March 12, 2018

Vol. CXXXVIII, No. 21 March 12, 2018 thevarsity.ca —— University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880

“Unapologetically Indigenous” Indigenous Studies Students’ Union holds second annual powwow on campus Aidan Currie Deputy News Editor

U of T’s Indigenous Studies Students’ Union (ISSU) hosted its second annual “Honouring Our Students Pow Wow” at the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport on March 11. Spectators, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, gathered in the gymnasium to watch drummers and dancers, purchase art and merchandise from vendors, and participate in the overall atmosphere.

Highlights of the event included performances from Aztec dancers and Métis jiggers, as well as the Grand Entry, which featured dancers and flag bearers from various stakeholder communities involved in the powwow.

The powwow benefitted from the help of approximately 40 volunteers. Volunteer Coordinator and ISSU Membership Intake/ Outreach Coordinator Olivia Miller told The Varsity that some volunteers had to drop out at the last minute due to extenuating

circumstances, though other volunteers recruited friends to lend a hand. “It’s been this really great unifying effort,” said Miller.

Additionally, the ISSU received funding from colleges and departments across campus that contributed to the $24,550 powwow budget. ISSU Finance Coordinator Joshua Bowman said that New College contributed a significant amount. Among the major costs associated with the powwow were honoraria for dancers, drummers, and featured

groups such as the Métis jiggers and Aztec dancers, which Bowman described as a way of paying respect to the gift those groups gave to the powwow.

Bowman praised colleges and departments who helped support the powwow. “A lot of us are all students in those colleges, so it was really just about supporting their own Indigenous students.”

He added that many of the finances associated with the venue were covered in good faith.

Support for the powwow

from across the university was a reflection of the community, added Bowman. “There is a larger amount of non-Indigenous students than Indigenous students, but at the end of the day what we like to remind people is that we’re all treaty people.”

Bowman described the Two Row Wampum, which represents one row for Indigenous people and one for non-Indigenous people. In between the two rows is Powwow, page 4

Radio show host, student appointees allege mishandling of sexual harassment complaint at CIUT 89.5 FM Breach of privacy, outdated policy, lengthy investigation among core criticisms Josie Kao Associate News Editor

Jamaias DaCosta, the host of two shows on campus radio station CIUT 89.5 FM, is alleging that the station mishandled a sexual harassment complaint she made against another host. Anne Boucher and Stuart Norton, two former University of Toronto Students’ Union student appointees on the station’s Board of Directors who resigned last week, are joining her in criticism of the station’s grievance process.

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VCDS performs Twelfth Night page 16

They point to an unresolved sexual harassment complaint filed by DaCosta in November 2017 as a symptom of what they see as a problematic grievance process currently in place at the station. DaCosta is the host of the CIUT shows The Vibe Collective and Indigenous Waves. She was suspended from the station on February 16 for criticizing it on air and commenting on the media coverage of the death of Colten Boushie and the trial of his killer, Gerald Stanley.

The sexual harassment complaint DaCosta’s complaint was made against another CIUT host who has since been suspended from the station. DaCosta alleges that the accused behaved inappropriately toward her, including touching her, coming into the studio drunk, and calling her names like ‘sugar.’

According to DaCosta, CIUT President Steve Fruitman breached her confidentiality when an email he sent to her and the accused explicitly named her as the complainant.

The email was sent as an update on the investigation, and it stated, “Thank you both for being patient while we wound our way through the complexity of dealing with the allegation forwarded to the management of the radio station by volunteer Jamaias DaCosta against [the accused], another volunteer with CIUT-FM.” “I felt very compromised,” said DaCosta. “I felt very unsafe.”

Boucher said DaCosta’s confidentiality was further breached when she was named as the complainant

EDITORIAL: Boushie, Fontaine, and the justice system’s disregard for Indigenous lives

FEATURE: Documenting Anishinaabe resistance

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in the agenda for the January Board of Directors meeting. “To think that confidential matters can be outlined in an agenda, an agenda that should be made accessible to the membership, shows both disregard for her privacy and shows that visibility & engagement are not things they’re used to,” wrote Boucher.

Boucher claims that sharing DaCosta’s identity with the accused and circulating her identity and that of the accused to the Board of Directors breached a clause in the CIUT sexual harassment policy titled CIUT, page 4 SPORTS All we do is win Blues figure skaters win another OUA Championship page 20

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A third of sitting UTSU board members have effectively abandoned office According to union bylaws, 18 directors have missed enough meetings, with average attendance of 52 per cent this year Alex Tough Associate News Editor

Seventeen of the 51 sitting members of the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) Board of Directors have missed enough board meetings to effectively abandon office, according to new attendance records supplied by UTSU executives. One director who effectively abandoned office later officially resigned and was replaced by another, who subsequently also abandoned office, bringing the total to 18. There are 57 positions on the board, six of which are unfilled.

According to Section 2 of the union’s Bylaw X, a Division I or II director “shall be deemed to have delivered their resignation, confirmed by a simple majority vote of the Board” whenever said member has failed to send regrets for two missed meetings, failed to attend three consecutive meetings or any four meetings regardless of sent regrets, or failed to attend any three committee meetings.

In December 2017, The Varsity reported that 29 per cent of sitting members had missed enough meetings to effectively abandon office.

That number has risen by four per cent.

Division I and II directors include everyone except University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union directors, General Equity Directors (GED), and members of the UTSU executive. At least one of the resignation conditions outlined in the bylaw has been met by 17 sitting board members, constituting exactly one third of all sitting directors.

The records show that New College Director Chengye Yang, St. Michael’s College Directors Myron Atta-Mensah and Garnet Ryu, Trinity College Director Nish Chankar, University College Director Anushka Kurian, Woodsworth College Directors Sara Zamani and Justin Zelnicker, At-Large Director Stephanie Hovdestad, Faculty of Dentistry Director Joanna Man, Faculty of Pharmacy Director Jakov Krezic, Computer Science Director Lisa Guo, Rotman Commerce Director Kevin Wang, and Transitional Year Program Director Osman Osman, who have all effectively abandoned office, have not been replaced. Only Faculty of Music Director Rebekah Tam, who abandoned office and later officially resigned, was replaced by Victor Cheng.

However, Cheng is among four Division I and II Directors who have abandoned office since The Varsity’s last analysis, along with University College Director Kshemani Constantinescu, Social Sciences Director Amanda Harvey-Sánchez, and Faculty of Law Director Aidan Fishman.

The Varsity’s attendance calculations are based on the UTSU’s attendance record spreadsheet. It includes board meeting attendance at 10 scheduled meetings and the Annual General Meeting.

More than half of the Division I and II Directors who have officially resigned have been replaced. Danja Papajani and Andrew Sweeny, former Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering Directors, have been replaced by Jeff Dryden and Aron Sankar, and Hamboluhle Moyo, former Victoria College Director, was replaced by Max Xi. However, neither former University College Director Aidan Swirsky nor former Mathematical & Physical Science Director Wilson Wu have been replaced.

There have also been two newly appointed Division I and II Directors: New College Director Sharon Ma and Emma Campisi, representing the Faculty of Kinesiology. Neither were appointed as the result of a resignation or abandonment.

Of the non-Division I and II members of the Board of Directors, Vice-President University Affairs Carina Zhang was replaced by Adrian Huntelar, and Vice-President Campus Life Stuart Norton was replaced by Ammara Wasim. Of the three GED positions left vacant by Huntelar, Gaby Garcia Casanova, and Ted Williamson, only one has been filled by June Marston. The status of the other two formally vacated is unclear. “I believe there are others, who simply have not attended any meetings yet,” wrote UTSU Board of Directors Speaker Billy Graydon in an email to The Varsity.

Attendance at the board meetings continues to be low. Since The Varsity’s last analysis of board attendance, there have been four meetings: November 25, January 26, February 11, and February 24.

Attendance prior to those meetings was, on average, 55 per cent; since then, the average attendance for the most recent four meetings has been 49 per cent.

*Adrian Huntelar resigned as a GED when he became VP University Affairs. He has since not been replaced as a GED, which is why he’s represented twice here. **A good attendance record is defined as either not being in violation of Bylaw X, or having missed less than five meetings but not being subject to Bylaw X.

KEITH CHENG/THE VARSITY

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a covenant chain, which Bowman said begins to rust over time. “So when we come together at events like this we’re polishing the covenant chain,” said Bowman.

The ISSU’s Membership Support Coordinator, Ziigwen Mixemong, was featured as the powwow’s Head Female Dancer and credited the ISSU for giving her a space to be “unapologetically Indigenous.”

“The powwow has just been a way that I’ve been able to use my gifts and my knowledge and bring that forth, and everyone else is able to bring their gifts and their knowledge and plurality of wisdoms that has helped develop this event,” Mixemong told The Varsity.

“It’s amazing that we’re having our second powwow in only our third year. It’s come so far so fast, we’ve moved to a bigger and better venue and we are expecting so many people,” she added.

“It’s kind of like our version of a big party,” said Mixemong, explaining that powwows are traditionally a gathering of nations, referring to it as an “intercultural interaction.”

Canada’s federal Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs, Carolyn Bennett, was in attendance, though she did not come as a dignitary as she did the previous year. Mixemong explained that politicians and dignitaries were welcome to attend the powwow, though the focus of the powwow

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was a celebration of Indigenous people and culture.

“We live in what I like to call a post-reconciliation world where people are trying to use the term ‘reconciliation’ to Indigenize their efforts without actually making sure that it’s Indigenous thought that’s going into that collective process of making an event,” said Mixemong.

Last year, the ISSU hosted the first powwow at U of T in over 20 years at the Athletic Centre.

“When I enrolled in university, I never thought this would be a possibility,” said Bowman. “But now this is our second annual one and I don’t see us stopping anytime soon.”

For a brief time during the powwow, up to seven police cruisers were parked outside the Goldring Centre. Police were responding to a call of “a possible imminent threat to an individual who has a matter before the courts right now,” said Toronto Police Sergeant Aiello. “The individual was a victim and she saw the individual that is before the courts right now on allegations. She feared for her safety, and because of his instabilities we feared for the safety of the individuals here at the powwow.”

Police searched the building and dispersed after realizing the individual was not present. The victim was transported home to safety.

The second annual powwow was held at U of T’s Athletic Centre. STEVEN LEE/THE VARSITY

DaCosta has been suspended from CIUT 89.5 FM since February 16.

SOFIA LUDWIG/THE VARSITY

“Confidentiality.” The clause states that CIUT “will not disclose any information about a complaint except as necessary to investigate the complaint or to take disciplinary action, or as required by law.”

When asked about this allegation, Fruitman said, “There’s been no breach from our side. No members have seen our agendas. No members have seen our minutes.”

Boucher is also dissatisfied with the amount of time it has taken to process the issue. “These are things that, when they happen, you’re dealing with them immediately,” said Boucher. “This happened in November and I can say that it’s still going on.”

Another sexual harassment clause, titled “Time Limits,” states that management “has a responsibility to make sure harassment

ends as soon as they become aware of it. Complaints will be resolved as quickly as possible, ideally within one month of being made.” The complaint was lodged four months ago.

Fruitman said that the clause “doesn’t mean you have to stop all investigations after a month because it’s a month now, you can’t go on.

That’s just something in the policy that you try to uphold, but it’s not a breach.” Fruitman also said that the station acted immediately to begin addressing the situation. “As soon as we got the complaint, we went to… the [Hart House] Warden and asked him what we should do, and he said to suspend [the accused] in a non-punitive suspension.”

“I think it’s still punitive because the guy can’t do the show, but [it’s] officially non-punitive pending the

outcome of an investigation,” continued Fruitman. He declined to confirm whether the investigation was still ongoing, but then noted that “the fact that it’s been taking a long time” has been the “main complaint” so far. The accused confirmed that the investigation is ongoing.

Boucher also criticized the policy, which is two and a half pages long, for being “really out of date.” She said that “it’s sad, but it’s so funny at the same time that this is what their policy is.”

Fruitman acknowledged that the policy needs “improvement,” but says that most of CIUT’s policies “are good for almost forever.”

“They’re just basic rules we’ve always had, since 1988.”

DaCosta’s suspension from the station DaCosta said that she decided to speak out about her complaint case after she was suspended from volunteer and on-air privileges on the station on February 16. She was suspended after criticizing the station on-air, following a warning from CIUT management regarding her comments on what she called ‘skewed’ media coverage of the death of Colten Boushie, a young Indigenous man in Saskatchewan, and the acquittal of his killer, Gerald Stanley.

In a warning email that station manager Ken Stowar sent to DaCosta, he said that the station took issue with a comment she made on air during a conversation addressing the deaths of Boushie and an

Indigenous girl named Tina Fontaine. On air, DaCosta had said, “It’s been horrific watching the Canadian media vilify these young ones and scrutinize them while really creating these sympathetic narratives for their killers, especially for the killer of Boushie.”

Stowar’s email noted, “The comment was such that CIUT-FM could be held criminally responsible for interfering with the rights of an individual for a fair trial.” Stowar said that the station would continue to investigate the potential impact of DaCosta’s commentary, especially if a formal complaint were lodged against CIUT. Stowar warned her that her commentary could be actionable under the Criminal Code of Canada.

According to her suspension email, however, DaCosta was suspended “due to disparaging comments made on air and online... about CIUT and its board of directors.”

DaCosta said that Stowar “didn’t mention anything about [her] commentary [on CIUT] in the warning,” only the Boushie and Fontaine comments.

Though she says the specific offending comments were not made clear to her, DaCosta criticized CIUT on the same show as the one containing her comments on Boushie and Fontaine. “A lot of people think [that] CIUT is great and [that] CIUT is fantastic for so many reasons, but CIUT needs a lot of work when it comes to sharing safe space for community. And I just need to take a second to put CIUT on blast,”

she had said on air. “If it’s not a safe space for those people in the community, then it’s not doing its job as a community radio station.”

DaCosta made these comments about the station in response to an unknown person putting a picture of U of T psychology professor Jordan Peterson that said “you can fix yourself,” on her desktop.

DaCosta said that she has not received any further information from CIUT regarding her situation.

“I’m being censored as an Indigenous person at the station,” she said. “There is no basis for… Ken Stowar’s suspension of me.” Stowar did not respond to The Varsity’s questions about the rationale for DaCosta’s suspension.

Norton said that it is important for DaCosta to receive due process for her suspension. “Regardless of the situations of alleged misconduct according to CIUT, I think she is entitled to a process of investigation that is accountable and transparent,” he said. “If there [are]grounds that can be found for discipline or follow-up, again you can only know that through investigation and checking all your bases.”

Fruitman declined to comment on DaCosta’s suspension, but he said that “the grievance process is probably a really important thing for us.”

“I don’t think there’s much in the way of process in the current one other than to complain to the board and see what happens,” said Fruitman. “Is our process good? Well, I think it could be a lot better.”

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North end of Queen’s Park to close for revitalization project Popular shortcut from Vic, St. Mike’s to remain fenced off until October Hannah Carty Varsity Staff

The north end of Queen’s Park will be closed from March to October as part of a revitalization project tackling the aging infrastructure and damaged green space in the park.

The Queen’s Park North Improvements plan comes after years of increased usage of the historic downtown park by the booming population of nearby residents and tourists alike. The current infrastructure of the park lacks reliable paths and consistent benches.

Queen’s Park North makes up the section of the park north of Wellesley Street. The north end of this section — from the central King Edward VII Plaza to the top of the circle — will be closed for the first phase of the revitalization until October. The south side of Queen’s Park North will be closed off from March 2019 to August 2019. The construction notice states that “a pedestrian access path will be provided,” but it is unclear whether that path will lead through or around the closed-off area.

The project began in 2014 with extensive community and stakeholder consultations. The city’s plan for upgrading the park’s usability is to create better infrastructure for moving through the space, adding seating, and improving access points to the park, particularly at the Hoskin Avenue entrance, which is also a

vital connection to campus.

A permanent walkway encircling the park will be built, replacing the well-trodden dirt path currently there and making the park more accessible for jogging. Some of the existing dilapidated paths will be demolished in favour of a more structured system of main walkways in and through the park.

One major addition coming with the project is a new Queen’s Park Promenade, connecting the Highlanders Monument of Canada Plaza at the northernmost end of the park with the King Edward VII Plaza in the centre with a wide walkway lined with benches.

Another objective of the project is the revitalization of its trees and lawns. The large trees of the park are a unique quality in the middle of the city, and the city will be planting more trees to ensure that the “urban canopy” is protected. Ninety large canopy and 70 understorey deciduous trees will be added to the park, alongside new grass turf and spring flowering bulbs along some walkways.

“When walking through the park, I often notice how empty the physical space is. With few benches, statues, and trees, the park itself is not visually appealing,” said U of T student Karel Peters. “I think that green space, especially in large cities, is very important. It’s nice to know that parks are still valued.

Hopefully the improvements will create a more inviting atmosphere.”

York University faculty strike enters second week Some departments suspend classes in solidarity with CUPE 3903 Lidia Likhodi Varsity Staff

Contract faculty at York University went on strike on Monday, March 5 after members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 3903 Units 1, 2, and 3 rejected the university’s final collective agreement offer after six months of bargaining.

CUPE 3903 represents approximately 3,700 contract faculty, teaching assistants, and graduate assistants who teach 60 per cent of courses offered at York.

Striking faculty members are demanding equity provisions, prevention of further setbacks in their fellowship funding model, job security, and graduate assistant jobs as part of the new collective agreement.

In solidarity with CUPE 3903, the departments of Social Science; Sociology; Politics; Gender, Feminist & Women’s Studies; Cinema and Media Arts; Equity Studies; Anthropology; and Communication Studies,

along with the Department of Politics and School of Translation at the York University Glendon campus, have suspended classes for the duration of the strike.

Students have a right to attend class and will be accommodated if they choose not to protest. University facilities, administrative offices, libraries, and food outlets remain open.

More than 800 graduate assistant jobs were previously eliminated during a switch to the current fellowship funding model. Teaching assistants still receive funding in the form of scholarships, fellowships, and research assistantships that advance academic progress, but they have lost other opportunities for work. Contract faculty see fewer full-time opportunities.

At U of T, a separate but related union called CUPE 3902 Unit 3 represents approximately 1,200 sessional instructors. In December, unit members voted to ratify their renewed collective agreement with the school.

Aida Jordao, a sessional lecturer in the English departments at both York and U of T said that at U of T, CUPE 3902 Unit 3 “doesn’t have a lot of power. It also doesn’t have a lot of members.”

“You cannot compare them to what we have at York,” she said, claiming that CUPE 3903 was founded at around the same time as the university itself, approximately six decades ago. “Here at York we can establish a standard by which other universities could measure themselves.”

Jordao said that precarious academic work was harming the quality of education for York students. “Students will always feel it... There won’t be a throughline in their department in terms of curriculum because they will have different professors all the time.”

“I think it’s worse that sometimes we have two weeks’ notice to teach a course… You have to put so much work into preparing the lectures and each class that you don’t have as much time to give to the students.”

Members of CUPE 3903 Units 1, 2, and 3 have been striking since Monday, March 5. STEVEN LEE/THE VARSITY

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The project will take up the section in between the 48th Highlanders of Canada memorial (pictured) and the central King Edward VII Plaza.

SOFIA LUDIWG/THE VARSITY

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SCSU hosts second general meeting Increased transparency, multi-faith prayer rooms renovation among motions discussed Abhya Adlakha Varsity Staff

The Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) hosted its second general meeting of the academic year on March 8 to address concerns regarding the SCSU elections and motions related to other issues. This is the first time that the SCSU has hosted two meetings in the same academic year. The last general meeting took place in November 2017.

The meeting served as a platform to discuss the financial statements from the academic year and several motions brought forward by students.

These motions included increasing funding for the Departmental Student Associations (DSA), splitting the Director of Anthropology and Health Studies, updating and renovating multi-faith prayer rooms, and improved promotion of future general meetings.

After an amendment to the order of the agenda, the meeting skipped to the first agenda item: a motion to improve UTSC Orientation for newcomers and to look into the feasibility of having demonstrations, hands-on programming, and events intended to prepare incoming students for their first year at UTSC. This motion was moved by Katie Konstantopoulos, a student and volunteer at the food centre, who also moved the next four motions.

Konstantopoulos said that orientations tend to be a “large party” and are not well suited for students who are not well adjusted in crowds. A few other students spoke about having more decompression areas and more resources during orientation. The motion passed.

The second agenda item was a motion to improve orientation on campus, address food literacy, add the food centre to campus tours, and familiarize students with where and how they can access food on campus. It passed after being put directly to a vote.

The next motion was to improve the way SCSU advertises its events; it asked the SCSU to commit to taking measures to ensure that all students are aware of their rights prior to and during all the meetings, and also to make sure that all proxy form requirements are advertised well ahead of time.

The motion passed.

The next two motions addressed the issue of transparency between the students and the SCSU. The first of these two motions asked that the SCSU conduct itsmeetings with proper live streaming, that the transcripts from the meetings be provided to the students within a reasonable time before elections, and that the SCSU provide these recommendations to its Elections and Referenda Committee.

The motion was amended to change “within a reasonable time” to 48 hours, as attendees believed it isn’t a job for a week’s time and could be completed faster. The motion passed.

The second motion asked the SCSU to ensure that the “Meeting Minutes” package be viewable on its website in adequate time, and that the AGM packages be accessible on the website a week before the proxy process. It also included that a proceedings document be developed after the meeting and circulated. The motion was immediately called to question. With a majority in favor, the motion passed.

The next item on the agenda was a motion to increase the funding for the DSAs to $20,000, in which $16,000 would be allocated to the 16 DSAs and the remaining $4,000 for further support.

Attendees debated heavily on both sides. Ahmad Shanqiti, a student and member of UTSC’s Academic Affairs Committee, put forward a motion for this motion to be postponed until after everyone went through the financial statements. He believes that it’s important to understand what the numbers look like in comparison.

When it moved to a vote, the motion to postpone failed.

Many attendees believed that $20,000 was too large of an amount to be allotted to the DSAs. Christina Arayata, the union’s Vice-President Academics & University Affairs, clarified the financial statements for the DSAs, saying that the funding pool had $16,000 already and that only about $3,000 was used in the 2017–2018 session. She, and many other students, said that they were only pulling away money from other resources that could put it to better use.

After discussion, which went on for about an hour, the motion was finally called to question and it moved on to a vote, and the motion passed by a slim margin.

In an interview with The Varsity after the meeting, Shanqiti said, “I felt that aside from having to inherently waste our time due to the ensuing questions regarding the financial statements, people voting on a matter without having all the information is immoral no matter how they feel about the topic.”

At around 10:30 pm, Shanqiti put forward a motion to adjourn the meeting. However, with many students looking forward to the four other motions that were still left on the agenda, the motion did not pass.

The meeting moved on to the next item, but due to time and space constraints, the meeting had to be adjourned at 11:00 pm. This left many students disappointed as the remaining motions were shifted to the next general meeting, which will take place in November.

Student Commons projected to post surplus by 2020–2021 Costs include maintenance expenses, security, signage, IT systems The Student Commons is scheduled to open its doors in September 2018. ANDY TAKAGI/THE VARSITY

Aidan Currie Deputy News Editor

With the Student Commons set to open in September 2018, the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) is releasing an updated projection of its overall finances, including details of the revenue and expenses attached to the building.

Principal costs of the Student Commons include maintenance expenses, beginning at $144,926.88 in 2018–2019, and operating expenses, including programming, security, signage, and IT systems, totalling $299,926.88 in the first year of occupancy.

There are also costs tied to administration and office, salaries and wages, governance of the building, and occupancy. In total, the Student Commons is forecasted to accumulate $1,198,161.17 in expenses in its first year.

The Student Commons does have some avenues for income. Advertising revenue is projected to consistently bring in $25,000 per year, until 2023, when that revenue is projected to increase to $35,000. Similarly, conferencing revenue is projected to earn $40,000 in 2018–2019, increasing annually. The UTSU has also leased

space to university units and external tenants who will provide services to students and occupy less than 20 per cent of the building.

In total, revenue is projected to begin at $1,170,536.79 and increases each year.

For the first two years of occupancy, the Student Commons will post deficits of $27,624.38 and $10,459.97, respectively. In the third year, 2020–2021, the building forecasts a $4,307.14 surplus, and it does not dip for the rest of the forecasted years until 2029–2030.

In April 2017, the Student Commons was projected to post a surplus of $300,000 in its first year and more surpluses for the next 10 years. The surpluses would avoid triggering Article 7.7(f) of the revised Student Commons Agreement between the UTSU and the university, which stipulates that, should the Student Commons run deficits in two consecutive fiscal years after its third year of occupancy, and no fiscal solution is reached in two years after the deficits, the university would have the right to terminate the UTSU’s management of the building and take possession.

UTSU President Mathias Memmel explained that the Student Commons budget posts a surplus because it will be receiving money from the UTSU’s operating budget. “The fact that the

Student Commons will post a surplus doesn’t mean that the organization as a whole will post a surplus (in this case, it won’t),” he wrote in an email to .

In a letter to U of T’s Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Regehr, dated August 30, 2017, Memmel expressed that the UTSU must, “to the greatest extent possible, transform the Student Commons into a source of revenue.”

“We also eliminated non-essential services and reduced our HR expenses accordingly, which will save us $250,000 per year going forward,” which allows them to remain afloat and operate the Student Commons, wrote Memmel of the UTSU’s overall budget.

Memmel indicated that the Student Commons financial plan must be followed with little to no variation.

“If you look at where the UTSU was three years ago, it’s hard not to be worried. We’ve done our best to mitigate the risk of any future mismanagement, but there’s no guarantee that the UTSU won’t revert to — for example — nepotistic overspending on salaries,” he added.

In September 2018, the union will begin charging members an Operating Cost Levy of $6.50 per semester.

This is on top of the already existing Capital Cost Levy, which will increase

“He’s a different kind of idiot”: Michael Wolff talks Trump at Con Hall Fire and Fury author speaks about journalism in the age of Donald Trump Ilya Bañares Associate News Editor

Michael Wolff, a journalist and author of the bestselling book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, spoke at U of T’s Convocation Hall on March 7 about the state of American politics and journalism.

The event was hosted by the School of Public Policy and Governance (SPPG), and it featured a talk with SPPG Director Peter Loewen, followed by a panel discussion with Althia Raj, Ottawa Bureau Chief of HuffingtonPost Canada, and Joseph Heath, professor of philosophy, public policy, and ethics at U of T. Wolff said that he pitched the idea of writing a story on the first 100 days of the presidency to Steve Bannon, the President’s former Chief Strategist. “I said to Trump, ‘I’d like to come into the White House as an observer,’ and Trump thought I was asking for a job — deputy assistant observer,” said Wolff.

“Almost from the beginning, I was looking forward to the ending.”

With the departures of many senior staff members, such as Bannon, Press Secretary Sean Spicer, Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Wolff

decided to write on the “first act” of the Trump White House.

Wolff said that his philosophy going into the White House was not to ask questions and to keep a low profile.

Eventually, he said, he gained the trust of political staffers and became a “black hole where people just began to narrate their experience.”

Wolff claimed that Sam Nunberg, a former aide on Trump’s presidential campaign, said Trump was “an idiot.”

Wolff added that “he’s a different kind of idiot because he’s the President of the United States.”

Wolff compared many of Trump’s actions to his time on reality television. “The nature of reality television is conflict. You have to manufacture and produce and sustain conflict in every show… Essentially, that’s the way he’s run this presidency. Every tweet is designed to produce conflict.”

In the end, Wolff believes that Trump’s presidency will not survive.

“I think it’s a failed presidency,” said Wolff, adding that his book was designed to open the discussion about the nature of Trump’s failure in the White House. “I asked [Trump], ‘What’s your goal here?’ He said, in a very straightforward way, ‘To be the most famous

Wolff said he tried to keep a low profile while in the White House.

ANDY TAKAGI/THE VARSITY

man on Earth.’”

Following Wolff’s talk, the event moved into a short panel discussion that focused on modern political journalism. Raj made the case that reporters need to be increasingly focused on fact-checking in an era when readers consume news very quickly on digital platforms and increasingly demand well-researched stories.

Wolff refocused the discussion on Trump, asking, “How do you report on this guy? He runs contrary — if you’re a political journalist — to everything you believe about being a political journalist.”

When Raj asked Wolff about scenes in his book that were allegedly recreated, he said that many parts were either something he witnessed or something a trusted source observed. The problem, Wolff said, was that his sources have remained anonymous.

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The Breakdown: UTSU and UTMSU elections What you need to know ahead of the campaign and voting period Aidan Currie & Josie Kao Varsity Staff

The University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) spring elections campaign period will begin on March 19, with voting taking place from March 26–28.

The University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU) elections will run in a similar period, with campaigning set to begin on March 12 and the voting period falling between March 20 and 22.

Here is a breakdown of what you need to know about the upcoming elections.

What is the UTSU? The UTSU represents all full-time undergraduate students at UTSG and UTM who have paid the membership fee of $18.76 per session. As the union represents around 50,000 students, this means that the UTSU receives well over $1 million in membership fees each year. In the 2017–2018 academic year, the revenue from student fees was projected to be $1,858,818.53.

Students also pay a variety of other

fees to the UTSU, many of which are refundable. These include a $0.50 orientation fee, a $162.28 Health and Dental Plan fee, and a $10.24 fee for the Student Commons, which is set to increase in 2018–2019. In total, students pay $194.49 to the UTSU per semester, of which $163.28 is refundable.

The union uses its operating budget of over $3 million to advocate for students and provide services, such as “running the student health & dental insurance plan, funding campus clubs, and offering grants to students in need,” according to its website.

Recent advocacy campaigns of the UTSU include their initiative to create a Universal Transit Pass (U-Pass) and its commitment to improve the proposed Mandated Leave of Absence Policy. The UTSU website also lists various campaigns, including food security, housing, and sexual violence.

The UTSU operates through an executive team of seven students as well as a 57-member board of directors.

The Executive Committee consists of the President and six Vice-Presidents.

A designate from the University of

Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU) also sits on the Executive Committee. The elected board members represent either a college, faculty, academic field, or the Transitional Year Programme.

What is the UTMSU? All undergraduate students at UTM are also represented through their own student union, the UTMSU. In the 2015–2016 academic year, fulltime students paid a membership fee of $14.11 per session and part-time students paid $1.04 per session. The UTMSU received $2,565,974 in revenue during the 2016–2017 school year.

Representing over 13,000 students, the union’s mission includes safeguarding the rights of students, providing services and activities, and lobbying for student interests.

The UTMSU’s services include providing bursaries, running the Blind Duck Pub, and operating the UTM Food Centre, which provides for food insecure students.

UTMSU campaigns include Academic Advocacy, which seeks to help students accused of academic offenses; Know Your Rights!, which educates students on the rights they have; and No Means No, a campaign developed by the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) to fight against “sexual assault, acquaintance rape, and dating violence.”

The operations of the UTMSU are

Former Fox and Fiddle, New York Fries building to be revamped as luxury hotel Former student haunt, karaoke spot to become “gastropub dining destination”

Key UTSU elections issues The elections are sure to feature intriguing issues, board attendance and staff layoffs among them.

Attendance at Board of Directors meetings has been down this year, with an average attendance among directors of 49 per cent since November. It remains to be seen whether or not board restructuring to motivate higher attendance will play a role in the election.

The UTSU has also hired several Outreach Associates to assist with the You Decide campaign to leave the CFS. The CFS is a national organization that represents students’ unions across Canada, with provincial organizations such as CFS–Ontario, of which the UTSU is a member. Of late, the UTSU has been campaigning against the organization, which is where the You Decide campaign plays its role. Outreach Associates are responsible for collecting student signatures on a petition to defederate from the CFS. Last year, You Decide failed to reach the requisite amount and had to restart the petition.

To hold the referendum, the petition must be signed by 20 per cent of students in the membership. Current UTSU President Mathias Memmel told The Varsity that the campaign is currently looking for 4,000 more signatures, which would exceed the requirement and provide a buffer.

The Student Commons, a project to create a building run by students to house student services and clubs, which has been in the works since 2007, is set to open its doors in September 2018. The project has put a strain on the UTSU’s finances, and the union will run deficits for the first five years after gaining occupancy of the building.

The extra expenses have motivated the UTSU to lay off staff such as the Health and Dental Coordinator and Clubs Coordinator, as well as to employ cost-saving measures to keep the union from going bankrupt. Memmel has said that the Student Commons financial plan must be followed with little to no deviation in order to keep the union afloat.

Of note, the election will feature a referendum for UTSG members to vote on a student U-Pass. The cost of a U-Pass could be as much as a mandatory $322.50 per semester, or $80.60 a month, depending on what is decided at a TTC board meeting on March 20.

The UTSU and UTMSU will also be renegotiating their membership agreement. UTMSU President Salma Fakhry told The Varsity in February that the goal of the UTMSU is to “strengthen the contract” between the two unions, as UTM students make up one fourth of the UTSU’s membership.

SCSU’s Academic Advocacy campaign secures credit/no credit extension Students will now be able to Credit/No Credit a course until the last day of classes

Jillian Schuler Associate News Editor

A luxury hotel will take the place of the building that used to house two popular student haunts in the Annex: the Fox and Fiddle pub and a New York Fries restaurant.

Opening this summer, 280 Bloor Street West will be home to Kimpton Saint George, part of the luxury Kimpton Hotels chain.

The entire building, which also housed a Holiday Inn, will be renovated from top to bottom to include 188 hotel rooms, including 20 suites and a presidential suite.

“Kimpton is known as a leader in adaptive reuse, transforming existing buildings into modern, artfully designed boutique hotels that garner civic pride,” said Ron Vlasic, Vice-President of Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants.

Some of the features of the hotel include complimentary bikes, yoga mats in each room, and a fitness centre.

The now shuttered Fox and Fiddle located below the Holiday Inn will be turned into a “gastropub dining destination” that will also service the hotel’s in-room dining.

Students and other members of the Annex neighborhood have mixed feelings about the renovations.

U of T student Alex McKeever has fond memories of the Fox and Fiddle, saying that it was a favourite of his. The Holiday Inn was where he stayed when he visited U of T for the first time, and the Fox and Fiddle was where he met some

carried out by their elected 15-person Board of Directors and their elected six-person Executive Committee.

Imani Stewart Varsity Staff

Some U of T students expressed fond memories of the now-shuttered Fox and Fiddle . MEGAN BHALLA/THE VARSITY

of his first friends at university.

“The defining feature of the Fox was its karaoke and the endearingly quirky clientele that it drew,” said McKeever.

McKeever said that he was disappointed with how many studentfriendly establishments along Bloor Street are being replaced with “subpar substitutes.” He described it as “symptomatic of a Toronto-wide trend that is slowly robbing the city of its character,” and he was not the only one expressing this sentiment.

Reva Landau, a member of the Annex Residents’ Association, said that she doesn’t think that the Annex needs a luxury hotel, nor does a luxury hotel need the Annex. “Anyone expecting to be in the ‘center of the city’s dining, arts, and culture scene’ might be surprised to find themselves looking at the Senator Croll building,” she wrote, referencing claims made in Kimpton

Hotels’ press release.

However, she added that at least the hotel is a renovation rather than a new construction. “In view of what some developers want to do to Bloor, at least it should not make things worse.”

The initial announcement for the renovation advertised the building as being in the Bloor-Yorkville neighbourhood. The official press release for the new building, however, acknowledges its rightful location in the Annex. Vlasic attributes the mixup to the fact that, while the hotel is geographically located in the Annex, as a business on Bloor Street, it “falls under the auspices of the Bloor-Yorkville Business Improvement Association.”

Either way, Vlasic said that they “love the indie Annex vibe.”

The hotel is currently taking reservations for July 1 onward. There’s no word yet as to whether the gastropub dining destination will include karaoke.

The Scarborough Campus Students’ Union’s (SCSU) Academic Advocacy campaign has successfully extended students’ ability to credit/no credit (CR/NCR) a course until the last day of classes. The CR/NCR choice allows students to opt for a pass or fail mark rather than a percentage grade on their academic transcript in up to two full credits. UTSC students can currently invoke the CR/ NCR up to two weeks before the last day of classes, but the SCSU’s change will enter into effect in academic sessions after May 1.

The campaign aims to advocate for the academic rights of students and make education and information more accessible.

The CR/NCR extension was adopted by the university after the campaign submitted a report, supported by a petition, that included the extension as one of its ‘asks and recommendations.’ According to the petition, students are unreasonably expected to estimate their academic standing two weeks before they receive all their grades, and many students end up making uninformed decisions.

Beside securing the extension of the CR/NCR option, the SCSU campaign has worked to make stu-

dents more aware of their academic rights and what infringements of those rights are. According to Christina Arayata, SCSU Vice-President Academics & University Affairs, the union has seen an increase in the number of students asking for assistance through appeals and petitions this year. Arayata said this increase of student awareness is a result of the information that the campaign has been promoting.

“Students have been receptive to the campaign, especially now that a victory has occurred,” said Arayata.

The SCSU is also currently advocating for the introduction of selfdeclared sick notes, a five per cent cap on late penalties, and lifting laptop ban policies in classrooms.

Arayata explained that the university has been supportive and is interested in the recommendations and pilot programs proposed by the union.

Students can expect this campaign to continue well into the future.“Academic advocacy and accessibility has moved from just conversation to actionable items that can be improved, expanded, and developed,” said Arayata. “The topic of accessible education and advocacy must not stop — it is an ongoing movement that needs constant care.”

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Contributors write about their experiences within U of T’s highly competitive environment

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It’s not unwarranted to call U of T a pressure cooker, especially around this stressful time of year. Below, students reflect on how their experiences with competition at the university have shaped their lives, for better or for worse.

Dreams of med school bring out the best and worst in students As a first-year Life Sciences student, I feel like U of T is much more competitive than my high school, and probably most universities in Canada. In general, for any program, the standards needed to excel are quite high — you’re expected to maintain 85 per cent averages for all courses if you aim to achieve a 4.0, irrespective of the nature of the course. This can be very difficult depending on the courses you take; while I breeze through biology courses, I struggle to do well in organic chemistry.

There’s also the fact that many people in Life Sciences are gunning for medical school, which often requires maintaining averages of 90 per cent or higher as well as a full course load every year. I’m not surprised to find many of my classmates frantically studying overnight at Robarts on a regular basis, or plowing through stacks of past papers the night before an exam.

The competition that comes out of this environment can also spawn a sense of self-importance. I was initially quite baffled when I heard friends complaining about “only” getting an 85 per cent grade. However, given that perfect grades are not merely an asset for them to get into medical school — they're a requirement — I eventually came to understand their discontent.

Nevertheless, I don’t think that the rigorous academic culture at U of T is necessarily a bad thing.

The environment has forced me to adopt better study habits and manage my time more effectively, but I’ve still managed to enjoy some free time to pursue my hobbies now and then. Plus, U of T has more opportunities in terms of research and internships compared to other universities, so I think the extra effort comes with its rewards.

All in all, what you put into a degree is what you get out of it. While it may be harder to do well at U of T or in certain programs, it certainly isn’t impossible, and being surrounded by people of equal or higher calibre can make it all the more worthwhile.

Jeffrey To is a first-year student at University College studying Life Sciences.

An emphasis on grades pits overachieving peers against one another University is the first experience that many students, including me, have with living independently. As such, the university experience can be daunting to begin with. Add to this the spectre of responsibility thrust upon us: our lives depend upon the grades, extracurriculars, and work experiences that we can cram into our résumés within the time it takes to complete a degree.

Since I entered the Biochemistry program with expectations of getting into medical school — perhaps the most coveted aspiration in Life Sciences — my grades were always in the background of every decision I made, often waiting to jump out into unrelated conversations. The pressure to make the cut for the limited positions in a highly competitive field led me to compare my stats with others, always wanting to outscore them. Examinations, quizzes, and assignments were regular topics of discussion, as I was surrounded by friends and peers reaching for the same golden ticket.

Their scores became a measuring stick. When asked about my grades, being able to retort with a higher mark than the ones they had achieved became a target in and of itself. There was great joy when I did well and greater misery when I did not — and my disappointment would be further compounded when I heard about others’ successes. Gleaned from their reactions to my results, it was often clear that their experiences were not too distant from mine.

Despite the significant knowledge and experiences provided at university, the markers of quality are partly implied by our grades. Among my group of friends, the implicit understanding of the competition and its rules was left unspoken, as if such thoughts were taboo. Reflecting back, such competition seems to me to be a natural product of high expectations and the quest for success.

Vaibhav Bhandari is a graduate student in the Department of Biochemistry.

Competition is conducive to survival in a brutal job market Undoubtedly, U of T has a highly competitive environment. Rigorous academic standards and seemingly neverending piles of coursework are the main staples of student life at this university. The prestige of attending what is, by many accounts, Canada’s top university also breeds competitiveness, with students pressured by intense expectations to do well. At the same time, many students work hard in the hopes that job offers will line up once they take their first steps outside Convocation Hall post-graduation.

Unfortunately, it’s a cruel world out there in terms of job prospects, even for U of T grads. As of the Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey conducted in February 2017, the unemployment rate for people aged 15–24 is twice that of the general population. In a job market saturated by graduates holding bachelor’s degrees, more than a quarter of them are underemployed — people who hold degrees often end up in jobs that don’t require them. The fear of not scoring a job postgrad generates even more competition, as students must dedicate more hours to filling up their résumés while maintaining good grades.

From my own experience, the competitive environment at U of T only made me more zealous.

To outcompete other students, I spent my summers working internships and gaining job experience.

Similarly, my peers spent their summers working for different companies. With everyone grinding and hustling, the desire to compare and ‘beat’ each other becomes toxic. I have friends complaining about other people’s successes while berating and putting themselves under more pressure. I have also known overly eager students who have put their academics above all else, sometimes at the cost of their friendships.

It is not uncommon to hear about probation periods slapped onto underperforming students or of students dropping out of school altogether.

At the same time, this exposure to competition — and to the realities of the job market — was a useful experience. It made me mentally tougher and more equipped to deal with pressures after university. In this way, the competitive environment at U of T is a double-edged sword. Staying ahead of the game is not easy, but given the state of the job market, a certain level of competition is a necessary reality.

Arnold Yung graduated from St. Michael’s College in November 2017 and holds a degree in History.

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From stress in academia to success in student journalism

The climb to the top can come at the expense of mental wellness

I came to U of T believing that I was going to become an English professor and an important asset to English scholarship. I had little knowledge of the competitive nature of the institution as a whole.

In first year, my self-esteem plummeted. The high school literature nerd had somehow received a C+ on her first paper in ENG150 — The Literary Tradition, while my friend had received a B. It seemed as if I was the only student performing below average on assignments while my peers were receiving As and Bs. Truthfully, even by my second year, I wasn’t able to handle the rigorous competition in my classes because of the ‘trauma’ of receiving bad grades on essays, pieces of writing in which I had always prided myself.

During my initial period of frustration at the university, I joined a few extracurricular activities that shared one commonality: student journalism. Writing for various publications became my safe haven from the low points in my classes, and I started to prioritize my journalistic work at the expense of my schoolwork.

I fell in love with the fast-paced newsrooms, the daunting deadlines, and the editors with their endless comments on pieces I thought wouldn’t get published, until to my surprise, my work ended up on newsstands a week later.

I realized that I was not suited to the intense competition of getting the highest mark among my peers that I experienced inside the classroom. But competition in the journalism environment was not only addictive, it was empowering. I stopped feeling a sense of defeat from academic failures and started to thrive from competition I experienced in the newsroom. Perhaps this preference was fueled by the fact that my English peers praised me for my journalistic work, or that many of them thought they were simply not cut out for the fast-paced environment of journalism. I came to realize that competition was exciting and liberating in an environment where I felt recognized and acknowledged — feelings that I had not experienced within the classroom setting.

Reflecting on the four years I have spent at U of T, I realize that my initial career path was irrelevant to my true passions. U of T is a highly competitive school.

But sometimes, that competition helps you figure out what you really want to do with your life.

The competitive environment at U of T has definitely had an impact on my own mental health. There is an inherent hypocrisy evident within the competitive attitude that the school espouses. We know that talking to others, developing a more open school environment, and sharing our problems are surefire ways to alleviate students’ mental health problems.

However, the way that competition at the university manifests itself is often through the creation of cliques centred on accomplishment, which are present everywhere from upper-year classes to course-based student unions.

Within these groups, the discussion is often dominated by the most experienced students: those who are involved in research projects or those who have valuable internships or jobs on their résumés.

It can be hard to break into a conversation in a class or at an event when you don’t have the requisite experiences to keep up with others in the group.

Not only does this create a crushing sense of anonymity as you go into your upper years, but it also has a damaging effect on mental health. When the community on campus is centred on individual productivity as opposed to solidarity, feeling excluded or unworthy can cause self-esteem issues and does not do much to help against the forces of isolation that drive depression and anxiety. Just as importantly, this kind of social environment is incompatible with the university’s efforts to improve mental health among the student body. It is difficult to build communities focused on unity and equity when we are pressured to talk about inherently stratifying subjects like grades and work.

If we want to work to improve our collective mental health, we have to consciously steer conversations at university away from the idea of productivity — even if that means moving the higher-achieving ones among us away from the centre of attention for once. Yet if we continue to prioritize competition, ongoing mental health crises will become harder and harder to beat.

Carol Eugene Park is a fourth-year student at Victoria College studying English and Renaissance Studies.

Arjun Kaul is a fourth-year student at St. Michael’s College studying Neuroscience.

Overwhelming responsibilities sometimes become too much to bear I often tell my friends that I could never attend Harvard, if only because of how competitive it is.

It is ironic, then, that I am a student at U of T — an institution that is sometimes referred to as the ‘Harvard of the North.’

Yes, U of T is competitive. Probably thanks to U of T’s incredible PR team, I thought the competition would be healthy instead of harmful before I started at the university. Healthy competition is good; it is what pushes me to participate more in class, enables me to stay motivated, and encourages me to study harder so I can use my good marks as an excuse to treat myself.

The kind of competition I find at U of T, however, is the opposite of healthy. Students at U of T are implicitly expected to balance five courses — one of which might be a research or independent study course — and to not only finish all of their assignments and tests but also to get good grades on them. Further, students are expected to balance their academic careers with volunteering in clubs or organizations on campus to build their CCR records. Many students also work part-time because the transit fares required to get to and from campus, let alone the tickets to pub nights and socials, are not going to pay for themselves.

Juggling all these responsibilities while also trying to preserve my health, ‘networking’ in search of professional opportunities, and maintaining a social life outside of school have caused my shoulders to sag permanently under the weight of the workload.

My eyes are haunted by dark circles, and my face is dotted with pimples born of the heady concoction of too much stress and too little sleep.

The pressure to be well-rounded is daunting and can take a toll on your mental health. It is hard to feel good enough, and it is easy to feel guilty for burning out when it seems like no matter what you do, someone else is doing more and doing it better.

I don’t regret my decision to study at U of T because the opportunities and resources it has to offer put other universities to shame. However, while I do think that the pressure U of T puts on me is the cause for much of my stress, the university should — through improving its mental health services — also provide the solution.

Zeahaa Rehman is a third-year student at UTM studying Linguistics and Professional Writing and Communication.

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Administrative delays only add to student stress From delays in posting marks on ACORN to the untimely release of the exam schedule, the Faculty of Arts & Science should be more concerned with timeliness

Multiple delays this year have left many Arts & Science students in the lurch. STEVEN LEE/THE VARSITY

Adina Heisler Student Life Columnist

Over the past few months, students in the Faculty of Arts & Science (FAS) have been subjected to various inconveniences. At the beginning of the winter semester, marks for several courses from the fall semester were not available on ACORN, with some marks not posted until as late as January 17. Students in CSC236, CSC324, CSC411, STA347, JAV200, and ARC251 were particularly affected by this.

The FAS did not offer a satisfactory explanation or an apology. Instead, Deborah Robinson, Faculty Registrar and Director of Undergraduate Academic Services, excused the delay by stating that most students had their marks by January 11.

More recently, "technical issues" caused a delay in the release

of the FAS exam schedule. Some students did manage to access the schedule after refreshing the page several times, creating a situation in which only a small handful of students were able to access what should have been available to all.

Though the exam schedule was eventually released online after a couple of days, the FAS failed to fully explain what the exact nature of the problem was, let alone issue any kind of apology. They released a GIF of a cheerful student when the exam timetable finally became available.

Both of these delays may seem like mere inconveniences, but they can, in fact, cause real problems for students. The delayed first semester grades resulted in a great deal of uncertainty: some students found themselves unsure if they were able to apply to a certain program of study, if they had fulfilled necessary prerequisites, or if they needed to retake any classes to obtain a

credit or improve their marks.

And while it is fortunate that the exam schedule was posted shortly after the scheduled release date, one can imagine the many potential problems that can come from not knowing your exam schedule. Deferring exams, or rescheduling them due to conflicts, can be an onerous process in and of itself, while uncertainty in the schedule can also delay students’ ability to make summer plans.

After these delays, the best the FAS has managed to offer its students has been to thank them for being patient. What they should have done instead was explain what was going on and clarify any technical issues while also telling students how those issues were being addressed, even if they were unable to specify a timeline.

It’s also important for students to know if these delays are merely flukes in a system that generally works well, or if they are symbolic of larger technical or organizational problems in the FAS. Students have a right to know what’s going on, especially with so much at stake. The consequences of grade delays can be very serious — they can even impact the educational and career tracks of students who need their grades to apply to graduate programs or jobs.

Incidentally, technical difficulties at U of T do not just occur within the FAS. In May 2017, thousands of U of T email accounts were inaccessible for days after access was meant to be restored. However, in that instance, there was a clear explanation: the accounts had been temporarily deactivated to facilitate their transfer to a more local data centre. The lack of access was obviously frustrating, but at least we all understood the source of the problem and knew that it was unlikely to happen again.

Hopefully the posting of the exam schedule signals the end of the FAS’s technical issues. If not, I hope that student frustration will at least encourage the FAS to be more open about the causes of any future issues as they take steps to fix them.

Adina Heisler is a third-year student at University College studying English and Women and Gender Studies. She is The Varsity’s Student Life Columnist.

Narrowing the gap between graduate students and The Varsity Room for improvement in coverage of graduate students Sophie Borwein Public Editor

As a PhD student at the university, I’ve sometimes felt a disconnect between The Varsity and the graduate student body.

Recently, other graduate students have noted this disconnect as well, commenting on stories that either miss opportunities to engage with graduate students or expose a limited understanding of the graduate experience.

Last week, The Varsity ran an article entitled “Scientific research’s race problem” that argued against the use of race — commonly recognized to be a social construct — as a control in genetic studies. A U of T graduate and now PhD student studying population genetics at Indiana University commented underneath the story on social media, pointing out that although race is understood to be a social construct, it is often correlated with geographic location and controlled for in his discipline as an available proxy for population stratification.

The issue is a reasonable one to disagree on, but it was the PhD student’s closing comment that stood out to me. In it, he wrote, “Despite being squarely in the realm of human population genetics, this article doesn’t cite a single paper or interview a single researcher from that field.”

It’s a good point. As the university’s campus newspaper, The Varsity is uniquely situated vis-à-vis the campus’ academic communities. It is surrounded by the expertise of the

university’s scholars and graduate student scholars-in-training. It has little excuse for not incorporating this knowledge into its coverage.

In other instances, The Varsity’s coverage of campus has suggested it doesn’t quite have a feel for the issues that matter to graduate students. In a recent example, the paper covered the university’s announcement that international PhD students would no longer pay higher tuition than domestic students. Yet the piece quotes at length a master’s student not covered by the change. No PhD student affected by the change was interviewed.

A second example involved a January comment piece arguing that the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union (UTGSU) should be playing a larger role in addressing sexual assault of graduate students by academic advisers. The column was not a problem from the perspective of journalistic ethics — it was a comment piece, and the author can express the view she wants to, so long as it is based in a reasonable interpretation of fact.

My question is whether commentary on the issue would have been the same if The Varsity had a larger graduate student presence. I do not speak on behalf of the graduate student body, but my own conversations with colleagues tell me that this perspective might not fit with how graduate students experience and engage with campus. The UTGSU exists to advocate on behalf of graduate students as students.

Many graduate students also interact with academic advisers

as employees, or education workers, of the university, and they are represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3902 in this capacity. In response to the comment piece, the UTGSU itself argued that it simply does not have the resources to remedy the university’s shortcomings in handling sexual violence.

It is arguably unfair to have too high expectations of The Varsity’s coverage of graduate student life. The newspaper’s per-student levy has only ever been paid by undergraduate students. Consequently, only undergraduates sit on The Varsity’s masthead, its main decision-making body.

But The Varsity is the university’s largest student newspaper. Though an undergraduate paper, it is often the best — and sometimes only — source of campus goings-on for both graduate and undergraduate students. Its mandate — to keep readers informed on campus affairs — is essentially unfulfillable without coverage that impacts both groups.

Last week, graduate students voted in favour of establishing a $0.80 levy for full-time graduates. The results were close and turnout was low, but the referendum’s success means that for the first time, graduate students can have a spot on the newspaper’s masthead and can sit on its board as elected directors. It remains to be seen is if this change will help narrow the disconnect between The Varsity and the graduate student body.

Editorial

March 12, 2018 var.st/comment editorial@thevarsity.ca

Blood soils the road ahead The deaths of Colten Boushie and Tina Fontaine reflect the Canadian criminal justice system’s general disregard for Indigenous lives The Varsity Editorial Board

From 1876–1898, negotiations between the Crown and the Cree, Assiniboine, and other band societies led to the formation of Treaty 6, establishing the conditions under which land in what is now central Saskatchewan and Alberta was to be shared between Indigenous people and settlers. The treaty was formed with much apprehension by Indigenous leaders; Indigenous communities were already struggling to cope with the famine and disease brought about by settler intrusion, and resulting petty crimes only heightened existing tensions. In 1885, the Crown hanged eight Cree men in Battleford, which is in current-day Saskatchewan, in the largest mass execution in Canadian history.

In response to what had happened, thenPrime Minister John A. Macdonald stated, “The executions of the Indians ought to convince the Red Man that the White Man governs.”

On August 9, 2016, 22-year old Colten Boushie and his friends left the Red Pheasant reserve and wound up in the yard of a local, white farmer named Gerald Stanley. The events immediately leading up to Boushie’s death remain relatively hazy according to court and police records. Stanley said the youth came onto his property to steal, while Boushie’s friends and family maintain they were merely seeking help for a flat tire. Though Boushie’s friends say that Stanley took deliberate aim toward Boushie with his shotgun, Stanley maintains he fired accidentally, a statement viewed with deep suspicion by community members.

Boushie died from a gunshot to the head.

When the jury in the Battleford Court of Queen’s Bench declared Stanley not guilty of second-degree murder or manslaughter, several people in the courtroom reportedly yelled, “Murderer!”

Beginning in 1869, the Red River Resistance marked the struggle of the Métis people to assert their sovereignty against negotiations between Canada and the Hudson’s Bay Company, fearing their rights would disappear if Rupert’s Land were to be transferred to Canada’s control.

In 2014, 145 years after the Red River Resistance, 15-year-old Tina Fontaine’s body was found in the Red River, her 72-pound frame weighed down with rocks. Like many young Indigenous women who are violently victimized, Fontaine had gone missing prior to her death. Even despite a six-month undercover investigation, Fontaine’s alleged murderer, Raymond Cormier, was acquitted on account of insufficient evidence. The cause of her death remains undetermined.

The cases of Boushie and Fontaine have sparked massive uproar from Indigenous communities across Canada, who argue that the justice system continues to fail to protect Indigenous people from violence.

The suppression of Indigenous people, lands, and sovereignty has a long colonial

history, and their continued marginalization is often used as a thinly veiled excuse to justify their lesser treatment under the law.

The racial and gendered dynamics underlying Boushie and Fontaine’s deaths cannot be understated. In the Red Pheasant community where Boushie lived, racial tensions have been at a boiling point for decades. Boushie’s murder has been compared to the case of Rodney King, an African-American man brutally beaten by Los Angeles police in 1991, and Marie Baptiste, a member of Boushie’s family, has called her community “the Mississippi of the north.” Tensions between Indigenous people and non-Indigenous farmers underlie interactions in the community, rooted both in racial resentment and in a belief that Indigenous people are responsible for thefts.

Conversely, Fontaine’s death was part of the driving force behind the national inquiry started in December 2015. The inquiry was established following outrage against continued government and police inaction in response to what Indigenous women’s groups believe to be over 4,000 missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls since the 1980s. Indigenous women continue to face high rates of violence.

Indigenous communities across Canada have expressed strong feelings that the police treat them unfairly. Stereotypes that paint Indigenous people as thieves, vandals, and criminals creep into every part of the justice process and contribute to their disproportionate victimization.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has been criticized by Boushie’s family and independent investigators for acting negligently throughout the investigation into his death, prompting the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission to initiate a new investigation into whether the officers’ conduct was reasonable and whether race had played a role.

Along with failing to test for gun residue and failing to send a key analyst to the scene of the shooting, the RCMP failed to protect the crime scene, leaving the car uncovered and the door wide open overnight.

By the time forensics ex-

perts arrived, over 40 millimetres of rain had drenched the vehicle, virtually erasing the significant bloodstains that had soaked the seat where Boushie had been sitting.

The evidence was destroyed.

Negligence on the part of the authorities also failed to protect Fontaine, despite several encounters with her in the hours leading up to her death. The morning of her death, Winnipeg police pulled over a truck and found Cormier and Fontaine inside and let them drive away, even though Fontaine had been reported missing at the time. This came two days after Fontaine had reported a stolen truck Cormier had in his possession. Hours after police let her go, Fontaine was spotted sleeping on the ground by a social worker from the Southeast Child and Family Services, who took her to a hotel. The social worker was aware of Fontaine’s intentions to meet friends at a place where children are known to be exploited and drugs are sold, but she left her alone nonetheless.

Some have questioned the uproar in response to the verdicts in Boushie and Fontaine’s cases, pointing out that the Crown could not prove the accused guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Admittedly, one should not be able to obtain a conviction on the basis of circumstantial evidence — yet law enforcement’s disregard for Indigenous people can be acknowledged independent of whether or not one feels the acquittals were warranted.

This is not to mention that negligence at early stages of the investigatory process can certainly shape the evidentiary rec o r d and the story that is told to a jury.

One wonders what might have gone differently in the Boushie case had the RCMP bothered to shield the bloodstained vehicle from rain.

Backlash toward the victims in these cases has persisted and continues to perpetuate colonial stereotypes and power dynamics.

While the deaths of Boushie and Fontaine sparked anger and sorrow within the In-

digenous community, they also triggered a flood of racist comments on social media.

And, unsurprisingly considering the persistence of these stereotypes, such insensitivity reflects the authorities’ own conduct.

Boushie’s family, for instance, noted the RCMP’s callousness when delivering the news of Boushie’s death. The police encircled the family’s trailer, some with guns drawn, and entered the home without permission. Ms. Baptiste, devastated at the loss of her son, was pulled to her feet by an officer who told her to “get [herself] together,” smelled her breath, and asked her if she had been drinking, despite no evidence thereof.

The officer’s attitude is arguably indicative of the low opinion that many police officers and members of society continue to hold of Indigenous people in Canada.

Boushie and Fontaine’s deaths show us that Canada continues to drag the colonial chains of systemic violence forward into the twenty-first century. Much of the violence that Indigenous women like Fontaine continue to experience is linked to experiences of coerced sterilization, loss of Indigenous status upon marriage to a settler, and the toxic legacy of the residential school system sponsored by the state and Christian churches throughout the twentieth century.

Given Treaty 6, historical disputes between the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Indigenous peoples over Rupert’s Land, and countless attempts by Indigenous communities to maintain their sovereignty throughout the progression of the Canadian colonial project, there is also deep and disturbing irony in excusing — as Stanley’s wife, Leesa, allegedly tried to do — Boushie’s death by claiming he was trespassing.

Land like that which the Stanleys now consider their property would not be under their ownership had the Crown not forcibly dispossessed and displaced Indigenous people from their traditional territories centuries ago. Boushie’s blood was spilled over land intended to be shared but never ceded.

We live in a time where ‘reconciliation’ is lauded as the miracle solution to hundreds of years of oppression. We continue forward in a desperate attempt to restore Indigenous people and settlers to the position of relative equality they occupied at the first point of contact. While the path is noble, let’s not kid ourselves about how far we have yet to walk. Centuries later, the White Man still governs.

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

CORALS ZHENG/THE VARSITY

Story Nations

Documenting and digitizing Anishinaabe resistance from 120 years ago Photos courtesy of Keith Garrett and Illustrations by Elham Numan

Continuing Story Nations After my initial work on Story Nations, I continued to work on the project during the summer through the University of Toronto Excellence Award, and I now work on it as a research assistant. My tasks have centred around annotating the diary. Du Vernet references a slew of historical people, places, and terms that are unfamiliar to the modern reader. My job

was to research these ambiguities and provide a short annotation or sometimes a longer article explaining them.

My regional and historical knowledge developed as I wrote these annotations. My work was much like exploring an unfamiliar region. The annotations served as familiar points of geography, like a raised ridge or a strange rock, and it was my job to map out everything around them.

Many of these annotations contextualize Du Vernet’s language. Sometimes, an annotation would explain what treaty money was or where the Lake of the Woods is located. Other annotations, however, contextualize Du Vernet’s language. Throughout the diary, he used derogatory terms to describe the Anishinaabe people and their ceremonies. The annotations work to explain the forces of colonialism, racism, and Christian supremacy that underlie these words and indeed much of Canada’s history.

Decolonizing ourselves At this stage of the project, the biggest challenge is ‘decolonizing’ how I write — a concept Professor Klassen introduced me to. By this, she meant expunging artifacts of colonial thinking that linger in historical accounts.

So, for example, at the start of this article, I wrote that the Rainy River is in “what is now northwestern Ontario.”

A year ago, I would have been satisfied with just Ontario, but ‘Ontario’ is merely a small segment in the human history of the land. For much longer, it has been the land of Indigenous peoples and continues to be so today.

As I continue to decolonize my writing, I realize it is not out of a duty to apply, as some might think, ‘politically correct’ terminology. Rather, it is about writing history from an objective and accurate standpoint.

Still, much of the scholarship I use to research the Rainy River area, unknowingly or not, relies on colonial conventions that sanitize the real history. For instance, in researching the Cree community of York Factory — in what is now northern Manitoba along the shores of Hudson’s Bay —

many histories of the site ended when it was ‘closed’ in 1957 and its people ‘relocated.’ No further explanations were offered. As I later learned, this version of the story, with a few austere sentences, left out the far uglier reality: the government forcibly moved Cree families from their homes and onto much poorer land. Some Cree today occasionally visit the old site of York Factory and their childhood.

A similar fate awaited the Anishinaabe of the Rainy River. In 1913 and 1914, just over a decade after Du Vernet’s visit, the government illegally amalgamated the seven Anishinaabe reserves along the river into one, forcing many of the people Du Vernet met to leave their homes and heritage.

Today, the Rainy River First Nations are in a long-term process to regain their land. In 2005, they agreed to a $71 million land settlement with the Canadian government that identified land for future reserve creation.

Following a court order in February 2017, the governments of Ontario and Canada, together with the Rainy River First Nations, announced the creation of some 6,000 hectares of new reserve land.

As the Rainy River Anishinaabe continue to fight for a relationship of reciprocity and respect with the Canadian government, stories remain as vital as ever — for both remembering the past and for creating a better future. Du Vernet’s diary, while steeped in flaws, is nonetheless a part of those stories.

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The project Du Vernet’s diary was stored for decades in a Toronto church archive.

Today, it’s the focus of a collaborative project in digital storytelling called Story Nations. Students and faculty from the University of Toronto are working in close consultation with the Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung Historical Centre of the Rainy River First Nations to develop an edition of the diary that’s annotated, online, and available in text and audio format.

Many members of the team have visited the Rainy River several times and continue to receive tremendous guidance and insight from Rainy River elders and community members.

I became involved with Story Nations just over a year ago, through U of T’s digital humanities Step Forward program. At the time, I knew little about Canadian history and much less about the Rainy River. To introduce me to the topic, the program director, religion professor Pamela Klassen, and its manager and web designer, doctoral student Annie Heckman, handed me a transcription of the diary with one or two supplementary readings

Multiple spiritual worlds The actions of other Rainy River natives defied strict categorization. Some Anishinaabe moved fluidly between Christian and Indigenous spiritual worlds. Out of frustration, Du Vernet wrote at one point that they were “facing both ways.”

Du Vernet described such a case when writing about Kitty, a young Anishinaabe woman from the Manitoban mission of Jack Head. Kitty had been baptized but later returned to Anishinaabe spiritual practices. She became fatally ill and one night prayed with Mary Johnston, the wife of a Christian missionary. “Oh God come and take me,” she prayed. She passed away the morning after. Johnston insisted on giving Kitty a Christian burial.

Du Vernet himself became a part of the spiritual interaction he observed. Returning from a walk along the river bank, Du Vernet heard “the sound of incantation” and followed it into a tent, where an Anishinaabe ceremony was taking place. Du Vernet noticed his presence was not welcome, but he nonetheless remained transfixed by the unfolding ceremony. Even though he thought “it was all such a fraud,” Du Vernet could not help but stand with an “uncovered head and a feeling of reverence.” He was both deeply moved and viscerally repulsed by the Anishinaabe spiritual world.

Collecting and telling stories, episode by episode I found the little stories Du Vernet recorded to be the most graspable aspect of the diary. Looking at it all together, I saw the diary not as one long narrative, but as a collection of vignettes told to Du Vernet by the people around him. I proposed organizing the digital edition around this concept. Professor Klassen approved my idea, and together we grouped the diary into 20 ‘episodes.’

Each episode works like the chapter of a book, having a title and its own self-contained narrative. The episodes vary thematically, with some, like “Photographs After the Storm,” meditative and pastoral, and with others, like “The Story of Kitty,” tragic and solemn. The episodes tend to follow the rhythm of the Rainy River itself — calm in one moment, stormy and climatic in the next.

The episodic format renders the diary more digestible to the lay reader, but it is also appropriate culturally: stories figure prominently into Anishinaabe life. Elders pass down knowledge and history through oral storytelling. As the late Anishinaabe elder Basil Johnston wrote, “It is in story, fable, legend, and myth that fundamental understandings, insights, and attitudes toward life and human conduct, character, and quality in their diverse forms are embodied and passed on.”

While Du Vernet’s diary is a decidedly colonial artifact, using Anishinaabe storytelling conventions helped ‘Indigenize’ the document and its presentation. In line with this, each episode is accompanied by an oral reading.

Also, Du Vernet’s stories are presented alongside videoed stories told by today’s Rainy River Anishinaabe.

ed examples o m en t f In dig ocu d t en e n ou r sr Ve

In the summer of 1898, Frederick Du Vernet, an Anglican missionary from Toronto, left the city to travel west. Travelling by train, steamer, and canoe, Du Vernet journeyed to the grassy banks of the Rainy River. The long and slow moving river forms a part of the border between what is now northwestern Ontario and Minnesota.

Along the Canadian side of the river, Du Vernet met and spoke to the Anishinaabe — the region’s Indigenous residents — and recorded the encounters in his diary.

In doing so, Du Vernet documented a period of intense colonial expansion, as Canadians settled on Anishinaabe territory and illicitly claimed it as their own. Yet Du Vernet also recorded moments of Anishinaabe agency and resolve against the colonial order. Taken together, his diary unwittingly tells the stories of these people and their land on Manidoo Ziibi — the Rainy River.

and asked for my thoughts.

Thrust into the foreign time and place of the diary, what immediately stood out to me were the human characters that inhabited its pages.

Du Vernet jotted down the stories of Anishinaabe weighing, on a daily and individual basis, the hodgepodge of Christianity and colonialism with their own traditions and faith. Many Anishinaabe protested Du Vernet’s presence as a Christian zealot on Anishinaabe land. Taken individually, these protests often amounted to seemingly little more than a woman refusing to be photographed by Du Vernet or even the slamming of a door. But stringing these moments together generates a larger mosaic of Anishinaabe opposition to the colonial order.

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Keith Garrett Varsity Contributor

iary from the late 180 his d n i 0s e . nc a t s i

Depicted is the Rainy River, a long body of water situated between Ontario and Minnesota, where Frederick Du Vernet documented a period of intense colonial expansion to Anishinaabe territory.

Arts&Culture

March 12, 2018 var.st/arts arts@thevarsity.ca

Drumroll, please, for Our Lady Peace Our Lady Peace was founded by U of T alum Raine Maida in 1991. PHOTO COURTESY OF ASHLEY OSBORN

In conversation with drummer Jason Pierce on the band's new album and tour George Moshenski-Dubov Varsity Contributor

In 1991, U of T criminology student Michael Maida, now known as Raine, put out an ad to find musicians for his band. Now, 27 years later, that band, Our Lady Peace, is still touring Canada and releasing new music.

On February 23, Our Lady Peace released its ninth studio album, Somethingness, before heading on a cross Canada tour. Their newest band member, drummer Jason Pierce, spoke with The Varsity about joining the band, his personal career, and what to expect at the band’s two Toronto shows.

The Varsity: How is this album different than others that Our Lady Peace has released in the past?

Jason Pierce: Well, this will be the first record that I have any involvement in playing on and writing, the first record that has been released since I joined the band.

TV: You’ve been on tour with the band and you’ve played songs off of previous

albums. Are there any differences between this record and those before?

JP: I feel like there’s a more edgy element on the new record, specifically on tracks like “Head Down” and “Drop Me In The Water.” There is a more edgy, dirty guitar-driven sound on a few tracks, compared to the last few records.

TV: Our Lady Peace is one of the most successful Canadian bands, with their records going 12 times platinum and one-time diamond in Canada while releasing nine albums in over a quarter of a century. What do you think makes this band so successful?

JP: I feel like it has a lot to do with being honest and being true. None of the songs on any of the records, from what I’ve seen, are contrived.

Everything is very much there for a reason and there because everybody wanted it to be there.

It’s not there just to put a song on a record.

What also makes the band, from my perspective, is the fans. The way they appreciate the band… they are the reason that we still get to do this.

TV: You’re working with Raine, and he is technically the only original member left. He went to the University of Toronto. What’s it like working with him?

JP: Incredible, just incredible. He’s got this built-in dynamic. Something incredible to see.

I’ve got to learn a lot from watching him.

TV: How does the band carry themselves when writing new music, specifically now that it’s been 24 years since their first released album?

JP: Actually, I believe this record is done a little bit differently. Duncan [Coutts, the band’s bassist] and I get together a few times a week and we write together. So, we’ve been presenting songs for the new record to the rest of the guys. So, it is a pretty equal share of songs that Duncan and I have started and songs that the other guys have started. It’s really a collective on this record.

TV: You technically joined the band in 2014 on tour, and then officially in 2016.

Before that, you toured with acts such as Paramore, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Justin Bieber. I was wondering what tour is most memorable to you, outside of Our Lady Peace.

JP: Outside of Our Lady Peace, it would probably be my first tour with Paramore. Just because it was the first time I got to play with a band of that scale and shows of that scale. We were over in Europe doing arenas and stadiums. It was incredible. It really opened my eyes to the fact that that level of touring still exists, especially in this day and age.

TV: You’ve played stadiums, arenas, and now you’re going to be playing in smaller venues. What do you prefer

when you’re playing onstage? Is it looking out to see thousands of people, or is it when you have a smaller audience and feel more connected?

JP: It’s kind of a double-edged sword, because [at] the bigger venues, there’s this energy you just cannot get from a smaller venue. But like you said, it’s so much less connected once you get used to that. When you do start going back to the smaller venues again, it’s eye-opening how terrifying it is when you can actually see past the people in the first 10 rows. So, I don’t know which one I actually prefer. It’s a completely different skill set. As a musician, you play to the room, and playing to a smaller room is different than playing to a football stadium.

TV: Other than Raine, Our Lady Peace is a band that has seen their members change over time. Is it hard to join a band that’s already solidified their name, or is it easier knowing that the support is already there?

JP: Yeah, it’s great that the support is already there. I think one of the hardest things to do is to almost live up to people’s expectations of you, just because you’re filling the shoes of people who are already great. It’s just trying to do your own thing and still trying to stay at that level.

TV: You’re going to be playing two shows in Toronto. What’s it like knowing many, if not most, of your fans that are going to be out at the shows on this tour are not old enough to know the first records that were released by Our Lady Peace?

JP: I have never thought about that before. It’s kind of scary.

TV: I’m speaking from experience; I wasn’t born when the first two Our Lady Peace albums were released.

JP: That’s incredible that the band has been around for this long. I love that. And it’s going to be cool because then you get to actually play that old material and it’s new to them. That’s totally a plus.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

For more of this article, visit var.st/ ourladypeace

Overlooked: The Florida Project Another year, another awards season snub Josie Kao Associate News Editor

MIA CARNEVALE/THE VARSITY

Perhaps by now I should be used to the fact that some of the greatest films will go unappreciated by the Academy. However, this year, I could no longer sit idly by as another movie joined the ranks of undeserved Oscar snubs. The Florida Project does everything a great movie is supposed to do, but its contribution was unjustly overlooked at this year’s Academy Awards.

A dreamy visual experience that at least warranted a nomination for Best Cinematography, The Florida Project puts you in the shoes of Moonee, a six-year-old girl living in a rundown motel on the outskirts of Disney World with her young mother, who is in many ways a child herself. Moonee is mischievous, carefree, a bit of a brat, and part of a demographic in America known as the ‘hid-

den homeless’ — those who live in temporary housing and are often forgotten by society.

While Moonee’s situation may be heartbreaking to many, the film is not made to make you feel hopeless. Instead, it’s a celebration of childhood, friendship, and family — just not in a context that many of us have experienced.

But through the genius of writer and director Sean Baker, you almost feel like you’ve lived through what Moonee is experiencing.

Baker fully immerses you into her world, one in which the adults loom over the camera and the sky is shot as a wide, open expanse. The world seems so vast from the perspective of a child, and, through Baker’s talent with the camera, that’s exactly how the viewer sees it.

Beyond the visual elements of the film, Baker also manages to blend perfect childhood innocence with the realities of poverty in America. Moonee plays in abandoned houses with her friends, which to them seem like a playground, but to us are yet more failed housing developments in post-recession America.

It’s little signs like these, the bittersweet notes that surface throughout the film, that give an indication of what lies just beyond the periphery of Moonee’s world. You come to love Moonee, with all her sass and charm, but you know what hardship lies in her future and in the futures of all the real children who live a life like hers.

Movies are made to take you out of your own life and open your eyes to the different lived experiences of others. When a film truly does its job, you come out of it as a changed person with a better understanding of a small part of the world.

A good movie makes you empathize, not just sympathize — The Florida Project succeeded in doing this in every way, and it doesn’t need an Academy Award to tell me that.

Overlooked is a recurring feature in the Arts & Culture section where writers make the case for pieces of culture that don't get the attention they deserve. To contribute, email arts@thevarsity.ca.

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Planet 50:50 conference emphasizes female empowerment in the entrepreneurial world The event at Hart House was hosted by multiple U of T clubs Areej Rodrigo Varsity Contributor

On Saturday, March 3, the Gender Equality: Planet 50:50 Conference was held at Hart House. The event was hosted by the UN Women of University of Toronto, the Eastern African Students’ Association, Her Campus U of T, and the University of Toronto Students’ Union.

The event on women and gender empowerment was UN Women’s first academic conference — hopefully with many more to come.

Proceeds from the event, which had a suggested admission

Ani Castillo, a cartoonist for Metro News Canada. PHOTO COURTESY OF UN WOMEN UOFT

fee of $5, went to the nonprofit organization Girl Up, which funds United Nations programs that promote the health, safety, education, and leadership of girls in developing countries.

The event showcased a wide array of speakers, who all had something different to contribute to the arena. Speakers were categorized into three different themes: “Women and the Media,” “Women in Power and Decision Making,” and “Human Rights and Women.”

The main organizer of the event was Julia Mogus, the president and founder of the UN Women club. Mogus and the other members of the UN Women executive wanted to draw attention to local leaders in the community who were challenging norms, breaking the glass ceiling, and empowering other women.

The first speaker was Zaina Moussa, a fourthyear Communication Technology major. Moussa talked about how she discovered her passion for entrepreneurship after being a vendor when she was 10 years old. She started an event planning business when she was 19, called Zuri Curated Ladies Events.

Moussa’s company creates women-only events to promote women in entrepreneurship and celebrate diversity. The latest event she is promoting is ‘The Second Annual Run The World Ladies’ event on April 28, which will showcase and support local “girl bosses,” as well as feature a diverse fashion show and a female empowerment speaker to inspire attendees.

Another speaker of note was Ani Castillo, a local artist who creates art that emphasizes body empowerment and breaking gender norms.

Castillo discussed her childhood in Mexico and how she got her start as a cartoonist for a lo-

Darine BenAmara (right) is the founder of EasyPoli Consulting. PHOTO COURTESY OF UN WOMEN UOFT

cal newspaper. She then met her husband on MySpace, which is what brought her to Toronto.

Castillo was open about her struggles of transition as an immigrant in a new country, which was one of the motivators behind her now popular cartoons and artwork. With her husband, she has co-founded Miniature Massive, a communications firm, and also currently works at Metro News Canada as an artist and cartoonist.

Other speakers included Shahab Madhi, the founder of BLACKORCHID, a clothing brand that uses pop culture to create positive representation of Muslims; Darine BenAmara, the founder and CEO of EasyPoli Consulting and The Smart Woman, which support the advancement of gender equality in the workplace; and Susan G. Enberg, an independent documentary

14 tips for navigating a bad mental health day Be kind to yourself — this, too, shall pass

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Kashi Syal Associate Arts & Culture Editor

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A few weeks ago, I was rejected from a job, some of my friends were unsupportive, and I lost a pair of brand new 100 per cent cotton knickers — all before lunchtime.

When you’re already overwhelmed, it’s easy to have days when the ‘non-issues’ amplify your anxieties. The winter season in particular makes it especially difficult to balance academics, work, and a social life, often resulting in strains on our mental health.

As the academic year is wrapping up and the pressure is on, I’ve compiled a list of 14 top tips to help you navigate a bad mental health day.

Go for a walk! A run! A swim! Running has helped to tame my own anxieties.

Shockingly, exercise does actually help perk up those pesky endorphins.

Protect and put yourself first. I’ve become a master at removing myself from situations or distancing myself from individuals who cause me stress or unhappiness.

There’s a scene in Love Actually in which Andrew Lincoln’s character says, “It’s a selfpreservation thing.” That’s what you have to say to yourself every time toxicity ebbs its way into your life.

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Mindfulness, meditation, and yoga are great ways to relieve stress. You can do them in your bedroom or go to a class. There are even free workshops dotted around campus.

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Allow yourself to be upset about the ‘nonissues.’ While it’s probably a good idea not to dwell — personally, I have a tendency to obsess over small events — it’s imperative that you remember that your feelings are valid and that you are valid.

Drink water, lots of it. I like to put slices of oranges, lemons, cucumbers, et cetera in my water bottle — it makes me feel bougie.

Talk to a friend. This one can be hard, because occasionally people don’t respond constructively. However, I’ve found that even a ‘for goodness’ sake Kashi, stop weeping’ is better than spiralling out of control while alone at 5:00 am.

Write a list of things you’re grateful for.

They help to shift your perspective, and I’ve heard Oprah swears by them. If Oprah’s doing it, you should be to.

Shower, sleep, and eat properly. Create a routine and stick to it — I’ve yet to master this one, but I know it works. I did it for all of two weeks and I didn’t cry once.

Surround yourself with positivity: watch trashy films, listen to happy music, read The Varsity. Don’t forget to treat yourself, whether that’s with an extra hour in bed or buying a donut for an indulgent snack.

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Spend less time on social media. It’s emotionally exhausting to compare yourself to others, even if you’re only doing it subconsciously. You’ll also have more time to spend on course readings!

film director and photographer whose work focuses on social change and human rights.

The final speaker at the conference was Hanen Nanaa. Nanaa discussed how she had to pause her education in 2012 because of the Syrian civil war. She also detailed her experience of moving to Canada in February 2017. Today, Nanaa supports others — especially women and youth — to be active in their community and follow their dreams.

Overall, the Planet 50:50 conference was an eye-opening and liberating experience. Hearing such personal stories of female empowerment was encouraging, and it was a privilege to witness the work the speakers do, not only for their own communities but for the progress of gender equality and women as a whole.

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Remember that there is a difference between mental health and mental illness. Sometimes it’s more than just a ‘bad mental health day,’ and drinking cucumber water is not going to make you feel better.

If you have been struggling with more than just your mental health and are feeling vulnerable, you can ring Good2Talk at +1 (866) 925-5454 or Accessibility Services at (416) 978-8060.

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Be kind to yourself. Remember to breathe. This, too, shall pass.

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Learn to accept where you are and how you’re feeling. Sometimes you have to let your mental health waver in order to bounce back at full strength.

You are more than your academic grades. Doing poorly on a midterm, paper, or in a course does not define who you are or what you’ll become! You’re doing great! Focus on being happy with who you are and with what you’ve already accomplished.

MIA CARNEVALE/THE VARSITY

16 • THE VARSITY • ARTS & CULTURE

arts@thevarsity.ca

Theatre review: VCDS’ Twelfth Night, Or What You Will The final show of the 100th season pays homage to an early production tween Syal and Cabanilla was palpable, perhaps more so than either of their chemistries with Hyett.

Admittedly, the show’s modern context was a bit confusing, as the hierarchal relationships between the characters were never fully explained. The blocking of the play also fell lacklustre at times, with multiple actors simply standing in a line during certain scenes.

However, Cabanilla sparked laughter every time she used her cell phone as a prop, and Wong creatively modernized the traditional Shakespearean sword fights written into the play.

Maria (Nicole Bell) and Sir Toby (Jacob Levitt) were especially strong characters, thanks to Bell and Levitt’s performances. The two delivered their lines with such ease that

the audience could clearly understand Shakespeare’s jokes. The scene with Maria, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew (Braden Kenny), and Fabian (Maher Sinno) tricking Malvolio (Ryan Falconer) was particularly delightful to watch.

An original score composed by Music Director and Composer Sam Clark and Assistant Composer Wilfred Moeschter also made this classic love triangle story unique. With the harmonizing voices of Percy Thomas and Yasmine Shelton, the musical interludes were gorgeous.

Overall, Twelfth Night was an aesthetically pleasing production featuring strong actors and a uniquely creative production team.

Disclosure: Kashi Syal is The Varsity’s Associate Arts & Culture Editor.

The show's set was designed by Maya Wong and Abby Palmer. PHOTO BY KEVIN YUE,

Rachel Chen Managing Editor

For the final play of its 100th season, the Victoria College Drama Society (VCDS) chose a production of Twelfth Night, Or What You Will. The show, which opened on March 8, ran for two and a half hours, with a 15 minute intermission.

Notably, the same show was first put up by VCDS a century ago, with an all-female cast.

“We re-mount it to celebrate our past and to look to our future as we continue to grow,” wrote Executive Producers Alyssa DiBattista and Leora Nash in their producers’ note.

During their introductory statements, DiBattista and Nash also pointed out how appropriately coincidental it was for opening

COURTESY OF VCDS

night to fall on International Women’s Day. Directed by Maya Wong, VCDS’ Twelfth Night was aesthetically cohesive, thanks to the clean and naturalistic set designed by Wong and Artistic Designer Abby Palmer.

Often, student productions use similar ‘classic’ sets that are meant to be timeless. It was refreshing to see VCDS use wooden furniture, IKEA chairs, and even plants to create a modern stage.

The plot of Twelfth Night revolves around Viola (Kashi Syal), who falls in love with Orsino (James Hyett), who is in love with Olivia (Jasmine Cabanilla), who mistakes Viola for a man and falls in love with her. Madness, of course, ensues. Ironically, the chemistry be-

VCDS put up Twelfth Night 100 years ago with an all-female cast. PHOTO BY KEVIN YUE, COURTESY OF VCDS

Science

March 12, 2018 var.st/science science@thevarsity.ca

Seven years after Fukushima Nuclear disaster aftermath affects environment and energy policies today

Sign at Futaba, Fukushima that reads “Nuclear energy is the energy of a bright future” and has since been torn down. ANDY TAKAGI/THE VARSITY

Ian TD Thomson Varsity Contributor

March 11, 2018 marks the seventh anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the most significant nuclear incident since the 1986 Chernobyl explosion in Ukraine. The disaster has led to extensive scientific research in the affected areas in an effort to learn about its effects.

Triggered by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, a massive tsunami off the coast of Japan destroyed the power and cooling systems of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. With the reactors melting down over the course of a few hours, the disaster caused significant environmental, economic, and psychological damage to the area and its residents.

Environmental research has examined the impact of the release of radioisotopes from the meltdown on terrestrial and marine wildlife. A review from 2015 observed declines in bird, butterfly, and cicada populations in Fukushima forests as well as abnormal morphological growth in aphids and trees.

In addition to environmental harm, researchers estimate that the total human mortality from the event will be around 10,000 with an additional lifetime cancer mortality of 1,500.

At the time of the event, over 150,000 people in the area were evacuated en masse, with many ending up in temporary housing. While Japanese authorities claim that the area is safe and are proceeding to

move residents back to the area, people remain hesitant.

Skepticism about safety stems from recent reports of robots being destroyed within hours of being sent into the reactor buildings. Likewise, a recent Greenpeace Japan report claims that current radiation levels remain three times higher than government targets despite cleanup work in the area. This suggests that the area may not be habitable just yet.

Globally, there has been growing skepticism toward nuclear energy.

While nuclear generation provides cheap electricity and does not emit greenhouse gases, a 2013 study examining 42 countries found that the Fukushima event has shifted views on nuclear energy toward the negative.

Japan shut down its nuclear power enterprise in the wake of the event and currently provides monthly updates to the International Atomic Energy Agency on the status of the Fukushima Daiichi. Germany has shut down several of its reactors and recently reaffirmed its commitment to phase out nuclear power by 2022.

Other countries appear open to the idea as well. South Korean President Moon Jae-in promised to eliminate both coal and nuclear power, though there are clear challenges to keeping this promise: nine reactors have opened in South Korea since 2000, and five are currently under construction. Japan has brought five reactors online as of September 2017, with more to come in the future.

Despite changing attitudes, not a lot has changed in relation to the

production and generation of nuclear energy since the event, according to Steve Hoffman, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology.

“Among the large nuclear producers, only two nations shifted their nuclear energy policies in a significant way in the wake of the Fukushima disaster – Japan and Germany…

[However], the reductions of major producers like Japan and Germany has been offset by the increased production in China, which has been growing their nuclear fleet at an extremely rapid rate,” wrote Hoffman.

Hoffman has researched the impact of the Fukushima disaster on German and American energy policies.

There have been several protests against nuclear energy in response to Fukushima. In Europe, 50,000 people from Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands formed a human chain in June 2017, calling for the closure of two of Belgium’s nuclear reactors.

The disaster has also shifted energy-related policies such as plans for the development of a deep geological repository to store high-level nuclear fuel waste. Countries like South Korea now have a ‘wait-and-see’ approach to storing nuclear waste.

“The big story of energy policy around the world in the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster is that very, very little changed.

Globally, nuclear production has levelled off, but that has been happening since Chernobyl. By and large global production is about the same before and after Fukushima,” wrote Hoffman.

The remains of a house in Iwaki, Fukushima. ANDY TAKAGI/THE VARSITY

Collected trash and radioactive dirt from government clean-up effort.

ANDY TAKAGI/THE VARSITY

18 • THE VARSITY • SCIENCE

science@thevarsity.ca

Federal budget’s $3.2 billion investment is a win for science More research funding means more student research opportunities Srivindhya Kolluru Associate Science Editor

On February 27, the Liberal government announced the federal budget, which includes a $3.2 billion investment in scientific research over the next five years.

A fund of $1.7 billion will go toward research granting councils — the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council — and $1.3 billion will be used to fund overhead expenses like research infrastructure, laboratories, and supplies.

Additionally, the budget proposes the formation of a new tri-council fund that will spearhead research that is internationally and interdisciplinarily based.

This large investment was driven considerably by the Naylor Report, Canada’s Fundamental Science Review, led by U of T President Emeritus David Naylor and commissioned by Science Minister Kirsty Duncan in 2016. The Naylor Report outlined 35 recommendations for the government to implement in order to better support scientific endeavors, including a $1.3 billion increase for research granting councils by 2022.

Though Budget 2018 does not meet all criteria outlined by the Naylor Report, it is evident that the government listened to scientists and took note of the Support the Report campaign led by U of T last year.

“The government did send a very positive signal to the scientific community, and provided for increased and longer-term stability to research funding going forward,” said

Bryan Stewart, Vice-Principal of Research at UTM. “This is very welcome news.”

According to Finance Minister Bill Morneau, this investment is the single largest in investigator-led fundamental research in Canadian history. Morneau also said that the investment will help spur new industries and careers in Canada.

“Federal research grants have a huge impact on any individual researcher’s ability to supervise and train students of all levels,” said Stewart. “Any uptick in research funding will allow for more student research opportunities, and unfortunately, any downturn in research funding has the opposite effect.”

Additionally, the government plans to invest $210 million over five years in the Canada Research Chairs (CRC) Program. This CRC investment also aims to support talented early-career researchers and diversify its nominees to include more female researchers and researchers from underrepresented groups.

Only 28 per cent of Research Chairs at major universities are women, and they are typically at the bottom of CRC’s funding tiers.

The budget aims to address federal sector gender pay inequity through proactive legislation. On average, a woman earns $0.87 for every dollar a man earns.

The budget also addresses inclusivity: $25 million has been allotted to support Indigenous research and researchers from minority groups so that they are better represented.

“Fundamental research explores the basis for why things are, and applied research tends to focus on how to use fundamental knowledge to make things work,” explained

FIONA TUNG/THE VARSITY

Ulrich Krull, the Principal of UTM. “Economic impact is largely tied to success in making things work, but this has no traction unless there is understanding of what needs to be done and there are skilled people available to creatively solve problems.”

While the reaction to the scientific funding allocation of this budget has been overwhelmingly positive, some have criticized the government’s inattention to the slow return on investment correlated with fundamental research, calling the investment an unwise way to spend tax dollars.

Funding for the Climate Change and Atmospheric Research program has not been

renewed and will end this year. This lack of funding will halt progress on research in the Arctic.

Despite concerns and a few gaps, Canada’s scientific community has rejoiced over the budget and that the government listened to the community’s concerns over lagging research and funding for investigator-led fundamental research.

“Overall, this budget sends a clear signal that the federal government understands that universities have a unique positioning to drive social, economic and cultural growth,” said Krull.

Undergraduates cut DNA with cutting-edge technology HMB311 is one of the first U of T undergrad classes to use CRISPR in the lab

HMB311 students learn CRISPR techniques in new Ramsay Wright labs. SHANNA HUNTER/THE VARSITY

Farhan Mahmood Varsity Contributor

“I asked the students to stay behind an hour to complete the CRISPR lab, and every student was happy to do so. In fact, they were excited and enthusiastic to do so,” said Associate Professor Alistair Dias on the CRISPR lab that he developed for HMB311, his thirdyear laboratory course.

By now, you have probably heard of the genome-editing technology CRISPR: clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats. Some bacteria and archaea are capable of incorporating short segments of viral DNA into their own DNA as a form of memory or immunity in case the virus attacks again.

Essentially, these segments are transcribed to create guideRNA — RNA that is comple-

mentary to the original viral DNA. The guide RNA forms a complex with Cas9, a DNA endonuclease that cleaves DNA at sites matching the guideRNA. Should the virus attack again, Cas9 would break down the invading viral DNA, neutralizing the threat.

Similar to the cut and paste tool on your computer, scientists have been using Cas9’s ability to cut specific DNA sequences to alter, knock out, or introduce new genes. Dias wanted to expose his students to this cuttingedge technology. “I mainly developed this lab for my students to keep them up to date on the research techniques being used in the scientific field and provide them with an enriched learning experience,” said Dias.

The lab involves modifying a sequence of DNA to change cells from blue fluorescence to green fluorescence over the duration of

four weeks. The guideRNAs that target the fluorescence gene will be made by the students. “Making their own guideRNA will help students better understand how CRISPR works, and maybe one day, when they are asked to develop a guide in their research lab, they’ll have sufficient experience,” said Dias.

If students are successful throughout the lab period, Cas9 will cleave a critical portion of the DNA for blue fluorescence, and the break should be filled with a sequence encoding green fluorescence instead. The final and colourful results will then be visualized by students using fluorescence microscopes.

Dias is excited that the students will be able to add this lab experience to their CVs. Along with visualizing the colour changes from blue to green as a result of the CRISPR edit, students will also be using an automat-

ed hemocytometer to count the number of cells that were successfully introduced with new genetic material. They will then use this information to compare the efficiency of infecting cells with either a Cas9 protein directly or with Cas9 mRNAs — both methods are commonly used in a professional research setting.

“My class is one of the first, if not the first, undergraduate classes at U of T to be using CRISPR, so I am very excited to see the students learn about this technique that is so relevant to today’s research and genetic engineering. It may cost a little more than the basic microarray that used to be taught, but it is a thousand times more worth it,” said Dias.

Dias and his colleagues also hope to implement CRISPR into their fourth-year Human Biology laboratory courses in the near future.

MARCH 12, 2018 • 19

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Krkosek lab develops model to research social learning in fish populations Young fish are schooled by their elders Anya Rakhecha Varsity Contributor

Like many children, fish receive an education. They are expected to learn the knowledge their ancestors have gathered over billions of years of evolution. Fish learn social behavior from older adults on their first migration trip. They learn where they will spawn in the future and where they will spend their winters.

The Krkosek lab from U of T’s Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology found that this social learning is key to keeping each population reproductively separate. Populations mate only within themselves, despite being able to recruit juvenile fish from other populations.

To investigate the ease with which juveniles are recruited to non-parental populations, the team developed a mathematical model of the life history of iteroparous fish, called the Adopted Migrant Life History (AMLH) model.

The model suggested that spatial demographic structure may be influenced by distinct social learning processes in each local population.

These differences in social learning are reflected in the population’s unique migratory routes and spawning sites.

Their findings challenge the common understanding that juvenile fish recruit to populations they were spawned from — in other words, that young fish go to their parents’ alma mater. According to Luke Rogers, the lead author of the study, if that were true, then we would see a unique genetic footprint that would allow us to identify fish from that school. But we don’t see this in nature.

Another theory is that juveniles from different spawning sites recruit to one big melting pot of adult fish. This would help create a larger, more diverse population and would offer key benefits, like a quick recovery after population collapse or a quick repopulation of lost spawning sites. However, this is also not observed in nature.

To determine the pattern of juvenile recruitment to adult populations, the researchers worked with collaborators from Haida and Heiltsuk First Nations in coastal British Columbia. They were told that the herring that lose their ‘big

Charmaine Nyakonda Varsity Staff

GHEYANA PURBODININGRAT/THE VARSITY

Chiefs’ no longer know where to spawn.

“It leads us to the idea that juvenile fish might play ‘follow-theleader’ by recruiting to whichever adult population they meet first,” said Rogers. This means that some juveniles could recruit to parental populations, while others could be ‘adopted’ by entirely different populations.

Population collapse happens when there are not enough adults to recruit juveniles. In the AMLH model, a smaller population means

that each adult spawns more offspring, allowing them to avoid extinction.

However, socially learned behaviour in fish populations may also bring about complications. “After a local population collapses in the AMLH, recruitment may be very low or zero, and recovery may be delayed or not occur. This is because the local population must become large enough, relative to any neighbouring populations, to recruit enough juveniles to persist,” said Rogers.

Depression changes the brain over time

A recent study by researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) showed that the brain changes with the progression of depression, suggesting that depression needs to be treated differently at every stage of the illness.

The team, led by Dr. Jeffrey Meyer, showed that people with longer periods of untreated depression — defined as lasting more than a decade — had significantly more brain inflammation compared to those who had less than 10 years of untreated depression.

This study is the first in its field to show biological evidence for how the brain changes in persistent depression. Consequently, it reveals that depression is not a static condition but is instead a degenerative brain disease like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s.

They examined how the total distribution volume of translocator protein (TSPO), which is a marker of microglial activation, correlated with the duration of untreated major depressive disorder, total illness duration, and antidepressant exposure.

It was important to study microglial activation, because microglia are involved in the brain’s

normal inflammatory responses to trauma or injuries. However, too much inflammation has been associated with degenerative illnesses as well as depression.

Participants from the age of 18–75 were recruited for the study.

They were from the Toronto area and CAMH, and they either had major depressive episodes or were healthy. This research was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and the Neuroscience Catalyst Fund.

Using the Positron Emission Tomography, the researchers scanned three primary grey matter regions of interest and 12 additional regions to measure the total distribution volume of TSPO. The researchers also investigated the duration of untreated major depressive disorder, and the combination of total duration of disease and duration of antidepressant treatment.

The research found that the TSPO levels were about 30 per cent higher in different brain regions among those with long-lasting untreated depression, compared to those with shorter periods of untreated depression. The group with long-term depression also had higher TSPO levels than those with no depression.

Synaptic connectomes of model nervous systems: their collection and utility In neurobiology, synaptic pathways reveal insights into human behaviour. This seminar will discuss advances in our understanding of neural circuits, associated behavioural outcomes, and causal mechanisms for behaviour.

Date: Wednesday, March 14 Time: 12:00 pm Location: Mount Sinai Hospital, 60 Murray Street, Level 3, Conference Rooms 201–203 Admission: Free SSSCR-UofT: Academic Round Tables U of T’s Student Society for Stem Cell Research is hosting a discussion-based presentation about careers in science and stem cell research. Come and network with professionals and receive first-hand information about the job of a scientist.

Date: Wednesday, March 14 Time: 5:00–6:30 pm Location: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 252 Bloor Street West, Room 8214 Admission: Free

Research from CAMH calls for different approach in therapeutic treatment Julia Costanzo Varsity Contributor

Science Around Town

Pushing past tired debates in invasion biology: A close look at the propagule pressure hypothesis In this seminar, Dr. Julie Lockwood will describe the empirical and theoretical support for the propagule pressure hypothesis and discuss critical gaps in knowledge that are limiting progress to advancements in invasion biology.

FIONA TUNG/THE VARSITY

“An implication of our study is that the current approach for antidepressant treatment isn’t addressing the issue that the illness is changing over time,” said Meyer.

Currently, no matter how long a person has had depression, they are treated with the same approach at every level. Meyer advocates that treatment methods should address the illness differently as it progresses.

However, there is still a lack of evidence in how to treat depression in its later phases. “People can certainly respond to treatment after not responding to previous

treatments, but the rate is lower so clinical trials often exclude people who have not responded to a few previous treatments,” said Meyer.

“We are testing whether current treatments for other illnesses could be applied in depression to influence inflammation to make it more curative. There are also new treatments being developed by companies for depression for the same intent,” said Meyer.

Meyer noted that one study is not enough to change the treatment, but he is hopeful that their work will have this impact soon.

Date: Thursday, March 15 Time: 12:00–1:00 pm Location: UTSC Arts & Administration Building, 1265 Military Trail, Room AA160 Admission: Free COS IGNITE Conference Are you interested in increasing the number of underrepresented students in the U of T MD program?

Attend this conference, held throughout the Medical Sciences Building, to network, find volunteer opportunities, and to learn more about the admission process.

Date: Saturday, March 17 Time: 9:00 am to 3:00 pm Location: Medical Sciences Building, 1 King’s College Circle Admission: Free

Sports

March 12, 2018 var.st/sports sports@thevarsity.ca

Blues figure skaters win third consecutive OUA Championship Ashley Hui named OUA Coach of the Year

Blues figure skating team pose with the OQWICA Trophy. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE VARSITY BLUES FIGURE SKATING TEAM

Daniel Samuel Sports Editor

In a close battle between the University of Toronto and Western University that came down to the results of the final events, the Varsity Blues figure skating team won their third consecutive Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Championship on Wednesday.

The Blues earned 88 points, four above the host Western Mustangs. Toronto’s consistency led to their success; the Blues finished on the podium in 12 out of 14 events.

Blues captain Lila Asher explained how the team managed to pull out the victory.

“We were sitting behind Western for the majority of the time until the very end.

They had a 10 point lead going into the last three events and then we had a second place and two first places that were enough above Western.”

In her final year with the team, Asher won

gold in the second last event, women’s pairs fours, alongside teammates Christine Liao, Melanie Zavitski, and Felicia Bonitatibus.

“The whole audience was silent while we were skating [and then] the whole crowd cheered, which is something that usually doesn’t happen,” said Asher.

Bonitatibus attributes the strong performance to the close bond and trust the group has developed in training sessions and competitions throughout the year. As a rookie, she’s been able to compete in every competition this year and said that “the team became a family as the season progressed.”

“All four of us skated clean and it was easy to smile throughout the program,” said Bonitatibus. “At the end, it sounded like everyone in the stands were cheering for us and we all hugged each other because we knew that we left everything out on the ice and could not have skated the program better.”

Fourth-year skater Melissa Eratostene won her first OUA open solo dance title following a well-executed Viennese Waltz and an Argentine Tango routine. She entered the event with additional motivation after placing a close second in the event at last year’s OUA Championships.

“Winning the gold medal in the open solo dance event was one of the most rewarding and memorable experiences of my varsity skating career,” said Eratostene. “Finally winning the event just proved how all the hard work I’ve put in the past four years paid off, and taught me that patience, perseverance and dedication is key to achieving your goals.”

“To me, winning the championship symbolizes all the hard work and dedication everyone on our team has demonstrated these past few years, and represents the resilience and perseverance through some of the challenges we have faced this year,” she added.

Blues head coach Ashley Hui enjoyed seeing how her team came together and supported each other “unconditionally.”

“Up until the very last individual event [pairs four], it was so tight, so just seeing them skate the program of their lives and bring the choreography to life was such an inspiring and re-energizing moment for the team,” said Hui. “No words can describe the amount of effort this team has put in.”

The third-season head coach also won OUA Coach of the Year honours following the event. The championship also marks the first three-peat in Blues figure skating history.

“The way this team has grown so much with each other over the course of the last three seasons — the initiative, support, and bonds they’ve made — speak louder than any banner,” she said.

Varsity Blues volleyball finish season fourth Anna Feore closes out women’s 2017–2018 season with standout performance Daniel Samuel Sports Editor

Anna Feore looked dominant. The fourthyear left side hitter had the best performances of her Varsity Blues career in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Final Four at Ryerson University’s Mattamy Athletic Centre.

Feore accumulated a career high of 21 points and 19 kills, and she also contributed 15 digs against the McMaster Marauders in the semifinals. Unfortunately, her strong play still wasn’t enough to provide Toronto with the edge they needed on Friday night, as the Blues dropped a close five-set match to McMaster: 25–23, 18–25, 22–25, 25– 23, 9–15.

Feore opened the match with three

straight kills, while the Marauders committed seven serving errors in the first set. The initial set went back and forth. Sisters Jenna Woock and Rachel Woock of the Blues and Marauders respectively traded kills as McMaster narrowed the gap to 22–20. A kill by Feore earned the Blues a first set victory of 25–23.

The Blues dropped the second set 18–25 and suffered a close third set loss 22–25.

In the fourth set, Feore had four kills and Alina Dormann had to force a fifth set.

Dormann contributed in all facets of the game, adding 14 kills and one ace for 17 points. She also committed two blocks and led Toronto with 17 digs.

In the final set, the Marauders jumped out to a quick 7–0 lead. The Blues were

unable to come back and Marauders’ Aleks Arsovic hit three of her game-high 21 kills in the fifth set for a 15–9 victory, sending McMaster to the title game against the undefeated Ryerson Rams.

On Saturday, Feore contributed to Toronto’s effort with 15 kills, 11 digs, and four service aces against the Western Mustangs in the bronze medal match. She also tied with Dormann for the team lead with 19.5 points.

The Blues won the first set with a 25–14 advantage, as Dormann registered eight kills and Feore contributed four. Western battled back in a competitive second set.

The Blues had a slight 13–10 advantage when the Mustangs called for a timeout.

The first point following the break was

a kill from Feore, and following Jenna Woock’s kill for Toronto, Feore earned three consecutive points for Toronto to force a Mustangs time out at 18–12. Western came within three points of the Blues, following Kristina Curcin’s kill. Feore responded with a kill to close out the set at 25–21.

The momentum shifted after the tight second set and saw the Blues lose the third set 16–25. They dropped the fourth by the same differential. For the second night in a row, the Blues were forced to a fifth set.

The Mustangs took a quick 7–1 lead and never looked back. Three consecutive kills

by Feore cut the deficit to five at 13–8.

Western, however, took the final set 15–8 to win bronze.

MARCH 12, 2018 • 21

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Rebecca Bourgeois: looking back at a five-year hockey career Blues women’s hockey captain talks memories, advice, and moving on Julia Costanzo Varsity Contributor

was] yesterday because that was a long time ago, but I’ll think back to instances like my first goal, or like a time in playoffs, or someFifth-year Varsity Blues women’s hockey cap- thing that we did I’ll be like, ‘Oh wow, that was tain Rebecca Bourgeois recently completed three years ago.’” her last season and played her final game in a Over her five-year career, Bourgeois saw blue and white jersey. As a Blues field hockey many of her close friends and teammates player, I was interested in learning her per- graduate, experiences she said helped her spective on the student-athlete experience, prepare for her final season. She remembered being a role model, and moving on from her playing in her first grad game and the motivavarsity team. tion she felt to play hard for her veteran teamB o u r g e o i s mates. “You see the emotions of them through started this those experiences, so it does prepare you, but season know- that doesn’t mean that it’s any less nostalgic or ing it would be bittersweet when it does come.” her last. Five Though she knew her varsity career would years felt like end this winter, “it’s still a shock, and it’s still both a long sad.” and a short Playing Varsity Blues hockey was about time for more than just athletics and academics. Esher.

“I pecially in her upper years, she realized her came in position as a role model for her teammates knowing I and also for the community. She looked up was going to varsity players while growing up in Ottato do five wa. “I remember going to university games… years,” she and being like, ‘Wow, these are pretty much said. “I don’t professional athletes’ and getting signatures look back at — and now kids come and we sign papers for being a rookie them. It’s cool to have that platform to be able and think to do meaningful things.” [that This year, Bourgeois and her teammates cooked a meal for Ronald McDonald House.

Through this experience, she saw the impact her team could have on the community. “It was nice that we had a group… We had the resources of twenty-five people and our coaching staff and Varsity Blues program.”

Rebecca Bourgeois looks to play the puck to a teammate.

As one of the capMARTIN BAZYL/COURTESY OF THE VARSITY BLUES

tains of the field hockey team, I was curious about what Bourgeois thought of her position as captain on the ice and how her leadership role impacted her. She explained that as one of two graduating players, she felt she was in a leadership role anyway since she’d “been around the block a few times.”

For Bourgeois, being captain allowed her to “take on a larger role and responsibility.” She noted that at first it was a bit difficult to strike a manageable balance, “making sure you still take care of yourself while you’re trying to take care of other things, facilitate other people, and other plans.” The opportunity helped her get closer to her teammates, coaches, and support staff while learning about all the work that goes into a successful team.

Over time, Bourgeois became more comfortable wearing the ‘C.’ She added that it’s the thing her parents are most proud of and joked that her dad always tells people, “My daughter is captain of the U of T hockey team.” Even though she appreciates the honour of her title, she said she wouldn’t have done anything differently. “Letter or not, captain or not, I think I would have done the exact same things and still have been just as involved with the team.”

Since I still have two seasons left to play, I asked Bourgeois if she had any advice on making the most of my final seasons with the Blues. She told me never to wish anything away, especially the hard times, “because at the end of the day you would give anything to get back to that.” She explained that sometimes, especially during difficult moments like midterms or fitness testing, it’s easy to just try to get through it. “Appreciate even the things that are tougher to appreciate. Take it all in and soak in as much as you can from the experience and be ready to transition out of it

at the end.”

Looking ahead, she’s excited to take her next step. She explained that though she doesn’t like to plan things too heavily, she will be continuing her studies in archaeology at graduate school. She’s “excited to have the time to figure out exactly what [she’s] going to do with [her] life.” Though hockey won’t be the focal point of her week anymore, she will continue to play recreationally.

Bourgeois plans to stay involved with her team even after she graduates, keeping in touch with her teammates, watching games, and visiting on alumni nights. “I know the support I felt from our alumni that I played with. They all came back for my last game and it was really special — I hope I can do that for my teammates in the future.” When asked about a hope she has for her team, she explained that though winning championships would be great, those are superficial wants.

Overall, what she really wants for her team is “to be able to live the experience that they want while they’re here.”

On our team, we always say, “You want to leave the team in a better spot than you found it.” Though her team doesn’t express it the same way we do, the desire to make a positive impact was always on her mind. “If you’re there and you’re committed, then you want to make an impact. I think that was my aim and I hope I accomplished it,” she said.

Overall, Bourgeois’ varsity hockey career has been extremely important to her. She achieved her lifelong dream of playing intercollegiate hockey while also discovering all the other things she wants to do. She’s also met “some of [her] best lifelong friends” in what she calls “the most pivotal chunk of [her] life.”

KPE hosts inaugural “She Moves!” event

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Rosie MacLennan headlines panel discussion Veeda Tariq Varsity Contributor

The Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education (KPE) hosted its first ever “She Moves!

A Conference in Motion” event on International Women’s Day, March 8. It was an evening filled with fun, ending with a panel discussion featuring some of Canada’s most inspiring female athletes.

The conference, which took place at the Athletic Centre (AC), was open to all U of T students who identified as women. In the AC, MoveU staff set up the volleyball nets as students began lining up at the registration desks, waiting to pick up their t-shirts and meet their teammates. The gym was filled with women wearing “She Moves!” shirts in pink, blue, green, yellow, red, black, and white. Deide Konney, Coordinator of Intramural Administration and host for “She Moves!”, laid down the events of the evening.

There were 10 activities located throughout the building, and the teams would spend 15 minutes at each station before moving onto the next activity. Konney’s voice rang through the speakers — “3, 2, 1 – move!” — and the teams were off to their first events.

“Run the World” by Beyoncé was blasting on the speakers in the gym. The black team received a crash course in foam rolling while the blue team huddled in a circle for a pep talk before they took on the green team in

a volleyball game. There was no scorekeeping at this event, and people laughed and cheered each other on as they played. When 15 minutes were up, the music stopped and Konney shouted, “To your next station, ladies: remember this is a conference in motion!”

The blue team filed into a quiet classroom for their nutrition session. There were fresh strawberries on the table, and the team learned about the importance of mindful eating through hands-on activities: they blended their own smoothies through the power of pedaling. There was a mounted bike, and a blender topped with strawberries and milk was attached to the end. The ladies pedaled hard, but the grinding of the bike chains wasn’t loud enough to drown out the sounds of the red team’s dodgeball game taking place on the other side of the court.

In the Field House, the pink team was getting to work in a challenging spin class.

Christina, the instructor, guided the women through the workout while her partner, Jana, kept spirits up by dancing to Justin Timberlake’s “Sexyback.” In the Dance Studio, the yellow team were sweating through a Zumba class, dancing to the beats of hardcore reggaeton music. Downstairs in Benson Student Lounge, the white team enjoyed a relaxing yoga class.

After three hours and 10 activities, the teams headed back to the sports gym for a

Panelists Tamara Tatham, Rosie MacLennan, and Ali Greey speak at conference.

ANDY TAKAGI/THE VARSITY

nutritious dinner. They ate their salads on the bleachers while the evening came to a close with an intimate and informal panel discussion. The panelists were Tamara Tatham, a two-time Olympian in basketball who coaches for the Varsity Blues women’s basketball team; Rosie MacLennan, a two-time Olympic gold medal-winning trampolinist who recently defended her master’s thesis in KPE; and Ali Greey, a Canadian boxing champion working toward her master’s degree focusing on how to ensure transgender individuals feel safe and included in change rooms. The panelists shared personal stories

of overcoming setbacks and challenges, but they also shared personal tidbits, like their favourite TV shows and the most memorable moments of their athletic careers.

Konney ended the discussion with a powerful message: “People need to understand that we women can do so much, only if you let us, look at how far we can go.”

“She Moves!” was an evening devoted to team building and community in an inclusive and empowering environment. Led by strong and talented women, for women, it was a fun and healthy way to celebrate being a woman.

22 • THE VARSITY • SPORTS

sports@thevarsity.ca

Are the baseballs juiced?

Why the MLB needs to come clean about the historic rise of home runs

MIA CARNEVALE/THE VARSITY

Michelle Krasovitski Varsity Staff

Aaron Sanchez, the Toronto Blue Jays’ young ace, was sidelined for most of the 2017 season because of a blister. In July, Sanchez’s teammate and fellow pitcher Marcus Stroman was also unable to pitch due to a blister. Stroman publicly commented on the matter, claiming that blisters had become an “epidemic” within baseball.

Noah Syndergaard, David Price, and Taijuan Walker all battled blisters throughout the season as well. These blisters left multiple fanbases scratching their heads, confused at how perfectly healthy players and even aces were left unable to pitch because of what seemed to be an issue with the physical composition of the ball.

These blisters, which seemed to contribute to most pitcher-related injury news in 2017, foreshadowed a larger problem in MLB. A few weeks ago, FiveThirtyEight confirmed an alteration to the balls used in games.

The signs were all there. For one, the number of home runs per season has dramatically increased over the past year — and no, that’s not because of Giancarlo Stanton. The average number of home runs per game in 2017 was 1.26, which is almost 50 per cent higher than 2014’s average of 0.86. There was a 46 per cent spike in home runs between the two years.

In order to explain this spike, it is important to talk about the anatomy of a baseball. There’s the cowhide shell, which is

the white leather exterior of the ball, the cork and rubber core, and the yarn that separates the two. The core, however, is where most of the alterations seem to have occurred.

The core of a baseball is made up of four parts. First, there’s the cork pellet that sits in the very centre of the ball. Then there’s both black rubber and a rubber ring, all of which are held together by pink rubber. In a study comparing the densities of balls made in 2014 and balls made in 2017, the ESPN Sport Science team, headed by Dr. Meng Law, found that the pink rubber was around 40 per cent denser in the older balls than in the new.

This decrease in density can be explained by a study done by Kent State University.

Looking at the molecular composition of the cork as well as the pink rubber, researchers found that the pink layer of the core had 10 per cent less silicon relative to older balls.

These changes may seem subtle, but they have an impact: baseballs now weigh on average 0.5 grams less than they did a couple years ago. They are also bouncier, which The Ringer estimates can add three feet to the distance a ball travels off a slugger’s bat.

This means that a hit that would normally be caught on the warning tracks is now likely carrying over the fence for a home run.

You may be wondering what the problem here. Are more homers bad? Is baseball now an objectively easier game to play? Will 50 home run seasons, like those of Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge, become the norm? No, no, and maybe. It is important to

clarify that the problem with this revelation isn’t that the balls are being ‘juiced,’ but rather, the lack of transparency on the side of the MLB. Keeping mum on alterations to equipment can have serious repercussions, both in sabermetrics and in injuries.

Houston Astros pitcher and 2011 American League MVP Justin Verlander commented on the matter to his nearly two million Twitter followers. “All I’m saying is I don’t care if balls are juiced (seriously),” he tweeted this month. “We’re all using the same ball so it’s a fair field. My issue is I don’t like being lied to. I knew something was different. Century old records are being broken and numbers are skewed.” Verlander was specifically referring to the findings that the exit velocity and launch of a baseball now had a higher correlation to the chance of a home run — something that can be explained by the less dense balls.

Whether the lower densities initially caused the blisters is uncertain; what is clear is that the athletes are frustrated and the fans are frustrated. It seems that everyone except the MLB is frustrated.

This then poses the question: why keep the alterations a secret? And why vehemently deny — as Commissioner Rob Manfred has done numerous times — something that was ultimately proven to be true?

Maybe the secrecy is due to some kind of contractual obligation with Rawlings, the company that manufactures the balls in Costa Rica. Or perhaps it comes from fear of backlash — from those who refer to

themselves as ‘purists’ and oppose any and all change, scoffing at pitch-clocks and the like. It is true that the culture surrounding the game of baseball has been challenged over the past couple of decades, from social issues, like attempts to remove racist rhetoric from vocal celebration, to technical elements, like adding instant replay. Baseball culture is notorious for rejecting any evolution the game may go through.

This has to change. Progress is good — it is as simple as that. In 1858, baserunners weren’t obligated to touch all the bases in order. In 1884, a player needed six balls to attain a walk. In 1885, bats could have one flat side.

Were it not for change, we would be watching a game where pitchers threw spitballs, players wore no protective gear, and the bats resembled canoe paddles. Baseball is a game that has been transformed into the phenomenon it is today thanks to changes it has undergone throughout its almost twocentury existence. It is high time that fans, both old and new, regard the evolution of baseball as a benefit to the game instead of a detriment. For now, however, the MLB owes its athletes and its fans transparency. The way in which Manfred goes about explaining and justifying this issue will be indicative of the MLB’s commitment to the truth — or lack thereof.

WEEKLY BOX SCORE

VOLLEYBALL

2–3

WOMEN’S March 9 Varsity Blues

(25–23, 18–25, 22–25, 25–23, 9–15)

McMaster Marauders

2–3

March 10 Varsity Blues

(25–14, 25–21, 16–25, 16–25, 8–15)

Western Mustangs

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MARCH 12, 2018 • 23

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