March 28, 2016

vol. cXXXvi, no. 22

T he UniversiTy

of

ToronTo’s sTUdenT newspaper since 1880

28 M arch 2016

ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

Instructor accused of plagiarism Students take petition to undergraduate student advisor DEVIKA DESAI

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

Protestors against anti-black racism and police violence gathered outside of Toronto Police Services headquarters. NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY PG 4

CAMPUS POLITICS

UTSU members say ‘Hello’ to new executive Hello UofT wins all executive positions except for vice president, internal & services RACHEL CHEN & TOM YUN ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITORS

Hello UofT took all but one of the executive positions in the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) spring elections. Competing against them were the 1UofT slate and one independent candidate for vice president, campus life.

Both slates campaigned for improvements to services such as the UTSU’s health and dental plan and U of T’s health and wellness services.

All candidates agreed that they would work towards creating a safer and more inclusive campus should they be elected. According to president-elect Jasmine Wong Denike from Hello UofT, her immediate goal is to spear-

head tuition fee caps, as the deadline for their expiration in 2017 nears.

ELECTION RESULTS AND STATISTICS Of the 50,113 eligible voters, a total of 4,871 votes were cast. Voter turnout was 9.7 per cent, which was a 3.3 per cent drop from last year’s 13 per cent turnout.

Continued on PG 3

A course instructor in the Department of Earth Sciences has been accused of plagiarism. While the accusations have been brought forward to the department, some students maintain that the issue has not been properly addressed.

The accused, Tugce Sahin, is a PhD candidate in geology and Earth sciences. She is currently teaching the ENV233 course, “Earth System Chemistry.”

According to Justin*, a student in the class, Sahin’s lecture slides are taken from material produced at other universities; in some cases, this includes fourth-year course material, which he considers to be inappropriate for a second-year class.

“Not only is there detail [in the slides] that [students] should not have to understand, but also detail that the lecturer herself does not understand,” stated Justin.

“I and the class strongly believe that she doesn’t have enough of a chemistry and mathematical background to teach the course,” he added.

Justin grew suspicious after he noticed that the syntax in the lecture slides was not consistent with Sahin’s own style. He copied and pasted the text into a search enContinued on PG 4

TEDxUofT STUDENT-RUN INITIATIVE TAKES ‘IDEAS WORTH SPREADING’ SLOGAN TO HEART pg 24 On stage at largest TEDxUofT to date. JOY LI/THE VARSITY

INSIDE Reading, writing, and arithmetic?

Universities and industry can’t agree on how to best prepare students Comment PG 12

READY? FIGHT!

U of T’s boxing club struggles for space on campus Feature PG 16

Filling in the blanks

Toronto artists create a colouring book for newly-arrived Syrian refugees Arts PG 18

Opening the locker room

She Talks explores inclusivity and equity for women in sport Sports PG 30

2 NEWS

M O N DAY 28 M A R C H 2 016 news@thevarsity.ca

Issue 22 Vol. CXXXVI

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

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managing@thevarsity.ca creative@thevarsity.ca

Sean Smith Senior Copy Editor

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Iris Robin News Editor

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Alex McKeen Features Editor

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Jacob Lorinc Arts and Culture Editor

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

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Lisa Wong Design Editor

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

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Teodora Pasca Associate Comment Editor

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THE EXPLAINER

web@thevarsity.ca

Mubashir Baweja Associate Design Editor

Salvatore Basilone and Sina Dolati Associate Video Editor

Keener Tetris Club’s engineering students pose with Tetris blocks they made during a tools workshop. BENJAMIN LAPPALAINEN/THE VARSITY

Shaan Bhambra Associate Science Editor

HOW TO H A N DL E U OF T TELEFUND CALLERS It’s almost the end of the year. For many students, that means the end of their undergraduate career at U of T. Upon graduation, young alumni will begin receiving calls from the U of T telefund asking for donations. Here are some ways to efficeetty eaaciate ttese iattss:

Adit Daga Associate Sports Editor

1.

Don’t be rude. The students calling on the other

5.

If you prefer to donate at a certain time of the

Rachel Chen, Devika Desai, Tom Yun, and Emily Johnpulle Associate News Editors

end don’t have much say in how many times

year, it’s always a good idea to mention that.

you get called; blaming them isn’t going to get

That way, callers can make a note of it and keep

you anywhere. A calm voice and a patient at-

it in mind when they call up alumni.

Lead Fact Checkers Ujwal Ganguly, Emilie Jones, Evan Maude, Lauren Park, and Corinne Przybyslawski

titude will.

2.

Copy Editors Ujwal Ganguly, Alexandra Grieve, Nyima Gyalmo, Emilie Jones, Evan Maude, Lauren Park, Lisa Power, Corinne Przybyslawski, Kristen Sevick, Mobalaji Tunde-Oladepo, and Gabriel Wee

3.

Designers Judy Hu

4.

If you do want to donate – say so. If you feel ner-

It’s the call centre’s policy to keep calling until

vous about giving your credit card information

the phone gets answered, so ignoring the call

over the phone, here are some ways to confirm

won’t cut it either. Best to just pick up the phone

that it is U of T calling you: the number on your

and deal with the call once and for all.

caller ID should begin with either 978 or 946

Similarly, unless you’re actually not available to

(numbers owned by the university), and you can

have the call, saying that you’re not available

ask the caller to verify your U of T student num-

will only prolong the process. Being direct and

ber, because it’s something that they should have on file.

to the point is really your best solution.

BUSINESS OFFICE Parsa Jebely Business Manager

6.

If you don’t want to donate — say so. Reasons

7.

Cannot stress this enough – don’t be rude.

always help in determining the best way to code

business@thevarsity.ca

the call, but if you don’t feel comfortable giving

Cherlene Tay Business Associate

them, that’s fine too.

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

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

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

CORRECTIONS An article published in Issue 21, “No investigation into last year’s physically impossible votes” referred to WAG 2.0 accessibility standards. The correct name is WCAG 2.0 (web content accessibility guidelines). The same article also suggested that UTSU executive elections voting opened online at 9 am on March 22, when in fact, it had opened at midnight that day. The Varsity regrets these errors.

T H E VA R S I T Y

NEWS 3

var.st/news

One sole paper ballot was cast in UTSU elections CONTINUED FROM COVER

Denike is currently the union’s vice president, external. She emerged victorious with 2,000 votes, while 1UofT’s Madina Siddiqui received 1,540 votes.

Shawn Williams ran for vice president, university affairs with Hello UofT and was elected to the position with 1,822 votes.

1UofT’s Andy Edem, who was formerly an independent candidate, received 1,432 votes.

Hello UofT’s Farah Noori will fill the vice president, equity role. Noori received 1,728 votes to 1UofT’s Malkeet Sandhu’s 1,307 votes.

Shahin Imtiaz of Hello Uof T will serve as the next vice president, campus life, with 1,489 voters ranking her as their first choice. 1Uof T’s Lera Nwineh placed second and received 1,070 votes, while independent candidate and current vice president, campus life Alessia Rodríguez placed third with 834 votes. This is the first time that the vice president, campus life has been an elected position.

Ryan Gomes, the current UTSU vice president, internal & services, ran with Hello UofT to be the first-ever president, professional faculties. Gomes’ 553 votes put him ahead of Charlotte Mengxi Shen, who managed to secure 319 votes.

The contest for the position of vice president, external was the closest of any of the races. Hello Uof T’s Lucinda Qu narrowly defeated Andre Fast of 1Uof T

by a margin of 18 votes, winning 1,648 votes to Fast’s 1,630.

1UofT candidate Carina Zhang won vice president, internal & services by 37 votes over Hello UofT’s Mathias Memmel. Zhang received 1,777 votes to Memmel’s 1,740 votes and was the only 1UofT member to win an executive position.

The UTSU’s Elections Procedures Code (EPC) states executive candidate elections that result in a victory by a margin of up to 50 votes will automatically be recounted.

The abstention rate for executive candidate elections ranged between 27 and 38 per cent.

VOTING METHODS Only three paper ballots were cast; two of those ballots were test ballots. Online voting was offered in person at a polling station, meaning paper ballots had to be specifically requested.

Vere-Marie Khan, chair of the Elections & Referenda Committee, stated that paper ballots were heavily underused due to the advent of online voting. “[We] made every effort to ensure that laptops at our polling stations were as accessible as possible,” Khan said. “I think the future of paper ballots is that there is none.”

Khan hopes that paper ballots will become obsolete. “Personally, I am glad for this step as paper ballots are sustainably not feasible and are an additional cost factor to the union (therefore students as well),” she said.

This was also the first time that the UTSU

elections were conducted using the singletransferable vote, a voting system in which voters rank candidates by order of preference.

Prior to this year, the elections used the firstpast-the-post system.

THE CAMPAIGN PERIOD The 10 day campaign period saw numerous controversies and a spate of demerit points issued to both slates, much the same as in previous UTSU elections. The in-person campaign period was shorter this year than in previous years, and reforms to the EPC banned in-person campaigning on voting days. Candidates were still permitted to campaign online.

There were a total of 16 rulings by the chief returning officer (CRO) and six rulings by the Elections and Referenda Committee (ERC).

During the executive debate, Edem misgendered Williams. Edem immediately offered an apology, which Williams found to be unsatisfactory, calling it “long and mostly devoid of substance” in a public Facebook post.

Four days after the debate, 1UofT released a statement in response.

MOVING FORWARD Despite the mixed executive, Denike does not believe the election of Zhang will be an issue for the new team.

“Carina, like the rest of us, ran because she wants to make U of T better,” Denike said.

“Anyone putting themselves forward for a position like this, on a student union executive,

needs to be prepared to work under any circumstance... I hope to get the chance to talk with her about what she wants to accomplish and hopefully find ways to incorporate that into our vision as well.”

“I also want to ensure that all of the executives are comfortable and ready to get to work.

This would include having a proper transition from their predecessors, being prepared for the kind of year they have ahead, and knowing that we’re a team,” said Denike.

“We’re all so proud of Carina! She worked so hard and we could not imagine anyone better for the role of VP internal,” said Siddiqui.

“I look forward to working with her in this new role and all of the great things that she will do this year,” she added.

This is not the first time that the UTSU elections have produced a mixed executive.

In 2014, Pierre Harfouche, who ran for vice president, university affairs, was the only elected executive candidate from team Unite. Harfouche ultimately resigned in the following November.

“Slates don’t exist anymore,” Denike said.

“We’re here because students voted for us to be here, and that’s what matters. We should be listening to what they have to say — if we’re doing a good or awful job — and being prepared to prioritize the representation of marginalized groups on campus who may feel ostracized by not only their peers, but the UTSU. Mending that relationship is one of my top priorities.”

Hello UofT. NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY

1UofT. NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY

4 NEWS

M O N DAY 28 M A R C H 2 016 news@thevarsity.ca

Plagiarism concerns result in changes CONTINUED FROM COVER

gine and quickly found the source. “I found some from a professor in the University of California, I found some from a professor in Memorial University, I found some in books online... lots of places,” he said.

Justin alleged that students did not raise their concerns directly to the lecturer, but that they did point out mistakes that she made. “At first she listened but then after that she started resenting it and said ‘Just look in your book, I know I’m doing it right.’”

In order to resolve these issues, three students brought a petition signed by reportedly 12 students to David Powell, the undergraduate student advisor and placement coordinator for the U of T School of Environment.

Justin said that the students showed Powell quizzes and assignments that they believed to have been marked incorrectly, as well as lecture slides which were allegedly unsourced and plagiarized verbatim.

After Powell raised the issue with the chair of the Earth sciences department, the lecture slides were re-uploaded with a reference slide at the end. Justin still considers this

change to be unsatisfactory. “The content of the slides had not changed; it was still plagiarized in my view. It was still exactly the same, taken from the source,” he said.

In addition to the changes to the presentation, the course midterm was bumped up by 25 per cent and a guest lecturer was brought in for half of the remaining lectures.

“In my personal opinion, [the changes] haven’t done much for me,” said Joanna*, another student in the class. “The current lecturer is still there and the mark is still there as a poor reflection. I feel it should have been addressed earlier to avoid poor academic performance.”

Like Justin, she also believes that the content of the slides weren’t changed apart from the addition of a slide with references. “Well, there was one point where all the notes were removed from blackboard,” she commented, “and then a couple of days later, it was reloaded but... it looked the same.”

“She did add sources though at the end to ‘reference’, but I’m not sure how accurate those citations were,” said Joanna.

Joanna said that she is unsure as to whether

CHANTEL TENG/THE VARSITY

or not the current professor will be replaced.

While the administration declined to comment, according to Justin, an email was sent out to students on Thursday saying that going to The Varsity and “spreading incorrect and potentially defamatory information is not a constructive way to resolve issues. It could be construed as bullying under the code of student conduct and, depending on what is written, might also be regarded as libel.” The class was also invited

to a meeting to address any further concerns.

Sahin did not respond to The Varsity’s request for comment. *Name changed at individual’s request.

ACTIVISM

‘We Believe Survivors’ Community marches in solidarity with survivors of sexual assault

The rally in support of survivors of sexual violence ended at 40 College Street, where Black Lives Matter organizers are still protesting. NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY

AIDAN CURRIE VARSITY STAFF

Content warning: discussion of sexual assault, suicide Following the conclusion of Jian Ghomeshi’s trial, which ended with an acquittal, hundreds of people rallied and marched in support of survivors of sexual assault.

The rally was entitled ‘We Believe Survivors,’ illustrating the march’s intent to support and stand in solidarity with survivors of sexual assault and the women who came forward in the months leading up to the trial.

The rally and subsequent march were orga-

nized weeks before the announcement of the trial’s verdict.

“We wanted to make sure no matter the outcome, that there was a space for survivors to recognize and support the women who bravely came forward, all the survivors who couldn’t, and the many more survivors in our community that have been sexually assaulted, and you know just to make sure that they know there is a community backing them and supporting them in this process,” said Jennifer Hollett, a political activist and one of the organizers of the event.

The rally began around 6:00 pm in the rain and below freezing temperatures. Supporters were given sheets of paper with chants and

messages printed on them. From blocks away, hundreds of people could be heard chanting ‘we believe survivors’ and ‘the system isn’t broken, it was built this way.’

Influential activists and supporters came to speak to the crowd, including Glen Canning, the father of Rehtaeh Parsons. Parsons completed suicide in 2012, after photographs depicting her sexual assault surfaced and led to her being harassed and bullied. Canning voiced his support for the women who testified in the case and called for an end to victim blaming.

When Lucy DeCoutere was introduced, she was met with thunderous applause and chants of ‘we believe you’ from the audi-

ence. DeCoutere was the first woman to publicly accuse Ghomeshi of sexual assault. DeCoutere said it would be “bad manners” for her to be in the area and not attend the rally, and thanked the audience for their support.

Following DeCoutere, a woman who only wished to be known as Witness #1, took to the steps in front of Old City Hall. This woman was the first to testify against Ghomeshi in the trial, and she too thanked the audience for coming out to show their support despite the inclement weather.

The contingent walked north on Bay Street to meet with Black Lives Matter-Toronto at the Toronto Police Services headquarters, where demonstrators have camped out for the past week. As the march passed, cars honked in support and onlookers clapped and stood in solidarity.

When asked about whether the verdict changed the organizers’ outlook on the demonstration, Hollett stated, “Unfortunately I don’t think today’s verdict surprised anyone. Most people who’ve followed had a front row seat to see the injustice of our justice system when it comes to sexual assault, and a lot of us were hoping for the best, but it’s a flawed system, and it’s just about impossible for survivors to navigate... this is why so many women don’t come forward in the first place, because the women are put on trial, and it’s more about what happened after the assault rather than consent and the violence at the heart of the case.”

Those at the rally called for legal reform and new rhetoric in the conversation surrounding sexual violence. They also stressed that the courts judge cases where survivors are scrutinized more harshly than the assailants.

According to Hollett, ending the stigma surrounding sexual violence “starts as a conversation, but I think it’s a conversation that we need to bring in lawyers and politicians and activists and I know that that work is already starting as a result of this trial.”

T H E VA R S I T Y

NEWS 5

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STUDENT LIFE

Student club aims to help homeless WarmWorkers sets up U of T branch DANIEL SILVEIRA

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

With approximately 5,000 homeless people living in the city of Toronto, Pooja Kaushal felt the need to help.

She is co-president of WarmWorkers, a new U of T club that aims to help the homeless people of Toronto in an innovative way.

Rather than collect monetary donations, the club collects redeemable food and drink coupons from companies, such as Tim Hortons’ Roll Up The Rim To Win or McDonald’s Monopoly Peel To Play.

The group also collects gift cards for restaurants and grocery stores.

“When dealing with the homeless, gift cards work better because we essentially know we’re making a difference with gift cards, because we know that we’re helping them at least get food [and] drinks,” Kaushal said.

The group hosts outreach days, where they move through the city as a group, engaging with homeless people.

Kaushal told The Varsity about her experience with a man named Jesse, whom she met during one of the club’s outreach days.

“He was just great to talk to... he had resumes prepared in his bag, he was attending workshops, and our program would be such a perfect fit for him.”

Brothers Karan and Arjun Kundra founded WarmWorkers, after they saw the plight of the homeless population in Toronto and decided they wanted to make a difference by focusing on “transitioning homeless

The new club aims to help homeless people obtain a stable lifestyle. TOSIN MAIYEGUN/THE VARSITY

people from a cycle of dependency to an independent, selfsuff icient lifestyle.”

The group’s plan consists of two phases: phase one is currently underway and involves collecting promotional food and drink prizes, coupons, and gift cards. Phase two involves

consolidating the relationships they formed with homeless people.

In conjunction with their corporate sponsors, the club is seeking to provide homeless people with long-term stable housing. From there, WarmWorkers will work to strengthen interview skills, refine re-

sumes, and help supply professional attire. The main goal of phase two is to help individuals get off the streets, and prepare them for employment and self-sustainable lifestyles.

So far Kaushal believes the reaction to WarmWorkers at U of T has been nothing but positive. “We’ve

been very successful, usually people are very generous with giving away their winnings because, you know what, at the end of the day it’s coffee, it’s a donut and we can afford those things but not everyone can,” she said.

ACTIVISM

#BLMTOTentCity outside of police headquarters Black Lives Matter demonstrators rally against police violence RACHEL CHEN

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

The Black Lives Matter-Toronto Coalition organized a BLMTO BlackOUT Against Police Brutality rally outside the Toronto Police Services headquarters on College Street last Saturday at 4 pm. Supporters of Black Lives Matter had been there since March 19, in a space they are calling #BLMTOTentCity.

The rally was held in response to police action that took place on March 21, which was also the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Members of the police force removed tents and doused the fire

that demonstrators were using to keep warm.

According to the Toronto Police Operations’ Twitter, the action was taken because of safety concerns.

Eyewitnesses said that materials were broken, personal belongings were confiscated, and people — including children — were attacked.

“The unprovoked police action on peaceful protesters raising their concerns about Anti-Black violence is an affront to our civil liberties and freedoms,” read part of a statement from the organizers on the Facebook event page. #BLMTOTentCity began in response to the civilian police watchdog group, Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU)

not indicting the officer who shot Andrew Loku. Loku, a black man, was shot inside a Toronto apartment building last July by an unidentified police officer.

Organizers with Black Lives Matter produced a list of demands which they sent to mayor John Tory, chief of police Mark Saunders, and premier Kathleen Wynne. The demands include: the immediate release of the names of the officer(s) who killed Loku and for charges to be laid accordingly; public release of any video footage from the scene of the shooting; and “the adoption of the African Canadian Legal Clinic’s demand for a coroner’s inquest into the death of Andrew Loku.”

Additional demands include the condemnation of the use of excessive force against a protester, an overhaul of the SIU, a commitment to the end of carding, and the release of the name(s) of the officer(s) who killed Alex Wettlaufer, along with appropriate charges. Wettlaufer was a 21 year old black man who was shot dead earlier this month.

The rally itself showed solidarity with other movements and people of intersecting identities. Among those in attendance were people who had marched in the We Believe Survivors rally, non-black supporters, ethnic and religious groups, and unions; attendees held signs in solidarity with Black Lives

Matter. There was also a call for “black and Indigenous solidarity.”

“We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter—Toronto because CUPE members face antiBlack racism,” the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Ontario said in a statement of solidarity. “We support Black Lives Matter because this is about us — about our members, our families, and our communities. But this is also about solidarity against oppression. We are proud to stand with Aboriginal groups, the student movement, and other allies in the fight against anti-Black racism.”

Protesters eventually moved onto the road, which remained closed for most of the day.

6 NEWS

M O N DAY 28 M A R C H 2 016 news@thevarsity.ca

CAMPUS POLITICS

BC students clash with CFS Vancouver Community College demands transparency, accountability from federation EMILY JOHNPULLE

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

A recent letter acquired by The Varsity from Sara Bigler, chairperson of the Students’ Union of Vancouver Community College (SUVCC), to Bilan Arte, the national chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), reveals that the SUVCC does not consider itself a member of the CFS, on the grounds that the CFS’ national executive is working in contempt of its membership.

A number of CFS member locals in BC share the SUVCC’s concerns regarding the CFS. SUVCC AND THE CFS Correspondence between the SUVCC and the CFS national executives dates back to May 2015, when the SUVCC’s executive director Samantha Walsh wrote to CFS executives — including Arte, national treasurer Anna Dubinski, and former national chairperson Jessica McCorrmick.

Walsh wrote that SUVCC believed the executives undermined the credibility and validity of the federation due to union busting and side-deals to which some CFS employees had allegedly been subjected.

“From what I understand, the employees of the Federation raised these concerns because their work was being contracted to outside companies, that the management officials were making deals with some employees that circumvented the union (side-deals), and that there was a threat to the integrity of union representation itself,” said Bigler.

According to Bigler, the CFS’ national executive has not responded to questions about the federation’s labour relations.

“In the last month, employees of the Canadian Federation of Students who spoke out against this mistreatment have been terminated,” Bigler said.

In June 2015, Samantha Walsh wrote to the CFS national executive after the proxy vote at the National Aboriginal Caucus meeting was not recognized. Even though the proxy was accepted at the beginning of the meeting, it was denied on the last day of the meeting — a move that Bigler suggests was an effort to prevent the re-election of Simka Marshall as the national executive representative.

“As the debate about proxy voting progressed, chief electoral officer Bourque said that some students’ unions had been told that they could not send proxies. Despite requests for proof of this, none was provided,” Bigler said. “Christine Bourque is a staff person of CFS-Ontario, and there should be no reason she would have communicated with students’ unions outside of Ontario about the National Aboriginal Caucus meeting beforehand to discuss voting.”

The SUVCC have tried contacting the CFS national executive in pursuit of answers to their numerous concerns but have yet to receive a direct response. They, along with other member unions, are currently assessing their CFS membership status.

“We are committed to working with other students on fighting for lower tuition fees, against rising student debt, and in solidarity for social justice. It is our judgement that the Canadian Federation of Students is leaving this fight, not the other way around,” said Bigler.

CFS-BC AND CFS At the Semi-Annual General Meeting (SAGM) of the CFS’ British Columbia branch (CFS-BC), now named the British Columbia Federation of Students’ (BCFS) in August 2015, member locals voted to censure the national executive — specifically Arte and Dubinski.

Based on Arte’s alleged union busting and engagement in election fraud at the June National Aboriginal Caucus meeting, CFS-BC found she “ has consistently failed to uphold the values of the Canadian Federation of Students.”

Dubinski was censured on the claims that she allegedly secured nation-wide International Student Identity Card (ISIC) discounts, fired employees of the federation without the authority to do so, failed to maintain up-to-date financial records, and refused to provide financial information to BC Representative Jenelle Davies she required to fulfill her duties.

Davies, who was attempting to determine debts owing to the CFS and CFS-Services by CFS-Ontario, has been refused a breakdown of debts. However, under the provisions of the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act, it is unlawful to withhold this information from a director.

“At the 67th Semi-annual National General Meeting, the budget committee was shown draft financial statements for 2014 that showed over $600,000 in receivables being written off as bad debts. BC delegates in the committee asked for a list of the debts but the Treasurer, Anna Dubinski, claimed not to know which debts made up the amount. I have been asking for that breakdown for the ten months since, but Dubinski has refused to provide me with the information,” said Davies.

“Instead of answering my questions, providing me and my member locals with the information we had requested, and allowing me access to the financial records, they chose to bypass me and communicate directly with my constituents, portraying my concerns as groundless,” she added.

At the meeting, CFS-BC also demanded the resignation of Arte and Dubinski; recognition of the election of Aboriginal Students’ Representative Tl’ehskwiisimka Marshall and Women’s Representative Shayli Robinson; public acknowledgement that the directors of the CFS were aware of the use of funds not represented in the annual audited financial state-

ments; and removal of Jessica McCormick and Toby Whitfield from the payroll of the CFS. “Although, officially, Whitfield remains on staff with CFSOntario in Toronto, he has actually lived and worked in Ottawa full-time since January 2015 and even has his own office in the CFS National Office. Among other things, he manages the other employees and the finances of both CFS and its sister organization, CFS-Services but officially has no status within either organization,” Davies said.

The Report of the Executive Committee from the same SAGM details CFS-BC’s frustration with leadership within the CFS, citing an instance where BC representatives were excluded from a national executive meeting in 2014 and their concerns about the settlement equated to Concordia University were not taken into consideration.

The report states that, during the previous SAGM in June 2015, BC’s delegates from each member union walked out of the general meeting after experiencing bullying and unwarranted attacks.

“The walkout followed a specific incident in the closing plenary in which a BC delegate was asking a legitimate question of the National Chairperson, during the scheduled question period of the National Executive. Before she could even finish her question, a large portion of Ontario delegates shouted her down,” Davies said.

A letter from October 2015 from the CFS-BC to the national executive expresses the BC member local unions’ concern about the “lack of leadership and lack of accountability among the at-large members of the National Executive, and the inability or unwillingness of the National Executive to uphold its responsibilities and execute its authority.”

The letter goes on to cite the failures of the national executive regarding membership organizing financial management, internal communication, legal affairs, and democratic decision making.

Bilan Arte and Anna Dubinski declined to respond to The Varsity’s requests for comment.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CANADIAN FEDERATION OF STUDENTS WEBSITE

T H E VA R S I T Y

NEWS 7

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CAMPUS POLITICS

STUDENT LIFE

Slates take divergent marketing paths

LGBTOUT to receive student levy

Hello goes for online, 1UofT prioritizes physical campaign materials

‘Yes’ vote signals end of battle to obtain per-student funding IRIS ROBIN NEWS EDITOR

Hello UofT spent most of their campaign budget on promotional materials, such as high definition videos. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF HELLO UOFT

AIDAN CURRIE VARSITY STAFF

Promotional material costs a good deal of money; in order to pay for these advertisements, the UTSU reimburses candidates for their expenses up to a maximum amount dependent on the proportion of votes the candidates receive.

SETTING THE CAPS The UTSU determines the allotment of funds according to the percentage of votes a candidate wins.

Candidates who obtain between 15 and 100 per cent of the vote are eligible to claim money based on the highest funding bracket.

Executive candidates, of whom there are seven, may claim up to $1,200 each. The five academic director candidates, eight college director candidates, and eight professional faculties director candidates are allotted $100 each, with at-large candidates permitted up to $300 each.

The maximum possible combined total for the team is $11,100.

“We have to acknowledge the fact that many students feel disengaged with the UTSU. It’s been a recurring theme this past week and a half.

Many students don’t know what the UTSU is or what it does,” said Jasmine Wong Denike, president-elect from the Hello UofT slate.

“Elections aren’t just about the candidates running, we are also creating awareness and points of engagement with the UTSU. In elections, students can have a voice in how the UTSU is run and, by voting, can create a UTSU that they would actually want to see,” Denike added.

OVERALL CAMPAIGN EXPENSES “We’ve been conservative in our spending and have only spent what we believe was necessary to create awareness about Hello UofT while informing students about the 2016 Elections,” said Denike. “We have exclusively spent our available funds on promotional materials. In total we estimate that we have spend about 60 per cent of our ‘available maximum funds’ on the campaign in total.”

Denike claims that Hello UofT stayed “well under [their] maximum available funds” and have saved money on the campaign, spending a total of $7,361.

According to 1UofT presidential candidate Madina Siddiqui, her slate spent “just over $3,000 on their campaign.”

“We were well below the campaign expense limit,” Siddiqui said.

“We need financial accommodation and we didn’t want to risk not qualifying for reimbursement so we spent a lot less than the limit.”

WHERE DID THE MONEY GO? Both slates used online promotion strategies that included videos, websites, and social media platforms.

“As all of us are full-time students, we really didn’t have much of a budget for promotional materials,” said Siddiqui, who added that her team spent the “bare minimum” on their campaign website in order to conserve funds.

Denike said that Hello UofT put most of their energy into Facebook and Instagram advertisements. “Our online presence was crucial in engaging students, as our Hello UofT Facebook page garnered over 1,300 likes by the end of the campaign,” she said.

Hello UofT’s promotional videos included shots of UTM and St. George, several seconds of which were shot using a drone. There was also a scene filmed in a subway station, which, if classified as a commercial project, would result in Hello UofT needing to apply for a permit to film.

Denike does not consider the videos to be commercial projects in a monetary sense. She clarified that Hello UofT asked a TTC supervisor if they could film inside the station. “They allowed us to film briefly,” Denike said.

Denike declined to give the name of Hello UofT’s videographer, nor to reveal the exact cost of the video, citing respect for the privacy of their freelance work.

Despite the quality of their videos, Denike stated that Hello UofT did not sacrifice anything to accommodate the expense of the videos. “We re-channeled most of our resources to online campaigning because of the removal of in-person campaigning to students during voting days,” Denike explained.

1UofT took a different approach, preferring to build their website and shoot their videos with volunteers. “Our video was filmed by fellow U of T students and I love them! We didn’t have access to a production team or equipment but I think our videos are personal and show all of us for who we are in real life,” said Siddiqui.

Unlike Hello UofT, 1UofT used most of its funds to expand its physical presence. “Most of the money was spent on print materials, like banners, posters and f lyers which help make the election accessible to students on campus,” said Siddiqui.

After years of trying to obtain student funding, Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Trans people of the University of Toronto (LGBTOUT) has successfully acquired a levy of $0.25 per semester. A majority of students voted in favour of the levy with 1,627 voting yes, and 1,119 voting no. There were 1,691 abstentions.

The referendum ran concurrently with the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) spring elections’ voting period from March 22 to 24.

“To me, the referendum passing is an indicator of an overall improvement in the environment at U of T,” said Nathan Gibson, LGBTOUT drop-in centre director. “To be a queer student on campus and to have the MAIN [sic] queer organization on campus be a levied service group is such a comfort,” he added.

According to Gibson, the funds will be used to diversify programming to better serve the LGBTQ+ community. “It means that our events won’t perpetuate the rampant glorification of white, cis, party culture that we’ve tended toward in the past,” Gibson said. “It means we can start to regain the trust of intersectionally marginalized queer folks who have not felt represented or even welcome in this community for far too long.”

Gibson also suggested that the levy would allow LGBTOUT to subsidize students looking to attend conferences that they would otherwise not be able to, in an effort to support queer students in their equity work.

INFLATION INDEXING Despite passing the levy, the funds will not be immediately tied to inflation; the second referendum question that would have secured this indexation failed. There were 1,612 votes against the question, 1,328 in favour, and 1,497 abstentions.

“In all honesty I think the failure of the second question was mostly a result of a lack of understanding,” said Gibson, adding that the question could have been clearer and that the campaign could have better emphasized its importance.

The question read “Do you authorize the Board of Directors of the UTSU to request annual cost-of-living increases, based on December Ontario CPI to the designated LGBTOUT portion of the fee?”

“I [don’t] blame anyone for not knowing [the meaning of the question], I probably wouldn’t have if I weren’t working on the campaign,” Gibson said.

He does not believe that the failure of the second question reflects the overall attitude towards the levy increase.

Gibson said that he will likely investigate the processes by which such a change may come about for future years. “[The] most important thing is that the levy itself passed, the increase can happen at a later date,” Gibson said.

If a campaign to tie the levy to inflation were to run in the future, Gibson believes it will be easier to explain because it will the main focus of the campaign “[I hope] that the coming years will bring a further push toward equity and inclusivity on our campus and so when we do attempt to tie the levy to inflation, it will have a better chance at passing,” he said.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE The passing of the referendum marks the first time in LGBTOUT’s 47-year history that the club will be levied. UTSU members at the St. George campus will pay the refundable levy in the same way that they fund other UTSU levy groups, such as Bike Chain and Downtown Legal Services.

LGBTOUT has been active since 1969. The club held four referenda between 1999 and 2004 in an attempt to become a levied service group. All attempts were unsuccessful.

In 1999, the response to the campaign was violent and homophobic, prompting U of T to create the Office of LGBTQ Resources and Programs, a forerunner to the Sexual & Gender Diversity Office.

“I’m really happy to see our campus becoming a more welcoming space for queer students and I can’t wait to see what we’re able to accomplish in the coming years!”

Gibson said.

Some of LGBTOUT’s new levy will go towards drop-in centre renovations.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BENJAMIN DONATO-WOODGER

8 NEWS

M O N DAY 28 M A R C H 2 016 news@thevarsity.ca

CAMPUS POLITICS

279 demerit points issued during UTSU elections 123 points repealed

Candidates for vice president, professional faculties face off at the Executive Debate. Ryan Gomes of Hello UofT emerged victorious against 1UofT rival Charlotte Mengxi Shen. JOY LI/THE VARSITY

KAITLYN SIMPSON VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Both Hello UofT and 1UofT slates received multiple demerit points throughout the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) election campaign before appeals. 1UofT garnered 188 demerit points and Hello UofT received 91.

Demerit points are a possible consequence of violations of the Elections Procedures Code (EPC). Students may file a grievance with the chief returning officer (CRO) if they believe a candidate has broken the election procedure.

The CRO, Daniel Gladstone, reviews the validity of the complaints and issues rulings.

If a candidate is found to have broken election procedure, the CRO will issue a number of demerit points depending on the severity of the violation.

If an executive candidate reaches 35 demerit points, they are disqualified from participating in the election. This maximum is 30 for atlarge director candidates and 20 for all other director candidates.

The CRO issued 16 rulings on complaints made throughout the campaign period, six of which were appealed and sent to the Elections and Referenda Committee (ERC). The ERC has the power to hear appeals and uphold or overturn the CRO’s decisions as it sees fit.

Alessia Rodríguez, independent candidate for vice president, campus life, was not the subject of any complaints and did not receive any demerit points at during the campaign.

1UofT received significantly more demerit points than Hello UofT; each executive candidate for 1UofT was awarded between 22 and 28 points.

NON-ENGLISH PROMOTION Circulating online campaign materials in a language other than English without a translation was a violation that the 1Uof T slate committed. The EPC requires any campaign materials not in English to have an “accurate English translation that appears in equal stature and size.” The EPC also requires the translation to be notarized.

The CRO issued a total of 12 demerit points to 1Uof T as a result of three different rulings involving non-English campaign materials. During the campaign period, The Varsity reported on one such blog in simplified Chinese, urging students to vote for 1Uof T candidates.

Additionally, the CRO found that 1UofT had violated electoral procedure by having an “unauthorized campaigner” managing their Instagram account. The account belonged to Guled Arale, an employee of the Association of Part-time Undergraduate Students, former vice president, external at the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union, and the treasurer of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario. An investigation determined that Arale is not a UTSU member; each member of 1UofT received three demerit points.

The slate appealed the decision and the ERC overturned the CRO’s ruling, revoking the demerit points on the grounds that “the events established show an unintentional error not made with the intent to break the elections code.” Madina Siddiqui, presidential candidate for 1UofT, did not respond to requests for comment.

With the exception of Jasmine Wong Denike, president-elect, and Ryan Gomes, vice president, professional faculties-elect, Hello

UofT’s executive candidates ultimately received zero demerit points.

Denike and Gomes obtained one and six points, respectively.

Denike, Andre Fast — vice president, external candidate with the 1UofT — and Malkeet Sandhu — vice president, equity candidate with 1UofT — each received a handful of demerit points relating to improper placement of campaign materials. Among these violations were posters placed on top of another candidate’s poster, or within one foot of another’s posters.

Fast received the highest number of demerit points — 27 by the end of the campaign. This figure was reduced to 25 after the appeals process. Fast did not respond to a request for comment.

APPEALS HEARD There was one significant violation which affected all members of the Hello UofT slate.

The CRO issued each candidate with three demerit points for pre-campaigning, which is forbidden under the EPC. The pre-campaigning allegedly took place in the form of Hello UofT’s Facebook page. The CRO ruled that “having these material present before the campaign period afforded the Hello UofT an unfair advantage.”

Hello UofT appealed the CRO’s decision.

Given that the online content was invisible to anyone who was not a page administrator the ruling was overturned.

Individually, Gomes received six demerit points for “gross misrepresentation of fact.” In a recorded conversation between Gomes and a volunteer campaigning for 1UofT, Gomes allegedly suggested that he was unaffiliated with the Hello UofT slate. The CRO pe-

nalized Gomes for noncompliance with the “spirit of [the] elections.”

Gomes appealed the CRO’s decision to the ERC, which upheld the ruling.

The recording was used as evidence in support of the allegation that the 1Uof T slate participated in an act of “gross misrepresentation of fact.” In his ruling, the CRO issued eight demerit points to the entire slate, but declined to state which facts were misrepresented.

“The severity of these charges warranted much consideration on the part of the CRO. Because the CRO does not wish to further propagate these misrepresentations of fact, the CRO is omitting the details of this conversation,” read part of the CRO’s ruling.

“I believe that Hello UofT campaigned very fairly and followed the rules set by the [EPC],” said Denike. “I’m incredibly proud of my team and I don’t think I would have done anything any differently.”

When asked about some of the potential primary causes for procedure violations, Denike suggested that many violations “are due to small errors made during postering or campaigning.”

“The demerit point system exists to maintain a clean atmosphere during campaigning, and not there to be abused,” Denike commented. “The system is also in place to avoid people spreading lies, rumors or other malicious behaviors to tarnish the reputation of other candidate’s.”

“It’s important that people remember that although this system exists, people still get hurt, and that has a much more lasting impact than any number would,” she added.

With files from Rachel Chen & Tom Yun

T H E VA R S I T Y

NEWS 9

var.st/news

Demerit ScoreBoard Candidate

Position

Demerit points received

Demerit points revoked

Total

Madina Siddiqui

President

25

3

22

Jasmine Wong Denike

President

4

3

1

Mathias Memmel

VP, internal

3

3

0

Carina Zhang

VP, internal

22

3

19

Andy Edem

VP, university affairs

25

3

22

Shawn Williams

VP, university affairs

3

3

0

Farah Noori

VP, equity

3

3

0

Malkeet Sandhu

VP, equity

23

3

20

Andre Fast

VP, external

28

2

26

Lucinda Qu

VP, external

3

3

0

Ryan Gomes

VP, professional faculties

9

3

6

Charlotte Menxhi Shen

VP, professional faculties

22

3

19

Shahin Imtiaz

VP, campus life

3

3

0

Lera Nwineh

VP, campus life

22

3

19

Alessia RodrĂ­guez

VP, campus life

0

0

0

Slate Hello UofT

1UofT

N/A

10 ADVERTISEMENTS

M O N DAY 28 M A R C H 2 016 ads@thevarsity.ca

VARSITY PUBLICATIONS

BOARD OF DIRECTORS ELECTIONS

Varsity Publications Board of Directors Elections will take place on March 28, 29, and 30 at voting.utoronto.ca Board Candidates: Hussein Fawzy (General) Saad Hasnain (General) Alexander Marshall (General) Jannis Mei (General) Alec Wilson (General) German Guberman (UTSC) Details, including nomination forms and campaign rules, can be found at http://thevarsity.ca/board-of-directors/board-election/ If you have any questions or concerns about the election, please email the returning officer, Zaigham Ali, at secretary@thevarsity.ca

VARSITY PUBLICATIONS

SPRING MEETING OF MEMBERS

Date & Time: Thursday, March 31, 2016, 5:15pm Location: 21 Sussex Ave., room 200 Proxies: Forms are available online and due to the meeting location at 5:15pm on March 30, 2016.

All members of Varsity Publications Inc. are eligible to attend and vote at the meeting Details, including nomination forms and campaign rules, can be found at http://thevarsity.ca/board-of-directors/board-election/ If you have any questions or concerns about the election, please email the returning officer, Zaigham Ali, at secretary@thevarsity.ca

T H E VA R S I T Y

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Annual Ratification Meeting The Elections and Referenda Committee of the University of Toronto Students’ Union has called the Annual Ratification Meeting for the purpose of ratifying all incoming Board of Directors and Executive members.

Wednesday April 20, 2016 Bahen Centre, Room 1190, 40 St. George Street 5:30pm-7pm Registration starts at 4:30pm Agenda Â’ Call to Order Â’ Ratification of 2016-2017 UTSU Board of Directors A list of all individuals elected to the Board of Directors under Bylaw VI shall be presented to the Annual Ratification Meeting.

This list shall be ratified or rejected in its entirety by a simple majority of those members present. Under no circumstances may any part of this list be externalized.

Instructions for Voting by Proxy If you are unable to attend this meeting, and wish to give another person the authority to vote for you, please complete an online proxy form at https://utsu.simplyvoting.com by Monday 18 April at 6 pm. You can login to the online proxy system starting Monday 11 April at 9 am.

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

Further instructions on voting by proxy will be available at utsu.ca/arm

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

Accessibility Wheelchair accessible. If you have any accessibility requests, require ASL interpretation, childcare, or have other inquiries, please contact Vere-Marie Khan, ERC Chair, by April 13 at vpua@utsu.ca or 416-978-4911 x248

Footnote 1. Members of the UTSU include: Â’ Full-time undergraduate students at the St. George and Mississauga campuses Â’ Toronto School of Theology students Â’ Transitional Year Program students Â’ Students on a Professional Employment Year (PEY) program

COMMENT var.st/comment

28 M arch 2016

comment@thevarsity.ca

Univerisities and the shifting job market Re-evaluating post-secondary education

ARTICLE BY JONATHAN WILKINSON AND ILLUSTRATION BY DENIS VILLATE

I

n the coming weeks students at universities across the country will gear up for final exams. Many will invariably consume huge amounts of coffee, cram late into the night, and hopefully walk away without being too emotionally damaged, and with grades they are proud of.

There are certainly some students who find this type of testing useful for preparing for the future. Yet, there is also a growing sentiment among both students and employers that educational institutions are failing to equip graduates for life after school.

A report released last year by McKinsey & Company on the state of Canadian youth transitioning from education to employment found contradictory evaluations of the quality of recent graduates. While 83 per cent of education providers believe youth are adequately prepared for the workforce, upon graduation only 34 per cent of employers agree; only 44 per cent of youth believe they are properly prepared.

The reason for this disparity is rooted in the different prespectives on the skills graduates should acquire over the course of their education. Employers ranked work ethic, English proficiency, and teamwork as the most important skills. In contrast, institutions place more importance on practical skills, computer skills, and academic theory. Most tellingly, both employers and students considered 'on the job' experience to be the most effective

method of preparing youth for employment just spent hours studying) rarely encourages — yet, it was the least-used method for uni- the deep, critical thought necessary for conversities. fronting challenges on the job.

Evidently, the way post-secondary instituAnother questionable facet of current evaltions prepare students for employment needs to uation standards is the grading method itself. change. We should thus look beyond standard- The notion that a grade of 50 per cent is the ized examinations and rote learning to prepare benchmark necessary for progression has long students for life after academia. been taken for granted, without any apparent Universities were initially established as questioning as to why. centres to advance academic discourse and In this way, education is an anomalous the skills of those entering the workforce. institution that does not consider mastery a A feedback loop developed in the form of requirement for progression. This does not higher rates of bode well for post-secondthe quality of INSTITUTIONS SHOULD DESIGN METHODS THAT our graduates. ary education and increasImagine if all EVALUATE THE CONSTANT DEVELOPMENT AND ing demand one needed to for a more RETENTION OF THE SKILLS NECESSARY TO SUCCEED obtain a drivskilled worker’s license was IN THE WORKFORCE. force. Having 50 per cent of post-secondary the knowledge qualifications has become a necessity for needed to drive — our roads would be expothose seeking entry into the skilled work- nentially more dangerous. As Salman Khan, force. Today, over 50 per cent of Canada’s the founder of Khan Academy, pointed out: workforce-eligible population has a post- “the traditional model… penalizes you for secondary qualification. experimentation and failure, but… does not Given the importance of a post-secondary expect mastery.” degree when looking for a job, institutions Institutions should design assessment must provide students with the skills nec- methods that evaluate the constant developessary to actually succeed in the workplace. ment and retention of the skills necessary Standardized examinations are not the way to succeed in the workforce. High quality to do so. Having students learn, memorize, professors and a high level of academic disreiterate (and then promptly forget what they course are vital in this regard. The essential

skills one needs nowadays, such as how to critically analyze and form critical arguments, and perform complex calculations, cannot all be learned from the Internet.

U of T has made some strides in providing students with such opportunities.

Capstone programs in engineering and senior thesis programs in arts & science allow students to develop innovative ideas in collaboration with other students. The university is also starting to ensure assessment isn’t wholly based on exams. Doing so allows students to explore subjects of personal academic interest. Exploration fosters engagement, which boosts work ethic and academic performance.

In the face of a rapidly changing economy, it is imperative we begin to make these seemingly peripheral, 'extra' opportunities more central to the learning experience in university. Only then can post-secondary education retain its status as a worthwhile investment and serve its purpose in preparing students for tackling challenges in the workforce and future.

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

T H E VA R S I T Y

COMMENT 13

var.st/comment

A critical moment How will the university move forward in addressing sexual violence?

OP-ED:

Building stronger communities Providing refugees with health, social, and economic support should be a top priority MIINA BALASUBRAMANIAM, SANAH MATADAR, SHAMEEMAH KHAN AND JULIA ROBSON VARSITY CONTRIBUTORS

The university needs new ways to address sexual assault with integrity. YASSINE ELBARADIE/THE VARSITY

JUDITH TAYLOR AND ARIELLE VETRO VARSITY CONTRIBUTORS

These are troubling days indeed for students, faculty, and staff who care about preventing sexual violence and helping its survivors.

Recent events such as the trial of Jian Ghomeshi — which can only be characterized as theatre of the grotesque — certainly remind us of the flaws of our justice system.

Other developments, however, seem more promising. This month, legislation passed ordering universities to develop a concrete sexual assault policy, a move to which U of T, and other Ontario universities are now responding.

Many have lauded this decision, while others have questioned whether this draws a strange distinction between the way in which sexual assault is handled on campuses, as opposed to in the 'real' world.

This distinction is more visible in the United States, where Title IX culture directs university committees to look for a “preponderance of evidence” in sexual assault investigations, rather than requiring claimants to prove their allegations “beyond a reasonable doubt,” as required in a criminal trial.

In Canada — lacking Title IX directives — universities have fewer guidleines when determining campus procedures that may diverge from law on the outside. We suggest that federal and provincial governments encourage universities to adopt a system of their own, because they understand how unlikely it is for survivors of assault to be treated fairly in the regular court systems.

Although some may consider this chauvinism, according to these directives, universities can actually protect students better than the cities in which they are situated. Devising and executing such a policy, however, requires imagination, will, and collective buy-in. It is also what U of T is tasked with doing, as suggested by the February Final Report of the Presidential and Provostial Committee on Prevention and Response to Sexual Violence.

While the time it took for the committee to produce the report is an issue of its own, the lack of specificity concerning when the report will be turned into a set of concrete policies and practices is alarming. The term is near end, meaning the administration will have the summer to mull over the appropriate decisions to take — but also the opportunity

to lull us into forgetting about the urgency of the situation. Lacking pressure from students and faculty, this report could become analogous to the work of so many blue ribbon committees: symbolic gestures of compliance with zero impact.

One concern of the final report is that it swims in a sea of moral ambiguity. Peppered throughout the document is the statement, “Sexual violence will not be tolerated on our campuses.” It is a conveniently vague phrase that, in reality, gives little indication of the consequences that those who commit sexual assault will face.

Will perpetrators be suspended or expelled?

Will faculty who harass students be penalized? At a certain point, the administration will have to define these consequences.

The report’s use of the word "resolution" is similarly a cause for concern. The Committee seems eager to produce resources that aid in the quick resolution of assault claims, but "resolution" suggests a mere misunderstanding, a conflict among equal parties. Treating sexual assault as the product of misunderstanding obscures the very violent reality of the issue. This is also the central error of the culture of the Sexual Harassment Office at U of T, which treats harassment as a misunderstanding among equals that needs to be mediated. Countless students have gone to that office seeking justice, and resolved to quietly manage their own grief because the system will not recognize its legitimacy.

For all the experts, consultations with diverse sets of stakeholders, variegated committees, and accounting structures, the committee's report is void of courage. On the other hand, the province says universities can do it differently, while Title IX practices indicate some of the ways this is so. We can create new ways to address sexual assault with integrity, and protect survivors. We can be an example to the city in which we are nestled and to the courts, which are in walking distance.

The question posed to the administration is: are you up for it?

Safety, shelter, housing, and income are all necessary for physical and mental health and a high quality of life for refugees. Despite this, it is medical factors that are often solely emphasized in the public sphere, ignoring the fact that the social conditions that refugees encounter upon arrival in Canada can be harmful to their health.

We started Humans for Refugees to raise awareness of these other issues, because it is our responsibility to help newcomers adjust to life in Canada. Students’ support for refugee health now will mean a healthier population and a stronger economy and society in the future.

One challenging aspect of refugees’ experiences in Canada may be communicating their needs, while contending with language barriers. For example, in addition to physically accessing services such as housing and health clinics, refugees also need to be able to understand their options in these areas. Language barriers may also impede socializing with other members of Canadian society.

Refugees often face financial barriers as well. Government assisted refugees can receive up to a year of income assistance, which provides them with some time to adjust to their new environment. After this, they may be eligible for support from provincial governments. Yet, much like other welfare recipients, this is often at a level below the poverty line. Moreover, an absence of networking opportunities affects refugees' job prospects; if they have limited social circles, they may not have access to opportunities.

Lack of employment then limits income, which is known to affect health.

When entering Canada, refugees are also immediately faced with a lack of affordable housing. Likely with little understanding of the Canadian housing market, refugees need one-on-one assistance and education that will guide them through the process. The Resettlement Assistance Program created by the Government of Canada has a funding system that provides temporary residency, permanent accommodations as well as basic household items.

However, even for refugees that have access to this financial aid, the process is lengthy and immediate accommodation is not provided.

Poor housing consequently affects employment, integration, and both physical and mental health.

Finally, while not as immediately apparent as other issues, refugees are known to face a higher risk of mental health issues than the rest of the population. Canadians concerned with refugee mental health should advocate for more accessible acute mental health care, including funding to access professionals trained in treating trauma, including conditions like PTSD. CAMH recently offered a U of T-accredited course for mental health professionals. More initiatives of this sort can help counselors overcome language and cultural barriers, improving the care that they can offer.

While we commend the federal government’s restoration of funding for refugee healthcare, more needs to be done. Without broad public pressure for action on social factors, refugees will not be able to become healthy, well-adjusted Canadians. Refugees are our neighbours, co-workers, community partners and fellow Canadians. Not only do we have a moral responsibility to them, but also improving their health status will help our economy and improve our society as a whole.

Humans for Refugees is a social mediabased refugee health awareness and activism campaign. If you are interested in getting involved, please visit our Facebook page and email us your stories and questions at humans4refugees@gmail.com. We will also be gathering U of T students’ opinions on refugee health at the Sidney Smith lobby on March 30.

Whether you decide to reach out to a refugee family to offer help, volunteer with an organization, donate, or simply send a letter to your local MPP or MP, your support is essential. Individual efforts might seem minor, but they help build a strong community, leading to better health for all.

Miina Balasubramaniam, Sanah Matadar, Shameemah Khan and Julia Robson are students from Humans for Refugees.

Judith Taylor is a sociology and women and gender studies professor at U of T. Arielle Vetro is a third-year Trinity College student studying equity and women and gender studies.

MIA CARNEVALE/THE VARSITY

14 COMMENT

M O N DAY 28 M A R C H 2 016 comment@thevarsity.ca

Reflecting on the 2016 UTSU elections Real change or more of the same?

Students went to the polls for the UTSU elections lask week. JENNA LIAO/THE VARSITY

REUT COHEN

ASSOCIATE ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

The results are in and the Hello UofT slate has taken all but one of the executive positions in this year’s elections for the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU). As someone who has previously written about the dubious influence of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) on our union’s politics, I can’t say I’m unhappy with these results. Even the campaign season itself was relatively lacking in scandal, which was a relief in light of previous years’ shenanigans.

Some have raised questions about the appropriateness of slate campaigning in UTSU elections. Although it’s fair to say that slate politicking discourages indepen-

dent candidates from running, that hardly seems reason enough to stop a team of people who share similar goals from aligning themselves under an umbrella platform. The fact that this year’s election was very much a contest between two slates, however, does raise very interesting questions about the results.

There was a great deal of variation in the votes for executive positions. Jasmine Wong Denike, president-elect; Shahin Imtiaz, vice president, campus life-elect; and Farah Noori, vice president, equity-elect, all received over 400 more votes than their 1UofT counterparts. Meanwhile, the race for vice president, external saw Hello’s Lucinda Qu win by a mere 18 votes.

Hello’s candidate for vice president, internal and services, Mathias Memmel, lost to 1UofT’s Carina Zhang by a similarly slim margin of 37 votes, resulting in what might be termed a mixed executive. It might be assumed that the executive candidates of a slate would receive relatively similar votes, so it’s interesting to see this degree of variance.

In any case, the election procedure reforms that came into effect this year were certainly a welcome change. In previous elections, staff of the York Federation of Students and the Ryerson Students’ Union could be seen campaigning for their CFS-backed counterparts.

Under the new Election Procedures Code, the use of external campaigners is prohibited.

The 1UofT slate was investigated for its campaigning on an Instagram account managed by Guled Arale, who was found to not be a fee-paying member of the UTSU. In fact, Arale is the vice president, external of the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union.

Unfortunately, a lack of transparency is still prevalent in our student politics.

Other peculiar violations of campaign procedure were investigated by the CRO, including a blog entry that was circulated on a Chinese social media website called WeChat, which appeared to be an endorsement of the 1UofT slate. According to The Varsity’s translation of this post, the blog contained “bizarre” descriptions of the candidates’ physical appearance, comparing Lera Nwineh, vice

president, campus life candidate to American president Barack Obama, as well as describing vice president, external candidate Andre Fast as the “hot guy.”

Of course, discussion of a candidate’s physical appearance has absolutely no relevance to what they promise to do for the students of this university. It also showcases nauseating pandering to Chinese students that’s reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s recent attempt to show Hispanic voters why she’s just like your abuela.

I’m almost reluctant to mention the abysmal turnout of this year’s elections, which was 9.7 per cent. What is perhaps more worrying is the abstention rate of many of the votes. The abstention rate in each of the executive races was between 27.3 and 37.7 percent, demonstrating that even many of those students who take the time to vote do not have a preference of candidates or platforms.

As the slogan goes, we’ll be saying “hello” to a new UTSU next year, but whether or not this represents real change in the health of student democracy remains to be seen.

Disclosure: Shahin Imtiaz is a former associate science editor for The Varsity.

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

NOOR NAQAWEH/THE VARSITY

A world of worries Why the university needs to prioritize the mental health of international students JINHA PARK

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

According to the Faculty of Arts & Science's website, "International students come from more than 140 different countries and make up nearly 25 per cent of U of T's student population." Given that international students comprise a significant portion of the university’s membership, it is important to recognize their unique concerns and the stressors that they face, specifically with respect to mental health. As an international student, I can understand the difficulties that come with adapting to, and becoming familiar with a new country.

There are certainly many benefits to being an international student, including receiving

a better education, broadening perspectives on different issues, and developing new language skills. To travel to new countries is often to indulge in novel experiences that contribute not only to academic but personal growth.

Such learning, however, is often undertaken with greater risks and stresses than that of a domestic student, due to the learning curve of being in such a vastly different environment.

Coping with such unfamiliar rules can take a toll on students, both physically and mentally.

Cultural norms and subjects of conversation, for instance, can put strains on even the most casual interactions between international and domestic students. Take the awkwardness of attempting to meet someone new, and compound that with a stark lack of similarity in background and values. In a similar vein, the language barriers international students face can hinder full participation in typical social meet and greet events.

These obstacles can often make it feel like international students must start from scratch

with respect to both social and professional relationships. Lacking readily-available and long-established systems of support from family and friends back home, these students have to manage various challenges on their own. Such isolation makes it more likely for international students to spiral into negative health patterns.

If matters escalate, ongoing worries about academics and friendships can result in the development of anxiety, depression, or other psychological disorders. This, in turn, can impact the student’s study habits, diet, sleep, and other elements necessary for success at school and beyond.

Although the university provides psychological counselling and other beneficial services through the Health and Wellness Centre, improvements to these services can be made simply by increasing awareness of their availability within the international student community. Strategies for doing this include better promotion of events during

mental health awareness month, as well as facilitating ongoing discussions and focus groups with relevant community members.

Considering that international students may be particularly affected by stress, it is also important to ensure that these services provide culturally sensitive programming that is cognizant of the particular circumstances that international students must grapple with.

Promoting the well-being of international students at the university will ensure that these students have the best educational experience possible. It is important to send the message that international students are welcome at U of T, and an important part of our community. Working on mental health service awareness is an important first step in this regard.

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EDITORIAL 28 M arch 2016

Watch where your money goes Ontario's sunshine list shows assets pay more than academics, regarding U of T salaries THE VARSITY EDITORIAL BOARD

T

he release of the Ontario public sector salary disclosure (the sunshine list) gravely reminded the U of T community to keep a watchful eye on how the university spends its money. William Moriarty, president of the University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation (UTAM), was reported to be the second highest-paid public sector employee of the province in 2015. He made $1,473,445.98 last year, an increase of more than $500,000 over the previous year and almost double his 2013 salary.

Additionally, the top four public sector salaries within the 'Universities' category of the 2015 Ontario sunshine list were all UTAM employees. In fact, the six highest paid UTAM employees raked in a total of $4,330,616.06 last year. In comparison, the university’s president and 11 vice presidents collectively made $3,525,740.14. Those top six UTAM salaries also outweighed the combined salaries of the top 10 paid deans and the individual 2015–2016 University Fund Allocation amounts for the Transitional Year Programme and the faculties of social work, information, forestry, kinesiology and physical education, pharmacy, and nursing.

The UTAM salaries should be alarming to U of T students, especially considering how much they have increased dramatically over the past couple of years. Salaries in excess of one million dollars are extremely uncommon on the sunshine list, and for good reason. Ontarians expect fiscal responsibility from public institutions, and it is rarely justified for individual salaries to constitute such a major line item on public sector budgets.

Those taking home the highest amounts often work jobs that are comparable to the private sector — Ontario Power Generation CEO Tom Mitchell made the top of the list for 2015. Insofar as the public tolerates salaries like these, it is because they are exceptional cases that constitute courting private executives for the purpose of providing public services.

The mission of UTAM, however, is not directly relevant to the university’s core academic goals, and so this justification does not sit well. The corporation was founded in 2000 with the goal of using active investment management to increase the university’s returns on its investments, in comparison to the passively managed index funds that were previously used. It is highly problematic that all of the university’s most highly paid employees serve the financial viability of U of T, rather than its academic mission.

UTAM manages important assets, including the University of Toronto Pension and the university endowment. The university has argued that the active management approach led by UTAM has produced better returns on these investments. Since investment management is a lucrative field, and it is expensive to hire people to do this kind of work, the university might maintain that UTAM employees are worth the cost.

It is arguable, however, whether UTAM has actually succeeded in outperforming other universities that have more passive investment strategies. According to the 2014–2015 Endowment Report released by the university, U of T’s endowment saw a return of 15 per cent within that year. This does outperform the University of Western Ontario’s (UWO) endowment return over the same period, which reported at 12.5 per cent, but over a five-year period, both universities report an average investment return of just over 10 per cent for their endowments.

Meanwhile, both universities' administrations and main governing bodies oversee investments. The key difference is that UWO hires investment managers externally — with a preference for passive management in certain markets — while U of T is tethered to UTAM. Given that UTAM does not seem to drastically outperform other universities’ investment strategies and that it exists alongside a governing council committee that is also focused on investment, it is unclear exactly what value the corporation adds to the university and why it justifies such an immense salary expenditure.

U of T’s mission is academic, and it should not shy away from offering high salaries to individuals that help to advance that mission. Apart from the UTAM employees, at least the top 250 public sector employees in the 'Universities' category of the sunshine list were all employed in either academic or administrative capacities. They made in between $100,000 and $500,000 each and boasted scores of qualifications that justifies their value to academic institutions. The less justified, non-academic expenditures should be addressed though, because they don't seem particularly worth it.

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

editorial@thevarsity.ca

LETTERS TO

THE EDITOR .

,

Re: What's in a mandate?

The UTSU has made strides in terms of financial responsibility this year. Still waiting on the UTMSU. Apart from that, the UTSU and UTMSU are a total flop, especially their leftist lunatic equity departments.

— Ibrahim Bouteraa (from web) Re: Question of clubs funding answered following debate discord When this was asked at the debate Madina essentially clarified that she was referring to specific established clubs, which according to her had their funding slashed.

— Zach Morgenstern (from web) But having funding "slashed" implies that they had a guaranteed funding amount already, which is not the case with UTSU funding. We all apply, we all deal with what we get. More money was given out this year than in past years, and a lot of it was given to clubs that are just starting out, and which are providing much needed opportunities for community building that was not available before they were in existence.

— Liz McLoughlin (from web) Throughout my time at UofT, I have heard many times that clubs feel like there is not enough resources and support for all the wonderful work they want to do.

There are clubs on this campus that serve more members them non-for profits, but are run with very few funds and resources. We can talk about adding or moving a few thousand dollars, but with so many clubs the impact will not be that substantial unless something much bigger is done.

York has a clubs levy and thus clubs have access to much more funding then clubs at UofT. With a small contribution from students, we can double or triple clubs funding at UofT and make sure that a lack of funds is never an issue for when clubs want to do big things.

We need a new deal for clubs because we can't be #1UofT without them.

— Madina Siddiqui (from web)

.

,

"Siddiqui said that 1UofT hopes to 'substantially increase the money available for clubs funding' and she suggested running a referendum for a clubs levy." Isn't the whole point of the UTSU Levy a clubs levy + other things?

Students can only afford to support so much. We can't just fund everything every year.

— Pierre Harfouche (from web) Re: A multi-headed beast UTSC's coverage goes up to only $30 a session, let's also talk about the problems with the services provided on campus and the fact the coverage excludes psychotherapists, which often, provide services at a lower rate than psychologists. I've heard from profs that report consistently observing higher stress and higher demands on students, students need more access to mental health resources and education in order to consistently achieve at the level demanded of them.

— Kristina Teresa (from web) Re: Black Liberation Collective marches on university's birthday Let the lefties rule the campus.

Those calling for collecting racebased data is Americanising the UofT. An institution's academic excellence has nothing to do with its racial makeup. We are all students, we are all the same human being, stop dividing us on whatever basis other than our academic merit.

— Ayana Palaszczuk (from web) Re: Swept under the rug Universities need to stop interfering in criminal matters. If someone is raped, it's the job of the police and the courts to find and apprehend the culprit. The only role the university should have is providing a comfortable and safe environment for victims of sexual assault to try and recover from their trauma. Certainly not trying to silence them.

— Jacob Landau (from web)

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

T

WELLNESS CENTRE, where the U of T boxing club trains, is cozy to say the least. No bigger than the average classroom and hitting full capacity at just 11 occupants, the room doesn’t feel like it should be able to accommodate a bunch of energetic student boxers. After observing one of the club’s classes last semester, however, I feel as though the space — small as it may be — serves its purpose.

Situated at the back of Elmsley Hall at St. Michael’s College, the Wellness Centre is the quintessential student boxer’s locale. The dimly lit room feels like a hole in the wall. The space is grungy, out of the way, and slightly intimidating, which come together to create a back-alley Fight Club vibe.

The boxing club turns out to be anything but intimidating. As I stand in the corner of the room getting my hand professionally wrapped by club president Koya Kuse, I watch a group of five students going about their warm up exercises; their routines are punctuated by laughter, joking from coaches, and frequent requests for music changes — there are no Tyler Durdens here.

HE

SPORTS AND ARTS

Kuse has been boxing for most of his adult life. He credits his mother with introducing him to the sport; the two often trained together when he was living at home in Paris, France.

He maintains that he is not a professional and enjoys the recreational aspect of boxing.

The love of the sport is what prompted Kuse, upon entering university, to look for a club to continue his training. “So it all started last year. I was looking for a boxing club but couldn’t find any at U of T, so I talked about boxing with a couple of friends, some of them box, some of them don’t,” he says.

“They told me that I could maybe create a club to train and maybe train other people as well, at least have something for us.” After rallying a group of residence mates and frosh week friends, Kuse helped inaugurate U of T’s boxing club.

Twenty-five years ago, there may not have been a need to create a club, as the university already had a varsity boxing team at that time. Established in the 1940s, U of T’s varsity boxing team was headed by Anthony Canzano, who coached the program for a total of 37 years — longer than any other varsity coach to date. Boxing was de-listed as an OUA and intercollegiate sport in the late 1980s though, marking the end of U of T’s varsity boxing team.

Kuse’s interest in boxing parallels a global spike in popularity of combat sports — including mixed martial arts (MMA) and Muay Thai — for health and fitness purposes. These activities have been both lauded and criticized for their extreme physicality.

Despite the rise in the popularity of these activities, the terms martial arts and combat sports are often confused.

Definitions vary significantly depending on the perspective of the person using the term and the activity they are describing. Judo, taekwondo, and karate are widely considered martial arts, whereas MMA and Muay Thai are considered combat sports.

Boxing, on the other hand, oten straddles both categories.

Some argue that boxing is a martial art because of the preci-

sion and grace required in the ring. Others claim that any activity with rules and a set of referees or judges cannot truly be considered a martial art — therefore placing boxing into the combat sport category.

For Remi Pulwer, head of public services at Kelly Library and martial artist, boxing falls into the latter category. “When you have a judge and someone who is controlling the match, that’s a sport, so in this case boxing would be a sport. However, taking into consideration the brutality of the outcome, sometimes this is on the verge of a martial art and martial sport in my mind,” he says.

Pulwer began his athletic career in fencing before moving through other multiple sports and martial arts. He finally settled on Taijutsu, one of the oldest forms of Japanese martial arts and the progenitor of multiple disciplines, like judo and aikido. Pulwer cautions that Taijutsu is not for the faint of heart. “This is a battle field form, so it’s a combat art, it’s not a sport in any way,” he explains.

Looking to continue practicing his craft, Pulwer and a number of students also interested in Taijutsu began the journey that led to the development of the Wellness Centre — a process that didn’t come easy.

STRUGGLING FOR SPACE

Five years ago, Pulwer started looking for a space to train at St. Michael’s College, eventually settling on a vacant space on the fifth floor of John Kelly Library.

After training there for a little while, the room was soon reclaimed. “Of course since space is such a commodity, we were moved out from that space so we moved to a different floor in the library and so on,” says Pulwer. This pattern of finding a space, using it for a while, and being relocated would continue for some time.

Last year, the group stumbled upon a hidden gem in the basement of Elmsley Hall. The space was cluttered with junk and was previously used as a hockey training facility, during the early days of the residence’s construction; it had all but been forgotten. “They have the change rooms, showers, there was a hallway, there was training space, there was a room for theory for the media, there was a whole complex inside, and we discovered it by removing garbage, and the showers were still operational, so it was quite a new discovery,” says Pulwer.

The Taijutsu group, which had now grown to include many students, staff, and volunteers, claimed the space and used it for more than just martial arts activities. They soon began to incorporate classes teaching self-defence, MMA, and yoga.

Despite the increased popularity of the classes and the suitability of the space, Pulwer and his gang of vagabond martial artists had to, yet again, move on. The facility ceased to be available to the group due to the demand for space at the college. “We were of course always given the other space, but eventually [every] single other space [became] claimed,” says Pulwer.

With the help of the facilities department at St. Mike’s, the group ended up relocating to their current location in Elmsley Hall, the final home of the Wellness Centre. Around the same time, Kuse and the boxing club were also looking

R O F G N I T FIGH

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TEAMI

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RELE

U O F T’S CO M B AT SP O RT S C LU BS FIN D T H EIR P L AC E O N C A M P US

ace to hold classes — something that Kuse expected e relatively easy after his simple registration. considering several other facilities on campus, the ched out to Pulwer, who had transformed his space at into a makeshift dojo, with the help of his martial arts nd volunteers “It was a concrete floor with walls and… unk,” says Pulwer about the state of the space before p fixed it up. With their help, the facility became ng new. “I actually came up with that name [the Wellntre] later on, when more people became interested ing instead of just martial arts,” he says. e the centre’s limitations, the boxing club is perseverthe group participants have learned to work around ial constrictions. “It is very difficult, but it’s nice,” says egarding the training, it’s almost private lessons. Nine s plus two coaches, so only 11 people... it’s four or five s for each coach during two hours, so that’s very nice.” lmost 600 members on the group’s Facebook page, b members, and a waitlist of 130 students, the boxhad to be creative in the scheduling of classes. Kuse how they fit in seven sessions a week, but only being offer nine spots per session still does not accommoof the boxing club’s members. ub is weighing their options and would ideally like both at St. Mike’s and at larger facilities on campus. one more fitness-oriented boxing class could happen House while something… more boxing-emphasized appen at St. Michael’s,” says Kuse, on the best case for the club going forward next year.

ING UP

wer, allowing the club to train at the Wellness Centre no deliberation. “It was up to me so I was like, ‘Why e says. He still insisted upon observing the classes eting with the executives and coaches to assess aching styles, in order to ensure they were to prosafe environment. pent] the last 25 years of my life in combat sports bat arts, and I don’t think the proper instruction in d of form of exercise cannot be including sparring. have sparring and I’m not really that much ed, if the people they have proper instrucy will not be injured,” explains Pulwer. “It o be a really nice group of people, and nthusiastic, and they work really

Kuse and Pulwer have made ness Centre work to suit the f their members. In the class I d, Kuse and fellow boxing club ofik ‘Toto’ Haciyev took students a series of defensive manoeuvres, athletes around the room to maxithe space they could. tial arts are] really beneficial for students, ly university students who face so much stress... w at the mental level, the physicality of martial uly beneficial,” says Pulwer. He believes that

EVANCE ARTICLE BY EMMA KIKULIS PHOTO BY SANDY MA ILLUSTRATION BY CORALS ZHENG

student identities can be restricted to their study; activities like martial arts and combat sports are therefore important to the maintenance of well-rounded lives.

The Wellness Centre has been able to increase the presence of martial arts on campus and is fostering a fast-growing combat sports community for St. George students. Pulwer notes — and history has proven — that the threat of eviction from the space still looms large. “[W]e still live under this threat of disappearing,” says Pulwer. “So we’re trying to make sure that you know the space is thought of as a wellness studio centre, so it’s constantly in people’s mind… I have a feeling, if we stop and we disappear... then the space is going to be looked at as a space again.”

Regardless of the precariousness of their situation, the boxing club is looking to expand and has even created a space in the Wellness Centre where they hung heavy and speed bags — staples in any boxing gym.

Determined to make the club a success, Kuse is excited to continue developing the club and increase awareness of boxing. “We are trying to help students relieve stress and on top of that it’s a fun sport.”

“[MARTIAL ARTS ARE ] REALLY BENEFICIAL FOR STUDENTS, ESPECIALLY UNIVERSIT Y STUDENTS WHO FACE SO MUCH STRESS... YOU KNOW AT THE MENTAL LEVEL, THE PHYSICALIT Y OF MARTIAL ARTS IS TRULY BENEFICIAL”

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ARTS&CULTURE

arts@thevarsity.ca

28 M arch 2016

A universal language

Local artists create colouring book for incoming Syrian refugees KASSANDRA HANGDAAN VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

NOOR NAQAWEH/THE VARSITY

Following Canada’s recent admittance of 25,000 Syrian refugees, one thing has become clear: integration into Canadian society now depends on the quality of the opportunities available to them.

Last February, artists Rafi Ghanaghounian, Andrea Pearce, and Nicole Baillargeon undertook an ambitious project in the form of a colouring book for recently arrived Syrian refugees. Their project, a success in Toronto’s new Syrian community, exists at the nexus of art and social justice and is intended to help Syrian children and their families acclimatize to the new environment.

Inspired by an idea from On stands at the Spacing Store.

Windsor high-school teacher PHOTO COURTESY OF MYLENE HANGDAAN Bronwen Wood, Pearce and Baillargeon, who are both from Windsor, decided to introduce the project in Toronto.

Tapping into the wealth of creative talent the city has to offer, the Welcome to Toronto colouring book features artwork from over 25 Toronto artists. The text under each image is in both English and Arabic.

The book project received financial support from a gofundme.com campaign that helped cover its initial printing costs.

The scenes depicted are a medley of images of some of Toronto’s architectural landmarks, seasonal activities, and favourite pastimes, to introduce Syrian families with Torontonian culture. Adding an individual touch, artists designed images that reflected their personal view of culture in Toronto.

Ghanaghounian revealed that he had an intimate relation to the refugee experience. “I was also interested in the project because of my own background — as I

immigrated to Canada from Iraq just before the war with Iran, as well as my grandparents escaping the Armenian genocide,” he explained. "This project let me reconnect with my own history, and also has allowed me to share the pleasures that Toronto has to offer.”

The book is being sold online at keep6.ca and at the Spacing Store, the Aga Khan Museum, and the Gardiner Museum, with the goal of raising enough funds to provide each Syrian family resettling in Toronto with a copy.

The book was launched at the Gladstone Hotel last February with a donation of over 500 books to school boards and organizations like Costi, who also helped with distribution. According to Ghanaghounian and Pearce, feedback from all involved has been positive.

On the project’s attempt to mix art and social justice, Baillargeon, Ghanougian, and Pearce agree that the value of art lies in its communicable aspect. Both likened art to a universal language.

“Art is certainly a natural platform to explore social justice issues. Language and other means of communication can sometimes have limitations that wouldn't necessarily apply to visual art,” said Pearce. “So much can be expressed in an image; the language of art is universal.”

Ghanaghounian echoes similar sentiments about art’s values: “Art always plays a huge role in any culture and has an ability to bring attention to specific issues that are most relevant to that culture.

In this case, art was used to incorporate everyday activities in Toronto to help a specific group encountering numerous challenges to transition more smoothly into their new environment, and it was wonderful to be able to contribute in this way.”

T H E VA R S I T Y

ARTS & CULTURE 19

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Modern art according to 'uoftdrizzy' Creator of U of T's fake-Drake Instagram account discusses upcoming feature at the Contact Photography Festival help students that are intimidated by the art world to develop an interest in art. She hopes the posters’ presence around campus “will help bridge the gap of art appreciation and encourage creative expression in the student population.”

NOOR NAQAWEH/THE VARSITY

SOPHIA SAVVA

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

By now you’ve probably seen 'uoftdrizzy' on Instagram, but starting May 1, you’ll get to see the locally-viral Instagram account as a public art installation for the twentieth anniversary of the Contact Photography Festival, one of the world’s biggest photography events. The account uoftdrizzy rose to Instagram fame through its edited photographs, which depict Drake as a UTSC student. The photos are accompanied by cap-

tions that turn Drake's lyrics into accounts of U of T student life, specifically lamenting things like grades and student debt.

“I wanted to do something creative and funny and just loved the absurdity of the idea of Drake being a UTSC student,” says the anonymous artist behind uoftdrizzy. The account has garnered almost 17,000 followers, including Drake himself.

Posters of uoftdrizzy’s Instagram posts — including new pictures taken at the St. George Campus — will be posted across U of T’s

downtown campus throughout May. According to the project’s curator, Bethea Arielle, the goal of the poster-sized installations is to “explore the concept of an analog feed,” and have it stand out among the “noise” around campus.

Arielle decided to include uoftdrizzy in the festival because she saw it as an opportunity to give "a platform to an emerging artist."

Ultimately, she wanted something that students could connect to.

Arielle hopes the relatability and familiarity of the installations will

INSTAGRAM AS A PLATFORM FOR MODERN ART The public art installations of uoftdrizzy are igniting a discussion regarding the relationship between social media and the contemporary art world. “Remember when Instagram was just a site where people would post filtered photos of their meals? I think [it’s] moved way beyond that. Social media allows people to challenge old-school ideas of what art should look like,” says the artist behind uoftdrizzy. “[Social media is] a pretty new style of exhibition, a new way of experiencing art,” agrees Blair Swann, art editor of The Hart House Review. Swann uses Richard Prince and Amalia Ulman as examples of Instagram artists that are changing “the way social media and contemporary art intersect.”

Swann also notes his own critique of the fake-Drake Instagram. “[I] see a bunch of pictures of campus with Drake stock images crappily photoshopped in,” he says. “[The] critic in me says there's no way anyone can mistake this for art.”

“I'd classify [uoftdrizzy] as more a humorist rather than an artist,”

says Tobias Williams, the curator of Vulgar Era, an art exhibition hosted at Toronto’s Xpace Cultural Centre. “However, there's a definite similarity between the methodology of [uoftdrizzy] and the way that an artist creates work. They are both driven by commitment to concept and perspective, as well as a certain amount of open-endedness.”

“Art is often about challenging perceptions, so I wholeheartedly believe uoftdrizzy deserves to be recognized as an artist,” says Arielle. She likens the art world to a continually transforming “hierarchy.”

On the other hand, uoftdrizzy notes that it’s perfectly fine if people don’t take their Instagram seriously. The artist was initially surprised that contact decided to use their Instagram feed, since contact traditionally features "high-art."

Nonetheless, uoftdrizzy sees this as an example of how the art world is transforming. “[People] want to be exclusive about who’s allowed in their little art club, and the reality is, art doesn’t belong to a single group of individuals and their version of it.

My [response] to them is to be more open-minded about what they consider art to be and how to see artists,” says uoftdrizzy. “And if they’re still mad, that’s okay, I’m going to keep creating. I’m not asking for their approval.”

Finding heroism in our national cinema Jay Baruchel discusses cinematic patriotism at the TIFF Bell Lightbox LOLA BORISSENKO VARSITY STAFF

Is there such a thing as a ‘Canadian hero’ in Canadian film? More specifically, where are the Rocky Balboas of Canadian cinema? These are but a few of the questions that were raised during acclaimed actor and director Jay Baruchel’s talk at the TIFF Bell Lightbox last Tuesday.

The focus of his discussion was heroism in Canadian cinema — citing Goon (2011), a film about Doug Glatt, a fictional minorleague hockey player — Baruchel emphasized the significance of athletes in garnering the affection of a nation. “The players in bright color shirts that represent your town or your country allow you to project your own thing on them” says Baruchel.

He jokingly notes that in Canada, “patriotism happens only every four years.”

According to Baruchel, introducing a hero like Glatt in a Cana-

dian film is helpful in augmenting the popularity of Canadian films worldwide. Many of the criticallyacclaimed Canadian productions, like David Cronenberg’s psychologically-driven science fiction dramas or Guy Maddin’s cynical depictions of Winnipeg, are often marketed as complex 'art films.' These films lack the optimistic protagonist with which most viewers empathize.

After all, the most commercially successful Canadian film in history was the 2001 film My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which comically explored the cultural differences that many Canadians know and experience.

The concept of a Canadian hero in cinema is not a recent phenomenon. Baruchel notes that, despite the lack of Canadian heroism, the topic has been of interest to film enthusiasts and historians since the 1960s. Christine Ramsay, a film critic, extrapolates on the trope of failed masculinities in Canadian cinema by using Donald Shebib’s 1970 film Goin’ Down the Road as an example. Shebib claims that unlike our neighbours down south, Canadians are preoccupied with survival rather than heroism and tend to explore socio-cultural margins rather

than idealized promises of a bright future. Similar to Glatt in Goon, the two men in Goin’ Down the Road travel to the promising city of Toronto; unlike the hero in Goon, they fail miserably.

Goon diverges from the cynicism of Goin’ Down the Road in its uplifting and optimistic mood, yet that does not indicate that the film adopts American idealism, or that it sugarcoats the realities of this brutal sport.

“There’s something beautiful in a guy who is willing to risk everything for what’s right,” says Baruchel. Although Glatt is more a fist-fighter than he is a hockey player, Baruchel suggests that his reliance on violence is

still important for the team, and generates audience excitement and support. Baruchel clarifies that his crew attempted to romanticize violence rather than glorify it in order to convey this uniquely Canadian experience.

Baruchel feels that the lack of Canadian heroism outside Goon implies that in Canadian cinema, “it is better to be a failure rather than a show-off.”

Baruchel also holds that we should not be afraid to tell Canadian stories. Featuring a truly Canadian hero, or even an authentic locale, is often problematic in contemporary national films. As Baruchel notes, many films made in Canada have

a strong dependence on American preferences; despite featuring local talent, Canadian filmmakers are often heavily funded by the US investors.

While Baruchel’s presentation could not quite answer the profound cultural questions raised regarding our national cinema, it highlighted some disparities between Canadian and American cinema. While Canadians can claim filmmakers like Cronenberg, Atom Egoyan, and Denis Villeneuve as our own, Americans can claim fictional icons like Rocky Balboa, Indiana Jones, and Forrest Gump as theirs.

The TIFF Bell Lightbox hosted Jay Baruchel last Tuesday. YASSINE ELBARADIE /THE VARSITY

Jay Baruchel. PHOTO COURTESY OF DISNEY

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VOL. IX NO. 2 | WINTER 2016

THE VARSITY MAGAZINE

THE POLITICS ISSUE O N S TA N DS T H I S W E E K

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T H E VA R S I T Y

ARTS & CULTURE 21

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Inspiration or plagiarism?

When comedians' jokes sound far too familiar

The Camera Club in focus The Hart House Camera Club hosts its 94th Annual Exhibition of Photography

REUT COHEN

ASSOCIATE ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

The Hart House Camera Club has been active since 1919. YASSINE ELBARADIE/THE VARSITY

ANIL PARTRIDGE

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

ELHAM NUMAN/THE VARSITY

If there’s one thing students know to be a cardinal sin, it’s plagiarism.

In hushed tones, our TAs often warn us not to stray from the path of academic integrity. Mentions of tribunals and disciplinary trials conjure images of overworked students being dragged into some kind of basement prison, shaking and crying: 'It was supposed to be common knowledge, I didn’t know I needed a footnote!'

Plagiarism is about as serious as it gets. So what happens when comedians plagiarize their quotes?

INSIDE AMY SCHUMER’S SCANDAL A few months ago, several comics accused Amy Schumer of stealing their jokes. Under the scrutiny of the Internet, instances where her jokes bore striking similarity to those of other comedians came to light. While Schumer denied these allegations and the issue faded away, it still reawakened an ageold debate: when does imitation become theft?

Whether it's relationships or politics, certain areas of life are ripe for comedic interpretation. When we laugh at a good joke, it’s because we recognize a degree of truth in it. Maybe Jerry Seinfeld points out the absurdities of airplane travel, or John Mulaney tells the audience how much of a pushover he was before getting a girlfriend. “My vibe is more like, hey, you could pour soup

in my lap and I’ll probably apologize to you!” Mulaney says, and we laugh because we understand.

We also laugh because comedians are able to voice things that we would never say out loud, on topics that aren’t exactly fit for the dinner table. Although there are some dubious cases, I would argue that, by and large, the jokes Schumer was accused of stealing fall into this category.

Standard Schumer fare is crude, what some might even dub lowbrow.

There’s no shortage of this kind of comedy, which is why the repetition of topics in crass jokes like hers isn’t impossible.

CHAPPELLE VS. NOAH By contrast, it is difficult to argue against plagiarism when it comes to exact wording, especially on a topic many comedians aren’t willing to take on.

For example, in 1998, Dave Chappelle cracked a joke about having become a “racism connoisseur” through travel. “You know, it's different region to region. Anyone ever been down South… the racism down there is just… stewed to a perfection,” he said.

Seventeen years later, Trevor Noah, the current host of The Daily Show, made a similar joke on tour about his experiences with racism since moving to the US from South Africa. Noah’s bit, with a similar anecdote, repeats the exact phrase

“racism connoisseur.” How likely is that? Not very.

MAKING AMENDS It’s notoriously difficult to take action against perceived intellectual property theft. Comedians aren’t exactly known for their wealth, so there’s an added deterrent in the form of hypothetical expenses for any legal action.

What’s the best possible outcome after an allegation of joke-theft has been made? Dane Cook and Louis C.K. may have the answer. In 2007, it was pointed out that three jokes on Retaliation, Cook’s comedy album from 2005, heavily resembled bits from Live in Houston, an album C.K. had released two years earlier.

The feud between the two simmered for a few years and was finally addressed on a 2011 episode of C.K.’s show Louie, in a scene between the two comedians playing themselves. While initially confrontational, the conversation eventually devolves into a debate over the semantics of “two thousand six” versus “two thousand and six.” So, stealing is wrong, but when it comes to the difference between potato and poh-tah-toe — it’s all funny, after all.

Arriving early, I wandered through the Hart House halls in search of photographs displayed at the Hart House Camera Club’s 94th Annual Exhibition of Photography. I came across one entitled Existence Y’all,

by Joshua Payne Smith; a dancer floats delicately at the top of the frame in between swaths of bright, white light.

As I continued, a monochrome print entitled It Grows by Anastasiya Martyts caught my eye. The photograph is of a pale neckline with a floral tattoo, its ink creeping out from the frame like a vine.

Founded in 1919, the Camera Club has continuously consisted of a full-service darkroom and instructors offering courses to both students and the general public.

Rick Palidwor, the program advisor, tells me that the Camera Club currently has about 90 members. William J. Dowkes, U of T alumnus and namesake for several Camera Club awards, tells me that its membership peaked at 400 about 20 years ago. Palidwor attributes this decline to developments in technology. With the advent of digital photography, he says, people lost interest in making prints. Dowkes doesn’t hesitate to credit technological advances with the development of the art form though.

Dowkes reminds me that the W.J. Blackhall Award for Altered Images rewards digitally altered photos and adds that there has been a resurgence of interest in analog photography among young people in recent years.

As viewers began to gather in the hall, I stopped in front of a submission titled Field in Winter,

by Stefan Ferraro. The photograph depicts a lone wooden hut that sits in a desolate frozen field. Isolation,

by Art Chow, depicts another lone dwelling — a ramshackle cabin with broken boards jutting out like crooked teeth beneath a barren tree.

Dowkes walked me through the history of the awards being given out that night. Noting an absence of photographs of campus life, Yousuf Karsh, worldrenowned portrait photographer, who Dowkes says was involved in photographing student theatre productions, became the namesake for the Campus Life Images award. The K.B. Jackson Award, says Dowkes, was established by a U of T physics professor who petitioned the faculty to establish an engineering physics program. The program has since become the current undergraduate engineering science program.

Dowkes himself is the namesake of the awards for the categories of People, Places, and Nature.

Palidwor introduced me to two members of the Camera Club.

Dowkes, they tell me, was a student in the sciences. One of his photographs entered in tonight’s competition — an old sepia-toned print of students gathered on a lawn on campus with surveyor’s tripods — may as well have been a photograph of his class. When asked about membership, they say that attendance at events fluctuates. The club holds ‘photography walks’, where members roam en masse around the city taking shots. Most recently, the group walked along 'graffiti alley' near Queen and Spadina. They hold regular ‘salons,’ where members offer criticism of each other’s work.

All photos are on display outside of the East Common Room of Hart House until April 17.

22 ARTS & CULTURE

M O N DAY 28 M A R C H 2 016 arts@thevarsity.ca

IN CONVERSATION WITH:

Liza Eurich The minimalist painter will be the featured artist at the upcoming Trinity College Art Show

ELIZAVETA MIRONOVA VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Maple wood and white paint provide an intentional tranquility to Liza Eurich’s minimalist artwork. With a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Western Ontario, Eurich will be a featured artist of the 2016 Trinity Art Show.

As a precursor to the event, I spoke with her about her career as an artist and the source of her inspiration.

The Varsity: Do you align yourself with a specific movement? Is there a certain emotion you want your art to evoke? What is the meaning?

Liza Eurich: "I’m interested in process. It’s very much where my work comes from — investigations in the space of the studio, playing with materials and different construction methods. I’m always looking at ways to think about process or show process that’s not necessarily illustrative — so it might not immediately be evident in the finished work... Flexible because you have to multitask; mobile because you often have to travel somewhere else to work; and precarious because this kind of labor is often contractual - there is nothing [that’s] long term about it. One way to contest this move is through oppositional modes of descent that foreground latency.

Meaning and processes are always deferred to some extent. When I talk a lot about process, I’m very interested in failure, and things that don’t work in the space of the studio that then lead you somewhere else — to something unexpected — so it’s a way of working through sideways movements, thinking about potential outcomes rather than predetermined ones...

I want the viewer to be able to engage with the works on some level, but for that to be a little more critical; that they might have to work a bit harder or take a closer look at the work to figure out or decide where meaning is for them."

TV: Are there any themes that you're interested in portraying in your art? Other than exploring the concept of process.

LE: "A lot of the work deals with mechanisms of display. Thinking about the relationship an object

Liza Eurich talks about process, meaning and inspiration. PHOTOGRAPHER/THE VARSITY

has with the other object that’s meant to display it. There is usually a hierarchy between those two things. Whether the frames, the plinths, they’re meant to appear very impartial or meant to appear as invisible secondary component — so I try to interrupt that. The piece Through and Through from the front looks like an object on a plinth, but when you move around the space you see that they’re actually connected — so it’s one work that doesn’t privilege either component."

TV: What drives you to create art?

What is your source of inspiration?

LE: "Because I have a background in English literature, I do always go back to texts. When I’m stuck I start reading different things that might be generative of an idea. Sometimes I read something within the contemporary art discourse, or other times I’ll just take a step back and read something unrelated, which gets me thinking about things again in a different way. That’s how I can pull ideas or decide on new directions I might potentially want to go."

TV: Do you have any advice for young artists?

LE: "Mentorship is very important... invite people to see your studio space and have discussions about the work. When you’re making stuff you’re so embedded in it that sometimes you might think it’s doing something, but it’s actually having the opposite effect. Inviting people or having some sort of engagement with the arts community on a broader context — are so important and trying to be active in the community is very important like going to openings and those sort of things so you can meet the other people that you potentially would want to collaborate with. I also think that it can be very useful to do very tedious things like learning how to write a thorough or clear proposal for exhibitions."

Liza Eurich’s artwork will be on display at the Trinity College Art Show from April 1-3.

T H E VA R S I T Y

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Student-run initiative takes ‘ideas worth spreading’ slogan to heart

CIENC

E

‘Edge’ marks the largest ever TEDxUofT conference

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D UN T

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SCIENCE

ANTIFIBROTIC FACTORS: THE BRIGHT SIDE IN TISSUE REPAIR Richard Gilbert, U of T medicine professor and cofounder of Fibrotech, a biotechnology company ill present ne developments in antifibrotic therapies.

Monday, March 28 11:20–12:30pm FitzGerald Building 150 College Street Rm237 Admission: Free

BIOETHICS SEMINAR — PATIENT AUTONOMY AND MATURE MINORS The Joint Center for Bioethics welcomes Andrew Franklin-Hall, assistant professor at the U of T philosophy department. He will be presenting on consent and the competency of minors in making medical decisions independently.

Wednesday, March 30 4:00–5:30pm Health Sciences Building 155 College Street Rm106 Admission: Free

FREE INTRO: WEB DESIGN USING HTML & CSS, TORONTO T

ALEX MCKEEN FEATURES EDITOR

Nazar Poladian knows what it is like to live on the edge of society: he recently arrived in Canada from Syria and is a social entrepreneur that connects refugees to one another through technology.

A team of organizers, speakers, and 750 delegates ventured to the St. Lawrence Centre last Saturday, March 19 for Edge, this year’s student-run TEDxUofT conference. They listened to talks by Poladian and many others, all of whom are innovating to produce solutions to social problems. Speakers included Angela Shocllig, an expert on artificial intelligence; Lisa Bovin, “an interdisciplinary artist and bioethics specialist” who works to connect bioethics with indigenous culture; and Sarah Hughes, a UTM professor specializing in urban climate change issues.

According to organizers, the event was an opportunity for students across all disciplines to engage with, and learn about, innovative ideas in other fields.

“Usually students are in their departments, and they only get to hear professors from their departments as well as friends and this is a way for them to hear other great minds from the university,” says Issey Roquet, fourth-year

UofT presented students across multiple fields ith opportunit to engage ith and share ideas JOY LI/THE VARSITY

student and TEDxUofT chair. “We hear feedback from people that every year, once people go to the conference, they hear a talk on something that’s completely different from what they… frequent. Sometimes they merge those ideas into what they do.”

Roquet’s remarks echo the purpose of TED, a nonprofit organization tasked with ‘spreading ideas.’ TEDx events are run by local teams of independent organizers but still follow the TED mission.

For Swarochish Goswami, an 18-year-old social entrepreneur and speaker at this year’s conference, events like the TED conferences are essential to raising awareness. “I think a ton of people either stay ignorant to a problem, or they tend to not even know about it.

And I think these types of forums allow us to talk about issues that are very close to us,” he says.

Goswami’s talk focused on the importance of youth harnessing the promises of social entrepreneurship. He is the co-founder of Canada Thinks, a social enterprise aimed at providing youth with platforms and funding to carry out their innovative ideas and bring about social change.

“When people care about the issue they’re trying to solve, they’ve been impacted by it day in and day out, they’re all the more likely

to work hard in trying to solve that issue,” Goswami says of social entrepreneurs, adding that “The sky’s the limit there.”

This was the first time that the TEDxUofT team took the annual event off campus since it began in 2013. Roquet says that the decision was motivated by the high demand for tickets and the inability of on-campus venues to accommodate larger crowds.

For an event run entirely by student volunteers, the increase in size was a challenge.

The team needed to accommodate not only the seated audience, but also enough space for intermission activities, including a virtual reality lounge and an activity space hosted by the U of T Hatchery.

“We just started in the very beginning taking a lot of risks and trying things,” Roquet says. “The stakes were higher for everyone on the team just because it meant more work and more responsibility.”

In the future, Roquet expects that TEDxUofT will continue to expand, and she hopes that it will be able to feature more diverse speakers, including more women of colour.

TEDxUofT is a tri-campus initiative, but it is not the only TEDx event at the university.

TEDxUTSC took place on January 30 and was themed ‘Dare to Know.’

Lemonade School is offering an introductory class on HTML fundamentals and CSS style. You’ll need a laptop with a text editor if you would like to participate in coding. The organizers recommend Sublime Text3.

Wednesday, March 30 6:30–8:30pm Daniels Spectrum Building 585 Dundas Street East Third Floor Admission: Free with registration

REDESIGNING CARE PROCESSES TO MANAGE COMPLEX SENIORS: EXPERIENCES IN PRIMARY AND LONGTERM CARE U of T welcomes Dr. George A. Heckman, associate professor in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo, to give a talk about long-term care for elderly suffering from chronic disease.

Thursday, March 31 12:00–1:00 pm Institute for Life Course and Aging 263 McCaul Street Third Floor Contact event organizers to register

T H E VA R S I T Y

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Canada’s sweetest export may be the key to preventing Alzheimer’s disease Could a spoonful a day protect your memory?

MISHKA DANCHUK-LAUZON VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Despite high hopes, the lead researchers caution against drinking maple syrup by the glass KASSANDRA NERANJAN/THE VARSITY

Where’s your spot?

Find wellness, health, and mental health resources for students.

It’s that time of year again, the weather is getting warmer and the sap is running from the maple trees.

Not only is maple syrup a great addition to almost any dish, but it has recently been suggested that the sweet treat may also help prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

Professor Donald Weaver from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Toronto and his team have recently discovered a possible link between the consumption of maple syrup and a healthy brain.

The research is still in the early stages, but its findings thus far are very promising. No one should start drinking maple syrup like it is water — more work needs to be done.

The beneficial potential of polyphenols is common knowledge in the scientific community. Polyphenols are molecules that are plantbased and have various antioxidant properties.

With this in mind, Weaver and his team “started searching for a novel source of polyphenols.” They decided to research trees and their sap since it was a resource that was still untapped.

They discovered that while maple sap does not posses any interesting biological properties in itself, the boiling process used to make maple syrup enables the formation of novel polyphenols.

“Maple syrup extract is able to prevent the misfolding and clumping of both beta-amyloid and tau [proteins],” a property that no previously discovered compound has possessed.

In Alzheimer’s disease, betaamyloid proteins form plaques in the brain that clump together and block cell signaling at the synapse. In healthy individuals,

tau proteins help keep transport systems organized, however, tau proteins are able to form ‘tangles’ which keep them from organizing the transport systems, and thus, without nutrients, cells die.

The misfolding and clumping of beta-amyloid and tau proteins in the brain has been shown to be a cause of Alzheimer’s dementia.

Weaver states that the future goal of this polyphenol research “is to find a single chemical that is drug-like, able to cross the blood-brain barrier and get into the brain, and able to bind to both beta-amyloid and tau and to prevent their misfolding.”

To be able to find the single chemical with the biological properties observed, the compound found in maple syrup extract needs to be refined. Once it has been found, researchers will need to evaluate whether a sufficient dose of the chemical can be obtained through the consumption of maple syrup or if the potential synthesis of the chemical in laboratory is necessary.

Other important properties to identify are an ability to reach the brain and the dosage required to effectively prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

Although the current research has only been conducted in test tubes so far, media outlets around the globe have reported on this incredible finding.

Weaver is glad to see that none of the results presented in the media have been oversold, which is a common problem with the media’s portrayal of new scientific findings.

Will we eventually see a drug emerge on the market that contains maple syrup? Who knows. For now, all we can do is keep enjoying our Canadian treat.

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M O N DAY 28 M A R C H 2 016 science@thevarsity.ca

Smiles not always the solution U of T psychologists determine that parents who regulate their emotions experience lower personal wellbeing

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A research team of psychologists out of the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) led by Dr. Bonnie Le has been making strides in a study of parental emotional regulation and its resultant effects on their general wellbeing.

“Parents try to control the expressions of their emotions in ways that they think are beneficial, specifically suppressing the expression of their negative emotions or amplifying the expression of positive emotions,” observes Le, a postdoctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology at U of T. In a series of controlled experiments, Le and her team found that parents experience an observable decrease in personal wellbeing, worsened relationship quality, and feel less capable of meeting the needs of their children when they regulate their emotions.

In their first experiment, researchers asked parents to describe a time where “they amplified positive emotions,” “suppressed negative emotions,” or “expressed their true feelings.” In their second experiment, Le and her team surveyed 118 parents who reported on moments of caregiving for their children over a tenday period. Both experiments found that parents “felt worse overall” when they had regulated their emotions, rather than behaving freely with their children.

Speaking generally, Le states that the most important findings of her research show that “controlling your emotions, by not authentically expressing them, does come at some degree of cost.”

The implications of these findings demonstrate a change in perceived best practices when it comes to parenting, suggesting that parents should focus on being true to themselves, and in doing so, setting a better example for their children.

“The biggest thing is understanding how parents can engage in the act of parenting and be more or less happy,” explains Le. She goes on to observe the prevalence of decreased relationship quality with a spouse following the onset of parenthood.

In terms of future directions, the team hopes to study the effects of emotion regulation on the parents’ children. They will also be exploring other emotion controlling strategies, including amplifying negative emotions and suppressing positive emotions. An example of this is seen when parents suppress laughter following a child’s mistake.

T H E VA R S I T Y

SCIENCE 27

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Like humans do Can U of T researchers help turn computers into mini-minds?

MARCO PICCOLO

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

While calculators can be helpful when tackling some math equations, they can’t compete with the complex thought processes of humans — at least, not yet. Dr. Richard Zemel and Dr. Raquel Urtasun of U of T’s Computer Science Department are trying to speed that research along; the two are working to build computers to think more like humans when it comes to processing data.

The two are part of a team of scientists and mathematicians led by the Baylor College of Medicine, trying to understand the computational building blocks of the brain. The goal is to create more advanced learning machines.

For this project, researchers at the University of Toronto will be partnering with the California Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Cornell University, Rice University, and the Max Planck Institute at the University of Tübingen.

Their research is supported by a program known as Machine Intelligence from Cortical Networks (MICrONS), and operates under the umbrella of Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). The IARPA is a US agency which invests in high-risk, high-reward research that offer solutions to the needs of US intelligence agencies. It is also part of the broader BRAIN Initiative, launched in 2013 by President Obama with an eye towards understanding devastating brain diseases and developing new technology, treatments, and cures.

This research will not only help scientists understand the computational workings of the brain, but will also advance the study of synthetic neural networks in order to better

MIRKA LOISELLE/THE VARSITY

predict events such as cyber-attacks, financial crashes, or hazardous weather.

Algorithms based on neural networks are already used in a wide range of areas, from the consumer-level to military intelligence as seen in “speech recognition, text analysis, object classification, [as well as] image and video analysis programs. The applications are broad,” says Dr. Zemel, adding that the “aim is to extend some of the most popular types of machine-learning models using deep neural networks.”

The massive amounts of data produced across the world on a daily basis affects

everything from spam in your inbox to military intelligence operations. Smarter and more discerning learning machines will help to manage and present information in a more comprehensible way.

“Currently the rules by which activities in a network are defined are mostly ad hoc, and validated and improved by experience. Here we hope to gain some insight from natural deep neural networks to refine these rules,” said Zemmel.

In other words, the ways in which current algorithms represent, transform, and learn from data are determined largely through trial and error.

Based on models dating back to the 1980s, advancements in neural networking have been confined to scientists’ ability to measure the activity of only a few neurons at a time. Today, more accurate and plentiful data allows researchers to take a more enhanced detailed look at brain activity, allowing for a more computational, rather than architectural understanding.

The availability of better tools, techniques, and technology will allow MICrONS researchers to measure the activity of 100,000 neurons while a subject is engaged in visual perception and learning tasks. Although the research teams will be mapping the activity of one cubic millimetre of a rodent’s brain (a volume less than one-millionth the size of the human brain), these tools will allow them to analyze neural circuits in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago.

The precision and microscopic scale of this research is challenging as scientists are aiming to obtain a highly detailed and complete understanding of one small part of the brain, rather than a structural understanding of the brain entirely.

The team hopes to develop new methods of passing messages from this data, which describe how information is passed between the model neurons in a big network.

The research that doctors Zemel and Urtasun are conducting can bring computers closer to actual brain levels of functioning. This will allow for more powerful performance that will better align with human needs.

Hacking the genome What it’s like to compete against over 100 other developers in a hackathon AHMED HASAN

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

The Bahen Centre for Information Technology at U of T was overrun with a crowd of over 150 students on March 12. Standing in line, the students were anxiously awaiting participant wristbands for the

annual U of T Biohacks competition held

by U of T’s iGEM team. iGEM is an international undergraduate competition for synthetic biology. Last fall, the U of T team placed silver at the iGem Boston jamboree. As the annual synthetic biology competition at U of T, Biohacks attracts students from universities across On-

Many of the participants stayed up all night to complete their projects. PHOTO COURTESY OF MARK WANG

tario. This year’s event attracted a total of 42 teams of up to four students each.

The event began with a keynote from Hui Yuan Xiong, a researcher and cofounder at Deep Genomics, a company that uses computational machine learning to work with biological data for medical applications. Before the competition, a number of coding workshops were held in order to refresh contestants on the basics of computational biology.

Computational biology, which involves developing and using tools to analyze and model biological data and systems, is an immensely broad field. As such, there was an enormous variety of subtopics within which teams could pick a problem to solve.

While U of T’s iGEM provided a list of suggested topics on the biohacks website as a springboard to work off, virtually anything within the realm of computational biology was considered fair game.

The competition lasted through Saturday night into the morning on Sunday, with many teams — including my own — sacrificing an entire night’s worth of sleep to complete their projects. Late night trips for coffee and poutine were arranged. Biologists and computer scientists cooperated and squabbled, trying to bridge the differences between their disci-

plines in order to create something as sound in biological theory as it was in lines of code.

The next morning saw just 13 of the original 42 teams present their work, followed by a closing keynote speech from Professor Alan Davidson on his work with gene annotation.

Ripped Genes, a team of three won big and walked home with Pebble Watches for their inventive work — they used boolean networks to model genetic circuits.

Biohacks was a long time in the making; according to iGEM Co-President Seray Cicek, the team organizing the event spent nearly five months putting together the event and building the website. But the work put in was certainly not in vain: soon after the website was online, “about 200 users visited [it] within 48 hours,” said Albert Calzaretto, one of the organizers.

“We ultimately had around 500 people register across Canada,” added fellow organizer and iGEM Co-President Anthony Zhao — “but we could only have space for 150.”

“There’s clearly great potential and interest in bioinformatics,” said Calzaretto.

Biohacks was a weekend pushing biology, computer science, and human fatigue to their upper limits.

var.st/sports

SPORTS 28 M arch 2016

sports@thevarsity.ca

Sports and drinking: a perfect match Alcohol is the norm in sports ADIT DAGA

ASSOCIATE SPORTS EDITOR

Some equate Varsity Stadium’s poor attendance during varsity football games to a lack of spirit. That would be true, but just a couple kilometres south, the opposite can be said for attendees at the Air Canada Centre (ACC), who are cheering on the Raptors or the Leafs.

Is it simply because people get more pleasure from watching the Raptors than from watching the Varsity Blues? Out of all universities in the OUA though, U of T boasts some pretty impressive standings. Rather, it appears as if the problem stems from the lack of a form of enjoyment that is automatically associated with sports: alcohol.

“I went to a game, like most first years do when they get into university,” said Arvin Reyes, a second-year media studies student.

“But after being only one of 50 or so in the audience, and a large absence of alcohol when attending the game, I think I’m better off going to Western’s games with my friends.”

A University of Minnesota study on alcohol consumption in sports showed that a substantive amount of post-secondary students were above the .08 limit while watching a game. This suggests that drinking goes hand-in-hand with sporting events, which is why U of T needs to consider offering it at its facilities.

Drinking in a more controlled environment is also safer for the students. Last year, University of Maryland president Wallace Loh said student leaders want to “transition from a culture of unsafe pregame binge drinking to a culture focused on healthier social drinking.”

Alcohol is an essential component to live sport. KALEB FULGHAM/CC FLICKR

Seeing as it would be impossible to eliminate the drinking aspect of live sports, it would be beneficial to incorporate it into these events legally. Plus, events on campus would encourage attendees that live in close proximity to travel by walking instead of driving.

Additionally, tailgating — when fans gather before games to socialize and eat meals served from the back of trucks — promotes a sense of school spirit and attachment that transcends attendance at a game.

At Louisiana State University, for example,

socializing begins the night before the game and continues on until well after the game.

In most cases, it’s not even about the game; it’s about the experience that a student has participating in something larger than themselves. It’s time U of T and universities alike recognize that alcohol facilitates that process.

A recent article in the New York Times describes the relationships an attendee built while tailgating before a game. “Normally, you just talk about football, try to initiate conversation,” the fan said. “You just got to

talk to people and then you realize, ‘ Hey, I’ll see you again next time.’ That’s the whole point of tailgating… you meet everyone around you.”

Including alcohol in sporting events might bring about additional issues, but these could be prevented with the right type of controls.

U of T could benefit from some increased school spirit at games and providing alcohol would be a step in the right direction.

Into the maw of victory Hart House event explores inclusivity and equity for women in sport IRIS ROBIN NEWS EDITOR

I have seen more live sports in the past two years of my life than in all the years preceding them. When I came to Canada, I came with a checklist of sorts: I made it my goal to see as many quintessentially North American sporting events as possible.

Last weekend, I was able to check basketball off the list, which joined ice hockey and baseball. The game I attended was between the Toronto Raptors and the Boston Celtics — I was quickly corrected when I attempted to pronounce it with a hard ‘c’.

While I do not care for playing sports myself, I love watching them and participating in the rituals of the game, including singing the national anthem at the beginning. I even had a hat to remove when prompted to do so by the announcement.

Knowing everyone else would come dressed in some manner of team swag, I had anticipated feeling out of place, so I had done my best by wearing my OVO cap in homage to Drake, the Raptors’ patron, and a jumper with ‘Toronto vs.

Everybody’ emblazoned on the front.

I picked up a sense of the rules of the game fairly quickly: players may move anywhere on the court, the perimeters of which are clearly marked; the further away a player is from the basket when they take a successful shot, the higher the number of points they score; and fouls may result in a penalty shot or two.

After the game began, the first thing that surprised me was the speed at which it was played. The players moved with such fluidity, and it was a delight to watch.

I lack sufficient understanding of the game’s technicalities to appreciate the players’ strategic manoeuvres, but I enjoyed what I saw for its aesthetic merits.

This proved to be a problem when I came to see the beauty of the opposing team’s playing too. I exclaimed, “Wow! Nice shot!” when Boston scored with seemingly effortless grace. I began to applaud in appreciation but realized that nobody around me was doing the same.

As the game went on, I heard Toronto fans buzzing and howling in attempt to throw Boston off their game. I thought the lack of applause and hooliganism distasteful, but I accepted it as part of the experience, even if I did not wish to partake in it myself. When I tried to politely clap for Boston I was cowed out of my attempts by the silence of Toronto fans around me.

The entertainment during time-outs and breaks was also something I considered to be more North American than British, with the t-shirt cannons being a particular highlight. I did not try to catch one, but

watching the cannon firing into the stands was a novel experience.

Aside from that, I was not particularly fond of the commercialization and would have preferred some game commentary or replays of impressive shots. Still, it was entertaining and I did benefit from the sponsorship in the end; the Raptors broke 100 points, meaning that I was entitled to a free slice of pizza the following day.

The end score was 105–91 for the Raptors.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, my criticisms notwithstanding. I had the fortune to see two slam-dunks, one by each team.

A slam-dunk is a wonderfully flamboyant gesture. It is testament to a player’s confidence in their ability to pull off the move and their team’s capacity to comfortably forgo a higher scoring shot. I truly appreciate the sacrifice of a larger victory for pure theatrics.

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And the band did not play on

Putting the ‘free’ in freerunning

Musical presence at varsity games promotes school spirit

The emergence of Toronto’s parkour community ZOHEB BOGA

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

DENISE VILLATE/THE VARSITY

ISAAC CONSENSTEIN VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

In NCAA sports, a school’s marching band plays a vital role in the overall game day atmosphere. The noise elicits excitement in the stands, and the band’s performances entice more fans to attend games. Marching bands at division one schools like Ohio State and USC put on intricate half time shows to entertain attendees; these bands bring a sense of pride and spirit to the student body.

Last September, I was hired as a promoter for U of T’s varsity sports program.

I was very excited and surprised to learn that U of T actually paid students to attend games and promote the program to fans. As I thought about it more though, I realized that this suggests that U of T needs to pay students by the hour to help draw fans, since the football, hockey, and basketball teams aren’t able to draw crowds on their own.

At the first Blues football game against the Queen’s Gaels, I was pleasantly surprised to see cheerleaders, halftime entertainment, and concessions stands: it felt like a real college football experience. The Queen’s team entered the stadium with a full marching band, which was able to perform on the field throughout the game.

The band created a spirited energy in their fan section — unfortunately U of T didn’t have anything to match the musical Gaels.

Darnell Girard, an ex-Blues football player explained, “It’s pretty evident by the attendance at our games that spirit is lacking here... by being a player you definitely see the lack of it.”

At a school of over 60,000 students spread across three campuses, it is hard to foster school spirit. But as the top university in Canada, U of T may want to look into adding an official marching band to the varsity roster.

U of T students show glimpses of school spirit during frosh week, when students cheer and represent their colleges in a huge parade down St. George Street.

It appears that school spirit is created in “smaller units as something to build off of,” explained Will Merrik, Joonyur Bnad Leedur of U of T’s the Lady Godiva Memorial Bnad. “So for us, we have the band, we have our own skule, s-k-u-l-e, spirit. We need to cultivate that and kindle it through the year and not just here, it has to continue.”

The bnad is an open and accepting student group that allows anyone to join and play an instrument, but it is technically not a ‘marching band’. Skulepedia accurately refers to it as a “meandering band.”

When asked if a marching band would add energy during game day, Girard explained, “[The crowd would] be aroused... it might actually let them know when to cheer.”

Girard went on to mention that the Lady Godiva Memorial Bnad ended up having a huge impact on the atmosphere whenever they attended games. “The crowd support seemed to double, triple maybe... it’s something we could really benefit from,” he explained.

Merrik added that it “would certainly serve to bring together people from different faculties and different schools under that flag of school spirit once again.”

As U of T has invested a lot of money and resources into their varsity teams, it would be great to see the student body show more appreciation and excitement over their sports teams. A marching band will undoubtedly draw more fans to games and increase school spirit among U of T’s vast student body.

Remember the carefree days of youth, when climbing around on the jungle gym was the most exhilarating part of a trip to the local park? Imagine being able to relive that excitement to an even greater degree.

Parkour, or freerunning, is the French martial art of momentum and has been steadily rising in popularity around Toronto over the past several years. Practitioners consist of martial artists, daredevils, adrenaline junkies, and those who simply want to move without restriction.

It is the art of getting from one point to another in the quickest or most efficient way possible — with some flashy flips thrown in every now and then. There are several basic methods of movement in parkour: rolls, vaults, jumps, and drops.

Below the surface, parkour can also be considered an art form and mode of expression. Chris Taylor, a gymnastics instructor and parkour practitioner at U of T, believes that parkour has the power to be used as a means of self-expression.

It allows one to move their body rhythmically with a flow that encompasses a feeling of weightlessness, while still offering a wide range of choice in how one tackles a particular obstacle. There are no strict rules as to how one should practice and no set objectives to follow.

An individual’s experience is tailored exclusively to them, based on what they want to do and how far they are willing to push themselves physically. If you want to perform flashy stunts, develop a skill-set that can help prevent injury, or experience the closest thing to unassisted human flight, parkour has you covered.

It is also an activity that almost anyone can get involved with to some capacity. Taylor mentioned having a 70-year-old student who, after adjusting his movements, was able to practice parkour-like motions in a way that complimented his physical abilities. Given parkour’s free-flowing nature,

the only barriers in parkour are the ones that are self-imposed.

In Toronto, you may see people training around Queen’s Park or in the city’s largest indoor gym, The Monkey Vault, which is located at St.Clair Avenue and Symes Road.

The Monkey Vault was the brain child of Dan Iaboni, who opened the massive indoor park “dedicated to movement.” His purpose was to give Toronto’s parkour community a place to train and to teach those who are interested but not necessarily ready or willing to train on the streets.

It may seem daunting to leap across tall buildings or climb around in the potentially dangerous and highly industrialized downtown core. Toronto’s parkour community is actually very accepting of beginners, and most of the basics can be drilled and practiced in a controlled environment. The Monkey Vault offers beginner classes for anyone with an itch to try something new.

The Monkey Vault’s goal is to help people “reach further and higher levels” of personal development, which transcends above the martial art itself. They aim to recapture the spirit of childlike freedom, a sentiment with which parkour practitioners can readily agree.

Whether you see it as a martial art, a creative outlet, or something in between, it’s clear that parkour has become an exciting niche pastime with an expanding community in Toronto and U of T. Spring is around the corner, so now is the perfect time to get involved in Toronto’s parkour scene. If you are cautious and practice, it can be a very rewarding experience.

DENISE VILLATE/THE VARSITY

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Superstition in sport The reason behind good luck charms JENNIFER FAKAS

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Ever notice when hockey players in the playoffs grow their beards until their team is eliminated? Or how many teams refuse to touch the trophies awarded to the conference champions? Do these kinds of rituals and traditions actually make a difference on game day?

Many of these habits can seem bizarre and even embarrassing. Yet for many players, these rituals play a large role in their success on the field.

In sports, a ritual is a certain action that an athlete performs because they believe it has the power to influence their game in a positive way. These behaviours range from wearing certain clothes, to eating certain foods, to listening to particular music during pre-game warm up.

The superstition surrounding rituals arise almost accidentally: an athlete has an exceptional performance and then tries to determine which of their actions could have been the cause of their success.

Often, the things that stick out during these post-game evaluations are the little things; what they wore, what they ate, a song they heard, a conversation they had, or even the order in which they did these things.

Hall of Fame NHL goaltender Ken Dryden opens up about some of his own superstitions in his book The Game. Dryden’s personal rituals range from nodding at a particular Montreal Forum usherette before

DENISE VILLATE/THE VARSITY

home games, to shooting a puck off a certain part of the boards at the start of pre-game warm ups.

“I don’t tell anyone about them, I’m not proud I have them. I know I should be strong enough to decide one morning, any morning, no longer to be a prisoner to them. Yet, I seem helpless to do anything about,” Dryden says.

He isn’t the only NHL superstar who engages in specific rituals before a game. Sid-

ney Crosby, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ twotime MVP, wears one sweat-stained hat per season after games and practices putting his equipment on always in the exact same order (right-to-left).

Corey Perry, the star winger of the Anaheim Ducks, has a specific eight-step ritual he performs before every game, which includes twirling his stick a certain way and tapping the ice before going into the locker room to put his pads on.

George Gmelch, a professor of anthropology at the University of San Francisco who has studied superstition in baseball for decades, says that superstition is very commonly found in areas where there tends to be a lot of uncertainty, where new competition brings new obstacles to overcome.

Gmelch says, “What they’re really doing is giving themselves confidence. If I do these little rituals, then I’m gonna feel confident going into this activity, and I can succeed and do well.”

This notion of self-efficacy — a person’s belief in one’s ability to succeed in specific situations — has been found to result in real world increased performance. A 2010 article published in Psychological Science discusses a number of experiments that researchers used to prove how good-luck rituals improved performance in sports. The performance benefits gained from the good-luck rituals were found to be a result of increased confidence.

Although athletes understand that wearing a sweaty hat or growing a beard doesn’t actually affect the outcome of a game, the idea that these rituals could possibly affect their performance, or give them some good luck, is enough to convince them to do it anyway.

When it comes down to it, athletes have nothing to lose by engaging in quirky pregame rituals, so why take the risk and ditch the old smelly hat?

‘She Talks’ about social change Hart House event explores inclusivity and equity for women in sport

Blues women’s volleyball head coach Kristine Drakich speaks at Hart House’s She Talks panel. NYIMA GYALMO/THE VARSITY

EMMA KIKULIS SPORTS EDITOR

“We’ve come so far in some ways in the conversations that we’re having, but we haven’t in so may other ways,” said Kristine Drakich, head coach of the Blues women’s volleyball team. “There’s almost like there’s this great distance from where we’re moving ahead, but we’re not picking up from behind.”

Drakich was one of four women from the U of T community to participate in the third installment of Hart House’s She Talks last week. She Talks rose out of the need for campus-wide conversation about issues women face in sport: sexism, misogyny, and sexualization.

Joining Drakich on the panel was national women’s dodgeball team member Savannah Burton, U of T masters student Alexandra

Maris, and Blues rugby player Rachel Pham — all of whom have faced or fought against discriminatory and exclusionary practices in the world of sport because they are women.

For Burton, who is Canada’s first openly trans athlete to compete internationally in a team sport, the support she received from her teammates was enough to help her overcome the fears she had about returning to sport after her transition.

“I was ready to give up on playing sports, like I was ready to give up everything,” said Burton who, after taking a year off, was unsure of her future in sport. After being approached by a friend to join a rowing team, Burton explained that participating in a sport where she was relatively unknown helped her gain the confidence necessary to return to her favourite sport — dodgeball.

“It was a horribly terrifying thing to do and the unknown was just really hard to deal with,” Burton said. “I was so relieved because I was worried about how I was going to be perceived and how people would treat me, and it was a really positive thing and kept me going to dodgeball Canada.”

The acceptance and support Burton received from her team and sport community is a thread that was woven into every panelist’s experiences. For Pham, who has competed in a myriad of sports including field hockey, track and field, and rugby, the team aspect of sport helped her navigate some of the stigma and sexist stereotypes that are all too common for women in sport.

“Really for me what I loved so much... about sport boiled down to... the community. I am very fortunate to be on a team that is very inclusive, we are very tight” Pham said.

For Pham, the decision to pursue sports at an intercollegiate level meant making the decision between conforming to traditional societal standards of femininity or becoming a successful, competitive athlete. “I had to make the choice of going to be able to be more socially acceptable or have a larger more muscular body, and obviously I chose to be an athlete” she said.

Rounding out the discussion, Maris, who is pursuing a masters degree from the faculty of women and gender studies at U of T, explained that in order to combat sexist practices in sport, we need to start with how women are portrayed in the media. “If there were pictures of women doing sports everywhere, I think there would be a more social acceptance of women being in sport and doing it,” she said.

Drakich followed with a comment that those at U of T need to be critical of gendered practices on campus, so that we can foster a strong and supportive sport community.

“We have to look at what we do, how critical are we of what we do, from you know recreation to intramurals to varsity” Drakich said. “What you need to have is some form of a community that you can go to, where you know your voice gets heard and that change will actually work, action will happen.”

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