January 11, 2016

vol. cXXXvi, no. 12

T he UniversiTy

of

ToronTo’s sTUdenT newspaper since 1880

11 JanUary 2016

TORONTO

STUDENT POLITICS

Controversial CAMH gender identity clinic winds down

UTSU board impeaches Akshan Bansal at emergency meeting

Clinical & research leader at the clinic, Kenneth Zucker, fired

Third round of hiring to select new vice president campus life

EMILY COLERO

TAMSYN RIDDLE

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is winding down services at their Child Youth and Family (CYF) Gender Identity Clinic (GIC) for children and youth after an internal review reported that the clinic was practicing reparative therapy.

Reparative therapy, or conversion therapy, is an outdated practice that aims to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. It is illegal to perform conversion therapy on children in Ontario.

Dr. Kwame McKenzie, a medical director at CAMH and professor of psychiatry at U of T, said that the review was not intended to investigate whether or not conversion therapy was taking place.

“Our clinicians have always said, and still say that they do not practice reparative therapy. The review made it clear that it could not say that reparative therapy was taking place. But it could not say that it was not. Our position is that this should not be an issue,” he said, adding that he was satisfied with the way in which the investigation was conducted.

CAMH released a report on the review’s findings on December 15, 2015. The report made mention of several complaints submitted to Dr. Kenneth Zucker, the former functional clinical and research team leader at the CYF GIC. Marissa Hetherington, a former patient at the GIC, said that she was happy to hear the clinic was winding down. “As a former patient, it was...really not a positive experience, and my opinion of it has only degraded over time,” she said.

Hetherington said that she was repeatedly deadnamed — referred to by the name given to her at birth instead of her chosen name — and that the views and principles held

The University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) Board of Directors voted to impeach Akshan Bansal, its former vice president, campus life from both the Executive Committee and the board. UTSU president Ben Coleman moved to impeach Bansal at an emergency meeting on December 30. The motion to remove Bansal from the UTSU Executive Committee passed with 24 votes in favour, two against, one abstention, and one spoiled ballot.

Immediately following the impeachment, the UTSU Executive Committee released a statement encouraging students to hold them to account. “It is important that, as the leaders of the UTSU, executives uphold the mission and values of the organization. We therefore encourage our members to continue to hold their elected leaders to account,” read part of the statement.

Bansal was impeached after a public allegation of sexual assault came to the attention of the UTSU executives on December 14. In the hours following the circulation of the allegation, the UTSU released a statement calling for Bansal’s impeachment and condemning rape culture on campus. The statement was signed by five of the seven UTSU executives.

Uranranebi Agbeyegbe, president of the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU) and UTMSU designate on the UTSU’s Executive Committee, did not sign off on the original letter calling for Bansal’s impeachment.

Instead, the UTMSU published a statement on December 22 calling for an investigation into the allegation against Bansal.

Agbeyegbe declined to comment for this story.

VARSITY STAFF

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Protesting members of CUPE 3902 rally during a month long strike late las year. The strike lasted for a month while the university and CUPE bargaining team failed to negotiate an amicable conclusion. Both sides entered into a binding arbitration process that ultimately decided in the university’s favour. Now, the union of public employees has filed a labour complaint accusing the university of bargaining in bad faith. TOSIN MAIYEGUN/THE VARSITY

UNIVERSITY AFFAIRS

CUPE 3902 files labour complaint against U of T months after strike’s conclusion Union of public employees alleges university “bargained in bad faith” ALEC WILSON EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 3902 (CUPE 3902), which represents teaching assistants, sessional lecturers, and postdoctoral fellows at the University of Toronto, has filed an unfair labour practice complaint against the University of Toronto through the Ontario Labour Relations Board, effectively initiating a form of legal action against the university.

Representatives from CUPE 3902 released a public statement alleging that, during labour negotiations with the university last winter, the university administration were dealing in bad faith in that they did not accurately report data related to the contentious Graduate Student Bursary Fund.

The university and CUPE 3902 entered into binding arbitration last March` in order to reach consensus on two unresolved grievances, one of which was the Graduate Student Bursary Fund. CUPE 3902 is now accusing the university of obfuscation. The statement alleges that the data relating to per-student funding on which the union had based their negotiating position was “out-dated, inaccurate and misleading.” The release goes on to suggest that the numbers provided by the university included other sources of income that “union members secured independently of their funding.”

“It cannot be overstated how important this data was to our position in bargaining. It completely underpins the Fund we negotiated. Not only is the Fund now insufficient for its intended purpose, we can’t disburse the money we do have because the data is junk,” added Isabel Stowell-Kaplan, vice chair of CUPE 3902, Unit 1.

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INSIDE Sound and fury

Teodora Pasca argues for the merits of emotion in discourse Comment PG 11

Grey areas

An exploration of the subtle manifestations of racism on campus Feature PG 12

The small screen

Streaming services like Netflix are revolutionizing the way television is produced Arts & Culture PG 17

Custom made genes The scientific community is divided on the ethical implications of CRISPR Science PG 18

Ice Ice Baby

Varsity women’s hockey team set playoffs in their sights while the men hold out hope Sports PG 23

2 NEWS

T H E VA R S I T Y

M O N DAY 11 J A N U A R Y 2 016 news@thevarsity.ca

Issue 12 Vol. CXXXVI

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

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The biggest stories of 2015

CUPE 3902 STRIKE

in almost a decade. Since that time, there have been two

After failed negotiations with the university administration,

impeachments, a new Board of Directors’ structure, and

members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)

a lawsuit worth almost half a million dollars against three

Local 3902 Unit 1, which represents around 6,000 teaching

former executive members.

assistants and academic staff, went on strike. The union campaigned for higher wages, as many of its members were

FEDERAL ELECTION

receiving income below the poverty line. The month-long

Ahead of the federal election, the UTSU encouraged

Devika Desai, Emily Johnpulle and Tom Yun Associate News Editors

strike came to an end after the union agreed to binding

students to vote by running “Democracy Week.” The

ar itration The union recently file a la our grievance against

Varsity spoke with candidates from numerous ridings

Lead Fact Checkers Corinne Przybyslawski

U of T, alleging that the university bargained in bad faith.

in the GTA, as well as Green Party leader Elizabeth May.

Copy Editors Elisha Bauer-Maison, Evan Maude, Corinne Przybyslawski, Nyima Gyalmo, Matthew Boissonneault, Kieran Buckingham, Lauren Park, Michael Vukas, Zujajah Islam, Gabriel Wee, Hilary Lo, Diandra Sasongko, and Emma Kikulis

THREATS AGAINST U OF T FEMINISTS

Vacant Associate Sports Editor

Close to the date of the election, images of students at

Designers Judy Hu, Kitty Liu, and Jasjeet Matharu

BUSINESS OFFICE Parsa Jebely Business Manager

business@thevarsity.ca

Following comments made on a BlogTO article calling

a UTSU commission meeting appeared on Conservative niversity

ose ale can i ate

arim

ivra s flyers

for readers to shoot U of T feminists, students held the

without the consent of the students. After the Liberal Party

university accountable for what they believed was an inad-

was elected with a majority government, U of T professor

e uate res onse

Robert Bothwell weighed in on the results.

y ailing to ackno le ge hich s ecific

students and departments were targeted, many students were disappointed that the university did not take the

FOSSIL FUEL DIVESTMENT

threats more seriously.

After months of lobbying by activist groups such as UofT350, the university’s presidential divestment

Cherlene Tay Business Associate

UTSU

committee released a report that recommended “targeted

There was no shortage of headlines relating to the

divestment” from fossil fuels. This report also came in wake

Michelle Monteiro Advertising Executive

University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) in 2015.

of the COP21 conference in Paris as well as a report from

March saw the victory of a slate without ties to the

Corporate Knights, which claimed that the university had

The Varsity is the University of Toronto's largest student newspaper, publishing since 1880. The Varsity has a circulation of 20,000, and is published by Varsity Publications Inc. It is printed by Master Web Inc. on recycled newsprint stock.

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Inquiries regarding ad sales can be made to ads@ thevarsity.ca. ISSN: 0042-2789

ana ian e eration o Stu ents

S or the first time

lost $550 million by not divesting from fossil fuels.

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STUDENT POLITICS

Former UTSU executive director Sandra Hudson files statement of efence counterclaim Claim seeks $300,000 in damages

he first page of the counterclaim. PUBLIC COURT DOCUMENT

ALEC WILSON EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Responding to a civil suit filed by the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) earlier this year, former UTSU executive director Sandra Hudson has filed a statement of defence and counterclaim with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice seeking $300,000 in damages from the union.

STATEMENT OF DEFENCE On November 19, Hudson filed a statement of defence through her lawyers which offers an alternative narrative of events leading up to her departure from the union in April. Hudson denies a number of the union’s allegations, including the claim that she “conspired to commit civil fraud.” Former UTSU president Yolen Bollo-Kamara and vice president internal & services Cameron Wathey were also named in the UTSU’s suit and have filed separate statements of defence.

The defence goes on to claim that, although Hudson had never filed for overtime in twoand-a-half years of employment, she did frequently work long hours on “non-managerial tasks,” and had accrued a significant amount of overtime between 2012 and April 2015. Examples of this type of work includes “assisting at polling stations, closing the cash registers at the UTSU office, and completing minutes from various Boards and committee meetings.”

In her statement, Hudson alleges that during the negotiation of her employment agreement she was advised by then UTSU vice president internal & services, Corey Scott, that it was the union’s practice to pay out overtime to its executive directors.

In addition to addressing Hudson’s overtime, the defence alleges that, during her tenure as executive director, Hudson was “sub-

ject to inappropriate conduct and unwelcome comments from UTSU directors. Some of the comments were in relation to Hudson’s perceived sexual orientation, gender and race.”

It is also alleged that Hudson brought these concerns to Bollo-Kamara and Wathey on various occasions.

The defence further details how, by the spring of 2015, Hudson and UTSU Arts and Science at-large director Nicholas Grant developed a fraught relationship. Hudson alleges that Grant had accused her of being upset with him for his decision to run in the upcoming UTSU election with the Brighter UofT slate, and that he had also made remarks calling her job performance into question.

Around April of last year, the statement claims that a conversation between Grant and Wathey took place during which Grant allegedly told Wathey that members of the incoming Brighter UofT slate, including current UTSU president Ben Coleman, had a plan “to treat Hudson harshly,” before terminating her employment the following September in order “to humiliate her.”

According to an email statement sent to The Varsity, Grant alleges that “no such conversation ever occurred, and no such plan ever existed.” In relation to the friction caused by his choice to run with the Brighter Uof T slate, Grant commented that “Wathey explicitly told [Grant] of her disappointment on the day that nominations had opened, among other things, in an attempt to persuade me to run with [the Change Uof T slate].”

Regarding Hudson’s allegation that he had cast aspersion on her work performance, Grant said the following: “At no point did I personally make comments on my views of her work performance to anyone beyond Wathey and Bollo-Kamara, the only two individuals she reported to, and this was only

to address concerns brought forward by other members of the Union.”

According to Grant, he received complaints about Hudson while he was chair of the Executive Review Committee, He stated that, “complaints had been brought forward to the Executive Review Committee, of which [he] was the chair. Unfortunately, directors are given little to no formal training on dealing with complaints brought forward this way, and when I raised these concerns to each [of] Wathey and Bollo-Kamara individually and several times, neither of them were willing to investigate or address the complaints brought forward by other students. It was only after their lack of action that I made a public statement regarding how these concerns existed and were not being addressed, because I believed that the board ought to be informed.”

In an emailed statement to The Varsity, current UTSU president Ben Coleman addressed the allegations made in Hudson’s statement of defence. “We had always intended to work with Sandy — we knew her experience would be valuable, especially for long-term projects like the student commons. There was no conspiracy to humiliate her,” he said.

According to the defence, Hudson considered this revelation as “constructive dismissal” and informed Wathey that she intended to file a human rights complaint. It was at this point that Wathey suggested Hudson enter into a termination agreement with the union — an official conclusion of her employment that would entitle her to severance pay and preempt her removal by the incoming union executive — “to avoid further strife.”

Initially, Hudson was unwilling, but she changed her mind following a series of other negative interactions with UTSU directors, including an alleged incident during which Coleman suggested he “was able to tell [Hudson] and Bollo-Kamara (who are both Black women) apart, because Bollo-Kamara wore lipstick.”

“When you screw up like I did with the lipstick comment, I think it’s important to apologize and learn. Sandy and I had had a private conversation about her frustrations with people confusing her and Yolen, in which I commented that it was especially ridiculous given that their senses of style were totally different. Yolen then posted publicly about it, which is when I realized my remark had come across completely differently than I intended,” Coleman responded to The Varsity.

“At my request, Yolen and I met so I could give her a full apology. I proactively set up a meeting with Sandy in April so that I could give her the opportunity to air any concerns she had, and show my desire to prevent microaggressions. I made a concentrated effort for Sandy to feel comfortable working with us, as I knew she had been close to Yolen and Cameron,” he explained.

The termination agreement was made effective on April 30 and it entitled Hudson to: payments comprised of two weeks salary in lieu of notice of termination, two years salary as severance; compensation for five weeks vacation; and compensation for overtime. The agreement also included a non-disparagement clause which bars the UTSU from making derogatory statements about Hudson, as well as a confidentiality clause and mutual release.

UTSU’S INITIAL CLAIM The UTSU’s initial statement of claim,

which was submitted on September 21, alleges that Hudson entered into a termination agreement with former union president Yolen Bollo-Kamara and vice president internal & services, Cameron Wathey, concluding Hudson’s employment as the UTSU’s executive director. Pursuant to the agreement, Hudson was entitled to $247,726.40 in compensation upon her dismissal – a severance figure equivalent to roughly 10 per cent of the union’s operating budget.

The union contends that entering into this agreement represented a breach of “their fiduciary duty.” Their statement of claim alleges that Hudson, Bollo-Kamara, and Wathey “acted in a manner that was oppressive, unfairly prejudicial to and unfairly disregarded the interest of the UTSU and its members,” as well as that they “conspired to commit civil fraud” and that their actions “constituted civil fraud.”

The UTSU’s claim also alleges that, between January and April of 2015, Bollo-Kamara authorized a sum of $29,782.22 in cheques “for a total of 2,589.5 hours of overtime.”

The statement of claim suggests that in her two-and-a-half years as the UTSU’s executive director, Hudson had never recorded any overtime hours until April of 2015.

COUNTERCLAIM Included with the statement of defence filed on November 19, Hudson also filed a counterclaim against the UTSU. The counterclaim seeks $300,000 in damages from the union, as well as a declaration that both the nondisparagement and confidentiality clauses of the termination agreement were breached.

The claim alleges that the UTSU violated the non-disparagement and confidentiality clauses by failing to seek a sealing order — which would have restricted access to information pertaining to the suit — and filing suit before Hudson had an opportunity to procure one. Hudson also claims that the UTSU further violated these clauses when it provided The Varsity with copies of their statement of claim, and when Coleman made statements to the media.

On this claim, Coleman offered the following: “In our statements to the media and students, we’ve emphasized that this is about students’ money, and the ability to have a students’ union that has adequate resources, not about any one person or their character. We’ve also emphasized that we’d like a resolution through mediation or arbitration. We want to resolve this with the least hardship and distress for everyone involved in this situation, and that hasn’t changed.”

Hudson’s defence claims that these acts were undertaken “maliciously and in bad faith” in order to ensure publication and undermine the non-disparagement clauses of the termination agreement.

MOVING FORWARD It remains unclear at this point whether or not the two parties will ultimately go to trial or resolve the issue privately. Neither Hudson, nor the UTSU’s lawyers, responded to immediate requests for comment.

This article originally appeared on The Varsity’s website on December 11, 2015.

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Students hold up voting cards with the maximum number of proxy votes at a UTSU general meeting in 2015. MALLIKA MAKKAR/PHOTO EDITOR

STUDENT POLITICS

ude

fire u

Motion on CFS on agenda; BDS motion absent TOM YUN

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

Preparations are underway for the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) Special General Meeting (SGM) later this month, where several member-submitted motions will be discussed and voted upon.

The agenda for the SGM includes a motion regarding the UTSU’s membership with the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), a motion for “ethical divestment,” a motion to allow clubs and service groups to have a say in the UTSU’s budgeting process, a motion to create an accessible computer lab, and a motion to authorize computerized voting.

The SGM marks the UTSU’s third general meeting this academic year. Motions that were not discussed at the UTSU’s Annual General Meeting on October 7 will also be debated at the SGM. Among those items are a motion to ensure paper ballots for UTSU elections, a non-binding motion on free tuition; a motion calling for accountability to UTSU members, a motion on accessibility for professional faculty students, a motion for an endorsement of the Black Lives Matter movement, a motion on prevention of sexual violence, and a motion to stand in solidarity with the Cape Breton University Students’ Union (CBUSU).

The CBUSU lost a case against the CFS and was ordered to pay $295,000 in membership fees plus legal charges, resulting in the union filing for bankruptcy.

THE MOTION ON THE CFS Stephanie Spaguolo, a first-year student at

r

Victoria College is moving to strike a committee to investigate the UTSU’s relationship with the CFS every year and to have the UTSU “contemplate leaving the CFS.” “We find this motion necessary because, as a university with upwards of 50,000 students within its union, proper representation for our students is very important, and the CFS does not adequately provide that,” Spaguolo said.

“The CFS appears to favour staff over elected officials when the officials are obviously the people chosen by the students to represent their wants and needs.”

The preamble of the CFS motion describes the federation as “inefficient and borderline undemocratic, and restricts the democratic process” and claims that the CFS “does not adequately represent the students of the University of Toronto.”

“The Union’s relationship with the CFS should be thoroughly examined, particularly on the question of if this relationship should continue. This is achievable only through passing this motion,” Spaguolo said.

Spaguolo described Bylaw I.3a.iii of the CFS’ by-laws, which states that 20 per cent of a union’s membership must sign a petition in order for there to be a referendum to leave the federation, as “an archaic barrier to democratic vote on decertification.”

“Students disinterested and disenchanted with the CFS, like myself, would have to collect ten thousand signatures on top of their stressful academics – just to express what should be a basic democratic right,” she said. Spaguolo said that she also sees a lack of transparency in the CFS’ budget — which has not been made available online — and expressed concerns over the CFS’ lawsuit with the CBUSU. UTSU president Ben Coleman and UTM director Hashim Yussuf both raised concerns

with the wording of the motion, questioning its seriousness and suggesting that the motion was a joke.

Spagnuolo defended her wording. “My motion was written and worded sincerely, seriously and intentionally,” she said, adding “the CFS membership is a prominent part of the union’s budget and therefore deserves to be looked into thoroughly. This motion is written with the intent to better the UTSU at its core, and passing this motion will see to those improvements.”

Bilan Arte, the CFS’ national chairperson, was travelling at the time The Varsity requested comment.

BDS MOTION NOT ON AGENDA Back in June 2015, UTSU vice-president equity Sania Khan outlined in her executive report that there would be an opportunity at an SGM to vote on whether the UTSU should endorse the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. The movement calls for the University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation (UTAM) to divest in companies that, according to proBDS advocates, contribute to human rights abuses in Palestine.

Members of various Jewish student groups expressed concerns with the motion, arguing that the goal of the BDS movement is to eliminate Israel as a Jewish state and that a UTSU endorsement of BDS would create a divisive atmosphere on campus, contributing to the marginalization of Jewish students.

The UTSU’s Board of Directors voted down a motion to strike an ad-hoc BDS committee in July. At the time, a BDS motion was still set to appear on the agenda for the SGM. However, a motion on BDS is conspicuously absent. Khan did not respond to a request for comment.

Aidan Swirksy, a second-year University College student who was vocally opposed to Khan’s plans for a BDS motion, is moving a similar but broader motion for “ethical divestment.”

Swirsky’s motion calls for the UTSU to lobby UTAM to divest from “any company that is found to profit from human rights violations, labour violations, especially those involving children, sweatshops or undocumented workers, war and weapons manufacturing, and/or the creation of environmental disasters.” This call for divestment would not be limited to companies operating in any one country or location.

“I think this motion is necessary because as students who are paying thousands of dollars in tuition to the University, it is our right to exercise some input over the investments being made with our money,” said Swirsky. He cited companies that employ child slavery in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and unsafe working conditions in Bangladesh as examples of unethical divestment and noted the success of the fossil fuel divestment campaign.

However, Swirsky drew distinctions from his motion and BDS. “This motion is very different from BDS because it handles the concepts of ethical divestment and promotion of human rights far more accurately and responsibly than BDS is wrongly perceived to.”

“BDS promotes the academic and cultural blanket boycott of a singular country, Israel, while simultaneously espousing a demand that would lead to the destruction of said country.”

The SGM is scheduled for January 28 in Room 2118 of Sidney Smith Hall. UTSU members will be able to proxy their vote online between January 18 and January 25.

Impeachment follows allegations of misconduct, sexual assault CONTINUED FROM COVER

Akshan Bansal. PHOTO COURTESY OF UTSU

According to Jasmine Denike, UTSU vice president external, the allegation was a “tipping point,” but not the sole reason behind the impeachment; rather, it was the result of several complaints regarding Bansal’s job performance. “We don’t wish him ill and we wish him all the best, but we wanted to make sure students feel safe on campus. That is our first priority,” Denike said.

Previous complaints received by the UTSU’s Executive Review Committee (XRC)

included claims that Bansal made sexist and sexual comments and was inebriated at work. The XRC investigated the grievances over the summer and recommended that Bansal be placed on probation, but did not recommend impeachment.

Immediately after the meeting at which he was impeached, Bansal told The Varsity that he was distraught.

A new vice president, campus life will be selected to fulfil the office for the remaining four months of the term. A hiring committee comprised of UTSU executives, with the possible addition of one or two UTSU board

members, will be responsible for the appointment and will conduct interviews for the position after the January 15 application deadline.

This round of applications marks the third time that the hiring process for the position of vice president campus life has been opened this academic year. Denike noted that this time, the hiring process will be an improvement upon the previous two, where concerns were raised about the disproportionately low number of board members present.

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Labour union files grievance against U of T after strike, arbitration CONTINUED FROM COVER

“The U of T administration lied to us. They lied about our members’ funding levels, then allowed us to negotiate the end to a 4-week strike based on incorrect data they supplied. They bargained in bad faith at a tense time when honest mattered more than ever. This behaviour calls the entirety of collective bargaining, the end of the strike and the whole collective agreement into question,” said Ryan Culpepper, chair of the local and member of the bargaining team for CUPE 3902 in the statement.

U of T’s Angela Hildyard, professor and vice-president, human resources and equity, offered a different perspective on

the issue. According to Hildyard, students have been contacting the university to ask about the $1.045 million in funding that was allocated under the Graduate Students’ Bursary Fund during the most recent round of labour negotiations that they have yet to receive.

“The University provided these funds to CUPE in late August 2015,” Hildyard was quoted saying in an email to The Varsity. “At the end of September, the University provided CUPE with the data required to allow them to distribute the funds to eligible students. CUPE has been provided with the funds and all of the information necessary to enable them to disburse the funds. Unfortunately, to date, CUPE has chosen to distribute none of these Graduate Student Bursary Fund monies.”

Hildyard’s statement went on to suggest that the university has “made several requests to CUPE to disburse these funds and we will continue to do so.”

Professor Hildyard also indicated that the university “vigorously denies the allegations.” The university will be responding to CUPE’s complaint and “the matter will be dealt with by the Labour Board.”

In a Facebook post released on December 9, the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) offered their solidarity with CUPE 3902 and encouraged students to join in a rally, hosted by CUPE 3902 on Tuesday, December 15 at 3:30 pm.

This article originally appeared on The Varsity’s website on December 9, 2015.

MENTAL HEALTH

Trinity receives $1.75 million for mental health initiatives College to launch new mental wellness program MADELIN BURT D’AGNILLO VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

A recently announced improved health and wellness program for students and staff is coming to Trinity College. In early December, the college announced that it had received donations totalling $1.75 million from the Trinity Alumni community. Dr. Anne Steacy ’76, a Trinity College alumna, spearheaded the financial gift with a donation of $1.5 million to establish the Anne Steacy Counselling Initiative. Michael Royce ‘68 and Sheila Northey Royce ’68 also contributed $250,000 to support the initiative. The donations are funding two health and wellness staff positions at Trinity.

The University of Toronto has offered its students professional mental health services for decades. Trinity’s initiative intends to provide additional on-site counselling services, as well as proactive outreach programming for Trinity College students to minimize long evaluation processes and navigation of complex systems.

Mayo Moran, Trinity College provost, has expressed her keen interest in supporting students’ well-being, drawing on the experience she gained as the dean of U of T Law. Taking cues from this role, studies conducted by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), U of T provost Cheryl Regehr’s mental health committee, and initiatives happening at other universities, the provost and Trinity College administration assessed the need for increased student services.

The administration also sought input from students, who voted to levy approximately $9,000 annually for the college’s health and wellness program, in the form of a survey conducted last year, as well as informal feedback from students and leaders. “When I first started talking to students when I arrived at Trinity a lot of students identified dealing with anxiety and stress as one of their number one concerns,” said Moran.

This idea echoes research from the Anxiety and Depression Society of America, which estimates that 62 per cent of students report “marinating in perpetual, toxic anxiety.” Likewise, a Canadian study from 2013 shows that 90 per cent of Ontario students reported feeling overwhelmed within the past 12 months.

“The research shows, to the extent where you can put support that is immediate and apparent and easy to access there is so much you can do to respond before things become acute,” said Moran. Noting the goal of establishing the program this academic year, Moran said that arrangements are already underway, with the job description and advertisement for the new full-time position of associate director, community wellness posted in early December of 2015.

The role will include hosting regular drop-in hours for one on one consultation with students, training peer counsellors and peer mentors in detail, working with dons to give them a more sophisticated set of tools to use, and liaising with student clubs, organizations, and student leaders to support and oversee special student initiated activities relating to overall health and wellness.

The associate director will work closely with Trinity’s embedded clinical counsellor, Christine Cabrera, who has been

NOOR NAQAWEH/THE VARSITY

working two days a week at Trinity College since September.

She is a trained clinical psychologist, and maintains close contact with U of T’s Health & Wellness service.

Both positions are a direct result of the Anne Steacy Counselling Initiative.

“We are overjoyed that trinity is committing itself to tackle the lack of mental health resources available to its students and we look forward to working closely with the Associate Director of Community and Wellness to make students more

aware of mental health issues and to facilitate their access to support,” said Adriana Cefis, a spokesperson for the Trinity College Mental Health Initiative, a Trinity student group whose purpose is to promote mental health awareness within the trinity community.

Trinity’s leadership is hopeful too. “I’m excited we are leading on it, and I want it to be an opportunity for other people to learn from what we have done well and what we haven’t, frankly,” said Moran.

6 NEWS

T H E VA R S I T Y

M O N DAY 11 J A N U A R Y 2 016 news@thevarsity.ca

ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS

ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS

Robarts undergoes first e ansion in 42 years onstruction on obarts o begin in arc

e esign tea for front ca revitali ation c osen

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onnecting at a s an stu ent s aces to take over front ca us ro ect

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KPMB Architects, Michaek Van Valkenburgh Associates, and Urban Strategies are to lead the Front Campus revitalization.

ANTHEA WEI/THE VARSITY

CATHLIN SULLIVAN VARSITY STAFF

The Robarts expansion includes the creation of an additional 1,222 study spaces . ANISHA ROHRA /THE VARSITY

EMILY COLERO VARSITY STAFF

The second phase of the Robarts renovations and expansion project is scheduled to begin this March. The project, which consists of the construction of an additional five storeys of study space, is expected to be completed by the spring of 2018.

The library currently attracts around 18,000 visitors a day, twice the number recorded in 1980, making a renovation long overdue. This is the 42 year-old library’s first extension.

The first phase of the construction took place from 2008 to 2012 and consisted of the renovation of the John P. Robarts Research Library.

New special collection areas were created, such as the Data, Map and GIS Centre and the Media Commons. The study space was refurbished and expanded, and the electronic infrastructure updated.

According to Althea Blackburn-Evans, director of news & media relations at U of T, the project will create an additional 1,222 study spaces, increasing the library’s capacity to 6,027 seats. Prior to the 2008 renovations, the seat count was 2,600. The expansion will amount to an additional 56,000 square feet over five storeys.

The majority of the funding for the project comes from Drs. Russell and Katherine Morrison, who provided funding for Morrison Hall, the addition to the Gerstein Science Information Centre, and the Morrison Pavilion. Other financial support has come from public funding from the province, libraries, and individual donors. The university has been raising funds for the revitalization since 2008.

Blackburn- Evans said that the renovation will create minimal disruption to students, with much of the construction-taking place on the side the building facing Huron Street; no study spaces will be closed during renovations, she said.

The Robarts Common will include an open square that will allow students to study outside in the warmer months. The square will feature seating amongst the cherry trees.

The common is designed with sustainability in mind, and will include a green roof, rainfall recycling systems, and low-emissions building materials. These aspects of the design will earn a silver rating according to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

A mix of quiet study areas and areas for group work will also be created. Thirty-two meeting rooms will be added, many complete with display screens and loudspeakers.

The addition is helmed by Diamond Schmitt Architects who intend to integrate the original Brutalist architectural style. Wood accents and wraparound glass will be included in an attempt to give the library more warmth and light. The glass walls will be equipped with light-sensing motorized blinds.

The expansion project is one of several initiatives central to the campaign goal of $65 million to refurbish the Gerstein Science Information Centre as well and the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library.

The walk through the middle of the St. George Campus will soon have a new look.

Front campus, connecting the west and east ends of St. George, will soon be redesigned by KPMB Architects, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA), and Urban Strategies.

Shirley Blumberg, the design team leader, said that she is ecstatic to be working on the project. Their team consists of multiple U of T architecture graduates, including Blumberg.

The consortium of these firms was chosen after a lengthy selection process with over 600 proposals in consideration. The public was invited in September 2015 to review the proposals and select the winner.

In this new design, students can expect webs of pathways that connect both side of Front campus, a pedestrian bridge connecting Hart House to Queen’s Park, pavilions that house exits to the parking garage, coloured pavement and a new lighting scheme.

“In any creative work there is a high motivating factor of fear that keeps you going,” said Blumberg, alluding to the high profile nature of the redesign. “The most exciting thing in the bold vision is finally removing the cars from the circle.

There is no point in doing anything unless you do that.”

KPMB, MVVA and Urban Strategies will have until September 2016 to submit an outline including estimated cost and engineering needs.

First-year life science student Mahreen Khan said that she is excited about the design even if the construction disrupts students.

“There is the esthetic purpose, but also after it’s built completely I am sure that it will be worth it in the end.”

“As long as they manage it properly and like I said we are not trying to run through construction to get into class on time,” said Khan.

In the proposal, King’s College Circle will become car free, moving parking underground. Instead, a focus on pedestrian and cyclist needs will take precedent.

Julie Hudson, a fourth-year statistics specialist, is also excited about the redesign but is worried about those with mobility issues.

“I broke my ankle and I am in a cast, and I

am sure that there are lots of people with mobility issues who need to be dropped off in front of where they need to go and if they close off to cars that wouldn’t be possible, so that is one concern.”

Blumberg noted that the underground parking garage will be on a mixed-use space that could house bicycles and scooters. “We see it as an incredibly important space,” she said. “We are hoping to make the best garage you have ever seen.”

All three firms have worked on university redesign projects before, bringing green spaces and student-centred design to campuses across North America.

Blumberg noted that their’s was the only design that did not retain the campus’ circular shape. Joseph Bivona from MVVA agreedL “our design is inspired by the idea of thickening that edge to welcome lingering and invite occupation. That space after all, is actually larger than the central part of King’s College Circle itself, which I don’t think people realize.”

Until the final draft in September 2016, the plans are open to critique.

“In the end, university is about social and intellectual exchange and interaction and discourse and I think these spaces could have a tremendous impact. What we are trying to do here by removing the cars from the circle [is that] we are changing these spaces from being parking lots and sports fields into a public realm that is really for pedestrians and cyclists,” Blumberg said.

Bivona said that they treated the redesign as a park more than anything else. Both he and Blumberg alluded to the connection the space has to Toronto as a whole. “We spent a lot of time thinking about the interface between city and campus and about how to really celebrate those moments of arrival and to welcome members of the greater public into the space,” Bivona said.

“Our proposal has also been based on the premise that the site actually works pretty well as it is, that the bones of it are actually very strong – and it’s just a matter of amplifying all of the site’s great qualities,” he added.

M O N DAY 11 J A N U A R Y 2 016

T H E VA R S I T Y

NEWS 7

var.st/news

Trans communities condemn CAMH gender identity clinic CONTINUED FROM COVER

by the clinic caused her to break down crying during her interviews. “[The] basic ideology practised was one completely lacking in empathy. It was, at best, only interested in potential research, and if you’re to ask me, it came from a thoroughly bigoted view that posited that just by existing as who I am, I was sick,” Hetherington said.

Zucker worked at the clinic for 30 years and is also a psychiatry professor at the University of Toronto. After the release of the report, Zucker was released from his position at CAMH. Hetherington, who interacted with Zucker during her time at the clinic, said that sacking Zucker was the step towards any possible reconciliation, if CAMH is to continue services.

When asked what Zucker’s termination at CAMH meant for his position at U of T, Althea Blackburn-Evans, U of T’s director of news and media relations, said that the university does not comment on personnel matters.

“The diversity of our students, faculty and staff is a mark of quality and a source of strength. The University respects and supports all of its faculty, staff and students, including those in the transgender community. Specifically, we offer a range of services through the Sexual & Gender Diversity Office,” said Blackburn-Evans.

Jades Swadron, an organizer with the Trans Inclusivity Project at U of T, said that Zucker should have no place teaching at a university. “How can an institution where

critical thinking is purported to be taught wash [its] hands of blame in situations like this so easily without looking into its impact?” she asked. “The university is playing dumb, while mistreating trans students in many ways.”

CAMH is fully affiliated with the University of Toronto as a teaching hospital. According to Blackburn-Evans, the institutions support each other’s research.

The report states that the clinic operates in isolation from CAMH and its resources, such as legal and public relations, the University of Toronto Division of Child & Youth Mental Health Services, as well as community agencies such as schools and child/youth organizations.

Additionally, there were no opportunities for clients, family, or stakeholders to contribute to the direction or services of the clinic.

The report did not recommend that the current approach be sustained, acknowledging, “The GIC and CAMH in general, are not seen as a “safe space” for gender questioning & transgender populations.”

McKenzie said that he was pleased with the approach that the clinic took. “What was different in January 2015 was a group of community partners, including Rainbow Health Ontario, came forward in an organized way and with evidence. We met with them, we examined their evidence and we decided to have an external review. I’m proud of the way we approached this. The community came to us, we listened and then we did due diligence by looking to the international literature and taking evidence before acting,” he said.

According to McKenzie, CAMH hopes to improve and rejuvenate its approach. “Our overall interest and motivation is to determine the best approach for kids with gender identity issues, and it’s important that this process continues to be open and collaborative. Our next step is to consult with our community partners and have their input on to see what role CAMH can play to best serve these young people,” he concluded.

Hetherington said that she would like to see CAMH’s services closed down entirely. “[Including] a gender identity clinic at an organization for mental health is already making some highly questionable connections, and the way it has been cast as a central authority allows for abuse to occur with little oversight,” she said, adding that a move to an informed consent model with general practitioners rather than a centralised gatekeeping authority would be the only method that would provide appropriate services to clients.

“The difference between my experiences with CAMH and the informed consent model, which ended up being my path to actually getting a prescription for [hormone replacement therapy], was impressive,” Hetherington said.

“I spent somewhere close to ten months or a year waiting between my referral to CAMH and my first appointment, whereas after searching out a general practitioner that practised informed consent, I managed to start HRT a month after my first appointment, with only a two week waiting time between looking for a doctor and that appointment.”

A CAMH location on 250 College Street. TOSIN MAIYEGUN/THE VARSITY

is fully affiliated with the niversity of oronto. TOSIN MAIYEGUN/THE VARSITY

ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS

U of T begins race data collection Move to advance goals of diversity, equity, inclusion ZUJAJAH ISLAM VARSITY STAFF

The University of Toronto has agreed to begin demographic data collection pertaining to race. The decision was reached at a December 7, 2015 meeting between members of the U of T administration and members of the Black Liberation Collective at U of T. Althea Blackburn-Evans, U of T director of news & media relations stated that the university believes it would be beneficial to collect such data. “These data will help to inform policies and practices

to further the university’s interest in embedding diversity, equity and inclusion.”

Members of the Black Liberation Collective, U of T vice provost, students Sandy Welsh, Angela Hildyard, U of T vice president human resources and equity, and Sandra Carnegie-Douglas, the anti-racism & cultural diversity officer attended the meeting.

Several organizers with Black at UofT were approached for comment and all declined on the basis that “[they] have found [The Varsity] unwilling to acknowledge, rectify or com-

bat [it’s own] racism.”

Race-related census data collection can include data about student admission and graduation, and staff and faculty hiring and promotions. U of T is now exploring the details of how this data will be collected.

“The university will now explore the best avenues for individuals to report such data should they choose to do so,” said Blackburn-Evans.

More information is forthcoming.

8 NEWS

T H E VA R S I T Y

M O N DAY 11 J A N U A R Y 2 016 news@thevarsity.ca

Special General Meeting Member-Submitted Motions Thursday January 28, 2016 | St. George Campus Sidney Smith Hall, Rm 2118 | 5:30pm-10pm Registration starts at 4:30pm

AGENDA: ’ Call to Order ’ Welcoming Remarks ’ Approval of Agenda ’ Consideration of Member-Submitted Motions ’ Motion to Approve Computerized Voting (Petra) ’ Motion for Paper Ballots (Botero-Gutierrez/Yussuf) ’ Motion for Membership Accountability and Bylaw/Policy Changes (Celestial/Blay) ’ Motion for Accessibility for Professional Faculty Students on UTSU (Li) ’ Motion for Endorsement of Black Lives Matter – Toronto (Noor) ’ Motion on Prevention of Sexual Violence (Siddiqui/Yussuf) ’ Motion to Stand in Solidarity with CBUSU (Singh/Gomes) ’ Motion on UTSU Clubs and Service Groups (Siddiqui/Pournajar) ’ Motion on CFS Membership (Spagnuolo/Campbell) ’ Motion on an Accessible Computer Lab for the St. George Campus (Alaei/Pal) ’ Motion on Ethical Divestment (Swirsky/Sivapragasm) ’ Motion on Justin Bieber (Shihipar)

Â’ Approval of Bylaw Changes Â’ Amendment to Bylaw X-5: Removal of Executives (Policy and Procedures Committee) Â’ Creation of Bylaw XVII: Equity, Civility, and Safety (Member motion: Omari)

Â’ Non-Binding Motions Â’ Motion to strike for Free Tuition (Rising)

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For the full text of all the resolutions to be considered at the meeting, please consult the University of Toronto Students’ Union Website at utsu.ca/sgm.

Every member at the University of Toronto Student’s Union1 can participate in this meeting.

Accessibility Wheelchair accessible. If you have any accessibility requests, require ASL interpretation, childcare, or have other inquiries, please contact Ryan Gomes, Vice-President Internal and Services, by January 21 at vpinternal@utsu.ca or 416-978-4911 x240 Instructions for Voting by Proxy If you are unable to attend this meeting, and wish to give another person the authority to vote for you, please complete an online proxy form at https://utsu. simplyvoting.com by Monday 25 January at 5pm. You can login to the online proxy system starting Monday 18 January at 9am.

The UTSU proxy system is online. Please note that due to the regulations applicable to the Canada Not-For-Profit Corporations Act, the member who is giving the authority to vote to another member must initiate the process.

Further instructions on voting by proxy will be available at utsu.ca/sgm Save Time and Pre-Register Want to avoid the line-up at registration and have your name printed on your voting card? Our preregistration will be available for individual members between 18 January and 22 January, 2016. If you cannot pre-register, you can still register at the door.

1. Members of the UTSU include: Â’ Â’ Â’ Â’

Full-time undergraduate students at the St. George and Mississauga campuses Toronto School of Theology students Transitional Year Program students Students on a Professional Employment Year (PEY) program

COMMENT var.st/comment

11 January 2016

comment@thevarsity.ca

CHRISTINA CHUNG/THE VARSITY

Safe haven in the spotlight? ec

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JONATHAN WILKINSON VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

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his past December, crowds gathered at airports in Toronto and Montreal to welcome the first of 25,000 Syrian refugees that will be arriving in Canada in the coming months.

The warm and enthusiastic greeting they received is the envy of people across the world, especially with the recent rise of xenophobic populists like Donald Trump in the United States and Marine Le Pen in France.

Simultaneously, it also provided a great photo-op for a recently elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to appear more open and relatable. Trudeau even went so far as to urge Canadians to welcome the Syrian refugees in his Christmas message in The Toronto Star.

There is no doubt that Canada’s efforts to take in refugees should be applauded. However, it is also important to view Canada’s contributions from a global perspective, and take caution not to become complacent.

The 25,000 refugees — Immigration Minister John McCallum says as many as 50,000 refugees, at least 70 per cent from Syria, could arrive by the end of this year — the Liberal government has pledged to bring to Canada

by February is a mere drop in the ocean, given The sheer scale of the issue is of particular the number of civilians in the region. There are importantance when considering the coverage around four million refugees across Lebanon, of the crisis by major media outlets. Appealing Jordan, and Turkey, with at least one million to emotion is an easy way for outlets to capture living in Lebanon alone, where they make bandwidth and sell advertising. Portraying up almost one-fifth of the countrys popula- the new government in a positive light is also tion. In Jordan, the influx of people is roughly an easy way for the public broadcaster, gutted equivalent by funding to almost cuts, to win THESE APPARENTLY GRAND GESTURES PALE IN the entire some politipopulation cal clout.

COMPARISON TO THE WORK REQUIRED IN THE GREAT of Canada The CBC's PROJECT THAT IS SOLVING THE REFUGEE CRISIS. moving to coverage of the United the arrival States, in of the first less than two years. The Za’atari refugee camp plane carrying Syrian refugees came off as a in northern Jordan — a tract of land once fit- desperate attempt to lionize the Prime Minting for a post-apocalyptic film set — is now ister to an angelic status. It may be heartthe fourth-largest in the world and houses warming for viewers to see the Prime Minaround 100, 000 refugees. ister fitting children into winter jackets, and To make matters worse, about six million the Premier of Ontario handing out stuffed people remain internally displaced in Syria. animals. However, these apparently grand Of the five million refugees generated by the gestures pale in comparison to the work reSyrian civil war, 51 per cent are 17 or young- quired in the great project that is solving the er. There is growing concern about the ‘lost refugee crisis. generation’ – children growing up in refugee The Liberal government’s openness to Syrcamps, uneducated, angry, and bored. ian refugees is not even that groundbreaking

as far as policy goes. Since 2005, Canada has admitted over 260,000 refugees. The largest source is not Syria, Somalia, or Haiti – countries typically associated with refugees – but Colombia. Ongoing low-intensity conflict over the past 50 years has brought over 17,000 Colombian refugees to Canada since 2004.

Even as the first group of refugees arrived from Syria to the Prime Minister’s official welcome, another group of Ghanaian refugees were arriving without fanfare.

Certainly, we should be proud of Canada’s contributions to the Syrian humanitarian crisis. But, especially as students, we have a responsibility to be critical of a fawning media and a camera-ready Prime Minister.

There are other conflicts around the world that continue to affect millions of people, and those individuals deserve just as much of our attention as the most recent group of proud, new Canadians.

Jonathan Wilkinson is a fourth-year student at University College studying international relations.

10 COMMENT

T H E VA R S I T Y

M O N DAY 11 J A N U A R Y 2 016 comment@thevarsity.ca

Is it really time to disarm the police?

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OPIRG-Toronto: Opt-Out Notice University of Toronto full-time and part-time undergraduate students who have paid the OPIRG fees and who wish to opt-out of the Ontario Public Interest Research Group-Toronto are able to claim a fees refund with proof of enrollment for the Winter 2016.

Refunds during this period will be available only to students who have become full-time students or part-time students by reason of transferring status in the preceding Fall term.

Please contact the OPIRG-Toronto office at opirg.toronto@utoronto.ca for further information.

If you are eligible to opt-out during the Winter 2016 term, the opt-out schedule is below:

Monday, Jan. 11th to Monday, Jan. 18th 563 Spadina Crescent, Room 101 Monday to Thursday* 11AM to 7PM. *(Note: The OPIRG office is closed Friday).

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The use of lethal force allows police forces to remain effective in protecting citizens. TORBAKHOPPER/CC FLICKR

EMMETT CHOI

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Last month, Toronto Star columnist Desmond Cole argued that the Toronto Police Service’s frontline officers should no longer carry guns, citing recent shootings of emotionally-disturbed persons. As students and youth, we may be sympathetic to this idea. While frustration in light of these deaths is absolutely understandable, depriving Toronto’s patrol officers of lethal force would be an overreaction with dangerous consequences for police and civilians alike.

In defence of his proposition, Cole recalled two recent incidents in Montreal where armed suspects were subdued using rubber ammunition. He omitted, however, that in Montreal, as in Toronto, patrol officers still carry and use lethal firearms, because only specialized units have access to rubber ammunition.

In the two incidents he touted, the suspects were surrounded for an extended period of time, which allowed the tactical unit sufficient time to arrive and make use of their less deadly weapons.

Weapons such as rubber bullets and Tasers, are indeed valuable tools in policing, but they are merely a complement to, not a replacement for, lethal firearms. Rubber bullets are known to have a reduced expected accuracy (in comparison to regular ammunition), albeit they still cause serious injury or death when striking the head or neck.

Tasers are extremely limited in range and rate of fire, and can be either too weak to incapacitate a suspect or so strong as to kill the target. Despite these limitations, Tasers cost around $1,500 each — twice the cost of a handgun — and would increase Toronto’s already massive police budget, if they were to be provided to all 5,000 frontline officers.

More importantly, the threat of gun crime in Toronto appears to remain present. Military grade weapons are seized from local criminal elements, and in 2015 there were 255 shootings in the city.

Furthermore, research shows that in 51 per cent of active shooter incidents in the United States from 2000-2010, the police arrived while the attack was ongoing. During 40 per cent of these occasions, the situation was resolved only when responding officers shot the suspect. Such incidents cannot be understood as an exclusively American phenomenon; civilians, politicians, members of the Canadian Forces, and police officers have all been targets in Canada in recent years.

There still remains the issue that the use of lethal firearms to subdue a suspect is, in some cases, inappropriate and excessive. This is true, particularly when it comes to police interactions with those who are mentally ill.

Improvements are being made though; in each of the Toronto Police Service’s 17 divisions, there is almost always a supervisor on duty

who has a Taser. The Emergency Task Force and other specialized units also carry less lethal weapons. Additionally, Mobile Crisis Intervention Teams, comprised of a police officer and a mental health nurse, are available nearly 24/7 in 14 police divisions. The Toronto Police Service is also in the midst of a pilot project that examines the feasibility of three models of body cameras, devices that could have provided more details for investigation in shootings, like in the case of Andrew Loku.

Every police-involved death is a tragedy and, to some extent, could have been prevented. Police officers are placed in unimaginably stressful and dangerous situations every day, and the vast majority of these incidents are resolved peacefully.

However, there are times when the force needed to protect the public is lethal. As residents of Toronto, we should require our police officers to be ready for anything.

Emmett Choi is a fifth-year student at Victoria College studying philosophy and American Studies.

M O N DAY 11 J A N U A R Y 2 016

T H E VA R S I T Y

COMMENT 11

var.st/comment

Let’s get angry Think twice before dismissing emotional appeals made by activists TEODORA PASCA

ASSOCIATE COMMENT EDITOR

At the Thanksgiving table this year, I did my best to explain to a more conservative relative why helping displaced Syrian refugees is Canada's humanitarian responsibility. Yet the perspective I was attempting to defend — one certainly charged with ethical questions about whom we ought to help, and when — was quickly dismissed as emotional, and therefore illogical.

To this day, I am unable to bring up such issues within the same circle without instantly losing credibility due to my apparently overly emotional state. I am certainly not alone in this — activists are often condemned for sounding angry or emotional, instead of appearing cool and collected (that is, palatable to the outside observer).

Consider, for example, the condemnation of the Black Lives Matter movement by American Renaissance, who described the movement as mere “hysteria and lies.” Closer to home, some students on campus felt offended by the UTSU titling one of their equity events “Fuck your bigotry.” This is not to mention that common caricatures of upset or hostile activists — such as the “feminazi” and “angry black woman” — clearly exemplify how emotions are used as reason to discredit activists.

Emotion is certainly no substitute for logic or evidence, and just because someone is angry does not mean that they inherently deserve remedy. Yet, the desire for reasonable debate

Student activists protest anti-black police brutality in the wake of Michael Brown's death. SHAHIN IMTIAZ/THE VARSITY

should not be used to invalidate people’s emotions, nor is it solid ground for immediately dismissing their cause. This becomes especially pertinent if they are speaking about their marginalization and social justice; emotions in such cases are useful in the march for social change, and often stem from legitimate concerns that need to be addressed.

Practically speaking, emotional reactions to injustice have been crucial motivators behind activist organization. This is because emotions can override the self-interested inclination to refrain from direct participation. Most notably, anger mobilizes fellow citizens to protest in pursuit of a common remedy. From wom-

en’s suffrage to anti-apartheid movements, expressions of anger have had revolutionary effects in opposition to oppressive forces.

Many activists are directly affected by the causes they fight for, and have had to explain their pain hundreds of times. It is not hard to imagine how these experiences can provoke emotional responses. Consequently, knee-jerk critiques of an emotional delivery often betray the privilege of being unaffected by, or ignorant to the issue at hand. How else could one remain apathetic in the face of, say, anti-black brutality in North America, considering the shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice — a case in which the officers responsible were not even indicted?

The problem, then, appears to be our limited ability to understand different perspectives and experiences; that is, we may perceive other people’s emotion as an overreaction merely because we are unable to empathize. Despite our individual hardships, it can be difficult to comprehend what it means to flee a war-torn country, lose a loved one to police brutality, or live under the constant fear of violence due to race, gender, or sexuality.

The onus, then, should not be on activists to simply communicate their claims in a more pleasant manner and avoid upsetting others; it is unreasonable to expect these individuals to always remain calm. Instead, those who remain unaffected by the issue should recognize the very real injustice these emotions stem from, and consequently strive to be more patient and understanding.

Emotion is not a replacement for logic or evidence; but it is a call for action. Once we hear these groups out, we can in turn evaluate their claims fairly and determine whether an injustice has occurred. Certainly, not every angry protester deserves a remedy. But no matter if they raise their voices, we at least owe it to them to listen.

Teodora Pasca is a second-year student at Innis College studying criminology and ethics, society & law. She is The Varsity’s Associate Comment Editor. Her column appears every three weeks.

Masquerade marketing How sponsored content is compromising journalistic integrity

By imitating editorial content, native advertising marks a new level of corporate deception.

JAREN KERR

ASSOCIATE FEATURES EDITOR

Love it or hate it, everyone under the age of 25 seems to have an opinion on BuzzFeed. It’s the clickbait capital of the Internet, with astronomical levels of web traffic and a jarring valuation of over $1 billion. But how exactly is BuzzFeed able to achieve this with no banner ads and no subscription model to generate revenue?

The answer is sponsored content, of course.

Also known as native advertising, or advertorial, sponsored content is intended to be indistinguishable from editorial content.

It’s the ideal way to grab the reader's attention, and it integrates seamlessly with the

user experience. The ad becomes something to be engaged with, instead of something that sticks out — like a banner ad.

Brands create native ads by commissioning publications to create content that looks like an editor-approved article or a photo spread; in this way, they pay to promote their business with a subtlety and nuance. Some examples of sponsored content include BuzzFeed’s “10 Quotes Every Grad Needs to Read,” sponsored by publishing house Harper Collins, and The Atlantic’s “David Miscavige Leads Scientology to Milestone Year,” commissioned by the Church of Scientology.

There are some subtle giveaways that indicate that you’re reading sponsored content.

Phrases like 'presented by', 'delivered by' or 'sponsor post' can sometimes be found in the byline, or on other parts of the page. It is this subtlety that makes native advertising so appealing for branding companies; furthermore it’s immune to the increasingly popular ad blockers that many people use on their phones and computers.

While sponsored content is nothing new — it’s been in magazines since before the digital era and exists as product placement in TV — it’s become an unnervingly ubiquitous part of the Internet experience, with websites like the aforementioned BuzzFeed as well as VICE, Gawker, Forbes, and even The New Yorker indulging in the revenue stream.

Canadian publications like TorontoLife and Financial Post also publish sponsored content.

While great for inducing clicks, sponsored content compromises what should be the most important thing to any respectable publication: the trust and respect of readers.

Publishers are being intentionally deceitful when they disguise ads as content. It’s disappointing to begin reading an article, only to find out you’re having something sold to you. The editorial integrity of the publication is compromised.

That’s not to say that ads can’t be enjoyable, or should be banished entirely. Ads are one of the biggest draws for viewers of the Super Bowl for instance. The key difference, however, is that we can distinguish a Super Bowl ad from the main event; in contrast, studies have shown that most people can’t tell the difference between real articles and sponsored content.

Perhaps more concerning is that native advertising also hinders a publication’s ability to be independent. Last April, BuzzFeed staff writer Arabelle Sicardi wrote a post that criticized a Dove ad campaign, which was later taken down by upper management because Dove is a brand publisher with the website.

Journalism’s role as a social conscience is eroded by including their advertisers with their editorial content.

Corporate interests will always impact journalism, but native advertising goes a step further.

It intentionally deceives the reader. Imagine a parallel in the university system — for example, it would be an outrage if students discovered that the supposedly independent scholarship we read was actually sponsored by massive corporations. The same way we value the independent voices of scholars, we should value independent and uncompromised journalism.

As students, we are significant consumers of mass media and journalism and consequently, we should be both wary and critical of the way advertising is increasingly woven into the fabric of the press. Though it may seem we, as individuals, have little sway over these larger trends in society, but we can stay alert and call for integrity and accountability from our journalistic outlets.

Jaren Kerr is a third-year student at Innis College, studying bioethics and writing & rhetoric. He is The Varsity’s associate features editor.

T h e f i r s t t i m e I e v e r s a w Toronto was the day I moved here. It was August 2012, and I had left my home city of Brighton, England to come to U of T. I knew very little about Canada and even less about Toronto. One thing I was confident of, however, was that racism didn’t exist in Canada because it was a ‘cultural mosaic’ of a country, where people of varying ethnic backgrounds lived together in harmony. I looked forward to not being complimented on my English language proficiency and to not being asked where I was from all the time.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that my expectations of Canada were shortsighted. I didn’t find the intercultural harmony that I had expected; I found assimilation or isolation. I learned that, not only was racism alive and well, Canada has its own continuing legacy of racist policies and actions. It was at U of T that I learned words and phrases such as ‘racialized’ and ‘person of colour.’ I never thought to apply these terms to myself until I realized that was how other people saw me.

I spoke with several students about their experiences of racism in Canada and how those experiences differ, or are magnified, in a university setting.

RACISM ON CAMPUS

When asked what racism on campus looks like, the students’ I spoke to were unanimous in their emphasis on its covertness. “It looks like it’s not there,” said Cailyn Stewert, a third-year equity studies, history, and diaspora and transnational studies (DTS) student. “It looks invisible. If you tell people it’s there, they look at you like you’ve got four eyes.”

“Racism on campus, to me at least, manifests itself very subtly.

[At] a university in Canada, I think many students walk around with a very colour-blind view to racism.

We’re Canada, and multiculturalism is our thing. It’s what we’re known for, so racism doesn’t exist,” said Wei* a third-year English and chemistry student.

A number of students used the term ‘microaggression’ to describe their day-to-day experiences of racism. Chester Middlebrook Pierce, a black psychiatrist and Harvard professor, coined the term in 1970 to describe invalidations and insults endured

by African Americans at the hands of non-black Americans.

Nowadays, the term is commonly used to describe the casual and normalized oppression of any marginalized group.

“The way I’ve dealt with racism is through microaggressions but also through questions that insinuate either inadequacy or temporariness,” said Aakanksha John, a fourth-year equity studies and DTS student.

“When I was here in my first year, I remember a lot of people asking me how was it that I knew how to speak English so well, which is a big one, I think, that a lot of international students that look like me and sound like me would have,” John recalled. “It was very shocking to have people [suggest that] I had to learn how to be eloquent, and not that I was eloquent as an innate quality.”

Wei faced similar skepticism surrounding her English speaking abilities. “People sometimes assume I speak little or no English, even though I was born and raised in Canada and speak three languages. I once had someone ask me where I was from because my English was ‘too good,’” she said.

John said that the insinuation of temporariness often manifests in the form of the question: ‘where do you come from?’

“I’d say Dubai because that’s where I just moved from. People would often ask me where my origins were, so the questions would never stop until the person was satisfied, and not according to my comfort level,” he explained.

Of the two questions, I always had the most trouble with ‘where are you from?’ because I was at least armed with a response to the language one: whenever someone remarks upon my command over English, I respond with ‘thanks, your English is pretty good too.’ I’d do the same thing with a question such as ‘how did you learn to speak so well?’ ‘The same way that you learned.’

When it came to ‘where are you from?’ my answer was, as John put it, always unsatisfactory. The follow-up would be ‘no, where are you really from?’ because they clearly didn’t believe that someone who looked like me could also come from a Western country.

“They ask you where you’re from, where you’re really from,” said Stewart. I have always felt more comfortable discussing my origin story with other people of colour or racialized people. Stewart said that she felt similarly, and I asked her why she thought that was the case. “If it’s another racialized person asking that question it’s different — there’s that relatability. They aren’t questioning your Canadianness. If it’s coming from a dominant body, they have the privilege of representing Canadianness,” Stewart said.

For Bosibori Moragia, a second-year English literature and African studies student, microaggressions have been more common than instances of overt racism — although she notes that the latter does occur. “I did have an experience last year in which I was going to a protest downtown, the Michael Brown shooting, and I was having dinner with a bunch of people in Strachan [the Trinity College dining hall], and I was explaining why I was wearing all black because it came up in conversation. And I was like, ‘I’m going to this thing.’ And I left and then they had a discussion after I left and my friend stayed behind, and it was basically just, this one guy in particular saying Michael Brown, he deserved to die. So that’s the most overt thing that’s happened to me.”

“We’ve been taught to see life through a dominant lens, but being [at the Racialized Student s’ Collec tive] adds to the third eye, a multiple consciousness.”

IN THE CLASSROOM

Some of the individuals I spoke with noted how microaggressions can be amplified and become more obvious in a classroom setting. Moragia noticed that, as a black woman, she faces pressure in the classroom to be efficient and articulate in a way that is not expected of her white male peers.

“White men, especially in lecture, when they’re asked about their ideas — they can ramble for days. They can just talk on and on and on and on, and it’s fine. But for us, we have this mentality, because people tend to shut us down so quickly, we have to know what we’re saying, say it the best way that it can be said, say it in the most effective way,” she said. “We’re not given that space to fuck up.”

Wei said that she has heard derisive comments from her peers about students with English as a second language, or students whose English is heavily accented. “I often overhear the term ‘fob’ [fresh off the boat] being used to describe those with a very strong ethnic accent, especially a Chinese accent,” Wei said, adding that while nobody she knows has ever called someone this term to their face, her friends use it, and snicker when an international student answers a question in class.

“The term makes me extremely uncomfortable especially since my parents are immigrants from China.”

Wei, however, noticed that it was often second-generation Chinese students using the term to put down their classmates out of internalized racism and fear of being targeted in the same way. “I think this may be their way of trying to separate themselves from their international classmates, as they’re afraid of being mistaken for one of them, and fear that stems from underlying racism that finds its way into the classroom.”

I have also noticed that classrooms cater overwhelmingly to English speakers. East Asian students sometimes provide English names for their classmates and instructors to use instead of their actual names, for instance. On the flipside, I have seen students with longer names or names with sounds that are not found in English become the targets of racist mockery as people struggle to pronounce them, or even when they give up and say ‘I can’t pronounce [your name] and I’m not even going to try.’

In addition to these interactions, course content and syllabi often fail to include perspectives that are not Eurocentric.

Moragia said that, even in African studies, this is a challenge.

Moragia was shocked that out of the three African studies courses she took last semester, only one of them was taught by a black professor. “The rest of [them] are a white South African maybe and another one is a Portuguese lady… but the way that they’re [teaching it] especially my first-year teacher, [it’s done] in a very tone-deaf kind of way.”

“When we tell her like “Oh, actually, we don’t want to see this” or “you could’ve done this in a better way,” she’s very defensive about it, and I feel like that’s something I wouldn’t have to encounter if I had an actual African professor teaching me African studies,” Moragia said.

I am an English Literature specialist and my program demands 3.0 Full Course Equivalents (FCE) of British literature to the nineteenth century, but only 1.0 FCE from each of Canadian and Indigenous North American literatures, and American and transnational literatures. Moragia, an English major, noted that it is entirely possible to obtain an English

degree withou is not possible pertain to you “I find it fr of eighteenth ‘What has th program req Moragia sa texts she stud queerness rep tokenized — o the class ‘dive they’re teachi they say, ‘This finish that and Both Stewa their academi wrote about a science essay. culturally rele nection to the D on the pape “I wrote abo mindset, com below becaus couldn’t assim theory, comm that was a gia body writing a that should’ve enough. But i assimilation t John did no taking courses find a professo class in which changed my in so many thing example, that got it. There w and innuendo understood. A I did so much my experience progress as a h Stewart fou were not critic influence raci centred on an as inherently primitive inte ant and are al boys shooting wants to talk a Stewart has and apparent see it too with studies, Africa [WGS]. U of T

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ARTICLE BY AND ILLUSTRATION

ut ever having to deviate from whiteness, but it e to do so by devoting yourself to courses that ur identity and that interest you. rustrating that I have to have [2.0 FCE] h century British literature, and I’m like, hat got to do with me?’” said Moragia of her quirements. aid that she does not see herself in any of the dies. The rare times she does see blackness or presented, she said that these identities are ostensibly included so that the instructor can call erse.’ “[They don’t] flow into the syllabus. It’s like, ing us this one thing, we stop, they press pause, s is the required diversity section,’ and then we d then we press play again and we go on with it.” art and John discovered equity and DTS later in ic careers. John told me about a time when she a war between India and Pakistan for a political . She was excited to explore a topic that was evant for her and hoped that her personal cone subject matter would help her. She received a er. out my own people, I wrote through an Indian mmenting on Western theory, but I was graded se I didn’t fit the requirements of writing or I milate to writing in a Western way about Western menting on an Eastern war,” John said. “For me ant contradiction, because if I was an Indian about my people, using Western theory, then e been enough. The way I did it should’ve been it wasn’t and I still think that there’s a need for there that I didn’t fulfill.” ot have a professor of colour until she started s in DTS. “I remember it was so difficult for me to or of color, until I started DTS200, that was the first I had a professor of color. And that completely nteraction because finally I felt like there were gs with regard to the immigrant struggle, for t I didn’t have to explain to the prof because he were so many subversive things and nuances os that I didn’t have to convey to him because he And there was such a relief that I experienced and better because I had somebody who understood e very, very clearly and critically and helped me to human being.” und that her criminology and sociology classes cal of institutions and the way in which they ialized human consciousness; rather, they nalyzing black culture. “Black people are treated criminal — we’re always cast as wrongdoers with ellect,” she told me. “Black men are seen as devilways referenced in class, but we also have white g up schools and movie theatres and nobody about that.” s noticed a substantial disparity in the promotion t prosperity of various academic disciplines. “You h the marginalized departments: Caribbean an studies, equity, women and gender studies doesn’t advertise them or fund them well. But

[faculties] like kinesiology and engineering are funded a lot and promoted religiously. No-one threatens them,” Stewart said, referencing an online threat made against U of T WGS professors and students in September 2015.

My conversation with Moragia took a similar turn; she also mentioned the starvation of the Transitional Year Program (TYP), which is designed to help students who do not have the qualifications usually required to get into university.

The TYP had a net expense budget of $1,322,392 in 2014–2015, which is scheduled to increase slightly in 2015–2016, then dwindle to $1,305,255 by 2018–2019, partly owing to a projected increase in revenue from this program.

Moragia was skeptical of the idea that the university cannot sustain certain programs and said that the university chooses which programs it wants to flourish. “They don’t tell you [that] you can’t have these [programs], but then they set it up in a way in which they basically suffocate you from the inside and then you just have to be like, ‘Well, we can’t sustain this anymore.’ So it’s clear they don’t give a shit.”

SOCIAL ACTIVITIES, STUDENT GOVERNANCE, AND BUILDING COMMUNITY.

Adil Abdulla, a fourth-year student studying international relations and economics, participated in the Hart House Debate Club until he quit this year. He described the atmosphere as “pretty patently white.”

“It’s not even because necessarily all of the people are white, it’s just they create an atmosphere that is a lot more amenable to white people, and you see that with, for instance at the first few meetings of the year, you’ve got 60–80 per cent of people are people of colour, and then first, there’s a selection process for novice, and that takes it down to about 50/50, and then by the time you get to a month into school, the percentage is maybe five per cent, which is a dramatic drop,” said Abdulla of the participation rates.

Adil also chairs the Trinity College Meeting (TCM), Trinity College’s direct democracy student government. He told me that he doesn’t see many people of colour in positions of leadership. “I think it’s probably a lack of comfort, might be that some institutions are painfully white institutions,” Abdulla speculated.

Last semester, a new group called POC@Trin formed, aimed at increasing engagement among people of colour at the college. “But it’s like a cycle that feeds on itself, I mean, at the POC@Trin events, you hear lots of comments about people who show up to some event, they don’t see people of colour, and then they leave, and then next year they wouldn’t be there and the same cycle would continue,” Abdulla said.

Stewart sits on the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) Board of Directors as a representative for Woodsworth College and is a member of the UTSU’s Racialized Students’ Collective (RSC). She said that student governance is often a difficult space to navigate as a black woman, and that despite her best efforts she still faces unwarranted criticism. “Some people have said that I’m incapable of doing work and dominant voices are not limited and democratic methods don’t

always work. There are other board members who are people of colour who feel the same way.”

I couldn’t attend the first meeting of the RSC due to a scheduling conflict. I asked Stewart what it was like, and she responded with enthusiasm. “Everyone was connecting with each other, we were finishing each other’s sentences... We all had insightful viewpoints on different things. Everyone sharing experiences and relating to one another complimented my experiences and relating to other racialized students was very powerful.”

The value of shared experiences and fostering a sense of community was echoed by Moragia.

“I feel like I’ve been liking, so far, the little things that I’ve been going to. I feel like the students of colour and black students have been making these really cool events, that you go to and they speak to the problems that you feel like you don’t have anywhere to go to really discuss them, and people are out here trying,” said Moragia on the events that she has gone to and the communities she has joined.

“When I started going to more [Black Students’ Association] events and making friends with people there, making friends with other black people, and stuff like that that I started — they were like, ‘Oh, let’s go to this thing and this, decolonizing this and that, love and white supremacy, this and that,’ and it was just stuff that I was interested in.”

Abdulla agreed. “I think a lot of the cultural organizations are good. I am involved with the Ismaiili Students’ Association, so things like that would be really good, particularly for people of colour. But just various cultural or religious groups are useful, especially given how religion also impacts the racism debate in that it correlates a bit more strongly, it’s also useful to have non-Christian institutions that are able to cater to a different audience.”

MOVING FORWARD

“Why do we have to rally? We get less than half the services.

Mental health for example. Black people are in a process of decolonization, same with Indigenous Peoples. It comes from trauma and it’s distinct,” said Stewart of those services that do not adequately address unique issues faced by people of colour. “I’d really like to see specialists of colour, who can validate how we feel and who recognize that the way you live and move through life as a person of color, specifically a black person based on my own experiences, impacts mental health a substantially.”

Stewart, John, and fellow Woodsworth student Sydney Lang initiated the new Equity Committee at Woodsworth, where they hope to help students feel like their experience matters. “Vic, Trin, and [St Mikes] have Equity Committees and Woodsworth is one of the most diverse colleges, so why not?”

Stewart hopes that the equity chair will have the power to approve event proposals to make sure they are inclusive and that they bear in mind the needs and values of different communities on campus. She said that the committee will also include sub-committees in order to highlight distinct and unique experiences.

John remarked that the narrative of being just a number at U of T is a surprising equalizer that can help students work

together on important issues. “You have certain students who, yes, can access things better than others can due to their privilege, but at the same time you can have an international student, a permanent resident, and a Canadian citizen in a room and not know the difference between the three,” she said.

“There are certain rights that you are protected under by being part of U of T. And a lot of the times, as racialized students and marginalized students, we feel like we’re not protected under it, but I know students, my seniors, who’ve inspired me to demand for my rights and not be quiet and not be silenced.

Those are the people who’ve really empowered me and who’ve taken away the stigma of being quiet and just being run over. So as a student who is a permanent resident, I feel like I’m joined by international students, by Canadian citizens, and for us the cause is what unites us.”

John said that she would like to see equity become a breadth requirement to graduate. “You’ve got society, you’ve got sociology, psychology, you do these things, but why isn’t equity a requirement? Those are the things that inform so much of changing the narrative around Canadian-ness and identity and power at this university.”

She says that, for now, students should look for opportunities to learn about the experiences of others. “Go to events that are in spaces you haven’t experienced before and open yourself to learning and trying something new because these conversations are important. And if you don’t know how you fit in, into that conversation, if you don’t know how you relate to the struggle, then you’re never going to be involved, and when it comes the day for you to be represented, and you need people to fight for you, or give you a platform to stand on to raise your voice, you won’t have it.”

For his part, Abdulla said that he has faith in systems of governance and hopes that more people of colour come to governance events. “Because the only real bodies that can make decisions that might help are these governance bodies and generally there’s at least theoretically the ability to show up but people don’t. And I don’t know why, I’ve been trying to ask people to find out, but I really think that that needs to happen before we can go about getting any reasonable amount of change,” he said.

I asked Stewart whether she felt optimistic that change will occur. “There is this emphasis on optimism,” she said, “you’re demonized if you’re not seen as being optimistic. It’s tiring and frustrating work, and I’d call it realism, not optimism.

Realism takes into perspective the criticality of human issues, whereas through optimism you run the risk of overlooking the harmful degrees of racial issues whilst abandoning reasonable and complementary judgement, and instead one paints an illusion of a post-racist utopia.”

“It’s disrespectful to the scale of the problem to expect optimism,” Stewart continued. “I try to practice self-care and not let all this kill me inside. To be honest, I’m not an optimistic person — I’m critical of reality, and to compliment that I have a profound resilience that’s been handed down from my ancestors to us children of the African continent and diaspora.”

E SHADOWS

of racism on campus

IRIS ROBIN N BY DIANA PHAM

*Name has been changed

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ARTS&CULTURE 11 January 2016

arts@thevarsity.ca

The value of vinyl Students and experts weigh in on the appeal of the vinyl record

Vinyl sales have been on a steady incline over the past few years. AMY WANG/THE VARSITY

CORINNE PRZYBYSLAWSKI VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

T

he invention of digital recording left in its wake a tremendous and lasting aftershock. On October 1, 1982, Billy Joel’s sixth studio album, 52nd Street, became the first album to be released commercially on a compact disc. 52nd Street was not a new album; its public debut occurred in 1978 as a vinyl press, which was the standard format in mass consumption at the time. By statistical comparison, digital audio was expected to be superior to analog; compact discs were meant to strike the consumer as the more viable investment, considering that discs were resilient to the degradation that plagued the overplayed record. This change intended to render the costly inconvenience of vinyl pressing obsolete, lower the price of purchasing music, and allow the industry to flourish.

Ever since the compact disc’s introduction in the '80s, the music industry has taken a turn towards the portability and accessibility of digital audio formats. This notion flourished across various platforms; it affected the performance, production, and collection of music as each gradually evolved to incorporate the more affordable industry standard.

Analog tools, such as synthesisers, compressors, and vinyl, had proven to be heavy, expensive, and inconvenient, especially for the amateur studio dweller. It was this mentality

that caused vinyl to recede to cult value, even in a nightclub setting.

That being said, it's natural for all artistic markets to undergo changes within a few years, especially if the market is oversaturated with a specific trend. Circuits that were once dominated by commercially viable genres are maturing alongside the audience’s slowly sophisticating tastes. Producers like Four Tet, Floating Points, and Bonobo — all of whom recently performed in Toronto — are compiling their set lists exclusively with vinyl. The tremendous critical acclaim of the old-fashioned tradition is leading many to reconsider a return to vinyl, whether as a listener or performer.

David Tanton is a former U of T student and electronic music producer who publishes his content under the moniker, “Rhoda”. He feels that when streaming platforms like “Spotify and Pandora reign supreme,” listeners “get caught in genres” that they are comfortable with, leaving them to “go back to the same artists time and time again.” It is useful to note that digital stations, as well as many online music vendors, take sponsor money from labels to ensure that certain artists rest at the top of the ‘most listened to' list.

Vinyl is no longer “much of a cult thing as it is a hobby” to Tanton, and he notes that the fun lies in wandering into “record shops and [walking] out with armfuls of cheap bin records…hoping to find lost

DJ's are prone to using record players at shows. AMY WANG/THE VARSITY

audial gems.” As per history, “It’s a sonic investment to say the least.”

Given the investment that many are willing to make in vinyl over other formats of music, such as streaming subscriptions or CDs, it's fair to ask whether or not vinyl does, scientifically, sound better.

Mariana Hutten-Czapski is a mixing and mastering engineer who holds a bachelor's degree in music technology, sound design, and music composition from Concordia University. Her alma mater allowed her to cultivate an expertise in mastering stereo and multi-track recordings, and software tools used to process analog and digital sounds. While a good listening experience is often subjective, Hutten-Czapski notes that “humans are more sensitive to the frequencies around 2-4kHz.” She notes that analog formats such as vinyl do not necessarily eliminate these frequencies, but they end up seeming “more subtle than with digital technology.” The sampling rate is infinite — in other words, the relatively lossless audio that analog is revered for — sound “softer [and] more pleasing” than the distortion caused by low sampling rates characteristic of digital recordings. iTunes and other major music players tend to play sound in either 256 or 320kbps MP3 format, which can cause a certain degree of wear to the sound.

A similar form of distortion occurs with vinyl formatting, however; the “way the needle runs

on the grooves produces a pleasing distortion,” thereby tricking the brain into hearing more.

According to Nick Koppel the heir to a 38-year-old Toronto family business by the name of Kops Records, there is a wider range of genres and discographies available in hard recording than other formats. Koppel observes that “As music shrunk to bytes, consumers craved the tangible.” The fact that “records can play without electricity: combine plate, string, nail, cup, hamster, and wheel,” may sway listeners toward the investment that guarantees a material possession, rather the investment that left them with a digital license.

The quality and novelty of one’s listening experience remains a core focus of the music industry. This coaxes listeners into overlooking the fact that "full catalogues are seldom available, and favourite albums never repressed,” as limited pressing plants produce dwindling catalogues. In 2014, more than 13 million LPs were sold in the United States.

Canadian vinyl sales that year increased by 71 per cent, and the total number sold in Canada surpassed 400,000 records.

This unexpected renaissance of vinyl, which faded with the arrival of compact discs in the 1980s, is proving that, while vinyl may lack the immediacy of digital media, ownership and experience rest as the redeeming qualities of the record. As the vinyl gold rush continues, it appears as though this cast of mind will continue to sustain collector culture over the years.

Some speculate that vinyl is more sonically pleasing than digital audio. AMY WANG/THE VARSITY

M O N DAY 11 J A N U A R Y 2 016

T H E VA R S I T Y

ARTS & CULTURE 15

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You’re hot then you’re cold Here’s how to dress during Toronto’s sporadic weather patterns HANNAH LANK

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

There are some predictable phenomena in life: what day it will be tomorrow, who will get eliminated on The Bachelor, and exam season.

Then there are other, less-predictable events: how much sleep you’ll get during exam season, the entire plot of Inception, and Toronto’s weather patterns.

Given that most university students have enough to worry about as they manage school, a social life, and sleep, it’s no surprise that many forget to check the weather every morning. We are taken by surprise when we find ourselves in 10-degree weather when it was -20 the day before. Luckily there are ways you can dress comfortably and stylishly, while combatting Toronto’s sporadic weather.

1. Light scarves: If you’ve spent a fair portion of your time stalking style bloggers on Pinterest and Instagram, you’ll probably have noticed how many of them wear scarves.

Not only can a great scarf enhance any outfit quickly and easily, you can

also take it off and cram it in your bag if you’re too warm. A light scarf protects your neck from the wind, but it's not too dense, meaning that if the temperature starts to increase, you won’t start sweating buckets.

2. Pea coats: Investing in a high quality, stylish coat is something most Canadians are familiar with.

Brands like Canada Goose and Nobus can get pretty pricey. Instead, opt for a pea coat — it’s not nearly as massive as a Canada Goose coat, but is just as effective.

3. Layer, layer, layer: Layers are a fashionista’s best friend. Turns out, they’re also great for weird weather patterns. Wear your outerwear, sweater, and undershirt in a way that is easy to remove if no longer needed. Leg warmers are also a great layer for tights, and if you’re set on wearing denim jeans on a frigid morning, you can also wear some form of tights underneath for a warm and stylish take (fishnets or other patterns work well).

4. Gloves with removable fingertips: Chances are you wouldn’t be caught dead wearing these. But trust me. Acting as the palmequivalent of the ever-regrettable zip-off pants, this article of clothing has you covered in the coldest and warmest of times. Even better, the removable fingertips allow you to use your iPhone whilst keeping your gloves on — a perk that is nothing if not handy.

5. Boots: No matter what the salesperson at Footlocker told you, Adidas Superstars are not a legitimate winter shoe. Plus, with all the salt on the ground to melt the snow, it’s best to avoid wearing sports shoes to keep from wrecking them. Donning a warm pair of winter boots – like Sorel’s or Timberlands – will save you from sitting with soggy feet for the duration of your 3-hours psych lecture in Con Hall.

ELHAM NUMAN/THE VARSITY

Anticipated albums of 2016 What’s in store for Toronto’s local acts in the new year BRYAN HONG

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

We’ve all seen the best-of lists for music in 2015. Now, it’s time to look forward to the most exciting upcoming albums for the new year. For Toronto-based musicians, 2016 is slated to be a great year, because of up-and-coming and wellestablished favourites. While some of these artists have not officially confirmed an album release in 2016, the guessing game is all part of the fun. Here’s a list of local acts to look forward to hearing from in 2016.

1) JAZZ CARTIER Since his show at The Cat’s Eye, Toronto-based rapper Jazz Cartier has been touring his wildly successful mixtape Marauding in Paradise.

The album blends Atlanta trap music with the character of a grimy, downtown Toronto house party.

Cartier recently released a track on Soundcloud called “I Know,” with its description alluding to a new album in 2016.

2) BASIA BULAT This singer-songwriter is known for her graceful yet powerful voice and her unique use of the autoharp. All three of her albums have been nominated for a Polaris Music Prize,

and her most recent album, Tall Tall Shadow, was nominated for a Juno Award in 2014. It’s been quite a while since we heard from Bulat, but her upcoming album Good Advice is scheduled to be released on February 12.

3) CRYSTAL CASTLES/ALICE GLASS Diehard Crystal Castle’s fans will know that Glass’ departure from the electro-punk band was a heartbreaker. However, both Alice Glass and Crystal Castles (with new member Edith Frances) have dropped their own individual tracks, and both provide their own spin on the trademark witchy-electronic sound that they're known for.

Both projects are rumored to have releases this year, but maybe if we wish really hard, Glass will return to give us some classic Crystal Castles goodness.

4) TORY LANEZ Tory Lanez is a volcano that is about to erupt. Slowly but surely, the 23-year old Toronto rapper has been getting his name out there; he’s released some absolute bangers like “Say It” and “B.L.O.W.,” and

has also been featured on the new Freddie Gibbs and YG albums. His debut album is set to be released sometime this year.

5) LYON If you enjoy polished, saccharine, and memorable synth-pop, then Lyon is worth checking out. Although she’s released some tracks here and there, Lyon has not released much since her debut EP, Indian Summer, leaving fans salivating for more. Currently, Lyon is supposedly in the studio working on a full-length album.

6) PUP A personal favourite, PUP has been dominating the Toronto punk scene through sheer energy and dedication. Their style is an explosive combination of infectiously catchy melodies, primal screaming, and heavy guitar riffs. Judging from their new song, “DVP” (named after the Don Valley Parkway), PUP shows no sign of relenting on their new album.

7) ALVVAYS Alvvays (pronounced Always) increased in popularity over the past

WINSTON LI/THE VARSITY

couple of years due to their summery melodies and melancholic lyricism. Accordingly, their self-titled debut, chocked full of catchy songs like “Archie, Marry Me” and “Party Police,” made many critics’ best-of lists in 2014. Mad many critics' best-of lists in 2014. The groups new album is expected to deliver faster, more aggressive jangle pop.

8) DRAKE You simply cannot write a list of most anticipated Toronto albums without mentioning the 6ix God

himself. The past year has witnessed Drake take over the rap game completely, thanks to If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, What a Time to Be Alive, and the wildfire status of “Hotline Bling.” His new album, Views From the 6, is reported to have features from Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, and Kanye West. Sufficed to say, I’ll be disappointed if this album is anything but hot fire.

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T H E VA R S I T Y

M O N DAY 11 J A N U A R Y 2 016 arts@thevarsity.ca

Art review: four design proposals for front campus Like any good piece of art, these pictures deserve a thorough critique LISA POWER

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Last fall, four different design teams submitted proposals for the revitalization of U of T’s front campus.

These beautifully rendered images paint a portrait of everyday student life with accuracy reminiscent of Enlightenment-era art. Indeed, many subtle themes — like weather and depth of field — are captured so elegantly that they deserve a thorough, unforgiving critique, just as any artwork would.

PUBLIC WORK: A bright and cheerful reimagining of the front campus is the concept behind this picture. It is a place for escape and contemplation. The figures traffic leisurely, seemingly unaware that they have three assignments and two exams the following week. The sun — a symbol of life — shines brightly on the universities' patrons. They do not face the viewer; rather, they move in a directionless fashion, blissfully ignorant to the crippling anxieties of student life.

KPMB Architects + Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates + Urban Strategies: Here, the field is completely transformed by the artists, harmoniously combining the man-made with nature. The earth has been raised into a grove and fitted with an escalator.

Clearly this is a metaphor for higher education and the unlimited possibilities it offers. The concept is depicted brilliantly, while also offering functionality, as the design centers on the best way to park more cars underground.

DTAH + Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Taking the award for planning negligence a random and, yes, sloppily placed ice rink that appears to simultaneously block the flow of pedestrian traffic and completely isolate the J. Robert S. Prichard Alumni House? The fictitious skaters spin round the house, presumably deaf to the pleas of the trapped alumni, cold and hungry in their poorly designed captivity.

Janet Rosenberg & Studio + architectsAlliance + ERA Architects This image depicts the front campus as an inclusive, picturesque, and communal space where everyone can enjoy a traditional Canadian winter activity: ice-skating. Students will appreciate this perfect excuse to procrastinate on their studies. Later, in summer, the space may be used for a running track. Both options allow local residents to overcrowd campus space while everyone else circles ‘round and ‘round, as though they are on a never ending merry go round.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF LANDMARK COMMITTEE

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“This isn’t even television” How streaming is transforming the small screen REUT COHEN

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

MIRKA LOISELLE/THE VARSITY

We all know the story: it’s late, you’re tired, you’re telling yourself that you’re only going to watch one episode, but before you know it, you’ve watched six and need to be awake in two hours — binge-watching strikes again.

Binge-watching is considered a common activity for many students that can serve as a reward, a way to unwind, or simply a convenient way to catch up on your favourite TV shows, and that is the way Netflix wants it.

According to Benjamin Wright, a professor at the Cinema Studies Institute of U of T, “it’s the wild west right now in terms of streaming original content.” Streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Video, and Hulu aren’t just changing how television is consumed, but also how it’s being made in the first place.

Netflix has its own unique way of releasing original content. Entire seasons are released all at once, a format tailored for bingeing. Yet there are potential drawbacks to this strategy: “fewer chances might be taken on something that could be seen as too edgy, because they need to invest so much up front, and it won’t be released for another year,” says Wright.

For example, Netflix has aligned itself with industry heavyweights like Marvel to produce shows such as Marvel’s Jessica Jones and Daredevil, that come with an established fanbase. Streaming services have also cultivated reputations for themselves as saviors of under-appreciated shows, like the cult hit Community, which was cancelled by NBC but quickly picked up by Yahoo! Screen for a sixth season.

This being said, the possibility that a show may be ‘binged’ in a matter of days rather than viewed on a weekly basis has already begun to affect the ways shows are produced. “[This] changes the way content producers deal with that,” Wright says. “Knowing that their show might be seen as one part… some of these shows are so cinematic that they benefit from a lengthier viewing.” It’s true: there are already programs deviating from the conventional aesthetics of television. Master of None, a recent Netflix success starring

Aziz Ansari, makes use of a narrower aspect ratio — more widescreen than full — to take advantage of the unique viewing experience of binge-watching. Co-creator Alan Yang has said, “we wanted it to feel less like most of the single camera comedies that are out there.”

In a recent article in Vox, film analyst Todd VanDerWerff argues that streaming services represent a shift away from the episodic nature of network TV, and a pivot towards an entirely new art form. Wright shares this view, noting how “this isn’t even television.

People talk about Netflix shows as TV shows, but they don’t air on television.” Jill Soloway, the creator of Transparent, which streams on Amazon Video, has said that her team has begun to think of each season as a five-hour movie rather than ten individual episodes.

Jaime Reynoso, the cinematographer of Bloodline — a Netflix original that could be described as film noir — noted that he “never saw [it] as a TV show.” Instead, Reynoso chose to approach the filming of Bloodline as an extended documentary shoot to capture the realism required, an example of how content creators are able to alter production styles to suit the new medium.

By contrast, shows that were produced before the streaming model became so popular might not be as enjoyable when bingewatched. “Older shows, like Friends, which is now on Netflix, are almost a little numbing when you start to see the patterns. When you watched it only once a week, you didn’t pick up on those things,” Wright says. In other words, it may become easier for viewers to identify cliché elements when they’re watching multiple episodes in succession.

Binge-watching is a definite productivitykiller, but perhaps also a marker of a new era in media. Only time will tell how demand for this new method of consumption will affect traditional media production. According to Wright, “there will be repercussions down the road, but we don’t know yet how this is going to affect audiences.” Now, the only thing to do is Netflix and wait.

Quotes have been condensed and edited for clarity.

In conversation with: The Big Sound A staple within the local music scene, motown cover-band The Big Sound tells their story ANDREW FRIESEN VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

If you’re a fan of soul music, yet have difficulty finding a modern band that adequately encapsulates the Motown sound of the '60s look no further. The Big Sound is a 30-piece Motown cover-band from Toronto that recreate the intricacies of soul music with a fine-tuned attention to detail, and a devout passion to the powerful musicality of Motown’s celebrated compositions.

The band holds regular performances at the Mod Club in Toronto, and is known for starting their shows around 11:00 pm, and finishing their set around three in the morning. After their new year’s eve performance, I spoke with Chris Sandes, the ringleader, or ‘curator’ of The Big Sound, about the band’s history.

The Varsity: When did The Big Sound come into existence?

Chris Sandes: About five years ago.

TV: Was it just something you had been thinking about for a while?

CS: I'd been playing music off-and-on in town forever, and I did know a lot of people... I had a moment when I saw a really cheesy, wedding style band playing a song I liked horribly, and it occurred to me that nobody ever got to hear Motown music performed the way it was recorded — that is to say, with a full horn section, full string section, full backup singer section, and a full rhythm section. The idea was very detail

oriented. Toronto has such a wonderfully vast music scene. Through word of mouth and through going to gigs and keeping my ears open, I was lucky enough to wind up with some of Toronto's best talent, and have been lucky to keep it going as long as I have. However, being as big of a band as we are, we can't play everywhere, and there are very few venues that can hold us.

You can imagine the cost of drawing from the best players means paying them a living wage, and that is something which is really important to me — is that everyone gets paid. I guarantee the pay, and I'm not saying anybody is getting rich off of this, but I guarantee pay, and partly because of that we can't do it every day.

TV: And you guys have no plans to stop either? It's just a passion project that's going to keep on going?

CS: The idea or concept is providing Toronto with a renaissance of Motown music, and that can continue under the same name. We're constantly getting new singers as other people go on tour, and it’s great. It’s great that there are people in their early '20’s and then there are people in their '30’s; it keeps it interesting.

We do have a website coming up but... I have no idea when it will actually exist. But it will be on the Facebook when it does.

The Big Sound can be found online at https:// www.facebook.com/thebigsoundofmotown/

11 January 2016

N OW S

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A student’s perspective on the opportunities and risks of gene-editing

CIENC

E

Masters of our own design

science@thevarsity.ca

D UN T

var.st/science

SCIENCE

ENGINERING MICROENVIRONMENTS FOR CARDIOVASCULAR REGENERATION The Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology (LMP) Monday series will feature Dr. Milica Radisic, known for her recent breakthrough in miniature heart tissue engineering.

January 11 4:00–5:00pm Medical Sciences Building 1 King’s College Circle Rm2170 Admission: Free

BIOETHICS SEMINAR — USING THE INFORMED CONSENT FRAMEWORK TO CREATE GUIDELINES FOR THE ETHICAL PRESENTATION OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH Dr. Andrew Schroeder from the Department of Philosophy will make a presentation on ethical guidelines for the presentation of scientific findings.

Dr. Zhang from the Zhang Lab at MIT speaks about CRISPR during a visit to U of T. SOPHIE ZOU/THE VARSITY

SHAAN BHAMBRA

ASSOCIATE SCIENCE EDITOR

In 2012, the naturally occurring Cas9 enzyme was shown to be able to edit DNA sequences from a number of organisms by researchers at the Zhang Lab at MIT. While this new powerful genetic editing tool holds great promise for treating an array of genetic disorders, such as HIV, cancers, and lesser known disorders like Duchenne muscular dystrophy; it also raises a number of ethical questions. When do we allow DNA editing in humans? To what extent will we allow for DNA editing to modify our genomes? Are we getting in the way of evolution, and what dangers could modifying our DNA bring about? Most importantly, how will these changes to our genome get passed down to our offspring?

Due to these important and deeply controversial questions, scientists worldwide agreed to a moratorium on CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing research in humans.

For now, scientists have agreed to allow for clinical gene-editing research in all human cells but have banned research that edits the germline — a scientific term for the DNA that is passed on from parent to offspring.

There is merit to this stance. The state of CRISPR-Cas9 research is still in its infancy, and needs to be perfected before it can be used in human therapeutics, and must pass a number of tests before it can be used to edit the human germline.

CRISPR-Cas9 is not the first technology capable of editing DNA — its predecessors were zinc finger nucleases and TALENs, among other technologies — but so far it is the most promising. That said, biological techniques are not foolproof, and the CRISPR-Cas9 is not immune to offtarget effects in the genome.

To put this in perspective, imagine that someone designs a computer program to edit the operating system on your computer. The program used is usually effective and edits the code it intends to.

Although every once in a while, it modifies the code of something you need to function (for instance, Microsoft Word). But unlike a computer program or operating system, we cannot simply uninstall and then reinstall the program with the defective code. Instead, we are stuck with something dysfunctional, and the possibility that the defective code will actually interfere with other things that previously were working. To extend the analogy now, we’re left with a computer that cannot do basic word processing, and, scariest of all, cannot be

fixed. To make matters worse, offtarget effects in germline editing will likely be permanent not only in a single generation, but for generations to come.

The difficulty with CRISPRCas9 is that it holds so much promise, that researchers around the world are all racing to incorporate the technology into their work.

As this race gets more competitive, the likelihood that someone will attempt something dangerous in the process of conducting ground breaking research increases. Thus the ban on germline editing.

Although CRISPR-Cas9 is potentially very dangerous, research cannot and should not be stopped.

If we’re able to solve some of humanity’s most pressing concerns, such as HIV/AIDS, then we have a moral obligation to try. For that reason, the CRISPR-Cas9 geneediting system might be the latest biomedical advancement to offer serious hope to millions. As long as scientists worldwide ensure that they conduct their research with caution and within certain limits, gene-editing research will be able to make significant advancements safely.

Recently, The Varsity had a chance to attend a discussion with Dr. Feng Zhang of the Zhang Lab, hosted by the Neuroscience Association for Undergraduate Students.

At the event, one student asked the researcher his opinion on using the CRISPR-Cas9 system to edit the germline. Dr. Zhang replied, that the importance of germline editing varies between groups of people, such as potential parents and policy-makers. As a researcher, he suggested that “we are not ready to use this [CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing] for medical treatment, because there are issues with specificity and efficiency,” citing the possibility of off-target effects.

He highlighted the possibility of off-target effects causing other disorders, like cancer.

While the CRISPR-Cas9 system is undoubtedly one of the greatest biomedical breakthroughs of the past fifty years, if not the past century, it is not ready for public consumption. While nearly everyone wants this technology to be perfected, it cannot and should not be used until it is. When that day comes, the possibilities for treating disease and improving lives will be endless. It is for that reason, that CRISPR-Cas9 and gene-editing research needs to keep moving at its current pace, while being constrained by a few necessary rules.

January 13 4:00–5:00pm Health Sciences Building 155 College Street Rm106 Admission: Free

SYMBIOTIC AUTONOMY: ROBOTS, HUMAN & THE WEB Professor Manuela Veloso, who speciali es in the area of artificial intelligence and robotics, will be speaking at a talk co-hosted by the Department of Computer Science and IRM. January 13 4:00–5:00pm Bahen Center 40 St. George Street

INNOVATIONS IN IMMUNOTHERAPHY: CONFERENCE ON CURING CANCER AND AUTOIMMUNITY Hosted by the LMP and the LMPSU, the conference is an ideal opportunity to learn about cutting edge immunotherapeutic techniques, patient specific immunotherapy, and ethical implications in their applications.

January 16 9:00–3:30pm Medical Science Building 1 King’s College Circle Rm2158 Admission: Free

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The newcomers to the table Now that the seventh row of the periodic table is complete, what’s next?

Professor Batey says it is unlikely that we will see changes to the periodic table posters at U of T any time soon. TOSIN MAIYEGUN/THE VARSITY

AKI KIM

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

On December 30, 2015, the scientific community received a late Christmas present from the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC): the recognition of four new elements, which completes the periodic table to the seventh row. A joint RussianAmerican research team is credited for the discovery of elements number 115, 117, and

118, and the discovery of element number 113 is accredited to a Japanese research team.

Though the hardest part of discovering new elements is over, the researchers still have the task of giving suitable names to the elements. The IUPAC regulations state that elements must be named after “one of their chemical or physical properties, a mythological concept, a mineral, a place or country, or a scientist.” Once everything is commercialized, we can expect

the new periodic tables to appear in new chemistry textbooks.

According to Robert Batey, the chair of the U of T chemistry department, the U of T community should not expect to see the periodic tables around the chemistry department change any time soon.

Since the new elements were created synthetically through nuclear reactions using particle colliders, it is unlikely that they will be found naturally on Earth. The instability of the newly discovered elements makes it unlikely that practical uses will emerge from their discovery.

“The amount of element produced is so tiny that it really doesn’t have any practical benefit. It is more of an intellectual development more than anything else,” said Batey.

The completion of the seventh row of the periodic table is certainly a great achievement for the scientific community. The table allows scientists to predict the chemical and physical properties of each element according to their position in the table. It is the first time since 2011 that the table has been updated.

Dmitri Mendeleev was the first to compose a periodic table, in 1869, which characterized elements according to the their atomic numbers.

Now that the seventh row is complete what happens next is the question on everyone’s minds. There certainly has been speculation about the uncharted eighth row. Until element number 120, all the elements can be arranged according to blocks (s-, p-, d-, and f-) on the periodic table. Batey has suggested that the real excitement would be caused by a discovery beyond element number 120. This would mean creating a whole new g-block for the element, prompting chemists and physicists to redesign the periodic table.

There is no need to wait in anticipation though, as there is no timeline for when scientists will discover g-block elements. There have been predictions about heavy elements that are able t o exist for a longer period of time, but it may be the case that these elements are too unstable to make. “Maybe this is it,” says Batey, “maybe this is the end, we’ve reached it, the rest can’t be made, but my gut feeling is probably that’s not the case.”

The Japanese Riken Lab expressed the same opinion as they announced that they would continue the pursuit of discovering new elements. Since there is no chemistry for the gblock elements, it would be a redefining moment for the world if chemists and physicists ever reach that region of the periodic table.

RESEARCH IN BRIEF RESEARCH FINDS GENETIC SOURCE FOR SLEEP CHANGES WITH AGE

NEW STUDY SHEDS LIGHT ON WEIGHT LOSS AND PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS

EBOLA CONTINUES TO CAUSE PROBLEMS FOR EPIDEMIC SURVIVORS

U OF T AND ROM RESEARCHERS FIND FPRECAMBRIAN BROOD CARE FOSSIL

Although it may be a foreign concept to university students, a regular sleep schedule is critical to a healthy life. In most organisms, this is accomplished through what is known as the circadian rhythm. This 24-hour rhythm is our internal genetic clock, and it consists of a regulated expression of genes and molecules that control alertness, executive function, and even metabolism. As we age, this cycle begins to change and has been implicated in effects such as decreased immunity or ‘sundowning’ in the elderly, where agitation increases later in the day.

In order to elucidate the complex regulation of this clock, researchers at U of T and the University of Pittsburgh conducted a study in 146 post-mortem brains to identify temporal changes in gene expression.

The researchers chose to focus on the prefrontal cortex, a region involved in moderating social behavior and decision-making. By choosing samples with various times of death, they were able to create a 24-hour timeline of gene expression. From this, a set of 235 core genes were identified that regulate our internal clock, some of which were found to decrease in expression with age.

An even more interesting finding was that a certain set of genes also increase in rhythmicity with age. These genes could potentially explain the effects of sundowning and sleep problems seen in the elderly, eventually leading to therapeutic interventions.

Need motivation to lose weight? A new study has found that weight loss increases facial attractiveness in people. The study was conducted by researchers Daniel Re and Nicholas Rule from the U of T psychology department, who found that for people of average height, women would have to to lose 14 pounds and 18 pounds for men in order to be seen as more attractive.

To come to this conclusion, the researchers conducted two studies. The first study determined what amount of weight-loss would cause a noticeable difference in the facial appearance of participants. The results of this study indicated that for weight loss to be noticeable, a man would have to lose around 9.3 pounds and a woman would have to lose 7.8 pounds.

The second study determined the threshold at which there is a perceived change in visible attractiveness, which was the aforementioned 14 pounds for women and 18 pounds for men.

We all remember the ebola outbreak in 2014, and most of us are probably going into 2016 thinking that with the release of the vaccine, ebola’s reign of terror is over. This is not the case though; the reported number of West Africans who have contracted ebola has been found to be much lower than the actual number.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the outbreak has killed approximately 11,300 of the 28,600 infected persons in West Africa. We are just discovering now that ebola has a number of long term effects. The higher the patient’s viral load — or the amount of virus in their blood — the worse complications will be after contraction.

Survivors can potentially expect to face blindness and vision problems, hearing loss, and joint pain. Though the virus clears from the blood in a few weeks, it can still be transmitted through semen and breast milk. Thankfully, the World Health Organization has stated that transmission by survivors is rare.

A sad reality is that better care should have been provided for survivors at the beginning of the outbreak, but the high number of patients needing treatment proved overwhelming.

Medical professionals are now commenting on the need for West Africa to rebuild their health system in order to provide better treatment.

Kangaroos, koalas, and opossums are marsupial mammals that care for their young in pouches until they have reached maturity.

Known as brood care, this is an attempt to enhance the offspring’s chance of survival. A recent study conducted by researchers at U of T and the Royal Ontario Museum has found that the practice of brood care dates back 508 million years.

Waptia fieldensis were tiny arthropods that lived during the Cambrian period. Researchers determined that these shrimp like creatures carried eggs, due to the preserved embryos found in their bodies. The insect had a bivalve carapace, a duplex structure covering the front of its body. Beneath the carapace were egg-shaped clusters that helped the insect hold its eggs and later care for its young.

A similar discovery was made in China a few years ago, when Kunmingella douvillei, another ancient arthropod, was found with eggs inside its body. The eggs, however, did not contain embryos and were located lower on the body. This suggests that Cambrian animals had many different methods of brood care.

The recent discovery of brood care in W. fieldensis, as well as the former discovery in K. douvillei, increases our understanding of brood care during the Cambrian explosion, a time during which animals rapidly evolved to be closer to their present-day descendants.

— Stefan Jevtic

— Mishka Danchuk-Lauzon

— Kasi Sewraj

— Narthaanan Srimurugathasan

20 SCIENCE

T H E VA R S I T Y

M O N DAY 11 J A N U A R Y 2 016 science@thevarsity.ca

tu ent programmers announce as semi finalists in coding competition Two U of T undergrads selected as lone representatives from Canada in the 2015 Pearson Coding Competition SANDY WANG

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Everyone learns differently; while some benefit primarily from a visual education, others get more out of listening to information.

Increasingly, learning methods are expanding with online videos, books, and applications that make education more accessible. In order to foster the creation of more online learning tools, UK-based educational publisher Pearson Education launched their third annual Pearson Student Coding Contest last September.

The contest is designed for undergraduate students in the United States and Canada to create applications that help students learn.

fi

This year, two undergraduate students from the University of Toronto, Christopher Goldsworthy and Farhan Samir are the only competitors from Canada to make it into the semi-final round of the competition, along with 19 others from the US. Contestants first pitched their ideas in September by creating a proposal that was judged by a team of industry experts before developing their applications. Winners of the contest will be awarded in February with cash prizes and a chance to intern at Pearson Education. The goal is to integrate the Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), tools that can be used for building software, to construct educational apps that are functional and novel.

r

The Varsity reached one of the U of T semi-finalists in the competition, Christopher Goldsworthy, for an interview. Goldsworthy, a second–year computer science student, created the application HandUp. Goldsworthy was inspired by an application called Memrise, where users can engage in vocabulary memorization exercises and are awarded points for their performance. HandUp has two main functions: first, to take and share lecture notes, and second, to get more students to study in groups.

Students are awarded points for studying together, creating a fun incentive to learn and a simple online platform for interaction.

Points are also awarded based on the quality of the students’ notes.

These notes will be compared to other users’ notes, using a program that compares key words. An average selection of key words will be found and as long as the students’ notes are similar to the average, they will be awarded points in the application. Using Bluetooth, the app can also connect different users and their friends in the same class.

With regards to the coding competition, Goldsworthy says his goal is to “develop more of a vocational skill of software development. As long as I make something of professional quality which is usable, I will be satisfied.”

Goldsworthy says it was stressful to balance working on the application with exams, but he plans to complete and perfect the app by

the end of January. For now, he is content with the experience he has had with the competition.

When asked for advice to give individuals interested in developing software or going into computer science, he says, “first they should learn a programing language, preferably Java or Python.

I recommend Java because of Android. It’s a very simple platform to develop for. Really you just need to have motivation and drive to develop something.”

For the future, Goldsworthy is interested in moving forward to explore projects involving machine learning and visual computing.

fi

In 2015, multiple Toronto-based researchers retracted stu ies because of falsifie WAN XIAN KOH

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

The scientific research community is dependent on academic integrity for its credibility. Intentional manipulation of results is considered a cardinal sin. The consequences of research misconduct extend beyond just the scientists’ personal reputations and careers; it can also compromise the validity of other scientific discoveries and diminish the trust the public places in science.

It was a great surprise then, when in the fall of 2015, an internal investigation revealed that Dr. Sophie Jamal, a researcher and senior physician at the Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, fabricated the results of a nitroglycerin study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The paper reported that nitroglycerin “significantly” increased bone density among post-menopausal women. A randomized control trial was conducted on 243 women with a mean age of 61.6 to investigate the effect of an applied nitroglycerin ointment opposed to a placebo.

In response to evidence of falsified statistical data, a retraction was requested on December 28 2015, approximately four years after the study was first published in 2011.

Jamal has co-authored over 50 publications. She was the research director of the Centre for Osteo-

porosis & Bone Health and an associate professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, but she has since resigned from both positions. Additionally, participants of the two-year-long study have been informed about the misrepresentation of results.

In an interview with the Toronto Star, Marilyn Emery, the president of the Women’s College Hospital acknowledged the pressure on researchers to publish meaningful results, though she acknowledged that it should not justify compromising the integrity of research.

Unfortunately, two other Toronto-based researchers were investigated for research misconduct this past summer. A husband and wife, Dr. Shereen Ezzat and Dr. Sylvia Asa, allegedly falsified data in two studies published in the American Journal of Pathology.

The papers examined the genetics of breast cancer and were published in May and December of 2010 respectively. The validity of their work was first questioned in September 2012; both papers have since been retracted. Concerns were also raised over a third paper containing an image that was previously published in another journal.

Asa, a pathologist, and Ezzat, an endocrinologist, are both employed by the University Health Network (UHN). Together, the pair has coauthored over 90 publications and

ata received government-funded grants totalling over $3.2 million.

Despite agreeing with the retraction, the pair of researchers maintained that their findings were credible and could be replicated.

The investigating committee, along with the hospital’s vice president of research and vice president of medical affairs and quality, reported that the study contained fabricated data.

False data damages the public’s trust in scientific discoveries and the process of reversing this damage is slow.

In some cases, the damage caused by fabricated data can lead to issues in public health. For example, the fear of vaccines spread quickly following a published study that established an association between autism and the vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella. The findings by British doctor Andrew Wakefield were intentionally manipulated and subsequently disproved. Public mistrust lingered though, and the reduction in vaccination rates led to the reemergence of preventable diseases.

“Any time there is a falsification in science, it is a black mark on all of us,” says Raywat Deonandan, a health sciences professor at the University of Ottawa, in an interview with Toronto Metro. “This puts more bullets in the guns of people aiming to kill science and show it as untrustworthy.”

WORK YOUR DEGREE WITH A POSTGRAD Our postgraduate certificates help you accelerate your career by providing specialized training that builds on your previous degree or diploma combined with the opportunity to gain practical experience taking on real-world challenges.

business.humber.ca/postgrad

SPORTS

var.st/sports

11 January 2016

sports@thevarsity.ca

Blues review and preview e ecting on fall finis es an a gli

se into t e

inter season

EMMA KIKULIS SPORTS EDITOR

FALL RECAP FOOTBALL The consistently under performing Blues’ football team was put out of their misery in October, losing their last game of the season 45-9 against the Ottawa Gee-Gees. With a slightly better 3-5 season record this year — as opposed to last season’s 2-6 — the Blues do seem to be improving slowly. Despite an eighth place OUA finish for the team, the Blues saw strong individual performances by the likes of punter TJ Morton, who completed the farthest punt this season in the OUA at 68 yards, and rookie linebacker Matthew Renaud who was chosen for the 2015 OUA all-rookie team.

SOCCER Despite a promising regular season performance, the Blues’ women’s soccer team was eliminated from quarter-final OUA action at the end of October by the visiting Queen’s Gaels. The Blues, who finished the year 9-6-1 dropped to fourth place overall in the OUA east division — one place lower than last season. Rookie Natasha Klasios had a standout season, leading the Blues in goals scored and was also named OUA east division rookie of the year. On the men’s side, the Blues enjoyed a taste of success by beating out hometown rivals Ryerson 3-0 to take the OUA bronze medal for the second year in a row. At the CIS championship, hosted by eventual tournament winners the York Lions, the Blues didn’t fare as well. The team lost both of their games, ending their tournament and season. Despite losing both games, the men finished in the fifth spot, and co-captain Lukas MacNaughton was named a CIS second team all-Canadian.

he Blues’ men’s soccer team had a stellar season, placing third in the

and fifth in the nation. FILE PHOTO: COURTESY BRYAN LI

GOLF The chronically underrated and unrecognized Varsity Blues women’s golf team took home their fifth OUA banner since 2005, marking the team’s fourth banner in a row. The women have now Western University for the most consecutive OUA wins. The women won the competition with a final score of 471, making the difference between the Blues and second place finishers Waterloo a mere 26 strokes. U of T PhD student Laura Upenieks won the Judy McCrae Trophy by one stroke at 154. On the men’s side, the Blues came away with a silver medal with a score of 608, and were lead by individual bronze medal winner Ryan Tsang who shot 148.

WINTER PREVIEW SWIMMING U of T’s men’s and women’s swim teams are poised to defend their OUA banners this year, with huge wins against the Western Mustangs on Saturday. Winning 22 of the 26 races, the Blues are definitely the team to beat this season — just as they have been for the past two seasons — with consistent and impeccable coaching by Byron MacDonald who is in his thirty seventh season with the Blues. In individual feats, second-year phenom Kylie Masse not only broke the Canadian 50m backstroke record by 0.16 hundredths of a second, but also nearly nudged out Olympic gold medallist Missy Franklin in a race in Minnesota in November, missing the gold by two tenths of a second. Both the men’s and women’s teams are establishing themselves as a force to be reckoned with, and if they keep up the gold medal, record-breaking performances, the squads won’t have a problem becoming third time OUA champions.

TRACK AND FIELD Coming off OUA and CIS banner winning seasons, the Varsity Blues women’s track and field team will have to work harder than ever to defend their title without the help of Pan Am 1,500m bronze medallist Sasha Gollish. Despite Gollish’s absence, the women were aided by fifth-year veteran Rachel Jewett, who won first place in the 600m last weekend at the Can Am Classic in Windsor, contributing a leg and to the 4x800m relay, which also placed first in a time of 8:58:84. At the same meet, co-captain Julia Stille represented the field competitors by bringing home a gold in the triple jump competition with a distance of 12.30m. While defending their CIS banner may be difficult, the women are set to dominate on home turf this Friday when U of T hosts the Fred Foot Pentathlon in the Athletic Centre Field House.

he women’s trac and field team will try and defend their

banner this season, despite losing senior athletes. PHOTO COURTESY OF BRYAN LI

VOLLEYBALL Currently sitting in fourth position in the OUA standings — right behind GTA rivals Ryerson — the Varsity Blues men’s volleyball team has something to prove. The team is trying to overcome their tenth place finish and dismal 4-16 record in the OUA last season.

At 6-4 by mid-season, the men have already improved last years record, thanks in part to precise hitting by third year William Colucci and Stefan Ristic that latter of whom leads the Blues in serves and attacks this season. The Blues have won their past two games against the Lancers and Mustangs, and are looking strong as they go into their next game against Nipissing on the sixteenth.

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M O N DAY 11 J A N U A R Y 2 016 sports@thevarsity.ca

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS: Governing Council Nominations Open: 12:00 noon on Tuesday, January 5, 2016 Nominations Close: 5 p.m. on Friday, January 15, 2016

o s ort ca e to efine the holidays For many Canadians, the holidays are spent watching favourite family sports teams

Positions Available:

8 STUDENT SEATS (4 full-time undergraduate; 2 part-time undergraduate; and 2 graduate students,)

Elected student members serve as volunteers for a term of one year.

(July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017) As the University of Toronto’s senior governing body, the Governing Council is responsible for overseeing the University's strategic direction, finances, human resources, capital expenditures and infrastructure, academic quality, and the student experience.Decisions approved by the Governing Council affect all members of the University Community.

Nomination forms will be available at: www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/Governing_Council/elections between 12:00 noon on Tuesday, January 5, 2016 and 5:00 p.m. on Friday, January 15, 2016. Paper copies will be available in the Office of the Governing Council, Room 106, Simcoe Hall, 27 King's College Circle.

Information on elections for student seats on the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) and University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) Campus Councils and their Standing Committees are available at: www.utm.utoronto.ca/governance/elections-2016 www.utsc.utoronto.ca/governance/2016-elections

Questions?

Please contact the Chief Returning Officer, Anwar Kazimi at 416-978-8427 or anwar.kazimi@utoronto.ca or the Deputy Returning Officer, Patrick McNeill at 416-978-8428 or patrick.mcneill@utoronto.ca

Further information: Please consult the elections website for more information and review the 2016 Election Guidelines at: www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/Governing_Council/elections.htm

CORALS ZHENG/THE VARSITY

GRAEME WYATT

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

For me, there are a few things which define the holiday season: turkey, reuniting with family members, and, perhaps most importantly, the IIHF U-20 World Junior Hockey Championship. From Boxing Day to early January, the most talented young hockey players in the world compete with the hopes of bringing home gold for their country. Given that this tournament happens annually, and has players with little name recognition, it doesn’t seem like it should be a calendar event for anyone except the most diehard of junior hockey fans.

For the many countries the World Juniors remain unrecognized. Yet for many Canadians, the event elicits an almost religious devotion. According to TSN, the Canadian broadcast of the 2015 medal game featuring Canada and Russia averaged 7.1 million viewers, with 13.4 million tuning in at some point. That’s just under 36 per cent of the entire population of Canada tuning into a single game. 19.4 million watched at least some of the tournament. The level of scrutiny directed at the young Canadian players is perplexing and inspiring all at the same time.

South of the border, another sport rules the holiday airwaves. The NCAA college football season ends in a number of “bowls,” — or high stakes playoff games — the largest of which are the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl.

ESPN’s Josh Krulewitz reported that last year

each game averaged 28 million viewers, making them the two “most watched shows in cable TV history.”

The NBA Christmas special is yet another must-see holiday sporting event. The NBA offers several games, including a rematch of the two best teams from the previous season.

Nearly 11 million people watched the Golden State Warriors play the Cleveland Cavaliers across the U.S. just as they have since the NBA began the tradition in 1947. The NHL began holding its annual holiday outdoor Winter Classic in 2013. The 2014 Winter Classic was viewed by eight million people on television, and another 105,491 people live, setting an NHL attendance record.

For an opportunity of year that is so often sold as a time to reconnect with family, we do watch an awful lot of sports around the holidays. It actually makes some sense — if I’m a sports fan and all the people I love are in the game together and we need something to do after we open presents, why not throw on a basketball game? In the aftermath of New Years’ when everyone’s languishing, hungover on the couch, why not watch the Rose Bowl?

Just like the holidays themselves, the emphasis is not on what we are doing, but who we are with. That’s why I watch the World Juniors, and why I love the holidays. The gold medal will last me until next year, the time I spend with family and friends yelling, cheering, and crying will remain for a lifetime.

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Blues hockey: fall recaps and winter previews Women going strong, men just holding on in OUA action JACK FRASER

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

With the conclusion of the fall semester, many teams are prepping for upcoming playoff seasons — kicking practices and remaining pre-season games into overdrive. For the Varsity Blues men and women’s hockey teams, January spells the imminence of the postseason, with both teams vying for spots in the playoffs. In preparation for what looks liken an up-hill battle to the OUA championships, we take a look at the fall season, and preview the upcoming winter postseason.

Riseley’s team is playing well, despite the loss of all-star goalie Nicole Kesteris PHOTO COURTESY OF VARSITY BLUES

WOMEN’S TEAM (6-3-3) The Blues women picked up right where they left off this season, despite a number of key off-season graduations and departures — speaking to the consistency of the team’s coaching. The coaching staff, headed by Olympic gold medalist Vicky Sunohara, has the team playing a disciplined, effective style.

Inexperienced goaltending was a major cause for concern going into the season.

During training camp team captain Kristi Riseley stated that the team was confident with their new players, and the rookies have certainly proved her right. Thirteen games into the season, dynamic goaltending duo Hailey Farrelly and Valencia Yordanov have posted phenomenal numbers, including save percentages of 0.953 and 0.941 respectively.

So far, the Blues’defensive numbers have

improved over last year, which in a stingy defensive-minded league makes quite a bit of difference.

With a number of veterans leading the way, the Blues have also improved offensively.

Fourth-year forward Taylor Day, who had a difficult offensive season in 2014-15, has bounced back and emerged as the team’s leading scorer. Fellow upper-years Sonja Weidenfelder and Riseley have also stepped up their output this season. While the rookies have been mostly used in defensive and energy-line roles by Sunohara, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a few — like Jessica Robichaud — break out in 2016.

MEN’S TEAM (6-9-2) The 2015-16 season has been an inconsistent one for the men’s team. Their offensive

The men’s hockey team will have to work hard to make it past the playosffs this season. PHOTO COURTESY OF VARSITY BLUES

firepower remains largely intact despite key graduations last summer, however, it has occasionally exploded during two six-goal and three five-goal performances. The top teams in the OUA have regularly frustrated the Blues offensively and often blown them out on the scoreboard. The goaltending hasn’t met the standard exhibited in the past several seasons; it once again is team defence and discipline that continue to thwart the Blues.

The Blues’ run-and-gun offensive-minded style has been extremely exciting to watch over the years, and this season is no different. Creative players like veteran Christian Finch and standout rookie Matt Campagna have thrived in scoring roles, and players like captain Andrew Doyle and third-year Dean Klomp have responded well to increased ice time. However, the team’s overall scoring has

still decreased and the defence hasn’t tightened up to account for it. Special teams have been another huge concern for the Blues.

Despite their skill, the Blues’powerplay has only scored six goals so far this season and they have struggled even more with killing penalties. These issues have largely accounted for the team’s goal differential problems, although the Blues allow far too many scoring chances at even strength, getting outshot on average 37 to 28.

The Blues find themselves in a very similar position to New Years Day last year. The team will have to completely re-evaluate its playing style, and possibly sacrifice offensive flair in favour of a tighter defensive scheme. To maintain any hope of making the playoffs they will at have to play disciplined, conservative hockey.

Is this real life, fantasy, or gambling?

Is it too late, and do we want to stop the machine that is daily fantasy sports?

SAM CALDARONE VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

With Super Bowl 50, March Madness, and the NHL post-season all coming up in quick succession, sports fans everywhere will be preparing for fantasy draft picks on various online platforms.

The estimated amount of fantasy players worldwide — according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association website — reached an all-time high of 56.8 million in 2015. This popularity can be attributed to the success of Daily Fantasy Sport (DFS), wherein participants enter their roster into a competition hosted by specific websites like DraftKings and FanDuel.

Some of the most popular daily fantasy websites, including DraftKings and FanDuel, are both valued well over $1 billion. These sites can see participants win millions off of their sports knowledge.

Both sites profit substantially through heavy marketing campaigns over football’s off-season, which emphasizes the possibility of making massive amounts of money over a single night. Advertisements with slogans like “ Win $100,000 Free” imply that a single night of fortuitous play can result in a tremendous amount of money.

Despite their annual rise in popularity the fantasy sports industry hit a major road-

CHANTEL TENG/THE VARSITY

block last year. DFS has recently been accused of being a gambling network. The argument posits that since daily fantasy sites like FanDuel and DraftKings depend on a single night of player performance, participants are wagering on the results of a game.

Defenders of DFS argue that it is skillbased, and successful DFS players require discipline and money management ability.

Warren Kosoy, a writer for RotoGrinders and co-founder of dailypucktalk.com, believes that daily fantasy sport is a skill, rather than a luck-based game. “I do it because it is fun, skill-based and a great way to make money and make my sports knowledge valuable to my life,” Kosoy says.

“The skill is in the money management and knowing which games to join.”

Following the November 10 ban of DFS in New York State last year, the Canadian Gaming Association (CGA) announced that it had decided that DFS is illegal under the Criminal Code of Canada.

The CGA commissioned attorney Don Bourgeois to investigate the legality of DFS under the Code, who interpreted it to mean that in games of mixed skill and chance, the latter trumps the former and falls under the umbrella of chance games.

As a result, it is considered gambling.

Bourgeois’ interpretation may have come too late. In Canada, many major investors have sunk millions into DraftKings and FanDuel. Counted among DraftKing’s investors are the NHL, MLS, and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd. — Canada’s largest private sports company and owners of the Toronto Raptors and the Maple Leafs.

In July, DraftKings announced a new round of funding worth $300 million.

This begs the question: have DFS become too big to fail? Without rapid intervention the multitude of seven figure investments might allow DFS sites to survive. With DFS sites having their hooks so deep into major Canadian industries’, it would be tough to pass and enforce legislation prohibiting DFS. This seems to leave only one question: does one go with Wilson or Brady?

M O N DAY 11 J A N U A R Y 2 015

T H E VA R S I T Y

DIVERSIONS 24

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