October 7, 2019

THE VARSITY October 7, 2019

The University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880

Vol. CXL, No. 6

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“How do you sleep at night?”: students confront administration on mental health

President Gertler, Vice-Provost Welsh address student concerns at Academic Board meeting Andy Takagi News Editor

Content warning: mentions of suicide.

On October 3, Sandy Welsh, Vice-Provost Students, addressed U of T’s Academic Board and a handful of protestors in an unusually full Governing Council Chamber: “I want to assure all of you that we share your concerns.”

The protestors showed up following the September 27 death of a student in the Bahen Centre for Information Technology — the third in the same building and the fourth reported noncriminal student death in the past 16 months.

Students, led by the UofT Mental Health Policy Council, a newly-created advocacy group, had come to express their frustration and exhaustion with the percieved lack of mental health support from the university.

Inside the chamber Welsh reiterated the university’s actions toward increasing mental health support, having committed $3 million in the spring. They also acknowledged the university’s role in student mental health: “We are proud of our academic culture of excellence, but we understand that we all need to be aware of how that culture may affect students, and we all need to work to foster a more supportive community to help all of our students thrive.”

Disruption from protestors as the chair attempted to move the meeting back to normal business resulted in an agreement to allow four of the protestors to ask Welsh and President Meric Gertler questions. The four included U of T Mental Health Policy Council members and students from the Black Students’ Association.

“How many deaths was it going to take for you to do something before we made a ruckus and a mess of things?” questioned Shahin Imtiaz to a silent chamber of governors. “How do you sleep at night?”

Gertler responded after the students spoke, explaining the commitments of the Presidential & Provostial Task Force on Student Mental Health as well as the $1 billion Boundless campaign en-

dowment for financial assistance to students.

“These are indeed issues that do keep us up at night,” said Gertler. “They do indeed seize all of us.”

An issue that became clear during the meeting was an unintended side effect of the universitymandated leave of absence policy, deterring students from seeking mental health support for fear of punitive action from the university.

“There is not a straight line from your registrar’s office to my office around this policy. And we need to do better at communicating… to students that this is a policy that is there to be supportive,” said Welsh in response to student demands that the policy be repealed.

However, after their allotted time to speak was over and the administration had given its response, protestors left when governors failed a two-thirds majority vote to adopt an amendment to the agenda and continued on with the predetermined schedule.

What happens now?

Besides the implementation of safety barriers in the Bahen Centre, the administration has been hesitant to make new commitments on mental health, even while student groups are increasingly calling for better support and services. Some faculty are also speaking out, calling on fellow professors to support student protestors.

Dr. Andrea Charise, Assistant Professor in the Department of English and at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Health & Society reflected on the death at the Bahen Centre in a thread on Twitter, explaining how professors are often on the forefront of assisting students dealing with mental health crises.

“In my five years’ experience as an assistant professor, I have referred countless students to health&wellness (a pretty common experience among my colleagues). But I was not prepared for the volume, range, and intensity of mental health experiences students entrusted me with,” tweeted Charise.

Jeffrey Ansloos, Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Psychology and Human

Development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, expressed similar concerns in an interview with The Varsity.

“I’m not in the role of therapists when I’m working with students. And I think for a lot of my colleagues who maybe are not psychologists or social workers or different types of health professionals, the role of what a professor is supposed to provide is unclear, and not only is it unclear, but sometimes they don’t know the resources that they need to direct students to,” said Ansloos. He further pointed out the inaccessibility and lack of mental health support on campus as problems.

“Recognizing that students may not always be able to deliver upon workloads or may need additional accommodations or considerations around accessibility. To me, that is a baseline expectation, that if a faculty member fails to deliver upon, I think is problematic. But I don’t, at the same time, think that every faculty member should be working in the role of therapists. And I don’t know that that would be appropriate either.”

Students participated in a vigil following the protests at the Academic Board.

DINA DONG/THE VARSITY

Student groups adjust to reduced funding in face of SCI Multiple clubs experience financial challenges, limitations in programming

Hannah Carty Associate News Editor

As the fall semester opt-out period came to a close on September 19, levy-funded student groups are now receiving information on their funding for the semester. The Student Choice Initiative (SCI), mandated by the Ontario government earlier this year, designates certain fees as “non-essential” and requires universities to allow students to opt out of them as they wish.

The groups that are affected by this change include student unions, student advocacy groups, and campus media, among others. Many groups expressed to The Varsity that they are still unsure of the impact the SCI will have on their organizations, and that the winter opt-out period could yield different results.

Multiple groups, like the Sexual Education Centre (SEC), also noted that their overall optout rate was around 25 per cent. “This means no new books for our library, fewer fun events for UofT students, fewer special products of the month, and more,” wrote Leah West, Executive Director of the SEC, in an email to The Varsity.

“We know that many people rely almost exclusively on us for free safer sex supplies and menstrual products. We worry that the current funding cuts will put these groups at risk by making these things even less accessible,” West noted of the SEC’s operations in the coming year.

“These cuts strike at the heart of our organi-

zation,” wrote Students for Barrier Free Access (SBA) Board Member Alisha Krishna in an email to The Varsity. “We cannot provide the same services as previously, especially since we were forced to implement staffing cuts. Not only does this mean we must reduce the services offered to our membership, but it is also significant because SBA has always tried to hire marginalized, disabled people who face barriers to employment, which is something we must now scale back on.”

Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Trans People of the University of Toronto (LGBTOUT) has also felt the impact of the policy. “The SCI has reduced the amount of money that LGBTOUT will receive this year by a fair amount, and it will definitely affect some of the events and programming we will be able to do,” wrote LGBTOUT Executive Director Cheryl Quan in an email to The Varsity.

Many groups’ levies are distributed through the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU), including LGBTOUT and SBA. “For the majority of these groups, we are their only source of income,” wrote Arjun Kaul, UTSU Vice-President Operations, in an email to The Varsity. He also wrote on the topic of UTSU’s opt-outs: “we are fortunate to be sitting at a relatively high percent of funds deemed ‘essential.’

We will likely have to trim some services, but fortunately, we have worked out plans to keep all

of our services up and running, at the very least.”

Some groups expressed that while the SCI does not pose an existential threat to their organizations, they have had difficulty with the timeline of the opt-outs and the financial uncertainty before groups were made aware of their opt-out rate.

The Victoria University Students’ Administrative Council (VUSAC) President Alexa Ballis wrote, “The biggest impact that the Student Choice Initiative has had on VUSAC is that it has made the budgeting process extremely difficult,” in an email to The Varsity. She added that “financial planning over the summer was almost impossible.”

Ballis criticized the process for not giving groups updates on their numbers before the fall opt-out period was over. She further noted that, because the fees must be itemized and funds cannot be moved around, this added difficulty for the VUSAC Commissioner’s planning.

University College Literary & Athletic Society (UC Lit) President Danielle Stella was more optimistic. “Our overall opt-out percentage is lower than expected and we believe the decrease in funding will be manageable,” she wrote in an email to The Varsity. She noted that the UC Lit is changing its budgeting system to accommodate the SCI, but are still reaching out to university stakeholders to address any shortcomings in funding.

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OCTOBER 7, 2019

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UTSU hosts environmental debate for University–Rosedale MP candidates Chrystia Freeland, Tim Grant, Melissa Jean-Baptiste Vajda discuss climate, other issues

From left to right: Green’s Tim Grant, NDP’s Melissa Jean-Baptiste Vajda, and Liberal Chrystia Freeland.

DINA DONG/THE VARSITY

Hannah Carty Associate News Editor

Content warning: mention of suicide.

The University of Toronto Students’ Union held an all-candidates debate for University–Rosedale MP candidates focused on the environment on October 3. The debate was a part of the 100 Debates on the Environment, a non-partisan initiative which aims to organize environmentally-oriented debates ahead of the federal election.

Liberal candidate and incumbent MP Chrystia Freeland, New Democratic Party (NDP) candidate Melissa Jean-Baptise Vajda, and Green Party candidate Tim Grant were present. Conservative candidate Helen-Claire Tingling was unable to attend due to illness.

Tensions over climate crisis As part of the 100 Debates on the Environment initiative, the candidates were asked four questions on the environment which covered greenhouse gas emissions, water, wilderness conservation, and pollution.

All candidates agreed that party leaders should work to move beyond addressing the climate crisis as a partisan issue. They also found common ground in wilderness conservation, agreeing that Canada needs to move toward protecting a higher percentage of water and land. All agreed to protect 30 per cent of land, ocean, and fresh water by 2030.

The Liberal Party’s environmental plan includes planting two billion trees by 2030, reaching netzero emissions by 2050, and banning single-use plastics. However, the incumbent Liberal government received criticism from the other two candidates for inadequate environmental action made under Liberal leader Justin Trudeau. “We have about 10 or 11 years to reach our [environmental] targets. Right now, the Liberal government has put us 200 years behind that,” said Vajda.

“All three of the major parties support one or more pipelines across Canada,” said Grant. “We are the only party that can’t offer you a pipeline in this election.”

Responding to criticisms about the pipeline, Freeland said, “I think that decision was probably one of the most difficult for our government to make,” adding: “we recognize that we have to find a policy in which the environment and the economy can go together.”

Vajda said, “We are committed to moving away from relying on pipelines, [and] we aren’t in favor of expanding any pipelines.”

Regarding the Green Party’s environmental plan budget, Vajda said, “Their budget doesn’t even add up. Their numbers do not work.”

The Green Party’s environmental plan includes more regulation on industrial farming, increasing funding to implement endangered species recovery, and restoring the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.

Education and housing Both the Green Party and the NDP want to move toward a free postsecondary tuition framework, while the Liberal plan involves a two-year interestfree grace period for loan repayment.

In response to both a question about education and youth unemployment, Grant advocated for a basic income, saying, “[it] is going to be a huge benefit to students across the country.”

To combat the housing crisis, the NDP wants to build 500,000 rental units across Canada and impose a 15 per cent buyers tax on non-Canadians and non-permanent residents. The Liberal Party would impose a one per cent tax on vacant properties owned by non-Canadians who do not reside in Canada.

“We are the only party that would not offer a first-time homeowner’s grant,” said Grant. “We think rental housing, social housing, co-op housing in particular is the critical need and that’s where all the federal resources should go.”

Both the NDP and Liberals are committed to a $15 minimum wage on all federally-managed jobs, and the NDP wants to move further to a $20 “liveable wage.” In addition, the NDP wants to ban unpaid internships, as “young people shouldn’t be taken advantage of.” Freeland also wants to create 60,000 more co-op jobs for students, and implement a “right to disconnect” for employees, which will allow them to ignore work-related tasks outside of their work hours.

Health care and mental health When addressing student mental health, Freeland acknowledged, “I am very aware of the extreme pressures on your generation, on students across Canada, and on students at the U of T.” The Liberal plan will invest $66 billion over four years into mental health, primary care, and in-home supportive care.

“The New Democrats will establish a national suicide prevention action plan that will take this very seriously… it is part of our universal health care plan,” said Vajda, responding to the same question about mental health.

Grant criticized the NDP’s implementation of its pharma care plan by 2020 as being unrealistic.

The Green Party’s pharma care plan “is vastly more expensive for two years,” said Grant, meaning that the Green Party would pay the provincial share for two years before shifting the responsibility back to the provincial government.

Concluding the debate, Freeland said, “I leave this conversation very optimistic about our country,” while Vajda responded, “I have a little bit more of a sense of urgency here. I am running for office because I feel we need a change right now.” In their closing remarks both Vajda and Grant criticized the Liberal government for failure to implement electoral reform since the previous election.

Climate crisis sparks tension at UTSC federal candidate’s debate

SCSU organizes debate for candidates in the federal riding of Scarborough–Rouge Park Mikaela Toone Varsity Staff

Five candidates vying for the MP position for Scarborough–Rouge Park, the riding in which UTSC is located, came together on October 1 to debate before the federal election. Organized by the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU), the debate was attended by a mixture of UTSC students and local community members.

The candidates included incumbent candidate Gary Anandasangaree from the Liberal Party, Bobby Singh from the Conservative Party, Kingsley Kwok from the New Democratic Party (NDP), Jessica Hamilton from the Green Party, and Dilano Sally from the People’s Party of Canada (PPC).

The climate crisis The Liberal, NDP, and Green Party candidates all indicated that addressing the climate crisis would be a top priority should they win the election, and that their parties would each combat the issue with a carbon tax.

Liberal candidate Anandasangaree said, “If we fail on climate change [then] nothing else really does matter.” However, he also faced criticism from both the Green and NDP candidates over the Liberal’s $4.5 billion purchase of the Trans

Mountain Pipeline. Hamilton commented: “[You] had four years to do whatever you wanted with your majority government and you still bought a pipeline.”

Anandasangaree justified the pipeline as a “necessary [evil]… in order [for] the economy [to be] able to sustain itself while we transform into a clean carbon economy.”

Conservative candidate Singh said that the “carbon tax is unfairly penalizing companies locally.” He suggested, rather, that carbon absorption would be a better option to address the climate crisis.

The PPC candidate, Sally, falsely said that “carbon dioxide is not a pollutant… [and] global warming has not increased natural disasters.”

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, at least 97 per cent of publishing scientists agree that the climate crisis is caused by human activities. Carbon dioxide is a pollutant that has significantly concentrated in the atmosphere over the last century due to the burning of fossil fuels, and increased heat waves and stronger hurricanes will result from the climate crisis.

Sally also noted that he does not believe in the climate crisis and cited evidence from an article in Talouselämä, a Finnish magazine, that features World Meteorological Organization Secretary-

From left to right: Conservative Bobby Singh, Green Party's Jessica Hamilton, PPC's Dilano Sally, Liberal Gary Anandasangaree, and NDP Kingsley Kwok.

MIKAELA TOONE/THE VARSITY

General Petteri Taalas. Sally’s remarks prompted a strong condemnation from Anandasangaree, who said “your denial is just unacceptable.”

As per the Talouselämä article that Sally referenced, Taalas released a statement on September 12 that expressed that such a reading “is a selective interpretation of my words and my longstanding views… [and] it is highly important that we rein in greenhouse gas emissions.”

Budget The Greens, Conservatives, and the PPC all plan to balance the budget, rather than run a deficit.

NDP candidate Kwok emphasized that with regard to the budget, the NDP “are for fair taxation.” Kwok continued that as part of their New

Deal for the People they “just want the super rich to pay a little more” in order to prevent cuts to government programs.

Anandasangaree noted that the Liberals “do believe in running honest deficits.” However, he justified the policy, saying they carry a positive impact because they are investing in people and infrastructure.

When faced with criticism from Singh for the government’s failure to balance the budget, Anandasangaree responded by noting that the Conservative Party has not released a full, costed platform, saying that “I’m willing to defend our record, but at the same time, I do want to see a plan [from the Conservatives] that I can also scrutinize.”

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“No end in sight”: Hong Kong protests arrive at U of T

Pro-Hong Kong, pro-Beijing students clash over the region’s future Josie Kao Editor-in-Chief

The protest lasted for hours. Around two dozen pro-Hong Kong and pro-Beijing students stood on opposite sides of the sidewalk in front of Sidney Smith Hall, chanting slogans and waving flags.

This demonstration on September 26 was one of several that have sprung up around U of T and Toronto since June, coinciding with the beginning of civil unrest in Hong Kong.

The international nature of U of T meant that various parts of the university community, from faculty to students, have been affected by the protests. As the movement grows and shows no signs of ending, U of T is one of many universities around the world that have become a stage for these divisive clashes.

The unrest began in June, when the Hong Kong government proposed a bill that would allow the central Chinese government to extradite people from Hong Kong to mainland China. What started as peaceful protests that demanded the Hong Kong government’s full withdrawal of the bill has devolved into violent clashes between protestors and police. During the past few months, numerous injuries have been reported on both sides, as well as widespread claims of police brutality.

The city is now marked by standoffs and violence between police and protestors as the movement has grown in scope beyond the extradition bill — whose full withdrawal was announced by the Hong Kong government on September 4, and is expected to be implemented this month.

The movement now includes five central demands from protestors, including the implementation of true universal suffrage.

“Responsibility to raise awareness”: Hong Kong students speak out With its large international student population, U of T is not immune from the unrest taking place across the world.

The U of T Hong Kong Extradition Law Awareness Group has been at the forefront of these protests since it was founded in June.

“We are doing the demonstration not just because we are protecting Hong Kong, but we are protecting the universal value of freedom, and also freedom of speech,” explained its organizer and fourth-year sexual diversity studies and equity studies student Hogan Lam. Their efforts have been supported in part by the U of T Hong Kong Students’ Association

(UTHKSA), the larger cultural club on campus.

President Sandra Kan noted that while historically the UTHKSA has refrained from commenting on political events, the scale of these protests has reminded her of the association’s “responsibility to raise awareness.”

“I’m trying to strike a balance between being politically neutral and spreading some news to raise awareness, because when I start to share news it means that I’ve taken this little stance,” said Kan. Both groups expressed gratitude toward the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU), which reached out and offered support and resources.

Lam said that during the Street Fest, the clubs gathering at the beginning of the academic year, the UTSU helped mitigate conflict by placing Hong Kong groups away from the “Chinese [societies].”

“Our opinion is, if we’re not helping out other students unions, then what are we really doing as one?” said UTSU President Joshua Bowman. “Especially when we’re privileged to exist in a political climate that we have that is not really comparable.”

Pro-Hong Kong, pro-Beijing students face off The Hong Kong groups’ protests have been far from unchallenged, as pro-Beijing students consistently stage counter-protests in equal numbers.

“I think it’s their freedom to protest, but it’s also our freedom to stand here against their protest,” said Ziyuan Xu, a pro-Beijing Rotman Commerce student. “I think some of the Hong Kong people, they are hurting my cultural identity,” said Xu, citing what he saw as anti-government sentiment and “fake news” about police brutality. However, credible reporting of the situation in Hong Kong indicates that such claims of “fake news” are false.

In response to the claims of police violence, Rotman Commerce student and counter-protestor Rick Wang said, “I believe that’s proper law enforcement because how can you enforce a law without any kind of violence?” Wang added that this is the police’s job as a “violent machine of the state.”

“I think it’s very ironic because what [the counter-protestors] were doing,” said Jane*, a firstyear political science student who was part of the awareness group’s protest. “[Protesting] wasn’t a right that was given to them in China, but then they’re exercising it here.”

A portion of the disagreement between the two sides can be attributed to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) disinformation campaign, which has falsely framed the protests as an independence movement.

Pro-Hong Kong and pro-Beijing students facing off in front of Sidney Smith Hall on September 26.

ANDY TAKAGI/THE VARSITY

“I think a lot of people have a misunderstanding that this protest is about Hong Kong independence, especially in China,” said Kan, who pointed to how the five demands make no mention of independence.

“I do think that people in Hong Kong should stop the protest because it’s making Hong Kong society become unstable,” said Xu. “But if they are protesting here I think it is their freedom and it’s also our freedom to do that.”

Why Hong Kong matters to U of T and Canada Hong Kong has one of the largest populations of Canadians outside of Canada in the world, with around 300,000 Canadians calling the city home. As such, the ties between the two are extremely close.

Because of this, political science Professor Lynette Ong believes that Canada has a large “interest in upholding the rule of law in Hong Kong as well as Hong Kong’s status.”

In 2017, U of T reported 10,463 undergraduate students from the PRC and 333 undergraduate students from Hong Kong, out of a total of 16,069 international students. That amounted to 65.1 per cent and 2.1 per cent of international students, respectively.

In comparison, the University of British Columbia (UBC) enrolled 5,715 students from the PRC and 288 students from Hong Kong in 2018– 2019, out of 15,405 total international students — though UBC has seen much larger protests.

According to U of T Vice-Provost & Associate Vice-President, International Student Experience and political science Professor Joseph Wong, while the university does not generally take stances on international issues, it highly values students’ abilities to express their opinions.

“Having that kind of diversity of thought is something that we see as being vital to the mission of the university,” said Wong. “That being said, the safety of our students is the most important thing.”

Where will it go from here?

“No end in sight,” said Ong when asked about the future of the movement. “I think the government is trying to wait it out and drag it on.”

While Ong believes that it might quiet down, she was also sure that the people’s resolve will only strengthen “in fighting for universal suffrage and more accountability.”

Second-year political science student Hillary* says that her resolve comes from the fact that “this is my homeland.”

“This is the place that I live, I’m raised. Every single detail in Hong Kong matters to me.”

Indeed, second-year economics student Jamie* stressed that even though she is in Canada, she wanted all Hong Kongers to know that the diaspora “will always stand by them and support them.”

“Unless they give us the five demands, I don't see that it will end anytime soon,” said Lam. “If we cannot win this, then Hong Kong is not Hong Kong anymore.”

The Scarborough Campus Students’ Union did not send in a comment by press time. The U of T Chinese Debate Society, U of T Hong Kong Public Affairs and Social Service Society, and the Chinese Students and Scholars Association did not respond to requests for comment. *Names have been changed due to fear of retribution

U of T hires two Indigenous academic advisors in response to TRC Breaking down the university’s path toward reconciliation Cappucine Ferguson, Valeria Khudiakova, Victoria Lee, Kathryn Mannie, and Helen Yoon Varsity Contributors

to non-Indigenous youth. In response, the TRC dedicated four out of 94 calls to action specifically to postsecondary institutions.

In an attempt to further integrate Indigenous perspectives of education and research in accordance with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) recommendations and its own TRC Steering Committee report, U of T appointed two advisors on Indigenous research and curriculum: Professor Suzanne Stewart and Professor Susan Hill.

In 2015, the TRC released its final report, which documented the history and intergenerational impact of the residential school system on Indigenous children and families. It described Canada’s assimilation policy — at the heart of which was the residential school system — as “cultural genocide.”

Education remains central to the disadvantages faced by Indigenous people. Indigenous youth face systemic barriers in accessing education, including at the postsecondary level, relative

The new advisors Stewart, a member of the Yellowknife Dene First Nation, has been a faculty member at U of T since 2007. She is now the director of the Waakebiness-Bryce Institute for Indigenous Health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and an Academic Advisor on Indigenous Research.

Her new role will have her focusing on how researchers should go about working with Indigenous communities, in part by developing documents that provide guidance and best practices on how to conduct research respectfully within them.

Stewart will also serve as a guiding hand for those who are interested in conducting collaborative research with Indigenous communities.

Hill began her U of T career in July 2017 and holds a joint appointment in the Department of History and the Centre for Indigenous Studies.

She is a member of the Haudenosaunee Confed-

eracy — specifically the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk Nation.

Her position as academic advisor of Indigenous curricula and education has her focusing on designing and redesigning curricula, developing collaborative teaching opportunities in Indigenous Studies, and establishing a database of Indigenous content and educational materials.

In response to these new appointments, Cheryl Regehr, U of T’s vice-president and provost, said to U of T News: “I am looking forward to working closely with Susan Hill and Suzanne Stewart to further the university’s commitment to U of T’s Calls to Action.”

“Their expertise will be invaluable in ensuring the university is moving forward on the most respectful path towards truth and reconciliation.”

In recent years, U of T has made steps to create Indigenous-focused initiatives: including the Deepening Knowledge Project at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, the Indigenous Education Network founded by Indigenous students, and the TRC Implementation Committee

Professor Stewart is one of the two new Indigenous academic advisors hired by the university.

DINA DONG/THE VARSITY

at the Faculty of Law. In addition, a handful of master’s programs at the university have committed to integrating Indigenous education, such as the Masters in Social Work, Indigenous Trauma and Resiliency and the Masters of Public Health in Indigenous Health.

Read the rest online at var.st/indigenousadvisors

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OCTOBER 7, 2019

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Daniel Dale speaks at UTM’s Snider Lecture

Washington reporter for CNN talks Donald Trump, the Ford brothers Mikaela Toone Varsity Staff

Peet discussed their experiences at the university as a non-binary and disabled professor.

JENNIFER WANG/THE VARSITY

In the Spotlight: Dr. A.W. Peet Non-binary, trans, disabled physics professor talks inclusivity in academia

Marian Aziz and Rochelle Raveendran Varsity Contributors

Dr. A.W. Peet knows the importance of being seen.

A tenured physics professor at U of T who focuses their research on the subatomic structure of space-time, Peet is also a vocal advocate for the LGBTQ+ and disabled communities. Being transgender, non-binary, and disabled, they have firsthand knowledge of the relief that finding a community in academia through sharing one’s experiences brings.

Peet, who experiences chronic pain, described conversations with a fellow scientist who has a similar condition as “a bit like finding an oxygen supply.” They went on to say that “it meant that I felt like I could actually exist.”

Peet’s choice to publicly disclose their status as transgender and non-binary on their website was made in the hope that younger people could understand it was possible to be a professor whilst being part of both the non-binary and disabled communities. This was also the aim behind listing their name on the lgbtphysicists.org website’s “OutList.” Peet has had a number of students from Canada, the United States, and Europe write to them asking for mentorship, something they believe was only possible because they are one of the few publicly out non-binary physicists.

“If we know there’s someone a bit older than us, or a lot older than us, who is some of the same identities as us, we can figure, ‘Maybe there’s a place for me in this discipline,’” they said.

Peet recognized that having tenure before realizing they were transgender made the question of transitioning less fraut than it tends to be for tenure-track or non-tenured professors. Even so, Peet believes that some students and colleagues think less of them following their coming out.

Blatant transphobic harassment, however, reached a peak when Peet debated their colleague Jordan Peterson, a psychology professor at U of T, on CBC News in October 2016. Peterson had vocally expressed his objection to Bill C-16, which sought to add “gender identity or expression” as a prohibited ground of discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act. His stance garnered significant support amongst free-speech advocates and caused controversy both nationally

and on campus. Critics noted that some of Peterson’s comments were transphobic and, at times, innacurate.

Following the debate, Peet experienced severe online harassment that significantly deteriorated their mental health. They also noted that, to this day, conservative colleagues within their department are reluctant to interact with them.

“The amount of transphobic harassment I’ve had… as a consequence of being an out trans person in the last few years is more than all of the misogyny that I’ve ever experienced as a presumed woman in physics for over 20 years,” they said.

However, Peet received positive reactions from LGBTQ+ students on campus and the community at large. They have also seen an increase in requests to speak at various conferences and panels about being part of the LGBTQ+ community in STEM fields. Overall, Peet does not regret speaking out against Jordan Peterson.

“I think it was because it was the right thing to do, and I try to be on the right side of history,” they said.

Peet also expanded on their call in the CBC News debate to live kindly, saying that more value should be placed on kindness and generosity of spirit in today’s society. They added, “Universities need to be academically rigorous, but we can still be really nice, decent human beings while we’re being academically excellent.”

Currently, Peet co-chairs the physics department’s Inclusivity Committee and also serves on the inclusivity committee for the Canadian Association of Physicists. They intend to continue their advocacy work until LGBTQ+ people feel as welcome as heterosexual and cisgender people on campus. However, Peet by no means claim to be an authority on all things related to inclusivity, and stresses that they are still working to educate themself.

“With the equity and diversity and inclusivity stuff, it’s not like a switch that you’re either switched on or completely clueless. It, like many things, is not a binary. I love smashing binaries,” they said.

Reporter Daniel Dale gave the Snider Lecture at UTM on October 3, where he discussed his reporting on Donald Trump and the Ford brothers, as well as disseminating truth in a precarious media landscape.

Dale works for CNN as part of the fact-checking team and was previously a reporter at the Toronto Star for 11 years. His efforts to fact check Trump’s every comment and tweet has gained him international attention and a sizeable Twitter following — over 619,000 strong as of October 6.

However, it was here in Toronto, while reporting on the former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and current Ontario Premier Doug Ford, that Dale first delved deeply into the practice of fact checking and outwardly pointing out false political claims.

After Rob Ford falsely accused Dale of peering over his family home’s fence, he wrote an article for the Star titled, “Rob Ford is lying about me, and it’s vile.” This prompted Dale to think that, “if I can use the word ‘lie’ in a story about me, why can’t I use it in all the other stories?”

He went on to create a “campaign lie detector where [he] would count… how many false, inaccurate, dubious claims the candidates made.”

Dale noticed there was a disparity in the number of lies Rob Ford would tell in comparison to the other candidates and thought that “the disparity was important in itself… that disparity told the story.”

Soon after, Dale went to Washington, DC and “was sure that it was going to be much more normal… and of course, Donald Trump comes along in June.”

Dale found it “distressing how much Donald

Trump was lying… and not only the frequency of the lying, but the triviality of the lying.” He noticed that news outlets and papers were reporting what Trump said without identifying false claims to be as such.

In order to promote what he calls “a truth-centric model of political journalism,” Dale suggests that the media engage in a number of practices, including that no one should “quote a politician saying something false without noting that it is false,” using the term ‘lie’ when it is the most accurate way to describe a claim, and giving less airtime to political figures that have a history of deception.

Dale often encounters people who think his work is useless and that “facts obviously don’t matter in this era,” to which he responds: “What is the job of a journalist in democracy, if not to provide accurate information to whoever wants it?”

The president still has supporters despite what Dale describes as a “full-blown truth crisis with Donald Trump.” However, in an article for the Star entitled “Donald Trump voters: We like the president’s lies.” he points out that many Trump supporters do not believe the president’s every word without question.

The Varsity caught up with Dale after his lecture to inquire if he was seeing any trends in Trump’s lying in the lead up to the 2020 US Presidential election. “Over his first two years in office, immigration was his number one subject of dishonesty,” said Dale. “Over the summer, it’s been the economy and trade, and I think that reflects concerns about… a possible recession… some sort of slow down.”

Dale spoke on his experiences fact-checking the Ford brothers and President Donald Trump.

MIKAELA TOONE/THE VARSITY

Business

October 7, 2019 var.st/business biz@thevarsity.ca

In conversation with Rini Sharma

Rotman MBA student talks media, entertainment, technology Sana Mohsin Varsity Contributor

Among students making their mark in the field of business is Rini Sharma, part of the Rotman School of Management and a member of the Rotman Entertainment & Media Association.

The Varsity caught up with Sharma to discuss her experience as a Master of Business Administration (MBA) student.

The Varsity: What does your role in the Rotman Entertainment & Media Association entail?

Rini Sharma: I’m currently serving as VicePresident External for the Entertainment & Media Association at Rotman. My role involves building relationships with industry leaders and connecting them to our student community at Rotman through the medium of events and other platforms.

TV: What kind of work does the Rotman Entertainment & Media Association do?

RS: The Entertainment & Media Association at Rotman is working on bridging the gap between MBA students and Toronto’s growing media and entertainment sector. Our goal is to help students identify and create opportunities for themselves in a manner which combines their business skills with their passion for the media and entertainment sector.

To do this, we planned various events over the 2019–2020 school year which will provide students with hands-on skill-building through case competitions, as well as networking opportunities through our industry night event, set to be held later in the year. And, last but not least, I’ve been lucky enough to produce and host my own personal project with the club, the Rotman Thoughtcast, which is Rotman’s upcoming official podcast series.

TV: What are some of the productions you’ve worked on?

RS: Prior to starting at Rotman I was working at Shaftesbury, a leading Canadian media production company, as a development and production analyst. I’ve worked on several major projects, including CBC’s most highly-rated program Murdoch Mysteries, CBC’s Frankie Drake Mysteries and Netflix’s Slasher. I was also involved in Hudson & Rex from Citytv and Shaftesbury’s latest drama series Departure, from GlobalTV, in their early stages of development.

TV: What or who has been your greatest influence in starting a business career?

RS: My dad, who has taught me the values of integrity, persistence, and relationship-building in the world of business.

TV: When did you think to combine two seemingly-different fields of technology and business?

RS: While I’ve always been curious to learn about new technologies, it was only after I joined Rotman that I observed how emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, are disrupting several different industries besides media. Moreover, I spent my summer interning at a tech accelerator, which made me realize how important it is to have a viable business strategy in order to grow and scale new technologies.

TV: How has your experience been, managing your education while also managing your career?

RS: The MBA program is a huge time commitment which essentially requires you to work on academics and career simultaneously, since day

one. It hasn’t been easy. However, I love a good challenge and I’m enjoying every bit of it.

TV: How do you think an MBA has prepared you for your field?

RS: Aside from the core academic learnings, my experience in the MBA program has enabled me to enhance my time management, leadership, and communication skills — and that shall go a long way in any field!

TV: What has been your experience in media been like?

RS: In my experience in the media industry, I’ve been lucky enough to work in an environment where I was mentored by strong women leaders.

That being said, it is still an evolving space for a woman of colour to be in. There’s a long way to go before we, as the audience, start perceiving stories about Mindy Kaling as anything other than a factor of her immigrant experiences.

TV: What has been your biggest challenge so far?

RS: Finding and carving my own unique niche within an institute full of 650 bright and ambitious minds.

TV: What are some tips that you have for anyone pursuing a career in business?

RS: For anyone wanting to pursue an MBA, I would recommend knowing your own personal goals before choosing a particular school or stream. In the world of business, I think it is very important to have an open and flexible mind in order to be successful in today’s globalized economy. Always strive to expose yourself to different experiences, people, and cultures.

Rini Sharma worked on projects at CBC, Citytv, Netflix, and GlobalTV before enrolling at Rotman.

DINA DONG/THE VARSITY

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

This profile is part of an ongoing series to highlight women in business.

U of T begins approval process of Spadina-Sussex residence, geothermal projects

Planning and Budget Committee recommends plans for six capital projects

Michael Teoh Varsity Staff

On September 17, the Planning and Budget Committee (PBC) of U of T’s Governing Council voted to recommend the advancement of six capital projects, including the 23-storey SpadinaSussex residence and the installation of geothermal systems at King’s College Circle and Robert Street Field.

The PBC is responsible for providing the first stage of recommendations for these projects, which have been budgeted at over $5 million each. While the governance path for each of the six projects varies, three will be voted on for final confirmation by the Executive Committee on October 15, while the other three will need final approval from Governing Council on October 24. The distribution of project costs and funding sources of all six projects were discussed in camera.

The first Planning and Budget Committee made recommendations on the Spadina-Sussex residence, Landmark project, among other items.

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Spadina-Sussex residence The planned Spadina-Sussex residence site will provide 511 beds in both dorm rooms and apartment suites, as well as a dining hall and amenity spaces. Fifteen per cent of these dorm rooms will offer barrier-free access, and the residence will target a mix of first-year and upper-year undergraduate students. Ten stacked townhouses will be allocated to faculty members and their families.

The dining hall will be open to all U of T students. The report notes that the “West campus has been identified as being underserved with respect to Food Services, especially given some of the demand for food availability in the vicinity of Robarts Library.”

Six residential units, currently located at 698 and 700 Spadina Avenue, will be demolished to make space for the 19,328 gross square metre site.

U of T and real estate developer The Daniels Corporation began the schematic design for the project in November 2013. The earliest start of construction date is August 2020, with earliest completion set for April 2022.”

The PBC voted to recommend funding the project through “University Provostial Funds, Daniels Corporation, and long-term financing.”

The project cost exceeds $20 million, but Governing Council did not provide The Varsity with access to its estimated figure.

Removal of surface-level parking The PBC recommended a report on its Landscape of Landmark Quality project, an ongoing campaign launched in 2015 to improve the

university’s “potential as a vibrant and significant series of public spaces.” This project will remove surface-level parking spaces at King’s College Circle, Hart House Circle, and Tower Road, and see the construction of a 9,075 gross square metre one-storey garage underneath Front Campus.

The surface-level parking spaces will be replaced with landscaping, including around 200 trees, 7,000 square metres of shrubbery, and 35,000 square metres of natural lawn.

As of September 3, the project has received over $5.9 million in donations from over 2,400 donors, including a $250,000 donation from the University of Toronto Students’ Union in 2018.

In total, the Landmark Project will cover an area of 86,340 square metres.

Geothermal system installation The PBC also recommended the installation of two geothermal systems at UTSG; one underneath King’s College Circle, and the other underneath the proposed soccer field at the Robert Street Field, near the planned Spadina-Sussex residence. The two projects are part of the university’s commitment to achieve a carbon emission target of 59,000 tonnes per year by 2030, which would require a 70 per cent emissions reduction from 2017 levels.

Continue reading at var.st/planning.

Disclaimer: Michael Teoh previously served as Volume 138 Deputy Senior Copy Editor and Volume 139 Business Editor of The Varsity.

Comment

October 7, 2019 var.st/comment comment@thevarsity.ca

Op-ed: This election, youth must vote — whatever your politics

We have the numbers, so let’s go make a difference Saeda Ali Varsity Contributor

My name is Saeda Ali and I’m a volunteer with a non-partisan, non-profit organization called Future Majority at UTSC. Future Majority is working to get students out to vote in the upcoming federal election to accelerate our values as young Canadians into the forefront of political decision-making. We are operating in more than 20 campuses, in 40 ridings, with over 600 volunteers.

I was inspired to volunteer with Future Majority at UTSC because I wanted to remind my peers that our concerns about our futures matter and need to be taken seriously by politicians.

More often than not, young people underestimate the power of their vote. We fail to inform ourselves about how current policies impact us because many of us don’t believe that politicians listen to us.

When I found out that Millennials and Generation-Z — those aged 18–34 — now make up the largest voting bloc in Canada, I knew I had to get involved. Our vote can change the trajectory of the election and the political landscape of Canada.

While volunteering with Future Majority, I’ve been able to go around campus and speak to fellow students about the upcoming election. I have heard first-hand accounts of the issues that are impacting young Canadians. Three issues have repeatedly been brought up: the rising cost of education, unaffordable housing in the GTA, and the climate crisis.

With the recent changes to the Ontario Student Assistance Program, there is a heightened concern around the mountains of student debt students now face after graduation — which is especially worrisome considering it is more and more difficult to get a good job after graduating in order to pay off loans.

Trying to find a place to live — especially in the GTA — is increasingly unaffordable for young Canadians. This has forced many students to live at home or commute long distances to university — sometimes an hour-and-a-half each way!

The climate crisis is the biggest issue brought up

by U of T students. People are scared for their futures. The United Nations has given us less than 11 years to solve this problem. This means we need action, like, yesterday. Many students expressed concern that no political party is going to do enough to reduce our carbon footprint and promote sustainable business practices. Many U of T students want to see Canada become a world leader in preserving and protecting the environment for future generations. We can make sure that happens.

As a Political Science major, I have learned that one of the fundamental aspects of democracy is the right to vote. Canadians have the privilege of choosing their political representatives. In a world where not everyone is afforded this opportunity, the right to vote should not be taken lightly.

With schedules filled with lectures, tutorials, and extracurricular commitments, many students find that they simply can’t find time to go out of their way to find a polling station. Luckily, voting has become more accessible for students than ever before.

Students at all three U of T campuses have the option of voting on their campus from Saturday, October 5 to Wednesday, October 9. Students voting at on-campus polling stations have the option of voting for either candidates from their home riding or school riding, if they have the right documentation.

There will be 121 stations set up at 109 schools, making it easier than ever for students across the nation to vote. This is a huge increase from the 39 on-campus polling stations that were set up in the 2015 election.

If you are curious about how to vote you can

Future Majority student volunteers at UTSC. COURTESY OF FUTURE MAJORITY

visit the Go Vote! website— a microsite developed by Future Majority to educate young Canadians about the election.

Future Majority will be bringing attention to on-campus polling stations by hiring canvassers at UTM and UTSC during the on-campus polling week to literally walk thousands of students to the polls.

Future Majority is projected to walk 30,000 students directly to polls, coast-to-coast. This could have a significant impact on an election that is predicted to be tight.

This October, young Canadians have the power to send a message to every political party that we can no longer be ignored. If U of T students vote

in high numbers, we can influence ridings across the entire GTA. We can ensure that no political party can win without the youth vote — they literally cannot ignore us!

By getting out to vote in high numbers, politicians will no longer get elected if they don’t promise to address the issues which matter to youth. Given the power that we now hold, this election is our opportunity to have our voices finally heard and create a Canada that addresses the concerns we have for our futures.

Saeda Ali is a second-year Political Science and International Development student at UTSC and a volunteer at Future Majority.

U of T’s smoking ban was ineffectively implemented Absence of designated smoking areas, cigarette disposals render the policy inconvenient, creates litter Agata Mociani Varsity Contributor

It has been over nine months since U of T’s smoking ban was implemented. Announced in November, and implemented this past January, the ban was introduced with the intention of creating a healthier campus, away from the harmful effects of first and secondhand smoke. While the rule is meant to protect people’s health, it is ineffective as it currently stands.

Designated smoking areas It would be a good idea to incorporate smoking areas on campus because they encourage people to smoke in a more secluded space, where nonsmokers are less likely to inhale harmful smoke.

Unlike the university’s Scarborough and Mississauga campuses, UTSG does not have designated smoking areas. It is likely that administrators believe there is no need for such spaces due to the campus’ proximity to public streets, where people can legally smoke.

According to the campus policy, smokers must

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walk from their classes to off-campus areas to consume tobacco or marijuana. Most often, they congregate on the sidewalks of notoriously busy public streets such as St. George, Hoskin, and Harbord. These sidewalks are city property and do not fall under the university’s jurisdiction.

This affects all members of the UTSG community, both smokers and non-smokers. Smokers who have classes in locations such as King’s College Circle waste a lot of time getting to an off-campus sidewalk for a smoke break. This could affect their ability to get to class on time if they are scheduled back-to-back.

Students who live in residence may put their safety at risk by going to a public space alone for a smoke at night. Worst of all, because the ban gives smokers no choice but to light up on the street, passersby now routinely inhale more secondhand smoke on their walks between classes.

A solution that would accommodate everyone would be to designate smoking areas on campus,

which would encourage smokers to get their fix in a safe and secluded area.

Cigarette disposal receptacles UTSG used to have ashtrays, but ever since the smoking ban, there has been nowhere for faculty and students to responsibly dispose of their butts.

Recently, I noticed that outdoor garbage cans around campus have begun sporting a sticker that suggest that cigarette butts are not permitted in the trash.

These garbage cans are the only ones anywhere near campus. If cigarettes cannot be disposed of in the garbage, smokers who consume tobacco on the public streets beside campus are more inclined to throw them on the ground. The lack of places to discard cigarettes at the moment will lead to an eventual build-up of litter on public sidewalks, mere metres away from university buildings.

The university’s Mississauga campus is a prime

example of positive change in terms of cigarette littering. Currently, the campus is working with a company called TerraCycle to “recycle waste from outdoor cigarette butt collectors on campus.” The project depends on smokers disposing of their butts in receptacles placed around campus.

TerraCycle receptacles would be useful at the downtown campus, as there needs to be a sustainable way for smokers to dispose of their butts.

This was U of T’s first year banning smoking, so it’s understandable that some of the details surrounding the ban have not been worked out yet. A compromise involving the installation of designated smoking areas and cigarette butt receptacles would benefit everyone. Hopefully, the university will reflect on the way things have unfolded since the ban, and move to accommodate all faculty and students.

Agata Mociani is a second-year English student at New College.

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COMMENT

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Op-ed: We must preserve legal aid for students — and anybody who requires access to it Provincial cuts, Student Choice Initiative threatens the functionality of the Downtown Legal Services Clinic Neeharika Hemrajani Varsity Contributor

The Downtown Legal Services Clinic (DLS) is one of the U of T Faculty of Law’s community legal clinics that offers students the opportunity to handle local cases under the close supervision of lawyers. Their range of free services includes help with academic offences and landlord disputes, while simultaneously serving as an educational program for Law students.

With regards to The Varsity’s ongoing coverage of the effects of the opt-out period on various aspects of student life, it has previously been reported that the DLS is facing hits ‘by triple blow’ from the anticipated budget cuts not only deeming their $3.29 fee non-essential, but followed the already-announced $133 million budget cut to Legal Aid Ontario and a 10 per cent cut in Law tuition fees.

It is clear that the DLS’ future is bleak under such circumstances, as is the case with many other student societies on campus. At the time of writing, it is unclear the extent to which the Student Choice Initiative (SCI) has affected student life on campus or how this can be measured.

However, to me, the SCI has helped reiterate the importance of some of the many services students have access to on campus, particularly with consideration to the work of the DLS over the past few years. This is one aspect of the SCI that has urged our close attention to various services and groups that we are considered to be a part of or have access to.

In this case, most people might question to what extent the services of the DLS are useful to a current student. I hope to defend the view that the services provided by the DLS are of high value to both the students who have access to it and those who are involved with their work. Legal aid is a right not only to us as students, but to anybody who requires access to it.

The work of the DLS and its funding allows the clinic to offer services at no cost to lowincome residents of the city and students at U of T. Access to free legal aid helps a person understand their rights and navigate the law with confidence. The ability to do this is dependent on the DLS’s budget. As outlined on their website, their ability to take on clients who are eligible to receive their services is dependent on the caseload they currently have. Hence, cuts to the budget threaten the clinic’s ability to manage large caseloads during the year and serve the

communities that need it most.

Further, the communities which the DLS serves are entitled to attend Public Legal Education (PLE) workshops, which help people better understand the law. As depicted on their website, “Knowledge of the law and legal rights is a critical first step in assisting people in exercising their rights.” Through their efforts to extend their outreach in different communities, it is clear that the DLS is a vital resource in helping people recognize their rights and privileges through the law. This can range from students navigating the academic appeals system to the rights of refugees.

It is vital that we advocate for an informed population who are not at a disadvantage when it comes to dealing with the law.

fosters this notion in both those involved with the clinic’s efforts and those who depend on it.

Their range of free services includes help with academic offences and landlord disputes With the impending threat of the SCI levied above student groups, it is awfully con-

Access to this information is not universal and may be difficult to understand for some without assistance and the necessary education. Unfortunately, PLE is not a common course you get the chance to take in high school, or the kind of information a quick Google search can provide. It is vital that we advocate for an informed population who are not at a disadvantage when it comes to dealing with the law. The DLS is an institution that characterizes that in the best way through its work across various legal fields. The DLS

cerning to me that the fragility of student life is best exemplified by services such as the DLS being deemed non-essential.

Some may continue to defend the view that not every student at the university is in need of legal aid, hence the ancillary fee is not one that concerns the entire student population. This perspective remains close-minded to the ethics behind what the clinic can offer to those who need it and how necessary free services really are for those who cannot afford it.

I am personally eager to continue supporting the work of the DLS and invite you all to consider taking the time to learn more about each fee that has been made optional to you this year.

Neeharika Hemrajani is a second-year History and Ethics, Society and Law student at St. Michael’s College and the St. Michael’s College Director for the University of Toronto Students’ Union.

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Letters to the Editor Re: U of T to install safety barriers at Bahen Centre, hold memorial for student death Re: Enough is enough, this is an emergency: U of T must immediately address its mental health crisis “As a parent of 2 University students (one at U of T) I would like to see clear next steps for all the key stakeholders.

The administration has clearly not taken adequate action. I agree that it is an emergency. Who should students/parents reach out to best influence change?

What should our next step be?”

“Just a friendly reminder that this was one of the lowest hanging fruits that admin could and should have gone [sic] for June 2018 as well as this past March, and that our administration instead a) refused to commit to doing this both of those times, and b) so obviously, shamelessly lied to its students when they said, on multiple occasions, that they could not immediately create any such barrier.

The fact that their announcement from this afternoon makes it sound like they’ve been making progress on this (let alone any upstream preventative measures!) since last March is farcical.”

—Eleni Derraugh (from web)

“That’s good, but seems like a temporary solution — can we maybe invest in a bunch of mental health professionals to eliminate the endless wait-time and short appointments?”

—Amal Shirazi (from web)

“Changing the culture of expectations and how we define success in the university needs to be addressed. That starts at the top. The collective stress and anxiety is dangerous.”

— Kelly Aiello (from web)

—Lucinda Qu (from web)

Re: U of T professors, Toronto community leaders call on U of T to close campus for climate strike “There could be a climate change related natural disaster in Toronto and they’d still refuse to close campus.”

—Saad Jameel (from web)

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Op-ed: UTSC NDP — let’s aim higher

It’s time to push forward on climate, student debt, economic inequality Firaz Alvarez and Shehryar Shaukat Varsity Contributors

In the coming weeks, Canadian students will have the opportunity to help elect a government that will best serve their interests. Those interests?

The cost of education, the impending effects of the climate crisis, and affordable housing, just to name a few.

Over the past few decades, Liberal and Conservative governments have not done enough to address these issues for Canada’s youth. It’s up to us now to start a movement, created by us but represented federally by Jagmeet Singh and the New Democratic Party (NDP), to enact real change on these issues and shape a bright future for young Canadians.

Earlier this year, the Ford government made sweeping changes to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) that bit hard into the financial security of many students. Federal Conservatives have shown a disdain for universities, and one can only imagine they will “find efficiencies” the same way the Ontario government did — putting money back in the wallets of the wealthy, while cutting into social services that average Canadians rely on.

Liberal and Conservative governments have passed as tuition costs have skyrocketed — why?

Since 1990, the federal government’s share of university funding has fallen by nearly 50 per cent, and tuition costs have easily outpaced inflation.

In 2018, Canadian students owed $28 billion in student debt, with $19 billion owed to the federal government. A survey completed in 2015 of 18,000 graduating university students showed that the average indebted student owed more than $26,000 in student debt.

Young Canadians should not have to begin their adult lives drowning in debt that can take years to pay off, in addition to its tremendous toll on mental health. Instead, young Canadians should be able to put that money back into the economy, and back into their wallets. A New Democrat government wants to bring to the federal level what five provinces have already decided to do — an elimination of interest on student loans.

mate Agreement targets by a margin even worse than under current Liberal policy. The status quo means catastrophe — just one taste of this is the danger facing low-lying coastal areas, home to millions of people, due to rising sea levels.

The climate crisis cannot just be tackled by individual action, nor by ‘market-based’ reforms.

To avoid this catastrophe, the world needs bold leadership on climate issues, and for Canadians, a New Democrat government would push this leadership forward and confront the largest emitters — big corporations.

The NDP have not only committed to a dayone elimination of fossil fuel subsidies, but A New Deal For People would support communities across the country by creating 300,000 jobs through re-investment into carbon-free energy sources. Canadians need a better way to get around — our cities and infrastructure are car-centric and it’s time to evolve cities through cheaper, cleaner and more convenient public transit.

‘How are we going to pay for it?’ is the inevitable question that accompanies any proposal to strengthen social services that benefit ordinary people. Part of the NDP’s answer is a superwealth tax. According to the parliamentary budget officer, the policy would apply a one per cent tax to assets worth more than $20 million, raising nearly $70 billion over the next ten years.

In Canada, the issue of wealth inequality can be blamed on the abundant loopholes in the tax system — regularly exploited by the wealthy to escape paying the defined tax rates. For example, money made through stocks or real estate recieves a half-off on taxes, and money made from corporate dividends rewards a tax break.

The NDP proposes to seriously reform the shallow tax system, not just through the superwealth tax, but through other reforms, including increasing the corporate tax rate from 15–18 per cent and bumping the top income tax rate for those making over $210,000, by two per cent.

Canadians are also worried about the climate – as everyone around the world should be. Millions of people globally have participated in climate strikes in September alone, and it’s time Canadian voices are represented by a party willing to act on climate change. The Liberals have talked a big game on the climate crisis but have pathetically failed to create any meaningful change. The socalled ‘progressive’ Trudeau government declared a “climate emergency” one day, and approved expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline the very next.

Meanwhile, the Conservative plan for climate change is projected to miss its 2015 Paris Cli-

of economic inequality and tax fairness.

The revenue generated from this tax would be necessary and practical in fulfilling platforms such as universal pharma care and publicly funded dental, mental, and vision care.

Inequality is a growing issue for Canadians — 87 of the richest families own the same wealth as the 12 million poorest Canadians. Inequality burdens society by rupturing and weakening the social fabric that allows liberal democracies to progress; the byproducts of inequality include reduced life expectancy, lower economic growth, and poorer quality social services.

higher. The failures of the Trudeau government will be to blame should they lose. If we vote for a fake progressive, what we’ll get is a fake progressive. The disease of corporate influence plagues both parties. Instead, let’s make actual progress.

If we vote for a fake progressive, what we’ll get is a fake progressive.

The disease of the world needs corporate influence plagues both bold leadership on climate issues, Additionally,parties. closing tax loopholes such as the CEO stock option deduction strengthens the tax and for Canadians, system, and creates a healthy, productive, and just economic landscape by enforcing tax fairness.

Thus, the NDP platform on tax reform is disa New Democrat tinct in its character from other parties’ policies towards the same; the NDP champions economic justice to a dysfunctional and hollow tax in 2015... the government system which fails to mitigate the challenges of inequality. Voting NDP means changing this and a more just society for all Canadiaverage indebted would push this constructing and, and setting a popular fiscal precedent in tax reform. we realize many young Canadians student owed more leadership forward arepeersFinally, thinking about strategic voting. Some of our understandably seek to avoid an Andrew The tax would only apply to the top one tenth Scheer government, and are willing to put aside than $26,000 in ofdanttherevenue one per cent of Canada, generating abun- their dissatisfaction with Trudeau’s Liberals toto fulfill the monetary requirements ward that end. I heard a classmate ask, “are we of other NDP policies. Hence, the NDP’s plat- going to let Trudeau’s blackface scandal be the student debt form on taxes is the vanguard of necessary social reason Scheer wins?” reform, which posits tackling the strenuous issues To these concerned students we say — let’s aim

Firaz Alvarez is a third-year Political Science and International Development Studies student at UTSC and the New Democratic Students of Scarborough External Co-Director. Shehryar Shaukat is a fourth-year Political Science student at UTSC and the New Democratic Students of Scarborough Communications Director.

NDP promises to push forward this election.

COURTESY OF THE NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF CANADA

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TAs DO How Bill 124 may reshape tutorial rooms and lives Written by: Abdus Shuman Ilustrated by: Rilla Wang

University of Toronto teaching assistants (TAs) already find themselves stretched thin, but this may worsen if Bill 124, Premier Doug Ford’s new policy, comes into force.

Known as the Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act, Bill 124 would cap increases in public sector salaries and compensation by one per cent a year for all benefits of monetary value. This includes wages, health care insurance, child care support, and more, all without accounting for the current inflation rate of nearly two per cent.

Since TAs work for publicly-funded institutions, this would directly affect them. The Varsity interviewed three current TAs working for U of T to see what they thought about these policy changes and implications.

How Bill 124 will affect tutorial rooms Jasmine Chorley Foster is a second-year PhD student in the Department of Political Science.

She is also a member of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), where she is a representative for her department, speaking on behalf of TAs, course instructors, and other workers, usually PhD or Master’s students.

When asked about the trade-off between the Ford government’s claim that Bill 124 will save the public millions and the loss of potential benefits for employees in the public sector, Foster said that it isn’t a fair exchange.

“Why cut nurses’ wages, but not doctors’?” she said. “It’s not neutral cost-cutting, otherwise why would they discriminate?”

Beyond merely salaries, Foster also sees this bill as a barrier to union rights and negotiations.

“The other thing about Bill 124 is that it allows the government to interfere in collective bargaining, so even if the employer and the workers came to an agreement, the government could still intervene,” she said. “Even in a normal round of bargaining, we would have been able to come to an agreement with the university, but we will now be forced to take much less [of our demands] because of the legislation.”

Two major issues CUPE members are concerned with are student finances and living conditions.

“Everyone is facing financial constraints,” Foster said. “No one is shy about this — like how expensive rent is in Toronto — considering how little money we earn.”

According to Statistics Canada, in 2017, the low income cut-off in Toronto was defined as a salary of $25,338 per person, before tax. Though TA salaries differ by department, the base amount offered by the Faculty of Arts & Science is $17,500. In their funding packages, some TAs also receive tuition and fees. For example, certain graduate students in the Faculty of Arts & Science may receive $8,487. With these factored in, the total amount they are paid is $25,987 per year.

One way to afford life in such an expensive city is for TAs to acquire more TA positions, but this means taking longer to complete their thesis.

Some graduate students end up taking seven or more years to get their degree.

Foster sees a future with Bill 124 as bleak. She believes it will eventually become a matter of what to cut, due to reduced funding. All sorts of support services, such as health insurance, child care, and more will be on the front lines.

As a parting thought, Foster noted that this fight extends beyond TAs. “The biggest thing I want for the readership to understand is that this all will affect everyone at U of T,” she said. “[If TAs] are overworked, then we have less time to provide feedback, or give extra help, or meet outside of office hours […] That obviously affects how [students] are in tutorials [and] the quality of their work.

“All these things go together.”

features@thevarsity.ca

“I could not even get a restaurant job” Nonetheless, not all experiences are created equal. An international student at U of T, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of professional retribution, told The Varsity about her time as a PhD student in social sciences.

In her department, funding stops at the end of fourth year, and she has just started her fifth.

“TA-ships are my main [source of ] income,” she said.

She went from working 300 hours in her fourth year, to 270 hours as a TA and 100 hours as a research assistant during her fifth.

She also voiced concerns about the difficulty of the process to become a permanent resident.

She said that international students can be in precarious situations, citing the high costs, which can total to roughly $1,000 or more, and the lengthy procedure, which guarantees no expedient outcome.

“Very few people [apply for permanent residency] right away,” she said. “Some friends of mine needed to ask relatives and friends for money so that they could gather enough to apply.”

The question of financial stability doesn’t just impact her university life. Without a high enough salary, the implications could affect her living situation throughout her time at U of T. “When I applied to U of T family housing, they [asked] to see financial records. So besides your TA income, they want to see your savings, to get evidence that you can pay rent for the next few years,” she said.

She considers herself lucky that she has the option to borrow from her parents.

“There are people in my department who don’t have such a resource. As an international student, my work permit only allows me to work on campus, so I could not even get a restaurant job,” she said.

However, the magnitude of her stress isn’t limited to her.

“The financial stress you have also affects your family. If you have to borrow money from your parents, they won’t refuse if they have the capacity, but that brings an extra burden to the family,” she said.

The stress over making ends meet, while balancing a heavy course load is an untenable situation that she acknowledges can prime students for mental health issues.

“The financial pressure that comes from the PhD program is interconnected with the kind of pressure that a foreign student faces if they cannot get [permanent residency].

If they don’t have the funds to finish, they may be forced out of the country.

The whole education and immigration system creates this sense of precarity for students,” she said.

“I think there are mental health implications to this. Even from the first year, you start thinking of whether you can finish in time, before the funding runs out.”

To her, the problem is “We have all these unrealistic benchmarks in my department,”

she said. “They send emails on a regular basis, telling you that you have failed to reach these benchmarks, so you are reminded all the time that you are basically a failure. And then you are asked why you take on these extra jobs since you need to focus on your studies, but you need to take them on because you don’t get enough funding [so] that you can focus on your PhD research.

“You are caught in this dilemma.”

Thoughts on the future Some students are fortunate to have won major external scholarships, such as James ‘Billy’ Johnson, a fifth-year PhD candidate in the Department of English. However, even with substantial university funding and support, he understands that many people’s financial situations are still dubious.

“I know from friends that it can be a real struggle, especially to those who entered grad school with substantial debt from student loans from their undergrads,” Johnson said. “None are incurring more debt, but those who did not get an external scholarship certainly had to be more frugal just to survive.”

A significant concern to Johnson is the skyrocketing living costs.

An article published in EEB Quarterly stated that on average, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology students on a yearly income of $19,500 spend 61 per cent of their yearly income on rent, given that rent is $992.50 per month. This figure is double what is considered affordable.

“To hear that we are spending upward of 60 per cent is shocking to me, but [also] not shocking. Even with substantial funding, my biggest cost was rent,” Johnson said. “I found out that my apartment was $200 more [than before] just within a six month period.”

Nearing the end of his time as a PhD candidate, Johnson is thinking of the future. It’s difficult to save up any substantial amount of money during a degree that can take six years or so to complete, in addition to the rising costs of living in Toronto.

TA positions are a significant source of income for students who are limited by their course load, their immigration status, or other factors preventing them from securing another job. The threat that Bill 124 poses is to these students’ livelihoods.

“I don’t think there’s any genuine care for future generations, especially since the funding cuts increase class sizes [with] cuts to the number of teachers,” Johnson said. “Ford talks about creating ‘sustainable’ funding structures for future generations. I [find] that laughable.”

Arts & Culture

October 7, 2019 var.st/arts arts@thevarsity.ca

Theatre review: Hart House’s The Rocky Horror Show

The show ended with a dance-along with the audience.

COURTESY OF SCOTT GORMAN

A timeless classic hits a classic Toronto stage Stephanie Bai Features Editor

She brushed past me, wearing half a black sparkly bra and half a gold glitter dress. She was clearly wearing a wig — impossibly thick, black, and curly — and when I looked at her heels, my feet ached for her. She would be going on stage any minute, but right now, she was walking down the aisles, laughing with the crowd before the soldout performance.

Welcome to The Rocky Horror Show.

Nowadays, in a world of RuPauls, the idea of men in drag seems like just another Friday night binge. But when The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a cult-classic musical by Richard O’Brien, was released in 1973, the sight of Dr. Frank-N-Furter declaring himself to be a “sweet transvestite from Transexual, Transylvania” would have been enough to make more than a few jaws drop in theatres.

The story follows the chaste and clean-cut couple of Brad and Janet as they get engaged, then stranded when their car breaks down in a storm. They go to Frank-N-Furter’s castle, where they’re greeted by other Transylvanians who pull the couple into their web of sexuality and debauchery.

There’s a lot of lingerie. And fishnets. And platform heels. And in Jennifer Walls’ Hart House production — just in case the original costumes weren’t camp enough for you — the lingerie glows in the dark too.

Minutes before the show began, I became acutely aware of how out-of-place I was and how much I wished I had a feather boa. Though most of the audience dressed normally, I paid most attention to those who followed the show’s website’s suggestion to “dress to impress” and partake in the spectacle.

The woman to my left wore black Mary Jane high heels with rainbow-striped knee-high socks. The girl two seats to the right of me had on fingerless leather gloves. I was wearing a black cardigan and jeans.

I felt like such a Janet.

From the first number “Science Fiction/Double Feature” alone, it was clear that Walls didn’t limit her actors’ space. Rather, she told them to use the whole auditorium as their stage. She made clever use of the background actors called the “phantoms,” who filled the aisles and cheered to the song, riling up the crowd.

They were one of my favourite parts of the show. I could call them transformative, but that would be an understatement.

As the subtly manic Brad, played by Will Mackenzie, proposed to a frustratingly clueless Janet, played by Katie Miller, the phantoms hovered behind the cutout church prop, jumping out with jazz hands.

In a sense, they were the set itself. Arms became windshield wipers. Bodies became doors.

Thighs became the holster for a particularly bold penis-shaped water gun — don’t ask, you have to see it for yourself.

The Rocky Horror Show is acclaimed for its blatant disregard for anything within the sphere of ‘normal.’ Normal is drab. Normal is a word that deserves a sparkly silver stiletto to the head. But Walls didn’t just lean into the insanity of the storyline; she threw herself in, full-force.

Strobe lights showed off the glow-in-the-dark lingerie. When Frank-N-Furter, played by Chris Tsujiuchi, spoke, phantoms collapsed to the ground and shook in ecstasy. We found out that Brad wore strawberry boxers.

However, my biggest dissatisfaction is that, greedily, I wanted more.

Tsujiuchi embodied the nonchalant confidence of Frank-N-Furter exceptionally well, but there were moments where I wish he drew out the audacious snap of his character more. He tended to stay in the realm of dry humour, but that left an unsatisfied craving for the uninhibited sexuality and boldness of Frank-N-Furter.

I wanted more self-indulgent vivacity, more of a saunter in his performance.

The show was strongest when it did what it does best: shatter the fourth wall in a self-aware fashion. And it did so glamorously.

As Columbia, played brilliantly by Becka Jay, went manic in a tap-dance frenzy during “Time Warp,” she screamed, “Look at me! Are you not entertained?”

Some questions you don’t need answered.

In true Rocky fashion, audience members were also encouraged to yell at the stage. I had never

seen anything like it. During the storm, Janet yelled to Brad, “I’m coming with you!”

Somebody from the audience yelled back, “For the first time in your life!”

Sure, I could also dive into some of the deeper themes of the show here. The oppression and reclamation of sexuality, like when Brad and Janet took off more clothing as the show went on, until Janet ended in a bra and underwear and Brad stunned us in a sheer pink robe.

Or maybe I could talk about the celebration of being the other, of being unique, irreverent, and from Transylvania. But out of all the running gags, the one that’s the hardest to forget, the one that had the most spunk, was all the penises.

Props, of course. But nonetheless, it was like The Stag Shop was a silent partner. Dildos encircled the top of the control panel that built Rocky.

Laser guns had mushroom tips. Because at the end of the day, yes, this was a ‘very professional production.’ The actors were all exceptionally trained, nobody missed a beat in comedic timing, and the dances were all snappily choreographed.

But behind all of that, this was sheer, unadulterated entertainment at its core. And everybody on stage made sure you knew it.

Out of everything though, my favourite memory remains when the show ended and the cast all took their bows to a standing ovation. But as if our absurd campy experience wasn’t enough, the next thing we knew Tsujiuchi was asking us if we wanted to do the Time Warp again, and who were we to say no?

So the music queued up and we danced, albeit awkwardly with a limited range of movement, but together. I laughed with every pelvic thrust, every jump to the left, every step to the right. And even when we stepped out of the theatre into the cool, quiet night, I was still grinning like an idiot.

Because at the end of the day, you can say whatever you want about The Rocky Horror Show.

But you can’t say that it wasn’t pure fucking fun.

COURTESY OF SCOTT GORMAN

Overlooked: Anne with an E

From a children’s classic to a Netflix original, literature’s favourite Canadian redhead finally reaches our favourite procrastination tools Mayesha Chowdhury Varsity Contributor

Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, set in Prince Edward Island, is about a unique orphan who wins the hearts of siblings Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert.

The book is treasured not only by Canadians, but by people all around the world. I remember growing up and falling in love with Anne’s flamboyant personality.

I laughed when she got into trouble for dyeing her hair green and adored the love-hate relationship between Anne and Gilbert Blythe. Over the years, there have been many television adaptations of this series, however, Netflix and CBC’s diamond-in-the-rough Anne with an E offers a fresh new perspective on Montgomery’s beloved novels.

Despite being renewed for a third season, the show is still vastly underappreciated. The first season offers us a look into Anne’s life before she arrives at Green Gables and sets a grim mood to the show.

Anne copes with post-traumatic stress disorder flashbacks, which reveal the trauma she has endured at the hands of her previous foster parents. Although this adaption is different from the previous light-hearted depictions of Anne, it sheds light on the challenges that children in the foster care system face.

The second season delves into other important topics, such as racism, homophobia, and misogyny. We are introduced to the show’s first Black character Sebastian ‘Bash’ (Dalmar Abuzeid), who Gilbert befriends while working on a ship together. We get to see Gilbert develop into a fully fleshed-out character who has a life beyond

being Anne’s love interest.

At the same time, we see Gilbert learn what it means to be an ally to Bash against the racism he faces. Queerness is examined through the role of Diana Barry’s aunt Josephine who had a partner called ‘Aunt Gertrude.’ Aunt Josephine holds a queer-friendly party which sets the scene for Diana Barry, Anne’s closest friend, to grapple with her feelings about her aunt’s sexuality. The show also flirts with feminism by introducing the new teacher, Miss Stacy, who breaks gender norms by being single and wearing pants.

Anne with an E dives into our cherished novel and updates the classic tale with vibrant new characters and themes. The show does not shy away from exploring painful topics which is what sets it apart from previous adaptations.

FARIA JAHAN/THE VARSITY

var.st/arts

OCTOBER 7, 2019

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Is doing a work study worth your time?

A cost-benefit analysis worthy of any Rotman lecture Yasamin Jameh Varsity Contributor

The Work Study Program at U of T offers students paid on-campus jobs that are meant to strengthen knowledge and skills by giving students the opportunity to apply classroom learning to a real-life setting.

Further, work-study positions can count toward your Co-Curricular Record (CCR), which is an official document that keeps track of your extracurricular involvement at U of T and can be an excellent addition to your résumé.

However, the question remains: are workstudy positions worth your time and energy? As a student who currently partakes in the program, I would firmly say “yes.” However, here are some pros and cons that I would advise everyone to consider before committing yourself to a position.

Con: Having a bad supervisor who gives you menial tasks The purpose of the Work Study Program is to allow students to explore how their academic studies can be applied to a career path and enrich their university experience. Unfortunately, your work study experience can vary greatly depending on what kind of supervisor you have.

A good supervisor will give you a varied set of responsibilities that make use of your skills and help you reach your learning goals. However, a bad supervisor would constantly give you ‘grunt work,’ like answering emails and doing paperwork,

or, even worse, giving you nothing to do. Although these duties are an integral part of administration, they should not take up all your time since they don’t help you much in reaching your learning goals.

Pro: Getting some extra cash A work-study position is an excellent way to fill up your CCR and get references while also making some extra cash on the side. As university students, most of our time is taken up by our studies, which allow us little time to get in-

Pro: The unique experience Doing a work study opens the doors to a plethora of opportunities. I decided to take a position as an intern at the Multi-Faith Centre since I thought a job that related to culture and religion would pair well with my studies in international relations.

So far, I’ve learned so much about the services and support that the centre offers and had the opportunity to see the administrative side of organizing faith-related events. Furthermore, I’ve been able to network with members of religious groups on campus, with many of whom I share similar interests and goals. This has opened the doors for collaboration between my colleagues at the centre and other faith organizations to set up inter-faith events and workshops.

volved in extracurriculars. Additionally, we are usually short on cash. A work-study job bundles together both the benefits from part-time work and from extracurriculars.

In my opinion, my work-study job is better than the alternative — which for a lower-year undergraduate student would likely mean a minimum wage job at a fast-food restaurant — since it is a university-affiliated job that deals with my genuine interests. The $15 an hour payment is also above the Ontario minimum wage of $14.

Con: Having a cap on how many hours you can work For most work-study positions, students are only allowed to work a maximum of 15 hours a week, for a total maximum of 200 hours for the fall and winter semesters. Often times, 15 hours of work is not required since there are not enough duties to fill that time.

Thus, if you’re only looking to make money by working a job with high shift-availability, a work-study position may not be suited for you because you are limited in how much you can work. However, most students who apply to the Work Study Program do so for the experience and value that it brings to their CCR. The money is just a bonus.

And… the final verdict: There are several aspects to consider before committing yourself to a work-study job, however, the benefits outweigh the downsides. You have to apply and see for yourself whether you'll like the experience or not.

FIONA TUNG/THE VARSITY

What to expect during your first year at U of T

There may not be a Northrop Frye McDonald’s, but this is one secret menu that you can use Margaret Pereira Varsity Contributor

Learning how to function at university is a skill like any other, which means there’s a lot of trial and error involved. To make matters more difficult, some of these skills are opaque conventions or norms that no one explains and you have to pick up on your own. It took me about two and a half years to build up my university muscles, and I’ve compiled a cheat sheet of information I wish someone had told me in my first year, as a headstart of sorts.

1) Making the right friends can take time.

Friendship is a weird type of chemistry that needs just the right environment to stick, so don’t force it, and don’t get discouraged if you feel like your Orientation Week pals won’t be next to you at graduation. You’ll find your people.

2) Essay-writing techniques that are taught in

high school are lies. Thesis statements can be more than one sentence, paraphrasing is often better than quoting, and overall structure should fit your argument not vice versa, so throw an extra body paragraph in there if you wish.

3) Many academics are bad writers, so if you don’t understand a jargon-filled article, don’t sweat it. Employ Google — or, dare I say, Wikipedia — liberally to explain concepts, or talk to your teaching assistant (TA).

4) On this point, folks, TAs will seriously save your life — befriend them.

5) Ignore what the syllabus says about assignment extensions. Most professors will give you an extra couple of days if you really need them and if you’ve proven yourself to be a reliable student.

However, don’t make a habit of it.

6) Make that participation grade work for you.

These marks can be anywhere from 10 to 20 per cent of your grade, and they are the secret to a consistent GPA. If you hate public speaking, talk to your TA and see if they’ll let you submit written responses for participation instead. They will.

7) Never put school ahead of your mental health.

I’m sure you’re thinking, ‘Oh but what about…’ no, don’t. School is never as important.

8) Try to actually give half a hoot about your classes. It’s much easier to stay motivated when you’re curious about the material, and this interest will come through in your writing, making it more entertaining to read.

9) Figure out how you learn. By this I mean, understand whether you need to hear the material in lecture or do you have to read it? Can you read articles off a screen, or do you need to print them out? Can you work on essays in pieces, or do you need to write the whole thing at once? This one takes time, but figuring it out lets you prioritize and manage your time effectively.

Being wrong makes you smarter. Be wrong bravely and often.

This article may not be ground-breaking, but I hope giving you a jump on the unspoken rules of academia makes it all a bit more legible. University is truly a one-of-a-kind experience, so in parting I’ll say this: launch yourself at it fullforce; it won’t be worth it if you do anything less than that.

Everything you need to succeed — and a winter scarf, a notebook, and Pentel RSVPs. SHANNA HUNTER/THE VARSITY

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THE VARSITY

ARTS & CULTURE

arts@thevarsity.ca

WTF is weather amnesia and how can art explain it?

On your way back from office hours, pop into an interdisciplinary and intergenerational art exhibit at the Jackman Humanities Building Catherine Lu Varsity Contributor

The best introduction to the landscapes of Canada since the Group of Seven.

VICTORIA MCCUTCHEON/THE VARSITY

Weather Amnesia is an art exhibit on the top floor of the Jackman Humanities Building currently showcasing work by modern and classical artists at the intersection of science and artistic expression. The pieces are arranged on walls and bookshelves of the 10th-floor lounge and seminar room, more decor than formal gallery.

“We are very easy to forget — to deny the abundant evidence of changing environment,” said Yuluo Wei in an interview with The Varsity. She is the curator of Weather Amnesia and a Master of Visual Studies in Curatorial Studies student at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. Wei is critical of our modern indoor lives, especially in the urban environment, and she hopes this exhibit creates dialogue toward an awareness of our surroundings, toward noticing the weather.

In a 1922 oil painting by Graham Noble Norwell, sketches of a classical snowy Canadian landscape, ice over a lake, and a silver birch are grouped together. Around a corner hangs Lisa Hirmer’s photo series tracking the melting of snow in a test tube. Though both artists incorporate snow into their pieces, their artworks provide a stark example of the evolution of art from classical to modern times.

Another work includes a hygrothermograph, an analog measurement tool that reports temperature and humidity. A tablet with a live bird migration map is in another. A watercolour collage of a bird from a museum collection, by Florence Vale. Blocks of timber cut into a model of the Jackman Humanities Building. Abstract shapes in a big square inked in 1979, inspired by a Canadian winter.

There are two contemporary Canadian artists featured in the gallery. Lisa Hirmer has two pieces, the second being “Watching, White Ibis,” a letter to the migratory white ibis. Tania Kitchell has two pieces, one named “Weather Observations,” a diary of comments and measurements

of weather by a lake. The other is Occupy, composed of 3D-printed plants that are invasive or alien to the arctic. The printed plants are not a perfect ratio to the living counterpart — for any visiting arctic plant experts.

To me, the title Weather Amnesia is a reminder; I personally don’t remember my elementaryschool snow days, but my parents sometimes remark that there’s less snow falling nowadays.

Kids in the 1990s must have had more snow than me, and I had more snow than the kids now. The oil painting is a quintessential Canadian snowy landscape, and older generations may relate to this more. Newcomers and youth may relate more to the six frames of melting snow.

The printed plants are another guilty reminder; I barely recognize three out of the many species, save the dandelions and clovers.

But can you spot the Canadian Thistle, the Blue Eyed Grass? I think we all need this reminder lest we forget that the urban lifestyle we live is, for most of history, abnormal.

The artwork can leave viewers with important questions, but a block of wood labelled as laminated timber may not have as much face-value significance to the theme of the exhibit. The Quayside project, run by Sidewalk Labs, alongside University of Toronto’s own Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport, will both have wooden skyscrapers made of the same laminated timber, a simple but high-tech building material.

Construction of these structures is fast, less noisy, and has no harmful chemical by-products.

The sculpture of the Jackman Building was first modelled on a computer, and buildings have the same process but at a bigger scale.

Weather Amnesia will run Monday–Friday from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm until June 26, 2020.

It’s free and open to the public, but the seminar room space, a third of the exhibition, is sometimes booked for events.

Let’s get baked: from gluten to glucose and everything in between The top 15 Toronto bakeries to get your daily carb intake Nadia Boachie Varsity Contributor

From delicious French breads to buttery croissants, soft decadent cookies, and tart fruit pies, there is something for everyone when it comes to baked goods.

Bakeries are perhaps the true backbone of the Toronto dessert scene because of their sheer diversity and quantity. For those who prefer savoury treats, there are plenty of options here for you too.

Toronto is packed full of specialty dessert shops, from cookie shops and cupcake boutiques to Japanese cheesecake cafés — as good as the likes of Craig’s Cookies, Prairie Girl, and Uncle Tetsu are, specialty stores like this are left off this bakery list.

However, this list includes places that are bakeries in the traditional sense; places where you walk in and are immediately surrounded by tonnes of delicious baked treats arranged tantalisingly in front of you: tarts, pies, breads, cookies, croissants — you name it!

Here is a list of the top 15 bakeries, mostly in the downtown area and a couple just outside Toronto proper — yes, this is a condensed list.

They are worth the trek, especially before it starts to snow.

Le Gourmand Café, Spadina Avenue and Queen Street West Honestly, they must put something extra in their chocolate chip cookies, because wow.

Bakerbots Baking, Bloorcourt Village Go on the weekend. You’ll find a much greater selection, including fancy tarts! It has the same owners as Bang Bang Ice Cream and Bakery, so you know you’re in for delicious baked goods and tasty ice cream if you’re in the mood.

Blackbird Baking Co., Kensington Market Bread, bread, and more delicious bread, with a side of flaky croissants and seasonal tarts. Try their chocolate cork.

Butter Baker, Bay Steet and Dundas Street West Cookies, cakes, and pastries galore! If you are an ice cream fan, they also have delicious soft serve.

Mabel’s Bakery, Multiple locations, Queen Street West Mabel’s is on here because whenever I am going on a dessert crawl of almost any sort, Mabel’s is always featured, from pies to cupcakes to cookies.

Nadège Patisserie, Multiple locations, Queen Street West Who doesn’t love a good French pastry? Sometimes you just need a delicious macaron.

The Tempered Room, Parkdale Very cute, and has croissants. They are so buttery and delicious. Any croissant with almonds or chocolate is to die for.

Forno Cultura, King Street West Italian party galore! Sweet and savoury pastries in an aesthetically pleasing and bustling bakery.

Toronto is full of cheap bakeries to get your carb fix.

WYATT CLOUGH/THE VARSITY

Sanremo Bakery, Etobicoke An Italian bakery that does it all — for those in the west end of town, you have to try it. Doughnuts, traditional italian desserts, cakes: if you can name it, they’ve got it.

Bake Shoppe, Ossington Avenue and College Street Hip and sleek with Drake cookies — literally, cookies with celebrities like Drake and Snoop Dogg. Also, ruffle marshmallow squares? Yes, please!

Rosselle Desserts, Corktown and Queen West Canelés, canelés, canelés is all I have to say. But their other goods are also amazing.

Mashion Bakery, Spadina Avenue and Baldwin Street One-dollar pork buns and rolls? We’ll take 10.

Bobette and Belle, multiple locations A bakery for any special occasion. They have absolutely everything, and you can even stop by the store for a snack.

Lamanna’s Bakery, Scarborough For those willing to make a trek or those at UTSC, check out this bakery. It will not disappoint; from pizza to cannolis, it has it all.

Almond Butterfly Harbord Street and Spadina Avenue Gluten-free everything! It is delicious, even for those without a gluten intolerance.

Science

October 7, 2019 var.st/science science@thevarsity.ca

Local, provincial governments best positioned to address climate crisis, says U of T-affiliated study

Research analyzes impact of government responses to climate crisis in British Columbia Jess Nash Varsity Contributor

Provincial and municipal governments could be more influential in fighting the climate crisis than the federal government, according to a study coauthored by Dr. John Robinson, a professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. The research examined climate policies in 11 municipal governments in BC. They looked at the governments’ responses to provincial policies, identified the drivers and barriers that affect local political action, and analyzed the impact of these strategies on emissions reduction.

The study outlined the important components for effective municipal climate policy, as well as 12 future steps that BC’s provincial parliament should take to continue its fight against the crisis.

The climate crisis is a political fight The threat of rising temperatures and sea levels, extreme weather events, and depleting resources continues to grow more urgent. With eco-anxiety and environmental protests rapidly mounting, it’s

UBC students attend climate strike. COURTESY OF ZUBAIR HIRJI/THE UBYSSEY

undeniable that the climate crisis is at the forefront of the Canadian public’s awareness.

According to a recent National Observer poll, most Canadian respondents think that the climate crisis is one of the three most important issues facing the world.

“It’s impossible to ignore the evidence that things are just not happening in the way that they used to,” said Robinson to The Varsity. “Increasingly, the changes in ecosystems are, if not totally caused, heavily influenced by [humans].”

Many look to federal governments for a solution, but the “Meeting the Climate Change Challenge (MC3)” research project, which resulted in the study, suggests that we should be looking closer to home. Local communities have a vital role to play in mitigating the climate crisis and have the means to effect direct change.

Canadian cities often have control over their own emissions, and the municipal political process is more accessible to community members than federal politics. Robinson emphasized the advantages of the experimental nature of municipal climate policy.

“Cities become hotbeds of experimentation.

We don’t know all the answers; we have to try things out.”

The Government of British Columbia, together with its municipal governments, are leaders in Canada’s fight against the climate crisis. The researchers were interested in how its approach could be extended to the rest of the country.

“Cities really pay attention to what other cities do,” said Robinson. “The lessons from these 11 [municipalities] are generally applicable in other cities.”

The study’s findings In the first phase of the MC3 project, which took place from 2011–2013, the researchers conducted interviews and detailed case studies in each of the 11 communities and developed a policy document identifying 12 steps that the Government of British Columbia should take to further its efforts. The communities were Victoria, Vancouver, Prince George, Dawson Creek, T’Sou-ke First Nation, Eagle Island, a neighbourhood of West Vancouver, City of North Vancouver, Campbell River, the Kootenay

Regional Districts, Revelstoke, and Surrey.

They found that the major drivers of local climate action include strong municipal and provincial leadership, access to funds through the province and other organizations, the mainstreaming of climate policy, and first-hand experiences of extreme weather induced by the climate crisis.

Barriers to action consisted mainly of funding limitations, human resource constraints — particularly in smaller communities — social resistance, and electoral cycles causing leadership and mandate changes.

The MC3 project resulted in a policy document that included suggestions such as updating BC’s Climate Action Charter, which is a voluntary charter that “mandated that signatory local and regional governments become carbon neutral in their operations by 2012.” It also suggested an expansion of the carbon tax to industrial production, and the addition of climate vulnerability assessments to all provincially-funded infrastructure projects.

The second phase of the study, from 2014–2018, revisited the communities to assess the progress of their initiatives. It found that progress was too slow to cause significant change, with only two of the original case studies making a meaningful reduction in emissions. Provincial leadership changes and societal resistance were identified as major barriers to change in these cases.

How climate action can move forward The study’s conclusions yielded several insights into how change can be driven, outlining systematic necessities in both government and society to combat the climate crisis.

They stressed the importance of cooperation between municipal and provincial governments.

Strong leadership at multiple levels and partnerships between regional governments, according to the study, is vital for supporting, sustaining, and accelerating local action.

Policy alignment between provincial and municipal governments is key to transformative change. The institutionalization of these policies is another effective counter to the inconsistency of leadership swings; embedded provincial mandates can’t be turned around by a new premier.

Social engagement was also identified as a ma-

jor force behind government climate innovation.

Community involvement and a collective sense of urgency can push local governments into action.

Public acceptance and support for climate action initiatives are also important factors in driving these projects forward.

“There is a way” “Massive change is happening everywhere,” Robinson said. “The issue isn’t how to create change; it’s how to steer all the change that’s already going on in a more sustainable direction.”

Though the study was focused on governments, Robinson was clear on the point that there is “no limit” to what an individual can do about the climate crisis, whether that means eschewing plastic straws and bags, looking into sustainability measures in the workplace, or directly contacting the city about energy efficiency.

Robinson placed emphasis on the importance of social attitudes toward the climate crisis, calling the normalization of sustainability the “endgame.”

“People need to feel that sustainability isn’t a sacrifice,” he said. “When the behaviour people are doing without thinking is sustainable, it’s automatic, it’s the default — when we get there, then we’ve achieved sustainability.”

He continued, “If we do succeed in this, we’re going to make a better world… It’s not just about staving off disaster, it’s about making things better. That’s the silver lining on this dark cloud of climate change: in order to address climate change successfully, we have to make a lot of things way better.”

Robinson ultimately views the study’s findings as hopeful, firmly asserting that action is in progress to counter the climate crisis.

“It’s easier to report disaster than to report transformative success. People feel overwhelmed and kind of doomed, because the message we keep hearing is how bad [the climate crisis] is and how we have to stop doing everything we like, and even then, we probably will fail,” he said. “But what’s less apparent is that people are doing work to address this problem.”

“There’s a way. There are things happening, and the study reinforces that. We’re not doomed.”

Tiny plastics, big problems

Microplastics: an exploration of what they are, what we can do about them Hafsa Ahmed Associate Comment Editor

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waste systems and ending up in the environment.

These investments, although sometimes pricey, can significantly reduce the amount of microplastics that come off of your clothes when washing them. Systemic changes can address the microplastics problem as well. For example, Canada has implemented regulations on the use of microbeads in toiletries to help combat this issue.

While microplastics are still a relatively new area of study, researchers like the panelists are paving the way for solutions that will help improve our waste management systems, make household solutions more accessible, and reduce the production of microplastics in the first place. as

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Solutions to reduce the presence of microplastics While microplastics are a growing problem, there are things we can do in our day-to-day lives to help make a difference. As the panelists discussed, cutting back the spread of microplastics can be as simple as reforming your laundry habits, or being more mindful about what you consume.

Eliminating single-use plastics from your lifestyle is something that can make a big impact.

Many items, such as plastic water bottles, plastic bags, plastic cutlery, and more, can be replaced with reusable alternatives. When shopping for clothing, buying clothes that contain natural fibres is a step in the right direction, although, as the panelists noted, many natural fibres are heavily processed and contain dyes, which means they still end up staying in the environment.

Another way to combat this issue is to use a tool, such as a laundry filter or fibre-collecting ball, to stop microplastics from entering the water

ic m

What are microplastics, and where do they come from?

Microplastics manifest in two main ways. They are either intentionally created — such as in the case of microbeads for cosmetics — or they are the products of macroplastics, or regular plastic materials, breaking down over time. A piece of microplastic must be smaller than 5 millimetres to be considered as such. Due to their tiny size, removal from the environment can be a particularly tricky issue.

Microplastics are often so small that they are not effectively filtered out of our waste systems, causing them to end up in the natural environ-

pacts on human health.

What we do know is that they pose a threat to marine and wildlife, and are bad for the health of our ecosystems. They also pose a risk to humans, since the food we eat, like fish, often contains many microplastics.

A

Researchers from the U of T Trash Team of the Rochman Lab joined together for a panel discussion on microplastics on September 17. The panel was moderated by Susan Debreceni, a U of T Trash Team outreach assistant, and was held at the Gerstein Science Information Centre.

The panelists included master’s student Alice (Xia) Zhu and PhD students Lisa Erdle, Kennedy Bucci, and Rachel Giles.

ment. They infiltrate water and ecosystems, which can have negative effects on animals and possibly people.

What’s more, microplastics can absorb toxins from the surrounding environment and hold onto them. So, if an animal ingests them, it may also be consuming toxins that are bonded to the microplastics.

Not all microplastics are the same. Some variations are a product of things like tire dust, which can make their way into nearby environments, or travel into water ecosystems through runoff. Others are a result of the plastic fibres in our clothing, or the substances in our cosmetics and household products. Microplastics can differ in size and shape, and they can be found almost anywhere.

Recent studies have shown that microplastics are not only making an appearance in the meat we consume and the water we drink, but are even being carried through the air by wind currents.

The real trouble with microplastics is that we do not have enough research on the types of harm they can potentially have on our health.

While it’s clear that plastic in any form should not be in our ecosystems or in our bodies, more research is needed to better understand the im-

16

THE VARSITY

SCIENCE

science@thevarsity.ca

How U of T prepared me to become a freelance science writer

As an undergrad, I learned biology, chemistry, and how to believe in myself Laura Tennant Varsity Contributor

When I finished my degree in December 2016, I wasn’t sure what would come next. It felt like staring into a giant abyss, but at the same time, I knew there was something out there for me.

I first got the idea to pursue science writing after reading some bad science journalism — more specifically, writing that misrepresented statistics, sensationalized findings, and lacked the critical perspective that I craved. I thought maybe I could do it better. I knew I had a good science education, good writing skills, and a very critical eye.

I didn’t really know how to break into the field, so I just searched on Indeed for freelance science writing jobs. I came across an ad looking for someone to write articles about science and cannabis, and I thought that there was a real need for good information on the subject.

I expressed this opinion in my cover letter, and it turned out the boss shared my values. I freelanced for the company for a few months before they hired me in full-time capacity, and I worked there until the company was sold a year later.

That was how I got my start. I’ve been writing about science and medicine for two and a half years now, and I love what I do. I’ve written about diabetes, ALS, Alzheimer’s, genomics, oncology, and, of course, cannabis, among many other topics. I find it meaningful to communicate important health and science information to the public.

I’ve had the chance to interview doctors, patients, laypeople, and experts to feature in my articles. I’ve read hundreds of academic journal articles. I’ve learned so much, both about science and about people, and I still get excited every time I land a new project.

These days, I work from home — or wherever I happen to be. I am a freelance writer, which means I own my own business and set my own

hours. I find my own clients and sometimes pitch my own ideas for writing projects. It’s an active, involved process, but I find it is worth it to not have to work in an office, full time, for someone else.

I built my business slowly, and it was uncomfortable at first. I had to email people I didn’t know and ask them if I could work for them. I had to follow up on emails that didn’t get a response. I had to call people, meet people, and network. I had to decide how much money my time was worth. I had to be vulnerable.

But looking back, I think I learned how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable during undergrad. U of T pushed me beyond who I thought I was, and in that way, it prepared me for my own personal entrepreneurial journey, and all the challenges that have come with it.

I studied both arts and science equally during my time at U of T. I graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Science with a major in neuroscience and minors in bioethics, and Buddhism, psychology and mental health.

The gruelling life science courses challenged me to become more diligent, more hardworking, and more thorough. I made it my personal goal to get my GPA as high as I could, and with time, I was consistently earning As. Although it was difficult, a U of T life science education is second to none. It made me confident I could tackle any topic within the realm of medical writing, and I’ve yet to find one I couldn’t manage. More broadly, the experience gave me the belief that I could face a challenging situation and succeed anyway.

I also took philosophy and cognitive science courses, which satisfied my curiosity and love for ideas, theories, and abstraction. They were almost all essay-based, and I became a better writer, thinker, and debater for taking them. I frequently take an interdisciplinary approach in my science-

writing because of this aspect of my education.

I have faced some challenges along the way, aside from the hard work of building up a clientele. Although my education had prepared me to start as a science writer, I still had to learn a new skillset to succeed.

University does not teach you to write for the general public. It teaches you to write at a high level of abstraction, for better or for worse. I learned to write with shorter sentences and to use simpler concepts. I learned what the average person knows about the human body. I practiced editing other people’s work at my full-time job, and I’ve since gotten a lot better at writing for the layperson.

I’ve had to be humble and write about things I don’t find interesting or don’t agree with. I had to work for free a few times to get my name out there.

I’ve had to accept the editor’s authority and let go of my attachments to certain stylistic flourishes and turns of phrase. Almost everything I write for the web gets edited in some way I don’t like, but I’ve found a good balance between fighting for what I want and accepting the changes and moving on.

U of T challenges you intellectually and emotionally to be your best. It does not compromise your education to make things easier on you. It demands that you rise to meet the challenge, and it will absolutely leave you behind if you do not. Undergrad hurt, but it ultimately made me stronger.

When The Varsity reached out and asked me to tell my story and reflect on my time at U of T, I was thrilled. As I reflect on my undergrad experience, I realize all the ways it’s helped me become the person I am today, and I feel grateful.

My advice for undergrads is to grind hard and trust that you are building up resilience. You can turn that resilience into something profitable if you are willing to do uncomfortable things.

Laura Tennant is a U of T alum from the class of 2016.

COURTESY OF LAURA TENNANT

If you are learning about something you’re passionate about, developing transferable skills, and increasing your resilience, you will figure out how to make a living once you graduate.

Try your best to be grateful, even when it’s hard. It gets easier after graduation.

Laura Tennant is a Toronto freelance science writer and U of T alum from the class of 2016. She’s written for a variety of clients, including Diabetes Canada, the ALS Society of Canada, Geneseeq Technology Inc., and Leafly.ca.

A moonwalk through the Dunlap Institute’s second annual Planet Gazing Party Public event enraptures U of T students, families with exploration of the universe Anya Rakhecha Varsity Contributor

The Dunlap Institute held its third annual Planet Gazing Party in September.

DINA DONG/THE VARSITY

“The cosmos is not nerdy; the cosmos is wonderful,” reads a line from my favourite show, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which aptly captures my experience at the Dunlap Institute’s second annual Planet Gazing Party on September 14.

The public event enthralled thousands of Torontonians from different age groups, cultures, and sects of society who spent their Saturday evening learning more about the universe.

I was surprised as we lined around the back campus field, having not anticipated the energy and excitement that was in the air. Attendees included kids dressed as astronauts, U of T students who had just left Robarts Library, middle-aged couples on their weekly date nights, and grandparents accompanying their grandkids.

As the display opened in the evening, the telescopes were set up, the volunteers were ready, the moon globe was lit, and the trivia tables were abuzz. Trying to navigate, I came across a table showcasing small globes of Neptune, Mercury, the Moon, and Mars.

A volunteer from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada stood behind the globes. He excitedly explained to the kids the significance of the celestial bodies’ names. A question he posed while discussing the origins of these names stuck with me: “Would the names be different, had the Ancient Greeks been more powerful than the Romans?”

This question solidified my belief that educational events like these can engage people

from a diverse range of interests and studies, as well as capture the imagination of kids in different ways — ones that can inspire them.

I eventually located the line for a star nebula.

After a long wait, we saw a small green glint in the sky: a star seemingly expanding in space, on a journey to explode. This nebula, formed of dust and gas, experienced a beautiful death as we looked on.

After clicking a few pictures with the beautiful Moon globe, I headed to the star attraction of the night — Jupiter. As a giant ball of gas, encased in multiple rings of dense dust particles, this orb was surrounded by its breathtaking Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

The light from the moons was so breathtaking that it became an immediate highlight of my entire experience.

I made the conscious decision not to bombard you with facts in this article. The reason for that is simple: any science enthusiast can look up anything I could tell them. Instead, I tried to capture the marvel I experienced being amongst science enthusiasts and the ever-glorious cosmos.

We forget to appreciate the external and internal beauty of science, its reciprocal influence on culture, and its far reach — transcending any barrier other areas of life may harbour.

Experiences like these from the Dunlap Institute are a must for anyone with a curiosity about our universe.

Sports

October 7, 2019 var.st/sports sports@thevarsity.ca

The complicated story of lacrosse Why U of T isn’t funding a game on the rise

Laura Ashwood Assosiate Sports Editor

As is the case for most lacrosse players, David Berta fell in love with hockey first. “I started in hockey, and got into lacrosse in my first year of high school — grade nine,” he recalled fondly.

The now-captain of the Varsity Blues men’s lacrosse team found a passion for the lesserknown sport of field lacrosse in summer crosstraining, and has never looked back.

Despite it being an unpopular Canadian sport, lacrosse is the country’s official summer sport. Its origins can be traced back as far back as 1100 BCE from a variety of Indigenous communities, including the Ojibwa and Mohawk peoples — far before hockey skyrocketed in contemporary culture.

The Algonquian word for those original stickand-ball games, baggataway, has even been borrowed as the name for today’s men’s university field lacrosse national championship. With such distinct historic and local beginnings, why isn’t lacrosse lauded in Canada to the same extent as hockey or basketball?

This lack of popularity in dominant culture stems from a tradition of insularity within the sport and from a legacy of colonialism.

After being introduced to lacrosse, an ardent Canadian nationalist named William George Beers decided that it should be appropriated to become Canada’s national sport.

After founding the Montreal Lacrosse Club in 1856, where Indigenous people were excluded, he created a standardized set of rules that govern the game to this day.

As such, although he learned the game from

Indigenous peoples, Beers is popularly regarded as the father of lacrosse.

Slowly, the sport moved away from Indigenous-settler games. These were never really an equal competition to begin with once the British appropriated it by codifying rules on their own terms and opening their own clubs to control who, when, and how to play. Based on this burgeoning sentiment of exclusivity, lacrosse became an attractive pastime for the socially affluent, pervading elite college campuses across Canada and the United States in the twentieth century.

Unlike hockey, basketball, or baseball, which sought commercial success and open access to all, the elite collegiate clubs chose to remain exclusive, not only barring lacrosse’s Indigenous founders, but those of lower social standing.

While other sports moved toward professionalization, lacrosse coaches and players sought to maintain a ‘gentleman’s sport’ that would be played for the sake of athletics alone.

Although this cost the sport in terms of exposure, lacrosse is bouncing back. According to The Atlantic and an annual survey from US Lacrosse, it’s the fastest growing team sport in the United States.

Berta has noticed the rise in interest.

“One hundred per

in terms of the number of teams they have. . . there’s also a league that started off this past year called the Premier Lacrosse League. It’s gotten really popular, it’s sponsored by NBC.” With lacrosse finally buying into expansion and commercialization, there are more eyes on the game now than ever before.

Conspicuously, however, the men’s lacrosse team isn’t in the Ontario University Athletics Association (OUA) like the women’s team is.

The Varsity Blues also gives it less funding than the latter. This presents a glaring question: for a national sport quick on the rise, and for a team that consistently succeeds on the field, why isn’t the university prioritizing their success?

The real issue stems from where men’s lacrosse sits within the University of Toronto’s Intercollegiate Sport Model, a tiered system developed to allocate resources. The men’s team has been placed in the Blue and White division, one below the women’s. This presents an inequality in lacrosse between the two teams: the Blue and White division gets allocated less funding for key program development and maintenance strategies.

Unlike the women’s team, the men get no organized strength and conditioning, more limited access to facilities and sport medicine, and less funding for team apparel, among other disparities. “We kind of have to go to our own resources in terms of organizing team lifts and whatnot,” said Berta. Seemingly, there is a simple answer to this difference in division: the men don’t play within the standard intercollegiate league — the OUA — so they must be a less competitive team that is less deserving of funding.

This is untrue. University men’s lacrosse plays instead within the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association (CUFLA).

Established in 1984, CUFLA is

the most competitive league for men’s intercollegiate field lacrosse in Canada. It is comparatively more challenging to succeed within than the OUA league, boasting 14 teams versus the OUA’s 10. Nevertheless, the men’s lacrosse team holds its ground within CUFLA and typically makes it to the playoffs.

Further, since it was founded before the OUA acquired women’s lacrosse in 1998, it would follow that the men aren’t in the OUA because they already had a high-level, competitive intercollegiate league to play within.

The issue, then, is not in the skill level or competitiveness of men’s lacrosse at U of T. It’s about how Varsity Blues intercollegiate sports perceives sports that are not within the OUA as lacking such qualities — a hyper-focus on OUA championship banners above all other competitive successes.

“It certainly seems like OUA teams get more funding than we do, from the university,” noted Berta. “It seems like the OUA is a more legitimate governing body from their perspective.”

The captain is also quick to explain how the men’s team would thrive even more with a bump in funding: “We would definitely benefit from it. We’re already competitive in the league, so I think it would really allow us to go ever further.”

So maybe the team doesn’t have to be in the OUA, but Berta believes that there is an argument for the Varsity Blues to consider it a division-two sport at U of T. Bottom line? U of T should provide Canada’s national sport with the recognition and funding it deserves, no matter if it be the men’s or women’s team.

The Varsity Blues Intercollegiate Sport has not responded to requests for comment.

cent.

It’s definitely growing. You can see it clearly — there’s a growing number of teams, leagues,” he said.

“The National Lacrosse League is expanding

IRIS DENG/THE VARSITY

18

THE VARSITY

SPORTS

sports@thevarsity.ca

Blues men’s hockey team wins home opener Toronto narrowly defeats Guelph with a 3–2 victory

The Varsity Blues men’s hockey team won their first game of the season this Friday, with a tight 3–2 score over Guelph.

The Blues played in front of a packed stadium at the Varsity Arena, the crowd excited to see the opening game in a season where the Blues hope to improve on their record from last season.

Blues head coach Ryan Medel started out with a line of Chase Olsen, David Thomson, and Joey Manchurek, with the latter getting on the board immediately with an early goal. Thompson shot the puck from the point, causing a scramble in front of the Gryphons net and giving Manchurek the opportunity to tap in the 1–0 goal.

For the rest of the first period, the Blues spent more time in their own zone than in Guelph’s, but Toronto goalie Alex Bishop stopped some key chances for the Gryphon’s to maintain the lead. Toronto also managed to kill off two penalties, with the defensive players clogging up the lanes and stopping some key passes to keep Guelph off the scoreboard.

The Blues heavily relied on the line of Olsen, Thomson, and Manchurek throughout the game, both at five-on-five and on the power-play. “I thought right from the first shift that [the line] showed a lot of jump,” Medel said in a post-game interview. “Obviously they scored early, and any time a line scores early, they kind of play with a little bit of extra confidence.”

He continued, “But I think for the most part they played two ways the entire night. I liked their shift length and they seem to be fresh every time.

I called their name and they played more in the offensive zone. So they got rewarded for that.”

In the second period, there was a large scrum in front of the Toronto net, which resulted in only one holding penalty for Guelph’s Stephen Templeton. On the ensuing Toronto power-play, newcomer Kyle Potts won the draw back for his defenseman Justin Brand. Brand passed it across to his defensive partner Willy Paul, who teed up a quick slapshot under the glove of Guelph goalie Andrew Masters, giving Toronto a 2–0 lead.

Play was much less one-sided in the second period, as Toronto was able to trap Guelph in the neutral zone and prevent them from breaking into Toronto's end with ease. However, Toronto was unable to stay out of the penalty box, and were penalized three times throughout the period.

Toronto’s penalty kill was relatively strong, but with Riley Bruce — one of Toronto’s top penalty killers — being assessed with an interference penalty at the 2:45 mark of the second period, Guelph was able to get on the board. Guelph defenseman Ryan DaSilva made an innocent-looking shot toward the Blues goal, which was redirected into the net by Gryphons’ forward Connor Bramwell.

Toronto was better at staying out of the box in the third period, with only one minor penalty committed. Their lone penalty kill saw excellent forechecking from forwards Curtis Harvey and Scott Kirton. “I thought our [penalty killers] did a decent job,” Medel said. “I thought we got better as the game went on.”

“We had a real good kill in the third. We were more aggressive and didn’t give them an opportunity to set up.

They do have a real good power-play. They find seems, take a lot of shots. It’s an area we’re gonna continue to work on and improve.”

On a routine breakout at even strength, Manchurek was able to turn the puck over from a Guelph defenseman, and passed it

Silas Le Blanc Sports Editor

over to David Thomson, who sniped it home for the 3–1 goal. Although this looked to be the insurance marker, the Gryphons were able to bring the game back within one goal, when a shot from defenseman Cole Cameron fluttered over Bishop’s right shoulder with 3:39 left on the clock.

That was, however, the last goal of the game, as the Blues were able to hold off the Gryphons’ last-ditch efforts to tie it up. The game ended 3–2 for Toronto, and Bishop ended the game with 29 saves on 31 shots.

The women’s hockey team is set to play their home opener on October 26 against Windsor.

The Blues start off the season with a win.

MEHRHAN KARIMZADEH/THE VARSITY

Opinion: The consequences of vaping

The increasingly-popular habit is linked to dangerous health complications Brooklyn Baly Varsity Contributor

The repercussions of vaping can no longer be understated. As of this week, there have been a total of 21 confirmed vaping-related deaths in the United States alone, as well as 1,000 vapingrelated lung injuries recorded thus far.

Despite recent revelations pertaining to the risks of vaping, the popularity of e-cigarettes and other similar products has continued to rise.

In recent years, vaping has become increasingly popular, particularly among young adults.

Undergrads at risk?

According to a recent survey conducted by Health Canada, almost one in four students from grades 7–12 have admitted to vaping at least once. Additionally, researchers at the University of Waterloo found that from 2017–2018, there was a 74 per cent increase in vaping among 16– 19 year olds.

Worryingly, a report released by the Centres for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) found that 80 per cent of patients admitted due to vaping-related illnesses are under the age of 35. The CDC, which analyzed 373 cases linked to vaping, found that 16 per cent of patients were under the age of 18, while two thirds of patients were between the ages of 18 and 24.

The symptoms Those affected were reported as being weak and short of breath, with many patients requiring additional assistance breathing. These individuals received supplemental oxygen, and, in more serious cases, were placed on ventilators. As of now, it remains to be seen whether there will be any serious or long-lasting effects.

Despite the recent influx of patients experiencing vaping-related health complications, surprisingly little is known about the longterm health effects of sustained vaping. In fact, no specific components of vaping, such as the ingredients or the devices, have been definitively linked to these recent health developments.

Due to the prevalence of THC usage among patients, researchers are actively studying the possible connections between the ingredient and illness. However, there is no evidence as of yet confirming THC’s role in these cases. With little else to go on, many health experts are advising the public against the use of e-cigarettes or other

related goods, and furthermore to abstain from vaping altogether.

The effect on athletics Nicotine use among athletes is estimated to be between 25–50 per cent. Young athletes are being heavily affected by this newfound epidemic, making it harder for them to breathe, and decreasing their motivation to practice and play. Many have observed a link between vaping and respiratory illnesses. The effects that vaping has on athletic performance are also a common concern that users bring up when discussing their symptoms.

Another major concern that some athletes who vape highlighted is fear of being kicked off their team, or being demoted in some way if they are caught. There is little support in terms of cessation programs, and young people are often faced with punitive measures if they are caught.

This makes it difficult to talk about the issue, and for athletes to get any help they may need.

Among college students, vaping is also linked to depression, which would explain the decreased motivation that many athletes experience.

U of T fails to respond Currently, U of T has combined any vapingrelated policies with those already in place for traditional smoking. An example of this came up in January, when the university banned smoking and vaping on campus. Although smoke-free workplace policies are proven to reduce tobacco consumption by up to 3.8 per cent, no such studies have been conducted in relation to vaping.

Officially, U of T has a total of three options to provide assistance for students who vape, options that are also intended for traditional smokers. These include meeting with a health care professional, accessing free nicotine replacement therapy, or being referred to Smokers Helpline.

U of T needs to do more. These services fail to recognize the disconnect between traditional smokers and contemporary vapers, and the plurality of differences between the two groups.

Simply hoping that vapers will respond to services intended for traditional smokers is naïve, and quite frankly, unacceptable.

Moving forward, the university must take steps to further educate students on the risks of vaping, while additionally providing sufficient tailored

resources for current vapers looking to quit. U of T needs to take preventative action now, lest the consequences be dire for its students.

var.st/sports

OCTOBER 7, 2019

19

Nikola Stakich on leading the men’s soccer team

The Blues captain talks soccer, friendships, balancing school

In his fourth year as a studentathlete, Stakic has struck a balance between soccer, school, and a social life.

DINA DONG/THE VARSITY

Vincent Ruan Varsity Contributor

The Varsity Blues men’s soccer team is currently tied with rival Ryerson Rams for second place in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) standings. The team holds a 7-1-2 record, only trailing the Carleton Ravens who have a perfect 10–0 record. This year, Blues captain Nikola Stakic is looking to lead his team to the OUA Championship.

Growing up, Stakic was immersed in soccer.

His love of the sport began when he was five. “I started playing for Scarborough Blizzard house

league,” Stakic said in an interview with The Varsity. Similar to a lot of athletes, Stakic comes from an athletic background. “My dad, well he’s from Bosnia. He played professionally back there and when he was growing up. And my brother played a little bit.”

Being able to play for the University of Toronto is like being at home for Stakic, who grew up in the Scarborough Bluffs area. When he was younger, Stakic used to play at Birchmount Stadium with his father and brother.

Stakic, who plays the centre midfielder position, started out as a centre back when he was younger. When asked about players he idolized growing up, Stakic told The Varsity that he watched Gerard Piqué of FC Barcelona.

The transition from high school to playing for one of Canada’s top universities was exciting for Stakic. He was originally part of the Toronto FC Academy, the youth development program for the Toronto Football Club. “The coach of the Varsity Blues at the time was the coach at Toronto FC as well. So we linked together and he gave me an opportunity to play for U of T,” Stakic explains.

When asked about any pressure coming into the Varsity Blues, Stakic said it was a smooth process. “I knew a lot of the players already here, so it was an easy transition.”

Stakic is currently in the kinesiology program at U of T. He enjoys the freedom that his program gives him to explore his passion for soccer within his academic life. “It’s very athlete driven, the program,” Stakic told The Varsity.

On the correlation between the program and being a varsity athlete, the Blues captain noted that “everything they teach us, I can kind of incorporate into what I do on a daily basis, being on the varsity team. I kind of link what we’re learning in class, and take it on the field and in the gym.”

Although Stakic enjoys his program, he also mentioned the challenges that come with being both a student and an athlete. Stakic is currently in fourth year, so he has many years of experience dealing with tight schedules. “Keeping high grades and balancing that with soccer, it’s really hard.”

Like a lot of students, Stakic has classes most days of the week. “[I’ve] got Friday off [class] but we train Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday,” Stakic explains. “And then usually you have two games during the weekend.”

To ease the stress of being a student athlete, Stakic focuses on having fun as well. “I enjoy going out with my friends,” Stakic told The Varsity.

“I like video games too. I play a lot of Call of Duty [and] Fortnite with my teammates.”

Being the team captain carries a lot of meaning to Stakic. He acknowledges what it means to

be a leader both on and off the field. “I like to set an example for the younger players coming in, for the other players on the team,” Stakic said.

“You know, to work hard, the ethic and the bond that we build. Make sure that’s the key of being a Blue.”

Stakic also remarked on just how rewarding playing for the Blues has been for him. “Just the brotherhood, the family that you build in the change room, on the field. You know, I’ve made such great friends from the coaching staff [and] the training staff, and these relationships are going to carry on for the rest of my life,” “We spend so much time together, and a lot of us have played together for years, even before U of T. So we all have each other’s backs. We look out for one another.”

When asked about any goals for the rest of the season, Stakic focused on the team specifically.

“Currently we’re tied for second. So you know, push, hopefully get that top two finish, so we can have a bye-week,” Stakic said. But similar to most athletes, Stakic has his eyes set on bringing home a banner. “Our goal is to win the OUA Championship,” Stakic said.

“After I’m done here, [I’ll] hopefully sign a contract somewhere, with [the Canadian Premier League]. Hoping to get into one of those teams,” Stakic told The Varsity. “But if not, then continue with schooling. Maybe do teacher’s college. Do more coaching for sports.”

Football team drops close game to McMaster, loses playoff spot Blues unable to find the endzone, racking up fourth loss of the season Silas Le Blanc Sports Editor

The Varsity Blues football team dropped their game against McMaster University this Saturday, losing a 16–8 contest in a game with major playoff implications. The Blues dropped out of a playoff spot with two games left in the season before their next game against York University.

In Toronto’s first drive of the game, quarterback Clay Sequeria threw the ball into double coverage and was picked off. McMaster was unable to capitalize and went two and out on their ensuing drive. On Toronto’s next play, Sequeria fumbled a snap deep in the Blues end, which was recovered by McMaster and set them up in great field position.

McMaster went two and out again on their drive, and were forced to settle for a field goal.

Toronto had to punt on their next drive, but the ball was dropped by the McMaster returner, and Toronto recovered the ball. Sequeria made a few plays to the endzone, one of them almost being a touchdown, but the receiver was ruled out of bounds. Toronto was forced to settle for a field goal, and tied the game 3–3.

In the second quarter, Blues linebacker Daniel Solaroli made an interception, but Toronto was unable to use the opportunity. McMaster got the ball back, and made a pass from around midfield into the endzone into double coverage for the touchdown. McMaster was also able to get another field goal to bring their lead up to 13–3 to end the half.

In the third quarter, the Blues were able to get another interception, this time defensive back Jamal Johnson, but they were unable to capitalize, as Sequeria was sacked multiple times.

Sequeria faced immense pressure from the McMaster defence, which often resulted in a sack, or a rushed pass.

“We’ll have to look at what they were doing and check and see what we’re doing in protection and help [Sequeria] out a little bit,” Blues head coach Greg Marshall said in a postgame interview. “Obviously that’s the plan with everybody is to disrupt his timing, and we

The Blues fought hard to secure a playoff spot.

COURTESY OF SEYRAN MAMMADOV/ VARSITY BLUES

were doing a pretty good job the first few weeks.

It seems like the last couple of weeks, they’ve shown us a couple things we need to adjust.”

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, McMaster was pinned deep in their own zone, and when they reached the third down, they opted to take the intentional safety to prevent Toronto from gaining good field position. In the next Toronto drive, they were able to hit a field goal to bring it to a one score game at 16–8.

Toronto would have one more drive to tie up the game, but they were unable to do so, even with a few good looks in the endzone. McMaster was able to run out the clock and end the game.

“Our guys played well in all areas,” Marshall continued. “That was a good football game. Not the usual high-scoring affair, but it was more of a defensive slug fest. And there [were] a lot of guys making a lot of plays. It just happened to be on the defensive side for both teams.”

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THE VARSITY

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OCTOBER 7, 2019

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