February 7, 2022
THE VARSITY The University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880
Vol. CXLII, No. 17
Students at Graduate House given ‘hell bank notes’ for Lunar New Year Students condemn act as culturally offensive, petition U of T for apology Stephanie Bai Managing Online Editor
On the first night of the Lunar New Year, students at Graduate House, a U of T graduate student residence, found red envelopes in the common area that contained fake bills printed with the words “HELL BANK NOTE.” The red envelopes, which are commonly given to wish recipients an auspicious and peaceful year during the Lunar New Year festivities, were distributed by Graduate House’s service desk team. But their contents have sparked outrage across social media as Chinese students and U of T community members have criticized the use of the ‘hell bank notes’ during the Lunar New Year. These notes are a form of joss paper, which is traditionally burned as a sacrificial offering for deities and dead ancestors, and it is considered culturally offensive to give joss paper to people who are alive. “[By giving out these notes] you are conveying to the person that ‘you are dead to me’ or, worse, ‘I wish you are dead,’ ” wrote Patricia Quan, a master’s student at the Faculty of Social Work, in an email to Graduate House and other university representatives. She wrote in to represent the concerns of some Asian students living at Graduate House who wish to remain anonymous. Graduate House has since apologized for the “error” in an email to its residents, writing that there was “no malicious attempt behind this action.” On February 3, the university’s Governing Council also posted an apology in Mandarin on its verified WeChat account. It confirmed that all the red envelopes had been removed from Graduate House. However, in a petition signed by over 5,000 people as of February 6, community members are calling on the university for a more comprehensive apology, among other demands. The petition, started by a group called U of T Asian Communities, questions why the apologies released have not explained why the Graduate House team used joss paper “without consulting with students or staff of Asian heritage.” It also calls for the university to provide mental health support for those affected and educate students and staff about these cultural practices. Other demands include employing cultural consultants and creating a studentcentred monitoring system to prevent culturally inappropriate actions. In an interview with The Varsity, Quan said that the incident was indicative of broader issues. She believes that diversity and inclusivity measures need to be rooted in research and consultation with the targeted populations. Otherwise, she said, “that is just tokenism.” Questions loom about the incident The university has not released information about the circumstances behind the distribution of the
‘hell bank note’ bills. Although both Graduate House and the Governing Council have cited the incident as an “error,” some students want to know how this incident transpired. “It is written in English, ‘HELL BANK NOTE,’ ” said Shutong Chen, a fourth-year specialist in applied mathematics and statistics, about the paper money. “Anybody who knows how to read English should be able to understand what this stands for.” The Varsity reached out to U of T Media Relations to ask why the Graduate House team purchased these bills instead of other forms of paper money available in Chinese cultural stores. In response, a U of T representative wrote that “[the] incorrect bank notes were unintentionally placed into the red envelopes,” and that U of T remains “deeply committed to the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion.” Quan emphasized that the incident was highly inappropriate. Lunar New Year is a celebration of life, and it is taboo to mention anything related to death, to which joss paper is linked. Quan explained that presenting these ‘hell bank note’ bills to Chinese students during the Lunar New Year is analogous to giving a gift on Christmas related to the devil. Students are also calling on the university for more transparency. In the University of Toronto Chinese Students and Scholars Association’s (UTCSSA) statement to The Strand, Zewei (Kurt) Tang, the UTCSSA director of campus affairs, called on the university for “another formal email to explain and apologize.” The University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union penned a letter to U of T that demanded “a formal apology and explanation for this inappropriate practice.” The letter has been cosigned by multiple student groups, including the University of Toronto Students’ Union, University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union, and Scarborough Campus Students Union. “The only thing we want to know right now is the truth,” said Chen. Going forward Although Chen appreciated the apologies released by U of T, he believes the university needs to do better. Pointing to the subject line of the Graduate House email, which read “Lunar New Year Decor Follow-up,” he noted that it is still culturally inaccurate to label joss paper as decor because it is a spiritual offering. Quan hopes that the conversation around meaningful diversity and inclusion does not stop after this incident is resolved. To her, it is not only an issue on the Graduate House level. For an institution openly dedicated to equity, the lack of cultural research or consultation behind this incident gestures to a problem that extends to the university and beyond. “That is not the U of T I know,” Quan said, addressing the university. “You can do better.”
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Campus Safety issues warning about road restrictions due to Queen’s Park protests Roads near UTSG closed, TPS asks people to avoid demonstration areas Lauren Alexander News Editor
In anticipation of demonstrations near Queen’s Park this weekend, U of T Campus Safety has released a service advisory warning about road restrictions and traffic delays due to public safety operations around Queen’s Park. The university has also restricted access to many of the downtown campus buildings and will close both Gerstein and Robarts Libraries at 5:00 pm. Students, faculty, and staff will still be able to access most buildings with keys or security fobs. Although both the UTM and UTSC campuses will remain open, shuttle buses will not run between UTM and UTSC. “This decision was taken out of an abundance of caution. Members of our community are advised to remain vigilant on and around the St. George campus today and over the weekend. You will likely notice an increased police presence in the immediate area around Queen’s Park to the east of campus,” reads an email from the Office of the Provost. Toronto Police Service (TPS) wrote in a statement that a large protest at Queen’s Park is expected this Saturday, as part of the ‘freedom convoy’ protests against vaccine mandates for truckers and COVID-19 lockdown measures. Protestors descended on Ottawa last week, taking over streets throughout the downtown area, blocking off businesses, and frustrating many Ottawa residents.
Queen’s Park.
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Some streets near UTSG will be closed throughout the weekend, including University Avenue, from College Street to Queen Street, and College Street, from University Avenue to Yonge Street. In a tweet, TPS asked that people avoid demonstration areas. “These closures could remain in place all weekend. We will continue to
assess the situation and make any adjustments where needed. We will continue to update the public,” reads the tweet. TPS will continue to post updates on the demonstrations on its Twitter account, and the university will share important updates through the UTAlert emergency alerts system.
In the Spotlight: U of T student Meaza Damte advocates for youth suffrage How children under 18 could be valuable political participants
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Meaza Damte believes that kids will surprise you. In preparation for filing a lawsuit in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that aims to lower the federal voting age, she’s spoken to many of them. In an interview with The Varsity, Damte, a second-year U of T student in the Faculty of Law, talked about her work with Justice For Children and Youth in partnership with the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights, working toward lowering the voting age in Canada. Motivations Damte completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Calgary, where she also worked part time at a childcare facility. This inspired her to co-found a nonprofit that focused on educating children and youth on domestic abuse and healthy relationships. Her experience in her undergrad really opened her eyes to “just how much youth are underestimated by adults.” She explained that the current reasons for why the voting age is set at 18 are rooted in excuses such as that children are too immature or uninformed. However, in her experience, “that’s actually not the case.” A media release from Justice For Children and Youth argued that Section 3 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that all Canadian citizens have a right to vote in federal and provincial or territorial elections. It added that Section 15 states that everyone is equal before and under the law without discrimination based on age. The motion has been filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, and the court date for it is pending. Damte said that while she was working on the case, they anticipated that the case could take a long time. That’s why they’ve recruited participants as young as 12 years of age, to ease the concerns that some of the older participants would turn 18 and already have the right to vote before the case draws to a close.
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Damte acknowledged, “It’s definitely going to be a very drawn out process.”
were receiving, the things they were missing, and the other challenges that they faced.
Getting involved To prepare for the case, Damte spent her summer interviewing clients as young as 12 years of age. When interviewing, Damte realised that since a lot of the participants are young, they’re looking at the future in the long term, whereas the adults who are voting have narrowed down their focus to their needs. “I think the advantage of having children and youth is [that] they have that long-term focus, because they ultimately have to deal with the ramifications of a lot of these laws.” She said that two of the biggest areas of concern for participants were about climate change and education. Lowering the voting age could allow children and youth to have a voice and impact on what they’re learning and how they’re learning it — which is important, she pointed out, since “they’re the ones wholly subjected to it.” Some participants also voiced the shortcomings they faced during the pandemic in terms of the quality of education they
Awareness of children’s individuality Damte believes that most of the time, children and youth are seen as legal, political, and moral agents only in relation to their parents. She thinks the next big step is recognizing children as people with capacity to reason, think, and feel like adults. “I think that [in] the time that we live in, children and youth have lost the luxury of being politically unaware,” she said. Today’s generation has been overwhelmed with a constant flow of news and information. Damte knows that there will be a population of youth who will have no interest in voting, and for her, “that’s totally fine.” She acknowledged that many adults who have the right to vote choose not to. She said it’s not about making voting mandatory, but rather about giving youth the option to vote. If this isn’t passed, as Damte said, “the status quo will just continue — and to me, personally, that is a very, very deeply scary thought.”
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FEBRUARY 7, 2022
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Students for Survivors campaign demands better sexual violence response Campaign launches as U of T conducts sexual violence policy review Marta Anielska Deputy News Editor
In order to pressure the university to address sexual violence on campus, three student groups — the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU), the Prevention Empowerment Advocacy Response for Survivors Project (PEARS), and the Faculty of Music Undergraduate Association (FMUA) — have launched the Students for Survivors campaign. In a collective email to The Varsity, organizers explained that they had decided to launch the campaign in response to allegations of sexual harassment within the Faculty of Music and against former Trinity College Provost and Vice-Chancellor Andy Orchard over the past year. The organizers hope to hold the university accountable, and to urge its sexual violence policy toward a more survivor-centric approach during the university’s ongoing policy review. Campaign background Students began speaking out about sexual violence on campus back in May 2021, when the FMUA released two statements on Facebook demanding that the faculty address allegations of sexual violence that were circulating on social media at the time. Students also hung anonymous signs along Philosopher’s Walk detailing their own experiences of sexual harassment in the faculty. The FMUA’s open letters demanded that the faculty address allegations of sexual harasment in a transparent way; implement an external review of the faculty; institute obligatory training on consent for all faculty members; and create an ‘Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Officer’ position
for the faculty. The faculty eventually responded to these demands with its own letter, agreeing that action needed to be taken within the faculty and outlining a plan for addressing the problem. Moreover, an investigation by Al Jazeera released in October revealed that Orchard had been accused of sexual harassment and engaging in inappropriate sexual relationships with students. An investigation by The Toronto Star found that at least two allegations were made against Orchard during his time at U of T, but the university failed to take disciplinary action beyond giving him a warning. Students reacted to this news with calls to action as well, with Trinity College Against Sexual Harasment (TASAH) demanding that his portrait be removed from Strachan Hall in Trinity College. The painting was eventually removed. Furthermore, the university is currently reviewing its sexual violence policy, as it is obligated to do every three years. The review is being led by Linda Johnston, the dean of the Faculty of Nursing, and Allison Burgess, the director of the Sexual & Gender Diversity Office. It is currently conducting consultations with relevant stakeholders, including student groups like PEARS, which organized a town hall with survivors to compile feedback on the policy. Although all these factors contributed to the creation of the Students for Survivors campaign, organizers also noted that “[they] believe that advocacy with the goal of ending gender-based violence must always persist.” Organizers’ plans The campaign specifically aims to improve U of T’s sexual violence policy, which it believes has
Students have criticized the university’s policy, saying it protects respondents. YASSINE ELBARADIE/THEVARSITY
failed to protect students from sexual violence on campus. Organizers wrote that they believe the university’s current sexual violence policy erodes the consent of survivors and that it mainly serves to protect respondents, especially faculty members. They also note that support is not accessible to survivors in a trauma-informed way. Consequently, the campaign hopes to hold the university to account. It will centre its response around the feedback and voices of survivors, beginning with a video launch on February 18, where survivors will share their experiences dealing with the Sexual Violence Prevention & Support Centre. Survivors will also be able to express themselves at an event in March called “VOICES Through the Arts.” The campaign will lobby for the university to promote training surrounding consent and for it to build relationships with organizations that tackle gender-based violence. Organizers also recognize that not all survivors and allies will be able to participate in the campaign in the same way, so they hope to offer a myriad of ways in
which students can get involved. The campaign will culminate with an inperson protest currently scheduled for April 8, which is the last day of classes. Campaign goals Organizers explained that their greatest goals in launching the campaign are to bring awareness to the university’s policy review, to encourage students to read PEARS’ preliminary policy analysis, and to make sure that the policy review is released in a transparent manner. It noted that any conclusions the policy comes to must be shared in a transparent way so that students can effectively engage with changes and it can produce community reflection. Lastly, the organizers hope that the campaign will emphasize the importance of U of T listening to student voices and adjusting its policy to have a more survivor-centric approach. If the university does so, organizers believe that it will be able to prevent and respond to situations of gender-based violence more effectively.
Students call on Victoria College to divest from fossil fuels University has pledged to divest while federated colleges abstain Cedric Jiang Associate News Editor
Students at Victoria College are petitioning the college to divest from fossil fuels after U of T’s announcement this fall of its plans for full divestment by 2030. As one of U of T’s federated colleges, Vic is financially independent and, therefore, not part of U of T’s divestment plan. The petition calls on the Victoria University Board of Regents to divest their holdings in fossil fuel companies and to stop making new investments of any kind in the fossil fuel industry. It says that the evidence has been clear that fossil fuel companies
have no place in society, due to their continued detrimental environmental and social impacts. “Supporting these companies in any way is inconsistent with the commitment to keep global warming under 2°C or to recognizing the rights of the Indigenous and other marginalized peoples whose lands are stolen for and poisoned by, fossil fuel extraction, and who have and continue to resist such extraction,” reads the petition. The petition calls Vic’s inaction “inexcusable and disgraceful.” Divestment pledges have spread to universities worldwide, including multiple Canadian universities. “Victoria University cannot be an exception to
Victoria College.
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this rapidly developing rule of divestment, and continued inaction on this issue will only serve to demonstrate that Vic is falling further and further behind the times,” reads the petition. It further notes that no federated colleges have shown intention to divest, and that Vic taking the lead would encourage other federated colleges to follow suit. Vic responds In an email to The Varsity, Victoria College spokesperson Liz Taylor Surani praised the student advocates. “Victoria University is proud of the strong student advocacy supporting sustainability, and we are in alignment with the need to play a vital role in addressing climate change and respecting our environment. Strong student voices globally on this critical issue will help shape our future,” she wrote. Surani noted that the Board of Regents is responsible for managing the college’s investments, and relevant decisions are being guided by their Guidelines for Incorporating Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Factors into Investment Decisions. She wrote that the investment committee will conduct its annual review of the ESG guidelines in the coming months, and any updated investment decisions would reflect the reviewed guidelines. “All decisions are informed by the recognition that the Board of Regents holds the fiduciary responsibility for the long-term viability of Victoria University,” she wrote. Students “tired” of inaction In an email to The Varsity, Jerico Raguindin, President of Victoria University Students’ Administrative Council, wrote that students have constantly been calling on Vic to announce its divestment
plan, and their calls have gained support from faculty, staff, and community members. He noted that students are committed to fighting the climate crisis and supporting the actions that are part of the effort. “However, it’s very important to say that divestment organizing has happened in the past and continues to this day, and this makes students very tired with the lack of action,” wrote Raguindin. Raguindin mentioned that this action can pressure Vic to divest, given U of T’s divestment plans. He wrote that student organizers at Vic are dedicated to working within the university governance structure to make the change happen. He added that the petition has been organized by student representatives at the Board of Regents, including himself. “As students who are equal voting members in the Board of Regents, we are committed to these efforts, and the petition is an important part to strengthening our case to our fellow board members.” “I think what students would be most receptive to and benefit the most from is for Vic admin to release a timeline and list of actions it plans to take,” Raguindin noted. “In my opinion, the lack of transparency and accountability is what allows Vic to avoid these pressing matters and stay silent. A plan and report co-created by students for students to fulfill Vic’s strategic plan is the next concrete step to this.” Raguindin believes that Vic should show leadership among the federated colleges on divestment and other climate actions, especially since it has a reputation for being progressive and also has the most financial resources. “Divestment is not just a direct rebuke of fossil fuel companies but a loud and clear statement that Vic is committed to real and tangible climate action,” he wrote.
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Students express excitement for return to in-person learning Reports of negative impacts of online learning on mental health Elizabeth Shechtman Associate News Editor
U of T recently announced an increase in inperson activities across all three campuses starting February 7. While some students and faculty have expressed concerns about safety measures on campus, other students are excited for a return to in-person classes. The Varsity spoke to a few U of T students, who are eager to return to campus, about their experiences with online learning and their thoughts on coming back. Mental health and online learning For all of the students who spoke to The Varsity, online learning was tough on their mental health. Ali Shah, a second-year history major, wrote in an email to The Varsity, “It has definitely negatively affected my mental health. Not being able to interact with fellow classmates has been challenging.” Most students found that online classes negatively affected their learning. “I feel like many learning opportunities and experiences can only occur when you are physically in a classroom,” wrote Shah. Some students reported that online learning caused a lack of structure and support that they would have gotten in person. Mikayla Reitsma, a first-year life sciences student, wrote in an
email to The Varsity that the lack of structure of online learning caused a lot of anxiety, as well as the lack of a support system to cope with isolation. Vlada Taits, a third-year political science student, wrote to The Varsity that it was tough to keep a consistent routine when learning online — especially since many classes are recorded for later viewing, making procrastination easy. “[It] gives me the illusion that my schoolwork is optional,” wrote Taits, who also echoed the sentiment of loneliness. “I also really don’t like staying inside and doing school. It makes me feel extremely isolated.” The return to in-person When asked about the return to in-person learning, students largely said that they were excited to see friends and meet new people. “Being able to meet my friends in person and catch up after classes is super exciting. It’ll finally feel like I’m having a true university experience,” wrote Shah. They wrote that they’re excited to interact more with their professors, which is difficult to do over Zoom. Reitsma was also looking forward to seeing classmates in person, noting that being in person helps with making friends more easily. She wrote, “Although having zoom and other things like breakout rooms is great, it’s not the same.” She added that she will benefit from
Profile: Michael Sobowale Sobowale plans to increase support for clubs on campus, “rebuild” campus life Syeda Maheen Zulfiqar UTSC Bureau Chief
The Scarborough Campus Students’ Union’s (SCSU) Board of Directors appointed Michael Sobowale as the vice-president campus life at its December meeting. Sobowale previously ran as an independent candidate for the position in the 2021 SCSU executive elections. Sobowale is in his fifth year and pursuing a double major in political science and international development. In an email to The Varsity, Sobowale shared his motivation and goals for the role. “I have always wanted to be more involved with [the] SCSU,” he wrote. Having been involved with the SCSU as a volunteer and in other positions, Sobowale applied for the position of vicepresident campus life to further his involvement in a “more direct capacity.”
“I was previously SCSU’s orientation coordinator for the past two years, which allowed me to be involved in planning the hybrid model for frosh,” he continued. Additionally, he has also volunteered at the SCSU food centre and with the SCSU street team. With two years of experience as a resident assistant at Centennial Place Residence, Sobowale has experience dealing with “students’ issues [and] being their first point of contact when they have problems.” Sobowale hopes to “rebuild the campus life on campus” through his role. He believes that there is now a pervasive sense of disconnectedness between the SCSU and student clubs, owing to the virtual delivery of courses and events over the past two years. Therefore, he wrote, “I intend on working with clubs to rebuild their relationship with SCSU and to help support them in the future.” Sobowale, who has been forthright about
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hands-on learning as a STEM major, which can be difficult when you’re not in the lab. “I’m most excited to see my friends in my classes and to finally feel like I’m at school former Vice-President Campus Life TJ Ho’s alleged absence during the planning of SCSU’s 2021 frosh — of which Sobowale was the coordinator — referenced his predecessor’s contribution to “clubs not feeling supported by the SCSU.” He wrote, “This position was unfortunately vacant even while my predecessor was still in their position before they resigned.” Recognizing this, Sobowale explained that he plans to focus on having more events, both virtual and in person, in light of students’ concerns about returning to in-person activities. He plans to remain connected with all presently active clubs on campus, and provide support and resourcesto them. “We know that the transition to in-person events can be an adjustment for everyone and having that support within SCSU is essential.” Sobowale further affirmed his commitment to listening to students. He wrote, “I have an open-door policy, if any students or clubs have any ideas or suggestions you can always email me to schedule a meeting.” His focus for the remaining semester will be on “helping clubs and creating a welcoming and accepting environment on campus for ALL students.”
again!” wrote Taits. “Also, I’m excited that a lot of my clubs and organizations are resuming in person events because it really adds to the community aspect.”
Michael Sobowale.
COURTESY OF MICHAEL SOBOWALE
COVID-19 negatively impacts research productivity, especially for women, Black researchers Academic Board discusses supports for faculty, staff working on research Elizabeth Shechtman Associate News Editor
U of T’s Academic Board met on January 27 to discuss the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on researchers and research productivity. Research compiled and presented by ViceProvost, Faculty & Academic Life Heather Boon and Associate Vice-President and Vice-Provost, Strategic Initiatives Christine Allen found that the productivity of women researchers, Black researchers, and researchers with young dependents was more significantly impacted by the pandemic than that of their peers. The Academic Board also detailed the support offered to faculty and staff during the pandemic for their research, and noted that requesting delays for research had become normal practice.
Impact of pandemic The board informed its discussion through research published by Nature Human Behavior, a scientific journal that publishes research on individual and collective human behaviour. The research indicated that 55 per cent of researchers reported a decline in their working hours during the pandemic, 27 per cent reported no change, and 18 per cent reported an increase. There was a particularly significant impact on “fields that rely on physical laboratories” such as biochemistry, as opposed to disciplines like mathematics. The research also showed that women and Black researchers were significantly impacted, as well as scientists with young dependents. While 68.7 per cent of men reported submitting research as planned, only 49.8 per cent of
women were able to do so. For Black women, that number decreases to 47.3 per cent, and for Black men, it was at 63.2 per cent. Recommendations and initiatives The presentation also included a series of recommendations for the university, such as providing targeted support groups for researchers affected by the pandemic, reassessing grant fund applications, and collaborating more with agencies and researchers. The board discussed approaches that U of T has taken to ensure that support is available for faculty members. The main goal for these support initiatives was to “recommend flexibility and the provision of specific supports that are tailored to the individual context and need.”
The university handles workload assignments on a case-by-case basis, and faculty members and librarians are able to make delay requests. While U of T used to get 12 to 15 delay requests in a given year, that number has jumped to around 100 per year during the pandemic. Boon and Allen also expanded on specific supports available for faculty members. These supports include reducing course teaching load by 0.5 credits for the instructors who are teaching more than 1,000 students, or who had six half courses transitioned online; offering delays for tenure review; educating faculty and review committees about the wide range of ways to demonstrate excellence in research; and providing advice on how instructors can adapt to the challenges of COVID-19.
thevarsity.ca/section/news
FEBRUARY 7, 2022
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UTSU executives give updates on open letter Student Commons to reopen, Discord server created as Virtual Student Commons Latisha Lau Varsity Contributor
The University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) held its first meeting of the year on January 30. Some executives gave updates regarding their work and the board discussed the reopening of the university beginning on February 7. The reopening of the university Attendees discussed the university’s response last term to the sudden surge in COVID-19 infections that was driven by the Omicron variant, including exam cancellations and plans to return to in person learning. Vice-President Public and University Affairs Omar Gharbiyeh talked about what the union has heard from students about the return to in-person learning. His team received insightful feedback from students through town hall meetings and surveys, and brought them to the university through an open letter. He also said that he planned on having more town hall meetings in the future to collect students’ opinions. According to Gharbiyeh, the union is “making great progress on issues like student mental health, the push for more digital mental health
resources, student financial aid, student employment, and more benefits for students with disabilities.” Student engagement updates Vice-President Student Life Maria Lin noted that the UTSU event Frost Week was “pretty well received,” considering that it was conducted online. She further noted that the most wellreceived event the UTSU hosted was the Clubs Fair. Considering this, she hopes to hold a service group night, where students can learn more about service groups on campus. Moving forward, she plans to brainstorm more innovative ways to host engaging online activities, though she hopes to return to inperson activities as soon as possible. The Student Commons is scheduled to reopen on February 7 to provide students with a space on campus to eat and study. The union is also working on launching a Discord server that acts as a space for the union’s engagement with clubs, called the Virtual Student Commons, to increase visibility of the union’s activities. Attendees also voted unanimously to strike an ad hoc governance pathways committee for the Student Commons Management Committee
The Student Commons building. CAROLINE BELLAMY/THEVARSITY
(SCMC). The committee will be tasked with examining the Student Commons Agreement to determine governance pathways. It will also be responsible for making decisions regarding
maintenance issues and daily operations of the Student Commons, and for clarifying the roles of the SCMC, the union, and UTSU board members.
Students gather at Scarborough Centre Station to protest shutdown of rapid transit line SCSU president, vice president external give speeches at rally Chris Zdravko Varsity Contributor
On February 2, a group of protesters gathered at Scarborough Centre Station to spread the word about and speak up against the shutdown of the Scarborough Rapid Transit system (SRT). The decision to shut down the SRT was made in February 2021, and is supposed to take effect in 2023. The plans include replacing the SRT with shuttle buses, then ultimately opening a subway replacement for the SRT in 2030. The plan to close the SRT, also known as the TTC’s Line 3, will have implications for Scarborough and regular Line 3 users who may have more complex commuting routes via the replacement buses. The transit routes of many UTSC students may also be affected by this change. Protesters at the event spoke out about how Scarborough has frequently been neglected in terms of transit development. The Scarborough Students’ Union (SCSU) executives also attended the event, emphasizing similar concerns.
Sarah Abdillahi, the president of the SCSU, explained that many buses are overcrowded, which can prove harmful during a pandemic. “Now, the underfunding and the neglect of public transit is putting the lives of the most marginalized people at risk, with overcrowded buses that make it impossible for any of us to rely on public transit to practice social distancing while getting to where we need to go,” she said. According to surveys done by TTCriders, an organization focused on the improvement of public transit in Toronto, 63 per cent of Scarborough residents were unaware of the city’s plans to close Line 3. Of the survey respondents, 76 per cent also believe that bus lanes should be implemented in Scarborough so that buses are not impacted by traffic. In an interview with The Varsity, Zain Khurram, a member of TTCriders, spoke on behalf of the organization regarding Scarborough’s public transit issue. “Scarborough has always been neglected in terms of transit expansion. Places like North York, Etobicoke, [and] even York
Region [are] getting new subways. Where is Scarborough in this equation? It is like we have been cancelled out,” said Khurram. TTCriders has made a few recommendations on how the city can help the lives of people in Scarborough from a transit perspective. They recommended adding a cycling track in the SRT corridor, funding the Eglinton East Light Rail Transit, expanding the SRT network, providing free transfers between TTC transit and GO, and more. Designated bike lanes are in high demand in Scarborough. They can lessen the amount of traffic on the roads and allow for more options when it comes to transportation for citizens. Kevin Rupasinghe, the campaigns manager of Cycle Toronto, spoke on ways in which transit could be improved in Scarborough if the SRT closes. Rupasinghe said, “I think residents of Scarborough will be left without options to get around safely when the SRT does shut down. What we really need to see in addition to transit priority measures is adding safe places for people to walk and cycle.”
Students protesting rapid transit line closure. CHRIS ZDRAVKO/THEVARSITY
UTFA reaches three-year agreement with U of T administration Agreement includes salary increase, increased mental health benefits Padraic Berting Graduate Bureau Chief
On January 25, the University of Toronto Faculty Association (UTFA) and university administrators reached an agreement on salary and benefits for employees represented by the union for a three-year period, from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2023. As of February 2, 2022, the agreement has been ratified by the UTFA Council and U of T administration. The UTFA, according to its website, is “the official representation of faculty and librarians on employment matters.” Its last agreement with the university expired on June 30, 2020. In an email to The Varsity, UTFA President
Terezia Zorić described the process of obtaining the agreement as “long and tough,” and wrote that it “required an enormous expenditure of time and energy.” Zorić noted that the challenges were in no small part created by Bill 124, a controversial provincial bill passed in 2019 that restricts public sector wage increases to one per cent per year. According to Zorić, Bill 124 limited the association’s ability to obtain salary and benefits improvements for employees. Nevertheless, highlights of the agreement include a one per cent across-the-board salary increase retroactive to both 2020 and 2021; a mandate for fair and equitable workloads, including increased support for online academic
work; health care and mental health benefits improvements; and fair compensation and benefits for active and retired employees. While Zorić wrote that the association was “very pleased to have settled the first two years with meaningful benefits improvements,” she noted that there are still many pressing issues that the UTFA will need to address with the university. The majority of these issues are related to workload and policy improvements. In a statement from the university, a spokesperson confirmed that U of T had reached an agreement with the association, and added that the university “[appreciates] the collegial working relationship that facilitated this agreement.”
FIONA TUNG/THEVARSITY
Business & Labour
February 7, 2022 thevarsity.ca/section/business biz@thevarsity.ca
UTAM to be restructured, university debt situation looks optimistic Gertler addresses Business Board on university finances
Elchi Chai Shop closed its doors on January 30. GISELLE DALILI/THEVARSITY
Elchi Chai Shop says goodbye to the Toronto community Now closed, but plans are in place to continue selling a beloved chai recipe Sarah Folk Business & Labour Editor
Chai is something that you’ll see on coffee shop menus around the city, but to sisters Sukaina and Sayyeda Ebrahim, the chai tea bags they found in stores weren’t up to par. Influenced by their Indian and Tanzanian roots, they founded Elchi Chai Shop to bring authentic chai to Toronto and introduce a new flavour to the city’s cultural palate. Brewing authenticity The pair opened the restaurant with family support and the desire to brew strong chai. Selling drinks alone was not enough to cover rent, Sukaina Ebrahim told The Varsity in an interview, so they introduced a menu where they sold various items, including their mom’s paratha recipe. The restaurant officially closed its storefront on January 30, 2022, but Sukaina explains that there are plans to continue selling their products online. She explained that trying to work on their online business while also continuing to run the restaurant through the pandemic was taxing and difficult to maintain. “There’s a lockdown every few months… and it really, really disrupts small businesses,” she said. “Because of all of this, we could only afford so much staff, so we still had to work [in] the restaurant.” Sukaina explained how, after closing the storefront, they can now focus all their efforts on getting their product into the market. “The tea itself is very dear to us,” she said, emphasizing that they wanted to give their loyal customers the opportunity to make their own chai at home. Some of the items they are hoping to sell include their classic chai recipe, chai spices, and eventually iced chai and cold drinks. The sidelining of small businesses With lockdown after lockdown, Sukaina
described that it was difficult to keep revenues high. She and her sister were experiencing burnout as they worked tirelessly to keep their doors open. To support small businesses, the Canadian government introduced the Canada Emergency Business Account for small businesses in April 2020, which originally offered an interest-free loan of $40,000 to small businesses. If the loan was repaid by December 31, 2022, 25 per cent of the total would be forgiven. The sisters took out the loan in 2020 to help support their business, but realized they needed to pay back approximately $1,000 a month to meet the December 31 deadline. “If you’re taking out a loan of $40,000, you’re not in a position to pay back $1,000 a month. The numbers don’t work,” Sukaina said. Sukaina also expressed her frustration with other COVID-19 relief programs such as the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program, which was introduced in April 2020. The program provided loans to landlords to support their small business tenants in paying rent. This program required landlords to apply for the loan, while tenants could only hope that their landlord would deem it necessary. Remembering the community Sukaina expressed her gratitude for their customers and the regulars at the restaurant. “The one thing we’re going to miss the most are the people, both our customers and our residents in the area,” she said. “People for the last two years have made it a point to order from us at least once or twice a week, just to support [us].” The restaurant’s impact on the Toronto and U of T community will be long-lasting. There is currently a GoFundMe to support Elchi Chai Shop as the sisters work to continue providing their products to the community.
Andrew Yang Ki Business & Labour Correspondent
group and will undertake to implement them in a timely manner,” said Gertler.
On February 2, the U of T Governing Council’s Business Board gathered to discuss the future of the U of T Asset Management Corporation (UTAM), the status of the univerity’s finances, the U of T pension plan, various capital projects, and UTM’s Master Plan.
Positive debt U of T Chief Financial Officer Trevor Rogers also reported on the university’s finances and provided a status report on its debt position. Rogers mentioned that the total debt policy limit is $1.9 billion as of April 2021, and the university’s actual debt — which consists of internal and external debt — is $982.4 million. The debt burden ratio, which represents the amount of debt a company has compared to their assets, was a modest 2.7 per cent. 0.9 per cent of the debt ratio was internal loans and 1.8 per cent was external debt issuance. Rogers is hopeful that the generally positive position on debt would help support the university’s capital projects and needs for the foreseeable future. In his annual review of the university’s debt strategy, Rogers not only voiced his confidence to the Business Board but also outlined U of T’s position in comparison to other universities. In his report, he concluded that based on April 2021 data U of T had lower debt service costs to total expenditures compared to selected Canadian universities. At the same time, U of T had higher expendable resources to pay off its outstanding debt than all its peer universities.
Tremendous UTAM changes The UTAM is the investment manager for the university’s pension, endowment, and short-term working capital assets. U of T President Meric Gertler spearheaded the talk on the UTAM’s future. Gertler touched on the UTAM’s plan to centralize its duties, which involves transitioning away from the management of pension assets after March 31, following the creation of the University Pension Plan (UPP), a joint pension plan with other universities. The consequent transfer of responsibility to the UPP would mean the UTAM could concentrate on managing U of T’s long-term non-pension assets — also known as the Long-Term Capital Appreciation Pool — as well as the short-term cash reserves and working capital — otherwise known as the Expendable Funds Investment Pool. The resulting changes would mean that assets under the UTAM’s management would be heavily reduced, from approximately $14 billion to $7 billion. Long-term assets would be reduced from $10 billion to roughly $4 billion. During this time, U of T prepares to launch the public phase of its next major fundraiser, the new Bicentennial Campaign, through which it aims to secure $4 billion. The impending drastic changes had led Gertler to establish a working group to reassess the effectiveness of the UTAM and its role in serving the university. “I was really delighted to be able to bring together such an impressive set of respected and experienced individuals to join the working group,” Gertler said. Following a thorough review, the working group determined that no further changes were necessary and that the UTAM’s current mandate continues to serve U of T’s best interests. “ I am very pleased to accept all of the recommendations of the working
UTM’s Master Plan UTM Vice-President and Principal Alexandra Gillespie introduced UTM’s Master Plan — a University Planning and UTM joint initiative — as an update to its predecessor, the 2011 Master Plan. The comprehensive document provided a 10 to 15 year long-term plan to develop and create a framework that would set the stage for UTM to achieve its goals, such as focusing on ecology and community synergies to enable Indigenous placemaking and the diversification of learning spaces. Gillespie emphasized three elements of the Master Plan — UTM’s commitment to Indigeneity through the common space at the heart of campus; investment into research, including UTM becoming the hub of Canada’s national robotic strategy; and further support for the Peel, Mississauga, and Brampton communities. UTM selected Brook McIlroy, a design
practice, to lead the project, with a team headed by principal Anne McIlroy. McIlroy explained that the promotion of sustainability, connection, and vitality are all part of UTM’s vision for the campus, and play an important role in ecological and Indigenous learning. “Buildings, landscapes, wayfinding, and interpretive elements are further extended to natural connections to create larger stories of Indigenous culture and history. U of T’s low carbon action plan and tri-campus sustainability plan are an important part of the campus as it goes forward,” McIlroy said. Capital projects Brian Szuberwood, the interim executive director of capital projects, presented the Capital Projects Construction Report. Among the projects discussed was Robarts Common, which was reported to be 97 per cent complete. While the municipal occupancy and substantial performance certificates were issued to the project in December 2021, final landscaping has been deferred until “better weather,” claimed Szuberwood. Alongside weather issues, finishing securty training was also cited as a factor that needed to be addressed before the library could open. Other capital projects in progress include UTSC’s new residence and Instructional Centre 2, as well as UTM’s Science Building. Currently, the new residence building is 41 per cent complete, the instructional centre is only four per cent complete, and the UTM Science Building is 58 per cent complete. Deferred fees Toward the end of the meeting, Ron Saporta, the chief operating officer of Property Services & Sustainability, presented the Annual Deferred Maintenance Report. Maintenance costs only increased marginally from last year, but Saporta emphasized the need to align maintenance goals with the university’s strategic goals. “Quite simply put, an old building has old assets. It also emits a lot of carbon,” Saporta said. “So when we pull out and renew those buildings, we reduce our carbon emissions: great alignment between these two initiatives.” The next meeting of the Business Board is scheduled for March 15.
At its Business Board meeting, the governing council addressed changes to the UTAM. RIDA KHAN/THEVARSITY
Comment
February 7, 2022 thevarsity.ca/section/comment comment@thevarsity.ca
Booster shots are essential — and so is an in-person convocation These two issues deserve more attention as we return to campus Oliver Zhao Varsity Contributor
When U of T announced its plans to resume inperson activities in February, many students and campus groups voiced their concerns about inadequate safety and accommodations. However, there’s an important point that has gotten little attention so far — requiring booster shots to return to campus. The university rightfully required all community members to have two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine by October 15 to be on campus. They are now encouraging everyone to get their booster shots and upload their documentation to UCheck. However, the university should go further, and mandate that everyone receive a booster dose before returning to in-person activities in February — unless they can prove that they have recently had COVID-19, in which case the National Advisory Committee on Immunization has advised that they wait three
months before receiving the shot. Some students have already expressed concern about the necessity of booster shots for a return to campus. Yet the latest data from the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table shows that only 30 per cent of people aged 18 to 29 have gotten their booster. Everyone over the age of 18 is now eligible for their booster 84 days after they got their second dose. It’s been well over 84 days since October 15 — the date when all U of T community members were expected to have two doses — so everyone 18 or older at U of T should be eligible for their booster. Both major opposition political parties in Ontario — the New Democratic Party and Liberal Party — have called on the provincial government to require third doses in order for people to be considered fully vaccinated by Ontario’s vaccine certificate system. A U of T spokesperson explained in an email that the university is currently “continuing to follow the guidance of public health officials on the definition of fully vaccinated.”
It is unclear whether convocation will be held in person at Convocation Hall this year. EHSAN ETASAMI/THEVARSITY
There is no need for U of T to wait — especially for guidance from a government with a track record of implementing delayed and inadequate measures throughout the pandemic. The science is clear on the improved protection a third dose provides against infection. Mandating third doses before returning to campus will improve safety for everyone. Despite the necessity of booster shots for a return to campus, some students, faculty, and staff still face barriers to getting vaccinated. U of T should do everything it can to make shots accessible to its community. Vaccine clinics at the Exam Centre — which are open to the general public — and Discovery Pharmacy — which are open exclusively to the U of T community — have reopened at UTSG. However, there are no on-campus clinics at UTM or UTSC, even though the two campuses had such clinics open back in spring 2021. The university should — alongside its community health care partners — reopen all the tri-campus clinics and reserve blocks of scheduled or walk-in appointment times for university members who still need boosters. Two years into the pandemic, students are frustrated, both by how long COVID-19 has disrupted our lives and by the inability of governments and institutions to successfully adapt to and accommodate the challenges of the pandemic. For many students — including me — half of our university years have been affected by COVID-19. As graduation approaches this coming June, many students are wondering how we would celebrate the conclusion of our unique and challenging university journey. Following four successive online ceremonies since June 2020, the university will decide the format of the June convocation this March. Barring a disastrous epidemiological situation, the June 2022 convocation must be held in person. Many students are exhausted and demoralized after two years with no clear end to the pandemic in sight. Fall 2021 was a much needed respite, where many pre-pandemic joys — such as in-person classes and on-campus
social events and interactions — finally returned for a while before yet another round of closures. An in-person convocation would be another crucial light at the end of the tunnel. Holding another virtual convocation is the easy route to avoid all the possible risks of a large gathering. However, after two years, the onus is on decision-makers to have figured out how to mitigate the risks of such events as much as possible without resorting to virtual alternatives. Convocation is a once-in-a-lifetime moment, as significant as a wedding or the birth of a child. It deserves to be marked by more than simply a pre-recorded video where you might miss your name on a rolling credits screen if you blink or use the bathroom. Ideally, the ceremonies should be held in Convocation Hall. Hopefully, the ongoing Front Campus construction would not hinder the university’s ability to use the building. A pandemic taking away this experience may be understandable, but construction doing so would be unacceptable. Each college, faculty, or campus’ graduating class of students should be able to celebrate together with their loved ones. However, if the pandemic makes this infeasible, then at the very least, students need to still have the chance to mark the occasion with each other. If it is too risky to have the entire graduating class at one venue, there could be many smaller ceremonies held across U of T’s campuses instead. More intimate ceremonies that involve smaller groups of peers, in buildings that students have been more closely connected to during their time at U of T, might create more heartfelt memories. Whatever the solution is for a safe, in-person convocation, U of T must work to implement it. The pandemic has defined our university experience and our coming-of-age years. It has taken a lot from us — but let’s not have it take away the last and biggest moment in this chapter of our lives. Oliver Zhao is a fourth-year criminology and international relations student at Woodsworth College. He is the current secretary of the Woodsworth College Students’ Association.
Commuters are put at risk by the return of in-person learning Safety measures on campus don’t matter if you’re already exposed Katherine E. Todd Varsity Contributor
For the first two years of my degree, I commuted to UTSC five days a week by bus. Taking the TTC into campus was never what I would describe as a pleasant experience. For my first year, I had to take three different buses and I spent over an hour getting to UTSC. In my second year, the 905 Eglinton East Express bus was created, and I was thankful that I only had to take two buses and spend 50 minutes getting to campus. Even with the new express service, the buses were always standing-room-only unless I was commuting at ridiculously off-peak hours. I remember the many times I had to wait patiently for the 905 at the intersection of Midland Avenue and Eglinton Avenue, watching two or three buses full of students pass me by before one arrived that was empty enough to board. When COVID-19 caused classes to be moved online in my third year, I was all too happy to avoid the crowdedness, calamity, and cost of commuting to class. There were certainly negative aspects of the pandemic — the isolation, Zoom fatigue, and the anxiety I felt about leaving the house, seeing friends or family, and possibly infecting vulnerable loved ones. However, avoiding the long trips to and from
campus was definitely a positive. Even though UTSC kept my classes online for one and a half years, I never once missed taking the TTC. When U of T announced that we would be returning to in-person learning by the end of February, I was stunned. My first thought was, “I haven’t been on the TTC since the start of the pandemic — do people even always wear masks on the bus?” My second thought was, “How could school officials be fine with putting students who commute to campus in this risky situation?” The majority of students at UTSC live off campus and have to take public transit to attend in-person courses. The lack of enforcement of mask mandates and reduced services offered by the TTC make taking the bus to campus a concerning prospect. U of T’s requirement that students attend in-person classes is essentially a requirement to take crowded public transit routes where other passengers may be unmasked and unvaccinated. If these buses were standing-room-only before the reduction in services brought on by COVID-19-related staffing shortages, what will they be like now? Although there are indications that the latest COVID-19 wave may have peaked in Toronto, on January 20, Toronto Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen de Villa said that it is “too early to confirm” whether we have seen the worst of
this wave and that “for now, we must remain vigilant.” So why are some faculties forcing students to commute as soon as February 7? In an email, U of T claimed that students have communicated “how important physical presence on campus is to them – both for their academic work and for their mental wellbeing.” But as a student, I wasn’t asked whether physical presence was important to me. I’d even gone so far as to email the Dean of Student Wellness’ office to voice my concerns about returning to campus. For students who are worried about the health and wellness of themselves and their families, the university’s announcement came as a major disappointment. Even if U of T offers “enhanced safety measures,” including mask and vaccine mandates, students and staff that commute to UTSC by public transit are being put at risk every time they travel to and from campus. U of T doesn’t seem to care that commuters could easily be exposed to the virus, and that students and staff travelling to U of T from all over the GTA could cause outbreaks on campus that would easily be prevented if students were given an option to continue learning remotely. Would you be comfortable going to class and sitting beside someone who was forced to commute in these conditions? I use public transit, and even I wouldn’t be okay with
Using public transit puts both commuters and non-commuters at risk. CAROLINE BELLAMY/THEVARSITY
that. Commuters come from all over the city, take various connecting vehicles, and could potentially be exposed dozens of times each time they take the TTC. U of T’s hasty return to campus imposes unacceptable risks to the health and safety of commuters, as well as to their peers, professors, and families. Katherine E. Todd is a fourth-year student studying political science and public law at UTSC.
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COMMENT
The ‘freedom convoy’ proved that a liberal future is the only viable one for Canada The progressive conservative tradition is withering away Logan Liut Comment Columnist
For a long time, Canadians have largely been immune to the populist and right-wing ultranationalist movements that are deeply afflicting the world in places like the United States, Hungary, or Brazil. It seems unnatural in a liberal and tolerant society, such as ours, to finally have our eyes opened to the seething hatred ready to cleave our society in half. Yet Canadians saw that hatred, clearer than ever, in this week’s disgraceful ‘freedom convoy.’ Let’s be clear — the ‘freedom convoy’ is not about vaccines or truckers anymore. For many people, at the beginning of this movement, it was simply about protesting against what they viewed as government overreach — a valid and important contention to make — that many Canadians might even agree with. Now, however, it is about hatred. Hatred of our prime minister, yes — but also of immigrants, of Black people, of Jewish people, and perhaps most prominently, of living in a society that follows through with its social contract of trading some individual liberty for common security. It invited the seething illiberal fringe waiting for a moment to hijack this convoy and transform it into a march of hate. This so-called ‘freedom’ convoy was the perfect scapegoat, the perfect indoctrination setup for the alt-right. That’s how we got here. It has now allowed the subdued extreme right-wing faction in the Conservative Party to finally be themselves — to show support for Trumpism and to finally oust their largely centrist leader, Erin O’Toole, someone who I believe could have pushed Canadian conservatism in the right direction. This convoy invited all the Nazis in hiding, the Trump fanatics, the people blinded by delusions of populist nationalism, and the conspiracy theorists to congregate and even believe that, together, they could overthrow the democratically elected House of Commons. Indeed, the congregants of this socalled ‘freedom’ convoy showed the worst parts in Canadian society — racism, neo-nazism,
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LIYA HUANG/THEVARSITY
antisemitism, homophobia, illiberalism, and chauvinism. I don’t wish to attack well-meaning conservatives that genuinely believe that fiscally conservative governments who encourage personal liberty and free business are the best way forward for our country. It is a valid point of view that I personally very much sympathize with — I have even been accused of being a conservative myself. After all, let’s not forget that while these protests are largely the fault of Canadian conservatives, in my experience, they are also partially the fault of the left. Younger left-leaning partisans’ increasing intolerance of opposite views, especially in the New Democratic Party, which is most notable perhaps for its overzealousness toward political correctness, have contributed equally — if not more — to the growing divide between left and right wing. I used to be a quite active Young New Democrat, but I left after it became clear that the dismissal of liberal standards was being allowed simply to appease the party’s growing contingent of unelectable radical idealists. Unfortunately, it seems that the Con-
servative Party of Canada is headed in much of the same direction. The very strict restrictions on the liberty of unvaccinated people, paired with vaccine hesitancy and the increasingly socially progressive nation we’re building together, understandably scares some people. They feel like they’re distant from the rest of Canadians, or, as we’ve heard from protestors within the convoy, they may even feel like they’re being ‘discriminated against.’ That’s not only understandable; it should be expected. Yet this convoy doesn’t show the heart of Canada — only its fringe. This convoy can be a wake-up call to Canadians, though not in the way its organizers intended. In 2011, David Cameron, the then-prime minister of the United Kingdom, was dealing with Europe’s own struggles with extremism. He said that what the fight against extremism needed was “a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism.” I can’t help but agree. This muscular liberalism means acting against the organizational and monetary
interests of both domestic and foreign extremism, and promoting equal rights and protecting freedoms on the basis of reasonable tolerance and respect for the ideals of democracy. Let me be clear: to preserve our national fabric, there is no room for negotiation — we must ‘batten down the hatches.’ We have to recognize that, no, the extremists in the convoy are not representative of Canada. Just like how the January 6 attack in the US was committed by a small group of extreme right-wingers, this convoy also contains fringe conservatives who do not necessarily represent their party. These extremists did not get their January 6 moment. If it were not for the heavy media coverage around it, many Canadians would not even have known it happened, and I suspect that this convoy would have been much smaller and much more moderate. But what they did do, from what I can see, is finish the transformation of many of Canada’s conservative movements from their principled liberal-conservative origins into something akin to right-wing movements in the United States. It would be easy to condemn the more extreme protestors and their sympathizers, but that method is not the most effective. We must stamp out these currents of hatred and radicalism, not just among the fringe congregated in Ottawa but everywhere. Canadians can only hope to achieve this gradually by truly educating the public and coming to a collective political consensus that radicalism does not belong in Canada. It is clear that now is the time to revive Canada’s tradition of liberalism. This liberalism should involve strengthening our nation against threats, like those in Ottawa this week, by pursuing muscular liberalism, a national standard of political and social life that encourages true Canadian values: tolerance, progress, and respect of the law and of democracy, among others. Only liberalism can lead Canadians forward. Liberalism must win. Logan Liut is a first-year social sciences student at University College.
The UTSU’s recent statement on the winter semester is naive and meritless Our student union should take real action for its student body
James Jiang Comment Columnist
Once again, the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) has published a dumpster of useless rhetoric. On January 25, the union published a statement on COVID-19 and U of T’s plans for the winter semester. To be frank, the statement is naive and an awful attempt to appear like some messiah to U of T students. In the introduction, the statement relates how the “contingencies we face today and the risk of rising infection rates were largely foreseeable… [and], therefore, preventable.” Pinning the blame on U of T is ridiculous. Even if there was a risk, it’s not U of T’s fault that it couldn’t prevent the spread of the Omicron variant or that the university had to follow the Ontario government’s policy decisions. In the meat of the statement, the UTSU goes over its demands. Some of the requests are reasonable. Extending tuition and enrolment deadlines, increasing COVID-19 testing opportunities, and expanding the quarantine accommodation program are all good ideas. Other requests, however, are unrealistic and ambiguous. The union wants U of T to give students the opportunity to drop a course without it appearing as a ‘late withdrawal’ or ‘no credit’
on their transcripts, and to add a note on all transcripts indicating disruption in academics that was caused by COVID-19. I am all for advocating for students, but this is still a university: U of T must still uphold some measure of academic measurement. The institution did allow students to choose the credit/no credit option for program requirements, when exams were cancelled suddenly in fall 2021. Moreover, the UTSU demands that “future changes must not be announced at the last second” and that “clear protocols and contingency plans [are made] for future semesters.” In a perfect world, maybe this could be possible, but COVID-19 is unpredictable, and so is the Ontario government. Situations can change suddenly; concrete plans are unrealistic. Lastsecond announcements may be unavoidable, and contingency plans are likely meritless because of the risk of unforeseeable changes. The UTSU also calls for immediate accommodations for in-person lectures and tutorials, online learning options, and technical support for teachers. However, the union fails to understand that these provisions are not immediately possible. Some courses are not compatible with online delivery methods. Some professors will have great difficulty even with technical support. Some course-related decisions
have already been made and cannot change. In writing this statement, the UTSU executives declare that “We, the undersigned, would therefore like to register our strong dissatisfaction with the administration’s inability to provide in a timely manner a proactive, clear, and predictable strategy.” Well, I, the writer, would like to register my strong dissatisfaction with the UTSU’s inability to provide any worthwhile help in a concise, straightforward manner. The provisions of the statement are asking too much. At the end of the day, COVID-19 remains unpredictable, and U of T isn’t perfect. But the UTSU is hounding the administration and acting as some glorious higher power. The union points to “the administration’s insistence on a full and vibrant return to campus, despite the current case numbers” to justify some onus for recent events falling on U of T. But it wasn’t just U of T’s insistence: many students wanted to go back on campus despite COVID-19. The UTSU points out that students may not decide to attend in person because “while the University has a vaccine mandate, public transit systems do not.” But what more can U of T do? The union also points out that UCheck is an “inadequate screening system,” but it fails to give any better options. Overall, the statement screams entitlement. It
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screams, “I want to make myself feel better and look like I’m doing something.” Sure, U of T’s decision making may not be the best, but you must cut the administration some slack. They are not gods who can make COVID-19 disappear. Instead of writing a naive statement with unrealistic terms — a letter that was likely left unread by most students — the UTSU could be more pragmatic. For example, it could have even accomplished some of the items the statement outlined, like “communicating the University’s protocols for reporting cases or outbreaks.” But wait, what’s the UTSU doing instead? It’s promoting its absolutely worthless “Winter Food Challenge.” Who is the UTSU helping with this? If there’s even one student taking the time out of their day to complete the challenge, I would be willing to believe that ghosts exist. The UTSU, however, has the gall to criticize the administration for inaction. Rather than writing statements of disapproval, the UTSU must begin taking real action for the student body. Otherwise, it remains an inadequate club of friends boasting a thin veil of student diplomacy. Words are beautiful, but actions are supreme. James Jiang is a second-year political science and writing & rhetoric student at Trinity College.
thevarsity.ca/section/comment
FEBRUARY 7, 2022
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The M&M remodel is a distraction How brands manufacture outrage to uphold their image Anna Sokolova Varsity Contributor
Content warning: This article describes systems of child slavery. This January, my corner of the political internet exploded. After all, something staggering had occurred: the green and brown M&M mascots had been remodelled to wear different shoes. Mars, the company that owns M&Ms, announced, “We’re on a mission to create a world where everyone feels they belong using the power of fun! Join us in being for all funkind.” The fight over the ridiculousness of this PR move broke out. Fox News host Tucker Carson raged about no longer being sexually attracted to the candy icons, generating a slew of reactions making fun of his response. Others called into question the details of the remodel and the way it slut-shamed the women-coded characters. Some others criticized how it didn’t attract consumers or get across the message that Mars claims to support. Among the numerous responses making fun of the remodel — including those from Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, and countless social media users — a repeated theme cropped up: this is a hilarious, meaningless, non-news stunt. Mars seems to have cemented itself as an out-of-touch brand vying for public approval through moral posturing. Just like that, the company got all of our rage, all of our mockery, and all of our attention. But while we kept our eyes trained on whether the orange M&M should represent anxiety, Mars spent 2021 as the target of a class action lawsuit for profiting off of child slavery in cocoa harvesting. Many large chocolate manufacturers, including Mars, were sued in the past year by Mali citizens who were enslaved as children on cocoa farms funded by the companies. They were kidnapped from their families and taken to Côte d’Ivoire, where they were surrounded by armed men and forced to work long hours in dangerous conditions. Such cases have continued even though this issue has been a known problem in the cocoa industry for decades. The companies themselves even claimed that they’d commit
to eradicating ‘the worst forms’ of abuse from their supply lines by 2005 — although they arbitrarily extended the deadline afterward. Last summer, the US Supreme Court dismissed the Mali citizens’ lawsuit by saying these international crimes did not happen on US soil. This is convenient — it sure is costly to go out and check whether the farms you’re financing use child slaves, especially if willful ignorance will mean driving down cocoa prices farms that don’t have to pay their workers. It is also easy to participate in human rights offences in other countries when you cannot be Y legally prosecuted for it. The court confirmed SIT AR EV H the legitimacy of the child slavery allegations; T NI/ DA Mars got away on a technicality, but they still AM H UR TH profitted off of child slaves. AR This story forces North American readers to face the circumstances to which our economic and legal structures subject colonized countries, getting off scot-free in the process. But smart marketers know that these problems feel far enough removed from our reality that they can be obfuscated. A seemingly braindead headline about the M&Ms no longer being sexy? Now that gets clicks. It’s so ridiculous that it’s memorable. And a right-winger losing it because he’s no longer attracted to a chocolate candy? What a fool! Aren’t these culture war commentators so silly? Mars fanned the discourse flame, responding to the scandal in a tweet in which the green M&M smugly asks, letting the child slavery controversy reach the “Did my shoes really break the internet?” public with no distractions would force Mars to Mind you, we should still have conversations take public action to right its practices. Which about how we exploit women’s images for ad- option is best for the company and its reputation vertisements. However, in this case, this remodel is an easy choice for PR to make. is meant to be the first and last conversation Corporate marketers are skilled at attenyou have about Mars. That way, the name of a tion control, as can be seen from the history of company using child slavery is associated with company stunts that have used social issues to its mascot scandal; the search results are popu- manufacture discourse and get press, like Gilelated with this discourse, burying the lawsuit. tte’s ad criticizing toxic masculinity and Nike’s A company remodelling their mascots is, at ad about police brutality. Mars took the tactic worst, shallowly attempting to profiteer off of to the level of covering up human rights abuses. social justice talking points. A company profiting Thankfully, as I’ve found while writing this off of child slavery is evil. The remodel debacle article, some people are taking note of these requires little effort on the company’s part, but connections and critiquing their capitalist roots.
Transit in Toronto should serve everyone, especially the most vulnerable The TTC’s chronic funding issues continue to have adverse effects on transit riders Thai Dillon Higashihara Varsity Contributor
Have you ever been late for class or missed an appointment due to delays in TTC service? This reality is common among those who use the TTC. Unfortunately, long waits and missed buses have become more common in recent months after the TTC temporarily reduced service across 57 surface routes and subway service on the Bloor-Danforth Line 2. Cuts to transit service impact those who need transit the most, including frontline workers and students, and could have long-term negative consequences on the environment, since people who can afford it will probably switch to using their cars. Toronto Mayor John Tory should immediately reverse TTC cuts, which predominantly affect the most vulnerable in our community. It didn’t need to be this way. Transit expert Steve Munro suggests that the TTC was already running less service than it had scheduled prior to the vaccination mandate coming into effect. The TTC had months to prepare for a labour shortage
but did not start a big hiring blitz because of a lack of funding. With transit ridership below 50 per cent, the TTC has faced major budget shortfalls since March 2020 — and it’s not just a problem in Toronto. As Marco D’Angelo, the president of the Canadian Urban Transit Association, explains, “More than two million people rely on transit every day. But cities won’t be able to keep it running unless Ottawa and the provinces provide more financial support.” In 2020 and 2021, both federal and provincial governments aided in the delivery of $4.6 billion in emergency transit operation funds, but this funding has run out, and mayors across Canada are warning that without ongoing support, transit agencies might further cut service. These cuts could not only hurt people who rely on transit but also the environment, in our battle against the climate crisis. Cities are unable to foot the revenue loss alone. The Canadian Urban Transit Association estimates that for every 10 per cent reduction in ridership, “transit systems lose $470 million nationwide.” The TTC is predicting a $561 million shortfall in revenue in 2022 alone.
The TTC is not expected to restore its ‘prepandemic’ levels of service until June 2022, which will be too late and will have a prolonged detrimental effect for all Toronto residents. In 2021, the TTC had a $36 million operating surplus, but this was not ‘reinvested’ directly for more service. The more people who ride the TTC, the more funds the TTC will have to improve service, adjust crowding standards, and increase non-rush hour service. So how can the TTC increase its ridership after the latest lockdown? Some of it depends on the policies of workplaces and universities regarding in-person work and school. But the TTC also needs to implement changes in order to bring back riders. The TTC has focused on its “Service Plan Reset and Ridership Reacquisition Strategy,” but there are no resources allocated to implement the strategy this year. If we want net zero emissions, the TTC must actually utilize strategies like that, which would increase public transit use, especially bus and streetcar service. There are also a few ways to attract people back to the system, including handing out masks and hiring more staff to distribute them. Boosting ridership also involves lowering, integrating, and capping fares. Unfortunately, the TTC’s 5-Year Fare Plan, a review of all TTC fare policies and possible plans for transit budgeting, has been delayed three times because funding was not included in the 2022 Toronto City Budget. The TTC must also reduce fares for those who need public transit the most: low-income residents. The Fair Pass is a poverty reduction strategy that the TTC introduced to alleviate the already vulnerable position that low-income residents within Toronto face. This is evident, as
But considering the well of unethical corporate practices, this stunt won’t be the last one. Beware of manufactured outrage and of contributing to the spread of curated advertising narratives. In a world where our attention is invaluable for public action and is therefore a prime target for companies, keep it where it matters. In this case, call out the corporations who are getting away with profiting off the enslavement of children and critique the mass North American consumption of the products of exploitation. Anna Sokolova is a fourth-year English and environmental chemistry student at Victoria College. They are the Features Editor at The Strand. 65 per cent of Fair Pass users rode the TTC in 2020 — during a pandemic that left low-income residents even more vulnerable than usual — compared to 35 per cent of all regular riders. However, the Fair Pass program is not fully funded and will cost around $20 million per year. To create a more sustainable, equitable, and affordable transit system, the TTC must reduce fares and ensure that there is permanent operational funding in order to lessen the burden of funding on riders. The current budget shortfall is an even larger indication that the TTC needs provincial investment in permanent transit operation funding in order to keep the current system afloat and improve it. It is time that Mayor Tory and the TTC board work to rebuild our broken transit system so it works for everyone, especially working people. This would mean lowering fares and securing funding to stop service cuts. An integral part of this is further COVID-19 protection, the 5-Year Fare Plan, and a strategy to secure further emergency funding. The TTC must move away from relying on the farebox and move to secure permanent operational funding to maintain safer service levels. We must all exercise our civic commitments to make our city more livable; we can make our voices heard by speaking at the TTC board meeting on February 10 or joining the rally on February 14. We must demand what we deserve, especially for the most vulnerable within our communities. Thai Dillon Higashihara is a fourth-year political science and international development studies student at UTSC. He is currently the outreach director of Oxfam UTSC and a member of TTCriders, a Toronto-based transit advocacy organization.
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THE VARSITY
FEATURES
Sarah Stern Varsity Contributor
I moved to Toronto in September 2020 amid the pandemic, determined not to let online learning deny me my first-year experience. As I crossed from Victoria College to Robarts Library, I remembered how vibrant the campus felt during my campus tour in 2019. That memory felt so distant. This was not the first year I had envisioned. Finally, this past fall, as a second-year student, I left my first in-person class and passed hundreds of students who crowded the sidewalks of St. George Street. But as I finished my first day of in-person classes, my roommate was closing her computer after starting her third semester of exclusively online learning. My roommate is a U of T kinesiology student, taking courses that are distinct from the ones offered by the Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS) to which I belong. The small and close-knit Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education (KPE) operates independently, and on June 2, 2021 — as vaccination uptake increased and COVID-19 case counts decreased — it announced that first- and second-year KPE courses would remain online in the fall of 2021. Just under three weeks after my roommate received this disappointing news, I opened an email from the Dean of FAS, Melanie Woodin, assuring students that, following a two-week transitional period, we would begin in-person learning in the fall. This past December, when the FAS put inperson learning on hiatus until February due to the Omicron variant, the KPE decided to keep all first- and second-year courses online for the remainder of the 2021–2022 academic year. Second-year KPE students, like my roommate, will now be halfway toward earning a degree without ever having stepped inside a classroom. Following the faculty’s announcement in December, second-year KPE student Megan Christoforidis started a petition titled “Implement In-Person Learning for First and Second Year Students.” This petition now stands at over 300 signatures and lists comments such as: “My daughter is struggling online… It’s emotionally draining and not good for their mental health,” and “I’ve paid over 16K for over two years, plus over 20K for rent for my kid to sit in front of a computer and not attend his first in-person class.” The irony of the KPE’s approach is that this undergraduate program specializes in hands-on learning about physiology, anatomy, and physical education. How does a student receive an adequate kinesiology education online? Online learning impacts the most crucial components of all students’ development. But especially in the kinesiology program, online instruction diminishes course content — kinesiology, by nature, cannot be taught virtually. Trust and community are also vital to the kinesiology program. Traditionally, students work extensively with one another, conducting group analyses of their own physical movement. The current mode of course delivery disincentivizes students to visit campus, establish a network of friends, and create a support system. The consequence of online learning is a cohort of students who feel isolated. Throughout 2020 and 2021, online higher education was implemented nationwide to protect university communities against COVID-19. Now, while other programs return to in-person learning, the transition to online learning feels permanent for KPE students, even for those who have gotten two or three doses of the vaccine. The KPE charges the same tuition and demands the same degree of participation as it did in previous years, but is not offering the quality of education that it did pre-COVID-19. The missing experience A distinctive part of the kinesiology program is its practicals. Lower-year students attend these practicals online now, which even in the best of scenarios, is incomparable to a classroom setting. Second-year KPE student Reem Ibrahim is one of the many students in her program entering a fourth semester of classes online, unable to attend in-person practicals. “In reality, when you do labs in person, you are
seeing the cadaver and the muscle cells under a microscope. You’re seeing all that in real life and are able to get a better grasp at what you’re looking at and what you’re studying,” Ibrahim told The Varsity. Ibrahim is not alone in lamenting KPE’s decision to deliver labs online. Another second-year student, Karina Di Biase, expresses the loss of hands-on experience that kinesiology students desire in order to prepare for medical or graduate studies. “A cadaver lab would be important for every aspect, whether you [go] to medical school or physio, because you get that hands-on component of seeing the muscles and distinguishing between different types of fibres and all of those things. So, it’d be really good and important for us to learn and visualise and see for ourselves rather than in pictures, which we can’t really distinguish,” said Di Biase. The cadaver lab is among the most memorable classroom experiences for kinesiology students. Another important tool for kinesiology students are athletic facilities, which are also as valuable
as course textbooks. In a March 2020 article in Concordia News, physiologist Patrice Desaulniers wrote that studying kinesiology requires on-site interaction. “You need to have someone next to you showing you how to do it and correcting you.” Normally, the U of T Athletic Centre is the hub for KPE students, but throughout its closure, they have stood in front of a camera exercising from home and streaming on Zoom. Loss of community Kinesiology students at U of T are also losing out on the program’s outdoor projects. The KPE promotes community building even before students begin four years of studies together; in previous years, at the end of August, incoming first-year kinesiology students participated in an outdoor learning program together. According to the faculty’s website, “The outdoor projects form an important and unique component of the curriculum. The objectives of these courses are to provide students with a sequence of learning
experiences related to outdoor activity, which emphasises skill-development, awareness of the environment, and leadership in an outdoor setting.” Kinesiology students haven’t been able to access this programming since August 2019, and no meaningful substitute has been offered yet. The emphasis on community building within the kinesiology program is incredibly attractive at a university as large as U of T. For Fiona Huang, the opportunity to meet her peers was an essential factor in her decision to study kinesiology. Huang, now in her fourth year, grew up in the small town of Hay River in the Northwest Territories, which has a population of 3,500. The UTSG student population is over 18 times as large. The prospect of sitting in a class of 1,000 students was far more daunting to Huang than enrolling in a program through which she could establish real connections. She had been considering a life sciences program, but as she told The Varsity, “I eventually settled on [kinesiology] because I come from a small town, like my graduating class was
The frustrations of an Here’s what it’s like to be a
features@thevarsity.ca 30 people.” The program still feels big to her, but, as she puts it, “it’s only 250 people and is a very close-knit community.” Now in her last semester of school, Huang is happy she chose kinesiology and credits her experience at U of T for her current status as a medical school applicant. But Huang’s experience at KPE is drastically different from kinesiology students in lower years, who, having never set foot on campus, do not identify with the “close-knit community” that she describes. Huang is among the cohort of upper-year kinesiology students who benefitted from prepandemic education and also had a monopoly on in-person learning within their faculty this past fall. “In-person learning is very, very valuable,” Huang said. “You don’t even notice how much more you can learn and absorb in a class when you’re in person rather than on your computer screen… I am definitely grateful for the experience of in-person [classes] last semester.”
An unsatisfactory compromise KPE is one of several similar programs across Canada that are struggling to teach human kinetics in an online setting. However, both Concordia University and the University of Guelph have released statements emphasizing that they are able to deliver high-quality learning to kinesiology students from a distance. At the very onset of the pandemic in 2020, Concordia professors took action in creating specialized at-home programs to “compensate for what was lacking,” as Associate Professor Alain Leroux put it. Also in 2020, the University of Guelph-Humber released a statement titled “How the Kinesiology program is bringing hands-on learning home.” The statement details how, at Guelph-Humber, “the Kinesiology program co-ordinated the delivery of an assessment kit called a KinKit — featuring a heart-rate monitor, stethoscope and skinfold caliper — to all the students taking the course.” The equipment included in the assessment kit is similar to what the students would
have otherwise found in a classroom. Clearly, kinesiology programs at other universities are taking action, raising questions about whether the reputation of U of T’s kinesiology program may suffer compared to institutions where the administration demonstrates a greater investment in students’ education. Of course, the success of online kinesiology instruction is also dependent on a prepared and flexible professor and a self-directed and motivated student. But instructing kinesiology from home remains a challenge for professors, who are used to demonstrating concepts in a classroom setting. In an interview with The Varsity, KPE Professor Joyce Chen shared her experience with delivering an online course in motor acquisition. “I was able to pivot [the lab] component,” Chen said. “I ended up devising labs around the speed cup stacking activity.” She asked students to buy plastic cups — the inexpensive type you might find at Walmart or Dollarama.
online KPE education kinesiology student today
ANDREA ZHAO/THEVARSITY
She then used the activity to illustrate different motor learning concepts. All the students were able to participate in the activity alone, or with the help of someone they lived with, who could time them. “Based on student feedback, I think most found it helpful,” Chen told The Varsity, adding that some students even became competitive with each other or those they lived with. “I can’t wait to do this activity in person — I think it will be a lot of fun when everyone can practice together and cheer each other on.” Chen told The Varsity that teaching the course online was challenging at first, but she was able to adapt. “That said, it still was not a rewarding experience,” she said. “I couldn’t see nor hear students, so [I] had no idea what their responses were.” Before the pandemic, when she ran classes in person, she could notice when students dozed off, chatted with each other, or stared at her in confusion. “These were cues that enabled me to respond,” she explained. “With online learning, this is not possible at all. I think it’s frustrating for both students and instructors.” In an email to The Varsity, a U of T spokesperson wrote, “The Faculty of Kinesiology, in an effort to balance the learning needs of students with the need to minimize the spread of COVID-19, has adopted a gradual approach to returning to campus, with priority given to academic and co-curricular student activities that can be safely delivered to small and midsized groups.” The spokesperson further detailed that students in lower years tend to have larger class sizes, which poses a barrier against in-person learning during the pandemic. “Although it was our hope that all courses would be in person for the Winter 2022 term, the rise of the Omicron variant of concern upended the original plan for a full return to campus in January,” they added. “The Faculty is intentionally providing a range of in-person and online elective course options this term, and is also offering on-campus, small group, co-curricular opportunities through our KINections program. We remain committed to keeping our community safe and look forward to providing an expanded in-person experience as soon as we are safely able to do so.” A light at the end of the tunnel U of T’s kinesiology students pay thousands of dollars in tuition and fees, which go toward campus services, facilities, and an excellent education at the highest ranked university in Canada. Given the capricious changes in facility access and course delivery announcements, kinesiology students are not getting their money’s worth. Unlike in a humanities program, where students are prepared for careers through the development of soft skills, not having an in-person education in kinesiology is a veritable obstacle against practice with the human body and the study of physical movement. Entering the field of physiotherapy without first practising in a classroom setting is not plausible. The pandemic has been going on for nearly two years now, and students are speculating what the future of education will look like. Will virtual courses remain a permanent option? Or do the disadvantages of online learning suggest that it will only be delivered when necessary? Ideally, like so many other students this past fall, kinesiology students will have the opportunity to choose how they want to learn. Huang offered a piece of advice to loweryear kinesiology students. “Honestly, getting to where you are now — going through the pandemic and all this uncertainty — is a gigantic feat, and you should not disregard anything that you’ve done this far,” she said. She remains hopeful that kinesiology students and faculty will maintain their community spirit and continue to foster an inclusive and equitable environment, despite any future obstacles they encounter. Huang said, “I’m again so sorry for the lack of in-person experience, but I do think there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”
Arts & Culture
February 7, 2022 thevarsity.ca/section/arts-and-culture arts@thevarsity.ca
How U of T student Emmy Curtis built her sportscasting career through social media Curtis’ content mixes femininity with sports to smash industry stereotypes Alexa DiFrancesco Arts & Culture Editor
If you were to ask most U of T students how they spend their weekends, there’s a high chance that they’d offer the name of their part-time job. Second-year journalism specialist Emmy Curtis is no different — that is, if you were to ignore the fact that her part-time job was assisting at the broadcast of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. The experience, which Curtis describes as “the biggest in [her] career,” happened on a whim. Curtis, who recently followed Soccer Canada on Instagram, noticed that the men’s team was performing well in the qualifiers. After discovering that they would be competing in Hamilton, Curtis decided to message the account with the hopes of volunteering with them. They promptly replied with an email contact. This phenomenon is one that Curtis calls “the butterfly effect.” Similarly, the butterfly effect was what led me to interview Curtis via Zoom. I reached out to the aspiring sports journalist over social media after stumbling across her TikTok account — a platform where she’s amassed more than 22,000 followers. But it’s not just the butterfly effect that’s responsible for Curtis’ success. At the age of 19, Curtis moved to Toronto from Abbotsford, British Columbia, was put in charge of the Varsity Blues’ social media account, and started a partnership with TikTok Canada — all topics she explored in an interview with The Varsity. Finding passion for broadcasting At a young age, Curtis gained exposure to sports through her parents, who were both passionate sports fans. Curtis’ enthusiasm for basketball, together with her interest for theatre, was also a factor that originally inspired her to pursue a career in sports broadcasting. “I loved being in front of the camera. I loved being in front of an audience,” Curtis explained. “I was sitting on the couch watching a football
game with my dad one night, and this broadcaster popped onto the screen. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, like, I want to do that.’ ” Pre-COVID-19, Curtis won a scholarship to pursue sports broadcasting at an American university. Due to the risk of infection and border closures during the pandemic, however, Curtis instead opted for U of T, which she described was her “backup plan.” Curtis would bring on-air experience to campus, which she’d gathered through two volunteer positions with two British Columbia basketball teams. “I was volunteering with the basketball club in my hometown… Through that, I met the president of the Canadian Elite Basketball League. And he got me [a] volunteer position with the Fraser Valley Bandits,” Curtis explained. “And it got me my first reporter job, which was for the answer pilots, which were in Abbotsford.” Social media roles at U of T Once Curtis arrived in Toronto, she swiftly landed a work-study position creating social media content for the Varsity Blues, U of T’s intercollegiate sports program. Curtis learned about the position through a friend who was also an aspiring sportscaster. Curtis also holds a position with U of T’s Sports Business Association, a student group that aims to “bridge the gap between university students and sports industry professionals and organizations,” according to the U of T student life website. Curtis’ participation with the group led her to be invited to a Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment case competition, where she had to partner a sports team with another organization and explain her marketing strategy. “I’m not a business major… this was another thing that I got involved in [to] expand my knowledge,” Curtis admitted. “And I got put on this team with three Rotman Commerce [students]. I was like, ‘Okay, this is good because… I’m pretty good with graphic design. I can do videos, I can present well,
but maybe [you] share your business knowledge.’ ” Ultimately, Curtis’ group was presented the ‘Best Deck Aesthetics and Visuals’ award, which honoured the graphic design of their presentation. “That recognition alone is massive for us,” Curtis said. Influencing on TikTok Curtis’ social media platforms focus largely on the theme of her being a sports journalist. The outlier is her TikTok account, which undoubtedly popped up on my ‘For You page,’ because it boasts power suits, high energy dance compilations, and clothing hauls. Curtis laughs and explains that the discrepancy is because she didn’t intend for her account to be used professionally. “I started off with doing outfits, like fashion stuff. Because it’s just like one of my passions and I gained [not] a huge amount of followers, but… I hit like 5,000 followers, and it was pretty quick,” Curtis explained. Once Curtis noticed an increase in followers, she eventually decided to switch the focus of her account to document her career. “I was like, ‘Okay, maybe I should take this more down [the] path I actually want to go down.’ So then I started posting some sports stuff and then started getting those followers.” This branding change was a decision that ultimately paid off — last Monday, Curtis signed a contract with TikTok Canada to be an influencer in their Sports and Fitness Community program. Though Curtis calls the opportunity “amazing”, she notes the irony of it — prior to starting at U of T, the broadcaster wouldn’t have described herself as “confident”. “I just had [a] brain switch,” Curtis revealed. “And I was like, ‘From here
on…I don’t care what anybody says. [We’re] just going to go for it.’ And then my confidence started growing.” Although Curtis’ surge in confidence occurred while she was away at school, she also attributes it to her mother’s influence. “She’s always had pretty high roles [in her] work and… she always kind of just taught us like, ‘[You] can do this… [Whatever] anybody says, [you] don’t have to listen to them. If you’re passionate about something… go get it,’ ” she explained. Currently, Curtis’ most-watched TikToks share two common themes. The first is that they’re about being a sports broadcaster. The second is that they’re about Curtis being a woman. This theme is not a reality that Curtis is oblivious to. “I would definitely call myself feminine,” she said with a smile. “I don’t hide it at all.”
Curtis gained exposure to sports through her parents. COURTESY OF SEYRAN MAMMADOV/VARSITY BLUES
Will corporations prioritize public safety over economic gain? The Joe Rogan Experience is problematic — and Spotify needs to understand that
The Joe Rogan Experience faced backlash for guests spreading vaccine misinformation. KHUSHI SHARMA/THEVARSITY
Tarek Tahan Varsity Contributor
Last week, artist Neil Young made a daring move when he requested that his music be pulled from the streaming giant Spotify. This move was then echoed by Canadian singer Joni Mitchell, as well as other artists like Nils Lofgren and Brené Brown. Why, you may ask, would artists stage a boycott of a streaming service that has over 406 million users? Wouldn’t they know the implications the move would have on their careers? Well, I’ll give you a hint — their decision wasn’t because of the lack of royalty rights. Seventy per cent of Spotify’s total revenue goes
to artist royalties. Instead, the move was made in solidarity with a cause. More than 270 scientists, physicians, professors, doctors, and healthcare workers signed an open letter in January expressing concern about the “false and societally harmful assertions” made in the highly popular podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, whose rights Spotify recently purchased for $100 million in one of the largest licensing agreements in the podcasting industry. As you’d expect, this podcast is hosted by Joe Rogan, who was formerly a UFC commentator and the host of the American stunt show, Fear Factor. It was the most-listened-to podcast of 2021 — but recently, it has also become one of the most controversial. This is because many have
accused Rogan of spreading misinformation about the pandemic through his podcast. On the show, he’s given air time to guests such as vaccine scientist Robert Malone, who’s been banned from Twitter for spreading false information about COVID-19 vaccines. Since the boycott, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek promised to add a content warning to any podcast episode that includes discussion about COVID-19. The advisory will lead to a COVID-19 hub that Ek stated “will include links to trusted sources.” Who cares if a few dissatisfied artists pull out of the company, you ask? Well, the boycotts have hit an important nerve for Spotify — the monetary one. In January, as a result of the controversy, Spotify’s stocks fell by 18 per cent.
As we watch this controversy unravel, we have to pay attention to the lessons it can teach us. With the rise of technology has also come the democratization of information, which means that previously dismissed voices are now able to have a platform. Public discourse has more room for diverse perspectives — including those of people with disabilities, people of colour, and people in the LGBTQ+ community. But at the same time, by the same means, viewpoints that generate controversy or that are generally considered fringe have also been able to gain a platform. While I respect people’s right to freely express themselves, I believe that creators with large platforms have the responsibility to advertise the truth. This Spotify controversy emphasizes the need to balance freedom of speech with the responsibility to avoid inciting the broader public — many of whom may be uninformed — to make grossly misinformed decisions. There are understandable reasons why some artists may choose not to get involved in issues beyond the scope of their work. However, I believe that these boycotts were completely justified. Artists have fans who pay subscriptions to Spotify. The company needs to give these fans, and the rest of the public, the correct information they need to make well-informed decisions. No matter its ultimate outcome, it’s clear that this controversy has roots that go further than the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only does the Spotify boycott movement advocate for streaming services to verify the information they share, it is also trying to set a precedent — a precedent that will ensure that major corporations put their personal and economic interests into perspective and prioritize the benefit of the public.
thevarsity.ca/section/arts-and-culture
FEBRUARY 7, 2022
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Meet the mysterious voice that’s become UTM’s favourite heartthrob How an Instagram live helped @transparentutmsu gain fame Cherry Zhang Associate Senior Copy Editor
Maybe it’s the fact that we’re rapidly approaching Valentine’s Day, or maybe it’s because two years of staring at blank Zoom squares has taken a toll on us, but a number of U of T students seem to have fallen head over heels for a mysterious man with a sexy voice. He’s the main admin behind @transparentutmsu, a student group that claims on its Instagram bio to work toward “accountability and transparency at UTM.” The account hosts livestreams on Instagram to directly engage with students, which is where our mysterious man was discovered. After comments about his voice started appearing on the Instagram account @spottedatutm2.0 — an anonymous confession page — the student group started getting much more attention. Shen Fernando, the now-famous admin, agreed to speak to The Varsity about his thoughts on being made into an icon and where the Instagram account is going from here. Yes, his voice does have a certain quality that makes you want to listen to him talk — but more importantly, I also think he has worthwhile things to say. Like many other self-conscious teenagers, Fernando used to hate the way he sounded — like “[a] radio commenter from the 1900s.” But in high school, more and more people wanted to hear him speak, even when he had nothing to say. When everything moved online during the
pandemic, his voice was always “one of the things [new people] commented on first,” a trend that has clearly continued. According to Fernando, his first livestream only had around 11 concurrent viewers at its highest point. He was worried that students didn’t care about what he had to say. But, clearly, they quickly started to care about something else. Thirst comments started appearing on @spottedatutm2.0 on January 18, the first one calling his voice “r/gonewildaudio worthy.” Within two weeks, the Instagram page saw at least 20 confessions about him, ranging from sweet to mildly concerning. Fernando picked out a couple of his favourites — he found a confession by a “3rd year gal” especially creative, who requested that, instead of signing petitions, he “sign our wedding papers.” While that prospective wedding might not be happening soon, sign petitions he did continue to do. Harnessing the power of memes for good, @ transparentutmsu helped spread a student petition to get the 110 bus reinstated. When the group started promoting it, it had around 250 signatures; within two days, it had reached 1,000. Reflecting on that extraordinary impact, Fernando said, “It’s one thing to have all these followers joining the [livestreams]. It’s another thing to make them take a minute out of their day to sign a petition.” Giving what seems to be strong proof to the claim that “all press is good press,” the hype around his voice has only helped @transparentutmsu grow.
“Immediately after the first confessions started coming up,” he said, “I noticed that we were getting hundreds more followers.” The account’s analytics are pretty remarkable. Between January 14 and January 23, they gained 508 new followers and got engagement from 854 accounts — an increase of 6,000 per cent from the week prior. During their last Instagram live on January 21, they got 440 comments and peaked at 83 concurrent viewers. The UTM community, it seems, is clearly tuning in. But fame is also a double-edged sword. While Fernando finds the confessions mostly in good fun, some have pushed boundaries. “The only time when I don’t like these things is when people start to get into stalking and accusing innocent bystanders of being me. And that’s happened,” he said. Since the internet apparently just won’t let us have nice things, Fernando wants to remind everyone that there’s an actual person behind the account. He tries to engage with people on Instagram — yes, even the ones who DM him for a voice clip — because it shows them not just that he’s okay with having fun, but also that he’s more than just a voice. Jokes aside, he wants to express his pride and gratitude for what the community has done and speak directly to the followers that have taken his messages to heart. “We took memes, we took a guy with a voice… and we expanded it into something so much more,” he said. He also made sure to recognize the other five
The admin of @transparentutmsu became a heartthrob after Instagram live viewers heard his voice. ALEXA DIFRANCESCO/THEVARSITY
members of the team and the work they’re doing together. Fernando says the members of the team have taken the newfound fame in stride and already have multiple issues they plan to focus on next, including mental health support and UTM’s new food service provider. For him, personally, let’s just say Fernando might not be so mysterious for long. In the comments of a request asking him to sign up for the Aphrodite Project, he responded that “[he] flipped a coin and it worked in this anon’s favour,” and that he’d agreed to sign up for the matchmaking service. So, yes — one of the many anonymous commenters thirsting over his livestream might be able to look forward to a Valentine’s Day surprise.
Roxanne Gay’s Hunger Hunger:: A reminder that creative work exists beyond its author It’s shallow to reduce an author’s work to their biographical roots
REBECCA MICHAELS/THEVARSITY
Marta Anielska Deputy News Editor
Content warning: This article contains mentions of sexual violence. Audiences have always had an ever-present tendency to explain a work of art by investigating the life of its author. This is evidenced by our interest in finding the biographical roots of the lover figure in so many works of art, from Catullus’ love poetry to Taylor Swift’s songs. Having studied literature since I was 17, I was under the impression that I was immune to this pitfall. After all, I had been taught throughout high school and much of university to ignore this biographical urge and focus on the words on the page. This did not, however, stop me from attending an event called Stories Spark Change: Roxane Gay in Conversation with Eternity Martis, assuming it would give me some insight on Hunger, a memoir by Gay that I had read and loved in high school. In some ways, though, my high expectations for the event were not that surprising. Debates on the ‘death of the author’ phenomenon have by no means fizzled out, but they have acquired a distinctly moral dimension championed by the
political left. Is it okay for me to listen to a controversial artist like Chris Brown? Does my answer change if the artist is dead, like in the case of Michael Jackson? While those examples are not directly applicable to Gay’s work, where you land on them will probably determine how much you think an author’s intention and circumstances should influence your interpretation of their work. My belief that the event would change how I interpreted Hunger showed where I stood on the issue: an artist cannot be, nor should they be, separated from their art. In reality, the event did little to change my interpretation of the memoir. It showed instead that my insistence on connecting Gay to her art had actually resulted in me conflating her with her memoir. I had formed a parasocial bond with her — if not on the basis of her experiences, then on the basis of her passionate writing. Gay seemed intimately aware that this was a potential consequence of publishing her story. In response to a question about boundaries, she noted that people who had read her work would sometimes try to share their own stories with her, expecting her to help them carry it. “They feel like they know you,” Gay said. “And it’s like, ‘No, you don’t actually. You know what
I’ve chosen for you to know.’ ” There were a myriad of other moments that also made me pause, like hearing Gay’s dog bark in the background every once in a while. Those brief seconds of authenticity reminded me that Gay is a person outside of Hunger — that her memoir and even the event are performances of experience. Returning to the book after the event, I realized that Gay had offered much of the same disclaimer in the chapter where she writes of her sexual assault. She writes, “Something terrible happened, and I wish I could leave it at that because as a writer who is also a woman, I don’t want to be defined by the worst thing that has happened to me.” And yet how would most people summarize Hunger? I now feel ashamed that for years, in motivating other people to read the book, I described it as the story of a woman who was sexually assaulted and coped with that assault, in part, through food. I can no longer, in good conscience, summarize it this way. Just as it is shallow to reduce the artist to their art, I believe it to be similarly shallow to reduce the ideas of a work to their biographical roots. Though Gay’s story is her own, her work is too sprawling and raw to be limited to her intention or circumstances.
Admittedly, this opinion was difficult for me to come to. On some level, it feels wrong to argue that readers should reinterpret and recontextualize the harrowing things that Gay describes and apply them to their own lives. But I think people do this regardless of whether we decide it to be moral or not, and, to some extent, it is a waste of Gay’s authorial energy to not expand on the connection readers feel to her writing. When I decided to attend this event and reread Hunger, I expected the experience to be practically objective in nature. I have come out as nonbinary since the last time I read the work, and I no longer felt like I had a right to the traumas she talks about experiencing as part of girlhood. Instead, I connected to Gay’s work in an even more profound way than I had when I read it as a teenager, because it became a rediscovery of traumatic memories I had repressed while coming to terms with a new identity. I cannot relate to much of Gay’s experience, but by remembering that her work exists beyond her and that it does not define her, I am able to find a part of her writing that helps me heal. And in doing so, I am able to turn Hunger into something that is more meaningful to me than any biography could ever be.
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THE VARSITY
arts@thevarsity.ca
ARTS & CULTURE
James Lautens Varsity Contributor
It was the middle of the Witching Hour when our party arrived in the village where gossipers from the neighbouring town assured us we could find work. Half of us eagerly explored the tavern in search of a job board while the others looked to buy new gear. Scenes like that have often greeted me over the past two years. But they aren’t real events that I experienced; rather, they’re fantasy scenarios brought to me by the roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons. To give more context to the uninitiated: Dungeons & Dragons is a pen-and-paper game made in 1974 by friends Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. It was inspired by wargaming, a practice that dates back to nineteenth century-era tactical drills that trained soldiers to be strategists. Gygax joined the International Federation of Wargamers and wrote for wargame fan publications. Arneson played wargames with a group of friends. Gygax and Arneson were introduced to the genre by the wargame Gettysburg, which inspired them to design their own games. Eventually, Dungeons & Dragons was born. Since then, the game has been rereleased in five editions and has been represented in various other forms of media, like the sitcom The Big Bang Theory. Its most current iteration, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, has also recently gained popularity from the voice acting streaming group Critical Role. I first discovered tabletop games in the seventh grade when a friend introduced me to my school’s gaming club. In addition to playing the board game Pandemic — no, the irony is not lost on me — we largely played Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. That’s when I got hooked. Since my tabletop roleplaying awakening,
Dungeons & Dragons & doing my best to get through the pandemic
the time to organize even more games. With that realization, we were off. I got the opportunity to host games too. We tried Delta Green, Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and Wild Talents, some of which I would have never been exposed to if not for the pandemic. So came an almost divine revelation: these roleplaying games were keeping me sane. Don’t worry — it’s not like I resembled Tom Hanks in that movie where he believes he’s in a fantasy world after playing a rip-off Dungeons & Dragons. Rather, it was the connections I formed and maintained that helped me keep it together during the madness. Troubleshooting online games also helped me navigate the new technological nature of our world. I figured out how to participate in Zoom classes easily. I quickly became acquainted with virtual spaces and adapted to using Acorn, Quercus, Blackboard Collaborate, and everything in between. Most importantly, the games in which I participated created a sense of security and reassurance. My friends and I were allowed to keep some aspects of ‘before.’ But then something beautiful hapCHERYL NONG/THEVARSITY pened: cases got lower. Restrictions were lifted. We could risk gathering around the old game table again — and it was a blast. Or that was how it was supposed to But I realized that enthusiasm for the games I turn out. But then a new flavour of COVID-19 took part in was slowly fading out with the onset emerged: Omicron. of COVID-19. People were becoming uncertain So, back on the ride we go. Except this time, about the future. And then there was silence. we know how to handle it. I know that, whether There were a few months without gaming as we return in person or stay online a little lonwe, like many, tried to sort out the state of the ger, I can still game with my friends. All of us world. But we adapted. Our formerly in-person have roleplayed many times before, so we know games were converted to Zoom and we instantly how to improvise — no matter what the world hit our stride again. With online school, we had throws at us.
Tabletop roleplaying games taught me how to improvise online and offline
I’ve created original games with friends. When I transferred out of my old high school, I found new people to play with. The community-building influence of roleplaying games can be summarized by a comment from my friend: “It’s about collaborative storytelling with your friends — that’s what makes it so addictive.” I agreed — because of these games, my friend count was only growing.
Meet Lil Blue, my summer travel partner How I turned a 27-year-old van into a mobile home Lexey Burns UTM Bureau Chief
I’ve always wanted to live in a van. By always, I mean that you should picture me at the age of eight, collecting any kind of coin I could find to put in a jar labelled “van savings.” My passion was also represented through a Christmas ornament,
Lil Blue is a Ford Econoline that I converted into a mobile home. LEXEY BURNS/THEVARSITY
a luggage tag, and a BUFF neckwarmer that all featured pictures of a Volkswagen Westfalia. I’ve also spent more time than I’ll admit looking through Pinterest inspiration pictures of vans. As much as I wanted to fulfil my hippie dream of the country in a Westfalia, I knew they weren’t the best option. I tried Kijiji, in the hopes that something reliable-looking and cheap would appear for sale. Then, right after Christmas this year, my dad stumbled upon a 1995 Ford Econoline. It was for
sale only 25 minutes from my house. Since most small towns have a dealership, my dad was into the idea of me getting a Ford. He rationalized that it would be easier and cheaper to get parts in case something were to break down. I bought the van the next day for $9,500. I probably overpaid. You’re definitely saying,
“Yeah, how could you justify dropping that much on a van?” But listen. What makes this van special is that it is 27 years old and has one rust spot on it. It’s old enough to have its own masters degree. That, plus a good body? Who wouldn’t overpay for that? Lil Blue got its name not only because it rocks a great shade of teal on the outside, but because its inside is upholstered with funky carpet. You can definitely tell it’s a ’90s baby — everything about it matches. You can see that there are even about seven shades of green, teal, and blue hidden throughout its design. I don’t plan on making significant changes to Lil Blue because it’s in a really good shape. I am, however, in the process of renovating it — this way, you’ll definitely be able to tell that it’s me driving down the street. Renovation plans One of the first hacks that I learned is that RV insurance can sometimes — like in my case — be cheaper than car insurance. This is good, because yay for saving money. But it also meant that I had to convince my insurance company that I could live out of Lil Blue as easily as I could live out of a fully equipped RV. I was pretty sure the job was doable. Lil Blue came with four seats and a fake bench that folded into a bed. I didn’t get the original bed because it couldn’t be properly bolted down. The bench was supposed to double as two extra seats, but there were no clips for seat belts on it. I planned to build a bed frame with storage for clothes, shoes, and a propane stove underneath. Behind the driver’s seat, I planned to install a cabinet and a fridge, to maximize the storage and add to the RV effect. If you go to my insurance company with my design ideas, I will come for you. Renovation work Since Lil Blue thrived in the 1990s, it rocked a little box television and a VHS player. Neither of them worked, so my family ditched them for extra storage. I went to Home Depot and Home Hardware multiple
times for material to build cupboards and a shelf. Luckily, my brother took woodworking classes throughout high school. He taught me how to run a table saw, hand saw, and nail gun. I messed up cutting my first piece, so he wouldn’t let me cut anything else. But I did a fine staining job. We built the bed frame, took the foam mattress from the bed and resized it to fit over top of the new frame. We removed all of the old brackets needed to bolt down the original bed and took out the seat belts in the back. Since I’m planning on either travelling solo or with my boyfriend, I didn’t see the need for two extra seats. As much as I want to say that after all of that work, I just drove off into the sunset, that’s not the case. My dad and I found out that we couldn’t leave the van’s battery plugged in without it dying. Turns out, the problem was the wiring that connected its door locks to the battery. At random times, the van doors would lock and unlock by themselves. Neither my dad nor I are handy with electrical work, so we had to send it into the shop. Because of the battery issues, I want to install a second battery in Lil Blue for charging my phone and powering its fridge. I’m also adding a solar panel to the van’s roof so I’ll be able to keep it charged even when it’s not being driven. Last year, I killed my car’s battery twice while charging my phone — needless to say, I’m hoping this solar panel does some of the heavy lifting. My adVANtures Right now, it’s hard to find time to renovate because I work part time while taking six university courses. So my dad and my boyfriend plan to spend time together to start building my bed frame. My fingers are crossed, hoping that they get along. My deadline to finish the main renovation is in a few weeks. I need Lil Blue running by the end of March because it’s my ride to my tree planting job. This summer, I’ll spend May to July north of Thunder Bay for the Ontario tree-planting season. From there, I’ll spend the rest of July experiencing the Alberta planting season before exploring the Yukon. Will I be parking Lil Blue at UTM in September and pay for a parking pass instead of an apartment? That’s a secret I’ll never tell. Until then, you can follow my TikTok account, @lilbluevan, to keep track of my van-conversion and tree-planting journey.
Science
February 7, 2022 thevarsity.ca/section/science science@thevarsity.ca
Durable water repellent, the devil of the outdoor equipment industry What rain jackets have to do with prostate cancer and fire extinguishers
Seavey van Walsum Varsity Contributor
What do waterproof running shoes, a non-stick pan, and your rain jacket have in common? Don’t Google it, because I’ll answer it for you here: DWR. If you have ever gotten lost in an outdoor equipment store, you’ve probably heard the acronym ‘DWR’ thrown around once or twice — but what does it really mean? ‘DWR’ stands for ‘durable water repellent,’ and it’s the umbrella term for a host of active ingredients in your waterproof gear that produces that classic beading effect on the surface of your gear that keeps you dry. Teflon, Gore-Tex and Pertex — some other terms you might have heard while shopping that sent your mind spinning — are patented forms of DWR. DWR and its patented recipes are composed of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs). PFAs appear in the bloodstream of 98.5 per cent of Canadians and are known as ‘forever chemicals’ because they last so long in the environment. They’re also found in many common products. You will see outdoor companies use the term ‘perfluorocarbons’ (PFCs) instead of ‘PFAs,’ and while that isn’t necessarily wrong, it is misleading. PFAs are a large class of 4,700 harmful chemicals used in firefighting foam, waterproof carpeting, snack packaging, and DWR. The distinction is important to note because although outdoor gear companies still talk about them, PFCs were a subset of chemicals banned in the 1980s because they were eating up the ozone layer. As a rule of thumb, when you hear an outdoor company say PFCs, think PFAs. PFAs are compounds with a hydrophilic ‘head’ made from oxygen and hydrogen and a hydrophobic ‘tail’ made from carbon and fluorine. They are notoriously difficult to break down, and have one of the strongest bonds known in organic chemistry. How do they work? The reason that PFAs work so well is that they are chemically very unique, according to Roxana Sühring, a chemistry professor at Ryerson University who researches them. “Normally, when you have a chemical, it’s either hydrophilic or hydrophobic. So it either loves water, or it hates water,” Sühring explained in an interview with The Varsity. A chemical usually can’t have both characteristics, and PFAs are unique because they do. “[That] is why it’s so loved in outdoor clothing, because it repels dirt and it repels water,” said Sühring. Not only do PFAs have a unique half-hydrophilic and half-hydrophobic chemistry, but they’re durable too. The half lives of PFAs vary from months to years, which makes them persistent and bioaccumulative, meaning we absorb them faster than we can get them to leave our bodies. The longer the compound’s ‘tail,’ the longer the chemical’s life. This is why, for decades, the outdoor industry used longer-chain carbons like C8 — a chain of eight carbon atoms in a bond. Recently, though, there’s been a push to move away from these long-chain carbons. Why? Because of their toxicity.
Research indicates that the chemicals used to make waterproof clothes are toxic. OLIVIA BASILE/UNSPLASH
The move away from PFAs On May 3, 2019, PFAs were identified as “possibly carcinogenic” by the The International Agency for Research on Cancer, which led to 180 countries banning C8s. While Canada and the US were not among that 180, the announcement still caused a ripple effect in the awareness that spread across the outdoor industry in North America. And they’re more than carcinogenic; PFAs have filled up quite the rap sheet. In 2009, the EPA described them as “persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic” and research has since found a link between PFA exposure and a long list of health defects, such as certain forms of cancer, pregnancy and fertility problems, hormone disruptions, delayed puberty, and bone density changes, to name a few.
It is also important to keep in mind that PFAs remain critically under-researched. Therefore, we don’t know the effects of every kind of PFA, let alone what they could do in combination. “We have like 5000 PFAs, and we’ve analyzed maybe 80, 100, if you’re really good,” Sühring said. These low rates, she pointed out, are happening in an era where PFAs research is “definitely taking off.” To avoid bioaccumulation, chemists shorten the life of the compound by trimming a PFA’s tail. Starting in the 2010s, there has been a move away from C8s within the outdoor industry. Although a few companies even offer PFC-free options, such as Columbia’s ExtremeEco jacket, the majority have opted for C6 or C4 chains. Recently, massive companies like MEC, Patagonia, Arc’teryx and Gore-Tex have released press statements that favour shortchain compounds. But are shorter chain PFAs any less toxic? “For all intents and purposes, no,” said Sühring. She explained that PFAs with a lower chain length tend to be more water soluble than their longer chain counterparts. “That just means that the lower chain PFAs are more of a drinking water problem rather than a food problem,” Sühring added. Instead of being bioaccumulative, short chain PFAs are mobile. According to Amila De Silva of Environment Canada, PFAs can even be found in snow collected from “the cleanest place on Earth.” Because of these mobile short-chain PFAs, there has been a push to create a classification for “persistent, mobile and toxic” chemicals along with the “persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic” category. It’s here that the problem with the outdoor industry’s waterproof gear reaches its crux: the gear the industry provides actively violates the community’s ‘Leave No Trace’ policy on an insidious, molecular level. But they have new investors to think about, who may have different priorities. There are alternative forms of DWR, like NikWax, that can be used to create waterproof gear — but their lifespan depends on consumer maintenance. This begs the question: will today’s outdoors community retain the environmentalism of its self-ratified trail bum and climbing-trash founders? Or will it follow the lead of the executives with commercial interests and find a way to internally justify the environmental cost? So far, the magnates of the outdoors industry haven’t willingly met the challenge. PFAs still do not have proper regulation in Canada. It’s up to Health Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada to assess if a new product is toxic, and they make that assessment in only three months. The regulation is clearly exploitable and the industry knows it. For the North American consumer it’s even worse — not only do the provided options degrade the realm you aim to venture into and stay safe in, but it can feel like there’s little to no way to make an informed choice. It is unfair to put the onus on the consumer, but it’s important to make responsible purchasing decisions; in North America, you “vote with your money,” as the saying goes. I don’t expect you to be or feel responsible for what is happening. The least I can do is offer you resources, though, because in a climate that makes an informed decision difficult, you at least deserve to be able to try. Some companies that are making an effort to move away from PFAs. Mountain Equipment Co-op, Arc’teryx, Patagonia, and Mountain Hardwear, for example, all use C6 carbon chains in their outdoor equipment instead of C8. Additionally, companies like Marmot, Columbia, Fjällräven, Paramò, Nau, Allied Feather + Down have offered PFC-free outdoor gear options for many years. If you’re interested, you can stay informed about the topic by reading reports such as the one done by CBC about ‘Forever Chemicals’, or the one about DuPont’s shady practices by The Intercept. I’d also recommend the Dark Waters movie on the DuPont scandal, or John Oliver’s coverage about PFAs on Last Week Tonight for additional watching.
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THE VARSITY
science@thevarsity.ca
SCIENCE
Realizing cereal’s ultimate potential Crafting the ultimate snack Vrej Anteblian Varsity Contributor
Having a balanced diet is an important part of living a healthy life. But while we are studying for our difficult assignments and grinding through all-nighters, we may forget to put enough effort into our diet. Many of us resort to snacking to satiate our hunger throughout the day. But can we snack in a healthy manner? Absolutely. And for that, we will craft the ultimate healthy snack, if you will: cereal. The reason why the ultimate snack is cereal is because the best time to be snacking is in the morning. Snacking later in the day has been associated with unhealthy eating behaviors such as distracted eating, and has also been associated with a high body mass index (BMI). In contrast, eating in the morning has been associated with healthier snacking behaviors — and what better morning snack can there be than cereal? The pieces of the puzzle For a healthy diet, Health Canada suggests a set of basic nutritional components that we should eat daily, and this ultimate cereal aims to provide all of them in a single bowl. The important components are carbohydrates, lipids, dietary fibre, proteins, and different kinds of vitamins. To craft our healthy cereal, therefore, we will need raisins or other fruits, low fat milk, oatmeal, and nuts such as almonds. First, let’s look at carbohydrates. They are broken down in our bodies into sugars and
fatty acids, also known as lipids. In this recipe, none of the ingredients other than the oats are themselves contributing carbohydrates, but they each provide the things that the carbohydrates end up breaking down to.
Raisins are a great source of sugars because they are around 60 per cent fructose or glucose. Raisins are also rich in dietary fibre since, during the fruit drying process, some of the sugars turn into fructan, which is a specific type of dietary fibre. The only issue with this is that many of the other ingredients in our cereal recipe are also rich in fibre, and having the extra fibres from raisins might be too much for some people. You may find it better to use fresh fruits of your choice, which, before they’re dried, would only
have trace amounts of fructan. The other ingredients rich in dietary fibre are oatmeal and almonds. Oatmeal is a whole grain food that contains a variety of important nutrients, one of the main ones being dietary fibre. Dietary fibre is good for us because it helps us feel more satiated while also controlling the levels of lipids, insulin, and glucose in our blood. It has also been observed to decrease the risk of certain potential risk factors in health, such as obesity, by helping maintain a lower BMI.
The other ingredient that’s rich in fibre, the almonds, are also rich in components such as proteins. Proteins are a very important component for our bodies as they are involved in a variety of different bodily functions and processes, none of which would be possible for us to do without proteins. Nuts and seeds in general are a good source of proteins, and almonds are a great example of them.
Topping it all off with the most important ingredient Another ingredient rich in proteins is milk, of course, and you can’t have cereal without any milk. Milk and almonds are also rich in fat, which acts as a secondary source of energy while also helping with growth and absorbing vitamins. There are three kinds of fats: trans, saturated, and unsaturated. One important practical difference between them is that each of them results in a different kind of cholesterol in our bodies. The cholesterol generated by saturated and trans fats is considered bad for our health, whereas unsaturated fat creates cholesterol which is considered to be healthy. While we will probably have both kinds in our bodies, an overabundance of cholesterol from saturated and trans fats can result in plaque buildup in our blood vessels. To mitigate the effects of bad cholesterol, we are using low fat milk in this recipe and substituting the excess saturated fat with healthier, unsaturated fat that comes from the almonds. While milk substitutes made of almond, oats, or soy, have similar components to cow’s milk, they are present in different concentrations. Cow’s milk is generally considered to have the ideal ratios, so it’s the best one to use unless you’re lactose intolerant. Making sure that the things we eat are healthy for us can be hard sometimes, which is why having a reference for the basics that we need to eat can be helpful in crafting healthy recipes. But those recipes, like the recipe for the ultimate cereal, are open to experimentation. Maybe you don’t mind the extra fibres from the raisins, or maybe you prefer walnuts over almonds. Feel free to try different things to craft your own ultimate recipe that meets your health needs. Bon appétit. It’s easy to consume many necessary nutrients with just a handful of ingredients. COURTESY OF NYANA-STOICA/UNSPLASH
How taking inspiration from nature can help us build a better world Envisioning a reality where biomimicry is the norm Khaleda Khan Varsity Contributor
It’s in our nature to want to be near nature. For a long time, humans have been trying to replicate nature’s intricate designs into our own clothing. But these replicas don’t just have to be aesthetic. A wide variety of technologies we use everyday are directly inspired by the natural world, including common household objects like Velcro. This is biomimicry, the strategic practice of drawing inspiration from nature’s designs and adapting them into our world to solve human problems. This concept was first termed ‘biomimetics’ by American biophysicist and engineer Otto Herbert Schmitt in the 1950s, but was later popularized as ‘biomimicry’ by biologist Janine Benyus in her book, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. There are three areas from which we draw innovation from nature: the forms or structures of natural things, natural processes, and ecosystems. Whether it’s in architecture, agriculture, or biomedical fields — to name just a few of the fields that use biomimetic design — these designs are used to optimize technology while maintaining environmentally friendly practices. Implementing nature-inspired models into our world The most well-known examples of innovations inspired by nature have been in recent developments in vehicles. For instance, the shape of the Japanese Shinkansen bullet trains was inspired by the kingfisher bird in the 1990s. Eiji Nakatsu, lead engineer of the railway design project and avid bird-watcher,
was inspired by the kingfisher’s narrow bill and fashioned an improvised bullet train that made less noise when exiting tunnels and used less energy thanks to its aerodynamic form. Hummingbirds have also served as design inspiration for their ability to fly forward, backward, or even be perfectly stationary mid-flight, unlike other birds. These manoeuvres, along with the flight manoeuvres of dragonflies, have inspired helicopters, drones, and wind turbine technologies. We also see biomimetic designs as structures in architecture. Like engineers, architects must also solve several problems creatively in architecture, and nature-inspired models can help. Architectural designs have long taken inspiration from nature in both their external features and their internal functioning and maintenance. According to a 2017 paper on sustainable architecture in high-rise buildings, these biomimetic design elements can include structural solutions that adapt to local climate and water conditions; the use of renewable energy like solar energy and wind; and maintaining environmental consciousness when designing the ventilation and energy consumption in the buildings. For example, pinecones are inspiring engineers and architects to use double layers of wood to respond to changes in heat and cooling throughout the day as a low-cost and electricity-free alternative to other insulation. Finally, humans have taken many patterns from nature such as leaves and flowers to print onto their textiles. While these patterns were inspired by nature in their shapes, we also depend on nature for feathers, fibres, animal skin and hides, leaves, and more, which we use for protective
purposes. Adopting patterns and collecting material from the remnants of nature in the form of things like flowers, feathers, and fibres allows humans to enhance beauty and aesthetic appeal in themselves and their surroundings while using products to their full extent. Biomimicry as the answer to all human crises and well-being By its very nature, biomimicry is beneficial to us in many aspects of our lives — including intangible ones. While it has its uses for designing material technologies and buildings, it is also a philosophy.
ARTHUR HAMDANI/ THEVARSITY
If more architects, designers, urban planners, engineers, and policymakers began to adopt biomimicry as part of creative solutions, they would be pleasantly surprised as to how ecologically friendly and beautiful their designs would be. Nature has its ways of dealing with chaos and disasters, with complexity and unpredictability that humans can only aspire to. Biomimicry is not just useful as inspiration for buildings or other material things, but also teaches humans about how to manage our roles and relationships with other people. Learning from different animal herds, or observing ants participating as a single unit, for instance, can give us a sense of community and teach us resilience; each member of a society plays their part, and we’re all working for everyone’s greater good. Perhaps we need to take a proper look at the marvels of nature once more, and then reassess: how much more are we going to try to conquer it before we finally give in to its expertise and try to learn from it, instead — as nature intended?
Sports
February 7, 2022 thevarsity.ca/section/sports sports@thevarsity.ca
The importance of hockey to me and my immigrant family The Canadian hockey tradition seems like a microcosm of so much of Canadian culture Marta Anielska Deputy News Editor
During the nine years that I played hockey, from the age of eight to 17, my parents frequently told me the unlikely story of how I first got into it — how the child of Polish immigrants started playing a sport that has never really been on Poland’s radar. The story is simple enough — my dad was convinced to register me by our French-Canadian neighbours. However, he neglected to tell my mom that he was going to do so. When my mom found out, she was livid, certain that I would either hurt or embarrass myself. Though they were harsh, my mom’s fears weren’t exactly wrong. Like any kid starting a new sport, I was awful. I didn’t know how to skate, I had no coordination, and I don’t think my coaches really knew what to do with me. I was bounced around from position to position, even playing a one-game stint as a goalie, during which the opposing team scored almost 10 goals. Despite my mom’s dire prophecies and some of my worst experiences, I stuck with hockey and eventually ended up as a pretty decent house league defenseman. I never tried out for rep league hockey, but it still became a large part of
my identity, despite the fact that it wasn’t a part of my family history like soccer was. The history of hockey in Canada is an adopted one, as is much of Canadian identity. Hockey is so associated with Canada that many even assume it was invented here. In fact, it’s descended from a much older branch of sports that experts unironically call “stick-and-ball games.” Even organized hockey — which, according to the International Ice Hockey Federation, started in Montréal in 1875 — can trace its roots back to England in the mid-1800s. However, the majority of hockey’s most recognizable rules were first established in Canada and then implemented in other countries, giving Canada a rare opportunity to be a trendsetter in the sport. In many ways, Canada made the sport what it is today, regulating everything from the material and size of the puck to offside rules. From there on, Canada dominated the sport, establishing the first professional league and winning most international tournaments until the Olympics implemented its amateur rule, which allowed the European Eastern Bloc to win for many years by unofficially training public workers to play professionally. The Canadian hockey tradition seems like a microcosm for so much of Canadian culture, which distinguishes itself by modifying the
cultures of its various early inhabitants, such as the English. And for immigrants like my parents, hockey also seems like an easy starting point for integrating into Canadian culture. Though I no longer watch hockey, my parents follow the Toronto Maple Leafs religiously. Hockey has created a common cultural ground for them and their friends, both Polish and not, as they organize viewing parties at our house and attend games at the local rink. When they came to Canada, my parents learned another language in addition to English — hockey. As a first-generation Canadian, I interpret hockey’s legacy a little differently. On one hand, I’m more prone to see the shadows that lurk behind the friendly visage of Canadian unity. Along with hockey, Canada has also adopted and modified the British Empire’s racism, conservatism, and homophobia. I felt all of that in hockey culture, which has always made me feel like an outsider, even when I tried my best to fit in. In addition to its violent reputation, hockey demonstrates a variety of less physical violence that I deem to be even worse.
While the sport tries to convince us that it represents and unites Canadians, it remains rather white, elitist, and inaccessible, just like the country’s politics. When watching hockey with my parents, I am often reminded of these facts by the insistent patriotism I see in every game. However, it is hard for me to overstate how much I love playing the sport itself. Stepping onto the ice, gliding on my skates, figuring out the smartest plays are things that make me feel truly free. And that, in turn, represents another part of Canada that my parents and I appreciate — it has provided me with the freedom to think and act the way I do. I could never be the person I am today if I grew up in Poland, and the freedom that Canada has provided me is something I will never take for granted.
ROSALIND LIANG/THEVARSITY
Is the raw meat diet healthy, dangerous, or ineffective? The raw truth about rejecting the modern diet Whitney Buluma Varsity Staff
If one of your new year’s resolutions was to lose weight, you may have tried a fad diet that required you to restrict your consumption of certain foods or keep to specific dietary practices. Recent fad diets include the paleo diet, intermittent fasting, keto diet, and the glutenfree diet, for those who follow these diets even when there is no medical reason for them to do so. Dr. Christopher Gustafson, an associate professor at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, theorizes that people are attracted to fad diets because they simplify a complex set of dietary choices into a binary decision — for example, “Does this food have gluten?” One emerging fad diet is the raw meat diet — a variant of raw foodism, which is a class of diet that involves eating mostly raw and unprocessed foods, and avoiding food that has been genetically engineered or sprayed with pesticides and herbicides. The guiding tenet of raw foodism is the belief that processing and cooking food reduces the potency of food’s life force, making it harmful to our health. However, for some adherents of the raw meat diet, it is more than just a fad: it’s part of a lifestyle known as ‘ancestral living.’ According to Brian Johnson, who calls himself the “Liver King,” the human body is better suited to this lifestyle — getting lots of sunshine, doing hard physical work, hunting for food, and consuming the whole of an animal, preferably raw. The Liver King eats three to four ounces — roughly 85 to 113 grams — of raw liver with every meal. He claims that ancestral living leads to a connection with our primal selves, resulting in increased strength, health, and happiness. But can we all be Liver Kings? People all around the world incorporate raw meat as part of their diet, in dishes like sushi,
steak tartare, carpaccio, mett, and ceviche. However, the central question for many people remains — is the raw meat-centric diet safe? The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Health Canada both warn against the consumption of raw meat, recommending that raw meat, poultry, seafood, and egg products should be cooked to a safe internal temperature to destroy any harmful pathogens that could cause food poisoning. The type of pathogens that raw meat may contain varies depending on the practices of the farms, slaughterhouses, and processing plants that handle the meat. The species of the animal and the cut of meat may also affect the types of pathogens it can contain. Some common foodborne pathogens include Salmonella enterica, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, and Staphylococcus aureus. A meta-analysis of the global prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus in raw beef, chicken,
and pork products from studies conducted between 2000 and 2016 found that 29.2 per cent of raw meat was contaminated with the pathogen and 3.2 per cent of raw meat was contaminated with a methicillin-resistant version of it. A study of raw food eaters found a high incidence of amenorrhea, or the absence of menstrual bleeding. It also found a negative correlation between a person’s body mass index and both the proportion of raw food in their diet and the duration they are on their diet. The odds of amenorrhea and being underweight were similar for meat-eaters, vegans, and vegetarians. Therefore, the correlation between raw food eating and a low body mass index suggests that the cooking of plant and animal products provides crucial energy that would not be conferred by meat-eating alone. That being said, the evolutionary benefits
JESSICA LAM/THEVARSITY
cooking may provide are hotly — no pun intended — contested. And cooking may have some drawbacks. While it’s essential to ensure meat is safe to eat, cooking may lead to a decrease in nutritional value through the loss of important vitamins and minerals, as well as changes in the meat’s fatty acid composition. The potential losses in nutritional value depend on the time, temperature, and method used to cook the food. Some studies note, though, that cooking your meat does not significantly affect the quantity of minerals in it. Research suggests there is a greater risk of pathogen contamination at retail outlets, such as grocery stores, than at the slaughterhouse. Therefore, the risk of exposure to pathogens in raw meat can be reduced by buying organic, grass-fed, antibiotic-free meat directly from a farm. However, this kind of meat is often expensive. Studies have shown that adding lemon juice, garlic, and yogurt to raw meat reduces the meat’s ‘microbial load’ — the amount of pathogens that are in the meat. Keeping the meat intact during preparation rather than cutting it up also helps reduce its microbial load, since intact whole meat is considered internally sterile. These interventions do not eliminate the risk posed by foodborne pathogens completely, though; there is always an element of risk when eating raw meat. While we could all stand to eat less processed food, a raw meat diet carries a risk of illness that cannot be eliminated. Furthermore, the diet’s much-touted health benefits are currently unsubstantiated. Part of the problem is the limitations of nutritional research, which is largely correlational and thus often cannot establish clear causational relationships. So before you bite into a juicy bloody steak, keep in mind we still need more research to properly explore the long-term effects of raw meat diets.
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THE VARSITY
sports@thevarsity.ca
SPORTS
Make your workout resolutions come true Tricks on sticking with a training regimen Valerie Yao Lead Copy Editor
We’ve all made a new year’s resolution that we’ve failed to keep. Unfortunately, the journey to fostering consistent workout habits and getting fit is an arduous one. While the frustration and disappointment from failing my previous years’ fitness goals haunt me, the call to change this cycle is knocking on my door. This year, I decided that I’m going to answer it and turn failures into fuel to help me reach this year’s goals — and you can, too. Learning from experience, I’ve realized that if we want to be more consistent in exercising, we can employ tricks to spice up workouts so we naturally cling better to our routines. Make detailed plans and goals My calculus teacher’s advice on solving math problems was to “begin with the end in mind.” I have found that philosophy to be relevant to our workout problems, too. Knowing what you want from exercising helps motivate you to stay on track in developing daily workout habits. After setting general goals, it’s best to break them down into specific plans. Planning to maintain a routine for three months in a row is more effective than a plan to “work on leg slimming,” for example. As a rookie, I’ve experienced periods of limbo in my progress due to inadequate planning. During the pandemic, I relied on self-training by following video tutorials. Since I lacked concrete material on how to train at first, I went on to search for workout videos every time before exercising. It took me a while to decide on which video to follow. These hassle of planning before workouts added inconvenience and reduced my enthusiasm. Hence, making working out more convenient
MIRKA LOISELLE/THEVARSITY
is crucial. You can have a routine playlist set up on YouTube or, alternatively, use workout apps and follow their preset tutorials. Personally, I use the Keep fitness app to find suitable workout plans. It does a fantastic job on catering fitness routines to your body and goals. Keep your own comfort in mind Building cozy atmospheres that soothe your
mood is also essential. This means tailoring the environment comfortably to fit your physical and emotional needs. You can start by generating a bopping workout playlist. Also, try arranging a set time and space for yourself to work out. Familiarity and repetition can turn into cues that trigger workout behaviours, thus helping us form habits. For beginners, it’s immensely beneficial to
take breaks when needed, because your body needs time to replenish itself, and not taking the time to do so can build fatigue. So, be mindful of the duration and intensity of your workout. That way, you make a little progress each day without feeling too tired or leaving your body too exhausted to continue. Both Pamela Reif and MadFit on YouTube have fantastic dance workout videos, which are ideal for beginners, as well as core training programs. Reif’s tutorials are clearly categorized into different levels of intensity, making them easy for you to follow along, while MadFit’s videos are nicely categorized by the type of workout and the body part it targets. Both channels are beginner-friendly and can aid you in starting your workout at a comfortable pace.
Use psychological tricks to your advantage Our brain responds to the pleasure of accomplishing our training by producing dopamine, a chemical that stimulates feelings of well-being. Gradually, the brain will become trained to fasten on to the notion that increases in dopamine are linked with exercising and its rewards, thus prompting us to keep exercising. Also, envision yourself with a successful outlook. The Pygmalion effect — the psychological tendency that you become what others expect of you — is also applicable to yourself. Like Rome, a fit body isn’t built in a day, but all of the sweat and pain will eventually pay off. I wonder what I would say in response to my toned physique when the payoff becomes clear. I will figure it out when I get there — but until then, let’s grab our mats, get our heads into the game, and make this year’s resolution come true.
Crafting the best leg day routine Don’t be afraid to work out your legs Rushil Dave Varsity Staff
Leg day — it’s dreaded by some and cherished by others. Regardless of how you feel about it, it is one of the most important parts of your gym life. Leg workouts target several major muscle groups in the body: your quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, and glutes. However, you may wonder where to begin when it comes to devising an excellent leg day routine and maximizing your gains. Look no further than this article, which contains a simple, tried and true leg workout, along with some suggestions on how to create others. Getting started with leg day workouts Before you get started, be sure to do some dynamic stretching to lower your risk of injury. In addition, it’s important to look up the correct technique for all of these exercises, since not doing so could result in a serious injury. This leg workout routine consists mostly of compound exercises, which work many different muscle groups at once. It includes front squats, Romanian deadlifts, standing lunges, and standing calf raises. These exercises all target the major muscle groups mentioned earlier, making them the most efficient way to work your legs. Front squats are considered to be a staple in all lower body workouts, since they work your quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes, among other muscles. Romanian deadlifts target both your glutes and hamstrings, with a larger emphasis on the latter. Standing lunges work your quadriceps.
Finally, while calf raises are not inherently a compound exercise and mainly target your calves, they’re still quite effective for leg day. For all of these exercises, you want to aim for eight repetitions and three groups of repetitions, or sets, three to five days a week. Make things interesting If you want to step up your workout, consider throwing in some intense sprinting. This may allow you to tackle muscle growth training from a different angle. Alternatively, although it won’t help you with building muscle, you could try long distance running to improve your endurance. Either way, you should aim to practice sprinting or running a few times a week, giving your body some time to rest in between, for optimal results. You could also add some variations to the movements discussed in the beginner workout. For example, you can try jump squats, seated calf raises, and walking lunges, to name a few. Adding variation means that your muscles will have to work harder, keeping your body on its toes — both metaphorically and physically. Finally, you can incorporate isolation exercises
Leg day is one of the most important days in your workout regimen. COURTESY OF CORE ADVANTAGE PTY LTD/CC WIKIMEDIA
in addition to the compound ones mentioned earlier. Isolation exercises emphasize one muscle group over the others, which makes them especially helpful if you are looking to push your gains even higher. Some isolation exercises
include leg curls and leg extensions. All in all, there are plenty of effective leg workouts to help you increase your gains, whether you are a beginner or an advanced lifter. Choose your routine and get started!
thevarsity.ca/section/sports
FEBRUARY 7, 2022
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The Canadian men’s national soccer team’s successful start to 2022 Discussing the team’s January and February World Cup qualifying matches
So far, the Canucks have been an exciting, unexpected, and fun team. QUALS MARKTCI/FLICKR
Audrey Miatello and Mekhi Quarshie Associate Sports Editors
The Canadian men’s national soccer team has been on a roll ever since they beat Mexico. Their momentum caused them to beat Honduras, the USA, and El Salvador with 2–0 wins against each, and the team now stands one win away from securing a seat on a flight to Qatar for the World Cup. So far, the Canucks have been an exciting, unexpected, and fun team to watch. Regardless of what happens throughout the rest of the qualifiers and — potentially — the World Cup, the team has already brought this country together with their performance. The Canadian team’s journey so far “Destiny is in our hands… We’ll keep believing. Our country is behind us,” said John Herdman, the coach for the team, in an interview for Canada Soccer. And destiny does seem to be in their hands, as the last two wins for the team are indicative of how confident the boys are getting. On January 30, the Canadian men’s national soccer team beat the US for the first time since 2019. The rivalry between the two has been stark,
and of all the times they have faced off, the US men’s national team won 18 out of 29 matches. On the other hand, their win against El Salvador shows that the team has luck on their side. After a scoreless half against El Salvador, the Canadian team’s international top goal scorer, Cyle Larin, decided to take charge. The forward dribbled down the sideline to the opposing goal line and proceeded to cross the ball to a lucky onlooker, who happened to be the team’s captain, Atiba Hutchinson. Hutchinson dove forward and headed the ball, which was deflected by the goalie, resulting in a ricochet off his back that ultimately ended up with the ball miraculously curling into the top bin of the net. The goal looked like a video game, as if it was a FIFA glitch of some sort. But instead of resulting in a broken controller, it secured Canada’s win. An unspoken factor in all of this is that Canada is playing without their golden boy and recently popular Twitch star, Alphonso Davies. Davies has noted that he’s been “bored” during his recent recovery from myocarditis and watching the Canadian men’s soccer team succeed from behind a screen, as thousands of his fans watch his reaction.
The road ahead for Canada The last few months of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) World Cup qualifying matches have seen the Canadian men’s soccer team reach a number of milestones. In November, for example, the team secured their first win against Mexico since 2000, and were promoted to 40th place in FIFA’s men’s teams rankings. And it seems likely that even more milestones are in store for the team as they are rapidly approaching what could be their first World Cup appearance since 1986. There is a strong competition to play in the World Cup — this year, only 32 out of the 210 competing teams will get the opportunity. And once a team qualifies, they will face some of the most skilled opponents in the world. The last time the Canadian men’s soccer team played in the World Cup, they exited winless and goalless from the group stage of the tournament. However, much has changed since then and Canada is the closest that they have been in 24 years to qualifying for one of the most viewed tournaments in the world. So far, 15 of the 32 spots have been filled, and the Canadian men’s team is hoping to take one
of the remaining 17 spots. They are guaranteed to finish in at least fourth place in their qualifying group, and only need one more win from their final three games to secure their spot in the World Cup. Given the fact that this team has not yet lost a match in the qualifying stage, they are in an altogether comfortable position heading into their final games. The team’s next game will be on March 24, and the last of their qualifying matches will be played six days later. After their recent 2–0 win against El Salvador, Herdman seemed cautiously optimistic about his teams’ qualification chances. “It’s going to happen. We know it’s going to happen. We have to stay humble, though. We’re not there yet,” he said. This team has certainly come a long way from 2018, when Herdman had just been appointed head coach. He has previously explained that the team was not a unified group at that time — in fact, he even witnessed fights between team members at practice. Just four years later, though, Richie Lareya recently described the team as a “big brotherhood.” In another four years, who knows what this team could accomplish. But hopefully, one day soon, a World Cup win will be included in that list.
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FEBRUARY 7, 2022