November 15th, 2021

November 15, 2021 Vol. CXLII, No. 9

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THE VARSITY THE VARSITY NEWS THE VARSITY Vol. CXLII, No. 9 21 Sussex Avenue, Suite 306 Toronto, ON M5S 1J6 (416) 946-7600 the.varsity

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“There is no time to waste”: Protest calls for action on climate as COP26 continues Students, community members protest outside Queen’s Park legislature

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MASTHEAD Hannah Carty editor@thevarsity.ca Editor-in-Chief Aditi Putcha creative@thevarsity.ca Creative Director Tahmeed Shafiq managing@thevarsity.ca Managing Editor Stephanie Bai online@thevarsity.ca Managing Online Editor Sarah Kronenfeld copy@thevarsity.ca Senior Copy Editor Lauren Alexander news@thevarsity.ca News Editor Maya Morriswala comment@thevarsity.ca Comment Editor Sarah Folk biz@thevarsity.ca Business & Labour Editor Jadine Ngan features@thevarsity.ca Features Editor Alexa DiFrancesco arts@thevarsity.ca Arts & Culture Editor

Protesters outside of Queen’s Park.

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Lauren Alexander, Marta Anielska, Cedric Jiang, Yunyi Wang Varsity News Team

As the 2021 United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) was going on in Glasgow, hundreds of protesters came together at Queen’s Park in Toronto on November 6 to voice their concerns about inaction on the climate crisis.

The conference, which ran from October 31 to November 12, brought together world leaders with the goal of increasing action toward the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Canada signed onto the zeroemission car accord, pledged to end deforestation by 2030, and pledged to stop subsidizing fossil fuel projects abroad by the end of 2022.

Meanwhile, protesters of all ages criticized the conference for its participants’ lack of action and accountability in implementing changes pledged at the conference.

COP26 Protesters said it was important to put pressure on world leaders during COP26 to demand that they commit to meaningful action.

Hannah Langelaan, a chemical engineering student attending the protest, added that her participation was a reminder that people “are showing up and… that [protesters] will continue to show up until there is change.”

Alice Zhu, a speaker at the protest and a PhD

student studying plastic pollution and carbon cycling at UTSC, also spoke to the importance of protesting COP26. “With devastating consequences of climate change being felt all over the world, people are approaching COP26 with an urgency never felt before,” she said.

Zhu said that COP26 this year should be a turning point to stop reliance on fossil fuels and political inaction on climate change. Her speech included a list of demands to leaders at Glasgow, which included respecting Indigenous sovereignty, phasing out fossil fuels, supporting workers transitioning from high-carbon industry to renewables, and promoting climate justice globally.

“Every moment we continue to rely on fossil fuels, [we are] taking one step closer towards an unlivable planet, and losing out on reaping the huge benefits of investing in the clean energy industry,” said Zhu during her speech.

Sophie Bondi, a first-year U of T student, agreed with Zhu. “They promised to do something, but they never did it, and it has been happening for 30 years,” said Bondi. “The whole event is a sham, and I think most people are starting to realize that.”

When asked what she would like to see at the COP26 conference, second-year student Hannah Mesich said, “I’d love to see more mentions of climate change. That’s such a low bar, and I hate to say it.”

Mesich further said that zero emissions and making sure no more oil pipelines are built on Indigenous land were pledges she’d like to see

at the conference, but she felt these were unlikely.

Madeline Suzano, another second-year student at U of T, echoed Mesich’s statement and called for concrete action and accountability.

Lawson Gillespie, a PhD student in U of T’s Department of Physics, wanted to see more accountability measures put in place for countries that don’t meet emissions reduction targets.

Gillespie also discussed the idea of climate debt, saying that developed countries have to be accountable for their disproportionate contributions to emissions.

Climate action at U of T Students also talked about climate action at U of T. The university recently announced its intention to divest its endowment fund of fossil fuel investments by 2030.

Students noted that while divestment is an incredible achievement on the part of activists, there is still work to be done. Samina Hess, a second-year environment biology student, specified in an interview with The Varsity that the next step for activists was making sure that the university followed up on its promises.

Haruki Hirasawa, a fifth-year PhD student at U of T’s Department of Physics who is doing research on how different types of emissions affect rainfall in Africa, said that U of T is moving in the right direction and has always been a leader in climate research.

But Hirasawa wants to see a stronger focus on environmental research at the university and more funding directed toward this kind of research.

Zhu, who worked on the divestment campaign, said she was very happy about the U of T’s decision to divest from fossil fuels after years of calls from activists. “The [fossil fuel] industry is coming to a close, and it’s the right decision,” said Zhu. Climate action in Canada Protesters focused on taking an intersectional approach to climate activism, and speakers demanded that politicians revise their plans for a smoother transition to a green economy to protect workers. In her speech, Andrea Babbington, the first Black woman to be president of the Toronto and York Region Labour Council, said these changes are necessary since, otherwise, families and communities could face job losses in the transition.

Students pointed out that Indigenous communities are most affected by climate change and that the climate crisis sheds light on many humanitarian issues. “I think it’s not realistic to think that we can address one of these issues without addressing all of the others,” said Hess.

For Gillespie, methane emissions in Canada are a big issue. Gillespie noted that not all methane emissions are taxed and pointed to taxing all methane emissions as a big goal for climate action in Canada.

“We have just elected a new government and now is the time to really pressure them,” said Zhu. “There is no time to waste. Canada must step up and lead the fight against climate change.”

She noted that Canada has recently joined other countries at COP26 to stop directing finances to fossil fuels and would like to see its promise being kept.

Student Choice Initiative policy dead after Ontario government announces it will not appeal decision Controversial policy was struck down for the second time in August Marta Anielska Deputy News Editor

The Ontario government has announced that it will not challenge the appeal decision that struck down its Student Choice Initiative (SCI) in August. If the government had chosen to fight the ruling, the case would have gone up to the Supreme Court of Canada. The government’s decision means that the policy, which allowed postsecondary students to opt out of certain incidental fees, will not be returning.

The policy has been controversial since it took effect in 2019, and many have criticized the initiative for allowing students to opt out of incidental fees that many campus groups

and programs rely on for operating revenue.

Critics argued that this loss of funding would erode student services and the legal rights of students.

The policy was originally struck down on November 21, 2019 when the Divisional Court of Ontario unanimously ruled in favour of the case’s applicants — the Canadian Federation of Students–Ontario (CFS–O) and the York Federation of Students. The Ontario government later appealed the case to the Ontario Court of Appeals, where it was struck down again on August 4, 2021 after going to court in March.

Though the government continued to defend the policy as a measure that promoted “affordability and transparency,” the court ruled

that the policy was an “incursion into university autonomy.” It added that if the government wanted to implement a policy like the SCI, it would first have to modify the Ontario Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology Act. In a press release in August, the CFS–O celebrated the Ontario Court of Appeals decision, noting that this was not only a win for student unions, but also for all the vital student services that were funded through those unions.

“The SCI was never about saving students money, it was an attempt to silence and defund students’ unions and groups that are critical of and hold the government accountable while providing support for students’ well-being onand off-campus,” read the statement.

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NOVEMBER 15, 2021

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Ontario and U of T’s plans for reopening Winter semester will see reopening of athletic facilities Lauren Alexander News Editor

On October 22, Doug Ford set out the province’s new timeline for returning to normal, which includes a plan to get rid of vaccine and mask mandates by March 2022. The province will continue to seek the advice of public health experts and monitor COVID-19 case rates when making these changes.

To give a sense of where the province and U of T are heading on the pathway back to normal, The Varsity broke down Ontario and U of T’s plans to reopen for the winter semester.

Ontario The province’s plan for safely reopening Ontario includes the eventual lifting of mask mandates and requirement of proof of vaccination.

Currently, it is planning that all remaining public health and workplace safety measures will be lifted by March 2022. The timeline is still subject to change and the “ongoing assessment of key public health and health care indicators,”

according to the Ontario government.

On October 25, the province began lifting capacity limits on places that are required to ask for proof of vaccination such as restaurants, bars, athletic facilities, casinos, and other indoor meeting and event spaces. Other places, like barber shops, museums, and amusement parks, can also lift capacity limits and physical distancing requirements if they require visitors to provide proof of vaccination to enter the business premises.

The province initially intended to lift capacity limits on spaces with food, drinks, and dancing, as well as other similar facilities that require proof of vaccination, on November 15, but the opening plan was paused on November 10. The province intends to monitor data on these spaces for 28 days to determine whether to lift capacity limits.

Moving into 2022, the province has set out dates when it will begin lifting requirements for proof of vaccination and other requirements, depending on the public health situation at the time.

On January 17, the province plans to begin lifting capacity limits in places that don’t require proof of vaccination, as well as requirements for

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proof of vaccination in places like restaurants, bars, athletic facilities, and casinos.

By February 7, it plans to lift proof of vaccination requirements in other high-risk settings like night clubs, strip clubs, bathhouses, and sex clubs.

Finally, by March 28, the province intends to lift remaining restrictions, including mask mandates and proof of vaccination in indoor public settings.

However, the province noted that specific places may have specific recommendations and public health measures may be reintroduced locally in certain areas, depending on the conditions in each area.

U of T The regulations governing the university’s vaccine requirements and other public health measures are mostly governed by the Ministry

of Colleges and Universities and the Council Ontario Medical Officers of Health. In August, these bodies advised that universities in Ontario have vaccine mandates.

While the government plans to phase out vaccine and mask mandates, a U of T spokesperson wrote in an email to The Varsity that the vaccine mandate will continue into the winter semester, along with requirements that community members wear masks indoors and other public health measures.

The spokesperson did note, however, that athletic facilities at U of T are slowly increasing their capacity and “expect to have no (or very limited) capacity limits in the Winter term.”

Currently, athletic facilities at the university are mostly operating at a reduced capacity and require bookings.

Two Queen’s Park pedestrian crossings now operational Last pedestrian crossing coming soon Elizabeth Shechtman Varsity Contributor

The City has made major changes concerning traffic around Queen’s Park with the instalment of three new traffic control signals with pedestrian crosswalks. These crosswalks were installed to help eliminate possible accidents and allow pedestrians to safely cross from Queen’s Park to adjoining areas.

The crosswalks were installed at three notorious jaywalking areas around Queen’s Park, which were determined by a study conducted by the TTC in April 2019.

Two of the pedestrian traffic control signals have already been activated, while the third one is currently under construction. It is planned to be activated by the end of the month.

Pedestrian crossings in these areas were first proposed back in December 2019. Transportation

Services of Toronto wrote to The Varsity that the “three mid-block pedestrian traffic control signals are expected to improve pedestrian connectivity in the area and enhance safety for pedestrians, motorists and people cycling under existing and future conditions.”

In 2017, an investigation conducted by The Varsity found that there were four major road accidents around Queen’s Park between 2006 and 2016. At the time, students expressed concerns about the lack of pedestrian crossings on campus.

Initiatives such as the Landmark Project and the installation of the pedestrian crossings were proposed to increase road safety.

A spokesperson for Transportation Services of Toronto wrote, “The City has not undertaken any follow-up studies on Queen’s Park Crescent to confirm that pedestrians are now using the controlled crossings as opposed to crossing midblock by using gaps in traffic.”

New EaRTH District innovation hub focuses on green technologies at UTSC Chief administrative officer shares plans for EaRTH District Syeda Maheen Zulfiqar UTSC Bureau Chief

In collaboration with Centennial College, Ontario Tech University, Durham College, and Trent University, UTSC has created and introduced the Environmental and Related Technologies Hub (EaRTH) District — a training and research hub that focuses on researching and creating green technologies.

EaRTH District goals In an interview with The Varsity, UTSC’s Chief Administrative Officer Andrew Arifuzzaman said that EaRTH District is one of U of T’s many localized initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint and slow climate change. He noted that the university has also been looking for ways to reduce its carbon footprint

when it constructs new buildings and upgrades existing ones.

Arifuzzaman said that supply chain issues can make it difficult to ensure a project is sustainable. “Much of the material is being produced elsewhere and that innovation isn’t really being driven locally as much as we think [it] can be,” he said.

A part of the EaRTH District initiative is a netzero vertical farm, the first of its kind in Canada, that is being created by UTSC and Centennial College. According to Arifuzzaman, this vertical farm at UTSC will be “a teaching and research facility.” He said that conversations between

Pedestrian crossovers at Queen’s Park.

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UTSC and Centennial College about its creation led to discussions about broader sustainability objectives formed by the United Nations and how the two could contribute to sustainability innovation.

Arifuzzaman sees the EaRTH District initiative not only as a way of stimulating innovation and developing technology to reduce carbon footprints, but also as a way of investing in the people and facilitating collaboration by providing positions for students at the hub.

Additionally, the project will be “creating more jobs locally, stimulating the local economy, [and] reducing transportation costs” by revitalizing the vast manufacturing spaces available in Scarborough and the Durham Region. “[The] analysis that we undertook has demonstrated that, by 2040, this work could generate over $8 billion of new investment in taxable income,” added Arifuzzaman.

Opportunities for students According to Arifuzzaman, the project will provide employment opportunities for students.

He said that students will also be “actively involved and engaged in the research projects that have been funded by the five institutions.”

For example, the vertical farm will allow students to gain skills for food security challenges and learn methods of experimentation.

Beyond this, the collaboration could allow students to take courses at the other four institutions. He added that the opportunity for students to take unique specialty courses focused on green technology is important because it allows them to gain new skill sets.

The collaboration Speaking on the structure of the collaboration, Arifuzzaman suggested that “this collaboration is capitalizing [each institution’s] strengths and actually [bringing] those strengths together in unique ways.”

He added that there are some conversations underway about “creating micro-credentialing programs that will allow industry to reconnect with the institution and develop new skill sets for people who are currently in the field and practicing.”

Arifuzzaman concluded by saying that the project has been designed with the hope that it will be able to make “environmental and sustainable technologies locally, making them more affordable.”

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The Breakdown: U of T’s sustainability initiatives Students call for greater incorporation of environmental sustainability in curricula

In light of U of T recently divesting its endowment fund from fossil fuels, many in the university community have been invested in how the university plans to fulfill its promises about sustainability. The university has been following a sustainability report it laid out in 2019, which plans out its approach until 2024.

Students have also been pushing the university to take more interest in designing curricula around environmental sustainability. Though U of T already has a number of opportunities in place for students to incorporate sustainability into their degree, students have emphasized that environmental knowledge should be incorporated into all degrees.

The university has also implemented various projects, such as rooftop solar panels and ground source heat pumps, that represent an investment of $50 million and could reduce emissions by 8,600 tonnes. On its own, the urban geoexchange field being built as part of the Landmark Project will reduce emissions by 15,000 tonnes per year.

Moreover, the university is planning to increase its solar energy capacity by 85 per cent. Its Sustainable Change Program is designed to help community members to promote sustainable practices in university spaces like labs and classrooms.

Since the university is constantly growing in size, it also aims to mitigate the effects of that growth and to incorporate the renewal of old spaces to ensure low-carbon performance.

A green future U of T’s sustainability plan report, released in 2019, outlines how the university will achieve its climaterelated goals. The plan rests on three pillars: production, which is about using cleaner energy and capturing carbon dioxide directly from the air; distribution, which is about minimizing energy losses by increasing efficiency; and consumption, which is about reducing energy use by retrofitting buildings.

In an email to The Varsity, Ron Saporta, chief operating officer of property & sustainability, wrote that the university has reduced its emissions by an average of 55,000 tonnes per year over the past 10 years.

Shaping education Professor John Robinson — the presidential advisor on environment, climate change and sustainability — wrote the ways that U of T is trying to promote sustainability in an email to The Varsity.

This includes faculty and students across a range of disciplines studying the impact of climate change and alternatives to fossil fuels.

Moreover, the university provides students with access to courses and co-curricular activities on sustainability through the U of T Sustainability Pathways program. Through these courses, students in any discipline can incorporate sustainability practices into their degree. By doing so, they can gain the title

Marta Anielska Deputy News Editor

FIONA TUNG/THEVARSITY

of ‘sustainable scholar,’ which indicates that they have completed a sustainability certificate or minor.

Some divisions, such as the Faculty of Arts & Science, have also implemented their own sustainable scholar programs. 68 per cent of undergraduate students enrolled at U of T have access to the sustainability pathways program through their division. Additionally, once UTM approves the sustainability scholar program, 88 per cent of undergraduate students will have access to it.

Students can also use the undergraduate sustainability inventory to find courses based on keywords from the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

In an email to The Varsity, Madeline Szabo, a second-year student studying education, history, and English, wrote that she thinks it’s important for education to be oriented around the climate crisis and environmental sustainability because it will encourage people to take action against climate change.

Szabo added that it’s specifically important for curricula to focus on solutions rather than just teaching about climate change, and that discussions of environmental sustainability should take on an intersectional lens that incorporates Indigenous issues.

Hannah Meisch, a second-year environmental science and biodiversity major, added that while fulfilling her breadth requirements, she was surprised to find that other programs don’t focus on how the environment functions in tandem with their discipline. This means students lack understanding of environmental issues.

“The environment encompasses everything, not to mention that any social issues we are facing are inherently linked with environmental issues, thus all disciplines of study must be included in the solution,” Meisch concluded. “It is necessary that all environmental connections and especially environmental consequences of that study be included in the curricula.”

UCheck Ambassador Program implemented to monitor vaccination status around campus More than 30 volunteers will check vaccination status in various buildings Elizabeth Shechtman Varsity Contributor

U of T has recently introduced the UCheck Ambassador Program, which aims to encourage community members to fill out the UCheck health screening questionnaires regularly. Ambassadors will visit a variety of spaces on all three campuses to monitor if U of T community members are completing the UCheck screening questionnaire.

The questionnaire consists of questions about vaccination status and COVID-19 symptoms.

Students must have a green UCheck status to come to campus. Some have criticized the university, saying that the university’s vaccine mandate is not genuine, considering that community members’ UCheck status is not regularly monitored.

“These trained ambassadors will ask every individual approaching a building entrance or space if they have completed their health screening in UCheck,” reads an FAQ on the new program. If a community member encounters an ambassador, they will be asked to show their

First Nations House erects art installation at UTSG Indigenous Education Week celebrated through short films and music videos

The Landback Installation at 22 Russell Street.

COURTESY OF KIERAN RICE

Libby Li Varsity Contributor

To celebrate both Treaties Recognition Week and U of T’s Indigenous Education Week and Treaty Week, First Nations House launched an art exhibition titled Reclaiming: A Landback Installation that went on display on Monday, November 1 and continued throughout the entire week.

Located at the North Courtyard of the Earth Sciences Building at 22 Russell Street, the Landback Installation was made in the structure of a shelter, symbolizing this year’s theme of land acknowledgement and reclamation.

In emails to The Varsity, Shane Kelsey discussed the curation process of the event, and Kieran Rice discussed the significance of the art installation in terms of raising awareness

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UCheck green screen or their paper form.

In an email to The Varsity, a spokesperson for the university wrote that program coordinators will assess class and work schedules in U of T buildings to identify high traffic times and determine where ambassadors will go. So far, mornings and afternoons have been found to be high traffic times.

There are currently more than 30 ambassadors across all three U of T campuses and they typically work in groups of two to four at each post. The ambassadors were mainly recruited

from outreach programs like Ask Me, a program that answers students’ questions at booths on campus. If needed, the university will recruit more ambassadors.

“The program has already started across the three campuses and will likely scale up while classes are in session this fall, and into the new academic term, as campuses return to more inperson classes,” wrote the spokesperson.

However, the program will not replace existing check-ins at some settings across campus such as libraries, eating areas, and recreational spaces.

for Indigenous legacies and restoring Indigenous community on campus after the pandemic. Kelsey is an employee at the First Nations House, a filmmaker, and a U of T student and Rice is a First Nations House blogger and a first-year student at U of T.

— Giiwebatoo (Run Home), directed by Shane Kejick — tells the horrors of the Residential School System by recounting the story of a young boy’s escape from a residential school.

Filmed and edited within a week, it has been played at several film festivals including the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco and Fantasia International Film Festival in Montréal, Québec.

Communicating Indigenous memories through film The Landback Installation featured short films and music videos from various Indigenous artists, many of which were provided by Wapikoni Mobile and other organizations that are dedicated to featuring and supporting Indigenous filmmakers across Canada.

Kelsey was in charge of selecting the short films and music videos. In an email to The Varsity, Kelsey wrote, “The common theme amongst the chosen films and music videos is Indigenous identity, culture, language, history, experience, presence, ways of understanding, and reclaiming of space.”

Kelsey selected artists from various backgrounds. Despite their differences, however, “[the artists] all share the same qualities and speak to a common existence and rebellion from colonial standards and norms,” wrote Kelsey.

One of the films displayed at the installation

Restoring Indigenous community on campus The Landback Installation reflected on land reclamation and treaty recognition. For firstyear students like Rice, it also provided a space to connect with the Indigenous community on campus after First Nations House’s year-long closure due to renovation, and the isolation created by the pandemic.

“During my visit to the installation, it was my first time meeting contacts from First Nations House in person, as opposed to via zoom,” wrote Rice in an email to The Varsity. “Personally, I’ve found it challenging to meet other Indigenous students this year.”

In a blog post about his experience at the installation, Rice wrote that being able to connect with other Indigenous students for the first time in a while was a great experience.

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NOVEMBER 15, 2021

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40,000 U of T student emails targeted by phishing attempt Chief information security officer warns community about “phishing campaign” Lexey Burns, UTM Bureau Chief

On November 1, U of T alerted students that scam emails were being sent to their school emails. The notice warned that “many members of [the U of T] community have received an email purporting to be from the ‘COVID-19 Support Team.’ This email

encourages recipients to visit the ‘University of Toronto giveaway page’ to be eligible for a one-time cash award.”

The original scam email offered $2,920 to all eligible faculty members, staff, and students due to the ongoing pandemic, claiming that U of T has decided to support community members so they could “get through these hard times.” The email asked ‘quali-

fied’ community members to register with their information to be considered for the giveaway. It explained that any submission that did not have all of the information the email requested would not be processed.

Isaac Straley, chief information security officer, wrote that this incident “appears to have been a wellcoordinated phishing campaign” and

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that around 40,000 people across the university received the email. Straley wrote that U of T is currently retracting the emails and blocking access to malicious websites.

An increase in scam emails The recent warning about email scams is not the only warning about cybersecurity that the university has recently given to students recently.

In early fall, Toronto Police Services warned incoming students about phishing attempts targeting international students.

Lucas Noritomi-Hartwig, a secondyear student in computer science, math, and statistics, shared a screenshot to social media of a another phishing email, which claimed that U of T is “closing all old versions of [its] Mailbox as from November 4th” and encouraged recipients to follow a link to update their account. “The post containing the screenshot of the email isn’t the only one I received,” he wrote to The Varsity.

Noritomi-Hartwig expressed concern about the number of scam emails that have been sent out. He added that he examines hyperlinks on emails he receives and checks for typos on the websites they link to, which are common red flags from scam emails.

“Considering how many scam emails have been sent, I would say the university could do more to prevent them (they will always occur, but they can be significantly minimized).

But I also think people should do their best to learn how to spot scams so that they are less prone to falling vic-

tim to them in general,” he wrote.

Noritomi-Hartwig acknowledged the efforts the university is making to ensure the safety of students’ information. He mentioned a warning email the university sent out to all students that directed them to the right resources to report suspicious communications.

Students have been posting screenshots of potential scam emails on Reddit to get confirmation from other U of T students if the emails are scam are not.

Addressing scams UTM Campus Safety has been spreading awareness and posting warning signs on social media for students who might be vulnerable to phishing scams. Throughout the first week of November, they posted daily fraud prevention tips in an effort to raise awareness and protect the UTM community from falling victim to any scams.

Straley asked that community members who have received scam emails should forward them to report.phishing@utoronto.ca and immediately delete them. They also encouraged those who had given their personal information to these scams to contact security.response@ utoronto.ca immediately.

The Office of the Dean of Students has also released an email that warns students to be wary of giving their information to such emails.

Campus Safety has also shared information on their website for students to learn more about fraud prevention and recovery from fraud.

2021 Remembrance Day Service commemorates World War I Service continues despite campus construction, pandemic Cedric Jiang Associate News Editor

U of T held its annual Remembrance Day Service on November 11, paying tribute to U of T community members who served during World War I. Observing Remembrance Day is a tradition in many Commonwealth countries to mark the day that the first World War ended.

U of T’s ceremony had very limited in-person attendance, and required physical distancing due to COVID-19.

The ceremony was also livestreamed for those who could not attend in person.

This is the second year in a row that the service has been affected by the pandemic. Last year, the service was made up of pre-recorded performances and livestreamed for community members to view.

The service traditionally takes place at Soldiers’ Tower, which was built in 1924 to commemorate the people who lost their lives in World War I. This year’s event was moved to an alternative location near Hart House due to the ongoing construction in the King’s College Circle area — part of the Landmark Project — which meant that holding the event at

Soldiers’ Tower was not possible. Daniel Hendrickson, chair of the Soldiers’ Tower Committee, said Hart House’s historically central role in student life historically has made the location an appropriate one for the ceremony.

“Many of the first students to use Hart House were veterans who had seen their colleagues perish in the Great War, and many that followed fought and died in the Second World War,” said Hendrickson in his opening speech. “Their legacies remind us that it was a World War for the university.”

“They expected a war where bravery would win the day, and we found a war where endurance in the face of killing on an industrial scale would at best hold the line,” said Chaplain Richard Ruggle in his speech. “As losses mounted, The Varsity would publish photos of the casualties with a brief note: they were from this town, from this family, they went to this school, this is what they were studying preparing for their future, they are no longer with us.”

This year marked the 20-year anniversary of 9/11 and the end of the war in Afghanistan that followed the attack, which resulted in the perpetuation of terrorism in the region and a humanitarian crisis. Chaplain Ruggle,

U of T’s Remembrance Day ceremony.

COURTESY OF JOHNNY GUATTO/UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

who officiated the service, paid special tribute to Canadians who sacrificed their lives in the Afghanistan mission.

“We are connected today as we commemorate men and women from your family, your university, your town, your regiment,” said Chaplain Ruggle.

“For some, Afghanistan is as remote as the First World War over a century ago… For others, it’s very real, as they continue to deal with the physical and spiritual challenges.”

Canadian Armed Forces were deployed in Afghanistan for 13 years.

More than 40,000 Canadian soldiers served in the country during that time and 158 soldiers were killed. Thousands of veterans continue to suffer physically and psychologically after their mission ended, which has resulted in additional deaths.

Members representing the university, alums, faculty, students, the Canadian Armed Forces, and other institutions and organizations came forward during the ceremony to place wreaths on the walls of Hart House. The colleges, faculties, departments, programs,

student societies, fraternities, and sororities who were not able to send representatives in person sent virtual messages of support.

The service culminated in a moment of silence. “When the ceasefire took place in November 1918, the soldiers were surprised by the silence. The guns that threaten them constantly were silent,” said Chaplain Ruggle.

“That silence and memory of the fallen has quickly become the defining moment of our service. It can speak when words fail.”

6

THE VARSITY

news@thevarsity.ca

NEWS

U of T Ombudsperson received four complaints of sexual violence, harassment last year Office of the Ombudsperson recommends examining uncivil conduct and harassment policies Lauren Alexander News Editor

Content warning: This article discusses sexual harassment and assault.

In this year’s report from the university’s ombudsperson — the officer who handles complaints from community members — outgoing ombudsperson Ellen Hodnett recommended that the university examine its policies on uncivil conduct and harassment.

The report was presented at the Governing Council meeting on October 28, where the council thanked Hodnett for her work before her retirement.

Hodnett’s recommendation comes after university community members have spoken out about larger issues of sexual violence and harassment. Over the summer, students in the Faculty of Music wrote an open letter describing a culture of sexual harassment in the faculty and calling for action. More recently, former Trinity College Provost Andy Orchard has been accused of sexual harassment and misconduct from when he worked at the university back in 2013. The university had received at least two complaints about Orchard but did not take any action.

A review of the university’s policy on sexual violence and harassment is underway now.

The review will look at how the university can strengthen its existing policy.

The recommendation Hodnett recommended that an examination

of the university’s policies on uncivil conduct and harassment should focus on encouraging community members to disclose issues, clarifying policies, increasing transparency on reporting processes, and generally improving the quality and timeliness of the university’s responses to complaints about uncivil conduct and harassment. She added that examining how complaints are handled across different academic units, as well as constituencies such as students, staff, and faculty, would be beneficial.

“During my tenure as Ombudsperson, I have observed a pattern which cuts across all categories of the University community,” wrote Hodnett in her report. She described consistent reports from graduate and undergraduate students of bullying and harassment by teaching staff and similar reports from teaching and administrative staff about their superiors.

Hodnett wrote, “In all instances reported to our Office, the bad behaviour has gone on for years.”

Hodnett noted that there has been an increase in disclosures of this kind. “As with the ‘Me Too’ movement, there is no evidence that the problem has increased, but rather, those experiencing the problem have felt more confident in bringing their cases forward. Nor is the problem unique to the University of Toronto; it is reflective of a worldwide pattern of increased disclosure.”

Data on complaints The report also provides data on the number and type of complaints that the Office of the Ombudsperson dealt with this year. According to the report, the office dealt with four complaints

The office of the Ombudsperson.

JUDY HU/THEVARSITY

of sexual violence or harassment from students in the 2020–2021 academic year.

This number has increased from past years.

In 2019–2020, there were no complaints of sexual harassment from students. In the 2018– 2019 and 2017–2018 academic years, there were one and three reports made, respectively.

The most recent report showed that, among students’ requests for assistance, academic integrity issues were the most common complaints, with 37 new cases. A report from last year showed that incidents of academic misconduct had increased since 2019, likely because of COVID-19.

The second and third most common complaints from students had to do with grading concerns and changes in teaching methods related to the switch to online learning, respectively. Hodnett also noted that the office recognized 29 complaints last year from a new category about the “impact of COVID-19 on teaching and learning.”

If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual violence or harassment at U of T: • Visit safety.utoronto.ca for a list of safety resources.

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

• Call Campus Safety Special Constable Service to make a report at 416-9782222 (for U of T St. George and U of T Scarborough) or 905-569-4333 (for U of T Mississauga) • Call the Women’s College Hospital Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Care Centre at 416-323-6040 • Call the Scarborough Grace Sexual Assault Care Centre at 416-495-2555 • Call the Assaulted Women’s Helpline at 866-863-0511

International students struggle with UTM’s plan for in-person winter semester Students talk about scholarships, financial challenges, travel difficulties Aina Oluwatoyin Ogechi and Marta Anielska Varsity Staff and Deputy News Editor

Since UTM announced that it is planning to hold the majority of its winter semester courses in person, a number of students at UTM have criticized the university’s plan. In particular, some international students face unique challenges returning to Canada for the winter semester and have expressed confusion about the processes of returning.

The challenges they face include financial issues, travel difficulties, and other miscellaneous problems that impact student life and health.

Moreover, many parts of the university’s plans remain unclear, especially in regard to programs like rapid screening.

Consequences of returning Though some international students are able to accommodate a sudden switch to in-person classes, others have not been so fortunate.

Victoria Valeeva, a first-year student at UTM, explained in an interview with The Varsity that returning to Canada for the winter semester would mean they might have to miss a significant number of classes, which they believe could put their scholarship in jeopardy.

Valeeva was awarded the UTM International Scholar award upon entering U of T, which gives students a package of either $100,000 or $180,000, spread out over four years. Valeeva

receives $22,500 per semester as long as they comply with certain conditions, including the condition that they must remain enrolled as a full-time student throughout the end of each academic year.

Valeeva would only be able to arrive a few days before the start of winter semester if UTM returns to in-person classes, and since Valeeva is having trouble getting vaccinated in their home country, they would have to miss about a month of classes in total due to the university’s COVID-19 restrictions.

Consequently, they would likely be forced to drop out of their classes and lose their scholarship, which cannot be renewed after a year when its conditions have not been met.

Without the scholarship, they would no longer be able to attend UTM and would have to continue their education at another institution.

Owais Zahid, another UTM student, also complained about the sudden decision to hold winter classes in person. In an email to The Varsity, he wrote that house hunting and making visa arrangements for his family are complications that will negatively affect his academics.

However, Zahid noted that his biggest concern is due to his complicated medical history and a recent surgery from which he is still recovering. He added that it isn’t realistic to find appropriate physicians and organize health plans in such a short time period.

JACQUELIE RENEE/THEVARSITY

Reaching out A UTM FAQ about the winter semester suggests that students who plan to return for the winter semester come up with a plan as soon as possible, and international students should reach out to the International Education Centre and their college registrars for advice.

Valeeva said that the only way they could attend their in-person classes in the winter semester would be if U of T continued its tricampus rapid screening program; however, it remains unclear whether the program will be in place for the winter semester. Moreover, university officials have told Valeeva that rapid

screening is only offered to students who have vaccine exemptions.

Valeeva has reached out to both their registrar and the International Education Centre. The latter responded that it is still unclear what will happen to students like Valeeva who cannot be vaccinated before they return to campus.

On the other hand, Zahid has not yet contacted university officials because he has been discouraged by the experiences of other international students who have sought help.

He added that he will try reaching out to his registrar soon even though he expects a similar response.

Business & Labour

November 15, 2021 thevarsity.ca/section/business biz@thevarsity.ca

The unionization of the gig economy Exploring the future of gig work and workers’ rights Jasmin Akbari Varsity Staff

There are over 1.7 million gig workers above the age of 15 in Canada. The gig economy differs from the traditional economy: traditionally, fulltime workers stayed in a job and focused on developing their careers, but the gig economy provides opportunities for those who wish to work as independent contractors and freelancers. The gig economy is not new, and the term commonly applies to jobs that use technology such as Uber, TaskRabbit, Doordash, and Fiverr.

The gig economy during COVID-19 Compared to the traditional economy, the gig economy offers more flexibility when it comes to the hours an individual works and the types of jobs available to them. Gig workers can focus on their family life, their social life, and whatever else they find important. Simultaneously, their employers — who may not have the need to hire full-time workers — can hire workers anywhere in the world.

The pandemic has impacted many industries globally, and it has had effects on both the gig economy and work in general. Lockdown restrictions have allowed us to realize that many jobs can be done remotely and have changed the typical 9:00 am to 5:00 pm job structure. On the other hand, the pandemic has also been devastating for many workers who lost their jobs, so people have turned to gig work to make ends meet.

Since the start of the pandemic, gig workers have been in high demand. As more workers turn to the gig economy, they have begun considering

unionization in order to secure benefits and stability.

Is unionizing the way to go?

The suggestion to unionize gig workers has long been a topic of debate in North America.

Unlike traditional workers, there are no set income rates or benefits for gig workers, which puts them in more precarious positions in terms of financial and job security. Gig workers, governments, companies, and consumers have been faced with finding solutions to make this line of work more stable.

As reported by The Guardian, in New York state, legislation has been proposed to make it easier to unionize gig workers. The proposal has been met with much controversy and many union officials are questioning if the benefits of the legislation would outweigh the cons.

The legislation would allow for industry-wide bargaining for gig workers in New York, such as food delivery workers, but would not define gig workers as employees, meaning they would forego their rights to be paid minimum wage and receive protection against discrimination.

It also contains phrases that would affect the ability of app-based delivery workers to go on strike.

The California legislature voted in Prop 22, which lets businesses classify gig workers as independent contractors. This means that these

gig workers are required to be provided with health care contribution subsidies and 120 per cent of the local minimum wage.

Unionization of gig economy in Canada The Ontario Labour Relations Board ruled in February 2020 that gig workers at Foodora had the right to unionize. This ruling was the first to be made regarding labour rights in the gig economy in Ontario and has set a precedent for more cases to come. Foodora workers are not alone in their demands, and unionizing in the gig economy would help decrease high turnover rates and improve relationships between gig workers and employers.

On the other side of the aisle, anti-unionization groups argue that unionization could increase unemployment, as it may increase the cost for

LIYA HUANG/THEVARSITY

employers to maintain employees. Furthermore, unionization could result in fewer jobs and hours offered to gig workers, thus resulting in more losses than benefits.

As U of T’s graduating students enter the workforce, they can expect more opportunities in the gig economy, with more say in what schedule and tasks they want to have. With the gig economy becoming bigger as more opportunities become available, students and faculty should ask questions about what can be done to prepare students for this line of work — a line of work that requires efficiency, quality, and accuracy.

Saving for retirement: An important conversation Opening an RRSP account might ease retirement anxiety for Gen Z Jasmin Akbari Varsity Staff

Canada’s Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) helps Canadians begin saving for retirement. Anyone can open an RRSP account, as long as they are a Canadian citizen with Canadian employment income, file tax returns, and have a valid Social Insurance Number. Students can set up an RRSP through a bank, credit union, or insurance company.

You can begin saving at any age, but once you reach the age of 71, the RRSP account must be closed in December of that year. On the occasion of turning 71, you are offered to choose to either withdraw your savings, transfer them to a Registered Retirement Income Fund, or use them to purchase an annuity.

The benefits to starting now You can begin investing in an RRSP at any age.

You can invest with cash, mutual funds, savings accounts, securities listed on designated stock exchanges, guaranteed investment certificates, government and corporate savings bonds, and exchange-traded funds.

As a student, investing in a retirement savings plan early can prove to have long-term benefits like tax-deductible contributions. This means that the amount you put into your RRSP for the year is deducted from your taxable yearly income. Further, investments are tax-deferred, which means that taxes on the growth of your investments are not paid until you withdraw the funds from your RRSP account.

A common question students may have is whether they should invest in a Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) or in an RRSP. Both are tax-sheltered investment vehicles, but are meant to serve different purposes.

There is more flexibility with TFSAs, because

you can invest and withdraw money from them whenever you wish and the gains on your investment are not taxed. You can only contribute $6,000 to a TFSA every year, and if you contribute less, that amount is added to your eligible contribution limit for the next year. An RRSP, on the other hand, is meant to be for retirement savings only and you cannot easily remove money from it. Contributions to an RRSP are tax-deductible, but contributions to a TFSA are not.

The idea of saving for retirement while having to pay outstanding debts like credit card statements or mortgages can be overwhelming. Everyone has a different financial scenario and students must evaluate what works best for them, even if it means only putting small amounts of money aside in their RRSP every month.

Challenges to retiring in Canada A study recently found that different generations begin investing in their retirement savings at different ages. One part of the study that was particularly interesting was that Gen Z was found to begin contributing to their retirement savings around the age of 19, millennials at age 25, and Gen X at age 30. It appears that starting to save at a younger age has been a message that has trickled down across generations, since the oldest members of Gen Z are only 24 years old. Gen X and baby boomers have been found to contribute an average of 14 to 15 per cent of their income into their retirement fund, while Gen Z and millennials invest, on average, 16 per cent of their income in their retirement savings.

Despite the fact that this difference signals a positive change in financial literacy for younger

GURLEEN UPPAL/THEVARSITY

generations, much of this is fuelled by the increased anxiety surrounding the possibility of a retirement crisis. As costs of living increase, research has found that many households will need to continue working past the age of 65 in order to afford retirement.

In fact, more than 67 per cent of Canadians think that Canada will be facing a retirement crisis.

This anticipates problems down the road such as employee turnover, since turnover between older and younger workers may be disrupted as more older employees have to continue working to be able to financially support themselves.

Unpacking the conversation on retirement plans The thought of a retirement crisis in Canada have flooded the offices of politicians and the minds of students entering the workforce. The pandemic has left many people with a bleak outlook on what their future retirement looks like. While it is great that Gen Z and millennials are putting aside income for retirement early, it does raise a lot of red flags about the state of our economy and fuels many questions on how to make retirement more accessible to everyone.

One solution may be in the hands of the employers. A study by the Ontario Health Pension Plan has shown that over 77 per cent of Canadians agreed to the idea of employers offering workplace pension plans.

Unfortunately, discussing pension plans at work is not a conversation that many people feel comfortable having. If employers were open to discussing ways to develop retirement plans, and if employees were more open to begin these difficult conversations, perhaps workplace pension plans would be considered down the line.

Investing early in an RRSP can reduce stress in the future and provide a sense of security for individuals — which is why we need to have more conversations surrounding RRSPs.

8

THE VARSITY

biz@thevarsity.ca

BUSINESS

Rotman alum founds nonprofit to help low-income students attend higher education Degrees for our Youth takes a grassroots approach to educational scholarships to donate to Degrees for our Youth and to provide mentorship. “We have a lot of friends who come from low-income families, who went to university, and now they’re well-off or established. And they’re looking for avenues to give back,” Mathew said.

GURLEEN UPPAL/THEVARSITY

Alyanna Denise Chua Associate Features Editor

The odds were stacked against U of T alum Jerry Mathew. Coming from a low-income family who was new to Canada, Mathew needed financial aid and guidance about university to succeed in his undergraduate and graduate studies at U of T. Ultimately, Mathew graduated with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at Rotman School of Management in 2019. Now, he wants to give back.

Together with Professor Ann Armstrong ​​— who teaches organizational behaviour at U of T — and three other founders, Mathew founded Degrees for our Youth, a nonprofit organization that aims to make higher education more accessible for students from low-income families in Canada.

School-based awards and university mentors Degrees for our Youth provides scholarship and mentorship to award recipients. Both components aim to help students from lowincome families succeed in their undergraduate careers.

A Degrees for our Youth scholarship provides

$5,000, which can cover almost a year’s worth of domestic tuition fees for an undergraduate program in Canada. In an interview with The Varsity, Mathew and Armstrong said the aim of this scholarship is to help students begin their first year of postsecondary education. Once students settle into school, they can then “start getting the grants and other things that are necessary for success,” Armstrong said.

Degrees for our Youth scholarships are school-wide, which means that they are only open to students at high schools where the award has been established. For example, Degrees for our Youth has established the first award at St. Roch Catholic Secondary School in Brampton, meaning only St. Roch students can apply for it. By designing awards that are school-wide, Mathew hopes that students will be less intimidated to apply for them.

However, Armstrong noted, “It’s one thing to get money, but another thing just to be thrown into a university and not know how to proceed.”

To ensure that students receive guidance at the postsecondary level, Degrees for our Youth also pairs recipients with a graduate who went to the same program or faculty that the recipient is interested in applying to.

Mathew and Armstrong said that there is a strong interest within their networks

A grassroots approach Many students from low-income backgrounds do not apply for financial aid because they may think they are ineligible, or lack information on how to apply. To resolve these issues, Degrees for our Youth works directly with high school educators both to establish awards and to approach eligible students.

Mathew and Armstrong emphasized the significance of the community to their organization’s mission. They encourage donors to establish awards in the high schools they went to. “[If] you went to high school in Scarborough, you can be the point of contact and the champion for that school while you fundraise for that school and establish an award there,” Mathew explained.

In this way, Armstrong said that award recipients can “create a chain of uplift,” where they continually support one another, which she thinks would be a very powerful outcome. More than just uplifting student recipients, Degrees for our Youth also aims to uplift the communities which those students belong to.

Many charities and nonprofit organizations in Canada also fail to be transparent with how they allocate their funding. This is why Degrees for our Youth guarantees that 95 per cent of their donations will go directly as scholarships to students, and publishes financial reports to prove their commitment to this promise.

UR gre TE at U SY be of OF ne T a TA fits lum I'S o CA nce ha PT t ve UR hey ac E'S gr ces /U ad s to NS ua PL te.

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Benefits for U of T alums

You put in the blood, sweat, and tears for four or more years and then you graduate — but the perks to being a True Blue don’t end when you walk across that stage on graduation day or watch your virtual ceremony. There are many benefits to being a U of T alum, such as discounted memberships at the university’s gyms, discounts on Hart House events and spaces, lower insurance rates, and free courses.

Professional development and continuing learning The School of Continuing Studies (SCS) at U of T has recently started offering an “alumni discount” of $550 for students who graduated in June 2018 and after. The discount can be used within five years of graduation for any one course. Alums can choose from the wide range of language, business and finance, and creative writing courses offered at the SCS, although there are some exceptions to what this discount can be applied to —it can’t be used for examination preparation courses, English language program offerings, and courses which cost less than $550.

In addition to the courses offered by the School of Continuing Studies, there are other resources U of T alums can access. LinkedIn Learning, for example, includes a library of more than 16,000 courses, many of which are designed to refine and develop professional skills.

Each course costs approximately $35 per month,

but U of T alums have free access to these courses until December 15, 2021.

Another program called LinkedIn Guys offers a course which provides a step-by-step guide to mastering the platform. Although it typically costs $130, U of T alums can access it for free until June 2022.

Additionally, alums can access U of T libraries and can choose from three different types of membership plans. The Alumni Reader Card costs $70 annually and provides access to Robarts Library stacks. Cardholders can also check out books. The Alumni Research Reader Card is more expensive, at $145 a year, but subscribers to this plan have access to more loans from Robarts and two renewals per checkout. Holds on books are also allowed, as well as interlibrary loans with a $30 charge applied. The cheapest of the three, the Alumni ID Card, allows access to Robarts Library for a one-time charge of $22.60, but checkouts are not allowed under this plan.

Arts, culture, and travel For people who plan on sticking around Toronto, the Royal Ontario Museum offers 15 per cent off of admission and all feature exhibitions for U of T alums. Currently, a general admission ticket for an adult is $23. With the discount, a U of T graduate can get in for $19.55.

Likewise, the Ontario Science Centre and Ripley’s Aquarium offer 20 per cent off of admission, as well as smaller discounts on other features and exhibits. A ticket to the aquarium is normally $43 for an adult; the discount for alums reduces

CO

U of T alums can enjoy discounts on insurance rates, car rentals, and leisure activities Savannah Ribeiro Varsity Contributor

Inclusive criteria Scholarships often have restrictive eligibility requirements that prevent the majority of lowincome students from accessing them.

Degrees for our Youth seeks to address this issue: the only award criterion they have is that the recipient must come from a low-income family. A four-person family unit, for instance, would be considered low-income if they have around $50,000 or less in total family income after taxes, according to a 2019 Statistics Canada Report.

This means that, when selecting for award recipients, Degrees for our Youth will not necessarily consider grades or merit. Mathew explained, “When I was applying [for scholarships], academic achievement was a huge component in getting financial support… I have a lot of friends [from low-income families] who worked when they were in Grade 11 and Grade 12. The students who really do need help don’t have 90s and 80s.”

Armstrong said, “I think that there are very talented people whose grades are not going to be as high because they’re working two and three jobs to support their families.” These lived realities inform the award criterion at Degrees for our Youth, ensuring that students who need financial aid the most will be able to get the help.

Ultimately, Mathew emphasized that the students they are trying to help already want to go to university or are exploring the possibility of going. By giving them financial resources and mentorship, Degrees for our Youth “just [nudges] them to take that leap of faith.”

Degrees for our Youth is currently running a “Raise $5K in 2 Weeks for 1 School” fundraiser until mid-November, and will run a raffle for donors in December.

this to $34.40. For the Science Centre, a regular admission costs $22, but U of T alums would only have to pay $17.60.

Club Quarters Hotels offer a discount of up to 30 per cent for U of T alums. The company has hotels in several major US cities and in the United Kingdom. Depending on your destination and time of travel, average prices are about $200 to $230 per night without the discount. The discount can be applied through online or phone booking.

Enterprise Car Rentals offers a discount for U of T alums as well. The discount applies to its daily, weekly, and monthly rates, and can be booked in store, online, or over the phone. U of T alums can also join the company’s Emerald Club and “enjoy ongoing use of this discount.” When I booked a car using the discount, the difference meant I paid about $18 less over four days.

Financial perks and insurance Manulife Insurance offers preferred rates for U of T alums on things like health and dental insurance, life insurance, disability income protection, and critical illness insurance. Its combined dental and drug plans are cheaper for alums, and the discounts it offers to alums on its life insurance plan

can help you save 10 per cent on your premium with coverage amounts of $280,000 or more.

Health and dental insurance can cover the cost of prescription medication and hospital services.

Disability income protection can help you if you have disabilities from an injury or sickness, and allows you to apply for payments of $3,500 per month or 50 per cent of your income, whichever is lower, to support you while you cannot work. Critical illness insurance can allow you to save up to 10 per cent on premiums for coverage that is $125,000 or more.

TD Insurance offers discounted home and automobile insurance rates for U of T alums.

Since car and home insurance rates are based on several variables, including age and location, comparing rates can be difficult. When I did a comparison using my own information, the difference was about $45 less per month for car insurance if I stated that I was a U of T alum, which works out to $540 per year.

Overall, many of the benefits offered to U of T alums are worth it. After all the hard work that you have put into earning your degree, don’t forget to enjoy all the benefits that being an alum has to offer.

Comment

November 15, 2021 thevarsity.ca/section/comment comment@thevarsity.ca

Open letter: Divestment is great news, but it’s still not evidence-based climate action We should be setting more ambitious goals than those laid out by President Gertler Steve Easterbrook Varsity Contributor

The University of Toronto took a big step forward in addressing the climate crisis last week with the announcement that it will divest its endowment portfolio from fossil fuel investments, and work toward a “climate positive” campus by 2050.

These are important steps, and I fully applaud the students, staff, and faculty who have been pushing for this for many years. U of T President Meric Gertler is correct to say that when large institutions such as U of T take these steps, it encourages others to follow.

However, in many ways, the announcement is disappointing, both in tone and substance. The president likes to talk about U of T as a ‘leader’ and, indeed, used that language in last week’s announcement. But the university could have fully divested from fossil fuel companies six years ago when its own expert advisory panel suggested targeted divestment. Six years ago, we could have led the way; now, we are a laggard.

Every delay means more carbon emissions, which contribute to further warming and further damage from climate impacts. Our students represent the generation who will have to live with the consequences of the climate crisis for most of their lives. At the very least, we owe them an apology for ignoring them and our own expert advice for so long.

The announcement also fails to acknowledge the well-documented role that the fossil fuel industry has played in deliberately undermining the work of climate scientists, including those at U of T, and in spreading misinformation to confuse the public and delay action on the climate crisis.

In making fossil fuel investments up to now, the university has been violating its own policy by investing in firms that cause social injury. Quite simply, we have been funding a world-class educational institution through investments that directly undermine the very mission of universities.

In some ways, the president’s announcement itself adds to that misinformation. For example, it continues to present reduction of “the carbon footprint of [the university’s] long-term investment portfolios” as though it were talking about actual reductions in absolute emissions, with the distinction buried in a footnote. During a time when the investment portfolio has grown considerably, a 40 per cent reduction will provide only a very modest reduction of our carbon footprint.

President Gertler himself has acknowledged that this language is misleading in his remarks to the Governing Council last year, yet he continues to use it.

The casual reader may think we are on track with the drastic emissions reductions pathways described in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports. We are not. What’s more, the announcement does not once mention the scientific evidence that guides emissions reduction targets set forth by the IPCC. Our decarbonization targets need to be meaningful. Universities in particular are in a unique position here. We have the expertise to build robust evidence-based policy on carbon emissions, but we’re not using it.

The closest the president’s announcement comes to citing this evidence is when he invokes the idea of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

This may be a reference to emissions pathways analyzed in the IPCC Working Group 1 report released this past August, and perhaps the special report on the 1.5 degrees Celsius target, published in 2018. But “net zero by 2050” is the shallowest possible reading of those reports and abjectly fails to engage with what those reports actually say.

The IPCC reports clearly show that the climate crisis is irreversible, at least on the timescale of

human lifetimes. They also show that carbon emissions are cumulative: every additional tonne of emissions contributes to further warming, and the planet does not cool down again after we reach net zero.

So, there is no such thing as a ‘safe’ threshold for the climate crisis. We’re already seeing devastating impacts around the world from a warming of 1.1 degrees Celsius — so far — over preindustrial global average temperatures. Every fraction of a degree of further warming will exacerbate these impacts, killing millions of people and displacing many more, through floods, heat waves, wildfires, and a rise in sea levels.

The idea of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 has been widely touted in the media. The pathways to achieve that net zero are usually presented as recommendations from the IPCC. But the IPCC does not make any such recommendation — that is not its remit. It merely assesses the science, and analyzes the consequences of potential future policy choices.

Therefore, it is a major misreading to say the IPCC calls for this goal.

Similarly, the oft-touted targets of keeping warming below two degrees Celsius or 1.5 degrees Celsius are not IPCC recommendations either. They are political targets, adopted by

gets by countries and institutions. Global net zero would mean that any remaining carbon emissions from human activities have to be offset by drawing down carbon from the atmosphere, largely via technologies that have not yet been demonstrated to work at sufficient scale.

The one drawdown strategy that clearly does work at scale — much-needed mass tree planting — will mostly just reverse the damage from past and ongoing deforestation. Tree planting is not now, nor will it ever be an adequate solution to our failure to curb emissions from fossil fuels.

A close reading of the IPCC reports shows that emissions pathways which include achieving net zero by mid-century depend on assumptions about carbon removal technologies that are not yet invented.

By contrast, when a country — or an institution such as U of T — touts a net zero target, they mean that ongoing emissions can be counterbalanced by emissions reductions by other countries or other institutions, often by buying and trading emissions credits or investing in emissions reduction programs elsewhere. But this is not a zero-sum game. The goal is not to reduce emissions; it is to eliminate them.

Quite simply, you cannot reach global net zero using accounting tricks that merely shuffle

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the United Nations, as a result of a series of compromises between what politicians think is feasible and what scientists argue is the bare minimum to prevent catastrophic damage. The IPCC merely reports on what the science has to say about such targets and the emissions pathways needed to achieve them.

In analyzing these pathways, it is clear that achieving global net zero by 2050 will be necessary to keep the world below these temperature thresholds. But it is not sufficient. The IPCC reports make it clear that it is not the date that we achieve net zero but the total cumulative emissions along the way that will determine the temperature rise. For this reason, early steep reductions in the next few years are far more important than what happens around 2050.

For example, the IPCC’s 2018 Special Report said that pathways that will keep us below 1.5 degrees Celsius would require emissions to decline by about 45 per cent from 2010 levels by 2030. That requires immediate reductions of over seven per cent each year. It is the shape of the emissions curve over the next decade that will decide our fate, not the timing of us crossing the zero line.

It’s also incorrect to translate a goal of global net zero as equivalent to individual net zero tar-

around where in the world the emissions occur.

If you buy a carbon offset, you’re merely paying for something we should be doing anyway — it cannot and should not be treated as a permit to keep polluting. ‘Net zero’ isn’t sufficient at the institutional level. We need actual zero.

We know that many countries and institutions will struggle to decarbonize because they don’t have enough funding to invest in alternatives or they lack the social and technological capital to proceed quickly. We also know that richer nations — and especially richer individuals — are responsible for the vast majority of past and current emissions. For these reasons, richer nations have a moral obligation to move much faster and set much more ambitious targets than what’s considered ‘average.’

Finally, there’s a strong argument that investment decisions should be at the leading edge of climate policy. We have to pay for the transition to a net zero world, and the lag between investment and new carbon-positive infrastructure takes years to decades. Waiting until 2050 to reach net zero in our investment portfolio is, quite frankly, ridiculous. Today, a bold investment strategy based on evidence from the IPCC would seek to make at least 7.6 per cent emissions reductions every year, starting immediately.

In addressing the climate crisis, universities have a particularly important role to play.

Universities can take bolder steps and try out unproven strategies while studying the benefits and impacts of their actions so that others can repeat their successes.

Plus, we should be preparing our students for a discontinuous future — one where past assumptions about future careers are likely to be wrong. That means reviewing every single program of study across the university to ensure it equips our students with the knowledge and skills they need to face this new world.

So the largest university in one of the richest countries on the planet should be setting goals that are vastly more ambitious than those laid out by President Gertler. The university’s goals must be properly supported by the evidence laid out in the IPCC reports, as an example for other institutions to follow. At the very least, the university should set targets that are far in advance of those announced by the City of Toronto — which already aims for net zero emissions in new buildings by 2030 — and the federal government — which is committing to emissions 40–45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

We should be a living laboratory, experimenting with early, deep emissions cuts within the next few years, reporting on what works and what doesn’t. If we don’t lead the way, it’s hard to see who else can.

Signed, Steve Easterbrook, Director, School of the Environment; Professor, Department of Computer Science Alissa Trotz, Director, Women and Gender Studies Institute; Professor, Caribbean Studies Program Gavin Smith, Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology Chris Matzner, Professor, David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics Deborah Cowen, Professor, Department of Geography and Planning Marcin Pęski, Professor, Department of Economics Matthew Hoffmann, Professor, Department of Political Science, UTSC Paul Downes, Professor, Department of English Paul Hamel, Professor, Faculty of Medicine Scott Prudham, Professor, Department of Geography and Planning, School of the Environment Tenley Conway, Professor, Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment, UTM Jan Mahrt-Smith, Associate Professor, Rotman School of Management, School of the Environment Liat Margolis, Associate Professor, Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design Nicole Klenk, Associate Professor, Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences, UTSC Norman Farb, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, UTM Michael Classens, Assistant Professor, School of the Environment Nicolas Grisouard, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics Milan Ilnyckyj, PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science Amanda Harvey-Sanchez, PhD Student, Department of Anthropology Melanie Seabrook, MSc Candidate, Dalla Lana School of Public Health Aliénor Rougeot, Undergraduate Alum, Economics and Public Policy Leila Tjieng, Undergraduate Student, Environmental Biology and Geography Léo Jourdan, Undergraduate Student, Computer Science and Mathematics Rivka Goetz, Undergraduate Student, Critical Studies in Equity and Solidarity

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comment@thevarsity.ca

COMMENT

Op-ed: It’s time for federated colleges to divest from fossil fuels We call on these colleges to release their plans and increase transparency Jared Connoy and Grace King Varsity Contributors

The University of Toronto’s recent announcement that it will completely divest from fossil fuels by 2030 was met with celebration from campus climate advocacy groups. But does this plan include the university’s federated colleges?

While we should rejoice over the university’s sudden change in tune toward divestment, we must remember that its new goals will not apply to all U of T colleges.

If you have ever wondered why the federated colleges Victoria, Trinity, and St. Michael’s are formally distinguished as their own ‘universities’ within U of T, there is a long historical explanation. The short answer is that the title indicates a difference in autonomy. While Woodsworth, Innis, University, and New College are largely under the jurisdiction of U of T’s central governing body, the federated colleges have special control over their programming, faculty, student intake, and — most importantly — finances. Therefore, U of T’s divestment

pledge does not extend to the federated colleges.

Victoria, Trinity, and St. Michael’s possess large endowments that total to hundreds of millions of dollars. Although the three colleges have published their financial statements online, the pathways of their investments have been artfully obscured by a dictionary’s worth of financial jargon. The documents yield few substantial clues to the college’s holdings — and where clues are available, they turn up dead ends. The federated colleges are, no doubt, hiding their investments from their students.

It is a rather public fact that Victoria is the wealthiest of all the colleges. If you spend enough time on Victoria’s campus, as we did while we were students there, you will start to notice that every tour guide who passes by the college describes it to their herd of prospective students as “the college with the most money.” Certainly, they are correct: looking at their financial statements from 2019, Trinity and St. Michael’s have rather impressive endowments, at $69 million and $88 million respectively. However, these sums are made small in comparison to Victoria’s endowment, which clocks in at a mindblowing $507 million.

Victoria has been called out before on issues of sustainability, but its lips are still sealed about divestment. Students in Leap UofT and the Victoria College Sustainability Commission have demanded that the college divest from fossil fuels, but their efforts have been met with little more than fluffpiece statements. In response to a 2018 campaign by the Victoria College Sustainability Commission, Victoria University President and Vice-Chancellor William Robins deflected student concerns around Victoria’s environmental track record, emphasizing the college’s commitment to encouraging “waste diversion” on campus and bringing “greening initiatives” to its Physical Plant.

Taking care of the trash is all good and well, but it does not answer the question: where is Victoria’s money coming from, and where is it being held?

Victoria’s financial statements reveal almost nothing

about its investments, but we do know that as of 2019, the college invested in properties with ‘mineral rights’ in a small town in Saskatchewan that sits directly on an oil patch. But the Saskatchewan property is likely only a small piece of the puzzle.

With the college’s staggering endowment, it is entirely possible that Victoria has significant investments in stocks tied to oil and gas companies and the big banks that fund the fossil fuel industry. Only the college can confirm or deny this possibility.

Victoria has a moral and fiduciary responsibility to disclose any financial relationships with oil and gas companies, and it is failing the U of T student community by not making their financial statements detailed and transparent.

The other federated colleges offer varying accounts of their holdings. Although St. Michael’s offers virtually nothing about its holdings in its 2019 financial statement, we do know that the college belongs to the University Network for Investor Engagement, an initiative that urges corporations to reduce their carbon emissions. This is not enough. The fewer details in colleges’ financial statements, the more pressing it is that we get honest answers from them.

Trinity’s statement reveals that a significant portion of its money is invested through Fiera, an independent asset management firm. Of the $106 million that Trinity invested through Fiera in 2019, $24 million was allocated to the Ethical Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Fund in Fiera’s Canadian Equity portfolio. Despite its ‘ethical’ and ‘environmental’ branding, in following Fiera’s ESG page to its Canadian Equity strategy, it appears that two of its top 10 holdings are in oil and gas companies, and another three are in big banks that fund the fossil fuel industry. To make things worse, one of the companies — TC Energy — is the owner of the much-criticized Coastal GasLink pipeline that continues to violate First Nations’ rights and contributes to the worsening climate emergency.

Although some details can be found in the federated colleges’ financial statements, the

We must remember that U of T’s divestment goals may not apply to all of the colleges.

AUGUSTINE WONG/THEVARSITY

picture is by no means any clearer. Most of the information seems to be locked behind closed doors and shared through private meetings. Only Victoria, Trinity, and St. Michael’s can confirm how or where their money is invested.

We call on the federated colleges to release the records of their holdings in fossil fuel industries and the banks that back them, as well as a plan for matching U of T’s divestment timeline. Without this plan, students cannot know that these colleges practise the progressive values they preach, or that they support students’ rights to a future on a liveable planet.

Jared Connoy graduated from U of T in 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in economics and environmental science. He served as Victoria College Sustainability Commissioner from 2017–2019.

Grace King graduated from U of T in 2021 with a Master of Arts in English. She is a former member of Climate Justice Toronto.

Kevin Vuong still needs to resign Vuong’s moral flexibility and penchant for lying by omission is the last thing that this city needs Logan Liut Comment Columnist

Post-election disappointment has finally seemed to settle down here in Toronto and across Canada, but one lasting repercussion of another disappointing election is still refusing to resolve itself — the ethically contentious election of current Spadina—Fort York MP Kevin Vuong.

I volunteered with Vuong’s opponent Norm Di Pasquale, the former NDP candidate for Spadina—Fort York. However, with the election being over, my opposition to Vuong goes beyond differences in political ideology — it’s a matter of ethics and Vuong’s lack of accountability.

Vuong was formerly the Liberal Party candidate for Spadina—Fort York, but a report of alleged sexual misconduct led the Liberal Party to drop Vuong’s candidacy mere days before the election. Unfortunately, his name was still printed as the Liberal candidate on the ballot.

Although this was horrendous enough, Vuong’s self-admitted “lack of disclosure” goes far beyond a simple one-off issue, and his actions as of late seem to point toward a pattern of avoiding responsibility and general moral flexibility.

As reported by the CBC and the Toronto Star, court documents now confirm that Vuong was charged with one count of sexual assault by Crown prosecutors in front of Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General in 2019. This charge was later dropped by Crown prosecutors, but this goes beyond whether he is guilty or innocent; the fact that such an allegation has resurfaced and Vuong has repeatedly failed to take responsibility for it reasonably casts doubt on his honesty and character.

The Liberal Party’s vetting process for

prospective candidates explicitly asks whether a potential candidate has been criminally charged in the past, along with whether anything in their past in general could embarrass the candidate or the party at large. Vuong did not disclose anything during that vetting process.

Vuong is also a naval reservist with the Royal Canadian Navy, where similar disclosure processes are required, including sharing criminal charges with the chain of command. He allegedly did not disclose anything — which should not come as a surprise. In a way, this is even worse, since it comes at a time when the Canadian Armed Forces is in the middle of a sexual assault crisis in all of its three branches and high-level officials have allegedly done similar actions to Vuong’s.

If Vuong is found not to have disclosed the criminal charge, he does not deserve the honour of naming himself a member of the Royal Canadian Nav. He lied by omission in order to continue securing for himself a position of great honour as a member of our nation’s military forces, and that is unacceptable.

But, most importantly, Vuong does not deserve the high honour of being a federal representative of the people of Spadina—Fort York or of this city. He misled the volunteers that dedicated their time to him and to the Liberal cause, he misled voters at the ballot box, and he misled the people of Spadina—Fort York. Vuong keeps on releasing — and then deleting — statements “[apologizing] for the lack of disclosure” and alleging that he will “work hard to earn [voters’] trust,” pledging to address these allegations “at a later date… in a dedicated forum.”

Meanwhile, all previous statements have been deleted from his Twitter, and the CBC has reported

Vuong was formerly the Liberal Party candidate for Spadina—Fort York.

COURTESY OF ROMI LEVINE/UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

that Vuong is not returning any communications from constituents or journalists. He’s definitely not making the effort to actively apologize, nor is he making any effort to secure the trust of his constituents. He should be ashamed of himself in that regard alone, even ignoring the fact that he lied by omission to his supporters, Liberal partisans in Spadina—Fort York, his constituents in general, and, perhaps most upsettingly, the fact that he allegedly lied to remain a member of our honourable military forces.

As it stands now, a former campaign staffer has expressed uncertainty on the question of whether Vuong has even been sworn in, and it remains unclear if Vuong attended the orientation for new MPs on September 27. This forum that Vuong alleges he is preparing to dedicate to the aforementioned allegations has not been announced.

Some people may be wondering: why make

all this noise over one dropped sexual assault allegation? While that attitude is definitely a problem on its own — and I will always believe the victim of a sexual assault allegation unless shown that it’s false — the main problem is Vuong’s continued lack of disclosure and honesty.

In my humble opinion, Kevin Vuong knew that he would not have a chance at high office anywhere in this country, province, or city if he disclosed that charge, and he knowingly didn’t disclose for that reason.

We do not need more morally flexible politicians than we already have in this world, and, after all of the uncertainty and lying during this morally illegitimate election in Spadina—Fort York, one thing remains clear in my mind.

Kevin Vuong needs to resign.

Logan Liut is a first-year social sciences student at University College.

thevarsity.ca/section/comment

NOVEMBER 15, 2021

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Facebook’s metaverse is just a desperate PR attempt Facebook’s name change is a hopeless media ploy, not a genuine act of innovation Vincent Zhang Comment Columnist

Ever since Mark Zuckerberg first launched Facebook from his dorm room at Harvard University, the website has been the site of multiple ethical and privacy scandals. In October, Facebook once again found itself under fire after a massive leak of internal documents. Its apparent solution: rebrand to Meta and start fresh.

But why now, amid the chaos? According to Facebook, the name change purely symbolizes its optimism for the future of technology.

However, from the outside looking in, the name change seems like Facebook’s way of shaking off months of negative press. After all, other companies have rebranded and thrived under new names, including Nissan, which used to be Datsun, and LG Electronics, which was previously Lucky-Goldstar Group.

However, unlike Nissan and LG, Facebook’s rebrand will ultimately be unsuccessful because it is taking place during a major scandal.

Over many years of corporate greed and poor leadership, Facebook has fostered a toxic and dishonest brand. As such, the company has found it harder to attract and retain talented employees, maintain partnerships, and keep advertising steady. Thus, a name change will do nothing to heal years of lies; people will continue to remember Facebook as a power-hungry, democracy-threatening corporation.

So, why bother changing names at all?

In a keynote presentation last October, Zuckerberg announced that the name Meta represents the ‘metaverse’ that Facebook intends on creating.

His metaverse would be a virtual reality world where users would be able to virtually play games, attend

meetings, shop for art, hang out with others, or do pretty much anything else that could be done in the real world. Although it’s clearly ambitious, hints of a virtual world have always existed, at least in the forms of video games like Second Life, Roblox, or Fortnite. Zuckerberg believes that a metaverse will be the successor to the mobile internet and is willing to stake Facebook’s future on this bet.

Admittedly, Facebook’s metaverse would solve some of its major problems. A metaverse would address its aging user population. Despite the fact that the majority of Facebook users are aged 25–34, there is a strong skew in its userbase toward the older generations. Compared to a social networking competitor like TikTok, Facebook caters to a significantly older population. Although it started as a college-exclusive social networking platform, its student population is slowly diminishing. Thus, new technology and innovations can help recapture younger generations.

A metaverse would also set Facebook free from its competitors and new tech regulations. Currently, Facebook’s success is highly dependent on other corporations, since Apple and Google generally hold more power in app disputes. Similarly, as policymakers become increasingly aware of the dangers of tech, new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations now prohibit many of Facebook’s financial strategies. Facebook hopes to find new freedom in an unknown and unregulated territory to escape rules imposed by competitors and policymakers.

However, while the metaverse can fix many things, Facebook must do more to fix its reputation after multiple scandals. Over the past five years, Facebook has been accused of influencing election results in the Philippines and the US, as well as the Brexit vote in the UK. Furthermore, in the

Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook gathered data on over 87 million users without their consent.

Other reports found Facebook guilty of making agreements with device makers to share personal data with them. Users’ information and privacy are put at risk, which unnecessarily puts them in harm’s way. This is especially relevant for high school and college students who frequently post online.

In 2019, Facebook was found circulating an illegal app on the Apple and Google Play stores.

This app allowed Facebook to use VPNs to track users’ usage and web surfing habits in exchange for $20 a month. More recently, Frances Haugen, a former employee, leaked internal documents exposing that Facebook knew of Instagram’s harmful effects on body image issues among teenagers.

Facebook’s remodel does nothing to address these issues — rather it hopes to simply sweep them under the rug.

Facebook has never been ethical. Its very inspiration was based on a sexist website that hosted a “hot or not” game, where students would compare the photos of two female students and decide who was more attractive. After immense student backlash, Zuckerberg was charged with breach of security, copyright violation, and violations of individual privacy. Looking back at recent Facebook headlines, it is clear that nothing has changed.

Zuckerberg continues to ignore individual privacy and security in favour of profit.

While there is certainly no denying the innovation behind a Facebook metaverse, the remodel does not solve cultural problems within its existing product. Neither a new name or new platform ad-

ELHAM NEUMAN/THEVARSITY

dresses its magnitude of scandals. As one commenter so delicately put it: “Zuckerberg is trying to put lipstick on a pig.” Facebook will continue to operate as a data-stealing monopoly, and a virtual reality world will make this all the easier.

Facebook must be held accountable for itspast scandals and infringements, regardless of the name it chooses to operate under.

Vincent Zhang is a second-year financial economics student at Innis College.

When students request accommodations, believe them How intersectional mental health strategies can help us support one another Aida Alanzi Varsity Contributor

Content warning: This article contains mentions of suicide.

Discussions on mental health crises in higher education continue to ignore intersectionality, particularly when universities proclaim mental health crises on their campuses. Intersectionality, a term coined by scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, asserts that people’s social identities intersect and should not be isolated or disentangled from one another. We gain a better knowledge of the intricacies of the issues at hand by engaging with them in intersectional frameworks.

Much of the discourse around student suicide revolves around academic rigour, difficulty, or stress. While there is no denying that stress from academics is a risk factor, framing it as the only one is a form of erasure. Intersectionality — including our different social locations and identities — is an important yet often ignored factor in how academic stress impacts each student.

There is a range of stresses and traumas that students experience at different social levels, such as racial, familial, financial, and health or disability concerns, among others. Each of those levels affects how a particular student navigates academic institutions and whether they feel supported or excluded.

In higher education, students without disabilities and neurotypical students are favoured in various ways. For example, the University-Mandated Leave of Absence Policy forces students in crises to take a leave of absence from the university rather than collaborating with them to find a way to support them in their academic journey. This exclusion is destabilizing, discriminatory, and further stigmatizes students with mental health disabilities. It also denies students the agency to decide what is best for them.

Rather than working with students to provide proper accommodations that could help them improve their mental well-being and academic performance, they are shunned out by their institution — considered a liability. In addition, the university can further aggravate pre-existing conditions and stress by requesting formal documentation, something that not all students are able to provide, in order for them to gain accommodations. This can include requesting a doctor’s note to excuse missed assignments, late assignments, tests, and absences.

This process is taxing and time-consuming, and it is not reasonable to expect students in crisis to be able to undertake it. Moreover, the process excludes students with disabilities and neurodivergent students from accessing support, exacerbating their pre-existing conditions and distress.

So, what can universities and instructors do to best support their students? Wellness workshops — and bringing in therapy dogs during in-person exam season — do not address the fundamental issue of the university system favouring students without disabilities and neurotypical students.

Instructors can shift their pedagogy — their approach to teaching — toward a non-traditional way of learning by implementing either madpositive pedagogy or trauma-informed pedagogy in their teaching.

Mad-positive pedagogy works by addressing and countering the ableism and sanism that is rampant within university practices and systems.

For instance, some universities have begun offering Mad Studies, which aims to question what society takes for granted about mental illness.

Trauma-informed pedagogy takes an intersectional approach at recognizing different types of traumas and stresses that range from pandemic-related trauma, historical trauma, individual, community, and other types of general stressors. For example, a study in School Mental

Health has shown that teachers who trained under this pedagogical method had increased capacity for relating to students and provided more psychological resources, allowing the teachers to better serve students at vulnerable intersections. All of these intersections impact students’ learning and engagement.

Both of these pedagogies relate to the framework of disability justice, which acknowledges the larger impact, intersectional discrimination, and oppression that people go through due to their disability, gender, race, sexuality, as well as larger structural issues such as colonialism and capitalism. Through these intersections, as the disability justice framework shows, we get a better understanding of why certain bodies and minds are viewed as deviant and how academic institutions play a role in it.

Some universities, such as McMaster University, have an online system that enables students to self-report absences, allowing them to extend deadlines with no external verification. This alleviates part of the load on students, lessening their anxiety and stress and improving their overall mental health.

Similarly, the mad-positive and trauma-informed pedagogies can enable instructors to develop non-traditional methods to help their students. A few ways that instructors can learn from these pedagogies would be to believe their students when they ask for extensions or specific accommodations, negotiate syllabi, and not make assumptions about what would best meet students’ needs.

In short, when your students request accommodations, believe them. Not doing so can harm them, increase their distress, and prevent them from getting the support they need in the future.

Investigating the intersections of mental health and social identities can allow us to find strategies to meaningfully support one another while also addressing structural issues

that impact specific populations of students. I believe that, by having these conversations, we can foster an accessible and inclusive environment where students can thrive while making changes through collective efforts.

Aida Alanzi is a fourth-year psychology and linguistics student at UTM. If you or someone you know is in distress, you can call: • Canada Suicide Prevention Service phone available 24/7 at 1-833-456-4566 • Good 2 Talk Student Helpline at 1-866925-5454 • Connex Ontario Mental Health Helpline at 1-866-531-2600 • Gerstein Centre Crisis Line at 416-929-5200 • U of T Health & Wellness Centre at 416978-8030 Warning signs of suicide include, but are not limited to: • Talking about wanting to die • Looking for a way to end one’s life • Talking about feeling hopeless or having no purpose • Talking about feeling trapped or being in unbearable pain • Talking about being a burden to others • Increasing use of alcohol or drugs • Acting anxious, agitated, or reckless • Sleeping too little or too much • Withdrawing or feeling isolated • Showing rage or talking about seeking revenge • Displaying extreme mood swings The more of these signs a person shows, the greater the risk. If you suspect someone you know may be contemplating suicide, you should talk to them, according to the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention.

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FEATURES

Rivers aren’t people — but wha

The Magpie River and environm Claire Parish Varsity Contributor

What makes a person a person? For example, is it possible for something inanimate to be a person?

Muteshekau Shipu — also known as the Magpie River, although her name directly translates to “river where the water passes between the square rocky cliffs” — weaves nearly 300 kilometers through the Côte-Nord region of Québec. You can feel mist tinting the air as you sit by her shore and watch paddlers and rafters holding on to bright boats, leaping through whitewater rapids. Downstream, the water turns blue and still, resting for a while before the current picks up again.

To many of us, Muteshekau Shipu might seem more like a something than a someone, yet this river has recently become a person — at least in the eyes of the law.

Muteshekau Shipu is the latest natural feature to be granted environmental personhood, and the first in Canada. Legal personhood is a new approach to understanding humanity’s legal relationship with the non-human world.

In most places, when rights are ascribed to nature, they’re framed as human rights.

Pennsylvania’s constitution, for example, sets out that “the people have a right to clean air, pure water… the preservation of the scenic, historic, and aesthetic values of the environment.”

Environmental personhood goes a step further.

It clarifies that environmental beings have intrinsic worth — that they have value beyond just their impact on humanity. It is not that the people have a right to clean air, but that the air has a right to be clean.

This legal concept is both very new and very old, and it has been gaining ground around the world in Ecuador, India, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Colombia, and now Canada.

The roots of environmental personhood Environmental personhood can be traced to a 1972 paper by Christopher D. Stone titled “Should Trees Have Standing? Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects,” which was cited in a famous US Supreme Court dissent. Stone proposed that environmental beings like trees or rivers should be given intrinsic legal rights, and stood to defend these beings in court.

He may not have actually mentioned legal personhood, but his ideas planted the seeds for the development of environmental rights and environmental personhood.

Legal standing, in essence, means the ability to bring a lawsuit forward in court. Normally, if a river is polluted, a person would need to be harmed by that pollution in order to

sue the polluter. If no one is harmed except the river, no one will have legal standing, and no one can fight against the polluter in court.

Under Stone’s proposal, the river itself could sue the polluter. Of course, no river can actually walk into a courtroom, but legal personhood offers an avenue for a river to be represented as an independent being.

Granting distinct rights to non-human entities isn’t a new concept. In Western legal systems, corporations are often considered legal persons — as are some universities, municipalities, and even ships. Just like a corporation or a ship, a river with personhood can have representatives that sue on its behalf.

Any legal person has certain rights. Stone proposed a vast array of possible rights for natural beings, customizable to fit specific situations. For example, a river may have the right to flow freely, while a forest may have the right to maintain its ecosystem’s balance. It is these rights, paired with its legal standing, that could allow a river to protect itself.

In essence, an environmental person like the Magpie River is legally considered its own

being, capable of being wronged and possibly of doing wrong.

Environmental personhood around the world Ecuador made one of the most significant choices in favor of environmental rights and legal standing in its 2008 constitution, which said, “all persons, communities, peoples, and nations can call upon public authorities to enforce the rights of nature.” Those rights include nature’s right to be restored, ecosystems’ right to not be destroyed, and animals’ right to not go extinct.

Indigenous groups in the country such as the National Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador mobilized to include these rights in the constitution. The

constitution, however, failed to declare nature as a person.

New Zealand had no such qualms. After years of debate, the Whanganui River, which flows across the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand, was declared a full legal person in 2017, recognized under the name Te Awa Tupua — river with ancestral power. The Whanganui River Claims Settlement Act granted the river all rights and powers of a legal person and even established a small office of legal representation for Te Awa Tupua, which acts as the river’s ‘human face.’

On the same day that New Zealand passed the Whanganui River Claims Settlement Act, one of India’s high courts ruled that the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers be considered legal persons.

Soon after, the court extended this status to the ecosystem that surrounds the rivers, which includes glaciers, lakes, air, and forests. The court charged various local government officials with the responsibility to act as the ‘human face’ of these rivers and associated landscapes.

India demonstrates one unforeseen implication of legal personhood: the rivers’ liability. One judge later summoned the Ganges River to testify about

a certain problem with pollution from a nearby garbage dump — a problem that had begun long before the river was declared a person.

Nevertheless, the judge demanded the river take accountability for giving its land away “for construction of a trenching ground.”

These rulings from India and New Zealand remain some of the clearest examples of legal personhood today, but other countries have taken significant steps toward environmental personhood or environmental rights.

Bangladesh’s top court recently granted all rivers legal rights as people, for example, and Colombia’s Supreme Court declared the Amazon River ecosystem to be a “subject of rights.”

The Magpie River’s environmental personhood In February 2021, the Magpie River joined the growing collection of global environmental persons as the first of its kind in Canada.

This was a local decision made through a joint resolution by The Innu Council of Ekuanitshit and the Minganie Regional County Municipality (RCM). Together, they recognized Muteshekau Shipu’s “right to live, exist and flow,” to maintain its biodiversity, to be free from pollution, and to sue for its rights to be respected.

The Innu and other First Nations, alongside municipal governments and environmental groups, have fought against industrial development around the river for over a decade.

Legal personhood is one step toward winning this battle. As Chief Jean-Charles Piétacho of the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit said, “Designating the river as a legal person was the clearest message we could send… The river protects herself, we protect the river, we’re all protected.”

The resolution established a mechanism for “river guardians.” Appointed by the Minganie RCM and the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit, these guardians would represent the river and protect its rights.

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at if we acted like they were?

mental personhood around the world The future of the Magpie River, however, is not yet certain. After all, not every attempt to grant environmental personhood has been successful.

In 2019, Toledo, Ohio passed a law granting rights to Lake Erie. The city and its residents received the ability to sue on the lake’s behalf.

The law, however, was instantly challenged by agricultural company Drewes Farms, and the state of Ohio later joined as co-plaintiff. A district judge sided with the company and the state, and struck down the law as unconstitutionally vague and beyond municipal authority.

Just as the Magpie River is the first water body in Canada to be recognized as a legal person, Lake Erie was the first one in the US.

How the Magpie’s new designation will be received on a federal or provincial level remains unknown.

Impacts of environmental personhood Environmental personhood is not perfect, and it is still unknown whether these laws and judgements will have a significant effect on the protection of the environment. Are they aspirational, or will they result in concrete action? Without an established framework, many environmental personhood provisions have been criticized as overly vague, with possible consequences for vulnerable communities that rely on the land. Considering this backdrop, it is difficult to predict the future of the Magpie River.

Still, there is a clear central value to environmental personhood and environmental rights.

For centuries, humans — particularly in the Western world — have treated the environment as if it is nothing more than a resource to be exploited or a problem to be conquered. The results of this neglect are clear: we have reached a time of acute environmental crisis.

Environmental personhood can move our relationship with the natural world in a new direction. Unlike other approaches, it recognizes the non-human environment as having an intrinsic value beyond its use to us as a resource.

It recognizes and upholds worldviews that have been long ignored by the western legal system — worldviews that include a river as someone instead of something, intrinsically valued as a being and not as a resource.

In an interview with The Varsity, Stephen Scharper, professor of religion, ethics, and the environment at U of T, connected environmental personhood to the broader tradition of earth jurisprudence. This philosophical tradition emerged from historian and geologian Thomas Berry’s efforts to protect ecosystems in a way that

recognizes their profound importance, but is also practical within a Western legal framework.

As Scharper noted, Berry rooted these efforts in “his understanding that the universe is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects.” In this sense, Scharper pointed out “there is nothing that is inanimate.”

The Anishinaabe ecologist Robin Wall Kimmerer explores this idea in her book Braiding Sweetgrass. Kimmerer describes the natural world as a place of beings instead of a place of objects.

In one chapter, Kimmerer describes her experience with “the grammar of animacy” as she worked to learn Bodewadmimwin, an Anishinaabe language also known as Potawatomi. In Potawatomi, she explains, nouns and verbs are divided into the animate and the inanimate. The inanimate is restricted to objects made by human hands, like a table — everything else is treated more like a verb. The noun “bay” becomes the verb “to be a bay.”

At first, Kimmerer struggled to adapt her perspective from English. But she eventually realized that “to be a bay” makes water living and, in a way, gives water personhood. The

water could be a bay, a stream, a waterfall, or a river. It is moving and living. In the grammar of animacy, a rock or an apple is not an object, but a being.

Kimmerer argues that the English language affords agency along the lines of ‘human’ and ‘thing.’ “The arrogance of English is that the only way to be animate,” she writes, “to be worthy of respect and moral concern, is to be a human.”

She challenges readers to inject the grammar of animacy into English: to say “someone came by” when encountering pawprints in the snow, instead of “something”; to call a robin “he” instead of it; and to see the non-human world as a place of beings.

Just as these changes of phrase can integrate a new perspective into the English language, environmental personhood integrates

recognition and reconciliation. This is already clear for the Magpie River; Muteshekau Shipu’s personhood was in part founded on Innu beliefs that nature is living and must therefore be respected.

Environmental personhood is one way to enshrine these environmental values in a Western legal system, but it is far from being the only way.

In Ontario, for example, Scharper mentioned that Indigenous peoples and environmental advocates are taking other routes in earth jurisprudence.

Here, environmentalists are working to protect sacred spaces in the natural world through the language of freedom of religion. That’s a different approach than legal personhood, but it still acknowledges similar values.

JADINE NGAN AND ANDREA ZHAO/THEVARSITY

the same perspective into the Western legal system. This, Scharper said, is why “the issue of environmental personhood goes deeper” than efforts to legally protect the environment.

Indigeneity and environmental personhood Historically, environmental personhood has been rooted in Indigenous traditions, spiritual traditions, and religious traditions. In New Zealand, the Whanganui River’s personhood was based on Māori legal tradition that recognizes humans and nature as kin. It includes the river as a tupuna, or ancestor, with mana, or spiritual authority or power, and mauri, or life force.

In India, the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers are worshipped by Hindus, which is in part why the state declared them as distinct living beings. In Ecuador, activists cited the Indigenous concepts of sumac kawsay — good living — and Pachamama — Mother Earth — as reasons to incorporate environmental rights into their constitution.

In Canada and other settler colonial countries, environmental personhood and environmental rights are poised to play a key role in Indigenous

The Magpie River and environmental personhood may not be the be-all and end-all for environmental protection in Canada, but it is a step toward greater protections for the environment and a deeper understanding of our connection to the natural world. And whether or not Muteshekau Shipu is legally recognized as a person, there will always be those who will see it as something and those who will see her as someone.

We cannot say that the river will flow on regardless of what we think — not when we are the river’s biggest threat. Our perspective matters; the particulars of our legal system matter. This line between someone and something — this personhood — is a chance to keep a river from being dammed, polluted, drained, or lost in some other yet unknown way.

So next time you meet an ant, a tree, or a river, try seeing someone instead of something.

Maybe one day, our legal system will consider that non-human entity a person too. After all, our survival depends on them, and their survival depends on us.

Arts & Culture

November 15, 2021 thevarsity.ca/section/arts-and-culture arts@thevarsity.ca

What immersive exhibits reveal about art The future of visual art celebrates the mundanity of our day-to-day lives Andrea Zhao Illustration Editor

I like going to art galleries. A day at the gallery sounds marvellous — wandering through labyrinthine corridors of marble, Monets, and Mondrians, feeling the judgment of strangers.

I know what you must think of me. Yes, I am an “art student.” You know the type: knitted sweater, trench coat, limited-edition New Yorker tote, passing very conspicuous judgments as you desperately try to make out the difference between a Vermeer and a Rembrandt.

In my opinion, another advantage of immersive exhibits is that, ironically, they ask less of the viewer than a traditional gallery experience would. Established artistic institutions are often intimidating spaces, most commonly inhabited by people who have already had the opportunity and privilege to engage in the classical art world.

Since traditional galleries and museums are often built specifically to house and display artwork, and are categorized methodically by time period, location, movement, or medium, there seems to be a demand that visitors already know where to go and what to see, hypnotically snobbish

detached from the artist’s larger body of work.

The finer details of each piece are erased; the brushstrokes, the texture, and the cracks and imperfections are gone when all you have are pixels on a screen.

What these exhibits may lack in depth, however, they make up for in approachability and style. The experiences they curate allow members of the general public — including those with very little knowledge of the pieces they are exploring — to easily take in and appreciate the beauty of the artwork around them without demanding that they understand anything more.

If a member of the public is inspired by the depth of the artwork they see, they’re in luck — non-artists are now offered the chance to become art creators. As reopenings continue and we move closer to establishing a prepandemic state of life, several premier institutions around the city are looking to the general public — in particular, younger generations of artists — as collaborative partners in determining the future of art in Toronto. The Royal Ontario

a bristle brush and a fresh can of pale blue acrylic paint, climbing a stepladder next to the electrical box on the street corner. Half the box had been painted, and they were working their way to the top.

“I like the colours,” I told them, with what I hoped would be enough genuine enthusiasm that it could not be misconstrued as irony or contempt. “And the shapes in the background are very interesting.”

“Thank you.”

“I like your work.”

The artist had already left when I passed by the electrical box again later that evening on my way to hastily procure some kind of olive oil or unspeakable herb at the French market which was due to close in half an hour. They had put up a sign on a thin sheet of yellow paper, stuck to the street-facing side of the box, with a neat, all-caps explanation written in a dark-bluish pen indicating that there was “WET PAINT :)” so as to ward off curious passers-by who might want to investigate the work a bit too closely.

Old school art museums do not cater to the enjoyment of the average viewer.

COURTESY OF MICK HAUPT/UNSPLASH

In recent years, there has been an increase in the popularity of ‘immersive exhibits,’ conceived with the idea of providing a more vivid and personal experience for the viewer. In these exhibits, select pieces — very often a curation of well-known paintings — are light-projected onto walls in a gallery or convention space, where visitors are free to wander and explore.

Part of this success can be attributed to the functionality of these exhibits, as explained

by UTSG museum studies professor Matthew Brower, whose research specialties include contemporary art and visual culture. Their largerthan-life projections, specifically designed to be eye-catching and camera-ready, also function as ideal backdrops for social media imagery, especially for those who desire a little more cultural cache from their everyday candids.

In addition, interactive exhibits appeal to a much wider market beyond the mould of the typical museum-goer by focusing on a small range of easily recognizable works by famous artists.

Brower believes that this could be an indication that traditional visual arts may follow the same trajectory as classical music, where works by a “narrow canon of exceptional artists” will eventually form the backbone of the art collected and curated by most museums. Galleries may place greater focus on more well-known works by artists such as Monet and van Gogh, instead of filling galleries with lone masterpieces rescued from fire and anonymity, in the same way that the repertoires of Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart — as opposed to their lesser-known contemporaries — have become staple items in most orchestras around the world.

tours notwithstanding. If they do not, they must be willing to learn until they have somehow sufficiently proven themselves.

Galleries are also infamously governed by strict rules — no videos, no talking, no clean drinking water — and patrolled by universally unhappy security guards, who seem to be equal parts lethargic and irate, regardless of whether they happen to work at the Louvre or the National Gallery of Art. All this is to say that fun is secondary. In my experience, old school art museums are not concerned with catering to the enjoyment of the average viewer. For those who are not already well-versed in traditional visual arts, this sense of exclusivity and demandingness that exists within the art community and its physical gathering spaces is likely to dissipate any interest they may have in learning more about the field, and will only serve to further drive them away.

Immersive galleries are exactly the opposite.

Visitors are free to talk, walk, and sit on the floor for an hour if they so wish; photographs and videos are not only allowed, but highly encouraged; and most of all, they keep their doors open — literally and metaphorically — for all who wish to enter.

However, I have personally taken issue with some of the sacrifices made in terms of authenticity and depth when it comes to these exhibitions. In a traditional museum setting, works are displayed with others of the same time period, style, and historical significance. It is more difficult to gain a true appreciation for the skill and artistry of a work when it is isolated from its context and displayed as a single exhibit

Museum recently launched #MyPandemicStory: Youth Create Portraits of a Pandemic, a fourmonth-long display curated from over 2,300 submissions of visual art, poetry, music, and dance from young people across the province.

The crowdsourced exhibition — a first for the museum — incorporates a wide variety of pieces, ranging from four-year-old kids’ marker drawings to highly complex paintings from high schoolers on the themes of touch, connection, introspection, and reflection.

Public art is also at the forefront of Toronto’s visual arts scene and may hold the key to how we experience and create art in our future.

During a year-long program dedicated to public art between the fall of 2021 and 2022, members of the city’s creative community have had the opportunity to receive funding for independent projects in the public realm. Organizations and festivals dedicated to the arts have also become eligible for partnership grants from the City of Toronto, which provided them with funding for their projects, as well as support with production and communications. This initiative — combined with past public efforts in the city — has produced over 1,500 pieces to date that have ranged from murals, photographs, and sculptures to more unusual endeavours, including light installations such as Luminous Veil over the Prince Edward Viaduct and Nyctophilia in Mount Dennis.

I was reminded of the value of accessible art during this past summer on one of my morning runs: I encountered a young artist in a long beige t-shirt and sun-faded cap, armed with

I hadn’t actually worked on the mural — certainly in no productive way that could be seen, at the very least — but in a certain small way, it felt as if I contributed something to it. Unbeknownst to us both, my interaction with its creator could have — even subconsciously — altered their work. Perhaps they intended to use yellow, but I distracted them, so they dipped their brush in pink. Perhaps we spoke until the afternoon sun was covered by clouds, so the colours that they’d mixed appeared darker than intended.

Art made for the public is also made by the public, taking inspiration from the comings and goings of yet another day in Toronto’s most boring neighbourhoods. This appreciation for the extraordinary mundane is distinctly postmodern — a narrative in which the story of the average person comes to represent the people itself — yet it is anything but new. The masters of the past painted the everyday life around them: Monet’s water lilies in his backyard garden; van Gogh’s faceless characters at his local cafe, immortalized in orange, yellow, and green; Rembrandt’s small-town windmill, facing the sea alone after a storm; and Vermeer’s nameless girl, perhaps a neighbour or a stranger from the market-stalls, still as enchanting as she must have been the day she wore her pearl earring and genial smile.

These works have their similarities: they are traditional masterpieces, their subjects immortalized for those who come after me to enjoy.

But, more softly, they insist that we’re all active participants in visual art. Silently, latently, we always have been.

thevarsity.ca/section/arts-and-culture Angad Deol Sports Editor

I’ve only had a birthday party twice in my life — and both times, I absolutely hated it.

I usually despise being the centre of attention; the idea of all eyes being fixated on me makes me sick.

When I was younger, my family would come over, and we would cut a cake that, for some reason, would always end up being smeared over my face.

As a kid, I hated birthdays because they reminded me of how few friends — if any — I had. It was never really about getting older until I turned 20 this past year. Oh man, that was rough.

Before my most recent birthday, I remember talking to my best friend Michael about how I felt like I wasted my teens, and that I had this enormous pressure to make something of my twenties. Years of consuming sitcoms like Seinfeld, Scrubs, and How I Met Your Mother have presented this notion of your twenties being the best, most social years of your life — and here I was, in a seemingly never-ending pandemic, where I spent most of my time at my desk watching Hasanabi streams and lectures at two times the speed.

When my 20th birthday finally rolled around, I ended up spending it like most of the other ones: studying for some upcoming tests and finishing up assignments. You get the idea. The most fun I had that day was probably taking a break from studying for PSL301 and shooting some hoops in my backyard. After bricking a shot for the last time, I finally sat down and confronted myself — why do I loathe my birthday so much?

Aïssatou Odia Barry Varsity Contributor

Reboots killed novelty, social media killed the movie star, and streaming platforms killed the movie theater.

The film industry, as it currently stands, is a mess. In the last decade, audiences have been offered five Spidermans, three Batmans and countless Disney animated classics transformed into live-action movies. Instead of trained actors, Hollywood is casting influencers in their films.

To add to the drama, Netflix, other streaming platforms, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have made watching movies at home a global trend. All the while, movie theaters — a former constant in movie watching — are shutting down across the country. As they disappear, audiences are left to ask one question: what is the future of cinema?

Hollywood’s reliance on nostalgia In 1896, the Lumière Brothers filmed a singleshot movie of a train pulling into a station. Their footage pioneered the phenomenon now referred to as the motion picture. From there, cinema skyrocketed to become one of society’s popular art forms.

The medium was often a vector of spreading America’s cultural dominance in the context of World War II. Hollywood became known as a film factory following the creation of its California centre, and was exporting its films worldwide.

Over the course of the following decades, studios such as Pixar, Walt Disney Pictures, and 20th Century Fox contributed to produce films that would touch generations across the globe.

Though faced with competition, Disney eventually became the dominant studio powerhouse. In 2006, the entertainment giant bought Pixar, and it purchased Marvel shortly afterward in 2009.

Disney’s large influence on the film industry is at least partially to blame for the whole industry’s pathological addiction to remakes.

In 2017, Disney spent $160 million on a liveaction remake of Beauty and the Beast — even though the original film had already experienced phenomenal success, grossing $424 million in 1991. This exploitative rather than explorative approach to filmmaking feeds on our nostalgia and our yearning to revisit our childhoods.

However, studios are also modifying their characters to appeal to audiences that are increasingly socially aware. The ‘girlbossification’ of Cruella de Vil in Disney’s Cruella is an example;

NOVEMBER 15, 2021

How I learned to find joy in my birthday Next year, when I slide the knife into the cake, I’ll be proud of everything I’ve accomplished

Birthdays are bittersweet: before their 21st, the author reflects on their successes and challenges.

EHSAN ETESAMI/THEVARSITY

The best answer I came up with is that I constantly feel like I could’ve done so much more than I did in the previous year. I’m a perfectionist; I have that ‘Mamba Mentality’ from watching Kobe Bryant highlights and interviews, which makes me feel like I can always do better. Birthdays just serve as an annual reminder of the fact that I’m not perfect. I could’ve always spent my time better.

But what more could I have done between 2020 and 2021? It’s not like I’d been living under a rock — it was a pandemic. So I decided to end this cycle of hating my birthday.

Instead of thinking about how much stuff I missed out on, I would think about my accomplishments and the things that I was grateful for. In that year, I became the associate sports editor at The

What’s the future of the film industry?

Though theatres are closing across the country, it is not a sign of cinema’s demise

FIONA TUNG/THEVARSITY

the character was originally written to be a despicable madwoman in 1991.

Needless to say, the marketing strategies of these big studios are built upon a fear of taking risks. Yet taking risks to produce what has never been made before is a core artistic value.

It seems like Hollywood has traded novelty and innovation for good ol’ cash.

The death of the movie star Cinema has offered us many actors that are now considered all-time greats. From Katharine Hebpurn to Leonardo DiCaprio, movie stars have long been mythical figures of cinema, drawing audiences into movie theaters with only their charisma.

Nowadays, though, cinema doesn’t produce movie stars; it features celebrities.

The factor that killed the role of movie stars, which were figures distanced from the public, is social media. The internet has made the personal lives of celebrities more accessible than ever. The mystique surrounding movie stars has been erased. Instead, fans are offered daily paparazzi pictures of them, can locate their whereabouts, and can argue about their plastic surgeries in the comment sections of their profiles.

Additionally, celebrity actors are now being forced to act alongside influencers. Addison Rae’s casting in the Netflix remake, He’s All That sparked a conversation among viewers about privilege and opportunity. Because of her massive social media following, Rae was presented with a leading role — an offer that most trained actresses can only dream of.

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Varsity, another step toward my dream of being a masthead member — a dream I’ve had since I wrote about the federal election in 2019. My grades also improved drastically in my second year of university, and I was proud of myself for sticking to a solid study schedule.

I’m currently staring down the barrel of turning 21 — the legal drinking age in our wild neighbor, the United States of America. Turning 21 will be a reminder of me, hopefully, having finished almost all of my undergraduate studies. Turning 21 is a reminder that I’m now far gone from my teens, when I was a lot more uncertain of myself.

Turning 21 is a reminder that, no matter what, I’ve accomplished a lot — I spent the 20th year of my life fulfilling my dream of writing about sports, and becoming a member of this year’s incredible masthead at The Varsity.

This road to 21 will be a rough one, but I’m not reluctant about getting there this time around — instead, I’m genuinely excited for it.

I hope that from my 21st onward, I will continue to be proud of myself. When Kobe turned 21, he helped lead the Lakers to their first championship in over a decade. Obviously, I’m not playing on the hardwood for my beloved Raptors this season, but I look forward to reviewing everything I’ve accomplished as I slide the knife into the cake.

Maybe I won’t be mad this time around when my brother puts cake all over my face. And when I turn 22, and 23, and all those other numbers, I hope I continue to have people to share my accomplishments with. I might just throw a party for once this year too — I think I’m ready to grab a little attention.

The same treatment is sometimes given to ‘nepotism babies’ — a phrase first coined by a Twitter user, which refers to children of prominent entertainers who are easily offered acting roles. Celebrity offspring reel in large amounts of social media followers because of their enviable lifestyle and photogenic profiles.

This asset makes them more profitable than the average theatre kid.

The casting of already wealthy, famous, and conventionally beautiful people has destroyed Hollywood’s biggest success story: the ragsto-riches ascension. The larger-than-life movie star who rose to prominence thanks to talent and luck is a concept of the past. Just as video killed the radio star, social media has killed the movie star.

The rise of Netflix and the fall of moviegoing At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ontario’s movie theaters had to close to comply with public health measures. As a frequent movie-goer, I was disheartened by this abrupt change. I deeply missed the immersive experience of sitting inside a theater — the location which originally sparked my love for cinema.

Still, moviegoing was already terminally ill before the pandemic unplugged its life support.

Streaming platforms were gaining momentum, and households were finally offered a substitute to theatres’ overpriced snacks and rooms full of couples playing tonsil tennis.

Let me be clear, though — this is not cinema’s demise.

As a cinema studies minor, I cannot disregard the independent arthouse cinema that is being produced. From decolonial filmmaking to experimental video activism, there are still a handful of international filmmakers and screenwriters that are making wonderful contributions to the art form.

Of course, these creators aren’t at the forefront of cinema. Critically acclaimed low-budget films could, at best, be offered a screening at a notable film festival and experience a prosperous award season. As a bonus, film Twitter, a community of users interested in discussing and arguing about movies, might praise these movies and proclaim their undying love for their actors.

This reality is fine by me — movies don’t need to break box office records to carry significance.

The heart of cinema lies in the beauty of a movie’s storytelling, not in its money-making abilities.

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THE VARSITY

arts@thevarsity.ca

ARTS & CULTURE

Why are podcasts becoming so popular?

The space for the art form is growing, in both the U of T community and a post-COVID-19 society Cherry Zhang Lead Copy Editor

The popularity of podcasts has always surprised me.

I’ve traditionally thought of podcasting as the awkward half-sibling to music and television, with the benefits of neither; I can’t sit down and binge podcasts exclusively for two hours, but I also can’t keep them on as background noise while studying.

Until last year, I never would have considered podcasts as an entertainment option. Although I feel like I’m late to the party, it’s only recently that they really started capturing my attention.

For a long time, they felt like a burden to listen to.

During the past year, with so little social interaction, I found myself missing being able to hear humans talk about everyday subjects — nothing academic, just the minutiae of life. I never realized how much space in my life is filled by conversational white noise. I missed the experience of being in a social setting and catching the occasional fragment of a stranger’s conversation. In general, I missed being around people.

In some ways, podcasts were able to replicate that atmosphere for me. I gravitated toward conversational ones like Anything Goes with Emma Chamberlain, keeping them on in the background while going about my mindless tasks to mimic that coffee shop experience. They had enough structure to keep me actively engaged, but they also weren’t scripted to the extent of a piece of media

like an audiobook. Instead, they felt like an organic conversation. For me, these podcasts replicated a social atmosphere in the absence of actual social activities, filling in the loneliness.

Recently, I started seeing a lot more conversations about podcasts, especially on social media. I started seeing more advertisements targeted for them and learned about new series from my friends’ Instagram stories. It suddenly struck me that podcasts had become genuinely popular.

In an email to The Varsity, Joshua Gans, a professor of strategic management at the Rotman School of Management, wrote about why he thinks podcasts have gained popularity recently.

The key, he thinks, is technology.

“We got to a critical threshold where enough people had phones and data was cheap enough to make it a thing for people’s commutes,” he wrote. That, along with improvements in headphone quality, made it easier for many of us to fit podcasts into our daily routines.

This fits with the listening habits of many U of T students who I’ve spoken to casually. They usually keep a podcast on as background noise for some other activity, like commuting or working out. For them, podcasts provide more engaging content to focus on instead of an alternative like music.

Since they can be easily downloaded on apps like Spotify, podcast episodes are a convenient on-the-go option, perfect for the busy schedules of student listeners.

It also helps that the podcast genre has

JULIEN BALBONTIN/THEVARSITY

become so diverse, offering something to listeners of all tastes and preferences. U of T students have a myriad of interests, from horror fiction to mental health.

Following the path of YouTube, the podcast has become an accessible medium that lets anyone, from major news companies to independent creators, start their own show. Now, there’s a podcast for every niche. Tired of rewatching Gilmore Girls alone? Have fun listening to Gilmore Guys, where two men watch and provide commentary on the show episode by episode.

Even U of T’s campus groups have started producing their own podcasts, giving students a new way to engage with club activities without requiring their physical presence.

Vikram Nijhawan, co-president of Screenwriting at Victoria College (SVC), wrote to The Varsity about his experience with starting and co-hosting the club’s podcast, Fade In. Nijhawan explained that the podcast has allowed the club to create an extension of their usual film discussions during club meetings. “[The podcast brings] informative

content to listeners, but also the opportunity to eavesdrop on a lively conversation,” he wrote.

The popularity of the podcast genre also made it seem like making a podcast is a reasonable project for any person to develop, which encourages people to take the initiative to begin one. Considering how Fade In helped SVC earn two funding awards, they consider it a successful venture. Like with YouTube channels, podcasts’ success depends on just as much the ideas of creators as they do the participation of listeners.

So far, we’re definitely seeing their potential.

It certainly seems like podcasts have found a place within the university community. While I’m still not sure they’ll ever become my first option for entertainment, I think they’re nonetheless deserving of our attention.

Whether you’re looking for a good laugh or, like me, the experience of human connection, podcasts can provide the company you need. They could have easily become a mere spinoff of radio, but with the help of accessible technology and social media, they’ve cemented a spot in our future.

The Afrofuturism class that changed how I think about school Land-ing: Indigenous and Black Futurist Spaces is a course all about decolonial learning Kalliopé Anvar McCall Varsity Contributor

Last winter was a cold and alienating one. Since school was fully online, I sat alone on my computer in my half-abandoned residence all day. It was hard to find comfort in many of my classes, since nobody had their camera on and I was yet to interact with many of my professors.

But there was one course that I was able to connect with: WGS390 — Land-ing: Indigenous and Black Futurist Spaces, which is taught by Karyn Recollet, an urban Cree scholar, artist, and writer. Recollet created the course based on their personal work on decolonial land relations, which explores the intersections of Indigenous artistic activism based on Indigenous territories that are urban spaces.

The course invites students to explore, through an artistic and multidisciplinary approach, the contribution of Black and Indigenous futurisms to theories of land and space-making. It’s centered around ‘land-ing,’ a term coined by Recollet.

Having never encountered the term before, I found it initially difficult to grasp.

Eventually, I learned that land-ing is first and foremost a practice: the action of developing a relationship with Earth’s land. It is also a critique: a conceptual lens with which to analyze Indigeneity and Blackness in the context of land-based experiences and politics such as immigration, adoption, diasporas, colonialism, exile, sovereignty, and displacement. Lastly, landing is a reference to the Kanienkehaka creation story of Sky Woman, who falls from the celestial sphere and lands on earth.

But the course goes above merely introducing and discussing the term land-ing. The philosophical concept is also applied to the concrete artistic movements known as Indigenous futurism and Afrofuturism.

Speculative, future-based fiction is the radical practice of imagining alternative worlds, and it

WGS390 explored the contribution of Black and Indigenous futurisms to theories of land and space-making.

COURTESY OF NICK NORMAL/CC FLICKR

can help make our current world better. In the course, we discussed transformative justice, pleasure activism, and radical world-making in the context of land relations.

Though the course’s content was fascinating, it was Recollet’s teaching approach that initially allowed me to connect with it. Our classes didn’t follow the patronizing, top-down lecture model; instead, they were open conversations between equal individuals. Recollet invited a variety of guests, including Anishinaabe interdisciplinary artist Susan Blight, to bring different voices and perspectives to the course content. Recollet’s pedagogy, like their work, is centered around care and ethical relationality.

Art, too, is at the center of the course. Unlike many people in academia, Recollet recognizes the value of art and creativity throughout the learning process. The class read poems, analyzed visual art, and interpreted futurist speculative fiction. One of the books we read was N.K. Jemisin’s awardwinning Afrofuturist novel The Fifth Season — I highly recommend it!

Through written and visual course projects, students were encouraged to be creative. My final project was an essay that incorporated both scholarly analysis and pieces of a poem that I had written throughout the course of the semester. Coming from the field of diaspora and transnational studies — my major — I was particularly interested in the way in which land-ing formulated a metaphorical and artistic understanding of displacement. I have since pursued this interest in my personal art projects.

I recommend this course to any student who is passionate about Afrofuturism, Indigenous futurism, diasporas, decolonial feminism, or transformative justice. Not only did I become fascinated about a topic which I knew nothing about beforehand, but the course changed the way I think about education. And, on top of it all, it gave me the passion I needed to get through a tough semester and a tough winter.

thevarsity.ca/section/arts-and-culture

NOVEMBER 15, 2021

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Exploring the meal replacement industry The past, present, and future of food supplements Charlie Morocz Varsity Contributor

Content warning: This article discusses colonial systems of anti-Indigenous racism.

Imagining the future of food has an allure that few science fiction writers have been able to resist. From The Jetsons and their Dial-a-Meal, which pops out pills with all the nutrients you need, to Doctor Who’s food replicator, which packs a full meal into a single tofu-esque bar, many sci-fi stories have explored fictitious diets of the future. But where does fiction end and reality begin?

Let’s take a stroll down memory lane and reflect on the history of meal replacements, explore the current innovators shifting our perspective on food, and — in keeping with the sci-fi tradition — imagine the advantages, challenges, and potentials of a foodless future.

Pemmican the predecessor Despite its modern-day connotations with disruptive Silicon Valley tech bros seeking to be the next Steve Jobs, the idea of the meal

replacement is quite old. In fact, it originated at least 5,000 years ago. We can trace the inspiration for this modern conception of meal replacement back to the source of many other great Euro-American ideas: the stolen ideas of the colonized.

Indigenous peoples in North America had developed a clever way of storing meat without spoiling it. After drying out excess meat — primarily bison — it was crushed into a fine powder and mixed with fat and berries to form what is known as ‘pemmican,’ an important part of some Indigenous cuisines.

Once it was packed into tight bags, pemmican stayed remarkably shelf-stable while still being nutritious and calorically dense. This was of great interest to European colonizers, who frequently starved when their supplies ran out during expeditions. Indigenous peoples began to trade pemmican with these settlers, who then carried the light-weight snack on their journeys to replace more traditional European meals — arguably cementing its status as the first meal replacement.

The kindness of sharing this food was not reciprocated. European colonizers hunted bison to near extinction for their fur, inducing devastating famines in Indigenous communities.

These grim conditions were used by colonial governments to coerce Indigenous peoples into complying with oppressive demands. The ensuing cultural genocide buried pemmican, but the idea of replacing meals had firmly entered the public consciousness.

The great kitchen liberation As the nineteenth century drew to a close, American suffragette Mary Elizabeth Lease speculated on the future of food before it became cool. In the subtly named essay, “Improvements so Extraordinary the World Will

Shudder,” Lease introduced an idea which would later become a pillar of food futurism: the meal in a pill.

Departing from the modern interpretation of this pill, Lease imagined the invention not only as a convenience but also as a tool for liberation. Women would be freed from having to cook for their husbands, giving them time to educate themselves and to fight for equality.

A pill a day keeps the patriarchy away?

Houston, we have a problem Let’s move on to the 1960s. NASA was looking to replace traditional foods with lighter, more efficient alternatives to serve on their spacecrafts. These replacements needed to be nutritious to keep astronauts in peak mental and physical shape.

This made NASA’s decision to choose Tang as a solution even more inexplicable. Tang was launched into space — much to the chagrin of Buzz Aldrin, quoted as saying, “Tang sucks” — and probably came closer to the moon than it ever did a real orange.

The brand was later deemed nutritionally inadequate, alongside possessing copious quantities of sugar. Needless to say, it was removed from future missions. Upon learning this, Tang company executives logically reacted by reformulating Tang to improve its nutritional content while also lowering the unhealthy amount of sugar.

Ha! I wish. Tang was instead mass produced for large-scale consumption by the general public, being advertised as the food of the future for astronauts and a vital part of any kid’s breakfast.

Soylent, enter stage left You have now returned to the present. Welcome back! What have our contemporaries been up to?

The clear winner of the current meal replacement race is Soylent. The product isn’t made of people; it is made for people. Specifically, for the people who have looked at salad and agreed with the words of Soylent founder Rob Rhinehart, “It seemed a little primitive – like something an animal would do. On this nice plate, in this nice house, why would I eat this thing that grows on trees?”

I encourage you to look past the fact that

Rhinehart sounds like an alien pretending to be a human. Soylent is innovative. Coming in both powder and pre-made smoothie form, Soylent products are said to contain all of the calories and nutrients you’d need from a meal.

Similar companies have been popping up as well, such as MealSquare and nonfood. This illustrates two facts: the growing demand for

such products, and that these companies desperately need to hire a PR team and undergo rigorous rebranding to create better names.

Meal replacement advantages With the rising general concern over the climate crisis, many consumers are looking for ways to reduce their environmental impact.

These meal replacements fit this mold quite well. They can be transported more effectively than traditional foods, and their shelf stability can help stop Canada’s current trend of wasting food. In 2019, Canadians were throwing out 58 Supplements aim to provide the calories and nutrients of a meal in a compacted form.

SRIVINDHYA KOLLURU/THEVARSITY

per cent of all produced food.

Meal replacements also show promise in stabilizing the global food chain. Most ingredients used to create these products are easily made, making their production very scalable. This, combined with the aforementioned shelf-stability, positions meal replacements as a promising solution to global food insecurity.

There is, however, an issue with this plan: will people even eat these products, and should they?

Meal replacement disadvantages Although meal replacements may be the wet dream of a nutritionist robot seeking maximum diet efficiency, the subjective human experience can often tell a different story.

The primadonna of the modern food alternatives industry, Soylent, has received the following rave reviews: “[A] punishingly boring, joyless product”; “this gloop tastes disgusting. I feel more hungover after draining it, but I do feel full”; and “It tasted like someone wrung out a dishtowel into a glass.”

Now, as someone familiar with the taste of a used dishcloth wrung into a glass — see: me trying to have my Leonardo DiCaprio moment in my magnum opus ninth-grade student film — I can assure you it’s much worse than you imagine. This does not bode well for Soylent.

The health claims of these products are also dubious. In 2017, Soylent was banned in Canada as it did not meet the standards needed to qualify as a meal replacement.

The idea of a meal in a pill presents its own unique set of challenges. Humans need more than just nutrients — we also need calories.

Even if it were full of fats, a single pill could never match the caloric content of a traditional meal. In fact, some have estimated that we would need to consume hundreds of these pills to hit our caloric needs, essentially defeating their purpose.

Back to the future What does the future of this industry look like?

Genetically modified organisms show

some promise, particularly biofortified ones.

Biofortification is the practice of altering the genetics of crops to increase their nutrient content or to introduce new nutrients not usually found within a species. Some futurists have imagined artificial calorie-dense crops that would create superfoods.

No, this isn’t like the article your mom’s friend Linda posted about Goji berries beneath an advertisement for her astrology-based hair salon — they’re real superfoods. They possess all the nutrients needed to healthily function, fulfill your calorie requirements with far less mass, and satisfy your taste buds.

Of course, some argue that attempting to replace meals is a fruitless effort — pun intended. Instead, we should focus on improving the environmental impact and production speed of the current staples of our food culture. We should see how we can improve the efficiency and quantity of our farms to fulfil the growing demand for food, and find innovative ways to decrease the preparation time of our food.

Replacing meals with Soylent seems crazy when compared to more realistic ideas of augmented foods. Take the proposed hamburgertato — a potato which has insides that taste and act like meat.

On second thought, maybe we need to get back to the drawing board.

Science Angel Hsieh Associate Science Editor

Food production systems on earth are struggling to feed its 7.7 billion inhabitants. This is likely to continue: the United Nations projects food production would have to increase by 70 per cent, compared to 2009, in order to feed an estimated global population of 10 billion people by 2050.

Not only does food production use a considerable portion of natural resources, it has also been identified as a contributor to climate change. The grand total of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from food systems is estimated to account for 35 per cent of all human-made GHG emissions. GHG emissions from food production lead to changes in environmental conditions. Overall, such dramatic GHG emissions decrease agricultural yields, which makes certain regions in the world more vulnerable to food insecurity.

So, how should humanity mitigate and reverse harms to the environment caused by food production? One option is to change our diets. Switching to plant-based diets in particular may do the trick, since most plant-sourced foods are known to be less resource-intensive than animalderived foods.

Quantifying greenhouse gas emission from animal-based foods A recent study by University of Illinois researcher Xiaoming Xu and their colleagues has attempted to estimate global GHG emissions from plant- and animal-based food in 2010. The researchers set out to quantify the GHG emissions from production and consumption of all foods — particularly, emissions of the gases carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.

In addition to production-related emissions, GHG is also emitted from food consumption. High demand for plantbased commodities such as coffee, tea, bananas, palm oil, sugar cane, and grazing feeds translate into a conversion of tropical land into agricultural land. International trade, namely food imports and exports, is responsible for transfer of approximately 17 per cent of GHG emissions between regions worldwide.

That’s why changing diets to be more plant-based holds great potential for reducing GHG emissions. Although these estimates are not definitive and have a large uncertainty range, they still provide policymakers with a framework to formulate strategies around combatting climate change caused by human food production and consumption.

In total, the GHG emissions from 171 crops and 16 animal products were included in this study. This study was significant, since the researchers took several key factors of food GHG emission into consideration by factoring in conditions that previous studies hadn’t, like carbon dioxide emissions from natural and human-made changes to land use.

It also considered a diverse set of farming practices that change agricultural land management. To properly tabulate GHG emissions from plant- and animal-based food production, the study also explicitly estimated emissions from both cropland and grazing land.

The results from this comprehensive data analysis do indicate that plant-based foods are much more environmentally friendly than animal-derived foods. Overall, animal-based food production accounts for 57 per cent of total food-related GHG emissions — twice as much as that of plant-based foods. The data, which was collected from more than 200 countries around the world, delineates observable trends in global food productions. For example, the leading emitters of GHG are populous countries like China, Brazil, the US, and India.

The common factor between all these regions is that they all have large herds of cattle

November 15, 2021 thevarsity.ca/section/science science@thevarsity.ca

Plant-based diets can improve human and planetary health

of developing cardiovascular diseases. Fibre is also known to be very filling as the human body cannot break down this particular class of molecules.

Vegetarians tend to have a lower body mass index (BMI) than non-vegetarians. Although the current scientific literature is moving away from using BMI as the primary indicator of healthy body weight, it is still considered a risk factor analysis of the local environment would be nec- for cardiometabolic diseases. Participants in 15 essary to properly assess the water footprint of clinical trials of vegetarian or vegan diets lost food production in specific geographic areas. an average of approximately 4.6 kilograms in a The researchers emphasized that food compa- meta-analysis. Since obesity is a significant risk nies should conduct detailed assessment of the factor for cardiovascular illnesses, a lower BMI water footprint from their entire food production may play an important role in lowering blood supply chain if they want to effectively reduce lipid levels and reducing risk of heart diseases. water consumption and pollution.

Moreover, vegans tend to consume more One other noteworthy discovery in this study whole grain, soy, and nuts than people on omis how organic farming practices are harvesting nivorous diets. These whole foods are beneficial positive environmental impact. Growing organic to maintaining heart health. crops spares groundwater from pollution via synGrowing evidence suggests vegan diets thetic pesticides and fertilizers. Instead, organic are even more advantageous and cause even farmers implement strategies such as crop rota- less of an environmental impact than shifting tion, which involves growing crops that either current eating habits to an ovolactovegetarian diet: one that supplements plant-based foods with egg and dairy products. A KALLIOPE ANVARMCCALL/THE VARSITY completely vegan diet increases the body’s access to plant-derived chemicals that may protect against cancer development.

Further studies are still needed to definitively establish other long term health benefits of vegan diets. However, people who follow vegan diets may consume insufficient amounts of calcium and vitamin D, which can lead to concerns of increased risks of bone fractures. To ensure adequate nutrition, the researchers recommend that vegans regularly consume calcium- and vitamin D-fortified foods to maintain bone health.

That being said, when a person adopts an entirely plant-based diet, the rich nutrients in whole plant food in their new diet may cause more pronounced positive effects than the isolated supplements they would consume while on an omnivorous diet.

Changing eating habits can undo damage from unsustainable food production dedicated to the production of meat and dairy.

To support these cattle, many of these regions are converting land into cropland and grazing grounds, which further exacerbate farmland carbon dioxide emissions.

The correlation between unregulated agricultural land use and carbon dioxide emission highlights a dire need for global action. Regulators around the world can refer to the data framework established in this study for guidance on how to mitigate the environmental impact of food-related GHG emissions.

Tracking the water footprint of foods How much more eco-friendly are plant-based

food products in comparison to their equivalent animal-based counterparts? That’s a question that Ertug Ercin, a senior water and climate expert at the University of Twente in Netherlands, decided to investigate.

Previous studies have concluded that, in developed countries, the average meat eater consumes 1.6 times more water a day than people on vegetarian diets. Freshwater scarcity is becoming more problematic in many regions around the world. Since 86 per cent of the earth’s water is used to grow food, it’s important that we prioritize tracking the ‘water footprint’ of food production. Instead of only measuring the amount of water withdrawn from sources, the water footprint metric comprehensively tracks allocation of freshwater resources from its source to becoming wastewater.

Ercin set out to quantify and compare the water footprint of soy milk and soy burgers with cow’s milk and beef burgers. His results show that cow’s milk and beef burgers leave a much larger water footprint than plant-based alternatives. The global average of water footprint for a 150 gram beef burger is 2,350 litres, compared to only 158 litres for soy burgers. Similarly, one litre of cow milk takes 1,050 litres of water to produce, compared to 297 litres for soy milk.

The researchers indicated that the numbers they obtained in their investigation are only a global average — which means more in-depth

complement or compensate each other on one land. This farming practice helps to improve soil fertility and break known pest cycles. Because of this, organic and plant-based food production leaves a lower ecological and water footprint.

The take-home message is that “[humans] need to produce food groups that are good for health in ways that are restorative to the planet, rather than extractive,” according to Corrinna Hawkes, the director of the Centre for Food Policy at City, University of London.

Health benefits of vegetarianism and veganism In addition to benefiting the environment, wellbalanced plant-based diets are associated with numerous health benefits. A 2017 review article

by Hana Kahleova outlines the various benefits of vegetarianism, including the prevention and treatment of heart and metabolic diseases.

Kahleova and colleagues indicate that certain eating habits, such as consuming a lot of processed meat products and not enough fresh produce, can lead to a higher risk of cardiometabolic death, such as heart diseases. There are also other ways that eating plant-based diets can contribute to improving human health: if you eat more plant products, you take in more fiber, less cholesterol and saturated fat, and more antioxidants and micronutrients.

Fibre is known to reduce plaque formation in blood vessels, which decreases the risk

Should humanity voluntarily evolve into herbivores?

The short answer is yes. An international group of scientists have proposed a meal plan called EAT-Lancet that could theoretically accommodate the estimated 10 billion people on earth by 2050, but it requires humans to cut down on meat consumption directly and increase their intake of fruits and vegetables. Such a dramatic shift in humans’ eating habits would bring about a huge reduction in water pollution and GHG emissions.

However, there are economic challenges to adopting the EAT-Lancet diet. Currently, as many as 1.6 billion people would not be able to afford the recommended mix of foods proposed under the EAT-Lancet model. Implementing the EATLancet diet would increase food costs by 60 per cent compared to the cheapest alternative diets that still provide essential nutrients.

Even if the world is financially able to support the full implementation of the EAT-Lancet diet, meat consumption is seen as a symbol of high social status and holds a lot of significance in different cultures around the world. The combination of valued social status in various cultures compounded with the spread of Western eating habits — characterized by high amounts of processed food and red meat — is expected to exacerbate damage to the environment caused by food production and consumption.

One of the lead scientists who proposed the EAT-Lancet model, Johan Rockström from Stockholm University, has admitted that the model has its shortcomings. The emphasis on the plant-based components of the EAT-Lancet diet can still serve, however, as an inspiration for future efforts to build sustainable, affordable, and healthy eating habits for the planet and its people.

thevarsity.ca/section/science

NOVEMBER 15, 2021

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The future of transportation Examining alternatives to private cars MARGARET ATKINSON/THEVARSITY

Mehrshad Babaei Associate Science Editor

Ever since people sought to get to a point ‘B’ from a point ‘A,’ humans have worked to make all our journeys as quick and convenient as possible. We moved from a simple wheel to carts and wagons, and finally arrived at cars.

The mass operation of the vehicles powered by fossil fuels that we are familiar with today, however, has led to significant increases in pollution and traffic congestion. Every year, transportation is responsible for 15 to 20 per cent of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally, which amounts to approximately five to seven billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted annually. In Canada, the transport sector was the second largest contributor of GHG emissions in 2019, accounting for 25 per cent of national emissions — meaning Canadian transportation released the equivalent of 186 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Furthermore, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), road traffic crashes take the lives of 1.3 million people each year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that car crashes are “the eighth leading cause of death globally for all age groups and the leading cause of death for children and young people five to 29 years of age.”

Taking into consideration the negative impacts of cars, especially on the environment, we might want to consider some solutions, such as the prospect of more sustainable cars, or even to consider moving away from privately owned vehicles and improving public transportation. But which is the best path?

Electric cars As many car manufacturers continue to further develop and promote electric vehicles (EV), we should look at how ‘green’ and eco-friendly EVs really are and how their shortcomings compare to the benefits they present. EVs are also becoming ever more popular, with a surging number of electric cars taking to the roads worldwide just last year.

Research shows that electric cars leave a smaller overall carbon footprint than gasolinepowered cars. Although electricity generation around the world still involves the use of fossil fuels, and EVs require electricity for charging, a 2020 study concluded that “electric cars and heat

pumps are less emission intensive than fossilfuel-based alternatives.”

Furthermore, while the production of the lithiumion batteries required by EVs results in considerably more emissions than it takes to manufacture regular cars, the effects of this initial investment are offset by the reduced lifetime emissions.

EVs are also significantly more efficient with energy consumption, converting well over 77 per cent of the electrical energy they consume directly into power, whereas conventional cars convert a mere 12 to 30 per cent of the energy from gasoline.

With that being said, however, there are still challenges with the widespread adoption of EVs. One of the primary concerns regarding EVs is charging infrastructure. Currently, three different levels of chargers are available worldwide, and charging can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 40 hours at public outlets or at home. The most common and widely available type in North America are the ‘level two’ chargers, which are available at over 40,000 public stations in the United States and 5,000 in Canada. These chargers can fill a battery at a rate of 32 to 40 kilometres’ worth of driving per hour. Some public stations also include ‘level three’ chargers, which can provide around 200 kilometres’ worth of battery charge in 30 minutes.

For many EV drivers, charging the car in their garage at home is more convenient and suffices for day-to-day use, since the average person drives no more than 47 kilometres per day and many EVs can travel a great distance on a single charge. However, for individuals who live in residential buildings, charging at home is not a possibility, as most residential parking garages lack the infrastructure to charge EVs. This means, for some people, EVs are much more inconvenient than conventional cars when considering accessibility, commuting, and charging times.

Moreover, on the topic of accessibility, both populated areas and roads generally require more charging stations. In the United States, researchers from the International Council for Clean Transportation have projected that the country will need to increase workplace and public charging stations in metro areas by 400 per cent to accommodate the EVs that they expect to be on the road by 2025.

Additionally, besides day-to-day commuting, EV drivers may experience ‘range anxiety’ during

long-distance trips — a fear that their battery will deplete before reaching an outlet. Recent reports show that the vast majority of respondents consider this anxiety the primary reason they don’t want to transition to an EV, followed by the low availability of charging stations. Increasing charging stations in an area was found to be the number one factor that increased the likelihood of residents purchasing an EV. Evidently, EVs possess significant green potential, and as they continue to become more widespread, individuals will be able to lower their carbon footprints considerably.

But are there options beyond that? Can we better address climate change while simultaneously tackling safe, reliable, and more affordable commuting — and maybe, move on from cars?

Public transportation As urbanization grows to encompass the vast majority of people worldwide — a trend that researchers project will mean that up to 68 per cent of the world’s population will be living in urban areas by 2050 — we can look to public transportation as a promising solution to address traffic congestion, air pollution, and safer commuting.

Interestingly, research shows the majority of commuters believe public transportation is less safe than driving their own cars. However, studies show that taking public transit in general is 10 times safer, and travelling by commuter or intercity rail is 18 times safer than travelling by car.

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) examined the relationship between availability of public transit and road mortality in urban areas, noting the road mortality rate is significantly lower in areas with a higher volume of public transportation per capita.

Additionally, public transportation accounts for considerably fewer emissions than travelling by privately owned vehicles, as emissions decrease when more people choose public transit over individual cars. The Federal Transit Administration found that subways and metros produce 76 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions than the average car, while buses produce 33 per cent less emissions than cars.

Another important impact of transportation is air quality. According to the WHO, air pollution results in approximately 4.2 million deaths per year and is “one of the greatest environmental risks to health.” A study in 2015 found that when two

similarly sized cities made changes to prioritize public transit, they reduced the concentration of black carbon — a harmful pollutant — in their air by 37 and 72 per cent, respectively. In their conclusion, the researchers wrote that “closing streets to private traffic, renewal of the bus fleet and re-organization of the public transportation significantly benefit air quality.”

Furthermore, research by two physicists in 2019 highlighted the importance of public transportation in directly reducing traffic congestion and carbon emissions. Their results showed that the number of people who drive to work decreases as the availability of mass transit increases. They concluded, using a predictive model, that mitigating the effects of traffic can be obtained “by improving either the public transport density or its access.”

Public transportation is currently not as accessible for many people around the world — including many Canadians. Investing in public transit infrastructure and green technology initiatives is an important step in the roadmap to safer, environmentally friendly, and cheaper commuting.

The benefits of public transportation can be further solidified through ‘transit-oriented development,’ which involves investing in “compact, walkable, pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use communities centered around high quality train systems.”

According to an APTA report, “Every $1 invested in public transportation generates $5 in economic returns.” The APTA also notes that “household[s] can save nearly $10,000 by taking public transportation and living with one less car.”

For example, the Mass Transit Railway in Hong Kong — one of the most densely populated cities in the world — has been remarkably successful with its transit-oriented development. The city has established many communities of mixed-use buildings along the railway, throughout Hong Kong, that are fully serviced by public transportation.

Another example of investing to improve public transit closer to home is the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). The TTC currently operates North America’s largest electric bus fleet and introduced 60 electric buses last year — a $568 million investment — with another 300 buses on the way, which it recently purchased for $300 million.

The wheels of the future of transportation roll on, and the health of the world and its people are at stake. Even when we’re running late for class, our commute leaves us at a crossroads: do we call an Uber or take the bus?

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THE VARSITY

science@thevarsity.ca

SCIENCE

The future of agriculture How new technologies can help make farming more sustainable, efficient

Automated agriculture strategies can be more sustainable.

COURTESY OF THIS IS ENGINEERING/CC FLICKR

Khatchig Anteblian Science Editor

Agriculture is arguably the most important industry in human history. It is the practice that converted us from small hunter-gatherer societies into the globe-spanning civilization we are today, and it is still the world’s largest industry in terms of the amount of people employed and the amount of products generated.

It is an industry that everyone relies on every day. However, as the global population keeps growing, the demand for food and resources grows with it.

The earth’s population is currently growing at an average rate of one per cent per year. At this rate, the global population will surpass nine billion in less than 30 years from now.

To keep up with the increasing demands of a growing population, agricultural production has to either ramp up, thereby consuming more resources and leading to more environmental harm, or we have to come up with more efficient and sustainable methods that can be adopted at large scales.

The environmental impact of agriculture According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), carbon dioxide emissions related to agriculture made up 17 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2018. While this was a decrease from 24 per cent in the 2000s, the reduction was also a result of a growth in emissions in other sectors and not just a total decrease in agriculture’s emissions.

Most of the farming and agricultural land used by humans is reserved to keep animals and livestock. Even more land is used to produce the food for that livestock.

In fact, according to National Geographic, only about 55 per cent of the world’s crops are used to feed people directly. The rest is used to feed livestock or turned into biofuels and other industrial products. Additionally, agriculture accounts for most of the water consumption on the planet.

How automation can help Automation has been a key factor for progress since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution and it can make farming easier and more efficient; however, it will take more than simply

automating tractors to truly reap the potential benefits of automation.

Truly effective automation will have to take into account the usage of resources and how to optimize yields. It would also have to reduce or ideally eliminate the usage of water, chemicals, and pesticides, which can potentially end up elsewhere in the food chain and cause harm to those who consume them.

This problem is a perfect candidate for the usage of artificial intelligence (AI) and systems based on a framework called the Internet of Things (IoT).

AI and IoT IoT is essentially a system of operation where many smaller devices are connected in a network so they can communicate and perform complicated tasks as a larger unit. Connecting smaller devices that each perform a small task as opposed to constructing a large machine that does everything is more efficient, cost-effective, and easier to test and maintain.

Incorporating AI systems to IoT-based farming is already underway and its benefits are staggering. Artificial neural networks — systems that aim to simulate the way the human brain works and learns — can be leveraged to train machines to constantly monitor plants and ensure they’re growing in a favourable environment.

Of course, the big benefit of using these neural networks is that they can keep learning based on new input as they are put to work, so that they become more efficient and precise over time. Tests conducted by researchers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia indicated a reduction of 25 per cent in water usage when using intelligent irrigation systems while maintaining

similar crop yields to the control methods.

Going vertical Using AI and IoT systems will only get us so far if we don’t also take into account the impact we’re having on the environment by modifying huge swaths of land. Our current agricultural system covers about 38 per cent of viable land, and an estimated 70 per cent of freshwater withdrawals are for crop irrigation.

The idea of vertical farming was developed to address this issue directly by growing crops

in vertically stacked layers. Replacing traditional farms with vertical ones reduces the amount of land required, and introduces the possibility of integrating crop farming into buildings and urban spaces since vertical farming can be done indoors and requires very little water and no soil.

It’s clear that humanity will need to change the way we produce what we eat in the coming decades to accommodate the growing population and curb climate change. Fortunately, there’s plenty of technologies out there that can help.

Sports

XX X, 2021 thevarsity.ca/section/sports sports@thevarsity.ca

Drew-Anne Glennie Varsity Contributor

A ‘cup of coffee’ in sports is defined as a short amount of time spent in the major leagues by a minor league player. And Varsity Blues goaltender Alexander Bishop’s cup of coffee wasn’t your ordinary cup of joe, it was one for the history books.

On October 16, the Toronto Maple Leafs ran into a big issue before their game against the Ottawa Senators. One of their goalies was injured and, per NHL rules, the team was too close to their salary cap to easily recall a backup goalie from their American Hockey League farm team. They had two options: either exchange one of their defensemen to play goalie, or find a backup goalie elsewhere.

Bishop, also a fourth-year Rotman student, was the solution, making headlines when he signed a professional tryout contract (PTO) to play backup for the Leafs. The Varsity talked to Bishop about his journey to the Leafs bench and where he is going from here.

U of T student goes pro for the Maple Leafs The goalie who took the world by storm sits down and talks about his wild experience TV: How did you end up in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League?

AB: At 17 years old, I was in Hamilton playing Junior A and I just got off to a really good start. I started talking to some teams. I was on the NHL central scouting list for a little bit. The Saint John Sea Dogs approached me and said, “Look, we have a really strong program.” I think they were ranked third in the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) at that point, so that was really enticing. And then just the development that you get from CHL, as much as I liked playing in Hamilton, you can’t really compare it. They just have the facilities, they have the resources. It’s not the same.

TV: How have your past few years on the Varsity Blues been?

AB: It’s been the best four years of my life. The team is awesome. The people we have on the team, they’re just good, genuine people. We’ve really built a strong bond; especially the fourth year players, since we’ve been together for four years now. I think it’s just really been able to shape who I am. Your early twenties are really formative years, so being around other people that kind of have the same mindset as you — they’re focused on school, but there’s still that hockey aspect to it — has been really valuable for me, and I think it’ll continue to be.

I’m not going to shy away from that.

TV: Were you hoping you would go in?

AB: Yes and no. You’re always hoping that that’s your chance to play in an NHL game; that’s what every kid growing up playing hockey dreams of.

But at the same time, you never want to see someone get injured. It’s tough to hope that you can go in but then it comes as a result of someone else getting hurt or getting sick or something like that, which you never wish on anyone.

TV: Did you have your Rotman brain on when you were in the dressing room?

AB: I definitely wasn’t thinking as a commerce student when I was there. I was just trying to soak it in. More than that, I was thinking as a little kid getting to dress beside a lot of the guys I watched growing up.

TV: The Varsity Blues are in the preseason right now, and the regular season has recently started. Can you tell us what to expect?

Varsity Blues goaltender Alexander Bishop, a fourth-year Rotman student, was the solution.

COURTESY OF SEYRAN MAMMADOV/ VARSITY BLUES

The Varsity: Goalie is a unique position. How did you decide on it?

Alexander Bishop: I think it kind of chose me, as weird as that sounds. In house league, I was kind of just drawn to it: I kept going in the net when no one else would. My first year of rep hockey, they had no goalie and they reached out to my dad and said, “Oh, it’s only one day a week.” And here I am 16 years later, seven days a week.

TV: What was it like growing up playing elite level hockey in Toronto?

AB: It was fun. The GTA is one of the biggest — if not the biggest — areas for hockey. I didn’t move around too much in minor hockey, but a lot of people do move around, and you get to know a bunch of different people and their families. It’s cool just having that community.

TV: Did you come from a hockey family?

AB: My dad was a big Leafs fan from the time he was little. Basically, as soon as I could walk, he threw me on the ice. Having said that, my parents are the most supportive people in the world, so there was no pressure at all. If I didn’t want to play, they wouldn’t force me, but it just happened to work out that he loved hockey and I loved hockey.

TV: What was the unique experience of playing major junior like, and how has that impacted you?

AB: It’s impacted me a lot, actually. It teaches you a lot of life lessons. I am pretty comfortable speaking with people now because of all the media and the interviews and the community events. You build time management skills because sometimes we’re on the road for a week and a half at a time, so you have to balance as much school as you have with the hockey that you’re doing and just balance different things that way.

TV: Given how much you like Saint John, how did you decide to come to U of T? AB: I grew up in Richmond Hill, so I am local that way. And then obviously U of T is the best school in the country. Business was what I wanted to do and Rotman is the best undergraduate business program in the country as well. It was tough to make the decision just because of being so far away from Saint John, but at the end of the day, it’s only four years. And obviously, the opportunity with the hockey team: a lot of people come in their first year and they don’t really play any games.

This way, I was able to come in and kind of fight for games in my first year which is fairly rare.

TV: What’s it like juggling being a student and playing university-level hockey?

AB: It’s not easy, but I think junior prepared me well, with the different commitments that we had there trying to finish school. The time around midterms and final exams is when it gets really tough because your hockey doesn’t stop but your exams and everything pick up. Aside from that, my roommate is in Rotman as well so we’re able to do a lot of classes together and we’re able to lean on each other that way.

TV: Can you speak on the ‘dream come true’ narrative that’s been popular in media coverage?

AB: It’s something that you never really think about when you think of playing in NHL games or dressing for NHL games, but it was definitely a dream come true in that sense. I think that it has kind of led to the “beer leaguer” look at my time with the Blues, which I’ve heard a lot. When David Ayres went in, all respect to him, he was a Zamboni driver, he wasn’t playing competitive hockey, which I think is what made it such a cool story. But we’re still playing competitive hockey.

USports is a very underappreciated league so that part is a little bit frustrating. But still, if people ask me, “Was it a dream come true?” — absolutely.

AB: Big things. We have a good team, so I’m pretty confident. I’m pretty excited for the year we’re gonna have. We got off to a slow start with the preseason, but it’s kind of expected: no one’s played since February 2020. I think it will be a big year for us. It’s been a while since the school has won a championship in hockey.

TV: Is there any way that you’re bringing your experience from your time with the Leafs to the upcoming season?

AB: I think the experience itself is really showing me that you have to just embrace things as they come. Just enjoy every moment. It’s something that I don’t struggle with but, you know, having a bad day here and there can kind of get to me a little bit, but I’m only here for so long. Six months left of being a university student and then I’m a real person. So, just soak it all in and try to have as much fun as you can. That includes just being on the ice with the team because you can’t replicate being a team and being with the same guys every day, six days a week. It’s not what happens in the real world, so I’ll just really enjoy this last year.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

22

THE VARSITY

sports@thevarsity.ca

SPORTS

The future of data analytics in sports How statistics can change the game for professional sports primarily because the show’s viewership was amused — to say the least — by Kellerman’s desired choice of personnel. Stephen Curry is touted as one of the best shooters to ever pick up a basketball. Andre Iguodala, on the other hand, isn’t. This is why data analytics are so important — without it, we make mistakes.

Data analytics in the front office The relationship between sports and data analysis, however, isn’t limited to building the perfect team on a low budget. Leagues across the world are trying to use data to help them

The future of data analytics In the current scenario, however, the next step toward integrating data analysis in sports is to provide the numbers for the viewer.

The world has gotten used to the small boxes during game broadcasts that inform spectators about a player’s field goal percentage or the chances they create in a specific game. The next step in this domain is to crunch the numbers in real time and provide the viewer with more facts, including live win probability, the average position of a player on the field, and tracking momentum.

The ongoing 2021–2022 SailGP is utilizing real-time data crunching to its maximum potential. By employing the services of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, they are offering teams customizable data dashboards which collect over 30,000 data points per second, to help them restructure their strategies while also making the experience a fun and immersive one for the viewers.

Numbers have revolutionized the fabric of sports over the course of this century and breakthroughs in the future will, no doubt, continue to do so. Maybe, in the future, analysts will, for example, be able to predict the probability of Curry hitting a buzzer beater.

Till then, we study the numbers, build fantasy teams, and watch our favourite players in awe — unless you’re a Pistons fan, in which case you probably watch in frustration.

‘the 6ix.’ With the popularity of basketball in Canada on the rise, especially after the success of the Raptors in 2019, placing a WNBA team in Toronto and expanding women’s basketball beyond the US is an obvious business move.

Women’s basketball is growing in popularity each year. The WNBA just celebrated its 25th anniversary this year with a record-breaking season. It launched new jerseys for each team, as well as the mid-season Commissioner’s Cup tournament, which had great viewership.

The WNBA expanding to Toronto would be an amazing opportunity for Canadian athletes by giving them the opportunity to play professionally on home soil. There is a lot of Canadian talent that could be showcased by expanding north — Canada has no shortage of skilled players.

The Canadian women’s national team is ranked fourth in the world according to the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). Canada also currently has three players active in the WNBA: Kia Nurse, who plays for the Phoenix Mercury; Natalie Achonwa, who plays for the Minnesota Lynx; and Bridget Carleton, who plays for the Minnesota Lynx.

There are many more upcoming women stars currently playing at the NCAA level.

Plus, bringing a team to Toronto also paves the way for the next generation of ISOBEL HEINTZMAN/THEVARSITY women athletes and basketball players, providing them with role models, mentors, years, and with viewership higher than ever and a dream of playing in the league one day. before, expansion is inevitable. The question Although Canada is known for being a hockis, what city will the new team land in? ey-dominant country, a basketball culture quickDrake and the rest of Canada agree that ly arose after the Toronto Raptors success in eyes should be looking north of the border. 2019. With that victory still fresh on the Toronto Toronto’s bid for a WNBA team was launched scene, basketball culture is front and centre. in 2019 with the intention of landing a team in Walking down the streets of downtown, the

iconic Raptors hats can still be found on many passers-by. The city came together in 2019 to celebrate ‘Canada’s team,’ and bringing a WNBA team would bring our city together even more, building a culture in the city of Toronto revolving around sport.

When Nick Nurse, head coach of the Toronto Raptors, was asked to touch on the idea of bringing in a WNBA team, his response was, “I think women should be represented in Toronto with a WNBA team. I would imagine it would be wildly successful.”

He also touched on the fact that right now is what he calls the “golden age” for basketball in Canada. Bringing a WNBA team to Toronto would mean a lot for the city, and with basketball growing rapidly in Canada, it is the perfect time to introduce a new team. Toronto already has NHL, NBA, MLB, and MLS teams, and bringing a WNBA team would put Toronto on the map as a serious sports community.

The hashtag #WNBAFinals was the number one trending topic on Twitter in Canada during the 2021 WNBA finals game between the Chicago Sky and the Phoenix Mercury. This season’s WNBA opening weekend also saw a 325 per cent increase of viewership in Canada, and the match between the Las Vegas Aces and the Seattle Storm on May 15 became the most viewed WNBA game in Canada’s history. There is clearly interest and a WNBA fan base in Canada — it all comes down to whether or not the WNBA wants to expand past American borders.

As the WNBA gains more and more popularity each year, Canada is ready to make its mark in women’s professional basketball.

The time to bring the team in is now. We have the culture, we have the fan base, and we have an open market for the addition of a new team in the city. Drake needs a team, the WNBA needs a team, and Toronto is the city to expand to.

GRACE XU/THEVARSITY

Nidhil Vohra Varsity Contributor

“With the game on the line. One shot. Who would you rather have taking it, Iggy or Curry?”

“I want Iguodala.”

This is a snippet from the infamous exchange between Molly Qerim Rose and Max Kellerman,

former co-hosts of ESPN’s First Take, the morning after Andre Iguodala hit a buzzer beater to put the Warriors five points above the Raptors in the 2018–19 NBA finals.

Since then, this iconic dialogue has birthed several headlines, an overused TikTok audio, an in-demand line of merch, and even a surprisingly bearable EDM remix. This is

Why the WNBA should expand north of the border It’s time for Toronto to have its own team

Emmy Curtis Varsity Contributor

Last week, Toronto-born recording artist Drake posted on his Instagram story saying that he wanted a WNBA franchise in Toronto. The WNBA has increased in popularity over the past

The current state of data analytics Data analytics have completely changed the world of sports. Clipboard-bearing old men with the spirit of the game flowing through their linen tracksuits have reluctantly made way for analysts with economics degrees and the brawn of numbers. According to one Forbes article, the market for sports analysis is predicted to reach $4 billion by 2022 due to its widespread use in modern sports organizations.

The side of statistical scrutinization that the public is most familiar with is using data to find players that are either overlooked or undiscovered.

Billy Beane applied this to considerable success with the Oakland Athletics in their 2002 season. The word ‘moneyball,’ which refers to a process of using data analysis in tandem with an evidence-based, sabermetric approach to team building, was coined by Michael Lewis in his 2003 book of the same name. A similar methodology to moneyball was observed in Brentford’s recent success and qualification to the English Premier League of soccer after a 74-year drought, and even in the Cleveland Browns’ slight but sure advancements in the NFL.

build a viewership across social media platforms.

Customer engagement data is crunched round the clock, not only to determine the best schedules for content posting, but the type of content to post, which accounts to tag and follow, and even what hashtags to use.

This extends into the online realm of ticket and merch shopping. In the NFL, the New England Patriots use data from their stadium and online stores to predict shopping trends and determine expected sales to better ascertain things like ticket pricing and staffing in their stadium shops. Team and league management can further use analysis to improve procurement of goods, supply-chain management, and logistics.

thevarsity.ca/section/sports

NOVEMBER 15, 2021

Will super athletes walk among us one day?

How human gene editing may alter the makeup of sports forever Mekhi Quarshie Associate Sports Editor

The time period: the late 1900s. The place: Shanghai, China. There was a project being organized by the party in power, which was bent on increasing China’s worldwide popularity through one method alone: sports.

The nation instituted a Soviet-style sports development program intent on pumping out the country’s greatest athletes. The program would eventually produce Yao Zhiyuan and Fang Fengdi, two of China’s tallest citizens. Shanghai officials pushed the two to marry in order to inch closer to their end goal: the perfect athlete.

The result of their marriage was a baby boy — a boy that would grow to be 7’6’’ tall. A boy who was forced to sacrifice his academic dreams for the sport of basketball. A boy who would eventually become an eight-time NBA all-star.

That boy was Houston Rocket legend Yao Ming.

Was Yao Ming genetically engineered? Not exactly. Was he a product of artificial selection, humans toying with reproduction to produce desirable traits in their offspring? Most certainly.

Are the two concepts eerily similar in spirit? That’s up for debate.

We’ve already seen what playing god looks like in the sports world, but human gene editing could take it to the next level. Genome editing can be done by technologies that give scientists the ability to alter DNA. The latest technology used for this type of science is known as CRISPR, and it allows researchers to edit gene sequences with great efficiency.

While the intricacies of genetic engineering may sound like the plotline of a Christopher Nolan movie, it has been a real part of modern science for some time — scientist He Jiankui has already attempted to create genetically modified babies immune to HIV. And although editing inheritable genes is a criminal offence in Canada, this has not stopped researchers from

advocating for it. Canadian scientists of the Stem Cell Network in particular have advocated for the ban to be lifted so they could learn more about human reproduction.

The other factor in play here is gene editing’s potential to make humans better at strenuous physical activity. Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have done extensive research into this niche subject. H. Lee Sweeney, for example, was a scientist at the University of Pennsylvania who conducted studies on gene therapy in 1998.

Sweeney was looking for a way to reverse the effects of muscular disorders like Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) in mice. The disease revolves around a protein named dystrophin. For

patients with the disease, this protein becomes dysfunctional over their lifetime, which eventually leads to a complete loss in muscle function.

Sweeney, however, worked with a breed of mice with a mutation in their dystrophin gene that already displays a DMD-like phenotype. He discovered that when they inserted the gene that encodes for a protein called internal growth factor into the mice’s muscle cells, the cells grew.

Results also showed that as the mice aged, their muscle mass increased by about 40 per cent, and they were still just as strong and as fast as they had been when they were young. In that single experiment alone, targeting just one gene had the result of reversing the effects of aging and increased strength. Some would say

CHERYL NONG/THEVARSITY

23

Sweeney was dealing with super mice.

Experiments in animals can’t always be replicated on humans with ease. To get insight into this, The Varsity interviewed Assistant Professor Tod Thiele at the Department of Biological Sciences. Thiele has experience working with CRISPR in zebrafish in collaboration with The Hospital for Sick Children. When asked if the experiments scientists have done on smaller animals could be replicated in humans, he responded that “in theory, you could probably do it in humans, but… there’s a lot of ethical problems that come with this.”

There are also logistical problems when scaling experiments up to humans. The US National Institute of Health points out that “scaling up [the variables from this experiment] from a 25 g mouse to a 75 kg human will prove challenging.” There is also the potential for health risks — high levels of Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) have been associated with the development of cancers.

The Pew Research Center surveyed 1,001 adults about potential developments in science and technology in 2014. The survey’s results showed that 66 per cent of Americans think it would be a change for the worse if “prospective parents could alter the DNA of their children to produce smaller, healthier, or more athletic offspring.” Thiele mirrored these sentiments, saying that he would be okay with using CRISPR to cure genetic diseases, but was against the creation of “designer babies.”

But do either of these solve the problem?

Some of the greatest athletes to ever walk on this earth have something in common — they are all biologically gifted. Michael Phelps’ wingspan measures 6’7’’ — three inches longer than his height, which is unusual. Usain Bolt is believed by some scientists to have a gene called ACTN3 that results in a higher proportion of fast-twitch muscle fibers, which are activated during short but powerful moments of muscle activity.

Perhaps biological variance is what makes humans special. It’s what puts the “oohs” in our “aahs” every time we turn on the TV to watch a sports event. Most importantly, it makes athletic brilliance, at least in part, a game of chance.

Maybe that’s the way it should be; athleticism should be determined through probability, not by a petri dish.

Logging the connection between screen time and wellness Being mindful of screen usage can help reduce digital stress and maintain well-being replaces the face-to-face interactions that are important for adolescents, it can have a negative impact on their well-being and mental health.

Since screens help individuals become more closely connected with their peers and friends, they can lead to both positive and negative interactions for individuals. These negative interactions through screen usage can lead to ‘digital stress’: a form of stress linked to digital devices and caused by negative interactions through emails, text messages, and social media.

Shankeri Vijayakumar Varsity Contributor

Using screens is a major part of many people’s lives. Working virtually, reading the news in real time, and connecting with people in different places all rely on the use of a screen. As the use of screens has proliferated and tech companies introduce and enhance features to allow users to track and manage their screen time, conversations around screen time and well-being have become even more important.

What is screen time?

Screen time refers to the amount of time individuals spend using a device that has a screen, like a TV, computer, game console, or smartphone.

The factors contributing to screen usage by individuals are becoming increasingly complex as applications are being designed and updated to specifically keep users hooked. Push notifications, autoplay on Netflix and Youtube, and infinite scrolling on social media apps are just some examples of things that keep you glued to your screen.

While the rise in screen time has paralleled the emergence of these features, the amount of time we spend looking at screens is also because our daily lives are becoming dependent on them. Many students use computers to type notes and complete assignments, and virtual workspaces like Zoom and Microsoft Teams are becoming the backbone of remote working.

Digital well-being has impacts on physical and mental health.

JACKY LAITHE/THEVARSITY

The impact of screen time on well-being Screen time definitely has its necessary uses and its obvious pitfalls, like being time-consuming for users, but what impact does it actually have on our well-being?

Screen time has been associated with poor physical and mental health outcomes. The Mayo Clinic reports that too much or poor quality screen time among children has been linked to irregular sleep schedules and shorter duration of sleep, behavioural problems, and lack of social skills.

However, research on the impact of screen time on psychological well-being has been extremely varied and, at times, conflicting.

Some research has reported that screen time can have significant negative impacts on wellbeing, including poor emotional regulation, while some research has also reported that there are no significant negative impacts to high screen usage, and there might even be benefits to it.

One study that found a significant negative link between screen time and psychological wellbeing found these impacts to be more prevalent among adolescents. This can be attributed to the fact that adolescents have more social media accounts than adults and young children and may own their own smartphone, which can lead to more time spent using a screen. If social media

Improving digital well-being Push notifications can be a large contributor to screen usage. If you pick up your device every time you receive a notification, you can fall down a rabbit hole of opening your notifications, reading them, and unintentionally spending much more time on the applications that sent them.

Managing the frequency of your notifications and how notifications appear on your devices can help improve the way you manage screen time.

Going on a digital detox from time-consuming applications can help you make time for the rest you need from screens. It can be difficult to manage screen time when we regularly use them in our daily lives, but deciding to refrain from using certain applications for periods of time can help manage digital stress.

Being mindful of your screen usage can help reduce your digital stress and maintain your wellbeing. Managing push notifications, taking digital detoxes, logging out of applications, and turning off your devices can help you manage the need to reach for those devices and reduce screen time.

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THE VARSITY

NOVEMBER 15, 2021

DIVERSIONS

ACROSS 1. Expressed, as an adieu 5. Flashlight's projection 9. Solemn 14. Pyramid point 15. Figure in "Lost Horizon" 16. Riveting woman of WWII 17. Implied 19. Barrymore or Kennedy 20. Show signs of falling 21. Application request 23. Crops up 25. Retail boss 30. The pits 32. Simon of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" 33. Does' dears 36. Opposite of eternally 38. Lacking color 39. Cons 40. Give relief 41. Beekeepers 44. Low cards in a pinochle deck 46. Omitted 47. Sound some strings 49. Leans hard on 51. Exemplar of cruelty 54. Put one's foot down 56. The "c" in etc.

58. Mexican eatery staple 62. Candy with a hole 64. Bone, to a boxer 65. Dubai V.I.P. 66. It's staked by a scout 67. Canine show?

68. Cotillion honorees 69. It's better when they meet

DOWN 1. Can of worms, perhaps 2. Breathing woe 3. Try to prevent 4. Going offstage 5. Played raucously 6. Fast opposite 7. Answer to prayers?

8. Palindromic address 9. Less trained 10. Bunch of nonsense 11. Burning outcome 12. Go toe to toe 13. Dragon roll ingredient 18. Flat-topped desert sights 22. Cock and bull?

24. One of your cavities 26. Club's yearly meeting 27. Pun follower, at times 28. Causing heebie-jeebies 29. Marsh flora 31. Takes a load off 33. Pogo Possum's home 34. Piglike forest dweller 35. Sambuca flavoring 37. Police protectors 39. It may be added to a bill 42. Biblical equine 43. Paraphrase, say 44. Some paintings 45. Parrot or ape 48. They're in a heat 50. Did a shoe repair 52. 1995 Brad Pitt thriller 53. Market analyst's concern 55. Small change?

57. Liberal pursuits 58. Ave. crossers, often 59. Hurler's pride 60. Island souvenir 61. Actor Mineo 63. Small tale?

Solutions for Issue 4