to consider treating the University of Toronto differently from other Ontario universities,” wrote panel chair Alan Harrison in a letter attached to the report. He noted that the Times Higher Education World University Rankings placed U of T as 18th in the world and provides more student aid than the average level of aid other universities provide. He also noted that, unlike some other Ontario universities, U of T has not been admitting numbers of domestic students beyond the level of funding it has to facilitate.

Citing these factors, Harrison recommended that U of T be exempted from tuition regulation altogether, even beyond the ongoing freeze.

Provincial regulation has historically capped yearover-year tuition increases for domestic students at three to five per cent — but removing those regulations would allow U of T to determine its own tuition fees.

“We’re very pleased with the Blue Ribbon Panel,” said Vice President and Provost Cheryl Regehr at the Governing Council’s latest Business Board meeting on November 22, 2023, highlighting Harrison’s acknowledgement of U of T’s high ranking. However, Regehr stated that “any changes to tuition levels at U of T would be considered hand in hand with our commitment to offering the most generous access programs in the province.”

Regehr also noted that the administration does not know whether Ontario will implement the panel’s recommendations in the first place, nor do they have a timeline for when that implementation would begin.

Tuition hikes amid Toronto’s cost of living crisis As students navigate Toronto’s cost of living crisis, tuition hikes may end up hurting students more than helping universities. “Ontario universities are absolutely broadly underfunded, but to imply that U of T itself is short on funding isn’t entirely accurate.” wrote Aidan Thompson, the University of Toronto Students’ Union vice president, public and university affairs, in an email to The Varsity.

“Admin doesn’t really have a plan for what to do with the additional funding [from increased tuition rates], [and] is wasting current funding on inefficiencies,” claimed Thompson. Ontario Colleges and Universities Minister Jill Dunlop paralleled these views in her comments on the report’s recommendation, stating that the province won’t allow tuition hikes until it has established that colleges and universities are to the best of their abilities operating efficiently.

In a submission to the Blue Ribbon Panel, U of T stated that it needs additional funding to “advance its academic and research missions.” U of T specifically pointed to meeting student demand for academic programs, as well as maintaining a competitive advantage when it comes to leading research and start-up developments.

Ontario government funding woes Meanwhile, on January 9, Queen’s University student newspaper the Queen’s Journal quoted Provost Matthew Evans during a town hall meeting as worried about Queen’s very survival because of its precarious current financial position. “Unless we sort this out, we will go under,” he said.

“The best option by far is for the Provincial government to budget for an operational funding increase that actually meets the needs of Ontario's Universities,” wrote Thompson.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Ontario office released a report last month regarding the perilous state of public university funding in Ontario, calling on the provincial government to double its current funding — bringing postsecondary funding to the average level of other provinces. Funding cuts

in Ontario in recent years have resulted in domestic students paying 24 per cent higher tuition fees in comparison to the remaining Canadian average.

Thompson further notes that instituting the tuition hike as a way of “catching up” with inflation should be a policy of last resort after universities have exhausted all other cost-cutting measures that do not materially impact the student experience — which he disputes that U of T has attempted.

U of T President Meric Gertler also highlighted U of T’s push for greater federal and provincial government funding at U of T’s October 26 Governing Council meeting.

Graduate student tuition raises “We believe that burdening students with additional financial strain is not conducive to fostering a positive and inclusive learning environment,” wrote Jady Liang, University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union interim vice president external, in an email to The Varsity.

Liang noted that graduate students have been facing “significant issues” with their base funding packages, which are a graduate unit’s funding commitment for certain eligible students — they encompass employment income for teaching or research assistants, research stipends, and fellowships, and the cost of tuition and student fees.

“The tuition increases may be counterbalanced with graduate funding, but any increase has an impact on the struggles graduate students face,” Liang wrote.

“The solution is obvious — increased government funding,” Liang wrote. “It is crucial to highlight that the funding from the government for postsecondary education has remained stagnant for more than 10 years.”

thevarsity.ca/category/business

JANUARY 29, 2023

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Opinion: Will the boycotting work?

Calls to abandon companies like Starbucks and Indigo depend on the public’s sustained attention Czarina Leung Varsity Contributor

As a high school student in Hong Kong during the 2019 anti-government protests, I witnessed the demise of its boycott movement first-hand.

I vividly remember seeing empty and damaged store locations for Best Mart 360, which is a public food retail company. For months, it faced an unprecedented boycott campaign from pro-democracy groups due to its CEO’s alleged affiliations with Beijing.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic arrived. The subsequent enforcement of Beijing’s National Security Law meant, ironically, that protesters’ calls for a boycott lost widespread public attention within months. Between 2019 and 2023, Best Mart 360’s revenue has only increased year-over-year.

Now, in Canada, pro-Palestine groups have enlarged and strengthened Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movements against companies that have ties with the Israeli state. The movement follows the aftermath of the October 7 attack on Israel waged by Hamas, which set the stage for the bloodiest conflict in the region in recent decades. It led to Israel directly engaging in a military counteroffensive in the Gaza Strip, which has since led to over 26,000 deaths in Gaza, as of January 27. As allegations of war crimes mount against the Israeli Defense Force, pro-Palestine organizations around the world have called for a boycott of businesses that maintain ties with the Israeli state and the Israeli military.

Protest actions against these companies have taken many forms, such as sit-ins, vandalism, and marches. But they all share a common underlying purpose — to discourage the public from consuming these businesses’ goods, putting financial pressure on them to stop supporting the Israeli military.

Will the boycotting strategy work this time around? The Best Mart 360 boycott failure made

me realize that boycotting is effective on one condition — that there is a persistent public spotlight to pressure the targeted groups into obeying the popular discourse.

Prominent boycotts in the city of Toronto Countless BDS activities have been organized across Canada since early October, with companies like Scotiabank, Indigo, Cafe Landwer, and Starbucks finding themselves in the middle of the crisis. During the movement’s height in November, the chaotic protests in the GTA and affiliated arrests dominated the headlines of major news outlets.

At the Ceremony for the Scotiabank Giller Prize last November, protestors disrupted the event to oppose the bank’s indirect involvement in Israel’s military actions. Holding a sign that writes “Scotiabank funds genocide” and shouting “Scotiabank currently has a $500 million stake in Elbit Systems,” all protestors now face charges of obstructing property and using forged documents.

The corporate accountability organization Ekō has accused Elbit Systems, an Israeli defence contractor, of manufacturing cluster munitions for its government — a deadly kind of weapon that more than 100 countries, including Canada, have banned. According to the Intercept, an American nonprofit news organization, Scotiabank is estimated to be the largest overseas shareholder with $500 million in stake.

On another occasion, a pro-Palestinian group instrumented a sit-in at Scotiabank’s downtown Toronto headquarters to protest its investments in Elbit Systems. The action turned into a clash between police officers and participants. This particular demonstration was part of an international “day of action” of protests and boycotts focusing on political offices, businesses, and workplaces that “fund, invest, and collaborate” with Israel.

Jewish-founded bookstore Indigo was also a target of the BDS movement in Canada. Established by Heather Reisman, the Bloor-Bay branch

CUPE 3261 calls for wage increases amid Toronto cost-of-living crisis Union representing food service employees and caretakers is currently negotiating with the university Bill 124 capped dining hall workers’ wage increases to one per cent per year before it was struck down in 2022.

ANDREA ZHAO/THEVARSITY

Tom Law Labour Correspondent

decades,” wrote CUPE 3261 President Luke Daccord in a statement to The Varsity.

Only a handful of U of T food service staff currently make a livable wage. Inflation continues to hover above the Bank of Canada’s two per cent target, and legislation limiting public employees’ wage increases has been struck down. Now, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 3261 is pushing for wage gains.

The majority of its 350 food service members earn $22.58 per hour, below the $25.05 Toronto Living Wage. As calculated by the Ontario Living Wage Network, a living wage encompasses the minimum amount a worker requires to cover basic expenses such as food, shelter, transportation, and simple needs beyond survival, such as a modest vacation.

The union has tabled proposals to bring the wages of all its members up to $25 per hour.

“Our members grapple with a range of challenges, including low wages, insufficient staffing which lead to overwork… [and] scheduling issues.

Decent wage increases have been notably absent for a considerable time, causing our members to fall behind the rate of inflation over the past few

The relationship between Bill 124 and inflation In the four years since Bill 124’s introduction by the Ontario government to its striking-down by the Superior Court of Justice in November 2022, inflation and cost-of-living pressures have eroded purchasing power for food workers on campus. The controversial bill limited annual public sector wage increases to one per cent annually.

However, with high inflation — peaking at just over eight per cent in June 2022 — and high interest rates squeezing mortgages and rents, Daccord stated that the university itself is not going far enough to offer wages commensurate with the work being done and addressing Toronto’s increasing cost of living.

The workers affected include those at residence dining halls such as Campus One, Howard Ferguson, New College, and 89 Chestnut. Similarly, workers at the Sid Smith café, Medical Sciences Building cafeterias, Robarts Library outlets, and Hart House’s Arbor Room have been impacted by Bill 124 and the university’s subsequent inability to match pay with inflation.

Pro-Palestine activists have called on the public to boycott companies like Scotiabank, Indigo, Cafe Landwer, and Starbucks.

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of the Canadian bookstore chain was vandalized in November for its CEO’s support for Israel’s military. The protestors, all of whom are now charged with criminal harassment, poured red paint and plastered posters annotated with the words “chief occupation lover” on the store’s window.

According to the Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, Reisman and her husband financed the Israeli army by establishing the HESEG Foundation for Lone Soldiers in 2005. It incentivizes non-Israeli citizens who came to Israel to join the Israeli military to “remain in Israel, acquire an academic education, continue to strive for excellence, and lead the State of Israel to future achievements.” Neither Indigo nor HESEG has stated whether the company’s profits are tied to the Foundation — however, several senior members or veterans of the Israeli army are on the board of directors of the HESEG. Impacts on the boycotted companies The impact on targeted companies is currently unclear due to a scarcity of information on the change in revenue or sales.

The drop in Starbucks’ share price in December prompted some excitement from protesters — but it is not clear whether the boycotts are the primary driver of this.

Scotiabank’s stock price has gradually increased since protesters’ clashes with the police in November, thus demonstrating its business resilience. In light of the protests at its event and property, it has requested one advocacy group, Ekō, to end its campaign demanding Scotiabank’s divestment from Elbit Systems, claiming the campaign spread misinformation that caused “confusion and disturbances.”

In an email to Ekō, the bank clarified that it was not the biggest shareholder nor the biggest foreign Daccord claimed that the university uses a “pattern bargaining” strategy in its negotiations with the labour unions that represent its employees. “When it’s time to renew contracts and renegotiate the elements of our collective agreements [typically every three years],” Daccord wrote, “U of T will bargain with some of the bigger unions and groups on campus first and then whatever is achieved there they will force on the rest of us.”

The result, Daccord wrote, is that higher-wage workers will accept compromises that are then applied to people making half their salary. Smaller unions’ comparative lack of bargaining power means that they do not have much choice; lowerwage workers, however, will feel the impact of those compromises much more acutely, since they are much more financially vulnerable.

Who is getting paid for what?

The majority of food service members, 210 of whom are covered by CUPE3261’s “Full-Time/PartTime” agreement, do not receive tips for their work.

Aside from “Full-Time/Part-Time” members, about 60 food service members, the majority of whom are students, are “casual” workers — they have no fixed hours, a maximum of 24 working hours per week, and generally make a lower hourly wage.

The union claims that the pay disparity occurs despite casual members doing the same work as full-time and part-time employees. In addition to general wage increases, CUPE 3261 has demanded equal pay for equal work that would equalize per-hour earnings across these different employment classes.

Staffing shortages impact service quality These issues are not just impacting workers’ incomes — labour shortages around the world mean that, even in a high-immigration economy like Canada’s, there are often not enough people to staff demand.

The problem is particularly prevalent in Canada’s service-based sectors. It has been further exacerbated by the federal government’s reinstatement of its 20-hour working cap for international students.

shareholder of Elbit, specifying that Ekō had been counting shares held by individual participants in mutual funds managed by its asset management arm. So far, the movement has only triggered the Canadian lender to work to dispel such allegations, and the bank itself appears to be unaffected by the existing controversy.

As for Indigo, neither Reisman nor her company responded to the attack on November 10. The windows were cleaned shortly after. Still, when I walked by the Yorkdale branch on Christmas Eve, the store was surprisingly packed with shoppers purchasing ‘last-minute’ gifts, seemingly ignoring the calls for a boycott against Indigo.

In my opinion, current BDS efforts are not strong enough to alter the public’s preferences and consumption choices; thus, business is unfortunately going on as usual.

Boycotting works, but give it time Previous efforts in the pro-Palestine movement have worked before, though. Ben and Jerry’s stopped selling ice cream in illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land after 10 years of campaigning by The Vermonters for Justice in Palestine, while HSBC divested from Elbit Systems merely a year after the campaigners first made calls to boycott the bank.

It seems that news outlets have lately reduced their coverage of BDS activities. Student-led initiatives are returning, although perhaps less frequently. The only way to regain public attention on these companies’ pro-Israel stance is to continuously organize high-profile activities in a legal and non-violent manner. As the movement only attracted heightened traction recently, time will show us the tangible results yielded by this new wave of boycotts in Canada in the fight for Palestinian rights.

“We’ve seen significant staffing shortages, which have resulted in heavy workloads, with many members facing burnout as a result. Some members, already juggling second or third jobs, find it challenging to keep up,” Daccord wrote. Citing the Starbucks in Robarts Library as an example, Daccord said the location “[faces] severe understaffing without any apparent efforts to address it.”

“Across Food Service departments, when someone is absent, managers rarely offer overtime, and often leave the workers on shift to fill in the gaps,” he added.

Low-pay-induced staff shortages are impacting students themselves, and not just through inconvenient waiting times — Daccord noted that food quality and prices on campus have also taken a hit.

“The cost-cutting measures in food services that have led to the understaffing in our workplaces go hand in hand with the recent uproar from students on increased food prices. Food quality has also plummeted – something that both our members and students have noted,” he wrote.

Negotiation outlook CUPE3261’s current round of bargaining with U of T is still ongoing. The union has tabled its proposals for a living wage, along with equal pay for equal work, but issues of ‘pattern bargaining’ will potentially prove to be contentious.

There is precedent for the university changing its mind on agreement terms; Daccord noted that, after previously privatizing food services and receiving complaints from students, U of T brought back employees hired in-house.

“We think U of T is best served by U of T employees making U of T wages and benefits, and we think the university community at large agrees with that as well,” wrote Daccord.

“The parties have worked together successfully for decades to negotiate renewal [of] collective agreements without any labour disputes or disruptions,” a spokesperson for U of T wrote to The Varsity in an email. “The University looks forward to ongoing constructive and productive discussions with the Union towards a tentative agreement.”

Comment

January 29, 2024 thevarsity.ca/category/comment comment@thevarsity.ca

Op-ed: Student levies need open doors — and strong oversight UTERN president reflects on the importance of good governance in student organizations Giselle Sami Dalili Varsity Contributor

Where do your tuition fees go? Every term, for all three campuses, 50 cents of undergraduate incidental student fees go to the University of Toronto’s Student Environmental Resource Network (UTERN). UTERN receives 25 cents of UTSG graduate student fees.

For context, as of January 20, only a tiny portion of UTSG undergraduate incidental student fees — typically less than two per cent — goes toward student organizations like school newspapers and student unions, most of which provide important services for students and help strengthen the campus community. Student levy organizations are valuable tools for student empowerment and collective action, but I believe they require transparent and accountable governance to ensure responsible use of funds and effectiveness in serving the student body.

Very few student organizations are supported by a student levy, as levies take widespread support, responsibility, and effort to institute and maintain long-term. Hence, the establishment of these levy organizations on campus is a testament to the dedication and initiative of student activists throughout U of T’s history.

Leading by example, I hold the responsibility of UTERN’s presidency with deep personal commitment. At present, with our executive board leading the effort, UTERN is undergoing an exhaustive review and restructuring. Our team is asking important questions, such as: have we been effective in our mission over the last 20 years? Moreover, how effective has UTERN been in its governance over the last 20 years? What can it do better?

Several considerations necessitated this review: late and incomplete audits as well as continual complaints about delays in funding decisions and reimbursements by students who applied for UTERN’s funding to run sustainability projects and events.

In the end, UTERN elects representatives who must act in the best interest of the environmental

mission and interests of the organization. The current leadership team is committed to strengthening administrative processes and ensuring a smooth transition that benefits UTERN’s future leaders and thus, future U of T cohorts.

Larger organizations, such as the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU), recognize the significance of efficient and adaptable governance.

The UTSU utilizes its resources effectively, employs dedicated staff to manage operations, and prioritizes regular reviews of its constitutional provisions and policies. This approach ensures UTSU’s framework remains relevant and effective in serving U of T students.

Given that these organizations are student-run and are what I see as part of our training to become contributing members of society, governance hiccups do happen. For example, missing receipts — which an auditor needs to ensure funds have been spent appropriately — can happen from time to time. Nevertheless, as this issue was identified as part of our UTERN review, we came up with some concerns that we are addressing with policy changes to prevent this from occurring in the future.

During this internal investigation, the decision by past executive members to allocate funding to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference has received scrutiny from faculty and staff. In my view, this is warranted as it illustrates what I see as potential tensions between UTERN’s environmental mission and the environmental consequences of individual travel choices. While attending international conferences can be valuable, ensuring responsible resource allocation and minimizing carbon footprints remain paramount, especially when representing an environmental organization. In total, a levy organization must serve the student body, and any dispensing of funds must meet a higher standard where there is a clear benefit to the U of T community.

This incident further highlights UTERN’s need for robust internal protocols for ethical decision-making, clear financial guidelines, and comprehensive oversight to navigate such complexities.

Students go to the library for services, not silence Repercussions from the lack of ‘third places’ fall on libraries Mia Jakobsen Varsity Contributor

Libraries are quiet and clean places — growing up, my idea of libraries included a strict lady shushing at every dropped pin.

According to the U of T library conduct regulations, prohibited activities at the library include the consumption of food except in designated areas, and any behaviour — such as “rowdiness, noise, prolonged conversation” — that distracts or disrupts others. These tend to be standard expectations at libraries worldwide.

Despite these well-known expectations of library conduct, U of T students continue to complain about the lack of common courtesy shown nonstop by others at UTSG libraries who do things such as eating full meals or having raucous conversations. In one Reddit thread, some students blamed the lack of conduct on either the COVID-19 pandemic or personal social ineptness and egoism.

A now-deleted Reddit user claiming to be a librarian in Toronto responded on the thread that library service models have “shifted along with people’s use of the library,” becoming more of a social hub where individuals can access “free entertainment, educational resources, and shelter.” The user emphasized how libraries reflect its local population who, at this time, need “services, not silence.”

Like this Reddit user, I also see the decline of library etiquette being linked to the lack of ‘third places’ in Toronto. In his 1989 book The Great

Good Place, sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined the term “third place” to critique the loneliness, isolation, and lack of community in American suburbs. The third place is a public space that welcomes regular, informal gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home — the first place — and productive work — the second place.

Oldenburg wrote that third places “serve the human need for communion” and provide a space for escape and relief from the stress of home, work, or student life. Ideally, open daily and for long hours, a third place invites everyone to build and sustain experiences and relationships in an open space that people can come and go to as they please.

Oldenburg further stressed the feeling of warmth and comfort in third places, stating that warmth “radiates from the combination of cheerfulness and companionship, and it enhances the sense of being alive.” The third place extends similar psychological comfort and support of a good home, despite the third place being a radically different setting from the first place.

Oldenburg calls on prominent examples of third places from the past to illustrate its communal importance, including the agora: a kind of open meeting space found throughout ancient Greece where citizens could assemble. Agoras existed in the vicinity of public buildings or temples and were a routine part of fifth-century BCE Greek life for daily activities and gatherings.

Effective leadership training during yearly executive transitions, access to experienced mentors like faculty advisors, strong and clear policies, and the robustness of oversight mechanisms all play a critical role in upholding organizational integrity and preventing such missteps.

The efficacy of levy organizations depends on the combined efforts of not only executive leadership but also financial and social stakeholders, such as the student body. U of T and levy organizations must educate students on how to actively learn about the work of levy groups they contribute to, by understanding their mission, budget, and projects.

The student body can gain understanding by reading meeting minutes and reports. U of T and levy organizations must remind students to voice their opinions on the initiatives and practices of levy groups. Levy organizations can do so through surveys, open forums, or direct communication with representatives. U of T and levy organizations must encourage students fervently to volunteer their time, skills, or expertise to support levy group activities and contribute to their success.

U of T must keep levy organizations in check by asking how levy funds are allocated and spent to ensure transparency and responsible use of resources. This can be done by requesting financial reports and asking for clarifications. Given students’ financial commitment, students have the right to question the actions of levy groups, especially when they seem wasteful, misaligned with the group's mission, or lacking in effectiveness.

Students can express their concerns through formal channels like appeals processes or by organizing collective student voices. U of T and levy organizations must ensure students are aware of their voting rights to choose competent and responsible leadership for levy groups. This ensures their voices are heard and reflected in the group’s direction.

I see student levies to be like taxes but with a student dividend. They pay for services you use, like discounted healthcare, legal aid, and academic workshops, and empower you to navigate university with confidence and success. But, if students do

not use or care to learn about the services provided by levy organizations, then the potential of these resources remains untapped.

Student levy organizations can demonstrate social programs and collective power in action, and that will save students far more than what students pay to the organization if students use simply a fraction of the services provided. By collectively pooling student levy resources and ensuring students are aware of the rights and resources in the context of levy organizations, we can achieve access to opportunities that level the playing field, from equity initiatives, to initiatives that lower the cost of living, to initiatives that build community and empower each student to reach their full potential.

Since student levies are much like taxes, I look at opposition to student levies in the same way that I look at right-leaning, ideological opposition to the idea of taxes. I see these knee-jerk reactions that aim to throw the baby out with the bathwater to be shortsighted at best. A recent example of this is the attacks on the UTM Student Centre Expansion levy, for which the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union planned to get U of T offer to pay 50 per cent of the costs, if approved. Ultimately, because skeptical students undermined the idea, it failed.

It is important that we be vigilant, so as not to give right-wing detractors any ammunition to attack the collective power that levy-fee student organizations bring in terms of student services, advocacy, community-building, and access to resources and support.

The UTERN team and I are dedicated to promoting good governance and its associated principles. I encourage other levy-supported student groups to do the same!

I see no modern-day equivalents of the agora in Toronto, beyond perhaps gathering spaces on digital devices or the library. University students are particularly conscious of the absence of an informal public life. As you go through a substantial shift from childhood to adulthood — often alone!

— it is easy to feel isolated, especially when there are few places you can go to for social interaction or a break beyond studying. Even with long study or focus periods, you still have a need to eat or a desire to be with people, and the responsibility to cater to this demand falls on libraries: the only place still open past the early evening.

Most cafés near the UTSG campus or in downtown Toronto I’ve been to have limited, small, or timed study space, no charging outlets, or tend to close by 5:00–8:00 pm. There are few convenient places where a student can sit down and study while having a bite to eat or drink and some conversation with a friend. Similarly, many buildings at UTSG close before 10:00 pm, limiting the spots one can do work on campus. As opposed to cafés, popular libraries such as Gerstein Science Information Centre, E. J. Pratt Library, and Robarts Library all close between 10:00 pm and midnight.

One could fix disruptive library etiquette by simply kicking out those who are boisterous or hungry.

But doing so would ignore the larger underlying problem that students in Toronto face: a desire for connection and companionship that is difficult to maintain in a busy city that doesn’t allow you to stay in one place for more than three hours and falls asleep at 8:00 pm.

There is no doubt that third places are essential to a good and balanced life. The current structure of family, productive work, and consumerism is bleak. Libraries make a wonderful third place as they provide abundant free and accessible services and the warm, supportive environment Oldenburg describes to their patrons.

However, libraries shouldn’t be punished with bad etiquette for being welcoming hosts. If you also struggle to find third places and resort to the library, please be respectful of silent spaces and mindful of the services you’re using and the surrounding people.

Giselle Sami Dalili is a fourth-year student at New College studying political science, sociology, and environmental studies. Giselle is the President of the University of Toronto’s Student Environmental Resource Network (UTERN) for the 2023–2024 academic year.

Mia Jakobsen is a third-year student at Victoria College studying book and media studies, sexual diversity studies, and digital humanities. She is the president of the Book & Media Studies Student Association and the director of marketing and outreach for VicPride.

ZOE PEDDLE-STEVENSON/THEVARSITY

thevarsity.ca/category/comment

JANUARY 29, 2024

9

We need to address climate denial and misinformation online Debunking common arguments made by climate deniers with scientific facts Urooba Shaikh Comment Columnist

Until the sudden drop in temperatures last week, Toronto’s winter seemed uncharacteristically foggy, warm, and devoid of snow for most of December and early January. However, the arrival of snow and below-freezing temperatures a couple of weeks ago brought another recurring chill: climate change denial.

Every year when colder temperatures arrive like clockwork, we start to see tweets that show piles of snow with a snarky caption like “Global Warming? Yeah right !!!” A search of the hashtag #ClimateScam yields thousands of such tweets, which present many reasons why many believe that climate change isn’t a real threat.

Recently, misinformation about the climate crisis has become more rampant as climate change deniers use new tactics to present their opinions.

In 2021, Google banned ad revenue from content that denies climate change, including YouTube videos. The Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) has found that, in the past five years, the focus of climate denial YouTube channels has shifted to discrediting climate solutions, portraying climate change as harmless, or casting climate science and the environmental movement as unreliable.

It’s more important than ever to dismantle misinformed claims as they become widely spread through social media. According to a 2024 CCDH report titled The New Climate Denial, 43 per cent of adults and 56 per cent of teenagers who were highly active on social media agreed with the statement, “Humans are not the main cause of global temperature increases.”

But it’s cold!

One of the arguments that climate change skeptics use is that we still get cold weather, so the planet can’t possibly be warming. While it is true that we still see some very cold days, “climate” refers to changes in long-term, average weather patterns — and there is a clear global trend of rising temperatures.

Steve Easterbrook, the director of the School of the Environment at U of T, pointed out in a recent CBC News article that, “Climate change does not remove winter so we’re always going to have winters. What climate change does is it just shifts all those temperatures up a little on average.”

BRENNAN KARUNARATNE/THEVARSITY

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the average global temperature has risen about one degree Celsius since 1850. Due to this, even though cold snaps do occur, they are less frequent and warmer.

Emissions have no effect Another common argument I see being made by climate change deniers online is that even if human activity increases carbon emissions, this holds no negative effects because carbon dioxide is naturally present in the atmosphere.

However, the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration caused by human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels, means that the atmosphere is trapping a lot more of the Earth’s infrared radiation that would normally

How to defend pedestrian freedom in Toronto

Imagine waiting at a crosswalk, watching the traffic light take forever to change. You see a clear road, but the signal insists you stay put.

Frustration kicks in, and you decide to cross anyway — that’s jaywalking.

In Toronto, jaywalking is a rebellious rite of passage. It’s the not-so-secret maneuver, a civil disobedience that ignores street conventions and personal safety — and let’s be honest, we’re all guilty of it.

Jaywalking, a clear breach of traffic protocol, is a symptom of the unmet spatial demands of pedestrians in urban centres. In cities like Toronto, pedestrians are subjected to protracted waits at crosswalks and inconvenient signal placements — which all encourage a tendency to jaywalk.

Unmet spatial demands A 2014 report by the US National Institute for Transportation and Communities found that 85.7 per cent of pedestrians care more about their perception of safety than compliance with the law when crossing an intersection. This data emphasizes the chasm between developers’ intended pedestrian experience and the reality, demonstrating that jaywalking is a manifestation of pedestrian frustrations.

The urban emphasis on vehicular accommodation has relegated many pedestrians in Toronto to places with little-to-no infrastructural support. A 2015 Toronto Public Health report found that “pedestrians account[ed] for 52 per cent of all fatalities and 11 per cent of all injuries from collisions with motor vehicles in Toronto,” despite walking having a modal share — meaning

Less is more Climate change deniers also claim that carbon emissions produced by humans are negligible and cannot have a significant impact. For instance, I

We must work toward making informed decisions on addressing the climate crisis.

I support jaywalking Emily Carlucci Comment Columnist

be released. This effectively heats up the planet through what is called the greenhouse effect.

a percentage of total travellers that use it as a kind of transportation — of only seven per cent.

I see this statistic as quite literally a public health emergency, and regardless of whether you think pedestrians are mostly at fault for jaywalking, they are not the party in protected vehicles. Those who drive automobiles are capable of extreme harm and should be reminded that driving is a privilege, not a right.

Possible solutions You probably hear the buzz phrase ‘pedestrianfriendly infrastructure’ all the time, but what does it really mean? Infrastructure providers such as UtilitiesOne say that wider sidewalks are a major key to encouraging a safer environment for pedestrians in crowded urban centres.

Allow me to break down how wider sidewalks deter jaywalking. First, wider sidewalks provide pedestrians with ample space to move comfortably, thereby possibly reducing congestion and pedestrian frustration. The increased visibility of broader walkways may enhance safety by allowing pedestrians and drivers to spot each other more easily.

Furthermore, wider sidewalks in conjunction with other infrastructure might minimize the temptation to jaywalk by offering clear and accessible pathways for pedestrians to cross roads safely. I believe a more spacious and pedestrian-friendly environment, including well-planned crosswalks, may promote pedestrians’ adherence to designated crossing points and contribute to an overall reduction in risky pedestrian behaviour.

Additionally, the city as a whole is really lacking in investing in crosswalks, pedestrian-only zones, signage, and visibility enhancements such as reflectors on raised pavement markers and larger road signs. Enhanced intersections with pedestrian

found one tweet that argues, “The climate scam is so obvious — it is impossible for man’s miniscule carbon emissions of 0.04 per cent to cause climate change.”

This argument is incorrect: 0.04 per cent represents the composition of carbon dioxide in the troposphere, a level of our atmosphere, relative to other gases that make up the troposphere, namely oxygen, nitrogen, and water vapour. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the mid-troposphere — the part of the atmosphere that is eight to 12 kilometres above ground — is measured in parts per million (ppm), and changes in this amount show evidence of human activity increasing carbon dioxide concentration. Before the Industrial Revolution, the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration was 228 ppm, whereas it reached 422 ppm according developments — which include traffic calming measures such as patterned crosswalks — aren’t just pretty paint jobs, but traffic directors that promise safety for anyone outside of a vehicle too.

Picture this: you approach a crosswalk, and the traffic lights work in your favour and prioritize your right of way. Many companies are — dare I say — revolutionizing this future of smart crosswalks.

High-tech sensors that detect pedestrians and vehicles on sidewalks and roads, for example — according to a company called Omniflow that develops them — collect “real-time data [which is] then sent to traffic management systems, where it is analyzed and used to make informed decisions.”

Why is this a game-changer, you ask? It’s all about reducing wait times. No more impatient toe-tapping at crosswalks because these smart systems aim to ensure pedestrian traffic flows seamlessly. What do I think the result of this would be? Less jaywalking fueled by frustration and a healthier relationship between all transit modes.

These solutions are by no means exhaustive, but I believe they are the most accessible and easyto-implement ones relative to other proposals that

to NASA’s last measurement in December 2023 — nearly doubling in amount.

While a one-degree Celsius temperature increase and the doubling of carbon dioxide concentration over almost two centuries may not seem significant, these changes reflect a shift in the delicate balance that makes our planet habitable.

You can see the signs According to Matthew Barlow, a professor in the Department of Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Science at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, “No single weather event can prove or disprove global warming.”

However, climate change is having long-term impacts on many communities. For instance, the Rideau Canal Skateway in Ottawa was not able to open for nearly two years due to warm temperatures preventing it from freezing over. It finally opened this year on January 21, only for it to close again on January 24 until further notice, due to rain and forecasted warmer temperatures.

Ice fishing communities in southern Ontario are also facing difficulties due to warmer winters, with local businesses, from fishing lure manufacturers to restaurants, getting only a fraction of the business they normally would. Robert McLeman, a professor of environmental studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, told CBC News that this is due to climate change, as winters are generally becoming shorter and milder.

As misinformation about the climate crisis becomes more widespread, I believe it is important that we increase efforts to educate people on the causes and effects of climate change. By addressing arguments and misconceptions, we can work toward a future in which people make informed decisions about how to address the climate crisis and the impact of their actions.

Urooba Shaikh is a third-year student at UTSC studying molecular biology, immunology, and disease, public law, and psychology. She is the Climate Crisis columnist for The Varsity’s Comment section. often impede drivers’ spaces, like re-designed intersections with, for example, sharper curbs.

Using empiricism to solve jaywalking I see jaywalking itself as a call to action. Thus, I call for a technologically grounded approach by using intelligent systems that empirically adapt to the ebbs and flows of city life and collect real-time data to track when and where the most pressing unmet needs across the city are. Pedestrian blaming also stands as an obstacle to change, as many pedestrians are part of vulnerable populations who cannot drive, such as children and seniors. Once we learn to protect those who make Toronto the city it is, only then can we move forward.

Toronto stands at the edge of redefining its ethos into one where walking is not merely encouraged but scientifically optimized for the well-being of its residents.

Emily Carlucci is a third-year student at Trinity College studying political science and English.

She is the Traffic Tango columnist for The Varsity’s Comment section.

ALYSSA VILLAR/THEVARSITY

Don’t blame the jaywalker; blame the little-to-no infrastructural pedestrian support.

BRENNAN KARUNARATNE/THEVARSITY

10

THE VARSITY

FEATURES The UTRC meet on the steps of University College (UC) before every run.

Running for (your) life: Finding challenge, compassion, and community On the intellectual and emotional health benefits of long-distance running Franchesca Fu Varsity Contributor

It’s one foot after another, and the Toronto suburbs pass by me. There’s the brick house, the ultramodern house, and the worn-down house.

I’m running, and I feel like I’m accelerating. With each step, I make sure to avoid the cracks in the pavement, and my foot only hits the ground briefly, never lingering. My hands are cold, but I feel warm. I’m paying attention to the pigeons, the thrift store about to close, and the plastic cup crushed on the sidewalk.

After I built up a baseline level of fitness, the groove of each training run has always been more or less the same. In the first few minutes, my body adjusts to this new, unfamiliar state of extra work and motion. After the first two kilometres or so, my body settles in. I hit a comfortable pace that’s sort of challenging, and I take it step by step.

I started running in June 2023 for typical reasons: it was a way to keep healthy, to feel the positive effects of endorphins, and to socialize with people. As I continued running, I progressed to 10- to 20-minute runs, and I realized that I was also running for the sense of freedom that came with covering more distance on foot, to see new neighbourhoods, and to feel the breeze on my face. Running, for me, is one avenue to set and reach self-directed goals, to regularly demonstrate self-compassion, and to root myself in my community.

What running entails Thomas Hurka, a U of T professor emeritus of philosophy, explains that running is primarily a physical and psychological challenge rather than a mental or intellectual one. Running mostly depends upon whether one’s body can meet the physical demands of reaching a certain speed, efficiency, or distance. To do so, especially during long-distance runs, Hurka explains that there’s a “serious pain barrier that you have to get through” to finish.

Generally, all sports and games balance a couple of different goals: there are mostly physical sports like running, while others lie on the opposite end of the spectrum, like chess

or bridge, which are “purely intellectual with a very little physical component.” Many sports combine intellectual and physical components­.

For example, top hockey players need to be physically able to skate at a certain speed, while also being able to anticipate plays and make strategic decisions.

Even though running is primarily physical and psychological, different forms of running can be more or less intellectually engaging, involving a combination of strategy and physical coordination. Trail running involves running on outdoor paths in nature, where runners must pay attention and adjust their stride to the uneven terrain as they adjust their pace accordingly.

For ultramarathons, which are longer than the traditional 26-mile marathon, runners must strategize how to effectively conserve their energy, such as by walking for some sections or varying their pace to account for unexpected conditions.

ground… [try] to stand on top of a mountain… [try] to cross a line on a track before anybody else does.” However, Suits points out that rules prevent athletes from reaching those objectives in certain ways. In Hurka’s words: “In golf, you can’t pick the ball up, walk down the fairway, and drop it in the hole by hand… In mountain climbing, you can’t take a helicopter to the top of the mountain. And in a race, you can’t say, ‘I’m going to start five minutes before anybody else.’”

It’s not that we care about the ball being in the hole or at the end point of a race for its own sake. Those outcomes matter little outside of the sport. Learning how to overcome challenges as they arise, even more so than winning every race we enter or game we play, is invaluable and intrinsic to the athletic experience.

One athlete who demonstrates this ethos is Claire Heslop, an ultramarathoner, emergency medicine physician, and a U of T assistant professor of medicine. She has entered races worldwide, from the Canary Islands to Québec to Thailand, often covering distances exceeding 100 miles.

During medical school, she began running for health purposes and convenience, as it fit with her schedule to squeeze in exercise by running back home from a shift. Although she is now a seasoned runner, initially, she also had to overcome a steep learning curve to build up her endurance — she initially considered a fivekilometre run to be long.

To Heslop, sharing the experience of longdistance running can be a transformative experience. She captures the value of facing challenges to me: “Long-distance events are a way to move the needle magically on how much you imagine you’re capable of,” she said. “And I think that brings a lot to people’s lives… [to] cross the finish line of their longest race or pull

Learning how to overcome challenges as they arise, even more so than winning every race we enter or game we play, is invaluable and intrinsic to the athletic experience.

Sports challenges: From hurdles to goals Beyond the health benefits or positive feelings that can come from playing sports, part of the value of sports is the challenge it provides. Hurka references a book called “The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia” by Bernard Suits. The book argues that in sports and games played without any stakes, the end goal or outcome is “entirely trivial,” and the game’s interest is entirely in the challenge itself because without demanding strategy and intellect, competitive goals are “totally pointless.” Sports revolve around navigating set limitations that make one less efficient in reaching those goals. Regardless of its relative simplicity compared to other sports, long-distance running is no exception.

The goal of some sports, Hurka narrates, is to “[try] to make the ball go into a hole in the

themselves out of a bad race… or push through difficulty.”

Self-compassion and confidence For Heslop, an important part of running is taking care of yourself and your body — accepting your realities while giving yourself the mental and physical tools to tackle obstacles. At first glance, long-distance running seems like an intense sacrifice to meet a potentially outrageous distance goal. When you train to run long distances, you risk losing muscle mass through muscle catabolism, because you often push your body to its absolute limits. As runners, do we actually emerge from each training session stronger and more capable than we were before? Does the pain we endure while we train have a net positive effect on our bodies and minds?

Ultimately, running fulfills Heslop emotionally and helps her feel stronger. She balances running with her other priorities, such as work and family. She acknowledges that everyone only has “one stress bucket” that can overflow. During particularly demanding weeks with multiple night shifts, she has to “dial [her training] down a little bit... and pay more attention to sleep.”

Regularly running can encourage positive selftalk, which gets reinforced during each run. To push past discomfort during long runs or a lack of motivation, Heslop reframes the situation by telling herself, “I’m fine” or by repeating small, affirming phrases, such as “You get to do this.”

Moreover, numerous studies on the subject have shown that talking to yourself in the second or third person can make you feel calmer, more confident, and better able to perform tasks.

The self-compassion that runners practice also helps them distinguish what is within and beyond their control. Heslop explains that, during ultramarathons, her final time depends on many factors her training cannot prepare her for — the weather conditions, other competitors, and her level of fatigue can all change between races. Particularly, as running distances increase, there is more room for uncertainty.

During a race in February 2023, in a crowded section at night, Heslop tripped over another runner’s poles and skinned both her knees, yet pushed onward. As the night progressed,

features@thevarsity.ca she regrouped mentally by setting a more conservative time goal. To continue racing, she would have to be more cautious to avoid another fall, and she had to let go of her time goal.

Life can come at you fast, and race expectations can change instantly. Heslop mentioned the story of another Canadian ultramarathoner she’d raced with, who was hit by a deer that had been startled by the sheer amount of runners within the first five kilometres of a race.

Heslop embraces the fact that external factors can impact her performance on race day and uses that to focus on goals unrelated to her final time. “I have more capacity for joy in the race because I’m not about to jump on myself for doing something wrong. I’m not looking to criticize or be worried,” said Heslop.

That level-headedness and sense of practicality carry over into Heslop’s work as an emergency room doctor. There could be 30 patients waiting, and there could be 50 more patients even after working as hard as possible for hours at a time. And the number of patients needing urgent care is entirely out of Heslop’s control and through no fault of her own. So, it does not help to push herself beyond a sustainable pace and she avoids blaming herself for circumstances that are beyond her control.

“The more difficulty life throws at you, [the more things will] be going outside your control…

So, having a lot of compassion for ourselves really lifts the stress reaction,” said To run long distances, you also need gusto.

You need to let self-belief fuel action. Heslop describes self-belief as believing that one can surpass what they believe they are capable of and “finding out how to do that.” With appropriate training, she says, we can “find out what happens” and demonstrate one’s potential. After all, self-belief is free — and, she points out “if you’re wrong, it’s not the end of the world.”

Community connections: The U of T Running Club Each person’s running journey is personal —

your mile time is yours alone, and you cross the finish line without anyone else’s help. But that does not mean that running is a solo sport. Here at the university, the U of T Run Club organizes two weekly five-kilometre runs on Monday and Wednesday that start at the front steps of University College.

Outside of their weekly runs, they also host 10-kilometre weekend runs and fun-themed runs. Past events have included coffee, trash cleanup runs, and fundraising — for example, a fundraiser for The Hospital for Sick Children.

Participants donned special bibs and received a sticker for each lap completed around Queen’s Park. Around 40 participants ran over 600 laps that day, indicating the community’s interest and active engagement in these positive activities.

Emily Nguyen, copresident of the U of T run club and medical student, recalls an instance with the run club that helped her run consistently. During her first run with the U of T Run Club, another participant intentionally stayed back to walk with her when she struggled to complete the run. Had the other runner not demonstrated such kindness, Nguyen might have felt too “nervous or embarrassed to even come back,” she said, because of how she had lagged behind. Receiving assurance from another runner helped her feel more confident in her efforts and encouraged her to come back.

That nonjudgmental and welcoming attitude is one of the core tenets of the run club. The club’s motto is “no one left behind,” and the club leaders uphold this with each run. Given that their events sometimes have over 100 participants, they are conscious that many members are beginners and may need more support to complete runs.

By hosting runs consistently and creating an inclusive space, the club fosters many friendships and sparks connections, especially among first-year students. Ashim Bhattacharya, co-president of the U of T Run Club and pharmacology masters student, explained that “running is probably — I would say — the best way to meet people… there’s no other activity where you can so freely talk and [have a conversation with another person] while simultaneously participating in the activity.”

As a leader, Bhattacharya highlights that sparking connections and building relationships have been some of the most meaningful aspects of organizing the run club. Nguyen sums up her experience of the run club in two words: community and challenge.

Not only does running with a social club forge valuable introductions and bonds, but it also provides emotional support as people strive toward a common goal. Having led hundreds of runs in the past few years, Nguyen said, “We’ve had some people join Run Club to lose weight, and to see them, you know, achieve that goal [is rewarding]. We’ve had some people join Run Club to become fitter. You know, they can barely run [five-kilometres] the first time, and now they’re running half marathons.”

People build a sense of camaraderie through the joys and challenges of running regularly with people with similar ambitions.

Running with other people who show up for similar purposes can help people feel more rooted in their community. Runners see familiar faces and spark meaningful conversations with each other. Through that simple process, runners gradually feel more integrated into a community or place and learn to feel that

Running makes me wonder if there is something more to life, a purpose to my life, and if I will touch it.

their presence matters to those around them, regardless of how well they know them.

Keeping on Heslop’s words still ring true: we can only control what we can physically control, and despite our efforts, the outcomes of our goals often depend on factors beyond ourselves. It’s a bit of a truism, but hearing it from an elite runner reframes for me what it means to set an ambit ious goal and show resilience. That perspective has worked for her. Maybe we, too, can learn to embrace that belief and redirect our energy to take pride in our small accomplishments in pursuit of big goals.

More importantly, I can put that sentiment into practice every time I lace my shoes to run.

I can see how running can give me a sense of agency and shape my perspective. When I am having a bad day, feeling worried, sad, lonely, or whatever else in between, if there’s one thing I can do, it’s run. When I run in the cold and rain, I feel as if I can defy the weather by resisting the common temptation to stay inside at home.

When I’m on a long run outside, my breathing becomes laboured, yet I am focused enough to reflect on my day and take in the scenery around me. I see the patterns in the sky. The clouds look wispy and soft, and I see patches of blue in the distance. Running makes me wonder if there is something more to life, a purpose to my life, and if I will touch it. In the larger scheme of things, I feel small and insignificant. But those are questions I will never receive definitive answers to. As I run harder, those questions fade away. I am relieved. Every run simplifies the noise in life a little bit.

Maybe I would even keep running if there were no physiological benefits, if there was no scenic view, or if there was no upcoming race.

Maybe I would keep running just to take step after step, step after step. Maybe I would run for the sake of running alone.

Sometimes the destinations of UTRC runs are at coffee shops.

The UTRC holds runs even during the frigid winter.

No matter the terrain, the UTRC follows the tenet “no one left behind”.

Ashim Bhattacharya and Emily Nguyen, co-presidents of the UTRC. Photos courtesy of Emily Nguyen.

A large crowd of runners gather at the steps of UC for a run.

Science

January 29, 2024 thevarsity.ca/category/science science@thevarsity.ca

How sugar molecules from breast milk protect the lining of the gut U of T scientists study how breast milk protects premature infants from an intestinal disease Parmin Sedigh Science Columnist

There are a million different things that can go devastatingly wrong in the human body. One of these is the tearing of the intestine, which can sadly occur in infants afflicted with the disease necrotizing enterocolitis. The pathology of this disease is inflammation, which leads to bacterial invasion, which might eventually result in tissue damage. The disease is particularly common in premature infants.

In 1996, Silvia Rudloff and colleagues at the Research Institute of Child Nutrition in Germany first showed that a type of sugar molecule — called human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) — found in human breast milk appears in the excretions of preterm breast-fed infants but not in formula-fed infants. Further, there’s evidence from a 2012 study to show that HMOs protect neonatal rats against necrotizing enterocolitis.

Building on this research, scientists at U of T recently asked the question: could HMOs be positively impacting babies’ intestines because of the way they affect microorganisms living in the gut? Interestingly, they found that HMOs themselves, independently of these microorganisms, promote intestinal regeneration during necrotizing enterocolitis.

About the intestine The cells of our intestinal lining are constantly being replaced, with a turnover of only two to five days. Zooming into the lining reveals a fas-

cinating cascade of events that make it possible for us to eat, digest our food, and, ultimately, survive.

Tiny structures called villi stick up from the lining, creating a forest of small protrusions that increase the surface area over which digestion, absorption, and secretion of enzymes can occur. There are also small pockets inside the lining called crypts, in which intestinal stem cells — the source of all the cells that line our guts — lie, awaiting activation.

Like children who don’t yet know what career path they’ll choose, these stem cells are unspecialized. But as they move out of the pocket-like crypts and onto the lining and villi, they specialize into more specific cell types. In normal conditions, these stem cells maintain and regenerate our intestinal lining and ensure that the lining remains healthy.

HMOs promote intestinal regeneration Returning to the sugar molecules: in 2020, researchers at U of T, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Canada, Children’s Hospital of Fudan University in China, and Linköping University in Sweden, using mouse models with necrotizing enterocolitis, found that HMOs promote the specialization of stem cells in intestinal crypts, likely strengthening the gut’s lining through regeneration. But the researchers weren’t done.

A hot topic in the world of medicine is the study of gut microbiota. When people say we aren’t alone in this world, they often refer to

Human milk oligosaccharides protect against the disease necrotizing enterocolitis.

COURTESY OF JHUMA1971 CC WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

aliens — but it applies to our bodies, too. Our intestines are full of friendly creatures, such as bacteria and other microorganisms, that are critical to our health. Scientists now think several diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, are linked to abnormal changes in the microbiota.

With this in mind, in a 2024 study published in Pediatric Surgery International, researchers at U of T, SickKids, and McMaster University looked at whether HMOs’ beneficial impact on the intestines of mice with necrotizing enterocolitis is mediated because of the way HMOs change gut microbiota.

To study this, the researchers reduced the amount of intestinal microbiota of pregnant mice using broad-spectrum antibiotics, thereby also affecting the microbiota of their offspring. The

mouse pups with disturbed microbiota recovered just as well from the disease as mice with microbiota that had not been changed. All of the offspring in the group who had the disease, who had reduced microbiota, and to whom scientists had administered HMOs had no injuries related to necrotizing enterocolitis. All of this suggests that, unlike what the scientists hypothesized, HMOs don’t act by altering microbiota.

So, the hunt continues. Much remains unknown about these fascinating sugar molecules.

But scientists are inching closer and closer to a full picture of the role of HMOs in regenerating intestinal lining. Previous research has already prompted companies to include HMOs in formula milk; perhaps future research will once again change baby formula and take us a step closer to eliminating this devastating disease.

What if there were more than three dimensions?

What string theory says about existence in other dimensions Ridhi Balani Science Correspondent

dimensions and one dimension of time. This theory is called “string theory.”

You’ve probably wondered at some point what life would be like in different dimensions. I certainly have.

Living in the first dimension would consist of us existing as points on a line. This dimension can be visualized as an infinite line, or equated to the x-axis on a graph. We would have no concept of size, and any object would always appear as a point with no depth or breadth.

If we add another axis to this dimension, namely the y-axis, that would establish ‘flat land’ or two-dimensional (2D) space. Here, we could exist as shapes and perceive other shapes around us. Notably, as flatlanders, we would view other objects from the side as lines with no depth existing on the same flat plane.

In actuality, we exist in the third dimension (3D).

As 3D creatures, we can view the 2D plane from the top and see what a rectangle and other 2D objects fully look like. However, despite living in a 3D world, our eyes process visual information in 2D, which our brain supports with depth cues so that we can still perceive the three-dimensional things around us.

In this pattern, we could keep going to a higher dimension, where a creature in each dimension would process the world in a dimension lower than the one in which it exists and then use depth cues to perceive its own dimension.

In practice — sadly — physicists haven’t really found much evidence of spatial dimensions beyond the usual three, plus a fourth dimension of time. However, one prevalent theory that has gotten the closest to being a viable candidate for the Theory of Everything — a grand theory that aims to unify the fundamental forces of physics — which posits that the universe has nine spatial

String theory String theory arose as an attempt to unify quantum mechanics and general relativity. The former studies and describes the movement and interactions of subatomic particles while the latter is Albert Einstein’s theory of how gravity affects space-time, the fabric of the universe that distorts under the movement of massive objects.

Together, these theories describe the four fundamental forces that govern interactions in the universe: the strong force, the weak force, the electromagnetic force, and gravity. The first three are described by quantum mechanics, and the last one is described by general relativity.

However, applying Einstein’s idea of general relativity to quantum systems just yields nonsensical mathematical solutions. Since larger objects are made up of subatomic particles, using completely disconnected systems to describe the behaviour of subatomic particles and the behaviour of larger objects seems illogical.

A Theory of Everything aims to bridge this gap.

In 1984, two physicists, John Schwarz and Michael Green, suggested the beginnings of string theory, which would ease the mathematical antagonism between general relativity and quantum mechanics.

Traditionally, physicists have seen nature’s fundamental particles as the neutrons, protons, and electrons which make up atoms, which in turn make up everything. Neutrons and protons can be broken down even further into quarks.

String theory further breaks down these fundamental particles and posits that all particles are made of minuscule strings of energy vibrating at different frequencies. The theory unifies the fundamental forces by having all particles be

made of the same underlying basic component of strings.

The three fundamental forces governed by quantum mechanics can be quantized to discrete particles: the strong nuclear force is carried and transferred by the gluon, the weak nuclear force by W and Z bosons, and the electromagnetic force by the photon.

However, a hypothetical particle that transmits gravity called the graviton is incompatible under a quantum mechanics framework like the other forces are.

Interestingly, under the paradigm of string theory, a graviton is associated with a string frequency. Similarly, there is an associated string frequency for gluons, W and Z bosons, and photons, uniting gravity with quantum mechanics by describing them under the same framework.

Dimensions in string theory The math for string theory that unifies these particles does not work in our current four-dimensional model. In fact, it only works in 10 dimensions, one of which is time. The actual view we would have of each dimension is also different from the previous progression we explored from 1D to 3D worlds.

String theory postulates two basic types of dimensions: those that are very large and expanded and those that are really small and wound up. Large dimensions are those that we can experience.

Brian Greene, a physicist specializing in the study of string theory, compares a large dimension to a wide carpet and a small dimension to the wound-up circular loops that make up the carpet that you have to bend down to see. In other words, we may have three dimensions we can experience and easily navigate and six other spatial dimensions that might be so tightly wound up that we simply can’t perceive them.

Unfortunately, there has been no substantial experimental support for string theory thus far.

That doesn’t mean that string theory has no basis, though. It results from decades of analysis and intense study and is the closest physicists have ever come to the Theory of Everything.

String theory has truly been significant in expanding our understanding of reality.

And who knows? Maybe someday, we will have evidence for string theory and multiple dimensions. Until then, it’s certainly fun imagining them.

String theory works only in a 10-dimensional model.

MEDHA SURAJPAL/THEVARSITY

thevarsity.ca/category/science

JANUARY 29, 2024

Exploring mycelium through the fungal universe of Finch Jeff VanderMeer’s science fiction noir bends the limits of multispecies imagination Malaika Mitra Science Correspondent

In late July, it was time to pick chanterelles — wild, edible mushrooms that I had only heard about in passing. I wandered into the forest and found the first chanterelle, its orange cap wrinkled at the edges like a ruffled skirt, then saw more arranged in what looked like a ring.

As I stepped back, farther and farther, I saw that the “ring” was more like multiple formations, with fruiting bodies peppered between them. I realized that I didn’t know how many beings I was standing on top of — many, or just one?

Jeff VanderMeer’s Finch explores the dystopian city Ambergris, slowly decaying under the occupying force of grey caps — mushroomlike people who have harnessed their ability to control spores and weaponize fungi against humans. Like in many of VanderMeer’s other novels, the apocalypse has already happened, and people must continue to do what they have always done — live their lives.

We follow John Finch, a detective solving a mystery who realizes too late that he’s also embroiled himself in the city’s politics. Finch’s narration is often clipped, devoid of subjectivity, and disassociated from his world in a way that makes you feel like he has one foot out the door at all times. Finch was branded as a noir novel, which I’d never previously read any of, so I imagined a noir movie playing out in my head: gritty atmosphere, cigars and whiskey, and spores a splash of technicolour green and gold against the otherwise grim landscape.

In Ambergris, spores hang in the air ready to infect unsuspecting citizens, take over human bodies with purples and greens, and make their flesh spongy. “Partials” — humans who have allowed themselves to be turned into grey cap

hybrids — have one eye transformed into a constantly blinking camera. Between the vast underground network and microscopic spores

— the mycorrhizal network is what reveals the true capabilities of fungi. For instance, according to a 2007 article in the Scientific American, a specimen of Armillaria ostoyae found in Oregon in 1998 was possibly the largest living thing on Earth, thousands of years old and thousands of acres large.

Since reading this article, mushrooms have taken on a mythic fascination for me. What was the upper limit of their size? I understood that a lack of available resources would stop an evergrowing fungus in its tracks. But I couldn’t help imagining a continent overtaken by a fungus,

Jeff VanderMeer’s Finch tells the story of an apocalypse where fungi take over the world.

MALAIKA MITRA/THEVARSITY

waiting to communicate with their masters, the grey caps’ network seems inexhaustible.

In high school, I learned about the “mycorrhizal network” of a fungus — an underground mat of mycelium, branching threads or hyphae that attach to trees, delivering nutrients to the fungus. Although many of us know fungi only by their fruiting bodies — the fleshy, sometimes colourful, above-ground parts that release spores

finding its spongy mycorrhizal mat under all soil if we just dug far enough. I thought about “saprobes,” the decomposer fungi vital for all healthy soils.

This awe for mushrooms struck me again when I went mushroom hunting last July, breathless at the possibility of one vast organism from which we could borrow nutrients, giving them back when we died.

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In the non-fiction book The Mushroom at the End of the World, Anna Tsing asks what it means to cohabitate with other species in the face of mass environmental destruction.

She writes about the multispecies worlds that emerge when many organisms make “living arrangements” for themselves simultaneously — these are the worlds, like mycelia branching out, that I think we must be concerned about protecting.

She also discusses the roles of mushrooms, not only in the supply chain but also in culture and her imagination. She focuses one chapter entirely on spores, writing: “Spores take off toward unknown destinations, mate across types, and, at least occasionally, give rise to new organisms — a beginning for new kinds.”

In my imagination, spores stumble into each other, relying on the right gust of wind, numbers, and sheer luck to finally take root — or rather, mycorrhizal network. This bumbling somewhat resembles the rhythm of “Mycelium” by King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard.

With Tsing’s words about multispecies worlds still on the mind, Finch’s answer to her question about cohabitation is complicated. In Ambergris, not only do humans recognize that they’re in a multispecies world, but they’re also haunted by it. The humans’ oppression by the gray caps is contingent on the reach of spores, the overwhelming size of the gray caps’ mycorrhizal network, and a healthy dose of manufactured fear. On the other side, in our world, humans must reckon with the ecological destruction that they, themselves, have wrought.

At one point, the narration tells us that Finch “didn’t know if he was inside a mushroom or outside the universe.” Our encounters with multispecies worlds, whether thinking about a giant mushroom in Oregon or noticing which trees a certain fungus happens to grow on, remind us that they exist, and how wide-reaching their existance is. Even the tiniest spore is a memento of eons of drifting, settling, and drifting again.

Finally, I return to my question from last summer — were the chanterelles one organism or many? Regardless of the answer, in some sense, I find that their world was far more vast than mine.

Will we reach peak coal consumption in 2024?

A new report suggests so Why we should care about coal consumption across the world Philip Harker Science Correspondent

Coal, as climate scientists and activists are quick to point out, is the dirtiest of the fossil fuels. Coal power plants emit more emissions, measured in carbon dioxide equivalents per gigawatt-hour of power generated, than any other power source. A carbon dioxide equivalent is a measure that compares the emissions from different greenhouse gases based on their global warming potential by converting the amounts of other gas emissions to the amount of carbon dioxide with the equivalent global warming potential.

So, as the world vows to transition away from fossil fuels altogether, it’s a surprising — and perhaps a bit discouraging — fact that, as recently as 2022, about 25 per cent of the energy generated for primary purposes worldwide still came from coal. Primary purposes include electricity, transport, and heating.

Still, according to recent research, the idea of a worldwide coal phase-out isn’t just a nice sentiment; it might be an economic inevitability.

A new report published by British energy think tank Wood Mackenzie (WM) predicts that 2024 will mark the last time that global coal consumption will increase annually. In other words, “peak coal” might be happening right now.

These predictions are bold. They have wideranging implications for both the energy sector and the ongoing global climate crisis.

Coal as power Coal fuelled the initial fires of the Industrial Revolution. As innovations in the nineteenth century led to the rapid adoption of industry across much of the world, industrialized nations needed a source of energy that could fuel factories, steam trains, and early electric power grids.

Coal had key advantages over traditional biomass fuels, such as firewood and animal fats like whale oil. It’s certainly more efficient — more power can be generated per kilogram of coal than per kilogram of wood simply because coal has more chemically available carbon to combust.

The other obvious advantage of coal is sheer abundance. Even today, there are enormous coal deposits across Europe, North America, Asia, Africa, and elsewhere. These deposits were discovered centuries ago and still have huge amounts of coal. To early industrialists, the supply of coal across the world must have seemed limitless.

The cost of coal As with all new solutions, coal has its trade-offs.

Coal burning has always affected local air quality, but we now understand just how damaging it is on a global scale. Despite being a great solution for innovations early in the Industrial Revolution, coal is responsible for great levels of carbon dioxide emissions, is difficult to transport, and is environmentally devastating to extract.

Meanwhile, industrial applications for coal have declined in the last century or so. For purposes

ZAINAB-AFAQ/THEVARSITY

like transport and heating, we use petroleum and natural gas almost exclusively. Since 2014, there have been zero coal-fired power plants in Ontario; the vast majority of power in the province comes from nuclear, hydroelectric, and wind sources.

This progress, though astonishing in hindsight, was not inevitable. Climate action — such as the phase-out of an entire part of the energy sector — required the sustained attention of policymakers for years to overcome the forces of economics. So if phase-out of coal in highly-developed Ontario was such a challenge, why do experts believe that the rest of the world is soon to follow suit?

“Peak coal” and what it means WM’s research is rooted in a few key facts. Today, China and India represent the largest coal consumers, with China alone consuming just above 50 per cent of all coal burned annually on Earth.

The coal burned by China in 2022 totalled about 8.25 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions — more carbon than the total emissions of the US, Canada, Germany, UK, Brazil, and Saudi

Arabia combined. Thankfully, the analysis presented by WM shows that as China continues to develop, it is already beginning to invest in green power sources.

In its report, WM points out the inherent problems with coal discussed above and makes the case that the market forces of China’s economy, like demand, price, and availability, will push its energy sector away from coal. And if the largest consumer of coal declines in its consumption, they argue, so too will other countries across the world. Given all this, WM predicts that 2024 will see the peak of coal demand worldwide.

There’s good reason to be optimistic. However, we cannot afford to label coal emissions as purely a problem for China. Western nations are dependent on Chinese manufacturing of consumer goods. Furthermore, besides the rest of Canada’s heavy trade with China, Canada also exports $3.5 billion of coal to China each year.

Like all climate issues, coal emissions represent a global problem. And though we have proven progress is possible, it will require a global approach to bring coal consumption to an end.

Arts & Culture

January 29, 2024 thevarsity.ca/section/arts-and-culture arts@thevarsity.ca

Hart House hosts its first-ever Music Festival New U of T showcase highlights a diverse set of musicians and genres Daria Draskovic Varsity Contributor

On January 19–20, the Hart House Theatre held its first-ever U of T Festival of Music. The theatre, which has been in operation since 1919, has always been a place for aspiring young performers to showcase their craft. The student-run event stuck to this precedent, bringing together a diverse set of performances from an equally diverse student body.

Hart House Festivals have been a staple of the institution for a while, namely in disciplines such as drama and dance, allowing students to showcase their talents on stage. Lindsey Middleton, a marketing assistant at Hart House Theatre, wrote in an email to The Varsity that the festival organizers wanted to make sure music wasn’t excluded: “Adding music as part of the Performing Arts Student Festival Season is long overdue in light of those traditions!”

The planning for the festival took months of hard work from a team of both students and Hart House staff. Submissions opened in the fall for students, staff, and alumni looking to perform at the showcase. “It was not an audition; if you wanted to perform, a slot would be given to you, which is different from other performance opportunities on campus,” Middleton wrote. The festival attracted over 40 submissions, and the team created a two-night

event to allow for the entire diverse set of acts to be presented.

The unique audition style was a deliberate choice; the festival aimed to be as inclusive as possible, as well as being, according to Middleton, “an opportunity for any level of performer to take to the Hart House Theatre stage.” It also worked to introduce more students to the dynamic theatre community outside of formal programming, allowing performers to collaborate, network, and promote their own work.

The nights in question were quiet and cold, a far cry from the vibrant performances going on inside the Hart House Theatre. A buoyant opening jazz ensemble, melancholic guitar ballads, and hard rock bands — among others — created a musical variety that was surprising and refreshing.

The performers themselves also came from a wide variety of backgrounds and musical experiences. From singers taking the stage for the first time to groups that had released music and been featured on radio stations, the festival’s mantra of musical inclusivity was truly on display. Students from places like Turkey, Dubai, and Hong Kong showcased the wide range of international talent that U of T’s musical scene has to offer.

The event involved a large amount of original, unreleased music from up-and-coming

MILENA PAPPALARDO/THEVARSITY

student performers looking to showcase their own songs. Cards with song lyrics and performers’ social media information were handed out at the door, highlighting the festival’s commitment to helping young artists get their start.

Not only was this event an amazing opportunity for promotion, but the chance to perform on one of Toronto’s oldest stages was invaluable.

The coloured lights, vintage fixtures in the historic theatre, and whispering from the excited crowd contributed to an ambiance of art and discovery; an intimate, hazy setting of new beginnings, both for the festival and for many of the performers themselves.

The festival was a success, according to both Middleton and the enthusiastic audience. “The

Theatre plans to program it again in our student festival season, alongside the Drama Festival and Festival of Music next year and for subsequent years to come,” wrote Middleton. As the final notes of a soul song resonated through the walls of the theatre, it was clear that the festival had not only achieved its goal of providing a talent-filled look into what the theatre had to offer but had set a precedent for future cultural endeavours.

The inaugural Hart House Musical Festival provided a glimpse into the emerging landscape of artistic expression within the university. Unique for its lack of a strict selection process, the festival gave new artists a chance to promote their creations and showcase their talents.

A masquerade ball on campus Medieval Studies, Celtic Studies, and Book and Media Studies unions collaborated on the event Cypress Chernik Varsity Contributor

Right before the first wave of deadlines began to loom on the student body, the Medieval Studies Undergraduate Society (MSUS) and Celtic Studies Course Union (CSCU) held a whimsical and lively masquerade ball on January 19. Hosted at Father Madden Hall, the event attracted many enigmatic creatives and academics to a fashionable night of dancing, socializing, and feasting.

This year’s masquerade ball was a collaboration and promotion by the MSUS and the CSCU, in addition to the Book and Media Studies Student Association, bringing back a traditional event for its second year post-pandemic.

The ball is a return in more ways than one, reviving a unique social atmosphere lost to students in isolation and bringing seldom-observed cultural activities to our modern, busy lives. Over 100 people attended the ball, with formal outfits creating a diverse sea of colour and artistic expression.

Masquerade balls date back to Italy in the twelfth century as a carnival designed for guests

of different social classes to socialize, but remain anonymous. In the Italian Renaissance, masks continued to allow people to hide their identities at social gatherings. Most famously, the masquerade ball appears in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, where the lovers meet and fall in love at a masquerade ball without knowing each others’ identities. Hiding one’s face is intended to free people from judgement; a party of mystery and intrigue, separate from the exterior world of social custom.

U of T students rose to the occasion and did history justice. Some guests even took the time to create their own accessories. “I had a lot of fun putting together my outfit and, from what I’ve seen so far, I have a feeling there’s a good number of people who also had a lot of fun putting together theirs!” Alex Johnson, a student who had made his own mask, told me.

The vibrancy and cheer going around showed that, indeed, the ball had awoken many people’s creative side. From long flowing dresses and flower crowns to gothic suits and feathered Venetian masks, people put their best foot

Creative events are special because they encourage self expression.

COURTESY OF CYPRESS CHERNIK AND ADELA CUCU

forward and created an atmosphere that was both fancy and giddy with excitement.

Though there was plenty of fun to be had, a lot of work went into creating such a magical night. When I spoke with Natalie Boehmer, the president of the CSCU, we discussed the importance of creating a community around the programs; many people aren’t even aware of the existence of programs such as medieval studies, Celtic studies, and book and media Studies, but would potentially be interested in taking related courses.

“I hope that [the ball] continue[s] to be a fun way for students to meet, make connections, meet other students and get a sample for the programs,” said Boehmer. After all, what better way to promote an interesting major than with a whimsical ball?

Beohmer also discussed some of how the masquerade ball is meant to capture the cultural essence of Celtic studies. And it absolutely did: though chaotic and giggly, a large crowd came together on their feet in Father Madden Hall to dance the ‘Orcadian Strip the Willow,’ a Scottish country dance.

It was truly special to see so many people come together enthusiastically: “Yes, you’re participating in

Scottish culture and Scottish music, but also it’s just really fun dancing; it’s something that everyone can appreciate,” said Boehmer before the ball.

So, what does this type of event mean for the U of T community? Naturally, everyone could use a little more fun and relaxation, but arts and culture is about more than fun; cultural revival has a particular value. I was taken aback by how people seemed happy to join the dancing and socializing, without the usual reservations. Creative events are special because they encourage self-expression in a world that expects constant conformity; guests were encouraged to “wear whatever makes you happy” by the initial social media posts, and people did more than that.

Cultural revival is not always about the culture it revives, but perhaps the culture it creates. The highly successful masquerade ball made it clear that the student body is craving more art, dancing, and community. The ball can serve as an example for future cultural participation from students: we could all use a bit of inspiration.

The masquerade ball is an annual event, so if you missed it this year, be on the lookout next January!

The masquerade presented an opportunity for students to unleash their creativity.

COURTESY OF CYPRESS CHERNIK AND ADELA CUCU

thevarsity.ca/category/arts-culture

JANUARY 29, 2024

Fallen Leaves: Leaves: Finland’s touchingly simple recipe for love In Aki Kaurismäki’s films, silence says more than a thousand words Kaisa Kasekamp Design Editor

What springs to mind when you think about Finland? For those more acquainted with Finnish culture, saunas, cold winters, political neutrality, Angry Birds, heavy metal, or its status as the happiest country in the world may come to mind.

Considering these common notions of Finland and Finnish culture, what could Finnish film look like?

Aki Kaurismäki is the quintessential Finnish film director, screenwriter, and producer. He created a landscape of film not only for those seeking to understand Finnish culture on a deeper, more critical level but also for those who enjoy reflecting on human relationships and humanity. Despite telling simple stories about simple people, he has the ability to convey the most bittersweet realities of human life.

While Kaurismäki has stated he seeks to make good, ‘ordinary’ films rather than avant garde masterpieces, he has gained vast international

acclaim while doing so. His films are largely minimalist tragicomedies combined with deadpan humor, with his latest film Fallen Leaves (Kuolleet Lehdet) being one of the most humanistic romcoms in his collection. The film premiered in 2023 at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, marking the director’s 20th feature film in the last 40 years.

Fallen Leaves pictures the timeless and witty love story of Ansa (Alma Pöysti) — a name that means ‘trap’ in Finnish — and Holappa (Jussi Vatanen).

The two lonely souls meet by chance at night and, over multiple instances, lose and then find each other again. They do so not only mentally, through their struggles with unemployment and Holappa’s alcohol use disorder, but physically: Ansa gives Holappa her number on a piece of paper, but the paper slips out of Holappa’s jacket pocket without him noticing. Now not knowing each other’s names, their search for each other ensues.

Pöysti discussed the film’s significance at a press conference in Cannes, explaining that “the film is about lonely people with baggage, who

meet later in life. It takes courage to fall in love later in life.” Per Pöysti’s sentiment, I found myself intoxicated by the movie’s mellow Finnish tango, its portrayal of stingy bars, the sense of melancholia over the characters’ economic reality, and the broken hearts that the main characters aimed to heal.

Kaurismäki’s films derive their existential nature from subtle critiques of Finnish society that are also easily made universal. Anu Muhonen — an associate professor for U of T’s Finnish Studies Program in the Slavic Department — explained to me how Kaurismäki’s earlier films, such as the Finlandia Trilogy (1996–2006), include universal themes of loneliness, homelessness, and unemployment.

Muhonen added that Kaurismäki has realistically portrayed the refugee crisis in Europe in The Other Side of Hope (2017) and the issues of substance abuse, relationships, and the war in Ukraine in Fallen Leaves.

Pöysti has discussed the etymology of Ansa’s name as a marker of the character being trapped in her own life: Ansa works hard and cares for oth-

Fallen Leaves (Kuolleet Lehdet) (2023) features Alma Pöysti as Ansa, and Jussi Vatanen as Holappa.

COURTESY OF RIGA IFF 2023

In Translation: The language of grief My experience thinking in English but feeling in Korean Michelle Yoonseo Lee Varsity Contributor

My first language is Korean. I speak it at home, and I know how to read and write in it. But when watching the news in Korea with my relatives, about 40 per cent of it flies over my head, and I’m left looking at pictures and surreptitiously googling translations away from the curious eyes of my fully fluent cousins. I guiltily turn on subtitles when I watch shows or movies in Korean.

As a recovering Korean school dropout, I don’t speak Korean easily, but despite this, I always reach for it first when I want to express frustration, anger, and grief. I translate in front of my therapist, interpreting in real time for myself.

I find English to be such a flimsy and nebulous language, and communicating so-called ‘negative emotions’ in English feels almost comically flat and one-dimensional.

This is one of the unique vexations of the “third culture kid,” a term credited to American sociologist Ruth Useem, who defined this figure as a child who grows up in a culture different from the ones their parents grew up in. Telling my friends about grief and anger is tiring and rings hollow because of my constant translation. Talking to my family members in Korean doesn’t cut it either because my Korean lags and stumbles.

It does not help that the more I go back to Korea, the more graves I visit. As I grow older and many of my extended family members reach their 70s and 80s, I have become more fluent in the language of grieving. There are rules, layers of

etiquette, and a ceremonial aspect that I cannot help but honour. I have never grieved in English.

Thus, grief in Korean feels heftier, but there is still the strange frustration of knowing all the right words in Korean but being unable to translate them into English, my dominant language. I can’t reach the words I need to express my grief. It feels like I am stuck by myself, holding this big emotion that does not want to be held and cannot be articulated.

Even worse, I speak a terrible Frankenstein dialect of Korean that mixes my mother’s Seoul accent and North Korean figures of speech from her mother and grandmother with my father’s countryside twang. This odd mix is topped off with slightly rounded-out vowels characteristic of English speakers and lapses in a formal language that — if my actual accent hadn’t done it already — would make it glaringly obvious that I’m not ‘from here’. Rather, I’m just a ‘gyopo’: a pejorative

JESSICA LAM/THEVARSITY

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ers but keeps losing jobs and initially works on a precarious zero-hour contract.

Kaurismäki is also known for obscuring time in his films. He always crafts strange, timeless, and yet, stylistically retro-looking atmospheres.

Fallen Leaves includes the radio as one of its most sophisticated technologies, through which Kaurismäki makes an ode to modern days with an overt broadcast about the current war in Ukraine.

Muhonen added that the more recent Kaurismäki’s films are, the more accessible and easier his stories are for the public to understand.

When viewing Kaurismäki’s films in theatres, it is easy to notice their mundane and quiet nature. Fallen Leaves is filled with beautiful visuals of Helsinki, as well as the most run-down part of the city. Fallen Leaves is humorously described by Kaurismäki as “perhaps the most realistic film I’ve made… since the last one!”

In the theatre, Kaurismäki’s deadpan humour about Holappa’s friends’ obsession with age, or calling an asparagus and bacon dish a salad, elicited audible laughs from the audience. When Ansa’s friend says that men are swine, Ansa disagrees because swine are intelligent and sympathetic.

Muhonen described the dialogue in Kaurismäki’s films as something most of us are not used to, as the dialogue is “simple, laconic, direct, monotonic [yet] very deep and meaningful.”

Among eight wins and 40 nominations, the romcom has won Kaurismäki the ‘Jury Prize’ at the Cannes Film Festival, ‘Best Director’ at the Chicago International Film Festival, nominations for the Golden Globes awards for ‘Best NonEnglish Motion Picture’ and ‘Best Actor’ for Alma Pöysti, and was shortlisted for an Oscar this year.

Kaurismäki’s films helped me realize that sometimes life and the narratives we tell ourselves do not need to be overcomplicated by words. The Finns are notorious for their reserved and quiet social interactions, which are hilariously represented in his films. Being Finnish myself, I can still appreciate the resilience, honesty, and humane presentation of addiction in Kaurismäki’s films.

In my opinion, Fallen Leaves can be a perfect starting point for looking into Finnish culture, using Finnish films as a window. Although Kaurismaki’s films are always grim and gloomy, I cannot help but leave the theatre hopeful — may I even say cheerful? When asked at a panel at Cannes for the film about whether he has hope for humanity, Kaurismäki replied: “It is everything we have left, and there isn’t much left of that. So… adios amigos!” for diaspora Koreans that implies we’ve lost touch with our roots. It’s one of the many labels family members give me.

The result is a grey area: speaking in Korean about rage and grief is frustratingly slow, as my accent and limited vocabulary hinder me, yet translating into English feels lacking and weak. I don’t speak Korean well enough to see a therapist in Korean, but on the other hand, my vague circling in English of the true meaning I want to get at drives me a little bit insane. I can’t help but think, “This would be so much faster and so much more accurate in Korean!” I’m not just sad that my grandfather died — I’m angry that he was alone, and it’s unfair that my mother didn’t get to see her dad before he passed, and it feels hollow and twisted. In Korean, these feelings are not discrete: they happen all at once.

For example, how do you begin to describe the expression ‘eoieopda’ (어이없다) in English anyway? Maybe it’s when you’re off-kilter because the situation at hand is plain dumbfounding but with a tinge of unfairness and disbelief. You can use it when someone acts rude out of the blue or when your grandfather’s condition declines sharply overnight. What about ‘jeong’ (정)? I think it’s remembering people’s birthdays even if they mistreated you, or texting your friend a picture of something that reminds you of them. It’s attachment but more than that. You can have jeong for people, objects, places, and situations. In the case of grieving, jeong is love with nowhere to go.

Luckily, I know the secret to untangling my emotions that get lost in translation: I’ll grieve as much as I want, in as strange a cocktail of languages as I want, and then I’ll write about my experience over and over until I’m satisfied. But until I’m done, please don’t say anything if you see me turning on the subtitles for a Korean movie. It’s a work in progress.

16

THE VARSITY

arts@thevarsity.ca

ARTS & CULTURE

Ranking the top manosphere podcasts of 2023 On a scale of mildly macho to grossly misogynistic, how do they stack up?

The popularity of man-centric podcasts and overall discourse surrounding ‘masculinity’ has recently increased on the internet. The ‘Manosphere,’ an online community preoccupied with all things masculinity, has been a source of both controversy and fascination for its apparently sexist and regressive approach to manhood.

Masculinity coaching and financial advice, which circulate on the Manosphere, are often a medium for some men to spread a superficial hustle culture mentality and misogynistic ideas.

Whether it be through TikTok, Instagram reels, or word of mouth, these self-help gurus, finance bros, and entitled men rambling into the microphone have all entered our collective consciousness.

Here, I will be ranking five of my least favourite macho podcasts — and breaking down all the ways they spread misogynistic viewpoints. We all know they’re problematic, but I’ll be investigating: just how problematic are they?

4. The Whatever Podcast Sometimes a video title or a thumbnail is too tempting not to click. However, looks can be deceiving, and this is especially the case with the Whatever podcast hosted by Brian Atlas. While the podcast is still your typical sexist dating podcast meant to humiliate women and inspire anger, once you watch an episode, its problematic, dramatic moments are more sparse — and, frankly, boring.

Atlas titles his episodes with clickbait like “PSYCHO Feminist KICKED OUT?! RAGE QUIT? CRYING?”, but the actual moments he refers to are quite tame; in this case, he merely asked a guest to leave for saying “all men are pedophiles” and she calmly, immediately complied.

In each podcast, Altas typically invites a mix of conservative commentators and groups of young women, often with careers as online influencers, to share their views on dating. One episode involves a guest arguing that a wife should stay with her husband even if he is abusive, saying that they should “go to church and have a relationship with God” instead. Although Atlas markets his podcast as humiliating “feminists” and “dropping truth bombs” on the left, in reality, his podcast is rather uneventful, filled with mildly sexist guests. For this reason, Atlas and his podcast are more bark than bite and ultimately rank lower on this list.

5. The Art of Manliness Do you ever long for the good old days of rigid gender roles? The answer for Brett McKay, host of the podcast The Art of Manliness, seems to be yes. His podcast is dedicated to helping men rediscover their masculinity in the modern world but at the cost of overly romanticizing the past. The very core of masculinity for McKay is to provide, procreate, and protect, but I find his categorization of masculinity forces men into conforming to traditional gender roles.

While McKay does not take this to an extreme, I find his emphasis on procreation as a measure of masculinity diminishes the masculinity of 2SLGBTQ+ men, among others. That being said, McKay does not publicly espouse a vast majority of hyper-masculine rhetoric peddled by the other podcasts on this list, and most of his lifestyle tips are genuinely unproblematic and helpful. For this reason, he is the least harmful of the bunch — one might just call him old-fashioned.

3. Emergency Meeting It would not be a proper Manosphere ranking without the Tate brothers, but what have they been up to since their house arrest? Their newest podcast, Emergency Meeting, introduces a new component of fearmongering to the familiarly sexist and hyper-masculine teachings of the brothers we’ve come to know on TikTok. In their most recent episodes, Andrew Tate frames their arrest and indictment for human trafficking and rape as an attack by the “matrix” for his outspoken views, calling men who speak out against him “eunuchs and cucks,” and the human trafficking case “bullshit sexual assault garbage.”

Sunny Wan Varsity Contributor

Content warning: This article discusses sexual assault and misogyny, and contains misogynistic language and stereotypes.

Andrew Tate’s obsession with the “matrix” — the powerful elite that Tate believes is responsible for suppressing ‘independent thought’ — suggests that he feels victimized by his indictment; the cause of his arrest, as he claims on an episode of Emergency Meeting, is that society “hates men as a whole.”

The influence of both brothers in the Manosphere cannot be overstated. Their reliance on the “alpha male” archetype — a man who is in control and gets what he wants — as an ideal, alongside their outward display of wealth and cars, appeals to many young men. The brothers advocate for a world where men are in control and act as the sole providers and protectors, glorifying aggression and gendered hierarchy. Surprisingly, the Tates do not rank number one on this list — unfortunately, there are even more toxic and hateful influencers out there.

2. The Pregame Live Show The Pregame Live Show host, Hannah Pearl Davis — also known as @JustPearlyThings on YouTube — proves that women can also embody the same misogyny as some men. Davis perpetuates almost every harmful female stereotype and misconception on her podcast to reinforce the idea that women should return to their traditional gender roles.

According to Davis, women shouldn’t have the right to vote because of the effect it has on marriage; for her, women’s suffrage divides the family by making the parents vote separately. She

continues to argue that, besides giving birth, women also do not contribute enough to society to garner the right to vote, stating on her podcast, “If women all went home tomorrow, I think society would function fine.” These takes are laughably, obviously ridiculous — but Davis contributes to the Manosphere by reinforcing the idea that women and femininity are inferior to men and masculinity, painting women as useless compared to their masculine providers.

1. Fresh and Fit Taking the number one spot on the list — and the perfect embodiment of everything wrong with toxic masculinity — is the lifestyle, fitness, and dating podcast Fresh and Fit. Hosted by Walter “Fresh” Weekes and Myron “Fit” Gaines, the podcast truly encapsulates the sexist, hardcore “alpha male” energy that the other podcasts on this list merely touch upon. Their episodes usually consist of shallow and benign financial advice and generic fitness tips, but their sexist views appear primarily on their After Hours show, where they discuss matters of dating with guests. Instead of trying to generate meaningful discussion about feminism, Gaines and Weekes continuously slut shame and humiliate their guests, who tend to be models and sex workers.

The two men have insisted that “the reason why women earn less is because they deserve less” and claimed sex workers don’t deserve respect.

“Women are allergic to the word ‘accountability,’” railed Gaines on an episode about sex work and modesty. He has also said: “A woman that does not follow your direction is not worthy of being taken seriously.”

Gaines even recently published the painfully misogynistic book Why Women Deserve Less, whose whole premise is that women are generally disinterested in men and simply use them for money in this “post-marriage society.”

His account on X — formerly known as Twitter — is no different, with comments like “women control most of the useless jobs in society.” Gaines and Weekes’ misogyny dehumanizes women and blames them for their suffering, while their finance and lifestyle section provides them with ways to supposedly recapture their masculinity.

KATE CARACCI/THEVARSITY

Campus Theatre review: Ordinary Days In St. Michael’s College Troubadours’ production, the ordinary is the most extraordinary Eleanor Yuneun Park Comment Editor

Everyone’s got a big picture.

Or at least that’s what Deb (Lizzy White) tells us, convincingly, as one of the four young New Yorkers who served as the main characters in the St. Michael’s College Troubadours production of Ordinary Days. The musical, directed by Jenna Borden, was performed from January 18–20 at Palmerston Library Theatre, in a minimalistic set design of a few cardboard skyscraper buildings by set designer Chris Benny Paul. Despite the modest set design, the combination of Adam Gwon’s music and lyrics and the eight-person cast’s tight, effervescent performance on opening night made me entirely forget the bareness of the stage.

Deb’s persuasion that everyone has a big picture was the recurring message that Ordinary Days attempted to make resonate. The jovial musical is centred around the lives of Deb, Warren (Nicholas Spina), Jason (Jaxzen Sandell), and Claire (Jordan Davis), and we watch their ordinary days somehow interlock with each other to create a “big picture.”

The plot is nothing out of the ordinary; it could have ended up as a banal performance of trying to capture the struggles of any young person in a big city and packaging it as something extraordinary. However, the actors’ incredibly sensitive performance and the audience’s physical proximity to the stage created a surprisingly personal experience. The lack of barriers between the actors and powerful engagement with the

audience made it feel like the actors weren’t singing strictly about their life stories: they became our stories. Magically, my ordinary day also intertwined with theirs. The pianist Jo O’Leary-Ponzo’s impeccable coordination with the actors elevated this experience.

As the main source of comic relief, Lizzy White as Deb was comically irritable but endearingly authentic. While Warren was an incorrigible optimist who pranced through crabby New Yorkers, Spina effectively brought out Warren’s sincerity and vulnerability. Sandell’s Jason started the performance off on a weaker note than they ended on; parts of the lyrics of their first song “The Space Between” were, at times, difficult to comprehend over the piano and their tone came across as more careful in contrast to its bolder, comical lyrics. By the end of the musical, however, they had exhibited a stronger connection to their role.

Jordan Davis as Claire was notably captivating.

Her performances of “Let Things Go” and “I’ll Be Here” were pure bliss. While the rest of the performance of Ordinary Days drew the audience into the cast’s lives, Davis managed to push everyone out of her own world — a world in which she solitarily displayed extraordinary sensitivity in both loving and mourning.

There were times when the actors were way downstage in the otherwise perfect choreography: resulting in several audience members straining their necks to see what was happening. However, the musical was overall a feast to the eyes thanks to the absolutely hilarious performance and tight

choreography of the four-person ensemble.

Erika Dowd, Kaitlin Cranston, Grace Li, and Hemali Ratnaweera were the reason behind the minimal set design, as they perfectly managed to play the roles of every single background character (and object) throughout the show.

From the annoyed — and probably underpaid — barista at the café to the nicotine-addicted taxi driver to a sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to a literal giraffe, the ensemble breathed life into everything peripheral in the play and made the show all the more engaging.

Yes, New York City is becoming overrated.

Yes, the story of young people navigating their lives in NYC is not original. And, yes, the cast of Ordinary Days probably knows that. But on a cold, sludgy winter night in Canada’s version of NYC, maybe all that 20-something-yearold students need to see are actors of our age reassuring us that our crushing existential crises and idealized big pictures are universal and, thus, ordinary. And maybe that’s why our ordinary days are beautiful — and worth romanticizing.

In this performance, intimacy made all the difference.

COURTESY OF DUA SIDDIQUI

Sports

January 29, 2024 thevarsity.ca/category/sports sports@thevarsity.ca

Lukas MacNaughton’s journey from the Varsity Blues to Major League Soccer

The U of T alum shares his challenging and remarkable journey to Nashville SC Kunal Dadlani Sports Editor

Around a decade ago, you might’ve found Lukas MacNaughton studying for his ECO101 exam at Gerstein. As an architecture student, MacNaughton wasn’t required to take the course, but he thought it’d be chill.

He was wrong. “I understood everything, came to the first exam, [and it’s all] multiple choice,” he recalled with a laugh, in an interview with The Varsity. “They’re all the same answer, but just with different decimal points or different plusses [or] negatives… that was devastating.”

Yet in 2024, the stress of a multiple-choice economics exam is nowhere near the top of MacNaughton’s mind. Neither is architecture.

Instead, you can find MacNaughton gracing Tennessee’s Geodis Park, wearing the electric gold jersey donned by the players of Nashville SC. MacNaughton never imagined he would become a professional soccer player. His journey to Major League Soccer (MLS) was long, arduous, and surprising. “All of a sudden, it just happened.

So, honestly, whatever you think is possible, is possible,” he said.

Brussels to Toronto MacNaughton, born in New York but raised in Brussels, Belgium, discovered his passion for soccer while playing on his first team in the Belgian capital. When he moved to Toronto to study, he continued playing soccer.

MacNaughton still looks back fondly at his time at U of T. “[Varsity] Stadium is, to this day, one of the nicer stadiums I’ve been in,” he reminisced. “With the view of the CN Tower, it’s just so sick.”

MacNaughton played as a midfielder with the Varsity Blues from 2013–2017, captaining the team from 2015 onward. From 2014–2017, he was named an Ontario University Athletics (OUA) East first-team all-star, and in 2015 and 2017, he was named a second-team all-Canadian.

The team also reached great heights during his time there, earning three OUA bronze medals. “We were a really good team, but… we always came just a little short.” Despite that, those bronze medals taught him valuable lessons, he said, helping him “understand what [he] need[ed] to win.”

But being part of the team and that community — the laughs shared on those long bus trips — sticks the strongest for MacNaughton. “You have like a huge network of people that you can connect with… [and who are] very similar in the way that they are,” he said.

However, MacNaughton also admitted that playing with the Blues and in the OUA has been the

biggest challenge he’s had to overcome throughout his whole career. “It’s like being the underdog [because] you don’t come from a big school [or] a [division one] school,” he said. The OUA is getting better, he explained, but the respect it has outside of Canada is still lacking.

“If you know about [it] and you’re a Canadian and you’ve played there, you respect it,” he explained. “But if you haven’t, you don’t understand.”

Toronto to Victoria, and back MacNaughton didn’t plan to pursue soccer professionally after finishing his undergraduate degree.

From a young age, MacNaughton had an interest in architecture. “And then, you know, once [my] grandparents [found] that out, they would just send me architecture books for Christmas,” he joked.

“After that, I didn’t really have a choice. It was like, ‘What else do I do?’”

Therefore, he chose to study architecture at U of T. In 2018, he began his masters program in architecture, intending to possibly open up an architecture firm in the future. He also decided to try his hand at working at another architecture firm as well — a way to test whether architecture was genuinely something he could make a career out of. “It was unreal. I was learning so much, I was seeing so much, [and] it was going really well,” he described.

But then, in 2019, the Canadian Premier League (CPL) was founded, and MacNaughton got a call from a coach, offering him a place at Pacific FC in Victoria, British Columbia. “I thought about it really quickly [and] I said yes,” he explained. “[I thought], I’ll do it for a year and if it works out, it works out, [and] if it doesn’t work out, I could always come back to [architecture].”

So, MacNaughton packed up all his stuff, threw it in his car, and moved across Canada.

Now, playing on a professional soccer team, the environment was new. “It’s not like a school, where we were all boys, and we all went to the same classes, [and] we all liked to go to the same parties,” he described.

That difference was a surprise for him but one that became easier to adapt to, particularly as the team started winning. On an individual level, the first season was great, and he even attracted interest from teams in Austria and Switzerland — though the interest culminated in nothing.

Nevertheless, that brief saga convinced him to play more with Pacific FC. MacNaughton didn’t

give it up. “I [was] so close, so I [needed to] give it one more year,” he said. “And then [on my] third year with the team, we did so well.”

In 2021, Pacific FC won the CPL and impressively beat the Vancouver Whitecaps, an MLS team, in the Canadian Championship semi-finals.

Meanwhile, MacNaughton led the CPL in successful passes, while also finishing first for aerial duels, and fourth in the league for interceptions. Crucially, he was a key part of the defense that held eight clean sheets, including Pacific FC’s 1–0 victory against Forge FC in the 2021 CPL final.

His success at Pacific FC attracted the attention of Toronto FC, and in January 2022, he signed a two-year contract with the club. He became the first Varsity Blues athlete to sign a professional MLS contract, and three years after leaving Toronto, MacNaughton was back.

Toronto to Nashville Playing for TFC was surreal. “It was very cool,” he explained. “I had watched [TFC] for… like six [or] five years, and so I knew all about the players.”

It was surreal to sit down at the same table with Michael Bradley or Jonathan Osorio — players he had watched on TV and now could call his teammates.

MacNaughton’s time with Toronto was sweet, but it was also cut short. After only making 28 appearances for the team, TFC traded MacNaughton to Nashville SC, on April 25, 2023. “I was devastated,” MacNaughton described. “I [was] happy here, I liked the city, I liked the people… [and now] I gotta move.”

But the trade also brought new life into MacNaughton’s career. The new teammates were nice, everything was organized, and it helped that Nashville was performing much better than TFC. Furthermore, when US national team centreback and two-time MLS Defender of the Year Walker Zimmerman was away from Nashville on international duty, MacNaughton was provided the opportunity to step up and take his place. He was almost immediately thrust into the starting lineup against the Chicago Fire on May 6, and he would go on to start another 12 MLS

games for Nashville throughout the season, even playing alongside Zimmerman when he returned.

On May 18, just three games into MacNaughton’s career at Nashville, the team played against Inter Miami. In the 49th minute, Nashville left-back, Shaq Moore whipped in a cross from just outside the box, and MacNaughton rose to head the ball into the net. It was his first MLS goal and the goal that would win Nashville the game. “When you score a goal, it’s one of those feelings where it’s so good, like you feel on top of the world,” he explained. “But it doesn’t last.”

The goal isn’t the standout memory from his career so far. Nevertheless, Inter Miami was still at the centre of the most memorable moment of MacNaughton’s career. On August 19, 2023, Nashville SC played against Inter Miami in the final of the League Cup. Yet, Miami was a very different team than the one MacNaughton had scored against in May — they now had Lionel Messi leading them.

Named in the starting 11 next to Zimmerman, MacNaughton played all 120 minutes, manmarking Messi, as both teams vied for the trophy.

When the game went to a penalty shootout, MacNaughton stepped up as Nashville’s eighth penalty-taker, burying it down the middle.

Despite the heartbreaking final result of the game, reaching the final and playing in that environment is the memory that stands out most significantly for MacNaughton.

And beyond?

“Every single goal that I had [made], I had achieved it. But at the same, it’s like, ‘Okay, you achieved it, [so] what’s next?’” he said. “And you do something [else] and you’re not satisfied.”

His journey isn’t over yet — MacNaughton has a clear hunger to go further. The 2026 World Cup is set to be co-hosted by Canada, and MacNaughton hopes to play. He already made his Canadian national team debut against Bahrain in the lead-up to the 2022 World Cup. Additionally, winning the MLS Cup is a big goal for MacNaughton. “And then [also] staying healthy enough to be able to play to like 37 or something,” he added with a smile.

MacNaughton’s journey has taken him all over the North American soccer landscape. At U of T, it’s a journey we haven’t before seen an alumni achieve. Yet, he has proven capable of rising to meet any challenge he faces, to head the ball into the net and achieve his goal. We don’t know where MacNaughton’s journey will take him next, but right now, anything seems possible.

MacNaughton has now played in the OUA, the CPL, and MLS. COURTESY OF NICK BASTOKY CC NASHVILLE SC

18

THE VARSITY

sports@thevarsity.ca

SPORTS

Blues women's volleyball team sweep RMC Paladins 3-0 twice on back-to-back days Blues trio of setters and outside hitter Olivia Zhu lead Blues to victory Ola Kim Varsity Contributor

With only a handful of opponents to play before the end of the 2023–2024 Ontario University Athletics (OUA) season, the Varsity Blues women’s volleyball team took a smooth win on January 26 against the Royal Military College (RMC) Paladins at the Goldring Centre, beating them in all three sets and finishing the game 3–0. The next day, the team walked away from their second match with the Paladins having won 3–0 once more.

These wins mark the Blues’ eighth and ninth victories this season. With their games against the Paladins finished for the season, the Blues have maintained their 21-game win streak against the RMC team and now look ahead to the rest of the season and the playoffs, which begin on February 24.

“We’ve been playing really well,” shared Blues outside hitter Olivia Zhu in a postgame interview.

“It’s been a constant improvement, which is really nice to see.”

What happened: Game one, January 26 Zhu took two points right off the bat and began the first set 2–0 alongside first-year setter Anna Arellano. The Paladins brought the score up to 3–2 until the Blues found their rhythm, gaining two points for each Paladins point until the first set ended 25–12 in favour of the Blues.

The second set had Arellano substituted out for fourth-year setter Robin Melnick, where the Blues played to a 9–3 lead before the Paladins called a timeout. RMC called another timeout at 21–6, but Blues middle hitter Anna Gadomski swiftly finished the set 25–7 with a strong kill.

Finally, the third set had Blues setter Jenna Peters substituted in for Melnick, where the Blues once again took an early lead, playing the set to a 10–2 lead until RMC called yet another timeout. The set ended 25–8 by an attack error from Paladins middle hitter Elisa Markentin, awarding the final winning point to the Blues.

Notable moments include Zhu’s 12 total kills this game and the rotation of three setters — Arellano, Melnick, and Peters — in each of the game’s three sets, who finished with 14, eight, and seven respective assists.

“What’s really awesome is that all the setters have their own strengths,” said Melnick postgame, and when prompted about Arellano, she only had good things to say.

“She is fantastic,” gushed Melnick in a heartwarming show of camaraderie that goes far beyond her single year on the team. “She just has a way with the game that she takes ownership of the court in such a calm energy that she really leads by example.”

“Everybody really displayed their best [today],” said Melnick. “[It was] a great opportunity for all of us to get on the court.”

What happened: Game two, January 27 In a start similar to the game on the day before, the Blues began with a 2–0 advantage under Arellano’s steady hands. The Paladins took a timeout after a service ace by Zhu brought the score to 19–9 for the Blues. This didn’t deter Zhu, who stole another point via another ace directly afterward.

Arellano made an excellent feint at 23–11 to the Blues, with the first set ending at 25–11.

The second set involved a substitution, with Peters taking Arellano’s place. Peter helped the Blues open the set with seven swift consecutive points. Zhu made yet another service ace in the middle of the set, bringing the score to 12–3, and the set ended swiftly at 25–8.

Melnick came on for Peters in the final set, in which the Paladins put up a great fight; the third set was the Paladins’ best showing against the Blues since 2021. Zhu made her final service ace making the score 16–14, and also scored the final winning point to end the last set at 25–18 in favour of the Blues.

“We’ve been playing really well,” Zhu said.

“Especially since we’re a really young team, over half of us are first- and second-years.”

In fact, Zhu is currently the OUA’s top offensive player, with 243 total kills as of January 27. In this game, she led the team with 14 kills, 12 digs, and four service aces.

“It’s just been really fun,” she said earnestly.

“Everyone really stepped up and got their job done. Credit to the entire team.”

What’s next “This the second half of the season,” Melnick said about the Blues’ future games. “We’re really starting to show who we are. And we have a lot of opportunity to get some wins, and hopefully, come playoff times we’re really ready to compete at the highest of levels that we can.”

With their OUA record now at nine wins to seven losses, the Blues look ahead to their next away game against the Trent University Excalibur on February 2, one of two more universities they have to play before playoffs.

Zhu was quick to show her support for the team and the season going forward.

“I think we’re confident,” she said as a final note. “We always go in with the mentality that we focus on our side. We do our job, and whatever happens, happens.”

The Varsity Blues dominated their opponents at the Goldring Centre.

COURTESYOF ARU DAS CC VARSITY BLUES MEDIA

Previewing the Toronto 2024 NHL All-Star Weekend The Toronto Maple Leafs will be represented by Matthews, Marner, Nylander, and Rielly Jake Takeuchi Associate Sports Editor

Hosted in Toronto for the first time in 24 years, hockey’s superstars are set to assemble for the NHL’s annual All-Star Game on February 3.

As part of the recently rebranded NHL All-Star Weekend, Scotiabank Arena will host several events over three days, beginning on February 1.

Toronto and the Maple Leafs are hosting the game for the ninth time — the most from any city and franchise. The NHL All-Star Game has had a storied history in Toronto, with the first one in league history played at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1934. This game — at the time named the Ace Bailey Benefit Game — was played to raise money to support former Maple Leaf Ace Bailey, whose career was ended prematurely by an on-ice injury.

The first ever annualized All-Star Game was also held in Toronto in 1947, where the Maple Leafs played a team of NHL All-Stars.

The All-Star weekend The NHL has continued experimenting with the All-Star Event format over the years. This year, it has introduced a third event day, officially named All-Star Thursday. On February 1, AllStar Thursday will begin at 6:00 pm EST with the return of the All-Star Draft — brought back for the first time since 2015. In the draft, four captains selected by the NHL will draft their teams from the pool of all-star players.

The NHL Players Association will also present the NHL Alumni Man of the Year Award, and will

honour the 1967 Stanley Cup-winning Maple Leafs before capping the night off with a 3-on3 showcase by Professional Women’s Hockey League players.

and shooting accuracy. The top eight players will then move on to a shootout challenge, where two more players will be eliminated. The remaining six players will then participate in the final obstacle

KATE CARACCI/THEVARSITY

The NHL All-Star Skills event takes place the next day at 7:00 pm EST, with 12 nominated AllStars competing for a cash prize of one million dollars in a three-round, eight-event tournament.

Players will first compete in four of the six firstround events, which test their speed skating, shot speed, stick handling, one-timer, passing,

course round. Points will be allocated based on placements in the eight events, and the player with the most cumulative points will receive the prize money.

Last but not least, the All-Star Game closes out the “All-Star Weekend,” where the league will use the 3-on-3 format that has been in place

since 2016. Notably, the player draft will allow for cross-divisional team-ups, promising fast-paced excitement by the league’s best.

Currently, Toronto Maple Leafs Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and Morgan Rielly are among the 48 total participants on the All-Star list this year. Canadian Chicago Blackhawks rookie Connor Bedard was also selected as the youngest ever all-star at 18 years old, though he will miss the festivities due to a jaw fracture.

Voting controversy Despite frequent switches in types of All-Star Events, the league seems to have settled on a satisfactory process in terms of voting for the all-star spots. For the second year in a row, the NHL selected one player from every team, with an additional 12 all-star spots opened to fan voting.

Yet, fan voting results have garnered significant controversy among some fans. Notably, five players from the high-flying Vancouver Canucks were voted in, along with three extra Maple Leafs — Nylander, Rielly, and Marner. Along with the Edmonton Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl, eight of the 12 players voted in by fans were from Canadian teams. Some fans and teams have criticized this imbalanced selection, arguing the NHL disregards American markets, although it could also be symbolic of the lack of enthusiasm for hockey from the US in comparison to the other major sports.

Overall, it should be a fun hockey-filled weekend for Toronto hockey fans to get excited about.

thevarsity.ca/category/sports

JANUARY 29, 2024 19

What the future of MMA in Ontario could look like We’ve established the Combat Sports Advisory Council — now what?

Ahmad Khan Associate Sports Editor

chair of the advisory council, detailed their plans moving forward.

Professional mixed martial arts (MMA) became legal in Ontario in 2010, marking a monumental moment for combat sports fans. This allowed for the province’s first Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event, UFC 129, to be held in Toronto on April 30, 2011.

Since then, the UFC has returned to Ontario for nine events — seven in Toronto and two in Ottawa. Despite efforts to increase MMA’s popularity, existing legislative frameworks for combat sports in Ontario have been limited, restricting amateur MMA competitions and granting provincial sports organizations (PSO) a monopoly over amateur combat sports.

The Council’s goals Refining combat sports at all levels and developing MMA in Ontario from the ground up are a focus of the Council. It has begun with creating ways to develop amateur MMA, something “that’ll happen very very shortly,” Kuruc explained.

“Creating a culture for smaller regional shows to flourish” is essential for the growth of MMA, according to Kuruc. Creating a viable environment for smaller regional shows to operate means making licences more affordable for smaller events.

Lumsden added that the future of the development of MMA depends on whether young people get involved. Yet, Lumsden explained “young people will get involved when parents and family are comfortable that there’s safety in sport.”

The perception of safety, he said, is key.

The Council is also seeking out established figures within the MMA community to help support its goal of growing the sport.

The Combative Sports Act In 2019, the Ontario provincial government passed the Combative Sports Act (CSA) into law, overhauling the regulations relating to combat sports. The law sought to establish a new framework that would break the monopoly PSOs currently hold on hosting combat sports events, allowing anyone to apply for a permit to hold an amateur event.

Currently, the list of amateur combative sports that are legal as long as a PSO regulates them includes boxing, grappling, kickboxing, karate, pankration, taekwondo, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, kudo, muay thai, and wushu. Amateur MMA is currently illegal. Yet, that appears set to change.

In 2023, the CSA has yet to come into force.

However, the establishment of the Combat Sports Advisory Council is a step in the right direction. The Council will provide Ontario Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport Neil Lumsden with advice about creating updated regulations for combative sports. In a media scrum in the leadup to UFC 297, Lumsden and Ned Kuruc, the

Dana White that has come under scrutiny for safety concerns — would be permitted under these regulations, Kuruc told The Varsity, “I don’t see how [it] wouldn’t, [it’s] just not on our agenda exactly right at this moment.”

“You eat an apple one bite at a time,” Lumsden added. The Council’s focus remains on refining already established combat sports. Furthermore, Lumsden has the discretion of allowing combat sports contests that have deviations from the rules that the Council publishes and even allows for sports with unique rules.

“That’s something on our desk every day, we’re almost there with the rule sets and all that, you will see that in the future,” he added.

Fan reception around UFC 297 in Toronto this past week showcased the demand for MMA in Ontario. “We want [the UFC] to come back and feel free to come back to Ontario to host not just one, not just two, but more events,” Lumsden said.

The Council is looking to get the CSA formally into force by January 2025.

Next steps “First and foremost is amateur MMA,” Kuruc said when asked about the Council’s next steps.

One bite at a time The CSA details the defining characteristics of combat sports. However, its regulations paint a broad picture of what might be allowed in combat sports moving forward.

For example, it includes anything in which contestants “strike their opponents using their hands, fists, feet, or any other body part or any combination of them;” “use throwing, grappling, or submission techniques;” and “engage in any other prescribed technique.” These wide-ranging requirements could define a slew of sports as combat sports that are not considered as such currently.

When asked whether something like Powerslap — a slap-fighting promotion owned by UFC CEO

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The NFL’s streaming revolution: The rise of paywalled playoff games How the Chiefs vs. Dolphins game has redefined NFL viewership Aleksa Cosovic Varsity Contributor

In what was recorded as the fourth-coldest game in NFL history, the American Football Conference Wild Card showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins on January 13 unfolded as a relatively one-sided affair, as the defending Super Bowl champions, the Chiefs, cruised to a comfortable 26–7 victory over ‘The Phins’ on home soil.

Canadian NFL fans tuning in to witness Dolphins superstar wide receiver Tyreek Hill’s return to Arrowhead Stadium could catch the game on at least one of the five The Sports Network (TSN) channels. However, Americans outside Kansas City or Miami surfing through their cable TV package likely had more difficulty finding a broadcaster airing the Saturday night showdown. That’s because the Chiefs’ humbling of the Dolphins was being exclusively offered nationwide in the States on the NBCUniversal-owned streaming platform, Peacock –– marking the NFL’s first streamingonly playoff game.

According to Nielsen, an American firm that measures media audiences, the matchup generated 23 million viewers, making it the most-streamed live event in US history. The game was also responsible for the most internet usage ever in the US on a single date, consuming 30 per cent of internet traffic. These numbers were undoubtedly music to the ears of the Peacock executives, who had coughed up $110 million for exclusive rights to air Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs’ lopsided triumph.

According to Jay Busbee of Yahoo! Sports, the millions of viewers can mean only one thing: streaming-only games are here to stay.

The start of streaming-only playoff games The Chiefs-Dolphins game on Peacock echoes a new era of streaming that has ushered its way into the sports media landscape. In the future, fans looking to watch a single NFL postseason game will have to find it behind paywalls of different subscription-based platforms –– meaning that access to sports content may no longer be limited to traditional TV channels but will spread across various streaming services.

This may sound overwhelming to the average football enthusiast, who longs for the days when every NFL game was easily accessible through their local sports channels. However, the demand for gridiron football is currently at an all-time high, and with record-breaking viewership numbers in 2024, it’s almost certain that the North American public will not be abandoning the NFL anytime soon, even if it means subscribing to an entirely new service.

NFL ratings’ dominance The monster viewership ratings that the NFL generates are why streaming service executives can charge the public a one-time subscription fee and get away with it, and it’s not because they necessarily have to; it’s because they can.

A recent Sportico report found that the NFL made up 72 of the top 100 broadcasted events in 2020 and 82 in 2022. In 2023, the NFL comprised 93 of the top 100 broadcasted events.

The NFL dominates the “Big Four” North American sports leagues in the viewership category, and Christmas Day 2023 was a testament to this. The game between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers — the least-viewed December 25 NFL matchup

— attracted nearly twice as many live viewers (27.1 million) as all five NBA Christmas Day games combined (14.4 million).

Later, this year’s divisional round games averaged 40 million viewers –– the highest on record since 1988, and a whopping 126.7 million viewers tuned in throughout the weekend.

The Sunday prime-time nail-biter between the Buffalo Bills and Chiefs averaged 50.4 million viewers for CBS –– the most-watched divisional or wild-card game on record.

Furthermore, the Saturday prime-time contest between the 49ers and the Green Bay Packers is now the most-watched Saturday NFL playoff

game on record, with an average of 37.5 million viewers.

As Super Bowl LVIII looms, expect all eyes across the country to be glued to their television screens, eagerly awaiting to see who will lift the Lombardi Trophy on February 11 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Say what you want about Peacock’s moneygrabbing decisions, but they make sense: the NFL product is the hottest thing in sports right now. As the league continues to break its own viewership records every week, don’t be surprised next year when you find yourself forking over your credit card to watch 60 minutes of playoff football.

The NFL has begun streaming games on Peacock.

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