November 21, 2016

Vol. CXXXVII, No. 10 November 21, 2016 thevarsity.ca —— The University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880

Finalized sexual violence policy released

Speaking for themselves

Policy pending Governing Council approval

About 1,000 gather at Nathan Phillips Square

Students in Support of Free Speech, a newly minted club at U of T, plans to fiercely defend open discourse

Emaan Thaver Associate News Editor

U of T has released the finalized proposal of its Policy on Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment.

The 88-point policy comes two months after the university published a draft policy in September.

Among other things, the new edition incorporates clearer language about the confidentiality of data during an investigation, expands on the definition of sexual and genderbased harassment, and clarifies the difference between disclosing and formally reporting an incident of sexual violence.

The policy applies to events of sexual harassment or violence that occur on campus, off campus, as well as in the digital space, in the event that both parties are members of the university community.

U of T began developing a framework to deal with incidents of sexual violence on campus in November 2014, with the establishment of the Advisory Committee to the President and Provost on Preventing and Responding to Sexual Violence. Driven in part by Bill 132, which requires all post-secondary institutions to create standalone policies on sexual violence, the university then developed an action plan for preventing and responding to incidents within the community.

The policy is one of four sections of the action plan, which also includes a regular climate survey, education and prevention activities, and a new tri-campus support centre.

U of T’s Media Relations Director Althea Blackburn-Evans explained that the policy will help shape a new, centralized system for accessing support Policy and informawill apply tion. It will also to TST, “reduce the need federated for complainants to repeat colleges their story more — page 4 than necessary,” she said.

Toronto protesters rally against Trump

Aaron Panciera Varsity Contributor

Feature – page 10

Concurrent AGMs Three motions pass at SCSU AGM with little contention

Student centre expansion, bylaws discussed at UTMSU AGM

Hareem Ashraf and Kaitlyn Simpson Varsity Contributor and Associate News Editor

Jenna Moon Varsity Staff

Within an hour and a half, three motions were approved and executive reports were made at the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) Annual General Meeting (AGM) November 16. The meeting was held in the Social Sciences building with approximately 50 students in attendance.

Following an equity statement that included a land acknowledgement, SCSU President Jessica Kirk gave brief introductory remarks on the status of SCSU. The appointment of Yale and Partners as external auditors for the current fiscal year, finishing on April 30, passed shortly thereafter.

Executive reports were then conducted whereby each executive member of the SCSU team described the projects they are currently working on.

SCSU Vice-President Operations Yasmin Rajabi discussed various initiatives including a potential food bank and student-café Rex’s Den as a food and study-friendly space.

“It’s a student space, run by students, for students,” she said.

A popular component of Rajabi’s report was a discussion regarding an insufficient number of operational microwaves on campus.

The University of Toronto Mississauga Student’s Union (UTMSU) voted at November 16’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) to take steps towards exploring an expansion of the Student Centre on campus and making changes to the UTMSU’s bylaws that have been two years in the making.

Built in 1999, the existing building was created to accommodate UTM’s population of 6,000 students. However, UTM’s student population today is over 14,000.

“What this motion is asking for is just to start the preliminary conversations with other student groups,” explained UTMSU President Nour Alideeb, at the meeting. “We would have consolation stations to really get feedback from them about what they want to see in their student centre. After which, we would compile a report and then we would have initial conversations with the administration about moving towards a student centre expansion.”

Alideeb noted that students feel “suffocated” in the current Student Centre. Alideeb presented a video on the topic where student leaders from a variety of clubs advocated for an expansion. The Student Centre has four bookable rooms that clubs can use for meetings; clubs often have to book spaces in other buildings on campus, which can include booking fees.

Sexual violence policy, page 4

SCSU, page 5

UTMSU, page 5

Protesters braved the rain at Nathan Phillips Square to rally against President-elect Donald Trump on November 19.

The rally was organized by a federation of activists who secured the interest of over 7,300 people via an event listing on Facebook; around 1,000 protesters attended.

Originally called for 12:00 pm, organizers pushed the start time back to 1:00 pm. Speakers included Parkdale-High Park MPP Cheri DiNovo and former Ontario Federation of Labour President Sid Ryan.

Protesters convened at Nathan Phillips Square before marching south down Bay Street to occupy the intersection at Adelaide Street, right in front of Trump Tower. Here they alternated between chants including: ‘love Trumps hate,’ ‘silence is violence,’ ‘fuck Donald Trump,’ and ‘your hands too small, you can’t build a wall.’

The crowd dispersed after police asked protesters to move to the sidewalk at 3:30 pm.

Altercations occurred between anti-Trump protesters and Trump supporters, who were also in attendance. The sign of one Trump supporter read: ‘Is this group therapy for cry babies?’

This was not the only controversial statement made: one antiTrump protester carried around a cardboard cutout of a member of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) being lynched.

“I don’t want this to be someone, I don’t want to see some KKK member, or anyone else, hanging from a rope again, but we have to be reminded what the ugliness of [hatred] is,” says Phil P, who was part of the group protesting Trump.

“These protests clearly show youth are very frustrated with the outcome of Decision 2016,” said Gabriel Elias, Communications Director for Democrats Abroad Canada. “As a Democrat, I believe we need to channel this frustration into meaningful organizing activity as there are 716 days until the midterms.”

Comment — page 7

Science — page 16

Sports — page 19

Trump meets True North How Canada could be affected by a Trump presidency

If snakes could walk New research uncovers an ancient four-legged serpent

Canadian kick-off Toronto FC will face the Montreal Impact in the MLS Eastern Conference Finals

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The Explainer: Timeline of the Jordan Peterson controversy September 27: Psychology Professor Jordan Peterson releases the first video of his three-part YouTube lecture series speaking against political correctness and Bill C-16.

September 28: The Varsity reports on the video, which sparks national and international media attention.

October 5: Non-binary activists hold the “Teach-In and Rally” on campus to inform the public about trans and non-binary issues.

October 11: “U of T Rally for Free Speech” is held. Conflict ensues and counter-protestors blasts white noise. Campus Police report threats made against trans students on campus.

October 16: The University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) issues a statement calling for an inquiring into Campus Police what it calls a lack of action at the rally for free speech.

October 18: Arts and Science Dean David Cameron and ViceProvost, Faculty and Academic Life Sioban Nelson send Peterson a letter, requesting that he respect non-binary pronouns and refrain from making public statements.

October 24: Peterson releases videos on his YouTube channel confirming that the university will host a debate on Bill C-16 and free speech.

October 27: A second free speech rally is held outside of Simcoe Hall, just before the UTSU Annual General Meeting.

November 14: U of T announces the details of the debate. The university also confirms to The Varsity that an inquiry into Campus Police following the October 11 free speech rally is underway.

November 19: The debate on Bill C-16 and free speech is held. Peterson faces off against Law Professor Brenda Cossman and UBC Education Professor Mary Bryson, with Trinity College Provost Mayo Moran moderating. Non-binary activists boycott the debate using the hashtag #NotUpForDebate and hold a breakfast event at the same time.

NOVEMBER 21, 2016 • 3

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U of T holds forum on Bill C-16 with Peterson, Cossman, Bryson Non-binary activists organize boycott of event Tom Yun News Editor

In what David Cameron, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science, referred to as an attempt to “permit — in an academic setting — the rational examination of the various views,” the university hosted a forum on November 19 about Bill C-16, which adds gender identity and expression to the list of “prohibited grounds of discrimination” in Canadian legislation. The bill passed in the House of Commons on November 18.

The topic became the centre of heated exchanges at U of T after Psychology Professor Jordan Peterson published a YouTube lecture criticizing the bill, and “political correctness” in late September. A major point of contention has been Peterson’s statements of how he would refuse to use gender neutral pronouns, if asked to do so.

Two rallies were subsequently held on campus in opposition and in support of Peterson’s remarks. Cameron and Vice-Provost Academic Programs Sioban Nelson also sent Peterson a letter, imploring him to use the pronouns as requested by his students and refrain from making public statements on this topic.

Following a meeting between Cameron and Peterson, the university had agreed to hold a debate on Bill C-16 as per Peterson’s suggestion.

The “polarized circumstances” that followed Peterson’s statements were the motivation for hosting the event, Cameron said in a previous interview with U of T News.

Moderated by Mayo Moran, a U of T Law Professor who also serves as the Provost of Trinity College, Peterson spoke at the forum alongside U of T Law Professor and Director of the Bonham Centre of Sexual Diversity at University College Brenda Cossman, and University of British Columbia (UBC) Professor of Education and Senior Associate Dean, Administration, Faculty Affairs & Innovation Mary Bryson.

Tickets to the forum made available on November 14 were offered for free and quickly ran out. Attendees who were unable to obtain a ticket were able to watch a livestream of the event on a laptop just outside the lecture hall.

Peterson began his remarks by asking the men and women attending to stand up separately in order to highlight gender differences.

“There are pronounced gender differences in openness such as men are higher in intel-

NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY

Mayo Moran, Jordan Peterson, Brenda Cossman, and Mary Bryson onstage at the Bill C-16 forum. lect, which encompasses interests in ideas, and women are higher in aesthetics, which encompasses interests in art and literature and that sort of thing,” he said. “There is a natural gender divide that occurs automatically and without compulsion in this particular case.”

Peterson also drew attention to the issue of free speech, calling it “not just another principle.”

“We have to be unbelievably careful about infringing upon that because we’re infringing upon the process in which we keep chaos and order balanced,” he argued.

Cossman contested the assertions Peterson made in his videos of how he could be criminally liable for not using gender-neutral pronouns after Bill C-16.

“So, how might these provisions affect the use of pronouns? And do these provisions in anyway criminalize the use or misuse of pronouns? Not even close,” she said.

Bryson called Peterson’s videos “amateurish” and likened them to Breitbart.com, an American right-wing news site, for their apparent lack of scholarly basis.

“Although this man is making these claims as Dr. Jordan Peterson, as a professor, as a clinical psychologist employed at a great Canadian university, the claims are not being made in relations to any publicly accessible peer-reviewed scholarship,” Bryson said.

Speaking with The Varsity after the forum, Peterson emphasized the significance of the

university hosting such an event: “I suggested to the Dean that perhaps the university could host a debate and that these issues that are obviously important to many people could be discussed in an appropriate academic matter and the university went off and thought about it for a while and decided that that was a good idea so then they put a lot of time and effort into making this happen,” he explained. #NotUpForDebate At the same time of the forum, non-binary activists Lane Patriquin and Qaiser Ali, who were involved in organizing the anti-Peterson rally last month, organized a breakfast event called the “Trans Day of Celebration” at the University College Commuter Student Centre. New Democratic MPP Cheri DiNovo was among those who attended the breakfast and boycotted the forum.

“We were organizing this because we wanted transgender and racialized students who have been affected by the recent events on campus to have a safe space where they are able to celebrate their identities and come together,” said Patriquin. “It’s supposed to be a positive event.”

Patriquin and Ali drew attention to the timing of the event, which was a day after Bill C-16 had passed the final reading in the House of Commons and a day before the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Patriquin and Ali also helped spearhead the #NotUpForDebate campaign on social

media, which called for the boycott of the forum.

“This sort of goes to the point… that these are facts that we’re working with,” said Ali. “These are not ideological points. These are not inventions of certain political philosophies. They’re the facts of our lives.”

When asked to comment on the #NotUpForDebate campaign, Peterson brought up the issue of free speech.

“There’s any number of groups on every part of the political spectrum that can object to any number of discussions and will,” he told The Varsity. “So, the only things worth discussing are contentious things.

Everyone agrees with everything else. If we can’t discuss contentious things, we might as well pack up the university and go home.”

Although she participated in the forum, Cossman told The Varsity that she “didn’t think this forum was a good idea” and expressed support for those who boycotted the event.

“I have serious reservations about giving Professor Peterson a platform to say many of the things he did say, in fact, here today,” she explained. “But, once the debate was going forward and because legal issues were involved, I felt that someone had to stand here and try to correct all of the misunderstandings about the law.”

Bryson echoed similar sentiments: “I specifically used that ‘not up for debate’ [phrase] as many times as I was able to fit it in to what I was talking about because it was really important for me to both be here today and to support anyone who chooses to boycott the event and to reiterate that human rights are not up for debate generally, and specifically not rights on the basis of gender identity and expression.”

Cameron told U of T News that he believed the debate could bring about a positive outcome.

“Many who disagree with the holding of such a forum believe it will increase the temperature and further worsen what is already a bad situation,” he said. “It is my hope that it will do the reverse: by exposing claims and arguments on all sides to the cold light of reason and analysis, the forum, if successful, will lower the temperature and assist the University community, and the society at large, to reflect on the issues in a calmer and more considered fashion. That, at least, is my hope.”

U of T reports increased American traffic on admissions site after election day Google Trends also reports spike in searches of Canadian universities Lesley Flores Varsity Contributor

The day after President-elect Donald Trump was elected, approximately 10,000 Americans visited U of T’s prospective students website, which is roughly 12 times the usual number of daily visitors.

U of T Vice-President, International, Ted Sargent told U of T News that the university’s reputation is the reason for the increase in visits. He believes that if the university was in the US, it would rank among the top five public schools in the country.

Executive Director of Enrolment Services Richard Levin, who was also interviewed by U of T News, stated, “Canada is a model for tolerance and inclusivity.”

Althea Blackburn-Evans, U of T’s Director of Media Relations, told The Varsity that it’s too soon to predict if the increased traffic and Trump’s victory will impact US enrolment.

In addition to increased US traffic to U of T’s website, Google also reported a jump in searches about Canadian universities on November 9. Searches regarding the University of British Columbia, for example, went up by 250 per cent.

University of Toronto Colleges in Canada Canadian universities

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4 • THE VARSITY • NEWS

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Sexual violence policy, from cover At the heart of the policy is a “survivor-centric” approach that, according to the policy document, prioritizes the well-being of individuals affected by sexual violence.

Under Section IV, for example, complainants are given the autonomy to choose how involved they will be in the investigative process.

Subsection F of Section VIII further elaborates that “the Complainant can choose not to request an investigation by the University and has the right not to participate in any investigation that may occur,” and is entitled to receive support regardless of their choice. It also promises that the complainant will be informed of the investigation’s outcome if requested by the complainant with regard to legal limitations about privacy.

The upcoming University of Toronto Sexual Violence Prevention and Support Centre will be the first point of

contact for members of the university community who have been affected by sexual violence. It will provide 24-hour staff to guide and support anyone who needs assistance in a “non-emergency situation.”

Another addition to the policy since the September draft was a review process by which complainants can challenge the university’s decision if it chooses not to investigate their reports of sexual violence. In the finalized draft, the complainant can request a review by writing to the Vice-President & Provost within 14 days.

The policy also rules that any informal resolution or mediation will only take place if both parties agree to it and will not require survivors and abusers to meet face-to-face.

All employees of the University of Toronto will be held liable to the policy’s rulings. The new draft adds that this includes “clinical, adjunct, status-only, retired, and visiting fac-

ulty,” alongside contract workers and members of the Governing Council.

Most of the other changes made to the policy since the draft were subtle in nature, such as changes in wording. For example, the title of the policy was broadened to cover incidents of ‘sexual harassment’ as well as ‘sexual violence.’

“Overall, the policy has remained largely the same,” clarified Blackburn-Evans. She also said that revisions to language and terminology had been made to address concerns around clarity as well as to reflect feedback received during consultation, adding that the new policy “reflects the comments that we heard.”

The latest policy is the result of several rounds of discussion and consultation from members of the university community since the draft was drawn up earlier this year. According to the Office of the Governing Council’s Agenda, the

administration collected feedback from Representative Student Committees, societies, campus groups and digital student consultations.

Ellie Ade Kur, founder of U of T’s branch of Silence is Violence, believes the student consultation process left much to be desired in terms of organization.

In a statement to The Varsity, Ade Kur said that the university “chose to host last-minute, inaccessible consultations over the summer (a low-traffic period on campus) and subsequently downloaded the responsibility of consultations onto student unions and organizations during the busiest portion of the fall term, which impacted each [organization’s] ability to do outreach to the student body.”

Ade Kur also mentioned that many concerns raised during consultations didn’t make it into the finalized draft proposal, including issues with

frontline staff receiving complaints of sexual violence.

“There is no outline of what accountability looks like for frontline workers when issues of victim blaming or slut shaming arise,” she said, adding that the policy does not effectively address problems surrounding institutional silencing.

Ade Kur believes that first responders to complaints of sexual violence can shape the way survivors choose to proceed: “There is so much responsibility put onto frontline workers and investigators and no information on what to do, or where to go when these frontline workers fail.”

“This policy doesn’t change the nature of that work,” Ade Kur said.

“Our fight continues.”

Pending approval from the Governing Council in December, the policy will come into effect in January 2017.

Students of Toronto School of Theology, federated colleges to be covered by sexual violence policy TST member colleges reach verbal agreement with U of T

VASSILIA AL AKAILA/THE VARSITY

PAULINA PETROVA/THE VARSITY

SHANNA HUNTER/THE VARSITY

The Policy on Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment was released this month; it is pending approval from the Governing Council.

Jenna Moon Varsity Staff

Ahead of the approval of the new Policy on Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment, The Varsity has confirmed that the incoming policy will apply to all U of T students, including those at federated colleges and member colleges of the U of T affiliated Toronto School of Theology (TST).

Per government mandate, all universities within Ontario must have a substantive sexual violence policy in place by January 1, 2017. After months of consultations and a recommendations report, U of T’s draft sexual violence policy was released at the beginning of the school year for review prior to implementation in January.

When speaking to The Varsity on November 4, U of T spokesperson Elizabeth Church stated that U of T students would be bound by the policy; non-U of T students who attend a federated college or the TST would be exempt.

TST Director Alan Hayes recently confirmed that all students enroled in the seven colleges within the TST

will be subject to U of T’s Policy on Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment.

Hayes confirmed that the TST and U of T had come to a “verbal agreement” on the policy, but also mentioned that “some of our member colleges may need to take it through their governance, and the Provost’s office is taking it to Business Board.”

Hayes noted the importance of consistency between the colleges and U of T: “There are many student course cross-registrations between U of T and TST and a number of statusonly or joint faculty appointments between U of T and TST, and if a case arose that involved both U of T and TST people… it would be clumsy to have different jurisdictions and different sets of procedures.”

Hayes was optimistic that the policy would be implemented, adding that he did not “foresee any hitches in the process.”

The TST is made up of seven theological institutions affiliated with U of T: Knox College, Regis College, Wycliffe College, St. Augustine’s Seminary, Victoria University’s Emmanuel College, University of St. Michael’s College’s Faculty of Theology,

and University of Trinity College’s Faculty of Divinity.

Echoing Church’s statement, Kelley Castle, Dean of Students for Victoria College, confirmed that all Victoria College students are also U of T students and will be covered by the U of T’s policy.

Emmanuel College Principal Mark Toulouse noted that there would be “no exemptions [from the sexual violence policy] for schools affiliated with TST.” Emmanuel hosts conjoint degree programs with both U of T and Victoria University.

Emmanuel is a constituent college at Victoria University and therefore connected to U of T and its policies by way of its partnership with Victoria University.

“Emmanuel is invested in the policy, and in doing all we can to assist both Vic and U of T in the implementation of the policy,” said Toulouse.

Joseph Schner, who is the interim President of Regis College, also confirmed that U of T’s sexual violence policy would come into effect at Regis on January 1.

Wycliffe College’s Communications Coordinator Connie Chan stated, “In matters of Health and Safety,

we try to synchronize our policies with those of the U of T. Members of our board have studied the U of T Sexual Violence Policy, and we anticipate that the U of T policy will be adopted before the end of the year.”

Chan noted that the sexual violence policy would apply to all students at Wycliffe, regardless of whether they were conjoint students with U of T. Trinity College confirmed that their status as a federated college would impact how the sexual violence policy would operate. Mayo Moran, Provost and Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College, stated that the vast majority of Trinity students are undergraduates of the Faculty of Arts & Science or other U of T faculties, who are automatically covered by the policy.

In addition, Moran highlighted that the U of T policy “applies more broadly than just to the student body, and it may be that the federated universities want to adopt the U of T policies because of these broader provisions which cover staff and faculty.”

Moran stated that Trinity may choose to supplement the U of T

policy with additions that are specific to Trinity. “Until we know the final shape of the U of T policy… we probably won’t know how exactly the [federated colleges] may choose to supplement or adopt the U of T policy.”

Moran chaired the Expert Panel on Sexual Violence Policies — a group tasked with providing suggestions on how to best implement the sexual violence policy. She advised that she does have some expertise on the issue due to her role on the panel; she was not involved with the development of the policy afterwards.

“As we go forward I hope that may help Trinity decide what additional steps it may want to take but at the end of the day, that will be a decision for the Trinity community,” Moran said.

University of St. Michaels’s College (USMC) President David Mulroney stated: “We are working to ensure that we can implement the policy at St. Michael’s in a manner that fully accords with our rights and status as a federated university.”

Mulroney’s office declined further comment when asked how USMC planned to implement the policy.

NOVEMBER 21, 2016 • 5

var.st/news SCSU, from cover Students spoke on a variety of campus issues during the question and answer session following the executive reports. A lengthy discussion regarding the microwave situation at UTSC ensued.

Kirk responded to these student inquiries: “Students are scrambling around looking for places to charge their laptop and phones as well. If we are to implement more microwaves, we also have to consider where the outlets will come from.”

Rajabi also responded to the concerns raised, conducting an informal vote by hands that asked the audience if they would prefer two microwaves in one location or the microwaves to be spread out; a majority voted for the latter.

Another popular discussion was about the lack of study spaces on campus, which was prompted by inquiries from multiple students, with the consensus being that more study-space options should be implemented.

Both Kirk and Vice-President Academics and University Affairs Thomas Wood suggested that students participate in an upcoming Study Space forum that will be hosted by SCSU. Wood also added, “Once Highland Hall is completed, there’s going to be a whole bunch of brand new study spaces as a longterm solution.”

There were two motions amending bylaws and a single motion submitted by UTSC student group Caribbean Connections. The first motion concerned Rajabi’s role and recommended that the Vice-President, Operations should have a vote in the elections for Board of Directors meetings. Currently, the VicePresident Operations and the Vice-President Campus Life are appointed positions and nonvoting members of the Board of Directors.

Kirk briefly motivated for the motion, arguing that it will increase accountability and provide more agency for the Vice-President,

UTMSU, from cover Operations. This motion was approved with no further debate or discussion from students.

The second motion, concerning commissions, also passed without any contention.

Vice-President Equity Nafisa Mohammed moved for an updated and amended commissions bylaw. These updates include changing the frequency of meetings from three times a month to once a month and allowing students to automatically become voting members if they attend one meeting. Mohammed said that this change is an attempt to increase accessibility for students.

The only motion submitted by the union’s general membership was from the group Caribbean Connections. It asked SCSU to donate $500 to a Haitian-led organization helping with relief following Hurricane Matthew last month and endorse a campaign led

by Caribbean Connections called Hope for Haiti.

Kirk spoke in favour of the motion and said that SCSU designated an amount of money as a donation. With regards to affordability, Kirk said, “We definitely can [do it], this isn’t something that is out of the ordinary or out of range.”

She continued, “I think it’s really important for us to support and give back to, not only local communities, but to global communities that are impacted by things like natural disasters.”

A student asked Caribbean Connections member Dominic Stephens where the money would be going and if UTSC students can receive a report on the progress of the initiative once the money is donated. Stephens responded saying that there has been significant controversy with Red Cross, so Caribbean Connections is in the process of finding an organization to give the donations to.

The motion carried and the AGM was adjourned soon after.

Students present at the AGM questioned the cost of such an undertaking. The 1999 centre was built using funds generated primarily from students, with some money coming from community partners.

In 2014, a proposal to levy funds to expand the centre was brought to a referendum vote.

In the 2014 initiative, students would have contributed $2 million in funds for an expansion. The university agreed at that time to match student contributions if the levy referendum passed. The 2014 vote failed by a close margin.

Alideeb said that she hopes to have another referendum within two years in order to move forward on the expansion.

Following a show of support at the AGM, the UTMSU will be reopening discussions on how to expand the existing space. The expansion would require multiple consultation sessions in order to proceed. Additionally, the university would have “some say” in how the centre would or could expand.

The Varsity could not obtain comments from the university by press time about how they might assist with funding for the project.

In addition to discussions on the proposed Student Centre expansion, the AGM also saw approval of bylaw changes that would change how the UTMSU ministries would operate.

Currently, the UTMSU has nine ministries where students can express their concerns and get involved in campaigns. The motion presented at the AGM would amalgamate the nine existing ministries and their functions into three commissions: Campaigns & Advocacy, Student Services, and Student Life.

Alideeb noted that a major aim of the change is to increase student involvement with the commissions, as having fewer meetings to attend allows for higher turn out.

In comparison, the University of Toronto Students’ Union operates five commissions

TOM YUN/THE VARSITY

UTMSU members voted to begin discussions regarding an expansion of the Student Centre. while the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union has three.

The meeting also saw the review of the audited financial statements. Vice-President Internal Jackie Zhao stated that The Blind Duck campus pub operated at a small surplus for the 2016 year, due to additional revenue from outside catering taken on by the pub and more efficient services.

The 2015–2016 audited financial statements for the UTMSU showed a deficit of $23,202. Zhao stated that the ministries’ expenses were much higher this year than in previous years due to more events such as Free Breakfast Wednesdays, which serves on average 350–400 people per year.

In addition, the boiler at the Student Centre broke, which contributed to increased maintenance costs for the building. There was no deficit for orientation last year, which Zhao attributed to “excellent promotion and very good budgeting.”

Further spending went towards increased wages for employees and extended hours of operation in the Student Centre.

UTSU holds week-long eXpression Against Oppression events Union cancels second planned town hall confronting anti-Blackness Lesley Flores Varsity Contributor

eXpression Against Oppression (XAO), an annual week of events aimed at challenging oppression and giving voice to marginalized people, took place last week. Issues addressed included a panel discussion on bans of burkinis in various jurisdictions, a screening of a documentary on queer women of colour, and various events focusing on the role of artistic expression in combatting oppression.

In a statement to The Varsity, UTSU VicePresident Equity Farah Noori explained that XAO puts together a “series of events that aim to challenge oppressions by creating spaces for marginalized communities to come together and engage in critical discussions regarding the systems set in place to oppress them.”

The Varsity also spoke with UTSU President Jasmine Wong Denike, who emphasized the role of “artistic expression” and creating “spaces in which marginalized voices can be heard.”

The importance of art in anti-oppression practices was echoed by Frishta Bastan, who facilitated the “Poetic Resistance” event on November 16. She emphasized that XAO events were important at U of T as they provide a space where “narratives that aren’t necessarily mainstream are heard.”

Denike highlighted “Ban the Burkini Ban: Liberation is Within my Choice”, a panel discussion on November 14 organized in collabo-

STEVEN LEE/THE VARSITY

The Beehive Design Collective showcasing the “Mesoamerica Resiste.” ration with the Muslim Students’ Association, as “very well-attended,” while other events had lower turnouts.

When asked about the November 10 town hall on anti-Black racism that precipitated the cancellation of XAO’s “Confronting AntiBlackness at UofT Town Hall,” both Noori and Denike conceded that the first town hall’s poor attendance was attributable to failures within the executive.

Noori stated that “UTSU executives should have done better,” pointing out missed opportunities to collaborate with other campus groups and “put more effort into outreach.”

Similar sentiments were expressed by Denike, who stated that UTSU “could have done a better job of engaging Black student groups, which we largely failed to do.”

Although neither Denike nor Noori were able to provide a concrete timeline

for when the next town hall on anti-Black racism would take place, Noori stated that Black student organizations with recognized club status and UTSU membership would be consulted.

When asked about the allegations made by the Black Liberation Collective (BLC) of how UTSU’s intentions in organizing the town halls were “nothing more than the UTSU pretending to address their antiblackness for good PR,” Denike emphasized that “it’s not true that the town hall was about PR” nor “about winning the approval of the BLC.” Denike went on to say that UTSU was “taking the allegations against us seriously,” and that the intention behind the town hall “was to give our Black members an opportunity to express their concerns. We’re still committed to that.”

Noori stated that moving forward, the “UTSU will put more effort into ensuring we execute proper and genuine spaces for Black students to voice their concerns of the organization.”

Denike reiterated the importance of the criticisms launched against the UTSU, conceding that it “is a big, bureaucratic organization that maybe isn’t very good at doing everything itself,” and “it’s telling that our most well-attended event was done in collaboration with another group.”

Denike concluded: “Maybe we should stop resisting the fact that, at a school like U of T, a students’ union can do the most good by working with and supporting other groups.”

6 • THE VARSITY • NEWS

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UTSU joins ADVOCAN in Ottawa Student union collective lobbies for increased undergraduate funding, transparency Joshua Scott Varsity Contributor

The University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) spent November 14–17 in Ottawa, lobbying with six other student unions from across Canada on student issues that fall under federal jurisdiction. Student leaders from the U15, which is a group of Canadian research universities, focused primarily on issues pertaining to undergraduate research funding and Indigenous access to post-secondary education.

“ADVOCAN is a loose coalition of some of the top undergraduate research universities in Canada [that have] come together to focus on undergraduate student needs,” said Jasmine Wong Denike, President of the UTSU. The group was founded last year, when it focused on “youth unemployment/ unpaid internships, international students, and the Canada Student Loans Program,” Denike told The Varsity.

ADVOCAN consists of student unions from universities that are part of the U15. Unlike the Canadian Federation of Students or the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, ADVOCAN has no membership fee or memorandum of agreement and its formal structure is still under development.

ADVOCAN is loosely structured and does not collect membership fees. LOGO COURTESY OF THE WESTERN UNIVERSITY STUDENT COUNCIL “I can confidently say that our asks were treated with a lot of respect and possibility. We started our week with a little over 30 meetings, and had over 60 scheduled by the end of it — between 9 people, that meant we had at least 15 meetings per delegate,” said Denike.

ADVOCAN’s 2016 platform had three areas of interest addressed in its Tri-Council agencies: increased funding, data collection, and increased student opportunity.

The group lobbied the federal government to lift the 2 per cent cap on the Post-Secondary Student Support Program (PSSSP) and for an additional $50 million to be provided to the PSSSP per year, as promised by the 2015 federal Lib-

eral Party platform. This measure was not included in the most recent federal budget.

ADVOCAN argued that the 2 per cent cap on the PSSSP has hampered the program’s ability to increase accessibility to post-secondary education for Indigenous students.

ADVOCAN recommended that Ottawa increase targeted undergraduate funding in all three TriCouncil agencies. ADVOCAN also requested that Ottawa “increase data collection on these targeted Tri-Council funding opportunities for undergraduate students, as well as the current numbers of undergraduate student trainees involved in Tri-Council-funded faculty research proposals.”

These suggested measures are designed to encourage undergraduate participation in research, through, among other avenues, increased funding for small on-campus initiatives.

ADVOCAN specifically requested more targeted undergraduate funding by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and an increase in existing undergraduate funding by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).

Additionally, ADVOCAN raised concerns that accessible information regarding undergraduate opportunities and funding offered by

the SSHRC and CIHR is currently limited.

Conversely, ADVOCAN notes, NSERC published ample information publicly between 2001–2011.

In light of this, ADVOCAN recommends that SSHRC and CIHR adopt the NSERC model of data collection, and that NSERC make their data available after 2011.

“It has been an incredibly humbling experience advocating alongside eight other incredible student leaders. We want to thank everyone who met with us—from members of parliament, policy advisors, staffers, and everything in between,” said Denike. “We’re looking forward to seeing the developments that will come out of our incredibly productive meetings.”

Citizen Lab uncovers censorship across Chinese live-streaming apps Report details use of censored keywords at developers’ discretion Helena Najm Varsity Staff

The Citizen Lab, a research centre based at U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs, has published a report following a year-long investigation into censorship practices concerning Chinese live-streaming applications Sina Show, YY, and, 9158.

Citizen Lab’s research was done by reverse-engineering the applications in order to examine the scripts that facilitate censorship, such as keyword bans which were on the client-side and therefore completely accessible to researchers after the reverse-engineering process.

The popularity of live-streaming using these applications has risen exponentially, with people using them to perform and share glimpses into their everyday lives.

While the government puts pressure on these private companies to implement keyword restrictions limiting the availability of content pertaining to “politics, guns, drug, violence, or pornography”, the report indicates that it is left to the application developers’ discretion to choose exactly which words to track and ban. They are, however, potentially subject to punishment by the state if they do not comply.

While further national oversight could provide consistency across applications, Citizen Lab Research Manager Masashi Crete-Nishihata explained the government’s use of this model: “In the West this kind of system is called ‘intermediary liability,’ in China it’s called ‘SelfDiscipline.’ It’s not practical for the government to directly control every aspect of censorship, they need the participation of the private

sector,” he explained. “Pressuring companies to follow ‘self-discipline’ is how the government can be effective. Our research shows how this system works in practice.”

The keywords stretch beyond banning explicit content to limiting coverage and commentary on significant events such as China’s loss in the South China Sea arbitration against the Philippines, the twenty-seventh anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, and September’s G20 summit in Hangzhou.

In the case of The Republic of the Philippines v. The People’s Republic of China, China rejected a Hague international tribunal’s July ruling that stated that China had no claim to ownership of the South China Sea and within two days, several applications added ‘South China Sea Arbitration’, ‘President Xi’s re-

jection’ or ‘Hague’ to their keyword lists, leading to false or little coverage of the ruling or the impact that China’s rejection of the ruling could have on the region.

On November 4, the Cyberspace Administration of China announced the formalization of comprehensive regulations that will be enforced on private companies by December 1 in response to the increased use of these streaming services, which are estimated to reach a profit of $5 billion by the end of 2017. These regulations include the sharing of log data with authorities and providing them with user information for accounts that stream content deemed threatening to the state.

While increasing restrictions on the use of streaming applications reveal constant tension around social media use in China that threatens the state’s social control,

users are always trying to find ways around censorship efforts and the state is constantly shifting its censorship strategy.

“Chinese netizens have developed creative ways of using the Chinese language in an effort to evade censorship. Examples include homophones, homoglyphs and other coded references,” CreteNishihata told The Varsity. “We see numerous examples of this creative speech in the keyword lists showing that censors are clearly picking up on these practices, engaged in a cat and mouse game between users.

The censors will never be able to comprehensively censor speech through keyword filtering, nor will users always be able to evade these controls.”

Representatives from Sina Show, YY, and 9158 could not be reached for comment.

Comment

November 21, 2016 var.st/comment comment@thevarsity.ca

Examining the repercussions of Trump’s election for Canadians Jennise Minott Varsity Columnist

Keystone XL It comes as no surprise that a president-elect who called climate change a hoax perpetuated by the Chinese has expressed interest in putting the Keystone XL pipeline back on the table. There are a number of issues with Keystone XL, including the risk of oil spills along the pipeline, the potential for drastically increased carbon emissions, and the sidelining of the concerns of Indigenous peoples — which include damage to sacred sites, water contamination, pollution, and subsequent increased health risks. Despite this, following Trump’s election, TransCanada spokesperson Mark Cooper expressed the company’s willingness to work with Trump, stating that TransCanada “remains fully committed to building Keystone XL.” Given that it was President Barack Obama who rejected the pipeline proposal and not Trudeau — who stated that he was “disappointed by the decision” — there is a real risk of the return of Keystone XL. From a strategic point of view, the Keystone pipeline would only further the Canadian oil industry’s dependence on the US at a time when Canada should be trying to diversify its markets; projects such as the Energy East pipeline were introduced for this very purpose.

More importantly, since both the US and

Canadian governments will be open to the Keystone XL project once Trump is sworn in, it is much less likely that the concerns of environmental groups and Indigenous activists will be adequately heard. This will undoubtedly set a dangerous precedent for how Canada handles such concerns.

Political shifts The political shifts that will come out of Trump’s election are potentially devastating for the party system in Canada. The rhetoric that has suddenly jumped to the forefront of political discourse is not only jarring and divisive — it is being strategically employed to warp perceptions of important issues. These constructed misconceptions can later be used to gain votes.

For example, Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch recently stated that she feels Trump conveys an “exciting message that needs to be delivered in Canada as well.” Leitch wants every “visitor, immigrant, and refugee” to be screened for “Canadian values.”

Leitch is using divisive statements as a campaign tactic, much like Trump did. This appears to be an attempt to appeal to the social right-wing in the hopes that enough members of the Conservative Party will follow suit, rather than vie for the votes of the centre-right party members, as over 10 other leadership candidates are doing. Although this may seem like a risky strategy, let’s not forget that Trump won using the same kind of ideological maneuvering.

These politicians are bringing forth the kind of hateful speech that previously lurked in the darkest corners of reddit and attempting to spin them into policies. Such provocations from politicians like Leitch and Trump are largely based on prejudice and hold no correlation to the issues they purport to be trying to fix. When these mes-

sages are disseminated on a large scale, they have the potential to warp perceptions on important issues such as immigration and national security.

Increases in targeted violence Since Trump’s election, reports of violence against marginalized people, particularly in the form of anti-Blackness, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and sexism, have been on the rise and documented on social media and in the news. Women have reported having their hijabs pulled off, including on a number of university campuses. There have also been multiple reports of racialized people being stopped and harassed at gas stations and convenience stores.

Though we may attribute these hateful actions to Trump’s US supporters, these incidents have not been confined to the United States. Recently-released footage of a racially-charged verbal attack on a Toronto Transit Commission bus reveals the perpetrator saying, “Yeah, so what? Go Trump!” when called a racist. This is a clear verbalization of the connection between Trump and the normalization of racism and xenophobia; it has been demonstrated in many other reports of harassment over the last few weeks.

In light of these events, arguing that not all Trump voters and supporters are bigoted is not just unproductive — it also misses the point. In showing support for Trump, people are affirming that issues like racism, sexism, and xenophobia are secondary to them, and the lives of those affected by Trump’s election are not of importance. As The Daily Show correspondent Hasan Minhaj articulated in his statement after the election, being racist, sexist, and xenophobic comes with the package when it comes to Trump. Taking that deal is to say, “I don’t hate you. I just don’t care about you.”

OREOLUWA ADARA/THE VARSITY

Following President-elect Donald Trump’s election to the White House, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau released a congratulatory statement that emphasized Canada’s “shared values” with the United States; it focused almost entirely on boosting trade and security.

This move — especially when compared to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s vow to only work with Trump on the basis of respect for all — makes it clear that Trudeau will be placing what he deems to be ‘diplomacy’ over the safety and security of the millions of marginalized people who will be affected

by Trump’s presidency. What is more, like Trudeau, the frantic reports in the media detailing what the US election may mean for Canada’s fate have focused almost exclusively on the economy and the various trade deals that the country has with the US. However, the devastating consequences that Trump’s policies and rhetoric will have on marginalized Canadians and the environment are deserving of more attention. It is not only ignorant but also dangerous to assume that Canadians will not be affected by the election of a bigoted president in the US. Canadians must show solidarity with the people who have been and will be affected by Trump, in order to live up to the country’s image as a benevolent state committed to justice and equality.

Given the profound impact Trump’s election has and will have for Canadians, Trudeau’s statement about “shared values” was in poor taste. It needs to be made clear that, by electing Trump, the values the highest office of the United States will soon represent are not acceptable to a Canada that prioritizes the protection of marginalized populations.

Working against the hate that Trump represents can start locally: strategies include rejecting the rhetoric perpetuated by politicians like Leitch, demanding increased government consultation with environmental groups and Indigenous peoples, and disallowing the safety and security of marginalized people to be sidelined in the name of the economy.

This election has brought to light the kind of prejudice that has always, albeit subtly, been present in our society, regardless of political alignment. Beliefs that were previously considered radical, alternative, and even insignificant have taken the spotlight. There is much work to be done in Canada to combat bigotry, and it starts with showing solidarity with those who are most threatened by Trump’s election, rather than pandering to or finding excuses for perpetrators of said bigotry.

Saambavi Mano is a third-year student at Victoria College studying Peace, Conflict, and Justice Studies. Her column appears every three weeks.

8 • THE VARSITY • COMMENT

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Trumping the TPP Why fighting international capital through non-racial working class movements is necessary to deter Trumpism in Canada Ibnul Chowdhury Varsity Contributor

Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin: by the early hours of November 9, these tightlycontested states decisively won Presidentelect Donald Trump the presidency. These states are part of the ‘Rust Belt,’ an industrial heartland suffering from decades of deindustrialization, job outsourcing, and automation due to neoliberal globalization and free trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Indeed, the forces of international capital have economically degraded and disillusioned this blue-collar, predominantly white, working class.

But rather than organize this anger under a multi-ethnic, working-class coalition against the culpable capitalist class — as Bernie Sanders championed — their cause has been hijacked by a member of the capitalist elite. Trump has re-oriented this anger under a nationalist, racialized ethos. Rather than blame international capital — to which he contributes and from which he benefits — he has assigned responsibility to the ‘other’: the Mexicans, the Muslims, the Chinese, and the Japanese, to name a few. He has pretended to be an anti-establishment populist, someone who — unlike liberal, globalist elites like Hillary Clinton — can fight for the declining white working class. And he won.

As urban Canadians, perhaps our cosmopolitan character disable us from rationalizing the landscape that gave rise to Trump’s attractiveness to voters. However, we should be cautious to deem ourselves safe from the economic-racial dynamics that precipitated

what will be a Trump presidency.

In other words, we too must fight international capital and globalization. Its latest form is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a massive trade agreement between 12 countries. Among the thousands of jobs that the working class may lose, this agreement hands extensive power to corporations, allowing them to legally challenge national sovereignty and trample on environmental, labour, and Indigenous rights for the sake of profit.

At 2:00 pm on November 26, advocacy group Leadnow is organizing a rally at Matt Cohen Park to voice opposition to the TPP, which Prime Minister Trudeau’s Liberals support in the name of ‘free trade.’ Leadnow professes, “If we’re going to stop the TPP we need urgent action to show the Trudeau Liberals that approving this dangerous deal could cost them the support of the progressive voters who helped put them in office.”

Indeed, just as Clinton was painted as a globalist elite, Trudeau too, in three years’ time, could see himself replaced if he does not respond to the democratic interests of the Canadian working class. Making matters worse, we may not necessarily elect a Sanders-like, progressive candidate to replace Trudeau; our anger is not immune to Trump-like ultra-nationalism.

Consider the post-Harper Conservative Party of Canada (CPC). Interim leader Rona Ambrose has repeatedly slammed Trudeau for the decline of Alberta’s oil economy and the job losses of oil workers, both of which are products of international capitalist dynamics.

Recently commenting on the US elec-

Capping progress Scientific observations are not inherently marginalizing; their silencing must be stopped Shane Tingting Varsity Contributor

Recently, popular educational YouTube channel Crash Course deleted their videos on the topic of human geography. The issue was their commentary on a scientific approach known as ‘environmental determinism,’ which states that human cultures and fates are determined by their surrounding physical environments; Crash Course claimed this approach was racist. The original face of the channel, John Green, has since apologized for the scientific exclusion.

Although science has been abused throughout history to support colonialism and racism, I do not believe that scientific results are intended to be racist. Indeed, people may use or respond to science in ways that support marginalization, but scientific observations cannot be inherently marginalizing.

Reality has no feelings: our world doesn’t pick and choose who to affect. When it is done well with strong evidence, science explains why reality behaves the way it does.

Sometimes science can seem marginalizing on the surface — for example, climate change disproportionately affects poorer communi-

ties. However, we don’t claim climate change itself is a tool of marginalization; this would be like claiming that Hurricane Matthew was marginalizing Haitians.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t stop some people from attempting to silence scientific results. A lurking spectre of criticism continually colours scientific communities and writes off many scientific studies due to claims of prejudice targeted at the observations themselves.

Take, for example, a study published by Scientific Reports in 2013. The study was presented by one of the researchers, Dr. Hannah Fry, to an audience in Berlin and provided a mathematical model of the spatio-temporal development of the 2011 England riots — a five-day long series of riots that largely took place in England’s big cities, resulting in five deaths and an estimated $400 million CAD in property damage — by simulating the patterns and behaviours of the rioters involved.

In general, this research has helped us understand how riots develop through mathematical models, which provide a more accurate understanding of the spatio-temporal behaviour of riots that social sciences

Opposing the TPP will prevent the rise of harmful extremism.

SUMOFUS/CC FLICKR

tion, Ambrose attributed the outcome to the Democrats’ alienation of the working class; she predicts the same fate for Trudeau in her criticism of the Liberals’ plan to move a federal immigration processing office and its 280 jobs from Edmonton to a rural Albertan town.

More alarmingly, the Conservative Party may yield extreme leadership. For CPC leadership candidate Kellie Leitch, Trump’s victory was an “exciting message,” one that encourages her to stand up for “Canadian values.” Messages like this suggest that the Conservative Party’s exploitation of working class politics via nationalist rhetoric could make America’s problem our own.

Canadians urgently need to act against the dynamics that have played out south of the border. Rather than being dismissive, we must empathize with the grievances of the working class and build a broad, multi-ethnic movement that does not racialize issues but is responsive to working class issues on the basis of class itself against an industrygovernment elite. Notably, this struggle must involve transitioning into a democratic, non-fossil fuel economy that addresses the

volatility of oil and compensates Albertan oil workers, whose uncertain fate the Conservatives could exploit for Trump-like mobilization.

In broader terms, we must challenge Trudeau’s liberal notion of free trade that, through the TPP, sells out democratic interests for private interests.

Ironically, Trump also opposes the TPP and may very well kill it in the coming days.

Yet, we cannot passively wait for external dynamics to determine our own future, and Trump’s racialized, isolationist rationale for fighting the TPP cannot be our rationale. We must fight the TPP, but not as a fight against the ‘other’ taking our jobs — instead, the fight must be against international capital as an unjust and undemocratic force that compromises workers’ rights globally.

If we are to take anything away from the American election, it is that trumping the TPP is of immediate concern to Canadians.

cannot fulfill. This research can prove to be of great benefit to society, as it can help prevent riots by indicating which areas should invest in greater education to locally increase higher paying jobs and informing police on how to act appropriately during riots to prevent further instigation.

Yet, the audience responded to Fry’s presentation by claiming it supported the marginalization of poorer communities. People claimed that the study was authoritarian; allegations included that predictive policing grants the government too much control, which can result in the police suppressing dissent in poorer communities. Because the model is based on the arrests of the England riots, critics argued that the mathematical model justifies the marginalization of minorities and poorer communities by labelling them as disorderly.

The Crash Course YouTube channel exhibited the same behaviour as Fry’s audience — completely discrediting environmental determinism by claiming that it promoted prejudice, in this case racism. This probably stemmed from the fact that many colonial governments used environmental determinism as a mechanism to justify oppressive colonial practices. Despite these mishandlings, we cannot denounce the credibility to the modern scientific approach on environmental determinism — so-called neoenvironmental determinism. The merit of this information is overshadowed by its past uses.

Writing off science simply because it has been used to enforce marginalization would

be concerning for social justice as well, as we often use science as baseline evidence for justice advocacy. For example, we raise awareness about global warming to promote change and prevent the increased suffering of poorer communities from environmental destruction.

A world in which scientific studies could be dismissed due to the way they might be utilized politically would be a world lacking in the most impressive scientific developments.

Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution would not exist today, as it has formerly been twisted to justify white supremacy. Alfred Nobel would have never founded the Nobel Prize, as it could be said that his work on dynamite can more easily enable violence and thus enforce government control.

Fry puts it best: “It’s incredibly important that people... really understand what [science] can offer and what it can’t offer.”

Perhaps we are too afraid to admit unfortunate realities or too eager to change injustice and act rashly. But if we are going to better our world and create a more civil society, we must learn to accept and grow from the realities of our situation.

It is admirable that Green, as the face of Crash Course, has owned up to his mistake of removing a piece of science from his channel.

In turn, we must take scientific silencing seriously, considering the potential repercussions of bringing scientific progress to a halt.

Ibnul Chowdhury is a second-year student at Trinity College studying Economics, International Relations, and Peace, Conflict, and Justice Studies.

Shane Tingting is a third-year student at St. Michael’s College studying Neuroscience and Biology.

NOVEMBER 21, 2016 • 9

var.st/comment

Are you positive you’re sex positive?

Critically evaluating the myth of sex positivity Jennise Minott Varsity Columnist

Sex politics have always existed on the underbelly of our culture — too controversial and too personal to be discussed in polite society. Though marriage and childrearing were considered fair game, the intimate nature of sex play was considered too taboo for water cooler conversation.

In recent years, however, this has changed drastically, with an influx of sexual discourse permeating the media and our lives.

In 2016, one can walk down the road past an active SlutWalk and pick up a magazine that advocates for the female orgasm, all while condemning catcallers on the street for objectifying women’s bodies and simultaneously setting up multiple Tinder dates on your smartphone in support of sexual liberation. The reality of our present appears to be that society has visibly turned the taboo on its head.

When an issue is addressed superficially though, it may appear to have been rectified altogether. This is what has happened with sex positivity: while conversations about surface issues do take place, significant barriers to protecting sexual health and freedom remain. Nevertheless, people dance in the streets in crop tops and miniskirts, gleaming in delight at their newfound liberty. Because their joy is contagious, others may start to feel somewhat liberated as well.

Yet, this is not how liberation works. Many of the new trimmings and trappings of sex culture are in fact frivolous pretenses that carry no actual weight in the ongoing debate of sexual conduct. Although people like to shout from the rooftops about how feminism and egalitarianism ensure them the right to choose as many sex partners as they want as many times as they want, they rarely consider these principles when considering issues that do not affect them personally.

As a result, sex positivity has too often been

used as a thinly veiled excuse for propagating one’s own agenda to validate one’s own sexual preferences, with little regard for the beliefs and practices of others who remain on the outskirts of society.

Sex positivity has been articulated through the feminist call to decrease the stigma around casual sex. Still, certain topics, like Bondage, Dominance, Sadism, and Masochism (BDSM), are continuously treated with contempt and ridicule. Last year, when a subset of high school students in Toronto received pamphlets instructing them on how to partake in safe, consensual BDSM sex — though not explicitly advocating BDSM — there was uproar as to whether or not it was appropriate and ‘moral’ to teach students about this type of sexual activity. Real sex positivity is about seeing sex as such a normal component of humanity that, even when one does not personally find an activity desirable, they are able to understand and accept it from an outside perspective.

A similar issue arises with the depiction of sex positivity as simply having sex all the time. This brings to mind issues with SlutWalk, a movement that helps victims of sexual assault fight against victim-blaming mentalities that focus on appearance as the main cause of assaults. The name of the organization is an attempt to reclaim the term ‘slut’ so that it is used in a positive way by those whom it was originally meant to insult.

That being said, many minorities cannot easily disengage the term from its connotations. Black women have been hypersexualized and depicted as promiscuous throughout society regardless of their clothing or lifestyle. The same is true for members of the gay and bisexual communities. Reclaiming the term, then, does not have the same appeal to these groups as it does to straight, white women who can don and discard the label as easily as they can a bralette.

Then there is the problematic idea that to be sex positive means to think all sex should be free of criticism because it is a form of selfexpression. When we feel that we have successfully fine-tuned sex culture to the point where nothing is free of criticism, we lose

the drive to continue to be vigilant about our practices and ideologies.

For instance, if someone is only sexually attracted to people of a certain group, that person must be able to understand and critically defend that response — despite sex being such a personal experience. This is because the decision to have sex only with someone who exhibits certain attributes is in fact a political statement about what the individual finds attractive. Despite everyone being entitled to their own preferences, a black man only attracted to white women or vice-versa is implicitly commenting on the parties’ perceptions of Blackness.

Regardless of the reasoning for any particular pairing, society plays a part in our perceptions of what is attractive and valuable. Adhering to the standards of the society you live in is just as political as rejecting them, but either way one must be comfortable with accountability and discourse where their views are concerned. Being sex-positive means integrating conceptions and commitments to social justice with our ingrained sexual preferences and opinions — that also means being willing to challenge ourselves.

Sex positivity is about constantly being critical of your own actions and perceptions, not simply being comfortable with your own sexual lifestyle. It is only through criticism and objectivity, not blind acceptance, that one can truly form a sex positive identity. No one expects anyone else to be completely free of mistakes, biases, or blind spots, but simply admitting your mistakes goes a long way in allowing others to correct your behaviour.

Of course, this is not a mentality that can be formed overnight. However, the rewards of a culture that understands and adjusts itself to the implications of sex far outweigh the imagined rewards of a culture that gives itself a gold star for everything that looks like liberation on the surface.

Write for Comment Tell us what you think.

The Comment section is the perfect place at The Varsity for those who are just itching to express their opinions about what is happening in the world around them. If you want to get involved, here are some things you should know.

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You can write about (almost) anything.

Common topics include politics, campus life, pop culture, and university affairs.

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University students often get caught up in the meanderings of descriptive writing or the rigid mechanics of academic style. Journalistic opinion writing is short, snappy, and chock-full of persuasive language.

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Jenisse Minott is a second-year student at UTM studying Communications, Culture, Information, and Technology. Her column appears every three weeks.

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It’s time to encourage honest, productive, and challenging discussions about sexuality. NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY

Where speech ro

A look inside the online Students In Support of Fre Jacob Lorinc Managing Online Editor

On a cold and grey afternoon in late October, a small group of protesters stand huddled outside Simcoe Hall, the ink on their cardboard picket signs smudged by the rain.

Chad Hallman, a second-year Philosophy and Law student, stands atop the steps with a megaphone.

He’s doing what many protesters came out to support: he’s decrying some student activists for participating in what he sees as suppression of speech and singing praise for U of T Psychology Professor Jordan Peterson, who became the centre of controversy after posting a video on his YouTube channel decrying “political correctness” and non-binary gender identities.

“What we’d like to call for is an end to these identity politics,” Hallman proclaims to the raincoat-clad group.

“We believe that arguments should be judged based on the content of the actual argument, based on the evidence and the persuasions presented. We don’t think that someone simply has a monopoly on saying what’s racist, what’s not, and what’s valid and what’s not.”

The premise of the rally is rather simple: free speech is a guaranteed right for all, and it shouldn’t be taken away, no matter what that speech may be. Is free speech actually in danger? According to the protesters, yes it is. They feel that society is restricting it, specifically by people they refer to as ‘social

In a Facebook group that, until recently, was labelled ‘Students in Support of Free Speech’ (SSFS), over a thousand accounts’ worth of students, non-students, and Internet trolls comprise a broad coalition of free speech supporters.

justice warriors’ (SJWs) — student activists of a radical left mentality.

Passersby pay little attention to the rally.

A rally held a few weeks earlier appeared to have a significantly larger turnout, which was further escalated by the arrival of a swath of counter-protesters. This one is less exciting though. The protest lacks fervent dissent, and the poor weather situation isn’t helping.

After about an hour of open-mic discussion, the protesters casually disperse.

Open a laptop, though, and it is as if the protest never really ended — instead it grew larger. In a Facebook group that, until recently, was labelled ‘Students in Support of Free Speech’ (SSFS), over a thousand accounts’ worth of students, non-students, and Internet trolls comprise a broad coalition of free speech supporters.

Anyone can request to join this group — admission is then subject to the approval of an administrator — and once inside, members are welcome to discuss whatever thought the mind conjures up, so long as it does not incite violence, aim to harass others, or blatantly spam. Failure to comply after three warnings means an administrator will banish you from the group.

For those whose Facebook newsfeeds are filled by posts from liberally-inclined friends about the dangers of President-elect Donald Trump, the inside of SSFS’ Facebook group may seem similar to visiting the ‘Upside Down’ in the Netflix thriller series Stranger Things. Mostly, the comment threads act as outlets for members to vent their displeasure for SJWs, ‘trigger warnings,’ ‘safe spaces,’ or feminism.

Many participants describe the ‘regressive left’ as control-freak ideologues intent on regulating a person’s every move until society resembles something similar to George Orwell’s 1984 but maybe with more pronouns. Dystopian imagery of an Orwellian, totalitarian state is often invoked by the anti-regressive left contingency, followed

by warnings to fellow members regarding the socialist hell that will be unleashed upon them should radical student-activists have their way.

And then there are the trolls. In one thread, a member posts an animated video created by alt-right journalist Milo Yiannopoulos. It depicts the heads of crying, Democratic celebrities being shipped away in a school bus following Trump’s victory in the US presidential elections. Driving the bus is ‘Pepe the Frog,’ an Internet meme taken hostage by the alt-right.

In spite of the trolls, the group still has room for intellectual, productive discussion, according to the administrators.

“I would disagree that the group has become an echo-chamber,” replies group administrator Geoffrey Liew, when asked his opinion. “I have never really questioned my beliefs or been more uncomfortable with the way I see things than in the last couple of months. A lot of people who follow this group have never really thought about gender expression or American politics or any of these controversial topics more than ever now. They’re being confronted by a whole variety of things they’ve never seen or heard occur before.”

The SSFS leaders aren’t particularly concerned about the trolls either. Mari Jang, one of the group’s administrators, admits she would have removed some of these comments had she seen them, but as she sees it, the nastier posts — called ‘shitposting’ as per online diction — are a reflection of society: a minor inconvenience to necessary democratic fundamentals.

To suppress these comments, the admins hold, would be worse than to let them loose.

To bury them would be to let them fester.

“There are people who will say awful, terrible, counter-productive things,” admits Liew.

“But for me, and for many others, this has been a very valuable opportunity to examine our ideology and really put it to the test.”

Some members acknowledge the group’s

oams free

ee Speech community

virtues, while others disavow them, ditching the group out of frustration with its direction.

Before jumping ship, one member writes, “With the growth of the group, and I suppose the election of Trump, this has become less about freedom of speech and more about personal agendas and libel and hatred and racism... The name should not be students in support of free speech, it should be People in support of hate towards those who are different.”

Someone replies, “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” Another follows with, “Back in the safe space.”

Inner factionalism amongst the members has occasionally plagued the group, with varying understandings of where free speech ends and where hate speech begins unearthing differences. Some argue that hate speech is the incitement of violence — no more and no less — while others don’t believe in hate speech at all, advocating instead for a totally unfiltered, laissez-faire freedom to speak.

In early November, some members defected from the group to join ‘Students Against Political Correctness,’ priding the newfound group on using as little moderation as conceivably possible.

Similar movements have emerged at other universities, where students — fearing that their ability to speak freely is threatened by oppositional ideologues — have erected free speech organizations in an effort to maintain autonomy.

But the partisan nature of some has only served to feed into other students’ suspicions of these groups’ intentions. In some cases, perhaps the free speech supporters do not truly fear that their free speech is at risk but instead are searching for their own SJW-free echo chamber.

The most prominent example of this is the University of British Columbia’s Free Speech Club, a group of Trump supporters who converge to vocalize their support and don ‘Make America Great Again’ hats under the guise of supporting free speech. This group’s choice

to use ‘free speech’ as a title for a pro-Trump group is precisely what can cause oppositional groups to question the validity of free speech groups that claim to promote fruitful discussion.

On the other hand, SSFS executives are insistent that their group is apolitical. The executives have varying political ideologies — they are not by any means just a group of Trump supporters — but they are connected by their shared support of free speech and belief that it is in jeopardy.

“Everyone’s got their own personal opinions, and everyone is free to act on their own motivations in a personal capacity, but the group, in and of itself, is here to support free speech for everyone in principle,” notes SSFS executive Hallman.

Since their initial start-up, SSFS received ULife recognition, changed the Facebook group’s name to Students in Support of Free Discourse, and opened a separate online forum outside of Facebook — a change that some members took well and others not so much. The decision, says Jang, was “more of a rebranding thing than any kind of issue that arose,” but admittedly, through this process, they might “lose the trolls.”

So far, that seems to have been working. The new forum is neatly categorized by topic —

“Campus Freedom”, “Social Justice”, and so on — in an effort to encourage fruitful discussion.

Naturally, some of the same sentiments from the Facebook group transfer over.

Under “Campus Freedom”, one thread begins by posing, rather gingerly, a question that many are quick to try and answer: “How do we convince SJWs of our cause?” Some commenters reply hopefully, others with despair. Jang writes that she “won’t stop trying” but has yet to find any “common ground” with those who she perceives to be SJWs. In person, though, Jang acknowledges that perhaps this isn’t entirely true. The labels — SJWs and ‘free speech warriors’ — are vastly misleading; they only serve to polarize groups whose values, in many cases, overlap. “It’s easy to think of people in groups when you’re divided into your own Internet bubbles,” she tells me at the Bahen Centre, away from the on-goings of the Internet world. “In person, it’s much easier to reach agreements.”

Arts&Culture

November 21, 2016 var.st/arts arts@thevarsity.ca

Honest Reviews

The second installment of candor is here PHOTOS BY NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY

Doomie’s 1263 Queen Street West

7-Eleven 260 College Street

Varsity restaurant 364 Huron Street

When I first went to Doomie’s, one of Toronto’s greasiest vegan restaurants, arranging a time that worked for my party of three was a nightmare. I was warned by friends to expect long wait times. Although the place wasn’t spacious, I didn’t have to wait to be seated. Doomie’s opened in late April of this year, and since then, they have smoothed out many of the bumps from the first few months.

I’m not vegetarian, but my friend was. The menu doesn’t list the ingredients used in the dishes, so it was strange to hear my friend order a “BBQ pulled-pork burger.” She found it even more strange to bite into, marvelling at how “meat-like” the food tasted. They offer all kinds of ‘meat’ mains, from burgers to hot dogs.

My favourite part of the menu was the wide selection of fun fries. Our group ordered three types to share, with a general consensus that the

pesto fries were the best. I would return just to have them again. The portion sizes were gigantic, and all of us ended up taking sizable chunks of our meal home.

Doomie’s is a great restaurant to go to for meat-lovers and vegans alike. It has definitely changed my perception of how diverse vegan food can be. Now, when I talk to people who deride the limitations of a vegan diet, I send them to Doomie’s.

It’s not somewhere I would go often, however, since with drinks in addition to food, the meal can get a bit pricey for anyone on a student budget. And while it is vegan, it’s far from healthy. I left feeling as bloated as I would be after eating a regular burger or poutine. If that’s the kind of meal you’re looking for, this makes for a great alternative with the same after-effect.

Let me start by saying: no one willingly eats at 7-Eleven. It’s never anyone’s first choice. Some people don’t even know they serve food or how far their hot food menu has extended in recent months. And certainly no one feels good after waking up from a night of drinking to find a half-eaten meatball sub in their coat pocket.

That being said, I tried out some of their food for the purposes of this piece and because I only had fifteen minutes in between appointments.

I had the salt and pepper chicken wings, which are a mere $0.75 each, or 10 for $7.00. As I bit into the thickly coated, greasy, slightly overcooked meat, I had a flashback to a moment in time when I was a small girl and my grandmother would take me to The Ex at the end of each summer.

I could see the food stalls bustling with patrons, engulfed in clouds of steam. The sizzle of the oil rang in my ears. When I was transported back to

the present, I stood on the corner of Spadina Avenue and College Street, feeling slightly disgusted with myself for having broken my pledge to eat heathier this week.

The next item I tried was the pepperoni pizza. The slice was tiny but suspiciously cheap. I soon realized why: it tasted more like a frozen Pizza Pop than a fresh meal, except with gooier cheese. It was predictably cardboard-ish, but I was reminded of my first kiss. It was Pizza Day at my elementary school when my crush, Logan, led me behind a tree. With our eyes closed and sauce on our faces, he gave me a smooch. When I opened my eyes, I found myself halfway down Bloor Street with a slice of pizza dangling from my mouth.

Overall, 7-Eleven food is great if you’re in a rush but don’t expect much else.

Varsity restaurant is an interesting place. It boasts a fusion-style menu that may not suit everyone’s tastes.

The first time I went was in a moment of desperation near the end of last year, around mid-March. I had heard mixed things: many people were aware of its long-time presence on campus, some told me they were too intimidated by it, sticking instead to old favourites like New Ho King and Canton Chilli.

I was hungry, cold, and tired from studying at Robarts all day though, and I wanted something more for myself than a sandwich from G’s Fine Foods.

The interior of the restaurant felt old and the menu signs were faded, so the pictures of the dishes looked less than appetizing. I ordered the slightly overpriced beef and rice, sat

down, and waited. The space was busy; groups of people chatted about their courses while others hastily shovelled large helpings of rice into their mouths. The aroma of oil hung in the air above everyone.

My order arrived and I was disappointed to see that the portion was smaller than I was used to. But as I went back, each time I become more and more familiar, figuring the place out and getting to know the servers and cooks. After a while, I felt more comfortable, staying for longer periods of time, getting larger portions, and feeling like I was a part of the campus community.

I’m glad I decided to do something different that day because it was definitely worth it.

— Linh Nguyen, Varsity Staff

— Lisa Power, A&C Editor

— Lisa Power, A&C Editor

NOVEMBER 21, 2016 • 13

var.st/arts

Horror is relative at Toronto’s Indie Horror Festival The short film festival opted for suspense and thrills over guts and gore Nicolle Iovanov Varsity Contributor

Toronto’s Indie Horror Fest was held from November 9–12 and showcased a wide range of interesting short films. Of the eight shown, I was lucky enough to catch a couple films myself. The free festival took place in D-Beatstro, located at 1292 Bloor Street West, which prides itself on being “a community driven vegan cafe and DIY/DIT event space” that offers “art, music, food, treats and coffee.”

The aroma of fresh popcorn and baked treats greeted me at the door of the cinema and provided a cozy and welcoming environment to watch the films. It almost felt like I was at home. The cafe had rows of chairs set facing a projector where the movie was displayed. My friend noted that it definitely had a ‘hipster’ vibe.

The first film I caught was called Good Tidings. Luckily, the friends I was meeting with managed to secure three chairs together near the back. Straining our eyes to see the projector screen, we watched the film which is about three psychopaths who, dressed in Santa suits, decide to wreak havoc on a homeless community in an abandoned courthouse.

The trio use the courthouse for a sadistic game bent on hunting homeless residents down and

slaughtering them. A war veteran who had been living on the streets is thrust into the chaos and forced to muster up the courage he had kept buried inside.

I thoroughly enjoyed the soundtrack throughout the film, especially the ’80s synth-pop reminiscent of indie ’80s Troma films.

Pairing holiday cheer with a trio of psychotic slasher-Santas had me merrily shaken to the bone.

I had the opportunity to chat with the film’s writer, Stu Jopia, who also played Curly, one of the three psycho Santas. Jopia chose to create a holiday horror film because “I love the thought of there being an evil Santa Claus,” he said. “And to be honest, there’s something a little weird and terrifying about Santa Claus. He sits off all year deciding who gets presents and who doesn’t.

A bit cruel really.”

Jopia was also inspired by the fact that there is just something about that time of year that “makes people want to watch a good horror movie.”

I couldn’t have agreed more. The coziness of the holidays mixed with a truly unsettling horror film on the television spelled perfection.

On the overarching theme, Jopia explained that it touches on a deeper issue that plagues our nation today: that of rampant homelessness in our cities during the holidays.

“All around the world people suffer

at this festive time,” he said. “It’s not all smiles, family, and presents and we in the UK totally understand this and I wanted to weave this story into our own.”

The theme of marginalized individuals during the holidays is prevalent throughout the film. The homeless are seen struggling to defend themselves against the twisted manifestations of holiday cheer.

The next film I saw, Cage, was thrilling and suspenseful. The plot centres on a call-girl who wakes up to find that a client has locked her in a cage. It felt like more of a psychological thriller rather than a traditional horror film but it was terrifying nonetheless.

The premise had me sitting on the edge of my seat for the entire viewing. I especially loved that this was a single-cast film. This kind of approach can sometimes be intimidating for viewers, but Cage pulled it off. There was never a moment when I felt there should have been additional roles. The film and story were presented beautifully.

Speaking with director Warren Dudley, he said that his inspiration came from “wanting to create something cinematic and beautiful” despite their small budget. On the creative process of the film, he said: “Initially the girl was going to be held captive in a basement room but quite late in the day we came

DESIGN BY LAURA HENNESSEY, COURTESY OF TORONTO INDIE HORROR FEST

Experience stress and terror from something besides midterms.

up with the idea of a cage [which] made lighting and camera work so much more interesting.”

Dudley agreed that the film does not fit into the stereotypical horror movie mould. “I’m not sure Cage is really a horror film,” he said. “I think a viewer expecting blood, guts, and jump-scares may be disappointed.”

Instead, the effect is that the viewer feels deeply disturbed as the film

attempts to infiltrate their psyche using suspenseful tactics.

Due to its success in drawing interest, Toronto Indie Horror Fest will continue being hosted annually. It will also host monthly screenings at D-Beatstro called “Horror Night” which will premiere one feature film and one to two shorts.

Extraordinary Student of the Month: Alyy Patel Patel is on a mission to make the campus a safer space George Moshenski-Dubov Varsity Contributor

Extraordinary Student of the Month is a monthly series in The Varsity’s Arts & Culture section that highlights the exceptional roles University of Toronto students play in making their community better.

Alyy Patel is a third-year Woodsworth College student who is pursuing a major in Sociology and Sexual Diversity studies and a minor in Women and Gender Studies. She’s also the Co-President of Woodsworth Inclusive (WiNC) and has previously served as Associate Vice-President of Internal Services for the UTSU. She is passionate about activism, equity work, and social justice.

Patel has been devoted to LGBTQ+ issues since high school and her developing expertise in this field has helped her reach new heights at U of T. During high school, Patel ran her school’s Gay Straight Alliance, where she successfully organized a campaign for gender-neutral washrooms. The work she did before university earned her the Harmony Movement Canada Award, in recognition of her efforts to implement equitable changes and enhance the diversity in Canada.

STEPHANIE XU/THE VARSITY

Patel highlights the importance of being involved on campus.

For Patel, LGBTQ+ issues are of personal importance. “As a queer woman of colour, I’ve personally felt unsafe in some spaces and recognize that these spaces don’t always make room for folks like myself,” she told The Varsity.

“The reason I do activism is because I want to give voice to these folks that are very marginalized, that... are not often represented.”

In addition to WiNC and the UTSU, Patel has also been a member of Woodsworth College Student Association, and one of the Orientation Coordinator’s for Orientation Week. In her positions, she has continuously striven to make the university experience safer for all students on campus, especially those within the LGBTQ+ community.

Some of Patel’s achievements include implementing gender-neutral washrooms in the Woodsworth Residence Building and temporary gender-neutral washrooms during Orientation Week. She’s also worked with LGBTQ+ youth on addressing mental health issues, with an emphasis on understanding that mental health issues affect everyone differently. She has presented her findings

to professors, teachers, and medical professionals during the Rainbow Health Ontario’s National LGBTQ Health Conference earlier this year.

Patel’s next goal is to continue to advance in leadership positions on campus so she can help more people. “I’ve implemented many equity changes at Woodsworth, now I want to move to U of T as a whole,” she said. “Go beyond advocacy and actually ensure accessibility needs are met. [Consent] at U of T is a big issue and needs to be properly addressed. I want these changes to be made on a broader scale… and from there I can hope to move on to Toronto as a whole. I strongly believe U of T has a lot of potential.”

When asked what advice she would give to fellow students, Patel said that the key is to take baby steps, work your way up to bigger causes, and do not feel discouraged if things don’t work out immediately. “I think social justice is something we need everyone to advocate for. If you believe in it, go for it, strive for it, make a positive change,” she explained.

If you know an extraordinary student on campus and wish to nominate them, email arts@thevarsity. ca; provide their name, email, and why they deserve to be featured.

14 • THE VARSITY • ARTS & CULTURE

arts@thevarsity.ca

The Side Piece

Two sides of Canadian cinema The gap between French and English film is growing larger

Did you know?

In 1957, English professor and Victoria College President Northorp Frye published Anatomy of Criticism. The work attempted to create a structure for what would later become the study of literary criticism. Literary criticism falls under the under the category of cultural criticism, of which Hamlet and The Simpsons are also examples.

ELHAM NUMAN/THE VARSITY

Ben Harrison Smith Associate Arts & Culture Editor

After observing the success of Xavier Dolan’s It’s Only the End of the World, it seems that Canada’s independent film industry is thriving. Filmmakers like Dolan, Denise Villeneuve, David Cronenberg, and Atom Egoyan give the Canadian film industry a refined sensibility that often results in international success, recognition, and critical praise.

Yet these canonical filmmakers comprise just a small part of the industry. It’s an industry that is divided and, for the most part, unsupported by a large majority of Canadians.

its financial success was driven by support of the large Québécois viewership.

The Québécois are more keen to offer support of local filmmakers. The highest grossing film in Canadian history is Erik Canuel’s Bon Cop, Bad Cop — it made over $11 million dollars in 2006, with almost $10 million resulting from the success of the French-Canadian version in Québec. Outside of Québec, it seems like the rest of Canada is doing little to support local filmmakers, whose artistry is often overshadowed by high budget Hollywood films.

The Québécois effect In recent years, there has stood a stark divide between the Québécois film industry and the rest of Canada, which is largely due to the cultural barrier between provincial borders. Since Dolan’s success with I Killed My Mother (2009), he has consistently produced films that garner international acclaim. In 2014, he won the jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival for Mommy, which later became the highest grossing Québécois film that year.

Outside of Québec, its release was limited to Toronto and Ottawa.

There has stood a stark divide between the Québécois film industry and the rest of Canada, which is largely due to the cultural barrier between provincial borders.

Similarly, Atom Egoyan’s 2014 feature The Captive scored high at the box offices throughout Canada. It quickly became clear that

Show me the money It’s not hard to imagine why the Québécois are committed to supporting Québec artists. Québec is notorious for taking careful consideration when it comes to preserving their culture, and part of the success of Québécois film lies in the prominent featuring of French-Canadian actors. Since each component of the film is produced largely in Québec, this works to maintain a sense of solidarity and a shared cultural identity.

This rationale does not extend to English-Canadian films, as they seem to continuously suffer box office failures. One explanation could be the strong professional ties to the American film industry. English-speaking Canada shares many similarities to the US, which results in an assimilation of cultural identity and the sharing of talent with Hollywood.

Villeneuve’s Prisoners and Enemy and Jean Marc Vallee’s Dallas Buyers Club — both Canadian directors — have received international and North American critical acclaim and box office success.

Dolan’s first English film, The Death and Life of John F. Donavan, is being produced south of the border and will feature an all-star cast of Jessica Chastain, Natalie Portman, and Kit Harrington.

Canada’s film industry remains polarized and is being pulled towards where the money is: Hollywood.

Have some faith There are only two government bodies that allocate funding for films: Telefilm and National Film Board.

A solution would be for EnglishCanadians to more actively support its own film industry. Movie theatres across Canada would benefit from designating screens exclusively for Canadian films. Right now, Canada’s method of funding independent films lacks in developing talent. There are only two government bodies that allocate funding for films: Telefilm and National Film Board.

In a recent interview, Matt Johnson, writer and director of films such as The Dirties and Operation Avalanche, mentioned that his “big issue is that every single year 75 per cent of Telefilm’s funding goes to more or less the same kind of cabal of old-school Canadian filmmakers.”

This restriction means strict limitations are placed on talent development and diversification of content.

Get your head out of the snow Canadian films serve as vehicles for the Canadian voice and identity. Over the past couple of years, many films at the Toronto International Film Festival were seen as homogenous and perpetuating the Canadian stereotype.

“You can make films in this country that are not Canadian in the stigma-inducing maple syrup Canadiana kind of bullshit way.

But that you can actually make things with a strong voice that can go out, that can play anywhere in the world and stand up because they’re really strong and powerful stories, that happen to be Canadian,” said Andrew Cevedino, director of Sleeping Giant.

The low figures these films generate may be an indicator that the stereotype-dependent formula isn’t working. Dramatic, quirky, coming-of-age, or hockey — none of these genres do justice to the complexity of the Canadian identity.

For the English-Canadian film industry, change is necessary in all aspects of production, from creation to consumption. There needs to be more funding for a wider variety of films and support from theatres and audiences is key. Canadians are much more than a stereotype, and it’s time for the film industry to reflect this in both English and French Canada.

This piece was originally published June 15, 2016 on thevarsity.ca.

Protip: Don’t let your creativity suffer during exam season. The Al & Malka Green Artists’ Health Centre is a specialized clinic for artists located at Toronto Western Hospital. Recognizing that stress can put a damper on creativity, they provide complimentary “treatment to nurture and strengthen artists, and support them to keep creating art” to students and staff at post-secondary institutions.

Some of their services includes: workshops, group therapy, naturopathic treatment, and massage therapy.

Events: University of Toronto’s Association of Moving Image Archivists Audio Visual Sale November 21 Claude T. Bissell Building The Varsity Views Film Screening November 22 The Varsity Office, 21 Sussex Avenue Give A Night to World AIDS November 23 The Burroughes The Toike Oike presents: Movie Night November 24 Bahen Centre Countdown to Success November 24 Innovation Complex Rotunda, UTM Diversity in Canadian Media: A Talk with Anita Li November 25 The Varsity Office, 21 Sussex Avenue CINSSU presents: Free Friday Films November 25 Innis Town Hall UC Follies presents: Dogfight November 25 to December 3 Hart House Theatre

Science

November 21, 2016 var.st/science science@thevarsity.ca

For sex, it’s all about attitude

Science Around

U of T research: Those who believe sex takes work tend to be more satisfied

Town

Bitmaker: Intro to UX Design Interested in digitally creating your designs? Bitmaker is hosting a universal design workshop accessible to creators with limited knowledge of coding.

Participants bring their own laptops.

Date: November 21 Time: 6:30–9:00 pm Location: Bitmaker, 220 King Street West Admission: Free with registration Corrosion Protection to Extend the Life of Concrete Structures Maintaining infrastructure is crucial to the public safety and functioning of a city. This seminar aims to educate participants about corrosion of steel reinforcement and why it’s important to properly maintain it.

Date: November 23 Time: 7:00–9:00 pm Location: Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, 550 University Avenue Admission: $10.00 ($11.20 after an Eventbrite fee)

ELHAM NUMAN/THE VARSITY

Alex McKeen Editor-in-Chief

In 2012, Jessica Maxwell became interested in what she saw as a disparity between how sex is portrayed in the media and what the academic community has to say about it.

“I sort of noticed that... a lot of people sort of think that sex should happen effortlessly, whereas if you actually read all the sex research... it was all about, ‘You need to be motivated to make your partner happy’ or ‘You really need to devote a lot of time and attention to your sex life,’” she explained in an interview with The Varsity.

Maxwell, a PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology at UTSG, hypothesizes that there may be two prevailing attitudes about sex: that it should be effortless with the right partner or that it takes work. She calls these attitudes “destiny” and “growth” respectively and set out to measure the relationship between possessing these attitudes and sexual satisfaction in a study.

Her findings were reported in an article titled “How Implicit Theories of Sexuality Shape Sexual and Relationship Well-Being” in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology on November 3. According to Maxwell, ‘implicit theories’ is an existing framework that has been applied to a number of different domains. “There’s also this sort of idea about things like intelligence.

Do you think you need to work to be smarter or do you think it’s like your IQ’s... fixed?”

In her study, Maxwell applied the implicit theories framework to the question of sexual satisfaction, showing how “destiny” or “growth” attitudes towards sex may predict a person’s level of sexual satisfaction.

Her findings were conclusive: of the approximately 1,900 participants, those who possess “growth” beliefs about their sex lives reported higher levels of sexual and relationship satisfaction. Of the couples studied, Maxwell also found that the partners of people who possess “growth” beliefs are happier with their sex lives and relationships regardless of their own beliefs.

In other words, it seems to pay off to believe that sex takes work.

What is less clear to Maxwell is why this is the case. In her view, more research needs to be done to fully answer this question. That said, she is encouraged by her preliminary findings, which suggest that “growth” believers are taking action to improve their sex lives.

“Not only did they believe they need to work on it, we have some evidence that they’re doing things.

By that I mean more willing to sort of accommodate to their partner’s wishes,” says Maxwell. “Maybe if their partner wants to have sex in the morning more often, they’re going to try to do that and, just in general, seem to be more motivated to meet their partner’s needs.”

Some of the study’s results stood out as surprising to Maxwell. One was finding that women tended to believe in sexual “growth”, while conversely, men rated higher on sexual “destiny” beliefs. All participants were scored separately on both characteristics. “Men were more likely to endorse that ‘sex is effortless’ idea and then conversely

we saw women be higher in sexual growth,” Maxwell said, adding that this may seem “somewhat counterintuitive” to some people.

The difference can be explained by evidence that sexual satisfaction is actually harder to come by for women than men. Nevertheless, Maxwell’s main finding — that sexual growth beliefs correlate with happier sex lives and relationships — apply equally to men and women.

Maxwell’s research is not conclusive in regards to whether or not sexual attitudes can be learned in order to improve one’s sex life, but she is optimistic about this as well.

She described one study in which she primed participants with fake articles promoting either a “growth” or “destiny” ideology.

“And those magazine articles were able to at least temporarily induce people to hold those beliefs,” explains Maxwell, which supports her hypothesis. “I think that’s suggesting that we can move them around a little bit,” she concludes.

Racing Extinction Co-hosted by Wildlife Preservation Canada, this movie screening provides a perfect opportunity for environmentalists, scientists, and the public to open the discourse about key human activities contributing to environmental demise.

Date: November 24 Time: 6:00–9:00 pm Location: 350 Victoria Street Admission: $30.00 OpenCon 2016 Toronto Hosted by OOO Canada Research Network, this is the first ever conference bringing educators, researchers, and students under the same roof with the common agenda to promote open access, transparency, and communication between the scientific community and the public.

Date: November 26 Time: 9:30 am to 4:30 pm Location: 425 Adelaide Street West Admission: $15.00

16 • THE VARSITY • SCIENCE

science@thevarsity.ca

If it slithers like a snake “Four-legged snake” may actually be an extinct aquatic dolichosaur Connie Liu Associate Science Editor

A fossil of a species with an obscure ancestry has rattled the palaeontology community in a controversy that is as much about the origin of snakes as it is about the politics of science.

Tetrapodophis was hailed as the missing link in the evolution of legless snakes from four-limbed reptiles. The original paper, published in Science last year, suggests the approximately 110-million-yearold fossil to be of a four-legged snake, characterized by hooked teeth and grasping limbs.

Although the closest relatives of snakes are marine lizards, the most primitive snakes were burrowing snakes. As a result, there has been an ongoing disagreement amongst palaeontologists over whether snakes descended from terrestrial or aquatic predecessors.

This rare fossil seemed to be the crucial piece of evidence that pointed to the burrowing ancestry of snakes until recent analyses called its true identity into question. UTM

Professor Dr. Robert Reisz and his colleagues have voiced a challenge to the original claim.

“It wasn’t very convincing in the first place because the limbs are tiny and very peculiar-looking,” said Reisz. “I independently became very suspicious and wanted to follow up and look at this.”

The fossil was held in the Bürgermeister-Müller-Museum in Solnhofen, Germany, where Reisz and his collaborator from the University of Alberta, Michael Caldwell, flew to study the fossil in person.

Contrary to the initial hypothesis, they found the specimen to have limb anatomy “highly suggestive of aquatic habits.”

“We came to a very different conclusion, which fit actually more in line with what the fossil in general is showing,” said Reisz. They published this alternative interpretation in Cretaceous Research in June 2016.

“That is not an uncommon phenomenon. In fact, it has happened multiple times that lizards reduce, or even lose, their legs,” explained Reisz. “They are still lizards.”

Reisz and his colleagues systematically refuted the original hypothesis in a presentation they delivered at the annual Society for Vertebrate Palaeontology meeting, testifying the misinterpretation of the specimen by the paper’s authors. Instead, they believe the fossil to be that of the oldest known dolichosaur, an extinct genus of aquatic lizard.

When the Tetrapodophis paper was published, the fossil was only temporarily accessible. “The specimen was [later] withdrawn from the museum and was reclaimed by the private collector, so it was never really donated to that museum,” said Reisz. He stated that authors of the original paper gave Science the impression that this was the case, when in reality, “it was just a loan.”

A further complication concerns the legality of exporting a fossil from its country of origin, which in this case is Brazil. “We are fairly certain that this… specimen was illegally exported from Brazil and bought [by] a private collector,” Reisz claimed.

This interfered with the accessi-

VIVIAN TONG/THE VARSITY

bility of the specimen, a standard of utmost importance in science. “Reproducing palaeontological results depends on unrestricted access to fossils described in the literature, allowing others to re-examine or reinterpret them,” wrote Reisz in a correspondence to Nature. “Museums have policies and protocols for keeping materials in the public trust, but accessibility to privately owned fossil collections can be a problem.”

On November 11, Science reported that the fossil will be returned to

the Bürgermeister-Müller-Museum.

“It’s kind of a victory on our part, politically speaking, because important specimens should not be in private hands. They should be actually donated to an institution where scientists can study [them],” Reisz argued.

“I think the politics of the whole issue is in many ways just as exciting because it points to what is proper and what is not proper to do in science,” he explained.

It’s all about the little things U of T postdoctoral fellow Rachelle Choueiri discovers new property of nanoparticles Nadia Woinowsky-Krieger Varsity Contributor

How do we visualize the shape of a molecule when it is just billionths of the size of a metre? The answer can have enormous implications for research in a vast array of areas — from drug development to solar cells. However, before we can even begin to design a solar cell or get a drug to do something new inside the human body, we need to understand the very basic ways in which these very small objects, or ‘nanoparticles’, act under specific conditions.

Needless to say, visualizing an object that is too small to even be seen by a microscope is no easy task. That’s why U of T’s postdoctoral fellow Rachelle Choueiri teamed up with a group of physicists who specialize in materials and a type of powerful imaging tech known as “electron tomography” to unearth the most fundamental behaviour of the elusive nanoparticle. The groundbreaking results of Choueiri’s research were published last month in Nature.

We spoke to Choueiri to find out what secrets of polymers earned her research a spot in one of the most prestigious science journals.

She explained the ingredients of her research. First of all, we need a rounded object. In this case, Choueiri used a very small sphere

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE KUMACHEVA RESEARCH GROUP

Choueiri and members from the Kumacheva Research Group.

made entirely out of gold, which is a pure substance, but more importantly, it can be made perfectly spherical on a tiny scale.

Secondly, we need our object of study, which is a string of molecules. The general term that biochemists use for molecules linked together in a chain is a ‘polymer.’

To help imagine what such a chain of molecules would look like, think of it as not too different from a string of hair, although the polymers Choueiri is working with are thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair.

“Imagine a dog’s fur coat just when it comes out of the water,”

said co-researcher Oleg Gang from the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York during an interview with Science Daily. “Based on the length and thickness of the hair, or the shape of the dog’s body, it will clump in very different ways.

Our polymer morphologies are a bit like that, where you have a huge range of ‘breeds’ that emerge when wet. The key difference, beyond the scale, is that the patch patterns change the structural properties of the nanoparticles.”

Usually when this patchiness is observed in polymers, the polymers are of a type that reacts to mixtures of different types of liquids. “That

means it’s a polymer with like, two personalities, one likes water, and one likes oil, for example,” Choueiri explains to us. “And this we can kind of control based on our solvent, how they look.”

Now, for the first time, the team has observed an uneven pattern of patches emerging in polymers that are chains of one type of molecule that likes one type of substance. If we were to imagine a picture of the object, it would look like a perfectly round sphere, with big bumps on it that are actually clumps of long chains of objects, just like how dog hair will clump together on a dog’s skin.

Thanks to electron tomography however, we don’t have to imagine the polymer clumps. The technology used by Choueiri is an advanced type of imaging that takes pictures of incredibly small objects from multiple angles. The result is a three-dimensional image that shows exactly what shape the clumps of polymers are making. It is thanks to this visualization that the researchers were able to definitively prove their results.

Choueiri says that it may be “the first time that homopolymer [a polymer that only likes one liquid] segregation has been visualized in this way.”

The study of polymers is important to drug development, because in a manner of speaking, you can

use them to help ‘deliver’ drugs to the part of the body that they are supposed to be acting on, for instance a tumor.

“Potentially you could put organic molecules inside the polymer bushes [as cargo],” Choueiri says. “For example, if you’re trying to send something in the body as a stealth molecule and then you have the polymer molecules that are supposed to protect the cargo inside, if they’re segregating in the body then actually parts of it are exposed, and this leads to something called ‘non-specific attachment’ which is really bad.”

The idea is that the shapes that the patches of polymers make on a round surface can be used as a sort of code for the body, as the patches are unevenly distributed. Thanks to Choueiri’s research, we now know more about how this happens, why it happens, and under which biological circumstances.

Choueiri comments on how her work helps us understand in more detail how these very small, but very useful particles behave, and also how her work is useful to the rapidly developing world of biology and medicine: “We’re chemists who stumbled upon something which is fundamentally interesting and interesting from an application standpoint,” she says.

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Energy is hard to find U of T researchers identify energy source for microbial communities deep in Earth’s crust Hannah Fung Associate Science Editor

Most living things derive their energy from sunlight. Plants use light energy to convert carbon dioxide into organic compounds, which in turn fuel animals and detritivores.

For the microbial communities living 2.4 kilometres below the Earth’s surface, however, sunlight is not an option.

Barbara Sherwood Lollar, Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at U of T, explained, “Many of the subsurface microbial communities are chemolithotrophs, deriving their energy for life from the chemistry of waterrock reactions in the deep, dark parts of the earth — rather than basing their energy on photosynthesis as surface life does.”

Isolated from the Earth’s surface, these microbial communities rely on chemical reactions — specifically, the oxidation of hydrogen and the reduction of sulphate — to generate energy. In this redox reaction, hydrogen ‘donates’ electrons and sulphate ‘accepts’ them. While hydrogen is probably produced from the breakdown of water mol-

ecules by ionizing radiation, the question of the source of sulphate is unresolved. “[Studying these microbial communities] expands our understanding of the range of metabolic strategies life can use to sustain itself on this planet,” said Sherwood Lollar.

To identify the source of sulphate, Sherwood Lollar and her team studied the groundwater at the Kidd Mine in Timmins, Ontario, the deepest metal mine in the world.

The groundwater harbours some of the highest levels of radiogenic helium, neon, and argon recorded so far, which indicates that these waters have been isolated from the surface for billions of years.

Following the completion of borehole drilling, they sampled water flowing from the boreholes for over 60 months. Working with researchers at McGill University, they analyzed the different sulphur isotopes — sulphur atoms that differ in the number of neutrons — in the water.

After accounting for competing explanations, they concluded that the dissolved sulphate is derived from sulphide minerals, namely pyrite, in the surrounding Cana-

dian Shield rocks. In particular, the dissolved sulphate and the 2.7 billion-year-old rocks share similar isotopic signatures.

There is, however, one important difference. Compared with the host rock, the dissolved sulphate is enriched in the isotope sulphur-34.

While sulphur-34 can arise from both biological and chemical processes, the evidence in this case points to the work of microbes.

Their findings have important implications for planetary habitability. “Our study shows that water-rock reactions in ancient rocks that are billions of years old can continue to produce the electron donors and electron acceptors subsurface microbial communities can use to sustain themselves (in this case the hydrogen and sulphate that sulphate-reducing bacteria rely on),” explained Sherwood Lollar. “If this can work on ancient rocks on Earth, then similar processes could make the Martian subsurface habitable.”

Whether there is life on Mars is a separate issue altogether.

The study was published in Nature Communications on October 27. First author Long Li, who was a

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SHERWOOD LOLLAR RESEARCH GROUP

‘Underground’ science is edgy and hip.

post-doctoral fellow under Sherwood Lollar, is now the Canada Research Chair in stable isotope geochemistry at the University of Alberta.

There are still many questions to be answered. “We still need to determine what the distribution of ancient waters are on the Earth, what the ages of this deep hydrogeosphere are, how many are inhabited, and how any life we might

find in those isolated waters is the same or different from other microbial life found for instance at the hydrothermal vents on the ocean floors,” said Sherwood Lollar.

There is still a lot of work to be done, but one thing is certain: there is tremendous diversity in the strategies used to sustain life and we have only just scratched the surface.

“Ice, Ice Baby” UTM Associate Professor Jochen Halfar ventures out to the Arctic to conduct geology research Nicole Sciuli Varsity Contributor

The Arctic is one of the least explored landscapes in the world.

Due to the Arctic’s cold temperatures, conducting expeditions there has been difficult. However, Jochen Halfar, an Associate Professor of Geology at UTM has joined the ranks of those who have accomplished this feat.

Halfar has conducted two expeditions to the Arctic over the summer. The first expedition went above the Arctic Circle near Spitsbergen, Norway. Halfar then boarded a sailboat for three weeks in Canada’s north.

First, Halfar travelled north to Spitsbergen from Reykjavik, Iceland. To collect algae samples, he had to travel for three hours by submarine underneath the ocean’s icy surface. The submarine had an arm to collect the samples. Postdoctoral student Steffen Hetzingerm assisted in the work.

Halfar then flew to Greenland where he travelled on a boat called the ‘Vagabond’ for three weeks.

Finally, he travelled by boat from Greenland to Canada where he sailed along the northern part of Baffin Island. Alicia Hou, a graduate student, continued Halfar’s research by travelling through the Gulf of Boothia to Goose Bay, Labrador.

Halfar and his team set out to collect samples of coralline algae.

Coralline algae are a rock-like red algae that play an integral part in a coral reef’s ecology. Coralline red algae deposit mineral calcite crusts on underwater rocks. They provide shelter for fish larvae and other organisms, when they collect to form maerl beds. However, due to ocean acidification — the decreasing pH in oceans because of the increased carbon dioxide in the air — the coralline algae’s skeletal structure has become brittle, making it more vulnerable to wave movement.

Coralline samples can provide insight into climate change and how sea ice has behaved over past centuries. Human impacts on the climate are hard to track so climate models are constructed from skeletons of the coralline samples to make sense of records in space and time.

The skeletons are laid out in growth increments like tree rings.

This geochemical analysis of coralline algae has allowed Halfar and his associates to understand other climate phenomena like the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the El Nino Southern Oscillation, and the North Atlantic Oscillation.

Halfar and his team are currently focusing on how sea ice cover has shrunk over the past 150 years. Satellite technology was only able to begin tracking the sea ice shrinkage

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PALEOCLIMATE AND SEDIMENTOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP

U of T researchers studying algae in the Arctic. starting in the early 1970s. Halfar and his associates discovered a new paleoclimate proxy in coralline called Clathomorphum compactum.

This is the oldest algal crust dated 646 years back measured by carbon dating. The alga can live for hundreds of years. Its age can be determined by measuring the thickness of its layers.

In an interview with Live Science in 2013, Halfar suggested that the alga’s lifespan is unlimited. “Much longer records are possible, and in fact, during an expedition this past

summer, our group sampled some specimens off Labrador that, based on their thickness, are well over 1,000 years old.”

Calcium and magnesium are measured in the alga, which give information on the water temperature and how much light the alga has received. This can place patterns of sea ice cover on a much longer timescale. The alga’s ring’s thickness is correlated with past climate conditions. The alga’s thickness narrowed during the Little Ice Age, when volcanoes and sun cycle varia-

tions caused the earth to cool. This suggests high sea ice coverage and short summers. However, during the Industrial Revolution in 1850, the alga began to thicken. Data from coralline algae have revealed a startling decline in sea ice cover.

Halfar’s samples can help predict climate change patterns in the future. In a statement to UTM News, Halfar said, “This data can be used by climate physicists to create models that project climate into the future... If we understand the past better, we can predict the future of the ice in the Arctic.”

Halfar’s expeditions have provided new information on climate change and can give researchers the information they need not only to predict future climate changes but to present the information to the public. This way, preventive actions can be taken so climate change can be monitored more carefully. Water ecosystems in which the coralline algae exist can in turn continue to thrive and support all the organisms within the ecosystems.

The work of Halfar and his associates has emphasized that climate change is an important problem and that it is everyone’s job as stewards of the Earth to protect what is left of our planet and make a conscious effort to reduce climate change.

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U of T professor studies the physical diversity of Toronto, from dragon boats to martial arts, dance, and beyond

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What activities define you?

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November 21, 2016 var.st/sports sports@thevarsity.ca

U of T Varsity Blues water polo OUA championship Less than 300 km from Toronto, Kingston is the place to be this week as it hosts the men’s OUA water polo championship. Show your support by accepting the three hour commute as simply the price you must pay in order to watch the tide-turning action the Blues will churn out.

Men’s OUA Water Polo Championship Date: November 25–27 Location: Queen’s University, Athletics and Recreation Centre Drop-in Aqua-Fit If you can’t join our water polo teams in Kingston, you can always enjoy the exhilaration of an all-level water-based workout right here in our home pool.

Date: Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays until December 11 Time: 2:10–3:00 pm Location: Hart House Pool Cost: Free

MIA CARNEVALE/THE VARSITY

Adit Daga Varsity Contributor

When acting Vice Dean at the Faculty of Kinesiology Professor Peter Donnelly found himself teaching in London, England’s East End in the 1980s, the area’s cultural diversity was new to him. Growing up in what he called “a white-bread town” in Northwest England, there was little in the way of diversity. “My parents always brought up the ‘Jewish dentist,’” explains Donnelly. “That was the diversity.”

In college, Donnelly became fascinated with cultural diversity. It wasn’t until Donnelly accepted a teaching position at McMaster University that he was able to advance his interest in this area.

“I asked students to find a sport from their own ethnocultural background,” he says. “[Then] I came to Toronto in 1998 and kept the assignment going.” What he learned was astounding.

Today, when people think of physical activity, running or going to the gym are often the only things that come to mind. “If we don’t know the full repertoire of physical activity in the city, we make a lot of stupid assumptions,” Donnelly reports. “That leaves us ignorant to the possibilities out there.”

Donnelly now catalogues physical activities throughout the city, as “this is a public service and will be a resource for the future.”

Asking Donnelly about the project’s beginnings woke his inner researcher. “My goal at the time was to go back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries of science, where botanists and geologists would go into an area and collect information about everything there, [then] classify and categorize them,” he states.

His website, GTActiviy, categorizes hundreds of physical activities, most of which are more than just sports — according to the website, they’re forms of physical culture. In fact, GTActivity is broken down into six segments: sport, physical game, dance, exercise system, martial arts, and other.

Donnelly is the first to admit that it’s not an exhaustive collection: “That’s an initial classification. What we’re coming up against is deviations and developments of physical activities. Capoeira is both martial arts and dance. These modifications take place all the time. And you have new additions like bicycle jousting and hacky sack.”

Still, Donnelly and his team have defined research questions. Having received funding from the City of Toronto, his focus is directed at three areas.

First, “What’s the lifecycle? What comes to Canada? What gets left behind in the old country? When it gets to Canada, what lasts past the first generation? Why is that?”

Second, “How did these activities play out in integrating between cultures?”

And finally, “What is the place of the three levels of governments in supporting physical activity?”

Currently, Donnelly’s findings are mostly qualitative. “Activities are [more likely to] die off than to survive. The most long lasting activities in general are dances. You learn them as a kid, there may be a cultural schooling or other influences. Pretty much everything dies out after the first generation. What mom and dad did seems old-fashioned.”

The ones that do survive are nearly always integrated. “Activities that survive connect communities. Using a cultural forum to connect with others drives behaviour,” Donnelly describes.

Donnelly gives one example of how the integration of activities can work. He speaks of how “mainland Chinese immigrants had a volleyball league where the game became attractive to other cultures. Slowly, they integrated into other cultures. Then they expanded to East-Asians. It stayed within a larger community but ultimately connected across cultures.”

Some activities become deeply integrated. Dragon boating is a perfect example.

The activity has become completely integrated into Canadian culture and has somewhat changed from the traditional Chinese form of the activity. “Breast cancer survivors... do it as a fundraising, solidarity, and self-developing initiative,” Donnelly notes.

Apart from his findings, Donnelly’s hopes for GTActivity are also sentimental. “We’re hoping for a revival. People may look back at tradition and may reinvent games.” He explains, “More than anything, GTActivity is a citizen’s science project; it’s open. People can add and edit activities to better the database and capture cultural diversity.”

Donnelly continues, “We talk about fashion, we talk about food, language, and religion. This is more important than people are giving it [credit] for.” In fact, GTActivity is picking up more and more traction, and Donnelly reports an uptick in visits.

“I hate to see anything die out,” he explains. “Even if two people speak a particular language in Canada, I’d love them to teach others. Diversity is really important in every possible way, and this is a part of it for me. Survival is important, but understanding it at a scientific level is what we strive to do.”

Nature Connection An indoor and outdoor exploration of Downsview park will centre on a natural theme and help you connect with the environment. Led by Downsview Park staff, this two hour event will soothe your soul, leaving you feeling relaxed and at ease before another week of classes. Be sure to RSVP for this Nature Connection event on the Downsview Park website.

Date: November 27 Time: 2:00–4:00 pm Location: Downsview Park Cost: Free Mindful Wednesdays: Drop-in Meditation A healthy body includes a healthy mind — rejuvenate your mind by reducing stress and increasing resiliency through these mindful meditation techniques.

Part of Hart House’s Weekly Wellness program, Melissa Nigrini leads these welcoming drop-in sessions in the hopes of facilitating mindfulness practices among the U of T student body.

Date: Wednesdays until April 2017 Time: 12:30–1:30 pm Location: Hart House Activities Room Cost: Free 2016 Grey Cup Festival Celebrating its one hundred and fourth year, the Grey Cup Festival comes to Toronto this November, offering a plethora of festivities before the Grey Cup Championships are held in the newly-renovated BMO Field. Check out the Grey Cup Festival website to plan your own jam-packed weekend full of football fun!

Date: November 24–27 Time: Many Location: Multiple Cost: Varies

NOVEMBER 21, 2016 • 19

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Blues fall 4–2 to Voyageurs Men’s hockey team winless in first 11 games Brock Edwards Varsity Staff

The woes continue for the Varsity Blues men’s ice hockey team after losing a spirited, physical contest to the Laurentian Voyageurs 4–2 on November 13 at Varsity Arena.

Despite leading in shots on goal for the entirety of the game, the Blues (1–10–2) never gained a lead over the Voyageurs (7– 6–1). The Blues surrendered the first goal 13 seconds into the game. A turnover in the Blues’ end allowed Voyageurs forward Chris Smith to bank the puck off teammate Nick Esposto’s skate and into the Blues’ net to take the early 1–0 lead.

A high-sticking penalty to Laurentian forward Graham Yeo at 13:17 of the first period allowed the Blues’ powerplay unit to respond. The Blues gained the offensive zone, and after receiving a pass from teammate Matt Campagna, forward Russell Turner fired a blistering snapshot over the glove hand of Voyageurs goaltender Charlie Millen to tie the game. Only a minute and a half later, the Voyageurs answered back making the score 2–1. Defenseman Vincent Llorca tallied a shorthanded goal, outflanking the Toronto defenders in a 2-on-1 rush with teammate Brent Pedersen, who earned the assist.

The game took a more physical turn in the second period. The game-winning goal was scored at 9:12 during another Toronto power play, the seconded shorthanded goal Toronto allowed. Later in the period, after the Blues gained the offensive zone, a turnover at the blue line allowed Smith to skate in alone and beat Blues’ goaltender Evan Howard with a backhand into the top corner rounding out the score at 3–1.

At 15:08 in the second period, the home team cut the deficit to one when Turner scored his second goal of the game during a goalmouth scramble at the Voyageurs’ net.

The score was 3–2 for the Voyageurs going into the second intermission.

After producing the previously gametying goal in the first period, the Blues’ powerplay unit was stymied for the rest of the game — including during two lengthy 5-on-3 opportunities in the third period — and went 1-for-9 with the man-advantage.

While blocked and missed shots contributed to the lack of goal production, the main factor was the superb goaltending by Millen, who had one of the top save percentages (.925) in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) entering Sunday’s match.

He stopped 29 of 31 shots, including several key saves in the last minutes of the game as the Blues pressed for the tying goal. At

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE VARSITY BLUES

Varsity Blues assistant captain flies up the wing. the other end of the ice, Howard made 27 saves in his first OUA career start, including a sprawling stick save late in the third period to rob Voyageur forward Pedersen, who found the puck on his stick in front of a gaping net. An empty-net goal at 19:27 sealed the Voyageurs’ 4–2 victory.

Winning their following game on Novem-

ber 19 and losing the next one after that on November 20, Toronto’s four points in 13 games set them firmly in last place in the OUA standings, with 15 games remaining on the 2016–2017 schedule.

The Blues face off next against Ryerson University in Toronto on November 23.

Championship soccer coming to Canada Toronto FC cruise to the Eastern Conference Finals

Kieran McMurchy Varsity Contributor

For Toronto Football Club (TFC), this has been a playoff run full of firsts: first postseason home game — check; first postseason win — check; first Eastern Conference Semifinal win and a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals — yeah, you can check that off too.

The road to redemption On October 26, after nine long years, suffering TFC fans were finally able to cheer for a championship contending team. The Reds beat Philadelphia Union handily, by a score of 3–1 thanks to goals from Sebastian Giovinco, Jonathan Osorio, and Jozy Altidore. With this win, TFC advanced to the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Toronto FC faced New York City FC in the semis. And again they won, beating the second seeded team 2–0 at BMO Field. TFC took a 2–0 aggregate lead with them to Yankee Stadium for the second leg of the matchup.

On November 6, TFC slaughtered New York 5–0, paving their way to Montreal and the conference finals.

Montreal, here we come TFC hold home field advantage for the series, and they will travel to Montreal to face the Impact on November 22 to start the series.

These two teams have a history though, and this series will surely be the most heated games of their rivalry to date.

It seems fitting that TFC will play the Impact for a chance to go to the League Cham-

The fanfare at BMO field will be wild if the Reds take the Impact. LEAFSFAN67/CC WIKIMEDIA pionships, because the Impact were the team that — quickly and succinctly — ended the former’s postseason run last year. In the teams’ three regular season matchups this year, there was almost nothing to split the two sides: both teams won a game, lost a game, and tied a game with the TFC holding a slight offensive edge, scoring four goals whilst conceding just three overall.

The playoffs, of course, are another story entirely. TFC has scored 10 goals in three games, conceding only one; they are playing, arguably, the best soccer in team history. Montreal is looking good too. They have found the back of the net seven times in three games and have given up three goals. Game

two of the series will be played at BMO on November 30. Kick-off is at 7:00 pm.

Players without accolades On November 1, Major League Soccer (MLS) announced the finalists for the league’s MVP awards. Despite scoring 17 goals and 15 assists in only 28 games, TFC star forward Sebastian Giovinco was not one of the finalists.

Giovinco had more combined goals than all of the nominees in fewer games played and is the reigning MLS MVP. He was robbed of the chance to be the first player in league history to win back-to-back MVP honours and would have only been the second to win it twice.

Whether or not Giovinco was fuelled by the snub is unknown, but he certainly played like he had something to prove; he wanted to showcase what a true MVP does: take the game by the throat. Giovinco scored a hat trick and assisted another goal, contributing to four of the five goals Toronto scored against New York.

Giovinco has been sensational throughout his tenure at Toronto, scoring a combined 70 goals and assists in 61 regular season games.

In the playoffs this year, he’s taken his game and his team to another level entirely. In three playoff games, he has four goals and two assists — a remarkable output that has been instrumental to the team’s playoff success.

NOVEMBER 21, 2016 • 20

DIVERSIONS

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