March 7, 2016

INSIDE The psychological egoism of humanitarian aid

On death and dying

Canada’s laws on physicianassisted dying are about to change drastically Features PG 14

The Syrian refugee crisis is the latest humanitarian aid trend Comment PG 11

The UniversiTy

of

After school jams

LoL is no laughing matter

UTM steps up its music presence Arts PG 16

eSports are on the rise across university campuses Sports PG 27

ToronTo’s sTUdenT newspaper since 1880

vol. cXXXvi, no. 19 7 M arch 2016

A New Deal?

The province revealed iTs 2016 bUdgeT on febrUary 25. despiTe The adverTiseMenT of “free TUiTion” for sTUdenTs froM hoUseholds Making less Than $50,000 a year, There is MUch More To The nUMbers Than This proMise. reading beTween The lines: The VarsiTy eXaMines The fine prinT. PG 8

2017 ONWARDS

FREE TUITION FOR STUDENTS FROM FAMILIES WHO EARN A HOUSEHOLD INCOME OF

$50,000 OR LESS

> 50%

OF FAMILIES WITH INCOMES OF $83,000 OR LESS

WILL RECEIVE GRANTS IN EXCESS OF AVERAGE TUITION

CALCULATIONS:

CURRENT AVERAGE FOR UNDERGRAD TUITION

BUDGET FOR AVERAGE TUITION

$6,160

$1,700 GAP

$7,868

Editorial: Budgetary Balancing Act The 2016 Ontario provincial budget was released in late February and included the promise of a drastic reimagining of student financial aid that will increase accessibility to higher education. Students from low-income families will receive enough in grant funds to cover their tuition, but in the long run, there is no such thing as a ‘free lunch.’ PG 13

2 NEWS

M O N DAY 7 M A R C H 2 016 news@thevarsity.ca

Issue 19 Vol. CXXXVI

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

21 SUSSEX AVENUE, SUITE 306 TORONTO, ON. M5S 1J6 (416) 946-7600 thevarsity.ca thevarsitynews a er he arsity the.varsity thevarsitynews a er

MASTHEAD Alec Wilson Editor-in-Chief

editor@thevarsity.ca

James Flynn Managing Online Editor

online@thevarsity.ca

Sarah Niedoba Managing Editor Margaux Parker Creative Director

managing@thevarsity.ca creative@thevarsity.ca

Sean Smith Senior Copy Editor

copy@thevarsity.ca

Iris Robin News Editor

news@thevarsity.ca

Victoria Wicks Comment Editor

comment@thevarsity.ca

Alex McKeen Features Editor

features@thevarsity.ca

Jacob Lorinc Arts and Culture Editor

arts@thevarsity.ca

Nadezhda Woinowsky-Krieger Science Editor science@thevarsity.ca Emma Kikulis Sports Editor

sports@thevarsity.ca

Lisa Wong Design Editor

design@thevarsity.ca

Mallika Makkar Photo Editor

photo@thevarsity.ca

Julien Balbontin Illustrations Editor Shaq Hosein Video Editor Damian Klambauer Web Developer

illustration@thevarsity.ca video@thevarsity.ca web@thevarsity.ca

Mubashir Baweja Associate Design Editor

Teodora Pasca Associate Comment Editor

Nathan Chan Associate Photo Editor

Jaren Kerr Associate Features Editor

Elham Numan and Diana Pham Associate Illustration Editors

Corey Van Den Hoogenbend and Reut Cohen Associate A&C Editors

Salvatore Basilone Associate Video Editor Sonali Gill and Ariel Gomes Associate Senior Copy Editors Rachel Chen, Devika Desai, Emily Johnpulle and Tom Yun Associate News Editors

Snow time like the present: students participate in second annual tri-campus snowball fight. JENNA LIAO/THE VARSITY

THE EXPLAINER

Shahin Imtiaz and Shaan Bhambra Associate Science Editors Adit Daga Associate Sports Editor

Lead Fact Checkers Ujwal Ganguly, Emilie Jones, Evan Maude, and Lauren Park Copy Editors Lucas Bennett, Matthew Boissonneault, Lola Borissenko, Kieran Buckingham, Krista Gjataj, Alexandra Grieve, Darya Kuhznetsova, Hilary Lo, Natalie Marshall, Lisa Power, Ethan Raymond, Sophia Savva, Kristen Sevick, and Gabriel Wee

CE LEBRATING INTE RNATIONAL WOME N ’S DAY In honour of International Women’s Day on March 6, The Varsity has compiled a list of notable female alumni and their respective degrees:

1.

Parsa Jebely Business Manager

2.

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

Content © 2015 by The Varsity. All rights reserved. Any editorial inquiries and/or letters should be directed to the sections associated with them; emails listed above. The Varsity reserves the right to edit all submissions.

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

Canadian astronaut and the first neurologist

as

in s ace.

ominica’s first female rime

inister and inister

7.

Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga , BA 1958, MA 1960: ecame to

atvia’s first female

8.

nion and

.

Adrienne Clarkson, BA 1960, MA 1962: ecame the first

overnor

eneral of

anada

of Chinese heritage and was the second female to hold the osition.

ollywood ife.

Lyse Doucet, MA 1982: BBC’s Chief International

resident from

orres ondent and award-winning

documentarian.

and was instrumental in hel ing

atvia oin the uro ean

Bonnie Fuller, BA 1977: resident and editorin-chief of

in the world, from 1980 to 1995.

4.

Roberta Bondar, PhD 1974: First female

Dame Mary Eugenia Charles, BA 1946: Served the third longest-serving female rime

3.

ward-winning

degrees.

6.

female aircraft designer.

Margaret Atwood, BA 1961:

novelist and reci ient of several honorary

from electrical engineering and the world’s first

business@thevarsity.ca

Cherlene Tay Business Associate

5.

BASc 1927: First Canadian woman to graduate

Designers Julia Al Akalia, Nadine Guo, Yash Kanabar, Britanny Ma, Danielle Meade, and Laura Wang

BUSINESS OFFICE

Elizabeth Muriel Gregory “Elsie” MacGill,

9.

Kathleen Wynne, MA 1980, MEd 1995: First female remier of

ntario and first o enly gay

member of government in Canada.

10. Lin Chi-Ling, BA 1997: aiwanese celebrity, model, and actress.

T H E VA R S I T Y

NEWS 3

var.st/news

MENTAL HEALTH

UTSU health plan to include psychological care Members to receive up to $100 per session under new plan SAMINA SULTANA VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

As part of a broader change to the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) health and dental plan, members’ coverage will be expanded to include psychological care. Beginning in September 2016, members will be entitled to up to $100 of coverage per session with a registered psychologist, for up to 20 sessions per year.

“Mental health on campus has been a prominent issue for as long as I’ve been at U of T,” said Auni Ahsan, UTSU director for Victoria University, who moved the motion to include psychological care in the health plan. “Students here face lots of challenges and stressors in getting their degree, and these unfortunately often compounded with mental illness.”

Ahsan cited a lack of resources for students dealing with mental health issues and the prohibitively expensive cost of psychological care among the reasons he wants to see the plan expand.

“The university’s resources are stretched very thin though, and it’s not necessarily [the]

To be reimbursed or healthcare e penses co ered under the health and dental plan, isit the TS o fice. TOSIN MAIYEGUN/THE VARSITY

role of the university to care for the mental health of its students. I personally believe the impetus should be on the government to provide adequate psychological care,” Ahsan said.

According to Ahsan, the government-recommended per session cost of an appointment with a psychologist in the GTA is $220. “[O] ne hundred dollars is a significant subsidy,” Ahsan said of the funding. “Rates for psychologists vary to a degree, so students unable to afford $120 per session will still have options.”

Ryan Gomes, UTSU vice president, in-

ternal & services, said that other changes include switching the UTSU’s insurance provider to Desjardins and changing the type of plan itself.

Gomes explained that the changes were made “in order to stabilize the plan financially and also save our students money by choosing a plan with a much smaller increase in overall cost.”

The UTSU recently changed its insurance broker to StudentCare, a firm that focuses exclusively on student health plans. StudentCare

offers a telecommunication-based psychology service that students who are uncomfortable with a physical visit or are unable to travel to a distant location may use. Access to this network costs $150 per session for students on the plan — a cost that with the new coverage, would be reduced.

Directors present at a recent UTSU Board of Directors meeting discussed what changes could be made to the health plan. Gomes and Ahsan felt that affordable psychological care was an issue of the utmost importance.

“There was a long discussion about what could be included in the changes we underwent, but ultimately we decided that increased psychological care was the most pressing issue that we could cover,” Gomes said. “We’re hoping that this change will have the greatest impact on improving student well being moving forward.”

“With the recent changes, the largest student health and dental plan in Canada approved one of the most aggressive coverage options for this issue. It is my hope that this direct action helps to move Ontario into a position more supportive and aware of mental health and illness,” said Ahsan.

STUDENT LIFE

U of T student falsely accused of mass school stabbing The Gateway Pundit misidentifies Zahra Vaid in Islamophobic article SHAHIN IMTIAZ

ASSOCIATE SCIENCE EDITOR

On February 23, a 14-year-old student injured nine staff with a knife at a high school in Pickering, Ontario. University of Toronto student Zahra Vaid was one of many interviewed by the Globe and Mail for their coverage of the incident.

Vaid later received a Facebook message from a stranger containing a link to an article on The Gateway Pundit, a right wing news blog based in the US. The article was entitled “Canadian Muslim girl goes on Mass Stabbing Spree” and 21-year-old Vaid was profiled and misidentified as the teenage perpetrator of the stabbing incident.

“An innocent mistake? I think not,” Vaid said of the misidentification in a Facebook post that has since gone viral. “[The] Globe and Mail article had nothing to do with the fact that I was Muslim. It didn’t even mention that,” Vaid told The Varsity.

“And the fact that a very... right-wing supporter extracted that information related directly to my religious identity is just beyond me, and I think that what this did... was bring up the fact that Islamophobia is real,” she said.

Vaid shared her thoughts about being named in the blog over social media. She also expressed sympathy for the 14-year-old student accused of the stabbing, who had a history of being bullied and suffered from mental health issues. The minor is being charged with 15 offences and cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice act.

The Huffington Post, CBC, and several other news outlets covered the story of The Gateway Pundit’s accusation and Vaid’s reaction to the personal attack. The Gateway Pundit later altered their article, which now appears as four short sentences, followed by a long quote from Fox News. To date, The Gateway Pundit has released no statement of apology, informa-

ahra aid belie es that her misidentification in an merican news blog was the product o slamophobia. MALLIKA MAKKAR /THE VARSITY

tional sources, reasoning for the changes, or transcript of changes made.

“The author of The Gateway Pundit’s article targeting me did not reach out to anyone, myself, my family who has [tried to] contact them, media, twitter... there has been no contact,” says Vaid.

“Social media, while it could be something dangerous, in that you can be targeted and violently accused of things that you didn’t do, it’s also a place for community, and for people to mobilize for your cause, and that’s something that I really saw, in a very profound and

heart-warming way,” Vaid said of the reaction she received online from those who left comments supporting her.

In her interview with The Varsity, Vaid expressed deep gratitude to her extended community for supporting her, as well as to the many people who expressed solidarity and understanding, adding that they have also been profiled and marginalized.

While Vaid believes that the incident speaks to a prevailing anti-Muslim narrative, she thinks that the focus should be the mental health of youth.

“While this incident has so many different messages... I really do still want to hold true to the fact that this incident could have been prevented, and that it has to do with mental health and bullying, and those are still issues that are so pervasive and real in our education system that need to be dealt with,” Vaid said.

Vaid said that she wants an apology from both The Gateway Pundit and The Globe and Mail, and that she may consider taking legal action against the news blog.

The Varsity did not approach The Gateway Pundit for comment.

4 NEWS

M O N DAY 7 M A R C H 2 016 news@thevarsity.ca

STUDENT POLITICS

Four executive slates compete in hotly contested UTMSU election Election grievances filed over external campaigners KAITLYN SIMPSON & IRIS ROBIN VARSITY CONTRIBUTORS

JULIEN BALBONTIN/THE VARSITY

The University of Mississauga Campus Students’ Union (UTMSU) elections are in full swing. The campaign period began on March 1 with four slates competing for executive positions: UTM Awaken, EnvisionUTM, UTM Focus, and Unite UTM. All four slates have expressed a desire to see change on the campus. Although the slates share an interest in improving transportation, community, and academic assistance, the policies they propose vary significantly.

THE ISSUES The Varsity asked each of the slates for their opinions on three issues facing UTM students that they deemed most important.

UTM Awaken identified the shortage of services available for students with mental illnesses as a major issue. “We believe that the students of this campus should have easy and efficient access to... [the] support they need,” the slate said in a statement to The Varsity.

UTM Awaken intends to address the problem by working with the Health & Counselling Centre to increase advertisement and promotion of its services and making sure that staff members and volunteers at the UTMSU receive SafeTalk training.

UTM Awaken also spoke about a lack of networking opportunities, for students, saying, “we believe that as a students’ union, we should be working to open doors for job and career opportunities. We plan on tackling this issue by working with our societies to create networking nights for the students. At these events, we would invite students, professors, alum, and professionals from various fields and industries to come and speak about opportunities that they can offer.”

The slate wants to introduce an Indigenous coordinator in partnership with the Indigenous Centre on campus. “[Our] goal is to represent one of the most underrepresented minorities on campus. The Indigenous coordinator will be providing these folks with employment opportunities and more opportunities to network,” the team said.

The EnvisionUTM slate told The Varsity that there are a number of issues that affect UTM students and that they cannot prioritize one issue over another. “EnvisionUTM has

taken a holistic approach in our platform and has created a detailed strategy and a comprehensive plan in order to ensure all student concerns are met,” said Genny Lawen, EnvisionUTM’s presidential candidate.

“From transit to food, multi-faith space to the release of exam schedules, printing services to credit/no credit limits, we have created realistic and achievable goals that we believe will make a noticeable difference in the lives of UTM Students,” she said.

UTM Focus highlighted inaccessible tuition fees, lack of mental health services, and the divide between domestic and international students as their top priorities. “Inaccessible tuition fees are a struggle for students,” the slate said in a team statement. If elected, the slate plans to start the first ever UTMSU-funded scholarship and to create a larger bursary budget.

“With mental health we hope to raise more awareness on campus about it by working with the administration to extend services on campus,” they said. UTM Focus hopes to create affordable healthcare coverage for international students by working with the government and other post-secondary institutions.

Unite UTM did not respond to The Varsity’s requests for comment.

PRESIDENT Jason Selvanayagam is the presidential candidate for UTM Awaken. He faces Lawen from EnvisionUTM, Ridwan Olow from UTM Focus, and Nour Alideeb from Unite UTM. “The reason I am running for UTMSU President is because having been a student for five years, I’ve fallen in love with this campus and would love the opportunity to give back and improve the university experience,” he said.

Lawen is a fourth-year student studying criminology and French. “I am running for President in this year’s elections because I envision an active union that represents the needs of students in all platforms to ensure that students receive the best university experience at UTM,” she said.

Olow is currently a student governor on Governing Council, U of T’s highest decision-making body. Olow said that he wants to focus on UTM students’ needs and concerns.

“Too often goals and platform points are too broad and unattainable in one year. Our goals and interests are doable and very focused,” he said.

Alideeb is the current UTMSU vice president, university affairs & academics. Her platform includes creating a nap room on campus, pushing for ethical divestment, and fighting rising tuition and ancillary fees.

VICE PRESIDENT, INTERNAL & SERVICES For the position of vice president, internal & services, Adil Isaac Abrahim is EnvisionUTM’s candidate. He is a fourth-year environmental management and political science student. “I am running for Vice President Internal and Services this year because I am passionate and want to ensure that UTM students have access to as many services as possible and are able to use them in a way that not only benefits them but also enhances their experience here at UTM,” he said.

Abrahim is up against UTM Focus’ Hoda Khan, Unite UTM’s Jackie Zhao, and UTM Awaken’s Tamam Khalaf.

“I care about transparency. I would like to see the union be transparent, after all they are elected by the students, for the students

and should be held accountable if needed,” Khan said.

Zhao is the president of the Chinese Undergraduate Association at UTM. He hopes to establish an emergency food plan fund, implement new locker spaces on campus, and create an international student bursary.

Khalaf brings experience as the vice president, internal and events coordinator of UTM Middle Eastern Students’ Association and as president of the Association of Palestinian Students. “I believe in the community we have on campus. I am passionate about mental health awareness and bringing the best possible services to students and hopefully as VP Internal, I can help AWAKEN the UTM student population,” said Khalaf.

VICE PRESIDENT, EQUITY Farishta Amanullah is the candidate for vice president, equity with UTM Focus. “[Equity] on campus is important and can be expressed in many ways. Whether through language, dialogue and education, respecting one another and our experiences is one of the keys to a successful educational journey,” she said.

Unite UTM’s Maleeha Baig, UTM Awaken’s Priyanka Sahajpal, and Envision’s Falhad Mohamoud are also competing for the position.

Baig wants to combat misogyny and build a culture of consent on campus, as well as lobby for more racialised mental health counselors.

She is currently the president of the Muslim Students’ Association and has previously served as president of the local chapter of Amnesty International.

“The reason to why I am running for [vice president, equity] is I am passionate [about] creating a safe and a more accessible space for all of the students,” Sahajpal, who wants introduce an Indigenous coordinator and lobby for all gendered bathrooms.

“I am running for Vice President Equity because I Envision [sic] a UTM that is inclusive for all individuals, where everyone feels safe to be who they want to be, and a UTM that puts students needs first,” Mohamoud.

She currently serves on the UTMSU board of directors and said that she is passionate about ensuring UTM students have a support system on campus that they can feel safe accessing.

VICE PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY AFFAIRS & ACADEMICS Unite UTM’s vice president, university affairs & academics candidate is Vanessa Demello.

She was an orientation leader in 2014 and 2015 and an executive with The Psychology Association od Undergraduate Students at Erindale. Her priorities are to improve mental health services and reduce associated stigma.

Ryan Persaud from UTM Awaken, Abdulla Omari from EnvisionUTM, and Menna Elnaka from UTM Focus join Demello in the race.

“My motivation to run for vp university affairs & academics stems from the fact that my time at UTM could have been better and I want to make changes that will impact students for years to come,” said Persaud. “I really want to implement networking nights for students to get a better idea of what they want to do in their future; in working with societies, faculty, and alum, students will be able to gain valuable insight from beginning to end.”

“University is an all encompassing experience, and like so many experiences there are good and bad moments; to me, the position of University Affairs and Academics is dedicated to ensuring students know it’s okay to make

mistakes in that process,” said Omari. He would work to increase the credit/no credit limit, pursue a grade forgiveness policy, and raise awareness about possible violations of academic policy.

Elnaka worked as an associate news editor with The Medium for two years. “Affordable tuition education is a right and all students of all backgrounds and experiences deserve to get an education,” she said.

VICE PRESIDENT, EXTERNAL Emerson Calcada is running with UTM Awaken “to represent the students as they need to be represented.”

“The students need to feel that they can change their union and their campus; so for that to be they need to be heard and that is why I am running,“ he said.

Amanee Nassereddine from EnvisionUTM is majoring in health science and minoring in chemistry and psychology. “My goal in life is to never settle, if one can do better, always set that bar higher. Having this goal in mind, I am running for vice president external to create a great positive change in the lives of all UTM students both on and off campus,” she said. “[The] point of a students union is to help and assist students with their needs and concerns. Whatever they may be, we are focused on them,” said UTM Focus’ Kamal Ali. Marise Hopkins rounds off the Unite UTM slate. She is the UTMSU’s World University Services Chapter (WUSC) coordinator and chair of the WUSC local committee. She hopes to bring heated bus shelters to UTM and to Hart House, and lobby for cheaper and healthier food on campus.

CAMPAIGN ISSUES At least two of the slates have spoken out against the use of campaigners who are not UTM students. “What we as a slate have spoken out upon is that campaigning by UTM students should be the only people who can decide their student representatives,” said UTM Awaken. “We as a slate want only UTM students to volunteer for slates and represent such people. UTM Awaken therefore only cares to see that UTM students have their opinion heard.”

UTM Focus told The Varsity that they had filed an appeal with the Elections and Referenda Committee (EARC) regarding non-UTM student campaigners assisting slates. “We decided that this was unfair and misrepresentation to the UTM community since it should be only UTM students encouraging UTM how they should be voting,” the slate said.

Bryan Chelvanaigum, UTMSU elections chief returning officer, said that the EARC had received complaints but that they may not be disclosed prior to the committee’s consideration.

Chelvanaigum said that his ruling on the matter and all other rulings are made public and will be posted on the “wall of transparency” located in the Davis building.

EnvisionUTM said that they were unable to comment or respond to any inquiries regarding EARC. Voting will run between March 8 and March 10 at polling stations at UTM. Disclosure: Abdulla Omari is a member of the Board of Directors for Varsity Publications Inc.

T H E VA R S I T Y

NEWS 5

var.st/news

SCHEDULED TUITION FEE INCREASES

$80,000

$

$

$

$

$70,000

$

$

$

$

$60,000

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

$50,000

$ $ $

$

$

$

$ $ $

$

$

$ $ $

$

$

$ $ $

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

$40,000

$ $

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

$ $

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

$30,000

$

$ $

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

$20,000

$

$

$

$

Doctor of Medicine

$

$

Law

$

$

Dentistry

$

$

Arts & Science

$

$

Architecture, Landscape, and Design

$

$

Applied Science and Engineering

$

$

$

0

$

$10,000

Pharmacy

These figures are specific to students that entered in 2015.

$

2015-2016 Undergraduate Tuition Fees

$

2016-2017 Domestic Undergraduate Tuition Increases

$

2016-2017 International Undergraduate Tuition Increases

FINANCES

Tuition fees continue to rise U of T releases fee increase schedule for 2016–2017 ZUJAJAH ISLAM VARSITY STAFF

The University of Toronto’s tuition fees are set to rise again. Following the release of the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities’ Tuition Fee Framework report, U of T has announced an increase in tuition fees for the 2016–2017 academic year.

The increases amount to an average of three per cent for domestic programs.

The Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities’ Tuition Fee Framework for 2013– 2017 reduced a previous five per cent overall cap on tuition fee increases to an overall three per cent cap, which resulted in smaller tuition increases in comparison to the years between 2006–2013.

An overall three per cent cap means that individual tuition fees may be more or less than three per cent, so long as the university’s total tuition increases averages out to three per cent. These tuition increase restrictions do not apply to international student tuition fees. U of T is able to raise international student tuition without having those increases factor into a calculation of overall tuition increases.

The 2016–2017 tuition fee schedule for international students entering any of U of T’s three campuses will see a nine per cent rise for arts and science programs and an eight per cent rise for applied science and engineering programs.

Most international students will experience tuition fee increases of five per cent.

Overall, the average increase for international students will be at 5.9 per cent, which is close to the five per cent increase for domestic students’ professional programs.

For a comparative example, the 2016–2017 planned increase for the undergraduate dentistry program is $1,780 for domestic students and $3,440 for international students; both figures represent a five per cent increase for their respective tuition fee rates.

6 NEWS

M O N DAY 7 M A R C H 2 016 news@thevarsity.ca

ACTIVISM

LGBTOUT seeks historic levy Queer campus group hopes to improve event accessibility, revamp drop-in space IRIS ROBIN NEWS EDITOR

The University of Toronto’s largest queer group is holding a levy referendum in the hopes of securing an additional 50¢ per student per year, broken up into 25¢ payments per semester.

The levy, if approved, would be paid by members of the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) at the St. George campus and would be refundable by the same process as that of other levy groups who collect fees through the UTSU, such as Bike Chain and Downtown Legal Services.

Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Trans People of the University of Toronto (LGBTOUT) has been operating on campus since 1969. They hope to use the levy to fund events

that cater to a more diverse population of the club’s membership and to refurbish its dropin centre.

“We have a lot of events during the year and most of them in the past few years have been very white men-centred and they’re very party-culture, which we want to get away from,” said Nathan Gibson, LGBTOUT drop-in centre director. Gibson added that they would like to hold education and advocacy events without having to fundraise or charge students to participate.

According to Gibson, the new levy would allow the club to update its space and expand its resources. “Right now it’s sweet, it’s nice but I think it would be helpful to have a bit of money we could spend on that,” he said.

“In acquiring a levy, LGBTOUT would be able to carry out much-needed advocacy work

that has fallen by the wayside in past years,” reads part of the preamble to the notice. The notice of referendum also highlights the necessity for safe social spaces, particularly for marginalized groups such as trans people of colour, who experience elevated poverty rates compared to the general community. “[A] levy would make it possible for us to provide necessary subsidies and accommodations for those in need.”

The levy funds would also go towards orientation and events at the start of the year.

“Current funding structures do not adequately suport groups that take on long-term projects or provide large-scale projects and events during those critical first week of school,” LGBTOUT argues.

Gibson is hopeful that the levy referendum will pass, but acknowledges the struggles

that LGBTOUT has experienced in previous years’.

If the levy passes, this referendum will mark the end of years of trying to obtain per-student funding for LGBTOUT. Between 1999 and 2004, LGBTOUT held four referenda in an effort to become a levied service group.

Each time, the referendum failed. In 1999, the group’s campaign was met with violent homophobic backlash that motivated U of T to create an Office of LGBTQ Resources and Programs, a forerunner to the U of T Sexual & Gender Diversity Office.

“I just think it’s a really good step forward, I think it’s a very necessary thing,” Gibson said.

The referendum will run concurrently with the UTSU spring elections. Voting will take place in-person at polling stations and online between March 22 and March 24.

ACTIVISM

Faculty endorses Graduate Students’ Union BDS campaign Movement calls on U of T to divest from three companies TOM YUN

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

In a March 3 press release, over 125 University of Toronto faculty members have announced their support for the Graduate Students’ Union’s (GSU) campaign for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) against Israel in a press release.

“This is wonderful news for the BDS movement on campus,” said Omar Sirri, speaking on behalf of the GSU’s ad-hoc BDS committee, also known as U of T Divest. “This level of faculty support is hugely significant, especially at a time when political leaders in this country continue to attack student activist [and] mislead the public about what BDS stands for. This level of faculty support is further indication [that] support for the BDS movement is steadily growing.”

The campaign calls on the University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation (UTAM) to divest from companies that are directly profiting from the ongoing military occupation of Palestinian territories, namely: Northrop Grumman, Hewlett Packard, and Lockheed Martin. It also urges the Governing Council to form a committee to review and divest from all companies implicated in violations of international law.

With these investments, Sirri believes that U of T is complicit in war crimes.

“Rather than supporting blatant violations of international law, the University of Toronto should stand on the right side of history on this issue,” he said, adding that the campaign’s work “[shines] a light on the abhorrent policies of the University Administration: financially profiting from violations of international law and war crimes against the Palestinian people.”

Rebecca Comay, a professor of philosophy and comparative literature, told The Varsity that there is a “growing consensus among faculty about the urgent need for divestment from companies profiting from the military occupation of Palestine.”

“The GSU’s call for divestment opens up an important discussion on campus about our institution’s own complicity in the Israeli occupation,” said Natalie Rothman, an associate professor of history. “As faculty we have a

responsibility to ask difficult questions about how our university upholds its own standards of ethical conduct.”

Critics have questioned the effectiveness of the movement and the feasibility of certain demands, such as the right of return for all Palestinian refugees. Some also argue that the movement unfairly singles out Israel amongst other countries with worse human rights records. In response to negative assessments of the movement’s effectiveness, Sirri commented “It is clear the movement is gaining momentum on university campuses across North America, for example with BDS resolutions passed at Stanford, UC Berkeley, and York Univesrity here in Toronto, to name just a few.” He added, “Israel singles itself out with a form of institutionalized apartheid unlike anything in the world today, a racist structure of governance and a colonial occupation that are gross violations of international law. The three demands of BDS are grounded in human rights that are guaranteed to all peoples. The demands will become ‘feasible’ when Israel meets its international legal obligations, and ends its system of apartheid, occupation, and discrimination of all Palestinians, including refugees.”

The BDS movement is fundamentally concerned with achieving three core goals: bringing about the end of Israeli military occupation and colonization of Palestinian land, ensuring equal legal status for Arab-Palestinians living in Israel, and enforcing Palestinian refugees established right of return.

This releases come two weeks after the House of Commons voted in favour of a motion to condemn the BDS movement.

“Imagine that: the governing party and the previous governing party are asking Canadians to disregard both international law and official state policy when making decisions about where to invest,” said Jens Hanssen, an associate professor in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations.

“Yes, the constantly expanding Israeli occupation is illegal, our government acknowledges, but no, you must not say this out loud or take this into account when making ethical investment decisions.”

Sirri told The Varsity that U of T Divest plans to continue building support for the

movement and educating the U of T community on this issue.

Faculty members at U of T are not alone in their support of BDS; earlier this week the York Faculty Association endorsed the YUDivest

campaign at York University. The YUDivest campaign is an effort to have York divest from arms companies and weapons manufacturers.

With files from Iris Robin and Alec Wilson.

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T H E VA R S I T Y

NEWS 7

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LABOUR

CUPE 3902 protests on anniversary of 2015 TA strike Union alleges U of T has not made good on its deal SAMINA SULTANA VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Exactly one year after the beginning of the University of Toronto teaching assistants’ (TA) strike, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) local 3902 demonstrated at King’s College Circle. The protest on February 25, 2016 was intended to remind the administration of the conflict, which the union maintains will remain unresolved until bursary funding is distributed.

In a handout prepared for the Governing Council, CUPE 3902 stated that they “demand their representatives in negotiations with CUPE act immediately to resolve the complaint and pay CUPE the damages to which it is entitled.” The Governing Council is the highest governing body at the University of Toronto.

Evan Miller, external liaison officer of CUPE 3902, and Robert Fajber organized the protest. “[The] goal of this rally was to apply pressure to the university and get all of the governors aware of the issue, since technically our contract is between the entire council and the union (even though only a few people actually negotiate the contract),” said Fajber.

“The administration provided faulty data to the Union around our graduate student members’ funding during last year’s strike, data which included all income rather than just funding, including income sources such as travel grants or casual employment (for instance, a summer job at the library or the bookstore),”

In late February 2015, hundreds of TAs went on strike for approximately one month following the expiry of their union’s collective agreement with U of T . TOSIN MAIYEGUN/THE VARSITY

said Miller. He said that the effect of the university’s error is to “claw back our members’ wages.”

“If the union were to distribute the money according to the employer’s data, as they are insisting, we would be complicit in what is tantamount to wage theft against our own members,” Miller added.

CUPE 3902 represents TAs, sessional lecturers, and postdoctoral fellows of U of T. Unit 1 of CUPE 3902, which represents around 6,000 TAs, went on strike last year

for approximately one month. The strike resulted in the cancellation of numerous labs and tutorials; it ended with an agreement to enter into binding arbitration in late March 2015.

Last year, the union filed an unfair labour practice complaint with U of T, alleging that the university bargained in bad faith during the negotiations for the current collective agreement.

“The admin did not stay true to their word at all!” Fajber said, add-

ing that the university promised them enough funds to raise all students to $17,500. Initially, this figure was part of a deal that the union rejected during the strike and was imposed during binding arbitration after the conclusion of the strike.

Fajber said that CUPE 3902 is not alone in its protest. Workers from four different locals on campus including CUPE 3902, CUPE 3261, Unite 75, and USW 1998 joined in to present a united front, despite protesting different issues.

These groups represent workers in the food service, custodial workers, groundskeepers, and day-to-day administration. Fajber said that shows of support such as this are effective during a labour dispute. He also said that the momentum was good, with a turnout of 60–70 people.

CUPE 3902 is currently in mediation with the university.

The Varsity did not approach the university for comment.

LABOUR

CUPE local 3261 petitions against contracting out jobs Members call for U of T to pay workers living wages RACHEL CHEN

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

University of Toronto service workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) local 3261 are petitioning for the university to stop contracting out their work. The petition, Stop Contracting Out, was launched after the university transferred cleaning jobs in buildings related to the faculties of law, music, and dentistry to a contract cleaning company.

CUPE 3261 members have a collective agreement with U of T, so they receive benefits that contract workers do not. U of T does require contractors to be unionized. Scott Mabury, vice president of university operations said that none of the university’s unionized caretaking staff would lose their jobs because of the switch to contract workers.

“We also made sure that in mov-

ing forward with this agreement that our service provider was wellestablished and had a good reputation,” Mabury said. “It was also important for the University that these caretaking positions remain unionized. Under the new provider, while some positions fall under [Labourers’ International Union of North America], the majority are under [the Service Employees National Union]. As part of a union these workers will bargain collectively for their terms and conditions of employment.”

Additionally, regular employees have a job rate of $20.21. The new contract workers receive $11.85 per hour for “light duty work” and $13.10 for “heavy duty work.” According to CUPE 3261, this difference is representative of pay equity concerns where men are paid more than women.

“We hope the petition will convince the Employer to terminate its contract with Compass and return to its practice of hiring employees who are paid a living wage, with health and pension benefits,”

CUPE servicing representative Leanne MacMillan said. “We think regular U of T employees, who have a permanent connection to the campus can provide the type of cleaning which needs to be done.

Folks don’t need to worry about turnover, inadequate health and safety training and loss of privacy when you don’t have regular employees doing the work.”

Under the contract U of T has with CUPE local 3261 members, U of T must provide job protection for workers. Those replaced by contract workers were moved to similar paying vacant positions after retraining if necessary. This comes from gapping positions, which are vacant positions usually filled by casual workers, or not filled at all.

The union acknowledges that U of T is attempting to cut costs but believes there are better ways to do so. According to the petition, the entire payroll of CUPE local 3261’s members is 1.2 per cent of U of T’s net income.

“We don’t think eliminating posi-

CUPE 3261 represents service workers at U of T. KITTY LIU/THE VARSITY

tions from some of [the] lowest paid workers on campus is a good strategy,” MacMillan said. “We don’t think it actually saves very much money. We don’t know how much U of T is paying Compass. We only know what Compass is paying its employees. We don’t think that reduced cleaning of buildings, offices,

classrooms and labs is good for your learning experience as student.”

“We don’t have any issues with the workers who are employed by Compass,” MacMillan said. “However, we think U of T should do the right thing and continue to use full time regular employees to clean on campus.”

8 NEWS

M O N DAY 7 M A R C H 2 016 news@thevarsity.ca

FINANCES

eport on financial aid polic paints holistic pict re o

ni ersit s pport

The uni ersit released its report on student financial aid on ebruar

Gaps in communication revealed JACK O. DENTON

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

The University of Toronto released its annual report on financial aid policy on February 29 — a dense, 40-page overview of funding and financial aid for all of its students.

Ontario’s Student Access Guarantee mandates institutions to provide non-repayable aid for tuition, books, and supplies not covered by the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) to students who qualify. U of T also gives funding for living expenses. Some financial supports at the university are based on need, while others are based on merit. OSAP is only available for Canadian citizens, permanent resi-

dents, and protected persons living in Ontario.

The University of Toronto Advance Planning for Students (UTAPS) is the major program for providing financial need not met by OSAP, other government programs, or funding from a First Nations band. UTAPS uses the same assessment process as OSAP to ensure a consistent means of evaluating financial need. “Students with financial need in excess of the maximum assistance provided by OSAP for tuition and compulsory fees, books, equipment, supplies and living expenses, have that need met by the University through nonrepayable funding such as grants as well as institutionally-negotiated bank loans,” the report states.

Students who do not qualify for UTAPS may also seek funding through their program or depart-

ment. The university also provides funding to students with disabilityrelated costs (like tutoring or adaptive technologies) that are not met through government aid.

In 2014–2015, the university provided $180.6 million in student assistance. This is a 2.4 per cent increase from the 2013–2014 year.

Dovetailing this support is OSAP, which is tied to Ontario students’ ability to fund their education. According to the report, 50 per cent of all students who graduated from a direct-entry program did so with OSAP debt in the 2014–2015 year.

This figure represents an increase from the 40 per cent figure of the 2006–2007 year.

OSAP recipients received 93 per cent of UTAPS funding, or $40.1 million. The rest, about $3.1 million, was given to students from elsewhere in Canada.

. YASSINE ELBARADIE/THE VARSITY

The relationship between UTAPS and OSAP isn’t always clear for those applying for financial aid. “As a student that receives financial aid, I think it would be nice if there was a streamlined and early process for understanding what aid students qualify for, and where they can get it,” said firstyear philosophy student Matisse Jenkins. “Coming here, I was unsure of the different channels of aid and ended up missing the deadline to receive UTAPS.” Support for international students is less structured. “Coming from the United States, there was very little information easily available to me at home about the Canadian financial aid system or any type of financial support from the university,” said firstyear international life sciences student Matthew Brown.

In 2005, the Governing Council released a statement promising that the university will develop a program of international admission scholarships for students using its own resources and support from external sources.

Financial aid is a hot-button issue at U of T, which enrolls more students from lower income families than other Ontario universities. Fifty one per cent of first-year OSAP recipients in direct-entry programs at U of T during the 2014–2015 year were from families with parental incomes of $50,000 or less, which stands in contrast to the provincial average of 42 per cent.

The report estimates that at least a quarter of first-year undergraduate students come from homes with familial incomes of $50,000 or less.

FINANCES

Students skeptical after Ontario budget promises “free tuition” era e t ition does not incl de pro essional international part time or rad ate st dents AIDAN CURRIE & MAHRUKH ALI VARSITY CONTRIBUTORS

The recently proposed 2016 Ontario budget promises free average tuition for students whose household income is below $50,000.

Under the proposed framework, approximately 50 per cent of students whose family income is $83,000 or less will be eligible for grants in excess of average tuition. Currently, the government supports students’ educational costs through OSAP loans, tax credits, as well as through various grants. As of 2017, these existing funding structures will be amalgamated into a single grant: the Ontario Student Grant (OSG).

“For Ontario to thrive in the knowledge-based economy, the government needs to ensure all members of society are given the opportunities, as well as the tools, they need to succeed,” reads part of the report.

“Last Thursday... was the best day of my life as a politician,” said Reza Moridi, the minister of training,

colleges and universities. Moridi described the new idea as a milestone and considers free tuition to be the budget’s centerpiece.

When asked about the issue of increased enrolment in the future, Moridi cited another significant part of the budget: the establishment of new university campuses, such as York University Seneca in Markham, and a new proposal for a campus in either the Halton or Peel region.

The budget ties in with the Strategic Mandate Agreements (SMAs), a move towards post-secondary differentiation. In the summer of 2014, U of T agreed to identify its primary strengths in order to channel funding into areas where the university appeared to be most successful.

Under the SMAs there was criticism that nothing was being done to make university education more affordable. There was fear that specializing funding to some programs would leave other “niche programs” vulnerable while larger programs received even more funding.

THE STUDENTS UNITED Jasmine Denike, vice president, external of the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) said that the union is dedicated to fighting for accessible and affordable education.

“I’m thrilled to hear the words ‘free tuition’ come out of the mouths of many politicians, and we see this as a fantastic first step towards accessible education for all students,” Denike said.

However, Denike said that the UTSU is disappointed that the budget only addresses the ‘average tuition’ of $6,160 without taking into account the fees paid by students in professional programs, part-time students, graduate students, and international students. “There are domestic Professional Faculty students who are paying over $15,000 a year, and international students are still paying unbelievably high costs of over $35,000, not including other living expenses,” Denike said.

In response to the criticism of the new budget, Moridi asked “what is wrong with giving every single indi-

vidual young person access to education?” He said that the current goal is to ensure everyone has equal access to undergraduate education.

Moridi believes that education is “the best investment” and that everyone should welcome the proposal. Moridi said that he thinks the right decision has been made and that the new budget removes barriers and opens the doors to education to every single person seeking postsecondary education in Ontario.

“FREE” TUITION The figure that the budget uses for average tuition is $6,160. However, according Statistics Canada, the average tuition for undergraduates in Canada is currently $7,868. Not only is there a $1,700 gap, it also does not include the increase expected in tuition in 2017.

Abdullah Shihipar, president of the Arts & Science Students’ Union (ASSU) welcomes the announcement by the Ontario government, though he disagrees with the government’s use of the word “free.”

“Many questions remain about whether or not this will cover students whose fees are deregulated and higher, Computer Science students for example. There is still a lot to improve on and we have to start talking about direct funding of institutions and the rising cost of tuition fees instead of just tackling financial aid,” Shihipar said.

Shihipar also expressed concern that the grant may not work, should the three per cent cap on yearly tuition increases expire in 2017 and tuition fees cease to be regulated.

He noted that the grant is a positive step for Ontario and said that the concept of free tuition as a viable structure is welcome.

Shihipar calls upon students to “pressure the government to go further to making our post secondary education system truly accessible and free for all.”

T H E VA R S I T Y

NEWS 9

var.st/news

CLIMATE CHANGE

STUDENT LIFE

Environment experts gather at U of T to discuss the Paris Climate Conference

UC to hold referendum on building revitalization

Civic engagement needed to achieve COP21 goals

Plan includes JCR renovations, new library, new café, improvements to quad TOM YUN

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

LISA MONOZLAI

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Last Wednesday, the U of T Environmental Resource Network, COP21 UofT Students, and the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) Sustainability Commission hosted “What’s Next Canada?” a panel and roundtable discussion on COP21’s impact on environmental policy.

COP21 saw the leaders of 195 countries gather to develop a carbon emissions reduction plan that would keep global warming “well below” 2°C, with an intended target of 1.5°C. What resulted was the Paris Agreement, an accord.

Keith Stewart, climate and energy campaign coordinator for Greenpeace and panelist at Wednesday’s event said that, from a scientific perspective, the Paris Agreement “was a complete and utter disaster.” Studies have suggested that if all countries meet their carbon emissions targets — also known as intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) — the global temperature will rise to about 3°C by the year 2100.

Stewart was not completely pessimistic.

He noted that, from a political perspective, COP21 had the best possible outcome that could have been realistically expected.

Experts present at the panel said that the Paris climate talks boasted a level of transparency and cooperation around climate change unseen at previous COPs. Paris’ bottom-up approach to climate diplomacy resulted in participation across the board, and the agreement’s mandatory five-year cycles of INDC review should keep countries transparent and accountable.

“So part of what we learned going into Paris, was you actually need movements in countries that put pressure on politicians ... so those governments can and will do more,” said Stewart.

Wednesday’s panelists all pushed the idea that COP21’s success were due to the collective efforts of society and will continue to be dependent on them.

“The history of environmental policy is that it comes from civil society,” said panelist Douglas MacDonald, professor at U of T’s School of the Environment. “If there is not the push, you won’t find the action coming out of either governments or business.”

Alice Zhu, UTSU sustainability commissioner, panel organizer, and third-year environmental chemistry student, said that environmental organizations and movements are needed to trigger political action in Canada.

“This is what this conference [What’s Next For Canada?] is all about. It’s about telling people that we need to pressure the Canadian government to increase our emission reduction targets,” Zhu said. “[R]ight now it is not adequate.”

Panelist Joy Kennedy, from the Commission on Justice and Peace, said that there has not been a concerted effort from academia toward tackling climate change; she argued that academia needs to implement climate change education across all of its disciplines.

A panel of climate experts discussed the outcomes of the Paris Agreement at U of T last week. NYIMA GYALMO/THE VARSITY

The University College Literary and Athletics Society (UC Lit) plans to hold a referendum on creating a new levy for improvements to the University College (UC) building.

The new levy would comprise a tuition increase of $30.03 and $13.15 for full-time and part-time students respectively, over a span of 20 years. Even after the proposed increase, UC students would still be paying the secondlowest fees among all seven colleges.

“We want students to experience the amazing potential that our building has, and have the opportunity to use these revitalized and newly implemented spaces themselves before they graduate,” said UC Lit president Amanda Stojcevski.

The levy is part of a larger $40 million campaign to revitalize the UC building.

The campaign includes a new library and reading room at East and West Hall, improvements to the quadrangle, a conference centre at Croft Chapter House, audio-visual systems for all classrooms, a central elevator, and more accessible points of entry. Other funding sources for the project include the Faculty of Arts & Science, the Office of the Vice-President and Provost, the UC Capital Funds, donations from UC alumni, and the Boundless campaign.

Stojcevski stressed that the levy would be specifically allocated for improvements to student spaces. These include renovations to the Junior Common Room (JCR), such as power outlets on the floor, and a student run café at the the tower of the building (UC 376).

Stojcevski also mentioned that the recent flooding of the JCR will actually save the UC Lit time and money in the long run. “Since the cost of the new floor will be covered between the college and insurance as it was damaged out of our control, we now only need to cover the cost of the outlets,” she explained.

According to Stojcevski, the new flooring of the JCR is expected to be completed within the next few weeks. Other improvements to the JCR will start in May and are scheduled to be completed in September before Frosh Week. The UC Lit hopes to see the café, library, elevator, and reading room completed around January 2017. Details for the quadrangle will be discussed with the Landmark Project, U of T’s initiative to revitalize outdoor public spaces throughout the entire campus.

This is the second time that this referendum has been introduced. In 2014, it was defeated by a margin of six votes.

UC students will be able to vote online on March 10, between 9:00am and 9:00pm and in-person from 10:00am to 7:00pm.

On March 10, University College students will decide whether to fund repairs to their college building. MADDISON THOMPSON/THE VARSITY

COMMENT var.st/comment

7 M arch 2016

Beyond free education The Ontario Student Grant requires further analysis ARTICLE BY ALEX HEMPEL

T

ILLUSTRATION BY NOOR NAQAWEH

he much-maligned Liberal government at Queen’s Park has been in desperate need of some good press; last week, they got it. As part of the 2016 budget, they revealed a program offering free tuition to students whose parents make less than $50,000 a year. While the announcement set social media alight and has generally been well received, it is important to recognize the plan as a reallocation of resources, rather than a revolutionary investment in post-secondary education.

The new Ontario Student Grant (OSG) simplifies the existing student assistance program through synthesis.

Grants and loans have already been available to lowincome students through programs like the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) and the 30% Off Ontario Tuition Grant, which is available to students whose parents make less than $160,000. The new grant is designed to redirect the funding from the Ontario Tuition Grant, the Ontario Student Opportunity Grant, the Ontario Access Grants, and other grants offered by " ...IT IS IMPORTANT TO RECOGNIZE THE PLAN OSAP into one streamlined program. As such, the OSG AS A REALLOCATION OF RESOURCES, RATHER is not a new program per se, THAN A REVOLUTIONARY INVESTMENT IN POSTbut rather a cobbling together of pre-existing programs.

SECONDARY EDUCATION." Although people are generally wary of the word free, the new grant will be costneutral for the government through the elimination of tax breaks. The $365 million handed out through the Tuition and Education Tax Credits will be eliminated in order to pay for the increased support for lowincome families.

Now, in the proper context, the public reaction to the policy seems to dramatically outweigh the actual changes that have occurred.

In terms of the costs and benefits, any student in arts and science programs whose parents make less than $160,000 will welcome the changes. Those below the $50,000 mark will receive an amount greater than the average undergraduate tuition fee; those in the $50,000 to $83,000 bracket will receive at least an amount equal to average tuition; and those between $83,000 and $160,000 will receive a similar amount to the 30% Off Ontario Tuition Grant. For those not in arts and science, the previously existing Student Access Guarantee will cover the additional costs incurred by these more expensive programs.

The key benefit is that students no longer have to take out loans to receive the grants. Instead of receiving tax breaks in April and having to wait for government assistance while paying up front costs, students will have a tuition bill of zero from the start.

This is important, as it does a better job of encouraging lower income families to actually apply for OSAP. Much of the criticism of this new grant stems from the fact that it does not increase government spending in any way, and their thrifty approach to 'free' tuition is not as helpful as it could be. Some are critical that

upper-middle class families will lose a tax break, while others point out that their average tuition fee figure of $6,160 is not actually accurate. Also, the additions of ancillary fees and living expenses are important to note, as they can amount to several thousand dollars more in expenses for a student.

As it stands, the new grant program will help families coming from the lowest income brackets, but families of the highest income brackets will have to continue to apply for the already existing loans through OSAP. Any further governmental support would require a substantial investment from a government trying to cut, rather than increase, their large deficit.

All this means is that this program functions mostly as an excellent publicity stunt for a struggling government.

The perceived value of the OSG far outweighs the actual value. It does offer slight improvements in streamlining the process and providing money before having to pay tuition, but it also mainly just takes from the middle class and gives to the poor. A noble pursuit in any case, but not quite revolutionary.

Alex Hempel is a third-year student at Trinity College studying economics and European studies.

comment@thevarsity.ca

T H E VA R S I T Y

COMMENT 11

var.st/comment

A question of legitimacy Evaluating the sincerity of humanitarian aid initiatives for Syrian refugees ARIEL GOMES

ASSOCIATE SENIOR COPY EDITOR

On September 15, 2015, University of Toronto president Meric Gertler released a statement addressing the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis.

Gertler wrote of the "overwhelming distress, sorrow, and frustration" he felt and stated how he was proud to be part of a community that was "joining an urgent, global response to the tragedy."

Upon closer examination, however, Gertler's address did not offer much in response to the crisis.

Aside from listing "many examples of research, scholarship, and teaching from across our academic community that directly touch on issues raised by the crisis," he did not demonstrate how the university is actively working to mitigate the impact of the crisis.

Gertler did reference the expansion of the university's Scholarsat-Risk program that will, at first, focus on Syrian students at risk.

He also redirected readers to the Ryerson University Lifeline Syria Challenge, in which the University of Toronto has also agreed to partake. Yet, he did not put forward any initiatives the university itself will spearhead in order to provide refugees with what they require most at this time: basic human necessities.

Like those of the rest of North American society, Gertler's actions — or rather, lack thereof — seem to be induced by psychological egoism.

The theory defines every human action as being motivated by selfinterest, meaning there are always

selfish motives behind what appear to be altruistic actions.

When it comes to the Syrian refugee crisis, the self-motivation stems from its notoreity. People have adopted the crisis as the newest humanitarian trend; everyone is eager to be one of the passengers aboard the humanitarian aid bandwagon.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne's welcoming of the first plane carrying Syrian refugees to Canada was the onset of the trend. Now, for the sake of public recognition, appeal, and approval, institutions like the University of Toronto are rushing to release statements that purport to highlight exactly how they are "making the world a better place."

These insincere instances of humanitarian aid being brought forward only result in a lack of genuine commitment to the cause.

With Gertler's address being a prime example of how insincerity merely leads to perfunctory efforts, there are a few irksome components of the university’s contributions that demonstrate its lack of real commitment.

First, as part of the Scholarsat-Risk program, the university is matching donations up to $500,000.

It is questionable why it does not merely kickstart the fundraising campaign by donating the full amount. The funds covering their donation come from undesignated gifts that are to be used towards fundraising activities, and it would have been more effective to have donated the entire amount from the beginning.

Second, the provision of academic-based financial aid to a select few refugees over the next decade is not an active way to help those in need.

Instead of providing supplemental bursaries — which in the long run, result in more funding for the university — it would be better to donate that money directly to a foundation that is focused on helping refugees adjust to life in Canada.

Third, with over 80,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, it is reprehensible that the university is unable to lead its own initiative.

There is no doubt that the Ryerson University Lifeline Syria Challenge will be helpful but more could be accomplished if the University of Toronto launched its own project.

Hopefully, the university's efforts will still manage to benefit some refugees before their time in the spotlight comes to an end. Unfortunately, recent humanitarian-inspired trends have all seemed to end as abruptly as they began. The summer of 2014 brought the short-lived ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, and just a few months ago, the terrorist attacks in Paris sparked a Facebookwide profile picture update. It would be interesting to note whether or not the participants of these initiatives remember that those people are still suffering today.

Even more concerning than shortlived, noncommittal humanitarian aid is the objectification of refugees that has resulted from the popularity of the crisis. The media is rife with videos of Syrian children experiencing snow and other features

ELHAM NUMAN /THE VARSITY

exclusive to Canada, newspaper profiles documenting 'first days of,' and public posts claiming ownership over the situation; one woman goes so far as to refer to the person she is sponsoring as "our Syrian refugee." The individuality of each person coming to Canada for help is becoming lost in the process.

It is time to put the humanity back into humanitarianism and to start performing altruistic actions from a wholehearted place. Although humanitarian aid requires

real effort, time, and commitment, it does not need to be documented or publicly displayed. Furthermore, we must always keep in mind that those receiving help are just as human as those providing it.

Ariel Gomes is a third-year student at Victoria College studying English, French, and linguistics. She is The Varsity's associate senior copy editor.

The UTSU, a work-in-progress ttin ties

ith the

REUT COHEN

ASSOCIATE ARTS AND CULTURE EDITOR

As my first year of university draws to a close, I’ve been reflecting on the experiences that have shaped it; certainly, there was the novelty of meeting new people, developing interests, and exploring the city.

Another influence, however, was more subtle: the experience of belonging to a union for the first time, and the behind-the-scenes workings of student politics. Although there have been considerable strides made by the union this year, accountability remains a considerable problem.

Although I was not present for last year’s elections, I have seen how their results have affected the lives of U of T students. For the first time in over a decade, a slate of candidates unaffiliated with the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) — Team Brighter — won all executive positions of the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU). Since taking office, the executive commit-

is first on a len th acco ntabilit a enda tee has been working to clean up the messes of previous administrations, including revealing the $1.6 million that has been lost on the union’s health and dental plan (alternatives to which had gone uninvestigated for a decade).

For years, CFS-backed slates of candidates had cycled through the various positions available in the UTSU. There were instances of members of the York Federation of Students and Ryerson Students’ Union campaigning at U of T for other CFS affiliates. In turn, UTSU officials would campaign at other universities, including last year’s president, Yolen Bollo-Kamara, who took vacation days to campaign at Ryerson.

Beyond Toronto, the CFS has consistently taken punitive measures to prevent its member unions from leaving the Federation. In 2008, Sandra Hudson, twice UTSU president and, later, executive director, flew across the country

to campaign against Simon Fraser University students voting to withdraw from the CFS. I am far from the first person to raise concerns about the UTSU’s connection to the CFS. In July 2015, Ryan Gomes, current vice president, internal and services of the UTSU, wrote an op-ed for The Varsity criticizing the CFS’s decision to sue the Cape Breton University Student’s Union (CBUSU) after it voted to leave in 2008. The CBUSU will now be forced to pay $295,000 to the CFS, even though 92 per cent of its student body voted to leave. There can be no justification for this organization so completely disregarding the wishes of the students it claims to represent.

This is not to say that the current executive, or Board of Directors, are not without their problems. As has been previously reported by The Strand, grievances filed by students against vice president, equity, Sania Khan have gone unresolved in di-

rect violation of the union’s bylaws.

This is in addition to a grievance I myself filed in December.

The Varsity also recently reviewed the yearly attendance of the union's Board of Directors, with the attendance rate sitting at 64 per cent.

Meeting procedure and length were cited as deterrents for attending by several directors. Worrisomely, one director was quoted as saying that she “does not attend meetings because she no longer wants to,” and that she does not speak up during meetings since she feels “drowned out” by other voices.

I find it difficult to feel sympathy for an elected official who simply does not want to go to meetings, or who doesn’t speak up for their constituents because they feel their voice will go unheard. While it is understandable that directors have many commitments, holding office should not be viewed as a burden.

Unfortunately, the election of Team Brighter represented a short-

term solution, and not a permanent one. The UTSU is still paying $750,000 to the CFS each year. The longer the UTSU remains affiliated with the CFS, the longer U of T students will continue to be taken advantage of. Political culture at U of T is stagnant, and students must engage with the process to a greater extent if they wish to have any say in the way their student fees are being spent.

As we head into UTSU election season, it’s more important than ever to be wary of the promises made by those vying for our votes.

Our student democracy cannot be a passive one — stay aware, stay informed, and demand transparency and accountability.

Reut Cohen is a first-year student studying at Trinity College. She is The Varsity’s associate arts and culture editor.

12 COMMENT

M O N DAY 7 M A R C H 2 016 comment@thevarsity.ca

Sleeves of spirit What St. George campus can learn from Queen's University's jackets BENSON CHEUNG VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

It’s a common complaint that the university's St. George campus lacks a strong campus community, let alone a distinct identity that binds students from all colleges and faculties. Instead, if they exist at all, traditions and identities are fragmented and left up to individual colleges and faculties to define.

The campus’ large physical size discourages a connected community feeling amongst students from different disciplines. On top of this, many students — myself included — are commuters who are more removed from the campus in general.

In short, it’s so easy for students to scatter off to the winds, that it’s difficult for a critical mass of students to feel at home on campus.

Given the disperate nature of the U of T community, perhaps something wearable may help distinguish students and mark them out as part of a cohesive community.

We already have some wearable traditions on campus — the Engineers’ Skule jackets, or Trinity College’s gowns — but these are tailored exclusively for their respective communities, within U of T, rather than for the university as a whole. Many of us have bought sweatshirts and other clothing items from the

bookstore, but this merchandise can be worn by anyone, not just students and alumni, which makes their use as a sure-fire marker of U of T membership limited.

Recently, at a service centre along the highway between Kingston and Toronto, I couldn’t help but notice the distinctive jackets worn by Queen’s University students and alumni. From the perspective of an outsider, it seemed like a spectacularly successful tradition with strong staying power, which led me to deconstruct the mechanics of this tradition in the service of U of T. Every Queen’s student is encouraged to get a leather jacket emblazoned with the university’s name on it, and they may only wear them after they complete their first exam season.

These jackets are made in different colours depending on the faculty. Students can further personalize these jackets by adding patches of national flags, club mottos, years of study, and programs of study. There’s even an element of gamification, where students can earn “bars” for completing an assortment of challenges.

First and foremost, the basic uniform design of the jackets effectively communicates to the rest of the world that you are a Queen’s student.

While all university students understand each other as being part of the same community, the Queen’s jacket visualizes this in an om-

nipresent way and serves as a reminder that regardless of your background, program, and extracurricular interests, you are bonded with your fellow students in camaraderie.

The rituals surrounding the jackets make them even more exclusive and meaningful, yet they also speak to the universal student experience. The very notion of obtaining your new jacket signifies that coming to that university is your new, fresh start. The fact that students are only eligible to wear the jacket after their first exam makes students feel as if they’ve earned the right to don this treasured garment; that they have, through trial by fire, been inducted into the community.

Furthermore, personalizing the jacket with patches is akin to grafting on experiences and developing an individual identity under the auspices of the campus environment. The personalized features also serve as a visual icebreaker.

Of course, the jacket tradition isn’t perfect. The costs of both the jackets and add-on patches and bars can be prohibitive for many students. There’s also an element of campus tribalism and the risk of firmly defining community membership by certain categories and activities, such as the pressure to drink to qualify for bars. Additionally, it should be kept in mind that Queen’s is not a commuter

MIA CARNEVALE/THE VARSITY

school, and it does not face the same community-building barriers as U of T. Despite these issues, however, Queen’s tradition can still be adopted at U of T. Given our lack of unifying traditions, we must start to build community by finding something with which everyone can identify.

I’m far from advocating that we should steal Queen’s traditions as our own; this would be highly unethical and derivative at best. Yet, if we want to improve our sense of campus community, it wouldn’t hurt to learn what has made others' traditions so resilient.

Benson Cheung is a fourth–year student at University College studying political science and history.

An inconsistent truth Arguments against BDS, and in favour of Israel, are riddled with contradictions SIMON CAPOBIANCO VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

As George Orwell famously wrote, “doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”

One can only speculate as to what Orwell would have had to say if he had lived to see opposition to the crimes of a powerful military occupying force, decried as hate speech by elected officials in the chambers of a proud democracy. It is safe to suppose that his reaction might be a mix of disgust and vindication: disgust at the obliqueness with which defenders of an oppressed people are slandered and stigmatized by their elected officials, and vindication at how thoroughly his signature ‘doublethink’ concept underpins one of the most effective propaganda systems in the modern world.

When Conservative MP David Sweet took the floor last month, calling on government front-benchers to denounce the “anti-semitic” Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, members of the governing Liberal party, led by Stephane Dion, expressed "reservations" about the motion's goals and language.

Ultimately, however, they voted in its favour.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau even took to social media to announce that “the BDS movement, like Israeli Apartheid Week, has no place on Canadian campuses.” When the dust settled, the motion to condemn the BDS movement passed with a resounding 229-51 vote. Even those who opposed it, like NDP leader Thomas Mulcair, have not dared to express support for BDS, criticizing the motion only on the grounds that it threatens freedom of expression in Canada.

What is so objectionable about BDS that both the government and official opposition are almost competitively united in

CONNOR CAMPBELL/THE VARSITY

their repudiation of the movement? As the newly adopted motion explains, the BDS movement “promotes the demonization and delegitimization of the State of Israel.”

This is where the importance of doublethink starts to become apparent. Implicit in the charge that BDS delegitimizes Israel is the premise that the act of delegitimizing states itself should be condemned. Supporters of the bill, one might naturally assume, will then surely condemn Israel for its delegitimization of Palestine through its illegal occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, its blockade of Gaza and pillaging of Gazan natural gas, its ongoing construction of illegal settlements in the West Bank, and its regular military incursions into

Gaza. If mere criticism and calls for political action count as delegitimization, military oppression and illegal land seizures more than qualify, and ought to be similarly condemned.

Unsurprisingly, in the BDS debate, this is not the case. Delegitimization is both condemned and accepted, depending on whether it is Israel or Palestine that is being targeted.

In line with this, a common refrain from the pro-occupation side — usually employed to explain why Israel has a right to defend itself from Palestinian rockets — is that Israel, unlike Palestine, is a state in the international system, which can avail itself of international laws like Section 51 of the UN Charter, which gives states the right to self-defence.

The rather cynical and legalistic insistence that Palestine is not a state, and thus cannot avail itself of international law, is a triumph of doublethink. Palestine has striven for statehood at the UN for some time now, and would have already won it, were it nor for fierce resistance from Israel and its powerful ally, the US, which threatened to slash UN funding if Palestine was so much as given observer status.

Indeed, during the last big push for Palestinian statehood, there was deafening outcry from the Israeli right, denouncing the action as ‘unilateral’ and insisting that the path to statehood was not through the UN, but rather through negotiations with Israel.

By ‘unilateral’, they meant that the General Assembly supported Palestinian statehood 138 to 9, but that Israel did not. Thus, the path to statehood for Palestine was not ‘unilateral’ action at the UN, but rather negotiations with its military occupier. In the meantime, Israel could continue to ‘defend itself ’ against its victims under Section 51, while denying Palestine’s right to defend itself from Israeli occupation.

Arguments like these, accepted and repeated by elected politicians in liberal democracies, may well be the very pinnacle of doublethink.

Orwell might well find humour in the fact that the lessons of his iconic 1984 are both well known, and blithely disregarded by citizens of self-declared ‘enlightened’ states like Canada.

This humour would undoubtedly be tempered, however, by knowledge of the abominable suffering and injustices that continue only because the powerful, simultaneously, continue to hold contradictory beliefs.

Simon Capobianco is a third-year student at Woodsworth College studying math and philosophy.

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EDITORIAL 7 M arch 2016

editorial@thevarsity.ca

A budgetary balancing act Ontario makes strides toward accessible postsecondary education, but glaring omissions call its long ter e cac into estion

LETTERS TO

THE EDITOR .

,

.

,

THE VARSITY EDITORIAL BOARD

On February 25, the 2016 Ontario budget was released; one of its priorities focused on satiating the insistent requests from student groups — free tuition for students from low-income backgrounds. But when the government offers you a free lunch, it pays to be skeptical.

While this budget takes steps toward more equitable financing for post-secondary education in Ontario, our province still has a long way to go before university education is equally accessible.

NOT FREE FOR EVERYONE The budget provides most college and university students whose family income is less than $50,000 a year with enough grant funding to cover their entire tuition.

The government stipulates that no student will receive less funding under the new plan than they would have received from the pre-existing 30% Off Tuition Grant.

This commitment certainly signals progress; however, it is not free, and it does MIRKA LOISELLE/THE VARSITY not provide enough funding to cover degrees with higher-than-average costs.

The government estimates average undergraduate university tuition costs $6,160, while Statistics Canada averages it at around $7,868. As a result, there is a $1,700 shortfall.

This is because the government calculated average cost of tuition based solely on arts and science degrees, which doesn't fully account for more expensive degrees, such as those in commerce, engineering, or computer science. This appears to be poor planning on the part of the government, as careers that stem from some of the more technical degrees flow into some of the least saturated job sectors in Ontario.

The plan will come at “roughly no cost” to the government, meaning that the funds used to offer finance tuition represent no increase to public funding invested in higher education but merely a redistribution of existing resources.

STREAMLINED FUNDING The Ontario Student Grant (OSG) will consolidate all other grant programs currently operating under Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP), while tuition and education tax credits will be discontinued and reallocated to pay for the OSG. This is predicated on the assumption that “[g]rants are more effective than tax credits at targeting financial support to students with the greatest needs and providing support upfront,” which seems to reign true.

A deeper look into the student assistance system, however, reveals troubling possibilities for some students that are not addressed within the new structure. Co-op students and students who work are likely going to pay tax on income that was not previously taxable. While this will not restrict all students that fall into this category, it is worth noting that some students with higher incomes seek them out because they do not qualify for other forms of government support.

Financial need will continue to be largely based on family income under the new system. While we can be fairly confident that students coming from low-income families are in need of assistance, it is less clear that all students from high income families do not need assistance.

To the government’s credit, some attempt has been made in the budget to rectify this problem. Parental and spousal income will be less of a determining factor when assessing students' financial need than it has in the past. Grants will also be available to mature students as eligibility will no longer be tied to the number of years a student has been out of high school.

For some students who, despite these provisions, rely on income other than government grants and loans to fund their education, this budget is not expected to deliver much relief. Students should view this as an omission on the part of the government and should lament the fact that students whose need is not easily quantifiable are likely to be left behind.

STUDENT DEBT GOES UNADDRESSED There is no mention in the budget of debt forgiveness, something that student groups such as the Canadian Federation of Students and the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance have been calling for for a long time. Student debt in Canada is high; grads are routinely saddled with more than $20,000 to pay back as they enter the workforce. There is a six-month grace period after graduation during which students do not have to make payments, a provision that will be carried over in this budget.

It is worth noting that, while the government must start somewhere to increase the accessibility of post-secondary education, this plan creates a sizeable disparity in terms of incurred debt between low-income students entering post-secondary education in 2017 and those graduating in the same year. The class starting university in 2017 will be better supported than it otherwise would have been, but nothing has been done to address the mass of university graduates who are currently under-employed and struggling to pay off debt.

TUITION INCREASES The proposed reforms of student assistance will come into effect at the same time that the government’s existing Tuition Fee Framework expires — the current system restricts institutions from increasing domestic undergraduate tuition fees by more than three per cent per year.

There is no commitment in the budget to renew this cap, nor has the government committed to extending the cap beyond 2017.

Last week, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities Reza Moridi stated that the OSG would be tied to inflation and tuition increases. The fact that this is not written in the budget, however, is deeply concerning. If there is no policy or mechanism to adjust the grant in keeping with changing tuition, then the grants will become less effective each successive year.

These tuition fee caps matter to U of T students. In the 2016–2017 fee schedule released February 11, domestic tuition fees are set to rise by the maximum amount yet again. If the government is to commit to the goals they have outlined in this budget, they must not congratulate themselves too quickly. The effectiveness of their plan is contingent upon many other policies, chiefly tuition regulation.

The Ontario government’s overhaul of the existing student assistance programs, while not free, makes significant improvements to equitable access to university education in this province — changes that in many ways are well worth their price tag. The priorities now become ensuring that changes like these reach the students who need assistance most and maintaing an effective system in the face of a changing funding landscape.

The Varsity's editorial board is elected by the masthead at the beginning of each semester. For more information about The Varsity's editorial policy, email comment@thevarsity.ca.

Re: What it means to be average?

"Great article! It seems like it couldn't have been released for a more perfect time of year."

— Steve Lobs (from web) Re: How much a scholar costs "OA journals have decreased quality and they erode integrity of peer review? Disagree."

— Graham Steel (from web) Re: Whose history is black history?

"When I saw the image on this post I thought, wow for the first time I see a woman wearing a traditional Eritrean dress in a BHM article...how refreshing.

After reading the article I was even more impressed with the perspective presented.

Great job gual Eri!!!"

— Arsema Berhane (from web) Re: “Open, accessible, democratic” "'Clear, egregious violations' But who would determine what violates or not? It seems as if there's a sentiment of fear that these student organizations are reacting with due to this new consultation. This is purely a way for students to keep organizations that claim to represent them accountable and improving, no?"

— Albert Hoang (from web) Re: Ryerson University students left without access to International Student Identity cards "ISIC printer was fixed Friday, a full day before The Varsity reached out for comment. The author would know this since we spoke on the phone and an email was sent for a correction. Looking forward to that."

— Alastair Woods (from web) Re: Ryerson University students left without access to International Student Identity cards "CFS execs and staff are really busy.

The Varsity should know this. It's time consuming to interfere in member local elections AND to do their job. Come on, Varsity - cut the CFS some slack!"

— UTSU Memes (from web) Re: The technical side of doping "By now any athlete who is unaware that doping is cheating and unacceptable either lives under a rock or is completely unintelligent. Time to impose one level of suspension: life. These people are not wanted in sport."

— David Gilday (from web)

Letters to the editor should be directed to comment@ thevarsity.ca. Please keep letters to 250 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

A doctor

U of T’s bioethics community finds itself at the h

NYIMA G

VARSITY

T

he Joint Centre for Bioethics ( JCB) at the University of Toronto does not shy away from a challenge. The centre was founded in 2002 with the mission of leading the charge in “bioethics research, education, practice and public engagement.” Two Canadian women, Gloria Taylor and Kay Carter, and their families recently provided the JCB and similar centres across Canada with an unprecedented ethical issue when they challenged the Attorney General of Canada for the legal right to physician-assisted deaths (PAD).

Carter v. Canada (Attorney General) became a turning point in Canadian law on February 6, 2015, when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the section of The Criminal Code that restricted physician-assisted dying deprived individuals of their charter right to life, liberty, and security of the person.

This ruling has major implications for the practice of medicine. It will no longer be a crime in Canada for a physician to honour the request of a “competent” person who asks for assistance in ending their life because of a “grievous and irremediable medical condition.”

The judgement was suspended by the Supreme Court for one year, in order to give both federal and provincial jurisdictions — who will both be affected by this change — the opportunity to draft new legislation. This grace period has now been extended to June 2016. From now until then, patients can apply for an exemption to the Supreme Court’s suspension and be assessed for physician-assisted deaths.

While the Supreme Court’s decision detailed certain eligibility requirements for potential cases, many questions remain on how to move forward with this change, while still protecting the rights and freedoms of physicians and patients alike.

Legislators in Ontario continue to negotiate the complicated ethical implications of the Supreme Court ruling in an attempt to synthesize laws surrounding the practice. The University of Toronto, as an institution at the intersection of health research, policy, and practice, is a key player in this historic change.

LOOKING OUTWARD: THE ROLE OF U OF T IN CRAFTING PAD POLICY Physician-assisted dying practices are in effect in many places around the world, including Oregon and Washington D.C. in the U.S., the Benelux countries, and Colombia.

Québec crafted and implemented an assisted dying law on December 10, 2015, which resulted in Canada’s first legal physician-assisted death shortly thereafter. Last week, the first judicially authorized physician-assisted death took place in Calgary. The procedure was conducted by Dr. Ellen Wiebe, an advocate for PAD. Pressure for the implementation of PAD in Canada has been rigorous and punctuated by passionate appeals from activists. Sue Rodriguez, a resident of Victoria, BC who suffered from ALS, became known as an activist for PAD in the early 1990s when she fought for her right to die. Despite having her case dismissed by the Supreme Court in 1993, Rodriguez died the following year with the assistance of an anonymous doctor in Victoria.

Other groups have opposed the change. The Council of Canadians with Disabilities has called for an “intervention” in the Carter case, arguing that PAD laws will normalize and legalize the harmful perception that death is preferable to disability.

It is within this complex and heated moral setting that Ontario and other Canadian jurisdictions must craft new legislation.

Trudo Lemmens, professor and Scholl chair in health law and policy at the Faculty of Law with cross-appointments at the Faculty of Medicine and the JCB, says that academics, and the University of Toronto in particular, have an important role to contribute to the debate.

“I feel it is our civic duty as academics working in relevant areas to [participate] in the debate and to help inform policy makers,” Lemmens said, adding that U of T professors have been active in making recommendations to government, participating as expert witnesses to the Carter case, and becoming involved in a variety of community groups.

Lemmens himself has been advocating for the development of a “strict regulatory regime with rigorously monitored safeguards” surrounding the practice of physicianassisted dying. On February 3, 2016, he gave a talk hosted by the Dalla Lana School of

Public Health entitled Bioethics Seminar: Why Physician-Assisted Dying Can and Should Remain Restricted in Canada after Carter. This was one instance of an ongoing debate that has occurred at U of T surrounding PAD. “[W]e’ve had many more events at U of T on the topic in which I and other members of the academic community [participated] on different sides of the debate,” Lemmens said.

Another significant contribution to the conversation that U of T has made is through the formulation of interim recommendations to the many hospitals affiliated with the University of Toronto. The university is an integral member of the Toronto Academic Health Sciences Network (TAHSN), the only one of its kind in Canada, which institutionalizes collaboration between the university, its nine teaching hospitals, and four associate level members.

The JCB recently released a detailed list of key considerations for physicians dealing with PAD requests before the legislation comes into effect in June. The report was assembled by the Physician-Assisted Death Implementation Task Force, and it cautions physicians that are not currently compelled to perform PAD to focus on established ethical strategies and to seek legal advice, since the recommended process has not been previously tested.

According to Lemmens, these recommendations will weigh highly with U of T’s many hospital affiliations.

ETHICS OF DYING In his seminar, Lemmens pointed to the development of PAD in Belgium as a fairly open and interpretive legislative regime. The criteria for PAD in Belgium include the following, as outlined in Lemmens’ memorandum on the topic for the parliament of Canada: “1. the patient is in medically hopeless situation; 2. of constant and unbearable physical or mental suffering; 3. that cannot be alleviated; and 4.

or's duty

heart of the debate over physician-assisted dying

GYALMO

Y STAFF

resulting from a serious or incurable disorder; 5. caused by illness or accident.”

This standard was brought into effect in Belgium in 2002.

Belgium has since seen an exponential increase in instances of physician-assisted deaths: from 347 cases in 2004 to 2,021 cases in 2015. One out of every 16 deaths in Flanders, Belgium can be attributed to PAD. This is concerning for Lemmens, who noted that some language used in the ProvincialTerritorial Expert Advisory Group on Physician-Assisted Dying Report mirrors that of Belgium’s and may not do enough to protect vulnerable people.

Vague criteria and terminology, Lemmens warned, could lead to premature deaths. He offered the example of a mandatory waiting period for PAD, which was not recommended in the advisory group’s report. Instead, this measure was recommended to be left to the discretion of physicians in collaboration with their patients.

“What me and other colleagues have said is most physicians will be responsible, but there [are] always, in any practice of medicine, there are sloppy people,” Lemmens said, emphasizing the importance of more stringent laws to mitigate the problem.

On the other hand, the Provincial-Territorial Expert Advisory Group, co-chaired by JCB director Dr. Jennifer Gibson, stated that the recommendations “place the patient at the centre” of the PAD process. This includes, according to the report, safeguards for vulnerable populations, including assessment by two physicians and robust assessment of eligibility, competence, and consent.

THE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE In October 2014, 84 per cent of Canadian respondents to an online poll agreed with the statement: “a doctor should be able to help someone end their life if the person is a competent adult who is terminally ill, suffering unbearably and repeatedly asks for assistance to die.”

This sentiment was echoed by some U of T students who are planning future careers in

health care. For these students, the Carter case comes at a critical point in time. As some students see it, PAD will become an important aspect of ethical patient care during their careers.

“The patient has the right to control the time and means of his or her own death under the ethical principle of autonomy. Suicide is a legal act for theoretically everyone, but someone who is terminally ill or is disabled may not be able to exercise this option,” said Angela Han, a first-year medical student at U of T. Joanna Dowdell, a U of T student who is also serving as a delegate for UN Health and Sustainable Development, agreed. “I think the introduction of physician-assisted [dying] in Canada is great. It ensures that people who would otherwise be forced to continue living in a lot of pain are now given another option, to end their lives when they want to, with dignity,” said Dowdell.

That said, Dowdell saw reason in Lemmens’ argument for a strict legislative regime surrounding the practice.

“I think there is definitely need for regulative body for oversight of the program, to ensure that [it is] not being misused and pushing vulnerable groups towards an unwanted procedure,” said Dowdell.

It is clear to see why protective measures are warranted. A new study forecasts that 74,000 patients will die of cancer this year alone, and many of those will not have access to palliative care in Canada. In fact, in spring 2014, the Canadian Hospice Care Association reported that only 16 per cent to 30 per cent of Canadians who die have access to palliative care. In this precarious situation, PAD risks becoming an alternative to other kinds of end-of-life care.

PAD must, therefore, be considered just one part of a much broader discussion of health care options. Han, for one, was not discouraged. “[PAD] would not discourage good palliative care — the Netherlands and Oregon both became leaders in palliative care only after the medically assisted death was legalized there,” Han said.

Still, it is essential that policymakers, health care workers, and patients alike do not lose sight of holistic care in the ongoing discussions surrounding PAD. In a 2015 study involving 100 patients suffering from a wide range of psychiatric disorders — such as mood, personality, post traumatic stress, eating, schizophrenia, addiction, autism, DIANA PHAM/THE VARSITY and complicated grief — who requested euthanasia, 38 of them withdrew their requests, and 11 others postponed upon being granted treatment.

In other words treatment is inextricably linked to requests for physician-assisted dying. Han and Dowdell, and many other students soon to enter health professions will have to navigate this fine balance.

POLITICS AND PRESSURE As the June legislation deadline approaches, public feedback on PAD has grown increasingly heated.

Many religious institutions are voicing opposition to PAD as it becomes increasingly evident that it will become legal in Canada. Cardinal Thomas Collins of the Toronto Archdiocese made a statement against PAD in February.

A special Commons-Senate Committee, comprised of 11 MPs from the Conservative, Liberal, and NDP parties and five senators was struck at the beginning of January with the following mandate: “to review the report of the External Panel on Options for a Legislative Response to Carter v. Canada (Attorney General) and other recent relevant consultation activities and studies, to consult with Canadians, experts and stakeholders, and make recommendations on the framework of a federal response on physician-assisted dying that respects the Constitution, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the priorities of Canadians.”

The committee of MPs and senators put forward 21 recommendations to the government on February 25.

Canadian students will be able to participate in discussions surrounding physicianassisted death over the coming months and as the practice is implemented. For Han, Dowdell, and many others, the policy will be a defining ethical consideration in their careers for years to come.

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ARTS&CULTURE

arts@thevarsity.ca

7 M arch 2016

Behind UTM's

MUSIC scene

The campus' independent radio station is fostering UTM's vibrant music scene eland hitt per orms at the ter School Special s first e ent. MARI ZHOU/THE VARSITY

DANIEL GOODMAN VARSITY STAFF

I

f there's one thing I know about the city of Mississauga, it's that it definitely isn't known for having a vibrant university social scene. At UTM, students joke all the time about how Mississauga is a place where nothing happens, especially as a city living in the shadow of Toronto. The common agreement is that, sadly, UTM students don’t know how to party.

Monique Swalby, community manager of CFRE Radio — UTM's independent broadcast station — is here to change that perception. The Blind Duck Pub in UTM's student centre will be the venue where, in a week's time, John River and Jazz Cartier will be shaking the walls with genre-defying rap.

They're the double-bill comprising this year's After School Special, the second installment of an ongoing CFRE-led concert series. Swalby hopes the series will improve the reputability of student-run radio and push Mississauga further into the light as a nexus of creativity, collaboration, and entertainment.

The premise behind the After School Special is simple: engage with the local student community by hosting a concert showcasing both rising and established talent at UTM's

Blind Duck Pub. Think of the After School Special as the campus' equivalent to the Soho House or the Sonic Lodge — a resource-sharing music concept interested in delivering live, high calibre music at an affordable price.

Jazz Cartier's perfomance will follow last year’s jazz-fusion outfit BADBADNOTGOOD (supported by local moody alt-rock band Morakoza); it was an immediate success.

According to Swalby, there's a genuine sense of community at UTM. She feels that if you can show people you care about something, they will support you and listen to what you have to say.

This means selecting artists that are relevant, eclectic, and balanced — a selection that represents the student voice but doesn’t conform to something that’s generic or boring. In other words, don’t expect CFRE to be hosting Down With Webster anytime soon.

CFRE’s goal is to share music that they think is going to be relevant years from now, providing a platform that juxtaposes a local upcoming artist with a musician who has already found

NOT OO at last ear s ter School Special. MARI ZHOU/THE VARSITY

success. They don’t want to be known as your run-of-the-mill ‘indie kids’. Everything comes down to making the artist feel comfortable and the event feel accessible to the student body.

According to Swalby, providing an enjoyable experience for both demographics is ultimately the only thing that matters.

So what does Swalby have planned for the future of the After School Special? With new government grants arriving in 2017, the possibilities are bright. They want to collaborate with a wider range of on-campus clubs and charity organizations and expand their outreach. Swalby feels as though now that Mississauga has earned its reputation for its untapped, thriving community, the group is uniquely positioned to formulate the community’s artistic direction in a way they feel will suit the student body.

Ultimately, Swalby wants people to walk away from university remembering The After School Special events as the events that shaped their interaction with the music scene oncampus.

Moni ue Swalb has big plans or this ear s ter School Special. PHOTO COURTESY OF MIKE DOPSA

T H E VA R S I T Y

ARTS & CULTURE 17

var.st/arts

Reviewing the contents of Toronto’s Little Free Libraries If you’re looking for Simon Cowell biographies or anadian erotic fiction loo no rt er

IN CONVERSATION WITH:

Krys Lunardo The editor-in-chief of Dauphine Magazine dishes on the fashion industry

LISA POWER VARSITY STAFF

ALLANTE VON CATHE VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Free Little Libraries adorn many Torontonians' front lawns . LISA POWER/THE VARSITY

Since 2009, the Little Free Library non-profit organization has been making miniature book depositories for people to place on their front lawns. The books are scattered across various Toronto neighbourhoods and use the ‘take a book, leave a book’ honour system. Last week, we took a magnifying glass to these tiny literary collections and examined the books that Torontonians are reading. Out of this examination of seven little libraries came two deductions: Torontonians are fascinated by Americans and by themselves.

One thing that becomes immediately obvious when looking through the library collection at Brunswick and Bloor is that Torontonians love reading about distinctly Canadian things.

Canadian Sayings, Exploring the Canadian Arctic, The Canadian Mother and Child, and Canada Geese and Apple Chutney were among the works found across the various libraries.

Notable Canadian novelist Robert Kroetsch once argued that the Canadian identity lies in the country's sheer diversity, yet judging by these works, it looks like the essence of the established Canadian identity is more homogenous. If one were to read all of those books (many of which are quite thick), one would practically qualify for Prime Minister.

As much as Torontonians love reading about Canada, a library at Howland and Bloor demonstrated that they are equally fascinated by our neighbours to the south.

Judging from the large number of American literary classics in these little libraries, it seems that many Torontonians have turned to quintessential American author Tom Clancy for literary pleasure.

Executive Orders and Locked On — both of which can be found in multiple libraries — give the impression of an impending war between the two nations. I eventually came across The Americans Are Coming by Herb Curtis, only to find Quilt Making and Collecting sitting right next to it.

Aside from Canadian and American litereature, the books in these libraries also cover a

diverse variety of subject matter. Grammar Smart, Gestures, The Fabulous Girl’s Guide to Decorum, Writing Children’s Books, Adultery for Adults, and Hustling can all be found in these libraries. If read consecutively, this unique set of combined skills would offer the reader the opportunity to be the world’s most empowered, best-selling gangster.

The Library at Palmerston and Dupont, however, was a little dissapointing. Some classics were available while others were missing.

Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex was there, as well as Jodi Picoult’s My Sister’s Keeper. What I initially thought to be A Streetcar Named Desire sadly turned out to be A Sheetcake Named Desire: A Piece of Cake Mystery. Needless to say, it only went downhill from there. The Intimate Life of Simon Cowell, Vampirates: Tide of Terror, and Star Trek Voyager: Unworthy are others that exist without the slightest hint of irony.

A little library at Roxton and Bloor and one on Clinton suggested that perhaps Canadians are a repressed people — sexually repressed, to be exact. This is a major theme in Canadian fiction and has been explored by many celebrated authors, none of which were found in the libraries (apologies to Sinclair Ross).

The theme is instead reflected in some of the alternative works found in these libraries: Bedrock, One Night Denied, and The Lust Garden.

So what does all of this tell us? Well, it either tells us that Torontonians are an introspective, complex people, or that they have a lot of books of which they’d like to get rid.

Apparently, they’re trying to understand themselves in the most existential sense by assessing their reality and fundamental human nature through works like Exploring the Canadian Artic and The Lust Garden, respectively.

That level of intellectual exploration can be exhausting though, so perhaps they unwind with books about Simon Cowell and mysterious cake. Who can blame them? When one is repressed, works that focus on adultery, quilts, and geese become essential.

Little Free Libraries come in all shapes but only little sizes. LISA POWER/THE VARSITY

Prior to Toronto’s annual fashion week, I met with Dauphine Magazine’s editor-in-chief Krys Lunardo in the lounge of the ShangriLa Hotel. Lunardo was dressed in a voluminous, white knee-length fur coat and a Louis Vuitton runway handbag. As we waited to be seated, we began discussing the state of Toronto’s fashion industry and what it takes to have a successful career in fashion journalism.

The Varsity: What goes into running a Toronto-based fashion magazine?

Krys Lunardo: "It is very challenging to start, but to be successful in the magazine industry you must have an extraordinary team that eats, sleeps, and breathes fashion. The magazine has to have an edge to it; this is because there are so many magazines that you have to be able to stand apart from the crowd. I think producing strong editorial content that pushes the boundary of what is acceptable by societal standards is key."

TV: Considering that more and more ‘fashion weeks’ are emerging around the world, where and how does Toronto rank?

KL: "I'll start off by naming a few artists that are doing big things right now. For instance, Beaufille [is a] team of sisters [that] are going to be showing during New York fashion week… Also, Sid Nigum is going to be showing during London fashion week. He works with a sense of minimalism, yet it has an edge to it. There is an architectural element to what he does."

KL: "There is a current petition to urge the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport of Ontario to recognize fashion as an art form and to fund Canadian designers. This recent petition was started by Anjli Patel, a prominent Torontonian Fashion Lawyer. In addition, former Toronto Fashion Week executive director Robyn Kay was at the forefront of this problem that is the lack of infrastructure. She has been a major supporter in bringing light to this issue for a few years now. The fashion industry brings two billion dollars into the Canadian market, so to not consider fashion itself as integral culturally is unfortunate."

TV: Any advice for university graduates on how to pursue a career in fashion journalism?

KL: "There's such an influx of people who want to be part of the industry and they want experience, but I will say to start you must have an enormous amount of ambition and sacrifice… From the outside, [the fashion industry] is quite appealing when you look at the social scene attending fashion shows.

Start off interning; you should be shadowing, if possible, the fashion editor of your choice and assisting on editorial shoots that would give you a feel of the process. You need to have a strong eye for what's visually appealing for your demographic. It would help to make appearances on the social scene to make yourself relevant… You have to have a strong compilation of work that is unique from anything on the market; you have to have the journalistic skills to support you."

TV: Is there infrastructure in government within Toronto that supports the fashion industry?

Krys Lunardo is Dauphine Magazine's editor-in-chief. PHOTO COURTESY OF KRYS LUNARDO

18 ARTS & CULTURE

M O N DAY 7 M A R C H 2 016 arts@thevarsity.ca

Rediscovering a forgotten history The Gardiner Museum explores the Coclé people

Some of the many artifacts found near an ancient burial site in Panama. PHOTO COURTESY OF GARDINER MUSEUM

ELIZAVETA MIRONOVA VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

The Gardiner Museum’s latest exhibit Beneath the Surface: Life, Death, Gold and Ceramics in Ancient Panama explores artifacts left over from the Coclé people of ancient Panama.

On lease from the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, the exhibit displays artifacts specifically from the unique Burial 11 archeological site, which entombed 23 people.

Located near the southern coast of Panama, the Coclé civilization flourished over a thousand years ago, around the same time as the Mayans and the Inca. Their legacy was small, however, and the larger empires of the Mayans and Inca overshadowed the accomplishments of the Coclé in Central America. To shed light on the forgotten history of these people, a large portion of the

exhibit is centred on the Coclé’s intricate, artistic use of gold and clay.

The exhibit displays pottery, dishes, and effigies made of clay. Most designs depict animals from the surrounding region. According to the exhibit, Coclé artists would often take characteristics of various animals to create a depiction of one single beast. They were inspired by the wildlife surrounding them and highlighted aggressive features, such as jaws or fangs, as symbols of beauty.

The most fascinating aspect of the exhibition is the sheer variety of the golden artifacts. The sophisticated plaques and pendants range in size, but even the smallest artifacts demonstrate meticulous attention to detail. According to the catalogue, “gold ornaments demonstrated that the wearer had energy from the sun, the most important force in the cosmos.”

The exhibit encourages the viewer to reflect on the way that early civilizations created such incredibly complex art without the modern

equipment that is used today. The centrepiece of the collection — a re-creation of the burial site — is revealed at the end of the exhibit. The grave is roughly 12.5 feet deep and consists of three vertical layers of people. The skeleton of each body is shown precisely where it was found at the original site, likely thanks to the archeologist’s use of wooden frame mapping and photography.

The Paramount Chief of the Coclé people was buried in the very middle of the second layer of the grave and elaborately adorned with beautiful necklaces, pendants, discs, and bracelets upon his death. The most astonishing piece of jewelry is a jaguar pendant with a large emerald in the centre. The jaguar is one of the most sacred animals of many Latin American civilizations; the one depicted on the pendant has large wings and two flat tongues.

There was also a woman who was also located in the second layer of the grave. Mysteriously enough, dog teeth were discovered scattered

around her body upon discovery, which the exhibition curators hypothesize may have been sewn to her apron or dress. Just like the Paramount Chief, the woman had gold pendants buried alongside her. According to exhibit, the middle layer of the burial site was meant for the wealthy and important individuals of the civilization.

The exhibit’s small size achieves the primary objective of any presentation: to keep spectators interested through its entirety without overwhelming them with information.

Although the exhibit does display artifacts similar to the ones you’ve seen on middleschool field trips, there’s just enough on display for everything to register and leave you with a newfound perspective on the ancient culture of Panamanians.

Beneath the Surface: Life, Death, Gold and Ceramics in Ancient Panama runs until May 29, 2016 at the Gardiner Museum.

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ARTS & CULTURE 19

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THEATRE REVIEW:

Pericles: Prince of Tyre The U of T drama centre's most recent performance is filled ith art l is al e ects LOLA BORISSENKO VARSITY STAFF

On March 1, U of T's drama centere premiered Pericles: Prince of Tyre, a modern adaptation of William Shakespeare’s famous play of the same name. Since September, director Kate Lynch has worked with a cast of 12 fourth-year drama students in order to revive the classical performance, which was staged at the Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse.

The plot traces the exploits of the Phoenician Prince Pericles (played by Augusto Bitter), who endeavours to solve a riddle posed by the king of Antioch, Antiochus. Anyone who can successfully solve the king's riddle will win his daughter Thaisa's hand in marriage; anyone who fails to answer the riddle will be put to death. Upon discovering that the riddle's solution reveals that King Antiochus is in an incestuous relationship with his daughter, Pericles fears he will be put to death if he tells the truth.

In order to escape execution, the young prince embarks on a thrilling journey at sea, and, in a long-winded effort to save and win Thaisa, faces shipwreck and torrential storms.

The play explores the complexities of family relationships — particularly between fathers and daughters — themes Lynch approaches “in a manner quite unlike anything audiences had seen before, and in many ways, since.”

The action takes place not on a stage but in the middle of the room, with chairs encircling the actors’ space. The audience is closer to the performers, yet depending on seating are not always able to see the actors’ facial expressions.

The use of space creates an intimate atmosphere for both the spectators and the actors. In order to make the play’s dialogue more accessible to the audience, Lynch asked her actors to refrain from overcomplicating

Shakespearean verse. Actress Olivia Nicoloff noted that “one of the biggest challenges for me — and all of us — was wrapping [our] brain[s] around the idea that Shakespeare can be ‘simple’. Acting it as ourselves, doing a scene study without a set to speak of and without real props or costumes, while the language and emotions are so heightened, was fantastic.” This is made evident throughout the play; one of the most successful aspects was the actors’ enthusiastic engagement with their characters.

The technical side of the production demonstrates a strong level of creativity and competence. As Prince Pericles sails the mysterious seas, a particularly climactic scene comes in the form of a massive thunderstorm. The tempest is brought to life by flashing blue and white lights that are accompanied by colorful projections of the rain designed to resemble sharp, vibrant spears falling out of the skies.

The sound effects foster a mood of despair and danger as Pericles delivers a monologue in the wake of booming thunderclaps. Here, the initial positioning of the stage comes into effect, as the spectators find themselves surrounded by the raging storm.

Although initially the performance’s staging may feel uncomfortable for the audience — especially for those more accustomed to traditional theatre — Lynch’s decision to avoid conventional elements is ultimately effective. Her decision to avoid ancient Greek costumes in favour of contemporary clothing works to the play's advantage, seeing as the spectators get to see the characters’ individual personalities unmasked behind. Just like Pericles’ voyage, the play is an emotional rollercoaster and a thrill to watch.

Pericles: Prince of Tyre is playing at the Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse until March 13.

The drama centre adapts Skaespeare's play for modern-day life. COURTESY MARIE TROTTIER/THE VARSITY

var.st/science

SCIENCE 7 M arch 2016

Mind Matters hosts sixth annual conference at Isabel Bader Theatre

science@thevarsity.ca

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Eminent scientists, psychologists, discuss medicinal use of psychedelics NUTRITION EDUCATION WEEK Special lunches and cooking classes will be hosted at several locations across the St. George campus this week to mark UeaT’s Nutrition Education Week. More information, as well as the event schedule, can be found on the UeaT website.

Monday, March 7 — Friday, March 11

INTRO TO 3D DESIGN This hands-on event is aimed at providing interested attendees with some introductory lessons in designing and printing 3D objects using tools such as Sculptris and Autodesk 123D Design.

Monday, March 7 6:30–8:00pm Digital Innovation Hub Fort York Branch Admission: free with registration

ENGINEERING CAREER & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SEMINAR The Ryerson University chapter of the AmericanSocietyofMechanicalEngineers (ASME) invites graduating students to attend a professional development seminar featuring presentations from Dr. Vincent Chan, an associate professor in Ryerson’s department of mechanical engineering, and Derek Smith, Career Experience Manager at Faithcareer.com The conference, the biggest of its kind in Canada, drew an audience of 500 students and members of the public. JENNA LIAO/THE VARSITY

LUKE JEAGAL

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

The sixth annual Mind Matters conference, hosted by U of T’s Buddhism & Psychology Students’ Union in conjunction with the U of T Jungian Society, took place last Saturday morning at Victoria College’s Isabel Bader Theatre. Titled “Altered States,” this year’s event brought a group of reputed scientists and thinkers together to engage in a lively intellectual discussion on the implications of psychedelics in medicine and psychology. “Prepare to have your minds blown again!” proclaimed Anderson Todd, the president of U of T’s Jungian Society, introducing the conference’s programme and dais.

The psychology conference, which attracted a full house audience and required almost 40 staff to

organize, is the largest of its kind in Canada. Despite the packed house, Ammar Ijaz, one of the many student organizers, described it as a “community” gathering. General admission tickets for the event sold out within six hours of being made available, while the supply of student tickets was exhausted after thirteen minutes.

Panelists for the event included Professors Dan Dolderman, John Vervaeke, and Jordan Peterson, all prominent thinkers in the field of psychology. American ethnopharmacologist Dennis McKenna joined the U of T lecturers on stage.

The focus of this year’s conference revolved around altered states of consciousness. Topics of discussion included psychedelic medicine, meditation, lucid dreams, trance states, and mystical experiences.

The award winning lecturer, Professor Vervaeke, who is a five-time veteran of the conference, opened the conference with an exploration of what he described as the “meaning crisis of modernity.” Vervaeke invoked and interpreted the likes of Friedrich Nietzsche and other philosophers by way of delivering his point, observing a fundamental difference between wisdom and knowledge, ultimately concluding, “knowledge is about overcoming ignorance, wisdom is about overcoming foolishness.” He ended his presentation to a round of applause with an endorsement of the pursuit of altered states of mind for their potential to enhance human understanding and consciousness.

Professor Dolderman picked up after a brief intermission and schedule change. “This talk,” he said, “is a

call to awakening … a call to battle” he exclaimed. “There is no altered state,” he said. “I’m not interested in ethics or morals. I’m interested in how I experience the world;” adding that, “we feel first, then reason later [but we] don’t feel deeply enough.”

By listing a series of everyday interactions with seemingly mundane ideas and objects such as steaks, eggs, the War on Terror, and the economy, Dolderman argued that, “what we experience isn’t exactly the real world. Not experientially but rather simply intellectually.” Steaks do not magically become slabs of meat on our dinner plates. Rather, the reality is the mistreatment of cows. Wars are as connected to freedom and liberty as they are to death, he observed.

The speakers each presented academic theories on the potential of Continued on PG 21

Tuesday, March 8 6:00–9:00pm Oakham Lounge 55 Gould St. Admission: $5, includes meal

HEALTH AND HUMAN RIGHTS 2016 The 2016 Health and Human Rights Conference hosted at OISE will address several facets of the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis.

Friday, March 11–Saturday March 12 Ontario Institute for Studies in Education 252 Bloor St. W Admission: $10 deposit, $8.40 refunded at event

T H E VA R S I T Y

SCIENCE 21

var.st/science

Shape-shifting cancer U of T’s Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering researchers have discovered a way to make nanoparticles “shape-shift.”

FARAH BADR

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Dr. Warren Chan of UofT’s Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, along with PhD student Dylan Glancy and postdoctoral fellow Seiichi Ohta, have managed to “shape-shift” nanoparticles in their most recent study.

Extensive research on nanoparticles has demonstrated a strong potential for the small objects to contribute to the highly localized delivery of drugs in the treatment of cancer.

Some researchers speculate that within half a century, we will look back at the practice of injecting freely transported drugs into our circulatory system as a crude convention of the past. While having Aspirin molecules freely floating in your blood is usually benign, one cannot say the same for commonly used chemotherapy drugs.

Nanoparticle design has two primary issues: first finding, and then interacting with the correct cell and not its neighbours.

Nanoparticles must survive the trip through the blood stream, evade the body’s immune system, and, in the case of cancer, penetrate deep into dense tumor tissue and into individual cells.

Once there, the right cell is targeted through the use of “lock and key” arrangements, where the nanoparticle snugly latches on to a specific molecule, unique to the affected cells.

Unlike most nanoparticles, those developed

by Dr. Chan and his associates have the ability to switch shapes, from a rod to a sphere.

“Rod-shaped nanoparticles for example are good at penetrating tumors, while spherically shaped ones are absorbed by cells more easily.” explained Glancy. “Most of the currently existing dynamic nanoparticles might permanently lose an outer layer or increase in size under different conditions, but they don’t change shape, and they definitely don’t do it reversibly.”

Dr. Warren Chan and his research team have discovered the potential for a new tool to treat cancer. PHOTO COURTESY OF NSERC/THE VARSITY

This reversibility will be helpful in the removal of the nanoparticles from out of the tumor and into the blood stream after they have done their job.

This shape change is brought about by the use of flexible adhesive strands of DNA known as “biological Velcro.” There are two core nanoparticles of different sizes strung together by DNA, with the larger core being “orbited” by smaller “satellite” particles. All of the particles have sticky DNA threads attached to their surface.

Introduction of loose DNA can help link the DNA on the satellites simultaneously to both core particles, and not just one. The introduction of additional competitive loose DNA helps break the linkage between the

satellite particles and the larger core by removing the original linker DNA. This graceful displacement, described by Glancy as “DNA origami,” results in an elongation of the resultant structure from a sphere to a rod and vice versa.

The beauty of using DNA is that it can be designed to simultaneously adhere to specific DNA molecules expressed by faulty cancer cells. Alternatively, the particles can additionally be decorated with proteins that are known to interact with other proteins found on the surface of cancer cells, due to the large surface area of the nanoparticles. Examples of “lock and key” pairs suggested by Dr. Chan include the popular antibiotic Herceptin and HER2 receptors, as well as folic acid and folate recep-

tors, both of which are receptors commonly displayed in breast cancer cells.

“This can be very useful in targeting cancer cells that have metastasized, which are extremely hard to localize through surgery for example” added Glancy, “and since they are usually found closer to blood vessels, they can fortunately be easily reached by the blood transported nanoparticles.”

Once the nanoparticles are engulfed by oblivious cancer cells, they can release their drug “pay-load.”

Good things come in small packages, and thanks to the pioneering work of Dr. Chan and his associates, our newest way to attack cancer may come in a small, shapeshifting, package.

Student organized psychology conference partially funded by crowd sourcing campaign CONTINUED FROM PG 20

psychedelics in psychology and medicine, informed by current research and elucidated through term definitions and analogies, to a visibly engaged audience. Discussion on stage was supplemented with lively social media engagement, moderated by a dedicated team of volunteers, through the use of an official Mind Matters Twitter hashtag, The event was initially supposed to consist of five speakers with intermissions for coffee, a provided lunch, and an interactive panel discussion. Unfortunately, a slight change of schedule was required since one of the speakers, Lee Maracle, fell ill and was unable to attend.

In a post-event interview, an exhausted, but pleased, Ijaz described some of the challenges he faces every year in organizing the conference. “Funding is always a big challenge.” This One quarter of the funding for Mind Matters was obtained through crowd sourcing. JENNA LIAO/THE VARSITY

year, they were able to crowd fund a quarter of the projected conference costs. They were also successful in acquiring sponsorship for subsided student tickets.

Ijaz expressed his surprise at how quickly the event sold out. They had hoped to find a venue for 1,000 attendees, but were unable to find the necessary funding. He also drew attention to the conference organizers’ efforts to bring a broad range of perspectives to the selection of the event’s speakers after a comment on Twitter criticized the conference’s lack of visible diversity. “We strive for incredible diversity,” noted Ijaz, though he conceded that, despite their best efforts, the event fell a “little bit short of the mark.”

22 SCIENCE

M O N DAY 7 M A R C H 2 016 science@thevarsity.ca

T.O. Bee or not T.O. Bee oronto to ta e a step closer to becomin

anada s first

ee it

MICHAEL MAYER & PAUL PIERCE/CC FLICKR

HANNAH FUNG

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Home to over 300 species of bees, Toronto is considered a bee hot spot in southern Ontario. Protecting our native bee populations benefits the resilient pollinator community in and around the city, while simultaneously preserving biodiversity.

Over the years certain honey bee and native bee populations have declined in North America, which has had various economic and ecological consequences.

The decline of the honey bee population driven by Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has motivated much of our discourse surrounding bee conservation.

James Thomson, a professor in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto explains that while the commercial beekeeping industry has always been affected by winter losses, CCD “seemed to have different hallmarks in that it [is] presented as an absconding of the bees from the hives. So you came in and instead of finding dead ones, you found [that] they were gone.”

“Real CCD is probably a subset of winter losses, but the terms have basically been conflated and most winter losses seem to be talked about… as a pathology,” added professor Thomson For beekeepers, CCD means having to order and build up replacement colonies in the spring, but it is not the kind of ecosystem

collapse that it is portrayed to be. What is more worrying is the decline observed among native bee populations.

At this point, their population trends are not well characterized, but certain species of the bumble bee, including Bombus affinus (rusty-patched bumble bee), which used to be very common, are now critically endangered.

Other species of bumble bees, however, appear to be doing fine.

“In my view, those declines are much worse than Colony Collapse Disorder because we’ve had an animal that was part of the natural system — [unlike honey bees] it wasn’t just brought in as an agricultural tool from the Old World — it was doing well until very recently [and] then suddenly it crashed,” he continued.

The fact that several of these declining species are closely related suggests there is a genetic component to susceptibility. One possible cause is pathogen spillover, which occurs when a pathogen such as Nosema bombi (a microsporidian) becomes established in commercial bumble bee populations and is subsequently transmitted to wild bees.

Toronto has played an active role in creating sustainable habitats for its pollinators.

Existing initiatives include maintaining pollinator-friendly habitats in the Don Valley Brickworks, the Franklin Children’s garden and High Park’s Black Oak Savannah, and native species plantings on private and public land.

Professor Thomson says it’s “hard to imagine how [native species plantings] could go really wrong. But anything you plant is going to help some species more than others. For example, the Ceratina bees nest inside sumac stems so if you want more Ceratina you plant more sumac. But sumac isn’t particularly good for other species... ” The bottom line is that ecosystems with minimal human disturbance tend to support a higher diversity of flora and fauna, as well as bees.

The ‘Bee City’ certification is viewed as the next logical step, which, according to the Bee City website, “endorses a set of commitments… for creating sustainable habitats for pollinators.” The program was first implemented in 2012. Since then, 15 American cities have been certified. A successful application to Bee City Canada would result in habitat protection and increased awareness regarding pollinator biodiversity and food production.

Dr. Scott MacIvor, a postdoctoral researcher in the department of biological science at U of T Scarborough hopes that the Bee City designation will “build upon the world-renowned research and best practices already ongoing and in development in our region. It would also promote the plight of wild bee declines and encourage all citizens to find ways to support our native bees.”

As for honey bees, MacIvor hopes that “the Bee City Canada endeavour will be focused on the plight of our native species not a non-

native that requires no ‘help’ in Toronto. Honey bees are useful in agricultural landscapes but keeping them in the city contributes to competition with our native species and could undermine biodiversity.”

Honey bee colonies comprise between 20,000 and 50,000 individual bees, which can forage over one kilometre from their hives. “As a first approximation, if you have a honeybee feeding on a native flower, that basically means the food that the honeybee fed on is not there for a native bee to feed on,” says Thomson. As a result, honey bee hives can actually contribute to decreased pollinator biodiversity.

When asked about any safety concerns associated with robust native bee populations, he responded that in general, “you really have to rile [a colony] up to get a real defensive reaction.

So I would say for native bees, essentially, there are no likely dangers.”

Honey bee colonies also appear fairly innocuous given that the provincial requirement mandates only 30 metres between the hive and property line. It is important to note that many of the nastiest stings come from yellow jacket wasps (genus Vespula), which are similar in appearance to bees, but are biologically and taxonomically distinct.

Regardless of your opinion of bees, they remain an important part of our ecosystem.

With the Bee City designation, Toronto may be able to find ways to balance its urban ecosystem.

T H E VA R S I T Y

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Experience Schulich 2016 ™

A Transformational OPEN HOUSE Saturday, March 12th 9:00 am – 4:00 pm Schulich School of Business Seymour Schulich Building York University, 4700 Keele Street Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3 Space is limited. Register today!

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SPORTS

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7 M arch 2016

sports@thevarsity.ca

Sports Industry Conference Conference helps students bridge the gap from sport enthusiasm to sport industry

The 2015 SIC drew speakers like director of basketball analytics for the NBA Jason Rosenfeld. ZAHRA ZAHRAVI /THE VARSITY

RAGHAD A.K. AND VANESSA WALLACE VARSITY CONTRIBUTORS

Hosted by the University of Toronto Sports and Business Association (UTSB), the theme for this year’s sports industry conference was “Behind The Game: Building the Playbook.”

Over 360 students from different universities across the province were in attendance.

ROOKIE SEASON There was a panel dedicated to mentorship and development that included Tyler Currie, the director of international affairs for the NHL’s Player’s Assocation, and Rachel Bonnetta the host of Major League Soccer.

The panelists agreed that mentorship was a key factor in the growth of the industry. “There is no substitute for a great boss,” said Saint John Sea Dogs president Trevor Georgie.

Currie spoke to the value of encountering what he refers to as an “anti-mentor.”

Each speaker commented on the relationship between chance and preparation and the importance of honouring personal values. Each story emphasized that meeting a potential mentor is not enough to guarantee a smooth transition into the working world, but rather that students must make an active effort to engage with, and learn from, guidance.

NO “I” IN TEAM The second panel of the day highlighted the role of community and partnership in the industry. Jillian Svensson, vice president of business development and operations for You Can Play, explained that when it comes to removing barriers in sport, partnership is essential. Together, the COC and You Can Play have formed the “One Team” initative, which runs programs and promotes the acceptance of LGBT+ athletes in sport.

SHOOTING HOOPS The first keynote panel of the day explored basketball and its growing popularity in Canada. Canada Basketball president and CEO, Michele O’Keefe explained that, while it will be a while before basketball reaches the level enjoyed popularity of hockey in Canada, the number of participants in the sport is on the rise. TSN insider and panel moderator Jack Armstrong recalled the evolution of basketball in Canada, from generating practice players to athletes “with the skills and athleticism to start and get drafted to the NBA.” Former resident and current manager of the Toronto Raptors and Phoenix Suns Bryan Colangelo, added that he would like to see more funding coming from the federal government to encourage the sport’s growth.

MONEY BALL The third panel of the day, Data and Analytics: Staying Ahead of the Curve, featured industry insider Jason Rosenfeld, the director of basketball analytics for the NBA. The panel, which was moderated by Scott Cullen an analytics columnist for TSN, highlighted the importance of analytics and statistics in sports.

“The NBA needs to translate international statistics to NBA statistics [and] use data to see what is wrong and how to improve on that,” said Rosenfeld. He mentioned that fans are slowly but surely becoming interested in sports statistics. “It’s great to have fans excited about stats and data in the leagues; it’s fantastic.”

GOING FOR GOLD The fourth panel of the day, The Pinnacle of Sport: Sports at the Highest Level, discussed how far sport has come in Canada, and the importance of specific endeavours in that development. Masai Ujuri, general manager of the Toronto Raptors, was praised for his direction of the country’s sole NBA franchise.

Johann Koss, founder of Right to Play, remarked that behind every successful sports team are multiple people and organizations who helped make the success possible. He suggested that “To build a successful team,

[one should] build relationships and establish young communication with everyone you work with.” Tim Bezbatchenko, Toronto FC general manager, added that when creating long lasting success, “trust with the players is crucial.”

OVER TIME The final talk of the night, International Expansion, saw TSN’s Leafs Lunch host Andi Petrillo interview NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly.

Daly, who was named the deputy commissioner in 2005, spoke about the potential for two new teams to emerge in the NHL. “We are discussing it, still in the early stages. Either [it] will be in Quebec City or Las Vegas,” he said.

Overall, the conference was a huge success.

When asked if he believed this type of event was helpful to delegates, Tyler Currie said that a passion for business and sport is what brought the delegates to the conference.

T H E VA R S I T Y

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Is your Fitbit spying on you? cc rac pri ac concerns pla e earable fitness tech ind str find o st dents and researchers LEILA KESHAVJEE

a e fitness wearables actuall helped an one become healthier ANISHA ROHRA /THE VARSITY

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

If your New Year’s resolution was to be more active, you aren’t alone. The emergence of devices like those produced by Fitbit, Jawbone, and Apple have people reexamining the role technology has to play in achieving their fitness goals. Dr. Greg Wells, an exercise physiologist and assistant professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, refers to these devices as “quantified self-trackers,” which allow you to measure things like sleep, distance traveled, and steps taken.

Step counting is commonly used as a measure of activity with a frequent goal of 10,000 steps a day. According to Statistics Canada, only a third of Canadian adults manage that many.

Traditionally, step count was measured by a waist worn pedometer, which have evolved into wrist worn devices that use accelerometers to detect movement.

The accuracy of these wrist worn devices is questionable, however. A recent study by the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education concluded that pedometer apps are not accurate and that pedometers worn on the

waist are still the most effective method of counting steps. Despite the inaccuracy of wrist worn devices, they help give an estimate of activity levels, with some devices enabling you to compete with friends.

Naima Salemohamed, a U of T graduate student uses her Fitbit Charge and says it helps her reach her fitness goals because of its competitive features. “I always compete with my friends who live in Vancouver. I like to have that aspect. Moreover, it ensures that I do 10,000 steps because I am constantly checking how many steps I am doing,” she says.

After using Nike’s Fuel Band for a year, primarily because it was sleek and had a display unlike other fitness trackers at the time, I found that the activity stats were inaccurate.

Simply moving my arms triggered the device, whereas attending a spin class or running on the treadmill did not.

U of T student Kara Place found her Fibit to be inaccurate, however, she feels it generally gives a decent estimate. “Sometimes my band will vibrate to let me know I’ve hit 10, 000

steps when I’m putting on a sweater,” she said.

In addition to questions of accuracy, a recent report by U of T’s Citizen Lab found that users’ personal data may be at risk of being leaked to third party sources. Wells confirms that privacy risks are significant and that people should be aware that the data collected by their device are accessible to the company who made the device.

Place is also concerned about her privacy, but says it will not deter her: “We live in a world where we are all at risk of having our privacy breached or being tracked... so though this is annoying, I’m sure there are already other ways for people to gain my geographic location.”

Although wearables are inaccurate, both students feel that their Fitbit has helped them stay active. Place says, “If I see that one day I was less active then I’ll try to step it up the next day to compensate!.”

In terms of predicting future health, assistant professor of digital health Dr. Jayson Parker says, “the new ‘smoking risk’ is sedentary activity: the more you sit, the greater your

cardiovascular risk... devices that remind you to stand to interrupt long periods of sitting, or to encourage you to spend more time moving, have pretty obvious benefits.”

Dr. Leah Hiller, a sports medicine fellow at the David L. MacIntosh Clinic agrees with doctors Wells and Parker that fitness trackers aren’t all bad, and that the benefits they provide in terms of connecting with a community of other wearers is valuable.

“Fitness trackers often provide forums for connecting with other people about activity, which can be beneficial,” she said, adding that “for the purposes of improving health outcomes, a five per cent discrepancy in reported activity level is likely inconsequential. What is more important with regard to health outcomes, is that people are being active.”

Parker says that “people can learn a lot about our patterns, sleep, people just needs to be aware that they are not entirely accurate. Early tech with limitations so take it with a grain of salt.”

Notice of Referendum Preamble:

The main goals of LGBTOUT are to foster safe and accessible spaces on campus for LGBTQ+ identified students, as well as to advocate and spread awareness around LGBTQ+ issues to the general community.

In acquiring a levy, LGBTOUT would be able to carry out much-needed advocacy work that has fallen by the wayside in past years. Events that facilitate spaces for critical discussion and the spreading of awareness are greatly hindered by the need to produce revenue. As well, no matter how much consultation and collaboration is done for each event, there are still many barriers to accommodating the diverse array of accessibility needs in our community. For example, trans people of colour experience higher rates of poverty than the general community. These people need safe social spaces and, although events are available, they may be inaccessible based on commute and ticket costs, so a levy would make it possible for us to provide necessary subsidies and accommodations for those in need.

In addition, a levy would enable us to carry out orientation and beginning-ofthe-year events with less concern. Current funding structures do not adequately support groups that take on long-term projects or provide large-scale projects and events during those critical first weeks of school.

LGBTOUT has requested that the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) establish a refundable designated portion of the UTSU fee.

Pending the support of the UTSU’s general membership at the St. George campus, the designated fee would be refundable to members, and subject to a formal Memorandum of Agreement concerning the payment of fees, member refunds, accountability for student fee revenue, and the terms and conditions related to the fee.

The UTSU is seeking consent from its members at the St. George campus to establish a new designated portion of the UTSU fee for the fall and winter sessions. The proposed increase is $0.25 per session, paid by UTSU members at the St. George campus, beginning in the fall 2016 session.

For more information, visit your Students’ Union website at utsu.ca/referendum or contact the Chief Returning Officer at cro@utsu.ca.

Question: 1. Are you in favour of establishing a new refundable designated portion of the UTSU fee for LGBTOUT (Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Trans People of the University of Toronto), as described in the preamble and subject to the terms and conditions above?

Ballot Options: Yes, No, Abstain

Preamble If question one is approved, the UTSU is also seeking consent from its members to allow annual cost-of-living increases, based on the Statistics Canada December over December Ontario Consumer Price Index (CPI) to the new refundable designated portion of the UTSU fee for LGBTOUT. 2. Do you authorize the Board of Directors of the UTSU to request annual cost-of-living increases, based onDecember over December Ontario CPI to the designated LGBTOUT portion of the fee?

Ballot Options: Yes, No, Abstain

Other information: The voting locations are as follows: Kelly Library, Goldring Athletic Centre, Athletic Centre, Bahen Centre. Polling stations will be open 9am - 6:30pm on voting days. Or, vote online from anywhere by visiting utsu.simplyvoting.com Voting Days: March 22, 09:00 - March 24, 18:30 Campaign Period: March 14, 09:00 - March 21, 24:00 (for in person campaigning) or March 24 18:30

(for online campaigning)

26 SPORTS

M O N DAY 7 M A R C H 2 016 sports@thevarsity.ca

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The lues finished a per ect season with a

EMMA KIKULIS SPORTS EDITOR

The Varsity Blues women’s volleyball team completed a perfect season on Saturday evening defeating crosstown rivals Ryerson Rams and successfully defending their OUA banner for the second year running.

The squad won 3-0 in the final match-up against the Rams at the Goldring Centre, marking their first perfect season in nearly 20 years.

The tournament started off dismally for the Blues, who were repeatedly rebuffed by the McMaster Marauders in game one of the OUA final four on Friday evening.

The Marauders, who have several players on the OUA’s individual leader board, came out hot from the start and took the first three points of the set in quick succession.

Despite hard hits from 6’1� left-side hitter Caleigh Cruickshank, the Blues couldn’t get a hand under strong serves from the Marauders’ outside hitter Joanna Jedrzejewska and hits from Maicee Sorensen. Plagued by what appeared to be championship nerves, the Blues dropped the first set 19-25.

A kill from rookie right-side hitter and OUA East Player of the Year Alina Dormann opened up the scoring in the second set, and the Blues finally began to look comfortable on the court. In a set characterized by the complete dominance of Cruickshank and Dormann, the Blues would maintain the lead throughout and finish the second set 25-16.

Despite opening the score in the third off a serve from Sorensen and a bit of back-andforth play, the Marauders couldn’t pick up where they left off in the first and dropped the third set by six points to the Blues.

win o er T ri als R erson on Saturda . NYIMA GYALMO/THE VARSITY

The match came alive in the fourth set; when both teams refused to give in. The Blues and Marauders battled back and forth over the lead for the duration of the thrilling set, which climbed to 30 points.

A huge kill from left-side Anna Feore would save the Blues, tying the set 26-26.

After regaining, and tying the lead twice more, Dormann brought the crowd to their feet by completing her nineteenth kill of the game — winning it all for the Blues in a spectacular 30-28 showdown.

In a relatively anticlimactic match, the Blues didn’t disappoint in the OUA final against the Rams, taking all three sets (25–20, 25–20, 25–13).

The two teams went back-and-forth for the first two sets, sneaky tips from fourth year setter Madelyn Mandryk and precise on-theline kills from middle Tessa Davis helped the Blues break Rams all-star Theanna Vernon, who lead the OUA in kills per-set.

Two consecutive aces from Dormann and a game ending kill from Feore in the third capped off the win for the Blues, who are currently ranked second in the nation.

Third year middle Tessa Davis took a match high 12 points and nine kills and won OUA player of the game honours as well as championship MVP. The Blues travel to Brandon University in Manitoba next weekend where they will be the only team to represent the OUA in the CIS national championships.

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T H E VA R S I T Y

SPORTS 27

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The rise of eSports LoL is no laughing matter ANSTON EMMANUEL VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

They may use computers and headphones instead of bats and balls, but LoL players are athletes nonetheless . BENJAMIN LAPPALAINEN/THE VARSITY

There’s no question about it — eSports are exploding worldwide. The League of Legends (LoL) World Championship drew in 36 million unique viewers last year. To put this into perspective, that is nearly a third of the average United States television audience for the Super Bowl.

As a result, eSports are becoming a highly commercialized sector — proven by Amazon’s recent purchase of Twitch, a video game live streaming service that cost them $970 million USD. Despite their rising popularity, eSports are still facing significant resistance from traditional sporting bodies and governing officials. So the debate continues — are eSports actual sports?

Robert Morris University argues in their favour. In 2013, the Chicago college became a pioneer in the eSports industry when they introduced the first official League of Legends Varsity team; they wree followed subsequently by four colleges to date, including Columbia College in Missouri. It’s true — they created real athletic scholarships for students who played on their schools’ team, while pursuing a degree.

The Varsity reached out to the University of Toronto League Association (UTLA) team

manager, Reiyyan Nizami (Rei), to discuss the matter.

A recent graduate of the life sciences program at U of T, Rei notes the mission of UTLA is to promote the recognition of eSports so student gamers across Ontario can pursue their unique talent on campus.

This 400 member club is also home to a five player League of Legends team that competes annually in the game’s campus series competition. Their most recent accomplishment was placing fourth across North American colleges in their division last year.

The UTLA League of Legends team is composed are composed entirely of elite ranked University of Toronto undergraduates.

They are presently ranked first in the University League of Legends (uLoL) Eastern Conference — ahead of universities such as York, Boston University, and even Harvard — the UTLA is looking to be strong contenders for the North American Campus Series Finals being held in Los Angeles in April.

Despite competitive performances the team receives minimal financial support and no varsity recognition.

The video game playing stigma is still pervasive among parents and peers. As Rei

notes, it is difficult to pursue one’s passion and develop a unique talent when there is a lack of recognition for the level of skill and teamwork involved.

With an average of 200 to 300 mechanical actions per minute, critical, quick decisionmaking, seamless team communication, and strategizing, Rei argues that it is fool’s to discount the skill set required to compete.

Despite the undeniable sedentary nature of video games, professional and amateur teams nonetheless practice like any other sports team. They also have coaches and analysts to dissect pivotal plays and execute unique formations to outwit their opponents. Additionally, the UTLA competing team is also incredibly multi-talented, being comprised of several gym enthusiasts and several medical school candidates.

The main attributes these highly advanced student gamers develop include patience, the ability to balance their academics with serious commitment to the team, mental strength, and quick-decision making, notes Rei. These are all skills that can be transferred to the workplace and are highly desirable to employers, which would allow gamers to continue to excel in the professional world.

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Let’s not ignore the earning potential of professional video game playing either. Top performing League of Legends players’ earnings have been estimated to be in the seven figure range, inclusive of team salary, tournament winnings, brand partnerships, and streaming income.

Although the legitimacy of eSports is hotly contested, Rei notes debating whether it is technically a sport or not is futile. It is clear that student players need support to pursue their talent and passion, and millions of people enjoy this game worldwide and consider it a way to destress.

This may sound familiar to your typical varsity athlete; collegiate sports have always offered student the opportunity to enrich their post-secondary education. “eSports aren’t the future — they’re the present,” declared the president of Columbia College’s Varsity League of Legend’s team. It is time for U of T to make note and destigmatize eSports, a legitimate and rapidly growing student activity.

M O N DAY 7 M A R C H 2 016

T H E VA R S I T Y

DIVERSIONS 28

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This program will give individuals with related experience and education the specialized knowledge and skills in victimology required to provide a variety of services to victims and their families. As a graduate of this program, you will be able to advocate for victims of crime within the criminal justice and other systems; assess and refer victims to appropriate services; and be part of a risk assessment team for individuals, families and groups.

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