September 26, 2022 (Volume 143, Issue 4)

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the.varsity the.varsity The Varsity

Jadine Ngan editor@thevarsity.ca Editor-in-Chief

Makena Mwenda creative@thevarsity.ca

Nawa Tahir managingexternal@thevarsity.ca Managing Editor, External

Sarah Artemia Kronenfeld managinginternal@thevarsity.ca Managing Editor, Internal

Angad Deol online@thevarsity.ca Managing Online Editor

Talha Anwar Chaudhry copy@thevarsity.ca Copy

Syeda Maheen Zulfiqar news@thevarsity.ca

Shernise Mohammed-Ali comment@thevarsity.ca

Janhavi Agarwal biz@thevarsity.ca Business & Labour Editor

Alexa DiFrancesco features@thevarsity.ca Features

Marta Anielska arts@thevarsity.ca

Sky Kapoor science@thevarsity.ca

Mekhi Quarshie sports@thevarsity.ca

Caroline Bellamy design@thevarsity.ca

Andrea Zhao design@thevarsity.ca

Vurjeet Madan photos@thevarsity.ca

Jessica Lam illustration@thevarsity.ca

Maya Morriswala video@thevarsity.ca

Aaron Hong aaronh@thevarsity.ca

Andrew Hong andrewh@thevarsity.ca deputysce@thevarsity.ca deputynews@thevarsity.ca utm@thevarsity.ca

Jadine Ngan Editor-in-Chief

Content warning: This article includes men tions of death, terrorism, and gender-based violence, including violence against LGBTQ+ people.

On September 22, several hundred U of T community members and mourners held a vigil in front of Convocation Hall to protest the death of Mahsa Amini. Amini, a 22-yearold Iranian Kurdish woman, had died in police custody after being detained for violating the country’s dress code.

Following Amini’s death, thousands of Ira nians took to the streets to protest her death and call for an end to the current Iranian re gime — headed by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — and its decades-long reign of violent oppression. Demonstrations have spread across at least 40 cities in Iran, as well as across various cities around the world, in cluding in Canada.

According to one of the vigil’s organiz ers, the U of T gathering held particular sig nificance because several U of T community members died on Flight 752 when the Iranian military shot the flight down in 2020.

Mahsa Amini’s death

On September 13, “morality police” in the Iranian capital of Tehran detained Amini for breaking the country’s mandatory dress code, which requires women to cover their hair with a scarf and wear loose-fitting clothing in pub lic. During her arrest and detention, the young Kurdish woman sustained several blows to the head and fell into a coma. She died on Sep tember 16.

According to authorities, Amini suffered a heart attack; however, her family says she had no preexisting health conditions, noting the suspicious nature of her passing.

Official accounts of her death have been met with widespread public skepticism, which escalated into protests across the country. Footage from the protests shows women re moving their hijabs, burning their headscarves, and cutting off their hair, in an act of defiance against the regime. In other videos, protes tors can be heard chanting “Woman, life, freedom,” and seen flipping police vehicles or throwing rocks.

Iranian authorities have responded with a violent crackdown and have suppressed ac cess to the internet, social media platforms, and cellular services.

According to the Iranian government, 17 people have been killed in the demonstrations, but other reports suggest that the number is higher than 30.

The Convocation Hall vigil

At the vigil, organizers demanded that the Canadian government avoid normalizing dip lomatic relationships with the Islamic Republic of Iran. They also called upon Canadian me dia to grant Iranian women a platform to share their stories.

Additionally, several speakers addressed the crowd, condemning the Islamic Republic of Iran and calling for a stop to its violent re gime.

Among the speakers was Iranian women’s rights activist Azam Jangravi, whom the po lice arrested several years ago after she stood atop an electric utility box on Tehran’s Eng helab street and removed her hijab. “Getting arrested for [not wearing a] hijab is something that thousands and thousands of other wom en in Iran have to experience,” she said.

Following her arrest, Jangravi fled the coun try on foot to protect herself and her daughter from the Iranian authorities. She now resides in Canada.

Several other speakers had connections to Flight 752, the Ukraine International Air lines airplane that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps shot down via surface-to-air missile in January 2020. All 176 people on the plane died, including eight U of T community members — six of whom were students.

Although the Iranian government initially de nied shooting the plane down and later said it was an accident, a 2021 ruling by the Ontario Supreme Court claimed that the incident had been an intentional act of terrorism.

Another speaker at the vigil, Maral Gorgin pour, told the crowd that she lost her hus band, Fareed Arasteh, in the Flight 752 crash — which happened only three days after their wedding ceremony.

“We can no longer be humiliated by the Is lamic Republic [of Iran],” Gorginpour said. “We can no longer bury our loved ones and say that we are handing them over to God.”

“Judgment day has arrived in Iran,” she added, referring to the current protests.

Following the speeches, the crowd marched along St. George Street through U of T’s downtown campus, before disbanding at Bloor Street.

On the day of the vigil, the United States im posed sanctions on Iran’s morality police and several senior Iranian officials, citing “abuse and violence against Iranian women and the violation of the rights of peaceful Iranian pro testors.”

The next day, Canada’s foreign minis ter, Mélanie Joly, issued a statement condemning Amini’s death.

Fear of punishment from authorities

In an interview with The Varsity , a U of T alum who attended the gathering said, “I’m here [at this vigil] because I feel a responsibility for the protesters in Iran who are putting their lives in danger.” They requested anonymity, explaining that they fear being arrested during an upcom ing visit to Iran.

Vigil co-organizer Niloofar Ganji, a secondyear PhD student at U of T’s Institute for Medi cal Sciences, told The Varsity that attendees’ safety concerns were legitimate because of the violent nature of the Iranian regime. On top of the recent killings, she alleged that when people with institutional connections or a background in activism return to Iran, they are commonly arrested or questioned or have their belongings confiscated at the airport.

She also claimed that, due to the Iranian government’s desire to silence resistance, Ira nians living in Canada face challenges main taining their ties to home and their relation ships with loved ones in Iran. “It’s really hard to leave home and never have the prospect of being able to go back again.”

Ganji warns that, should any of the students who attended the September 22 vigil return to Iran, they could easily face the same violence as Amini did.

Connection to a larger movement Ganji explained that Amini’s name has be come a representation of a greater movement against gender-based harassment in the Is lamic Republic of Iran.

To queer rights activist Nima Yajam, queer people are core to this movement. “Every queer person in Iran is only one step away from death,” Yajam said when addressing the crowd at the vigil.

Iranian authorities formally outlawed samesex relationships in 2013. On September 6, an Iranian court sentenced two LGBTQ+ activists to death. The country is one of eight in the world with legislation permitting execution for consensual same-sex relations.

Yajam, an Iranian-Canadian who identifies as a political refugee, is in touch with queer people currently protesting in Iran. In an in terview with The Varsity , they said that queer people are currently being beaten and killed in the streets.

Yajam called for cross-border queer solidar ity from those who enjoy more freedom. “The queer movement does not end at Pride... it doesn’t end at the colours and the dances,” they told The Varsity

JADINE NGAN/THEVARSITY

“Woman, life, freedom”: U of T community rallies after death of young Iranian woman

Less than three years after Flight 752, Iranian students at U of T come together, call for end to violence in Iran

Attendees at the September 22 vigil for Mahsa Amini hold up signs, including one depicting the country of Iran.

On September 23, U of T community mem bers participated in Fridays for Future Toronto’s (FFFTO) annual climate strike, which started with speeches and performances in front of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Before the cli mate strike, U of T Climate Justice and the Vic toria University Students’ Administrative Council (VUSAC) organized a rally to call on U of T’s fed erated colleges to divest from fossil fuels.

At the U of T rally, which happened outside Sidney Smith Hall, students demanded further transparency from U of T about its involvement in fossil fuel-sponsored research. Students also asked that U of T incorporate sustainability frameworks into its academic programs.

Speakers and performers at the FFFTO cli mate strike highlighted the disproportionate impact of the climate crisis on the Indigenous communities in Canada. Recent floods in Paki stan have also demonstrated that the impact of the climate crisis is more apparent in the Global South than in the Global North.

Students’ concerns

Léo Jourdan, a fifth-year computer science and mathematics student and member of U of T Cli mate Justice, said that the university should be doing more to “prepare… students for the world that [they] will be living in.”

“We want sustainability to be weaved into ex isting programs [at U of T],” said Jourdan.

In a statement to The Varsity, a U of T spokes person wrote that the university is working on “sustainability pathways” in classes and co-cur ricular activities to facilitate the development of students as sustainable citizens.

Additionally, the U of T spokesperson wrote that the university’s approach is “multi-pronged,” with various initiatives anticipated to meet their climate goals at different times.

The students also called on the federated col leges at U of T to divest their endowment funds from fossil fuels. Although U of T has pledged to fully divest from fossil fuels by 2030, federated colleges at U of T have investment portfolios that are independent of U of T’s larger investment portfolio; as such, U of T’s decision had no bear ing on the investment behaviour of the federated colleges.

In an interview with The Varsity, VUSAC Sus tainability Commissioner and second-year phys

ics and mathematics student Amy Mann said that VUSAC hoped to show a strong presence of U of T students at the Queen’s Park climate strike. Mann acknowledged that U of T’s divest ment commitment represented a step forward, and explained that VUSAC plans to keep push ing Victoria College to divest as well.

In a statement to The Varsity, a Victoria Col lege spokesperson expressed support for the “strong student advocacy” on climate issues.

According to the statement, the Victoria Col lege’s Board of Regents, which is responsible for managing the college’s endowment funds, will hold an annual review of its policy on investment decisions in the coming months.

Mann also referenced the university’s plan for a climate-positive campus by 2050, noting that it was still behind the City of Toronto’s plan to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. Mann was critical of this timeline given that the university has more resources than some other academic institutions.

Mann emphasized that it is vital for U of T stu dents to get involved because the university has the resources to take action on climate change.

“It’s our future and this is an emergency, and [U of T] needs to act like it,” said Mann.

Demands for government action

In an interview with The Varsity, Aliénor Rougeot, a lead coordinator at FFTO, said, “What we want to communicate is that climate action is neces sary, it’s urgent, and that we are not fooled by the greenwashing that’s been done, both by the government and by industries.”

Some of the demands made by the group in clude an end to fossil fuel subsidies and projects, a transition to renewable energy that takes into account the needs of workers, and the addition of climate justice elements to the Ontario curricu lum for all grades.

Rougeot noted that this year’s strike is fun damentally different from strikes from previous years “because it’s a strike of anger.”

Rougeot added that, since 2019, she has observed only superficial change from govern ments.

Chris Glover, MPP of the Spadina—Fort York riding, was at the Climate Strike and also ex pressed disappointment with the Ontario gov ernment. “Instead of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Ontario, this government’s trajec tory is to actually quadruple [emissions] from the power grid,” said Glover in an interview with The Varsity.

Vanessa Gray — a U of T researcher, mem ber of Aamjiwnaang First Nation, and Indigenous land protector — spoke at the climate strike. She mentioned that the Canadian government is op erating oil and gas pipelines on Indigenous land, which harm the environment and disrupt the live lihoods of local Indigenous communities. Since December 2019, Wet’suwet’en land defenders have been protesting the construction of the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline, a 670-kilometre-long natural gas pipeline that would go through un ceded Wet’suwet’en territory.

The International importance of the strike “Per capita, [Canada is] one of the highest green house gas emission emitters on the planet, said Glover, emphasizing that the Global North is re sponsible for most of the “damage that’s being suffered around the world. Accordingly, he high lighted the impact of the decisions made by the Canadian government.

For example, catastrophic floods in Pakistan have displaced over 30 million people. Accord ing to The Washington Post, deaths surpassed 1,600 as of September 23. Pakistan is the coun try with the highest number of glaciers, excluding the polar regions. This past summer, Jacobabad, Pakistan recorded this year’s highest tempera ture in the world at 51 degrees Celsius.

Miral Chaudhry is a third-year U of T student who was in Pakistan this summer. In conver sation with The Varsity at the Climate Strike, Chaudhry emphasized the impact of the climate crisis in Pakistan.

Chaudhry mentioned that stagnant water from the floods has led to the spread of waterborne diseases like dengue fever. “It’s very unfortunate that we are the ones suffering and the Western countries are not taking responsibility for their [larger contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions],” said Chaudhry.

Glover echoed this sentiment, “We’re not taking responsibility for the damage that we’ve caused.” Climate Strike

U of T international students unexpectedly removed from rental property in North York, find belongings outside

Lexey Burns Deputy News Editor

On September 4, two international students at U of T returned to their rented basement apartment in North York to find other tenants occupying their residence. The students, who had been on a 10day trip to New Jersey, allege that their landlord gave them insufficient notice — of just two days — prior to their removal.

The students, Hamza and Abdullah Moham med — brothers from the United Arab Emirates — discussed the circumstances surrounding their removal in an interview with The Varsity

Background

Hamza and Abdullah had rented the North York basement apartment since September 2021. On August 26 — with plans to renew their lease, which was set to expire on August 31 — the brothers left for New Jersey.

On August 29, Abdullah claims that Sumit Sen, their landlord, texted to demand that the brothers vacate the apartment on September 1 and not re new their lease.

The brothers said that they consequently can celled the remainder of their New Jersey trip and returned to their apartment. When they arrived, they found their belongings outside the residence, as well as strangers sleeping in their beds.

Hamza and Abdullah said that their landlord had cited the messiness of Hamza’s room as the rea son behind the removal. The brothers suggest that this is a “fake claim.”

Hamza explained that they had expected “at

least a month’s notice to find a new place.” He continued, “until [the point of the removal], we were under the impression that the lease will continue to grow from month-to-month basis.” According to their lease agreement, if the brothers did not give notice to end their tenancy by the end of their initial one-year lease, their tenancy would become month-to-month.

According to Ontario rental laws, month-tomonth tenancy begins automatically when the lease for a residential property expires and no new lease has been signed.

Furthermore, landlords are required to provide notice of removal or termination of the lease at least 60 days prior to the end of the lease.

Rental laws in Ontario also stipulate that tenants are not required to vacate the rental residence once they have received notice of termination or eviction. The landlord must apply for and receive an eviction order from the Landlord Tenant Board (LTB) — the provincial body responsible for overseeing dispute resolution between landlords and tenants and pro cessing eviction orders in Ontario.

Since their removal, the brothers have found a new place to live, but it came with an increased rent price. “Financially, it’s really difficult. I didn’t plan for this,” said Hamza.

According to the brothers, their former landlord continues to withhold their last month’s rent from them and tried to get them to sign “a waiver form that would prevent [them] from going to court or to the media” about their experience after the re moval.

Now, the brothers have filed an application against their former landlord at the LTB.

The Varsity has attempted to reach Sen for com ment four times. Sen picked up one call, but hung up upon mention of the case.

Legal perspective

In an interview with The Varsity, Brooke Stewart, a paralegal at Stewart Legal & Mediation who is representing the brothers in their application at the LTB, said that their landlord’s actions may have been “unlawful.” Stewart referenced the Ontario law requiring landlords to give tenants 60 days’ no tice that they are facing eviction.

Stewart said that the landlord is responsible for providing proper notice to the tenants and citing the exact reasons for eviction. It is then the tenant’s decision to consider rectifying the cited problems, she continued. “If they chose not to rectify that at that time, then the landlord can proceed with an application to evict the tenant, where then a hear ing [with the LTB] would be held,” she said.

Stewart added that landlords are not allowed to enter the tenants’ space without a 24 hours’ writ ten notice and may only enter the space within certain times of the day. However, according to Stewart, the lease that Hamza and Abdullah had signed in August 2021 stipulated that the landlord

could enter their basement apartment whenever he wanted.

Regardless, Stewart explained that this con dition in their lease did not matter because any clause in a lease agreement that contradicts the Residential Tenancies Act is automatically deemed “void,” or having no legal effect.

Stewart said, “I’ve seen [such clauses in ten ancy agreements] more frequently… We’re seeing landlords enter provisions into leases that are ac tually unlawful and that will be deemed void on the onset, but a lot of tenants don’t realize that so… they’re subject to these terms that are essentially unlawful and not valid.”

Stewart explained that it’s important for stu dents to share their stories and understand their rights when it comes to housing and landlord-ten ant relationships. Stewart offers free consultations for “any landlord-tenant matter.”

U of T also provides a housing resource library for students to find Toronto-specific resources, including tenant education videos, Landlord & Tenant Board Forms database, and Steps to Jus tice — a resource that compiles answers to legal questions on various topics, including housing and rental law.

UTSC opens Black Health Equity Lab to improve health research for Black communities Notisha Massaquoi talks community-based approach and HIV service provision

prevention programs for Black communities in Scarborough. Currently, Black people face dis proportionately high rates of new HIV infections in Ontario.

A study by the Ontario HIV Treatment Net work found that, in 2015, African, Caribbean, and Black communities in Ontario made up 25 per cent of all new HIV diagnoses, while making up less than five per cent of Ontario’s popula tion.

the community determines as a priority,” ex plained Massaquoi.

Community members also determine what the research process is, how they want to en gage in the research, and what the success of the project should look like. Massaquoi said that, ultimately, community-based research must improve the well-being of the community involved in the research.

which was signed by almost 50 postsecondary institutions across Canada — including U of T — by November 2021. For Massaquoi, the signing of the Charter means that policy-wise, U of T is saying, “We’re prioritizing the lives of Black people.”

Alyanna Denise Chua UTSC Bureau Chief

On September 15, UTSC announced the Black Health Equity Lab (BHEL). Housed at the De partment of Health and Society at UTSC, BHEL is a community-based research lab that exam ines the health disparities faced by Black peo ple and provides primary health -care access to Black communities in Scarborough.

In an interview with The Varsity, BHEL Direc tor and Assistant Professor at UTSC’s Depart ment of Health and Society Notisha Massaquoi talked about BHEL, BHEL’s community-based approach, and why she believes that the BHEL is a vital addition to UTSC.

Engaging students and Black communities in health equity

Massaquoi said that BHEL seeks to improve access to health services for Black communi ties and provide opportunities for students to engage in health-equity research.

BHEL’s first major project is providing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) services to and

In an effort to combat the disproportionately high rates of new HIV infections among the Black community, BHEL is working to establish the first clinical program in the province to spe cifically cater to Black people living with HIV.

This month, BHEL is set to hire a team who will run the clinical program located at their community partner organization, TAIBU Com munity Health Centre, a Scarborough-based organization devoted to providing Black-identi fying individuals in the GTA with effective and accessible health care.

Additionally, a team of undergraduate stu dents from BHEL has already conducted inter views with members of the Black community living with HIV and collected other qualitative data last summer. Next, they will conduct re search on developing an effective HIV services program for Black communities.

A community-based research approach Community is at the centre of BHEL’s research approach. For Massaquoi, this means allowing community members to define the goals of the research. “It’s not about what I want to do as a researcher or what I’m interested in. It’s what

For Massaquoi, this means that BHEL aims to “improve the survival and the well-being of Black people in [the community].”

To this end, BHEL has partnered with TAIBU Community Health Centre that has “a solid reputation with the Black community.” Accord ing to Massaquoi, this partnership allows BHEL researchers to build trusting relationships and a good rapport with Black communities in Scar borough, even before the onset of the research process.

“Most communities don’t have solid relation ships [and trust] with academic institutions or researchers. So, step one is building the net work and learning about Black people in Scar borough,” said Massaquoi.

The importance of the Lab at UTSC Massaquoi believes that UTSC is the perfect place for BHEL because of two factors: the Scarborough Charter and UTSC’s focus on community engagement.

The Scarborough Charter is a historic set of commitments that recognize and seek to end anti-Black racism in postsecondary structures and policies. UTSC Vice-President & Princi pal Wisdom Tettey led the creation of Charter,

Massaquoi also said that UTSC is committed to fostering community partnerships in Scar borough. The Community Partnerships and En gagement Department at UTSC is specifically tasked with using UTSC’s resources to advance community interests and needs. The depart ment also provides resources and mentorship support to scholars, such as Massaquoi, whose work focuses on community engagement.

Taken together, Massaquoi said that UTSC is able to provide “the foundation for [researchers] to do meaningful research with particular com munities, especially the ones that are located in Scarborough.”

Ultimately, Massaquoi emphasized that BHEL’s work is important, not just for Black communities, but for communities at large: “My interest is that all communities have access to healthcare equally — that we shouldn’t have any barriers. So, the work that we’re doing to eliminate those barriers for Black communities is going to benefit everybody as a whole. It’s just going to make a better [healthcare] system.”

Massaquoi also wants students to recognize the fundamental role that they play in improving health -care systems: “This lab is really help ing people not only become health profession als, but to understand that they have a role in changing the system and to make a better sys tem for everyone.”

Brothers filed Landlord Tenant Board application against landlord, alleging unlawful removal

Notisha Massaquoi, director of the Black Health Equity Lab. COURTESY OF NATASHA MASSAQUOI

Hamza and Abdullah Mohammed’s belongings, which were broken during the removal. COURTESY OF HAMZA AND ABDULLAH MOHAMMED

PEARS campaigns for red zone awareness, holds “Chalk is Cheap” support event

Student advocates say U of T’s response is “dangerously inadequate”

had accessed the centre in the past, 93.33 per cent said they would not use it again.

Referring to the allegations of sexual harass ment against Andy Orchard and the conversation around red zone after the Western incidents, Ka lisch said, “It’s really disappointing to see that the university has still not stepped it up and is choos ing to just really fall behind when it comes to sup porting survivors.”

Supports at U of T

On September 9, the Prevention, Empower ment, Advocacy, Response, for Survivors Project (PEARS) — a student-led initiative supporting sur vivors of sexual assault — and the Association of Part-time Undergraduate Students held an event to spread awareness about the ‘red zone.’ The organizers invited people to cover the sidewalk outside Sidney Smith Hall in chalk messages of af firmation for survivors.

In statements to The Varsity, co-founder of the PEARS Project Micah Kalisch and University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) President Omar Gharbiyeh shared their ongoing sexual violence advocacy efforts, citing various concerns with U of T’s most recent review of its sexual violence policy.

In an email to The Varsity, Vice-Provost Sandy Welsh affirmed that the university is continually adapting its approach to sexual violence preven tion. She added that the university took measures to better prepare staff to support students during orientation week.

Red zone

The term ‘red zone’ refers to the first six to eight weeks of classes, during which over 50 per cent of sexual assault cases occur on campus. In an August 31 Instagram post, PEARS shared a list of safety tips and resources for students and provided information on the red zone. According to the post, sexual violence is heightened on campus during this period in part because of Greek Life rushing and the abundance of student parties.

In a statement to The Varsity, PEARS adminis trators Kalisch and Bec Brydon emphasized that these incidents are in no way the victim’s fault. “No student should feel like they are responsible for avoiding sexual violence,” they wrote.

Kalisch and Brydon further wrote, “Many young students are in a new environment… oftentimes they may be alone if they haven’t met new people yet. These factors can produce a type of vulner ability that perpetrators seek to exploit.”

They added that the education high schools pro vides on sexual safety may be lacking: “This often leaves people unsure of their rights such as the right to consent.”

In 2021, a series of sexual assaults occurred during orientation week at Western University. An investigation at Western concluded that the num

ber of sexual assaults that happened on campus during the orientation week were unknown, be cause the university’s reporting procedures were difficult to navigate.

Rape culture at U of T

A 2020 report from Statistics Canada found that one in 10 students who identify as women have been sexually assaulted in postsecondary settings.

Regarding U of T’s response to on-campus sexual violence, Kalisch and Brydon believe that the uni versity is doing the “bare minimum” and has com mented very little on how it can protect students on its campus.

“Their recent policy review for the sexual violence policy failed to incorporate survivor-centric practic es and engage with the community in a meaningful and accessible way,” wrote Kalisch and Brydon.

On behalf of the PEARS Project, Kalisch had pre viously voiced their concerns with the recommen dations to have the Office of Safety & High Risk process sexual assault reports.

The Sexual Violence Prevention & Support Cen tre formerly oversaw the processing of reports, but the review recommended that the centre devote all of its resources to providing supports to survivors.

“The process is already so convoluted and confusing and inconsistent… creating a separate avenue for reporting is only going to further com plicate things,” said Kalisch in a previous interview with The Varsity

In an interview with The Varsity at the “Chalk is Cheap” event, Kalisch said that U of T’s efforts to

support sexual assault survivors have been “dan gerously inadequate.”

Kalisch told The Varsity that PEARS administra tion met with representatives from the Sexual Vio lence Prevention and Support Centre (SVPSC) in the summer, where SVPSC admitted that the train ing they offer to orientation leaders is “not up to par.” However, as Kalisch said, there have been no major changes to the training plan.

In an email to The Varsity, Gharbiyeh discussed the union’s efforts to address the red zone and support students. He wrote, “We worked closely with The PEARS Project throughout orientation week to ensure that our events had a team of peer supporters present at all times.”

Gharbiyeh also announced that the union is planning to create informational posts on the red zone and organize peer support programs.

Gharbiyeh added that the union will be advocat ing for changes in the university’s Policy on Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment. “Though [the policy review’s] recommendations have already been approved, there is still space for us to advo cate for moving it in the direction we would like to see,” Gharbiyeh wrote.

This summer, the PEARS Project released a preliminary report about the SVPSC’s efficacy in supporting sexual assault survivors at U of T. The report is based on the responses to an anony mous survey that PEARS released in November 2021. Of the 88 respondents, only six said that they would contact the SVPSC if they experi enced gender-based violence. Among those who

TCM approves plans for Saints’ charity ball at first meeting of 2022–2023 academic year

TCM elects team for new year

Jessie Schwalb Associate News Editor

On September 19, the Trinity College Meeting (TCM), Trinity College’s student government, held its first membership meeting, with attendees gath ering in person at the George Ignatieff Theatre and online on a virtual call. At the meeting, the TCM elected a new slate of officers for the 2022–2023 academic year, gave reports of planned events, and approved a proposal for Saints, Trinity’s an nual charity event.

The TCM is a direct democracy in which any student belonging to Trinity College can make proposals, move motions, and vote on how the college should utilize the almost $200,000 that it collects from its students through student society fees. The TCM has membership meetings roughly once a month, which are facilitated by the chair — a position currently held by Chelsea Tho.

The first TCM kicked off with reports from the heads of arts, heads of non-resident affairs, and heads of college. The various heads, who are tasked with facilitating social life at Trinity College,

briefed attendees on the events that the TCM or ganized throughout the summer and highlighted a number of upcoming events. Some upcoming plans include study halls, movie nights, and field trips.

The TCM also announced a project, in col laboration with Trinity Against Sexual Assault & Harassment — a group based at Trinity College that advocates for supports for survivors of sexual violence — to send menstrual products and con traceptives to students.

Saints’ ball

At the meeting, the TCM and attending students approved a format and budget for the Saints’ ball, an annual charity dance run by Trinity College. The event, which is to be organized as a masquerade ball, will be held on November 18 at Arcadian Court and is projected to raise $3,492.

The Saints’ Executive Team recommended that money raised through ticket sales, raffles, and alumni donations go to Black Lives Matter Toronto. In explaining their choice of organization, the team referenced a 2021 report created by the

Trinity College Task Force on Anti-Black Racism and Inclusion, which drew attention to systemic discrimination at the college.

The report, released in February 2021, was drafted in response to the murder of George Floyd in the US and the subsequent protests against systemic anti-Black racism. The report presented 44 recommendations on expanding supports for racialized students and working to diversify the college’s student, faculty, and governance bodies.

“We recognize that donating a few thousand dollars to BLM isn’t going to solve racism, and it's not going to solve the problems that [Black, Indigenous, and people of colour] in this college face, but it will serve as a guiding light in our mis sion to reexamine Saints’ and create a more in clusive environment for Trinity students,” said Im ran Koehnen, a member of the Saint’s Executive Team.

Koehnen’s presentation also stressed the Ex ecutive Team’s desire to make the dance itself more inclusive for students. Ticket prices were reduced to $40 from the $55 that students were charged when the event was last held in 2019.

In a statement to The Varsity, Welsh wrote, “We are incredibly grateful for the work of student ad vocates and researchers who continue to raise awareness of [the red zone] and demand safer campuses for all.”

Welsh affirmed that, in preparation for oncampus orientations, the university undertook various steps to “raise awareness of services and supports, and reinforce a culture of consent on campus.”

“Staff in U of T’s residences received training [ahead of orientation week in September] to en sure they are well equipped to offer education and support to students living in residence, and respond to disclosure of sexual violence,” wrote Welsh.

Additionally, Welsh explained that the university has taken steps to address the community feed back it received following the recent review of the sexual violence policy.

In an effort to expand tri-campus sexual vio lence and sexual harassment prevention educa tion, Welsh announced that the SVPSC recently hired an Assistant Director, Education and Com munication, “who will oversee the centre’s tricampus educational curriculum.”

— With files from Jadine Ngan.

If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual violence or harassment at U of T:

• Visit safety.utoronto.ca for a list of safety re sources.

• Visit svpscentre.utoronto.ca for information, contact details, and hours of operation for the tri-campus Sexual Violence Prevention & Support Centre. Centre staff can be reached by phone at 416-978-2266 or by email at svpscentre@utoronto.ca.

• Call Campus Safety Special Constable Ser vice to make a report at 416-978-2222 (for U of T St. George and U of T Scarborough) or 905-569-4333 (for U of T Mississauga)

• Call the Women’s College Hospital Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Care Centre at 416-323-6040

• Call the Scarborough Grace Sexual Assault Care Centre at 416-495-2555

• Call the Assaulted Women’s Helpline at 866863-0511

The Executive Team also hopes to make the dance more welcoming. “We understand that a dance with lots of music and flashing lights can get a little overwhelming,” said Koehnen. “So we have a quiet room where people can go if they’re feeling overwhelmed.”

Additionally, the TCM will reimburse rides for all commuter students who live outside of the down town core, to make the event more accessible and ensure safety.

Elections

Over the course of more than an hour, the TCM elected interested students to a variety of posi tions across the TCM governance structure.

Many of the positions must be held exclusively by first-year students, including first-year seats on the Equity Council, the Alumni Relations Commit tee, and the Student Capital Campaigns Commit tee. A full list of individuals elected can be found in the TCM 1 minutes.

Despite some technical difficulties with voting, 14 positions were filled. However, due to time constraints, a motion to have the remaining elec tions run on the Trinity election page at a later date was passed around 9:20 pm. The exact date is still to be determined. The unfilled positions in cluded Members-at-Large for the Finance Com mittee, Heads of Fourth Year, and representatives for the Community Affairs Committee.

The TCM will hold its second membership meeting of the academic year on October 17.

Content warning: This article discusses sexual violence and harassment.

Chalk messages on the ground outside Sidney Smith Hall, drawn during “Chalk is Cheap.” JADINE NGAN/THEVARSITY

Beatriz Silva, Nawa Tahir News Team

The Hatchery hosts virtual Demo Day 2022 Student entrepreneurs aim to solve problems in the bond market, physiotherapy practice

Janhavi Agarwal Business & Labour Editor

Every summer, a group of U of T students have the opportunity to develop their entrepreneurial ideas at The Hatchery — U of T’s startup incubator. Participants undergo a rigorous, four-month long boot camp called NEST, where they are paired with mentors and advisors to develop business plans and bring their startups to life. The program culmi nates with Demo Day, a three-day event in which judges evaluate the startups and determine who will receive seed funding to take their ideas to the market.

This year, Demo Day took place from Septem ber 12–15, and the winners were announced on the afternoon of September 16.

Celebrating ten years of NEST NEST has helped launch over 94 startups since the program started in 2012. These startups have carried out impressive initiatives, such as build ing robotic skeletons to provide physiotherapy to children with disabilities and creating artificial intelligence initiatives that speed up research. Ke pler Communications, another product of NEST, raised over $20 million in seed funding to launch a model for its network of low-cost telecommunica tion cube satellites.

Successful Hatchery projects such as these have created over 600 jobs in the economy. Christopher Yip, dean of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, describes The Hatchery as a “startup for startups.”

NEST is not just an incubator; on its website, it also describes itself as an “experiential learning opportunity.” The program supports participants as they wear an entrepreneur’s hat, riding out the highs and lows of launching a business idea. At the event wrap up, Yip stated that Demo Day in vites students to “think big.”

Andrew Yang Ki is a member of the opera tions team at The Hatchery. “Speaking with any of our founders, it’s very easy to see the passion they have for their work, and I’m glad that the Hatchery is here to support their endeavours,” he wrote in an email to The Varsity. “As an ‘entre preneur-in-training’ myself, it’s really great to see

that the University is dedicating these resources to supporting affiliated startups,” Ki continued.

Using a virtual platform

This year, The Hatchery hosted Demo Day using the platform Pheedloop, a startup it had incubated some years prior. Pheedloop is an online platform for hosting hybrid events. It saw a total of 1,100 visitors over the course of the three days of the event as U of T alumni all over the world were able to tune in and witness the startup showcases.

This year, eleven teams took to the stage with a wide variety of ideas, from a software to lower marketing costs for firms, to a solution that bridg es the gap between data engineering and neuro science. There was also a technology that makes note taking easier for students, and an artificial

intelligence solution that helps people take control of their gluten sensitivities.

The winning pitches

The four lucky winners from Demo Day were the teams Move Match, L33T Venture’s, Cove Neu rosciences, and FallBye. They will now proceed to the go-to-market stage, in which more robust investors will help the teams make their product ready for the market. Yip describes these startups as the “drivers” for change as they take on the next stage of the entrepreneurial journey.

The Move Match team recognized that phys iotherapy patients struggle to use static manuals without therapist supervision, which can elongate the healing process. They also recognized that it is impractical for physiotherapists to oversee ev

ery single one of their patients’ exercise sessions. Thus, the team has turned to AI and advanced mo tion analysis to give patients a professional level of coaching that they can carry out independently.

This technology will be highly catered to the pa tients’ individual needs, making the physiotherapy system much more efficient.

L33T Venture’s team tackles the challenge of the outdated bond market. Some parts of the finan cial system have evolved with the digital revolution; bond traders, meanwhile, still resort to phone calls for trading purposes.

This startup proposes to bring this multibillion dollar market into the 21st century by transitioning bond issuance and trading onto blockchain. This venture also aims to provide customers flexibility as they issue, manage, and trade tokenized bonds.

Cove aims to make neuroscience data more legible for academic institutions; MRI and electro encephalogram machines create noisy data at a high rate, which researchers struggle to interpret. Cove’s innovation uses machine learning and neuroscience tools to process this data, aiming to bridge the gap between data engineers and neuroscientists.

Finally, FallBye shared the staggering statistic that there are over 37.3 million falls in a year that require medical attention, but no mechanism to help prevent these falls among the children and elderly. The team’s innovation aims to bridge this gap.

Vishwa Eswaran, a member of the team behind FallBye, wrote in an email to The Varsity, “Our pur pose is to support, empower, and enhance older adults by eliminating their fear of falls while pro tecting their dignity and promising comfort. Our vision is a world where ageing is more engaging. Entrepreneurship is a closed loop feedback driven uncontrollable, sometimes predictable process.”

Eswaran continued, “Our track from now, as we envision it, will be a strategic mix of parallelly running market research and product develop ment activities. However, knots, pivots, ups and downs are waiting too, and we aim to tackle that without a dampening sense of enthusiasm.”

Disclosure: Andrew Yang Ki is currently an associ ate business editor at The Varsity

With the onset of recruitment season, students are scrambling to update their résumé and write cover letters. Tailoring cover letters to specific jobs can be a frustrating task, especially since applicants often apply to many jobs at once. This has sparked a debate about the utility of cover letters, and whether recruiters read and value them. Nonetheless, it all comes down to the re cruiters’ personal preferences, and therefore all applicants should be aware of the best practices for writing cover letters.

The best practices for writing cover letters

An applicant’s cover letter should be original and unique to themself. The Varsity reached out to Katherine Ye, a U of T graduate and consult ing analyst at Accenture, to talk about her ex periences on this matter. She explained that the most important aspect of composing a cover let ter is storytelling. She described this as “piecing together details from your résumé into a narrative that leads the recruiter to an understanding of why you are applying for the job.”

Ye emphasized that an applicant should of fer details on why they would be a good fit for the team, and what draws them to the role and field. She also suggested drawing from life ex

periences to highlight interest in the job. While templates can help organize these thoughts, the applicant should also give the recruiter a flair of their personality through the cover letter.

Storytelling is an important aspect of a cover letter, but you should also keep it concise and specific. People may feel the need to include unnecessary details and experiences with the hope that it will make them seem more ac complished. This strategy will not achieve the desired effect. Recruiters tend to skim through applications; the lengthier the cover letter, the more unwelcome it will be.

Include only skills and experiences that are relevant to the job you’re applying to. Doing so will keep the cover letter more simple and read able, while also demonstrating your awareness of what’s expected as well as a genuine interest in the role. It’s always better to be short and sweet than unnecessarily long and drawn out.

Finally, always remember to include contact information. The applicant should put their full name, email address, phone number, and portfolio at the top of the page. The applicant should also remember to keep things personal. Always use the hiring manager’s name when addressing the letter, rather than a generic salutation such as “Dear Recruiting Depart ment,” as the former initiates familiarity with the recruiter.

Are cover letters even necessary?

There has been much debate over whether cov er letters are an important part of the job appli cation process. Ragini Holloway — who worked as vice president, people and was involved in recruitment at personal finance company Credit Karma — reinforces this view. She believes that they are a complete waste of time, considering that she has never read a single cover letter while recruiting applicants.

She also claimed that they’re not always re flective of an applicant’s experience. Parmar fur ther explained that since cover letters are usually sent out to many companies at once, they’re often riddled with mistakes, such as addressing the wrong company or including irrelevant infor mation, which devalues them even more.

On the contrary, some argue that cover letters are indeed important. A recent study conducted

by researchers at Western Michigan University discovered that 56 per cent of employers expect applicants to send in cover letters, and a further study found that 26 per cent of recruiters re garded them as crucial to their decision making.

Business journalist Bart Turczynski agrees with this viewpoint, pointing out that even if the re cruiter skips over the cover letter, there is a good chance that it might be passed onto a manager, especially if it’s a smaller company.

Ultimately, the value of cover letters comes down to the recruiters’ personal tastes and the size of the company, so it is important to pos sess the skills to write a strong and tailored cover letter. As Ye noted, students coming out of their undergraduate studies and looking for work will likely have similar qualifications and experiences; writing a strong cover letter could be what makes a difference to help you get your desired job. Rubin Beshi Varsity Contributor

The Hatchery hosted their annual Demo Day event in hybrid mode. COURTESY OF AARON DEMETER

Doug Ford is making your tuition more expensive

The provincial government’s funding scheme for postsecondary education needs to change

Zed Hoffman-Weldon Varsity Contributor

In March, over the objections of its three student governors, the University of Toronto Governing Council passed a differentiated tuition sched ule. Beginning this academic year, international students will see a two per cent tuition increase, domestic students from outside Ontario will see a three per cent increase, and Ontario students will see no increase at all.

These increases are a direct result of decades of austerity at the provincial level. Cuts to provin cial funding for postsecondary education force universities to either cut revenues or raise tuition — it seems that means raising tuition for out-ofprovince and international students. Either op tion, cutting revenue or raising tuition, damages the U of T community at large. For students, the only way forward that I see is to change the way funding is allocated at the provincial level.

Money has to come from somewhere, and it’s not coming from the province. In 2019, On tario reduced provincial tuition by ten per cent. When asked about how postsecondary institu tions would recover their lost funding, Merrilee Fullerton, the then-minister of training, colleges, and universities, replied, “[I] fully anticipate they are capable and able to make adjustments.” In the subsequent year, the province froze tuition until 2022. However, the province has only main tained that freeze for domestic students.

This is only the recent history of education aus terity in Ontario. Since the drastic cuts in the 90s, the policy on higher education has, with excep tions, allowed for either tuition freezes or caps. Between 1992 and 2005, the amount of funding the province was dedicating to postsecondary education fell by about 15 per cent. During the same period, the number of students enrolled in postsecondary education rose by 38 per cent.

In this climate of austerity, there is no good funding scheme. Students on the governing council were right to raise issues with the tuition increases planned for this school year. This in crease will disproportionately affect students from other provinces that cannot afford the in crease in tuition.

However, there seems to be no easy solution for U of T as there are few options for the univer sity to make up for the funding cuts. If the univer sity increases tuition, that will disproportionately affect out-of-province and international students. However, if its revenue decreases, that may mean less money for financial aid, teaching, and student resources. The U of T community cannot afford to lose important aspects of student life such as queer initiatives, student communities, or mental health services.

The decrease in funding will also negatively im pact more than just students. It may be easy to forget that universities require massive amounts of labour to run.

From cleaning the classrooms to cooking din ing hall food and everything in between, a great deal of the work done at our university is done by U of T’s staff. Many of these workers are union ized; their unions help rectify the power imbal ance between workers and their employers. Here at U of T, unions may secure real benefits for workers, but those come at a cost to the university. However, by outsourcing different ser vices, the university can decrease costs to keep up with the cuts to funding.

The way I see it, U of T is a community, to which there is no greater threat than austerity. As Fred Moten and Stefano Harney write in their monograph on education politics, The Under commons, “It cannot be denied that the universi ty is a place of refuge, and it cannot be accepted that the university is a place of enlightenment.” Without lionizing the university, it is necessary to

recognize the refuge and community that U of T provides to many students. We must defend that.

To stop tuition increases, we have to escape the cycle of austerity that drives them. When the university is underfunded, it is forced to make the difficult decision of either increasing tuition or re ducing revenue so that it can continue support ing itself.

To escape this cycle, we need to change the way funding is allocated at the provincial level. This means replacing the Progressive Conser

vative government in the next election with a government that prioritizes postsecondary edu cation. However, voting is not enough. We need to organize student demands into a coherent movement capable of advocating for changes to provincial funding of postsecondary educa tion. The seeds of this struggle are already sown. Soon it will be the time to reap.

Zed Hoffman-Weldon is a third-year student at University College studying physics and public policy.

and experiences of subcontracted workers across the university: “As frontline workers in the hospitality and food service industries, nearly 8,000 UNITE HERE LOCAL 75 mem bers and the families they support are among the first and hardest hit by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes our food service members at UTSC.”

We were stunned to see a large, and frankly offensive, sign hanging from a lamppost at Queen’s Park Circle East as part of the Univer sity of Toronto’s fundraising campaign. Super imposed on the image of a Black woman in a service uniform working at a kitchen counter are the words: “Putting a Feminist Lens on Economic Recovery.”

While putting a feminist lens on economic recovery is certainly a laudable and important goal, we suggest training that feminist lens on the outrageous working conditions of the workers in the most precarious conditions among us right here at the University of Toron to. Perhaps we should ask why —, when the university brought in record-level profits during the COVID-19 pandemic — U of T was busy outsourcing and furloughing service staff? This is an action that disproportionately affected ra cialized women workers.

We know this because, during the pan demic, faculty and librarians across the three campuses of the University of Toronto worked with three labour groups to create a solidarity fund: UNITE HERE; United Steelworkers; and the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Lo cal 3902.

Here is what UNITE HERE shared with us in 2020, as we learned about the conditions

They went on to mention that “95% of our union members are laid off, leaving most of our members scrambling to find ways to sup port their families. During this difficult time, our members have identified difficulties in paying rent/utilities and in purchasing groceries as a result of financial difficulties brought on by CO VID-19. While government support is appreci ated, our members, who are majority women, immigrants, and people of colour will need more support so they can weather this storm.”

Let’s start by putting a feminist lens on eco nomic recovery right here on our campuses. Otherwise, that poster reads to us as an at tempt to profit from a display of diversity while undermining the ability of racialized workers at our own university to achieve economic recov ery.

Kiran Mirchandani is a professor in the Depart ment of Leadership, Higher and Adult Educa tion. Alissa Trotz is a Women and Gender Stud ies and Caribbean Studies professor. Michelle Buckley is an associate professor in UTSC’s Department of Human Geography. Varsity Contributors

Opinion: The PEARS Project takes initiative to combat sexual violence

Sexual violence and gender-based violence are national issues in Canada

Sherissa Mohammed-Ali, Varsity Contributor

In June, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, a landmark court ruling that conferred the constitutional right to an abortion in the US. This drastic decision sparked outrage around the world and ignited a global conversation on bodily au tonomy.

When reflecting on gender inequality in Canada, it’s not hard to see that Canada has its own tur bulent history of gender inequality that needs to be recognized. Meanwhile, sexual violence is the only violent crime in Canada that is not currently declining. Although sexual violence and genderbased violence are not synonymous, it is important to recognize that sexual violence is often rooted in gender inequality.

The history of sexual violence and harassment in Canada extends to university campuses, and U of T is no exception. Reports of sexual assault at U of T and other Canadian universities prompt the question: what actions has the university taken to prevent sexual violence on campus?

The PEARS Project at U of T

The Prevention, Empowerment, Advocacy, Re sponse, for Survivors (PEARS) Project is a traumainformed coalition that a group of students started to support survivors of sexual violence at U of T. The organization specifically addresses survivor ship, and explicitly offers its support to all survivors, regardless of their gender identity.

For victims of sexual assault, it is essential that they have a place at U of T where they feel safe and comfortable enough to share their experiences.

The PEARS Project hopes to create such a com munity. The group tackles many issues, including bringing awareness to the Red Zone.

The Red Zone is a six to eight week period at

the beginning of the school year during which more that 50 per cent of campus sexual assaults occur. In addition to their other initiatives, the PEARS Proj ect is taking steps, such as providing peer support and sharing resources, to help reduce the preva lence of sexual violence during the Red Zone.

To support survivors of sexual violence, the PEARS Project also works closely with the Dan delion Initiative. The Dandelion Initiative is an or ganization that supports victims of gender-based

violence and provides safe spaces for healing, such as survivor-centric support sessions to U of T students. However, the Dandelion Initiative recently announced that it is closing on December 1, 2022 after seven years of providing support to the To ronto community.

Gender-based violence is a national problem

Although the PEARS Project is not designed to specifically address gender-based violence, solv ing issues of sexual violence on campus may help address gender-based violence as well, because the two phenomena intersect. However, sexual violence and gender-based violence still require national attention.

According to Statistics Canada in 2019, 15 per cent of women at postsecondary institutions in Canada have experienced sexual violence. This statistic is higher for students who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community or live with a disability.

In Canada, violence against Indigenous women

is one of the most pressing issues when it comes to gender-based violence, as Indigenous Canadian women are 12 times more likely to be murdered or go missing than any other woman in Canada.

The large number missing and murdered Indig enous women and girls prove that there needs to be more discourse on the causes of gender-based violence in Canada. We need to identify the steps that should be taken, both socially and politically, to address gender-based violence in Canada.

There’s no question that the efforts of organiza tions like the PEARS Project that support survivors of sexual violence and gender-based violence are essential at U of T. However, I believe that we still have a long way to go before we can honestly say there is gender equality in Canada.

Sherissa Mohammed-Ali is a fourth-year student at St. Michael’s College pursuing a Health and Dis ease Specialist and Immunology Minor.

Jasmin Akbari Varsity Contributor

With slicked-back hair, gold jewelry, and glossy skin dominating the style, The New York Post de fines the ‘clean girl aesthetic’ as an “effortlessly gorgeous” look.

While this aesthetic has only surged earlier this year on social media platforms like TikTok, the real ity is that various aspects of the trend have existed within Black and brown communities for much longer.

However, for years, conventional Western beau ty standards deemed slicked-back hair and gold hoops ‘trashy’ and ‘dirty’ when worn by Black and brown women. Although it does not matter whether someone chooses to embrace the clean girl aesthetic or not, we cannot ignore the exclu

sivity of this trend.

When I browse through my own For You page on TikTok, I’ve noticed that the trend is domi nated by white women. In North America, Eurocentric features are conventionally idealized as the beauty standard. Con sequently, for generations, women of colour have been put down for their cultural attire and aesthetic choices.

However, because of the sudden popularity of the clean girl aesthetic, Black and brown women must also see markers of their culture that they were once shamed for now being glo rified when white women wear them.

When looking through the type of individ uals sporting the trend, I can’t help but think that what is considered an “effortless” aesthet ic is actually one that is classist and racist. The clean girl aesthetic excludes racialized women,

as they do not fit the Western beauty ideals shaped by Eurocentricity.

This trend also points to how eco nomic and class differences within our society are related to race. The idealization of the clean girl aesthetic lays emphasis on the fact that anything will be deemed beautiful and classy once it is associated with conventional Eurocentric beauty standards.

While some may argue that you can simply turn off social media, you can not turn off the impact it has had on our so ciety. There’s no question that the clean girl beauty aesthetic perpetuates Euro centric beauty standards as the ideal. However, instead of tossing the aesthetic altogether, we should credit the marginalized and racialized communities that the clean girl trend originates from. Also, it is not right to shame

others for their choice to partake in this aesthetic. Ultimately, supporting creators who use their plat forms to educate others on this matter can be incredibly impactful and redirect the way the aes thetic is perceived.

This is not to say that TikTok is exclusively Eu rocentric. If there’s one good thing about social media, it’s that it gives voice to a diverse array of perspectives. Despite one side of TikTok being filled with videos of clean girl how-tos, the other side is filled with videos of racialized Tiktokers like @simplyysri, @littleyeg, and @musingsofmec breaking down how they believe this aesthetic has essentially stolen elements from Black and Brown communities. These TikToks shed light on the ex periences of racialized women.

Aside from educating yourself on the history of the clean girl aesthetic, revisiting the way you view it and recognizing that the clean girl aesthetic is really about being natural is important. The aesthetic is about living comfortably in your body, which should also mean supporting other women to live comfortably in their bodies. This aesthetic should not be narrow, and as it gains more traction, supporting Black and brown communi ties is an important step in the right direction. Being mindful of the words being used to describe the aesthetic is a positive step toward a more inclusive beauty space.

Jasmin Akbari is a third-year indus trial relations and human resources, digital humanities, and writing & rhetoric student at Woodsworth College.

JESSICA LAM/THEVARSITY

The clean girl beauty trend originated in Black and brown communities

VURJEET MADAN/THEVARSITY

The Varsity’s Comment section is dedicated to providing an open forum for contributors to express their opinions on a variety of issues that are meaningful to students. The point of the section is to generate discussion and chal lenge readers to consider a range of different perspectives and viewpoints.

The Varsity asked three writers to reflect on what the Comment Section — and any news paper opinion section, in general — means for journalism.

An opinion section lends colour to a news paper

A million different newspapers will report on the same event — a regurgitation of the same set of words and vocabulary. The Varsity will report on some of the same news as the New York Times or The Guardian . So why would any reasonably-minded person ever read The Varsity ? Why choose a simple student news paper over a reputable, professional newspa per whose ranks are filled with the world’s best

journalists? To me, the answer is short and sweet: for its Comment section.

Take, for instance, news of extensive pro tests in a country. The news section will offer its thesaurus-generated account of the event. It might give statistics, causes of the protest, or even contextual information. But what in spires passion, motivates readers, and per suades them to take part in a protest is the rhetoric and ideas of an opinion section. It tells readers why the protests matter — or why they don’t matter.

An opinion section is the platform for a newspaper to give this valuable, precious per spective. It gives colour to the black and white news reporting and paints a newspaper with the dynamic and vivid hues of different ideas and opinions. In The Varsity ’s case, the Com ment section exposes readers to the unique, persuasive opinion and thoughts of U of T stu dents — something not found anywhere else.

James Jiang is a third-year student at Trinity College studying political science and writing & rhetoric.

Opinion is both guidance and controversy

Opinion is both guidance and controversy. No other section of a newspaper can provide the two wildly different phenomena simulta neously. Especially for the young generation, with the abundance of information and newsbased journalism, discerning and formulating an opinion that stands above mere facts has become more important than ever. The opinion section has the power to help devise objectiv ity via the subjectivity.

My memory from when I first read an opin ion piece by a Vietnamese immigrant in South Korea is vivid. Through that single piece, my 12-year-old self became cognizant of both the racist bigotry of Korean society and the power of an opinion piece that could ‘open eyes.’

While traditional news-based journalism de livers a single fact or two to the readers, the opinion section introduces interpretations of those facts. I can choose not to agree with an individual who writes an opinion piece on why the logic of pro-life academics is not inherently flawed, but I can choose to learn why the stur dy support of the logic is sustained. Opinions may be controversial, but they both guide and develop my thinking and logic, and that is an asset that is more necessary than ever.

Eleanor Park is a second-year student at Trinity College studying English and religion. She is an associate comment editor at The Varsity

An opinion section is space for free thinking When constructing the three branches of United States government for the first time in 1789, the founding fathers chose to have all the leaders of the country be elected by rule of democracy and fairness. For all institutions, but one: the Supreme Court. Back then, their justification was to keep the Court as non-po litical as possible — an open table of people, who approached issues purely by their facts and nothing more.

All discourse on how that ultimately turned out aside, I see newspaper opinion sections as something similar to the original vision of a Su preme Court. It is a space for free thinking and expression, barring any outside influence that may intentionally warp the voice of the author. Arguments and judgements are made based on evidence, and any forms of bias are at least supported and legitimized. Opinion sections ensure that there is a degree of free discourse and engagement in an otherwise straightfor ward blank-reporting newspaper.

Isabella Liu is a second-year student at Vic toria College studying international relations, public policy and environmental studies. She is an associate comment editor at The Varsity

James Jiang, Varsity Contributor,

Writer: Rhea Jerath

Illustrator: Cheryl Nong

1,095. Does this number have significance to you?

For me, it’s an identifier. But that’s be cause I am an immigrant.

Over the span of two decades, I’ve lived in five countries that reach across two con

for Canadian residency in 2018. Our rela tives from Alberta sponsored us. Two years later, our application was accepted — upon notification, we instantly packed our be longings and left Bahrain, where we were living at the time. We started counting to 1,095; the number of days we’d needed to have physically been in Canada before ap plying for citizenship.

As we count upward, I look forward to

gaining the privileges that come with a Cana dian passport, like ap plying for a work visa in a neighbouring country or travelling on vacation without having to file for a temporary visa. I slowly replace the parts of my cultural identity — an accu mulation of work and lived experience in India, Singapore, Dubai, and Bah rain — that pose an obstacle in the way of my seamless in tegration into

Alienated, but not alone

For Lily Fan, a third-year student at U of T, alienation has grown into a familiar feel ing. Fan was born in Vancouver, but moved to Shanghai, then America, and later Hong Kong during her childhood. Because of her constant relocation, Fan had to constantly adapt to fit in with drastically different norms than the ones she’d become acquainted with in the country from which she emigrated.

“In Hong Kong, when you talk to people working [and] staff… I feel like they’re less friendly,” Fan remembered. “They’re less willing to have a conversation with you. If you take a taxi, the taxi driver is going to com pletely ignore you.”

It wasn’t only the small details that Fan had to familiarize herself with. In 1997, Brit ain — which had previously ruled Hong Kong — handed Hong Kong back to China. In the process, the two countries signed a treaty specifying that Hong Kong would preserve its existing freedoms for residents, as well as maintain an autonomous legal system, until 2047. Recently, advocacy groups have ac cused China of meddling with these rights. So, while living in Shanghai, Fan — who doesn’t “politically agree with China” — ob served stark political norms that didn’t align with hers.

Canadian life. Until I can de fine myself with the specific label of Canadian citizenship, I switch between identities. I’m an Indian expat and a resident of Canada. I’m categorized as a first-generation South Asian immigrant on my Permanent Resi dent Card, but I am a ‘white-washed nonresident Indian’ on drunken nights spent at fraternities. I’m a ‘try hard’ in the opinion of family friends because I enjoy placing gifts under the Christmas tree, and I don’t ab stain from eating beef because I spent time in a place where it was a common delicacy.

The unfair ostracization that I’ve been the bearer of is not my experience alone. In their 2014 study, Brunel University’s Nelli Ferenczi and Tara C. Marshall found that immigrants who are anxiously attached to cultural identities differing from their place of residence experience increased margin alization from family and friends. This os tracization can be even more damaging to students because it occurs during a time in which they attempt to solidify their identity in terms of relationships, social achieve ments, and career advancement.

Considering that in recent years, Cana da’s foreign-born population has grown four times faster than the Canadian-born popu lation, Canada has truly begun to embody a mixed culture. As our nation’s cultural iden

However, this conflict isn’t the only fac tor that shapes how Fan self identifies. Fan admitted that she is “more familiar with the things that go on in the Western side of the world, rather than what happens in China,” but prefers to describe her identity as neither Canadian nor Chinese because of her lack of participation in both countries’ cel ebrations.

“I’m basically in between,” Fan explained. “I know of things [about China and Canada], but I don’t actively participate.”

Being “in between” cultures is a feeling that other students can relate to. In diverse communities such as U of T’s, cultural as similation — the process in which minority groups adopt the values and beliefs of soci ety’s dominant culture — no longer reflects the norm. Instead, as Canada welcomes its highest number of immigrants since 1946 — 113,699 within 2022’s first quarter — the intermingling of cultural practices between immigrant groups now seems to shape and redefine Canada’s population.

This transformation of cultural iden tity is most evident day to day. By 2036, 30 per cent of Canada’s population is projected to be made of immigrants.

Toronto suburbs are adapting to this shift by forming ethnic community hubs, which contain those com munities’ shopping centres and places of worship, as well as professionals who speak their language. However, this diver sity in services hasn’t always been the case.

For Sarah Ig casenza, a sec ond-generation

DO HAVE PASSPORT cultural uncertainty that unites U of T’s immigrants

“At some point, I’d still be very happy to confidently say, “Hey, I’m Canadian, and I’d love to show you around where I live,” — but now, I can wait for that day to come instead of counting up to it.”

immigrant from the Philippines, moving to Canada meant sacrificing speaking Taga log, which others told her she spoke “flu

nity of Indian students with whom she could celebrate these festivals. In the fu ture, she and her likeminded group of friends — she describes the bunch as being “not super traditional” — hope to create spaces that allow them to access their cultural roots.

“How we come together… is so much more diverse now because everyone brings their own traditions from back home,” Gandhi explained. “I’m exposed to different ways of portraying what being Indian and being Hindu means to people.”

ently” when she was younger. Ultimately, this lack of practice led to Igcasenza for getting the language altogether, which made visiting the Philippines stressful later on.

Igcasenza recalled a conversion she’d had with a Tim Hortons cashier while abroad. When she mentioned she didn’t speak Tagalog, the tone of the conversa tion immediately shifted to being “dry,” which made Igcasenza feel the need to apologize.

“I feel like [not knowing a language] almost drives you further away from be ing more tied to your culture,” Igcasenza reflected. “[People at home] make you feel like you should be ashamed that you don’t know much.” Eventually, this shame deterred Igcasenza from engaging with Tagalog altogether; “[I thought]: ‘I’m just going to stay away from it.’”

In the process of assimilation, many immigrants let go of what were once im portant cultural elements of their iden tity, such as their native language, to feel welcome in their new countries. Though this initial loss of identity usually allows immigrants to fit in, it eventually leads to the complete loss of connectedness with one’s ethnicity.

“I feel like if I grew up around more Fili pino people or if I knew more Filipino peo ple in school, I would be probably more engaged in it,” Igcasenza shrugged. “I feel very Westernized now.”

Members of cultural minorities require support from their communities in order to maintain their roots. So why do we de fine cultural identity with such concrete bounds when doing so only fuels further division?

Support networks

The experience of immigrants who were raised in Canada differs greatly from that of new immigrants. Moving to a large, di verse country — such as Canada — as an adult means that individuals can maintain a connection to their ethnic roots and practices.

In this case, cultural assimilation is no longer an act of stripping away cultural values; instead, it’s an attempt to add to another country’s larger culture. This as pect of the immigrant experience has be come common in largely diverse spaces such as Canadian universities.

For Shreyansi Gandhi, an international student from India, moving to Canada ini tially proved to be a significant struggle. Gandhi remembered that, because she moved in September, she missed out on “Indian festival season,” a period which she described as running from September till November. During this time, popular celebrations and festivals such as Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri, Durga Puja, and Diwali occur.

“My friends and family back home were able to celebrate,” Gandhi recalled. “Landing into a place for the first time, you’re already feeling like you’re missing out and then… missing out on something so special kind of doubles down on that feeling.”

Eventually, Gandhi found a commu

Retaining cultural practices provides a needed source of support for immi grants, as a lack thereof has been found to exhibit poor mental health. On the other hand, protective factors, such as family and ethnic community support, have been associated with better mental health. So cial support also empowers individuals to cope with and overcome any challenges that may occur during their transition into a new country.

At U of T, several avenues of social sup port exist for immigrants. These initiatives include student associations for specific ethnicities, such as Albanian Students at U of T; student associations that celebrate certain religions, such as the Buddhist Stu dent Association; and clubs that spread in formation about the rights and challenges that the new immigrants of Canada face, such as RefugeAid U of T. Similarly, U of T’s Centre for International Experience offers resources about applying for and maintaining temporary status in Canada.

The students I spoke to agree that these supports are needed. “Most Canadians [that I know]… their parents or their grand parents, et cetera, were immigrants,” said Lama Ahmed, a third-year student at UTM. Ahmed lived in Saudi Arabia for 13 years and Egypt for four before moving to Can ada. “So I think [that] is something really unique.”

Ahmed acknowledged that, because her brother had been living in Canada prior to her move, her transition into the country was “easier than most other [immigrants’ experiences].” She explained that her brother was married, so she could rely on him, his partner, and his partner’s family in times of struggle. After her move, Ahmed met other people from Egypt, who helped her stay connected to her culture.

“Anytime I am feeling homesick… I can go hang out with my Egyptian friends and we can watch some Arabic TV shows or listen to some Ara bic music,” Ahmed shared. “There’s always some sort of outlet that I can [use to] connect.”

An irreplaceable journey Ahmed’s experiences are common; 75 per cent of Canada’s population growth comes from immigrants. This status quo is only expected to intensify — in 2022 alone, Cana da is expected to welcome between 360,000 and 445,000 new permanent residents. These people’s unique stories will undoubtedly change the norms of cul tural identity and expression. In the 2016 National Household Survey, more than 250 ethnic origins were reported, 13 of which surpassed the one million population mark.

The different perspectives that exist among U of T students capture the diversi ty of the Canadian immigration experience. Despite the distinct characteristics of each interviewee’s story, it’s clear that there is a common sense of unity between those who have dealt with the stressors of im migrating to a new country. Each story em bodies a different aspect of a shared jour

ney that ultimately a large proportion of the Canadian population can relate to.

Previously, clearly explaining my mixed identity seemed like an obstacle

label could never fully encapsulate all the lived experiences that I bring to Canada.

It’s like Ahmed said: “[When you’re an immigrant], you’re never fully one or the other, but that's a really unique thing — to feel blended.”

that I couldn’t overcome. At some point, I’d still be very happy to confidently say, “Hey, I’m Canadian, and I’d love to show you around where I live,” — but now, I can wait for that day to come instead of count ing up to it.

Being accepting of different values and creating traditions that link Cana dian culture to life abroad are some benefits to being an immigrant that interviewees mentioned. The con versations I had with them trans formed the way I view myself; I no longer feel compelled to use a label that doesn’t stick, because that

“Students are pressured to maintain their ethnic integrity while adapting to the multicultural environment within which they reside.”

“Being accepting of different values and creating traditions that link Canadian culture to life abroad are some benefits to being an immigrant.”

James Lautens Varsity Contributor

Making an adaptation is hard.

As a creator, you have to justify the existence of a new version of a beloved media franchise while appeasing the ravenous hordes of fans ready to tear apart your creation because you didn’t fit the community’s preconceived idea of the piece.

That being said, some adaptations just fall completely flat on their face. In my opinion, no genre of media is more guilty of this than an ime. For this article, I put myself through the hellish experience of watching some pretty bad live-action anime adaptations to investi gate why they seem to consistently fail.

Someone, please put my name in that notebook

When I first thought of anime, I thought of Death Note. It seemed like a really good entry point if someone wanted to start watching anime; it has compelling characters and an interesting concept, wherein if you write someone’s name in a supernatural notebook, they die. Naturally, I decided to start with its live-action adaptation, which is a movie instead of a TV series.

Oh my god.

It was awful.

The acting was drier than a box of crackers left in the Sahara. The plot, upon closer inspec tion, was thinly stringed together at best. The worst part of the whole thing, however, was the perversion of the core characters and the removal of the terrifying element of the Death Note.

The character of Light Turner — known in the anime as Light Yagami — is the clearest exam ple of this perversion. In the anime, Light Yaga

mi is a cold, calculating sociopath who routinely uses and discards people. In the live-action adaptation, Light Turner is an overly hormonal, easily manipulated teenager. Worse, they elimi nate Yagami’s zealousness and his steadfast belief that he needs to rid the world of criminals and those he deems to be evil.

That change in character removes a lot of the fun present in the anime. Watching each epi sode you’re constantly asking yourself, “How far will Yagami go?” And the answer is “far, very far.” But in the live action, that just isn’t there.

What is even more disgraceful is how the live action sheds what makes the Death Note so damn terrifying: its supernatural power to kill anyone at any time. The first time viewers see Yagami use the Death Note in the anime, he uses it on a criminal on the news who’s taken a daycare centre hostage. Though Yagami initially dismisses the notebook as a prank, he soon changes his mind when the criminal drops dead from a heart attack.

In contrast, Turner’s first victim dies of de capitation, and the scene depicting the death is comical. The bully is killed in a mix of Rube Goldberg machine and butterfly effect style events that cause his decapitation. Instead of emphasizing the Death Note’s power, the scene discredits it.

If the Netflix live action were more true to the main characters and stuck to the terrifying su pernatural element of the Death Note, it could have been a better live-action piece. Cramming the story into an hour and forty minute movie also didn’t help its quality.

Time to wrestle up some cattle Netflix’s live-action Cowboy Bebop TV series suffers from the same issues as the Death Note movie: changes in characters that affect

the overall feel of the story. This is most seen in the anime’s antagonists, Vicious and Julia.

For one, the Netflix series attempts to por tray Vicious in a more sympathetic light by showing how he was abused by his father, which then twisted him into the psychopath we see on screen.

But that doesn’t work. The reason why Vi cious’s character works so well in the anime is that he’s completely dispassionate and power hungry. While in the anime, Vicious does at tempt to get revenge on Spike — the protago nist of Cowboy Bebop — for taking Julia away from him as well as for leaving the Red Dragon Crime Syndicate, the crime organization for which they both worked, Vicious’s feelings for Julia are about control: if I can’t have her, he seems to believe, no one can.

In the live-action, Julia stays with Vicious out of fear that he would otherwise kill her. That alters the dynamic between Vicious and Spike, as Vicious is no longer a dispassionate force but instead motivated by emotion: his “love” for Julia. He becomes more of an overly emo tional man-child rather than the cold killer he should be.

This brings us to Julia. Though it’s good that the live-action makes her an active character — if someone is being chased, they should probably have a more active response to it — it messes with the original source material and, therefore, demands that a whole new story be written.

The story Netflix came up with isn’t good, which is even more painfully clear when it’s compared to the anime’s story.

I should’ve majored in alchemy Our final entry in this saga of pain comes in the form of Netflix’s live-action adaptation of

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood . All things considered, it wasn’t too bad. It didn’t have the charm of the 2009 anime but the special effects helped hold it together.

Where I take issue is the fact that they didn’t do anything interesting at all with the charac ters. While Netflix’s live-action Death Note and Cowboy Bebop try to do something differ ent with their characters and story, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood doesn’t. The main characters Edward and Alphonse Elric are un changed, as is the majority of the supporting cast, barring Shou Tucker.

I welcomed the change in the character of Tucker, but it also had some key issues. In the 2009 anime, he was designed as a character to only be present for one episode to help the Elric brothers in their quest to reclaim their original bodies. In the live-action, he stays alive until close to the end of the movie.

While Tucker’s continued existence did allow the characters to jump from one plot point to the next in ways that differed from the 2009 anime, it felt like a strange aberration in the story, and he grew more shallow as the plot went on.

Interestingly enough, the failures of all three of these adaptations centre on characters. Ei ther the writers failed to account for how their changes to characters would affect the story, or they failed to do anything with them at all, leaving the adaptation feeling hollow and flat.

But maybe this can be a cautionary tale for future adaptations. Maybe it will push writers to investigate an anime’s established personas and use them to create original works out of beloved franchises. And if that doesn’t hap pen, then I would at least recommend you hate-watch these movies for the laughs and entertainment value.

The growth of UTSC’s seed library Scarborough project experiences a resurgence

Sam Rosati Martin Varsity Contributor

Within UTSC’s library, an old, re purposed card catalogue sits on a table, adorned with the names of fruits, vegetables, and flow ers. This is UTSC’s seed library, a collaborative project between the UTSC library, the Culinaria Re search Centre, and UTSC Edible Campus that has been running since 2019.

The goal of a seed library is to share seeds with the members of a community, enrich biodiversity, and foster food sovereignty. Food sovereignty refers to a sustainable network of producing and eating food where those who cultivate their food also have autonomy over its distribution and consump tion.

Much like at a traditional library, those who borrow seeds often return them by donating the new seeds that their plants have pro duced. The effect of the seed li brary’s ecological interdependence is twofold: it provides a space for patrons to gain the kind of knowledge not typically available at a library and it transforms perceptions of what roles a library can have in its community. In UTSC’s community, the seed library is set to play a bigger role this semester.

The benefits of a seed library

In an interview with The Varsity , Whitney Kem ble, the UTSC librarian who has run the project since its inception three years ago, explained that she sources the supply of seeds through UTSC’s rooftop garden, community donations, and her personal garden, and that she has re cently collaborated with the Campus Farm in Scarborough through seed sharing.

According to Kemble, the most popular

seeds in the library are those that produce fruits and vegetables. Kemble stressed the significance of this, saying that “there’s a sus tainability aspect and ecosystem aspect [to the library].”

“There’s also a food sovereignty, food acces sibility aspect that’s only going to become more and more important with climate change and with inflation,” Kemble added.

Moreover, Kemble noted that if they have ac cess to a seed library, students can grow their own food, even without a garden. The library can have an immediate impact on the lives of UTSC students by “[teaching] people about growing in the space that they have,” Kemble said. “So even if you don’t have a garden, you

can get some buckets or some pots and grow some tomatoes and lettuce — and you can grow the lettuce throughout the year.”

Growing one’s own crops, especially in a city, can be daunting for students that have little or no experience with gardening. Kemble hopes that having the seed library at UTSC can help break down some of the barriers for students who would like to plant their own seeds but do not know how to get started.

“They might find it very intimidating, and even knowing where to go [and] what seeds to get [removes a] barrier to access,” she said. “There are some seeds in your face as you’re walking through the library, and you can take them because they’re free, so it’s easy. It’s just

sense of belonging here. It might seem difficult at first, but by getting out of your comfort zone and being intentional in the way you approach life, you can very easily call Toronto your home.

something to pique their curiosity, get them interested, and having no barriers makes it possible to be creative and experimental with it.”

Tapping into the curiosity of students is crucial for the seed library. Students might not typically expect to come across sachets of seeds when they en ter the library to study. The seed library at UTSC widens the scope of what an academic library can offer. In turn, it provides students the chance to learn certain life skills that are often excluded from curricula.

Plans to expand

Due to the impacts of COVID-19 on the university, the seed library has seen reduced participation in the past few years. But there are plans for the project to grow, as well as for hosting events that engage the UTSC commu nity on issues regarding sustainability and food sovereignty.

Along with their recent collaboration with the campus farm, the seed library is looking to strengthen its ties with the SCSU to directly engage with students in this activity and increase the visibility of the project.

Kemble says that she plans to host “seed packing workshops, where people can help pack the seeds, and also learn about garden ing and seed saving.” Regarding this fall term, Kemble feels “excited to be around people working together to make the seed library all that it can be.”

“It had a good start in 2019 but then got the wind taken out of its sails,” Kemble said. “So it’s a new start as people go back to campus to learn about it.”

“Whether it’s by seed donations or helping us with our seed packing and learning along the way, this is about how to grow and save and contribute to that life cycle that keeps us alive,” Kemble concluded.

stuffed animal would. Being able to throw a punch or set off a deafening alarm makes me feel much better.

Ceili Reilly Varsity Contributor

Twenty one per cent of U of T’s student body is international. Whether as part of that percent age or as a Canadian who is new to Toronto, many students are calling Toronto their home for the first time.

I moved to Toronto last year, and it was in timidating at first. Especially for someone com ing from a smaller town, the sheer size and density of the city were overwhelming. I re member my first night in Toronto; I was terrified by the mere fact that, in the entire city, nobody knew I existed. It was isolating. Since then, I’ve managed to find a community and a strong

For many students, including me, COV ID-19 introduced additional barriers to social izing and finding community at the university. It showed many people how important social bonds are for mental health and fulfillment. Hopefully, with the reduction of case numbers, we can begin to rebuild old communities and foster new ones.

Finding your community

Arguably the most important factor in feeling a sense of belonging to a place is having a com munity. You might not necessarily meet that community through, for example, a Spanish study group, although we often find our people in the most unexpected of circumstances.

I met my roommates on U of T Roommate Finder and they are now my closest friends. Even so, we didn’t become best friends in stantly, it took time and effort. Finding your community can be stressful, but with effort, patience, and looking down some unexpected paths, it’ll come.

Finding your safety strategies

Toronto can feel unsafe at times, which is a point of anxiety for many who are new to the city. How can you call a place home when you don’t feel safe residing there? For someone who hasn’t yet lived in a big city, the shift can be jarring. Once you get a grasp on how to move about the city in a way that feels safe and comfortable, it makes a massive differ ence.

Being capable of self-defense has made me feel much safer. Even though I’ve never had to use the self-defence tactics I learn in my box ing classes, I walk home at night with my hand on my alarm; it gives me the same comfort a

Finding your place

Once you feel secure navigating the city, it’s valuable to find places that feel like home. Rather than giving you a list of places to check out, I’m going to stress the importance of nar rowing down your hobbies and finding places in Toronto that cater to those. You begin to feel like you belong in a place when you’re able to imbue some of yourself into it.

You can make the city your own by cultivat ing a map of comfort-spots. Personally, I love reading. I read at Philosopher’s Walk when I need to clear my mind. Irrespective of a spe cific hobby, finding places where you can be a regular often provides the same level of com fort. The Slanted Door café in the Annex is a serene spot with great coffee and an even better atmosphere. By intentionally taking time to find those places that make you feel wel comed, you can begin to form memories that will make up the foundation of your attachment to the city.

It took me over a year to find my place here, and while that was even more difficult due to the COVID-19 pandemic, settling into a new environment is always a process. Finding be longing takes time, feeling comfortable, hav ing a support system, and finding places that make you feel at home. It takes effort and in tention, so I urge you to step away from course work for a bit of time each week to develop your life here.

Toronto will likely never replace your home town, but that’s okay, because it’s meant to serve a different purpose. This city is likely where you will develop your independence, sense of self, and future. So let it be a different kind of home, one where you can feel a stron ger sense of freedom and individuality.

ANDREA ZHAO/THEVARSITY

Meiko Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs

Are women’s bodies still a reproductive commodity?

Rhea Jerath Varsity Contributor

One of my earliest memories from childhood is of my favourite dress. As a tween growing up with my grandparents who considered hand-medowns the norm, being gifted a brand-new vi brant, patterned, and poofy sundress left me ab solutely ecstatic and smiling with glee. I had never felt so beautiful. So I promptly wore that dress through months and months of India’s blistering summer heat until its colour finally began to fade.

That sense of confidence in my beauty that I felt as a young child slowly ebbed as I entered my teens, and has only become further convoluted in adulthood. I never could express the confu sion and frustration I experienced through pu berty as my body morphed and became subject to the criticisms and affirmations of those around me. My body transformed before I could find the words to describe myself, so I began to mirror what I heard.

Before reading Meiko Kawakami’s 2008 novel, Breasts and Eggs, I believed these experiences would remain confined to the limits of my memory, one of the many burdens of womanhood we all must shoulder. But by delving into the uniquely personal struggles of seemingly common women at different stages in life, Kawakami’s novel grace fully critiques the current state of women’s bodily autonomy — ranging from sexuality and physical appearance to childbirth — in a way I connected to immensely.

A valuable commodity Transformation and change are a natural part of life, yet from birth to adulthood the endless changes we experience can leave us unrecogniz able from who we used to be. For women, this transformation can be a lot more drastic, and no matter the outcome, it often results in disappoint ment regarding some aspect of our identity.

While pondering her sister’s decision to get breast implants, Natsuko, the protagonist of

Kawakami’s novel, had this to say about it: “I never became the women I imagined. And what was I expect ing? The kind of body that you see in girly magazines. A body that fit the mold of what people describe as ‘sexy.’ A body that provokes sexual fantasy. A source of desire. I guess I could say that I expected my body would have some sort of value.”

This value about which Natsuko speaks is the same value that drives women to use skin bleach ing products, undergo risky cosmetic surgery like the Brazilian butt lift, and spend hundreds of dol lars on anti-aging products. Our obsession with achieving physical perfection that stretches be yond the limits of makeup, skincare, AI filters, and even cosmetic surgery has become an indispens able source of profit for businesses that thrive on amplifying women’s insecurities while promising an illusive solution to all woes.

Growing up in India, the value of my physical ity lay in my skin colour. That was clear from the Fair and Lovely brightening cream that lay on my grandmother’s dresser, and the nagging from my relatives to stay indoors and avoid tanning in the sun. While Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs may be based on the struggles of women living in contem porary Japanese society, the theme of women’s bodies being a marketable commodity remains a far-reaching issue.

Whether it’s the size of our breasts or the length of our hair, women’s bodies are constantly expect ed to remain youthful and beautiful despite aging or childbirth, which are processes that undeniably change the physiology of the body.

Natsuko’s niece Midoriko encapsulates the anxi ety of being a young child terrified by the realities around womanhood. The loss of control that young girls experience when they first menstruate and the shame surrounding everyday conversations about women’s sexuality often fractures their sense of se curity, as the novel demonstrates.

The question of sex Midoriko’s fear surrounding her changing body and her refusal to embrace womanhood is a rather familiar experience. In fact, I find myself re maining anxious about the prospect of unwanted pregnancy despite taking recommended precau tions.

I often find myself faced with skeptical looks and questions from relatives when I mention not

wanting to have children at the prime of my adult life. The general attitude that I will eventually “come around” to the idea of having children because my biological clock is ticking disregards my very real concerns involving a lifelong commitment.

Much like Midoriko, I’m unable to communi cate my apprehension without being invalidated and often need to resort to the pages of my di ary. The assumption of others that I will eventually fulfill the responsibilities associated with my body makes me question if I have the autonomy to de cide when and how I build my family. Is my body simply a means of reproduction, an object that is meant to fulfill expectations?

Kawakami pointedly explores this question through her characters’ personal reflections and interactions. The second part of the novel intro duces Natsuko as a published writer, who, de spite being older and living alone, is contemplat ing having a child. More specifically, she struggles with using artificial insemination as a means to achieve pregnancy in a country where such re productive services are rarely extended even to heterosexual, two-parent households.

In her attempts to research the resources avail able to her, Natsuko grapples with the dilemma of wanting a child while not having complete agency over the choices she makes regarding her own body. In many countries, including Japan, wom en’s reproductive rights are narrow and generally only exist for women within traditional relation ships that have money and resources to support surrogacy or donor conception.

Kawakami explores the confusion and stress Natsuko experiences as a woman who does not want to engage in sexual activity. While Natsuko never explicitly identifies as asexual, she strug gles to find a romantic partner to share her life with and feels burdened by societal standards that expect women to use their bodies to repro duce traditionally.

Breasts and Eggs provides insight into the cur rent nature of sexual agency and autonomy for low-income or middle-class, working women that are unable to find reproductive support in their countries, an issue that remains even more prominent with the recent overturning of Roe v Wade, which rolled back federal abortion rights for women across the United States.

Stories untold Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs is a novel that tells the stories of our sisters, mothers, and daughters. Primarily, it tells our own stories, ones we have lived but shouldered in silence. Kawakami’s novel reveals the aspects of women’s physicality that are often buried under societal expectations as sociated with pregnancy, beauty, and sexuality.

Breasts and Eggs is an expression of exis tential angst and feminist anger. It questions the patriarchal structures that dictate the boundaries of sexual agency and gender identity for women within society. And more importantly, demands answers for the injustices against women’s bod ies that have continued over generations.

Dylan Coley Varsity Contributor

Tattoos were a pipe dream of mine all through high school, and this year I finally made that dream a reality, much to the chagrin of my parents. Upon realizing I had accumulated five tattoos over the course of ten months, my parents very vocally wondered what I was thinking.

Instead of giving them a direct answer, I decid ed to write an article expressing my reasons for getting tattoos, along with those of some of my university peers in varying stages of tattoo owner ship. The purpose of this article is twofold: firstly, I’ve tried to figure out what it is about tattoos that draws people to them, and secondly, I want to assuage my parents’ worries regarding my de linquency by proving that I am involving myself in the enriching scholastic activity of university-level journalism.

There is, of course, no singular reason why peo ple get tattoos. Some might get them for cultural reasons, while others get them for specific per sonal reasons or simply aesthetic ones. The latter two are the kinds that will be covered in this article.

Meanings and aesthetics

Why might someone get a tattoo? In an interview with The Varsity, Meghan Butcher, a third-year stu dent in the Faculty of Music, said that a part of it may be rebellion, but went on to add, “I really liked the look of them. And I really liked the ones I’ve chosen. I think [they] just tell a really fun story.”

Butcher certainly isn’t the only one who finds the aesthetic of tattoos a compelling reason to get them. A large part of the draw for me was simply

how cool it is to have art on my body.

However, my first tattoo was ultimately for sen timental reasons — a scrabble bag with the letters on the tiles being the initials of my family members — as was Butcher’s first tattoo.

“I have the wings on my back [because] I was one of those kids who really wanted to just be a fairy,” Butcher said. “And so my grandma, when I was younger, would always tell me that she could see them growing… So I turned 17 and wanted a tattoo and was like, ‘Why don’t I just finally get my fairy wings?’”

For others, the draw of all tattoos is sentimental. Julia Ramsey, a second-year engineering student, only plans to get one tattoo: a word in Malayalam paired with forget-me-nots to commemorate her grandmother. While she still hasn’t fully dedicated herself to getting a tattoo, she told The Varsity that it seems very appealing, even though she already

has a necklace with the same word on it.

“I do love the necklace, but specifically because [the word] relates to memory and forgetting people — it [would feel] somewhat poignant to have that on my skin forever, you know?” Ramsey said.

Even tattoos that seem purely aesthetic can have a deeper personal meaning. For example, I’ve never really liked my body, in a general sense and in a transgender sense, but covering it in art makes me like it. Beyond that, tattoos have been something I’ve wanted for a long time, so being able to have them feels like a form of self-realiza tion.

In an interview with The Varsity, Alex Wang, a second-year political science student, described a similar outlook. “Growing up, I was a very inse cure kid about my appearances and everything,” Wang said. “I think to me, getting these tattoos [is] fulfilling, but… it’s [also] kind of like a form of self-

expression.” While Wang has long wanted tattoos for that very reason, he is only just beginning the process of scheduling his first tattoo appointment.

To get a tattoo, to not get a tattoo

So what stops people from getting tattoos? What makes people like Ramsey hesitate? Why did Wang and I take so long? Well for young people, a part of it can be traced back to parental or family pressure; as I mentioned before, my parents aren’t necessarily thrilled about all of the tattoos I’ve ac quired.

But often, even if your family isn’t fully on board, that isn’t a deal breaker. “My mom, I think, isn’t thrilled,” Ramsey said. “But she’s very respectful of my own bodily autonomy.”

Family can also be far more receptive than anticipated. “I told my family and then my mom was like, ‘Oh, just get a small one,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ I mean, it’s just that it’s not that big of a deal,” Wang said. Butcher’s grandmother even got a tattoo of her own.

While there certainly are some for whom family is a deterrent, a far more common issue is simply the monetary aspect. Tattoos are expensive, es pecially if you’re a college student on a budget. It takes serious dedication of time and money to get a tattoo, not to even speak of getting multiple.

Nevertheless, tattoos are becoming increasingly popular. And while there is a certain level of ner vousness they can invoke, their appeal as a form of self expression through sentimental symbolism, self realization, or simply showcasing art that you enjoy, is undeniable. And for me, at least, the idea of carrying my cool art pieces around on my body for a good long time sounds wonderful.

DALAINEY GERVAIS/THEVARSITY

From forest to table: Should we swap out beef for bugs?

A look into insect farming for human consumption

Alexandra Kostich Varsity Contributor

Food accessibility and insecurity are pertinent is sues that affect millions of people across the globe. Our current food systems generate large amounts of waste and enable food inequalities, and con tinually relying on these systems will only worsen these issues. In order to mend these systems and foster nutritious and equitable options for affected populations, we must prioritize sustainable devel opment.

A considerable problem within these systems is the substantial carbon footprint attributed to meat production. A mere 3.5 ounces of beef releases, on average, over one hundred pounds of environmen tally harmful gases into the atmosphere, highlight ing the need for more plant-based products — but what if we had a tiny solution to this big problem?

A six-legged treat?

Transitioning from eating meat to insects is no small feat, as our taste buds have yet to become accli mated to crunchy six-legged creatures that taste nothing like a juicy piece of beef. The residents of Madagascar, however, found a succulent solution that might do the trick — the sakondry bug.

In 2009, Montclair State University anthropol ogy professor Conti Borgerson visited Madagas car while working on her PhD. While she was there, she discovered that many Malagasy locals indulged in fried sakondry bugs, which, according to her, didn’t taste far off from bacon. The contrast between their crunchy shell and meaty inside re minded her of crispy pork belly and was eminently more satisfying than she had expected.

The main issue, however, was the difficulty in finding these specific insects.

To resolve this, she and her team got to work and dis covered that by planting the sakondry bug’s host

plant — the antaky bean plant — they could ex pand and establish colonies for the insect popula tion. These six-legged creatures provided the Mal agasy people with an accessible source of protein and micronutrients.

This shows great promise in improving the lack of nourishing food options that the Masoala people face, and similar solutions could greatly enhance the nutrition and food security of hundreds of mil lions of people.

The protein problem

The lack of certain nutrients, such as protein, in meatless diets raises concerns about whether or not meat alternatives can provide the same amount of macro- and micro-nutrients as the real thing, but how well does insect protein compete with that of livestock?

As it turns out, these little creatures are packed with nutrients and can contain the same amount of protein per portion as meat. A paper published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition in

vestigated whether the nutritional values of some commercially available insects, such as crickets and larvae, were comparable to those of chicken, beef, and pork. It found that both a 100g serving of adult crickets and a 100g serving of pork contained exactly 20.1 grams of protein. The amount of pro tein in these insects was even more than what was found in the same serving size of chicken, which came out to be 19.9 grams of protein.

The nutritional advantages of insect consump tion don’t end there. When it comes to minerals, bugs surpass beef by a long shot, with crickets containing close to 200 per cent more iron than beef. Grasshoppers, crickets, and mealworms can all contain significantly higher levels of minerals than sirloin, providing you with copious amounts of iron, zinc, copper, and magnesium, and demonstrating the possibility of having a highly nutritious diet.

Preparing insects for human taste buds

One of the most apparent issues that need to be tackled with insect farming for human consumption is convincing individuals to get past the ‘ick’ fac tor. From soy sauce larvae in Japan to agave worm tacos in Mexico, people of various cultures already enjoy consuming insects. But persuading others to do the same may be nothing short of challenging.

This obstacle is exactly what chemists in South Korea are trying to overcome. They found that, by adding some sugars to cooked mealworms, they could mimic the smell of meat. The way in which these insects are cooked could also alter their aro ma. In Hee Cho, a South Korean chemist at Wonk wang University analyzed various cooking process es and discovered that the method of preparation affects the taste of insects. The process of frying mealworms gave off a meat or seafood-like aroma, whereas steaming them produced a sweet scent.

Eating them whole, however, might not be for everyone. Luckily, there is an assortment of differ ent ways in which insects can be consumed, which makes sustainable feasting more enjoyable and appetizing. A simple way to reap the benefits of insect protein without having to fry or steam them is to grind them up, creating a protein powder that can be added to a variety of dishes. You can fold it into a batter, mix it in with a stew or blend it into your morning smoothie, adding a mildly nutty flavor without having to come face to face with your sixlegged meal.

So next time you’re craving some barbeque chicken, try opting for barbeque crickets instead — it just might help the planet.

Pamela Alamilla Varsity Contributor

The popularity of at-home deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing kits has risen sharply in the last decade. Companies such as Ancestry and 23andMe make it fun and easy to find out where your ancestors came from. But what ex actly are these tests looking for in your DNA?

DNA is essentially a map of your entire ge netic makeup. It is a structure composed of a variety of molecules, but the most important ones for your ancestry kits are called nucleo tides — adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C), and guanine (G). It is the combination of these molecules in a linear arrangement that deter mines the characteristics that make you, ‘you.’ Usually, your biological machinery copies DNA faithfully, but sometimes it makes mistakes.

If the changes in DNA — known as muta tions — occur in the cells that become sperm and ova, your children can inherit them. Ge netic testing companies look for specific muta tions and use self-reported information about the origins of other individuals with the same

mutations, then use that information to deter mine where your genetics come from.

Let’s imagine, for example, that most hu mans have a specific segment of DNA that reads “AAAAAA.” Let’s call this segment Seg ment 1. Now imagine that hundreds of years ago, an individual inhabiting region X expe rienced an event that led to a mutation that made Segment 1 read “AAATAA.” They passed that mutation on to their children, their grand children, and so on.

Many generations later, almost all individuals from region X who descended from that first individual have “AAATAA” at Segment 1. When a scientist encounters a random genome with the code “AAATAA” at Segment 1, they can be pretty sure the genome belongs to someone who originated from region X.

In reality, population genetics is a much more complex field than in the above example. However, this example illustrates the basic log ic genetic testing companies use to guess the ancient populations from which your specific mutations originated.

JENNIFER WANG/THEVARSITY

Prescribing prevention

Jevan Konyar Varsity Contributor

Injury-prone lifters rejoice, because hope for better injury prevention methods has come!

In a wasteland of one-size-fits-all approaches for avoiding slipped discs and torn ligaments, Timothy Burkhart, an assistant professor at the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, suggests that a greater degree of specificity in injury prevention can help those trying to avoid hurting themselves. His recent research utilized innovations in measuring technology to explore how differences in people’s constitu tions demand different injury prevention tech niques.

Burkhart has produced more than a de cade’s worth of research, exploring how dif ferences in race, sex, physical frame, and — perhaps most interestingly — psychology can contribute to different sports-related risk fac tors for injuries that call for different solutions.

When explaining his motivation for pursuing this research, Burkhart said, “I’ve always kind of felt bad for the athletes that got this label as being ‘injury-prone,’ like it was their fault that they kept getting injured, and always thought that there was something more to it.”

His work focuses on the biomechanics of injury and how people’s different movement profiles lead to idiosyncrasies in their specific approaches to sport, to keep their bodies run

ning smoothly. “In terms of the injury preven tion piece, I think we still have some work to do there,” said Burkhart. “There’s the biomechan ics piece that we’re primarily interested in — that’s where my background primarily is — but we’re also starting to recognize that injury is a multifactorial, multivariable thing, and we need to integrate the biomechanics part of it.”

Burkhart’s research makes use of innova tions in motion capture technology and ma chine learning that can collect data from video footage alone. Not only does this reduce the work needed to collect data, allowing for much larger sample sizes, but it also makes way for less invasive observation on the subject’s end. The use of this technology involves sampling from footage of athletes performing a given set of tasks and then making precise mea surements of their movements. This process serves to identify minute differences between these movements to model how people’s movements vary and which movement profiles lead to injuries.

“[This is] a really great new, innovative tech nology because it means we can measure athletes in their own sporting environment much more easily,” Burkhart explained. “It’s much quicker to make these measurements and run our studies because it essentially just involves videotaping, and we don’t have to put any instrumentation on them.”

The hope for further research is to use new

technologies to identify how different factors that are unique to individuals, such as having a distinctive frame or musculature, and their daily habits can provide insight into how to better cater to the specific needs of different people.

In practice, this methodology has been ap plied to the study of femoroacetabular, or hip, impingement, which involves excessive bone growth at the hip joint. The hip is a ball-andsocket joint where the femoral head — the top of the bone in your upper leg — slots into a cavity in the pelvis. Irregular growth there can cause pain and inflexibility and is most

common in women. Burkhart is using the new motion-capture technology to look into why and how this happens to women.

Beyond the antiquity of a one-size-fits-all approach, other hurdles for effective injury prevention include a disconnect between researchers and athletes, whereby the latter often aren’t aware of breakthroughs in sports medicine. “Researchers need to do a better job of getting that information out,” remarked Burkhart. “Our hope is definitely that our in jury prevention research… will have a really good pathway with our clinical collaborators to get that information out quickly.”

How to cool your mouth after eating spicy food

The biochemistry of capsaicin and dairy allows you to enjoy spicy treats

Salma Ragheb

Varsity Contributor

If you’re a fiend for hot foods and can’t resist a spicy meal, you’re probably no stranger to the burning sensation that comes afterward. Your mouth is on fire, you can’t taste anything else, your nose is running — and then your friend of fers you a glass of water. Maybe you’ve heard others recommend drinking milk or eating sug ar instead in order to alleviate the pain — but do these seemingly unrelated methods really work? And if they do, why?

The biochemistry of “tasting” spicy food

The active component of most spicy food is called capsaicin. It is directly responsible for the burning sensation you experience on your tongue after having spicy food like chilies or hot sauce. Capsaicin binds to a type of receptor on your tongue called the transient receptor po tential vanilloid type 1 (TRPV1). When capsaicin binds TRPV1, calcium ions rush into the cells on your tongue, and signals are sent through your neurons that classify the sensation as “spicy.” It is the capsaicin-induced activation of this TRPV1 receptor that induces the feeling of heartburn. There is no physical heat involved, though, as this heat is a chemical taste illusion.

How to fight off capsaicin: Most to least ef fective methods

Picture this: you are having spicy food and you drink water, but the water is not doing any thing. A molecule that separates capsaicin from TRPV1 would alleviate the burning sensation, but capsaicin is a hydrophobic and fat-soluble molecule, meaning it repels water and dissolves in fats. Therefore water is minimally effective at alleviating the burn.

There are two main theories on why popu lar remedies like milk work in fighting off spice. First, milk contains hydrophobic protein mol ecules called casein. As we’ve all learned in chemistry class, like dissolves like, so if hydro phobic casein is available, capsaicin will detach off of the TRPV1 receptor and bind to casein in stead. This means that fewer TRPV1 receptors

on your tongue are engaged by capsaicin, and the burning sensation is reduced. The second theory is that because capsaicin is fat-soluble, the fat content of milk dissolves it, which limits capsaicin from binding to TRPV1.

In general, the most effective way to fight off capsaicin is by having casein-containing milk with the highest fat content you can find. If you take your lactose intolerance seriously,

there are other options for you! Capsaicin is al kaline, which makes it basic. This means it can be neutralized by acids, so lemon juice, vinegar, or any other acidic food or additive also works. This method is less effective than milk though, because milk strips away capsaicin from its re ceptor by offering a more alluring alternative, whereas acids act to neutralize capsaicin itself, without disengaging it from the TRPV1 receptor.

As for the suggestion to eat bread to fight off spiciness, it is important to note that carbohy drates are not helpful from a chemical stand point. Rather, bread is recommended because it acts as a barrier between the capsaicin mole cules and the TRPV1 receptors on your tongue.

My recommendation, though, is to just stop having spicy food altogether. Is it really worth the pain?

New research analyzes the importance of a per sonalized approach to injury aversion in sports

ANNETE XIA/ THE VARSITY

New research examines how different factors influence injury HANNAH KATHERINE//THEVARSITY

Remembering Mahsa Amini

U of T community gathers outside Convocation Hall to condemn gender-based violence in Iran

Jadine Ngan Editor-in-Chief

Vigil attendees stood in a large circle, with many raising their fists to join the community in chants that called for freedom.

A vigil attendee places flowers and candles on a foldable table, which speakers later used as a makeshift podium.

After the speeches at Convocation Hall end, this attendee leads the crowd in a chant.

Alongside the old Persian flag, which was used before Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, one protestor raises photos of the last shah — Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi — as well as his wife Farah Pahlavi and father Reza Shah Pahlavi.

Queer activist Nima Yajam, one of several speakers at the gathering, calls for freedom for LGBTQ+ people in Iran.

This protestor’s cardboard sign calls attention to the widespread internet shutdowns in Iran.

Varsity Blues dominate York Lions to retain Argo Cup

A touchdown-filled third quarter leads Blues to victory against cross-town rivals

Kunal Dadlani Associate Sports Editor

On September 24 the Varsity Blues beat the York Lions 39–7 to win the 52nd Annual Red and Blue Bowl, also known as the Argo Cup.

The Blues and Lions both headed into the game with a 1-3 record this season. However, the Lions’ singular victory came via a McMas ter forfeit, whereas the Blues dominated the Carleton Ravens 28–13 in the home opener nearly two weeks ago.

As a result of their victory against the Lions, the Blues improved to a 2-3 record, led by a three-touchdown performance from running back Luka Stoikos.

Much like last year’s game, the Blues played stellar defense in the beginning of the first quarter, as the Lions’ first three drives failed to move past their 35-yard line. With just over five minutes remaining in the quar ter, the Blues were rewarded, as kicker Samuel Henke’ field goal was successful, giving the Blues a 3–0 lead.

To signal the shift in momentum, the Lions ended the first quarter with a strong 48-yard drive that continued into the second quarter. Things became worse after the Blues re ceived a 15-yard penalty for roughing Lions kicker Nathan Walker. While the drive would end soon, the momentum remained with the Lions.

Yet, in the late second quarter, Lions quar

Phillip sent a beautiful 30-yard pass to wide receiver Michael Lehmann to place the Blues a yard away from York’s endzone. Stoikos ran into the endzone to earn the Blues’ second

After the Blues’ dominant defense efficiently ended an 18-yard drive by the Lions, Stoikos earned his second touchdown of the game af ter running an impressive 35 yards, dodging several Lions players. In their next drive, Phil lips sent a short three-yard pass to offensive lineman Mojtaba Mehry for the third touch down of the quarter and the first of Mehry’s career. As a result, the Blues headed into the final quarter with a dominant 32–7 lead.

To seal the victory midway through the fourth quarter, Stoikos ended an impressive 53-yard drive to get his third touchdown of the game. Despite the persistence of York’s offense and a later ejection for Blues defensive back, Tolu Ahmed, the Blues maintained a dominant lead and hoisted the Argo Cup once again.

On October 1, the Blues will travel east to face the Waterloo Warriors for the first time since 2019. The Blues have failed to beat the Warriors in their last three encounters, but hopes are that Stoikos and the rest of their offense continue to impress so the Blues can move on to a 3-3

Angad Deol Managing Online Editor

Fall is an interesting time of the year for sports. Many seasons — such as the major European Soccer Leagues, the NFL, and the NBA — are kicking off or are already underway while oth ers — such as the WNBA, MLB, MLS, and the CFL — are nearing their end or the playoffs. Thus, if you’re looking to get into sports, it’s the perfect time to join a fanbase and experi ence the highs and lows of team sports.

If you’re looking for the easy way out, and just want a team to talk about at the water cooler without pulling your hair out at excru ciating losses or player trades, a Toronto team might not be the most appealing option, given the city’s rocky past. You can, however, miti gate your heartbreak and support one of the 6ix’s more successful teams.

The Toronto Raptors

As of late, the Raptors are a team with a lot of upsides. Making the playoffs perennially and having loads of fun stars like Scottie Barnes, Pascal Siakam, and Fred VanVleet who make it easy for Torontonians to latch their hopes onto the Raptors. It wasn’t always this way, though. I would be remiss to not mention the grim times when this team placed their hopes on the likes of pasta commercial icon Andrea Bargnani, with a supporting cast of Linas Klei za, Rudy Gay, and young DeMar DeRozan and Jonas Valančiūnas. Those days are gone now and you can comfortably rest your hopes on Spicy P and company.

The Toronto Blue Jays

Listen, I get baseball can be hard to watch for the average viewer. But have you ever been to a Jays game just for the vibes? Grabbing a loonie hot dog and a cold drink, sitting with a great view of a crisp green field watching Vladi mir Guerrero Jr. and the Jays launch hits into the stands is an ideal way to spend a night —

especially if you’re a U of T student who’s sick of spending the day staring at notes for a class that you’re probably going to Credit/No Cred it anyways. Plus, the Jays have looked solid these past few years, finishing with a positive record since the 2020 season. Although this season has yet to finish, it would take a catas trophe for the Jays to fall under .500 this year.

Toronto FC

The beautiful game of soccer has enveloped Toronto in the past decade. The era of Sebas tian Giovinco and Jozy Altidore has come and

gone, and now, Toronto FC have brought in three new Italians — former Napoli captain Lorenzo Insigne, Domenico Criscito, and Fed erico Bernardeschi. The hype was so real this season that OVO even launched a capsule col lection to mark the new era of Toronto soccer. While it’s too early to count success, there’s no doubt the future is bright for soccer in the 6ix.

The Toronto Maple Leafs

We love saving the best for last, don’t we, folks? While fans perennially claim that this is “their season,” the Leafs have somehow found

new ways to hilariously collapse in the playoffs year after year. From bringing in solid players to changing coaches, nothing seems to work. The Leafs last lifted the Stanley Cup in 1967 — 55 years ago. At this point, it looks like it could be another 55 before the Leafs get a sniff of it again.

But there is something appealing about sticking through thick and thin with a franchise. It gives you higher highs, and lower lows. You can’t get that feeling anywhere else, which is why, if you have the stomach to take it, you should find space in your heart for the Leafs.

A bandwagoner’s guide to Toronto sports Which team in the 6ix has the most potential for success?

The Blues have won their third Argo Cup in a row since 2019.

SEYRAN MAMMADOV/VARSITY BLUES MEDIA

Fans take to streets after Toronto Raptors’ victory in 2019.

DINA DONG/THEVARSITY

Can Max Verstappen win the 2022 Formula One World Championship in Singapore? How things are shaking out nearing the end of the F1 season

The Formula One governing body’s cancella tion of the Russian Grand Prix (GP) due to the Russia-Ukraine war has carved a hole in the very tightly packed racing calendar, giving the sport an involuntary three-week break follow ing Dutch driver Max Verstappen’s fifth con secutive win at the Italian GP.

Next on the racing roster is the return to the brightly-lit straits of Singapore’s Marina Bay Circuit after a previous cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Singapore GP is possibly the most strenuous of F1 races, so drivers have used the break to acclimatize to the heavy humidity levels they will endure throughout the race weekend.

What to expect from the Singapore GP

With 11 wins outshining his runner up Charles Leclerc’s three, Verstappen’s 116-point lead sees the Red Bull driver poised to win his second Drivers’ World Championship pos sibly much sooner than we expected. To win the Championship title in Singapore, the Dutch driver would have to outscore Leclerc by 22 points, his teammate Sergio Perez by 13, and Mercedes’ George Russell by six points.

Although this is a very specific criteria, Ver stappen would still be able to make his second championship title stick at the Japanese Grand Prix should this points display not happen.

“The Championships are looking healthy, but it’s never done until it’s done," said Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner to Formula One News at the close of the Italian GP. “Sin gapore’s a completely different challenge, Fer rari are going to be strong there,” he explained.

“Mercedes are sorting themselves out, and you’ve gotta keep looking forward. All the les sons we learn now have to apply to next year as well,” Horner continued.

As he inches closer to a second title, Verstap pen also gets closer to breaking the 13-race record of most wins in a single Formula One season, which both Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel currently hold.

The battle for second

The considerable gap in points that separates the leading Red Bull from the Ferrari has rel egated Leclerc to fighting for a P2 finish in the Championship. However, with just nine points separating Charles Leclerc from Sergio Perez — who is currently in P3 and is closely followed by George Russell, who is seven points away in fourth — Leclerc’s chances at holding onto second are waning.

The gruelling conditions of the Singapore GP could be extremely telling as to which of the three drivers could emerge as the strongest contender for the position in the drivers’ stand ings.

A possible Mercedes win

With the races on the 2022 calendar dwin dling as the season sees its end soon, both Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell keep clawing for a race win after stand ing on the bottom two steps of the podium a shared total of 13 times. Singapore carries the opportunity for a return to the top step of the podium for the eight-time Constructors’ Cham pions and four-time Singapore GP winner Lewis Hamilton.

The Mercedes W13 has dealt with multiple challenges following the introduction of the rulechanging Technical Directive by the Federation Internationale l’Automobile. However, Mercedes has made considerable gains to revitalize their car concept, which proved useful through Ham ilton’s rise through the grid from P19 to fifth, and Russell’s top-three finish in Monza.

Mercedes Technical Director Mike Elliot spoke about the team looking ahead to a strong

weekend in Singapore during the Italian GP de brief: “I think when you look back at the learn ing we’ve gathered over the season, we can expect Singapore to be a bit more like we’ve seen in Budapest and Zandvoort. It’s a bumpy circuit, which is going to provide its challenges, but in terms of the nature of the corners, we think it will be a bit better for our car, so hope fully, we’ll have a good result there.”

Five-time Singapore GP winner Sebastian Vettel does however have grey skies ahead after being pulled out of race-winning stand ing in the Aston Martin in his last year before retirement; Vettel could only focus on seeing the chequered flag after three disqualifications.

Nyck de Vries for Nicholas Latifi Williams Racing saw a reshuffling in their driver lineup during the Monza race weekend after

Alex Albon suffered an appendicitis flare up, which pulled him out of the race. Formula E and Formula Two Champion Nyck de Vries stood in for Albon for the remainder of the weekend, after Free Practice 1, for which he sat in Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin. The Mercedes reserve driver scored two points in his Formula One debut after finishing ninth, outscoring Canadian driver Nicholas Latifi after just one race, and thus rendering Latifi out of his Williams seat for the next season.

The pressure on De Vries is mounting, how ever; if Albon is not well enough to start, ex pectations to uphold the stellar performance he displayed earlier this year for his return in the Singapore Grand Prix could shatter be cause of the high demands the race places on him and his Williams in the toughest race on the calendar.

Kunal Dadlani Associate Sports Editor

On June 30, Kevin Durant sent shockwaves throughout the NBA when he requested a trade from the Brooklyn Nets. It was jarring — yet an other star basketball player was requesting a trade.

Trade requests are not a new phenomenon in the NBA. In 1975, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar forced a trade from the Milwaukee Bucks to the Los Angeles Lakers. Older Toronto Raptors fans will remember the drama that surrounded the de parture of Vince Carter in 2004.

Despite this empowerment, there have al ways been limits on the power players have had. When players sign a contract, they are expected to remain loyal to it. This new era of player em powerment arguably began in 2010 when bas ketball players Lebron James and Chris Bosh both hit free agency and decided to join Dwyane Wade in Miami.

All three players had been top-five draft picks in 2003, had represented America at the 2006 FIBA World Championships and 2008 Beijing Olympics, and had all signed rookie extensions that made them hit free agency in the 2010 off season. The team up was no coincidence. The players flexed their free agency power to get deals that were favourable for them and would allow them to team up together in 2010.

Since 2010, trade requests have become much more common. Anthony Davis, Paul George, and Jimmy Butler are a few players who have demanded trades in recent years. Raptors fans will never forget how Kawhi Leonard forced his way out of the San Antonio Spurs in 2019.

The most notable of recent trade requests happened last offseason with Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers. Simmons sat out of training camp, refused to talk to coaches or teammates, and piled up fines as he demanded a trade. The Brooklyn Nets finally traded Sim mons on the trade deadline for a similarly dis contented James Harden — who had only just forced a trade to Brooklyn a year prior.

And now there’s Kevin Durant requesting a trade, just one season removed from signing a four-year contract extension. The mentality about staying loyal to contracts is shifting.

As an athlete, this shift is undoubtedly en couraging. Damian Lillard might tell you about the importance of loyalty, but most athletes want one thing — to win. Sometimes teams aren’t performing well, but with more power players, these teams can force their way into the winner’s circle.

As a fan, keeping an eye on the trade mar ket is exciting because trade requests provide entertainment and drama. It’s fun watching and speculating about where Simmons or Durant would be traded to. Player empowerment thus provides an avenue through which fans could easily engage with each other during the offsea son.

However, while some, like myself, may be ex cited by Kevin Durant requesting a trade, Nets fans were probably devastated. What if Scottie Barnes, Pascal Siakam, or Fred VanVleet de manded a trade? I imagine I would be devas tated, like how older Raptors fans felt and still feel toward Vince Carter. Being a fan isn’t as en joyable when you’re constantly worrying about whether your star player may request a trade.

For smaller franchises, like the Indiana Pac ers or the Utah Jazz, player empowerment can also be a threat. After all, which player will play in Indiana when they can play in Los Angeles? The better players in the NBA won't be as dis persed across teams if players can ignore their contract and demand a trade on a whim.

Thus, overall, player empowerment isn’t all good — and it seems like the league is realizing that they need to act. When asked about Du rant’s trade request, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver explained, “We don't like to see players requesting trades, and we don't like to see it playing out the way it is.”

After Silver has stated that the topic of empowerment and its limitations will be dis cussed, the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association will have a collective bar gaining agreement that can be revisited after the 2022–23 season. However, Durant’s re quest for a trade that was rescinded on August 24 might hint that the limitations have already been set.

If the Simmons-Harden drama was the peak of the player empowerment era, then Durant’s failed trade request and Silver’s clear-cut be liefs regarding the issue are the beginning of its decline.

Max Verstappen puts the pedal to the medal at the Italian Grand Prix. COURTESY OF WASTRICK/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Olivia Kairu Varsity Contributor

Has NBA player empowerment gone too far? From Kawhi Leonard to Kevin Durant, there has been a recent surge in trade requests

Kevin Durant has been notorious for his trade requests.

COURTESY OF TECHCRUNCH/CC WIKIMEDIA