Vol. CXXXVIII, No. 1 July 31, 2017 thevarsity.ca —— The University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880
Is your data safe? A look at UTmail+’s summer outage and the privacy implications of sending your information abroad
News page 3
Fact checking health fads Oversimplified science reporting misrepresents research results
Provincial politics preview The key players and issues to watch for in the upcoming Ontario election
Science page 20
Feature page 12
How to deal with campus conflicts
The TIFF survival guide
Get involved, not overwhelmed
Tips, tricks, and movies you can’t miss
Editorial page 11
A&C page 15
STUDENT HANDBOOK INSIDE
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Vol. CXXXVIII, No. 1 21 Sussex Avenue, Suite 306 Toronto, ON, M5S 1J6 416-946-7600 thevarsity.ca thevarsitynewspaper @TheVarsity the.varsity the.varsity The Varsity
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Mapping Campus Data: Parking Enforcement Over 31,000 parking tickets issued at UTSG, UTSC in 2016 — fines total almost $1.5 million Tom Yun Managing Online Editor
The City of Toronto’s Open Data project has revealed that the city issued a collective total of 31,740 tickets at UTSG and UTSC, resulting in $1,472,765 in fines. Out of these fines, 28,224 tickets totaling $1,349,475 were issued at UTSG. At 15 Devonshire Place, by the George Ignatieff Theatre, the city issued 1,187 tickets totaling $40,735, the highest amount of parking tickets on the campus. Among locations where more than one ticket was issued, the most expensive tickets, on average, were collected at 40 St. George Street, in front of the Bahen Centre for Information Technology and the Koffler
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Student Services Centre, with an average fine of $261.04. Most of these fines came about due to drivers parking in spots without a valid permit in the accessible parking spots on the street in front of the building. At UTSC, the city issued $123,290 in fines from 3,516 tickets. The highest number of tickets across both campuses was given at 1265 Military Trail, with 2,450 tickets totaling $83,440. Thursdays saw the highest number of parking tickets at UTSG, while UTSC saw more tickets issued on Tuesdays. Sundays were the quietest day for tickets on both campuses. The vast majority of parking tickets on the St. George campus were issued from 8:00 am to 9:00 pm. At UTSC, no parking tickets were issued
from 11:00 pm to 6:00 am, and the number of tickets spiked at 11:00 am and 4:00 pm. The data shows a steady decline in the number of parking tickets at UTSC between March and August. At UTSG, the number of parking tickets was more consistent throughout the year. The number of parking tickets has not significantly changed since 2015, when the city issued 31,215 tickets totaling approximately $1.4 million on the two campuses. The majority of parking tickets at UTSC are issued by the Parking Enforcement Unit of the Toronto Police Service. “Campus Police primarily issue tickets for vehicles parked in non-designated areas like fire routes or for vehicles parked in accessible spaces without
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a valid permit,” wrote U of T Media Assistant Molly Wilkie in an email to The Varsity. At UTSG, parking enforcement on all city streets is performed by Toronto Police. Transportation Services at U of T is responsible for university property. Data from UTM was not part of this dataset, as parking tickets on that campus are issued by the City of Mississauga. Earlier this year, The Varsity analyzed the City of Mississauga’s parking ticket data and reported that 8,265 parking tickets were issued at UTM. The City of Mississauga’s datasets do not reveal how much the tickets totaled.
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JULY 31, 2017 • 3
Data in a foreign land U of T’s email outage and the privacy implications of sending data abroad Josie Kao Varsity Contributor
On April 28, U of T suspended its UTmail+ service for students and alumni for what was supposed to be a five-day transfer of data from the US to Canada. The transfer did not go as planned. Students and alumni unexpectedly lost access to their accounts for an entire week. Suddenly, the data that many considered to be ever-present was gone. This unexpected transfer failure brought attention to the university’s eCommunications systems. Collectively, students, staff, faculty, and alumni conduct an incredibly vast amount of correspondence through these email services; is this data as secure as people are led to believe? Data is something that we might think to be ubiquitous — at least, that’s what the term ‘the cloud’ might lead us to believe. But data has a physical root: it is stored on servers across the world, and for years, U of T’s email data was stored in the US. Sending data abroad In 2011, U of T decided to outsource email services to Microsoft. Most current U of T students only know of the current UTmail+ system, but at the time, the choice to sign on with Microsoft was an important one. As the old email system became increasingly outdated, U of T was faced with two options. The first option would have required the school to build and maintain its own servers. In his report titled “Report #2 and Recommendations, Student e-Communications Services,” U of T’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the time, Robert Cook, estimated this would cost the university around $1.44 million. The other option, outsourcing to Microsoft, was free. The university eventually chose this option. With the decision to let Microsoft run its eCommunications services, U of T was putting its data in American hands bound by American laws. This arrangement prompts one of the biggest questions in the world of data security: what happens when data travels across borders? Much of Canadians’ data is both routed through and stored in the US, yet no one really knows the privacy implications of this. In 2015, a team of U of T researchers led by faculty members Heidi Bohaker, Lisa Austin, Andrew Clement, and Stephanie Perrin released a report titled “Seeing Through the Cloud,” which investigated what happens to Canadians’ data while abroad. The report concluded that there were areas of concern regarding the status of international data storage. “When Canadians store their data, for example, in the United States, their data can be accessed by United States government authorities on standards that would be unconstitutional if applied within Canada. Nor can Canadians expect that United States constitutional standards will apply to them,” the report states. While data travels outside Canadian borders, it is not clear whether it is protected by any constitution at all. The report recommended that universities refrain from outsourcing “eCommunications services beyond Canadian jurisdiction until adequate measures for ensuring legal and constitutional protections equivalent to those in Canada are in place.” Two years after the report was released,
Microsoft moved the university’s data back to Canada. Clement, a professor in the Faculty of Information at U of T, described it as a positive step. “I’m pleased that U of T has done that,” Clement told The Varsity. “But there’s still a question as to whether the US government can put pressure in various ways… onto Microsoft to get what is held in Canada.” The university also acknowledged these risks when the decision to outsource its data was made in 2011. In the Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) conducted before the move, U of T conceded that “US authorities can request records of individual users, including emails, access logs and other personal information. In some cases the University will have no way of knowing if and when this is happening.” Despite this admission, the probability of this risk taking place was noted as “low” and its impact as “medium.” Of course, American whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed in 2013 that the United States National Security Agency (NSA) did conduct extensive surveillance on internet users outside of the US. But in a blog post published by Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith shortly after the Snowden leaks, Smith said, “We do not provide any government with direct access to emails or instant messages. Full stop.” Smith went on to explain that, though his company does get information requests from the government, “When we receive such a demand, we review it and, if obligated to we comply. We do not provide any government with the technical capability to access user content directly or by itself.” After the Snowden revelations, Microsoft petitioned the US Justice Department to let them reveal more on the nature of the NSA’s requests. They wanted to “share publicly more complete information about how [they] handle national security requests for customer information.” The Justice Department responded by allowing Microsoft and other companies to reveal the number of requests that each receives, but it did not go so far as allowing them to reveal what information was being collected.
In 2016, Microsoft reported a total of 61,409 requests from law enforcement, which was down from 74,311 requests in 2015. Despite this, U of T continues to have great faith in eCommunications services. “There’s nothing to suggest that we are under surveillance,” Althea BlackburnEvans, Director of Media Relations at U of T, told The Varsity. “We do practice something called ‘Privacy by Design,’ which is a set of principles set out by Ontario’s previous privacy commissioner,” Blackburn-Evans said. “[We] are very proactive about that.” The principles of Privacy by Design (PbD) focus on preventative measures. As the first principle states, “PbD does not wait for privacy risks to materialize, nor does it offer remedies for resolving privacy infractions once they have occurred — it aims to prevent them from occurring.” That being said, it is unlikely that anyone can perpetually prevent any lapses from happening. Microsoft also adheres to PbD principles, yet it found its networks susceptible to security breaches as recently as May 2017, during the ‘WannaCry’ ransomware attacks. Attackers were able to take control of over 200,000 computers running Microsoft’s software by exploiting a vulnerability discovered later by the NSA. While observance of PbD is a useful step in protecting data, there are no clear guidelines for dealing with privacy breaches if and when they occur. Microsoft and the UTmail+ transfer Despite its vulnerabilities, the university’s relationship with Microsoft is still very strong. When Microsoft built two new data centres in Canada in 2016, U of T’s eCommunications data was moved back into the country a year later. “The move [was] entirely about offering the full value of Microsoft 365 to everybody at U of T,” said Blackburn-Evans. Bo Wandschneider, who was recently hired as the university’s new CIO, echoed BlackburnEvans’ sentiments, positioning the decision in terms of streamlining the service for students. “What we were trying to do is create a richer
experience for the students by having them in the same environment that the faculty and staff are in,” Wandschneider told The Varsity. But the move to bring everyone together did not go as planned, as issues with the transfer caused a delay of two additional days. The problems forced Microsoft to eventually “[escalate] the severity of the UTmail+ service issues to CRITICAL,” according to a U of T update. When asked about what went wrong with the transfer, Blackburn-Evans stated that it was “a complicated migration, there were over 200,000 accounts being transferred and some issues arose that weren’t anticipated. The issue was on Microsoft’s end and they were working around the clock to fix it.” Clement described the delay as “outrageous” and “really damaging.” “These systems are complex, so things do go awry, but this is one of the biggest failures that I can think of and they’ve shown that they couldn’t handle it,” said Clement. “They knew they were going to do this, they had time to prepare and so on. So I think it really draws into question any claims that they want to make about how well they’re handling their email.” Microsoft wouldn’t comment on U of T’s customer account. “What we can say is that Microsoft is committed to maintaining the highest customer satisfaction and ensuring all customers realize the value of Microsoft’s products and services. Microsoft continues to engage with key customers to ensure that any opportunity or risk is flagged and managed in a timely matter,” Sean O’Brien, a Microsoft spokesperson, told The Varsity. When asked whether the university had any misgivings about Microsoft after the transfer, Wandschneider stated that it didn’t and that there was nothing that the university was concerned about. “Whenever we go into any of these agreements where we move to cloud services, we conduct a risk assessment and we evaluate all the risks associated with being in the cloud,” Wandschneider said. “We make sure that all their systems and our systems are up to the standards that we expect and that we are protecting the privacy and confidentiality of our user community.” The complexity of The Cloud The most recent PIA from the university, released in early 2017, tries to address some of the risks of outsourcing. It purports to have avoided the issue of foreign surveillance since the data has moved back to Canada. “Canadian Microsoft Data Centers are now
Data, page 4
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Trump administration, there’s a greater risk.” If the U of T community’s data either travels through or is stored in the US, and the NSA has the capability to intercept it, this raises urgent concerns. “U of T students coming from all over the world, coming from many of the so-called Muslim countries, many students are politically active, some of them will be at a relatively high risk of being of interest to the US government,” Clement noted. “We don’t know how far the US government can reach into these US corporate databases overseas.” Yet these risks do not only apply to international students: the NSA has admitted to wanting to “collect it all.” Even data that is not necessarily a threat to the US has and may continue to be collected. Data, from page 4 located in Toronto and Quebec City…The data will therefore be subject to Canadian law,” states the PIA. “[This] addresses many of the questions that had arisen during consultation prior to 2016 with respect to U.S. storage of data.” However, even if all of the university’s data is stored in Canada, there is still the problem of boomerang routing. This phenomenon occurs when data is transmitted over borders, sometimes unnecessarily, before being stored in the home country. Clement’s report, “Canadian internet ‘boomerang’ traffic and Mass NSA Surveillance,” notes that “a great deal of Canadian domestic Internet communications boomerang through the United States and are subject to NSA surveillance.”
The 2017 PIA also attempts to address this issue by noting that encryption in transit will be applied to the university’s data. “This is expected to acceptably reduce risks from foreign government use of ‘boomerang routing,’” it reads. Clement recently developed a tool to plot out where data goes and the NSA interception points it runs into along the way. IXmaps.ca was made for people to see how their data is routed all over the world and how it is therefore is at a greater risk. “I would say that it needs to be stored and routed within Canada,” said Clement. “Particularly as the United States goes increasingly rogue in terms of its compliance with usual legal international norms under the
Moving forward So how can the university ensure that it is protecting its email services? One obvious solution would be to stop outsourcing eCommunications services and start managing them closer to home. U of T first decided to outsource to Microsoft because it was the free option. Now the university is locked into the system, and it is becoming clear that the risks were greater than anticipated. “It’s a general aphorism about when you get something for free, you are the product. In this case it’s the students who are the product that’s being sold,” said Clement. “So you’ve been sold to Microsoft and the university has saved its money.” However, Wandschneider said that the university was not currently looking for other
routes. “We’ve done our due diligence and I’m really happy with where the data is residing,” he stated. If the university is to remain with Microsoft, there are still other ways that the privacy of students is ensured. One of the strongest options would be to take it to the government. British Columbia exemplifies how to use legislation to protect against foreign surveillance. BC’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act states that “a public body must ensure that personal information in its custody or under its control is stored only in Canada and accessed only in Canada,” with some exceptions. This law requires schools in BC, including the University of British Columbia, to develop their own eCommunications system, known as BC-net. This system is run entirely within the province, and as such, would protect against some of the risks of foreign surveillance facing U of T. “Seeing Through the Cloud” supports the BC-net model, suggesting that other “higher education and/or broader public sectors outside of British Columbia could reap similar financial benefits while ensuring privacy protection for their eCommunications systems.” As the university community continues to debate the costs of outsourcing, U of T is preparing to move staff and faculty emails to the Microsoft service as well. And as more and more data is moved around the world, the university and its student community will soon confront what it means for their collective privacy. Illustrations by Troy Lawrence.
Beyond email transfers Bo Wandschneider, U of T’s new Chief Information Officer, discusses a stressful first week on the job and more Aidan Currie Deputy News Editor
The University of Toronto’s new Chief Information Officer, Bo Wandschneider, assures us that technological advancements and integration are part of the university’s long-term future. In conversation with The Varsity, Wandschneider discussed the experience he brings to the table, “cultural changes,” and his stressful first week on the job. When U of T announced the hiring of Wandschneider on March 15, 2017, a news brief on the Information Technology Services (ITS) website described him as a “truly collaborative leader” and a “visionary thinker and effective strategist.” This was put to the test during the first week of Wandschneider’s tenure. One of the new CIO’s first tasks was to migrate 220,000 U of T email accounts to Canadian data servers from US-based ones. The migration took longer than expected, with service outages scheduled to take place from April 28 to May 1, lasting until May 5. “The challenges with that migration were unfortunate and, I’m going to say unacceptable,” Wandschneider said. “At the end of the day it’s fairly simple. Lots of issues. It’s very complex but really simple. The size of the migration here was just big
and the testing that we did beforehand didn’t scale the way that we had expected it to scale,” added Wandschneider. “It just took a long time for every step of the migration. There’s lots of checks and balances that happen through the process to make sure that they all get migrated properly and all those steps just took longer than we wanted to.” While Wandschneider wouldn’t guarantee that no further issues would arise during his time as CIO, he stated that his ITS team is “really good at fighting fires and dealing with issues that arise and resolving those.” Wandschneider got his start in information technology while pursuing his undergraduate degree at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. At the time, he said, it was “very early days for that sort of thing,” and his experience with using computer mainframes, digitization, and statistical programming became useful when he moved on in his education. “I started working with grad students and researchers and one thing led to another. It was right at the beginning of the evolution to micro computers, so I sort of accidentally fell into that sort of role.” Having worked in the CIO portfolio at the University of Guelph and later at Queen’s University, Wandschneider is experienced in a variety of higher education-based projects, such as integrating learn-
ing management software, managing and reorganizing ITS leadership teams, and email migrations. In his new role, Wandschneider expressed excitement about the integration of university faculty and staff to the Microsoft Office 365 suite of software and learning tools, stating that Office 365 is “very standardized in terms of what you get,” and that he would like to see how students, faculty, and staff interact in that online environment. Wandschneider continued to emphasize cohesion and standardization within the university. According to him, the ITS team is in the midst of selecting a new learning management system to consolidate learning software into one cohesive program. The intention is to pilot this project in the upcoming fall and winter terms and to move into full production with the new software in the fall of 2018. In tune with his collaborative nature, Wandschneider said he intends to implement a “student advisory committee” in the information technology realm. Having struck up similar advisory committees previously, he believes that talking to students will help ITS find the right services on which to focus. He has already been in contact with the UTSU regarding such a committee, adding that collaboration with students is “critical for sort of my philosophy on how you support
Photo by JOHN GUATTO, Courtesy of THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
technology in higher ed. Getting that student engagement and hearing what they’re thinking is critical.” He hopes the council will meet on a regular basis to engage with the student body directly. He further highlighted some key areas wherein he believes a “cultural change” must take place — namely agility, transparency, and client focus. “I’d like for the organization to share what we’re doing [and] what we’re thinking and get [the com-
munity] involved in the journey as well. And I think that’s the cultural shift, right?” According to Wandschneider, consultation for developing new services can be so time-consuming that when it comes time to implement new technology, “the world has moved beyond us.” This is a challenge he hopes to overcome during his time as CIO.
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Is the Faculty of Forestry getting chopped? In light of recent consultations, Forestry staff fears for the faculty’s future Jillian Schuler Varsity Contributor
On March 23, Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Regehr published a memo describing the next step in a discussion on making changes to the Faculty of Forestry at the University of Toronto. A consultation process involving “faculty members and librarians of potentially affected Academic Units” was announced. The memo has spurred dissent amongst members of the Forestry community and highlighted an apparent history of mistrust between the faculty and central university administration. Regehr’s memo and academic restructuring Regehr’s memo details a multi-phased consultation process to help determine the future of the faculty and suggests that official academic restructuring changes could follow. The memo follows the publishing of a review of the faculty conducted by Anja Geitmann of McGill University, J. Keith Gilless of the University of California, Berkeley, and Lisa Sennerby Forsse of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. The external review places emphasis on the importance of forestry issues and expresses confidence in the faculty. Its criticisms mainly centre on the faculty’s lack of resources. Currently, the faculty does not have its own undergraduate program — instead offering programs to undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts & Science — and faces an inability to offer all classes every year. The review mentions the current “indeterminacy” of the faculty as it continues to undergo discussions of academic restructuring. An acknowledgement of the uncertain stage at which the faculty finds itself seems to have pushed both the faculty and the university toward finding a more permanent and stable solution for Forestry’s future. “Basically, we want to ensure that we have the best structure in place, the best support in order to support our forestry education and forest science research,” Regehr told The Varsity. “Are there other kinds of structures that might enrich the program and provide more support for the research?” Regehr was not direct in addressing how the restructuring process might play out, but mem-
bers of the Forestry community are concerned that the faculty itself could be dissolved. Her memo says that restructuring could “include consideration of potential structures that will allow academic programs and research related to the discipline of forest sciences at U of T to flourish, and have stability and sustainability, including related programs and research in other units.” According to Regehr, this sort of change “happens around the university all the time.” “We moved visual students also into the Faculty of Architecture, so there’s changes that happen in structural programs,” Regehr said. “Change and review is just a part of what the university does in order to ensure that we stay at the cutting edge, and so this is just one of those processes.” Forestry group fights back Discussions surrounding the faculty’s termination have been met with backlash from alumni and current faculty members. Forestry Matters is a group meant to encourage activism in these upcoming discussions. Organized by David Grant, the Executive Director of a non-profit called Cabbagetown ReLEAF Tree Stewardship, Forestry Matters is led by students Theresa Reichlin, Annonciade Murat, and Basil Southey. “Forestry Matters is a collection of concerned students, alumni, and forestry community members who are coming together to help secure the future of U of T’s Faculty of Forestry,” Southey wrote in an email to The Varsity. “We are not a formal movement of any one group but rather a platform to encourage greater participation in the consultation process from those who may not be aware of it.” Forestry Matters’ website features a petition in support of keeping the Faculty of Forestry. The organizers behind Forestry Matters are concerned that the opinions and suggestions of members of the community will be left behind in the discussions. “Above all else we want to help make sure that this consultation process goes forward in a transparent and accessible manner,” Southey said. He is also concerned the consultations are happening “at a time when the vast majority of forestry students are spread across Canada and the world, often without any access to internet.”
Forestry Matters’ petition needs 1,000 signatures before it is sent to President Gertler. At the time this article was published, the article had 937 signatures. A history of mistrust Underlying the discussions of the faculty’s future is a history of mistrust between the Forestry community and central university administration. Marcin Lewandowski, Chair of the Faculty of Forestry Alumni Association, published a response to Regehr’s memo explaining his concerns for the future of the faculty and its importance for the future of forestry as a field. In an email to The Varsity, Lewandowski claimed that there is reason to doubt the collaborative spirit the university is touting. “The University of Toronto has been trying to get rid of forestry for many years now,” Lewandowski said. “The Faculty of Forestry had one of the top undergrad forestry programs in the world, but that was slashed in the 90s. Since then, the University has been strangling the Faculty out of resources (despite increased interest and enrollment in forestry), hoping that eventually there will be no one to defend the Faculty.” Lewandowski also claims that the faculty’s building plays a part in the issue. “The Faculty of Forestry is located in one of the nicer buildings on campus. Of course Arts and Sciences would love to put a hand on that. It’s a fight of David with Goliath,” he said. Elizabeth Church, a spokesperson for the university, told The Varsity that “space considerations are not part of this process” of consultations. “The relationship has certainly been strained. There is a distinct feeling that the administration does not want us to continue,” said Southey. “It feels as though the administration ignores our successes because they want to take our building and labs and give them to other departments.” Within the faculty, there is the same feeling of skepticism. Anne Koven, an adjunct professor and a lecturer with Forestry, told The Varsity that she feels there has been a long history of conflict with the central administration. “I think they’ve put Forestry into the position of being seen as troublemakers,” she said. “That somehow Forestry is... not doing what the
university wants it to do.” “I wouldn’t say that there’s a strain,” Regehr said when asked about the relationship between the faculty and central university administration. Koven shared her own reasoning for the faculty’s skepticism in light of the consultations, saying that the administration started on the wrong foot. “Without consulting with the faculty people in advance, they announced this consultation process, which was supposed to be collegial and transparent,” Koven said. “I think the faculty feels that just isn’t happening.” The faculty’s dean, Mohini Sain, concluded his term last June. Koven believes that Sain’s exit adds to the nervous sentiment among faculty members. “The faculty felt it was strange that there wouldn’t be a process to find a new dean before a consultation process,” she said. “In my opinion, [the] best possible solution would be to have a Faculty with a broader mandate to address issues such as sustainability, forestry and resource management,” Sain wrote in an email to The Varsity. “This new Faculty must have a dean and independent departments in those three areas and each department must have their undergraduate and graduate programs administered by the department.” Sain’s suggestion would involve dissolving the current Faculty of Forestry, creating a new department more conducive to the growing variety of programs that he said relate to forestry. The question remains whether the supporters of Forestry Matters will trust the administration to acknowledge the importance of forestry studies, and, in turn, construct a new academic unit well equipped to address the changes to the field. The university accepted online submissions for the first phase of consultations until June 30. Regehr’s office will publish a summation report and initiate the second phase of consultations in the fall of 2017.
Construction begins at Robarts Library New initiative marks first addition to library in 42 years James Hannay Varsity Contributor
The construction of Robarts Common, the current project of the Robarts renewal intiative and the first addition to the library in 42 years, began on the week of July 24. According to the University of Toronto’s Chief Librarian, Larry Alford, the construction was set to begin in March 2016 but was delayed due to a building tender that went over the budgeted amount. The five-storey addition, expected to be completed by the fall in 2019, will provide 1,200 new study spaces and expand the existing seating in Robarts Library to 6,027 seats. “I sometimes see students sitting on the floor in various parts of Robarts at peak times when they simply can’t find enough seating. So it will
take care of that,” said Alford. The Commons will include alcoves, reading rooms, and a significant number of group study rooms. Alford said that there will be both casual seating as well as a lot of “very quiet seating.” “One needs only to walk through one of the reading rooms to detect the current lack of space. Come exam season, finding a spot in the library is nearly impossible,” Anne Boucher, Vice-President External at the University of Toronto Students’ Union, told The Varsity. “It is clear that space in Robarts has passed its current capacity.” Third-year Rotman Commerce student Dawood Younis is glad to see new innovations and updates to buildings on campus. “[Robarts Common] is a sign of continued investment in new and updated
facilities on campus,” Younis said. “Ryerson has a state-of-the-art student center... There is no reason why funds cannot or should not be allocated to refresh the aging facilities.” Not all students were happy with the news of the Robarts Common addition, however. “[Robarts Library] is a success story in architecture… It’s imposing, terrifying, spectacular and carries the flag of the brutalist movement in ways other Toronto Brutal monuments simply cannot,” said Daniel Lewycky, an Architecture student in the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design. “Not that I would want to preserve the poor thing, but unlike, say, the ROM expansion, U of T isn’t taking any kind of risk with this design. It’s the same glass box you’ve seen a thousand
The construction is expected to be completed by fall 2019.
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times before.” The addition of diverse study spaces in libraries on campus is something that Innis College Student Society President Yolanda Alfaro is happy to see. “A few students I’ve spoken to appreciate the effort to create different types of learning environments,” said Alfaro. “From personal experi-
ence, I know how hard it is for undergraduates to find an open and welcoming area suitable for group projects and studying.” There will be no groundbreaking ceremony for the new Robarts Common addition, but the start of construction will be celebrated alongside library heritage celebrations in October.
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In conversation with UTM’s new principal Ulrich Krull was confirmed for a three-year term after stay as interim principal Vibhor Rohatgi Varsity Contributor
Professor Ulrich Krull has been appointed as the new Vice-President and Principal (VP-Principal) of UTM, effective July 1, 2017, for a three-year term. U of T President Meric Gertler had created an advisory committee that established both the mandate and the desired qualities for the new VP-Principal, after which a call for nominations and a position profile was put forward. Formerly serving in the role of Interim Vice-President and Principal, Krull, a chemistry professor, has assumed numerous administrative positions at UTM, including Vice-Principal Special Initiatives and Associate Dean of Sciences. The Varsity sat down with Krull to discuss his appointment and plans in his new position. The Varsity: How did you react to getting appointed? Were you confident that you would get this position after the work you had done this year and in the past? Or was it still a surprise? Ulrich Krull: So there’s little bit of history to this one. The message that I had given publicly over and over again last fall was [that] I was not interested in taking this position on permanently. I have had a year to actually experience the position and in a sense, it has
unfolded as I had hoped: the community has really rallied around, there’s a very good sense of morale, a sense of a can-do spirit here. TV: As a celebrated teacher and distinguished scientist, did you find any qualities of these professions to be helpful in an administrative capacity when you were interim-Vice President and Principal? Will any of these help in this role as well? UK: I think the answer is yes. One can answer this in a number of different ways. There are those that become so heavily embedded or vetted to research with that singular focus that it’s sometimes difficult to see how the administrative role can easily, in a sense, build from that. But my life, my career, has been shared between administration and serving as a professor, so I have found a happy balance. In my particular area, as a faculty member in the sciences, we are responsible for finding the money we are going to use for the research team. I have, and I’ll call it an advantage perhaps [as] I don’t know how to better explain it, had many years of experience also working with industry and with government from the standpoint of funding, running research projects, running contracts, dealing with intellectual property. TV: As a VP-Principal, what are your main roles and duties? UK: My role, in a sense, is… to
create strategy for this particular campus and then to integrate that strategy, building on the strengths we have from the academic platform of teaching and research and working with the outside community, to actually implement that. TV: So, are there any particular first courses of action you are looking at with this new position? UK: I think the answer is probably best said that, as I was in an interim position, we are going to keep that work going. When I took the interim position, I had spoken with the president of the university and indicated that I would take this role if it were understood that it was not simply trying to manage the portfolio until a new person was selected, that I would have some license in terms of driving forward initiatives. The initiatives I had in mind were to support the visioning exercise which would lead to the strategic plan, implementation of a direction for this particular campus that now extends from the history of the campus. Remember, we’re in the 50th year. It’s time to reflect on where we are and where we are going... Those are the directions we are going in, continuing with the visioning exercise, and we will now develop an academic strategy. The material is posted online for everybody to take shots at and try to tune it. TV: Lastly, do you have any new plans, hopes and dreams for the
Krull is also a celebrated analytical chemist.
PHOTO BY LISA SAKULENSKY, COURTESY OF NICHOLLE WAHL
position? What are the long-term goals you are looking at? UK: I will put to you some important goals that are perhaps less quantitative than, say, building a building. What I am looking for is a change in culture at a couple of different levels. One, how we participate in research overall, within the University, making it possible for individuals that are appointed at UTM to actually find value on this campus to do research here. So, we are prepared to put in resources to build out clusters that do not exist elsewhere in the university and provide an interesting home and unique distinctive flavor to this particular campus... I’m also very interested to see what we can do to improve the student experience... I
think we have some real value there that we can offer students and we need to explore that value in several different ways. One way is for more students to get involved with research but, in a sense, what we are talking about would be called ‘experiential education’ – the whole concept of providing more and improved avenues here at UTM, particularly [for] undergrads, to have experiences beyond the classroom that will help them develop leadership skills, confidence, and skill sets to be able to move out as individuals in their own right, leaders in their own right. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
U of T releases “Guiding Principles” for sexual violence education and prevention Report released following criticism of the university’s handling of sexual violence Mari Ramsawakh Varsity Contributor
On June 23, U of T released a report entitled “Guiding Principles for Sexual Violence Education and Prevention Initiatives.” The report aims to develop a curriculum of university-wide training initiatives for staff, students, and faculty. The report is further intended to “provide advice and guidance on updating the content and delivery of existing programs.” Its release fol-
lows a tumultuous year of student activism against the university’s response to sexual violence. In March, a postering campaign by campus group Silence is Violence drew attention to what it saw as negligence on behalf of the university in responding to sexual violence on campus. In addition, U of T student Tamsyn Riddle filed a human rights complaint this April against the university and Trinity College for allegedly mishandling her sexual assault investigation. Riddle claims to have been sexu-
STEVEN LEE/THE VARSITY
ally assaulted at a party sponsored by Trinity College in the spring of 2015. Following the assault, Riddle claims that the university was negligent and mishandled the investigation of her case, allowing her assailant to continue attending the university. The alleged assailant only faced a ban from the dining halls and participation from certain clubs. Among the principles listed in each section of the report, the panel recommends that the curriculum define the various behaviours that are included under sexual violence and that all initiatives should “address power and privilege, and understand their historical context with respect to identified communities.” The panel also reports that the curriculum should not only be based on theory and research, but also lived experiences and “Indigenous ways of knowing.” The report comes from an expert panel chaired by Professor Gretchen Kerr, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education. In order to develop the report, the panel reviewed extensive research and literature on the subject and developed a campus en-
gagement plan to acquire feedback from the larger U of T community. They also had to create a draft of the guidelines, make an anonymous feedback tool available, and revise the report into the document submitted to the Provost. Kerr was selected by the Provost to chair the panel because of her research and applied experience in the area of abuse and harassment. The rest of the panel was comprised of students, faculty, and administrative staff. These panelists were chosen from nominations made to the Provost in April 2016. Nominees were selected by Kerr and Provost Cheryl Regehr based on applicants’ “relevant background for the panel’s work, diversity, representation from the various stakeholder groups and representation across the three campuses of U of T,” Kerr told The Varsity. The stakeholders that are referred to throughout the report encompass various intersectional identities, along with the different faculties across all three campuses. “We will be looking at a diversity of perspectives, so that includes people from the Indigenous community,
persons with disabilities, racialized groups, sexually diverse groups and those whose gender identity or gender expression doesn’t conform to historical norms,” Executive Director of Personal Safety, High Risk, and Sexual Violence Prevention & Support Terry McQuaid explained to The Varsity. According to McQuaid, the curriculum is currently entering its planning stages. “Part of the planning process right now is to identify all the key groups across the university and to have a lead person in each of those groups — so somebody trained by the centre, knowledgeable of the centre’s activities, who can help roll out collaborative training with the groups. We’ll train a core group of individuals including these lead reps, and then the centre will work with these lead reps to roll out training.” McQuaid said that the university is looking to develop more content for the curriculum with involvement from people knowledgeable in the field. In addition, they are going to begin training for each of the key stakeholders moving forward.
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How independent are your student publications? The Varsity looks at the funding models of U of T’s campus papers, college papers, and literary journals to evaluate their respective levels of autonomy Sophia Savva Varsity Contributor
On March 9, 1982, UTSC students gathered in a basement and, with the help of campus publications and the Canadian University Press, established The Underground. While The Underground is now one of many campus newspapers, it was first a symbol of independence and editorial autonomy. The newspaper was formed in response to the closure of the Balcony Square, the former student publication of UTSC, whose funding was cut by the Scarborough Campus Student Council (SCSC) after publishing a critique of the candidates running in the SCSC elections. Governance and funding play an integral role in the independence of student publications. The content that makes it into the pages of campus publications often depends on who is funding and running them behind the scenes. The Varsity is funded primarily by a student levy of $2.01 per semester, paid by full-time undergraduate students, and advertising revenue. Since our funding does not come from a campus or student society, The Varsity has no conflict reporting on U of T’s administration or student governance, remaining entirely independent of these bodies. This, however, is not the case for many other student publications. Campus publications Today, The Underground is published and governed by the Scarborough Campus Student Press (SCSP) — a non-profit corporation unaffiliated with the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) — and
funded by a student levy of $3.50 per semester paid by UTSC students, as well as advertising revenue. “[The Underground] maintains its independent nature by being a notfor-profit, completely student-run publication,” Kristina Dukoski, the Editor-in-Chief of The Underground, wrote in an email to The Varsity. “The UG is accepting of a variety of opinions, both controversial and not. Controversy is likely to manifest when the truth is told, which is a fact that the UG team accepts and proudly brandishes.” the newspaper, which proclaims to be U of T’s “only truly independent voice,” receives its funding entirely from advertising revenue. Despite this, the newspaper has never felt pressured to keep its content “advertiser-friendly,” according to Alina Butt, the newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief. “In general, the people who advertise with us understand that we make no guarantees about what we are going to say because we are open to saying anything, if not at least considering it,” Butt wrote in an e-mail to The Varsity. The financial independence from U of T also gives Butt a sense of separation from U of T that she says allows the newspaper to report fairly on the university. “That’s credibility, and that’s so, so important to independent journalism (especially nowadays),” Butt said. “the newspaper does not answer to the money, but to the students… and its content is whatever people are interested in it wanting to be,” Butt wrote. “We don’t have to stay dedicated to a certain opinion (or even a certain conception of objectivity) un-
less we want to.” College newspapers Sometimes, sources of funding can prevent student papers from securing complete editorial autonomy. Chantel Ouellet, the Editor-inChief of The Howl Mag, is trying to apply for a levy to gain editorial independence from the Woodsworth College Students Association (WCSA). The Howl Mag’s content currently goes through a Publications Review Committee, consisting of WCSA members and some of The Howl Mag’s masthead. “I believe that we feel at WCSA’s mercy because of the Publication Review Committee and the power their Board has over our funding,” Ouellet wrote to The Varsity. “While right now everything is above the bar, our structure is not designed for complete independence.” However, securing a levy is more difficult than anticipated: the decision is up to discretion of the Board of Directors, which places The Howl Mag in what Ouellet calls a “difficult position.” “If The Howl has its own source of funding it has a better chance at sustaining itself and fostering a sense of legitimacy as a publication,” Ouellet wrote. “When you have a body that funds you and looks over what you produce, full independence and accountability is logically unattainable.” Meanwhile, The Gargoyle, University College’s student newspaper, proclaims itself to be “openly political.” The Gargoyle is funded by a University College student levy rather than funding from the college itself, which allows The Gargoyle to “openly critique” the University College
Literary and Athletic Society, University College’s student council, without worrying about rescinded funding or censorship. “Since we don’t have to rely on advertising or appealing to the wide majority of students in order to fund our paper, we can make a paper that’s geared towards those who often seem to get silenced in publications,” Taryn Parker, the content Editor-in-Chief of The Gargoyle, wrote to The Varsity. “While I’ve been at the Garg (since 2015) we’ve really embraced our leftist, queer, feminist roots and made a space where people who may not always have a voice do.” Like The Gargoyle, The Innis Herald and The Strand maintain editorial autonomy due to the way they are funded. While The Strand, Victoria University’s student newspaper, relies on the Victoria University Students’ Administrative Council (VUSAC) to approve its budget and write its cheques, it still has a budget independent of VUSAC and maintains editorial autonomy. “Both our administration and student government recognize the importance of a free press,” Molly Kay, the co-Editor-in-Chief of The Strand wrote to The Varsity. Although the Innis College Student Society (ICSS) provides The Innis Herald with annual funding, the ICSS does not control what The Innis Herald prints. “The pros [of editorial autonomy] are that we can provide better and truer reporting to the students at Innis College about the politics that apply to them through unbiased reporting,” said Jess Stewart-Lee, the Editor-inChief of The Innis Herald. “The cons are that within a small community,
controversial decisions can feel amplified, and it can be hard to report on these issues without worrying about the impact that our reporting will have on our future as an independent paper.” Literary journals The Hart House Review (HHR), U of T’s foremost literary journal, receives its funding from the Hart House Literary and Library Committee (HHLLC), but it mostly functions independently. “I’ve never had any push-back for any of the pieces we’ve published and I’ve never felt pressure not to touch on a topic because of the way the HHR is structured,” said Adam Gregory, last year’s Editor-in-Chief. “We talk a lot about what the implications might be of each piece we publish, but not in terms of the internal politics of the Review or of Hart House.” The journal is mandated by the HHLLC to publish writing from U of T students and Canadian writers, but Gregory said that the requirement never felt like a restriction or affected the quality of the HHR. “In the two years I was at the Review we’ve never had a lack of good, publishable writing from U of T students,” Gregory told The Varsity. “It’s similar with Canadian content – it’s never really been too much of a restriction.” Neither The Medium nor The Mike were able to provide comment for this article.
U of T responds to temporary Trump travel ban University sees 24 per cent rise in international student applications Sheridan Cunningham Varsity Contributor
On June 26, the United States Supreme Court issued a ruling allowing US President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban to be temporarily implemented. The ban prevents residents of six majority-Muslim countries — Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen — from entering the US, unless they have a documented “bona fide relationship” with a person or organization in the US. As a university with global reach, the travel ban is prompting U of T to adopt new policies in order to adapt. “We’re constantly providing the latest information we can provide with any certainty about, for instance, the challenges that our students and staff and faculty may face in travelling to the United States,” Professor Joseph Wong, Associate Vice President and Vice-Provost, International Student Experience, told The Varsity. The revised travel ban makes clear that Canadian citizens and permanent residents will not have their normal travel to the United States impeded. For instance, if a university
student is from one of the countries affected by the ban, as long as they have residency in Canada and a visa to the US, they will still be allowed to visit. Similarly, the revised ban allows people with close family members living in the US, such as parents or siblings, to enter. It also differs from the original ban in that it has removed Iraq from the list of affected countries. According to geography professor Emily Gilbert, however, the ban may still affect U of T students’ travel. “[The US government] said that the intent is that people won’t be stopped,” Glibert told The Varsity. “But... looking at what happened with the first executive order, we see that even though people who are dual citizens and people who are travelling on Canadian passports were not part of the original order, they were definitely being stopped.” Gilbert worries that, because of the discretionary power the executive order gives border guards, students and faculty will hesitate before travelling. “A lot of students who have research that’s based in the United States are really mindful about having to cross that border now, whether
or not they are specifically targeted by the ban.” She argued that the ban will signal to border officials that they ought to be disproportionately suspicious of people with Middle-Eastern heritage, saying that “the revised ban has tried to be more clear about how they’re trying to implement what I think is a very xenophobic and racist policy.” The university’s position is that, while there is little they can do about the executive order itself, they hope that they can mitigate its effects by providing information to students, faculty, and staff. The university will also continue implementing policies designed to help international students transition to life in Canada, such as by providing immigration counselling. Gilbert added that many academic groups are also reconsidering the accessibility of their conferences and are beginning to discuss alternative options. “I think that it’s made some of us who have, over the years, been able to travel across the border pretty easily much more aware of those kind of difficulties, and what it means to have some of the biggest international conferences in the United States year after year.”
When the original travel ban was signed in January, U of T President Meric Gertler called the ban “antithetical to everything we stand for as an institution and a country.” According to Wong, the university will continue to be vocal about the ban and to offer public support to those affected by it. More broadly, the ban will likely contribute to the rise in applications from international students, a phenomenon dubbed the “Trump Effect.” As the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment makes US universities less attractive, Canadian universities have become a more competitive option for students from around the globe. As of May 1, applications by international students to the University of Toronto are up 24 per cent from last year. Applications from students in the US are up 71 per cent. Wong added that, while the university has received more applications, they do not intend to increase the number of acceptances. “The expectation is that the number of international students as a percentage of our entire student body will stay roughly the same,” Wong said.
Comment
July 31, 2017 var.st/comment comment@thevarsity.ca
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Introducing Comment in Brief Comment writers provide short takes on major news stories The Varsity broke this summer Welcome to the first edition of Comment in Brief, a reactive, online-focused subsection featuring short-form responses to The Varsity's news stories. Briefs will be posted on our website shortly after news stories are published online and later compiled in print. A series of briefs on news from over the summer is provided below.
May 1, “Inside the 2017 Ontario budget” The 2017 Ontario Budget, released earlier this year, could significantly impact the lives of those who live in the province. Under Premier Kathleen Wynne, the Liberals have allotted budgetary spending for housing reform and have proposed measures to address rising electricity prices. They have also implemented changes intended to boost employment and increase access to prescription drugs for youth. None of these items on the budget, however, are as notable as the Liberals' new healthcare policy, in line with years of well-developed Canadian policy. In the US, a war is being waged over Americans' access to basic health coverage. The Republican US Senate is set on repealing the Affordable Care Act and possibly instituting a replacement, the details of which are largely unknown. For years, Senate members have been debating this topic, and the situation is made worse by an ongoing opioid crisis that surely requires a sustainable healthcare policy in order to be effectively addressed.
Meanwhile, Canadians are in a significantly better position when it comes to healthcare, and the Ontario government has added a “booster shot” of resources to its healthcare budget for 2017. The changes made to youth drug coverage seek to provide those aged 24 and under with the medication they need within the terms of the Ontario Drug Benefit program. The health budget will also rise by $7 billion — a 3.3 per cent hike over the next three years — and these additional funds are expected to be used to build and revamp hospitals to meet growing demand. Let’s be thankful that healthcare was one of the top priorities in the 2017 Ontario Budget — what’s happening south of the border shows us just how worse things could be. Chantel Ouellet is a fourth-year student at Woodsworth College studying Political Science.
The Varsity released a detailed report on the Liberals' fiscal plans for 2017 earlier this summer. STEVEN LEE/THE VARSITY
May 1, “Jordan Peterson’s federal funding denied, Rebel Media picks up the tab”
Earlier this year, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) rejected Jordan Peterson's federal funding requests for the very first time. Contrary to what he and his supporters may believe, this denial is nothing particularly special; the process of obtaining need-based grants is often painstaking. Peterson earns a substantial income from other activities, suggesting that there are others in the grant applicant pool who are in greater need of funding. Peterson’s Patreon account, used to fund his online lectures and related materials, earns him more than $50,000 per month. He receives a significant public salary just by nature of being a tenured professor — during his tenure, he has talked at length about how Frozen is feminist "propaganda.” It is entirely within the SSHRC’s jurisdiction to deny him further funding, given his high income. Even if Peterson’s activities were more academically focused, SSHRC selection committees are comprised of scientific experts. It is entirely plausible that Peterson’s research proposal was found to be lacking in substance, especially given his significant shift in interest over the
past few years, targeting topics like 'political correctness' as opposed to more academically legitimate pursuits in the field of personality psychology. Though he has stated otherwise, it is also possible that Peterson’s grant money was to be used for explicitly political purposes: a post on his Patreon stated that the income he collects is ostensibly for the purpose of “[taking] the humanities back from the corrupt postmodernists.” The repeated, troubling statements about gender identity that Peterson made last year suggest that his ideals are often contradictory to those that any good public university espouses, such as openness and inclusiveness toward students regardless of their identity. It makes sense to deny money to someone who denies his students respect and dignity by refusing to recognize them as they are. Arjun Kaul is a fourth-year student at St. Michael’s College studying Neuroscience.
The professor claims the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council denied him funding due to the controversy that surrounded him last year. STEVEN LEE/THE VARSITY
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May 11, “Indigenous art exhibition poster vandalized with racist slur” The vandalism of a poster advertising Indigenous artwork at Hart House this summer is far from an anomalous incident; rather, it reflects a much bigger problem of racism and urban inequality that has long been ignored. In our city, the plight of Indigenous folks is too often eclipsed by headlines concerning far-off, rural communities. In some media coverage, racism against Indigenous peoples is relegated to distant reserves and the Highway of Tears. The sad truth is that prejudice is alive and well in Toronto, we just rarely hear about it. Meanwhile, deficiencies in data collection methodologies regarding Indigenous people in Toronto suggest that government numbers on this population are wildly inaccurate, likely making it more difficult to implement policies that will positively impact the Indigenous population. While the 2006 Census of Population estimated the number of Indigenous people in
the Greater Toronto Area to be 31,910, the Toronto Aboriginal Support Services Council puts the real number closer to 70,000. One would expect a city that prides itself on multiculturalism to have come up with better surveying methods. Mandatory questionnaires were replaced with the voluntary National Health Survey in 2011, meaning numbers for urban Indigenous populations are now more imprecise. Though it might be perceived as a disturbing one-off, the act of vandalism at Hart House was a glimpse at a crisis that typically remains hidden, and more needs to be done to bring it to light. Engaging in conversations about racism against Indigenous people and developing reliable data collection methods in collaboration with Indigenous groups are important first steps. Katie MacIntosh is a fourth-year student at Trinity College studying Psychology and Linguistics.
An advertisement for the Words to Form exhibit at Hart House was defaced in late April. STEVEN LEE/THE VARSITY
June 7, “St. Michael’s College group attends pro-life demonstration in Ottawa” On May 11, the University of St. Michael’s College (USMC) sent 23 people to the March for Life, a large 'pro-life' demonstration that takes place annually on Parliament Hill. The 'pro-life' movement, for me and many others who support basic rights and access to healthcare, represents a serious threat to bodily autonomy and public health. The preventable deaths from complications of unsafe illegal abortions in anti-choice regimes demonstrate how 'pro-life' policies often have the opposite effect than intended. As a conservatively religious institution, USMC has a reputation it must uphold. As such, it is unsurprising that the Campus Ministry provided approximately $1,800 to subsidize participant costs, that USMC President David Mulroney accompanied the group, and that USMC Director of Communications, Events and Outreach Stefan Slovak defended the trip by categorizing those who crusade on behalf of “the sanctity of human life” as "marginalized and silenced in Canadian society." What stuns me, however, is that 14 students were
willing to pay $100 to take a bus to Ottawa and yell about the way people use their uteri. There must be better ways to spend $100. That amount would get you at least three copies of Our Bodies, Ourselves, an informative guide to reproductive health, or, fittingly, 6.66 student tickets to Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Hart House, a musical about a botched sex change perfect for impassioned religious groups. You could even donate it to one of the innumerable charities that actually protect the “sanctity of human life” by providing food and shelter to real people. Telling me how I should be allowed to treat my body is offensive, and spending $100 to do it is just foolish. If USMC plans to subsidize the retraction of reproductive rights, then I hope they have their books in order — it seems it won't be cheap. Sarah Millman is a fourth-year student at Trinity College studying Criminology, International Relations, and Political Science.
Fourteen students, five staff members, and four clergy attended the March for Life on May 11. COURTESY OF ST.MICHAEL'S COLLEGE FACEBOOK
June 22, “BC student union accuses CFS of collusion in local student union elections” Though the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) has championed itself as the heart and soul of the student movement, it has simultaneously been at the forefront of controversy in student politics circles for years. A recent motion now alleges that former National Chairperson Bilan Arte, along with other CFS executives, colluded with pro-CFS slates in student union elections, and that Arte received assistance from the CFS Communications Department during her own campaign for the University of Manitoba Students’ Union presidency in 2013. And really, is anyone surprised? Not only does this represent a threat to student democracy, but these leaks should have us scrutinizing other instances of CFS collaboration with student union slates. Meanwhile, CFS Executive Director Toby Whitfield claims that the allegations about Arte are fabricated in order to break “student unity.” This
would be more convincing if many other students’ unions across Canada had not made similar claims of CFS interference in their own elections, such as when CFS members campaigned to help incumbent slates at York University in 2010. Though student unity is incredibly important, the CFS is an organization that threatens student democracy by interfering with the ability of the student body to choose their leaders. The CFS can either find a way to reconcile with the unions that are making these claims, or alternatively, it can dissolve and let the activists behind the organization rebuild and improve a student movement from the bottom up. Haseeb Hassaan is a fourth-year student at St. Michael’s College studying Political Science. The Canadian Federation of Students came under fire once again this summer.
NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY
10 • THE VARSITY • COMMENT
Public Editor Sophie Borwein Public Editor
Back at it as Public Editor Diversity in student journalism It was an interesting summer for journalism. Declining trust in the media continued to be a hot topic. I’ve written about the issue at length before, and I won’t belabour it again here. But it was front of mind for me earlier this summer when The New York Times hastily announced it was eliminating its public editor position one year into incumbent Liz Spayd’s two-year contract. The move was most likely a cost-cutting measure. The Times’ publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., nonetheless argued that the newspaper no longer needed a public editor because its social media followers and online readers now acted as effective substitutes in demanding transparency and accountability in the Times’ reporting. I think Sulzberger is wrong. And I’m heartened to think that — from its decision to keep on a public editor this year — The Varsity’s Board of Directors agrees. The Varsity’s readers are impressive watchdogs on social media. They let us know when they think we’ve screwed up. But for every thoughtful and challenging comment left on our Facebook, Twitter, or website, there will no doubt be another misogynistic, racist, or generally incoherent one. On their own, online commenting platforms aren’t great accountability mechanisms. They’re more useful when paired with a public editor or ombudsman, if for no other reason than to have somebody to filter out the real concerns from the anonymous trolling. Still, by design, these platforms privilege provocative opinions over measured responses and “hot takes” over careful analysis. No wonder the most challenging complaints I receive mostly come to me via email — a medium more encouraging of carefully crafted, sometimes lengthy critiques. No matter their design, social media and other online forums are not real substitutes for the authority afforded to the public editor by virtue of their privileged position operating alongside — but not reporting to — the newspaper’s editors. Responding to the Times’ decision, CBC Ombudsman Esther Enkin summed up why we should be skeptical: “The social media space is characterized by heat and little light, angry assertions and not as many facts. It is the very fact that the [public editor] office is embedded within the news organization that gives it its power… We are the ones that know where to look, what to ask, to pull back the curtain and give members of the public an understanding of the way a news organization works.” Sulzberger is right about one thing: readers are fundamental to holding newspapers accountable. We at The Varsity all bring to our jobs our own sets of blinders, and we depend on readers to expand our perspectives. As we start the new academic year, I’ve been setting out my priorities as public editor. I’ll be watching in particular for The Varsity’s commitment to diversity in its newsroom and reporting. I hope readers will be watching with me. This past summer’s 'cultural appropriation prize' debacle, which saw some of Canada’s most prominent journalists advocate for cultural appropriation, was another reminder of something of which we shouldn’t need reminding — the painful lack of diversity in Canadian media. The Varsity’s Editorial Board criticized the prize in a piece emphasizing the media’s power in “choosing what stories are told.” Lived experience, the piece argued, matters for authentic reporting. Stories that need telling go untold — or are poorly told — when only the priorities of a narrow segment of the population are written about in a newspaper’s columns. Does The Varsity live up to the principles that it champions? Media outlets are often least diverse at the top of the decision-making chain. The Varsity bucks this trend. As Editor-in-Chief Jacob Lorinc pointed out to me, more than half of his masthead members are non-white, split nearly 50-50 between genders. But diversity should permeate throughout the newspaper. This year, I hope to see a range of voices and experiences represented, not just within the leadership but also among our contributors in all sections of the paper — from News to Sports, Comment to Design. I’ll also be looking at how the paper selects its sources. Newspaper stories are shaped by the people that help tell them. When The Varsity’s journalists write stories about labour strikes on campus, U of T’s divestment policy, or the surprising popularity of a new TV show, they do so with the help of expert sources on the topic. Research tells us the experts we reach out to are most often men. Common sense tells us that women, people of colour, Indigenous people, and other minorities also know things. This year, I’ll be looking to hear from the latter voices as often as the former. I get that this can be hard. Unequal power structures in society mean white men sit at the top of most professions and act as our thought leaders. But there is a wealth of expertise, too often unrecognized, outside of this group. The choices a newspaper makes about whose voices to include speaks volumes about whose perspectives it thinks matter. All of this is to say, while I’ve set my agenda for this year, I’m assigning tasks to readers. I want to know: are we tapping into the different views that exist on campus? Are we asking the people who really know? Whom are we missing? Send me your thoughts. You can find me at publiceditor@thevarsity.ca.
comment@thevarsity.ca
Letters to the Editor Re: U of T study links facial cues to social class “Breaking news: people judge each other based on appearance.” — Anton Mykytenko (from web)
Re: SSFS apologizes for presence of white supremacist at rally “Bigotry from elite genteel university professor with power is freedom of speech. Bigotry from marginal scumbag nazi with little power not so much. Got it.” — Sh Va (from web)
Re: Ryerson Students’ Union motions to suspend ties with UTSU “OCAD and YORK throw better parties anyways...” — Peter Huycke (from web)
Re: On the importance of The Rebel Media “Interesting article for its saliences more than for its argument. I think the argument that socially conservative issues are under represented is false, in our country. if the major news magazines are taken into consideration there is ample voice for social conservatism. The people who decry the Rebel for being bigoted would be better off pushing competing positions on the same issues with as much clarity, I do not think they’d have a fraction of the same luck.” — Floyd-Rennie Thomas Braden (from web)
Re: Why hasn’t Canada responded to anti-gay violence in Chechnya? “The answer is self evident. Canada isn’t doing anything because Chechnya is in Russia. The mandate of the Canadian government is to govern and protect its own people and country. Chechnya is not within our jurisdiction. The onus should be on the Russian government to respond to this persecution.” — Bill Kong (from web)
Re: Ryerson Students’ Union votes to keep ties with UTSU “They keep saying that the UTSU is being antiblack, yet I haven’t seen any statement from the RSU about HOW the UTSU is being antiblack. Thank god the motion was defeated.” — Jacob MacKinnon (from web)
Re: Rally in support of Halifax ‘Proud Boys’ met with counter-protests “Notably the Jewish Defence League was present and willingly shared a platform with Holocaust denier Paul Fromm, who represented an ideology which the JDL was pretty much established to oppose.” — Kevin Metcalf (from web)
Re: U of T to host first-ever Black graduation ceremony “I’m against the idea of segregated graduation in general, but I don’t see this as being all about segregation. Black students have higher
attrition rates for postsecondary, which makes a unique enough circumstance (breaking cyclical trends and all) to warrant a special ceremony. Besides, (cmiiw?) I think all of the students are still attending their colleges’ convocations and this is more like an extra celebration after.” — Shaye LM (from web)
Re: Op-ed: Recent UTSU layoffs are undemocratic and bad for students “Serious question: can someone against the layoffs please explain to me how exactly the UTSU would intend to address the structural deficit that would result from not engaging in any layoffs AND run these proposed campaigns given that raising the UTSU’s levy has proven to be impossible? Because all I’m seeing is rhetoric that has not addressed the financial problems facing the UTSU at all[.]” — Ryan Alex (from web)
Re: St. Michael’s College group attends pro-life demonstration in Ottawa “Why is it so hard to stay apolitical when representing a college of 5,000 students that come from different experiences and who might not necessarily identify as Catholic? Claiming to be “inclusive” and then only supporting one side of a very crucial dialogue is a little hypocritical IMO.” — Georgina Merhom (from web)
Re: The future of the UTSU depends on the fulfilment of its campaign promises “So I’m glad that firing people is now the test for how committed you are to making the UTSU better? Hopefully the left-wing slate can produce a Sanders/Corbyn like energy amongst the electorate in 2018. I don’t want to see where this austerity goes next.” — Zach Morgenstern (from web)
Re: The UTSU should listen, know when to stand its ground “The current UTSU is in an impossible position. They can’t please everyone. It is abundantly clear to any reasonable person that fraud was committed by the person named in the lawsuit. The UTSU has a fiduciary duty to protect all students and in this case recover misappropriated funds. If the suit were dropped with no penalty to the person who defrauded the UTSU, it would set a terrible precedent and completely undermine the credibility and usefulness of the organization. The issue of the service position cuts can be looked at, through an analytical and coherent process. Intransigence from any of the parties will not facilitate a viable solution.” — Ronnie Blake (from web)
Re: Indigenous art exhibition vandalized with racist slur “Raises less questions about security at Hart House, and more questions about racism in Toronto.” — Aria Markle (from web)
Editorial
July 31, 2017 var.st/comment editorial@thevarsity.ca
Last year was a pressure cooker — this one doesn’t have to be A bit of distance from campus controversies might provide us with the perspective needed to work toward solutions The Varsity Editorial Board
KATHLEEN DOYLE/THE VARSITY
The Varsity had its work cut out for it in 2016–2017. Allegations of financial mismanagement at the St. Michael’s College Student Union, ongoing conflict between the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) and the Black Liberation Collective regarding the former’s lawsuit against Sandra Hudson, and debates about “political correctness” and “free speech” provided ample breeding ground for tension and hostility. Though it is important to see these conflicts to their conclusions, there is a case to be made for at least attempting to avoid repeating the firestorm of drama that occupied the campus last year. For starters, being a student can already be a highly stressful experience. The pressures associated with maintaining good grades, sorting out housing crises, and coping with towering financial burdens mean that many people on campus are already in precarious mental health situations. Constantly having to weave through a thicket of campus tension can hardly improve matters in that regard, especially at a university where mental health supports remain lacklustre by many accounts. Verbal and digital sparring can also escalate to the point where students start to internalize negative comments. We should also keep in mind that many campus conflicts are small manifestations of larger, more complex debates, many of which have been ongoing for decades. Though things may have come to a head this past year with the Jordan Peterson controversy and the formation of Students in Support of Free Speech, the constitutional principle of freedom of expression has a robust political and legal history, both on and off university campuses. In the latter part of the twentieth century, The Varsity covered a variety of controversies surrounding freedom of speech: in 1980, students fiercely debated The Toike Oike’s right to publish satire deemed offensive to women; in 1993, controversy erupted on campus following the presence of white supremacist groups on a U of T radio show. The UTSU, in turn, has a long and exceedingly thorny relationship with many of its constituents; debates about inclusivity and transparency, as well as its ongoing ties to the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), are not new additions to the roster. This continuity should give you a sense of the often drawn-out and painstaking nature of campus conflict resolution, as well as how easy stalemates become when all sides are steadfast in their beliefs. When concrete solutions are virtually impossible to obtain within the span of a single academic year, are we willing to put our education and well-being on the line in pursuit of the answers? It’s not that these issues don’t matter — certainly, the level of passion that emerges during campus debates demonstrates how strongly people have been affected them. But they also don’t necessarily have to be defining moments of your time at the university. If you’d rather troll the library than the deepest, darkest corners of the U of T subreddit, there are things you can do to maintain distance from messes that might not be worth your time. To first-years, it might prove valuable to exercise caution or pick and choose your battles when choosing to get invested in campus controversies, especially given that you’re treading on new territory. Meanwhile, upper-years might benefit from a bit of reflection over the events of past years and considering how much of it they are willing to carry through to the new academic year. While these controversies can go on for decades, most of us are only at the university for a few years — the trick to putting things in perspective might simply be to consider how comparatively little time there is before graduation. Admittedly, it would be unwise to encourage inaction or apathy on the part of the student body, but self-reflection and conflict resolution are not mutually exclusive. And in light of how quickly tensions flared last year, often to no discernable compromise, perhaps our best hope for coming to solutions is to step back and clear our heads. We at The Varsity know, perhaps better than anyone, that solutions to campus conflicts hardly come that easy. This year will be no exception: the UTSU continues to face allegations of anti-Black racism, “free speech” remains a hot-button issue in campus discussions, and talk of CFS decertification are more salient than ever. But so long as campus remains under siege, here’s hoping this year’s battles are milder than the last.
The Varsity's editorial board is elected by the masthead at the beginning of each semester. For more information about the editorial policy, email editorial@thevarsity.ca.
THE STATE OF PROVINCIAL POLITICS, EXPLAINED A student’s guide to the Ontario election, pre-campaign By Dante Ravenhearst and Stephanie Yaacoub
On June 7, 2018, Ontarians will head to the polls and elect a premier. With Democracy Week happening from September 15–21, people across the province will be celebrating our democratic institutions in preparation for the next major election. The Varsity has compiled a guide outlining the current state of provincial politics as we enter the unofficial campaign period this school year; before the media buzz and before the noise — this is what you need to know, now.
The issues at hand
Who’s who in t EDUCATION
Students will want to pay particular attention to this election cycle, as there are a variety of policy proposals that will directly affect them. Kathleen Wynne’s education budget was increased to $23.8 billion this year, however, much of this funding will be distributed within the public and Catholic school boards to help children with special needs and reduce class sizes. Another education issue up for debate is whether public and Catholic school boards should be merged. Merging the two would help with budget allocation and reduce redundancies in the budget but would cause a prominent cultural shift in the province. In regard to post-secondary education, candidates will likely have vastly different opinions on specific issues that affect college and university students. These issues include recent reforms in financial aid for students, including the implementation of the Ontario Student Grant, an additional $6 million for post-secondary mental health funding, and possible changes to funding programs based on graduation statistics and employment rates.
TRANSIT Transit and infrastructure will be a specific concern for the electorate within the GTA. There have been significant controversies within the TTC in the past few years, including the dismal Bombardier streetcar contract and the PRESTO contract. According to the TTC’s status report by CEO Andy Byford, customer service performance was off target for all four subway lines in regard to transit delays. The GTA’s electorate has undoubtedly noticed these delays and will likely take this into consideration when voting. Another consideration will be the rising cost of the one-stop Scarborough subway extension and the criticisms it has faced.
THE ECONOMY Employment and the job market is almost always a point of contention for party leaders during election campaigns and, unsurprisingly, the issue is just as important for much of the province. Additionally, jobs are on the forefront of the minds of post-secondary students, especially those graduating soon. While Ontario is experiencing its lowest unemployment rate since 2001, the youth unemployment rate remains higher than the national average. Housing affordability and the housing market is a cause for concern. Demand for houses and apartments is on the rise within the GTA, and the lack of properties for sale is causing prices to skyrocket. According to RBC’s Provincial Outlook, the rapidly increasing housing prices were on a path to destabilize the market, though Wynne’s Fair Housing Plan has slowed these rapid increases.
ENVIRONMENT, RESOURCES, AND ENERGY Speak to any homeowner in Ontario and you are almost guaranteed to hear of their dissatisfaction with the rapidly increasing costs of hydro. This has been one of the more controversial aspects of the provincial government and can partly account for Kathleen Wynne’s abysmal approval rating. It is possible that hydro rates and the sale of Hydro One will be deciding factors in the 2018 provincial election. The environment is another important issue this election, but it seems to have dropped in urgency among the eyes of the electorate due to the concerns surrounding hydro rates.
KATHLEEN WYNN
Lagging in the polls is Kathlee election, Wynne is facing dissa pundits have suggested that s With the anger of many Ont as critical as ever. Liberal Par made between April and May, announcements include the L tension by introducing a tax on In her tenure, Wynne has als system for greenhouse gases, will push the Liberal Party forw
Things to keep an eye out for th
Approval rating — Wynne has r
Framing — with widespread dis
ANDREA HORWA
Trailing closely behind Brown the provincial NDP for eight ye by revoking support for the Lib With an arguably vague plat this year. The platform is outlin Broadly speaking, in addition thing the Liberal government hydro and pharmacare. In regard to hydro, the NDP through negotiations with the term private electricity contra Recently, Horwath also anno Canada, which would guarante would create $835 million in sa
Things to keep an eye out for th Distance from the Liberals — re stand out enough to get elected Popularity — in a traditionally c hype to prove competitive in thi
HEALTHCARE One issue expected to garner a lot of voter attention during this campaign is healthcare. Currently, Ontario has a universal, single-payer healthcare system. Yet Canadians are required to pay out of pocket or depend on insurance provided by employers to cover the cost of prescriptions. Pharmacare, hospital, and clinic wait timtes will remain a primary topic in this election cycle.
It’s up to voters
Throughout the year, political superfluous promises, hyperbo informed decision.
IRIS DENG/THE VARSITY
the 2018 provincial election
NE — LIBERAL PARTY
PATRICK BROWN — PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE (PC) PARTY
en Wynne, our current Premier. Leading the Liberal Party in the battle for reatisfaction from all sides of the political spectrum. However, some political several of these criticisms may stem from sexism and homophobia. tarians still fresh from the recent hydro crisis, Wynne’s platform this year is rty rankings have increased following several major policy announcements y, alongside the release of the 2017 provincial budget. Some of these policy Liberals’ plan to increase the minimum wage to $15, reduce housing market n foreign buyers, and follow a balanced budget with a youth pharmacare plan. so established a new Anti-Racism Directorate, implemented a cap-and-trade , and reduced the unemployment rate. These are the plans and policies that ward throughout the election campaign in the next 11 months.
Sitting at the top of the polls with 10–20 point differences is PC Leader Patrick Brown. Elected to the position on May 9, 2015, Brown is no newcomer to politics. He comes from a political background, having served as the MP for Barrie under then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper for nine years. Prior to this, Brown was elected to Barrie’s city council when he was 22. Brown has focused much of his leadership on invoking a grassroots, socially progressive image for the PC party with an entire advertising campaign focused on diversifying the image of the party as more inclusive to Ontarians with minority ethnic and cultural backgrounds, sexual orientations, and religious beliefs. Brown also attended and marched in the Toronto Pride parade in a sign of support for LGBTQ+ Ontarians. However, as a federal member of parliament, Brown opposed gay marriage. Much of Brown’s policy thus far concerns the environment and hydro taxes. His endorsement of a carbon tax and explicit acknowledgement of climate change is a powerful attempt at rebranding the PC image.“I am going to be a Progressive Conservative who talks about the environment,” he stated. Although no official hydro plan has yet been proposed by the PC party, Brown denounced Wynne’s 25 per cent hydro rate cut. He argued that it is short-sighted, that long-term interest will cost Ontarians $25 billion, and that it fails to target “structural issues,” specifically the “bad” private electricity contracts he vows to cancel if elected Premier.
his year:
record low ratings, so will her left-leaning policies be enough to win?
ssatisfaction, how will the Liberals frame their party this election?
ATH — NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY (NDP)
in the polls is NDP leader Andrea Horwath. Horwath has been the leader of ears, despite having received flack for triggering the last provincial election berals’ budget and subsequently failing to increase NDP seats. tform in the 2014 election, the NDP has an ambitious and specific platform ned in a 40-page vision statement entitled “It’s About Change. It’s About You.” n to promising to raise the minimum wage in Ontario to $15 last year — someannounced this past May — Horwath’s platform points mostly encapsulate
P has outlined a policy proposing to cut hydro costs by up to 30 per cent federal government. They have also said they will renegotiate or cancel longacts signed by previous Liberal and Conservative provincial governments. ounced the NDP’s $475 million-per-year universal pharmacare plan, the first in ee all Ontarians prescription drug coverage. The NDP proposes that the plan avings for private payers and $1.9 billion in private sector savings.
Things to keep an eye out for this year: Social issues — Brown has a track record of social conservatism, but his PC rebranding could suggest otherwise Leadership — Brown has offered the public little about his personality and personal leadership style
MIKE SCHREINER — GREEN PARTY Mike Schreiner has been the leader of the provincial Green Party since November 2009. The Ontario Greens have yet to win a seat in the House and are widely considered to be a long-shot in the upcoming election. Schreiner has a background in business: he’s owned an organic and local food distribution company for over a decade. The Green Party appears to have gained some momentum following the recent provincial election in British Columbia, where they successfully won three seats. Schreiner has yet to release a full platform. However, he has publicly advocated for sustainable housing development and low-cost water power in recent months. He opposed the sale of Hydro One and is pleased with the recent reforms in electoral fundraising that have effectively banned donations from both unions and corporations. Of course, Schreiner, like most Green Party candidates, puts climate change at the top of his political platform. Things to keep an eye out for this year: Recognition — will Ontario recognize the Green Party as a contender, and will the party win their first seat this election?
his year: ecently, Horwath stated the Liberals were stealing NDP policy ideas; will the NDP d? centrist province, it will be interesting to see if the NDP can garner enough political is race
leaders will gradually shape their platforms and fine-tune their political agendas. Issues will continue to develop, and media coverage will pick up speed. Oftentimes, campaign season sees olic concerns, and late-in-the-game issues to entice voters. As Election Day approaches, the need for self-motivated research is increasingly necessary to ensure students are making a truly
Arts&Culture
July 31, 2017 var.st/arts arts@thevarsity.ca
What's in a perfect night? Our contributors share the components of a perfect night out, from Tinder hookups to drunk detours
9:00 pm — I begin the night by changing into a pair of chinos and a cute button-up floral print shirt that says, “I’m artsy but also fun and confident.” 9:30 pm — I meet up with a friend at her house. We decide that three glasses of wine constitute acceptable “pre-drinks.” We sit in her kitchen watching clips from RuPaul’s Drag Race while sipping on cheap rosé from the College and Euclid LCBO. 10:30 pm — We head to a not-soclose friend’s house party in the Annex. We’d feel bad if we didn’t at least make an appearance. 11:30 pm — We ditch the house party for Crews & Tangos on Church Street, where we meet up with a few closer friends. I also invite a Tinder match who was in one of my classes last semester. 12:30 am — We watch a drag queen doing a lipsynced performance of “Venus” by Lady Gaga. At this point, Tinder match and I are engaging in some serious PDA on the dance floor. 2:00 am — We ditch the club for a late night McDonald’s run. 3:00 am — I head home with Tinder match. We proceed to have a tender night consisting mostly of cuddling, oral sex, and philosophical discussions about Sex and the City. — Avneet Sharma
8:00 pm — Meet up with some friends at The Burger’s Priest or Future Bistro in the Annex for some comfort food. 9:00 pm — Hop into the clothing stores and bookstores in the area. BMV has a great collection on art history and cinema, and the third floor’s wide range of comic books is worth visiting. There’s also a tarot card reader nearby. 10:00 pm — Hit up SPiN Toronto, inspired by the New York club where you can listen to live music, grab some drinks, and also get in a game of ping pong. 12:00 am — Have a midnight snack at Insomnia on Bloor. Check out Snakes & Lattes, a café that offers thousands of board games, where Cards Against Humanity takes the top spot. Hit up a nearby frozen yogurt or ice cream place for dessert. 2:00 am — I’ll usually have rented something from Robarts’ Media Library to watch with anyone who’s up for it. After that, it’s time to crash. — Ayushee Vohra
9:00 pm — Assemble your team for the night, preferably including at least one friend who doesn’t drink and can recount the events of the night to you when you can’t remember the next day. 9:30 pm — Beer pong. No table? No problem. Why do you think the residences have common rooms? 11:30 pm — Uber over to Track and Field, a bar on College. Their collection of odd games will fill any void that might make you feel like you need to dance or make conversation. SPiN on King Street West is a valid alternative. 1:30 am — The weak have gone home or fallen asleep. You, on the other hand, are headed to Taste of China on Dundas, a fully equipped Chinese restaurant with shared dishes that’s open until 4:00 pm every night — 5:00 pm on Fridays and Saturdays. 3:00 am — Attempt to walk back to campus but make a wrong turn and end up in Nathan Phillips Square. Take some good Snapstories and Uber the hell home. You have class tomorrow. — Kevin Yin
5:30 pm — My boyfriend and I select a new recipe online in the hopes of creating a savoury dish for dinner. Although cognizant of the fact that we’re missing a couple ingredients, we naïvely attempt to improvise and pretend we’re experienced chefs. 6:15 pm — Our goal of saving money is spoiled, as is the case with so many other U of T students. The 'extravagant' meal fails, and we’re still hungry for a satisfying one. I text a friend, and the three of us head to Kinton Ramen on Church Street. 8:00 pm - After a pleasant meal and discussion, we set out for dessert elsewhere. We arrive at one of our favourite cafés for specialty cakes and tea, Jule on Carlton Street. 9:15 pm — If feeling particularly adventurous, we catch a late-night flick at the Yonge-Dundas Cineplex Cinema or play some board games at Snakes & Lattes. More often than not, however, my boyfriend and I will just retire to our condo and watch or rewatch shows like Black Mirror, Westworld, Stranger Things, Survivor, or Game of Thrones. — Christina Bondi
6:30 pm — It’s movie time. Take your pick: rom com, superhero flick, or war epic? 8:30 pm — If you haven’t tried the perfect combination that is movies and Korean fried chicken, I don’t know where you’ve been. The Annex and Koreatown are full of Korean restaurants you've got to try. Start with The Fry at Bathurst and Bloor. 8:45 pm — The Fry’s food is delicious, Snapchat-worthy, and the restaurant is the perfect place to hang out with friends. Order one of their famous combos, such as the green onion chicken with a peach flavoured makgeolli. 9:10 pm — The food arrives. Enjoy time with your friends, along with the restaurant’s free butter corn and fries. 11:00 pm — Or later, your call: head out and get home safe. — Sammi Chan
JULY 31, 2017 • 15
var.st/arts
The TIFF 2017 survival guide What to do, who to see, where to go
If stargazing is your thing, TIFF is the place to be. Photo by KEVIN WINTER, Courtesy of TIFF
Reut Cohen Arts & Culture Editor
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is one of Toronto’s biggest attractions and one of the world’s most prestigious film festivals. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people converge to attend hundreds of screenings at venues scattered across the city, often in Toronto’s Entertainment District. Part of the reason TIFF has
become such a noteworthy festival is because its fall timing runs close enough to awards season for the films to generate buzz. TIFF’s Grolsch People’s Choice Award has become an early predictor of awards season success, with past recipients including The Imitation Game, Room, and La La Land. In the nearly 43 years since TIFF’s founding, numerous Grolsch award winners have gone on to win the Oscar for Best Picture, the most recent one being 12 Years a Slave.
What to watch
The scale of the festival is enormous: last year’s event featured 397 films from 83 different countries. TIFF’s programmers received 6,933 total submissions for consideration, 1,240 of which were Canadian. Buying tickets Individual tickets go on sale to the public on September 4 at 10:00 am. Prices range depending on whether your chosen film is on a weekend or weekday, or in the evening as opposed to a matinée. The lowest-
priced tickets are $10 for those under 25 attending a weekday daytime screening, but prices may increase from the base fare due to demand for a certain film. Should you plan to severely neglect your studies, there may be package deals available. Attending a screening The importance of arriving early cannot be overstated. As stated on the TIFF website: “15 minutes early is on time. 5 minutes early is late.” The festival organizers recommend
Here are some of the biggest films set for screenings at TIFF, many of which are making their international or North American premieres. If stargazing is your thing, these are sure to be some of the splashiest red carpet events.
Untouchable, directed by Neil Burger (US) This Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart flick is a remake of the French film The Intouchables, about a wealthy quadriplegic man and the unemployed former criminal who’s hired to assist him. It features Nicole Kidman, Julianna Margulies, and Aja Naomi King.
Lady Bird, directed by Greta Gerwig (US) Greta Gerwig, the star of films like Frances Ha and 20th Century Women, makes her solo directorial debut. The film stars Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, and Tracy Letts, with Ronan playing a Sacramento teenager longing to escape to college in New York City.
Breathe, directed by Andy Serkis (UK) You might know Andy Serkis best as Gollum, King Kong, or Caesar, but here he makes his directorial debut with the world premiere of Breathe. The film, a biographical drama, will feature Andrew Garfield as a man who develops polio and becomes an advocate for the disabled against all odds along with his loving wife, played by Claire Foy.
Call Me By Your Name, directed by Luca Guadagnino (Italy/France) Adapted from André Aciman’s acclaimed novel of the same name, Guadagino’s coming-of-age film has already received rave reviews after premiering at Sundance earlier this year. The film, set in Italy in 1983, follows a young boy, played by Timothée Chalamet, who falls in love, or perhaps just lust, with his father’s older summer grad student, played by Armie Hammer.
The Catcher Was a Spy, directed by Ben Lewin (USA) Paul Rudd plays Moe Berg, a professional baseball player who becomes a professional spy working for the Office of Strategic Services — the CIA before it was the CIA — during World War II. The film is based on Nicholas Dawidoff’s bestselling biography of the same name.
arriving an hour early. Except for Roy Thomson Hall and the Princess of Wales Theatre, the venues will not have assigned seating, so the lineups are the only way to pick your preferred seat. Above all, be prepared. Bring sunscreen, an umbrella — whatever you need to wait in line comfortably. Keep checking tiff.net or the TIFF app to keep on top of the screening schedule. And of course, don’t forget your ticket!
Battle of the Sexes, directed by Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton (US) Steve Carrell and Emma Stone reunite in this sports comedy-drama based on the iconic 1973 tennis match between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King. We’ll leave it to you to decide whether or not to spoil this one.
First They Killed My Father, directed by Angelina Jolie (Cambodia) Jolie cowrote this film with Loung Ung. It is based on Ung’s memoir of her childhood, which was spent under Pol Pot’s regime during the Khmer Rouge years. The film will be released on Netflix in late 2016 in both English and Khmer. mother!, directed by Darren Aronosfky (US) Aronofsky’s latest psychological thriller features a starstudded cast that includes Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, and Michelle Pfeiffer. The film centres on a couple that is threatened by uninvited guests entering their home, and it will make its North American debut at TIFF after premiering at the Venice Film Festival.
16 • THE VARSITY • ARTS & CULTURE
arts@thevarsity.ca
U of T student releases charity song to benefit survivors of Syrian conflict Adham Assaad's "White Helmets" is told from the perspective of a young Syrian child
Leah Kuperman Varsity Contributor
With his latest song, singer-songwriter and U of T student Adham Assaad has attempted the impossible: releasing a song about a highly political topic while remaining politically neutral. The result, “White Helmets,” is written from the perspective of a young boy in war-torn Syria who is forced to endure an array of unthinkable atrocities. Assaad moved to Canada in 2005 and is
“
I wanted to offer up a different lens to look through and see how others are living across the world.
currently entering his second year, studying Political Science. Having always had an interest in modern politics, he says his studies are an important part of his musical inspiration. “I like the fact that I get to use some of what I learn in making my music. I’d be sitting in my classes with a notepad just writing lyrics, with absolutely no intention to record any of it or even showing it to my closest friends or family,”
writes Assaad. His studies are not his only source of inspiration. “Anytime something starts to consume my thoughts, it usually ends up as a verse on a notepad somewhere, usually that’s how I deal with a lot of things in my life.” Throughout his childhood and teenage years, he was often drawn to songwriting and would challenge himself to produce something better each time. Last May, he decided to record and release his debut song, “Now Praying,” and in doing so, he felt like he had broken the ice. He waited for his next moment of inspiration to begin another project. Assaad paid attention to the Syrian civil war from its beginning stages. “After an airstrike earlier in the year, I was looking through pictures of the aftermath,” he says. “It really started to hit me that there are people living in these conditions daily, and have no choice but to live every day trying to survive.” Assaad notes that his Egyptian background has a role in his connection to the crisis in Syria. “Being from that part of the world, it definitely hits home,” he says. “This part of the world is pretty unstable so you never know what might happen, and I think Egypt narrowly avoided a similar fate. I just found myself thinking, ‘Wow, this really could’ve been my own city that’s destroyed.’” The experiences of airstrikes, fearing for safety while walking to school, living among the rubble, not having clean water, and the horrors of having to dig a parents’ grave are all mentioned in “White Helmets.”
“I tried to paint the picture as clearly as possible,” says Assaad. “Unfortunately, it is based on a true story. But I wouldn’t say it’s based on a single true story, it’s more a combination of real experiences. Everything I wrote about in the song has actually
“
It really started to hit me that there are people living in these conditions daily, and have no choice but to live every day trying to survive.
happened to someone during this conflict.” Assaad felt an increased sense of urgency writing this song because so many people in Canada are removed from the atrocities and violence that are occurring in Syria on a daily basis. The goal of Assaad’s song is to present a small piece of a much bigger picture from a different perspective. “A lot of people in North America may not be exposed to what’s going on in Syria and take the lives they live for granted, so I wanted to offer up a different lens to look through and see how others are living
across the world." The perhaps cryptic song title “White Helmets" is a reference to the Syrian volunteer organization that operates in many of the most dangerous areas of Syria and Turkey. Assaad had decided on the title even before writing the first word. One of Assaad's goals was also to make the song as politically neutral as possible. “At the end of the day, the ones paying the price of this conflict are these innocent kids who have had their lives and futures ruined, regardless of who caused it,” he says. “The song isn’t meant to be political whatsoever and I made an effort to not favor one side over another... The title raised a few eyebrows, but I think that’s good because it sparks a conversation, which is important.” Assaad does not have concrete plans for the future of his music but hopes to continue improving himself while making a positive change in the world. “I’m donating the proceeds [from streams] of the song to try and help alleviate the suffering in the area, I hope it reaches as many people as possible, that way we can help save as many people as possible,” he says. When asked what he hopes for the future of the Middle East, Assaad simply says peace. “Every day there are innocent lives lost and I don’t think anyone wants that to continue for any longer. Honestly, I hope that there is no ‘future of the Syrian conflict.'"
JULY 31, 2017 • 17
var.st/arts
New queer art magazine gives platform to the community's fringes LINOLEUM magazine will debut at this year's Toronto Queer Zine Fair
Avneet Sharma is a U of T student and founder of LINOLEUM. STEVEN LEE/THE VARSITY
Shania Perera Varsity Contributor
In politically trying times, the representation of marginalized voices is both necessary and affirming. Enter LINOLEUM, a newly established Toronto-based publication that aims to “create a platform that prioritizes and empowers queer individuals on the fringes of
the community.” The Varsity sat down with founder, Editor-in-Chief, and U of T student Avneet Sharma to discuss the importance of intersectional queer art, how the magazine came to fruition, and his goals for its upcoming production. At the moment, the publication is a grassroots one. The team is comprised of an "editorial collective" of five staff members
without office space or revenue. Unlike other publications Sharma has been involved in, though, he emphasized that LINOLEUM is strictly a queer magazine. LINOLEUM will first be producing a zine to give readers a taste of what’s to come, and submissions for that issue, appropriately titled "Issue Zero," will remain open until late September. The zine is set to debut at this year’s Toronto Queer Zine Fair in October. The thriving drag scene in Toronto served as an inspiration for LINOLEUM, which emerged from Sharma’s experiences at the Green Space Festival during Pride Week. There, he listened as gender-fluid activist and RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Sasha Velour gave a speech on the importance of queer self expression, which Sharma credits as the impetus for him to embark on the project. That same night, Velour performed to a mash-up of Marlene Dietrich’s "Illusions" and Le Tigre’s "Deceptacon" – a song that contains the word “linoleum” in its final verse: "your lyrics are dumb like a linoleum floor / I’ll walk on it." “Originally, I wanted to call us DECEPTACON magazine,” Sharma admitted, “but then I realized that, first of all, it was too on the nose with the inspiration and, second of all, we would get a lawsuit from the Transformers movie franchise.” Jokes aside, when asked about his overall goal with LINOLEUM, Sharma was hopeful about representing the intersectional side of
Everyone’s a critic. Why not be a published one? Email arts@thevarsity.ca to get involved.
queer identity. “I think now, more than ever, we’re in this very tumultuous time where queer people’s voices are now being heard , but there are also still very backwards things going on,” he said. He noted the prevalence of cisgender, white gay men in many queer publications and emphasized that he wants to collect an array of queer voices in order to “challenge our ideas of gender, our sexuality… our ideas of beauty [and] happiness.” LINOLEUM hopes to publish biannually, with its content ranging from queer fiction and visual art to articles about local queer artists. Returning to his source of inspiration, Sharma also wants the magazine to expose more people to the local drag scene. “They do amazing work,” he said, citing House Of Filth and Crews & Tangos as popular venues. “It would be nice to get some recognition for them.” The magazine has already gained some traction in its infancy stages. Sharma said that he has held a meeting with potential contributors, and that many members of Toronto’s queer community have reached out to help. He praised their collective efforts to make the magazine a success. “It is my passion project, but I don’t want this to come across as [just] my passion project. This just seems like a good way to give back to a community that has helped me so much in my life,” he said. Disclosure: Avneet Sharma is an active contributor to The Varsity's Comment and Arts & Culture sections.
Science
July 31, 2017 var.st/science science@thevarsity.ca
Scientific fact is not always in fashion The research behind many health fads is questionable at best — so why do we keep buying into them?
Labels boasting “gluten-free” and “GMO-free” are abundant in grocery store aisles. STEVEN LEE/THE VARSITY Teodora Pasca Comment Editor
Fact check the habits of the most irritatingly health-conscious person you know, and you may find that the science behind them does not hold up. An abundance of healthy eating fads has rocked headlines over the years, from low-carb diets to GMO-free foods. Meanwhile, in the name of promoting mental well-being, therapy animals and fidget spinners have taken over educational institutions. The research underlying these popular trends has repeatedly been called into question, and the jury is still out as to whether they are truly effective. Multiple sources have debunked the hysteria surrounding carbs and GMOs. There is no reliable evidence to suggest that fidget spinners relieve stress or assist with focus. And as fun as it is to cuddle with dogs around exam time, research supporting therapy animals actually alleviating stress is struggling to keep up with their increasing pervasiveness in public settings. Undoubtedly, specialized health regimes can relieve a number of serious health conditions. For instance, someone with coeliac disease — an autoimmune illness caused by severe gluten-intolerance in patients — may significantly improve their quality of life by going gluten-free. Simultaneously, a large number of consumers continue to erroneously subscribe to various health habits, holding a seemingly blind faith in the possibility of self-improvement. There are a number of reasons why health fads can skyrocket in popularity, and if gone unchecked, misinformation can spread like wildfire. Though media outlets may effectively keep the public in the loop about scientific discoveries, their coverage of such topics doesn’t always accurately represent the findings in research studies. Though one might excuse the difficulties of translating complicated jargon for gen-
eral readers, other tendencies in science reporting can be more nefarious. Conflating correlation with causation and ‘cherry-picking’ results without regard to the broader literature can easily blow stories out of proportion and fool inattentive readers. The rise of clickbait and listicles, which often condense and oversimplify scientific conclusions, is not helping matters: Google the words “according to science” and you’ll get over 550 million hits. Prominent faces in the media can also have a particularly strong influence. Following the birth of her son, actress January Jones ingested pills made from her own placenta, claiming that doing so would provide her with beneficial vitamins. Even the most notorious of critics are not immune: Simon Cowell got into the habit of carrying around cans of oxygen, allegedly to help combat aging and alleviate stress and fatigue. Though various theses and similar celebrity crazes have been repeatedly called into question by researchers, the immense followings of many starlets may continue to inspire copycats in the general population. Indeed, from ‘productivity hacks’ to 72-hour cleanses, many of us have experienced the peculiar sort of joy associated with following trends, especially when we think doing so might make us better people overnight. Those who jump on fad diets, for example, may be attracted to the apparently easily attainable change associated with abiding by the regimen for just a few weeks — whereas investing in a more long-term and sustainable solution can seem more difficult to stomach. Then there is the human tendency of falling victim to subconscious biases, which may lead us to believe that something will improve our well-being despite contrary evidence. Confirmation bias makes us more likely to believe a statement if it confirms our pre-existing beliefs. The rapid news cycle and endless stream of information now
available at our fingertips means people, more than ever, seek out stories confirming what they think they already know. People can be understandably sensitive about personal health and illness, which can make them less likely to listen when others challenge what they believe. In 2015, Alan Levinovitz received intense backlash and even hate mail after he released his book, The Gluten Lie: And Other Myths About What You Eat, which was written in response to the frenzy that has emerged touting the allegedly wondrous health benefits of gluten-free diets. While Levinovitz acknowledges the genuineness of using gluten-free diets to treat coeliacs and people with non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, he suggests that there is a wider community of people who avoid gluten and are acting based on misinformation. “It’s terrifying to think that we might not understand ourselves,” Levinovitz writes. “That we might be mistaken about our own bodies and about the effects of what we put into our bodies on ourselves.” Unfortunately, when it comes to your health, playing follow-the-leader can have detrimental consequences. One such consequence involves needlessly investing time and money into a habit that simply won’t work any of the promised miracles. In some cases, subscribing to a health fad may actually do more harm than good. Adopting a gluten-free diet when not medically necessary, for instance, may mean ingesting higher calorie counts while simultaneously depriving yourself of essential vitamins. This, combined with the higher prices associated with gluten-free products, means that jumping on the bandwagon may ironically render some noncoeliacs — and their bank accounts — less healthy in the long run. It is also important to remember that an intense focus on well-being, lacking sound evidence to justify it, can steer even the
most well-intentioned people in the wrong direction entirely. Anti-vaccination movements, which promulgate the repeatedly debunked belief that vaccines cause conditions like autism, are arguably rooted in a deep-seated — though fundamentally misguided — concern for well-being. The message of these movements continues to thrive around the world: among other frustratingly preventable tragedies, antivaxxers are connected to a severe outbreak of measles experienced by a Minneapolis Somali-American community, as well as high infant mortality rates in Romania caused by infectious diseases like tuberculosis and rubella. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to come to that. There are ways for media outlets to be held accountable in the event they misrepresent research findings; researchers and readers alike can do so by writing letters to the editor, commenting with fact check requests, or working together with the scientists at the heart of the issue to make public what truly is the case. In turn, to combat the itch to jump on the bandwagon, consumers should be encouraged to think critically about the stories they read, the products they buy, and the lengths they are willing to go to in the name of self-improvement. A crucial step in addressing this issue is acknowledging that subscribing to a quick fix is hardly a substitute for a long-term or sustainable health remedy. Given the human tendency to seek out instant gratification, and now that fidget spinners are now sold in virtually every gas station and airport, doing so may unfortunately be an uphill battle.
JULY 31, 2017 u 19
var.st/science
CRISPR technology treats muscular dystrophy in mice SickKids scientists restore muscle function of mice Nicole Sciulli Varsity Contributor
Our genes contain strands of DNA that give us our distinguishing features. Some of these genes may also carry diseases and ailments that can affect our daily lives. But what if there were a way to remove those genes? Scientists at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) have used a gene editing technology known as CRISPR to snip out a gene that causes muscular dystrophy in mice. The study, recently published in Nature Medicine, was led by Dr. Ronald Cohn, the study’s principal investigator and Senior Scientist at the SickKids Research Institute. The mouse model they studied had a form of congenital muscular dystrophy called MDC1A. This condition renders the body unable to produce dystrophin, a protein in muscle fibres that acts like a shock absorber. Insufficient function of these proteins will cause muscles to become a fat-like substance. When infants are diagnosed with the disease, they will lose muscle function over time and eventually become paralyzed. People with this disease have a life expectancy of roughly 20 years. In the study, the team restored muscle function in the mice by using CRISPR technology to ‘fix’ the disease-causing mutation classified as a “splice site mutation.” CRISPR, which stands for “Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic
Repeats,” is a unique sequence of DNA in bacteria and other microorganisms that contributes to their defense against foreign genetic elements. CRISPR is useful for gene editing because it uses RNA to direct an enzyme called Cas9, which acts like molecular scissors to cut strands of DNA. The research used the CRISPR system to cut DNA associated with skeletal muscles and peripheral nerves to improve the mice’s mobility. Focusing on these targeted areas has helped centralize the treatment. “This is important because the development of therapeutic strategies for muscular dystrophies have largely focused on improving the muscle conditions,” said Dwi Kemaladewi, a Research Fellow at SickKids, in an interview with The Scientist. “Experts know the peripheral nerves are important, but the skeletal muscles have been perceived as the main culprit in MDC1A and have traditionally been the focus of treatment options.” Cohn’s team used an efficient technique that allowed them to snip the DNA without having to replace it with a new piece of DNA. Once the CRISPR system cuts out the disease-causing gene, natural cell repair mechanisms can directly reconnect the severed strands of DNA so the sequence can be read normally. In some follow-up tests, it was observed that the mice regained a level of activity that was close to the control group of the non-affected mice. CRISPR technology can be revolutionary
ALICE KIM/THE VARSITY
for treating other muscle diseases like Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), which Cohn’s team had worked on in 2015 in an effort to remove a duplicated gene and restore protein function in a patient. It also has the potential to treat other splice site mutations like congenital epilepsy and hereditary vision loss. However, this technology has a ways to go before it can be used as a therapy for humans. A concern that researchers have raised is the unpredictability of how the body’s immune system would react to the bacteria used to produce proteins that the body cannot generate. Scientists are also unsure if CRISPR could cause other mutations in our DNA. Using CRISPR to treat humans with muscular dystrophy may end up being ineffective because mature muscle cells in adults cannot divide, and so their DNA repair technology do not have the tools to add or correct
genes. However, Cohn’s team is attempting to change this by working with nonreproductive “somatic cells” that have specialized into different cells. Humans are more complex creatures than mice, and editing human genes may have unknown effects on future generations. The future of CRISPR is bright, but the scientific community should use this tool with caution because it is still a very new technology. In an article in the Toronto Star, Cohn noted that it was unlikely for long-term patients with muscular dystrophy to recover muscle function. “Having said that, after speaking with so many patients and their families, if we can just keep them where they are and not have them deteriorate… that would already change the world for these patients,” Cohn explained.
Can’t sleep? Your phone may not be to blame UTM study finds that restless sleep habits may be associated with our early hunter-gatherer lifestyles Pascale Tsai Varsity Contributor
Restless sleep is commonly attributed to modern-day sedentary lifestyles, mobile phones, and electric lighting, however, according to a study conducted by Assistant Professor of Anthropology at UTM David Samson, it may actually be linked to ancient survival methods used by humans for nocturnal threat protection. Samson conducted a study that showed how anxious sleeping habits in humans may be linked to the sentinel hypothesis. This hypothesis, originally proposed by Frederick Snyder in 1966, postulates that group-living species use a defence mechanism involving a few individuals staying awake and alert during the night while the majority of the group is asleep and vulnerable. Samson and the study’s co-authors claim that sleeping in mixed-age groups has evolutionary benefits, as the different sleeping schedules of older and younger individuals allows for a few members of the group to be awake and vigilant while the others rest. Charlie Nunn, a co-author and Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University, links these lighter sleep patterns to the ability to better defend oneself in the presence of a threat. The study examined the Hadza tribe of northern Tanzania because of its active hunting and gathering lifestyle, similar to early human survival methods. The Hadza tribe uses no electronics or climate control, and both
MELISSA AVALOS/THE VARSITY
male and female individuals sleep together in a mixed-age group in the outdoors. They live under constant exposure to meteorological pressures, other people, and animals, and they must adapt to these challenges on a dayto-day basis, similar to early humans. Thirty-three healthy Hadza men and women were studied for a period of 20 days, during which their sleeping patterns were tracked with watch-like accessories that monitored their movements. They woke up often to smoke, relieve themselves, and watch over their children.
On average, the men and women slept for nine hours each night. However, the older tribe members tended to sleep earlier in the night, whereas the younger members slept later. During the study, the participants were all simultaneously asleep for just 18 minutes. “The discovery that Hadza hunter-gatherers have little to no synchronous sleep (at any given nighttime minute, 40% of the adults are awake) was very surprising and also strong support for the sentinel hypothesis in humans,” Samson wrote in an email
to The Varsity. Although the Hadza tribe leads a drastically different lifestyle from people living and sleeping in non-hunting and gathering environments, their sleeping habits mimic those of early human ancestors who defended against nocturnal predators and showcases our evolutionary history. These findings suggest that the unsteady sleeping patterns we face may not solely be attributed to cell phone or electronics usage, but may in fact correlate with our ancestry. “In the West we have a tendency to label phenomenon that fall outside the statistical bell curve as non-normative,” Samson explained. “In fact, it may be that such variation was adaptive in our ancestral past, and we have an occurrence of ‘evolutionary mismatch’ -- where our ancient hardware conflicts with our modern social and technological context.” Samson hopes that these findings will normalize sleep flexibility and variability throughout an individual’s life, as well as reduce sleep anxiety and improve sleep quality. “My lab’s research will focus on measuring sleep-wake patterns in traditional people worldwide to generate a global sleep database,” Samson said. “Moreover, we will continue to measure sleep architecture all across the primate order to understand how nonhuman and human sleep differ from each other and other mammals.”
20 d THE VARSITY d SCIENCE
science@thevarsity.ca
Higher vitamin D doses do not prevent colds in kids Scientists dispel common health myth that more vitamin D is better Vitamin D supplementation is commonly believed to prevent URTIs. STEVEN LEE/THE VARSITY
Nadin Ramadan Varsity Contributor
If you think overloading kids on vitamin D is going to scare away runny noses in the colder seasons, you should think again. A new study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that, contrary to popular belief, higher-than-standard doses of vitamin D do not seem to do much to curb common colds in kids between the ages of one and five. The study was conducted by Mary Aglipay, an epidemiologist at St. Michael’s Hospital, and other pediatricians and researchers around Ontario. According to Aglipay, vitamin D has been thought “to have… anti-
inflammatory properties, especially in the lungs.” “[It’s] cheap, it’s relatively accessible to everyone and… it was thought that maybe this might be some sort of miracle drug.” However, Aglipay notes there have been very few clinical trials that have tested this hypothesis. The study looked at 703 children who were all part of a research initiative based at St. Michael’s Hospital known as TARGet Kids! The researchers performed a randomized clinical trial in which each child was randomly placed into one of two groups, with each group receiving a different dose of vitamin D. The high-dose group received 2000 IU of vitamin D per day, and the standard-dose group received 400 IU of vitamin D per day, which
is the dosage recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. These doses were administered for at least four months between September and May. During the winter months, the parents were instructed to collect nasal swabs of their kids. The researchers then tested the swabs to confirm the diagnosis of upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) and recorded the number of instances of URTIs in each group. At the end of winter, the difference in the mean number of occurrences of URTIs per child between the two groups was calculated and found to be insignificant, indicating that the discrepancy in vitamin D intake did not have an effect on the manifestation of URTIs in children.
But before parents start chucking out their vitamin D supplements, Aglipay pointed out that this study only tested a standard dose of vitamin D against a higher dose. They did not investigate the effects of a zero dosage, as it would have been unethical. This study concluded that, for kids ages one through five, a higher dose of vitamin D is not necessarily better for fighting UTRIs. Still, Aglipay noted that “there has been previous research that vitamin D supplementation, perhaps during pregnancy, can be protective against things like wheezing in a child.” Aglipay concluded that vitamin D “may or may not” be important at different stages of life.
Their story: dissecting the past, informing the future How forensic anthropologist Tracy Rogers pursued her dreams Ramana Trivedi Varsity Contributor
In one of the most horrific incidents in Canadian history, dozens of women disappeared in a span of over two decades from Downtown Eastside Vancouver. Several years and a $70 million investigation later, Robert Pickton was charged with the murders of 26 women and convicted of six charges. The case became the largest serial killer investigation in Canada. In a feat of scale and diligence, investigators and scientists combed through 200,000 DNA samples and 383,000 cubic yards of soil. One of the forensic anthropologists involved in this groundbreaking investigation was U of T professor Tracy Rogers. As one of the leaders in her field, Rogers examined over 40,000 bones on the Pickton case alone and has also worked on other high-profile cases, such as the disappearance and murder of Tim Bosma. She serves as a consultant for the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service and assists “the police, coroners, pathologists, and fire marshals to… recover human remains [and] determine who the person was and what happened to her/him.” Rogers’s career choice is oddly fitting. As a
child, she enjoyed every form of mystery story, “from Scooby Doo and Encyclopedia Brown to Nancy Drew.” But she had not always been sure she would pursue forensic anthropology. “I was not even aware there were career opportunities in forensic science and had never heard of anthropology until my first year at McMaster,” Rogers wrote to . “But after I took my first anthropology class I knew I wanted to work in this field... The first time I assisted [my mentor and Master’s supervisor] Dr. Saunders with a forensic case, I decided to make forensic anthropology my career.” As a university student, Rogers knew that she wanted to pursue a career in a field that focused on helping people “in a direct and tangible way.” Today, her work provides closure and justice to victims of crime. “I am most proud of the fact that my work, both cases and research, provides answers for families. People need to know what happened to their loved ones and they need to have them returned home,” she said. In becoming a professor and forensic anthropologist, Rogers found herself in a niche befitting her interests. “There is always something new to learn and so many amazing people to meet, whether I’m at the university or at a crime scene.”
Dr. Tracy Rogers is both a professor and a forensic anthropologist. PHOTO COURTESY OF TRACY ROGERS
She advised students today to discover what they want out of life when deciding on a career path. “Do you want to help people? Do you like to work alone or as part of a team?” she asked. “You may not know exactly what career you are looking for, but know what you want to get out of it and start researching jobs that
link your interests with your aptitudes.” Throughout her life, Rogers has been actively involved in academia, either as a student earning her BA, MA, and PhD, or as a professor teaching the next generation of scientists. Beyond focusing on her interests and aptitudes, Rogers understands and promotes the value of education, even when it does not seem useful. “Education is never wasted,” Rogers said. “[H]ow could it not be useful to better understand what makes people tick; how the physical world works; how to communicate with others; why people from different cultures will not always see things the way you do; how to break down an argument to evaluate its logical consistency; how to speak another language; what it means to behave ethically; or any number of other valuable pieces of knowledge gained during a degree?” In today’s world, education and passion never seem to be enough. Especially at a large university like U of T, competition is rampant and the drive for lengthier and increasingly saturated résumés seems endless. Rogers cautioned against getting caught up in this cycle of competition. “Don’t waste time constantly comparing yourself to others,” she said. “Success, regardless of how you define it, comes from looking forward [to] what is right for you, not sideways at what someone else has accomplished. Celebrate and enjoy your achievements and those of the people around you.” Rogers has a successful career in a field she loves, and her actions and insights lead young scientists by example. “Take an active role in your education, journey, and life,” she said. “Don’t just let it happen to you.”
Sports
July 31, 2017 var.st/sports sports@thevarsity.ca
Does anybody really win with wins? Baseball’s analytical community understands that a pitcher’s win-loss records shouldn’t matter Michelle Krasovitski Varsity Contributor
Every November, after a gruelling 162-game regular season and an intense postseason, Major League Baseball awards its athletes in both the American and National Leagues with various accolades. Most Valuable Player, Silver Slugger Award, and the Gold Glove Award make up a few of the prestigious honours that can crown a player’s season. Meanwhile, pitchers are fixated on one specific achievement, the Cy Young Award, which recognizes one pitcher as the best of the season as determined by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BWAA). Last year, Boston Red Sox pitcher Rick Porcello won the award over the Detroit Tigers’ Justin Verlander and Cleveland Indians’ Corey Kluber. The manner in which the BWAA voted sparked a controversy, though, because of inconsistencies between ranked-ballot votes for Porcello and Verlander. The Red Sox pitcher received eight first place votes, while Verlander received 14 but was completely removed from two of the ballots. When each pitcher’s individual statistics are broken down and further examined, it becomes apparent that there’s a brazen discrepancy between what the BWAA aims to reward and the way in which the selections are determined. Last year’s voting illuminated a problem with modern pitching sabermetrics: the importance the win-loss record holds far outweighs the information that the statistic actually encapsulates. Baseball is an analytical game — managers and fans alike act as statisticians to make sense of a player’s success or struggles. The win-loss statistic is one that applies solely to pitchers: a pitcher is awarded the win if he was the last to pitch before the winning team took the lead for the final time. It’s a divisive statistic because it says very little about a pitcher’s abilities yet holds a lot of weight when it comes to discussing performance. In 2016, Rick Porcello ended the regular season with 22 wins and four losses, whereas Justin Verlander went 16 and nine. There is a continuing trend of prioritizing a pitcher’s win-loss record over other, more complex and telling statistics. Maybe it’s because the win-loss record is straightforward, but the dissonance is staggering between wanting to accurately characterize a pitcher via his stats and relying so heavily on wins and losses. As soon as the baseball community collectively labels a pitcher’s winning record as obsolete, there will be more integrity and fairness in deciding who excelled in a season. It is necessary to determine what attributes makes a pitcher stand out from his peers: value to his team is not mutually inclusive with
Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander throwing from the mound. Keith Allison/CCFLICKR
talent. Performance can be quantified by Earned Run Average (ERA), for example, which denotes how many runs a pitcher allows on average in his outings. Strikeouts are another good measure of success. To quantify value, however, Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is the best statistic to look to since it indicates how many of the team’s wins were brought solely by the pitcher. A Quality Start (QS) is also a viable option, recorded when a pitcher allows three runs or less, and serves
as a constructive statistic since it incorporates a pitcher’s command and control on a given night. But to truly discredit win-loss statistics, it’s crucial to discuss run support, the average number of runs a pitcher receives from his team. In 2016, Porcello had a Major League leading 6.53 runs in support of him per outing, whereas Verlander only had 3.97. To further exemplify: in 2013, the AL Cy Young winner, then-Detroit Tigers pitcher Max Scherzer, ended the
season with 21 wins while, on average, his team scored him 5.59 runs. Second place Texas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish had only 13 wins, partly because of his 4.28 run support. There is a strong correlation between high run support and more wins, which should effectively delegitimize the statistic from its pedestal, yet no such demotion has taken place quite yet. On August 15 of 2016, when the Toronto Blue Jays’ R.A. Dickey faced the New York Yankees, the
2016 American League Cy Young Finalists Team
Pitcher
Game Started
Wins
Losses
QS
ERA
WAR
SO
Run Support
Boston Red Sox
Rick Porcello
33
22
4
26
3.15
5.1
189
6.53
Detroit Tigers
Justin Verlander
34
16
9
27
3.04
5.6
254
3.97
2015 American League Cy Young Finalists Team
Pitcher
Game Started
Wins
Losses
QS
ERA
WAR
30
1.77
8.7
236
4.18
1.66
9.3
200
3.84
Chicago Cubs
Jake Arrieta
33
22
6
Los Angeles Dodgers
Zack Greinke
32
19
3
32
SO
Run Support
knuckleballer pitched five strong innings, giving up only one run — an uncharacteristic feat for the right hander who often struggles with his command. Toronto went on to lose 1-0 that night and Dickey collected the loss. However, in a game only two months prior, on June 25, Dickey gave up four runs against the Chicago White Sox, and still collected the win in a 10-8 Blue Jays’ victory. In neither outing was his performance rightfully rewarded, yet games such as these happen every night and are the basis for the existence of a pitcher’s record. There is no question about it: based on his statistics, Verlander deserved the 2016 Cy Young Award. And so begs the question: if analytics hold the most importance come awards season, how could such an act of larceny be committed against Verlander? Porcello, who had a higher ERA, a lower WAR, and less quality starts and strikeouts, rode his league-leading 6.53 run support to finish the year with 22 wins and crown his fiveand-a-half months of play with one of baseball’s most prestigious awards. Though not as controversial, it is arguable that former Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke was in a similar situation as Verlander in 2015, when he came second to the Cubs’ Jake Arrieta in the Cy Young vote. Despite having the league’s lowest ERA for a starting pitcher and having the most quality starts in the MLB, Greinke’s 19-win season did not seem as accomplished as Arrieta’s 22. Arrieta can thank his teammates for that — since their 4.18 run support was substantially larger than his competitors. Baseball has always been a game oozing with logic and rationality; its fields are geometric and its rules are philosophical, so it’s quite ironic that the league uses so little logic when it comes to sabermetrics. Aside from hockey goalies, no other sport assigns individual players a win or a loss — so why place so much importance on a pitcher’s record? If a pitcher is only as good as his battery mate, why not assign the outcome of the game to the catcher as well? These are all questions that shouldn’t just plant the seed of doubt when it comes to the discussion of the integrity of wins and losses — they should water the seed until it grows into green, soft stadium grass. Verlander’s loss in 2016 and Greinke’s in 2015 prove that a pitcher’s abilities and accomplishments lie far beneath the surface-level wins and losses. As soon as the MLB, and baseball more broadly, divorces itself from records and begins to rely on more complex and cogent pitching statistics, both criticism and praise will become drastically more justified.
22 d THE VARSITY d SPORTS
sports@thevarsity.ca
Debunking the myth that stretching prevents injury Scientists have questioned whether a correlation between stretching and injury prevention exists
ZAHRA DANAEI/THE VARSITY
Jordan LoMonaco Varsity Contributor
“To stretch or not to stretch?” This is the question we often ask ourselves before exercising. Proponents of stretching always credit the act itself as being key to preventing injury. You read or hear about it from almost every fitness blog, trainer, and professional athlete. But does stretching actually help prevent sport-related injuries? The answer: not really. The correlation between stretching and injury prevention has come back with minimal, even inconclusive results. For instance, a 2005 study by McMaster
University professor Lawrence Hart found no evidence of reduced rates for injuries like shin splints, sprains, or tibial stress reaction in any of their trials. Similar results were found in larger randomized trials done in Norway, where the only statistically significant difference between stretchers and non-stretchers was related to stretching aiding in reducing soreness — not preventing injury. Research performed by Dr. Ian Shrier of McGill University presents the case that stretching could actually make you more susceptible to injury, especially if performed incorrectly. This is due in part to its analgesic, or pain-relieving, effects on your muscles.
This effect was also seen in a study done by Bruno da Costa and Edgar Viera from the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Alberta. Their study suggests that, although stretching does have some physiological effects that could contribute to reduced pain and discomfort, any evidence of injury prevention is minuscule. You’re probably wondering how this myth started if research has been suggesting otherwise. Many think this notion stemmed from the belief that stretching improves flexibility, which in turn improves your overall range of motion. Having a full range of motion would mean a lower probability of injury and spasms in the muscles. What most people might not know,
however, is that stretching has actually been shown to have minimal effects on your overall flexibility. So in the end, even if stretching doesn’t guarantee injury prevention, it has proven to have other beneficial effects on both the body and mind — especially for improving performance in specific sports that require enhanced stretches like gymnastics or hurdling. So keep on stretching, but don’t let it fool you into thinking you are invincible to injury.
Why do we still divide sports by gender? Female athletes are often subjected to a higher level of scrutiny
ELHAM NUMAN/THE VARSITY
Isaac Consenstein Varsity Contributor
Competitive sports have historically been separated by gender. In high school, I never noticed the distinction between male and female sports teams until players on the female basketball team noted their discontent with their team name, “The Lady Senators,” relative to the male team, which was simply
titled “The Senators.” I realized that I would also be bothered if my team name were distinguished solely by my gender and reduced to a label such as “The Man Senators.” There is no reason why one gender should be titled in accordance with another. The very nature of the issue has made me question why the gender separation in sports exists, and if co-ed sports are really a possibility. When addressing the plausibility of co-ed
sports, it’s crucial to note that men generally have higher testosterone levels than women, which can account for different performance levels. However, it’s the physical and social factors ingrained in us that often make the experience of co-ed competition uncomfortable for many individuals. Throughout the past century, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has struggled to find the best way to identify an athlete’s gender without making the process embarrassing or outright discriminatory. The process to distinguish gender has evolved from nude parades to chromosomes to the current method: testing hormone levels. For example, even before South African sprinter Caster Semenya dominated the women’s 800-metre race at the 2016 Rio Olympics, fellow athletes questioned her gender and the fairness of competing against her due to her naturally high testosterone levels. In 2011, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) prevented women with testosterone levels higher than 10 nanomoles per litre from competing in international competitions. Women with higher testosterone levels had to either take hormone-suppressing drugs or have hormone reduction therapy in order to compete. This ban was lifted in 2015 after an IAAF court concluded that a slight increase in testosterone for women did not ac-
count for a more significant advantage than any other natural physical ability. That being said, hormone testing has sparked an important question that needs to be addressed: why is natural genetic variation policed in female athletes but celebrated in men? At U of T, although co-ed sports exist in intramural leagues, some sports have changed their rules to better adhere to both men and women. For example, in co-ed basketball, men are not allowed to step inside the key, and if they do, a referee will enforce a turnover and the ball will be awarded to the other team. Although these rules are positive efforts to have men and women compete together, restricting men from getting rebounds or charging toward the basket fails to properly incorporate both genders into an even game. The separation of gender in competitive sports is so ingrained in our culture that the subject is one we hardly think about. But the separation is, by-and-large, unnecessary. During the same period of time we have seen athletic institutions struggle to identify gender in a way that treats women as equals, Semenya has performed and won at the highest level possible, proving that the value of gold can’t be distinguished by gender.
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On gender and cycling in Toronto Event at Parkdale Library explored the difficulties women face as cyclists in Toronto
Cayley James and Rachel Lisner standing with their bikes. STEVEN LEE/THE VARSITY
Nouran Sakr Varsity Staff
Cayley James and Rachel Lissner want to see more women cycling in Toronto. On June 15, the pair hosted “Taking the Lane: Gender and Cycling in Toronto” at the Parkdale Library. The event, which ran from 6:00–7:30 pm, was a panel addressing the problems that face Toronto’s cycling community with the ultimate goal of discussing a safer city for cyclists and encouraging more women to commute on two wheels. The event was moderated by publisher Tammy Thorne, the founding editor of dandyhorse magazine, which dubs itself “Canada’s premier arts and culture magazine for cyclists.” When James and Lissner spoke to their female family members and friends, they noticed that many had misconceptions about how unsafe cycling can be. These conversations served as inspiration for the event’s inception. “I’ve been cycling around the city since I was 12 or 13 and I was essentially alone for a long time because my friends didn’t feel safe or they didn’t feel like it was a ‘girl’ thing to do,” James said. “And they still feel that way. I don’t cycle with a lot of my friends from high school. Most of them are probably scared or have preconceived notions of what is expected of them.” According to Cayley and Lissner, many women choose more secure means of transportation to move around the city: public transit, Uber, or cars.
U of T graduate student Lina has biked in both Copenhagen and Toronto. “Maybe male [cyclists] are more aggressive,” Lina said. “Not to be stereotypical, but the cyclists on the road are angry.” The Toronto native believes this discourages females from cycling around the city. Chantelle, an experienced cyclist, believes that the gender gap in the cycling community begins at a young age, when misconceptions about the physical strength of men in comparison to women have a tendency to develop. “What ends up happening is a lot of boys are encouraged to be active and get out there and play and girls are protected and held back from getting on a bike. Once that encouragement disparity occurs when they’re young, it becomes more likely when they get older that they won’t be riding as often as boys.” Toronto’s lack of bike infrastructure poses a serious issue that is difficult to overlook. Poor lighting systems and the absence of designated lanes for cyclists on most streets are major issues that prevent individuals from cycling. While accidents are inevitable, the inclusion of bike lanes reduces the rate of injury by 50 per cent, and the inclusion of protected bike lanes reduces it by 90 per cent.
Alyson. STEVEN LEE/THE VARSITY
Judith. STEVEN LEE/THE VARSITY
Chantelle. STEVEN LEE/THE VARSITY
time I got doored, I thought, ‘I can’t believe this happened to me, this never happened in 118,000 kilometres of cycling.’” The lack of bike lanes is especially problematic outside Toronto’s downtown area. Bike lanes on major city streets, like the separate pilot project lanes on Bloor Street, have encouraged more women to cycle, as the prospect of distracted drivers has been removed from their immediate path. As one gets further afield in Toronto, however, bike lanes become almost non-existent, causing a great deal of inconvenience and decreasing a woman’s willingness to cycle. “I was cycling before [the separate bike lane] but I definitely cycle on Bloor a lot more,” said Alyson, another Toronto cyclist. “[cycling at
Judith, a 70-year-old lifelong cyclist, laments many of her experiences biking on the streets of Toronto. “I’ve cycled in 19 countries and Toronto is the worst, most dangerous [city] I’ve ever been to. And I’m a confident, experienced cyclist,” she said. “The first
night] is similar to how safe I feel during the day, which is good for the most part but there’s probably one close call every ride I take.” “In the downtown core, there seems to be a gender parity for cyclists. But when you go further afield when you go where bike lanes aren’t available, fewer women and girls cycle and that’s a huge thing,” James said. The presence of bike-friendly streets in several European countries like Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany encourages both men and women of different demographics to cycle. Not only do these countries have designated cycling lanes, but they also have spaces dedicated to parking thousands
of bikes all over the city. Unfortunately, this is another aspect of cycling infrastructure that is absent outside of urban cores. “We have an incomplete [infrastructural] grid,” Lissner, who holds an Urban Studies degree from U of T, added. “Cycle Toronto, for its 2014 mayoral campaign, was pushing for a minimum grid and we have seen a loss of bike lanes over the past few years. We’ve gained a few sharrows — which are lanes where bikes and cars share the lane based on the time of the day. It’s not really a bike lane and not something I would personally advocate for. You can’t get anywhere on a bike unless you want to stay in a specific part of the city, which is privileged and already well-served by several forms of transit and other healthy aspects of urban design like parks and open space.” Cyclists in Copenhagen feel almost as safe on their bikes as North Americans feel in their cars. In the past decade, the city has invested $115 million USD in cycling infrastructure with the purpose of moving people, rather than cars, efficiently throughout the city. Bike lanes and boulevards are wellmaintained, streets are well-lit, and parking spaces exist throughout the country. In addition, the Danish government has invested $36 million on ‘Bike Super Highways’ that connect major urban cities with their surrounding suburbs and rural areas, so that even trips between cities are safely accessible on a bike. Perhaps consequently, 55 per cent of all cyclists in Denmark are women. “I felt completely safer [in Copenhagen],”
Lina. STEVEN LEE/THE VARSITY
Lina noted. “I would bike on the road without a helmet on in the middle of the night. I felt safer there — just to give you a contrast [to Toronto].” Lissner and James stress the importance of cycling clubs in increasing women’s participation and encouraging them to explore the city on bicycles. As both noted, cycling in groups makes women and non-binary individuals feel safer and more confident on the streets and builds communities where they can discuss issues and possible solutions. While there’s a lot to be done to improve the cycling environment in Toronto — especially regarding infrastructure and safety measures — events like “Taking the Lane,” led by cycling enthusiasts like James and Lissner, showcase an increasing interest in cycling and the development of bike-friendly streets. “Taking the Lane” panelists included a quartet of U of T alumni: Alex Legum, a certified CAN-Bike and Professional Mountain Bike Instructor and a bike repair instructor; Siva Vijenthria, a bike columnist at Spacing Magazine; and Katie Wittmann, a published researcher, amateur triathlete, and former co-president of the University of Toronto Triathlon Club; in addition to moderator Tammy Thorne. The group was also accompanied by Ryerson Graduate Student and Bad Girls Bike Club co-founder Lavinia Tanzim.
JULY 31, 2017 • 24
DIVERSIONS
CROSSWORD
ACROSS
DOWN
1. Hatched 5. Ruckus 9. Cold War grp. 12. Therapeutic plant 13. Missing a deadline 14. Bad thing to invoke 15. Daily buy for many 17. Slightest bit 18. Bar obligation 19. Agenda listings 21. Where the heart is 24. Maldives capital 26. Purge 27. Genesis garden 29. Banjoist Scruggs 33. Dinosaur’s origin 34. Last inning, typically 36. Casino roller 37. A question of timing 39. Chop ___ 40. Marmaduke, for one 41. Grills 43. Baneful bunch 45. Sad piece 48. Emulate Rocky 49. Bother 50. Grinders 56. Alley serenader 57. Surf’s sound 58. Missile housing 59. Eiger or Eisenhut 60. Dressing flavor 61. Work here and there
1. Proscribe 2. Grand ___ Opry 3. Cannery or Catfish 4. They’re often out on a limb 5. Love handles, essentially 6. Once around the track 7. Broke a fast 8. Thin ice, e.g. 9. Hawk of a sort 10. Apothecary’s measure 11. Dorm sights 16. Ceremonial Mass plate 20. Ball-bearing device? 21. Hands 22. Mighty companion 23. Advantage 24. Diner stack 25. Cards pitch-in 28. Spinal feature 30. Continues, conversationally 31. Often read act? 32. Flight segments 35. Syringes, for short 38. Chronic critic 42. ___ Tower 44. Draw breath 45. Chart fillers 46. Celebrity, perhaps 47. Breezy film 48. Like a fairy tale cupboard 51. Cabaret wear 52. Cleaning aid 53. Get in the game 54. Slippery ___ 55. Bribe
come to The Varsity’s open house plz it’s on September 22, 2017 from 1:005:00 PM at 21 Sussex Ave
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