November 11, 2019

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

November 11, 2019

Vol. CXL, No. 9

COURTESY OF SEYRAN MAMMADOV/VARSITY BLUES

Nick Nurse on coaching the Raptors after their championship win

Raptors enrapture U of T

Panel on mental health in sports featuring Fred VanVleet, Brittni Donaldson

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DINA DONG/THE VARSITY

Student Commons to have soft launch in April 2020, projects UTSU $24.5 million student centre set to open 13 years after project first approved Hannah Carty Associate News Editor

The University of Toronto Students’ Union’s (UTSU) Student Commons project — first proposed in the ’60s and approved by students in 2007 — has been fraught with delays and modifications to its original plan. Now, the UTSU projects an April 2020 soft launch, with the building being fully operational in September 2020. Funded by an $11.26 levy per student, the space aims to be the first student-run centre on the UTSG campus.

The history of the Student Commons In 2007, students were promised a space that would include a 600-person auditorium, three restaurants, and office spaces for student groups. The project was originally supposed to be located where the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport now stands. Instead, it will now be at the old location of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at 230 College Street. The referendum to begin collecting a levy from students

to fund the project passed later that year.

In 2015, the UTSU signed the Revised Student Commons Agreement, a binding document between the UTSU and the university. Former UTSU President Mathias Memmel, then Vice-President, Internal, criticized the UTSU executive that year for a lack of consideration when signing the document.

He said that the agreement “appears to have been negotiated and signed by the UTSU without due consideration of the real, long-term requirements for the building’s operations and the project’s financing as a whole.” Memmel also wrote that it favoured the university and was overall an “imbalanced deal.”

The Student Commons threatened to put the UTSU in financial jeopardy. In a 2017 op-ed in The Varsity, Memmel wrote, “Bankruptcy became a real possibility.”

That year, the project was revised so as to avoid a $500,000 deficit and the possibility of the building being seized by the university, which would occur if the project ran a deficit for two consecutive years after the first three years of operation. Current UTSU President Joshua Bowman said that the most recent

deficit projection for the first year of operation is around $112,000, and that the project will reach a surplus after six years of operation, but clarified that the Student Commons’ operating costs would be covered by UTSU reserves.

Where the Student Commons is now According to Bowman, the Student Commons costs $24.5 million to build, and will cost around $600,000 to operate. Students are paying $11.26 each semester of the 2019–2020 school year.

The UTSU has been collecting the capital levy from students since 2008. This levy pays for the renovation and building costs, as well as the licensing fee that is paid to the university every year. Costing $200,000 each year, the licensing fee will continue to be collected for 25 years after the building opens.

When the building is fully operational in September 2020, students will also be paying an operating levy. Sources of revenue for the project once it is operating include space rentals and program partnership grants.

UTSU executives from this year and last year

expressed that the project’s delays were due to the difficulty of renovating an old building, as well as “a significant amount of asbestos” that had to be dealt with.

Speaking on the projected opening dates at the 2019 Annual General Meeting, Bowman noted, “[Bear] in mind that that is what our contractor has told us, and they have also been the same ones that have given us dates in the past.”

In an email to The Varsity, Bowman wrote, “Our timelines are set by the University Capital Planning Department and informed by the pace of construction. Additional delays could still happen… It is impossible to be certain given the continuously moving target set by our partners.”

Still in the midst of construction, Bowman wrote that “most large scale engineering within the building has been completed and the current work is being directed towards finishing the floors, walls, ceilings and lighting.”

The UTSU will move into the Student Commons when it opens, along with Student Life and the Innovation Hub. The Student Commons is also planned to have space for student groups, a studentrun cafe, and an accessible kitchen.

Business

Comment

Feature

Arts & Culture

Science

UTM announces capital expansions in response to enrollment growth

U of T needs a proactive mental health approach — and that starts in the classroom

“You fear what you don’t understand”: the homelessness crisis

Let’s slow down on fashion: an ecoconscious way to shop

Are you ready for the self-driving car revolution?

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“On the UTSG campus outside of Sidney Smith hall is Stefan. Every morning he pulls up to his block and prepares his goods, detaching the hotdog stand from the hitch of a grey minivan and organizing the diced onions. Stefan runs Mama’s Best, a hotdog stand with a history. For thirteen years he’s sold hotdogs on St. George Street and seven years elsewhere before that. How does he do it? Warm, soft steamed buns and trust. The secret to an exceptional hotdog, says Stefan, is a soft bun, and after thirteen years UofT students trust him to provide an exceptional hotdog.”

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Man dead following multiple stabbings at Madison Avenue house party Police charge one man with second degree murder, minor with multiple counts of assault with a weapon

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Mikaela Toone Associate News Editor

On October 31, a total of five people were stabbed outside a Halloween house party near the intersection of Madison Avenue and Bloor Street West. One of the victims, 19-year-old Firdous Nabizada, died in hospital on November 2.

According to police, 19-year-old Jacob Alves was disarmed and kicked out of a house party at 22 Madison Avenue by party-goers after he became involved in an altercation and produced a knife. He then attempted to re-enter the party and, upon denial, became angered.

While individuals attempted to calm him down, he produced another knife and began indiscriminately attacking individuals waiting in the line for entry outside the house.

Alves and a 15-year-old girl were initially both charged with three counts of aggravated assault, three counts of assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, and attempted murder. Following the death of Nabizada, Alves’ charges were upgraded to second-degree murder.

According to its website, 22 Madison Avenue is the location of Theta Delta Chi fraternity.

The Toronto Star reports that the house was being rented out by a Toronto model, Christian Renaud, for his 20th birthday party. Renaud said that he and Alves had been friends in high school at Forest Hill Collegiate Institute, but had drifted apart since then.

The fraternity was cordoned off by police following the stabbing.

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NOVEMBER 11, 2019

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UTSU AGM 2019: opt-out rates, UTSU finances, mental health Union announces average opt-out rate of 23.6 per cent for non-essential UTSU fees Kathryn Mannie, Jadine Ngan, and Mikaela Toone Deputy News Editor, Associate Features Editor, and Associate News Editor

“As of right now, the [University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU)] is performing stronger than ever,” said UTSU President Joshua Bowman at its 2019 Annual General Meeting (AGM) on October 30 at the Innis Town Hall.

During his presidential address, Bowman listed out achievements, like the First Year Council and the union’s various lobbying efforts.

However, the conversation at this year’s AGM centred on other matters: UTSU finances in the wake of the Student Choice Initiative (SCI); student mental health; and leaving the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS).

UTSU finances, clubs, and the SCI Under the SCI — the provincial mandate to Ontario universities and colleges to provide an opt-out option for certain incidental fees — a portion of the UTSU’s fees were deemed “nonessential,” while others remained mandatory for all members of the union.

In his presidential address, Bowman unveiled the fall semester opt-out rates for the non-essential UTSU fees.

The overall average opt-out rate was 23.6 per cent. Bowman told The Varsity that “any percentage of students opting out of our fees is… not great.”

During the executive Q&A session, VicePresident, Student Life Ameera Karim noted that two funding regimes had been added to the UTSU’s funding structure for campus organizations, including the abolition of automatic renewal of funding and a new semesterly funding application. Karim maintained that these changes were necessitated by the SCI. Another point of contention arose around the UTSU’s guidelines for recognition and funding of clubs, with students questioning whether groups with ties to the Chinese government or anti-abortion student groups are eligible. While Karim’s answer indirectly referenced the fact that student groups that threaten student safety would not be recognized, Bowman — following a direct question from a student — clarified: “We will not recognize Students for Life.”

The UTSU’s operating budget Former UTSU President Anne Boucher challenged the UTSU on its delay in posting an

operating budget for the year. Bowman pointed to the SCI in response, emphasizing the lack of precedent and the resulting difficulties in financial planning.

While a preliminary budget does exist, Bowman felt it wasn’t appropriate to post or ap-

maining non-essential budget is directed at “people-facing” initiatives, which indicates that those formulating the guidelines “don’t understand what campus life is all about.”

Some substantial changes made in light of the SCI include cuts to club funding, student

Levy fees are for full-time undergraduate UTSU members, opt-out percentages provided by Bowman.

prove a budget without knowing the UTSU’s opt-out rates. With the confirmation of the rates at the AGM, the budget will pass through the executive committee to be approved at the next UTSU Board of Directors meeting on November 17.

Approximately 87 per cent of the UTSU’s budget was deemed essential under the provincial guidelines, with the remaining designated as non-essential. Bowman noted that the re-

aid, and orientation. However, Bowman added that the UTSU would work to ensure that cuts to student aid would not impact those most reliant on the funds.

Mental health concerns In a discussion on the Presidential & Provostial Task Force on Student Mental Health, Bowman expressed his disappointment with the task force’s operations thus far. He further

noted that its four student members have not been present at recent consultations with U of T community members.

Vice-President, Operations Arjun Kaul echoed this sentiment, commenting that “the mental health task force… has been extremely uncooperative” and has only reached out to the UTSU once. When questioned regarding whether the UTSU should develop a committee to hold the task force accountable to its mandate, Kaul asserted that the UTSU’s resources would be more effectively used toward new independent initiatives.

U of T Ombudsperson Dr. Ellen Hodnett’s comments at the October 24 Governing Council meeting — which defended the universitymandated leave of absence policy (UMLAP) and accused student activists of unfairly using campus deaths to criticize the policy — were raised repeatedly on the questioning floor.

Campus groups, including the UTSU, have expressed outrage and called on Hodnett to issue a public apology.

Kaul highlighted the lack of consultation involved in developing the UMLAP as well as the policy’s inappropriate nature: “I do believe that there are cases where it would be the student’s best interest to be removed from their studies, but it’s an inherently devoid-of-logic question to pair that with mental health.”

Questioning CFS membership Vice-President, External Affairs Lucas Granger claimed that the UTSU executive team cannot initiate a referendum with union resources to leave the CFS, in response to a question from Ilya Bañares. Rather, that responsibility resides with student members. A petition to call on decertification must be signed by 20 per cent of the UTSU’s members in order for an exit referendum to occur.

Bowman told The Varsity that, speaking as an individual, if a member were to initiate such a referendum, he would be in support.

— With f iles from Hannah Carty and Andy Takagi Disclosure: Ilya Bañares is The Varsity’s managing online editor and attended the AGM as a voting member.

UTSU President, VP Operations, and other UTSU executives fielded questions during the executive question period.

DINA DONG/THE VARSITY

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Participation in UTSU elections lower than most Canadian universities

UTSU averages 12.8 per cent turnout, other schools average above 20 per cent Hannah Carty Associate News Editor

problem, and that the Elections and Referenda Committee (ERC) is looking for solutions. “In my opinion, it’s not enough to simply ramp up engagement around election time,” wrote Bowman to The Varsity. “We’ve been trying to reach out to students throughout our term… We want students to know that their concerns are our priority, and not just

when we’re asking for their participation in our elections.”

“I want to incentivize students to vote, period.”

Western 24.3%

U of A 24.0%

UBC 21.7%

Dalhousie 21.7%

WILL XIAO/THE VARSITY

McGill 18.1%

Voter turnout continues to be a persistent issue at U of T when compared to other schools.

the highest voter turnout comes from the Faculté Saint-Jean, the French-language faculty, as well as the science and pharmacy faculties.

The University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Alma Mater Society saw an average of 22.1 per cent voter turnout from 2013–2019, excluding the 2015 and 2016 separated referendum elections. In 2015 and 2016, the general elections were separated from the referenda, leading to a significant drop in election participation. The 2015 and 2016 general elections saw voter turnouts of 12.9 and 12.5 per cent respectively. In 2017, participation jumped back up to 20.7 per cent as the general elections were combined once more with referenda.

In 2019, of seven Canadian universities, voter turnout in the SSMU general election exceeded by four times more than in the UTSU election, and over five times more in the general elections for the student societies of UBC, U of A, Carleton University, Dalhousie University, and Western University.

UTSU President Joshua Bowman affirmed that voter turnout at U of T is a

U of T 4.2%

As the University of Toronto Students’ Union’s (UTSU) Annual General Meeting has now lost quorum two years in a row, and their voter turnout in the last general election was 4.2 per cent, it seems the UTSU is experiencing a pattern of low democratic participation. The 2019 spring general election saw three executive positions and 18 director positions go unfilled, and the resulting by-election saw a voter turnout of 2.9 per cent. The UTSU is the highest student government body at U of T, with responsibilities such as advocacy and lobbying university administration and local government.

Although low participation in student government elections isn’t something that’s unique to U of T, there is a question as to whether U of T is an outlier.

The spring 2018 UTSU election saw the highest voter turnout of the past four years at 25.3 per cent, in part due to the U-Pass referendum. Although the majority of those present abstained from voting in all executive elections, the referendum had a 97.6 per cent participation rate.

However, low voter turnout in student government elections does not seem to be the norm in all Canadian universities.

In the general elections for the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), voter turnout averaged 25.2 per cent for 2013–2019, nearly double the average of the UTSU’s general elections from 2016–2019, which was 12.8 per cent.

The University of Alberta Students’ Union, which has been tracking their voter turnout since 2006, has an overall average of 21.8 per cent, and an average of 25 per cent from 2016–2019. University of Alberta (U of A) also tracks voter turnout by program, something that neither U of T or any other university does. This data shows that

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NOVEMBER 11, 2019

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In the Spotlight: Judith Friedland

Occupational science, therapy professor emerita discusses student mental health, her research Andy Takagi News Editor

“Do no harm” are the first words that come to Dr. Judith Friedland’s mind when asked about the role of universities in student mental health.

Friedland, a professor emerita in the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, has had a career at the university which spans decades. As a student, Friedland earned her occupational and physical therapy diploma in 1960, her BA in 1976, an MA in 1982, and a PhD in 1989. As a professor, she eventually became chair of her department from 1991–1999.

She sat down with The Varsity to talk about her research, her time at U of T, and how both relate to student mental health.

Researching students, universities, mental health In 2014, Friedland co-wrote a study that looked into the connections between universities and students on mental wellness, and included a sampling of a small number of university students with self-identified mental health problems.

“This study provides some evidence that listening to the student voice can help universities to lead the change; to take ownership and responsibility for the well-being of all of their students, including those with mental health problems,” concluded the authors.

During the next year, then-U of T Ombudsperson Joan Foley recommended to Governing Council that a new non-coercive mental health policy be implemented. This suggestion was the origin of the controversial university-mandated leave of absence policy (UMLAP), which, three

years later, allows the university to unilaterally place students on mandated leave if they exhibit mental health problems that are deemed to pose a threat to themselves or others. A little over a year after the policy’s passing, student mental health has come to the forefront of activism, with new student groups organizing protests against the UMLAP amidst four deaths on campus in the past two years.

Especially relevant now, Friedland’s research drew from her own experiences as a professor, personally working with students who went through challenges at home, felt outside pressure from their families, or felt other pressures from school or work. This led to a focus in her work to “corroborate some of those issues that [she] knew about from experience.”

Friedland talked about the importance of the relationship between professors and students: “I was very conversant [as a professor] with the fact of how many students had mental health issues as well as mental [illnesses].”

Students seeking help from professors in the form of extensions, or simply wishing to talk, need a connection with professors: “[if ] there isn’t that kind of empathetic relationship, not necessarily emotional support, but just good oldfashioned empathy and understanding, then right away that student’s got a barrier toward getting help and is being stigmatized to some extent,” said Friedland.

“My guess is there’s still a number of people around teaching these days who don’t really believe totally in the stress that a lot of students are under.”

A culture supporting poor mental health U of T’s stressful culture, coupled with increases

Dr. Judith Friedland is a professor emerita in the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy.

COURTESY OF JUDITH FRIEDLAND

in financial and housing insecurity, all play into why Friedland believes that mental health has been on the forefront of many students’ minds.

However, she maintains that the literature is still unclear and undecided on concrete connections.

“I would like to see more emphasis put on how the university can deal with some of that,” commented Friedland on the ways in which universities can support students.

On the UMLAP, Friedland admits to not being completely caught up on the discourse, but

did comment on the perception that the policy is punitive through its wording.

“Just the word ‘mandated’ somehow sounded very punitive as opposed to helpful… In mental health and occupational therapy and psychiatric work, we talk about a therapeutic alliance,” Friedland said in explaining her hesitations about the policy. “Whoever is trying to help you, makes an alliance with you, and so you’re moving forward together… that terminology that it’s ‘mandated,’ it sounds like something so arbitrary.”

Toronto City Council approves transit deal with province, against SCSU wishes

The expansion plan excludes Eglinton East LRT, which would stop at UTSC Mikaela Toone Associate News Editor

On October 29, Toronto City Council approved a transit deal with the Ontario government, whereby the province will cover the cost, planning, design, and construction of four new subway projects: the Ontario Line, the Yonge Street Subway Extension, the Line 2 East Extension, which will see three stops added to Line 2 deeper into Scarborough, and the Eglinton West light rail transit (LRT).

The deal has been met with student opposition, particularly at the UTSC campus. Not included in the provincial plan is the Eglinton East LRT which would extend the planned Eglinton West LRT eastward and include a stop at UTSC.

SCSU urges city to prioritize Scarborough transit users At an executive meeting of City Council on October 23, Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) President Chemi Lhamo had asked city councillors to not “approve a plan that leaves the Eglinton East [LRT] out of the map. Unite with the students and transit users in Scarborough.”

Lhamo, as well as SCSU Vice-President, Campus Life, Sarah Mohamed, urged City Council to prioritize the needs of underserved Scarborough transit users, specifically those of UTSC students.

At the October 23 meeting, Lhamo and Mohamed proceeded to explain in greater detail some of the difficulties of using transit to commute to UTSC. Lhamo highlighted in particular her experience with delays of the 905 bus, which

stops at UTSC. In addition, Lhamo pointed out that students who take the Durham bus from UTSC, which is not allowed to use TTC routes, are forced to wait on a lawn with no bus stop.

“It’s not safe, there’s no sidewalk,” explained Mohamed.

“We have been promised [the Eglinton East LRT] from year to year but have continuously been sidelined,” Lhamo wrote to The Varsity, adding that the line could cut down the commute of some students by more than 30 minutes.

The City of Toronto’s response Councillor Jennifer McKelvie, who represents Scarborough–Rouge Park where UTSC is located, noted that Scarborough’s most recent railbased transit update took place in 1985.

UTSC students oppose new transit deal that leaves out a Line 5 extension to the Scarborough campus.

ADAM E. MOREIRA/CC WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Mayor John Tory acknowledged that disagreement exists on the idea of the provincial government paying for additions to Toronto’s subway.

However, Tory pointed out that this would free up funding for the city to implement proposals such as the Eglinton East LRT. “As much as you’re critical of some aspects of this deal, [this] would be a step forward to getting the Eglinton [East] LRT built,” said Tory.

Tory’s Executive Director of Communications, Don Peat, clarified in an email to The Varsity that this transit deal would free up $5 billion for the city to put toward keeping existing Toronto transit in good repair and investing in other transit expansion projects, including the Eglinton East LRT.

Business

November 11, 2019 var.st/business biz@thevarsity.ca

$3.1 million of the 2019–2020 net operating budget will fund a project in the Davis Building.

UTM plans for five capital construction projects

Enrolment growth, research goals prompted need for new infrastructure Srivindhya Kolluru Business Editor

The UTM Campus Council announced plans for new and ongoing capital construction projects for the 2019–2020 academic year on October 2.

Of the $274.5 million net operating budget of 2019–2020, $44.6 million will be allocated toward capital construction projects.

The Arts, Culture & Technology (ACT) Building; Robotics Lab Environment; a new residence building; and the Annex are in early planning stages, while construction for the Science Building is expected to begin later this fall. “[The] Annex will be a new modular building located beside our current Academic Annex…

and will house Campus Police and Hospitality Services,” Chief Administrative Officer Saher Fazilat wrote in an email to The Varsity.

According to Fazilat, $41.5 million out of $44.6 million will go toward the proposed ACT Building, and the remaining $3.1 million to “a project in [the] Davis [Building].”

The proposed ACT Building will house several departments, like the Institute for Communication, Culture, Information and Technology, Computer Science, Robotics, and units like the Blackwood Gallery and the Indigenous Centre.

According to Fazilat, the proposed construction projects are a response to enrollment growth.

UTM plans for a five per cent undergraduate enrollment growth by the 2022–2023 academic

year, according to the Planning and Budget Office’s 2018 Enrolment Report.

14,544 full-time undergraduate students are enrolled in full-time studies at UTM this year, a 630 student increase from the office’s projected enrollment goals for UTM. New intake of full-time undergraduate students “won’t increase over fall 2019 levels,” wrote Fazilat.

Yet, this increase has prompted a need for more student spaces, like a new residence building.

“There are very few available residence spaces for upper-year students and fewer still for graduate students,” wrote Fazilat.

Fazilat also wrote that the proposed construction projects aim “to enhance our research agenda.”

Jessica Burgner-Kahrs, Director of Continu-

JEANLOUIS REBELLO/THE VARSITY

um Robotics Laboratory, has been working with UTM to plan the proposed Robotics Lab Environment since she was hired in June.

“Having a building that had our needs in mind from the beginning will be transformational, so [that] our robotics program can really be the best and the biggest in Canada,” said Brugner-Kahrs in an interview with The Varsity. “And that will be great for UTM and U of T in general.”

The Science Building, “one of the largest capital projects at U of T,” will house the Centre for Medicinal Chemistry, wet research laboratories, the Research Computing Data Centre, offices for science departments, and space for facilities support.

Upward of $20 million in funding for the Science Building was approved by the Governing Council in 2017.

The building will be located between the Terrence Donnelly Health Sciences Complex and the Davis Building, and is expected to be completed by 2023.

The Fields Institute announces its latest startup incubator cohort

From artificial intelligence to genomic engineering, these four startups are fasttracking mathematical innovation Alice Fang Varsity Contributor

The Fields Institute Centre for Quantitative Analysis and Modelling announced its partnerships with four Toronto-based startups in September: Agnostiq, Clientelligent, Syndemedic, and Tesseraqt. The centre, comprised of 11 laboratories, aims “to solve real-world problems in science and technology while training the next generation of innovators.”

Agnostiq uses quantum computing to protect client data Agnostiq, an enterprise security company, is building software that enables users to store their data over a quantum cloud.

Quantum computing can be considered the next stage of innovation in computing. In classical computing, information is stored in bits — the smallest unit of data in a computer — that are represented as one of two binary states.

On the other hand, quantum computers store information as quantum bits, which allows information to be represented in an infinite number of states.

This means that quantum computers can perform extremely complex calculations, which classical computers would not be able to execute, and even break encryption.

Large banks and enterprises are migrating to cloud-based servers to handle “complex workloads” but the cloud environment is vulnerable to attacks, according to Elliot MacGowan, a cofounder of Agnostiq.

“The problem with that is that the cloud envi-

The Centre for Quantitative Analysis and Modelling helps launch math-based businesses.

COURTESY OF TRACY BARBERFIELDS/CQAM

ronment itself is public,” said MacGowan.

Companies gain a computational advantage by sending workloads to the cloud, but “lose out on security.” Agnostiq creates another layer of encryption in order to allow users to work with their data to ensure that “nobody can listen in or understand what you’re doing.”

Clientelligent used artificial intelligence to predict client behaviour As a former financial services executive, Darren Cabral, the CEO of Clientelligent, found it challenging to effectively engage with clients and retain them in the investment and wealth management industry.

Cabral co-founded Clientelligent, which applies artificial intelligence (AI) to anticipate client needs and preferences and provide them with more personalized experiences, thus allowing financial companies to grow.

AI can have a transformative effect on corporations, but they often don’t know where to begin or how to implement it, noted Cabral.

Clientelligent “brings to the table a full ser-

vice, start to finish,” said Cabral. The startup helps companies explore their existing data and use them to attract clients. The startup is now working with various established financial institutions and hopes to recruit new talent through the Fields Institute.

Syndemedic applied math to drug discovery The cost of researching and developing a new drug can be expensive, and it can take decades to bring a single new drug to the market. Add to this the fact that the failure rate of molecules found through traditional trials is over 90 per cent, and the costs of development quickly pile up.

“Oftentimes you don’t realize that [a] new, very exciting potential cure for Alzheimer’s isn’t going to work until you spend almost a billion dollars on it,” said Mclean Edwards, CEO of Syndemedic.

Syndemedic uses drug design algorithms in computer systems to simulate molecular processes, predicting the side effects and various performance of drugs in development before clinical testing.

This software could help researchers select more effective compounds and could better inform researchers on whether a particular compound will pass clinical testing.

The startup is now working with pharmaceutical research groups to find high-quality compounds that can go through the stream.

Tesseraqt hopes to eliminate side-effects of CRISPR genome engineering CRISPR, a gene-editing technique, is considered “the holy grail in genome engineering,” said Erno Wienholds, co-founder of Tesseraqt.

However, as a new and upcoming technique, it still comes with many risks, potential sideeffects, and off-target effects.

To offset these risks, Tesseraqt uses mathematical systems to predict the outcomes of CRISPR-based genetic modification procedures.

While the prototype is still being optimized, Tesseraqt hopes to partner with regenerative medicine companies to develop CRISPR-based gene therapies or manufacture drugs.

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NOVEMBER 11, 2019

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U of T team wins 2019 James Dyson Award for wearable gel pack for menstrual pain Undu is a silicone-based gel pack designed to fit lower abdomen Sophia Bai Varsity Contributor

Undu is a thin, flexible gel pack than can be worn under clothing.

COURTESY OF DYSON CANADA

Undu is a thin, wearable gel pack that is shaped to fit the lower abdomen of your body.

Because of its soft material, the gel pack can be integrated into underwear.

The wearable gel pack was designed to relieve menstrual pain.

Undu won the 2019 James Dyson Award in September, an international design award that recognizes innovative design engineers.

Charles Katrycz, Robin Linton, Katherine Porter,

How e-cigarette ads have targeted North American teens

Big Tobacco is betting on e-cigarettes to capture the market of Canadian minors Adam A. Lam Science Editor

A planned merger between tobacco giants Philip Morris International and Altria Group would have heralded “a new era of Big Tobacco,” according to Bloomberg.

But talks of the $187 billion deal collapsed on September 25 following President Donald Trump’s administration’s announcement that it would ban most flavoured e-cigarette sales in the United States.

Trump justified the decision with reports of an outbreak of lung injury cases associated with e-cigarettes, to which more than 1,000 cases and 18 deaths have been linked to in the US. He also cited the high e-cigarette usage among minors in the US. On September 27, a Québec resident was confirmed as the first reported case of a vaping-related illness in Canada.

A recent study reported that around 15 per cent of teenagers aged 16–19 in Canada vaped within a month of the survey, which occurred from 2016– 2017.

Canadian law prohibits advertising vaping to minors, but regulation is rarely enforced Canadian federal law prohibits “any promotion of tobacco or vapour products, including advertising, that may be appealing to young people.”

But the law is loosely enforced in Ontario, according to CBC News.

Health advocates have demanded ads for vaping be restricted in stores, similar to the law on tobacco products, which forbids the placement of tobacco ads in areas accessible to minors.

The lack of a rigorous definition of “appealing to young people,” together with thousands of outlets present in Ontario with e-cigarette advertisements, causes enforcement to be impractical.

In Ontario, it is illegal to sell vaping products to people under the age of 19. However, “there are always some stores willing to sell to minors without checking ID,” wrote Robert Schwartz, a professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, to The Varsity.

Other sources include older siblings, friends, parents, and the black market.

Such sales may have propelled Juul Labs, the San Francisco-based startup that popularized vaping, to grow to a $38 billion valuation at its peak.

Juul became the third most popular e-cigarette brand among teens in Canada within weeks of its first sales in the country. In December, Altria purchased a 35 per cent minority stake in the company, anticipating a future where vaping is more popular than cigarettes.

The Federal Trade Commission is currently investigating Juul for targeting minors in its marketing, as its advertising campaign involved payments to social media influencers to promote Juul.

The company maintains it was a pilot project of limited size.

The US Food and Drug Administration and several US state attorneys general are also investigating Juul. Federal prosecutors in California launched a criminal investigation into Juul on September 23, though the focus of the probe remains unknown.

Juul denied that it has ever marketed to minors, maintaining that its marketing efforts are “all conveyed in a style, tone and message tailored to current adult smokers.”

Why is vaping attractive to minors?

Juul devices have been described as being “as slick as iPhones and as tasty and addictive as candy.”

A Juul e-cigarette is comprised of two parts: the stick and the pod. The stick, shaped like a USB drive, can fit in the palm of a hand. The pod contains a concentrated solution of nicotine, with a typical one being advertised as having the same amount as a pack of cigarettes.

The cost of a kit, which includes a USB charger, is about $65.

The taste is also one of Juul’s selling points. Flavoured Juul pods currently account for more than 80 per cent of Juul’s sales, and as such, the planned US-wide ban on flavoured e-cigarettes could be devastating for the firm’s revenue.

“Mainly, in many youth circles, vaping is fashionable,” wrote Schwartz. “A common story is that e-cigarettes get shared at a party, it becomes cool

and Graham McLaughlin worked together to create Undu, and Associate Professor Benjamin Hatton and Professor Glenn Hibbard helped the team to design and manufacture the “world’s thinnest wearable gel pack.”

Undu can be filled with any kind of thermal liquid or gel that can be found in other heat packs.

This feature is a result of the manufacturing process, which injects flow channels into the silicone material.

The technology behind the Undu gel pack is based on some of Katrycz’s research and material processing procedures as a PhD student in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering.

As a team, the four have complementary skills and mindsets: Linton came up with the idea of trying to solve menstrual pain, Katrycz and McLaughlin worked primarily on the manufacturing process, and Porter worked on the end product design and applicability.

The group had been working on the product for a few months before they learned about the award and thought it would be a great opportunity to

kick Undu into high gear.

Porter said in an interview with The Varsity that the team wanted to solve a problem that is “not adequately addressed and immersed in the market.”

The group hopes that the technology will help “revolutionize an area that we think requires attention and hasn’t really received it.”

Katrycz and Porter noted that during the innovation process, it is more important to ask the right questions than to find the right answers.

As such, the team surveyed nearly 120 people to better understand how their technology could be applied.

Porter and Katrycz conveyed in the interview that the potential of the technology to solve a problem as important as menstrual pain was what led to their submission to the James Dyson Award.

Now, the team is developing prototypes and working with other technical garment designers to integrate Undu into a technical fabric that can be worn on the body. Once the product reaches the market, the team hopes to make the price accessible to consumers.

to do it, after a few times, the nicotine takes effect and quickly enough some become dependent.”

Vaping is likely to be “significantly less harmful” than smoking cigarettes since it doesn’t involve burning tobacco. However, this might not be the case for unregulated products, which could be the cause behind the recent outbreak of lung injuries.

versus fighting it,” wrote Soberman.

The two firms strategized to outcompete rivals who did not offer cigarette alternatives, according to the Financial Times, which led to the now-cancelled merger.

Despite further setbacks to the e-cigarette market, such as Walmart’s September 20 announcement that it would stop selling all e-cigarette products, a merger between Philip Morris International and Altria could still be in the books.

Five days after Walmart’s announcement, the Financial Times reported that Philip Morris International will likely reconsider a deal with Altria once the regulatory environment settles.

Such a merger could strengthen Juul’s international advertising and distribution in markets such as Canada’s.

How are e-cigarettes advertised?

According to a 2019 study, Juul’s marketing has targeted minors since its product launch in 2015.

The co-authors found that Juul’s advertising highlighted sweet and fruity flavours in its products, featured youthful models in their 20s, and hired social media influencers to promote the product.

“This advertising in 2015 was short-lived, intended for adults, and took place well before JUUL gained any meaningful market share,” wrote Juul in a statement reported by Vox in January. This statement contradicts the conclusions of the 2019 study.

Pervasive advertising of e-cigarettes normalizes their usage, according to Schwartz, speaking on their marketing, which appears on social media, billboards, television, public transit, and convenience stores.

Why is Big Tobacco investing in e-cigarettes?

Despite the market for cigarettes shrinking since 1982, revenue from cigarette sales have soared, according to a 2013 U of T study.

While “the number of cigarettes sold in the U.S. fell by 37% from 2001 to 2016,” according to The Wall Street Journal, tobacco companies still managed to raise cigarette revenue by 32 per cent.

Cigarette sales have similarly fallen by 37 per cent in Canada from 2001–2017, though the change in revenue from these sales over time is unclear.

“When markets decline, the consumers who leave the market… have the lowest willingness to pay,” wrote David Soberman, a marketing professor in the Rotman School of Management and co-author of the 2013 paper, to The Varsity.

Canadian tobacco companies have gradually raised prices to boost profits, and also boosted revenue by cutting costs and facilitating mergers.

However, Philip Morris International and Altria made a long-term bet that cigarette alternatives could sharply supplant cigarette smoking.

When talks of a merger began in August, tobacco executives told the Financial Times that tobacco alternatives could be as profitable as cigarettes after heavy marketing investment.

“If consumers are going to leave the cigarette market anyway because the perceived safety of ecigarettes is higher, it is best to go with the trend

Health advocates are urging the Ontario government to impose stricter regulations on how vaping products are advertised.

JENNA LIAO/THE VARSITY

Comment

November 11, 2019 var.st/comment comment@thevarsity.ca

Academic success is a point of stress for many students.

It’s not enough to simply link to resources, mental health care must begin in classrooms

We must re-orient academics to include mental health education Mélina Lévesque Varsity Contributor

There is more behind U of T’s high rankings than meets the eye.

Despite the university’s rising reputation of high academic excellence, student well-being is plummeting. The university is drastically failing to take effective steps toward combatting the urgent mental health crisis. We need a critical re-evaluation, re-calculation, and reformation of U of T’s mental health policy and the administration’s approaches to student well-being.

Following the fourth death of a student on the grounds of UTSG in less than two years, students continue to tirelessly ask the question,

TOSIN MAIYEGUN/THE VARSITY

“How do you sleep at night?” to administration, an admonition and a plea to raise alarms that should have sounded off far sooner.

Which resources are currently available to students in crisis?

The Health & Wellness website lists resources such as workshops, emergency hotlines, and information on counselling appointments. This digital space is one of the main places where mental health resources at U of T are accessibly described.

However, the website’s vision to improve mental health resources, exemplified by its comment that, “We all have a role to play in mental wellness on campus,” comes off as blank statements lacking proactive steps to back them up.

Without an effective path to actually move toward improving mental wellness, circulating a website link of resources for the sake of claiming that there are resources doesn’t do much for making a change.

Simply noting that ‘the resources are there’ is not enough. Making resources available on an online or physical platform only begins to take on meaning when students who require help begin to feel like they can engage and reach out to the resources in front of them.

Access to mental health resources and tools is something that every academic institution should have, but many are lacking. Mental health resources are, in theory, present on campus grounds, but they are not actively and visibly accessible to students.

The reality is that U of T’s administration is

a reactive, rather than proactive, administration.

It’s playing a game of catch-up with its students when it comes to opening up the conversation on mental health. The third phase of the Mental Health Task Force makes this clear. It consists of a summary of what students have long tried to communicate to administration.

Discussions of mental health must be integrated into the various structures that affect the daily lives of students — such as classrooms — instead of separate structures outside of the academic scope of the university. They need to become a part of the university instead of something separate from it.

In a large institution like U of T, resources must trickle down into program and classroomoriented designs, instead of waiting for students to reach out of their own volition.

While it is recognized that our professors and teaching assistants are not our therapists or counsellors, there is nothing wrong with ensuring that educators are able to identify signs and symptoms of student distress as a part of the internal structure and design of specific academic programs. In the kaleidoscopic maze that is U of T, mental health awareness and discussion must migrate from the closed doors of administration into the classrooms where students are present.

In a university where students have familiarized themselves with a toxic mindset that equates stress to success, the harmful academic culture must be remoulded.

Students can no longer stand as just a number that either stays or gets excluded from the system based on a calculated grade. As expressed

by Guelph University’s approaches to mental health and commitment toward taking proactive steps to supporting the mental well-being of students, we must adopt a whole-person view of students when addressing the mental health crisis. This is especially true at a university like U of T, whose large population makes it easy to feel like just another number.

Living behind the shadow of academic success that solely focuses on U of T’s well-renowned ranking amongst other universities blatantly ignores the personal needs of students that live beyond the headlines of “top [university] in Canada.” Moreover, it sends a message of sheer ignorance that silences the voices of students who are making powerful pleas for change in the way the university externalizes mental health resources.

The personal concerns that are impacting students’ day-to-day lives as members of an academic institution must become an essential institutional priority instead of a side issue that is discussed every time a student dies.

The mental health issue on campus is obvious.

U of T can send around links to resources such as Good2Talk, Health & Wellness counselling, and different phone numbers to call. But the administration needs to realize that this is not about resources and a long list of phone numbers. This is about structures that have allowed mental health problems to persist on campus, and how they must be re-evaluated and rebuilt.

Mélina Lévesque is a fourth-year Anthropology and Political Science student at Victoria College.

U of T needs to address student opposition to the UMLAP Lack of acknowledgement from administration is hurtful and dismissive

Sonia Uppal Varsity Contributor

On October 24, students stood outside Simcoe Hall in solidarity as a Governing Council meeting took place inside. This was the second time since September that students gathered in response to the university’s continued lack of policy changes regarding mental health issues, both for student inclusiveness in decision-making processes and general disregard of student wellbeing on campus.

There is a lack of open communication between the student body and Governing Council. The valid concerns of students are not being addressed — and we have had enough.

Time and again, student organizations have tried to create an open dialogue with university administration. Following a year of mental health protests and discussions, student activ-

ists released a report titled “Nothing About Us Without Us.” The report is a well-researched and direct statement that highlights mental health resources that need improving, policies that need to be changed, as well as long and short-term recommendations to benefit student wellness.

As discussed at the rally in front of Simcoe Hall, the recommendations outlined in the report have not yet been adequately addressed, and the lack of action from administration has been interpreted as hurtful and dismissive. Students should have a say in the policies that affect them, and if the university continues to exclude students in these decisions it will only worsen the divide between administrators and the student body.

A poignant example of this is the highly contested university-mandated leave of absence policy (UMLAP), which allows the administration to place students on a leave from their studies

if their mental health is determined to pose a threat to themselves or others. Understandably, this policy was one of the main topics of discussion during the rally.

“Cut the crap, repeal UMLAP,” was the catchiest chant of the gathering.

Protestors were able to communicate with a few students who were attending the meeting inside. According to these students, the council reacted to these chants by saying that the opposition to the UMLAP was not backed with evidence. The university’s ombudsperson also recently doubled down on UMLAP, causing understandable backlash.

The UMLAP works reactively. The administration is shirking its responsibility to provide preventative mental health services and fix ineffective systems. This policy does little for students seeking help. If a student is forced to leave school, being left to fend for themselves can

further harm their mental health and intensify suicidal thoughts.

This policy may claim to help students, but, as discussed at the rally, it only makes matters worse. Individuals are potentially less inclined to share their struggles with the university in fear of being placed on a mandated leave.

The UMLAP fails to effectively accommodate various student experiences, and students will continue to voice their concerns on this topic until a change is made.

The decisions made by Governing Council impact each and every person on campus, and the community that students have built around solidarity and genuine care for one another is inspiring and powerful. The university cannot ignore this resistance forever.

Sonia Uppal is a third-year Equity Studies student at St. Michael’s College.

Students protest in opposition to the university's Mandated Leave of Absence Policy.

SHANNA HUNTER/THE VARSITY

Editorial

November 11, 2019 var.st/comment editorial@thevarsity.ca

The election’s over — let’s get to work on reconciliation with Indigenous peoples Following Indigenous Education Week, we reflect on the role of government, university, and media in reconciliation The Varsity Editorial Board

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)’s final report, released in 2015, documented the history and lasting legacy of Canada’s residential school system, where the government forcibly removed Indigenous children from their communities and placed them in abusive schools that aimed to erase their culture and identity.

We know that this colonial history, which is not limited to residential schools, has led to high rates of poverty, unemployment, suicide, substance use disorder, and poorer health and education outcomes in Indigenous communities. Yet institutional responses have been inadequate, and meaningful action is lacking.

The recent federal election, where Indigenous issues were sidelined, also urges us and our newly elected government to begin to create meaningful change beyond rhetoric. While Canada’s government has made progress in improving the lives of Indigenous peoples, it has made severe missteps along the way. Remedying them will be no easy task, but the new government should start with efforts to bridge the socioeconomic gap and public health issues facing Indigenous peoples.

U of T also can do much more on the topic of reconciliation. Last week, from October 28 to November 1, First Nations House ran events for its annual Indigenous Education Week, providing an opportunity for the U of T community to learn, reflect, and act on the pressing issue of settler-Indigenous reconciliation in this country.

Trudeau has miles to go to gain Indigenous peoples’ trust concerning the pipeline. Whether that means halting construction on the expansion entirely or selling a majority share to Indigenousled shareholders, the rights and resources of Indigenous communities must be a prime concern with any decision made regarding the pipeline.

The Trudeau government’s decision to appeal the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruling ordering the payment of compensation to First Nations children and families over a “chronically underfunded child-welfare system” is further evidence of its devaluation of Indigenous reconciliation.

In doing so, Trudeau has directly contradicted his public declaration of support for Indigenous communities. While he agreed with the ruling, his excuses his appeal by citing the length of time the tribunal set as too short. However, this stance is unforgivably damaging and demoralizing.

Trudeau must commit his government to reconciliatory efforts at any cost.

remedy the missteps taken during Trudeau’s first term in office. The election is not an indication of success. Trudeau failed to end all boil-water advisories, as promised. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is not yet implemented. Even with a majority government, the Liberals were unable to prove themselves capable of making these changes.

For one, Canada’s government should implement recommendations by UNDRIP, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG), and the TRC. This is especially true as the Liberal Party, New Democratic Party, and the Green Party have made commitments on their platforms to implement their calls to justice.

While the publication of the MMIWG report is a big step in the right direction, it’s up to this government to make the structural changes needed for reconciliation.

The media Media outlets, including The Varsity, also have a responsibility for meaningful and appropriate coverage of Indigenous issues.

We must responsibly provide the context necessary to understand Indigenous issues. Journalists must be mindful to explain how present-day challenges are rooted in systems and institutions

It is incumbent on young people especially to correct the wrongs of our predecessors in this era of reconciliation. It is vital, therefore, for us to reflect on where government, the university, and media stand, and how they can move forward.

The federal government On October 21, Canada’s federal elections concluded with Liberal Leader and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau winning a minority government.

According to The Globe and Mail, National Chief Perry Bellegarde, the leader of the Assembly of First Nations, said that the Liberals have been the most effective first-term government in the sphere of Indigenous rights.

Examples of achievements include the government’s efforts to end boil-water advisories via upgrading water and wastewater systems, as well as forgiveness of more than a billion dollars in loans to pursue land claims.

However, Bellegarde also highlighted the significant socioeconomic gap between First Nations and non-Indigenous Canadians. For now, he suggests moving toward reducing the number of boil-water advisories, taking action that reflects upon the urgency of the climate crisis, protecting Indigenous languages via legislation, and giving Indigenous communities authority over child and family services.

Additionally, the Trudeau government’s push for the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline has been heavily criticized by Indigenous groups.

The expanded pipeline runs through numerous First Nations territories, alongside freshwater sources. Any potential defects in the pipeline threaten these communities’ access to safe drinking water.

The government’s choice to expand the pipeline demonstrates a worrying prioritization of profit over reconciliation.

Overall, U of T has taken some meaningful steps to implement the recommendations of the TRC report. However, further progress is needed to ensure U of T’s contribution to Indigenous reconciliation.

The Varsity calls on U of T to take a stronger stance on Indigenous issues, especially on the university’s involvement in the Thirty Meter Telescope project, which threatens the land of Indigenous peoples in Hawaii.

We further call on U of T to make a larger impact to preserve Indigenous languages and through course offerings and partnerships with Indigenous communities.

Intercultural initiatives like the WaakebinessBryce Institute for Indigenous Health — which takes a specific community and socioeconomic approach to learning that strives to address all aspects affect the health outcomes of Indigenous communities — must be further developed and supported across all fields of study.

Universities are historic centres of progress and we must lead by example by integrating reconciliatory efforts into our curriculum, structures, and operational policies.

IRIS DENG/THE VARSITY

Furthermore, Trudeau has received sustained criticism for his handling of the SNC-Lavalin affair. At its crux, Trudeau removed Jody WilsonRaybould, a member of the We Wai Kai Nation and former attorney general, from the Liberal caucus following her refusal to let the SNC-Lavalin engineering company settle a legal case to avoid a criminal trial on corruption.

Canada’s ethics commissioner later concluded in August that Trudeau’s pressuring of WilsonRaybould to halt her criminal investigation breached the Conflict of Interest Act. The Varsity calls on the federal government to implement solutions backed by experts, which includes empowering Indigenous communities to manage their own community health services, further investing in infrastructure for water treatment in Indigenous communities, and improving education funding for First Nations children on reserves.

These recommendations are only the beginning. The TRC has also made additional recommendations for the federal government to follow to further reconciliation.

The elected Liberal minority government must

U of T In a direct response to the 2015 TRC report, U of T struck a steering committee to realize the report’s recommendations.

The committee has advised U of T to create dedicated Indigenous spaces at all three campuses, increase hiring of Indigenous faculty and staff, and integrate Indigenous curriculum content in its programs.

Following the committee’s report, a Faculty of Arts & Science commission recommended the construction of a new Indigenous college at UTSG. U of T has also hired two Indigenous academic advisors, professors Suzanne Stewart and Susan Hill, in response to the TRC’s report. Their work will include investigating ways for researchers to work with Indigenous communities, as well as designing and redesigning curricula to improve education on Indigenous issues.

The university has made further steps to launch Indigenous-focused initiatives, including the Deepening Knowledge Project, the Indigenous Education Network, and the TRC Implementation Committee.

designed to eradicate Indigenous culture.

It’s also important to understand and recognize the identity of interviewees. Indigenous people are composed of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples. Proper representation stems from the understanding that within these groups are a rich variety of cultures and languages who deserve nuanced portrayals in the media.

The final MMIWG report has made recommendations for responses by media outlets to address the issue of systemic violence faced by Indigenous peoples in Canada.

These recommendations include ensuring “authentic and appropriate representation of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people,” to avoid the spread of negative and discriminatory stereotypes.

The commission has also called on the media to support “Indigenous people sharing their stories, from their perspectives, free of bias, discrimination, and false assumptions, and in a traumainformed and culturally sensitive way.”

Such stereotypes include typecasting Indigenous people as “warriors, victims, or magical creatures.” At times, even when the media tries to positively capture Indigenous resistance and action, it can still perpetuate stereotypes. Consider when a cartoonist portrayed Wilson-Raybould challenging Trudeau in the context of the SNC-Lavalin scandal while wearing feathers and a leather fringe; the second cartoonist to face a backlash over stereotyping Wilson-Raybould during the affair.

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

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THE VARSITY

FEATURES

“You fear what you don’t understand”: prejudice against homelessness around Toronto

Writer: Lucy Stark Illustrator: Fiona Tung

I was on a casual, brisk walk around Queen’s Park — not through it, not after all of the stories and jokes I’d heard about what happens there after sunset. I was making my way to class with a friend when we saw a man walking toward us. Appearing unwashed, he wore baggy sweatpants and a ragged long sleeve shirt. I immediately felt uneasy as he approached.

He made eye contact with us once he was within a couple of paces, and I quickly sidestepped away from his path and averted my eyes to the opposite side of the street. My friend, who is less inclined to flee in uncomfortable situations, maintained eye contact and allowed the man to approach him.

The question that the man asked my friend was the last thing I was expecting: “Can you tell me how to get to Hart House?” My friend delivered a quick and slightly incoherent response, and we walked away, both sighing a breath of relief.

In that moment, as I thought back to the way my eyes had dropped and my heart raced, I was forced to confront a truth that I’d been unwilling to admit ever since moving to Toronto: I tend to fear those experiencing homelessness. This encounter hasn’t been a unique experience in my life. Whenever I encounter someone who appears to be living on the streets, I feel a strange mix of discomfort, apprehension, and guilt.

A conversation on prejudice I sat down with Steven Lee, a second-year nursing student at U of T who experienced homelessness from ages 16–19, to discuss this seemingly programmed response of mine. He simply but profoundly said, “You fear what you don’t understand.”

And that’s exactly it. While I can only speak

from my own experience, I think it’s safe to assume that many of us do not fear the basic definition of experiencing homelessness; rather, we fear the misinformed connotation that we attach to the idea of homelessness.

The predisposed conclusions that we draw from seeing someone sleeping on a sidewalk — that they must be dirty, experience drug use disorder, or mental illness — hinder us from understanding the reality of the situation.

“Homelessness can be anyone who doesn’t have a solid state of living,” said Lee. “Because they have — especially in the more extreme cases — a hard time finding stability in their life, the lack of stability that’s present in their outward appearance scares people.”

However, as we’ve always been told, appearances can be deceiving.

“If you were to look at me, would you assume that I’m homeless?” Lee asked. When I said no, he replied, “but right now I’m dressed the same way as when I was 16 and homeless, or very similarly.”

“The fact is that most people judge homelessness by appearance, but homelessness is much more than that.”

Otherness breeds fear, and a lack of consistent food, shelter, and income is a foreign concept to some of us. In order to break down these barriers, we need to learn how to empathize with those experiencing homelessness. Without empathy, we usually resort to sympathy, a feeling that isn’t always effective to truly understand someone else’s story.

Lee recognizes that in a place like Toronto, there are very particular barriers that block our ability to see past preconceived prejudices.

“When we talk about a culture that highlights privilege in the way our city does, it gets really hard to empathize with a class that you’re not

associated with,” Lee remarked.

Addressing housing as a human right Although it’s difficult, we cannot continue to avert our eyes from the reality of homelessness. As of April 2018, there were 8,715 people experiencing homelessness in Toronto. These numbers are still rising due to economic conditions, the inaccessible housing market, and the influx of refugees and asylum seekers.

When addressing homelessness, many government policies have been discussed and plans have been enacted, but nevertheless the issue persists. Our incomprehension of such an experience has resulted in biased, ineffective public policy and a persistent lack in long-term solutions to the crisis.

One of Toronto’s main efforts to alleviate homelessness is the creation and expansion of shelters, which includes 24-hour respite sites, Out of the Cold programs, and more permanent shelters. However, the underlying issue of all these shelters is that they are short-term solutions to a long-term problem.

“Our city is in a state where homelessness is still on the rise, and if you don’t find these people homes, it’s like putting a bucket underneath a dripping roof,” said Lee. The municipal government’s focus on providing shelters reflects a larger issue at hand: instead of viewing people experiencing homelessness as capable and intelligent citizens, we view them as charity cases in need of our paternalism. While shelters and donations are by no means an irrelevant contribution, these alone are insufficient to address the core of the issue: a lack of housing.

Leilani Farha, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing, stresses the need to view housing as a human right.

Farha hopes to change perceptions of housing as an economic good to a social good through her nationwide efforts in “The Shift,” a movement that intends to protect the right to housing and end worldwide homelessness.

“The Right to Adequate housing is a human right according to the United Nations… because of the close relationship between housing and dignity,” Farha wrote to The Varsity. “[It’s] pretty hard to have human dignity when living in homelessness on the streets or doubled or tripled up with friends and family, or when living in housing without running water.”

Instead of increasing shelter space, the government’s priorities should shift to a housingfirst approach. Housing first essentially means locating and placing someone in a permanent residence before addressing any mental health, addiction, abuse, or unemployment issues that may have contributed to their current state.

Advocates of this approach argue that once someone is in a home, they will begin to feel more secure, empowered, and capable, allowing

features@thevarsity.ca

On eliminating otherness through empathy

every other concern to be approached in a more sustainable manner.

“I don’t feel safe” In addition to being a short-term solution, shelters are also notorious for stringent rules and unsafe conditions.

“A shelter can’t necessarily guarantee the safety of its residence occupants, mostly due to either… [a lack of ] man-power or other factors,” Lee said.

Lee also added that the shelter system is not sustainable for all.

“You’re held by a certain set of rules according to the shelter, which is totally logical because the shelter has to keep in mind and protect people who are interested in helping themselves, to a degree,” said Lee. Lee points to shelters’ curfews as one example of a rule that can be difficult.

“What generally results is that these homeless individuals… might have a bad day and not meet curfew or something like that,” Lee said. “They have to be discharged and they’re back to being on the street, which is one step back from where they need to be.”

Some people experiencing homelessness even prefer living outside, in self-constructed

encampments or on sidewalks, rather than facing the brutal realities of some of the city’s shelters.

Benjamin Boucher told The Globe and Mail of his experience with homelessness. “I have a really difficult time with [shelters]… I don’t feel safe inside.” Instead, he chose to live under the Spadina Avenue overpass because he was “less stressed” and slept more peacefully in his makeshift community.

Unfortunately for Boucher and many other individuals experiencing homelessness, the Toronto City Council sent eviction notices to these tented neighborhoods in January, telling the residents that they had two weeks to clear out. Although on the surface this may seem like a reasonable request, as public areas like highway bypasses and parks are not meant to be residential camp sites, it raises a bigger question about the inherent freedom of those facing homelessness.

Government responsibility Jeremy Waldron, a New York University professor of law and philosophy, wrote an essay titled “Homelessness and the Issue of Freedom.”

In it, he argues that if people are expected to perform certain tasks on their private property and not public property, then those without private property aren’t actually free to perform those “private” actions.

In terms of the highway encampments, people living there resort to performing their “private” actions of sleeping, relaxing, and various other necessities in public spaces. However, when the municipal government interferes and prevents these people from performing these vital functions under the highway, they force them to either break the law, or find another public space that hasn’t been put under these restrictions.

All of this circles back to the original dilemma:

shelter spaces may be either unavailable or unlivable, private spaces are inaccessible and unaffordable, and now there are fewer public spaces where one has the freedom to live.

The government has not done its part in addressing this issue. Despite approving the Open Door Affordable Housing Program in 2016, meant to use surplus public land to build affordable housing, few rental homes have actually been completed. In 2018, there were 1,459 homes approved — however, only 69 of those have been finished.

This gap between the plan and the finished product reflects the government’s consistent lack of effective housing-first solutions. Housing is an essential step, but there is also a huge intermediate process between experiencing homelessness and being housed. Rather than keeping people in a perpetual loop of homelessness through shortterm shelter solutions, or aiding the lucky few who can access the affordable housing market, the government needs to address all of the inbetween steps to ease and support this transition.

In a city and nation that emphasize individual liberty, the government continually oppresses individuals experiencing homelessness by leaving them without an option to lead the same lives as private property owners.

The lack of public pressure is one reason that governments manage to evade addressing homelessness as the human rights crisis that it is.

And why don’t we speak out against the injustice of overcrowded shelter systems, restrictive policies of public space, and absence of housingfirst programs? We are guided by inherent biases toward the population facing homelessness — biases based on fear instead of fact, and the issue is easier to ignore than to confront.

To combat this fear and ignorance, we should prioritize both personal development and public education on the reality of homelessness, and

open ourselves up to empathy.

According to Lee, the major steps that must be taken are to “remove stigma about homeless people, educate people on the advantages of these interventions, and get the personal stories of homeless people out there because you can’t empathize [if ] you don’t know.”

Echoing his message, Farha wrote, “It is essential to reframe homelessness as the failure of governments to effectively implement the right to housing and that people living in homelessness are rights holders who have been failed, rather than failures themselves.”

Farha pointed out that housing is necessary for people to exercise other essential human rights, “such as rights to health, education, and employment… and because adequate housing is crucial to the social conditions necessary for human dignity, it is intimately connected to the right to life.”

On an individual scale, we all have the capacity to improve public perception of homelessness by actively fighting our pre-existing stigmas. By volunteering at soup kitchens or shelters, or even by researching the reality of homelessness in our communities, we can make personal strides toward achieving universal housing.

It all starts with a conversation and some open-mindedness — something that I will prioritize the next time someone approaches me with a question at Queen’s Park.

Disclosure: Steven Lee was The Varsity’s 2017– 2018 Photo Editor.

Arts & Culture

November 11, 2019 var.st/arts arts@thevarsity.ca

Sure, Jesus is king, but did Kanye miss the beat?

A Kanye West film and album review Eddie Vargas Varsity Columnist

One night before releasing his ninth studio album of the same name, Kanye West treated his fans to JESUS IS KING, a 38-minute IMAX film which enjoyed a limited theatrical release worldwide. Despite being advertised as “A Kanye West Film,” his presence is barely felt throughout; instead, its cinematography and unique setting take precedence. Although pretty to look at, the film is otherwise an unnecessary contribution to Kanye’s once-visionary canon of work, and while this does not detract from the quality of the film, it did cause many audience members to leave the theatre expressing feelings of frustration and boredom.

Those looking for a documentarian insight into West’s born-again Christianity will be disappointed. Lacking any narrative or non-musical dialogue, JESUS IS KING is just a concert film.

The movie follows a series of 2019 summer performances by West’s new band, Sunday Service, a group of all-Black musicians that performs gospel renditions of West’s classic songs, alongside new material and traditional gospel. The film is directed by Nick Knight, who’s best known as an acclaimed fashion photographer for high-end brands such as Issey Miyake and Christian Dior, and for directing music videos for Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way,” Björk’s “Pagan Poetry,” and 2013 Yeezus-era Kanye.

Performances in the film range from the anthemic to melancholic — one particularly moving and stripped back performance of “Street Lights,” off of West’s 2008 album 808s & Heartbreak, brought much of the theatre, myself included, to tears.

However, the most illuminating qualities of the film come from the presence of visual artist James Turrell’s “Roden Crater,” presented here in stunning, IMAX clarity. “Roden Crater” is Turrell’s large scale art installation and architectural marvel which is housed inside of a volcanic crater in the middle of the Painted Desert in Arizona.

While construction on the site began in 1977, the work has not yet been completed, nor is it open to the public.

With 21 viewing sites and six interconnected tunnels which, according to the Roden Crater website, serve as “a naked eye observatory of earthly and celestial events that are both predictable and continually in flux,” this grandiose piece of land-art promises to amaze. Turrell’s towering structures and winding tunnels of light, while stunning, are in stark contrast to the beige and brown YEEZY-uniform-clad performers.

The greatest musical moments in the film come during evening performances, at which point Turrell’s walls and towers become muted as the spotlight shines down on the performers. The inclusion of this observatory as the principal setting for JESUS IS KING comes as no surprise, as West donated 10 million USD to the site’s construction earlier this year.

Despite running through some reworked West classics such as “Say You Will” and “Ultralight Beam,” JESUS IS KING ultimately feels less like the advertised Kanye West film, and more like a passion project that is desperately trying to convey the beauty of these three-dimensional, Turrell spaces through two-dimensional medium. In the end, JESUS IS KING is first and foremost a James Turrell movie, a great exercise in IMAX filmmaking second, and “A Kanye West Film” last.

Then there’s the album.

On Friday, October 25, after several weeks of delays, JESUS IS KING, the ninth full-length record from Kanye, was released. Clocking in at 28 minutes spread over 11 tracks, this is West’s weakest album to date, something that is in no part due to the religious lyricism or gospel genre dives that the record takes on, but rather due to a lack of substantial arrangements.

The Sunday Service members are missing from most of the songs here, instead replaced with cringe-worthy rappers that bring — in classic West fashion — a narcissistic take on the often selfless concept of faith. Whereas the film highlighted the humanity and beauty present in gospel and the human body, the album is instead rife with sub-par raps, poor audio mixes, and underwhelming production choices.

this song is a sobering reminder of what West is capable of if he continues to exercise the same perfectionist work ethic that brought us almost 20 years of masterpieces

“ ”

Some songs also come off as unfinished, a strange occurrence considering the various delays surrounding JESUS IS KING’s release. The closing track, “Jesus Is Lord” features a booming horn arrangement and a lovely hook, but lasts only 49 seconds. The song ends before it even gets a chance to reach a satisfying cadence.

The Pi’erre Bourne-produced “On God” is similarly sparse, consisting of a looped-arpeggiator, thin synthesizers, and cliché, braggadocio bars like “I’ve been tellin’ y’all since ‘05 / The greatest artist restin’ or alive / That’s on L.A. Reid, that’s on Clive.” Furthermore, while the penultimate track “Use This Gospel” features the reuniting of the legendary hip-hop duo Clipse, it also features a poorly-mixed, blaring saxophone solo courtesy of Kenny G, as well as a verse from Clipse’s Pusha T that still has the studio’s room-noise present in the mix.

In his most recent interview with Zane Lowe for Beats 1 Radio, West discussed his past struggles with a pornography addiction accompanied by some bizarre tirades on how this addiction was often fueled by Instagram. At one point he claimed that other married men also struggle with this addiction because “social media prompts women, in particular, to put out [sexual] content,” thereby projecting his problems onto other men and women.

This man’s anxiety surrounding women’s agency and social media is immortalized on the track “Closed On Sunday,” which features one of the worst verses in the artist’s discography, instructing the audience to “Hold the selfies, put the ‘Gram away / Get your family, y’all hold hands and pray / When you got daughters, always keep ‘em safe.”

The verse continues on, “Watch out for vipers, don’t let them indoctrinate / Closed on Sunday, you my Chick-fil-A / You’re my number one, with the lemonade.”

Seriously?

On the other hand, track eight, entitled “God Is,” might be the record’s most powerful. Devotional to all the things that West’s reignited faith has gifted him, “God Is” best exemplifies the gospel and rap sound promised with this record. A pleasant mix of 808 bass, sample chops, and the Sunday Service, this song is a sobering reminder of what West is capable of if he continues to exercise the same perfectionist work ethic that brought us almost 20 years of masterpieces. An entire album in this vein could have been one of his best.

Although 2018 was plagued with similar unprofessional album delays and came at the peak of West’s Pro-Donald Trump advocacy, it at least brought fans some of West’s most powerful music, such as his track “Ghost Town,” and the revelatory collaborative album with Kid Cudi, KIDS SEE GHOSTS. However, 2019 has been a different monster altogether.

Quite simply, West in 2019 has lost the laser focus and keen attention to detail that brought us years of masterful work. From the moment West promoted Trump, to when he said slavery was a choice on TMZ, it has been startlingly clear that the ‘old Kanye’ is long gone.

To be a fan of West once meant being a fan of yourself, to be confident yet embracing of the positivity around you. Now, it’s more like a chore.

Being a Kanye West fan, in fact, means being a Kanye West apologist. So, while the man may take himself very seriously, he needs to realize that we aren’t laughing with West, or even at him. The sad reality is that we don’t care.

While the opening track “Every Hour” is a stunning choir piece, other tracks like “Selah” feature the choir only in small flourishes, such as the refrain of hallelujahs that make up the track’s outro.

The best songs on the album are those where West embraces the gospel sound wholeheartedly and uses hip-hop’s trademarks to accentuate them, rather than the other way around.

JULIEN BALBONTIN/THE VARSITY

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The winter blues call for a pint

Here are 10 tunes to thaw the ever-encroaching ice and snow Kiki Kalochoridis Varsity Contributor

track that makes you feel like you are caught in a memory. It’s bittersweet, yet ever so repeatable.

1. “Let It Play” by lilcobaine Don’t try to deny it, we have all been drunk and missed that person. It’s just complicated. This is that emo rap, the Lil Peep-esque track that starts playing and subsequently makes you miss them at 2:17 am. You’re not hungover yet, but if you’re about to text your ex, you probably will be tomorrow. You pull out your phone and open your messages. It’s cuffing season, so it’s up to you to hit send on that “shawty come through” message.

Please note the music video is not family-friendly.

4. “Flirting in Space” by Brad Stank This smooth jam will make you want to sink into your bed as your headache is slowly eased. It’s for those cozy moments when your bed is at its most tempting, enticing you with a fluffy duvet and a warm pillow, and although your head is pounding, your mind is currently being transported into space by way of Brad Stank’s smooth guitar and dreamy synth.

2. “Moodna, Once With Grace” by Gus Dapperton Okay, so maybe things didn’t work out with your crush at the house party last night. You wake up, hungover and lovesick, unable to tell which of the two is the cause of the pit in your stomach.

Reaching for your phone on your nightstand, you scroll through last night’s activity. Oh yeah, you Shazam-ed that song. You hit “play” and the vaguely familiar guitar and synth fill your bedroom.

3. “Only Trying 2 Tell U” by Puma Blue Caressed by a sweet falsetto and a slow melody, this smooth jazz tune may be the remedy for that big headache of yours. This is a slow and steady

5. “Downers” by Greentea Peng Sometimes you just need some tough love — or maybe just some chicken soup for your R&B soul.

Greentea Peng delivers an omnipresent perspective on taking downers and drowning out the world around us. Heartfelt and powerfully delivered, her live performance in a COLORS show is especially impressive.

6. “Bounce Back” by Big Sean This one may be an oldie, but it is definitely a goldie. Big Sean’s track is supported with motivating lyrics and a catchy beat to help you bounce back from taking an L last night. This track is for the hungover hustler whose mantra is work hard, play hard. After a night of partying, you best believe they will be grinding it out the next day.

GLORIA ZHANG/THE VARSITY

7. “Different State of Mind” by Kid Bloom This track has a dream-pop sound to autopilot your mind down a stream of consciousness.

Where will it take you? Maybe you’ll sink right into your bed? You’ll just have to listen to find out.

8. “Time” by Sebastian Mikael You wake up hungover in the morning after a wild Saturday night party next to your bae. This song gives you all the imagery of a perfect Sunday. It’s smooth, sensual, and loving. Sunny side up eggs, unmade beds, and nothing but time to spend with that special someone. On a cute note, the artist filmed the music video with his girlfriend.

9. “Claude Debussy’s Clair de Lune (a Modular Reflection)” by Ann Annie This song is a prime example of déjà-vu. It is obviously something everyone has heard before. This cover of the famous piece has been completely transformed via soft synths and a harp-like melody. Though digital, the familiar notes still exude an overwhelming feeling of tranquility to the listener.

10. Mint Jams by Casiopea This wildcard album is for the person who needs something upbeat, funky, and easy to listen to. Casiopea is a Japanese jazz fusion band, and this song is from is their 1982, perfectly named, Mint Jams album. The music is like a more chill and complex version of old-school Sonic the Hedgehog music that is being emitted from your Gameboy Advance.

But does it spark joy? Slow fashion in a fast-paced world How you can squeeze yourself and your ethics into a nice pair of jeans Emily Hurmizi Varsity Contributor

There are few things that spark more joy in my life than fashion. It’s been my passion, identity, and therapy. I live for the next piece of clothing that I can get my hands on, roam malls until my feet ache, and follow every fashion show with an unrelenting dedication. I saw my future in an episode of Sex and The City when Carrie Bradshaw realized that she had no money because she spent it all on shoes.

However, as fashion month and the Global Climate Strikes intersected in September, it seems necessary to look at the everyday practice of shopping in order to better understand its impact on the environment.

Like many markers of climate destruction, the fashion industry saw a major boom after World War II. Advancements in technology meant that brands could use synthetic fabrics, efficient factory lines, and outsourced labour for mass production.

The expansion of the global middle class, which has only risen since the advent of the twenty-first century, created a captive market to buy these clothes, fuelling both the economic growth and pollutive nature of fashion brands. According to a 2018 article from Nature Climate Change, textile production now emits 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents per year — more than international flights and maritime shipping.

The main culprit of this crisis is fast fashion, which is the equivalent to fast food in the moral hierarchy — meaning it barely scrapes the barrel of decency. Large clothing brands, like H&M and Zara, seek capital above all by ensuring that you buy new pieces every season, and they don’t care about the negative effects of this consumption pattern. Actually, they count on you brushing your hands through racks of clothing while disregarding the negative effects.

Slow fashion is designed to help you consume mindfully in response to fast fashion. It’s epitomized by the ‘capsule wardrobe’ — the idea that closets should contain timeless pieces with a limited amount of seasonal variation. The assumption is that the lack of sustainability comes from overconsumption, and that clothing is overconsumed.

I’m not in a position to prescribe the capsule wardrobe. I currently have 222 pieces of cloth-

ing in my closet — without counting dirty items, undergarments, socks, winter apparel, shoes, bags, jewelry, and the pieces at my childhood home. It’s foreign to me how a person could own less and still get dressed in the morning.

That being said, our world is on fire. And this scientific reality forces us to consider how to tackle the climate crisis within the parameters of our social reality — what we can give up, for the ability to change our lifestyle intersects with a host of other social justice issues, making it so that certain populations actually can’t give up everything.

Since it would be absurd to ask low-income families to invest in expensive, higher quality clothing without trade-offs, and we remain far away from eco-conscious brands becoming accessible options, it is the responsibility of wealthy consumers and nations to make sacrifices for change.

I can’t incentivize slow fashion because I’m not a policy expert. What I can do is appeal to shopaholics, like myself, who have the means to alter their consumption patterns.

We must build a relationship with clothing that emphasizes how fashion expresses personal identity and cultural values, not material wealth relative to others. This can enable a balance between sustainable behaviour and human culture. So before you buy that next item, consider whether it’s absolutely necessary, where the clothes originate, and whether there are better alternatives.

I don’t want to throw your favourite French army jacket into a dump with half-eaten McDonald’s burgers. Slow fashion doesn’t have to mean purge and abstain. I only ask to break the awing hypnosis induced every time you enter a store. Stop dragging your hands through that endless array of clothing and take the initiative to resolve your dangerous shopping habits.

This can include prioritizing brands with an ethical, eco-conscious mandate; Marie Kondoing your closet in minimalist terms. Shopping vintage, upcycling, or looking for clothing with non-synthetic, organic ingredients are also admirable efforts.

However you approach slow fashion, just try to crack the surface, because once you have your footing, everyone can move forward.

Declutter your wardrobe and the planet.

BERNARDA GOSPIC/THE VARSITY

Science

November 11, 2019 var.st/science science@thevarsity.ca

The unexplained side of autonomous vehicles How self-driving cars could impact human health

to other vehicles, pedestrians, traffic lights, and road signs.

The software then uses this information to process sensory input in order to send instructions to the car’s actuators, which are devices in charge of the car’s acceleration, braking, and steering.

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has defined six levels of Automated vehicles could have both positive driving automation, and negative impacts on human health. ranging from level 0, GRENDELKHAN/CC WIKIMEDIA Shankeri Vijayakumar fully manual; to level 5, fully autoVarsity Contributor mated. The levels are based on whether the human or the automated system is mostly responsible for As automated vehicle (AV) technology advances monitoring the driving environment. and becomes more mainstream, further research It is interesting to note that the SAE differshould be conducted to understand how self- entiates between the terms “automated” and “audriving vehicles will impact population health tonomous,” and does not use “autonomous.” The and well-being. term autonomy has implications of self awareness The focus of much of the research and discus- beyond the electro-mechanical. sion surrounding AVs lies predominantly in their A completely autonomous car would be able to impact on road safety. However, they can transform make its own choices based on its own awareness, our way of living in many other areas. Social equity, which is not the same as automated driving. the natural environment, and our constructed enA self-driving car like a Tesla would be catvironment will impact whether AV technology has egorized under level 3, conditional automation. beneficial or adverse effects on our health.

Its autopilot feature allows for the vehicle to have In a recent University of Toronto-affiliated environmental detection capabilities, steer, accelstudy, researchers explored these themes and oth- erate, and brake, but human supervision is still ers in order to examine the potential impacts of required to operate the vehicle.

AVs on health outcomes and lifestyles.

This is an exciting time as AV technology is rapidly evolving. However, the health impacts of What are automated vehicles?

AVs should also be highlighted.

An automated car’s ability to function independently of human input is reliant on software that How are AVs changing human health? collects information from sensors and video cam- The co-authors of the study assessed the literature eras on the car. These devices help the software in order to investigate the implications that AVs understand the position of the vehicle and its could have on human health. surroundings, especially its position in relation Several of the key themes explored were road

A brake from school

In conversation with engineering graduate Nikola Kostic on aircraft brake shortlisted for the James Dyson Award Madeline Zhang Varsity Contributor

The design of an innovative aircraft brake by Nikola Kostic, a recent mechanical engineering alum from the University of Toronto, has been selected as one of the top 20 finalists for the James Dyson Award ( JDA).

The prestigious annual international engineering design award has been promoted in engineering design courses at U of T. It rewards a cash prize of $50,000, and the finalists’ designs are reviewed by the renowned innovator James Dyson himself.

The Aeroflux contactless brake, Kostic’s design, previously won first place at Hatchery’s demo day where its team of Nikola Kostic, together with Stevan Kostic and Roshan Varghese, received initial funding to develop their idea as a result.

How Aeroflux works Aeroflux stops a moving object without using moving parts that may wear out.

“If you think about it, you are stopping a multiton aircraft without touching it. That’s really what I find fascinating about it, and what other people find interesting as well,” Kostic explained in an interview with The Varsity.

Replacing conventional brakes is a time-consuming and expensive process. Kostic’s design,

however, eliminates the need for frequent brake replacements and is therefore a more sustainable solution for short-haul aircrafts. This could potentially save millions of dollars in operating costs.

The technical term for the concept used by Aeroflux is called “eddy current braking.”

It avoids wearing out mechanical parts by applying a magnetic field, which induces electric currents in the surface of a highly conductive rotor. The eddy currents then produce their own magnetic field, which opposes the stationary magnetic field that created them. This creates a braking torque on the rotor.

Kostic’s design stood out among the JDA candidates since it is an excellent example of how engineering can make an industry more sustainable, and shows commitment toward achieving the ambitious targets for greenhouse gas emissions in aviation.

“I think that now we are really just starting to see the very beginning of these solutions, which are a complete blend of engineering [and] economics, but also sustainability,” said Kostic.

Origins of Kostic’s Aeroflux design Kostic’s idea first came to mind in his final-year engineering capstone project and was inspired

safety, the natural environment, lifestyle, social equity, and the urban environment.

It should be no surprise that most of the existing literature is concentrated on road safety; the implementation of fully automated vehicles could revolutionize mobility and transportation as we know it.

For example, AVs have the potential to play a key role in collision avoidance. As human error is the most common reason for vehicle collisions, higher levels of AV technology could mitigate this risk factor.

However, while AVs could reduce the stress of operating a vehicle and increase the enjoyment of travel, an over-reliance on AVs could also result in an increase in sedentary behaviour.

For example, humans might switch to using AVs for trips that normally involve active forms of travel, like walking or bicycling, or rely on AVs for longer trips instead of rail or air travel.

The impact of AVs on the climate crisis As AV technology becomes more prevalent, so does its role in the climate crisis. The literature concerning fuel efficiency or emissions and AVs was found to be divided on whether the implications of AVs are more beneficial or harmful to the natural environment.

Some academics argue that AVs could allow for a “less carbon-intensive transportation system if the majority of AVs are electrically powered.”

Others argue that AVs will only perpetuate the existing dependency on cars, which will require more road infrastructure, and have more detrimental impacts on the environment and our respiratory and cardiovascular health.

The study emphasizes that the environmental impacts would have to be determined by the model of AV ownership and access, and the type of fuel source.

The impact of AVs on social inequality Social equity was also found to be another theme commonly explored in literature, as the advent of self-driving cars is predicted to “improve accessibility for differently-abled populations” and “improve social connectivity. ” by his life-long interest in aviation. During his childhood, Kostic wanted to be a pilot. His interest later shifted into aerospace engineering when he joined the mechanical engineering program at U of T. After five years of undergraduate studies, including a Professional Experience Year, Kostic graduated last May with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering.

After graduation, Kostic decided it was the right time to jump into entrepreneurship.

“When you’re younger you can tolerate a much higher risk profile,” said Kostic. “Later in life you might have a lot more responsibilities and obligations, so I think students are kind of the ideal entrepreneurs if you choose to go that way.”

Kostic was supported by the U of T Entrepreneurship Hatchery, which granted him access to prototype funding, mentorship, and the opportunity to work with other talented students to form a strong team.

“There’s a whole network dedicated to trying to help students to create jobs for themselves,” said Kostic.

“I was very lucky to have that as part of my undergraduate education and I’m very grateful for it.”

Next steps for Aeroflux When asked about what is in store for Aeroflux, Kostic said that he plans to build a full-scale demonstra-

However, this would depend on whether the AVs have a shared or personal ownership model.

If private ownership is the predominant model, high income populations would benefit more while lower income populations could “face decreased access to transportation,” or other barriers that come with reliance on public transportation.

Opposingly, a shared model of AVs would provide many benefits for human health in regards to reclaiming public spaces and opening up more green space for human activity. For example, the “traffic efficiency of AVs could free up space in the right-of-way to allow for cycling infrastructure and allow for wider sidewalks.”

Furthermore, a shared model of AVs would allow for reclaiming parking lots as part of the public realm and present opportunities for affordable housing or urban green spaces.

Policies, AVs, and health outcomes While AVs are anticipated to improve human health outcomes, the measures that can be implemented to protect humans are also crucial.

In an email to The Varsity, a Toronto Public Health spokesperson emphasized that as AV technology becomes more prevalent, the evidence related to AVs and population health expands, it is important that health impacts are monitored to identify trends.

When asked whether regulations of this industry could help balance the positive and negative outcomes of AVs, and whether regulations would be a sufficient measure on their own, the spokesperson wrote, “Processes to develop regulations and policies that govern AV introduction and use should consider all potential health and equity impacts. This will support identification and mitigation of potential negative impacts.”

The Toronto Public Health spokesperson added that consumer education may be helpful, such as by informing consumers of the benefits of choosing an electric vehicle versus one that uses fossil fuel emissions.

This information “would be most effective as a supplement to evidence-informed, health-protective regulations and policies,” according to the spokesperson. tor and hopes to one day see his design on a real plane.

Kostic gave some parting advice for fellow students doing design projects.

“The [project] is what you make of it. Number one [priority] is to pick a [project] that you are passionate about, something you can really see yourself diving into. More importantly, something you can see the application for, something where you can clearly translate an academic project to a real-world solution.”

Nikola Kostic has been selected as a finalist of the James Dyson Award for his innovation in designing Aeroflux.

COURTESY OF THE JAMES DYSON FOUNDATION

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Quantifying the climate crisis: how changes could impact road maintenance

U of T professor Dr. Piryonesi on studying the climate using probabilistic models over deterministic models Andy Yin Varsity Contributor

Road management, the climate crisis, and machine learning are three things which may not seem connected, but they do to Dr. Madeh Piryonesi, a University of Toronto civil engineer who defended his PhD this year.

This June, one of his papers, “A MachineLearning Solution for Quantifying the Impact of Climate Change on Roads,” won the Moselhi Best Paper Award at the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering’s annual conference. Piryonesi created a model to predict how roads would deteriorate due to change in climate, and implemented it as an online tool that will be accessible to policymakers.

How roads may be impacted by the climate crisis In Piryonesi’s model, users are treated to a visual interface where they can input a road’s name and see that road pop up on Google Maps. They can then enter the parameters for a future climate — such as an increase in temperature and precipitation — and see the projected future deterioration of the road.

The model can make predictions for roads in many locations, thanks to the wealth of data Piryonesi had access to. His machine-learning algorithms were trained on data provided by the Long-Term Pavement Performance program, which is managed by the US Federal Highway Administration. The program stores data — including traffic and weather information — on more than 2,500 road sections across Canada and the US, and dates back over 30 years.

“Using this very well-spread data kind of makes sense for climate change analysis,” said Piryonesi to The Varsity.

The model’s predictions depended strongly on location. He tested the tool on roads in both

Piryonesi’s paper on the climate crisis won the Moselhi Best Paper Award.

COURTESY OF MOHAMMAD AKBARZADEH AND SOBHAN KOUHESTANI

Texas and Ontario. While it projected that, in a certain climate-change scenario, roads in Texas would be badly hit, it actually predicted that some roads in Ontario would fare better with a change in climate than without.

Piryonesi stressed that this doesn’t mean the climate crisis is good for Ontario roads, only that, under the model’s specific assumptions, Ontarian roads should not be badly damaged.

Nevertheless, the model highlights how the climate crisis varies by region.

The theory behind Piryonesi’s work Many models already exist for predicting road quality in order to aid municipal governments in maintaining their infrastructure. However, Piryonesi diverged from most previous work in two ways.

While existing models use a variety of techniques, the use of machine learning in road modelling is relatively new. Tailoring these models to incorporate changes in climate is also novel.

Piryonesi explained that the reason this interesting combination is useful is that change in climate is inherently a stochastic process — that is, it involves randomness.

According to Piryonesi’s paper, this puts deterministic models, which spit out a single value, at a disadvantage compared to models that can consider a range of possibilities and predict their likelihoods. Machine learning falls into the latter category.

At its core, Piryonesi’s work is based on a decision tree algorithm. In everyday life, decision trees — a kind of flowchart — let us visualize how outcomes or costs depend on sequences of events that take place.

In machine learning, decision tree algorithms are fed existing data, learn from it, and reverseengineer a decision tree that predicts unknown data. To amplify the low accuracy of a single decision tree, Piryonesi’s model also uses ‘bagging,’ a process in which hundreds or thousands of ‘learners’ construct separate trees, and then hold a ‘vote’

on the best one.

This approach can produce predictions that are not single numbers. “If our model has five outcomes, being the road staying in good condition, medium, and so on,” said Piryonesi, “the tool can give you, for example, a probability of 98 per cent good and the two per cent being in the other conditions.” Deterministic models can’t make these probabilistic predictions.

However, Piryonesi is aware that some users do not see this as advantageous. “Most customers or most municipalities that we are working with are using deterministic tools,” he commented. “The problem is, they don’t get the notion of probability and probabilistic things; they want one number.”

In Piryonesi’s opinion, industries and academia alike should better communicate the fact that everything in the real world is probabilistic.

“Having a probability doesn’t mean that it’s bad; [only] that we are not sure,” he said.

The impact of the tool’s findings The findings were interesting to Piryonesi for two reasons. For one, understanding how badly roads are affected by changes in climate compared to other types of infrastructure can inform governments on what infrastructure demands the most attention and funding.

Climate justice also interests him. He sees value in determining quantitatively which regions would be hit worst by the climate crisis. “I think this could be a good basis for carbon pricing, for tax.”

Although change in climate was not originally his area of expertise, he was drawn to it because he saw the need for more evidence-based research.

“Politicians, men of religion, everyone, people on the street, they talk about [the climate crisis].

And oftentimes they have anecdotes [but] they’re not super accurate,” he said. “So I thought maybe I would want to touch a little on this [topic].”

Why you want your surgeon to practice mindfulness

U of T lab investigates new ways to train surgeons for the operating table

Sarah Kronenfeld Varsity Contributor

The fact that surgeons work in high-stakes environments is not surprising — often, lives depend on how well they perform in the operating room.

But traditionally, new surgeons going through basic training wouldn’t have heard much about the emotional labour that goes into the job.

Historically, surgeons were expected to stay stoic, and have not had much of a platform to discuss dealing with the emotional challenges they may face. As The New York Times reported, medical schools and residency programs have avoided discussion of emotional responses among medical professionals.

But that view has been changing. “I think, more and more, we’re really looking at the surgeon as this holistic person, and what really needs to go into that to be that expert-level performer,” said Sydney McQueen, an MD and PhD candidate at U of T studying surgical performance, in an interview with The Varsity.

“Rather than just putting people through five years of surgical training and hoping that they come out at the end with all the skills they need, [we’re] really starting to identify what are all those skills… things we haven’t traditionally always thought about as explicitly.”

Labs like McQueen’s have been helping to introduce discussions about mental health and well-being into surgical training. She recently co-authored a study that identified which skills might help surgeons control their emotions in high-stress situations.

How mental skills from other fields could apply to surgery Another co-author of this study was Dr. Siobhan Deshauer. Deshauser, who has personal experience as a professional musician, decided to take a cue from the fields of music, athletics, and military service, all of which have already begun to incorporate emotional intelligence into their training.

The lab interviewed 17 surgeons who had significant previous experience in one of these fields, asking them about mental health skills they had learned in their previous careers that might have transferred into surgery. Most of the responses ended up falling into a few different categories.

First, many respondents had routines for moments of acute stress, such as breathing exercises or mental scripts, which they would use to calm down and re-assess the situation. Some had developed habits which they practice at the beginning of a surgery to prepare themselves for stressful situations.

The co-authors noted that when the participants were feeling overwhelmed, they often paused, regrouped, broke their goals into manageable steps, and strategized to find the best path forward. The participants often explicitly learned these techniques from training in their previous fields.

Many also used techniques in their downtime to improve their mental and physical well-being, which generally helped them feel more calm and in control. Some discussed reflecting on surgeries and re-evaluating their responses to better prepare themselves for similar situations.

Physicians could use mental techniques to better act calmly during surgery.

US ARMY MEDICINE/CC FLICKR

Potential impact of the conclusions on clinical practice Surgery training still has a long way to go. However, studies like this one, which identify mental wellness skills that could help surgeons perform, are invaluable to its progress. Identifying these skills is only half the battle, and training surgeons to adopt them presents its own unique set of challenges.

Positive mental responses take years of practice to become automatic, and the more consciously surgeons have to think about maintaining a level of calm, the less attention they can dedicate to their work.

Any question about emotional skills also has to account for the variation between individuals, and not all students will benefit from learning the same techniques, as McQueen noted. But,

in light of the surgical community’s attempts to solve such problems, seasoned surgeons are beginning to open up invaluable discussions about how they experience the operating room.

“There’s definitely been surgeons I’ve talked to that really try to make an effort with their trainees to have those conversations outside of the [operating room], and let them know… ‘This is what I was feeling in that moment, and I took a pause, I put my finger on the bleeder, and I took some deep breaths until I was personally ready to continue,’” said McQueen.

Knowing that they aren’t the only ones experiencing emotional challenges can be invaluable for current trainees’ self-confidence — and can help the newest generation of surgeons get a head start on building skills to overcome them.

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THE VARSITY

SCIENCE

The low risks of dental surgery in Ontario

In conversation with Dr. Alia El-Mowafy on assessing mortality caused by anaesthesia in dental surgery Aanya Bahl Varsity Contributor

Going to the dentist seems like a normal procedure for most. Even if a patient has to get a surgical treatment, life can be expected to return to normal after a few weeks of consistent care.

This is true — except in cases of morbidity or death that arise from dental procedures. What goes wrong when a patient dies in what seems like a routine health procedure, and how often do deaths like these occur?

The Varsity interviewed Dr. Alia El-Mowafy, a clinical instructor at the Faculty of Dentistry, to learn more about why this happens and why Ontario is remarkably safe.

Anaesthesia in Ontario dental surgery found to be safe El-Mowafy and her colleagues recently published a paper about “the prevalence of mortality and serious morbidity for office-based deep sedation and general anaesthesia for dentistry in Ontario from 1996–2015.” Deep sedation is a form of anaesthesia in which patients are unconscious and cannot be easily roused, but can respond to

science@thevarsity.ca repeated stimulation. On the other hand, when administered with general anaesthesia, patients are not only not arousable but also do not respond to stimuli.

The co-authors collected their data in two phases. In the first phase, data from the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario and the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario (RCDSO) were reviewed. In the second, the researchers surveyed all registered providers of dental anaesthesia in a dental setting.

The research team found that despite rare complications, the administration of deep sedation and general anaesthesia in Ontario is safe, and that permanent death or injury rarely occurs as a result.

What happens when surgery goes wrong?

This October, a five-year old girl in Regina, Saskatchewan ended up on life support after a general anaesthesia dental surgery mistake. Autumn Ferguson’s lungs collapsed when she was administered oxygen the wrong way during general anaesthesia.

According to El-Mowafy, devastating and traumatic experiences occur very rarely, but it is important to put them in perspective.

In a CBC News article, El-Mowafy’s colleague and co-author Dr. Carilynne Yarascavitch mentioned the chances of such an event happening: one in four million. Speaking with The Varsity, El-Mowafy also highly praised the standards of the RCDSO, which, according to her, help prevent accidents in dental procedures, thus lowering the rates of morbidity and mortality.

Which populations are most at risk?

“A healthy individual is less likely to experience serious complications from an anaesthetic, whereas an unhealthy individual with several comorbidities would be more likely to have complications,” El-Mowafy wrote.

Read the rest at var.st/dentalsurgery

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How psychedelics could reduce existential distress for end-of-life patients In conversation with Dr. Daniel Rosenbaum on the clinical promise of psychedelics in Canada Hannah Nie Varsity Contributor

Psychedelics — substances that cause dramatic changes in thought and perception — could play a unique role in alleviating existential distress in patients with life-threatening illnesses like cancer, according to a recent review.

A University of Toronto-affiliated paper has explored the potential of psychedelic medication to improve patients’ quality of life and alleviate suffering in end-of-life care.

ponents such as psychotherapy sessions before and after the drug treatment, as well as the creation of a safe and comfortable environment for the treatment sessions.

These factors can be crucial to how patients respond to the treatment and as such, must be carefully managed.

Facing existential distress in end-of-life care “Existential distress relates to the kinds of concerns people often have as they face end-of-life, or cancer recurrence,” said Dr. Daniel Rosenbaum, one of the article’s co-authors, in an interview with The Varsity.

The feelings of hopelessness, demoralization, and burden associated with existential distress can cause depression, anxiety, and significantly reduced quality of life in patients facing lifethreatening illnesses.

Some psychotherapies have been developed to treat existential distress and help end-of-life patients restore their sense of dignity and meaning in life; however, no medication or pill currently exists for alleviating this form of suffering — until recently as research has shown promising potential in psychedelic therapies.

Classic psychedelics include various compounds that bind to and activate 5-HT2A receptors in the brain, such as psilocybin — which is found in certain mushrooms — and lysergic acid diethylamide, also known as LSD. They can induce mystical, transcendent experiences and deep feelings of positivity, which makes them ideal to treat existential distress, according to Rosenbaum.

Modern studies on the promise of psychedelics Notably, two studies from Johns Hopkins University and New York University found that psilocybin therapy reduced anxiety and depression levels in patients with life-threatening cancers and various psychiatric disorders. Patients also reported other beneficial effects, such as a reconnection to life, increased confidence, and acknowledgement of cancer’s place in life.

The treatment caused some temporary increases in heart rate and blood pressure, but these were generally well-tolerated and did not appear to cause any severely adverse symptoms. Careful participant screening in most contemporary research also helps to ensure that participants do not have any family history or personal predisposition for psychosis, and are able to undergo the treatment safely.

Moreover, the benefits of psychedelic therapy were shown to have an immediate and lasting impact. Beneficial effects were sustained for six months or longer after a single treatment. The drug’s rapid onset may also be advantageous compared to conventional antidepressant medications, which may take several weeks to have an effect.

“If someone is suffering from profound depression or anxiety, we may not have sufficient time for the alleviation of certain kinds of suffering with conventional medication treatments,” Rosenbaum said.

How psychedelics could address this problem Studies from as early as the 1950s have suggested potential applications of psychedelics in psychotherapy. However, research has been bogged down by challenges in designing methodologies that could test the efficacy of psychedelic medicines.

There were also ethical and safety issues — some studies were completed without informed consent, and caused lasting harm to participants.

By the mid-’70s, these issues, combined with controversy around the spread of recreational psychedelic use, caused most of the research in this area to be discontinued.

A ‘psychedelic renaissance’ is breaking this decades-long gap in research, accompanied by contemporary methodologies that strive to overcome the shortfalls of their predecessors. For example, today’s studies recognize the importance of com-

Next steps of psychedelic research Further research in psychedelic-assisted therapy is underway at various institutions in Canada and around the world. A trial at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto is currently studying the treatment of depression in palliative care patients using intranasal ketamine.

MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder is another area of interest, with research ongoing at Ryerson University and a multi-site study from the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies taking place in cities across the United States, Israel, and Canada, including studies in Vancouver and Montreal.

“It’s an exciting time for the field in Canada,” Rosenbaum said. “I think, in the coming years, we will start to see a number of new trials.”

Sports

November 11, 2019 var.st/sports sports@thevarsity.ca

Varsity Blues hosts panel discussion with Raptors Head Coach Nick Nurse

Nurse discusses championship run, managing players Silas Le Blanc Sports Editor

On Monday, November 4, the Toronto Varsity Blues Basketball Excellence Program hosted a talk featuring the Toronto Raptors Head Coach Nick Nurse which touched on topics including managing underdog teams and working under pressure. The talk was moderated by Sportsnet’s NHL reporter Elliotte Friedman. The event was held at the Toronto Region Board of Trade and touched on topics including.

Nurse started the discussion by holding up his NBA championship ring, and later passing it around the room for everyone to hold. “Somebody asked me, ‘When do you wear it?’ I said ‘when I come to things like this.’ We just got them so I think I’m going to give it to people, share it with them. That was the… best experience for me about the whole title… sharing it with everybody from Toronto and Canada.”

Nurse spent his formative coaching years in the British Basketball League (BBL), with his first stop being the Birmingham Bullets. Before Nurse took over, the Bullets, much like the Raptors, had a rather underwhelming history.

He recalled one game where his player grabbed a rebound in a tie game at the end of the fourth quarter, forgot the score, and dribbled out to the half court line to let time expire — much like JR Smith’s infamous mistake in Game 1 of the 2018

NBA finals. “Two stats guys [were] sitting next to me that have been keeping stats for 20 years for the team. One of them looked at me and said ‘typical Birmingham Bullet basketball,’” Nurse recalled.

“This guy motivated me, that I needed to change everybody’s mindset in the whole organization. So I went back and I titled this little letter.

I wrote at the top ‘expect to win.’” Nurse’s motivation seemed to work, as the Bullets would go on to win the BBL title in 1996.

Nurse went on to discuss his experience coaching in the NBA Development League, now known as the NBA G League. He said that in his countryside house, just outside of Des Moines, Iowa, he had several large whiteboards where he would draw up plays for late-game situations. “I mean just literally hundreds of scenarios end-ofgame. But we sat there and thought of everyone we could think of.”

Friedman asked Nurse if coaching in highpressure situations like NBA Finals brought him back to his basement just outside of Des Moines.

Nurse said, “I don’t know about that, but what I do believe is this: you’re totally there. That’s the one thing you don’t even notice: the 20,000 [fans]… the 800 media, you don’t notice the pressure of the situation. You’re not really thinking about ‘oh my God, this is the NBA Finals.’”

Nurse continued by saying that he wanted his players to mirror his calm. “I wanted to be con-

fident so our guys would be confident… I don’t always pick the best play, I don’t always pick the guy to shoot it, but when we do leave that huddle, we’re going to walk out there together, knowing what we’ll do.”

The summer after the NBA Finals, Nurse met with Phil Jackson, who won 11 NBA Championships as the head coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers. When coaching in England, Nurse would watch tapes of Jackson’s Bulls, keeping an eye out for his famous ‘triangle offense.’ He finally got to meet Jackson this August in Montana and recounted a story of driving in Phil Jackson’s truck. “We drive around for like three hours eating cherries and spitting the seeds out the window. And I’m sitting there thinking, ‘I’m sitting here eating cherries with 11 time NBA Champion, Phil Jackson.’”

Nurse recalled the two best pieces of advice he got from the coaching legend on their last day together. “He said, ‘number one, don’t underestimate the power of the basketball gods… you’ve been hired by your owners to make, at all times, the best

The Raptors won the NBA Chamionship in Nick Nurse’s first year as the Raptors head coach.

COURTESY OF SEYRAN MAMMADOV/VARSITY BLUES

decision for the team. And you have to keep that in mind. That’s not going to be easy.’”

The next piece of advice was the most memorable, and one that Friedman included in his weekly 31 Thoughts column. “I want you to imagine you got this sword. He said that one end, the sharp end, you’re going to have to push those guys. You [have] got to prod them. You have to get on their asses. But every now and then I want you to turn around and look at the handle. And I want you to have that symbolize compassion because you have to understand where they come from and what they’re going through,” Nurse recalled.

“And then poof — he disappeared,” Nurse joked.

Moving away from “mental toughness”: VanVleet, Brittni Donaldson talk mental health at Goldring

Speakers discussed personal growth, difficulty with balancing mental health with sports Silas Le Blanc Sports Editor

The Varsity Blues Basketball Excellence program hosted a mental health panel at the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport on October 29 with Toronto Raptors guard Fredderick VanVleet along with Brittni Donaldson, and Jarred Dubois among others. The speakers discussed their relationship with mental health on a day-today basis, and how they have learned to interact with others while keeping mental health in mind.

VanVleet’s personal growth VanVleet spoke about the challenges that he faced growing up and the evolution of his relationship with his own mental health. Growing up, VanVleet faced a lot of personal troubles, which he said he needed to block out due to the expectation of “mental toughness” in his basketball career. He said that mental health was not something that he felt he had to deal with, especially when his whole life was revolving around basketball.

“But it wasn’t until I had kids that I really started thinking about what that means for me

as a person and what my parents passed down to me, what I’m able to pass down to them,” said VanVleet. “You just start thinking… ‘how do I better myself and better the people around me so that we’re not passing down destructive emotions, feelings, thought processes,’ whatever the case may be. So you took the flip from ‘okay, I have to be mentally tough’ when I’m playing a game, but also what does that mean for me as a man, as a father, as a son to pass that on to my kids so they have a clean slate.”

He said that he needed to revisit a lot of personal trauma that he hadn’t dealt with, and thought back on certain experiences that shaped him into the man he is today. VanVleet stressed the importance of having conversations about mental health, and passing on these conversations onto the younger generation.

The difficulty of discussing mental health in sports Brittni Donaldson, Assistant Coach of the Toronto Raptors, who played four seasons for the University of Northern Iowa basketball program, discussed her personal difficulties in being asked to leave her emotions aside in athletic settings.

“Mental toughness is a term that’s used almost

daily in our environment and what it means in the environment of basketball and [other] sports is suppressing any sort of emotion or feeling,” Donaldson said. “Putting [them] on the back end in order to complete the task that’s in front of you.”

She said that this not only applies to her emotional state, but her physical pain as well. “You’re kind of conditioned as an athlete to just push through those types of things or just ignore them completely in order to complete the task at hand,” she continued. “For me personally that manifests itself in a physical form. I played collegiate basketball and every day [I] was preached to about mental toughness. If you weren’t mentally tough, you weren’t going to play.”

“I ended up pushing myself so far away from my inner dialogue and the things that were going on in my body and my mind that I was playing through injuries and not even realizing it. And it got to a point where I had to have reconstructive leg surgery and to be told I could never play again for me to realize [that] I’m that far away from my inner dialogue and what my body, my mind is telling me.”

Getting the discussion started early Jarred Dubois, Assistant Coach for the Detroit Pistons and Founder of the non-profit organiza-

tion, Everyone Has a Story, spoke about how he wanted to make sure young athletes at his kids camp were receiving proper help. “We started with bringing in mental wellness professionals to speak to the parents,” Dubois explained.

“We all know that a lot of parents — especially in youth sports — are very forceful in trying to get kids to perform at a high level. You’ve got to be the next Fred, you’ve got to be the next ‘this person’ or ‘that person.’ Every player can’t be the next NBA star. And the psychological breakdown of [that on] a child takes a toll.”

He went on to explain that many kids who go through traumatic experiences do not know how to process their emotions and are often given inadequate resources to deal with them. He wanted to have a way to listen to and connect with other people with similar experiences, which is why he started his non-profit, which hosts other similar panel discussions, and intends to “promote compassion for others one story at a time.”

“Understanding [that a lack of communication] was the case for me and my story and I wish that I had something like this where I could come and listen to people who I could connect with, people who do things that I’m engaged with from a variety of backgrounds and a variety of expertise,” DuBois continued. “And so I created this panel process.”

Each speaker drew from their own experiences to discuss mental wellness.

DINA DONG/THE VARSITY

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THE VARSITY

SPORTS

sports@thevarsity.ca

Blues basketball teams split doubleheader against Brock Men win home opener while women yet to win in OUA play

The women’s team fell behind in the third quarter due to Brock’s hot shooting.

COURTESY OF HENRY ZHAO/VARSITY BLUES

Jaime McLaughlin Varsity Contributor

The Toronto Varsity Blues basketball teams went 1–1 against the Brock Badgers in their doubleheader home opener on Saturday, November 2.

The women’s team lost in the first game, and the men’s claimed victory in the second.

Women’s team The women’s side took the court first, seeking their first Ontario University Athletics (OUA) victory of the season, following a tough loss on the road the previous night to the York Lions.

Brock drew first blood in the opening quarter after a fast break layup by the Badgers’ Meagan Charbonneau in the second minute. The Blues responded, however, as Nada Radonjić connected from distance on back-to-back possessions.

The Blues led by as many as five points in the quarter and held an 18–16 lead after 10 minutes of play.

Toronto continued to dictate the pace into the second quarter, throwing out an ever-changing concoction of aggressive zone, press, and defenses to frustrate Brock’s shooters. The Blues limited the Badgers to just one field goal over the first five minutes of the quarter, and turned defense into offense, where they got great looks off of penetration.

Christine Jurcau, tasked with the unenviable assignment of guarding OUA All-Star selection Melissa Tatti, held the star Badgers guard to just four points on three field goal attempts in the first half — far from Tatti’s typical average of 16.6 points per game. The halftime score was 34–30 in favour of Toronto.

Toronto forward Sarah Bennett — averaging a near double-double of 9.3 points and 8.5 boards per contest thus far in her comeback season from injury — was benched with her third foul just 10 seconds into the third quarter. The two teams traded buckets briefly before Radonjić pushed the Blues’ lead back to six with 7:10 minutes remaining on the clock by hitting back-to-back three-pointers.

However, the injury-plagued Blues, who have seen up to seven of their 16-woman roster sidelined at some point this season, showed signs of fatigue and inexperience later in the game, while Brock’s shooters were hitting shot after shot. The Badgers went four-for-four from a distance in the quarter, and went on an 11–0 run before Jurcau stopped the bleeding with only 4:59 minutes left in the quarter, sinking a pair of free throws. Unfortunately, that was the

last of the Blues’ scoring for the period, and the Badgers pieced together a 12–0 run to make it 58–43 for the visiting Badgers after three quarters.

The Blues continued to fight into the final quarter but ultimately could not recover from the deficit. They cut the lead to as little as 11 points, with 7:26 minutes to play on a threepoint basket by Jurcau. Unfortunately, Brock’s shooters could not be denied, hitting a blistering 64 per cent of their three-point attempts in the second half and 50 per cent of their field goals overall. The final score was 78–59 in favour of the visiting Badgers.

Radonjić posted a double-double with a team high of 20 points and a game high of 11 boards, while fellow veteran Bennett wound up with 14 points and seven boards. Fiorella Granda led the team in assists with four, and first-year forward Nakeisha Ekwandja was solid with six points and six boards in only 29 minutes of action.

Jurcau was a workhorse for the Blues, logging a career-high 40 minutes on the night and contributing 10 points to the scoring spread.

“I thought we opened up the game with a lot more energy. We played pretty well; we shared the ball well,” noted Coach Michèle Bélanger after the game. “Defensively, we were really alert, we rebounded the ball well.

We boxed out. So those were all really great positives.”

Jurcau said that she was “extremely proud” of her team’s efforts, commending the work of rookies Ekwandja and Sarah Cumby in particular. Jurcau sees room for improvement but has faith in the team’s promise.

“I think people are starting to step up more…

We have moments and spurts where we show [promise]… we’re just not at that consistent spot yet… We’re still a fairly new team and [have] a lot of stuff to deal with already, like injuries, but I definitely think… slowly but surely, we’ll be working together very well,” explained Jurcau.

Men’s team In the second game of the doubleheader, the Varsity Blues men’s basketball team bounced back from a heartbreaking one-point overtime loss the night before to take down the Brock Badgers in a stunning comeback fashion.

Daniel Johansson opened up the scoring for the home side 1:43 minutes into the first quarter with a three-point bucket, and the teams traded baskets for much of the quarter. The Badgers took a one-point lead heading into the second with the score at 14–13.

In the second quarter, the Badgers continued to gain easy buckets in the paint off of some clean back cuts and crisp ball movement, quietly increasing their lead to as much as nine points with only 5:22 minutes remaining on the clock before the home side caught fire. The Blues swung the momentum on the backs of a 9–0 run over the span of just 70 seconds into the quarter, as Elie Mouyal breathed life into teammates and fans alike with back-to-back three-pointers and rookie Alec McGregor added another three-ball on the next Blues possession. The Blues and Badgers once again kept the contest neckand-neck, and the Badgers maintained a 36–35 lead at halftime.

Just 15 seconds into the third quarter, Toronto’s Eric Rwahaire accomplished a rare four-point play as he caught a crosscourt pass from Evan Shadkami and connected from beyond the arc on the right wing, while being bumped and sent to the ground by his defender.

After Rwawhire hit the ensuing free-throw to put the Blues ahead with a score of 39–38, the Badgers went on a mini 6–0 run. Shadkami responded, hitting a triple with 7:17 minutes left in the period. However, the Blues’ shooting suddenly went cold, and Shadkami’s three pointer would be Toronto’s last field goal of the quarter.

The Badgers held their largest lead of the game, 53–42, after three quarters of action.

The Blues found a second gear in the fourth, a testament to their veteran experience and leadership.

ing the Badgers to turn the ball over and take contested, low-percentage outside shots. Some timely scoring from Anthony Daudu, Shadkami, and Johansson tied the game at 63 apiece, with only two minutes left in the game.

The Badgers clung to their 66–65 lead with under a minute left. Though, when they failed to convert, the Blues regained possession with 24 seconds left on the clock. The home squad would end up getting statistical contributions from every player that saw floor time, but in the end it was the Blues’ dynamic fifth-year duo that secured the victory for their team.

Johansson would sink the go-ahead basket with about 12 seconds remaining, a clutch faceup long range jumper near the top of the arc that sent the crowd into a frenzy and gave the Blues a 68–66 lead.

After Godsman Kwakwah threw up a prayer on the ensuing Badgers possession, it was none other than fellow fifth-year, floor general Chris Barrett — the smallest player on the court in stature, but clearly not in heart — secured the crucial rebound on the miss. Barrett was sent to the line to stop the clock and calmly drained both foul shots, icing the game and capping off 28 points for Toronto in the fourth quarter. Ultimately, the final score was 70–66 for the Blues.

The win marked Toronto’s first OUA victory, moving them to 1-2, and was also their first win of the year over a nationally ranked team. Shadkami had a team-high 19 points, including five three-pointers, on 7–13 shooting from the field, and added five assists. Daniel Johansson added 18 points and eight boards, and the Blues got 18 of their 70 points from the bench.

Assistant Coach Mike De Giorgio was pleased with the team’s perseverance, noting that “last year, we kinda quit when we got down. And this year, when we [get] down, we [fight] back.” He noted, however, that the team will continue to work on being “more consistent with our effort… at the ‘smart things,’” including “trying to follow the game plan, trying hard to take

The Varsity Blues basketball teams played both home openers back-to-back.

MATTHEW AZEVEDO/THE VARSITY

Iñaki Alvarez and Shadkami respectively sunk a layup and a three-point shot on the Blues’ first two possessions to open the frame, and then Johansson made good on a crafty Eurostep through two Brock players in the low block to cut the lead to 53–49 with 8:29 minutes left to play.

The Blues threw out a stifling 1-2-2 matchup zone that proved to be highly effective, forc-

the right shot, [and] not just the easy shot… really working hard at boxing out and going to get the ball.”

In addition to fifth-years Johansson and Barrett, the Blues are also enjoying the services of Division 1 transfer Eric Rwahwire, who De Giorgio has credited for vocal leadership on the court.

var.st/sports

NOVEMBER 11, 2019

19

Reaching new highs

Study from U of T professor finds strong doping culture in sport climbing

JENNY KIM/THE VARSITY

Laura Ashwood Associate Sports Editor

Chances are that you have a friend who is dying to take you rock climbing or bouldering. You might even be that friend. Either way, it is clear that rock climbing is the new ‘thing’ to do.

The sport is ascending to new heights, both professionally and recreationally. At the elite level, sport climbing will be included at the Olympics for the first time next year. For the everyday climber, according to Climbing Business Journal, the number of climbing gyms open in the US in-

creased from 388 to 457 between 2015 and 2017.

Closer to home, a new climbing gym opened in Koreatown on Bloor in 2015, and is often occupied by students.

Yet, this positive direction is hindered by the sport’s doping culture, which, as researchers have noted, may impact its optics on the international stage.

Dr. Yasser El-Sheikh, who lectures at U of T’s Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, has co-authored an article about the sport’s doping culture. El-Sheikh is also the medical officer for The Canadian Sport Climbing Team, the director of the Canadian Climbing Medicine Symposium, and the founder of Climbing Medicine Canada.

The article, titled “Doping in Sport Climbing: Status Quo in a New Olympic Discipline,” comments primarily on how the sport’s uptick in popularity and upcoming inauguration into the Olympics will present a challenge in the implementation of anti-doping policies.

It also outlines how the origins of the sport influenced its lax attitude toward performanceenhancing drugs, which, alongside its exponential growth in recent years, will make the communication of what substances are illegal more difficult.

The article explains that modern rock climbing loosely developed from alpine mountaineering, a sport in which athletes relied heavily on drugs that reduce the effects of altitude sickness and hypoxemia to allow climbers to reach astronomical heights. As such, doping in competitive climbing was more or less accepted until the overall culture of drugs in sports changed drastically in recent years. Climbers also benefit from being lighter, so there is a risk of use disorder of laxative and diuretic drugs in an effort to pull less weight up a wall.

Despite implemented regulations, records within the sport continue to be broken in a manner “unaffected by any antidoping control.” This lack of actual organized, observed competition in, particularly, outdoor forms of competitive climbing means that it is rare that any athlete will actually be tested for performance enhancers. Rather, we are forced to trust the ethics of the climber.

What’s more, because the sport is booming so drastically, the scientific and administrative sides of climbing are lagging. Until now there have been no published scientific studies on doping in

sport climbing, and dissemination of updated doping rules becomes difficult when many countries are still developing national teams.

New or non-competing athletes, without the assistance from national federations that only the most elite climbers get, may not know the updated doping rules and regulations. As a result, athletes, trainers, and officials alike may not even know that a substance they are using is illegal, because their sport’s framework can’t keep up with its burgeoning growth.

And because of how new climbing is to the elite international scene, national anti-doping organizations are unfamiliar with its culture and circumstances, leading to what the authors call “widely underdeveloped sports medical supervision.”

The Olympics are right around the corner, and the sport is poised to gain more popularity.

To change the doping culture in climbing, the authors recommend that education should be a high priority in the early years of climbing as an Olympic sport, as the world is watching and its reputation is on the line.

They also recommend more resources within climbing across the board so that the administrative side can keep up with the growth: for example, more sports medical supervision and more educational resources for recreational and elite athletes.

The rise of veganism and vegetarianism among youth in major cities

Are food vendors properly responding to this increase?

Michelle Krasovitski Varsity Contributor

Tim Hortons — one of the most emblematic symbols of Canadian culture — made the news when it introduced a vegan patty for some of its burgers and breakfast sandwiches. The patty was from the vegan brand “Beyond Meat” and hold its claim-to-fame for being able to fully replicate the taste of meat while being plant-based.

There were two very different schools of thought circulating discussions surrounding this unveiling: meat-eaters questioned its necessity in the first place, while non-meat-

ELHAM NUMAN/THE VARSITY

eaters wondered if the product was meant more for meat eaters, due to its close resemblance to meat.

I have been a vegetarian for close to six years, and I have never once missed the taste of meat. Instead, I’ve always looked forward to artisanal veggie patties — ones made of mushrooms, beets, lentils, and wild rice. But I also recognize that my taste is a very poor representation of others within the non-meateating demographic, including those that are trying to step away from consuming meat.

The University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine conducted a survey in 2016 in conjunction with University of Waterloo’s School of Public Health regarding the eating practices of Canada’s youth. It found that almost 14 per cent of the participants — who were within the 16–30 age range — self-reported vegetarian dietary practices, which included vegetarianism, veganism, and pescatarianism. The study found that the main reason for drastically changing eating habits was either environmentalist beliefs or aspirations for a healthier lifestyle.

Dalhousie University conducted a similar study last year, and though its results regarding age were the same, it focused more on location. It found that Ontario and British Columbia led the country in vegetarian-style diets, with over 10 per cent of their respective populations being either vegan or veg-

etarian. Québec came in third, just below the former two provinces’ threshold. Atlantic Canada and the Prairies were found to have a significantly smaller percentage of non-meateaters.

Tim Hortons’ vegan patty trend follows this pattern. Only two months after an enthusiastic rollout — and a marketing campaign which plastered stickers on windows and bus stops — Tim Hortons announced that it would cease offering vegetarian patties in all its locations, with the exception of two provinces: Ontario and British Columbia. It found that the demand for the vegetarian product, outside those two provinces, wasn’t high enough to warrant their continuation.

What these two studies and the case of Tim Hortons show us is that we live in a city which is extremely diverse and, in turn, it offers us diverse products. But this is not representative of the rest of Canada.

We take for granted the fact that we can find a vegan shop on just about any street corner in Toronto or that meat sections in grocery stores have a large variety of vegetarian and vegan options. Hot dog vendors at Blue Jays games offer veggie dogs, every restaurant will have veggie options on their menus — even steakhouses like The Keg — but this accessibility is not universal across Canada.

The reason for this is still not entirely determined. It may be a question of supply and

demand: not enough people are demanding the product, as was the case with Tim Hortons, so there is no supply offered. Or it may be a fundamental cultural difference — could it be that people living in other provinces find other ways of staying healthy and being environmentally sustainable?

As vegetarian foods become increasingly more innovative and inexpensive, and as environmentalism takes centre stage when it comes to social issues, it will be interesting to track the growth of vegetarianism in provinces outside Ontario, British Columbia, and Québec.

For now though, take advantage of living in a city where you can order a steak in one building and vegan cheese fries in the next. Even if you’re not intent on completely changing your lifestyle, explore a little bit. Planta Burger on Temperance Street is my personal favourite: a fast-food style burger shop with the best patties you’ll ever come across — and a good place to start.

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NOVEMBER 11, 2019