October 28, 2019

October 28, 2019

THE VARSITY The University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880

Vol. CXL, No. 8

University mandated leave of absence policy at the crux of backlash Kathryn Mannie Deputy News Editor

Content warning: mentions of suicide.

Following a contentious Governing Council meeting on October 24, U of T student groups have released strong condemnations of U of T Ombudsperson Dr. Ellen Hodnett’s remarks on mental health activism. The student groups criticize Hodnett’s expressed support for the controversial universitymandated leave of absence policy (UMLAP) as well as her comment that activists have unfairly used recent apparent suicides on campus to criticize the policy.

The comments have prompted the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) and the U of T Mental Health Policy Council (MHPC), a newly created advocacy group, to call for Hodnett’s public apology and open discussions on her removal.

Background on the UMLAP The issue arose when Hodnett presented her report on the UMLAP. The controversial policy, approved in June 2018, allows the university to place students on a leave of absence if they exhibit severe mental health problems that the university feels pose a potential risk of serious harm to themselves or others.

The policy is only meant to be used after all other accommodations have been exhausted.

The UMLAP was passed amidst fierce opposition from students and has been the subject of continued criticism. The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) released an open letter in the run up to the policy’s approval, expressing its concern about how the UMLAP could “result in discrimination on the basis of mental health disability contrary to the Human Rights Code.” The policy was revised after the OHRC’s letter but students remained firmly in opposition.

This policy was specifically recommended by the Office of the Ombudsperson. In her role, Hodnett reviews university mandated leave cases.

Hodnett’s report Hodnett addressed the Governing Council following statements on campus mental health from student representatives. She expressed how proud she was of the UMLAP, saying that it provides “extreme care, diligence, respectfulness, and compassion” to the students whose cases have been reviewed under the policy.

She maintained that the policy is evidence-based and fair, in opposition to the continuing resistance toward the policy, which she asserts is based on misinformation.

In an email to The Varsity, Hodnett specified that she sees this misinformation being widely circulated via social media. Her concern is that students will be deterred from seeking help under the UMLAP due to its widespread online criticism and encourages “everyone to actually read the Policy.”

During the Governing Council meeting, the comment that perhaps drew the most ire from students was Hodnett’s claim that recent campus deaths have been used as a “vehicle to link students’ purported fears of seeking mental health services with the mandated leave policy.”

Online statements Immediately following the Governing Council meeting, the UTSU released a statement criticizing Hodnett’s remarks, followed closely by a statement published by the MHPC in solidarity. Both called on Hodnett to issue a public apology.

The UTSU condemned Hodnett’s comments for being “offensive” and “belittling.” It sees this as an example of the university administration not listening to its student body.

In a direct address to Hodnett, the UTSU wrote, “The fact that you told those at this meeting that you are ‘proud’ to be part of a policy that has been criticized by the Ontario Human Rights Commission and has served as an active detriment to stu-

dents seeking mental health support on this campus, speaks volumes about your views on listening to us.”

The MHPC, in its statement, found Hodnett’s comments to be delegitimizing for students with mental illness and their lived experiences. They see the UMLAP as institutionalizing “U of T’s right to force a student experiencing mental illness to lose their student status, services, and housing.”

Campus groups speak out UTSU President Joshua Bowman and other members of the UTSU said that they were so appalled by what they heard from Hodnett that they began writing their online statement during that very meeting.

In a written statement to The Varsity, Bowman went on to laud the efforts of student activists in fighting for better mental health services and found Hodnett’s remarks to be disparaging against the good work that has been put into advocating for support from the university.

“There is a mental health crisis on our campus and the fact that Dr. Hodnett stated that students grieving the loss of a classmate and community member are doing so in a politically motivated manner against UMLAP is a testament to the dispassionate nature of our university.”

Ombudsperson, page 4

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The Breakdown: UTSU’s 2019 Annual General Meeting

Member motions to address board attendance, equity collectives, climate crisis Hannah Carty Associate News Editor

The University of Toronto Students’ Union’s (UTSU) Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held on October 30 in Innis Town Hall at 6:00 pm. The meeting is open to all UTSU members, which includes full-time undergraduate students, professional faculty students, Toronto School of Theology students, Transition Year Program students, and students on a Professional Experience Year.

The AGM requires a quorum of 75 members, of which 50 members must be physically present, with the rest being present through a proxy. The meeting acts as a forum for members to ask questions and raise items for discussion. Last year’s AGM was marred by long and heated debates, and notably lost quorum during the meeting. This loss resulted in a vote on policy without quorum.

According to the AGM’s agenda, UTSU President Joshua Bowman will give his address, which will be followed by an executive question and answer period.

The meeting will also see a proposal to change the union’s bylaws and elections procedure. One change to the bylaws will remove all mentions of the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union, as it separated from the UTSU at the 2018 AGM. There are also new outlines for abandonment of office for directors, which, for example, will occur if directors have two “unreasonable absences,” or other combinations of absences.

Member motions On the agenda is a motion put forth by University College representative Lina Maragha to dissolve the UTSU’s equity collectives. The motion recommends this due to the perception that the equity collectives have not fulfilled their mandate since being introduced in 2017.

The 2018 AGM lost quorum.

ANDY TAKAGI/THE VARSITY

Instead, a “Equity Initiatives Fund” is proposed, which will provide funding to existing equity groups on campus. Three new community members will also be added to the Equity and Accessibility Committee under the new proposal.

Another motion proposes that the UTSU endorse all upcoming Fridays for Future climate strikes, as they did for the Global Climate Strike in Toronto last month.

Outstanding issues to address Some outstanding issues that the AGM might address include the UTSU’s Student Commons project, which has put the union in financial jeopardy before, and been the target of numerous construction and planning delays.

The possibility of the UTSU leaving the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), which has been a major topic of discussion surrounding the

UTSU for the past few years, could also come to a front. Debate over student funding for the CFS has emerged in the context of the Student Choice Initiative (SCI) — a provincial mandate for universities that provides an opt-out option for “non-essential” incidental fees. The SCI has also created particular financial challenges for the union, as students can opt-out of certain UTSU fees deemed non-essential by the province.

The union has also been active in student advocacy, including a collaboration with city council on postsecondary transit fees, and pushing for the funding of increased mental health services.

The controversial university-mandated leave of absence policy has once again brought tensions to light between the union, Governing Council, and the university’s ombudsperson on the policy’s effects on student health — less than year-and-ahalf after the policy’s approval.

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OCTOBER 28, 2019

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Mental health dominates first Governing Council meeting of the year Presidential address, ombudsperson report, SpadinaSussex residence were discussed RILLA WANG/THE VARSITY

Hannah Carty Associate News Editor

Content warning: mentions of suicide.

Governing Council’s first meeting of the academic year on October 24 was dominated by discussions of mental health, as student representatives were invited to speak on the topic. Representatives from the U of T Mental Health Policy Council, a newly-created advocacy group, were also in attendance at the meeting, though they were not given speaking rights.

The meeting also included the president’s address, the ombudsperson’s report, discussions on the planned Spadina-Sussex residence, and the Landmark Project.

Presidential address The meeting began with President Meric Gertler’s address, which touched on the recent federal election and mental health. He noted that the university is working with the provincial government to outline the performance metrics that will be increasingly tied to U of T’s funding. On mental health, Gertler said, “We’ve heard from those who say that we have not done enough, and we welcome suggestions on how we can do better.”

He pointed to the Presidential & Provostial Task Force on Student Mental Health, as well as the Expert Panel on Undergraduate Student Educational Experience as actions that the university has already taken.

“U of T is well known for its culture of excellence and we take tremendous pride in that,” wrote Vice-President & Provost Cheryl Regher in her report on mental health. “You’ve just heard about

our wonderful rankings, but our community has rightly reminded us [that] we also have to be mindful of the need to create a supportive community for one another.”

Mental health Student representatives from the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU), the Association of Part-time Undergraduate Students, the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU), and the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union (UTGSU) all addressed the council.

They shared many of the same demands, asking for more academic forgiveness, better access to counseling, and the repeal of the university-mandated leave of absence policy (UMLAP).

The UTSU’s Vice-President, Operations, Arjun Kaul, spoke on U of T’s competitive environment. “The culture of excellence that the university cultivates is what harms student mental health most,” said Kaul. He criticized the limited number of spots available for same-day counselling, and called for more funding to the Health & Wellness Centre, calling its wait times “abysmal.”

Joint speakers from the UTMSU and the UTGSU criticized the university’s fee structure, which places a financial burden on some students who take a reduced course load and recieve financial aid, and advocated for a course-by-course tuition structure.

A group of mental health protestors remained outside of Simcoe Hall for the duration of the meeting.

Report of the ombudsperson The university’s ombudsperson, Ellen Hodnett, gave her report,speaking strongly in favour of the UMLAP.

“I was honoured to be asked to review the cases of the eight students to whom the policy was applied in its first year of implementation,” said Hodnett of the policy.

“I use the word honoured purposefully. In my 44 years here, I have never been prouder to be associated with the University of Toronto, seeing the extreme care, diligence, respectfulness, and compassion with which the policy was applied [in each case].”

She criticized the “misinformation” that she said is being “widely circulated… to use the suicides as a vehicle to link students’ reported fears of seeking mental health services with the mandated leave policy.”

After the meeting, the UTSU released a statement asking Hodnett to issue a formal apology.

The statement calls her comments on the UMLAP “offensive and wrong,” and says that they “serve as a way of belittling students and further [emphasize] the ongoing issue of the administration not listening to its students throughout the entire policy-making process.” It criticized her attitude as being demeaning toward the student protestors, and pointed out that a draft of the policy was criticized by the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

Hodnett also proposed recommendations from her role as ombudsperson. She suggested an ancillary fee system for students that are on a voluntary leave, which would allow them to access university services even though they are not enrolled in full or part-time studies.

Her last recommendation was on analyzing the nature of science labs as “fertile ground for harassment, bullying, and intimidation,” to which Regher responded that the university was undertaking

a “Healthy Labs Initiative” which will provide resources for creating a positive lab environment.

Spadina-Sussex residence UTSU President Joshua Bowman spoke in favour of the new residence that has been in the works since 2014, but ultimately urged Governing Council to consider “affordability and accessibility.”

“Many commuter students choose to commute out of financial necessity,” said Bowman to the council. “We can’t continue promoting the benefits of living in residence while failing to work toward financial options that are accessible to all students.” He highlighted the low amount of accessible rooms in residences across campus, even as the Spadina-Sussex residence is planned to have 44 accessible rooms — 23 dormitory rooms and 21 four-bedroom suites.

Members of the Governing Council expressed their desire for the university to plan for more than the known number of accessible spaces needed in order to create a welcoming environment for students with accessibility needs. The motion to approve the project in principle passed unanimously.

Landmark Project Two motions were passed on the Landmark Project, a proposal which aims to make major changes to the landscape of the front campus area at UTSG to create a “greener, more walkable and accessible campus.” The first motion passed confirmed U of T’s commitment to the Landmark Project in principle, including the proposed below-ground parking lot. The second motion approved in principle, was a project for a geothermal system under King’s College Circle, which will conserve heat in the summer for use during winter.

A closer look at U of T’s policy on the repatriation of Indigenous human remains

Reviewing the history, policy of returning Indigenous belongings Mikaela Toone Associate News Editor

According to a 2017 Aboriginal Peoples Television Network investigation, U of T is in possession of bone fragments belonging to 550 Indigenous people. These remains are being held in museums across the world in addition to here at U of T. Recently, the Liberal Party platform promised to work with Indigenous peoples in order to create a framework for returning stolen artifacts and ancestral remains to their communities — calling into question how U of T may operate on repatriation moving forward.

U of T itself occupies land historically belonging to the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit River, territory subject to the Dish With One Spoon treaty, which was a treaty between the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas, and Haudenosaunee to share the land.

The excavation of human remains was unregulated in Ontario until 1975. In the decades prior, numerous site excavations, including those of human burial grounds, resulted in U of T’s Department of Anthropology becoming the repository of Indigenous, as well as European settler, skeletal remains.

In 1999, the Department of Anthropology released its policy on repatriation, which underscored the need to treat human remains with respect, vowed cooperation with the involved parties in their repatriation efforts, and outlined the process by which human remains and artifacts can be returned.

This process includes a review by “a committee consisting of a minimum of two representatives from the Department of Anthropology and a representative of First Nations communities” in order to ensure the request is genuine and there are no competing claims. The committee’s report is then forwarded to the chair of the department for approval.

In November 2018, Rainy Rivers First Nation repatriated over 40 of their ancestors’ remains and 5,000 artifacts that had been taken and stored at the Royal Ontario Museum.

According to Chief Robin McGinnis, the repatriation process was lengthy because Rainy Rivers First Nations wanted to catalogue all items prior to their return. However, McGinnis told The Varsity that when the “funeral ceremonies [took place] and they get put in their final resting place… where they belonged… there’s a big sense of relief now.”

Kayleigh Speirs is the administration manager at Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung Historical Centre and worked alongside Rainy Rivers First Nations during the repatriation process. Both Speirs and McGinnis agree that Indigenous peoples should lead repatriation decision-making and that more effort needs to be made by institutions to inform communities when they are in possession of their ancestral remains and artefacts. Speirs said this burden should not be left on the communities.

In 2013, over 1,700 Huron-Wendat Nation ancestral remains were reburied after a lawyer for the nation at the time, David Donnelly, happened upon the information that they had been stored in the basement of Sidney Smith Hall.

The Department of Anthropology then began collaborating with the Huron-Wendat Nation to analyze the ancestral remains in order to gather information about the lives of the deceased prior to their reburial.

U of T’s repatriation policy reserves the right for the department “to conduct a thorough inventory and scholarly documentation… for the purposes of scientific inquiry and heritage preservation” before the release of any objects or remains.

As far as performing research on Indigenous remains, Donnelly believes that it is only accept-

able when consent is received from the descendants, as was the case with the Huron-Wendat repatriation. Otherwise, the university is working with stolen property, Donnelly said.

With regard to a national framework on repatriation promised by the Liberal government, Donnelly believes funding for Indigenous groups to access lawyers and experts is imperative. Donnelly explained “for any First Nation to engage with an academic institution or a government around a problem not of their making, if you don’t provide them funding so they can hire experts, you’re really robbing them a second time.”

In response to questions as to whether the university would review its policy in light of the Liberal Party’s promises for a national repatriation framework, a spokesperson for the university wrote in an email to The Varsity that “The University feels strongly about the responsibility to ensure repatriation is conducted in a sensitive manner in close collaboration with Indigenous groups.” The spokesperson explained that “the University periodically reviews its policies and guidelines.”

They also noted that “formal requests for repatriation may come from family members or their descendants, or from recognized Indigenous groups.”

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THE VARSITY

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Ombudsperson, from cover “There is a mental health crisis on our campus and the fact that Dr. Hodnett stated that students grieving the loss of a classmate and community member are doing so in a politically motivated manner against UMLAP is a testament to the dispassionate nature of our university.”

Bowman’s disappointment isn’t solely reserved for Hodnett. He claimed that other meeting attendees, including some in administrative positions, were smirking and dismissive of the statements presented by student representatives at the beginning of the council meeting.

The UTSU’s official position on the UMLAP is that it is a damaging policy. In response to Hodnett’s claim that students have created a culture of fear surrounding the policy, Bowman instead posits that the fear on campus comes from the policy itself.

He claims that this fear is “perpetuated by a policy that saw little to no student consultation and ultimately makes students scared to go to Health and Wellness to seek the care they require.”

In addition to calling for an apology, Bowman finds it reasonable for the university to look into whether Hodnett is suited to her role as ombudsperson, in light of her comments.

news@thevarsity.ca The MHPC took issue with Hodnett’s statements in part due to her role of ombudsperson: an independent and impartial position meant to ensure that the rights of U of T community members are protected.

“Hodnett’s annual report accuses dedicated mental health advocates on campus of spreading misinformation and intentionally exploiting recent student deaths — a partial and wildly insulting charge to level at the university’s students,” the MHPC wrote in an email to The Varsity.

For the MHPC, it is a top priority “to see the UMLAP undergo a drastic rewrite or be repealed entirely.” It places high importance on ensuring that new policies are developed alongside students in order to “remove the structural and implicit barriers that prevent students from seeking help.”

University and ombudsperson’s response In an email to The Varsity, Hodnett affirmed that she stands by her every word.

She would like to remind members of the U of T community that “the Policy went through extensive consultations and was approved at every level of governance, with active involvement by students throughout, before it was implemented.”

Even though students were consulted

throughout the approval process, opposition to the policy contends that this consultation was not meaningful.

Doubling down on the comments made during the Governing Council meeting, Hodnett maintains that there is no evidence that the UMLAP is a harmful policy. In fact, she wrote there is evidence to the contrary — and that the UMLAP is doing “just what it was intended to do.”

The university brought to light that the policy has been used eight times since its inception and that in “almost all of the cases” the student affected by the policy has returned or is in the process of returning to classes.

However, it has acknowledged that considerable concern exists regarding the policy.

“We’ve heard students’ concerns that the policy could discourage individuals from using the supports available through the university and we are working to counter the perception that seeking mental health support will somehow trigger the leave process.”

It reiterated that the policy is only meant to be used when other accommodations have been found to be unsuccessful. The university claims that, “this policy is not intended to be punitive, and our experience with the policy demonstrates that.”

Plan for new Spadina-Sussex residence approved by Governing Council

The residence will feature 511 beds for undergraduates, 10 townhouses for faculty Mikaela Toone Associate News Editor

On October 24, Governing Council approved the plan for a new residence to be built at the intersection of Spadina Avenue and Sussex Avenue. The 23-storey residence will include a total of 511 student beds for upper- and lower-year undergraduates across all faculties.

U of T acknowledged the growing need for housing and estimated that an additional 2,300 residence beds will be needed by 2020 at UTSG alone. Rise in enrollment of international and out-of-province students has been a contributing factor in this demand for housing.

University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) President Joshua Bowman supports the university’s investment to create more residence beds and approves of the centrality of the location. Bowman wrote in an email to The Varsity that “living in residence can be a formative experience.” He further commented, “the friends I made in my first year on residence helped me to navigate a lot of the challenges that… a university like ours can create.”

The residence will be composed of 60 per cent dorm rooms with semi-private washrooms shared between neighbours, and 40 per cent four-bedroom suites. Of the dorm rooms, 23 rooms and adjoining washrooms will be accessible, as well as 84 suite-style bedrooms and washrooms. The residence will also include live-in student dons, townhouses for faculty members, religious spaces, a fitness room, and a residence dining hall that will be open to students and faculty with a TCard.

According to research done by the UTSU, the number of accessible rooms at the Spadina-Sussex residence will be far greater than the average number of accessible rooms currently available at other UTSG residences.

The university began planning the new residence in 2014, but progress slowed in February 2017 when the Toronto City Council designated the Ten Editions bookstore, which is located at the proposed construction site, as a heritage site.

During the ensuing negotiations with the city, the building plan was adjusted to include a reduction in height and an agreement that the Ten Editions bookstore would remain standing by integrating it into the residence. However, despite the

negotiations, the bookstore closed earlier this year.

Additionally, U of T has agreed to renovate the Robert Street Playing Field adjacent to the residence and make it accessible to the public.

With the new building design, an application for site plan approval was filed in December 2018 and is still pending.

U of T has released the following schedule: the approval of the site plan is expected by February 2020, the earliest demolition date is May 2020, the earliest construction date is August 2020, and the earliest completion date is April 2022.

While Bowman supports the Spadina-Sussex residence, he has also acknowledged that U of T has a dearth in affordable housing. “For many students, living in residence is simply not an option,” Bowman noted.

Information on the rental price is not yet available, yet, the plan notes that a meal plan will probably be mandatory for residents.

The development of the Spadina-Sussex residence will cost over $20 million. U of T is also in the process of designing an extension for Graduate House and a smaller housing project in the Huron-Sussex neighbourhood.

The new residence will be built above the Ten Editions bookstore.

SHANNA HUNTER/THE VARSITY

U of T professor missing in India since late September

GoFundMe started for search and rescue effort Rachel E. Chen Varsity Contributor

An assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, Dr. Peter Wittek, went missing almost a month ago after being caught in an avalanche during a hiking expedition.

Wittek, 37, specializes in quantum-enhanced machine learning and applications of highperformance learning algorithms in quantum physics. He also serves as the academic director of Rotman’s Creative Destruction Quantum Program, which supports startups in the realm of machine learning and quantum computing.

Wittek set out with five others to climb the 7,120 metre-high Himalayan peak Mount Trishul in the Chamoli district, India. The Indian National Disaster Response Force received a SOS distress beacon from a fellow mountaineer from Wittek’s base camp at 5,700 metres on September 29.

Inclement weather forced authorities to delay their on-ground search, but a three person helicopter search eventually began a few days later on October 3, accompanied by another team of high altitude state mountaineers from the National Disaster Response Force.

“It’s been close to a couple of weeks now, and the search efforts are still ongoing, and sometimes the visibility is poor,” said Sriram Krishnan in an interview with The Varsity. Krishnan is a longtime friend and fellow adventurer who has climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro with Wittek. “We’re also starting to be a little bit more pragmatic and thankful with the efforts that have been ongoing, but we also want to start celebrating what he’s done and who he was for all of us.”

Originally from Hungary, Wittek received his PhD in computer science from the National University of Singapore, and also has a master’s degree in mathematics. Having worked in China, Sweden, India, Japan, Spain, and Hungary, he is recognized as one of the leading researchers in quantum machine learning.

An avid mountaineer, Wittek has been climbing for over 10 years and boasts an impressive record, including Mount Kilimanjaro, Mont Blanc, Mount Kosciuszko, Lenin Peak, and Mount Aconcagua in Argentina — which is the highest mountain outside of Asia.

Following his disappearance, friends and family immediately banded together to coordinate their resources and media outreach. Wittek’s family has been working hard to appeal to the Canadian and Indian governments for support in their search.

Krishnan noted that “[authorities] have been very helpful in the coordination of efforts” and that they have received help from various Canadian entrepreneurs, as well as the University of Toronto.

Family and friends have also started a Twitter campaign with the hashtag #findpeterwittek to raise awareness of Wittek’s disappearance, with support from hundreds of colleagues and friends from around the world who have been touched by his indelible spirit.

A GoFundMe campaign was also started to “fund additional resources to help the search and rescue efforts” and “facilitate the travel and accommodation arrangements of his immediate family in or nearby the district of Chamoli,” according to the GoFundMe’s description.

The campaign was started on October 5 and has currently raised over $16,000 with donations coming in from all over the world.

“He has certainly met a lot of people, and everyone he’s met has certainly been enriched by his personality, his outlook and generosity, so it’s a testament to who he was as an individual,” said Krishnan, “We’re optimistic and hoping for the best.”

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OCTOBER 28, 2019

Students protest U of T’s invitation of Turkish ambassador

Turkish incursion into Northern Syria against Kurdish forces sparks tension at Hart House

Liberal sweeps U of T ridings in reelection as minority government Results demonstrate electoral disparities, need for parties to cooperate

Justin Trudeau will remain the prime minister with a minority government.

The protests were held outside of Hart House on October 10.

DINA DONG/THE VARSITY

SHANNA HUNTER/THE VARSITY

Hannah Carty Associate News Editor

On October 10, protestors demonstrated outside Hart House against the invitation of Turkish Ambassador to Canada Kerim Uras to an event titled “Toronto-Turkey Alliance: Research and Trade Workshop.”

The protest was in opposition to Turkey’s recent military offensive into Northern Syria against the Kurish-led forces called the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the leader of the military arm of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The YPG controls swathes of territory in northeastern Syria and have been instrumental to the US in its fight against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

A day prior to the event, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland tweeted, “Canada firmly condemns Turkey’s military incursion into Syria today.” An October 8 report by Genocide Watch noted, “Turkey’s aggression into neighboring states threatens the long-term security of all Kurdish, Christian, and Yezidi populations in the region. Turkey’s intention is genocide.”

Protesting the event Along with the Turkish ambassador, other speakers at the event included U of T professors from the Departments of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations and Earth Sciences, as well as several professors from Turkish universities. Kurdish PhD student Sardar Saadi sent a letter to Ted Sargent, U of T’s Vice-President, International, asking him to cancel the event. “I am dismayed that my own university ignores these atrocities and plan to collaborate with the Turkish government, particularly at the time that Kurdish people are being bombed and displaced while the talk on ‘research and trade’ is taking place,” wrote Saadi.

Saadi wrote in an email to The Varsity that the protestors “managed to shut down the event,” but that Sargent continued with the event in private. “This is such a shame and as a member of this community for more than 6 years, I am ashamed of my university and incredibly furious and disappointed.”

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Hannah Carty Associate News Editor

“The event continued in a different format and in a different location because of safety concerns,” wrote Sargent in a email to The Varsity. He noted that the goal of the event was “academic collaboration and fostering connections between U of T and Turkish researchers in areas such as geophysics, archeology and nanotechnology.”

“Such discussions are in keeping with our commitment to academic freedom and free speech,” remarked Sargent.

Salam Alsaadi, a representative from the Syrian Solidarity Collective at U of T, wrote, “We strongly condemn invitations to all officials of any despotic regime in the region not only Turkish officials.”

The 2019 Canadian federal election saw the Liberal Party remain in power, although it lost 27 seats compared to the 2015 elections and was reduced from a majority to a minority government.

Liberal incumbents won all three of U of T’s ridings: Chrystia Freeland for University–Rosedale, where UTSG is located; Iqra Khalid for Mississauga–Erin Mills, where UTM is located; and Gary Anadasangaree for Scarborough– Rouge Park, where UTSC is located.

For students, the Liberal Party platform promised a two-year grace period on paying off student loans, increasing the loan repayment threshold to $35,000 a year, and increasing grants by 40 per cent.

The situation in Turkey and Syria The Kurdish people are the world’s largest stateless ethnic group spread across Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran, making up roughly a fifth of Turkey’s population. Turkey considers the YPG to be a terrorist group, as it links the YPG to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The PKK, a political and military organization based in Turkey that pushes for Kurdish autonomy, has been in armed conflict against the Turkish forces.

Following a sharp policy shift by US President Donald Trump, US troops withdrew from YPG territory. This prompted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to begin an offensive in order to establish a “safe zone” across the country’s his border, free of Kurdish fighters.

On October 27, the SDF announced that it would be withdrawing from the Turkey-Syria border in accordance with a deal between Turkey and Syria, negotiated

by Russia, amidst an unsuccessful ceasefire.

Electoral disparities Even though the Conservative Party won fewer seats than the Liberals, it comfortably topped the popular vote at 34.4 per cent compared to the Liberals’ 33 per cent. The other big shifts occurred with the Bloc Québécois (BQ), which gained 22 seats to reach a total of 32, and the New Democratic Party, which lost 15 seats to fall to a total of 24.

The election displayed the disparity between votes and seats under the first-past-the-post voting system. While the Green Party won 6.5 per cent of the total vote, it only won three seats.

Meanwhile, the BQ’s 7.7 per cent of the vote translated into 32 seats in Québec.

In 2015, the Liberals promised electoral reform to even out these disparities. The Liberals abandoned this commitment in 2017 and appear

to have benefitted from that decision, as they won the election despite more Canadians voting for another party.

Leading a minority government “I do think that the shine has come off of the Liberal brand a little bit in the last four years,” said U of T political science professor Andrew McDougall on the election outcome. “When Trudeau came in, he had sky-high expectations of doing politics differently, and he projected this sort of young, energetic leader who was going to really sort of change everything for a better progressive future. And of course, perhaps inevitably, he couldn’t live up to any of that, or even live up to a lot of that.”

Looking into the future, McDougall predicts that this government is “not going to last the full four or five years… The opposition parties are going to give the Liberals some time to govern… but they’re going to be waiting for their opportunity to bring down the government about 18 months to two years, and [hold] an election at a time that they feel is best for them.”

Unlike with their previous majority government, the Liberals will now have to gain support from the opposition parties in order to govern and pass legislation. Having rejected a coalition government with other parties, the Liberals will “have to work on an issue by issue basis with these parties on their platform. But the parties are going to have a say now in what those policies look like,” said McDougall.

The Toronto Turkish Consulate General did not respond to The Varsity’s request for comment.

Kerim Uras is the Turkish ambassador to Canada.

COURTESY OF CTV POWERPLAY

2019 election results for the GTA. COURTESY OF HUFFINGTONPOST

Business

October 28, 2019 var.st/business biz@thevarsity.ca

Creative Destruction Lab partners with Facebook on new cryptocurrency Rotman incubator is sole academic partner in controversial Libra venture Kaitlyn Simpson Varsity Contributor

In June, the Rotman School of Management’s seed-stage incubator announced a partnership with Facebook’s new venture into cryptocurrency: Libra. As the company’s only academic founding partner, U of T’s Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) will participate as part of the Libra Association in its efforts to create a cryptocurrency infrastructure.

While CDL touts the partnership as an exciting opportunity for innovation, recent criticisms leveraged against the tech giant have some wondering if Libra is contributing to Facebook’s woes.

Facebook’s crypto experiment On June 18, amid a tense period for the company, Facebook released a statement announcing Calibra, a new subsidiary of Facebook that aims to connect people to financial services through the Libra network.

Calibra intends to create a digital wallet system where people can buy, spend, and save Libra cryptocurrency. Users will be able to use Libra’s wallet on Facebook-owned services like WhatsApp, Messenger, and as a standalone app.

The Libra network will use a blockchain system that will record every transaction that takes place. As a “permissioned” network, Libra’s blockchain can only function on specific servers.

Libra’s network will be overseen by the Libra Association, which is composed of companies, non-profit organizations, and academic institutions. The association intends to manage the network, provide servers to run the network, and manage the cryptocurrency’s reserve. The association also removes Libra’s control from the hands of Facebook into those of industry, academia, and non-profit sectors.

When it was announced, the Libra Association had 27 members, including Spotify, Lyft, and Uber. Facebook hopes to have at least 100 partners in the association by Libra’s expected 2020 launch.

CDL joins The Libra Association While the CDL was established at the University of Toronto in 2012, the lab now operates with

TIAN ZHENG/THE VARSITY

locations across the country and in the United Kingdom. As a seed-stage program, CDL supports startups in the science and technology field.

CDL’s partnership with Libra is intended to build on the lab’s incubation role by providing additional opportunities for the startup community.

According to Rotman School of Management Professor and CDL’s Chief Economist, Joshua Gans, the partnership intends to provide more opportunities for CDL startups in the blockchain stream. In the long-term, Gans said Libra presents an opportunity for the entire startup community. “In creating better startup ecosystems, we will be fulfilling our mission,” he said.

In an email to The Varsity, Gans discussed how the partnership will benefit the U of T community, saying, “for the university, it represents a bold and innovative move — with a set of challenges that is not normally in the university’s wheelhouse but is something that its leadership can build on and signal a vision that goes beyond the ordinary day-to-day of academic life.”

“I think it is particularly gratifying that the university, at its highest levels, has been able to back our role in Libra thus far and I hope that will continue as things evolve,” Gans added.

In an interview with The Varsity, Associate Professor of Finance at the Rotman School of Management and at UTM’s Department of Management, Andreas Park, said academic institutions should have a role to play in regulating Libra.

“I think it’s really important that an academic institution is part of [the governance process],” Park said, adding that academic partners could have a “positive influence” when outlining Libra’s objectives, goals, and governance structure.

Libra’s promise and pitfalls When announcing the project, Facebook evoked current concerns around financial systems as justification for the product. Specifically, the company noted that financial infrastructures are inaccessible in developing countries — especially for women.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg reflected on this promise in leaked memos, saying he hopes that Libra will create a system of “digital money that can work globally” and can effectively “be implemented by big companies.”

For Park, a global cryptocurrency system has significant potential, especially for countries without a stable currency. An effective cryptocur-

rency system could have a sweeping positive impact by creating a financial structure that “transcends borders.”

“Most people in the world would benefit greatly if they had stable money,” Park said. “And if you think of Facebook as two billion users, most of them are not from the developed world.

So, the developing world can benefit enormously [by] this initiative almost by accident.”

“I could not envision a world in which the public sector would actually be able to build this,” Park added.

However, while Facebook maintains that Libra will protect users’ private information — apart from sharing data to “keep people safe” and “comply with the law” — some researchers, lawmakers, and advocates have raised concerns with Facebook’s track record on privacy.

Amid these mounting concerns, Libra has come under sharp scrutiny. For some companies, the costs of participating in Libra outweighed the benefits. Earlier this month, reports surfaced that seven major partners had left the association: Paypal, Visa, Mastercard, eBay, Stripe, Mercado Pago, and Booking.

Megan Boler, Associate Chair of the Department of Social Justice Education in the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, raised concerns about Facebook’s size and power in an email to The Varsity. “Nothing could be more disturbingly symbolic of Facebook’s meteoric rise to ruling the globe than Libra,” Boler said in an email to The Varsity. “Given Facebook’s track record with profit over public good, one must cultivate deep suspicion about this corporation’s ongoing amalgamation of economic, political, legal and increasingly moral power.”

Park also discussed possible concerns with Facebook’s ownership of a global financial system. Unlike banks, which have limited personal data about customers, Facebook has a plethora of information on every user.

“If you have the complete picture, you’re extremely powerful,” Park explained.

Disclosure: Kaitlyn Simpson previously served as Volume 138 Features Editor and Volume 139 Managing Online Editor of The Varsity, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Varsity Publications Inc.

Business Board reports $10.4 billion in total assets, $2.6 billion in endowments

Investment returns fall short of targets, endowment returns decrease Michael Teoh Varsity Staff

The Business Board of U of T’s Governing Council held its first meeting of 2019–2020 on October 7. The board received reports that total assets under management, individual endowment funds, and the total debt policy limit have all increased from last year.

Comprised of 42 members, the Business Board is responsible for monitoring the costeffectiveness of the university’s investments and for approving its business policies.

Investment performance Daren Smith, President and Chief Investment Officer of the University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation (UTAM), presented the semi-annual report on investment performance to the board.

UTAM manages the university’s pension funds, the Long-Term Capital Appreciation Pool (LTCAP), and the Expendable Funds Investment Pool (EFIP) on behalf of the university.

The LTCAP primarily consists of endowment funds, as well as some miscellaneous investments made by university-affiliated organizations. The

EFIP consists of expendable funds, including “cash for operations, capital projects, ancillary operations, expendable donations, expendable payouts from endowments and research grants.”

Over the past year, the total market value of UTAM’s investments has increased by 6.4 per cent to around $10.38 billion. Of this amount, pension funds comprise $5.3 billion, the LTCAP accounts for around $3.1 billion, and the EFIP completes the remaining $2 billion.

In the first half of 2019, the actual returns of the three portfolios nearly matched their overall five-year benchmarks. All three portfolios have also exceeded UTAM targets for the half-year period.

Over a one-year period, pension and LTCAP actual returns have been at 3.8 per cent each, short of UTAM’s 6.1 per cent target. Return targets for pension and LTCAP are uniformly set at inflation plus four per cent.

Over both the half-year and one-year periods, the actual pension and LTCAP portfolio returns have underperformed against UTAM’s reference portfolio. A reference portfolio is a preestablished breakdown of passive and lower-risk investment allocations into different markets.

UTAM uses it as a comparison to its own ac-

tive investment management strategy. Smith noted that this underperformance is the result of poorer private market investments. UTAM is not planning on making significant changes to its investment strategies.

Annual endowment financial report As of April 2019, U of T has over 6,400 individual endowment funds, totalling $2.6 billion market value. This is an increase of about 140 individual funds and $89 million from 2018. Of this increase, $40 million comes from endowed donations and $154 million from investment income; $113 million is subtracted for fees, expenses, and spending allocation.

Each endowment has its own terms and conditions, which define the parameters of how the funds should be allocated and invested, as well as how the investment returns may be spent. The university cannot spend the original capital of donated funds; it can only spend investment returns from these funds.

Net investment returns of endowment funds were 5.2 per cent. This is less than last year’s 6.7 per cent return, and the average return over the last five years of 8.4 per cent. Endowments do not include those made to U of T’s federated colleges or

affiliated Toronto School of Theology institutions.

Miscellaneous items The board received a report on debt policy limit, increasing to $1.71 billion from last year’s $1.57 billion.

The board moved the “Other Business” item of the agenda to the top, allowing four students to address the board.

The students — Sarah Colbourn, Manny Dehan, Ellie Ade Kur, and Lucinda Qu — admonished U of T’s perceived lack of mental health resources and supports following a death at UTSG in September. The students urged U of T to invest more time and resources into mental health services and more open dialogue.

Professor Kelly Hannah-Moffat, U of T’s Vice-President, Human Resources and Equity, told the students that the administration shared their concerns. She cited expansions of counselling services, the formation of a mental health taskforce, and an additional $3 million allocation to support student services.

Disclosure: Michael Teoh previously served as The Varsity’s Volume 138 Deputy Senior Copy Editor and Volume 139 Business Editor.

Comment

October 28, 2019 var.st/comment comment@thevarsity.ca

UTM students take a breath of fresh air thanks to institution-wide smoking ban Transition period, designated smoking areas lead to a cleaner campus, healthier students Belicia Chevolleau Varsity Contributor

Following the legalization of cannabis last October, U of T announced plans to ban smoking on all campuses by the start of 2019. According a report by the Canadian Cancer Society, the legalization of marijuana “will pose a challenge for campuses that are not 100% smoke-free, and provides further rationale for adoption of a comprehensive smoke-free policy.”

Few need a reminder of the negative impacts of smoking. Health classes from elementary school to high school extensively cover the adverse effects that smoking can have on your body. Furthermore, cigarette packages feature grotesque images, tragic stories, and startling facts that warn buyers of their harmful nature. And yet, Statistics Canada reports that smoking is still “the leading cause of premature death in Canada.”

Smokers between the ages of 18–34 account for 19.2 per cent of all smokers in Canada, making up the second largest age group for smokers.

This translates to 1.5 million people, a number which has remained consistent between 2017 and 2018.

While the common perception may be that smoking poses more harm to the smoker than to those around them, smoking affects all. Nonsmokers experience an almost equivalent risk as smokers, since “Most of the smoke from a lit cigarette is not inhaled by the smoker. It fills the air around the smoker. This endangers everyone in the area.”

Many students, myself included, can attest to the plumes of cigarette smoke that used to cloud the entrances of many buildings. At UTM this is particularly true of the Instructional Centre.

Smokers would congregate less than the regulated nine metres away from the entrance, with puffs of grey smoke billowing from the butts of their lit cigarettes. We, the non-smokers, trekked to class with breaths held and steps hurried in order to avoid inhaling any of the over-4,000 chemicals present in the cigarettes.

Designated smoking areas With the smoking ban and the introduction of designated smoking areas, I saw a decline in the number of smokers assembling in front of the building entrances. Moreover, students previously burdened by the smoke-filled air can now take a breath of fresh air thanks to the ban.

Conversely, for smokers who have become used to the designated smoking areas, the end of the transitional phase may raise concerns. Designated smoking areas are a decent remedy, but they unfortunately fail to address the real issue: the addictive nature of nicotine and nature of withdrawal, both of which will not dissipate like vapour with the smoke-free policy.

The physical effects of smoking In recent weeks, a number of newspapers reported on the surge of vaping-related deaths in

the US, with 34 deaths reported this year.

Much of the marketing for vaping frames it as a “cessation tool,” despite there being little research on its effects on health. One user cited the switch to e-cigarettes as a measure to stave off cigarettes. This unsubstantiated narrative of e-cigarettes being a safer alternative has encouraged its popularity, especially among young people.

More frightening is the fact that more than half of the 1,604 cases of lung injuries related to ecigarettes were under the age of 25.

The Ontario Lung Association reports that in Ontario, “13,000 people are killed annually by smoking, which translates to 36 people a day.”

The troubling and unfortunate reality is that smoking kills.

Governing bodies Universities exercise the right to govern student bodies when their actions negatively affect other students. While students should, and do, have the right to choose whether they smoke or not, inhaling secondhand smoke is an involuntary action and policies such as this one offer a way to protect these students.

LISA WONG/THE VARSITY

Additionally, for university students concerned about their GPA, studies by the Tobacco Technical Assistance Consortium have found that “students who use tobacco are shown to have lower GPA’s than those who do not.”

The smoking ban seeks to further the university’s goal of a cleaner and healthier campus. However, a more in-depth study on the reasons for smoking may be beneficial to promote healthier lifestyles and address the real concerns behind smoking.

Belicia Chevolleau is a fourth-year Communication, Culture, and Information Technology student at UTM.

Op-ed: Accountability, democracy, and samosas — attend the UTSU’s fall Annual General Meeting Joshua Bowman Varsity Contributor

On Wednesday, October 30, at 6:00 pm, the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) will be holding its Annual General Meeting (AGM) at Innis Town Hall. This event is crucial for the governance of the UTSU, and gives our membership the opportunity to debate and ratify decisions and bylaws, and have their say in the direction and maintenance of our organization.

The UTSU AGM is one of our most important events, as it serves as a mid-year check on our progress as executives. As such, we work hard to ensure that the AGM is as accessible and open to our membership as possible.

Through measures like our online proxy system at utsu.simplyvoting.com, we want to make sure all members have a chance to engage with the UTSU on a personal level.

The AGM has been criticized in the past for being filled with “insiders” instead of general members. This is a valid criticism. In the past, the UTSU’s engagement skills were poor, and transparency was dubious. We’ve made strides this year to bridge this gap and want all students to feel comfortable at our AGM. Our organization functions best when we hear your questions and criticisms, and we want to hear as many as possible. We’re here to listen.

The UTSU has a long history of packed AGMs with students raising their concerns with executives, irrespective of how receptive the executives may be. This has extended to the adoption of online voting — despite its initial failure — the proposed erasure of executive positions, the banning of slates, and the separation of the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union from the UTSU. Suffice to say, AGMs are wholly consequential

All you need to know about the UTSU AGM

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to the operations of the UTSU. Before I became an executive at the UTSU, I used the AGM as an opportunity to press my predecessors on the status of our membership in the Canadian Federation of Students, because I was under the impression that we would be pushing for a referendum to leave. As a general member, I was tired of the constant rhetoric — if the UTSU was pushing to leave, why were they still failing to deliver?

Furthermore, I advocated for resolutions that I

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found merit in, and spoke in opposition to points that I found to be unproductive.

I found the AGM and the processes that preceded it to be extremely exciting: The Varsity’s bingo cards that predicted the events before they occurred, the samosas that sat lousily in the lobby of the event, the proxy cards that announced how many members were participating, et cetera. It was a lot to process my first time, and it was really one of the events that mo-

tivated me to get more involved with the UTSU. The agendas are normally as follows: an address from the president and an executive question period; the presentation of audited statements and subsequent ratification of the auditor; the presentation of an annual report detailing the events of the preceding year; a package of bylaws to be discussed and ratified by the membership; and member-submitted motions.

The executive question period is a great opportunity to press executives on their actions or inaction. This period has addressed issues like a lack of water bottles at orientation, the inclusion of students from the satellite campuses, and whether the UTSU is democratic or not. This is a great opportunity, and has been historically utilized to a great extent by UTSU members.

Arguably, the two most consequential pieces of this upcoming AGM agenda are the audited financial statements and the Bylaw and Elections Procedure Code changes. The audit allows the UTSU’s general membership to see the financial health of the organization — where our money is being spent.

In addition, changes to the UTSU’s Bylaw and Elections Procedure Code are important, given that the UTSU’s Bylaws are legally binding and guide the organization’s general direction.

I highly encourage all of our members to come out and attend the AGM, if not for the opportunity to keep executives accountable and assess the health of our union, then for the samosas. If anybody has questions about the AGM, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We hope to see you on Wednesday, October 30, at Innis Town Hall!

Joshua Bowman is a fifth-year Indigenous Studies and Political Science student at St. Michael’s College and current President of the UTSU.

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THE VARSITY

COMMENT

comment@thevarsity.ca

Ford burst our bubble: university health care coverage suffers under new policy changes The UTSU can only do so much to mitigate Ford’s damage

Yana Sadeghi Varsity Contributor

The Ford government’s changes to OHIP and introduction of the Student Choice Initiative (SCI) have brought a number of pressing issues, including access to health care for university students. The University of Toronto Students’ Union’s (UTSU) health care plan is bearing the brunt of the damage.

The UTSU health care plan is meant to fill gaps in other coverage students may have, including OHIP. However, Ford’s cuts to OHIP have made covering all gaps unfeasible, prompting major shifts in the UTSU Health and Dental Plan.

The UTSU’s coverage for prescription drug costs has been reduced from 90 per cent to 80 per cent of the cost of each prescription, up to $5,000.

This applies not only to drug prescriptions, but also to vaccines — which have been fully covered to a maximum of $200 in past years.

Mental health services have also been affected: as opposed to providing $125 per visit for up to 20 visits, the new health care plan only covers $100 per visit for up to 15 visits. It’s important to note is that unlike prescription drug care coverage, mental health funding is being capped by both cost and number of visits.

In an attempt to offset these cuts, the UTSU has implemented coverage for visits to registered psychotherapists, in addition to visits to standard psychologists, clinical counsellors, and licensed social workers. This change may seem minute, but it will go a long way to help students.

What is most worrisome about the UTSU’s

changes is not its immediate effects but rather its implications for U of T students. In the statement that the UTSU released regarding changes to the health and dental plan, the union acknowledges that there is a mental health crisis at the university.

Mental health is a high priority for the UTSU: in a statement following a student’s death in September, it committed to continue to place its “resources behind addressing the mental health crisis.”

Even though it must contend with Ford’s difficult cuts, it should put all its efforts into tackling this crisis.

In terms of policy, this means collecting as many resources as possible.

At the UTSU Board of Directors Meeting in late August, Studentcare, the health and dental care provider of the UTSU, sent a message noting that “a lower claims trend was had for mental health coverage in comparison to other parts of the plan.”

In response to this, the UTSU decided to concentrate more on other areas of health coverage, as mental health seemed to be of lesser concern. This projection was also based on the fact that the UTSU would no longer be covering students at UTM, meaning that fewer resources

would be needed. However, these predictions do not necessarily translate as facts, meaning that the students at UTSG may be left without sufficient access to resources.

The UTSU is cognizant of this and is taking active measures to improve health care coverage for the following school year. UTSU President Joshua Bowman explained that the executive team is working on restructuring the Student Aid program to “bridge the financial gap in coverage.”

The UTSU hopes to establish a referendum which would allow for students to re-appraise the cost of the plan and possibly charge students more in certain areas and less in others, depending on their needs. These changes would aim to both meet the individual needs of the student while accommodating for financial barriers.

Of course, the UTSU is only a student governing body, and as such, some changes are beyond its reach. The greatest barriers to equitable access to health care are Ford’s changes to OHIP and implementation of the SCI. The true arbiters of change are the members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

Just as they were the ones who created these barriers, they are the ones who can break them down. And in light of the mental health crisis, these policies are only driving us further away from the help we need and straight into the arms of physical, emotional, and financial instability.

The Ford government must recognize the harm that is already stemming from these dangerous policies and do everything it can to mitigate this harm and reverse it. Otherwise, it will only be a matter of time until Ford bursts our bubble.

Yana Sadeghi is a first-year Social Sciences student at New College.

NANCY JI/THE VARSITY

An update to how we label opinion articles in our comment section It has become apparent that there is much confusion when distinguishing the opinion of individual contributors versus that of The Varsity as a whole, particularly on social media.

Last week, ahead of the 2019 federal election, we published an opinion piece by a contributor that endorsed the Conservative Party.

As usual in the Comment section, we included “Opinion” in the text of the social media posts on both Facebook and Twitter.

However, the label, as usual in the Comment section, was not included in the actual heading of the article. This led to many readers believing that the article reflected the opinion of the newspaper itself. In fact, we published our own endorsement through the editorial board a few hours later, which was contrary to that of the contributor.

In our print issue, all opinion pieces are published under the Comment page, and editorials are published under the Editorial page.

On social media, however, we recognize that we can do more such that readers can easily distinguish between the two.

Hence, beginning with our eighth issue, the headlines in all comment pieces published online will be labelled appropriately.

First, all pieces written by contributors that represent their individual views will be published with the “Opinion” label.

Second, all pieces written by contributors on behalf of a particular organization or group will continue to be published with the “Oped” label. Typical op-ed pieces are written by members of student unions, executives of student groups, and other student leaders writing

on behalf of their constituents.

Third, all pieces written by The Varsity Editorial Board that reflect the opinion of our masthead will be published with the “Editorial” label. It is noteworthy that “Opinion,” “Op-ed,” and “Editorial” pieces all operate independently from one another.

Fourth, all pieces written by readers in response to any aspect of our coverage will be labelled as a “Letter to the Editor” — in fact, as with op-eds, this is how we publish them already.

I would also like to take the opportunity to highlight the divide between the News and Comment sections. Contributors are only permitted to write consistently for one section each year.

The Varsity masthead is prohibited from writing for the Comment section, and the comment editor is the single member of the masthead who cannot write for the News section.

This is to ensure that different sections of our paper remain independent such that News and Comment do not influence each other.

As both the comment editor and the chair of the editorial board, you may contact me about any concerns about our opinion pieces, and also send letters to me at comment@thevarsity.ca.

Angela Feng Comment Editor Volume 140

var.st/comment

OCTOBER 28, 2019

9

The University of Micro-transactions: Top Hat and iClickers are barriers to equitable education Lack of standardized learning tools cause unnecessary academic and financial stress

Tif Fan Varsity Contributor

U of T students are no strangers to unexpected fees. From the exorbitantly-priced Pearson Education software that is required in many first-year science courses, to textbooks, living costs, and tuition — students can’t seem to catch a break from all these extraneous educational costs.

Another brick in the paywall Top Hat and iClicker software are essentially redundant technologies that reinforce the payto-play trends emerging in U of T undergraduate programs.

This is a slippery slope for U of T, which I have heard described by students as “Wayside-like” and “the University of Micro-transactions.” My experience has shown that required and strongly recommended textbooks cost around $100 each, are barely used, and are rendered dated the following year when a new edition comes out. In a time when many universities are becoming more accessible to students by doing things like posting lecture recordings online, U of T seems to be moving backward.

There is something to be said for the lack of faculty coordination in regard to the use of these tools.

Top Hat and iClickers serve the same purpose of recording attendance and engagement through multiple choice questions, yet students may need to purchase both depending on their different instructors. This is no small cost, as a new iClicker costs $47.50 at the U of T Bookstore and a yearly subscription to Top Hat costs $48 on its website.

Lack of cohesion on these educational technologies means that fees are often doubled as students have to buy both unnecessary technologies.

These costs don’t need to exist in the first place.

Attendance and participation grades could also be measured through discourse during lecture and roll call at the beginning of class — both free options.

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professors would better retain

student attendance and engagement

through the delivery

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of engaging lectures

The regulation of iClickers and Top Hat can seem arbitrary and impotent. Students may bring their friends’ clickers to class, and Top Hat’s live content and attendance can be responded to outside of the lecture hall. Bigger lectures in Convocation Hall have started getting their teaching assistants to circle the balconies, looking to catch students using multiple clickers, yet it’s still easy to cheat this system.

Furthermore, absence and lack of engagement during lectures are not really affected by these

pricey countermeasures. The concept that attendance and the ability to answer questions is something to be purchased devalues academic merit, and elevates the role of one’s wallet. Students from lower-income backgrounds see lower rates of postsecondary educational attainment, and the addition of unregulated, inconsistent, and costly technologies only exacerbates this financial stress.

What more screens mean for attention For students with attention deficits, TopHat poses a new challenge: staying focused. The presence of the necessary devices to run the software during lectures is potentially distracting to students.

Top Hat’s claim of increased student engagement rests on the assumption that everyone is using their phone during class, but this simply is not the case. The requirement that Top Hat creates to interact with your mobile device during lecture means that distractingly-lit phone screens frequent the lecture hall in the name of learning.

Exposure to hundreds of screens potentially prevents lectures from becoming conducive learning environments.

Besides the distracting screens themselves, students can also misuse the anonimized Top Hat quizzes by flooding the response box with joke answers, further diverting the lecture’s focus.

While students engage with Top Hat content, they are also likely to simultaneously engage with less course-related content on their phones.

Smartphones are tempting, especially for our generation, which has grown up with them. All you need is a simple flick or tap to check your text messages, Facebook, WeChat, Instagram, et cetera. As such, professors would do well to prevent the use of them at all costs, rather than obliging students to bring them to lecture.

A rejection of individual learning styles?

Beyond the challenge to attention, Top Hat can frustrate students by challenging their attempts to engage less with electronic devices in their learning. Students who have recognized that they learn better without the distraction of devices are prevented from doing so.

Beginning in first year, students are encouraged to study in the ways that work for them by encouraging individual habits. Yet the introduction of Top Hat into classrooms prevents students from making individual consumer choices.

It’s also an unsettling precedent, contributing to — rather than countering — a shift in contemporary classrooms toward overdependence on technology. While this is not an overwhelmingly negative shift, its implications can be harmful for some.

Whether or not a student brings a mobile device to class should be their own choice, not something that the school requires. Digitizing lecture engagement without proper reasoning feeds a culture of consumption and normalizes smartphone ownership.

The requirement of Top Hat in some courses contradicts a familiar narrative: don’t pull your phone out during lecture — or, even better, don’t bring your device at all. This sentiment rings true, as studies show that people retain information better when handwriting notes, rather than typing them.

Perhaps rather than turning to technology, professors would better retain student attendance and engagement through the delivery of engaging lectures that students wouldn’t want to miss.

Tif Fan is a first-year Social Sciences student at New College.

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FEATURES

A reflection on the meanings of hope and despair in the climate crisis

Writer: Olivia Smith Illustrator: Caroline Biel

Coming to know the climate crisis often feels like an exercise in mourning. We mourn the creatures, the water, the steady turn of the seasons. Some of us mourn the children we may decide not to have, or the trust we once had in our elders. We mourn for the people we thought we would become, for the lives already lost to the climate crisis, and for the destruction to come. We mourn the truths we thought we knew.

Reckoning with the severity of the crisis is vertiginous. We know things are going to get a lot worse. It’s instinctual to step back from the ledge and seek shelter in optimism — the strength of which is far from justified. The future is uncertain, to say the least.

Amidst all of this, hope is attractive. I’m familiar with its appeal: half-whispers to friends, to my partner, even to myself: “What if everything ends up all right?”

Even such a timid question feels transgressive. In many ways it is a way of asking, "What if things aren’t really as bad as we think they are?"

Lately, I’ve been troubled by a concern that hope regarding the climate crisis is problematically fickle. On one hand, without hope, we may be overwhelmed by fear. In isolation, fear turns individuals and societies inward, often violently so.

On the other hand, hope, or an excess of it, could lead to inaction and the abdication of responsibility. Confidence that the crisis will be met by others, without us needing to significantly deviate from the status quo, renders it unlikely that we will do the difficult work of demanding and realizing radical and systemic change.

And radical, systemic change is exactly what is necessary to confront this crisis. It is increasingly clear that business as usual is nothing more than smoke and mirrors.

We must divest from the dehumanizing, exploitative, colonial, and anthropocentric fossil fuel capitalism that has precipitated the climate crisis.

After all, we do need to be frightened — all of us.

“Panic is needed” At the January 2019 meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Greta Thunberg baldly rejected the messages she had been receiving — and continues to receive — from world leaders in response to her activism. “I don’t want your hope,” she said. “I don’t want you to be hopeful.

I want you to panic… And then I want you to act.”

Greta’s comments reminded me of the phrase I’ve often heard used in the context of the fight for climate justice: “Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.” Is the balance tipping too far in the latter direction?

Zhenglin Liu, Co-President of University of Toronto Environmental Action (UTEA), characterized this as a problem of finding our individual equilibrium. “Surely there’s a right balance between hope and despair for each and every one of us,” he wrote.

Micaela Tam, Co-President of UTEA, added that it’s also important to consider to whom Thunberg was speaking: some of the world’s most powerful figures, whose individual and collective actions on the climate crisis have left a great deal to be desired.

“Hope is needed for people who might become disillusioned… to break initiatives down into tractable components, [and] to counter the narratives of those who resist action,” wrote Tam. “And at the same time, panic is needed for those who have been complicit for many of the same reasons. They work together.”

There is undeniable momentum in the climate justice movement right now. Now, the task is to amplify it and to ensure that its diverse directions are constructive. But this hope must also be informed by a radically honest understanding of the severity, origins, and implications of the climate crisis.

To quote author Roy Scranton, there’s only one way to enable the realization of this kind of hope: “We have to learn how to die.”

Thankfully, Scranton, who developed the notion in his book Learning to Die in the Anthropocene,

means this metaphorically. His thesis is that the climate crisis forces us to overturn and ultimately reject our pre-existing ideas about progress, personhood, morality, economics, history, the value of a life — the list goes on. Learning to die is about letting go of our attachment to our fossil-fuelled way of life and way of interpreting the world, as both individuals and as a civilization.

Ultimately, it’s about loss. Though the way of life we must part with is fundamentally pathological and unsustainable, it is only human to feel fear, perhaps even sadness, when we part with the familiar. We imagine ourselves in the world as we know it to be. Disentangling our sense of self from the systems of knowledge and values we grew up with is and will continue to be a long and arduous process.

The world we knew doesn’t exist anymore. In some ways, it never really did.

The nature of hope If our hope obscures urgency, there will be little left for the future.

And yet, I still think there’s something to be said for hope. What is hope if not that ineffable force that sustains us through hardship, upheaval, and loss from the routine to the otherwise unendurable? Hope — the right kind — can bring us together when it matters most.

How can hope play a positive role in both the climate justice movement and our lives as we confront the present crisis? What would that kind of hope — something to drive and unite us, rather than delude and render us complacent — look like? Where can it be found?

“Doing this work is the only thing that makes it possible for me to hope that it is possible to build a different world,” wrote Julia DaSilva, Co-Founder of Leap UofT, a student activist group fighting for climate justice.

But there was a caveat: hope can go both ways. DaSilva added that many common narratives about hope treat it as an individual possession. “[This hope] makes it possible to get through the day, but it doesn’t place any responsibility on the person who has it,” she wrote. “Narratives about hope are only really helpful when they have direction.”

It is an important distinction, and one that is reflected in psychological scholarship on hope. For example, a recent study published in Environmental Education Research found that when hope was disaggregated between “constructive hope” and hope based on denial, the implications for pro-environmental behaviour were significant.

Constructive hope among young adults — founded upon a sense of trust that their actions and the actions of others would have a positive impact — led to an increase in proenvironmental behaviours. Hope based in denial

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What if hope can’t save us?

As Naomi Klein, a social activist and author, told The Guardian this September, “What gives me the most hope right now is that we’ve finally got the vision for what we want … or at least the first rough draft of it.”

of the crisis, however, led to significantly more negative environmental behaviour.

Indeed, while conducting research on environmental psychology over the summer at U of T, Liu was struck by how often the idea of self-efficacy was cited as essential to encouraging pro-environmental behaviour. Self-efficacy is essentially the expectation that one’s actions will have an anticipated impact, and Liu characterized it as closely related to hope. “[It’s] the hope that our actions can make a difference, not the hope that something will come out of nowhere and save us,” he wrote.

On community and collectivity Skeptical philosophy student that I am, I still have my doubts. Even if hope is actionoriented and tied to responsibility, what can be done to ensure that it is strong enough to engender the change that must occur?

We must feel the bubbling fear in the back of our throats at the idea of climate crisis, and we must take actions to combat that which

transcend the level of the individual. Many individual actions available to us — buying local produce, retrofitting our homes to be more environmentally friendly, purchasing electric vehicles, taking mass transit — require a degree of time, money, and luck that many people simply do not have.

We can’t shop our way out of the climate crisis. The idea that we can, or that all we need is individual adaptation through environmentally conspicuous consumption, is malignant. We need collective action and solidarity that confronts the systemic causes of the climate crisis. Action-oriented hope directed toward anything less will be insufficient, ineffective, and maladaptive.

For DaSilva, constructive hope and community are inextricable. She first got involved with climate activism during the summer before university. It was the “love and community” she found in the divestment and anti-pipeline movement that drew her further and further in.

“Hope,” she wrote, “was a byproduct of that

sense of deep responsibility that comes from finding community in crisis.”

DaSilva characterized community and solidarity as prerequisites for the type of hope that will lead not to delusion or individualism, but to meaningful action on climate justice.

“Hope is helpful when we experience it as a response to engaging [with] climate justice work… work sustaining our community,” she wrote.

I am inclined to agree. If we come together, from diverse standpoints and communities, to fight for our future and our home, drawing a deep sense of responsibility from our vulnerability and interconnectivity, there will be good reason for hope.

It is not as though there aren’t other reasons, too. The cost of renewable energy is dropping quickly — so much so that the International Renewable Energy Agency has predicted that renewables will soon be cheaper than fossil fuels.

New solutions and means of adaptation seem to be discussed every day. Awareness of the climate crisis is at an all-time high, and more and more people are making meaningful changes in their individual and civic lives. It has become a central political issue, and climate justice has entered the popular lexicon.

Uncertain futures, silver linings There are so many ways the course of our lives and our Earth’s future can still unfold. We are still smoothing out the creases in the paper every day. There is an element of uncertainty, yes, but there is also an element of undeniable, fortuitous change. As DaSilva told me, “There is no future like the present.”

Who will we become? It is a terrifying yet electrifying question. It also speaks to the unprecedented political and existential opportunity inherent to the climate crisis. The odds may very well be miserable, and, at least in the short term, there will be no avoiding catastrophe and upheaval. But a better world is possible, as long as we look at this crisis straight in the eye.

No one is going to come and save us. All of us on this planet, here and now, are the best shot humanity has. So, yes, hope will be invaluable — but only if it is preceded by a courageous appraisal of our shared condition. Because it is only when we recognize what we will lose and what must change that actionable hope will carry us to the future at which its optimism is aimed.

Ultimately, we can find something to fight for that is more than fear. We can find it in each other. We can build a hope that is ambitious, just, and constructive. We can look to our friends, our family, the earth, people we will never meet, even a single brilliant blade of grass, and say: this, right here, is worth fighting for.

Arts & Culture

October 28, 2019 var.st/arts arts@thevarsity.ca

The ups and downs of having bipolar disorder at U of T My experience of missed exams, a GPA drop, and baking box-mix cupcakes Bao Li Ng Varsity Contributor

Content warning: discussions of self-harm.

The lamp on my desk flickered and glowed, making the faint buzzing sound it always does when it’s getting too hot. It was my first year at U of T, at 9:00 pm on a Thursday. I was studying in my room in res and getting ready to go to sleep when suddenly I felt it: mania. Clear, euphoric, excited, and irresponsible mania.

So what do I do? Pop an antipsychotic and start doing my makeup. An hour later, I’m bouncing around in a crop-top outside, waiting for my coke-doing friend-offriends to hang out with me.

A girl walking by asks me if I’m okay and I nod excitedly; oh boy, I am better than okay. But just when the high of my own mental illness is hitting its peak, the meds I took kick in and I start to feel sleepy.

Seroquel, an atypical anti-psych with the proposed slogan: “You can’t have delusions if you’re unconscious.” I end up asleep back in my room, and the next day, I’m no longer crazy.

I’m that Asian girl in your lecture, the one with the bad bio-gel nails and the Muji notebook, rummaging through her purse for a pen, and asking the prof thoughtless questions that were already answered on the syllabus.

I was diagnosed with bipolar I disorder at the age of 18 the spring before I came to U of T. After seven months of my first depressive episode, in which I did little besides lie in bed all day, self-harm, and watch The Office over and over again, I was hit with the reward of mania.

At first I assumed that I was just feeling happier. “Finally,” I thought. After months of chronic emptiness that didn’t seem to get better, no matter how much fruit I ate, the sudden desire to get up and do things seemed like a blessing.

Yet, my happiness came back too strong, and 48 sleepless hours later I was baking box-mix

cupcakes in my grandma’s apartment at 3 am.

Where depression was one self-hating thought a minute, mania was one hundred thoughts a second. All at the same time, they spin a web of ideas and beliefs that, to this day, made me think I had reached enlightenment.

Mania is a wave. It is the world glittering, the voices in your head. It is chaos, sunshine, strawberry sundaes, buying a cellphone on impulse, and climbing on the back of a truck in traffic.

It’s kissing a stranger, trying to learn Mandarin,

making a birdhouse out of popsicle sticks, getting angry, getting paranoid, scaring your friends, scaring your family, scaring the strangers on the bus, and scaring yourself.

That’s the other side of the coin, isn’t it? After months of depression, the wanting to die, the trying to die, and the shame and regret of all your manic actions, there’s the psych ward with its pale blue walls, single-ply toilet paper,

puzzles with missing pieces, and G-rated DVD collections.

Each day, the same watery mashed potatoes served on plastic trays. The missed exams, the emails back and forth with Accessibility Services, the profs who say they’ve “accommodated you more than enough,” and the drop in GPA. That was the winter of my illness: watching snow fall from a hospital rec room, and my mom bringing me assignments during visiting hours.

It’s a lonely feeling, being sick. Even being manic, there’s rarely someone who’s manic with

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you, who sees the world the way you do. The way people look at you hurts — with fear or confusion, or like you’re stupid, like a little kid.

But the good thing about mania is, in that moment, it doesn’t have to matter.

Sure, with meds and therapy, I can be relatively healthy 80 per cent of the time, working at a lab and highlighting a textbook that I’m planning to sell, and only depressed 15 per cent of

the time. Oh boy, that shit sucks, but that last five per cent is that magical mania.

You want to know why I love it, even though it’s terrifying? Because when I’m up there, when I’m so high that I’m almost a god, everything seems so clearly stupid, like a bad joke.

I don’t care if I look crazy, or my eyes are big, or I’m talking too much, because nothing I do can embarrass me anymore. Because life is this silly, happy game that we get to play over and over, and because the rules are make-believe and we can do whatever we want. And then I put on my headphones and, goddamn it, the music sounds so good.

It’s like everything is a miracle.

And yeah, sure, I’m afraid of myself, but I’m too happy to care. I’m afraid of myself but I’m not afraid of anything else; I’m invincible.

Despite all this, I wouldn’t choose to have bipolar disorder. I don’t think anyone would choose to have bad things happen to them. But we’re all dealt our cards in life, and I guess these are mine.

I wish I had answers, or that there was some moral to all of this, but there’s none. This is my life, and I’m learning to be okay with it.

To everyone with a mental illness reading this right now: you’re not alone, and it’s not your fault. There might be people who don’t understand, but there are lots who do, and who will help.

It’s Halloween season!

Let’s buy costumes and get drunk. You can come over to my place and watch a bad movie, or we can lie on our backs in a park and look up at Toronto’s only visible star, and maybe even make a wish on an airplane cutting across the sky. You can show me photos of your dog on your phone.

So the next time you see that Asian girl with the bad bio-gel nails and the Muji notebook, make sure to say hi. She’d really like to be your friend.

Cosmo is cringe — but then again, so is sex

Let’s talk about sex, exploring female sexuality, and Cosmo’s best sex tips Charlie Jupp-Adams Varsity Contributor

TROY LAWRENCE/ THE VARSITY

As a teenager, I was desperately fascinated with the Cosmopolitan magazine. I would hide my copies in my dresser, away from my mother.

She didn’t approve of her 15-year-old daughter reading it for the same reason I was so fascinated by it — the sex columns.

As a variety of online listicles don’t hesitate to point out, Cosmo’s sex columns are, admittedly, cringeworthy. On Cosmopolitan’s website, between “17 Cauliflower Dishes You’re Going to Love” and “Please Watch This Video of Taylor Swift Eating a Banana,” is “Behold: Cosmo’s 65 Best Sex Tips Ever.” I took the liberty of reviewing this wide spectrum of Cosmo’s suggestions.

Some of its tips are legitimately good advice.

Tip four, “Use lube,” is great advice, as tip 24, which is to “Lube up!” It’s on there twice, so you know it’s the most important one to remember.

There are also tips about how to communicate with your partner, which will make sex better

for everyone involved.

Other tips are questionable, but not necessarily bad. Tip 11, “Zone in on the upper left-hand quadrant of your clitoris” is a little specific, but it won’t make you wince in second-hand embarrassment.

Tip 18 is to “Get him to skip the in-and-out thrusts and, uh, stir with his penis instead.” I slept with a guy who did this and I can’t say I personally recommend it, but if it gets you off, go for it.

Still, some of the magazine’s sex tips are simply bad advice. In another round up of its top sex tips, Cosmo recommends having “a romantic dinner without utensils so you can feed each other.” The author especially recommended readers serve “stuff that’s not supposed to be eaten with your hands, like salads or pasta.” Eating a salad with no utensils is not sexy. Chocolate covered strawberries? Sure. Spaghetti bolognese? Pass, thanks.

There’s also the infamous doughnut trick: “gently stick his penis through the [doughnut]

hole, then nibble around it, stopping to suck on him once and awhile.” Mmmm icing, pubes, and semen, what more could you ask for? Probably a yeast infection, too!

Despite some of the questionable sex advice, Cosmopolitan’s sex guides are a force for good, not evil. There are places they could improve — the advice is very heteronormative, though they do throw in the occasional lesbian sex tip. But when you’re a young woman, there aren’t many good places to learn about or discuss sex. The internet at-large is definitely to be avoided at all costs, so Cosmo really is the best alternative.

The magazine, though it has its faults, is like the slightly older sister I never had. Some of her advice is good, some of it bad, but talking about it gives you the confidence to at least discuss your sexuality. The more comfortable young women feel about their own sexuality, the better sex they’ll have.

Sure, Cosmopolitan is cringe, but when you’re figuring out your sexuality, the entire experience is cringe. Might as well embrace it.

var.st/arts

OCTOBER 28, 2019

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We need to continue to talk about the climate crisis

A month after Greta Thunberg’s UN speech, we are still marching Charlie Jupp-Adams Varsity Contributor

On September 27, thousands gathered in Queen’s Park to take part in the Global Climate Strike to demand action on the climate crisis. The Fridays For Future movement, which originated from 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg’s protest outside Sweden’s parliament, has now spread worldwide. Since the march in Toronto, Thunberg is still touring, having supported marches in Denver, Edmonton, and Vancouver in the past weeks.

Many of the protestors on the marches were teenagers who brought their youthful energy with them. The swathes of people marching were impressive, and many older people seemed encouraged by the youth turnout.

Yet when I attended the climate march in Toronto, I could not shake a feeling of disenchantment. In between the chants and speeches, the question of, “so what now?” lingered in my mind.

A protest is meant to invigorate and inspire, but it is not the be all, end all of a political movement.

It can be a start, but much more tangible action is needed for these marches to have any significant meaning beyond performative action.

On September 23, Greta Thunberg made an impassioned speech at the United Nations, which has now gone viral. With tears in her eyes, she criticized world leaders, condemning their excuses, inaction, and “fairytales of economic growth.”

Those very leaders whose actions she was condemning applauded and cheered throughout her speech with stunning obliviousness.

Thunberg met with Justin Trudeau four days later at the Montréal climate strike, and

told him that he and other world leaders were not doing enough for the environment. Later that afternoon, Trudeau marched alongside the crowd of activists in Montréal, though the activists and marchers were protesting his government’s inaction on the crisis.

What was our prime minister protesting? His conscience?

After being re-elected, Trudeau reiterated his support for the Trans Mountain Pipeline, claiming that it falls in line with the Liberal party’s climate plan, and that the significant economic benefits will offset the environmental impacts and risks. Further, during his campaign he announced his party’s plan to plant two billion trees in Canada.

Unfortunately for Trudeau, building pipelines and planting trees will not save the climate.

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Drastic structural action is needed, one which has no place for pipelines. Apparently, Thunberg’s warnings of liberal economic fairytales did not reach the prime minister. There will be no economy for the government to worry about if we are all dead.

The marches were primarily made up of young people; inevitably, this meant that everyone was using social media. Signs referenced memes, people were taking snaps, and I was even asked to take a few Instagram pictures.

Admittedly, the performativity of social media can call into question people’s dedication to climate activism: protesting is cool, and environmentalism is sexy. Posting on social media does

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not indicate a challenge to the status quo, but instead, it presents an opportunity to gain online clout and receive a surge of serotonin from the flood of likes.

However, a protest can’t be completely discredited because people are posting about it on social media — so long as we don’t expect the Climate Strike to be the end of our climate activism in Canada.

Youth are always the future, and they turned out in droves — young people are animated and excited and want to see change. So long as that drive remains, stronger climate policy is coming.

Climate action requires radical policy changes and shifts in public life. Energy corporations like Canadian-based Suncor produce tens of billions of dollars of revenue a year, and by virtue of that they yield huge amounts of political power.

While individual choices to reduce consumption should be encouraged, changes are needed on a grander scale. It makes no sense to tell people to stop driving their cars to work when there is a lack of reliable public transportation. Public changes drive private choices.

Policies around the climate crisis are also inextricable from Indigenous land rights. While Greta Thunberg has found herself at the face of the movement, Indigenous activists have been saying the same thing for decades — that they were ignored, criminalized, and killed for their words and actions.

The climate marches are a good sign — there’s hope. But behind that hope there needs to be a powerful call to action through voting and civil disobedience, not just protests promoted by the institutions we criticize.

Book Club: Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life A novel that reminds you to stay rooted in the present Kelly-Anne Johnson Varsity Contributor

The first time I read A Little Life was the summer before I entered my senior year of high school.

While its length was slightly daunting, with 720 pages and too small a font for my liking, I found myself being continuously drawn to the novel because of its ability to transport me into a world that felt very much like real life.

I was fascinated by its characterization of the lives of its protagonists, and the ease at which I was able to develop deep-rooted attachments to them.

It would not be until three summers after my first encounter with the novel, however, that I would truly appreciate the novel for what it is: a raw, devastatingly beautiful and, at times, incomprehensibly disturbing depiction of life.

As a naïve 16-year-old, this novel introduced me to experiences that I found unrelatable. As much as I felt attached to each character, I was unable to empathize with them as they navigated their way through relationships, past demons, mental illness, self-acceptance, and drug abuse. Recently re-reading this novel has allowed me to reflect on the experiences of the characters in relation to my own life and the lives of those around me.

A Little Life chronicles the lives of four friends who, upon graduating from a prestigious college in Massachusetts, move to New York to pursue their respective professions. Their group is comprised of JB, an unapologetically outspoken artist; Malcom, a successful architect who is dissatisfied, despite working at a renowned firm; Willem, a kind and good-looking actor; and Jude, a mysteriously reserved and intelligent litigator.

The storyline focuses on their friendship in relation to Jude, who serves as the glue that holds the group together. The novel details the tragedy resulting from Jude’s childhood and the trauma that he struggles to overcome as he gets older. His

unspeakable and horrific experiences will leave any reader asking how someone so good can endure so much suffering.

My biggest takeaway from A Little Life is simple: life is what you make it. The characters in this book — particularly Jude — encounter many devastating experiences, and yet, they continue to push forward. The journey is far from easy, but their choice to rely on their friendship, and their ambition to further themselves from their pasts, makes it a little less distressing.

This lesson has become increasingly apparent to me as I navigate my way through my own life.

As I encounter various challenges — although on a lesser degree than the characters in this novel — the presence of, and support from my friends and family has been crucial in helping me overcome them.

A Little Life is not a novel about happy endings because life isn’t all about happy endings. It’s a novel that details the harsh complexities of life and the important role that friendship can play in making them easier to withstand.

As such, it serves as a reminder that as difficult as life gets, it’s important to remember that you are not alone. Your friends, family, mentors, and other people in your life are a lot stronger than you think, and can provide you with the support you might not have thought you needed in the first place.

A Little Life reminds us to be in the moment and appreciate the good things while they last.

I feel like I’m always in such a rush to grow up and make memories in the next stages of my life that I’m often missing out on the most important things in front of me.

This novel encourages me to be conscious of my life in the present as I move forward, one step at a time.

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ARTS & CULTURE

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Five podcasts to make your commute more bearable Learn the secrets of life from the comfort of your subway car Ashley Manou Varsity Staff

It is a truth universally acknowledged that any broodingly intellectual commuter must be in want of a podcast to contemplate while flexing Airpods and staring out the train window. Or maybe not, but either way, podcasts can satiate the need to fill your brain with something other than Father of the Bride for the zillionth time, or strangers’ subway conversations.

Finding the right podcast can be a trying task; the perfect piece must combine a compelling subject, a tolerable voice, and a binge-worthy collection of episodes, so I’ve saved you some of the guesswork and highlighted a few of my favourites.

1. Revisionist History Revisionist History, brought to you by U of T alum Malcolm Gladwell, is an authoritative dive into the unknown sides of familiar institutions, figures, and events. Though Gladwell introduces the podcast as a series of reinterpretations of the past, it is also equally a catalogue of his personal obsessions.

The podcast analyzes everything from Jesuits, to golf, to the evolution of McDonalds’ French fries with equal appeal and the pith of Gladwell’s numerous bestsellers.

The most entertaining segment of the podcast may be the endings, as Gladwell unravels the stories in full form and guides you to his central idea like it’s the innermost piece of a Russian doll you unpacked together. He can spectacularly and stealthily JULIEN BALBONTIN/ make a point; THE VARSITY

in several episodes, Gladwell shakes his head at Donald Trump without even saying his name — he has the good sense to let you get there yourself.

2. Great Moments in Weed History Journalists David Bienenstock and Abdullah Saeed apply a quirky and unexpected lens to the past as they trek into humanity’s 10,000-odd year relationship with cannabis. The pair cover one historical cannabis moment every episode, with Bienenstock acting as the all-knowing storyteller and Saeed as the comedic audience that Bienenstock guides along.

They deliver both the standard weed tales — the origins of four-twenty and Cheech and Chong — and the surprising bits on cannabis’ often hidden role in the past we think we know.

From Jesus to Maya Angelou, no figure is safe.

Each story is interspersed with their own annecdotes and the tangents of genuine friendship, as well as the necessary pauses to ‘roll one up.’

Regardless, rest assured that the podcast is more than just stoner fare — Bienenstock and Saeed enjoy destigmatizing cannabis and history equally as much as they like smoke.

3. Somebody Knows Something We all know true crime is overdone — this is where Somebody Knows Something comes in.

Away from the done-before, CBC Radio and our host David Ridgen investigate the mysterious Canadian crimes that no willing — or living —

voice can elucidate for us.

This is the crux of the podcast — someone must know something, but their silence has let disappearances persist as haunting and seemingly unexplainable events. Ridgen chooses cases whose explanations remain clouded amongst numerous theories, each equally questionable.

He manages to make these cases so deeply personal that you will mourn and search for answers along with his main subjects — the families struggling for decades without closure. The first two seasons are the show’s best, though they are not for the faint of heart.

4. Modern Love Yes, you’ve heard of this a thousand times. But that’s because this podcast is a collection of some of the most genuine, personal stories about relationships you’ll ever hear. You can choose from an arsenal of eloquent, heart-warming episodes, and hear an array of celebrity voices reading essays chosen by The New York Times.

5. Nothing Much Happens Less of a podcast and more a collection of selfdescribed adult bedtime stories, Nothing Much Happens is meant to guide you to sleep through simple short stories from Kathryn Nicolai. Her vivid descriptions and soothing yoga-teacheresque voice will quickly make you feel cozy and relaxed — a good avenue to peace when struggling with anxiety or insomnia.

Your first year of university is a marathon, not a sprint

Run at your own pace, young one, the finish line is years away Victoria McIntyre Varsity Contributor

So, it’s finally here: university, parties, lectures, and sleep deprivation. Your first year of university can simultaneously be daunting and exciting, and it’s important to pay attention to both of those feelings. Let’s start with the big, scary questions.

How do you keep up with your classes and how do you make new friends?

The most important thing to remember when you’re staring at that monstrous syllabus or math textbook is to take everything one day at a time, or even one task at a time.

University is a marathon, not a sprint. Think of your work load in terms of what you need to do right now. Planning ahead is good, but don’t get too wrapped up in the homework of the future, lest you get to the point where doing anything at all feels too intimidating.

Keep up with your readings as best you can, and learn to distinguish between essential readings and supplementary material. Remember to take breaks, and don’t let your self-worth be boiled down to productivity levels. You are so much more than that.

Spending time with new friends is just as im-

portant as getting that one extra reading done for the day. If you struggle to let go of homework-related guilt, try thinking of time spent away from the books as a recharge that’s necessary in order to keep up a good studying pace. It also helps to take courses that genuinely interest you whenever you can.

Imagine back to when you were at your first orientation event, chanting for a school that you had only just joined, and looking around at the upper years dressed like camp counsellors, no alcohol in sight, wondering if you should just hide in your room until the week’s over. You didn’t.

This is because orientation week isn’t about the events themselves; it’s about making connections with people which you can explore throughout your time at U of T. This feeling of wanting to hide can creep up throughout the duration of your first year. You may enjoy the whole experience, but don’t sweat it if you feel out of place. I guarantee that many of the kids around you are feeling the same way.

Also, remember to take advantage of communal spaces like cafeterias where you can get to know different people. Everyone is eager to make friends, and meals are a great way to find the time to do so.

As trite as it sounds, friendships need nurturing, so put effort into them and give new relationships a chance to grow. Make time for building up your support network. It’ll be worth it!

You’ll hear it a million times, but it genuinely is a great idea to join a club. Join the quidditch team or debate club, or audition for that play you saw advertised around campus. It’ll help you to carve out time from your schedule for self-exploration and social opportunities.

Remember that this is only the beginning. So, push yourself when you need to and listen to your intuition when it’s time to slow down. Follow the pieces of advice that resonate. Don’t stress it, you have four years to expand your interests and develop your character. Above all, you need to take care of yourself during this adjustment period.

You have a whole chapter of your life ahead of you to learn more about the world and yourself.

If there’s something you know you’re interested in, go for it. If not, it could be cool to try out something new.

Enjoy your time at U of T. Validate your fears, but focus on your excitement. A school is what you make of it, and this one has a treasure chest of opportunities just waiting for you to turn the key.

SHANNA HUNTER/ THE VARSITY

Science

October 28, 2019 var.st/science science@thevarsity.ca

Caring for CPR providers How experts in Peel Region have provided mental health support to lay-responders Oviya Muralidharan Varsity Contributor

Over 400,000 people in North America experience a sudden cardiac arrest outside of a hospital each year. Nearly half of these patients receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) from a bystander providing first aid.

Whether a bystander is waving the ambulance down or physically performing CPR, involvement in any capacity can be traumatizing.

However, bystanders, also known as lay-responders in this capacity, are largely ignored by emergency services following the incident. “We call them the forgotten victims,” said Dr. Ka-

The model may help improve mental health outcomes of lay-responders.

TAYLOR HERRING/CC FLICKR

tie Dainty, a professor at U of T’s Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, in an interview with The Varsity.

“We’ve been leaving patients behind this whole time.”

Current research shows that lay-responders face a heightened risk of suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as lasting stress, anxiety, and sleeplessness.

A promising approach to provide better care Dainty co-authored a recent paper with Paul Snobelen, a community resuscitation specialist at Peel Region Paramedic Services, on the implementation of the Lay Responder Support Model in Ontario’s Peel region, approved in 2014. The system’s aim is to screen lay-responders for risk of mental health concerns, and offer them support proactively.

The model has helped address acute stress reactions by lay-responders, and aims to mitigate the risk for lay-responders in experiencing PTSD. The system has three stages.

First, the program’s operators identify and engage with everyone involved in a medical incident — from witnesses to CPR providers.

When a cardiac arrest occurs in a public place in Peel region, Snobelen receives information by paramedics involved.

He then collects information and makes initial contact with those involved. “I try to… touch base with everyone involved in the incident, thank them for their response, [and] tell them to note down any questions

that come up in the course of the day,” said Snobelen to The Varsity.

In the second stage, the lay-responders are invited to participate in a debrief within a couple days of the event. “Almost every single individual I’ve offered this to has said yes,” he said. “Very few have declined.”

The debriefing allows lay-responders to process the event, ask questions, and discuss their experiences. “I build a timeline with people together. What we do is a more collaborative approach,” said Snobelen.

“This gives an opportunity for everyone to hear [each] other’s involvement and… highlight how everybody’s role was critical to helping that person.”

Another key aspect of the debriefing is answering the lay-responders’ technical questions.

Snobelen, recalling a major lesson from the model’s implementation, said that lay-responders often experience cognitive distortion.

These distortions are negative biases in thinking, whereby people convince themselves of untrue beliefs. For example, lay-responders may believe themselves to be responsible for a patient’s death, especially when they break ribs while performing CPR. He added, “A big element of these debriefings is addressing the cause of cognitive distortions through discussing the technical aspects of CPR performance.”

The final stage of the model is to follow up with lay-responders in three steps. This involves discussing self-care strategies, encouraging them to reach out for non-professional help, and facilitating referrals to professional counsellors if necessary.

The impact of the program “We have yet to do a longitudinal study, but the initial feedback has been great,” said Dainty. “[The model] is so important because it gives people [a] safe space and is crucial in normalizing their reactions to such a critical incident.”

Reflecting on his experiences with the model, Snobelen recalled interacting with a mall security guard in two separate incidents. The guard went from feeling hesitant about performing CPR to becoming confident in his abilities.

Snobelen has further observed behavioural changes in individuals, before and after attending the debriefing, which has instilled confidence in him about the positive impact of the model.

Potential expansion However, according to the authors, institutionalizing and implementing the model at a large scale is difficult due to limited resources.

To expand the program outside of Peel region, Snobelen proposed multiple solutions involving different community partners. Extending Ontario paramedics’ peer support teams to the community, he said, could be a potential solution.

He also noted that of lay-responders often reach out to their first-aid instructors with questions. He remarked that the Canadian Red Cross might be able to collaborate in developing a training program, which could train first-aid instructors to facilitate de-briefings.

“I’d [also] like to see a [Continuing Education Model] for therapists and counsellors,” Snobelen said, “so they are able to help their clients better in their own practice.”

Engineering the brain: the promise of neural engineering in medicine

In conversation with Dr. José Zariffa on how the field could address conditions from Alzheimer’s disease to vision loss Valeria Khudiakova Varsity Contributor

Much of the incredibly complicated human brain remains a mystery to scientists. Despire this complexity, there is new promise for technologies to treat neurological disorders.

A rapidly developing approach is neural engineering, which unites methods of neuroscience and engineering to investigate and repair neural networks.

The discipline has brought together researchers from a diverse array of scientific fields, including biology, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, and engineering. New devices and technologies have arisen from their efforts to help patients with neural disorders, such as epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease.

A new interdisciplinary area of science Dr. José Zariffa, an associate professor at U of T’s Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering, recently co-authored a review paper on the potential clinical applications of neural engineering.

In an interview with The Varsity, Zariffa said that he is mainly working on “decoding signals from the nervous system.” That is to say, his team has focused on analyzing messages sent from the brain to organs and membranes via electrical impulses to guide the development of medical devices.

Such a device could send impulses to a paralyzed muscle to make it contract or relax, which could help patients who have experienced a spinal injury or stroke.

If you were to track the activity of a nerve,

you would notice many pathways entering it as “a mix of many different sources.” Zariffa’s team is currently investigating possible ways to separate those signals so that the messages sent to a pathway of interest can be isolated and used for specific medical purposes.

Current applications, promises, and challenges In recent years, there has been renewed interest in potential applications of neural engineering — as evidenced by prominent enterprises such as the United States’ BRAIN Initiative — which has generated much momentum for the advancement of new technologies developed in the discipline.

The diversity of the possible applications of neural engineering is mind-blowing. For instance, neural technology can potentially reverse memory deterioration resulting from Alzheimer’s disease, restore lost or damaged eyesight, and even make prosthetic limbs move by thought.

Currently, deep brain stimulation, which involves implanting an electrode that sends signals to specific targets in the brain, is used to treat Parkinson’s disease and severe cases of obsessivecompulsive disorder and depression.

Another emerging trend which shows promise in neural engineering is the stimulation of the nervous system to treat various chronic diseases, ranging from epilepsy to conditions indirectly caused by a malfunctioning nervous system, such as hypertension and diabetes.

According to Zariffa, Toronto is a “hotbed” for neural engineering, as its strong pool of engineering and neuroscience research talent combined with a solid hospital network allow for the interdisciplinary research crucial for neural engineering to happen.

The recently-opened Center for Advancing Neurotechnological Innovation to Application launched by U of T and its affiliated University Health Network is an example of a Torontobased initiative aiming to bring recent advances in neural engineering to clinical settings.

Zariffa’s own research focuses on developing technology to facilitate recovery from damage to the central nervous system resulting, for example, from spinal cord injury or stroke, which may help patients in their day-to-day lives.

Ethics of neural engineering While a main objective of neural engineering is to develop devices for clinical applications, it is possible that the advances in this area will be used for non-medical purposes.

For instance, certain biotechnology companies are currently looking into ways to enhance the human brain’s processing abilities by creating brain-computer interfaces based on the most recent advances in artificial intelligence.

Such examples of human augmentation, including Elon Musk’s plan to create “human-AI hybrids” or people “upgrading” their bodies by implanting computer chips, are often sensationalized by media outlets.

Yet, according to Zariffa, modern science is still far from implementing such advances on a broader scale. The ethical considerations of the field, he noted, have not differed considerably from those in most areas of technological development.

Even without the sensationalism of the field, the growing applications of neural engineering remain vast and promising in treating medical disorders.

ISABELLA CESARI/THE VARSITY

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THE VARSITY

SCIENCE

Opinion: There is a better way for scientists to disclose funding sources

Unclear norms regarding disclosure of conflicts of interest erode public trust in research Vaibhav Bhandari Varsity Contributor

Collaborations between academic scientists and private sector companies are often symbiotic.

Researchers receive the funding they need to perform their work, which could provide their funding parties with useful insights.

However, these financial ties have the po-

science@thevarsity.ca tential to influence the conclusions reported by scientists — whether the skew is intentional or subconscious.

The funding itself is not inherently wrong, according to Dr. Laurent Brochard, a scientist at the U of T-affiliated Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science. But a lack of disclosure about funding sources, he noted, can make it difficult for a reader of a paper to identify potential biases in the research.

This lack of transparency is a significant problem in research, as reported by a paper coauthored by Brochard and Dr. Brian Kavanagh, which published in Intensive Care Medicine. They wrote that there is no consistent framework for the declaration of a conflict of interest in research.

Different journals provide differing guidelines; sometimes prior relationships are not disclosed or are deemed unimportant. It is often left up to the researcher to determine which relationship might constitute a conflict of interest.

A case study of unclear disclosure The consequences of unclear disclosure were clearly exemplified when an expert panel was tasked with determining Canada’s national standards for health providers to prescribe opioids.

In 2017, The Globe and Mail reported that

An ongoing conversation on diversity in science Stories from the front line of research on inclusivity in STEM Javiera Gutierrez Duran Associate Science Editor

The Gairdner/L’Oréal-UNESCO Forum on Diversity and Excellence in Science took place at the MaRS Centre on September 30.

The conference was hosted in part by the Gairdner Foundation, which aims to recognize “international excellence in fundamental research that impacts human health.”

“Many groups are underrepresented in research, including women, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, Indigenous people, and socially disadvantaged populations,” said Dr. Janet Rossant, a professor at U of T’s Departments of Molecular Genetics and Obstetrics & Gynaecology, in an interview with The Varsity. Rossant is also the president and scientific director of the Gairdner Foundation, and chief of research emeritus at the SickKids Research Institute.

“This is an ongoing conversation and ongoing discussion that we have to have across many aspects of our lives today.”

Stories from the front line A panel discussion named “Diversity in STEMM- Stories from the Frontline” included Dr. Eugenia Duodu, Dr. Quarraisha Abdool Karim, and Dr. Janet Smylie, and was moderated

by Dr. Imogen Coe. “We need to be having those conversations about those kinds of uncomfortable things in order to move forward,” said Coe, a professor at Ryerson University’s Faculty of Science, and an advocate for equity in STEM. Smylie is a professor at U of T’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and also serves as the director of the Well Living House, which focuses on bettering health outcomes for Indigenous children and families.

Her talk focused on the importance of a balance of power, specifically highlighting the importance of finding an individual balance in one’s life.

Duodu received her PhD in chemistry from U of T and is the chief executive officer of Visions of Science, a charitable organization which uses STEM as a way to empower youth from lowincome areas in Toronto.

She spoke about a time where she was not invited to a competition that her colleagues were invited to. “It was really interesting that there was this kind of assumption that this is not something that I would [want to] be a part of,” she said.

Karim is the associate scientific director of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa, a research centre focused on study-

ing HIV. She is also a professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Medical Centre.

She discussed how her activism work tied into the medical work she was doing. “That antiapartheid activism era in my life gave me an opportunity to respect all forms of knowledge,” she said.

She further elaborated that it enabled her “to understand, even in communities where literacy levels are low and people may not have degrees, [that] they have important knowledge that could be tapped into.”

Afternoon STEM talks The afternoon session included eight talks about STEM topics with L’Oréal-UNESCO scientists Dr. Eugenia Kumacheva, Dr. Vanessa D’Costa, Dr. Janet Rossant, Dr. Nausheen Sadiq, Dr. Victoria Arbour, Dr. Molly Shoichet, Dr. Kate (Hyun) Lee, and Karim.

The concept of arsenic in rice was discussed in Sadiq’s talk, who is a research chemist at Brooks Applied Labs and a L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science fellow. The reasoning behind this, Sadiq said, is that “in Canada, there is no set limit for arsenic in food.”

A focus of Sadiq’s PhD research was on arsenic levels in rice. A type of rice she looked at was rice cereal, which is often eaten by babies, which has relatively high amounts of arsenic.

“If you take [one thing] away from today, from me speaking,” said Sadiq jokingly, “it’s please wash your rice.”

Dr. Eugenia Doudu speaks at the conference.

COURTESY OF SARAH PALMER/ THE GAIRDNER FOUNDATION

nine representatives of the 28-member panel had received remuneration from pharmaceutical companies, including Purdue Pharma, the corporation many hold responsible for inciting the opioid crisis in Canada. But these conflicts of interest were not brought to the attention of the oversight committee — which was responsible for ensuring the independence and integrity of the panel — until after the panel issued its recommendations.

Canadian health care expenditures were valued at over $250 billion in 2018. Research reflecting positive outcomes related to a product could mean a financial windfall for the companies who provide funding, which could lead to biases among the researchers conducting sponsored studies.

A ‘conflict vitae’ as a potential solution Brochard believes that “hidden conflicts compromise research,” and that “it should not be the author’s role to decide whether a conflict exist[s] or not.”

To overcome these issues, he supports solutions based on the ‘conflict vitae’ model proposed

by Dr. Gordon Rubenfeld, a senior scientist at the Trauma, Emergency & Critical Care Research Program at the U of T-affiliated Sunny-

brook Research Institute.

Like the curriculum vitae, a researcher’s ‘conflict vitae’ would be a single document detailing all past and present relationships between a researcher and financial partners.

A similar system has been implemented in France, according to the co-authors. There, all health care companies must declare their financial associations with health care professionals.

The publicly-available database provides the amounts and purposes of the payments issued to the researchers.

This standardized approach would prevent an individual researcher from having to decide what to include when disclosing conflicts of interest, according to Brochard and Kavanagh. The document’s availability would also help readers assess the financial incentives associated with a study, they noted.

Other potential sources of bias — whether they be academic, political, or intellectual — can be difficult to assess for disclosure. Brochard wrote to The Varsity that perfection in disclosing all types of bias might not be achievable.

By making financial conflicts easier to disclose, however, the disclosure of conflicts of interest could improve public trust in scientists and better understanding of bias in research.

Protect yourself and others — get your flu shot

Why, how, and where to get vaccinated near U of T Reena Ahluwalia Varsity Contributor

The leaves are changing colours and there is a chill in the air; ah yes, flu season is upon us.

This might leave you wondering — should we vaccinate? Or, in the famous words of Star Trek’s most infamous virus, the Borg, is resistance futile?

Before we jump to dramatic intergalactic conclusions, let’s dig a little deeper.

The science of the flu The flu, or influenza, is a group of viruses that belong to the Orthomyxovirdae family. The two that dominate the seasonal epidemics — influenzas A and B — generally peak from December to February each year.

The first type, influenza A, can be further broken down into different subtypes based on two proteins on the surface of the virus — named hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N).

You may have already heard of these terms from the 2009 emergence of the H1N1 virus, which caused an influx of influenza cases, and ultimately led scientists to develop a new vaccine.

To save you from reading through every subtype of Influenza A — which comprises 18 different hemagglutinin subtypes and 11 different neuraminidases — I’ll highlight the complexity that causes the virus to exist as so many subtypes.

The influenza virus is known to have a sneaky ability to change its genetic properties as it replicates in our bodies. This evasive maneuver dodges our bodies’ immune responses, which allows the virus to proliferate and survive. These changes in the virus’s genetic properties create the different variations, or strains, of the pathogen.

This adds to the difficulty of predicting which strains will dominate the season each year.

To grapple with this complexity, the Public Health Agency of Canada is in a constant state of surveillance, releasing weekly reports to keep the public and providers aware of the current state of influenza activity.

According to the agency, influenza activity remains at the relatively low levels between flu seasons across Canada.

Why you should get vaccinated Vaccine creation involves year-round surveillance for influenza, involving collaboration from scientists and policymakers from major centres of disease prevention across the globe.

Evidence-based standards and guidelines are established to guide vaccine creation. In Canada, there is a diverse set of organizations, including the Public Health Agency, involved in this

development.

Unfortunately, despite these tremendous efforts, universal coverage of all strains is not guaranteed. Despite this imperfection, is it worth getting a vaccine?

In short, yes. It’s true in any year, even when you’re vaccinated, you still have the chance of getting the flu. However, vaccination is about reducing your risk, not necessarily eliminating it.

On a public health scale, the benefits have been proven in a variety of populations, as supported by research. There is great value in getting your flu shot, especially because it has minimal side effects.

On the other hand, the cost of influenza is steep. It’s estimated that it causes approximately 12,200 hospitalizations and 3,500 deaths in Canada each year.

“Influenza season is a critical time of year for the emergency department,” said Victoria Woolner, an adjunct lecturer at U of T’s Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, in an interview with The Varsity.

“The patients we care for are at particular risk, so it’s important we do our part in getting vaccinated to reduce the risk to vulnerable populations.”

How to stop yourself from catching the flu “No vaccine is perfectly protective in any year, so it’s imperative to practice good infection control,” Wollner continued.

To prevent infection, students should adopt simple habits such as good hand-washing; coughing and sneezing into the bend of their arm; disinfecting surfaces that are frequently touched, such as cell phones and door knobs; and having a balanced diet along with exercise to keep immune system defences ready for battle.

Students near UTSG can get vaccinated at the outpatient pharmacies at Toronto General Hospital and Toronto Western Hospital.

For students at UTSC, the campus’ wellness centre will also be offering flu shots for students, free of charge.

Students across all three campuses, including UTM, can also receive vaccinations from Toronto Public Health, which offers free flu clinics around the city, as well as pharmacies such as Rexall and Shoppers Drug Mart.

It’s important to get vaccinated. Borrowing the words of a fictional science officer who reduced risks on the final frontier, it will help you to “live long and prosper.”

var.st/science

OCTOBER 28, 2019

Honeybee app: a hub to find research study participants in Toronto

Exploring policies against criminalized drugs

Company co-founded by recent U of T alumni, helps students earn cash for participation Nicole Schwab Varsity Contributor

Honeybee, an online platform whose app will soon be released to the public, aims to create a central hub that will attract and incentivize people to participate in research studies in Toronto.

Just six months after the startup’s initial launch, co-founders and U of T alumni Catherine Chan and Weiwei Li have extensively expanded upon the company. They plan to launch the official app on November 7.

The concept behind Honeybee While pursuing her Master of Science at U of T’s Department of Nutrition, Chan continuously struggled to recruit participants for her research study. “I [had] exhausted all social media channels trying to recruit people… and I only got half of the people that I needed,” Chan explained in an interview with The Varsity.

She elaborated further, explaining that the delay had compromised her research data and said it was a massive waste of resources, because she had spent more time trying to recruit participants than actually performing the study.

Unfortunately, Chan’s circumstances are not unique. She noted that clinical trials are often terminated around the globe due to insufficient participant recruitment.

Chan immediately saw an urgency for a solution to this problem. That’s when Chan had the idea of Honeybee, an online platform where researchers could post their studies in search of participants, and participants could easily search for studies that they were eligible for.

During the end of her graduate degree, Chan took a week off from writing her thesis to pitch her idea to the Impact Centre’s Techno entrepreneurship program, where she was ultimately rewarded a microfinancing grant. Chan then went on to receive multiple other business grants tar-

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Fatima Minhas Varsity Contributor

Fish oil, an essential fat for human developan NT ment, is projected to fall um O H IIA M drastically over the next few T decades due to rising sea surface temperatures.

The finding was reported by a study coauthored by U of T researchers which analyzed the relationship between temperature and the amount of DHA. This is an omega-3 fatty acid that is found chiefly in cold-water fish and is produced by algae.

Fish, like humans, cannot make their own DHA in significant amounts. They must get it from algae, which is the base of most aquatic food chains.

Algae typically produce more DHA at lower temperatures to maintain the fluidity of their cell walls. When temperatures are higher, the cell walls are more flexible, so the algae need to produce less DHA. This reduction means fish on the upper echelons of the food chain are consuming less DHA as well — in turn, humans have a shortage of this essential nutrient.

Omega-3 fatty acids are often supplemented as fish oil capsules, and are necessary for heart health, neurological function, and fetal te W of CC s O/

Expert panelists advocate for decriminalization

geted toward young entrepreneurs.

Li joined Chan as a full-time co-founder, shortly after graduating with his Master of Applied Science from U of T’s Department of Materials Science & Engineering.

How does Honeybee work?

Many of the current ways to discover research studies are through government-affiliated or institution-specific websites. In an interview with The Varsity, Li said that these websites can sometimes be “intimidating,” and often lack a friendly user interface.

A lack of awareness of the resources is another issue. According to its co-founders, Honeybee aims to combat this by building a community feeling and a centralized space for research studies across various disciplines.

Specifically, Honeybee wants to make sure that participating in research studies is easy and accessible. The company aims to take extensive measures to ensure informed consent in order to make participants feel that the researchers are being transparent.

“Sometimes people feel [like] a guinea pig of research, but [that’s] really not the case,” Chan explained. “We are working with a research ethics board coordinator [from Unity Health Toronto], who is our company advisor.”

A useful feature of Honeybee is its anonymous request process. Participants can join the service without disclosing their name or email, and access anonymous chats where they can freely speak to researchers without exposing their identities.

The future for Honeybee The Honeybee app launches next month, and, according to its co-founders, is the first of its kind to market in Canada. Currently, Honeybee lists over 20 research studies, and has connected them to more than 100 participants, according to Li. Chan explained that they “really want to grow

Silas Le Blanc Sports Editor

Participants can join the service without disclosing their name or email, according to the co-founders.

COURTESY OF HONEYBEE

in the city that [they’ve] built the product in.” As such, Honeybee will be focusing on expanding in the Toronto research community before anywhere else.

In the near future, Honeybee plans to include the implementation of artificial intelligence and natural language processing in order to optimize search options, according to Chan.

Another one of the co-founders’ goals is to support U of T students. As such, they’re beginning to bring on various students, including one from U of T’s Impact Centre Entrepreneurship course IMC392, who will earn course credit while accumulating work experience, according to Chan.

How can students earn money and gift cards with Honeybee?

Honeybee represents a great opportunity to earn extra cash, Starbucks gift cards, and even rewards such as free fitness trackers — all while meaningfully contributing to U of T and engaging in the research community, according to Chan and Li. The search function is designed to be userfriendly and free for participants. To promote student engagement, Honeybee further plans to have their mascot active around St. George campus, and also engage with students on Twitter and Instagram.

Rising sea temperatures projected to cause global fish oil shortages

U of T scientists warn that shortages may negatively impact human fetal development

development in the third trimester.

Medical professionals recommend that pregnant people consume about 250 milligrams of DHA per day. To date, there are no commercially-available sources for omega-3 fatty acids besides fish.

This puts us in a dire situation as, according to the paper, 96 per cent of the world’s population will be in a shortage of DHA by 2100.

“Although [low-income countries] will be impacted, so will rich countries, [which] brings home the [wide impact] of climate change,” said PhD candidate Tim Rodgers, who co-authored the paper, in an interview with The Varsity.

“Our generation’s children might have these shortages, and especially pregnant women.”

The most vulnerable countries are located in sub-Saharan Africa. When accounting for trade, said Rodgers, which wasn’t included in the model the paper projected. North America and Europe are net importers of fish, and Africa and Asia are net exporters.

If these trends continue, the situation is much more critical than the paper suggests in regions where people are subsistence fishers, said Rodgers.

A deeper look reveals an even grimmer picture.

According to the model, it is inevitable that these shortages will eventually occur, even in the bestcase scenario where world leaders congregate and limit greenhouse gas emissions and the climate

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crisis. The damage is already done, and by 2100, shortages will be severe — at an approximate 10 to 58 per cent global loss of DHA. Alternative technologies for DHA production are being explored, though none are on the market.

Even if we managed to produce DHA from other sources, its distribution would be unequal.

Low-income individuals who cannot access international markets would be left most vulnerable, noted Rodgers. The gap between those who stand a fighting chance against the climate crisis and those who don’t will become more obvious with time.

“One of the worries I have in the face of climate change, is that we have this fortress mentality,” said Rodgers, “where as resources become more scarce, we all try to protect ourselves at the expense of everyone else in the world. That’s not going to solve the problem.”

Discussing solutions to mitigate the impact of the climate crisis, Rodgers emphasized the need for alternative energy sources to produce clean electrical power. “Conceptually, we know what to do to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius,” he said.

“It’d be great if people just realize that these impacts will be felt by them, by their children, by their grandchildren, by everyone around the world — and that we need to act now.”

An expert panel hosted by the Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy (CSSDP) chapters at U of T and Ryerson University discussed the impact and alternatives to Canada’s prohibitory drug policies on October 9.

The speakers debated the effects of what they dubbed Canada’s “war on drugs” on its vulnerable populations, key events in its history, the shortfalls of its current drug policy, and alternatives to treating substance use disorder.

The opioid crisis Susan Shepherd, Strategic Support Director at Toronto Public Health, discussed the need to treat the opioid crisis as a public health problem, as opposed to a criminal justice approach, and to consult people in the community.

Toronto Public Health conducted two community sessions and 20 interviews with people asking how well they thought the current system was working and whether the federal government should decriminalize personal use of opioids.

The responses were generally in favour of decriminalization and respondents agreed that the system is “broken,” though they also stressed action beyond decriminalization. Respondents also generally agreed that the government should continue to prosecute those involved in producing and selling illicit drugs.

The history of Canada’s drug policies Matt Johnson, a Harm Reduction Outreach Program Coordinator at Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre, spoke about the history of Canada’s drug policy, starting with the Opium Act of 1908, which he saw as the beginning of Canada’s harsh drug policies.

A turning point in Canada’s approach to drugs was the formation of LeDain Commission in 1969, which published four reports on the role that the government should play in drug regulation. Its 1972 report suggested the decriminalization and eventual legalization of cannabis would be the best course of action — a proposal that then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau refused to implement.

In the present day, Johnson said that the future of drug policy reform in Canada does not look optimistic, as the two main party leaders support the status quo of criminalizing opioids.

He further stressed that the criminalization of drugs does not exist in a vacuum, as racism, colonization, homophobia, transphobia, and other systems of oppression are deeply intertwined and need to be addressed alongside drug policies.

The impact on Indigenous peoples Michelle Sault — Indigenous consultant, lead facilitator, and project strategist for the Toronto Indigenous Overdose Strategy — focused her talk on Indigenous issues. She spoke about her own experience developing the Overdose Strategy and some of the experiences that she heard from Indigenous people. “[The Overdose Strategy] was more comprehensive, research based, and the strategy itself that I engaged in was more of a facilitated process which is both a session, and an invitation to share advice on what it is that Indigenous people need or want,” said Sault.

A 2002 study at the University of Washington showed that personal health is determined by a balance between trauma and buffers. When trauma outweighs one’s buffers, it is expected that they will experience worse health outcomes, and experience harmful substance use.

Read more at var.st/drugpolicies

Sports

October 28, 2019 var.st/sports sports@thevarsity.ca

Blues soccer round one playoff recap Both the men and women soccer teams advance to the OUA quarterfinal Ontario Institute of Technology Ridgebacks to Varsity Stadium. And for the second time this season, the Blues emerged victorious against their Oshawa-based opposition.

While the Blues had previously claimed a 3–1 victory against the Ridgebacks on September 13, this Wednesday’s hard-fought 1–0 was much more impressive. The victory also ensured the Blues’ advancement to the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) quarterfinals, where they will face the Queen’s University Gaels in Kingston on Sunday.

While the game’s lone goal was scored via a header from the ever-impressive Miranda Badovinac in the 17th minute, the Blues had to remain alert at the back throughout the 90 minutes to ensure victory. Ridgebacks forward Taijah Henderson, who missed the previous clash between these two teams, was a constant threat to the Blues’ defense. Henderson led the Ridgebacks’ intense high press early in the game, while the Blues struggled to impose themselves.

At the other end of the pitch, the Blues’ forward trio of

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Men’s soccer vs. Nipissing Lakers Eighty-eight minutes into this one-sided affair, Blues striker Matthew Roberts received the ball in acres of space on the halfway line, sauntered forward 15 yards, and nonchalantly dinged a perfectly weighted ball over a brittle Nipissing Lakers backline to unleash winger Jacob Doroszkiewicz. This was the final goal in a lopsided affair which the Blues won 6-0 to cruise their way to a quarterfinal berth.

By the time Doroszkiewicz caught up to the ball on the right flank, three of his Blues teammates populated the opposition box completely unmarked. Doroszkiewicz fizzed a cross first time across the face of the goal, allowing forward Matthew Roberts to poke the ball into the back of the net, scoring the Blues’ sixth goal of the game.

There were four Lakers defenders in the box too, but by this stage in the game they had long forgotten the concept of defending.

Of course, the disparity in quality between the two sides was no surprise: the Blues had finished the regular Ontario University Athletics (OUA) East season in third place with 30 points, while the Lakers had finished in sixth with 16 points. The teams were drawn against each other here for the OUA playoffs, a preliminary round for the teams in third through sixth place to determine who plays the first- and second-ranked teams in the quarterfinals. Still, the Blues deserve credit for an inspired and ruthless 90-minute performance.

The Blues started the game on the front foot, moving the ball forward and forcing the Lakers into errors with a high forward press. Two minutes into the game, the Lakers gave the ball away from a throw-in, allowing the Blues to take control and switch play to the right flank. Weak clearance from a Lakers defender allowed midfielder Nicola Russo to intercept the ball and deliver it to Stakic.

The midfielder deftly pulled three opposition players out of position with his dart infield before delivering a defense-splitting ball onto the path of attacking midfielder Atchu Sivananthan, who slotted the ball into the net.

“Once we get the first goal we’re a difficult team to play against,” head coach Ilya Orlov said in a post-game interview. “I think that [goal] settled us down and also just enhanced our confidence.”

Indeed, the Blues’ confidence was on full display as they continued to torment their opposition with an effective press and a compact structure. The Lakers, meanwhile, continued to invite pressure with subpar passing and poor positioning. In the 14th minute, Lakers defender Cody Vaillancourt passed the ball straight to Blues midfielder Yousef Helmy on the edge of the box.

Helmy, somehow completely unmarked despite there being seven Lakers defenders in the box, scored with a powerful shot into the far corner, bringing the score to 2–0.

Fourteen minutes later — and, remarkably, with eight Lakers defenders in the box — Nicholas Osorio received the ball from Helmy in the same position. He buried a shot into the near corner to increase the Blues’ lead to 3–0.

The second half started in similar fashion to the first as the Blues continued to bear down on the Lakers’ goal. Sivananthan, playing the number-10 role, combined exceptionally well with centre forward Artem Tesker throughout the game, weaving in between the Lakers’ inattentive defense. In the 48th minute, Sivananthan, receiv-

ing the ball 45 yards away from goal, embarked on a mesmerizing solo run that culminated in his second and the Blues’ fourth goal of the game.

The Blues’ next goal came courtesy of yet another defensive lapse from the Lakers as Jamal Brown passed the ball straight to Tesker in the 71st minute. The first-year forward found Russo, who squared the ball for Doroszkiewicz to claim the Blues’ fifth of the night.

First-year striker Roberts was brought on for Tesker two minutes later. The former Swansea City U18 player saw his first minutes on the field since his injury on September 1 in a game against the Gaels, and capped off a fine cameo performance with the team’s sixth goal.

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Michael Teoh Varsity Staff

The Blues will now face the Ryerson Rams in the OUA quarterfinals for the third year in a row.

“We’ll see tactical adjustments based on how they play but I think if we come out with this kind of energy and this kind of performance, we should be fine,” Orlov said. “It’s a Toronto derby so of course it’ll be a good one as always.”

While the Blues’ games against the Rams are often exciting affairs, their record against their Toronto rivals is poor. The Blues have lost six and drawn two of their past eight encounters.

This season, the Blues drew 0–0 with the Rams at home and lost 2–1 away.

Progression beyond the quarterfinals for the first time since 2016 will be a tough task for the Blues, but this 6–0 victory certainly sends a strong message of intent.

Women’s soccer vs. Ontario Tech Ridgebacks For the second time this season, the Varsity Blues women’s soccer team welcomed the University of

JESSE MCDOUGALL/ THE VARSITY

Badovinac, Erin Kelly, and Jenny Wolever struggled to break past the Ridgebacks’ disciplined defensive line until the 13th minute. A 45-yard goal kick by Blues goalkeeper Vanna Staggolis bounced favourably for Kelly, who booted the ball toward Wolever on the left flank.

Wolever’s initial cross into the box was blocked by a Ridgebacks defender, but Badovinac was aware of the situation, and claimed the loose ball.

She cut in front of Ridgebacks defender Mikaela Tierney, who was adjudged by the referee to have fouled her inside the area.

Blues captain Maddie MacKay stepped up for the ensuing penalty, knowing that a goal could ease the building tension in the team and force the Ridgebacks to loosen their defensive shape in search of an equalizer. Ridgebacks goalkeeper

Alicia Chisholm had other plans. The firstyear keeper dove low to her right to palm away MacKay’s effort, sending the boisterous Ridgebacks supporters into raptures.

MacKay made up for her miss a few minutes later, intercepting a loose ball from the Ridgebacks and lobbing it toward Badovinac, who laid the ball off for Kelly. Brushing off a challenge from Tierney, Kelly unleashed Wolever down the left flank. Wolever’s delivery this time was inchperfect for Badovinac to head into the far corner of the goal.

The Blues established a greater foothold into the game as the first half progressed, giving it a more exciting end-to-end dynamic. Both teams suffered a few defensive lapses in concentration but neither were able to capitalize.

In the 26th minute, Blues defender Daniella Cipriano played a corner to Mackay, who found herself in acres of space 23 yards away from the goal. She launched a looping ball toward the goal that beat Chisholm but rebounded off the crossbar. In the ensuing counter-attack, Henderson displayed good hold-up play and earned a foul from Blues defender Anna Crone from 18 yards out. Ridgebacks defender Julia Listro then sent a shot to the bottom right of the goal, forcing a good save from Staggolis.

The Ridgebacks spent much of the second half camped in the Blues’ half but they were unable to find an equalizer, despite the Blues’ nervy defending. In the 85th minute, Listro received the ball from a throw-in and lobbed it into the box, beyond four Blues defenders. Ridgebacks midfielder Melanie Hoekstra received the ball ahead of Crone and fizzed a shot across the face of the goal. Despite a barrage of late attacks, the Blues held on to book their place in the OUA quarter-finals.

After the game, Associate Head Coach Angelo Cavalluzzo praised the Blues’ defensive organization but said that their aerial defending was poor. “Not super pleased with [the defending], I think we could have been a lot better. We have been a lot better. That’s a positive that we still kept a clean sheet even though things weren’t as tight as… they should have been.”

“If you watch our performances from the beginning of the season compared to now, it’s totally different,” he added. “I think we’ve improved leaps and bounds, and I think [the Ridgebacks have] improved leaps and bounds. They gave us a game tonight, and they were a lot better than the team we faced earlier in the season.”

The Blues will face a tough away game with the Gaels in the quarterfinal. Their record against the opposition is poor, having last won in 2014. In their 10 games against the Gaels since that victory, they have lost eight times and drawn twice.

The Blues will need to execute their defensive plan against the Gaels perfectly if they are to advance to the OUA final four. Otherwise, they will need to hope that their front three can add to their 18-goal tally, and, given their performances over the course of the season, Blues fans have good reason to expect that one of them will find the back of the net.

Go to thevarsity.ca/sports for our coverage of the quarterfinal games.

Disclosure: Michael Teoh previously served as The Varsity’s Volume 138 Deputy Senior Copy Editor and Volume 139 Business Editor.

var.st/sports

OCTOBER 28, 2019

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Opinion: Supposed health drinks do not contain the health benefits they often advertise Are ‘health beverages’ instigators of poor health?

Brooklyn Baly Varsity Contributor

The New York Times, “If you’re drinking this for the health benefits… I’d say rethink your drink.”

Health beverages have become an increasingly popular choice among consumers, with many claiming to clear your skin, energize your mind, flush out bacteria, and promote weight loss. There are countless options to choose from, with kombucha, coconut water, celery juice, and various other fruit juices among the most popular.

However, these products, which are often marketed as a “quick fix” or “miracle cure,” may in fact be contributing to poor health, and lending to a dangerous pattern of ineffective health fads, misguided expectations, and poor consumer knowledge.

Coconut water Touting a loyal following among athletes of all levels, coconut water is often praised for its ability to improve athletic performance and endurance when consumed post-workout. These claims arise from coconut water’s high concentration of electrolytes, specifically sodium and potassium, as electrolytes are believed to contribute to athletic ability.

However, one study suggests that these electrolytes do not have any significant impact on exercise performance. Granted, coconut water is actually healthy in its ability to rehydrate the body following intense exercise.

Kombucha Kombucha has gained an impressive following among health enthusiasts, celebrities, and casual consumers. Advertised as a “probiotic,” kombucha boasts a long list of supposed benefits, which include improved digestion, reduced blood pressure, and a strengthened immune system, while also claiming to assist with the detoxification of harmful toxins from the body.

However, the bacteria found within kombucha have yet to be confirmed as probiotics, and furthermore, none of the aforementioned claims have been substantiated. As told by Dr. David Ludwig, a professor of nutrition at Harvard University to

Celery juice Celery juice has garnered a cult-like following thanks to Anthony William, a “medical medium” who has touted the use of celery juice as a remedy for a number of diverse health issues from weight loss and digestive issues to psoriasis and acne. While celery juice certainly contributes to hydration, thus far there has been no scientific evidence to validate any of these claims. Nutritionists instead suggest that an increased sense of well-being following the consumption of celery juice is instead likely to be a combination of better hydration and the placebo effect.

Fruit juices Despite popular belief, fruit juices are not actually a healthy alternative to pop or other sugary beverages. While whole fruits offer a multitude of health benefits, their juices do not. Fruit juices are high in sugar and calories, a combination which leads to weight gain rather than discouraging it.

Fruit juices actually contribute the same number of calories as their whole fruit counterparts. Unlike whole fruits, however, the consumption of fruit juice does not lead to a similar feeling of satiety, which in turn promotes increased weight gain. In short, those looking to ditch the pounds should ditch the juice.

Water While not marketed as a “health beverage,” water may be the ultimate ‘health’ drink available. Besides needing water for survival, a 2016 study published in the Annals of Family Medicine found a correlation between inadequate water consumption and a higher body fat percentage or body mass index. Lisa Drayer, a registered US dietician, told CNN that “Drinking a glass of water before a meal can fill you up a bit and help you eat fewer calories at a meal,” therefore causing you to consume less calories.

SKYLAR CHEUNG/THE VARSITY

How physical exercise acts as an antidepressant In conversation with Garcia Ashdown-Franks on the effects of exercise on depression Adam A. Lam Science Editor

Exercising regularly could function effectively as an antidepressant, according to a recent research review co-authored by U of T researchers.

One of the researchers, Garcia AshdownFranks, a PhD student in exercise science, spoke with The Varsity on how the psychosocial mechanisms of exercise could cause antidepressant effects.

The impact of exercise on self-esteem Self-esteem is the extent to which one’s conception of themself is positive. According to multiple studies over the past decade, sustained low selfesteem is a predictor of depression.

Symptoms of depression, according to the American Psychiatric Association, include a loss of interest in activities one once enjoyed, mood shifts to sadness, increased fatigue, and feelings of worthlessness. These are indicators of depression when experienced for two weeks or longer.

Low self-esteem may result in depressive symptoms, which could further erode self-esteem. According to the co-authors, this creates a cyclical relationship between the two.

Poor self-perception of one’s physical body is one factor that can impact self-esteem, and thus create depressive symptoms. According to the review, exercise can break the cycle by boosting physical self-perception, and thus self-esteem.

Increase in muscle mass and fat loss are two possible mechanisms that could drive the effect, according to the review. However, according to The New York Times, fat acceptance advocates and academics promote feeling self-confident at any weight. Learning to feel comfortable with one’s body weight may be another pathway to increasing self-esteem, aside from exercise.

Interestingly, two studies in the review also suggest that even if body composition remains the same, exercise may still increase self-esteem.

Ashdown-Franks noted, “Just the act of per-

forming exercise or activity or sport can make us feel better about our body, even if there are no actual changes in our body composition.”

How exercise can change your social life “There’s evidence that people with depression report feeling less social support in their lives, or [fewer] people [who] they can go to for support, which also can [worsen] their symptoms,” Ashdown-Franks said to The Varsity.

The co-authors noted that physical engagement is associated with emotional support from friends and family, and further suggested that the social benefits of exercise could be pronounced in team sports.

Ashdown-Franks said that the evidence is limited regarding whether solitary sports — such as running and weightlifting — could also result in social support. However, she noted that interaction with others, such as fellow runners or coaches, could provide a sense of community.

Team sport activities are prevalent at U of T. For example, there are drop-in basketball sessions at UTSG, UTSC, and UTM. Drop-in tennis, volleyball, and yoga are alternative options on campus.

Social impacts underpinned by biological mechanisms Long-term exercise also induces biological changes, which could play a role in the antidepressant effects of exercise as well.

According to the co-authors, these biological mechanisms include changes to structures in the brain. The findings of animal studies report that the growth of neurons in the hippocampus, an area of the brain relevant to depression, can be stunted by the condition.

Exercise may be a long-term way to improve the growth of neurons, with studies finding that exercise can specifically increase the volume of

the hippocampus. Further factors that boost neural growth include increased blood flow to the brain.

Inflammation in the body is another possible cause of depression. Evidence shows that exercise can lower the levels of pro-inflammatory markers associated with depression, as exercise may be responsible for the release of anti-inflammatory biochemicals.

Future steps of research “I think there’s a lot more research that needs to be done,” said Ashdown-Franks, regarding research on the relationship between exercise and depression.

Understudied research areas, according to AshdownFranks, include

determining the optimal exercise routine for combating depression. Other limitations of studies on overcoming depression include their reliance on self-reports, which have limited power, and on animal studies, which may not be applicable to humans.

Despite a lack of clarity of the research, Ashdown-Franks emphasized that it’s clear that some exercise is better than none at all. She said, “For someone who’s struggling with depression or symptoms of depression, they might think going to the gym [can be] a monumental task.

But... [taking] a few minutes every day just to go for a walk [can make you] feel better.”

SEOYEON LEE/THE VARSITY

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OCTOBER 28, 2019